They killed Hengist!

[Maurice]

That's certainly a valid inference from what was shown. Though it raises the question of why Hengist was dead when the others weren't. Was it because he was possessed longer than most? Was he already dead when Redjac first possessed him? Perhaps one of Redjac-Hengist's victims managed to shoot him with a phaser on kill (explaining the lack of physical damage), but Redjac kept him animated.

Given how cursorily Hengist's death was established in the episode, I wonder if it was a late script revision in response to a note from Broadcast Standards and Practices. "Please establish that Hengist is already dead before being dispersed by the transporter."

I did a cursory look through the memos and see nothing about these.

Seems to me that the most sexist part is Spock (of all characters!) declaring that Redjac targets women because they ". . . are more easily and more deeply terrified, generating more sheer horror than the male of the species."

You can probably thank Gene Coon for that, as he suggests a line of that sort to Bloch in a letter. I've not read all the documents enough to see if anyone suggested it to Coon.

 

[Mres_was_framed!]

Regarding the discussion of Scotty's amnesia and the targets of the violence, I'll repeat that in stardate order this episode is immediately after "The Changeling." Thus, Scotty has been healed by Nomad, and Kirk and McCoy don't know how or why Nomad was able to "repair" Scotty. Nor do they know how effective that effort was, and even on top of that Scotty is claiming to have trouble remembering.

Kirk and McCoy reference an "accident which threw Scotty against a bulkhead," which is not an unrealistic way to describe what Nomad did without actually saying aloud that they thought Nomad had killed him. As to whether the accident was "caused by a woman," perhaps Kirk and McCoy are not saying who actually caused the accident, but are paraphrasing an unseen conversation through which Scotty was showing resentment for the fact that he stepped in to "save" Uhura. It would not unusal for someone to feel resentment if they had been injured during that kind of act.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Hmm, interesting. I never made that connection with "The Changeling" before.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

@Mres_was_framed! Uhura would still be recovering from her reset, as well. Otherwise, she might have wound up in Redjac's sights.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Regarding the discussion of Scotty's amnesia and the targets of the violence, I'll repeat that in stardate order this episode is immediately after "The Changeling." Thus, Scotty has been healed by Nomad, and Kirk and McCoy don't know how or why Nomad was able to "repair" Scotty. Nor do they know how effective that effort was, and even on top of that Scotty is claiming to have trouble remembering.

I go with production order on my Star Trek Chronology, so "Wolf in the Fold" happens right before "The Changeling" for me, but in one of my earlier drafts, I noted that WITF happens shortly after "Who Mourns For Adonais?", where Carolyn Palamas rejects Scotty in favor of Apollo. And, if you incorporate DC's Star Trek Annual #3 into your personal headcanon, a few weeks after that, Scotty discovers that

Spoiler: Star Trek Annual #3 "Retrospect"

his childhood sweetheart Glynnis Campbell has married his old friend/rival Angus McFarlane.

So it seems obvious that Scotty was having a VERY bad year where women were concerned.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

perhaps Kirk and McCoy are not saying who actually caused the accident, but are paraphrasing an unseen conversation through which Scotty was showing resentment for the fact that he stepped in to "save" Uhura. It would not unusal for someone to feel resentment if they had been injured during that kind of act.

Or maybe you're reading too much into that.

 

[Christopher]

in stardate order this episode is immediately after "The Changeling."

Though it's immediately before it in production order, and 11 episodes after it in broadcast order. On the whole, stardate order is completely nonsensical for TOS, but I agree there's a nice synchronicity in connecting Scotty's traumas in the two episodes. However, I find your effort to rationalize Scotty's "resentment of women" unconvincing, since I don't see why he'd resent Uhura for what Nomad did. Not your fault, though, since it's a very difficult thing to come up with a non-problematical explanation for.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

On the whole, stardate order is completely nonsensical for TOS...

Agreed. I gave up on Stardate order for TOS when I saw that it put "This Side of Paradise" right after "Amok Time." So for two episodes in a row, the crew is going, "Hey, why is Mr. Spock acting so erratic and emotional?"

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Re: the thread title, Hengist's first name wouldn't happen to be "Kenny," would it?

(And here I go again, alluding to something I've never actually seen: I haven't seen a single episode of South Park. Does that count as an "annoying habit"?)

 

[Just a Bill]

production order ... WITF happens shortly after "Who Mourns For Adonais?", where Carolyn Palamas rejects Scotty in favor of Apollo. ... Scotty was having a VERY bad year where women were concerned.

As headcanon explanations go, that's a pretty decent one right there. And, if we consider an intended plot consequence that was reportedly suppressed by the network, Scotty would also shortly be finding out that Apollo knocked his girlfriend up!

In any case, the whole "hates girls now 'cause a girl got him injured" idea was just stupid from start to finish. So unlike the chief engineer we all know and love.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

(And here I go again, alluding to something I've never actually seen: I haven't seen a single episode of South Park. Does that count as an "annoying habit"?)

No, I'd say never having seen South Park makes you less likely to be annoying. (And I say this as someone who watched the show fairly regularly until 2016.)