Production Order Group Viewing 2018

[Poltargyst]

THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME

For the second week in a row, the Enterprise finds a spacebourne organism that threatens life in the entire galaxy, just as it is about to reproduce. Luckily, they can use antimatter to destroy it in time.
The actual story they tell in each episode has a sufficiently different focus to make them both entertaining, with one a deep character focus and the other a more ensemble effort.
However, can we please have something different next week?

Other thoughts:

• Kirk seems in the same mood as the end of last week – tired, but content with life (and perfectly happy to ogle his Yeoman, even if he’s not going to act on those impulses).
• I wonder what “exhausting mission” the Enterprise has just completed? Although they always seem to get involved in shenanigans, their actual missions for the last few episodes have consisted of routine maintenance and ferrying cargo!
• Chekov scans the Gamma 7A system from (presumably several light years away and determines that there is absolutely no life there whatsoever, all within a few minutes. That’s impressive tech!
• McCoy gets pwned by Spock during their exchange in Sickbay. Spock does seem unusually grumpy though (but completely understandably)
• McCoy’s solution to unexplained tiredness? Pump ‘em full of stimulants!
• There’s 3 new extras in the Briefing Room scene. That and all the people in Sickbay really help convey an entire ship full of crew.
• Kirk orders a magnetic bottle of antimatter to be loaded onto a probe. This makes it pretty obvious that a photon torpedo is something very different, at least in the TOS era.

A manned exploration vessel is required to study the creature further – even though it is incredibly risky, sacrifices must sometimes be made to advance science. All this is an excellent mirror to the space race going on at the time the episode was filmed.

PROP ALERT
The Emeniar-7 battle computers make a reappearance on Spock's shuttlecraft.
Useful machines, those!

No, that was McCoy in Conscience Of The King claiming that the reason Spock's race was conquered was due to the lack of alcoholic beverages on planet Vulcan. Or was he just teasing the first officer?

Either that or it's Mr Kyle’s identical cousin Mr Cowl manning the helm console this week! In a similar vein, I see that Mr Leslie has mourned the loss of his twin brother who was killed by the Cloud Creature in Obsession and returned to duty on the Bridge (he’s the one who attempts to stand and falls over)

Indeed, Kirk spends several precious moment agonising over the decision, but no reason is why he can’t just send them both. You are correct that a full science team would be better, though. Remember Galileo Seven?

From TOS I thought photon torpedoes were pure energy blasts. I had no idea they had a physical body with components until Star Trek III. I'm not sure I like that development either, but eh.

 

[Henoch]

From TOS I thought photon torpedoes were pure energy blasts. I had no idea they had a physical body with components until Star Trek III. I'm not sure I like that development either, but eh.

The photon torpedoes probably have a confined M/AM reaction which results in a huge explosion of just energy; the small amount of antimatter is all reacted in the explosion. This pure energy attack was ineffective against the cloud monster. The antimatter bomb may have finely dispersed unreacted antimatter over a large area which then reacts with whatever matter is around, in this case, the matter molecules of the cloud monster itself, thus annihilating the beastie. Of course, it also reacts with the planet and its atmosphere blowing half of it away. The same mechanism was used to kill the space ameba; antimatter directly reacting with the ameba's molecules. Another point, the space ameba was sort of a liquid inside it, so a torpedo may not work due to the density/pressure/resistance. A slower moving probe with a different propulsion system would work in this environment (like a ship), while a energy ball of magnetically confined matter and antimatter launched at high speed might not work.

 

[johnnybear]

You must be reading my mind! I was just thinking on replying to your posts. Did you have an encounter with the barrier, too?

I have enough barriers of my own my friend! I love seeing the barrier in the two or is it three episodes? Depends on your theories about the Medusan pilot I guess?
JB

 

[Poltargyst]

A Piece of the Action

Phaser I makes an appearance.

Scotty's confusion with the native lingo is funny throughout.

I find it hard to believe that a single book showed the Iotians how to make every aspect of their society just like 1920's Earth.

Fizzbin. Ha ha.

"Spock, what are the odds in getting a royal fizzbin?" "I've never computed them. " Ha ha.

