Yes, it is surprising that scene made it past the censors, who regulary warned tv shows not to show belly buttons, bottoms of breasts and open mouthed kisses.
50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread
- Thread starter dahj
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Yes, it is surprising that scene made it past the censors, who regulary warned tv shows not to show belly buttons, bottoms of breasts and open mouthed kisses.
Perhaps Brown was dying which prompted Korby to try the machine out before he knew how to operate it properly, so he ended up somewhat short in the memories department.
The network censors were normally involved in the preproduction stage, checking shooting scripts for anything that might be objectionable. I'm pretty sure there was no descriptive line in the script for WALGMO that said, "Kirk breaks off a stalactite that happens to resemble an enormous penis."
Ah, watching this reminds me of going to Grandma's and sitting on the floor in front of the TV with my sister. This was event programming for us back in the '70s....
Oh, wait, I'm watching The Great Pumpkin. Haven't gotten to Trek yet.
Oh, wait, I'm watching The Great Pumpkin. Haven't gotten to Trek yet.
Star Trek
"Miri"
Stardate 2713.5
I don't dislike this episode as much as I used to. The duplicate Earth angle is wasted, of course, but it has a good Twilight Zone-ish premise overall. And it gives us that most immortal of Kirk lines:
While we have a few left with her in airdate order (including her first appearance!), this is Janice's next-to-last episode in production order, and her most substantial role other than "Charlie X," unless I'm forgetting something.
It's mighty convenient that they all left their communicators lying around, isn't it?
Say, what's beaker been up to lately, anyway?
"Miri"
Stardate 2713.5
I don't dislike this episode as much as I used to. The duplicate Earth angle is wasted, of course, but it has a good Twilight Zone-ish premise overall. And it gives us that most immortal of Kirk lines:
While we have a few left with her in airdate order (including her first appearance!), this is Janice's next-to-last episode in production order, and her most substantial role other than "Charlie X," unless I'm forgetting something.
It's mighty convenient that they all left their communicators lying around, isn't it?
Say, what's beaker been up to lately, anyway?
Miri has this strong irritation factor of the loud mouthed cliché kids, and that takes over people's image of the episode. Bonk bonk bonk is not what it's about. It's a solid s1 episode. I used to think the duplicate Earth thing was wasted, but I now think it's more subtle here than in flashier ep's, and that might be good. It was a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-us story. Real 1960s America could let an evil tech genie out of the bottle just like they did there. It wasn't an idea people thought about then. They do now, though.
He didn't want his little fantasy land and his wife to be taken away from him again. He didn't want the creature to be studied or taken away in any form. He didn't WANT them to know... he wanted them to give him his damn salt and GTFO!
"I see you took the concept of parallel Earths a bit... literally."
Possibly the most notorious example of an absurd premise that goes nowhere and does nothing except explain why they're filming on a studio backlot. There's nothing in the episode that really needs it to be on an exact duplicate of Earth, it might as well have been a potato shaped planet.
Star Trek will do a number of episodes over the years where an alien race that looks just like humans does something that makes their society go in a different direction than humanity, and this could easily have been one of them.
The other silly bit is those kids not learning anything in 300 years. Sure, they're kids, but even kids are capable of understanding stuff other than games. Did they bonk bonk all the nerds till they're dead?
Kirk's flirting with a prepubescent girl is a bit cringy at times, as is Janice's crying that her legs ain't pretty no more when she's about to die.
The two redshirts survive, though they're absent for most of the episode, probably guarding the perimeter so that someone doesn't sneak in and steal the conveniently left on the table communicators...
Other than that, it's not really that bad of an episode, after the initial mystery of a duplicate Earth is completely forgotten, the new mystery of what is going on is well played, the race to find the cure, the increasing tension that ultimately drives McCoy to a desperate act and Kirk's attempts at reasoning with thelittle shits children.
He has become death, destroyer of worlds.
Possibly the most notorious example of an absurd premise that goes nowhere and does nothing except explain why they're filming on a studio backlot. There's nothing in the episode that really needs it to be on an exact duplicate of Earth, it might as well have been a potato shaped planet.
Star Trek will do a number of episodes over the years where an alien race that looks just like humans does something that makes their society go in a different direction than humanity, and this could easily have been one of them.
The other silly bit is those kids not learning anything in 300 years. Sure, they're kids, but even kids are capable of understanding stuff other than games. Did they bonk bonk all the nerds till they're dead?
Kirk's flirting with a prepubescent girl is a bit cringy at times, as is Janice's crying that her legs ain't pretty no more when she's about to die.
The two redshirts survive, though they're absent for most of the episode, probably guarding the perimeter so that someone doesn't sneak in and steal the conveniently left on the table communicators...
Other than that, it's not really that bad of an episode, after the initial mystery of a duplicate Earth is completely forgotten, the new mystery of what is going on is well played, the race to find the cure, the increasing tension that ultimately drives McCoy to a desperate act and Kirk's attempts at reasoning with the
He has become death, destroyer of worlds.
I took it that there was some sort of biological mental stagnation...combined with their Lord of the Flies situation....
A "prepubescent girl" who's over 300 years old...or 19 at the time, take your pick.
Say, what did happen to them? Wasted parallel Earth, wasted redshirts....
You knew I was referring to @A beaker full of death , right?
My long winded review of "Miri"
Short version: Solid story, annoying children. There can be some improvements made to this story, but it's not bad as it is.
Next week... one of the great guest starring performances of the first season (IMHO):
Short version: Solid story, annoying children. There can be some improvements made to this story, but it's not bad as it is.
