Production Order Group Viewing 2018
- Thread starter Archivist13
- Start date
I assume the Preservers probably made only one visit to Earth around 2000 years ago, and grabbed several examples of Earth cultures then deposited them on separation planets (maybe even terraformed planets for them). Was it an experiment to see how one culture evolves without any outside interferences from other cultures? Some evolve while some stay the same? Does it also explain the Roman culture found in Bread and Circuses? Did the Preservers also introduce (maybe biologically encode) the English language to Earth and each of the cultures they plucked up, so, one day, the galaxy will have many worlds speaking the same language? So many questions...
ENTERPRISE INCIDENT
Last week strove to be a fairly competitive look at the burdens of command. This episode is more action adventure espionage and a fun one at that! It also expands the Romulan culture (something long overdue). The Romulan commander is portrayed well by Joanne Linville but her ability to be romantically duped by romance so easily by Spock weakens her character somewhat. It’s good that she regains her composure after his betrayal is revealed and her final exchange with Spock beats Miramarnee’s in terms of its poignancy and delivery.
This story is also quite a delve into Spock’s character, ideal for a new viewer to the series and a celebration for long time fans. The setup has Kirk acting out of character for the first half though, less ideal for a newbie, who would be in the same position as the Enterprise crew in terms of bafflement.
Speaking of Kirk, remember all that concern about a captain’s appearance to the crew in Enemy Within?
Well from the crew’s POV, shortly after Kirk is missing on Miramarnee’s planet for 2 months he goes crazy and takes the ship into the neutral zone like a glory seeking maniac. I’m sure a few of them questioned whether he was fit to go back on active duty. And then he’s dead? And then a Romulan which looks like Kirk appears on the Bridge? This must be playing merry hell on the crew’s morale. How would this little escapade affect Kirk’s ability to command his crew in the future?
Other thoughts:
There’s quite a bit of corridor set built for this episode, a new forcefield design for the brig, the Romulan bridge and of course the commander’s quarters.
The cloaking device room seems rather small however and there’s no mistaking that large control console from the season one Engine Room. It makes for some rather absurd blocking when the Romulans run in and take forever to notice that the cloaking device is gone!
The episode in general is a schormasboard of props from previous Star Trek outings. I particularly like the hooded viewer (from The Cage) which features prominently in the commander’s quarters.
No new set!
Deflector control is in Main Engineering? Seems a bit unlikely, but maybe they’d ran out of money by this point
I’ve seen it said in some episode reviews that Enterprise Incident ignores Balance Of Terror and treats the cloaking device as a new invention (again) but this is clearly not the case.
Spock’s line “I believe the Romulans have developed a cloaking device which renders our tracking sensors useless” blatantly refers to a new type of cloaking device, since the old one was able to be tracked by Spock using the motion sensor in BOT.
The commander asks Spock if it’s a myth that are Vulcans incapable of lying and he confirms that it is no myth. That’s technically correct because it’s not a myth, it’s just not true at all – in fact Spock lies in this very episode, multiple times!
It beggars belief that this “Vulcans can’t lie” thing has been so wholeheartedly incorporated into Trek lore.
So much going on! But a good outing overall
Last week strove to be a fairly competitive look at the burdens of command. This episode is more action adventure espionage and a fun one at that! It also expands the Romulan culture (something long overdue). The Romulan commander is portrayed well by Joanne Linville but her ability to be romantically duped by romance so easily by Spock weakens her character somewhat. It’s good that she regains her composure after his betrayal is revealed and her final exchange with Spock beats Miramarnee’s in terms of its poignancy and delivery.
This story is also quite a delve into Spock’s character, ideal for a new viewer to the series and a celebration for long time fans. The setup has Kirk acting out of character for the first half though, less ideal for a newbie, who would be in the same position as the Enterprise crew in terms of bafflement.
Speaking of Kirk, remember all that concern about a captain’s appearance to the crew in Enemy Within?
Well from the crew’s POV, shortly after Kirk is missing on Miramarnee’s planet for 2 months he goes crazy and takes the ship into the neutral zone like a glory seeking maniac. I’m sure a few of them questioned whether he was fit to go back on active duty. And then he’s dead? And then a Romulan which looks like Kirk appears on the Bridge? This must be playing merry hell on the crew’s morale. How would this little escapade affect Kirk’s ability to command his crew in the future?
