Yarnek/Excalbian was my favorite of the TOS monster suits.
TOS Rewatch
- Thread starter Grendelsbayne
- Start date
The Sarpeidon air siege must have been a time when oxygen was low on Beta Niobe's favourite planet!
JB
JB
I agree Vanna was the best part of the episode. I couldn't reall care less about Droxine's beliefs, since she's such a ridiculous character.
My next episode is:
One of our Planets is Missing
Lt. Arex is a neat design, but yet another terrible voice.
How is it even a question whether or not to inform an inhabited planet that they're about to be eaten by a space cloud?
How is it a revelation that the cloud is alive when Spock already said it was instinctively seeking planets to eat?
Engineering looks a LOT different all of a sudden.
I like how Kirk has this personable relationship with the governor of Mantilles. Their communications are nice character moments.
The conversation with the cloud is actually really great. The voice used for it is the best new voice character so far (it kind of sounded like Majel Barrett, though I'm not sure of that). And for Spock to basically teach it all about the world of tiny people and convince it to go back where there are no tiny people to eat was a beautiful, quintessential Trek solution.
The Lorelai Signal
The planet looks gorgeous.
The tonal control bit is a neat idea.
I love how Uhura takes control of the ship. I really wish I could've gotten that scene in the original series.
Spock is way too feeble. If he's aged this badly, the others should already be dead.
Nurse chapel removes the headband easily. Why didn't Kirk et al try that as soon as they escaped?
Another interesting, non-violent solution, though it is questionable to what extent it's reasonable to just let the Lorelai community off with no consequences for their dozens (hundreds?) of murders.
It is a kind of arrogance in itself to think the entirety of the responsibility falls on Humanity's shoulders when encountering alien cultures. And while they don't know everything, humans are hardly working from ignorance of communicable diseases and they take extraordinary steps to protect themselves and others.
At least in Trek, Humanity is trying to minimize its responsibility by not getting involved via the Prime Directive - not everyone has anything like that - and they claim their weapons are mostly for defense, not offensive conquest, like the Klingons or others. I think it's fair to say the lives lost often come from aliens who risk their own lives trying to impose their will on the humans, attacking them, ignoring their advice, or things like that. Yeah, lives will be lost, but it's not always Humanity's fault.
The alternative is to isolate ourselves, remain at home, learn little, and, in this hostile Trek universe, probably be conquered by somebody like the Klingons and turned into slaves, or wiped out by Nomad or V'Ger or Whale probes since we don't know enough about the hostile galaxy to defend ourselves.
Knowledge is power - cooperation with others is strength. I think Humanity is making the right call in this fictional landscape.
The future has never looked better than what it did in TOS! Later on in the spin-offs it seemed bleak and bad again, sadly...
JB
JB
I'm not saying it's always Humanity's fault, nor that it should stop Starfleet from exploring. Merely that there is a real potential for that exploration to have serious costs, which might fall to innocent people who had no choice in it. I'd think that's something Starfleet should pay some thought to. Thinking about it this way, I'm kind of surprised this theme hasn't been broached a little more often on the shows.
I've even had people tell me how much they hate Trek since everything is too perfect, there are no real problems, and everybody is all hugs and kisses. Now, maybe in fiction you'd like a more challenging, relatable environment, but I think it goes too far when they instead feel it should be a bleak dystopian dog eat dog universe and nobody can be trusted and you're a fool if you don't shoot first and ask questions later.
I think Starfleet has thought of that, but short of staying home, all they can do is risk it, try to minimize those risks for others, try to compensate when something goes awry, and realize not everything bad happening in the universe is their fault, even if they could help prevent one bad thing but don't, since it might lead to many more or worse bad things, and then it would be their fault. I seriously think they are treading as carefully as can be expected, and apparently, far more carefully and concerned about others than many other races, or their representatives, that we have seen in this series.
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Turnabout Intruder
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I've always been a little disappointed about this episode being the last – not a great one, all told, and to go out on a mildly bad note was almost a pity. One problem with this episode, I've always felt, was the implication, IIRC, that Janice Lester could never be captain just because of her gender, which actually seemed supported by something Captain Kirk said, or didn't say, and I felt, even then, that was not in the spirit of Trek. But since we later see (in the TOS movies) women can be startship captains, even if they were thinking that they couldn't be at some point in the late 60's, they clearly changed their minds, and perhaps strongly suggested to society that they, too, should change their minds about gender equality. In TNG and series beyond that they have several female captains and officers of even higher ranks – including admirals. And in Enterprise, The Columbia NX-02, NX-01's sister ship's captain, was a woman, so even "before" Kirk's time women could attain that job.
