By publish date or chronologically? Of course the movie (essentially the first three books) has the Star Trek theme!
Do start a thread for your Lieutenant watch, please!
Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
- Start date
I've got 'em all on phys-med, though I watched the best parts of four episodes a day maximum. You'll enjoy yourself with all the greats. Nimoy, Nichols, Barrett, Dennis Hopper......
I read The Happy Return, the first published.
I figured out a way to make this work without effecting TOS, DS9, or B5 -- it's like Tetris -- so a Lieutenant Thread in the appropriate forum will be coming soon!
She wore Blue Velour....
It made my top 100 TV shows....probably in the higher 90s, but please don't let that sully your enjoyment.
I'm just glad other people have actually watched this! I was worried that if I started an actual thread devoted to it in the General Media Forum, it would just be me posting 29 episode reviews in a row about a show that next to no one had seen and came out when I was -16.It made my top 100 TV shows....probably in the higher 90s, but please don't let that sully your enjoyment.
My plan is to the start up the thread in February. I'll provide a link here, when it's up.
Thanks! I only checked out the first Sulu description, and didn't know about the second being there.
When the character was pushed more into background (along with Uhura) in favor of concentrating on Kirk-Spock-McCoy.
So interesting to see this in its early raw form.
At this point, I'm not sure if Sulu and Uhura were ever intended to have a bigger role than what we saw eventually on screen. For example, Fontana removed a big part for Sulu in This Side of Paradise long before writing that second version of the Guide. In the original outline, the romance subplot belonged to Sulu, but she gave it to Spock in her rewrite.
As crazy as it may seem, a fan counted recently the lines of each character in the three seasons ( ) and I don't see a significant decrease in their parts. Uhura had, in fact, more lines in season two than one. While Sulu's decrease during that season was due to Takei being absent from production for a long while.
In view of this, the claims that Shatner started stealing lines from other characters as the show progressed, doesn't seem to hold much water either. Scotty's role, in fact, increased dramatically.
Indeed, yes. They were the main characters, and the bulk of the series would be carried by Kirk, Spock, then McCoy and Scotty, and then Sulu, Uhura and other "day players" of the week.
OK. But the fact that Fontana lessened Sulu's role in that episode shows the diminishing interest in the character among the producers. And while Takei's absence during much of the second season led to his lines being given to Koenig, I think the producers also wanted to build up the new Chekov character. giving him exposure.
A TREK board without a LIEUTENANT thread is like having a X-ray without a skeletal readout. Or something....
"The Ultimate Computer" by D.C. Fontana (based on a story by Laurence N. Wolfe)
Wow. I barely remember any of this.
Kirk is obviously unhappy as the Enterprise approaches a space station. Commodore Wesley beams aboard and explains that Enterprise will be used in war games to test the M-5 Multitronic System, a revolutionary tactical and control computer designed by Dr. Richard Daystrom. Spock is fascinated, while Bones is against it and Kirk is unsure, but his spidey senses are tingling. There's an excellent scene between Kirk and McCoy where Kirk questions whether he's just afraid of losing his job.
The M-5 performs more quickly and efficiently than a living crew. However, M-5 also turns off power and life support to unoccupied parts of the ship and draws increased power for unknown reasons.
There's a drill and the M-5 wins the fight. Chekov looks very frustrated at just reading off coordinates. The Commodore jokingly refers to "Captain Dunsel," at which Kirk stiffens and walks off the bridge. It's a Starfleet Academy slang term for a part serving no useful purpose.
Some time later, M-5 detects an unmanned freighter coming near and destroys it. Kirk, Spock, and Scotty try to turn the M-5 off or do a workaround and neither works. M-5 defends itself, killing a redshirt who tried to unplug it. Daystrom reveals that he imprinted human engrams (his own) onto M-5's circuits, creating what amounts to a human mind operating at the speed of a computer.
Four Federation ships approach, planning to continue the war games. However, M-5 doesn't think they're games and fires full power phasers at the ships, killing people in the process. M-5 has blocked comms so Kirk can't even warn or explain. Wesley requests approval from Starfleet to destroy Enterprise.