Other thoughts:
- Scotty exclaims “that’s a Klingon ship!” as indeed we saw one the episode before last. Why oh why did they not air these 2 episodes in production order?
- Subpace message will take THREE WEEKS to reach Starfleet? What happened to the 3 hour delay in BOT? How big is this Neutral Zone?
- The torture device that the Romulan commander threatens Kirk with sounds a lot like the Klingon mind sifter (from Errand Of Mercy). Perhaps the Klingons included a couple with the battleships as a purchase incentive?
- Full on Shatner acting when he goes crazy! Except it’s Kirk overacting, in character. Does the good captain dabble in amateur dramatics?
There’s quite a bit of corridor set built for this episode, a new forcefield design for the brig, the Romulan bridge and of course the commander’s quarters.
The cloaking device room seems rather small however and there’s no mistaking that large control console from the season one Engine Room. It makes for some rather absurd blocking when the Romulans run in and take forever to notice that the cloaking device is gone!
The episode in general is a schormasboard of props from previous Star Trek outings. I particularly like the hooded viewer (from The Cage) which features prominently in the commander’s quarters.
No new set!
Deflector control is in Main Engineering? Seems a bit unlikely, but maybe they’d ran out of money by this point
I’ve seen it said in some episode reviews that Enterprise Incident ignores Balance Of Terror and treats the cloaking device as a new invention (again) but this is clearly not the case.
Spock’s line “I believe the Romulans have developed a cloaking device which renders our tracking sensors useless” blatantly refers to a new type of cloaking device, since the old one was able to be tracked by Spock using the motion sensor in BOT.
The commander asks Spock if it’s a myth that are Vulcans incapable of lying and he confirms that it is no myth. That’s technically correct because it’s not a myth, it’s just not true at all – in fact Spock lies in this very episode, multiple times!
It beggars belief that this “Vulcans can’t lie” thing has been so wholeheartedly incorporated into Trek lore.
So much going on! But a good outing overall
I think the Enterprise Incident has huge potential but it falls down for me with its many plot holes, not the least of which is why the Romulan ships don't have shields raised or sufficient scanning or security measures to detect communications but not observe somebody beaming onto their ship.
I think many of the plot holes could have been overcome with a more Mission Impossible vibe ( such as someone beaming on board at the same time as Spock to plant a device to make the shields drop to let Kirk and Spock beam off at the crucial time).
It's great fun and the Romulan commander is a great temptress to counter Spock's logic. It could just be so much better so easily.
I think many of the plot holes could have been overcome with a more Mission Impossible vibe ( such as someone beaming on board at the same time as Spock to plant a device to make the shields drop to let Kirk and Spock beam off at the crucial time).
It's great fun and the Romulan commander is a great temptress to counter Spock's logic. It could just be so much better so easily.
The Romulan technology was shown to be inferior to the Federation technology in Balance of Terror. I doubt they had transporter tech and only limited (if not none) shield tech prior to the Klingon alliance. The Klingon ship transfer may not have included all technologies. If I was the Klingons, I wouldn't trade all our tech away in one treaty. Remember, they were both enemies in the past (supposition) and will be in the future (TNG fact). Based on the episode we see the following Klingon tech:
- Large ship hulls: yep.
- Warp Drive: yep.
- Transporters: not seen but probably yep.
- Mind Sifter: hinted at, probably yep.
- Klingon weapons systems (i.e. disruptors): unknown.
- Advanced shields: unknown.
- Advanced sensors: unknown.
I'm not wholly convinced by that. The ship in BoT was an assassination vessel whose technology cannot be taken as representative of all Romulan vessels (or they would have been incapable of waging interstellar war). Shields and cloaks can't be used together due to power consumption but Romulan weapons are far superior to Federation.
In any war or cold war there is a race to outdo your opponent so it would make no sense that the Romulans would not have shields sufficient to block a transporter. The disadvantage is likely to be in areas such as energy consumption and durability. Most ships would nit be designed with sneak attacks in mind but I would have thought the little attack vessels were more like their shuttles.
