View Single Post
  #157  
Old 11-22-2018, 12:04 PM
Nate the Great's Avatar
Nate the Great Nate the Great is offline
You just activated his Trek card
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 4,859
Default

Usually I push Thanksgiving episodes a day to either side, but not this time. Let's just say that I've got a wonky work schedule and have some time this year.


November 22nd, 1968, "Plato's Stepchildren"


Fiver (by Derek)

Transcript
Memory Alpha


The Episode

As usual, good character work, plot holes you can fly a starship through. It's almost like these things were make in the pre-home video era when they were only meant to entertain people for an hour without any thought to such impossible things like "the Internet" or "fan conventions." Gasp!


* Are we here to respond to a distress call, or search for kironide? That seems like two different missions.

* Would this place being a previously unknown Earth colony affect the plot in any way? It would certainly be simpler. The whole Plato thing seems to only exist for the sake of the episode title. We've seen parallel development of weirder things than Ancient Greece before.
* Only 38 people? Even if they could somehow breed out all genetic disorders, you'd want more than that if only for more people to talk to. And even if 90% of everything is automated, you still need people to oil things and change fuses, right?
* A mass eugenics program that produced people so fragile that a cut can be fatal? Seems counter intuitive to me.

* The common cold is mentioned as not yet curable. It will be cured sometime between 2355 (Tom Paris had it at the age of nine, "Cathexis") and 2364 (Wesley claims that colds are something that people used to have, "The Battle"). Was Tom one of the last cases?
* I like that Alexander doesn't want the power because he doesn't want to be lazy and useless.
* The infamous interracial kiss has been covered enough elsewhere, I don't think there's anything to add.


The Fiver

Mr. Big's Shadow: Have you killed Moose and Squirrel?
Kirk: Huh?
Alexander: Sorry, wrong 1960s show.



I'm confused by the Rocky and Bullwinkle reference. Mr. Big was voiced by Bill Scott, not Michael Dunn. As Dunn played Loveless on the original Wild Wild West, you'd think a reference to that would be more appropriate.


Alexander: I'm not even better than Philana due to her powers.
Kirk: I bet Chekov would love to meet these telekinetics. I bet he could best her.



I don't get the joke. Philana's actress, Barbra Babcock, was also in a number of other TOS episodes, but no roles that had any particular connection to Chekov.



Philana: To you and your fellowship we present gifts.
Kirk: Galadriel you're not.
Philana: Are you sure? We even have our own Hobbit.



The Lord of the Rings films were released in 2001-2003, and the fiver was published in 2005. I feel old.


Spock: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I'm the laughing Vulcan!
Alexander: I think I can make a song about that. Do you have a dog?


Time to link to the song again.


Parmen: And now let's have some entertainment while we induct McCoy into our group.
Spock: (singing) Bilbo, Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins. The bravest little hobbit of them all!
Alexander: Sniff. That song really touches me.



Hey look, another song!


Nitpickers Guide

* Kirk's line "I guess we weren't sufficiently entertaining" was used by a station to advertise that TNG would join TOS in a programming block. Hehe.
* Where did McCoy get kironide so quickly to inject into the crew?
__________________
mudshark: Nate's just being...Nate.
Zeke: It comes nateurally to him.

mudshark: I don't expect Nate to make sense, really -- it's just a bad idea.

Sa'ar Chasm on the 5M.net forum: Sit back, relax, and revel in the insanity.

Adam Savage: I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Crow T. Robot: Oh, stop pretending there's a plot. Don't cheapen yourself further.
Reply With Quote