Of course, here, regardless of her gender, Janice Lester would have likely failed to make captain for any number of psychological reasons. When one man in a million – or one person in a million – can even do the job, it's not hard to believe she'd have tripped up, possibly in several areas, long before she got close. They flushed Merik, and he only failed one test by a split second. Janice Lester eventually revealed herself to be a murdering sociopath, if not worse, so I suspect she'd have failed somewhere along the way. Don't forget, she sent many to their deaths just to set up this planned attempt at usurping Captain Kirk's position. Many died. It's just lucky for her and Dr. Coleman the death penalty is pretty much a thing of the past since revenge has proven itself to be almost a social sickness that only leads to more suffering and a vicious, endless cycle of retribution.
Mind you, we've clearly seen some questionable individuals make captain, too, so who knows for sure?
The episode is perhaps best for noting how an internal court martial might be handled - no outside influences in play - and while this was different with Spock, Scotty, and McCoy being accused, we had already seen a couple of courts martial on the show, and so this didn't really add to the depth of the series. However, if it takes 3 people of command grade to hold a court martial, I don't understand how they could have done it, except, of course, for the fact Janice Lester didn't care about such details. But, perhaps, if such individuals are not available, there are exceptions. But if so, why was Stone so willing to accept the assertion they couldn't hold a court martial? It's probably just an inconsistency, and it wouldn't be the first.
Chekov perhaps misspoke here, but he claimed only a violation of General Order 4 allowed the death penalty, and nobody had broken it (recently). Stupid me. I always thought he was obviously speaking of making contact with Talos IV, since that was the only death penalty still on the books, but it turns out that was General Order 7. Whatever General Order 4 is, we're never told, and unless they retroactively rewrote one of their general orders, either Commodore Stone was wrong about 7 being the only one, or Chekov misspoke. I'll pick the latter, thank you very much, since it was a high stress situation and nobody can be expected to remember every little thing. I sure didn't.
But at least this court martial was more . . . amusing, as Janice Lester falls apart and can scarcely control herself.
And so the series comes to a close, and that would be sad, indeed, if not for the fact that TOS was so well loved by fans, that future movies, more Trek series, and remakes and adaptations and fan contributions were yet to come.
There wasn't much to remaster, but there are a few nice shots to look at.
They made the ending especially nice and picturesque, sort of like the Enterprise riding off into the sunset (though not a sunset so much as an impressive astronomical phenomenon), as our heroes ride off in all their glory.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Star Trek Continues, I discovered, for some reason, decided to remake and then extend the ending a little bit. I don't know why, but go ahead and watch the clip.
The new stuff starts around 1:53.
The opening shot of the Enterprise alone is worth the trip.
Sorry, the link isn't working, so click youtube and watch it there directly.
Star Trek: The Next Generation had an episode called Legacy, where Jean-Luc Picard mentions they are passing the planet Camus II, and we might remember this is where the events in Turnabout Intruder began. That TNG episode marked that series' point where they pass the number of episodes in TOS, so they “pass” Camus II. It's funny if you know these things, I'm sure, but I don't typically pick up on such esoteric bits of knowledge a lot of the time. But it's at least mildly amusing to find this out even later. I chuckled, anyway.
I won't call Dr. Lester our beauty of the day since at her core she was pretty ugly, and she wasn't really all that, anyway. And I don't feel like finding and hosting her image for that purpose, too.
But I'll give you another picture of Barbara Baldavin, here playing Lt. Lisa at communications – since Uhura was gone – Nichols had a singing gig. Barbara's pretty and we've seen her before as Angela Martine (Balance of Terror) and the same, though Kirk called her Teller (as it was in the script), but others knew her from before and called her Angela again (Shore Leave). She even had a scene in Space Seed, but it was cut out.
I had given this episode a 4 out of 10 before, but honestly, despite the fact I dislike the story, there are some amusing aspects of it, like watching Shatner pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man, so while the episode is somewhat slow paced and nothing really exciting happens to or with the Enterprise herself, which is something I always love to see, I might rate this a bit higher – 5 out of 10, for Shatner's acting (while he had the flu, no less) and the unique situation of trying to usurp command in that manner.
That's no way to talk to somebody who is lying their ass off.
But ultimately, I'm going to stick to 4 out of 10 since too many feel this is a story about gender equality when it's really not – that woman is bat shit crazy, a murdering sociopath who killed many just to get revenge for what weren’t even genuine wrongs done to her or her gender, but imagined wrongs.
And that, gentle readers and fellow TOS fans, brings this TOS thread to a close – or at least some official point where I am done reviewing the Blu-Ray, Remastered TOS episodes.
You're talkin' about the end of the whole series here, Scotty.
Aye.
In any event, I want to thank all readers who have followed and/or positively contributed to the fun in this thread. Talking About one of the greatest, if not the greatest, TV series of the late 60's, is a great part of the enjoyment of a complicated series like this.
Thank you all, and may you live long and prosper.
And now . . . TAS.
Of course, here, regardless of her gender, Janice Lester would have likely failed to make captain for any number of psychological reasons. When one man in a million – or one person in a million – can even do the job, it's not hard to believe she'd have tripped up, possibly in several areas, long before she got close. They flushed Merik, and he only failed one test by a split second. Janice Lester eventually revealed herself to be a murdering sociopath, if not worse, so I suspect she'd have failed somewhere along the way. Don't forget, she sent many to their deaths just to set up this planned attempt at usurping Captain Kirk's position. Many died. It's just lucky for her and Dr. Coleman the death penalty is pretty much a thing of the past since revenge has proven itself to be almost a social sickness that only leads to more suffering and a vicious, endless cycle of retribution.
Mind you, we've clearly seen some questionable individuals make captain, too, so who knows for sure?
The episode is perhaps best for noting how an internal court martial might be handled - no outside influences in play - and while this was different with Spock, Scotty, and McCoy being accused, we had already seen a couple of courts martial on the show, and so this didn't really add to the depth of the series. However, if it takes 3 people of command grade to hold a court martial, I don't understand how they could have done it, except, of course, for the fact Janice Lester didn't care about such details. But, perhaps, if such individuals are not available, there are exceptions. But if so, why was Stone so willing to accept the assertion they couldn't hold a court martial? It's probably just an inconsistency, and it wouldn't be the first.
Chekov perhaps misspoke here, but he claimed only a violation of General Order 4 allowed the death penalty, and nobody had broken it (recently). Stupid me. I always thought he was obviously speaking of making contact with Talos IV, since that was the only death penalty still on the books, but it turns out that was General Order 7. Whatever General Order 4 is, we're never told, and unless they retroactively rewrote one of their general orders, either Commodore Stone was wrong about 7 being the only one, or Chekov misspoke. I'll pick the latter, thank you very much, since it was a high stress situation and nobody can be expected to remember every little thing. I sure didn't.
But at least this court martial was more . . . amusing, as Janice Lester falls apart and can scarcely control herself.
And so the series comes to a close, and that would be sad, indeed, if not for the fact that TOS was so well loved by fans, that future movies, more Trek series, and remakes and adaptations and fan contributions were yet to come.
There wasn't much to remaster, but there are a few nice shots to look at.
They made the ending especially nice and picturesque, sort of like the Enterprise riding off into the sunset (though not a sunset so much as an impressive astronomical phenomenon), as our heroes ride off in all their glory.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Star Trek Continues, I discovered, for some reason, decided to remake and then extend the ending a little bit. I don't know why, but go ahead and watch the clip.
The new stuff starts around 1:53.
The opening shot of the Enterprise alone is worth the trip.
Sorry, the link isn't working, so click youtube and watch it there directly.
Star Trek: The Next Generation had an episode called Legacy, where Jean-Luc Picard mentions they are passing the planet Camus II, and we might remember this is where the events in Turnabout Intruder began. That TNG episode marked that series' point where they pass the number of episodes in TOS, so they “pass” Camus II. It's funny if you know these things, I'm sure, but I don't typically pick up on such esoteric bits of knowledge a lot of the time. But it's at least mildly amusing to find this out even later. I chuckled, anyway.
I won't call Dr. Lester our beauty of the day since at her core she was pretty ugly, and she wasn't really all that, anyway. And I don't feel like finding and hosting her image for that purpose, too.
But I'll give you another picture of Barbara Baldavin, here playing Lt. Lisa at communications – since Uhura was gone – Nichols had a singing gig. Barbara's pretty and we've seen her before as Angela Martine (Balance of Terror) and the same, though Kirk called her Teller (as it was in the script), but others knew her from before and called her Angela again (Shore Leave). She even had a scene in Space Seed, but it was cut out.
I had given this episode a 4 out of 10 before, but honestly, despite the fact I dislike the story, there are some amusing aspects of it, like watching Shatner pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man, so while the episode is somewhat slow paced and nothing really exciting happens to or with the Enterprise herself, which is something I always love to see, I might rate this a bit higher – 5 out of 10, for Shatner's acting (while he had the flu, no less) and the unique situation of trying to usurp command in that manner.
That's no way to talk to somebody who is lying their ass off.
But ultimately, I'm going to stick to 4 out of 10 since too many feel this is a story about gender equality when it's really not – that woman is bat shit crazy, a murdering sociopath who killed many just to get revenge for what weren’t even genuine wrongs done to her or her gender, but imagined wrongs.
And that, gentle readers and fellow TOS fans, brings this TOS thread to a close – or at least some official point where I am done reviewing the Blu-Ray, Remastered TOS episodes.
You're talkin' about the end of the whole series here, Scotty.
Aye.
In any event, I want to thank all readers who have followed and/or positively contributed to the fun in this thread. Talking About one of the greatest, if not the greatest, TV series of the late 60's, is a great part of the enjoyment of a complicated series like this.
Thank you all, and may you live long and prosper.
And now . . . TAS.
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I wouldn't really disagree witht any of that - at least, I would certainly hope that's how they're acting. I just think it's a very interesting point which would make for a great episode or two sometime.
I wouldn't say that everything was perfect as such! They kept on telling us how bad things have been in human history but now things have settled and the greatest dangers are from the unknowns in outer space and humanity has made it's self new enemies in The Klingons and The Romulans!
JB
JB
More Tribbles, More Troubles
They beamed Cyrano out through shields...
It's a shame they don't have the original voices for Jones and Koloth.
How are the tribbles in so many places when they don't breed? it shouldn't be that hard to keep track of a few dozen animals that move so slowly.
That tribble really loves the Captain's chair... "I think I'll stand."
Ok, now they're definitely showing way more tribbles than there were on the transporter pad.
Why aren't the tribbles screaming at the Klingons?
This was a fun episode, but very derivative of the first Tribble story. Still, it was nice seeing the beginning of the Klingons' great tribble hunt.
They beamed Cyrano out through shields...
It's a shame they don't have the original voices for Jones and Koloth.
How are the tribbles in so many places when they don't breed? it shouldn't be that hard to keep track of a few dozen animals that move so slowly.
That tribble really loves the Captain's chair... "I think I'll stand."
Ok, now they're definitely showing way more tribbles than there were on the transporter pad.
Why aren't the tribbles screaming at the Klingons?
This was a fun episode, but very derivative of the first Tribble story. Still, it was nice seeing the beginning of the Klingons' great tribble hunt.
Really? I wondered for a bit there, but it really didn't sound like the same person. Interesting.
Beyond The Farthest Star
On the fringe of the galaxy, the Enterprise encounters an old derelict but advanced alien ship of incredible size, and it's been there for 300 million years. The alien crew, long dead, seems to have scuttled their ship – but why? It's not long before they discover they are not alone – something has survived there all this time – something nasty, but this time it sets its sights on Enterprise.
Read Full Review
Apart from the blurb I'll write, like above, I don't really intend to recap the stories here - just comment on them, like you're familiar with them having seen them before or you're going to watch along, so you already know. But I'll also include a transcript link at the end.
As we get into TAS, it's important to remember how old they are – from the early 70's, and without benefit of modern remastering or current computer animation techniques, and due to low budget, how often we will be subjected to stock footage and music that, quite frankly, will never be as good as from TOS. But even apart from that, my personal belief is they just didn't care enough since the audience was not prime time viewing adults, but Saturday morning children, and back then some adults even felt TOS was a kid's show. So whatever they had to do was . . . "good enough."
TAS is an odd mix of more badly used or misused science in places – like whoever wrote that didn't have a clue, or whoever edited it and changed it didn't – and some good stuff, too, like it may have been from another source or writer, or from a left over script. It's far more inconsistent that way, and we will be subjected more often to gobbledygook and gibberish than jargon in TAS than in TOS, as if in some people's minds they are interchangeable. They're not.
That said, I think TAS is worth watching for a Star Trek fan, but I'm not sure I'd direct a newbie there for an introduction to the Trek universe – not even kids. They can watch it later after TOS, if they decide they're a fan of TOS.
So, this episode is still within the galaxy, and WTF the farthest star is, who can say? Probably it's just on the edge of known Federation space and they haven't gone farther yet – not that they can't.
I get the impression from this story that it, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, were drawing from the same source or idea, rather than V simply reusing some ideas – a lonely god-like entity, and that it needed a starship to escape its prison, and why it wanted to go to the center of the galaxy where the other one was, it all seemed . . . familiar.
Anyway, some great ideas, too, and the fact they could easily do things in animation they couldn't do in real life shows – like force field belts instead of space suits and a totally alien navigator, Arex, to name a couple.
You know it, man. Left or right or center, I'm always here to give you a hand.
These belts are really handy. Why the hell haven't we been using them before now?
Or even a massive ship miles long.
I liked the story, but I hated unexplained things like negative mass, or the ability to use a sling shot effect from a low orbit but why not before when they had more momentum on the way in?
And I normally won't bother with outright mistakes - mutual control (manual control) or even Scotty having captain's stripes in one scene.
Tough ship, that alien insect-like construct, but without shields, phasers totally destroyed it – too easily, in fact. And I'm not sure why the alien wanted to – just grew to hate it, I guess.
