50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread

[The Old Mixer]

What was happening the week the episode aired (downpost)...

Bet I'm the only one who's gonna be watching that night's Tarzan first, for the authentic 1967 experience!

 

[The Old Mixer]

Star Trek
"Amok Time"
Originally aired September 15, 1967
Stardate 3372.7

Spock must go to Vulcan in order to perform the Vulcan mating ritual.

Because where else would you go to perform the Vulcan mating ritual?

DeForest Kelley is in the opening credits and the Davy Jones lookalike is on the bridge! Chekov gets introduced in broadcast order with some good moments, especially the little exchange between him and Sulu.

I'll always be a production order man, but this definitely makes for a more compelling season premiere than "Catspaw."

One of those indisputable top episodes, this one brings so much to the show (and later, the franchise)...first look at Vulcan, first hand salute, first "Live Long and Prosper," Spock's Theme and the fight music....It also supplies a brick in building another area of the show's mythos, giving us an early Klingon reference following their first appearance late last season, helping to establish them as a major power and not just a one-off alien threat. And we just get some general good continuity when Kirk says to Spock, "You've been most patient with my kinds of madness."

Notice the conspicuous dropping of alien animal names: Aldeberan Shellmouth, Giant Eel-Birds of Regulus V--Maybe they were going out of their way to retain the Tarzan audience?

But you're not a fish, Mr. Spock.

Are we sure about that...?


This episode definitely doesn't pass the Bechdel test, what with T'Pring being property of the victor and Chapel being defined by whether or not Spock wants her soup...!

The elevator scene gives us a defining moment in the Kirk/Spock/McCoy dynamic, but the clumsy handwave of Spock acknowledging that McCoy's figured things out, based on nothing shown to us, always bugged me.

Next week:

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[NickintheATL]

Nice to be back for the new season! :-D

One of my top 10 favorites. Here is my review of "Amok Time".

 

[dahj]

Chekov gets introduced in broadcast order with some good moments, especially the little exchange between him and Sulu.

The banter was fun, but the first visual impression of Chekov gets to be a horrible wig.

it also supplies a brick in building another area of the show's mythos, giving us an early Klingon reference following their first appearance late last season, helping to establish them as a major power and not just a one-off alien threat.

I wonder if they name dropped Klingons and not Romulans because a former Romulan was playing a Vulcan here and they didn't wanna draw attention to that.

A really good episode, dealing with a subject matter that many have wondered about ever since Spock first showed up on screen, what are Vulcans like, what's their planet like, what's their culture like, what's their language like... but also well paced and structured, first a mystery focused on figuring out what's wrong with Spock that leads into the revelations about both the inner and outer lives of Vulcans, and some fisticuffs for the finale.

The one extremely crappy angle of this episode is that Vulcans are shown to treat women just like the Ferengi. This is somewhat mitigated by everyone geeking out about how awesome T'Pau is(a role that could have easily (and usually) been an old white dude), but unfortunately she also literally says the line that the woman becomes the man's property. Ugh...

Some notes:

While Kirk usually talks computers to death, Spock uses the logical smashing approach instead.

Vulcans do surprisingly shoddy metalwork, the lirpa and the gong managed to break during the fight.

Why wasn't Spock's sister at the wedding?

 

[The Old Mixer]

The banter was fun, but the first visual impression of Chekov gets to be a horrible wig.

Was he still wearing a wig at this point? If so, not as bad as the one in "Catspaw."

I wonder if they name dropped Klingons and not Romulans because a former Romulan was playing a Vulcan here and they didn't wanna draw attention to that.

I doubt that was a factor. First, immersing myself in a lot of TV from that period underscores how common it was for actors, some much more recognizable than Lawrence Montaigne (e.g., Richard Anderson), to pop up in multiple roles on the same show; and then there's also the divide between scriptwriting and casting. More likely they were doubling down on their initially budget-fueled decision to make the Klingons the major adversary power (and we'll be seeing a lot of them this season, which they would have known at this point). Now more generally, that the Romulans looked just like Vulcans and we were seeing more Vulcans this season...that very well could have been a consideration in emphasizing the Klingons as the Federation's main adversary.

A really good episode, dealing with a subject matter that many have wondered about ever since Spock first showed up on screen, what are Vulcans like, what's their planet like, what's their culture like, what's their language like...

I have to imagine that for anyone who was already a Trekkie in 1967, starting the new season with this episode must have been a major geekgasm.

The one extremely crappy angle of this episode is that Vulcans are shown to treat women just like the Ferengi. This is somewhat mitigated by everyone geeking out about how awesome T'Pau is(a role that could have easily (and usually) been an old white dude), but unfortunately she also literally says the line that the woman becomes the man's property. Ugh...

