What if...TOS had maintained it's original "feel"?

[evilnate]

Right now, I'm re-watching my favorite string of episodes, from "The Corbomite Maneuver" through "Balance of Terror". These episodes have a different feel from the rest of the series, and I think that it's superior. The episodes have a more leisurely pace, the episodes often end on downbeat notes, and the stories have more of a Twilight Zone-like twist to them. The most interesting thing to me is how Uhura, Rand, and Sulu are strong secondary characters, with lives outside of the bridge. Kirk and Spock are obviously the main characters, but the series makes a point of showing the rest of the crew at work and play.

Personally, I would have liked the series to maintain that mix, but it would have possibly come at the expense of development of the Kirk-Spock-McCoy relationship. Would the show have been as successful later? Would the show have made it past it's first season? Would it have been a stronger show? I'm interested in seeing what everyone else thinks.

 

[Basil]

Star Trek debuted about five years too late in terms of style . . . the first season is closer in spirit to shows of the 50s and early 60s than what followed. Of course, the moon landing might have given the show a boost in interest from casual viewers, but had the show made it to the airwaves in 1962 or 63, I think it would have maintained the qualities you refer to.

 

[evilnate]

Star Trek debuted about five years too late in terms of style . . . the first season is closer in spirit to shows of the 50s and early 60s than what followed. Of course, the moon landing might have given the show a boost in interest from casual viewers, but had the show made it to the airwaves in 1962 or 63, I think it would have maintained the qualities you refer to.

You have a point. I'm not as familiar with tv of the 50s and early 60s as I am with the late 60s, but it does compare somewhat with what happened with the Bond movies throughout the 60s. The early movies, particularly From Russia With Love are fun, but serious spy adventures. Bond is fallible, and he's given strong companion characters. He had Jack Lord as Felix Leiter! Then later on, Bond became more infallible, he's got less competent characters around him, and the series begins to take on a less serious feel by the end of the 60s, leading into the tragedy of the Roger Moore era.

 

[A.V.I.A.F.]

Star Trek debuted about five years too late in terms of style . . . the first season is closer in spirit to shows of the 50s and early 60s than what followed. Of course, the moon landing might have given the show a boost in interest from casual viewers, but had the show made it to the airwaves in 1962 or 63, I think it would have maintained the qualities you refer to.

You have a point. I'm not as familiar with tv of the 50s and early 60s as I am with the late 60s, but it does compare somewhat with what happened with the Bond movies throughout the 60s. The early movies, particularly From Russia With Love are fun, but serious spy adventures. Bond is fallible, and he's given strong companion characters. He had Jack Lord as Felix Leiter! Then later on, Bond became more infallible, he's got less competent characters around him, and the series begins to take on a less serious feel by the end of the 60s, leading into the tragedy of the Roger Moore era.

I blame the hippies of the latter 60s and the legacy of spiritual and cultural bankruptcy which they heralded.

 

[evilnate]

Star Trek debuted about five years too late in terms of style . . . the first season is closer in spirit to shows of the 50s and early 60s than what followed. Of course, the moon landing might have given the show a boost in interest from casual viewers, but had the show made it to the airwaves in 1962 or 63, I think it would have maintained the qualities you refer to.

You have a point. I'm not as familiar with tv of the 50s and early 60s as I am with the late 60s, but it does compare somewhat with what happened with the Bond movies throughout the 60s. The early movies, particularly From Russia With Love are fun, but serious spy adventures. Bond is fallible, and he's given strong companion characters. He had Jack Lord as Felix Leiter! Then later on, Bond became more infallible, he's got less competent characters around him, and the series begins to take on a less serious feel by the end of the 60s, leading into the tragedy of the Roger Moore era.

I blame the hippies of the latter 60s and the legacy of spiritual and cultural bankruptcy which they heralded.

Well, both Star Trek and James Bond were created by men who were informed by their experiences in WWII, and both reflect that. That clashed in th late 60s with the counter-culture movement. Roddenbery responded by turning Star Trek into the ideal John Lennon "Imagine" universe, which it was not conceived as originally, while Bond just became more of a parody of himself.

