TOS myths and misconceptions...

[Warped9]

We've all heard things exaggerated and incorrectly remembered or assumed regarding Star Trek. Let's try to explore and debunk some of them.

What are myths and misconceptions and erroneous assumptions you've heard about TOS that you disagree with?

Some of mine:
- Kirk slept with everyone women he encountered. Not true and another concurrent thread is also debunking this.
- Kirk acted first and thought later. I disagree. Kirk didn't get where he is by the seat of his pants and dumb luck. He has fifteen years experience and training that got him where he is. He has an adept mind that can consider many options quickly, certainly more quickly than other commanders we've seen in later series.
- Kirk speaks like every word is a sentence. Not true. Indeed this mannerism has been caricatured for years by comedians, but Kirk only really once spoke blatantly like that in one episode, "The Lights Of Zetar."
- The Enterprise is the Federation flagship. No, never referenced as such in TOS.
- Star Trek is a Utopian future. No, not in TOS. This is a TNG concept.
- The Federation is a moneyless society. No, not in TOS. Later films and TNG referenced this idea.
- The Enterprise is Kirk's first command. No, a reference to his first command is in WNMHGB and it's backed up in the Writer's Guide that Kirk commanded a smaller vessel before the Enterprise.
- Shuttlecraft are only sublight capable. No, the anecdotal evidence onscreen clearly argues that shuttlecraft would have to be warp capable to do what we see them doing.

Anyone else? Any others?

 

[Klingon Empire]

I'm not sure, but I always thought that The Enterprise was the flagship.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I think the Enterprise-D was the first Enterprise to be called "Federation flagship" on-screen.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

Spock was the first Vulcan in Star Fleet -- There's no evidence to support this idea and at least circumstantial evidence against it, namely the Vulcan-crewed Intrepid.

 

[Navaros]

I'll never understand why Shatner is often accused of performing bad acting in TOS. His acting in TOS was always spectacular.

 

[Christopher]

Redshirts were always the first to die. In the first season, the majority of the casualties among the crew wore blue or gold.

I'll never understand why Shatner is often accused of performing bad acting in TOS. His acting in TOS was always spectacular.

Changing styles of acting. Shatner was trained in a theatrical style which had to be big and broad to reach the back rows -- and by the standards of that style, his work was pretty naturalistic. But then a new generation of actors came along, actors whose training was in television rather than the stage, and their acting style was smaller and more intimate since the camera could get up close. The more theatrical style thus fell out of fashion. And humans are slaves to fashion, so if something has fallen out of style we assume it's bad.

 

[Gagarin]

Spock was the first Vulcan in Star Fleet -- There's no evidence to support this idea and at least circumstantial evidence against it, namely the Vulcan-crewed Intrepid.

That's a good one.

Vulcans may be uncommon in Starfleet - I think we can gather that in TOS. But Spock could have been the first... there could be 15-20 years for others to come and catch up. Perhaps some Vulcan space force officers of commander rank transferred their commission to Starfleet, leaping over Spock. But that's all speculation.

Not sure where the first Vulcan stuff came from.

Here's a myth/misconception:

TOS special effects were bad. I think often times they were very good, not just for their time, but some stand up now. And down right amazing what they accomplished.

 

[Warped9]

Here's a myth/misconception:

TOS special effects were bad. I think often times they were very good, not just for their time, but some stand up now. And down right amazing what they accomplished.

The transporter f/x are still sweet after all these years.

I'm not sure, but I always thought that The Enterprise was the flagship.

No, TNG first made reference to this. Or it could have been during one of the '80s films.

 

[Myko]

Shatner's acting (or the direction given to him) is certainly different between early season 1 and late season 3. I'd say somewhere in the middle of season 2 is when he really started hamming it up, with episodes like Return to Tomorrow, The Gamesters of Triskelion, and The Omega Glory. I'd say his mannerisms are far more distracting than his supposed way of speaking.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Shatner's acting (or the direction given to him) is certainly different between early season 1 and late season 3. I'd say somewhere in the middle of season 2 is when he really started hamming it up, with episodes like Return to Tomorrow, The Gamesters of Triskelion, and The Omega Glory. I'd say his mannerisms are far more distracting than his supposed way of speaking.

I do agree with that...

 

[Hofner]

A misconception I had:

I origially thought the bridge viewscreen was a window. Furthermore, I thought those smaller bridge station viewscreens were windows too.

Alright, quit laughing, you've had your fun. I was six when Star Trek came on in 1966. I remember "The Man Trap" but otherwise my viewing of the show was pretty sporadic in the first two seasons. If the Seaview and Jupiter II had windows then gosh darn it, so does the Enterprise. Who ever heard of a ship's bridge or control room without windows?

But I started realizing it was a TV screen although I wasn't sure until "Spock's Brain" was broadcast what with that display on the screen. Although a short time later "Requien For Methuselah" confused me when it seemed like Kirk was peering through the viewscreen at his teeny tiny bridge crew.

