I assume the influence of the drugs made him less inhibited.
50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
"Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a ninja!"
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I do wonder about the space man speech. Ellison attributed it to Roddenberry and it definitely sounds like him. But in recent years Dorothy Fontana has outed herself as the principal (only?) rewriter of the episode. She said that she had kept that a secret because she feared Ellison would be mad at her. Ellison has since replied that yes, he is mad at her. (Classy fellow, Harlan.)
Actually, Fontana outed herself as the primary re-writer in Ellison's 1996 book, in the afterward that she (along with some others) were invited to write for it. Pretty sure she defended the re-write in that afterward, and offered a critique of Ellison's original as not being "suitable" for the series, which he had no problem publishing. If he said at one point that he was mad at her after finding out the truth 30 years after the fact, I think its likely a case of his perpetuating his reputation for being irascible. We love Dr. McCoy for that; so why not Ellison?
My final Trek Review of this season!
Yeah, the parasites look rather fake. I love the Yeoman's line at one point, "It doesn't even look real!" You said it sister!
Yeah, the parasites look rather fake. I love the Yeoman's line at one point, "It doesn't even look real!" You said it sister!
They should use that lampshade more often.
Uhura's wearing a phaser belt on the bridge, even though she's not in any landing party scenes. Peter gives me bad "And the Children Shall Lead" flashforwards.
It takes them way too long to think of the (literally) most glaringly obvious property of the sun. Once they do, the whole false jeopardy of Spock's extremely brief blindness feels cheap. And McCoy takes too much of the blame...Kirk pushed him into testing on Spock when test results on the creatures were mere minutes away...and Spock refused the goggles.
So we end the season with an episode in which Spock is under the influence of something that makes him act crazy...and will return in five months to an episode in which Spock is under the influence of something that makes him act crazy.
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I like how in the opening teaser Scotty's standing in the middle of the bridge, not at the engineering station, and when Kirk asks for tractor beam he just looks at the main screen and says "nah, too far"
Yeah, it's impossible not to shout at the screen considering how many times McCoy says he's tried everything and the overlong scene of them all pondering "what does a star do" until Kirk notices a conveniently twinkling light...
As for the episode, a review could be summed up with: interesting premise, crappy execution.
Giant disassembled space brain is interesting in theory, but they don't really develop it in any way. It seems intelligent, yet no attempt to communicate with it was made. Its motivation is unclear, all we really know is it goes in a straight path(why, where are they going?) and destroys civilizations(why destroy them completely if the goal is to just move on?)
Kirk also speculates it came from another galaxy, which is based on absolutely nothing(how would it even get through the barrier if it did come from outside
)
By the way, does the title "Operation -- Annihilate!" refer to space brain annihilating civilizations, or to Kirk's possibly facing the decision to annihilate the entire planet to eradicate the threat?
Kirk's family dying seems a wholly unnecessary thread, because that basically went nowhere. Kirk seemed more concerned about Spock's short-lived blindness(I guess Geordi's visor technology hadn't been invented yet?) than his brother dying, episode even ending on a jokey note...
The whole Spock going blind was contrived and pointless as well, as was the discussion on possibly having to destroy Deneva... essentially every point that the episode raises is given the barest minimum of lip service before it's forgotten or reversed and instead an inordinate amount of time is spent in figuring out it's the light that kills them.
In trying to do too much, having a monster of the week, an emotional core and a moral dilemma, it ends up not doing enough on any of those fronts...
Yeah, it's impossible not to shout at the screen considering how many times McCoy says he's tried everything and the overlong scene of them all pondering "what does a star do" until Kirk notices a conveniently twinkling light...
As for the episode, a review could be summed up with: interesting premise, crappy execution.
Giant disassembled space brain is interesting in theory, but they don't really develop it in any way. It seems intelligent, yet no attempt to communicate with it was made. Its motivation is unclear, all we really know is it goes in a straight path(why, where are they going?) and destroys civilizations(why destroy them completely if the goal is to just move on?)
