Misconceptions about TOS

[Christopher]

One comment I've heard over the years is that Kirk 'slept with a green woman' in the show, which he never did.

Well, there were few cases where he really went as far as sleeping with his romantic interests -- probably Drusilla, pretty obviously Deela, and undoubtedly Miramanee. Normally it was more just romancing and getting to first base. (That's actually what they meant in the 1960s and earlier when they said "making love" -- not having sex, just flirting and wooing.) And one of the women he got romantic with was Marta, a green Orion woman -- and their romantic scene did literally happen in bed, which is about as close to a sex scene as TOS was allowed to get. So it's understandable why people would have that impression.

Yet another, is the death of the redshirts. Now, while the 'redshirts' are usually the security guards who face danger first....we've also seen many other 'shirts' get taken down as well.

In season 1, there was no bias toward redshirt casualties, but the pattern definitely took hold in seasons 2 and 3.

"Beam me up, Scotty" was a line that was never said, but was on bumper stickers and used by those casual or non-fans.

Mmm, that's technically true, but in fact Kirk did say "Beam us up, Scotty" twice in the animated series ("The Infinite Vulcan" and "The Lorelei Signal"), and "Scotty, beam me up!" in The Voyage Home. And in TOS he did come close on several occasions: "Prepare to beam us up, Mr. Scott" ("The Paradise Syndrome"), "Have Scotty beam us up" ("The Mark of Gideon"), "Mr. Scott, beam us up" ("The Cloud Minders"), "Scotty, beam us up fast" ("The Savage Curtain"). Note that it's almost always plural -- aside from TVH, "beam me up" only appears in "The Squire of Gothos" and "This Side of Paradise." So it's not so much that Kirk never said it to Scotty as that he never said it in the singular, except the once.

If you really want to hear deliberate speech pauses watch John Banner as Sargeant Shultz on Hogan's Heroes at times.

Or Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer, all the time.

Not sure if a misconception but at least when I was watching (early 70s) that it was just a kid's show and while I was a youngster at the time. I certainly didn't appreciate the social relevance of most episodes.

True, it was deliberately conceived to be the first adult-oriented science-fiction television series with continuing characters. However, it was always highly popular with children. So while the perception was based largely in the longstanding stereotype of SF as kid stuff, it wasn't entirely false.

There used to be a big misconception out there that Star Trek was "about" those silly plot ideas. I think The Wrath of Khan went a long way toward making ST respectable among non-fans. That was a turning point in the broader public perception.

I find that an odd sentiment, since I think TWOK has an incredibly silly plot. Genesis is one of the most completely fanciful and nonsensical ideas in the history of the franchise. The plot makes little sense, the characterization is broad and melodramatic, and it's mainly just a loud, lowbrow, violent action movie. The respectable Trek movie should've been TMP -- that was a flawed but sincere attempt to make a sophisticated, intelligent, classy, philosophical science fiction film. Obviously TWOK was more popular, but I don't see what there was about it that would've made people see ST as mature or sophisticated.

And yet, Justman gets overlooked, because it's easier for lazy journalists to just claim Roddenberry did everything.

Well, Roddenberry himself did a great deal to encourage that perception.

 

[Avro Arrow]

- That Vulcans don't have emotions, rather than just suppressing them
- That the main crew members were Captain Kirk and Doctor Spock
- That it's called Star Track. I mean... really?!?

Well, there were few cases where he really went as far as sleeping with his romantic interests -- probably Drusilla, pretty obviously Deela, and undoubtedly Miramanee.

Well, Miramanee was pregnant, so yeah... undoubtedly.

 

[plynch]

TWOK just works better. I like serious, so I like TMP intellectually. But TWOK really is a great flick. The plot is silly and the whole thing a bot comic-bookish. Like so many things, though, execution matters.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

You hit on some big ones.

Another (in my view) is in regard to Shatner's speech pattern. It's been exaggerrated and caricatured over the years to the point of ridiculousness. He rarely spoke that way and it's more apparent in some third season episodes.

If you really want to hear deliberate speech pauses watch John Banner as Sargeant Shultz on Hogan's Heroes at times.

The idea of the show being deliberate camp. No, the show was never intended that way and still doesn't work that way except in the more deliberate comedy oriented episodes, particularly "I, Mudd" and "A Piece Of The Action."

Good ones...!

One comment I've heard over the years is that Kirk 'slept with a green woman' in the show, which he never did.

Well, there were few cases where he really went as far as sleeping with his romantic interests -- probably Drusilla, pretty obviously Deela, and undoubtedly Miramanee. Normally it was more just romancing and getting to first base. (That's actually what they meant in the 1960s and earlier when they said "making love" -- not having sex, just flirting and wooing.) And one of the women he got romantic with was Marta, a green Orion woman -- and their romantic scene did literally happen in bed, which is about as close to a sex scene as TOS was allowed to get. So it's understandable why people would have that impression.

