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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 3, 2020 9:40:01 GMT
It's been more than 50 years since the USS Enterprise first appeared on humanity's television screens. In that time, the world has changed a lot. Yet, Star Trek still exists. At the time of writing, there are a total of 778 different episodes/films/shorts. But how good is the original? Does it still hold up all these years later? If I were to judge this as a modern-day show, would it pass or fail?
That's what I want to examine here. I haven't seen the original Star Trek in ages, and I decided I wanted to do a re-watch of the entire franchise. So here I am, doing just that. I stepped back in time to 1966 and turned on my television set. To boldly go where I have already gone once before!
In this thread, I will review each episode, and discuss what it does right and what it does wrong. I am going to keep this up for at least the entirety of The Original Series. I have not yet decided if I am going to keep doing these reviews for The Next Generation and the other spin-offs. I am going to try and do one of these per day, but I suspect that real-life will get in the way and I won't be able to always do so. But still, for most days, you can check this thread and find a new post, about a new episode.
Oh, and uh... spoilers will be here. I don't think it matters that I'm spoiling content that aired on television over half a century ago, but uh, if you haven't seen the show, go watch it before you read this thread.
So let's start by looking at the premiere: "The Man Trap"
So, first things first, William Shatner is actually super-hot in his prime. I'm so used to seeing him as an old man in modern-day stuff that I often forget that Kirk is sexy. And it's not jus him! Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, and Nichelle Nichols are all BEAUTIFUL in this. I love looking at them, and I'm excited to finally revisit this classic. I get to spend 79 episodes with them! I can't wait.
Now, let's talk about the overall plot of Star Trek: The Original Series. Captain Kirk and the others are on a starship and they are sent to explore other worlds. That's it. That's the entire plot. As far as plots go, this is awfully simplistic for a TV show, which was to be expected in the 60s, but it is dated by today's standards. You want to know what isn't dated about this plot though? It's respectful. It would be so easy to make the crew of the Enterprise colonize other planets or invade other planets. But they don't. They just catalogue them for humanity and move on. That shows respect, and I fully support this.
Now, as for the individual episode, I was a bit surprised by how the conflict was introduced. Bear in mind: this episode was the world's first exposure to Star Trek. And what is it about? A shapeshifting alien criminal. But is that a problem? When we first see "Nancy", we see her shapeshift a few times. But because this is our first exposure to Star Trek, we don't know that this is "wrong". Perhaps this is just a thing that people can do in this universe? And yet, despite that, I felt like something was wrong here even before she started killing people. Why was that? I'm uncertain, but I believe the music cues gave a great overtone to Nancy's actions.
You want to know what else surprised me? The interaction between the cast members. It's most prominent between Kirk and McCoy, but you can see it between all of the main characters here. They act like they've all been friends working together for years. They respect each other, but they also poke fun at each other at times. (That scene where Uhura playfully flirts with Spock is amazing btw.) In a modern-day show, you'd probably have these characters first meet each other here, and the respect would slowly grow over time. Indeed, that's how EVERY Star Trek show is: except for this one. The crew are strangers to each other in the beginning. And that makes sense, because the actors aren't yet used to each other and will slowly build up a friendly relationship with each other during filming. But here? It just WORKS. I am flat-out stunned by this.
But let's talk about the most important aspect of Star Trek The Original Series: racism. Or rather, the lack thereof. This is an incredibly diverse main cast. Yes, the main trio (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) are all white guys, but we've also got a black woman, a Japanese man, and many more. But it's not just limited to the main characters. Look at the people in the background! There is so much racial diversity here that I honestly didn't believe it. I don't remember Star Trek The Original Series being *this* good with its racial casting. Not only is it on par with a modern-day show, but I'd argue that this actually SURPASSES modern-day shows. If you view racial diversity as a good thing (which, you know, it is), then this is the show for you. It honestly feels like television has made a big step backwards since then. And this is a show from the 1960s! Holy crap!
And for the plot of just this episode in particular, it's a shapeshifter invading the crew of an isolated ship, and it starts picking them off. That's a really clichéd story, yet... it's possible that it started here. I dunno for sure, but all the examples I can think of come after this episode's airdate. *shrug*
And on top of that, this episode goes in a direction that few of these stories go into: you can sympathize with the monster. It's dying and it needs salt to live, so it collects it out of human bodies. It killed Professor Crater's wife, and rather than kill it in revenge, Crater allowed it to live if it would take the form of his wife. There may be other layers to this too, that we never see. When it took the form of Uhura's dream man, how did it know what such a man would look like? Can it read minds? Never explained. It's usually unsatisfying to not have all the answers, but in a way, that's what Star Trek is about: admission of ignorance. We wouldn't need to explore the galaxy if we already knew what was out there, right?
Overall, I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. I initially thought that my journey through a revisit of Star Trek would begin with a long slog through The Original Series before I finally got to the good stuff with The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. But I was pleasantly surprised with just how enjoyable this episode was. Maybe it was just a fluke and other episodes won't be as good, but for now, I am enjoying this.
Best part: Seeing all the different races of the background characters. Didn't realize how diverse the BACKGROUND CHARACTERS were in this show. I originally thought Uhura was just a one-off, but nope. Black people are allowed to serve in Starfleet.
Worst part: The plant in the botany lab. It is so obviously a hand inside of a puppet. That definitely did not age well.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "Charlie X".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 3, 2020 21:32:30 GMT
Trigger warning: Discussion of nonconsensual romantic pursuit
All right, so I just saw "Charlie X" and let me talk about it.
For starters, we learn how many people are on the USS Enterprise for the first time: 428.
And I want to bring up something from last time: the diversity in the characters. It's still on full display here, and that number helps provide context here. This isn't some futuristic sci-fi world where women and people of color are missing for no reason. No, they are here. And more than that, they are valued members of the crew. And we see them CONSTANTLY.
We also get to see the characters off-duty for the first time. The scene in the lounge where Uhura sings, Janice eggs her on, she jokes about Spock's alien strangeness... it was all good. It made these characters feel more real. They have fun with each other! It's a nice scene.
We get to see the Kirk-Spock-McCoy dynamic here for the first time. In a sense, this feels like an "angel/devil on the shoulder" scenario. Kirk is the one in charge, making the decisions, but he consults Spock and McCoy for guidance, and each of them view situations differently. Spock is knowledgeable and very scientific, with an extreme dedication for logic (and, of course, remember, he is half-Human, so this isn't just because he's an alien). McCoy, on the other hand, is an emotional person with experience of being human and has knowledge of biology and health. Both inputs are valuable to Kirk. But perhaps the most interesting person in this dynamic is Kirk himself. He's the captain. He can do whatever he wants and people will go along with it. But the show doesn't present him as being all-knowing and always having the answer. He needs help from his crew. And he understands that. And he gets guidance where he can.
Perhaps the best demonstration of this is where Charlie swats Janice's ass, and she has Kirk explain to him why that's wrong. And Kirk UTTERLY FAILS at trying to explain women to Charlie.
"I see. Well, um, er, there are things you can do with a lady, er, Charlie, that you er. There's no right way to hit a woman. I mean, man to man is one thing, but, er, man and woman, er, it's, er, it's, er. Well it's, er, another thing. Do you understand?"
No. No I do not understand. That is literally the worst explanation I have EVER heard in my life.
Moreover, Charlie isn't just an adolescent. He's a fish out of water, and that further complicates things. Until now, he's had no social interaction, so it's understandable that he doesn't understand this. And you know what I like about this? It's relatable. A lot of people struggle with social interaction. Sometimes it's because they have anxiety. Sometimes it's because they're on the autism spectrum. Sometimes it's because they're raised in a culture with different social rules than the dominant culture. Sometimes it's, well, a number of other things.
I'll be honest: I didn't like Charlie at all for the first third of the episode. He constantly annoyed me with how much he was getting obvious social rules wrong. But as the episode progressed, he grew on me. I liked him. After all, lack of social skills is completely understandable in his situation. He's just ignorant.
