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Message
re: Star Trek: TOS Watchers - Season 1 Wrapup *Page 25*
Posted on 7/28/13 at 12:20 pm to Ace Midnight
Posted on 7/28/13 at 12:20 pm to Ace Midnight
I thought it was better than I remembered.
Posted on 7/28/13 at 4:54 pm to H-Town Tiger
quote:
I thought it was better than I remembered.
Yeah, I do like it better as the years go by. I do remember recognizing there was some adolescent issues going on once I went through puberty.
Posted on 7/29/13 at 8:23 am to Ace Midnight
Solid episode - good and eerie. No face girl always creeps me out.
Kirk as a father figure is a nice little subplot, and "Go to your room or I'll pick you up and carry you" is a great moment, considering what he had just seen Charlie do.
Walker did a good job as the awkward Charlie. He actually rufused to have anything to do with the rest of the cast during filming, to emphasize his role as an outsider. It was a memorable performance.
But perhaps he did too good a job. I think the episode may have been better if Charlie were a bit more likeable or sympathetic. It seems we're supposed to feel bad for him when the Thasians take him away, but I always find myself glad that the little creep gets what's coming to him.
Kirk as a father figure is a nice little subplot, and "Go to your room or I'll pick you up and carry you" is a great moment, considering what he had just seen Charlie do.
Walker did a good job as the awkward Charlie. He actually rufused to have anything to do with the rest of the cast during filming, to emphasize his role as an outsider. It was a memorable performance.
But perhaps he did too good a job. I think the episode may have been better if Charlie were a bit more likeable or sympathetic. It seems we're supposed to feel bad for him when the Thasians take him away, but I always find myself glad that the little creep gets what's coming to him.
Posted on 7/29/13 at 8:30 am to Master of Sinanju
quote:
It seems we're supposed to feel bad for him when the Thasians take him away, but I always find myself glad that the little creep gets what's coming to him.
I'm always torn. He's supposed to be this immature kid, and you get the feeling that, with the right guidance, he could be a boon - like a superhero. But at the same time, we remember Gary Mitchell and we know it's just not possible.
If I had powers like that, I'd be tough to manage, too, and I'm a pretty good guy.
Posted on 7/30/13 at 10:14 am to Ace Midnight
quote:
the rec room scene is one of my favorite scenes
I always wanted one of those chess sets. At least poor Spock finally wins a game. He's 0-2 vs Kirk so far.
I learned something I didn't know in reading about this episode - the voice over the intercom talking about the meatloaf and turkeys was Gene Rodenberry himself.
Also, Tina > Janice. Charlie passed up a good thing.
Posted on 7/30/13 at 1:23 pm to Master of Sinanju
quote:
Also, Tina > Janice. Charlie passed up a good thing.
Grace Lee Whitney was 36 when Charlie X was filmed, Robert Walker was 26 (playing a character 9 years younger), and Patricia McNulty was just shy of her 21st birthday.
Interesting to note this could be an early case of Cougaring (with all due respect to Gloria Swanson and William Holden - she was almost 20 years his senior) - or MILF chasing.
In any event, I haven't dwelled on this (much, at least I don't think so) in this thread, but McNulty's appearance is another one of those I suspect might be a Big Gene's Casting Couch deal. She was fairly cute.
Posted on 7/30/13 at 2:49 pm to Ace Midnight
quote:
Big Gene's Casting Couch
since you've mentioned it, I find myself wondering the same thing about every cutie they have in a supporting role
Grace looks for 36 especially back then.
Posted on 7/30/13 at 4:04 pm to H-Town Tiger
quote:
Grace looks for 36 especially back then.
She threw that away on the Marlboroughs and Wild Turkey. She looked old well before 50.
Posted on 7/30/13 at 4:36 pm to Ace Midnight
quote:
She threw that away on the Marlboroughs and Wild Turkey. She looked old well before 50.
not uncommon. 50 year olds in the 60's did not look like Heather Locklear does in 2013.
Posted on 7/30/13 at 6:35 pm to H-Town Tiger
Go Charlie!
The arse smack had me rollin. As did Kirk trying to explain women.
Spock smiled while Uhuru was singing. I guess we can chalk it up to music distracting him and letting emotions bubble up.
I wonder if the writer stole the idea for Charlie from Stanger in a Strange Land. Charlie and his powers are very similar to Valentine Michael Smith, albeit a jackwagon douche version. Smith was always making people disappear.
Not sure why they thought that holding cell would do anything. They already know he destroyed the other ship which was far away.
