Star Trek (TOS): Episode-by-Episode Thread (Part Two)

Regarding the lights of Zetar :

I would have rather seen Lambchop in a spacesuit than this absolute mess of an episode.

 

Lately I've had the pleasure of listening to the S1 soundtracks via the complete set. Both the music and the sound far exceeded what I'd hoped for going in. All had their highlights, but I particularly enjoyed The Conscience of the King (Joseph Mullendore), The Cage (Alexander Courage), Shore Leave (Gerald Fried) and surprisingly, Mudd's Women (Fred Steiner). All very well recorded, presented with good (mono) mixing and mastering too.

 

Re: The Lights of Zetar: it was (virtually) new to me on my journey through the remastered versions. Although it is an inferior episode, I enjoyed it fine taking it in a light, credulous (child like?) perspective. I haven't seen Shari Lewis' submission script (has anyone?), but trying to interpret from the finished product, it appears to have had a great deal of fan fantasy behind it and to have been written more directly for the kids than usual; the central featured character, Lt. Lettuce, seems a fan's proxy, more than a bit Mary Sue and intended to also be enjoyed (and admired) by older kids. Obviously, Shari wrote it wishing to be said leafy Lt.

Unfortunately, the production's approach may suggest someone or ones weren't comfortable, shall we say: they stemmed the ambitious Shari by first having her jump through the hoop of writing another story they didn't want anyway and then replacing her in the role she wrote for herself with another actress of their choice (for no evident reason) before accepting; then they made sure the heroic female lead was treated in condescending contexts (the stuff with Scotty, everyone referring to the Lt. as 'the girl') even though it isn't quite consistent with the series. That's somewhat jumbled though by the episode possibly being more directly aimed for kids than usual.

Some of it (not the Scotty business) might have worked better had Lt. Salad Romaine been an alien hosted on Enterprise for the library project who seemed to humans to be a precocious teenage girl, rather than a Lt. and fellow officer they should refer to formally or at least by a mutually accepted nick on duty. Oh well...

Here's a blog review that may be entertaining/interesting:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/02/star-trek-re-watch-the-lights-of-zetar

Glad I missed this one as a kid. Trek definitely has its elements of horror.

Ha, yeah the suffering beauty, with perhaps a bit of the Wonder Woman thing.

That seems to be very much how it was hoped it would be taken. Good to hear you enjoyed it too.

 

It seems there was something he was moving, but boy that's a 'classic' example of poorly staged and captured action. At least one can't say he's not giving it his all. Maybe they were too busy staring at the blond extra doing the walk-thru spot...

 

Manually adjusting the Feinberger, of course!

Still an incredible set, if expensive.

 

Lights O Zetar was a WTF episode for me.
I usually can't make it all the way through the episode.

1 bald tribble.

Darryl

 

Looks like the Enterprise has sprung a leak and he is shutting off the water main...

 

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Feinberger

Darryl

 

One thing all 3 seasons have: many evocative titles, which, like some of the visual concepts, are usually as a galaxy to the room of the reality.

Oh, rating for The Lights of Zetar: mediocre (one bald tribble and two ordinary examples).

In the 1st thread here, I'd posted a ranking for S3. If I recall right, Luke observed that whereas most seem to rank S1 and S2 eps relatively predictably, rankings for S3 are all over the map. A good point. It seems to me that is a result of how erratic the qualities of S3 eps are; the appeals are far more rarefied (and thus subject to individual whim) with everything in the middle ground down so much poorer. Certainly my rankings are more a matter of how much I liked watching it and a ranking based on subjective quality would be very different. The weaknesses are so glaring another person will be just as apt to call it all awful. Almost the entire season is like that, excepting The Enterprise Incident, The Tholian Web and... that's it.

 

"Out of the nowhere into the here." - Kirk in Wink of an Eye

Also in the prior thread I'd promised to elaborate a bit on Wink of an Eye when the thread got to it. Well this comes very late, but here goes...

