ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Enjoyed the interesting facts about this episode (as usual).

Pow, while reading it I realized that you're kinda the Ben Mankiewicz of All Sci-Fi. Ben, of course, is the charming fellow who introduces movies on TCM, and I always enjoy in his intros and outros.

Ditto for your posts, like the one above, which prepares me for what to expect with each episode.

Keep up the good work, and when All Sci-Fi gets its own cable/satellite channel someday I'll hire you to appear on a replica of the Enterprise bridge and present enjoyable "bookend" comments for the movies and series which the ASF Channel will air!



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Thank you, Bud. I also enjoy Ben's intros to the TCM films and then his remarks after the movie is over.

Robert Osborne was great too during his years of hosting.

[Bud Brewster]

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I like the lovely Alicia Malone, and I'm warming up to Dave Karger.

Eddie Mueller, the host of Noir Alley on Saturday nights, is terrific!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Excellent images, Miss Eadie!

That vehicle seems pretty well designed for rugged terran. However, Pow had a good point when he said this.

[Pow]

"The Pirates Of Orion, "Season 2,episode #1,September 07,1974.

Writer : Howard Weinstein

The outbreak of the disease choriocytosis on board the Enterprise is now under control except for Mr. Spock.

Turns out the disease is deadly to Vulcans.

Captain Kirk arranges to make a rendezvous with the freighter Huron which has the medicine necessary for Spock's cure.

Trouble is that Orions have plundered the Huron of all its cargo including the life saving medicine.

Script writer Howard Weinstein was only 19 years old when he wrote this story.

"Journey To Babel" from ST: TOS was a key influence for this episode of ST: TAS.

In "JTB" the Orions were shown to have adopted a suicide dogma if any of their missions resulted in failure. That was also the plan for this episode when the Orions plan was defeated by Kirk and company.

However, it was decided that the self destruction of the Orion star ship would not be acceptable to NBC for a Saturday morning kid's show. So the Orion captain relents to Kirk and does not have his vessel destroy itself or have him (The Orion) kill himself.

Nice Touch } The uniform badges on the crew members of the Huron were different in design from that of the Enterprise. This was due to it being because the Huron was a freighter.

However, on ST: TOS it was established in different episodes that even though there were 12 Constitution Class Star Ships, including the Enterprise, all the ship each had their own unique style for their badges.

I always loved that concept regarding the badges that every star ship had their own style of badge that was theirs and theirs alone.

It gave a ship's crew some individuality within Star Fleet.

The Star Trek films totally abolished that idea when they not only made all the Star Fleet star ships adopt the arrowhead design from the Enterprise but it also became the symbol for the Federation of Planets.

Talk about a prosaic approach. So much for Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combinations.

Nifty design for the S. S. Huron and the Orion vessel.

This story is entertaining enough but nothing exceptional that takes us into new territory.

Space pirates are, like constantly having warrior races, a hoary cliche for science fiction.

Unless a writer can bring a really fresh spin on the ball, I find this creaky plot device yawn inducing.

Space pirates is something you'd expect on Lost In Space and not Star Trek.

An okay episode but not outstanding.

[Bud Brewster]

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Pow, every time I forget that ST: TAS is one of my options on Netflix, you make a great post like the one above and remind me!

Thanks again.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

The USS Huron:











The USS Huron's badge:

Some fans get this ship confused with the automated cargo ships (robot grain ships from More Tribbles, More Troubles):



I don't know why the one picture shows large. My desktop says it is 300 tall by 590 wide pixels in size.
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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

[Pow]

Terrific pix, thank you Eadie.

[Bud Brewster]

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Well, hell . . . I had to upgrade my DISH equipment today because the old stuff got quirky. In the process I discovered that Netflix (which is included with the DISH Hooper) has stopped streaming Star Trek: TOS, so I've had to put it on my Netflix DVD list.

That means I can't just watch one whenever I want, which is damned annoying.

But by gum, I will keep watching them!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[johnnybear]

The Terratin Incident for me today and an episode that I used to find dull is now suddenly very interesting indeed!!!
JB

[Bud Brewster]

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Well, guys, thanks to Pow's encouragement I've become a devoted fan of Star Trek TAS!

I've been binge watching the episodes on the Netflix DVDs I'm getting. After watching disc 1 through 3 I've grown to appreciate just how good the stories are.

The Ambergris Element, for example, has Kirk and Spook turned into aquatic beings by a race of water-breathing aliens on planet that's mostly one big ocean.

The story was very imaginative and well written.

The Slaver Weapon (a version of Larry Niven's The Soft Weapon, adapted by the author himself) is a good story, but the cat-like alien's which Niven created, the Kzinti, seem to defy the efforts of most artists to render an impressive version.

In other words, they usually look silly.

The Time Trap was also an enjoyable episode with a novel idea, although I wasn't quite clear where it took place. It was sort of a parallel universe — sort of.

