50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread

[dahj]

As a kid back then, I knew that no Barrier or anything like it was thought to exist. I knew a lot of astronomy. I bought it in the story. Now I'm thinking about why.

Though non-canon obviously, the novelverse explained it as an artificial thing created by the Q Continuum to keep a similarly powerful being out of the galaxy, which also explained why contact with it gave telepathy prone people extraordinary powers as they absorbed the Qiness from it.

 

[Phoenix219]

And it will ironically be one of those things proven *right* in the end. Planets and Stars both have noticeable magnetic, energetic boundaries/bubbles, and as things are usually scalable, the galaxy will as well. And yes, it would be a complete boundary, and mostly invisible.

Like I said, Voyager probes just encountered the same exact thing while leaving our own system.

 

[Tallguy]

Isn't the edge of our galaxy like the edge of our atmosphere? We've drawn a (human made) line that says "there's not enough atmosphere here anymore, so we're calling it done".

 

[Phoenix219]

The analog to the barrier would be the edge of our magnetosphere's field of influence. Our Sun is in motion around the galaxy center, and we all travel with it in *its* sphere of influence. It makes total sense to me, that the galaxy would have a similar boundary.

 

[UnknownSample]

Boundary and barrier, two different things.

 

[Tallguy]

It's funny, my reaction to almost any criticism of WNMHGB is "la la la la la, I don't care, it's awesome, la la la la la la!"

Hee.

 

[Phoenix219]

Boundary and barrier, two different things.

Semantics.

Sometimes crossing boundaries can be dangerious. Van Allen's belts, anyone?

I have a much bigger problem with the barrier in the CENTER of the galaxy....XD

 

[aridas sofia]

The idea of a galactic barrier would not be so farfetched if you assumed warp drive routing is related to dark matter density, in something like the way Geoffrey Mandel described in his "Guide to Navigation", a part of the 1980 "Star Trek Maps". It is hypothesized that the Milky Way is surrounded by a spherical dark matter halo that decreases in density with increased distance from the galaxy center. If warp drive relies on routes of low dark matter density, that halo might seem like a barrier.

Gerrold's comment about bisecting a sneeze reflects the problems associated with boxing in whatever physics might encompass warp drive with our seriously incomplete understanding. I liked my Star Trek a little more farfetched.

 

[dahj]

"Dagger of the Mind", Episode 9, November 3rd

Tonight's Episode: During a routine UPS delivery to a prison planet, Kirk picks up a package full of crazy!
Neurons will be neutralized, minds will meld, and judging by the title and the prison setting there will probably be plenty of daggers, shivs and shanks, oh my! Right?
(Christmas episode I think, people keep mentioning Noel for some reason!?!)

 

[The Old Mixer]

Star Trek
"Dagger of the Mind"
Stardate 2715.1

We get some interesting interplay between Kirk and McCoy over the penal colony, but you'd think that McCoy would be the one who was up on developments in rehabilitative therapy.

Between the use of various sound bites from this episode in the novelty record "The Trouble with Klingons" by Dennis Williams (wish I could find a YouTube video for it; it was something that Dr. Demento used to play in the '80s) and the South Park parody episode (the one with the planet...arium), this could be the most unintentionally funny episode of Trek for me. Then there's Morgan Woodward...they had to beam Kirk down to the planet so that Van Gelder had all of the ship's scenery to chew on for himself.

Spock is really starting to come into his own...Nimoy's almost there, though his moments of irritation when he gestures for McCoy to use the hypospray and when he deactivates the force field stick out at me. And we get another iconic piece of Spock business via storytelling improvisation....This time, because the network censors were paranoid about accidentally hypnotizing people via TV, they had to come up with the Vulcan Mind Meld...and they were sure to have Spock tell us that it wasn't hypnosis, just in case we might have thought it was and stupidly gotten ourselves hypnotized anyway!

I was never into Dr. Noel the way so many seem to be, but I guess I can see what some of the fuss is about--That's about as short as the skirt can get while still pretending to cover anything.

Think I mentioned it the other week, but this one and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" always seemed very similar to me. Scientist who pretends to be benevolent while hiding a sinister secret in an underground facility, Kirk beams down with a female blueshirt and becomes a victim of the secret, Spock to the rescue....

