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.

[Ron M.]

One version appeared in Strange Adventures#28.
 
Kirk G said:

That concept of the infant being set loose or wrecking havok until the parents come to claim him, has been around for years and years.  There was a Challengers of the Unknown early episode featuring that, plus it shows up in some of the early Atlas Era Masterworks. (I can try to find the issue numbers if anyone is interested.)

Richard Willis said:

It has occurred to me over the years that the "Charlie X" episode was similar to the earlier Fantastic Four 24 story "The Infant Terrible". FF 24 was cover dated March 1964, so it was obviously sent to the printer in 1963 before any Star Trek episodes had even been filmed. The major differences are that the FF story concerned an obviously alien creature who turned out to be an infant and the ST story had a hormonal teen-ager who looked like a normal human. Both were unbeatable by the heroes until called home by their "parents."

[Ron M.]

I can't imagine Namor keeping quiet because he was afraid someone might hear him.

Luke Blanchard said:

The Baron said:

10)I can understand not signaling when they're playing dead, but why personally keep quiet on-board ship? It's not as though sound travels through space, after all.

  

In sub movies it's what the sub-mariners do when the enemy is hunting for them with a sound-detection system.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

Speaking of new projects (which I was over here), I’m now tackling Star Trek.  (Don’t “:TOS” me, or I’ll have to slap you one.)  The challenge for this show is that I’m overly-familiar with the material.  Even with episodes that I haven’t seen in years decades, I sometimes find myself anticipating lines.  I need to look at this with fresh eyes.

Thankfully, modern tech is giving me a hand.  I’m watching uncut, beautiful, remastered blu-rays.  There are little restored syndication cuts here and there that I’ve never seen before, and everything is not only cleaner, sharper and more vivid than I’ve ever seen it, it’s cleaner, sharper and more vivid than anybody’s ever seen it.  And I’m watching it with the new, “upgraded” special effects (which don’t bother me, although I’m enough of a purist to be glad that I have the option of turning them off if I want to.)  In short, I’ve got plenty of reasons to keep my eyes glued to the screen and pay more attention than I have in years.

And it’s working.  Since I’m watching in broadcast order, I’m starting off with a run of episodes – “Man-Trap”, “Charlie X” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before” – that I never really liked … but I’m finding things to like about them now or (at least) discovering new things that I never noticed before.

Speaking of which ...

[Doctor Hmmm?]

Case in point – there’s a very obvious bit of editing in “The Enemy Within” that I never, ever noticed.

Which I will now bore you with. 

You won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t bother reading the rest of this.  SPOILER ALERT for a 50-year-old TV episode if you choose to.

Bear with me …

The pre-title sequence finds Kirk, Sulu and other crewmen on the surface of a planet.  One crewman transports up, followed shortly by Kirk.  Unbeknownst to any of them, a strange mineral on the crewman’s shirt has royally screwed up the transporter, so that after Kirk and the transporter crew have left the Transporter Room, a second version of Kirk – let’s just call him Evil Kirk, shall we? – appears and leers like a loon at the camera.  Cut to titles and commercial.

Act One then consists of 7 scenes, as follows;

     1.     Evil Kirk goes to Sick Bay and barks for some saurian brandy (made of fermented dinosaurs, I guess), then heads for Yeoman Rand’s quarters to throw her a surprise party.                               

     2.     Spock goes to Kirk’s quarters, having been tipped off by McCoy that the Boss is acting loco, where he finds Kirk #1 (a/k/a Wimpy Kirk).  Wimpy Kirk is shirtless and toweling off, and convinces Spock (who’s easily convinced) that McCoy was pulling his leg.  Spock excuses himself with the Vulcan equivalent of “Catch ya later.”

     3.     Cut to Spock and Wimpy Kirk (now wearing that green, v-necked wrap-around shirt/thing that can’t possibly be regulation) who, for no apparent reason, are rushing into the Transporter Room, clearly men on a mission – from the dialogue that follows, it seems likely that they were called there by Scotty.  Scotty is holding the weird doglike creature last seen snuggling with Sulu down on the planet.  He explains to WK and Spock that moments after Fido was transported up, a second dog-thing – not just a duplicate, but a “savage, ferocious opposite” – appeared.  They’ll have to shut down the transporter, says Scott, because “if this should happen to a man…”  WK stares into the camera, stricken, and says “Oh my …”  (while George Takei was undoubtedly taking notes).

     4.     Rand is assaulted by Evil Kirk in her quarters.  Crewman Foster is also assaulted by EK (but not in the same way) in the corridor.

     5.     In Kirk’s quarters, Spock confronts WK (still in his green shirt) about the assault on Rand.  WK insists that “I’ve been resting here since you left me.”  They leave for Sick Bay, where McCoy is tending to Rand and Foster.

     6.     EK watches WK and Spock get on a turbolift, then goes to Kirk’s quarters to pout.  (Later, in Act 2, he’ll help himself to some makeup Kirk just happens to have lying around, which really???)

     7.     Rand tells her story to WK, Spock and McCoy in Sick Bay. She describes fending off “Kirk” by scratching his face.  WK points out that he has no scratches, but Foster stumbles in to shout “J’accuse!”  Says Spock, “There is only possible answer.  We have an imposter aboard.”

