Production Order Group Viewing 2018

I think they liked to match actress with the color that compliments them best. Early episodes had Uhura in gold, which didn't really suit Nichelle. Astrobiologist Mullhall wore red, but one would think blue would be more appropriate.

 

Maybe Starfleet's dirty little secret is that the uniform color-coding is just a guideline, and crewmen are free to choose a color outside their Division if they like it better on them.

There might be a real world analogy for this: in the Navy (I've heard), they don't have to salute officers while at sea. It would just get to be too much after a while. And inside a submarine, things get even less formal, because hey, we're locked up inside a submarine. Give us a break on the rigid, showy protocols. And aboard the ISS in Earth orbit, astronauts are not wearing strict uniforms, but comfortable garments they're allowed to choose from.

Each step in the direction of being cooped up in a tin can has been a move in the direction of letting the individual set some more of his own parameters. You know, to keep the crew from going crazy. Starfleet has clearly taken after a military tradition rather than NASA-casual, but not all the way back to absolute rules for what color your uniform has to be.

A really smart crewman would have all three colors in his closet, and on the days he's assigned to work in Engineering for instance, he'd wear the red one to fit in. Psychology experiments have shown that if you take a group of subjects and put half of them in one color t-shirt, and the other half in another color t-shirt, the group (of strangers) will sort themselves, unbidden, into two groups who view each other either as teammates or outsiders, apparently based on an age-old evolutionary instinct for tribal belonging.

 

There's some precedent for that - Spock, once promoted to First Officer wore Command Gold but later switched to Science Blue.

Uhura started off in gold then switched to red, despite doing the same job

Eddie Paskey and other background crew appear in a variety of colours!

 

Kyle or his twin cousin Kowell appeared in gold at helm or navigation too.

 

Sulu was blue and changed to gold! Mr.DeSalle was gold and changed to red! Scotty was gold and changed to red while Kyle was in a maintenance uniform before changing to first red and then gold and then back to red!
JB

 

I didn't mention these because Sulu explicitly switched departments and as we didn't see Mr DeSalle for a year he could have done the same (engineering was clearly his true calling). Scotty wore a tan uniform not gold in WNMHGB, tan being the equivalent of red back in those days
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd018.jpg

 

Well, we know from Dr. Van Gelder being busted that the colors mean something to someone, it must be more than just personal whims.

You never salute without your cover (hat/cap) on, so that pretty much takes care of the submarine world. On any ship, if you are covered, you only salute for formal duty-related stuff, relieving watch, making an official report etc. You don't use it as a general greeting or acknowledgement of a superior as is expected outdoors ashore.

Agreed, the best evidence is that the colors relate to the division one currently works in, not ones career path, qualification to take command etc.

 

I think you can explain the change of uniform colours from WNMHGB as just a uniform shakeup.
I'm OK with thinking people swapping between two departments might wear different colours depending on what they were doing.
But I can't think of why Masters's didn't have the rank braids. Surely thats important in the military. But who knows maybe they all knew each other on the Enterprise and didn't need the rank braids.
However I'm disappointed they didn't have the money to use the braids properly on uniforms. Lucky it only happened a few times.

 

Yeah, that bugs me as well - just another thing wrong with a terrible episode (for my money TOS' worst). I assume they just didn't have a blue women's uniform with lieutenant braid available and therefore just gave the actress the unbraided uni.

 

As I understand it, the union rules required that costumes be cleaned after every day of use. Metallic braid will be discolored by dry cleaning and has to be removed, so the wardrobe shop would be sewing stripes and badges on the uniforms every day. Somebody probably just messed up and didn't specify the correct costume.

 

Like him taking her to the corridor, whether on purpose or by accident while she was touching his hand/bumped into him - crew has to try and rescue her from the effects of the corridor.

 

TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY

This episode really is a comedy of errors in many respects. They haphazardly end up on Earth (the odds of which are astronomical, even if they were headed in that general direction), then accidentally crush Capt Christopher’s aircraft, Spock messes up on his family research, then a guard gets beamed up, Kirk gets captured, the whole shenanigans with the “female personality” of the computer and so on.
However, I'm not complaining - it’s delightfully refreshing after last week’s (would should have been) very intense story.

I like the episode openings that don't immediately feature the usual cast - Conscience Of The King had a good one, but this isn't even in the usual century!

As we join our heroes, Kirk tilts Sulu's chair back upright again. Is nothing secured to the floor?

In between this week and last, the Enterprise put in for a maintenance overhaul at Sygma-14. It will take 3 weeks to fix the computer – does that mean that they were at Sygma-14 for 3 weeks in the first place? The admiralty ain’t going to like that, best get used to the new computer, Kirk old boy!
Incidentally, the presence of the Majel Barrett voice means that Enterprise technology is perfectly capable of simulating less mechanical sounding voices, they just don’t want to!

“...Whiplash propelled us into a timewarp” says Spock nonchalantly, just as he did in The Naked Time. Clearly, the concept of a timewarp is an accepted fact, if a somewhat rare occurrence.

Kirk and crew really treat the timeline with kid gloves in this episode. Even the slightest difference such as blurry pictures of the Enterprise from a low position is treated as potentially disastrous.

