The Deadly Years

[Esteban]

No, I wasn't on the sauce, but last night I popped in The Deadly Years. No particular reason...perhaps I just wanted to examine hairlines, which I did.

To my delight, it went over like gangbusters. I watched the acting closely. Nimoy: great. De: transcendent. Walter, George, Nichelle, Jimmy: solid as rocks.

But you know who brought the house down? The Kid in the Yellow Shirt. Obviously, he's got alot to do, and he does it with mustard and relish. Just when you think he's going to go over the top, he brings it back home. Shatner, at his best then, WAS a great actor.

The episode has a certain thinness to it (which Joe Pevney's block-and tackle directing does not help) that has always relegated it to also-ran status in my book, but, man, wow, if you want to see the troupe pour it on, watch it. Again.

It was a tremendous kick, as De says in the Tomorrow Show interview.

 

[Forbin]

I'm.... I'm 34 years old!

 

[sbk1234]

Sad part is, the young kids who watch that won't find anything unusual about that line coming from someone who looks that old.

 

[A beaker full of death]

sbk1234 said:
Sad part is, the young kids who watch that won't find anything unusual about that line coming from someone who looks that old.

I don't understand.

 

[Neopeius]

A beaker full of death said:

sbk1234 said:
Sad part is, the young kids who watch that won't find anything unusual about that line coming from someone who looks that old.

I don't understand.

Age is relative.

 

[Shatmandu]

I loved this one was a kid.

I do wish they had kept the original idea of Kirk's re-transformation back into a young man:

He was to get out of the bed as an old man after the injection, be a little younger as he walked out the door, a little younger as he went down the hall and entered the elevator, younger still on the ride up, and then step out onto the bridge his spry self, ready to stick it up the ass of the Romulans.

Instead, we got a close-up of his crotch intercut with the babbling of Commodore John Wayne. Feh.

Joe, 38

 

[sbk1234]

A beaker full of death said:

sbk1234 said:
Sad part is, the young kids who watch that won't find anything unusual about that line coming from someone who looks that old.

I don't understand.

Just commenting about how the younger the kids are, the older they think of ages, like 34.
So, every joke can't be a winner.

 

[Basill]

Yeah, I remember thinking 34 was old. Now, I'm... sigh... older than... that.

 

[ALF]

Esteban said:
No, I wasn't on the sauce, but last night I popped in The Deadly Years. No particular reason...perhaps I just wanted to examine hairlines, which I did.

To my delight, it went over like gangbusters. I watched the acting closely. Nimoy: great. De: transcendent. Walter, George, Nichelle, Jimmy: solid as rocks.

But you know who brought the house down? The Kid in the Yellow Shirt. Obviously, he's got alot to do, and he does it with mustard and relish. Just when you think he's going to go over the top, he brings it back home. Shatner, at his best then, WAS a great actor.

The episode has a certain thinness to it (which Joe Pevney's block-and tackle directing does not help) that has always relegated it to also-ran status in my book, but, man, wow, if you want to see the troupe pour it on, watch it. Again.

It was a tremendous kick, as De says in the Tomorrow Show interview.

Heh heh! I liked your witty review.
Please review the entire TOS series that way.
I'd prefer it to Erika Michelle Green's nitpicking reactionaries. "Tsk tsk! My goodness TNG was sexist!"

 

[A beaker full of death]

Basill said:
Yeah, I remember thinking 34 was old. Now, I'm... sigh... older than... that.

Yeah, there are always those horrible milestones... older than Mozart when he first composed... older than Bruce Lee when he died... older than Captain Kirk.... older than Shatner was when Kirk was 34... kinda depressing.

 

[sbk1234]

^^^^It's some small comfort that when Mozart was my age he had been dead for over 5 years.

 

[Neopeius]

sbk1234 said:
^^^^It's some small comfort that when Mozart was my age he had been dead for over 5 years.

But are you older than Gustav and Walter and Franz?

 

[Plum]

Can't remember the last time I saw 'The Deadly Years'...

"Quit yer jawin' Spack! *num* *num*" - Bones



Nice review E. Goes to show those guys were still hitting every mark back then. That's a 1st season ep right?

 

[Sir Rhosis]

2nd season.

 

[Plum]

Merci.

 

[Kail]

I love this ep. There are some great moments. One that comes to mind, after being convinced to take command of Enterprise, Spock skulks onto the turbo, then squares his shoulders and straightens up as he pulls himself together. It's a wonderful , subtle bit of acting on the part of Nimoy.

 

[Dayton3]

What I loved about it was the most creative use of stock footage that I ever saw.

They used quick cuts between all the "Balance of Terror" footage and a great musical battle score plus the photon torpedo effects from "Errand of Mercy" to make it look like a whole fleet of Romulans was attacking the Enterprise.

 

[TheLonelySquire]

billcosby said:

Esteban said:
No, I wasn't on the sauce, but last night I popped in The Deadly Years. No particular reason...perhaps I just wanted to examine hairlines, which I did.

To my delight, it went over like gangbusters. I watched the acting closely. Nimoy: great. De: transcendent. Walter, George, Nichelle, Jimmy: solid as rocks.

But you know who brought the house down? The Kid in the Yellow Shirt. Obviously, he's got alot to do, and he does it with mustard and relish. Just when you think he's going to go over the top, he brings it back home. Shatner, at his best then, WAS a great actor.

The episode has a certain thinness to it (which Joe Pevney's block-and tackle directing does not help) that has always relegated it to also-ran status in my book, but, man, wow, if you want to see the troupe pour it on, watch it. Again.

It was a tremendous kick, as De says in the Tomorrow Show interview.

Heh heh! I liked your witty review.
Please review the entire TOS series that way.
I'd prefer it to Erika Michelle Green's nitpicking reactionaries. "Tsk tsk! My goodness TNG was sexist!"

That's what made it great. Men were men, not pansies.

 

[RookieBatman]

I just watched this. It was also one of my favorites as a kid, because it was one of three (along with "The Doomsday Machine" and "The Corbomite Maneuver," I believe, two great classics) that we were able to record from a Trek marathon that ran when I was young. We never had cable, so we didn't get many Trek reruns, but my brother and I watched those three episodes a lot.
In modernity, it still holds up for me, although the show gains slight additional watchability by comparing McCoy's makeup here with what he wore in "Encounter at Farpoint," and comparing Shatner's crotchety old man act with his current Denny Crane persona (some slight similarities).
Anyway, I really do love this episode, and especially the final conflict resolution where young Kirk appears triumphantly on the bridge, and reuses the classic corbomite maneuver to equally satisfying effect. That's one of the major scenes that really demonstrate why exactly Kirk is such a legend, both within his own fictional world and our real world. He knew how to get it done.

 

[Warped9]

sbk1234 said:

A beaker full of death said:

sbk1234 said:
Sad part is, the young kids who watch that won't find anything unusual about that line coming from someone who looks that old.

I don't understand.

Just commenting about how the younger the kids are, the older they think of ages, like 34.
So, every joke can't be a winner.

I don't really buy this. I was like 12 or so when I first saw this episode and I got it right off. So did all my contemporaries at the time.