I think it was slightly subversive and counter-cultural for Star Trek to make cops the bad guys. There were movies that idolized the anti-hero, but it was unusual for a TV series to have us rooting against the side of law enforcement.
Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
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One thing I really liked about "SPECTRE OF THE GUN" was the incomplete town. It gave such an eerie vibe that you help but feel a little creeped out.
Ironically, having a lower budget probably helped make that happen. Proof that you don't need a massive budget to make something work... just imagination and a MacGyver method of working.
Ironically, having a lower budget probably helped make that happen. Proof that you don't need a massive budget to make something work... just imagination and a MacGyver method of working.
I recently rewatched Spock's Brain. When they were using the teaching helmet, Scotty remarks that he would love to try it. The females are not educated/doctors, but it brought them up to level. McCoy couldn't use it again because it would kill him, but is there an actual reason that Kirk or Scotty couldn't have gotten a blast of genius and finished the task?
This is probably one of my favorites of the third season merely because of the minimalism regarding sets and props. The story is pretty good, too.
I assumed it was because the Controller was otherwise occupied at the time getting reattached to his body and out of the gizmo so the teacher device was probably offline? Not sure if that was mentioned at that point in the show or not.
well the knowledge would have to be separate from the controller; its not like Spock inherently had any of that information. Did the controller have to be a super powered brain like Spock's? Why couldn't they just use one of their own brains, if it was analogous to breathing, pumping blood, etc? Di d the native woman use the last bit of juice in the old controller to get Spock's installed? Was she somehow uploading the information back into Spock as she installed him? I assumed that the teaching computer would have been a separate piece of technology, but one that can only be used very sparingly. I understand that its too dangerous to use more than once, as it might burn out your neural circuitry, but it seems like anyone should have been able to use it once.
I mean, it wasn't like the Vulcan was Infinite.
What is it about third season that makes it look and feel SO third season? I was thinking of the transitions in Spectre where they end up transported to wherever the Melkotians need them to be. It just has the whiff of Batman to it.
I think it might have something to do with cameras and lighting, maybe the new uniforms, and certainly the fact that some of the cast (SHATNER) aren't getting their hair cut like it's 1966 anymore. It feels a little less cinematic and a little more TV. Which in some places is funny because some of the camera work is much less locked off. Spock's Brain, For the World is Hollow and I Liked the Way Harlan Titled Things.
Even the music sounds like it's miked different or something. The third season re-recordings of first season music have a very "third season" sound to it.
I think the cinematography is a massive vibe shift. The show looks somehow cheaper, partly because it's far more studio-bound than the first two seasons. There's a lot of episodes that spend a great deal of time on the Enterprise sets, all of which have much flatter lighting. The Batman comparison is not far off.
***GROAN!***
Ah, come on. That was a good pun.
Hmm, I've been making the Batman comparison for years I guess. There's something about the way at least certain 3rd season eps are filmed and lit, the seemingly brighter colors and weird lighting, and heck in Wink of an Eye when Kirk and Spock get accelerated there's the thing with the camera tilt and the rooms looks like the Joker's lair for a bit. Not to mention Green Batgirl™. 
@Tallguy
Since I promised I'd watch The Lieutenant in February, and I have the extra time, that's what I'm doing. The full season playlist is no longer available on YouTube, and I can't find the series on Amazon Prime, but I did find one episode. So, I'm watching...
The Lieutenant -- "The Two-Star General" (S1E4)
Based on this one episode, The Lieutenant feels much more like a workplace drama that happens to take place in the Marine Corps. This is what I imagine TOS would be like if it took place on Earth, in the 20th Century, without the science-fiction stories, without the action/adventure, and if the main character was a subordinate instead of at the command level making the big decisions.
By taking out most of what I associate with TOS, I can see how Gene Roddenberry relished at the chance to make Star Trek and to be able to tell stories he couldn't in The Lieutenant and really use his imagination.
The main character, Lieutenant William Tiberius Rice is played by Gary Lockwood, a.k.a. Gary Mitchell. "Tiberius" is obviously later Kirk's middle name. It's also interesting to note that William T. Rice as a name doesn't look that much different from William T. Riker, Kirk's counterpart in TNG Season 1. Metaphorically, if you go from Rice to S1 Riker to Kirk, it's essentially the same character at different stages of his career from Lieutenant to Commander to Captain. There's an in-joke I never knew of before in "The Arsenal of Freedom" when Riker encounters a facsimile of a Captain Rice.