 

[Botany Bay]

Right now, I'm re-watching my favorite string of episodes, from "The Corbomite Maneuver" through "Balance of Terror". These episodes have a different feel from the rest of the series, and I think that it's superior. The episodes have a more leisurely pace, the episodes often end on downbeat notes, and the stories have more of a Twilight Zone-like twist to them. The most interesting thing to me is how Uhura, Rand, and Sulu are strong secondary characters, with lives outside of the bridge. Kirk and Spock are obviously the main characters, but the series makes a point of showing the rest of the crew at work and play.

Personally, I would have liked the series to maintain that mix, but it would have possibly come at the expense of development of the Kirk-Spock-McCoy relationship. Would the show have been as successful later? Would the show have made it past it's first season? Would it have been a stronger show? I'm interested in seeing what everyone else thinks.

Interesing post.

Like you, I think this "era" of TOS is endlessly fascinating, I call everything up to about Miri, the "Roddenberry era".

I think there were four "eras" of TOS, each so different, that they are almost like four different shows. After Roddenberry, then came the Coon episodes, which were Miri to Bread and Circuses; the Lucas episodes dominated by historical what-if type episodes at the end of the second season; and the Freiberger/Singer produced third season.

I'm not sure TOS could have continued for three years under Roddenberry - writing and rewriting the show took a huge toll on him, and the budget cuts the show took (at the end of the first season, midway through the second, and at the end of the second) meant that the bulk of the lines had to go to the three guys who got paid no matter what - Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley. Luckily these three were born to act together.

Coon recognised pretty early on just what an asset McCoy/Kelley was to the show, and turned it into a show about the "big three", with support from Scotty, and made an attempt in early season two to try and make it a "Big four" of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Chekov.

Coon brought the characters to life, and gave us so much of TOS that has become iconic, I'd say it may have struggled without his massive contribution.

It would have been intriguing to see what might have happened had Roddenberry decided return full time to produce Season 3, but I think it may have been a disaster. Roddenberry was a unique creative mind, and a brilliant salesman, but I find his scripts among the weakest of the series, and let's not forget that many of the third season scripts were approved and paid for by Roddenberry, so Freiberger had no option but to produce what was already in motion. That said, Roddenberry, by all accounts, polished the first dozen episodes to perfection, so who knows if he could have pulled it off again?

Anyway, to answer your question, the budget cuts and Roddenberry's burn out meant the show had to change, and Coon and Kelley were the right men in the right place at the right time IMO

 

[Pauln6]

There were some gems later on but I agree, that's also my favourite run of episodes for all the reasons you cite. Budget cuts would definitely have prevented the same quality but it might have been fun if they had fleshed out each of the supporting characters by featuring one of them prominently in a couple of episodes per season.

Helen Noel facing off Marta the crazy orion could have been fun. Ann Mulhall vs Nomad. Riley vs tribbles. Lots of fun.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Totally agree about the early episodes - Season One of TOS is about ninety percent of everything I love about Star Trek.

 

[Warped9]

There is stuff throughout all three seasons of TOS that I love, but there is indeed something special about the first season. It's the season that really lived up to the ideas TOS was founded and sold on.

Just as many wonder what certain third season stories might have been like if produced a season earlier it's interesting to ponder what certain second and third season episodes might have been like if TOS had maintained that early sensibility or if they had been produced during the first season.

"The Omega Glory"---often unfairly picked on---was a story pitched to NBC along with "Where No Man Has Gone Before" after they had rejected "The Cage." How different could it have been if produced during the first season?

I cannot imagine "I, Mudd" or "A Piece Of The Action" being done in first season, or if they had been I think they would have been radically different. I think the overall tone of "The Trouble With Tribbles" would have been more like "Shore leave." Those are but a couple of examples.

I'm trying to imagine "Elan of Troyius" (good in its own right) or "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" done in first season.

 

[Gary7]

There is stuff throughout all three seasons of TOS that I love, but there is indeed something special about the first season. It's the season that really lived up to the ideas TOS was founded and sold on.

Just as many wonder what certain third season stories might have been like if produced a season earlier it's interesting to ponder what certain second and third season episodes might have been like if TOS had maintained that early sensibility or if they had been produced during the first season.

