The Lights of Zetar

[Therin of Andor]

I've always thought that Mira was Scottish or Irish. Judging from her name. But without an accent.

Of course, Shari Lewis wrote the role hoping to play Mira herself. She has mentioned this in interviews.

 

[plynch]

I can't remember. Why do the aliens possess her?

 

[GSchnitzer]

I can't remember. Why do the aliens possess her?

KIRK
I'm Captain James Kirk of the
spaceship Enterprise. Do you
understand?

ZETAR
Yes, we understand you. We
have searched for a millennium
for one through whom we can
see and speak and hear and
live out our lives.

KIRK
Who are you?

ZETAR
We are from Zetar.

SPOCK
That is one of the planets
where all humanoid life was
destroyed.

KIRK
You can't be from Zetar.
All life was destroyed there
long ago.

ZETAR
Yes, all corporeal life was
destroyed.

KIRK
Then what are you?

ZETAR
The desires, the hopes, the mind
and the will of the last hundred
of Zetar. The force of our life
could not be wiped out.

KIRK
All things die.

ZETAR
At the proper time. Our planet
was dying. We were determined
to live on. At the peak of our plans
to go, a sudden final disaster struck
us down. But the force of our lives
survived. At last we have found
someone through whom we can
live it out.

So, the Zetarians have been non-corporeal for a thousand years and want to be corporeal again. I suppose it's something like Sargon--except they seem to have no plans to make android bodies. They just want Mira's body. (And who wouldn't? Badda bing!)

 

[Knight Templar]

Technically, they initially wanted the body of the female technician on Memory Alpha first but she resisted them massively and thus was mortally injured.

 

[UnknownSample]

Well... so the hundred just sort of "decided" to survive? It almost sounds as if no machinery was necessary. It's disappointing that whatever their method was, no attempt was made to tell the audience what it was.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

Well... so the hundred just sort of "decided" to survive? It almost sounds as if no machinery was necessary. It's disappointing that whatever their method was, no attempt was made to tell the audience what it was.

See that never bothered me. You can imagine a machine if you like, or a race that was about to transcend flesh and become incorporeal anyway, or simply see it as "desire" as they were dying and forming some sort of uni-mind bought about through the psychic trauma of the last survivors will...

I'm used to making excuses for things like this! But seriously any of those solutions would fit into the Star Trek universe perfectly.

It's not a particularly strong episode, I'm not sure if explaining how they came to be would have helped matters much.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I suppose it's something like Sargon--except they seem to have no plans to make android bodies.

Also similar to the race of Titans who shed their evil thoughts on a planet, became non corporeal - and inadvertently created Armus (TNG's "Skin of Evil").

And the entities who took over Troi, O'Brien and Data in "Power Play".

 

[EnsignHarper]

I can't remember if it was mentioned in the episode, but I know in the novelization it was mentioned that Mira's father had been a Chief Engineer in Starfleet.

And let's not forget the infamous uniform blooper where Scotty's uniform carries a SCIENCE emblem instead of Ship's Servces...

 

[Ssosmcin]

Of course, Shari Lewis wrote the role hoping to play Mira herself. She has mentioned this in interviews.

It's too bad she wasn't cast. Shari Lewis was damned cute at the time and had amazing legs. She would have looked great in the uniform and was at least as good an actress as Jan Shutan. Check out the otherwise awful Man from UNCLE episode, "The Off, Off Broadway Affair."

 

[Redfern]

A "ghost story". Yeah, I can understand that parlance being used, though I always saw it as more a case of sci-fantasy inspired "demonic possession". Interesting this episode aired right about the time so called "occult" films were gaining popularity (notoriety?) in the cinema (late 60s, early 70s).

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Gojira]

Of course, Shari Lewis wrote the role hoping to play Mira herself. She has mentioned this in interviews.

It's too bad she wasn't cast. Shari Lewis was damned cute at the time and had amazing legs. She would have looked great in the uniform and was at least as good an actress as Jan Shutan. Check out the otherwise awful Man from UNCLE episode, "The Off, Off Broadway Affair."

Yeah, a young Sheri Lewis would have also been good in the role.