And radio signals from an incredibly advanced ship – not subspace FTL signals at all.
Well, nitpicks will abound in TAS.
Still, this was a good start for TAS. I guess I'll give this a 7 out of 10 – after adding points for new things and subtracting points for nonsense – it comes out about there and it was overall mostly fine. But I admit I'm being generous and judging this from a fan's POV and not a newbie's, who might find it almost unwatchable, or at least, might feel they could find better, newer stuff to watch that they would like better.
Beyond The Farther Star Transcript:
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS004.htm
As we get into TAS, it's important to remember how old they are – from the early 70's, and without benefit of modern remastering or current computer animation techniques, and due to low budget, how often we will be subjected to stock footage and music that, quite frankly, will never be as good as from TOS. But even apart from that, my personal belief is they just didn't care enough since the audience was not prime time viewing adults, but Saturday morning children, and back then some adults even felt TOS was a kid's show. So whatever they had to do was . . . "good enough."
TAS is an odd mix of more badly used or misused science in places – like whoever wrote that didn't have a clue, or whoever edited it and changed it didn't – and some good stuff, too, like it may have been from another source or writer, or from a left over script. It's far more inconsistent that way, and we will be subjected more often to gobbledygook and gibberish than jargon in TAS than in TOS, as if in some people's minds they are interchangeable. They're not.
That said, I think TAS is worth watching for a Star Trek fan, but I'm not sure I'd direct a newbie there for an introduction to the Trek universe – not even kids. They can watch it later after TOS, if they decide they're a fan of TOS.
So, this episode is still within the galaxy, and WTF the farthest star is, who can say? Probably it's just on the edge of known Federation space and they haven't gone farther yet – not that they can't.
I get the impression from this story that it, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, were drawing from the same source or idea, rather than V simply reusing some ideas – a lonely god-like entity, and that it needed a starship to escape its prison, and why it wanted to go to the center of the galaxy where the other one was, it all seemed . . . familiar.
Anyway, some great ideas, too, and the fact they could easily do things in animation they couldn't do in real life shows – like force field belts instead of space suits and a totally alien navigator, Arex, to name a couple.
You know it, man. Left or right or center, I'm always here to give you a hand.
These belts are really handy. Why the hell haven't we been using them before now?
Or even a massive ship miles long.
I liked the story, but I hated unexplained things like negative mass, or the ability to use a sling shot effect from a low orbit but why not before when they had more momentum on the way in?
And I normally won't bother with outright mistakes - mutual control (manual control) or even Scotty having captain's stripes in one scene.
Tough ship, that alien insect-like construct, but without shields, phasers totally destroyed it – too easily, in fact. And I'm not sure why the alien wanted to – just grew to hate it, I guess.
And radio signals from an incredibly advanced ship – not subspace FTL signals at all.
Well, nitpicks will abound in TAS.
Still, this was a good start for TAS. I guess I'll give this a 7 out of 10 – after adding points for new things and subtracting points for nonsense – it comes out about there and it was overall mostly fine. But I admit I'm being generous and judging this from a fan's POV and not a newbie's, who might find it almost unwatchable, or at least, might feel they could find better, newer stuff to watch that they would like better.
Beyond The Farther Star Transcript:
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS004.htm
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Yesteryear
After using the Guardian of Forever for historical research, the returning time travels discover nobody remembers Mr. Spock, and an Andorian first officer is even in his place. They quickly surmise when others were examining Vulcan's past, an event occurred that changed Spock's family history – he apparently died at the age of 7. Spock remembers his cousin saved his life, and Kirk realizes his cousin was Spock's future self. Now Spock has to venture into the past again to see if he can cause time to resume its former shape, or die trying.
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Who are you?
Another annoying thing about TAS is alterations from TOS – prime example, the wonderful and mesmerizing voice of the Guardian of Forever in TOS changed to a ridiculous level of somebody trying to sound, what, scary? And it never helps when Majel Barrett's voice is reused so often and far too many people sound like Christine Chapel. Why use her? She was there and it was Trek, but seriously, voice actors who intend to do multiple voices should have more range.
And wow, Godzilla – right? Who knew Vulcan le-mayta's sounded just like that? So yeah, lots of things done on the cheap are apparent, and it brings down the episode a bit when they do that because, you know, it's good enough for kids or something.
But this was an excellent story, and one should expect as much from D.C. Fontana. She had a strong hand in many aspects of Trek, and this episode has many good call backs to TOS, and was used later on as source material for more Trek to come.
Stupid Earther, our emotional dislike of you should be proof enough we're better than you and your emotional reactions to us. Why, we're so right, they'll probably reuse us in a movie in 2009.
