The White Iris... Plot hole?

[Captain_Koloth]

There’s something I not quite getting about The White Iris. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not bashing it; I absolutely love Star Trek Continues and I think this episode has quite a few great moments and production value-wise is perhaps the very best STC has done yet. However, there seems to be a plot hole with regard to the explanation of what exactly is happening to Kirk and why. Basically, why is he having these hallucinations? And how is he cured?

I assumed at first that the experimental drug was what caused the issues, but McCoy specifically says there’s no medical explanation for what’s happening to Kirk psychologically. And the heart issues he’s having seem to come out of nowhere and get resolved out of nowhere. Spock’s speech about how there are things beyond science I get, but in Star Trek there’s always been something with even the thinnest of scientific logic or possibility behind. Even something like Q you can see through a scientific prism as an entity that’s advanced and evolved far beyond our capability to understand, but just because they’re so advanced doesn’t make them supernatural in a magical sense (ref: Who Watches the Watchers). But in this episode the fact that McCoy specifically says the drug isn’t causing it really baffles me. Why the heck is all that stuff happening then? How does facing it in the holodeck make it better? Is it an alien? Something? Give me something!

In my head canon I’m just going to chalk it up to McCoy being wrong and it is the drug. I totally get the things beyond science concept but there has to be some basic shred of scientific possibility underlying it for me… as it stands the episode seems to me more like a parable or abstract allegory rather than a believable science fiction thing.

Thoughts?

(again- I’m not bashing it! I love STC! Just trying to understand the plot!)

 

[GSchnitzer]

There’s something I not quite getting about The White Iris. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not bashing it; I absolutely love Star Trek Continues and I think this episode has quite a few great moments and production value-wise is perhaps the very best STC has done yet. However, there seems to be a plot hole with regard to the explanation of what exactly is happening to Kirk and why. Basically, why is he having these hallucinations? And how is he cured?

I assumed at first that the experimental drug was what caused the issues, but McCoy specifically says there’s no medical explanation for what’s happening to Kirk psychologically. And the heart issues he’s having seem to come out of nowhere and get resolved out of nowhere. Spock’s speech about how there are things beyond science I get, but in Star Trek there’s always been something with even the thinnest of scientific logic or possibility behind. Even something like Q you can see through a scientific prism as an entity that’s advanced and evolved far beyond our capability to understand, but just because they’re so advanced doesn’t make them supernatural in a magical sense (ref: Who Watches the Watchers). But in this episode the fact that McCoy specifically says the drug isn’t causing it really baffles me. Why the heck is all that stuff happening then? How does facing it in the holodeck make it better? Is it an alien? Something? Give me something!

In my head canon I’m just going to chalk it up to McCoy being wrong and it is the drug. I totally get the things beyond science concept but there has to be some basic shred of scientific possibility underlying it for me… as it stands the episode seems to me more like a parable or abstract allegory rather than a believable science fiction thing.

Thoughts?

(again- I’m not bashing it! I love STC! Just trying to understand the plot!)

It might be inexplicable to us 21st century folks.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
- Hamlet (Act I, Scene 5, Lines 167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

 

[Zaminhon]

I agree with the OP, just a change in a couple of scenes would have improved the logic. Kirk's state could have been explained by a combination of being shot by an alien weapon and being revived by an alien experimental drug. McCoy would have been off the hook for not predicting the side effects and looking more competent. OF course, allowing Kirk to run around in his state of mind deducts several points from McCoy's competency level.

 

[Treadwell]

I didn't write it, so speaking just as a fan and not an STC guy, my take is it was the combination of the blow to the head AND the drug....it tore down the psychological barriers Kirk had built up to suppress his guilt (or, physiologically speaking, killed or blocked the brain cells that had been accomplishing that task, along with some that helped him distinguish fantasy from reality).

I disagree with Spock's opinion that bona fide spirits were communicating with Kirk...it was all in his head. There certainly weren't real spirits in the holodeck...otherwise the holodeck would not have been needed in the first place. The simulations just helped Kirk "face" those people and get their "permission" to let it all go.

 

[Bixby]

To me, that kind of plot is ok for a show like Breaking Bad, or Dexter, or Dallas or St-Elsewhere. But without a sci-fi element I couldn't really buy it as a Star Trek type of story...

 

[Karzak]

Thoughts?

The setup and inciting event to get Kirk to experience the hallucinations/ghosts/whatever were ill-conceived in this fan film. If the crew had spent a little more time revising the script they might have found a way do what they set out to do that wouldn't have been so confoundingly bad.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Thoughts?

The setup and inciting event to get Kirk to experience the hallucinations/ghosts/whatever were ill-conceived in this fan film. If the crew had spent a little more time revising the script they might have found a way do what they set out to do that wouldn't have been so confoundingly bad.

The whole situation was too fantastical to be believable, not to mention convoluted. His hallucinating, he can't remember the passcode, now he's body is slowing dying and all of it a muddled mess.

There are dozens of other ways to get Kirk in that reflective mood that didn't require a leap of logic or the ticking bomb subplot, which I ultimately forgot about until we were reminded.

