Production Order Group Viewing 2018
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The Man Trap
The episode opens with Spock in command! And Uhura’s at the helm! Nice that they gave her something to do besides communications and display skill in another area.
I notice two of the guys killed wore blue shirts. Wouldn’t it be funny if it turned out that guys wearing blue shirts are more likely to get killed in this show than guys wearing other colors?
“He’s dead, Jim.” Second one after the dog last week.
Really the stupidest thing the creature could do is kill the first guy. They could have received a bunch of salt from the Enterprise and then the Enterprise would have left. It really can’t control itself when it’s hungry.
Is Uhura hitting on Spock?
Spock seems more reserved than he used to be. Not shouty anymore.
So many people in the corridors! The Enterprise is a crowded busy place!
Fun to see Rand interact with other crewmembers.
This creature really doesn’t cover its tracks very well, leaving bodies everywhere. It’s intelligent, but clearly has some difficulties in its thinking. When it’s hungry it can think of nothing else.
I wonder how Crater can tell the creature when it’s in any form.
Spock: “My blood cells are different.” They don’t use salt?
And now that I think about it, how does a creature subsist on just salt?
This episode is not really a favorite of mine, but it has good character interactions and a creepy horror movie vibe.
The episode opens with Spock in command! And Uhura’s at the helm! Nice that they gave her something to do besides communications and display skill in another area.
I notice two of the guys killed wore blue shirts. Wouldn’t it be funny if it turned out that guys wearing blue shirts are more likely to get killed in this show than guys wearing other colors?
“He’s dead, Jim.” Second one after the dog last week.
Really the stupidest thing the creature could do is kill the first guy. They could have received a bunch of salt from the Enterprise and then the Enterprise would have left. It really can’t control itself when it’s hungry.
Is Uhura hitting on Spock?
Spock seems more reserved than he used to be. Not shouty anymore.
So many people in the corridors! The Enterprise is a crowded busy place!
Fun to see Rand interact with other crewmembers.
This creature really doesn’t cover its tracks very well, leaving bodies everywhere. It’s intelligent, but clearly has some difficulties in its thinking. When it’s hungry it can think of nothing else.
I wonder how Crater can tell the creature when it’s in any form.
Spock: “My blood cells are different.” They don’t use salt?
And now that I think about it, how does a creature subsist on just salt?
This episode is not really a favorite of mine, but it has good character interactions and a creepy horror movie vibe.
Just three comments I wanted to answer among many, many good ones.
"They really packed them in on these old ships." And in S1 in particular.
I liked Rand's interactions here as well. Good call. She fit in well with everyone.
I figured Crater knew behavioral tics and could recognize them. I don't know how he gained that practice, though, unless the salt vampire was doing one-creature costume plays for him.
Hey, doesn't Uhura sit at the library computer station later in the ep as well?
It may not. Perhaps it hungers for salt the way Jem'hadar do for ketracel white.
Or perhaps its body metabolizes salt very quickly, necessitating frequent intake of the mineral. What I wonder is, why couldn't the Enterprise send down some geologists to locate natural salt deposits?
Right out of the gate, Kirk's log switches from the present tense at the start to past tense just after the title sequence. Sort it out, man! 
We start this week’s story with more great banter between Kirk and McCoy. The two really are great friends – except when Kirk pulls rank later on – but then again this is the first death of a crewman in the series and it clearly affects Kirk deeply. He goes from being good humoured at the cantankerous professor Crater to tearing McCoy a new one (Kirk is still his commanding officer after all, their friendship needs to have limits). I’m a little shocked that no-one seems questions Darnell eating the plant. As we’ll see again next week, training for the junior officers has some shocking omissions of common sense!
New this week:
There’s a real focus in this Star Trek universe on gathering specimens from distant worlds (last week) and shipping back physical artefacts (this week). Now, we see where the plant specimens likely end up – the botany lab! There’s a certain familiarity to that set, I wonder if it appears elsewhere...
We also finally get to see the other end of the curved corridor – which has an odd bend in it (no doubt to accommodate the angled walls of the Sickbay ward)
Reused sets and dodgy hand puppets aside, these scenes really expand our view of daily life on the Enterprise. Rand gets to speak her mind in a way she would never have been able to do with Mr Spock – her interactions with Sulu come off much better, like banter between work colleagues and she certainly takes no nonsense off the leering crewmen in the corridor.
The scene featuring the chilli peppers is more world building of this far future time. Starships have a multitude of tasks on the frontier, it seems!
