Revisiting TOS by Stardate order.....

[Warped9]

I've decided to pu "The Magicks Of Megas-Tu" later in the viewing order as I suggested upthread.


And so we begin.

Stardate 1312.4: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" *****

At the edge of the galaxy the Enterprise encounters a strange energy barrier that mutates certain crew members to exhibit unusual and dangerous powers.

It's a little odd watching this now because while I embark on my TOS revisit I also happen to be revisiting The X-Files. Humans developing psycokenetic abilities would be right up Mulder and Scully's alley.

This episode really doesn't miss a beat and it really sells the concept Roddenberry had pitched to NBC in the beginning. It will look dated to contemporary audiences, but the writing is first rate. You could reshoot this for a modern and updated version of Star Trek and you would have to to change next to nothing in the script. Maybe one or two lines. I think it's that solid.

The acting is also solid from every one of the main characters. You can't help but recall how often Shatner has been caricatured over the years and yet his performance here is flawless.

I didn't bother watching "The Cage" as the first episode this time around and given that I'll be seeing most of that episode soon enough during the first season episodes. I can recall that I still prefer the Bridge design in "The Cage" to the way it's shown here in WNMHGB. In both pilot episodes I like the concept of the more unisex style uniforms although it's easy to see now that the fabric used for those uniform tunics was not the best choice. The shrinkage from washing was quickly apparent. And the obvious seam up the back on the Dehner's tunic was painfully obvious. That said it's interesting to ponder what it could have been like if they had kept that uniform concept for both sexes. But they simply had to have used a better fabric and redesign the collar for the women.

Maybe when these episodes were first remastered they did something to the lighting because I seem to recall a lot of the TOS episodes, particularly early on, being moodier in light and shadow. Or maybe I'm recalling it wrong for this episode.

I really can't find fault with this episode beyond Mitchell's blatantly sexist remark about a "walking freezer unit." That simply wouldn't fly today. Another way could have been used to express him being rebuffed.

The only other question I have is: just what is it Spock is listening to from the Valiant's recorder marker? Is he actually translating a coded signal by ear?

I'm not watching these episodes through TOS-R but from the DVD clamshell season sets although I am playing them in a Blu Ray player. I still like the original energy barrier. The shape of the lithium statioon's main entrance looks very much like the doorways of the Krell in Forbidden Planet. There are some nice shots of the Enterprise here I still like better than what I saw in the TOS-R version.

Nonetheless an excellent first adventure.



If they had kept the look from "The Cage."










I have always liked this iconic and rather moody shot from WNMHGB. It really gives me the sense of being far out in deep space.

 

[Warped9]

Stardate 1329.8: “Mudd’s Women” ***

The Enterprise rescues a conman and three unusually alluring women from a stricken vessel.

There really isn't anything great about this episode, but even when you're familiar with something it's still nice to note all the details and background stuff going on.

This story has that "frontier" vibe to it that Roddenberry sold to the network to sell Star Trek. In some respects the story seems dated with the idea of women being transported as wives to frontier settlers, or miners in this case. And yet I think it still manages to have some resonance today given the popularity of online dating sites as well as those online services set up to introduce Western men to women from other cultures around the world.

The Venus drug is a gimmick, but it's also a metaphor for how men (and women) are so easily distracted by the illusion of youth, beauty and sex in advertising, entertainment and other aspects of society. It's not subtle, but it's not a bad thing to comment on either. That said it stikes as an unusual choice as one of three story ideas submitted to NBC for consideration as Star Trek's second pilot (from which they chose "Where No Man Has Gone Before.")

I like the lighting in this episode. Now it's how I remember the first season. It's nicely atmospheric and not brightly lit like most other colour shows of the era. I really like the attention to detail they put into the early season of Star Trek to sell the idea of a large ship operating in deep space. I like the more familiar look of the bridge here, particularly with the moodier lighting, than how it looked in WNMHGB.

