50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread
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LOL. Great description.
Star Trek
"The Paradise Syndrome"
Originally aired October 4, 1968
Stardate 4842.6
What was going on the week the episode aired.
This one has a number of noteworthy qualities: good outdooor shooting, an original score, the longest timeframe noted in a TOS episode, and the only time within the series that Kirk gets married and sires a potential offspring, IIRC.
For a guy who gives time estimates down to decimals of a second, Spock's demonstration of the asteroid's progress is woefully off-scale. If it were really moving that fast, it'd hit the planet by the time he and McCoy beamed back up to the ship. Still, you gotta love his "You're obviously an idiot, Doctor, let me explain this so you can understand it" attitude.
You'd think that impulse would be faster than an asteroid. It's a bit too dramatically convenient that the ship at impulse and the asteroid match speed exactly. The episode already relies on the dramatic conceit that the Enterprise just happens to show up in the first generation that the medicine chief doesn't know the secret passphrase that opens the aforementioned trap door:
The medallion on the medicine band depicts the obelisk, doesn't it? I hadn't noticed that before.
Behold the god who knows Kirok Fu!
If we were to take color as an indicator of heat as an indicator of deflector power, note that the obelisk's blue beam is more powerful than the Enterprise's yellow beam. TOS-R really screwed that one up, changing the color of the obelisk's beam despite the fact that it was referenced in dialogue, though they later fixed it.
If the warp drive could only be fixed at the nearest repair base, one has to wonder how they got there after the episode. Tow ship to the rescue?
While watching this, I was just wondering what they would have done if Miramanee hadn't conveniently died on cue. Then I read that the original script had her living. So did Kirk just up and leave her and his unborn child?
Next week...oy, here we go now:
"The Paradise Syndrome"
Originally aired October 4, 1968
Stardate 4842.6
H&I said:
What was going on the week the episode aired.
This one has a number of noteworthy qualities: good outdooor shooting, an original score, the longest timeframe noted in a TOS episode, and the only time within the series that Kirk gets married and sires a potential offspring, IIRC.
For a guy who gives time estimates down to decimals of a second, Spock's demonstration of the asteroid's progress is woefully off-scale. If it were really moving that fast, it'd hit the planet by the time he and McCoy beamed back up to the ship. Still, you gotta love his "You're obviously an idiot, Doctor, let me explain this so you can understand it" attitude.
You'd think that impulse would be faster than an asteroid. It's a bit too dramatically convenient that the ship at impulse and the asteroid match speed exactly. The episode already relies on the dramatic conceit that the Enterprise just happens to show up in the first generation that the medicine chief doesn't know the secret passphrase that opens the aforementioned trap door:
"Sock it to me!"
The medallion on the medicine band depicts the obelisk, doesn't it? I hadn't noticed that before.
Behold the god who knows Kirok Fu!
Spock said:
If we were to take color as an indicator of heat as an indicator of deflector power, note that the obelisk's blue beam is more powerful than the Enterprise's yellow beam. TOS-R really screwed that one up, changing the color of the obelisk's beam despite the fact that it was referenced in dialogue, though they later fixed it.
If the warp drive could only be fixed at the nearest repair base, one has to wonder how they got there after the episode. Tow ship to the rescue?
While watching this, I was just wondering what they would have done if Miramanee hadn't conveniently died on cue. Then I read that the original script had her living. So did Kirk just up and leave her and his unborn child?
Next week...oy, here we go now:
Last edited:
Yeah, there's a lot of "WHY DON'T YOU...!" in this episode.
Why is everything left to the last second? If time is that critical then why even beam down? Why doesn't the Enterprise leave McCoy and possibly a landing party? Why not a shuttle craft? Hell, why not a science team to continue to examine the artifact?
Not one of my favorite episodes. But outside is nice.
Third season is really the "Kirk almost always has a love interest" season. And if Kirk doesn't, someone else does.
Why is everything left to the last second? If time is that critical then why even beam down? Why doesn't the Enterprise leave McCoy and possibly a landing party? Why not a shuttle craft? Hell, why not a science team to continue to examine the artifact?
Not one of my favorite episodes. But outside is nice.
Third season is really the "Kirk almost always has a love interest" season. And if Kirk doesn't, someone else does.
Despite the third season opener "Spock's Brain", after last weeks "Enterprise Incident", the new year is going strong with "Paradise Syndrome". It won't be until next week with "And The Children Shall Lead" that some serious stink hits the airwaves.
Great location shooting, character building, visual effects, this one has it all. I always liked that the stories time frame was two months, not just a bad afternoon on Planet X, like so many others. That made it more epic and realistic. All problems don't get solved in a day.
Though I wondered why the 'Preservers' put these people in such a dangerous area of space, that they needed an asteroid deflector. Were "The Wise Ones" really so smart? There must be safer planets they could have chosen. How about that planet in Enterprise "North Star" that had the cowboys? They all would have felt right at home, and wiped each other out. Or not...
Great location shooting, character building, visual effects, this one has it all. I always liked that the stories time frame was two months, not just a bad afternoon on Planet X, like so many others. That made it more epic and realistic. All problems don't get solved in a day.
Though I wondered why the 'Preservers' put these people in such a dangerous area of space, that they needed an asteroid deflector. Were "The Wise Ones" really so smart? There must be safer planets they could have chosen. How about that planet in Enterprise "North Star" that had the cowboys? They all would have felt right at home, and wiped each other out. Or not...
This is one of the few things that made sense to me. European space imperialists might think twice about appropriating this latest patch of Promised Land if the planet is continually pelted with space debris.
I like it. A sweet episode with a bitter ending. I wonder what happened after Miramanee died. Were the people impressed that Kirok's friends showed up and activated the obelisk and saved them all? Did they feel like douches for stoning Kirok and Miramanee? Does Salish cry and beg forgiveness?
