re: Star Trek: TOS Watchers - Season 1 Wrapup *Page 25*

Let's talk about the men who produced the story and screenplay for Space Seed.

The story was by Carey Wilber, who wrote for dozens of television series from the 1950s through the 1980s, and a decent mix of drama, action, western and science fiction.

Wilber received credit on the script that was written by long-time TOS producer/writer, Gene Coon. Coon was the showrunner for TOS until Bread and Circues. After that, and numerous disagreements with Roddenberry (Coon is sometimes called "The Forgotten Gene"), he passed that on to John Meredyth Lucas. (Apparently as he was leaving, and upset with the change in tone of the show, Coon said to Lucas, "Why the hell don't you take over? You produced The Fugitive and Ben Casey and that shite."

But, before he left, Coon gave us 8 pretty good TOS scripts -

"Arena"
"A Taste of Armageddon" (with Robert Hamner)
"Space Seed" (with Carey Wilber)
"The Devil in the Dark"
"Errand of Mercy"
"Metamorphosis"
"Bread and Circuses" (with Gene Roddenberry)
"A Piece of the Action" (with David P. Harmon)


...and roughly 1/2 of the TOS run, overall, as producer/showrunner (some would say the "good" half). It should be noted that Roddenberry often referred to TOS as "Wagon Train to the stars" and Coon was a veteran writer of Wagon Train, itself.

He died of cancer in 1973 at the age of 49.

Cheers to probably the best script by "The Forgotten Gene" and the man himself.

Very interesting episode dealing with eugenics theories, and the "Eugenics Wars" that supposedly took place in the 1990s. While I was vaguely aware of Nazi theories of genetic purity, I'd never heard of "eugenics" at that time, although I was still pretty young when I first saw this episode in syndication.

Going forward to Khan, I loved it when Kirk said "Khan - I'm laughing at the superior intellect." The looks on both Shatner's and Ricardo's faces were priceless - similar to Seed, they both truly looked as if if they disdained one another.

Another classic episode. Khan was incredible to watch on the screen. A great choice to revisit in the movies.

McGivers was , but she made me . Turned way too easily.

I wonder if her portrait of Khan still exists? It would be quite a collector's item.

Even after attempting to kill Kirk and destroy the ship, Khan's exile feels more like a hero's sendoff than a prison sentence.

And of course, there is the story where Khan's name was based on an old friend of Rodenberry's that he wanted to get in touch with. He hoped his friend would hear the name and contact the show. He tried again later with Data's creator, but I don't think he ever heard from him.

Bump because Space Seed deserves it.

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Have you ever read Milton, Captain?

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It's a shame for a good Scotsman to admit it, but I'm not up on Milton.

What's up with this thread? Bump!

*THIS SIDE OF PARADISE*



Spock gets the girl and Kirk faces a mutiny as the crew is under the influence of strange spores that provide health and contentment - but at what price?

"(You're a) carcass full of memory banks who should be squatting on a mushroom, instead of passing himself off as a man. You belong in a circus, Spock, not a starship ... right next to the dog-faced boy!"

Another great one from the first season. Kirk did a memorable job of explaining how man unfortunately "wasn't made" for paradise, and it was really fascinating (pun? OK maybe) to see Spock human-like and in love ("I can love you!").

Thought it was poignant when it ends with Spock lamenting, "For the first time in my life, I was happy." Reminded me of the end of the later episode "A Private Little War", where it ended sadly but with great effect.

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And wasn't this the one where McCoy went into his country doctor schtick, drinking mint juleps and such? Kirk was not amused by any of it.

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Yep, when Kirk told him he needed his help to counteract the spores, McCoy said "who wants to counteract paradise, Jim boy?"

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Kirk destroyed paradise for another culture when he phasered their rock-cave-god (Baal?) from orbit, and he shrugged it off as being good for them.

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Vaal, I believe, in The Apple. Yeah, Kirk violated the Prime Directive whenever the hell it suited him, and always gave some bumper-sticker reason why it was OK. As I've said before, NG did a much better job of at least feigning angst over violating it.

IIRC, the PD stated the Federation shouldn't interfere with the normal evolution of a society - even if it meant allowing that society's destruction.

Your point is well taken that in both The Apple and Paradise one could certainly argue that those societies weren't "normally" evolving. But in a case like Armageddon, Kirk simply didn't like that planet's destructive evolution and "fixed" it, PD be damned.

Kirk just seemed far more willing to interfere in a society if he personally disapproved of it's evolution, arguably normal or not.