Wasn't this Spock's thing whenever they were in disguise? Wasn't this just one of Spock's quirks? No matter how brilliant Spock was, he wasn't infallible.
TOS Rewatch
- Thread starter Grendelsbayne
- Start date
When universal translators are supposed to almost effortless handle a multitude of languages, one that can't understand Chekov's accent may be funny in that movie, but it's not very realistic. If his accent lessened in time in the series, I would think that would be a realistic occurrence of one immersed in a place where the language was spoken differently than at home.
Get away with it? This is a biological compulsion more than a religion, its embarrassing elements intentionally mostly hidden by the ceremony, and certainly one that most Vulcans would love to get away with if they could, so unless you think they were prepared to logically require Kirk's death, it seems far better to let it slide and not talk about it too much. And you're assuming T'Pau didn't guess what McCoy was doing already, which she may have. But even if she didn't, to seek redress for saving a man's life would be illogical.
T'Pau: TOS and Enterprise
Season Two begins with half a dozen excellent episodes up front - they brought their A game. The first six are 7 out of 10 or higher on my scale. I dunno - maybe since most of their sets were already paid for, they could start spending money on other things, like better scripts and writers.
Amok Time
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"Amok" means, "frenzied or out of control," as in "to run amok," which Mr. Spock certainly is here as he enters the Pon Farr, a 7-year cycle that sparks the male Vulcan's mating urges (maybe the female's urges, too, but if so, it seems less violent). Despite how old Vulcans can get and his stint under Captain Pike, Spock is actually quite young yet (under 40 as a guess, and actually 37 by calculation of given dates). While this happens every 7 years, once they are old enough, this may be his his first Pon Farr (he is, after all, still not really married so much as betrothed, despite calling T'Pring his wife - Dum dum daaa). Vulcan females may or may not only mate once every 7 years, but given their longevity, their child bearing years may extend for a dozen decades or more, unlike a human's 2 or 3, so they could easily have 15 to 20 kids in their lifetime, for all we know, and one should not think once every 7 years would result in low Vulcan populations. On the other hand, just because a mating drive grips them every 7 years is no reason to think they only have sexual relations once every 7 years - they may have sex as frequently as humans or even more so. I think as much is said in a DS9 episode, but don't quote me on that.
The Nurse Chapel/Spock relationship, such as it is, is shown here again, and Spock hurls plomeek soup after her fleeing form, splattering it against the bulkhead, and, I'm told, the remains of which can be seen in several episodes, like they don't clean up the ship that often.
Sadly, Spock pulls a Han Solo type mistake here, stating they would only lose 2.8 light days of time (or something like that) diverting to Vulcan - but a light day is a measure of distance and not time. Obviously, his mind is a bit scrambled due to the influence of the Pon Farr, so such mistakes might be understandable.
A new starting sequence features the singing of a soprano's voice (and a percussion instrument), and DeForest Kelley's name is added as Doctor McCoy.
And we see Kirk climbing up a ladder between decks, so that's interesting.
This episode heavily features Vulcan culture, for which they have new "Vulcan mysticism" music (played for Spock's contemplative thinking, or mind melds, etc. later in the series), some Vulcan words, traditional Vulcan weapons, a Vulcan harp, and Vulcan background information that makes this episode a must see event to understand Vulcans, or Spock, and his home planet. The sky is red, but as I understand it now, it's supposed to be part of a trinary system, so there are three suns – a "normal" one, probably, and a white dwarf and a red dwarf, so what color the sky may be could depend on the time of day or the season or even if there has been a recent dust storm.
Other new music is the battle music, which will be used more than once during this series, and will often be parodied in other series (my favorite is The Cable Guy).
The new CGI shots, in addition to some impressive close ups of the ship, also show a beautiful desert planet with a polar ice cap, and a long shot of the ceremonial area, and a circular Vulcan city in the background, that actually replaces some footage instead of just doctoring it, which all adds a great deal of awe to the episode, IMO.
T'Pring (age 7) also gets a makeover, the bland mono-colored background replaced with an improved more detailed background.
Of course they only bothered to makeup one ear, but that was enough for the shot.
The differences in about 5 minutes.
We see the Vulcan salute for the first time in this episode, and hear the expression, "Live Long and Prosper" for the first time, too.
Chekov also makes his introduction to the series, sporting a Beatles-like wig for a few episodes until his own hair grows out enough. His introduction gives the series a Russian presence, who were, after all, first in the space race in many areas, and a Davy Jones (The Monkeys) type character to better interest the younger female audience. Though he's an ensign, I didn't notice any rank insignia, which I think should be one broken stripe on his sleeves. Though Spock was already a full commander, many others went up a bit in rank - Scotty (mentioned, not shown in this episode) and McCoy are Lt. Commanders by the second season, I think.
Lawrence Montaigne makes his second appearance in Trek: here, as the Vulcan, Stonn.
But we saw him earlier as one of my favorite Romulans, Decius.
Though he's not wearing one in this episode, they reuse the Romulan helmets to cover up the fact most of them aren't in makeup ears, which took too long and cost too much to make for every Vulcan or Romulan.
It should be noted that Lawrence Montaigne made such a great Vulcan/Romulan, there was some talk he'd replace Leonard Nimoy as Spock in the second season if Nimoy didn't wish to continue the role of Spock. Lucky for us, Nimoy carried on.
Arlene Martel is this episode's babe, and not a yeoman, but she is smoking hot (though I find her more beautiful in other series).
The CGI added to this episode's rating of 7 out of 10, so I might give it a 7.5 out of 10 now. It's a great episode, good acting, great story, good background, great music, and now some even better scenes.
And so the second season is off and running.
The Nurse Chapel/Spock relationship, such as it is, is shown here again, and Spock hurls plomeek soup after her fleeing form, splattering it against the bulkhead, and, I'm told, the remains of which can be seen in several episodes, like they don't clean up the ship that often.
Sadly, Spock pulls a Han Solo type mistake here, stating they would only lose 2.8 light days of time (or something like that) diverting to Vulcan - but a light day is a measure of distance and not time. Obviously, his mind is a bit scrambled due to the influence of the Pon Farr, so such mistakes might be understandable.
A new starting sequence features the singing of a soprano's voice (and a percussion instrument), and DeForest Kelley's name is added as Doctor McCoy.
And we see Kirk climbing up a ladder between decks, so that's interesting.
This episode heavily features Vulcan culture, for which they have new "Vulcan mysticism" music (played for Spock's contemplative thinking, or mind melds, etc. later in the series), some Vulcan words, traditional Vulcan weapons, a Vulcan harp, and Vulcan background information that makes this episode a must see event to understand Vulcans, or Spock, and his home planet. The sky is red, but as I understand it now, it's supposed to be part of a trinary system, so there are three suns – a "normal" one, probably, and a white dwarf and a red dwarf, so what color the sky may be could depend on the time of day or the season or even if there has been a recent dust storm.
Other new music is the battle music, which will be used more than once during this series, and will often be parodied in other series (my favorite is The Cable Guy).
The new CGI shots, in addition to some impressive close ups of the ship, also show a beautiful desert planet with a polar ice cap, and a long shot of the ceremonial area, and a circular Vulcan city in the background, that actually replaces some footage instead of just doctoring it, which all adds a great deal of awe to the episode, IMO.
T'Pring (age 7) also gets a makeover, the bland mono-colored background replaced with an improved more detailed background.
Of course they only bothered to makeup one ear, but that was enough for the shot.
The differences in about 5 minutes.
We see the Vulcan salute for the first time in this episode, and hear the expression, "Live Long and Prosper" for the first time, too.
Chekov also makes his introduction to the series, sporting a Beatles-like wig for a few episodes until his own hair grows out enough. His introduction gives the series a Russian presence, who were, after all, first in the space race in many areas, and a Davy Jones (The Monkeys) type character to better interest the younger female audience. Though he's an ensign, I didn't notice any rank insignia, which I think should be one broken stripe on his sleeves. Though Spock was already a full commander, many others went up a bit in rank - Scotty (mentioned, not shown in this episode) and McCoy are Lt. Commanders by the second season, I think.
Lawrence Montaigne makes his second appearance in Trek: here, as the Vulcan, Stonn.
But we saw him earlier as one of my favorite Romulans, Decius.
Though he's not wearing one in this episode, they reuse the Romulan helmets to cover up the fact most of them aren't in makeup ears, which took too long and cost too much to make for every Vulcan or Romulan.
It should be noted that Lawrence Montaigne made such a great Vulcan/Romulan, there was some talk he'd replace Leonard Nimoy as Spock in the second season if Nimoy didn't wish to continue the role of Spock. Lucky for us, Nimoy carried on.
Arlene Martel is this episode's babe, and not a yeoman, but she is smoking hot (though I find her more beautiful in other series).
The CGI added to this episode's rating of 7 out of 10, so I might give it a 7.5 out of 10 now. It's a great episode, good acting, great story, good background, great music, and now some even better scenes.
And so the second season is off and running.
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I'm not sure they mentioned just how large an area she's talking about, but Trek does have a higher density of intelligent life than current scientific theories estimate. Still, I wouldn't say they expect "most" systems to have intelligent life, but it wouldn't be unusual at all, IMO, if nearly every system at least had some life since there may be nothing particularly special about it. For billions of years we've had bacteria and simple life here, and for hundreds of millions things like the dinnosaurs, and all that long while none of it intelligent enough to attract extraterrestrial interest with radio waves or the like, let alone warp drive or subspace radio. It's just he majority of the stories simply center around those few places with intelligent life, which would be far rarer.
"Bore" could be tedious or unwelcome, like Pan played tricks or practical jokes on Apollo, so he didn't want Spock around to remind him of that.
Also, while it’s not explicit, Kirk's speech about duty to humanity might be read as a duty to the Federation of Planets and the mortals who make it up. "Humanity" and "human rights" may by this time have come to mean far more than it does today when, for all we know, we are the only sentient life form in all existence. Then we mere mortals having to stick together, flesh to flesh, isn't so alarming, or necessarily as racist or the species equivalent as it might sound.
Who Mourns For Adonais?
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What a wonderful episode - thought provoking, beautiful, an exciting confrontation, and a somewhat sad ending to a proud being.
The episode starts out with some noticeable shots at professional women - a product of the times in the late 60's - suggesting they're just looking to get married and settle down or earn their MRS degree, or it's only a matter of time before they do, so that's why you can't count on them to stick with the job. This sentiment is shown at the expense of Lt. Carolyn Palamas (played by Leslie Parrish), where it's also suggested she makes silly mistakes, like where she claims the lack of intelligent life in the system "bugs" the percentages, and Kirk repeats this line with a bemused expression on his face but does not correct her. Sadly, the Blu-Ray CC reads "bucks" the percentages, which would be the correct term, though the Netflix CC "correctly" relays her mistake and says "bugs". Later, Apollo even claims she seems wise "for a woman." The misogynistic nature of the 60's, I guess, though that one might also be a realistic portrayal of the classical Greek culture's attitude for all I know. Spock's estimations of Uhura's qualifications and skills, however, perhaps make up for it.
Scotty has the hots for this episode's babe, Carolyn Palamas, and who can blame him?
Leslie Parrish is beautiful, such as here where she plays Daisy Mae (Li'l Abner)
One of the sexiest outfits on Trek, IMO - I understand it had to be taped in places just to keep it on.
Not only did the network reuse the actress, but also they recycled the outfit, too, for an episode of Mannix.
Michael Forrest (Apollo) wasn't as happy with his outfit, and some blooper footage has him jokingly effeminately dancing in it while Shatner rolls his eyes and Kelly blows Michael a kiss.
We never see Lt. Palamas again, though it's suggested in some fiction Apollo impregnated her, and I even heard it was supposed to be implied she was raped during that one scene after she spurned Apollo and he comes down out of the clouds upon her, but that was only suggested and never shown, and nothing is canon along those lines, anyway, though it's certainly almost typical of a mythological story about those Greek gods and the things they'd do with mortal women. Frankly, I don't see how he had the time during that scene since it moved along so quickly and Kirk attacked, but she may have willingly had sex with him earlier. She did claim to love him. That seemed pretty darn fast, and considering how he was tossing Scotty around, it didn't seem that realistic to me, either. But how many women can claim to have that kind of opportunity with a God, no less? Anyway, we only know she apparently left after the episode since we never see her again, or see Scotty involved with her or mentioning her again (though it's just possible she simply remains below decks doing her work, or Scotty dumped her since she did so easily fall for another . . . being, I guess, instead of him, despite what he tried to do for her). Of course Scotty needed to be infatuated so such a well-seasoned veteran could act so rashly and get clocked by Apollo two or three times, which were some wonderful and spectacular scenes.
The re-mastered scenes were nice, with phasers fired on the temple, Apollo's hand grasping the Enterprise (which I'm told is green now, though why it is more out of focus escapes me), the planet, and the ship.
More than 4 minutes worth of stuff this time.
My favorite part is when the Enterprise attacks and Apollo returns fire. Epic. The ship hangs in space, taking the punishment, Spock calmly in command during the strikes on the vessel, Sulu at fire control unflinchingly following Spock's orders, others manning the shields, and Apollo giving it his all to stop the ship. But we puny humans whipped the God in a fair fight. Glorious.
We see more of the new character, the 22-year-old Chekov, and how the Russians try to take credit for being first in many things, like the Cheshire cat. It's funny.
Naturally, I felt this could have been resolved more amicably since earth sports lots of would-be colonists just waiting for a chance to live a more simple, agrarian life free of all the high tech influences in the 23rd century, and who wouldn't mind one bit gathering more than a few laurel leaves. A little talk and I feel pretty certain Apollo would have been quite happy to have a few hundred/thousand willing subjects from Earth instead of forcing a few hundred unwilling ones, but no - he had to be a hard ass and impatient, and Kirk had to keep his knee unbent at all costs. McCoy mentions Scotty doesn't believe in Gods. Typical attitude, perhaps, though Kirk feels 'the one" is quite adequate, which suggests he or many others still adhere, however strongly or loosely, to monotheism. But religion of other planets and civilizations isn't discussed in too much detail in Trek, though DS9 does give it more treatment than other Trek series.
