Star Trek movies fill the weekend for Space

Retro TV was one of the big winners at the summer box office, the movie pundits are saying, thanks in no small part to J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, which has raked in -- or beamed up, if you prefer -- nearly US$260 million so far.

Of course, not all retro TV proved to be the cat's meow: Will Ferrell's Land of the Lost was exactly that, pulling in less than $50 million.

Star Trek is a phenomenon unto itself, though. No matter how many forms and incarnations it takes on, it never seems to go away.

That's why today's all-day, all-night marathon of Star Trek movies on the Space specialty channel is such an eye-opening experience. Each Star Trek movie, good (Wrath of Khan) or bad (The Final Frontier) is representative of its time, beginning with Robert Wise's long, laboured, overly reverent and oddly subdued -- for Star Trek -- 1979 epic Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which kicks off the marathon early in the morning.

Star Trek had been off the air for 10 years at the time. In one of the stranger twists in TV history, it had become more popular over the years, even though it was cancelled after just three seasons because of flagging ratings.

Tonight's movie marathon ends with Meyer's 1991 epic Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, a terrific political thriller that paralleled the darker, more political leanings of TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation and foreshadowed the tone of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The Undiscovered Country has one other thing to recommend it: a sensational performance by veteran stage actor Christopher Plummer, as a driven but morally conflicted career military officer. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 11 a.m.; Wrath of Khan, 1:50 p.m.; Search for Spock, 4:15 p.m.; Voyage Home 6:35 p.m.; Final Frontier, 9:10 p.m.; Undiscovered Country, 11:30 p.m., all on Space)

- Tonight's Saturday Night Live rerun, from October, is hosted by Anne Hathaway with musical guest The Killers. Sketches include the U.S. vice-presidential debate -- Biden vs. Palin! -- Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals, The Less Provocative Songs of Katy Perry and a hilarious send-up of The Lawrence Welk Show. (Global, NBC, 11:30 p.m., NBC and Global)

SUNDAY

This country doesn't cultivate a gun culture the way the U.S. does -- thankfully -- which is why, at a glance, CBC's frantic, overheated miniseries Guns feels oddly out-of-place, especially on a Labour Day weekend when hardly anyone is apt to be watching TV.

Guns, written with a kind of strident, this-is-happening-now-people urgency by Jennifer Holness and Sudz Sutherland, purports to show the story behind the headlines of increasing gun violence in cities like Vancouver and (especially) Toronto.

Lyriq Bent and Shawn Doyle play a pair of Toronto detectives out to collar a young, deceptively middle-class gun dealer played with a kind of malevolent charm by Gregory Smith, worlds removed from his so convincing role as the idealistic Ephram in the coming-of-age drama Everwood.

Ex-Windsorite Colm Feore plays Smith's father, a crime boss linked to international weapons dealers.

And Elisha Cuthbert once again plays the thankless role of the naive, not-particularly-bright girlfriend lured into a life of crime.

Sutherland has directed Guns like a long, multi-part episode of The Shield, but Guns lacks The Shield's laserlike focus and seething intensity.

Ripping stories from the headlines is a time-honoured TV tradition but Guns feels less like a four-hour episode of Law & Order than it does a longer, lesser episode of The Line, The Movie Network's ambitious, Gemini-nominated drama about the seedy underbelly of Toronto's crime-ridden neighbourhoods.

Guns is well-intended, but clunky and earnest where it needs to be slick and fast. (8 p.m., CBC)

- That would be Rescue Me, Peter Tolan and Denis Leary's searing firefighter drama that ends its fifth and best season on Showcase. The finale already aired on FX in the U.S. -- avoid the frenzied, online chatter if you want the ending to remain a surprise -- but suffice to say that Rescue Me surpasses itself, and almost everything else on TV, with its unflinching vision of what some people will do to avenge a loved one. Rescue Me may be fiction but, tonight, it's as real as it gets. (10 p.m., Showcase)

- Inspector Lewis, Sunday's Masterpiece Mystery!, features the episode Music to Die For, in which a prominent Oxford lecturer is found strangled following a brawl at a local nightclub. (9 p.m., PBS)

- Re-Vamped, a kind of reality-TV boot camp for women emerging -- or recovering, if you prefer -- from toxic, wrecked or otherwise damaged relationships, focuses on eight women as they undergo an intensive, six-week training regimen designed to boost their self-esteem and give them renewed confidence. (10 p.m., Slice)

Monday

Labour Day is often a day for taking stock of the good things in life, but in the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, taking stock of life -- in a good way -- has become a national passion. At least, that's the pleasing picture presented by the documentary Developing Happiness.

The ideas in Developing Happiness may strike some as so much crackpot thinking, but others may be apt to find it food for the soul. Either way, the program offers a refreshing change in tone from the usual reality-TV message of outwit, outplay and outlast.

According to Developing Happiness, the Bhutanese believe a society's true value is measured by its GNH, or Gross National Happiness. Bhutan's government applies the philosophy to almost everything it does. Bhutan's Prime Minister Jigme Thinley has said things like, "Happiness is complete well-being ... being content with what is and with what one has."

While that may sound like the underpinnings of a national cult -- there's that homegrown Western cynicism again -- as Montreal filmmakers Tanya Ballantyne Tree and Josephine Mackay's program shows, some Western economists and environmentalists are growing increasingly interested in the idea that "the pursuit of happiness" as a national ideal can actually lead to tangible results, both economic and social. People who are spiritually happy are certainly less hard on the environment than people who are consumed by the drive to get ahead. Recommended. (10 p.m., Vision)

- The Aussie cult soap McLeod's Daughters returns for its final episodes, giving fans a chance to prepare a fond farewell for favourite characters like Stevie (Simmone Jade Mackinnon) and Grace (Abi Tucker). McLeod's Daughters is more than Wild Roses for the Outback set: This relationship saga about strong-willed women taming the Australian ranch lands was one of that country's longest-running, most-watched dramas. (9 p.m., Vision)

- PBS's entertaining History Detectives, a kind of Antiques Roadshow meets CSI, calls it a season. The show's resident sleuths examine a penny stamp's connection to the landmark Scottsboro Boys civil rights case in 1931; determine whether an accidentally discovered box of sheet music contains the original notes for Duke Ellington's classic Take the A Train; and decide whether a key moment in U.S. Civil War history needs to be rewritten. Better not tell Ken Burns. (9 p.m., PBS)

- The Space cable channel concludes its Labour Day weekend marathon of Star Trek movies with the so-called Next Generation collection, beginning with 1994's Generations -- Capt. Picard and Capt. Kirk together! Or in the same two-hour movie, at any rate -- and ending with 2002's Star Trek Nemesis, in which Capt. Picard faces his evil twin, a power-hungry Romulan dude looking to take over the universe.

Ah, nostalgia. (4:40 p.m., Space)

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