Production Order Group Viewing 2018

Although the allegory was paper thin, as far as the USA goes, they were right to hammer home the blatant stupidity of segregation.

As as the story goes, I wanted so much more. The duration of their chase was overblown; divide it by 200 and you'd still have a ridiculously long time. I think there was a missed opportunity to look more at the arguments of both sides., and more story generally. The running scenes are dull and ineffective, although I can see how budgetary constraints would prevent showing us the actual scorched home world. Maybe a more positive message could have come from the handful of survivors who had found peace.

The alien super powers were just a bit too convenient, albeit more limited and interesting than the standard omnipotent aliens I suppose.

 

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

By my count, including this episode, we have only 10 episodes left! Cue Europe, it's...The Final Countdown!



(And how fitting is The Final Countdown for this episode?)

The TOS-R version has a cool visual of the shuttle coming in to land in the shuttle bay.

So the answer to the question of how they evolved to be half black half white is that there was a mutation at some point?

Spock: "Yet you are pumping him full of your noxious potions as if he were a human. " Ooh, this time Spock starts the snark with McCoy rather than the other way around.

Kirk:"That's in the southernmost part of the galaxy, in an uncharted quarter." Huh. So apparently by convention they've decided that one side of the galaxy is the top and one the bottom and they refer to them as north and south? Is he talking about a quarter of the southern side or a quadrant of the whole galaxy? Any relation to the alpha, beta, gamma, delta designation of quadrants we hear about in later Trek series?

Wow, look, there are people in the corridors as if this was a busy crew of 430 people. How reminiscent of Season 1.

Nooo, it's the Riddler! Don't trust him! Kirk needs to pick up the red phone and call Adam West.

The dynamic between Lokai and Bele reminds me of G'Kar and Londo and will be expanded upon more in DS9 with the dynamic between the Bajorans and Cardassians.

What is it with this in and out with the camera during a red alert? Holy psychedelic 60's, Batman.

Good acting by Gorshin and Antonio. They really sell two guys who are obsessed and enraged.

Bele:"For fifty thousand of your terrestrial years, I have been pursuing Lokai through the galaxy." Wow, you suck.

Ah, the classic self destruct sequence. One of the truly iconic scenes in all of TOS repeated in STIII. A very tense, edge of your seat scene where Kirk shows his iron will will bend to no one. Meanwhile, everyone else looks on and thinks "this isn't what I was expecting to happen today."

Okay, it's a good scene, but I disagree with Kirk here. I hate to pull the "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one" card, but Kirk has no business risking the lives of a billion Ariannusians, not to mention those of his crew, by potentially destroying his ship over Lokai. If Bele won't give up control, then Kirk needs to get to Cheron as soon as possible, get the two nutjobs off the ship, and go save Ariannus. We know that's where they end up anyway, but we didn't know that at the time. And why didn't Bele just walk over and burn out the computer while they were setting up the self destruct sequence?

Another TOS episode with a social message. This one hits us over the head with a 2 x 4, a sledgehammer, and a Mack truck: Hey! Racism is stupid and bad!

The first time I saw this, like Kirk and Spock, I didn't register the difference between Lokai and Bele, and when Bele gives his explanation of "I'm black on the right side, he's white on the right side", like Kirk and Spock, I was like "what a stupid reason to hate each other." DUH! That's the point! It's stupid to hate over each others' skin color! Oooooooooh, I get it!

This isn't really one of my favorite episodes. It doesn't help that we have to see them run around the ship for twenty minutes. Okay, it wasn't twenty, it was three. Long enough.

Kirk: "Give up your hate."

Luke: "Search your feelings, Father, you can't do this. I feel the conflict within you. Let go of your hate."

Turn from the Dark Side, Bele and Lokai! But they don't. They turn to the Dark Side and become Sith. Or something.

Lokai goes into the turbolift. Bele follows IMMEDIATELY, and there's already a new turbolift. How fast do those things go?

