The Baron Watches Star Trek (SPOILERS)

[The Baron]

What I've got is the new releases with the enhanced special effects - I'll comment on these as best I can, shame I haven't got the originals to compare and contrast, but such is life. I put up the "spoiler" just on the off chance that there's someone here that hasn't seen all these a million times - you never know, I suppose.

[The Baron]

Tomorrow is Yesterday:

Written by D.C. Fontana

Directed by Michael O'Herlihy

 

Synopsis: The Enterprise goes back in time, and then has to cover its tracks so as to avoid changing history.

 

Thoughts:

1)I like the swerve opening with the Enterprise as the UFO. I remember when I first saw this years ago, being bemused and wondering whether it was Star Trek or not.  Oddly, there's a Gilligan's Island like that, that starts far away from the usual setting.

 

2)A "black star"? I assume that's meant to be something like a black hole.

 

3)Apparently, Star Trek was correct in predicting that the first manned moon shot would start on a Wednesday.

 

4)Kirk and company seem kind of chuckleheaded in this - granted the ship was damaged, but they couldn't come up with anything better than wrecking Christopher's plane?

 

5)First appearance of John Winston as the Transporter Chief eventually to be named Kyle.

 

6)"There are only twelve like it in the Fleet."

 

7)"I never have believed in little green men." "Neither have I."

 

8)I confess to not finding the "sexy computer voice" gag that all-firted funny. "It also had an unfortunate tendency to giggle."

 

9)"Now you're sounding like Spock." "If you're gonna get nasty, I'm gonna leave."

 

10)Shaun Jeffrey Christopher will lead the first expedition to Saturn. Careless of Spcok to overlook that.

 

11)"If this one's like that, it'll make the devil's own noise if you start it."  What would the devil's own noise sound like, I wonder?

 

12)"Shouldn't you be working on your time warp calculations, Mister Spock?" "I am."

 

13)"I am going to lock you up for two hundred eyars." "That ought to be just about right."

 

14)I still don't buy the "slingshot effect" or the way they solve the time paradox stuff, but then, time travel stuff almost never makes sense.

 

15)"The engines!"

 

16)"Mister Scott is still with us."  I like how Spock says that at the start of the episode, and Kirk says it at the end.

 

Overall:

An entertaining enough story, jus tdon't tihnk too much about the time travel side of it.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Richard Willis said:

Part of the stereotyping, along with others you've mentioned, is the show insinuating that the Southerner McCoy is a bigot. Over and over again he demonstrates how much he cares about Spock. It's hard to reconcile some of his dialogue with this, but I believe actions speak louder than words. I believe he always says these things to Spock's face, not behind his back. I think he's usually trying to break through Spock's stoicism, and he thinks this will get a rise out of him.

 

Be that as it may, I still don't think it reflects well on McCoy. Where does McCoy -- or anybody -- get off appointing themselves as the person who has decided Spock's stoicism needs to be broken?

 

As for saying such things to Spock's face rather than behind his back, okay -- so McCoy's not craven. Whatever credit he deserves for that, he gets, but in my lights it's diminished by the fact that he says them at all.

 

I wonder, though, just why this was made part of McCoy's characterization in the first place. To give a subset of the viewing audience someone to identify with? Is he modeled on a real person? Was this something DeForest Kelley brought to his line readings -- y'know, the man from Atlanta -- and the writers just ran with it? Who knows? Does anybody know?

 

[Henry R. Kujawa]

"I am going to lock you up for two hundred years."

I saw Ed Peck, who plays Col. Fellini, turn up in a McCLOUD-- "Top of the World, Ma!"-- as a bartender.  Took a bit before I realized I remembered him so clearly from that one STAR TREK appearance.

This episode was redone the following season on LOST IN SPACE as "Visit To A Hostile Planet".

[Kirk G]

Re: Le Terrible Infant...

 

I'm pretty sure there was something along these lines in The Twilight Zone, but I don't recall it clearly.  I know there was a show with four diverse characters in a circular pen, searching for a way out...and the last stinger ending reveals they are toys or puppets that have been climbing up or out of a wastebasket.  But that's not quite the same concept.  I'll have to think more on this and see if anything comes to mind.

 

 

In my mind, most anything written or touched by D.C.Fontana is pretty darn good.

