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Star Trek – The Tholian Web

★★★★★ November 12, 1968 Season 3 Episode 9

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Judy Burns, and Chet Richards

I’ve said that the third season was much better than I remembered…well this is one of the reasons. A 5-star episode. We get to see the relationship between Spock and Doctor McCoy up close in this one.

An excellent episode that provides all the elements necessary for the feud between Spock and McCoy to come to a climax. Without Kirk to referee and the situation growing more intolerable, Spock and McCoy find themselves alone to hear the “Final Orders” as part of their obligation to Kirk.

The reason Kirk is not there is because when Checkov, McCoy, Kirk, and Spock beam on the disabled Starship USS Defiant adrift in space… everyone is dead on the ship. By the looks of it they all killed each other. While this is going on the Defiant is going in and out of view like it’s slowly disappearing. After investigating and showing no one but them alive on the ship…all beam back except Kirk. The ship then disappears into subspace and it’s gone.

All the while… the ship is trapped by the Tholians in an obvious Tholian Web.

Kirk vanishes with the ship…and on top of the Captain missing…now whatever caused the other crew to kill each other is now on the Enterprise. They think Kirk is dead until Uhura sees a ghostly image of Kirk…was it Kirk or was it the illness that the Enterprise has now?

A classic Star Trek episode. My favorite part is when McCoy and Spock have to watch a video left to them by Kirk if he dies. After arguments between them up to this point…the video does help them get through it.

From IMDB:

Star Trek was nominated for an Emmy Award for the special effects in this episode.

This episode is the only time that Spock refers to McCoy by his nickname, Bones.

This was the only appearance of the Tholians in the “Star Trek” franchise until Future Tense (2003) 35 years later.

This is one of the few episodes in which all of the regular second and third-season characters, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, and Chapel, appear.

This is the third time that the Enterprise has encountered another Constitution-class star ship with the entire crew dead. The others were in The Doomsday Machine (1967) and The Omega Glory (1968). By the end of The Ultimate Computer (1968) a fourth Constitution class, the Excalibur, is also lifeless.

This episode introduced the environmental suit. These suits were created by costume designer William Ware Theiss and consisted of silver lamé with a fabric helmet with screen mesh visor. Since these outfits were meant to be seen only in NTSC resolution, someone came up with the ingenious solution of making the “window” out of mesh. Mesh would provide the diffusion to make it seem there was something clear and solid in front of the actor’s face and reflections and recording dialog would be no problem. The way the shows were broadcast back then it would provide successful illusion of a solid face plate for the most part. It was not until DVD, which achieved the highest quality of NTSC resolution that the use of mesh became much more noticeable. And now, with high definition resolution, you can see the texture and wrinkling of the mesh quite easily.

According to James Doohan, NBC executives told him to comb his hair back for the third season. Doohan hated wearing his hair this way and stopped doing so during the filming of ‘The Tholian Web’.

Ralph Senensky began the direction of this episode but was fired and replaced by Herb Wallerstein. Senensky used the fisheye lens camera effect to show the viewpoint of a person affected by interspace. This technique had previously been used by Senensky in Is There in Truth No Beauty? (1968). (The Trek 25th Anniversary Celebration)

The antique Napoleon III ebony cabinet pedestal found in Spock’s quarters had previously appeared in the films It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and Citizen Kane (1941).

The Defiant is not among the names of the fourteen Constitution-class starships that were established in “The Making of Star Trek”.

One of only two TOS episodes without a single guest star; the other was The Immunity Syndrome (1968).

When Chekov asks if there’s ever before been a mutiny aboard a starship, Spock responds by saying that there are absolutely no records of any such occurrence. This cleverly avoids answering the question directly. While there may be no mutiny “on record,” Spock well knows that there have been at least two, one of which he himself took part in, during The Menagerie: Part I (1966)/The Menagerie: Part II (1966). Another mutiny is mentioned years after the fact in Whom Gods Destroy (1969).

This is the first time, in the broadcast order, that Lt. Uhura’s quarters are shown. The first time via production order is in Elaan of Troyius (1968).

Herb Wallerstein is the credited director of this episode. Ralph Senensky was the original director, but was fired midway through filming and replaced by Wallerstein. Senensky refused any screen credit for this episode. However, he admitted, just to set the record straight, that half of the episode was his footage.

The space suits were later reused in Whom Gods Destroy (1969).

The ship’s chapel, which had previously appeared in Balance of Terror (1966), was a redress of the briefing room.

The lab apparatus and tubing that McCoy uses in attempting to synthesize the theragen derivative appears to have been recycled from The Devil in the Dark (1967), where it was used as part of Scotty’s makeshift replacement for the main circulating pump of the PXK pergium reactor.

Summary

The Enterprise finds the U.S.S. Defiant, which had disappeared three weeks earlier, in uncharted space. While they can see it on the view screen, their instruments can’t detect it as the space around them is in a state of flux. Captain Kirk and others beam aboard to find that the crew have all killed themselves. When all but Kirk returned to the Enterprise, the Defiant suddenly disappears. Spock believes Kirk may still be alive and is determined to bring him back, but the instability in space is affecting the crew, who are going mad (and starting to see the captain floating about the ship). Meanwhile, a pair of Tholian ships, thinking the Federation is intruding upon their space, is slowly weaving a web around the Enterprise to entrap them.

***I want to vent here for a second…or two or three. I don’t know if youtube has changed its policy but lately, every time I try to post a video for Star Trek…it’s age-restricted and will show blocked if you click on it. You can watch real people die on youtube but a 30-second clip from a 60s TV show? NO can’t have that.***

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
James Doohan … Scott
George Takei … Sulu
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Majel Barrett … Nurse Chapel
Sean Morgan … Lt. O’Neil
Barbara Babcock … Cmdr. Loskene (voice) (uncredited)
Paul Baxley … Defiant Captain (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Bob Bralver … Berserk Engineer (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited)
Louie Elias … Crazed Crewman (uncredited)
Jimmy Fields … Security Crewman (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Jay D. Jones … Engineer (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)
Gary Wright … Enterprise Sciences Crewman (uncredited)

Star Trek – For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

★★★★ November 8, 1968 Season 3 Episode 8

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Hendrik Vollaerts, and Arthur H. Singer

I like this one a lot. It’s one of the episodes I go to when I want to watch a Star Trek episode.

Doctor McCoy finds out he has a fatal disease and only has around one year to live. The Enterprise in attacked by a missile, launched from an asteroid on an independent collision course with highly populated planet, Darren 5, in 396 days, which has simple atomic power and an internal atmosphere, but no inhabitants.

Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam onto the ‘asteroid’ and soon discover that it is a generational ship and its crew, which is very much alive, have no idea that they are on a ship. In fact, the fact is deliberately hidden from the people aboard and actions that may lead to the truth coming out are punished by the ‘Oracle’.

The most senior person there is Natira, the High Priestess of the society, and she is clearly attracted to McCoy and he feels the same way. This makes it easy for him to keep her occupied while Kirk and Spock investigate the Oracle. Unfortunately, they are caught and forced to return to the Enterprise. McCoy however decides to spend his final year with Natira. Shortly afterward he learns that there may be a way to save the people of Yonada but it would mean reading their sacred book; something nobody may do until they reach their destination.

McCoy is in love with Natira and is ready to run off with her since he only has a year to live. It was nice seeing McCoy getting the female this time. The biggest criticism of this episode is too many coincidences in this one to make it believable but still a very enjoyable episode.

From IMDB:

Polycythemia is a real disease in which the body produces too many red blood cells and is not, by itself fatal. Xenopolycythemia would be an alien (xeno- = foreign, alien) variation of the disease. It is revealed Dr. McCoy is suffering from xenopolycythmia.

The voice of the Oracle was played by James Doohan.

Jon Lormer, who plays the Old Man, was also in The Return of the Archons (1967), and the original pilot, The Cage (1966).

The metal helical staircase is recycled from The Empath (1968).

The ancient Yonada text is based on Korean (Han-Gul-ma) alphabet.

The entrance set used for the entrance portal to the “underground” section of the Yonada world-ship was used again in The Cloud Minders (1969).

The ‘Book of the People’ is the same as ‘Chicago Mobs of the Twenties’ in A Piece of the Action (1968).

Byron Morrow, who portrayed Admiral Westervliet, also portrayed Admiral Komack in Amok Time (1967).

This has the longest title of any episode in the “Star Trek” franchise.

The field reader tube, normally used to take a medical patient’s vital signs, is used in this episode by McCoy to extract the instrument of obedience from Natira. This marks the only apparent close-up use of this prop in the series.

The music that accompanies the appearance of the old man played by Jon Lormer is the same music by Alexander Courage that played during some of his lines as Dr. Theodore Haskins in The Cage (1966).

When McCoy is being punished by the Oracle while talking to the Enterprise, Kirk says, “Bones what is it? Bones what is it?” This is a recorded line of dialogue reused from The Tholian Web (1968).

The bridge scene that runs under Kirk’s voiceover at the start of Act One (where Kirk enters the bridge from the turboshaft) is the same footage from the very beginning of the episode.

Summary

Dr. McCoy is diagnosed with a fatal disease and has only one year to live. When the Enterprise is fired upon, they trace the weapons to what appears to be a giant asteroid, some 200 miles wide, that is in fact a ship on a collision course with a heavily populated planet, Darren V. What they find when they beam over is that the local population that don’t realize they are on a ship. For McCoy the trip is liberating in many ways. He finds purpose with them but also love with their High Priestess, Natira. Kirk agrees to let him stay behind but when McCoy discovers a possible solution to the impending collision with Darren V, he returns to the alien vessel with Spock intent on re-directing the errant craft.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Katherine Woodville … Natira (as Kate Woodville)
James Doohan … Scott
George Takei … Sulu
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Majel Barrett … Nurse Chapel
Byron Morrow … Admiral Westervliet
Jon Lormer … Old Man
Frank da Vinci … Transporter Operator (uncredited)
Tony Dante … Fabrini Oracle Guard (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Fabrini Servant (uncredited)

Star Trek – Day Of The Dove

★★★★1/2 November 1, 1968 Season 3 Episode 7

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Jerome Bixby, and Arthur H. Singer

I think this one ranks up there with the best of the 3rd season. Klingons and the Enterprise crew are controlled by an alien. Things are still tense between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Anything can set it off and in this episode something nearly does.

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from a colony but finds no sign of them; it is as if there were no colony. Shortly afterwards a Klingon vessel arrives and suffers damage without the Enterprise firing a shot. A Klingon landing party, led by Kang, confronts Kirk on the planet and blames him for the attack on his ship while Kirk accuses him of wiping out the colony. Kang intends to take the Enterprise by forcing Kirk to beam them up… his plans fail and he is the one captured.

Things don’t stay that way for long though, a strange entity appears to be playing one side against the other. It turns the crew’s phasers into swords and similarly arms the Klingons. Fights ensue but injuries soon heal no matter how serious and the hatred is magnified as each side’s distrust grows. If they are to avoid an eternity of fighting they will have to come to an understanding; something that won’t be easy.

I thought the concept excellent… a being that feeds on violent, negative emotions and with the wounds healed…could go on forever. This nicely brings the crew of the Enterprise back into conflict with their most famous enemy… the Klingons.

The fact that to win they must persuade the Klingons that they can be trusted serves to make it more interesting and the conflict before that involves some enjoyable sword-fighting action. We also get Chekov ranting about wanting revenge for the death of an imagined brother and even the doctor is demanding revenge.

The regular cast do a solid job but it is Michael Ansara’s strong performance as Kang that stands out… this performance enables us to believe Kang would torture Chekov to death in an early scene and also believe he would agree to a truce when he saw their fighting had no purpose. Susan Howard also puts in a likable performance as Kang’s wife, Mara, without whom the peace couldn’t have been established.

From IMDB:

Although intra-ship beaming is routine in later incarnations of ‘Star Trek’ (where it is called “site-to-site transport”), this is the first and only time it is done in the original series, although it is also referenced in Shore Leave (1966) when Sulu notes that Spock is beaming down “from the bridge”.

Near the end of the episode, Scotty tells Kirk that the ship’s dilithium crystals are deteriorating. Kirk asks “Time factor?” Scotty replies “In 12 minutes we’ll be totally without engine power.”

This happens with exactly 12:00 minutes left in the episode.

Mara is the only female Klingon with a speaking role on TOS. Another female is beamed on board the Enterprise at the same time, but only seen briefly.

This episode was originally written with Kor from Errand of Mercy (1967) as Kirk’s Klingon adversary. Although John Colicos wanted to reprise his role, he was in Europe making Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) and was unavailable. The part was recast with Michael Ansara as “Kang”.

The spinning alien entity effect was created with a child’s spinning windmill bought from a stand at Santa Monica beach. Visual effects supervisor James Rugg was told to be creative as the production budget for season three had been drastically cut. He bought it after noticing how it glistened in the sunlight and filmed it against a black velvet cloth from several different angles, deliberately out of focus, turning with the help of a desk fan and with different gels on the spotlights. To help make it feel unearthly and disguise what it was, he also under-cranked the film in the camera to make it appear to spin faster and ran the film backwards.

This episode affords a second and final glimpse of the “working” communicator’s central spinning moiré disc, which was controlled by an inner stopwatch mechanism. Its first appearance was in Friday’s Child (1967).

As in the Imperial Starfleet of the Mirror Universe (first seen in Mirror, Mirror (1967)), the regular universe’s Klingon Empire uses agonizers on Ensign Chekov. These were developed further as the “painsticks” often seen on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).

Kang wears the same golden sash worn by Kor in Errand of Mercy (1967). The same sash would be worn (albeit on the opposite shoulder) by Lieutenant Worf in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).

The Klingon who says, “Stand and fight, you cowards!” is Pete Kellett, who previously appeared in Mirror, Mirror (1967) as Farrell, Kirk’s henchman.

Mark Tobin, who plays a Klingon in this episode, would return more than 30 years later to play a Klingon in Barge of the Dead (1999). He previously played Khan’s right-hand man, Joaquin, in Space Seed (1967).

Footage of the Klingon ship is reused from Elaan of Troyius (1968) which was filmed earlier, but aired later.

For most of the fighting, Kirk has a US Model 1860 cavalry saber.

