Star Trek TOS Re-Watch

[Commander Troi]

He apologizes in the first scene but later when he screams at her from the briefing room, that goes unremarked. But I'm sure she understood.

Good point. However, we do see Kirk's frustration ramp up and up and up throughout the episode.

 

[Qonundrum]

Well, Life Got In The Way again, but I'm back.

The Naked Time by John D. F. Black

I love first season! It's all so new and fresh.

There are some misfires as well as "opportunities for character growth" as Kirk in season 1 could often be a very different person in ways (e.g. "The Man Trap" for a slew of reasons...) but this episode did expand on characters and with far more emphasis and depth than what "The Naked Now" squandered.

Spock and Joe go down to a planet because the scientists aren't responding. Well, that's cause they're all dead. In weird ways too. Our guys are sensibly wearing hazmat suits. Oh no! Joe has to scratch his nose and stupidly takes off his glove, getting infected with... something.

At first, even in initial viewing, the attention to detail starts out with promise...

...oh, but then the guy chooses to remove his safety gear to pick his nose or whatever as if this is no different to a picnic in a park and subsequently causes the entire problem. There'd otherwise be no story, true, but why not have him slip on something and have a tear in the outfit instead of casually removing the glove to start pickin' for gold?! That made Joe look like the biggest idiot of all time. Isn't rubbing the nose good enough, he really needed to dig in with the fingernail?

McCoy and Spock tease each other in Sickbay and I love it. However, neither decontamination nor a medical exam found the infection. Joe is freaked by what he saw - "They didn't care."

I'd almost wish we knew a little more about Joe, but his casual attitude with the scratch showed he probably wasn't caring too much either. The paranoia flourishing should still be a red flag to anyone that's worked with him. It also reminded me of an episode of The Golden Girls where Dorothy had an ailment that no doctor knew how to diagnose, though in pt 2 someone had and Dorothy got to go back to the other one and promptly chide him in a way most of us wish we could when being dismissed like doody.

I love the little snake hiss/rattle for the infection signal. Also, Joe (and later others) rubbing their hands together in the "out out damn spot" move.

Musical cues can help or harm a scene. This one definitely helps, though it's easy to figure out the touching is what spreads it, the music and how it was constructed is just as alien and intriguing. It works perfectly. The hand rubbing was the perfect way to top it off.

Riley and Sulu talk fencing. They lampshade Sulu's love of botany. Joe gets grumpy, then depressed, and tries to kill himself with a butter knife. Riley gets infected here, possibly Sulu too.

McCoy is doing surgery on Joe. His frustration is palpable - "Why is this man dying?"

Definitely is a good Sulu story; fleshing out another "not a big three character" to reveal botany and fencing. (Man Trap also, for once to its benefit, had fleshed out other characters - in this case, it's for Uhura and with her knowledge of languages -- Swahili has a lovely inflection and sound to it...)

The suicide scene is a bit iffy on-camera, but without fancy editing techniques, they still get the point across. The pun was not intended.

McCoy's exasperation of Joe dying definitely carries a lot, since that wound Joe made could not be extensive and I recall the script later reminds the audience of the fact, and how the brain - via this infection - was doing the work, that's how strong it is. (Especially when we see Spock cry later, and in later episodes where we're told how they oppress emotions and how releasing it can be fatal... so in retrospect, his crying is HUGE.)

The planet is shrinking so the ship has to be in a tight spiral and in close. Everyone is supposed to be on their A game. So Sulu decides to play hooky! When Riley gets sent out, there's a Subversive Moment when Uhura takes over for him. Riley even comments on women's rights!

Each event was well thought-out by the writers and given the A-game by the actors. It's a story early in the show's run, but it succeeds in adding to the characters and showing or alluding to inner traits. Unlike that largely-horrid 1987 sequel where everyone gets drunk and horny and Geordi is oddly amused that Wesley wants to become navigator by blabbing how he can do this and that and the other thing in mere seconds and so on...

Riley then hits on and infects Christine, which leads to a heartbreaking scene later.

Another example, of many, on the thought put into the characters. Later episodes show Chapel being kind to Spock, and longtime viewers will remember how she has this undercurrent thing for him.

Meanwhile, Sulu has taken his shirt off and is playing Musketeer. I love the look on his face when he pricks himself with the foil!

Slightly over the top, but the episode does satisfactorily blend comedic elements with dramatic urgency moments as well.

The helm *and* engines are dead. "Captain" Riley has taken over engineering and looks like he's having a ball playing with switches and buttons.

Sulu on the bridge! Uhura tries to calm him, leading to the infamous, "Sorry, neither!"

A very subtle yet striking line considering 1966 censors. Everyone's too focused regarding "fair" to remember that other definition of "maiden". More than Kirk gets busy and if the show can't show other people being people directly, the best they can do is allude to it. With 50 minutes per episode, it'd get boring to show everyone shacking up every episode teaching audiences what der lurve is anyway. (it was laughably bad enough when Kirk did it anyway.)

Time is running out and fights are breaking out everywhere. Riley mentions the bowling alley! He also mentions how the women of the ship should look, which has Uhura angrily trying to cut him off the intercom. Rand takes the helm, which I had completely forgotten! Scotty's in a Jeffries tube - is this the first time we see that?

The bowling alley sounds cool. It's a great way to keep some muscle tone and coordination skills going, too.

I so wish Uhura succeeded with the comm override attempt.

I also wish Riley swung both ways.

Good ol' reliable Scotty...

The Scene in Sickbay. Nimoy and Barrett really nailed this. When Spock says, "I am sorry" to her, there's So Much There. A beautiful scene.

Definitely impressive, on all levels. Not overdone either.

Spock's infected now and is trying to keep control... and failing. Again, Nimoy cannot be given enough credit here. He played a bunch of conflicting emotions and did it damn well. Then Spock infects Kirk and we get some nice work from Shatner. Kirk complains about his ship taking everything, but he also tells Enterprise, "Never lose you. Never."

Oops. I brought up how the release of emotions can literally kill Vulcans already - in chronological or later order, the strength and implications of the scene are strong. Only made stronger thanks to "Plato's Stepchildren".

Scotty mentions the laws of physics.

definitely. Apart from teleportation and the theoretical speed of light as a limiter, rolling with "subspace radio", the line stretches - but doesn't break credibility. For now, anyway...

McCoy has made a breakthrough - the water on the planet changed! Being water, it didn't show on scans and it spread through sweat.

What about the dude with the paintbrush scribbling "LOVE MANKIND" and later "SINNER REPENT" very legibly on bulkhead walls and doors, as if there wasn't enough suspense and fear already - now combined with a sense of psychological threat. How would the crewman ensure people repent?

Kirk says Engage decades before Picard. The never-before-done way they started the engines back up gets us to Do the Time Warp. Saved! Kirk looks at Rand and his closeup is beautiful - all the regret and sadness there.

This led to that time travel episode where Spock merrily leaves the tractor beam running for two whole minutes and disintegrating how many birds flying into the beam before asking Kirk if it's okay to shut it off - that's not Spock's fault if the protocol demands the one in command must make all decisions, unless it says in the manual by an asterisk as a footnote "Captain must be made aware of everything, unless it's a tractor beam keeping a now-shattered ship running in orbit where it will destroy any other meek thing flying into its path so shut it off and then say it's shut off and get yelled at for insubordination anyway."

Whatever one thinks of the plot, the character work in this episode is superb. Everyone gets some nice bits. Kirk and Uhura's rising frustration on the bridge leads to a nice scene between them where the respect between them is obvious. All the actors do terrific jobs. There's some terrific humor in here, as well as some pathos. All in all, just a great episode; one of my faves.

It's definitely a terrific character piece. One that TNG could have made far better use of than a pathetic sex romp, save for a couple of decent moments for Geordi and Yar - no, not Yar boinking Data, we're given insight and a story to her character's origins that are genuinely chilling. There can be more read into the scene, if not rationalized, but it's too asinine. Yar wants joy but from a robot that can't give it in any sense of the word, never mind if doesn't know what the emotion IS. Yar wants joy because she had only hell as a kid. That's not really how it works. Also note that the movie "Mannequin" was pretty stupid too as the guy is wanting a bit of joy and thinks a life-size plastic doll can and will replace real human interaction (of all the things TNG could preach and it's "You don't need people, you need a big plastic thing ti play with." Uh, okay...? )

I'm always impressed that McCoy solves the infection problem, and Spock solves the engine restart problem (in his head no less) in literally 20 minutes. I mean damn.

