Okay, I misunderstood.
Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
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I'll re-watch "The Man Trap" on January 1st. Star Trek premiered with this episode and my 2025 reviews will also premiere with it. 
I didn't plan it this way but now that I realize it, it's a happy coincidence.
I didn't plan it this way but now that I realize it, it's a happy coincidence.
I'll re-watch "The Man Trap" on January 1st. Star Trek premiered with this episode and my 2025 reviews will also premiere with it.
I didn't plan it this way but now that I realize it, it's a happy coincidence.
I may join you. I hardly ever watch that episode, partly because the Salt Vampire scared the gadzooks out of me as a kid. But I got over the Memory Alpha scene in "The Lights of Zetar," so I can hopefully push past this too.
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This was made clear in TNG. When was this ever an idea in TOS?
It’s bleeding obvious from the get-go in TOS. Particular in “The Naked Time” when Spock struggles with his emotions coming to the surface.
Because he is half human.
Whenever Spock rolls out his "I can do this because I'm a Vulcan" or "I don't feel this because I'm Vulcan" nobody ever says "That's not what Vulcans are like." They say "Yes, but you're also half human!"
Nobody ever said SPOCK doesn't have emotions. That's addressed in Where No Man Has Gone Before. But VULCANS suppressing their emotions is never floated until TNG.
Wrong. The idea is there all along. It’s touched on in “Amok Time” when Amanda is talking to Sarek. It’s also cemented in “All Our Yesterdays” when Spock and McCoy are talking about how emotional Vulcans were in the distant past.
Vulcans like to claim they’re not affected by emotion, but thats flatly not true. They can claim they’re are far less influenced by emotion than humans, but they cannot assert not ever being affected. Humans are also quite capable of downplaying emotional influences when the situations arise.. We are just more of an open book or more openly expressive in general. But Vulcans, too, can be emotionally expressive in their own right. They can perceive nuances in each other most humans except the more perceptive would miss. It’s likely long familiarity, such as with Amanda and Sarek as well as Kirk and McCoy with Spock (who strives to be an unber Vulcan) allows humans to learn to read Vulcan expressiveness.
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"The Man Trap"
Even though this isn't my favorite episode of TOS, I can see why NBC would choose it to air it first out of the first batch of episodes available. It has an alien planet with something weird going on. It has a scary alien with scary alien makeup who can become anyone. It has suspense. It even has a romance story with Nancy Crater being a former love interest of McCoy's. It checks off a lot of boxes that I can imagine NBC would want checked off.
As a premise, a salt vampire needing salt to survive, and making itself look like Dr. Robert Crater's wife is interesting. He's living his own fantasy. It's perfect for him, like Kirk eventually says. At the beginning of the episode, when Kirk, McCoy, and Some Ensign beam down, Dr. Crater is so adamant about them leaving. Too adamant. Really, if Crater wanted to make it look like nothing was wrong and that he had nothing to hide, he should've said nothing at all. His constant insistence that they should be left alone and that there's nothing to see would make me think the exact opposite and Kirk thinks the exact opposite too.
"Nancy" killing off four crewmen just shows much she can't resist getting salt whenever she sees a fresh supply. It's amazing she even let Dr. Crater live as long as she did. It probably took a lot of will power to resist the urge to suck the salt out of him too.
When "Nancy" assumes the form of Green, and is beamed aboard the Enterprise, "Green" follows Rand around and a good thing there were other people around, or I think "Green" wouldn't have gone after just the salt, but Rand as well. "Green" gives off real stalker vibes. Rand has to go to where Sulu is to try to shake "Green" off.
Then I formed a piece of head-canon that I never thought of before now. I always thought it was quite a jump for Sulu to go from Botanist to Helmsman, but the door that Rand goes through to see Sulu says "Botanical Sciences Division" and Sulu is there with all of those plants. I think Sulu was doubling as both Botanist and Helmsman until they could get a permanent Botanist aboard. They were probably in-between botanists during this part of TOS. I think Sulu was always normally a helmsman, but also knew a lot about botany, and that's why he doubled in both roles for a while.
After Kirk and Spock piece together that there's a creature that can assume any shape, become anyone, and is aboard the Enterprise, the Salt Creature makes itself look like McCoy. And here, there's a camera and editing move that I love, speaking as a Videographer and an Editor. A trick I've done before myself, actually. The camera is on DeForest Kelley on his bed as McCoy, then the camera pans across and by the end of its pan, you see DeForest Kelly as the Salt Creature pretending to be McCoy. They panned the camera across twice, one with DeForest Kelley on the left and the other with DeForest Kelley on the right. Then they splice the two camera shots together to create the illusion that it went from McCoy to "McCoy".