Scottie is delighted to find a claymore (Scottish longsword). The kind he had was a basket-hilt claymore, a good battlefield weapon. The earliest claymores were 15th century but the basket-hilt designs (as Scotty has) appeared in the 18th century. Claymores weighed about 2.2-2.8 kg and were 1.2-1.4 m long. They were two-handed weapons that could take the legs off of a cavalry horse.

This is the only time Sulu is seen in engineering or working in a Jefferies tube.

Kang gives his name to one of the two cyclopic alien squids who repeatedly plague The Simpsons (1989) in their Halloween fantasies. The other is Kodos who takes his name from The Conscience of the King (1966).

David L. Ross plays a character called Lt. Johnson. This appears to be the same crewman who is otherwise known as Galloway.

The footage of engineering, with the hovering entity, was recycled from The Tholian Web (1968), which featured a floating Kirk in place of the entity.

Multiple spellings exist for Chekov’s imaginary brother. It’s a foreign variant of “Peter” that has been spelled as Piotr and Piotre. “Piotre” is an unusual spelling that can’t readily be found anywhere (leastwise, not outside the 23rd century). “Piotr” does exist in European spellings, but it is Polish rather than Russian. The standard transliteration of the Russian name (from the original Cyrillic) is “Pyotr”, although “Piotr” is phonetically equally valid.

The transporter can beam up more than six at a time. Mr. Scott had isolated and beamed through Enterprise party first, and held the additional Klingons in status somewhere within the transporter buffer.

Michael Ansara later reprises his role as Kang in Blood Oath (1994) and Flashback (1996). In Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979) he appeared as a character with a difference of only one letter: Kane.

Klingon battle cruisers can hold up 440 people. (Kang said four hundred of his crew were killed, and forty survivors were beamed aboard the Enterprise.)

This takes place in 2268.

Michael Ansara and Leonard Nimoy appeared together previously in Showdown (1965), as brothers that were also lawmen. The episode was written by TOS producer/writer Gene L. Coon.

James Doohan and Michael Ansara previously both appeared in Hot Line (1964), but did not share any scenes.

Summary

Having found a Federation colony of 100 people completely destroyed, Kirk and the Enterprise have to deal with a nearby Klingon vessel which they believe must be responsible for the colony’s destruction. When the Klingon ship is disabled, they, in turn, assume they were attacked by the Enterprise. There is obvious tension between the Enterprise crew and its Klingon enemies. Unbeknown to Kirk and his Klingon counterpart, Kang, this is the work of an alien being that gets its energy from the friction and emotions between sentient beings. The natural animosities between the two parties feed its appetites. When the creature is beamed aboard the Enterprise, it purposely creates tension among the crew, to its benefit. The situation eventually forces Kirk and Kang to work together to defeat it.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Michael Ansara … Kang
Susan Howard … Mara
James Doohan … Scott
Walter Koenig … Chekov
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
David L. Ross … Lt. Johnson (as David Ross)
Mark Tobin … Klingon
Phil Adams … Klingon Soldier (uncredited)
Albert Cavens … Klingon Crewman (uncredited)
Dick Geary … Security Guard (uncredited)
Eddie Hice … Security Guard (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Jay D. Jones … Klingon (uncredited)
Pete Kellett … Klingon (uncredited)
Hubie Kerns … Klingon Crewman (uncredited)
Victor Paul … Klingon Crewman (uncredited)
Charlie Picerni … Klingon (uncredited)
George Sawaya … Klingon Crewman (uncredited)
David Sharpe … Security Officer (uncredited)

Star Trek – Spectre Of The Gun

★★★★ October 25, 1968 Season 3 Episode 6

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Gene L. Coon, and Arthur H. Singer

This one really caught my attention. It’s one of my favorite episodes. It’s a bit surreal and I like the sparse half-done sets. We have a few of the crew of the Enterprise visiting the OK Corral. Doc Holliday, Morgan, Virgil, and Wyatt Earp all are here.

Westerns were all the rage in the 50s and 60s, and I suppose Star Trek had to pay homage to the genre in some form or fashion. “Spectre of the Gun” offers that, just as other episodes touched on medical and courtroom drama formulas.

The Enterprise arrives in Melkotian space, Kirk’s goal is to set up relations with the secretive race. The Melkotians don’t take kindly to visitors, however, and, as a form of punishment, seemingly send Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekov to a warped version of Tombstone, circa 1881, based on information they plucked from Kirk’s mind. To Spock’s credit…he thought they should have turned around and left but Kirk was determined.

The buildings are there but only halfway done. You only see fronts of buildings and nothing is quite right about this version of the old west. A powerful Melkotian tells Kirk, Spock, Bones, Checkov, and Scotty they are to be punished for their “disobedience”, recreating a frontier town with only a few buildings on some fake ground representing Tombstone, Arizona.

The Melkotian tells them they have been sentenced to death and the means of the death will be based on Kirk’s cultural memories of the Wild West town of Tombstone. The town they find themselves in is rather strange and their phasers have become revolvers and the locals believe that the landing party, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Chekov, are actually the Clanton Gang. To make matters worse it is the day of the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral where the real Clantons were gunned down.

Chekov, who is playing the part of Billy Claiborne is gunned down in a fight over a woman but the real Billy Claiborne was the sole survivor from the Clanton Gang. It becomes apparent that normal rules don’t apply here; if they believe they won’t die then maybe they won’t. As the allotted time approaches, they will find out.

A very different type of episode for Star Trek. When you watch the video below…remember…everyone sees them as the Clanton game with normal western clothes.

From IMDB:

The original script called for filming on an outdoor location but, due to budget constraints, filming took place in the studio. These constraints also prevented the set designers from building a complete Western town and the concept of pieces of a town drawn from Kirk’s mind was developed.

DeForest Kelley appeared in other dramatizations of the same historical events, playing Ike Clanton in The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (October 26, 1881) (1955) and Morgan Earp in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). He was also offered a role in Hour of the Gun (1967) (the movie this episode is named after) but had to decline due to his Star Trek commitment.

For the third season, the velour tunics from the first two seasons have been replaced by polyester ones, which are better-fitting but lack the luster of the original velour. The new fabric was a heavy diamond-weave nylon double-knit material akin to that used in professional baseball uniforms. The switch was made because the original velour shrank every time it was dry-cleaned. This was a problem because union rules required that costumes be cleaned before each use.

The writing of this episode was influenced by NBC executives who wanted Chekov to be featured more in the third season than he had been in the second season.

This is the only episode to end with the Enterprise heading toward a planet.

Written by Lee Cronin, the pseudonym of Gene L. Coon. Some have assumed that it was used because he was unhappy with the results. Actually, it was because he had left Paramount and was under contract with Universal, so he was not supposed to be working for Paramount as well.

Gene Roddenberry originally wanted to film ‘Spectre of the Gun’, about the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, in Arizona, either at Old Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona, or at Apacheland Studios in Apache Junction, Arizona. He found out that there was no budget to do it and had to rely on camera angles, bright colorful lights, and dreamlike sets, which added to the episode’s strange alien quality.

This was the first episode produced for the third season but it aired as the sixth episode of the season.

Kirk, Spock, and Scotty are all in the landing party and Sulu doesn’t appear. The storyline never states who is in command of the Enterprise while the senior ranking officers are away, although Uhura is the next in line.

According to James Doohan, NBC executives told him to comb his hair back for the third season. Doohan hated wearing his hair this way and stopped doing so during The Tholian Web (1968).

After Season 2, Star Trek was very nearly cancelled. After a fan-led campaign, a third season was finally commissioned by the network, providing a budget cut of 25% was instigated. This is why the third season has little location filming, re-used and re-purposed props, and recycled special effects. Seasons 1 and 2 already had tight budgets, so a reduced budget was always going to be noticeable This episode is one example where the budget cutbacks started to become apparent as the producers tried to keep expenditures down.

A very subtle change in the third season was the use of new sound effects for the pushing of buttons on the bridge.

The episode was first broadcast on October 25, 1968, only one day before the 87th anniversary of the actual Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

A scene that was never filmed included McCoy/McLowery (DeForest Kelley) offering to share his medical expertise with Doc Holliday (Sam Gilman) to treat his progressing tuberculosis.

Another difference this episode brings is the “singing plant” background noise from The Cage (1966), used for nearly every planet in seasons one and two, is replaced here by a warbling sound used before in The Gamesters of Triskelion (1968). This will again be used intermittently throughout season three for example, in For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (1968) and The Cloud Minders (1969).

In this episode, Kirk refers to the ships phasers as ‘phaser guns’.

Clocking in at approximately five minutes and 25 seconds, this episode’s teaser is the second longest in the original series, lasting 10 seconds shorter than the teaser for I, Mudd (1967).

The original title for this episode was “The Last Gunfight”.

This is The Original Series’ only foray into surrealism, with unique set designs by Walter M. Jefferies.

Some errors regarding the historical gunfight: Morgan Earp is referred to by Kirk as “the man who kills on sight” when the real-life Morgan, by most reliable accounts, was an even-tempered lawman who used his gun only when he was forced to. The gunfight in the Melkotian scenario is treated as a prearranged event when, actually, it was a more or less spontaneous affair. The gunfight took place near the hour of three o’clock, rather than the five o’clock in the episode. Finally, although it may have seemed that Chekov’s Billy Claiborne was the youngest (he turned twenty-one, the day before the gunfight), Billy Clanton, the role Scotty played, was nineteen.

Jerry Fielding’s unique score adds atmosphere. When the villains are first seen in the saloon, Fielding has the piano play stereotypical “menace” notes and a bizarre rendition of “Buffalo Gals”. Fielding’s other Star Trek contribution was his score for The Trouble with Tribbles (1967).

For the incomplete mock-up of the Sheriff’s office, the sign with the word “Sheriff” on it is written in the same font as the opening credits to the series (the Fs have the same slant in the center).

This is the second time that McCoy believes he cannot be harmed by a weapon (this time due to Spock’s convincing in a meld); the first time, when he stands his ground as the Black Knight charges him in Shore Leave (1966), this strategy was unsuccessful, as the weapon (a lance) was physically real, not merely an illusion.

Chekov is the only member of the landing party who wears a two-holstered gun belt.

Rex Holman (Morgan Earp) later played the settler J’onn in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989).

When Spock and McCoy are in the bar, discussing the tranquilizer, the table with the supplies that are used to make it also has a double-barreled shotgun on it, whose presence goes unexplained.

Although Sam Gilman (Doc Holliday) was 53 years old when this episode was made, Holliday was only 30 at the time of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881 and 36 at the time of his death on November 8, 1887.

Gregg Palmer (Rancher) previously played Tom McLowery in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1961).

Charles Seel plays the saloon bartender. He also played a Western bartender in the series Tombstone Territory (1957), Bat Masterson (1958), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958), and The Guns of Will Sonnett (1967) as well as the feature films The Texas Rangers (1951) and The Horse Soldiers (1959).

Abraham Sofaer, the voice of the Melkotian, also provided the voice used for the Thasian in Charlie X (1966).

Other USS Enterprise crews visited the Old West in A Fistful of Datas (1992) and North Star (2003).

The “sparkling” sound effect heard in the background while the crew is in Tombstone is also heard in the “Orson reports” at the end of most episodes of Mork & Mindy (1978).

Sulu does not appear in this episode.

Charles Maxwell, who plays Virgil Earp, was a veteran character actor on TV westerns of the era, including Bat Masterson (1958), Bonanza (1959), Rawhide (1959), The High Chaparral (1967), and others.

This takes place in 2268.

This was Bonnie Beecher’s penultimate role before retiring from acting. Now known as “Jahanara Romney”, she works with her husband Wavy Gravy (born Hugh Romney) running a performing arts camp. Beecher grew up in Minnesota where she knew the young Robert Zimmerman, now known as Bob Dylan. Beecher even sang on some of Dylan’s earliest homemade recordings, and is one of the possible inspirations for the song “Girl From The North Country.”

James Doohan voiced the Melkotian warning buoy.

When Kirk (Ike Clanton) attempts to appeal to Wyatt and Virgil Earp in their office, he is taunted by Virgil, who punches him. Kirk reacts and places Virgil in an arm lock. After Kirk releases him, Wyatt wants to kill Kirk and tells him to draw, but Virgil intercedes and tells Wyatt that, when the time comes, he will make him pay for what he did, but,during the gunfight at the end, it is Wyatt who move forward to confront Kirk.

Summary

When the Enterprise trespasses into uncharted territory, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott and Chekov are transported to a location that has all the trappings of the American Old West. It’s October 26, 1881, and Kirk soon realizes they are in Tombstone, Arizona, on the day of the famed gunfight at the OK Corral between the Clanton gang and the Earps – with Kirk and company representing the ill-fated Clantons. If history is to be repeated, they will fairly all be killed so must use whatever resources availed to them to defeat the threat and survive. The solution, however – and the only way of escape – lies within them.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Ron Soble … Wyatt Earp
Bonnie Beecher … Sylvia
James Doohan … Scott
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Charles Maxwell … Virgil Earp
Rex Holman … Morgan Earp
Sam Gilman … Doc Holliday
Charles Seel … Ed
Bill Zuckert … Johnny Behan
Ed McCready … Barber
Abraham Sofaer … Melkotian (voice)
Richard Anthony … Rider (uncredited)
Paul Baxley … 1st Cowboy (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Charles Cirillo … Barfly (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)
Bob Orrison … 2nd Cowboy (uncredited)
Gregg Palmer … Rancher (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)

Star Trek – Is There in Truth No Beauty?

★★★★ October 18, 1968 Season 3 Episode 5

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Jean Lisette Aroeste, and Arthur H. Singer

A story that would always interest me in school was Medusa. You would turn to stone when you saw her. This one is built off of that story.

Before I start…I will say that in the 3rd season, the camera crew did a good job. They added some different shots like using a fish-eyed lens. I liked the different angles they used because it made it feel different and it was effective.

The Enterprise is tasked with transporting an ambassador from a race who is perceived as so ugly, that just the sight of one by human eyes will cause instant madness. The Medusan ambassador Kollos is accompanied by a telepathic human aide named Miranda, who claims that her life of training on Vulcan allows her to see him without insanity ensuing.

A scientist aboard happens to be a scorned lover of Miranda’s. In a fit of jealousy, he attempts to murder Kollos, predictably causing him to go mad. He takes over control of the engines and shoots the Enterprise out of the galaxy into a disorientating patch of space. Only Kollos’s ultra-intelligent mind can bring the Enterprise back.

