Production Order Group Viewing 2018

[Henoch]

The Hanger Deck (sans the turntable) is practically traced per the MJ Hangar Deck Sketch (okay Matt, how big is the Enterprise, really?):

 

[Mytran]

So in this episode she takes on Mudd's offer to drug Spock so he can be hers. What! I'm sorry but in the 21st century I think Nurse Chapel should be at least off the ship and have her nursing license gone and possibly be in jail.
But this was the 70s and apparently that was OK then? They just should have had Chapel under the influence another victim of Mudd before she agreed to his plan. Otherwise shes just a predator and even though I find Chapel crusher to be pathetic I want to think she has integrity.

I was so busy facepalming at everything else I didn't even consider her conduct! Yep, that a pretty bad show of hers, a deliberate attempt to compromise the first officer which in turn put several lives at risk

The Hanger Deck (sans the turntable) is practically traced per the MJ Hangar Deck Sketch (okay Matt, how big is the Enterprise, really?):

That's a really good question! If we go by the intended scale of the miniature (1/12) then the length of the flight deck is approximately 120' from the invisible "4th wall" up to the doors. Combine this with Jefferies' other cutaway and it would require an Enterprise around 1,350 feet in length...

 

[Maurice]

I was so busy facepalming at everything else I didn't even consider her conduct! Yep, that a pretty bad show of hers, a deliberate attempt to compromise the first officer which in turn put several lives at risk

That's a really good question! If we go by the intended scale of the miniature (1/12) then the length of the flight deck is approximately 120' from the invisible "4th wall" up to the doors. Combine this with Jefferies' other cutaway and it would require an Enterprise around 1,350 feet in length...

Well except that hangar cutaway is for a forced perspective miniature and you can’t really marry it to the exterior.

 

[Mytran]

Well except that hangar cutaway is for a forced perspective miniature and you can’t really marry it to the exterior.

While that sketch is indeed FP, the miniature itself as built was 122 inches in length and at the aforementioned scale (details are in Datin's book).
This makes the miniature approximately the same length as the sketch which, when scaled against Jefferies' cutaway, produces a ship length of approximately 1,350 feet.

 

[Henoch]

This makes the miniature approximately the same length as the sketch which, when scaled against Jefferies' cutaway, produces a ship length of approximately 1,350 feet.

<I'm speechless.> Time to change all those ship size comparison charts on the web.

 

[Maurice]

If you try to fit sets in ships and buildings you have to scale up almost everything seen in movies and TV shows. That way lies madness.

 

[Mytran]

If you try to fit sets in ships and buildings you have to scale up almost everything seen in movies and TV shows. That way lies madness.

Funnily enough, it's a pet project of mine!

 

[Poltargyst]

Mudd's Passion

"Captain's log, stardate 4978.4. We are approaching the Arcadian star system on a mission to locate an old friend." Using the term "friend" lightly...

It's Harry Mudd! Harcourt, what have you been up to? Have you been drinking again? You good for nothing thing. How did you escape your 500 wives? I do like it when they're able to get TOS actors back to reprise their roles.

Okay, say there's an episode of The Apprentice, and Harry Mudd leads one team, and Cyrano Jones leads another, and they are competing on who can sell the most of some product. Who wins?

SPOCK: The so-called girl is a Rigelian hypnoid, projecting a simple illusion.

Once again proving that the Rigel system is the most important system in the Federation. Which of the Rigel system's many planets did this "hypnoid" come from? I bet it was Rigel XII, the planet with the miners from Mudd's Women. Somehow Harry met up with it while on that planet.

MUDD: Never underestimate the spirit of Harcourt Fenton Mudd. I borrowed a vehicle.
SPOCK: Stole a spaceship.

They brought back that gag from I, Mudd.

And continuing the Star Trek tradition of strangers being able to roam freely about the ship accessing ship's systems unmolested, Harry creates a fake ID.

McCoy has a bridge station? Since when?

Christine has a phaser trained on Harry and she MISSES!!!! And she lets Harry get close enough to take the phaser and kindap her????? She shoots like a stormtrooper. I know she's a nurse, but she really sucks at this.

