[Nate the Great]

Here we go again...

September 20th, 1968, "Spock's Brain"

Fiver (by Zeke)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The Episode

Let's get this out of the way up front: the whole brain transplant idea is ludicrous, top to bottom. I'll try to limit my snarking of this premise.

CHEKOV: The one on the left, number three, rates letter B on the industrial scale.

This whole letter system is just weird. It generates plot holes that will never be filled, and is utterly unnecessary. Just jump right to the Earth equivalent (and as SFDebris said, the later mention of an equivalent year not divisible by 100 is silly).

Plus the letter system will only be mentioned here, and in "Wink of an Eye" an alternate number system will be used. Silly silly. Just stick to "primitive, preindustrial, etc."

SULU: But that ship, Captain, either it was many years ahead of us or the most incredible design fluke in history.

Ugh. The components of the space shuttle were the result of decades if not centuries of cumulative industrial development. You can't just toss a bunch of parts together randomly to make a spaceship if your civilization isn't even advanced enough to make the parts!

KIRK: Who are the Others?
MORG: Givers of pain and delight.

We'll come back to this.

SPOCK [OC]: Captain, there is a definite pleasurable experience connected with the hearing of your voice.

This seems stilted and awkward, even for Spock. It seems stilted and awkward by Data standards!

KIRK: They were smart enough to invent these training devices. What a way to maintain control over a man.
SCOTT: Pain and delight, he said up above.
MCCOY: I'm sure you noticed the delight aspect of this place.
KIRK: Yes, I certainly did notice those delightful aspects. But that too was strictly under command of the women.

So the women enslave the men for physical labor (and possibly the Controller does some backroom genetic extraction to create children in Borg-style maturation chambers), fair enough. But what "delight"? It doesn't seem like "sex" is a concept that either group is aware of, and you have to be taught about physical attraction.

SPOCK [OC]: Captain, I appreciate the risks you are taking on my behalf, but I must insist they are worthwhile only if there is a reasonable chance for success. Let me ask you, how much time has elapsed since--
KIRK: Eighteen hours and twelve minutes.
SPOCK [OC]: Doctor McCoy must've told you that twenty four hours is the maximum my body can
MCCOY: I told him.
KIRK: That leaves us exactly five hours and forty eight minutes, Spock.

Ugh. I doubt that anyone has ever extracted a Vulcan brain to see how long the body can last on life support before dying to create numbers this precise. And it's not like we need hard numbers here...

SPOCK [OC]: She refers to the tape storehouse of knowledge of the builders of this place.

How charming, they still use memory tapes. I know, '60s, but it would be so easy to leave it at "databank"...

MCCOY: I knew it was wrong. I shouldn't have done it.
KIRK: What's that?
MCCOY: I should have never reconnected his mouth.

Ha ha.

Memory Alpha

* The only episode besides "The Cage" where a character walks in front of the viewscreen as it shows a moving starfield. I wonder why they bothered to spend that kind of money on something that's pretty inconsequential. Personally I would've spent more money polishing up the script or at least putting more buttons on Spock's remote control...
* The only time Sulu makes a log entry while in command. Given how often he was left behind on the ship, one wonders why it didn't happen more often. "The captain's place is on the bridge" hasn't been invented yet.

Nitpicker's Guide

* Phil wonders how children are created and whether or not the boys are banished to the surface.
* When McCoy starts to forget, couldn't another member of the landing party use the Teacher and take over?

YouTube

"Spock's Brain" in four minutes