TNG fan watches TOS for first time

[Maurice]

I am looking at the actual production paperwork.

966-04-04 REVISED OUTLINE
Justman: I feel it would be best for us if we did not establish anything like a truth beam when Kirk attempts to interrogate Van Gelder.

1966-04-14 STORY OUTLINE NBC & STAFF COMMENTS
SPOCK: […] It gives us a chance to explore Mister Spock’s logical turn of mind, his enormous shrewdness, perhaps even introduce some other traits such as an ability at some alien form of hypnosis which may be not only interesting but useful to us in future stories.

1966-05-20 STORY OUTLINE
Jean Messerschmidt cautions about the hypnosis and suggests Bones do it or Spock be established as an expert and offers a clinical reference.

1966-06-28 REVISED SCREENPLAY
Justman: Luckily, on Page 35, Spock goes into his famed hypnotic routine. He sure is a handy sort of fellow to have on board a space ship.

1966-07-22 SCREENPLAY (version unspecified)
Messerschmidt again reiterates the original caution as regards hypnosis.

1966-08-02 SCREENPLAY (version unspecified)
Messerschmidt approves script but reminds about cautions re hypnosis.

1966- I have to check the script version which I can't at the moment, but one draft (I think the "Final") portrays this:

90 ANGLE UP AT SPOCK 90

his back partly turned as he painfully charges up his resources of psychic energy for the ordeal he is about to undergo. But now, pale, tense, breathing shallowly, he's ready. He fixes a pinpoint light upon Van Gelder's eyes, and switches on a device emitting an undulant soothing SOUND. He now places a strange pair of hypnogenic goggles (or any other acceptable hypnotic aid) over Van Gelder's eyes. Van Gelder squirms... twists his head... tries to remove them, finally gives up.​

1966-08-05 REVISED FINAL DRAFT
The mind meld is there, though not named.

1966-08-08 REVISED FINAL DRAFT PAGE REVISIONS
The script goes out of its way to say it’s not hypnosis, to wit:

SPOCK​

This will not affect you, Doctor,
Only the person I touch. It’s
not hypnotism.​

1966-08-09 SCREENPLAY (version unspecified, revised pages)
Messerschmidt approves script but reminds about previous cautions

So from the get-go the idea was to use some unusual technique to get through to Van Gelder, even before the story went to script. At the moment I haven't yet gotten all the "Dagger" paperwork to see early drafts of the script to determine exactly when the technique changed.

 

[Hofner]

Maurice said,

You guys do realize you're quoting long after-the-fact recollections and I am looking at the actual paperwork.



If you mean me, yes, I know. You told me what I wanted to know.

Just so people know, I went totally blind slowly over a period of time about 10 to 15 years ago so my ability to check facts is limited.

I certainly can't read anymore so I listen to audio books and magazines. I'm able to use the computer and surf the internet by using what's called a screen reader program, it reads text out loud. But for example, if a book like The making of Star Trek is not on audio book or HTML format on a web page, I can't reference it and as far as I've seen, the book is not in any of those formats.

So yes, I sometimes can only depend on my memory to reference a book like TMoST.

Regarding those memos about getting information from van Gelder.
So that's how the idea of the mind meld came about, very interesting.


Robert

 

[Maurice]

I wasn’t referring to your recollection, I was referring to the various and sundry the talking heads about Star Trek to repeat stuff without checking it, and even the actors who misremember things decades on.