Production Order Group Viewing 2018

[Poltargyst]

A Private Little War

I always liked this one.

Hmmm, Mugato prints. They look suspiciously like the prints of a certain large white rabbit.

Spock is shot! Between The Apple and this episode, Spock takes a real beating. Literally even.

Klingons again! I wonder why the Enterprise could detect them, but they didn't notice the Enterprise.

Neural is a "hands off" planet which I assume means neither the Klingons nor the Federation are allowed to directly interfere with it. Is that a result of the Organian treaty?

McCoy expressed his discomfort at treating Vulcans last week. Now they have M'Benga who is a Vulcan expert. It's nice to see M'Benga. It gives the feel that sickbay has an entire staff rather than just being McCoy and Chapel.

If Kirk and McCoy were really trying to dress like the locals, they would wear bad wigs too.

It's a Mugato! They are so awesome.

You're dying, Jim.

Is that the first (only?) log we hear by McCoy?

"I am a Khan-ut-tu woman. Men seek us because we are really hot." Yes, you are, Nona, in your little hot pants.

Oooh, Nona likes Kirk. Or is it the path to power that he represents?

Something tells me Nona is used to getting what she wants from Tyree. And from everyone else.

I'm not going to survive this episode. Nona is really hot.

"WE will speak of it." Oooh, burn, Nona, you're not invited to the meeting.

So the Klingons are arming the village people. Ha ha, village people. Which one's the construction worker?

Having seen Kirk make gunpowder while fighting the Gorn, McCoy now knows how to do it.

*Insert heavy Viet Nam allegory here*

It is a good debate between Kirk and McCoy about arming the hill people. I like it when both sides in a debate have a point, and TOS does a good job with that.

And is it the position of the powers that be of Star Trek that involvement in Viet Nam was correct?

How are they scanning the Klingon ship at will, and the Klingons don't even know they're there? No wonder Scotty could beam all the Tribbles over to the Klingons. They never saw them coming.

Nona, you vixen, manipulating Kirk. (That's okay, I can't resist you either.)

Tyree sees Kirk and Nona together and for the first time in his life he has the desire to kill.

Nona, you traitor! She's like Marlena from Mirror Mirror, moving from man to man depending on who can acquire the most power.

And now McCoy's shot! The Big Three take it hard this episode.

Now Tyree wants to kill. To paraphrase Spock in The Apple: "I submit there is no cause for worry. Tyree has learned to kill."

My heart weeps for Nona and her wonderful hot pants.

I'm really sad for Tyree. What a good man, wanting only to live in peace. Now he's lost his wife, his innocence, and his happiness, and life isn't going to get any easier. Sad ending.

Did I miss the explanation? Why were the Klingons arming the Village People? What were the Klingons getting out of it? Did they want to join the Navy? Stay at the YMCA? Were they just being Macho Men?

Did the Klingon have a name? He's no Kor or Kang. I know Klingons, and you sir are no Kor or Kang.

Alien Watch! The awesome Mugato!

Season 1
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 pancakes

Season 2
Sylvia and Korob
The Companion
The remarkably human looking (though tall) Cappellans.
Native Pollux IV-ians (Apollo and his gang)
Full-blooded Vulcans
The remarkably human looking citizens of Argelius II (WitF)
Redjac
The People of Vaal (Gamma Triangulians)
Crew of the ISS Enterprise
The remarkably human-looking** (except for maybe a dot on their forehead) Halkans
Tribbles (not at all human looking)
The remarkably human-looking citizens of...892-VI. Is that what they call this planet? (The Roman one.)
Tall guys, short guys, Andorians, Tellurites, purple lady, Orion made up like an Andorian. (JtB)
The remarkably human-looking people of Neural. (APLW)
The awesome Mugato!

*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request

 

[GNDN18]

If Kirk and McCoy were really trying to dress like the locals, they would wear bad wigs too.

Well…about that…erm.

 

[Poltargyst]

Well…about that…erm.
View attachment 8658

Are you suggesting they already were?

 

[GNDN18]

Are you suggesting they already were?

