The City On The Edge of Forever

[Broccoli]

On another note, what happens to the phaser that the bum destroys himself with? I don't think it would be destroyed along with him. Perhaps it was found by the CIA...

That seems to be a forgotten story element, much like the poor little Borg baby in Voyager.

However, someone wrote a wonderful essay in Best of Trek called "The Disappearing Bum" where he speculated that the bum's death is why there is no Star Trek the TV show when Kirk and Janeway visit the late 20th century (in 1984 and 1996, respectively). The author suggests that the bum had a family to support, and when he didn't come home, they thought he had abandoned them. The oldest son then had to take on the responsibility of feeding his mother and siblings... and later in life, he continued the life of crime started during the Depression years. He ended up in Los Angeles, and happened to meet up with a certain police officer... and killed him. The police officer was Gene Roddenberry (as GR was once a police officer), and since he was killed before he ever thought of Star Trek, that's why Kirk and Janeway weren't beset by hordes of fans!

CANON VIOLATION!

 

[Timo]

From "The Cage" and "The Conscience of the King," I was under the impression that once a phaser is set to overload, it takes a couple of minutes to build up enough of a charge to self-destruct.

To be sure, in the first of those episodes the purpose of the self-destruct was to blackmail the Talosians. Number One would naturally key in a slow self-destruct, then, as she had no wish to actually see the gun explode. In the second case, the gun was supposed to specifically kill certain people aboard the ship while not killing Anton and Lenore Karidian; Lenore would have keyed in a slow self-destruct so that she could walk sufficiently far away (supposing she knew what she was doing, and there was such a thing as "sufficiently far away).

What is a bit more annoying about this is that these phasers are supposedly difficult to use or misuse. The supposedly clever Nona in "Private Little War" completely fails to find the trigger of her Type 1... (And the supposedly trained McCoy fumbles his gun twice: first in "Return of the Archons" where he fails to fire widebeam stun alongside his friends, then in ST2 where he's seen setting his gun to kill when Kirk orders stun for the beam-in to the Regula 1 space station!) How come the bum found a lethal mode?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Forbin]

A phaser takes exactly as long to overload as the script requires.

 

[scotpens]

From "The Cage" and "The Conscience of the King," I was under the impression that once a phaser is set to overload, it takes a couple of minutes to build up enough of a charge to self-destruct.

To be sure, in the first of those episodes the purpose of the self-destruct was to blackmail the Talosians. Number One would naturally key in a slow self-destruct, then, as she had no wish to actually see the gun explode. In the second case, the gun was supposed to specifically kill certain people aboard the ship while not killing Anton and Lenore Karidian; Lenore would have keyed in a slow self-destruct so that she could walk sufficiently far away (supposing she knew what she was doing, and there was such a thing as "sufficiently far away).Timo Saloniemi

That's a fairly logical explanation. You win the Retconning Award of the month!

(Technically, of course, there was no "keying in" on those TOS phasers and 1st pilot hand lasers -- just twisting a few dials and knobs.)

 

[Dragonfare]

Count me in as a lover of that episode - but then, I think Harlan Ellison is brilliant anyway, and so was Gene Roddenberry.

I watched it just a few months ago, and I don't recall anything that indicated they had only been there a week. I assumed several weeks, given the difficulty with which Spock was having to deal with "stone knives and bear claws". Plenty of time for Kirk to fall in love, especially with a woman as amazing as Keeler.

But more than anything else, the scene of Keeler's death was simply one of the most tragic and most breathtaking of any scene in the Trek universe. Kirk's sacrifice can't be underrated here, and Spock's "He knows, Doctor" is a wonderful, succinct summation of the tragedy.

This episode is not my favorite - I prefer the funny ones - but I will not argue with anyone who calls it Trek's best.

 

[scotpens]

I watched it just a few months ago, and I don't recall anything that indicated they had only been there a week. I assumed several weeks, given the difficulty with which Spock was having to deal with “stone knives and bear claws”.

Bear skins! A bear claw is a tasty sweet breakfast roll.

Now I suddenly have a craving for pastry.

 

[buckeyenation]

I watched it just a few months ago, and I don't recall anything that indicated they had only been there a week. I assumed several weeks, given the difficulty with which Spock was having to deal with “stone knives and bear claws”.

Bear skins! A bear claw is a tasty sweet breakfast roll.

Now I suddenly have a craving for pastry.

Mmmmm.....pastry

 

[Dragonfare]

Bear skins! A bear claw is a tasty sweet breakfast roll.

Now I suddenly have a craving for pastry.

LOL! I must have been hungry when I was typing that.