Let's talk "Spock's Brain"
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
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I do find it incredibly funny, and I find the main trio's [well, quartet's] dynamic really shines through.
Cute! And when Kirk, Mccoy and Scotty just decide to get into fisticuffs with the guards--- It makes me laugh every time XD
I never mind outlandish things like Spock being able to survive without his brain for a while. Sometimes it's fun to just kick back and think, "Yeah, okay. Let's see where this goes." I guess I just don't need an explanation for everything.
I was going to talk more on the misogynistic implications, but I figure that's already been talked about to death. My only two-cents is that I think having the main depiction of pure stupidity be beautiful women is, ironically, ignorant at best and malicious at worst. But that's probably been said a thousand times over, so don't mind me
However, I do not think it is the worst episode...I think it really shows Kirk and Mccoy's care for Spock. And I really like when more attention is given to the bridge operations. The hypothetical tech get's overshadowed in TOS a lot in my opinion.
It's up there with the more socially ignorant ones, but personally I hate Miri more
I'm aware Kirk wasn't actually interested in a little girl, but the whole crew's behavior around it felt so contradicting compared to Charlie X :/
Meanwhile "Spock's Brain" is just much more goofy, I enjoy it a lot more. Even if I am rolling my eye's at the "dumb women" thing.
Cute! And when Kirk, Mccoy and Scotty just decide to get into fisticuffs with the guards--- It makes me laugh every time XD
I never mind outlandish things like Spock being able to survive without his brain for a while. Sometimes it's fun to just kick back and think, "Yeah, okay. Let's see where this goes." I guess I just don't need an explanation for everything.
I was going to talk more on the misogynistic implications, but I figure that's already been talked about to death. My only two-cents is that I think having the main depiction of pure stupidity be beautiful women is, ironically, ignorant at best and malicious at worst. But that's probably been said a thousand times over, so don't mind me
However, I do not think it is the worst episode...I think it really shows Kirk and Mccoy's care for Spock. And I really like when more attention is given to the bridge operations. The hypothetical tech get's overshadowed in TOS a lot in my opinion.
It's up there with the more socially ignorant ones, but personally I hate Miri more
I'm aware Kirk wasn't actually interested in a little girl, but the whole crew's behavior around it felt so contradicting compared to Charlie X :/Meanwhile "Spock's Brain" is just much more goofy, I enjoy it a lot more. Even if I am rolling my eye's at the "dumb women" thing.
It's dumb men too and Kirk has the cringe phrasing of, "we all see the delight aspects." 
And while the camaraderie is clear, the path there is too much for me.
And while the camaraderie is clear, the path there is too much for me.
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"This week, the role of Spock will be played by Anthony Montgomery."
I do find it incredibly funny, and I find the main trio's [well, quartet's] dynamic really shines through.
Cute! And when Kirk, Mccoy and Scotty just decide to get into fisticuffs with the guards--- It makes me laugh every time XD
I never mind outlandish things like Spock being able to survive without his brain for a while. Sometimes it's fun to just kick back and think, "Yeah, okay. Let's see where this goes." I guess I just don't need an explanation for everything.
I was going to talk more on the misogynistic implications, but I figure that's already been talked about to death. My only two-cents is that I think having the main depiction of pure stupidity be beautiful women is, ironically, ignorant at best and malicious at worst. But that's probably been said a thousand times over, so don't mind me
However, I do not think it is the worst episode...I think it really shows Kirk and Mccoy's care for Spock. And I really like when more attention is given to the bridge operations. The hypothetical tech get's overshadowed in TOS a lot in my opinion.
It's up there with the more socially ignorant ones, but personally I hate Miri more
Meanwhile "Spock's Brain" is just much more goofy, I enjoy it a lot more. Even if I am rolling my eye's at the "dumb women" thing.
As someone who doesn't think "Spock's Brain" is even in the bottom 20 episodes, let alone the worst or anywhere close to it, I think that's a pretty good take. I wanted to flag the "bridge operations" point that you made in particular, though. Just the interesting debate and discussion on the bridge among Kirk, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov, about which planet to investigate, is worth the price for admission for me. And for a Scotty fan, it's so fun to see him slide seamlessly into the role of first officer. (He does the same in "The Tholian Web.")
^Totally!! I love when the other characters get to shine, and Scotty never disappoints. And I'm a sucker for sci-fi world building, I love the episodes that show more about both how the world works and the advancements it's made. The social relations too, like with Romulans and Klingons.
The logic behind swapping an otherwise reliable but glorified mechanical/electronic HVAC controller for a living brain instead are grossly lacking in detail, so much is glossed over in favor of "in the moment" - which can only work so far, and especially after it's revealed what the brain is to be used for... Ignoring that quibble, the bridge crew discussion scene is a genuine high point for the story (so is the 82" appx front screen projector used, shame that didn't stay) and the discussion scene alone saves "Spock's Brain" from being the nadir, but a lot of it does drag the story almost as potently as a black hole does.