I don't mind the slingshot effect, it's a real calculated acceleration that our space probes use around planets to accellerate...  and I always got that it's the increase in speed, to be drawn or hurled faster than light that made the time travel possible.  It's the CONTROLLING it so precisely that always got me.

[The Baron]

I wonder, though, just why this was made part of McCoy's characterization in the first place. To give a subset of the viewing audience someone to identify with? Is he modeled on a real person? Was this something DeForest Kelley brought to his line readings -- y'know, the man from Atlanta -- and the writers just ran with it? Who knows? Does anybody know?

 

Interesting question, Clark - I'm not sure. Perhaps it was included as a deliberate character flaw, to make McCoy seem more "human" and less like a "plaster saint". to show that no matter advanced the characters were, they were far from perfect. That's just a guess on my part, of course.

 

In one of the extras included with the DVD set, it is stated that the original intent was that the "Big Three" were meant to be Kirk, Spock and Scotty, and that Kelley's performance impressed the producers enough that it was his character that got the push rather than Doohan's.

[Henry R. Kujawa]

DAGGER OF THE MIND

 

    Caught up with this tonight.

 

    Some new observations...  This is 2 episodes in a row involving deep underground caverns, and a very well-respected man whose reputation seems beyond reproach or question... who just happens to be on some kind of power-mad trip.  Roger Corby, and Tristan Adams.

 

    Both Adams' female assistant Lethe and his male assistant Eli have blank expressions.  I guess Van Gelder would have, but he fought back too hard.

 

    Moregan Woodward is terrific in this.  This time around, I particularly took note of his face when under the Vulcan mind-meld.  He looked like a completely different person!  One could easily see him as highly intelligent, friendly, reasonable.  I wonder, since they never said, was he cured because of Spock, did they have to use the machine again to fix what it broke, or did he just return to normal after enough time had gone by?  Kirk's very pained expression at the end of the story suggests the fake memories Adams implanted were still there, and he'd never forget.

 

    The question remains, what would Adams have done with Kirk?  Claiming there was "another" accident might have looked TOO suspicious.  But the story wraps up before too many questions have been answered, or even raised.

 

    Just looked this up:  "S-Bar David" (onscreen credit) is actually Shimon Wincelberg, born in Germany, and according to the IMDB...

 

 

Many of his scripts for classic TV shows of the 1950s and '60s centered around Jewish themes and were notable for their unusually correct depiction of Jewish rituals and religious law.

He was a mentor for many Orthodox Jews in Hollywood.

 

    Whatta ya know.  Jewish-sounding name, a Jew born in Germany before the Nazis took over, the character names "Lethe" & "Eli" both sound Jewish, and Dr. Adams comes across like a scientist in a Nazi concentration camp, experimenting and enjoying himself at the total expense of the people he has power over.

 

    Could the psudonym "S-Bar David" be meant as a reference to "Star of David"?

 

 

 

    Finally...  while pretty, and attractive, Helen Noel is neither what I'd call "cute" or a standard Trek female who finds Kirk attractive.  She seems to have an attitude problem, but this may be common for psychiatrists.

 

    Funny thing... it took until I saw her name in the end credits...  Marianna Hill... when I suddenly remembered what I looked up months ago.  She was the BITCH IN HEAT in the movie HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER who comes on to Clint Eastwood's "Stranger", then acts all offended at him, then gets RAPED by him.  And then, the next day, shoots at him multiple times when he's trying to take a bath, and, totally inexplicably, misses.  (Or, did she?) 

 

    "Wonder what took her so long to get mad?"

    "Maybe because you didn't go back for more."

 

 

    "When a man like that comes along, you give him what he wants.  Until he goes too far."

    "Isn't RAPE in BROAD DAYLIGHT still a MISDEMEANOR in this town?????"

 

 

    The other woman character in the film, by the way, Verna Bloom, later played Dean Vernon's wife in the film ANIMAL HOUSE.  I saw both films multiple times without ever realizing that, until I looked it up online.

[Henry R. Kujawa]

I meant to look this up before... oops.

 

    S-Bar David did 2 unpleasant STAR TREK episodes-- the other one was "The Galileo Seven", which I never liked.

 

    But, he also wrote the first 5 episodes of LOST IN SPACE (the ones I have on tape!), plus, "Invaders from the 5th Dimension" (a very creepy one), and, "Rendezvous with Yesterday", the pilot episode of THE TIME TUNNEL !

 

    The latter, of course, aired in the same TV season as his 2 STAR TREK scripts.

