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A Piece of the Action - episode #49

 
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2019 11:14 am    Post subject: A Piece of the Action - episode #49 Reply with quote

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________ Star Trek TOS-R - A Piece Of The Action


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100 years ago (a century before the events of this episode), a Federation ship (the Horizon), visited this planet and left behind a book about the Chicago mobs of the 1920's. This book is the contamination, as Spock terms it, a bible on which an entire civilization has based its culture on.

One can dismiss this as simply a race of people being extremely imitative — but don't laugh just yet.

This entire episode may be poking fun AT us, not laughing WITH us. The concept could be scary, an unsettling reminder of how an entire society of people can be deluded into following a certain doctrine, whether it makes sense or not. Well, whatever turns a profit makes sense to most people, I suppose.

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But, the Trekmakers decided to go the comedy route with this one (as in I, MUDD). Most of the humor stems from all the catchy phrases that Kirk and his boys get inundated with during the course of the adventure. They get "bagged" by Bela (the big boss) almost immediatey, then they break free. But Kirk is soon put "on ice" by Krako, the second most powerful goon. Then, later on, Tepo gets a ride to Bela's flop while on the other end of his blower. Check? Right!

This followed the pattern, less subtly, of Kirk the snappy comic with a quick comeback and Spock as his straight man, a la The Trouble With Tribbles.

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The whole thing is, of course, ridiculous — especially after the 1st act if the viewer looks on objectively, but by the 3rd act we're so immersed in the escapades it doesn't matter. Here's Kirk's chance to play God once more, served up to him on a platter. The Federation itself is responsible for this culture getting out of whack years back, so Kirk knows he has a great chance here — a duty really — to rectify matters.

A rationalization? Maybe. But, so what?

Soon we have 'Kirk-o' and 'Spock-o' dressed to the nines, toting their machine guns, re-organizing an entire culture — not in theory, but in practice. Kirk's a field commander, after all, not some desk bound pencil-pusher. He plays the game of the locals and, because he's Kirk, he plays it better.

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And now, speaking of playing games, Kirk's creation of the Fizzbin card game is an instant classic, especially as I could swear that Shatner was ad-libbing the entire scene, changing the rules with each card played. He deals 2 Jacks to his opponent and states that a 3rd jack would be bad. He then deals a 3rd jack but changes the rules instantaneously.

His opponent is so confused by this point, he doesn't even notice — he's still trying to figure out what happens on Tuesday. This scene alone would have placed this episode in the top 30. Such comedy routines are simply not done anymore on TV and haven't been for a long time.

BoG's Score: 8 out of 10

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My favorite scene, however, is the far briefer one between Scotty and Krako — their conversation about concrete galoshes. (You mean, cement overshoes? Ah . . . yeah.)

A dizzy, breezy episode, with a peculiar, sobering coda at the very end. McCoy reveals he accidentally left his communicator gizmo on the planet. I've long pictured a sequel in one of the newer series (TNG, DS9) . . . the Federation checks up on the planet and gets more action than they bargained for.

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Extra Trek Trivia: For purposes of full disclosure, Kirk cut the Federation in for a take of 40%. That's a pretty good deal, right? Check!



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_____________ Kirk explain Fizzbin . . . sort of


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BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2019 12:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has 33 trivia items for this movie. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text. Very Happy
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~ James Doohan provided the voice of the radio announcer.

Note from me: Fascinating (as you-know-who would say.) Without his thick Scottish accent, I'd have never recognized Mr. Doohan. The announcer we hear briefly on the radio when Spock and McCoy use a radio station's transmitter to contact the Enterprise is a fast-talking DJ who names the last song he played and then starts doing a car commercial! Very Happy

~ Kirk makes up the rules of the card game "fizz bin" as he goes along. William Shatner ad libbed the rules, so his pauses to think and the other actors' confusion are all genuine. In Diane Duane's novel "The Empty Chair", McCoy invents a new version, Tournament Fizzbin, with the help of Kirk, Sulu, Scotty, and a great deal of Romulan ale.

Note from me: Bogmeister was right. Shatner made it up as he went along.

~ This is the only time in "TOS" in which the Enterprise ship phasers are used to stun, and not to kill or destroy or damage. It is also the only time the Enterprise ship phasers are used for a wide proximity shot, such as in this case when they are set to blanket a one city block area around a central point in order to stun a dispersed group of people.

