TOS Rewatch

[JRTStarlight]

Friday's Child

I like the history of McCoy's service before serving on a ship. So is it Starfleet custom to offer medical services to plainly primitive peoples in this time period? Could be part of how the prime directive came about. It also offers some interesting possibilities for Discovery.

That's possibly the worst trained security officer ever.

Sulu's line delivery sounded oddly southern for a moment there.

That was a really passive aggressive display for a warrior people.

So how is saying 'Let that [fighting] be your choice' and then launching a surprise coup in the middle of the night not a lie? Seems like it ought to have been beneath these people's honor code.

I didn't think I remembered this episode at all, but now that I see the mountains and the pregnant woman it's all come back to me. Looking forward to 'The child is yours!'

Spock's face when he catches McCoy and the girl is absolutely priceless.

I like how they use sound as a weapon. I would've liked to see more of that kind of out of the box use of science through the rest of the franchise.

Acting Captain Scott is delivering another excellent Enterprise b-plot. He's actually a very entertaining captain in his own right. It's kind of a shame he never has his own command. Though I think he might've stayed on the first distress call a bit too long and dismissed the second one a tad too easily.

It's nice that Maab does at least own up to his mistake in trusting the Klingons over the Earthmen. Kind of weird that a strength obsessed people would follow a woman speaking on behalf of a baby, though.

Overall, it was a decent episode. Slightly schlocky, more in the funny to laugh at style than anything else (like Shore Leave).

There are exceptions to the prime directive. Mostly, this is a starfleet order, but I don't think it applies to regular Federation citizens, and certainly not to all warp capable species. As such, other more advanced societies may have already indoctrinated that more primitive culture with the knowledge of life beyond their own world. The Klingons certainly are in the area, so it seems reasonable that is what happened. Therefore, making contact with them was more acceptable. Furthermore, there is a vitally important mineral there, and if as I believe, that culture is already contaminated with outside knowledge and influence, it's not so hard to understand making overtures toward trade. In any event, Kirk is ordered there, so any notion Kirk violated the prime directive would be misplaced. A better argument might be the Federation is hypocritical if they are willing to ignore the prime directive when the natives have something they really want, but like I suspect, contact had been made with them already by other warp capable species, so the cultural harm would be minimal. In fact, if anything, by protecting them with Federation laws, as Kirk suggested, further cultural harm would be minimized - such as the planet being plundered by the Klingon Empire.

Of greater interest in the sheer racism displayed by the security guard toward the Klingon. It gets him killed, and everyone would be, oh no, but try just putting some other ethnic individual in place of the Klingon and see just how wrong that lieutenant's actions were. Sadly, his phaser was probably on stun, but nobody could count on that.

We can't be sure who started that fight. Some say it was a coup, but there is no evidence of that. Perhaps Akaar or his men made the attack since Maab and his men wouldn't acquiesce, so Akaar thought it best to wipe out those who dared challenge his leadership and he attacked.

Scotty knew the second distress call was too conveniently timed to be real with a high degree of certainty, but even then he ordered it logged as his responsibility, so that was cool.

Friday's Child

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I've always liked this episode - there was an interesting throwing weapon, the Kleegat, and it was fun to pretend to toss those around as a kid. You just had to side arm anything handy and make the throwing noise.

It was nice to hear the Klingon, Kras - played by Tige Andrews - make a satisfactory scream or two, too. He had it coming.

But his character had to die so Tige could go on to run The Mod Squad.

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Then there's Kirk Raymone. He's only a bit player, but he appears twice in TOS. First, here, as Buur (the Capellan who was disappointed Captain Kirk didn't touch his female relative and offer him combat) and later as a guard in The Cloud Minders.

I only mention him for two reasons. First, here's a guy in TOS who is actually named Kirk in real life, and second, Everybody Loves Raymone.

And again, McCoy is a doctor and not something else. In this case, he's a doctor and not an escalator, which is strange since he's probably in charge of morale aboard ship, and as such, he probably should be quite . . . uplifting.

Our Beauty of the Day is Julie Newmar, who wasn't a bad little kitty.

Oochie woochie coochie coo.

New re-mastered shots include the Enterprise, of course, Capella IV, the latest planet, the inclusion of a distant but now recognizable D7 Class Klingon Destroyer, a reworked view screen above the science station, a corrected shot that now shows the correct science station controls (rather than navigation controls), and updated phaser effects.

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There's some wonderful humorous moments, particularly as Kirk and McCoy are proud of their namesake, the new High Teer, Leonard James Akaar, and Spock's belief his two friends will be insufferably pleased with themselves for at least a month.

I have to believe the prime directive doesn't come into play here since the Capellans already know about space travelers from other civilizations. Otherwise you might wonder, WTF? And regardless, Kirk was ordered there, so if the PD was violated, it was Kirk who did it, technically.

I had given this episode a lowly 6 of 10 before, but I think it's better than that. The humor, the updates, the introduction of Sulu's gooseneck retractable viewer, and a little more history for Bones.

I'm going to go with 6.5, maybe even 7 out of 10.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

By Any Other Name

That's a really pretty matte painting.

Well, that's the most hilariously awkward entrance ever.

The Kelvans are another pleasantly competent race who don't wait around talking before setting their plan into motion.

Reducing people to little cubes of a minerals was a real fad in 50s/60s scifi.

Spock can mindmeld through a rock wall?

I like the idea of spacefaring tentacle monsters. It's a shame they didn't have the budget to actually show them.

I love how you can constantly see Kirk in the background distracting the Kelvan officer while Spock and Scotty try to get into the Kelvan machine.

It's weird that after neutralizing the crew, they just leave them sitting in the hallway.

"It's Green." - best line in Trek history. James Doohan did a hilarious job with that entire scene.

I like how the proved to the Kelvans that humanity was infecting them, but if I were a Federation citizen I think I would have to question the wisdom of Kirk's strategy. First of all, the Kelvins could have just as easily shed their human forms for something different as give in and turn back. Yes, tempting them with human pleasure was neat, but temptation is no guarantee. Secondly, that robot ship they're sending out won't be dealing with humanoid Kelvans - it'll be dealing with massive chthulhuesque master race conquerors who probably would find the existence of the humanoid Kelvan colony an insult and the Enterprise's triumph an open challenge. Mid 29th century may very well see the worst interstellar war in Federation history.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

The Omega Glory

Apparently the karate chop is standard combat training for prospective captains.

The 'immunization' excuse is medical nonsense. Just because the landing party can safely leave without dying doesn't mean they won't infect the crew in doing so - you'd have to bring the entire crew down to be immunized first. And they still couldn't interact with anyone who hadn't been immunized.

Also kind of bizarre how a strong immune system magically leads to a 1000+ year life span. Being immune to disease isn't the same thing is being immune to aging.

Overall I thought this one was alright. I never cared for the 'alternate earth' storylines where we're supposed to believe that convergent evolution can create the exact same species AND history on totally unrelated planets just so that one can make choice a and the other choice b. Captain Tracy was definitely an excellent guest star, and one of the few tactical minds we've seen as truly matching Kirk in the dept. His attempts to gain favor with the locals even to the very end were brilliant. But the Yangs vs. Kohms idea wasn't all that exciting to me and Kirk's response at the end was classic self-serving bs. He interfered in the culture just like Tracy did, just with more idealism.

