Production Order Group Viewing 2018

[ZapBrannigan]

Hmmm, it's a cool visual to see Deela sidestep the phaser beam, but...the beam is going at the speed of light. So the accelerated people are moving at near light speeds? And my gripe in comic superhero stories is when they dodge energy beams. I maintain that you can't dodge an energy beam because you couldn't see it until it actually hit you.

The stun setting could be a stream of glowing particles rather than photons. It only works at close range, and it's slow as hell.

 

[GNDN18]

And continued in the Naked Time. This made me laugh, great point. The Federation does not have great Hazmat or security protocols.

It’s not just the raw recruits, either. Consider the CMO:

And, in a stunning turnabout, his commanding officer:

Sauce for the goose, I suppose.

 

[Mytran]

How did she get on the bridge and how are they getting about the ship with the doors and turbolift unable to detect them? Or is part of the modifications to the ship they've made to make the doors and turbolift detect them and move quickly enough for them? But then what about the normal-speed crew? The doors and turbolift still seem to respond to them as well.

Actually we never see the doors respond to any hyperaccelerated person because in every scene featuring them the doors are always shown wide open, even when there's no "normal" person standing nearby!
It does make access to the Bridge interesting though - perhaps there's an emergency ladder which can be accessed somewhere?

And continued in the Naked Time. This made me laugh, great point. The Federation does not have great Hazmat or security protocols.

It’s not just the raw recruits, either. Consider the CMO:
View attachment 10988
And, in a stunning turnabout, his commanding officer:
View attachment 10989
Sauce for the goose, I suppose.

I'd never even connected the dots to these other examples before but you are all absolutely correct - Starfleet is incredibly sloppy in this area!

 

[Mytran]

THAT WHICH SURVIVES

Back to a more traditional / shipboard show.

The director makes decent use of the small planet set which is composed entirely of sand and rocks. There’s even a gimble built into part of the set which is put it to good use as the actors get tossed around all over the place!

This episode ticks most of the boxes as a “typical” Star Trek outing, with plenty of action scenes wrapped up in a message at the end. There’s several new twists on old tropes too:

• A computer runs the planet but this is freshened up with the notion of “human” drives being too strong for it (Losira’s feelings of guilt slowing down the attacking replicants).
• The ship is yet again separated from the planet and landing party, but have their own mystery to solve that is at least as interesting at the planetside plot and fully linked to it. This is a far cry from the “sit on the Bridge and wait to die” scenes that plagued so many earlier episodes and might even qualify as a rare example of a B-plot on the original series.
• The avatar of Losira is yet another alien with a broad range of vaguely defined powers. However, for most of the episode she can only affect one item or person at a time which paces out the peril in a justifiable manner.

What’s especially Star-Trekkie is that the “villain” this week is merely the lifeless relic of a bygone age, inadvertently putting our heroes in danger by following long forgotten orders. The ending is somewhat poignant, as the tale of an extinct colony who underestimated their own fallibility and a reminder to ourselves not to do the same.

Having said all that…the episode feels a little flat. Decent, but not great.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• No distress call this week, just some traditional space exploration.
• Mr Sulu and a geologist accompany Kirk on the landing party for the planetary survey – how very sensible! Unfortunately, because D’amato’s the only non-series regular he was doomed from the start
  
• Doctor M’Benga is back! And he makes reference to a Doctor Sanchez! It’s great to see a fully crewed starship.
• Spock is in command which of course means conflict, but in addition he has really dialled his “Spockisms” up to 11 this week. Mr Scott takes it in stride though.
• The scenes of survival on the planet are excellent – everyone working professionally together in what is a very dire situation.
• I don’t normally comment on the costumes, but Losira’s little purple number is both distinctive with a hint of formality.
• Sulu refers back to the rock creature from Devil In The Dark. Yay, continuity!
• Spock wanders around in several scenes pushing the buttons on a handheld unit. He treats it a bit like a pocket calculator but closer inspection reveals it to be the remote control unit from Spock’s Brain; did McCoy not get every brain function hooked up correctly at the end of that episode?
• The ship hurtles along at speeds of up to Warp 14.1 this week and somehow survives! We’ve come a long way since Scotty almost had a heart attack when Kirk ordered Warp 8! Presumably all those modifications made by various invading aliens over the last couple of years had some long term benefits
• I realise that the attempt to bury D’amato moves the plot along, but do they really want to dispose of him so soon? Food is in short supply after all...
  