Yes, I'm very well aware of the term 'making love' in the 1960s and earlier. The Three Stooges also used the term in one of their movies, and Marilyn Monroe had a song and movie called, "Let's Make Love." Obviously, due to their respective eras, they weren't talking about actual 'sex' but 'heavy kissing' and 'whispering sweet nothings' in the ears of their lovers.

Yet another, is the death of the redshirts. Now, while the 'redshirts' are usually the security guards who face danger first....we've also seen many other 'shirts' get taken down as well.

In season 1, there was no bias toward redshirt casualties, but the pattern definitely took hold in seasons 2 and 3.

Maybe, maybe not.

Off the top of my head...there are blue shirts like D'Amato...the blueshirt from 'These Deadly Years.' Lieutenant Karen Tracy - blueshirt - from 'Wolf in the Fold.' (I'm sure there's more non-redshirts...which I'll eventually come across in my reviews).

 

[Lance]

I do have to agree that "Kirk was a womanizer/maverick" is a myth also. Yes he showed initiative in finding unique solutions to their problems sometimes ('corbomite' etc), and yes he sometimes played the romance card with the female-alien-of-the-week as a means of escaping whatever jeopardy the landing party were in. But this idea that he was a rule breaker is flat-out false (I think that really only started getting perpetrated after TWOK), while the womanizing was usually done with more sensitivity than that, he sure wasn't a James Bond like playboy wannabe ("A Woman In Every Port").

 

[scotpens]

The constant mention of "Bones" being Dr. McCoy's nickname, as if everyone called him Bones. In fact, the only one who called him Bones was Captain Kirk.

 

[OpenMaw]

The constant mention of "Bones" being Dr. McCoy's nickname, as if everyone called him Bones. In fact, the only one who called him Bones was Captain Kirk.

Spock called him that once or twice I believe.

 

[scotpens]

The constant mention of "Bones" being Dr. McCoy's nickname, as if everyone called him Bones. In fact, the only one who called him Bones was Captain Kirk.

Spock called him that once or twice I believe.

Spock called him "Bones" once in "The Tholian Web," but in the context of what Kirk would say in the situation: "I'm sure the Captain would simply have said, 'Forget it, Bones.' "

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The constant mention of "Bones" being Dr. McCoy's nickname, as if everyone called him Bones. In fact, the only one who called him Bones was Captain Kirk.

Spock called him that once or twice I believe.

Spock called him "Bones" once in "The Tholian Web," but in the context of what Kirk would say in the situation: "I'm sure the Captain would simply have said, 'Forget it, Bones.' "

When Patrick Stewart (TNG's Picard) hosted SNL, he claimed great familiarity with TOS, and then reminisced fondly about Dr. Spock and Boney.

 

[BillJ]

Spock being the first Vulcan in Starfleet was a huge one among fandom for a long time.

 

[Christopher]

- That it's called Star Track. I mean... really?!?

To be fair, "trek" isn't a word that people use very often.

When I was a kid, my sister teased me by calling it "Star Truck."

TWOK just works better. I like serious, so I like TMP intellectually. But TWOK really is a great flick. The plot is silly and the whole thing a bot comic-bookish. Like so many things, though, execution matters.

Sure, but the comment wasn't that the film was popular, it was that it made Star Trek more respectable as a mature piece of entertainment. I just don't understand the perception that that particular film would be perceived in that way more than TOS itself was. Personally I feel TWOK was far more dumbed-down than TOS. Whereas TOS aspired to the same level of sophistication as the most respected adult dramas of its day, and TMP aspired to the level of 2001 and other classy, thought-provoking science fiction films, TWOK aimed more for the lowbrow action and melodrama of Star Wars and its imitators.

But this idea that he was a rule breaker is flat-out false (I think that really only started getting perpetrated after TWOK)

Hmm, I guess it's the Kobayashi Maru story that started it, since Kirk didn't really do any rule-breaking in TWOK per se. Starfleet ordered the Enterprise to investigate the anomalies at Regula One, and Kirk followed that order, plain and simple. But it was TSFS that solidified it, with Kirk and the crew going rogue and stealing the ship.

while the womanizing was usually done with more sensitivity than that, he sure wasn't a James Bond like playboy wannabe ("A Woman In Every Port").

