50th Anniversary TOS Episode Discussion Marathon

[Nate the Great]

General pre-production timeline from the Memory Alpha article:

1956: Gene's first science fiction story, "The Secret Weapon of 117", airs on the anthology show Chevron Theatre.
1960: Gene begins work on a story called "Star Trek"
1963: Gene's first show, The Lieutenant.
1964, March: First proposal for the show submitted to Desilu. The Drake Equation, a precursor to Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development, and the "Wagon Train to the Stars" concept are already present. Here we meet Captain April (later to appear in TAS as the first captain of the Enterprise) of the Yorktown. Many preliminary ideas for TOS episodes are presented as the kind of thing that the show would be about.
1964, April: Desilu makes a three-year deal with Gene to develop a show.
1964, Spring-Summer: Gene consults with various experts, Matt Jeffries comes on board. See the Antiques Roadshow clip about the consultation here (I already posted this elsewhere, but why not do it again here?)
1964, June: "The Cage" outline is submitted and approved.
1964, September: "The Cage" script is finished, shooting is approved.
1964, October: Matt Jeffries hard at work on the Enterprise model and various props. Casting completed. Robert Justman is hired.
1964, November: Shooting begins.
1965, February: "The Cage" screened by NBC. A second pilot ordered.
1965, July: "Where No Man" begins filming.

[Nate the Great]

There was an art exhibition for the 50th anniversary consisting of 50 artists giving their version of a series, cast, episode, etc.

Of course, one of them is the Dusty Abell group shot of all TOS characters that I love so much. This is one I'll have to buy when I can actually afford it.

Homestead by Amir Abou-Roumie. George and Gracie in San Francisco Bay, the Vulcan ship from First Contact, a Q judge puttering around in an aircar, Geordi and a Klingon on a hoverbus, Picard enjoying some tea, and so forth. Many vignettes, very fun.

The Bridge by Glen Brogan. Just another day on the bridge of the Enterprise, with each crew member either fantasizing or ranting about what they're known for. I don't like being reminded of Uhura's fan dance, but Chekov's "V and W aren't the same" dictionary is funny.

Fifty Aliens by Derek Charm. Just for fun, I'm going to see if I can name all fifty races from memory:

First Row: The dog creature that was split into good and evil back in "The Enemy Within", Klingon, Horta
Second Row: A member of Darmok's race (I confess that I had to look up "Tamarian"), Vulcan, Romulan, Cardassian
Third Row: Son'a, Balok's illusion (First Federation), Andorian, Reman, Tribbles
Fourth Row: Tribbles, Breen, Gorn, Ferengi, Tholian, Orion, Tribbles
Fifth Row: Benzite, Borg, Q, Salt Vampire, Lurian
Sixth Row: Tribbles, Don't know (I think he's found in DS9 and isn't one of Worf's holodeck monsters), Species 8472, Vorta, Mr. Homn's race (never given)
Seventh Row: Don't know (the mandrill-looking one), Hirogen, Don't know (the slug/blob one), Founder, Jem'Hadar, Charonian
Eight Row: Xindi Insectoid, Don't know (I've seen that race around, but the name isn't coming to me), Deltan, Future Guy?, Talaxian
Ninth Row: Mugato, Tellarite, Don't know (the short guy), Kazon, Bolian, One of those guys from Miramanee's planet?, Don't know (the green guy, I want to say the race begins with "S")
Tenth Row: Crystalline Entity, Antedean, Don't know (the dog guy, wasn't he in one of the TOS movies?), whatever race the Federation President from Undiscovered Country is, Tribbles, Bajoran

Star Trek Inception: The Cage by Paul Shipper
A poster for the nonexistant movie version of "The Cage"

Klingons by J.K. Woodward
A celebration of all of our favorite Klingons. My only problem is that Chang's smile twists his face in a Uncanny Valley sort of way.

[NAHTMMM]

Great pictures!

I'll get to the episode this Monday.

[Nate the Great]

Monday? The next episode is "The Enemy Within" on Thursday.

[NAHTMMM]

No, I'm still on "The Naked Time".

Really good teaser. What could possibly have come among these people to cause all this destruction and strangeness?

Tormolen is a jerk for tossing his glove on the dead person like that. Have some respect!

