50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread

[dahj]

♪♫ It's been a long road, getting from there to here... ♬♩

Eh... it has indeed been a long road from The Cage, which had a woman as first officer (even though she was supposed to be a cold, logical, not very "womanly" woman) to this episode which is basically trying to say that women should be happy sticking to womanly things and not really aspire to things better suited for menfolk. So it's unfortunate that the show ends by driving down that road seemingly in reverse. If only...

There's a lot of callbacks to previous episodes, which is a neat touch for the finale, but also it's super convenient that when directly asked if in all their travels they ever encountered anything that would somehow explain the Kirk/Lester switch they all just happened to forget Return to Tomorrow, which was pretty much a "life entity transfer" situation.

The switch back at the end is also very conveniently random and feels like they ran out of time. It would probably make more sense if they went ahead with the mutiny and then went back to Camus II to switch them back. So even though the ending feels rushed at least that's preferable to some of the attempts at padding out the length on previous occasions.

It's not a boring episode so there's that, and there's definitely entertaining stuff in there, and interesting character bits sprinkled throughout, and the whole "you're closer to the captain than anyone, you know his thoughts" bit was likely fodder for a lot of slash fics, so at least it was progressive in that regard if nothing else...

 

[The Old Mixer]

♪♫ It's been a long road, getting from there to here... ♬♩

You should be flogged for that.

 

[dahj]

You should be flogged for that.

That's rather mild, I was expecting screaming calls for the death penalty...

 

[GNDN18]

That's rather mild, I was expecting screaming calls for the death penalty...

Only General Order 4.…

 

[johnnybear]

Or General Order Seven?
JB

 

[wayne66]

Back for the final round. Turnabout Intruder is an ok episode. Not one of the best. I always enjoy Shatner's over the top acting style, so that is not a problem in this episode. I like when Spock mind melds with Dr. Lester/Captain Kirk and turns around and looks at her/him in recognition that she is in fact Captain Kirk. I like the look on Scotty's face when Lester/Kirk goes off the rails and then Scotty and McCoy are talking during a break and Scotty starts talking about mutiny."That's the time we move against him." I also like Sulu and Chekov's resistance. For an episode that is not that great, there are a lot of scenes that I like. On to season 4, The Animated Series.

 

[Commishsleer]

Back for the final round. Turnabout Intruder is an ok episode. Not one of the best. I always enjoy Shatner's over the top acting style, so that is not a problem in this episode. I like when Spock mind melds with Dr. Lester/Captain Kirk and turns around and looks at her/him in recognition that she is in fact Captain Kirk. I like the look on Scotty's face when Lester/Kirk goes off the rails and then Scotty and McCoy are talking during a break and Scotty starts talking about mutiny."That's the time we move against him." I also like Sulu and Chekov's resistance. For an episode that is not that great, there are a lot of scenes that I like. On to season 4, The Animated Series.

I don't mind this episode either. I also like it when McCoy and Scotty actually back Spock despite Kirk on the surface not acting all that differently (except the execution bit).
Its basically unbelievable that any captain is allowed to execute any of his crew in peace time conditions and that the crew would go along with it. Its not the Starfleet we know.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Did Chapel's brown hair first appear in a previous episode, or is this it?

She's also a brunette in Operation -- Annihilate! (end of the first season) , 2 years previous.

This might have worked better as a two-parter in which Kirk has been tasked with a sensitive mission and Camus II is still a distress call, though it happens on the way to said mission.

The problem of Kirk not being himself would be heightened by the need for him to be fully in command and acting as a Starfleet captain ought to during the mission, which he (Janice in his body) is clearly not.

 

[johnnybear]

Strange that both her final season episodes were shown quite close on the BBC in 1981/82!
JB

 

[Maurice]

I had that book and vaguely remember reading about The Joy Machine! Any ideas what it was about? With Theodore Sturgeon having written it as well makes it sound very interesting indeed!
JB

Well, depends on which draft you're talking about. The staff thought the idea was interesting but that Sturgeon dropped the ball in terms of making it a cohesive action-adventure teleplay. Meyer Dolinsky did a First Draft and the plot goes like this:

The Enterprise arrives at the planet Nirva, a convalescent planet where a scientist named Lisa Croft, who Scotty was once involved with, has "cured" or vastly improved everyone sent there via a "joy machine" that induces utter joy in anyone hooked up to it. Of course, it's so intense that it's made everyone into addicts, and people will do anything to earn their fix every day. She gets Bones and Scotty hooked on it, then Spock gets a dose. Kirk resists for a while, but then is forced into the machine, but—on Spock's suggestion—uses a piece of broken glass to cause himself physical pain while the machine does its thing, thus it's effect doesn't take. Lisa's nuts, of course, having used the machine too much on herself and given herself brain damage. She's delusional and wants to take the machine out across the galaxy to control people. It's mostly people standing around and talking and lacking in action. It's all rather a mess as a teleplay and would have required a lot of work.

 

[johnnybear]

Thanks, Maurice! Sounds a bit like a third season version of Dagger of The Mind to me!
JB

 

[dahj]

It's mostly people standing around and talking and lacking in action.

Oh I'm sure they could have worked several instances of Kirk Fu in there quite easily.

 

[Maurice]

Oh I'm sure they could have worked several instances of Kirk Fu in there quite easily.

Not the way the story was written! Kirk was drugged for a lot of it.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Sounds like TNG's "The Game".

 

[Discofan]

Sounds like TNG's "The Game".

Yes, pretty much.

 

[dahj]

Not the way the story was written! Kirk was drugged for a lot of it.

But what if the fight is in his mind, like a visual representation of him trying to literally kick the drugs...

 

[Maurice]

But what if the fight is in his mind, like a visual representation of him trying to literally kick the drugs...

Now you're just being sillier than "Spock's Brain".

 

[Pauln6]

Now you're just being sillier than "Spock's Brain".

He used Kirk-Fu to fix the warp engines in Into Darkness. In the 21st Century, we've learned not fear scraping the bottom of the barrel to appease the mindless masses.

 

[Maurice]

I don't know why I bother taking the time to share any of this information.

 

[Pauln6]

I don't know why I bother taking the time to share any of this information.

Joking aside, I think the weakness of purely episodic television is that it limits character growth. The strength of a story like this would be its ability to be a character piece that could have longer term consequences for the characters that could have affected future decision making. The STC story, the White Iris did something similar. It's possible to apply a new coat of paint to over-used story tropes if the focus is character growth.

Other examples would be the death of Kirk's brother. Use of Rand in Dagger of the Mind to hollow out and taint their mutual attraction. McCoy and Natira. Chapel hosting Spock's consciousness (particularly involving her in STIII).

I think Discovery goes too far is adopting ongoing story themes; I'd prefer something in the middle.