Star Trek: TOS Watchers - S2 - Return to Tomorrow *Page 14*

A classic Halloween tale for our intrepid crew. Again, we face super powerful aliens, with nefarious intent. Taking human form seems to present an opportunity. Can Captain Kirk find a way to free his ship and his crew from the grip of foes whose technology mimics the effects of magic?

Not one of my favorites growing up - but it has "grown" on me over the years. One of the few female leads who could really go toe-to-toe with the Shat.

Although primarily on the small screen, Antoinette Bower (Sylvia) had approximately 90 appearances on television series from 1959 to the early 1980s.

Little of the episode takes place on the Enterprise and the silly ending effects sequence has been much improved by the 2.0 revisions. Looks great now, the colors, sets and alien costumes really stand out from the average episode (similar to Squire of Gothos).

Theo Marcuse, another television vet was great in this as well - the henpecked, ostensible "commander" who loses control and feels compelled to assist Kirk at the end. He was in the wonderful Twilight Zone episode, "To Serve Man". He died the month after Catspaw first aired.

Catspaw is not a very highly thought of episode, but it is a guilty pleasure of mine.

I always loved the wailing witches at the beginning, as well as the other "spooky" elements of the episode like the dungeon and black cat.

When I was a child, I would have killed to have that miniature Enterprise model. You can get things like that easily now, but back then it was my Holy Grail.

The "pendant" Enterprise appears to be another example of Big Gene trying to sell products - at least in this case, it was important to the plot. The show really was a pioneer in many ways - there had been science fiction series and merchandising before, but this package and strategy was sort of new ground. Following a hybrid template of Wagon Train and Forbidden Planet, it is sort of a "smart" western, set in the future. It completely paved the way for Star Wars to follow 10 years later, including the merchandising strategy (which, had not been really big for movies before - there was merchandising associated with stars before - Roy Rogers, particularly, and the odd film or television series, but nothing like the scope and coordinated strategy of Star Trek - particularly once it went into syndication and the convention cycle picked up - for television or Star Wars for film.)

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I like the original crappy effects just as I first saw them.

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Most of them I can live with, but the original ending of Catspaw - you could see the strings on the little toys. It is one of the most embarrassing effects in TOS (along with the bubble wrap environmental suit in The Naked Time).

Normally I am against any such "enhancements" (particularly if it is Spielberg and/or Lucas doing them) - however, the Star Trek 2.0 stuff is really non-offensive and a net improvement - particularly all the spacecraft exteriors are much closer to the TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT standard.

bump

"Comments, Mr Spock?"
"Very Bad Poetry, Captain."


Bad special effects in the episode, particularly the original puppets, but fantastic sets. The dungeon, dining room, and outdoor area looked great.

This was also the first appearance of Mr Chekov and his infamous wig.

Desalle delivers one of the best lines by someone in acting command of the Enterprise:

(about the force field)

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Maybe we can't break it. But I'll bet you credits to navy beans we can put a dent in it.

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Friday bump.

(And not to get too far ahead - we switched episodes approximately 2 times per week last time - if it will give us more opportunities to pull people in - I'm willing to try 1 per week - which will take us 6 months to cover Season 2 - so Metamorphasis for Sunday).

Crewman Jackson is our only casualty in Catspaw - played by Jay D. "Jimmy" Jones, primarily a stunt double on Star Trek. He would appear as Mallory in "The Apple", a literal "redshirt" and get killed in that bloodbath episode (sorry, spoilers for later this season). He was also Jimmy Doohan's stunt double on several occasions.

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Wasn't this episode written by horror writer Robert Bloch (Psycho)?

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Yes - along with Season 1 episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" and another Season 2 episode, "Wolf in the Fold".

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Crewman Jackson is our only casualty in Catspaw - played by Jay D. "Jimmy" Jones, primarily a stunt double on Star Trek.

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He takes a pretty good fall off the transporter pad. I figured he was more than just an actor.