Note from me: First phasers on stun? Can anyone confirm or deny this?

~ This is the only episode of "TOS" that ends with a freeze-frame.

Note from me: I checked, and the freeze frame is very brief, probably about one second long. However, I hate shows and movies that end in a prolonged freeze frame while the credits roll! It's almost as bad as a character suddenly breaking the fourth wall by addressing the camera. In both cases it screams, "This is just a movie! It's all fake!"

Suspension of disbelief is vital . . . but also fragile. Shocked

~ The perils of leaving behind one's communicator on a pre-warp planet are more fully explored in the Enterprise episode "The Communicator".

Note from me: This was a fine episode of Enterprise which effectively presents an oppressive government who are eager to arm their dictatorship with advanced technology.

~ The script originally featured Romulans with whom Kirk has to compete in making a deal with the Iotians.

Note from me: That version would either have been aserious take on the story . . . or a comedy which poked a bit too much fun at Star Trek in general.

~ After the episode was filmed, the studio received a letter from Anthony Caruso, who played Bela Oxmyx. It was a letter from "Oxmyx" thanking the crew of the Enterprise for creating the "syndicate" and things were proceeding nicely on Sigma Iota II. As he goes on in the letter, it is now the 1950's and he is sporting a crew-cut. He also mentioned wanting to visit Las Vegas, remarking "It seems like my kind of town".

Note from me: This is hysterical! I admire Mr. Caruso for his imaginative thinking. Unfortunately I can't find any confirmation of this claim, much less a copy of the letter.

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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2019 7:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
However, I hate shows and movies that end in a prolonged freeze frame while the credits roll! It's almost as bad as a character suddenly breaking the fourth wall by addressing the camera. In both cases it screams, "This is just a movie! It's all fake!"

The TV show "Police Squad" made fun of this at the end of every episode. The cast would freeze while actions would continue. Coffee being poured would overflow the cup, the chimpanzee would make a mess of the desks.

The show "Crime Story" would do a unique freeze-frame at the end of the episodes. But it really wasn't a freeze-frame, the actors would just "freeze" in place until the end of the credits, when they would walk away.

David.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 2:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"A Piece Of The Action Fun Facts } Gene Roddenberry came up with a similar concept when writing his series proposal for a network back in 1964 called "President Capone."

Early episode titles were: "The Expatriates," and "Mission Into Chaos."

John Harmon played Tepo on this episode. He was seen on the year one classic episode "The City On The Edge Of Forever.''

He played the homeless man who activates Dr. McCoy's Phaser and ends up disintegrating himself.

Question: Why did McCoy have a Phaser in the first place on TCOTEOF? He had been captured by ship security earlier. Wouldn't the standard protocol have been to frisk Bones & relieve him of any weapons?

Set Designer Matt Jefferies had worked on the Desilu TV series "The Untouchables" which dealt with criminal gangs in the 1920s & 1930s based in Chicago. So designing Bela's office came very easily.

The outdoor city set & street was not the usual Desilu 40 Acres back lot. Since the merger with Paramount Pictures, their city street back lot was now available to ST:TOS.

Producer Robert Justman fought against this episode more than any other episode produced.

He later conceded that Gene Coon wanted to do this story and he managed to pull it off with humor.

It remained a mystery to Justman as to why Gene Roddenberry allowed Coon to go ahead with this episode.

GR was not an advocate for his show doing funny, humorous episodes. He wanted to see it played out with drama and few laughs.

Bud, didn't the Enterprise use minimal Phaser power on the Federation Star Ship Lexington on "The Ultimate Computer?"

Commodore Wesley was in command when his ship did a surprise attack on the Enterprise as part of the testing for Dr. Daystrom's M~5 Unit.

M~5 proceeded to respond to the test by setting the Phasers at 1/100th of their power so as to "tap" the Lexington but not destroy or damage it in any way.

This was prior to the M~5 going insane.

This is a fun enough episode that's not to be taken too seriously. It does pose the question of what happens when a technologically superior civilization encounters a less developed culture and inadvertently "contaminates it" in the process?

But most of the episode is simply played for laughs.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 14, 2021 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nitpickers Guide

Just before Mr. Spock & Dr. McCoy beam down for the second time, one of Oxmyx's men says, "They can't do nothing until they're through sparkling." How does he know this? He wasn't around when Spock & McCoy beamed down the first time. In case you're wondering, the Horizon probably didn't have transporters.

