Matt and Sean talk about going the extra mile for your best friend in Star Trek: The Original Series. What’s a little “to the death” fight between friends?
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And we’re also taking a look at the world at the time of original broadcast. Right now, we’re taking a look at the original series, season two. So we’re talking about 1967 and who are we? Well, I’m Sean Ferrell. I’m a writer. I write some sci fi. I write some stuff for kids. With me as always is my brother, Matt.
He is that Matt behind Undecided with Matt Ferrell, which takes a look at emerging tech and its impact on our lives. And Matt, what is impacting your life today?
We don’t want to talk about the weather. I do want to say, I find it fascinating that this episode was like, what was it? Second episode of the season? First episode of the second season. Yeah. And we’re just getting into it now. I understand why they did that because it’s a good character building episode, but it’s like, I’ve been looking forward to this one, Sean.
Yeah. Can’t wait to talk about it. I’ve seen the, I think I’ve seen the pattern develop where early in the season they want to give those episodes that are kind of an ensemble shot. And because one of the first ones we talked about as we were, uh, visiting them in chronological stardate order. It was an ensemble, like they’re building, they’re getting everybody on set.
They’re, they’re bringing everybody in to do all the shooting all at once. And then they’re doing the deeper dives into the ones where the scheduling probably was built so that it was like, okay, in this one, we’re going to have all these principal actors, but we’re not going to have Scotty. We’re not going to need Uhura.
We’re not going to have Sulu. Like we don’t need everybody on set at the same time when it’s a deeper dive like in this one. So in the ones where it’s like, Oh, we’re fighting this space eel, that’s destroying the, you know, every planet that it comes across. Well, you need everybody on set, but where it’s Spock revealing that he’s got a betrothed that he has to return to, well, you just need the principles.
And surprisingly in this one, uh, Magel Roddenberry. So this is one of the first ones that we’ve seen in a while where we see nurse Chapel, so it’ll be interesting to revisit that character, especially I know You’re gonna feel this way without even having checked with you about it. Once again strange new worlds impacts interpretation of this episode in very interesting ways. And enterprise.
And enterprise. Yes. So before we get into our discussion about this particular episode, we always like to take a look at what you’ve been saying about our previous ones. So Matt, what did you find in the mailbag this week? So previous episode that we did was who mourns for Adonais. Yes. And there was like a thread that popped up in there about the word Adonis versus Adonais.
Yes. Because there’s different meanings here and there was a thread about that. And so one of them was Adonis is not Adonais, just saying,
yeah.
And then somebody responded, Iron Wolf responded, yeah, the Hebrew name for God, Adonai. Who mourns for gods, which raises Kirk’s line, paraphrasing we need just the one, which was, if I recall correctly, added from a network note.
I thought that was interesting. And then he wrote edit. Sorry to be that guy. Yeah. And then he wrote also TOS sexism hurts and the limits of our progress and society’s apparent desire to slide. Oof. Eye on oof. Yeah. And then pale ghost responded to that. Madonna’s perfect reply, but then we had a comment from, uh, anonymous 1503 who wrote great video.
You’re both old enough to remember the social mores and expectations for men and women at the time through our, though, through our current lens, this episode seems laughably sexist and anti woman. But that was not the intention of the writers. Let’s not forget Star Trek itself was a barrier breaking progressive show at that time.
Most women in 1967 did not work as they depended on a man to earn money to support a family. So yes, women sought good men to support them and be kind to them. Of course, it’s not that way now. Women don’t even really need men for much of anything. Can we count this as progress? Asking for a friend. And there was another comment from Mark Loveless who was along the same lines as this.
It was like, uh, at the time, even nowadays it’s clearly did not date well. They were very progressive and they were kind of, as Mark put it, they chose their battles as to where they were going to push the boundaries, which I think is a good way to put it. And then finally, we have a comment from PaleGhost that wrote, you know, come April 29th, the channel’s birthday.
