Peter S. Beagle Movies

Mark Lenard, who played Mr. Spock's Vulcan-ambassador father Sarek on the original Star Trek, recreated the role in this Next Generation episode, which first aired May 19, 1990. Arriving on the Enterprise for an important diplomatic mission, Sarek surprises his hosts with his uncharacteristic mood swings. Even more perplexing is the fact that the Vulcan's appearance coincides with an outbreak of random violence amongst the crew. "Sarek" was scripted by Peter Beagle from a story by Mark Cushman and Jake Jacobs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Controversial animator Ralph Bakshi's literal adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, is brought to the screen in a reverent, stilted way, with Bakshi forsaking his sharp-edged animated looniness for a rotoscoped dullness. Although the film's title encompasses the entire Tolkien trilogy, this longish Bakshi feature, in fact, covers only the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring, and the first half of the second, The Two Towers. Given the complexity of the original story line, this unfortunately means that only those intimately familiar with the books will be able to understand what is happening in the movie. In brief, however, an evil sorcerer from a previous era created a magical ring which enables its users to call upon its tremendous powers to rule the world, but it inevitably warps them to evil. It was believed lost, but during a resurgence of magical evil in the world, Bilbo, a simple, plain-spoken hobbit, recovers it from its hiding place. The forces of good give his nephew Frodo the choice to bear the awful burden of the ring to a place where it may be destroyed. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide