He's still recovering from this brain surgery. Notice he's tinkering with the remote control McCoy used in "Spock's Brain" in a few scenes...
Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
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That thing started life as a communicator in "The Cage." The brass lid was removed, the transparent lucite block was painted, and control buttons were installed.
Now that I know this, I need to dub "Boyce here. Boyce here. Boyce here" over the shots of Spock hitting buttons.
LOL! Seriously, I did wonder wtf he was tinkering with. I kept expecting it to be relevant and then it wasn't.
Spock's fidget clicker.
Wait, is it true that he never explains what the clicker is supposed to be doing? If so, combine this with the fact that he hit his head earlier in the episode, and this leaves us with Spock trying to 'fix' his concussion on the fly (time being of the essence, given their predicament) by crudely adapting his remote control, but not getting things quite right, thus the slightly bizarre interpersonal interactions.
I move to adopt this as official Trek BBS headcanon. Does anyone second the motion
I like the ridiculous way Kirk and McCoy sleep, while Sulu is in danger:
Kirk is just an ultimate badass. But this is pure luxury. He sleeps standing up in "Return of the Archons."
"The Lights of Zetar"
So the novel nature of the threat does have a terrific eerie quality, which is essential because there's not much of a plot in this one. And that's okay, since - plot or not - the execution is what keeps it going. Does this episode keep going like that battery bunny?
I can even handle the hurdles and hoops being jumped over regarding the contrivances for the galactic library being without shields (or backup copy). It must be deep in Federation space and the Romulans and Klingons know nothing of it. But it's 1969 and the episode largely knows where to focus its strengths, so I didn't mind as much as I otherwise would.
Plus, the creator of Lamb Chop co-wrote the episode with her hubby. The fact that the children's entertainer could pull off the psychological threat of the Zetarians is pretty impressive, even if this is cobbled at times by trying to tie it in to "Hey newbie in space, you're space sick and you'll faff your career." At least the plot doesn't say that Mira would be married off in the way it relegated female crewmembers in the past, so there's that.
Come to think of it, given that this is Star Trek and there's more weird stuff here than in The Twilight Zone, some of the dialogue actually explains what newbies in space get to go through, and McCoy compliments her ability to maintain her identity while this nasty gestalt was trying to take her over.
That aside, Scotty and Mira have absolutely zero chemistry, making any hope of their "relationship building" pointless. There was more screen chemistry shown in that prophylactic pill advert I'd seen last night that I felt embarrassed while watching, but that's not important right now. At least Sulu and Chekov get a couple of fun lines other than their usual rubber stamp stuff. And speaking of rubber, Scotty and Mira have absolutely zero chemistry, making any hope of their "relationship building" pointless. That point is so poignant that it was worth mentioning thrice, because Scotty and Mira have absolutely zero chemistry, making any hope of their "relationship building" pointless.
I'd probably go with 5/10, maybe 6. Season 3's got much worse, and a little sprucing would have had this an easy 8.
Also, more about Lamb Chop as almost all of everyone under 30 has likely nary a clue:
Zetar was in the body of that dog...
(because you really wanted to know?
)
So the novel nature of the threat does have a terrific eerie quality, which is essential because there's not much of a plot in this one. And that's okay, since - plot or not - the execution is what keeps it going. Does this episode keep going like that battery bunny?
I can even handle the hurdles and hoops being jumped over regarding the contrivances for the galactic library being without shields (or backup copy). It must be deep in Federation space and the Romulans and Klingons know nothing of it. But it's 1969 and the episode largely knows where to focus its strengths, so I didn't mind as much as I otherwise would.
Plus, the creator of Lamb Chop co-wrote the episode with her hubby. The fact that the children's entertainer could pull off the psychological threat of the Zetarians is pretty impressive, even if this is cobbled at times by trying to tie it in to "Hey newbie in space, you're space sick and you'll faff your career." At least the plot doesn't say that Mira would be married off in the way it relegated female crewmembers in the past, so there's that.
Come to think of it, given that this is Star Trek and there's more weird stuff here than in The Twilight Zone, some of the dialogue actually explains what newbies in space get to go through, and McCoy compliments her ability to maintain her identity while this nasty gestalt was trying to take her over.
That aside, Scotty and Mira have absolutely zero chemistry, making any hope of their "relationship building" pointless. There was more screen chemistry shown in that prophylactic pill advert I'd seen last night that I felt embarrassed while watching, but that's not important right now. At least Sulu and Chekov get a couple of fun lines other than their usual rubber stamp stuff. And speaking of rubber, Scotty and Mira have absolutely zero chemistry, making any hope of their "relationship building" pointless. That point is so poignant that it was worth mentioning thrice, because Scotty and Mira have absolutely zero chemistry, making any hope of their "relationship building" pointless.
