Production Order Group Viewing 2018
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I wonder if on a normal naval ship if something happens to the captain do the crew decide amongst themselves what to do next. I thought they's automatically follow the orders of the next in command rather than arguing every single command
I'm not really a fan Of Private Little War. I think it lacks any compelling sci fi elements for me.
GoT I loved though even if it's really hammy. On a rewatch I was slightly appalled at how casually Kirk manipulates and uses Shanna. He can be ruthless when he needs to be.
I like that they have female gladiators, although it would have been more fun if they'd had more defined combat styles or even some unexpected super powers all Pokemon stylie. It would also have been cool if Uhura's screams in part one could have been followed by her handing her drill thrall his a## in part two.
I thought their escape attempts were amateurish and poorly thought out. I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more focus on them scoping out the nature of their prison, Uhura sussing out the nature of the collars, and a more sensible longer term escape.
GoT I loved though even if it's really hammy. On a rewatch I was slightly appalled at how casually Kirk manipulates and uses Shanna. He can be ruthless when he needs to be.
I like that they have female gladiators, although it would have been more fun if they'd had more defined combat styles or even some unexpected super powers all Pokemon stylie. It would also have been cool if Uhura's screams in part one could have been followed by her handing her drill thrall his a## in part two.
I thought their escape attempts were amateurish and poorly thought out. I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more focus on them scoping out the nature of their prison, Uhura sussing out the nature of the collars, and a more sensible longer term escape.
You present no danger while you wear the collar! And you wear it as long as you live! 
JB
JB
Well, that's supposed to be how it works.
Obsession
Good tune. Animotion, 1984.
Good episode! One of my favs.
Phaser II's can cut a substance 20...er...21.4 times harder than diamond.
As Kirk sends his redshirts off to die. And what a body count this episode!
Two redshirts dead in the first 3 1/2 minutes. Has to be a record.
Jim...deliver the shipment. Come back and fight the monster later.
"I am perfectly aware that it might cost lives on Theta VII."
Kirk knows he's sacrificing lives for this!
"Are you the new security officer?" "Yes, sir." "Are you crazy?"
I like Garrovick. I like that we learn some of Kirk's backstory on the Farragut.
Kirk feels safe beaming down with a squad of redshirts because he knows the redshirts will die first.
Four redshirts down in less than 15 minutes.
Spock and McCoy actually have a nice conversation about Kirk. It's almost as if they like each other or something!
Love the scene of Spock and McCoy confronting Kirk.
Why would the creature have to be the same one as 11 years ago?
Barely closing on the creature at warp 8? A natural phenomenon going that fast?
"Go to warp 6", Kirk says reluctantly. Reminiscent of Decker's "veer off" in Doomsday Machine. There certainly are parallels between Kirk and Decker and between O and DM. They even use DM music here!
Nice conversation between Chapel and Garrovick. This episode gives a lot of nice character interactions. Good stuff.
Apparently Garrovick doesn't like Chapel's cooking any more than Spock in AT.
How does it get through shields? That time-shift thing it does?
Five men down now.
Um...how does flushing radioactive waste into the ventilation system affect the crew?
This thing can time-shift? Everything it can do, and it's fueled by blood?
Spock's super-physiology saves him again.
Nice conversation between Kirk and Garrovick as they both realize their hesitations didn't matter. So many good character moments.
It is kind of amazing to me that Kirk spent 11 years beating himself up because he thought phasers would have killed the cloud.
30,000 km is maximum orbit.
Oooh, Kirk is the recipient of Kirk Fu as Garrovick chops Kirk. But Kirk is the master of Kirk Fu and he still wins.
Another DM-like moment as Kirk puts himself in harm's way and counts on a tricky transporter maneuver to save him.
McCoy: "Do something." Gee, doc, what a great idea, we were just sitting here knitting, but now because you said that, we'll try to save Kirk and Garrovick. I swear, McCoy is one guy I do NOT want to be with in a crisis.
So what do we think? Was Kirk justified in delaying the delivery of the medicine? They don't tell us how many died due to the delay or whether the medicine spoiled. He lost 5 crewmen and x number of Thetans but potentially saved many more lives if they were right about the creature reproducing.
