Star Trek-RM: Spectre of the Gun… Grading/Discussion

[AstroSmurf]

This is the grading & discussion thread for Star Trek Remastered airing the weekend of 07/19/08.

Spectre of the Gun

After ignoring a warning buoy, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise finds itself confronted by the technologically superior Melkots for trespassing into their space. As punishment for the transgression, the strange aliens transport Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Chekov into a surreal recreation of Earth’s wild west. With instruments not working and no way to contact the ship, they are forced to relive the famous shoot-out in Tombstone, Arizona, with little hope of survival.

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[cooleddie74]

C for the episode. Serviceable and creepy in atmosphere in some respects...a nice change of pace from the usual. But never anything special or terribly memorable overall. Plus, the quasi-abstract sets used to recreate the Melkotian fantasy environment never quite won me over, even though they were meant to look that way for the sake of artificial eerieness.

Above Average for the Remastering, though. The all-new Melkotian probe buoy looks very, very nice...almost crystalline. Like carved ice or diamond. And the new Melkot planet has a very Mars-like feel. The new buoy is the real standout and highlight though. The way the new crystalline, icy design emits and reflects light makes it look like an expensive Waterford crystal vase or sculpture with prism-like rainbow light filtering through it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

One thing: At the end of the episode, when Spock says "I wonder how humanity managed to survive," why does his voice have that reverb on it that the Melkotian voice did? Is that just an error? Or was the Melkotian himself speaking 'through' Spock at that time?

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Hopefully they'll leave Chekov dead this time.

Also, CGI in the cast of TOMBSTONE.

"Captain Kirk, I'm your huckleberry!"

"You tell Spock, I'm coming and hell's coming with me!"

(yes, I know the Earps saw them as the Clantons, etc.)

 

[Hambone]

Not the best episode but far from the worst. Westerns were still BIG on TV when this episode originally aired, so it probably struck the viewers in a different way back then. I thought the CGI bouy was well-done, and I'm glad they didn't mess with the Melkotian...it looked suitably "creepy" already.

One thing: At the end of the episode, when Spock says "I wonder how humanity managed to survive," why does his voice have that reverb on it that the Melkotian voice did?

I caught that too. I never noticed it before...

Also, I love the use of the "Star Trek" font on the Sheriff's office. Nice touch.

 

[cooleddie74]

One thing: At the end of the episode, when Spock says "I wonder how humanity managed to survive," why does his voice have that reverb on it that the Melkotian voice did? Is that just an error? Or was the Melkotian himself speaking 'through' Spock at that time?

It was on my station's copy of the episode as well. I guess it was just a digital sound remastering error that wasn't cleared before release.

 

[Phillip Culley]

One thing: At the end of the episode, when Spock says "I wonder how humanity managed to survive," why does his voice have that reverb on it that the Melkotian voice did? Is that just an error? Or was the Melkotian himself speaking 'through' Spock at that time?

It was on my station's copy of the episode as well. I guess it was just a digital sound remastering error that wasn't cleared before release.

I had the same thing on my stations feed; although I wonder how it got there in the first place?

 

[Cyrus]

The new effects were OK. The buoy was nice, so was the planet at the end.

I like this episode. Some great dialogue, and the incomplete sets work very effectively, giving the episode the creepy feeling that it needs.

Is this the only version of the O.K. Corral story that has the Earps as bad guys? I have heard that half the people in Tombstone were rooting against the Earps, but in all the movie versions they are the good guys. Maybe the writer Gene Coon wanted to balance things out.

 

[M'Sharak]

Is this the only version of the O.K. Corral story that has the Earps as bad guys? I have heard that half the people in Tombstone were rooting against the Earps, but in all the movie versions they are the good guys. Maybe the writer Gene Coon wanted to balance things out.

The Clanton/McClaury gang were trouble, but had a lot of local support. The Earps were far from nice and clean, least of all Wyatt. Virgil was hired as Deputy U.S. Marshal to straighten out a cattle-rustling problem in that part of Arizona Territory (in which the Clantons were suspected) and brought in his younger brothers Wyatt and Morgan to work under him, making them in effect hired guns from outside. (Town Sheriff Johnny Behan was sympathetic to the Clantons, or at least disinclined to go after them.)

Things went down, probably provoked to some extent by the Earps, though there are at least as many stories as there were people involved. The one making them the heroes got a head start in the public eye and became more or less the "official" version of events, as much as any can be said to have existed. Further, Wyatt ended up working as a consultant on more than a few of the early Westerns produced in then-new Hollywood, which helped to further cement that version of the the legend, and there it stayed for years.

In the decade or so leading up to the writing of the story for "Spectre of the Gun", there were published a couple of books containing evidence that the version of the story everyone "knew" to be true wasn't quite the way things had actually happened in Tombstone in 1881. By the time 1968 came along the tide had been turning a little more against the Earps and Holliday, and if the Clantons weren't exactly the good guys yet, they weren't quite as bad as everyone had thought.

Coon essentially turned things upside-down and went the rest of the way, making it a "what if the Clantons had actually been the good guys?" story. It wasn't really a great deal more accurate than the old version, but it made a good premise for a story.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I still think the image of the Earp's marching zombie-like to the battle adding a man as they go is one of the coolest visuals in all of Trek. It also seemed very silly that for awhile they all apparently believed that they were actually on Earth in the 19th century and thus couldn't change the timeline.

 

[kissthestar]

I agree. The marching Earps are pretty creepy. They are right up there with the diseased lunatics in "Miri."

 

[cooleddie74]

One of the Earps later portrayed one of Sybok's Nimbus III lieutenants and followers in STAR TREK V.

 

[ZERO_of_ZERO]

I have a strange liking for this episode.

My favourite scene is where Scotty tests out the "Knock out gas"

I cant give accurate quotes etc (sorry), but generally:

Spock: readies the device to take to Scotty.

Scotty: downs some whisky/burbon.

Spock: asks why he did so.

Scotty "to deaden the pain"

Spock: "But this is painless"

Scotty: "You should have told me sooner"

Just one of the times Scotty makes an excuse for a wee dram!

 

[cooleddie74]

Scotty was pretty good in this one. Always liked Doohan's performance in this episode...one of the top standouts of the whole story.

 

[kissthestar]

Yes, Doohan is good in this and in "By Any Other Name." Classic Scotty moments.

 

[cooleddie74]

Doohan never got enough good material. TOS focused so heavily on the Main Troika(K-S-M)that the secondary officers usually got screwed in the development and dialogue departments. If it weren't for the later movies, Scotty might never have been much more than a one- or two-dimensional stereotype.

 

[garakfan]

Although Trek look best when filmed on location rather than a planet set, this episode breaks that rule. The spooky false look (designed as an excuse to save money) works perfectly and keeps it from being just a western episode.

 

[cooleddie74]

I sort of hoped the Remastering team would have made the Melkotian's little tentacle limbs move or wiggle a little, but oh well.