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Production Order Group Viewing 2018

This has been speculated on before, many times! :techman:
Quoting from Memory Alpha:

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/World_War_I
Spock's figure of six million deaths falls short of the sixteen million casualties of World War I, but may be a reference to seven million civilian deaths or the number of deaths as a result of "despotism"

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/World_War_II
In TOS: "Bread and Circuses", Spock states that eleven million people died in World War II. This, however, severely contradicts current data, which places the death toll anywhere from a low of twenty million (if only military is counted) to a high of over seventy million (if military and civilians are counted). Most counts settle on around fifty million or so.

Spock may have been referring solely to civilian casualties as a result of "slavery" and "despotism" rather than the total war itself. 11 million is a number frequently given for civilian deaths solely from Nazi policies. This might explain the six million figure he gave for World War I, too, as that is about an average (slightly on the low side) estimate of civilian deaths out of a World War I total of about sixteen million.
 
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Spock may have been referring solely to civilian casualties as a result of "slavery" and "despotism" rather than the total war itself. 11 million is a number frequently given for civilian deaths solely from Nazi policies. This might explain the six million figure he gave for World War I, too, as that is about an average (slightly on the low side) estimate of civilian deaths out of a World War I total of about sixteen million.

That actually makes sense in the context of the conversation with McCoy, but if it was intentional, the writer should have put "civilian" in there. It's just a little odd to ignore military deaths.
 
Maybe Discovery is set in the universe where Future Guy affected the past?

Or maybe in season two, they'll confirm they are in the universe where Edith lived!

I've always said that Future Guy actually created the timeline of ENT so why not DSC which never happened that way originally as we know!
JB
 
OPERATION ANNIHILATE

Not a bad end to Season One, but a big step down from the last 3 episodes. The episode is oddly split, with the first half full of Kirk's concern over his family and the second half focused almost exclusively on Mr Spock. And why is Kirk so determined to get Spock blinded. Does he feel the situation needs a little more drama?

It is nice to see badass Mr Scott again, guarding the transporter room. While Kyle gets knocked out by Spock, Scotty coolly commands the scenario at the point of a phaser.

Incidentally, in a callback to Man Trap I see Kirk is back to destroying the monster of the week again. Remember Devil in The Dark?
 
I realize she was in a lot of pain, but I wish she could have done something besides scream.:rolleyes:
You mean something like tell Captain Kirk where the aliens came from and when and that the aliens were controlling the Denevans' bodies and forcing the Denevans to build ships for them? Yeah....
 
I loved Operation Annihilate as a kid. I almost wish it had been a two-parter. There is so much going on here with Kirk's family, the planet, Spock's infection, I just would have liked more of everything. It's interesting how Shatner powers on through deflecting the emotional bullets that keep being fired Kirk's way until the job is done.

Scotty was indeed as awesome as ever, and Chapel pops back up in only her third appearance and even gets to put her bio research skills to some use. It's just a shame nobody has enough faith in her to wait around for her results.

The dialogue of the Yeomen hits a new low in this episode but I'm sure they'll be given something more worthwhile to do next season. What was very insulting is that Zahra is the only woman on the landing party and the only one who appears to be unarmed. WTF? Even McCoy has a phaser. It's really odd that they made choices like this when writing the show.

Spock's troubles are wrapped up very rapidly and very conveniently, missing an opportunity to explore some interesting story potential .
 
Operation: Annihilate!

How many TOS titles have an exclamation point?

Warp 8? How far from the Deneva sun are they? They seem awful close to the sun to be going so fast.

Then they reduce to sublight to go to Deneva.

Kirk has a brother! (Not for long)

A hint of Scotty's pre-Enterprise career? He made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs or something.

Kirk all up in Uhura's grill. Good for her for standing up for herself. "They aren't broadcasting, jackass."

Kirk knows his brother's building by sight. He's been there before.

Why do I have visions of Peter pumping his fist?

"What kind of things?" "Pancakes! Flying pancakes!"

Joan Swift really knows how to scream and be hysterical.

Damn, these things are really freaky.

"It doesn't even look real!" Good lampshading.

Actually, I think it's great how they can take cheap, cheesy special effects and make them so scary: Gorn, Horta, Flying Pancakes.

Shows how strong Vulcans are. Takes the entire bridge crew to stop Spock.

Wow, the transporter personnel resisted being incapacitated.

How do you go planet to planet from another galaxy? And where would they come from that doesn't have the same physical laws we do?

Enterprise has 14 science labs. Neat.

Another dramatic briefing room scene. When they go to the briefing room, the stakes are high indeed.

Why is Spock trying to walk while blind?

Wow, unnecessarily blinding Spock was a pretty colossal screw up.

So the Enterprise carries a complement of what? 40 satellites? Also neat.

Third time now Kirk tells Spock to lay in a course rather than the navigator. No wonder they can cycle anyone into the navigator's chair. Apparently navigators don't have to do much.

It occurs to me again that the Federation is still under the non-violence restrictions of the Organians, and yet they are still allowed to run around with hand phasers and even shoot people. Maybe because they were only firing on stun? Also, they did a lot of violence to the Flying Pancakes. Did the Organians allow that because they didn't actually use conventional weapons and they did it to protect the innocent?

Good episode. I always liked the ones with the weird aliens.

And so we come to the end of Season 1. I think someone should do a Season 1 summary, but I don't think that someone should be me. Anyone care to do one? What trends, observations, arcs, themes did we see in Season 1? One thing off the top of my head is how many Omnipotent Aliens there are running around a small region of space the Enterprise has visited. Is that representative of the whole galaxy/universe?