But he needs control of the bridge, something that is obviously infeasible. Spock must attempt a mind-meld with Kollos, merging the two men into Spock’s body. Miranda feels a special connection to Kollos and attempts to stop this from happening. But Spock wins out and the two merge and help the Enterprise reenter the galaxy.

Miranda sabotages Spock out of jealousy, trying to make him go mad. A now sick Spock needs a mind-meld with Miranda. Kirk is able to convince her to do it.

It’s a very good episode.

From IMDB:

Diana Muldaur was given a dark wig to wear for the role of Miranda. This was largely to help distinguish the character from her previous guest role as Dr Ann Mulhall in Star Trek: The Original Series: Return to Tomorrow (1968).

Although often cited by some fans as evidence of a “larger message” in Star Trek, the “IDIC” (“Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations”) medallion that Spock wears during the dinner scene had much baser origins. Leonard Nimoy was originally supposed to give a lengthy speech about the medallion and what it represented. Nimoy found the speech completely unsuited to the plot, and refused to say the lines until he got an explanation from producer Gene Roddenberry, who had had the lines and the use of the medallion inserted into the script. Roddenberry came to the set and admitted to Nimoy that he was selling the “IDIC” medallions through his personal marketing company, Lincoln Enterprises, and inserted the scene about the “IDIC” purely as product placement to generate sales. Nimoy ultimately refused to say the lines, and instead the scene was re-written with Capt. Kirk and other characters commenting on Spock’s wearing of the medallion instead.

This episode included a rare glimpse of the seldom seen left side of the bridge opposite the turbolift.

Spock/Kollos says to Miranda, “O Brave New World that has such creatures in it.” She replies, ” ‘Tis new to thee.” These are
lines in As You Like It (1908)’s The Tempest, Act V, Sc. 1, whose heroine is named Miranda.

The episode title is from a poem by the 17th century English poet and clergyman George Herbert, from his poem “Jordan (I)”, line 2: “Who says that fictions only and false hair/ Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?”

Shots of the Enterprise in the galactic void are recycled from Star Trek: The Original Series: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966).

The remastered version replaced the Medusan home-world effect with that of a newly-designed Federation vessel. It strongly resembles one of the early sketches that art director Walter M. Jefferies drew of the USS Enterprise, as reproduced in ‘The Making of Star Trek’.

A very rare stock shot of the Enterprise is used when the ship warps towards the barrier under Marvick’s control: it is taken from the opening of Star Trek: The Original Series: The Cage (1966) (just before the “Guest Star Susan Oliver” credit) and shows the Enterprise at high speed blasting towards the camera. The same shot is reused later in Star Trek: The Original Series: That Which Survives (1969).

The name Kollos, is pronounced kàlos, a reference to the Greek word Kallos which means Beauty.

The tartan Scotty wears as part of his dress uniform during the dinner with Amanda Jones IS in fact the dress tartan for the clan Scott.

The arboretum was originally built for Star Trek: The Original Series: Elaan of Troyius (1968), but its appearance ended up as a deleted scene. Apart from this one, it was only seen in Star Trek: The Original Series: And the Children Shall Lead (1968).

The dinner scene marks the first presentation of the Vulcan IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) symbol.

Jessica Walter was offered the part of Dr. Miranda Jones but was unavailable.

In Star Trek: Enterprise (2001) it is explained that Commander Trip Tucker designed the Constitution-class Enterprise warp engines that Doctor Larry Marvick commandeers from Scott.

This is one of only two instances in which Scotty wears a dress uniform complete with ancestral tartan. But whereas he wears white socks here, in Star Trek: The Original Series: The Savage Curtain (1969) he wears red ones.

When David Frankham guest-starred on The Outer Limits: Don’t Open Till Doomsday (1964), his character was also the victim of an alien hidden in a box which injured those who glimpsed it.

This was Eddie Paskey’s last appearance in the series.

This is the last appearance of antigravs in the series.

The pictures of exotic planets seen in the dining room reappeared in Kirk’s quarters in other third-season episodes.

The second mention of Scotty’s first name: Montgomery. The first was Star Trek: The Original Series: Wolf in the Fold (1967)(#2.14).

One of two episodes written by Jean Lisette Aroeste, a UCLA librarian and Star Trek fan whose unsolicited scripts were read and recommended by co-producer Robert H. Justman. Her other story was “A Handful of Dust,” which was produced as “All Our Yesterdays.” (S3E23)

The script was written by Jean Lisette Aroeste, one of four writers of Star Trek who had no prior TV writing credits. The other three were David Gerrold (‘The Trouble with Tribbles’, ‘The Cloud Minders’), Judy Burns (‘The Tholian Web’) and Joyce Muskat (‘The Empath’).

McCoy comments that a blind person couldn’t pilot a space craft. However, in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), the blind Geordi LaForge piloted the Enterprise-D as the ship’s helmsman during the show’s first season. Dr Jones’ neural net can be seen as a precursor to LaForge’s VISOR.

This is the third of five “Star Trek” episodes to feature a question mark in the title. The other four are Star Trek: The Original Series: What Are Little Girls Made Of? (1966), Star Trek: The Original Series: Who Mourns for Adonais? (1967), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Who Mourns for Morn? (1998) and Star Trek: Discovery: Will You Take My Hand? (2018).

Apparently, many people think that members of the Enterprise crew can not walk and listen at the same time. Often, when a ship wide announcement is made, they stop to listen to the announcement. However, is has always been policy that when a captain speaks, the whole crew stops non-essential work to listen, out of respect.

This takes place in 2268.

Miranda Jones wears her hair in a loosely draped style with a toroidal loop on top, very similar to that worn by Kelinda in Star Trek: The Original Series: By Any Other Name (1968). Roses also play an important role in the narrative for each character.

Leonard Nimoy appears to be suffering from nasal congestion during this episode

The first of two times that William Shatner stars with a character who is a blind woman. He would do so again in T.J. Hooker: Blind Justice (1982)(#2.4).

Summary

The Enterprise is tasked with transporting the Medusan ambassador, Kollos, to his home planet along with his human aide, Dr. Miranda Jones, who, for reasons initially understood only by Dr. McCoy, can safely travel be with the Medusan. Medusans are formless creatures, the very sight of whom makes humans go insane. (Like the snake-haired Medusa of ancient Greek mythology whose looks caused humans to turn to stone.) For that reason, aside from Dr. Jones, only half-Vulcan Spock can be in the same room with the ambassador. She expresses envy of Spock. When Engineer Laurence Marvick, unrequitedly in love with Dr. Jones, tries to kill Kollos, he goes insane and dies, after sending the Enterprise beyond the edge of the galaxy. Only Spock and the ambassador (with Miranda’s help) can navigate the starship back to known space.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Diana Muldaur … Dr. Miranda Jones
David Frankham … Larry Marvick
James Doohan … Scott
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Bob Bralver … Yeoman (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited)
Vince Deadrick Sr. Vince Deadrick Sr. … Engineer (uncredited)
Louie Elias … Engineer (uncredited)
Dick Geary … Security Guard (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)

Star Trek – And the Children Shall Lead

★★ October 11, 1968 Season 3 Episode 4

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Edward J. Lakso, and Arthur H. Singer

Walter Koenig was not happy about this episode. While he felt that the episode was very poor overall, his biggest complaint was the casting of noted criminal attorney Melvin Belli as Gorgan, firstly because it severely undermined the main villain, and secondly, because he considered it an act of stunt casting which had robbed professional actors from a potential job. Belli’s son played one of the children…Stevie.

Have you ever seen Children of the Corn? There is a little of that feeling in this. The Enterprise comes to an outpost to check on the Starnes Exploration Party and finds that all the adults committed suicide. All that remains are the kids, who oddly seem quite happy and indifferent to the deaths. So, despite all the warning signs that there is a major problem, the kids are taken back to the ship where they unleash their reign of terror after a little bit.

Something has been influencing them since they were on the planet. The something was an evil presence named Gorgan. The Starnes Exploration Party accidentally released Gorgan from his cave. He used the party’s children to evoke the fears of the adults, eventually rendering the adults mentally unstable and driving them to commit mass suicide. He manipulated the children to follow him in his quest of conquering the universe.

While this episode might have been poor, it is written with a decent understanding of how children can resent their parents and deal with grief through denial. That’s about the best thing I can say about it. After the kids use Gorgan’s power to manipulate the crew…Kirk talks to the kids to make them understand they have been used.

From IMDB:

This was lawyer Melvin Belli’s (Gorgan) first time playing a fictional character. His son Melvin Caesar Belli plays one of the children (Stevie).

Leonard Nimoy explained that when he complained about the script to Fred Freiberger, Freiberger said, “This script is going to be what ‘Miri’ should have been”. Nimoy objected, calling Star Trek: The Original Series: Miri (1966) a beautiful, well-acted story, and felt that Freiberger’s comments were as much as saying, “‘Miri’ was a piece of trash”.

This is the only episode of the original series in which we see the fully fledged United Federation of Planets flag. Previous appearances, such as Star Trek: The Original Series: The Menagerie: Part II (1966), simply used the pre-existing United Nations flag.

During one scene on the bridge, Kirk tries to give orders to Leslie, but his words are garbled. If the audio for this scene is played in reverse, Kirk can be heard to say, “Remove Lieutenant Uhura and Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine them to quarters. Did you hear me? Take Mr. Sulu to his quarters. He’s relieved of duty. Remove Lieutenant Uhura and Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine them to quarters. Take Mr. Sulu to his quarters, I said. (garbled) Mr. Spock from the bridge. Confine him to quarters. Mr. Leslie, take Mr. Sulu to his quarters. He’s relieved of duty.”

Producer Fred Freiberger hoped that the presence of Melvin Belli would boost ratings. This plan failed and Freiberger realized it would have been more appropriate to cast an actor in the role.

Actor Craig Hundley also made a musical contribution to “Star Trek.” Under the name Craig Huxley, he invented the Blaster Beam, an 18 foot long aluminum bar strung with piano wire and played with artillery shells. The instrument’s distinctive metallic twang was used to represent V’Ger on Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack to Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). James Horner used it as well for his “Star Trek” soundtracks, and Huxley composed “Genesis Project” for the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) soundtrack.

Craig Huxley (Tommy Starnes) previously appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series: Operation — Annihilate! (1967) as Kirk’s nephew Peter.

In James Blish’s novelization, Sulu is terrified by the sight of missiles on the view-screen, not swords. More interestingly, the children sing spells to cause havoc among the crew rather than making the fist-pumping gesture which has earned a lot of ridicule among fans.

It is never explained how Kirk knew to refer to the Friendly Angel as “Gorgan”. Based on early drafts of the script, and in a bit of sloppy editing, episode writer Edward J. Lakso alternated between the various names, explaining why it appeared and stuck so late in the episode. A deleted scene had revealed that Tommy did tell Kirk the name. However, this scene took place in the script after Kirk had used the name.

The title paraphrases the last line of Isaiah 11:6: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”

Raymond Burr was the director’s, and several of the main cast’s, original choice to play Gorgan. However, he was either unavailable/too expensive/not interested or the director was overruled by the producers (depending on the source).

Professor Starnes and the other male colonists wore jumpsuits left over from Star Trek: The Original Series: The Devil in the Dark (1967), which were reused many times during the series.

The name on one of the tombstones of the parents is “Tsing Tao” which is the name of a city in China, now written as Qingdao. Tsingtao beer was originated there.

The mirror in which Uhura sees her aged reflection at the communications station is never used in any other episode. Of course, like Uhura’s reflection, the mirror itself may have been an illusion created by the children.

All eight major regular performers of the second and third seasons – Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, Chapel, and Chekov – appear in this episode.

A female Expedition Party member wore Martha Leighton’s costume from Star Trek: The Original Series: The Conscience of the King (1966).

This episode borrows elements and concepts from several sources, including Greek mythology (Gorgan), the Old Testament (the Book of Isaiah), and puritanical/colonial witchery (the incantations). It also has a similar plot to the first-season episode Star Trek: The Original Series: Charlie X (1966).

The arboretum set was originally built for Star Trek: The Original Series: Elaan of Troyius (1968), but became a deleted scene due to time constraints. It was later modified for the arboretum that appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series: Is There in Truth No Beauty? (1968).

This episode is the first appearance of the set piece depicting the entrance to the Gorgan’s cave. It would be seen again in many third season episodes, including Star Trek: The Original Series: Spock’s Brain (1968), Star Trek: The Original Series: The Cloud Minders (1969), Star Trek: The Original Series: All Our Yesterdays (1969), and Star Trek: The Original Series: That Which Survives (1969).

The dress worn by the one of the female members of the Starnes Expedition Party was also created by William Ware Theiss, and was previously worn by Janet Wallace in Star Trek: The Original Series: The Deadly Years (1967). ) In fact, both costumes worn by Wallace can be seen in this episode, one worn by Don Linden’s mother and the other worn by an unnamed woman (who commits suicide in the teaser).

Pamelyn Ferdin and Brian Tochi would later co-star on the live-action children’s science fiction TV series Space Academy (1977), which was developed out of a rejected concept for Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) and starred ‘Lost in Space’ (1965) veteran Jonathan Harris.

This episode was the twenty-sixth remastered episode of the The Original Series to air. It premiered in syndication the weekend of 14 April 2007 and, aside from the standard CGI replacement footage of the Enterprise, this episode most notably featured new effects shots of the planet Triacus.

Kirk’s request for “a very small” dish of ice cream, which he never actually eats, may have been a reference to the fact that William Shatner had put on considerable weight between seasons 2 and 3. According to producer Robert Justman, Shatner was invited to see the rushes (raw footage) from the first day of photography for “Spectre of the Gun.” He was aghast at how he looked on screen and immediately went on a crash diet.

Cameo
Chad Everett: uncredited as the crewman in Auxiliary Control who helps Scotty fight off Kirk and Spock.

Summary

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from the scientific colony on Triacus and arrives to find that all of the adults are dead. Oddly, the children seem unaffected by the deaths and continue to play as if nothing had happened. When questioned, they show no remorse whatsoever and express a dislike for parental authority. Expedition logs reveal that the expedition had discovered an ancient civilization and that there might be one survivor. In fact, the Gorgon thrives on the innocence of the children and the adults’ self-doubt.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Craig Huxley … Tommy Starnes (as Craig Hundley)
James Wellman … Professor Starnes
Melvin Belli … Gorgan
James Doohan … Scott
Majel Barrett … Nurse Chapel
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
George Takei … Sulu
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Pamelyn Ferdin … Mary
Melvin Caesar Belli … Steve (as Caesar Belli)
Mark Robert Brown … Don
Brian Tochi … Ray
Louie Elias … 1st Technician (as Lou Elias)
Paul Baxley … Security Guard (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Transporter Operator (uncredited)
Dick Dial … Security Guard (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Jay D. Jones … 2nd Technician (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Leslie Carol Shatner Leslie Carol Shatner … Child (uncredited)
Victor Toyota … Tsing Tao (uncredited)

Star Trek – The Paradise Syndrome

★★★★ October 4, 1968 Season 3 Episode 3

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Margaret Armen, and Arthur H. Singer

I like this episode. I remembered seeing it and I searched through all of the seasons to find it again. It had been a long time. This movie was Armageddon before the Bruce Willis movie. Oh, and Kirk gets married and seemed ready to settle down…although his memory is gone.

Kirk is missing and presumed lost on a Class M planet after he accidentally falls into an obelisk-shaped alien structure and is hit with a memory beam. He then suffers from amnesia on the planet which is populated by native Indians while Spock and McCoy are forced to abandon their search for the captain for 2 full months! They had to return to the Enterprise to unsuccessfully divert a giant asteroid from destroying the planet where Kirk was lost…that is why they are there. Kirk and McCoy are struck by how much like Earth it is.

When Kirk vanished Spock told McCoy they had to beam back up to the Enterprise. McCoy argued about leaving the Captain there but Spock slowly explained to the Doctor that if they cannot divert that asteroid…there would be no planet to search. The asteroid was 2 months away but they had to go to a certain spot to divert it there…they couldn’t divert it when it was close.

When Kirk regains consciousness and walks out of the alien obelisk, he is seen by Miramanee, a native Indian woman who thinks he is a god. Kirk then promptly saves the life of a drowning child thus instantly becoming the native Indian’s new medicine chief Kirok. However, he makes an enemy, the former medicine man (Sallish), and has to deal with that throughout the episode. Shatner did a good job of acting here…he seems nonstressed compared to his regular job…of course, he cannot remember what that job is.

The theme in this one involves placing Kirk in a scenario completely divorced from his usual duties and watching his other true self emerge…the gentle, unhampered Kirk existing with the Indians. Miramanee and Kirk fall for each other and got married. The episode is beautiful, and the fact that Miramanee carried Kirk’s baby is a bit shocking even today. Certainly, it had to be powerful stuff back in 1960s television. It was touchingly and sensitively acted by William Shatner.

It’s the action of Spock aboard the Enterprise that grounds this episode back to Star Trek reality. He has to come up with a way to deflect a moon-sized asteroid from obliterating the Indian home planet while pushing the Enterprise to its physical limits. All the while…Spock is studying the obelisk.

They do make it back to the planet and just in the nick of time. Kirk and Miramanee are getting stoned to death because of Sallish..after Kirk is slashed and bleeding. Gods don’t bleed.

This is an odd…but very good episode…one of the best ones of the third season. Just a side note…everytime Kirk is missing and Spock takes over…McCoy gives him hell over every decision. I think sometimes the writers went overboard on that. Sometimes the Doctor is not mean but cruel to Spock.

From IMDB:

The obelisk in this episode, constructed at Franklin Lake in the Franklin Canyon Reservoir above Beverly Hills, was erected in the same spot where Opie Taylor throws a rock into the lake during the opening credits of The Andy Griffith Show (1960).

The only episode in Season 3 to be filmed on location and not entirely in the studio.

Only in this episode do we see the ship firing its gold deflector beam.

After living on the planet Kirk’s sideburns lose their distinctive pointed ends and become squared off. This was done to emphasize the passage of time and to show Kirk was becoming assimilated to his new life.

The characters on the asteroid-destroying Obelisk are the basis of the alphabet and characters used by the Predators of the Alien-versus-Predator movie franchise.

During the first attempt to deflect the asteroid, a rare top shot of the Enterprise is shown, first used in the Star Trek: The Original Series: The Changeling (1967).

Paradise Syndrome – though not officially recognized as a mental condition by psychologists – is a term conferred upon those who feel dissatisfied despite having achieved all their dreams. Here it is used merely to describe someone who is overworked and needing a break – whether ostensibly Captain Kirk or, obliquely, series creator Gene Roddenberry.

Although not mentioned on screen, the planet was rather unsubtly called “Amerind” in the script.

This episode takes place over the course of approximately two months.

The first Star Trek production to feature Native American Indian culture as a key plot element. Other examples are Star Trek: The Animated Series: How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth (1974), Star Trek: The Next Generation: Journey’s End (1994), and several episodes of Star Trek: Voyager (1995).

This is one of very few occasions where Nurse Chapel is beamed/transported down to a planet surface.

This takes place in 2268.

The Native Americans depicted display none of the cultural elements of the tribes mentioned (Navajo, Delaware, Mohican). The houses are tipis, used by plains peoples. The clothing bears no resemblance to actual Native American clothes, and the names of the characters match no Native naming styles. Also, the Navajo were not peaceful. They were very fierce warriors, as were the Mohican. The Delaware were not called “Delaware,” but rather, were the Lenne Lenape.

During the love scene where Miramanee tells Kirk she’s pregnant, a fly lands on Kirk’s face for several seconds.

Dr. McCoy comments about the “Preservers” that he had always wondered about why there were so many humanoid races. In Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Chase (1993), the question is answered in a slightly different way.

When the Enterprise engines burn out, Mr. Scott laments, “my bairns, my poor bairns”. This is Scottish/English meaning “my poor children”.

Summary

Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a planet that is in the path on an oncoming meteor. They find an idyllic place that is very similar to Earth and whose population is virtually identical to North American Natives. Their visit is meant to be a short one since their mission is to deflect the meteor, still several months away. Before they can return to the ship, Kirk disappears and loses his memory in an accident, forcing Spock to take command of the Enterprise and to leave him behind. On the planet, Kirk is treated like a god when they see him emerge from an obelisk that is actually a deflector beam (which no one remembers how to use, however). When the Enterprise fails to deflect the meteor, they return to the planet only hours before the annihilating meteor’s arrival.

Youtube…has got to the point where any video I try to post has an age restriction if someone slaps someone on the back…youtube blocks me from posting it. So…if there is any action going on…you can forget it. I found the one below that actually allowed me to post it.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Sabrina Scharf … Miramanee
Rudy Solari … Sallish
James Doohan … Scott
George Takei … Sulu
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Richard Hale … Goro
Majel Barrett … Nurse Chapel
Naomi Newman … Indian Woman (as Naomi Pollack)
John Lindesmith … Engineer
Peter Virgo Jr. … Warrior
Lamont Laird … Indian Boy
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Foster Hood … Indian (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)
Nichelle Nichols … Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (archive footage) (uncredited)
Vincent St. Cyr … Father of Drowning Boy (uncredited)

Star Trek – The Enterprise Incident

★★★★★ September 27, 1968 Season 3 Episode 2

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, D.C. Fontana, and Arthur H. Singer

***If you have time please check out my new feature Max Picks coming up right after this.***

This episode is excellent. We are going from a bad episode to one of the best of the 3rd season. The plot was pretty exciting plus it gave Spock a big chance to stretch himself as a character–without McCoy or Shatner tagging along. Also, any episode with the Romulans is great fun, as they were in many ways a more dangerous and more of a foe than the Klingons.

The episode begins with Kirk behaving very erratically. He even orders the ship into Romulan space and nearly starts a war. It seems that the Captain has gone mad and the Romulans take possession of the ship. At the same time, Spock becomes very chummy with the beautiful Romulan commander, a lady who seems determined to have Spock. I’d like to say more, but it really would spoil the suspense. Just let me say that there is a lot more to the story than this and the show is both interesting and keeps you guessing.

The commander charges Kirk with espionage and locks him up… Kirk injures himself whilst trying to escape. The Romulan commander is attracted to Spock and attempts to turn him. Everyone aboard the Enterprise thinks Spock is a trader and you are wondering while watching. Spock gives Kirk a “Vulcan Death Grip” ostensibly to kill him.

This is one of the best episodes from the 3rd season. It exploits the rivalry between the Romulans and the Federation, and it has some of the best acting of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy combined with a compelling and unpredictable storyline. I also liked the cool and controlled Joanne Linville as the Romulan Commander who never raises her voice, even when she condemns Captain Kirk to death.

From IMDB:

This episode is the first to feature a female starship commander.

The Romulan cloaking device prop was created using the Sargon globe (Star Trek: The Original Series: Return to Tomorrow (1968)) and portions of the Nomad probe (Star Trek: The Original Series: The Changeling (1967)).

First broadcast episode of TOS to feature the D7 Klingon battle cruisers. Although the episode Star Trek: The Original Series: Elaan of Troyius (1968) was produced three months before this episode, and technically the first to feature the D7s, this episode was aired on television first, since NBC changed the airing order for all the episodes. For the Remastered series in 2006, digital shots of the D7s were inserted into scenes in the episode Star Trek: The Original Series: Errand of Mercy (1967), which now officially makes that episode to be the first to have the D7s.

D.C. Fontana’s initial inspiration for this story and its title was the Pueblo incident which involved the capture of an American intelligence gathering ship, the USS Pueblo (AGER-2), by North Korean forces during the Vietnam War. North Korea claimed, without evidence, the ship had violated its territorial waters. The incident occurred on January 23, 1968, just two months before Fontana completed her first draft story outline. Although the crew was released after nearly a year, NK still maintains possession of the vessel as a “war trophy”.

This was the last live-action appearance of the Romulans in the “Star Trek” franchise until Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Neutral Zone (1988) 20 years later.

In the opening segment, in regard to the enemy vessels, Spock declares “Romulans now using Klingon design!” Several explanations/theories have been advanced as to why the Romulans use Klingon ships. The real reason is simply because the original Romulan model ship was gone. Non-union, independent creative designer Wah Chang designed and built the original Romulan Bird of Prey model for Star Trek: The Original Series: Balance of Terror (1966). He is also the creator of several iconic Trek costumes and props, including the communicator, original phaser, salt vampires, and tribbles, to name a few of his contributions to the show.

After “Balance of Terror”, the model Bird of Prey was returned to Chang, per his contract, but he eventually disposed of it as he had limited storage and there was never any contractual obligations with CBS to retain it. However, either through poor planning or poor communication or both, season three’s “Enterprise Incident” production staff, expecting to re-use the season one Romulan model, learned from Chang that it was gone. The decision was made to modify the story to use only Klingon model ships, which were kept by the studio, although in recent airings one of the three ships appears to be the original Romulan model. Asking Chang to construct a new Romulan model ship would have been prohibitively costly. Economically, switching to Klingon vessels was the obvious solution.

The Walter M. Jefferies-designed Romulan symbol, composed of a yellow hexagon in the center with three colored spokes coming out of it, can be seen outside the commander’s quarters, above her door. This symbol never appears again in any Star Trek series or movie.

One of the few episodes that opens with McCoy making entries in his medical log.

Jack Donner, who played The Romulan Sub-Commander Tal, was one of only three actors to appear in both the original series and in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001). The others are Joseph Ruskin and Clint Howard.

The Romulans use Klingon disruptor pistols.

Spock scans space out to one-half parsec and says that there are no ships present. As the Enterprise enters the Neutral Zone, Romulan ships appear from nowhere. Later, Spock says that the Romulans must have invented a cloaking device, but they already knew the Romulans had one as they witnessed it in use in Star Trek: The Original Series: Balance of Terror (1966), and their whole mission is to obtain that cloaking device.

In Star Trek: The Original Series: Balance of Terror (1966), the Romulan ship only had simple impulse engines. In this episode, the Romulan ship is capable of going faster than Warp 9 – a major upgrade in capability for such a short time.

Joanne Linville’s Romulan Commander is given the name Dion Charvon in a 1977 Star Trek novel called “The Price of the Phoenix”, by Myrna Culbreath and Sondra Marshak. In the 1999 novel “Vulcan’s Heart” by Josepha Sherman, her name is given as Liviana Charvanek. It’s not clear if either novel is “canonical” but Liviana Charvanek seems to have higher authority and credibility. In addition, Diane Duane’s 1984 novel “My Enemy, My Ally” states that the commander had her name stripped from her because of the events of this episode, and introduces the commander’s aunt, Ael t’Rllaillieu.

This episode takes place in 2268.

One of the most famous lines from this episode is “There’s no such thing as a Vulcan death grip.” In Peter David’s ‘New Frontier’ series, Soleta, a Vulcan, kills a Romulan guard with what she calls the Vulcan death grip. When another character says there’s no such thing as a Vulcan death grip, Soleta glances at the body, and then replies, “There is now.”

During Spock and the Romulan Commanders romantic moment she clearly smears the makeup on Spock’s face

The drink that Spock and the Romulan commander are drinking is very similar to Tranya.

When Spock and Kirk are about to transport over to the Romulan ship, they step onto two of the transport pads. How would they know which pads to step onto as the two Romulans transport over to the Enterprise at the exact same time.

Summary

The Enterprise deliberately crosses the Neutral Zone, on Kirk’s orders, into Romulan space and is promptly surrounded by Romulan warships, each equipped with a “cloaking device” that renders it undetectable. Spock betrays the apparently irrational and paranoid Kirk to the Romulan commander, a woman who is obviously attracted to Spock. A deadly game between Kirk, Spock and the Romulans risks not only the Enterprise but the tenuous cease-fire between the Romulans and the Federation.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Joanne Linville … Romulan Commander
Jack Donner … Tal
James Doohan … Scott
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
George Takei … Sulu
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Majel Barrett … Nurse Chapel
Richard Compton … Technical Officer
Mike Howden … Romulan Guard
Gordon Coffey … Romulan Soldier
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)

Star Trek – Spock’s Brain

★ September 20, 1968 Season 3 Episode 1

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Gene L. Coon and Arthur H. Singer

Season 3 is upon us! This may just be me…so all you Star Trek fans weigh in but I think this is the worst episode of the original series. I haven’t heard one of the cast speak good of this episode either. William Shatner has called it one of the worse and Leonard Nimoy was embarrassed during the entire shooting of this episode.