NEW SETS

• We see a dedicated room in engineering which monitors the antimatter bypass valve. It’s crammed full of machinery and rather noisy!
• We also see a “cramped” service crawlway which leads right into the matter-antimatter reaction chamber. It’s played as extremely dangerous and James Doohan has some great scenes in there.

This episode really expanded our understanding of the engineering facilities on board the Enterprise. The writer (George Meredyth Lucas) clearly favoured the notion that there was a single main reactor in the secondary hull (like a naval vessel), rather than Matt Jefferies' idea that all such dangerous stuff was going on inside the nacelles (like aircraft engines). This viewpoint of the tech can be seen in Lucas’ other two stories as well (The Changeling and Elaan Of Troyius)
This mish-mash of conflicting ideologies in the series has given rise to many interesting discussions on TrekBBS!

 

[Ssosmcin]

Man, i ever even considered using D’Amato’s body as food. Yikes! I’m happy the landing party didn’t have that thought either.

I really like the understated multi-racial crew: Lt. Radha and Dr. Sanchez in particular. Dr. M’Benga is always nice to see as well. This episode is great with continuity.

This episode was one I didn’t appreciate as a kid but grew to really favor as an adult. Some dialogue banalities surely, but a good jeopardy episode that, as you say, is about exploration.

And while I’m sure they didn’t even think of Sulu’s original position on the series as the ships physicist, that past does make him a good choice to go along.

 

[GNDN18]

Food is in short supply after all...

Cause of death was “cellular disruption”. He might have been a bit … gamey.

Too soon?

 

[Pauln6]

I quite like this one, especially all the discussion about the planetary make up. That's no moon...

It hangs together better than many S3 episodes and it's nice to see the wider crew get in on the action. Losira was great. The only thing they're missing is a woman on the landing party. No point I guess since the alien of the week wasn't some hot dude.

 

[Henoch]

NEW SETS

• We see a dedicated room in engineering which monitors the antimatter bypass valve. It’s crammed full of machinery and rather noisy!
• We also see a “cramped” service crawlway which leads right into the matter-antimatter reaction chamber. It’s played as extremely dangerous and James Doohan has some great scenes in there.

This episode really expanded our understanding of the engineering facilities on board the Enterprise. The writer (George Meredyth Lucas) clearly favoured the notion that there was a single main reactor in the secondary hull (like a naval vessel), rather than Matt Jefferies' idea that all such dangerous stuff was going on inside the nacelles (like aircraft engines). This viewpoint of the tech can be seen in Lucas’ other two stories as well (The Changeling and Elaan Of Troyius)
This mish-mash of conflicting ideologies in the series has given rise to many interesting discussions on TrekBBS!

I've been a proponent for the three M/AM reactor theory (one in each nacelle and one in the secondary hull which is the only one with a dilithium crystal converter assembly.) But, I could accept a M/AM system redesign during Season 3.

Playing devil's advocate, I could argue that the Enterprise could have had a M/AM reactor system redesign and replacement to a single larger M/AM reactor shorty after the beginning of Season 3. First in Season 3 we see the new dilithium crystal pop-up in engineering (first improvement; we start to see effortless Warp 9 speeds). Later in the season, we see the new addition of the Antimatter Control Room (why?). This closed off side room was not present in The Enterprise Incident (~5027.3), so, this upgrade had to occur later. Addition of this room could also include the single larger M/AM reactor in the secondary hull where the two M/AM reactors are removed from the nacelles to free up space for more warp engine hardware improving its warp speeds (as seen with Warp 9+ speeds in ITITNB, TWS and LTBYLB). There are two large time gaps (based on Stardates before those three episodes) when the new M/AM Reactor and Antimatter Control Room could have been installed:

1. Between The Empath (~5121.5) and The Mark of Gideon (~5423.4) = ~300 Stardates or about 110 days, or
2. Between For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (~5476.3) and Is There In Truth No Beauty? (~5630.7) = ~154 Stardates or about 56 days.

I prefer #1 above simply since it gives more time for a massive refit of the M/AM reactor system and warp engines. We are starting to see the TMP-E power system. Easy-Peasy.

I prefer to use #2 time gap to insert Day of the Dove (around 5550 + or -) since it may imply the presence of new Antimatter Control Room in its confusing visuals in the engine room.