I'm also always disappointed that, despite the title, no one actually gets naked in this episode.

I'm just glad nobody did in "The Naked Now". If I wanted to see a computer joystick on screen for 43 minutes, whip out the Atari XEGS instead.

 

[Qonundrum]

It's not a hazmat suit -- it's for the cold. The hood is clearly wide open on the bottom.

And in 'The Tholian Web', those suits were ostensibly space pressure outfits except, oops, the helmet is nothing more than wire mesh like on a screen door except it's held together by panels on the opposite sides of the head. I think the claim of "hazmat suit" is still a not unfair one. "environmental suits" (the officially used phrase?) combined with emphasis on decontamination lends to a decision that they are meant to protect against not just temperature, but any number of potential issues. For being temperature-controlled, one would more expect a little dial to set the temperature than for it to magically determine a setting, though with modern technology in a thermostat one can still create an automated temperature setting - but where's the gear to heat or cool inside the suit? This still seems to be preventing biological hazards than merely temperature-based ones.

 

[Commander Troi]

(Especially when we see Spock cry later, and in later episodes where we're told how they oppress emotions and how releasing it can be fatal... so in retrospect, his crying is HUGE.)

My personal opinion is that Spock's human half protects him from that.

What about the dude with the paintbrush scribbling "LOVE MANKIND" and later "SINNER REPENT" very legibly on bulkhead walls and doors, as if there wasn't enough suspense and fear already - now combined with a sense of psychological threat. How would the crewman ensure people repent?

Yes, super creepy!

I think the episode beautifully shows all the different ways that different people respond to being drunk/drugged too.

Wikipedia calls them "environmental suits."

 

[Commishsleer]

My personal opinion is that Spock's human half protects him from that.


Yes, super creepy!

I think the episode beautifully shows all the different ways that different people respond to being drunk/drugged too.

Wikipedia calls them "environmental suits."

So when they went down to the planet all they knew was that it was cold down there and presumably no life-signs. So all they needed was an environmental suits from the cold.not total protection from an unknown virus.
Although in retrospect it would always been safest to don life support suits everywhere they went, and implement proper security and heed space warnings. But then we wouldn't have a fun show if they did that.

 

[Henoch]

At least in TOS they wore some sort of protection, unlike these future bozos...
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03/nakednow_hd_047.jpg

 

[Noname Given]

At least in TOS they wore some sort of protection, unlike these future bozos...
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03/nakednow_hd_047.jpg

Well remember, supposedly the TNG era Transporters had the magic biofilter that would automatically filter out and Destroy any bad viruses in the process of transporting from one place to another.

 

[Henoch]

Spock's infected now and is trying to keep control... and failing. Again, Nimoy cannot be given enough credit here. He played a bunch of conflicting emotions and did it damn well. Then Spock infects Kirk and we get some nice work from Shatner. Kirk complains about his ship taking everything, but he also tells Enterprise, "Never lose you. Never."

While on that scene, I just noticed these lines from Kirk:

KIRK: I have a beautiful yeoman. Have you noticed her, Mister Spock? You're allowed to notice her. The Captain's not permitted​

So, Kirk is stating that there is a rule (formal or informal) that the Captain is not allowed to romantically fraternize with anyone under his command, but Spock, as First Officer, is allowed...maybe?

 

[johnnybear]

Checking Kirk's old logs and not taking any risks would have been a better practical idea especially as that place was frozen solid!
JB

 

[ZapBrannigan]

While on that scene, I just noticed these lines from Kirk:

KIRK: I have a beautiful yeoman. Have you noticed her, Mister Spock? You're allowed to notice her. The Captain's not permitted​

So, Kirk is stating that there is a rule (formal or informal) that the Captain is not allowed to romantically fraternize with anyone under his command, but Spock, as First Officer, is allowed...maybe?

