Revisiting Star Trek TOS/TAS...

[Warped9]

I have to say that like so many others I've gotten accustomed to watching things in 16:9 ratio and widescreen. But I know TOS was filmed in 4:3 aspect yet it still feels a little odd watching it that way on my LCD TV with those big black bars on either side. Helps to watch it in a dimly lit room so it isn't so noticeable. (-:

 

[Harvey]

I like the good old 1.33:1 Academy ratio. Some of the best films ever made were shot in that format (Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and The Maltese Falcon). Widescreen, especially when it is used for television, is often implemented in such a way that the information found on the sides of the frame are extraneous anyways. I like seeing Babylon 5 in widescreen, for example, but it's hardly necessary. The images were composed so that they would suit a 1.33:1 framing when they first aired, and it sometimes shows on the DVDs, which are in widescreen.

The framing on Star Trek, in comparison, is almost always exceptional, with compositions taking full advantage of the aspect ratio it was shot in. That, combined with the series' exceptional use of color (something that has never been replicated, except -- and I know it pains you to hear these words -- in the 2009 movie), gives the series a cinematic quality, even in the face of the less expensive television effects.

 

[Warped9]

^^ I agree...even in terms of the 2009 film...colour wise anyway.

 

[Warped9]

There are two thing is the pilots I've never really understood. In "The Cage" I never understood why when we first see the main bridge viewscreen it was repeatedly shimmering. I also found it odd that the starfield displayed on the screen was symmetrical.

In WNMHGB near the end Kirk knows Mitchell has to die, but when Dehner incapacitates Mitchell then Kirk proceeds to try beating him up rather than just grab the phaser rifle and do what needs to be done. Okay, I know the fist fight was for the sake of action, but I suppose one could rationalize that Kirk didn't yet accept he had to kill Mitchell and perhaps thought he could still subdue him. It's a thought...

 

[Warped9]

"The Corbomite Maneuver" *****

While star charting the Enterprise is caught and held by an immense alien vessel.

Familiar Star Trek arrives... Let's get the flaws out of the way first: some of the uniforms still need work and Balok's puppet isn't very intimidating. Now for the good stuff: absolutely everything else works! Everything that made WNMHGB good is tweaked and ramped up. We also finally start to see beautiful images of the series production version of the Enterprise filming miniature. The character performances and inter-character dynamics are superb. And everything is brought alive by an excellent musical score.

It's easy to see here why this episode is often ranked as one of the best ever produced in the entire franchise. It's a damned good first contact story that really delivers on the opening narration: "Space, the final frontier... to seek out new life and new civilizations..."

When Kirk delivers his corbomite bluff I love Sulu's and Scott's expressions as if they're thinking, "Our Captain is a master of bullshit!"

So much of this story works because of the characters, the acting and the atmosphere. Even after all these years and without any cgi to dress it up.

Fantastic!

 

[SchwEnt]

I agree. "Corbomite" nails it. The acting, the writing, the music, everything. All the series that claim they need a season or two to get going... watch this eps. They hit it right outta the park first time. Awe, mystery, tension, drama, suspense, adventure, humor. One of my faves.

Also... the shimmering viewscreen from "The Cage".
I believe it was an effect from the distress call they were receiving. The line about being designed to cause disruption like that and attract attention. The distress signal was shimmering the viewer. Is that right? Or am I thinking of the wrong thing?

 

[Warped9]

^^ It says it was meant to attract attention, but you could be right

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Also... the shimmering viewscreen from "The Cage".
I believe it was an effect from the distress call they were receiving. The line about being designed to cause disruption like that and attract attention. The distress signal was shimmering the viewer. Is that right? Or am I thinking of the wrong thing?

This was always my interpretation. It was very imaginative, but also easily confusing.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

Not sure what the official explanation was (if there even was one) but to me that shimmering viewscreen was just a viscerally effective indication that the crew was manipulating their viewing equipment - with some degree of urgency - in an attempt to identify what their sensors warned was about to intercept their ship.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The confusion may have something to do with the use of what we now know as the "transporter energize" sound effect. This was the first pilot, and that sound was not used in that context. Instead, they "fired phasers" to initiate beaming. Therefore, we might not be able to assume that any controls are being actuated as the radio beam approached the ship. In this particular instance, it could just be an indication of energy passing through the area being scanned on the viewscreen.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

One last anachronism is Pike's reference to women on his bridge after we've already been introduced to Number One and moments earlier we also a another woman manning one of the other bridge stations as well as women in the ship's corridors.

One function this was intended to serve is to set up the sexual tension for later when Pike is being made to select a mate. Notice that Pike states his feelings for both women in this bridge scene, in immediate succession. For Yeoman Colt, irritation; for Number One, indifference. Number One's reaction is also revealing. All of course in the clumsy and heavy-handed way it was executed.

 

[Hambone]

^^ It says it was meant to attract attention, but you could be right

PIKE: "They (the old-time radio signals) were keyed to cause interference and attract attention this way."

Even though that line has alway been there, I, too, didn't make the connection with the "wobbly" viewscreen. Notice that the picture on the viewscreen stops wobbling as soon as they identify the interference as a radio message.

