Where TOS stumbled....
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
Only fanwankers care about this stuff.
The fact we're all talking about it forty years after the fact would indicate otherwise.
This isn't emphasized enough.
I can't comment on the behind-the-scenes stuff, but onscreen TOS has a pretty clear "jump the shark" moment. A lot of fans will disagree with me, because they love tribbles or Spock in a fedora, but the jump-the-shark landmark is in the middle of season 2: three comedy episodes aired back-to-back-to-back.
Trouble With Tribbles
Gamesters of Triskelion
Piece of the Action
(Gamesters probably wasn't intentional comedy, but it is campy as hell.) Gamesters of Triskelion
Piece of the Action
Maybe a dramatic series can survive an occasional comedy show. But having 3 comedies in a row really blasted the tone of the series. It never recovered.
There are still a few good or solid episodes in season 2 after the comedic outbreak: Immunity Syndrome, Private Little War, Ultimate Computer. But suddenly the ratio of terrible, terrible episodes spikes up sharply. Omega Glory falls in late season 2, and Patterns of Force is here too. Bread and Circuses. And then there's season 3.
It's a shame, I really enjoyed Tribbles when I was a kid. But when the Onion AV Club went thru their project of reviewing all the TOS episodes, it was really startling how clearly that episode and the next two drew a line. Before those three episodes, Star Trek was mostly very good, with just a few clunkers. After those three, Star Trek was mostly bad, with just a few decent episodes.
Funny, I adore the music. Esp Gerald Fried's score for Amok Time, and Sol Kaplan's 2 scores. (Not so much George Duning's scores.)
The recycling of music was a product of budgetary constraints. They couldn't afford original music for every show, so they tracked the scores. Tough to fault them for it – ST was an expensive show.
The music became a huge signature of the show. I've never heard anyone complain about it before.
It may not have been right for the producers but the Cage holds up incredibly well as an intelligently-written, fascinating piece of sci fi. Even its portrayal of women is light years ahead of what we got in TOS subsequently. Number One aside, Vina is a pretty impressive heroine and fares a lot better than some of the insipid female leads we've seen in a massive tranche of modern movies right up to date. Thankfully shows like Xena, Buffy, Alias, Nikita, and X-files demostrated that female leads can be extremely popular, culminating in Angelina Jolie getting Evelyn Salt re-written for a woman. It's still a struggle but I wonder how different Trek's women would have been if the original format had remained.
It is interesting to note that of the three episodes you listed, only Tribbles was produced by Gene Coon. And it is the only one where the humor is "in character." That downturn in quality after this point can also be attributed to Coon's departure. He had a real grasp on the series and shaping the scripts. Once he left, Roddenberry took over until John Meredyth Lucas arrived. Roddenberry was already not the same guy he was a year and a half earlier and Lucas, while not terrible, just didn't have the same feel for the series as Coon (nor should he, I guess). Still, I don't understand why Roddenberry didn't ask him to stay on as producer in the third season. I think he would have grown into the position quite nicely.
How was Fred Frieberger a better choice? Much as I don't hate Freddie, he really sucked the humor right out of the show. A shame, since some of the lesser episodes could have been saved as comedic stories. Put a laugh track over Spock's Brain and you've got a real winner.
Dusty Ayres
Commodore
It is interesting to note that of the three episodes you listed, only Tribbles was produced by Gene Coon. And it is the only one where the humor is "in character." That downturn in quality after this point can also be attributed to Coon's departure. He had a real grasp on the series and shaping the scripts. Once he left, Roddenberry took over until John Meredyth Lucas arrived. Roddenberry was already not the same guy he was a year and a half earlier and Lucas, while not terrible, just didn't have the same feel for the series as Coon (nor should he, I guess). Still, I don't understand why Roddenberry didn't ask him to stay on as producer in the third season. I think he would have grown into the position quite nicely.
How was Fred Frieberger a better choice? Much as I don't hate Freddie, he really sucked the humor right out of the show. A shame, since some of the lesser episodes could have been saved as comedic stories. Put a laugh track over Spock's Brain and you've got a real winner.
Spock's Brain was shit that should NEVER have been made.
Same goes for The Way To Eden/Joanna (the story was already well told in This Side Of Paradise and didn't need a flower children-styled remake.) The Baku in Star Trek: Insurrection were better people then the idiots in The Way To Eden/Joanna (the whole episode should have been considered apocryal, IMHO.)
I have no problem with comedic episodes; they break the tension up somewhat, a quality missing from today's TV. The Trouble With Tribbles, Mudd's Women, and I,Mudd work really well for me, as it does for a lot of others.
As for Fred Freiberger: what Walter Koenig said about him once was right on the mark, and it also afflicted what happed with the show in the third season.
