Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
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Spock is half-human, testosterone is gonna flow when around those Bill Theis costumes no matter how many of those seven years have passed.
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I love The Savage Curtain. I flip between this and All Our Yesterdays as the "actual" ending of TOS.
My daughter and her best friend just watched this. (I paired it with SNW's Among the Lotus Eaters for no particular reason. They had already watched The Menagerie.) Her friend called it "a fever dream".
I was about to write a bunch of stuff and I thought "Why does this all sound familiar?"
I haven't changed my mind on any of it.
My daughter and her best friend just watched this. (I paired it with SNW's Among the Lotus Eaters for no particular reason. They had already watched The Menagerie.) Her friend called it "a fever dream".
I was about to write a bunch of stuff and I thought "Why does this all sound familiar?"
I haven't changed my mind on any of it.
The villains come from both Kirk and Spock, too. One hero and two villains, each. My thoughts:
- Kirk's Hero: Lincoln
- Kirk's Villains: Col. Green; Genghis Khan (note both are from Earth)
- Spock's Hero: Surak
- Spock's Villains: Kahless; Zora (note both are Aliens races, and Zora is evil because of unethical science experiments - that must be a Spock thing).
I'm still not over the fact that Zora started life as that smokin' hot brunette in "The Cage"!
She must have left Starfleet, got into a bad relationship (was it Bobby Brown?), then come the drugs, she got "the face of meth," went absolutely nuts, took some time out to complete her degree in bio-chemistry, and then moved to Tiburon for career in Big Pharma. That would explain everything.
She must have left Starfleet, got into a bad relationship (was it Bobby Brown?), then come the drugs, she got "the face of meth," went absolutely nuts, took some time out to complete her degree in bio-chemistry, and then moved to Tiburon for career in Big Pharma. That would explain everything.
Green was mentioned in the final season of Enterprise, yes. Maybe in others, but I don't remember."The Savage Curtain" by Gene Roddenberry and Arthur Heinemann (based on an original story by Roddenberry)
Lincoln in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
A middling episode, enlivened by Lee Bergere's Lincoln and Phillip Pine's Green. The best thing I can say about it was that it expanded the lore of the show, with both Kahless and Surak being referred to later in other Trek (was Green? I can't remember).
I like this one a lot. Considering Gene pretty much dropped off half a script and headed for the hills for this to be finished up by an outsider and two guys under the gun and also relatively new to the series, it turned out to hit all the marks of a classic episode - mostly because it cribs from the best. There was a finished Roddenberry outline, but my understanding is that Heinemann didn't see it.
Let's look at the first half, the half that Gene apparently wrote (I can be corrected as I go by third hand accounts which may be way off considering the source).
Lincoln in space is probably a lot more cheesy today than it was then. Abe Lincoln wasn't just Kirk's hero and apparently Gene's, but he was on the mind of a LOT of TV writers of the era. Not just westerns like Bonanza or The Wild West, but also The Time Tunnel and The Twilight Zone. Once we left the 60's, this fascination with the historical figures 1800's was replaced by more contemporary examples. But there was a time when the biggest insult you could give to a traitor was calling him "Benedict Arnold." So in 1969, Lincoln showing up on the view screen was a powerful hook.
There is so much dread and mystery in the pre-landing party scenes, which adds gravitas to the premise. This is something I really appreciated about Star Trek - the seriousness and sincerity. We were more easily able to accept the weirdness when the characters and the producers were taking it seriously. That goes a long way with me.
Also - great message about accepting people as people, not by their race. Wonderful. This is why TOS still has value, even when parts of it go unappreciated by younger viewers now. In the midst of the most volatile Civil Rights periods of the 20th century, Star Trek still had the balls to make blatant statements about racial equality. Granted, they were still hamstrung with gender equality, but baby steps are still steps.
Anyways, moving to the planet, the great mystery is diffused a bit by making this an "Arena" retread - which itself was accidentally plagiarized by Gene Coon (as much as he deserves credit to giving ST focus he wasn't the most original writer).
