I do think Spock is warmer (and closer to the Wrath of Khan Spock) in 2009's Star Trek. But I still have trouble believing this is the same Spock as Unification's Spock. That Spock looks more like TUC Spock and 2009's Spock looks more like 200 year old Spock than one that is only supposed to be like 19 years older than Unification's Spock (I did the math).
Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
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The Magicks of Megas-tu
By Larry Brody (re-written by Gene Roddenberry)
[Yes, I consider TAS part of/a sequel to TOS and therefore ok for this thread.]
My husband was in an odd mood last night and pulled this up. I had zero memory of it!
The Enterprise is exploring the center of the galaxy when everything goes dead, including life support. As the crew is losing air, a being with goat legs and horns appears and restores life support with a wave of his hand. He introduces himself as Lucien and whisks Kirk Spock, and McCoy to his planet, Megas-tu, where magic is the natural order. It seems to be in another dimension, with different laws.
Lucien explains that his people visited Earth centuries ago and he likes humans. Then he suddenly seems afraid the other Megans will find our guys and sends them back to the ship.
Lacking normal tech, Spock logically decides to use what they've got and practices some magic. Whoops! Lucien warns them this will get them discovered and next thing they know, the crew appears in stocks in a rough approximation of Salem during the witch trials.
When Kirk asks what they did, the prosecutor, Asmodeous, shows how the Megans came to Earth, but humans tried to use their powers for bad things and when the Megans refused, lied about them and called them devils.
Kirk invites them to review the Enterprise's records (dig those reel tapes and punch cards!) and the Megans realize the ship got there by mistake and isn't part of an invasion. However, they sentence Lucien to eternal solitary confinement for bringing humans to their planet.
Kirk gets upset at this and argues that it's unreasonably cruel. The Megans claim Lucien is Lucifer, but Kirk doesn't care: he believes all beings have the right to be treated compassionately. Kirk and Asmodeous wage a magical battle, but it's cut short and revealed to be a test to see if humans had really changed. The Megans would now welcome future human visits and they return the Enterprise to its universe.
This is a VERY TOS episode, which makes sense as it was pitched for 3rd season, but with God instead of the Devil. I think it works better this way, showing that Kirk doesn't care who someone is or was, everyone deserves the same dignity and treatment.
Being me, when I first saw Lucien, I thought he was the Greek God Pan.
An excellent little episode. The magic fx are a bit psychedelic, but it was 1973.
By Larry Brody (re-written by Gene Roddenberry)
[Yes, I consider TAS part of/a sequel to TOS and therefore ok for this thread.]
My husband was in an odd mood last night and pulled this up. I had zero memory of it!
The Enterprise is exploring the center of the galaxy when everything goes dead, including life support. As the crew is losing air, a being with goat legs and horns appears and restores life support with a wave of his hand. He introduces himself as Lucien and whisks Kirk Spock, and McCoy to his planet, Megas-tu, where magic is the natural order. It seems to be in another dimension, with different laws.
Lucien explains that his people visited Earth centuries ago and he likes humans. Then he suddenly seems afraid the other Megans will find our guys and sends them back to the ship.
Lacking normal tech, Spock logically decides to use what they've got and practices some magic. Whoops! Lucien warns them this will get them discovered and next thing they know, the crew appears in stocks in a rough approximation of Salem during the witch trials.
When Kirk asks what they did, the prosecutor, Asmodeous, shows how the Megans came to Earth, but humans tried to use their powers for bad things and when the Megans refused, lied about them and called them devils.
Kirk invites them to review the Enterprise's records (dig those reel tapes and punch cards!) and the Megans realize the ship got there by mistake and isn't part of an invasion. However, they sentence Lucien to eternal solitary confinement for bringing humans to their planet.
Kirk gets upset at this and argues that it's unreasonably cruel. The Megans claim Lucien is Lucifer, but Kirk doesn't care: he believes all beings have the right to be treated compassionately. Kirk and Asmodeous wage a magical battle, but it's cut short and revealed to be a test to see if humans had really changed. The Megans would now welcome future human visits and they return the Enterprise to its universe.