I should make a compilation video of all the times Matt has been asked to sing the song. Every time he opens his mouth or laughs, I’m going to cut the video to a couple seconds of the song, then end on a rick roll. I would love to see that. I challenge you to do that. That’s Yeah. If you have the technology.
Yes. Yes. We will upload it to the channel. Sadly, we had no wrong answers only this week. I’m so sad. There’s no wrong answers only. That’s because there’s only one answer to what is this show is about. And yes, that sound you hear in the background and those flashing lights, those are the ones. It’s the Reed Alert.
It’s time for Matt to give us the right answer. What is this episode about? Take it away, Matt. Okay, so when Mr. Spock begins behaving aggressively, that’s putting it mildly, Kirk discovers his first officer must return home to Vulcan to be married or die. I’m sorry. The way that’s written is like, wow. Yeah.
Kirk disobeys his orders from Starfleet Command to visit Altair VI and decides to save Spock. Spock, Kirk, and McCoy land on Vulcan where Spock takes them to his family land to begin pan farr. They meet T’Pau and T’Pring, only to find that T’Pring wants a duel and chooses Kirk as a challenger. Kirk accepts the challenge thinking to let Spock win, but is later told by T’Pau that it is a challenge to the death.
During the fight, McCoy gives Kirk a neurotranquilizer to fake his death. Upon victory, Spock asks T’Pring to explain her decision and decides not to marry her. After beaming back, well, that was kind of a weird way to gloss over a whole bunch of stuff. After beaming back to the Enterprise, Spock is overjoyed to see Kirk alive.
Yeah, that’s right. I enjoyed the first sentence of that summary, where it says he must return home to Vulcan to be married or die, where ultimately. I mean, it’s kind of an interesting glossing over of what’s really happening. And the show does a better job of adjusting to what’s actually going on. He needs to mate.
Yes. He needs to mate. It is not, he has to get married. It is that he has to mate. And they are very clear on that when they have the awkward conversation about, it’s about biology. Vulcan biology. Do you mean biology in the form of reproduction? Yes. Okay. Yeah. That’s what we’re talking about. He says at a certain point they were connected as children and it was less than a marriage, but more than a betrothal.
It is this kind of quasi they’re already married, but not quite until a certain event. And that event includes reproduction, so he doesn’t need to get back to get married or die. He’s got to go reproduce. So, this episode, the first of season two, directed by Joseph Pevney, written by Theodor Sturgeon, original air date September 15th, 1967.
We have our typical cast here, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelly, of course. We also have Majel Barrett showing up as Christine Chappell. It’s been a while since we’ve seen her on the show. Guest appearances include Celia Lovsky as T’Pau, Arlene Martel as T’Pring, Lawrence Montaigne as Stonn.
This is a return of Lawrence Montaigne. We’ll remember that he was originally playing a Romulan in the episode in which they introduced the Romulan threat. And I’ve found, I can’t help but wonder if they were just like, well, we need a Vulcan and we’ve already got these ears. Yeah. And we know they fit.
Yeah. So why don’t we go get Lawrence? And also Byron Morrow as Admiral Kormack. Interesting notes about Celia Lovsky. Celia Lovsky, who played T’Pau, was instrumental in bringing Peter Lorre to the attention of Fritz Lang, leading to Lorre’s appearance in the film M, directed by Lang. And of course, Peter Lorre would have a long and well known Hollywood career as typically playing the kind of smarmy guy in the back of most nefarious threats.
And about Arlene Martel, sadly, she battled breast cancer for the last five years of her life. She passed away in 2014. But she was a regular at Trek Conventions from 1972 until 2014. Wow. So she was a mainstay of conventions and I’m sure that there are people in our audience who probably had an opportunity to get her autograph and speak with her at some of those conventions.
And what was the world like on this air date, September 15th, 1967. That’s right. We were still grooving along to the Ode to Billy Joe by Bobby Gentry. We’ve talked about this, uh, last week and we’re going to talk about it a couple more times because this is the number one song for a few weeks in a row.
Matt, refresh our memories. Sing along to the beginning of the song for us, would you?
Great. And as I mentioned before, this is a song that would go on to spawn a movie. And the impact of Bobby Gentry as a female artist who is responsible for writing and producing her own work was groundbreaking at the time. And she was a very popular singer whom, for whatever reason, I have never heard of and have no idea what the song sounds like.
It’s one of those little time capsules that I’m just like, in my, from a parallel reality, is it me, Mark and Matt all from some alternate time? Well, you do have a facial hair, Sean. So I do have a facial, if I shave this off next week, it’ll be prime Sean, as opposed to mirror Sean. And at the movies, people were still lining up to see in the heat of the night, which we talked about last week, it is the 1967 American mystery drama featuring directed by Norman Jewison, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger.
And it was the story of a black detective from Philadelphia who has to help investigate a murder in a small town in Mississippi. It would go on to spawn a television series that was on television in the 1980s and on television. We’ve been looking at the Nielsen ratings, the easiest way for us to compare shows to shows.
And so we’ve seen things like the Andrew Griffith show at a 27 to compare it to the second season of Star Trek, where they were somewhere in the 11th, as far as viewership on the Nielsen’s. So Star Trek was far from the top rated program on television at the time. We’ve talked about the Andy Griffith show, the Lucy show, Gomer Pyle and Gunsmoke so far this season, season two of Star Trek and slipping in here at number four with Gunsmoke.
Is the show a family affair. This is the 1966 to 1971 sitcom that aired on CBS, starring Brian Keith and Sebastian Cabot. It is the story of a well to do engineer and bachelor. Played by Keith. As he attempts to raise his brother’s orphans children in his luxury New York city apartment. This is another one of those programs that when we talked about it during season one of star Trek, we talked about this, um, a few, maybe two months ago, I believe this was another one of those programs that Matt and I were both like, what the what family?
What now? Yeah. And in the news in the New York times on this day. In 1967, we see some headlines around taxes potentially being increased, the president asking for aid on a crime bill and gun control, and city talks in New York City between teachers and the union. But the headline that caught my eye was in the lower right hand corner of the image on your screen right now, Johnson makes early bid for New Hampshire vote.
This is the beginning of the Johnson administration, not the administration, but the reelection bid beginning to look at what the numbers look like as Johnson was plagued by an unpopular war and difficulty with civil rights. And the beginning of the analysis in the Johnson team to say, should he run again. On now to our conversation about this week’s episode, we start off with Spock, basically losing control.
We’ve seen this a number of different times and a number of different ways, but this one comes across as particularly cantankerous, particularly dramatic and particularly thorny. And it’s being vented at people that are supposed to be his closest allies and friends. And of course it turns out that Spock needs to get back to Vulcan to marry or die.
It’s thorny because he’s horny. He’s thorny because he’s horny. So Matt, the setup of the dilemma in this one. What did you think about how they structured this episode? It’s a quieter episode from a perspective of there’s no galactic threat. There’s no Klingons at the border. There is no mysterious ship that is plaguing the enterprise.
It is literally the dilemma is Kirk has been ordered to attend a political coronation event in a system that has been plagued by conflict in the past. And by establishing peace there with a federation presence, it will be a good political maneuver for the federation to demonstrate unity and strength to the other opposing forces in the quadrant. So it is not there is impending doom It is far more of a quiet quasi, Normal political relations event than anything else and it is set up as you’ve got to go do this. You don’t have a choice, but that quiet political Order is at odds with the very personal story of one person aboard the ship.
And it’s interesting to think of it in terms of. In the future with Spock we, of course, know in wrath of Khan, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. Here this is demonstrably put to the test. And that edict does not save the day. In this case, Kirk decides the needs of the One are more important.
So, how do you feel about the setup of the conflict, the tension between the two orders that Kirk feels he must obey, and does it live up to the dramatic tensions that you would hope to see in a, in a story to keep your attention? Yes. Part of the reason for that is that I think it worked. The tension they created wasn’t like, they could have said, Oh, there’s this planet that’s having this infection that’s killing millions of people and we have to get the medicine to them.