VERY cool shuttlecraft design. I like it a lot.

Continuing in the Star Trek tradition of leaving shuttlecraft unattended to be stolen by strangers on board the ship...

Majel is busy this episode playing Christine, the Rigelian hypnoid hottie, and M'Ress. They couldn't afford Nichelle this episode?

WHA!!!! Arex has a harp! And he's playing on the bridge. Ah, he's under the influence of the Mudd crystals.

SPOCK: Thanks Jim. It's good to have a friend like you.
KIRK: Strange, that's the way I feel about you, too. My dear friend, Spock.

Oh, get a room, you two.

Something tells me a lot of people get laid this episode. Baby boom in nine months?

I find it unlikely that Kirk would be able to throw those two crystals so high and so accurately into the creature's mouth, and I find it unlikely that those two little crystals would be enough to affect such a large creature.

MUDD: Ah, well, Spock. So few things in this universe are perfect. Think I'll get rehabilitation therapy again?
SPOCK: I can guarantee it.

Mudd gets the deneuralizer chair again?

A pretty MEH episode, and that's only taking the story into account. It drops lower than MEH in the way it destroys Christine's character. Christine falls to the level of Lt.'s Palamas and McGivers in her willingness to betray the ship and her duty for love. She actually is willing to roofie Mr. Spock, her long time friend and crewmate, and she seems pleased to realize that it has worked. There's no alien influence, no illness, no spores to explain it, Christine does it all on her own. Another TOS/TAS female crewman unable to do her duty due to love. Not a good look, Star Trek, not a good look.

So I take it next week's episode involves Christine's court martial, and that's the last we see of her?

Alien Watch! Maybe if I take one of Mudd's roofies I'll come to love this episode?

Season One
The Glommer
Arex*
Retlaw Plant
Agmar and his Phylosian posse
Swoopers
Yellow winged bird guy (Aleek)
Spock's teddy bear with fangs (sehlat)
Green cat thing that sounds like Godzilla (le-matya)
300 million year old alien on viewscreen log
Green energy Redjac wannabe
The Vendorian
Lt. M'Ress
Remarkably human-looking Taureans.
The planet-eating, Majel Roddenberry-voiced cloud from another galaxy.
Alien miners of Arcadia
Rigelian hypnoid
Giant rock creatures

*by request

 

[Poltargyst]

MUDD'S PASSION

So, Stephen Kandel is back for a third time with yet another “Mudd” story. Can the man write anything else? Actually I wish he would because I, Mudd was the least funny of the three “comedy” episodes of Season Two and really didn’t deserve another outing, let alone one so replete with tired tropes, forced coincidences, off character moment and bad decision making.
The “false love” angle is reminiscent of the Venus Drug from Mudd’s Women but fortunately the story itself doesn’t retread that too much…although largely because anything like a “plot” is very light on substance and doesn’t hold up at all under scrutiny.

This disappointing episode starts with Kirk et al tracking down Harcourt Fenton Mudd who is up to his old tricks of trying to swindle people.
Yawn.
We are not told if Kirk sought out the “capture Mudd” task or was randomly assigned it – the latter would push credibility, but not for the last time this week!

What is nice is that we actually get to Mudd’s con game in person (complete with a population of aliens) rather than just hear about it in passing – yet again a potentially dull situation is salvaged by making good use of the animated format.
Unfortunately, the con itself though is pretty transparent and his “proof” to the miners of the love potion’s veracity is laughably bad, even by his standards. However, the audience seems to buy it. Hmmm, what exactly are “heavy metal miners” anyway?

• Miners that like a certain genre of music?
• Overweight miners of metallic ores?
• People that mine of substances like mercury, arsenic and lead?

If the latter, no wonder their intellects have been affected!

Then Spock uses his phaser to cause wanton and massive property damage on a non-Federation world before they beam away without an apology.

Speaking of which, the standard phaser is used for just about everything this week! New abilities include:

• Neutralising the illusion of a Rigelian hypnoid without stuning it.
• Carving a trench in asphalt within seconds that is so deep and wide that a group of angry miners cannot cross it
• Deactivating the brig’s forcefield without overloading any of its machinery or causing nearby damage
• Erasing the photograph of an ID card (well it certainly sounds like a phaser beam)

Yep, a truly amazing device. Definitely not lazy writing.