The Enterprise Incident
I like this one because it has Romulans in it and TOS Romulans are cool.
Sometimes I like to think about what happened last week and how it might be affecting our crew now. Last week, Kirk suffered the loss of his wife and unborn child. By rights, he should have taken some time off to grieve. But our iron-willed captain soldiers on.
Actually, that's a great cover story for why he's acting so irrational now.
In past episodes there's a Romulan ship in your face as soon as you enter the Neutral Zone. This episode the Enterprise had to actually enter Romulan space before they were accosted which strikes me as more realistic.
I'm watching a TOS-R version of the episode. It is way cool that they show a Bird of Prey among the three ships surrounding Enterprise.
I'm not really crazy about the idea of Romulans using Klingon ships. So the Bird of Prey model was damaged/lost and they had to use Klingon models, is that the story?
I really like TOS Romulans. All these years later I remain annoyed at what they did to Romulans in TNG.
It takes three weeks for a subspace signal to reach the Federation from the Romulan border.
So the Romulans have a better cloaking device now. In BoT, the Romulans would activate their cloak, but the Enterprise still had ways of tracking them. Now, not even sensors can detect them.
Romulan Commander:"Your language has always been most difficult for me, Captain." Romulans don't have universal translators?
Why didn't they give the Romulan Commander a name? We don't even hear what her first name is when she tells Spock. Is it supposed to be unpronounceable by humans? Her Subcommander is Tal. How hard would that be to give her a name?
Scotty: always awesome in command.
That's a fun show idea: Spock as a Romulan Commander in command of his own ship.
The Vulcan Death Grip!!!!
So it's not really a death grip, but it does induce paralysis to simulate death.
"You took a big chance they didn't start an autopsy." Way to lampshade the problem. Kirk had to have still been breathing however shallowly. The Romulan doctors couldn't tell?
Interesting. This is the only time we see the inside of a Klingon ship, but it's a Romulan ship here.
This time Spock, not Kirk, is the one to use romance to fake out a female to accomplish a mission.
Can't the Romulans detect when someone beams aboard? Why aren't their shields up?
I remember reading how Vulcan finger touching was an important way for them to show affection as we see between Sarek and Amanda in JtB. It's nice to see that remembered here. But then, DC Fontana wrote both episodes.
Lucky there are so few guards to guard the most important equipment on a Romulan ship. Lucky they're so stupid.
Shatner really doesn't look right as a Romulan.
And without any training whatsoever, Kirk is able to disconnect the cloaking device and beam away. Lucky it just slips right out of it socket without having to disconnect any wires or couplings or anything. And how does Kirk beam away? Don't the Romulans put their shields up when they realize the cloaking device is in danger?
Actually, do we know if the Romulans have shields? Is it ever mentioned that they do? Maybe they don't, although Klingon ships do. Hmmm.
"Romulans and Vulcans appear to read almost exactly alike. There is just a slight difference which..." Exactly. Romulans and Vulcans are supposed to be completely indistinguishable by just looking at them. You are supposed to have trouble distinguishing them with a sensor. So it royally pisses me off that they decided to give head ridges to Romulans in TNG. Head ridges on Romulans. Stupid TNG.
Can't the Romulans tell they're being scanned?
"One hundred and fifty thousand kilometres, Captain, and closing very rapidly." The Enterprise is going WARP 9, and the Romulans are gaining?????? I remember the debate after BoT as to whether the Romulans even had warp speed. No question about it now.
"I hope you and I exchanged something more permanent." Is Spock hoping for a relationship? Maybe the Commander defects, stays in Federation space, and she and Spock have nookie between missions.
I like the episode. I like the Romulans. I like their ships. I like the Romulan Commander. But holy cow are there some convenient plot holes here. What the hell was the Federation plan here? We're going to have the Enterprise fly into Romulan space and get captured, and then after being CAPTURED we expect Kirk and Spock to steal the cloaking device and escape. What the hell? Are you kidding me? Were they really just trying to get rid of the Enterprise for some reason?
