Does he have the day off?
What’s with McCoy in “Gamesters”?
- Thread starter Boris Skrbic
- Start date
DeForest Kelley caught a case of death that week.He’s questioning Spock’s every move as XO and never leaves the bridge (as if most of the sets were off-limits for the week, but the character was needed anyway).
I think McCoy is particularly harsh in this episode and The Paradise Syndrome, (The Tholian Web we can excuse.) He clearly worries about his friends, and sometimes takes his frustration out on Spock. But then, that's the character.
Conflict is the soul of drama. But I will say, "The Doomsday Machine" had it exactly right when Decker says, "You may leave the bridge, Doctor." That's what McCoy would be told.
Sounds like he was worried for his crewmates.
He was and he might also have been worried that Spock might just abandon them due to his highly curtailed unemotional state and just get on with the job! 
JB
JB
GoT is one of the worst writing jobs for McCoy - or indeed any of the main characters - in the series. It's close behind McCoy (and Boma's) treatment in G7. Awful.
(Spock's 5 o'clock shadow is far more annoying than the bickering. 
)
It is about the drama (per @Methuselah Flint), and author Margaret Armen also wanted to shake up the show by letting Uhura and Chekov have some of the action for once. It's not like TOS, TNG, or others bent or broke the rules to contrive to continue a story ("Chains of Command" being one of the most entertaining examples...)
(Dang, some things are nice when bigger but scanlines are an exception...)
Armen also cleverly did a "Funk'n'Wagnall" (and based on the airdate, Trek's gag started before Laugh-In's dictionary referencing) and coined McCoy's eternal phrase, "Are you out of your Vulcan mind?!" DeForest Kelley clearly enjoying this scene perhaps a tad too much...
But I've always liked some of the themes in this story, even if some are used in clips that end up being the butt of jokes in some tabloid shows (e.g. most including that infamous "Jiffypop popcorn" outfit, but that's just another example of costuming as brought about by typical outre 1960s drug usage or subliminal advertising or both or neither... )
Dang, who needed the Atari 2600 when everyone could just make boatloads of popcorn all day... or maybe not...
)It is about the drama (per @Methuselah Flint), and author Margaret Armen also wanted to shake up the show by letting Uhura and Chekov have some of the action for once. It's not like TOS, TNG, or others bent or broke the rules to contrive to continue a story ("Chains of Command" being one of the most entertaining examples...)
(Dang, some things are nice when bigger but scanlines are an exception...)
Armen also cleverly did a "Funk'n'Wagnall" (and based on the airdate, Trek's gag started before Laugh-In's dictionary referencing) and coined McCoy's eternal phrase, "Are you out of your Vulcan mind?!" DeForest Kelley clearly enjoying this scene perhaps a tad too much...
But I've always liked some of the themes in this story, even if some are used in clips that end up being the butt of jokes in some tabloid shows (e.g. most including that infamous "Jiffypop popcorn" outfit, but that's just another example of costuming as brought about by typical outre 1960s drug usage or subliminal advertising or both or neither... )
Dang, who needed the Atari 2600 when everyone could just make boatloads of popcorn all day... or maybe not...
Gamesters had several oddities aside from McCoy's extra curmudgeonliness that week. 
For example:
For example:
- The Star Dates increased by 47.5 units (3211.7 - 3259.2) yet events covered a day or two at most
- The distance of 11.63 light years was treated as a big deal to travel, compared to other episodes like Arena or Obsession where many times that distance are routine.
This is one of the episodes I've thought are just script errors. Stardate 3259.2 was spoken on-screen by Spock, so, this dates the episode. Kirk’s voice over log entries must have been recorded after the events of the episode since he didn't have a log recorder with him on the slave planet. I conclude that the "after the events" log dates are script errors, possibly they should be 3271.7 and 3271.8 for example. Also odd, TGOT was in season two, production order 47, but the Spock date puts it before production order 29 in season one. I roll with that stardate. YMMV
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Well, in "Paradise Syndrome" McCoy would bicker about a hop of at most two light-months for the exact same reason as here: he feels confident that Kirk's life is in jeopardy right there, not at that other place across that (as such irrelevant) distance.