McCoy’s technophobia surfaces a little – just like the Transporter he’ll trust the machinery to a certain degree, but still wants to see a “healthy pair of tonsils” to sign off his report.
Someone on the writing staff has a real affection for flowery dialogue. In Corbomite Manoeuvre we got
Great handheld camera work (after the second salt attack on the planet) when Kirk walks down the corridor – we follow him right into the turbolift! The Turbolift machinery clunks a bit, but in fact a lot of the doors in this episode rattle more than usual too. Bobby has clearly been favouring Lt Uhura and derelict in his duties!
THREE edits of interest this week:
A laser pistol from The Cage makes its reappearance, in the hands of Crater! When persuing the troublesome professor, Kirk keeps his phaser on stun but tells Spock to set his weapon to “one quarter”. Is that a quarter stun or a quarter of the phaser’s full power? It’ll either tickle him or disintegrate him! Sadly, we never find out as Kirk take the shot himself.
Remember when Kirk risked his ship to save an apparent enemy in Corbomite Manoeuvre and almost broke his ship trying to rescue a fleeing vessel in Mudd’s Women? Well, that incident last week must have changed his perspective somewhat, because now he’s on the warpath to kill the salt monster, even after learning that it is intelligent and could be communicated with. His lecture to Crater about “winning all the arguments” is pretty much an accusation of “virtue signalling” and Kirk has no patience for any of it beyond a little musing after the creature is safely dead.
Finally, Spock pounding the tar out of Nancy is one of the funniest scenes in Star Trek, no contest
I have to agree! Also, I never noticed this before (I love rewatches!) but FakeNancy almost does the finger-on-face thing to McCoy, just before she heads out and entices Darnell away. Great foreshadowing from the actress! The creature must have been ravenous, but clever enough to suppress that urge in order to avoid raising too much suspicion
The biggest giveaway is that when in human form the salt-creature gnaws on a knuckle almost constantly. Maybe the real Nancy never did that?
We start this week’s story with more great banter between Kirk and McCoy. The two really are great friends – except when Kirk pulls rank later on – but then again this is the first death of a crewman in the series and it clearly affects Kirk deeply. He goes from being good humoured at the cantankerous professor Crater to tearing McCoy a new one (Kirk is still his commanding officer after all, their friendship needs to have limits). I’m a little shocked that no-one seems questions Darnell eating the plant. As we’ll see again next week, training for the junior officers has some shocking omissions of common sense!
New this week:
- Uhura’s back from erm…Engineering School, I guess? Anyway, she is now in a red uniform (and manning the navigation station). Good instance of multi-disciplinary training
- First appearance of the Tricorders and no-one seems entirely clear what to do with them. Either that or these versions have a really short range, since Kirk can’t detect Nancy approaching the house, nor do they consider using it to track down Crater when he goes on the run later.
- First example of a character not giving a clear explanation over the intercom, forcing a senior officer to leave the Bridge and go to the other person’s location (TNG does this a lot!). With all this time wasted it’s no wonder Kirk has to give up his lunch break and eat his food on the Bridge (another first)
- First confirmation that Spock’s blood is green – we see a little of it on his forehead after the salt creature attacks him in Sickbay. Also, sparkly space bandages!
- Wrigley’s Pleasure Planet is mentioned - did Lt Darnell go there before he was transferred to the Enterprise or is there a particular…interesting episode of Star Trek that we haven’t seen yet?
- Truth serum exists in this universe. There are presumably nasty side effects (McCoy is reluctant to use it) but what a useful option to have available!
There’s a real focus in this Star Trek universe on gathering specimens from distant worlds (last week) and shipping back physical artefacts (this week). Now, we see where the plant specimens likely end up – the botany lab! There’s a certain familiarity to that set, I wonder if it appears elsewhere...
We also finally get to see the other end of the curved corridor – which has an odd bend in it (no doubt to accommodate the angled walls of the Sickbay ward)
Reused sets and dodgy hand puppets aside, these scenes really expand our view of daily life on the Enterprise. Rand gets to speak her mind in a way she would never have been able to do with Mr Spock – her interactions with Sulu come off much better, like banter between work colleagues and she certainly takes no nonsense off the leering crewmen in the corridor.
The scene featuring the chilli peppers is more world building of this far future time. Starships have a multitude of tasks on the frontier, it seems!
McCoy’s technophobia surfaces a little – just like the Transporter he’ll trust the machinery to a certain degree, but still wants to see a “healthy pair of tonsils” to sign off his report.
