50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread

[dahj]

Fred Freiberger didn't like "The Trouble With Tribbles." He opined that "Star Trek isn't a comedy."

For a show that isn't a comedy here they aired two straight up comedy episodes almost back to back...

It was supposed to be the same Book, check?

I don't think so, they've surely got printers there.
It wouldn't be in such a good condition if everyone on the planet had to read just one copy of the book.

Plus who was Bela's gal on the table?

Those who aks such questions end up with concrete galoshes if yous knows what I'm sayin'

Anyways, I always love rewatching this episode, it's just so damn fun. Yeah the premise for it doesn't really stand up to scrutiny and it's entirely too absurd at times, but the jokes work, the actors are into it, and Spock saying "I'd advise yous to keep dialin'" while pointing a machine gun at Okmxy is just priceless.

 

[scotpens]

I love the odd-sounding names of the gangster bosses. "Jojo Krako" sounds like a clown, and "Tepo" sounds like the lost Marx brother.

 

[dahj]

Kirk also calls McCoy "Sawbones" to sound more gangstery

 

[GNDN18]

I love the odd-sounding names of the gangster bosses. "Jojo Krako" sounds like a clown, and "Tepo" sounds like the lost Marx brother.

 

[The Old Mixer]

After all the early installment weirdness last season, it's really something how Nimoy's portrayal of Spock has come so far that he can do something like Spock imitating a gangster. It's not Nimoy doing a gangster, it's Spock doing a gangster.

 

[Phaser Two]

Truly funny. I love how Spock and Scotty attempt, with varying degrees of success, to get in on the fun as well.
I always took the lost communicator as a bit of meta-humor.

 

[GNDN18]

There is something about that freeze frame at the end of the episode that always makes me smile. It makes me think of a cop show which is apropos. That, and for once, it is Kirk and Spock ganging up (the pun is unavoidable), on McCoy.

 

[dahj]

Made me think of Police Squad! "freeze frames"

 

[johnnybear]

Shame that one of the crew wasn't still walking about though and staring at Kirk, Spock and McCoy in the middle!
JB

 

[omnirad]

"Cover 'em, Spocko.". I love it! "Check?", "Right."
Reminds me of The Voyage Home, trying to fit in with 20th century customs and lingo. "I love Italian, and so do you.". "Yes.".

 

[Tallguy]

I will try (and almost surely fail) to suggest that Tribbles and Action are not "comedies". (I think I actually have a better chance with Tribbles, oddly.)

They are lighter episodes, sure. I think one of the reasons they are considered comedies is that the jokes work. Just as the jokes in Errand of Mercy or Friday's Child work and the ones in Corbomite Maneuver do not. Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in the brief moments it tries to be funny tends to crib its jokes from non-Roddbenberry episodes. (Irony?)

The jeopardy in both episodes is real. Tribbles is about the attempted extinction of an entire Federation colony by a foreign power. I suppose the line between comedy and drama would be that the Tribbles in a more dramatic episode would be a more sinister threat.

In A Piece of the Action there isn't really any threat to the Enterprise, but Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are certainly in danger.

As far as characters go, Baris is no more a cartoon than any other Federation representative that we've met in more "serious" episodes. And he's a good deal less malicious than some.

Jones is admittedly an overtly comic character. But then so would be Harvey Mudd if he weren't actually threatening the Enterprise. His role in the bar fight is comedy. But it's also recognizably in character. It's funny, but not silly. (Scotty hitting his head in The Final Frontier is silly.)

I haven't watched Action in a long time. I just watched Tribbles last month. But Shatner seems to trying harder to be funny in some scenes of Tribbles than Action. (Or he's better at it in Action.) "I have never questioned the orders or the intelligence of any representative of the Federation. Until now." is delivered like he's waiting for a rimshot. But for most of the episode Kirk is in "What did I do to deserve this day?" mode. Which is very much in the Hornblower mode.

The gangsters in A Piece of the Action are actually kind of scary. There is no time that you don't see them following up on their threats. The fact that this behavior is normalized in their society and they can't conceive of anything different makes them more threatening, IMHO. And they're no easier (or harder) to thwart that any other "one hour bad guys" in Season One.

I think humor is very much a part of Star Trek's tone. The dose makes the poison. Neither of these episodes do anything particularly un-Star Trek to make a joke. Unlike some films I might mention...

