Star Trek TOS Re-Watch

Moving on to

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield **½

This one has a lot of potential. It's got a strong guest cast (Gorshin in particular does a lot with his speeches), some very creative cinematography and a very strong message that, while obvious, is still potent.

Sadly, the budget crunch hurt this episode. It's talky as hell with tons of pontification from Bele, Lokai and Kirk. I don't mind the shuttlecraft stock footage, that's a sign of the times, but the invisible ship is a step too far. An obvious money saver that did nothing to enhance or support the story.

Some shots are really great, particularly the transporter room shots and the slow dolly shots of the crew during the self destruct sequence. The use of that sequence, down to most of the dialog, is more evidence that Harve Bennet watched well past Space Seed when doing his research. It's ridiculously convoluted and I wondered why Bele didn't make a move to stop it. But the tight close ups are both creative and off-putting (Scotty's teeth...). The zooming in and out of the alert was cheesy but we've discussed that one elsewhere. The "ajar door" during Lokai's rec room speech was also weird (when does THAT ever happen?) and the bad ADR with really awful dialog didn't help: Chekov isn't even in the room but he gets to have poorly dubbed lines slathered in. Still, Jud Taylor tried to add some style to it, which was appreciated.

The crew, having seen all variety of aliens, is strangely perplexed at seeing a being with "black and white cookie" skin color, to the point that seeing a second one is worth demanding of an explanation from Spock instead of assuming Lokai's people are just colored this way.

Still, Bele's casual declaration of Lokai's inferiority because of where his white side - while obvious - is actually a perfect example of the stupidity of prejudice.

The climax is also powerful, regardless of the budget removing all but two crewmen from the corridors, allowing these two to run unhindered through the ship and the lame "jogging" Bele does (he's exhausted pretty quickly). The downbeat ending sticks with you. This is not a cheerful episode at all.

With more time and a couple of extra bucks to make a ship for Bele (even a glowing orb), make the makeup less garish and another rewrite, this could have been a justifiable classic.

One more reason this one is notable: it was Bob Justman's final episode of the series. With him goes the last creative voice from OG staff and also, weirdly enough, the third season end credits theme. It reverts to the second season music going forward. Yes, I know Roddenberry was officially still there, but he really wasn't. From here on it was Fred Freiberger and Arthur Singer doing the story editing alone.

 

I completely agree on the teeth and the jogging.

 

But, speeches make good Star Trek

 

Then this must be in your top 3.

 

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

As a younger Trekkie I understood what this episode tried to do and it wasn't a favorite of mine. Over the years I've softened to it. It's not subtle, I think we all realize that, but it works in a way that stubborn people often need to be convinced of things, in a plain, obvious way. It's an important statement for Star Trek, moreso than the non-kiss in Plato's Stepchildren, which gets more publicity.

It might be controversial that this episode calls out both sides, the racists and oppressed alike, but the final message is that violence will destroy everyone, and I think that's inarguable if taken to the extreme.

As far as the execution...

There are a few borderline psychedelic moments in this episode which may take some viewers out of it. It's also an obvious bottle show. So both make it feel cheaper...but I do like the performances of both guest characters.

I might have given this a 5 or 6 at one time but it's still timely and any new fan should watch it at least once. 8 out of 10

 

Top ten for this series for me.

 

Let's make these two quick, because they're not great.

Whom Gods Destroy **

For the performances and the execution of the Kirk vs Kirk fight gives this its two stars. The story isn't much, the location is boring, and another one of Kirk's hero images goes south. There's a distinct lack of energy here and the scenes of Garth and his followers being at their own two celebrations feels like they go on forever. Steve Inhat does his best and he creates a somewhat entertaining character in Garth. Blowing up Marta takes away any real sympathy for him, mostly because Yvonne Craig's character was likeable to a degree. The final fight is very well done, the best KvK in the series thanks to a decent match of Shatner and his double plus - finally - matching toupees.