There are some quibbles. The uniforms are more familiar (and I really like Uhura in gold), but not yet finalized across the board with some sloppy looking collars on some of them. Spock isn't yet himself yet as he lapses into glimpses of human like behaviour that seems rather wierd for him.

In a more contemporary version of this I think we could have gotten the female personnel's point of view of whats going on, but thats overlooked here. Roger C. Carmel does a good job of portraying Harry Mudd as a lying sneak and conman who actually has a bit of a soft sport buried inside even when he has the odd moment of seeming a touch sinister.

The technology isn't settled yet either as the ship is crippled from seemingly modest causes. One thing that really bugged me was the idea the Enterprise could only hold orbit for three days and that effort would drain power. This obviously wasn't given much thought I think because all the ship had to do was insert itself into a sustainable orbit at sufficient altitude that its own momentum would maintain for quite a long time, particularly if they weren't brushing the atmosphere. But maybe the low power meant they had to maintain a much lower orbit so less power would be required for the transporter to operate over a short distance rather than a higher and safer distance. Thats the only rationale I can think of.

There's some original music in this as well as reuse of recognizable music from WNMHGB.

It's kind of neat watching these DVDs through a Blu Ray player. The picture is quite nice and much clearer than anything seen before and yet the clarity doesn't give away all the productions sins that are lurking to be displayed when viewed on Blu Ray.

It's not an amazing episode, but it's good enough to make it decent.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The only other question I have is: just what is it Spock is listening to from the Valiant's recorder marker? Is he actually translating a coded signal by ear?

Isn't that what the people on the receiving end of telegraphs did?

This story has that "frontier" vibe to it that Roddenberry sold to the network to sell Star Trek. In some respects the story seems dated with the idea of women being transported as wives to frontier settlers, or miners in this case.

It works for the setting...definitely gets across that these men are stuck out on a very remote outpost.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Stardate 1329.8: “Mudd’s Women” ***

I like the lighting in this episode. Now it's how I remember the first season. It's nicely atmospheric and not brightly lit like most other colour shows of the era. I really like the attention to detail they put into the early season of Star Trek to sell the idea of a large ship operating in deep space. I like the more familiar look of the bridge here, particularly with the moodier lighting, than how it looked in WNMHGB.

Jerry Finnerman joined the series after the pilot, so the changes you see came form his excellent and imaginative use of lighting. The pilot was shot by Ernest Haller (Gone with the Wind).

There's some original music in this as well as reuse of recognizable music from WNMHGB.

It's mostly original music by Fred Steiner, other than, I believe, the sequence when Even freaks out and runs into the storm, and the resulting search. Oh, and the slutty music backing the shots of the girls walking through the corridors. That's from the preview for the episode, composed by Sandy Courage.

Far from my favorite episode. The opening teaser is pretty sloppy with some dialog badly overdubbed. Nimoy's tone changes from urgent in the dubbing and super mellow when we see him as he speaks.

"Sir, he's pushing his engines too hard!"
"And his engines arrrrrrrrrre super heating."

 

[Warped9]

^^ Like I said, it's not an amazing episode, but it's good enough to be decent. Three stars is a "fair" rating. It's certainly better than some actual disappointments to be found in TOS.

 

[Timo]

One thing to note about stardates: if a thousand of them make up one year (not just in TNG and the other spinoffs, but also in TOS, as evidenced by the time differential between "Errand of Mercy" and "Day of the Dove" and the Klingon remarks about that particular passage of time), then the system has to be reset each decade.

So perhaps "Megas-Tu" simply starts the next decade, and is the very last of the TAS adventures? And the heroes drop the first digit from their stardates just like we drop the century and millennium digits from ours?

That doesn't take us any further than integrating TOS and TAS, of course (if TMP were part of the "Megas-Tu" decade, there'd be too long a time difference between it and the TOS adventures, say). But it works for that particular integration just fine.

