50th Anniversary TOS Episode Discussion Marathon

[NAHTMMM]

Great thread! I'll have to come back later to actually comment.

[Nate the Great]

"The Man Trap" coverage, part two.

The Nitpicker's Guide entry for "The Man Trap" says that Allan Asherman (author of The Star Trek Compendium) dubbed Kirk the "male Fay Wray" because of his ability to scream with expression and emotion. In this episode he does so when the salt vampire attacks him.

Clip of Spock hitting the salt vampire (the nerve pinch hasn't been invented yet) to no effect, only for it to backhand him across the room. This clip also includes the Kirk scream.

A salt vampire cosplayer dances (and strips away her costume) at a Star Trek Beauty Contest at Dragoncon. So, um, that happened...

You probably don't remember Sulu's pet weeper plant Gertrude (formerly known at Beuregard). Well, the creators of The Red Shirt Diaries do. I just discovered these videos, so enjoy their episode for "The Man Trap".
Wait until the end for a special twist. I've just seen the first episode, I want to watch the others as I make the anniversary entries here.

Hallmark made a Christmas Tree Ornament for this episode.

[Nate the Great]

"The Man Trap" coverage, part three. All of this is from Memory Alpha.

The actress inside the salt vampire costume, Sandra Gimpel, also played a Talosian in "The Cage." The staff wanted someone small who could act in costume. She didn't know about the fandom's affection for the salt vampire until she attended her first Star Trek convention earlier this year.

I'd never noticed the salt vampire costume on display in Trelane's mansion along with other aliens.

Originally the NX-01 crew was supposed to go to Wrigley's Pleasure Planet in "Two Days and Two Nights", but Risa was substituted, as the Enterprise was supposed to be far removed from places with human names. After all, W.P.P. does sound like something Harry Mudd or Cyrano Jones would set up, right?

(Okay, this next one is Memory Beta)

If the Star Trek Roleplaying Game is to be believed, Wrigley's Pleasure Planet was built inside a hollowed-out asteroid in the solar system.

[Nate the Great]

Um, guys? Anybody besides NAHTMMM out there?

[NAHTMMM]

Good work digging all that up, Nate. I appreciate it.

McCoy: I'm nervous; how come I have to get the girl the first episode?
Kirk: You already got her, and she dumped you. Probably because you're not me.
McCoy: You're doing wonders for my nervousness.

In the actual episode, Kirk's teasing here felt a little cruel to me.

There have been complaints elsewhere about the salt vampire being killed. Letting it live would have been the Trek thing to do, and it should have been within the crew's capability. Stun it, beam it down to the planet, leave it some pellets. If Dr. Crater truly wants to take his chances with it, that's his decision. I don't know how well that ending would have gone over with the rest of the episode leading up to it, though.

The fiver is pretty good. It parodies the plot pretty well, brings out the creature's salt obsession, and takes the "first episode" opportunity to snark on a few Trek cliches:

Transporter Guy: (over comm) Landing party reports one casualty sir.
Spock: Meh.
Uhura: I don't believe it, a man dead and NO emotion from you!
Spock: It'll catch on with the rest of you soon enough.

[...]

McCoy: (over the comm) I found something suspicious, could you come down here?
Kirk: Why can't you say whatever it is over the comm?
McCoy: Doctor/cadaver confidentiality.

As far as citing ancient extinctions, maybe IJD deliberately had Kirk miss the point. Or maybe he was just picking words he liked.

[Nate the Great]

I assume I'm doing Charlie X on Thursday.

[Nate the Great]

September 15th, 1966, "Charlie X"

The Fiver (by Derek)
Memory Alpha Page
Transcript by chakoteya.net

Thoughts on the episode:

* Charlie learned to talk by speaking to the computer? Yeah, no. Maybe if you plunked a kid in a classroom with a computer specifically programmed to teach language skills like in the NextGen episode "Rascals." In the 23rd century, with a computer designed to be used in a colony, a computer even less sophisticated than the Enterprise's? Yeah, no. At best Charlie would babble at it and the computer would respond "invalid command" over and over.
* The bottom slapping bit always seemed out of place. The final punchline needed to be stronger to justify the setup, and it wasn't.
* Since Kirk is from Iowa, the idea that he'd be the one in favor of promoting at least minimal observance of Thanksgiving makes sense.
* Ah, yes, UESPA, the United Earth Space Probe Agency. After this episode and "Tomorrow is Yesterday", UESPA would be relegated to cameos. Some have suggested that any usage of a military rank instead of a naval rank (i.e. Colonel West) marks a UESPA officer, not a Starfleet one. At least this bit of early weirdness hasn't entirely gone away, unlike Vulcanians and lithium crystals.
* I'm still iffy on this whole "Thasians can teach the ability to transmute matter to humans" thing. When it comes to inhuman powers, I don't think they can be "taught." I'd think teaching a human to nerve pinch would be about the maximum possible without outright genetic modification.
* I do like how Charlie admits that the Enterprise is more complicated than the Antares and he outright can't control everything by himself. It calls to mind Scotty's jerry-rig of the ship in The Search for Spock.
* If the Thasians can grant their power without being able to take it back, I guess they're lower on the cosmic food chain than the Q, who can do it with a finger snap. I like that, they're not quite omnipotent. Call it semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic.

Thoughts on the fiver:

I understand the Star Wars jokes, but reminding me of the prequels isn't very pleasant. Sorry, Derek.

Uhura: (singing) Charlie X, Charlie X, for you that name might vex. But be glad indeed your name's not Malcolm Reed or you'd be called Malcolm X. Ack!
Charlie: I find your lack of good lyrics disturbing.

Classic trilogy jokes, however, are a-okay.

Ramart: (over the comm) Kirk, I wanted to warn you about Charlie X. He's a Q! GAK!
Kirk: What's a "Q"?
Spock: It's a letter of the alphabet as far as I know.

Classic "Gak!" gag. Obligatory "All Good Things" reference, move along...

Rand: Argh! Enough with the Star Wars quotes already! Get out!

I'm with you on this one, Janice.

Spock: I can't believe my ears!
Charlie: I can't believe your ears either.

Okay, is this more Abbot and Castello or Marx Brothers? Decisions, decisions...

Memory Alpha thoughts:

* I wasn't aware that an early title considered was "Charlie's Law", a science joke. I remember covering this in school, but we jumped quickly to the Ideal Gas Law.
* I didn't know that Gene Roddenberry's only cameo (as a voice) was in this episode.
* I've read the Blish adaptations, but it's been a long time. I didn't know that Blish was able to save the disappeared Enterprise crew by saved by the Thasians.
* The article mentions that Charlie and the Antares crew use leftover, outdated uniforms from "The Cage." This makes sense, as when uniforms are updated priority would be given to the starship crews, with smaller ships and outposts lower down in the pecking order.
* Thanksgiving in 2266 would be on November 22nd, giving an exact "real-world" date for this episode.
* I'm amazed that at various points the Antares is called a cargo vessel, a transport ship, a science probe vessel, and a survey ship. Maybe the last two could be considered alternate terms for each other, but in general wouldn't these tasks require different kinds of crews and ship equipment? Clearly the script needed another run-through by an editor.