 

[NickintheATL]

My review of "Dagger of the Mind"

I still think, as far as I'm concerned, that Morgan Woodward turned in one of the greatest guest performances of the season in this episode.

Great story.

Next week...

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[UnknownSample]

Interesting that no alien threat or grandiose diabolical plan was involved, just the twisted ego of one man, pathetically getting off on the power this chair gave him over isolated, powerless individuals under his control. This aspect made no sense to me until life threw at me some harsh experiences with people who would have reacted to the chair in the same way, I think, including unsupervised "experts".
------------------
One of the most horrifying Trek moments is Kirk describing the Chair experience, later.

 

[dahj]

I was never into Dr. Noel the way so many seem to be

That's probably more to do with the dynamic between her and Kirk rather than the character herself.

At one point she says "I know my profession", but she fails to demonstrate that. She's a lousy scientist, accepting everything Adams tells her without question, she doesn't seem that observant about people, not even noticing the blank expressions, and when an opportunity arises to actually do some work, instead of something objective and impartial, she tires to implant a memory in Kirk's mind that they had sex, which I doubt any trained psychotherapist would think appropriate.

Interesting that no alien threat or grandiose diabolical plan was involved, just the twisted ego of one man pathetically getting off on the power this chair gave him over isolated, powerless individuals under his control.

The episode kinda fails on establishing his motives or character, other than a "generic mad scientist".
This guy was supposedly very well respected, influential and successful in his field for years without incident, and now he suddenly goes to torturing and destroying people without any explanation on how or why he went wrong. At least in WALGMO the mad scientist had a reason for sudden change of personality...

 

[The Old Mixer]

She's a lousy scientist, accepting everything Adams tells her without question

I noticed that. She really could have been Rand, because at no point does her expertise actually prove to be useful.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

At one point she says "I know my profession", but she fails to demonstrate that. She's a lousy scientist, accepting everything Adams tells her without question, she doesn't seem that observant about people, not even noticing the blank expressions, and when an opportunity arises to actually do some work, instead of something objective and impartial, she tires to implant a memory in Kirk's mind that they had sex, which I doubt any trained psychotherapist would think appropriate.

Stop browbeating her! Can't you see she's sexy?

 

[NickintheATL]

I will agree that Helen smiled a little too much for my taste at times, but I tended to live with it because maybe she was the proverbial kid in the candy store... what with being in a rehabilitative colony and all. :-)

 

[wayne66]

Great episode. This one kind of reminded me of the British series called The Prisoner. The machine is the kind of thing that the Village would use on number 6 to find out why he resigned. Also, Morgan Woodward is fantastic. This is the first time we see the Vulcan mind meld. Great scene. I always like James Gregory in whatever he does. I also agree that Helen Noel is great to look at but does not come off well in doing her job. She does do a good job in defending herself at the end of the episode kicking the guy who got electrocuted.

 

[A beaker full of death]

He has become death, destroyer of worlds.

You knew I was referring to @A beaker full of death , right?

So was he.

I've been busy raising my two now-9-month-old boys.

AND.... I just don't think there's anything left to say about Star Trek - the only series of the bunch that interests me. I'm kinda... done.

I did see the last nuTrek movie. I liked it for what it was. Better than the last few. But not much worth taking the time to discuss.

I'll still stop in every few months, til one day I forget.

But as long as Miri airs, my name will live on. Thanks for remembering, Mixer.

 

[The Old Mixer]

So was he.

I've been busy raising my two now-9-month-old boys.

AND.... I just don't think there's anything left to say about Star Trek - the only series of the bunch that interests me. I'm kinda... done.

I did see the last nuTrek movie. I liked it for what it was. Better than the last few. But not much worth taking the time to discuss.

I'll still stop in every few months, til one day I forget.

But as long as Miri airs, my name will live on. Thanks for remembering, Mixer.

Well, congrats and good luck with those two little guys...I suspect there's more Trekking in store for your family in the future....

 

[dahj]

"The Corbomite Maneuver", Episode 10, November 10th

Tonight's Episode: The Enterprise meets its deadliest enemy yet. The sinister Federation!
Will Captain Kirk find a way to stand up to Commander Jolene Blalock?