50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
Too bad we didn't get Spock saying, "I need my BRAIN!" (like Kirk's pain line in stv.)
Shane Rimmer who guested in Space 1999s Space Brain episode had dreadful dialogue where he was mentally connected to aspace anemone out in space and the medical team attached him to some kind of device with him shouting out, "You must not touch my brain!" 
JB
JB
Yep. And The Children Shall Lead.My dear Dodge, Spock's Brain is not the worst Star Trek episode! That honour goes to another show far, far worse!
JB
Yep. And The Children Shall Lead.
As I mentioned above, I came home last week to find my family watching, of all things, And the Children Shall Lead. It did not assault me as terrible episode. I even found the Shower Curtain Lawyer's performance at least functional.
Yep. And The Children Shall Lead.
Nope! It wasn't that little rascal that I was referring to!
JB
I agree there are a lot of good bits in Spock's Brain.I've always had a soft spot for Spock's Brain. The news of it being the "worst Star Trek episode ever" reached me way before I got to see it so when I finally did I guess I was in the right mindset to find the bad bits entertainingly bad, and notice a couple of good ones too.
The B-movie opening of Bones explaining his brain was missing is wonderfully shlocky... there's a line there that "humans can survive indefinitely without a brain" which makes me regret Spock wasn't awake for that to retort to.
It's followed by a nice sequence on the bridge where they try to figure out where his brain was taken with people walking around the bridge and pointing things at the main viewer and everyone chiming in with their thoughts which was probably done to stall for time since the plot was rather thin but was still a welcome crew-working-together moment.
There's some nice bits on the surface too, Chekov's betraying his Russian winter roots with describing the planet's icy conditions as "livable," Kirk does his best Han Solo impression and shots Luma first before she has a chance to go for the bracelet, and I find Scotty's fainting moment pretty funny.
Robospock is an extremely silly way to give Spock some screentime, but I guess people would have been very disappointed had he spent the entire episode that has his name in the title off screen.
I am surprised and a bit disappointed that his disembodied brain didn't start betting quatloos on Morg fights though.
There's a lot of padding for time here and exploring the Morg/Eymorg schism could have compensated for that, but considering the bits of their backstory we do get are mildly sexist it's probably for the best they didn't go into more details there...
Overall, not bad. I wouldn't go so far as good, but nowhere near the worst ever.
But RoboSpock makes it into some C-grade science fiction schlock.
However I think the episode could have overcome that if it wasn't for the end bit where Spock controls his own brain surgery. Its not just the idea of it, its the comical attitude that gets me. The rest of the episode has been fairly serious and suddenly you get inappropriate comedy thrown in at the end.
I don't like anything Spock said or did after the opening scene. Just chuck Spock's lines out of it altogether and it probably would have been an acceptable episode.
It was always half good to me, and there's a bleak feeling to it that... I won't say I "enjoy" that, but it's weirdly satisfying. I think the sickbay scene was so well acted that it has real gravity, that gets me through all that happens after. There really seems to be no chance of tracking down the ion ship. They're not on some big important mission for Starfleet, they suddenly seem small and impotent, the mood seems cold and empty.
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I'm tempted to laugh at all the brain mentions, but I wonder why we do that. It's a pretty horrific incident and a missing brain is horrifying, especially with the empty headed body walking around. That was never comical to me. I couldn't help imagining the cavity where the brain used to be.
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The big problem, for me, was the Space Bimbos. The premise could have worked. Presumably the story had more of an explanation of this "schism". Sure, have women only underground, but don't make them mini-skirted "cuties" in go go boots. Maybe someone thought the women needed special protection, to hell with the males... maybe robotic simplistic programming run amok... (I just listened to "The Humanoids" by Jack Williamson, where robots programmed to care for humans take over all the decision making in an insanely robotic way).
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Unfortunately, you'd have to bend over backwards to make that work without being sexist. Really though, that's the core of the story premise, which was thrown away and relegated to a quick comedic Spock monologue at the end... There's an SF premise with potential there, and that's part of what I like, even if they almost ignored it. I think on my own tangents about unexplored SF ideas implied in stories...
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McCoy and the Teacher is one of my favorite Trek scenes... his argument for using it, his epiphany... you can almost imagine all that's crowding into his head, yet we can't possibly... There, we are made to stretch our imaginations beyond their limits.
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My first dozen viewings, I was always surprised to find the operation took place on the planet... but that's why they brought the body along. The other women should have found some way to get in... Spock's story is fine. All's well. We can relax with something light hearted. It's not out of character, Spock sees no humor is what he's saying, typical Spock, funny by being serious. He's very enthusiastic, though, and a new lease on life will do that to you.
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They don't show them going back up to the ship, so when they have the ship leaving orbit I always say "Come back!! Damn you Sulu!!"
