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Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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Juliet316
Registered:
Apr '05
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Date Posted:
11/4/06 11:47am
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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I forgot to add it features prominently in these books: First Frontier by Diane Duane, and Imzadi by Peter David
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The2ndQuest
Title: :
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Registered:
Jan '00
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Date Posted:
1/8/07 10:06am
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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Continueing my look at the series- however, I haven't yet watched 2nd and 3rd episodes from the order I've been referencing, but I have caught two other early Season 2 episodes from the remastered airings on TV, so for a brief break from my pattern, I'm going to review the three Season 2 episodes I've watched to keep this rolling, and will fill in the blanks as I proceed.
201- Amok Time:
-Premise: Spock starts behaving strange as a Vulcan mating ritual approaches.
-T2Q Comments: This episode actually surprised me quite a bit- no 60's cheesiness (except, perhaps ever so slightly with the Chapel scenes, and the definitively-60's quick editing and camera angles of one sequence during the marriage ritual) and actually a pretty decent script and surprisingly decent acting from the main 3 characters, which is probably what makes this episode work so well- it focuses (and properly portrays) the Kirk/Spock/McCoy friendship very well. It's almost a pitty the various Vulcan weirdness had to happen at all since it's just an excuse for a Kirk/Spock fight.
Still, since a lot of the Vulcan weirdness pops up in other Trek shows (most notably Star Trek 3 and the Vulcan 2-parter in Enterprise's 4th season, particularly the latter since T'Pau is also in that episode), and the overall quality of the execution for the material, I'll list this one as a Definite Essential.
204- Mirror Mirror:
-Premise: A freak transporter occurance sends Kirk and others are sent to an alternate universe where Earth has become an imperialistic power.
-T2Q Comments: Alternate universe, evil-goatee, scarred-face fun. Don't really have to go into much detail, as I'm a sucker for AU stories, and this one's pretty decent. Mirror Sulu is better than Real Sulu though 
Given the number of Mirror related episodes in the franchise, this one's also a Definite Essential.
207- Catspaw:
-Premise: Kirk and co are trapped in a Halloween-esque castle by a powerful entity
-T2Q Comments: Just the fact that they did a Halloween episode is amusing enough to recommend this, hehe.
Main flaws are the attempts at humor surrounding the cat and associated music, the cat turning into a woman and back (the cat is the most ruthless and most terrifying of animals? uh, sure lady, whatever you say...), not to mention Chechov's hair- wow, nice wig. The seduction scene is also a big "doh!".
However, the real dissapointment of the whole episode is that the DeSalle/Chechov "breaking-free" subplot aboard the Enterprisee is quite interesting and involving, but goes nowhere, which is a real shame as it could have made for a great payoff. I hope the DeSalle character shows up again.
Though I'm probably being to lenient on it just because it's a Halloween episode, I'm gonna list this one as a "Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential".
Up next, : 202: Who Mourns for Adonais?, 203: The Changeling & 205: The Apple.
Alternate Universe Log:
-TOS: The Alternative Factor (Anti-Matter Universe)
-TOS: Mirror, Mirror (Mirror Universe)
Links to the remastered footage for both Mirror Mirror & Catspaw:
  
Mirror Mirror Remastered Video
 
Catspaw Remastered Video
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Well, it's kinda a long story, see, I had this freaking sweet hat..."
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Darth_Guy
Registered:
Aug '02
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Date Posted:
1/8/07 10:32am
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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Wow, I remember the Defiant CG model looking much better in Enterprise.
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zacparis
Title: Ex Manager
Registered:
Sep '03
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Date Posted:
1/8/07 11:01am
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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Well they can't make it look too good, it wouldn't fit right. They probably had a limited budget anyway.
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The2ndQuest
Title: :
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Registered:
Jan '00
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Date Posted:
1/8/07 4:35pm
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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The CG varies from episode to episode- the last 4 or 5 episodes saw a huge improvement over the first few episodes when they switched to a different CGI model (supposedly the first model was more detailed and accurate, but the new one is easier to light properly and thus is comes across as looking more realistic). Looks better on TV than it does in the screen shots, as well.
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Well, it's kinda a long story, see, I had this freaking sweet hat..."
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DarthButt
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '03
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Date Posted:
1/8/07 4:52pm
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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I don't catch the updated ones that often. They play at midnight on the weekends here and I forget to watch them.
However, I watched all of the original series on DVD prior to seeing one of the enhanced episodes, and it really wasn't much to me. Some of the effects still look corny, and the Enterprise still looks like a toy, which I could never get over in the original ones. I liked a lot of the episodes, but the effects were just terrible. For the era and the budget, I know they were great for it's time so I overlook that, but I am dissapointed at how they didn't take advantage of the technology of today and really do it right. They seemed too caught up in trying to be almost too faithful to the original episodes, IMO.
