1996 TV Guides’s Listing for ‘The Man Trap:
From reddit
Normal-eared William Shatner, playing a no-nonsense space ship captain!
I know I posted this in another thread, but every time I see something described as “no-nonsense” I think of Mr Show.
All right, back to business - as established by Navaronegun and Pod, this week’s episode is “Miri”. Well, let’s start with the good. For the first time, I’m seeing an episode that I don’t remember ever seeing before. That made this one a fun exercise in not knowing what was coming. I did like the premise of the episode, slowly uncovering that what was going on was a disease that attacked people at the onset of puberty. This was interesting, and made me feel smart when I put the pieces together before the crew of the Enterprise. The feral kids were legitimately creepy at times, and their chants of going “bonk bonk” on Captain Kirk after they lured him away from the others was simultaneously silly and a little chilling. I did dig the Fallout vibe that the set had - when the blotches first showed up on Kirk, I thought they were radiation burns, lingering from a nuclear war.
But now, the bad. Mainly, this episode just doesn’t come together. It’s got some interesting parts but they just don’t make a cohesive whole to me. Just like Mr Gun and Pod, I spent the episode waiting for some payoff to the fact that all this was happening on an exact duplicate of our planet, but it never comes. Want to know why there’s another earth hanging out here, many light years from our home? Joke’s on you, sucker!
While there should be suspense in the encroaching disease among the planet-bound crew, it’s just boring. Watching these people stare into microscopes and snipe at each other is not fun. We know they’ll figure things out. The late game drama of Bones injecting himself with the untested vaccine seemed like an extra-cheap ploy too. Come on, you’re not killing Bones. You’re no George R. R. Martin, Mr. Roddenberry. Let’s just get this over with.
I’m not prepared to call the episode awful, though. If I were keeping a rating system, it would probably fit under mediocre. I just wish it had done something more with its premise. And I wish they could have had a little more faith in their audience to not put everything on this weird, duplicate earth.
I agree. It’s a major fall-down. And doesn’t add anything to the plot. I really don’t understand what they were thinking. The do it again in S3 too. But that is to pull off a historically parallel planet. This one makes no sense. Nothing is gained by doing it. And they have human-inhabited planets all the time that are “Earth-like”, with indigenous populations. It is a head-scratcher. I also think the story was fairly average, and the kids do get silly sometimes. The two Guest Stars really save the episode there.
I spent the episode wondering where I knew Jahn from, and checking Pollard’s IMDB page, I know him from something like a million things!
Nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1967:
Been years since I saw that. Oddly enough, the first thing I remembered when I saw the credit was from Scrooged.
Kim Darby (Miri) helped the Duke win his only Oscar.
Also forgot to mention that this is the first episode involving Yeoman Rand where she is not the subject of unwanted advances or flat-out sexual harassment. OK, she’s captured and tied up by a bunch children, but we’ll take our progress in baby steps if we have to. And the whole business with Rand trying to get Kirk to look at her legs, well … I guess next time the Enterprise runs out of crystals, they can just power the damn ship with all the sexual tension the crew appears to constantly operate under.
Yeah, I actually thought that was a powerful scene. The character made an admission under extreme emotional duress, and while suffering the effects of a disease. And it still wasn’t that overtly sexual. And really, he was just compassionate. Like he was with Miri. They all pulled that off pretty well, and that was a tricky needle for them all (including Darby) to thread there. And they all did it. Kudos. It was the writing that let them all down this episode. Spies/Fontana/Gene. The direction, sets, effects and acting were all well done. The kids were the weak spots, but child actors always are. That creepy scene where Kirk gets beaten while the one girl watched it off screen was freaking inspired by Vincent McEveety, but I mean he does “Dagger of the Mind”, “Balance of Terror”, “Patterns of Force” and “Spectre of the Gun” later (pretty good episodes in terms of performances and cinematographic techniques). He did a lot with a little with this script. Using the camera as the anonymous hiding “other” spying on Spock was pretty effective and innovative.
Eh, if you say so. I found it a little silly and overwrought myself.
With a grain of salt. I don’t like her acting. I don’t think she is good at her craft. The fact that she “acted” at all in that scene impressed me. Darby can act circles around her, as can Shatner. I really won’t miss her when she is gone.
They’re in deep space. Give them some latitude (or whatever the metric equivalent is). Seriously as a young person, I only watched Star Trek for the sexual tension and scantily clad aliens.
They can have all the latitude they want, as far as I’m concerned! What happens in deep space can stay in deep space. At least free up their minds to get some work done and stop mooning after each other.