Still Spock has to play dumb for this to work. He doesn't ask anything only Kirk would truly know and doesn't just stun both of them immediately. And if you watch carefully, it IS Garth who answers the "Cochran Deceleration" question correctly with a confused looking Kirk giving the lame "Every commander know this" reply - which Spock with his logic should have said, "yes but how do you know we used that maneuver at tis time? Answer the question please."

The King Solomon wise crack flops. But Garth's recovery manages to be a little touching in the end.

The Mark of Gideon *

Ouff, this one is nonsense. A good message wrapped in a poorly conceived mystery (written by Cyrano Jones himself, Stanley Adams) with some weird camera shots that feel like they ran out of time and just put this one together fast. Obviously, a full sized, perfect replica of the Enterprise on Gideon can't work. Making it a drug or technological illusion would have been a simple solution to this. Kirk meets Odonna and, like Deela, sleeps with her in the middle of an abandoned Enterprise crisis. Not to trick or maneuver his way out of a jam, just because. Oy. And like Wink of an Eye, Kirk is "missing" on an "empty (ish) Enterprise" and Spock joins him in the last few minutes to solve the problem. The second guard he tosses without a nerve pinch slides on the floor and gently takes a nap...

Spock's anti-diplomacy dialog is endless and the bridge crew mouthing off during one of the calls to Woden is off kilter for this crew.

The solution to Gideon's problem is easy. "Hey join the Federation and we can not only cure you guys but move half of you to another planet." I mean, the Federation knows about them now anyway and once done, I'm sure they would accept the Gideons' policy of isolationism. Instead, they just decide to introduce a fatal disease to the population. That's better? They are standing shoulder to shoulder. "What is it like to feel pain?" You never cut yourself? Not a single shoulder-to-shoulder person stepped on another person's foot? Maybe if they didn't take up the enormous amount of space to build a life sized replica of a starship, you could spread out a bit? How does this ecosystem even work? Where do you go to the bathroom? Or bathe? Or sleep? Or eat?

Justman would have raised alarm bells right left and center over this story. The dialog paints a grim picture but the moment you give it thought, it collapses. Get back to selling tribbles, Cyrano, writing is not in your wheelhouse. This is like bad fanfiction or a Marshak/Culbreath Trek novel.

And the Federation was really tone deaf here, and the Starfleet Admiral was inexcusably stupid. Because Spock couldn't tell him why Kirk was abducted or prove Kirk was in danger, he denied Spock permission to act - even though he accepted that Kirk was indeed abducted.

Point for the two VERY spooky scenes of the Gideons pressed against the ship and their faces on the screen and the porthole. Nightmare fuel as a child. But the editing of the shots as Kirk and Odonna leave to get some nookie is weird. Choppy. Lots of still photos of other episodes to illustrate an empty ship. The time and budget crunch was really showing here.

Awful. This is one of those episodes that would make me groan with disappointment when it came on as a kid. Only the smallest number of episodes did that!

 

To the degree that she's Batgirl.

To the point of view of the writer? You betcha. This comes from The Population Bomb, right? I don't know if TPB was where the prediction came from, but growing up I was assured that the world was going to run out of food by the 1980's. This was when my parents got dirty looks for having three kids.

As I get older this seems more and more plausible.

 

I have always liked "WHOM GODS DESTROY". There's just something about it that really hooks you. I can't even quite put my finger on why.

"THE MARK OF GIDEON" is a creepy episode, and continues the season 3 trend of having a strong female guest lead/villain with Odana ready to sacrifice herself for her race.

I agree that neither are top tier TOS, they definitely aren't bad ones. More middle of the road, to me.

 

If they could have done that without the Strong Female Guest almost always becoming a romantic interest 1) that would have been great and 2) we wouldn't have gotten the trope of James T. Kirk: Space Lothario that really comes into its own in season 3.

 

That Gideonite guard was 100 percent realistic. After a little taste of Vulcan strength, the guard said to himself, "I'm not getting paid enough to get demolished in a fight. I'm taking a dive. And by the way, this will be my ticket to a Disability benefit."

