Bright spots in dreary episodes

Starting a new re-watch of the entire series today. This time, I'm starting at the end and working my way backward. I'll ignore continuity, and instead enjoy how the quality improves along the way!

So I watched "Turnabout Intruder" this morning. Yeah, there's lots to pick on in this episode. A preposterous premise. It's talky. Mechanically directed. The infamous shot of Kirk exiting the briefing room through a non-existent door. Disappointing that Nichelle Nichols doesn't appear in this final episode. Doubly disappointing that it is the final episode.

With all THAT, I thought Sandra Smith was terrific as Janice Lester. Dynamic and fun. She actually had me convinced she was Kirk.

Other things to like in otherwise ho-hum episodes?

 

Well, not really a bright spot. Kind of cloudy... but seeing Kirk’s brother, who looks amazingly like Kirk with a mustache, in one of my least favorite episodes Operation : Annihilate.

 

One of my favorite scenes in the original series occurs in “Spock’s Brain”... I really like the scene with Kirk, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov discussing which planet to search for Spock’s brain. It’s a rare ensemble scene with the supporting cast.

 

I've always found Conscience of The King to be a bit dull but i love hearing about life on Tarsus IV and Kirk's early life! But was he actually living there like Kevin Riley or was he a part of the rescue team that turned up to stop Kodos's mass executions and to bring much wanted food and medicines?
JB

 

"Return to Tomorrow" never quite grabbed me as an episode, but Kirk did have show premise-selling speech in retort to McCoy's impassioned diatribe.

 

...and the blooper reel outtake of Shatner is good, too, where he says “Never fear...Sargon is here.”

 

Or that scene where he and DeForest are laughing so hard that he nearly falls over!
JB

 

"I never should have reconnected his mouth"
And
"I'll never live it down, this Vulcan telling me how to operate "

Spocks Brain

 

The brightest moment in a dreary episode, for me, is Alexander's nice bit at the end of "Plato's Stepchildren."

 

15 year old Kirk was there. He wrote down the Kodos speech from memory for Karidian to recite for a speech analysis.

KIRK: You're an actor now. What were you twenty years ago?
KARIDIAN: Younger, Captain. Much younger.
KIRK: So was I. But I remember. Let's see if you do. Read this into that communicator on the wall. It will be recorded and compared to a piece of Kodos' voice film we have in our files. The test is virtually infallible. It will tell us whether you're Karidian, or Kodos the Executioner. (switches on comm.) Ready for voice test. Disguising your voice will make no difference.
KARIDIAN: (reading) The revolution is successful, but survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. (stops looking at the paper) Your lives means slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered. Signed, Kodos, governor of Tarsus Four.
KIRK: I remember the words. I wrote them down. You said them like you knew them. You hardly glanced at the paper.​

 

Yes! I didn’t know Shatner had such a high pitched laugh!

 

Friday's Child bright spot: "Look, I'm a doctor, not an escalator! Spock, give me a hand!" I also pondered at that moment that there are still escalators in the 23rd Century even though we never see one, or Jetson-style moving sidewalks, or flying cars.

I'm always waiting for the next McCoy-ism, "I'm a doctor, not a ..."

 

In "The Deadly Years" the computer said that Kirk's physiological age was about 60 to 72 years:

Since "The Conscience of the King" was a first season episode it was probably more or less a year earlier than "The deadly Years". So Kirk was probably about thirty three years old in "The Conscience of the King", which was 20 years after the Tarsus IV incident, thus making Kirk about thirteen during the Tarsus IV incident.

"Shore Leave" was also a first season episode, and Kirk should have been about thirty three in "Shore Leave".

Kirk also meets a former girlfriend Ruth:

Later:

When Kirk meets Finnegan for the second time:

Since Finnegan was an upperclassman, he should have graduated before Kirk did. Finnegan is twenty years old, the way Kirk remembers from the first time they met, or the last time, or sometime in between.

A plebe is a term for a first year cadet. So Kirk was probably a first year cadet fifteen years before he was about thirty three, and thus when aged about eighteen. The age range to enter US service academies is seventeen to twenty two, and the most common age is eighteen. So if Kirk was about eighteen fifteen years before "Shore Leave", he should have been about thirteen twenty years before "The Conscience of the King" which should happen about the time of "Shore Leave".

Memory Alpha also says that Kirk was thirteen at Tarsus IV. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/James_T._Kirk

And for whatever it might be worth, the official but non canon and possibly incorrect Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future, 1996, says Kirk was born in 2233 and the Tarsus IV Massacre happened in 2246, the year that Kirk turned thirteen.

So the evidence indicates that Kirk was about thirteen, not fifteen, during the events on Tarsus IV.

 

I always took that to mean that Kirk remembered them from writing them down moments before, not from the actual events. Interesting.

 

I love the arboretum in And the children shall lead, shame it's only seen one more time (or twice, if you count the deleted scene from Elaan). Chapel getting ice-cream for the kids was a nice scene

 

*Yawn* I usually sleep through Bread and Circuses. Yeah, yeah...we’re sun worshipers. I get it. Then Uhura says “It’s not the sun up in the sky. It’s the Son of God.” The first time I saw that episode I was surprised and it kind of made up for an otherwise dreary show.

 

There is no such thing as a dreary episode of TOS. But there are some episodes that are merely great as opposed to being brilliant beyond words and one of them would be "The Way to Eden." I don't care what anyone says. Spock jamming with hippies is pure fun gold. Also Adam's songs aren't all that bad for hippie songs.

Jason

 

I must admit to liking Bread And Circuses a lot my Lord!
But was Kirk actually living on Tarsus IV? It sounds like he was but why was he there? A colonist? Visiting a family member or members? Just part of the rescue team that liberated the colonists and it went on for quite some time?
Seems odd that he would be living there for some reason!
JB

 

It’s an okay episode, JB. I’m just not a big fan of TOS parallel planet theory.