And then we get to the reveal that Charlie has nearly-unstoppable powers. He uses them to punish the crew of the Enterprise and the Antares whenever they aren't "nice" to him. With "nice" from his perception being basically adoring him all the time. We see him make Spock recite poetry, turn Tina into an iguana, and electrocute Uhura. But the real kicker is Janice. He felt entitled to have her simply because he was "nice" to her, and didn't understand why she needed to consent.
GEE DOES THAT SOUND FAMILIAR.
Yep, "Charlie X" is masterfully written, because this plot is DEEPLY relevant today. Look at the "incels" culture. Look at all the male supremacists that exist in positions of power. Look at EVERYTHING THAT'S GOING ON RIGHT NOW. Holy fuck.
And yes, Charlie is made to be very unlikeable. That's what makes the moral conundrum at the end of the episode so... well... conundrum-y. Charlie will be sent back to a world with no lifeforms to interact with, and will almost certainly never see another human again. That's BRUTAL. But is it acceptable in this situation? He had horrific behavior, after all. The image of Charlie begging Kirk to let him stay on the Enterprise is one that will stick with you after you finish the episode. It's like watching The Twilight Zone.
Yikes.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 5, 2020 4:19:00 GMT
Oh boy, this was a weird one.
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" doesn't feel like Star Trek. And in a sense, that's because it ISN'T Star Trek. Rather, it is a beta version of Star Trek. Many people know that "The Cage" was the original pilot to the show, but what is less-known is that "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the second pilot. And, um, it shows.
The costuming looks different, with the uniforms being a slightly different design than those seen in previous episode. Spock's skin tone has a slightly mild green tint to it. The ship actually leaves the Milky Way Galaxy. Uhura and McCoy fail to make an appearance (the latter is especially noteworthy, given the amount of time spent in sickbay in this episode). And so on. Everything just feels "off".
But perhaps most notably, this episode deals with the supernatural, rather than the scientific. There are frequent references to ESP and psychic powers, and the characters just accept these as having always existed in humans (albeit rarely) in this universe. That's not something that modern Trek would do.
I will say that Gary Lockwood, the actor playing Gary Mitchell here, is a pretty good actor. He really plays off the role well. He's a human that's suddenly thrust into becoming a god. If that sounds familiar, that's because literally yesterday I saw a very similar plot in "Charlie X". Having the same plot twice back-to-back is not that great, but since this was just a pilot, I can (kinda) understand it. "Charlie X" did this plot better, for what it's worth.
One thing a pilot is meant to do is introduce the concept of your show. Does this episode do that? Well... kinda? We do get to learn that Spock cannot show emotion, but that he has a human ancestor. We learn some of Kirk's origin story, with his time at the academy. We see that Kirk is kind to his crew, and he refuses to doom one of them to death or to marooning on a remote planet until ABSOLUTELY necessary. He holds out hope for humanity far longer than anyone else.
When facing down Elizabeth Dehner, Kirk appeals to her profession as a psychiatrist to snap her out of her psychic-induced state, relying on her to still have humanity by connecting with her through her reason and scholarship. And then, once she sacrifices herself to save Kirk (and probably a lot of other people) from Mitchell, what does Kirk do? He makes a note in his log about how they both died with honor, having never asked to be thrust into the situation that they were in.
That's a really good note to end on. And it demonstrates Captain Kirk's character perfectly. This episode, more than the previous two, gave me a sense for who Kirk is. That's an important thing for a pilot to do.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "The Naked Time".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 5, 2020 19:14:48 GMT
Trigger warning: Mention of suicide.
OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS EPISODE.
At the time of this writing, the world is currently dealing with a massive pandemic (coronavirus disease 2019), so you'd think that watching an episode about the spread of a disease would be hard on me. But it wasn't. Why is that? Because of what the polywater intoxication does to these people: it makes them act really silly.
And it's hilarious.
For the most part.
Joe is the one exception to this. He commits suicide, by simply willing his body to die. But before that? The scene in the mess hall was fascinating. Here's his dialogue: "We're all a bunch of hypocrites. Sticking our noses into something that we've got no business. What are we doing out here, anyway? We bring pain and trouble with us, leave men and women stuck out on freezing planets until they die. What are we doing out here in space? Good? What good? We're polluting it, destroying it. We've got no business being out here. No business. If a man was supposed to fly, he'd have wings. If he was supposed to be out in space, he wouldn't need air to breathe, wouldn't need life-support systems to keep him from freezing to death. We don't belong here. It's not ours. Not ours. Destroying and watching. We don't belong. I don't belong. Six people died down there. Why do I deserve to live?"
And, well, it's a very good point. Do humans belong in space? Or should they have stayed on Earth? It's an interesting philosophical discussion that, as far as I can remember, Star Trek has never devoted a full episode to. It's something that I'd like to see. Perhaps in the future, Star Trek can explore this concept.
Anywho, back to this episode. It's good light-hearted fun.
Riley believes himself to be of Irish royalty and then he thinks that he's captain of the Enterprise.
Sulu becomes a swashbuckling hero rescuing Uhura, his damsel in distress.
Christine starts experiencing feelings for Spock.
Spock gets depressed about the fact that he can't feel emotions, and therefore could never love his mother, who, as a human, needed to feel love.
Kirk at first feels love for his ship, and then realizes that he can't share that love with other members of his crew, since, as captain, it would be inappropriate for him to fall for a crewman. And then he descends into paranoia about how he's afraid he'll be a terrible captain.
All of these are feelings that the crew actually has to some extent, but they're brought to the surface here and given full display. I like this because it tells us what kinds of characters these people are.
Overall, yes, I think this episode does hold up by modern-day standards...
...
..until it doesn't.
The first 80% of this episode was amazing. But let's talk about the ending. Yeah, yeah, McCoy finds a cure for the disease. But by then, the Enterprise has run into another problem. The ship is spiraling down into the atmosphere of a dying planet. They have 8 minutes before they burn up and die. Riley had taken over the engine room and locked out Scotty and the others. Scotty has just broken in and is now back in control, only to discover that the engine has been turned COMPLETELY OFF and it will take 30 minutes to turn back on again. Not enough time. They can't get out of their descent.
And then Kirk comes up with a technobabble solution that has never been attempted before and only has a 1 in 10000 chance of working.
And, naturally, it works.
First of all, OF COURSE IT WORKS! Even if someone were watching this show for the first time, I don't think that there would be any suspense or any surprise to this moment. You don't just kill off your entire main cast. This isn't Buffy the Vampire Slayer or anything like that. :P
Secondly, this whole "minuscule odds of success, better pray that this works" at the end thing is very cliché, both within Star Trek and without it. It's not something that would be included in this episode if it were a modern-day episode. Luckily, it can be quickly edited out by simply giving the crew control of the ship again as soon as Scotty breaks into engineering, so it can easily be ignored.
And then the Enterprise is thrown back in time three days. Kirk just accepts this and moves on to their next destination. He's acting responsible here -- he's not going to time travel willy-nilly when there are extreme risks involved. This shows Kirk as a good captain, thereby closing up that arc from earlier. It was a nice touch, though I do admit that I could do without the "time travel" aspect of it.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "The Enemy Within".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 7, 2020 3:53:20 GMT
Trigger Warning: Discussion of rape.
So, on paper, this episode has a neat idea: a transporter malfunction splits Kirk into his "good" half and his "evil" half. William Shatner's acting here is, well... it's William Shatner. He plays both versions of Kirk in a... Shatner-esque way. It's... not that great.
But perhaps the script's biggest blunder is when Spock and McCoy tell Kirk that he needs his evil side in order to function. That wouldn't be so bad... if not for the fact that this scene is placed IMMEDIATELY after Evil Kirk attempts to rape Yeoman Rand. Like, you don't show something THAT horrific on-screen and then show characters saying "Kirk needs that part of himself". Fuck that.
And then let's get to the other issues: Good Kirk loses his sense of discipline, confidence, and leadership. Why? Because, according to the episode, those are "evil" qualities. And that's where the script kinda loses me. I don't believe that there is anything evil about that.
