New to TOS

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Okay, I've watched the first 4 episodes. I was really confused about the plots for Charlie X and Where No Man Has Gone Before. Why did they bring Charlie on board and what exactly was he? Next episode, what was going on? Also, why were Kirk and Spock wearing different shirts? Where was McCoy and Uhura?

I really liked The Naked Time. How did the people on the planet contract the crazy disease in the first place?

Btw, Yeoman Janice Rand looks a lot like Barbara Eden.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Okay, I've watched the first 4 episodes. I was really confused about the plots for Charlie X and Where No Man Has Gone Before. Why did they bring Charlie on board and what exactly was he? Next episode, what was going on? Also, why were Kirk and Spock wearing different shirts? Where was McCoy and Uhura?

I really liked The Naked Time. How did the people on the planet contract the crazy disease in the first place?

Btw, Yeoman Janice Rand looks a lot like Barbara Eden.

Charlie was a human child given great power to help him survive.

WNMHGB was the second pilot. The first episode made with Shatner as the lead. Uhura and McCoy hadn't been created yet.

You're watching in broadcast order. Which mixes and matches things.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Thanks for clearing that up! I felt like I was watching an AU episode.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Thanks for clearing that up! I felt like I was watching an AU episode.

Threw me the first time I saw it , too.

 

[Kor]

In "The Naked Time", the disease was contracted from the water on the planet.

Kor

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Ah, I see.

 

[Albertese]

In "Charlie X" this kid, Charles Evans, was discovered on a planet called Thasus as the only survivor of a ship that crashed years before. Thasus, as far as anyone knows, is uninhabited. He was only three or so, but he is discovered at age seventeen having grown up, claiming to have survived first on ship's stored food then on plants he found growing around. The ship's computer still worked and he learned to speak by conversing with it.

He is rescued by the Antares and they discover that Charlie has living relatives on Colony Five. They aren't going that way but Enterprise is, so they meet up and hand him off.

Charlie's high-jinks ensue and we learn he has superpowers for some reason. Eventually a spaceship shows up run by heretofore unknown Thasians who claim that they found toddler Charlie after the crash and gave him the powers so he could survive on their planet, but those powers cannot be removed (no one goes in to why not) and they nab him back and fly away, having reversed all of Charlie's doings except the destruction of the Antares. (I suppose since he blew up the ship by making a baffle plate "go away" they best that could do would be to bring back the plate, but the ship is gone for good.)

I hope that helps. It's one of my favorite episodes.

--Alex

 

[Melakon]

In the early first season, they were scrambling to get episodes finished in time for their airdates. "The Corbomite Maneuver" was the first one shot in regular production, but winds up 10th aired or something due to the number of special effects that had to be done. Ted Cassidy dubbed Viewsceen Balok while shooting "What are Little Girls Made Of?"

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

So the first season is scrambled eggs? Okay then. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Silvercrest]

I suppose since he blew up the ship by making a baffle plate "go away" they best that could do would be to bring back the plate, but the ship is gone for good.

That was how I always figured it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

So the first season is scrambled eggs? Okay then. Thanks for the heads up.

If you watch in production order you see how things develop. Be warned Uhura will be wearing a gold uniform in two episodes. Do not adjust your set.

 

[johnnybear]

The water on Psi 2000 had changed into a complex chain of molecules (McCoy's answer not mine) probably due to the planet's slow disintegration!
JB

 

[F. King Daniel]

Thanks for clearing that up! I felt like I was watching an AU episode.

Threw me the first time I saw it , too.

You're not the only ones. In his 1994 TNG novel Q-Squared, Peter David ties the eccentricities of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" to an alternate reality where Jack Crusher is Captain of the Enterprise-D, with Picard as first officer.

 

[BillJ]

Thanks for clearing that up! I felt like I was watching an AU episode.

Threw me the first time I saw it , too.

You're not the only ones. In his 1994 TNG novel Q-Squared, Peter David ties the eccentricities of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" to an alternate reality where Jack Crusher is Captain of the Enterprise-D, with Picard as first officer.

I thought he had only tied Gary Mitchell to the Q? Recently having reread the novel, I didn't see anything that tied the differences seen in "Where No Man..." to the alternate reality.

 

[Mytran]

It's only a line in passing - he refers to the adventures of "James R Kirk."

 

[bbailey861]

Glad you took the plunge.

I can only echo what others have said, Janeway's Girl. TOS is my favourite and it is, indeed, much better watching them in production order. It flows far better and you can see progression and changes as they were intended to be.

Other than that, I hope you are enjoying the stories. I still do.

 

[johnnybear]

It's just 79 hours of pure bliss and I still love that music!
JB

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

^ I like the music as well. I'm calling it "spacey romance."

Update: I finished Dagger Of The Mind and I'm wondering... No disrepect but when does it start to get good? So far the only episode I've enjoyed is The Naked Time. However I know from experience that first seasons can be a little meh so I'm still going to keep watching.

I'm just finding that I'm really bored. But I love Spock, McCoy, Kirk, Uhura... Actually I'm liking all the main characters. It's just that the episodes aren't hooking me in.

 

[jayrath]

I mean no disrespect whatsoever to Janeway's Girl, who started this thread. Kudos to her for raising an interesting concern.

As one who came to TOS as a child, during the very first reruns, I wonder if we're not looking at a rather profound difference in the way audiences watch TV, late 1960s vs. today. I was never confused by episodes, even as a kid. True, I had to work at it -- but that was part of the fun. I "got it" all immediately. Or at least I remember it that way. It may be that I recall it incorrectly. The best of TOS was rather nuanced, so much so that I continue to discover new things in the performances and, especially, writing. Perhaps that's the main difference between TOS and later incarnations of Trek: so much texture, so much to ponder and later rediscover. TOS never killed time with "B" plots, for example. No, there was barely enough time to contain the "A" plots!

Just thinking out loud and, again, I congratulate Janeway's Girl for a thoughtful and honest post, which has me scratching my head.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

It's not that I'm finding the episodes confusing (except for the first few) it's that I don't find them interesting. I had the same problem with the first season of Voyager though.