Robert

 

[Pauln6]

Men and women are treated equally in the Federation - I don't actually know if they ever expressly made this claim in TOS though although even in later films and in the 2009 remake there are almost no women in the upper echelons of Starfleet.

 

[Warped9]

Men and women are treated equally in the Federation - I don't actually know if they ever expressly made this claim in TOS though although even in later films and in the 2009 remake there are almost no women in the upper echelons of Starfleet.

This is where TOS kinda chickened out. It never explicitly says that women cannot be command officers. Number One was second in command and left in command in Pike's absence. Throughout the series we saw women with the rank of Lt. Commander. But they never took the complete step of showing or at least making reference to a woman in command of a ship or starbase.

They did skirt around it by showing a woman commanding a Romulan squadron and perhaps slyly trying to infer it could happen in Starfleet too. But they never actually showed it.

Pity.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Racism/bigotry has been completely eliminated by the late 23rd century - Look no farther than Lieutenant Stiles in Balance of Terror to debunk this idea. Also, I always found a lot of characters' attitudes and actions towards Spock to be, at least, vaguely racist.

 

[Christopher]

Shatner's acting (or the direction given to him) is certainly different between early season 1 and late season 3. I'd say somewhere in the middle of season 2 is when he really started hamming it up, with episodes like Return to Tomorrow, The Gamesters of Triskelion, and The Omega Glory. I'd say his mannerisms are far more distracting than his supposed way of speaking.

Which I suspect has something to do with the tinnitus he suffered after being too close to an on-set explosion (Nimoy says it was during "The Apple" though other sources claim "Arena"). I imagine it must be hard to gauge one's performance well when there's a constant loud ringing in one's ears.

I origially thought the bridge viewscreen was a window. Furthermore, I thought those smaller bridge station viewscreens were windows too.

Alright, quit laughing, you've had your fun. I was six when Star Trek came on in 1966.

That's nothing. I started watching when I was five, and when I heard them say they were going to "the bridge" and then we saw them coming through these sliding doors into this big circular room, I thought that "the bridge" was an actual bridge they had to cross to reach the circular room. I also thought the Enterprise was a strange airplane that flew only at night. I think I thought that "planets" were some kind of islands. I don't recall what I made of those big colored balls the ship kept circling. I also thought the guy with the weird accent was named "Check-off," which I complained about because it wasn't a real name.

 

[Warped9]

Racism/bigotry has been completely eliminated by the late 23rd century - Look no farther than Lieutenant Stiles in Balance of Terror to debunk this idea. Also, I always found a lot of characters' attitudes and actions towards Spock to be, at least, vaguely racist.

I'm not sure if TOS explicitly says that anywhere, but I may not be recalling it correctly. I know in "Plato's Stepchildren," "Whom God's Destroy," "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" and "The Savage Curtain" there are inferences that prejudice is no longer known or is regarded as "primitive thinking."

Your example (and others) is correct, though. It again shows that TOS was attempting to depict a better future but certainly not a Utopian one.

Phasers are strictly for sublight combat. I think this one got cemented by TNG. Because in TOS we saw instances of phasers being used at warp speeds, notably in "The Ultimate Computer" and "Journey To Babel."

 

[Lord Garth]

I think racism, by our Earth-bound standards (i.e. between humans), was what was done away with. Species-ism, on the other hand, is a different story. It's just that species-ism was used as an analogue for racism.

Star Trek's idea of the future was that the details may change (we're fighting Klingons instead of the Soviets) but the broad strokes, and human nature itself, will remain the same.

 

[Maurice]

That TOS featured the first interracial kiss on TV: debateable on many levels, not least of which because a white-black kiss was on "Emergency Ward 10" on ITV in Britain years earlier (1964)...not to mention a Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. kiss in 1967's in the 1967 TV special Movin' With Nancy.

That NBC didn't want a woman as second in command of the Enterprise. They objected to most of the cast of The Cage with the exception of Hunter and Nimoy.

That Roddenberry had to fight to get an interracial cast. Debunked by the "Inside Star Trek" book that reprints an NBC memo encouraging casts with minorities.

 

[Gagarin]

That TOS featured the first interracial kiss on TV: debateable on many levels, not least of which because a white-black kiss was on "Emergency Ward 10" on ITV in Britain years earlier (1964)...not to mention a Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. kiss in 1967's in the 1967 TV special Movin' With Nancy.

That NBC didn't want a woman as second in command of the Enterprise. They objected to most of the cast of The Cage with the exception of Hunter and Nimoy.

That Roddenberry had to fight to get an interracial cast. Debunked by the "Inside Star Trek" book that reprints an NBC memo encouraging casts with minorities.

I don't have my copy of Inside Star Trek handy... but casting minorities and having minorities in places of power and prominence each week (not cooking or cleaning, not silent in the background) was also part of the mythos.

 

[Nardpuncher]

The Enterprise Fought The Klingons All The Time
This is one that many non-fans believe, that most every week Kirk made love to a different woman and they fought Klingons.
I'm not sure but the Klingons are only in 4 or 5 episodes.