A fairly decent time travel story, though, and I love those, and aspects of the planet Vulcan and its culture are great. And who knew Spock was so great because he had a great teacher?
Stop touching yourself.
With all that touches this episode, past and present, and a good time travel story all wrapped up in 22 minutes, what's not to love? Well, Bones telling Spock how Vulcans are supposed to act again, but Bones oversteps like that frequently.
Personally, I loved it, so I'm giving it an 8 out of 10.
Yesteryear Transcript:
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS003.htm
Another annoying thing about TAS is alterations from TOS – prime example, the wonderful and mesmerizing voice of the Guardian of Forever in TOS changed to a ridiculous level of somebody trying to sound, what, scary? And it never helps when Majel Barrett's voice is reused so often and far too many people sound like Christine Chapel. Why use her? She was there and it was Trek, but seriously, voice actors who intend to do multiple voices should have more range.
And wow, Godzilla – right? Who knew Vulcan le-mayta's sounded just like that? So yeah, lots of things done on the cheap are apparent, and it brings down the episode a bit when they do that because, you know, it's good enough for kids or something.
But this was an excellent story, and one should expect as much from D.C. Fontana. She had a strong hand in many aspects of Trek, and this episode has many good call backs to TOS, and was used later on as source material for more Trek to come.
Stupid Earther, our emotional dislike of you should be proof enough we're better than you and your emotional reactions to us. Why, we're so right, they'll probably reuse us in a movie in 2009.
A fairly decent time travel story, though, and I love those, and aspects of the planet Vulcan and its culture are great. And who knew Spock was so great because he had a great teacher?
Stop touching yourself.
With all that touches this episode, past and present, and a good time travel story all wrapped up in 22 minutes, what's not to love? Well, Bones telling Spock how Vulcans are supposed to act again, but Bones oversteps like that frequently.
Personally, I loved it, so I'm giving it an 8 out of 10.
Yesteryear Transcript:
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS003.htm
^I enjoyed 'Yesteryear', one of my top ten fav Star trek episodes. I also love the myriad universe story inspired from the timeline where the Andorian was the XO and Spock was never born. Its sad but well written.
Well, if they inform the people, then the blind panic will doubtlessly lead to lives lost, so if they divert the cloud in the end, those lives would have been lost uselessly. OTOH, if they fail to divert the cloud, then those lost lives are inconsequentially lost since they would have been lost anyway, and what few can escape are lives saved.
It is a choice – a command decision, and one best based on their estimation of how likely they can divert the cloud.
I'm fine with Arex's voice, though, but Majel is doing the cloud and it seems obvious and hard not to see Chapel talking when that happens.
I think the revelation was not that it was alive at that point, but that it was probably intelligent, or could be. That puts the option to kill it in doubt - though Kirk never really seemed like he was seriously going to let 82 million die instead.
One Of Our Planets Is Missing
An enormous, gaseous cosmic cloud is about to devour a highly populated planet. Can the Enterprise and her crew stop it, or will they merely become an appetizer? Worse, it may be an intelligent creature, so do they have the right to kill it? Even if they do, the only way to generate the blast necessary to stop it is to destroy the ship. Has Captain Kirk finally found a no-win situation?
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I actually thought this wasn't so bad, and even better than many others seemed to feel. The story was simple – the choices were hard, or they should have been. Killing such an intelligent creature is bad, though in this instance 82 million other lives would be spared, and unlike volunteers on a starship who sign up for such risks, the people of Mantilles did not.
A good call back to Bob Wesley. You may remember Bob Wesley from the TOS episode, The Ultimate Computer.
Enterprise. Jim. Have you gone mad? What are you trying to prove? Break off the attack! Jim, we have fifty-three dead here, twelve on the Excalibur. If you can hear us, stop the attack, or I'll never get to be the Governor of Mantilles.
So the Enterprise is swallowed, sort of, and meanders for a time through the digestive tract of this large, cosmic cloud while avoiding its teeth.
They also negotiate around antimatter villi, and even cleverly use some of it (though they seemed to beam it on board through shields, which they daren't drop).
But the cloud is almost upon the populated planet, and 82 million people are in a panic.
But thanks to Mr. Spock's great mental abilities to reach out and communicate telepathically, he gets through with a few pleas and some Lassie cartoon reruns, which convince the cloud not to eat other intelligent beings. At least not here – it can go back to where it came from and maybe eat them there, but that's not their problem.
What? Timmy is at the bottom of that gravity well? No desire to eat Timmy.
And Mantilles is saved and, as far as we know, nobody died in the ensuing panic below (even the people who apparently didn't agree the children should be saved first. Bob told them what was what, and that was that).
