• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Revised Star Trek-RM: Operation: Annihilate!… Grade/Discuss

AstroSmurf

AstroSmurf

Vice Admiral
Admiral
This is the grading & discussion thread for Star Trek Remastered airing the weekend of 02/23/08.

TrekBannerUhura.jpg




Operation: Annihilate!

Arriving at Deneva, the U.S.S. Enterprise finds the planet and its population infested by large parasitic amoeba-like lifeforms. Beaming to the surface, Kirk attempts to ascertain the origin of the infestation and how to combat the threat. But before the captain can complete his investigation, Spock is infected by one of the parasites effectively crippling him. And it is left up to the Captain and Dr. McCoy to find the answers needed to save this world, and their friend.

Official Website for Star Trek

Next Weeks Episode: The Apple
 
Last edited:
B+ for the remastering (the satellite deployment wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... but I still don't like the way that round hatch was hinged on the underbelly of the secondary hull), A for the episode (those flying amoebas still give me the creeps!) and a solid F for an even more horrid-than-usual job of editing for syndication.

For gods sake, McCoy says he'll rig a pair of protective googles, and the next thing you know, Spock is stepping into the photon chamber without any eye protection at all! And later on the bridge, McCoy asks Kirk not to mention to Spock that the good doctor called Spock the best first officer in the fleet... only problem is, that whole sequence was also slashed out of the episode.

I swear, the person who edits these episodes for syndication must have the IQ of a salad spinner.
 
Oh and by the way, why is it that when I view poll results I find myself transported into a thread in the Star Trek: Enterprise forum? Methinks our transition to vBulletin has a few kinks to be ironed out! :D
 
Yeah, I love that bit about the protective goggles. "I'll rig up a pair." Spock just ignores him and goes inside, making it look like Spock is the one responsible for his own blindness.

McCoy and Kirk are both dangerously incompetent in this episode. McCoy for zapping Spock with a zillion candlepower light before the test results came back on the creature, and Kirk for not listening to Spock when he said they should take the stunned creature (which instead flew up and stung him).
 
The misdirect after voting in a poll is on the fix it list already. It doesn't seem to affect the actual voting though.
 
Salad spinner indeed. This episode had some very obvious cuts. I gave the episode a B+. I thought they worked the reamstered effects in nicely. I have also decided that the new 'stock' shot they have of the Enterprise flyby in the beginning of this episode is a new favorie of mine, I have seen it in several others and it has really grown on me.
 
Professor Moriarty said:

<SNIP!>
and a solid F for an even more horrid-than-usual job of editing for syndication.

For gods sake, McCoy says he'll rig a pair of protective googles, and the next thing you know, Spock is stepping into the photon chamber <SNIP!>...
Click to expand...

Yes, this is even worse that having Mirimani tell Kirock to "make the BLUE flame come out" and the CBS guys make it bright red.

Guys, CBS guys, I know it's late, I know you're tired, but you have to remember to step back and look at the big picture, the actual narrative of the story.

B+

Cool satellite shots CBS, still digging it and kickin' the burn. ;)
 
Last edited:
Yeah, syndication edits were even worse than usual, the scenes mentioned above were butchered badly. Someone seeing this episode for the first time would be scratching their head at those scenes.

This episode has always been one of my favorite, but there are some silly stuff at the end to create extra tension. There was no good reason for Spock not to wear the goggles, they already knew the light was strong enough to cause blindness. And even if they had to blind all the people on the planet in order to save them, that's no reason to risk blindness to Spock.
 
But for all the heroes knew, becoming blind was a crucial step in getting free of the parasites' influence.

OTOH, if we accept Kirk's strange insistence that the problem be dealt with at that very minute, with what the heroes had available, then it does stand to reason that the full effects of the light from the sun / the satellites be studied - not just the effects on the parasite, but on the host (or any uninfected person) as well. And Spock was willing to sacrifice himself for the purpose, fully knowing that blindness would ensue.

What does not make sense there is using a Vulcan as the test subject if Deneva was a purely human colony. But then again, nobody quite claimed it was... Still, McCoy should have checked out the first thing whether there existed any difference between Vulcan and human reactions to intense light. And the second eyelid should have popped up literally before it did so literally...

Timo Saloniemi
 
Maybe getting rid of the beasties was an over riding priority that blindness amongst colonists was a second thought. Were VISORs available at that stage?

I often wondered, what about the creatures in the shade? IIRC we say them getting toasted too, but I wondered how that worked, was enough light reflecting off other sources that they got a sufficient dosage too?

Another thought, Roddenberry was offended AFAIK in TWOK when Kirk immediately zapped the ceti eel that oozed out of Chekov's ear.
As Federation types, they should have studied it apparently. I suppose this episode is an example of the Federation as he wanted it, studying the aliens they want to zap first.
 
What has always bothered me about this episode (aside from what appear to be flying crepes, or "really thin pancakes", if you prefer), is Kirk in full-on Mary-Sue mode. You have Science Officer Spock, one of the most brilliant minds in Starfleet, babbling incoherently about how the Denevan sun "exists physically, has mass, bla bla bla", while McCoy, another scientist (a medical doctor, but still!) stands there looking blank. Then, voila! Kirk flicks on pointless blinking light doo-hickey and figures out that the sun is bright! What the hell does he need these guys for? I know Spock was having some issues at that point, but clearly he ought to have thought of one of the sun's core properties being the emission of EM radiation as soon as Kirk asked about it. But this was one of those occasions when we just gotta have JTK figure everything out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top