ALL SCI-FI

[Bogmeister]

____________
______________________"His brain is gone"


__________

_______________________

Here I am writing about Spock's Brain again.

"Spock's brain? Brain and brain! What is brain?!"

It's unfortunate that this episode may have been the introduction for many viewers to the Star Trek series (it was the first broadcast of the 3rd season).

What a difference a new season makes! Like The Trouble With Tribbles, this is one of the most familiar episodes, but for different reasons. Knowledge of Star Trek's cheese factor may have spread from this very point.

I confess I don't really know how things went so wrong with this one. The director is Marc Daniels, who (going by a cursory look at all the episodes) was responsible for many of the better episodes. Gene Coon was a great writer. But the melodramatic elements in this one were just too overwrought.

Yet, it even becomes dull at some points, a double whammy!




There's really nothing wrong with the plot, on paper — an early version of Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984).

In this case, however, it's "The Search For Spock's Brain."

Here, Kirk and crew are moving along in their starship, minding their own business, when a small ion-propelled ship approaches. A space babe (Marj Dusay) materializes on the bridge of the Enterprise and (smiling sweetly the whole time) knocks out everyone with the touch of a button on her spiffy bracelet (and I mean, EVERYone, on the entire ship!)

This is similar to shots in By Any Other Name when everyone was frozen, and to The Way to Eden.

When the crew awaken, they find something missing — you guessed it! Spock's brain!

Yes, this is Spock's final episode! (Just kidding.)

Here's a minor discrepancy already. The female invader is able to conk out everyone on the Enterprise immediately, and yet later, on the planet they find her on, she and her cohorts take the trouble to affix funky belts on Kirk and his boys to send painful knockout signals.

________________
________________
________________
________________

I won't elaborate on the slow pace of this episode — with the camera, for example, settling on an immobile Spock just standing there, as if something is about to happen . . . yet nothing does.

The style is very strange here, almost as if everyone involved wasn't sure on how to proceed. Someone, meaning the producers, the director, and the actors, took a wrong turn or at least a sideways view of this story.

As an example, in an early scene when McCoy slowly informs Kirk of Spock's, problem, it was probably meant to be a suspenseful, grim scene.

It isn't. "His brain is gone!" McCoy says, looking a bit shell-shocked.

Kirk mouths the same phrase, also shocked or stunned. I expected Scotty to repeat the phrase yet again, then Nurse Chapel. This scene may suggest the tone of most of the episode — the audience is already chuckling by this point.

____________________
________________
________________
________________

By the time we get to the underground civilization on that planet, things have escalated to a laugh-riot, with the words "Morgs" and "Eymorgs", and the declaration, "You are not Morg!" ringing in our ears as Kirk tries to make sense of a wacko culture divided between female rulers and male brutes.

This was a less-than-complimentary idea of a matriarchal society. (Gene, Gene! )

Spock's body is turned into a walking puppet, guided by McCoy's little hand-gizmo as if it were a toy robot. Kirk's key meeting with the ruling females, all of whom speak like spoiled teenagers, becomes an exercise in ultimate Trek cheese.

Kirk even gets on his knees to grovel at one point after the female ruler (Marj Dusay) sends him in spasms to painful oblivion. It's rather ghastly, yet I can't turn away for much of the episode, spellbound in disbelief by the hysterics on screen.

________________
________________

All the concepts are sabotaged by the execution, even the climactic brain re-attachment surgery, which does begin fine.

McCoy gets his brain boosted by a special device and proceeds to operate with his newly acquired skills. Then he starts to forget the knowledge, and Spock talks him through the rest, the audience understanding full well that neither has the knowledge of these unknown techniques.

I guess messing up a few hundred connections makes no difference to a Vulcan brain, sturdy as it is. (Sarcasm here, but who knows? I'm certainlynot a brain surgeon). Some entertainment value is there, no doubt, but beware; this all could be a (dare I say i) a drain on the brain!

BoG's Score: 4 out of 10

________________
________________

Extra Trek Trivia:

~ Gene Coon wrote this episode under the pen name Lee Cronin. Hmmm, I wonder why?

~ Co-producer Robert Justman admits to making the suggestion of Spock helping McCoy out during surgery. He later regretted this. In the original written outline, Spock remained on the starship during the story. This would have saved actor Nimoy much embarrassment.

~ Now some very obscure trivia: this was the episode playing on a TV in one scene in the movie Taps (1981). The cadets at the military school are watching it at about the midpoint of the film. One of them makes a comment about a force field that protects Spock's brain, which I think is a bunch of malarkey.

