50th Anniversary TOS Episode Discussion Marathon

[Zeke]

Catchup time!

Joe: Oh, sir, it was terrible! They just lay down and died. It must've been the Pax!

I Wikipedia'ed "pax" and I'm still stumped (seemingly no applicable definition).

It's from the Firefly movie. The Pax was a government experiment in making civilians happy and docile. It worked a little too well.

In the opening scene several characters were missing their chest emblems (I still call them Cochrane deltas for reasons explained elsewhere).

I love that explanation, though it doesn't work as well when you remember that the delta hasn't always been all of Starfleet's logo -- each ship had its own in Kirk's day. (The VOY episode "Friendship One" screwed this up by putting a delta on the titular pre-TOS probe. The writers must have found out quickly, because no deltas were used on ENT.)

Excellent budget-saving device.

Mark Altman pointed out in a review that "The Menagerie" could so easily have been an excuse plot: "Hey Mister Spock, what was it like to serve with Captain Pike?" Ever since I read that, I've been deeply unimpressed with episodes that DO use that sort of plot, such as VOY's "11:59".

Why not tell everyone, even the Klingons, outright, "The people on this planet can manipulate your senses. If you go there you may be enslaved for the rest of your life."

Later series introduced the idea of a warning beacon that could be placed near dangerous things, as in VOY's "Memorial". Maybe Starfleet got around to that eventually. More important, though, banning contact with the Talosians because of their powers is strictly a TOS thing to do. The Starfleet we know from later series wanted to make friends with the Crystalline Entity. For reasons both good and bad, they would definitely not give up on contact with the Talosians, so I doubt General Order 7 lasted much longer.

Incidentally, Zeke, was the misspelling of Vina as Vena a joke or reference to something?

It wasn't deliberate. I'm not sure where the error came in, but I'm pretty sure I used an online plot synopsis as my reference for the fiver, and some of those have the wrong spelling. (The character's name isn't listed in the credits.) One of these days I'll fix it.

With that "Reeding" reference I was expecting to be a reference to Enterprise, which still doesn't exist.

It is an ENT reference. In the first episode they go to Rigel X and Reed asks if some butterflies are real or "some sort of hologram". It was controversial at the time with people who were looking for things to find controversial. Of course Earth didn't have TNG-type holotechnology yet, but the concept exists even today. (The same scene inspired this Kevin Wald filk, a riff on the Dolly Parton song that was used as the theme for the show Butterflies.)

the TJ Hooker thing came out of left field

You think THAT one did, try the one in this OC fiver.

but to me the name refers to The Life of Reilly

Me too! I love that site. It's fascinating to see the anatomy of a comics disaster -- how all these talented pros managed to bounce off each other in all the wrong ways, and how many patch jobs on top of patch jobs were needed.

Kirk: Oh, don't go all Reeves-Stevens on us.

I'm going to guess that this is a reference to Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Natch. This is a reference to Avenger, the conclusion of the first Shatnerverse trilogy. The bad guys in that book are an eco-terrorist cult called the Symmetrists, and without giving too much away, they turn out to have been involved in several important TOS events.

As usual, there are a lot of fun bits in the book. My personal favourite:

McCoy grinned proudly at Spock. "Hear that? They're applauding ME for a change."
"Doctor," Spock replied, "I am pleased that you think so."
Kirk cupped a hand to his ear. "Is someone applauding?"
McCoy's grin faded as he looked back to the screen. "I liked you both better when you were dead."

How could the Enterprise have Romulan spies aboard?

I think that was a reasonable concern. Secrecy is what the Romulans do, and nations here on Earth have kept agents in deep cover for long periods of time (as the show "The Americans" is currently reminding everybody).

Spock: That logic is unsound, Captain. An invisible ship may still be able to see other ships, just as a man with his hands over his eyes is still visible.
Kirk: (gasp) You can see me when I do that?

Gasp!