Wink of an Eye. The problems with logic are massive and understandably, that can spoil the fun for many viewers. While Deela (sp?) is fine, the others of her people are just over the top, plain terrible. The script is occasionally clunky and the scenario in terms of actions inappropriately conventional. The issues are more problematic to a modern viewer given all the effects and other production advantages available since which this episode could really have used. If we are able to get past the logicscape landmines, there seems to me to be plenty good in it.

Perhaps it's taken for granted these days, but it tackled some really ambitious ideas and pulled them off surprisingly well, I felt, while at the same time keeping the human interest and drama angles working.

This whole world's population displaced - but not in time nor space but relative to time, so they are displaced in both without actually going any where or any time. They're existing at some phenomenally accelerated rate. Now put them in the same events in the same episode with people like us, with we viewers able to follow as they instigate a plan to take the ship and the people like us successfully prevent it. Do it all while limited to what can safely be accomplished within TOS' production, time and budget constraints.

Besides all that, they present a scenario with critical stakes on both sides, impress the cautionary tale of needs and the empowering of advanced technologies justifying abuse and cruelty of other beings, keep us rooting for our decided underdogs, try not to make the foregone victory too implausible or too obvious or easy either, while managing to keep some sense of regret at the loss of the adversary. Also, they rather boldly make procreation the needs of the adversaries, meaning their intent is rape and usurpation of any offspring; what's more, the adversaries know the likely effect on "our crew" is a terrible premature death. At the same time, they had to avoid directly offending uptight mores and network censorship of the time.

It all works surprisingly well in TOS' context. A key example is how Kirk's thing with alien women, usually obligatory, here proves ideal for entertainingly enabling what angle the viewer gets to connect with adversaries who otherwise have to inspire our ire.

Deela: "I despise devious people. Don't you?"

Kirk: "I believe in honest relationships myself."

Heh.

 

The GIF makes it look like the extra is just miming that action, but if you watch the blu-ray, you can clearly see that he's turning some sort of futuristic tool that has been inserted into the wall panel.

 

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Feinberger

 

i've been reading this thread and watching episodes as i go. i just watched Amok Time and looked up the actress who played Spock's wife, Arlene Martel. sadly, she passed away yesterday

http://www.treknews.net/2014/08/12/arlene-martel-dead-dies/

 

#74: Requiem for Methuselah

Original Air Date: 2/14/69

Stardate: 5843.7

The Enterprise suffers a lethal epidemic of Rigelian fever. Kirk, McCoy and Spock beam down to what is supposed to be an uninhabited planet to collect ryetalin, an essential element in treating the virus. On the planet they meet a human named Flint who is not pleased to see them. He agrees to help them locate the supply of ryetalin but insists that they leave as soon as possible. His home fascinates Spock who notes that the art works comprise unknown DaVinci paintings, unknown Brahms music and other works all apparently original except for the fact that contemporary materials were used in their creation. Kirk is attracted to Flint's ward, the beautiful Rayna, but she too has a secret - one that is unknown even to her.

As a history teacher, Flint's backstory to this episode has always fascinated me, especially the initial mystery of how these modern day masterpieces could exist, not as copies, but from the actual hands of earth's masters. However, as is often the case in Season 3, a fine idea is surrounded by a derivative mess. We see a menacing robot that is the worst effect in the entire series. Not only can you see the wire, but M-4 swings about like a pinata at a five year old's birthday party. Then we have the Kirk love interest. As if the Captain being unable to restrain his libido (as the crew is in danger of death from a raging disease) is not bad enough, they end up making the girl...wait for it...


SPOILER ALERT (AS IF YOU HAVEN'T GUESSED IT)


...an android! How many episodes have we seen this idea in? And, she of course does not know that she is not human. The only saving grace to this plot device, is the angle of Kirk stirring emotions in her that lead to her destruction. But that itself is a cliche of Kirk destroying robots and computers.

