Revisiting Star Trek TOS/TAS...
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
- Status
Personally, I think about as much thought went into whose lives were being lost as it took to speak the words "thousands of lives." That's about two seconds worth of creative energy. 
I wouldn't be surprised if we've been debating it for as long as it took to write the teleplay from scratch.
I wouldn't be surprised if we've been debating it for as long as it took to write the teleplay from scratch.
No it's not done. Fox said thousands of lives lost in this sector, not in this system or on that planet.
The Federation couldn't care less if millions of lives were being lost on an isolated planet that they have no contact with because it's strictly that planet's affair. But Federation and allied lives lost is a whole other ball game.
It's no different than the Bush administration claiming they're going to topple Saddam Hussein because of what he's doing to his own people. The U.S. really couldn't care less...unless there was something else they wanted or another angle to it. And claiming that Saddam had something to do with 9/11 was another crock of shit when they had solid intelligence that he had no connection to it whatsoever.
We like to assume the Federation is at least somewhat more principled than pretty much all the major powers that have existed on Earth and currently exist. And so they'll abide by their rule of non-interference unless they are concerned with the welfare of their own people and properties. If "thousands of (Federation and allied) lives" are being lost in that sector and the starship Valiant has given them a lead that there's an advanced civilization there then the Federation is going to look into it. If they were so concerned about Eminian and Vendikan lives being lost due to interplanetary war then they wouldn't have waited fifty years to come calling again.
For the record, Saddam was knocked off because Iraq was providing support for international terrorism (including some of the 9/11 hijackers), had been flaunting the cease fire agreement from the first Gulf War practically from Day One, and was actively seeking to reactivate his WMD programs (NOT THAT HE HAD THE WEAPONS!). Just ask the Kurds about what Saddam was like when he had WMD in his arsenal. If those programs became active again, it would've been a simple matter to hand off a particularly nasty weapon to, oh, say, Hamas, and, y'know, see what happened.
Imagine 9/11 with a small nuke on one of those planes.
Sorry, but the days of waiting until after the attack are long gone.
Rant over. We now return you to this week's episode of "Star Trek", already in progress.
The point is the U.S. wouldn't lift a finger as long as Saddam's behaviour was confined to his own country. The Federation wouldn't do anything in terms of Eminiar and Vendikar if it absolutely didn't involve them. But thousands of lives beyond those worlds (and over many years) were being lost and the Federation was determined to look into it.
And if Kirk had determined that Eminiar and Vendikar had nothing to do with those thousands of lives and Anan 7 hadn't tried to take down the Enterprise and execute the her crew then he could have happily walked away from it. But it didn't play out that way. We still don't really know if those thousands have lives lost were at the hands of Eminiar and Vendikar, but we do know they tried to destroy the Enterprise and execute the crew. In Kirk's book that was an unwarranted act of aggression.
And if Kirk had determined that Eminiar and Vendikar had nothing to do with those thousands of lives and Anan 7 hadn't tried to take down the Enterprise and execute the her crew then he could have happily walked away from it. But it didn't play out that way. We still don't really know if those thousands have lives lost were at the hands of Eminiar and Vendikar, but we do know they tried to destroy the Enterprise and execute the crew. In Kirk's book that was an unwarranted act of aggression.
In fact, there is no evidence for Saddam supporting Osama. Al Qeada didn't become a major presence in Iraq until AFTER the war started in 2003!! Get your facts straight!!
The CIA, CBO, Congress, PENTAGON AND Geroge W admit this: From a ABC Martha Raddatz interview with W:
http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/Saddam%20and%20Terrorism%20Redaction%20EXSUM%20Extract.pdf
http://irrationallyinformed.com/pdfcollection/20040729_Kerr_Report.pdf
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88177006
The UFP of the 23rd century DOES in fact care about lives lost in other conflicts, however, they do not go around butting their nose into other people's conflicts unless asked, and then it has to be a fairly major threat to the UFP. However Fox wasn't really interested in those lives, he wanted a base for the UFP, possibly to stay on an equal "cold war" footing with the Klingons. To say he was underhanded (as was George W) is an understatement.
The conclusion: the episode does not spell out whose lives were lost, but inference from the episode makes it seem more likely the lives lost were NOT from ships that originated outside their solar system, except in the case of Valiant and Enterprise.
RAMA
Indeed an excellent season, though it lost one 5-star episode in my previous ratings after a fresh look at it (Taste of Arm..) the 9 5-star episodes hold it in good standing with other ST series, tying it for 6th place on my all-time list. 22 of 29(!!) episodes have 4 or more stars, and there are only 2 BAD episodes by my reckoning. Unfortunately no series could likely sustain such heights, and TOS goes from strength to weakness as time goes on.
