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ST Phase 2: MIND-SIFTER

Enjoyed the ep. Really well done, character driven stuff. The interactions between Spock and McCoy and McCoy and Scott were great. Loved the Cawley cameo - I'm glad he still has a sense of humor about things after what happened.

I always hate to criticize the fan productions, because they are almost uniformly great, and done with such heart and soul. None the less, two minor nitpicks - I thought the story was a little derivitive of COTEOF, with Kirk in the McCoy role but still with the romantic intrest. Also, after the battle with the Klingons, Spock's speech about the relations between the Federation and Klingon Empire seemed oddly placed.

These are extremely minor quibbles, and in no way detracted from my overall enjoyment of the episode. Congratulations to all!
 
In Shirley S. Maiewski's "Mind-Sifter" short story, time travel was done through the "breakaway light-speed factor"--like in "Assignment: Earth." The editors of the Star Trek: The New Voyages book, changed the time travel method to using "The Guardian. Even the story's writer thought that what the editors did to her story was derivative of "CotEoF." Frustrated with what the editors did do her story, Shirley never wrote Star Trek fan fiction again.

In the end, we produced a version of "Mind-Sifter" that incorporated the elements of the story that were inserted by the book's editors Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath. Mostly, for good or bad, that's the version that most readers were familiar with, so we gave them the expected instead of the unexpected.

Oh--and thank you for your kind comments. Call your friends! Wake the neighbors!

siskokid888 said:
Enjoyed the ep. Really well done, character driven stuff. The interactions between Spock and McCoy and McCoy and Scott were great. Loved the Cawley cameo - I'm glad he still has a sense of humor about things after what happened.

I always hate to criticize the fan productions, because they are almost uniformly great, and done with such heart and soul. None the less, two minor nitpicks - I thought the story was a little derivitive of COTEOF, with Kirk in the McCoy role but still with the romantic intrest. Also, after the battle with the Klingons, Spock's speech about the relations between the Federation and Klingon Empire seemed oddly placed.

These are extremely minor quibbles, and in no way detracted from my overall enjoyment of the episode. Congratulations to all!
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^Quick note - my father introduced me to trek - he and I watched TOS in its original run. He is 75 now and I introduced him to Phase II - he was astounded. He could not believe that people could produce such quality entertainment simply out of their love for the source material. He is now a huge fan and looks forward, as I do, to every episode. Don't know if that means much to you folks, but it has continued and strengthened a bond between me and my Dad that started almost 50 years ago. Thanks.
 
siskokid888 said:
...Don't know if that means much to you folks, but it has continued and strengthened a bond between me and my Dad that started almost 50 years ago. Thanks.
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More than any other comments, criticism, or feedback that we receive, this kind of comment--from you and other similar comments from so many other Star Trek fans spanning a couple of generations now--are the main reason why we make these dumb things.

As I've said so many times before, we make nothing from these episodes. Our only income is nice comments--and your comments are up there in the "nicest of all" category.
 
To add my opinion:
I've never read any version of the "Mind-Sifter" story. So perhaps that's not a bad thing, because I'm judging solely on what I see, not pre-conceived notions.
I enjoyed the episode overall. I think the show strikes a good balance between the spirit of TOS and some of the more modern sensibilities of making a "tv show" and the collective body of the entire body of the on-screen Trek universe.

That said, showing Kirk that vulnerable and even shedding a tear, while completely understandable and more realistic, goes against the Shatner Kirk persona. It took me out of the story for a moment. But I give everyone responsible credit for trying to expand what defines Kirk, who is admittedly an icon bordering on caricature. Like I said above, it's a tough balance to make. I feel the show succeeded on the whole.

Somehow, Kirk missing for months (or weeks, depending on your perspective!) and tortured and damaged and then coming back on the ship after two weeks of treatment is somehow more believable than Picard seemingly back on board shortly after his assimilation, not to mention his Cardassian torture incident.

New Bones is great, loved Kor. Judging Brian Gross as Kirk on just one episode where Kirk is put through the ringer is not fair. I'll need to see him as Kirk at Kirk's best.