But there's another issue with this episode: the attempted rape of Yeoman Rand. Good Kirk reacts to her telling him about Evil Kirk's behavior with shock and outrage. As he should. This is fucking RAPE. But then he continues to view Evil Kirk as being a necessary part of himself. FUCK THIS SHIT. Maybe it's just me, but if I discovered that there was a part of my brain who enjoyed raping people, I'd want that part of my brain purged from existence. Because this is not okay.
And then there's the big problem with this episode: Spock's line to Yeoman Rand at the end of it all. "The, er, impostor had some interesting qualities, wouldn't you say, Yeoman?" NO. FUCK YOU, EPISODE. YOU DON'T GET TO USE THAT LINE. There is nothing "interesting" about rape. It's horrifying and awful and nothing good, or even neutral, can ever come out of it. This episode needs to go sit in the corner and think about what it's done.
And, again, I want to stress, the PREMISE of the episode is good. I like it. I think that you can get this idea to work. But this was not the way to do it. The episode's execution was abysmal. It definitely does not hold up.
I also don't think it's a good choice to portray Evil Kirk the way they did. Kirk doesn't really have that many negative personality traits to accentuate. And even if he did, we wouldn't have seen them portrayed much this early into the show's run. I think another character and a later episode would have been the better way to use this plot.
And now let's talk about the alien dog. Yes, it is so dated by today's standards. It's clearly just a real-life dog that they stuck a horn onto its head. But I'm willing to forgive it because it is cute and adorable and loving and awesome. I want to pet it. It is the best part of this episode by far. Good dog. I hope you were given lots of kibble for your performance here.
Now, to avoid being all negative, there were a few things that I did like about this episode. First of all, we do get to see Good Kirk and Evil Kirk on-screen simultaneously. While this would be done by green-screens today, back in the '60s, that technology didn't exist. Here, they just use a stunt double to portray whichever one is less in-focus at the time, and it works. Like, I only suspected it wasn't Shatner because of the time period that this came out in. If it had been made today, I wouldn't have known. The stunt double did a good job.
Another good thing in the episode was the scene with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Kirk frequently relies on Spock and McCoy to help him make his decisions, but he still ultimately firmly decides something. Here, without his evil half, we see him unable to make a decision at all. It's very disturbing to watch because this isn't the Kirk we've come to know. The tone of that scene was pretty good. (Though, again, I hate the fact that decisiveness is seen as "evil".)
And another really good thing about the episode is the music. Both Good Kirk and Evil Kirk have different leitmotifs, and they reflect their personalities pretty well. The music is the second-best part of the episode (the dog is still number one!).
So, yeah, if I look past the rape stuff, I can see SOME semblance of good here. But unfortunately, it's surrounded by so much bad stuff that I just can't get behind this one. If you like this episode, I do see where you're coming from, but this is just not a good one for me. And Spock's line near the end is damn near unforgivable.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "Mudd's Women".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 7, 2020 22:18:50 GMT
Trigger warning: Sexism
Ugh, this episode.
I was definitely not looking forward to it.
Roger Carmel, the actor who plays Harcourt Fenton Mudd, is a delight. He's so overly flamboyant in this role, and that suits Mudd perfectly. That's just about the only good thing I can say about this episode. So now on to the negative.
Anyways, this is a VERY sexist episode. From the moment that Eve, Ruth, and Magda appear on-screen, all three of them are sexually objectified. Like, the camera constantly gets angles to show off their breasts and their butts. The outfits that these women wear are flashy and absurd and not practical. And the way the men react to seeing them, just going into a hypnotic trance... It's gross and not necessary! If you're going to argue that this is the point of the episode, hold on for a moment. Read on. I'll get to that.
Now, as it turns out, Mudd is a scam artist, and he's trying to trick people (both the crew of the Enterprise and the miners on Rigel XII) that these women are more beautiful than they actually are. In reality, they're "ugly" (the episode's choice of words, not mine). As if women have no worth other than their physical appearances. You know, isn't beauty subjective? I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who find these women to be attractive even in their "ugly" forms, but I digress.
The bigger point I want to make here is: WHO is this episode for? Like, legitimately, who's your target audience here? I could maybe see the argument that you'll capture horny young straight guys with this episode, but that's pretty narrow. What about all the women who watch Star Trek? This episode offers NOTHING for them at best, and at worst, it tells them that they ought to just shut up and be sex objects for their men to use.
Now let's talk about the other aspect of this episode: the Enterprise crew. In the past, I have praised this show for its diversity. In this episode, and only this episode, that diversity is thrown away. Aside from Uhura, who only appears in one or two scenes just manning her station on the bridge, we do not see ANY women as Enterprise crew members in this episode. And, well, it's easy to see why. This episode exists to objectify women. If they had female crew members on the set, that would negate the point of this episode. Worse, if they gave a character like Uhura or Rand an important role, then that character would likely voice objections to what's going on. Can't have that, can we?
"Boys will be boys" is a saying that gets tossed around a lot, as an excuse for the way that straight men treat women. And you know what? It's bullshit. Being a man is not an excuse to treat a woman like an object, and I loathe it whenever I see an episode of television that drills that message in. "He's a man, so he can't help it" is total crap. You can focus on your intellect, rise above your sex drive, and try not to think with your dick all the time. It's not that hard.
And yet, in this episode, EVERY. SINGLE. MAN. gets "distracted by the sexy". Not *one* person stopped and thought, you know, maybe, just maybe, we should treat these women like actual goddamn human beings? The only person who doesn't seem to be affected by these women's charms is Mudd himself. Why is he immune to this? Well, we do KIND OF get an explanation. Namely, the reveal that these women are being drugged. You could argue that the drug that these women take also causes them to exude pheromones that cause men to get horny or something. And Mudd has just built up a resistance to the drug after all this time with the women. But guess what? The episode throws that explanation out the window with the later reveal that the "drug" is just a placebo.
And let's talk about that. How does this placebo work? I *think* the message that the episode was trying to get across (admittedly it's unclear) is that you are as beautiful as you think you are, you don't need to be "fake". Except that's total bullshit when you look at how this episode was presenting it. We do see physical changes in these women when they are drugged. Why is that? If it's a placebo, then it should not be shown to us. You can just have the women say that they "feel" like they are getting "uglier" without actually showing any difference on-screen.
And then there's the other blunders in the episode. Why does every single person on the Enterprise feel that these women are distracting? That's never explained. We see one of the women walk past McCoy's medical monitor and it makes a weird noise. What happened there? Never explained.
And then we come back to the point I made earlier. The fact that the men are all ogling these women for the entire episode. If you're going to argue that that's the point, then what exactly is it that you are saying? That women are more powerful than men because they are above this whole "sex-based desire" thing? That women are distracting to men and so should keep their distance? That women are "fake" versions of men? There's no real good conclusion that you can draw from that.
But never mind all of that!
Because the ending of this episode is somehow EVEN MORE SEXIST than everything that I just wrote above. At the end of it all, these three women decide to stay with the miners. The episode argues that the best option for these women was to become wives to complete strangers, because their beauty was a bad thing and that these men deserve to be with less beautiful women. After all, pretty women are vain and selfish, right?
Ugh.
There's honestly so much sexism packed into this episode that I don't really have the time or energy to go through all of it. If I did, this post would be too long for your computer to render properly.
Let's just admit that this one doesn't hold up to modern-day standards and move on.
To be honest, I am curious what 1960's audiences thought of this episode. Like, did it just not age well? Or was it abysmal even in its own time period? I, quite frankly, would not be surprised either way.
I just want to forget the whole affair and move on to the next episode.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "What Are Little Girls Made Of?".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 8, 2020 20:52:10 GMT
So, this was an interesting episode.
The Enterprise makes contact with Dr. Roger Korby, Nurse Chapel's missing fiancé who no one has seen in five years.
They beam down, some redshirts die, and then they find Dr. Korby.
Now here's where Dr. Korby lost me on his "androids are superior to humans" argument: you literally just had your androids kill two redshirts. How is that better?
We do get to see Ruk and Andrea, some other androids. And these ones are, um, yeah... both of them are very sexually attractive, with the latter basically existing only to be sexualized. I'm not complaining, since, well, even Kirk is sexually attractive, so it's not like this is just an android thing. But it does feel strange to present these two as examples of why we should try to mass produce androids.
