Star Trek (TOS): Episode By Episode Thread

Pretty cool that Gary Lockwood has Star Trek & 2001 on his resume! Sally Kellerman did pretty well herself.

 

I'd forgotten that Sally Kellerman was in this, which was a nice surprise when I watched it last week. Well acted and with a weirdness to it that I can only ascribe to being being halfway between the look of The Cage and the final design of the show. The fight at the end is pretty silly, but I'll forgive it that.

 

A couple of featured underlings appear here, Paul Fix as Dr. Piper, and Paul Carr as Lt. Lee Kelso. Both have other credits in the science-fiction field, and in fact appeared on another series' third broadcast episode (THE TIME TUNNEL) that same year. Carrying the coincidence even further, the two episodes with these two gentlemen aired on consecutive nights.

On Thursday, September 22, 1966, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" hit the airwaves. Paul Fix is in the rear between Scotty and Sulu, Paul Carr is at the helm.


The next night, Friday, September 23, 1966, THE TIME TUNNEL aired "End Of The World", a story about trapped miners and Halley's Comet in 1910. Paul Fix played Henderson, the mine boss:


...while Paul Carr played Blaine, the gang boss in the mine:


Both were character actors who appeared in lots of other series' episodes of the day. Paul Carr appeared a few times in VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA as crewman Clark (one time given the name 'Benson'), and he also did a turn as a semi-regular on the second season of BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY.

The talent exhibited by these two was in evidence back in that September of 1966. I watched both episodes (at least half of STAR TREK), and didn't notice the casting of the same two actors at all.

Harry

 

The "T" was not assigned the name Tiberius until the animated series episode Bem. Sorry, hopeless Trek geek here...

 

Changing to DeForest Kelly was obviously a good move. The chemistry is just better with him. Less of a fatherly figure and more a confidant. The eventual uniforms are much better. I honestly cannot think of one decision they made that should have been different from The Cage to The Corbomite Maneuver (1st episode produced after "Where No Man") where they had settled in to the final look of the show.

I take that back. They had almost settled in. Uhura wears a gold uniform in the Corbomite Maneuver.

Also, maybe the skirts for the ladies should not have been done. It is classic 60s TV to be sure, but probably not as believable as the rest of the decisions.

 

I wish I would remember the source, but I seem to remember reading/hearing that the audience surveys on The Cage had a majority of women disliking the strong Number 1 character ("who does she think she is?"). I'm wondering if that's the reason female crew ended up in skirts, or if there was more to it.

Am I the only one who wishes we saw more of that yeoman from Where No Man Has Gone Before?

 

I think that the pants in WNMHGB were very unflattering for the women. They didn't do the men any favors either, but they looked especially dumpy on the women. I agree that the micro-miniskirts were something that could only happen in the 60's, but they were an improvement.

Women didn't like Number 1? Huh. Actually I'm not surprised - she seemed a strangely unsympathetic character. They may have gone overboard slightly trying to make her a unisex character.

 

It's mentioned by Gene Roddenberry himself in the introduction to the black & white/color version of "The Cage".

Harry

 

Survey says...Sexism (even among women).

 

The book Inside Star Trek by Bob Justman and Herb Solow talks about how Sally Kellerman hated the pants as they made her feel like her private parts were on display. (I think a crew woman is wearing the black pants in "Charlie X" (she's the one Charlie turns old).)

One of my favorite shots in WNMHGB is when Gary jumps into the turbo-lift with Kirk & Spock.

You see the hallway outside the door when he gets in. The door closes and when it finally reopens you can see the entire bridge through it. (It's one continuous take.)

The effect would have been rather easy to achieve, but it does make it feel like the lift is real.

I've seen WTMHGB more than any other episode of the series because I once bought a super 8 print of it. (In the days before VCRs took off.)

When I pulled out the film again sometime in the late-80's, I noticed some wildly bizarre special effects as the Enterprise was going through the galactic barrier...! Swirling colors surrounded the ship and it looked like it was pulsating....!

I then realized that what I was watching was the film melting!

The rubber drive band on my projector chose that instant to break. The frame that was in the gate was getting singed by the hot lamp!

Luckily, I realized what was happening before the film broke, but there is one frame that's now pretty messed up!

 

The original version had a longer scene of Gary Mitchell walking through the corridors, admiring Andrea Dromm's form, and then arriving at the turbolift. That part was shortened for the aired version.



Harry

 

Thanks for this!!! It really introduces the audience to the main characters. I don't think I've ever seen this.

BTW, if you click on the YouTube logo, it will take you to their site where you can view the clip.

 

It was mentioned here when it first showed up on Youtube. And it looks SO much better as an extra on the BluRay set.

Harry

 

Not to mention the upgrade to 7.1.

 

You mean I've had this footage all along on a Blu-ray on my shelf and didn't realize it? That's what I get for ripping disks to my DLNA server and putting them away.

 

Yep. It's on Season Three, Disc Six, in the "Additional Data" section. (Very fine print underneath Disc Six on the tray liner.)

Harry

 

We are ready for our next episode. I have decided to revise a previous rating and lower "The Man Trap" to 4 stars. Very Good, but not the absolute best Trek. However, our first 5 star episode is up next.

 

The Naked Time

Original Air Date: 9/29/66

Stardate: 1704.2

When Lieutenant Junior Grade Tormolen brings aboard an infection that killed the science team on Psi 2000, the crew of the Enterprise soon find themselves unable to control their most pre-dominant emotions. Soon the entire starship is in a shambles and plummeting toward the self destructing planet.