When you look at the complete picture though…I only see two really bad episodes so when you are talking about 3 seasons with 79 episodes…that is a good track record. With this episode…I guess they tried something different and it just did not work.

It’s unfortunate that this episode may have been the introduction for many late viewers to the Star Trek series because it kicked off the 3rd season. Basically what we have here…instead of “The Search for Spock” we have The Search for Spock’s brain.

A mysterious woman magically arrives on the ship. The pushes some buttons on a box on her arm and everyone falls unconscious. When they are under, she steals Spock’s brain. Then, when they awaken, McCoy informs the Captain that this occurred at which point, Kirk asks if Spock will be okay…uh ok. I couldn’t help but laugh the first time I heard this! What was Kirk thinking?

It gets even worse when they use a cool box on Spock’s body to reanimate him. It seems, according to McCoy, that although Spock has no brain, since he was a Vulcan that his body would live on for 24 hours without dying. What that meant…the clock is ticking while on the search for Spock’s brain.

It has a 5.2 rating at IMDB but most of the episodes get a 6.5 or above. Maybe I’m being too hard on it? Give it a watch when you can and tell me that is the case or was I completely right?

From IMDB:

First appearance of Scotty’s new hair style, where it was brushed back instead of parted to the side.

The Controller is “Nomad” repurposed from Star Trek: The Original Series: The Changeling (1967) with a globe on top.

This is the only Original Series episode to use a regular character’s name in the title.

This is the first episode in broadcast order in which the credits are displayed in blue font as opposed to the yellow font of the first two seasons.

TOS Seasons 3 marks the first time Star Trek is credited as being produced by Paramount. During Seasons 1 & 2, Star Trek was a Desilu property. In the summer of 1968, it was sold to Paramount.

This is the only time moving stars are shown on the bridge view screen via rear-projection. This is evident because the camera pans across the screen and people move in front it with stars moving, which would not have been possible if the view screen scenery had been matted in later. (In Star Trek: The Original Series: The Doomsday Machine (1967) they walk in front of the screen, but it is a static picture of stars, although in the digitally mastered edition they did add some moving objects.)

In informal surveys taken at science fiction conventions, this episode is promptly and almost universally named as the worst of the original series.

Footage of the Eymorg computer’s displays in operation is recycled from Star Trek: The Original Series: Assignment: Earth (1968) and Star Trek: The Original Series: The Paradise Syndrome (1968).

Gene Roddenberry was fascinated by the idea of a matriarchal society, and revisited the idea in Genesis II (1973) and Star Trek: The Next Generation: Angel One (1988).

Although scantily clad young women were common in this series, the Eymorgs, with their mod mini-dresses, were purportedly a response to Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (1967) which featured them on a regular basis. Luma, in particular, was a response to Goldie Hawn’s air-headed persona.

The Vulcan philosophy of “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” is paraphrased. In reference to Spock’s brain Kara says, “The need of my people for their controller is greater than your need for your friend.”

According to her official website, Marj Dusay said she had not viewed this show until a fan sent her a VHS tape in the 1990’s. The multitude of autograph requests she received over the years led her to believe that this show was popular. She described having fun in the role, and that she was delighted with the costume and boots designed for her.

This takes place in 2268.

There are two Morg guards in the scene where Kirk and his men are held captive. The big one who guards the communicators and other items taken from the Enterprise crew is played by Pete Kellett. The bald one by the door who says “Yes, mistress,” is none other than an uncredited Sid Haig.

Pete Kellett, the uncredited actor who played a Morg guard, has the single, dramatic line, “Yes, mistress”. He was the only Morg that had dialogue.

Marj Dusay played the role of Kara, which was the name of the cabaret dancer character in the opening scene of this season’s show “Wolf in the Fold”.

James Daris, the creature that Kirk stuns with his phaser, had a role in the “Mission: Impossible” show “Encore” in which William Shatner played one of main adversaries of the IMF team. As one of the henchmen of the other adversary, he did not share scenes with Shatner’s character.

Sheila Leighton (Luma) and Marj Dusay (Kara) each appeared separately in shows of “Hogan’s Heroes”. Leighton was cast in one role, and Dusay played three different roles.

Summary

When the Enterprise encounters an ion-powered vessel – far more advanced than their own warp-powered technology – they soon find themselves knocked unconscious by a beautiful alien who suddenly appears on the bridge. When they come to, they find that Spock’s brain has been surgically removed using technology way beyond their own current level of development. Following the ion trail left by the spacecraft, they arrive at a barren, ice-covered planet where the men live on the surface and the women in a highly advanced underground complex. Spock’s brain is now the central intelligence that runs the entire complex. The problem before them: how to reunite his brain to his body.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Marj Dusay … Kara
James Doohan … Scott
Walter Koenig … Chekov
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Majel Barrett … Nurse Chapel
Daris … Creature
Sheila Leighton … Luma
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Pete Kellett … Morg Guard (uncredited)Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)

Star Trek – Assignment Earth

★★★★1/2 March 22, 1968 Season 2 Episode 26

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace

We are now at the last episode of the 2nd season…I can’t believe we are this far already. One more season to go. This is a different kind of episode for Star Trek. It reminded me right away of Doctor Who or a Scifi James Bond. It was planned as a spin-off episode but didn’t end up that way. Robert Lansing played Mister Seven and he was great. I would have watched the show if they would have spun it off. He had magnetism and was perfect for that role.

This was in reality a pilot episode about Gary Seven and his assistant played by future star Teri Garr when she was 20 years old. It is a show I wish would have been picked up. I could have been writing about that one today.

The Enterprise travels back in time to observe Earth during a particularly tumultuous period in its history. However, upon arriving they intercept a mysterious alien transmission and end up beaming aboard a man wearing a 20th-century business suit and carrying a cat. Kirk doesn’t know if he is human, alien, good, or bad. Seven is not a fool though and knows enough to escape the Enterprise with the transporter.

Seven is a human trained by an unnamed alien race to protect humanity against threats to world peace. In this story, his mission is to transport to Earth and prevent the US from shooting a military satellite into space that could set off a nuclear exchange between the US and the Soviet Union.

When the Enterprise captures Seven en route to Cape Canaveral, Kirk is reluctant to let him go, fearing Seven’s mission may not be as altruistic as he claims. Mr. Seven then escapes the ship, beaming down to the city of Manhattan with Kirk and Spock in hot pursuit.

Seven does get to finish his mission when Kirk finally realizes that Seven is telling the truth.

From IMDB:

While at the launch base and showing his ID to the security person, Mr. Seven shows a National Security Agency credential card. The NSA was one of the worst kept government secrets, but was not publicly acknowledged until nearly 25 years after this episode originally aired.

This is the only episode of Star Trek in which time travel is treated as “routine.” The Temporal Prime Directive does not yet appear to have been proposed, least of all taken effect.

This is the only episode of Star Trek in which a guest star is listed after the opening credits rather than in the end credits: “Guest Star Robert Lansing as Mister Seven” is displayed when the character is first shown in the transporter chamber.

Gary Seven’s computer display is the same one used as Dr. Daystrom’s M-5 computer in Star Trek: The Original Series: The Ultimate Computer (1968), as well as being used by Mr. Atoz, the librarian, in Star Trek: The Original Series: All Our Yesterdays (1969).

This episode features one of the first uses of stock footage of the first test launch of the Saturn V moon rocket in November 1967.

Spock mentions all the events which are to occur on that date the Enterprise travelled back in time to the 20th century and met Gary Seven. Among the events mentioned was an important political assassination. As it turned out, there were ultimately two important political assassinations in 1968: just six days after this episode aired on March 29, 1968, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, and two months later, on June 6, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was killed in Los Angeles, California on the night that he won the California Democratic presidential primary.

The script called for Isis the cat to make various cat sounds on cue (meows, purrs, growls, etc.) Since finding appropriate real cat sounds for the soundtrack proved problematic, the director discovered that Barbara Babcock, who was hired to do the voice of the Beta 5 computer, could vocalize convincing cat sounds.

Teri Garr had such an unpleasant time filming this episode she refused to ever talk about Star Trek again, although she did do an interview with STARLOG magazine many years later in which she was very disparaging of both the show and its fans. One reason was Gene Roddenberry’s frequent clashes with the costume designers over the length of Roberta’s skirt; Roddenbury wanted it shortened to the extent that Ms Garr’s underwear is glimpsed on occasions. However, she clearly had no such inhibitions in her roles other productions, such as the sultry and provocatively dressed Inga in ‘Young Frankenstein’ (1974) or wearing even an even skimpier outfit (see-through baby-doll nightie) as a Pajama Girl in ‘Pajama Party’ (1964).

The main plotline of countries launching nuclear weapons into space had a real-world parallel at the time. The major world powers pledged to use outer space for peaceful purposes in the “Outer Space Treaty” that became official on October 10, 1967.

Three black cats were used for the role of Isis.

No scenes for this episode were actually shot at Cape Kennedy itself. The illusion of being in Florida was achieved by using a combination of stock footage and Paramount studio locations.

This is the only episode where a Federation transporter system is used to intercept and re-direct another transporter beam.

Star Trek: Voyager: Prime Factors (1995) was originally going to be based on “Assignment: Earth”. David R. George III and Eric A. Stillwell’s original story involved the crew of Voyager encountering the race that had dispatched Gary Seven. However, this was declined as the Aegis’ technology could transport individuals over thousands of light-years, thereby providing an easy “out” for the USS Voyager and precluding the series.

Gene Roddenberry would later rework key elements of this story – an agent to Earth by aliens to shepherd humanity out of its “childhood”, with help from a human – into another unsuccessful pilot titled The Questor Tapes (1974), with the agent being an android..

Gary Seven’s “servo” is used in ways not unlike Doctor Who (1963)’s “sonic screwdriver”, which had been ‘invented’ for the now-famous BBC series just a couple of years earlier. Seven also has a young, naive, attractive human companion, much as the Doctor often has. Whether this is coincidence or the writers had some awareness of Doctor Who’s now-iconic tool is unknown.

This episode takes place in 1968. Along with Star Trek: Enterprise: Storm Front (2004) (which takes place in 1944), this is one of only two “Star Trek” episodes to take place entirely in the 20th Century. Furthermore, both episodes take place mostly in and around New York City.

The sound when Scotty was zooming in on Gary Seven’s position is the same as the one used for the poison dart flower in Star Trek: The Original Series: The Apple (1967).

The art on the wall in the office is from Reginald Pollack.

Gary Seven’s cohort Isis, is established as being a shape-changer, but it is unclear whether Isis is a cat who can appear as a woman, a woman that can appear as a cat, or some creature that can assume both and other appearances at will.

The name “Roberta Lincoln” is a feminine version of Robert Lincoln. Robert Todd Lincoln was a lawyer, politician, and businessman who had a long career and was present at or near the violent deaths of three USA Presidents: Abraham Lincoln (his father), James A. Garfield, and William McKinley. In the “Assignment: Earth” spin-off series, Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln would have been in the business of rescuing people from assassination.

James Doohan was one of the Mission Control voices.

The aliens which Gary Seven represents call themselves “The Aegis” – another word for “shield”. Gary’s tool/weapon is known as a “servo”. The Marvel Comics fictional agency S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage & Logistics Directorate) was depicted as S.E.R.V.O., which sounds like “brain” (cerveau) in French.

Gary Seven and/or Roberta Lincoln appear in Star Trek novels such as “Assignment: Eternity” (1997) by Greg Cox, “Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh” (2001), also by Cox, and “From History’s Shadow” (2013) by Dayton Ward. In the short story “Seven & Seven” by Kevin Hosey in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”, Volume VI, (2003), Gary Seven teams up with Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager (1995).

The final use of Sol Kaplan’s “Planet Killer” theme (in the climactic scene).

Roberta Lincoln was born in 1948.

During the street scene, a woman passes by wearing a two-piece fur suit, the top of which had been worn as a dress by Barbara Anderson as Lenore Karidian in the Star Trek episode, “The Conscience of the King”.

Roberta tells Gary Seven that she understood the work of her previous employers (his predecessors in that office) to be “research for a new encyclopedia”. This is most likely a hat tip to Isaac Asimov’s seminal Foundation novel, where the Foundation is working under the guise of producing an encyclopedia.

47 Reference: While scanning Kirk’s and Spock’s location on earth from the Enterprise, Scotty tells them to proceed 5 meters, 247 degrees true.

The sticker on the windshield of the car that Gary Seven uses says Mission Director Cromwell. An actor named James Cromwell later played several roles in the Trek Universe, most famously as Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact (1996).

The first episode to use the new phaser stun effect.

The second time to star a black cat: The first was Star Trek: The Original Series: Catspaw (1967)(#2.7).

Gary Seven’s computer said Roberta Lincoln (Teri Garr) was 20 years old. Teri Garr was born December 11, 1947 which would have made her 20 when this episode was filmed.

Cameo
Bruce Mars: Finnegan from Star Trek: The Original Series: Shore Leave (1966) can be briefly seen as a New York Police Department officer.

Summary

Having traveled back in time to visit Earth on a historical information-gathering exercise, the Enterprise intercepts a space traveler being beamed to Earth. Gary Seven is human but clearly comes from an advanced civilization that claims to have been specially trained for a mission to save mankind from itself. Captain Kirk isn’t at all sure that Seven isn’t there for malicious purposes and puts him in the brig. Seven does manage to escape however and with Kirk and Spock in pursuit, tries to complete the mission that two missing agents were unable to finalize. For Kirk, the decision he has to make is very real: does he stop Seven or let him finish – a wrong decision may mean altering Earth’s history altogether.

A later Star Trek referencing Gary Seven

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Robert Lansing … Mister Seven
Teri Garr … Roberta Lincoln (as Terri Garr)
James Doohan … Scott
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Don Keefer … Cromwell
Lincoln Demyan … Sergeant
Morgan Jones … Col. Nesvig
Bruce Mars … First Policeman
Ted Gehring … Second Policeman
Paul Baxley … Security Chief
Barbara Babcock … Beta 5 Computer / Isis (voice) (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley / Rocket Base Technician (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Lt. Clifford Brent (uncredited)
Rudy Doucette … Staff Member (uncredited)
Bob Johnson … Ground Control (voice) (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Edwin Rochelle … Man With Newspaper (uncredited)
April Tatro … Cat Girl (uncredited)

Star Trek – Bread And Circuses

★★★★ March 15, 1968 Season 2 Episode 25

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Gene L. Coon, and John Kneubuhl

This is one that I like more than some Star Trek fans.

The Enterprise is on its routine patrol when it runs across some wreckage of the SS Beagle. The Beagle has been lost for 6 years and its captain was R. M. Merik, a man Kirk once knew. They find no signs of humans so they guessed that the crew was able to leave the ship before it was destroyed. They follow the debris trail to an unknown planet – never charted before. They discover the planet is very much like planet Earth and even pick up radio and video signals from it.

The ship’s computer picks up survivors from the Beagle on the planet. Kirk, Spock & McCoy beam down to the planet’s surface and are soon met with a group of men with shotguns – they are runaway slaves. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy befriend the runaway slaves. It is revealed that their slavery is over a belief or dispute of gods: sun god vs other gods. Kirk is looking for Captain Merik the slaves have mentioned a man named Merikus – is it one in the same man?

The planet is similar to Earth’s ancient Rome but mixed with 20th-century Earth and soon they find themselves in a 20th-century jail cell while searching for Merik… they soon find Merik. Merik takes them to the pro-council where Merik explains what happened to him, his crew, and the Beagle. Later Kirk is made to order some of his crew members down to fight in the old Roman-style arena. The mix of old Rome with the 20th Century with the gladiators and TV cameras takes a minute to get used to.

He tells Mr. Scott code green, all is well. Scotty knows that means trouble, don’t interfere but stand by. Kirk refused to bring down his men so Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are taken to the arena in a real fight to the death which is broadcasted on television. The Enterprise can pick up television signals but must stand by under the captain’s orders…Scotty cannot send down a landing party but he can do other things from the ship.

It’s a very interesting episode and one that I appreciate much more now that I have rewatched.

From IMDB:

The caves where the Children of the Sun hide out are one of the most-used locations in television and movies. In addition to being the entrance to Batman (1966)’s Batcave, they are also seen in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Kung Fu (1972) and various police and western shows. They are located right below the famous Hollywood sign.

One of several “parallel Earth” plots in the series, contrived to save money by avoiding the necessity for “alien” sets, costumes, and makeup.

The coat of arms on the clothes of the Proconsul Claudius Marcus is William Shakespeare’s.

The title “Bread and circuses” is a translation of “Panem et circenses”, an ancient Roman metaphor for people choosing food and fun over freedom. It first appears around AD 100 in the Satires of Juvenal, which also provided the title of another Star Trek production about 20 years later: Star Trek: The Next Generation: Who Watches The Watchers (1989).

The episode parodies the television industry in several ways. Fake applause and catcalls are used to simulate a studio audience, and the race for high television ratings is lampooned several times. The TV station manager threatens the now-pacifist runaway slave that he had better fight convincingly: “You bring this network’s ratings down, Flavius, and we’ll do a special on you!” Later, the Proconsul sneers at Kirk about the captain’s impending death, to be televised from the arena, by telling Kirk that “You’re centuries beyond anything as crude as, television.” Kirk replies, “I’ve heard it was… similar,” an oblique reference to the series’ own ratings difficulties. Comic relief is in the scene where McCoy and Spock heckle each other on the TV Stage during the gladiatorial duels.

When Kirk and Spock are breaking out of their cell, two phalanxes of about 5 machine-gun-armed guards each run to block off each end of the corridor which would lead the flag officers to freedom. In the blooper reel, the lead guard of the group closest to the camera reaches his ‘mark’, but is unable to stop; his feet slide out from under him and he falls and goes sliding toward screen-right, after which everyone breaks out in laughter. When you watch the aired version of the scene closely, it has been edited in such a way that you never see that Roman trooper come to a complete stop. It seems they USED the ‘take’ and cut the embarrassing part (for the extra) out.

During the location shooting for this episode, the new producer John Meredyth Lucas visited the set, accompanied by Gene Roddenberry. Lucas was struck by the tension and bad atmosphere among the cast. “Shatner came around the corner, and when he saw Gene, he turned around and went the other way. And the cast was fighting too. All the actors complained to me about all the other actors.”

The Jupiter 8 car was actually the Reactor, a custom aluminum show car designed by Gene Winfield and completed in 1965. The Reactor was based on a 1956 Citroën DS chassis and powered by a Chevrolet Corvair engine. It also made appearances in Mission: Impossible (1966) and Bewitched (1964).

Claudius Marcus recommends the sparrow broiled in garum. Garum was a sauce made by salting the intestines of fish and collecting the fermented juices that dripped out. It was very popular in classical Greek and Roman cuisine.

The DVD and earlier VHS editions of this episode contain what is probably the best McCoy/Spock dialogue of the series, which was always edited out in syndication.

This episode marks the final appearance of Kirk’s second season green wrap-around tunic. Beginning in Star Trek: The Original Series: Assignment: Earth (1968), which followed, and when the series returned for its third and final season Kirk goes back to wearing his standard gold and black v-neck shirt full-time.

One of the shots of the planetary capital (in the opening of Act II) is of the Great Dome at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose words can be read (somewhat) above the pillars. The next shot shows the Legion of Honor on the Left Bank in Paris. Its motto ‘Honneur et Patrie’ is not Latin but French.

This was one of the first second-season episodes filmed, but the penultimate one aired.

This is one of only two TOS episodes featuring dialog between the credits and the episode title card. The other episode is Star Trek: The Original Series: A Private Little War (1968).

Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon wrote this episode’s teleplay from a story by playwright and television writer John Kneubuhl. However, Roddenberry and Coon received sole writing credit for the episode.

Gene Roddenberry revised the shooting script as the episode was being filmed. Director Ralph Senensky remembers picking up the day’s script pages when arriving to the set in the morning.

Ian Wolfe later made a second Star Trek appearance in Star Trek: The Original Series: All Our Yesterdays (1969), as Mr. Atoz.

The name of Merrick’s merchant vessel, the S.S. Beagle, is a reference to the vessel famous for carrying Charles Darwin on the mission to chart South America, the H.M.S. Beagle, which would, coincidentally, turn into a five year mission, and the early basis for Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.”

The automatic weapons that the Roman guards wield are Danish Madsen M-50 sub-machine guns.

George Takei does not appear in this episode. He was shooting The Green Berets (1968) at the time.

Consistent with the Roman themes throughout this episode, the escaped slaves which Kirk, Spock, and McCoy first encounter are references to and representative of the Spartacus group of gladiators and slaves in rebellion against ancient Rome.

47-reference: The S.S. Beagle had a crew complement of 47.

This takes place in 2268.

Much like the “red shirt syndrome” in normal episodes, each Roman who dies seems to be wearing a red cape or cloak.

Ian Wolfe (Septimus) also starred in THX 1138 (1971) which indirectly connects him to the Star Wars & Star Trek franchises. Since THX-1138 is not an actual part of the STAR WARS franchise, this is not exactly true.

An outtake from a deleted scene is in the famous blooper reels: Spock and McCoy are reluctant to come out to fight in the games and the Game Master shouts, “If they refuse to move out on cue, skewer them!” Instead, he shouts, “If they refuse to move out on cue, screw them!” At that point, the onlooking cast bursts out laughing.

William Smithers (Merik) and Logan Ramsey (Claudius Marcus) both appeared in two different shows of the original “Mission: Impossible”, another Desilu production.

During the arena combat scene of Spock and McCoy, Merik mentions that a star ship is a very special vessel and crew, and that he tried for such a command. During the opening scene upon learning that Merik captained the SS Beagle, Kirk states that Merik was dismissed from the academy and went into the merchant service. When prodded by Spock in the cave of the Son Worshippers, he revealed that Merik failed the psycho-simulator test because of a split-second of indecision.

Summary

While searching for the crew of a destroyed spaceship, the Enterprise discovers a planet whose oppressive government is a 20th-century version of Earth’s Roman Empire. Kirk, Spock and McCoy meet the rebels, seemingly sun worshipers, but are soon thereafter apprehended by the regime. The missing Captain Merik is revealed as the “First Citizen” and a pawn of the regime, but he and the rebels ultimately help Kirk and company to escape. Back on the Enterprise, Uhura observes that the crew’s understanding of the rebels as sun worshipers was not completely accurate.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
William Smithers … Merik
Logan Ramsey … Claudius
Ian Wolfe … Septimus
William Bramley … Policeman
Rhodes Reason … Flavius
James Doohan … Scott
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Bart La Rue … Announcer (as Bart Larue)
Jack Perkins … Master of Games
Max Kleven … Maximus
Lois Jewell … Drusilla
Paul Baxley … Policeman #1 (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited)
Tony Dante … Legionnaire (uncredited)
Chester Hayes … Sound Effects Man (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Shep Houghton … Cameraman (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman / Slave Girl (uncredited)
Bob Orrison … Policeman #2 (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Gil Perkins … Slave #3 (uncredited)
Paul Stader … Slave #1 (uncredited)
Tom Steele … Slave #2 (uncredited)
Joe Walls … Slave (uncredited)

Star Trek – The Ultimate Computer

★★★★★ March 8, 1968 Season 2 Episode 24

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, D.C. Fontana, and Laurence N. Wolfe

***After this post I have a post coming up written with CB***

This one is easy to identify with today with computers taking jobs that once belonged to humans. This computer’s function is to take Kirk’s job in running the ship. This one is a favorite of mine from the 2nd season. I get flashbacks to a movie that was still in the future at that time…anyone of you remembers HAL 9000? Excellent episode!

Hal 9000 and M-5

The computer here, M-5, was intended as the next step up from the 23rd-century starship machines which were also designed by the genius Daystrom. Under the test guidelines in this episode, the Enterprise is emptied of all but 20 personnel, and the new M-5 is plugged in, running standard ship’s operations, such as navigation and entering into orbit around a planet.

Later, the plan is to indulge in war games with a quartet of other starships, testing M-5’s calculations during a battle. It’s man vs. machine; it’s human workers vs. the automated line… it’s all about…becoming obsolete. The war games don’t go the way Daystrom imagined…M-5 decided to attack the starships.

The story revolves around the goals and aspirations of two men – Kirk and Daystrom. Kirk’s career appears to be in danger of winding down very quickly in the first act – replaced by machinery, while Daystrom’s might be gaining a second wind after 25 years of stagnation. It all revolves around the personal needs of these two men – what they need in life to feel functional, to be useful.

Kirk’s role is deemed non-essential due to the delegation of command decisions to M-5. Seeing him in this situation is compelling and William Shatner does an excellent job of portraying the angst the character is suffering.

Spock and McCoy help Kirk through a difficult time and they also share their own opinions about the merit of the M-5. I want to say also that William Marshall did a great job as Daystrom.

From IMDB:

The Daystrom Institute, mentioned prominently in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Star Trek: Voyager (1995), and ‘Star Trek: Picard’ (2020) is named for Dr. Richard Daystrom, the guest character in this episode.

In his 1999 essay “Welcome Aboard the Enterprise”, science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer writes, “…the ship’s computers, as seen in ‘The Ultimate Computer’, were designed by a Nobel-prize-winning black cyberneticist, played with equal dignity by William Marshall. During the era of Martin Luther King and the Watts Riots, it was a powerful, important statement to have the white captain of the Enterprise deferring to black people; as Marshall observed thirty years later, the single most significant thing about his guest-starring role was that he, an African-American, was referred to as ‘Sir’ throughout the episode.”

Robert Wesley was named for a pseudonym that Gene Roddenberry had used early in his career, and “Wesley” is Roddenberry’s given middle name.

Barry Russo, appearing here as Commodore Wesley, also appears in Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967) as Lieutenant Commander Giotto.

When Commodore Wesley observes the Enterprise from the Lexington, this is the only time in the series that the audience sees the Enterprise from another ship.

The script came from an unsolicited screenplay submitted by Laurence M. Wolfe, who was a mathematician. John Meredyth Lucas chose to adapt the story, feeling that it would be relatively inexpensive and quick to produce. D.C. Fontana rewrote much of the story, as much of the original screenplay was focused on Dr Daystrom and the M-5 Computer, with little emphasis on the show’s regular characters.

This episode was a social commentary on the American job losses caused by increased mechanization during the 1960s. This still remains a problem in the 2020s, with AI and software replacing many jobs formerly done by people.

Kirk recites a line from John Masefield’s poem, “Sea Fever” (“All I ask is a tall ship…”). He does it again in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). Quark paraphrases it in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Little Green Men (1995) and it appears on the USS Defiant’s dedication plaque.

The character name Daystrom appears to be a reference to a company named Daystrom Systems, which was around since the 50s. One of the company’s products, the Daystrom 046, was installed in the Little Gypsy Power Plant in 1961 in LaPlace, La., and was the first computer to control a power plant from startup to shutdown.

The M-5 reacted as it did because it did not want to be shut down. A similar theme was explored a few months later with the computer HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Spock mentions that there is nothing in 23rd century computer technology to replace a starship’s medical officer. By the 24th century, Federation starships are equipped with Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) technology.

The remastered version replaced the stock footage used. The space station, now named Starbase 6, used images of Deep Space Station K-7 from Star Trek: The Trouble with Tribbles (1967) in the original broadcast. In the remastered version, it was remodeled to look like Starbase 47, as seen in the ‘Star Trek: Vanguard’ series of novels. The Woden, which used footage of the SS Botany Bay from Star Trek: Space Seed (1967), was redesigned as an Antares-type vessel. The crippled USS Excalibur, which reused footage of the USS Constellation from Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine (1967), and the space battle were redesigned with new computer generated images.

Commodore Wesley’s high-backed command chair appears to be the same one used on the ISS Enterprise’s bridge in Star Trek: Mirror, Mirror (1967).

This is the second time Kirk tells McCoy he would like to be on a long sea voyage. The first time happened in Star Trek: Balance of Terror (1966).

The Japanese-made Sord M-5 home computer, released in 1982, was named in homage to Dr Daystrom’s creation in this story. Ironically it too was deemed a failure and discontinued after about a year.

Alpha Carinae, whose second planet was scheduled for exploration by the scientific survey team, is better known as Canopus.

Spock describes M-5’s diversionary tactics as “pursuing a wild goose”. In Star Trek: The Gamesters of Triskelion (1968), after McCoy calls Spock’s search for Kirk, Uhura, & Chekov a wild goose chase, Spock retorts that he was not chasing “some wild aquatic fowl”.