I would like to point out two more wonderful aspects of this episode. The supposed Brahm's waltz Spock plays is very believable and quite lovely. It was composed by Ivan Ditmars (more famous for his work on "Let's Make A Deal"). It is a shame it is surrounded by Spock playing piano, and the Captain waltzing. Even if one comes down hard on many aspects of this episode, it is hard to not be moved by the final scene. The relationship between Kirk and Spock is perhaps never better represented than this tender act Spock carries out for his friend.

Personal Rating: 3 Stars

 

See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYI6c2dS-B8

Trivia:


Mr. Flint invites Kirk, Spock and Bones to his palace, which is the same as seen from afar in Star Trek: The Cage (1986): an Eastern palace with blue details, golden rooftops, a giant moon or other planet in the background left and a smaller, Saturn-like planet left of that. In The Cage this is the stage for the fight between Captain Pike and the monster. In the remastered Star Trek, this image was replaced with a new background for “Requiem for Methuselah”.

The last name of Rayna Kapec is an anagram of the last name of Karel Capek, the Czech author who popularized the term "robot".

In the preview trailer, the view of Kirk's face saying "my crew" is unobstructed. The shrunken ship had not been spliced in yet.

One of many Star Trek productions resembling William Shakespeare's The Tempest and/or Irving Block's Forbidden Planet(1956).

Flint and Rayna are very similar to Rojan and Kelinda fromStar Trek: By Any Other Name (1968), also written by Jerome Bixby.

The sheet music for Flint's Johannes Brahms waltz, which we see in a close-up, does not correspond to the waltz Spock has played.

Kirk's second log entry has a stardate with two decimal numbers. This is the only episode in The Original Series that used this stardate format.

Flint's viewscreen appears to be the Beta III lighting panel seen in "The Return of the Archons". It is also similar to the one seen in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

Some of the furnishings in Flint's castle are recognizably recycled from previous episodes. Spock sits in the ornate chair used by Korob and Sylvia in "Catspaw". In the outer room of Flint's laboratory, just in front of the vertical grill, is the female Romulan commander's "communications box" from "The Enterprise Incident". In the same room, the back walls are lined with the consoles from the Elba II control room in "Whom Gods Destroy". The undercarriage of Flint's robot, M-4, is a reused portion from the upper carriage of Nomad from "The Changeling".

 

Uh, one?

 

This plot point is nearly identical to What Are Little Girls Made Of. But, I, Mudd also has the idea of android women created for a male seeking affection, and also has a "human" that is surprisingly revealed to be an android (Norman).

If you generalize the plot to a woman created for male affection that is not a real human, we get "The Cage/Menagerie" and "Shore Leave".

If you generalize it further to an apparently human woman being revealed as something else, we get "The Man Trap", "Catspaw", etc.

 

I dunno, I'm pretty sure Vina was a real human; the illusion was her beauty, not her humanity.

Fair enough otherwise though.

 

Bixby returned to the theme of the immortal and how we define our humanity in a lot of his work from novels, short stories and teleplays. I always liked the episode although I think that Kirk falls a little too quickly. Can't McCoy do something to suppress that man's libido?

 

At the core of Requiem for Methuselah is a brilliant story, in conceptual terms. Conflicts of human/emotional and mechanical/logical natures are explored, mostly through Kirk and Rayna, which are consequences of the actions and motivations of Flint and Spock, whose actions are opposed yet are in turn motivated by those same conflicts of natures. Goes kinda like this (thank goodness for cut 'n paste!) -

Flint is of a human/emotional nature but has a characteristic of mechanical/logical nature imposed upon him when his biological aging mysteriously fails and he goes on living for ages. In his struggle to satisfy his human/emotional needs of love and companionship on terms of a mechanical/logical nature (he needs/wants a "perfect" and unchanging partner that won't age), he turns to making an android, naturally mechanical/logical, into which he strives to impose more of a human/emotional nature. The latest attempt, Rayna, still of truly mechanical/logical nature, turns out to appeal to a different, truly human/emotional being, Kirk. In turn, Kirk ends up bringing the human/emotional nature to life in Rayna.