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The2ndQuest
Title: :
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Registered:
Jan '00
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Date Posted:
1/8/07 6:10pm
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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Yeah, the first few remastered episodes were way too faithful to the original FX shots they were replacing- they ended up looking just as bad, since they matched all the flawed camera angles and movement of the ship- it just didn't look natural. The more recent episodes look a lot better since they're taking more liberties in creating more dynamic and varied shots with more realistic movement (though the credits sequence still has the Enterprise swooshing around at that cartoony hot rod angle which, though a minor thing since I skip the credits anyways, annoys the living freaking hell out of me because it's such a boneheaded thing to be faithful to).
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K'Kruhk, 140 ABY: "Why haven't I come forth earlier to share my Jedi knowledge with Skywalker?
Well, it's kinda a long story, see, I had this freaking sweet hat..."
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Siths_Revenge
Registered:
Jul '04
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Date Posted:
1/8/07 6:26pm
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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It's Chekov! Not Checkov.
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The2ndQuest
Title: :
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Registered:
Jan '00
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Date Posted:
1/8/07 6:50pm
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
- Date Edited:
1/8/07 6:50pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
The2ndQuest
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Yeah, I knew I messed up that spelling up somehow, I'll try to remember the right one next time
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K'Kruhk, 140 ABY: "Why haven't I come forth earlier to share my Jedi knowledge with Skywalker?
Well, it's kinda a long story, see, I had this freaking sweet hat..."
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DarthButt
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '03
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Date Posted:
1/8/07 11:34pm
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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The enhanced episode I saw was the Khan episode. I've been wanting to watch more but the hours of the show time, and the lack-luster results I saw from the episode I did see didn't really impress me much (which oddly enough - when I first saw this episode, I thought it was funny how Khan never forgets a face when he never saw Chekov in the first place?   ). Perhaps I should take a look at a later episodes to see how they did it. But yeah, from what I have seen, it was way too faithfull to the OS... almost to ask the question: "What is the point in this!?"  Not like anything was enhanced at all really... other than the planets.
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The2ndQuest
Title: :
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Registered:
Jan '00
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Date Posted:
1/9/07 7:44am
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
- Date Edited:
1/9/07 7:50am (2 edits total)
Edited By:
The2ndQuest
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Actually, the Kahn episode was one of the ones where they started to do better work with the CGI and take liberties with the shots- some of the new shots between the Enterprise and Botany Bay really helped give a sense of size to the Enterprise that is almost always lacking in other shots, and you almost feel sorry for the Botany Bay as it's discarded in what is easily one of the best new shots.
The first 8 remastered episodes (Balance of Terror, Miri, The Devil in the Dark, The Naked Time, The City on the Edge of Forever, I Mudd, Arena & Catspaw) were the ones where nothing was really done all that differently, and most of those contained the other CGI ship moel which was much whiter and "flatter" looking.
Starting with The Trouble With Tribbles, Mirror Mirror, Space Seed, the Menagerie 1 & 2, Corbomite Manuever and onwards, starts started to get elaborated upon instead of being strictly CGI recreations of the original shots.
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K'Kruhk, 140 ABY: "Why haven't I come forth earlier to share my Jedi knowledge with Skywalker?
Well, it's kinda a long story, see, I had this freaking sweet hat..."
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Jedi Merkurian
Title: Games: RPG d20 GM
Registered:
May '00
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Date Posted:
1/9/07 11:12am
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
- Date Edited:
1/9/07 11:34am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Jedi Merkurian
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Space Seed also demonstrated just how big a pair McCoy has:
MCCOY: Well either strangle me or cut my throat. Make up your mind!
KHAN: Where am I?
MCCOY: You're in a hospital, holding a knife to your doctor's throat.
KHAN: Don't play games with me...
MCCOY: It would be most effective if you cut the caratoid artery just below the left ear...
Plus, Amok Time is essential for "Spock's Theme" and that hokey fight music  On top of it all, Mirror Mirror is the inspiration for one of my all-time favorite jazz songs
"Spock With A Beard"
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The2ndQuest
Title: :
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Registered:
Jan '00
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Date Posted:
1/9/07 8:54pm
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
- Date Edited:
1/9/07 8:56pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
The2ndQuest
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202- Who Mourns For Adonias?:
-Premise: The crew are taken by a being claiming to be the greek god Apollo, who demands they worship him
-T2Q Comments: I like the Chekov humor ("I am Apollo!" "and I am Czar of all the Russians."). Though somewhat interesting in premise, the overall episode just feels like a rehash (albeit more tolerable than the material it is rehashing); from the powerful being having a power source destroyed to the female ancint history specialist falling in love with her subject (and as soon as we see she's on the away team, it's instantly and painfully telegraphed that that was exactly what was gonna happen- and, btw, why would she ask why she was with the away team AFTER she beamed down with them? Probably shoulda asked before they scrambled your molecules, eh?). The giant hand thing reaching out and grabbing the Enterprise, though a little cheesy, is a tad creepy of a visual though.
