Then when Cutty says "What in the name of God?" the topic veers into a "Who Mourns For Adonais" reenactment, right?
There are a couple of other quoted lines buried in there somewhere, although some may have been changed during filming. Harris's explanations of how the Tholian device worked were cobbled together from phrases used in episodes like "Mirror, Mirror" specifically because I didn't want to invent new technobabble for a TOS-era story. Explanations also tend to be TOS-style by using analogies to common phenomena or notions - "ripples in a pond" as compared to "doubling a penny" etc. Somebody caught "shuttle bay" early in the revision process, which we changed to "hangar deck."
I liked your "doubling a penny" moment a lot. You delivered the explanation efficiently, without getting bogged down, and with some humorous touches [e.g. Cutty and Quince nodding their heads, thinking "Yeah, right! We follow you in every detail."]. I also liked the line "Cold-blooded bastard!", which I interpret as a subtle modernization touch. It makes the episode just a little grittier, without disrupting the overall mood of being in the 60's.
I've said before, but I never mind repeating myself...I especially like the different interpersonal dynamics of the main characters. There's not the big happy family and Garrovick is not the incredibly charismatic, swashbuckler that Kirk is, but for all the tension and borderline dislike, there is a lot of respect (albeit grudging) and they are still professional enough to do their jobs effectively. In some ways I think it's a more realistic depiction of how a military vessel functions than TOS.
The writting, the actors, the director, the special effects... all came together to make something GREAT.... Maybe if the name was changed to Exeter Mortgage and Investments then you could have been "Bailed Out" and we could have more great ST Exeter episodes to watch. I know, "If wishes were horese beggers would ride."
Let's not be poking fun at "Who Mourns For Adonais" shall we? That episode is definately one of the original series better installments. Well-written by its author, and well acted by the regular cast(especially when Kirk was zapped by Apollo)and its guest stars(veteran Shakespearean stage actor Michael Forest and the ever lovely Leslie Parrish).
In the case of Apollo, not in the slightest bit. Especially when it comes to lighting the ancient fires and killing a deer.
Nevertheless, we shall remember together. We shall drink the sacremental wine. There shall be the music of the pipes.
And those analogies are infinitely better than incomprehensible technobabble, that no one really cares about and doesn't make any sense anyway. "The notion of transwarp beaming is like tryin to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet while wearing a blindfold riding a horse." The "tailpipe" in TUC. Or the nearly complete lack of explanation in TWOK for the Genesis device ... "life from lifelessness"
Yeah, Trek originally got by with almost no technical dialogue - and it's just not at all necessary. Make a list of five other sf tv shows - or movies - that you like and see how much (that is, how little) technobabble is required to make them work. Battlestar Galactica Farscape Firefly There are three right there (for my tastes). The new Doctor Who uses quite a bit but it always strikes me as employed for comic effect there. I may be cheating not to count it as an offender, but what the hell.
For me, there is a difference in the quality of the technobabble. If it genuinely ties the device to recently discovered science or known laws of physics which have not yet been exploited, I like it. If it's just trying to sound like it does, skip it. Of course, you never know what the reader knows. The Sci Fi novel I was writing in 1980 included a discussion of quarks, up, down, color. It was a discussion of a science lecture a character teaching Introduction to Physics was preparing. My sister read it and circled it and said, "This is bad. No one will believe anyone would name a subatomic particle a quark, or say types of it are up, down. etc. It sounds insane." That comment gave me a whole different view on the whole technobabble matter!