So what have we learned? It's stupid to hate someone for the color of their skin, and if you don't knock it off it will destroy you and your whole world. And we're still learning this lesson unfortunately.

Like I said, not a real favorite of mine, but the dynamics between Bele and Lokai and the crew were well-acted. I wonder if it would have been more of a statement to have a black actor play one of them. Have a black actor play Bele and watch 1960's-era heads explode.

Alien Watch! Just a couple of wild and crazy guys!

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)
Kelvans! Who really look like big, cool squids but choose to look remarkably human.
Sargon and the gang of not-quite-omnipotent aliens.
Remarkably human looking Zeons of Zeon and Ekosians of Ekos. (PoF)
The remarkably human looking Yangs and Coms of Omega IV.
Isis! Who looks remarkably like a cat until she wants to look remarkably human.

Season 3
The decidedly non-human looking Melkotians.
The remarkably human-looking Elasians and not so human looking Troyians.
Lawyer in a muumuu. Remarkably human-looking but maybe that was on purpose.
The remarkably human-looking Morgs and Eymorgs of Sigma Draconis.
Kollos the Medusan
Gem the Empath (remarkably human looking)
Vians (the OTHER bumpy-headed aliens)
Tholians!
The remarkably human-looking Fabrini of Yo Mama.
The malicious swirly ball of hate (DotD)
The remarkably human-looking Platonians who are douchebags except for Alexander
The fast, but still remarkably human looking Scalosians.
The remarkably human-looking image of Losira.
The Cheron boys, Bele and Lokai

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

 

Happens even here. Behold.

There is a Galactic North in Earth-based astronomy. It's not hard to imagine that someone would pick a direction from the plane as north/up and south/down just so you could do azimuth and elevation. That aside, making the "race problem" from the "south" is very on-the-nose.

 

Well space doesn't actually stop beneath the Enterprise when it's travelling in the outer reaches!
JB

 

If they ever remake this episode in one of the new Treks I want this cat belonging to one of the protagonists.
This episodes has two of the most remembered scenes in Trek for me- the confrontation of the bridge where Kirk and even Spock are clueless to the 'important' differences between Bele and Lokai and the self-destruct scene.
I regard this as a very good episode even it scores a bit high on the allegory scale. The conflict between Bele and Lokai is good. The whole episode is very exciting, our heroes are united for once.
The main problem I have is that Kirk is being a bit Herbert in this episode. The proper paperwork wasn't filled out etc. I know that was a ploy to keep the two men apart but to me the guest stars outshine the main cast.because Kirk is less effective a commander allowing Bele to eventually have control of the ship.
I absolutely loved the self-destruct sequence, the sweat on the brow, the dramatic looks as if Scott were going to back out at any moment but still kept the faith. However I kept thinking why would Kirk destroy the ship over this? I know its bad and if it were Khan or Charlie or Gary Mitchell you would understand you couldn't have a ship with the power of the Enterprise in the hands of a maniac but Bele was likely to return power of the Kirk as soon as he had Lokai at the planet. Then a couple of scenes later the effective of this scene was again diminished when Bele disabled the self-destruct.
Whereas people complain the left-right scene on the bridge was too obvious I think they should have had some background/future scene to explain why the self-destruct was necessary or that Kirk was relieved at his bluff working.
Also 50000 years is dramatic but too long. Its dramatic and spacey futuristic but surely Bele would have contacted his people in that time. Was he really going around solo for 50000 years looking for his fugitive ? No contact with his planet, no-one to talk to, no intimate contact with anyone. ? Maybe Kirk or Spock should have wondered why the people from Cheron had not already made contact with the Federation when they first met up with Bele.

.

 

The special energy was just positive energy which when flooding the engines would destroy the Enterprise when it came into contact with the barrier which was composed of negative energy! I did science, me!
JB

 

I'll bet that cat is a chimera: one individual formed from two separate fertilized eggs that fused together.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)

"I am black on the right side. Bad cats are tan on the right side. All bad cats are tan on the right side."