On that note, what exactly is Dr. Korby's endgame? That wasn't made clear. Did he want to populate Earth with androids in order to replace humans with a superior version of themselves? Did he want to create androids to serve us? It wasn't really that clear.
You want to know what else was silly? The Kirk android. HOW DID THEY FILM THAT? I've been scratching my head trying to figure out how that would have been possible in the 1960s, and the only explanation I can think of is that they really genuinely did it for real. They took William Shatner and a stunt double and spun them around really fast. For real. No faking it. If that's the case, kudos to Shatner.
Now, let's also take a look at the reveal that Roger Korby is an android. That's proof enough that he's lost his humanity, both in the literal sense and in the metaphorical sense. He initially presented himself as a human. In other words, he felt the need to lie and deceive Kirk and Chapel in order to get what he wanted.
But more to the point, Kirk proves that humans are superior to androids by outwitting Dr. Korby at THREE different turns.
First, he implants a message to Spock within the android Kirk, just in case the android Kirk ends up back on the Enterprise. AND IT WORKS. Android Kirk uses a racial slur to refer to Spock, and Spock picks up on it right away. He knows that the real Kirk would never be this disrespectful to him.
Second, he shows Andrea the concept of love and attraction. Admittedly, by modern-day standards, they fumbled this one a LOT. He forces Andrea to kiss him (so gross!) and then all of a sudden Andrea wants to kill Android Kirk and wants to fall in love with Dr. Korby. That's... not good writing.
Third, he appeals to Ruk's logic by unearthing the programming left in place by the Old Ones. He convinces Ruk that Dr. Korby represents a threat to the future of androids, just as the One Ones did. As an aside, that was totally a Lovecraftian horror reference, right? Calling them "the Old Ones". That was a nice touch.
Anyways, I don't have much else to say on this one. It's an interesting episode, but it's honestly neither "good" nor "bad". I honestly have no opinion on this one.
Sorry I couldn't give you a better review than that.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "Miri".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 10, 2020 5:58:04 GMT
Well, this one was disturbing.
So, if you don't remember this episode, it was about the crew of the Enterprise finding an exact duplicate of Earth. They beam down and find something disturbing. There was a group of scientists down there that were working on a virus to enhance the lifespans of their species. If it worked, these people would age only one month every century. And, in children, it worked perfectly. But as soon as puberty hits, the virus would kill the infected person. As a result, all of the adults on this planet died once this virus went airborne. The children, having no one to take care of them, and having long lifespans, just wandered the planet playing and getting into trouble for the past three hundred years. Their brains also seem to not develop, as they are still acting like, well, children. And, of course, as soon as one of them hits puberty, they immediately die.
THAT IS FUCKED UP.
Kim Darby, the actress who plays Miri here, is a good actress. She's been conditioned to believe that all grown-ups (or "grups" as she calls them) are evil, but over time, learns to trust Kirk and Rand and help them develop a cure to the disease that they have all contracted. We even see her perform little nervous habits at the beginning when she's around the "grups", because she's initially distrustful.
And given what we see of Jahn, the leader of the children, later in the episode, it frames everything that Miri does in a new light. Of course she treats everything like a "game". That's all she's ever known!
Really, there's a lot of fucked-up things about this episode once you start thinking about them. Like, what happens when the children run out of food? There aren't any adults making more food for them. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, really.
Of course, the entire point of the episode was to make us uncomfortable, and it accomplished that in spades. Creepy children will always be... well... creepy. And yes, the children are (mostly) bad actors, but that doesn't take away from how creepy the concept is. The children here all have distinct memories of what adults can do to them, and so they sabotage the crew of the Enterprise at every possible opportunity.
So, does this episode hold up by modern-day standards? Ehhhh, debatable. I think everything that I've talked about so far clearly does hold up. It's just as uncomfortable to watch now as it was in the 1960s. But notice that I left one bit out: the resolution.
Yeah, the resolution of this episode is terrible.
McCoy creates what he believes to be a cure, but he can't know for sure until he checks it with the main computer of the Enterprise. But he can't contact the Enterprise because the children stole their communicators. Well, eventually, Kirk, after getting the shit beaten out of him by a group of children, gets the communicators back. And then... the episode stops.
Yeah, it just kinda ends there. We're left to assume that everyone was saved, but we never actually see it happen. I mean, we see McCoy inject himself, and then the purple spots on his skin start to fade, but that's it. After that, there's just a hard cut to Kirk on the bridge again, healthy just as before, ordering the crew to chart a course for their next destination.
It's a rather underwhelming ending after all that build-up. And for that reason alone, I'm gonna have to say that this wouldn't really make a good episode of television in our modern lives. Audiences would probably feel pretty underwhelmed by the whole thing.
One quick note about this episode, though: it's the first episode that's filmed mostly outdoors. The bright scenery makes for a nice change of pace compared to the dark caves or starship interiors that we've mostly been seeing up until now. So that's a mark in its favor, I guess.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "Dagger of the Mind".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 11, 2020 5:18:18 GMT
Trigger warning: Nonconsensual romantic pursuits Trigger warning: Ableism Trigger warning: Nonconsensual medical procedures Trigger warning: Violence against prisoners
Oh, man... I LOVE THIS EPISODE SO MUCH.
There's just one problem with it: it isn't a sci-fi story. Seriously, sci-fi is supposed to be about imaginative and futuristic concepts. This is BARELY distinct from real-life. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
In the opening, we see what appears to be a criminal sneaking out of prison and finding a way onto the Enterprise. And we are led to believe that Dr. Simon van Gelder is exactly that. But as the episode progresses, we learn bits and pieces of the truth, and that much of what we believed makes absolutely no sense. And because of that, I'm skeptical that this would hold up to a modern audience. They may get bored at the beginning, since everything is seemingly going so slow.
And then we meet Dr. Adams. He presents himself as an open, honest, transparent person. He treats Kirk and Dr. Helen Noel with respect. But that's all just a ruse to get them to believe that Dr. van Gelder had just lost his sanity. He wants Kirk and Dr. Noel to not be suspicious of him. And in the case of Dr. Noel, it works. She trusts him because she believes in the rehabilitation of prisoners that he's doing on Tantalus V. But the pieces don't add up. Dr. van Gelder keeps having moments of clarity and they corroborate with other evidence. And then Spock does a mind-meld and learns the truth about Dr. Adams.
He has been doing nonconsensual medical experimentation on his prisoners. At the time this episode aired, in the 1960s, I imagine that this was a reference to prisoners during World War II. Nowadays, several decades later? This is just reality. Not only has America been practicing experimental medicine on prisoners for the past, well, forever, but it's arguably even worse because prisoners in our world are more likely to be poor people, especially marginalized groups like people of color.
Again, THIS IS NOT SATIRICAL. THIS IS A REAL THING THAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.
And yet, the episode presents this as "sci-fi", as though this is a futuristic thing for us to keep on the radar and watch out for. News flash: we're already there.
Although no one in this episode uses the word "consent", it's clear that this is the issue at heart here. Dr. Adams was treating his prisoners like guinea pigs, and using the neural neutralizer to neuter everyone's brains. When Dr. van Gelder tried to leak this out, Dr. Adams used the neural neutralizer on HIM to keep him quiet, and then claimed that Dr. van Gelder had tested the neutralizer on himself. Dr. Adams violated the consent of EVERYONE under his care. It's extremely unsettling.
You want to know what's even more unsettling? Spock's line at the beginning: "Interesting. Your Earth people glorify organized violence for forty centuries, but you imprison those who employ it privately." THANKS FOR THAT, SPOCK. I needed a punch to the heart right now.
Yeah, the way we treat prisoners is god-awful and I honestly don't understand how it has perpetuated for this long (well, actually I do: it's because of money and for-profit prisons and ugh). I really wish that we focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment. Norwegian-style prisons are confirmed to be more effective than American-style prisons by literally EVERYONE who studies them. Can we please just switch over already?