It's really stunning everything this creature was and could do. Part matter, part energy. Could attain high warp speeds using gravity. Projects its thoughts through some subtle mechanism. Time shifts. In the past I always thought it was just a cloud, but it's clearly so much more than that.
This episode is a gem. Great edge of your seat action with a surprising number of really good character interactions. Well done, Art Wallace.
Alien Watch! What else? The cloud!
I think I'll demote the Providers from omniscient alien status. If you have to exist as a brain, you're not omniscient.
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
The cloud from the Tycho system.
*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request
Good tune. Animotion, 1984.
Good episode! One of my favs.
Phaser II's can cut a substance 20...er...21.4 times harder than diamond.
As Kirk sends his redshirts off to die. And what a body count this episode!
Two redshirts dead in the first 3 1/2 minutes. Has to be a record.
Jim...deliver the shipment. Come back and fight the monster later.
"I am perfectly aware that it might cost lives on Theta VII."
Kirk knows he's sacrificing lives for this!"Are you the new security officer?" "Yes, sir." "Are you crazy?"
I like Garrovick. I like that we learn some of Kirk's backstory on the Farragut.
Kirk feels safe beaming down with a squad of redshirts because he knows the redshirts will die first.
Four redshirts down in less than 15 minutes.
Spock and McCoy actually have a nice conversation about Kirk. It's almost as if they like each other or something!
Love the scene of Spock and McCoy confronting Kirk.
Why would the creature have to be the same one as 11 years ago?
Barely closing on the creature at warp 8? A natural phenomenon going that fast?
"Go to warp 6", Kirk says reluctantly. Reminiscent of Decker's "veer off" in Doomsday Machine. There certainly are parallels between Kirk and Decker and between O and DM. They even use DM music here!
Nice conversation between Chapel and Garrovick. This episode gives a lot of nice character interactions. Good stuff.
Apparently Garrovick doesn't like Chapel's cooking any more than Spock in AT.
How does it get through shields? That time-shift thing it does?
Five men down now.
Um...how does flushing radioactive waste into the ventilation system affect the crew?
This thing can time-shift? Everything it can do, and it's fueled by blood?
Spock's super-physiology saves him again.
Nice conversation between Kirk and Garrovick as they both realize their hesitations didn't matter. So many good character moments.
It is kind of amazing to me that Kirk spent 11 years beating himself up because he thought phasers would have killed the cloud.
30,000 km is maximum orbit.
Oooh, Kirk is the recipient of Kirk Fu as Garrovick chops Kirk. But Kirk is the master of Kirk Fu and he still wins.
Another DM-like moment as Kirk puts himself in harm's way and counts on a tricky transporter maneuver to save him.
McCoy: "Do something." Gee, doc, what a great idea, we were just sitting here knitting, but now because you said that, we'll try to save Kirk and Garrovick. I swear, McCoy is one guy I do NOT want to be with in a crisis.
So what do we think? Was Kirk justified in delaying the delivery of the medicine? They don't tell us how many died due to the delay or whether the medicine spoiled. He lost 5 crewmen and x number of Thetans but potentially saved many more lives if they were right about the creature reproducing.
It's really stunning everything this creature was and could do. Part matter, part energy. Could attain high warp speeds using gravity. Projects its thoughts through some subtle mechanism. Time shifts. In the past I always thought it was just a cloud, but it's clearly so much more than that.
This episode is a gem. Great edge of your seat action with a surprising number of really good character interactions. Well done, Art Wallace.
Alien Watch! What else? The cloud!
I think I'll demote the Providers from omniscient alien status. If you have to exist as a brain, you're not omniscient.
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
The cloud from the Tycho system.
*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request
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Maybe the Cloud Creature was born to absorb other type of nutrients but discovered it loves the taste of human blood better? Might explain how there's been no reports of any attacks upon other Starships or Earth colonies in those long eleven years! 