I actually stole this joke from a serious bit in the novelization of DS9's "The Search" (in which, you'll recall, the Defiant really is kidding itself about being invisible to the Jem'Hadar -- though they get that fixed later).

Side note: Kirk actually has a point here. Someone truly "invisible", i.e. completely translucent, would be unable to see because light would pass right through his retinas. A useful cloaking device would have to be more sophisticated than that.

I had to look this one up. Valen is a Bablyon 5 character.

More important, this scene plays out exactly like one in the episode "Atonement", so I took both the Centurion's dying message and the Commander's reaction from it.

Spock: Unfortunately, we cannot fire phasers again until our first three shots leave the screen.

That sounds like a video game reference, but which one?

I had Mega Man in mind, but it could've been several others, such as Samus in the first Metroid game. Three is a common bullet limit for platformers to prevent sprite overload.

McCoy: Are you confusing "women" with "pokémon"?
Kirk: No...but Raichu is a cutey.

Um, eww. On so many levels.

Shh, nobody tell Nate about Moemon.

No fiver [for "A Taste of Armageddon" or "This Side of Paradise"]? That's a surprise.

We have about six TOS fivers not done yet, most of them memorable episodes. This is because when we realized the series was nearly done, we staffers divvied up the best of the leftovers for the "End of 5MST" event. We really intended to do them all -- that's why we went ahead and started the event -- but several of us (not just me for once!) had bit off more than we could chew. Result: the last few unfived TOS episodes are really memorable ones whose absence is puzzling if you don't know the story. Btw, one of mine that I got halfway through at the time was "Spock's Brain", and that's why the first half of that fiver was so much older than the rest.

Kirk: Sneaking, sneaking, la la la la la...

Is this a reference to an Enterprise fiver?

Nate, Nate, Nate... what do we have a search box for? I first made this joke in 2001 in the DS9 pilot fiver, and it's since been in an absolute crapton of others both by me and guests. By the way, the inspiration for it was this children's song, so if you've ever wondered what tune this gag is sung to, listen to the mp3 on that page. The song is often done B-I-N-G-O style, dropping one word from the chorus each time around, hence the generic "la la la la la".

But yes, that particular one probably is a reference to an ENT fiver. This one, to be exact.

[Nate the Great]

There's no reason why the Cochrane delta couldn't exist as a symbol elsewhere (still shouldn't have been on Friendship One, but still...), and just not applied to Starfleet as a whole until the big fleet relaunch between TOS and STTMP.

[Flying Gremlin]

Technically, it did. But you don't acknowledge Enterprise.

[Nate the Great]

No episode this week, but we only have four episodes left of the season, so I decided to use the break to discuss what to do with this thread until Season Two in September. Options:

1. Cover the Animated Series during the break.
2. Do a movie every other week.
3. Abandon the "fifty years later" conceit and just keep doing an episode a week.

Next fall is the TNG 30th anniversary, but I can't see myself doing two of these a week if so few people are reading them.

[Nate the Great]

March 23rd, 1967, "Errand of Mercy"

The fiver (by IJD GAF)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The episode:

* Again, I must preface the analysis with the assertion that I do like the episode. Kor was characterized more than most Klingons, and you can see how he could be our friend in a different era.
* Don't try to think about how many died in that few days of war before the Organians stopped it.
* It seems like a waste of resources to put Kor on this planet instead of commanding a battle fleet during the current war.
* A Klingon fleet is in the quadrant and Kirk and Spock are going planetside? During wartime Kirk should never leave the ship unless the Enterprise is far, far away from the fighting, right? Couldn't Sulu handle this mission?
* Between now and Tribbles, one wonders what "kevas and trillium" are. The book "Prime Directive" designates them as akin to incense, "Diplomatic Implausibility" says that kevas are a gemstone. The novelization of the episode says that trillium is a medicinal plant.
* I do like how Kor likes Kirk for having a spine and not smiling like everyone else.
* The Klingon mind-sifter should've been used more often. The third and sixth movies come to mind.
* One wonders how much brain activity Spock devotes to these continual reevaluation of probabilities. I wonder how he'd do on the Heart of Gold.