To illustrate the difference between The Lieutenant and TOS: At one point in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Mitchell recalls setting Kirk up on a date with little blonde lab technician who he almost married. For the sake of argument, we'll call her Carol Marcus. If this were The Lieutenant, Kirk would be Rice, and the episode would be about Rice's friend setting him up with Carol, they'd fall in love hard and fast, and they'd almost get married, but something would happen so they wouldn't in order to maintain the status quo required by 1960s episodic television.
At one point, in this very episode I watched, Rice is dating a service brat daughter. The father, a superior officer, warns him to focus more on his career than on women. In what little I've seen of Rice, he seems in line with what I think of when TOS referred back to Kirk's younger days. He's a serious and uptight officer but had also been involved in a lot of relationships.
General Stone, who Lieutenant Rice is assigned to, is a Commanding Officer who takes risks and has a lot on his mind he a prepares for a conference in Washington. We don't see how Stone conducts himself during the actual conference, but the fact that he's a risk-taker is something that carries over into Kirk. After this meeting we don't see, he's promoted to a Two-Star General (thus the title of the episode). Stone also likes reading detective stories, similar to how Picard is a fan of the fictional detective Dixon Hill.
By looking at Stone's decision-making process, I can see how it translates into Kirk or Picard, and it's interesting to keep in the back of my mind when looking at the Roddenberry-created Captains. Rice, as Stone's aide, is trying to give Stone a letter from an officer's wife who Stone had to discharge. Rice says the officer's wife explained there were extenuating circumstances that the discharged officer didn't want to state. Stone cuts Rice off and says there are always extenuating circumstances. He also tells Rice that as a Commanding Officer he doesn't always have the luxury of being either fair or kind. Stone, not being a main character, doesn't have to be likable to an audience, so he can say these things that Kirk or Picard can't. With Kirk or Picard, most of the time, you have to look for subtext. But then Stone says a Commanding Officer also doesn't have the luxury of being wrong. So, when he sees what the extenuating circumstance was, he wants to have the discharged officer reinstated. The CO will do what he has to do but will make sure it's the right thing to do. That definitely translates into what we'll see in Star Trek.
At the end of the episode, Rice's temporary assignment as Stone's aide is up and he's sent back to his platoon. There was a misunderstanding earlier in the episode that Rice's ambition was to be Stone's aide and works his way up behind a desk, but Rice wants to be with his platoon. For sure this is something we'll see similarly with Kirk. It gives me some new insight into Kirk in fact, if Rice is a template. In TMP, there might've been a misunderstanding that Kirk wanted to be an Admiral, he ended up in that situation, felt duty-bound to accept promotion, but regretted it because he really just wanted to be Captain. Earlier in Kirk's career, again using Rice as a template, I imagine Kirk was thrown into all kinds of situations and that's a lot of what made his career. Being brave, taking risks, standing firm, and knowing how to take control of a situation is the rest of what made his career when he was thrown into such situations.
Since I can no longer find the entire show readily available, I can't promise to watch more any time soon, but it is on my Watch List now, and I'm glad I took the time to watch at least this particular episode. Even if I don't ever see the rest of the series, I think I got the gist of how it's part of Star Trek's DNA.
Since I promised I'd watch The Lieutenant in February, and I have the extra time, that's what I'm doing. The full season playlist is no longer available on YouTube, and I can't find the series on Amazon Prime, but I did find one episode. So, I'm watching...
The Lieutenant -- "The Two-Star General" (S1E4)
Based on this one episode, The Lieutenant feels much more like a workplace drama that happens to take place in the Marine Corps. This is what I imagine TOS would be like if it took place on Earth, in the 20th Century, without the science-fiction stories, without the action/adventure, and if the main character was a subordinate instead of at the command level making the big decisions.
By taking out most of what I associate with TOS, I can see how Gene Roddenberry relished at the chance to make Star Trek and to be able to tell stories he couldn't in The Lieutenant and really use his imagination.
The main character, Lieutenant William Tiberius Rice is played by Gary Lockwood, a.k.a. Gary Mitchell. "Tiberius" is obviously later Kirk's middle name. It's also interesting to note that William T. Rice as a name doesn't look that much different from William T. Riker, Kirk's counterpart in TNG Season 1. Metaphorically, if you go from Rice to S1 Riker to Kirk, it's essentially the same character at different stages of his career from Lieutenant to Commander to Captain. There's an in-joke I never knew of before in "The Arsenal of Freedom" when Riker encounters a facsimile of a Captain Rice.
