Production Order Group Viewing 2018

The Klingon symbols on their ships in the Tribbles opener were firstly and only ever seen in Elaan of Troyius in the original series I believe?
JB

 

Again, TOS/TAS occurs about 200 years after the Eugenics Wars:

and

At least no mention that the Eugenics Wars occurred in the early 1990's...
Also, apparently "The Galactic Wars" (?) and the Romulan War (ref. Balance of Terror) and other troubles with the Klingons and Kzinti all occurred over one hundred years ago, so, no recent Klingon War about two decades ago per DSC...(Picard must have mucked up the time stream in ST:FC.)

 

Keniclius does mention the "depredations of the...Klingons" without a specific time period (hey, where is he getting his information, anyway?) and there have certainly been conflicts that the Federation has had with its neighbours in the last century. The Federation itself has been peaceful though, i.e. no major political upheavals to threaten the stability of the organisation. Since Kirk is acting as a major proponent for the Feds at this moment, that's likely the viewpoint he's espousing. DSC's Klingon "war" was only about a year long anyway; perhaps it got re-categorised as a "conflict" by later historians?

 

YESTERYEAR

This is the third episode in a row which pilfers from Star Trek’s existing canon of works.

• More Tribbles was a thinly veiling retelling of Trouble With Tribbles
• Infinite Vulcan’s main story owed a lot to Spock’s Brain in its structure and Space Seed for its lore, although I think Koenig was able to put enough of a new spin on both of those.
• Yesteryear is a direct sequel to City On The Edge Of Forever but that’s really just the framing device – D C Fontana’s tale is the most original yet!

On the one hand it’s good to see the continued improvement of story quality week after week, but on the other it would be nice to see something not tied to what’s come before. But regardless, this is a well made, well performed story and it’s easy to see why even many TAS-haters still allow this episode into their personal canon. Spock and YoungSpock have a good discussion on the impact of being part human and how that affects being a “true” Vulcan. This expansion on the Vulcan mythos along with some great vocal performances is all classic DC Fontana

Something this episode is famous for tackling is euthanasia, at least when it comes to pets. More excellent writing from DC, when Ichaya is mortally wounded and Young Spock must make a hard decision.

Child abduction is also briefly touched on when Selik (a stranger in the house) and Young Spock disappear at the same time, in the middle of the night. Amanda raises the suspicion that he may be up to no good and while Sarek is not convinced (due to the unusual connection he shares with his “cousin”) he still does the responsible thing and calls the authorities. The situation is handled very effectively, given the constraints of a Saturday morning kids TV show.

Finally, this episode is an interesting study n the unreliability of memory – at one point Spock feels that the timeline has changed again, later to realise he was simply recalling those events incorrectly. But then later on he says that the wounding (and death) of Ichaya was not supposed to happen. Why is he so sure this time? How on earth could have events gone any differently?

Yet, Spock doubles down on his memory-based assumption by stating that the death of Ichaya is the sole change in the timeline. Did the death really not impact any of Spock’s personal or familial relationships after that? Sucks to be you, Ichaya!
Actually, this oddity leads nicely into:

D C FONTANA & TIME TRAVEL COMPLEXITIES
As a character piece this episode is excellent. However DC Fontana clearly struggles with how to deal with the implementation (and implications) time-travel, seen last in Tomorrow Is Yesterday when it seemed that at least 2 humans were wiped from existence and the "restoration" of the original timeline as presented was an absolute mess. Here, the story presents some disturbing implications if taken at face value, such as Spock having never existed but EVERYTHING ELSE is the same: So I guess Spock wasn’t that significant after all! I know that Thelin is shown to be a really competent first officer, but what about all those times Spock was personally instrumental in saving the day? Clearly overblown.
Sucks to be you, Spock!

The setup for this episode that that historians are using the Guardian Of Forever to explore the past. That's obviously safer than flying round a star at warp 10, right? Nope! Turns out that merely VIEWING past events through the GOF can cause changes in the past! Excuse me?
This is compounded by the use of the trope “you couldn’t be in two places at once”, something that doesn't make logical sense - where is that other version of you supposed to vanish away to? Thankfully, later Star Trek stories ignore this but here it is presented as the crux of the problem.
Why doesn’t Kirk go with Spock into the time portal? And how does he get restored to his original timeline with all his memories intact?