Best thing I can say: looking forward to more! Thanks to all who made this possible!
 
Tommunist said:
To add my opinion:
I've never read any version of the "Mind-Sifter" story. So perhaps that's not a bad thing, because I'm judging solely on what I see, not pre-conceived notions.
I enjoyed the episode overall. I think the show strikes a good balance between the spirit of TOS and some of the more modern sensibilities of making a "tv show" and the collective body of the entire body of the on-screen Trek universe.

That said, showing Kirk that vulnerable and even shedding a tear, while completely understandable and more realistic, goes against the Shatner Kirk persona. It took me out of the story for a moment. But I give everyone responsible credit for trying to expand what defines Kirk, who is admittedly an icon bordering on caricature. Like I said above, it's a tough balance to make. I feel the show succeeded on the whole.

Somehow, Kirk missing for months (or weeks, depending on your perspective!) and tortured and damaged and then coming back on the ship after two weeks of treatment is somehow more believable than Picard seemingly back on board shortly after his assimilation, not to mention his Cardassian torture incident.

New Bones is great, loved Kor. Judging Brian Gross as Kirk on just one episode where Kirk is put through the ringer is not fair. I'll need to see him as Kirk at Kirk's best.

Best thing I can say: looking forward to more! Thanks to all who made this possible!
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For what it's worth, Shirley's original short story had Kirk missing for over a year before he was finally located in space and time by Chekov. After Kirk's retrieval, the Enterprise spent six additional months on patrol before being recalled back to Starbase 11 for some reason. It turns out the Enterprise was being recalled to pick up a fully rehabilitated Captain Kirk to return to duty.

So after being gone for a year, Kirk spent six months in rehabilitation. We obviously contracted the whole time line a bit.
 
Tommunist said:
To add my opinion:
I've never read any version of the "Mind-Sifter" story. So perhaps that's not a bad thing, because I'm judging solely on what I see, not pre-conceived notions.
I enjoyed the episode overall. I think the show strikes a good balance between the spirit of TOS and some of the more modern sensibilities of making a "tv show" and the collective body of the entire body of the on-screen Trek universe.

That said, showing Kirk that vulnerable and even shedding a tear, while completely understandable and more realistic, goes against the Shatner Kirk persona. It took me out of the story for a moment. But I give everyone responsible credit for trying to expand what defines Kirk, who is admittedly an icon bordering on caricature. Like I said above, it's a tough balance to make. I feel the show succeeded on the whole.
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That's an interesting perspective to me, since from my memories of reading the story I expected to see Kirk much more broken, much more tearful, even whimpering and childlike. Jan even called him "Jimmy" for a substantial part of the story until his condition improved!

But since even his lesser amount of brokenness in the episode came as a shock to you, I guess they have struck the right balance between the expectations of readers and non-readers!
 
Mike--

I read your review. Was the review meant to be humorous? I only ask because the clip attached to it is not an edit from the actual episode, and is a send-up. Apparently I'm missing something . . .

--R
 
TRP said:
Mike--

I read your review. Was the review meant to be humorous? I only ask because the clip attached to it is not an edit from the actual episode, and is a send-up. Apparently I'm missing something . . .

--R
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Honest mistake. It's been corrected. :sigh:
 
I found it, the episode, satisfactory.

'Spock,' I thought, was a bit too stiff, wooden. Even if the actor wanted to make the character his own, Vulcan's should be 'cool' not, as aforementioned, wooden. Too, Spock is half-human so there would probably be a bit more emotion there. For example, in TOS, we would occasionally see Spock with a slight grin when he's observing things.

'McCoy' seemed like he was reading cue cards at times. Or, waiting until the other performer says his or her lines before starting his own. The line deliveries didn't sound natural. (With that said, I like the actor and would like to see more).

'Kor' was way more laid back than we've known the character to be. John Colicos always portrayed the Klingon as overly dramatic, exuberant. I think the actor for this particular character needed to go 'bigger.'
 
GSchnitzer said:
For what it's worth, Shirley's original short story had Kirk missing for over a year before he was finally located in space and time by Chekov. After Kirk's retrieval, the Enterprise spent six additional months on patrol before being recalled back to Starbase 11 for some reason. It turns out the Enterprise was being recalled to pick up a fully rehabilitated Captain Kirk to return to duty.