 

[scotpens]

I came across this one the other day after reading Sherry Lewis (I can't explain why I was reading up on her, just go with it).

It shocked me to say I have never seen this episode.

You haven't missed much. Shari's puppet Lambchop could have written a more original script.

I can't remember. Why do the aliens possess her?

They liked her legs.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I can't remember. Why do the aliens possess her?

They liked her legs.

smart aliens.

 

[Knight Templar]

What I resent in the teaser is Kirk's prattling about Scotty's loneliness into the official record of the Captain's Log.

Maybe he was trying to prepare Starfleet command for the day Scotty locked himself in the engine room buck naked with a phaser rifle.

 

[scotpens]

What I resent in the teaser is Kirk's prattling about Scotty's loneliness into the official record of the Captain's Log.

The Captain's Log voiceovers soon became simply a device for exposition, backstory, and summarizing the plot thus far. There were a few episodes where Kirk made a "log" entry while away from the ship without a tricorder.

 

[plynch]

That's lame writing. Mira fits their bill somehow after the "force of their lives" somehow survived, although there was some unnamed disaster. Sounds like something a middle schooler would write. Maybe Lambchop was really the master.

 

[Knight Templar]

That's lame writing. Mira fits their bill somehow after the "force of their lives" somehow survived, although there was some unnamed disaster. Sounds like something a middle schooler would write. Maybe Lambchop was really the master.

I thought it was a pretty reasonable explanation actually. And it makes the Zetarans intense desire to find a corporeal body to live in again far more reasonable and understandable (though far from acceptable).

Though I have a reservation.

Once Mira Romaine was floating in the pressure chamber, didn't they start with something like two atmosphers and increased by "one atmosphere per second"?

By my timing, Romaine was in the chamber for just short of two minutes which means she should've been subject to something like over ONE HUNDRED TIMES Earth atmospheric pressure by the time the Zetarans died.

Is there any remote way that a person can withstand 1,470 lbs. of pressure per square inch on their bodies

 

[Forbin]

What I resent in the teaser is Kirk's prattling about Scotty's loneliness into the official record of the Captain's Log.

The Captain's Log voiceovers soon became simply a device for exposition, backstory, and summarizing the plot thus far. There were a few episodes where Kirk made a "log" entry while away from the ship without a tricorder.

I think I also recall a few log entries where Kirk states facts he couldn't possibly know, simply to inform the audience what's happening after a commercial.

 

[GSchnitzer]

That's lame writing. Mira fits their bill somehow after the "force of their lives" somehow survived, although there was some unnamed disaster. Sounds like something a middle schooler would write. Maybe Lambchop was really the master.

I thought it was a pretty reasonable explanation actually. And it makes the Zetarans intense desire to find a corporeal body to live in again far more reasonable and understandable (though far from acceptable).

Though I have a reservation.

Once Mira Romaine was floating in the pressure chamber, didn't they start with something like two atmosphers and increased by "one atmosphere per second"?

By my timing, Romaine was in the chamber for just short of two minutes which means she should've been subject to something like over ONE HUNDRED TIMES Earth atmospheric pressure by the time the Zetarans died.

Is there any remote way that a person can withstand 1,470 lbs. of pressure per square inch on their bodies

It looks like the answer is yes--for just a short time:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/conghand/mannedev.htm

 

[Knight Templar]

What I resent in the teaser is Kirk's prattling about Scotty's loneliness into the official record of the Captain's Log.

The Captain's Log voiceovers soon became simply a device for exposition, backstory, and summarizing the plot thus far. There were a few episodes where Kirk made a "log" entry while away from the ship without a tricorder.

I think I also recall a few log entries where Kirk states facts he couldn't possibly know, simply to inform the audience what's happening after a commercial.

That is true. In "The Enemy Within" I think it was called (where Kirk was split into good and evil parts by the transporter) Kirks logs refers to what has happened long before he or anyone else actually knows about the accident.

It is obvious that while some log entries were "real time observations" that others seemed to have been done much later and represented a "sumation" of the events that happened.

If you look at the Captain's Log entries as more of a personal diary rather than an official presentation of events then it makes more sense.