Journey To Babel

[Timo]

...Actually, the dialogue speaks of him being a cold fish. It's a cryogenic open heart procedure, after all!

The anecdote sounds a bit unlikely, as we'd be seeing a lot more cigarette smoke in the episodes if Kelley really were that unprofessional. OTOH, the smoke need not be deliberate, as many a thing could go up in smoke in a prop wired for intense lighting...

But there certainly is a story demand for smoke there. Things are supposed to be going horribly wrong as the battle deprives sickbay of vital resources. There's dimming of lights, failure of equipment... A bit of smoke from the gadgetry should add to the tension.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[scotpens]

...Actually, the dialogue speaks of him being a cold fish. It's a cryogenic open heart procedure, after all!

Except that Spock pronounced it “cirogenic.” Whatever the hell that means.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

He does, but I'm pretty sure it's a typo in the script from transposing the r and y:

cryogenic
cyrogenic.

 

[T'Bonz]

Naaaah. Sarek is just smokin' hot.

Great answer.

 

[Patrick O'Brien]

Is there any truth to the anecdote that Dee Kelley was smoking in between takes of the operation sequence and that the whiff of smoke rising from the prop covering Mark Lenard's torso actually came from the cigarette Kelley "ducked" out of shot?

Sincerely,

Bill

I thought that smoke looked oddly placed

 

[alchemist]

He does, but I'm pretty sure it's a typo in the script from transposing the r and y:

cryogenic
cyrogenic.

It's not a script typo but a Kelley typo. Go here and scroll down to the section on "Curgery," about halfway down the page.

 

[GSchnitzer]

He does, but I'm pretty sure it's a typo in the script from transposing the r and y:

cryogenic
cyrogenic.

No, it's a mispronounciation by the actor. A check of D.C. Fontana's script shows that it is spelled correctly ("cryo").

 

[CorporalCaptain]

He does, but I'm pretty sure it's a typo in the script from transposing the r and y:

cryogenic
cyrogenic.

No, it's a mispronounciation by the actor. A check of D.C. Fontana's script shows that it is spelled correctly ("cryo").

So, one not caught by the director then, or just allowed to pass?

We know for sure that the actors had an accurate copy of what you are referring to, and there's no possibility that there was a typo in their copy?

ETA: To clarify what I mean here, could a secretary have inadvertently introduced a typo when mimeographing Fontana's script for distribution to the actors, or is the script you have in your hands a photocopy of one of the mimeographed ones? Heck, was mimeographing even the technique they used? And if so, was a secretary even used, or would Fontana herself have cut the stencils for it on her typewriter?

In any case, I shouldn't have said that I was pretty sure it was a typo though, but rather just offered that as one of the possibilities, and I do take that back.

 

[Harvey]

I can confirm that they did indeed mimeograph scripts.

Although I haven't seen the original script to the episode, the "cyrogenic" error doesn't show up in the De Forest Research Report for the episode, dated September 22, 1967. It's likely an error that the actor, the director, and the script supervisor didn't catch.

 

[alchemist]

FWIW, I have an original, production-used, mimeographed script and the word "cryogenic" is spelled correctly in it.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Thank you! That would appear to settle it.

 

[Agonizer]

Cryogenic isn't the only mispronunciation that got through. Earlier in the episode when McCoy asks Amanda if Spock had a teddy bear, she says Spock had a sehlat, pronouncing it say-lot. McCoy then asks "Sehlat?" pronouncing it sell-it despite this being the first time he's heard the word. Apparently no one told the actors how to say it and either nobody caught it or the director didn't want to reshoot it.

 

[Forbin]

How do you introduce a spelling error while mimeographing something? It's just a copy machine.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I thought I made it clear that the question was whether the error was introduced when cutting the stencil for certain pages, a job that had to be done manually in a typewriter, by a secretary, or somebody.

 

[Forbin]

Ah. I guess I don't remember exactly how mimeos worked. Been a while.

 

[Ziriath]

Hard to say about that smoke, at first I thought the 'iron lung' prop was accidentaly set on fire, and they just kept on filming- in case of TOS it wouldnt be any strange. Or it could be Leonard Nimoy, who was smoking.

Another thing, it seems to me the Spock's green blood remained in that separator on the wall for the rest of the season.