Production Order Group Viewing 2018

It's tenuous, I'll admit: At the end of chapter seven, the lead revolutionaries and their sentient supercomputer are discussing how to fight Earth's government. The supercomputer suggests, "We can throw rocks."
The suggestion is met with a "This is no time for jokes" reaction, to which the computer replies, "But, Man, we can throw rocks at Terra. We will." Launched at Earth through the mass driver the colonists use to launch cargo to Earth.

However, Uhura's rock-throwing comment does set up Spock's "We can throw tribbles at them" later in the episode, which, if you think about it, they sort of did.

 

I got the feeling it was the equivalent of Uhura just standing up any saying, "Hey, it's me Uhura and I'm here, too!"

 

THE INFINITE VULCAN
Written by Walter Koenig, no less!

This is the episode often derided for the 50-foot tall Spock but there are lots of really good sci-fi concepts featured here. At a minimum it does what season 3 had begun to – delving into already established areas of Trek lore and using that previous world building to tell new stories. Where else can you find reference to the Eugenics Wars with a peer of Kahn Noonien Singh himself; the master of cloning, Doctor Dr Stavos Keniclius! However, there's a twist – Keniclius , thought to be a tyrant like Khan is actually a champion for peaceful rule! Numerous references to continuity are offered up and Kirk again gets to espouse the enlightened future of the Federation.

We also get a historical lesson applied to the science fiction setting - Keniclius unwittingly spreading disease to a native race (I’m thinking Spaniards and Indians but there are probably many other examples). Then there's the whole notion of sapient plant life - a first for Trek (even if not an original concept in itself). The Phylosian alien design is creative and would have been utterly impossible for live action TOS. Equally so the impressive underground city. Having said that, those flying bat-plants are just crazy!!!

In fairness, there are some derivative elements from earlier episodes (Spock is captured because he’s the perfect specimen, has his mind removed as part of a master plan) but unlike Spock’s Brain it isn’t the whole focus of the story and the mystery of Keniclius is given equal weight - not to mention the fact that his brain isn't physically removed
There's also Sulu, who picks up the unknown alien planet creature and nearly dies...Of course, this is from the same organisation that brought you idiots known to munch on borgia plants (Man Trap) and drink Scalosian water without a second's thought. And speaking of Man Trap Kirk states again here that he doesn’t like mysteries (I expect that they give him a belly ache and he has a beauty right now!)

In all, a good, meaty scifi story that also utilises various S3 elements and actually improves upon them

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• The episode begins with a standard exploration mission - good to see!
• McCoy is just as antagonist against plant aliens as he is towards Vulcans it seems.
• Not so Kirk who later recognises Agmar on sight (I must admit, the plant people all look the same to me)
• In the "tomb", we see that Agmar’s predecessors are huge! Going BTS this apparently was the reason why Keniclious made himself such large clones, in order to better interact with the inhabitants. IMO it's dialogue that really ought to have stayed in the final episode...
• Spock mentions that Agmar's people use almost 70% of brains – that old trope about humans only using a small portion of their brains pops up everywhere I go...
• The anti-weapon field is some great defensive tech, simple but effective – I wonder if it could be adapted to starships?
• The Phylosians are the last of their kind, as their “spore cells” have been destroyed. Couldn’t Keniclious just clone them? This is his master plan with Spock after all.
• Did McCoy really need to dig up his family weedkiller recipe? Isn’t there some far more efficient 23rd century equivalent?
• Keniclius mentions a war with the the Kzinti – I wonder who they are?
• Although he's done it to many computers, this is the first time that Kirk has talked a clone to death! (Well, to victory anyway)
• Kirk tries to subvert the whole “inscrutable Asian” sterotype with Sulu at the end there. The line is OK but it wins out against many S3 endings because it involves a character that is NOT Kirk, Spock or McCoy!
  Go, TAS!

 

Yeah...no. No one ever ate the borgia plant. To wit:

KIRK: Stand by, Mister Spock. She said she saw him eat the plant.
MCCOY: She's mistaken. I know alkaloid poison, what to look for. There's not a trace of it in his body.
KIRK: There were bits of the plant in his mouth.
MCCOY: Jim, don't tell me my business. He could not have swallowed any. My instruments would have picked up any trace of it whatsoever. ​

So the creature put some of it in his mouth to cover its tracks, but Bones didn't fall for it.

That whole "inscrutable" thing was pinched from deleted dialog from "The Corbomite Maneuver" re Sulu not being a very "inscrutable Oriental”. Ugh.

 

I saw this episode on Saturday and I noticed that after they freed Spock's body from the cabinet somehow he was back inside it towards the end!!!
JB

 

Yes he never ate it, but no-one stepped forward to say that he wouldn't have done it in the first place! Everyone present seemed to find it quite a plausible situation.
McCoy's objection was that the borgia plant's alkaloid poisoning didn't match Darnell's symptoms, not that his behaviour was against regulations or basic training or anything.

Then that person in Wink Of An Eye goes and drinks the water proving that in fact Starfleet crewman ARE that thoughtless!

I thought it seemed familiar. Did Koenig do a better job of it though? I'll have to dig it out and see.

