The One Thing You Could Change, TOS Edition...

Actually, I think she DID heat coffee using a phaser.

 

She Did! And in the early City on the Edge of Forever script, she used tricorder feedback to distract space pirates and jury-rigged the damaged transporter. There was certainly a kernel of an idea that she could make do and mend in a crisis. In Galileo 7, it could have been Rand that suggested using phasers to power the shuttle or Rand that came up with a quick plan to minimise damage from the phaser overload in Conscience of the King.

Of course quite apart from sixties sexism, we know that Shatner and Nimoy worked hard for their characters to get more lines and make all the pro-active plot busting decisions, thereby reducing the contribution of other characters except Scotty and McCoy whose niches were quite specific (and even there, we have multiple occasions of Spock proving to be a talented engineer and biologist).

 

I can legitimately see Spock being good with biology and engineering. Both use science a lot, and he IS the Science Officer. And being Vulcan, you basically expect him to be really smart.

It's only... logical.

 

Well, there is certainly a lot of maths and physics involved in engineering but I find biology to be more of a stretch. Spock's strengths seem to be maths, computing, physics, astrophysics, and communications. Biology is very much a different field of study and I would have preferred it if they had kept that niche for someone else. Technically, Life Sciences are not part of Spock's remit. I think McCoy might have been head of Life Sciences as well as CMO in fact.

 

Ellison was friends with Whitney and write more for her to do as Rand in his version of the story. Wish we'd gotten to see this Rand on the show. She's kickass and a proto-Tasha Yar.

From the comic adaptation of Ellison's COTEOF teleplay:

 

I admit, I thought they'd cheekily updated her role in the script for a modern audience. I was really surprised when I read the original script. In the final version all we got was Uhura saying she was afraid. I do wonder if the way Grace was treated and being edited out of the script played some part in his anger at the redrafts.

 

I think Spock is a great example of the difference between intelligent and smart. He was usually the first, but not always the second.

 

Oh, like McCoy ever worried about protocol in the first place.

I'm sad to say that I think it was exactly that. And "sinister moves behind the scenes" sums it up pretty well, IMO. (I should note that Maurice also added a very vital fact to the circumstantial argument I laid out about the possible reasons behind GLW's dismissal.)

Possible, I suppose, but AFAIK, Ellison never cited that as much of a reason of his distaste for the final version of "City." Ellison wrote his initial story outline for COTEOF early in TOS's first season, and the script wasn't finalized until after GLW had been let go from the series.

But yeah, the significant role for Rand is a part of Ellison's original script and was unchanged in the IDW comic book adaptation. The Rand part is exactly the same as what I read in the published version of the script in the 1990s.

 

I think the reasons for Ellison's distaste for the aired version of "City' is pretty apparent if you compare the scripts: he wanted to push Kirk to a point where he emotionally couldn't make the logical decision, whereas the finished script has him do just that. Ellison's original script is much more thematically complicated than the finished episode, plus Roddenberry stuck in all the hamhanded drivel for Edith to spout about spaceships and stuff.

 

Yeah he certainly articulated his issues about the changes with which he wasn't happy. I prefer some parts of both scripts personally. I just wonder if one of the underlying reasons for some of the rancour was what happened to Grace since they dated after she'd left the show and he would have seen how she was feeling about it all. Her autobiography doesn't state that she told anybody about exactly what happened at the time other than Nimoy but when Gates Mcfadden left TNG many people were upset by the decision even before knowing the full story.

 

Pure fact, I'm not talking about the infinitesimal fragment of fandom represented here. There is really no arguing this fact.

RAMA

 

Source? Let see the research to back up the “fact.”

I mean, who really watches it in great numbers anymore? A 50+ year old series isn’t any more or less dated with new effects. Old fans are probably the majority of people who sit through them. Old people who complain that it’s on too late on Me-TV and there’s too much Mama’s Family.

 

The one thing I'd change about TOS is making female characters more than damsels in distress so that there is a genuine sense of equality in the what is supposed to a utopian future by showing females equally as capable, such as having women captaining starships and the like. Basically less sexism.

 

I can't decide. I've always wanted to wave a magic wand a give some sort of head ridge prosthetic to the TOS Klingons. But I'd also love (at least) two more seasons. Heck, four more seasons! Get TOS up to 7 seasons!

 

It's interesting, I feel like the movies addressed some of the things I hoped the series would do, namely making Scotty a much more prevalent character. I loved Scotty in the movies (Yes, especially the head bump scene in Star Trek V) mainly because he actually was portrayed as a miracle worker engineer, and a very competent one at that. I would have loved to see more of that in the series.

 

I think there is a more maturity aspect as well. How old was Koenig in the original? Then you add 25 years to that and yeah I would hope he improved as an actor, not to mention the role of Bester was an amazing role for him, dark and all.

 

Few things-

- Less sexism
- go easy on the use of flashing lights and trippy shapes to represent alien ships and alien entities.
-no parallel earth bullshit

 

The teaser for Miri was the most blatant. Rand says "Earth," and the screen shows a obvious North America. The episode didn't need this, it added nothing.

 

The only circumstance that redeems it - and only very slightly - is that it's the first time they did it. By the time of S2, it was almost unheard of to have a NON-Earth-parallel planet. Thankfully they backed away from this in S3, excepting TPS.

 

I thought they nicely explained the presence of Native Americans, so, I'm okay with the parallel Earth planet for that episode. As to why they speak English with a fake Native American accent is another problem. (Yes, Kirk's implanted universal translator could be the solution, but...no.)

Got me thinking: one thing I could change would be to introduce the concept that they implant an universal translator into all Starfleet personnel, and it controls the vocal cords/mouths of the implantee to mouth the alien words, etc. so it sounds and looks natural.