Is that the first time Spock neck pinches a woman?

Krako! He looks a lot like Alice's boss.

Does every boss have a girl on his desk?

I like when Kirk and Spock start using the local lingo.

Kirk and cars do not mix ("double dumb ass..."). At least he can make the car go forward. The first time I drove a clutch, I kept stalling.

Kirk looks good in that suit.

"Right?"" "Check." Ha ha

This for me is so like Star Trek IV with Kirk and Spock trying to navigate a 20th Century setting. I wonder if they drew from this episode in making that movie.

"Spocko." Ha ha

Spock getting into the lingo is great.

The transtator is the basis for every important piece of equipment they have.

I'm trying to figure out the point of this episode. So the point of the Enterprise going to Sigma Iotia II is that the Horizon interfered with their culture, and they need to see the effects? So they're just supposed to observe? So why does Kirk take it upon himself to implement a new government? Why do the other bosses suddenly go along with Bela as the big boss when they've been at war to prevent him from being the big boss? And what is this cut? Cut of what?

So Bela is now dictator of the planet and he's imposing taxes that he uses for government services. But now the Federation gets 40% of that tax money that Kirk wants to see put toward guiding the Iotians "to a more ethical system?" And in light of the Prime Directive, by what right does the Federation have in guiding the Iotians' government at all? Contamination has already happened, so now we can interfere more?

Ah, well, best not to think too much about it. One must suspend one's disbelief further for comedy episodes.

This is just an okay episode for me. I've said I'm not as crazy about episodes set in the 20th Century, and this is the same thing. It's fun seeing Kirk and Spock getting into playing gangster at the end.

I was thinking that the 1920's were 40 years before the 1960's when the episode was made like the 1970's were 40 years ago for us now. Many viewers in the 60's would have remembered the 20's. So this is a nostalgia episode for them.

Alien Watch! A new planet of aliens! Guess what they look like.

Season 1
Talosians
That big ugly Rigellian guy Pike fought in illusion
Vina as an Orion girl in illusion
Glimpse of other aliens captured by Talosians
Ron Howard's brother
That dog from Enemy Within
Salt monster
That hand plant...Gertrude
Spock (duh)
Charlie's parents (Thasians)*
Romulans!
(Ruk)
Miri's planet kids (bonk bonk)
Giant ape creatures of Taurus II
Shore Leave Caretaker guy
Trelaine and his folks*
Gorn
Metrons*
The Lazerii
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Beta 3. (RotA)
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Emineminar VII (AToA)
The Triffids of Omicron Ceti III (TSoP)
The refreshingly non-human-looking Horta
Organians*
Klingons! (Remarkably human looking).
(The Guardian of Forever)
Flying pancakes

Season 2
Sylvia and Korob
The Companion
The remarkably human looking (though tall) Cappellans.
Native Pollux IV-ians (Apollo and his gang)
Full-blooded Vulcans
The remarkably human looking citizens of Argelius II (WitF)
Redjac
The People of Vaal (Gamma Triangulians)
Crew of the ISS Enterprise
The remarkably human-looking** (except for maybe a dot on their forehead) Halkans
Tribbles (not at all human looking)
The remarkably human-looking citizens of...892-VI. Is that what they call this planet? (The Roman one.)
Tall guys, short guys, Andorians, Tellurites, purple lady, Orion made up like an Andorian. (JtB)
The remarkably human-looking people of Neural. (APLW)
The awesome Mugato!
Shahna, Lars, Tamoon, Kloog, Thrallmaster Galt, and the Providers
The Cloud from the Tycho system.
The BIG FREAKIN' AMEBA!!!!!
The remarkably human-looking Iotians. (Gangsters)

*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request

 

[Pauln6]

This episode is so daft. If the Federation was going to interfere, wouldn't it have made more sense to interact with more people outside the gang structure? Couldn’t they have seeded literature to remind people of what life and political structures had been like before the original interference? Shouldn't they have taken more steps to retrieve the missing technology at the end instead of shrugging and laughing?

Given that so much of Grace's early career was spent playing gangsters' moll type characters, it would have been a great episode to see Rand as part of the landing party.

