Because you trust me. Just like M. Emmet Walsh trusted Dan HedayaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I hope BY ANY OTHER NAME gets rewatched early and often. It is, after all, the TOS pinnacle.
Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
- Start date
Because you trust me. Just like M. Emmet Walsh trusted Dan HedayaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I hope BY ANY OTHER NAME gets rewatched early and often. It is, after all, the TOS pinnacle.
"The Apple" by Max Ehrlich
"Garden of Eden, with land mines."
The Enterprise is investigating a planet that had odd sensor readings when scouted. It appears to be a paradise - fruit and flowers everywhere, temperate - but then a redshirt is killed by a flower. Then a carelessly tossed rock explodes. Then lightening disintegrates and 3rd redshirt. Plus, an energy field from the planet is draining the Enterprise and a tractor beam is pulling it in.
On their way to a village, they catch a native, Akuta, who was tracking them. He and his people "feed" Vaal and he communicates with it. Vaal is a cave shaped like a snake head and has a force field to keep out people it doesn't want.
McCoy determines that the people are practically immortal and don't need to work, as Vaal provides abundant food. Touching (sex) is prohibited as they don't need "replacements." (I love the party's awkward discussion about what happens if they do need "replacements"!) The villagers "feed" Vaal the explosive rock as fuel. Spock and McCoy debate about whether the villagers have a working society or a stagnant one.
Chekov and Yeoman Landon makeout in a secluded place, but are watched by curious visitors, who then imitate them, angering Vaal. Akuta is taught by Vaal how to kill and they are to kill the landing party. Meanwhile, Spock warns Kirk that interfering might be "in direct violation of the non-interference directive." Scotty has come up with an idea to break free of the tractor beam, but they'll only get one shot at it.
The villagers attack the party, killing the last redshirt. Throughout the episode, Kirk blames himself for the redshirts' deaths, showing how much he cares for his crew and how much he puts on himself.
Preventing the villagers from feeding Vaal, Kirk has Scotty fire phasers on it. Vaal is overloaded and the tractor beam shuts down.
Spock gets beat up pretty bad in this ep. He first gets hit with the poison plant, stepping in front of Kirk. Then he gets bounced back by Vaal's force field. Then he gets hit by Vaal's lightning.
The villagers are distraught now that Vaal is deactivated. Kirk gives them a pep talk and promises help in adjusting and learning. Including about sex.
Of course, we get both a Lesson and a Joke at the end:
SPOCK: Captain, you are aware of the biblical story of Genesis.
KIRK: Yes, of course I'm aware of it. Adam and Eve tasted the apple and as a result were driven out of paradise.
SPOCK: Precisely, Captain, and in a manner of speaking, we have given the people of Vaal the apple, the knowledge of good and evil if you will, as a result of which they too have been driven out of paradise.
KIRK: Doctor, do I understand him correctly? Are you casting me in the role of Satan?
SPOCK: Not at all, Captain.
KIRK: Is there anyone on this ship who even remotely looks like Satan?
(McCoy and Kirk walk around Spock. McCoy is gazing intently at his ears.)
SPOCK: I am not aware of anyone who fits that description, Captain.
KIRK: No, Mister Spock. I didn't think you would be.
This episode was better than I remembered. The gradual change from Paradise to "place trying to kill us" was well done. The villagers were charming and innocent. But we'd already seen "computer runs planet and controls people" in Return of the Archons. So D for originality, but B for execution.
"Garden of Eden, with land mines."
The Enterprise is investigating a planet that had odd sensor readings when scouted. It appears to be a paradise - fruit and flowers everywhere, temperate - but then a redshirt is killed by a flower. Then a carelessly tossed rock explodes. Then lightening disintegrates and 3rd redshirt. Plus, an energy field from the planet is draining the Enterprise and a tractor beam is pulling it in.
On their way to a village, they catch a native, Akuta, who was tracking them. He and his people "feed" Vaal and he communicates with it. Vaal is a cave shaped like a snake head and has a force field to keep out people it doesn't want.
McCoy determines that the people are practically immortal and don't need to work, as Vaal provides abundant food. Touching (sex) is prohibited as they don't need "replacements." (I love the party's awkward discussion about what happens if they do need "replacements"!) The villagers "feed" Vaal the explosive rock as fuel. Spock and McCoy debate about whether the villagers have a working society or a stagnant one.
