Star Trek TOS Re-Watch

[ZapBrannigan]

It's funny, we don't think of Kirk as being square, but he's a bookworm, a scholar, and a disapproving elder all in one.

Image from "Mudd's Women."

As I've said before, you know you're a Star Trek fan when you can look at a picture of just Kirk on the bridge, and tell what episode it's from.

 

[Tallguy]

You're like the Henry Higgins of Kirk's Haircut.

 

[fireproof78]

It's funny, we don't think of Kirk as being square, but he's a bookworm, a scholar, and a disapproving elder all in one.

Same Kirk, same.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Indeed. The interactions with Spock and Servin's followers, as well as the dialog around the artificially sterile environments is quite interesting to explore, and worth exploring further in a franchise that touts itself, later on, as utopic.

And true now with all the drug-resistant bacteria in hospital settings.

 

[Commander Troi]

Amok Time by Theodore Sturgeon

What a way to open season 2! Spock is not acting normally. He's not eating and he's grumpy. He requests leave on his home planet, Vulcan. McCoy discovers that if he doesn't get there and do whatever, he'll die from the overload of adrenalin. Kirk diverts to Vulcan in defiance of orders. Spock's fiancée, T'Pring, chooses the challenge over the marriage and then chooses Kirk as her champion. McCoy slips Kirk a mickey disguised as something to help him combat the heat and thin air. Spock "kills" Kirk, then finds him alive when he gets back to the ship.

Wow wow wow. So very much lore is established here. We see Vulcan for the only time in TOS. We learn Spock has been betrothed since he was seven. We learn about pon farr. We meet T'Pau - "All of Vulcan in one package."
We get fun Vulcan weapons. This is the first time we see the Vulcan salute and hear "Live long and prosper." Spock admits that Kirk and McCoy are his friends.

Beyond all that, it's a riveting episode. I've seen it a million times and I was still on the edge of my seat. Nimoy is superb here, showing how close to the edge he is in a million little ways. We also get THAT scene with Chapel and Spock, which has more resonance after SNW. Even if it's a little tough to reconcile SNW Chapel with TOS Chapel, when Spock wipes away her tear and calls her Christine, I could feel my heart skip a beat.

And T'Pring! Yes, it's a little hard to believe that the woman we met in SNW becomes this woman, but not impossible. As she says, "as the years went by, I came to know that I did not want to be the consort of a legend." Plus, there's Stonn. It makes sense she wanted out of the marriage and did the only thing that would let her out.

Plus, as Wikipedia notes, the music for the fight became a standard underscore for combat scenes in season 2. I'll be in the nursing home, having forgotten my own name, and still be able to place that music.

All in all, one of my Top 10 TOS episodes.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Is plomeek served hot or cold? Either way, good thing Chapel ducked. Is it just coincidence that stuff's the color of cough medicine? (As in, Spock won't take his meds like a good little boy?)

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

We learn Spock has been betrothed since he was seven.

Sarek's idea? Almost certainly not Amanda's! Or does the council decide here?

Vulcans or not, were there any notable objections at the time to this potentially hot-potato concept?

 

[Commander Troi]

KIRK: Marriage party? You said T'Pring was your wife.
SPOCK: By our parents' arrangement.

Sarek's idea, I would guess.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I suppose Amanda figures it can't hurt to agree when there's plenty of time for things to change in between then and later.

 

[Warped9]

And T'Pring! Yes, it's a little hard to believe that the woman we met in SNW becomes this woman, but not impossible. As she says, "as the years went by, I came to know that I did not want to be the consort of a legend." Plus, there's Stonn. It makes sense she wanted out of the marriage and did the only thing that would let her out.

Given it’s not even the same continuity you don’t even have to think about it. Not costing me any sleep.

 

[Commander Troi]

I'm not going there with you. You do you.

 

[kkt]

"MIRI" - agreed, better episode than people give it credit for. Though it does completely gloss over a bigger story... a duplicate Earth.

I don't think Miri rises above mediocrity. Kirk was inappropriately flirting with Miri, who was both way too young and way too old for him at the same time. She might have had a bit of a crush on him anyway, but he pushed it along. John does not pass for under puberty. The children would be even more emotionally damaged than they showed having all their grownups become violent and then die. (And the duplicate earth is just bizarre. Did they make it a duplicate earth just so they could save some money by using NASA stock photos insead of painting a planet?) And of course at the end they just warp away saying it's going to be all right. The Enterprise shouldn't be leaving until adults are already on the scene. Children need adults to raise them, not just slightly older children. They can't just do it themselves. Romulus and Remus raised by a wolf is a myth.

 

[Warped9]

The irony was Miri was way older than Kirk.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I'm not going there with you. You do you.

A very good judgment call on your part.

 

[Tallguy]

Did they make it a duplicate earth just so they could save some money by using NASA stock photos insead of painting a planet?

No, they made it a duplicate Earth so they could save money by shooting on the backlot.

 

[Ssosmcin]

No, they made it a duplicate Earth so they could save money by shooting on the backlot.

Exactly. NASA photos of Earth would have had clouds.

 

[Skipper]

I have seen this stated here fairly frequently, and it always baffles me. Until I read otherwise, I would have guessed it was in most people's top 25. I consider it nearly flawless. But to each their own, of course.

Well, if you look at it from a point of view other than a male-centric one it's problematic to say the least. Starting with Kirk flirting with Miri. Or poor Janice Rand, desperate crying out of fear and having to be consoled by the mighty, virile Captain Kirk. Ah these females, ready to hysterical crises at the most inopportune moments. /s

 

[Pauln6]

Well, if you look at it from a point of view other than a male-centric one it's problematic to say the least. Starting with Kirk flirting with Miri. Or poor Janice Rand, desperate crying out of fear and having to be consoled by the mighty, virile Captain Kirk. Ah these females, ready to hysterical crises at the most inopportune moments. /s

Given their mental states that didn't bother me as Rand sitting there, tied up for ages waiting to be rescued instead of pumping the kids for information or trying to get to the communicators. Bit like Ross dancing with Trelane doesn't pump him for information. The women were very poorly portrayed in general.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Given their mental states that didn't bother me as Rand sitting there, tied up for ages waiting to be rescued instead of pumping the kids for information or trying to get to the communicators. Bit like Ross dancing with Trelane doesn't pump him for information. The women were very poorly portrayed in general.

LOST IN SPACE had it even worse. Uhura and Yeoman Landon would occasionally grab a phaser or kick a guy senseless, but Maureen, Judy and Penny (the Siamese triplets on the Jupiter 2) majored in cowering as well as cooking.

 

[mb22]

No, they made it a duplicate Earth so they could save money by shooting on the backlot.

They didn't do it on "Return of the Archons", I can't think of any real reason to do it here either.