As for the going-to-the-center-of-the-galaxy issue, there need not be one. For one thing, our heroes do not go there: we see them remain outside the center, as they can observe it visually from said outside! For another, nothing in the dialogue establishes the going: all we hear is that the ship is to perform observations.

The telling bit:

Sulu: "Galaxy center, Captain."

As in, "May I present the galaxy center, Captain", in connection with said center appearing on the main viewer. Not as in "We are at the galaxy center, Captain"!

The only other question I have is: just what is it Spock is listening to from the Valiant's recorder marker? Is he actually translating a coded signal by ear?

Might be anything. Probably is everything. After all, why not go multimedia? The recorder might have synthesized a narration to its contents; or then Spock just listens to the spoken bits from the logs, while getting the other data by other means.

Personally, I'm convinced those earpieces actually interact with implants that everybody wears for UT purposes. Trained individuals can use them to pump more data through the UT than the average Joe or T'Jane could process.

The technology isn't settled yet either as the ship is crippled from seemingly modest causes.

Considering the stardate-order premise, we could easily argue that the ship is already crippled by the preceding adventures and far, far away from any repair assets. Helping out "Leo Walsh" is just the last isostraw that breaks the chameloid's back.

the Enterprise could only hold orbit for three days and that effort would drain power

Since you brought up the buzzword "rationalization", here's one:

The point here isn't holding the orbit. The point is reaching an orbit in the first place. Farrell says "We'll make orbit", basically establishing that failure is an option. So the ship uses up all her remaining propulsive oomph to make an orbit, but it's a lousy one, and will result in a crash in three days. The remaining power is not keeping the ship in orbit (as no power is needed for that, and the timetable of the crash is carved in stone already) - it's being consumed in the search for the missing miner. And, just as is sensible, our heroes are using it at a rate that will lead to exhaustion no later than the scheduled crash.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Terok Nor]

I've never understood the stardates and always ignored them. If I was to rewatch any of the shows in full I'd watch them in production order for TOS and airdate order for the spin offs. Suits me just fine.

I am intrigued by Checkov already being aboard the Enterprise during Season 1 due to the stardates. That puts a little continuity error for Wrath Of Khan to bed.

 

[ToddPence]

"Mudd's Women" is one of those episodes that you don't really care for the first time you view, but each time watch it you find more and more to like. And anything with Carmel is always worth viewing.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

It's been awhile since I've rewatched TOS and I'm getting the itch. After my last rewatch I had the idea that the next time around I'd try the series in Stardate order.

This does create a few wrinkles. Unfortunately back in the day it became impossible for the episodes to be produced and aired in Stardate order. Episodes were aired in order of being completed. And since the productions were not completed in exactly a planned and hoped for order they were not broadcast in exactly a precise order.

If one were putting the episodes in Stardate order strictly within a given season then it wouldn't be a big deal. But if you order the whole series by Stardate it just so happens that some of the episodes get mixed: a couple of Season 2 episodes get mixed in with Season 1 episodes and a few Season 3 episodes are mixed in with Season 2.

If you add TAS into the mix then you get animated episodes sprinkled throughout the live-action episodes with the bulk of them mixed in with the Season 3 episoes. That isn't that big a deal except in a couple of respects. For some reason "The Magicks Of Megas-Tu" was given a rather low Stardate that would place it before "Where No Man Has Gone Before." That's a wrinkle because...

- McCoy is present in "The Magicks Of Megas-Tu" (as well as Lt. Arex) yet he's absent in "Where No Man Has Gone Before."
- The order of the episodes would suggest the Enterprise went from the centre of the galaxy to the edge.
- The look of the ship and the uniforms of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" suggest a time prior to the 5-year mission while the ship and uniforms in "The Magicks Of Megas-Tu" are clearly from the main TOS period.

One solution to that dilemma would be to cheat a bit a put "The Magicks Of Megas-Tu" later in the viewing order. Hmm, so maybe Stardate 1254.4 could be interpreted a supposed to be read as Stardate 7254.4? Another solution would be to assume already was part of the ship's complement, but he was temporarily absent during the events in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and just ignore the appearance of the uniforms and the ship.