Anyway, I'm grateful to Pow's for his posts about the series, describing various episodes and providing the positive and negative aspects.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

"BEM'' Season #2, Episode #2. September 14,1974.

Writer: David Gerrold

Synopsis } The Enterprise explores the newly discovered world of Delta Theta III. Accompanying the crew is alien Ari bn Bem, a colony creature who can separate sections of his body that can act independently from one another, who hails from the planet Pandro.

In this episode we encounter...yet again...a godlike entity watching over their 'children', a primitive group of humanoids.

DG had not intended to put in an omnipotent being in his episode. It was Gene Roddenberry's idea & it was a favorite trope of GR.

To his credit, DG insisted that the voice of the omniscient entity be Nichelle Nichols. DG was well aware that women in the industry were often overlooked for many jobs that they were capable of due to sexism.

Bem purposely sabotages the mission as he believes that Kirk, Spock & company are far too reliant upon technology.

Over the course of the episode it Kirk & Spock communicate with the entity in order to reason with it and save Bem from being a prisoner.

Bem, feeling he has failed at his mission, says he must disassemble & die.

The alien entity points out to Bem that he only made a mistake and one can not learn & improve from errors if one ceases to exist.

DG had an intriguing take with his character of Bem. The alien feels (and perhaps his race) that the members of the Federation of Planets have become weak and less intuitive and creative due to their massive dependence upon technology.

Bem's sabotaging of the mission was his way of evaluating just how wise and adaptive the crew of the Enterprise can be in a life threatening situation.

Given our current reliance on tech this was a thoughtful observation by DG.

Today we see everyone in public constantly on their cell phones. A generation of kids that cannot properly socialize, be empathetic,and have manners due to their life being dominated by their pc.

DG does what many top sci~fi writers do: sees into the future and asks where are we going and what happens when we get there?

Nitpicks} Again with a godlike being. This is getting weary as a plot device and I would have liked to have seen what DG would have done with this episode without this cliche.

Bem as a colony creature was certainly fascinating. Something that they could have only achieved with animation and not on the live action '66 TV series.

Seems odd that any truly advanced civilization could evolve very far if Bem's world believes the same as Bem.

Make mistakes and die appears to be their motto.

It also seems odd that Bem's home world of Pandro would even want to join the Federation of Planets.

Wouldn't they simply be exposing themselves to a host of flawed species who undoubtedly will make mistakes?

Why would they want to even become involved with such imperfection?

"Evolution only has one tool, failure." DG

The message itself is good in that if we are not learning from our mistakes then we are doomed.

Not a bad episode overall, but from DG I expected something superior.

[Bud Brewster]

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Today I finished the last episode of ST: TAS. I'd like to thank Pow again for making me appreciate the series and finally take the time to watch all the episodes.

I just happened to have the disc that included BEM, and I read part of Pow's review prior to watching it. I read a bit more about halfway through the episode, and then finished it after the episode was over.

I enjoyed both the episode and Pow's review. I also agree with his comments about the negative effects of certain technology of our society.

The negative effect that bothers me the most is the way basic literacy skills have diminished. Smart phones and video games provide such an easy distraction they've they've replaced the joys of reading . . . and therefore learning.

Texting might seem like a better way to communicate, but the people who text make little attempt to use proper English, and as those skills weaken, they're ability to communicate in a truly effective manner gradually declines.

As a retired school teacher, I'm aware that this is a serious problem.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

"The Practical Joker." Season#2,Episode#3. September 21,1974. Written by Chuck Menville.

Synopsis } The Enterprise passes through an unknown energy field while escaping from a Romulan ambush.

The energy causes the Enterprise computer to evolve into its own personality. In this case the persona is that of someone who loves to play practical jokes on the crew.

F.Y.I.} The Romulan star ships are the exact same design as the Klingon star ships. Why?

In animation the producers could have either returned to the original design(not a favorite of mine)of the Romulan spaceships as first seen in the episode "Balance Of Terror."
They also had the option to create via animation a brand new look for the Romulan vessels.

The Rec Room that Dr. McCoy, Uhura, and Sulu utilize is able to create different environments for entertainment purposes.

Yep, we have an early version of what would evolve into the Holodeck that was first seen on ST:TNG TV series.

A fun and humorous episode along the lines of "The Trouble With Tribbles."

No profundity to the plot or deep characterizations with the crew members but nonetheless an entertaining romp.

[Pow]

"Albatross" September 28,1974. Written by Dario Finelli.

Synopsis } The Dramians issue an arrest warrant for Dr. McCoy.

Bones is accused of causing a plague that killed the majority of the population of the planet Dramia II nineteen years earlier.

A wonderful episode which really shines the light on Dr. McCoy for a change of pace.

Some excellent designs for both the Dramian alien race as well as their one-man space craft.

If only more episodes for ST:TAS could have been this good.