TheGodBen Revisits Star Trek

Can't they be both?

 

That's the reason we didn't get more Andorians? But they look badass! Even when I was young and stupid and thought TOS was hokey, I thought the Andorians looked cool. Way better than forehead alien #237.


A Private Little War (*½)

During my first watch of TOS, this was the episode that most shocked me. Gene Roddenberry is credited with the teleplay, but Kirk’s actions didn’t seem to fit with Roddenberry’s idealism. The episode seems to be attempting to justify US involvement in Vietnam, something which I’m not informed enough to comment on, but I wouldn’t have imagined Roddenberry was a fan. Seems I was wrong. At the very least this episode is a prime example that Roddenberry was willing to embrace a more nuanced morality in TOS than he was in TNG.

What doesn’t surprise me in the slightest is that Roddenberry wrote a teleplay which heavily featured a sexy witch who wears leather pants. Okay, that’s a little unfair, Nona and her sexiness already featured in the early versions of the script written by Don Ingalls. But by god, I wish Roddenberry, or anyone else involved in the production, had removed her from the story. I don’t care about her, or her husband, or her rape plants, or any of that crap, all it did was distract from the more interesting elements of the story. The episode should have focused on the Klingons and how they were corrupting this planet, and the consequences of Kirk using these poor innocent people as pawns in a conflict they know nothing about.

Another thing that doesn’t surprise me is the garden of Eden metaphor cropping up again. It feels like half the bloody galaxy are Eden-type worlds. They deserve their own planet classification at this stage, Class E appears to be free. Oh, and there’s some subplot aboard the Enterprise where Spock recovers from being shot in the back by being slapped in the face a bunch. I have mixed feeling about that. On the one hand, that’s more time that could have been devoted to the Klingon stuff, on the other hand, those scenes provided some respite from Nona’s antics.

James T Flirt: 9½
Inform the Men: 0

 

Bread and Circuses bored me, whereas A Private Little War was silly. I thought the end was far to over the top.

Sandwiched between the two reviews is Journey to Babel, which is a lovely episode. It's a great insight into how the Federation works, and the different aliens on the ship are really interesting. As well as the ambassadors squabbling, we get more insight into Spock's family. Mark Leonard is again very good, and after my TOS/TNG rewatch he remains one of my favourite guest actors.

 

Wow, I really like Nona a lot.

 

Surface trappings???? Ok, how do the Romulans act like Nazis in Balance of Terror other than the fact that their ship is playing the part of a U-boat?

 

I said Kriegsmarine, not Nazis.

But the "If we are the strong, isn't this the signal for war?" thing can be read kinda master-race like "the superior vanquish the lesser".

The fact that the episode's Romulans are note-for-note copies of The Enemy Below U-boat crew—Kapitän von Stolberg not being enamored with the Nazi regime, and a young crewman who crows about the glory of the mission (Kunz I believe)—is the meat.

The only thing "Roman" about the Romulans in that episode are their ranks and titles. But under that veneer they're a U-boat crew.

 

That is indeed the reason. Originally, they weren't featured on TNG because Roddenberry himself was insistent that races established on TOS be kept to an absolute minimum. That's why there was no Vulcan in the main cast of TNG. However, once Roddenberry was out of the picture, Berman continued refusing to allow Andorians to be shown because he felt all aliens with antenna on their heads (not just the Andorians) looked hokey and too much like 1950s B-movie monsters. What a moron! It wasn't until ENT (specifically when they first pitched the idea for the episode "The Andorian Incident) when Brannon Braga was able to convince him that modern animatronics would allow the antenna to look more "believable". I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank God for Brannon Braga!

That's probably because in the intervening 20 years from TOS to TNG Roddenberry's politics drastically changed. In the 60s he could probably best be described as what Americans today call a left-leaning libertarian. By the 80s, however, he took a HARD turn to the left and was what we today would call a "progressive" - or an ultra-left winger. As a result, a lot of that nuance was lost. That and the fact that the man apparently simply forgot how to tell engaging, or even watchable, stories.

As for "A Private Little War", I thought it was reasonably okay. Nothing special, but enjoyable. Nona's antics didn't bother me too much. And I did like that Kirk and McCoy basically fail in the end. 6/10

 

I enjoyed Nona's antics. I should also add that I am an immense pervert.

 

The Andorians actually did appear in STNG and they did look kind of corny. They did a better job in ENT.

RAMA

 

Indeed they did (in "Captain's Holiday" and "The Offspring" I believe) and they did look kind of corny in those brief appearances. But so what? They looked less corny than alien after alien after alien after alien with forehead bums.

 

Eh, not really. as I have said before, the difference between "forehead bump aliens" in STNG and aliens in TOS are that the aliens from TOS wouldn't have had any differentiating features from humans, so it was a step up. Also, both TOS and STNG had a fair number of totally different non-"forehead bump aliens", particularly STNG.

 

I'll be honest - I would have rather had things like guys in rubber suits (like the Gorn) or people with their skin painted weird colors (like the aliens in "The Apple"). But that's just me. Though I do see where you're coming from with aliens who are completely indistinguishable from Humans. For crying out loud, the first aliens we meet on VOY (after the pilot episode) look exactly like Humans!

 

What's silly is they could have had the Andorians with the antennae AND some other appliances to make them look more alien. It wasn't an either-or thing. The antennae didn't have to move in order to not look cheesy.

 

The Gamesters of Triskelion (*)



I think it’s time to retire that joke. There’ll never be a more appropriate usage.