This is an amazing idea that highly advanced alien beings could be the basis of classical Greek Mythology, though the way they speak of Agamemnon, Odysseus, Hercules and others, it's almost like they weren't fictional or mythological characters, but real historical personages. Maybe in that fictional universe, they were as real as Kirk. But Carolyn does study myths, so there were taken as fictional or mythical.
Interesting Facts: The tractor beam can be made to repel as a repulsor ray. Why that ability is quickly available and standard in TOS but Wesley Crusher has to figure it out in TNG, or the chief engineer then would need weeks to lay out the circuits for that seems inconsistent, but maybe there's a way to explain it.
I gave it an 8 before - maybe a little high, but with the new effects, I keep it there and I really think it deserves it. I really loved this episode in the way it suggested what a God might be, or what it took to be a god, and how such beings not only could be taken as gods, but could hardly be taken as anything else by our ancestors. The notion all myths have their basis in facts is a good one, but to find such a fact would be quite epic. You really do have to wonder exactly how such a discovery would be taken back on Earth, or even might feel (if you're the sort to naturally distrust authority) that StarFleet command would sit on that information for years or even decades or more and not tell society in general about it.
And Star Trek Continues follows up with a sequel, Pilgrim of Eternity. If you haven't seen any Trek fan films, STC is one of the better series and will have just under a dozen episodes when it wraps up a little while from now, and that episode is its first one. I don't think it's canon, but some of them are quite good.
Or for those who just like a good laugh with a Monty Python Parody, there's always this:
And A StarTrek Photostrip Cartoon, As Well.
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/phototrek.288654/page-5
The episode starts out with some noticeable shots at professional women - a product of the times in the late 60's - suggesting they're just looking to get married and settle down or earn their MRS degree, or it's only a matter of time before they do, so that's why you can't count on them to stick with the job. This sentiment is shown at the expense of Lt. Carolyn Palamas (played by Leslie Parrish), where it's also suggested she makes silly mistakes, like where she claims the lack of intelligent life in the system "bugs" the percentages, and Kirk repeats this line with a bemused expression on his face but does not correct her. Sadly, the Blu-Ray CC reads "bucks" the percentages, which would be the correct term, though the Netflix CC "correctly" relays her mistake and says "bugs". Later, Apollo even claims she seems wise "for a woman." The misogynistic nature of the 60's, I guess, though that one might also be a realistic portrayal of the classical Greek culture's attitude for all I know. Spock's estimations of Uhura's qualifications and skills, however, perhaps make up for it.
Scotty has the hots for this episode's babe, Carolyn Palamas, and who can blame him?
Leslie Parrish is beautiful, such as here where she plays Daisy Mae (Li'l Abner)
One of the sexiest outfits on Trek, IMO - I understand it had to be taped in places just to keep it on.
Not only did the network reuse the actress, but also they recycled the outfit, too, for an episode of Mannix.
Michael Forrest (Apollo) wasn't as happy with his outfit, and some blooper footage has him jokingly effeminately dancing in it while Shatner rolls his eyes and Kelly blows Michael a kiss.
We never see Lt. Palamas again, though it's suggested in some fiction Apollo impregnated her, and I even heard it was supposed to be implied she was raped during that one scene after she spurned Apollo and he comes down out of the clouds upon her, but that was only suggested and never shown, and nothing is canon along those lines, anyway, though it's certainly almost typical of a mythological story about those Greek gods and the things they'd do with mortal women. Frankly, I don't see how he had the time during that scene since it moved along so quickly and Kirk attacked, but she may have willingly had sex with him earlier. She did claim to love him. That seemed pretty darn fast, and considering how he was tossing Scotty around, it didn't seem that realistic to me, either. But how many women can claim to have that kind of opportunity with a God, no less? Anyway, we only know she apparently left after the episode since we never see her again, or see Scotty involved with her or mentioning her again (though it's just possible she simply remains below decks doing her work, or Scotty dumped her since she did so easily fall for another . . . being, I guess, instead of him, despite what he tried to do for her). Of course Scotty needed to be infatuated so such a well-seasoned veteran could act so rashly and get clocked by Apollo two or three times, which were some wonderful and spectacular scenes.
The re-mastered scenes were nice, with phasers fired on the temple, Apollo's hand grasping the Enterprise (which I'm told is green now, though why it is more out of focus escapes me), the planet, and the ship.
More than 4 minutes worth of stuff this time.
My favorite part is when the Enterprise attacks and Apollo returns fire. Epic. The ship hangs in space, taking the punishment, Spock calmly in command during the strikes on the vessel, Sulu at fire control unflinchingly following Spock's orders, others manning the shields, and Apollo giving it his all to stop the ship. But we puny humans whipped the God in a fair fight. Glorious.
We see more of the new character, the 22-year-old Chekov, and how the Russians try to take credit for being first in many things, like the Cheshire cat. It's funny.
Naturally, I felt this could have been resolved more amicably since earth sports lots of would-be colonists just waiting for a chance to live a more simple, agrarian life free of all the high tech influences in the 23rd century, and who wouldn't mind one bit gathering more than a few laurel leaves. A little talk and I feel pretty certain Apollo would have been quite happy to have a few hundred/thousand willing subjects from Earth instead of forcing a few hundred unwilling ones, but no - he had to be a hard ass and impatient, and Kirk had to keep his knee unbent at all costs. McCoy mentions Scotty doesn't believe in Gods. Typical attitude, perhaps, though Kirk feels 'the one" is quite adequate, which suggests he or many others still adhere, however strongly or loosely, to monotheism. But religion of other planets and civilizations isn't discussed in too much detail in Trek, though DS9 does give it more treatment than other Trek series.
This is an amazing idea that highly advanced alien beings could be the basis of classical Greek Mythology, though the way they speak of Agamemnon, Odysseus, Hercules and others, it's almost like they weren't fictional or mythological characters, but real historical personages. Maybe in that fictional universe, they were as real as Kirk. But Carolyn does study myths, so there were taken as fictional or mythical.
Interesting Facts: The tractor beam can be made to repel as a repulsor ray. Why that ability is quickly available and standard in TOS but Wesley Crusher has to figure it out in TNG, or the chief engineer then would need weeks to lay out the circuits for that seems inconsistent, but maybe there's a way to explain it.
I gave it an 8 before - maybe a little high, but with the new effects, I keep it there and I really think it deserves it. I really loved this episode in the way it suggested what a God might be, or what it took to be a god, and how such beings not only could be taken as gods, but could hardly be taken as anything else by our ancestors. The notion all myths have their basis in facts is a good one, but to find such a fact would be quite epic. You really do have to wonder exactly how such a discovery would be taken back on Earth, or even might feel (if you're the sort to naturally distrust authority) that StarFleet command would sit on that information for years or even decades or more and not tell society in general about it.
And Star Trek Continues follows up with a sequel, Pilgrim of Eternity. If you haven't seen any Trek fan films, STC is one of the better series and will have just under a dozen episodes when it wraps up a little while from now, and that episode is its first one. I don't think it's canon, but some of them are quite good.
Or for those who just like a good laugh with a Monty Python Parody, there's always this:
And A StarTrek Photostrip Cartoon, As Well.
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/phototrek.288654/page-5
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The studio, not the network. Star Trek and Mannix were both Desilu productions, but on different networks (NBC and CBS, respectively).
IIRC, an earlier version of the script did, in fact, end with Carolyn Palamas pregnant with Apollo's child.
Apollo's hand was green in the original FX as well.
Yes, yes, the studio, the very art of conservation of limited capital.
Once we make a mint on this film, we'll turn suddenly back upon our investors, repackage it, and make it into a Star Trek episode.
Gosh, you're pretty.
I'm sure there are many subtle shades of green or red that will forever be lost on the likes of me and about 8% of all guys this side of the world. It is the most common form of colorblindness. I do wonder about some poor color choices some professional makes in other areas, considering how large a percentage that is, but for special effects, there's no real helping it. A lighter green hue, a sunburned person, a blush, it's all mostly lost on us.
The Changeling
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This episode was so good, they made it twice.
Well, this was said of Star Trek: The Motion Picture - aka - Star Trek: Where Nomad Has Gone Before.
Unfortunately, you have to overlook some inconsistent and meaningless numbers that are tossed around in the beginning since they don't hold up well with other Trek lore and are, quite frankly, unbelievable. For example, the fact Nomad is a scant 90,000 kilometers away, yet is firing energy bolts at warp 15 that take quite a long while to travel that insignificantly small distance. (Are there some weird relativistic time dilation effects going on here?) Or just the fact they have warp 15 and later warp 10 - speeds which are theoretically impossible on the warp scale in "normal" space, though their subspace tech obviously already operates at ultra warp speeds - this is not that.
Then there's the huge item of each energy bolt being the equivalent of 90 photon torpedoes, yet the Enterprise could take 3 more of those - that's 360 total torpedoes! No way. To make it worse, they shoot Nomad once - just once - and when it absorbs the energy of a single torpedo, they think that's incredible and simply unbelievable. What in the universe could do that - despite having done 90 times better themselves already. They wanted impressive numbers, though, and didn't seem to care if they made sense or not elsewhere. Also, while the first bolt rocked the ship to and fro (for a jolly good teaser) subsequent bolts didn't seem to do nearly as much. I guess they adjusted their shields or their inertial dampeners a bit, or Scotty's diversion of warp engine power to the shields did a lot more good than Spock's estimate (unless Spock already assumed Scotty would do that long before he did it). And again, with so much time in 3D space, they should have been able to sidestep those bolts. Or is that another relativistic effect, and it just seems longer on that axis, but step left or right or on a different axis and time dilation is no longer your friend, so what seems like half a minute is but a fraction of a real second? I wonder if I tried to work that out if it would hold up, or I'm just confused? No matter.
As a retcon, I assume Spock misspoke and their shields didn't "absorb" the energy of 90 photon torpedoes from each bolt, but did its job, which is absorbed what they couldn't redirect around the ship. After all, most of that would pass the ship and not just collapse in on it, so Spock meant to say those bolts had that much energy, but the shields only had to absorb a small fraction of that while the rest was pushed to the sides and around the ship. It still lowered the shield strength by 20% each hit, so that's a lot. However, Nomad did apparently absorb the FULL power of the photon torpedo, apart from the flash of light, and that is quite frankly incredible (perhaps partially due to the size to energy ratio).
Then, naturally, there's the problem of how an Earth probe could get that far out into space. Again, the vast distances of interstellar space are either ignored or underestimated. For something launched in 2002 and that was supposed to be an interstellar probe, it might have been assumed to have warp drive - but later, they adopt the notion human civilization didn't obtain warp capability until 2063 - about 61 years after the launch of the Nomad probe. Thus, the Nomad probe would have been technologically incapable of carrying out its stated interstellar mission, to seek out life in other stellar systems. One would also hope the other, the alien probe, Tan Ru - was from a nearby civilization, but I guess that's not a necessity - we sure never encounter a nearby civilization so powerful that their mere probes command that kind of energy (but hey, maybe it was also sent back in time and not just space, and Nomad first went to Tan Ru's point of origin and sterilized that, so when and if the Federation ever comes across it, it's just a dead civilization. Too bad. Tan Ru sure was incredibly powerful - too powerful, which seems weird due to the nature of its mission - collecting and sterilizing soil samples. How powerful do you have to be to do that? At least for Star Trek: The Motion Picture they corrected these flaws and made the story and V'Ger's goals more believable, but even then you have to accept a black hole did something that would require a worm hole to do, so we again should probably assume Decker was wrong and meant Voyager encountered a worm hole, and maybe Nomad did, too, after it was presumed destroyed by a "meteor" collision. OTOH, I think I read what we, today, call a black hole, isn't what they call a black hole 300 years from now, since that term will later cover a larger range of stellar conditions and phenomena than just a singularity. But then they don't know the difference between a meteor or a meteoroid, either, so what can you expect?
Then there's Uhura - singing "Beyond Antares," who gets her mind wiped clean by Nomad. This must have been another incorrect assessment of the damage done - otherwise there's no real coming back from that. So, we'll assume Nomad didn't wipe out her memories but temporarily interrupted Uhura's ability to access them. Otherwise, her childhood memories and identity and even her native language would be forever gone, and it would take a hell of a lot longer than a few days to reeducate her for StarFleet service. Sure, I suppose future teaching and learning techniques may be extraordinary, and sometimes I think they must be, but this is inconsistent with the years of training necessary at the academy and other things - and also the old school method Nurse Chapel was using to teach Uhura how to read English - and that was after she had already taught Uhura her native Swahili, we assume. Weird stuff going on there, unless they were just reconnecting the neural pathways to the still existing memories, so we'll go with that. Or maybe since the transporter beams your memories with you (it's a good bit a tech) they could reconfigure Uhura's memories to the last time she transported so she'd only lose a little bit of time (but let's not go there – we really, really, should not go there). Obviously, I don't fully understand transporter technology, either.
Standard issue sexist joke about women is given - they are a mass of conflicting impulses. Ha ha ha, the 60's were a hoot.
It's interesting that Spock can mind-meld with a machine - I guess it just takes a sufficiently complex level of sophistication to qualify for a "mind," or "living," or a "soul," or however you might wish to describe it - and I don't fully understand Vulcan mysticism, either.
So, Nomad wiped out 4 billion lives that we know of (in one stellar system that had 4 inhabited planets, even the latter part of that statement seems unlikely, but I guess it could happen), and probably many more civilizations before they encountered it. Nomad killed 4 red shirts (at least two of which were lieutenants, maybe more, but I didn't take note). This is mostly Kirk's fault, IMO, since he should have better informed the security teams phasers were useless and just trying them would just get them killed. And despite that, it doesn't seem to bother him as much as some other deaths. Maybe saving the Earth makes it seem all worth it. Probably when he sits down and has time to and has to write up the reports and the letters to their families, it'll hit him harder. Let's hope.
Scotty is killed and Doctor McCoy proclaims, "He's dead, Jim," after one of the best stunt flips on the bridge that I can recall, as Scott's body-double sails over the railing after Nomad zaps him - it was pretty cool. Alas, why Scotty deserves the "non-disintegration" form of death ray but other redshirts get the full treatment, I can't say for sure. Maybe because Scotty was actually touching Nomad's screens, so less force was used to prevent blowback on Nomad, which was still more than sufficient for the job.
