Production Order Group Viewing 2018

If he was unconscious or out of his mind...

 

Or possibly like most other security guards, he failed to notice anything was wrong and was watching cartoons in the day room.

 

That would be weird if it turned out she was orchestrating the events all along...manipulating everyone to amuse herself. Would give her line "I love my work," a whole new meaning...

 

That would have been a great twist.

 

That's the same as when they are on duty. I believe I already mentioned my low opinion of the guard assigned to the Bridge who turned his back to the only door...

 

Or how none of them are trained to raise an alert when it just feels right to take on that Intruder alone...

 

Plus, why kill another redshirt? He would almost certainly have died.

 

So, what were they going to do with that big box they beamed up from Tantalus? Leave it in the transporter room? Are there cargo transporters they could have used instead? Seemed like they knew this package coming but weren't prepared to receive it.

 

Ha! Proof that there is only one transporter room.

 

Miri

"Hundreds of light years from Earth, no colonies out this far." Is Kirk giving us a hint as to the size of the Federation? Smaller than "hundreds of light years" from Earth?

This business of the alternate Earth has been debated a lot. The fact that we learn about an Earth identical to ours but that fact plays no part in the episode and is never mentioned again is problematic. I wonder if this is meant to be a cautionary tale, and by making the alternate identical Earth, they were beating us over the head. Beware! THIS COULD HAPPEN TO US!!!!!! Meddle not with trying to extend humans' natural life span or be DOOOOOOOMED!!!!

Hey, where's Uhura? Who's that dude?

Interesting. Spock can pinpoint the exact year on Earth that this planet's development parallels.

It took THREE Kirk punches to finally put the crazy guy down.

Is McCoy referring to the guy as "it"? "That creature?" I mean he was human-ish, right?

Actually, are these kids human? If not why does the disease affect our heroes the same as the people of this planet. The planet is identical to Earth so the people are identical humans too? That really deserves some explanation. Did anyone ever write a sequel and explain it?

Is there anything more terrifying than...EVIL KIDS????

And so our heroes contract the disease. Once again I must question Starfleet protocols. By rights they should be beaming down to every planet in space suits. Then again, their track record for curing diseases is so good, maybe they just don't worry about it.

I might be worried about how long it would take to cure this, but then I remember that McCoy cured the Naked Time thing in 20 minutes.

How have these kids been eating and living?

The older the victim, the faster the rate of the disease. Oh, you're toast, McCoy. (I am now well older than McCoy is on the show. And isn't THAT a shocking realization?)

I just realized how much I want to beat the crap out of these kids. Bonk bonk on your heads, you punks.

Does Miri not get what they are trying to do when she comes up with the plan to kidnap Rand?

"Without them, it could be a beaker full of death." I just want to take a moment and honor this line. This is the greatest line in any Star Trek movie or episode of any series. Who wrote this episode? Adrian Spies. Well done, Adrian, well done.

"No blah blah blah!" Another legendary Star Trek line. Adrian is on a roll!

I'm impressed the food stores have lasted for hundreds of years. In terms of there being that much food and in terms of it not spoiling.

How can you pinpoint an exact time a disease is going to take effect?

Would the blemishes really disappear that quickly?

Spock shakes his head at McCoy like "you dumbass."

A cautionary tale about messing with the natural order of things and growing up. The moral: adults are insane! Fear growing up!

Hmm, these kids apparently are simply human, so do they count as aliens? Eh, they were born on another planet, as identical to Earth as it may be.

Alien Watch:
Talosians
That big ugly Rigellian guy Pike fought in illusion
Vina as an Orion girl in illusion
Glimpse of other aliens captured by Talosians
Ron Howard's brother
That dog from Enemy Within
Salt monster
That hand plant...Gertrude
Spock (duh)
Charlie's parents (Thasians)
Romulans!
(Ruk)
Miri's planet kids (bonk bonk)

 

From the previous comments, this is Grace Lee Whitney's final episode. A moment of silence, please, while we look at her legs.

Interesting how she was written out of/replaced in previous episodes but was in this one. I'm not fully understanding how that works. Why include her here if she had been replaced in previous episodes? Was there a contract number limit?