While I liked the science in this episode, I hated the kids. But I hate children in TV and movies in general. Also, whenever Kirk meets an alien society, he needs a love interest. And in this episode it’s a young girl. Eew.
To me this feels like a third season episode. A bad third season episode.
What has really stood out to me in this re-view, is how there are a lot of episodes, early that I had somehow relegated to the third season, in the legends of my mind. The writing is really uneven this first part of the first season. Of these 8 there are only 3 that I think will be in my Top 25. And none of those in my Top 10.
So I finished Mudd’s Women.
This scene was the turning point for me. It really captured my attention for the first time, and I was finally hooked into the episode. And I kind of loved how they handled the whole thing. I love that one lady’s rant at the end, that the guy doesn’t care about whether she can cook and handle the hard living on the frontier, or be a companion and listen to his problems. All he cares about is their looks.
And I kind of loved that the only thing that was magical about them was their confidence. Of course, it’s presented to us differently, with make-up changes and soft-focus and lighting changes, but that has been the case since the first episode, right? In the Man Trap, we immediately see the Doctor seeing someone different from everyone else on the away team. Star Trek has now established that it’s showing you in the audience something different based on perception, so we know not to take make up changes, etc. as literal changes on their face. I like the concept that how they see themselves, and the confidence they carry with them makes such a huge difference.
The big eye-opening moment in movies that made me realize that truism (if it is a truism) was the movie Being John Malkovich. I thought Catherine Keener in that movie was the sexist being on the planet.
And then I saw her in other movies, and you know what? She’s a good looking lady, but that super-confident creature in Being John Malkovich was completely different and sexy on a completely different scale. Confidence and how you carry yourself can make a huge difference.
Anyway, so yeah, I totally did a 180 on this episode. I thought it was the most boring episode yet, until that scene I quoted above that dive transcribed for us, and then after that I loved this episode. It’s got some social commentary that I expect and love from Star Trek.
Well, check out my re-view, I think we see eye to eye on “Miri”. I think for me It falls into “inoffensive” and not “bad” because of the guest stars, period. And as Rich points out, good science. But that is like debating about whether a team is in 2nd to last place or in last place. :)
But, no, Friendly Angel, I wasn’t transposing Miri with that stinker. :) I just mean more along the lines, that I always associated S1 with great episodes. And I have seen them all as many times as you have. But the reality is, going episode by episode, these first 8 only have 3 that make it into my top half. And only one in my top 25. Maybe (it’s kind of theoretical until it all shakes out). The first half of Season One is really shaky. Season 3-level shaky. aAnd it always seems to revolve around Writing/Script editing choices.
“What are Little Girls Made Of?”
Ok, so first of all, Nurse whatshername is back! And it turns out she’s married. Sorry gents. But wait, her husband might be dead? No wait, he’s alive! But wait, he’s clearly been getting it on with an android lady who is topless except for suspenders.
Kiss Kirk, he commands her? See Captain? There’s no emotion whatsoever. It’s just an android. (Hint: See honey? It’s meaningless sex, no emotion at all).
Ok, so seeing two red shirts die didn’t really raise the stakes all that much, so I have to say that for this to be the first time we see a couple of redshirts die on the show, their death was pretty meaningless. There was a tense scene later in the caves where Kirk plans to hit the big android with a giant penis and push him to his death like the big guy killed the red shirts. But then it turns out Kirk isn’t strong enough to do that, and a giant penis is a terrible weapon against androids. Against a human, it could be very effective. Aaah, get that thing away from me. Awwwwwwwwwww. (Dead).
Later, despite all the evidence so far, Kirk hilariously thinks he can kiss emotions into the android girl! Pfffft. Buahahah. Go Kirk! Give it the old college try!
Of course, the joke’s on me, because it works! He kisses her so hard, she gets all flustered and emotional. This scene had me laughing so hard, I literally fell off the couch laughing.
Fake Kirk’s trip up to the Enterprise was kind of wasted, wasn’t it? Spock figured out that it was an imposter, but it didn’t end up mattering because Kirk can kiss so well, he didn’t need Spock’s help.
Overall, I was very entertained by this episode. But a weird pattern has emerged so far in watching 1960s Star Trek.
- Beware of powerful mind-controlling beings.
- Beware of imposters mimicking the crew.
- Watch out ladies. You might get raped. Or, used as sex objects.
I’m really enjoying myself so far. And I realized something while watching “What are Little Girls Made of?” I realized that this show is pretty unique. What other show from the 60s are we rewatching? None. What other 60s show is widely available for streaming? None that I’m aware of. What other 60s show still has so much cultural cachet?
You should make a thread! If you’re really rewatching, and not just pretending. :)