_____ The Wonder Years Parody of Spock's Brain


__________



If you prefer a condensed version of the episode, where all the odd dramatics become quite apparent, try this.

________________ Spock's Brain: Condensed


__________



BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Guys, I've been having an absolute ball watching each of these episodes on Netflix streaming while I've been converting the format of Bogmeister's reviews on the Galactic Base of Science Fiction so I can post them here on All Sci-Fi.

I have to admit, he's not wrong about this episode's curious mix of faults and virtues. One of the virtues are the lovely space babes that Bogmeister mentions!

And the script acknowledges this in the scene where Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty discuss how to get to the nearby table which holds all their hi-tech devices. Unfortunately, the table is being guarded by two tall and formidable men.

As they discuss the problem, they deliver this humorous exchange.

Captain Kirk: Those woman developed these painful "training device" we have to wear. What a way to maintain control over a man!

Scott: Yes, but "pain AND delight", the primitive man said up above.

Dr. McCoy: I'm sure you noticed the 'delight' aspect of this place.

Captain Kirk: Yes, I certainly did notice those delightful aspects.

As wacky as this story is, it does seem to work hard to deliver a yarn just as imaginative (but no more ridiculous) than the Flash Gordon serials some of us adored as kids!

Folks, I'm not saying we should settle for the stories that satisfied us when we were adolescents in the 1950s. I'm just saying that sometimes we should try to view sincere efforts like this one through the eyes of our younger selves, and resist the jaded attitudes we've all developed as we've gotten older!

That's the sad curse of growing old year by year. We demand TV series and movies that try to impress us as much as the ones we loved when we were kids!

But that's an impossible task, because our standards get higher and higher until finally nothing is quiet good enough . . . because nothing is quite new enough or quite as amazing enough to please our elderly jaded taste.

It's a sad fact of human nature that what dazzled us in our youth will bore us in our future. And if we give in to this truism, our lives will become increasingly dull!

But if we fight this sad tendency and try to hold onto our youthful enthusiasm, we'll can all end up being a little more like . . . well . . . me!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

[Bud Brewster]

__________________________________________________

Let's Create a Sequel!
__________________________________________________

~ A Question for the Members: What would become of the strange little group men and women who had an A.I. that they depended on, and yet were ignorant about how it really worked?

~ Here's what I came up with.: The females living underground knew just enough about the technology to use it to dominate the males. Meanwhile the male group on the surface must have gotten mighty horny whenever they got a look at the "delightful aspects" (as Kirk put it) living down below.

Kirk's report on the indecent would have electrified the medical community at Star Fleet. Just think, a technology that could implant surgical kill which allowed a doctor to remove a brain and leave the patient alive and capable of having the brain returned to his body.

Obvious benefit: a healthy brain in an unhealthy body could be surgically placed into a healthy body which had a damaged or diseased brain. Or an elderly person could receive a young body from a person who'd died of a head injury.

Also bear in mind that the amazing procedure performed on Spock was just one aspect of the amazing technology that the space bimbos and the surface-dwelling clodhoppers where in possession of.

Gentlemen, this just goes to show that even a weak Star Trek episode can include concepts worthy of serious discussions.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

NBC press release, issued August 16, 1968.

A beautiful woman's ghostly image startles the officers and crew on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, but its disappearance brings the discovery that Mr. Spock's brain has been removed with surgical perfection, in the premiere episode of Star Trek, beginning its third season of colorcasts on the NBC Television Network, Friday, Sept. 20 . . . . The adventure drama, titled "Spock's Brain," stars William Shatner, as Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, and DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy.

The Enterprise crew, on its interplanetary mission to establish diplomatic relations with other life forms, is shocked to learn that Mr. Spock's brain has been transplanted to a metal box and is being utilized to run the necessary computer apparatus of a complex subterranean civilization several thousand years old. Guest star Marj Dusay portrays Kara, leader of a totally female civilization.

[Pow]

These Are the Voyages: TOS, Season Three by Marc Cushman.

Assessment. They nearly pulled it of . . . during the first half of the episode, anyway.

"Spock's Brain" has a split personality. The Teaser and Act I are fairly good. We get an alien ship to marvel over (not bad for 1968), a space babe in way out go-go boots (high fashion back then), and the shocking news that Spock's brain has been surgically removed from his head. The writing during the first portion of this episode is crisp and the acting tense, as horror and mystery combine to set off an effective "ticking clock."

Act II is less successful but not yet terrible. The only blemish here --- and it is a big one --- is that the prehistoric men speak English.