I'd probably go with 5/10, maybe 6. Season 3's got much worse, and a little sprucing would have had this an easy 8.
Also, more about Lamb Chop as almost all of everyone under 30 has likely nary a clue:
Zetar was in the body of that dog...
(because you really wanted to know?
)
The Cloaking Device in BoT didn't render a ship completely invisible to sensors. When it moved it showed up on 'motion sensors'.
The new cloaking device rendered a ship invisible to every current type of detection.
Oh no! It's Moriarty! (As I will always be shocked to remember: He's from ARKANSAS!)
Oh, that puppet who appeared in Wrongfully Accused.
Scotty only goes after the sanest crewwomen.
The women of Scotty's planet are not logical.
I was unaware of the Lamb Chop connection.
In no way does it improve my view of this generally horrendous episode, one destined forever to compete for last place, but in the spirit of rainbow connections...
"Gideon o Gideon, whereart thou?" "I'm in the toilet, just a moment!"
A potentially great script is flushed by some interesting plotting choices:
1. Chekov is quick to say that the coordinates are confirmed, so is it possible he has dyslexia and by pure luck transpose the plot's key coordinates?
2. This one is mishmashing two together:
3. Obviously, how did they get their hands on the Enterprise schematics as well as imitating every sound and vibration of the deck plating, etc, when other episodes prove the Klingons, et al, don't have that much detail information. Maybe they got a bit in "Day of the Dove" and the Gideons somehow did an alliance? No worries, the script says nothing and wants us to accept the "here and now" at face value. Do that and the episode has some shock value, but that alone isn't enough.
4. It's a shame as everything hinges on Kirk and his newfound companion, but there's not enough narrative content to hold it all together.
On the plus side since, yup, even this story's got a few:
1. The absent Enterprise crew does create a fascinating mystery, complete with shock reveal as the Gideons' faces was and remains creepy. Season 3 has a knack for using high concept horror and, regardless of the underlying circumstances, still makes those reveals work. Bonus points for not having Gideons clanging against the hull until later in the story (how many more were shoved into the area surrounding the mock-up during elapsed time?!)
2. Spock really gets some new ability with Vulcasnark(tm) regarding diplomats and bureaucrats. Shades of "A Taste of Armageddon", except it's Spock this time, not Scotty. And it was a little more believable as Spock does feel out of character at times.
3. Uhura is independently proactive and better under Spock than Kirk's micromanaged style where he, in some other episodes, seemingly tells her (like with everyone else) everything and demands updates every third syllable. Even TMP is one of the few occasions where McCoy has to remind Jim that his crew know their jobs. Now imagine if Kirk never followed up or kept track, in which case Picard will win "that debate" every time. And in "that debate", I still answer "I prefer Sisko" as he's the closest to Kirk and, as with the other theme in this story, isn't afraid to go the extra mile, even beyond the times Kirk had. And more often with better or actual reasons. That isn't to say Kirk needs updates, that's a given. But Kirk often does step in where "Wait a moment, I'm sure the crew will reach out when needed" comes to mind.
4. For a bottle show, the director took time to storyboard some amazing camera angles that would cost more time to set up and film. It pays off. Shame it's not for a better episode, but it's proof that even middling episodes can have a moment or two - even if it's just visual.
5. Impressive number of extras to be moping around the set as well
6. Gene Dynarski wasn't so put off by his TOS episode that he would return to do TNG's far superior "11001001" episode.
7. Hodin isn't a villain per se, more a genuinely tragic figure caught in the middle. But this is hampered by the contrivances to set up the scenario in the first place.
8. Spock violates orders to go track down the captain, taking a big risk as he had no clue as to where the coordinates led to (bonus points to Hodin for making a nice snark about hoping that the coordinates were for a patch of dry land!)
So this story, and season 3, aren't all that bad. But, dang, it ain't all good either. Or remotely good.
3.5/10 at best, mostly dinged for the obvious plot and logistic holes as they're too much to roll with, even by Trek standards where sometimes rolling with it (e.g. the obvious in "Court Martial", every guest star being the villain in "Columbo" except that show's not Star Trek, etc) is worth it. For this one, it's a middling muddled mess at best. Good ideas, less-than-average execution, part of me wishes Spock warped away. But not a big part. That said, this one is definitely skippable - or at least an initial viewing if you've never seen it before, just to have seen it to have disbelieved it.