Scotty rules as commander, every single time.
Along with more bridge crew vignettes (from memory until I get done with my TNG rewatch), season 3 had Chekov's character improved to that of a real character and not a live-action cartoon for backhanded jokes. (for which "That Which Survives" shrewdly brings in that style of joke without doing Chekov a total disservice in the process, but it made for a nice callback while letting the crew move forward - even if "forward" equates to "a tad", TOS became iconic with "the big three" so getting anything for the others was always enjoyable insight revealed and refreshing.)
Leaving out his SPOCK's BRAIN fourth-act groan*, I totally agree. He won't yell at officers unduly like Kirky occasionally does, nor does he need slapping to rise him back to consciousness like Spocko.
(*Thank God that never happened in tjhe earlier better seasons.)
Eh, if they want love, they can find a church, Do your job and Kirk won't yell.
Perhaps, yet when Kirky does his happydance with admittedly-yummy Rayna whilst his underlings are puking space flu residue in REQUIEM, notice that Spock concerns himself only by experimenting with the piano. Good think McCoy was out of the room. When one offscreen man died in OBSESSION, he let Kirky have it and then some just before he was forced to apologize in the telepley.Eh, if they want love, they can find a church, Do your job and Kirk won't yell.
And Spocko's fighting skills had noticeably deteriorated to the point that even a neck-pinched security guard literally walked away from it merely 30 seconds later!
Speaking of the Vulcan neck pinch...
It shouldn't work ALL the time. There should be some races where it simply is ineffective due to their biology. Now, I can buy the recovery time of some races being quicker than others because of their biology, too. But it would have been nice to see it not work at all on a humanoid a few times.
The fight I didn't like in S3 is when Spock has to square off with a woman, and he barely achieves a draw:
There's a story out there, check me on this, in which Burt Ward refused to let Robin lose a fight to frickin' Bruce Lee in their crossover episode. Nimoy must certainly have had the power to keep Spock from wrestling in the Women's Division.
To be fair, that woman was Zora of Tiburon, where that race might have equal or near equal the strength of a Vulcan.
I saw that one several times. Burt lost big time in my view, thanks to a flying leg that put Shatner to shame. How could it be otherwise, when there are multiple ways of disabling Robin, just two of which were:
1. A rotten egg to his head-top
2. Being raised up and pulled down over and over by three or four middle-aged flunkies while yelling ''Batman! Batman! Batman! Batman!''
And he would have fared no better in SPOCK'S BRAIN. He'd've given his patented close-up agonized facial expressions so common during BATMAN's part two opening credit sequences credits for BRAIN's the waist-torture sequences.
I had to research this once for a game expansion I developed. The pinch failed to work on Gary Seven and Lal & Thann.
Right, and also she was actually a massive rock creature wearing the costume of a Tiburonian, whose characteristics were taken from Kirk's and Spock's imperfect knowledge of historical figures. (Look at how "wrong" they got Kahless, and how they did not recognize Zefram Cochrane.) Maybe Kirk had a particularly distorted impression of Zora.
The Excalbians could also have exaggerated the villains' abilities if they thought it would help make the fight more equal, or more informative.
The Vians, yes. I forgot about Gary Seven, which is the surprise one actually. Makes it seem like he wasn't actually human.
Still, out of the dozens of times it was used, only ineffective twice? Seems like a lower number than it should be to me.
Seems okay to me. Perry Mason only lost three cases in nine seasons. It has more impact that way. (And, like Spock, usually he helped save the day later anyway.)
Fun anecdote: Once when Raymond Burr was asked why he never loses – not strictly true, but close enough – he responded, "But madam, you only see the cases I try on Saturdays." Oddly enough I was thinking something similar about Spock before I remembered this Burr quote. All the times the pinch failed just didn't make it into the ship's log highlights, because it wasn't a relevant detail in the mission.
I'm content that they apparently saved this for times when it would have been stupid for Spock not to try, but a successful pinch would have interfered in the plot.
Fun anecdote: Once when Raymond Burr was asked why he never loses – not strictly true, but close enough – he responded, "But madam, you only see the cases I try on Saturdays." Oddly enough I was thinking something similar about Spock before I remembered this Burr quote. All the times the pinch failed just didn't make it into the ship's log highlights, because it wasn't a relevant detail in the mission.
I'm content that they apparently saved this for times when it would have been stupid for Spock not to try, but a successful pinch would have interfered in the plot.
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I am trying to remember... do we ever see Spock have to resort to throwing an old-fashioned punch?
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