Thoughts anyone?


Star Trek episodes in Stardate order:


Stardate 5298.5 “Turnabout Intruder” (3)
Stardate 5943.7 “All Our Yesterdays” (3)
Stardate 6063.4 “How Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth” (A)
Stardate 6334.1 “The Pirates Of Orion” (A)
Stardate 6770.3 “The Counter-Clock Incident” (A)
Stardate 7403.6 “BEM” (A)

Interesting that the actual final episodes of TOS & TAS are not-according to stardates--the last story for either series.

Ultimately, it did not matter much, but it would have been easy (in post) to simply give both the most recent stardate.

 

[johnnybear]

Next time I watch TOS I was going to go for the star date approach! But how on earth would you watch TNG in star date order? I mean Tasha's death and the recounting of old episodes in Coming of age that haven't happened yet in star date history like The Ferengi Stargazer plot?
JB

 

[Warped9]

Stardate 1512.2 “The Corbomite Maneuver” *****

While star charting the Enterprise is caught by an enormous alien ship that threatens their destruction.

This is the quintessential Star Trek episode: on the frontier, encountering the unknown, a first contact and striving for understanding. Yes, it's a bottle show, but it perfectly encapsulates what the series was supposed to be about. "The Cage" sold the concept of Star Trek to the network. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" sold the show itself. "The Corbomite Maneuver" feels like the actual pilot of the familiar series very much as we now recognize it. In each case it felt like they were constantly polishing the ideas and stepping up the game.

There's no getting around the fact that Balok's puppet started to lose its effectiveness within a few years of this episode's production--and this is especially true today where newer viewers would probably find Balok's puppet quaint--but it's offset by everything else in this episode being spot on. It never falters, never misses a beat.

The attention to detail is admirable in conveying the idea of the Enterprise being a huge and well manned starship. The performances from everyone on the screen whether they have speaking parts or not are note perfect and really sell the setting and the story. This is very much an extention of what was seen in the show starting right from the first pilot. And like in the previous episode "Mudd's Women" the lighting really helps set the mood--more cinematic than conventional television of the era.

For me there are two telling moments in this story. The first is when Kirk gets his idea from a chance conversation with McCoy and decides to exercise some initiative in the situation. The second is when everyone else thinks they're free of the captor Kirk elects to turn the ship around and help the aliens who might be injured. Like WNMHGB earlier this script could be used pretty much in its entirety as is today and still work.

There are some nice external shots of the Enterprise in this episode (some better than others) made all the more impressive by the ship being nicely shadowed and not too brightly lit like it might have appeared on our old CRT screens. I credit this perhaps to the episodes being cleaned up some when they were remastered for DVD release. No it's not anything like TOS-R yet I think the shots actually look better in original form. This is what it's supposed to look like.

This episode is very early in the game, but we know it won't be the last time TOS bats it out of the park. This is Star Trek at the top of its game.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

There's no getting around the fact that Balok's puppet started to lose its effectiveness within a few years of this episode's production--and this is especially true today where newer viewers would probably find Balok's puppet quaint--

Still gives me the willies. Balok and the "Man Trap" creature are still kinda hard to look at.

 

[Ithekro]

I would place "The Magicks Of Megas-Tu" right at the beginning. The uniform errors and such being listed as animation error (not enough funds to replace the uniforms because Filmation is cheap like that) and everything else because the events took there toll on the crew. Several people stayed behind at the starbase to recover while Enterprise went out for a mission to edge of the galaxy, which was probably the closest edge rather than the rim, meaning only a trip of maybe a thousand or so light years rather than 50,000 light years from the center to the rim.

