WTF moments in TOS & TAS....

Many of us noticed it decades ago.

 

The other thing that cracks me up about that particular still is that you can see Roc coming around the corner in the background, and Kirk has this dreamy look on his face like he's just imagining what he's going to do with his new rock dildo...

 

In television shows at the time, a woman giving a massage to a man implied something sexual whereas the general viewing audience would not assume the same about guy rubbing another guy's shoulders cuz that was just, you know, guy stuff. I'm basing this off being a member of the viewing audience during its initial broadcast.Your mileage may vary.

 

That's interesting and would be appropriate for Kirk's character. Kirk had many love interests (even considering that he actually didn't sleep around much) but he didn't involve himself with his crew.

 

What always confounded me even more about Kirk and that rock is the way he's holding the fat end. Like if you're going to use a bat as a weapon, you would naturally hold the fat end, right? It's like the way he holds it is very deliberate and I never knew what to make of that.

Robert

 

Baned? Nah.

 

Winner.

A friend of close rank helping out? Ok.

Female of far lesser rank: not ok. Even though she volunteers w/o saying anything (unasked-for touching btw).

 

Ruk giving Kirk a backrub off screen

 

I recall a quote from either Nimoy or Shatner discussing the props and their handling of them. They recall being really worried about breaking the props so they handled them delicately. Maybe that's why.

 

A film making trick, perhaps. Ruk, Rok. Big scary looking characters but pussycat at heart, or child.

 

If you look at it and think about it in terms of red, green, and blue primaries, it makes a lot of sense, actually.

Ruk's pink colors are desaturated red, which align with the desaturated colors of the caverns. That indicates Ruk's origin as from the caverns themselves. The desaturation suggests great age, as if the colors have washed out.

On the other hand, the blue and green binary patterns of Dr. Korby's party complement and round out Ruk's and the cavern's region of color space. The binary patterns suggest "two" which is the theme of the duplication machine.

 

Ruk was built by the Old Ones to work on machinery and wound up being a bodyguard...from that perspective it doesn't make sense to actively move around in a long robe and skirt. Maybe Theiss was going for a maximum contrast between the monster makeup and the costume.... like the Talosian males being acted by women....I dunno.

 

Or that aliens just think differently than we do.

 

I've long wondered which take was used for Kirk's first encounter with Ruk. Specifically, did Shatner know beforehand his feet would be leaving the floor?

 

In his Starlog interview, Ian Wolfe said Shatner personally worked out their stunt moves to ensure the elderly Wolfe wouldn't get hurt. I hardly believe Shatner would neglect to work things out with Ted Cassidy in a scene where Bill himself might get hurt. I'd say the Ruk stunts were all planned out and staged.

 

What... What is it?

 

I can't tell if it's humor or not -- that picture is banned? Like actually?

 

If it is banned that is really silly.

 

I always thought it was a bit WTF that Kirk and company so quickly went to an antagonistic mode with Trelene. Obviously this is a highly advanced and unique alien, with tremendous powers and capabilities. I would think "playing along" and learning more about Trelene would have been right in the Enterprise's mission wheelhouse. Of course, we know because of the way the story unfolds later that Kirk's earlier reactions were correct...but at first you'd think that their curiosity and duty as explorers would have tempered their impatience a bit, and they would have viewed this as a "first contact" protocol.