Perhaps, but their marriage customs were bound up in this 2000-year old tradition, so it may not have been that bad for women practically in everyday life...as we see in the examples of T'Pau being such an exalted figure, and T'Pring scheming for potential control of Spock's inheritance...she must be a little more than property of the victor if she can potentially lay claim to the property of the victor.

While Kirk usually talks computers to death, Spock uses the logical smashing approach instead.

True! And how many of us haven't wanted to do that?

 

[dahj]

Was he still wearing a wig at this point?

It was either a wig or a really bad hair day.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Last week's other 50th anniversary viewing

50 Years Ago This Week (following the Dark Shadows reviews, a continuation of the previous post)

ETA: Back on the episode...I always liked that random dramatic moment on Vulcan when the fight music's playing, they're suddenly shooting in Batman camera angles, and little explosions are coming out of that barbecue pit for no particular reason.

 

[Tallguy]

The Public seems to mostly remember the fight. I think the best parts of the episode are on the Enterprise. AND the Vulcan bits are terrific.

T'pau has such little screen time but is such an historic part for Star Trek. (She was married to Peter Lorre!?!)

I can't do it justice here, but go look up the story of when Lawrence Montaigne had to remind Arlene Martel that he was in Star Trek with her.

 

[dahj]

The Public seems to mostly remember the fight.

To be fair, more people have probably seen the various parodies referencing that fight than the actual episode

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

The one extremely crappy angle of this episode is that Vulcans are shown to treat women just like the Ferengi.

Yeah, but in both cases, that's could just as easily be in name only (sometimes - behind closed doors) - you just don't see the Vulcan man submitting to his wife's decision, or the Ferengi male taking investing tips from his beloved.

 

[Tallguy]

Yeah, but in both cases, that's could just as easily be in name only (sometimes - behind closed doors) - you just don't see the Vulcan man submitting to his wife's decision, or the Ferengi male taking investing tips from his beloved.

Amanda: Shall we continue the tour? My husband did request it.
Kirk: It sounded more like a command.
Amanda: Of course. He's a Vulcan. I'm his wife.

Interesting how T'pau throws a Vulcan hissy fit over Spock's human friends. What did she have to say to Spock's father?

I love the scene in the turbolift when Spock invites his closest friends and indicates that one of them is McCoy. I also love that McCoy gives him zero guff about it.

 

[dahj]

Yeah, but in both cases, that's could just as easily be in name only

The whole premise of the episode is that T'Pring has absolutely no way to legally leave Spock, while on the other hand all Spock has to do to dump her is say "Yeah, we're done here."

That's... not very logical, to say the least.

 

[Tallguy]

The whole premise of the episode is that T'Pring has absolutely no way to legally leave Spock, while on the other hand all Spock has to do to dump her is say "Yeah, we're done here."

That's... not very logical, to say the least.

Spock: How do Vulcans choose their mates? Haven't you wondered?
Kirk: I guess the rest of us assume that it's done quite logically.
Spock: No. No. It is not.

Vulcans are jerks.

 

[Commishsleer]

The banter was fun, but the first visual impression of Chekov gets to be a horrible wig.



I wonder if they name dropped Klingons and not Romulans because a former Romulan was playing a Vulcan here and they didn't wanna draw attention to that.

A really good episode, dealing with a subject matter that many have wondered about ever since Spock first showed up on screen, what are Vulcans like, what's their planet like, what's their culture like, what's their language like... but also well paced and structured, first a mystery focused on figuring out what's wrong with Spock that leads into the revelations about both the inner and outer lives of Vulcans, and some fisticuffs for the finale.

The one extremely crappy angle of this episode is that Vulcans are shown to treat women just like the Ferengi. This is somewhat mitigated by everyone geeking out about how awesome T'Pau is(a role that could have easily (and usually) been an old white dude), but unfortunately she also literally says the line that the woman becomes the man's property. Ugh...

Some notes:

While Kirk usually talks computers to death, Spock uses the logical smashing approach instead.

Vulcans do surprisingly shoddy metalwork, the lirpa and the gong managed to break during the fight.

Why wasn't Spock's sister at the wedding?

The way I look at the 'Property of the Victor' thing is not that its literally slavery. Its more a social stigma. The reason I say this is that T'Pring doesn't fear it. She rubs it in Spock's face. She says that even if Spock doesn't free her she'll still be fooling around with Stonn while he's away and she'll have Spock's name and property at her disposal (property having property?).

