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Production Order Group Viewing 2018

Maybe she was recently transferred? but then we never ever saw her again in engineering or any of the science labs aboard the ship! :bolian:
JB
 
Maybe she was recently transferred? but then we never ever saw her again in engineering or any of the science labs aboard the ship! :bolian:
JB
Likely she was a physicist. Still, I suppose the engineers need a gal to make their coffee. Probably a spillage caused the explosion .
 
Maybe they had to spend some time on Federation Starships and quickly transfer to other posts like Starbases and the like?
JB
 
"The Doomsday Machine" (under the original VFX and soundtrack) is my all-time favorite Trek episode. It's easily the most fun I ever had watching a ST episode as a child in the early 1970s.

It's odd that I remember never liking this one as a kid! Maybe because it was all set on two Starships and not a lush planet! But when I rewatched and taped it on audio back in 1979 it quickly became one of my favourite episodes of the series!
JB
 
WOLF IN THE FOLD

This is a much spookier episode than the official “Halloween episode” from 2 months ago. Scotty is treated far too leniently given the circumstances but the body-possession-murder plot is good fun. And the solution Kirk comes up with is just trippy! :rolleyes:
  • The oft-quoted-as-problematic "hatred" that Scotty of women I always took to be a bit of hyperbole between Kirk and McCoy, a tongue in cheek excuse for them to visit the planet of Argelius. To take it otherwise goes completely against Scotty’s character as shown so far (and indeed in this very episode)
  • The blue sparkly “cadet” uniform last seen on Finnegan in Shore Leave makes its reappearance on a few of the background extras in the early scenes
  • Kirk must really like his green tunic wraparound, he's still wearing it from last week!
  • Remnants of The Alternative Factor here as Kirk and Spock speculate wildly on the unknown situation/creature…and get it exactly right!!!

NEW EQUIPMENT
  • Psychotricorder – sounds like a very useful piece of kit, but it’s probably a futuristic polygraph with a fancy name. Otherwise, the option to perform a “24 hour regressive memory check” on suspects would just be too much of a plot breaker in other episodes!
  • Manual override in the turbolift controls. I’ve never seen them before, I guess they were installed just in time!

Argelius seems to be located in non-Federation space – the possibly of removing it as a space-port for Starfleet is brought up as a serious consideration more than once. This helps to reinforce the galaxy as a BIG place, which is always welcome.
 
The oft-quoted-as-problematic "hatred" that Scotty of women I always took to be a bit of hyperbole between Kirk and McCoy, a tongue in cheek excuse for them to visit the planet of Argelius. To take it otherwise goes completely against Scotty’s character as shown so far (and indeed in this very episode)
I never took it that way. Maybe after the accident, Scotty was really mad more so about the damage to the ship than to himself. He starting spouting off about how he'll never let another women in Engineering, etc. After a few days of this, maybe McCoy honestly thought Scotty could use a little R&R therapy to snap him back to his old cranky self, and if he didn't respond, then maybe his head injury was more serious that he thought. For the discussions at the table, McCoy was dumbing down the psychobabble for Kirk (which in reality was dumbing it down for the audience.)

I don't think this happened as you suggest:
[off screen before Enterprise approaches Argelius]
KIRK: Bones. Scotty. I know a cafe where the women are so...
MCCOY: I know the place, Jim.
SCOTT: Let's go see!
KIRK: Crap, we haven't been paid yet this month.
MCCOY: Hey, if we pretend to talk shop while we're down there on "medical" reasons, then we can get Starfleet to pick up our bar tab, again" :shrug:

Otherwise, I like the rest of your post.
 
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Wolf in the Fold

While the notion of everyone running into Jack the Ripper sometime is a bit off putting, this was probably one of the first to do it so I don't think I can hold it against this episode. Plus, it was really well done, they could have used any other serial killer that was never solved, like the Zodiac killer, and it wouldn't have hurt it. If you're going to go to the well, make it good and they did.

Charles Macaulay as Jaris and John Fiedler both give great guest acting preferences. Jaris was great as a portrayal of a friendly but concerned leader and his grief at the loss of his wife is very well portrayed as well.

I really like how the inquest is done and the dialogue is great, it makes the Enterprise crew seem knowlegeable and well experienced without making them know it alls spouting off things they couldn't know.

Things I just noticed this time.

@Mytran beat me to it, I see those other guys with space shirts. Maybe there is cantina across town where the freighter captains hang out.

Jaris really doesn't seem to like Hengist at all, almost every time they interact he's basically telling him to shut up. I wonder if Sybo told him he wasn't trustworthy?

Speaking of Jaris's portrayal, there were some very good reaction shots of him in the background while the inquest is going on on the Enterprise. These things make shows for me, if people can properly be part of the scene in a good way even if they don't have a line there is such a huge boost to it's "world" that these are the actual people we are watching not actors reciting lines.

Also, honorable mention to Yeoman Tankris, her reaction to Spock's "women are more terrified" is great, a cross between that's bullshit and slowly realizing something really scary is happening.

Some interesting directing choices, I didn't care for the teaser too much and though it a bit long but a really good cut was right after Sybo says "There is evil here, monstrous terrible evil" it cuts right to Hengist.

