Favourite episodes?

Some Trek episodes haven't aged well, it is a 54 year old TV Series after all. So seeing it for the first time without the benefit of nostalgia or lifelong viewing will give someone a much different response to a variety of things. Arena has the potential for humor with the Gorn costume and the VERY slow fight moves. And even I felt Spock's narration of the action was a little much at times. However, I grew up with it, so none of it is amusing to me, but I get why someone new may gaffaw over it.

I enjoy Pearl Jam and The Beatles.

 

I enjoy mirror mirror
Spock rocks the beard.
I enjoy rock and classical.

 

Well obviously the elements were put there deliberately by the Metrons to give Kirk a chance against the bigger stronger Gorn. To make it fair.
I just wonder why Kirk knows how to make gunpowder or photography in another episode. Or perhaps its because Kirk knows it the Metrons put it there.
I love the original short story which is the inadvertent basis for the second half of this episode.
For some reason I don't mind the Gorn suit. I mean you get the picture. At least they tried. You know the other series just gave them a ridge and suddenly they were alien.

 

Monster suits are always dodgy. They can be hit or miss. Irwin Allen had some great ones while some were really crummy.

 

The Gorn suit was always a hit to me! Plus the Spock narration could have been for the youngsters watching, giving them an interest in chemistry which my ten year old son already knew because he asked me if those elements were flammable!!!
JB

 

I agree! I love it when they make actually alien-looking aliens. I won't complain about a man in a lizard costume. They could have put a man in a fur coat and call him an ape man for the third time. It was a decent lizard costume, and the digitally remastered one was better.

 

I love the Gorn suit.

I also thought it was better when he didn't blink. I don't normally expect blinking and faceted eyes to go together.

 

That makes sense. I thought blinking wasn't worth the effort. I'm also surprised they apparently didn't make any other changes to the Gorn. If I had any say in remastering the Gorn episode, I would have recommended playing the fight scenes a little faster, so Kirk and the Gorn seem quicker and more agile.

 

Kirk seems plenty agile. He just makes a couple of questionable tactical decisions with the kick attempt and the bear hug.

 

Obviously the Gorn was much faster and stronger in the atmosphere of his own planet! Kirk too looked a little weary as soon as he started kicking and chopping at the hide of the humanoid Dinosaur!
JB

 

And speeding up the footage would have just been weird. Like an early James Bond movie when they’d undercrank the camera to make Connery look faster than he was.

 

Ah! Yes! Of course!

 

It's not one of my favorite episodes but it has this rare shot of the Enterprise bridge from the turbolift doors, and even gives us one of our only glimpses at the curvature of the bridge ceiling which we know ends in a transparent aluminum or transparisteel dome. It's one of my favorite shots of the bridge and shows how both the bridge and the filming set were modular in design, evoking a sense that components could be plugged in and removed without destroying the overall bridge.

 

Where No Man Has Gone Before and Corbomite Maneuver gave us similar shots, but yeah they are very rare.

 

I wonder how many of the overhanging soundstage lights had to be adjusted before this shot so that they wouldn't be in the frame. 1968 was long before Photoshopping mistakes out of footage so there must have been some awareness of light fixture shadows.

 

I re-watched Alternative Factor the other night. Whilst it is an unpopular episode, I felt the heavy dialogue, with Kirk and Spock's grave fears with complete conviction, made the seriousness of the threat truly present, even if the logic of the episode doesn't quite make sense.

 

Apart from a failure to keep up with the ever changing Lazarus's and not enough winking out moments, I kind of liked the episode! It only looks out of place when you realise that the BBC regularly placed the episode as episode seventy eight in their run of the show!
JB

 

Which episode is this from?

 

Is There In Truth No Beauty?

 

"Is There In Truth No Beauty?"

You can just make out Dr. Miranda Jones' sensor web dress in front of Dr. McCoy on the left hand side. Even I had to remind myself which episode this came from when I saw her dress peeking out from in front of McCoy.