Here's an example of me doing that same camera trick in something I made a few years ago.
DeForest Kelley's acting as the Salt Creature is perfect. When they're in the Briefing and Kirk is asking Dr. Crater about Nancy and the Salt Creature, McCoy's subtle facial reactions convey just how much the Salt Creature appreciates Dr. Crater. I think the odd behavior from "McCoy" was enough to make Spock suspicious, which is why he wanted to accompany "McCoy" and Dr. Crater to Sickbay. I can just imagine the scene in my head. Spock becomes suspicious, the Salt Creature tries to kill him, Dr. Crater wants the Salt Creature to stop, then the Salt Creature kills Dr. Crater. Good thing Spock's blood is different. It's another way to take advantage of Spock's alien physiology.
The best scene is at the end when the Salt Creature becomes "Nancy" again and tries to elicit the real McCoy's sympathy. He doesn't believe it when Spock tells him to shoot "Nancy". Then McCoy really can't believe it when she tries to suck the salt out of Kirk and throws Spock around like a ragdoll. Then McCoy has to do something that's hard for him to do and shoot the Salt Creature dead. I love the makeup for the Salt Creature. And the look on its face as it dies. It took a long time to build up to this scene, but it was worth it.
I feel like the episode drags a bit, it's not a favorite of mine, like I said, and it doesn't really take it up to the next level until the Salt Creature is actually onboard the Enterprise, but once it gets going, it's there. I'll split the difference and give it a 7.
Even though this isn't my favorite episode of TOS, I can see why NBC would choose it to air it first out of the first batch of episodes available. It has an alien planet with something weird going on. It has a scary alien with scary alien makeup who can become anyone. It has suspense. It even has a romance story with Nancy Crater being a former love interest of McCoy's. It checks off a lot of boxes that I can imagine NBC would want checked off.
As a premise, a salt vampire needing salt to survive, and making itself look like Dr. Robert Crater's wife is interesting. He's living his own fantasy. It's perfect for him, like Kirk eventually says. At the beginning of the episode, when Kirk, McCoy, and Some Ensign beam down, Dr. Crater is so adamant about them leaving. Too adamant. Really, if Crater wanted to make it look like nothing was wrong and that he had nothing to hide, he should've said nothing at all. His constant insistence that they should be left alone and that there's nothing to see would make me think the exact opposite and Kirk thinks the exact opposite too.
"Nancy" killing off four crewmen just shows much she can't resist getting salt whenever she sees a fresh supply. It's amazing she even let Dr. Crater live as long as she did. It probably took a lot of will power to resist the urge to suck the salt out of him too.
When "Nancy" assumes the form of Green, and is beamed aboard the Enterprise, "Green" follows Rand around and a good thing there were other people around, or I think "Green" wouldn't have gone after just the salt, but Rand as well. "Green" gives off real stalker vibes. Rand has to go to where Sulu is to try to shake "Green" off.
Then I formed a piece of head-canon that I never thought of before now. I always thought it was quite a jump for Sulu to go from Botanist to Helmsman, but the door that Rand goes through to see Sulu says "Botanical Sciences Division" and Sulu is there with all of those plants. I think Sulu was doubling as both Botanist and Helmsman until they could get a permanent Botanist aboard. They were probably in-between botanists during this part of TOS. I think Sulu was always normally a helmsman, but also knew a lot about botany, and that's why he doubled in both roles for a while.
After Kirk and Spock piece together that there's a creature that can assume any shape, become anyone, and is aboard the Enterprise, the Salt Creature makes itself look like McCoy. And here, there's a camera and editing move that I love, speaking as a Videographer and an Editor. A trick I've done before myself, actually. The camera is on DeForest Kelley on his bed as McCoy, then the camera pans across and by the end of its pan, you see DeForest Kelly as the Salt Creature pretending to be McCoy. They panned the camera across twice, one with DeForest Kelley on the left and the other with DeForest Kelley on the right. Then they splice the two camera shots together to create the illusion that it went from McCoy to "McCoy".
Here's an example of me doing that same camera trick in something I made a few years ago.