"Instruments only register those things they are designed to register." Some nice scientific sanity to counterbalance the nonsense of a shrinking object invisibly losing mass or gaining gravity.

Watching McCoy and Chapel work on Tormolen, I'm thinking about how something like House or Bones would insist on having the two of them banter about some inane B-plot, rather than risk two seconds of silence.

Sickbay's entrance is not well-designed to get a stretcher into the place.

I see Memory Alpha mentions it partly, but another Trek book talks about Spock's breakdown scene further. TPTB wanted a series of short cuts. Nimoy insisted on attempting the more difficult single long take. It was the end of the production day and they did indeed have just the one shot at doing it the way he wanted. Watching it now I'd say they nailed it.

And I love that, when Spock is so vulnerable as to tell Kirk that he considers Kirk a friend and is ashamed of it, Kirk just slaps him again. Kirk is just not a touchy-feely guy.

Kirk: What's happening? Is it more magic?
Spock: Yes. If you knew the deeper magic, you'd know that when the planet cracked, time itself would start working backwards.

I'm sure this is a reference that I don't recognize.

I do not know what the Pax would be either.

[evay]

Originally Posted by NAHTMMM

And I love that, when Spock is so vulnerable as to tell Kirk that he considers Kirk a friend and is ashamed of it, Kirk just slaps him again. Kirk is just not a touchy-feely guy.

I don't know if it's that so much as Kirk needs his XO and is in a bit of a panic. If they weren't on duty, or if the Plot Crisis de la Semaine wasn't about to hit its third-act peak, he'd have the luxury of letting him express these emotions (see Amok Time, the scene in Spock's quarters), but right at that moment Kirk can't indulge him.

Looking at it through the hindsight of vast character development, we could speculate that Kirk realizes that Spock would/will be ashamed of this emotional display later, so he's trying to help Spock out of this state as fast as possible, and he knows from McCoy/M'Benga that Vulcans need physical pain to focus on to break out of deep meditative states, so he hopes this will work. But that's a bit of post hoc fanwank.

[Nate the Great]

October 6th, 1966, "The Enemy Within"

The Fiver (by Kira)
Memory Alpha Page
Transcript by chakotea.net

The Episode:

* Ah yes, another "this event that is unknown to us" Captain's Log. More proof that these things are recorded after the fact.
* Combine the events of this episode with the Tom Riker and Tuvix incidents and we pretty much have confirmation that the transporter doesn't send your original matter along to be reconstituted.
* That still doesn't explain the delay in the materialization of Evil Kirk. More contrivance. If the ship had a second transporter room, I would've preferred that Evil Kirk had been shunted to said empty transporter room for simultaneous materialization.
* One missed opportunity is having Evil Kirk make his own Captain's Logs to show us what he's thinking.
* Couldn't the shuttle have been used offscreen for budgetary reasons? Sure, the attempt would have to fail to preserve the sense of urgency, but surely just a few shots of Sulu being shaken around by a storm and giving up was within the budget.
* Ah yes, "Hey crew, the imposter has face scars. That's right, the only way to tell us apart at first glance is something that's easily concealed. Good luck!" Don't dermal regenerators exist yet? Surely it would be easier to say "I'm staying on the bridge with Spock. If you see a Kirk wandering around alone it's the imposter, arrest him"?
* (Stolen from the Nitpicker's Guide) Spock considers his Vulcan half the alien one? Huh?
* Even back then I considered "Can half a man live?" to be quite profound. It reminds me of Picard in "Tapestry." We are the sum of our acts, good and bad. Mistakes give us the chance to grow and do better next time.

The fiver:

Captain's Log: Spock forgot to check the weather channel before our away mission, but I'm sure nothing will happen to strand any of us on this frozen wasteland.
Fisher: Ow! My hand! And I'm covered in this weird dust!
Apparently I have a poor sense of pattern recognition.

Don't worry about it, Jim. Starship captains will be making that mistake for centuries to come.

Evil Kirk: Say Bones, have anything to drink around here? Some Saurian Brandy, perhaps?
McCoy: I'm a doctor, not a bartender.

I think Doctor Boyce would claim that the two aren't mutually exclusive, Bones.

