50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread

[Pauln6]

Not to project a TNG ship's counselor onto TOS, but if ever there was a time for a psychologist with PTSD training to appear, it was now. Helen Noel, or a Dr. Dehner type may have fit the bill. These kids just had the most traumatic experience a child could have, the death of BOTH parents, and they are acting totally detached from the situation. To give them a bowl of ice cream, and then to send them off by them selves is a case of major malpractrice by McCoy, and negligence of duty by Kirk. The lack of other specialized crew members is a real drawback in the third season.
Freddie F. was on board to keep the budget down, logic be damned, and boy, does it show.

Yes, Helen Noel would have been a good fit. If they had even given Chapel some dialogue to show that she was working to a strategy, a report to Kirk or McCoy, it would have been something. TOS was notorious for stripping agency from its recurring female characters. She knows something is up but keeps it to herself. I wanted more of the Chapel from Obsession to get stuck in and maybe even help Kirk save the day.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I neglected to note that Kirk talking backwards comes to us six weeks in advance of the White Album!

Mih ssim mih ssim, nam, daed si Kcops.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Kirk wasn't counting on all the adults being dead. If they had simply repelled an attacking ship, or saved them from a storm, they could have remained on the planet once they had been aided, or been evacuated, parents and kids together. He never planned on a bunch of bewitched orphans. But I guess you have to be ready for anything out there...

 

[Discofan]

It could have been worse if instead of kids they'd all have been hippies for example...

 

[Discofan]

I neglected to note that Kirk talking backwards comes to us six weeks in advance of the White Album!

Mih ssim mih ssim, nam, daed si Kcops.

It wasn't long after that, that Antonia convinced him to leave the band...

 

[dahj]

So an evil entity convinces a bunch of kids who make gifs with swords and use instagram filters that make people look old to go "make more friends"... this is really a cautionary tale on the dangers of social media if you think about it, and Gorgan is obviously a thinly veiled metaphor for Facebook. Once again Star Trek is truly ahead of its time, predicting things almost 50 years into the future with pinpoint accuracy.

UFP has a red flag with gold lettering, so clearly the Soviets won the Cold War, another excellent prediction there.

Why doesn't anybody just punch those kids out?

 

[Discofan]

So an evil entity convinces a bunch of kids who make gifs with swords and use instagram filters that make people look old to go "make more friends"... this is really a cautionary tale on the dangers of social media if you think about it, and Gorgan is obviously a thinly veiled metaphor for Facebook. Once again Star Trek is truly ahead of its time, predicting things almost 50 years into the future with pinpoint accuracy.

UFP has a red flag with gold lettering, so clearly the Soviets won the Cold War, another excellent prediction there.

Why doesn't anybody just punch those kids out?

And Orwell predicted in 1948 that someday our computers/smartphones would be watching US! Not to mention the diminished language, the rewriting of history (Fake News)... The minute of hate.

That guy was a GENIUS!!!

 

[Phaser Two]

So an evil entity convinces a bunch of kids who make gifs with swords and use instagram filters that make people look old to go "make more friends"... this is really a cautionary tale on the dangers of social media if you think about it, and Gorgan is obviously a thinly veiled metaphor for Facebook. Once again Star Trek is truly ahead of its time, predicting things almost 50 years into the future with pinpoint accuracy.

UFP has a red flag with gold lettering, so clearly the Soviets won the Cold War, another excellent prediction there.

Why doesn't anybody just punch those kids out?

The flag has thirteen silver stars too, for whatever reason.
I wondered why they didn't just phaser stun the kids too.

 

[dahj]

The flag has thirteen silver stars too, for whatever reason.

EU flag + one for communism

 

[Phaser Two]

EU flag + one for communism

BTW, I love how you're changing your avatar each day or so to suit your October name.

 

[dahj]

BTW, I love how you're changing your avatar each day or so to suit your October name.

Thanks, I figured just a name change isn't confusing enough

 

[UnknownSample]

At one point they do consider killing the kids, Kirk mentions it, I think. That's one thing I appreciate about TOS, sometimes they considered those very uncomfortable possibilities. Like killing a million people from orbit to halt a plague. As soon as they would make a move though, the kids would know? I forget if in any sense they could read minds.

 

[dahj]

At one point they do consider killing the kids, Kirk mentions it, I think. That's one thing I appreciate about TOS, sometimes they considered those very uncomfortable possibilities.

They do, but in this case it makes no sense to immediately jump to killing them since the second Kirk and Spock became immune to control they could have just picked up phasers and stunned them one by one while they were spread all over the ship.

 

[UnknownSample]

They do, but in this case it makes no sense to immediately jump to killing them since the second Kirk and Spock became immune to control they could have just picked up phasers and stunned them one by one while they were spread all over the ship.

I don't recall the immunity, just that they mustered up a certain amount of self control to get through the attacks they'd already experienced. I'd guess the intensity of attack would be stepped up further, if they actually tried to shoot the kids.

 

[dahj]

I don't recall the immunity

I think Kirk's line about his "beast being defeated" is meant to imply he can't be controlled again.
And Spock's Vulcan, he probably logiced himself out of it

 

[Phaser Two]

I think Kirk's line about his "beast being defeated" is meant to imply he can't be controlled again.
And Spock's Vulcan, he probably logiced himself out of it

Exactly. I believe they broke the kids' control for good.

 

[bolak]

Re: Enterprise Incident

I'd like to think that Kirk wasn't the first surgically altered Federation spy aboard, that members of the crew were secretly helping Kirk and Spock thereby explaining some of the plot holes.

Would it have filled some plot holes if the Romulan commander had been an agent / sympathiser?

Perhaps:

1. She informed Starfleet that she had been deployed to the NZ with the device
2. Starfleet cleared the area of other potentially-interfering ships
3. She toyed with unsuspecting Spock to keep her out of suspicion from her 'minders' ( retcon: Tal Shiar watcher ), under the cover of trying to turn him.
4. She took the opportunity to escape instead of returning for 'aggressive' debriefing. Or perhaps the plan was to have the agent 'abducted' by the nefarious Feds before departing.

 

[dahj]

Would it have filled some plot holes if the Romulan commander had been an agent / sympathiser?

It would have looked even worse for the Tal Shiar.

 

[wayne66]

What can I say about And the Children Shall Lead. I tend to not like child actors(except Miri). My question is: Why is Leslie and the other security guy not do anything when the kids start doing their hand gestures that confuse Sulu, Chekov and Uhura? An effective scene is when Kirk beams those two security guys into outer space. That is a horrifying concept to think about. Overall, not one of my favorite episodes.

 

[Phaser Two]

What can I say about And the Children Shall Lead. I tend to not like child actors(except Miri). My question is: Why is Leslie and the other security guy not do anything when the kids start doing their hand gestures that confuse Sulu, Chekov and Uhura? An effective scene is when Kirk beams those two security guys into outer space. That is a horrifying concept to think about. Overall, not one of my favorite episodes.

The discussion in Kirk's quarters about space legends and the rampaging evil is spooky as well. The cave scene is too until Shatner decides he needs to freak out and ruins it.