What a dick! Poor old lady then faceless lady.
Reminded me of Twilight Zone the movie.
Right about now Piccard would have set self-destruct.
No real consistency with Spock from Where No Man. Spock was all about killing Mitchell as soon as possible. Here he doesn't even mention it. Sure they didn't want to kill a kid but given that is was just a few episodes ago that Spock wanted Mitchell dead at any cost, it is a bit odd he doesn't even suggest it here.
Big floating head saves the day.
I didn't like this one as a kid which is good. It means I didn't remember any of the episode.
Overall not a bad episode. Better than I remember.
One last note. Seems they repeated the story with a bit of a twist in a later episode.
The arse smack had me rollin. As did Kirk trying to explain women.
Spock smiled while Uhuru was singing. I guess we can chalk it up to music distracting him and letting emotions bubble up.
I wonder if the writer stole the idea for Charlie from Stanger in a Strange Land. Charlie and his powers are very similar to Valentine Michael Smith, albeit a jackwagon douche version. Smith was always making people disappear.
Not sure why they thought that holding cell would do anything. They already know he destroyed the other ship which was far away.
What a dick! Poor old lady then faceless lady.
Reminded me of Twilight Zone the movie.
Right about now Piccard would have set self-destruct.
No real consistency with Spock from Where No Man. Spock was all about killing Mitchell as soon as possible. Here he doesn't even mention it. Sure they didn't want to kill a kid but given that is was just a few episodes ago that Spock wanted Mitchell dead at any cost, it is a bit odd he doesn't even suggest it here.
Big floating head saves the day.
I didn't like this one as a kid which is good. It means I didn't remember any of the episode.
Overall not a bad episode. Better than I remember.
One last note. Seems they repeated the story with a bit of a twist in a later episode.
This post was edited on 7/31/13 at 12:39 pm
Posted on 7/30/13 at 8:12 pm to TigerMyth36
quote:
One last note. Seems they repeated the story with a bit of a twist in a later episode.
Perhaps a reference to the lonely Squire of Gothos?
Posted on 7/30/13 at 8:21 pm to Ace Midnight
quote:Same whinny ending.
Perhaps a reference to the lonely Squire of Gothos?
Posted on 7/31/13 at 7:40 am to TigerMyth36
quote:
Same whinny ending.
Yeah, but William Campbell in the role - Star Trek's answer to Liberace.
Posted on 7/31/13 at 8:26 am to Ace Midnight
As a kid I thought that was Liberace.
Posted on 7/31/13 at 9:19 am to TigerMyth36
quote:
As a kid I thought that was Liberace.
We'll defer this further until the episode comes around.
Back to Charlie X - the source material was a Jerome Bixby (again) story, "It's a Good Life" (filmed as a Twilight Zone episode in 1961).
Big Gene worked the story up as part of the initial pitch for Star Trek in 1964, calling his story "The Day Charlie Became God". The lovely and talented D.C. Fontana was tasked with writing the Star Trek script.
ETA: Another production note - Big Gene makes his only acting appearance in all of Star Trek - the voice of the galley chef informing Kirk about the "real turkeys".
This post was edited on 7/31/13 at 9:22 am
Posted on 7/31/13 at 2:10 pm to Ace Midnight
Okay fans - last chance for Charlie X - (next up - one of my favorite episodes - Balance of Terror.)
Little Robert Walker, Jr. trivia - his stepfather was David O. Selznick and his mother, Jennifer Jones, won the 1943 Best Actress Oscar for the lead in The Song of Bernadette.
Interesting background for this young actor who went on to do nothing particularly memorable (except for his appearance in Star Trek: The Original Series.)
Little Robert Walker, Jr. trivia - his stepfather was David O. Selznick and his mother, Jennifer Jones, won the 1943 Best Actress Oscar for the lead in The Song of Bernadette.
Interesting background for this young actor who went on to do nothing particularly memorable (except for his appearance in Star Trek: The Original Series.)
Posted on 8/1/13 at 7:41 am to Ace Midnight
*BALANCE OF TERROR*
One of my favorite episodes - in production order, the first true space battle in TOS. Staged and paced very much like a submarine battle, this episode is a template for the best of all the Trek films, "The Wrath of Kahn" - which is essentially the marriage of 2 great episodes - this one and "A Space Seed".
Mark Lenard makes his first appearance in TOS, and wears pointed ears, but he plays the first Romulan seen on screen in this episode.