In universe... Rand finally transferred to a different ship. Working with the captain that attacked her just a few weeks earlier must have finally worn her down. Poor woman. Definitely need some time to sort that out. Starfleet counseling must be weird. "Tell me about the how you felt when the captain's mirror alternate doppelganger attacked you. How did that affect your relationship with the captain from our universe?"

No Uhura? No Sulu? Hope they come back. They have a habit of rotating crew. Don't get me wrong, I like seeing these other people, too. Makes it feel real. Different shifts, people have time off, other assignments. Memory Alpha says this is Ferrell's last episode. Maybe he left when Rand left?

Why is Rand on the mission? She's a yeoman. That's a clerical position. She's the equivalent of Radar O'Riley the company clerk on MASH. Much better to have another scientist or medic. Someone whose skill set fits beaming down into such a situation.

Could McCoy tell if the attacker was male or female? English does not have a gender-neutral pronoun. Saying "they" would have been odd.

Another Earth. Exact duplicate planet, it appears. They were surprised at the discovery. Maybe it was a first. Perhaps, over time, someone will come up with some kind of law that covers parallel development of planets and cultures.

This planet was the equivalent of 1960s Earth when disaster struck. That was 300 years ago. Is Star Trek supposed to be set 300 years into the future? Are these adventures of the USS Enterprise taking place in the 2260s? Also, as Poltargyst asked, where are these kids getting food? Slow metabolism might mean they eat less than normal, but the available food wasn't preserved for 300 years. No crops. Kirk does say the food has run out, but shouldn't that have happened about 300 years ago? And what about the clothing? Wearing clothes for 300 years should have worn them out long before now. Would the remaining clothes in the stores have stayed in tact and been wearable all these centuries?

Specifically hitting puberty causes the onset of the disease. The landing party are all past puberty, so they should all develop at the same rate. It wasn't just age.

Fun fact - the child Shatner is carrying at the end of the episode is his daughter, Lisabeth. Shatner's daughter, Leslie, also plays an Only. In fact a number of the kids were related to Star Trek cast and crew:

Jon and Scott Dweck are Grace Lee Whitney's sons. As an adult, Scott would return in a feature film appearance as a Vulcan Enterprise crewmember in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Steven McEveety was the nephew of director Vincent McEveety.

Phil and Iona Morris were the children of Mission: Impossible star Greg Morris, and would both appear as characters in later incarnations of Star Trek.

Keith Taylor replaced Rusty Stevens on Leave it to Beaver as Beaver's new plump friend, Harry.

Darleen and Dawn Roddenberry are the daughters of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

In her book (see above) Grace Lee Whitney writes that they tried to persuade Leonard Nimoy to bring his kids to the set as extras as she and Shatner did, but Nimoy was determined to keep his children away from show business. Ironically, his son Adam Nimoy later directed the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Rascals" and "Timescape".

 

She had a contract for a certain number of episodes, so it was a pay or play thing. They had to pay her anyway even if they didn't use her.

 

It definitely wasn't going to stay on the Transporter platform; one of the technicians goes off to get a "vault assignment", which is why the other man was left alone to get whacked by Van Gelder. The existence of a "vault assignment" suggests the existence of a "vault" AKA cargo bay or warehouse type facility on board ship. How would have been moved there? Dunno, anti-grav sled maybe? If the box is larger than 3'6" it wouldn't fit into a turbolift, so maybe the cargo facilities are on the same deck as the Transporter Room?

On to Miri!
This is the first location shoot of the series. There's some great scenes as the characters explore the studio backlot.
It's also the first appearance of the velcro strips on the uniform trousers for Kirk et al to attach their phasers and communicators to. This is something clearly reserved for senior officers only though, as the guards still have to wear the suede accessory belts.
And speaking of the guards, why do they both disappear for the majority of the episode? Or maybe they just know how to survive? One does turn up later I suppose (just after McCoy injects himself)

No Earth colonies out this far, certainly. Or maybe they all just extend in another direction?

The food canning industry was well established by the 1960s. I assume they just had a boring diet?

She gets one more (brief) appearance in next week's episode. The manipulation of events that transpired in order to keep her on-set presence to a minimum is tragic.

No. No there is not.

