What Scene Drives You Crazy

I'm a TOS fanatic. There are very few things I find wrong with the series. However, once in a great while I see a scene and think "What was going through the writer/director's mind???"

My pet peeve....Mark of Gideon. When Spock beams aboard the duplicate Enterprise, he sneaks up on the 2 Gideon goons. Instead of neck pinching both of them, he just neutralizes one and then hurls the other through the air. And the stunt man seems to forget that he should play dead because he wiggles around after landing on the floor. And how does flying through the air knock him out?

 

A security guard who's been hurled to the floor might be thinking, "They don't pay me enough to fight some alien to the death. I'm going to lie here for now and then apply for Disability. This is my ticket out."

 

Yvonne Craig's dance scene in Whom Gods Destroy drives me crazy, but probably not in the way you mean.

 

^ "It is somewhat reminiscent of the dances Vulcan children do in nursery school. Of course, the children are not so well coordinated."

 

Two scenes in on the bridge in WNMHGB:

They are starting to leave the galaxy and the department heads are all standing around obviously not knowing what to do and Kirk is sitting in his command chair looking around like he doesn't know where to look. It plays so awkwardly. This was very early and the director obviously didn't think through the blocking very well; or if he did, he didn't communicate it effectively. The actors all look out to sea.

Gary Mitchell holding Yeoman whats-her-name's hand. I know he's a player, but he's also an officer. I don't buy it.

These probably annoy me mostly because they are the only blemishes in what is otherwise one of the greatest episodes of the series.

 

Spock's horrible comment and leer at Rand at the end of Enemy Within.

 

- The fight scene at the end of Court Martial, in which Shatner's stunt double is blatantly visible for, not just a few shots mind you (as in 'Space Seed', etc.), but almost the entire scene.

- Yeoman Rand tearfully confiding to Kirk that she always wanted him to look at her legs in Miri. Cringey!

- Kirk's anachronistic and uncharacteristic American patriotism at the end of The Omega Glory. The United States wouldn't have existed as a sovereign state for well over a century by the time of Star Trek, and the overt U.S. nationalism firmly dates the episode to the mid-20th Century.

- Most of The Way to Eden.

 

Whenever they say something really sexist or generally horrible, like the Rand comment or the stuff about women not being starship captains.

 

The bit in "All Our Yesterdays" when Spock says his home planet is millions of light years away. The Writer's Guide they had in 1967 clearly defines the galaxy, gives its size in light years, and firmly states that we stay within it. Spock should have said "dozens of light years." That would be about right. Hundreds at most.

 

The big climactic scene in And the Children Shall Lead... Kirk pointing to a transformation into ugliness on the Gorgon's part that he somehow knew was coming before it started, Kirk teaching the kids that he's ugly because he's evil, the Gorgon mouthing *obviously* evil commands to make himself easier to betray because it was the end of the episode... There are bits that make this episode minimally acceptable as Star Trek, but this is the only scene they ever did that just seemed to throw Star Trek and science fiction out the window. It was like a betrayal. Magic, terrible backward ideas, presented to children, Trek misunderstood as a thing for children....

 

Wasn't he already under the influence of time by then? And therefore hyperbole is more acceptable to Vulcans of a long time ago...

 

She had very soft hands.

Damn straight.

 

"The women!!!"

"When I came aboard!!!"

And some of the VERY sloppy editing in the first few shows. I know they were done VERY quickly. but the poor continuity between shots in regards to costumes, or reaction shots taken from totally different episodes (especially of Spock whose hair changed a lot in the first dozen installments) make me rankle a bit. Charlie X and Mudd's Women have some choice goofs in this regard.

I used to imitate that guy as a kid when we had "fake fights" at school. To this day, when I watch that scene, I think of that. As a youngsta, I sued to think "that's how an alien loses a fight."

 

That gorgon scene is a close second for me. Evil things are physically ugly. Ho hum.

 

I was driven crazy by a scene in an episode of Star Trek, I cannot remember which one it was though because I'm CRAZY!

 

If only Orac had worn his visor….

 

The very first time Kirk meets the Gorn face to face in Arena. I swear the guy wearing that suit is laughing at how absurd the whole thing is. His moves are so unnatural for half of the fight scenes also. I still love it though.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say it drives me crazy (no matter how short the drive) but I cringe when Lincoln asks Kirk in Savage Curtain if they still measure time in minutes and he says "we can convert to it".

 

I've heard the theory that the Gorn's fight moves were supposed to be sped up in post production, but weren't for some reason. The guy moves REALLY slowly. Poor dude must have been sweltering inside that suit, though.

 

Most of "Turnabout Intruder" drives me crazy, particularly the sexist stuff and Shatner's portrayal of a crazy female. I don't think he did a bad job...it just really unsettles me.