Act III deteriorates further. From this point on, snickering is encouraged. All the women live underground. And they are all young hotties. Where are the elderly, the children, the ugly? We only see Calendar Girls and their obedient Neanderthal boy toys. If, as we are told, these women continue their line by breeding with the hulking men they capture, why do females and males have nothing in common, either physically or mentally? Wouldn't their offspring eventually take on traits of both?

Act IV goes completely brain-dead. The entire affair takes place in one room, making for very stagnant story telling -- with a story that sputters and stalls as we are asked to believe that McCoy, having had a brain tune-up of his own, can reinstall Spock's grey matter without mussing a single hair on the Vulcan's head.

Justifiable or not, this inductee into the Star Trek Hall of Shame tops nearly every list ever compiled by fans and critics alike as the original series worst.

Sidebar. Can't dispute Marc's review here. I do place "And the Children Shall Lead" ahead of "Spock's Brain" for worst episode ever. "Spock's Brain" at least had an intriguing idea at the heart of it. It just wasn't well executed with the scripting. Children had nothing going for it from the giddy-up.

[Bud Brewster]

______________________________________________

Wow, Mike, the analysis above for this episodes is admiral for the way it focuses on the flaws, the virtues, and odd points of interest.

It's important to note that this infamous episode isn't just dismissed as a worthless effort — like 75% of the episodes in the original Lost in Space — it's actually a mixed bag of ridiculous story elements and appealing ideas, like the hot space babes who enslave their primitive "boy toys",

That's why Star Trek TOS fans can't stop talking about it!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

"Spock's Brain" written by Lee Cronin (Gene L. Coon), with Fred Freiberger and Arthur H. Singer.

Initial story: Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy are exploring a small asteroid when Spock is separated from the others. After a brief search, Spock is found in a cave, close to death, his brain having been removed. Kirk and McCoy beam Spock's body back to the Enterprise where it is put on full life support.

Kirk begins his search for the thieves. A particle trail from a spaceship leads the Enterprise to a world populated by a race of civilized but passive "little men," calling themselves the Nefelese (of the planet Nefel). There are, of course, "little women," too, but they are in hiding. The diminutive group are a smiling, charming people, who evidently wouldn't hurt a fly. Violence appalls them.

The leader of the Nefelese is Ehr Von. He informs Kirk that they have the capability of space travel but have no desire to visit other worlds, nor do they want visitors on their world. Ehr Von finally admits to Kirk that his people have taken Spock's brain; it is needed to run their life support complex. The previous operator -- the greatest brain from their race -- had controlled the system for a hundred years before recently becoming injured. A confrontation takes place where Kirk and his men are knocked out when fired upon by a party of "small armed men."

Scotty still has his communicator even though he is captured. Kirk uses it to tell Spock to take total control of the life support system. He then threatens Ehr, telling him that Spock's brain will shut down the life support if they do not cooperate. Spock devises a way to create a computer that will run the system in his place.

McCoy is assisted by the Nefelese doctors who removed the brain in the first place, but now lack the confidence to restore it. McCoy is more or less on his own. After he seals up his patient's skull, Spock tries to sit up and falls face down on the floor. When Spock tries to move his arm, his leg moves instead. When he tries to sneeze, he laughs. Spock speculates that McCoy must have attached some of his nerve endings backwards, but he believes his superior Vulcan mental abilities will compensate and he will learn to adapt. These Are The Voyages: TOS, Season Three.

Sidebar: This original screenplay is worse than the revised one used for the episode. Plus, Louisa May Alcott's estate might sue for copy infringement.

[Pow]

These Are the Voyages: TOS, Season Three.

In June 1968, Gene Roddenberry spoke before a group of TV film editors. He said that NBC encouraged him to continue to "intensify speculation on any exciting aspects of law, religion, to comment on the insanity of war, on bacteriological and other horror weapons, on the promises and problems of human organ transplants."

Sidebar: Interesting that GR discusses NBC's encouragement in his speech. He generally pilloried the network during production of Trek. Sometimes without justification.

TATV: TOS, Season Three. The idea of using a human brain to serve as a sort of computer was not entirely new. Episode writer Gene Coon had actually produced a 1965 episode of The Wild, Wild West titled "The Night of the Druid's Blood," in where the brains of famous scientists are stolen and used to build the world's first computer bank. The idea wasn't even new then. Coon and his WWW story editor, Henry Sharp, had pilfered it from Raymond F. Jones, whose short story "The Cybernetic Brains" was published by Startling Stories in 1950.

TATV: TOS, Season Three. Third season producer Fred Freiberger was producing as he had while at The Wild, Wild West. He was focusing on entertainment and not complicating the story with too much scientific accuracy. There was nothing wrong with his thinking or his instincts, it just wasn't Star Trek.