You mean swashbuckling Sulu, right? ;-)
Best Trek episode of 1966! What is YOUR choice?
- Thread starter Neopeius
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You mean swashbuckling Sulu, right? ;-)
The Bowling Alley!
Everyone went mad for it when it was first installed, but over a series of long voyages the novelty wore off and it fell into disuse.
After some time had passed, Spock designated the area as a place specifically for 'things a member of the crew does not want, but has no easy way to dispose of'.
In the Enterprise's final years the entire court was littered with duff dilithium crystals, unnattractive gifts from well meaning aliens, various malevolent entities somehow trapped within their own individual devices and a huge heap of Janice Rand's wigs.
The whole thing was on whatever deck got blown out in TWOK.
That's all canon BTW.
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For all its strengths I can't give "Balance of Terror" too much credit since it's a rip-off of The Enemy Below in starship drag.
The main thing I like about "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is that at it's a core a very good drama. Protagonist (Kirk) makes a choice and takes a risk which results in serious consequences which endanger his entire ship and crew and made a monster out of an old friend, and he has to shoulder than responsibility and fix the problem at no small personal cost. Drama is about making difficult choices.
"Corbomite" ought to be #1 except the pace flags in places, exemplified when they try to break away from Balok's pilot ship, which goes on and on and on.
The main thing I like about "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is that at it's a core a very good drama. Protagonist (Kirk) makes a choice and takes a risk which results in serious consequences which endanger his entire ship and crew and made a monster out of an old friend, and he has to shoulder than responsibility and fix the problem at no small personal cost. Drama is about making difficult choices.
"Corbomite" ought to be #1 except the pace flags in places, exemplified when they try to break away from Balok's pilot ship, which goes on and on and on.
I'd like it a lot more if
1) We got to see even one scene of pre-change Gary+Kirk. We never feel the sense of loss because we only see marble-eyed Gary
2) Shatner's performance were more nuanced. He hadn't quite gotten the role yet (I know folks disagree with me. That's fine.)
The crew tumble in the hall THREE TIMES. It was more an excuse to develop a great music suite to be used elsewhere than a good episode...
That's surprising. I think the tractor beam fight is one of the best parts. Fred Steiner's music is another highlight, especially "Cube Radiation." And there are lots of other things to like.
Really the only part I don't like, and that becomes repetitive, is where Balok uses a loud and growing sound to hurt everyone's ears. One of those would have been enough.
Scotty couldn't get used to the extra pin. It threw his game off.
Yes, that's a major weakness in the episode.
"The Enemy Within"
I'm by no means saying WNMHGB is perfect. It leans really heavily on TV shorthand of saying Kirk and Mitchell are friends instead of showing it as much as I'd want. Kirk's reasoning for driving into the barrier is unconvincing and foolhardly, and in any real navy he'd have lost his command for it.
As to the "Corbomite" tractor beam fight, it does go on too long; even the music crescendos and then has to keep trudging on.
As to the "Corbomite" tractor beam fight, it does go on too long; even the music crescendos and then has to keep trudging on.
No, it's not. The only common elements they have is taking place on another planet and very high production values. Forbidden Planet is '50s stag schlock.
God I hate that movie.
We have a memo which confirms Roddenberry viewed Forbidden Planet and even wanted frame enlargements to look at how they did their spaceship instruments to inform their thinking. How much the film did or did not influence other aspects of Trek is speculation at best.
That film's main fault is the full 50s sexism on display. I just fast forward any time men be ogling or otherwise talking about Altira.
But that's all off-topic.
That film's main fault is the full 50s sexism on display. I just fast forward any time men be ogling or otherwise talking about Altira.
But that's all off-topic.
I'd love to see that! It could be a lot or a little. Kubrick asked Dr. Who how they did the weightlessness effects in one of their serials while he was making 2001.
And the constant whipping out of guns. And the extreme stupidity of the Captain. Gah.
The deuce you say!
I have heard that, but I don’t know what the source of the assertion is.
Well, except They don’t have a specific citation next to the Kubrick thing, so kinda hard to gauge the veracity of it.Voila. Better sourced than the Ellison claim.
You mean it's hard to verify the veracity of it. It would require looking at the five sources cited.
Really now.
"How much the film did or did not influence other aspects of Trek is speculation at best."
Kubrick didn't borrow from Dr. Who, though he wrote to Camfield.
I think Enemy Within is pretty profound for 60s tv, so it gets my vote. I used to show it in my intro psych class and have students compare Matheson’ two-part to Freud’s three-part personality model.
I guess it’s the fact that id-Kirk is not decreed Evil, but seen as necessary and part of us.
I guess it’s the fact that id-Kirk is not decreed Evil, but seen as necessary and part of us.
It's from the article Pixley, Daleks Masterplan, from Doctor Who Magazine #272 (1998)
"After transmission of Counter Plot, the production office was contacted by the team working on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey at MGM Borehamwood; the film-makers wanted to know how Camfield had achieved the shots of corpses floating in space and the 'molecular dissemination' sequences."
Commentary from our crew:
Kris: It doesn't say where they got it from but DWM are very fastidious with their research, so I would trust them.
Fiona: The problem with Andrew Pixley is that, while he's very fastidious, he also doesn't cite his sources as often as he should-- this can be a problem because sometimes he's quoting something that no longer exists (courtesy of the big BBC written records purge in the 1990s) and, very occasionally, he's misinformed. So it can be really frustrating at times.
Kris:Yeah it is frustrating. Camfield passed away in the 80s, so unless you can find someone young on the production team who would somehow remember a random phone call from a film studio almost 60 years ago, this probably something you have to take on faith that Pixley didn't just hear a rumour, slot it in and no one at DWM checked it.
Fiona Yeah. If it helps, I've got a friend who's currently writing the Master Plan volume for Obverse Books and he's got quite a lot of source material; he also interviewed Camfield at one point IIRC. I could ask him or put you in touch?
--
So at this point, I think we're in "Probably True" territory.
Another confirmed rumor: Kubrick wanted Sylvia and Gerry Anderson to do the f/x for 2001.
Edit:
Fiona I asked him and he's come up trumps. It's from an interview with John Wiles in tribute to Douglas Camfield:
“My favourite memory of Dougie stems from the time of The Daleks’ Master Plan. He was in my office one day when he was phoned by one of Stanley Kubrick’s assistants (or, perhaps, the great man himself?) doing research for 2001: A Space Odyssey. How, he wanted to know, had Douglas achieved the effect 0f ‘space walking’ in his most recent episode of Doctor Who? Dougie’s delight at this query, and his enjoyment of the fact that he had obviously outwitted ‘the big boys;. Live with me to this day.”
From Douglas Camfield: A Tribute. (1991) Magazine and interview by Philip Newman.
So at this point, I think we're in "True" territory.
P.S. This info courtesy of Alan Stevens.
P.P.S. Thus concludes this episode of Who Trek.
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