Although played for laughs, I don’t actually mind the way Harry got off the android planet after I, Mudd since there must have been ships on the planet for Norman to sneak on board the Enterprise in the first place.

But from this point on any semblance of a coherent plot goes out the window with massive coincidences, lapses in logic and poor decisions which exist solely to drive the narrative.
For a start, Nurse Chapel’s back to swooning over Spock.
Yawn.
Didn’t she get over this following the events of Return To Tomorrow? Even the Stardate is later! The trope was getting tired on its second appearance in Amok Time and definitely did not need to come back in TAS.

However, Chapel’s infatuation is required so Mudd can snatch her phaser – which begs the question; why is she even armed as she’s just there to patch up a minor wound!
I know she was part of the security landing party in The Lorelei Signal but those were exceptional circumstances. At the very least, shouldn’t there be a guard present?

In fact, where are the guards? Did the writer think we were still in TOS Season Three where the main cast did everything? There’s no security brought along to arrest Mudd and none on the rock monster planet, even though those are situations that would demand their presence!

Also, why is McCoy at the science station - just so he can be in the scene?
And why is he reporting to Kirk about the crystals found in the “shuttlecraft bay”? Shouldn’t that be security’s job as well? Are they all on personal leave? It would explain why Mudd was able to smuggle on board a HUGE amount of love crystals, despite him being a known scoundrel.

Anyway, Mudd steals not only a phaser, but an ID card as well which is required to access certain areas of the ship...Which is new.
Is this automated system what has replaced all the regular security personnel?
Was this an upgrade after the events at Mantilles last week? Damn you, Bob Wesley, why won’t you ever learn!!!

Fortunately there’s an easily accessible machine round the corner from the brig which will print a new photo on a stolen card, no questions asked.
Also, any secure door you need to use the card on doesn’t bother checking the name, just the photo.

Chapel tries to reclaim some agency (and dignity) by accosting Mudd before he steals a shuttle, but that is short lived. Then the love potion vapour ends up in the ventilation system! Didn’t they learn any lessons from Obsession?

Also, if each crystal contains just one drop of love potion, would that stash be hopelessly diluted by the time it had mixed with all the air from the ship?
I suppose the effects wear off pretty quickly, within a few minutes it seems.

Roger Carmel’s vocal talents really carry this episode: Once on the Enterprise Harry is beautifully devious and psychologically manipulative but the absurd circumstances operate way too much in his favour. Did he also acquire some of the Luck Virus from boys on Red Dwarf? It seems so, because once he leaves the Enterprise all his cunning and good luck vanish and he’s back to making stupid decisions: He lands on the planet that the Enterprise is orbiting to drop off Chapel but then (based on zero research) decides to set up shop right there! HE HAS A SHUTTLE. He can go absolutely anywhere else!!!
But then we wouldn’t be able to have an exciting adventure with rock monsters, or re-capture Harry Mudd.
Can’t we just let him go?

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Leaving the planet Motherload, the Enterprise arrives at a totally new, amazingly scientific star system really quickly. We’ve seen some rapid travel times in TAS (20 light years in 2.4 hours) but this is ludicrous speed!
• So, sex is binary and hetero-normative, is it? I know, limits of a 1970 children’s TV show.
  Also, this is Harry Mudd sales pitch to Chapel so I hardly think it should stand as an authoritative stance on the subject.
• Apparently, Harry keeps the love crystals stashed in his copious chest hair! Was he inspired by Marge Simpson and what she keeps in her bun?
• Arex is quite the musician! He’s also a bit of a sarcastic bugger, given the whistle he lets out when Spock blurts out his loving feelings for Christine.
  All in all he’s turning into quite a quirky character!
• It’s the first TAS flight deck…and it’s huge! Well, no larger than in TOS, but this is the first time we’ve seen the shuttles themselves racked against the walls like that.
• Those rock monsters were pretty cool. Their roars reminded me of talking green tigers though…
• That shuttle design is pretty cool too!
  RIP
• Just like in All Our Yesterdays, lovestruck Spock is angry Spock.
• McCoy’s smooth, seductive lines are back! “If Enterprise had a heart I’d save her too. Now let’s talk about your heart…”
• Spock’s incredible Vulcan physique breaks through the power of Mudd’s love potion, but at least he isn’t instrumental in saving the day for once.
• The one comedic scene that actually worked was when Kirk was calling for an emergency beam up, only for the scene to cut to two crewmen dancing in the Transporter Room – perfectly timed!
• Kirk is a boss! He just stands there as the rock creature threatens to crush him, confident that his crazy plan will somehow work. Or is he just dumb? There’s a lot of that going round this week.
• Thanks to Carmel, Harry’s final line gives us a weird yet sinister ending!
  It’s nice, but totally undeserved given the rest of the absurdities we’ve just been subjected to.