While I don't think this episode revealed anything particularly new about Kirk, it had potential too. I was just disappointed by the execution of this outing overall.

 

[MikeH92467]

Too me, the episode was a bit of a shaggy dog story....all set up no real punch line. That's not intended as a knock on the overall production values which are amazingly good. I think Karzak has it right that the script had potential, but really needed more work. That's something that I think the weaker 3rd season TOS episodes suffered from as well. With GR, Gene Coon, DC Fontana out of the picture, several episodes that ended up being mediocre might have been elevated to something better...maybe even "Spock's Brain" could have been saved from being an object of ridicule with the original writing team intact.

 

[Captain_Koloth]

Well at least it seems like I'm sort of with the consensus, it's not just me...
To at least say one positive thing about the episode, I was impressed with how perfectly they recreated the COTEOF and Paradise Syndrome scenes visually.

(Though for what it's worth I can't resist but point out that the Spock's Brain script by Coon is pretty similar to what aired- and I say this not as someone relying on the often fishy Cushman but as someone who lives near UCLA and has viewed the Star Trek archived material there personally)

 

[Warped9]

This episode is pretty on par with some of TOS' third season episodes.

I still think it felt more like a TNG style eipsode.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Well at least it seems like I'm sort of with the consensus, it's not just me...
To at least say one positive thing about the episode, I was impressed with how perfectly they recreated the COTEOF and Paradise Syndrome scenes visually.

(Though for what it's worth I can't resist but point out that the Spock's Brain script by Coon is pretty similar to what aired- and I say this not as someone relying on the often fishy Cushman but as someone who lives near UCLA and has viewed the Star Trek archived material there personally)

Well, they didn't actually recreate those scenes. They just used screen grabs from the original episodes and reused the footage. They superimposed their own actors into the original shots. It sure does look nice, though.

 

[Warped9]

^^ And it was also a lot more affordable to do.

 

[Karzak]

I thought the fan films were not supposed to use anything already created for the official productions? Isn't that one of the caveats for being able to do these things from the IP owners? Or is that no longer the case?

 

[GSchnitzer]

I thought the fan films were not supposed to use anything already created for the official productions? Isn't that one of the caveats for being able to do these things from the IP owners? Or is that no longer the case?

Hm. Why do you think that? Where did you hear that?

 

[Zaminhon]

I thought the fan films were not supposed to use anything already created for the official productions? Isn't that one of the caveats for being able to do these things from the IP owners? Or is that no longer the case?

Hm. Why do you think that? Where did you hear that?

There's a whole deal with that - when the episode was accidentally removed from youtube, there was speculation that it was due to copyright infringement. Vic and the STC producers were on the phone with CBS/Paramount legal and were assured that there was absolutely no problem and that it was a glitch.

https://www.facebook.com/StarTrekCo...3296680037188/983342111699305/?type=1&theater

Official Star Trek Continues
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE CAPTAIN: "I am pleased to report that, contrary to speculation, STC episode IV was not deliberately pulled from YouTube by anyone at CBS. Several members of our production have regular contact with CBS Licensing, and I spoke personally with a V.P. of CBS Legal over the past couple days. She's assured us that the takedown was not intentional, and YouTube has been instructed to reinstate the episode immediately. We have enormous respect and gratitude to CBS for their help in resolving this matter.

Live long and prosper!

Vic Mignogna
Exec Producer, Star Trek Continues

That sounds like a green light to me, I'm sure the legal team had their eye on the episode.

 

[Harvey]

(Though for what it's worth I can't resist but point out that the Spock's Brain script by Coon is pretty similar to what aired- and I say this not as someone relying on the often fishy Cushman but as someone who lives near UCLA and has viewed the Star Trek archived material there personally)

The collection is great, isn't it? I only wish that security had been tighter when it first became available, as a good portion of the collection went missing during the early days.

Still in the area?

 

[northstar]

I thought the fan films were not supposed to use anything already created for the official productions? Isn't that one of the caveats for being able to do these things from the IP owners? Or is that no longer the case?

I think this is crossing a line into even more dangerous territory. Even if CBS said it´s ok (which I honestly doubt), once you cross that line - what is next? Copying whole scenes from previous episodes?

Even if it is tolerated by CBS, it is just lazy in my mind.

 

[Warped9]

It was a way to use the their holodeck.

I believe it was explained somewhere (not in the episode itself) that a blow to the head could result in someone being subject to hallucinations. That in conjunction with a risky drug could have served as a viable explanation for what Kirk was experiencing. But they didn't devote even a line or two to this being what could be happening. And then one trip to the holodeck and everything is fine. I find this hard to accept particularly since someone in such a situation could more likely need weeks to months of therapy to deal with it. I don't know other than it doesn't strike me as credible the way it was done.

And the "jeopardy" shoehorned into the story felt so contrived (well, yeah, it's fiction so of course it's contrived ). This reminded me of those TNG episodes with A and B plots that don't really gel together.

 

[Maurice]

It should be pointed out that lots of fanfilms have borrowed the occasional image or shot from an official production. I think early on NV used the insert of Scotty's hands operating the transporter, and TTI swiped the viewscreen static from "Balance of Terror" for a couple of shots.