# Star Trek-A Piece of the Action **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492 "2002-12-13T13:31:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/1 "2002-12-13T13:31:00Z")
[The BOOK](http://www.time.com/time/bookstore/) ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/2 "2002-12-13T13:35:36Z")
😕 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/3 "2002-12-13T13:45:10Z")
In the episode it was “Mobs of the Twenties”, I think. The guy on the front looks like Oxmyx. Never mind. ^:)^ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/4 "2002-12-13T14:58:14Z")
This episode of ST has always annoyed me, and so has the subclass of SF to which it belongs. The idea that a group of aliens would love some aspect of human culture enough to completely _live_ it has never been convincing to me. Can you imagine human beings so completely copying an alien culture? I could uy taking on some aspects of an alien culture, or sometimes sort of “role playing” in it, but not completely burying my own culture. There _have_ been some imaginitive works of this kind (Poul Anderson, IIRC, wrote a series of stories about “highly mimetic” furry aliens who become so entranced with the world of Sherlock Holmes that they recreate Victorian London), and it gives TV series a chance to recycle their “historic costumes” for SF series (the “Parallel Earth” worlds let them do this too. ST-TOS did a lot of these), but I still find the basic premise unbelievable. ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/5 "2002-12-13T15:00:47Z")
I loved that episode. Spock in a gangster suit cracked me up. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/6 "2002-12-13T15:28:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by carnivorousplant \* > In the episode it was “Mobs of the Twenties”, I think. > The guy on the front looks like Oxmyx. Oh yeah! Okay, geez, I’m going to have to start thinking outside the box. I looked all over that site for something related to _Star Trek_. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/7 "2002-12-13T15:38:21Z")
Right? Check. ---
**Author:** ![Petey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f1d935/32.png) [@Petey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petey)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/8 "2002-12-13T15:53:26Z")
IIRC, The Book: “Chicago Mobs of the Twenties” was published in 1997. Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/9 "2002-12-13T15:57:07Z")
It’s real! I _knew_ it! ---
**Author:** ![Mars\_Horizon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mars_horizon/32/2804_2.png) [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/10 "2002-12-13T16:00:22Z")
I loved that episode because I always wanted to get on a communicator and call down fire from heaven to stun my opponents like Kirk did. Very cathartic for a scrawny little seventh grader who got picked on all the time 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/11 "2002-12-13T16:30:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by carnivorousplant \* > \*\*It’s real! > > I _knew_ it! \*\* Haha! _commander, I’ve been thinking alot about what you said…_ **A Piece of the Actoin** is one of my all time favorite episodes. Some really exhuberent acting by everyone, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/12 "2002-12-13T16:38:58Z")
Check? Riiiight. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/13 "2002-12-13T16:41:48Z")
“…Gonna come over there with a couple of my boys and… …_mother_” one of my top 10 Star Treks ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/14 "2002-12-13T16:45:52Z")
I would advizeyas ta keep dialin’. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/15 "2002-12-13T16:53:29Z")
After a cop spots Spock’s ears: [paraphrase] _… he had a tragic accident as a child involving a rice picker…_ [/paraphrase] Also, the game of Fizbin. I love that scene. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/16 "2002-12-13T16:58:35Z")
I remember a Fantastic Four comic in which they travel to a Skrull world in which everybody was dressed up as 20’s Earth gangsters because they liked the culture so much they had adopted it. This may have been early enough to precede the Star Trek. OTOH, I don’t remember the STar Trek episode at all. The Hoka stories were a collaboration of Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson, and they were indeed wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/17 "2002-12-13T17:18:40Z")
OK, but by the time of ST:TNG what happened to this planet/culture? Why didn’t Data meet anyone in a pinstriped spacesuit who traveled in a long black Studebaker shuttle? Phasers shaped like tommy-guns, I can see it now. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/18 "2002-12-13T18:05:00Z")
The most cooperative man is a dead man. And if you don’t keep your mouth shut, you’re gonna be cooperating ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/19 "2002-12-13T18:48:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\*This episode of ST has always annoyed me, and so has the subclass of SF to which it belongs. The idea that a group of aliens would love some aspect of human culture enough to completely _live_ it has never been convincing to me. Can you imagine human beings so completely copying an alien culture? I could uy taking on some aspects of an alien culture, or sometimes sort of “role playing” in it, but not completely burying my own culture. > > There _have_ been some imaginitive works of this kind (Poul Anderson, IIRC, wrote a series of stories about “highly mimetic” furry aliens who become so entranced with the world of Sherlock Holmes that they recreate Victorian London), and it gives TV series a chance to recycle their “historic costumes” for SF series (the “Parallel Earth” worlds let them do this too. ST-TOS did a lot of these), but I still find the basic premise unbelievable. \*\* In the 80’s there was an issue of the Blue Devil comic book in which a couple of aliens came to Earth from a planet that had formed a religion around I Love Lucy. Where we might say “Jesus Christ!” as an exclamation, they would say “Little Ricky!” or “Fred ‘n’ Ethel!” It was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492/20 "2002-12-13T19:24:16Z")
> [@](#): > > This episode of ST has always annoyed me, and so has the subclass of SF to which it belongs. The idea that a group of aliens would love some aspect of human culture enough to completely live it has never been convincing to me. Can you imagine human beings so completely copying an alien culture? I could uy taking on some aspects of an alien culture, or sometimes sort of “role playing” in it, but not completely burying my own culture. In this case though, the fact is that its _not intended_ to be realistic. That the whole thing is silly is part of the fun of the episode. The aliens aren’t eally “aliens”, psychologically. They are just humans. Its like that in all of Star trek. Aliens are just aspects of human minds, history, or culture. They are a vehicle, not the message. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-a-piece-of-the-action/142492.md?page=2)