And it’s like, Kirk was like, no, I got to save my buddy. It’d be like, what are you doing? There’s people dying. It’s like, they set up a situation, which as you pointed out is political. It’s important. And it’s like, but they set it up in a way where it’s like, He can still get away with not doing it, and it’s not going to end the world.
It’s not good that he’s not doing it. But even Kirk says, there’s three ships. If there’s two, it’s still gonna be just fine. Like, he brings that up as an argument. And so it’s like they did a very clever thing here of, they set up that this is very important to do, to show strength, and it’s to try to keep a war from sparking up and people potentially dying.
But it’s not like an imminent threat. And so it gives Kirk that out. It gives him that little tiny Gossamer thread to say, screw it, we’re going to help Spock. Because that is a life on the line. It’s a life on the line now, not a potential life on the line down the road. So it’s like, you can understand why he did that.
And I thought it was very clever for the writers to frame it this way to create that tension. And make it feel legitimate, but not to make it truly life or death for both. It’s only life or death for one. So it would have felt like melodrama if it had been a higher stakes. It would have felt like, okay, you’re manufacturing all this stuff so that we feel torn.
And it didn’t feel like that. The one thing I did have problems with. Was the setup of Spock not wanting to describe what was going on? Like the whole pon farr thing being a secret? That was not illustrated very well to me. Um, shows beyond this, all this stuff has been kind of fleshed out more. Yeah. In very interesting ways.
So it’s like, I completely understand what’s going on there now. But if you think about it from everything we know up to this point, because we’re watching it in chronological order. So we have things at our disposal that people in 1968 did not have because the show wasn’t brand new. But it’s one of those, the humans have been in league with the Vulcans for decades now, like there are best buddies in space.
And at this point for nobody to know what pon farr is, is like stretching credulity for me. It’s like, there’s no, it doesn’t hold water that humans would have no concept as to how reproduction works for the Vulcans, it’s like, come on, we, we, we would know all of this at this point. Um, so I didn’t, it didn’t hold, it didn’t feel true to me the way Spock was like, I cannot talk about this to anybody.
You could have set it up as him not wanting to talk about it because he’s embarrassed by the fact that he’s going through this, but the way that they set it up, it was almost like a. I don’t know if it felt like it was creating melodrama where none was warranted. I don’t disagree about that. I don’t disagree with, with that.
And, but I also understand why in the context of the program, it would have removed a lot of very good dramatic moments if it had been more realistic. Realistically, the reason McCoy is on the ship is because he has an expertise in exobiology. So he is supposed to be an expert in a multitude of non human biologies.
And for the, that expertise to not be able to very quickly say like, I believe that Spock is going through pon farr. Doesn’t make sense. If the show had started with, it starts with the, Oh, captain, I’ve been looking for you conversation in the hallway. If it had started with that conversation being like, I got to talk to you.
I think Spock is going through pon farr and it’s going to affect his judgment and it’s going to affect him health wise. It could kill him if it is not dealt with. It means we need to get him to Vulcan so that he can reproduce because that is the, that is the only cure. There’s nothing else I can do for him here.
You would have ripped about 10 minutes out of the script because it’s just from a contextual perspective I think one of the I think I think one of the nicest Sequences in this episode is the conversation between Kirk and Spock which is both. Yes deeply personal and Hasn’t just the barest edge of comedy right at the edge where it’s like the two of them standing next to each other, but not facing each other.
They’re both facing the camera effectively, but they’re both facing a wall and it’s about biology. Uh, do you mean Vulcan biology? It’s this awkward, like they both know they have to talk about it. Neither of them as they realize as Kirk realizes what it is about, he doesn’t necessarily want to be a part of the conversation either, but takes it at the moment where he says.