Next week... one of the great guest starring performances of the first season (IMHO):
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I didn't. I actually checked if there was a user called "beaker" you were referring to, but the search came up empty. Apparently it doesn't register partial names.
Anyways when Spock said that, that's the image and quote that popped into my head.
...
What?
Just me?
Thin line between misogyny and someone having an opinion on someone they know. I have all sorts of opinions of the various people I encounter, and more often then not "douchebag" "arrogant" "tool" "spoiled" and "jackass" run through my head. Doesn't matter what gender or race you have an opinion of, its still an opinion that could possibly have merit (in the eye of the beholder.) If I recall, Dehner didn't dispute the issue either. Some times things just are. No point in making *everything* into social commentary.
I've always been fond of this transitional episode. Men wore turtlenecks, and women still wore pants. Smirky shouty Spock is still here, though his cold calculated Vulcan logic is shining through. We have a different blonde yeoman and a dude version of Uhura. And last, but not least, Scotty finally shows up!
But what puzzles me is how people often use this episode as proof that Star Trek did "real" Sci-Fi, when most of the actual science in this episode is pure fancy, human ESP has consistently been proven to be bullshit, and that Starfleet would test everybody for it has luckily never been mentioned again. We know there isn't a giant purple wall surrounding our galaxy, properties of which were rather vague(or as Spock would put it "Negative!") and Delta Vega being conveniently so close to the edge that a damaged Enterprise could crawl back there on impulse, but that nobody who visited it before had decided to peek out of the Galaxy, or noticed the giant purple thing is implausible(ironically Abramsverse used the name Delta Vega for another implausibly positioned planet)
They did have Mitchell read from a version of Space Kindle, so I'll give them technology prediction points on that.
Otherwise the episode was really rather good, it was set up nicely, the friendly camaraderie established at the beginning of the episode made Mitchell's descent into madness more tragic, the gradual build up his powers and the threat to the inevitable end with the fisticuffs and a torn shirts worked well. The spacey elements were also intriguing (if implausible) and I can certainly see why this got a standing ovation at that convention thingy a few days prior to the show airing.
The Sun has a heliosphere around it which the Voyager probes have just encountered. Earth has a magnetosphere with energetic aurora borealis surging through it. Why wouldn't/couldn't/shouldn't the galaxy also have a boundary, with both visibile and invisible spectra?
At least Kim Darby could believably pass as a 12- or 13-year-old. Michael J. Pollard, OTOH, was the most ridiculously old "child" I've ever seen (he was actually 27 at the time).
. . . A "prepubescent girl" who's over 300 years old...or 19 at the time, take your pick.
I liked Miri quite a bit. I normally dislike episodes of shows that feature lots of children. I was not bothered by these kids. As it has been said Michael Pollard is really 27 and Kim Darby is 19. Still it is a good episode that gives Grace Lee Whitney more to do. Too bad that it was her last substantial episode. When I do my impressions of Shatner, I prefer to say No more blah blah blah. For the longest time that is how I remember Shatner's immortal lines. But as I watch it he is saying No blah blah blah. I like when Dr. McCoy takes the untested medicine. Good reactions from DeForrest Kelley. Solid episode.
It matters on what that opinion is based.
In this case Mitchell's opinion is based on her rebuffing him after he tried to put on his charm. He was upset she didn't immediately jump on his dick so he lashed out. Which puts him in the sexist asshole category, and his remark as misogynistic. The only reason he said "walking freezer unit" is because this is a network show, what he really meant to say was "frigid bitch."
I don't mind it as an idea, but it's an idea based in fantasy, not science.
We know now (and we knew then) that there isn't such a thing, nothing like that was ever observed and there's no physical model which would suggest that something of the sort is possible.
I mean, even the whole idea of the "edge of the galaxy" is kinda silly in itself, because there isn't such a thing, there's just stars that get thinner and thinner until eventually there aren't any more...
As a kid back then, I knew that no Barrier or anything like it was thought to exist. I knew a lot of astronomy. I bought it in the story. Now I'm thinking about why.
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Out of all the things we believe firmly that we've proven, a small number will turn out not to have been quite true, based on better information. There are always surprises. We have no way of knowing which things those will be, ahead of time.
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In the 60s, what we knew astronomically was a bit vaguer, images and ideas were a bit blurrier compared to now. Even the outer solar system seemed almost hopelessly remote and mysterious. I could buy the Barrier as one of those improbable surprises that periodically come along to trip us up. No one expected "Hot Jupiters" in newly discovered solar systems. As soon as they were detected though, astronomers then developed ideas about why that would be a common thing... but they would have bet against it earlier.
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The Barrier (only with the original effects) was/is such a compelling image that once I'd seen it, part of my brain went to work on the problems, to figure them out. The "edge" of the galaxy seems implied to be around just that outer circle of the galaxy... and why not just go "over" or "under"? I decided the Barrier had to be all around the galaxy at all points. At whatever point you try to exit, though, it still appears as a horizontal line in relation to you. That's some sort of distortion of light.
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I can buy that a phenomenon might only be observable closer to it, or from certain vantage points.
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Think of the Barrier as a sort of placeholder for that big whopping cosmological surprise that must come up someday after we get out there. It won't be an energy barrier around the galaxy, but there will most likely be a thing that improbable. That makes it a viable SF idea.
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There was so much good astronomy in ST compared to earlier SF movies and TV... loosely speaking. To be SF Trek also had to "over-reach" far beyond what we know now.
In The World of Star Trek, David Gerrold wrote that the idea of the galaxy having an "edge" was "like trying to bisect a sneeze."
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