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TOS episode #19 - Arena
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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2018 3:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Arena has to be one of my favourite hours of Star Trek and I loved the Gorn despite the it's a man in a suit jibes!

Ted Cassidy did the Gorn's voice if anyone wasn't sure! As a seven year old kid in 1972 I was scared to death of the Gorn and ever since I've made it a mission of mine to rewatch this episode anytime it's shown!
JB
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
___________________ Classic Star Trek: Arena


__________


__

I admit it — I, at times, just like to watch an old-fashioned conflict, the old style mano-a-mano match up. Well, in this case, mano-a-manoreptile.

Yes, this is the one with Kirk battling another captain of an enemy ship; the other captain happens to resemble a man-like lizard.

It's based on a fairly famous short story by sci-fi author Fredric Brown (it first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction Magazine, 1944). An Outer Limits episode, Fun and Games, is also based on this.

The story goes that Trek writer Gene Coon conceived the Trek version and only found out about Brown's story later. It's possible. The story is so simple and anyone might come up with it. The essence of warfare is distilled down to the basics of just two individuals. There was even a TV-movie in 1970, The Challenge, with the same premise, as well as The Love War. In Trek's version, a superior race, the Metrons, force Kirk and a Gorn captain to settle their conflict on an empty asteroid.





This is one of Star Trek's best action stories: Kirk is swifter and more agile than the Gorn, but the Gorn is much stronger. It's an interesting match-up — more interesting, I daresay, than the same-o-same-o of modern TV wrestling, for example.

Kirk also has a possibility in his grasp to fashion some kind of weapon on that asteroid somewhere.

As usual, Trek aims for a slightly more layered approach: the Gorn is not simply evil, just on an opposite side, with his own goals & outlook (chillingly voiced by Ted Cassidy, who also voiced Balok in The Corbomite Maneuver and played Ruk in What Are Little Girls Made Of?).

Beyond all that, this episode also offers a commentary on war: why send thousands to suffer & die when a conflict can be solved with the death of just one individual? Well, maybe that's too pragmatic, clinical, and simplistic for our modern times. But maybe someday, it won't be.

BoG's Score: 9 out of 10




___ Star Trek - The Arena - Gorn Fight Remastered


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Extra Trek Trivia: It was in this episode, during filming in that cool-looking Federation outpost (check out those globules at the entrance), that actors Shatner & Nimoy acquired permanent ringing in their ears due to the explosions set off in the filmed scenes. The sound effect of the grenade launcher in the first act is a classic one, first used in Paramount's War of the Worlds.



This was also the episode which is seen playing on a TV during a scene in Bill and Ted's Bogus Adventure (1991); later scenes in that film take place at the same location — Vasquez Rocks — as was used in this episode. And, in the Star Trek Communicator magazine #134 (year 2001), a letter from a fan singled out this episode as inspiration for his life as a young boy when he had to stand up to a bully.


___ FREE ENTERPRISE - "My Boy That Was A TV Show"


__________






BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bogmeister wrote:
Beyond all that, this episode also offers a commentary on war: why send thousands to suffer & die when a conflict can be solved with the death of just one individual? Well, maybe that's too pragmatic, clinical, and simplistic for our modern times. But maybe someday, it won't be.

Hmmm . . . let's examine that idea.

Two countries (lets call them Alpha and Beta) have a serious dispute, something so serious their willing to go war over it. They can't come to a comprise, and neither country is willing to simply agree to let the other country have their way in the matter.

Suppose the matter in question is a large piece of disputed territory, and thousands of citizens from the country of Alpha are already living there. All these citizens will have to leave their homes and vacate the disputed territory if it's given to the other country. And whichever country permanently claims the territory will get all the natural resources.

Add to this the idea that the country of Beta has committed acts of aggression and cruel atrocities against the Alpha citizens who reside in the territory.

So, war is declared, because Alpha wants to stop Beta's aggression and acts of atrocity. They know the only way to stop Beta is by sheer force.

Now consider Bogmeister's hope that someday disputes such as this can be settled with single combat. But can we really expect the looser to abide by the results?

If Alpha looses, they must give up the territory and allow the acts of atrocity to go unpunished. And if the ruthless and aggressive Beta looses, would they really just agree to give up the prize they wanted so badly that they committed terrible crimes against Alpha?

The idea of settling disputes between countries (or planets) with single combat ignores the fact that the losers wouldn't really be compelled to abide by the terms they agreed to. All they've lost is one lone combatant!