JB
JB
It's amazing how tasty humans are.Maybe the Cloud Creature was born to absorb other type of nutrients but discovered it loves the taste of human blood better? Might explain how there's been no reports of any attacks upon other Starships or Earth colonies in those long eleven years!
JB
Well plenty of monsters here and in space will eat you!
JB
JB
I enjoy Obsession. I like delving into Kirk's background (shock for the young folk that he wasn't promoted to captain right out of the Academy AND didn't succeed at every task with charm and bravado).
I also agree that Chapel comes across well in this one, able to think for herself and get results. I wish we'd seen more of her like this, she would have been way more interesting.
I wish they had spent a bit more time examining the nature of the cloud and looking at alternative solutions to save lives. The stakes are higher but it would have been nice to more shades of Devil in the Dark in their approach.
I also agree that Chapel comes across well in this one, able to think for herself and get results. I wish we'd seen more of her like this, she would have been way more interesting.
I wish they had spent a bit more time examining the nature of the cloud and looking at alternative solutions to save lives. The stakes are higher but it would have been nice to more shades of Devil in the Dark in their approach.
The Devil in The Dark was not revealed to be a human hungry evil beast but a Mother trying to protect her young and that situation was solved to everyone's benefit while the Cloud was seeking out human victims to nourish itself, a bit like the Salt Vampire on M113 in The Man Trap!
JB
JB
But we have no idea of the cloud's motivations beyond the fact that human blood nourishes it, Vulcan blood doesn't, and they thought it was getting ready to spawn. Presumably it could obtain nourishment from other red-blooded creatures other than humans or artificial plasma. Like any creature, it must have evolved to fill an ecological niche. It's just a shame that they didn't explore alternatives before extermination with no understanding of where the creature fitted in stellar ecology.
Actually, in this case I think it made total sense to exterminate the creature. Thousands of warp-capable vampire clouds spreading throughout Federation space, each of which requires an antimatter bomb that can rip away half a planet's atmosphere just to stop it from feeding on human lives, that would have been truly terrible. Once a colony got one, the cure would be worse than the disease, and the disease would be lethal.
And also the plastic vomits that enslaved humanoid life to build more ships to spread their insanity across space, and the Doomsday Machine and various other monsters that they get rid of, like Nomad.
In a universe were some robots/machines seem almost to be another kind of life form, you can say they were killed.
In a universe were some robots/machines seem almost to be another kind of life form, you can say they were killed.
The Cloud might have been one of many or another of the last of it's kind or even the first but it obviously had other ways to nourish itself on certain elements or maybe the cattle of a distant primitive planet but it hadn't attacked any other Federation ships or colonies in that time or we would have heard about it in the episode!
JB
JB
I'm struggling to recall how many people it had killed. The fried egg aliens were systematically threatening whole worlds so I can see why they had to be stopped.
The cloud might need to feed rarely unless it's preparing to spawn (not masses of reports of attacks) albeit one has to wonder how it has the energy available to travel at warp. It might normally absorb iron from asteroids and be instrumental in seeding worlds with organic compounds.
There are some parallels with the TNG crystalline entity where more of a moral quandary was in evidence.
The issue with the crystalline entity was that they were communicating with it while it wasn't threatening anyone. The woman scientist betrayed the trust she had been given.
Another data point is TAS "One of Our Planets Is Missing." Kirk gave Spock until the last second to communicate with that cloud, and they turned it away, instead of needing to destroy it.
Returning to "Obsession," there wasn't any method to communicate. Kirk getting impressions from the creature's scent didn't seem to be helpful and required dangerous contact. And there was the ticking clock once it had returned home. Just the one creature had already killed over 200 people. That's many times 200,000 lives on the dinner table if the creature fissioned. They could barely deal with just one of them, and the final solution was catastrophic.
You could head-canon it that Spock and Uhura discussed the possibility of using the sensors to aid a mind-meld without direct physical contact, after discussing the failure to communicate in the "Obsession" incident, which didn't help that incident but came in handy in the TAS incident.
Kirk also says that he senses that the dikronium cloud creature is "evil" and that he senses an intelligence about it. I have no problems with its elimination.
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