Episode of the Week : The Deadly Years

[Botany Bay]

 

[BillJ]

7.

One I didn't care for as a kid, but have a new found appreciation for now that I'm getting older.

 

[Hatshepsut]

Are aces high or low on this poll?

I was never too clear regarding the agent supposedly causing the rapid aging. Rogue comet tail fumes almost sounds like a throwback to medieval superstition. Or about how all the effects turn out completely reversible once the right formula is supplied from McCoy's injector.

Although I can sympathize with the forgetting of names and stuff, a thing I'm beginning to do once in a while.

And the competency hearing: It turned out to be a waste of time in their dire emergency, but I think it would be a good idea to implement for government. The power of bureaucrats and lawmakers increases steadily with age at the same time the ability to make good decisions tends to decline. It goes against political correctness to force retirement or ask older people to prove their continued fitness.

But that's only because western culture assigns all rewards to job and position: Retirement is a devalued status. Old people are wise about certain things the young can't understand, and can contribute a lot by being elder statesmen and by mentoring. Our society should pay them to do so when they are retired.

 

[CrazyMatt]

6. This one never did much for me. And it's hard to swallow that a Starbase commander would be so clueless as to a starship's capabilities, the seriousness of entering the Neutral Zone, etc. Not a waste of time, but not one I think of as as any kind of classic, good or bad.

 

[feek61]

I also voted a "6"; not a great episode but not terrible either. At least we get to see the Romulan ship again (for the last time in the series) even though it's all recycled footage. Still the way it's edited together really gives the feel that they are swarming around the Enterprise.

 

[johnnybear]

And this time there were two of them!
JB

 

[telerites]

6 for me. Never one of my favorites but by no means, my least favorite.

 

[Ginger]

7. Middlingly good. It is a bit hammy, the cure is purest bullshit and the whole thing is pretty contrived, but the underlying story is a good one. It is interesting to see, as pointed out before, the way the heroes are cast aside as irrelevant rather than revered as they age, but that is not unexpected.

The hearing is a waste and not as dramatic as it should be. Rather it reinforces the stupidity of the situation. However it does make Kirk's dramatic turn at the end, well, dramatic. It's alright, but it's certainly not the best.

 

[plynch]

4. Chekov screams. They get actorly old. Then they get un-olded. Ship now safe. Hohum.

I do, on the other hand, totally buy an administrator not knowing how to do adventure/combat work.

 

[Harvey]

5.

It's a twenty five minute story stretched into fifty. It has moments, but not enough to prevent it from being a misfire.

 

[Albertese]

I actually just watched this one last night! I enjoyed it. It's got some wackiness in it, but it deals with some interesting ideas.

The battle with the Romulans is something else, especially in the remastered version. I wanna know why the (maximum of) ten Birds of Prey were so much less effective than the single Bird they fought in "Balance of Terror." And the CGI was pretty embarrassing. The plasma bolts flew in silly loopy arcs. Puke.

But the story itself was nicely done. I also liked TNG's repop of it ("Unnatural Selection"). Even if some of the contrivances are pretty gimmicky, the over all concept remains interesting.

--Alex

 

[Timo]

Well, the arcs serve two dramatic purposes: they explain why Kirk didn't dodge in "Balance of Terror" (he did, but these are tracking weapons!) and why Sulu doesn't here (perhaps he does, until realizing it's hopeless, or then he knows that from the get-go and doesn't waste shield power for maneuvering) - and they now fail to hide the cool Romulan ship from our view when it fires head on.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Grant]

From the vault of no consequences....unless you are an expendable Yeoman.

And even in 1967---an injection that instantly unwrinkles your skin and darkens your hair cures arthritis and unfogs your depleted brain cells?

And of course it only works on "old" people who have a specific disease.

The halfway point of the series and it's mostly downhill from here.............

 

[HarryM]

Not a favorite, way too gimmicky a concept to get behind, and as said above, hard to believe that the potion would undo all the aging, more likely to simply stop the accelerated aging. "This begs explanation."

 

[Grant]

Not a favorite, way too gimmicky a concept to get behind, and as said above, hard to believe that the potion would undo all the aging, more likely to simply stop the accelerated aging. "This begs explanation."

Why not at least have Kirk return to the bridge slightly younger and clear-headed--but still with gray hair etc.

Then in the tag have McCoy say it will take a few weeks for the full effects to reverse--hair grow back in at the old color and such.
Then next time we see them--a time has passed and they are their old selves.

I mean at the end of WNMHGB Kirk is wearing an arm wrap etc. and the next time we see him he's not--no big deal.

But recovering from such a tremendous ordeal as the aging in a few minutes? Awful.

 

[Poltargyst]

Yeah, hair would have to grow gray. The hair you've already grown would not just suddenly change color. Likewise your hair would have to grow its original color back.

 

[Harvey]

They went over schedule accommodating the make up changes in the final episode. The tidy resolution probably made it easier to finish within reason.

 

[Grant]

They went over schedule accommodating the make up changes in the final episode. The tidy resolution probably made it easier to finish within reason.

If true, they would have been better off nixing the final stage of aging and emphasize the mental decline.

 

[Timo]

Hell, who knows, perhaps it was all mental?

That is, Salt Vampire kind of mental. If these people got hit by an "I feel old" illusion rather than a time-compressing physical or biochemical anomaly, it's quite excusable that some would die from the self-delusion while others would eventually shrug it off and subsequently return to normal in no time flat.

The TOS universe already has the Venus drug that makes people so self-confident that they suddenly start to look as if they wore makeup and washed their hair, with withdrawal symptoms that give them a bad hair day with wrinkles. This is just a repeat performance - although because it also hits McCoy and Spock, our usual eggheads, they lose the ability to see through the illusion and resolve the plot in the first act already.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Hell, who knows, perhaps it was all mental?

That is, Salt Vampire kind of mental. If these people got hit by an "I feel old" illusion rather than a time-compressing physical or biochemical anomaly, it's quite excusable that some would die from the self-delusion while others would eventually shrug it off and subsequently return to normal in no time flat.

The TOS universe already has the Venus drug that makes people so self-confident that they suddenly start to look as if they wore makeup and washed their hair, with withdrawal symptoms that give them a bad hair day with wrinkles. This is just a repeat performance - although because it also hits McCoy and Spock, our usual eggheads, they lose the ability to see through the illusion and resolve the plot in the first act already.

Timo Saloniemi

So "The Deadly Years" is like that perennially-repeated sitcom gimmick where the characters mistakenly think the brownies were laced with pot.