One last thing about consent in this episode: Let's examine the relationship between Kirk and Dr. Noel. There's admittedly not much there. All we know for sure is that they met at a Christmas party and flirted with each other. But when Kirk and Noel try out the neural neutralizer to see what it can do, she tests it by doing a few harmless things, but when Kirk suggests something more radical, she brainwashes him into thinking that he "swept her off her feet" and then took her back to his quarters. Given this, I think it's fair to assume that Dr. Noel actually WAS attracted to Kirk. And then, when Dr. Adams later brainwashes Kirk into believing that he is deeply in love with Dr. Noel and has been for years, Dr. Noel is basically handed her fantasy on a silver platter. Kirk is attracted to her now. And yet, she refuses to take advantage of it. She knows that it's wrong for her to take advantage of his lack of consent in this attraction. It's admittedly not handled PERFECTLY, but it's pretty damn good for a show from the 1960s.
So yeah, there's a few issues here and there, but overall, this episode is deeply unsettling because it is SO PERFECTLY RELEVANT to the modern-day world. I think it would hold up overall.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "The Corbomite Maneuver".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 11, 2020 20:57:01 GMT
This episode is a real masterpiece, because about 95% of the episode takes place on the bridge. That's it: just that one set piece.
And as for what happens on the bridge? Barely anything. There's the two alien encounters and that's it.
There's an old saying: "If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter." And that definitely applies here. Expert literary writing comes not from what you write, but rather, from what you DON'T write. The most famous example of this is the six-word story: "For Sale: Baby Shoes. Never Worn." It tells a tragedy of loss without ever actually explaining it, but just by letting the meaning of the words sink in with the reader. The fact of the matter is, that when you're writing, the less you have to write, the better.
And that's the beauty of this episode. The true heart of it is the unknown. There is SOMETHING powerful out there, but no one on the Enterprise knows what it is. The episode escalates into a game of poker where each side is trying hard to bluff about how powerful they really are.
It starts with the cube, which makes no sense. It's an absurd image to see on your viewscreen: just a spinning rainbow cube. And it follows the Enterprise wherever it goes. There's no way to communicate with it. There's no outside information. No one has ever seen anything like this before. That's just it: we have nothing. And no matter what the Enterprise does, the result is the same: the cube spins faster and gets closer. That's it.
Eventually, it escalates into the Enterprise destroying the cube. Then comes the encounter with Commander Balok. He's upset that they destroyed the cube and are now trespassing in his region of space. He decides to have the Enterprise destroyed, and gives the crew of the Enterprise only ten minutes to pray to their deities before they are annihilated.
And that's where the majority of the episode focuses on: these ten minutes between the encounter with the Fesarius, and certain doom. Kirk comes up with a bluff to try and buy them some time.
"This is the Captain of the Enterprise. Our respect for other lifeforms requires that we give you this warning. One critical item of information that has never been incorporated into the memory banks of any Earth ship. Since the early years of space exploration, Earth vessels have had incorporated into them a substance known as corbomite. It is a material and a device which prevents attack on us. If any destructive energy touches our vessel, a reverse reaction of equal strength is created, destroying the attacker! It may interest you to know that since the initial use of corbomite more than two of our centuries ago, no attacking vessel has survived the attempt. Death has little meaning to us. If it has none to you then attack us now. We grow annoyed at your foolishness."
It is, of course, a complete bluff. But as that ten-minute timer starts ticking... we get to see whether or not Commander Balok will call the bluff or not. The timer keeps ticking... tensions keep rising... the timer hits zero... and.... nothing happens.
Having a countdown shown on-screen is one of the oldest writing tricks in the book. It helps build suspense and tension, and yet, it very rarely means anything. As is the case here: Balok never destroys the Enterprise. Despite this being a cliché at this point, I will admit that I do enjoy this cliché and I tend to fall for it nearly every time.
And then we learn the truth about Balok: the image he projected, of a scary alien, is not him at all. In reality, the real Balok has the body of a small child, but the voice of an adult. That's Clint Howard as the child and then Walker Edmiston providing the voice. And I must say... the dubbing is horrible. All of the lip-synching is just a bit off. Combine that with this whole "creepy child" thing, and the voice of an adult coming from a kid's body, and I must say... I'm terrified of him. Like, seriously. I was suffering from a lack of waking-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-while-screaming-in-terror, and I think that this episode provides a perfect cure for that. So thank you.
I will admit, I got a chuckle out of Balok explaining the reason for the deception: "You would never have been frightened by me." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No, believe me, you're scary as fuck. I think your child body is even MORE terrifying than your adult body.
At the end of the day, this is a horror story. But the horror comes from what we don't see, rather than what we do. It's effective.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "The Menagerie, Part I".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 13, 2020 2:51:58 GMT
Holy shit.
Best episode yet.
So, this episode does something that Star Trek hasn't done before: non-linear storytelling. We get about 20 minutes of confusion about what the fuck is going on with Spock, then we spend the rest of the episode in flashbacks to the past. Except the flashbacks are IMPOSSIBLE. And that's flat-out acknowledged by the characters in the episode. And not only does this provide a lot of characterization for Spock, but it also shows us a courtroom procedure, and then a mystery plot. The balance between characterization and plot is tricky to handle when you keep switching genres like this, and yet, here, it works.
So let's talk about Spock. He has been shown in the past to repeatedly cling to logic at all costs and to suppress his Human half at all costs. In the past, these "costs" have just been making other people feel uncomfortable. But here? Spock lies about having received a message from Christopher Pike. Then he constantly lies to everyone for the remainder of the episode. He breaks into the computer center. Then he attacks the two redshirts there. And then he manipulates everyone on board The Enterprise to use them for his own needs. And this is Spock! He doesn't get emotional, betray people, break the law, and so forth. In any other episode, we'd be led to believe that this wasn't Spock: it was a copy of him, an impersonator, or he was being manipulated in some way. Not here. This is the real actual Spock doing this. And we have no idea why this is happening.
And then it gets worse: he kidnaps Captain Pike, then he tricks McCoy into returning to the ship. And then he programs the computer of the Enterprise to travel to a very specific destination: Talos IV. Only one Federation ship has ever been to Talos IV, and that was the Enterprise, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike thirteen years ago. And Spock was there too. But now there's General Order 7 in effect, which prohibits travel to Talos IV under any circumstances, including emergencies. And travel to this planet is the ONLY crime in the Federation that is punishable by death. Let me repeat that: nothing else can give you the death penalty in this universe. Not brutally murdering people, not committing treason, nothing. But traveling to this planet will. And the only people who know the reason are Starfleet personnel ranked as fleet captain or above. Not even Kirk knows the reason.
And yet, despite that, Spock aims to return there, knowing that the death penalty awaits him if he succeeds.
And then.... Captain Kirk and Commodore Mendez catch up to the Enterprise and arrest Spock. Only for us to realize that Spock had planned for this. Every single thing that happens to Spock as a result of this? It was all according to plan. Is that in-character for him? Absolutely. He would plan for several possible contingencies to ensure that his endgame is met. And what is that endgame? What's the purpose of Spock bringing himself and Pike back to Talos IV? What happened there 13 years ago? We never find out in this episode. What, did the "Part I" in the title not give that away? Heh.
Anyways, then we get Spock's trial, and it's clear just how much Spock planned for this. Take a look at this dialogue.
KIRK: This hearing is convened. Mister Spock, you're aware of your right to counsel of your choice? SPOCK: Sir, I waive counsel. Further, I waive rights to this hearing and request immediate court-martial. KIRK: Request denied. SPOCK: May I inquire on what grounds, Captain? KIRK: A mutiny requires a trial board of no less than three command officers. Since there are only two of that rank available SPOCK: Sir, I must point out that there are three officers of command rank available. Yourself, Commodore Mendez, and Captain Christopher Pike. KIRK: Denied. Captain Pike is a complete invalid. SPOCK: I believe you'll find he's still on the active duty list. MENDEZ: We didn't have the heart to retire him, Jim. He's got you. Whatever he's up to, he's planned it well.
Captain's log, stardate 3012.6. General Court-Martial convened. Mister Spock has again waived counsel and has entered a plea of guilty.