Continuing with the second beam-down, it is amazing that an officer with Spock's intellect and Star Fleet training would not beam down two security guards to a nearby location just in case Oxmyx tried to take them hostage.

~ As noted before, logic goes out the window if it gets in the way of a story.

Arriving at Krako's headquarters, Kirk ponders how to get past the guard. He says they can't use their phasers---presumably because it would violate the Prime Directive.

Is Kirk really worried about the Prime Directive?

He is in the process of strong-arming an entire world and forcing them to pay protection money to the Federation of Planets, and he's worried about someone seeing a phaser in action?

After hearing that the FOP is taking over, Krako says that he thought they had laws against interfering.

Where would he get that idea? The Horizon visited the planet before such laws went into effect, and Kirk has not said anything about noninterference to the gangsters.
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 6:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Of Star Trek TOS's three out-and-out comedy episodes -- "I, Mudd," "The Trouble With Tribbles," and "A Piece of the Action" -- I'd say this was definitely the weakest.

Bud Brewster wrote:
. . . The announcer we hear briefly on the radio when Spock and McCoy use a radio station's transmitter to contact the Enterprise is a fast-talking DJ who names the last song he played and then starts doing a car commercial! Very Happy

The radio announcer says: "That was the Jailbreakers with their latest recording on Request Time, brought to you by Bang-Bang, the makers of the sweetest little automatic in the world." Sounds more like a gun commercial to me.

I love the names the writer(s) came up with for the gangster bosses. Jojo Krako sounds like a clown, and Tepo sounds like the lost Marx brother.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 10:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

scotpens wrote:
The radio announcer says: "That was the Jailbreakers with their latest recording on Request Time, brought to you by Bang-Bang, the makers of the sweetest little automatic in the world." Sounds more like a gun commercial to me.

You're right, Scot, a gun commercial would fit better with the way everybody was totting guns around, even the gals! I guess I though the term "automatic" refer to the transmission.

Silly me . . . Rolling Eyes

Still, a gun named Bang-Bang sure seems odd. No wonder I didn't realize it was referring to a firearm. And the show does make a point of showing us that all the cars had manual transmissions — rather than "automatic" transmissions — when Kirk tries to drive one!
Laughing
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 04, 2021 1:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Still, a gun named Bang-Bang sure seems odd. No wonder I didn't realize it was referring to a firearm. And the show does make a point of showing us that all the cars had manual transmissions — rather than "automatic" transmissions — when Kirk tries to drive one!Laughing

Well, a car named Bang-Bang would be even odder!

And if the Iotians copied the automotive technology of the 1920s, they wouldn't even know what an automatic transmission was. An automatic gearbox was offered for the first time as an option on the 1940 Oldsmobile.
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 04, 2021 11:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

scotpens wrote:
And if the Iotians copied the automotive technology of the 1920s, they wouldn't even know what an automatic transmission was. An automatic gearbox was offered for the first time as an option on the 1940 Oldsmobile.

Right . . . but than again, how did the Iotians even know how to build a manual transmission, as well as an internal combustion engine . . . just by looking at a book called Chicago Mobs of the Twenties? Confused

My point is that their culture was heavily influenced by the book and it's photographs, but their technology was developed by the Iotians themselves.

True, they made the cars look like the ones in the book, but the internal mechanisms had to be developed from scratch.

Since the Horizon came of Sigma Iotia II a hundred years earlier, the Iotian's had plenty of time to improve the designs of their cars.

Let's compare that Earth's automotive history. Henry Ford introduced the Model A in 1903.

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One hundred years later we've gone from that to this — a 2003 Ford Focus.
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With that in mind, I wonder if Kirk had any real reason to be concerned about the Iotians reverse engineering Federation technology from the communicator McCoy accidentally left on the planet.

If the Iotians are driving around in 1920s automobiles after one hundred years of emulating Earth's automotive technology, are they really going to have much luck figuring out a 23rd century communicator? (Or a 27th century communicator communicator, according to Krel!
Laughing)
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2021 4:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
(Or a 27th century communicator communicator, according to Krel! Laughing)


Happy to see that you are coming around to accepting the true date Bud. Laughing

David.
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