 

[johnnybear]

I was going to say they already were but that's not really fair as both guys wore great syrups! It wasn't until TMP and later on that Shatner's ever growing darker hair didn't seem to look right!
JB

 

[Mytran]

A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR

It’s made clear in the episode why Kirk wanted to preserve the balance of power between the hill people and the villagers. However, I’m still not clear on why the Klingons would bother interfering with this tiny underdeveloped world in the first place. It’s stated to be a “hands off” world so they can’t use it for territory gain or even a military lookout base. So why bother?
I understand that it’s supposed to be an allegory for the Vietnam war (obviously!) but the motivations for both parties are muddied, at best. At one point when Kirk and McCoy are gathering evidence of the firearms, the captain remarks that if they could only find a Klingon it would seal the proof they needed of outside interference and demonstrate unequivocally that the Klingons had broken the treaty.
This is a really good plan, did he forget it?
But, Kirk is probably tired and wants to get back to the ship. Running around is tiring…[/PLINKETT]

Other thoughts:

• Why are just Kirk, Spock and McCoy on the original survey team? Previous episodes have shown a variety of specialists on this kind of mission.
• Just like in The Apple, Spock takes a real beating! At least he’s less goofy this time
• Just like in Friday’s Child, the landing party are left alone on the planet while the Enterprise flies away as a result of Klingon interference.
• Speaking of Klingons, looks like they found the correct makeup colour again
• With Spock absent on the Bridge, the other characters get a lot more to say! It’s a good discussion about the situation on the planet, with everyone making good points (until Kirk shuts them down)
  
• Doctor M’Benga is a great addition to the medical team – I hope we see more of him
  The slapping scene is all kinds of fun
• Another discussion on the Prime Directive – this one has a very TNG-feel to it though, as Kirk is originally prepared to let the villagers murder all the hill people
• So, did frequent exposure to guns turn the villagers into rapists, or were they always that way inclined? Kirk must have not met many of them during his original survey mission.

WRITERS ROOM:
W1: So, we have a mystery. But won’t Spock quickly figure it out?
W2: Nah, Spock gets wounded and has to return to the ship. He spends most of the episode in Sickbay
W1: Didn't we do that last week?
W2: Yes, but he'll be mostly asleep this time.
W1: OK...But the episode is still running short!
W2: No problem, have Kirk get wounded too - that'll buy us some more time
W3: I've got this great idea for a space gorilla!

So it seems that (just like McCoy in Friday’s Child) Kirk spent some time with a pre-warp culture for an extended period of time. Do all Starfleet officer have a "gap year" like this?

I like the ending – it starts going down the jokey road with some Spock and McCoy banter, then reigns things back into a suitably sombre tone.

 

[johnnybear]

The Klingons believed that by causing a war between the Hill people and the Villagers eventually the surviving group (the Villagers) would readily welcome Klingon assistance and eventually become part of the Klingon Empire as Krell promised Apella in the episode! Simple!
JB

 

[Mytran]

Wouldn't that be in violation of the treaty that Kirk mentions?

 

[johnnybear]

Maybe but if Neural welcomes Klingon assistance rather than a direct interference that might not be against the treaty fixtures and it would be many years hence!
JB

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Why are just Kirk, Spock and McCoy on the original survey team? Previous episodes have shown a variety of specialists on this kind of mission.

Kirk is the specialist, having been there for a while. But yeah, I guess still you wonder why there wasn't a sociologist there for him to bounce ideas off of.

 

[Poltargyst]

Or a Psychologist, like Helen Noel.

 

[Poltargyst]

GOT

Yeah! Game of Thrones is back baby! Go Dany! What? Eh? Ooooooh, Gamesters of Triskelion? That's okay, too, I guess.

Interesting. I wonder why Kirk picked Chekov and Uhura to accompany him.

Nice to see a lady officer take over Chekov's role of manning Navigation and Spock's Science station.

Badass! Uhura takes on two opponents in the opening battle until one of hers takes down Kirk.

Nice to see McCoy is as supportive as ever for Spock while he's in command looking for the Captain. And this time Scotty's in on it.

What in the hell is Lars doing to Uhura to make her scream so?

Is there a reason they all got opposite-sex drill thralls or is that a coincidence?

Chekov's drill thrall is green-skinned. Orion? I see from Memory Alpha she's supposed to be yellow-skinned so not Orion. Oh, no, not another discussion about what colors are supposed to be vs. what they look like on camera.