DeForest Kelley's acting as the Salt Creature is perfect. When they're in the Briefing and Kirk is asking Dr. Crater about Nancy and the Salt Creature, McCoy's subtle facial reactions convey just how much the Salt Creature appreciates Dr. Crater. I think the odd behavior from "McCoy" was enough to make Spock suspicious, which is why he wanted to accompany "McCoy" and Dr. Crater to Sickbay. I can just imagine the scene in my head. Spock becomes suspicious, the Salt Creature tries to kill him, Dr. Crater wants the Salt Creature to stop, then the Salt Creature kills Dr. Crater. Good thing Spock's blood is different. It's another way to take advantage of Spock's alien physiology.
The best scene is at the end when the Salt Creature becomes "Nancy" again and tries to elicit the real McCoy's sympathy. He doesn't believe it when Spock tells him to shoot "Nancy". Then McCoy really can't believe it when she tries to suck the salt out of Kirk and throws Spock around like a ragdoll. Then McCoy has to do something that's hard for him to do and shoot the Salt Creature dead. I love the makeup for the Salt Creature. And the look on its face as it dies. It took a long time to build up to this scene, but it was worth it.
I feel like the episode drags a bit, it's not a favorite of mine, like I said, and it doesn't really take it up to the next level until the Salt Creature is actually onboard the Enterprise, but once it gets going, it's there. I'll split the difference and give it a 7.
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He must be a science generalist, then, as WNMHGB has him in astrosciences.
He's listed in some Trek guides and reference books as being staff physicist at the time of the Gary Mitchell crisis of 2265.
According to Kevin Riley in The Naked Time, botany was just a hobby. I never once had the impression from The Man Trap that botany was Sulu's job.
By way of callbacks, I would have loved to see Kirk in a later episode ask Sulu for a physicist's opinion.
In the video game "Star Trek: Judgement Rites," there's an off-format "bottle episode" where the Enterprise is damaged and Kirk has to roam the ship to solve the mission. Rather than going with Spock and McCoy like usual (Spock is kidnapped and McCoy is busy tending to the wounded), Kirk brings Sulu and Chekov along with him, and Sulu specifically mentions that he was a physicist when he first came aboard when he takes over for Spock (Chekov handled medical equipment, I guess because of that scene in GEN, or just process of elimination).
Regarding Sulu and botany...
I think that was more a hobby than an actual job. In "THE NAKED TIME", Riley says Sulu was trying to get him into botany along with fencing.
Ironically, these earlier episodes make Sulu a pretty varied and rounded character without much dialogue. Between his work in astrophysics and later as helmsman, we find he enjoys botany, fencing, and in "SHORE LEAVE", old weapons collecting. That's a pretty wide array of interests to have.
The third revision writer's bible (April 1967) written by D.D. Fontana actually states that Sulu "is a compulsive hobbyist; one week may be fascinated by botany with the intention of that becoming his lifelong avocation, then another week we'll find he has switched to a determination of acquiring a galaxy-famous collection of alien firearms." However this may have been written after "Man Trap", "Naked Time" et al; I don't know what the earlier versions of the bible said about him.
The Writers Guide can be found here: https://tvwriting.co.uk/tv_scripts/...ginal_Series/Star_Trek_TOS_Writer's_Guide.pdf
There's the April 1967 version, followed by what appears to be an earlier version with no date. It must have been written during early season 1, as it still includes a description for Janice Rand. The old version talks about Sulu's interest on botany, but no mention of other hobbies.
In addition to what others noted, Kirk doesn't know he's meeting with "Mudd's seductive women" in his quarters. He thinks he's meeting with a reckless freighter captain and his similarly-inclined crew. He doesn't learn about the nature of Mudd's "cargo" until they're standing before him.
At some point I'm going to do something that no one else I know of has done. I'm going to binge-watch The Lieutenant. I found it on YouTube. I have to find the time to do it, so it's not going to be soon. But, after I go through it, I'll talk about the entire series in a post and how much Proto-TOS stuff I was able to spot.
I've done the same in my DS9 Re-Watch, where I looked at TNG episodes that I considered to be Proto-DS9.
I've done the same in my DS9 Re-Watch, where I looked at TNG episodes that I considered to be Proto-DS9.
That... is something I never even thought about doing. When I wrote about Man Trap for my site I decided to do the research and watch some Forbidden Planet, Wagon Train and Hornblower (didn't get around to that one, though I did read the first book.) But it didn't even occur to me to try Roddenberry's earlier episodes.
(Wagon Train was actually alright!)
(Wagon Train was actually alright!)
I believe Sulu's "hobby of the week" was originally meant to be a running gag -- an idea that was quickly dropped.
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