In my head canon, I like to think the Federation has managed to plant spies (Vulcans probably) throughout the Romulan Empire and on these particular ships so that when the Enterprise shows up, they get help every step of the way. Federation spies overlooking the signal that shows someone beaming aboard, reassigning guards away from the cloaking device, keeping their shields lowered, not doing an autopsy/letting Kirk's "body" go without a thorough check, removing all attachments so the cloaking device could be easily removed, etc. That makes more sense to me.
Hey, what if the Romulan Commander was a Federation spy?
Alien Watch! We've seen Romulans before, so no new aliens this week.
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.
The BIG FREAKIN' AMEBA!!!!!
The remarkably human-looking Iotians. (Gangsters)
Kelvans! Who really look like big, cool squids but choose to look remarkably human.
Sargon and the gang of not-quite-omnipotent aliens.
Remarkably human looking Zeons of Zeon and Ekosians of Ekos. (PoF)
The remarkably human looking Yangs and Coms of Omega IV.
Isis! Who looks remarkably like a cat until she wants to look remarkably human.
Season 3
The decidedly non-human looking Melkotians.
The remarkably human-looking Elasians and not so human looking Troyians.
*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request
I like this one because it has Romulans in it and TOS Romulans are cool.
Sometimes I like to think about what happened last week and how it might be affecting our crew now. Last week, Kirk suffered the loss of his wife and unborn child. By rights, he should have taken some time off to grieve. But our iron-willed captain soldiers on.
Actually, that's a great cover story for why he's acting so irrational now.
In past episodes there's a Romulan ship in your face as soon as you enter the Neutral Zone. This episode the Enterprise had to actually enter Romulan space before they were accosted which strikes me as more realistic.
I'm watching a TOS-R version of the episode. It is way cool that they show a Bird of Prey among the three ships surrounding Enterprise.
I'm not really crazy about the idea of Romulans using Klingon ships. So the Bird of Prey model was damaged/lost and they had to use Klingon models, is that the story?
I really like TOS Romulans. All these years later I remain annoyed at what they did to Romulans in TNG.
It takes three weeks for a subspace signal to reach the Federation from the Romulan border.
So the Romulans have a better cloaking device now. In BoT, the Romulans would activate their cloak, but the Enterprise still had ways of tracking them. Now, not even sensors can detect them.
Romulan Commander:"Your language has always been most difficult for me, Captain." Romulans don't have universal translators?
Why didn't they give the Romulan Commander a name? We don't even hear what her first name is when she tells Spock. Is it supposed to be unpronounceable by humans? Her Subcommander is Tal. How hard would that be to give her a name?
Scotty: always awesome in command.
That's a fun show idea: Spock as a Romulan Commander in command of his own ship.
The Vulcan Death Grip!!!!
So it's not really a death grip, but it does induce paralysis to simulate death."You took a big chance they didn't start an autopsy." Way to lampshade the problem. Kirk had to have still been breathing however shallowly. The Romulan doctors couldn't tell?
Interesting. This is the only time we see the inside of a Klingon ship, but it's a Romulan ship here.
This time Spock, not Kirk, is the one to use romance to fake out a female to accomplish a mission.
Can't the Romulans detect when someone beams aboard? Why aren't their shields up?
I remember reading how Vulcan finger touching was an important way for them to show affection as we see between Sarek and Amanda in JtB. It's nice to see that remembered here. But then, DC Fontana wrote both episodes.
Lucky there are so few guards to guard the most important equipment on a Romulan ship. Lucky they're so stupid.
Shatner really doesn't look right as a Romulan.
And without any training whatsoever, Kirk is able to disconnect the cloaking device and beam away. Lucky it just slips right out of it socket without having to disconnect any wires or couplings or anything. And how does Kirk beam away? Don't the Romulans put their shields up when they realize the cloaking device is in danger?
Actually, do we know if the Romulans have shields? Is it ever mentioned that they do? Maybe they don't, although Klingon ships do. Hmmm.
"Romulans and Vulcans appear to read almost exactly alike. There is just a slight difference which..." Exactly. Romulans and Vulcans are supposed to be completely indistinguishable by just looking at them. You are supposed to have trouble distinguishing them with a sensor. So it royally pisses me off that they decided to give head ridges to Romulans in TNG. Head ridges on Romulans. Stupid TNG.