 

[Henoch]

Outpost Defense A.I. (Losira-image) took a series of actions to stop anyone from "invading" the outpost. She detected the Enterprise in orbit. She targeted the Enterprise to transported ~1000 light years away. The targeting or power-up took too long, as a landing party was assembled and transporting down to the Outpost. Lorsira realized that the Landing Party would leave before the ship transport occurred, so, a Lorsira (a programmed forcefield hologram?, like the Doctor hologram in VOY) was sent to try and stop the Landing Party transport. Again, she was too late for her verbal plea, "STOP", as the transport procedure was completing. She then tried to stop it by killing the Transporter Technician as a last resort, but again, she failed to delay them as Kirk and team finished beaming down. A minute later, the Outpost's Massive Transporter finally activated, transporting the Enterprise away. Most races would take this powerful nonlethal action as a healthy warning and never go back. The Losira continued on the Enterprise to monitor the ship's response. When she saw the ship returning to the Outpost, Losira telepathically extracted technical info from poor Watkins, killed him, then used the info to sabotage/destroy the ship to stop them from returning. Apparently, Losira couldn't anticipate Spock/Scott's plan because Watkins was unaware of these ship details, and used up all her power fusing the machinery.

Lastly, Losira needed to dispatch the four invaders on the Outpost. Systematically, she sent single Lorsiras to learn any intel from the invaders when they were separated from each other, then kill them. Apparently, Losira was able to telepathically read her victim's minds (?). This process of waiting for lone victims took some time to execute. Once she learned the real intent of the landing party, she baited them all into her complex so she could trap all of them inside and kill them. In the end, she tried nonlethal means first, and if a computer could be that way, was a little "hesitant" (by gathering info), but kill she did.

 

[Poltargyst]

That Which Survives

This planet is the size of the moon but has the mass of Earth. Fascinating. Must be very dense.

It's not Kirk, Spock, McCoy beaming down. Kirk picks Sulu instead of Spock along with this week's sacrificial....blue shirt?

Oh, goodbye transporter redshirt guy.

I could have sworn we've seen Rahda before, but I guess not. I wonder who I'm thinking of.

But it is the return of Dr. M'Benga, last seen beating the crap out of Spock.

M'Benga has a good personality, but he seems perplexed by Spock's attitude this episode. Maybe he wants to beat the crap out of Spock again. I know I do.

Spock is really literal-minded this episode. And a bit pissy. It's not time for another Pon Farr already, is it?

I'm glad they're so professional, but this landing party is really stoic about the possibility that the ship's been destroyed and they're going to have to live the rest of their lives on this planet.

I'm thinking about the fact that Sulu could detect the Enterprise wasn't there with his tricorder, but McCoy had to hold vegetation up to his tricorder to read. I wonder if you can adjust the scope to a wide or narrow setting depending on what you're scanning.

Losira: "I am for you, Lt. D'Amato." Losira, you can be for me anytime.

Poor D'Amato.

Dying peacefully in your sleep of old age sounds like a good way to die. I mean if you have to.

Sulu: "You remember on Janus Six, the silicon creatures." OMG! He's referring to the Hortas! That is an AWESOME callback! Though you wouldn't think Kirk would need to be reminded of that experience.

I wonder how Losira is picking victims. She starts out with some low-level officers. You'd think she'd start with Kirk and Spock.

It's taking them a long time to get to suspecting that the planet is man-made considering they've recently been to Yo Mama...er...Yonada.

It's impressive that Losira can transport 990.7 light years. But how does she know everything about the Enterprise and crew?

Sulu: "Then the planet is hollow." And you can touch the sky. Or kiss the sky. Or something.

EVERY cell of Sulu's shoulder can't be exploded or he wouldn't have a shoulder.

Spock: "Presumably the same way she got on." That's it, Spock, you're starting to annoy me. You usually have a personality. It's like he's back to where he was in Galileo 7, forgetting all the development he's had since then.

Don't they have any kind of protective suit for Scotty to wear when he goes in the crawlway considering he doesn't know if he can survive in there?

Rahda: "Aye, sir. I'll jettison the pod at the first sign of trouble." Kirk knows what kind of trouble you can get into if you jettison a pod too early. I find it really odd that Rahda would try to take it on herself to decide when the pod should be jettisoned.

Losira: "Please, I must touch you." I am SO resisting making the joke I want to make here.

Lee Meriwether does a good job of acting Losira's conflict at harming others.

"Warp 14.1." Wow, Scotty bitches that the ship is going to come apart at warp 9.