So after being gone for a year, Kirk spent six months in rehabilitation. We obviously contracted the whole time line a bit.
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It's been a very long time since I read this story in one of the New Voyages collections, but even then I took this strictly as a "what if" kind of story--pure fanfic. Then again all off-screen fiction--filmed or printed (even the professionally published works) are a form of fanfic. It's simply a matter of overall execution.

This story in no way makes any sense from an "in universe" perspective because after a year missing and even with several months of rehab it's seriously doubtful Kirk would be reinstated as Captain of the Enterprise.

Indeed having the crew together and Kirk in command of the same ship for decades (as we saw in the films) doesn't make any sense either.
 
From an "in-universe" standpoint, I suppose it's possible to wipe Kirk's memory clean in some Nomad/Neural Neutralizer way, completely re-educate him, and throw him back into duty in a week--exhibiting no signs of this "re-education." But maybe that only works with Communications Officers, but actual Starship Commanders just strains credulity.

Warped9 said:
GSchnitzer said:
For what it's worth, Shirley's original short story had Kirk missing for over a year before he was finally located in space and time by Chekov. After Kirk's retrieval, the Enterprise spent six additional months on patrol before being recalled back to Starbase 11 for some reason. It turns out the Enterprise was being recalled to pick up a fully rehabilitated Captain Kirk to return to duty.

So after being gone for a year, Kirk spent six months in rehabilitation. We obviously contracted the whole time line a bit.
Click to expand...
It's been a very long time since I read this story in one of the New Voyages collections, but even then I took this strictly as a "what if" kind of story--pure fanfic. Then again all off-screen fiction--filmed or printed (even the professionally published works) are a form of fanfic. It's simply a matter of overall execution.

This story in no way makes any sense from an "in universe" perspective because after a year missing and even with several months of rehab it's seriously doubtful Kirk would be reinstated as Captain of the Enterprise.

Indeed having the crew together and Kirk in command of the same ship for decades (as we saw in the films) doesn't make any sense either.
Click to expand...
 
I think I've seen most of the New Voyages/Phase II episodes including "Mind-Sifter." I've also seen the Starship Exeter episodes and one Starship Farragut episode.

I will say simply that this doesn't click for me.
 
Warped9 said:
I think I've seen most of the New Voyages/Phase II episodes including "Mind-Sifter." I've also seen the Starship Exeter episodes and one Starship Farragut episode.

I will say simply that this doesn't click for me.
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Everyone are entitled to their opinion.... I have viewed many fan films for Star Trek... most any hard working fan film for Star Trek is worth watching and enjoying. Phase 2 won my hearth and sprit a long time ago. Farragut makes me smile and Star Trek Continues rings the bell with their effort and I would much rather watch these than "NCIS.... Dallas, Wallwa Wallwa, Alice Springs.... " Some Star Trek makes us reflect on our own journey... and raise question about what we see and feel..
:bolian:
 
Warped9 said:
I think I've seen most of the New Voyages/Phase II episodes including "Mind-Sifter." I've also seen the Starship Exeter episodes and one Starship Farragut episode.

I will say simply that this doesn't click for me.
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It would be very interesting if the folks at STC also scripted and filmed Mind-Sifter. I'd like to see what they do differently. I'm sure that will never happen.

I thought Mind-Sifter was filmed beautifully, and clearly GR would have loved the VFX.

When I compare the script to a similar TOS episode "The Paradise Syndrome" where Kirk also has amnesia and is separated from his ship/crew/friends, Mind-Sifter spends way too much time on the ship and too little time with Kirk and the nurse.

"The Paradise Syndrome" is roughly 50 minutes long and just under 10 minutes is spent on the ship. And those 10 minutes are pretty much action packed with the ship trying to divert the asteroid and then Spock trying to decipher the code.

So I guess I am agreeing with Maurice who commented a few weeks ago that the heart of this story is with Kirk and the nurse on Earth.

Still, this is by far my favorite episode from the Phase II team.
 
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