Evil Kirk: I must be Good Kirk, right?
Wilson: Hm, there is that evil music playing in the background. And the fact that your speaker credit is "Evil Kirk."

Looking at speaker tags is a common fiver thing, this technique would come in awfully handy during real episodes as well. What a shame.

Spock: Could there be any more plot complications?

When did Spock turn into Chandler Bing?

Memory Alpha discussion:

* Apparently this is the first appearance of Kirk's green wraparound tunic. I always did hate that thing.
* The first appearance of the neck pinch. Can you imagine how the franchise would be different if Nimoy hadn't inspired it's creation?

Nitpicker's Guide notes:

* Apparently this was the first time a keen-eyed viewer could see that James Doohan is missing a finger.
* In the opening scene several characters were missing their chest emblems (I still call them Cochrane deltas for reasons explained elsewhere). Memory Alpha thinks that they had been removed for cleaning and someone forgot to put them back on before shooting. I'm leaning more toward's Phil's theory can removing them lets the production staff flip the camera horizontally to make the planet set look larger.

[Nate the Great]

A video clip of the duplication.

I'm reminded of a passage from the Nitpicker's Guide now. Scotty sent an underling off to get a "synchronic meter" to double-check the transporter after the yellow ore messed with it. Then Scotty proceeds to beam the captain aboard without double-checking it. Huh? Yeah yeah, if he had waited there'd be no episode, but still! The arctic night wasn't imminent, nobody on the planet was in imminent danger. Scotty, it's okay to tell the Captain that there's a hiccup in the transporter and would he mind waiting half an hour!

[Nate the Great]

October 13th, 1966, "Mudd's Women"

This is Take Two due to the server glitch. Hence a bit shorter and less nitpicking.

The fiver (by Derek)
Memory Alpha Page
Transcript

The episode:

* When can I stop complaining about lithium crystals? At least by now we've starting moving away from "crystal as fuel source" and toward "crystal as key engine component."
* I'm interested in the idea that somehow Vulcan hybrids look different enough to normal Vulcans that Mudd can see that. If Spock isn't the first, I'd assume that they're pretty rare.
* Women as "cargo." Um, yeah...
* Silly Mudd trying to claim he didn't know the Enterprise is a starship. Cue rants about energy output profiles, ID transponders, warp field signatures, etc. here.
* I'm sad that the "hypnotic effect" of the women must largely be communicated via Captain's Log because there isn't money for unnecessary extras. I'm reminded of how effectively NextGen did a similar scene in "The Perfect Mate".
* Just three miners? Obviously they can't even have offscreen workers because they'd fight over the women and use up screentime. There are ways to work around this. The three are at a remote outpost and the married guys are elsewhere, the others are too old or young to be desirable, the others are criminals or aliens that would be considered undesirable, etc.
* I do wish that the true nature of the Venus Drug was more consistent. Just a gelatin placebo? Well then you can't have onscreen transformation like that. A real drug? Well then they have to have a Kirk speech convincing them that they don't need it. It was real until the final scene when Kirk tricked them with gelatin placebos? A variant of the Kirk speech.
* I'm still confused about why the women would want to live in this place of complete isolation, constant storms, and constant hard labor. There weren't any transports going in the direction of Earth available?

The fiver:

I get the Powerpuff Girls references, but maybe there were a few too many.

Mudd: Hi, my name is Walsh.
Spock: Your speaker credits say your name is Mudd.
Mudd: Who are you going to believe, the fiver or me?
Spock: Welcome abord, Mr. Walsh.

Zeke, there's a typo there. Anyway, nice dig at the unreliability of the fiving process and the fivist himself (jk Derek )

Memory Alpha notes:

* Harlan Ellison visited the set during the filming. Even though he enjoyed himself, that's still unfortunate.
* I had forgotten about the subspace radio marriage idea. This is a loaded issue worthy of an essay by itself.

[NAHTMMM]

Yeah, "The Enemy Within" has a dumb decision leading to the plot, but the plot is a good one, so it gets slack where so much of later Trek doesn't. It's a good exploration of a sci-fi idea. Spock's first dissertation on the "good" vs. "evil" side was a bit too on-the-nose for me, especially his willingness to label them good and evil -- the two Kirks don't have labels to that effect on them. But even though we follow the "weak" Kirk around as he's trying to solve the plot to everyone's satisfaction, the "dark" Kirk isn't treated as an enemy to be conquered despite the title, and I like that. Shatner did a particularly good job showing weak Kirk's descent into ineffectiveness.