The evocative music by George Duning, composed for Star Trek: Metamorphosis (1967), was re-used when Kirk romanticizes about sailing on a tall ship.

Sean Morgan (Harper), also played Brenner in Star Trek: Balance of Terror (1966), O’Neil in Star Trek: The Return of the Archons (1967) and Star Trek: The Tholian Web (1968), and unidentified characters in Star Trek: The Corbomite Maneuver (1966), Star Trek: This Side of Paradise (1967), and Star Trek: Patterns of Force (1968).

A close-up of the three scanning heads on the trident scanner seem to be a re-use of the disruptor weapons from Star Trek: A Taste of Armageddon (1967).

This takes place in 2268.

Daystrom’s scanning device, which he used to analyze the M-5, resembles McCoy’s medical scanner. It also resembles the one used in Star Trek: The Naked Time (1966), when Scotty used it to point out the critical engineering wall circuits and when Joe Tormolen used it on the surface of Psi 2000.

The Excalibur was commanded by “Captain Harris”. Harris was Associate Producer Robert Justman’s middle name.

A similar question (computer control versus human control) arises for Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Booby Trap (1989), in which the Enterprise is caught in an ancient booby trap. ‘Booby Trap’ presents a situation where, as a ship caught in the trap tries to fly out, the trap absorbs and powers itself from the ship, while reacting to, and counterbalancing, the ship’s engines. This counterbalancing prevents the ship caught in the trap from moving. One method of escape from the booby trap, proposed by the Chief Engineer, is to turn complete navigation and engine control over to the computer, and allow it to make the calculations and adjustments faster than the booby trap can react to the Enterprise, thereby allowing it to power out of the trap. In that situation, Picard makes the decision to take the helm himself, instead of allowing the computer to take total control.

The character of Bob Wesley appears later in the animated series episode “One of Our Planets is Missing”, written by Star Trek director Marc Daniels. Wesley has retired from Starfleet and is governor of the remote Federation planet, Mantilles.

Star Trek: Lower Decks: The Stars at Night (2022) pays homage to this episode with the plot theme of crewless starships controlled by artificial intelligence, going haywire and firing on friendly forces. Also, images of Admiral Buenamigo’s control console for his Texas-class starships bear a strong resemblance to the M-5’s control console.

This is the only time in the series where the Enterprise is seen from another ship.

Summary

Captain Kirk replies to an urgent (yet brief) message from Commodore Enright, which only tells him to report to the nearest space station. Once there, most of the crew is removed – held in a security area, leaving only a minimal skeleton crew on board. Commodore Bob Wesley arrives and informs the captain he’s the unwitting ‘fox in the hunt;’ of simulated war games to be played. The purpose? To put the so far only-rumored-to-exist M-5 Multitronic unit – through its paces. The M-5 computer is the latest invention of the brilliant Dr. Richard Daystrom, creator of the Duotronic computer systems, which power Enterprise, and many other high-end systems. Daystrom is confident his unit can not only take control of the starship but do a better job than humans can. At first, the Enterprise under M-5’s control easily defeats two other starships, but, quickly begins to act independently of its human masters, Daystrom has little interest in disconnecting the M-5 and treats it more like an errant child than a machine. For Kirk and the few crew members still aboard, it becomes a matter of life and death when Starfleet Command orders the Enterprise destroyed.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
William Marshall … Daystrom
James Doohan … Scott
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Sean Morgan … Harper
Barry Russo … Wesley
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)

Star Trek – The Omega Glory

★★★1/2 March 1, 1968 Season 2 Episode 23

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry

***I’ll be starting a new series called “Through The Years” starting after this post.***

This episode has been called really good and the worst of the series. I don’t think it’s the worse by any stretch of the imagination. For me it was a little convoluted but a good episode to watch.

Gene Roddenberry originally wanted to produce this script early in the first season, along with Star Trek: Mudd’s Women, but NBC thought the script was weak and ordered the staff to ‘shelve’ it for an indefinite time to be possibly reworked and produced later on. Despite NBC still objecting against it, Roddenberry finally had his way to make “The Omega Glory” late in the second season.

The Enterprise comes across the U.S.S. Exeter, and finds its entire crew dead — victims of absolute dehydration resulting from a plague contracted from the surface of the planet the Exeter was orbiting. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to the planet’s surface and learn that the inhabitants are immune and that the newest inhabitant is Ron Tracey, captain of the Exeter. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of the planet are divided into the urban-dwelling “Khoms” and the more rustic “Yangs,” each in deadly combat with the others.

They find themselves in a town where relatively backward villagers are preparing to execute two captives who are apparently savages. The execution is stopped by the sole survivor of the Exeter, Capt. Ron Tracey. He explains that they are in a Kohm village and the savage Yangs are waging a war against them. It turns out Tracey has broken the prime directive by arming the Kohms because he has learned that not only are people living on the surface immune to the condition that killed his crew… they also live to a great age… he intends to find out how then make a fortune with the knowledge.

Tracey has Kirk, Spock and McCoy locked up, Galloway is dead by now, and while confined Kirk is put in a cell with a Yang. After a fight the Yang escapes and warns his people about a Kohm ambush. They are then victorious and take the village; it is then that Kirk learns that the Yangs have some shocking similarities with the United States… only this society lost a war and forget the meanings of its familiar ‘holy words’.

This episode is not a veiled observation on communism…it’s in the open completely.

From IMDB:

This is the second of three times the Enterprise encounters another Constitution-class star ship with the entire crew dead. The other two were in Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine (1967) and Star Trek: The Tholian Web (1968).

NBC announced that Star Trek would be renewed for a third season during the closing credits of “The Omega Glory,” broadcast on 1 March 1968. In the announcement, they also wrote “Please do not send any more letters”, responding to the vast amount of mail received during the protests organized by Gene Roddenberry and Bjo Trimble.

This was one of three scripts submitted to NBC (along with Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966) and Star Trek: Mudd’s Women (1966)) when they were seeking to do a second pilot for the series. They ultimately chose to kickstart the series with “Where No Man Has Gone Before”.

Only episode where a victim of the Vulcan neck-pinch actually makes a sound at the time of the pinch. Normally, the neck-pinch incapacitates the victim before he/she can make a sound.

This episode marks the first and only time in the original series that a reference is made to phaser “power packs.”

The original 1965 script draft named the missing starship as the USS Argentina. The Enterprise landing party consisted of Kirk, Spock, a young navigator named Lieutenant Commander Piper, a helmsman called Lieutenant Phil Raintree, and the ship’s doctor named Milton Perry.

A letter reprinted in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story reveals that Gene Roddenberry personally submitted his teleplay for consideration for an Emmy Award.

Here the USS Enterprise visits another world possessing a parallel-Earth culture. Other such examples include Star Trek: Miri (1966) and Star Trek: Bread and Circuses (1968). There are also Earth cultures in Star Trek: A Piece of the Action (1968), Star Trek: Patterns of Force (1968), Star Trek: The Paradise Syndrome (1968), and Star Trek: Plato’s Stepchildren (1968), but they were introduced deliberately or accidentally by people from Earth and/or the Federation, and did not originate organically.

Scenes from The Omega Glory were featured in a set of View Master (3-D) slides. In this adaptation, the Yangs were renamed the Meraks.

Morgan Woodward (USS Exeter Captain Ronald Tracey) had previously played another wild-eyed madman, Simon Van Gelder in Star Trek: Dagger of the Mind (1966).

This is the first time the chief medical officer of another Federation star ship, Dr. Carter, is seen. Although he is sitting in the command chair on the bridge, it is unclear if he is in command of the Exeter or is merely recording his warning. Not until Star Trek: The Next Generation: Descent, Part II (1993) would a doctor clearly be in command of a star ship. (Star Trek: The Next Generation: Remember Me (1990) had teased viewers with the possibility.)

The Kohm guarding Dr. McCoy can be seen in green coveralls in Star Trek: The Man Trap (1966), both in the corridor and in the turbolift, and as one of the miners in Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967). He can also be seen extensively as a background character in Kung Fu (1972) and Hawaii Five-O (1968).

Spock attempting to telepathically “suggest” Sirah to pick up the communicator was reminiscent of the early concepts that Spock has special powers over women.

The remastered version of “The Omega Glory” aired in many North American markets during the weekend of 30 June 2007. The episode included dramatic new effects shots of the Enterprise and the Exeter in orbit of a more Earth-like, computer-generated Omega IV. Among the fine details inserted into the show, a small glimpse of the Exeter appears on the Enterprise viewscreen as it approaches the planet at the start of the episode.

Roy Jenson’s voice was electronically altered. The preview trailer contains unaltered dialogue for Cloud William which doesn’t have the “slowed down” effect.

It is learned that the Exeter had a standard complement of four shuttlecraft. During the search for survivors, Galloway informed Kirk that “all four of the craft” were still on the hangar deck. Whether all Constitution-class vessels were equipped with that number of shuttles is not made clear.

The shot of Sulu manning the helm station with an empty captain’s chair in the background in mid-Act One is recycled from Star Trek: Arena (1967).

This takes place in 2268.

Empty phasers make a click noise just like an empty gun. (When Tracey tries to shoot Kirk a second time.)

When Sirah holds the communicator while hypnotized by Spock, the lid/antenna appears to open by itself, without being flipped open in any way. In actuality, Sirah is seen using her right index finger to pull the right top hinge; thereby opening the cover.

Wu was born in 1806.

Scotty and Chekov do not appear in this episode.

Wu’s father was born well before 1268.

A canned female scream is also heard in Star Trek: A Private Little War (1968) and Star Trek: The Gamesters of Triskelion (1968).

For the scenes involving the American flag Fred Steiner, the original “Perry Mason” theme composer, provided the only original music written for this show.

McCoy gives the prognosis that an Omega lV serum can’t prolong alien life. And that the Kohms’ & the Yangs’ vast prolonged lifespan is evolutionary. However, Spoke is a product of genetic engineering. So at least offspring might enjoy “immortality.” And with 23rd century science & medicine, “adulthood” gene splicing is feasible.

Roy Jenson (Cloud William) and Irene Kelly (Sirah) both appeared in different shows of “Mission: Impossible”, another initial Desilu production. Jenson appeared in the “The Killing” of season two, and Kelly in “The Elixir” of season three.

Summary

As the Enterprise approaches planet Omega IV, they find another starship, the U.S.S. Exeter, in orbit. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam aboard to find the ship abandoned but strewn with uniforms and crystals. The last log entry from the ship’s surgeon tells them they have been infected with a deadly virus brought aboard from a returning landing party. Kirk’s party beams down to the planet’s surface and finds there is one Exeter survivor: Captain Ron Tracey. He has apparently ignored the Prime Directive and has taken sides in a local dispute supporting the Kohms against their arch-rivals, the Yangs. As McCoy tries to find a cure for the virus, Spock and Kirk try to make sense of the situation. They eventually realize there is an odd parallel with Earth’s own history.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Morgan Woodward … Captain Tracey
Roy Jenson … Cloud William
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Irene Kelly … Sirah
Morgan Farley … Yang Scholar
David L. Ross … Lt. Galloway
Lloyd Kino … Wu
Ed McCready … Dr. Carter
Frank Atienza … Kohn Villager
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Security Guard (uncredited)
Ed Fury Ed Fury … Guard (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Adele Yoshioka … Kohm Servant (uncredited)

Star Trek – By Any Other Name

★★★★ February 23, 1968 Season 2 Episode 22

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, D.C. Fontana, and Jerome Bixby

The Enterprise Crew finds themselves being conquered by a superior alien race (Kelvans). A small group of superior alien beings takes the form of humans in order for them to hijack the Enterprise.

They need the ship so they can return to their old world which is beyond the Great Barrier. They turn almost the whole crew into these clay balls, except for Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and Bones, whom they need to help them run the ship. The only weakness the hijackers seem to have is that since they’re in human form for the time being, they’re vulnerable to human emotions.

Once the senior crew realizes the Kelvans are susceptible to human weaknesses things get quite amusing as Scotty gets one of them drunk, McCoy gives injections saying they are vitamin supplements but actually, they just make him very irritable and, perhaps inevitably Kirk sets about seducing the beautiful Kelinda causing Rojan to get jealous.

In human form, they cannot resist the emotions that they are getting. Will it be the Achilles heel that Kirk has been looking for? This is a good solid episode…not a classic one but not all of them can be.

***Spoiler***

The only thing I didn’t like about the episode is… there was no action or punishment for the death of Yeoman Leslie Thompson.

From IMDB:

While drinking with Tomar, Scotty finds a bottle of unidentifiable alcohol, and when Tomar asks, “What is it?” Scotty hesitates for a moment and finally says “It’s green.” This has become an iconic Scotty moment, and is even spoofed in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Relics (1992).

Direct references to two previous episodes were made. After Rojan mentions the galactic barrier, Kirk says, “We’ve been there.” (Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)); Even Spock repeats his analysis of the barrier word for word: “Density negative. Radiation negative. Energy negative.” When the landing party is detained in a cave, Kirk recalls their imprisonment on Eminiar VII and Spock’s use of a mind-meld to fool the guards. (Star Trek: A Taste of Armageddon (1967)).

Jerome Bixby’s original script was much darker than the filmed episode. The Kelvans (then called the Dvenyens) executed ten Enterprise crew members by opening the shuttle bay doors and letting them be blown out into space. (Technically, they would be blown out by escaping air. This could have been a goof because, even in the Orignal Series, the shuttle bay had force fields to prevent this happening, unless the Kelvans deliberately lowered them.) Kirk was put through “hellish torture”. Also, crew members were chosen to mate with each other (Kirk was paired with Yeoman Leslie Thompson) to breed slaves for the Kelvans. NBC objected to all these, which led producer Gene L. Coon to order a heavy rewrite. The production staff also deemed the mating aspect too similar to Star Trek: The Cage (1966).

Kirk mentions that an intergalactic voyage by a 23rd century starship would take “thousands of years” to reach the Andromeda Galaxy. For the Kelvans, intergalactic travel is a three-century journey. In the 24th century, as seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Where No One Has Gone Before (1987), Federation technology has apparently matched the Kelvans, perhaps due to this encounter, when it is discussed that a return trip to the Milky Way from the Triangulum Galaxy would take three hundred years at maximum warp.

A three-dimensional chess set is often seen in the series, but a three-dimensional checkers set can be seen in the rec room in this episode. It is later destroyed in a fight.

