TheGodBen Revisits Star Trek

[Forbin]

Contrasting budgets, I guess - I Spy did an episode at the Apollo command module assembly plant, and at the Saturn second stage engine test facility. So they had Cosby actually in the factory, and Robert Culp (Okay, his stunt double) actually crawling on the actual test gantry. Much more convincing.

 

[Maurice]

I’ll give the episode some credit for one thing, the scope here feels larger than the average Star Trek episode. Going to the launchpad of a Saturn V rocket is more visually interesting than the setting of your typical Star Trek adventure. Yeah, it’s mostly stock footage of the rocket, and the outdoor scenes look to have been filmed at the production offices in the studio. But at least it’s something.

I believe it was one of the most expensive episodes of the show, and it, er, shows.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I liked Assignment Earth for what it was. Not as an episode of Star Trek, but a fun sci-fi/spy premise. Robert Lansing is always a win and while Teri Garr was a little "meh," she was talented enough to grow with the role. I loved the FX work in getting the characters to NASA. Also the then new footage of the rocket stages detaching is still thrilling. I would have watched a weekly series of Gary Seven and Roberta trying to correct things that went wrong, although I totally can see it being like The Invaders: lots of alien schemes being stopped with no real forward motion because of the episodic nature of the medium of the day. I still think this series would work on one of the streaming platforms.

 

[Mytran]

As I found with many episodes in S2 the first act is the strongest, showing various business on board ship. There's a great multi department mission briefing, making sensible use of video conferencing.
Then it devolves into the Gary Seven Show which is an interesting enough adventure albeit one starring brand new characters. From this point onward Kirk and Spock have very little impact on the plot.

Additionally, all the concerns that dominated Tomorrow Is Yesterday have disappeared – that or Kirk learned his lesson as he just beams the 2 policeman back straight away!
Of course, at the end the whole adventure is revealed to be a predestination paradox (AKA time loop). So, the past can’t really be changed after all? This certainly explains their more relaxed attitude in future time travel escapades, like in ST4

Overall it’s not a terrible episode, but it’s a little sad to see the Enterprise crew being reduced to guest stars in their own series, especially a season finale.

 

[Maurice]

Frankly I'd rather suffer "The Omega Glory" than The Gary Seven Show because at least the former is Star Trek and the latter is not, and not even very good at what it is.

 

[johnnybear]

The Omega Glory was a good episode in my opinion! The Gary Seven show was okay but a bit too much like a sixties comedy job for my liking to be honest!
JB

 

[TheGodBen]

Spectre of the Gun (**½)

How? It’s the first episode of the season, how did they already run out of money?! I know that the budget was cut for season 3, but come on.

Actually, I like the lack of complete sets in this one. Sure, it’s clearly done to save money in the strangest way possible, but it’s a subtle form of surrealism that I like. There’s just a single line to explain it and then everyone goes on as if everything is normal. It’s dumb, but it gives the episode more visual flavour than if they had been in boring normal western sets.

Another thing I like about this episode is Kirk’s remorse and questioning his leadership after Chekov “dies”. So many redshirts die under his command, sometimes due to poor command decisions on his part, and he just brushes it off. Finally, here’s a death that actually affects him and makes him reflect on his choices. Maybe it wasn’t such a bright idea to beam down to a planet where the inhabitants clearly didn’t want aliens to visit. It’s like breaking into someone else’s house just to give them a greeting card, your intentions may fine but your methods are still illegal. And that might be a lesson that Kirk takes to heart, if Chekov were really dead and not just thinking that he was dead, like a fool.

Another thing I like, and it’s something that helps season 3 out a little, is the new musical score. The reuse of old musical cues had gotten really old by the end of season 2, so having some new stuff helps to freshen up an episode that is otherwise retreading old ground. Advanced god-like aliens? Check. Revisiting something from Earth history? Check. Kirk proving humanity worthy by not killing? Check. Scotty drinking? Check.

So, overall a weak story buoyed up but ridiculous visuals and new music. Not a great start to season 3, but not awful either.