 

[Henoch]

Many viewers in the 60's would have remembered the 20's. So this is a nostalgia episode for them.

My grandparents were in their 20's during the roaring 20's. The lived it up going to speak-easies and flapping in old Detroit. As for nostalgia during 1968, sadly, they didn't own a TV and my grandmother had late-stage dementia; I doubt they even knew Star Trek existed. Not trying to make any point, here. The comment just triggered old childhood memories for me.

 

[mb22]

Inspiration (along with other Trek episodes) for a Fantastic Four comic:
http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/408/

 

[Phaser Two]

Inspiration (along with other Trek episodes) for a Fantastic Four comic:
http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/408/

Great link. Interesting to see the male version of Captain Marvel. And the Enterprise's phasers certainly are hitting The Thing in a most unfortunate spot in the first cover. Precision targeting sensors, and all that.

 

[johnnybear]

I've always thought that Jojo Krako looked a lot like Sergeant Norm Haseejian in Streets of San Francisco for some reason, I'm not really sure why!
JB

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Too bad they didn't leave behind a copy of the Bible...

 

[plynch]

In the 60s, this would have been like That 70s Show now. Nostalgia trip, not ancient history.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

In the 60s, this would have been like That 70s Show now. Nostalgia trip, not ancient history.

For older people yes, but the world changed a lot from the 1920s to the '60s. There had been two World Wars, two additional wars after that, and major technological change (television, the space program...) that contributed to major cultural change. When they made "A Piece of the Action," the 1920s was a different era.

I distinctly remember how distant Happy Days seemed when it came on in the mid-70s. Everything had changed, and the show was set in a bygone era. But when That '70s Show came on in 1998, it didn't seem very far in the past at all, even though it was set a few years further back than Happy Days had been. And today, 1990s culture still seems modern to me. Part of that is how I changed, but not all of it. Some decades just impose bigger changes on the culture.

 

[Henoch]

But when That '70s Show came on in 1998, it didn't seem very far in the past at all, even though it was set a few years further back than Happy Days had been.

Roughly forty years ago, I lived That '70s Show. For my senior prom in 1977, my three sisters made sure I dressed "snazzy" and my oldest sister is a beautician; I scooped John Travolta's disco look by at least 8 months...lord I was pretty.

 

[T'Bonz]

My husband loved That 70's Show. I found it to be (besides stupid as most comedies are) inaccurate.

 

[1001001]

My husband loved That 70's Show. I found it to be (besides stupid as most comedies are) inaccurate.

That's interesting.

I loved that show, and saw a lot of familiar things in it.

And Red is the greatest TV Dad of all time...

 

[plynch]

It conflated things from the early and late 70s didn't it? I only watched it a couple times and didn't find it funny.

At the comic book shop wherein I purchased my Ballantine "World of Star Trek" et al. they had black and white W.C. Fields and Mae West posters. I agree those seemed much older than 40-year-old culture seems now.

The culture really shifted a lot midcentury.

 

[Phaser Two]

Count me among those who didn't find That 70s Show funny. But then, I find Big Bang almost painfully unfunny.

 

[Maurice]

Getting period details right is easy to get wrong. I was reading a script set in 1954 and the author had a character say someone was "awesome" and I said, "uh, no, that word wasn't used inthat sense then." And people tend to mush up decades as if they all happened at the same time. I wrote something set in 1982 and boy is that a different world than 1986. The fashion, slang, all of it.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Getting period details right is easy to get wrong. I was reading a script set in 1954 and the author had a character say someone was "awesome" and I said, "uh, no, that word wasn't used that sense then." And people tend to mush up decades as if they all happened at the same time. I wrote something set in 1982 and boy is that a different world than 1986. The fashion, slang, all of it.

All of the sitcoms set in past decades seem to sprinkle in slang that wasn't used in their periods, and especially "fun" sentence constructions that are specific to today. I hate that. It comes across sounding like young writers who don't know their subject.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Research can be hard and time consuming. Back in the olden times, we did it in libraries without the benefit of computers, and nothing but a card catalog and the stacks themselves.