In both cases, the reason the good doctor relents is the same, too: Spock promises to be back in no time at all. And it's as regards those 2 lm that he fails to deliver, not as regards the dozen lightyears.
Also common to both cases is the oddity of the some 400 remaining heroes not splitting up to conduct a rescue mission at two locations simultaneously. It's quite the misuse of resources, especially in light of the crisis in both cases being unsolvable by the resources of a starship (indeed, those become but a liability here!).
Timo Saloniemi
In both cases, the reason the good doctor relents is the same, too: Spock promises to be back in no time at all. And it's as regards those 2 lm that he fails to deliver, not as regards the dozen lightyears.
Also common to both cases is the oddity of the some 400 remaining heroes not splitting up to conduct a rescue mission at two locations simultaneously. It's quite the misuse of resources, especially in light of the crisis in both cases being unsolvable by the resources of a starship (indeed, those become but a liability here!).
Timo Saloniemi
Indeed. Shuttlecraft could have been used.
Regarding Paradise Syndrome - indeed the only purpose our off-planet heroes serve is to restore Kirk's memory, thereby opening the obelisk. Even the final deflection is non-Enterprise related.
Good thinking and it's certainly viable for the "mental log" entry on Triskellion.
The first log entry is a harder sell since it seems to happen before they make orbit around Gamma Two - but since he uses the present tense for both logs, who can say for sure?
Or then Spock is the one in error this rare once, his date being the outlier.
Why Kirk feels he isn't entitled to giving a stardate for his second Triskelion log ("stardate... unknown") is at least as difficult to explain. He hasn't suffered a bout of unconsciousness and doesn't have a reason to believe in time travel. His alter ego in the 2009 movie was uncertain only about the second digit after the decimal point at the conclusion of a hectic action sequence over Vulcan, at the beginning of which he was heavily sedated and confused...
Should this odd hesitancy to give a stardate be read as evidence for much longer captivity than we thought we witnessed? When we next meet McCoy, he is pessimistic about the survival odds of the missing landing party "after all this time"...
FWIW, the 11.630 ly distance was to the nearest neighboring star system, and McCoy says they have covered that distance already, at what was warp 2 initially. At that point, the heroes do not stop - they accelerate to warp 7. So Triskelion is not M-24A - it is another star system in that direction but farther away, possibly much farther!
Timo Saloniemi
Why Kirk feels he isn't entitled to giving a stardate for his second Triskelion log ("stardate... unknown") is at least as difficult to explain. He hasn't suffered a bout of unconsciousness and doesn't have a reason to believe in time travel. His alter ego in the 2009 movie was uncertain only about the second digit after the decimal point at the conclusion of a hectic action sequence over Vulcan, at the beginning of which he was heavily sedated and confused...
Should this odd hesitancy to give a stardate be read as evidence for much longer captivity than we thought we witnessed? When we next meet McCoy, he is pessimistic about the survival odds of the missing landing party "after all this time"...
FWIW, the 11.630 ly distance was to the nearest neighboring star system, and McCoy says they have covered that distance already, at what was warp 2 initially. At that point, the heroes do not stop - they accelerate to warp 7. So Triskelion is not M-24A - it is another star system in that direction but farther away, possibly much farther!
Timo Saloniemi
It's correct that they travelled further than 11.63 light years, but I still think M-24A was the Triskelion system.
Here's the order of events:
SPOCK: Captain's log, stardate 3259.2. First Officer Spock in command. The Captain, Lieutenant Uhura, and Ensign Chekov have been missing for nearly two hours. Computer probability projections are useless due to insufficient data.
HAINES: Mister Spock, I'm getting a fluctuating energy reading on this hydrogen cloud. It's faint, sir, but it consistently reads an excess of predictable energy level.
SPOCK: Interesting. It seems to be an ionisation trail.
...
HAINES: Course plotted and laid in, Mister Spock. Three ten mark two four one.
SPOCK: Initiate. Warp factor two.