 

WHOM GODS DESTROY

This week we have another “kidnapped captain” type plot yet again set in a mental institution, complete with all the trappings we saw in Dagger Of The Mind such as a planetary forcefield and a Neural Neutraliser chair. There’s extensive reuse of wall flats and furniture from the Enterprise standing sets but since this is a Federation station that at leave makes a bit of sense in visual continuity terms.

The plot is…serviceable. Watching actors be “crazy” soon palls for me but fortunately those shenanigans don’t go on for anywhere near the same length of time as in Plato’s Stepchildren or I, Mudd.
Garth is an interesting antagonist and the actor plays the “crazy” in a very understated manner for the most part. He also comes up with some clever plans to fool Kirk – the one with Spock was especially well done and nearly worked; his impersonation of the First Officer was perfect!

Kirk and Spock seem to mostly be biding their time waiting for the inevitable opportunity to turn the tables on Garth - I never got any great sense that they were in mortal danger though.

THE FEDERATION
While Gene Coon seems to have come up with concept of the multi-specied Federation back in Season One, it’s expanded on a lot in this episode. Kirk says he is primarily an explorer NOW – perhaps indicating that Starfleet was once more militaristic in recent memory. I wonder what that business at Axanar was all about? They allude to it having been the birth of the Federation in its current form as we know it today.

QUEEN TO QUEEN’S LEVEL THREE
At last! A really sensible security countermeasure. Couldn’t they have installed a couple of subcutaneous transponders as well, though?
The motive of breaking of the code also drives the plot in a believable fashion.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Kirk claims that mental illness can now be cured by a certain medicine. Given how vast a range of conditions the term “mental illness” covers this does not seem possible. What’s next, oxygen pills so we can breath in space?
• Good to see that the main races we’ve encountered before are well represented in the “galaxy’s incorrigible criminally insane” - Orion, Andorian, Telarite and a collection of humans in different hats too.
• After the titles, we find that Spock was stunned off screen. Was this done to save money on the FX budget?
• Izar seems to be another planet – Garth refers to Kirk and Cory as stiff necked “earth people”. Of course in TOS, having human-like aliens is hardly an oddity.
• Garth is said to use “cellular metamorphosis” to do his shape shifting trick, yet his clothes change also. Does that mean he’s walking around naked? Good enough for Mystique, I suppose…
• Great reuse of the music from WNMHG and The Cage – very eerie and adds atmosphere to those scenes
• Shatner once again gets to overact (as Garth) but he also gets some more subtle scenes to deliver, which the actor performs well. Shatner really can play it both ways.
• Garth has created the “most powerful explosive in history” – is it more powerful than antimatter?
• Great to see the Tholian Web spacesuits again
• Martia lasts a quite a long time in the “poisonous” atmosphere of Elba II. Perhaps it is only “mostly” poisonous?
• McCoy and Scott are left on the Bridge in this episode – and while there’s debate and discussion there’s no bickering or arguing! So, is Spock just naturally argumentative or do the crew just not respect his authority? So much for them all being “brothers” in the Federation!
• Spock executes a brilliant ruse to escape from jail. However, he seems genuinely stumped when it comes to identifying the fake Kirk. There’s any number of questions he could have asked (like who was on duty in the transporter room) to just stunning them both and sorting the mess out later! Kirk rightly uses this poor decision making on Spock’s part as the “gag” to round out the episode.

This last observation can probably attributed to the cutting of Season Three budgets. However:
Governor Cory makes brief reference to his “medical staff” and a guard but we never see them, even when Garth is defeated. Also, he tells Kirk it is a long time since he had company.
Is Corey alone in the asylum? Is he just another of the inmates, running through a compulsive narrative?
Cue spooky music…

 

I searched but couldn't McCoy giving Sulu any orders. Did you mean this exchange?