I agree that I don't much care for the wraparound tunic. I thought we already had a neck pinch in "The Naked Now", when Spock gets Sulu with it.

Captain's Log: Spock forgot to check the weather channel before our away mission, but I'm sure nothing will happen to strand any of us on this frozen wasteland.
Fisher: Ow! My hand! And I'm covered in this weird dust!
Apparently I have a poor sense of pattern recognition.

This type of joke always amuses me.

Fisher: Hey! I was already injured once this episode! Don't you have some "one use only" rule for redshirts?
(WHACK! THUMP! THWACK!)
Fisher: Oof....
Evil Kirk: I'll have to get rid of that rule before Chekov comes aboard....

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

* Silly Mudd trying to claim he didn't know the Enterprise is a starship. Cue rants about energy output profiles, ID transponders, warp field signatures, etc. here.

I'm sure he knew it was a proper starship, but given his ineptitude in blowing his ship up, I think anything other than reading the transponder output would be beyond him.

* Just three miners? Obviously they can't even have offscreen workers because they'd fight over the women and use up screentime. There are ways to work around this. The three are at a remote outpost and the married guys are elsewhere, the others are too old or young to be desirable, the others are criminals or aliens that would be considered undesirable, etc.

Well, you can claim that the operation is sufficiently automated that just three people are needed on-planet to keep it running. I find it more concerning that, despite lithium mining supposedly being lucrative (granted, Mudd said that to the women), the buildings were so bare of anything decorative. You'd think the women would have beamed down, looked around, seen nary a vase or Van Gogh, and gotten suspicious.

* I do wish that the true nature of the Venus Drug was more consistent. Just a gelatin placebo? Well then you can't have onscreen transformation like that.

That last transformation, where even Eve's clothes changed, was ridiculous.

* I'm still confused about why the women would want to live in this place of complete isolation, constant storms, and constant hard labor. There weren't any transports going in the direction of Earth available?

Yeah, this is a serious plot hole, combined with the apparent lack of luxury. The women have access to a proper starship now, they can get passage to wherever they like. Nowadays, at least one would probably have decided to forego marriage in favor of a career. Or at least they could have shown actual connections developing between the other two miners and women . . . but I guess Eve was the designated guest star character so she got the airtime.

I have nothing to add about the fiver, it's good.

[Katy Jane]

I forgot what a stinker this one was... you want someone beautiful but you should really want someone like me who will cook and clean for you... Bleh.

[Nate the Great]

The lithium cracking station on Delta Vega back in "Where No Man..." was fully automated. I'm just saying that three people stuck with only each other for months at a time would lead to at least one of them becoming violent or otherwise emotionally unstable.

[Nate the Great]

October 20th, 1966, "What Are Little Girls Made Of"

The fiver (by Kristina)
Memory Alpha page
Transcript

The episode:

* Yeah, this "I left my career to take a job as a nurse for the remote chance of finding my lost fiancee, except I've also been fawning over Spock therefore I'm kinda cheating on said fiancee" thing is a whole kettle of fish best left unexplored. But seriously, couldn't they have held out on Chapel's infatuation until after this episode?
* Um, contact with Korby's been lost, we're not sure we can find him again, oh wait there he is. Just a little too convenient, don't you think?
* Ever since Phil Farrand pointed out how short the legs on that unformed android were, it's always bugged me. Putting aside "was fixing that beyond the show's budget", the real question is "who was the incompetent that built them too short in the first place?"
* Kirk's implantation of prejudice against Spock into the double really is clever.
* The first mention of Kirk's brother George and his family. Aside from the space amoeba episode nothing's really going to be done with them except in the novels. I'll wait until that one to discuss Peter Kirk's future.
* I think this episode is the first to feature Kirk outsmarting a computer. Classic staple of the show.
* This idea of "a Kirk that doesn't want to kiss a willing woman is an imposter" thing is amusing.

The fiver:

Captain's Log: We've found Korby and his associates. They all live in a yellow.... uh, some underground caves.