Daystrom tries to reason with M-5, but eventually starts having a breakdown. He made his reputation at the age of 24 and has been trying to do more ever since. It's a nice bit about peaking too soon in life. Spock pinches Daystrom and they take him to sickbay.
Kirk then talks the computer into realized it committed murder when it was created to preserve life by not needing humans to die for space exploration. It shuts itself off, leaving Enterprise defenseless. Scotty can't restore communications immediately, so Kirk takes a chance and leaves shields down. Wesley orders the other ships to stand down.
We end on some McCoy and Spock banter, which gets Kirk laughing.
This is an excellent episode, very tight and thrilling. It explores both the replacement of people by machines and the dangers of AI. William Marshall was terrific as Daystrom. The regular cast were also on their A game.
Wow. I barely remember any of this.
Kirk is obviously unhappy as the Enterprise approaches a space station. Commodore Wesley beams aboard and explains that Enterprise will be used in war games to test the M-5 Multitronic System, a revolutionary tactical and control computer designed by Dr. Richard Daystrom. Spock is fascinated, while Bones is against it and Kirk is unsure, but his spidey senses are tingling. There's an excellent scene between Kirk and McCoy where Kirk questions whether he's just afraid of losing his job.
The M-5 performs more quickly and efficiently than a living crew. However, M-5 also turns off power and life support to unoccupied parts of the ship and draws increased power for unknown reasons.
There's a drill and the M-5 wins the fight. Chekov looks very frustrated at just reading off coordinates. The Commodore jokingly refers to "Captain Dunsel," at which Kirk stiffens and walks off the bridge. It's a Starfleet Academy slang term for a part serving no useful purpose.
Some time later, M-5 detects an unmanned freighter coming near and destroys it. Kirk, Spock, and Scotty try to turn the M-5 off or do a workaround and neither works. M-5 defends itself, killing a redshirt who tried to unplug it. Daystrom reveals that he imprinted human engrams (his own) onto M-5's circuits, creating what amounts to a human mind operating at the speed of a computer.
Four Federation ships approach, planning to continue the war games. However, M-5 doesn't think they're games and fires full power phasers at the ships, killing people in the process. M-5 has blocked comms so Kirk can't even warn or explain. Wesley requests approval from Starfleet to destroy Enterprise.
Daystrom tries to reason with M-5, but eventually starts having a breakdown. He made his reputation at the age of 24 and has been trying to do more ever since. It's a nice bit about peaking too soon in life. Spock pinches Daystrom and they take him to sickbay.
Kirk then talks the computer into realized it committed murder when it was created to preserve life by not needing humans to die for space exploration. It shuts itself off, leaving Enterprise defenseless. Scotty can't restore communications immediately, so Kirk takes a chance and leaves shields down. Wesley orders the other ships to stand down.
We end on some McCoy and Spock banter, which gets Kirk laughing.
This is an excellent episode, very tight and thrilling. It explores both the replacement of people by machines and the dangers of AI. William Marshall was terrific as Daystrom. The regular cast were also on their A game.
And such an AI is only as accurate, stable, and moral as the information it feeds on. To quote the phrase, "garbage in, garbage out."
Ultimate Computer is one of my top 5. (I probably have 10 or 11 top 5s.) This isn't the first episode to highlight Kirk's romance with his ship but this one does it the most and probably the best. (Until that little Robert Wise art film.)
Marshall is one of the absolute best Trek guest stars. Ever.
The only part that falls a little flat for me is when the Starship under experimental computer control starts randomly shooting at Fed ships Wesley starts calling for Kirk's head. Hey, Bob, let's think this one through for just a moment, OK? (I want to make my own Star Trek show JUST to make every other Starship captain almost as smart and awesome as Kirk.)
Marshall is one of the absolute best Trek guest stars. Ever.
The only part that falls a little flat for me is when the Starship under experimental computer control starts randomly shooting at Fed ships Wesley starts calling for Kirk's head. Hey, Bob, let's think this one through for just a moment, OK? (I want to make my own Star Trek show JUST to make every other Starship captain almost as smart and awesome as Kirk.)
To be fair, Wesley tried contacting Enterprise several times before he asks for approval to shoot back. But yeah, it'd be nice if they were nearly all "cream of the crop."
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