1625

My theory is that, by now, they know they are cancelled, so they don’t really give a fuck any more. Let it rip!

1626

Ok, finished it, it’s as good as @Rock8man said. Awesome space battle with green disruptors flying everywhere, Kirk in love again, sabotage, space diplomacy, a last second maneuver to save the ship, Scotty’s new crazy hair, Bones and Spock get their shots in, this episode has it all. I’d say this episode is almost the most “classic” of any I have seen. The romance plot is a bit weird, but I’ll give it a pass because of the space battle, probably the best one we’ve seen the actual action of, and only second to Balance of Terror which had the dread submarine part slightly better. I loved how Kirk turned the ship into oncoming fire to absorb the hits to his non depleted shields. That was some space maneuvering.

1627

“Captain, that ancient Earth custom called spanking. What is it?”
“It’s, er. It’s, er. We’ll talk about it later.”

Let’s talk about Elaan of Troyius then! There’s quite a bit going on in this episode and it keeps the pace going steady so it’s at least got that going for it. It’s always fun when the Enterprise faces off against another ship in combat as well, so that’s another point in its favor. And I always personally enjoy when the ship and its crew are sent on diplomatic missions, showing the non-military side of the Federation. All in all, a lot of checks in the plus column for this week. I also liked the actors, particularly the woman who played Elaan herself. She’s originally played pretty broadly, an untamed id who throws tantrums when she’s denied. I can’t imagine what life on Troyius must actually be like for these people, and I can certainly understand the Elanian ambassador’s initial bemusement and eventual frustration.

I like that the plot of this episode makes sense, and doesn’t require any huge intuitive leaps to get all the principals into the action. I enjoyed that the Klingons were tiptoeing up to the line of actual aggression (even if they eventually just bulldoze right past that) to try to get what they want. There are some things about all this that I don’t completely understand - how is it that the Federation and Klingon Empire can both have claims against this territory? I would have thought the neutral zone would lay out specifically what areas are in whose territory, with neither encroaching on the other, but I don’t have a good spatial feeling for where this system is.

I also wasn’t wild about the whole ‘magical love tears’ business, but it does what it needs to do without much fuss, and it does turn the episode in a more interesting direction. We see Kirk struggle with with chemically induced love - in fact, I think I was most taken with what Shatner did at this point. It’s common to think of Shatner’s overacting and scenery-chewing - it’s one of his best qualities! But in this episode, he actually underplays quite effectively. You can see the conflict when Elaan is near, and even his nervousness when she shows up on the bridge during the conflict with the Klingons, knowing that he can’t think clearly when she is around. I liked what they did there.

The resolution is pretty strong too, with Elaan coming to understand that with great power come radioactive super powers or something like that, eventually deciding to willingly enter into the diplomatically-arranged marriage with the Elanian fellow. And as noted, neither is completely free of the other, recognizing that while Kirk and Elaan might prefer to be together, duty has its own call.

Point of order: I had always thought the phrase “Are you out of your Vulcan mind?” was an invention of J.J. Abrams and his screenwriters, a clever way to get around an MPAA-enforced F-bomb count. But no, McCoy says it to Spock in this episode! Learn something new every day.

1628

I don’t recall there being a neutral zone between the Klingons and the Federation. There is one between the Romulans and the Feds, but the Organian “treaty” just says that any given planet should belong to whichever group can best develop its resources.

1629

There’s definitely a Federation/Klingon neutral zone, brought about by the Organian treaty. I’m just not clear on where it is (I’m always fuzzy about that kind of stuff, even after playing Star Trek Online) or if this particular system is near it.

1630

I think this is backwards; I believe it was the Troian ambassador-- Elaan was from Elaas, and she wanted the Enterprise to obliterate Troyius. That was a pretty good plan she had, too, to take over the Enterprise by way of the Captain. Was it implied that they had had sex before Spock and McCoy show up?

This is a good episode, but its also a glittering historical artifact of 1960’s sexism and cultural condescension.

1631

Yeah, you’re right - the title, ‘Elaan of Troyius’, is a play on ‘Helen of Troy’, and also recognition of her ultimate fate, to be wedded to a representative of Troyius.

1632

What? A people/nation that cannot defeat their opponents outright, but attempt to do so using the only asymmetric method they have in order to manipulate a Great Power into doing so?

Sure the costumes and romantic subplot are dated, but I would’t exactly call this a retrograde story of the Patriarchy.

1633

I think its heavily implied. Don’t they show them in bed together? I’ve been watching maybe too much Trek lately, I may be confusing episodes.

Also, I didn’t see the walk away space boner that Rock8man saw. I saw him begrudgingly and stiffly walking away, trying to overcome the pull she has on him. Kind of like coming out of a fog. I also like the fact that while Elaan certainly influenced him, ultimately Kirk retained his moral compass and control of the ship.

1634

France Nguyen was a fantastic actress when active. She was in the film The World of Suzie Wong and IIRC was on Broadway with Shatner in the stage production.