Chekov and Yeoman Landon makeout in a secluded place, but are watched by curious visitors, who then imitate them, angering Vaal. Akuta is taught by Vaal how to kill and they are to kill the landing party. Meanwhile, Spock warns Kirk that interfering might be "in direct violation of the non-interference directive." Scotty has come up with an idea to break free of the tractor beam, but they'll only get one shot at it.
The villagers attack the party, killing the last redshirt. Throughout the episode, Kirk blames himself for the redshirts' deaths, showing how much he cares for his crew and how much he puts on himself.
Preventing the villagers from feeding Vaal, Kirk has Scotty fire phasers on it. Vaal is overloaded and the tractor beam shuts down.
Spock gets beat up pretty bad in this ep. He first gets hit with the poison plant, stepping in front of Kirk. Then he gets bounced back by Vaal's force field. Then he gets hit by Vaal's lightning.
The villagers are distraught now that Vaal is deactivated. Kirk gives them a pep talk and promises help in adjusting and learning. Including about sex.
Of course, we get both a Lesson and a Joke at the end:
SPOCK: Captain, you are aware of the biblical story of Genesis.
KIRK: Yes, of course I'm aware of it. Adam and Eve tasted the apple and as a result were driven out of paradise.
SPOCK: Precisely, Captain, and in a manner of speaking, we have given the people of Vaal the apple, the knowledge of good and evil if you will, as a result of which they too have been driven out of paradise.
KIRK: Doctor, do I understand him correctly? Are you casting me in the role of Satan?
SPOCK: Not at all, Captain.
KIRK: Is there anyone on this ship who even remotely looks like Satan?
(McCoy and Kirk walk around Spock. McCoy is gazing intently at his ears.)
SPOCK: I am not aware of anyone who fits that description, Captain.
KIRK: No, Mister Spock. I didn't think you would be.
This episode was better than I remembered. The gradual change from Paradise to "place trying to kill us" was well done. The villagers were charming and innocent. But we'd already seen "computer runs planet and controls people" in Return of the Archons. So D for originality, but B for execution.
I've always had a soft spot for "THE APPLE". Definitely one of the episodes that gives credence to the term 'redshirts'.
"The Apple" is definitely a better episode than it gets given credit for. The Return of the Archons fails substantially at times because there are random shifts from different characters. The Apple balances it better, in my view.
Yet another example of the actress being far more accomplished than the character. The landing party was a full security complement of officers. The only non-security officer in the guest cast and the only non-com on the landing party was the woman, and she was only included so that the natives could see a man and woman canoodling. I don't know if was a last minute decision on the day because Celeste Yarnall was trained in judo or if it was in the script but I liked it.
Edit: Well, I can't see any mention of her being judo trained in her biography and if they had a stunt-woman prepped for the scene I guess it must have been scripted! I wonder why this was the only time a woman displayed any combat training. Uhura was pretty lame as a gladiator.
One other thing I like about this episode is Kirk dressing down the crazy kids for canoodling on duty. I wish so hard that modern Trek would follow this example!
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KIRK: Chekov! Landon! I know you find each other fascinating., but we have a job to do!
CHEKOV: Den vy deed you vaste time dancing vith a blonde robot vile half of the zhip vas zick vith ze plague in REQUIEM?
KIRK: That hasn't happened yet. Get back to work.
CHEKOV: After having vot zeems like 44 shipboard romances as vell?
I hate the smell of bullShat in the morning.
All of those were in the line of duty. Even that teenager, Miri, and that other teenager, Lenore.
Flashback to one of the photo sections in The Making of Star Trek.Spock dodged a big one, unfortunately, redshirt Kaplan didn't see it coming:
That's one powerful lightning bolt to be able to completely vaporize a human (note: smoking hole, so, not like the disintegration process of a phaser.)
Yeah, I remember seeing that scene and thinking "THAT'S WHAT THAT IS!"
I also had a fanzine with an episode guide and it was amazing to see the episodes that the pictures came from.
It's hard to disagree with Kirk that people should be allowed to evolve however they decide to, but he disrupts a society that has reached homeostasis, and seemed survivable and happy, which leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
Points for trying, negative points for interfering.
Rating: 4 out of 10
I can't help but feel there was a good story here. TOS continually butts its head up to the seemingly inevitable reality of some sort of advanced AI and always finds the AI inferior."The Changeling" by John Meredyth Lucas
Well, I see where the idea for TMP came from!