The God Things: 11

 

[Ssosmcin]

The funny thing is, the budget cuts weren’t immediately apparent in the third season. Watching them in production order shows new sets, new special effects, new musical scores, etc. So whether or not they couldn’t go on location because of budget, the surrealistic sets never felt like them trying to save money to me. Growing up with it, it was just a weird set that helped sell the premise. This is one of my favorite episodes of the run. A great start to the unfairly maligned Freiberger regime.

 

[Warped9]

Apparently they could have used a more complete set on the studio backlot, but chose the partial set deliberately for the story. I don’t think this saved them any money.

 

[Forbin]

Yes, they wanted it surreal and hallucinatory.

 

[Seven of Five]

I love the set design in this episode. They were cooking with gas, using budget limitations to their advantage.

 

[RAMA]

HOLLYYY CRAP, are you still going through these?? Estimated time of completion: When "The Cage" happens.

I think the last time I went through Spectre was around the time the TOS-R versions came out. HD didn't help any.

RAMA

Spectre of the Gun (**½)

How? It’s the first episode of the season, how did they already run out of money?! I know that the budget was cut for season 3, but come on.

Actually, I like the lack of complete sets in this one. Sure, it’s clearly done to save money in the strangest way possible, but it’s a subtle form of surrealism that I like. There’s just a single line to explain it and then everyone goes on as if everything is normal. It’s dumb, but it gives the episode more visual flavour than if they had been in boring normal western sets.

Another thing I like about this episode is Kirk’s remorse and questioning his leadership after Chekov “dies”. So many redshirts die under his command, sometimes due to poor command decisions on his part, and he just brushes it off. Finally, here’s a death that actually affects him and makes him reflect on his choices. Maybe it wasn’t such a bright idea to beam down to a planet where the inhabitants clearly didn’t want aliens to visit. It’s like breaking into someone else’s house just to give them a greeting card, your intentions may fine but your methods are still illegal. And that might be a lesson that Kirk takes to heart, if Chekov were really dead and not just thinking that he was dead, like a fool.

Another thing I like, and it’s something that helps season 3 out a little, is the new musical score. The reuse of old musical cues had gotten really old by the end of season 2, so having some new stuff helps to freshen up an episode that is otherwise retreading old ground. Advanced god-like aliens? Check. Revisiting something from Earth history? Check. Kirk proving humanity worthy by not killing? Check. Scotty drinking? Check.

So, overall a weak story buoyed up but ridiculous visuals and new music. Not a great start to season 3, but not awful either.

The God Things: 11

 

[Maurice]

Spectre of the Gun (**½)[...]Actually, I like the lack of complete sets in this one. Sure, it’s clearly done to save money in the strangest way possible, but it’s a subtle form of surrealism that I like. There’s just a single line to explain it and then everyone goes on as if everything is normal. It’s dumb, but it gives the episode more visual flavour than if they had been in boring normal western sets.

I have some evidence that it was not purely a budgetary decision, and that it was in part a stylistic decision with a very specific antecedent, but I am still investigating.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Yeah, sometimes a surrealistic set is done that way because of an artistic vision rather than simply "saving money." Over on Lost in Space, the episode "The Anti-Matter Man" was very stylized and the director Sutton Roley made no effort to hide shadows over the backdrop. It was meant to look artificial.

Often, we tend to be a little hard on series, especially older shows during "unpopular" seasons. It's the third season, so it's cheap, right? [shrug]

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Yeah, sometimes a surrealistic set is done that way because of an artistic vision rather than simply "saving money." Over on Lost in Space, the episode "The Anti-Matter Man" was very stylized and the director Sutton Roley made no effort to hide shadows over the backdrop. It was meant to look artificial.

Often, we tend to be a little hard on series, especially older shows during "unpopular" seasons. It's the third season, so it's cheap, right? [shrug]

If you invoke Lost in Space, you have to mention the surreal town in "West of Mars." It was even more minimal and symbolic than what was done in "Spectre of the Gun." And it was filmed almost two years earlier.