MENDEZ: Mister Spock, are you aware in pleading guilty that a further charge involving the death penalty must be held against you should this vessel enter the Talos star group? SPOCK: I am. MENDEZ: Why? What does it accomplish to go there or to take Captain Pike there? I want to know why. SPOCK: Are your comments a part of the record, sir? MENDEZ: Yes, it's on the record. SPOCK: Thank you. Request monitor screen be engaged. MENDEZ: For what purpose? SPOCK: To comply with the request you just made, sir, that I explain the importance of going to Talos Four. KIRK: By asking why, you've opened the door to any evidence he may wish to present. Apparently what he had in mind. MENDEZ: Present your evidence. Screen on. SPOCK: This is thirteen years ago. The Enterprise and its commander, Captain Christopher Pike. SPOCK [on screen]: Definitely something out there, Captain, headed this way. KIRK: Screen off. Chris, was that really you on the screen? (flash) That's impossible. Mister Spock, no vessel makes record tapes in that detail, that perfect. What were we watching? SPOCK: I cannot tell you at this time, sir. MENDEZ: Captain Pike, were any record tapes of this nature made during your voyage? (flash, flash) The court is not obliged to view evidence without knowing its source. SPOCK: Unless the court asks a prisoner why, Commodore. You did ask that question. MENDEZ: You mean I was maneuvered into asking. Your evidence is out of order. KIRK: I am forced to contest that, Commodore. I want to see more. MENDEZ: You have that right, Captain, but just because the prisoner is your First Officer and your personal friend KIRK: That has nothing to do with it. MENDEZ: Very well, continue.
Again, take a close look at this transcript. First, Spock manipulated the circumstances to ensure that Captain Pike would be on his trial board. This ensured that both Kirk and Pike would be there, and he knows that Kirk and Pike will back him up. Then he goaded Mendez into asking the exact question that HE wanted asked. Just because he wanted to play these tapes of what happened thirteen years ago. Is this in-character for Spock? Absolutely. It's fucking terrifying to see Spock be this manipulative, and yet, it feels so right.
And then we get to the flashback. This is the first time Star Trek has done a flashback, I believe. Until now, whenever we learn about a character's past, we experience it through other people talking about it. It's never been flat-out shown on-screen before. Until now.
And the Spock of thirteen years ago indeed looks and acts slightly different than the Spock of "today". The production reason for this is simple and straightforward. All the clips we're seeing of thirteen years ago? Those came from the failed pilot "The Cage". Like most pilots, it has stuff that differ from the main continuity. But here, they chose to incorporate the pilot INTO the main continuity, which is something that is rarely seen in television (indeed, I cannot think of any other examples of this). And we do get a decent reason for why Spock is so different. It's never said, but it can be inferred by the audience. If you didn't know that these clips came from "The Cage", then you know what you would think? Spock is still trying to learn how to balance out his Vulcan and Human halves, while getting used to the idea that most of the people surrounding him are Humans, which is contrary to most of his initial life when he was surrounded by Vulcans. That explanation totally works! (By the way, if you're wondering whether or not I will review "The Cage", the answer is yes, I will. But I'm doing these episodes in airdate order, so I won't get to "The Cage" until the time when the pilot was shown to the general public, which isn't until between TNG Season 1 and TNG Season 2.)
But perhaps the character that gets developed the most through these flashbacks isn't actually Spock -- it's Pike. Indeed, much of the flashback focuses on Pike, which is no surprise, given that it comes from a pilot episode in which Pike was the main character. And given the extreme attention to detail in the flashback (since, again, the episode was crafted around the flashback, rather than the flashback being made for this episode), we get to learn quite a lot about Pike. Captain Pike is someone who we, until this episode, had never seen before. And yet, despite that, the show makes it easy for us to relate to him. We learn of all the hardships that he's faced as Captain of the Enterprise. We learn that he's exhausted, lonely, restless. And we feel for him there.
Pike has gotten to be uncomfortable with the sheer number of life-or-death decisions that he's had to make as a Captain. And then he's thrown into a situation where he must do exactly that once again: he pursues a distress signal from the Columbia, but it's all just an illusion, and Pike is captured by the Talosians.
Oh no! What's gonna happen? Is Pike gonna make it out alive? What a cliffhanger!
I'm joking, of course. We know he survives because he clearly exists still in present-day. To quote a Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith parody by MAD magazine, "Kill you, I cannot! But kill me, YOU cannot!" "Because we are equally-matched opponents on opposite sides of the same almighty Force?" "No, because already released have the sequels to this movie been! And in them we both appear! Problem this is with prequels - no suspense can there be when already we know which characters live!"
If that had been the end of this episode, then I'd probably deride it for not having a good enough cliffhanger. Luckily, this episode still has one last trick up its sleeve to do a cliffhanger properly. First, we learn that the footage of what happened thirteen years ago isn't actually in the Enterprise computer, but is in a transmission coming from Talos IV. Then we learn that not only is Spock facing the death penalty, but so to is Kirk, because a Captain is responsible for everything that occurs on his ship. And then we get this exchange between Kirk and Spock:
KIRK: Do you know what you're doing? Have you lost your mind? SPOCK: Captain, Jim, please don't stop me. Don't let him stop me. It's your career and Captain Pike's life. You must see the rest of the transmission.
And, with that, Kirk orders Spock to be locked up, wondering if either of them will escape the consequences of this. And as a reminder: the penalty for going to Talos IV under ANY circumstances, emergency or otherwise, is death. It is the ONLY instance of the death penalty in the Federation. Will Kirk and Spock manage to escape the death penalty? We don't know.
And that's the image we end on.
Scary, isn't it?
Yep, THAT'S how you do a cliffhanger properly. It certainly doesn't disappoint, not even by modern-day standards. After seeing this, the audience is aghast, dying to see what happens next. It's done beautifully here.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "The Menagerie, Part II".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 14, 2020 4:51:14 GMT
Trigger warning: Nonconsensual romance Trigger warning: Discussion of human slavery
What is the Enterprise's mission?
It's to explore strange new worlds and to seek out new life and new civilizations.
And, well, that's what Pike did, isn't it? Yes, he only went to Talos IV to help rescue survivors of the crashed ship Columbia, but even if that was his reason for going, the fact of the matter is that he DID discover new life and a new civilization there. Unfortunately, it's a DYING civilization, and the Talosians were desperate to do ANYTHING so that their civilization would survive. And that's why they captured Captain Pike: to be breeding stock. And Pike later managed to escape.
This puts Spock's actions from the last episode into even further question. Why would he want to return Pike to the place where he had previously escaped from?
And Spock's actions are questioned further still when we see the full power of the Talosians. Their power of illusions is so great, so intricate, so specific, that being anywhere near Talos IV: you cannot trust your own senses. And that's just the beginning. The Talosians can also read your mind. And not just that, but they have access to everything: your subconscious thoughts, your dreams, your memories, everything. And they don't have to expend any effort whatsoever to get access to that.
And the Talosians treat Pike with hostility. They're so detached from what they do that this entire thing is effectively a zoo to them. Vina, a woman who was trapped on Talos IV for years prior to this, pretty much confirms this for Pike. And the idea of being forced to perform for the amusement of another race is horrifying, and it gets worse when we learn that the Talosians need a workforce to repair their own civilization. And they intend to get that workforce through forced breeding.