SCOTT: Well, there's one last thing we might try. Perhaps the ship's phasers can cut through a section of the force field at its weakest point. Where did you say that was located, Mister Sulu?
SULU: On the far side of the planet, Mister Scott.
MCCOY: Will it leave a margin of safety for the people below?
SULU: Yes, sir.
SCOTT: Prepare to change orbital path, Mister Sulu.​

I'd call that more of a question than an order.

I totally missed Uhura manning the scanning station the first time round though, so I do appreciate you making me rewatch that scene.
Another feather in her cap!

 

You're not alone in thinking that; Kelley did indeed use some very forceful delivery there which also made me wonder if that was the scene you were thinking of

 

"We are bringing a revolutionary new medicine to them, a medicine with which the Federation hopes to eliminate mental illness for all time."

Hopes don't always pan out.

Possibly another explanation - Garth was raised on a colony world where Humans tend to see things differently there than Earth-born/raised Humans do.

 

True, but I would have hoped that there was some research and testing done before trying it out on the inmates!
Also, the meds seemed to have the expected effect when used at the end of the episode, at least according to McCoy.

Certainly feasible - is there any other example of an explicit human colony that doesn't see themselves as "Earthlings" any more?

 

When given to the criminally insane living there, sure. But perhaps their insanity stemmed from different causes than those who would not be able to benefit. The drug may have also had unforeseen long-term side effects. Was it ever given a name in lit?

 

Not that I'm aware of. It was basically just the (minor) macguffin of the week

 

Garth says it is a crystal. I like it to a compound like dilithium crystal, which may have matter/antimatter elements in a stable crystal form. The explosive may be dilithium crystal treated to make it on the edge of stability, perhaps shock sensitive, where the antimatter elements explosively reacts with its matter crystal matrix:

I'm a little confused about the force field. It appears that there is a force field over the entire planet. In addition, the asylum has/is a protective dome, itself. So, the explosion of poor Marta was inside the planetary force field and just outside of the protective dome of the asylum. Perhaps the protective dome is another, much stronger force field nested inside the planetary force field. This place is crazy, man.

 

I do enjoy this one, despite its very hammy moments. Yvonne Craig is awesome. I love all the alien inmates too. I could see Garth becoming an interesting recurring villain if he became a bit less cray cray. I still think Benedict Cumbergarth would have been a far better villain than Khan Mark II.

 

Good point. I got the idea that the Federation was originally a loose group of planets united in a trade/defense alliance. Axanar () could be a turning point where the Federation's military response from its independent planets was disorganized and ineffective. The Federation responded after the disaster by creating an unified space force/military under one command and control (i.e. United Earth's "Starfleet") to deal the threats. The new birth: under the Federation Council, we have a central Starfleet command where its forces are the best the member worlds can provide (based on their wealth and size). United Earth is the big dog providing the most resources. Vulcan is the technical power providing the best science and technologies. Etc. The Starfleet command and control structure has been gradually becoming more central over the past 15 years with full integration finally occurring during Season One.

 

Whom Gods Destroy

What does the title mean? We've had a few episodes recently where characters have told us what the title means, but no such help this episode. After Googling, I see it is from an ancient Greek proverb: "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad." Ah, now I see how the title fits.

This episode has some nice callbacks. It's another trip to an asylum. If only they'd brought Helen Noel back.

A medicine to eliminate ALL mental illness. Wow! That is one hell of a breakthrough.

Garth? Where's Wayne? Party on! Excellent!

It's Batgirl! She should have been here last week to catch the Riddler. I always liked it when Batgirl was on Batman's show. I remember the beginning to the show, and when Batgirl was on, they had this cartoon image of her on her cycle. I used to see that and get so excited. She was so cute in her Batgirl outfit. Yum.

Holy cow, Cory is Garth. *insert evil villain laugh here*

Then he becomes Kirk! *insert evil Kirk laugh here*

They're carrying away Spock, but we don't see Garth stun him.

