Post your Original TOS Impressions
- Thread starter Dave Scarpa
- Start date
Oddly enough Josette Simon will have nothing to do with Blakes 7 now or ever! I don't think she will even talk about it! Her character of Dayna Mellanby has been replaced twice that I know of on BBC Radio firstly by Angela Bruce and by Yasmin Bannerman on Big Finish CDs!
JB
Forgot to mention that I too was scared of Decoy Balok Face (along with the Salt Vampire and the poor lady from Memory Alpha). Horribly scared in fact. 
One thing I do remember from watching early Trek is that it helped to make me colour blind. Not because I was watching on a black and white TV but because the characters' ethnicities were normalised. Uhura was 'the woman' not 'the African' and Sulu was the pilot.
I saw it as a kid. Colorful, fun adventure!
As I got older, the social aspects and metaphors kicked in. TOS was the second adult TV sci-fi, only "Twilight Zone" really taking the numero uno head cheese spot (with apologies to "Airplane II - The Sequel").
As TNG aired, DS9 and VOY were spinoffs but a rewatch changed all that. Especially for DS9.
Even older, I realized that DS9 supplanted TNG as the most Trek-like post-TOS Trek and even going beyond what TOS could or would do because of technological and other constraints while keeping many of the same core themes of both TOS and TNG. Still, the Kirk era movies were almost on par in some respects, more in a couple others... but TNG was the right show at the right time and led to far more.
Even older yet, I realized Chekov was a backhanded statement for puerile comic relief rather than genuine inclusion - only in season 3 when Chekov was treated as a genuine character and not a campy and petty lampoon complete with leftover wig from "The Monkees", of which he would claim was inwented in widdle owd Wussia in Wenningwad bwy an owd wady... missing onwy a tambourine to go with the hippie episode (thankfully!)
As I got older, the social aspects and metaphors kicked in. TOS was the second adult TV sci-fi, only "Twilight Zone" really taking the numero uno head cheese spot (with apologies to "Airplane II - The Sequel").
As TNG aired, DS9 and VOY were spinoffs but a rewatch changed all that. Especially for DS9.
Even older, I realized that DS9 supplanted TNG as the most Trek-like post-TOS Trek and even going beyond what TOS could or would do because of technological and other constraints while keeping many of the same core themes of both TOS and TNG. Still, the Kirk era movies were almost on par in some respects, more in a couple others... but TNG was the right show at the right time and led to far more.
Even older yet, I realized Chekov was a backhanded statement for puerile comic relief rather than genuine inclusion - only in season 3 when Chekov was treated as a genuine character and not a campy and petty lampoon complete with leftover wig from "The Monkees", of which he would claim was inwented in widdle owd Wussia in Wenningwad bwy an owd wady... missing onwy a tambourine to go with the hippie episode (thankfully!)
Certainly "The communications officer". Only "woman" was used twice: "The Changeling" with Nomad's sexist twaddle, and "The Lorelei Signal" (TAS) where she takes control and kicks ass in a way that would have been a joy to have seen as live-action TV.
TOS had it right - people were people and doing their jobs. McCoy was a bit gruff but Spock usually took it in stride and knew there was a bond between him and McCoy despite their sparring. Spock never understood emotions in real time and context but I believe he did understand them as rote and found there was far more going on with McCoy than a bunch of 2D catchphrases, one of which ("Out of your Vulcan mind!") getting past the same radar that "Look that up in your Funk n' Wagnalls" had when everyone said it 5000 times each week on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" had.
DS9 took it another step - look at Bashir and Kira in "Emissary". They later got along but the ride started very bumpy. It's perfect Trek.
TNG tried with Pulaski and Ro and others but nothing seemed to stick.
Dayna had a great start in series 3, but in series 4 she is sidelined and unused so often - I can't blame Josette for turning away from B7, but she was the consummate professional and quickly showed some impressive acting chops. My only surprise is that she hasn't won more accolades.
I was only 7 or 8 and it was common sci fi shows, movies, and TV shows generally for there to be one female character or for the gender of recurring female characters to count as their distinguishing feature. Uhura was the woman we saw most often so I identified her as 'the woman,' although after watching more episodes over the next few years, my friends and I fell in love with Janice, largely because she was such a gloriously hapless character.
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When I started watching Star Trek as a kid in the 60s we only had black and white TV. Over at my friends house one night I saw Star Trek in color for the first time. His Dad was a Dentist and they could afford color TV. I remember how surprised I was that Spock wasn't really green. You couldn't tell from the black and white TV and I had always assumed that if Spock had green blood then he had to be green.
I remember being real scared of Gary Mitchell's eyes as a kid! The
Keeper when he (she) changed into the Anthropoid while Pike was strangling him also gave me the chills! The voices of Zetar were pretty spooky too! The first season was the most scary with the faceless woman clawing her way along the corridor in Charlie X as well!
JB
Keeper when he (she) changed into the Anthropoid while Pike was strangling him also gave me the chills! The voices of Zetar were pretty spooky too! The first season was the most scary with the faceless woman clawing her way along the corridor in Charlie X as well!
JB
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Yes! The faceless woman gave me nightmares!I remember being real scared of Gary Mitchell's eyes as a kid! The
Keeper when he (she) changed into the Anthropoid while Pike was strangling him also gave me the chills! The voices of Zetar were pretty spooky too The first season was the most scary with the faceless woman clawing her way along the corridor in Charlie X as well!
JB
Dunno. Mine did.How the hell did my elementary school not do this
I think television shows of the sixties and the seventies knew how to make the most of nightmarish situations! Moments that would stay in our heads for the next fifty years or more! These days it's all explosions and throwing people across the landscape and not much in the way of a story either!
JB
Was she really a teenager?
I remember her as being young but kickass.
Another reason why I think Blakes 7 holds up perhaps better to modern audiences. Except with their very poor special effects which were even bad for the time compared to expensively made American shows like Star Trek, BSG)
Blakes 7 women were kickass and weren't waiting around for men to save them, Blakes 7 has a dystopian theme where the government is corrupt, our heroes aren't perfect. So why isn't this series being remade?
Why haven't I seen it on TV for decades?
It was so exciting to see a woman in a series not playing a secretary or wife or girlfriend. Uhura was a professional working in a "man's role" with nobody pointing out how unusual it was.
I know some people looking back on her role today say well she was just a glorified secretary answering the phones but when I look at the male communications officer in "The Cage" I don't think of him as anybody's secretary.
I would deny ever watching the show but I remember it from its theme song like everyone else here. Its about time, its about space,da da da past a roman senator, past an armoured knight,... Why don't they have catchy theme songs nowadays? I can still sing the theme from Gilligan's Island.Dunno. Mine did.
For me, it's Spiderman, Wonder Woman, and Hong Kong Phooey that stick in my head...
Thanks for all the impressions love reading them
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