I apologize. I should not have assumed the initial post was accurate.
Tholian web Q.
- Thread starter Miss Mess
- Start date
And the shooting script has a bit of helpful information.
The final draft script for "The Tholian Web," dated July 30, 1968, has the following dialog and script direction at Scene 138:
KIRK
(blandly contented....)
I hope my last orders were helpful
in solving the problems not worth
reporting.
Spock and McCoy look at each other questioningly and then
look blankly back at the Captain.
SPOCK
Orders, Captain?
McCOY
What orders are you referring to, Jim?
KIRK
(a knowing glint in his eye)
The orders I left for you...for
both of you...The taped orders I left.
MCOY
Oh, those orders! There wasn't
time, Captain. We never got a
chance to listen to them.
SPOCK
The crisis was upon us and then
passed so quickly. Captain, that...
KIRK
(smiles)
Good! Let's hope there will be
no similar opportunities to test
those orders you never heard.
(looking at viewer)
Warp factor two, Mister Sulu.
SULU
Warp factor two, sir.
So, the one script direction that provides any information on the writers' intent on how the scene was to be played by the actor is the "a knowing glint in his eye" direction. It looks as if Kirk was supposed to have suspected Spock's and McCoy's little ruse.
^ I dare say Shatner didn't play it that way, it seems to me.
No, he certainly didn't.
I thought he was a little confused - couldn't believe they hadn't listened to the tape but at the same time couldn't believe they'd have this little "friendly conspiracy" between them either.
Exactly!
Well, there were some things about that scene (and the whole episode) that seemed rather cheesey to me, right from the first time I watched the rerun of it in the '70's.
It seemed cheesey that we first learn that Kirk made a video recording of himself giving his "last hurrah" orders/final goodbye in the very same episode that he actually seems to have been lost, and that in the end he remembers to ask about them. I guess I would feel differently about this plot device if Kirk had dropped a hint about the existence of such orders in some previous episode. Then it wouldn't seem like a big silly coincidence.
I always excepted Kirk going ashore on landing parties, especially when he boarded the Constellation, without question. I always thought "he's the captain, it's his ship's mission... why wouldn't he go?" But when Kirk boarded the Exeter and the Defiant, it seemed not just foolish, but obviously foolish. Sending Spock I could half-understand. And Kirk assuming the risk on a potential suicide run like the Tycho IV bombing seems a command decision. But when you happen upon another starship that's adrift and the crew has died mysteriously, why would the captain walk into that quicksand?
Looping this back around, I can see starship captains exposing themselves to certain hazards occasionally. Pike had a right to sacrifice himself to save those cadets on that Class J vessel. That's a time when I would expect those kinds of pre-recorded orders to be played. And of course, Spock and McCoy are going to deny playing them. Imagine how it would look if they chose this occasion to say "Oh, of course we played those taped orders, since we assumed you were dead anyway..."
It seemed cheesey that we first learn that Kirk made a video recording of himself giving his "last hurrah" orders/final goodbye in the very same episode that he actually seems to have been lost, and that in the end he remembers to ask about them. I guess I would feel differently about this plot device if Kirk had dropped a hint about the existence of such orders in some previous episode. Then it wouldn't seem like a big silly coincidence.
I always excepted Kirk going ashore on landing parties, especially when he boarded the Constellation, without question. I always thought "he's the captain, it's his ship's mission... why wouldn't he go?" But when Kirk boarded the Exeter and the Defiant, it seemed not just foolish, but obviously foolish. Sending Spock I could half-understand. And Kirk assuming the risk on a potential suicide run like the Tycho IV bombing seems a command decision. But when you happen upon another starship that's adrift and the crew has died mysteriously, why would the captain walk into that quicksand?
Looping this back around, I can see starship captains exposing themselves to certain hazards occasionally. Pike had a right to sacrifice himself to save those cadets on that Class J vessel. That's a time when I would expect those kinds of pre-recorded orders to be played. And of course, Spock and McCoy are going to deny playing them. Imagine how it would look if they chose this occasion to say "Oh, of course we played those taped orders, since we assumed you were dead anyway..."
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