I have never understood the passions people have for collecting. As a child I once tried to collect owls and by the time I had 10 I was sick to death of looking at their beady eyes. Films and videos don't even appeal. They simply pile up collecting dust and, quite frankly, I seldom have time to watch the new releases, without needing to stock up on old ones. I do realise I am an exception. Star Trek (STAR Plus, 5pm) and its offshoot, Star Trek: The Next Generation, created not only Vulcans but a new breed of human, the Trekkie. I have a colleague who likes to think he isn't one (one suspects he considers it trainspotterish) but he does admit to owning video tapes of all episodes bar five of the seven series of The Next Generation; that's around 170 tapes. That does not include the laser disc boxed sets he has of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, UFO, Space: 1999 and Stingray, nor his laser disc collection of around 150 films, endless sci-fi and film magazines nor the 200-plus unmade model kits. 'I hasten to add that I am a fan . . . not a fanatic . . . I do not run around dressed in a Star Fleet uniform - I do not own one - and in most other respects am fairly normal [huh?],' said my friend. I only hope he never becomes a fanatic and his flat is insured. On the face of it Robert Redford and Tom Skerritt have little in common but in fact they both made their big-screen debut in the same film, War Hunt, in 1962. Their careers have moved in different stratospheres but Skerritt's has been steady, with him mainly playing personable husbands and fathers, often opposite powerful leading ladies: The Turning Point in 1977 with Shirley MacLaine and Steel Magnolias in 1989 with Sally Field. Moving Target (Pearl, 12.15pm) is no exception. He plays a family man (Joseph Kellogg) who is to testify against his boss accused of laundering drug money. The family is relocated by the government while their 17-year-old son, Toby (Jason Bateman), is away at summer camp. The teenager, fed up with the great outdoors, runs away from camp only to find the family home is empty. Will Toby, or a killer associate of his father's boss, find the family first? Peter Falk was and always will be the eccentric, crumpled detective Lieutenant Columbo, a character he has played on and off for 25 years. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (Pearl, 1.50pm) teams Falk as a successful radio soap scriptwriter with Keanu Reeves, a budding writer, who is in love with his aunt by marriage, Barbara Hershey. Life gets complicated when Falk, who is trying to bring the couple closer together, creates a scandal by reproducing their every word and emotion to his radio audience. Malice (Pearl, 9.30pm), from Sea of Love director Harold Becker, is a surprisingly good thriller about a surgeon (Alec Baldwin) who moves to a New England town and is soon implicated in some grisly attacks. The supporting cast includes George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft and girl of the moment Gwyneth Paltrow. Good performances help disguise holes in the story. The Pet Shop Boys: Discovery (World, 9.30pm), for those who don't know, the Pet Shop Boys are a British band from Newcastle, and all sorts of unprintable rumours circulate about why they chose their name.
