Star Trek TOS Re-Watch

[Airin]

True they're taking the Venus Drug, but when someone takes drugs, it only physically affects the person taking the drugs. It doesn't affect people not taking the drugs, so the men shouldn't be finding the women any more attractive than would any other women they find attractive. So, this was just a way to excuse the men acting super lusty.

The only explanation I can come up with, is that the drug boosts the women's confidence so much, that they appear way more attractive for the men. Once Eve realizes that it was her confidence all along, she doesn't need the drug anymore to be attractive. Of course, the actual physical changes in terms of hairstyle, make-up, skin, etc. make little sense. Unless you consider them just as visual representations of how the women feel inside.

I didn't like the ending, with the women left behind with these miners, that obviously didn't love them, and this was treated as a "happy ending". There was someone (I think Stan Robertson from NBC) that requested changes in the script, to make certain that the miner really loved Eve as she was. But they were never implemented.

 

[Roundabout]

It struck me as odd that Kirk held his introductory meeting with Mudd's seductive women in, of all places, his quarters.

A person's quarters is a relatively intimate setting. Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to hold such a meeting, particularly with such people, in a more business-like room, like a conference room, a room with no bed in it?

I'm being somewhat facetious. But how often did Kirk have meetings with strangers in his quarters, anyway?

 

[Nerys Myk]

It struck me as odd that Kirk held his introductory meeting with Mudd's seductive women in, of all places, his quarters.

A person's quarters is a relatively intimate setting. Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to hold such a meeting, particularly with such people, in a more business-like room, like a conference room, a room with no bed in it?

I'm being somewhat facetious. But how often did Kirk have meetings with strangers in his quarters, anyway?

It's also his office.

 

[Roundabout]

Too bad Kirk didn't have a separate ready room. It would have come in handy in this instance.

 

[Lord Garth]

I'm going to re-watch "The Enemy Within" tonight or tomorrow. One of my favorite episodes.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

It struck me as odd that Kirk held his introductory meeting with Mudd's seductive women in, of all places, his quarters.

A person's quarters is a relatively intimate setting. Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to hold such a meeting, particularly with such people, in a more business-like room, like a conference room, a room with no bed in it?

I'm being somewhat facetious. But how often did Kirk have meetings with strangers in his quarters, anyway?

Kirk met with Khan and Captain Christopher in his quarters. It was really for two reasons:

• Star Trek was following the lead of C.S. Forester's Hornblower novels, that men and boys found utterly enthralling. Compared to the Enterprise, Captain Hornblower's ship was a little wooden tub, and his quarters were the most practical place he could sit down with a guest, or give confidential orders to his second in command. Kirk's quarters were very much a page out of Hornblower, like that was all the space he would have on a giant starship.

• The show didn't build Kirk a proper office, probably also as an early cost savings. With benefit of hindsight, I think they should have used the Stage 9 floor space that Auxiliary Control would take up, for a Captain's Office. And it could always be redressed to serve as Auxiliary Control later on.

Edit: I take that back. Upon reflection, I'd say they could just redress the Briefing Room for Kirk's office, or better yet, they could do just what they did, and keep that wonderful "days of sail" feeling of pioneers making do in space. Kirk's life was supposed to be austere.

The only explanation I can come up with, is that the drug boosts the women's confidence so much, that they appear way more attractive for the men. Once Eve realizes that it was her confidence all along, she doesn't need the drug anymore to be attractive. Of course, the actual physical changes in terms of hairstyle, make-up, skin, etc. make little sense. Unless you consider them just as visual representations of how the women feel inside.

I didn't like the ending, with the women left behind with these miners, that obviously didn't love them, and this was treated as a "happy ending". There was someone (I think Stan Robertson from NBC) that requested changes in the script, to make certain that the miner really loved Eve as she was. But they were never implemented.

Gene's pitch to NBC, that Star Trek would be "Wagon Train to the Stars," must have been uppermost in his mind when he wrote "Mudd's Women." It really seems like a Wagon Train plot, with dilithium crystals where the badly needed new horse should be.

 

[scotpens]

. . . They had some especially good lighting in this episode. "The Corbomite Maneuver" too, but I'm mentioning it here. Every shot in "Mudd's Women" had its own unique color-lighting composition. More television needs to be lit with color.