Is Kloog of the same species as the big ugly guy Pike fought on Rigel 7, (Not to be confused with Rigel 4 or Rigel 5) considering he, too, is a big ugly guy?

McCoy, seriously, you don't know a damn thing. Shut up and go back to Sickbay. Such insubordination he displays sometimes. And he and Scotty end up wrong. And do we hear an apology for Spock? No we do not.

"Are they computers?" Kirk asks about the Providers, no doubt hoping he'll be able to make them self-destruct with a Logic Trap.

Why is Spock having to ask if Scotty can eke out Warp 7? The Enterprise has gone faster than that without issue before.

That was cold, decking Shahna like that.

In your faces, McCoy and Scotty, your people are there, Spock is right. Now you must both shine Spock's boots and do his chores (like cleaning the cat litter and taking out the trash) for the next month. Or maybe I'm remembering my childhood.

And we see the Providers at last! Brain and brain, what is brain? Too bad they can't introduce Kara to the Providers. Hmmm, maybe one of the Providers can be her peoples' Controller. Nah, he'd just want them to fight all the time.

Ok, the Providers aren't computers, but Kirk discovered their weakness: an inabilty to resist gambling.

When Providers lose bets, how do they hand over the winnings to each other? What do they spend quatloos on, and how do they spend them? Or are they just imaginary, just a way to keep score?

Oh, an Andorian thrall. Cool.

Kirk generally resists killing, but here he feels he has no choice and does kill to save himself and his crew.

Kirk displays some awesome Kirk Fu for the final fight scene. Actually, I was thinking Kirk's moves look a lot more realistic. Great job, Kirk, to defeat all the thralls he ends up facing.

Why does Shahna get to just surrender? It was supposed to be to the death. Maybe the Providers ran out of thralls and they didn't want her dead too.

I don't trust the Providers as far as I can throw them. Or as far as I can throw Kloog. What odds will anyone give me that if the Enterprise returned in a few years things would be back to the way they were? Or are they brains of their word?

It occurs to me that these thralls were kidnapped the way Kirk and crew were, but there's no talk of them returning to their homeworlds. Or of the Providers refraining from kidnapping anyone else.

I wonder how they settled all those side bets about whether the newcomers would prove to be untrainable and need to be killed.

Alien Watch! Quite an interesting collection. So do the Providers count as "omnipotent" aliens? That's one difference I notice between seasons 1 and 2. In Season 1, there's an omnipotent alien every time you turn around. They are much rarer this season. So do the Providers count? Decisions, decisions.

Season 1
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 pancakes

Season 2
Sylvia and Korob
The Companion
The remarkably human looking (though tall) Cappellans.
Native Pollux IV-ians (Apollo and his gang)
Full-blooded Vulcans
The remarkably human looking citizens of Argelius II (WitF)
Redjac
The People of Vaal (Gamma Triangulians)
Crew of the ISS Enterprise
The remarkably human-looking** (except for maybe a dot on their forehead) Halkans
Tribbles (not at all human looking)
The remarkably human-looking citizens of...892-VI. Is that what they call this planet? (The Roman one.)
Tall guys, short guys, Andorians, Tellurites, purple lady, Orion made up like an Andorian. (JtB)
The remarkably human-looking people of Neural. (APLW)
The awesome Mugato!
Shahna, Lars, Tamoon, Kloog, Thrallmaster Galt, and the Providers*

*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request

 

[Phaser Two]

She's not my type exactly, but Nona was unbelievably attractive. A Private Little War is a terrific all-around episode.

 

[plynch]

She's not my type exactly, but Nona was unbelievably attractive. A Private Little War is a terrific all-around episode.

It has a weirdness to it that some of S2 lacks. Plus a good moral dilemma and NOT chuckling about it at the end. Must rewatch.

 

[mb22]

She's not my type exactly, but Nona was unbelievably attractive. A Private Little War is a terrific all-around episode.

Nancy Kovack (still alive and married to conductor Zubin Mehta) was also in the 1963 Ray Harryhausen Jason and the Argonauts.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Nancy Kovack (still alive and married to conductor Zubin Mehta) was also in the 1963 Ray Harryhausen Jason and the Argonauts.

