Scott Atwell Star Trek Discussion thread (Series and Films) (1 Viewer)

[Sam Favate]

For its time, TAS was a terrific animated show. For many people, it was a gateway to Star Trek. Not a bad thing.

 

[Nelson Au]

This discussion of TAS is great! It would be interesting if Paramount would fund a remastering of it with modern CG technology to recreate the animation in a modern style. But I doubt that would ever happen. In fact, many of you must have seen that independent artist who has done short films of the TNG and Voyager cast in the Filmation style. There seems to be a real fascination with the retro aspect of the Filmation style.




I’ll resume my re-view of TAS shortly.

But I wanted to make a quick post about an interesting experience. Now that I have to return to work at the office, I have a 25 mile commute and on the last couple of days, I started to listen to Star Trek TOS episodes. I had many years ago ripped the audio tracks from the DVD’s. It’s like my childhood again, as we discussed before, I had made cassette tape recordings off the air of TOS back in the days before VHS. I listened to those tapes daily!

Anyway, it’s been some time and the rips are much better audio quality. On my last drive home, I listened to Space Seed. Now I’ve seen the episode more times than I can imagine. I’ve seen The Wrath of Khan more times than I can remember. Roth of Khan as Shatner put it. On this listen of Space Seed, I made an interesting alternative interpretation of the episode. It’s always been Khan and how Kirk pitted his wits against Khan. But on this listen, I took a different reading of the story, it occurred to me that it’s the story of Marla MacGivers and how she was seduced by a man or men from the past who she secretly admired. I know this is clearly a major part of the story from viewing the episode. But on listening to it as an audio play, I never thought about it from her point of view. She got the opportunity not many people would get, to meet a person from history as she is an historian. So she got wrapped up into Khan so much she as willing to betray the crew of the Enterprise. But when Khan took over and Marla was seeing what kind of man he really is, a monster, and she snapped out of it enough to save Kirk and the ship. In the end, she did get what she wanted, her life with Khan and Khan got what he wanted. But she probably realized that the reality of the what Khan was like was not as romantic as she imagined. Yet she still wanted that life with him.

I also listened to A Taste of Armageddon. This episode is an interesting examination of AI in a modern interpretation. I have mixed feelings about this story in recent years. But that’s for another post.

 

[KPmusmag]

I made cassette tapes of TV shows also, from I Love Lucy to Bewitched to Star Trek. They kept me company many times when TV was not an option and there was not a rerun in sight. Some movies, too.

 

[Nelson Au]

Kevin, I focused on Star Trek, and I did do a few movies. But nowhere near your range of material! That’s great!

 

[Nelson Au]

I wanted to make another quick comment about guest stars, I watched Tomorrow is Yesterday, it’s an often go-to favorite.

I’ve noticed many many years ago Ed Peck as Col Fellini was always a standout character in the episode. It was such a scene stealing scene and in recent years, I’ve come to think of it as riding the edge of being over the top. I also found it interesting to see Peck within a year of this episode appear in the 1968 Steve McQueen film, Bullitt. One of my favorite films. He’s so restrained in the film as he interacts with Robert Vaughn. It’s a very serious and down to earth performance.

Then years later, I saw Peck in a recurring role on Happy Days. I never saw those episodes until the series was shown during binges on DecadesTV. He plays a very over the top version of Fellini. I can’t help but wonder if the director saw him in Star Trek and asked him to play a version of Fellini.

 

[ScottRE]

Well the Happy Days character was named Officer Kirk....

 

[Alex...]

 

[Nelson Au]

Well the Happy Days character was named Officer Kirk....

That’s true.

 

[Nelson Au]

Just another post about Star Trek guest stars, I happen to be channel surfing and caught an early episode of Emergency!.

This episode concerned a very drunk driver with no scruples or concern for the others he’s hurt in an automobile accident and the drunk is played by William Campbell. Not a very pleasant fellow he portrayed. I’d seen Campbell in two episodes of The Streets of San Francisco where he played a not very pleasant fellow who the police question about a crime. And he second role was as a fellow officer working with Stone in a hostage situation. It’s interesting to see him with these appearances, from what I read, he didn’t find as much work during this period.