But. Rayna can't survive as an human/emotional being, resulting in her mechanical/logical failure. Kirk's human/emotional nature can't recover because he can't forget her, not being of mechanical/logical nature. Spock - who struggles against his part human/emotional nature and is partly of a world that strives to attain a more mechanical/logical nature opposite Flint/Rayna - "rights" the harm to Kirk's human/emotional nature by essentially deleting Kirk's memory of it, an effect distinctly mechanical/logical in nature. Spock is able to do so thanks to methods achieved by the part of him persuing a mechanical/logical nature but it is the compassion from his human/emotional nature which motivates him to do it.

Oh and the initial obstacle to their errand of mercy is a mechanical device (the probe thing) which is controlled by the human Flint; he over-rules his logical isolationism after their appeal to his emotions and it is the same machine which then refines the Macguffinite and enables the errand of mercy to be accomplished. The device of Flint and/or Rayna using the monitor to observe or calculate whether to engage in the flesh also reflects the theme. And so on.

So that's the main reason why it makes it onto the top end of my earlier S3 list (at #10). Also, there was a sense of mystery that I liked and some of the discoveries were interesting. Flint had a good motivation for wanting to make an android which wasn't the usual "egomaniac wants to live forever" case. The android story seemed original enough to me and wasn't a Data beta either. The resolutions were moving, especially the reflection of the friendship between Kirk and Spock.

But. Like a lot of TOS and most of the 3rd season, it's weakened with a lot of mediocrity, plenty of clumsiness and whopping flaws.

With Flint they lean heavily on a template of a classical "great man" which only goes so far for those not as impressed with the romance of that sort of thing as Roddenberry and Co. were. They definitely overplayed the alien given the credit for great works of historical people angle. If they'd only checked the piano bench, they would've found the Gettysburg Address, or if they'd hung around a while, hear him create another Grimm Fairy Tale while putting Rayna into Sleep Mode.

I liked the actress playing Rayna, but she evidently thought it a bit beneath her and unfortunately it's a lot harder to disagree that it could've been, let's say, mostly owing to the limitations in how her part was approached (basically due to sexism). Kirk's ga-ga over Rayna is overly precious and dubious in the circumstances. Since she's a computer, it's for certain he'll lead to her destruction. The environment needs to be more like the Nautilus but the production gives a generic budget Squire of Gothos and a recycled Nomad. And so on.

I liked the new vision of Flint's fantasy palace and world in the "remastered" version. Originally it recycled from The Cage (which was also wondrous on its own).

Original:



New:

 

Requiem is an episode I haven't seen for many years iirc. Maybe I'll put it on tonight and watch it with my kids.

As I might have mentioned I am, believe it or not, teaching a college seminar on Star Trek, starting in a few weeks. One of the episodes we will watch and analyze is "Balance of Terror." I always knew it was the Cold War translated into science fiction, but I just learned recently that the title, "Balance of Terror," is a quote from Defense Secretary Robert McNamara from 1962 characterizing the nuclear balance of terror right after the Cuban Missile Crisis....

 

My family watched Requiem tonight. It has a few good things about it, but I think my favorite is the new FX pictured above. Nicely done. As an art historian, the idea that he was Leonardo as well as countless other great figures in history somehow bothered me. And the fembot thing seemed a bit sexist and cruel. It may be in top ten of the third season, but that season really was a decline from the first two....

As of tonight, here's my top ten for the third season. Requiem misses it by a few. But it might be 12 or so....

1. The Enterprise Incident
2. The Tholian Web
3. The Paradise Syndrome
4. Is There in Truth No Beauty
5. The Savage Curtain
6. All Our Yesterdays
7. Spectre of the Gun
8. The Empath
9. For the World is Hollow
10. The Way to Eden

 

#75: The Way To Eden

Original Air Date: 2/21/69

Stardate: 5832.3

The Enterprise intercepts a stolen spacecraft heading directly for Romulan space. Its occupants are six space-age hippies who refuse to accept authority and are unconventional in their thinking. Led by the renowned Dr. Sevrin, they are in search of paradise - the mythical planet Eden. Kirk cannot relate but Spock does and agrees to help locate the planet. Spock also concludes that Sevrin is insane. For Chekov, it's a chance to re-unite with Irina, with whom he was in love while they were students at the Academy. When the travelers manage to take control of the Enterprise, they realize their dream and arrive on Eden, which has surprises of its own.