Indeed, to begin with, Kirk was written the same as Pike, a very serious officer too absorbed in his duties to spare time for romance, however much he privately yearned for it. He was as uneasy with a female yeoman as Pike was ("The Corbomite Maneuver"), and in "Mudd's Women" he was the only human male in the crew who wasn't gaga over the women. He had the occasional old flame like Ruth and Areel Shaw, but most of his "womanizing" moments in season 1 were due to being in an altered state of mind ("The Enemy Within," "The Naked Time," "Dagger of the Mind") or using seduction as a calculated tactic ("The Conscience of the King," "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"). And the one time he really fell in love, with Edith Keeler, he had plenty of time to grow close to her (maybe even weeks) and he fell deep and hard -- in no way the casual dalliance of a womanizer.

It wasn't until season 2 that Kirk began to be written more in the vein of the womanizing male heroes that were commonplace in '60s and '70s TV, but he was never on the same level as Jim West or Napoleon Solo, say.

 

[Warped9]

Spock being the first Vulcan in Starfleet was a huge one among fandom for a long time.

Yeah, there are certainly no references within the series to support that notion. And we also have the fact of reference to the starship Intrepid which was manned entirely by Vulcans.

 

[telerites]

Spock being the first Vulcan in Starfleet was a huge one among fandom for a long time.

Yeah, there are certainly no references within the series to support that notion. And we also have the fact of reference to the starship Intrepid which was manned entirely by Vulcans.

But later it was documented he was the first, correct?

From startrek.com - I always assumed he was the first but I can't remember offhand from the series that established that unless it was something from perhaps "journey to Babel".

(http://www.startrek.com/database_article/spock)

"Spock was the first Vulcan to enlist in the Federation Starfleet, serving aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike as a lieutenant, and later for James T. Kirk."

 

[BillJ]

Spock being the first Vulcan in Starfleet was a huge one among fandom for a long time.

Yeah, there are certainly no references within the series to support that notion. And we also have the fact of reference to the starship Intrepid which was manned entirely by Vulcans.

But later it was documented he was the first, correct?

From startrek.com - I always assumed he was the first but I can't remember offhand from the series that established that unless it was something from perhaps "journey to Babel".

(http://www.startrek.com/database_article/spock)

"Spock was the first Vulcan to enlist in the Federation Starfleet, serving aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike as a lieutenant, and later for James T. Kirk."

There's nothing in TOS that points to Spock being the first.

 

[mos6507]

Kirk was womanizing even in Season 1 (Conscience of the King). He may have invested more of his emotions in each affair than a typical hookup-artist of today, but he still knew going into these things that they would be short-lived ship-in-every-port deals.

As for mainstreaming Trek, Khan did that a lot better than The Motion Picture, because what the public would see as socially acceptable is middle of the road fare, neither too intellectual nor campy to the point of farce, and Khan strikes the right balance of being both a romp with some serious themes interwoven.

(I don't think tearing apart Khan based on the plausibility of the Genesis device makes any sense in comparison to all of the other godlike devices and beings that have come and gone in Trek all the way back to The Cage with the Talosian mind-control VR ability which (in The Menagerie, also allowed them to reconstruct multi-camera views of things they had no direct witness to). So if you go there, you have to mock a huge swath of Trek. You can't just cherry pick. And whatever seemed implausible in Khan was retconned in Search for Spock by showing that Genesis wasn't really an achievement by virtue of the use of protomatter. It was a house-of-cards cheat that would fold in on itself. To me, that makes sense.)

Nevertheless, being a proclaimed Trek fan still carried a stigma, and to some extent still does. It's just that nerdiness in general is not seen as much of a negative since society realizes that so many of our modern conveniences owe themselves to nerds, and those nerds wind up making the most money (hence social status as today's info-economy entrepreneurs). That transition started in the late 90s with the first dot-com boom and has peaked with Big Bang Theory, which is doing for nerds what The Cosby Show did for blacks.

 

[Armored Saint]

I see three reasons for this misconception about Spock:
- We didn't see any other alien serving in Starfleet until TAS
- T'Pring said in Amok Time You have become much known among our people, Spock. Almost a legend.
- His feud with Sarek because he joined Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy. Sarek was disappointed because his son didn't follow his footsteps, not because joing Starfleet wasn't enough Vulcan.

 

[OpenMaw]

Spock called him "Bones" once in "The Tholian Web," but in the context of what Kirk would say in the situation: "I'm sure the Captain would simply have said, 'Forget it, Bones.' "

Oh, fine. You win, sir.

 

[Christopher]

Spock being the first Vulcan in Starfleet was a huge one among fandom for a long time.

Yeah, there are certainly no references within the series to support that notion. And we also have the fact of reference to the starship Intrepid which was manned entirely by Vulcans.

But later it was documented he was the first, correct?

From startrek.com - I always assumed he was the first but I can't remember offhand from the series that established that unless it was something from perhaps "journey to Babel".