"The Omega Glory"---often unfairly picked on---was a story pitched to NBC along with "Where No Man Has Gone Before" after they had rejected "The Cage." How different could it have been if produced during the first season?

QFT.

The 1st season was a bit more visceral/cerebral, just like the Twilight Zone. By the 3rd season, comedy and silly/funny juxtapositions were at play much more. They were trying to raise ratings and pulling at various strings to do so. It could have been an issue of social timing... or simply awareness. Advertising for Star Trek wasn't all that strong. It takes a lot to get a large audience on board right at the get-go. Look at LOST. It started out with the pilot garnering over 18 million viewers! I remember seeing quite a lot of advertising for this new series back then. You then have something like Seinfeld which started out with mediocre ratings, but by word of mouth it just rose up to be one of the most popular comedy shows ever. I think Star Trek would have been the same, but the word of mouth would only go so far back then. Plus, by the time people started becoming more aware of it, the 3rd season was coming into play on Friday nights--a real death slot, because nobody had TV recording capability then. Remember, syndication came very shortly afterward and the show seriously took off then.

If Star Trek had been more popular during its first season, I believe it would have maintained more of the feel established then. It wouldn't be consistently maintained, though... there was going to be a lot of idea expansion going on into the 2nd season. But I think we'd have seen more visceral, thought provoking episodes than we did.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Star Trek was popular in 1st season, but it's only that it wasn't immediately apparent because of how the ratings were measured.

And having just watched 3rd season in entirety the comedy aspect was all but gone in that season.

 

[evilnate]

There is stuff throughout all three seasons of TOS that I love, but there is indeed something special about the first season. It's the season that really lived up to the ideas TOS was founded and sold on.

Just as many wonder what certain third season stories might have been like if produced a season earlier it's interesting to ponder what certain second and third season episodes might have been like if TOS had maintained that early sensibility or if they had been produced during the first season.

"The Omega Glory"---often unfairly picked on---was a story pitched to NBC along with "Where No Man Has Gone Before" after they had rejected "The Cage." How different could it have been if produced during the first season?

I cannot imagine "I, Mudd" or "A Piece Of The Action" being done in first season, or if they had been I think they would have been radically different. I think the overall tone of "The Trouble With Tribbles" would have been more like "Shore leave." Those are but a couple of examples.

I'm trying to imagine "Elan of Troyius" (good in its own right) or "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" done in first season.

I can see "I, Mudd", since I just imagine Korby's androids, a more sinister Mudd as in "Mudd's Women", and a more serious tone to the episode. Like you I can imagine "Piece" though.

Thinking about this has led me to think about another show where I felt that the earlier episodes had a more appealing feel than later episodes - the Battlestar Galactica remake. The earliest episodes presented a hard-edged, somewhat more realistic take on sci-fi than I had seen on tv. Sure, it was a soap opera, but it was a soap opera about survivors of an apocalypse, and it had space battles and killer robots too! What I really liked about the earliest episodes though is that they stayed away from much of the metaphysical. There was a bit of that, but the show was very grounded - almost too much, because the military surplus phones and comms gear they used on their sets is the same stuff I work on everyday!

However, once you get past that first batch of thirteen or so episodes, the show starts to change. They start introducing mysteries, and prophecies, and we start getting the round-robin of who's sleeping with who. I realize that television shows need to reinvent themselves to maintain their relevance, but in BSG's case, it came at the expense of what made it appealing to me in the first place. I stuck with it until the end, and while there were occasional glimpses of what I originally liked in it, it sort of limped to a painful end.

TOS isn't quite that drastic, and I know that I came to love those early episodes after the fact; I certaintly didn't see it as it aired. However, as you point out, it did go through several cycles, and as you pointed out in your review thread, early season 3 actually brought back some of that season 1 feel. The difference I suppose between BSG and TOS, is that on TOS the writers didn't bring in elements that I didn't like, they just distilled the concept down to "Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and all the rest having adventures" rather than the more diverse idea that while Kirk and Spock were the stars, anyone could be a featured player in a particular episode, as opposed to the stars always being at the center of the story.

