The ear slugs in TWOK

[2takesfrakes]

On the huge movie screen, there was just no escaping that moment. All you could do was squirm in your popcorn crumbles on your seat. It never was quite as effective on the small screen.

I only ever saw STAR TREK II on the small screen and the caterpillar crawl those eels made on the actors faces - their own reactions to it - always made me "believe" in that sequence. The Big Ear closeups are unfortunate, though, because suddenly, the eel looks painted and fake, not to mention strangely plump. But the music underscoring this whole affair is very good and you can't help but give them an "A" for effort, here. However, the fact that it's so bloodless, going in, is what really hurts the believability factor. I can tolerate the shortcomings up til that part, but it's so dry and pre-ordained that it almost leaps me out of the movie. Fortunately, everything leading up to that in this scene is exceptional. At first Khan teases it out with the tongs and this rubber monster just grabs a hold of it, right away, so perfectly ... that's some awesome puppetry!

 

[rhubarbodendron]

while these ear crawlies were pretty disgusting, imo the worst thing was Riker eating the mealworms.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Worse than Remmick's explodo-head?

The idea of a crawling insect working its way into your ear canal is unnerving. Its one of man's oldest reality / animal based fears, so TWOK's Ceti creatures played into something audiences could identify with.

 

[Corran Horn]

Worse than Remmick's explodo-head?

explodo-head nothing - that thing was taking up 80% of his chest cavity.

That's worse than an ear slug.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Just for a real-world reference, a woman recently pulled a leech out of her nose after having had it stuck up in there for what I believe was several weeks? Not googling it though...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

IIRC, it wasn't until Terrell killed himself that the other eel crawled out. I always thought that Chekov's eel was a bit 'distressed' at its compadre's death that it sought refuge elsewhere. It was the shock of Terrell's eel-icide that made Chekov's eel amscray.

 

[Shat Happens]

I don't know why I never was particularly scared by Khan's pets. I guess I feel safe when Kirk is around (after his entrance in that movie, calmly riding a pillar of light into chaos and ordering the chaos down like a biblical figure, you knew from the beginning the bad guys -or eels- wouldn't have a chance).

I was VERY scared when I saw the transporter accident in TMP. I was 9 or 10 then.

Remmick's explosion was a bit disturbing. SFX didn't look so bad at the time, to me.

So many years later I don't like any bit the other Khan crushing Marcus' skull and Marcus' leg. That half Klingon in ST:ID seemed out of place for Star Trek too.

EDIT: I forgot the fucking Trills. I hate every DS9 (my least favorite series) episode that features those things. Simbiont my ass.

EDIT 2: Remembered Nero too stuck a slug in Pike's mouth in his movie. That was not convincing: an animal that big entering thru the mouth didn't seem it would be so subtle as to be a vrsion of the Truth Serum. I expected Pike to drown in his blood with a ripped throat, not talk.

 

[Commishsleer]

EDIT: I forgot the fucking Trills. I hate every DS9 (my least favorite series) episode that features those things. Simbiont my ass.

Call me speciesist but the trills worry me too.
The trill symbiotic thing just seems to me to be an advanced species taking over the bodies of select attractive people to live forever and presumably pass on some economic benefits to the less advanced society. Sacrificing individuals for the collective whole.
It didn't seem like a 50/50 thing to me more like a 99/1 thing.

 

[FormerLurker]

I'm firmly convinced there are two host forms for the Trill symbionts, the lumpy ones and the spotted ones. The spotted ones have combined consciousness, while the lumpy ones get taken over completely. The lumpy ones must be some lesser type of Trill 'primate' form, like a chimp to our human, for the symbionts to do this with them. I don't have it all figured out yet.

Oh, and the spotted ones don't admit it that the lumpy ones exist.