HAINES: Mister Spock, I'm getting a fluctuating energy reading on this hydrogen cloud. It's faint, sir, but it consistently reads an excess of predictable energy level.
SPOCK: Interesting. It seems to be an ionisation trail.
...
HAINES: Course plotted and laid in, Mister Spock. Three ten mark two four one.
SPOCK: Initiate. Warp factor two.
After a period of time at Warp 2 (or possibly faster)...
MCCOY: This is ridiculous. There's nothing out there. Nothing at all.
SCOTT: We certainly seem to be heading into an empty sector.
SPOCK: Projecting back along the path of ionisation, the nearest system is M two four alpha.
SCOTT: That must be two dozen light years away.
SPOCK: Eleven point six three zero.
SCOTT: We certainly seem to be heading into an empty sector.
SPOCK: Projecting back along the path of ionisation, the nearest system is M two four alpha.
SCOTT: That must be two dozen light years away.
SPOCK: Eleven point six three zero.
So they've been travelling for an unknown period of time before coming within 11.63 light years of system M-24A
McCoy's "two dozen light years" estimate might suggest that this is the distance from Gamma Two and he simply forgot to account for the distance they have travelled already.
SCOTT: Mister Spock, it just doesn't make sense they could have come this far. If there's any chance at all it is to continue to search in the area they were lost.
This is the first of two occasions that Scotty complains about how far they've come - maybe the two systems are in fact more than 24 light years away from one another?
SPOCK: Mister Scott, can we manage anything faster than warp six?
SCOTT: It's my opinion that we've gone too far as it is, sir.
MCCOY: He's right, Spock. We've lost Jim and the others on Gamma Two. Now you've dragged us a dozen light years on some wild hunch that
SPOCK: Doctor, I do not respond to hunches
...
SPOCK: Mister Scott, could you manage warp seven?
SCOTT: I would be more than content to do so, sir, and maybe a wee bit more.
SPOCK: Ensign, warp seven.
SCOTT: It's my opinion that we've gone too far as it is, sir.
MCCOY: He's right, Spock. We've lost Jim and the others on Gamma Two. Now you've dragged us a dozen light years on some wild hunch that
SPOCK: Doctor, I do not respond to hunches
...
SPOCK: Mister Scott, could you manage warp seven?
SCOTT: I would be more than content to do so, sir, and maybe a wee bit more.
SPOCK: Ensign, warp seven.
It is clear that they have been travelling at Warp 6 for a while, although we don't know prior to which scene this speed increase occurred.
McCoy's complaint about "a dozen light years" would suggest that they are this far from Gamma Two and Spock's request of Warp 7 from Scotty would suggest that there is quite some distance left to go
I suppose it's possible that Spock just wanted to close the final half light year in record time, but more likely the distance between the two systems is something like 18 years - this fits both McCoy's initial wild estimate as well as the later updates.
The next scene of the Enterprise is her entering Triskelion's orbit. At no point was it indicated that M-24A was passed by, so Triskelion would seem to be there.
They do follow a trail, that is, a direction, without having a destination in mind. When M24A pops up as an option, some time into the chase, nobody seems to jump to the conclusion that this should be their destination. Rather, Scotty keeps talking about distance, as if the destination still would not matter.
Any empty-space location between Gamma II and M24A would be too late for arguments about distance: if Scotty buys into the idea of a boosted transporter beam to begin with, there's no point in deciding that some arbitrary distance X is too far. And in any case, beaming into empty space would be fatal, so Scotty must believe in a destination of some sort, be it a star system or a loitering spacecraft. Yet he keeps talking about distance...
This is excusable if distance to him equals a string of destinations, some of which (including the relatively nearby M24A, the first on the list) have already been checked out and have failed to deliver. Scotty's "this far" and McCoy's "after all this time" would then refer to perhaps several dozen lightyears (that is, past the "empty sector" Scotty spoke about), half a dozen star systems or other targets of potential relevance, and possibly numerous days of captivity for Kirk's team which has already lost track of time. It is only at that point that Spock finally decides that the trail points smack on to "this trinary [sic] system" and orders very high speed - and he even feels the need to explain this logic to his fellow heroes.