I was surprised, though, that the Yangs were convinced by the transporter when the landing party was led by Sulu. That ought to have been seen as proof that Kirk was in league with Kohms.

 

[JRTStarlight]

The Deadly Years

Are six people really a colony?

Shouldn't the human characters all be at absolute max age before Spock even starts to be seriously affected?

So in this episode, removing the Captain requires an entire hearing that only Spock can convene (despite Spock also being unfit for duty), yet Commodore Decker could legally take command when he saw fit?

Risking war with the Romulans just to get to a starbase a little faster? I'm beginning to see why Spock didn't want this guy in charge.

The Romulan ship looks gorgeous in this episode. I always loved that design.

It's nice to see Kirk's selfless command instincts surviving even through such an altered mental state.

Also funny how Kirk's solution not only brings up Code 2 again but also calls back to The Corbomite Maneuver. At this point I wonder: are the other species in the AQ all convinced that the Federation actually does have some super Corbomite weapon because of how often Kirk used the same bluff?

Shouldn't the treatment of the others have been taken with a little more care? 1 success story isn't proven safe, after all. And Spock's body shouldn't necessarily even react the same way as a full-blooded human.

It is nice to see an incompetent commander actually learn a valuable lesson and come away better for it.

Overall I'd say it's a solid episode. It didn't really draw me in much, but there wasn't a lot that bothered me either.

"Colony" has several possible meanings, one simply being a group of similar things, like research scientists, perhaps. Obviously, this was not a settlement colony with an eye toward a growing population but a research colony.

Everyone ages differently, and while Spock can endure much longer, he'd show signs of aging right away, too - just not enough to as quickly incapacitate him due to senility or infirmity, but due to his human half, it probably is hitting him harder than a full vulcan. 125 degrees is staggeringly hot. I don't see how humans could endure any appreciable length of time on Vulcan at all if that's a typical "comfortable" temperature. I think they "over did" it there again, and would suggest Spock was exaggerating.

Commodore Stocker had rank, but no field experience. I'm not sure he could take command from any field officer of command rank (lt. commander or higher - i.e. senior officers) even with his rank, but every one of them was afflicted, leaving only lieutenants or below, or junior officers. It seems he can take command from such a low ranking officer, even though it was clear Sulu had more field experience (even Chekov knew more about Romulans than he did, and considering he was to take command of a starbase bordering the neutral zone, that seems unlikely. Maybe he's "connected.") But Sulu's been left in command before, too, so Stocker was a fool. At least he admitted as much and learned from his mistake.

The Deadly Years

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A fun little story with some humor and an exciting ending. Of course I have a problem with this or most other "unnatural" aging stories, as I doubt one's hair would turn grey or white, or turn back in such a short order, even if the follicles starting producing hair of that color. It would take the time that hair takes to naturally grow that length, at best. Skin, hair, nails, etc. just wouldn't do that, and I doubt simple radiation would have such an effect, either. So I think the premise is very unlikely. But, leaving that aside, I enjoyed this episode, and the exciting ending immensely.

There's the standard remastering of the ship and the planet it's orbiting, of course, but a pitch battle with up to 10 Romulan warbirds of prey later on is just great (though I think we only see 5 or 6 at most, Sulu says there's a maximum of 10, and I believe him). The remastered effects of the Romulan weaponry hitting the Enterprise's shields, a new sound effect, I believe, of the torpedoes hitting the shields, and multiple war birds flying around the ship, surrounding her, is just so much better than the old footage (none of which was even new for that episode, but simply reused footage from a couple of other episodes). I think we may have seen one Romulan bird of prey before, and repeated stock footage of a couple of shots hitting the underside of the main saucer. This new stuff is so much better, IMO.

One may wonder, of course, why a single Romulan blast (at extreme range) nearly destroyed the Enterprise in Balance Of Terror but dozens of shots don't have the same crippling effect here. Me too. I can only assume these warbirds are NOT armed with the same experimental plasma weapon (despite the fact they look similar), or the Federation has since greatly enhanced their shield technology, perhaps specifically for that plasma weapon, and therefore can stand in a pounding match or fire fight much longer.

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One thing to watch in this episode is one of Kirk's character flaws. He doesn't handle losing command very well, nor recognize his own failings soon enough and voluntarily step down, even when not doing so endangered his ship and his crew, and he seems a bit paranoid, too, thinking his friend Spock enjoyed taking his command from him. Maybe his affliction is the problem, or maybe he's a bit like that at his core and so naturally assumes some other people are, too. Luckily, his better character shines through in the end. When he learned Spock hadn't actually taken command, he put his petty feelings aside and thought first of the ship's wellbeing and wanted Spock to be in charge. If not Kirk, then Spock should be, for the good of the ship. And later, in the style of Horatio Hornblower that mystifies normal men, Kirk insisted he take the first shot, seeing clearly the situation - he'd die anyway if he couldn't get to the bridge and take command, sizing up the full logical ramification of each possible outcome. A lethal shot, or death by Romulans, or death by old age, it didn't matter, so give me the shot. Spock, of course, is right there beside him and knows it is logically the right move, while Bones and the others lag behind.

Kirk: No, I'll take the first shot.
Bones: You can't.
Dr. Wallace: Jim, it could kill you.
Kirk: I'll die anyway.
Spock: Dr. Wallace, give him the shot.

It's a great scene. They had wanted to de-age Jim as he hurried toward the bridge, finally becoming fully young just as he entered the bridge, but, of course, that would have been too hard to film and too expensive to do, and not quite as realistic, either, as if knowing the outcome would be good before he left sickbay was a foregone conclusion.

Doctor McCoy gets aged here, but he'll do it again for TNG's premier episode.

I seem to recall reading the McCoy character actually died shortly after this TNG episode. Well, you gotta die sometime. And, sadly, later on, DeForest Kelly was one of the first original cast members to pass away. RIP, Dee.

Weirdly, his southern accent comes out when he's older, so I assume he normally suppresses it when he's conscious of his actions, but when he's relaxed or doddering a bit, it'll come through. So, Bones really is an old country doctor.

And Laura Wood is used twice in TOS - first as a crewman Charlie X made old, and then in this episode as the 27-year old, Elaine Johnson. I assume she's some older gal and most of that isn't makeup, but I dunno.

We learn of Spacegrams or Stargrams (Kirk sent Dr. Wallace one when her husband died). Given Kirk's age (34 here) and that Dr. Wallace and he had broken up 6 years ago, she can't have been the little blonde technition Gary Mitchell had aimed at young Lt. Kirk.

Uhura's intials (plural) are mentioned, though not specifically, so she has a first name, obviously, and people there probably know it - they just never use it in TOS. Abrams later makes it Nyota. So N.U. graces many official communication documents around there, and this gives a whole new meaning to the term, NUtrek.

And the saving command.

Warp Factor 8 . . . NOW! (It's always cool when Kirk's voice of command echoes throughout the entire ship).

I've always wondered why warp 8 and not warp 9. But I guess warp 8 may still be pushing the envelope in season two, and maybe they regularly achieve warp 9 or higher later on.

You can pick the beauty of the day between Dr. Janet Wallace (played by Sarah Marshall, whom we won't forget ) and Yeoman Doris Atkins (played by Carolyn Nelson).

