What did I think of the empty Enterprise, mysterious girl and the spectral faces watching she and Kirk get cozy? I mean I guess it was evocative and moody, and I was curious to see where it was going. But then I found it was basically a soundstage and all that went out the window. I guess you could say that this episode raped my childhood, if by “raped” you meant “kind of annoyed me” and by “childhood” you meant “the last ten minutes of the episode.”
I siuppose it was mysterious enough to pull me along with curiosity as to why the fake Enterprise but the payoff made no sense whatsoever. Also, good point on the main actor on Gideon. He did a great job of being the weasely reasonable sounding diplomat.
antlers
1687
It’s difficult for me to remember regarding this as a Haunted House episode, although that’s a really good description of the first viewing-- is he in a different dimension, somehow? Once you have the spoiler, it was always the “ironic solution to overpopulation” episode.
The resolution didn’t particularly bother me, since it matched up with the creepy Haunted House images and was a “classic sci-fi” commentary on Catholic attitudes to birth control in developing countries. I thought the performances from the principals, and as previously pointed out, the Gideon diplomat, were strong. The romance between Kirk and Odonna seemed a little more nuanced and motivated than the run-of-the-mill Kirk affair. For me, this is a solid, second-tier episode.
RichVR
1688
AKA What the fuck were they thinking?
“That Which Survives”
I really enjoyed this week’s episode as well. The show is on a roll for me. It’s funny that I spent the 90s and the '00s and the '10s thinking episodic television sucks with its reset button every week. I much prefer serialized television trying to tell a bigger story. And yet, here we are, watching both TOS and Star Trek: Picard, week after week, one episode at a time, and I have to admit, episodic TV is finally starting to look like the superior format to me now for the first time.
What really worked for me in this episode is how closely the episode holds its secrets to its chest, and for how long it does so. For the last several weeks, it seems like when the mystery unfolds after the first or 2nd act, the show kind of goes downhill once everything is revealed. Here, they maintain the mystery even in the third act, and only reveal what’s going on at the very end. I have to admit, I was on the edge of my seat. When they actually found something using the tricorder signals, a cave, it was unexpected and I really had no idea what they were going to find. What they found was a bit disappointing, in retrospect, but that’s okay, it was only the last 2 minutes of the episode or something.
I honestly thought they were dealing with a being too powerful to be able to counteract. That’s how it was looking at the start. But then the enemy had some weirdly specific ways it was doing things. I thought that was all done quite well, including the interplay between Scotty and Spock throughout the episode. I can’t think of too many other times these two have interacted a lot, and after this one I want more Scotty/Spock episode pairings!
7 episodes remaining after this one. April 8th should be our discussion on the last episode. Then perhaps, onto the Animated Series.
Speak for yourself on the latter.
Rock8man
1691
I’m watching directly, you’re watching indirectly through red letter media.
I keep looking at this thread, expecting it to be about Star Trek: Voyager.
But it’s not.
It would be a much shorter thread if it was. Each episode entry would read “this episode sucked balls” and the next entry would read “so say we all!” and we’d move on.
There are a handful of great episodes.
Guap
1695
I really liked Requiem for Methusala(sp?), lots of great dialog. He’s like the Highlander in origin story.
But man, Kirk was a horny, out of control idiot in that one. I kept yelling at him:. “No you idiot”!
I’m fine with you being two weeks ahead of us Guap, but you have to think back to “That Which Survives” this week and see if you remember what you thought about it.
If it helps, here’s what you posted about it two weeks ago:
“Mr. Spock! Are you all right?”
“Yes. I believe no permanent damage was done.”
“What happened?”
“The occipital area of my head seems to have impacted with the arm of the chair.”
“No, Mr. Spock. I meant what happened to us?”
Onward with the trip through original Trek, so we’re talking about “That Which Survives” this week. I definitely liked this one better than last week, though it’s definitely a strictly formula episode - another of the “master computer goes nuts/exceeds its program, tries to kill everyone” though the path to get there is entertaining enough.
What I liked best about the episode was the opportunity for the crew to be at their best, use their ingenuity to try to resolve a strange situation as best they could. We’re introduced to d’Amato, chief geologist, who gets to be a red shirt while wearing a blue shirt. We see the return of Dr. m’Benga! And we also see the return of asshole Spock, the personality that always seems to take over when Spock is asked to assume command of the Enterprise. He never misses an opportunity to shoot down any inefficiency or stray expression of emotion.
I like the idea of Losira and her doomed mission and the way the computer creates her as a genetic match for an individual, dooming her to forever swipe left as soon as she meets a new visitor. It does make for a funny little dance at the end as Kirk, McCoy and Sulu are faced with their own identical matched Losiras, playing a weird kind of shell game as they swap spots to confuse the constructs. I was a bit bummed to see Spock appear to bail them out, I wanted to see how long they could keep that up.
Anyway I guess this is a thumbs sideways vote for me, I liked it ok but it definitely felt like filler. We are definitely on the downhill slide to cancellation here.
That link you sent me gives me a “Video Unavailable” error.
What? Why would I send anything? This is a thread about TOS.
Heh never mind. It was over in the Discovery thread. It is indeed a good scene, though I can’t say I remembered it.
Oh, I thought you were asking for a list of good Voyager episodes. I don’t have one, because it’s been too long since I have seen it, and there are too many bad ones to want to get through.
If you are talking about TNG video, I don’t know why that wouldn’t work. I am sorry if it doesn’t.
But, I really don’t want to fill this thread with other Star Trek stuff. This is a thread for TOS. It should be about that.
RichVR
1702
If you have Trump sized hands.
This seems like a good set of episodes worth watching.
Oddly enough, since there 100 more episodes of Voyager then there are TOS, it is likely that there are more good episodes of Voyager then TOS, despite there being a higher ratio of bad episodes.
I wouldn’t know, since I refuse to watch TOS again, outside of the movies.
Maybe you’d find a thread that isn’t focused on TOS to be more to your liking, then.