The new effects are there, as always - new ship shots, new Nomad bolts and its final destruction, but nothing extraordinary. Better, yes, maybe even a lot better, but nothing to improve the overall story.
Kirk uses logic to best a machine again - he does this 4 or 5 times in TOS, but I always appreciate it, and here, though Spock compliments him, he also insults him by saying he didn't think the captain had it in him, which is a pretty funny delivery.
Of course one might wonder WHY, once Nomad allowed them to beam it aboard, they didn't just fail to rematerialize it and just scatter its energy around. Problem solved. Maybe Nomad had a way to prevent that - like its own systems to complete transport. I don't fully understand transporter technology, either. It might be the case events are more simultaneous than often depicted.
Vic Perrin supplies the voice for Nomad, but we've already heard him as a Metron, and we’ll later see him the next episode, Mirror, Mirror as Tharn and Tharn's evil twin, though they don't really seem to be opposites for some reason.
He was also the voice of the evil Dr. Zin in the 1960s cartoon, Jonny Quest, but I don't really see the resemblance.
On second thought . . .
I had given this episode an 8 out of 10 before for sheer excitement, but it's filled with so many silly numbers and mistakes and improbable circumstances to stupid actions, so I dropped it to 7 out of 10. Still, with improved effects and the fact most people won't know or care how bad those numbers are, for most viewers it would still be an 8 out of 10 since it's exciting and gripping, thought provoking, and we humans beat the machine again, so that's always nice. Too bad it was mostly due to dumb luck and the coincidence of Kirk's name sounding similar to Nomad's creator's name that even gave them a chance. If any other StarShip encountered Nomad, they'd have been dead before they could even figure out who or what killed them, and Earth would be gone. So just know, even though Kirk is one in a million, and perhaps more, and the youngest guy to make captain of a starship at that time, IIRC, it's not just his skill, but a lot of dumb luck. Is it any wonder so many other starships just get destroyed or lose their whole crews in the first three years of this mission?
Well, this was said of Star Trek: The Motion Picture - aka - Star Trek: Where Nomad Has Gone Before.
Unfortunately, you have to overlook some inconsistent and meaningless numbers that are tossed around in the beginning since they don't hold up well with other Trek lore and are, quite frankly, unbelievable. For example, the fact Nomad is a scant 90,000 kilometers away, yet is firing energy bolts at warp 15 that take quite a long while to travel that insignificantly small distance. (Are there some weird relativistic time dilation effects going on here?) Or just the fact they have warp 15 and later warp 10 - speeds which are theoretically impossible on the warp scale in "normal" space, though their subspace tech obviously already operates at ultra warp speeds - this is not that.
Then there's the huge item of each energy bolt being the equivalent of 90 photon torpedoes, yet the Enterprise could take 3 more of those - that's 360 total torpedoes! No way. To make it worse, they shoot Nomad once - just once - and when it absorbs the energy of a single torpedo, they think that's incredible and simply unbelievable. What in the universe could do that - despite having done 90 times better themselves already. They wanted impressive numbers, though, and didn't seem to care if they made sense or not elsewhere. Also, while the first bolt rocked the ship to and fro (for a jolly good teaser) subsequent bolts didn't seem to do nearly as much. I guess they adjusted their shields or their inertial dampeners a bit, or Scotty's diversion of warp engine power to the shields did a lot more good than Spock's estimate (unless Spock already assumed Scotty would do that long before he did it). And again, with so much time in 3D space, they should have been able to sidestep those bolts. Or is that another relativistic effect, and it just seems longer on that axis, but step left or right or on a different axis and time dilation is no longer your friend, so what seems like half a minute is but a fraction of a real second? I wonder if I tried to work that out if it would hold up, or I'm just confused? No matter.
As a retcon, I assume Spock misspoke and their shields didn't "absorb" the energy of 90 photon torpedoes from each bolt, but did its job, which is absorbed what they couldn't redirect around the ship. After all, most of that would pass the ship and not just collapse in on it, so Spock meant to say those bolts had that much energy, but the shields only had to absorb a small fraction of that while the rest was pushed to the sides and around the ship. It still lowered the shield strength by 20% each hit, so that's a lot. However, Nomad did apparently absorb the FULL power of the photon torpedo, apart from the flash of light, and that is quite frankly incredible (perhaps partially due to the size to energy ratio).
Then, naturally, there's the problem of how an Earth probe could get that far out into space. Again, the vast distances of interstellar space are either ignored or underestimated. For something launched in 2002 and that was supposed to be an interstellar probe, it might have been assumed to have warp drive - but later, they adopt the notion human civilization didn't obtain warp capability until 2063 - about 61 years after the launch of the Nomad probe. Thus, the Nomad probe would have been technologically incapable of carrying out its stated interstellar mission, to seek out life in other stellar systems. One would also hope the other, the alien probe, Tan Ru - was from a nearby civilization, but I guess that's not a necessity - we sure never encounter a nearby civilization so powerful that their mere probes command that kind of energy (but hey, maybe it was also sent back in time and not just space, and Nomad first went to Tan Ru's point of origin and sterilized that, so when and if the Federation ever comes across it, it's just a dead civilization. Too bad. Tan Ru sure was incredibly powerful - too powerful, which seems weird due to the nature of its mission - collecting and sterilizing soil samples. How powerful do you have to be to do that? At least for Star Trek: The Motion Picture they corrected these flaws and made the story and V'Ger's goals more believable, but even then you have to accept a black hole did something that would require a worm hole to do, so we again should probably assume Decker was wrong and meant Voyager encountered a worm hole, and maybe Nomad did, too, after it was presumed destroyed by a "meteor" collision. OTOH, I think I read what we, today, call a black hole, isn't what they call a black hole 300 years from now, since that term will later cover a larger range of stellar conditions and phenomena than just a singularity. But then they don't know the difference between a meteor or a meteoroid, either, so what can you expect?
Then there's Uhura - singing "Beyond Antares," who gets her mind wiped clean by Nomad. This must have been another incorrect assessment of the damage done - otherwise there's no real coming back from that. So, we'll assume Nomad didn't wipe out her memories but temporarily interrupted Uhura's ability to access them. Otherwise, her childhood memories and identity and even her native language would be forever gone, and it would take a hell of a lot longer than a few days to reeducate her for StarFleet service. Sure, I suppose future teaching and learning techniques may be extraordinary, and sometimes I think they must be, but this is inconsistent with the years of training necessary at the academy and other things - and also the old school method Nurse Chapel was using to teach Uhura how to read English - and that was after she had already taught Uhura her native Swahili, we assume. Weird stuff going on there, unless they were just reconnecting the neural pathways to the still existing memories, so we'll go with that. Or maybe since the transporter beams your memories with you (it's a good bit a tech) they could reconfigure Uhura's memories to the last time she transported so she'd only lose a little bit of time (but let's not go there – we really, really, should not go there). Obviously, I don't fully understand transporter technology, either.
Standard issue sexist joke about women is given - they are a mass of conflicting impulses. Ha ha ha, the 60's were a hoot.
It's interesting that Spock can mind-meld with a machine - I guess it just takes a sufficiently complex level of sophistication to qualify for a "mind," or "living," or a "soul," or however you might wish to describe it - and I don't fully understand Vulcan mysticism, either.
So, Nomad wiped out 4 billion lives that we know of (in one stellar system that had 4 inhabited planets, even the latter part of that statement seems unlikely, but I guess it could happen), and probably many more civilizations before they encountered it. Nomad killed 4 red shirts (at least two of which were lieutenants, maybe more, but I didn't take note). This is mostly Kirk's fault, IMO, since he should have better informed the security teams phasers were useless and just trying them would just get them killed. And despite that, it doesn't seem to bother him as much as some other deaths. Maybe saving the Earth makes it seem all worth it. Probably when he sits down and has time to and has to write up the reports and the letters to their families, it'll hit him harder. Let's hope.
Scotty is killed and Doctor McCoy proclaims, "He's dead, Jim," after one of the best stunt flips on the bridge that I can recall, as Scott's body-double sails over the railing after Nomad zaps him - it was pretty cool. Alas, why Scotty deserves the "non-disintegration" form of death ray but other redshirts get the full treatment, I can't say for sure. Maybe because Scotty was actually touching Nomad's screens, so less force was used to prevent blowback on Nomad, which was still more than sufficient for the job.
The new effects are there, as always - new ship shots, new Nomad bolts and its final destruction, but nothing extraordinary. Better, yes, maybe even a lot better, but nothing to improve the overall story.
Kirk uses logic to best a machine again - he does this 4 or 5 times in TOS, but I always appreciate it, and here, though Spock compliments him, he also insults him by saying he didn't think the captain had it in him, which is a pretty funny delivery.
Of course one might wonder WHY, once Nomad allowed them to beam it aboard, they didn't just fail to rematerialize it and just scatter its energy around. Problem solved. Maybe Nomad had a way to prevent that - like its own systems to complete transport. I don't fully understand transporter technology, either. It might be the case events are more simultaneous than often depicted.
Vic Perrin supplies the voice for Nomad, but we've already heard him as a Metron, and we’ll later see him the next episode, Mirror, Mirror as Tharn and Tharn's evil twin, though they don't really seem to be opposites for some reason.
He was also the voice of the evil Dr. Zin in the 1960s cartoon, Jonny Quest, but I don't really see the resemblance.
On second thought . . .
I had given this episode an 8 out of 10 before for sheer excitement, but it's filled with so many silly numbers and mistakes and improbable circumstances to stupid actions, so I dropped it to 7 out of 10. Still, with improved effects and the fact most people won't know or care how bad those numbers are, for most viewers it would still be an 8 out of 10 since it's exciting and gripping, thought provoking, and we humans beat the machine again, so that's always nice. Too bad it was mostly due to dumb luck and the coincidence of Kirk's name sounding similar to Nomad's creator's name that even gave them a chance. If any other StarShip encountered Nomad, they'd have been dead before they could even figure out who or what killed them, and Earth would be gone. So just know, even though Kirk is one in a million, and perhaps more, and the youngest guy to make captain of a starship at that time, IIRC, it's not just his skill, but a lot of dumb luck. Is it any wonder so many other starships just get destroyed or lose their whole crews in the first three years of this mission?
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Spock also kept addressing Kirk by his title when they were in the past in COTEOF and TVH.
Kor
The word tharn means "frozen in fear" in Watership Down.
Chekov and Sulu are probably quite typical for that self-serving, opportunistic culture, but if not for the abnormal signals their "false" captain was giving off, they would have continued to bide their time. And I'd even expect most human guys to be tossed around by a vulcan with 3 times human strength, and the fact Uhura's lighter just makes it easier to do. She still didn't cower or run, but waited for her moment - and took it! Excellent. Marlena most likely spared Sulu since he's a valuable officer - not a pawn like the others - and the captain should decide when, where, or even if a major piece should be removed from the board. It was sufficient she stacked the odds in Kirk's favor, and besides, only he wasn't armed with a phaser - just a blade. So there are two possible reasons why she didn't kill Sulu.
And yeah, Kirk's moment in the transporter room with Spock was great. Sadly, in a sequel to that story, Star Trek Continues: The Fairest Of Them All, they actual redid that very scene before moving on to what happened next in that universe, and it was nowhere near as good, IMO, but a sad, pale imitation. I blame the fact they are still trying to find their legs in STC, while Shatner and Nimoy had a full season under them and then some. To me, it seemed more than just the unfortunate tendency to like one's first exposure to a thing more than any remake, whether it's music, acting, or something else. And though I do not have a history of the work, TOS probably had the budget for multiple takes, if necessary, while STC's lower budget maybe had them accept "close enough" sooner. But I can't be sure. And while I think STC is generally good, this particular episode is not too good, though it is still watchable, mistakes and all. I'm just glad it's not canon. But you should make up your own mind if you have the time.
Fairest of Them All (Brief Review)
Bad move on Evil Spock's part for even allowing evil Kirk the opportunity to kill him with the "known" device in his cabin. Idiot. He lucked out. Apparently a shot across the bow will cause the ship to shake or shudder. Weird. A miss is a miss, but since the ship shook, something seems amiss - ha ha - unless it wasn't a shot across the bow, but on the forward shields. The acting isn't as good, and the choices seem foolish, and Evil Kirk is just too wild and unconcerned with facts, even after he knew what happened, and the culture too nasty to subordinates, far beyond a simple agonizer punishment for tiny problems, even when they did nothing wrong, to make it as believable as I think a more disciplined and directed sort of evil could have been portrayed. But YMMV.
As to the indefensible nature of the parallel universe . . .
My personal theory is there isn't just one such universe, but an infinite number of them. When each little divergence ripples out making countless changes, you'd expect any little difference to make such a huge alteration that the likelihood of them still being that close is nigh impossible. And yet, when you have an infinite number to pick from, it's possible to find one that close. But I suspect it is not simply a random chance, but one guided by the degree of similarities between parallel universes. The closer the match, the easier it is to bridge between them. If this is true, then finding a universe that close is not only more likely, it's almost a wonder you don't find closer matches. And they may exist as well. But like any quantum phenomenon, this is not a continuum, but one of discrete alterations. Perhaps a handful of universes qualify as sufficiently close to take the same threshold energy to achieve, and from those you might select randomly, but never from an infinite continuous spectrum of universes. So, in that way, take it or leave it, it might be defensible. YMMV, of course.
Mirror, Mirror
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A great episode, and a much parodied one where evil twins with facial hair or scars are the standard. And hey, IMO, Spock never looked better - with that cool goatee and a more interesting black wrap around undershirt (I don't know what you call it, but it's a cooler, more pirate-looking type garment - and it looks quite comfortable).
I won't recap the story, but the new effects include a new planet, the cool evil ISS (I assume, Imperial Star Ship) Enterprise with the pointy bits on the fronts of the warp nacelles.
There is also a sparking agonizer with a glowing aftereffect on Kyle's shoulder, and the improved agony booth that distorts Chekov's body's perimeter. I didn't really notice any work done on phasering some crewmen to death, or the Tantalus field deaths, but if they did work on them, it wasn't much.
Not too much, but here's the fx comparison reel.
I'm made more aware with the side-by-side comparison by the fact when they flipped the Enterprise's direction, their use of stock footage made their orbital direction inconsistent throughout the show. The remastered version corrects this.