This episode has gone from a 6 to a 6.5 out of 10, just for the much better special effects during the final battle. If I felt better about the premise, it would have been higher, but, well, it's a bit silly - more science fantasy than science fiction, IMO.

 

[JRTStarlight]

Obsession:

Smelling like honey is enough to id a space creature? As opposed to, say, honey (or the millions of other things that smell sweet)?

Kirk's characterization is always a little over the top in the acting dept., but this episode is taking it too far. Not only does he seem highly suspect in the captain's chair, but also he's basically ceased to be a likable character at all for the first half of the episode.

Once again removal from command is brought up. It seems to have been a theme for the writers this season. I liked the way it was done here best - with respect and a certain amount of ambiguity - as much a tool to get the captain back on track as to get rid of him.

Logical Spock tries to block a vent that size with his hands? Someone should've calculated the odds of success for him. Although that would've been an interesting opportunity for him to mind meld with the cloud.

Spock setting the trap really would make more sense than two vulnerable humans with no defense capabilities. Kirk came up with the original plan; he could come up with the back up plan if necessary.

Overall, this was an underwhelming episode. It wasn't bad, necessarily. There were some honestly good parts as well (I also liked Ensign Garrovick's story, in general). But I can't call it a good episode, personally.

Obsession

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This is their second take on Moby Dick - their first was better - that is The Doomsday Machine was better, with Commodore Decker in Ahab's role (though he played it more as Lt. Cmdr. Philip Francis Queeg from The Caine Mutiny than as Ahab). This, however, was Kirk's turn to play Ahab, with him after his personal white whale, the vampire cloud creature that killed half the crew of the U.S.S. Farragut 11 years earlier back when Kirk was a young Lieutenant on his first deep space mission. Such an event, IMO, forged this man and made him the superior Starfleet officer his is today, and without it and 10 years of experience - (cough - Abrams) - I don't think he'd really appreciate the burdens of command the way he does now or be the great captain that he is. It is said in the mirror universe, evil Kirk arranged to let the creature kill captain Garrovick and half the crew for the humiliations he suffered under that man and crew. Evil Kirk might be the man he is today, too, because of that earlier encounter - a real bastard.

And this won't be the last time Trek toys with Herman Melville's classic. Both Khan and Picard have their white whales, too.

While this is a very good episode, I couldn't help but cringe at most of the numbers being toss about so glibly. Examples would include the fact the Enterprise travels 1,000 light years in pursuit of this creature in less than a few days (it should take a year or more at warp 9 to travel that distance in that time). Not to mention they come back, so that would take another year. I will say, though, the added speed they have the "stars" zipping by on the main viewer while they travel at warp 8 is impressive, just as their escape form the Romulans in The Deadly Years. You really get a feeling of greater speed than you ever have before in those remastered segments.

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Later, Spock orbits out to 30,000 Km (well outside the atmosphere) but the Enterprise is hit with atmospheric shock waves while half the planet's atmosphere is ripped away. There may have been some force from the blast at near light speed as it interacted with the shields, but this shock came many seconds later, so what kind of shock wave travels in the vacuum of space at 30,000 Km above the surface of a planet and outside its atmosphere? Then they use one ounce of anti-matter (which, when combined with one ounce of matter, would produce a decent explosion, but no where near as powerful as they depict). E=mc^2 - you know. One gram would produce a blast about 3 times bigger than the Hiroshima nuke, and one ounce is 30 times that, so it's a blast of about 1.3 Megatons (which, coincidentally, is about the size of the largest nuke in service in the U.S. today - and this would make a cobalt bomb, of which this would be like 10,000 of those - a pretty puny device). I'm not saying you want to have your lips on that when it goes off, but it seems small. So an ounce of anti-matter released into the environment could level a decent city, but not an entire continent. For comparison, an overloaded impulse engine could produce a blast of about 98 Megatons, or 75 times stronger than this, and that's still pretty small, too, on a planetary scale. Nevertheless, blasts of this magnitude would not rip away half the atmosphere of a planet, nor leave that kind of crater/scar (which was still pretty DAMN cool in the remastered version, but not done in the original).

Furthermore, photon torpedoes are ALREADY matter-anti-matter explosions, and they didn't seem too effective earlier in the episode, so why it works here is a bit of a mystery. Maybe they caught the creature "off guard," or the antimatter was intended to mix with the matter of the creature, so the proximity made the difference. They are never too clear about how big a yield these torpedoes have, and they can be adjusted downwards, but I'll talk more on that a bit later. But the scene of the torpedo blasts coming back to rock the ship is pretty gripping. I love the way ensign Garrovick anticipates the blowback and hangs on to the back of Chekov's chair before they fire. He knows it's coming, so he hangs on.

Anyway, the numbers are pure horsy shite. And like much Trek to come, they freely use fictitious elements (rather than compounds, which would be easier to believe, so one wonders why they even do it). The chemical "elements" of Dikironium and Tritanium make their appearances here. I gather there are 323 known chemical "elements" in the Trek universe, but I imagine most of those are not naturally occurring and have extremely short half-lives. Some of them may be the names of their matter counterparts that are composed of anti-matter or anti-particles - and some may have multi-dimensional, subspace, or even temporal components. Mostly it's fantasy, but we're not in a good position to say with 100% certainty that it's completely groundless, given our limited knowledge of science.

Despite all that probable nonsense, the story is pretty decent. Unfortunately, it is too similar to The Doomsday Machine in many respects to rate it as highly, plus it carries all the additional baggage of bad math and bad science and story flaws - even if it does come closer to Moby Dick in some ways. The climax of a hinky transporter during a blast and the identical incidental music to the other TDM episode in a similar situation is why this story breaks no new ground for me on those levels. And grendelsbayne is right - 'twas foolish not to use Spock and his apparent immunity to bait the trap, though at least Kirk gave his reason - if he fails, it will fall to Spock to be more clever and find a scientific solution.

But, putting that aside, since most of the mistakes are NOT blatantly obvious, and for most people would require familiarity with TDM episode, and time, a calculator, and/or some reference materials to realize how bad they even are, we aren't too distracted by the nonsense and can enjoy the majority of the story without being taken out of the moment. We'll just have to assume some numbers were badly reported in the official reports.

We learn Spock has copper based blood (and it's green). Isn't that interesting? Even more interesting is the way I think he picks up on Kirk's suggestion to help Garrovick realize his slight delay did not cause the death of his friend.

KIRK: If you want to play analyst, Spock, use someone else, not me. (i.e. Garrovick?)

McCoy is wandering around in his blue uniform as usual, but it sports an engineering insignia in the Enterprise Emblem for some reason. Old uniform/costume/prop from the old times.

Leslie finally dies, but worry not, since he'll appear again later. I'm going to assume it was a cousin or younger brother of Lt. Leslie's since this one was an ensign and Leslie was a Lt. before - damn strong family resemblance those Leslie boys have, isn't it? Poor Lt. Leslie lost his brother or cousin and nobody made a big deal of it.

We learn the polite way to ask your captain if he's lost his mind and perhaps should step down from command, and so he can't officially reprimand you for asking such a potentially insubordinate thing. That was pretty decent.

We also learn the phasers have a "Disrupter" setting, B. Worth noting.

There's the "A.I.D." cleanup for the impulse engine vents - we're still trying to figure out exactly what that means.