(http://www.startrek.com/database_article/spock)

"Spock was the first Vulcan to enlist in the Federation Starfleet, serving aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike as a lieutenant, and later for James T. Kirk."

Startrek.com is not a definitive source, just a promotional site. It's made errors before. The "first Vulcan in Starfleet" meme has been part of fan lore for a long time, one of those things that most people take for granted without really knowing where they got it from.

Now, a lot of fan lore comes from The Making of Star Trek, which in the early years was the source of information about ST and thus was hugely influential (it always surprises me these days when I come upon fans who've never read it). But TMoST only said that Spock was the only Vulcan aboard the Enterprise, and it does explicitly acknowledge that there are other Vulcans in "the Space Service." So I'm not sure where this meme came from, unless it was a misreading of TMoST.

Kirk was womanizing even in Season 1 (Conscience of the King).

That's a profound misreading of that episode. He wasn't seducing Lenore Karidian for sexual purposes. He was pretending to seduce her so that he could investigate the allegation that her father was Kodos the Executioner. He wasn't actually interested in her except as a means to get to her father. Sure, the episode showed that he knew how to seduce a woman, that he could be charming and romantic when he put his mind to it, but in that case it was a means to an end that had nothing to do with sexual gratification.

(I don't think tearing apart Khan based on the plausibility of the Genesis device makes any sense in comparison to all of the other godlike devices and beings that have come and gone in Trek...

Granted, but at least TOS had a mix of plausible, well-researched futurism and ludicrous fantasy. It at least aspired to greater plausibility than most mass-media SF, even though it often fell short of that goal. TMP represented the more realistic side of that duality, drawing on the advice of multiple scientific and technical consultants. But TWOK represented the Trek films' abandonment of even the pretense of making sense, a trend that unfortunately has characterized the entirety of the movie franchise from then on.

So, again, aside from the question of whether TWOK made audiences like Trek more, I do not understand the allegation that it made them see Trek as more respectable, as more adult or intelligent or sophisticated than TOS was. There is nothing about it that is more of those things than TOS was at its best.

And whatever seemed implausible in Khan was retconned in Search for Spock by showing that Genesis wasn't really an achievement by virtue of the use of protomatter. It was a house-of-cards cheat that would fold in on itself. To me, that makes sense.

What's implausible isn't that its effects were impermanent, it was that they were possible in the first place. For one thing, the torpedo being so damn tiny. I read the book before I saw the movie, and I imagined the Genesis torpedo as some enormous missile, for it would have to be in order to have the kind of power to affect a whole planet, right? Then I saw the movie and it was this dinky little thing barely five feet high and with largely hollow innards, and I found that downright risible. Then there's the way it works. It's programmed to transform an existing planet into a new state; how does that translate to creating a planet out of thin nebular gas, a medium it wasn't designed to operate on? That's like expecting a text-editor program to be able to do Photoshop just because you tried to run an image file in it. It should've just done nothing. Plus, where the hell did that sun come from? Are we supposed to believe the torpedo created it too? It's completely inconsistent in-story, and that makes it outright magic. Inventing some nonsense term like "protomatter" and passing it off as an explanation just compounds the implausibility rather than ameliorating it. They might just as well have said it was a magic spell with a hidden curse built in, for all the sense it made.

(Although one thing I will definitely give TSFS is that its portrayal of a planet tearing itself apart was infinitely more plausible than Star Wars's inane destruction-of-Alderaan sequence where an entire immense planet just went up in an abrupt poof of gasoline vapor. If a planet could blow up, it would be a prolonged, gradual process and you'd see molten rock spewing out rather than roiling orange flames. So that's one thing that ILM got very right, a great improvement on their first attempt at planet destruction.)

That transition started in the late 90s with the first dot-com boom and has peaked with Big Bang Theory, which is doing for nerds what The Cosby Show did for blacks.

Is it? The Cosby Show portrayed African-Americans in a very non-stereotypical, naturalistic way. From what I gather, TBBT portrays its "nerd" characters as broad caricatures that many in the fan and intellectual communities find offensive.

 

[Warped9]

...at least TOS had a mix of plausible, well-researched futurism and ludicrous fantasy. It at least aspired to greater plausibility than most mass-media SF, even though it often fell short of that goal. TMP represented the more realistic side of that duality, drawing on the advice of multiple scientific and technical consultants. But TWOK represented the Trek films' abandonment of even the pretense of making sense, a trend that unfortunately has characterized the entirety of the movie franchise from then on.

Yes.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

Another (in my view) is in regard to Shatner's speech pattern. It's been exaggerrated and caricatured over the years to the point of ridiculousness.

Indeed. 99 percent of the time you see someone purportedly imitating Shatner these days, they're actually imitating Kevin Pollack.