Things that annoy you off about TOS

[The Old Mixer]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

Nothing really pissed me off about the show. (Now there are many, many things about fandom that piss me off....but not so much with the show directly).

Same here. "Pissed off" is a bit too emphatic for me.

I'm in this camp. There are things in the show that I enjoyed less than others...it certainly had its shortcomings...a few things might make me cringe...but I can't think of anything in this classic show that gave us so much that qualifies as having "pissed me off".

 

[Anwar]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

I have to say there is only one episode which really makes me mad though and its 'a private little war' Violating prime directive, supplying weapons to a pre-warp society... etc.

So what exactly would you have done? Allowed the hill people to be slaughtered by the Klingon armed villagers? Sometimes there are no warm and fuzzy solutions to a problem and sometimes the rule book doesn't anticipate a particular problem.

Prime Directive wasn't made to let Klingons invade or manipulate less advanced societies. Krell already did what the PD is suppose to prevent. The Prime Directive wasn't about pre-warp or post-warp societies in TOS and the weapons were absolultely pre-warp.

Whatever protection the PD gave to those people went out the window because they were already contaminated by the Klingons.

If there really was no way to take away their weapons (they had a factory?) then arming the other side probably was the best way because it's equalizing things again. The battles will be much bloodier but both sides are equal again.

I was a little perplexed sometimes at how fast characters would fall in love on the show. One of the things that made "City on the Edge of Forever" somewhat less enjoyable for me than others was that I couldn't buy into Kirk and Keeler's romance or that he'd be willing to sacrifice humanity for her.

Same with Requiem for Methuselah, Kirk being so anguished over her Spock had to mindwipe him.

 

[Warped9]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

It was a common convention in that era of television for characters to fall in love quickly within the framework of an hour or even a half hour.

Regarding TCOTEOF I don't know if it's actually stated in the episode how much time Kirk and Spock are in the past even though it's only a few minutes by Scotty and the landing party's perspective.

 

[Armored Saint]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

They weren't industrialized, so they couldn't make them on their own.

The weapons were pre-industrial too. The mechanism was simple enough to be reproduced by the villagers.
MCCOY: (scanning) This pig iron is almost carbon-free. That village furnace certainly didn't produce it. People's exhibit number two. Cold-rolled gun barrel rod fashioned to look homemade. You were right about the Klingons, Jim.
The proof wasn't the weapons themselves, but the fact an highly-advanced technology had been used to produce them.

Removing the weapon was useless. They had to remove the Klingon support. To remove the Klingon support, they had to make it useless.

 

[Warped9]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

But at the level they were at it wouldn't have been that hard for them to do it themselves.

 

[BillJ]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

Regarding TCOTEOF I don't know if it's actually stated in the episode how much time Kirk and Spock are in the past even though it's only a few minutes by Scotty and the landing party's perspective.

At least three days...

KIRK: Mister Spock, I've brought you some assorted vegetables, baloney in a hard rolls for myself, and I've spent the other nine tenths of our combined salaries for the last three days on filling this order for you.

I would think it was a week or ten days.

 

[Enabran]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

The problem with Kirk's solution in my opinion, is that the Klingons could easily upgrade their sides weapons as soon as Kirk left. So I don't really see how Kirk's solution was much better than just leaving the planet as it was. It just felt very wrong for Kirk to hand over weapons to someone whose sole intention was to seek revenge for the death of his wife. I feel like trying to forge peace between the sides, or confronting the klingons about it (ok admittedly confronting the Klingons could have been pretty disastrous) but at the very least, I feel like Kirk could have tried to convince 'his side' to restrict the use of their new weapons to defense only...

 

[BillJ]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

The problem with Kirk's solution in my opinion, is that the Klingons could easily upgrade their sides weapons as soon as Kirk left. So I don't really see how Kirk's solution was much better than just leaving the planet as it was. It just felt very wrong for Kirk to hand over weapons to someone whose sole intention was to seek revenge for the death of his wife. I feel like trying to forge peace between the sides, or confronting the klingons about it (ok admittedly confronting the Klingons could have been pretty disastrous) but at the very least, I feel like Kirk could have tried to convince 'his side' to restrict the use of their new weapons to defense only...

The whole idea is that there was no perfect solution. It was a straight reference to what was going on in Vietnam at the time with two powers fighting a proxy war.

 

[scotpens]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

One of the things that made "City on the Edge of Forever" somewhat less enjoyable for me than others was that I couldn't buy into Kirk and Keeler's romance or that he'd be willing to sacrifice humanity for her.