LOL! I so agree.

 

[Mytran]

WHA!!!! Arex has a harp! And he's playing on the bridge.

Arex got some excellent characterisation in this epidode - at last! Incidentally, it says in the recently released Guide To The Animated Series that this episode was intended to have been released earlier (in order to flesh out Arex and M'Ress) but it unfortunately got delayed.

I find it unlikely that Kirk would be able to throw those two crystals so high and so accurately into the creature's mouth, and I find it unlikely that those two little crystals would be enough to affect such a large creature.

Don't worry. those two crystals have magical self-replication powers! I'm sure one of them made it on target
http://tas.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/blu-ray/110-BR/mudds-passion-hd-462.jpg

...it destroys Christine's character. Christine falls to the level of Lt.'s Palamas and McGivers in her willingness to betray the ship and her duty for love. She actually is willing to roofie Mr. Spock, her long time friend and crewmate, and she seems pleased to realize that it has worked. There's no alien influence, no illness, no spores to explain it, Christine does it all on her own.

This paragraph beautifully sums up the worst thing about this episode. I can forgive contrived situations and odd character decisions to a certain extent, but Christine being willing to DRUG Spock in order to bend him to her will is unforgivable
Not to mention a similar situation played out with Anne Norad a few weeks back in The Survivor except that then the woman's character came out far more intact and her journey was actually woven into the story.
Mudd's Passion is just horrible.


In order to help me sleep at night, I have mentally retconned this dumpster fire into a tale told by Mudd to other inmates at the detention centre to explain why he got arrested again - something like this may have happened on the Enterprise, but without all the out of character weirdness and Mudd heroics!

 

[Mytran]

THE MAGICKS OF MEGAS-TU

Now this is much better quality Star Trek!
Exploration into the unknown, bold new discoveries and strange new lifeforms who might be enemies but end up becoming friends.

The notion of aliens coming to Earth, living with humanity for a time and then getting driven off has been done in TOS before of course but at least this time the Megans went somewhere other than Greece!
Their whole experience was a pretty terrible one, really and it’s a testament to the Megans’ strength of character that they are not driven to vengeance - they’re just being really, really careful with humans from this point on!

The whole lack of “bodily autonomy” that the landing party experience when first on Megas Tu is a good way to visual the incredible weirdness of this other plane of reality (and one only possible in the animated format)

Because Lucien alters the landing party's visual perceptions to something their brains can understand, they (and we the audience) are not seeing the "real Megas-Tu. This neatly explains away oddities like wizards, castles and other accoutrements, as they’re just interpretative representations of what’s really there and only happen to look like a cheesy kid's interpretation of a magical world
I am also using that to explain why we see reel to reel tapes and punch cards flying around when Asmodeus examines the Enterprise’s computer records – it’s a just a visual analogy, right?

In any case, while the inclusion of magic as a real force is completely balmy, the way it’s presented does feel strangely justified; the crew are in a completely unknown new dimension, after all!
Leonard Nimoy’s performance helps smooth over any wrinkles in the concept nicely.

Kirk volunteering to fight to defend Lucien is very much in his character, made better (I think) by the fact that he doesn’t need to do it – his crew are free to go, but he cannot stand by and see Lucien be unfairly punished, nor allow Asmodeus to sink to such dark depths of cruelty.