Can't the Romulans tell they're being scanned?
"One hundred and fifty thousand kilometres, Captain, and closing very rapidly." The Enterprise is going WARP 9, and the Romulans are gaining?????? I remember the debate after BoT as to whether the Romulans even had warp speed. No question about it now.
"I hope you and I exchanged something more permanent." Is Spock hoping for a relationship? Maybe the Commander defects, stays in Federation space, and she and Spock have nookie between missions.
I like the episode. I like the Romulans. I like their ships. I like the Romulan Commander. But holy cow are there some convenient plot holes here. What the hell was the Federation plan here? We're going to have the Enterprise fly into Romulan space and get captured, and then after being CAPTURED we expect Kirk and Spock to steal the cloaking device and escape. What the hell? Are you kidding me? Were they really just trying to get rid of the Enterprise for some reason?
In my head canon, I like to think the Federation has managed to plant spies (Vulcans probably) throughout the Romulan Empire and on these particular ships so that when the Enterprise shows up, they get help every step of the way. Federation spies overlooking the signal that shows someone beaming aboard, reassigning guards away from the cloaking device, keeping their shields lowered, not doing an autopsy/letting Kirk's "body" go without a thorough check, removing all attachments so the cloaking device could be easily removed, etc. That makes more sense to me.
Hey, what if the Romulan Commander was a Federation spy?
Alien Watch! We've seen Romulans before, so no new aliens this week.
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.
The BIG FREAKIN' AMEBA!!!!!
The remarkably human-looking Iotians. (Gangsters)
Kelvans! Who really look like big, cool squids but choose to look remarkably human.
Sargon and the gang of not-quite-omnipotent aliens.
Remarkably human looking Zeons of Zeon and Ekosians of Ekos. (PoF)
The remarkably human looking Yangs and Coms of Omega IV.
Isis! Who looks remarkably like a cat until she wants to look remarkably human.
Season 3
The decidedly non-human looking Melkotians.
The remarkably human-looking Elasians and not so human looking Troyians.
*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request
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I'm willing to believe that as a rule, Vulcans don't lie enough to make it well known throughout the known galaxy. But no, there's nothing stopping Vulcans from lying. Or maybe it's just Spock who lies all the time. Maybe his human half makes him a rebel on this point.ENTERPRISE INCIDENT
Last week strove to be a fairly competitive look at the burdens of command. This episode is more action adventure espionage and a fun one at that! It also expands the Romulan culture (something long overdue). The Romulan commander is portrayed well by Joanne Linville but her ability to be romantically duped by romance so easily by Spock weakens her character somewhat. It’s good that she regains her composure after his betrayal is revealed and her final exchange with Spock beats Miramarnee’s in terms of its poignancy and delivery.
This story is also quite a delve into Spock’s character, ideal for a new viewer to the series and a celebration for long time fans. The setup has Kirk acting out of character for the first half though, less ideal for a newbie, who would be in the same position as the Enterprise crew in terms of bafflement.
Speaking of Kirk, remember all that concern about a captain’s appearance to the crew in Enemy Within?
Well from the crew’s POV, shortly after Kirk is missing on Miramarnee’s planet for 2 months he goes crazy and takes the ship into the neutral zone like a glory seeking maniac. I’m sure a few of them questioned whether he was fit to go back on active duty. And then he’s dead? And then a Romulan which looks like Kirk appears on the Bridge? This must be playing merry hell on the crew’s morale. How would this little escapade affect Kirk’s ability to command his crew in the future?
Other thoughts:
New sets!
- Scotty exclaims “that’s a Klingon ship!” as indeed we saw one the episode before last. Why oh why did they not air these 2 episodes in production order?
- Subpace message will take THREE WEEKS to reach Starfleet? What happened to the 3 hour delay in BOT? How big is this Neutral Zone?
- The torture device that the Romulan commander threatens Kirk with sounds a lot like the Klingon mind sifter (from Errand Of Mercy). Perhaps the Klingons included a couple with the battleships as a purchase incentive?
- Full on Shatner acting when he goes crazy! Except it’s Kirk overacting, in character. Does the good captain dabble in amateur dramatics?