RAMA
"Catspaw" ***
The Enterprise finds a planet where Halloween is taken as reality.
This somewhat of a fun episode and with a good dose of the surreal. And it has a slightly different feel to it from the first season which I attribute partly to the different style of music. The music (at least here) somehow sounds more '60s, more grounded in that period. Character wise they feel just a bit looser than before.
There are some other changes. The opening credits is a touch longer and DeForest Kelley's name has been added to the credits. The vocals in the opening theme are also more evident. Character wise we get our first introduction to Ensign Chekov whose own hair isn't long enough yet for a Beatles' look because he's so obviously wearing a wig. We also get to see someone somewhat familiar yet new in temporary command, Assistant Chief Engineer DeSalle. I rather liked Desalle's presence and would like to have seen more of him. We had seen him only once before in "The Squire Of Gothos" and it's a nice touch of continuity.
Although the true forms of Sylvia and Korob have been much derided over the years once again I can appreciate that TOS made some effort to show us non humanoid aliens. And I liked (for the most part) how they were written and how they referred to themselves as being quite different (from human) yet still being mysterious and never revealing too much.
This was a fun and decent episode, but it wasn't awesome. Maybe I'm being stingy, but I can't see rating it more than a 3.
The Enterprise finds a planet where Halloween is taken as reality.
This somewhat of a fun episode and with a good dose of the surreal. And it has a slightly different feel to it from the first season which I attribute partly to the different style of music. The music (at least here) somehow sounds more '60s, more grounded in that period. Character wise they feel just a bit looser than before.
There are some other changes. The opening credits is a touch longer and DeForest Kelley's name has been added to the credits. The vocals in the opening theme are also more evident. Character wise we get our first introduction to Ensign Chekov whose own hair isn't long enough yet for a Beatles' look because he's so obviously wearing a wig. We also get to see someone somewhat familiar yet new in temporary command, Assistant Chief Engineer DeSalle. I rather liked Desalle's presence and would like to have seen more of him. We had seen him only once before in "The Squire Of Gothos" and it's a nice touch of continuity.
Although the true forms of Sylvia and Korob have been much derided over the years once again I can appreciate that TOS made some effort to show us non humanoid aliens. And I liked (for the most part) how they were written and how they referred to themselves as being quite different (from human) yet still being mysterious and never revealing too much.
This was a fun and decent episode, but it wasn't awesome. Maybe I'm being stingy, but I can't see rating it more than a 3.
Last edited:
^ Dude, you are being generous.
Well a 3 means it's okay even though there are moments I liked in it. It doesn't mean it's good or amazing, but neither does it mean it's poor or outright bad. Another way of looking at it is it's inoffensive.^ Dude, you are being generous.
One also has to remember I'm watching these in production order to get a sense of the series progression and evolution. In that light "Catspaw" isn't the best thing they could have begun the season with, and they didn't. If I recall correctly they opened Season 2 with "Amok Time" which would be a much better season opener.
I know. I read your grading scale. I would have only given it **. It played it too seriously for "the Halloween episode", for my taste. 
The actual death of an officer in the teaser was incongruent with comedy. If we are supposed to ignore that and just have fun, then that's ... awful.
“Metamorphosis” ****
The shuttlecraft Galileo is dragged off course to an isolated planetoid inhabited by a long missing person.
It isn't awesome, but this is a touching story in the end. The Companion gives up everything for her love of Zefram Cochrane. And he in kind turns his back on guaranteed fame, honours and recognition to be with her. What starts out as a "threatening alien" story turns out to be an unusual love story. A number of good moments here and my favourite is the one where Kirk speaks to Cochrane of being on a thousand planets and spreading and finding life everywhere.
When I look at this original portrayal of Zefram Cochrane I find it quite hard to reconcile it with the drunken buffoon version seen in TNG's First Contact.
The shuttlecraft Galileo is dragged off course to an isolated planetoid inhabited by a long missing person.
It isn't awesome, but this is a touching story in the end. The Companion gives up everything for her love of Zefram Cochrane. And he in kind turns his back on guaranteed fame, honours and recognition to be with her. What starts out as a "threatening alien" story turns out to be an unusual love story. A number of good moments here and my favourite is the one where Kirk speaks to Cochrane of being on a thousand planets and spreading and finding life everywhere.
When I look at this original portrayal of Zefram Cochrane I find it quite hard to reconcile it with the drunken buffoon version seen in TNG's First Contact.
So which one is "canon" or perhaps "more canonical"? TOS Cochrane or FC Cochrane? But then maybe the Companion de-aged him?
- Status
Similar threads
- Poll