All in all a very solid 25 minutes of Star Trek.

Just one gripe, really...

THE CENTRE OF WHAT???
Kirk’s opening log seems is a confusing mishmash and misapplication of known scientific theories.
To start, he talks about the galaxy “being created from a great explosion”

1. A "great explosion" is a misunderstanding of what the “big bang” theory describes which is an expansion of space/time itself, not an explosion of matter.
2. As if to double down on this scientific ineptitude, he describes this process as being the origin of our galaxy! Either that or he is really mangling his terms (exchanging universe for galaxy, in the same way that some science fiction series used galaxy instead of solar system).

In any case, this is most certainly NOT how galaxies are formed!

William Shatner held similarly confused opinions in early drafts of Star Trek V when he wanted the Enterprise to fly to the “centre of the universe”, unaware that there isn’t really any such thing. He also held a similarly flagrant disregard for the distances involved!

For that reason I have previously speculated in other threads that Sybok was in fact referring to the centre of the “Galaque Sea”, a particularly strange nebula-like phenomenon first encountered by the Vulcans (hence the confusing name when translated into English). Maybe it's time to port the Galaque Sea into TAS as well now?

Finally, having the centre of the galaxy as the point where the Megans entered our dimension means they would have had to bypass thousands of similar worlds before landing on Earth. A closer nebula just makes so much more sense. There could even be a portion of it that is fully impenetrable to normal starships (the “great barrier” of ST5:TFF)


OTHER THOUGHTS

• Space weather! This time, a cosmic transdimenional tornado
• Hmm, I see that Lucien favours the “classic trio” landing party configuration …
• The first thing Spock does with his magic powers is move a chess piece. First thing Sulu does is conjure up a girlfriend! No judgements, just making an observation…
• And speaking of magic, Kirk really masters the use of it incredibly quickly. I suppose all that playing with telekinesis in Plato’s Stepchildren really paid off!
• Lucien is a terrific character and his revealed “true” identity is dealt with by Kirk splendidly – one side of the story is a myth, the other is a real person standing right in front of him.
• Do the Megans have a connection to TNG’s the Q? First they alter the humans’ perception of their realm, then they put humanity on trial and all but accuse them outright of being a dangerous, savage child race!

So far, TAS has dealt with euthanasia and now learning to see the good side of Lucifer…I can’t wait to see what comes up next!

 

[Henoch]

Galaxy Center...this is a tough one to explain...okay, I got something brewing...first, we need to assume that there is some sort of orange energy field (barrier?) surrounding the center of the galaxy. To make it reasonable to get there, it must be huge, tens of thousand lightyears in diameter. When the TAS Enterprise travels though it, instead of just finding the gigantic black hole sucking in a dense zone of stars, it got phased into another dimension were the Megans dwell outside of our physical universe. Perhaps this was an one time event orchestrated by Lucien to bring Kirk and crew into his home dimension. Boy, this is a weak analysis.

Do the Megans have a connection to TNG’s the Q? First they alter the humans’ perception of their realm, then they put humanity on trial and all but accuse them outright of being a dangerous, savage child race!

Does sound like a prequel-Q episode, namely VOY "Q and Grey".

 

[Poltargyst]

The Magicks of Megas-Tu

This episode is going to be great! The court martial of Christine Chapel. As we know, last episode Christine allowed prisoner Harry Mudd to escape and used his Venus drug on Spock. There should be real courtroom drama to put Court Martial or The Menagerie to shame. What is to become of Christine?

As I said at the outset, I know I saw all of these episodes when they aired, but I haven't seen them since. I didn't remember anything about the past few episodes. It's been like watching them for the first time. Of this episode, I do remember a guy looking like/actually being the Devil. I don't seem to remember a court martial though...

The creation point at the center of the galaxy where matter may still be being created. **single eyebrow raise** Fascinating.

How long does it take to get to the center of the galaxy anyway? I see online that Earth is 25,000 light years from the center of the galaxy. Seems like that should take a while even at maximum warp.

Seems like they run out of oxygen awful quick once the systems fail. I mean Kirk is still sitting there talking like nothing's wrong at all while Sulu's passing out. Oh, of course things always affect Kirk last.

