Gratuitous Hump Day Random – Boldly Going Edition

“You were expecting weighty content today?”

Greetings, my fellow port swillers!

Ol’ Robbo was watching Star Trek: The Original Series last evening.  The episode was “The Corbomite Maneuver“, one of the better first season episodes even if the subplot about the jittery navigator Bailey is rather tedious.

Anyhoo, perhaps because the ongoing house arrest is causing me to peer more intently into every little nook and cranny, I finally decided to look up which child actor played the alien commander Balok.

Turns out it was Clint Howard, younger brother of Ron Howard.

I’m sure every true Trek Geek knew this already, but since I’m emphatically not one it was news to me.  Huh.

According to IMDB, Clint has been working quite steadily over the years.  Also according to his profile, he’s a self-described conservative.  Working in the Hollywood Swamp, he says he simply keeps his head down and his mouth shut while on the job and enjoys like-minded company when off the clock.  Oddly enough, Ol’ Robbo is in exactly the same position.

Oh, the other thing about this episode is the “tranya”, the liquor served out by Balok to the Enterprise’s boarding party.  My brother and I still use that word as code for adult beverages, especially when talking about them (as in “let’s have some”) in front of our wives.

And no, I’m not a geek.