The metaphor here is pretty obvious, right? Forced breeding, captivity, breakdown of your sanity, subjugating one's will on another, use of violence and suffering to entertain others? We're talking about human slavery. There's no way that wasn't intended, right? Given all the similarities. And given how, you know, we previously had an episode focusing on the American prison system (again, through metaphor), it leads me to believe that America was a large part of forming the initial United Earth government in Star Trek The Original Series. Obviously, it'll get more fleshed out in later Trek, but at least for now, I think the intent back in the days of TOS was to have the Earth government be a succession of the American government? Not sure on that. But if that is the case, then you'd think that people in-universe would make reference to our history of slavery. Why doesn't anyone bring this up? Well, I can think of one reason: Captain Pike is white. And white people were unaffected by the horrors of slavery in the United States. Look, I'm a white person myself, and I freely admit that the way we treat people of color, both in the past and in the present, is, frankly, absurd. It needs to stop. And because of that... I think this story would work better if Captain Pike were a person of color. Let the people of color be subjected to forced breeding and you have a much more apt metaphor. Having said that, I do understand that Star Trek took a LOT more risks with race than most shows of the 1960s. Being able to show this diverse of a casting back then was practically unheard of (and, to an extent, still is). I imagine that some compromises had to be made, one of which was probably that while you could have main characters of other races, THE main character had to be white. And since Pike was originally intended as the lead character, they had no choice but to make him white. But if that's the case, then this is a bad metaphor to have. TL;DR = This was handled not-that-great.
Then Pike finds the Talosians' weakness: they can't read minds while their subjects are experiencing "primitive" emotions (anger). He uses this as his only defense against them. Then we learn something interesting. Remember those scenes in the previous episode where Pike was reconsidering being a Starfleet captain? Those are given new context here. The reason we were shown that is to see that the Talosians are tapping into Pike's fantasies: showing him a world where he doesn't need to be a Starfleet captain and doesn't have to worry about any of that. He'll never be frightened, never have to travel the galaxy. He can just stay here with Vina.
And then there is Vina. Let's talk about her.
Oh boy.
She's such a tragic character. She's been trapped on this planet for decades now. And the Talosians constantly use her to trick Pike into consenting to breed with her. She has spent several decades being lonely and hopeless, and now Pike is there. She, for the first time, has been given a chance to be validated. To be loved. And yet, all Pike can think about is escape. That's all he wants: to escape from the planet. He does not actually care for Vina. It must be heartbreaking for her to see this, especially since it probably brings back memories for her of her initial time in captivity, when she once believed that she could escape too.
Honestly, it's complicated to think about what the Talosians did to Vina. She was badly injured and nearly died when her ship crashed onto the planet. The Talosians were able to fix her, but they put her back together wrong. She then spends most of the episode trying to convince Pike to stay on Talos IV with her, and then we get the reveal at the end that Vina is disfigured as a result of what the Talosians did. If she ever leaves the planet, she'll be outside their range of control, the illusion will fade, and the disfigurement will be made real. And so, once peace is made between the Humans and the Talosians, Vina chooses to stay. She'd rather be stuck on Talos IV and live out an illusory life than travel the galaxy in her current state.
And that was the final puzzle piece that was needed to bring all this together. Spock is bringing Pike back to Talos IV so that he may live within an illusion. Just like Vina. Except this time, they're there by choice.
Of course, there's just a small problem: how was Spock going to GET Pike to Talos IV, if traveling there carries a death sentence? And so Spock conducts an elaborate plan to get there, using the help of the Talosians. We get the epic plot twist of Commodore Mendez having never actually left Starbase 11, and that the Mendez on the Enterprise was just a Talosian illusion all along. I had actually forgotten that bit until seeing it here, and I must admit, it threw me for a loop. I did not see it coming.
Anyways, Spock managed to find a way through all the obstacles. He avoided the death penalty, got himself and Kirk off the hook, and got Pike back to Talos IV.
There is possibly a question of whether or not this ending is ableist, as it promotes the idea that a disabled person is better off living without their disability. But I'm not really qualified to discuss that, so I'll just leave it on the table. I'm sure other people have discussed this better than I have. That's the wonders of talking about a show that's over half a century old -- people have already discussed this.
Overall, this was a good episode, and provided a satisfying ending to the two-parter that we got.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "The Conscience of the King".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 15, 2020 3:02:09 GMT
Trigger warning: Mention of genocide. Trigger warning: Mention of eugenics.
So... I've come to realize something about Star Trek The Original Series: it is Kirk's show. Let me explain. If you were watching an episode of The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine, yes, you would be watching Picard's show or Sisko's show, but there are plenty of episodes that don't focus on the captain at all, and you can enjoy the show even if you don't like the main character.
Not so with The Original Series.
If you don't like Kirk, this show is a bit difficult to watch. There's quite a lot of main characters in Star Trek, but Kirk is THE main character. Spock and McCoy are the other two big ones, but even amongst the rest of the cast, there's very little to be found here. In this episode, Rand only makes a brief appearance and she doesn't even get a line (and remember, the next episode is the LAST time we see her until the movies!). And Sulu doesn't even show up at all in this episode.
The show has a lot of characters, but it refuses to use them.
So onto this episode. It focuses on Kirk, of course. The plot is that there's a group of Shakespearean actors who perform on some planet. However, Kirk becomes increasingly convinced that one actor, Anton Karidian, is actually an alias assumed by Governor Kodos the Executioner, who was presumed dead twenty years prior. Kodos was the dictator of Tarsus IV. He executed 4000 of his 8000 people so that the other 4000 would have enough resources to live, choosing for himself who deserved to live and to die.
Kirk was one of the few people who actually saw Kodos in person and could identify him, so, in order to protect Kodos, his 19-year-old daughter (who, notably, was born after all of this genocide stuff happened) tries to kill Kirk so that her father may live safely.
I just have one question: WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE KIRK? Like, why couldn't the person with the ability to identify Kodos be Sulu or Uhura or Scotty or, god, anyone but Kirk? I've gotten a little sick of the Kirk focus.
As for the episode itself, whether you enjoy it or not depends on how much you see the twists coming. The first twist, that Anton Karidian is Kodos, is pretty easy to predict. The second, that it's Lenore who is trying to kill the witnesses rather than Kodos himself, is also quite easy to predict. Because of this, I think the episode's plot doesn't hold up. Maybe it's just me, but well, once we know that Karidian and Kodos are the same person, you have to wonder why they're keeping the murderer off-screen. And the only real explanation is that the murderer isn't Kodos. And once you know that, it's easy to piece together that it's Lenore.
However, I will say one thing to this episode's credit: the actors of Kodos and Lenore (Arnold Moss and Barbara Anderson) are superb. One of the hardest things to do in acting is to do an impression of someone that is doing an impression of someone. The more layers of "impression" you have, the harder it is. We see Arnold Moss playing the role of a genocidal maniac playing the role of a Shakespearean actor playing the role of Macbeth. That's tricky to pull off, because you have to somehow make all of those layers visible to the audience. It can't just be Arnold Moss being Macbeth. All the layers must be seen. And he pulls it off well. And as for Barbara Anderson being Lenore, she's just good as an actress. She's a murderer trying to pass off as a kindhearted Shakespearean actress. Again, multiple layers. That is not an easy thing to do. And both actors handle this very well.
So, does this one hold up to modern-day audiences? Maybe. I think it would vary from person to person, depending on how good that person is at seeing these twists coming. If you see them coming, which, at least for me, was fairly easy to do, then you probably wouldn't enjoy it. But if you're especially easy to fool, then you'll probably like this one.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "Balance of Terror".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 16, 2020 6:20:29 GMT
You know, my memory of The Original Series prior to this rewatch has been hazy. In a sense, rediscovering this classic is very similar to my watching it the first time. Among the things that surprised me was that I genuinely don't remember the Romulans being introduced THIS early into the show. They even pre-date the Klingons! I really don't remember it that way. Not really a criticism or anything, just something I noticed.
Anyways, this episode is great.
When compared to modern-day TV shows, Star Trek The Original Series is fairly simplistic. There's never any more than one plot line in each episode. And sometimes, Star Trek uses that to its advantage. A previously-seen example of this is "The Corbomite Maneuver", where what WASN'T shown was more important than what was. This only worked because the episode had a singular focus. I bring this up because this episode, "Balance of Terror" is the same way.
Well, okay. There is ONE sub-plot in this episode, but the plot is so thin that you can barely even call it a plot. Two crew members get married at the start of the episode, and then their wedding gets interrupted by an emergency. By the end of the episode, one of them is dead and we see his fiancée grieving him in the same chapel that they were to be married in.
Other than that, the entire episode focuses on one central conflict: the Romulans. It starts with Earth outposts along the neutral zone being mysteriously attacked by an invisible ship. And it doesn't take long for everyone to know exactly who is to blame for this: Romulans.
