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

The Man Trap? They made an episode about my wife?!?!??!!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!

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I remain convinced the whole "Wagon Train to the stars" concept was camouflage for Roddenberry ripping off Forbidden Planet

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We're really talking about two different things.

You bring up what might be called the "premise" of the show -- spaceship and crew treated like a contemporary military unit. In this Star Trek definitely was heavily influenced by Forbidden Planet.

But once you have the premise, you can tell the stories in a number of ways. Apparently, Roddenberry's original intention was to use the Wagon Train format stressing guest stars, as I've said throughout the thread. But Shatner opposed this and demanded Kirk be the center of attention as much as possible.

*THE MAN TRAP*



The first episode that actually aired. An actual monster hunts and kills Enterprise crewmen, and gets extinguished as a species for its trouble.

Although somewhat weaker than most of the early production episodes (save, perhaps Corbomite) we get a very nice bit of acting by Jackson Deforest Kelley, as McCoy's past relationship with Nancy Crater is a key element of the plot.

The suited monster and transformation effects were probably even a dated at the time it aired, but this was compensated by the acting which sold (for me, at least) the hypnotic/paralytic effect as the creature moved in for the kill.

Star Trek was an open, optimistic, forward-looking show, but science fiction of this era still owed quite a bit to the horror genre - The Man Trap, The Devil in the Dark and Catspaw are among the TOS episodes which really show off this horror heritage.

NM

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Maybe so. But that monster really gave me the creeps when I was a kid.

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You know it.

I really liked this episode. It was creepy and had different vibe from most other episodes.

Some nice character moments like Kirk snapping at McCoy, then apologizing later. Also Spock is clearly upset on the bridge, even though Uhura accuses him of not caring.

The salt vampire is an interesting character. It seems intelligent, but acts irrationally in killing when it only had to behave another day or two. After seeing "Nancy" cry over the first death, I think the creature enjoyed killing, missed it, and killed out of sport rather than need.

First mention of Vulcan.

Kirk calls McCoy "Bones." Is this the first time? Didn't pay attention last episode.

Blond Nancy was

Orginial script title - The Unreal McCoy.

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Blond Nancy

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With Roddenberry's reputation, I always assume these attractive young women who paraded through the guest star/bit part spots during TOS' run, and did not have much of a career before or after, may have been the flavor of the week of Big Gene's casting couch. Call me cynical, but that's my opinion of these.

Francine Pyne was however.

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The salt vampire is an interesting character. It seems intelligent, but acts irrationally in killing when it only had to behave another day or two. After seeing "Nancy" cry over the first death, I think the creature enjoyed killing, missed it, and killed out of sport rather than need.

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Initially, I considered the creature as very intelligent. More recently, I've considered the possibility that it was just cunning. It obviously uses a telepathic power to learn memories from its targets (as Nancy, it "knew" or "remembered" McCoy - and created a visage from Uhura's thoughts to target her.) However, is it possible, it just lets this character it created act as a distraction while it moves in for the kill - not necessarily instinctively - but at a subhuman, cunning, predatory level? That works for me - until the creature, posing as McCoy starts going to meetings and pretending to work with the crews searching for it - that looks pretty much like humanoid intelligence.

The other thing I considered is that the pent up demand for salt - subsisting solely on Crater's tablets for 1 to 2 years - just drove it insane with hunger. While it obviously developed an affinity for Crater, it did not hesitate in killing him when necessary.

However, your sport-killing hypothesis is something to consider, and would be consistent with a (perhaps even very) intelligent, but irrational, creature.

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While it obviously developed an affinity for Crater, it did not hesitate in killing him when necessary.

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I wish that had been on screen. It would have been quite dramatic to see the creature turn on its former companion.

Speaking of companionship, it's interesting that the salt vampire spared McCoy after finding it liked his "stronger" feelings for Nancy, then discarded Crater. It seemed to want to set up the same sort of bizarre relationship with Bones as it had on the planet.

When Crater admitted that he could recognize the creature in any form, it likely sealed his fate. Although he refused to help in the search, the creature probably felt it could not afford to let Crater live in case he changed his mind.