Your Idea For A Different Episode Ending?

Oh Me-ow. Be nice.

 

I always assumed the creature was doing that because they were out of salt and the Enterprise hadn't re-stocked yet. We also don't know how intelligent the creature was - you could say a dog is intelligent but it still might bite someone.

As for the Balance of Terror talk, above, I love the ending. To have them wedded would really take away from the theme of pointless loss.

As for endings I would change: The Naked Time. There's really on point at all to the 24 hour travel back in time. I would also, appropriately, change Tomorrow is Yesterday to explain why they 20th century characters will have no recollection of their time on the Enterprise.

Catspaw should have been redone somehow. The ridiculous aliens at the end must have looked bad even in 1967.

The Omega Glory didn't need the ridiculous hitting us over the head with parallel American history ending. A strong allegory would have been fine in its place.

Endings I wouldn't change that I've often seen questioned: Requieum for Methuselah - I love the ambiguity and the take away message that "emotionless" Spock will help his friend in a time of need.

 

...and they still look bad today, with the heavy black strings moving the puppet aliens. Ugh! Even Irwin Allen could have come up with something better than this (I think).

 

And coupled with that, the cheesy ending, in general, was just stupid. I know it was supposed to be a Halloween episode and play for cheap "horrors", but the episode could have been so much more. The Korob/Sylvia relationship had some potential and there certainly could have been a better ending than Kirk simply smashing the wand.

 

At least they didn't have bumps on their foreheads.

Jeff

 

Daystrom was insane and tried to stop the M5 but ultimately couldn't accept it (or his) imperfection. Very well acted IMHO.

Excellent points. I gather the Naked Time was supposed to be part 1 of a two part story with the Enterprise going back in time at the end of part 1. Tomorrow is Yesterday would have been part 2, IIRC. The beaming of Captain Christopher into hos own body is a bit weird.

That is definitely one of the most surreal moments in TOS - though the episode does start well.

Although if someone decided to remove my memories, I'd be rather cross when I found out.

 

Yep, Naked Time and TiY were originally a two-parter, thus making the ending of The Naked Time an unneccessary holdover from older drafts of the script.

Do we know that Spock took the memories away? Or rather just the pain of the memories? It's an interesting question and one of the reasons I love that ending.

 

That's an interesting question. I'd always thought Spock was erasing the memory but that isn't necessarily the case as you point out. Of course, Kirk later said "I need my pain" to Sybok.

 

Those deaths are precisely why that ending is good as is. I know in TV today, everything must be doom and gloom/daddy issues/woe-is-me crybaby nonsense, but believe it or not, there was a time when people picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and life went on after a tragedy.

Personally, the ending of that show works just fine for me.

 

I agree that Kirk's joking around too soon after the deaths of lower-ranking crew is often jarring. In this particular case though, I think the criticism is undeserved, although I've seen it remarked on from several people. Remember that all hope has been lost at this point and the entire shuttlecraft crew including Spock and McCoy has been given up for dead. Kirk has been forced to leave them behind with only the sensors focused to the rear as a last-ditch effort. To me the instant reaction of all smiles on hearing five people given up for dead have beamed up safely is very human and defendable. His good friends [this early on in the series, I don't remember it being clear that they were his "best" friends] have gone from being almost certainly dead to now having a 5/7 chance of being alive. Given the human instinct to hope until the last drop of hope is gone, I think his joy in this one episode is perfectly natural and defensible.

 

I agree that Kirk's joking around too soon after the deaths of lower-ranking crew is often jarring. In this particular case though, I think the criticism is undeserved, although I've seen it remarked on from several people. Remember that all hope has been lost at this point and the entire shuttlecraft crew including Spock and McCoy has been given up for dead. Kirk has been forced to leave them behind with only the sensors focused to the rear as a last-ditch effort. To me the instant reaction of all smiles on hearing five people given up for dead have beamed up safely is very human and defendable. His good friends [this early on in the series, I don't remember it being clear that they were his "best" friends] have gone from being almost certainly dead to now having a 5/7 chance of being alive. Given the human instinct to hope until the last drop of hope is gone, I think his joy in this one situation is perfectly natural.

 

Yeah, Nomad did kill billions in that system. "My son the genocidal maniac worse than Hitler".

 

I always wanted to see an ending of "By Any Other Name" where they showed the Kelvans restoring the crew. It's unsettling to fade to black while Uhura, Chekov, et. al. are still styrofoam blocks.

 

That's what really freaks me out about this episode. Rojan destroys one block, but then restores Lt. Shea to normal. I'm sure glad he didn't press the button again, because I can just imagine what poor Yeoman Thompson looks like after being crushed like that.

 

I hope somebody at least picked them all up off the floor and chairs before they accidentally got stepped on or sat on!

 

Sometimes what do don't show is just as important as what you do. Telling a story in a non linear fashion keeps the pacing up. Of course we know Checkov et al were restored. We saw them in the next episode. Scriptwriting is only about saying the bare nessecities as close to the end of a scene as possible. It really is heavily edited reality, hence we never see Kirk going to the bathroom nor see everything that probably happened in the episode, just bits and pieces fragmented together in a tapestry. every scene must push the action of a story along.

 

Yes, I get that. The trick is to know which parts of the story to leave unshown and trust the audience's ability to mentally fill in the gaps for itself. And it's what they don't show that has fueled millions of pieces of fanfiction over the years.

BTW, I don't recall the networks acknowledging anybody using the bathroom until All in the Family came out.

 

"Leave It To Beaver" SHOWED a toilet, they just didn't imply that anyone actually USED it.

 

REally?! What episode??? I've got to see this.



haha - that seems ridiculous out of context.

 

That whole scene really freaked me out when I originally saw it, oh so long ago.