The Romulan Commander is unnamed in the episode, but is very clearly supposed to represent an older, more experienced Romulan version of Kirk. The tactical battle remains gripping to me some 40 years after seeing it the first time.
We also get McCoy's best line in all of TOS.
quote:
In this galaxy, there's a mathematical probability of three million earth-type planets...and in all the universe, three million million galaxies like this one. And in all of that, and perhaps more, only one of each of us. Don't destroy the one named Kirk.
There are issues (phasers appear to be photon torpedoes - however, from a production standpoint, torpedoes hadn't been introduced yet. This is also the only time we see a weapons battery directed to fire in TOS.
Also a tender moment on the bridge between Kirk and Rand - almost an embrace - a wonderful bit of nonverbal acting on the part of Whitney and Shatner.
Racism is also directly addressed for the first time in TOS.
quote:
Leave any bigotry in your quarters. There's no room for it on the bridge.
This post was edited on 8/1/13 at 7:43 am
Posted on 8/1/13 at 9:14 am to Ace Midnight
Balance of Terror is one of the best 2 or 3 episodes of not just TOS but all of Star Trek series.
So much good stuff: Its a homage to classic submarine movies like Run Silent, Run Deep. Watching Kirk and the unnamed Romulan match wits is great. The tension really builds each waiting for the other to make a mistake. There are also Cold War/WWII over tones with references to the past war and Neutral Zone. Racial elements are also explored with the Romulans looking like Vulcans and Spock making a silly mistake that puts the ship a risk raising suspicions.
I hadn't seem this in s while. When they first put TOS episodes on VHS, this was the only 1 I bought. There's really only 1 other contender for my favorite episode (we'll get to it in a few weeks). Aside from the dated effects, this really hasn't aged a bit. Great, great episode.
So much good stuff: Its a homage to classic submarine movies like Run Silent, Run Deep. Watching Kirk and the unnamed Romulan match wits is great. The tension really builds each waiting for the other to make a mistake. There are also Cold War/WWII over tones with references to the past war and Neutral Zone. Racial elements are also explored with the Romulans looking like Vulcans and Spock making a silly mistake that puts the ship a risk raising suspicions.
I hadn't seem this in s while. When they first put TOS episodes on VHS, this was the only 1 I bought. There's really only 1 other contender for my favorite episode (we'll get to it in a few weeks). Aside from the dated effects, this really hasn't aged a bit. Great, great episode.
This post was edited on 8/1/13 at 9:16 am
Posted on 8/1/13 at 9:34 am to H-Town Tiger
quote:
There are also Cold War/WWII over tones with references to the past war and Neutral Zone.
No question this is a warning about the Cold War turning hot - it was just a couple of years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Neutral Zone evoked the Iron Curtain, as well.
Romulans only factored in 3 episodes, this one, The Deadly Years and The Enterprise Incident - but those are all excellent episodes. Obviously, a lot more was done with the race in TNG and DS9, but I don't think the potential shown by Balance of Terror was ever fully realized. It seems that later efforts to make the Klingons (more overtly in the role of the Soviet/Chinese communist threat, at least initially) more 3 and 4 dimensional (and ultimately erstwhile allies of the Federation) was more of a priority and the Romulans remained (perhaps fittingly) at arm's length and more menacing.
This post was edited on 8/1/13 at 9:35 am
Posted on 8/1/13 at 1:26 pm to Ace Midnight
Classic episode. Really enjoyed the cat and mouse games played by the commanders.
I liked Spock urging Kirk to attack. If the Romulans were as savage as his Vulcan ancestors, they truly were dangerous.
I also liked the Romulan bridge set. Not only cheap, from a production standpoint, but also stark, with no frills. It fits the disciplined militaristic Romulan culture.
The wedding was interesting - it gave us a look at a side if the Enterprise and crew we rarely see. It was a bit obvious one of them wasn't going to make it, though.
The ending was good too. Kirk, after consoling the bride, exits the chapel and walks down the busy corridor, back to work as the credits roll.
I liked Spock urging Kirk to attack. If the Romulans were as savage as his Vulcan ancestors, they truly were dangerous.
I also liked the Romulan bridge set. Not only cheap, from a production standpoint, but also stark, with no frills. It fits the disciplined militaristic Romulan culture.
The wedding was interesting - it gave us a look at a side if the Enterprise and crew we rarely see. It was a bit obvious one of them wasn't going to make it, though.
The ending was good too. Kirk, after consoling the bride, exits the chapel and walks down the busy corridor, back to work as the credits roll.
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