Star Trek (TOS): Episode By Episode Thread

You are very welcome. It is very cool and fun to watch. The original cast has a special chemistry together.

 

That Which Survives has one of my favorite lines of the 3rd Season.


Kirk: "Mr. Sulu, if I'd wanted a Russian history lesson I'd have brought along Mr. Chekov."

Darryl

 

That is almost too funny to be spoken by a Vulcan.

 

That is an interesting episode. Both Kirk and Spock have several smart aleck lines that they deliver to subordinates.

 

Spock to Uhura : "The occipital area of my head seems to have impacted with the arm of the chair."

Kinda of reminds me of Sulu from an episode of Star Trek Voyager where
he said "And don't tell me Vulcans don't have a sense of humor, because I know better."

Darryl

 

In both cases (Galileo 7 and That Which Survives) where they did a burial on the planet, it seems logical to assume in both situations that they thought they were stranded on the planet with no Enterprise in orbit, maybe that is why dead crewman were buried there.

 

#73: The Lights of Zetar

Original Air Date: 1/31/69

Stardate: 5725.3

En route to Memory Alpha, a massive Federation library designed to hold all the knowledge of its member worlds, the Enterprise comes across an entity of twinkling lights that is impervious to the ship's weapons and can move faster than the speed of light. For Lt. Mira Romaine, it's her first deep space voyage, but she has the support of Lt. Cdr. Scott, who has fallen very much in love with the lass. When they first encounter the new being, Mira's body is invaded, and it soon becomes clear that the entity has no intention of releasing her. The challenge for Kirk and Spock is to find a way to rid them of this being, but the only method available may also kill her.

This is perhaps the least memorable episode of all of Star Trek for me. Before re-visiting it here, I could recall nothing of it. I wonder if it was not shown in syndication much when I was a kid? Regardless, I think "forgettable" is a good way to describe this episode. The setup shows some potential (although it feels like recycled ideas yet again), but after that the episode does not go anywhere interesting. They throw in a chance for Scotty to have a love interest, and I think he handles it better than Deforest Kelley in his recent turn (For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky). But, that angle does not go anywhere either. I did enjoy the extended view of sickbay, even though the episode never bothers to explain how they figured out pressure would destroy the aliens. At the end of the day, we have another "formulaic" Season 3 episode (mysterious danger attacks crew, crew races to find a solution before it is too late, quick fix, light-hearted joking to feel good at the end).

Personal Rating: 2 Stars

 

Trivia:

The co-writer of this episode was ventriloquist and puppeteer Shari Lewis of "Lamb Chop" fame. She was a huge fan of Star Trek and fulfilled a dream by co-writing this episode with her husband Jeremy Tarcher. She also wanted to play Mira Romaine, but was not cast. [1]

When Lewis originally pitched the idea to producer Fred Freiberger, he turned it down, saying that they were already working on a similar concept. When Lewis came back with another story idea, Freiberger told her that he'd buy the first one, because the other similar project had been scrapped.[2]

Lewis wrote the love affair of Scotty into the episode because she thought "Captain Kirk is the one who always gets the girl".[3]

In a story outline dated 12 September 1968, Mira was Scotty's new engineering assistant and shared his fascination for machinery. Final draft script 28 October 1968, filmed early November.

§ The overhead zoom shot of the bridge in the teaser was not shot for this episode. It apparently was filmed for (but not used in) "The Galileo Seven". Bill Blackburn, rather than Walter Koenig, is at the Navigator station in the shot. It is noticeable that he is wearing Lieutenant stripes in the shot. The crew is also noticeably wearing the velour uniforms seen in season 1 and 2, not the nylon variety that replaced them in season 3.

There is extensive use of Alexander Courage's music from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" in this episode. Most notable is the piece used for the approach of the Zetarians which was scored for the "Where No Man..." scene when the Enterprise encounters the galactic barrier.

This is the last time the emergency manual monitor and engineering sets will be used. Engineering is seen briefly in "The Savage Curtain", but as stock footage.

This is the only time more of Dr. McCoy's medical lab, including an antigrav tube, is seen.

The Memory Alpha monitor room was the reused control room set from "Whom Gods Destroy".

The glass-covered portal of the medical decompression chamber appears to be a door left over from a suspended-animation pod in "Space Seed".

During the tag in sickbay as Kirk, Spock and McCoy discuss Lt. Romaine, a discarded newspaper can be seen through the doorway to next room lying on the floor ( to the right of Nimoy's elbow ).

 

I was blown away by this episode as a seven or eight-year-old, I thought Mira Romain was the most spectacular thing I'd seen on television in a year or so. It's still an old favorite, because all those feelings that I had for this mysterious girl with the pretty eyes come flooding back to me when I see the episode. Plus, I believe that Scotty was not utilized enough as a lead character.

 

Scotty was an incompetent, insubordinate boor in this episode.

An interesting premise, but one of the worst instances of a "Mary Sue" story to rear its ugly head.

A good drinking game would be to have a belt every time Lt. Romaine is referred to as "the girl". You'd get sloshed in no time.

The face of the woman dying of the Zetarian infestation scared the bejesus out of me when I was a child. I used to have to cover my eyes during that scene, and shrieked when I saw Topps had added it to their set of bubblegum cards.

A low point of season three.

 

The episode that gave us this fine addition to the canon:

 

When I first saw this on network in the 60's and in syndication in the 70's, I also could not bear to look at the face of Mira when it was changing colors and hearing the croaking sound, it scared the heck out of me, too. I could not bear to look or hear those scenes and even now I don't care to see them.
One redeeming scene they had was when they have the angle shot of Mira floating in the decompression chamber, her best assets were certainly highlighted in that shot, much the same way Miramanee was in Paradise Syndrome as she laid dying.