Kirk also speculates it came from another galaxy, which is based on absolutely nothing(how would it even get through the barrier if it did come from outside
)By the way, does the title "Operation -- Annihilate!" refer to space brain annihilating civilizations, or to Kirk's possibly facing the decision to annihilate the entire planet to eradicate the threat?
Kirk's family dying seems a wholly unnecessary thread, because that basically went nowhere. Kirk seemed more concerned about Spock's short-lived blindness(I guess Geordi's visor technology hadn't been invented yet?) than his brother dying, episode even ending on a jokey note...
The whole Spock going blind was contrived and pointless as well, as was the discussion on possibly having to destroy Deneva... essentially every point that the episode raises is given the barest minimum of lip service before it's forgotten or reversed and instead an inordinate amount of time is spent in figuring out it's the light that kills them.
In trying to do too much, having a monster of the week, an emotional core and a moral dilemma, it ends up not doing enough on any of those fronts...
I'll give them some credit for the "we may have to destroy Deneva" angle...it does have some presence as the 800-pound gorilla in the room.
It didn't stick out at me as badly as with some episodes, but I suppose an argument could be made that this was a half-hour premise stretched out to fill an hour...a few too many trips down to the planet and a few too many angles that don't go anywhere.
It didn't stick out at me as badly as with some episodes, but I suppose an argument could be made that this was a half-hour premise stretched out to fill an hour...a few too many trips down to the planet and a few too many angles that don't go anywhere.
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Wow, dodge. And others. I LOVE this one. It's just too big a job to take on all the objections posted one by one tonight, but short version, I just don't see any of the flaws people have stated here as flaws. Maybe tomorrow.
I've always loved that way of dealing with it. I knew even as a child that they must have put that line in to explain away the flaws in the prop, but it still worked. It added to the strangeness involved in these things possibly being from an entirely different galaxy.
I've always loved that way of dealing with it. I knew even as a child that they must have put that line in to explain away the flaws in the prop, but it still worked. It added to the strangeness involved in these things possibly being from an entirely different galaxy.
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I've always loved the design of the outdoor locations in this episode. I wonder if it's still there like it was and if so, if you can visit it.
Perhaps they're estranged? This would have worked equally well (if they still wanted to have Kirk know the guy from somewhere) if "George" had been someone Kirk served with once who had since resigned his commission to take a civilian science posting.
In my previous post, I was going to suggest that alternately, this episode might have been better served as a two-parter, which would have allowed them more time to flesh out angles like Kirk's family and Spock's blindness...but then I thought about how drawn-out the discovery of the parasites' weakness already was.
Kirk's family never did much for me because they spent the whole episode dead or moaning in bed. They could have been anybody.
Kirk's family never did much for me because they spent the whole episode dead or moaning in bed. They could have been anybody.
I guess they were going for "Kirk remains professional in spite of personal tragedy" angle, but they neither sold the tragedy, because other than Sam being Shatner in a fake mustache we don't get to see any connection between the brothers, nor does he really make the most rational decisions, he lets Spock roam freely after he disobeys orders and assaults other crewmembers despite knowing just a little while ago he was acting under the influence of parasites, and he authorizes the live subject test on Spock seconds before the important test results are due in, both being somewhat unprofessional decisions.
^ And then acts like it was all McCoy's fault!
That was the headquarters of TRW Corporation in Redondo Beach. It's now owned by Northrop Grumman. It's a gated facility and I don't know what their security policies are.
They probably gated the place to keep out people in Trek uniforms bearing fake vomit.
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^ Apparently, it isn't: link_to_old_TrekBBS_thread
It seems that all the spacey sculptures are gone though.
I suddenly realized that my love for modernist architecture may actually have begun watching this ep as a kid. I remember being very impressed with the alien, sleek buildings.
It seems that all the spacey sculptures are gone though.
I suddenly realized that my love for modernist architecture may actually have begun watching this ep as a kid. I remember being very impressed with the alien, sleek buildings.
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