The 2018 Creative Arts Emmy® Awards, honoring behind-the-camera crafts and specialty productions were held on Saturday, September 8, and Sunday, September 9. Here are the honorees of interest to the sci-fi/fantasy/horror audience, just for you:

Governors Award to the Star Trek franchise

All generations, all the time, on the 52nd anniversary of the original series’ premiere on NBC on September 8, 1966. Self-avowed trekkie Bill Nye introduced an excellent compilation video and a more excellent musical montage of all the series’ music, while celebrating cast and crew from all the shows, especially the Star Trek: Discovery” nominees waiting for their categories to be announced. The award was accepted by William Shatner and Sonequa Martin-Green. All we could have wanted was for her to get a word in, because Bill did all the talking.

The Winners

  • Best TV Movie: “USS Callister (Black Mirror)” [Definitely Star Trek inspired!]
  • Best Drama Guest Actress: Samira Wiley, “The Handmaid’s Tale” [Remarkable in that this show boasted three nominees in this category, and did not cancel each other out. She was that good as the rebel Moira.]
  • Best Animated Program: “Rick and Morty” — “Pickle Rick” [Long awaited episode, foreshadowed for months by teaser trailers. First Emmy for this fan favorite.]
  • Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes: “Game of Thrones” — “Beyond the Wall” [Episode 6, Season 7. Long-diverged plotlines converge. Good times.]
  • Best Hairstyling (Single-Camera Series): “Westworld” — “Akane No Mai” [Log line: “Welcome to Shogun World.” The same narrative loops as Westworld, in Edo period Japan.]
  • Best Creative Achievement in Interactive Media Within Scripted Program: “Westworld” — “Chaos Takes Control Interactive Experience”
  • Best Main Title Design: Counterpart [STARZ] [The visual parallels in the moving graphics perfectly reflect the complexity of this narrative about parallel realities.]
  • Best Makeup (Single-Camera Series, Non-Prosthetic): “Westworld” — “Akane No Mai”
  • Best Prosthetic Makeup: “Game of Thrones” — “The Dragon and the Wolf” [Episode 7, Season 7.]
  • Best Music Composition (Series): “Game of Thrones” — “The Dragon and the Wolf” [Pointing up the climactic clashes in this season closer.]
  • Best Picture Editing (Single Camera Drama): “The Handmaid’s Tale” — “June” [Episode 1, Season 2. We never knew her name in the book, we do now.]
  • Best Short Form Animated Program: “Robot Chicken” — “Freshly Baked: The Robot Chicken Santa Claus Pot Cookie Freakout Special”
  • Best Sound Editing (One Hour Series): “Stranger Things” — “Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer”
  • Best Sound Editing (Movie/Mini): “USS Callister (Black Mirror)”
  • Best Sound Mixing (One Hour Series): “Game of Thrones” — “Beyond the Wall” [RAWR!]
  • Best Special Visual Effects: “Game of Thrones” — “Beyond the Wall” [Dragons. Zombies. Zombie Dragons.]
  • Best Supporting Visual Effects: “The Alienist” — “The Boy on the Bridge” [Interesting that this was won by a NON genre show. Premiere episode, historical psychological crime drama, but this episode had viewpoint from psychosis, changing corpses and ghosts.]
  • Best Stunt Coordination (Drama/Movie/Mini): “Game of Thrones”

A little personal opinion from the PoV of 40 years around the industry

 “Game of Thrones” dominates almost completely, and where it does not, “the Handmaid’s Tale” does. Let’s see what happens next week during the big broadcast of the 70th Emmy® Awards on September 17.

A complete snub to Star Trek: Discovery: apparently, the Governor’s Award thing did not help its visibility, and Academy members didn’t subscribe to CBS Access any more than the rest of the viewing public. I felt that one very subtle hit was delivered by hair styling in the first episode of Discovery; when Commander Burnham was living on Vulcan and working in Starfleet, she sported a sophisticated, straightened, styled coiffure. After her conviction, it was buzz cut short and unstyled, taking away her agency in a way that contemporary African Americans understood instantly, and the rest of us had to sit and figure out if this was racist or not. Too subtle for Academy voters? Maybe.

-30-

Susan L. Fox
Susan L. Fox