About Photon Torpedoes.

Spoiler

One may wonder why they sometimes say firing them at too close a range will damage their own ship, but they seem to do just that at other times without a problem. Well, when a Borg cube with shields is hammering you at close quarters, you just can't use them, but if the enemy ship and your ship both don't have shields, you can lower the torpedo yield to minimum and possibly fire at a ship and do considerable damage, and yet not suffer blowback, as Kirk did in The Wrath of Khan when he blasted the crap out of the U.S.S. Reliant. Lowering the yield so as to not suffer blowback would do no good against a ship with shields, obviously, so why even try that? You wouldn't. But you could shoot at an unshielded ship like that, and he did exactly that since both ships couldn't use their shields in the nebula. Normally, one photon torpedo at maximum yield would utterly destroy an unshielded ship, or even phasers would disintegrate it, but when you don't have shields yourself, there is no way you could survive the assault yourself if you used torpedoes at full strength. It would be like standing next to a nuclear blast.

I had given this episode an 8 out of 10 before (lower than the 9 out of 10 for The Doomsday Machine, but I revise this episode down to 7 out of 10 for the similarities and bad math and bad science, and yet increase it 0.5 points for new effects. That really is a magnificent blast crater on the planet in the remastered version. Obviously, they just used much more antimatter than they said, and the Enterprise was much lower so they could get a transporter lock amid all that radiation, and they couldn't use their shields, either, while transporting Kirk and Garrovick, so the shock was real, large, coming, and it was a calculated risk. Ah, so much better when it makes sense. And the planet was likely more a planetoid or a dwarf planet, at best.

That karate chop is a standard move for starfleet, apparently. Not as eloquent as a Vulcan nerve pinch, but it gets the job done. Still, Garrovick was a fool to hit his captain like that. Inexperience.

No new beauties, either. That's nearly unforgivable. I guess the story was too engrossing to need the cheerleaders.

So, all in all, a 7.5 out of 10.

 

[Phaser Two]

Good reviews/thoughts. Although there are similar themes, I've never really made much of a comparison between "The Doomsday Machine" and "Obsession" before, except to note that Constitution-class starships (assuming that's what the Farragut was) certainly get themselves into a lot of trouble. Whereas Decker's plan to take on the planet-killer was reckless and illogical, only the somewhat contrived Theta Seven medical supplies issue gives anyone grounds to question what Kirk is doing here. And I always wondered why the Yorktown couldn't just take the medical supplies to Theta Seven itself. Kirk's need to convince the crew of the existential threat posed by the cloud creature and its potential offspring makes for good drama, but it's not really comparable to The Doomsday Machine because Kirk isn't really obsessed and his actions make pretty good sense. However, I still love "Obsession," even if it's misnamed a bit, because there are so many interesting military touches and information about how the ship functions, while taking into account the dodgy science of the antimatter blast.

I've been guessing for a while what an AID cleanup is too. Something-something-dilithium? And it never sounded to me like a particularly good idea to flush radioactive waste into the ventilation system.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

The Ultimate Computer

Classic computer wargames plot dead ahead. Why remove the crew from the equation entirely when the computer hasn't actually been fully tested yet? It would be far more logical to have everyone at their stations monitoring what happens in case the computer starts making mistakes.

Spock just predicted the EMH.

Chekov being reduced to reporting actions instead of acting is pretty funny.

'Captain Dunsel'... Wow, that Commodore really is trying to piss Kirk off.

Could Daystrom move any slower in trying to shut the computer down.

This was actually a pretty great episode. I really like everything with the crew feeling obsolete and Kirk even wondering if his reaction to the computer is petty. Daystrom is actually a really solid guest star and a wonderfully unique character. His extreme self-identification with the computer is actually a surprising and truly effective twist. I kind of wish we could see more of him. I love the fact that the computer isn't evil or even necessarily beyond redemption, and the fact that it wasn't actually defeated but simply reasoned with. Also watching Kirk and his crew forced to stand by and watch while the M5 kills Starfleet officers is one of the most gut-wrenching high tension scenes in the series. This is definitely my favorite of all the computer centered episodes so far.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Bread and Circuses

Roman planet speaking English. Yet Spock calls it a 'Complete Earth Parallel'? It's honestly weird for Spock to even notice English in the first place - literally all the aliens on the show speak it, yet now it's somehow unusual?

Merrick washed out of Starfleet and took a job on a merchant ship, but is still subject to the Prime Directive. Definitely not just for Starfleet officers.

The low quality of old tv fight scenes notwithstanding, it's truly disturbing to see slave combat narrated like a ball game and rewarded with canned laughter and worry over ratings. The whole entertainment industry aspect of it is borderline brilliant.

Dragging out the casualties of war list isn't really a logical comparison if you completely ignore all the casualties from 2000 years of daily gladiatorial games and regular executions.

Funny how Kirk always tells Scotty to do things faster than possible, but when Chekov says something will take some time , Scotty just says 'Let it take time, Lad.'

Merrick is actually a pretty interesting take on the captain gone bad trope - he doesn't really want any of this. He has no high ideals in his head. He's just resigned to his part in the world. The roman flair immediately brings to mind thoughts of Pontius Pilate. Though Merrick does at least do the right thing in the end.

No one picked up that communicator. It's A Piece of the Action all over again.

Overall a much better episode than I expected. All solid actors, an interesting new concept in the locals trying to force the crew to assimilate in order to prevent knowledge of the planet from spreading, and a pretty fascinating and well thought out concept of what Rome could look like in the 20th century (as long as you look past the ridiculous convergent evolution aspect of it).

 

[JRTStarlight]

The comparison to Moby Dick and Ahab isn't perfect, I'll grant you, but despite Kirk's instincts having turned out to be right in the end, it seemed more emotionally driven than logically derived. And with the death of his captain and 200 fellow crewman on his conscience, can you blame him? Ahab only had his lost leg by comparison. Only later did Spock determine not only was it actually a creature, it was also intelligent, and it was ready to reproduce - but not by making another one, but thousands. Kirk knew none of that, and only suspected some of it. Mind you, no one ever said being obsessed with something could only lead to ruination, though in the Pequad and Ahab's case, that's exactly what happened. In Kirk's case, his instincts bore out. Nevertheless, the episode showed exactly how a captain's "obsession" or seeming obsession was to be handled, and I thought that was a great story. As such, the title "Obsession" may not refer to Kirk's condition, but the problem of obsession itself and how to handle it, and in that way the episode would not be misnamed.

Naturally, we must wonder where this vampire cloud came from. Spontaneous creation? Hardly. So it's probable there are others like it around yet (just as there may be other doomsday machines out there). But considering how fast that thing moves, it could be hundreds of thousands of light years away from its point of origin, where the last vampire cloud split into thousands and sent its offspring on their way, like the Horta or like the spider, Charlotte from Charlotte's Web. This one just ended up here, and where it had fought a starship before. And of course we'd love to know what it eats when it's not eating humans. Odds are humans are just a rare treat and not the only thing that can sustain it, so "vampire" cloud is also a bit of a misnomer.

I always assumed the Farragut was a Constitution class starship since its crew compliment was similar (400 or so, half, or 200 or so, having been killed 11 years prior to this). But I can't confirm it. What other starships 11 years prior had 400+ crewmen?