1635

I only watched the beginning of this episode so far, but the scene where the Captain calls up to the Enterprise, and is flummoxed by Queen To Bishop 3, and the tantrum he throws right after is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on Star Trek. Oh man, I had to stop it because I couldn’t stop laughing and I was missing the next scene.

William Shatner has missed his calling. He’s a natural at physical comedy.

1636

Don’t judge me but I loooooved the crazy ex space captain. Channeling some N at Elba mixed with some Hunter S T. Fun episode.

  • Mental conditions have been wiped out to only have a handful of people. I guess PTSD doesn’t count, Decker.

  • We finally get to see a full Orion girl dance

  • Loved the security stuff with Scotty. Competant commander Mr Scott!

1637

“Marvelous, isn’t she, Captain?”
“Yes, uh… incredible.”
“What is your reaction, Mr. Spock?”
“Well, I find it, um… mildly interesting and somewhat nostalgic, if I understand the use of that word.”
“Nostalgic?”
“Yes, it is somewhat reminiscent of the dances that Vulcan children do in nursery school.”

OK folks, let’s belly up to the TV for another episode, this week it’s ‘Whom Gods Destroy’, and bonus points for the good grammar, Trek writers. It offsets the split infinitive of ‘to boldly go’ quite nicely.

And it’s an ok episode, for my money. Decent enough, but I find that I don’t have any strong feelings one way or the other about it. It boils down to a battle of wits between an insane man and a Starfleet captain, who probably shouldn’t be as near to equals in that battle as they are if not for the fact that the insane man can also, oh yeah, turn himself into anybody he wants, at least for a little while.

This is one of those episodes where I couldn’t help my brain for just going down a rabbit hole for most of the duration of the episode. So apparently there’s this race of beings out there that can just teach you how to change your physical structure at the molecular level so that you’re basically someone else. This seems like kind of a game changer to me, and yet I don’t remember this thread ever getting picked back up again after this episode, nor does anyone really think much of it during this episode. It’s just a thing Garth can do, like rolling his tongue into a circle, or making that ‘live long and prosper’ thing with his fingers. No big deal, I guess.

Anyway there’s a lot of back and forth, with Garth early on taking Kirk’s shape so that he can beam up to the Enterprise and resume with, I don’t know, wreaking havoc generally and taking over the universe somehow. But Kirk has anticipated the possibility of, what? One of the inmates getting loose and taking his form and trying to beam back up to the Enterprise in hopes of taking over the universe? Have to give Kirk points for foresight on that one, I guess. Anyway Scotty thwarts that effort, and Garth spends the rest of the episode trying to get the code out of Kirk.

Not much else of interest happens until the end, when Spock is faced with one of those classic, ‘I’m the real Kirk, shoot him!’ ‘No I’m the real Kirk, shoot him!’ until Kirk finally gets tired of the whole damn thing and says, ‘Shoot us both!’ which I guess is how King Solomon would have handled things. Fortunately Spock is a bit smarter than that.

So solid episode overall I suppose, but nothing really leaps out at me as terribly interesting. Except the whole damn shapeshifting thing! Whatever happened to that, just swept under the rug??

1638

You have to admit Steve Inhat hams the shit out of his role, though. But I prefer Morgan Woodward in that role.

1639

When I was watching the two Kirks ending it struck me this might be early enough in sci fi that this was the genesis of the “who to shoot” trope. Did they do it first? It’s a fun idea.

1640

TVTropes.com calls this “Spot the Imposter”, and they have a list here. They list these alphabetically, not chronologically but interestingly enough (and I had forgotten) this isn’t even the first time Trek pulled this since they did very similar stuff in “The Enemy Within” and “Mirror, Mirror” and will do it again with “Turnabout Intruder.” Not necessarily asking someone to shoot the other guy, but very close.

1641

The race in question teaches Garth to change his molecular structure so he can recover from the severe injuries that may also be responsible for his insanity. He taught himself the techniques to use this for mimicry.

As ignoring miracle scientific achievements go, this is pretty far down on the scale for TOS.

This is one of my favorite episodes, and it’s all due to performance of the actor playing Garth-- as he slides from rational schemer through the brash self-confidence we expect from a Kirk role-model through to the delusional megalomaniac.

1642

Agree completely. I’ve always really enjoyed this one.

Charlie X kind of makes the abilities Garth misused look like a cheap parlor trick in comparison.

It’s Queen to Queen’s Level 3!!!

1643

That’s different, Charlie was given powers by an advanced race in order to survive. Kirk couldn’t have thought people away by Charlie teaching him how to do it. Some aliens though just told Garth, ‘oh yeah, we can totally teach you how to change yourself at the molecular level into pretty much anybody’, no bestowing of particular powers.

As far as the episode as a whole goes, I feel like we’ve seen all this before with ‘Dagger of the Mind’. They even repurposed the pain chair from that episode.

1644

As Antlers related, they taught him to heal himself. He abused and developed the ability into shapeshifting.

I find this episode entertaining but not as intellectually stimulating as “Dagger”.

I also, more times than I care to admit, mimicked this line among friends.