Question about ESP and telepaths in TOS

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Okay, so he blusters.

 

[Alencar1990]

(Oh, one quick posting tip - when you're replying to multiple posters at around the same time, try to group your replies into one post rather than making a new post for each reply. I'm no mod or anything - and the mods here are QUITE kind and good people - but in case you do decide to stay long term as we all hope, you might run across a reminder from them about that, and I thought I'd offer it here.)

Hey! Thanks for the tip! This is a much better way to reply, for sure! And thanks for the welcome to! I was looking foward to debate Trek the way I debate my other favorite franchises. This place seems nice to do It.

With both Gary and Charlie, the point was to depict a tragic outcome, not an optimal one. It wasn't about Kirk making the right choice, it was about Kirk being left with no choice. Despite how The Wrath of Khan would later give Kirk the cocky line about not believing in no-win scenarios, TOS often put him in just such scenarios and didn't shy away from tragedy.

Yeah, he had no choice with Charlie, anyways. I likedthe change of tone. Coming from Star Trek Enterprise, Archer seemed to win almost all the time. TOS can certainly use this to create even deeper narratives.. Already noticed the series is not shy of killing some secondary characters, at least to make space feel like a more dangerous place..

One of the less frequently recurring tropes involves what one might broadly call "psychic powers." Other than the Vulcans, virtually any race or individual with such abilities depicted on TOS will have been corrupted by their abilities in some manner - some great, some small. It's allegory for corruption and power as you've identifiied, and quite interesting to see on screen. It's not always just psychic abilities either - see "Space Seed," which you have coming up in the later first season, for an example of enhanced non-supernatural powers among a group.

Yeah! It's a great tool for allegory. Just wondered If there were more connected lore regarding this, but I got the point of an episodic "alien of the day" kind of vibe. I'm amazed by the amount of lore this franchise seems to have! It's like a historian/science nerd paradise! hahah

 

[Christopher]

Sure, psi powers can be good for allegory, but I think the real reason TOS went to that well so often is that it was inexpensive. Showing telepathy doesn't require visual effects, just acting, and telekinetic powers can be depicted with pantomime to show people's bodies being psionically moved around, simple wire work for levitation, or basic jump-cut and dissolve effects to make things appear or disappear.

 

[Warp Core Breach]

The Twilight Zone and TOS, at least TOS s1 have a lot in common. Charlie X could be considered an expanded (and better done, imho) version of "It's a Good Life", for example. Many other examples there, as I'm sure has been covered many times before here.

 

[Henoch]

Already noticed the series is not shy of killing some secondary characters, at least to make space feel like a more dangerous place

Mostly, only guest stars and red shirts are killed. We analyze each and every one to "death" on this site.
Great to have you aboard.

 

[Christopher]

Mostly, only guest stars and red shirts are killed.

Although the majority of crew fatalities in season 1 were in gold shirts, and red and blue were tied for second. The "redshirts are doomed" trope is largely a consequence of just three second-season episodes with high security-guard death tolls: "The Changeling," "The Apple," and "Obsession." Those episodes alone account for roughly half of TOS's "redshirt" death total.

Ex Astris Scientia - Redshirt Deaths in TOS

The complete statistics about all Enterprise crew members who died during TOS

www.ex-astris-scientia.org

 

[Henoch]

Although the majority of crew fatalities in season 1 were in gold shirts

True only for season one. By the end of TOS, red shirts (27, Gary Mitchell was a pseudo-red shirt) dominated the crewmen death toll.

Kirk lost ~56 people under his watch (not to mention the many non-crewmen), so, yes, this shows how dangerous space exploration can be even on the best Starship.

 

[Christopher]

True only for season one.

Which is exactly what I said.

By the end of TOS, red shirts (27, Gary Mitchell was a pseudo-red shirt) dominated the crewmen death toll.

Only because of those three episodes, which account for nearly half the total redshirt tally. Without the excessive body counts of those three episodes, the annoying, overhyped redshirt meme would probably never have emerged.

Kirk lost ~56 people under his watch (not to mention the many non-crewmen), so, yes, this shows how dangerous space exploration can be even on the best Starship.

Rather, it shows how action-adventure TV shows rely on supporting-character deaths to generate pathos or suspense, particularly in the 1960s. Any profession is dangerous if it's practiced by the protagonists of an adventure show.

I mean, look at Star Trek: Enterprise. You'd expect the more novice explorers of that era to make more fatal mistakes and lose an even higher percentage of their crew. Yet the writers made a choice not to treat crew fatalities as cavalierly as earlier shows had done, and to hold off on killing any crew members until the story gave them room to address the emotional impact of the loss. Thus, for the first two seasons of the series, NX-01 had a death toll of zero, in contrast to the 46 fatalities in TOS's first two seasons. The level of danger -- or rather, the characters' ability to survive danger -- is only as high or as low as the storytellers wish to make it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Kirk lost ~56 people under his watch (not to mention the many non-crewmen), so, yes, this shows how dangerous space exploration can be even on the best Starship.

That’s almost as many wives and girlfriends the Cartwrights lost on Bonanza.

 

[PCz911]

Although the majority of crew fatalities in season 1 were in gold shirts, and red and blue were tied for second. The "redshirts are doomed" trope is largely a consequence of just three second-season episodes with high security-guard death tolls: "The Changeling," "The Apple," and "Obsession." Those episodes alone account for roughly half of TOS's "redshirt" death total.

Ex Astris Scientia - Redshirt Deaths in TOS

The complete statistics about all Enterprise crew members who died during TOS

www.ex-astris-scientia.org

I did not know that. Thank you

 

[ZapBrannigan]

That’s almost as many wives and girlfriends the Cartwrights lost on Bonanza.

It appears Kirk lost a crewman more times than Mannix was knocked unconscious— 56 to 55 in a nail-biter.

If you look at other ships and not just Kirk, does Star Trek even have competition? The Intrepid, Constellation, Exeter, Excalibur, and Defiant lost everybody, The Farragut lost nearly half its crew, and the Lexington lost 53. The Valiant, Antares, and Beagle lost everybody.

And then of course, the Gamma 7A system and Malurian system both lost everybody, meaning billions each. And it's implied pretty strongly that the government on Gideon is about to kill quite a few billion people, but that's okay and it's a happy ending.

Mr. Flint says he's seen a hundred billion fall, but that was big talk. Maybe he's just a blowhard. We don't have to count him for the show to rack up a body count.