TOS tropes/cliches/funny things you notice

- Several times in the first season, an element is said to be "the hardest known in the universe, harder than diamond". Including diamond.
- Sulu turns around to look at us when something's on the viewscreen more times than I can count.
- There are many women Kirk loved more than any other. Ruth, Helen Noel, Edith Keeler, Janet Wallace...

 

Kirk Fu.

 

In TNG, Picard often tugs on his shirt to keep it smooth ... and wrinkle-free. Mister Spock never does this, no matter how bad the shirt's riding up the back, or how bunched up it gets. Only in TWoK does Spock ever tug on his shirt and there's no doubt that was Nick Meyer's direction, not Nimoy's acting instincts. I just always wondered if there was a reason he didn't bother with it. Were I an actor, I'd always want to look neat and right - dare I say it? - crisp, in fact.

 

TOS Kirk used to do it once in a while, but mostly because he mussed it up by being too manly.

...And Quinto does one in ST11.

 

I think the actors called this the Picard Maneuver, if I'm remembering it correctly from somewhere.

 

Actually I distinctly recall reading an interview with Nimoy circa 1982 in which he said he came up with that move himself, totally unscripted / undirected, and actually surprised Meyer with it "in the moment" (as opposed to warning him ahead of time that he was going to do it).

 

Duplicates of the crew ("The Man Trap," "What Are Little Girls Made Of?," "The Enemy Within," "Mirror, Mirror," "Whom Gods Destroy," possibly others).

The first story outline of "The Alternative Factor" briefly had duplicates of the crew, too, but this was quickly cut.

 

Godlike aliens claiming that humanity is inferior and needs to be tested.

Spock and Bones bag as many ladies as Kirk does.

 

Starship captains are the only people who can beat Kirk in a fair fight, hand-to-hand. Anyone else has to rely on pain rays or whacking him with a metal bar or something.

 

Kirk defeats a computer or android system with illogic.

 

People with super abilities given the run of the ship and its library so they can know how to take the Enterprise over.

 

"Sulu looks back meaningfully with something on the screen" gives tough competition to the "Enterprise flies by" stock footage.

 

The two-fisted punch always makes me chuckle. It comes up so often. Even Spock does it in "The Man Trap."

 

Kirk doing that wrestling move where he jumps up and kicks both feet onto the wall and then falls on top of his opponent. It seems like they would have time to get out of the way.

Kor

 

The technology left behind by "The (fill in the blank) Ones".

 

I love the way Kirk has to shake many of the female officers and crew to stop them being hysterical because it was obvious in the sixties that female astronauts would be hopeless in a crisis.

 

Starship captains are supposedly the cream of crop yet turn up unbalanced: Garth, Tracey and Decker.

 

Some of them may have been given command in different circumstances. In an ideal universe, all captains would be vetted thoroughly. Somehow they caught Janice Lester before she could slip through the cracks.

 

Could be one of those fine lines between genius and insanity scenarios.