A mysterious being appears! It's a satyr! It's Pan! (Cue the Church Lady): could it be....SATAN????

This week's regurgitated storylines include another race of legend turning out to have been aliens who lived on Earth like the Olympians and, as in Plato's Stepchildren, our heroes figuring out how to do magic themselves.

Actually the episode reminds me of the original Battlestar Galactica's two part episode War of the Gods in which John Steed from the Avengers turns out to be the Devil who is being chased by angels. I always liked supernatural episodes.

HUMANS are the vilest species in the universe? Asmodeus doesn't get out much.

KIRK: "We're not interested in legend." Oh, boy, some people wouldn't like that line.

Wow, Kirk's a master wizard in one lesson. So why doesn't Spock help him?

Doohan seems like he had a blast playing Lucien, all jovial. Reminds me of Cyrano Jones. Friend Kirk!

Takei did a good job with the creepy Megan voices when they found the Enterprise. Scary!

I think I remember reading once about how Marvel comics decided that the Earth is in fact special compared to other planets. How could it not be? Other planets have super beings but nowhere near the number that Earth has. Other planets might have one pantheon of gods, but not several like Marvel Earth has. How else could there be so many potential universe-ending events on Earth if it wasn't special?

Is Star Trek's Earth special too? Everyone seems to go through there. The Olympians have been there, the Megans have been there, Redjac has been there. Have as many aliens of legend been to Romulus or Kronos?

The center of the galaxy comes up a lot in Star Trek. The hippies were trying to go there, and we know that is where Sha Ka Ree is. Hey! I got it! The planet of the "god" in Star Trek V is in the center of the galaxy like the Megans' home. The "god" of Star Trek V is a Megan!

The social-moral lesson of the week: The Devil and his demon friends were right, so we should befriend them. Kind of an odd moral for a Saturday morning kids' show, but you do you, TAS.

I am interested in religion and mythology, and I remember reading about the Gnostics who believed that the Old Testament God was evil and the serpent/devil was good and trying to help humans out. Is Larry Brody a Gnostic?

Oddly enough, there was no court martial for Christine. Maybe the lawyers are still preparing their cases?

Here's a thought from last week. Suppose back in Season One of TOS, they start planting seeds not only about how Christine loves Spock, but also how her character is gray, and she's willing to cut corners to get things done. Maybe she does some shady things that benefit the ship at times, benefit herself others. She occasionally gets in trouble with McCoy and Kirk, but not enough to get written up. Then, when an episode like Mudd's Passion comes up, her actions are actually in character! I think that Christine would be very interesting. I find her kind of bland now. What she did in Mudd's Passion is about the most interesting thing she's ever done.

Alien Watch! Where's Megas-One?

Season One
The Glommer
Arex*
Retlaw Plant
Agmar and his Phylosian posse
Swoopers
Yellow winged bird guy (Aleek)
Spock's teddy bear with fangs (sehlat)
Green cat thing that sounds like Godzilla (le-matya)
300 million year old alien on viewscreen log
Green energy Redjac wannabe
The Vendorian
Lt. M'Ress
Remarkably human-looking Taureans.
The planet-eating, Majel Roddenberry-voiced cloud from another galaxy.
Alien miners of Arcadia
Rigelian hypnoid
Giant rock creatures
Remarkably human-looking (when they want to be except for that rebel Lucien guy) Megans

*by request

 

[Poltargyst]

THE MAGICKS OF MEGAS-TU

Now this is much better quality Star Trek!
Exploration into the unknown, bold new discoveries and strange new lifeforms who might be enemies but end up becoming friends.

The notion of aliens coming to Earth, living with humanity for a time and then getting driven off has been done in TOS before of course but at least this time the Megans went somewhere other than Greece!
Their whole experience was a pretty terrible one, really and it’s a testament to the Megans’ strength of character that they are not driven to vengeance - they’re just being really, really careful with humans from this point on!

