Episode of the Week : The Naked Time

[Botany Bay]

Each week we're having a look at a TOS episode, going through the series in production order. Please rate the episode out of ten, and have your say below. As usual, I'll record the scores so we can rank TOS in order of popularity when we finally get through them all.


If you're new to TOS, please watch along with us and ask anything you like about the episodes. TOS veterans, feel free to add any bits of trivia, or stories about the production of the episode as well. Some nice resources to fire up the discussion :

Memory Alpha
Episode transcripts
Unseen elements of the Original Series
Star Trek Fact Check
This week : Sulu, sweaty and half naked...oh my...it's The Naked Time

 

[Runetouch]

8.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

One thing I'll always love about "The Naked Time" -- Alexander Courage came up with some immortal music to capture Kirk's anguish and self-discipline.

 

[mach7]

A really solid episode! A solid 8.

Nice direction by Marc Daniels of a good JDF Black script.

The actors are really getting comfortable in the roles.

The 1st appearance I think of nurse Chapel. The start of a long run of mediocrity.

Good bits for the secondary characters, a really nice job by the top 3.
Any episode with Riley is great.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Another classic! As far as I’m concerned, aside from a few hiccups, the series left the gate at full speed. These early episodes are amazingly good and this one is no exception. A few things did always bug me though:

1) Joe Tormolen is an idiot. From the crappy environment suits to him taking his glove off and then not saying anything afterward (apparently thinking decon would take care of
it) was just ridiculous.

2) Nurse Chapel’s introduction is great for Spock’s development, but does nothing for me otherwise. Majel deserved better than this wet rag of a character.

3) Shatner, an actor I love and whom I defend to the death, was just a tad over the top as he finally came under the grips of the disease. However, his powerful delivery of “never lose you…never” still hits hard. And jeez, Bones, couldn’t you inject Kirk through the shirt? I always chuckle at the idea of seeing everyone on the bridge with ripped tunics.

Fantastic score by Sandy Courage, one of his best for the series. Even with the niggles, this is a solid episode, a firm 8. Riley is amazing, Sulu is fun, the guy singing to Janice is great and I love the implication that she had to kind of kick his ass to break free of him when she arrives on the bridge adjusting her hair.

Great stuff!

 

[Warped9]

An awesome story that uses a virus to show us glimpses of our characters' inner selves. One of the beautiful things about Star Trek in these early days was their attention to detail---so many little things tossed in seemingly casually yet helping to paint this convincing sense of a working starship in deep space. The characterizations and performances are wonderful. And this story is a neat mixture of humour amidst real jeopardy. Hard to believe the early TNG writers thought they could even match this with their version.

And once again a superb soundtrack to augment what unfolds onscreen. We also get our first glimpse of Kirk's attachment to his ship. I also have to add how much I like the way Scotty is portrayed in the first season. There's little of the "excitable" engineer we'll see down the road.

There's also a little neat science bit near the end that gives us a glimpse into the workings of the Star Trek universe. No mention is ever made in TOS of how exactly warp drive works, but we can deduce that the ship doesn't do FTL in normal space...because if they were they'd be going backwards in time. And so warp drive must take the ship out of normal space and thus avoid the reverse time problem. And it won't be until TNG that the idea of subspace is linked to warp drive. In TOS subspace is only mentioned in relation to communications. Cool.

A 10.

 

[AtoZ]

Another 6 and perhaps a shaky ranking at that.

Though I've always enjoyed this episode, I cannot shake my initial childhood impression of it, formed by the obvious female mannequin shown on the planet in its opening scene. Throw in the whole hijacked engine room and the phaser sound when they go back in time, and I have trouble completely embracing this one for the gem that it truly is.

Loved the moment Kirk enters the bridge and McCoy ambushes him with the hypo-spray and rips his tunic. Kirk just continues on in stunned silence........I just love it!

"No beach to walk on...."

 

[Warped9]

McCoy ripping Kirk's shirt kills me. One, that fabric must have been awfully flimsy because by all rights yanking on the fabric or collar should have just pulled Kirk off balance. Also we see them use the hypo through fabric although that's probably later in the series.

 

[Commishsleer]

Not enough 'Nakedness' for my tastes.

Still I'll give it an 8 if only just for Spock's breakdown in the Briefing Room.

 

[scotpens]

McCoy ripping Kirk's shirt kills me. One, that fabric must have been awfully flimsy because by all rights yanking on the fabric or collar should have just pulled Kirk off balance. Also we see them use the hypo through fabric although that's probably later in the series.

Hell, in "The Tholian Web" McCoy injects Kirk right through his spacesuit! What the hell good is a porous spacesuit?

 

[BillJ]

9.

One of my personal favorites but the ending felt like non-sense.

 

[HIjol]

...agree with ALL of the above...totally...the score, the writing, the "little things" that give us a glimpse into "us"...plus, this episode was good enough for them to remake (not very well, in my opinion) in TNG...

 

[BillJ]

...plus, this episode was good enough for them to remake (not very well, in my opinion) in TNG...

I like "The Naked Now"!

 

[HIjol]

...plus, this episode was good enough for them to remake (not very well, in my opinion) in TNG...

I like "The Naked Now"!

Ok, ok...Picard's little "Beverly Skip" and his throat-clearing "ahem ahem ahem"...and Data as the Jewel...maybe it wasn't all THAT bad...

 

[Ssosmcin]

The Naked Now was the Spock's Brain of TNG. It's not really the worst episode ever, but at a point when expectations were high, this episode was a crushing disappointment to see after the premiere. Much like Spock's Brain must have been to the fans who wrote letters and campaigned to save the series. "All that work and THIS is the episode we get?"

 

[BillJ]

The Naked Now was the Spock's Brain of TNG. It's not really the worst episode ever, but at a point when expectations were high, this episode was a crushing disappointment to see after the premiere. Much like Spock's Brain must have been to the fans who wrote letters and campaigned to save the series. "All that work and THIS is the episode we get?"

I was sixteen when the episode premiered and I loved it. I just watched it again a few weeks ago on the Blu-ray set and its still a fun episode to watch. I still love it.

 

[Warped9]

Part of the problem with "The Naked Now" is that it came far too soon in the series. It smacks of being a copycat and wannabe effort, right done to the title, at a time the series needed to be striving for its own identity. It also struggled with the cast not yet comfortable with their roles. Instead of being intrigued with its approach I found it embarassing.

If "The Naked Now" had been done in 2nd or 3rd season it likely would have come across completely differently.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"The Naked Time": Definitely one of the classic, top-ten-list episodes of TOS. Good stuff.

 

[EnsignHarper]

9.5

As important an episode in the series - for all the obvious reason already stated by others. From about the moment Spock starts wobbling through the corridor, then entering the briefing room, back against the closed door, is just about the exact moment that Star Trek became...well....STAR TREK. Nimoy's amazing one take performance at the briefing room dest, the retaking of engineering, and finding out the engines are turned OFF, all through the end of the show is as exciting as it gets folks.

One thought about Kirk's 'sudden' infection - would it at the least feasible that Spock's Vulcan physiology might have slightly mutated the virus, made it faster to infect? Just a thought....

 

[Warped9]

One thought about Kirk's 'sudden' infection - would it at the least feasible that Spock's Vulcan physiology might have slightly mutated the virus, made it faster to infect? Just a thought....

Maybe. Then again Kirk might already have been infected given the way he snapped at Uhura earlier.