Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
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Oh I agree and this was one of Roddenberry's earliest stories, so I know it wasn't a cheap exit. I just feel that the resolution of the jeopardy and the transition to the back portion could have been done a lot more smoothly.
Assignment: Earth ***
One great thing about running these in a specific order are the surprises. I am not watching these on a schedule, but when I'm in the mood for an episode, I am committed to watching the next one on the production number list. And I haven't seen this one in YEARS.
It's not about our crew. It's not about the Enterprise. The regulars get put in the background a little bit and don't save the day or really do all that much to move the story along. It's a backdoor pilot, so the guest star does all the important bits. For those reasons, I never put this on my regular rotation even though I never had a problem with it as a kid. It's just never been a go-to.
Well damned if I didn't really enjoy the ride! Robert Lansing, a guest so high profile he rates a unique credit up front, is fantastic. His star power had me glued. He carried a lot of dramatic weight but also knew how to stick the landings of the lighter moments. The comedy in this episode really works! The interplay between Seven and Roberta is so fun and I laughed out loud a few times. Garr's reactions to everything are pitch perfect even if her inexperience as an actress is evident at times (the best was yet to come for her). Even the two cops that show up are a joy (in those awesome winter coats where ol' Bruce Mars struggles to get his gun out of his pocket).
"Cha-lee..."
Yet, with all that fun, Marc Daniels still convinced me this was an important and desperate situation. Even with our guys on the sidelines, helpless to act, the tension towards the end is well played (thank you Sol Kaplan). Production values are high. All of the the rocket footage is breathtaking, the matching of the soundstage and the locations are perfect, and there's a good deal of rear projection in the sequences where Gary Seven is on the gantry.
I miss having a space program, by the way. Another reason I got into this was I remember vividly how exciting it was whenever NASA did a launch. I always loved the space program and it was a huge reason why I prefer I Dream of Jeannie to Bewitched.
Music spotting is awesome, with a lot of cues from the first season brought in. The first act, though, is again plagued by some very haphazard film editing. It feels very condensed, as if they had 65 minutes of footage and cut it down to 50. McCoy barely gets a cameo and half of his dialog seems truncated.
Spock, we learn, is a cat person. Cats and Tribbles. The ol' softie.
I would have watched an Assignment: Earth TV series with Lansing and Garr. They were fantastic.
Honestly, this one took me by surprise. I thought this would be a two and a half star episode at best, but it was just great fun.
That's it for season 2! A few of these back end episodes really show how the expansion to the Paramount lot opened things up just a bit. A shame the next season wouldn't have the budget and time to continue to take advantage.
One great thing about running these in a specific order are the surprises. I am not watching these on a schedule, but when I'm in the mood for an episode, I am committed to watching the next one on the production number list. And I haven't seen this one in YEARS.
It's not about our crew. It's not about the Enterprise. The regulars get put in the background a little bit and don't save the day or really do all that much to move the story along. It's a backdoor pilot, so the guest star does all the important bits. For those reasons, I never put this on my regular rotation even though I never had a problem with it as a kid. It's just never been a go-to.
Well damned if I didn't really enjoy the ride! Robert Lansing, a guest so high profile he rates a unique credit up front, is fantastic. His star power had me glued. He carried a lot of dramatic weight but also knew how to stick the landings of the lighter moments. The comedy in this episode really works! The interplay between Seven and Roberta is so fun and I laughed out loud a few times. Garr's reactions to everything are pitch perfect even if her inexperience as an actress is evident at times (the best was yet to come for her). Even the two cops that show up are a joy (in those awesome winter coats where ol' Bruce Mars struggles to get his gun out of his pocket).
"Cha-lee..."
Yet, with all that fun, Marc Daniels still convinced me this was an important and desperate situation. Even with our guys on the sidelines, helpless to act, the tension towards the end is well played (thank you Sol Kaplan). Production values are high. All of the the rocket footage is breathtaking, the matching of the soundstage and the locations are perfect, and there's a good deal of rear projection in the sequences where Gary Seven is on the gantry.
I miss having a space program, by the way. Another reason I got into this was I remember vividly how exciting it was whenever NASA did a launch. I always loved the space program and it was a huge reason why I prefer I Dream of Jeannie to Bewitched.
Music spotting is awesome, with a lot of cues from the first season brought in. The first act, though, is again plagued by some very haphazard film editing. It feels very condensed, as if they had 65 minutes of footage and cut it down to 50. McCoy barely gets a cameo and half of his dialog seems truncated.
Spock, we learn, is a cat person. Cats and Tribbles. The ol' softie.
I would have watched an Assignment: Earth TV series with Lansing and Garr. They were fantastic.
Honestly, this one took me by surprise. I thought this would be a two and a half star episode at best, but it was just great fun.
That's it for season 2! A few of these back end episodes really show how the expansion to the Paramount lot opened things up just a bit. A shame the next season wouldn't have the budget and time to continue to take advantage.
I'm actually surprised I've gotten this far. I usually abort partway through the first season and just warm whatever else I feel like.
By oven, stove or microwave?
I use hand phasers to heat the rocks.
Wasn't that "Mudd's Women"?
This! It's funny that TAS got Yesteryear (arguably the best episode -- It's not, but it's arguable) and TOS got this.
But at the same time we had the aforementioned Schoolhouse Rock AND the American Bicentenial to counteract. I'm sure Evel Knievel fits in there somewhere.
Both.
In the books, it's explained that Omega IV isn't an alt-Earth but another "Piece of the Action"-type instance of early Earth explorers leaving behind Earth documents and the natives adopting them as a model.
But doesn't their war predate any possible human contact?
I envision that a joint USA and China expedition was sent out from the mid-to-late-2000's Earth just before WWIII, tripped over that infamous black star, time travelled back in time a couple thousand years and spit out near Omega IV. (The Tomorrow Is Yesterday scenario, again.) Both sets of survivors established separate colonies (due to idealogical differences) which after a few hundred years of nation building, devolved into a biological war between the two nations. YMMV
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M
Yes, but the Yang's could have been visited by Earth explorers after the war, and just integrated the relics left behind into their society.
The plot was dreamed up before GR had the vaguest idea of Star Trek's setting. He thought Kirk might be a thousand years in the future, or some stretch like that, so anything goes.
"Omega" really doesn't fit with the established series setting, unless somebody from Earth engaged in time travel and messed that planet up in its distant past.
We already visited a planet that looked just like Earth and had main street USA. Heck, we visited 20th century Rome. It's got another starship and it's got Kirk worried about the prime directive. What is the part of the series setting that it doesn't fit?
As far as I know, "Assignment Earth" (the ""Star Trekized" backdoor pilot") was never in the running with WNMHGB, "Mudd's Women" and "Omega Glory" to be the second pilot. Ssosmcin seems to have worded his post in a way that can be misunderstood.
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