If anyone wishes that Star Trek had one additional season, they should watch this episode. Sadly, the lofty standards of Seasons 1 & 2 have flown out the window. Flailing around for ratings, the plan here was to tap into the youth culture, by creating "space-hippies", and giving Chekov another love interest. It is an insult to the show, an insult to hippies, and an insult to intelligent life anywhere. I think this clip will illustrate my point:

The Way to Eden: Main Jam



Squares should not try to approximate counter-culture, or try to make believable pop music. What you get is a mockery on all fronts. The costumes are terrible. The characterization of the hippies is ridiculous, and the music is painful. And to add insult to injury, they have Spock jam with the "space hippies". The reason for this was simple. Spock was the most popular character, so here is a chance to have him connect with the young people.

The Way to Eden: Spock Jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OptLgGtZ9_E

I don't know what is worse, Spock playing the blues, or the crew bopping to the music. The show ends on a puzzling note. What message are they trying to send? You hippies are doomed for destruction and better straighten up? If the first 45 minutes of the episode was intended to connect with youth, this does not seem to fit the narrative. Sadly, originally this was a story by the great D.C. Fontana, and it had a wonderful backstory about Dr. McCoy's failed marriage and daughter. That was thrown out the window, and Fontana demanded her name be removed from the episode. This is in my estimation, the worst and most embarrassing episode of ST:TOS.

Personal Rating: 1 Star

 

Trivia:

In this episode, for the first time, Chekov's first and middle names are spoken/revealed, Pavel Andreivich.

The space hippie protest "Herbert, Herbert, Herbert!" is a gag, referring to both Star Trek four time directorHerb Wallerstein, and long time Executive in Charge of ProductionHerbert F. Solow. (Spock tells Kirk that the reference to Herbert is "somewhat uncomplimentary" and that "Herbert was a minor official, notorious for his rigid and limited patterns of thought.")

The egg shaped badges with what appears to be a sideways figure "8" which the space hippies wear is actually a representation of the symbol for "infinity." The symbol is also called a lemniscate.

Tiburon, name of the homeland of Dr. Sevrin, is the Spanish word for shark.

Dr. Sevrin is based onTimothy Leary, a controversial psychiatrist who advocated LSD as a therapeutic drug.

The hijacked Class F shuttlecraft was the oft-used Galileo, although in this adventure she bore the name Galileo II.

In the original version of the episode, the spacecraft Aurora is a Tholian ship with AMT model kit nacelles added to it. It is shown in the preview trailer without the nacelles. For the remastered version, a new design was created.

In the scene in which Spock plays his Vulcan harp for Adam (the last time he plays the instrument on the series), the background music for Uhura's song from "Charlie X" is recycled.

Nurse Chapel's collapse, as well as the collapse of other crewmembers in the corridor, is reused footage from "Spock's Brain". This is why the lights go out in sickbay during that shot, while they are functioning normally elsewhere on the ship.

Gary Mitchell's Kaferian apple tree can be seen in the foliage on Eden.

Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) does not appear in this episode. Lt. Palmer, who fills in, makes her second and final TOS appearance.

Skip Homeier also starred in "Patterns of Force" as Melakon.

Chekov's character (which in the original story, was meant to have been Kirk's character) is portrayed in this episode as a rigid, rule-quoting straight arrow, in contrast to the writers' initial concept of the character as a younger, less authoritarian character who might appeal to teenage viewers. Walter Koenig has called the episode "badly written" partly because of this. He also called this episode the low point of his character's tenure on the show.

According to James Doohan, this was the only episode of the series that he did not like.