Harry Potter fans aren’t that nuts, says this article about just how nuts they are. They haven’t, quote, “gone the Star Trek route and translated the works of Shakespeare into parseltongue yet”. Referring of course to the fascination with the Klingon language that has inspired so many a Trekkie/Trekker over the years. (Parseltongue, by the way, is the snake-language of Harry Potter, in case you’re not much of a fan.)

But maybe that’s not so far off, if you look at your Star Trek history. A few words of the Klingon language were specially commissioned for I believe it was the second movie. The producers found a real linguist, Mark Okrand, to do the work. It was a hit, so they included more and more in the movies and the series. And before you knew it, a cult following was born.

Why not in Harry Potter? Stranger things have happened.
More Harry Potter / Shakespeare …

• Harry Potter 44, Hamlet 7?
• Harry Potter vs. Hamlet (Again)

Found over at blogcritics.org, this guy’s list is particularly interesting because of all the Shakespeare on it:

Judi Dench (’nuff said)
Emma Thompson (formerly married to Kenneth Branagh, starred in Much Ado about Nothing, Henry V…)
Joan Plowright (formerly married to Laurence Olivier. Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, Merchant of Venice … )

The name of the game is to see how many of his top 20 have Shakespeare in their resumes. I was hoping the answer would be “all”, but alas Cher had to fail me.

Every good geek knows that Star Trek is loaded with Shakespeare references. Mostly in Next Generation, where Captain Picard just quoted it all the time, and Data kept performing it on the Holodeck, but also in the original series and the movies as well.

I found a site that tries to track as much as it can. It’s pretty impossible to get them all, given how many episodes Star Trek ran through, but it’s a start.

One of my favorites has always been Star Trek VI, in particular during the final battle scene where Christopher Plummer (playing Klingon General Chang) cries, “Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!” Gives me chills. Even better for a whole different reason is when the shot switches to the Enterprise, and they can hear Chang taunting them over the speaker:

Chang: “I am constant as the northern star…”

Dr. McCoy : “I wish he’d just shut up.”

Don’t know where you’re at, but I’m sure there’s a local Shakespeare in the Park you need to visit. Up here in my neck of the woods it’ll be Hamlet performed on Boston Common. Performances start July 16 and run every night at 8pm (excluding Monday), Sunday night show at 7pm. Performances run until August 7. Currently planning to attend August 5. See you there!

Got your attention? Good. 🙂 I’m actually referring to the strange obsession with smells, particularly bad ones, throughout the play. Maybe this is a generic high school essay question, but I don’t recall ever noticing it before. What’s up with the smell?

• “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Not technically a direct reference to smell, but certainly conjures up the notion.
• “My offense is rank, it smells to heaven…” (Claudius)
• “…if you find him not within a month, you will nose him as you go up the stairs…” (Hamlet referring to what will happen to Polonius’ dead body after sitting around for a month)
• “And smelt so? Pah!” (Hamlet, with Yorick’s skull)

(Any others I missed? I don’t count the Ghost saying “I scent the morning air” because we’re talking about bad smells here.)

Do all the latter references exist just to reinforce the “rotten” notion from the opening scene?