The Man Trap...why not provide salt for the creature?

[Mark 2000]

Crater's defense sounded too much like rationalization. ".

Except that the creature argues on its own behalf. It communicates. It lies about the crewman it murdered and comes up with a whole fake story about plant poisoning. It picks favorites that it won't kill. It kills Crater, not out of a need for food, but because he says he can ID it creating a motive for plain old murder. Buffalos don't kill people to hide their secrets. Heck, Memory Alpha says the final script attributes the ruins to the creatures. I don't want to keep going around in circles, so, latch on to the buffalo thing if you want, but literally everything in the story contradicts you completely.

 

[johnnybear]

The creature was desperate that we know. It was intelligent and crafty, it had to be to survive and the ruins were all that was left of it's civilization! Nuff said!
JB

 

[Samuel]

I've wondered how long the creature survived alone on the planet before the Craters arrived? For all we know it might've been years, decades or even centuries!!! That would be enough to drive any sentient social creature slap crazy. I'm wondering if McCoy did a detailed autopsy of it? Might be difficult to do after his problems killing it when it was in the form of Nancy.

I think a nice followup story would've been McCoy taking Crater's body back to M113 and burying it next to Nancy (assuming they could find where she was buried, if buried) and McCoy saying goodbye finally.

 

[johnnybear]

I wonder if anyone has written a sequel of sorts in a book with McCoy doing just that with the autopsy at least?
JB

 

[Emperor Norton]

Ironically, and I see this in a lot of the discussion, the Salt Vampire is a blank slate onto which we are projecting ourselves and our own thoughts and philosophies about what it is and its intents and meaning. Is there a deeper meaning to the creature? A deeper character? That seems to be based on which of us is looking at it.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Crater's murder makes no sense. None of this episode makes any sense. If the creature's character has been developed, or if the confrontation over the truth serum has been shown, maybe. If only… if only.

This was George Clayton Johnson's only contribution to Star Trek. Ultimately, it's a miserable rehash of his superior Twilight Zone ep "The Four of Us Are Dying" and the crew was shoehorned into it.

It was a trite monster show that wasted an intriguing first act by following it with two acts that did nothing to advance the plot, and ending it with a pointless, extrajudicial lynching. (Phasers have a stun setting, right?)

McCoy's lost love could have been interesting but it was never developed; the serial-killer salt vampire angle might have worked, too, if we ever heard what it was thinking; Kirk's regret in the denouement suggested a real moral conflict that came out of nowhere.

Any resemblance between the characters in this episode and the characters in Star Trek was purely coincidental.

Just for everybody to remember; this is the episode that NBC liked better than The Cage just because, even though The Cage was a more thoughtful episode than this one.

 

[MAGolding]

You're reading too much into one line and ignoring everything else. Crater literally states there were millions and now they are all gone. The extinction event was the only point of that analogy. Everything else points to the creature being sentient including Crater's later defense of it.

It would have been a better analogy if Crater had compared the salt vampires to a now extinct group of Humans, like the Tasmanians or Yahi Indians.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

It would have been a better analogy if Crater had compared the salt vampires to a now extinct group of Humans, like the Tasmanians or Yahi Indians.

Or the Arawak or the Beothuk.

 

[Noname Given]

Just for everybody to remember; this is the episode that NBC liked better than The Cage just because, even though The Cage was a more thoughtful episode than this one.

But you have to remember the Sci-Fi films of the 1050ies and 1960ies before "2001: A Space Odyssey" - most had some sort of alien creature/horror element, and NBC was catering to what it flt was most popular and recognizable to what they pictured the initial audience for 'Star Trek' to be.

