You have questions. I have some answers.
Q: Do you know when the end of “Picard” is going to appear?
A: The second season of “Star Trek: Picard” has been completed on Paramount+, and a third and final season is expected in 2023. While the series has seen some players from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” show up here and there on “Picard,” Variety says the third season will be “the first time the main ‘TNG’ cast has performed on screen together since the 2002 feature film ‘Star Trek: Nemesis.’” And “Picard” showrunner Terry Matalas has promised on Twitter that “these aren’t just cameos. This is a proper send off to the TNG crew.”
Q: I remember the song “Bring the Boys Home” by Freda Payne that came out around the end of the war in Vietnam. I thought I would hear it during Desert Storm, or on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Do you know if the song would offend anybody for political reasons?
A: The song by Payne, best known for the classic “Band of Gold,” was a hit in 1971, spending 10 weeks in the Billboard Top 40, rising as high as No. 12. But it was a controversial work, as most protest songs were during that time, with its references to a “senseless war” and “facing death in vain,” as well as a chorus pleading to “turn the (troop) ships around.” Still, the song has hardly disappeared. A quick check of music streamers Pandora and Spotify found it easily enough, and it has been on various collections of Payne’s songs.
Q: Can you help with the name of an old movie set in South America on a plantation? It had intrigue, love interest and so on, but the main event was stopping an invasion of ants that was heading to the plantation to destroy the crop.
A: That would be “The Naked Jungle,” a 1954 film starring Eleanor Parker and Charlton Heston.
Q: I seem to recall Jerry Seinfeld getting paid $1,000,000 per episode at one point. Is this accurate, and to the best of your knowledge, have any other TV personalities received this kind of pay since then?
A: Many reports indicate Seinfeld was in the million-dollar club in the later years of his series, but he’s far from the only performer to hit that mark. Other comedy stars to make that much or more have included the six cast members of “Friends,” the five core stars of “The Big Bang Theory,” Charlie Sheen in his “Two and a Half Men” years, Kelsey Grammar on “Frasier” and Tim Allen on “Home Improvement.”
Q: I watched a theater movie, five or more years ago, which I think took place in ancient Central or South America about indigenous peoples whose heads were lopped off by their king as a sacrifice to the gods. One black-haired tribesman decided he wanted no part of this, and the rest of the movie was about his escape. Does this sound at all familiar?
A: I suggested, and you confirmed, the movie is “Apocalypto,” a 2006 film co-written and directed by Mel Gibson (and sometimes branded “Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto”).
Q: Probably 50-plus years ago I saw a show where I think William Bendix played a psychiatrist who saw a patient who was having a recurring dream about being in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7. The doctor awoke in his office later and a while after in a bar saw a picture of his patient. When he asked the bartender about the man the reply was "he died at Pearl Harbor." I have tried and tried to locate this show with no success. Any ideas?
A: You can find the drama, called “The Time Element,” on YouTube. It originally aired in 1958 on the drama anthology “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse,” and was written by Rod Serling (later famous for "The Twilight Zone"). The production indeed starred Bendix — but as the patient. Martin Balsam was the doctor.
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