I'm going to go as high as 6 out of 10. Nothing glaringly awful took me out of the moment, really, and though the idea is similar to those we've seen before, it was well done.
One of Our Planets Is Missing Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS007.htm
A good call back to Bob Wesley. You may remember Bob Wesley from the TOS episode, The Ultimate Computer.
Enterprise. Jim. Have you gone mad? What are you trying to prove? Break off the attack! Jim, we have fifty-three dead here, twelve on the Excalibur. If you can hear us, stop the attack, or I'll never get to be the Governor of Mantilles.
So the Enterprise is swallowed, sort of, and meanders for a time through the digestive tract of this large, cosmic cloud while avoiding its teeth.
They also negotiate around antimatter villi, and even cleverly use some of it (though they seemed to beam it on board through shields, which they daren't drop).
But the cloud is almost upon the populated planet, and 82 million people are in a panic.
But thanks to Mr. Spock's great mental abilities to reach out and communicate telepathically, he gets through with a few pleas and some Lassie cartoon reruns, which convince the cloud not to eat other intelligent beings. At least not here – it can go back to where it came from and maybe eat them there, but that's not their problem.
What? Timmy is at the bottom of that gravity well? No desire to eat Timmy.
And Mantilles is saved and, as far as we know, nobody died in the ensuing panic below (even the people who apparently didn't agree the children should be saved first. Bob told them what was what, and that was that).
I'm going to go as high as 6 out of 10. Nothing glaringly awful took me out of the moment, really, and though the idea is similar to those we've seen before, it was well done.
One of Our Planets Is Missing Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS007.htm
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The Lorelai Signal
A subspace siren's call lures the men of the Enterprise to a mysterious planet where the females first enchant, then ensnare the men to drain their life energies. Thankfully, Uhura takes command of the ship, and backed up by an all female security team, she proves she can kick ass as well as the men. But Kirk, Spock, and McCoy and the landing party of men have been drained, unnaturally aged, and are on the verge of senility. Was she too late?
Read Full Review
I concur with you, Uhura. Men are stupid. I mean, they're acting more stupid than usual.
I'm just going to say I didn't like this episode very much. They saw the problem, but walked right in on it anyway. And though it was great Uhura took command, she didn't really do the job necessary until Spock ordered her, or told her how and what to do. And worse, they did something pretty unforgivable at the end – their solution to their aging problem – use the transporter to go back to the way they were before. Oh, but keep the memories. And don't forget, when we really get old, this won't work – for some reason. Ugh.
Also, though old and decrepit and barely able to talk, suddenly when he's barking orders at a woman, he was back to a normal, steady, strong and commanding voice. WTF?
Anyway, though they should have known better, they sent an all male landing party down to see what was going on.
Hello, Boys. We love you, you know that, right?
McCoy can't tell the difference between the effects of brandy and having his life energy drained? They eventually escape and hide in an urn, but despite having a device that answers all questions, the women don't ask where the men are hiding. Duh!
Kirk and the boys did try to take off the headbands – several times, but each time they couldn't seem to do it. Maybe it caused pain or they felt compelled to stop, or maybe Chapel used some medical tool to help, but they did try – they just couldn't get it done.
I had to laugh my ass off at the incredibly slow speed the Enterprise moves across the screen in orbit while Scotty sings his Welsh ballad. Luckily, Uhura can only take so much.
Goodness, Spock can hit those high notes. So he gets his communicator and decrepitly tells the female officer what to do, despite the fact she should have already done it on her own initiative if they really wanted to show a woman could do that job as well as a man. Missed the boat there, IMO.
Put together an all female security team, and make sure they're all hot. We don't know what we'll be up against.
Damn, they're cute. And those freckles – adorbs.
And so they kick a little ass, which seems surprising to the women – maybe they never met any sizable female contingent from a starship before. Luckily, Starfleet command isn't as sexist as most of the galaxy – or something.
Then, almost painfully, the history is dragged out in a clunky manner of exposition.
But we did note she cried, so they didn't like what they had to do to survive and she felt bad about it, and again the Federation isn't in the business of punishing people. In a way, they were victims, too. True, they killed to survive and had been killing a lot of people every 23 years (or whatever it was – damn stupid Spock's got a handle on events to the nearest minute again when it was based upon hearsay and vague reports. I hate that). But wow, 20 light years away is a long ass way to send such a message. There is some impressive technology there – just not enough to get off the planet or take any of the ships after draining the crews of their life force. Really?
I know many want a different form of justice and dislike it when the Feds turn around and help out such a pack of murdering people, but ultimately, taking away their ability to lure men in and dumping them on a planet where they will finally die is enough – killing them or locking them up wouldn't bring anybody back from the dead, and they aren't able to do it again, so it seems enough.
