OK, I got this image from the closing credit montage of today’s TVLand ep “Elaan of Troyius.” This grotesque disembodied tentacled head looks familiar, but I’m having trouble placing it.
It’s kind of hard to see in such a small image. But I believe that is the “fake head” used in “The Corbomite Maneuver”. The Enterprises’ first communications with the alien are with this head - but it turns out to just be a prop.
(Can’t remember the alien’s name. B something. But he was played by a young Clint Howard).
Balok, aboard the ship Fesarius.
Eh? You think it’s the same as this guy?
No, that is not the fake head from the Corbomite Manuever, that is the alien from Cats Paw or from Spectre of the Gun.
I think that’s a Melkot, one of the telepathic aliens that put Kirk and crew through the OK Corral illusion. One confronts them at the end.
Spectre of the Gun, that’s the title. The Cat’s Paw aliens were tiny puppets.
Whenever I saw that shot, which I never paused or froze because we didn’t have the technology in 1964, I thought it was one of the aliens from The Corbomite Maneuver. There’s a picture of them on this site.
But after looking at your photo with the buggy eyes and the raggedy neck, I wonder.
I don’t remember any episode with something that looked like the screen capture.
ETA: Never mind. 
No. The Spectre of the Gun dudes looked like this.
That looks like the OP’s pic all right.
Seconded.
Same flat-topped head. Different colors, but they go further down the neck in the credits. Yep, I think we’ve ID’d this boojum.
Many thanks!
When the credit sequence is going are there a few frames of the still shot before the typography pops on? If so, a better screen capture would be possible.
Nope.
Guys, this isn’t even a debateable proposition. That’s from Spectre of the Gun. Case closed.
Balok had a mouth that was downturned at the corners, and looked human.
Now that the issue has been decided, what does “TOS” mean?
“The Original Series”. That was never its name, of course.
TOS=The Original Series. As opposed to Next Generation, Enterprise, etc.
Plus he never appeared in fog, and the Spectre dude did.