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Still trying to pinpoint the third season "difference"

Isn't a big part of the joke that they are caught stealing laundry and Kirk (lamely) pretends that Spock is part of a Chinese laundry service? The laundry business was traditionally one that attracted many Chinese immigrants, I think.
That's an interesting theory, but Kirk doesn't say anything about a laundry service, even though they are stealing laundry. Here's a transcript of the scene:

(They head into an alley with washing hanging out on the fire escape.)
SPOCK: Theft, Captain?
KIRK: Well, we'll steal from the rich and give back to the poor later. I think I'm going to like this century. Simple, easier to manage. We're not going to have any difficulty explaining--
(Then he sees the policeman.)
POLICEMAN: Well?
KIRK: You're a police officer. I recognize the traditional accouterments.
SPOCK: You were saying you'll have no trouble explaining it.
KIRK: My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain.
(A crowd is gathering.)
SPOCK: Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child...
KIRK: The unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical rice picker. But fortunately, there was an American missionary living close by who was actually a skilled plastic surgeon in civilian life.
POLICEMAN: All right, all right. Drop those bundles and put your hands on that wall there! Come on!
KIRK: Oh, how careless of your wife to let you go out that way.
POLICEMAN: What? Where?
SPOCK: Oh, yes, it's quite untidy. Here, let me help you.
(And a quick neck pinch in front of witnesses, then they grab the clothes and run off. With whistles blowing, they duck down the alley beside the 21st Street Mission and down the stairs to the cellar.)
If one of us went back in time 200 or 300 years, how correctly would we get it?
This just reminded me of one of my favorite bits from the movie Somewhere in Time: Christopher Reeve's character travels back in time to 1912 in what he believes is appropriate attire for the era, only for everyone there to tell him that his clothes are several decades out of style. :lol:
 
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“Time’s Arrow” part 2. The bellhop asked why he spoke strangely and assumed he was a Frenchman. Later at a card game, Data said as much to respond to weird reactions. It was a gag. Something like he was a French inventor or something

This is from memory, it’s been years since I’ve seen it
Actually Part 1, Data claims to be a Frenchman when the bellhop (Jack London) assumes his uniform is pajamas. This is after Data wakes up in a San Francisco street and stops a couple of passersby to ask about the aliens he is looking for, and one of them says "Frenchman!" to the other and they laugh and walk away.

Kor
 
I like some of the changes in season 3.

The music is much better in season 3 in my view. It's much more subtle than in season 2.

The uniforms are made with a different sleeker material.

Shatner has a groovy new toupee.
...So he could "BOLDLY TOUPEE where no Man has Toupeed before" ?
 
Also, season three tends to be more happy-go-lucky at the end of each episode. Compare the end of Man Trap, Charlie X, Alternative Factor, or even This Side of Paradise, to the end of The Tholian Web, The Lights of Zetar, Is There in Truth or even And The Children, where we are largely all smiles, despite the many deaths. I think the triumphant music, (though I like it) doesn't help.

Well...then be glad you´ve never seen any episode in german. They put in jokes EVERYWHERE...and in the versions that aired many episodes are cut down by 5 to 10 minutes. (those have been restored for the DVDs and streaming).
 
In season 3 the secondary characters are utilized even less so the focus is even more Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.
Supposedly Issac Asimov recommended to GR that TOS should focus on the Big Three’s characteristics of logic, emotion and decision.
Often it seems like the show would work better if the ship had only a dozen people on it. It seems like Kirk, Spock, and McCoy do almost everything, with little characters like Sulu and Uhura to do. It's hard to image what the other other 400 people do.

In Day of the Dove, they said the alien deployed emergency bulkheads, trapping most of the crew on lower decks. We still see the usual areas of the ship, including engineering, which Kirk said in Court Martial is in the lower decks. This problem would go away if they just said the ship had fewer people.

I like in the scene in Man Trap the break room. Uhura asks a maintenance person to look at a door that's making a noise when it opens.

I like a focus on Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Building out the rest of the crew makes it more meaningful when Kirk says he's obsessed with the job yet sometimes feels self-doubt when he looks at all the men and women slightly younger than he is looking to him for leadership.
 
I like in the scene in Man Trap. Uhura asks a maintenance person to look at a door that's making a noise when it opens.

What’s funny about that scene is at the dialogue appears to of been added simply to cover the amount of time between Uhura leaving the turbo lift and turning around after the guys walk in, because if you look at the scene, they’re rushing in without letting her out. She then gives them a stern look as a way of chastising them for not being gentlemanly or considerate enough to let her out first. When she turns around to leave the elevator, she’s got a marvelous shit-eating grin on her face. That’s not the type of grin you get when somebody agrees to fix your door. :hugegrin:

It’s a really good example of how you can flesh out a character in post production.
 
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