The director of "Mudd's Women," Harvey Hart, used a lot of beautifully composed deep-focus shots which added a day to the shooting schedule. Because of that, Hart was never called back to direct another episode. "Who do you think you are, Orson Effing Welles? We need this thing in the can a week from Tuesday!"

In the absence of anything saying exactly how long they'd been taking the Venus Drug, I feel like they had built up a dependence, especially considering how exaggeratedly worse their appearances became after they hadn't had the Venus Drug for a while. Especially the skin on the woman in the green dress.

As I've remarked before, Eve (Karen Steele) didn't look nearly as bad as the other two women when the drug wore off. Ruth and Magda looked like old hags. Eve looked maybe a few years older and like she'd just gotten out of bed in the morning.

 

[Poltargyst]

Is there a drug that doesn't have withdrawal?

I feel like you are imposing real-world drug stuff on this episode without justification from the episode itself. This is Star Trek. In a universe with transporters and warp drive, could there be drugs that don't have withdrawal symptoms? Yes. Yes there could.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Maybe the effects of long-term use are more cumulative than immediate. So they may be free of its influence and withdrawal now, but later in life, they may develop some debilitating condition or have a shorter lifespan than average.

 

[Poltargyst]

The only explanation I can come up with, is that the drug boosts the women's confidence so much, that they appear way more attractive for the men. Once Eve realizes that it was her confidence all along, she doesn't need the drug anymore to be attractive. Of course, the actual physical changes in terms of hairstyle, make-up, skin, etc. make little sense. Unless you consider them just as visual representations of how the women feel inside.

I didn't like the ending, with the women left behind with these miners, that obviously didn't love them, and this was treated as a "happy ending". There was someone (I think Stan Robertson from NBC) that requested changes in the script, to make certain that the miner really loved Eve as she was. But they were never implemented.

I think the drug actually does do something to make the women look better/be more attractive. I half wonder if the drug actually somehow works on the people around the women too. It appears that after taking the drug for so long, the effect stays with a person so that they no longer need to actually take the drug anymore to activate the effect.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Perhaps it causes them to produce something akin to Orion pheromones?

 

[Airin]

Or the drug makes them exude an hallucinogenic substance that affects them and others around, creating illusions of beauty, which could explain the actual change in appearance (from their own point of view). A bit similar to what Nancy does in "The Man Trap".
As for the drug having withdrawal symptoms, we don't even know if the drug creates adiction. The women need it because their deal depends on it (or so they think), but it could be no more adictive per se than someone desperately needing money or anything else for success.

 

[Commander Troi]

From what I could see, the drug appears to do what many overpriced serums and treatments IRL say they will do.

Seriously! Facelift, eye brightening, body firming: all seem included in the effect.

 

[Airin]

On a different note, someone noticed this continuity error in Mudd's Women and now I can't stop thinking about it:

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[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

On a different note, someone noticed this continuity error in Mudd's Women and now I can't stop thinking about it:

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Doc, ken you do sumthin 'bout th' kink in me back?

 

[Lord Garth]

"The Enemy Within"

Wow! This episode was just as intense as I remembered. "The Enemy Within" has a real sense of terror to it, multiple times over. No matter how many times I've seen this episode, I still get anxious when Sulu and the landing party have to survive down on the planet's surface and Sulu keeps telling Kirk how cold it's getting down there. Then there's Evil Kirk in Yeoman Rand's quarters. The way this is framed, the way it's shot, the look on William Shatner's face, and then the way Evil Kirk approaches her. I really feared for Rand. That was hard to watch, when Kirk sexually assaulted Rand. Always has been. William Shatner could've played a great villain in something. And then there was that dangerous half of the animal they beamed up. When Scotty was trying to get his arms around it, my instincts kept thinking, "Scotty's going to get his arms bitten off!"

That's the sense of terror. Then there's the sense of the confusion before they figure out Kirk's been split in half. Everyone's mystified and terrified by Kirk's behavior. Spock is deeply concerned. Good Kirk, not knowing about Evil Kirk, laughs it off at first, then denies it, then they put two-and-two together.