I noticed that too but I pledged not to talk about animation errors. It was pretty blatant though!

 

What about Beauregard from "The Man Trap"?

 

I've always assumed that Gertrude (or is it Beauregard?) was more akin to a venus fly tray just with a greater range of responses. However, even if it is a more sophisticated plant, was it really sapient? It seems to act very much on instinct alone, more like those plant-bat-creatures on Phylos

 

You may be right. It did have enough sense to detect the Salt Vampire.

 

Did Koenig do a better job of what? Making Fu Manchu faces and delivering a terrible faux Chinese accent?

 

Just looked it up - yeesh, I forgot about those elements! You forgot the references to "western blood" being at the root of certain behavioural stereotypes though. Classy stuff.

With all that in mind, I think Koenig did a better job of writing about the "inscrutable Asian" stereotype as it's largely done through inference, doesn't go on too long, is played as a humorous back and forth between friends and doesn't have Sulu demean himself for the amusement of his white colleagues.

To anyone who doesn't have a copy of "Star Trek Lost Scenes", here is a low-quality image of the pages in question:


The book itself is really excellent BTW and has a wealth of new information and images.

 

The Infinite Vulcan

Oh, that opening gets me. I see that and suddenly I'm an eight year old on a Saturday morning again eager and excited for another TAS episode.

Ah, our old friend Walter Koenig is here to spin a yarn.

Sulu, the botanist, is the first to discover a new plant. He's used to moving plants that react with some intelligence since he's used to Gertrude. A whole planet where the dominant life forms are plant life. Sulu must be in Heaven. Well, until he gets bit.

Agmar sounds like James Doohan. So does Keniclius.

Reminds me of Spock's Brain. Once again a search went forth and found that Spock had to be taken as only he is awesome enough to fulfill the antagonist's plan.

They meet Stavos, they see he's huge, they go through all kinds of dialogue, and no one so much as questions why he's so huge. I mean I know they've seen giants before, but they are a bit nonchalant about it.

Why that dirty Agmar leading our heroes into a trap.

McCoy: "He's dying. Something's happened to his brain." Does he still have it?

Uhura: "Mister Scott, you're risking a total drain of our dilithium crystals. To maintain communication we would have to burn out all our reserves. "

Wow, Uhura giving an engineering reason why Scotty's plan is dangerous. We know she has technical skill because we've seen her repair her station, and Spock complimented her on her abilities, but has she ever had a technical line like this before?

And the ship can put so much energy into communications that they can actually drain all their dilithium crystals from it? And Scotty was willing to risk that? Whoa.

So how low on dilithium crystals did they go? Uhura says they reached the "power drain threshold." The point at which they couldn't afford to lose any more dilithium? Were they desperate to get more as in Mudd's Women?

IDIC! Last heard of in Is There In Truth No Beauty. They do a lot of call backs in this show. It's nice.

That was undoubtedly the biggest mind meld ever. Or "mind touch" as Sulu calls it.

So inscrutable means "impossible to understand", and Kirk calls Sulu "scrutable" which means "capable of being understood through study and observation." So Kirk called Sulu the most understandable man he knows. Is that an insult?

Why would you need to be inscrutable to do a body throw?

So let me get this straight. Stavos wants to conquer the galaxy and impose peace, and he can make a clone army to make that happen (Star Wars, anyone?), but he wants the awesomist guy he can find to clone, and of course that is Spock. Imagine this huge army of giant Spocks occupying everywhere in the galaxy imposing order. Yikes.

So there's this giant Spock on Phylos working on rebuilding that civilization. Maybe an endless number of giant Spocks if he keeps getting cloned. That must be mind blowing for Spock I.

Hmmm, what if there was a giant ME working on saving a civilization somewhere. Best not to think about it.

Okay, we've seen the orange guy at the helm twice now, but no introduction, and he's had no dialogue.

Definitely a different and entertaining episode.

Alien Watch! Plants!

Season One
The Glommer
Arex*
Retlaw Plant
Agmar and his Phylosian posse
Swoopers

*by request

 

Those screeching birds or bats didn't look like plant life to me!!!
JB

 

Me neither. What makes them plants? They don't eat? They photosynthesize?

 

Maybe those springy tentacle things act like roots, in between flying sessions?

 

I think we get another look at something similar later on do we not?
JB

 

In another TAS episode? I'm not sure, but I'm looking forward to finding out!

 

Yes I'm sure there's more of those screeching bats to come and some more aliens similar to the Phylosians! Not today though as that was The Magicks of Megas-Tu, guest starring Ed Bishop, James Doohan as other voices and even George Takei too!
JB

 

TAS Blu Ray Black Monday deal for those viewers in the USA!
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Animated-Roddenberrys-Blu-ray/dp/B01M0K1OUC/

UK viewers can claim the deal, but it's hardly worth it after the postage is added
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Trek-Animated-Roddenberrys-Blu-ray/dp/B01M0K1OUC/

 

I have most of my Trek collection on region 2 but TAS I have on region 1 as when I bought it, it wasn't available over here in the UK at the time and afterwards I didn't have the cash or need to change it!
JB