And look what we get this late in the game in the most reviled season of the series: Surak. Col. Green. Kahless. Amazing additions to Star Trek's universe when the show was breathing its last. Was it Roddenberry, Heinemann, Freiberger or Singer who gave them to us? Doesn't matter in the end.
The funny thing is that Yarnek (unnamed in the dialog) is right! The "good" side won only because they used the same ruthless tactics as the "evil" and the "evil" the survivors ran away. Good and evil are just aspects of humanity. And sometimes in order to win, good has to stoop to the same methods. And good will do so when pushed. Superman III made the same statement in the Evil Superman vs Clark sequence.
Yarnek is also one of the best aliens in the series, fully convincing and perfectly realized. Janos Prohaska was an artist at bringing these being to life. The voice is also perfect - Bartell LaRue, I believe.
The end is in sight and this episode does suffer from that. But the effort is there and the messages presented are worthwhile. And as a kid Lee Bergere was the definitive presentation of Lincoln for me.
This a solid 3/5 star episode for me.
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I think the Excalbians learned the wrong lesson and Kirk failed to clearly elaborate it for them. Good won not because they used the same tactics as Evil, but because Good are willing to fight to the death, i.e. their own deaths, to save others. Evil are not willing to fight to their own deaths since they only what to save themselves and are not committed to die for others. YMMV 
I think the Excalbians learned the wrong lesson and Kirk failed to clearly elaborate it for them. Good won not because they used the same tactics as Evil, but because Good are willing to fight to the death, i.e. their own deaths, to save others. Evil are not willing to fight to their own deaths since they only what to save themselves and are not committed to die for others. YMMV
Nailed it.
That's actually a really good take that I never considered. It's too bad Kirk didn't voice that in the end. Great interpretation, though.I think the Excalbians learned the wrong lesson and Kirk failed to clearly elaborate it for them. Good won not because they used the same tactics as Evil, but because Good are willing to fight to the death, i.e. their own deaths, to save others. Evil are not willing to fight to their own deaths since they only what to save themselves and are not committed to die for others. YMMV
I thought it was pretty cheesy back then as well.
That stuff was "toking on a blunt in your college dorm and laughing like hyenas" cheesy even in 1969, and I wasn't even alive that year.
Not sure if airdate works unless you watch Where No Man first which then eliminates the old style costume and characters seen. That is unless you really think that Dr.Piper is somewhere still on the ship with McCoy in sickbay a bit like M'Benga was in later episodes or that Piper was below McCoy in seniority or vice versa?
JB
JB
Mileage varies but I found it to be a compelling hook. And yup, no worse than the Green Hand which most of us seemed to take in stride. 60's SF, amirite?
I always wondered why was the hand was green? Both in-universe and in reality.
Will power.I always wondered why was the hand was green? Both in-universe and in reality.
To remind people the effects cost money.I always wondered why was the hand was green? Both in-universe and in reality.
It's now or never, lock your phasers on me.
On the 9/08 date, I sat down and watched "The Man Trap". I could have chosen from my DVDs or my Blu-rays, but I was a bit lazy and just streamed it through Paramount+. I was immediately taken with the fact that the color looked absolutely amazing. I know this series was by design, intended to help RCA/NBC sell color TVs, and man did this episode really have great color.
Sure, I've seen this on Blu-ray before, both original and remastered, but something really grabbed me with the color usage. I was even one of those lucky ones to have seen the show in color on its premiere, but it couldn't possibly have looked back then as good as it does today. Those old CRT TV sets from the 60s were pretty bad by today's standards.
Sure, I've seen this on Blu-ray before, both original and remastered, but something really grabbed me with the color usage. I was even one of those lucky ones to have seen the show in color on its premiere, but it couldn't possibly have looked back then as good as it does today. Those old CRT TV sets from the 60s were pretty bad by today's standards.
No! They must shoot both of us! It's the only way to ensure the safety of the BB-------OWWWWW!!!!! I SAID BOTH OF US!!!! Cheezit!!!!
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