I think about All Our Yesterdays where the Enterprise shows up RIGHT BEFORE the star supernovas. I'm with you. Why are they always showing up a half an hour before disaster?
Real world answer: to build drama into the story.
If TNG version of the Prime Directive was in place these people would have been so royally screwed... 
The Presevers are described as an Ancient Race, but they scooped these people some, what... 5-6 centuries ago? Vulcans had spaceflight back then, are they an Ancient Race too? How come they haven't run into each other? Or is the intent here that Vulcans didn't have space flight back then and the Preservers maybe preserved the Romulans from evil ancient Vulcans too?
Space is big, but c'mon, that they couldn't even send a space e-mail in 2 months(okay one month, there-and-back) asking someone to decipher the symbols? Instead Spock has to stare at a screen for 2 months all by himself, with nobody on board helping even one bit?
The depiction of Native Americans is... unflattering, to put it mildly, not only have they apparently not figured out how to do CPR, dig a ditch, make a lamp or take off a shirt in over 500 years, it's even worse that it takes an amnesiac White God to show them how to do all these things. That aspect of the episode has certainly not aged well at all.
There's a decent episode under there somewhere, the love story is believable and the angle of Kirk yearning for a simpler life and shedding the responsibilities of command is an interesting one, but it's buried under ridiculous plot conveniences and unfortunate racial stereotyping.
I believe Spock even actually says that they can outrun it with impulse when McCoy objects to planting the Enterprise in front of the asteroid.
Once Kirk got back Scotty stopped constantly whinging and got to fixing the darn engines.
I guess that the original script had Kirk choosing between responsible starship life and the simple living in the end, but they realized leaving a wife and child would make him a bit of a dick.
The Presevers are described as an Ancient Race, but they scooped these people some, what... 5-6 centuries ago? Vulcans had spaceflight back then, are they an Ancient Race too? How come they haven't run into each other? Or is the intent here that Vulcans didn't have space flight back then and the Preservers maybe preserved the Romulans from evil ancient Vulcans too?
Space is big, but c'mon, that they couldn't even send a space e-mail in 2 months(okay one month, there-and-back) asking someone to decipher the symbols? Instead Spock has to stare at a screen for 2 months all by himself, with nobody on board helping even one bit?
The depiction of Native Americans is... unflattering, to put it mildly, not only have they apparently not figured out how to do CPR, dig a ditch, make a lamp or take off a shirt in over 500 years, it's even worse that it takes an amnesiac White God to show them how to do all these things. That aspect of the episode has certainly not aged well at all.
There's a decent episode under there somewhere, the love story is believable and the angle of Kirk yearning for a simpler life and shedding the responsibilities of command is an interesting one, but it's buried under ridiculous plot conveniences and unfortunate racial stereotyping.
I believe Spock even actually says that they can outrun it with impulse when McCoy objects to planting the Enterprise in front of the asteroid.
Once Kirk got back Scotty stopped constantly whinging and got to fixing the darn engines.
I guess that the original script had Kirk choosing between responsible starship life and the simple living in the end, but they realized leaving a wife and child would make him a bit of a dick.
Spock says that they'll be able to get out of its path using impulse power. But after they lose the warp engines and Spock sets a course for the planet, he gives the exact number of days that it'll take (including decimals) and says that the asteroid will be four hours behind them the entire way. That suggests that the fastest speed they could achieve with impulse power just happened to be the exact speed of the asteroid.
People ALWAYS quibble with the science in TPS. I find it a compelling, touching story, and the unusual story structure taking place over months is fascinating. I just don't care about the exact speed of the asteroid. 
If she had lived, perhaps her child would have wished to leave home in search of his or her father. We might even have had that child find him later instead of David Marcus.
Or maybe the script would have had the child die only, not Miramanee. Or maybe she nobly tells him to go, knowing that whatever life he came from is his to live, not this one.
Re: TCOTEOF - did Kirk and Edith ever...could it be that she had to die because she was destined to get pregnant with a child who could not be allowed to live from a temporal integrity standpoint?
Or maybe the script would have had the child die only, not Miramanee. Or maybe she nobly tells him to go, knowing that whatever life he came from is his to live, not this one.
Re: TCOTEOF - did Kirk and Edith ever...could it be that she had to die because she was destined to get pregnant with a child who could not be allowed to live from a temporal integrity standpoint?
Some things I like, a lot of things I don't. It does have a larger scope, much like many of the novels, than most TOS stories.
I don't have a problem with any of the urgency or the ticking clock. I just think the way the writers found to do it was "and our people are dumb".
I did always love when TOS played the "we're so far out we can't even TALK to people!" card.
I don't have a problem with any of the urgency or the ticking clock. I just think the way the writers found to do it was "and our people are dumb".
I did always love when TOS played the "we're so far out we can't even TALK to people!" card.
An above average third season episode. Nice outdoor scenery. "Ah Tahiti syndrome" Once again the crew knows about 20th century culture when McCoy talks about "back in the 20th century we called it Tahiti syndrome." The show had a good balance between scenes on the Enterprise and scenes on the planet. I like " Behold a god that bleeds" Kirks gets a couple of good drop kicks in in his fight with Salish. I think that it could have been possible that Kirk could have taken Miramanee and their child with him on board the Enterprise if she had lived. Certainly would have been better than abandoning them there(if she lived).
I've never heard anyone mention "the Tahiti syndrome" outside of this episode.
There's no families on board in TOS, in fact they've established that...
Space ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
Yeah. And Mission: Impossible was being filmed literally across the alley from Star Trek on the studio lot.
Space ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
With all due respect to Shatner, the Kate Bush version is the bestest one.
No argument from me. I love Kate Bush!
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