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Tribbles is about the attempted extinction of an entire Federation colony by a foreign power. I suppose the line between comedy and drama would be that the Tribbles in a more dramatic episode would be a more sinister threat.

Especially when you remember Tarsus IV. Kirk can't NOT be thinking about a repeat of the events there as a potential outcome should no safe grain arrive.

 

[wayne66]

Fun episode. I love it when Scotty is trying, but failing to understand Kirk and his gangster lingo. Also, when Scotty threaten's Krakko with Concrete Galoshes, that always cracks me up.

 

[dahj]

"The Immunity Syndrome", Episode 47, January 19th

Tonight's Episode: Spock senses a disturbance in the Vulcan Force.

 

[omnirad]

I'll get it out of the way right now,
"Shut up Spock! We're trying to save you!!"
-"Why, thank you, Captain McCoy."

Fatigue is the name of the game in story, and in pacing. Until the ending's FINAL COUNTDOWN, when the giant space beastie blows up (off camera). A mixed bag of an episode that works none the less.

Now break out your psychedelic amoeba lava lamp and have a stimulant or three!

 

[johnnybear]

And sadly we never got to see The USS Intrepid or it's crew of Vulcans! It was first mentioned in Court Martial but even there we missed out on a look! And no, I don't count the reimagined version either!

JB

 

[The Old Mixer]

Star Trek
"The Immunity Syndrome"
Originally aired January 19, 1968
Stardate 4307.1

The Enterprise must destroy an enormous space amoeba before it reproduces and threatens known space.

What was going on the week the episode aired.

The episode feels padded from the get-go, with the teaser's overuse of dramatic announcements of large-scale objects being dead. How do you determine that a star system is "dead" with long-range sensors? Did its sun go out? Are you picking up no signs of life or civilization? Don't just repeat your generalization, elaborate! Likewise, Spock sensing the Intrepid's crew having died is undermined by all the nonsense about sensing the death of the ship itself. Then at the end of Act I, McCoy makes a dramatic announcement that the crew is dying...when that's pretty much already been acknowledged a couple of times. And still later, a dramatic announcement that the amoeba is living! Well duh, it's an amoeba.

Every time the amoeba gets noisy, crowds are filling sickbay comically fast.

It's odd that Spock specifically links the Intrepid's fate with Vulcans having never known a conqueror, after that early installment line about Vulcans having been conquered.

We do get this immortal line...

Brace yourselves, the area of penetration will no doubt be sensitive.

Spock himself doesn't seem affected enough by the penetration to declare that McCoy wouldn't have survived it.

Coming back-to-back in production order, I always associated this one with "Obsession," which is underscored by the solution being anti-matter (duh, it kills everything)...the "boring spot" of Season 2.

I never noticed "Mr. Cowl" until I read about it here...now I can't un-hear it. With that and the gold shirt and the hair, are they trying to fool us into thinking he's a different character?

The "on some lovely...planet" gag is weak, assuming it was deliberate.

In two weeks...1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn...next stop is Neural, man!

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[wayne66]

The Immunity Syndrome is a good episode. I was reading the Internet Movie Database as I was watching the episode and it mentions several goofs. One of them being that Mr. Kyle changes from being a red shirt to being a gold shirt. This episode is one where most of the action is on board the Enterprise. Spock and McCoy fight for the right to go on a very dangerous mission in the shuttlecraft. Why can't McCoy just wish Spock good luck? Why is he being so proud? Also I love the exchange where McCoy tells Spock to " shut up Spock, we're trying to rescue you" and Spock responds sarcastically "Why thank you, Captain McCoy".

 

[johnnybear]

Why Kirk called Kyle 'Cowl' has always been a mystery to me since he called him Kyle in every other episode he was in! Was Shatner being funny with John Winston (who had given all the ship's supply of chicken soup to the twentieth century security guard?) or the director? Or was he just in a Shat of a mood that day?
JB

 

[GNDN18]

Weren’t you just wearing a red shirt?


I thought so.
***
Bonus gratuitous speculation:

MCCOY: Don't be so smart, Spock. You botched the acetylcholine test.
KIRK: Later, later, later. Bring the shuttlecraft aboard, Mister Scott.
SCOTT: Aye, sir.

I think Kelley botched this line over several takes. Doohan seems relievedly proud and Kelley seems to be smirking in his sleeve. Go ahead and watch: you’ll see.