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I'm tempted to laugh at all the brain mentions, but I wonder why we do that. It's a pretty horrific incident and a missing brain is horrifying, especially with the empty headed body walking around. That was never comical to me. I couldn't help imagining the cavity where the brain used to be.
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The big problem, for me, was the Space Bimbos. The premise could have worked. Presumably the story had more of an explanation of this "schism". Sure, have women only underground, but don't make them mini-skirted "cuties" in go go boots. Maybe someone thought the women needed special protection, to hell with the males... maybe robotic simplistic programming run amok... (I just listened to "The Humanoids" by Jack Williamson, where robots programmed to care for humans take over all the decision making in an insanely robotic way).
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Unfortunately, you'd have to bend over backwards to make that work without being sexist. Really though, that's the core of the story premise, which was thrown away and relegated to a quick comedic Spock monologue at the end... There's an SF premise with potential there, and that's part of what I like, even if they almost ignored it. I think on my own tangents about unexplored SF ideas implied in stories...
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McCoy and the Teacher is one of my favorite Trek scenes... his argument for using it, his epiphany... you can almost imagine all that's crowding into his head, yet we can't possibly... There, we are made to stretch our imaginations beyond their limits.
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My first dozen viewings, I was always surprised to find the operation took place on the planet... but that's why they brought the body along. The other women should have found some way to get in... Spock's story is fine. All's well. We can relax with something light hearted. It's not out of character, Spock sees no humor is what he's saying, typical Spock, funny by being serious. He's very enthusiastic, though, and a new lease on life will do that to you.
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They don't show them going back up to the ship, so when they have the ship leaving orbit I always say "Come back!! Damn you Sulu!!"
In fairness the men are all Dumbass Cavemen, so they're not exactly shown in a better light.
But yeah the underlying idea between the split there is that this ancient super advanced society still had 50s ideas of gender roles, where women must be sheltered and protected while only men are strong enough to brave harsh surface conditions.
There's a few premises here that they just gloss over, there's also two other M class planets in the system there and mention of an ion drive which begs the question why didn't this super civilization evacuate to one of those if they poses space flight and technology that's better than warp drive according to Scotty.
I guess Sulu was dead set on getting his captaincy...
I think it's because in day-to-day life, we're used to talking about people's brains in a more figurative sense. So all of the lines about Spock's brain being gone, what would somebody want with his brain, etc., unintentionally double as insults to Spock.
In fairness the men are all Dumbass Cavemen, so they're not exactly shown in a better light.
But yeah the underlying idea between the split there is that this ancient super advanced society still had 50s ideas of gender roles, where women must be sheltered and protected while only men are strong enough to brave harsh surface conditions.
There's a few premises here that they just gloss over, there's also two other M class planets in the system there and mention of an ion drive which begs the question why didn't this super civilization evacuate to one of those if they poses space flight and technology that's better than warp drive according to Scotty.
I guess Sulu was dead set on getting his captaincy...
I think part of it is not so much gender roles (though it’s the sixties, só of course it is) but also biology. One function man can impregnate multiple women, one woman cannot be impregnated by multiple men. From a survival of the species perspective, the men, or some of them at least...are more expendable. That’s ignoring things like physical strength on average etc. (I am plenty aware that there are ‘weak’ men and ‘strong’ women, but on average.) It’s a very rudimentary SF concept, and one that ends up as some very odd beliefs in the real world sadly. (Patriarchy extremists who want to seal the little women away, Matriarchy extremists who think men should be thinned out a bit, since we don’t ‘need’ as many. Eugenics weirdos who want to remove fertility from both or one group for ethnic or class cleansing purposes....the history is horrible. There are nutters on this planet) It’s a fairly fumbled thing here, but it actually highlights the stupidity of this by showing a society wrecked by adhering to it.
If the schism between the sexes was centuries before then how are the men (Morgs) still living above on the surface? The Eymorgs tempt the men into the caves with food and the like and probably mate with them underground to produce children but how do we have men up above and yet they don't know what women are? Unless they imported the Yang men from Omega IV?
JB
JB
If the schism between the sexes was centuries before then how are the men (Morgs) still living above on the surface? The Eymorgs tempt the men into the caves with food and the like and probably mate with them underground to produce children but how do we have men up above and yet they don't know what women are? Unless they imported the Yang men from Omega IV?
JB
They clearly expel male offspring. Which means somewhere on the surface, the males are caring for male offspring.
We have to keep in mind that the handful of actors we see don't necessarily represent an accurate census of the planet.
Are you suggesting that the women bear male children and then leave them out on the surface with the savages? Why capture the men and enslave them if you're going to leave the babies out in the cold wastes?
JB
Are you suggesting that the women bear male children and then leave them out on the surface with the savages? Why capture the men and enslave them if you're going to leave the babies out in the cold wastes?
JB
Don’t ask me. But the men get there somehow, and historically it’s not so far fetched. *shrug* they are Spartans/amazons plus plus. Tbh, it’s season three, it’s spocks brain. XD
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