Alien Watch! Did the Flying Pancakes** ever get a name? I don't remember one in the episode. I don't see one on the Wiki page either. I do see from the Wiki page that they were actually bags of fake vomit. Awesome. Ah, well, fake vomit they will be...

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)
Giant ape creatures of Taurus II
Shore Leave Caretaker guy
Trelaine and his folks*
Gorn
Metrons*
The Lazerii
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Beta 3. (RotA)
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Emineminar VII (AToA)
The Triffids of Omicron Ceti III (TSoP)
The refreshingly non-human-looking Horta
Organians*
Klingons! (Remarkably human looking).
(The Guardian of Forever)
Flying bags of fake vomit*** encountered on Deneva

*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**Another great band name.
***Also a great band name
 
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OPERATION ANNIHILATE


Incidentally, in a callback to Man Trap I see Kirk is back to destroying the monster of the week again. Remember Devil in The Dark?

The thing is they weren't the monster of the week! They were a highly aggressive race of creatures bent on taking over humans and spreading out to the other inhabited planets of the Federation! They were a Gestalt entity which used pain and discomfort to it's prey and death seemed to be the only release until the arrival of the Enterprise put a stop to their invasion plans! Slightly similar to the TNG episode in their first season!
JB
 
Warp 8? How far from the Deneva sun are they? They seem awful close to the sun to be going so fast.

Then they reduce to sublight to go to Deneva.
Flying that fast towards the sun seemed OK in Tomorrow Is Yesterday though. If flying that close to the gravitational mass of a large body like a star is enough to slow down the relative speed of a warp driven starship to such an extent though, it makes you wonder why Kirk would order it in the first place. Maybe going warp 8 still gets you a slight edge over Impulse Power?

Third time now Kirk tells Spock to lay in a course rather than the navigator. No wonder they can cycle anyone into the navigator's chair. Apparently navigators don't have to do much.
Did you mean to say "Sulu" instead of "Spock"? I checked the transcript and he addresses the helmsman several times in the course of the episode. Granted it's still not the navigator, but at least he's sat in roughly the right part of the Bridge! :biggrin:

It occurs to me again that the Federation is still under the non-violence restrictions of the Organians, and yet they are still allowed to run around with hand phasers and even shoot people. Maybe because they were only firing on stun? Also, they did a lot of violence to the Flying Pancakes. Did the Organians allow that because they didn't actually use conventional weapons and they did it to protect the innocent?
At this point I think we have to accept that the Organian's level of interference was strictly limited to the conflict between the Klingons and the Federation - Ayelborne's speech certainly focused more on the impending war than just general aggression as a whole:
AYELBORNE: As I stand here, I also stand upon the home planet of the Klingon Empire, and the home planet of your Federation, Captain. I'm putting a stop to this insane war.
...
AYELBORNE: Unless both sides agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities, all your armed forces, wherever they may be, will be immediately immobilised.
...
AYELBORNE: It is no trick, Commander. We have simply put an end to your war. All your military forces, wherever they are, are now completely paralysed.
 
At this point I think we have to accept that the Organian's level of interference was strictly limited to the conflict between the Klingons and the Federation - Ayelborne's speech certainly focused more on the impending war than just general aggression as a whole:
I always thought they were just talking about the Klingon-Federation conflict. And the Organians cared only enough to keep the conflict at something more or less like the Cold War. But by the third season, it was even allowed for a Klingon ship to fire on a Federation ship. If the Organians were consistent all along (through TOS), then proxy wars and skirmishes between Federation and Klingons were OK.
 
Kirk has a brother! (Not for long)

Kirk's brother was portrayed by William Shatner. It's a little surprising that he went to the trouble, rather than just have a handsome background actor lie there for the shot. Anyway, it was good continuity with WALGMO. I was extremely irked in STAR TREK V when Kirk says "I had a brother once", and it turned out to be a mere rhetorical flourish in film that had no memory of actual Star Trek. Zero research, crap writing. Bjo Trimble had already published the research: all they had to do was open the Concordance and flip to the page for Kirk. They couldn't be bothered.

Joan Swift really knows how to scream and be hysterical.

I have no anecdote about it, but that HAD to be what her audition was about.

Third time now Kirk tells Spock to lay in a course rather than the navigator. No wonder they can cycle anyone into the navigator's chair. Apparently navigators don't have to do much.

When that happens, the captain is delegating the order to the first officer, who is overseeing the bridge crew. It doesn't mean that Spock physically pushes the buttons.

It occurs to me again that the Federation is still under the non-violence restrictions of the Organians, and yet they are still allowed to run around with hand phasers and even shoot people. Maybe because they were only firing on stun? Also, they did a lot of violence to the Flying Pancakes. Did the Organians allow that because they didn't actually use conventional weapons and they did it to protect the innocent?

I think the Organian action was just for the one Klingon conflict, in that one place and time. It was just a temporary restraining order. Deep down, the Organians did not give a crap about corporeal beings. They just wanted to put some kids in a timeout, and then forget all about it the next day.
 
One thing that made a very strong impression on younger me many years ago is Mr. Spock's "Pain is a thing of the mind, the mind can be controlled." I don't know how many times I got through painful situations that I told myself, yes it hurts but I can get through it. This had an actual impact on my life.

And now for something else, not long ago I was at the big box store and I saw a holiday fruitcake. It was ugly and shiny and didn't even look real, I started to say it doesn't even look real and somehow it instantly turned into, "It's one of those things that attacked Deneva and killed Captain Kirk's brother!"
 
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