 

[Warped9]

"Mudd's Women" ***

The Enterprise intercepts a shady merchant and his cargo of unusually beautiful women.

You can't be on top all the time. There isn't anything really wrong with this, but it's not particularly memorable either. It's still early goings and here Spock has moments out character as if Nimoy hasn't quite got a firm handle on his character yet. The Venus drug must help put out powerful pheromones or something hallucinatory to have such a significant effect on the men in presence of the women---it's a little hard to credit. The moral of the story handed out at the reveal at the end feels somewhat anticlimactic. Roger C. Carmel's Harry Mudd is somewhat amusing, but he doesn't come across as particularly imaginative here.

It strikes me the Enterprise is crippled a little too easily here as if they also haven't quite nailed done all the tech details in how the ship works.

The thing that's established here is the Enterprise's role of playing police out on the frontier.

Again not bad, but not great. It's okay.

 

[Harvey]

Three stars for "Mudd's Women" is far too generous for my taste. The episode is both built on sexism and a flimsy premise. If the Mudd character didn't re-appear in a much more memorable episode a season later, it would be totally forgotten. It's hard to believe it was written as one of the three proposed second pilots (then again, so was "The Omega Glory").

Agreed on "The Corbomite Maneuver," though. Outside of a few details left to be worked out when it comes to the uniforms, it's nearly perfect. Uhura is a total non-character in her first episode, but that's because her "character" was created by simply giving her some of the lines that were to be said by Bailey.

 

[Warped9]

I find irony in "Mudd's Women" because while Mudd is transporting these women supposedly to be wives for some unnamed settlers or colonists on some remote world today we also have services that introduce Western men to distant women in other countries. And those foreign women are often dressed up to appear more than what they are.

Taking Mudd as a conman out of the equation I could still see this sort of thing existing in the future.

Candidly, yes, there is an element of sexism to it, but it's also product of its time. That's not an excuse but a fact. GR may have talked a good game, but I suspect much of his "vision" of the future was picked up from the fans and retconned back into TOS sometime after the fact.

And the very fact is there's still a lot of sexism today even though many like to believe their isn't. All you have to do is watch enough television and film and music videos to clearly see it.

 

[Warped9]

"The Enemy Within" *****

A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two personalities.

After stumbling a bit over Harry Mudd Star Trek gets back on its game with this riveting story. Shatner delivers the goods portraying Jekyll and Hyde versions of Kirk, each despising the other and struggling to stay until mutually accepting they need each other to exist.

There is a lot of attention to detail in this episode in terms of setting and effectively putting across the story. We also get our first look at the first version of Kirk's alternate command tunic---in my opinion the best of the lot with it's distinctive wraparound design, collar and shoulder braiding. Sexism rears its head again as this time they can't resist Kirk going topless, something that will continue periodically. We also get our first look at the Vulcan nerve pinch. Cool.

For me the only flub in this episode is Spock's out of character moment at the end. Otherwise it's a first-rate effort.

 

[Harvey]

I'd like to read Matheson's original version of the script before it was re-written by Roddenberry (to add the subplot of the away team being trapped on the planet, IIRC).

And I think the sexism goes a little further than just making Kirk a sex object. After Kirk's double has attempted to rape Rand, how is it at all appropriate for Spock to quip that the double "had some interesting qualities" to her?

The biggest stumbling block for the episode, though, is the premise, which is pretty silly. The episode does something interesting with the transporter malfunction set-up, but the set-up just doesn't make sense. It's the opposite from the weirdness that is the end of "Tomorrow Is Yesterday." Instead of combining two masses into one, suddenly one mass is made into two. I'm no scientist, but that does not compute.

 

[Brian]

Spock was more than just out of character at the end. The exchange was patently offensive, suggesting that a woman would have some romanticized notion of her potential rapist, as if that's how women want or need to be treated by men. I wish that dialogue had been removed in some edit a long long time ago. It should never have even been written.

 

[plynch]

I'd like to read Matheson's original version of the script before it was re-written by Roddenberry (to add the subplot of the away team being trapped on the planet, IIRC).

And I think the sexism goes a little further than just making Kirk a sex object. After Kirk's double has attempted to rape Rand, how is it at all appropriate for Spock to quip that the double "had some interesting qualities" to her?

The biggest stumbling block for the episode, though, is the premise, which is pretty silly. The episode does something interesting with the transporter malfunction set-up, but the set-up just doesn't make sense. It's the opposite from the weirdness that is the end of "Tomorrow Is Yesterday." Instead of combining two masses into one, suddenly one mass is made into two. I'm no scientist, but that does not compute.

So much of Trek doesn't compute scientifically. And yet, I love it. Our future is likely so mindbending we can't imagine it. A navy in space . . . uh, probably not. Just enjoy a springboard by which to tell stories.

 

[Warped9]

And I think the sexism goes a little further than just making Kirk a sex object. After Kirk's double has attempted to rape Rand, how is it at all appropriate for Spock to quip that the double "had some interesting qualities" to her?

In regard to Kirk topless my observation is meant to be humorous. In regard to Spock's remark---yes, it is wrong and I did acknowledge it being wrong and inappropriate and out of place.