This is a VERY TOS episode, which makes sense as it was pitched for 3rd season, but with God instead of the Devil. I think it works better this way, showing that Kirk doesn't care who someone is or was, everyone deserves the same dignity and treatment.
Being me, when I first saw Lucien, I thought he was the Greek God Pan.
An excellent little episode. The magic fx are a bit psychedelic, but it was 1973.
Having an encounter with the literal Lucifer is a step beyond encountering Apollo. "Magicks" is Star Trek swinging for the fences, as I say.
According to Starlog, some bible-belt stations refused to air the episode in the 70s, but I don't think there was any more controversy, perhaps because TAS never got a huge amount of exposure. But imagine if a children's cartoon like this would run today -- all the culture war media on the air and online (and on all sides) would be kicking up a storm.
TAS: The Lorelei Signal
By Margaret Armen
The Enterprise is investigating a Bermuda Triangle-like area of space where ships disappear every 27 years. They receive an odd signal and the men say it's a summons and start having hallucinations. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a redshirt beam down to the planet.
They're met by beautiful women who know their names because of a machine called the Opto-aud. The men get lethargic and euphoric and fall asleep. When they wake, they've aged noticably and have weird headbands on. The women get more active and strong.
On the ship, Scotty starts getting dreamy (and sings!) so Uhura takes over command and appoints Chapel Acting CMO. Female science and engineering (and presumably helm) teams are assigned.
On the planet, our away team realizes Something's Very Wrong and escape, hiding in a very large decorative urn. Spock, aging less quickly due to the longer Vulcan lifespan, goes back for their communicators and contacts the ship, asking for an all woman rescue team.
Uhura and Chapel beam down with a female security team and stun all the vampire chicks. We learn that their people came to this planet years ago and the women can only survive by draining men of their lifeforce and have to do it every 27 years. The leader, Theela, uses the Opto-aud to find the men. Which made me wonder why they didn't use it to find them before.
The guys are about to drown in a rainstorm when the women free them.
Removing the headbands stops the aging, but they don't know how to reverse it. Spock theorizes they can use their patterns in the transporter to restore them, the first time this is used in ST.
Theela destoys the Opto-aud. Uhura says an all female ship will be coming to take them to a new world where they'll be able to age, have kids, and die. (I didn't find that a particularly good deal.)
Apparently, Nichelle was ecstatic that she finally got to command the ship.
I definitely enjoyed seeing Uhura and Chapel in charge!
A fun episode that, again, would have fit in well in TOS.
By Margaret Armen
The Enterprise is investigating a Bermuda Triangle-like area of space where ships disappear every 27 years. They receive an odd signal and the men say it's a summons and start having hallucinations. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a redshirt beam down to the planet.
They're met by beautiful women who know their names because of a machine called the Opto-aud. The men get lethargic and euphoric and fall asleep. When they wake, they've aged noticably and have weird headbands on. The women get more active and strong.
On the ship, Scotty starts getting dreamy (and sings!) so Uhura takes over command and appoints Chapel Acting CMO. Female science and engineering (and presumably helm) teams are assigned.
On the planet, our away team realizes Something's Very Wrong and escape, hiding in a very large decorative urn. Spock, aging less quickly due to the longer Vulcan lifespan, goes back for their communicators and contacts the ship, asking for an all woman rescue team.
Uhura and Chapel beam down with a female security team and stun all the vampire chicks. We learn that their people came to this planet years ago and the women can only survive by draining men of their lifeforce and have to do it every 27 years. The leader, Theela, uses the Opto-aud to find the men. Which made me wonder why they didn't use it to find them before.
The guys are about to drown in a rainstorm when the women free them.Removing the headbands stops the aging, but they don't know how to reverse it. Spock theorizes they can use their patterns in the transporter to restore them, the first time this is used in ST.