Would it help if I told you this will be taken on completely the strictest confidence, meaning it’s not going to end up in his captain’s log. It’s not going to be in the reports. He’s, he’s going to say like we redirected to Vulcan. But he’s not going to say why, he’s willing to take that on the chin professionally.
I think that that scene wouldn’t have happened in quite the same way, had it been the doctor shows up and knows exactly what’s going on, but I do agree with you. It from a, from a logical perspective, it’s, it’s doesn’t quite fit. And it also doesn’t quite fit. As you already mentioned, this is 1967. This is the first go on this so they can do what they want.
They’ve handled it in different ways since then, and it has become a much more matter of fact, like Klingons are logical and their approach to talking about this in other storylines is to treat it as a logical necessity. Like, reproduction is reproduction is something that is necessary for a species to survive.
When other Vulcan characters go through pon farr, they tend to be like, I’m going through pon farr. I need to reproduce. This is what’s happening to me. It’s not dealt with in this same, in the same way of like the depth of shame, which from a writing perspective, then the depth of shame becomes Spocks, not Vulcans.
So there’s the path that I think they could have gone where, and you touched on this as well, the idea that it’s Spock in particular, that’s dealing with a shame here, which would fit with Spock’s character. He’s this person of two worlds.
To continue rewriting this episode. My thought was instead of doing that you could still like because they had great dramatic moments like where Spock is holding the knife thing, Yeah, behind his back like he’s being violent.
It’s like oh boy. Yeah, so there was some good tension there that it created you could have kept all that But what you could have done was like since then we’ve discovered likewise that pon farr happens every seven years or something like that, It’s on a schedule. It’s like they kind of allude to that in this they don’t give it a specific number Yeah, but you could have basically said. They go through pon farr on a regular schedule, and he’s happening early, so it’s unexpected.
So you could still had him acting out and getting violent and having those moments, and then having McCoy be like, like, what is going on with Spock? And him going, I think he’s in pon farr. And they confront him. He’s like, no, I’m not due for two more years. And then like, You could just still had those moments and the mystery around it and just built it in a different way and just remove the humiliation side of it just out of the equation completely.
Um, cause he’s, he’s a hybrid. So it’s like maybe that screwed up his schedule. So it’s like you could have, you could have played around with that way. You could have done that. I think that they could have done that in maybe next generation or later, but I think in 1967. This. No, not in this, not in this context.
And we’re, you know, like to so much of sexuality and sex as it’s depicted in 1967 is already being pushed to a new border by this series where Kirk is gallivanting around the galaxy and he is, he’s clearly like romantically linking up with women on. You know, like every 3rd story, there’s another woman that is wooed by him or convinced to change her ways by him because he manages to seduce them in the right way.
And so I think that the kind of treatment that you and I are saying like, oh, they could have done this, they could have done that doesn’t fit within the context of 1967. And I think that’s the tension that we’re feeling is that from a concurrent perspective, we’re like, Oh, they could have done different things.
They didn’t. I still think that even though the doctor not knowing what’s going on, The hesitation on Spock’s part to share what is happening with him. I think some of the sequences, some of the scenes at the beginning of this episode, and it’s an interesting episode because it kind of has a point where when it turns into the, here we are in Vulcan.
And here’s the ceremony. It becomes a different program and not in a bad way. It becomes a like, and with the remastered special effects, I thought it was pretty impressive. Some of the, the Vulcan vistas and where the ceremony is taking a sense of like, it’s a sense of the planet that enterprise managed to capture as well. Of just like the oppressive heat, the thin atmosphere there in this place, which is not like earth and all of that becomes like subtle things like McCoy and, uh, Kirk are both sweating. They’re both sprayed down to be wet and nobody else is everybody else is just like, so we’re here for the ceremony and they’re both like.
Like me in Florida. But it’s like, there’s a line when they get to Vulcan where the show then becomes about the, the uniqueness of the ceremony, the oppressive place where they are, the tensions between the various people, the threat of the fight between Spock and Kirk, very different from what happens at the beginning of the episode.
