I would, but for some reason, people keep replying to me.
I come in here, expecting it to be about Voyager, and suddenly, everyone and their brother keeps sending me messages.
Just like you did.
Rock8man
1706
Yes, getting back to the original series, Season 3 has been a very pleasant surprise overall for me. Once the season is over, I can go back over the thread and decide which were my favorite episodes, but overall I’d say Season 3 has done a good job of staying in the spirit of the first two seasons, and written the core characters of Kirk, Spock and McCoy well.
Season 3 hasn’t been the disaster I had been warned that it was, but it’s definitely showing some fatigue. It hasn’t yet hit the highs of the first two seasons, which probably makes the lows stand out more. Maybe that will change, there are still a few episodes left.
Rock8man
1708
Honestly, I think maybe the best accidentally genius move they pulled off is to start the season with Spock’s Brain. It set my expectations so low for Season 3 that it’s been nothing pleasant surprises since then.
I don’t even think Spock’s Brain was that bad really, it was just so goddamned weird that it I imagine it threw a lot of people off.
Guap
1710
Yeah, so more thoughts on “That Which Survives”.
So the gist is, this isn’t an episode I’d show people to get into the show. Yes, it’s a bit derivative of several previous episodes where the crew deal with a computer still going on while it’s makers are long out of the picture. But that’s ok if you do it cleverly. I guess I concede the “genetic match” weapon has some potential. But I was just so bored. It felt really lazy to me, the use of just one actress as the bad guy, kinda a rehash, etc. I know they had budget problems but this felt like filler. It was still acted well just didn’t intrigue me.
I don’t have any super specific complaints just kinda meh for me. And “I’m for you” was totally cringy. Though it might be a good inside joke for TOS fans.
antlers
1711
I think a comparison with Spock’s Brain is interesting.
Both episodes are regarded as cheese. They both involve a mysteriously appearing girl threat who ends up being more limited than they originally seemed.
The difference is that while Spock’s Brain tries to do too much, with the degenerate, sex-segregated society, teaching machine, and tense rescue of Spock that transitions to oddly inappropriate humor, That Which Survives doesn’t do enough: the oddly limited defense mechanism of the ancient vanished society is really the only thing you learn about it.
Guap
1712
I think it really speaks to this lost society’s view of women that a seductive subserviant woman is a better defense weapon than a laser gun turret.
RichVR
1713
But when did a laser turret talk to the protagonist?
Guap
1715
Hey, this next episode must be where “Memory Alpha” comes from! (the name of the Star Trek wiki online).
Pyperkub
1716
One of the all time greats (I even named some kittens I brought home from the flea market as a teen after it - Trubble & Tribble) lives on:
‘Well, this is an Enterprise first - Dr. McCoy, Mr. Spock and Engineer Scott find themselves in complete agreement. Can I stand the strain?’
This week it’s ‘Lights of Zetar’ up for discussion. This is a pretty strong episode in my opinion though it’s got little quirks in it - though the quirks are very consistent with what we’ve seen so far through 2.75 seasons so far. I really enjoy when the crew of the Enterprise contacts an alien that’s so far different from norm - not just a person in blue makeup and a mask, for example. Sure, the whole glowing lights bit is a budgetary cheat, but the idea behind them - that they lost their physical bodies behind and were searching the galaxy for new vessels, makes sense. And yeah, we have seen that particular trope before, so I can’t say this episode broke any new ground. But at least it didn’t annoy or piss me off, and I’ll take what little victories I can at this point.
One thing I liked about this episode, and it seems to get mentioned in most reviews I’ve found online, is the horror undertone that exists here. There’s an existential dread in Lt. Romaine gradually losing herself to an encroaching alien consciousness, and her efforts to fight it off. Sure, the ultimate solution, fight the aliens with barometric pressure, is a little hand-wavey, but the trip to get there was interesting.
But I have to point out the weirdest angle on this episode, something I never noticed before - this one has a writing credit for Shari Lewis. And I checked out IMDB and yes indeed, it is that Shari Lewis:
And apparently her credited co-writer for this episode, Jeremy Tarcher, was her husband. I don’t know how they ended up writing a Trek episode, but I’m guessing there must be an interesting story here. All I’ve been able to find out online is that Lewis was a fan of Star Trek, and that she also lobbied to play Lt. Romaine.
Also, just to get extra meta - here’s the Memory Alpha wiki page for this episode:
I saw the writing credit and just thought it was a weird coincidence the writer had the same name. Wow! Next somebody is going to tell me Lambchop made a cameo as a tribble.
Guap
1719
Decompression chamber to the rescue! Last time I remember seeing that set was Space Seed when Khan used it to torture people.
I always perk up when the director tries something different. In this one, when they’re on the bridge, there’s a shot from an overhead camera. And it’s almost like a grainy shot from a low resolution camera that didn’t get enough light. It looks really bad, but they zoom in on Kirk with that overhead camera for some reason. No bald spot. He has a full head of hair.
With that settled, I love how the episode starts off and lets us know that Scotty is getting older and has never found love, until now. It turns Scotty into a puppy that becomes really annoying later in the episode. “It’s space, it’s only space”. I had a vision of his love interest dying in his arms as he looks up at the overhead camera and yells. SHE’S NOT DEAD! IT’S ONLY SPACE! IT’S ONLY SPACE! Fuck you Scotty. Jesus. At least stop trying to interfere when she wants to report her symptoms to McCoy. IT’S ONLY SPACE.
As usual, the female guest star on this show is lovely.
One laugh out loud moment for me later in the episode was when McCoy puts up her brainwave pattern, and Spock says it’s the same pattern as the entities hounding the enterprise. And then they match the two up and they are indeed the same, just looking at them visually. But then they ask the computer to analyze it for them. I laughed out loud at their surprised faces when the computer told them they matched. What? They looked the same, but the computer thinks they match too? Whaaaaaaaaaa?
One final thought here. I know Star Trek fans love comparing Captains all the time, so sometimes it sticks in my head week after week, and I’m usually very impressed by Kirk. He really does strike a good balance between being friendly with his officers but keeping a firm hand when giving them orders. And when he encounters a hostile entity, he does at least pay lip service to trying a peaceful solution before trying to kill them. I wonder if there’s a gif out there from this episode with Kirk repeatedly asking for MORE PRESSURE. Gots to have MORE PRESSURE. Heehee. I love it.
@Navaronegun, you still with us? What did you think of Lights of Zetar?
After watching this episode, I have to say, kudos to whoever started Memory Alpha. It’s not a thing that would have stuck out in my mind after watching this episode, but once you know about it, it’s very obviously a great name for a compendium of knowledge about Star Trek.
Guap
1722
You didn’t like “Requiem for Methuslah”? Kirk was a real bozo in this one, ruined an immortal’s life, all with his pee pee brain. First one I yelled at the TV.
“Kirk! You iiiiiiiidiot!”
I take this back about Kirk, and every other nice thing I’ve said about him in this thread. I lost all respect for Kirk this week. I’m never going to defend him again.
Hey, that episode was written by Jerome Bixby! One of the old-time great SF short story writers.