To illustrate the difference between The Lieutenant and TOS: At one point in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Mitchell recalls setting Kirk up on a date with little blonde lab technician who he almost married. For the sake of argument, we'll call her Carol Marcus. If this were The Lieutenant, Kirk would be Rice, and the episode would be about Rice's friend setting him up with Carol, they'd fall in love hard and fast, and they'd almost get married, but something would happen so they wouldn't in order to maintain the status quo required by 1960s episodic television.
At one point, in this very episode I watched, Rice is dating a service brat daughter. The father, a superior officer, warns him to focus more on his career than on women. In what little I've seen of Rice, he seems in line with what I think of when TOS referred back to Kirk's younger days. He's a serious and uptight officer but had also been involved in a lot of relationships.
General Stone, who Lieutenant Rice is assigned to, is a Commanding Officer who takes risks and has a lot on his mind he a prepares for a conference in Washington. We don't see how Stone conducts himself during the actual conference, but the fact that he's a risk-taker is something that carries over into Kirk. After this meeting we don't see, he's promoted to a Two-Star General (thus the title of the episode). Stone also likes reading detective stories, similar to how Picard is a fan of the fictional detective Dixon Hill.
By looking at Stone's decision-making process, I can see how it translates into Kirk or Picard, and it's interesting to keep in the back of my mind when looking at the Roddenberry-created Captains. Rice, as Stone's aide, is trying to give Stone a letter from an officer's wife who Stone had to discharge. Rice says the officer's wife explained there were extenuating circumstances that the discharged officer didn't want to state. Stone cuts Rice off and says there are always extenuating circumstances. He also tells Rice that as a Commanding Officer he doesn't always have the luxury of being either fair or kind. Stone, not being a main character, doesn't have to be likable to an audience, so he can say these things that Kirk or Picard can't. With Kirk or Picard, most of the time, you have to look for subtext. But then Stone says a Commanding Officer also doesn't have the luxury of being wrong. So, when he sees what the extenuating circumstance was, he wants to have the discharged officer reinstated. The CO will do what he has to do but will make sure it's the right thing to do. That definitely translates into what we'll see in Star Trek.
At the end of the episode, Rice's temporary assignment as Stone's aide is up and he's sent back to his platoon. There was a misunderstanding earlier in the episode that Rice's ambition was to be Stone's aide and works his way up behind a desk, but Rice wants to be with his platoon. For sure this is something we'll see similarly with Kirk. It gives me some new insight into Kirk in fact, if Rice is a template. In TMP, there might've been a misunderstanding that Kirk wanted to be an Admiral, he ended up in that situation, felt duty-bound to accept promotion, but regretted it because he really just wanted to be Captain. Earlier in Kirk's career, again using Rice as a template, I imagine Kirk was thrown into all kinds of situations and that's a lot of what made his career. Being brave, taking risks, standing firm, and knowing how to take control of a situation is the rest of what made his career when he was thrown into such situations.
Since I can no longer find the entire show readily available, I can't promise to watch more any time soon, but it is on my Watch List now, and I'm glad I took the time to watch at least this particular episode. Even if I don't ever see the rest of the series, I think I got the gist of how it's part of Star Trek's DNA.
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In fact, the only location filming in the entire third season was in the episode "The Paradise Syndrome."
I've heard that but...
almost all of my favorite episodes were ship bound. (There are exceptions.) But even the ship stuff looks different. Most of the time anyway. Elaan of Troyius looks cheaper than Balance of Terror or Journey to Babel.
Probably not. I've often thought this myself.
Yeah, like I said it's the flatter lighting.
I just had a thought; what if the reason Spock's brain was stolen rather than anyone else's was twofold; a) his logical mind works well with the computer and b) the computer, like Spock, has copper integrated into its system (copper wire and copper blood).
Its one of my favorite sets of the TOS run. The orange red sky through the walless buildings. Clocks suspeneded in mid air where the walls should be. Its a perfect episode for Halloween because as you say its creepy. Its also not just Kirk, Spock and McCoy trapped in the town. Scotty and Chekov are there so the episode has extra banter in a planet for a change. One of my favorite episodes to be honest. I never tire of watching it.
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Apart from all this, an earlier version of "Spectre of the Gun" prompted what must have been the only funny memo from the NBC censors:
"Please find some other way to test the tranquilizing solution, as throwing the dart-needle across the room into Scotty’s extended buttock is not acceptable."
If I recall correctly that version was usedin James Blish’s adaptation of the episode.
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