As Kirk and Spock are searching for the Evil Kirk in Engineering, they did a phenomenal job making such a small space seem so large, by giving Evil Kirk plenty of places to hide. The music really sells it. I love the music in TOS, but this episode in particular. You just don't get music this lively in most of later Trek.

In the mix is also an analysis of what makes someone really tick. How you need the "negative" qualities as well as the "positive" qualities to be balanced as an individual. And who better to explain this than Spock who says himself that he has to balance out his own two halves: half-Human, half-Vulcan. With Humans, the balancing act is unconscious. With Spock, it's conscious. I think it just shows how unusual of a combination Human biology and Vulcan biology make.

When both Kirks were on the screen at the same time, the director, Leo Penn, did a great job framing it so that you'd always see William Shatner's face but never the double's. I was actively looking for any slip-ups and they didn't.

This is also the first episode where we see the Kirk/Spock/McCoy Triumvirate in full force. Spock urges Kirk logically, McCoy urges Kirk passionately, and Kirk has to make a decision. This is why I prefer watching these episodes in Production Order, so I can see how the series evolved from one entry to the next and seeing the way in which things took shape.

Good Kirk has trouble functioning as Captain because he doesn't have the fortitude. Evil Kirk can't function as Captain because he doesn't have the temperament. As soon as both Kirks are re-merged into one, you can immediately tell it's Full Kirk. He wastes no time and tells Spock to beam Sulu and others back up immediately.

This is easily my favorite episode in TOS's first batch. Easily. I give it a 10.

 

[scotpens]

. . . William Shatner could've played a great villain in something.

He did. Have you ever seen The Intruder (1962)?

 

[Lord Garth]

He did. Have you ever seen The Intruder (1962)?

Nope. But now it's something I'll be adding to my To Watch List.

Thanks!

EDITED TO ADD: Aside from re-watching Old Trek, I'm working my way through Babylon 5 for the first time (I'd put that off for way too long), a bunch of Michelle Yeoh films from the '80s to Today, and I've just started watching another '60s show called Dark Shadows. Up until now, I'd only ever seen bits and pieces of it. But, in one day, I've somehow already watched six episodes! I'm hooked. I figure if I could watch 800 episodes of Star Trek, I can watch 1,200 episodes of Dark Shadows.

I think I'll slot The Intruder between seasons of TOS.

 

[Airin]

I actually watched "The Intruder" long before I had watched a single episode of Star Trek. It shows how multifaceted Shatner is as an actor. He can play villains, and he's also great for comedic scenes (as TOS season two will prove). Also seen in this episode when playing the two Kirks, and the subtle differences between "good Kirk" and normal Kirk. It's true that he tends to get over-the-top when playing big emotions (anger or intense pain specially), but I think that his over-dramatic portrayal of "evil Kirk" is here justified, as the character is supposed to be an extreme version of himself.

There's a strange bit at the end of this episode, where Spock implies that Rand might have enjoyed being assaulted by the bad Kirk. The original script had Rand confessing it herself; still pretty wrong, but not as bad as what happens in the rewriting. I wonder why they changed that.

 

[Tallguy]

There's a strange bit at the end of this episode, where Spock implies that Rand might have enjoyed being assaulted by the bad Kirk. The original script had Rand confessing it herself; still pretty wrong, but not as bad as what happens in the rewriting. I wonder why they changed that.

Yeah, I can handle "messed up" more than "Spock is a JERK". It clearly was meant to play as kind of light teasing, a bit of a chuckle to go out on. Other than "times were different" (yikes!) I might imagine that they didn't think that the filmed scenes with Kirk and Rand would be that assaultive and visceral. So given the best of intentions (um, sure) it's "funnier" coming from Spock and maybe a little more heart wrenching of an admission coming from Rand. (I haven't read the original script.)

I am in NO WAY saying that Nimoy was a jerk, or an assaulter of women, or anything like that! But there are a few reaction shots with Spock here and in Mudd's Women were we see little more Leonard than Spock. He had a kind of wry troublemaker to him that shows through now and again. (Obviously this is why he appears to be having so much fun in Return to Tomorrow.)

Quite frankly this scene almost ruins the episode for me. It's such a bad note.