I don't know why the Yorktown couldn’t deliver the drugs in Enterprise's stead, but it probably would have taken the Yorktown well outside its own patrol sector and into the Enterprise's, which isn't bad in and of itself, but it would also leave its own patrol sector defenseless. With some overlap, one assumes they have their own areas and own problems and the Enterprise was the best ship for the job. We can't simply assume the Yorktown didn't have other urgent missions, too.

AID can't be "Dilithium" since these are the impulse engines, not the warp engines. They can always clean up radiation later. It might be harder for us, but their tech clearly can handle it. Come to think of it, what kind of radioactive waste do they think they would have from a fusion reactor? Fission reactors were well known for hazardous radioactive byproducts, but fusion reactors shouldn't produce anything harmful apart from excess helium. Curious. But then I also didn't understand how a fusion reactor could overload and blow up at around 98 Megatons. Fission or fusion reactors really aren't the sort of things that can blow up like nuclear weapons. M/AM reactors, on the other hand, well, if that AM gets away from you, you should expect a blast on nuclear bomb type scale.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Assignment Earth

Enterprise is actively assigned to time travel and observe the 20th century. Possibly a new idea since The Naked Time? So did they have to slingshot around the sun?

The noises Isis makes are really distracting. Gary's got a pretty interesting backstory, though. Maybe he could've made a decent show on his own if that had actually happened.

The doors open the exact right distance for the cat to walk through...

That sassy computer kind of reminds me of the M5, or what the M5 would ideally have become.

Gary's a bit slow on the uptake to not notice that Miss Lincoln is a civilian.

That phaser sound effect sounded exactly like a TIE fighter...

Whereever Gary Seven is from, they have the best user friendly interface ever for someone to interfere with a transporter beam by accident and not scatter their atoms across the stars.

A reasonably solid episode overall, considering it was intended as a backdoor pilot that doesn't really have much for the Star Trek characters to do. I do wonder about the role of Miss Lincoln (funny, but not exactly useful) - is that an attempt to copy the style of Dr. Who? (Dr. Who was already around back then, right?) They treat interference in the past a little too lightly compared to most other episodes, barely even attempting to hide their presence from the cops and the guards, but they lucked out of those situations anyway. I can see this working as the first official time travel mission in Starfleet which leads to all those infamous temporal regulations. But that cat was terrible.

 

[Phaser Two]

I think you're right about the title. It's an exploration of obsession, and the perception of obsession in a person whose integrity judgment is fairly significant due to 430 lives hanging on his decisions.

Good reasoning for the Farragut to be Constitution-class. I think it shows up on that ship status board in Stone's office, so it was not irreparably damaged by the cloud creature, which makes sense as it does not seem to damage systems or implements.

My post was too long and windy already or I would have mentioned as you did that Starfleet probably didn't want its ships deviating from their assigned sectors and therefore the Yorktown and Enterprise were running a relay. But it seems as though anything that killed several redshirts and made Kirk suspect that the cloud was back would justify asking the Yorktown to make the haul itself. Of course, if this had been one of those episodes where some admiral called in and overruled Kirk much of the drama would have been lost or altered in a probably less-than-desirable way. In any case I hope those medical supplies got to Theta Seven on time. It's never mentioned explicitly what the supplies were for, but combating medical emergencies and plagues is a theme that crops up constantly in TOS, especially in S3. (And which, in S2, supplies one of my favorite otherwise-extraneous world-building Trek remarks in The Changeling with Spock's mention of the Symbalene blood burn.)

I just did 5-10 minutes of low-grade rudimentary research and concluded (perhaps wrongly) that there is no clear consensus on what powers the impulse drive. There's even a relatively recent thread on it in the Tech forum here, but that digresses into a debate about LaForge's actions in Arsenal of Freedom pretty quickly and doesn't reach too many conclusions. I found a few sources that claim that impulse is just an offshoot of the warp drive with different coils and is therefore indeed powered by dilithium, or it's a fusion reactor powered by deuterium, which also works as the "D" in AID. Activation intermix of deuterium?

A fusion reactor would theoretically generate radioactive waste, I believe - please correct me as needed. But in any case, wherever the radioactive waste came from, it just doesn't sound like flushing it into a ventilation system is a good idea. Now, maybe Scotty just had to make sure that XYZ safeguard was working to ensure no leak of the radiation, or he bypassed the ventilation system as needed to maintain life support integrity, but . . . it just sounds bad without an explanation as to why not.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Spock's Brain

Right off the bat, I'll say: Worst episode title ever.

Everyone falls straight down like they're knocked unconcious and Majel Barrett practically throws herself halfway across the room. Someone was overeager.

Shatner's face when McCoy tells him about Spock's Brain is so hilariously detached and weird.

The overdramatic lines are flying in your face through this entire scene.

And they never really stop. Discussions of the worst episode usually have this one near the top, and I can't really disagree with them. Star Trek was never exactly subtle, but the sheer tonnage of blatantly dumb lines, stilted conversations and massive overacting in this episode is staggering, and to make matters worse, most of the characters don't really even feel like themselves. Definitely a new low point in the series.

 

[JRTStarlight]

I think you're right about the title. It's an exploration of obsession, and the perception of obsession in a person whose integrity judgment is fairly significant due to 430 lives hanging on his decisions.

Good reasoning for the Farragut to be Constitution-class. I think it shows up on that ship status board in Stone's office, so it was not irreparably damaged by the cloud creature, which makes sense as it does not seem to damage systems or implements.

My post was too long and windy already or I would have mentioned as you did that Starfleet probably didn't want its ships deviating from their assigned sectors and therefore the Yorktown and Enterprise were running a relay. But it seems as though anything that killed several redshirts and made Kirk suspect that the cloud was back would justify asking the Yorktown to make the haul itself. Of course, if this had been one of those episodes where some admiral called in and overruled Kirk much of the drama would have been lost or altered in a probably less-than-desirable way. In any case I hope those medical supplies got to Theta Seven on time. It's never mentioned explicitly what the supplies were for, but combating medical emergencies and plagues is a theme that crops up constantly in TOS, especially in S3. (And which, in S2, supplies one of my favorite otherwise-extraneous world-building Trek remarks in The Changeling with Spock's mention of the Symbalene blood burn.)

I just did 5-10 minutes of low-grade rudimentary research and concluded (perhaps wrongly) that there is no clear consensus on what powers the impulse drive. There's even a relatively recent thread on it in the Tech forum here, but that digresses into a debate about LaForge's actions in Arsenal of Freedom pretty quickly and doesn't reach too many conclusions. I found a few sources that claim that impulse is just an offshoot of the warp drive with different coils and is therefore indeed powered by dilithium, or it's a fusion reactor powered by deuterium, which also works as the "D" in AID. Activation intermix of deuterium?

A fusion reactor would theoretically generate radioactive waste, I believe - please correct me as needed. But in any case, wherever the radioactive waste came from, it just doesn't sound like flushing it into a ventilation system is a good idea. Now, maybe Scotty just had to make sure that XYZ safeguard was working to ensure no leak of the radiation, or he bypassed the ventilation system as needed to maintain life support integrity, but . . . it just sounds bad without an explanation as to why not.