Bottomline? If you want aliens posing as mythological gods, stick to Stargate as this episode is ok, but definitely not essential.
203- The Changeling:
-Premise: A strange probe that wipes out an entire civilization is brought aboard the ship and mistakens Kirk for it's creator
-T2Q Comments: Kirk: 3, Computers: 0 (though, to be fair, this is definitely the best of the "Kirk talks a computer to death" episodes so far). This episode alsohad to be the basis for Star Trek: The Motion picture, what with the "earth probe being combined with an alien probe to become something new" angle.
Also, after Nomad has killed several Red Shirts who have fired upon him with no effect, you would think the other Red Shirts would, oh, I don;t now, stop shooting at the killer invincible probe or something so it wouldn't be provoked into disintegrating them.
And, the Uhura memory wipe thing is just...no. Rededucated to college level within a few hours? Somehow defaultly spoke swahili? Bluey?
A refernece to something past the Warp 10 barrier is irksome, though it's early for the franchise so i guess it's forgiveable (hell, I still remember a TNG trading card or some kind of spinoff book mentioning Romulan ships going at Warp 12...).
There's a particularly perplexing logic error within the script itself early on when Spock says the attacks by the Nomad on the Enterprise's shields is equal to 90 photon torpedoes, and the Enterprise is able to take several such attacks before losing shields (I guess they just don't make them like they used, eh?), then fires 1 torpedo at the Nomad with no effect on it, to which Kirk wonders in amazement how anything coukd absorb that much power... uh, apparently your ship did a bang up job on the magnitude of 360 times more. 
There's a small Enterprise connection apparently in that the Malurian civilization destroyed in this episode was mentioned or appeared in an Enterprise episode.
Still, it's a fairly well done episode depsite those problems and the dumb Uhura plot. I classify it as a "Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential".
205- The Apple:
-Premise: An away team is stuck on a paradise world with deadly plants, exploding rocks and anangry machine god named Vaal, which treatens the Enterprise in orbit.
-T2Q Comments: Holy crap, talk about a "been there, done that" episode. We've got the plants that spurt attacking spores at people (which have a tendancy to appear and dissapear in the shot as needed ), a morality theme about a civilization stagnating (for, what? the 3rd time?) and a powerful being trapping an away team whose powersource must be destroyed (done at least 3 or 4 times now) by the Enterprise's phasers (which was just done TWO EPISODES AGO). Another episode that makes you wonder about the lack of shuttlecraft use (especially here in the 2nd season after it's been established that they're there and can land on planets).
Interesting to note a reference to the possibility of a suacer separation in this episode, even if it doesn't happen.
At one point the crew wonder how the locals, who have no knowledge of love or reproduction, would manage if the need for "replacements" arose after an accidental death. SPock suggests they would recieve instructions from Vaal. To which Bones replies, "From a machine? I'd like to see that". Obviously things about the internet must have changed radically in the next couple hundred years
However, points for having the Yeoman kick some ass and not be yet another 60's doe-eyed love bimbo (ok, well, she still is making out with Shekov, but, hey, he's a Psi-Cop, it's not like she has much choice in the matter... ).
I rate this one as an "OK Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential"
Up next, : 206: The Doomsday Machine, 208: I, Mudd (I make no guarentees I'll be be able to watch the whole episode) & 209: Metamorphosis.
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K'Kruhk, 140 ABY: "Why haven't I come forth earlier to share my Jedi knowledge with Skywalker?
Well, it's kinda a long story, see, I had this freaking sweet hat..."
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Kimball_Kinnison
Registered:
Oct '01
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Date Posted:
1/10/07 6:33am
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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The2ndQuest posted:
A refernece to something past the Warp 10 barrier is irksome, though it's early for the franchise so i guess it's forgiveable (hell, I still remember a TNG trading card or some kind of spinoff book mentioning Romulan ships going at Warp 12...).
Actually, they redrew the warp curve between the time of TOS and TNG. In one TOS episode, they get as high as Warp 15 (IIRC), which is roughly equivalent to Warp 9.9 on the new scale.
Wikipedia has an article covering the actual formulas for calculating warp speeds.
Kimball Kinnison
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The2ndQuest
Title: :
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Registered:
Jan '00
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Date Posted:
1/10/07 7:34am
Subject:
RE: Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.
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Ah, thanks for that clarification.
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Well, it's kinda a long story, see, I had this freaking sweet hat..."
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