The whole lack of “bodily autonomy” that the landing party experience when first on Megas Tu is a good way to visual the incredible weirdness of this other plane of reality (and one only possible in the animated format)

Because Lucien alters the landing party's visual perceptions to something their brains can understand, they (and we the audience) are not seeing the "real Megas-Tu. This neatly explains away oddities like wizards, castles and other accoutrements, as they’re just interpretative representations of what’s really there and only happen to look like a cheesy kid's interpretation of a magical world
I am also using that to explain why we see reel to reel tapes and punch cards flying around when Asmodeus examines the Enterprise’s computer records – it’s a just a visual analogy, right?

In any case, while the inclusion of magic as a real force is completely balmy, the way it’s presented does feel strangely justified; the crew are in a completely unknown new dimension, after all!
Leonard Nimoy’s performance helps smooth over any wrinkles in the concept nicely.

Kirk volunteering to fight to defend Lucien is very much in his character, made better (I think) by the fact that he doesn’t need to do it – his crew are free to go, but he cannot stand by and see Lucien be unfairly punished, nor allow Asmodeus to sink to such dark depths of cruelty.

All in all a very solid 25 minutes of Star Trek.

Just one gripe, really...

THE CENTRE OF WHAT???
Kirk’s opening log seems is a confusing mishmash and misapplication of known scientific theories.
To start, he talks about the galaxy “being created from a great explosion”

1. A "great explosion" is a misunderstanding of what the “big bang” theory describes which is an expansion of space/time itself, not an explosion of matter.
2. As if to double down on this scientific ineptitude, he describes this process as being the origin of our galaxy! Either that or he is really mangling his terms (exchanging universe for galaxy, in the same way that some science fiction series used galaxy instead of solar system).

In any case, this is most certainly NOT how galaxies are formed!

William Shatner held similarly confused opinions in early drafts of Star Trek V when he wanted the Enterprise to fly to the “centre of the universe”, unaware that there isn’t really any such thing. He also held a similarly flagrant disregard for the distances involved!

For that reason I have previously speculated in other threads that Sybok was in fact referring to the centre of the “Galaque Sea”, a particularly strange nebula-like phenomenon first encountered by the Vulcans (hence the confusing name when translated into English). Maybe it's time to port the Galaque Sea into TAS as well now?

Finally, having the centre of the galaxy as the point where the Megans entered our dimension means they would have had to bypass thousands of similar worlds before landing on Earth. A closer nebula just makes so much more sense. There could even be a portion of it that is fully impenetrable to normal starships (the “great barrier” of ST5:TFF)


OTHER THOUGHTS

• Space weather! This time, a cosmic transdimenional tornado
• Hmm, I see that Lucien favours the “classic trio” landing party configuration …
• The first thing Spock does with his magic powers is move a chess piece. First thing Sulu does is conjure up a girlfriend! No judgements, just making an observation…
• And speaking of magic, Kirk really masters the use of it incredibly quickly. I suppose all that playing with telekinesis in Plato’s Stepchildren really paid off!
• Lucien is a terrific character and his revealed “true” identity is dealt with by Kirk splendidly – one side of the story is a myth, the other is a real person standing right in front of him.
• Do the Megans have a connection to TNG’s the Q? First they alter the humans’ perception of their realm, then they put humanity on trial and all but accuse them outright of being a dangerous, savage child race!

So far, TAS has dealt with euthanasia and now learning to see the good side of Lucifer…I can’t wait to see what comes up next!

Yeah, I like this one too.

 

[Maurice]

[...]The center of the galaxy comes up a lot in Star Trek. The hippies were trying to go there, and we know that is where Sha Ka Ree is.[...]

"The Way to Eden" hippies? Cause the only references I recall to the direction of their intended destination is stated right at the top of the episode:

CHEKOV: If it continues on course, it will enter Romulan space.​

Or am I misinterpreting?

 

[Donald G]

"The Way to Eden" hippies? Cause the only references I recall to the direction of their intended destination is stated right at the top of the episode:

CHEKOV: If it continues on course, it will enter Romulan space.​

Or am I misinterpreting?

I think someone may have confused the "Eden" the Space Hippies were searching for with the Sha-ka-ree/Vorta Vor/Eden that Sybok and his followers were seeking.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Takei did a good job with the creepy Megan voices when they found the Enterprise. Scary!