Um, how does a Beatles reference connect to this scene?

Kirk: Then one phaser shot it is, straight from the hip.
"Brown": GAK?
Chapel: Captain, I presume you'll be charged-- with battery.

Oh, the puns.

Kirk: Right. I think I'm between a Ruk and a hard place.... but pull me up, will you?

Okay, that one's pretty clever.

Memory Alpha notes:

* It would make sense that the people on the planet would have older-style phaser pistols.
* Apparently this episode has the first official redshirt death, but I'm not sure if Memory Alpha goes by airdate or production order.

[NAHTMMM]

A much better episode than last time.

Ruk made a good android. Andrea had her moments too.

Imagine back when it first aired, sitting through the commercials waiting to see what was on, and it comes back to a naked man and a blob on a rotating platform thing. What kind of show is this?

Andrea: Oh, Christine, you are as beautiful as your name sounds.
Chapel: You're news to me and look a little too good for comfort. Where did you come from?
Andrea: I can only remember waking up, feeling a bit dizzy. Rogeybuns was the first thing I saw.
Chapel: Captain, permission to turn green.
Kirk: Granted.

Very good summary of that moment.

[NAHTMMM]

Oh, also, when Kirk, Chapel, and Brown are overlooking the precipice where one of the redshirts just fell, that upwards camera angle of Brown was very effective in making him look as off-kilter as he was acting. Something about his hand made it look disproportionate to the rest of his body.

[Nate the Great]

October 27th, 1966, "Miri"

The Fiver (by Kristina)
Memory Alpha Page
Transcript

The Episode:

* With all of these early warp colonies sending out SOS's, I'm wondering: Are SOS's still going to be a thing in the era of subspace? Wouldn't the Vulcans have an equivalent signal that would be more efficient? Is it possible to tap out dots and dashes in a subspace signal that would "hold itself together" further and through more interference because of it's simplicity?
* Ah yes, our first "it looks exactly like Earth to save money" planet. One of the Shatnerverse novels tells us that the Preservers made all of these copies. Yeah, still don't buy it. Even if the same proto-Pangea (insert Magrathea joke here) was set in motion on each planet, there are enough variables to scramble the final continental arrangement, weather system, evolved humanoid form, etc. Just wait until we have exact historical duplication, folks!
* I'm glad that for once we're not relying solely on the available tricorders. It's nice that they remembered that "we have an incurable disease" means "we can still beam stuff IN without contamination."
* Still doesn't mean that the ship couldn't beam new communicators in when the old ones were stolen.
* "Space Central"? Must be a branch of UESPA.

The fiver:

Kirk: Miri has the hots for me? Heavy.

Odd place for a Back to the Future joke, but okay.

Uhura: (over the comm) Data acknowledged. The answer is 42.
McCoy: Good. Now if we could only figure out the question... 47 minus 5?

Makes one wonder how long it would take Deep Thought to find the cure.

Redshirt: Is there something wrong with this episode? I have this gut feeling I shouldn't be alive.

A classic fiver gag.

Memory Alpha:

* They point out that the duplicate Earth thing is never resolved. Of course this is merely to save money on the special effects. I wonder why the remastered version didn't change the planet and cut these lines to avoid this problem. I sure would have.
* Apparently Rand only appeared in eight episodes, and this is the only one where she left the ship. It sure seems like she was in more than that, doesn't it?
* There's a Department of Temporal Investigations novel that says that this planet looks like Earth because it's the Earth of a parallel universe that was accidentally brought here by a subspace phenomenon. Yeah, um, I'd almost rather go with the Preserver idea.

[Nate the Great]

November 3rd, 1966, "Dagger of the Mind"

The Fiver (by Sa'ar Chasm)
Memory Alpha Page
Transcript

The episode:

* That whole "you can sneak onto a starship by being beamed inside a box" thing always annoyed me. The transporter sensors should've found him.
* I'm a little confused at the Kirk/Noel relationship. Regardless of who Kirk thought she was at the time, afterward she should've been reassigned. As has been noted in other episodes, a distracted Kirk is a less effective Kirk. And for a mission to an insane asylum, a distracted Kirk is a in-danger Kirk.
* No security guards for a mission to an insane asylum? No redshirts for the inmates to kill? Huh?
* Apparently I mingled this episode in my mind with "Whom Gods Destroy", I kept expecting Garth to show up.