 

[SPCTRE]

Spectre of the Gun (**½)

How? It’s the first episode of the season, how did they already run out of money?! I know that the budget was cut for season 3, but come on.

Actually, I like the lack of complete sets in this one. Sure, it’s clearly done to save money in the strangest way possible, but it’s a subtle form of surrealism that I like. There’s just a single line to explain it and then everyone goes on as if everything is normal. It’s dumb, but it gives the episode more visual flavour than if they had been in boring normal western sets.

Another thing I like about this episode is Kirk’s remorse and questioning his leadership after Chekov “dies”. So many redshirts die under his command, sometimes due to poor command decisions on his part, and he just brushes it off. Finally, here’s a death that actually affects him and makes him reflect on his choices. Maybe it wasn’t such a bright idea to beam down to a planet where the inhabitants clearly didn’t want aliens to visit. It’s like breaking into someone else’s house just to give them a greeting card, your intentions may fine but your methods are still illegal. And that might be a lesson that Kirk takes to heart, if Chekov were really dead and not just thinking that he was dead, like a fool.

Another thing I like, and it’s something that helps season 3 out a little, is the new musical score. The reuse of old musical cues had gotten really old by the end of season 2, so having some new stuff helps to freshen up an episode that is otherwise retreading old ground. Advanced god-like aliens? Check. Revisiting something from Earth history? Check. Kirk proving humanity worthy by not killing? Check. Scotty drinking? Check.

So, overall a weak story buoyed up but ridiculous visuals and new music. Not a great start to season 3, but not awful either.

The God Things: 11

I should like this one, but, yeah

 

[Ssosmcin]

If you invoke Lost in Space, you have to mention the surreal town in "West of Mars." It was even more minimal and symbolic than what was done in "Spectre of the Gun." And it was filmed almost two years earlier.

I would have if I didn’t hate that episode tremendously....

 

[TheGodBen]

HOLLYYY CRAP, are you still going through these??

It was only a short 4-year break!


Elaan of Troyius (***)

I’m always surprised that I don’t hate this episode. On paper, it seems like it should be a disaster for me. It’s a romance of the week, which is my least favourite kind of plotline. Elaan is insufferable, which should make her scenes intolerable, yet somehow it doesn’t bother me. And there’s a healthy dose of sexism involved too, which does drag the episode down, but not enough to ruin it for me. I guess there’s enough politics, action and Kirkiness that I’m able to mildly enjoy an episode I expect to be bored by.

But this episode marks an important milestone in our journey through the series. Captain Kirk finally got laid! It has been a long road, but his time is finally here. He can see his wet dreams come alive at last. He can touch the boobs. Cause he’s got faith of the dick, and nobody had better bend or break it... This would have made more sense when Archer banged Hernandez, but whatever.

James T Flirt: 12¾

ELAAN: Captain, that ancient Earth custom called spanking, what is it?

There it is, the best worst line in Star Trek. Way better than “Get this cheese to sickbay”, and just edging out “Brain and brain, what is brain?!” It hits that sweet spot between being amusing and being groan-worthy, it was so blunt that I simply had to chuckle at it while my brain objected. Just perfect.

 

[Warped9]

Actually it looks pretty clear Kirk got laid back in Season 2’s “Bread And Circuses” when he spends time with the slave Drusilla. Later the Proconsul even says he owed Kirk some last hours “as a man.” Seems pretty damned clear.

And who knows what Kirk did with the replicated Ruth on the Shoreleave planet back in Season 1. The replicated Ruth could have been the most life like sex doll in the galaxy.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I agree, Kirk got laid in "Bread and Circuses." It happened during the cut from the lit lamp to the lamp having gone down.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/thumbnails.php?album=55&page=40

If Kirk had sex with the Ruth fembot in "Shore Leave," and I agree he probably did, that's not really the same thing. To be blunt, that would be more like masturbating with a sex toy than having sex with a woman.