S.T. original series , Episode: Plato's Stepchildren

The JFK thing was a movie idea, IIRC. I can't imagine doing dinosaurs on a 60's TV budget, at least not well.

 

JB

 

Back in the super-8 days, I played around with stop-motion animating my Mego Spock to do silly things. It wasn't actually Claymation, but I titled it "Play-Doh's Stepchildren" anyway.

 

Dinosaurs. Done with two words: stock footage (that's how Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea did it). The story "seed" was titled "To Skin a Tyranosaurus." Also, no, the JFK thing was NOT one of Gene's early ideas.

 

Keep calm there, Robbie, keep calm!
JB

 

I am calm

 

You are correct. I thnk the JFK idea was one proposal for the first ST movie. Page 125 of Inside Star Trek shows a GR memo from 1964 with several script outlines, including the dinosaur story and another about an alien who is crucified.

 

I agree. i'd much prefer the humiliation scenes to the white rabbit scene in Shore Leave. Its a serious episode and the TOS team almost keep their cool in the face of torture and depredation. Its a fantastic "character episode". I don't understand you people.

It has lots of great scenes. Spock crushing the vase, Kirk telling Alexander that his life is precious. McCoy trying to do the right thing but obeying his Captain's orders, bringing Alexander onto the ship. I think this is a very sympathetic episode fr Kirk. He comes out shining as a leader but also compassionate to his crew and to someone he barely knows.

Its in my top 10 episodes. Sits right up there wth Empath. Another great Kirk, Spock, McCoy episode.

 

Michael Dunn's speech where he realizes they are the ones who have something deeply wrong with them, not him, as the music rises, is a classic Trek moment. It's an epiphany I'm sure may people over the ages have experienced in real life.

 

...well, how about "smelly doo-doo episode"?

 

HI all,

This is my very first post, and it's going to be a doozy. There's no way I can follow this up with anything of value, but I have to ask. WHAT is Spock wearing under that tunic? I'm laughing as I type this, but I can't get the picture out of my head. When Spock is in his lovely green tunic, and is forced/dives for the couch, there's a glimpse of tush. Someone tell me he's wearing Vulcan colored tighty-whiteys. Please? (I'm never going to live this down!)

 

At the risk of repeating myself -- OK, I am repeating myself -- "Plato's Stepchildren" is barely a half-hour's worth of story padded out to an hour. Our heroes aren't just degraded and humiliated; they're degraded and humiliated again and again and again, to the point where I start to feel embarrassed -- not for the characters, but for the actors. And Leonard Nimoy singing "Maiden Wine" makes me want to wash out my one good ear with Lysol.

I hate "The Empath" too. It's all style and no substance. YMMV, as they say.

 

"The Empath" and "Plato's Stepchildren" both suffer from a lot of padding.

 

I like this one for all the reasons above.

 

Yeah, these things are subjective, but I consider more than a few episodes worse than Plato's Stepchildren. I don't find this episode unwatchable, but one or two from the second season I can't get through for various reasons - mostly boredom or overt silliness ("A Piece of the Action" and "I,Mudd," I'm looking right at you). Honestly, though, I can find something to enjoy in all 79.

 

Definitely a bad episode, although I think Turnabout is worse.

 

This is by far the worst TOS episode. That said, there are still some redeeming elements, and I do rewatch from time to time. I don't know why this got green-lit.

 

Turnabout is a close second for me.

I like the 3rd season way more than most...but the bad episodes were REALLY bad, and I think that's why it stands out.

 

No it's not because of the very redeeming elements you mention. But please feel free to explain how this is worse than And The Children Shall Lead.