The fiver:

Uhura: In the event of an emergency such as this, starship captains have no choice but to enter the KM-Zone.
Kirk: What's that?
Uhura: Er, nothing.

Could we have an explanation of this "KM-Zone"?

Kor: Greetings. I am Kor. Much like Korn, but without N.
Kirk: Korn without end? The horror!
Kor: Yes, many an appreciator of music has trembled before me.

So Korn is a nu-metal band, apparently. I'm going to assume that "Korn without end" is an injoke.

Kirk: I'm confused. Is that a threat or merely a continuity error?
Kor: Both. Klingon continuity has never been terribly ridged.
Kirk: You mean rigid.
Kor: That's what I said.

Ugh. Couldn't we all just go with "the foreheads were always ridged, but the budget couldn't support it" and move on?

Uhura: Nothing. Say, how'd you like to find a toy store that sells cold yo-yos?
Kirk: Hooray!

"Cold yo-yos" sounds like another reference to something, but I have to say it would make a great name for a rock band.

Memory Alpha:

* The first appearance of the Klingons. It seems odd that it took so long. Yada yada, major galactic powers should've been in the series bible, yada yada...
* Last appearance of "Vulcanian." Good riddance to bad rubbish and all that.

YouTube:

* Kor approves of "Baroner".
* The destruction of the munitions dump.

[Nate the Great]

March 30th, 1967, "The Alternative Factor"

The fiver (by Derek)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The episode:

* Again with the "photography" instead of "sensors." Ugh.
* Spock describes Lazarus as "human." Did "humanoid" not exist yet?
* This winking out phenomenon should've been studied further. I mean, think of the military applications if you could jam your opponents sensors, if only for a few seconds!
* So in this episode Starfleet can get information within a few hours from the entire galaxy and far beyond. Proof that no astronomers were on staff. Space is big, really big, you just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-boggilingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to--SLAP! Sorry. Let's assume that the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way were meant. They're 200,000 light years away (instead of the nearest real galaxies at 2.5 million light years)! So at this point subspace is so fast that it can go half a million light years in a few hours (both ways, remember?). That's 2 BILLION times the speed of light! A few different tech manuals for 24th century subspace says that it's Warp 9.9999=about 200,000 times the speed of light. Let's toss aside that the 24th century is more advanced than the 23rd, an order of magnitude doesn't matter much either way when you're talking about this episode, where somehow subspace communication has suddenly gotten TEN THOUSAND TIMES FASTER THAN ANY OTHER EPISODE IN ANY SERIES! Seriously, where were the TOS equivalents of Sternbach and Okuda on this one? Surely "at least a thousand light years" would endanger enough people to be a plausible threat and still be somewhat realistic!
* After the preceding rant, all other technobabble in this episode seems reasonable, even that bit where a lunatic can telepathically trigger an effect that can cover billions of cubic light years. And if that effect is caused by his ship (and if we presume that dilithium crystals by themselves are an energy source), that one small ship can cause this effect. Okay, so it's not so reasonable. Remember on Stargate when you had to destroy an entire planet made out of Unobtanium to get a signal that far?
* You gotta feel for the sane Lazarus, though. His only crime was being the doppelganger of someone on the verge of madness.

The fiver:

The "inconceivable" jokes and substitutions were funny, I won't repeat them all.

Lazarus: I was persuing him. He's my foe. The God to my Satan. The Holmes to my Moriarty. The Superman to my Lex Luthor.
Kirk: Should I be troubled by you attributing the good characteristics to him and the bad ones to yourself?

Yes, you should, although "counterparts" would be a better word that "characteristics" in this case.

Spock: We've discovered a rip in the universe
Kirk: So we need a tailor to make a stitch in time?

