Kirk's "Let's get the Hell out of here"

Can you tell us if ''M*A*S*H'' used the first fictional broadcast TV ''S.O.B.'' from Alan Alda to Mako?

Even LITTLE HOUSE used ''damn'' once and Carrie caught tremendous flak for it from her mom.

 

Me too. It hasn't lost any of it poignancy in all this time.

 

Not only is its inclusion strong and memorable, look at how hokey it is when they chickenswitch it. When Kang threatens Kirk & co in act 1 of DAY OF THE DOVE, Kirk tells him 'go to the devil.' DEVIL? Clearly the line should have been 'Go to Hell,' but nobody must have fought to keep it. Maybe they even shot it two ways, like the kiss in PLATO.

 

To me it's one of the best lines Shatner ever delivered in "Star Trek".

 

For gravitas, yes. For sheer alpha-maleness, I go with CHARLIE X and "go to your quarters or I'll pick you up & carry you there." Totally sells it, without any of the usual histrionics.

 

But “devil” feeds directly into Kang’s next line, “we have no devil, Kirk. But we understand the habits of yours.” Without Kang’s comeback, I’d agree it was a deliberate “chickenswitch” (I like that). However, it makes sense in that context. Usually, “go to blazes” or something would be substituted for “go to hell.”

 

For all the crap people give Shatner about his acting in TOS, it's important to point out that he was fantastic in that scene and episode.

 

Or, as the Keeper told Captain Pike after a visit to fire and brimstone, "From a fable you once heard in childhood."

 

I've always rather liked that one.

 

Kirk did have a great one liner....

 

I think Shatner, more often than not, gave great performances in TOS.

 

Oh, for about a year and a half.

 

This makes sense to me. Didn't Kirk tell the Klingons to "go to the devil" in day of the dove? That he didn't use another phrase helps illustrate how he was emotionally impacted by Edith s death

 

I think it was a little bit more than that for me. I find some of his season three performances pretty good, considering the material he had the work with. Shatner should have gotten an Emmy nod for "Turnabout Intruder"!

 

The show's use of profanity might seem quaint to those who grew up with television over the last 25 years. Nowadays, Kirk would just tell Kang, "Fuck you."

 

It's 1966, you couldn't use a four letter word on television!

I don't know whether Roddenberry fought for "go to the devil" but I do know he fought for "let's get the hell out of here" and he won. The censors agreed that the death of a loved one would warrant such strong words.

When you watch this series, you must take into context the era in which it was shot. Star Trek pushed the envelope pretty far in those days.

 

+1

 

If you're suggesting that CEF was the first time that "hell" was used as an epithet on network TV, that notion has long been debunked and refuted on both this forum as well as various others.

 

I know I've read this stuff before, but do you have a link? I'm curious to read a little more about this.

What sources actually exist for this censor battle? I don't find it hard to believe that NBC's standards and practices department complained, but the censor reports don't exist at UCLA, so I don't have proof.

Also, as far as Roddenberry fighting the censors in season three, I doubt it. He was fairly removed from the process by that point.

 

This has been discussed before on this forum here:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?p=5136457

One additional example I can think of off the top of my head is the 1962 NAKED CITY episode "A Case Study of Two Savages" in which Rip Torn and Tuesday Weld go on a NATURAL BORN KILLERS-esque killing spree. At the end of the episode when the police ask Weld's character why they did it, she responds "I don't know. Just for the hell of it, I guess." But I've also seen others on various forums cite numerous examples dating back to the 1950's.