TOS Episodes That Could Have Been Feature Length

Why not use the comm system on a shuttlecraft? Did M-5 shut those down too?

 

And "One Of Our Planets Is Missing" is "The Immunity Syndrome." Another recent thread discusses what additional seasons of TOS might have been like, and some suggest that TAS was seasons 4 and 5. I submit that TOS could not have continued, as TAS was already recycling basic plot ideas. "Beyond the Farthest Star" sounds very similar to "Wolf in the Fold." "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" is a retread of "Who Mourns for Adonais." In "Eye of the Beholder" Kirk and company are placed in an alien Zoo—taking us all the way back to "The Cage." Many TOS episodes/stories are re-treaded or revisited—"Shore Leave", "Tribbles", "Mudd", etc.

 

I agree with this. I think they took things about as far as they could in the one-hour format over those three seasons.

 

Why not use his communicator? Didn't JJtrek just 'prove' you can phone home from Kronos (sp) using one of those?

 

JJ snark aside, a TOS communicator should have been acceptable for the task, since the roughly equivalent Klingon version was capable of the same in "Elaan".

 

In fairness, Ultimate Computer came first. It's like asking why they didn't use the shuttlecraft in "The Enemy Within": at the time, it had not been established in the series that the Enterprise had shuttlecraft.

 

Conscience of the King could have been made into feature-length - just add the Tarsus IV-material as first part and/or flashbacks.

 

At first I was going to dispute this, but actually if you twined that with DOOMSDAY MACHINE, you could have two separate stories that reinforced one another, showing the different ways you can 'tear somebody's world to pieces.' It'd mean having more than just Decker as a survivor, but that's okay too, because then you have his guilt arising from not just failing to save his crew, but saving the passenger (kodos) and letting the others die. You'd probably also see how efficient Kodos was as he works alongside Kirk & Scott on the wrecked starship, which allays some of Kirk's concerns ... till Washburn/Riley has a moment of recognition ...

Yeah ... I do kinda like this. Kodas/Karidian's view that he thought he was doing the right thing is reinforced by Decker feeling the same way about committing Enterprise to destroying the open-mouth bass/hornofplenty, regardless of how wrongheaded those decisions turn out to be ... but none of this challenges Kirk. Maybe CONSTELLATION is part of a task force Kirk commands and so he has the Decker/Ahab response, so you have Spock opposing him ... naah, I just sipped my coffee and this is sounding a bit much now, but your idea does have merit, so long as you could give it movie scale.

 

M-5 was jamming all communications. No one tried a hand held or other types of communicator because of the jamming.


UHURA: I'm sorry. I can't override M-5 interference

It's not very explicit, but it's M-5's fault.

 

``Dratted Chambers coil! Why do we even have that thing?''

 

It seems like when M-5 shut down that the interference would've went away.

 

The Chambers coil wasn't overloading the comm system, the comm officer was getting loaded ...

 

I thought M-5 stopped life support in all non-essential parts of the ship. That might include the shuttle bay.

In TNG I thought it was established that you could contact a Starbase from your comm badge. So whats an extra couple of light years (a century earlier) for a communicator?

 

Well, what ever M-5 did, it must have been more than just a jamming field.

I bolded Scotty's response, but whatever was done to communications, he couldn't get it fixed faster than the shields. Maybe he started fixing the shields right away, or maybe they weren't even damaged, just off, because M-5 was using sheilds, but not communications.


I know, about a year ago I thought for a moment that not using a hand communicator to contact the other ships was a big oversight, but it's clear, (although not very explained) that M-5 had prevented that. Just to add, I really don't mind the lack of further explanation, it's there and it's enough. If Uhura and Scotty in their respective parts had an extra sentence or two of technobabble, it would have hurt the story, pacing and just the whole thing. I think, me included, we want too many damn details about stuff as if we were there we'd be like "try the technobabble solution" and it would work.

 

And earlier than that, in "The Corbomite Maneuver":

 

He also mentions vaguely in WNMHGB, "One of my ancestors married a human female." Kirk quips, "Must be terrible, having bad blood like that."

 

Catspaw.

Joking, I promise.

I'd venture "Where No Man Has Gone Before" has movie potential components - a strong 'villain', broad concept, galactic reach. You'd need to throw another element or two in but the makings of a bigger story are there.

 

re JJ and communicators. I just assumed that Kirk was using his communicator as a speaker/mic connected to the Enterprise comm system, which routed through Starfleet's comm net to Scotty on Earth.

 

Catspaw feels like it's two hours, so that counts.

 

Hah! You got that right. Though give me that any day over 'The Way to Eden'. Sheeeeesh.