There is so much Batman stuff out there that even a Batman fanatic would have a hard time keeping up with it all. But I can understand what you mean not understanding how a Batman fanatic would not see “The Dark Knight.” My explanation is that I’m cheap and I also have a lot of patience. I will buy the movie when it goes in the 2 for $5 bin. Actually, “Batman Begins” never did end up in that bin, but my brother happened to get a copy of that movie so that I was able to watch it.

I don’t have a problem with any actor playing Sulu. My minor quibble is that someone thinks any actor that looks Japanese would be appropriate. And it’s actually not my quibble. I’m just wondering if the people who complained about the “Memoirs of a Geisha” casting will make a big deal out of this Sulu casting situation.

BTW, with regards to casting David Carradine as the lead in the Kung Fu series of the 70s, I think they made the right choice in choosing Carradine over Bruce Lee.

And didn’t you argue in a Cantankerous episode that a great actor should be able to play any race, and that preventing them from doing so is discriminatory? What about Patrick Stewart, an English actor playing a Frenchman? Were the French very offended then? Are the Scots offended that English actor Simon Pegg is playing Scotty? How about the latina actress playing the fiery half-klingon engineer on Voyager? Arguing about race and ethnicity in casting is kind of anti-Roddenberry in my opinion. The human characters in Star Trek never talk about skin color (unless they’re doing some sort of time-travel episode to the 20th Century). Some talk about their heritage, but it never created any conflict from what I can remember. In the Star Trek timeline, humanity gave up all of its inter-conflict when it learned that it wasn’t alone in the universe. Of course there were hundreds of other species out there to butt heads with. There’s nothing like finding a new group that has stranger differences to let us humans know that we are all the same.