The Kelvan word for flower is “sasheer.” Actress Sasheer Zamata of Saturday Night Live (1975) fame was named after it by her Trek-loving parents.

Scotty’s quarters are only seen in this episode. Decorations include a tartan kilt, a sporran, bagpipes, a Scottish targe (shield), medieval armor, and a wall plaque. Although the plaque apparently depicts stylized drafting tools, they also resemble part of a three-dimensional chess set and the primary hull of a Klingon battle cruiser.

A shot in the end credits is an outtake from Star Trek: Return to Tomorrow (1968), which was produced one week earlier and aired two weeks later. It shows actor Bill Blackburn removing his latex make-up as one of Sargon’s androids. It was from a clip later used in the second season blooper reels: Blackburn gratefully peeled off the makeup as assistant director Tiger Shapiro said, “Well, son, you wanted show business. Goddammit, you got it!”

The basis of this episode can be found in Gene Roddenberry’s first ever produced science fiction script, Chevron Hall of Stars: The Secret Weapon of 117 (1956). The episode featured a pair of aliens (the male played by Ricardo Montalban, Star Trek’s “Khan”) who disguise themselves as humans to study Earth people, get overwhelmed by the sensations and experiences of their new host bodies, and decide to remain human.

When Mr. Scott offers to fill the glass of the Kelvan Tomar from his bottle of prized Scotch whisky, on pause you can clearly see that the middle finger on his right hand, which he always tries so hard to cover up, is missing. Doohan lost the finger in battle on D-Day.

Second appearance of the Galactic Barrier at the edge of the galaxy. The first was Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966).

The title is from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Stewart Moss (Hanar) played Joe Tormolean in Star Trek: The Naked Time (1966).

Robert Fortier (Tomar, one of the Kelvans) had played a small role in the earlier William Shatner vehicle Incubus (1966), a novelty horror film famous for being “the Esperanto movie.”

The remastered version of this episode premiered in syndication on the weekend of 8 March 2008. It featured new effects shots of the Kelvan outpost from space, an expanded matte painting of the planet’s terrain as the landing party beams down, a swirling Andromeda Galaxy, and the galactic barrier’s new look.

Julie Cobb (Yeoman Leslie Thompson) was married from 1986 until 2006 to James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and numerous other Trek roles).

This was the only episode lensed by cinematographer Keith C. Smith, replacing Gerald Perry Finnerman, who was apparently unavailable for an unknown reason. Smith was the director of photography on Mission: Impossible (1966), filmed next door to Star Trek at Desilu Studios at the time.

The Saurian Brandy container makes an appearance in this episode. The distinctive-shape bottle was actually a modified George Dickel 1964 commemorative edition “powder horn” whisky bottle.

Jerome Bixby based his teleplay for “By Any Other Name” on a short story he wrote and published in 1950, “Cargo to Callisto.” In the story, four Martian criminals, with the ability to take over human beings and assume their shape and mannerisms, use that ability to escape from a Martian prison and flee the planet. The story’s protagonist realizes that his wife and two friends have been taken over, finds the Martians’ bodies, kills them and thus restores to normal the humans that they’d taken. Before Bixby wrote this story, the idea of a hostile alien being able to shape-shift into any human form was used by John W. Campbell Jr. in his novella “Who Goes There?”, the basis of The Thing from Another World (1951), The Thing (1982), and The Thing (2011), although the 1951 version left out the shape shifting element.

As Scotty, Spock, and Kirk left engineering to head to the bridge in the turbolift, it is seen going sideways prior to going upwards to the bridge.

A similar, if not identical, green drink to the one shared between Scotty and Tomar was also seen in Star Trek: Enterprise: In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II (2005), aboard the Defiant.

The swiveling biobed normally situated in sickbay was removed to allow McCoy and Tomar to roll the gurney carrying Spock to the biofunction monitor.

Tomar’s name is the Spanish word for ‘to drink’.

This is the tenth consecutive episode from which Sulu is absent, but he returns to the series in the next episode to be produced, Star Trek: Return to Tomorrow (1968).

According to guest star Stewart Moss after filming was complete, he asked fellow guest star Barbara Bouchet out for a date. She replied, “But for what purpose? You’re an attractive man, but what can you do for me? Six months later Moss married actress Marianne McAndrew, and Bouchet eventually married Italian film producer Luigi Borghese.

This takes place in 2268.

Michael Jan Friedman’s novel ‘The Valiant: The Untold Story of Picard’s First Command’ (2000) is a sequel to both Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966) and ‘By Any Other Name’. After a prologue set in 2069, the main story takes place in the 24th century, in the decades leading up to the start of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).

Warren Stevens (Rojan) played Dr. Oslow in Forbidden Planet (1956), one of Gene Roddenberry’s stated inspirations for Star Trek.

Summary

The Enterprise is taken over by Kelvans, an advanced race from the Andromeda galaxy that is intent on making the 300-year journey home. Their leader, Rojan, immobilizes all of the crew but for Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scott. As the trip progresses, however, Spock realizes that having taken human form, the Kelvans are now developing emotions. Kirk introduces romance into the equation by purposely wooing Kelinda thereby rendering Rojan insanely jealous.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Warren Stevens … Rojan
Barbara Bouchet … Kelinda
James Doohan … Scott
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Majel Barrett … Christine
Stewart Moss … Hanar
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Robert Fortier … Tomar
Lezlie Dalton … Drea
Carl Byrd … Lt. Shea
Julie Cobb … Yeoman Thompson
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)

Star Trek – Patterns Of Force

★★★★★ February 16, 1968 Season 2 Episode 21

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry and John Meredyth Lucas

This is a very interesting episode. Kirk and crew take on another planet’s Nazis. A plague of thought/speech spread on a planet called Ekos. The Ekosians, a warlike primitive people, are subverted to channel their aggression against their peaceful neighboring planet, Zeon. The Zeons were more advanced up until a few years ago; but now, Ekos have the same technology, and plans are made to exterminate the Zeons. It all started innocently enough. It’s a bit strange.

The Federation has had this non-interference directive, the Prime Directive, in place for at least a century or more. I understand a sometimes aggressive hotshot like Kirk rationalizing around this directive at times of intense situational imperative, but now an elderly Federation historian, a supposed expert on what tampering with history means, decides to re-arrange a culture’s status quo on what appears to be a whim…a chance to play God, as McCoy puts it.

The Ekosians are the Nazis here, whereas the Zeons are stand-ins for the persecuted Jews. The episode does succeed in capturing some of that brutality associated with the Nazi regime and there’s plenty of suspense as Kirk & Spock attempt to infiltrate the Nazi HQ to see their Federation rep, now Fuhrer.

If anything, this is the serious version of “A Piece of the Action” – the scary contemplation of how an entire society can be deluded into following a certain doctrine. The most intriguing aspect is Melakon, the deputy Fuhrer who is, in fact, the actual incarnation of Hitler or Himmler…take your pick.

From IMDB:

Due to the post-war German ban on Nazi-related imagery and paraphernalia, this was the only Star Trek episode that was not shown on German TV until mid-1990s, when these restrictions were gradually relaxed to allow for artistic expression.

All the Nazi uniforms used in this episode are taken from Paramount’s costume storage, and were previously featured in many of the studio’s World War II-era films. Many of them featured mismatched epaulets, collar tabs, and other rank-identifying insignia. However, McCoy’s collar tabs, bearing a single silver oak leaf, correctly identify him as a colonel, as Kirk had ordered.

Leonard Nimoy refused to have any publicity pictures taken of him in Nazi uniform. He was due to attend Hanukkah services later that month (filming took place in December), and did not want any controversies to arise.

This episode with its Nazi storyline proved rather difficult to make for a lot of the cast and crew who were Jewish. This included William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

The name of the planet Zeon is a variation of the word “Zion”, a Hebrew term, as in Mount Zion, near the city of Jerusalem. The names of the Zeons: Isak, Davod and Abrom are obvious references to Isaac, David and Abraham, traditional Hebrew biblical names.

According to Valora Noland (Daras), her costume originally did not have a swastika on it and it was added right before filming. Noland, whose parents fled Nazi Germany, was offended by this and stated that she would not have taken the role if she knew she would be wearing a swastika. Noland quit acting entirely after this episode.

This is the second mention of Nazi Germany in Star Trek, the first being in Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967). However, in Star Trek: Mirror, Mirror (1967), Scotty did compare Evil Sulu’s security system to “the ancient Gestapo”.

In one of the sequences of news footage, all of which consisted of stock shots and stock footage, a car with Adolf Hitler accompanied by soldiers is used to represent John Gill as the Führer on the planet Ekos. The sequence is a use of stock footage from The Triumph of the Will (1935), the infamous Nazi propaganda film for whose production Leni Riefenstahl was responsible.

The “leader principle” Kirk mentions at the end of the episode was a foundation of the leadership in Nazi Germany. Known in German as “Führerprinzip”, it essentially can be described as a state of law in which there are no laws above those of the Führer, and that the government must obey and enforce such laws.

The character Eneg (Patrick Horgan) is Gene Roddenberry’s first name, spelled backwards.

Skip Homeier, who plays Melakon, would later play the insane demagogue Dr. Sevrin in Star Trek: The Way to Eden (1969).

The front of the Ekosian Chancellery has all of its windows and shutters closed, for the real world reason that the actual building was an active office of Paramount Pictures with daily business going on inside while the film crew and actors were shooting the exterior. Even so, two individuals who appear to be curious Paramount Pictures employees can be seen looking down on the courtyard from an upper window.

This is the only episode of Star Trek besides Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967) in which Leonard Nimoy is seen without a shirt.

The underground area is the same set as was used for Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967).

The remastered version of “Patterns of Force” aired in many North American markets during the weekend of 19 May 2007. While the episode required very few new effects, an entirely new shot of the Enterprise phasering the Ekosian warhead was substituted. In addition, Ekos was given a CGI-makeover as a more Earth-like planet, with new orbital shots of the Enterprise, and the rubindium crystal beam was refined.

The Schulberg Building (formerly, the Directors Building) and the Lubitsch Building (formerly, the Producers Building), both located on the Paramount Studios lot, were used for the exterior shots of the Ekosian Nazi headquarters complex.

The attacking V-2 rocket on the viewscreen of Enterprise was reused footage of the Orion scout ship from Star Trek: Journey to Babel (1967) earlier in the season.

This episode was finally shown on German pay TV in 1996 and included on all DVD/Blu-ray season sets. This episode was also finally shown on the public network channel ZDFneo on November 4, 2011.

The missile fired at the Enterprise was shown to be a V2. In 1942, one of these ethanol/liquid oxygen-fueled rockets reached an altitude of 118 miles, making it the first man-made object in space.

Skip Homeier, who plays Melakon, had his feature film debut playing a Nazi youth in Tomorrow, the World! (1944).

Several uniforms, such as Kirk and McCoy’s, show cuffbands reading “Adolf Hitler”. They represent members of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, special bodyguards of the Führer.

V-2 rocket footage from World War II Germany is used in the newscast showing Ekosian missiles.

Due to a re-rating in late 2016, this episode is now suitable for ages 12 and up in Germany.

An early draft had the source of cultural contamination arriving aboard a small Ambassador-class vessel called the Magellan. The name was later applied in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) to the Ambassador-class of ships in the mid-24th century.

Gilbert Green, who played the S.S. Major, also played Nazi General Hans Stofle in Hogan’s Heroes: Hello, Zolle (1966).

The second occasion, after Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967), where Vulcans are shown to have body hair, with Spock fully removing his shirt to show a full front torso covered in hair.

This takes place in 2268.

Two of the main guest stars, Richard Evans (Isak) and Patrick Horgan (Eneg), died four days apart on October 2 and 6, 2021, respectively. Eddie Paskey (as a Nazi storm trooper rather than his regular role of Lt. Leslie) had died a few weeks earlier on August 17, 2021. Two other iconic Trek guest stars would die just a matter of days after Evans and Horgan. They were Jan Shutan (Lt. Mira Romaine in Star Trek: The Lights of Zetar (1969)) just a day after Horgan on October 7, 2021, and then, three days later, the repeat Trek actor and stunt performer Bob Herron (Jeffrey Hunter’s stunt double in the pilot Star Trek: The Cage (1966)), Kirk’s gym buddy Sam in Star Trek: Charlie X (1966) and the recreation of the villainous Klingon warrior Kahless the Unforgettable in Star Trek: The Savage Curtain (1969)). Evans’s passing had not been widely known until a time after the later death of Horgan was reported. Learning afterward that Evans had died first lent an oddly spiritual twist to his most famous line, referring to their respective characters, when Isak says “Eneg is one of us.”

Summary

The Enterprise travels to the planet Ekos to search for the missing Federation cultural observer Professor John Gill. When they arrive, they find that Ekosian society has been completely patterned after Nazi Germany – down to its uniforms and the hatred of everyone from their neighboring planet Zeon – and the Fuhrer of this neo-Nazi regime is John Gill! Kirk and Spock are soon taken prisoner, but they also learn that there is an underground movement that opposes the totalitarian and vicious regime. As they realize that Gill has been incapacitated, they focus their efforts on dethroning the real power – Melakon, the Deputy Fuhrer.

HERE IS THE PREVIEW…I TRIED 5 DIFFERENT VIDEOS AND ALL CAME UP AS “AGE RESTRICTED” AND WOULD NOT LET YOU GET TO THE VIDEO…SO CLICK ON THE LINK.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Richard Evans … Isak
Valora Noland … Daras
Skip Homeier … Melakon
David Brian … John Gill
James Doohan … Scott
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Patrick Horgan … Eneg
William Wintersole … Abrom
Gilbert Green … S.S. Major
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Lev Mailer … S.S. Lieutenant (as Ralph Maurer)
Ed McCready … S.S. Trooper
Peter Canon … Gestapo Lieutenant
Paul Baxley … First Trooper
Chuck Courtney … Davod
Bart La Rue … Newscaster
Benjie Bancroft … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley / S.S. Trooper (uncredited)
John Blower … Ekosian Gestapo Lt. Col. (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
Len Felber … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler … Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Blonde in Audience (uncredited)
Sean Morgan … Second Trooper (uncredited)
Basil Poledouris … Trooper (uncredited)
Robert Strong Robert Strong … Soldier at Party (uncredited)
Bob Whitney … Soldier at Party (uncredited)