50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
The small-endians vs. the big-endians.
Geez. How has it gone this fast?? I forget; did you guys take summer breaks? No, wait, I joined in 2016 and you guys hadn't started this yet, so you must not have done it on anniversary dates. It's been a great thread to read.
Hmmm. I started doing this sometime in the middle but it's been on the 50 year anniversary of each episode since I've been doing it.
This story definitely needed Helen Noel. But then I think every episode needs Helen Noel.
This story definitely needed Helen Noel. But then I think every episode needs Helen Noel.
Amen to that!
JB
Ha ha. Even if she had just shown up in episodes where her skills were needed, we could have seen her in the Alternative Factor, Obsession, the Deadly Years, And the Children Shall Lead, and Turnabout Intruder. Two appearances per season would have been great.This story definitely needed Helen Noel. But then I think every episode needs Helen Noel.
The thread is exactly what it says on the tin.
It started a week before the 50th anniversary of The Man Trap with an optional rewatch of The Cage, and we've followed airdates ever since, breaks and all.
The thread is exactly what it says on the tin.
It started a week before the 50th anniversary of The Man Trap with an optional rewatch of The Cage, and we've followed airdates ever since, breaks and all.
Okay! Well first off even though I haven't been watching along consistently, it's been a great thread. Kudos! Second, wow, that time absolutely flew by! Third, any plans for that almost three-month gap between AOY and TI?
Context. In "Armageddon," the Enterprise was being threatened to prevent its execution of a diplomatic mission that had been ordered by the Federation to bring an end to the loss of life in the area. No doubt Kirk was correct that Starfleet crews would not obey an order to destroy a civilization without lawful cause, something that Garth had not provided but which General Oder 24 evidently did, unless something was wrong with them.
We'll start a letter writing campaign to renew it for season 4!
My point is Kirk argues Garth's madness became apparent when he gave such an order, which nobody would give and no crew would go along with, but Kirk gave out such an order himself and they did go along with it. "Preventing loss of life" by exterminating a civilization hardly seems the regular way that Starfleet goes about it's business, yet nobody on the Enterprise questioned that order, regardless of how "lawful" it was, or if Kirk was bluffing all along...
Yeah, I got your point.
We don't know what the text of General Order 24 is, so we can't fully know the context, admittedly. However, in any case, in "Taste," the order to exterminate was to exterminate a warring civilization whose war threatened the broader interstellar community, not unlike the situation proscribed by the planetary union in The Day the Earth Stood Still (under which their robots would exterminate Earth). Further, it was part of a mission whose parameters were known to the crew, including its authorization by the Federation. Garth gave and in the future would have given his orders outside of any legal context and would have expected them to have been carried out only because of blind loyalty. Even without knowing what General Order 24 says, we can distinguish the contexts.
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Makes you wonder character wise if Kirk had Dr.Helen Noel transferred off the ship as soon as he could doesn't it!!!
JB
JB
See? I told you guys it was on Fridays this year!
See? I told you guys it was on Fridays this year!
Well, my exact rewatching schedule is determined by Fizzbin rules...
Star Trek
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
Originally aired January 10, 1969
Stardate 5730.2
What was going on the week the episode aired.
This is another one that's conceptually a bit all over the place. These aliens don't just have a pigmentation that's considered flat-out impossible in a galaxy that spawns god-like energy beings and vampire space clouds...they also live tens of thousands of years; use invisible, disposable ships; and possess energy and mind over matter powers, which include not just controlling the Enterprise but enabling it to move at Warp 10. Yet they don't seem very socially developed; they explicitly can't change color; despite their mostly human appearance, they don't believe that they're descended from...AY-pssssssss; they get winded pretty quickly; and half their surviving population is Frank Gorshin...who does give us some nice scenery chewing worthy of sharing the screen with the Shat.
It's a good thing that Scotty just happened to be on the Bridge for the destruct sequence. It would have sucked out some of the tension if Kirk had needed to call him up from Engineering.
The in-and-out zoom on the Red Alert lights: Tacky! And since when do we find doors on the Enterprise slightly cracked open?
This week's mission: Crop-dust a planet! Next week's: Hand out condoms!
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
Originally aired January 10, 1969
Stardate 5730.2
H&I said:
What was going on the week the episode aired.
This is another one that's conceptually a bit all over the place. These aliens don't just have a pigmentation that's considered flat-out impossible in a galaxy that spawns god-like energy beings and vampire space clouds...they also live tens of thousands of years; use invisible, disposable ships; and possess energy and mind over matter powers, which include not just controlling the Enterprise but enabling it to move at Warp 10. Yet they don't seem very socially developed; they explicitly can't change color; despite their mostly human appearance, they don't believe that they're descended from...AY-pssssssss; they get winded pretty quickly; and half their surviving population is Frank Gorshin...who does give us some nice scenery chewing worthy of sharing the screen with the Shat.
It's a good thing that Scotty just happened to be on the Bridge for the destruct sequence. It would have sucked out some of the tension if Kirk had needed to call him up from Engineering.
The in-and-out zoom on the Red Alert lights: Tacky! And since when do we find doors on the Enterprise slightly cracked open?
This week's mission: Crop-dust a planet! Next week's: Hand out condoms!
I'm betting this made a couple of years after Batman finished too?
JB
JB
I'm not a fan of supremely powerful beings generally. I prefer my characters to have defined abilities so generation of an electrical field is fine but a forcefield? Mentally control of the ship? Boosting warp power? A computer virus could have made some sense instead. I think the allegory could have been a fraction more subtle and, while I enjoy some corridor running in Dr Who, the episode takes it to a new level .
I think that the inclusion of that one's a multifaceted, sharp observation on the part of the authors (story: Cronin; teleplay: Crawford). It's a convergence of both religious fundamentalism, presumably of the Christian variety in which mankind is set apart from the animals in the creation myth, and the racist notion that only "inferior races" resemble animals.
I also love how Cheron is in the "southernmost part of the galaxy."
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