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What did Walter Koenig say?
I would have preferred "The Trouble With Tribbles" to have been a tad more serious, but it's okay. I'm okay with "The Gamesters Of Triskelion" and I don't see it as a comedy. "A Piece Of The Action" is clearly the actors having fun because it's deliberately over the top.
The only comedic TOS episode I think really needs more oomph is "I, Mudd." The threat of the androids just doesn't come across as that serious because everything else is so lighthearted.
The only comedic TOS episode I think really needs more oomph is "I, Mudd." The threat of the androids just doesn't come across as that serious because everything else is so lighthearted.
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^
I have to say, as much as I don't like a whole lot of humor in the sci-fi I watch, I found the two Mudd episodes of Trek to be among the most purely fun and enjoyable episodes I've ever seen, and I credit a lot of that to the actor who played Mudd... he truly filled the character with life, and made it memorable.
I have to say, as much as I don't like a whole lot of humor in the sci-fi I watch, I found the two Mudd episodes of Trek to be among the most purely fun and enjoyable episodes I've ever seen, and I credit a lot of that to the actor who played Mudd... he truly filled the character with life, and made it memorable.
Well considering their master plan for galactic conquest was being everyone in the galaxy's servants they didn't seem to be giving off a threat vibe.
I have to agree to some extent. It isn't that I don't think you can have a good Star Trek film because I certainly think you can. But I've always thought Star Trek did better on television. There are TNG episodes I've enjoyed more overall than a lot of the films.
TWOK is often cited as Shatner's best work, but I don't agree. I think he's generally good in TWOK, but I think he did better work in TOS.
Dusty Ayres
Commodore
Koenig said that Freiberger had gotten involved in various right-wing causes, lost his money in bad investments, suffered terrible things in life, the insinuation being that this had an effect on how the third season went (The Best Of TREK:The Magazine for Star Trek Fans, Ballantine Books, 1977-1978).
I think your missing the point of the story. While I agree that several of the shuttle craft members where "out of line" at times with Spock, at the same time Spock was "out of line" with the way he was leading the mission. He was attempting to handle the command situation strictly from a "logical" point of view. In other words instead of "thinking outside the box" or looking at all the options, he was "commanding by numbers", and things kept getting worse. The others, including McCoy seen this and gave him hell over it, who wouldnt. The whole point came down to Spock, facing death, tossed out his "Logical" approach and made an unorthodox decision, that actually proved to be right and saved the crews lives.
My post above was in response to this post made on page 5 concerning the Galileo seven episode.
"That's true, but IMO, it was just too dark for TOS, let alone for TV of that era... I was surprised they showed it, to be honest. Again, just my own opinion.
One last thing that I would say REALLY bothered me about an episode, which is not as bad as the Uhura rape, was the behavior of the shuttle crew in "The Galileo Seven". That really got me raging, because one, these people are supposed to be not only trained and skilled Starfleet personnel, but good enough to be posted on the Enterprise.
I was absolutely appalled at how not only the shuttle officers treated Spock, but also that McCoy just went along with it... I mean, WTF??? McCoy is a SENIOR OFFICER... he should not only back up Spock, who IS the commanding officer in that situation, but should also have the basic maturity to act like a professional, and not act as childish as he did. The only person who ever defended Spock was Scotty, and he was also the only person in that episode other than Spock with any semblance of a professional demeanor.
I really wanted Spock to shoot all those crybabies, and it really made me mad that Starfleet officers would be allowed to act that way to their superior."
"That's true, but IMO, it was just too dark for TOS, let alone for TV of that era... I was surprised they showed it, to be honest. Again, just my own opinion.
One last thing that I would say REALLY bothered me about an episode, which is not as bad as the Uhura rape, was the behavior of the shuttle crew in "The Galileo Seven". That really got me raging, because one, these people are supposed to be not only trained and skilled Starfleet personnel, but good enough to be posted on the Enterprise.
I was absolutely appalled at how not only the shuttle officers treated Spock, but also that McCoy just went along with it... I mean, WTF??? McCoy is a SENIOR OFFICER... he should not only back up Spock, who IS the commanding officer in that situation, but should also have the basic maturity to act like a professional, and not act as childish as he did. The only person who ever defended Spock was Scotty, and he was also the only person in that episode other than Spock with any semblance of a professional demeanor.
I really wanted Spock to shoot all those crybabies, and it really made me mad that Starfleet officers would be allowed to act that way to their superior."
Actually, you should give Mears some credit. She was, at least, quite balanced in her criticism of Spock and behaved professionally throughout, which for a yeoman, was pretty good in itself. Originally, hte character would have been Rand, who would no doubt have been trying to get Spock to look at her legs...
Umm... I wrote that quote, not Hugh Hoyland...