Someone on the writing staff has a real affection for flowery dialogue. In Corbomite Manoeuvre we got
And now we have Kirk espousing words like an old gumshoe, with:
Followed by:
Great handheld camera work (after the second salt attack on the planet) when Kirk walks down the corridor – we follow him right into the turbolift! The Turbolift machinery clunks a bit, but in fact a lot of the doors in this episode rattle more than usual too. Bobby has clearly been favouring Lt Uhura and derelict in his duties!
THREE edits of interest this week:
- When “General Quarters 3” is called, there is not one but TWO women (a Lieutenant and an Ensign) seen wearing TROUSERS. So, it seems like the minidress variant is an option, albeit one that most Enterprise women prefer.
- We are then treated to an unaired clip from WNMHGB (no mistaking those uniforms!) as someone descends a ladder and there is more rushing about.
- Finally, when Kirk is running to the “dispensary” after Spock is attacked that is actually a clip from next week’s episode when he runs to Engineering (his utility belt disappears from the shot)
A laser pistol from The Cage makes its reappearance, in the hands of Crater! When persuing the troublesome professor, Kirk keeps his phaser on stun but tells Spock to set his weapon to “one quarter”. Is that a quarter stun or a quarter of the phaser’s full power? It’ll either tickle him or disintegrate him! Sadly, we never find out as Kirk take the shot himself.
Remember when Kirk risked his ship to save an apparent enemy in Corbomite Manoeuvre and almost broke his ship trying to rescue a fleeing vessel in Mudd’s Women? Well, that incident last week must have changed his perspective somewhat, because now he’s on the warpath to kill the salt monster, even after learning that it is intelligent and could be communicated with. His lecture to Crater about “winning all the arguments” is pretty much an accusation of “virtue signalling” and Kirk has no patience for any of it beyond a little musing after the creature is safely dead.
Finally, Spock pounding the tar out of Nancy is one of the funniest scenes in Star Trek, no contest
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I rate this one highly because of the crew interaction despite the hokey plot, plus the concept of the alien is cool. Crater's exposition was nice too. Very sci fi.
The crew banter is fun. It's nice to see McCoy being fleshed out and the episode has Rand's best dialogue in her scene with Sulu, and some cracking dialogue for Uhura too. I wish we'd had a couple more scenes of Rand with the junior crew.
You can tell Uhura is as horny as hell: not only does she hit on Spock, she asks a crewman to attend her quarters to fix her rattling doors if you know what I'm saying. A Spuhura romance would have been far more fun than drippy Chapel for sure.
The crew banter is fun. It's nice to see McCoy being fleshed out and the episode has Rand's best dialogue in her scene with Sulu, and some cracking dialogue for Uhura too. I wish we'd had a couple more scenes of Rand with the junior crew.
You can tell Uhura is as horny as hell: not only does she hit on Spock, she asks a crewman to attend her quarters to fix her rattling doors if you know what I'm saying. A Spuhura romance would have been far more fun than drippy Chapel for sure.
First off, why is this episode referred to as "The Unreal McCoy?" I have a reference guide with the correct title and The Unreal McCoy in parentheses.
I'm with everyone else on the banter seen among Rand, Sulu, and Uhura. I would love to see more "lower decks' style episodes featuring the junior officers. Or more relaxed, off duty moments.
I like some of the sets that show a curved portion of the ceiling. Really gives the impression the section is located in the saucer where the decks increase in diameter.
Uhura in red really pops. And who was that at the helm with her? Does Sulu double as botanist? Just a hobby? Was he off duty?
Crater with the old style laser from The Cage. Nice.
This salt creature, does it absorb memories from its victims? Nah, that doesn't make sense. It must read memories from those around it. It only knew about Nancy what McCoy remembered about Nancy, like the nickname plumb. The salt creature probably didn't know anything about Nancy that McCoy or Crater knew. Interesting camouflage how it appeared differently to whomever was looking at it.
How much salt does it need? Survived for years without killing Crater after Nancy died and then bang, goes on a feeding frenzy among the Enterprise crew. Couldn't even resist killing Crater at the end.
I'm with everyone else on the banter seen among Rand, Sulu, and Uhura. I would love to see more "lower decks' style episodes featuring the junior officers. Or more relaxed, off duty moments.
I like some of the sets that show a curved portion of the ceiling. Really gives the impression the section is located in the saucer where the decks increase in diameter.
Uhura in red really pops. And who was that at the helm with her? Does Sulu double as botanist? Just a hobby? Was he off duty?
Crater with the old style laser from The Cage. Nice.