Where I kept getting reminded of, and this is a mantra for me around a lot of these episodes goes back to the episodes where they all go back in time to pre World War II and Kirk describes the, in the future, a novelist from that star will write a book in which he argues that the words, let me help are more important than the words.
I love you. And this is an episode where I feel like that is again, surfacing in the scenes prior to arriving at Vulcan in the form of McCoy coming to Kirk and saying, like, something’s going on with your first officer. And he will not tell me what it is. Something is going wrong though. Kirk then going to Spock and saying, you’ve got to let me help you.
And in Chapell going to him and saying, like, I’m like, I want to bring you soup and here let’s talk about the Chapell sequence of it all and how it’s been impacted by previous conversations we’ve had around what they were doing in strange new worlds. Around first broadcast when this first would have been depicted, it would have been a revelation of like, oh, she’s really interested in him.
He’s interested in her. Their love can never be. And she’s showing up with soup. Plomeek soup, which I did not know, I forgot that that was created in this episode. Yeah. I thought it was like a later years they came up with Plomeek Soup. Yeah. So with Strange New Worlds having shown their attempt at having a relationship and it does not sustain itself and we see that she leaves to go be, to do research with Dr. Roger Corby and that becomes then the episode what little girls are made up, which is where she is reintroduced to her former fiance and at original broadcast, this would have been two people who’ve never been together. But they keep crossing each other’s paths in weird ways, but now we have the added layer of they actually had a relationship and I felt myself as I was watching the sequence where she comes to him to say, we’ve redirected the Vulcan.
She’s excited the fact that they’re going back to Vulcan and he gently says, I’d like some of that soup. He’s trying very hard to rebuild a bridge that he knows he bruised in yelling at her, throwing her out of his room and throwing the soup against the wall. But it’s more than that now. It’s also a reference to the deeper relationship that they’ve had and a kind of, it’s kind of a moment where he says, you and I will not ever be able to be together in a way that’s.
The sadness in him and the sadness in her takes on a depth now because of a show that was made two years ago. How did you feel about this, both from the perspective of in 1967, how this would have played out, what it would have looked like? And I remember what it looked like to me when I was a kid watching this in reruns. And how does it feel to you now?
It was the same thing for, for you, like, I remember watching these episodes as a kid and it was clear that Nurse Chapell liked Spock and there was that unrequited love kind of thing happening and like, but as a kid, of course, that didn’t resonate with me as much as it does today as an adult, but it was like it was there, but it was very superficial.
It was very just kind of throw away. And for me, like you’re bringing up strange new worlds has recontextualized this in such a profound way. I can’t understate that. It’s like at the time I imagine for audiences at the time. It worked just fine, you know, it was, it was kind of like an unspoken, I hate to say this, but it’s like a commentary on society at the time, you know, no white and black.
You don’t marry, you don’t. And a racial relationships is not a good thing. And so you have a, you know, a Vulcan and a human on a show and she clearly likes him, but that’s never going to be able to happen because, you know, it’s just like this unspoken thing that’s in the show. Yeah. Um, so it’s, it’s understandable why it was done the way it was done, but it’s so much more sad and tragic having watched Strange New Worlds.
And I bring enterprise into it because of T’Pau, because we’ve seen T’Pau on Enterprise in just the same way as strange new worlds it’s given depth to, you know, you have Trips and T’Pol’s baby, which was technically the first, like, we didn’t know this could happen kind of thing. And It’s a relationship between a human and Vulcan that we’ve watched grow.
We love those characters. And so we bring this affection for this stuff and knowledge of this stuff and the strange new worldness of it all. That those short scenes in this just like. We’re like, to me, like a gut punch, it was this kind of like, Oh, like, this is so different now watching this. And it’s so tragic.
Oh, poor Nurse Chapell. Yeah. It was like, I just, for me, I just, I just love it. I love the fact that these newer shows made in the past 20 years have kind of recontextualized a show that’s, you know, 50 years ago. It’s astounding to me how much it’s improved the storytelling that was already okay. I mean, it was even without those, it was fine, but like, it’s made it even better now.