The fiver:

McCoy: You keep your inmates in crates? What kind of sadistic beasts are you?
Tantalus Colony: It's merely an exercise in removing their socially unproductive habits and promoting a great social conformity.
Kirk: Are you trying to say that crated minds think alike?

That's a lot of psychobabble for a pun.

Van Gelder: No! Yes! Maybe!
McCoy: Indecisive, isn't he?
Van Gelder: Signs point to no! Ask again later! Results hazy at this time!

Ah, the Magic 8 Ball.

Kirk: Is this a dagger I see before me? Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hands?

I had to look this up. I knew it was Shakespeare but didn't know it was MacBeth.

Kirk: And now Birnam Wood comes toward Dunsinane!

Sadly I knew that this one was MacBeth because of the Reduced Shakespeare Company.

[Nate the Great]

20th Anniversary of "Trials and Tribble-ations."

Yikes, does that make me feel old.

[Nate the Great]

November 10th, 1966, "The Corbomite Maneuver"

The Fiver (by IJD GAF)
Memory Alpha Page
Transcript

The episode:

* Ugh, photographs.
* I consider it a lost opportunity that they had to create Bailey for this. If they'd held off until the end of the season they could've shipped off one of the side characters like DeSalle, Farrell, Kyle, M'Benga, Riley, or even Janice Rand. It certainly would've made for a more emotional connection.
* McCoy's line about "If I jumped every time a light came on around here, I'd end up talking to myself." is funny. He did end up like that!
* Going through the script I feel that Bailey was given way too many lines for a one-off. Even Stiles in "Balance of Terror" wasn't given that many lines. With the screentime Bailey got you could be forgiven for thinking that he'd become a recurring character like those I listed above.
* That being said, I do like that there's a bit more of the bridge crew coordinating with other parts of the ship. It makes you feel that there really are all of these other people below the bridge running the ship.
* "United Earth ship Enterprise"? I wonder if this was one of those times that UESPA is managing the mission instead of Starfleet.
* Does anyone else think that Kirk is the only captain who would have the audacity for such a lie as the corbomite maneuver?
* Does anyone else wonder what tranya tastes like?

The fiver:

Spock: STAND BY TO PHOTOGRAPH!
Uhura: We have to photograph the stars to chart them? That's lame.

Yes, Nyota, it is.

Spock: (over the comm) What's more important? An unstopable alien cube, or the support of female viewers?
Kirk: Ah, a question the creators of Voyager never quite answered.

Typo aside, that's clever.

Balok: Yep. It gets lonely here, so I devised a plan to capture myself a friend. Which one of you will it be?
Kirk: I know the perfect man for the job. Kirk to Enterprise; beam myself and Doctor McCoy up.
Bailey: Wha...? Don't I even get a say?
Kirk: Nope, and that's an order, redshirt. Energize.

Redshirts never get a say, I thought that was in the contract.

Memory Alpha:

* The moon shuttle conductor article at Memory Alpha is laughably short. The moon shuttle article is little better. I assume that this is just a shuttle between Earth and Luna, probably a very boring job. The transporter range value of 40,000 kilometers is pretty well established, and the moon is about ten times that distance from Earth, so a moon shuttle would have to be a thing. Unless you would prefer the idea of transporter relay satellites akin to the Intergalactic Gate Bridge.
* First Federation? Wouldn't that confuse the casual viewer?
* Apparently the moon shuttle conductor line in this episode is the first use of McCoy's recurring joke.
* Uhura wears a gold uniform for this episode. The simplest explanation I can think of is that UESPA is in command of this mission, and they put Communications in the Command sector instead of Operations like Starfleet does.

Youtube clips:

* Kirk and McCoy clips. Interesting how McCoy notices the red alert light flashing but doesn't tell Kirk. Also, I always thought those blocks in the wall that you have to push in and out were silly. Also includes the "moon shuttle conductor" line and "talking to myself" from McCoy.
* Someone dubstepped the tranya scene. I shouldn't have to be the only one to see it.
* Someone turned the episode into a sitcom by converting clips to sepia-tone and adding goofy sound effects.