Unseen Elements Updated: 9-1-2008

[alchemist]

Good Morning from the Southeastern US,

A couple of new articles have been added to Unseen Elements at Orion Press:

For this month, Sir Rhosis reviews the outline for Ted Sturgeon's The Joy Machine, an unrealized Trek episode. I think the story has concepts similar to those found in some episodes of the series, and when you read Sir's review, you'll find out why he liked it until the last Act.

http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/articles/joy_machine.htm

For the second article, I review the final draft script for And The Children Shall Lead. It's clearly not one of my favorite episodes, but there are some interesting differences between the scripted and broadcast versions.

http://www.fastcopyinc.com/orionpress/articles/and_the_children_shall_lead.htm

We hope everyone enjoys!

Dave and Dave

 

[Christopher]

In 1996, Sturgeon's outline for The Joy Machine was expanded into a Pocket Books ST novel by Sturgeon's friend James Gunn (who'd written a similarly-themed original SF novel, The Joy Makers, in 1961). It's an interesting historical artifact, and would probably have made a good episode if it had been made in the first season, but thirty years later it came off feeling like a hybrid of "This Side of Paradise" and "Return of the Archons."

 

[AdmiralGarak]

The Joy Machine's greatest fault is that it loses its dramatic tension in the latter acts when Marouk and company start to help Kirk. Where is the conflict in the final act? I did like that the oft-neglected Uhura got to take an active role in the story. For that alone I would have wished for this episode to have been produced, after a few rewrites to ramp up the tension.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

I have never read Gunn's novelization -- what did he most expand on from the outline in his work? Does the "Please. . . feed. . . my cat" stuff make it into his novel?

Just curious. What bugged me most about the final act was this -- I read the outline three or four times and still could not grasp how scrambling Spock's brain waves (or whatever it was) saved the children from having to undergo payday.

Sir Rhosis

 

[gastrof]

The Joy Machine's greatest fault is that it loses its dramatic tension in the latter acts when Marouk and company start to help Kirk. Where is the conflict in the final act? I did like that the oft-neglected Uhura got to take an active role in the story. For that alone I would have wished for this episode to have been produced, after a few rewrites to ramp up the tension.

There's always STAR TREK NEW VOYAGES (sorry...STAR TREK PHASE II) or maybe, if the movie is a success, we might get more films or even a new TV series with Kirk and company.

There are always possibilities...

 

[Therin of Andor]

Just released is "Matheson Uncollected, Volume One" by Richard Matheson (Gauntlet, 2008), a signed and numbered edition, limited to 500 hardcover copies. I bought mine through Amazon.

Half of this book is made up of the script of "The Enemy Within" (TOS), and related materials: an essay by Tony Albarella called "Split Personality: The Evolution of Richard Matheson's The Enemy Within", and the introduction by George Clayton Johnson ("The Man Trap" and the never-developed "Rock-a-Bye Baby - or Die!")

Of particular interest, remember that odd comment from Spock to Rand about Kirk's "interesting qualities"? This line goes to Rand in this script version (Final Draft, June 8, 1966). The essay notes that the "B" story, of Sulu trapped down on the planet, was added by Roddenberry and his staffers. Matheson didn't think the script required those scenes.

Also in the book is Matheson's unfinished novel, "Lost Colony", and some previously uncollected short stories.

 

[Christopher]

Of particular interest, remember that odd comment from Spock to Rand about Kirk's "interesting qualities"? This line goes to Rand in this script version (Final Draft, June 8, 1966).

I'm not sure which is a more sexist piece of writing -- having Spock leeringly suggest to a woman that her would-be rapist had "interesting qualities," or having the woman herself say that.