Admittedly, it is in conjunction with this explanation that McCoy refers to a misguided trip of "a dozen lightyears", not to one of "four score and seven lightyears" or anything. Then again, that's McCoy, rather than Scotty or Spock. (But then again again, it was Spock who contradicted his captain on stardates here...)
How far can the Providers reach? They have quite the menagerie of captives, according to Kirk. But they speak of covering their tracks by faking magnetic storm mishaps and the like, so they might make do with local victims, at the average distance of Gamma II. This wouldn't work for long, not with the Federation now an active presence here (at least two batches of captives are already Feds!), but then again, the brains never claim their tradition of games would be ancient - not even that their abstract intellect is (they just admit it took them aeons to get it right, but perhaps the project was completed thirty years ago?).
Timo Saloniemi
Any empty-space location between Gamma II and M24A would be too late for arguments about distance: if Scotty buys into the idea of a boosted transporter beam to begin with, there's no point in deciding that some arbitrary distance X is too far. And in any case, beaming into empty space would be fatal, so Scotty must believe in a destination of some sort, be it a star system or a loitering spacecraft. Yet he keeps talking about distance...
This is excusable if distance to him equals a string of destinations, some of which (including the relatively nearby M24A, the first on the list) have already been checked out and have failed to deliver. Scotty's "this far" and McCoy's "after all this time" would then refer to perhaps several dozen lightyears (that is, past the "empty sector" Scotty spoke about), half a dozen star systems or other targets of potential relevance, and possibly numerous days of captivity for Kirk's team which has already lost track of time. It is only at that point that Spock finally decides that the trail points smack on to "this trinary [sic] system" and orders very high speed - and he even feels the need to explain this logic to his fellow heroes.
Admittedly, it is in conjunction with this explanation that McCoy refers to a misguided trip of "a dozen lightyears", not to one of "four score and seven lightyears" or anything. Then again, that's McCoy, rather than Scotty or Spock. (But then again again, it was Spock who contradicted his captain on stardates here...)
How far can the Providers reach? They have quite the menagerie of captives, according to Kirk. But they speak of covering their tracks by faking magnetic storm mishaps and the like, so they might make do with local victims, at the average distance of Gamma II. This wouldn't work for long, not with the Federation now an active presence here (at least two batches of captives are already Feds!), but then again, the brains never claim their tradition of games would be ancient - not even that their abstract intellect is (they just admit it took them aeons to get it right, but perhaps the project was completed thirty years ago?).
Timo Saloniemi
So what you're saying is:
They sailed on past M24A (perhaps "2 dozen" light years from Gamma 2) and then still following the ionization trail head off into the unknown, Scotty complaining along the way that they've gone "too far".
At this point McCoy considers Spock to be on a "wild goose chase" and makes his feelings known a dozen light years later.
Then Spock persuades Scotty to increase speed to Warp 7 and they arrive at Triskelion shortly after. Maybe the system was undetectable at long range?
At this point McCoy considers Spock to be on a "wild goose chase" and makes his feelings known a dozen light years later.
Then Spock persuades Scotty to increase speed to Warp 7 and they arrive at Triskelion shortly after. Maybe the system was undetectable at long range?
The only observation I will make is that the events of GOT don't seem to last much beyond a day! This is supported by the scenes on the Bridge which seem to follow on from one another over the course of several hours, not days.
Likewise the scenes on Triskelion show a progression from brightly lit (morning), to lunchtime, to late afternoon (Kirk's 2 mile jog) which leads directly onto the final confrontation.
All of a sudden, 36+ light years seem too far!
Kirk agreed that trinary systems are less common:
KIRK: This system's star is a trinary. Limits it a bit, but we're a long way from the Enterprise, if we're in the same dimension.
Back to your question though, it's the first and ONLY trinary system in TOS!
Binary systems are pretty rare too, with Talos IV (if we trust the on screen graphic) and the uncharted system in Mudd's Passion being the only true appearances, although Lester (in Kirk) makes reference to one in Turnabout Intruder.
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