50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread

Old-fashioned black powder is still occasionally used today, but how many people know how to make the stuff?

 

I was thinking just yesterday how great and interesting it is that, at least twice, in Devil in the Dark and Arena, Kirk started out as the tough guy, keeping everybody practical, shooting down humanitarian ideas... with Spock trying to go the more peaceful route... only for the two of them to reverse roles by the end. Both of them are more complicated than those roles they're playing. They're BOTH very peace-minded people who are very aware that at some points, you have to take on a very different role, because of harsh reality.

In DitD, the moment they find out some real information on the Horta, which gets her motives across, Kirk unhesitatingly becomes peacemaker and determined advocate for the Horta. I love how Kirk throws himself into this.

In fact, the role reversal happens as soon as Kirk finds out the Horta isn't attacking. Spock, concerned for Kirk, gets tough and wants him to take no chances and shoot.

None of this violates character at ALL. It's character development. They both are obligated to get aggressive to save lives. They hate it but know the necessity.
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Command mode, I think, is a role you have to get into, as if you're a Method actor. You have to switch into it psychologically. While in that mode, Kirk isn't really going to be entertaining suggestions not to destroy the Gorn ship, if that will prevent a war. He's testy with Spock because in command mode, you have to steel yourself for it, and stay in that mode, or you won't get the tough stuff accomplished, because Kirk really IS a good guy. He has to switch off the good guy inside him, temporarily.

 

McCoy, of course, says "We might have been in the wrong", but it was a quick simple impulsive remark. It sounds like we are meant to let the Gorn off the hook, but they can't have expected us to, given what they showed us at the beginning. I think McCoy's remark only goes this far: "Maybe they had more right to be there than we did, though the attack itself was unforgiveable."

 

Exactly, when Spock argued for the pursuit and destruction of the Romulan ship in Balance he argued it form knowledge of Romulans and their ways. His advice to attack was meant to prevent war, as previous encounters with Romulans showed they respect strength and if weakness is shown they wouldn't hesitate to go to war.

In the case of Gorn, they had no such point of reference.

While the Gorn obviously knew some things, it's hard to tell how much, they could have just randomly run into people on Cestus III, and then found out from the computers there that the Enterprise, perhaps a warship intended to attack their territory is in the area. From their point, that spelled Invasion! of their territory, and their reaction to immediately destroy the threat is basically the same as Kirk's initial reaction.

They did set a trap for the Enterprise to see how powerful they are, but the Gorn could easily have had the opposite reaction to a display of power than the Romulans would.
Maybe if they perceived the Federation as weak they would have retreated, not taking them as a threat. But if Kirk destroyed the Gorn ship, they would see them as a threat which would lead to an all out war.

 

Well, the MythBusters tried it a few years back...
(EDIT: Link removed by me, see post 492 for a better video)

 

Shows only the first half, then a completely unrelated stunt and then five minutes of commercials. Never saw if their black powder could fire anything.

 

It is impressive how the Gorn replicated the human voice to trick the Enterprise crew into beaming down onto the planet. I also found the way the crewmen was killed by the Gorn weapon to be fascinating. it reminded me of how the invaders from the television show The Invaders would disintegrate after David Vincent would kill them. Good episode. Star Trek always did these episode really well. The debate between Kirk and Spock about what to do with the Gorn is well done. This is going on at the same time as the Vietnam War is raging. Heavy stuff.

 

Universal finally closed down its newsreel division at the end of 1967, long after movie newsreels had been superseded by TV news programs. Their newsreel guys must have had a strong tradition -- or a strong union.

 

Well they certainly aren't the nicest of lizard people one could meet, but the point of the episode is that they overreacted, and that "we" should be better than that.

Heck, in the 24th century Klingons might have done the same thing, and they're allies of the Federation...

Spock did it a few episodes back in The Menagerie as well, maybe they downloaded the same app?

 

Crap. That's what happens when you slap on the first thing you find. (I'm usually not that kind of guy)

Try this instead:

 

That's the one! Thanks! Bamboo black powder cannon 0, Gorn 2. Another childhood hero story shot to hell.

 

Yes, but a wetsuit over a tuxedo will actually work! After that it's all good!

 

"Tomorrow is Yesterday", Episode 19, January 26th

Tonight's Episode: Who said there's no continuity on this show? Remember that time everybody got drunk and accidentally invented time travel? That's sure gonna come in handy tonight as Enterprise travels back in time to the glorious near future of 1969!

 

I truly wish they had managed to make this and The Naked Time into a two-parter.

I haven't watched this yet, but BOY do I hate the end of this episode. This didn't make sense to me even when I was seven.

 

My write-up for "Tomorrow is Yesterday" in which I don't mind so much the mechanics of the path back to the 23rd century (dare I even say Back to the Future?, no?)

Next week, could it be the Trial of the 23rd Century?

 

"We've gotta go back, Scotty!"
"Back where, Spock?"
"Back, to the future!"

Trek does time travel for the first time, and other than explaining how it actually works it's a solid outing and a fun episode.

The phenomenon that flings them back in time is described as a black star, because the term black hole hadn't been invented yet. On a somewhat related note I recently watched a movie that has a multinational crew on spaceship encounter a black star(no time travel though, it has a different effect). It's a 1963 Czechoslovakian film called Ikarie XB-1, and it's definitely worth a watch if you're into old sci-fi.

I can never take seriously the implication that contemporary humans would instantly recognize Spock as an alien from another world. Vulcans look too much like humans, I doubt anyone would ever even ask him out of curtesy, but if someone did he could always explain his ears away as a natural defect, an accident or just taking his Lord of the Rings fandom a bit too seriously.

Even though Kirk has a line implying women on starships are a normal thing, we're also back to "funny" sexism this episode... a computer built on a planet dominated by females, perish the thought! Spock even refuses to use it and does time warp calculations in his head

They apparently use a sonic screwdriver to unlock the computer room, but Kirk gets captured. He sucks at fibbing, which is funny, because he can talk a computer into killing itself, but somehow can't pretend he's from the IT department and confuse a human security guard with his computer lingo?

As Kirk is captured, Spock's being in command streak continues.