MacGuffins in TOS

[Commishsleer]

I think the ryetalyn in "Requiem for Methuselah" and the zenite in "The Cloud Minders" are MacGuffins. These could be anything urgently needed possessing properties similar to the scant few that the stories depend upon (something that must be carefully processed, unseen gas, etc., as the case may be), and the stories would be otherwise basically the same.

Yes and any 'urgent medical supplies' - most don't even rate a name.
How about the quadrotriticale in Tribbles?
And maybe the cloaking device in 'The Enterprise Incident'?
How about the idol thingy in the Jihad?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yes and any 'urgent medical supplies' - most don't even rate a name.
How about the quadrotriticale in Tribbles?
And maybe the cloaking device in 'The Enterprise Incident'?
How about the idol thingy in the Jihad?

I'd say "yes" to all of those.

 

[Maurice]

The classic MacGuffin is the thing that the characters want but which the audience doesn't care about, like the information a spy has memorized or the Maltese Falcon.

Spoiler: what the Falcon is

—which literally turns out to be nothing at all, since it's a fake

A proper MacGuffin is largely inconsequential to the story at hand, merely the thing that puts the plot in motion. I disagree with assessments that portray The Death Star plans as a MacGuffin because said plans are actually consequential and acted on in the last quarter of the movie.

Not everything that drives a plot is a MacGuffin.

 

[Kor]

In some cases the MacGuffin could even be a person that the main characters spend the whole movie looking for, and don't discover until the very last scene right before rolling end credits.

Kor

 

[Henoch]

Gary Seven's "servo" gizmo could have made an interesting MacGuffin.

Kor

I nominate the Rocket-of-Nukes as the MacGuffin.

 

[Maurice]

I nominate the Rocket-of-Nukes as the MacGuffin.

Nah, because only Gary 7 wants to deal with it. Kirk and Spock only care about Gary messing with Earth's history. Again, not every story has a MacGuffin.