This has never been one of my top episodes, but in this rewatch I really appreciated some of the excellent dialogue and how the actors delivered their lines.

• As Spock says that the disease affects the oldest first, he casts an eye to McCoy, who reacts perfectly!
• Kirk to Miri “I’m begging you...let me help you”. Shades of his similar line to Edith Keeler in COTEOF maybe?
• “And I do want to go back to the ship, Captain” (spot on delivery from Nimoy)
• Spock is very savvy of the human condition in noticing Miri’s attraction to Kirk

Agreed; it takes the impact out of McCoy's line that they have "only" five days to find a cure. However, for the second episode in a row, Spock and McCoy work extremely closely and professionally to resolve the crisis.

The events in this story really highlight how ill-prepared the crew of a starship are to operate independantly on alien worlds. The equipment they have beamed down to assist them in the 300 year old laboratory is little more than basic calculating and data relay machinery, solely dependant on the main Enterprise computer. Somehow, this situation was never anticipated when they set off from Earth on their mission of exploration.

After Spock confirms that they have just 7 days to live, Kirk and McCoy walk around for the rest of the episode with the shoulders of their uniforms unzipped. These are the "invisible zippers" that William Ware Theiss put in on Roddenberry's direction to make the clothes of the future appear seamless. So what does the director of the episode do? Unzip them!!!

TBH, I can imagine the directorial intention - in classic 1950s monster movies, the scientists all work in the lab to discover the solution. To show the situation is serious, gentlemen would loosen their neckties or even (gasp) remove their suit jackets

In Star Trek, all they could do in order to make the men's clothing more casual was to unzip the collars; so that's what they did, regardless of how silly it looked. Even Rand has a loose zip, shown in the scene when she reveals her infected legs to Kirk.

FINALLY; yet again, Kirk gives the command for "Warp Factor One" to Mr Spock instead of his navigator. It's not like Mr Farrell wasn't around and had lines. What gives?

 

I noticed that. It reminds me of a modern naval vessel with the Captain giving the order to the Executive Officer who makes sure it gets carried out. But it is weird with how many times Kirk just directly tells the helmsman what he wants.

So this is an episode where the redshirts live? Whoa.

 

It's just a modern navy tradition rooted in verification of commands. If you have been aboard a U.S. Navy ship or seen a realistic portrayal, on the bridge, in a CIC, engine room, etc., commands often get relayed and repeated by several personnel. I'm glad they dropped that from Star Trek as I don't think it was necessary.

 

As @Maurice pointed out, Grace Lee Whitney’s contract guaranteed she would be paid for 7 out of the first 13 episodes. They ended up using her for eight episodes; then they didn’t pick up her option for more shows.

 

I understand that and quite frankly with all the other "traditional" practises on board the Enterprise it's not too out of place. However, the problem is that Spock DOESN'T relay Kirk's commands! He just repeats the order (back to Kirk) while the helmsman (apparently without being directly ordered to) can be heard clicking buttons in the background

 

I think Miri is a great concept that could have been developed over several episodes if it had more of a horror vibe. Basically the Walking Dead but on a duplicate Earth.
The concept of the duplicate Earth was squandered though.

One assumes they beam down a probe to sample the atmosphere before they send people down even if that doesn't seem to be case.

What no anthropology officer?

With all her bio research skills it might have been nice to see Chapel coordinating from the ship.

Kirk ruthlessly works Miri for information in this one. It's a side of him we'll see again and possibly the beginning of his reputation as a lothario.

It was fun to see Spock and the security team failing to outwit children.

Technically I suppose Rand is here as Kirk's personal bodyguard but she isn't very good at it. She's pretty poor all round, showing limited empathy and no useful ideas. I would have liked to see more than, let me go or Captain Kirk will be along shortly. She could have spared us his insightful, "No blah blah blah," if she'd put more effort in.

 

No, you're quite right. They didn't execute it well - probably because it involved lines for extras and therefore more pay - and so it didn't work. I'm glad they did away with it whatever the reason.

 

Movies like Crimson Tide show that you can do that naval order confirmation/repetition and make it fine dramatically, but Star Trek steered away from military procedure (no saluting, for instance) so it's unsurprising they dropped it.