That's why Harlan Ellison's original ending was changed. Instead of Spock restraining Kirk, it was Kirk who prevented McCoy from saving Edith. Kirk sacrificed his personal happiness for the future of all of humanity -- which is what a hero is supposed to do. It's part of the job description.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

The problem with Kirk's solution in my opinion, is that the Klingons could easily upgrade their sides weapons as soon as Kirk left. So I don't really see how Kirk's solution was much better than just leaving the planet as it was. It just felt very wrong for Kirk to hand over weapons to someone whose sole intention was to seek revenge for the death of his wife. I feel like trying to forge peace between the sides, or confronting the klingons about it (ok admittedly confronting the Klingons could have been pretty disastrous) but at the very least, I feel like Kirk could have tried to convince 'his side' to restrict the use of their new weapons to defense only...

The whole idea is that there was no perfect solution. It was a straight reference to what was going on in Vietnam at the time with two powers fighting a proxy war.

Exactly. It's TOS being dark and gritty, decades before "In the Pale Moonlight."

 

[therritn]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

That Kirk's backstory seemed to have gaps and inconsistencies. For example what ships he served on and when. When did these events in his life happen? His backstory could have been fleshed out a little better.

 

[scotpens]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

That Kirk's backstory seemed to have gaps and inconsistencies.

Everything in TOS had gaps and inconsistencies. It's what happens when you have dozens of creative people essentially inventing a whole universe from scratch.

 

[Melakon]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

Shatner himself had written a backstory for Kirk after he was cast, as actors often do. Whether any of his ideas became throwaday dialogue writers worked into scripts is anyone's guess.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

It pisses me off that I only got one episode. I also didn't like being left under a rock.

It annoys me that Mitchell was killed by a rock, when a phaser rifle just bounced off him.

 

[One Lucky Red Shirt]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

Love TOS. The only thing that really bothers me was the ending to the episodes where they had gone through so much. Mostly it was the trio who would have something cheesy to say and then everyone would laugh very fake and then we see the old E and the end credits. Once in awhile it worked such as Trouble with tribbles. The last min Of a lot of those episodes just get to me now. I do understand that was standard for 60s tv though.

 

[BillJ]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

That Kirk's backstory seemed to have gaps and inconsistencies.

One of the many reasons we're still here talking about it so many years later. There was so much that made one exercise their imagination.

 

[Warped9]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

Shatner himself had written a backstory for Kirk after he was cast, as actors often do. Whether any of his ideas became throwaday dialogue writers worked into scripts is anyone's guess.

If true it would be interesting to see it even if it conflicts with what was later established.

That Kirk's backstory seemed to have gaps and inconsistencies.

One of the many reasons we're still here talking about it so many years later. There was so much that made one exercise their imagination.

It has become the thing to do that everyone wants everything explained and it all has to connect in a neat and tidy package. Just as it's become practice to show origins and everyone coming together.

I've recently been watching Hogan's Heroes and it's another series that never explained how Hogan got to the camp and got his operations going. The series simply starts with everything and everyone in place and they never referenced how it all came to be. There is fanfic that has tried to explain the origins. In some stories they get started because Hogan got the idea to make most of his situation and recruited his team from those available. In another take on it Hogan had orders to setup the operation in a POW camp.

And yet the lack of explanation doesn't take one thing away from the enjoyment of the series. Throughout the show occasional references are made to characters' lives before being at Stalag 13, but you really have to pay attention to stitch it together (and some fanfic writers have done just that). In the series we actually learn more about Colonel Klink and Sargeant Shultz than we ever learn about about Hogan and his crew.

 

[Armored Saint]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

That's why I like the mystery around the massacre made by Kodos in Tarsus IV. The Conscience of the King is retroactively refreshing.

 

[mos6507]

Re: Things that piss you off about TOS

Love TOS. The only thing that really bothers me was the ending to the episodes where they had gone through so much. Mostly it was the trio who would have something cheesy to say and then everyone would laugh very fake and then we see the old E and the end credits. Once in awhile it worked such as Trouble with tribbles. The last min Of a lot of those episodes just get to me now. I do understand that was standard for 60s tv though.

I think this was mostly Fred Frieberger's input. He started doing that in the 2nd season of Space: 1999 as well.

It's a known television trope, something I used to see often in saturday morning cartoons growing up, especially Filmation. Too by-the-numbers writing, but it did help create more of a sense of the bridge-crew as a family.

 

[cgervasi]

Jocular Endings

The sexism bugs me. Some of the comedy is annoying too - especially the '60's insistence on ending episodes with inappropriate laughter.

The inappropriate and/or shoehorned-in laughter at the end is the most annoying thing about TOS to me.