[The Baron]

Court Martial:

Teleplay by Don. M. Mankiewicz and Steven W. Carabatsos/Story by Don. M. Mankiewicz

Directed by Marc Daniels

 

Synopsis: Kirk is court-martialed.

 

Thoughts:

1)No idea what an ion storm is, or whether they actually exist in real life.

 

2)Thought Percy Rodriguez did well as Commodore Stone.  Interesting to see that Starfleet is eager to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Some things don't change, apparently.

 

3)Ben Finney was an instructor at the Academy when Kirk was there.  He and Kirk were such friends that Finny named his daughter Jamie after Kirk. Later, Kirk and Finney served together aboard the Republic, Where FInney got in trouble after Kirk reported an oversight Finney had made. Finney resented this, and blamed Kirk for his not getting a command. You ask me, Finney had more problems than just the one thing Kirk reported.

 

4)Sure hope Kirk remembered later to send all those guys who dumped on him at the bar engraved invitations to go and get bent.

 

5)And we meet Areel Shaw, who turns out to be yet another old girlfriend of Kirk's. "All of my old friends look like doctors, all of his look like you."

 

6)"No starship captain has ever stood trial before, I don't want you to be the first."  Seriously? With all the nutjobs/dirtbags we run into in this show? Guess Starfleet really does like to sweep things under the rug. We definitely see in this episode that Starfleet is a less than perfect organization.

 

7)"Computer transcripts don't lie." Wow, now there's a line that makes the show look dated.

 

8)Elisha Cook as Samuel T. Cogley, gotta love a book-lovin' man.  Sam Cogley, Space Lawyer would've made a good spin-off.

 

9)Is it ethical for Shaw to talk to Kirk like she does pre-trial? Recommend him a lawyer? Does no one question the propriety of having Kirk's old girlfriend prosecute him? Or, fort that matter, Kirk's lawyer going on to defend Finney?  I mean, they have an out, it's the future, and, to paraphrase: "The future is another country, they do things differently there." Still and all, it all seems a bit questionable to me.

 

10)It was nice to see how Spock and McCoy, each in his own way, both have complete faith in Kirk. "It is impossible for Captain Kirk to act out of panic or malice."

 

11)The list of Kirk's commendations was also amusing.

 

12)Is Jamie in on it with her father, or at least know he's still alive?  The way she suddenly decides she bears no malice towards Kirk smells funny to me. It smacks less of a sincere change of heart than of someone who maybe is getting cold feet about a scheme that she maybe was never too wild about in the first place, and which she fears may go wrong if the trial goes on.

 

13)"Mister Spock, you're the most cold-blooded man I've ever known." "Why, thank you, Doctor."  Sure is convneient that Finney's messing about with the records somehow affected Spock's chess program. Not sure how that was supposed to have worked, but again, the future.

 

Overall:

Another fun episode, so long as you don't think about it too much.  Hey, it gave us a fun character like Sam Cogley, anyhow.

 

 

[The Baron]

Could the psudonym "S-Bar David" be meant as a reference to "Star of David"?

Well, "Bar-David" means "Son of David", doesn't it? Perhaps his dad was called "David", or perhaps it's a reference to the Biblical David, a way of proclaiming his Judaism?

[doc photo]

Sam Cogley was indeed a fun character - he helps make the episode more memorable than the story itself may warrant.

Re: Tomorrow Is Yesterday - wonder who decided to name the Army officer Fellini ?

[Richard Willis]

"Mister Spock, you're the most cold-blooded man I've ever known." "Why, thank you, Doctor."

In the Captain Comics tradition of Blazing Saddles references, this reminds me of Teri Garr's line in Young Frankenstein.

[Henry R. Kujawa]

Just as with CHARLIE X / WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE, with THE MENAGERIE / COURT-MARTIAL you have 2 similar plots which the network was dumb enough to run in the wrong order, effectively helping to undercut the impact of the ones made first.

Sam Cogley is definitely the best part of the whole thing. The technical details of the story really lets it down, fortunately the personal, human side brings it back up.

If THE OMEGA GLORY had not been left sitting on the shelf for 2 years (abandoned? rejected?) would Ron Tracy have been court-martialled, or swept under the rug?

With all the great lengths they tend to go to nowadays to amke sure nobody involved in a trial knows anyone (or anything!!), the most incredible part may be Kirk's old girlfriend prosecuting him.  NO WAY!