She was in The Silencers (but Stella Stevens had the better role), Batman, I Dream of Genie, and Bewitched. So it would be a little weird if I didn't find her familiar in Star Trek.

 

[johnnybear]

As Nona she looked nothing like Medea in Jason and The Argonauts despite both brunette wigs she wore!
JB

 

[Henoch]

As Nona she looked nothing like Medea in Jason and The Argonauts despite both brunette wigs she wore!
JB

The 2000 mini-series of "Jason and the Argonauts" starred Jolene Blalock as Medea...interesting.

 

[plynch]

Rewatched it, danged good. Never on my all time classics, but better than I remember. But I like moral dilemma, societal issue eps.

 

[Mytran]

GAMESTERS OF TRISKELION

I remember this episode as being a fairly harmless middle of the road outing, but didn't realise just how full of Trek tropes and recycled plot points it is:
There's an enslaved race, Kirk uses romance to further his agenda, Shatner shouts & overacts, and the whole planet is set free at the end even though we know nothing about the society. McCoy and Spock squabble as well and although the Enterprise was separated from the landing party (yet again) at least it was never put in danger as well. Unfortunately, that also removes Kirk's usual excuse for overturning a society, in that his ship is in peril.
Not a great episode, but sadly also one that best exemplifies the layman’s idea of what TOS is

Other thoughts:

• Kirk’s musing on where they are “if we’re even in the same dimension” – a reference to Mirror Mirror maybe?
• Wow, the actor playing Kloog is REALLY TALL.
• Galt has this weird mottled makeup on his face. An interesting and original look!
• Kirk wastes no time in putting the moves on Shahna (he clearly knows what sort of tropey plot he’s in)
• The "population" of Triskelion is even smaller than that of The Apple – what is with all these planets inhabited with just a smattering of people? Is there really enough genetic diversity to build a healthy society?
• McCoy is back to being unnecessarily irritable with Spock again. Fortunately, Spock’s retorts are more true to his character than earlier in the season.
• Is that a Vulcan net that Kloog is whirling around at Kirk?
• Kirk gets shirtless again, but I think this is the first time that his tunic is WHIPPED off him!
• The ruins from the Man Trap planet make an appearance, to remind us of better written stories...
• Shatner does his best to stay on the yellow areas in the final fight with various athletic leaps but his opponents pretty much step all over place, especially Kloog.
• Does Shahna really have the authority to surrender on behalf of the thralls? Wouldn’t Galt have to be the one to do that?

The timeline of this episode seems extremely compact. In an hour the crew have a fight, are captured, collared, attempt an escape and are reconfined, while Mr Spock completes a search of the entire Gamma2 solar system! Then Shahna brings Kirk some food - presumably lunch, as he hasn't eaten in a while (he didn't realise how hungry he was). It seems to be later in the day when they go out jogging, which leads directly onto supper with Shahna and then Kirk making his deal with the 3 brains. So...maybe 18 hours in total? To arrive, assess the situation and totally overturn an alien society? Hmmm.......

Spock reverts to being uber-logical whenever he’s in command – I like his jibe about “human contamination” though, it’s just the right level of snark that the situation demands to break the tension. However, the rest of the episode is just the senior officers arguing among themselves...and McCoy & Scott are damn near unsubordinate! The worst is when Spock has to play their little games in order to get them just to do their jobs!
Certainly not their finest hour, although they regain their military dignity a little once Spock mentions mutiny.

Interesting. I wonder why Kirk picked Chekov and Uhura to accompany him.

Hi opening log entry says that Gamma2 holds an automatic communications and astrogation station. So while a bit of a contrivence, at least there is a reason.

Alien Watch! Quite an interesting collection. So do the Providers count as "omnipotent" aliens? That's one difference I notice between seasons 1 and 2. In Season 1, there's an omnipotent alien every time you turn around. They are much rarer this season. So do the Providers count? Decisions, decisions.

In the final act it seems that the Providers have been planning to capture a bunch of humans for quite some time. However, how do the Providers know so much about Kirk, Spock and Uhura? They have the long range transportation system, but can they also hack the Enterprise’s records at that distance? Apparently so!
So, maybe not omnipotent aliens, but certainly ones with access to a lot of technology.