But for stupid stuff, I'd give it a 3, but with Uhura stepping up, and the all woman hot security team, I'll go as high as 4 out of 10. But using the transporter that way? Ughh. I say again, Ughh. It's lucky I'll go as high as a 4 after using that trick.
The Lorelai Signal Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS006.htm
I'm just going to say I didn't like this episode very much. They saw the problem, but walked right in on it anyway. And though it was great Uhura took command, she didn't really do the job necessary until Spock ordered her, or told her how and what to do. And worse, they did something pretty unforgivable at the end – their solution to their aging problem – use the transporter to go back to the way they were before. Oh, but keep the memories. And don't forget, when we really get old, this won't work – for some reason. Ugh.
Also, though old and decrepit and barely able to talk, suddenly when he's barking orders at a woman, he was back to a normal, steady, strong and commanding voice. WTF?
Anyway, though they should have known better, they sent an all male landing party down to see what was going on.
Hello, Boys. We love you, you know that, right?
McCoy can't tell the difference between the effects of brandy and having his life energy drained? They eventually escape and hide in an urn, but despite having a device that answers all questions, the women don't ask where the men are hiding. Duh!
Kirk and the boys did try to take off the headbands – several times, but each time they couldn't seem to do it. Maybe it caused pain or they felt compelled to stop, or maybe Chapel used some medical tool to help, but they did try – they just couldn't get it done.
I had to laugh my ass off at the incredibly slow speed the Enterprise moves across the screen in orbit while Scotty sings his Welsh ballad. Luckily, Uhura can only take so much.
Goodness, Spock can hit those high notes. So he gets his communicator and decrepitly tells the female officer what to do, despite the fact she should have already done it on her own initiative if they really wanted to show a woman could do that job as well as a man. Missed the boat there, IMO.
Put together an all female security team, and make sure they're all hot. We don't know what we'll be up against.
Damn, they're cute. And those freckles – adorbs.
And so they kick a little ass, which seems surprising to the women – maybe they never met any sizable female contingent from a starship before. Luckily, Starfleet command isn't as sexist as most of the galaxy – or something.
Then, almost painfully, the history is dragged out in a clunky manner of exposition.
But we did note she cried, so they didn't like what they had to do to survive and she felt bad about it, and again the Federation isn't in the business of punishing people. In a way, they were victims, too. True, they killed to survive and had been killing a lot of people every 23 years (or whatever it was – damn stupid Spock's got a handle on events to the nearest minute again when it was based upon hearsay and vague reports. I hate that). But wow, 20 light years away is a long ass way to send such a message. There is some impressive technology there – just not enough to get off the planet or take any of the ships after draining the crews of their life force. Really?
I know many want a different form of justice and dislike it when the Feds turn around and help out such a pack of murdering people, but ultimately, taking away their ability to lure men in and dumping them on a planet where they will finally die is enough – killing them or locking them up wouldn't bring anybody back from the dead, and they aren't able to do it again, so it seems enough.
But for stupid stuff, I'd give it a 3, but with Uhura stepping up, and the all woman hot security team, I'll go as high as 4 out of 10. But using the transporter that way? Ughh. I say again, Ughh. It's lucky I'll go as high as a 4 after using that trick.
The Lorelai Signal Transcript
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/TAS006.htm
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Funny, I thought he sounded just like Tybo the carrot.
As for Spock, it is possible that all Vulcans are telepathically linked at least a little bit.
"Amok Time":
SPOCK: The marriage party approaches. I hear them.
KIRK: Marriage party? You said T'Pring was your wife.
SPOCK: By our parents' arrangement. A ceremony while we were but seven years of age. Less than a marriage but more than a betrothal. One touches the other in order to feel each other's thoughts. In this way our minds were locked together, so that at the proper time, we would both be drawn to Koon-ut-kal-if-fee.
So this ceremony apparently created some kind of mental connection between Spock and T'Pring, so that they would tend to both be willing to go to the Koon-ut-Kal-if-fee at the same time. In T'Pring's case it didn't seem to work properly and she came to desire Stonn instead.
"The immunity Syndrome":
If Spock can sense the death scream of four hundred Vulcan minds over light years of distance, perhaps he could sense the normal background thoughts of billions of Vulcans at a distance of maybe hundreds of thousands of light years. And those background thoughts would include thoughts about keeping in control of their emotions and behaving like a proper modern day Vulcan.
And if Spock was 5,000 years in the past that could have been before the reforms of Surek and Spock might sense the background thoughts of billions of Vulcans feeling emotions more strongly than modern Vulcans did and thinking that it was the normal way to experience life. So perhaps the pre reform Vulcans were influencing Spock to behave like a pre reform Vulcan, not like a modern Vulcan. the
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