IMO, one of the better storylines from Enterprise is the sequel to the episode, The Tholian Web, where the U.S.S. Defiant (a Constitution class starship and not the other one from DS9) slips through phase space and ends up in this mirror, parallel universe 100 years in the past, and probably explains why the evil Tarren Empire was able to subjugate the local area of the galaxy with a 100 year head start on that tech. If so, this mirrored Enterprise is a direct product of the future tech acquired from the Defiant and not one born of cooperation. One might assume, then, these are "Defiant Class" starships in this universe - ha ha.
In any event, the two parter, Enterprise: In A Mirror, Darkly is a must see.
This was apparently the only episode Uhura appeared in a moving Turbo Lift.
This is the first time Scotty calls Kirk by his first name, Jim (indicating greater friendship than before).
They reuse the altered captain's chair later in The Ultimate Computer.
Personally, I like this chair better, but it might seem too throne-like. But it might better explain why this universe behaves more like a Game of Thrones episode - ha ha. I'd guess it would better protect against whiplash and it looks more comfortable, but it might make it harder to see who walks onto the bridge without a full pivot, and in that culture, that could be dangerous, too.
John Winston (Lt. Kyle) also supplies the male computer voice here. "READY." STC uses Michael Dorn's voice for the male computer.
Russ Peek appears as Spock's guard here, and appears as a Vulcan in two other episodes
Russ appears as a native in the next episode, The Apple, but many actors play numerous bit parts and are usually too numerous to mention or show all their individual pictures. I posted Russ's since he was a Vulcan a lot, and that's relatively rare.
I gave this episode an 8 out of 10. The parallel universe will come into play several times throughout various Trek series, and it's always a bit of fun.
I won't recap the story, but the new effects include a new planet, the cool evil ISS (I assume, Imperial Star Ship) Enterprise with the pointy bits on the fronts of the warp nacelles.
There is also a sparking agonizer with a glowing aftereffect on Kyle's shoulder, and the improved agony booth that distorts Chekov's body's perimeter. I didn't really notice any work done on phasering some crewmen to death, or the Tantalus field deaths, but if they did work on them, it wasn't much.
Not too much, but here's the fx comparison reel.
I'm made more aware with the side-by-side comparison by the fact when they flipped the Enterprise's direction, their use of stock footage made their orbital direction inconsistent throughout the show. The remastered version corrects this.
IMO, one of the better storylines from Enterprise is the sequel to the episode, The Tholian Web, where the U.S.S. Defiant (a Constitution class starship and not the other one from DS9) slips through phase space and ends up in this mirror, parallel universe 100 years in the past, and probably explains why the evil Tarren Empire was able to subjugate the local area of the galaxy with a 100 year head start on that tech. If so, this mirrored Enterprise is a direct product of the future tech acquired from the Defiant and not one born of cooperation. One might assume, then, these are "Defiant Class" starships in this universe - ha ha.
In any event, the two parter, Enterprise: In A Mirror, Darkly is a must see.
This was apparently the only episode Uhura appeared in a moving Turbo Lift.
This is the first time Scotty calls Kirk by his first name, Jim (indicating greater friendship than before).
They reuse the altered captain's chair later in The Ultimate Computer.
Personally, I like this chair better, but it might seem too throne-like. But it might better explain why this universe behaves more like a Game of Thrones episode - ha ha. I'd guess it would better protect against whiplash and it looks more comfortable, but it might make it harder to see who walks onto the bridge without a full pivot, and in that culture, that could be dangerous, too.
John Winston (Lt. Kyle) also supplies the male computer voice here. "READY." STC uses Michael Dorn's voice for the male computer.
Russ Peek appears as Spock's guard here, and appears as a Vulcan in two other episodes
Russ appears as a native in the next episode, The Apple, but many actors play numerous bit parts and are usually too numerous to mention or show all their individual pictures. I posted Russ's since he was a Vulcan a lot, and that's relatively rare.
I gave this episode an 8 out of 10. The parallel universe will come into play several times throughout various Trek series, and it's always a bit of fun.
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76 degrees as a planet wide average doesn't necessarily mean 76 degrees everywhere, but the way Spock says it, I wouldn't expect wide variations from pole to equator, but it might be slightly cooler where they are.
Color variations are often lost on me, though Chekov and Kirk's uniforms seem similar enough so I never would have EVEN guessed. Though I can see the natives are not "normal" colored, I can't be sure what it is. It seems red or reddish to me, but I'm often wrong about what color something is, no matter what it looks like to me, especially when shades of red and green are involved.
Why not beam back at the first sign of danger? They are out there to explore, not to play it safe. Even Spock says no one had ever claimed StarFleet service was particularly safe, and yet some few prefer the challenge and willingly take the risk rather than stay at home and do, what, accomplish what? The sentiment is best summed up thus: The safest place for a ship is in port, but that's not what ships are built for. So Kirk had yet to discover what was peculiar about the place, as ordered, and while he could have cut and run and learned nothing, by the time the redshirts began to mount up, it was too late and they were trapped and the ship was in danger and they were all in again. At least each Red Shirt died in a different way, so it's not like they discovered a particular danger and didn't learn from it.
And Scotty in charge is great, and often a large section of the story. But for the half hour animated episodes in TAS, to use some unused scripts and stories meant for an hour episode, they had to cut that way back. And yet they left in some of it, but since it wasn't as fully developed or they didn't take the time to explain what was going on with the ship and side story, it didn't always make sense.
The Apple
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Another episode I've always enjoyed, this is fun, quite humorous in places, and maybe one of the greatest reasons Red Shirts on away missions have the reputation of dropping like flies. They kill 4 of the buggers in this one episode alone - 45% of the entire landing party - and all in different ways. But they didn't get them all. Yeoman Martha Landon (played by Celeste Yarnall) survives, though in red skirt more than a red shirt, but that won't save another such red clad female crewwoman in a later episode. And Yeoman Landon is the beauty of the day (though Chekov gets the girl instead of Kirk).
She may be the beauty of the day, but the native costumes are pretty nice, too.
So, Yeoman Landon is romantically involved with Chekov, and she calls Chekov, Pav, in this episode. Maybe this is the first time we've heard his first name, Pavel, but I forget. Chekov now sports his own hair instead of that beatles wig, too, since his own hair is finally long enough. There's a joke about how the Garden of Eden was located just outside of Moscow, and a rather amusing bit where Chekov gets to deliberately be insubordinate to Mr. Spock (as a means of a diversion ordered by Kirk). And finally, a hilarious bit where Spock thinks Kirk cast the people out of the garden, though Kirk thinks Spock looks more like Satan than anyone else on board.
RED SHIRT DEATHS:
We learn in this episode that it's possible to detach the warp nacelles and operate the main saucer section separately, as Kirk tells Scotty to do that if that's what it takes to get the ship/crew out of there. They never actually do that in TOS, but they will at least a couple times in TNG. Presumably this would be done in this case since the warp engines are just dead weight (no M/AM reaction for those engines, so why waste impulse energy dragging them along)? But it's not an uncontrolled M/AM reaction that threatens them this time, but a tractor beam pull down into the atmosphere. I will compare this later to the episode, The Savage Curtain.
It has been said Yvonne Craig, as Batgirl, wasn't ever allowed to throw punches, but was allowed to kick and flip people. Punching is just too unlady like, I guess. Maybe the same held true here of women in some late 60's T.V. code, but I'm not sure. So while the men throw punches and chops, Yeoman Landon impressively fights first by scurrying for cover, then by flipping one native over, and then delivering a high, solid kick to another. It was quite good.
4 out of 9 of the landing party buy the farm here, which might be a good place to buy a farm since Spock said the soil was remarkably well suited for agriculture, but I wouldn't want to plow a field where the rocks are like land mines.
The re-mastered shots include mostly the ship in orbit about the newly depicted planet, Gamma Trianguli VI.
The lightning (in a formerly artificially red-tinged sky) is reverted to a normal grey cloud cover sky, and the phaser assault on Vaal is redone, much like the phaser assault on Apollo's temple. I know in the original they reused the same shots from the ship firing downward for those two episodes.
Of great concern here was the possible violation of the prime directive, which Kirk admits he might be doing and may have to answer for, but he'll take his chances. Spock was even more convinced. McCoy, just the opposite. Apparently Kirk was cleared of any wrong doing later, but it stands out as the sort of thing that's an exception to the prime directive, apparently - arrested cultures are exempt. However, there's a good chance after they set them back on a "proper" path, they intend to let them develop on their own and they would again be covered under the pre-warp culture restrictions.
We learn starfleet has "One hundred twenty-two thousand, two hundred . . ." something or anothers invested in Spock. 122,2XX Credits, Kilocredits, Megacredits, we can't be sure, but it is interesting to know they have an economy, despite the idea they don't use physical "money," so they still use "electronic" credits and get paid (and, I'm told, for Starship captains, what they get paid is an embarrassingly large amount). I am somewhat dismayed the mere mention they don't use money here or there suggests to some they have no economy or don't get paid rather than simply they don't normally use "physical" bills and coins anymore. They obviously have credits in TOS and TNG, and while most basic needs are met (apparently for free) in society or at least in service on a starship, we can see if they want more or better things, they have to work harder. They speak of replicator rations in TNG and beyond, bet them, transfer them, etc. so there is an economy of sorts. We just don't examine it too closely. Doubtlessly, they use some implant or biometrics as identification when they wish to spend credits out of their account.
Once again, Kirk beats the machine, but this time not with sheer logic. Phasers are easier to understand, and often a damn sight harder to argue with.
I gave this episode a 7 out of 10. I would have given it an 8, but the conclusion was too similar to the Apollo wrap up, and not done quite as well, IMO. But with the greater degree of humor in this episode, and it's a society and a machine instead of a more honest to gosh, god-like being, it's different enough, and the new planet effects are good, so I could see my way clear to giving it a 7.5 out of 10.
She may be the beauty of the day, but the native costumes are pretty nice, too.
So, Yeoman Landon is romantically involved with Chekov, and she calls Chekov, Pav, in this episode. Maybe this is the first time we've heard his first name, Pavel, but I forget. Chekov now sports his own hair instead of that beatles wig, too, since his own hair is finally long enough. There's a joke about how the Garden of Eden was located just outside of Moscow, and a rather amusing bit where Chekov gets to deliberately be insubordinate to Mr. Spock (as a means of a diversion ordered by Kirk). And finally, a hilarious bit where Spock thinks Kirk cast the people out of the garden, though Kirk thinks Spock looks more like Satan than anyone else on board.
RED SHIRT DEATHS:
Hendorff dies from a plant that shoots poison tipped darts. It may be of interest that this character is also known as "Cupcake" in the alternate NuTrek timeline. Same character, apparently.
Kaplan (Lieutenant) is the next to die, vaporized by a lightning strike. Kirk laments how he knew Kaplan's family.
Mallory dies next, stepping on one of the unstable (exploding) rocks Spock discovered (and I think no one bothered to warn the advanced scout, Mallory, of Spock's discovery via communicator, so this death might have been avoided). Kirk takes this death even harder since Mallory's father helped Kirk get into Starfleet Academy (though I'm not sure how much help Kirk really needed there if his own father was in Starfleet, but maybe that's only true in the alternate timeline). Spock's assessment those explosive rocks would be a good source of power seems weird when they have the tech to collect solar power from any star and beam it to a processing facility. Working in space and in zero-G environments is probably easier than digging in the dirt and boosting substances into orbit. However, the natives might toss a few of those in along with the food for Vaal. Simple chemical energy of food/plants (stored sunshine) seems insufficient for such a vast machine, but maybe some other means, like high explosives or other stuff is being used, too. But I digress.
Finally, Marple (Lieutenant) dies as a native cracks his skull open with a big, heavy branch, when all the men of Vaal try to kill the remainder of the landing party at the behest of Vaal. No time to lament his death, though, since the entire ship and over 400 of her crew are minutes away from death, though Spock takes the time to point out how the natives are becoming more human-like having learned to kill.
Unlike the Red Shirt deaths in The Changeling, these guys were probably hand selected by Kirk for the landing party so they might gain field experience, and be given the opportunity of possible promotion. Thus, he knew them more, was nurturing them more, than the randomly assigned guards from the security pool on board. I won't say Kirk didn't care about those guys Nomad killed, but he seemed to care more about these guys, and I think that's why.
Gentlemen, upon behalf of a grateful service, we salute you. May you R.I.P.
Kaplan (Lieutenant) is the next to die, vaporized by a lightning strike. Kirk laments how he knew Kaplan's family.
Mallory dies next, stepping on one of the unstable (exploding) rocks Spock discovered (and I think no one bothered to warn the advanced scout, Mallory, of Spock's discovery via communicator, so this death might have been avoided). Kirk takes this death even harder since Mallory's father helped Kirk get into Starfleet Academy (though I'm not sure how much help Kirk really needed there if his own father was in Starfleet, but maybe that's only true in the alternate timeline). Spock's assessment those explosive rocks would be a good source of power seems weird when they have the tech to collect solar power from any star and beam it to a processing facility. Working in space and in zero-G environments is probably easier than digging in the dirt and boosting substances into orbit. However, the natives might toss a few of those in along with the food for Vaal. Simple chemical energy of food/plants (stored sunshine) seems insufficient for such a vast machine, but maybe some other means, like high explosives or other stuff is being used, too. But I digress.
Finally, Marple (Lieutenant) dies as a native cracks his skull open with a big, heavy branch, when all the men of Vaal try to kill the remainder of the landing party at the behest of Vaal. No time to lament his death, though, since the entire ship and over 400 of her crew are minutes away from death, though Spock takes the time to point out how the natives are becoming more human-like having learned to kill.
Unlike the Red Shirt deaths in The Changeling, these guys were probably hand selected by Kirk for the landing party so they might gain field experience, and be given the opportunity of possible promotion. Thus, he knew them more, was nurturing them more, than the randomly assigned guards from the security pool on board. I won't say Kirk didn't care about those guys Nomad killed, but he seemed to care more about these guys, and I think that's why.
Gentlemen, upon behalf of a grateful service, we salute you. May you R.I.P.