They pick up a few other crew on they way out to fill in for those left behind. Especially needed are new communications officer, navigations officer, and a doctor. After returning from Delta Vega they pick up Uhura and McCoy again. Arex takes a little longer to heal, and with the death of Mitchell, this forces them to get a cadet to fill in his shift for a time (Ensign Chekov).

"BEM" on the other hand is way out there in terms of Stardates. It seem like it would be only less than a year, perhaps even less than six months before TMP.

 

[Warped9]

Stardate 1513.1 “The Man Trap” ****

A creature that feeds on salt is stalking the crew of the Enterprise.

I love early Star Trek. I don't mean simply the original series as a whole, but those early episodes of the first season where they made such a concerted effort to establish the setting of the Enterprise and its crew. I really like the interaction amongst the secondary characters as well as the wonderful character moments and exchanges. There's also the effort to create the sense of being far from familiar territory. This attention to detail doesn't really go away throughout the series, but it's not as prominant as it is in these first season episodes.

On the face of it this is a basic "monster is killing everyone" story but for them managing to give us a touch of sympathy for the creature. And while it looks dated now I find the salt vampire to be somewhat more unnerving in appearance than Balok's puppet from "The Corbomite Maneuver."

The story itself is pretty basic, but its the overall execution that elevates it from something average to something good.

There are two little inconsistencies that while working for the sake of drama don't make much sense (for me anyway). They come at the end of the episode. When Kirk enters McCoy's cabin with his phaser drawn he has a clean shot with McCoy to the left of the creature and yet he doesn't take it. Kirk makes to draw the creature out and then ends up with McCoy in the field of fire.

The second inconsistency is after McCoy shoots the creature the first time. The creature is clearly stunned (to a degree) and Spock could have quickly gotten up and yanked Kirk away from the creature's proximity, but that doesn't happen. McCoy's next shot then kills the creature. Couldn't another phaser shot set on stun have rendered the creature unconcious? It strikes me it could have been captured rather than killed.

Speaking of the hand phaser we see something here I don't recall seeing anywhere else in the series. Usually when we think of a phaser on the stun setting we accept/assume the person shot will be rendered unconscious. But in this episode we see Crater hit by a phaser set to stun and he's merely and literally stunned rather than knocked out. On such a stun setting the recipient experiences something akin to being hit by a taser--they don't lose consciousness but merely become incapacited through a sense of weakness and disorientation. Neat, and a pity we never saw the hand phaser used that way again.

In this episode Uhura is now in her familiar red uniform. And one little oddity--in the opening bridge shot we her at Navigation. Then later she's back at her regular station. Later still, when they're conducting their "intruder alert" search we see Uhura at the Science console and Sulu at Communications. It's a good scene and a sample of Nichelle Nichols having a lot more than usual to do in this episode. Wish we could have seen more like this later in the series.

 

[Timo]

I love the seeming contradiction between the beast being a dumb animal driven by its instincts and being able to sweet-talk Uhura off her feet and argue passionately with our heroes while wearing the McCoy face... It's not really our heroes against a monster, but our heroes against themselves, fighting a mirror with an agenda.

As for phaser behavior, I trust Kirk would have chosen the "light stun" setting against the old man, rather than the later mentioned "heavy stun". The latter might be the default out of the two, explaining why Anton Karidian died without being evaporated, shot by a gun taken from a guard and apparently never reset.

TOS-R gives nice additional depth to what is already a splendid portrayal of exotic isolation here: the ruins in the desert set a mood more alien than any number of blinking lights or fast-paced VFX. Between the desolation and the bottled-up interiors of the starship, this is the perfect monster hunt environment for the perfect monster hunt episode.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Warped9]

The hand phaser had more variety in the first season. Later it became "render unconscious" or "desintegrate."

The creature had to be more than just a shape shifter because it had knowledge it likely shouldn't have had, like speaking Swahili for one thing. The fact it could somehow immobilize its victims as well as appear as more than one person at the same time suggests it could have powerful hypnotic abilities. How else could Kirk, McCoy and Darnell see three different women at the very same time?