I think that was a portrait of old-fashioned virtue— in which Kirk holds himself to an even higher standard than the regulations. It's a little like the unwritten rule in "The Enemy Within" where Kirk cannot afford to be less than perfect in the eyes of the crew, although in that case Spock was holding Kirk to the higher standard.

 

[plynch]

Fraternizing with someone assigned to you as your assistant seems different from fraternizing with other officers. Though the commanding officer of a vessel shouldn’t at all, right? Because of the power differential?

 

[Ssosmcin]

I think it's pretty clear - the Captain is not permitted to romance his subordinates. It's not Kirk having old fashioned values, the captain is simply not allowed. It's not about "command personnel" it's about the actual official commander of the vessel. Spock is not the Captain.

As for the ship's Captain not being permitted to be anything less than perfect in The Enemy Within. Again, it's clear, Spock explains it. If the Captain displays weakness, the crew will lose confidence.

I don't think we need to draw conclusions beyond what's stated in the dialog. It wasn't a subtle series.

 

[fireproof78]

Fraternizing with someone assigned to you as your assistant seems different from fraternizing with other officers. Though the commanding officer of a vessel shouldn’t at all, right? Because of the power differential?

Power dynamics in a relationship are definitely something that needs to be considered. There is a reason why codes of ethics or military regulations prohibit romantic relationships between supervisors and subordinates, or between officers and enlisted, or personnel in the same chain of command. The power different creates a very unbalanced relationship, that can be weaponized very quickly, or misinterpreted very easily.

 

[UssGlenn]

So, Kirk is stating that there is a rule (formal or informal) that the Captain is not allowed to romantically fraternize with anyone under his command, but Spock, as First Officer, is allowed...maybe?

Well, you have to draw the line somewhere. If anyone in the chain of command can't have a relationship with anyone they might be commanding later, then no one on the ship can have a relationship with anyone else, because everyone on the ship is technically somewhere in the chain of command. So the only one who can't date anybody is the Captain. Now, if Spock had his own yeoman, then he wouldn't be able to fraternize with her, and no one in the science department either, since he's in charge. Scotty's one romance is with someone in the Sciences since he can't be involved with a junior engineer. I wonder if Scotty and Uhura would be allowed. As a department head she reports to the Captain, not the Chief Engineer. Plus is she really in Engineering or are she and Scotty in separate departments within Ships Services (like Security is)?

 

[Anthony60]

I just caught the end of "Bread and Circuses", haven't seen it in a long time. Love the ending where they are trying to escape, and Kirk machine guns the lock. Fighting with swords, and then Merrick, gives his life to get them beamed out, bullets flying as they dematerialize. Fantastic!

Then at the end, when they are puzzled by the "sun" worship, Uhura informs them that she's been monitoring their communications, and it's not the sun up in the sky they worship, it's the Son of God. Sends chills down your spine.

 

[scotpens]

. . . Then at the end, when they are puzzled by the "sun" worship, Uhura informs them that she's been monitoring their communications, and it's not the sun up in the sky they worship, it's the Son of God. Sends chills down your spine.

Of course, that means the locals of the Roman Empire Planet must speak English as their native tongue, since the play on the words "sun" and "son" only works in English.

 

[Henoch]

Of course, that means the locals of the Roman Empire Planet must speak English as their native tongue, since the play on the words "sun" and "son" only works in English.

Based on some form of universe (maybe only galactic) clock/time effect, it must trigger a genetic feature coded in all higher intelligent life forms to speak a common language that Eathlings happen to call English... <Intelligent Design Theory?>

 

[Mytran]

Of course, that means the locals of the Roman Empire Planet must speak English as their native tongue, since the play on the words "sun" and "son" only works in English.

No need to speculate on that score, since just after the landing party beam down we get this exchange:

FLAVIUS [OC]: Don't move! Hands in the air!
SPOCK: Complete Earth parallel. The language here is English.​

 

[Ssosmcin]

If course if it were a complete Earth parallel, it wouldn't have been English.

 

[scotpens]

If course if it were a complete Earth parallel, it wouldn't have been English.

That's true -- the "Son" worshipers would have spoken Vulgar Latin.