We learn in this episode that it's possible to detach the warp nacelles and operate the main saucer section separately, as Kirk tells Scotty to do that if that's what it takes to get the ship/crew out of there. They never actually do that in TOS, but they will at least a couple times in TNG. Presumably this would be done in this case since the warp engines are just dead weight (no M/AM reaction for those engines, so why waste impulse energy dragging them along)? But it's not an uncontrolled M/AM reaction that threatens them this time, but a tractor beam pull down into the atmosphere. I will compare this later to the episode, The Savage Curtain.
It has been said Yvonne Craig, as Batgirl, wasn't ever allowed to throw punches, but was allowed to kick and flip people. Punching is just too unlady like, I guess. Maybe the same held true here of women in some late 60's T.V. code, but I'm not sure. So while the men throw punches and chops, Yeoman Landon impressively fights first by scurrying for cover, then by flipping one native over, and then delivering a high, solid kick to another. It was quite good.
4 out of 9 of the landing party buy the farm here, which might be a good place to buy a farm since Spock said the soil was remarkably well suited for agriculture, but I wouldn't want to plow a field where the rocks are like land mines.
The re-mastered shots include mostly the ship in orbit about the newly depicted planet, Gamma Trianguli VI.
The lightning (in a formerly artificially red-tinged sky) is reverted to a normal grey cloud cover sky, and the phaser assault on Vaal is redone, much like the phaser assault on Apollo's temple. I know in the original they reused the same shots from the ship firing downward for those two episodes.
Of great concern here was the possible violation of the prime directive, which Kirk admits he might be doing and may have to answer for, but he'll take his chances. Spock was even more convinced. McCoy, just the opposite. Apparently Kirk was cleared of any wrong doing later, but it stands out as the sort of thing that's an exception to the prime directive, apparently - arrested cultures are exempt. However, there's a good chance after they set them back on a "proper" path, they intend to let them develop on their own and they would again be covered under the pre-warp culture restrictions.
We learn starfleet has "One hundred twenty-two thousand, two hundred . . ." something or anothers invested in Spock. 122,2XX Credits, Kilocredits, Megacredits, we can't be sure, but it is interesting to know they have an economy, despite the idea they don't use physical "money," so they still use "electronic" credits and get paid (and, I'm told, for Starship captains, what they get paid is an embarrassingly large amount). I am somewhat dismayed the mere mention they don't use money here or there suggests to some they have no economy or don't get paid rather than simply they don't normally use "physical" bills and coins anymore. They obviously have credits in TOS and TNG, and while most basic needs are met (apparently for free) in society or at least in service on a starship, we can see if they want more or better things, they have to work harder. They speak of replicator rations in TNG and beyond, bet them, transfer them, etc. so there is an economy of sorts. We just don't examine it too closely. Doubtlessly, they use some implant or biometrics as identification when they wish to spend credits out of their account.
Once again, Kirk beats the machine, but this time not with sheer logic. Phasers are easier to understand, and often a damn sight harder to argue with.
I gave this episode a 7 out of 10. I would have given it an 8, but the conclusion was too similar to the Apollo wrap up, and not done quite as well, IMO. But with the greater degree of humor in this episode, and it's a society and a machine instead of a more honest to gosh, god-like being, it's different enough, and the new planet effects are good, so I could see my way clear to giving it a 7.5 out of 10.
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And ironically, thanks to the "luck" of the cutting room floor, he cheats death in Into Darkness and Beyond, though the novelization of the former kills him as per the original script. According to IDW, all the landing party redshirts' counterparts in the alternate reality survive the ordeal.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Hendorff_(comic)Could be hours, not dollars. That works out to 13.9497717 years. That sounds about right.
Even Decker later calls it a ship or a machine, so when he earlier called it the Devil, he was obviously speaking figuratively. Besides, it would be erroneous to assume religion and science are mutually exclusive. The very idea they are natural enemies of one another is specious thinking. However, I do find it nearly impossible to reconcile most literal interpretations of various Holy Scripture with scientific knowledge, though figurative interpretations could well be adopted to accomplish this, if one were so inclined. I don't happen to be, myself, but it's not an impossibility, and even so, we can't be sure what Decker's religious beliefs really are from this. Suicide doesn't appear to bother him that much, but he was, I would suggest, mentally unstable at that point. Fortunately, his actions provided a vital clue that otherwise may have eluded them longer, if not altogether, so well done, commodore. He gave his life in the performance of his duty.
They Say There's No Overacting, Jim, But There Is.
Just For Your Edification, Here's A Prime Example Of It. (jk)
The fact they assumed the doomsday machine came from outside the galaxy was based upon a simple extrapolation of its past course, but it can easily change course. Even if it did come from another galaxy, this is not impossible as it could simply be powered down all that while and coasting, possibly for millions or even billions of years. In fact, the creators may have designed it to leave their galaxy after it killed both sides so it wouldn't do more harm to their innocent neighbors (or sequestered contingent of their own population), assuming they cared, and then if it ever found another galaxy, well, that's untold ages in the future and somebody else's problem. But I'd suspect the thing was locally made and just changing its course now and again, and when they speak of the galaxy at large, they are only talking about known Federation space, which is a surprising small percentage of the Milk Way galaxy, so far.
McCoy can't relieve anyone in command unless he has medical evidence there is a problem (and he didn't) and he can't insist on a medical examination during a red alert (there isn't enough time for that).
Sensors said the hull was "solid" neutronium, so no chinks, and even TNG and beyond can't make that stuff. It is the degenerate matter of a neutron star, that stuff they say one teaspoon of which would weight countless tons (as much as the entire Empire State Building, or similar comparsions). But if you removed it from the high gravity environment of a collapsed star, it would instantly expand (and probably not in a gentle and slow manner so much as a disastrously explosive one). Obviously, they have incredible artificial gravity holding that stuff in that state (and AG is free in Trek, ha ha). Or, and follow my logic on this, it is accomplished in another way. I still think artificial gravity might virtually pay for itself in some clever way by having as many upward as downward oriented decks, but I digress.
When you see people tossed about a ship, it is because something unexpected happen (some sudden acceleration) that was beyond the current capabilities of the inertial compensators, without which even relatively small impulse engine thrusts could smear the entire crew up against the nearest bulkheads and turn them into a sticky paste. You don't want to know. So they hardly ever need seatbelts and they are too restrictive for most work. I would imagine the Constellation's inertial compensators were not operating at full capacity, as badly damaged as that ship was at the time. But wasn't that cool they way they pulled those tape decks off the table with a string?
The Doomsday Machine
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What a wonderful episode - I've always liked it. And it's one the most heavily remastered episodes, sporting 105 remastered shots, compared to an average episode's 20 to 30.
They even corrected the shot inasmuch as they damaged the bridge of the Constellation, which was supposed to be open to space and uninhabitable. It looks fine in the original. I don't have a side-by-side this time, but here's the fx reel.
Side-by-side comparison
You gotta love some of these shots showing the skeletal structure of a Starship, and it's pretty neat flying amongst the asteroids and planetary debris. In the remastered shots, you see a small meteoroid collide with the hull and break apart, showing the normal deflectors are offline, and just how strong those hulls are anyway since no apparent damage was done. That is some tough material. I wish I had some.
This is the first time the Enterprise encounters one of her sister ships, that is, another Constitution Class Starship. During the course of TOS, 5 of the 12 Constitution Class Starships are either destroyed, or virtually their entire crews are killed; the U.S.S. Constellation is the first. Can you name the other 4 episodes where almost all hands are lost, and/or a Constitution Class Starship is destroyed or lost?
Trek Trivia
5 out 12 ships, or 42% dead, and maybe a decent percentage on the others? Spock is right. Starfleet service is NOT a particularly safe occupation.
You may think Kirk loses a lot of people, but in comparison, he's the first captain to come back from his 5-year mission with his ship and the majority of his crew virtually intact. IIRC, he only lost around 50 or 60, all told. As such, he's one the most widely known and celebrated human beings of this era. The fact he saved Earth and most of humanity once or twice didn't hurt, either.
One might be suspicious of the Enterprise since they coincidentally seem close at hand for each of these lost ships. OR, and perhaps more realistically, Starfleet has lost a lot more than just 5 ships but continues to replace them as quick as they can, and those 5 were the ones that involved the Enterprise. If so, Starfleet service is exceedingly dangerous.
Lieutenant Palmer (Elizabeth Rogers) makes her first appearance (later, she's in The Way To Eden, so I guess she's our beauty of the day). She's the second in command of the communications department and takes the shifts when Uhura is off. So, either it's a remarkable coincidence that Uhura is on duty during most of the action in TOS, or Uhura also takes over at such times even if it's not her shift since they want their top people working at those times of crisis. She might be off the ship or sick or injured here, or they just didn't have the time to bring her up. Of course when Uhura's sick or off the ship, Palmer steps up, as she does here. And she's quite professional, too, giving damage reports and staying on top of things and she doesn't lose it at all. Another excellent bridge officer.
The planet killer obviously doesn't bother to consume entire planets for fuel - if it did, it'd probably never leave a stellar system - so it must have higher priorities - to seek out and destroy planets, for example, or chase down power sources. Or maybe it only consumes certain rarer elements and compounds, and once it has eaten those, it moves on, leaving a wake destruction behind it. What a nasty doomsday device. It's an impressive machine if it can take apart planets like Jupiter, but with enough antiprotons (the antimatter form of protons) and the ability to make more from normal matter, I guess you can blow up a lot of stuff. Since it can apparently refuel itself with ordinary matter, or might take time gathering energy from the local star, it's a seemingly perpetual device of destruction. What kind of jerk doesn't include a self destruction routine once it has accomplished its mission?
Perhaps it only goes after the rockier planets. It does seem to be disinterested in the last two inner planets of that stellar system before it decides it's time to move on to Rigel, so that's clear evidence it isn't just interested in EVERY planet. Even for a device that size, taking apart whole planets just by blowing them up is incredible. It may be employing higher technology or using scientific principles beyond that. It is, after all, a product of a highly technologically advanced civilization.
Even better, it dampens antimatter or "deactivates" it and causes a huge degree of interference in subspace communications, so something fantastic is going on. I guess it'd be hard for a matter-antimatter photon torpedo to even operate in the area, and the notion one might just shoot a photon torpedo down the maul of the planet killer isn't a viable plan of action. Luckily, an overloaded impulse engine results in a 97.835 Megaton fusion explosion (which is 6 or 7 time bigger than the United State's biggest nuke, IIRC), and that seemed to do the trick. Anyway, this probably explains why they never fired any photon torpedoes at the mechanical beastie. Mind you, I don't how their fusion reactors work, but it's a common misconception today's fission nuclear reactors can blow up like a nuclear bomb. They can melt down, or maybe over pressurize and explode, but that's not a nuclear blast and can never be with such low purity of fissile material they have in those things. I wonder if "real" fusion reactors could ever blow up like that, once we have them. I mean, what is blowing up and how or why is it that big? It really shouldn't be. But then I haven't actually looked at the specs of those beasties. They do command vast power, however, and can apparently bring a ship that massive nearly up to light speed, so there's a lot of power there (at least if you convert a lot of hydrogen to helium, or whatever they are doing).
Commodore Decker does his Captain Ahab bit, and these are some great scenes, though apparently William Windom didn't make the Ahab connection himself. He did, however, try to channel Humphrey Bogart's Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg from The Cain Mutiny, using two tape decks in place of two steel balls, so that was nice. Later, his son will make an appearance as Will Decker, captain of the Enterprise, before Kirk takes his seat during the V'Ger incident: Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
BTW, I loved the way Decker flew the shuttlecraft out of the hanger bay - the remastered portions were fantastic and leaps and bounds above the old stuff.
A lot more of engineering is seen, although on the Constellation rather than on the Enterprise, but they're virtually identical, right down to the refurbished Horta silicone nodules atop the machinery, and they'll reuse them later, of course, now that they've built them. And we get to see more of the bridge as Kirk walks around it, including when he walks in front of the main viewer, now with remastered scenes of the dead planet killer drifting around rather than an uninteresting random and obviously painted star field.
Flaws: I wonder why a starship practically devoid of power still seems to have full gravity. Gravity pairs? Kirk asks, "What the Devil?" BEFORE the view screen's static disappears and really reveals what's happening outside. And there are the conspicuous two security guards on the bridge that are normally not there, but will be needed later for the story, so they're there almost the whole episode. Probably more minor stuff, but it's so minor, it escapes me at the moment.
This was perhaps James Doohan's favorite episode, though D.C. Fontana's least liked - don't know what her problem was with it, though). Well, it's one of my favorites, regardless. I had given it a 9 out of 10 before. Such action, another starship, a commodore, new rank insignia, new ship logo or whatever you call it, the loss of an entire crew, command conflict, Jim's personal authority, loss of a friend, starfleet regulations, the risk of captain Kirk, the split second timing, Scotty's miracle working on the transporter, the wonder of it all, the teamwork to fight the machine and save the day, and more. And with all the new remastered details, I'm bumping it up to 9.5, but even with round off error, it doesn't quite earn a 10. Close. It's a great episode. And remastered, it's beautiful, too.
They even corrected the shot inasmuch as they damaged the bridge of the Constellation, which was supposed to be open to space and uninhabitable. It looks fine in the original. I don't have a side-by-side this time, but here's the fx reel.
Side-by-side comparison
You gotta love some of these shots showing the skeletal structure of a Starship, and it's pretty neat flying amongst the asteroids and planetary debris. In the remastered shots, you see a small meteoroid collide with the hull and break apart, showing the normal deflectors are offline, and just how strong those hulls are anyway since no apparent damage was done. That is some tough material. I wish I had some.
This is the first time the Enterprise encounters one of her sister ships, that is, another Constitution Class Starship. During the course of TOS, 5 of the 12 Constitution Class Starships are either destroyed, or virtually their entire crews are killed; the U.S.S. Constellation is the first. Can you name the other 4 episodes where almost all hands are lost, and/or a Constitution Class Starship is destroyed or lost?
Trek Trivia
The Doomsday Machine - The U.S.S. Constellation - after wrecked, it was used to destroy the planet killer.
The Omega Glory - The U.S.S. Exeter - all hands crystallized (except Captain Ronald Tracey).
The Tholian Web - The U.S.S. Defiant - crew went mad and killed each other and the Defiant slips out of this universe (and into the past of the mirror universe).
The Ultimate Computer - The U.S.S. Excalibur - destroyed by M5.