He actually did a good job sou ding like George Takei. Doohan was the only one who could do something with this voice to sound different. Part of that was the fact that he never used his "real" voice as Scotty, but also becuase he was a talented voice artist. Takei, Nichols and Barrett weren't.

 

[Mytran]

Galaxy Center...this is a tough one to explain...okay, I got something brewing...first, we need to assume that there is some sort of orange energy field (barrier?) surrounding the center of the galaxy. To make it reasonable to get there, it must be huge, tens of thousand lightyears in diameter. When the TAS Enterprise travels though it, instead of just finding the gigantic black hole sucking in a dense zone of stars, it got phased into another dimension were the Megans dwell outside of our physical universe. Perhaps this was an one time event orchestrated by Lucien to bring Kirk and crew into his home dimension. Boy, this is a weak analysis.

Not too bad TBH, except that Sulu does explicitly say "galaxy centre" before they get transported to the Megans' dimension.
This is my re-interpretation of the dialogue, using the "Galaque-Sea nebula" notion:

Captain's log, stardate 1254.4. For years scientists have theorised that if, uh, Galaque Sea was created from a great explosion, then the centre of the Galaque Sea might still be creating new matter. The Enterprise is now on a science mission to investigate.
KIRK: It's an awesome thought that we may actually witness matter being created.
SPOCK: If we do, Captain, we may also encounter forces and phenomena beyond our understanding.
SULU: Galaque Sea centre, Captain.

Now at least one of my verbal re-interpretations IS weak!

Does sound like a prequel-Q episode, namely VOY "Q and Grey".

True, but I had more in mind Death Wish which is where we see the Q continuum for the first time.

This episode is going to be great! The court martial of Christine Chapel. As we know, last episode Christine allowed prisoner Harry Mudd to escape and used his Venus drug on Spock. There should be real courtroom drama to put Court Martial or The Menagerie to shame. What is to become of Christine?

Ah, if only!

Seems like they run out of oxygen awful quick once the systems fail.

Ordinarily I would agree, but as this is a whacky alternate dimension maybe oxygen doesn't work the same way without a little magical help?

I am interested in religion and mythology, and I remember reading about the Gnostics who believed that the Old Testament God was evil and the serpent/devil was good and trying to help humans out. Is Larry Brody a Gnostic?

I have a similar interest in early Christian religion too - it's really tantalising to see glimpses of what got chucked out when the official canon was formed.
The Gospel Of Judas is interesting in that in it Judas was the only one who understood the true meaning of Jesus' message - that must humans are too involved with the physical realm and only a select few have the insight to transcend to eternity after this life
Marcion of Sinope interpreted inconsistencies between the depictions of God in the old and new testament by purporting that they were actually separate deities! This is some Star Trek level of continuity error resolution!
As for Lucifer himself being a misunderstood guy - I've not heard of that one! Which Gnostic gospel is it from?

 

[Henoch]

Not too bad TBH, except that Sulu does explicitly say "galaxy centre" before they get transported to the Megans' dimension.

Maybe, the starship Enterprise was on a make-believe trip to what they thought is the galaxy center. Actually, they encountered Lucien who intercepted/diverted them into a fake-reality galaxy center which showed them what they wanted to see. Then, the veil of that fake reality was dropped only to put our heroes into an even more fake reality. Lucien did a two step transition to ease the shock to the crew. First, give them something reasonable to chew on, then second, throw them into the deep end. Still weak.

 

[Mytran]

Maybe, the starship Enterprise was on a make-believe trip to what they thought is the galaxy center. Actually, they encountered Lucien who intercepted/diverted them into a fake-reality galaxy center which showed them what they wanted to see. Then, the veil of that fake reality was dropped only to put our heroes into an even more fake reality. Lucien did a two step transition to ease the shock to the crew. First, give them something reasonable to chew on, then second, throw them into the deep end. Still weak.

Yeah, the crew still found it at least conceivable that they could reach the galaxy's centre.
Then there's all that silliness about the galaxy being formed from an explosion that is still outputting new matter.
Ugh