One of the all-time classic Trek episodes. There are so many things that stand out in this episode. The orange space-suits are iconic, and the ice facility on Psi 2000 looks great. There are 3 performances that make this episode: 1. Riley's performance is fantastic 2. Sulu and his swordplay 3. Spock and his soliloquy. Leonard Nimoy stated his fan-mail went through the roof after this episode. The only part of the episode I do not like is the captain's soliloquy. It is not Shatner's fault, the lines are not that great. Still, that is a small complaint. This is classic Trek

Personal Rating: 5 stars

 

Trivia:

The budget-strapped show often made good use of the creativity of its prop staff in coming up with low-cost solutions to otherwise pricey items. Here, the "space suit" hoods worn by Spock and Tormolen on the planet's surface were fashioned from art deco 1960s-style shower curtains.

The futuristic-looking instrument Spock uses in the derelict planetary outpost is in fact an old-style, 20th-century radiation survey meter, which was called, for some mysterious reason by those who used it, the "Cutie Pie".

The bowling alley mentioned by Lt. Riley was never seen on Star Trek, but did show up on the USS Enterprise blueprints issued in the 1970's.

After his appearance in the second pilot episode, George Takei accepted the regular role of Sulu largely because he read a draft of this script, and relished the idea of running shirtless through the ship, sword in hand. However, he had no fencing experience, so as soon as he was hired, he began a crash-course on the sport. In the end, he loved his sword-fighting scene so much he held onto the rapier for several hours, poking stage hands with it and engaging in mock duels off the set. In his autobiography "To the Stars", Takei names this episode as his favorite.

Writer John D.F. Black originally wanted Sulu to enact a Samurai fantasy. George Takeifelt that this would be pandering to racial stereotypes so he suggested the Three Musketeers fantasy instead.

First appearance in the series of Nurse Christine Chapel, played by Gene Roddenberry's then mistress and future wife Majel Barrett.

This was intended to be Star Trek's two-parter, but the idea was dropped. What would have been the second half of the story became Star Trek: Tomorrow Is Yesterday.

After the warp engines implode, the ship is going backward in time. They reverse course and time flows forward. The ship's chronometer is calibrated wrong - it goes from 7:59 to 7:00 to 8:01. (This has been corrected in the Remastered Edition.)

 

"The Naked Time" was truly the first great STAR TREK episode that I latched onto. Though I probably saw the first half in 1966, it wouldn't be until the 1967 summer rerun that I saw the whole thing.

This episode makes a really fine introduction to the crew of the Enterprise, their roles on the ship, and it reveals a bit of their inner personalities. It was such a good introduction that when THE NEXT GENERATION set about doing their introductions in their second episode, they lifted much from "The Naked Time". That latter version can't hold a candle to the original though.

I also recall seeing this one screened at an early STAR TREK convention in the '70s. Seeing it projected onto a larger screen gave me a taste of how STAR TREK would look on a big screen that wouldn't actually be realized until the end of the decade.

Again, the use of colored lights to shine on the backgrounds and hallways is amazing. Anyone who had a color TV back then had to really relish the look of STAR TREK (and we did). A scene will be in a briefing room or sickbay and a door will open and outside, the corridors are lit with oranges and greens and all manner of exotic colors. And the background lighting surrounding Riley in Engineering is just fabulous too. It's not very realistic, but it truly is a joy to look at on the TV. I also liked the crossed, colored light beams that shine on the upper display screens of the bridge, and this was the first episode that I took notice of those screens.

The updated effects in this one help out a lot. There's not a lot of exterior outer-space shots, but the Psi2000 planet looks much better in the remastered version, and as already mentioned, the chronometer strangeness was properly fixed. That was always a "take me out of the moment" problem as I've always been a clock observer, so the numbers not changing properly always got to me.

I never had a problem with Kirk's soliloquy, and always thought his "no beach to walk on" line was rather poignant.

To me, this is definitive STAR TREK, and could easily be an episode used to introduce the show to a newbie who'd never seen it before.

Harry

 

I don't have a big problem with Kirk's soliloquy. It isn't "bad" or "cheesy" by any means. Frankly, my dislike of it might be that it pales in comparison to Spock's.

 

The first episode where Spock was Spock. In 1966, this episode shot through the culture like a lightning bolt.

 

I haven't seen this episode in many years. I'm now intrigued to watch it again. My memory of it is that it's rather embarrassing and cheesy, but reading others' comments makes me think:

1. Kirk's soliloquy was like freakin' Shakespeare to me when I was 12. I'd forgotten that.
2. In modern TV series', it seems to me that you have to watch an awful lot of episodes to really get to know the characters and what their strengths and weaknesses are and what motivates them. Well, this episode did it for a whole lot of characters very early in the series. A lot of the appeal of Star Trek seems to be the personalities of the characters and the sort of regard that fans have for them, Well, I bet that this ep cleared a whole lot of that ground in one short hour.

 

An amazing episode written by John D.F. Black, well directed and performed. Helped to establish the character templates. I did find it cheesy when Rosdenberry revived this story for ST:TNG. it's nowhere near as good.

 

Yes, I too felt that "remake" was misguided. The TOS Naked Time used the plot device to present either insights into or potentials of the character templates, as you say. The TNG's Naked Now seemed to use the plot device to present the characters either acting out of character as teasers or as a suspense and comedy device from a "can the funny drunk keep their mind on their job" angle. To my impressions, Naked Now didn't help me to latch on to what the show really intended to deliver upon as much as TOS' Naked Time did. They clearly weren't up to the entwined suspense and comedy aspect (if they ever were; humor was not often their strongest suit). Still, it was only TNG's 2nd episode.

Off topic a bit, but I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I'm enjoying some of the 1st season of TNG in the new HD versions. While I'm quite fond of TNG, I had a less favorable memory of the 1st season.