Once again, Star Trek presents a nuanced and well-observed portrait of humanoid behavior. It's a quality drama.

 

Are you discounting her non-Gotham roles? She frolics with James Coburn in one of his FLINT spoofs, and plays four different women in DOBIE GILLIS. Craig definitely gets around.

 

Well I didn't want to mention that she was Grandma on Olivia, it seemed obvious.

 

Minus any boldfacing, capitalizing, quoting or underlying, it seems rauchy to boot. Anyhow, I've never seen OLIVIA.

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1458518/

 

Re: Lokai and Bele (btw, we had a friend with a pair of black-and-white rats named that in the late 70s ) - anyhoo, I always thought their makeup would have been more convincing if they either had a more blended border, or if it was more irregular like cow/pinto pony patches. "I am white with black patches, he is black with white patches!" I know the script didn't want to be that subtle, though.

 

If you watched or remember SeaQuest, kinda like Dagwood. He was supposed to represent multiple races and his makeup was more layered.

Moving on to

The Lights of Zetar ***

I always had a soft spot for this one. Back when I would watch Star Trek in the wee hours in syndication, this episode was doubly creepy. Herb Kenwith, a new director to the series, uses some interesting angles. The lighting and the casting of Jan Shutan helps a lot. Shutan had a unique look about her and, while given some iffy dialog here and there, was a very talented actress. Even when she was being belligerent (for which I blame the Zetarians), she wasn't unlikeable. The music, much of it lifted from "Where No Man Has Gone Before", is wonderfully spotted and gives the episode that grim horror quality.

Whatever faults he may have had, Fred Freiberger's Star Trek was a deadly serious affair and space was dangerous place. He went for a spooky quite often. The garbled speech was terrifying to me as a kid and Shutan's blank stares were chilling.

I do wish Scotty was less soupy, but since it was already established in "Who Mourns for Adonais?" that he was a sap around women, it's not out of character. But it is kind of annoying. And man, does Kirk really have to comment on it in his official log? He's really bad that that sort of thing this year.

The whole cast is on deck for this one, even Kyle in his only appearance this season. Even Chapel has a great moment of levity when she mimics Scotty's accent. The sequence where Kirk is giving orders quietly to Sulu as the Zetarians attack is a nice change. He's thinking it out as he goes. Everyone gets to contribute and some moments really land. Like when the computer confirms that Mira's brain pattern and the Zetarians are identical still gives a chill thanks to Kenwith's rapid zoom and chilling Alexander Courage score.

Watching this episode and the repeated close ups of Mira's eye really makes me think Freiberger had this episode in mind when he was deciding how to show Maya's transformations in the later Space: 1999.

The invasion scene is good and the crowded corridor bit is nice and tense. The climax is fun but I feel like 20 atmospheres worth of pressure would be, if not fatal, messy and painful. But the sequence is well shot. Mira's floating was well done.

The end has a nice humorous coda that actually works because it's mildly amusing as it is meant to be. After a very grim hour, the release is well done. Points off for the newspaper on the floor behind McCoy in the final scene.

Honestly, my only issue is Scotty and his super sweet, and sometimes condescending, manner with Mira. Had he been seen as more mature and less handsy, I would have been totally fine with a Scotty romance. At least she didn't die at the end. For all I know, they were together until Scotty got trapped in the transporter in TNG's "Relics." Yeah, yeah, but tie-in fiction doesn't count.

Really good episode by Lambchop and her husband! Shari Lewis was also a legit actress and hoped to play Mira herself. I had a MAJOR crush on Jan Shutan as a kid, thanks to this episode, so I was happy with the final choice. She's gorgeous and really owned the character. I loved the subtle hint that she loved Scotty because he reminded her of her own father, a retired engineer. Good character, excellent actress, fine episode.

 

Nice catch!

Under Spock's elbow: