# You've got a 5 episode opportunity to introduce someone to Star Trek TOS **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-got-a-5-episode-opportunity-to-introduce-someone-to-star-trek-tos/496983 "2009-05-19T17:20:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-got-a-5-episode-opportunity-to-introduce-someone-to-star-trek-tos/496983/41 "2009-05-22T16:52:47Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > Watched _The Naked Time_ and _Balance of Terror_. > > Still a little confused about Spock’s human heritage. It is mentioned in _The Naked Time_, so it was obviously established very early on. I’m surprised that it was treated as irrelevant- not even mentioned- in _Amok Time_. In very early treatments of ST Spock was mentioned as being half human and half-Martian, so this was in it from the beginning. The Naked Time is the first case of ST technobabble, which was kept well under control in TOS, though increasingly less so in the other ones. I can kind of excuse it since the point of the episode was to look at the characters, and they needed to invent something to get them out that wouldn’t take up a lot of time. TNG used exactly the same plot in the second or third episode, much less effectively. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-got-a-5-episode-opportunity-to-introduce-someone-to-star-trek-tos/496983/42 "2009-05-22T16:56:20Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > **What Are Little Girls Made Of?** - a robot - a GIRL robot _That_ particular little girl is made of sugar and spice and a whole bunch of Roger Korby’s fantasies. That man had _great_ fantasies. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-got-a-5-episode-opportunity-to-introduce-someone-to-star-trek-tos/496983/43 "2009-05-22T17:27:42Z")
I always had a thing for Dr. Helen Noel: [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v368/hgordon22/Star%20Trek/Dagger%20of%20the%20Mind/noel01.jpg](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v368/hgordon22/Star%20Trek/Dagger%20of%20the%20Mind/noel01.jpg). Yowza! Some other episodes that are well worth seeing, if you liked your first five: _Devil in the Dark_ - A monster story with a twist. Some great scenes of Kirk, Spock and McCoy working together. _The Doomsday Machine_ - A great “bottle show” (set entirely aboard ship) about fighting an unstoppable weapon. See the remastered edition, if possible - the bad SFX of the original have all been gloriously fixed. _Errand of Mercy_ - Introduces the Klingons, and has some great scenes of Kirk and Spock undercover. _This Side of Paradise_ - A good Spock love story; also, Kirk grapples with the loss of command and later must provoke Spock (similar to that scene in the new movie) in order to bring him to his senses. _Court-Martial_ - Kirk stands trial for official misconduct resulting in a death, and faces the loss of everything he’s accomplished. _The Conscience of the King_ - Kirk confronts a dark episode from his past and weighs the qualities of justice and mercy. _The Ultimate Computer_ - Again, Kirk shows strength in adversity, struggling to reestablish control over his ship. _Shore Leave_ - A mostly nonsensical but fun off-ship romp. Worth it just for the early scene in which Spock tricks a frazzled, workaholic Kirk off the ship. ---
**Author:** ![parsnip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parsnip/32/4564_2.png) [@parsnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parsnip)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-got-a-5-episode-opportunity-to-introduce-someone-to-star-trek-tos/496983/44 "2009-05-22T17:39:17Z")
Thanks for this thread. Took my 12 year old to the current Star Trek movie. She enjoyed it, but didn’t understand the joy of all the old farts in the audience. Shouldn’t take her long to catch up with the in-jokes and the homage-bits. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-got-a-5-episode-opportunity-to-introduce-someone-to-star-trek-tos/496983/45 "2009-05-22T20:19:22Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > **What Are Little Girls Made Of?** - a robot - a GIRL robot > [@KneadToKnow](#): > > _That_ particular little girl is made of sugar and spice and a whole bunch of Roger Korby’s fantasies. > > That man had _great_ fantasies. I’ll see your **What Are Little Girls Made Of?** and raise you one **Requiem for Methuselah**. Rayna got to Kirk in a way that few real women ever did. And Spock committed a great act of compassion on him. “Forget.” ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-got-a-5-episode-opportunity-to-introduce-someone-to-star-trek-tos/496983/46 "2009-05-22T20:29:09Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > “Forget.” Sorry, to me that was a very creepy moment. I still find it disturbing. You don’t use your Vulcan superpowers to rearrange your friend’s mind without informed consent. (Yeah, I know he said he wanted to forget, but if he had said he wanted to die, would Spock have killed him without making sure that was what he really wanted?) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-got-a-5-episode-opportunity-to-introduce-someone-to-star-trek-tos/496983/47 "2009-05-22T20:51:40Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I’ll see your **What Are Little Girls Made Of?** and raise you one **Requiem for Methuselah**. Sorry, none for me thanks. To quote Kirk himself (about a different person), "no offense … she’s a handsome woman … but … " [Rayna](http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/File:Rayna_Kapec.jpg) vs. [Andrea](http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/File:Android_Duplicator_Controls.jpg) (she’s the shorter one with the long hair) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-got-a-5-episode-opportunity-to-introduce-someone-to-star-trek-tos/496983/48 "2009-05-22T22:05:15Z")
BTW, I don’t know if you read sf, **bienville** , but if you do you might be interested in know that Shore Leave and Amok time were written by Theodore Sturgeon. Norman Spinrad wrote The Doomsday Machine, and Robert Bloch wrote What are Little Girls Made Of, Catspaw, and Wolf in the Fold, an extension of his famous story **Yours Truly Jack the Ripper**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youve-got-a-5-episode-opportunity-to-introduce-someone-to-star-trek-tos/496983.md?page=2)