Things are not what they seem and I suspect interference from the GOF, just as there was in COTEOF where it seemed to be manipulating the characters to ensure that predestination paradoxes unfold as they should. Heck, Kirk even says in his opening log entry that the GOF is where all the different timelines of the galaxy intersect, so how would you know for sure that you were in the “correct” one after a jaunt through the magic donut? Did it shunt Kirk and Spock into Thelin's parallel universe in order to motivate Spock to save his younger self, then move Kirk back once Spock's mission was complete?
DO NOT TRUST THE GUARDIAN!!!


OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Even though the opening music is the same each week, it’s so triumphant-sounding that I can’t help get excited for what’s in store
• In typical TAS fashion the story delves straight into the mystery – WHO IS SPOCK?
• One of the historical researchers is some sort of bird alien! Looks great and (I know I’m repeating myself) is something that would never have looked as good in 1960s live action.
• Ditto goes for Ichaya, that’s a brilliant representation of the creature that Amanda described back in Journey To Babel.
• Thelin is a grey Andorian – no reason why they should all be blue, I suppose
• Could Spock not have worn something else under his robe when in Vulcan’s past? His Starfleet uniform collar is RIGHT THERE.
  Was he planning to reveal his true identity at some point, like some sort of SuperSpock?
  Has his meeting with GiantSpock given him delusions of grandeur?
• Young Spock’s initial outfit is…interesting. No accounting for alien fashion, I suppose
• Those plains outside the city are full of dangerous creatures! I wonder how many Vulcan children simply end up getting eaten by the LeMatya?
• Sarek's horrible parenting skills are back!
  We see Vulcan boys being horrible racists and very emotional! Yet Sarek doesn’t seem concerned by that, apologising instead to Selik for his son's emotions on display. Then Sarek chastises his son directly for showing emotion, puts the pressure on his son to succeed in the horribly difficult task! I suppose he does acknowledge the boy’s personal journey and worthy choice at the end but it's all a little after the fact. No wonder Spock in Journey To Babel was extra reserved in his behaviour!
• When did Spock have time to teach YoungSpock the nerve pinch? Was there a brief mind meld we didn’t see?

The episode ends with a typical humorous scene and McCoy being his cantankerous old self. Even Spock has time for a quick pun with “times change, Doctor. Times change”

But for me, the favourite "tag" scene is when Spock can’t leave Sarek without leaving just a little bit of parental advice

That quote is from memory, but I’m sure it was something like that…

 

Ironic discussing a Fontana written episode when the author has just passed away...

 

This is the first I've heard of this! Sad news indeed

 

Yesteryear

I have to say I'm finding it poignant watching this episode today. Maybe Spock could calculate the odds that we'd be watching this episode the week of DC Fontana's passing. This week is our tribute to DC Fontana.

Like I said, I haven't seen these episodes since they aired, and most of them I don't remember at all. I'm very vague about this episode, but I do remember it was one of my favorites.

It's the Guardian of Forever! Great callback to City on the Edge of Forever. Our heroes are doing what you might expect, taking the opportunity to make use of the Guardian to study the past of various cultures. Although as they are aware and find out anew here, doing so is also very hazardous to the time line. I wonder how many more such studies the Federation conducted.

Hmmm, the Guardian's been through some changes. Its voice is completely different. It's also possible to just tell the Guardian where and when you want to go without having to time a jump into it at the right time while its replaying all of history. I wonder who could make such changes to the Guardian? The Federation?

Wow, that bullying scene has to have inspired the one in Star Trek 2007.

Aaaaaaah! It's Mark Leonard! I'm such a fanboy for him. I liked him in everything he's done in Trek. Such a good actor. It's good to see..er...hear him again. Good to see Sarek again too.

Excuse me, but those bullies, like the ones in NuTrek, are expressing quite a bit of emotion themselves, are they not?

So illogical of Sarek to marry a human but expect a perfect Vulcan son.

Is that Spock's teddy bear with fangs? Oh what a great callback to Journey of Babel. So is the presence of an Andorian first officer.