This has nothing to do with the fiver, but I do recommend the novel "A Stitch in Time", the "autobiography" of Elim Garak. We now return you to the fiver analysis already in progress.

Kirk: How about some answers. What's your ship?
Lazarus: It's a time ship.
Kirk: Your last name isn't Braxton, is it?
Lazarus: I'm hunting down another time traveller, who blew up my planet in the 29th century as part of a temporal cold war. Now I need your dilithium to get back to the year 1985.
Kirk: Why do I get the feeling you're just making this up?
Lazarus: I must stop the other, and his little dog too.

Wow. Voyager, Enterprise, Back to the Future, AND the Wizard of Oz. And apparently you misspelled "traveler." One "L." It's too bad it wasn't the other way around, or I could've made another Stargate joke!

Memory Alpha:

* First appearance of realtime two-way subspace communication. No wonder, since the thing is working TEN THOUSAND TIMES FASTER THAN--slap!

[Nate the Great]

April 13th, 1967, "Operation-Annihilate"

You know, I suddenly wonder why they didn't swap this episode and "City...", making "City..." a two-part cliffhanger.

Incidentally, I'm not going to stick to a weekly schedule with this all summer. There isn't enough interest, not a single person responded with what they'd like me to do. Maybe I'll do a movie or animated episode once in awhile when I feel like it, maybe I won't. We'll see how I feel about returning to a weekly schedule for Season Two in the fall. Ditto for NextGen's 30th.

The fiver (by Tate)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The episode:

* Kirk's brother George and his family lives here. And yet they were never mentioned before or since. Well, George had a cameo in the reboot, but the character was ultimately rewritten to be someone else. Besides, I don't care about the Kelvinverse anyway. If you want more on Kirk's nephew Peter, I refer you to the excellent novel Sarek. Peter hooks up with a Klingon woman and everything!
* "No Federation contacts for over a year." Yeah, no. I get that TOS was going for the "frontier" feeling, but that's just too much for anything other than an automated station. Things go wrong, and in TOS they often do. Furthermore, subspace isn't nearly fast or reliable enough at this point in time to be the main contact method. There should be a Federation-affiliated ship dropping by monthly, if not more often.
* I do appreciate when the enemy is nonhumanoid and nonintelligent. It shows more imagiantion.
* The Vulcan inner eyelid makes sense, but that doesn't make it feel any less like a blatant copout. I'd have preferred "Vulcans can handle eye transplants easier than humans can, he'll be back on duty in a few weeks" and then never mention it again, quite frankly.

The fiver:

I do like the "I have a brother?" "You had a brother." gag, but a few more variations would've been nice.

Aurelan: The evil creatures came eight months ago and they're using pain to force us to do whatever they want us to do. GAK!
Kirk: That's it? She's dead? I was expecting at least an emotionally charged plea that I stop the creatures.
Aurelan: Oh, by the way, please please PLEASE (sob) DON'T LET THEM GO ANY FURTHER! GAK!

Today that first "GAK!" would've been "ACK!" to mark the pseudo-death.

Spock: The creature's dead, but I'm blind.
McCoy: Bwahaha! I mean, oh no! That's too bad!

Maniacal laughter from Bones. That's a new one.

Captain's Log: Now for your Denevan weather forecast. Expect it to be VERY sunny today. You giant evil brain cell creatures may want to stay inside today, or, better yet, DIE! DIE! DIEDIEDIE--
Sulu: Captain, have you considered the effect of ultraviolet light on human skin? We're talking an epidemic of skin cancer.
Kirk: Hey! What did I tell you about my logs?

Is this a reference to another fiver?

YouTube:

The attack of the flying rubber pancakes.
It's raining sizzling rubber pancakes!

[Flying Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Uhura: In the event of an emergency such as this, starship captains have no choice but to enter the KM-Zone.
Kirk: What's that?
Uhura: Er, nothing.

Could we have an explanation of this "KM-Zone"?

They had a subtle explanation in the Fiver itself later on.

Let me give you a hint...