Fact-Checking Inside Star Trek: The Real Story

^^ A part of that made me think of "The Magicks Of Megas-Tu."

 

I had the same thought.

 

That's TAS, right? I watched the series when it was released on DVD, but outside of "Yesteryear" it didn't do much for me and my memory is pretty hazy.

 

Yes. The Enterprise is exploring the heart of the galaxy when it comes upon some maelstrom that hurls the ship even further into some unknown region. There they come across a planet that looks nothing like they're familiar with and in a space that looks totally unreal. They're met by an unusual horned being named Lucien that appears as a half man and half goat. In the end Lucien is a member of a race that are masters of (what is to us) magic. They put the Enterprise crew on trial for the sins of our ancestors who persecuted these beings when they visited Earth centuries ago. The beings were persecuted as demons, sorcerers and witches when they refused to help certain ambitious humans. After a tme they fled back to their own realm.

In the end Lucien is revealed to be the one identified as Lucifer in Earth's history and they want to punish him as well for trying to hide and protect the Enterprise crew. Kirk rises to defend Lucifer because he doesn't think he should be punished for trying to help others. Neither does Kirk hold Lucien responsible for superstitious beliefs of ancient humans. In the end the Enterprise crew is released when they prove to the Megans that they are no longer a threat to their kind.

It actually isn't a bad story in itself and even sounds more substantial than Malachi Throne's idea. And the idea that Kirk is effectively defending "the Devil" is veiled in the guise of a Saturday morning cartoon. I wonder how many parents were sleeping in Saturday morning while their kids were watching this. I also like the idea that we never really learn the Megan's true forms and we're led to believe they assume human form so they can interact with us.

If anything this story is hurt by a couple of things. One is it's stilted animation and thus it doesn't resonate the same way as live-action. The other is it bears similarities to previous Trek stories where powerful aliens are testing humanity to learn their real intentions.

Suffice to say years later when I saw TFF I couldn't help but think of aspects of "The Magicks Of Megas-Tu."

 

You can hear it (the 1975 re-release) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yoVc6oY4yE

 

There was a Star Trek theme on 45 with a hispanic piece of music on the flipside, circa 1974 or 75. My folks bought me a tribble from David Gerrold's company and that record, which I remember distinctly because the package actually arrived on 12/24 (and also because I didn't have a spindle for the 45 and tried to line it up by eye with predictably loopy results.) I remember thinking it sounded better at 78 than at 45.

 

WOW, that's so horrifically bad, I love it!

 

Woo Hoo Disco Trek Lives!

 

While I keep working on the article on the above, here's a re-posting from Orion Press that our own Sir Rhosis put together detailing several of Gene Roddenberry's early story ideas for the series: http://startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com/2014/04/unseen-trek-star-trek-stories-by-gene.html

 

^^ A lot of ideas can seem silly when boiled down to the very basics. The key is how things are fleshed out and finally realized on the screen. I suspect you could reduce a lot of TOS episodes to cheesy seeming story ideas.

Hell, Capone's Planet (or whatever) actually became an episode. One of the outlines in your blog probably became "The Savage Curtain."

 

Interestingly, The Valley of the Giants is the title of a 1918 Peter B. Kyne novel which was three times adapted into a feature film, first in 1919, then in 1927, and finally as a talkie in 1938.

 

I might revise this at some point, but I'm moving this week, and I wanted to share this while I had the chance:

http://startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com/2014/04/while-he-wanders-his-galaxy-gene.html

 

^Nice article, but one more point about Courage and the second season: We know from the soundtrack CD set that Courage did record library cues for season 2 in a session recorded on June 16, 1967, including the second-season arrangement of the main title, 13 original cues of library music built around Courage's main-title and Kirk themes (four of them brief "stingers"), and rerecordings of various first-season cues by Courage, Fred Steiner, and Gerald Fried. So this is one thing Solow and Justman were wrong about: Courage did contribute to season 2 of the show. He just did library music instead of specific episode scores. (Some of his library cues were notably used at the beginning of "Catspaw," in fight scenes in "Journey to Babel" and "Mirror, Mirror," and in Kirk's stirring speech to Mirror Spock in "Mirror, Mirror.")

 

I mentioned that in my earlier article from June and in the comments. But you're absolutely right.

EDIT: I've made a slight update briefly mentioning this information.

 

This Mission Logs Supplemental podcast with Richard Arnold is begging to be fact checked. He makes a lot of assumptions and speaks as if most of what he's saying is fact.

http://www.missionlogpodcast.com/supplemental/

 

Is there a transcript?

 

Unfortunately not that I know of.

 

At long last, my post about the ratings (mostly, covering the Nielsens and the first season) is done.

You can read all about it here.

I may cover season two and/or three at some point, or more fully discuss the Trendex and Arbitron ratings, but I figured at nearly 5,500 words, I had said enough, at least for the moment.

 

^Terrific article. Have you considered publishing a book of your own based on your blog? It's excellent research that deserves a wider audience.

The discussion of the real meaning of the "TVQ" ratings was interesting. So even though ST wasn't watched by that many people, those who did watch it tended to be loyal viewers. Not surprising, but nice to see codified.