Why The Yorktown Can't Deliver The Medicine

Spoiler

Any assumption the Yorktown doesn't have its own high priority missions and can well afford to carry Kirk's water makes it sound like those guys are normally just hanging around twiddling their thumbs. With only 13 in the fleet (12 like her) I would assume those girls are in such high demand, countless tasks are already going unanswered and people are already dying due to lack of 100% coverage. Space is too damn big, even just Federation space, to think another starship can always easily pick up the slack. And a few redshirt deaths still wasn't proof. Even Spock and McCoy with their boots on the deck weren't convinced, so convincing the Yorktown it wasn't really doing anything more important so it should do Kirk's job, too, just doesn't seem like it was going to happen, or even should have happened, IMO.

The thing about the Symbalene blood burn is that acts too quickly. It may be highly contagious, yes, but it kills too quickly, and that's why it's not all that serious a threat. The carrier has to live long enough, travel far enough, and contact many people while contagious without realizing they are sick and spreading the disease around. Since this manifest itself so quickly and kills almost as fast, it would be relatively easy to isolate and quarantine the infected. Then they die, along with the chance of spreading the disease farther. Besides, a disease has to hang on long enough for reports to made, help to be requested, medicine manufactured or gathered, and transportation to the planet for a starship to even have a hope of helping out something like that.

TECH TALK Impulse Fusion Reactors

Spoiler

Considering Kirk speaks of a fusion explosion of 98 Megatons when overloading an impulse engine, it seems certain fusion reactors power the impulse engines. Memory alpha also suggests this is the case, though details are sketchy.

I assume two or more fusion reactors exist to power the (2 or more) impulse engines (and use the often mentioned deuterium and, I assume, tritium, or that is a byproduct). Tritium is radioactive with a half-life of 12 years or so, but it's not very dangerous. It's a simple beta emitter, and beta particles of that low energy won't even penetrate the skin. However, if ingested or inhaled, it could be a problem. Maybe that's what Scotty is cleaning up. But since they make mention the system is closed and negative pressure is applied, that stuff isn't going anywhere into the interior of the ship. And clean up will be effected later.

I assume the impulse engines make drive plasma, pretty much just as the dilithium reactor does though via a different means, and warp plasma is the life blood of the ship, plasma going through conduits to power the ship where EPS power taps eventually turn it into electricity. But the impulse engines can also use the drive plasma to shoot out in well-directed directions to impart an impulse to the ship. This is not normally seen as exhaust since the particles would be so small, and so fast (perhaps even near relativistic speeds), as to be invisible to the naked eye.

Of course that alone wouldn't do much to move a ship that large unless their high tech inertial alteration systems (compensators and dampeners, etc. and artificial gravity) were not already "lowering" the "apparent" mass of the ship. Thus, those impulse engines can drive the ship quite handily up to warp 0.5 (about 1/8th the speed of light). It takes a lot of deuterium to run the ship at those speeds, however. It may also be possible to power the warp engines with the impulse reactors, albeit in an inefficient manner when the dilithium matrix isn't working, by actually creating a warp bubble (using the nacelles, but powering them with the impulse reactors instead of warp/dilithium reactors), but the lower power consumes much fuel and though "warp capable" it would run your deuterium tanks dry in about a day.

 

[JRTStarlight]

Wolf in the Fold

Kirk and Scotty looked bored in the opening shot. Weird how they're instantly obsessed once the camera zooms in.

Kirk and McCoy are fighting over who gets credit for getting Scotty laid...

This detective has a funny way of handling evidence.

A 'Psycho-tricorder'? Interesting. Seems like something that would make mind-melds rather useless (except in STII, of course).

The detective is reciting facts about the second murder that no one told him.

It's funny watching Star Trek reference the classic 'lights out' murder scene.

No one's going to question the father?

Women are more easily and more deeply terrified?

So did Redjac possess Hengist's dead body?

Is it just me, or is the Enterprise in serious danger if no one cares about their jobs for six hours? Seems like Kirk and Spock would have to spend the entire time running all over the ship checking that no one neglects a necessary function or accidentally turns off something important.

Overall, I'd say this is an ok episode. As murder mysteries go, it's not very effective. Hengist is obvious from the second murder and the 'procedure' of investigation is arbitrary and unconvincing. But it's an interesting concept and I like how the real problem is not to identify the murderer but to find a way to stop an unstoppable being. Although Redjac must've been a slow learner if he only just now thought to possess starships in order to feed. Poor Kirk never will get to see those women.

I'd say like in The Naked Time, they'd have to safeguard against the Riley factor for the next 6 hours, sure, but unlike there, the ship isn't in a potentially lethal and dangerous environment, and that drug doesn't seem to inspire quite the same, almost suicidally cavalier reaction.

Wolf In The Fold

Read Full Review

Spoiler

There was practically nothing done to this episode during the remastering phase. The ship in orbit about a newly depicted planet (a standard for these) and . . . that's it. Well, cleaned up and sharper images all the way around, but nothing new.

An interesting story that reveals forensic science has gone so far they can tell if a man is lying with 100% certainty (with cooperation and the right equipment, of course). Seems suspicious. I suspect they can tell to a high degree of certainty, but nothing's 100%, and not everyone is human, so I wonder if such things are allowed as evidence in a court of law, unlike today, where a polygraph is beatable and therefore inadmissible. Despite appearances, they weren't using this stuff in a court of law or during Kirk's Court Martial. Hey Kirk? Did you jettison the pod before you sounded a red alert? Nope. He's telling the truth, so case dismissed. Nothing is as simple as they often say it is, and there are bound to be countless exceptions to most everything.

Mudd once stated the blasted machine only knows what's in the record and it can't read your mind, but it can detect physiological changes, which usually indicate deception, so that's pretty good and better than a modern polygraph, and I think they were pretty much suggesting the psycho-tricorder could practically read one's mind - it just took longer than a simple scan, and for all we know, would only work on one who had already submitted a baseline comparison reading, as all crew members probably would be required.

Mind-melds do other things, of course, besides read the thoughts of another, but I'd imagine employing them on anyone at any time for any reason would be a terrible violation of personal rights, so without permission, or at least a fair degree of probable cause, I bet nothing like these practices would be employed, and any results from coerced examinations would be disallowed or inadmissible in a court of law.

Scotty's serial number is given: SE 19754 T and from elsewhere,
Kirk's is: SC937-0176CEC
Spock's is: S 179-276 SP
McCoy's is: Actually, never given, apparently.

There doesn't seem to be a standard format. It may depend heavily on planet of origin, race, department, rank - it could possibly change during one's career, like if you graduated to a higher rank or changed departments. But I dunno.

I thought this was an interesting story - kind of slow, of course, but it held scary elements, like multiple murders, a séance, and even Jack The Ripper (not sure if this was an alien, a Biblical demon or ancient space traveler, or a completely home grown beastie since it moved out into the galaxy with us, but it did say it had been with us since the dawn of time).