However, if both sides are honorable and can be counted on to accept the results of the single combat, then they'd be even more likely to accept a fair comprise achieved by diplomatic means, because that would prevent either side from loosing completely.

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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 1:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Gorn mask appears immobile & not as though it is a living, breathing alien life form.

The tunic uniform worn by the Gorn is equally unimpressive looking. Like something a jungle native might wear.

The communication devices that the Metrons give to Captain Kirk & the Gorn would later become the Universal Translator apparatus used on board the Enterprise.

Oddity} The Metrons clearly inform Kirk & the Gorn that the communication devices are to enable the human and the alien to be able to speak to one another & understand each other's language.

So why does Kirk also treat it as if it is a recording machine to put down his thoughts?

The remastered version has the Gorn with blinking eyelids. While it certainly is a good touch, the Gorn face is still rigid and difficult to buy in to.

To save on the budget we never do see the Gorn star ship. The reason given in the script is that it simply is too far away from the Enterprise.

The remastered version does create a CGI Gorn vessel, but we barely can see it. I wish there could have been a scene where we'd get a detailed look at the Gorn ship.
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 3:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is the only picture of the Gorn ship I can find:



Not very good or convincing!

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Pow and Eadie, I am impressed with your critical thinking about this episode. Great comments! Very Happy

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Krel
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 4:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
The Gorn mask appears immobile & not as though it is a living, breathing alien life form.

The tunic uniform worn by the Gorn is equally unimpressive looking. Like something a jungle native might wear.

They did the best they could do with a TV budget and time constraints. I think that Wha Chang did a pretty good job. It's a shame they never showed up in the NextGen, to show that they had worked things out. The tunic the Gorn wore was to cover up the ventilation holes needed in the costume, there were large holes on the chest and back. It was still a very hot costume to wear on location.

"Star Trek" was very good at not showing alien ships, using just a dot of light on the view screen. I can see why they didn't show that Gorn ship that much in the altered episode, it looks like something out of a 50s comic book.
Laughing
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 03, 2019 1:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree Krel, the limited budget for ST:TOS, time constraints in shooting a brand new episode every week, and the level of technology available back in 1966 must be factored into any criticisms of episodes of ST:TOS.

I point items out wishing that in a perfect world production issues would have been capable of doing a better job.

But as we all are well aware of, this ain't a perfect world.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 03, 2019 1:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eadie, thanks so much for providing us with a good look for the Gorn spaceship.

Yeah, looks like we didn't miss much with that design,eh?

I see that the Gorn star ship has engine nacelles similar to the Enterprise. I'm assuming then that the Gorn ship utilizes matter/anti-matter to power their vessel.


Last edited by Pow on Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 03, 2019 2:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
I agree Krel, the limited budget for ST:TOS, time constraints in shooting a brand new episode every week, and the level of technology available back in 1966 must be factored into any criticisms of episodes of ST:TOS.

I point items out wishing that in a perfect world production issues would have been capable of doing a better job.

Pow and Krel, you're both right that this series struggled to give us the best episodes they could, despite the limitations that were put on it by the budget and the technology.

That's why I'm so impressed (and so grateful) for the enhanced versions which give us the kind of FX the show deserves. Those improvements restored my enthusiasm for the series, because they made the episodes looked the way I wanted them to look back in the the 1960s.

My point, of course, is that without the great stories and the fine acting, the enhanced FX would have made no difference.
Cool
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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 8:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I still love the Gorn! Cool
JB
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 10:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Imagine two Gorn football teams. It would be real easy to follow the action because everything would be . . . in . . . slow . . . motion! Laughing

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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 10:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

But not to them! Time is relative!
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 1:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I also am in awe of the remastered FX for the series, Bud.

I realize some fans hate the enhancements and prefer the original visual effects.

I'm not one of 'em.

I've voiced this before, but I wonder if anyone will look at other older sci~fi TV shows and remaster them as was done on Star Trek: TOS?

My candidates would be } The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, any of the Irwin Allen sf series, and The Invaders.

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's UFO and Space: 1999 work just fine as they are for me for some reason.

I don't mean that they are flawless. I find myself enjoying them fine as they are
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 2:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would think that the reason for the Gorn's slow movements were the costume. It was a full-body costume, and was probably a bit restrictive to move in. Couple that with the poor ventilation, AND filming in the heat and sun of a desert environment. The slow movements might have been necessary for the health of the performer, so the poor guy didn't pass out.

If it were done now, there are materials that are lighter, and less restrictive, and so easier to move in. They could also add a cooling vest and fan in the head. The Gorn performer could move a lot faster.

David.
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