This episode is a hodgepodge of concepts and story elements that are combined to make one very silly hour. It starts with the abduction of Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov so that they can participate in some sort of interstellar fight club. Visually, this is about as goofy as TOS gets. There’s Ming the Merciless, the giant monster man, the yellow-skinned woman, and the green-haired woman in the skimpy outfit. Then we learn that the whole thing is orchestrated by brains who live in a glass bubble. They’re highly advanced, see, but they’ve allowed themselves to devolve by devoting their entire existence to gambling on the outcome of the fights. I’m sure there’s meant to be some sort of social commentary there, but it got lost behind the fact that they’re brains living in a glass bubble!

Then there’s the romance angle. Shahna wants to know what love is, and she wants Kirk to show her. Kirk obliges by kissing her, punching her in the face, threatening to slit her throat, and abandoning her to be educated by her former captors. That must be the “heartache and pain” part of the song. I don’t have a problem with Kirk using his charms to manipulate this poor, inexperienced woman as part of a ploy to escape captivity, Kirk is a ruthless bastard when he needs to be. But the ending plays the romance angle too earnestly.

We also have the subplot on the Enterprise. It’s pretty much just the same scene repeated three or four times; Spock follows the only lead on the Captain’s whereabouts, while McCoy and Scotty act like children. It’s not even necessary for the plot, the moment the Enterprise shows up they are disabled. They may as well have stayed where they were and saved us a few minutes of needless bickering.

Finally, there’s the slavery aspect of the story. Kirk rightly decides that the Brains’ fight club needs to be ended and the slaves set free, but instead of following the normal procedure of enacting reform through the legislature or court system, Kirk decides to wager that he can beat three experienced combatants in a fight. Luckily for him, his rivals went to the Assassin’s Creed school of combat and allowed him to take them down one-by-one while the rest watched. Victorious in the Emancipation Altercation, Kirk frees the slaves, then quickly leaves before Shahna asks for his number.

The God Things: 9
James T Flirt: 10½
Inform the Men: 0

 

One star is a fair score for this turd of an episode. Whenever I think of it I'm reminded of the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", when Fry says that "Star Trek" had eighty episodes, about half of them good. Because "The Gamesters of Triskelion" is one of the quintessentially goofy Star Trek episodes ("Spock's Brain" being the other).

Practically nothing works in it, it's just absurd on its face and it's borderline unwatchable. It's even worse when you watch the show in airdate order, as it comes immediately after "The Trouble with Tribbles".

 

So I think the most interesting thing about the episode was that video.

 

I think Emancipation Altercation should be added to the encyclopedia.

 

What's good is that Kirk will eventually meet Abraham Lincoln, and the two great emancipators will be able to compare and contrast their methods.


Obsession (***½)

KIRK: Do I take it, Doctor, Commander, that both of you or either of you consider me unfit or incapacitated?
SPOCK: Correctly phrased, Captain. As recommended in the manual. Our reply, also as recommended, is, sir, we have noted in your recent behaviour certain items, which, on the surface, seem unusual. We respectfully ask permission to inquire further
KIRK: Blast it! Forget the manual. Ask your questions.
...
MCCOY: Jim, we're not trying to gang up on you.
KIRK: And you haven't, Doctor. You've expressed the proper concern, you've asked the proper questions. You've both done your duty. Now may I ask what medical log entry you intend to make?
MCCOY: At this point, my medical log remains open.​

It’s just so refreshing how professional these three are in that scene. Spock and McCoy are concerned about Kirk’s judgement, they respectfully challenge him to explain his actions, and Kirk understands that they’re doing their jobs and doesn’t hold a grudge. Nobody got punched, nobody was jettisoned in an escape pod to an ice planet, they just talk, they decide to trust one another, and they continue about their business.

Overall, I enjoyed the episode, but it’s not without its problems. For one, it’s another play on Moby Dick, although this time Kirk is the one who is obsessed with killing the white whale rather than some crazed Commodore. The episode also relies on the contrivance that Captain Garrovick’s son just happens to be serving on the Enterprise. There’s a lack of concern about what the smoke monster is. It’s said to be intelligent, yet nobody questions the decision to kill this unique life form, which is counter to the philosophy advanced by The Devil in the Dark. Finally, the episode falls into the cliché of redshirt deaths, and quite a high number of them at that.

But still, I was entertained, and I liked the backstory given to Kirk. The episode doesn’t show Kirk at his best, but it does show him at his most human. Racked with guilt over a mistake he feels he made as a Lieutenant that led to hundreds of deaths, Kirk is determined to kill the smoke monster to prevent it from killing anyone else in the future. Shatner is at about an 8 on the Shatner scale in this one, but I guess that isn’t entirely inappropriate given the story.

Captain Redshirt: 14

 

Good point, but I suggest the circumstances are different, namely there is no indication that the smoke monster is doing anything other than eating the crew. It's certainly not defending it's eggs from destructive miners. It isn't even accepted as intelligent until it turns to attack, and even after that there's no way to say intelligent as say an ape or a dog or on par with a humanoid. The Wolf in the Fold monster , Redjack, was certainly highly intelligent and they got rid of it and I think that's a better comparison.

 

It is nice that Kirk doesn't give in to the standard Trek cliche of the captain being adamant about staying in command even despite doctor's orders, even though he's given in to it in the past. And it's offers some nice backstory for Kirk. But, it's nothing particularly great or groundbreaking. 6/10 for me.