Blog on the Lillypad
Friday, January 09, 2004
 | Best Spoof of Star Trek Ever
The incredible Sir Derek Jacobi, best known to American audiences as the gentle, insightful, and brilliant detective of Medieval mysteries, Brother Cadfael, appeared on an episode of Frasier that I've never seen before. Jacobi played Jackson Hedley, a former Shakespearean actor now reduced to a continuing role on the popular sci-fi series, Space Patrol Frasier and his brother Niles decide to boost Hedley's theatrical career by putting up the money for him to do a one-man show that reprises his role of Hamlet from 25 years before. |
Regrettably, Hedley turns out to be a horrible Shakespearean actor, and both of the Cranes realize that they were too young when they saw him do Hamlet to realize how bad he was. Their show sells out, which means they stand to make a huge profit. But to save Hedley from embarrassment, they try every ploy to get the show canceled, all to no avail. They even misdirect Hedley's aged and doting father (played very well by Patrick MacNee) to a different theater in the hope of causing a postponement. Nothing works, of course, and the show goes on.
I've never seen Derek Jacobi do comedy. He played Jackson Hedley with perfect consistently and even respect, as Hedley is a sensitive man who appreciates Shakespeare but is actually much better playing an android on Space Patrol. But his lines when he renders Shakespeare are hilarious. He's so unbelievably awful that the comedy wouldn't be lost on anybody. Yet he delivers it all as a man who really thinks he is doing Shakespeare skillfully. I can only imagine that after a life of theater, Jacobi must have a catalog in his mind of all the horrible ways Shakespeare's lines have been rendered. He distills it all in the gentle and likeable Jackson Hedley.
This episode, number 176 and titled "The Show Must Go Off", stands out as my new favorite from the Frasier series. It was funny the whole way through.
