Was Lazarus immortal?

[Spock's Barber]

What "Portrait In Black and White" was was a mess, Kirk and company beam down to the planet "Pendamus" a racially inverted United States during a civil war, Kirk gets captured as a runaway slave and doesn't do very much at all. A black President Lincoln shows up at the end, but Kirk doesn't warn him of his impending assassination because "Man may change the date of history but not its course."

Kind of another parallel planet episode!?!? Oh, the horror.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Kind of another parallel planet episode!?!? Oh, the horror.

Except ... different.

 

[Maurice]

Kind of another parallel planet episode!?!? Oh, the horror.

The horror is what a poor script it is, parallel Earths aside.

 

[David cgc]

What "Portrait In Black and White" was was a mess, Kirk and company beam down to the planet "Pendamus" a racially inverted United States during a civil war, Kirk gets captured as a runaway slave and doesn't do very much at all. A black President Lincoln shows up at the end, but Kirk doesn't warn him of his impending assassination because "Man may change the date of history but not its course."

Ah, the one from the pitch document. By Memory Alpha's collective reckoning, this is the only one that didn't even remotely make it to screen in TOS or the spin-offs.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Ah, the one from the pitch document. By Memory Alpha's collective reckoning, this is the only one that didn't even remotely make it to screen in TOS or the spin-offs.

Yeah, it sounds like the "Kongo" "springboard" idea.

 

[Maurice]

Re "Portrait", Memory Alpha (and apparently, Inside Star Trek which it cites) has it all wrong when it says of "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" that...

Coon wrote the original story outline (titled "Portrait in Black and White") as early as August 1966, during the first season. Though Gene Roddenberry very much liked the outline, it was rejected by NBC program executive Stanley Robertson, who deemed it "unacceptable." However, two years later NBC and Paramount were keen on using every available story idea, so Coon's outline was "taken out of the trash bin" and Oliver Crawford based a teleplay on it. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, pp. 197, 399)

The two stories appear to be unrelated. I think they get conflated because of the racial prejudice angle.

A memo to Coon from Justman dated Aug. 15, 1966 states his concerns about "Portrait", noting that the story was assigned to Barry Trivers by Roddenberry, and commenting...

"In only a little over 5 pages of outline, I can see enormous costs rising like a spectre to haunt us and taunt us and drive us out of our skulls."

NBC didn't reject the outline because it went to a First Draft script, dated Sept. 28th 1966. I'm looking at it (balefully) right now.

 

[jup]

We most certainly didn't need yet another parallel Earth story. Just how many of those were there, as it stood? I remember one about where the American Indians won the war and held the Pledge of Allegiance as holy words. That one really pushed believably. But, mostly because it wasn't the only Sister World to Earth in the Trek Universe.

Anyhow, just watched this acid trip of an episode on my year long marathon. And it's still just as whacked out trippy as I remember it being. Though, it does make me wonder two things. 1) If this episode were made with modern techniques and better story telling, would it at least be upgraded to a decent episode or would it still be downright terrible? I mean, opposing characters of equal something-or-other has some good potential. But it still sounds like a nightmare to explain...in an interesting way. And 2) This episode slightly explains the purpose of Dilithium Crystals. But, are they all about making energy for the ship, focusing energy from another raw source or what do they do if neither of the first two? It was a kind of question that came up a long time ago. I simply thought they radiated energy of a sci-fi nature. But, someone else fiercely stated they were one part of a more complex energy conversion process. This episode makes it sound like they are little more then super Energizer batteries. Sounds like the perfect place to ask this question at.

As for this in-between place that both Lazarus'...s's...Lazarii... (???) end up fighting in, I tend to think it's not going to be a matter of which man dies first of starvation, dehydration or shear loss of will to win. As I bet this tube place in-between realities won't have any fresh oxygen past what seeps in when this...erm...doorway (?) momentarily opens up. Betting their eternal fight only lasts a few minutes before all the oxygen turns bad. (Unless this place is something like that Nexus reality, which is it's own mind trip of a deal.)

 

[Spock's Barber]

We most certainly didn't need yet another parallel Earth story. Just how many of those were there, as it stood?

Way too many parallel planet episodes. One was okay, two was too many, three pushed the limit...
I always thought "Are these aliens so dumb that they can't produce their own society and culture? Do they really have to copy ours?"

 

[Nerys Myk]

Way too many parallel planet episodes. One was okay, two was too many, three pushed the limit...
I always thought "Are these aliens so dumb that they can't produce their own society and culture? Do they really have to copy ours?"

True Parallels
Miri
Omega Glory
Bread and Circuses
Copy Cats
A Piece of the Action
Transplanted Humans
Paradise Syndrome
Any others?

 

[Spock's Barber]

^ Patterns of Force

 

[Phoenix219]

True Parallels
Miri
Omega Glory
Bread and Circuses
Copy Cats
A Piece of the Action
Transplanted Humans
Paradise Syndrome
Any others?

It would have been nice if they had actually addressed the whole existence of parallel Earths and give it an in-story explanation, but I'm not sure there IS a suitable explanation....

 

[Nerys Myk]

It would have been nice if they had actually addressed the whole existence of parallel Earths and give it an in-story explanation, but I'm not sure there IS a suitable explanation....

It called Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development

 

[Spock's Barber]

It called Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development

Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development : When we run out of script ideas, do a parallel planet episode.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development : When we run out of script ideas, do a parallel planet episode.

It was pretty much part of pitch going back to before the first pilot.

 

[Spock's Barber]

I thank The Great Bird of the Galaxy that we didn't have to see a disco parallel planet episode.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I thank The Great Bird of the Galaxy that we didn't have to see a disco parallel planet episode.

10+ seasons of TOS? I'd be willing to risk it.

 

[Spock's Barber]

10+ seasons of TOS? I'd be willing to risk it.

So, the aliens got hold of a Best of the Bee Gees CD and were instantly corrupted.

 

[Nerys Myk]

So, the aliens got hold of a Best of the Bee Gees CD and were instantly corrupted.

My god, Bones. What have you done?

 

[Spock's Barber]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Maurice]

"Return of the Archons", too. Its just another Earth, this one stuck in the 19th century, right down to an Earth clockface.