I like Captain Christopher – he’s a strong character, not one to roll over and admit defeat but completely sympathetic at the same time. His relationships with Spock and Kirk are well developed in the short amount of time available.

I assume Kirk & Sulu brushed up on mid-20th Century technology before they beamed down to the base. How many children today would know what a dark room was?

NEW TECH

• A little gizmo that unlocks mechanical door locks within seconds
• The precursors of the equally impractical TNG palm beacons also appear. When will people of the future just strap them to their heads?

I love this episode, but the logistics of the ending are a mess:

• So…“logically”, as you go faster and faster towards a large body such as the sun, you’ll travel backwards in time? Does that happen every time a ship does that? It would be an incredibly useful cheat if so!
  I suppose Spock could be simulating what happened in The Naked Time and just never thought to mention it?
• Then they somehow beam Capt Christopher & the guard back into their own earlier selves’ bodies. Setting aside how that is even supposed to work for a moment, the fact that neither retain any memories of their time on board the Enterprise means that those versions of the two men are gone; in essence, they are dead!
• Where does the earlier version of the Enterprise go? Did that get eliminated as well?
• Has Kirk really murdered 432 people in his effort to get the Enterprise home?

Maybe this ending is as sombre as last week’s episode after all

 

Tomorrow is Yesterday

I've never been crazy about Trek episodes that happen in the 20th century. I lived in the 20th century. I watched Star Trek to see the future.

"Black star of high gravitational attraction." A black hole? They couldn't detect it in time to avoid it? So they just so happen to end up in Earth's atmosphere? I know Spock said they were flung in Earth's direction, but that still seems unlikely.

Spock still has a cold from last week.

So at this point, the Enterprise is slower than a 60's jet.

If he hits the Enterprise with a nuke he MIGHT damage the ship. That's one tough ship, though we saw them withstand a nuke in BoT.

Chris is really unbelievably lucky to have survived the tractor beam while his plane disintegrated. Not a great move by Kirk to just assume the jet could handle it.

United Earth Space Probe Agency. Hm.

Having the deflectors up prevents detection by 60's-era technology.

I'm also not a great fan of these time travel stories where we have to spend the episode fretting about not making any changes lest the future be changed.

Of course giving the computer a female personality makes it irrational and giggly.

McCoy worrying about sending a crew of 430 to Earth of the past reminds me of First Contact. Doesn't Picard end up ordering his crew to Earth of the past, telling them to stay out of history's way?

McCoy: always a dick (to Spock) when under pressure.

Lucky the Sgt. doesn't decide to shoot Spock.

Kirk Fu! He is a master.

The first appearance of the slingshot method of time travel. Can't help but think of Star Trek IV. Have breaking thrusters fired?

But can't they just do that formula from Naked Time?

Okay, the ship is under strain, everyone lean left! And shake that model!

For as often as the ship gets rocked, they really don't have secure seating. The seats should be bolted to the floor, and they should have seat belts.

Did Sulu say the speed went off the dial above Warp 8? Why's it taking so long to get to Earth? Why isn't Scotty having a heart attack about the strain the ship is under?

And I'm sorry but this beaming them back into their bodies thing never made any sense at all. The transporter is magic!

So they end up near Earth in their own time? But they were in the area when they went back in time, so that makes sense.

Not one of my favorites, but good to see again.

Alien Watch...no new aliens.

Talosians
That big ugly Rigellian guy Pike fought in illusion
Vina as an Orion girl in illusion
Glimpse of other aliens captured by Talosians
Ron Howard's brother
That dog from Enemy Within
Salt monster
That hand plant...Gertrude
Spock (duh)
Charlie's parents (Thasians)*
Romulans!
(Ruk)
Miri's planet kids (bonk bonk)
Giant ape creatures of Taurus II
Shore Leave Caretaker guy
Trelaine and his folks*
Gorn
Metrons*
The Lazerii

*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!

 

It's incredibly disastrous. Imagine every warp capable ship in the galaxy can go back in time any time they want and change history. I'm not sure the writers should have unleashed that. But then somehow Kirk's crew seem to be the only ones to ever do it.

 

Yep, fair enough I can see that Scotty is in a tan uniform compared to Kirk's Gyellowreen! Must be my old TV set as I think I've only watched WNMHGB the once on DVD!
JB

 

Oh by the way there was the guy in Charlie X who was in a blue uniform and then he appeared as the transporter lieutenant in Dagger of The mind as a red shirt!
JB

 

I feel the same way. Right on!

 

I love this! What gave it away that it was his twin cousin? Was it the pudding bowl haircut?
JB

 

About infilitrating the base, this probably was not thought of at the time; however, in hindsight, it is curious in-universe why this was not selected. The Enterprlse can fabricate historical uniforms, why did they not design USAF uniforms for the landing party?

A black star is not the same as a black hole.

A black star is a theoretical alternative to the black hole and is also based on general relativity. Unlike a black hole however, a black star features no event horizon and may be the transitional phase between a collapsing star and a singularity.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-black-star

 

Kirk's dreadful pronunciation, although he can't get Smith and Jones right so Kowell is pretty damn close enough for him, right Dr McKay?