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The Most Generic STAR TREK Episode...

Which is the most generic STAR TREK episode?

  • THE RETURN OF THE ARCHONS

    Votes: 9 47.4%
  • FRIDAY'S CHILD

    Votes: 10 52.6%

  • Total voters
    19
A cliché is an expression that is overused. A stereotype is a belief about a group of people that may or may not be true with regard to an individual. They share similar concepts at heart but aren't the same.
Exactly. @Discofan has it wrong.

In my opinion. "all men die" *is* an expression that has become stale by repetition. Anyway....
 
Well, it's not just expressions but concepts and ideas as well. "A damsel in distress being rescued by the handsome hero", for example. The key is repetition to the point of triteness.

Want a lesson in cliches? Watch the movie Casablanca, but go into it with the foreknowledge that, when it was released, every line of dialog was fresh and new.
 
My apologies. It seems I forgot to declare the 'winner'.

And with 9 votes to 6, it is "FRIDAY'S CHILD".

I thank you all for voting, and as with all the other threads, I have been entertained and informed thoroughly.
 
Of course one might suggest that all TOS episodes are unique in their own way such none of them are generic...
 
Of course one might suggest that all TOS episodes are unique in their own way such none of them are generic...

Every different television series that I watch has its’ share of mediocre episodes. TOS is no exception. As Harve Bennett said, some TOS episodes were excellent, some were okay and some were stinkers.
 
Every different television series that I watch has its’ share of mediocre episodes. TOS is no exception. As Harve Bennett said, some TOS episodes were excellent, some were okay and some were stinkers.
This is where people have different ideas of what this game is about. As I understand it, we're not talking about the quality of the episodes here. We're not trying to find the most average episode in quality, we're trying to find the most unoriginal regardless of its quality.
 
* Roddenberry objected to the script having Eleen killing her baby. The story's reverence on life in general is part of Trek's more underlying themes so I can imagine why Roddenberry objected to the original script.
* DC did write Eleen as a strong female figure to fight against her society that was very narrow of its treatment of women (only as mothers/homemakers), which helped culminate in the original ending of her baby being sacrificed (which is remarkably strong and seems almost harsh (?) but I do wonder what else of the episode was changed at Roddenberry's behest. I'd be a treat to ever see the original draft before it all got changed. Would the story be more or less poignant? IMHO the finished product works but the original vision of the creator, Fontana, definitely wanted something a bit different. And, of course, the network may not have wanted the original ending for reasons similar or otherwise to Roddenberry's... again, for 1967, it was pretty big.
FWIW, I just read Fontana's Jan 11, 1967 story outline and scanned the 2nd draft script and memos about the first 2 drafts of the episode and there's zip mention of planned infanticide by anyone but Maab and his assassins. What Eleen does in the 2nd draft is take the child to Maab and offers it to him:

ELEEN​
I claim nothing but my life. Take
the child, Maab... I care not.
But let me go free.​

...but Kirk and Spock open fire at that moment and Bones drags her and the baby to safety. When they are caught she offers the baby again and Maab takes it, but has her killed. Scotty shows up in the nick of time to save our heroes and the baby.

There are numerous critiques of the portrayal of Eleen in the memos: first she's a bland "nice girl" in the outlines, but by the second draft she's uncaring, as above. Neither is a very "strong" female.

On 1967-05-12 Fontana gave notice she wanted to use her pseudonym Michael Richards (no relation), presumably because of rewrites.
 
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Well I've voted Archons because it is the most generic Trek episode of the two! Enterprise seeks long lost ship, finds idyllic planet, people are under control of something, A few of the crew get taken over, something is revealed to be a super-computer, Kirk destroys computer after a monologue!
JB
 
Well I've voted Archons because it is the most generic Trek episode of the two! Enterprise seeks long lost ship, finds idyllic planet, people are under control of something, A few of the crew get taken over, something is revealed to be a super-computer, Kirk destroys computer after a monologue!
JB

The destruction of computers by asking them a "paradoxical" question was really a trope back then. I remember one episode of "The Prisoner" and another one of "The Avengers" (with John Steed et al.) where they do just that. "2001 a Space Odyssey" though a great deal subtler was also an example of that, except that in that case instead of self-destructing the computer went crazy and killed everyone.
 
But who beat whom? Kirk, John Steed or John Drake? Which was transmitted first? :eek:
JB

Among those three I'd bet on "The Avengers", they were really precursors that way. I remember an automated house with a mind of its own, a pager (in the sixties!!) the size of a pen that killed its user (well, it's that kind of series, people die, a lot!!), a creature from outer space that looked like a giant plant but enslaved people (like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" but without the politics), people killed by a laser beam, at least two episodes with robots (that they called cybernauts), and plenty of other things! I really liked that series.
 
It's available on DVD I believe Disco! I've got the region 1 Emma Peel Mega-set and the region 2 Tara King shows too although I haven't watched them in a while!
JB
 
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