The Immunity Syndrome - The U.S.S. Intrepid - all hands, all of them Vulcans, lost to the giant space amoeba.
The Omega Glory - The U.S.S. Exeter - all hands crystallized (except Captain Ronald Tracey).
The Tholian Web - The U.S.S. Defiant - crew went mad and killed each other and the Defiant slips out of this universe (and into the past of the mirror universe).
The Ultimate Computer - The U.S.S. Excalibur - destroyed by M5.
The Immunity Syndrome - The U.S.S. Intrepid - all hands, all of them Vulcans, lost to the giant space amoeba.
5 out 12 ships, or 42% dead, and maybe a decent percentage on the others? Spock is right. Starfleet service is NOT a particularly safe occupation.
You may think Kirk loses a lot of people, but in comparison, he's the first captain to come back from his 5-year mission with his ship and the majority of his crew virtually intact. IIRC, he only lost around 50 or 60, all told. As such, he's one the most widely known and celebrated human beings of this era. The fact he saved Earth and most of humanity once or twice didn't hurt, either.
One might be suspicious of the Enterprise since they coincidentally seem close at hand for each of these lost ships. OR, and perhaps more realistically, Starfleet has lost a lot more than just 5 ships but continues to replace them as quick as they can, and those 5 were the ones that involved the Enterprise. If so, Starfleet service is exceedingly dangerous.
Lieutenant Palmer (Elizabeth Rogers) makes her first appearance (later, she's in The Way To Eden, so I guess she's our beauty of the day). She's the second in command of the communications department and takes the shifts when Uhura is off. So, either it's a remarkable coincidence that Uhura is on duty during most of the action in TOS, or Uhura also takes over at such times even if it's not her shift since they want their top people working at those times of crisis. She might be off the ship or sick or injured here, or they just didn't have the time to bring her up. Of course when Uhura's sick or off the ship, Palmer steps up, as she does here. And she's quite professional, too, giving damage reports and staying on top of things and she doesn't lose it at all. Another excellent bridge officer.
The planet killer obviously doesn't bother to consume entire planets for fuel - if it did, it'd probably never leave a stellar system - so it must have higher priorities - to seek out and destroy planets, for example, or chase down power sources. Or maybe it only consumes certain rarer elements and compounds, and once it has eaten those, it moves on, leaving a wake destruction behind it. What a nasty doomsday device. It's an impressive machine if it can take apart planets like Jupiter, but with enough antiprotons (the antimatter form of protons) and the ability to make more from normal matter, I guess you can blow up a lot of stuff. Since it can apparently refuel itself with ordinary matter, or might take time gathering energy from the local star, it's a seemingly perpetual device of destruction. What kind of jerk doesn't include a self destruction routine once it has accomplished its mission?
Perhaps it only goes after the rockier planets. It does seem to be disinterested in the last two inner planets of that stellar system before it decides it's time to move on to Rigel, so that's clear evidence it isn't just interested in EVERY planet. Even for a device that size, taking apart whole planets just by blowing them up is incredible. It may be employing higher technology or using scientific principles beyond that. It is, after all, a product of a highly technologically advanced civilization.
Even better, it dampens antimatter or "deactivates" it and causes a huge degree of interference in subspace communications, so something fantastic is going on. I guess it'd be hard for a matter-antimatter photon torpedo to even operate in the area, and the notion one might just shoot a photon torpedo down the maul of the planet killer isn't a viable plan of action. Luckily, an overloaded impulse engine results in a 97.835 Megaton fusion explosion (which is 6 or 7 time bigger than the United State's biggest nuke, IIRC), and that seemed to do the trick. Anyway, this probably explains why they never fired any photon torpedoes at the mechanical beastie. Mind you, I don't how their fusion reactors work, but it's a common misconception today's fission nuclear reactors can blow up like a nuclear bomb. They can melt down, or maybe over pressurize and explode, but that's not a nuclear blast and can never be with such low purity of fissile material they have in those things. I wonder if "real" fusion reactors could ever blow up like that, once we have them. I mean, what is blowing up and how or why is it that big? It really shouldn't be. But then I haven't actually looked at the specs of those beasties. They do command vast power, however, and can apparently bring a ship that massive nearly up to light speed, so there's a lot of power there (at least if you convert a lot of hydrogen to helium, or whatever they are doing).
Commodore Decker does his Captain Ahab bit, and these are some great scenes, though apparently William Windom didn't make the Ahab connection himself. He did, however, try to channel Humphrey Bogart's Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg from The Cain Mutiny, using two tape decks in place of two steel balls, so that was nice. Later, his son will make an appearance as Will Decker, captain of the Enterprise, before Kirk takes his seat during the V'Ger incident: Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
BTW, I loved the way Decker flew the shuttlecraft out of the hanger bay - the remastered portions were fantastic and leaps and bounds above the old stuff.
A lot more of engineering is seen, although on the Constellation rather than on the Enterprise, but they're virtually identical, right down to the refurbished Horta silicone nodules atop the machinery, and they'll reuse them later, of course, now that they've built them. And we get to see more of the bridge as Kirk walks around it, including when he walks in front of the main viewer, now with remastered scenes of the dead planet killer drifting around rather than an uninteresting random and obviously painted star field.
Flaws: I wonder why a starship practically devoid of power still seems to have full gravity. Gravity pairs? Kirk asks, "What the Devil?" BEFORE the view screen's static disappears and really reveals what's happening outside. And there are the conspicuous two security guards on the bridge that are normally not there, but will be needed later for the story, so they're there almost the whole episode. Probably more minor stuff, but it's so minor, it escapes me at the moment.
This was perhaps James Doohan's favorite episode, though D.C. Fontana's least liked - don't know what her problem was with it, though). Well, it's one of my favorites, regardless. I had given it a 9 out of 10 before. Such action, another starship, a commodore, new rank insignia, new ship logo or whatever you call it, the loss of an entire crew, command conflict, Jim's personal authority, loss of a friend, starfleet regulations, the risk of captain Kirk, the split second timing, Scotty's miracle working on the transporter, the wonder of it all, the teamwork to fight the machine and save the day, and more. And with all the new remastered details, I'm bumping it up to 9.5, but even with round off error, it doesn't quite earn a 10. Close. It's a great episode. And remastered, it's beautiful, too.
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ugh. Nope.
The natives of Gamma Trianguli VI looked like white people who'd spent too much time in a tanning salon.
I think it becomes clear what they want, but later - the experience and physical forms of things in this universe. Apparently beings from outside this universe (not another galaxy so much as another dimension, I would estimate) they needed a basis upon which to build. But Sylvia knew nothing of the "carrot" - she was all "stick" all the way - no empathy, no coopertion, so Kirk had to fight it. Maybe the old ones were naturally like that, too - ruling by force. Korob, however, had he been stronger willed, might have done better, but he let his junior (I assume) take the lead and he lost control.
Sylvia's crystal necklace was minor compared to the transmuter, which held the real key to power. Korob feared to use it - why, I'm not sure, but he wouldn't go that far to harm her or even save himself. Maybe doing so would mean his mission failed, and failure was unacceptable, and perhaps horrible punishment or death would be all that remained if they failed. But we don't know.
Catspaw
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"Cat's paw" is a phrase derived from La Fontaine's fable, "The Monkey and the Cat," referring to a person used unwittingly or unwillingly by another to accomplish the other's own purpose. McCoy mentions that Scotty and Sulu are being so used.
The 3rd and 4th people in the chain of command go missing, so naturally, the 1st and 2nd should go after them, and into obviously potentially lethal circumstances (and was it just dumb luck she didn't pick Scotty or Sulu to die?). Kirk, Spock, and McCoy's mission - to seek out as much screen time as possible. And the prophetic way Kirk "knew" he'd want a doctor in the transporter room was, well, badly done. With 1 through 4 gone, they have to have DeSalle in command above - and they move this guy around a lot, too - engineering, science, and command - we'll see him in all those places.
This is the only "holiday themed" Star Trek episode ever filmed, deliberately made and held back (kept in the can) until it could first be aired the week of 1967's Halloween holiday. As such, this was the first episode of the 2nd season, and actually the first Chekov episode made - he's obviously wearing that nasty Beatles wig again, and they treat him like he's a green cadet – like they are introducing him for the first time. Well, they were. It just seems out of order because it is. Trick or Treat.
This preview isn't so bad. It was probably played more than the normal previews that were played when the series originally aired, but I can't be sure it got more play time for the holidays.
Robert Bloch based this episode very loosely on his own short story "Broomstick Ride." Bloch also wrote What Little Girls Are Made Of and referred to the "Old Ones" in both episodes, though in this episode it was more an allusion to the Cthulhu Mythos, while in the other, it seemed a different group of ancient people from a long dead race and definitely did not seem to suggest the same race.
The remastered portions include the obvious new ship and planet shots (a staple in these remastered episodes, and always a bonus for me, though some purists or others still prefer the originals, or have other reasons for preferring endless stock footage or bad special effects that were never the vision intended, but often nothing more than what they could afford in time and money) and a new castle image from farther away before going in for the original close up of the entryway, and a few other things, including the removal of the obvious puppet strings at the end, so this addition was pretty nice and a welcome and noticeable improvement. Not all remastered effects are better, IMO, but the vast majority are. YMMV.
Unfortunately, though it was intended the witches' bodies couldn't be seen, they clearly were, and worse, the remastering didn't take them out when they had the chance. Disembodied floating heads would have been so much better, IMO.
I always wished I had that little enterprise model - well, without the block - it was cool and I would have loved to own it, but I guess since it's in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, more people can enjoy it, and that's a good thing - even a better thing.
Star Trek TECH TALK
Scotty's missing finger is apparent if you look closely at how he's holding the phaser.
Antoinette Bower plays Sylvia, so I guess she's the beauty of the day, though I never really liked her (or even her other two human female incarnations she used on Kirk). I thought that might have been three different actresses, but now I think they were all Antoinette Bower in different dress, wigs, and make up. It could well be it wasn't the way she looked so much as the way her character acted that I never found appealing, though. Nasty. Not like most women at all, though she did seem to have the scorned part down pat.
SYLVIA: You will be swept away. You, your men, your ship, your worlds!
The idea of an alien taking human form and being corrupted by new sensations will be used again, as well as an intelligent black cat that can communicate as it is, but can also take human form.
I was amused when Kirk called to McCoy, "Bones" while McCoy was chained to the wall right next to a skeleton. Of course, the fact real skeletons would naturally fall apart unless deliberately kept together with screws or hooks don't seem to matter. But which Bones is he talking to? Ha. I can't be sure they meant that to be funny, but I found it so.
I also found it funny when the normal sized cat was running through the corridors of the small-scale castle, to make it appear to be a giant cat in a normal sized corridor.
This is an above average episode, if 5 is average, by which I mean I gave it a 6 out of 10. There's nothing horrible in it, but I never really found it scary, either, or the ship side story that good, so if the castles and dungeons and curses and black cats and skeletons and disembodied witches, iron maidens, and a witch and warlock, etc. were meant to scare us, I think it failed. Maybe others were scared, but I've seen scarier things on Star Trek, so this was a failure in that regard for me. I guess the "traditional" deeply rooted fears in most humans, of which they spoke, just don't cut it for me. Anyway, this episode is a step down from season two's opening half dozen episodes, but still worth watching. The new special effects or additions make it better than before, as replacing most any stock footage would, but it's still not worth changing the rating. If they had fixed some obvious problems, like making the witches' bodies invisible, I'd have gone at least 6.5. But they didn't.
The 3rd and 4th people in the chain of command go missing, so naturally, the 1st and 2nd should go after them, and into obviously potentially lethal circumstances (and was it just dumb luck she didn't pick Scotty or Sulu to die?). Kirk, Spock, and McCoy's mission - to seek out as much screen time as possible. And the prophetic way Kirk "knew" he'd want a doctor in the transporter room was, well, badly done. With 1 through 4 gone, they have to have DeSalle in command above - and they move this guy around a lot, too - engineering, science, and command - we'll see him in all those places.
This is the only "holiday themed" Star Trek episode ever filmed, deliberately made and held back (kept in the can) until it could first be aired the week of 1967's Halloween holiday. As such, this was the first episode of the 2nd season, and actually the first Chekov episode made - he's obviously wearing that nasty Beatles wig again, and they treat him like he's a green cadet – like they are introducing him for the first time. Well, they were. It just seems out of order because it is. Trick or Treat.
This preview isn't so bad. It was probably played more than the normal previews that were played when the series originally aired, but I can't be sure it got more play time for the holidays.
Robert Bloch based this episode very loosely on his own short story "Broomstick Ride." Bloch also wrote What Little Girls Are Made Of and referred to the "Old Ones" in both episodes, though in this episode it was more an allusion to the Cthulhu Mythos, while in the other, it seemed a different group of ancient people from a long dead race and definitely did not seem to suggest the same race.
The remastered portions include the obvious new ship and planet shots (a staple in these remastered episodes, and always a bonus for me, though some purists or others still prefer the originals, or have other reasons for preferring endless stock footage or bad special effects that were never the vision intended, but often nothing more than what they could afford in time and money) and a new castle image from farther away before going in for the original close up of the entryway, and a few other things, including the removal of the obvious puppet strings at the end, so this addition was pretty nice and a welcome and noticeable improvement. Not all remastered effects are better, IMO, but the vast majority are. YMMV.
Unfortunately, though it was intended the witches' bodies couldn't be seen, they clearly were, and worse, the remastering didn't take them out when they had the chance. Disembodied floating heads would have been so much better, IMO.
I always wished I had that little enterprise model - well, without the block - it was cool and I would have loved to own it, but I guess since it's in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, more people can enjoy it, and that's a good thing - even a better thing.