 

[johnnybear]

The Outer Limits was famous for it's 'bears' and maybe they thought that idea still appealed to the audiences two or three years later?
JB

 

[GNDN18]

According to Harvey, “The Man Trap” was chosen because it was the first non-bottle show available:

Finally, the premiere episode of each season was carefully considered. "The Man Trap" was selected because it was the only completed show emphasizing the program's "strange new worlds" that were so important to NBC….
​

Both Harvey and Maurice have done a good job exploding the myth that the suits picked this ep because of the monster aspect. This notion that NBC was continually sabotaging one of its more expensive shows does not bear any kind of examination. In fact, the way that GR and the cast have portrayed NBC as pinheaded boobs in order to praise their efforts has worn quite thin.

 

[johnnybear]

Surely WNMHGB was ready or was it another of those too cerebral shows hated by the suits?
JB

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Surely WNMHGB was ready or was it another of those too cerebral shows hated by the suits?
JB

I assumed that maybe it was because it was very much different in costume, set etc that they wanted to go with a standard series episode first? So viewers knew what they were getting...?

 

[urbandefault]

Whatever the motivation, "Man Trap" looked most like the series would continue to look for the rest of the first season. The two pilots were obviously used as filler.

Fans come up with the most outrageous conspiracy theories.

 

[GNDN18]

I assumed that maybe it was because it was very much different in costume, set etc that they wanted to go with a standard series episode first? So viewers knew what they were getting...?

As usual, Harvey has the answer:

According to Herb Solow, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" wasn't selected because "it was too expository in terms of the series concept and characters, a problem with most pilots telecast as series episodes"…. ​

 

[Commishsleer]

As usual, Harvey has the answer:

According to Herb Solow, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" wasn't selected because "it was too expository in terms of the series concept and characters, a problem with most pilots telecast as series episodes"…. ​

I don't know why this would be a problem but then again I'm not in the business.
Obviously WNMHGB was the original episode in regards uniforms, casts etc. But I have no problem with Man Trap being the first episode. Something like "Naked Time" would be a problem as we hadn't really met the cast yet.

 

[johnnybear]

Looking back after all these years, it's ridiculous not having WNMHGB first! It's like not having Breakaway as the premiere episode of Space 1999 or not having The Crash for Land of The Giants or The Reluctant Stowaway for Lost in Space or a million other television shows of the same era!
JB

 

[Takeru]

Looking back after all these years, it's ridiculous not having WNMHGB first! It's like not having Breakaway as the premiere episode of Space 1999 or not having The Crash for Land of The Giants or The Reluctant Stowaway for Lost in Space or a million other television shows of the same era!
JB

I disagree, the Enterprise is already on its five year mission in WNMHGB, there's no the crew getting together or mission start moment that would necessitate airing it first. The semi regulars are also absent and Mitchell and Dehner who have larger parts are killed off.
If WNMHGB had aired first the very next week the audience would have seen an overhauled ship, changed uniforms, a bunch of new characters etc., it would have been a bad first episode.

Actually, if TOS was a modern show WNMHGB would most likely not air at all, it would either be reshot to fit the revised look of the series or relegated to bonus material for the DVD set.

 

[GNDN18]

I disagree, the Enterprise is already on its five year mission in WNMHGB, there's no the crew getting together or mission start moment that would necessitate airing it first. The semi regulars are also absent and Mitchell and Dehner who have larger parts are killed off.
If WNMHGB had aired first the very next week the audience would have seen an overhauled ship, changed uniforms, a bunch of new characters etc., it would have been a bad first episode.

Actually, if TOS was a modern show WNMHGB would most likely not air at all, it would either be reshot to fit the revised look of the series or relegated to bonus material for the DVD set.

I agree. Neither pilot film was any sort of origin story like those mentioned above. It was only kismet and budget shortfalls that led to “The Cage” making it to air, too. Otherwise these films would have gone the way of Head of the Family or the unaired pilot for Gilligan’s Island.

 

[johnnybear]

They didn't have to be origin episodes as such but look at the costumes for one, the style and of course Spock's features! To screen this one third was silly after you'd already introduced your audience to the look of the crew and the ship! Maybe it would have been best to have refilmed it with the later costumes or to better if they'd kept to the original costume for the entire first season!
JB