Holy crap, that dragon thing sounds like Godzilla! And Spock takes it out with a neck pinch!

Aw, Adult Spock comforting I-Chaya. Aw, I-Chaya dying.

This is another way to tell DC Fontana was a great writer. Because I'm sitting here watching a freaking CARTOON and getting all choked up over the death of a freaking TEDDY BEAR WITH FANGS.

Allow me to rephrase a line...

Spock: "By understanding every life comes to an end when time demands it. Loss of life is to be mourned but only if the life was wasted. DC Fontana's was not. "

The first two episodes were kind of meh. This episode was GREAT. THIS is TAS at its best. So great to see a slice of Spock's childhood, get more of a glimpse of life on Vulcan. Great stuff.

Like I said in the other thread, thanks, DC, for a lifetime of enjoyment. Your stories meant a lot to a kid in Central Pennsylvania.

Alien Watch! A small assortment

Season One
The Glommer
Arex*
Retlaw Plant
Agmar and his Phylosian posse
Swoopers
Yellow winged bird guy (Aleek)
Spock's teddy bear with fangs (sehlat)
Green cat thing that sounds like Godzilla (le-matya)

*by request




.

 

I just realised that Yesteryear contradicts itself in this matter as well, because Spock spends a large portion of the story being in two places at once, hanging out with his younger self. Or is there an age limit on this silly rule?

 

Or maybe like I've said before it never happened like that in the original timeline?
JB

 

BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR

What is it with Samuel Peeples and exploring beyond the galaxy? He does know that there's actually quite a few planets inside the galaxy that we haven't explored yet, right? Ah, well, what are the chances of encountering life ending peril twice in a row...ah...uh...never mind

Actually, this is the first story which feels wholly original and it is an excellent adventure tale.
There's also the hard sci-fi idea of intense gravitational objects (which Spock for some reason calls hyper-gravity). Then there's some nifty orbital manoeuvres avoid the initial peril of the high gravity object. Yay for Newtonian physics! Also, more realism when it takes Spock several minutes to translate the alien captain’s message
The alien ship design, the aliens themselves, the remote location all reach back to the root of Star Trek. There's also lots of classic adventure shenanigans before the menace is defeated.

Hey, it’s a malevolent energy being! Haven’t seen one of those for quite a while. Reminds me of Redjac in the way it behaves whilst in the ship systems but I'll let that one go.
We also have a rare, mournful ending (remind me again why we should feel sorry for this evil creature?)

NEW TECH

• Life support belts! Not seen them before. You sure we got back to the correct universe last week?
• They’re pretty impressive tech too, providing oxygen, pressure, protection from heat, cold, radiation, even large heavy lids!

The alien starship is a sight to behold, both inside and out. Far beyond what would be possible with 1960s live-action...okay, you get the idea by now
That alien captain is pretty nice, too.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Ancient aliens! The ship is 300 million years old
• When the landing party enter the inner chamber their weapons encounter energy draining tech, for the second time in 2 weeks. The crew really ought to start planning for situations like this
• Automatic bridge defence system seems like a good idea – except when it gets taken over by alien intruders
• That Engineering Core hatch seems like a poor design. What was Scotty doing in there, anyway?

At the end of the episode, Kirk states that this log is his final entry. Is this the end of the series? Come to think of it, this would make a good finale to the series, but it seems we have a few more to go

 

Maybe the writer meant final entry for this episode. But he forgot that Kirk shouldn't know it's a contained episode. Kirk should think his life is going on continuously.

 

Beyond the Farthest Star

They travel outside the galaxy? Where's the galactic barrier? Did anyone develop uncontrollable ESP? How did they escape going somewhere where only a madman (or a Medusan) could get them out? And who's that orange guy sitting at the helm who never gets a line?

What is negative star mass? We're trending dangerously toward technobabble.

Bailey would not appreciate Spock's countdown.

So what is this body anyway? It's not a planet? It's a negative star? Huh?

Life support belts! Sure beats the bulky space suits they used to have to wear.

Just listening to Spock now, it's really good to hear Nimoy's voice. I loved Leonard Nimoy in the 70's on Star Trek and also hearing his voice on In Search Of.