Garth: "You Earth people are a stiff necked lot, aren't you? " Is Garth an alien? Or is he just no longer considering himself to be an Earth man? Or is he human but born on another planet?

Hold on, you can be TAUGHT cellular metamorphosis? Garth is just an average human guy, but he could just be TAUGHT to heal his cells and shape shift? You mean I could be taught that?

How convenient that Kirk just so happens to have established a password for beam up when he never did that before. I wonder what made him suspicious to do it this time.

Nice to see an Orion dancer again.

Ha, Spock dissing Marta's dance. "Eh, our children do that."

Wow, Yvonne had really nice muscular legs. I know she was a ballet dancer. They have strong legs.

Oh, Garth's a Starship Fleet Captain. Why that's my rank on this board!

Steve Ihnat plays a good crazy person.

Spock really should learn to humor the badguy with the gun.

It's a neural neutralizer chair! Another cool callback. Oh, that just reminds me of Helen again.

And Kirk's thinking "not that damn chair again."

I never caught before that Garth programmed into Marta that she has to kill anyone else that she likes.

Lord Garth, Master of the Universe. I thought that was He-Man.

Can it really be possible that Garth created an explosive so powerful that a small container can destroy a planet?

So Garth blows up Batgirl, which is a nice explosion but not one that stood out to me as particularly remarkable, but on the ship they thought it was big enough to possibly have "wiped out everything?"

There is an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer called The Replacement in which there are two Xanders. Actually, Xander is split a la Kirk in The Enemy Within, both Xanders are parts of the whole. At one point, in reference to possibly not being able to tell them apart, the Xanders joking say "Kill us both, Spock" a reference to Kirk telling Spock to shoot both Kirks in Whom Gods Destroy.

So sure, Spock could have just stunned both Kirks, but it really shouldn't have come down to that. There must be a million things Spock could have asked the Kirks that only the real one would know.

This episode is pretty MEH for me. I fear as we near the end of our five year journey (or maybe it only feels like 5 years) we are headed into a void of MEH episodes.

I will say one thing for this episode. It's implications for the galaxy are huge. The implications of a medicine to cure all mental illness and this cell healing and shape shifting technique which apparently can be learned by anyone along with this explosive so powerful that a small bottle of it can destroy a planet are mind boggling. Surely these things alter the very fabric of Star Trek stories to come! (Either that or are never mentioned again.)

And now, I'm going to go and do a Cochran Deceleration. It really helps with my Plantar Fasciitis.

Alien Watch! Okay so Garth's not an alien, and we've seen Orions, Andorians, and Tellarites before, but there are these lackeys of Garth's of indeterminate parentage.

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)
Kelvans! Who really look like big, cool squids but choose to look remarkably human.
Sargon and the gang of not-quite-omnipotent aliens.
Remarkably human looking Zeons of Zeon and Ekosians of Ekos. (PoF)
The remarkably human looking Yangs and Coms of Omega IV.
Isis! Who looks remarkably like a cat until she wants to look remarkably human.

Season 3
The decidedly non-human looking Melkotians.
The remarkably human-looking Elasians and not so human looking Troyians.
Lawyer in a muumuu. Remarkably human-looking but maybe that was on purpose.
The remarkably human-looking Morgs and Eymorgs of Sigma Draconis.
Kollos the Medusan
Gem the Empath (remarkably human looking)
Vians (the OTHER bumpy-headed aliens)
Tholians!
The remarkably human-looking Fabrini of Yo Mama.
The malicious swirly ball of hate (DotD)
The remarkably human-looking Platonians who are douchebags except for Alexander
The fast, but still remarkably human looking Scalosians.
The remarkably human-looking image of Losira.
The Cheron boys, Bele and Lokai
Lackey's of Garth's some of whom are more human-looking than others.

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

 

Boy should they have kept Helen Noel on the ship as an occasional guest star at the very least!
JB

 

I'll throw my hat in the ring and say I wish Helen had been in this one too.