I respectively disagree. They started with The Man Trap, now 45 years later, the franchise is still going along. I'd say it worked out fine.
Who loves the Salt Vampire?
- Thread starter Moodib
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I respectively disagree. They started with The Man Trap, now 45 years later, the franchise is still going along. I'd say it worked out fine.
It was a good enough beginning to get me hooked for life (although I did wonder what the heck those people sparkling into existence out of nowhere was all about 
).
The Man Trap remains one of my very favorite Trek episode...although I hear Shatner and Nimoy are not nearly so fond of it.
).The Man Trap remains one of my very favorite Trek episode...although I hear Shatner and Nimoy are not nearly so fond of it.
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Yes, it was a cheesy outfit, but the whole ideal behind the thing was brilliant! I love the SV!!! Very creepy for it's time (and still very ugly and scary!) I miss the full body costumes of the day. I think the closest thing to the SV for it's creepiness from TNG was Artimus (the black tar creature).
Class-M planet, the former home of long-dead civilization, now desert like and nearly baron. Archaeologist Robert Crater spent some five years prior to 2266 studying the ruins there, during which time his wife Nancy Crater was killed by the last surviving native inhabitant of that planet.
(Star Trek Encyclopaedia Michael & Denise Okuda).
The only bit of information that I could find, hope it helps
My guess is that whoever inhabited the planet used up all its salt supplies and that was their fate.
Well it's a good thing they never made it to Earth! They would have been loving our oceans and The great salt plains lake!!!
I respectively disagree. They started with The Man Trap, now 45 years later, the franchise is still going along. I'd say it worked out fine.
Since Star Trek actually only off in syndication and not during the network showing, The Man Trap did very little in regards to the series' success. People caught it when they caught it, their first episode was whatever was showing the evening they first found it. As far as the original airing is concerned, Star Trek didn't register in the ratings until the second episode. Man Trap was shown as a special preview a week before the official start of the season, so even it was the best episode ever, ratings-wise, it was meaningless (according to Solow and Justman's book). As far as the Neilsen Company was concerned Charlie X was the "first" episode. Yikes.
The premiere episode of any series is not necessarily going to be the episode to bring in the audience. People who were expecting a new sci-fi series that wasn't a Monster-Of-The-Week show for a change would have been turned off by any ad material showing the creature, or even during the episode. Since The Man Trap really wasn't a real representation of the series as a whole, it was really not the best to start with. However, the Network wanted to premiere with an alien planet episode and for some reason they considered WNMHGB as having too much exposition (which is nonsense), so The Man Trap was it.
Kind of a shame The Corbomite Maneuver wasn't ready, it was an amazing representation of what the series was about.
Well, there is always the next one! or the one after next! They have the costume already made....
That's an interesting one all right.
I sort of doubt salt starvation had anything to do with the demise of the species. *) Rather, something else killed the civilization, and the last survivors were starved of several things, including salt, as a consequence.
Those ruins in the middle of a desert landscape don't suggest a technologically advanced culture, nor do they look like a manufacturing or farming location or a military stronghold. The inspiration obviously came from South American or Meso-American place-of-worship ruins, and might well suggest a similar situation of a culture that did not survive a climate change or the otherwise limited fertility of its food-producing environs. This particular temple might have been a distant monastery where a few hardy individuals survived and gradually went mad - or then the remains of a large city that suffered the worst, was almost completely abandoned, and yet provided enough stored resources to allow a few inhabitants to outlive the country-dwellers.
*) It seems likely that many other lifeforms on the planet died, not just the salt vampires. The entire food chain of the planet probably wasn't based on the stealing of salt, so something else caused the mass extinctions.
Timo Saloniemi
This is why, even though I love the episode, it is not an ideal representation of the series as a whole. Forgivable, absolutely, since it was very early on, but other equally early episodes were closer to the Trek Spirit. The creature, on one hand, is sympathetic and has understandable motives, which works in making it a tragic figure. However, Kirk is a hard ass who thinks nothing of killing it. Again, this is forgivable as it had invaded his ship and killed his men. That's why we have Spock, who usually objects to killing aliens they don't understand. But Spock in this episode doesn't make any arguments for capturing the creature. In fact, the creature as McCoy is the only one to raise that possibility and he/it is pooh-poohed. Funny thing about Spock: Nimoy objected to cold cocking Kirk's duplicate with a phaser in The Enemy Within, so he created the nerve pinch alternative. Yet he seemed to have no issue whaling on Nancy Monster repeatedly. I love that moment, it's so un-Spock.
As filmed and scored, the episode tries mightily to make the creature a scary monster to be wiped out. But looking at it after the fact, it is the creature which elicits sympathy. Kirk is uncompromising and cold. "You bleed too much, Crater. You're too pure and noble." He says this with such disgust.
The only character I don't quite understand is Crater. He says he loved Nancy, to the point of nearly killing the creature, but the scientist in him took over and preserved it. So far so good. But his argument that "it needs love as much as it needs salt" has some creepy connotations. Did he really "love" the creature which killed his wife? Seriously? Was it (ugh) sexual or did he treat it like a pet? And even if it were only as master/pet relationship, WTF? Or did Nancy's murder so totally unhinge him that there is just no logic to his actions?
As filmed and scored, the episode tries mightily to make the creature a scary monster to be wiped out. But looking at it after the fact, it is the creature which elicits sympathy. Kirk is uncompromising and cold. "You bleed too much, Crater. You're too pure and noble." He says this with such disgust.
The only character I don't quite understand is Crater. He says he loved Nancy, to the point of nearly killing the creature, but the scientist in him took over and preserved it. So far so good. But his argument that "it needs love as much as it needs salt" has some creepy connotations. Did he really "love" the creature which killed his wife? Seriously? Was it (ugh) sexual or did he treat it like a pet? And even if it were only as master/pet relationship, WTF? Or did Nancy's murder so totally unhinge him that there is just no logic to his actions?
Well, you gotta' its mouth (if it can retract its teeth) is perfect for...
"That's quite enough of that!"
I was just gonna' say "kissing"!
"Sure you were, you sick b@st@rd!"
Well, I certainly wasn't expecting the Klingon Inquisition!
"Let's not start that tired schtick!"
...and so on...
Sincerely,
Bill
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