"Star Trek" from the beginning

[DSYoungEsq]

@appleaday

Of course, that leads to the question of why they were wasting time on the planet to begin with, and why Kirk just had to go back to look at that obelisk again.

I’ve always taken this to be a classic example of relying upon your technology when you probably shouldn’t. In other words, Kirk isn’t expecting the asteroid to be a problem; it’s just going to be business as usual. So he’s in no hurry.

Lots of people fall victim to this sort of fallacious thinking in the real world.

The episode itself is not bad, but they didn’t do a good job of conveying the time frame involved, so that you could get a sense of why Kirk would be able to be so enamoured of Miramanee. 60 minutes simply wasn’t enough time (it’s an issue that came up in City on the Edge of Forever too).

One might point out that destroying the asteroid was a clear Prime Directive violation, but I’ll leave that to others…

[Find_Friends]

@DSYoungEsq

Amok Time is a very good episode. It’s also completely stupid, for a whole BUNCH of reasons that are easily listed by the same people who find it fun to rip up Star Trek episodes over things like plot holes, etc. Which points out that the way to watch Trek is not with the eye of the critic, but rather with the soul of the fan.

Interesting. What would you say were the three biggest problems with it?

[appleaday]

The Enterprise Incident

Not real good, but not so bad that I hated it.

The Federation wins this encounter not because it is so smart, but because the Romulans are incompetent, especially their libido-addled captain.

Spock and the Romulan captain – My younger self found this “romance” to be completely embarrassing. I’m more tolerant of it now, but still find the whole business to be rather awkward. From what I’ve read, the original love scene was much more extreme; thank goodness they toned it down.

And the Children Shall Lead

Scary children are scary. But Twilight Zone did it better. Just about any “scary child” story does it better.

The performances are pretty bad, especially that lawyer playing the Friendly Angel.(I guess that was stunt casting.) The fist-pumping looks silly – and also a little suggestive. But,hey, I’d really like some of that ice cream! How about chocolate pistachio?

The ending is particularly strange. All the children are crying and the adults are saying, “There, there – it’s going to be alright.” Well , no, it’s not going to be alright!
I get that everyone’s relieved that the kids are having normal reactions, but telling a bunch of recently orphaned children that “Everything’s okay” is just incongruous, to say the least. Most likely, they’re going to be traumatized for the rest of their lives.

[Dale_Sams]

@appleaday

The Enterprise Incident

Not real good, but not so bad that I hated it.

I remember watching it and waiting for the shoe to drop cause SURELY I didn’t just see the Feds violate umpteen treaties and steal something!!

[carnivorousplant]

I like The Enterprise Incident.
Spock tells her he considered leaving Star Fleet for her, and she says, “It will be our secret.”

[carnivorousplant]

@Dale_Sams

I remember watching it and waiting for the shoe to drop cause SURELY I didn’t just see the Feds violate umpteen treaties and steal something!!

If they are going to whack you, you should know about their stuff.
This is “What can we do about the USS Pueblo?”

[terentii]

@appleaday

And the Children Shall Lead

The ending is particularly strange. All the children are crying and the adults are saying, “There, there – it’s going to be alright.” Well , no, it’s not going to be alright!
I get that everyone’s relieved that the kids are having normal reactions, but telling a bunch of recently orphaned children that “Everything’s okay” is just incongruous, to say the least. Most likely, they’re going to be traumatized for the rest of their lives.

Not to mention that they’re responsible for the murder of two Redshirts. (I’ve always wondered: Did Kirk ever go back to pick up the other two who were left on Triacas? :dubious: )

“The *Enterprise *Incident”: “Not so bad”?!? Give me a break! :smack: “Turnabout Intruder” is better!

[appleaday]

Spock’s Brain

This episode brings up many thought-provoking questions:

How did Spock’s brain speak with Spock’s voice when he didn’t have Spock’s vocal cords?

How did the cast manage to keep a straight face?

Where is Ed Wood when we need him?

And, most importantly, BRAIN AND BRAIN! WHAT IS BRAIN?
Moving on, from the ridiculous to the sublime . . . well, okay, maybe “sublime” is too strong a word; let’s just say “pretty good” . . .

Is There in Truth No Beauty?

Here’s Dr. Miranda Jones, beautiful, talented, intelligent, but also insecure and full of ugly jealousy. All the fellows are awed by her.

And here’s Ambassador Kollos, a benevolent alien with beautiful thoughts, who is so hideous that people of other races go mad at the mere sight of him. Or maybe those flashing lights he emits messes up humanoid brain activity.

And let’s not forget the IDIC medallion, a symbol of sublime Vulcan philosophy. “IDIC” actually means “for sale at Lincoln Enterprises”.

Miranda Jones is one of the few female characters who doesn’t go weak-kneed when Kirk makes advances. In fact, Captain Jim comes across as an over-confident jerk. Need to distract the fair lady so Spock can connect with Kollos? Kirk thinks it’ll be no problem – he’ll just turn on the charm, and his incredible sexual magnetism will cause the ice queen to melt all over the rose garden. Umm . . .doesn’t quite work out that way.

Kudos to Diana Muldaur for an excellent performance; her character has some very off-putting qualities, but we never really lose sympathy for her. Leonard Nimoy also does well in channeling Kollos through Spock.

[Dale_Sams]

@appleaday

Moving on, from the ridiculous to the sublime . . . well, okay, maybe “sublime” is too strong a word; let’s just say “pretty good” . . .

Is There in Truth No Beauty?

Dynamic third season music. Heavy on the sci-fi. Liked it a lot. Now if only the third season didn’t have those cheap unis and Scotty’s haircut.

[terentii]

@appleaday

Spock’s Brain.

Is There in Truth No Beauty?

“Pretty good”? :dubious: The former is by far the better of the two!

[carnivorousplant]

I have read that Spock’s Brain killed the series immediately after a difficult renewal.

^:dubious:^

[terentii]

@carnivorousplant

I have read that Spock’s Brain killed the series immediately after a difficult renewal.

^:dubious:^

A gross exaggeration, I’d say. It was the first episode of the third season to be aired, and they had a lot more spiraling downward to do before they crashed.

There were a lot of things stacked against the series by that time: Roddenberry’s noninvolvement, a new producer and story editor who just didn’t “get” the concept, the departure of Lucille Ball and Herb Solow, the acquisition of the studio by Paramount, the deep budget cuts, NBC’s indifference, and the lousy Friday night time slot pretty much ensured the third season would stink and there wouldn’t be a fourth.

[carnivorousplant]

@terentii

they had a lot more spiraling downward to do before they crashed.

They couldn’t go further downward than *Spock’s Brain.
*
Thanks, terentii.

[terentii]

@carnivorousplant

They couldn’t go further downward than Spock’s Brain.

Oh yes, they could: “Plato’s Stepchildren,” “The Empath,” “The Lights of Zetar,” “The Mark of Gideon,” “The Cloudminders,” “The *Enterprise *Incident,” “And the Children Shall Lead,” “Elaan of Troyus,” and “Is There No Truth in Beauty?” immediately come to mind. And there are still others that are much, much worse than “Spock’s Brain.”

I was reading about this episode on Memory Alpha, and there’s a major error on that page. They identify the original Eymorg spaceship (with “ion propulsion”) as a “generic rocket.” It wasn’t. I’ve seen the non-remastered episode many times, and the ship they used back in 1968 was the same one as in this episode of The Time Tunnel. Anyone who has a copy of the original episode on video can verify this:

[appleaday]

My younger self’s reaction to “Spock’s Brain” was a baffled “Huh? What? Remote-control Spock?” I didn’t drop the series, but I wondered why it had strayed into cartoon territory.

I do happen to have a taste for silly B movies; In fact, I’ve viewed and enjoyed some stuff that would make Ed Wood movies look like Oscar contenders. But “Spock’s Brain” even fails on that level. Besides being silly, it’s just plain dull.

Terentii, we’ll have to agree to disagree on the quality of “Is There No Truth . . .”. Muldaur’s performance pushes this one out of the fair-to-middling category and into “pretty damn good”.

[terentii]

@appleaday

Terentii, we’ll have to agree to disagree on the quality of “Is There No Truth . . .”. Muldaur’s performance pushes this one out of the fair-to-middling category and into “pretty damn good”.

Frankly, I’ve never particularly cared for her, though I would love to see the episodes of LA Law she was in. (I quit watching that series way too early, and for all the wrong reasons. :mad: )

[silenus]

Yeah, you should have stuck around for her exit. It’s the best work she’s ever done.

[appleaday]

For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

Strong episode, although rather predictable. Yet another society run by a repressive computer. The only big surprise is that Kirk doesn’t talk the machine to death.

The Good: Nice to see the focus on McCoy for a change, and he gets to have a proper romance.

The Bad: I can understand the love-at-first-sight situation, considering McCoy is emotionally vulnerable, only has a year to live, and hasn’t had much luck in the romance department. It stretches credulity, though, that he’s willing to join a repressive society like this – and allows the pain inducing “instrument of obedience” to be stuck into his head. Is the disease also affecting his judgement?

The Good: Old guy, who, in his youth, defied the oracle to climb a mountain. With a big headache all the way. That’s true grit!

The Bad: Contradictory behavior by the Oracle. Why was the rebel allowed to continue? The machine had the power to incapacitate him, even kill him, but didn’t.

The Good: Cool title.

The Bad: Strange concept. Why hide the truth from the travelers? Why keep essential technical knowledge from them? Seems to be a counter-productive approach, because eventually something will go wrong and will need to be fixed.

Too bad there wasn’t a sequel to this episode. Would like to see what happened when the Fabrini descendants reached their new world.

[ekedolphin]

@appleaday

For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

Too bad there wasn’t a sequel to this episode. Would like to see what happened when the Fabrini descendants reached their new world.

They wrote a book sequel, to my surprise.

[terentii]

@silenus

Yeah, you should have stuck around for her exit. It’s the best work she’s ever done.

I’d’ve loved to have seen an episode of ***TNG ***where Dr Pulaski falls down a turbolift shaft while Geordi, Data, and Wesley are performing minor maintenance, and then watch them try to cover their asses.