TrekkerScrapbook

Happy Halloween everyone! I’ve been saving up screencaps off of my TV whenever a Trek guest star appears in a different movie or TV Show, and what could be better for this season than the classic Blacula which featured four Trek guests!

Blacula was one in a series of ‘Blaxploitation’ films in the early seventies. Movies like Shaft and Foxy Brown may have seemed a bit over the top, but that was the point! These thrillers also helped to open more film opportunities for writers, actors, producers, and directors of color in the United States. 🙂

Blacula is a slightly goofy take on the original, although it alternates between low seriousness and high camp. It’s quite good, and sometimes touching.

It begins with the most used lightning flash special effect in all of Hollywood, then informs us that this is Transylvania in 1780.

Which is a bit surprising since the fine Prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall, whom we know as Dr Daystrom in The Ultimate Computer) and his beautiful wife Luva, (Vonetta McGee) look like they just stepped out of 70s fashion magazine.

They are greeted and wined by Count Dracula played by Charles Macaulay, who was Landru in Return of Archons and Jaris in Wolf in the Fold! You man have noticed that Dracula is wearing Trelane’s fancy coat! (I think Trelane wore it better!)

Prince Mamuwalde is hoping that Count Dracula will help him end the slave trade in Africa, but Dracula won’t bite — at least not that! He summons his vampire wives, kills Luva, and bites the poor prince Mamualde, making him into a vampire forever.

Jump ahead to the 1970s, where a painfully stereotypical gay couple buy an ancient coffin for their interior design business. Little do they know what cargo they have unearthed…

Drac is back, baby! But in a much cooler flavor-Blacula!! He makes quick work of the couple, and discovers Lisa, who is the spitting image of his beloved wife, Luva.

Now everyday Blacula by day is quite a suave charmer, but when he transforms he gets extra fuzzy. Paging Lieutenant Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala), who would later play Capt. Donald Varley in the ST:TNG episode Contagion. (He kept the funky mustache)

From here, all hell breaks lose, as Blacula feeds his cravings while denying how much he wants Lisa; creating more vampires along the way. At one point we end up in a mental asylum where Sam works. Sam is no other than veteran character actor Elisha Cook Jr., whom Trek fans will remember as Samuel Cogley, Defense Lawyer, in Court Martial. What could possible go wrong? Oh…right.

So… Will Blacula find true love and survive the LA police? Well, there were a few sequels…For now, here’s a great interview with William Marshall. How I love his voice! Enjoy!