There’s quite a bit of corridor set built for this episode, a new forcefield design for the brig, the Romulan bridge and of course the commander’s quarters.
The cloaking device room seems rather small however and there’s no mistaking that large control console from the season one Engine Room. It makes for some rather absurd blocking when the Romulans run in and take forever to notice that the cloaking device is gone!
The episode in general is a schormasboard of props from previous Star Trek outings. I particularly like the hooded viewer (from The Cage) which features prominently in the commander’s quarters.
No new set!
Deflector control is in Main Engineering? Seems a bit unlikely, but maybe they’d ran out of money by this point
I’ve seen it said in some episode reviews that Enterprise Incident ignores Balance Of Terror and treats the cloaking device as a new invention (again) but this is clearly not the case.
Spock’s line “I believe the Romulans have developed a cloaking device which renders our tracking sensors useless” blatantly refers to a new type of cloaking device, since the old one was able to be tracked by Spock using the motion sensor in BOT.
The commander asks Spock if it’s a myth that are Vulcans incapable of lying and he confirms that it is no myth. That’s technically correct because it’s not a myth, it’s just not true at all – in fact Spock lies in this very episode, multiple times!
It beggars belief that this “Vulcans can’t lie” thing has been so wholeheartedly incorporated into Trek lore.
So much going on! But a good outing overall
I just realized I'm a Fleet Captain! I got a promotion! Break out the Romulan ale! (Appropriate for this episode) Bring on the dancing girls! Time to paaaaartay!
It's nice to see that the Romulan ship security is on par with the Federation ship security.
I'd stay away from cadet cruises. The can be dangerous.
Of course, I'm a commodore, so I'm due to go crazy and kill my crew any day now.
Only a 1 in 3 chance. (Commodore Decker=all dead, Commodore Wesley=53 dead, Commodore Stone=none.)
In The Way To Eden, The Enterprise gets into Romulan territory and out before being detected at all!!! But if they had of turned up would it have been a Bird of Prey or the Klingon style vessels? Probably the Klingon ones as this episode was made after Enterprise Incident I guess! 
JB
JB
Don't forget Commodore Stocker in The Deadly Years - he was not a great starship commander, but no-one died under his watch either!
Oops, 1 in 4 chance...there's hope for @Marsden, yet.Don't forget Commodore Stocker in The Deadly Years - he was not a great starship commander, but no-one died under his watch either!
Couldn't have another Vulcan on board or Chekov would have detected him in his search for Spock...
KIRK: Mister Chekov, there's only one Vulcan aboard that ship. He should be easy enough to locate.
CHEKOV: Romulans and Vulcans appear to read almost exactly alike. There is just a slight difference which. Got him, sir.
KIRK: Feed the co-ordinates to the transporter room on the double. Have them prepare to beam him aboard on my signal.
UHURA: Transporter room reports the Romulan subcommander aboard, sir, and not Mister Spock.
KIRK: The subcommander?
CHEKOV: Romulans and Vulcans appear to read almost exactly alike. There is just a slight difference which. Got him, sir.
KIRK: Feed the co-ordinates to the transporter room on the double. Have them prepare to beam him aboard on my signal.
UHURA: Transporter room reports the Romulan subcommander aboard, sir, and not Mister Spock.
KIRK: The subcommander?
AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD
This is a strange little episode. I get the impression it’s trying to be dark and scary (a bit like Wolf In The Fold) but the budgetary constraints, guest actor that can’t act, absurd mind tricks coupled with Shatner Unleashed levels of overacting, major lapses in judgements by the main characters, daft gestures from the kids and a plot that basically boils down to “a wizard did it” all combine to make it one of the weaker entries in the series so far. The whole "he looks bad, therefore he is bad" trope really has no business in Star Trek, either
Incidentally, child actors are often lambasted for dragging weekly television productions down but here they were one of the lesser issues here and they mostly did a good job. But the plot is all over the place, with cobbled together elements from Miri, The Deadly Years, Operation Annihilate , Charlie X (with regard to the pranks) and a subversion of the message from Devil In The Dark (see above)
Budgetary fails:
New Sets
All in all not a boring episode (there's lots of stuff happening) but one that feels very fan fic-ish" (in its use of previous story elements) and the characterisations are just not quite there.