 

[dahj]

The way I look at the 'Property of the Victor' thing is not that its literally slavery

Well, literally it is.
We can all headcanon that practically it isn't, so as not to ruin a really good episode, but the whole thing could have been avoided if they just made Spock stuck with her just as much as she's stuck with him.

 

[dahj]

"Who Mourns for Adonais?", Episode 31, September 22nd

Tonight's Episode: A currently unemployed Greek deity lends a hand to the Enterprise.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Star Trek
"Who Mourns for Adonais?"
Originally aired September 22, 1967
Stardate 3468.1

The Enterprise encounters an alien who claims to be the Greek god Apollo.

An odd note at the beginning: Is intelligent life so abundant in Trek's universe that they're actually surprised to find a system of planets without intelligent life? And of course, here we get references to women leaving Starfleet when they get married and to "the one" God in the same episode.

Watching with a discerning eye, it seems like we've seen this before--This episode plays a lot of the same beats as "The Squire of Gothos," right down to Apollo's immediate dislike of Spock and a female crewmember being redressed in a period gown. What's more, Lt. Palamas's role also resembles that of Marla McGivers somewhat--an expert in social sciences who finds herself torn between her love for a living manifestation of her field of study and her loyalty to the crew.

Kirk's pep talk to Carolyn is pretty good; her resultant spurning of Apollo is a bit more iffy...it strikes the right notes, but I think she could have used an example more specific to her own field of expertise than bacteria.

I took her outfit for granted when I was younger...from what I've been watching, you don't typically see that much female skin in shows of this era. Barbara Eden couldn't show her belly button!

There's also lots of repetition in this one, making it feel padded. Scotty flies off the handle...again; Apollo demonstrates his wrath...again; Apollo disappears and gives the crew a chance to plot against him...again; the Enterprise tries to break free from Apollo's hand...again; etc. As with too many installments, there was a leaner, meaner half-hour episode in there somewhere. OTOH, we get a good example of teamwork between Kirk on the planet and Spock on the ship. And for a brief moment, Eddie Paskey gets a special play desk on the bridge!

Apollo sure likes to drop names...he comes off as more of a poser than somebody who was actually there. And Chekov gives us some more mixed name-dropping of earthly and alien animals. I thought I was kidding last time when I accused them of trying to play to Tarzan's audience....

I like that the episode ends on a somber note, but Kirk's regret comes a bit too quickly after their defeat of Apollo...it would have been a better beat for the bridge after the temple's dust had been given a chance to settle.

Next week:

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[dahj]

The episode starts with some good oldfashioned '60s sexism, suggesting that women suck at professional jobs because all they really wanna do is catch a husband. And to illustrate that Palamas is a professional expert in ancient civilizations who immediately professionally falls for ancient relic Apollo (a double date episode with McGivers and Khan was a wasted opportunity). Though I guess Scotty going stupidly gaga over her balances how stupid it is for her instantly falling for Apollo...

On the gender equality plus side, Uhura does something other than pick up the phone!!!
Since Scotty's on the surface being an idiot, it's up to Uhura to show of her soldering skills and rig a thing to work.

The stuff on the ship is probably the first uses of excessive technobabble on Star Trek, but I kinda liked it because nuclear and other departments report in with their findings and even though everything happens on the bridge it still seems like there's 400 people on this ship doing something, as opposed to the usual way they come up with something, which is Spock just looking at his screen for a second and immediately proposing a course of action.

I didn't use to mind the "Gods are ancient alien astronauts" idea, heck I like Stargate, but these days when Ancient Aliens has been a thing for a while and there's people actually believing that shit I can't help but find it somewhat grating. It's incredibly insulting to our ancestors on two levels. First, because it implies that all the great achievements of ancient civilizations weren't the idea of smart, capable humans, but that they all had to be told how to do everything, and second, it reduces all these very clever, imaginative, brilliant people who made up all these works that comprise something as everlasting and influential like the Greek Mythology as some unimaginative dolts who were just writing down what they actually saw like some boring ass crappy diary "Dear diary, this morning I went for a jog, ate some oatmeal and then some gods hurled a few thunderbolts across the lawn. True story."

It's probably not fair to fault this episode for that(was this one of the first on-screen stories to suggest that?), but in current conspiracy theory overload climate it just didn't sit right with me this time.

Oh, and someone mentioned "the one", and "earning your pay", but I'm sure there's no reason to debate what those meant.

 

[dahj]

Lt. Palamas's role also resembles that of Marla McGivers somewhat

McGivers worked better, because she had some personality even if it was being bored and annoyed most of the time. At least it was something to relate to...

 

[NickintheATL]

My thoughts on The Apollo Show, in which I opine over that cut ending.

In short: it works better as a 2017 ending than a 1967 one.