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

Bump for Wednesday

Last day for Mudd's Women (next up The Enemy Within)

Something else seemed a little out of place to me. At the end, when Childress invites Eve to stay, she tells Kirk "You already have someone called the Enterprise.". Other than the scene in which she refuses to try to seduce him, they don't spend much time together. It makes me wonder if there was a closer relationship between the two in a previous draft.

*THE ENEMY WITHIN*

A very intense, Kirk-focused episode, The Enemy Within addresses, head on and literally, the concept of good and evil within each soul.

Very suggestive sexual violence marked TOS as a show on the bleeding edge of television. The struggles that "good" Kirk had, particularly his indecision and over-analysis are contrasted by the brutal, but effective "evil" Kirk.

This show also demonstrates why Shatner gets paid the big bucks - his over-the-top, live theater style of acting is perfect for this episode. I wouldn't have it any other way.

C'mon rookie. You need to start posting a PIC from the episode in the first link for the new episode.

I haven't done a rewatch of TOS I think ever. Watched reruns a million times growing up.

I've been kicking around the idea of a rewatch forever so I think I might join the party.

I'm in the midst of a SGUathon with a thread but I might kill that one. The show is destroying my soul.

Might watch the ones I missed in this thread and catch up tomorrow.

Might have to bring the hammer down or compare to the recent movies you hate so much.

This episode was written by Richard Matheson, who recently passed away. He also wrote I Am Legend, Duel, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and a ton of other stuff.

We also see the first Vulcan nerve pinch and hear the first "He's dead, Jim."

Spock's teasing of Rand is seen by many to be awfully sexist by today's standards. Here is what Grace Lee Whitney had to say about it:

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I can't imagine any more cruel and insensitive comment a man (or Vulcan) could make to a woman who has just been through a sexual assault! But then, some men really do think that women want to be raped. So the writer of the script (ostensibly Richard Matheson - although the line could have been added by Gene Roddenberry or an assistant scribe) gives us a leering Mr. Spock who suggests that Yeoman Rand enjoyed being raped and found the evil Kirk attractive!

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Dog suit

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Scotty handling the dog is a rare example where the finger Jimmy lost (at Normandy, no less, ) is briefly visible, although I could not find a screenshot illustrating this.

Pretty good episode, though the meaning was kind of obvious. I'm guessing the attemped rape was pretty risque for the time, shows they were on the cutting edge with this show. Some of Shatner's best over acting, ie being Shanter. How freaking long is Yoeman Rand's hair to be bundled up like that?

The first indisputably classic episode, written by the late great Richard Matheson (and directed, insignificantly enough, by the father of Sean Penn). This is probably Shatner's finest hour on the show -- in the later, similarly-themed episode "Turnabout Intruder", he would be rather embarrassing.

Matheson's script stresses an aspect of the Jeckyll-Hyde story that had been downplayed/ignored by previous versions, at least the ones I've seen -- that man's evil side is in fact a necessary component of his nature.

According to Nimoy, the original script had Spock punch out the evil Kirk, which he found out of character. So Nimoy came up with the "Vulcan nerve pinch", which is not explained by an dialogue.

All this PC nonsense expressing outrage that Rand "found the evil Kirk attractive". Yeah chicks never go for bad boys

The one thing I've always noticed about Star Trek:

On Wagon Train the staff was fairly small: the wagonmaster, a scout, a cook, and a general ramrod to oversee the train. Naturally the scout had to leave the train, so it made sense for him to get involved in various adventures. Occasionaly the wagonmaster -- played by the star of the show, remember -- would go out as well, but usually he would stay with the train and handle problems there.

But Star Trek didn't follow this format. Whenever there was any kind of crisis on some planet, Kirk would beam down and jump right right into the situation himself.

Of course this came from Shatner insisting on being the focus of every episode, but it's always seemed silly to me. I can understand Horatio Hornblower leaving the ship when he was a midshipman, but as a captain? No he'd stay on board and send some redshirt to the island to get killed by cannibals.

Something else I just realized about Star Trek. The whole point of Wagon Train was to emphasize guest stars, so we'd get episodes where passengers have various problems to deal with, with the wagonmaster popping up every so often to hear about their predicament.

Star Trek almost never emphasized its "passengers" (the crewmen). Instead Kirk or perhaps Spock would serve as the character foundation of the episode, with the guest being some outsider: alien (evil or benign) or Starfleet bureaucrat.

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Of course this came from Shatner insisting on being the focus of every episode, but it's always seemed silly to me. I can understand Horatio Hornblower leaving the ship when he was a midshipman, but as a captain? No he'd stay on board and send some redshirt to the island to get killed by cannibals.

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I never had a problem with this. It always made sense in my mind that a captain of the frontier-like starfleet we see in TOS would lead landing parties. A captain of this era was a larger than life character - explorer, military commander, and diplomat rolled into one. It added to the mystique of the position.

The division of command we see in TNG is actually something I didn't like, particularly early on when they really pushed the idea of Riker not letting Picard leave the ship. I will admit that this may be because I was more interested in seeing Picard than Riker on screen.