Watching Heroes

Star Trek and Heroes have been interwoven since the beginning of the series. Hiro and Ando made several Star Trek references in “Genesis” and they have continued throughout the series. Did you notice Kaito’s license plate on his limo read “NCC-1701″…the service number of the Starship Enterprise? There have also been several cast crossovers. You may know the obvious Star Trek connections, but there are probably many more than you realize. (more…)

Here is a great bit of trivia for a fine Friday afternoon: Did you know that Claude Rains is “The Invisible Man”?

Sounds like a silly question, right? But in the 1933 film version of the H.G. Wells classic the actor who played the title role in “The Invisible Man” was named Claude Rains. This was a wonderful wink at the fans from the guys behind Heroes.

He’s almost up there with Bella Lugosi as the go to guy in genre movies like “The Wolf Man”. He also did his share of classic movies of the period like Casablanca, which my wife would love.

Check IMDB for yourself.

Heroes, Claude Rains, The Invisible Man, Trivia

Ando, or rather the actor who plays Ando, James Kyson Lee isn’t Japanese at all. In fact, he doesn’t speak or even understand it! Check out this quote from TV Guide:

TV Guide: So did you and Masi dish on the set in Japanese?
Takei: Better! He and I both speak Spanish, so we were chatting with each other en español. It was blowing minds! I am also really impressed with James Kyson Lee, who plays Ando (see related TVGuide.com Q&A). Do you know that he is from South Korea and does not understand nor speak Japanese? I was dumbfounded. He has a fantastic ear. It’s one thing to mimic a foreign language, but it’s quite another to be able to act in it. Amazing.

He does such a great job I would have never guessed. Read the whole interview with George Takei to get a little more behind the scenes on Heroes. I don’t think they could have picked a better person to play Hiro’s father with all the fan boy obsession Hiro has with Star Trek.

Heroes, Hiro, Ando, George Takei, James Kyson Lee, Star Trek

that this is Hayden Panettiere’s second time portraying a cheerleader? She played a displaced cheerleader trying to prove herself in a new school in 2006’s Bring It On: All or Nothing. While both roles deal with teen angst and social pressure, the earlier film doesn’t quite have the drama that comes with being nearly indestructable.

Since the start of the show, I’ve been fascinated by the artwork that is attributed to Isaac Mendez. Isaac’s work, paintings and comic book, is in actuality that work of real life artist Tim Sale. Sale has produced artwork for many A list characters in the Marvel and DC universes.

that James Kyson Lee (Ando) played a bartender in the episode ‘Bushwacked‘ of Firefly? I loved Firefly and any opportunity to mention Joss Whedon.