Sexist elements were in the story, including the very reason for being there. Apparently since a female crewman caused Scotty's recent accident, it was only "natural" to assume he'd develop a deep hatred of ALL women, so they wanted to give him a good experience with a woman, and on this planet, that's pretty much casual sex for the asking. The planet Risa or the Shore Leave planet would likely be similar, as I'm sure are some others, and that's fine, but the very idea Scotty would blame all women for the mistake of one woman seems quite dubious. And the very idea that woman are more easily terrified doesn't bear close examination, either. The 60's, huh? Other that that, there's nothing too bad apart from this alien culture that's quite sexually uninhibited, where the rule of law is LOVE, and the emotion of jealously is considered disgusting. We never do learn exactly what the women do at this other cafe that Kirk and McCoy find so enticing - though Kirk didn't really want to go alone, so it must be a group activity. Your guess is as good as anyone's. Or is it?

Let's go see!

A great shame losing a Lt. like that. All that training, to be simply killed off in a walk on part. Lose a Lt. while trying to save Scott, and nobody seems overly broken up about it. And a blue skirt death, too. Rare. Well, I'm sure her death will be felt more keenly by some right away, and even Kirk later on. And Scotty, too, despite being exonerated, was used by this creature as the instrument of their deaths. His hands did kill 3 woman.

Yeah, I'd say Hengist's dead body was being used and inhabited by the energy creature. I'm not sure how long he could maintain a body like that, but it wouldn't be too difficult to find others. As for taking over the Enterprise, there may be obvious downsides - like maybe he couldn't feel or relish the fear like he could in an organic body with those senses. But we can't be sure.

There's an acknowledged reality to some supernatural abilities and mysticism, so that's always interesting. Of course there must be some scientific explanation for it, we assume, but we might not currently know enough about it to explain it. Spock's reluctant to accept it, but this is the Vulcan mind meld boy with the katra, so he's one to talk. Though he did not dismiss it out of hand as poppycock or impossible, he did simply feel the record showed it was too unreliable. Jarvis speaks of his wife's abilities being true ones, probably to set her apart from many charlatans.

Charles Macaulay makes his second TOS appearance, this time as Prefect Jaris, but before as Landru.

Two or three beauties to be seen.

Maybe that music is quite popular on many worlds for this type of dance of seduction. I wonder what its title is. Vina's Dance?

A few more beauties were or or there filling smaller roles (but I have no decent pictures of them).

I had given this episode a 5 out of 10 before, but I think it deserves more than that - not because they made it better with updates, but because it was a good idea, and in many ways, quite funny in places - apart from Jack The Ripper having the voice of Piglet from Winne the Pooh.

I guess I just appreciate more of the story than I did when I was younger.

There are a few Remastered Clips, but hardly worth the trip since little was done - apart from a new planet.

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It's a slower story, true, but good it's good Trek, so I'm upgrading it to a 6 out of 10.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Who knew that Piglet had such a dark side?

 

[JRTStarlight]

Oh yeah. Nothing is as simple as it seems. Nothing.

 

[Phaser Two]

Why The Yorktown Can't Deliver The Medicine

Spoiler

Any assumption the Yorktown doesn't have its own high priority missions and can well afford to carry Kirk's water makes it sound like those guys are normally just hanging around twiddling their thumbs. With only 13 in the fleet (12 like her) I would assume those girls are in such high demand, countless tasks are already going unanswered and people are already dying due to lack of 100% coverage. Space is too damn big, even just Federation space, to think another starship can always easily pick up the slack. And a few redshirt deaths still wasn't proof. Even Spock and McCoy with their boots on the deck weren't convinced, so convincing the Yorktown it wasn't really doing anything more important so it should do Kirk's job, too, just doesn't seem like it was going to happen, or even should have happened, IMO.

The thing about the Symbalene blood burn is that acts too quickly. It may be highly contagious, yes, but it kills too quickly, and that's why it's not all that serious a threat. The carrier has to live long enough, travel far enough, and contact many people while contagious without realizing they are sick and spreading the disease around. Since this manifest itself so quickly and kills almost as fast, it would be relatively easy to isolate and quarantine the infected. Then they die, along with the chance of spreading the disease farther. Besides, a disease has to hang on long enough for reports to made, help to be requested, medicine manufactured or gathered, and transportation to the planet for a starship to even have a hope of helping out something like that.

TECH TALK Impulse Fusion Reactors

Spoiler

Considering Kirk speaks of a fusion explosion of 98 Megatons when overloading an impulse engine, it seems certain fusion reactors power the impulse engines. Memory alpha also suggests this is the case, though details are sketchy.

I assume two or more fusion reactors exist to power the (2 or more) impulse engines (and use the often mentioned deuterium and, I assume, tritium, or that is a byproduct). Tritium is radioactive with a half-life of 12 years or so, but it's not very dangerous. It's a simple beta emitter, and beta particles of that low energy won't even penetrate the skin. However, if ingested or inhaled, it could be a problem. Maybe that's what Scotty is cleaning up. But since they make mention the system is closed and negative pressure is applied, that stuff isn't going anywhere into the interior of the ship. And clean up will be effected later.

I assume the impulse engines make drive plasma, pretty much just as the dilithium reactor does though via a different means, and warp plasma is the life blood of the ship, plasma going through conduits to power the ship where EPS power taps eventually turn it into electricity. But the impulse engines can also use the drive plasma to shoot out in well-directed directions to impart an impulse to the ship. This is not normally seen as exhaust since the particles would be so small, and so fast (perhaps even near relativistic speeds), as to be invisible to the naked eye.

Of course that alone wouldn't do much to move a ship that large unless their high tech inertial alteration systems (compensators and dampeners, etc. and artificial gravity) were not already "lowering" the "apparent" mass of the ship. Thus, those impulse engines can drive the ship quite handily up to warp 0.5 (about 1/8th the speed of light). It takes a lot of deuterium to run the ship at those speeds, however. It may also be possible to power the warp engines with the impulse reactors, albeit in an inefficient manner when the dilithium matrix isn't working, by actually creating a warp bubble (using the nacelles, but powering them with the impulse reactors instead of warp/dilithium reactors), but the lower power consumes much fuel and though "warp capable" it would run your deuterium tanks dry in about a day.

I only mentioned the Symbalene blood burn because it's one of my favorite "extra" bits of dialogue in TOS and I was remarking on diseases running rampant in TOS.

So, any theory on what AID stands for?

 

[JRTStarlight]

So, any theory on what AID stands for?

AID? Automated Impulse Decontamination?

The Trouble with Tribbles

I like how they call back to the Organian peace treaty. It's always fun when show is willing to build on its own ideas.

K 7 has no visible docking facilities.

An undersecretary for agricultural affairs has authority over military alerts?

Kirk repeating himself is kind of weird.

"I have never questioned the orders or the intelligence of Federation representative... until now" - a funny line, but not entirely true, is it?

Always loved Tribbles.

So the Organian peace treaty requires Klingon and Federation space stations provide shore leave for the enemy? Seems an unlikely way to keep the peace.

Is that the same actor who played Trelane?

'Take my pet, but I don't want to know if you're going to dissect it' - uh... Ok.

So where are the twelve guards that are supposed to be watching these Klingons?

I love how Scotty doesn't care what anyone says about Kirk, but don't you dare insult the Enterprise.

Cyrano Jones saving the drinks is fantastic. He's relatively understated, but so much better and more fun than Mudd.

And then Scotty is proud of defending the Enterprise's honor.

"They do not talk too much." – Burn.

Ok, that crawling tribble looks creepy.

'Bisexual, reproducing at will'?

Seeing everyone so obsessed with the tribbles is coming close to the obsession with that game in the TNG episode.