Star Trek TECH TALK
In this episode, we're told the ship's power can manufacture a ton of precious stones like diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. I never really thought of it before, and TOS doesn't talk about the TNG level of replicator tech, but I guess that would be the case with simple replicator technology, so maybe they have more of that than the dialogue alone might suggest. Those precious stones are not a terribly complex arrangement of atoms and molecules. It just takes energy (and probably comparable mass, but that can likely be anything, like water, for example, and wouldn't need to be a comparable mass of carbon for a diamond, etc. since they take things apart and convert them to pure energy). As such, simple gems are not particularly valuable in the future, though I wouldn't say they are valueless, either, since they use gems in some stories, and even that amount of energy cost them something - for all we know, it might cost quite a bit. Just because something looks easy and is readily available (particularly to the military-like organization) doesn't always mean it's free or cheap. Using the transporter, for example, probably cost a packet in energy terms - it's just quicker and maybe cheaper than using a shuttlecraft - but people in the future society probably do not own home transporters or use them to pop down to the corner drug store or do their daily shopping or even go to and from a doctor's appointment. They probably aren't always consistent with their economy, but it's something to think about. How recycling a replicated gold watch in VOY, for example, would reclaim "energy credits" rather than use even more energy to reconfigure the atoms and molecules again is a mystery to me. Anyway, even more expensive items almost seem to cost a crewman more "credits," so having the replicator make you Champaign and caviar instead of fruit juice and chicken salad probably somehow cost a person more credits. Like DeSalle, I'd bet "credits to navy beans" that were the case. But I can't be sure since they don't really discuss it, and that's probably a wise move on their part. However, the more complex something is, the harder it is to replicate, and the more it cost - even assuming it can be replicated, which dilithium crystals (whatever those really are) apparently cannot be, as well as many other exceedingly complex molecules, like many medicines or rare elements or molecules. But most gemstones are not particularly complex arrangements of rare atoms or molecules.
DeSalle mentions power from reactors 1, 2, and 3, so that's interesting. I'd prefer this to be two impulse engine reactors and the main warp drive reactor, since we've only ever seen one M/AM dilithium reactor, but it could be others things, too, such as separate dilithium M/AM reactors for each nacelle, but that seems ill-advised or inconsistent in some ways, too. At any rate, we can't be sure what or where these 3 reactors are, or indeed if they don't have 4, 5, 6 or more reactors, too.
DeSalle mentions power from reactors 1, 2, and 3, so that's interesting. I'd prefer this to be two impulse engine reactors and the main warp drive reactor, since we've only ever seen one M/AM dilithium reactor, but it could be others things, too, such as separate dilithium M/AM reactors for each nacelle, but that seems ill-advised or inconsistent in some ways, too. At any rate, we can't be sure what or where these 3 reactors are, or indeed if they don't have 4, 5, 6 or more reactors, too.
Scotty's missing finger is apparent if you look closely at how he's holding the phaser.
Antoinette Bower plays Sylvia, so I guess she's the beauty of the day, though I never really liked her (or even her other two human female incarnations she used on Kirk). I thought that might have been three different actresses, but now I think they were all Antoinette Bower in different dress, wigs, and make up. It could well be it wasn't the way she looked so much as the way her character acted that I never found appealing, though. Nasty. Not like most women at all, though she did seem to have the scorned part down pat.
SYLVIA: You will be swept away. You, your men, your ship, your worlds!
The idea of an alien taking human form and being corrupted by new sensations will be used again, as well as an intelligent black cat that can communicate as it is, but can also take human form.
I was amused when Kirk called to McCoy, "Bones" while McCoy was chained to the wall right next to a skeleton. Of course, the fact real skeletons would naturally fall apart unless deliberately kept together with screws or hooks don't seem to matter. But which Bones is he talking to? Ha. I can't be sure they meant that to be funny, but I found it so.
I also found it funny when the normal sized cat was running through the corridors of the small-scale castle, to make it appear to be a giant cat in a normal sized corridor.
This is an above average episode, if 5 is average, by which I mean I gave it a 6 out of 10. There's nothing horrible in it, but I never really found it scary, either, or the ship side story that good, so if the castles and dungeons and curses and black cats and skeletons and disembodied witches, iron maidens, and a witch and warlock, etc. were meant to scare us, I think it failed. Maybe others were scared, but I've seen scarier things on Star Trek, so this was a failure in that regard for me. I guess the "traditional" deeply rooted fears in most humans, of which they spoke, just don't cut it for me. Anyway, this episode is a step down from season two's opening half dozen episodes, but still worth watching. The new special effects or additions make it better than before, as replacing most any stock footage would, but it's still not worth changing the rating. If they had fixed some obvious problems, like making the witches' bodies invisible, I'd have gone at least 6.5. But they didn't.
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Sure, patents and royalties. Despite some feeling not using "money" means there is no semblance of a regular economy, the use of credits just means they don't use physical currency or coins anymore (and probably have some biometric means to credit or debit their accounts).
Spock "obviously" read the script, and it's true they sometimes leap to the "correct" conclusions based upon little evidence. However, in this case it seems a "reasonable guess" since doing it that way might be easier, and later the evidence mounts up to confirm his guess.
Good question about separation, but we must assume though they didn't make more central control units while confined to that planet, they could, and there is a level of autonomous control for lower level tasks (since Norman left for a few days and yet planet bound androids continue to serve Mudd, we must assume). But they would have to either make more "Normans" for each group, like a beehive makes a new queen, or rely just on basic functions (which would be unwise).
Uhura does seem rather broken up later when she sees herself grow old and ugly in another episode (it's just an illusion, but one that may go to the heart of her true fears). Eternal youth and beauty would appeal to many people, particularly if one could avoid sickness and pain. But one might also be sacrificing much, as in What Little Girls Are Made Of, that process losing a great deal of the human condition, so who knows?
Kirk just happens to know most "thinking" machines throughout history, so far, are vulnerable to that sort of thing. Hard to blame him for trying that first, even if it's not all that original for the story once they've done it before. But each time is a little different, and this was one of the funniest, as you said. And it was amazing the entire crew was beamed off the ship. Wow. That was close. Of course once all the androids were immobilized and nothing but immobilized androids were left on the ship, it does beg the question - how did they get back up there? I can only assume the androids have their own transporter system - given the incredible state of their labs, or the crew could build one for the same reason, or build a shuttlecraft, perhaps.
And yeah - that was practically torture. It is little wonder Mudd was well motivated to escape (steal another ship) and leave the planet so his character soon appeared in a TAS episode. He might have otherwise stayed there, though he was already looking for a way off the first time, so his full needs were obviously not being met. I wonder what he wanted. Probably more human, less "logical" contact.
I, Mudd
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The Planet, Mudd.
Here's a story that was more amusing than thought provoking, but if you did stop to think about it, you could ponder on your brain living inside an android body for half a million years while maintaining a youthful appearance, or our entire race being controlled by androids, our more destructive tendencies carefully subdued, doubtlessly while losing a fair degree of our free will under our new android overlords. Then again, just because the body could last half a million years doesn't mean the organic brain would, too (or will it be a mechanical brain?). I forget.
But mostly it was funny. I particularly laughed at the Spock/McCoy exchange since it's usually sacrificed to the gods of commerce (in fact, I'm not sure I even remember all of it). But mostly McCoy expresses his concern for the peculiar nature of the new crewman, a man who didn't wish to discuss his past and who had missed a couple of scheduled medical examinations, but Spock simply thinks it's understandable since the man is probably afraid of McCoy's beads and rattles. I wonder if Spock regretted dismissing McCoy's intuition so lightly after the ship was then commandeered for the next 4 solar days by that "man" - the android, Norman - and they almost lost the whole ship because he was so dismissive of his fellow officer. He didn't say anything about it, but I suspect he developed a better appreciation for McCoy's insight after that.
But I think one of the funniest moments is when Chekov discovers the female androids are programed to work like real women, sexually, it is assumed, and they were programed by the unprincipled cad, Harry Mudd, where upon Chekov declares, "This place is even better than Leningrad!"
At last, somebody who understands orbits, as Norman threatens to destroy the ship's engines while in orbit, so the ship would spend the rest of time in orbit (and not crashing to the surface since it ran out of gas).
The re-mastered shots include the ship about a new planet, of course, and the planet now sports an impressive yellowish hue (I think) and a ring, which is rather nice looking. It's a class K planet, suitable for humans through the use of pressure domes (so Mars would be a K class planet, FYI). Norman's circuitry is also redone, and that's about it.
Side-by-side comparison.
Our beauties of the day include twin sisters, Alyce and Rhae Andrece - (Alice 1-250, and Alice 251-500, respectively).
There are others, but quite frankly, I don't think they hold a candle to these two. Strangely, there were no female androids who were redheads or blondes that I could detect, so apparently Harry Mudd has a thing for brunettes.
Turns out that Roger C. Carmel is the only non-Enterprise crew member to ever play the same character twice in TOS. I would have guessed one of those admirals appeared more than once, and one did, but I see that though one guy did that, he played two different admirals. Carmel will reprise his role once more as he lends his voice to TAS in the episode, Mudd's Passion. FYI, he stole a ship to escape, and that's about all they say on it, though they are attempting to reuse some of the humorous lines from I, Mudd.
Sulu makes his last appearance here and will be gone for the next 9 episodes while he's off making The Green Berets.
I thought it pretty dangerous to take out the androids while nobody else was on board the Enterprise. What if they couldn't reactivate them and get back on board? But then, with the workshops they had there, maybe Scotty could have knocked out a simple craft to achieve orbit and regain the ship, even if it took a while. Or maybe they can gain access to the transporter system. Or maybe the androids already have a transporter of their own, or even have a ship capable of achieving orbit. But such details are never addressed, so, obviously, they found a way and probably knew of one before they took the androids out. Maybe they simply asked them to find out, and only the active androids kept them from escaping.
I might complain these androids are apparently from the Andromeda galaxy, so it's simply beyond me why they'd go so far - suitable planets are not that uncommon. So, again, I suspect the writers are doing something rather needless here. And we'll be visited once more from invaders from that galaxy, though I'm pretty sure it's not the same race.
Once again, Kirk and company beat the computer/android, this time not by logic so much as illogic and irrational behavior. It's pretty funny.
I had given this episode a 6 out of 10, but I'll mark it up half a point since I was chuckling quite a bit by the antics of the crew. 6.5 out of 10. It's light years beyond Mudd's Women.
Here's a story that was more amusing than thought provoking, but if you did stop to think about it, you could ponder on your brain living inside an android body for half a million years while maintaining a youthful appearance, or our entire race being controlled by androids, our more destructive tendencies carefully subdued, doubtlessly while losing a fair degree of our free will under our new android overlords. Then again, just because the body could last half a million years doesn't mean the organic brain would, too (or will it be a mechanical brain?). I forget.
But mostly it was funny. I particularly laughed at the Spock/McCoy exchange since it's usually sacrificed to the gods of commerce (in fact, I'm not sure I even remember all of it). But mostly McCoy expresses his concern for the peculiar nature of the new crewman, a man who didn't wish to discuss his past and who had missed a couple of scheduled medical examinations, but Spock simply thinks it's understandable since the man is probably afraid of McCoy's beads and rattles. I wonder if Spock regretted dismissing McCoy's intuition so lightly after the ship was then commandeered for the next 4 solar days by that "man" - the android, Norman - and they almost lost the whole ship because he was so dismissive of his fellow officer. He didn't say anything about it, but I suspect he developed a better appreciation for McCoy's insight after that.
But I think one of the funniest moments is when Chekov discovers the female androids are programed to work like real women, sexually, it is assumed, and they were programed by the unprincipled cad, Harry Mudd, where upon Chekov declares, "This place is even better than Leningrad!"
At last, somebody who understands orbits, as Norman threatens to destroy the ship's engines while in orbit, so the ship would spend the rest of time in orbit (and not crashing to the surface since it ran out of gas).
The re-mastered shots include the ship about a new planet, of course, and the planet now sports an impressive yellowish hue (I think) and a ring, which is rather nice looking. It's a class K planet, suitable for humans through the use of pressure domes (so Mars would be a K class planet, FYI). Norman's circuitry is also redone, and that's about it.
Side-by-side comparison.
Our beauties of the day include twin sisters, Alyce and Rhae Andrece - (Alice 1-250, and Alice 251-500, respectively).
There are others, but quite frankly, I don't think they hold a candle to these two. Strangely, there were no female androids who were redheads or blondes that I could detect, so apparently Harry Mudd has a thing for brunettes.
Turns out that Roger C. Carmel is the only non-Enterprise crew member to ever play the same character twice in TOS. I would have guessed one of those admirals appeared more than once, and one did, but I see that though one guy did that, he played two different admirals. Carmel will reprise his role once more as he lends his voice to TAS in the episode, Mudd's Passion. FYI, he stole a ship to escape, and that's about all they say on it, though they are attempting to reuse some of the humorous lines from I, Mudd.
Sulu makes his last appearance here and will be gone for the next 9 episodes while he's off making The Green Berets.
I thought it pretty dangerous to take out the androids while nobody else was on board the Enterprise. What if they couldn't reactivate them and get back on board? But then, with the workshops they had there, maybe Scotty could have knocked out a simple craft to achieve orbit and regain the ship, even if it took a while. Or maybe they can gain access to the transporter system. Or maybe the androids already have a transporter of their own, or even have a ship capable of achieving orbit. But such details are never addressed, so, obviously, they found a way and probably knew of one before they took the androids out. Maybe they simply asked them to find out, and only the active androids kept them from escaping.
I might complain these androids are apparently from the Andromeda galaxy, so it's simply beyond me why they'd go so far - suitable planets are not that uncommon. So, again, I suspect the writers are doing something rather needless here. And we'll be visited once more from invaders from that galaxy, though I'm pretty sure it's not the same race.
Once again, Kirk and company beat the computer/android, this time not by logic so much as illogic and irrational behavior. It's pretty funny.
I had given this episode a 6 out of 10, but I'll mark it up half a point since I was chuckling quite a bit by the antics of the crew. 6.5 out of 10. It's light years beyond Mudd's Women.
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That's strange....I don't quite remember Spock's Brain looking like this :
Sexual reproduction does usually take a pair, male and female, though not everything reproduces sexually, and one being may be both, but I think the process has such evolutionary advantages that even if a being weren't a personal participant, the concept wouldn't go unnoticed by most intelligent species. However, we know too little of the Companion's race, or indeed if it is a member of a race instead of a weirdly evolved singular intelligence. It may not have naturally been female, but loved the man, and so took on that gender's identity since that's what the man wanted.
In Cochran's twilight years, he had moved to the Alpha Centauri colony (probably to escape much of his fame and people hounding him for appearances). It was from there he eventually took off for deep space where he wished to die of old age, and so Kirk knew his last address (I guess).