The suspense builds as they move about the alien ship making interesting and disturbing discoveries along the way.

McCoy: "Hurry up, Spock." McCoy is still a dick to Spock under pressure. I thought we solved that in The Tholian Web.

Huh, Kyle grew a moustache. Does anyone else ever have facial hair among the crew? I never noticed before, but one could get the idea that facial hair is against Starfleet regs. Up until we see Kyle the rebel here. He's just asking for another session with the agonizer.

Holy Redjac! It's another evil energy being taking over the ship!

Kirk: "Until we learn more about it, Scotty, perhaps we should be ready to do the same. Take two of your men and arm the self-destruct device in the Engineering core." What? They don't have to go through all of that "1-A 2-B 3-C" destruct code nonsense to destruct the ship? That whole thing was just a show for Lokai and Bele, wasn't it?

It's in the computer! Ask it to calculate pi!

Just how tall is the ceiling of the bridge anyway?

Those life support belts protect against physical and energy attacks. Definitely more useful than the space suits.

The heart of the galaxy! It wants to go to Sha Ka Ree!

Well, Mr. Alien, I might feel sorry for you if you'd just asked for help, but with your methods I can't feel TOO sorry for you.

So Kirk wins his game of Chicken. But if the ship was that close to hitting the "planet" (or whatever) surface, then how did the ship pull out of it? How did they know the entity could just leave the ship? It had to beam aboard to begin with.

Kind of meh. Not much substance to this one. These stories are so short, and they spent so much time just exploring the alien ship. It did build up some suspense, but at the cost of a deeper plot. It's cool to think about a race 300 million years old, and the life support belts are cool as well.

Alien Watch! Redjac wannabe.

Season One
The Glommer
Arex*
Retlaw Plant
Agmar and his Phylosian posse
Swoopers
Yellow winged bird guy (Aleek)
Spock's teddy bear with fangs (sehlat)
Green cat thing that sounds like Godzilla (le-matya)
300 million year old alien on viewscreen log
Green energy Redjac wannabe

*by request

 

I like your explanation that the guardian is playing with them.

Otherwise it doesn't make sense.Why would Spock's older self go and save his younger self .? He'd have been dead? I'm thinking maybe there was a Selik who was not Spock and somehow the historical group interfered with his passage to Sarek's house.
Frankly none of the time travel in Star Trek makes any sense. except maybe as its unexplainedly implemented in the Kelvin movies.
People beaming into other people's bodies. Slingshots around the sun. The Guarduan of Forever. If it was that easy Starflleet be going back in time every 5 minutes to fix problems, like saving the Domesday planet people, the planets before Deneva etc
and no I don't believe the Enterprise would have survived without Spock, or Kirk or Scotty. or McCoy. If any one of these guys had died in childhood them the Enterprise and billions of people on several planets would have died. One explanation is that without Spock the Enterprise went on different more military rather than scientific missions more suited to the Kirk/Thelin command team.

 

The screeching birds were back in Once Upon A Planet, the sequel to Shore Leave! although they were described as Pterosaurs and were not vegetable in any way!
JB

 

Kirk ordered Scott to go to the engineering core (M/AM reactor in the hull?) to prepare to blow up the ship. Since the alien was in the computer, the computer assisted self-destruct may be unreliable, so, Scott would need to manually arrange for the ship to blow up. In addition, the ship's life support system was on the blink next due to the alien infiltration, so, crews go to life-support belts including Scott. (I hope the ship has one belt for everyone.) Things seem to move fast, but we only have a half hour so the story needs to move fast. Scott obviously opens the core hatch and climbs into it to manually set the control valves and relays that could blow the ship. During his efforts, the alien figures out the plan and tries to stop Scott by dropping the hatch on him as he started to climb down into the core, then engaging the magnetic locking feature for the hatch. (Sounds like good tech to use with M/AM fuels to keep the stuff away from the walls of the core.) Anyway, it was fortunate that Scott put his life-support belt on to do the work or he would have squashed in half.

 

The thing is, most of their more intense situations started out as fairly mundane missions. The Naked Time was merely checking up on an outpost which yet required Spock's deeply analytic and scientific thinking to resolve. Or maybe Thelin just kept a tighter watch on Tormolen's activities?

