Modern technology destroys mystique....

Ricardo Montalban died a couple of days ago, so over at a friends house last night, a friend that happens to own the entire original Star Trek series, we watched "Space Seed", the episode where he first played Kahn, that power-hungry genetically engineered warrior. We watched it on the big screen TV, one of those that is 4 or 5 feet wide. Huge screen, we could see the pimples on Lt. MacGyver's face (no relation to Richard Dean Anderson). The fight scene down in Engineering was as exciting as ever, but also a little bit eye-opening.

Now, consider that this episode originally aired on February 16, 1967 - which happens to be the male half of The Gearhead's 1st birthday. But also consider that back then the biggest screen it was expected to be viewed on was probably about 19" - diagonally. Small compared to today's preferred viewing screens. So, they must have figured that the star's stunt doubles could be anyone with about the same gender and hair color dressed in the same outfit. Worked in 1967, but in 2009 on a 5 foot screen it was painfully obvious that Rick and Bill didn't do their own stunts. Hell, they didn't even do their own play fighting.