 

[Gary7]

^^ Star Trek was popular in 1st season, but it's only that it wasn't immediately apparent because of how the ratings were measured.

True, but the problem was the perception that it wasn't doing as well. I was going by that, but probably better to state "if they had known how well the show was doing, they might not have changed it as much into the 2nd and 3rd season." Who knows, they might not have even put it in the Friday death slot.

And having just watched 3rd season in entirety the comedy aspect was all but gone in that season.

I didn't mean intentionally comedic moments like what we saw in "The Trouble With Tribbles". I meant episodes that have rather silly premises or implementation like "And the Children Shall Lead", "Plato's Stepchildren", and "Spock's Brain".

 

[Warped9]

If there's anything funny about "And The Children Shall Lead" it's wholly because of botched execution. There's nothing funny intentional or otherwise about "Plato's Stepchildren." "Spock's Brain" is another of botched execution because it's not meant to be funny in any way. Gene Coon had an off day and the story of the episode supposedly meant to be camp is just a myth.

Indeed I was quite struck by how different in overall tone third season is from the second. It's much more like the overall tone of first season.

 

[Gary7]

^ OK, I see where you're coming from, saying there's nothing at all funny about Plato's Stepchildren. I've seen plenty of people think otherwise, but everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion. number6 summed it up pretty well for me.

 

[Scrambo]

I agree. Season One is probably seen as the better season, it contains a lot of my favourite episodes. I tend to stay away from Season 3 as i find it quite embarressing and cringe worthy to watch. Though season 2 isnt too bad really, but i often wonder if things were handled pretty much like season 1 if TOS would have been better off for it but so much was against the show that it was probably destined to end regardless. Unfortunately Star trek was ahead of its time as well.

 

[evilnate]

^ OK, I see where you're coming from, saying there's nothing at all funny about Plato's Stepchildren. I've seen plenty of people think otherwise. number6 summed it up pretty nicely, IMHO.

It's pretty easy to see that the third season episodes aren't intentionally campy. This past weekend I watched the 60s Batman movie with my daughter (which she loved, BTW!). That is intentionally campy! Everything from the script, to the set design, acting, music, and so on is designed to be high camp. I'd argue that "A Piece of the Action" is an example of Trek being intentionally campy. However, "Spock's Brain" for example, is only unintentionally campy, and that mostly is in the acting.

Imagine "Spock's Brain" as a first season episode. It's not a bad concept - An alien civilization needs an organic brain to run the computer that manages their civilization, and their own brains have atrophied due to lack of use. It's a solid sci-fi concept. If it had been a first season episode, I'd imagine that Spock would have simply been kidnapped, perhaps while they were exploring the planet. The Morg and Eymorg split might or might not have been there, but the episode would have probably ended on the less than upbeat note that the civilization may or may not survive, and they would have to figure things out without the use of the computer. It probably would have been a better version of that sort of story than "The Apple", especially with Spock's life being at stake.

 

[evilnate]

I agree. Season One is probably seen as the better season, it contains a lot of my favourite episodes. I tend to stay away from Season 3 as i find it quite embarressing and cringe worthy to watch. Though season 2 isnt too bad really, but i often wonder if things were handled pretty much like season 1 if TOS would have been better off for it but so much was against the show that it was probably destined to end regardless. Unfortunately Star trek was ahead of its time as well.

You know, something else has occured to me. If TOS had continued they way that it was, there would be no need for an episode like TNG's "Lower Decks" to see what everyone else on the ship is doing. Every episode from that early batch had glimpses of that life. I think that may be a part of what appeals to me about those early episodes. They are the closest to what I experience every day in the Navy, depicting a working ship that's out there. There are a couple of scenes in "Charlie X", one near the beginning and one near the end that I'm thinking of. The first is right after he leaves sickbay, and he's just looking at people going about their business and doing their jobs. The viewers don't know what's going on, but it looks important. Later on, when Charlie is on his rampage, he sees a group of crewmembers sharing a joke. These are just texture to the episode, but they add quite a lot to the feel that the Enterprise is a working ship with plenty of people outside the main characters.