Enterprise investigates a distress call and finds that 4 billion people are just... gone. They are then attacked by an object that nearly destroys them - until Kirk sends out a message. Eventually, the object is brought aboard and identifies itself as Nomad and refers to Kirk as "the Creator."
Spock identifies it as a 21st century Earth probe created by Dr. Roykirk. Its mission was to explore the galaxy and seek out new life. Now, it's mission is to seek out perfect life and "sterilize" imperfect life. It hears Uhura singing over the intercom and traces the sound to the bridge. It asks Uhura to "think about music" while probing her mind, which erases her memory. In trying to stop Nomad, Scotty is killed.
Nomad offers to "repair" Scotty and brings him back to life. It cannot "repair" Uhura, so the medical staff, determining no brain damage, starts to re-educate her. Nichelle does a nice job in this scene.
Spock does a mind meld with Nomad - and has a tough time breaking out of it. He learns that Nomad was damaged in a meteor strike and wandered through space, eventually meeting up with an alien probe with the mission of collecting and sterilizing soil samples. The 2 probes merged, changing their mission and gaining a ton of power.
Nomad attempts to make the warp engines more efficient, nearly destroying the ship. Nomad kills a total of 4 redshirts in its refusal to stay where Kirk tells it to. Kirk, frustrated, tells Nomad that its Creator is a biological organism. It heads to sickbay where it reads Kirk's records, confirming that. Nomad expresses a desire to return to its launch point, so all of Earth is now in danger. Nomad then goes to engineering and shuts down life support.
Let me steal from Wikipedia here: When Nomad declares that its directive to sterilize imperfections allows no exceptions, Kirk points out that Nomad itself is imperfect, since it has mistaken Captain Kirk for its true creator Jackson Roykirk. He then claims that Nomad has committed two other errors, by not discovering its own mistake, and by not sterilizing itself as imperfect. Nomad begins to analyze the implications of Kirk's claims, a process that causes noticeable stress to its systems. Kirk and Spock carry Nomad in a rush to the transporter room and, with a final command from Kirk to "exercise your prime function", beam it into deep space. Seconds after transport, an explosion is detected near the Enterprise and Nomad is no more.
This is the 2nd episode where Kirk talks a computer into destroying itself.
A pretty good episode, but the joke at the end lands a little oddly considering all the deaths Nomad caused.
Star Trek is inherently humanistic. Gene and Co give us lots of credit for advancing, fixing our issues, and bettering ourselves.
Why won't 60s Trek give AI the benefit of the doubt? AI is portrayed as limited, binary and fallible.
Nevermind that an advanced intelligence created Nomad. It thinks independently. It is aware of itself. It's simply confused.
One or two script changes could have given us the better part of V'Ger in TMP. Sure it was still limited, but Kirk didn't talk it to death.
It's another decent effort that fails in execution and seems outdated.
6 out of 10
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I watched Spock's Brain for the first time ever. After literally decades of hearing about how it's just the worst, I can easily say:
Wow, not nearly as bad as I was told. It's a far, far better episode than other ones that literally put me to sleep (The Alternative Factor, anyone?)
It has a ridiculously silly name, but the premise itself is not horrible.
Wow, not nearly as bad as I was told. It's a far, far better episode than other ones that literally put me to sleep (The Alternative Factor, anyone?)
It has a ridiculously silly name, but the premise itself is not horrible.
The inhabitants of “The Apple” certainly didn’t build Val and its entire planet controlling systems. So someone else did.
If Val was simply a remnant of a long lost or departed species or civilization that the tribes people just came to worship then why is Akuta rigged with implanted antenna?
I have long wondered if perhaps the Valians were the subjects of a long forgotten alien experiment. They didn’t choose this for themselves, but rather it was chosen for them.
If Val was simply a remnant of a long lost or departed species or civilization that the tribes people just came to worship then why is Akuta rigged with implanted antenna?
I have long wondered if perhaps the Valians were the subjects of a long forgotten alien experiment. They didn’t choose this for themselves, but rather it was chosen for them.
You have correctly identified Star Trek's worst episode.
Worst episode? Not by a long shot. Worst episode of Season 1? Definitely. In fact, I've always considered "The Alternative Factor" the only really bad first-season episode.
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