Welcome. We are watching on Air Date + 50 years.
So next up, Spock's Brain on September 20th.
50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
So next up, Spock's Brain on September 20th.
Okay, thank you! I will hopefully be participating!
Thank you! I may do a run through of the first two seasons beforehand just because it has been so long! Haha! But I am happy to join!
There's still plenty of time to binge before we start
There's also another thread here that recently started from season 1 in production order if that suits your pace more.
I may just binge! September 20 is pretty far! Looking forward to it!
I'm too distracted waiting for Doctor Who.
I may have to watch all 80 episodes of TOS within a couple months and have reference notes for discussion for future episodes here! Not a patient person...hahaha!
Two years! 
But they're supposed to have recorded it this year, in the sessions for the Waiting for the Sun album, which is out "now".
50 Years Ago This Week
For those new to the thread, this whole 50th anniversary viewing got me started on also watching several other '60s shows synched up with their anniversaries, which I review over in The Classic/Retro TV Thread. This year's regular shows will include:
But they're supposed to have recorded it this year, in the sessions for the Waiting for the Sun album, which is out "now".50 Years Ago This Week
For those new to the thread, this whole 50th anniversary viewing got me started on also watching several other '60s shows synched up with their anniversaries, which I review over in The Classic/Retro TV Thread. This year's regular shows will include:
The Ed Sullivan Show (as available on The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show)
Mission: Impossible
The Avengers
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
The Mod Squad (limited episodes)
That Girl
Ironside
Adam-12
Get Smart
The Saint (in the Spring)
Mission: Impossible
The Avengers
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
The Mod Squad (limited episodes)
That Girl
Ironside
Adam-12
Get Smart
The Saint (in the Spring)
Not really. He's the one who doesn't generally shoot, so when he has to it's all the more poignant. He's the advisor, the humanitarian (they all are, in a way, but his medicine makes him qualified in a unique way for it.). He sees things from a different point of view than command. An outsider looking in and able to offer something the leader and logician don't.
Worked great in the Aubrey–Maturin series. And in The Enemy Below.
These are all good points. And as Lukas Kendall once said, Master and Commander is a great Star Trek movie.
The thing is, you always have to find something for the regulars to do. It's not a problem in most TV shows; they see a doctor only when they need one. But on Star Trek, you find yourself wondering why Spock needed the ship's chief surgeon to come along in "The Galileo Seven." And why is our surgeon on the bridge so much? Or going ashore on so many planets?
In universe, it comes down to McCoy's rank, his friendship with Kirk, and the "wild west" or "far side of the world" aspect of Star Trek, which gives Kirk so much leeway to do whatever he likes, to operate casually with his buddies, and which is utterly unlike the U.S. Navy that Starfleet often seems to symbolize. And I admit, it does work in TOS. We love the power and freedom Kirk has, as opposed to being on a string all the time.
But the "problem" of putting McCoy in the action for who he is rather than what he does would be exponentially magnified in the classic-cast film series, because by then, the entire legacy cast of aging supporting actors was considered indispensable for every movie. Chekov needs dialogue. Uhura has to say something here. What can Sulu be doing in ST3 to teach us (suddenly) that he is the coolest guy ever? "Don't call me tiny."
It hung a huge lantern on the fact that, in a realistic telling of a given plot, these are not the individuals who would still be on this bridge together doing this stuff. Making it worse, the supporting actors were rusty as hell, and they put their whole hammy hearts into each little line that should have been tossed off casually. It got cringey at times. And McCoy services photon torpedo electronics with Spock? Why not the responsible weapons officer? Okay, rant over.
Yeah, in most cases, a paramedic would have been a better pick than the CMO, from a strategic/logical POV.
But then he or she would probably die.
McCoy has the benefit of being the guy who already knows the main characters and works closely with them. And as CMO, he's aware of details from their physicals and counselling sessions, informal over a glass of something or otherwise. So it's like going on a trip and bringing along your biographer, your psychologist, your family doctor, your best friend, your next-door neighbor, and your brother, all in one guy.
But then he or she would probably die.
McCoy has the benefit of being the guy who already knows the main characters and works closely with them. And as CMO, he's aware of details from their physicals and counselling sessions, informal over a glass of something or otherwise. So it's like going on a trip and bringing along your biographer, your psychologist, your family doctor, your best friend, your next-door neighbor, and your brother, all in one guy.
That's why we had redshirts, they clearly demonstrate the need for a doctor to come along, because in Galileo Seven, and a lot of landing parties throughout the show there's been an injury or death at some point...
The Ultimate Computer was really the first episode of Trek to show us that Kirk wasn't really needed on many of the away teams! You need a medical officer, but it didn't have to be McCoy, a science officer and that didn't need to be Spock and a chief geologist that didn't need to be D'Amato! 
TNG had this type of thing with Picard rarely going down to any unknown planets or even known ones and leaving it all to his team of experts instead! Kirk just had a taste for the action and he wanted his mates with him!
JB
TNG had this type of thing with Picard rarely going down to any unknown planets or even known ones and leaving it all to his team of experts instead! Kirk just had a taste for the action and he wanted his mates with him!JB
Landing parties.
Kirk had already been absent from multiple landing parties before. You even had a whole episode about Spock leading one on a shuttlecraft.
Kirk had already been absent from multiple landing parties before. You even had a whole episode about Spock leading one on a shuttlecraft.
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