DUM DUM DUUUUUMMMMMM!!!!!  Cut to commercial.

Aaaannnndddd … Act Two opens with Spock, Scotty and WK “back” in the Transporter Room … exactly where we left them at the end of Act One, Scene 3, except that now WK is holding Fido.

There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that Scene 3 was originally written, shot and intended to be the “act out” for Act One.   Kirk and Spock realize (in Sick Bay) that there must be an imposter, Scotty calls them to the Transporter Room to show them his new pets, the penny drops that the “imposter” is a transporter-created “savage, ferocious opposite” Kirk, cut to commercial, and the action picks up right where we left off at the top of Act Two.

Somewhere in editing, someone decided to move that scene forward in the Act – maybe to spell out the "what" and "how" of Evil Kirk a little earlier, maybe just because “We have an imposter aboard!” seemed like a stronger act out than “Oh my …”  Who knows?

But I guarantee that’s what happened.

{drops the mic}

[The Baron]

I never noticed the bit about Kirk having make-up lying around.

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

From a character perspective that was a good episode.  You realize a lot of the things that made Kirk a good captain came from the darker part of him.  Later on I wondered if this happened in the Mirror/Mirror universe and what the evil Kirk was like when he was split up.

[The Baron]

RIP DC Fontana

[doc photo]

Sad to hear, She may never receive adequate credit for helping to shape the Trek franchise.

[The Baron]

RIP Robert Walker Jr "Charlie X"

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"I WANNA STAY... Stay... stay..."

[The Baron]

Joanne Linville, who played the Romulan Commander in this episode, has died.

The Baron said:

The Enterprise Incident:

Written by D.C. Fontana

Directed by John Meredyth Lucas

 

Synopsis: Our heroes plot to steal the Romulan cloaking device.

 

Thoughts:

1)"Intelligence reports Romulans now using Klingon design."  An interesting aspect of the new SFX - one of the Romulan ships is now an old-style "Romulan" ship, and even the "Klingon" style ships have birds painted on them. This, I like.

 

2)"I belive the Romulans have developed a cloaking device which renders our tracking sensors useless." Odd bit of lapsed continuity - Spock makes it sound like they just discovered that the Romulans have a cloaking device!

 

3)They overuse that "DUN-DUN  DUN-DUN!" music sting quite a bit.

 

4)"We can appreciate the Vulcans, our distant brothers." Yeah, she looks like she wants to "appreciate" Spock! Joanne Linville does a good job here, but in my opinion her character falls for an enemy officer a little too easily.

 

5)"I'll kill you!"  Interesting watching Shatner overact while playing Kirk overacting!

 

6)"He is not sane."  You're just noticing this now?

 

7)"How long have you been a Starfleet officer, Spock?" "18 years." That sounds about right.

 

8)"Are the guards also invited?" Ooh, burn.

 

9)"I instinctively used the Vulcan Death Grip." Which appears to be a sort of modified Iron Claw.

 

10)"Jim and Spock were operating under Federation orders." This seems to me to be an insanely risky operation.  One would think they could come up with a more subtle plan.

 

11)"You took a big chance that they didn't start an autopsy."  This reminds me of a cartoon I saw once - an extremely unhealthy-looking guy is sitting in a lawyer's office, and the lawyer is saying: "Why, yes, Mister Smith, I think you have an excellent case for malpractice. Now, when did you say the autopsy was performed on you?"

 

12)"I'll need a Romulan uniform." "Aye, it'll be a pleasure." Scotty looks forward to mistreating their prisoners.

 

13)Apparently it's not illogical to be a total dog to a woman to get what you want.

 

14)Shouldn't the Romulans detect Kirk beaming back and forth? For that matter, shouldn't they have their shields up to prevent the Feds from doing just that?   What's to stop them from just beaming photon torpedos aboard the Romulan ships?  For evil space baddies, Romulans security sure is lax. A guard falls for Kirk saying "Over there!" Good grief!

 

15)How does Scotty have fifteen minutes to install the cloaking device? Why don't the Romulans beam over right away?Or just blast them instantly? Oh, and kudos to Scotty for installing a piece of technology he's never seen before and which is designed for an entirely different kind of system, just like that. Guess that's why they call him a miracle worker.

 

16)"I demand the Right of Statement first." It doesn't seem to occur to her that he's playing for time.

 

17)"Commander, you'll forgive me if I put up a fight?" "Why, no, that's insufferably rude!

 

18)"Mister Spock will have the honor of escorting you to your quarters." Sure, humiliate her further by making her spend time with the guy who played her for a sucker. One wonders what happened to her and the other two Romulans "hostages", who, I presume, are still on board.Sure hope this doesn't end up starting a war.

 

19)"Somehow they do not look aesthetically agreeable on humans."  Shatner looks hysterically funny as a Romulan.

 

Overall:

Another episode with alot of exciting moments and a plot that makes less and less sense the more you think about it. I feel as though I ought to apologize to RTD and Steven Moffat - obviously, at some point they watched alot of Star Trek and thought this was how you're supposed to do it!