"My chicken sandwich and coffee" - I always loved that line.

I can't watch the storage unit scene without imagining Jadzia tossing tribbles at Kirk's head.

"Tribbles must be very perceptive creatures."

Cyrano's punishment is ironic, but not exactly practical. How is the station supposed to be ok with having an ongoing tribble problem for 17 years?

And there's the best ending to a Star Trek episode ever. Although it is strange that beaming the tribbles into space would be horrifying, but handing them over to bloodthirsty barbarians that hate them isn't...

This is easily the best comedy episode so far. Probably the best comedy episode ever, including the spin-offs.

I already replied to the above quoted review, but for continuity's sake, I'm going to quote it here. Others may appreciate not having to skip back and forth in a thread to read the TOS reviews in order. But at least it will be under a spoiler tag, and not violate the 2 posts in a row rules, anyway, so I hope the moderators won't complain since this will happen 3 times. And it will be slightly modified, too, so it's not a simple duplication.

Previous Thoughts, And More

Spoiler

Kirk certainly questioned the intelligence of other Federation types, sure. But he wasn't aiming for truth there – he was deliberately insulting the guy.

The Organian Peace treaty just prevented overt hostilities on a fleet wide scale. But that whole idea was problematic for the series, and I'm not sure how or why, but I think it just stopped at some point. The Federation and the Klingons fought after that, I'm pretty sure, and no Organians stepped in the stopped them, so maybe it only applies to areas close to Organia or within the neutral zone. They can otherwise fight and the Organians allow it since they don't like to interfere – it's painful for them – so as long as it's far enough away from their home world, they stay out of it, I guess. I do know this – Kirk didn't expect the Organian treaty to save them since he went into Deep Space Station K-7 guns ready having assumed the Klingons attacked. How could they have attacked if the Organians were enforcing that treaty? It's just another example of how some writers solve their story's problems in over the top manners and then expect everyone else to live with it rather than forget it and move on. Fortunately, mostly, they did soon forget it and move on. But rather than assume it didn't happen, it is better to assume it only applies near Organian Space.

Yes, William Campbell played both the Squire of Gothos and our Dear Captain Koloth.

And later on DS9, he reprised the role, though he was more sympathetic and not the sort who would dishonorably round up 200 innocent peasants and phaser them to death just to keep a little order, though in DS9 he was friends with Kor, the klingon who did that, and For was depicted as more sympathetic, too.

I agree forcing Cyrano to pick up the tribbles was both stupid and impossible. They breed faster than he could pick them up, and no way would they allow the station to be paralyzed for 17 years while he did it. But they solved that problem in TAS. The station couldn't run or serve its function, either, while choked with tribbles, so doubtless they put more men on the job, better protected their food, and the tribbles lay mostly dormant (hungry and not breeding) while Cyrano picked them up. Until TAS helped speed things along with a little predatory creature the Klingons developed and Cyrano stole, IIRC.

It's little wonder it's a funny episode since I think that was the only episode ever written purposefully for laughs. Trek could always be funny in places, but they didn't usually intentionally write it that way.

The Trouble With Tribbles

Read Full Review

Spoiler

This episode was written primarily for laughs - maybe the only one to have done that - but regardless of that, it was also written to give many more lines to the supporting crewmembers, like Chekov and Uhura and Scotty, and that revealed more of the relationships they had with the main characters and more of themselves, and that was a good thing. One of my favorite parts is where Kirk is grilling Scotty about who started the barroom fight. It's hilarious, and the "Scotty" music comes in at the right moment and has me in stitches. And when caught, Captain Koloth bowed to Kirk and made his uncomfortable escape past the tribbles.

The remastered shots are pretty good, including some actual shots of the klingon vessel that we didn't even get to see before, and more of the deep space station, K 7, of course. And more can be seen and learned in the DS9 episode, too.

Side-by-Side Comparison

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Since they state the Klingon ship is hanging 100 Km off the station (62 miles) but we can clearly see it in some good detail, the perspective is all-wrong. As big as these ships are, you really shouldn't see them that clearly if they are 62 miles away. As such, we can't really know how big the station is in relation to the ships. Those pods may be big enough to dock with, and that lower section with the open port may be big enough to accommodate and actual dry dock.

BTW, TWIMC, Spock's math is accurate and not just some gobbledygook or gibberish. If you check it out, it's correct, but, as stated, that assumes Tribbles have access to all they can eat and the necessary room to grow. Of course if that were the case and continued to be the case, they'd fill the ship and station in just another few hours, so having Cryano Jones pick them up over the next 17.9 years was a pretty stupid suggestion. Obviously, they'll run out of food and stop breeding PDQ. Then they might starve or even resort to cannibalism. Perhaps, assuming you can find a way to totally cut them off from food while keeping stores for yourself, they'd stop reproducing, then it could be done – but I dunno - or maybe they'd starve and rot away into nothingness. McCoy said stop feeding them and they'd stop reproducing, but he never said they'd die. Then there's the question of mass - it would seem most food consumed is converted directly into bio-matter of the offspring. Tribbles seem impossible, but I suppose if they nearly always don't have access to all they wish to eat, and have many predators, and can die from starvation, or die from disease or old age - many even quite young, like having a life span of only a few days - they might work, but I'd have to guess most of that is true, so on their home world, they aren't a huge problem.

As for the bartender's math - it was as atrociously wrong as Spock's was right. He paid 6 credits for a tribble and suggested a 10% markup would be fair, then asked Uhura to pay him 10 credits for the tribble. That's not a 10% mark up - more like a 67% mark up. But use of credits should be noted as they have an economy - not hard currency or coins, but e-money and likely biometrics to use the accounts, so any lines you hear later about them not using "money" any more doesn't mean they lack an economy or don't get paid or any of that.

I do like this episode of Trek, but it's far from my favorite. It is, however, well worth seeing, and for some, maybe the best episode you can show them. I might worry they'd get the wrong impression of what Trek was about that way, but you never know.

One Blu-Ray disc in the remastered set is practically dedicated to this one episode, and why not? Many fans think it's the best episode ever. Not me, of course, for fortunately I am . . . immune to such . . . sentiments.

The disc also contains commentaries, specials, and full episodes of the animated sequel, More Tribbles, More Trouble, and the Deep Space Nine wonderfully done and very clever episode, Trials and Tribble-ations. If you love those furry little buggers, you'll love this offering in the Blu-Ray set of discs - THE Tribble disc.

I had given this episode a 6 out of 10 since I disliked the amount of hype and never felt Trek was supposed to be a comedy, even when it could be funny at times, but it probably deserves better than a 6, and with the remastered shots, I'm willing to go higher still - say a 7 or 7.5 out of 10 for the general greater appeal to those who normally don't like Trek.

 

[JRTStarlight]

Apparently there is a limit of 5 media links per post, so this had to be posted separately.

DS9 Comparison Clips To The Trouble With Tribbles

Spoiler

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[Phaser Two]

AID? Automated Impulse Decontamination?

I like that! Decontamination and cleanup are a bit redundant, though. But maybe an AID cleanup is like an ATM machine that way. I'll stick with Active Intermix Deuterium cleanup, especially since such cleanup would presumably involve elimination or neutralization of radioactive waste, and maybe that's why Kirk has that waste on his mind.