This is a strange little episode. I get the impression it’s trying to be dark and scary (a bit like Wolf In The Fold) but the budgetary constraints, guest actor that can’t act, absurd mind tricks coupled with Shatner Unleashed levels of overacting, major lapses in judgements by the main characters, daft gestures from the kids and a plot that basically boils down to “a wizard did it” all combine to make it one of the weaker entries in the series so far. The whole "he looks bad, therefore he is bad" trope really has no business in Star Trek, either
Incidentally, child actors are often lambasted for dragging weekly television productions down but here they were one of the lesser issues here and they mostly did a good job. But the plot is all over the place, with cobbled together elements from Miri, The Deadly Years, Operation Annihilate , Charlie X (with regard to the pranks) and a subversion of the message from Devil In The Dark (see above)
Budgetary fails:
- The use of a soundstage to represent a science colony doesn’t really work, it just seems too small. There’s a tiny amount of burned wreckage (that we see in the home videos is some sort of storage hut) and a few rocks. The soundstage colony in The Deadly Years was a much better effort
- The science colony itself is also absurdly small, consisting entirely of just 5 families. Maybe Kirk meant to call it a research outpost instead? However, 5 children are needed for the plot, so the "colony" is written that way
- That is one flimsy UFP banner! If that child hadn’t knocked it over I think a gust of wind would have done it.
- And those gravestones are just pathetic – just a surname, really?
- Oh boy, was the Shatner acting on full display in this one! This is the director’s first time with Star Trek though, so maybe he hadn’t learned the trick of how to tone down Bill’s vivacious energy yet?
- Nurse Chapel is back in action – using her years of medical training to babysit
- Kirk posts a guard to the children – keeping them supervised at all times is a good thing, but letting them wander to the Bridge seems unnecessary indulgent. Useful for the plot though
- That whole incident with beaming down the guards is just dumb, lazy writing
- Kirk thinks that the children might be aliens (for some reason) yet keeps them on the bridge?!
- Spock resorting to "space legends" to help solve the plot seems way out of character, but what's worse is that the legend turns out to be EXACTLY TRUE. Another example of lazy writing.
- Even Spock is affected by the children’s magic! Although he is able to use his superior Vulcan intellect to break the spell eventually.
- Couldn't Spock just nerve pinched the children once they are identified as the source of trouble? Then Kirk could have locked them in their room - hard to mind control adults if they can't see any!
New Sets
- The larger recreation room is a fine addition, reflecting the importance of off-duty time to our Starfleet heroes.
- Nice to see Auxiliary Control again, but why is Scotty hanging around down there? In fact, I've never seen AC so well staffed! Was the Engine Room set unavailable?
All in all not a boring episode (there's lots of stuff happening) but one that feels very fan fic-ish" (in its use of previous story elements) and the characterisations are just not quite there.
As I've said elsewhere, it's my 79th favorite episode. Nothing much cooking, and plenty of cringes for me.
The general concept of the story is fine: Evil alien entity takes over children; Mind control their parents to death (mass suicide); Entity's motive to use the children under entity's control to recruit more children and kill all the adults (truly an evil quest); Heroes can't kill the children, and the entity/children can't kill the adult crew because they need the starship; Use love/guilt to break entity's control over the children; Evil alien entity defeated (what happen to it, did it survive to corrupt again like its cousin, the pinwheel alien entity in DoD?). My disappointment with the episode was with the writing, directing and acting (examples: stupid summoning by chanting in merry-go-round; stupid fist pumping with music blasts).
(I'm getting a sunburn...)
Jeffries labelled it "Herbarium"; a room housing a collection of dried plants. It appears to simulate a garden/park complete with suntanning and picnic tables. It probably reminds Spock of Vulcan, hot and dry.
(I'm getting a sunburn...)
I'm still bummed that we didn't get that scene in Elaan Of Troyius - the set really deserved more airtime than it gotJeffries labelled it "Herbarium"; a room housing a collection of dried plants. It appears to simulate a garden/park complete with suntanning and picnic tables. It probably reminds Spock of Vulcan, hot and dry.
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