This salt creature, does it absorb memories from its victims? Nah, that doesn't make sense. It must read memories from those around it. It only knew about Nancy what McCoy remembered about Nancy, like the nickname plumb. The salt creature probably didn't know anything about Nancy that McCoy or Crater knew. Interesting camouflage how it appeared differently to whomever was looking at it.
How much salt does it need? Survived for years without killing Crater after Nancy died and then bang, goes on a feeding frenzy among the Enterprise crew. Couldn't even resist killing Crater at the end.
I can't tell if you're joking or not but "The Unreal McCoy" was the working title for this episode, as well as the name James Blish gave to his novelisation.
This is why I am really looking forward to revisiting the first half of Season One
Sounds like someone's idea of a joke about the creature's impersonation of Bones not being "the real McCoy."
Definitely telepathic although strangely the dialogue among the crew doesn't really cover that. (One of Kirk's retrospective voiceovers does, however.) It tells Uhura that it resembles "someone [she was] thinking of just now" or something to that effect. So it can probably sense some rudimentary memories as well.
Yup. "HE'S the real spook" is one of my favorites.
I believe that's Blish's title. George Clayton Johnson called one version of the story "Damsel with a Dulcimer," but every other version that I can remember seeing called it "The Man Trap."
Much thanks. I've not read but maybe 1 or 2 Blish adaptations. This answers the question.
Uhura was thinking about a man that she never saw before. The crewman at the beginning was thinking about a woman he knew on Wrigley's Pleasure Planet.
Hmm... I wonder if they chew a lot of gum on that planet. And a whole planet named like a brothel or theme park.
I always wanted to try one of those salt tablets when I was a kid.
It's more than just the jr officers banter. The casual attitude of Kirk as well is a treat. Snacking on the bridge. The dialog with McCoy about the little red pills. The casual conversation with Mitchell about the chess game with Spock from Where No Man.... All are nice tidbits.
Uhura makes it clear Kirk is Spock's closest friend. In Where No Man Spock calls Kirk "Jim" in a rare break of protocol. Obviously they have known each other a while. With McCoy, I'm not so sure, though. Until now I always thought they were friends before season 1 but now I'm not sure. Yes, there is the Bones nickname, but is that evidence of a long friendship? Kinda the same point someone made about Scotty. Did they just gel right away or have they known each other for a long time?
Do we know how long into the 5 year mission this is? How much time between Where No Man and the rest of season 1? Obviously enough time for internal and external challenges to the Enterprise.
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OK thanks. I wonder where I got the working title notion from?
I prefer the foreshadowing of her psychiatric qualifications ready for her appearance in Dagger of the Mind: "Suppose he's going space happy, or something ?"
That was to prevent Crater from telling them how to identify it in whatever form it assumes.
Maybe Sulu should have been a relief science officer instead of Chekov. In "Where No Man Has Gone Before", he's apparently the head of astrosciences.
Yeah, Chekov seems interested in life sciences and ecology (also reflected in TWoK) but Sulu should have been more astro sciences. In Shore Leave though, Sulu's analysis clearly shows his interest in botany is quite technical.
Uhura's interest in singing isn't overly useful. I wish she'd also been given a second string to her bow.
Or an episode where her interest in music helps with the dilemma. Like in "The Paradise Syndrome", if she and Spock discovered the bit about the musical notes together.
Sulu later chimes in a mathematical calculation in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" - I guess people in astronomical studies are used to dealing with big numbers.
Sulu later chimes in a mathematical calculation in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" - I guess people in astronomical studies are used to dealing with big numbers.
What is the creature doing? They do the 3 different images of Nancy and then forget about this entirely.
Kirk feels very out of character. Sure, he's pissed this thing is killing his crew, but once he decides it's gotta be killed he doesn't think rationally any more. He's got Crater right there in front of him, and doesn't ask, "What would make it stop? Why is it attacking my crew when you still have salt tablets and we're about to give you more? Do you understand this thing at all, Professor?" Had something like that happened, then maybe I'd have better bought his not even considering offering to let it go back down to the planet with all the salt it can eat if it will just cooperate.
Kirk feels very out of character. Sure, he's pissed this thing is killing his crew, but once he decides it's gotta be killed he doesn't think rationally any more. He's got Crater right there in front of him, and doesn't ask, "What would make it stop? Why is it attacking my crew when you still have salt tablets and we're about to give you more? Do you understand this thing at all, Professor?" Had something like that happened, then maybe I'd have better bought his not even considering offering to let it go back down to the planet with all the salt it can eat if it will just cooperate.
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