those damn hippies

[hifijohn]

The way to eden episode always cracks me up, (Gonna crack my knuckles and jump for joy - I got a clean bill of health from Dr. McCoy.)
Here we have the crew of the enterprise that defeated a very powerful entity(day of the dove),stood up and defeated a planet killer(the doomsday machine)and countless other horrors and yet they seemed so overwhelmed by a bunch of space hippies.
In one scene for instance,scotty looks in shock when the hippies are first beamed aboard but didnt blink and eye when they beamed aboard a medusan ,a creature so horrible that the looking at it will turn you insane.And for you young folks out there hippies were very much a part of the american culture so many shows had to have their hippy episode.

 

[Marsden]

Probably because he was thinking this,

"Yes, please leave us. The mere presence of beings like yourselves is intensely painful to us. "

Same thing the whole crew thought when they saw hippies.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I always thought it was hilarious that Charles Napier (who played Adam the lead hippie - and, IIRC, wrote the songs Adam sings) later played the cigar-chomping General Denning on DS9's "Little Green Men".

Apparently that was at Napier's own request. He wanted to play a character as totally opposite from Adam as possible.

 

[Artoo Atari]

Oh, the horror. That episode is painful to watch.
Maybe I could try watching it with Spock's red visor. You know the one.

 

[FormerLurker]

(Gonna crack my knuckles and jump for joy - I got a clean bill of health from Dr. McCoy.)

I thought it was "Gonna click my heels..." I guess I'll have to watch it now.

 

[Mytran]

It's an episode obviously rooted in its time, but one that I am also oddly entertained by

Maybe it's just those catchy tunes...

 

[hifijohn]

Oh, the horror. That episode is painful to watch.
Maybe I could try watching it with Spock's red visor. You know the one.

Be lucky the show didnt happen 10 years later otherwise we would have had a disco episode, that now thats even worst.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I always thought it was hilarious that Charles Napier (who played Adam the lead hippie - and, IIRC, wrote the songs Adam sings) later played the cigar-chomping General Denning on DS9's "Little Green Men".

Apparently that was at Napier's own request. He wanted to play a character as totally opposite from Adam as possible.

Fun fact: Somewhere between those roles, he also replaced Ted Cassidy in providing the Hulk's growls on the Bixby/Ferrigno TV series.

Be lucky the show didnt happen 10 years later otherwise we would have had a disco episode, that now thats even worst.

And guest-starring Wolfman Jack!

 

[Mysterion]

And guest-starring Wolfman Jack!

Galactica 1980 took that bullet. But we did still get the vision of McCoy and his bare chest/disco medallion outfit in TMP.

 

[The Old Mixer]

IIRC, Wonder Woman had a disco episode that also guest-starred WJ, which is what made me think of it. Very efficient--killing two '70s birds with one stone.

 

[Mysterion]

But at least with WW, you got to look at Lynda Carter.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I always thought it was hilarious that Charles Napier (who played Adam the lead hippie - and, IIRC, wrote the songs Adam sings) later played the cigar-chomping General Denning on DS9's "Little Green Men".

Apparently that was at Napier's own request. He wanted to play a character as totally opposite from Adam as possible.

And he wanted to be fully clothed, for him a Star Trek first.

Off topic, but it's always killed me that "Little Green Men" didn't include the following line of dialogue right after the Ferengi first meet the humans (Napier and his government colleagues):

QUARK: If this is the best they've got, in six months we'll be running this planet.

It would have been a hilarious nod to POTA.

 

[johnnybear]

Dr.Sevrin and his mushroom ears is what I always seem to picture when this episode is mentioned! Plus the reverse shot of Shatner at the end of the episode looking confused while everyone is shouting to Sevrin not to eat the fruit! Plus the fact we didn't get to see any Romulans in this show despite the Enterprise crossing the Neutral zone for the fourth time in the series and...
JB

 

[Forbin]

IIRC, Buck Rogers actually disco-danced in one ep!

Hippies were the thing to mock in the late 60s. Establishment types (over-thirties) just didn't understand these damn lazy kids. Get a haircut, you look like a girl! So every series had en episode making fun of them, or making them the bad guys. I was about 12 at the time and wanted to BE one (mainly for the free love aspect). Really, all the average hippie wanted to do was listen to rock, do hallucinogenics, protest the war, and ball.

 

[Noname Given]

IDK - I always laugh that in the original TOS aired version - their ship is a redressed Tholian ship model:

But in the TOS remastered version, it kind of looks like a take on a 1960ies era VW bus:

 

[Mytran]

Some passing space-gangster has riddled that ship full of bullet holes!

 

[Phaser Two]

I just read the script (transcript) today and honestly, it wasn't as bad as I remembered.

 

[GNDN18]

IDK - I always laugh that in the original TOS aired version - there ship is a redressed Tholian ship model:

But in the TOS remastered version, it kind of looks like a take on a 1960ies era VW bus:

True enough. It does have that Haight Asbury feel…

but the remastered version was just a redressed Class J cargo ship from “Mudd’s Women”

*It’s there, trust me. CBS had a thing about hiding its lights—such as they were—under one bushel after another.

 

[UnknownSample]

I found that this episode was a lot easier to take in the remastered version; somehow, everything is a little drier and toned down, less "wacky", because the re recorded music is less intense. That made me appreciate the positives. It's all how the hippies are presented... if some more realistic ones had been there instead of exaggerated TV clichés meant to make them ridiculous, the story would have worked.

Hippies were presented cluelessly on TV in the 60s, because TV was being made by the WW2 generation, who utterly and totally missed the point of the whole thing. You should never look at TV hippies and think you're seeing anything close to reality.

 

[thribs]

Isn't that Mudd's ship, the remastered?