A potentially great script is flushed by some interesting plotting choices:
1. Chekov is quick to say that the coordinates are confirmed, so is it possible he has dyslexia and by pure luck transpose the plot's key coordinates?
2. This one is mishmashing two together:
2a: For all the jibes that the script pokes, why not find a bodily fluid other than blood and make it a single entendre regarding Kirk's alleged lifestyle (only really hinted at in "Wink of an Eye" and even then he was probably using any and all possible delay tactics)? It's close enough,
2b (or not, which is a question, I suppose): and the Gideons really go out of their way to want to wipe out their planetary population so extreme that the law of evolution accelerated their species to become immune to everything, even starvation if it's true that they're taking up every space inch and there's no room for crops. Also, how do they intend to control Kirk's incoming cooties and to stop it, since - unlike poodles - cooties are untrainable without a second, single, tertiary, eight million sixty seven thousand five hundred three oh-ninth thought, etc. It's hard to choose when the cooties don't give it to one either. No worries, it's due to the involvement of McCoy that ensures that doesn't happen. If Spock took command and warped away... oh dear, now we have a far different story going on.
3. Obviously, how did they get their hands on the Enterprise schematics as well as imitating every sound and vibration of the deck plating, etc, when other episodes prove the Klingons, et al, don't have that much detail information. Maybe they got a bit in "Day of the Dove" and the Gideons somehow did an alliance? No worries, the script says nothing and wants us to accept the "here and now" at face value. Do that and the episode has some shock value, but that alone isn't enough.
4. It's a shame as everything hinges on Kirk and his newfound companion, but there's not enough narrative content to hold it all together.
On the plus side since, yup, even this story's got a few:
1. The absent Enterprise crew does create a fascinating mystery, complete with shock reveal as the Gideons' faces was and remains creepy. Season 3 has a knack for using high concept horror and, regardless of the underlying circumstances, still makes those reveals work. Bonus points for not having Gideons clanging against the hull until later in the story (how many more were shoved into the area surrounding the mock-up during elapsed time?!)
2. Spock really gets some new ability with Vulcasnark(tm) regarding diplomats and bureaucrats. Shades of "A Taste of Armageddon", except it's Spock this time, not Scotty. And it was a little more believable as Spock does feel out of character at times.
3. Uhura is independently proactive and better under Spock than Kirk's micromanaged style where he, in some other episodes, seemingly tells her (like with everyone else) everything and demands updates every third syllable. Even TMP is one of the few occasions where McCoy has to remind Jim that his crew know their jobs. Now imagine if Kirk never followed up or kept track, in which case Picard will win "that debate" every time. And in "that debate", I still answer "I prefer Sisko" as he's the closest to Kirk and, as with the other theme in this story, isn't afraid to go the extra mile, even beyond the times Kirk had. And more often with better or actual reasons. That isn't to say Kirk needs updates, that's a given. But Kirk often does step in where "Wait a moment, I'm sure the crew will reach out when needed" comes to mind.
4. For a bottle show, the director took time to storyboard some amazing camera angles that would cost more time to set up and film. It pays off. Shame it's not for a better episode, but it's proof that even middling episodes can have a moment or two - even if it's just visual.
5. Impressive number of extras to be moping around the set as well
6. Gene Dynarski wasn't so put off by his TOS episode that he would return to do TNG's far superior "11001001" episode.
7. Hodin isn't a villain per se, more a genuinely tragic figure caught in the middle. But this is hampered by the contrivances to set up the scenario in the first place.
8. Spock violates orders to go track down the captain, taking a big risk as he had no clue as to where the coordinates led to (bonus points to Hodin for making a nice snark about hoping that the coordinates were for a patch of dry land!)
So this story, and season 3, aren't all that bad. But, dang, it ain't all good either. Or remotely good.
3.5/10 at best, mostly dinged for the obvious plot and logistic holes as they're too much to roll with, even by Trek standards where sometimes rolling with it (e.g. the obvious in "Court Martial", every guest star being the villain in "Columbo" except that show's not Star Trek, etc) is worth it. For this one, it's a middling muddled mess at best. Good ideas, less-than-average execution, part of me wishes Spock warped away. But not a big part. That said, this one is definitely skippable - or at least an initial viewing if you've never seen it before, just to have seen it to have disbelieved it.
I think you're getting at something…
That romaine salad is best with croutons and Caesar dressing?
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