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Dark moments in TOS...

I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned this one.

Uhura screaming when Hanoch in Spock's body is making an example of her.

This next one isn't dark in the sense the OP meant but dark in the sense of something unseen and unknown and it's a moment I never forgot when I saw the original broadcast of "All Our Yesterdays".

When the hooded figure suddenly appeared when Spock and McCoy were stranded in the frozen wilderness, I was totally riveted by the mystery of what it could be and I found it almost ominous and menacing. And then I was very surprised when it turned out to be a scantily clad woman. That's Hollywood for ya!

Robert
 
Hanoch was playing a recording of Archer's gazelle speech in Uhura's head.

Sulu backed down so easily because he sure as hell didn't want to have to listen to it too.


Robert
 
You left out the STAR TREK VI ''Uhuru'' end credit. It's a disgrace Paramount never corrected it. And had it been James T. Jirk, or even William Shitner, it would have been rectified almost instantly.

If the actor's name is spelled right and it's a supporting character, that's a minor thing. I never even noticed it.
 
If I were a supporting character for an iconic role for a quarter century, I'd resent it. It wouldn't be minor. I'd insist on spelled-right status.

Okay, I might be riding for a fall here, but I would bet Nichelle Nichols never noticed the Uhuru spelling any more than I did. Especially not until someone tipped her off. At that point, an actor's eyes are drawn to two things: did they spell her real name right, and did the checks clear.

And the "iconic role" thing is only because Star Trek was so good. Nobody was fainting dead away at the caliber of her film acting. :bolian: No offense.
 
did they spell her real name right
One reason why it might be hard to find Nichelle Nichols' autobiography in public libraries is because (at least locally) someone input her name as "Michelle" Nichols.

I pointed out the mistake to the local librarians and was met with a shrug. They couldn't care less if there's a mistake in the card catalogue.
 
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Most librarians should care not to err that way. As it happens her autobio's in my library bookstore as we speak.....but my signed copy is still at home. Like her co-star Whitney, she's actually named Grace.:cool:
Yeah, you'd think that accuracy would matter when it comes to enabling people to search for a book.

I've actually been asked if I'm running a lending library (when the apartment manager sees my book collection). The answer is always no. I quit lending my books after a couple of very hard-to-find ones never got returned.
 
His interpretation of the Prime Directive. Makes you wonder how long that war went on and how many people died as a result. Reminds me of the TNG episode, Too Short A Season.

Its funny you say that... I've heard an urban legend that suggests Too Short A Season was actually written as a sequel to A Private Little War, with Kirk having to deal with a failure from his past, and being de-aged to Shatner's current age during the course of the episode.
 
I've been there more than once. My first year of SOPRANOS on DVD was pristine until my brother borrowed it. Rule of thumb in my case only: never lend your brothers DVDs....unless they're unmarried.:cool:
A rule of thumb I adopted after I lost a comic book trade paperback and a one of a kind mix CD a friend made for me after lending them to a woman I was interested in: Don't lend anything to a potential romantic partner until after you've seen them naked. A female friend of mine agreed it was a probably a good policy.
 
In my case the most aggravating losses were a rare Fighting Fantasy gamebook and a costume hat that resembled the one Mary Tamm (Romana I) wore in the Doctor Who story "Androids of Tara". I'd also loaned my geography textbook, and at least I got that back. I never saw the gamebook or hat again, and the person I loaned them to just shrugged when I explained that I really wanted them back because I couldn't replace them.

So later on, when people asked to borrow my VHS tapes (this was in the '80s) and my Warlock of Firetop Mountain game, my answer was NO. At least not unless I came with the deal so I'd be sure to get it back.

The others in the science fiction club weren't happy that I refused to leave the game in my locker and hand out the combination, but holy crap. Games like that aren't easy to find, at least not in North America. There's loads of Fighting Fantasy stuff available in the UK that I never even heard of, and it's friggin' annoying that the people who run the FB group seem to forget there are North American gamers who have been longtime fans of that game.


Anyway, Trek... I wonder if Tasha Yar was notorious for not returning things or if Troi was just selfish for not lending her stuff from her closet in "The Naked Now" ("They're not for you"). After all, lending things when you've got replicators must have resulted in somewhat different expectations for borrowing stuff.
 
That certainly would explain why {she} lost my script. AND my Usual Suspects BFI book, since you offered your theory. At least our minds were kindred. My last word on this tangent: NEVER EVER loan out Anobile's ALIEN photonovel to ANYONE.
When I was in art school, I loaned a friend my copy of the Cinefantastique issue all about Batman: The Animated Series so he could use it for reference to draw the BTAS characters for an assignment. When he returned it to me, I was shocked to see he'd actually CUT PARTS OF THE PAGES OUT for reasons I still don't understand. I was so stunned that all I could say was, "I... wish you hadn't done that" when what I was really thinking was, "AAAAAGGGGHHH!!! What the FUCK did you do to my magazine, you asshole?!?" Seriously, why would you think that is remotely okay to do to something that's not your property?

To my friend's credit, he saw how upset I was and immediately bought me a replacement copy of the issue, so I forgave him.
 
Back on topic, two of the darkest endings on TOS & all of Trek: Kirk lets the love of his life die to save history as he knows it (COTEOF), and Kirk reluctantly supplies one side of a war with flintlock rifles to maintain the balance of power, knowing it will spell the end of the paradise that is Tyree's planet ("A Private Little War").

EDIT: Just thought of another dark moment: The scene in "Miri" where Kirk is getting beaten by all the children, the camera trucks in for a closeup on one little girl's smiling face (start at 2:12 in the clip below).

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