Just before the ceremony Lt. Tracy is killed, Hengist is away, he comes back with Morla and the other guy, Kirk says there's another murder, no details other than one of his crew. Then later in the same scene with no possibility of off-screen dialogue Hengist says "Need I remind you of the circumstances, Captain? In both cases, your friend Scott was discovered over the body and later claimed to remember nothing. " emphasis added, but how could Hengist know? was he just extrapolating or he's the killer, which we know now, but why didn't anyone pick up on that?

Also, much later the knife is shown on the viewscreen in the confrence room making it seem like they have it away in another room, Hengist then grabs the tranquilized yeoman and holds the knife to her! Does he have a bunch of the same kind?

There's only two dud parts of this episode for me, one is a plot device and the other a weird line.

Scott's off-screen injury and behavioral change that's never shown which I know was to try to at least give us the remote possibility that Scott was guilty.
Also, the whole "women are more terrified" line. Maybe that seems true to Mr. Spock but it sounds more like Rodenberry's philosophy to me. Men loose their shit too, just as bad, but I'm not going to let an off line ruin the episode for me.

Some questions I always have about this one.

Was Mr. Hengist just a dead body for over a year? Maybe he was in the place Scotty was and his heart gave out so the Kesla decided to keep him as a suit? Did beaming him/it out into space really kill it? I hope another ship doesn't move through that area and it somehow gets in like it got into the computer or Jaris.

Final comment, going back to the fear. Could the creature be subsisting just as much on Mr. Scott's fear of being guilty as much as the victim's fear of death? Maybe Mr. Scott's fear is kind of sustaining but not as desirable as the more primal fear of death but he's certainly afraid he's done it and his expression when Jaris tells him the penalty is really well done, this man is in turmoil. Maybe it doesn't work that way but then why would it need to involve Scotty at all?

Last thought
At the end they beam it out into space to kill it. No one seems to be crying out, you can't kill it it's a sapient sentient creature with rights and it's the only one of it's kind and blah blah blah. So why do they with other murderous monsters like the M-113 creature and other things later on?
 
Last thought
At the end they beam it out into space to kill it. No one seems to be crying out, you can't kill it it's a sapient sentient creature with rights and it's the only one of it's kind and blah blah blah. So why do they with other murderous monsters like the M-113 creature and other things later on?
Killing the salt creature was definitely a misjudgement IMO, they did it right with the Horta later on.
However, with Redjac he wasn't killing for food or to defend his children, he was killing for the pure pleasure of it and relished every moment. Offering him salt or agreeing not to smash some eggs simply is not an option; defence of the galaxy must come first.
 
Killing the salt creature was definitely a misjudgement IMO, they did it right with the Horta later on.
However, with Redjac he wasn't killing for food or to defend his children, he was killing for the pure pleasure of it and relished every moment. Offering him salt or agreeing not to smash some eggs simply is not an option; defence of the galaxy must come first.

Agreed; I believe they adequately rationalize the disposition of the vampire cloud in Obsession the same way.
 
Wolf in the Fold isn't one of my favorites. It might be because the violence is directed against the women or because the detective aspect is so hokey with murders taking place while the lights were out. I might have been keener if it had been a proper detective story based around the original murder.

The psycho tricorder seems to be a portable version of the lie detection system used by the ship's computer.
 
Psychotricorder – sounds like a very useful piece of kit, but it’s probably a futuristic polygraph with a fancy name. Otherwise, the option to perform a “24 hour regressive memory check” on suspects would just be too much of a plot breaker in other episodes!
The psycho tricorder seems to be a portable version of the lie detection system used by the ship's computer.

Maybe it also has the capability to simulate short term memory cells to make those memories more vivid, easier to recall to the patient. Kind of like hypnosis used in countless crime stories to recall memories?
KIRK: Depending on your wife's empathic abilities is all very well, Prefect, but there's only one way we can find out what it is Mister Scott cannot remember. Since you find it impossible to let us go back up to our ship, I can beam down a technician with a psycho-tricorder.
MCCOY: Prefect, it will give us a detailed account of everything that's happened to Mister Scott in the last twenty four hours.​
How will they get the detailed account? Scotty will be a pseudo-hypnotic state and will orally describe his memories under the influence of the psycho-tricorder.
 
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Maybe it also has the capability to simulate short term memory cells to make those memories more vivid, easier to recall to the patient. Kind of like hypnosis used in countless crime stories to recall memories?
KIRK: Depending on your wife's empathic abilities is all very well, Prefect, but there's only one way we can find out what it is Mister Scott cannot remember. Since you find it impossible to let us go back up to our ship, I can beam down a technician with a psycho-tricorder.
MCCOY: Prefect, it will give us a detailed account of everything that's happened to Mister Scott in the last twenty four hours.​
How will they get the detailed account? Scotty will be a pseudo-hypnotic state and will orally describe his memories under the influence of the psycho-tricorder.
It certainly seems less intrusive than a mind meld. I wonder why Spock is so willing to share his thoughts with strangers when this baby is available.
 
I would definitely say that the Jack The Ripper entity was doing what he did for food! The fear and terror that the women projected when being attacked was what kept it alive. Spock and Kirk say so much in the episode!
JB
 
I would definitely say that the Jack The Ripper entity was doing what he did for food! The fear and terror that the women projected when being attacked was what kept it alive. Spock and Kirk say so much in the episode!
JB
But then it would not have to kill. It could just frighten people. Make horror films for a living. Campaign for Brexit. Something constructive.
 
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