I'd say Commissioner Hedford's life came to a natural end (though the Companion was responsible for the lethal delay, these things happen and her death was not intentional). But she was given a second chance at life, and she did say (before her death) she always wanted love and didn't understand why Cochran was rejecting it. Since her essence went on with the Companion's in a combined being form, I think she found a degree of happiness her former life was lacking. Rather than calling that forced, I'd say it was the better of two alternatives, and, apparently, a desirable one for her.
Metamorphosis
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There wasn't much to re-master in this episode. Kirk didn't even appear on board the Enterprise, which doesn't happen all that often. In fact, this was the only time that happened in the first two seasons, though it will happen 4 more times in season 3. Can you name those episodes?
Trek Trivia
But there were a few new nice shots of the Enterprise and of the Galileo, a class-F shuttlecraft, including the closing shot where the shuttlecraft follows after the Enterprise, which just received orders to take her on board.
Side-by-side comparison
So, I'm guessing they apparently replaced the shuttlecraft that Spock lost (in The Galileo Seven) and gave it the same name and same numbers, which seems weird to me (or this episode is just way out of order). The fact the numbers NCC-1701/7 appear on this shuttle may have confused some earlier about the episode, The Galileo Seven, since I'm pretty sure the "seven" referred to the number of people on board her and not the /7 on the shuttle's side. Still, here it is again (at least according the name and numbers). They'll reuse this shuttle quite a bit, but at some point, they also have the Galileo II make an appearance.
As I understand it, these shuttles are standard equipment for starbases and some ships at this time. The standard compliment of class-F shuttlecrafts aboard a Constitution Class Starship is (can you guess how many?)
Trek Trivia
I imagine they are replaced as quickly as possible when lost, disabled, or destroyed.
The Companion effects were redone a bit, the planetoid from above, and its sky from the surface, and that's about it.
Commissioner Nancy Hedford is our beauty of the day, played by Elinor Donahue.
Elinor Donahue - born 19 April 1937. She is perhaps best remembered for her Emmy Award-nominated role as Betty "Princess" Anderson, the eldest daughter in the popular 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best. Fellow TOS guest actress Jane Wyatt (Amanda Grayson) portrayed her mother on that series, and will play Spock's mother on Star Trek: TOS.
Commissioner Nancy Hedford is another official who seems unreasonable, but since she's sick, we'll cut her some slack.
In this episode, we'll meet Zefram Cochrane, the legendary inventor of warp drive (or FTL travel, or hyperdrive, or the gravimetric displacement field manifold), who apparently moved to some place in Alpha Centauri in his latter years since Kirk knows him from there and not as a native of Earth, which he really is. But he's been stuck on this unusual planetoid for over 150 years, being mentally sexed up by his Companion, an interesting and apparently unique life form native to that planetoid, and who sounds, via the universal translator, suspiciously like Lt. Palmer.
I'm betting as a communications officer, Palmer lent her voice to the universal translator at some point, so maybe that's why it sounds like that when translating "females."
BTW, Sulu appears here, but only because they aired them out of the order they made them. Like I said, he's off making a movie at this time.
This wasn't a bad story - just not a lot of action. I've never really been jazzed about this episode, though it's not really a bad one. I gave it about a 5 out of 10. It might deserve more since it suggests and shows, perhaps, the evolution of Humanity's attitude toward other species and interspecies relationships over the last 150 years in space. Therefore, the message is, in many instances, outward appearances are not all that important or as important as other things, which is a good message, I believe, and even gender relations may be more fluid, and non traditional ones are not "disgusting," but I don't think they were going for the more fluid gender message at the time so much as race and appearances are not that important. Considering the importance of this/these message/s, I'd now rate this episode a 6 out of 10.
Trek Trivia
The Paradise Syndrome
Plato's Stepchildren
Whom Gods Destroy
All Our Yesterdays.
Plato's Stepchildren
Whom Gods Destroy
All Our Yesterdays.
But there were a few new nice shots of the Enterprise and of the Galileo, a class-F shuttlecraft, including the closing shot where the shuttlecraft follows after the Enterprise, which just received orders to take her on board.
Side-by-side comparison
So, I'm guessing they apparently replaced the shuttlecraft that Spock lost (in The Galileo Seven) and gave it the same name and same numbers, which seems weird to me (or this episode is just way out of order). The fact the numbers NCC-1701/7 appear on this shuttle may have confused some earlier about the episode, The Galileo Seven, since I'm pretty sure the "seven" referred to the number of people on board her and not the /7 on the shuttle's side. Still, here it is again (at least according the name and numbers). They'll reuse this shuttle quite a bit, but at some point, they also have the Galileo II make an appearance.
As I understand it, these shuttles are standard equipment for starbases and some ships at this time. The standard compliment of class-F shuttlecrafts aboard a Constitution Class Starship is (can you guess how many?)
Trek Trivia
Four. IIRC, this was/will be mentioned in The Omega Glory.
I imagine they are replaced as quickly as possible when lost, disabled, or destroyed.
The Companion effects were redone a bit, the planetoid from above, and its sky from the surface, and that's about it.
Commissioner Nancy Hedford is our beauty of the day, played by Elinor Donahue.
Elinor Donahue - born 19 April 1937. She is perhaps best remembered for her Emmy Award-nominated role as Betty "Princess" Anderson, the eldest daughter in the popular 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best. Fellow TOS guest actress Jane Wyatt (Amanda Grayson) portrayed her mother on that series, and will play Spock's mother on Star Trek: TOS.
Commissioner Nancy Hedford is another official who seems unreasonable, but since she's sick, we'll cut her some slack.
In this episode, we'll meet Zefram Cochrane, the legendary inventor of warp drive (or FTL travel, or hyperdrive, or the gravimetric displacement field manifold), who apparently moved to some place in Alpha Centauri in his latter years since Kirk knows him from there and not as a native of Earth, which he really is. But he's been stuck on this unusual planetoid for over 150 years, being mentally sexed up by his Companion, an interesting and apparently unique life form native to that planetoid, and who sounds, via the universal translator, suspiciously like Lt. Palmer.
I'm betting as a communications officer, Palmer lent her voice to the universal translator at some point, so maybe that's why it sounds like that when translating "females."
BTW, Sulu appears here, but only because they aired them out of the order they made them. Like I said, he's off making a movie at this time.
This wasn't a bad story - just not a lot of action. I've never really been jazzed about this episode, though it's not really a bad one. I gave it about a 5 out of 10. It might deserve more since it suggests and shows, perhaps, the evolution of Humanity's attitude toward other species and interspecies relationships over the last 150 years in space. Therefore, the message is, in many instances, outward appearances are not all that important or as important as other things, which is a good message, I believe, and even gender relations may be more fluid, and non traditional ones are not "disgusting," but I don't think they were going for the more fluid gender message at the time so much as race and appearances are not that important. Considering the importance of this/these message/s, I'd now rate this episode a 6 out of 10.
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Great trivia question about Kirk not appearing on board the Enterprise. I got three of the four S3 eps and should have guessed the other.
I wish Spock and Kirk would have loosened their dress uniform collars while on the bridge, like one might loosen a tie. I think it would have added some realism.
I think the recognizable "Vulcan" music was pretty well done, actually. Star Trek is so great for its theme based incidental music. Another great piece is the Klingon battle music from TMP which came to be used elsewhere. Check out the first 60 seconds of this:
Sure, patrol sectors don't sound too much like exploring, but they do both duties - mostly they come in when a show of strength is required. Federation Heavy Battle Cruisers like Constitution Class Starships are not to be taken lightly, and being transported on a ship of the line, so to speak, is quite an honor that speaks well of one's own status, and is an appropriate degree of protection for over 100 valued guests.
However, one does not put security guards on honored guests. That would be treating them like suspects or criminals. You have to live with higher risks when you value freedom. And wouldn't a comm in the brig itself just invite prisoners to bother you all the time? A room just off the corridor does seem a little foolish, like they want prisoners to be on display, but this seems to be at the end of the corridor and around the corner, so it's in a dead end. Also, they may have more than one brig, some of them more secure than others, but I would think one should be sufficient.
Journey To Babel
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I liked this episode, but have always felt it had two stories running in it and at very different speeds. There's the wonderful but slower paced emotional background for Spock and his family and their interpersonal difficulties and estrangements that have been going on for nearly half of Spock's entire life (since he was 20 and joined Starfleet academy - he's 38 here), and the quicker paced action of a murdering spy on board and an alien hostile ship with apparently superior capabilities dogging the Enterprise. The switching back and forth between the two main themes and repeatedly changing gears like that doesn't flow as well as I'd like, but both are fine by themselves, and quite exciting at times.
McCoy and sickbay and "modern" medical tech play an important part of the story, too, and there is a wonderful intense moment or two in sickbay while Bones conducts surgery on Ambassador Sarek and Spock during an alien attack, saving both their lives (and the dramatic heartbeat setting the pace - I love that, even if a Vulcan heartbeat probably should sound quite different from a human one). Oh yes, they mention the "sterilization" field - just turn it on, I guess. How cool is that? Many a surgeon would probably give their left, well . . . , just to have that tech. Still, I'm a little surprised dermal regenerator or the like can't do more for a flesh wound. It is, however, quite deep, and probably more realistic for a change they can't just tech it away.
And we also get to see many alien species, including all four of the major races that started the Federation of Planets (Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites,) so that's a very important part of Trek.
I personally greatly enjoyed the Andorian race in Star Trek: Enterprise, particularly Commander Shran, one of the greatest Trek characters I've seen in a while.
But in this episode, the andorian ambassador comes right out and says, as a matter of fact, my race is a violent race. Is. Not used to be or anything like that - but a violent race. Of course he personally seemed old and somewhat meek, but with age comes wisdom, and ambassadors, of all people, are probably less prone to violence than most, so that was understandable.
The planets of the Coridan system are mentioned, which is shown/used as an important location for subsequent Trek series episodes (past and future), so that's good to know and something to watch for while viewing those series.
One of the best parts of the episode shows Kirk beating the alien opponent not with the might of a starship or superior technology, but with clever tactics and fighting skills. It's an inspiration to see what a Starship commander can do, and why, perhaps, only one in a million men could do that job. He also did best the spy in hand-to-hand, but almost died, too, so while he did win, it wasn't exactly something to brag about. Still, Kirk's reflexes and hand-to-hand combat training must be impressive since he obviously survived a likely sneak attack, fended it off, and went on to fight the spy - a battle we only joined in progress. Kirk is no armchair captain, and most starfleet personnel probably at least start out as pretty physically fit, so that's something to consider. Most starfleet personnel likely have at least basic combat training, even doctor McCoy, and we see him handily dispatch a few people here and there in other episodes.
There's also mention of numbered shields, so that gives up some insight into how the shields might work that protect the ship. Probably various strategically placed shield emitters. I found that interesting.
The re-mastered shots include a shuttle craft on approach to dock with the Enterprise. It's the Galileo again, and you can see the Columbus parked off to the side, too. With some shots from the hanger deck looking out, one can see the planet Vulcan (which is an unusual way to see a planet). We also have a more detailed rendition of the Orion suicide attack vessel, but it's still not much to look at.
Side-by-side comparison.
The phasers tracking the speedy ship is pretty cool and a wonderful addition, even though they still cleanly miss.
I've given this episode a 7 out of 10 before, but because of important material in it, background for characters, re-mastered shots, and other reasons, I'd go as high as an 8 out of 10.
McCoy and sickbay and "modern" medical tech play an important part of the story, too, and there is a wonderful intense moment or two in sickbay while Bones conducts surgery on Ambassador Sarek and Spock during an alien attack, saving both their lives (and the dramatic heartbeat setting the pace - I love that, even if a Vulcan heartbeat probably should sound quite different from a human one). Oh yes, they mention the "sterilization" field - just turn it on, I guess. How cool is that? Many a surgeon would probably give their left, well . . . , just to have that tech. Still, I'm a little surprised dermal regenerator or the like can't do more for a flesh wound. It is, however, quite deep, and probably more realistic for a change they can't just tech it away.
And we also get to see many alien species, including all four of the major races that started the Federation of Planets (Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites,) so that's a very important part of Trek.
I personally greatly enjoyed the Andorian race in Star Trek: Enterprise, particularly Commander Shran, one of the greatest Trek characters I've seen in a while.
But in this episode, the andorian ambassador comes right out and says, as a matter of fact, my race is a violent race. Is. Not used to be or anything like that - but a violent race. Of course he personally seemed old and somewhat meek, but with age comes wisdom, and ambassadors, of all people, are probably less prone to violence than most, so that was understandable.
The planets of the Coridan system are mentioned, which is shown/used as an important location for subsequent Trek series episodes (past and future), so that's good to know and something to watch for while viewing those series.
One of the best parts of the episode shows Kirk beating the alien opponent not with the might of a starship or superior technology, but with clever tactics and fighting skills. It's an inspiration to see what a Starship commander can do, and why, perhaps, only one in a million men could do that job. He also did best the spy in hand-to-hand, but almost died, too, so while he did win, it wasn't exactly something to brag about. Still, Kirk's reflexes and hand-to-hand combat training must be impressive since he obviously survived a likely sneak attack, fended it off, and went on to fight the spy - a battle we only joined in progress. Kirk is no armchair captain, and most starfleet personnel probably at least start out as pretty physically fit, so that's something to consider. Most starfleet personnel likely have at least basic combat training, even doctor McCoy, and we see him handily dispatch a few people here and there in other episodes.
There's also mention of numbered shields, so that gives up some insight into how the shields might work that protect the ship. Probably various strategically placed shield emitters. I found that interesting.
The re-mastered shots include a shuttle craft on approach to dock with the Enterprise. It's the Galileo again, and you can see the Columbus parked off to the side, too. With some shots from the hanger deck looking out, one can see the planet Vulcan (which is an unusual way to see a planet). We also have a more detailed rendition of the Orion suicide attack vessel, but it's still not much to look at.
Side-by-side comparison.
The phasers tracking the speedy ship is pretty cool and a wonderful addition, even though they still cleanly miss.
I've given this episode a 7 out of 10 before, but because of important material in it, background for characters, re-mastered shots, and other reasons, I'd go as high as an 8 out of 10.
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