Theela destoys the Opto-aud. Uhura says an all female ship will be coming to take them to a new world where they'll be able to age, have kids, and die. (I didn't find that a particularly good deal.)
Apparently, Nichelle was ecstatic that she finally got to command the ship.
I definitely enjoyed seeing Uhura and Chapel in charge!A fun episode that, again, would have fit in well in TOS.
Sadly not the last. In TAS or TNG. It's not only deus ex transporter storytelling, but it gives one more bad ideas about transporter technology than good ones. Perhaps the good doctor(s) were on to something.
Well, they were going to be doing all the voice work anyway...Apparently, Nichelle was ecstatic that she finally got to command the ship.
Well, how else are you supposed to undo the problem of the week?
In some respects people could be more stupid today.
Yes, if they had had the vision to just do it.
My wife is watching TOS for the first time. (Rewatch for me, of course. What number... not sure. 8 or 9?)
I decided to show them to her in production order. (Except "THE CAGE", because of "THE MENAGERIE" two parter.) We will be on "THE GALILEO SEVEN" next.
I decided to show them to her in production order. (Except "THE CAGE", because of "THE MENAGERIE" two parter.) We will be on "THE GALILEO SEVEN" next.
Yeah, I noticed that. Oddly enough, Nichelle did the computer's voice in this one, not Majel.
I just realized the ending leaves them with no consequences for killing all those (presumably all-male) crews for all those years. Unless losing immortality and eternal youth counts...
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Honestly I don't think it would make a blip. "Arcane" is in the "kid's" section on Netflix.
BTW, I don't think I thought of this until now: Lucien and his kind were running about in Salem in the 17th century. The name Lucifer and the Judeo-Christian devil (I know, it's complicated) certainly predate that appearance by quite a bit. So while the Puritans may have given him the name and whatnot, it's not an Apollo and the Greek Gods situation. (Young kids in the 1970's were expected to know who the Puritans were. And I did. Of course I was IN Massachusetts at the time. Although oddly I learned the name Lucifer from Battlestar Galactica, not here.)
Also, until midichlorians came along this episode was my evidence that if Spock found himself in Star Wars that he could use the Force.
Fun interview with David Gerrold on The Trek Files this week. He points out that this stage this was one Gene's story solution for everything (including Gerrold's BEM): Let them fight God. (He says his other story idea was "Let them (bleep)".)
At some point a few years back, I started wondering how the name Lucifer got conflated with Shaitan/Satan and the Christian Devil (not to mention Pan in appearance). I still haven't found a good answer. I blame someone who knew just enough Latin to be dangerous!
I love that!
I'll have to check that out.
I figured it was a translation thing. It's definitely complicated!
Slowly raises hand.
Me too.
The tirst time I saw the episode in the early '70s reruns and saw the modern jet, I thought Star Trek had been pre-empted by some other show's episode and I almost changed the channel. But luckily I hung on to see what show it was and then saw the Enterprise in clear blue skies.
I'm not familar with that show (and don't see anything on it's Wikipedia page). What is the Devil connection?
Not the devil connection, the "what are they showing my eight year old" connection.
To many, actually depicting the Christian Devil as a 'misunderstood good guy' would be a definite red flag, especially in a well known brand as Star Trek (how many people know much about Arcane?). And those looking for ratings or clicks would be thrilled to stir things up.
They kept resetting Spock. Early in TOS Spock is stiff and uncomfortable among humans, but I think as TOS went on, he became more comfortable. Then comes TMP where Spock is reset from going through the Kolinahr ritual, though by the end, after holding hands with Kirk, he's rediscovered the importance of emotions. In WoK, we get my favorite Spock, a Spock who has been with humans for a long time, is comfortable with them and with humor. Then he dies, gets brought back to life, and is reset again, back to being stiff and not understanding humans for Star Treks IV and V. In VI, he's back to being comfortable with humans and humor again.
I could have gone for an arc where Spock starts out stiff and uncomfortable and grows to become comfortable with humans, emotions, and humor and stays there without all the resets.
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