The "suits"? Typically they shot whatever script was ready and NBC only had a few about airing order. You can't air unfinished episodes, after all.
50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
Apollo 8?
That was a hoax and not at all canon.
But Elaan was the second episode of the season production wise and our first look at a Klingon battleship and yet they stuck it out at episode thirteen along with the Scotty's changing hair fiasco! 
JB
JB
Well I've just come off watching the restoration pf the 11 foot model and their quoting some pretty enthusiastic fan mail back in the day.Please tell me it's not Cash Markman's bogus "Star Trek was a secret hit" nonsense.
Except for its first few weeks Star Trek stayed stuck the middle of the ratings pack, and claims about its youth demographics have never been substantiated and writing on demographics in that period paint a very different picture.
What I meant to say that on its original run Star Trek had fans. This was quoted in various books and the large bags of fan mail/personal appearances that Shatner and Nimoy had during its run. Whether it had enough fans is another question.
I know people in Australia who have been the ratings house and represented 10 000 viewers etc and I'd say they wouldn't actually represent my viewing habits in the slightest. But maybe in the US the system is fullproof so I'm prepared to accept that Star Trek was an expensive show in the middle of the pack which probably had a few rival shows that were cheaper to make and more popular.
Star Trek got its big popularity in the reruns where I first watched it. Still it had its fans in the 60s.
A lot of factors enter into when an episode gets finished."Corbomite" was the first shot but pushed way back because of post-production issues. And sometimes they "buried" what they considered weak episodes on dates where they expected a lower-than-average audience anyway, saving ones they expected to better grab an audience for rating sweeps, etc. "Elaan" had more animation effects than "Incident" and the latter was more "ripped from the headlines" so they probably tried to air it at ASAP.But Elaan was the second episode of the season production wise and our first look at a Klingon battleship and yet they stuck it out at episode thirteen along with the Scotty's changing hair fiasco!
JB
While "Corbomite" might have been first shot it had the characters pretty well defined from the start.
Apollo 8 was a hoax?
I can understand the special effects issues and the like but not the put the best episode on to catch the sweeps! To them it's just a marketable television programme but to us fans it was a helluva lot more and we couldn't for the life of us explain the difference in hair styles from one episode to the next or the odd looking costumes especially in the earlier shows!
JB
JB
It's a good thing the stories weren't marred by continuity issues.
Launched 8 days after the night in question.
Continuity was never a problem to television series made in the sixties and seventies! They were usually designed to be watched in any order without any reference to the last one! Unless it was a soap opera of course! 
JB
JB
Continuity was never a problem to television series made in the sixties and seventies! They were usually designed to be watched in any order without any reference to the last one! Unless it was a soap opera of course!
JB
The soap operas had plots so convoluted that the recap part was almost as long as the episode itself!
No conditions! Prepare to be boarded or destroyed! 
JB
JB
Just about the most sexist episode ever.
Still entertaining.
Actually Elaan is not so green as she's cabbage looking. I rather like the culture clash and the way she tries to manipulate Kirk the only ways she knows how. Not even biochemical toxins can compete with Kirk's love of the Enterprise though.
As for the spanking. Just... No.
Sexist, sure... The most sexist, nope.
Spock's Brain, for example, is a lot more sexist: "Brain, brain, what is brain?"
THAT'S SEXIST!!
Star Trek
"Elaan of Troyius"
Originally aired December 20, 1968
Stardate 4372.5
What was going on the week the episode aired.
In addition to cribbing the Bard, Trek also likes to borrow from itself. Feuding alien ambassadors aboard the Enterprise, one of whom is a spy working for an outside power who have a ship playing cat and mouse with the Enterprise, which Kirk has to deal with while in a compromised condition...and oh, somebody gets stabbed along the way? It all seems just a bit familiar....
Ah, but the D-7 makes its proper production-order debut! I like the bits of tactical business and general tension while the Enterprise is dealing with the Klingon ship. I do wish they'd gotten somebody with a smidgen more character to deliver the Klingon captain's lines, though, such as they are. Granted, he's not even talking in complete sentences.
Gotta love how Chapel pops in to request some brief expository setup; and that clunky bit of setup where Petri's chief concern while the ship is in danger is that Elaan puts on a necklace; and the contrivance of Spock detecting the dilithium in that necklace while performing external scans....
It seems like Chekov's lines about the condition of the Klingon ship were meant to be delivered while he was looking at his instruments, not the Captain.
As we don't have a new episode next week, here's a bonus 50 Years Ago This Week link for Digits.
Coming in 1969:
"Elaan of Troyius"
Originally aired December 20, 1968
Stardate 4372.5
H&I said:
What was going on the week the episode aired.
Blame Shakespeare. And political correctness be damned, this is one of the best lines to come out of Trek...
It's also a wee bit bawdy how Kirk, while having a romantic moment with Elaan, promises to familiarize her with spanking later.James T. Kirk said:
In addition to cribbing the Bard, Trek also likes to borrow from itself. Feuding alien ambassadors aboard the Enterprise, one of whom is a spy working for an outside power who have a ship playing cat and mouse with the Enterprise, which Kirk has to deal with while in a compromised condition...and oh, somebody gets stabbed along the way? It all seems just a bit familiar....
Ah, but the D-7 makes its proper production-order debut! I like the bits of tactical business and general tension while the Enterprise is dealing with the Klingon ship. I do wish they'd gotten somebody with a smidgen more character to deliver the Klingon captain's lines, though, such as they are. Granted, he's not even talking in complete sentences.
Gotta love how Chapel pops in to request some brief expository setup; and that clunky bit of setup where Petri's chief concern while the ship is in danger is that Elaan puts on a necklace; and the contrivance of Spock detecting the dilithium in that necklace while performing external scans....
It seems like Chekov's lines about the condition of the Klingon ship were meant to be delivered while he was looking at his instruments, not the Captain.
As we don't have a new episode next week, here's a bonus 50 Years Ago This Week link for Digits.
Coming in 1969:
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