 

[Nelson Au]

By the way, it’s interesting what thoughts have popped into my head as I re-viewed Court Martial and The Conscience of the King this past week. It never occurred to me, but in the Officer’s Lounge bar scene in Court Martial, Kirk greets old classmates. One of them, Lt Timothy is very judgmental of Kirk and what happened to Finney. What struck me this time is he’s a red shirt. I never thought about this before, but as a red shirt, he’s not in the command division. So I thought it was odd he’s being so disrespectful of Kirk. Of course I did not notice what his rank was, but found out on Memory Alpha. This is early days Star Trek and perhaps these distinctions of rank and divisions in Starfleet are still in flux. Or perhaps in the officer’s lounge, all titles and rank are dropped, and they are all just the same. Or they just wanted him to wear red in contrast to Mike who was in a gold command shirt.

On The Conscience of the King, it’s noted that this is Grace Lee Whitney’s last episode she filmed. Her part is only a walk-on onto the bridge to give Lenore the look-over. I wondered if they had planned or thought of having Rand in the rec room with Uhura like she was in Charlie X and she could have been the one to talk to Riley on the intercom. I wondered if the situation was such, that the producer wanted her off the show and so her part was re-cast in that scene. We’ll never know.

Funny, the things I‘ve been thinking after seeing these episodes so many times.

 

[Jack P]

Well the Happy Days character was named Officer Kirk....

I'd love to put audio of him getting a "Sit on it, Kirk!" set to a clip of Shatner sitting in his chair in Tribbles and abruptly bolting up.

 

[Bryan^H]

I watched the Star Trek TOS episode "A piece of the Action" from season 2. I never liked this one, and watching it again may be one of the worst experiences I have had in quite some time with a TOS episode. Will remember never to watch this one again, and that is saying a lot as most TOS eps are worth a rewatch to me.

 

[ScottRE]

Agreed it is an utterly awful episode. I don't care for Trek's all out comedy episodes other than Tribbles because the humor comes from the characters not because they're behaving wildly out of character. This one and I, Mudd got a viewing from me during a recent series rewatch but I daresay it's the last time I will voluntarily watch either episode again. Oof.

And I usually enjoy any episode to a degree, but most of the 3rd season episodes are more enjoyable for me.

 

[Nelson Au]

“it’s your driving that alarms me, Captain.”

I agree that Gene Coon went too far in some second season episodes. While in my youth, I would watch this episode as it was repeated equally with the other episodes dung the daily syndication grind, so it was just another episode. But yes, in the past decades, this is one of the episodes I watched less frequently as it seemed so silly.

That said, on a recent viewing, I wanted to give this episode a fair assessment. It is definitely an unusual one! I went with it as Kirk and Spock and McCoy start off seriously in assessing the situation. Then Kirk determines he had to act like a local in order to make any progress. The planet had already been contaminated by the Book, so there is a logic to the way the episode goes. I just had fun with it,

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

"A Piece of the Action" is my mom's favorite episode and I enjoy it, too.

 

[Jack P]

The reason I like "A Piece Of The Action" is that it just gives us a straight-ahead comedy from start to finish (and anchors it in a not too off-the-wall premise for sci-fi that a book left behind on 1920s Chicago could be turned into a "Bible" by an alien race). You know what you're in for. That's a big difference from an episode like "By Any Other Name" which I hate because it shifts from deadly serious stuff (including the murder of an Enterprise crewmember) to off-the-wall silliness with the whole "Under the table" scene.

 

[Wiseguy]

The reason I like "A Piece Of The Action" is that it just gives us a straight-ahead comedy from start to finish (and anchors it in a not too off-the-wall premise for sci-fi that a book left behind on 1920s Chicago could be turned into a "Bible" by an alien race). You know what you're in for. That's a big difference from an episode like "By Any Other Name" which I hate because it shifts from deadly serious stuff (including the murder of an Enterprise crewmember) to off-the-wall silliness with the whole "Under the table" scene.

And basically welcoming the aliens to the human race at the end despite the murder. What would her parents think?

 

[Jack P]

Exactly! Khan did far *less* than Rojan and the Kelvans did (Khan never actually killed anyone) but look how he got treated compared to the Kelvans who are going to get the welcome wagon from the Federation as opposed to "exile" (Frankly Kirk should have turned the tables on Rojan by making him a block and then crushing it under his foot).

 

[jayembee]

Interesting BBC news piece that popped up the other day:

The 'banned' Star Trek episode that promised a united Ireland

A scene discussing Ireland's "2024 unification" stopped the episode from being shown in the UK.

www.bbc.com

 

[Nelson Au]

"A Piece of the Action" is my mom's favorite episode and I enjoy it, too.

Wow Neil, I’ve never seen that Nimoy special hosting The Menagerie. Thanks for sharing!