The Apple
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I always looked forward to this one to show up on reruns. Talos IV had its atmospheric sound caused by the singing plants. I don't know what caused the sound on this planet's jungle (alien cicadas??) but it sure set the mood for an episode full of action and danger.
This episode is just 50/50 with me....I neither like it nor do I hate it. The paper mache Val looked cool when I was a kid, but now I just kind of chuckle at it.
The Apple is pretty good. Raises some interesting questions about Kirk's loose interpretation of the Prime Directive. Which is consistent with his character, tbh. This kind of episode makes the beginning of STID all the more humorous to me.
Along with "The Changeling" and "Obsession," this was one of the worst offenders in treating security guards as disposable cannon fodder, and forgetting all about them for a humorous ending. I'm not crazy about that aspect of these shows.
That said, "The Apple" does have some nice scenes. Nimoy has some good bits, as the OP said. Celeste Yarnall gets to do some karate, and she does a great job of it.
Of course, she had to be a Yeoman. And the idea that she'd be attracted to Chekov never struck me as plausible. She could do a lot better if women were only a third of the crew. Chekov? Really?
On that subject, Chekov is a total scumbag in this episode. Four of his shipmates are dead just now, and the 420 still aboard are likely to die very soon. But this wil leave him in paradise with a girlfriend, so Chekov says "Would that be so werrry bad?"
If the writing was honest and serious, she would have peeled his slimy hands off her and walked away from that skeevy piece of s---, permanently. The whole crew in space is about to be killed and he's thinking about himself.
That said, "The Apple" does have some nice scenes. Nimoy has some good bits, as the OP said. Celeste Yarnall gets to do some karate, and she does a great job of it.
Of course, she had to be a Yeoman. And the idea that she'd be attracted to Chekov never struck me as plausible. She could do a lot better if women were only a third of the crew. Chekov? Really?
On that subject, Chekov is a total scumbag in this episode. Four of his shipmates are dead just now, and the 420 still aboard are likely to die very soon. But this wil leave him in paradise with a girlfriend, so Chekov says "Would that be so werrry bad?"
If the writing was honest and serious, she would have peeled his slimy hands off her and walked away from that skeevy piece of s---, permanently. The whole crew in space is about to be killed and he's thinking about himself.
THE APPLE is a sweet episode! The absolute strangeness of it, the charm of it, everything works. It's the kind of episode I think of, when I hear talk of The Classic Series.
It's odd that they didn't just allow her to be a security guard. This was also a great opportunity for them to use their A&A officer again but I suppose as she couldn't fall in love with a super computer, they couldn't think of anything useful for her to do...
It isn't horrible but it isn't great by any stretch. I was always sort of perplexed and annoyed at Kirk's "firing" of Scotty. How do you fire a commisioned officer, and then just thereafter have him continue to be accountable during sjiop to shore communication. Notable also to me.....the veiled appearance of Detective Ken Hutchinson.....another childhood favorite, sans bell bottoms and blow dried coiff.
Meh.
Whilst I liked the violence in this one, the story wasn't hugely interesting.
Whilst I liked the violence in this one, the story wasn't hugely interesting.
When I was a kid I used to think that Vaal was the result of a centuries before contact with The Gorn! It's got it's merits but for me it's sandwiched between Mirror, Mirror and The Doomsday Machine in transmission order and that's it's biggest memory for me!
JB
JB
They could have filmed a saucer separation scene if they had the money and inclination. They could suspend the detached saucer from wires, and then pull the engineering section backward to show it falling away. The trouble would be to power the saucer's internal lights as a separate unit. Some additional wiring might be needed.
In some ways, the guys shooting Lost in Space fx were a little more ambitious. Remember the close-up of the Space Pod dropping out of the Jupiter 2? That was cool! I would like to have seen an exterior shot of the Enterprise launching a shuttlecraft.
What I would do is: cover the 11-footer's hangar doors with a blue patch and, over that blue area, put a matte shot looking into the Hangar Deck miniature, the one we were always looking out of.
That is essentially what they did to look into the landing bays on Battlestar Galactica (1978), and it was awesome.
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A lot of ppl didn't care for this episode, but it's one of my favorites. Poor Spock took a lot of abuse in this episode - his reactions cracked me up every time.
The way the lightning itself was animated--looked mean!
http://www.stormwise.com/striking.htm
Yes! Vaal was COOL!!!
It was a JOKE. Black humor. Scotty isn't a civilian, Kirk isn't his employer. If Scotty fails, he won't lose his job, he'll be dead.
A joke? Where did you come up with that?
Always been obvious to me it's a joke. Scotty as well as 400+ other people are facing dying a horrible death as the ship burns up in the atmosphere. Scotty losing his job is the last thing on his or Kirk's mind at that moment. Gallows humor.
Yeah it's definitely intended as a joke. I'm not sure how it could be interpreted otherwise.
It's hard for people who aren't in professions where life and death are faced every day to understand this kind of joking. Laughter/humor is a release valve in this case. I only understand it because I've watched shows and movies that show both sides of the debate; characters either making bad, inappropriate, puns with a wicked sense of humor that the outsider doesn't get, or one of the insiders/outsiders making a joke about something that none of the others find funny.
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