Spock provides some exposition on the Earth-Romulan War, which was fought entirely using starships with nuclear weapons, and whose peace treaty (which established the neutral zone) was negotiated via radio. As a result, no Human has ever seen a Romulan or vice versa.
This is a bold writing choice. When you think about the pragmatic situation, and scrutinize it, it makes very little sense. If peace is to be negotiated, you'd think that you could at least look each other in the eye first. But writing it this way allows the writers to do two things. First, it puts the characters into the same boat as the audience. Obviously, the audience has not seen the Romulans at this point. They're brand new. To make them new to the characters as well adds an aspect of fear and dread, as we now have no idea what to expect, same as the characters on the Enterprise.
The second reason for doing this is that it allows the racism to come in. Spock, although half-Human, does have features that make him stand out from amongst his crewmates. His bolded darkened eyebrows, pointy ears, and slightly-green-tinted skin. Thus, when it's revealed that the Romulans have these exact same features, it invites people like Lieutenant Stiles to be racist against Spock.
Whenever Star Trek tries to do a metaphor, it tends to have a 50/50 success rate. Sometimes you get episodes like "Dagger of the Mind", which is a creepily-accurate look at how we treat our prisoners. But then sometimes you get episodes like "The Menagerie, Part II", which, while a really good episode, did fumble their metaphor on human slavery by having it happen to a white man.
I admit that, as a white person myself, it's hard for me to judge how good or bad a metaphor for racism is. After all, I am rarely discriminated against because of my race (I did go to a high school that was 95% Asian, so I do have experience living as a racial minority, but nothing like the systemic racism that perpetuates our government and our society today). But speaking from my own admittedly-ignorant perspective, I thought it was handled pretty good here.
First, they show how easy it is to fall for racism. Remember, Lt. Stiles, just like all humans, has never seen a Romulan before in his life. And yet, IMMEDIATELY upon seeing one for the first time, he eyes Spock as a potential Romulan spy. (Though, granted, he did have family history, with members of his family dying in the Earth-Romulan War, so that arguably makes it easier to hate them.)
The Romulans are a genetic offshoot of the Vulcans. They never evolved a sense of rigorous logic, instead preferring to focus on subtlety and subterfuge. They play a game of cat-and-mouse with the Enterprise, as both Kirk and the nameless Romulan commander constantly think about how they would act in the other's place, and try to out-maneuver one another, by thinking one step ahead of each other. Meanwhile, all Lt. Stiles is thinking is that Spock must be a traitor. It's a ludicrous notion, and thankfully Kirk shuts it down fairly quickly. "Leave any bigotry in your quarters. There's no room for it on the Bridge. Do I make myself clear?" GOD I LOVE YOU SO MUCH KIRK.
And then there's Spock's reaction. Or rather, his lack of a reaction. He doesn't bother trying to reason with Stiles because he knows it's pointless. So why bother getting involved at all? Even if Stiles is uncertain, Spock does know for sure that he IS indeed loyal to the Enterprise. And in the end, he is the one who saves Stiles's life. Now, you could argue that this is clumsy. Telling racial minorities that they shouldn't feel upset at bigotry is perhaps a bit of a mis-step, but you have to remember: the future that Star Trek shows isn't necessarily what our world is, it's what our world should aspire to be. They show the ideal, not the real. And in a perfect world, it would be nice if racists could be dealt with by ignoring them. It shows that they no longer have the power to hurt you.
But let's talk about the ending of the episode. Kirk spends the entire episode putting himself in the shoes of the Romulan commander, knowing not just the Enterprise's strengths, but also her weaknesses. And then, right at the end, we see the Romulan ship self-destruct. But just before self-destructing, the Romulan commander gains respect "You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend." And then he's gone.
So how does this episode hold up today? Surprisingly well. I imagine it would make a great episode of television to be aired today.
Except for one small problem.
This isn't a "Part 1" story. Indeed, the ending leaves the future up in the air. The Romulan ship crossed the neutral zone, attacked several Earth outposts with the intent of starting a war. And then, on their way back to Romulan space, they blew up. That's a great ending to a "Part 1" episode. Can't wait for Part 2.
There's just one problem. There is no "Part 2". This plot is never followed up on. They just dropped the ball here. (In fact, we only see the Romulans one more time in all of TOS.)
So does it hold up today? Yes. Looking purely at what's in the episode, it does hold up. But modern-audiences would expect a follow-up episode later, and will be disappointed to learn that there isn't one. In that sense, it doesn't hold up. I don't know if that counts or not, because that doesn't invalidate the contents of THIS episode, just what comes later. So make your own call there.
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "Shore Leave".
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Post by goldensandslash on Apr 17, 2020 6:23:02 GMT
This episode is so weird. But it's weird in a fun and silly way, similar to "The Naked Time".
It starts with the crew coming upon a peaceful planet with no animal life, just a bunch of plants. It looks like a paradise. And they want to get some shore leave in. But then... weird things start happening.
Whatever the crew thinks about on this planet will happen in reality. But we don't find that out right away. It starts with McCoy comparing this place to Wonderland from Alice in Wonderland, and then seeing a white rabbit run off with a gold watch claiming that he's late. Then Alice shows up and starts chasing him.
The initial thought that the audience would likely have at this point is that it's a hallucination. Sure enough, other crew members start to see impossible things. But then the episode calls that theory into question. If Sulu's gun is a hallucination, then how did the others hear it? After Yeoman Barrows's encounter with Don Juan, her uniform gets torn. How did a hallucination do that? Kirk runs into his old bully from Starfleet Academy, who punches him in the face. How did that happen? It becomes quickly apparent that these ARE real, and that there's more going on here.
We then learn the truth: this planet was designed as an amusement park by an advanced alien race. And it produces weird emotions. Of course it does! How would you react if all of your dreams and desires were able to come true with just a thought, but, and this is the key part, you weren't told that this was going to happen? There would be conflicting and confusing emotions. Of course, this is the crew of the Enterprise. They've already had a ton of weird shit happen to them. And fortunately, this episode provides them with some much-needed shore leave.
And it is neat to see the crew's desires, though, admittedly, there is a fair bit of sexualization of women as a result of this. The worst of it comes from McCoy at the end with the cabaret dancers, but it is present throughout the whole thing (see also: Don Juan).
Of course, the flip side of the coin is that this planet also manifests thoughts that you DON'T want, such as the tiger, the World War II fighter jet, and the knight that kills Dr. McCoy. (Current main character death count: 1, and yes I am keeping track of this. I expect that by the time I finish the entirety of the Star Trek franchise, it'll be OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!! </dead meme>)
On that note, let's talk about McCoy's death. If this were to be aired today, then you can't do what this show did: have a main character die and then be brought back to life later in the episode. People would call that shitty writing. But back in the 1960s, it was a more acceptable practice.
One thing that I will praise this episode for is its setting. Having a wide open area really provides a much more peaceful feeling than being in a tight enclosed room. The last time we saw these characters in an outdoor setting was "Miri", and even there, they spent a majority of time indoors in the buildings of the planet. It also enables lighting to be more natural and for these characters to appear better.
There's one last thing I'd like to talk about in this episode: Spock. Unlike the rest of the crew, Spock doesn't understand the concept of shore leave. He says it best himself: "On my planet, to rest is to rest, to cease using energy. To me, it is quite illogical to run up and down on green grass using energy instead of saving it." OH MY GOD HE'S AN INTROVERT. THIS IS SO PERFECT.
And you want to know what else is funny? Even when Spock DOES beam down to the planet's surface, because it has become clear that there is a problem, he is the only one who never has his desires manifest. My personal headcanon for this is that his idea of amusement is watching Kirk and McCoy making fools of themselves, which he was already seeing anyways. To quote Professor Dumbledore from Harry Potter (regarding the Mirror of Erised): "The happiest man in the world would look into this mirror and just see himself as he is now." As far as I'm concerned, that's Spock. You're welcome. :P
And that's it for this one! Join me next time, where I'll be looking at "The Galileo Seven".
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