Yep, I really should have watched that scene again as a quick scan of the transcript makes it clear that's what was happening
I find it a little disturbing that there's a SELF DESTRUCT DEVICE down in the bottom of the ship though - or was Kirk being overly poetic about simply shutting down the antimatter containment fields, similar to what he proposed in Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

 

I think the Scott plan was more like the sabotage by Lorisa but with a twist: first, disengage the warp engines, then turn off the emergency by-pass control valve and run the reactor to its max. With no Scotty to pinch off the antimatter fuel flow with a magnetic probe, BOOM. They blow up like small sun.

 

THE SURVIVOR

The first TAS bottle show and we get to see lots new areas of the ship (which is why I am so fond of bottle shows). None of those are especially remarkable but I welcome the expansion to the lore:

• Kirk seems to have moved into much more spacious quarters since the live-action series
• McCoy has also received a medical lab upgrade!
• The Engine Room (assuming its not a new area) has a big tube through the middle of the room now. Getting close to that TMP setup all the time...
• Lt M’Ress gets a name drop and even some lines!

This episode begins with the Enterprise patrolling the Romulan Neutral Zone? Is that a long term assignment? What happened to the outposts?
Sulu makes reference to a treaty that allows the Romulans (and only the Romulans) to confiscate any ship that enters the zone. Is this a new treaty? Has the RNZ changed in some way, requiring a renegotiation of the old treaty? It would explain the absence of outposts and new rules if the Romulans have expanded their territory since Balance Of Terror.
Also, the use of “lures” and enlisting the aid of Vendorians is also forbidden. That is one detailed and specific piece of diplomacy!

So, Anne Norad is the long lost fiancé of the guest star, thought long lost in space for 5 years? And then he turns out to be a copy of the original man? That’s what little boys are apparently made of! Still, at least it's not Chapel swooning over the guest star this time.

Carter Winston has a nice looking ship, even though it's only on screen for a few seconds. His true form is also very creative, making excellent use of the animated format.

Spock’s speculation about how Winston could rearrange his atoms (physical matter) into a deflector shield (composed of energy) sounds absurd on the surface.
However, if he is anything like the founders from DS9 then his “true” form may be a type of energy (revealed to Kira in one episode). In any case, he appears to revert to an energy based form when performing his transformations.
These shapeshifters are tricky customers!

The climax of this episode takes the time to provide some interesting insight into what it means to be a shapeshifter, how that impacts the identity of self and how love can transcend death. Also, how outer appearance is not important
Good, thought provoking stuff!


OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Winston Carter is a philanthropist, using his MONEY to help others. People often forget that currency based economics were still alive and well in the TOS era
• McCoy has a daughter? D.C. Fontana’s presence as showrunner is strongly felt
• The request for identity tapes when Carter comes on board (while unusual) is not a complete unknown in TOS; Charles Evans came aboard with his dossier on some data cards.
• Kirk claims he’s never fallen asleep whilst working before – maybe so, but he took plenty of naps and even dozed off at his desk in Season 3!
• Spock calls up the visual log of the Bridge to prove a point to Kirk. While it is a nice call back to Court Martial, I have to wonder how often this feature is used to settle arguments?
• Kirk is suddenly more observant than Spock, when he notices the extra bed in Sickbay. Of course, given how often they would wheel an extra bed into the sickbay ward his logic isn’t exactly flawless, but it works!
• I see the Romulans are still using “Klingon designs” for their starships...
• McCoy thinks a second Spock might be too much – a situation he actually witnessed a few weeks ago!
• Spock’s final remark to McCoy is full of just the right amount of snark and wit (considering what McCoy just said)

 

I guess they forgot about "The Deadly Years" when Kirk was asleep on the bridge? They weren't memorizing the TOS reruns like we were.

 

The TAS Engine Room might be a re-imagining of the Season 1 TOS Engine Room. This might suggest it is the same room but with a little updating. I also note that there is no light or "flow" of energy inside the clear vertical tube, and it is marked like a hypodermic further suggesting something like a fluid level or float inside. There are now six sets of tubes and light panels behind the grill. Hmm.

Now I wonder what happened to the Season 2-3 Engine Room?