It somehow made people see what they expected or wanted to see.

Initially, based on McCoy's description, Kirk expected to see a matured Nancy Crater and that's what he saw. McCoy was caught up in his rose-coloured remenisces and thus initially saw what he wanted to see. Only later he saw what Kirk saw when he wasn't caught up in his romantic haze. Darnell was probably bored and thinking about where he would rather be so he saw a girl he had fun with on a previous stopover.

Pretty nifty trick for the creature.

 

[Timo]

Well,

it had knowledge it likely shouldn't have had, like speaking Swahili for one thing

probably is the very same thing as

It somehow made people see what they expected or wanted to see

.

That is, the critter spoke no language whatsoever - but Uhura did, and she wanted to hear surprise Swahili from a mysterious man appealing to her aesthetic senses. The critter couldn't win an argument - but McCoy could, and the other heroes wanted to see that happen. Unconsciously, of course.

Were the characters in unprofessional haze, though? Or was Darnell simply an unprofessional airhead by birth? It doesn't seem as if Kirk would be drunk or similarly incapacitated when seeing "old Nancy"; we don't have to assume Darnell was being magically coerced to do things he didn't want to do.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Warped9]

Well,

it had knowledge it likely shouldn't have had, like speaking Swahili for one thing

probably is the very same thing as

It somehow made people see what they expected or wanted to see

.

That is, the critter spoke no language whatsoever - but Uhura did, and she wanted to hear surprise Swahili from a mysterious man appealing to her aesthetic senses. The critter couldn't win an argument - but McCoy could, and the other heroes wanted to see that happen. Unconsciously, of course.

Were the characters in unprofessional haze, though? Or was Darnell simply an unprofessional airhead by birth? It doesn't seem as if Kirk would be drunk or similarly incapacitated when seeing "old Nancy"; we don't have to assume Darnell was being magically coerced to do things he didn't want to do.

Timo Saloniemi

Sloppy on my part. I didn't comment on what Uhura experienced, but the creature obviously managed to tap into something already floating in Uhura's mind so that she envisioned a handsome man who also spoke fluent Swahili.

I really like Uhura in these early episodes and I wish we had seen more of her.

 

[Warped9]

Stardate 1533.6 “Charlie X” ***

An adolescent orphan wreaks havoc aboard the Enterprise.

It isn't that this episode is poor, but it isn't anything exceptional either. As is it's okay.

I find it hard to find any measure of sympathy for young Charlie Evans. Yeah, he's sufficiently awkward and creepy, but in counterpoint he doesn't really do anything to make him likable on some level. Because of this I find it hard to sympathize with the crew feeling any sort of remorse for Chaelie being reclaimed by the Thasians. As far as I'm concerned, "Good riddance!"

Unlike previous episodes there is nothing but exterior stock shots from WNMHGB used. The Thasian ship is nothing but a splash of light. There's a wierd continuity gaffe as Kirk seems to change his shirt while on his way to the bridge and in the next scene he's changed shirts again.

We get another glimpse of a conceptual uniform design for the women (tunic and trousers) that was usually seen only in the background.

Spock comes across a little too human here as Uhura teases him in the rec room, but otherwise the whole rec room scene is one of the better ones in the episode.

In some respects this story is similar to third season's "And The Children Shall Lead"--a youth with powers on the loose--only here it's better executed...for what it's worth.

 

[Timo]

In terms of the stardate order theme, this is Kirk's first contact with what we might dub civilization. Two of the preceding adventures happened where no man had gone before; two others emphasized the rather horrible isolation of the local representatives of mankind, and the fact that Kirk was either their only connection with Earth and its interstellar dominion, or then the only such connection the poor saps could really trust. But now Kirk meets somebody who could do his job for him: Captain Ramart is also sailing the frontier, for ill-established reasons, and rescuing damseaus in distress. And we also set the pattern of Kirk being better at surviving... For ill-established reasons.

Timo Saloniemi