Spock: "The Enterprise was put through a molecular transporter and reassembled slightly out of phase." Losira BEAMED the ship 990.7 light years away??? That is really amazingly cool. And astoundingly powerful. So do they need to fix that reversed polarity thing? Are there any other consequences to the ship for being reassembled slightly out of phase?

Losira: "But you are my match, James Kirk. I must touch you. Then I will live as one, even to the structure of your cells, the arrangement of chromosomes. " I have no Earthly idea what this means. Anyone got a clue?

Those are really chilling and cool vocals when Losira transports.

Kirk: "Beauty survives." This is the third episode in a row where a character tells us what the title means. But what does he mean "beauty survives?"

If she was the last one left, I wonder why she bothered setting the defenses? To defend their outpost's technology from aliens?

It's an okay episode. Lee Meriwether is hauntingly beautiful, and it's a haunting story as well.

Alien watch! Losira's ghost!

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.
Lawyer in a muumuu. Remarkably human-looking but maybe that was on purpose.
The remarkably human-looking Morgs and Eymorgs of Sigma Draconis.
Kollos the Medusan
Gem the Empath (remarkably human looking)
Vians (the OTHER bumpy-headed aliens)
Tholians!
The remarkably human-looking Fabrini of Yo Mama.
The malicious swirly ball of hate (DotD)
The remarkably human-looking Platonians who are douchebags except for Alexander
The fast, but still remarkably human looking Scalosians.
The remarkably human-looking image of Losira.

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

 

[johnnybear]

Eating D'Amato???? Boy that guy looks tough!!!
JB

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Eating D'Amato???? Boy that guy looks tough!!!

I love Italian food. But in this case I'm going to make an exception.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

What’s especially Star-Trekkie is that the “villain” this week is merely the lifeless relic of a bygone age, inadvertently putting our heroes in danger by following long forgotten orders. The ending is somewhat poignant, as the tale of an extinct colony who underestimated their own fallibility and a reminder to ourselves not to do the same.

No malice, just an impersonal (but at first glance, very personal) defense system that can't help being what it is.

Losira: "But you are my match, James Kirk. I must touch you. Then I will live as one, even to the structure of your cells, the arrangement of chromosomes. " I have no Earthly idea what this means. Anyone got a clue?

Will she assume Kirk's form, believing it to be superior to hers? Will future ships visiting the outpost now be greeted by a hologram that thinks, acts, and looks like Kirk, down to the last line of code?

 

[johnnybear]

Pizza D'Amato for three!!!! Tasty, Zap?
JB

 

[Pauln6]

Pizza D'Amato for three!!!! Tasty, Zap?
JB

No pineapple though.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Losira: "But you are my match, James Kirk. I must touch you. Then I will live as one, even to the structure of your cells, the arrangement of chromosomes. " I have no Earthly idea what this means. Anyone got a clue?

Another possible interpretation: by touching him, she will become Human, not a hologram.

 

[Marsden]

Losira: "But you are my match, James Kirk. I must touch you. Then I will live as one, even to the structure of your cells, the arrangement of chromosomes. " I have no Earthly idea what this means. Anyone got a clue?

Basically, the replica has Losira's mind as a template, like M-5 had Daystrom's, but unlike M-5, the Losira replica doesn't want to kill, this is it's nice way of saying I'm going to explode every single nucleus of your each of your individual cells by turning your chromosomes into firecrackers. Boom.

I have to say, this is a very gruesome way to go, if the show was at all accurate, I'd imagine that what would be left would look like a mass of blood Jell-O.

 

[johnnybear]

First pizza and now jelly!!! This planet has got it all!
JB

 

[Ssosmcin]

Annnnyway, on topic, I never gave much thought to what Losira meant about matching the cell structure, other thinking it was a way of powering the hologram defense system while destroying the intruders. She wasn't duplicating them, but adapting them as energy.

D'Amato was one of the very few expendables to die who had any real personality. We wasn't just a dude in a shirt, he was really likeable. Props to the 3rd season team to taking what was a Star Trek cliche bby then and making it work well. You could understand why Kirk was so bummed - other than he hated losing crewmen.

 

[Henoch]

MCCOY: Sulu's picked up an organism that's almost a virus, like a a plant parasite. It's the nearest biological form of life I can find.​

Maybe Lorisa blasts a body's cells to make it easier for the plant parasite to ingest you; you're now organic compost fertilizer. Technically, you do join and live on and on and on with Lorisa (i.e. The Outpost).