Um, do you feel the same way about it or mine? I do. No, I do. And I, and what I, I found myself taking in is like the recontextualizing that Strange New Worlds has done made me think, Oh, Chapell knows what he’s going through. She’s showing up at his door with something from home as a means of communicating to him.
Like, I know what’s happening to you. And is there a part of her that is like, can I be the solution? Like there’s like, I can’t help but wonder if there’s a part of her that is maybe, is this the moment where we can reopen a door that we had tried to close in the past? And it does become more, more touching in that way, because.
It’s not just without that background, it is just a woman who has affection for him trying to do something to make him feel better when he’s clearly out of sorts. But with that background and she knows who T’Pring is she knows like there’s layers of history there that they that add to when she shows up at the bridge and sees T’Pring on the screen, it’s not her seeing something for the first time.
It’s her being reminded. I that’s that’s his wife. I can’t be involved in this. And that’s the last we see of Chapell in the episode, I believe.
I’m glad you I’m glad you brought up T’Pring because that’s another thing that this is recontextualized because like. If you’re watching this episode in 1968 1969 reruns, it’s got this feel of she’s the cheating woman.
Yeah, like, she’s like, even though it’s an arranged marriage, she’s the one that’s got the hots for this other guy behind Spock’s back and is the one that like is willing to basically like have Spock killed off because she wants to be with this Dude, and it has this kind of like icky feel to it. Yeah.
But now that we have Strange New Worlds. It’s completely recontextualized because it’s the arranged marriage. We’ve seen how this relationship, they do care for each other and, but we, they, they’re not right for each other. And, and how bad Spock was in the relationship has set her down a different path.
And you understand why. Yeah. She’s veered off in this other direction. So it’s, it’s, to me, it’s fascinating how it’s like recontextualized T’Pring and to made her far more sympathetic than she would be in the original airing of this show too. So it’s like, again, these new Enterprise and Strange New Worlds have made this epi, this specific episode so much more deep and nuanced.
Yeah. And interesting. I, I have trouble putting myself back into the mindset of a kid watching this for the first time, right? Yeah. Yeah. It’s, I also think. And it’s interesting that you point that out because that’s kind of like the point of this rewatch in this format. We’re not watching things in order of production.
We’re watching them in stardate order. So it does give us that opportunity to say, Oh, we’re recontextualizing these things, but I’m going to recontextualize it the other direction as well. Everything that follows this proves T’Pring’s point. Because what we have now is T’Pring saying you are becoming so well known and I found myself realizing I do not wish to be the consort of somebody who is that well known and Stonn is here. And Stonn does not aspire to that level of renown. And what do we know about Spock?
Well, not to try and loop the J. J. Abrams movies into a prime timeline because they’re not, but that movie, the 1st Star Trek movie is based on the idea of Spock is critical to the salvation of the quadrant. It is, he is that linchpin and it’s not Kirk. It’s Spock. It’s about unification, reunification with, with Romulan.
It’s all Next Generation, baby. And it’s all like right up through that episode with, you know. Spock going to Romulus to help try and broker a deal for reunification. And it is, they run with it. Like that idea that that’s who Spock is intended to be. He is not just a first officer. He is a person of renown.
And I find it interesting to see the threads that are pulled in both directions in that way, from here, backward into Strange New Worlds and forward through Next Generation and into the other movies and seeing how that line of this character takes on such importance. And then it makes me reflect as well on that little short film that was made where they used CGI to recreate them both at the end of Spock’s life.
And you get that moment of Kirk visiting Spock at his deathbed. And I find myself just thinking this episode holds all of that where at the time of original production, they wouldn’t have known any of that. And I find that incredible. That’s the, the, the strength of the show, the creation, the writing and production of the show is one where they created vessels that are almost bottomless, that they can keep pouring meaning into.
That adds to it without having to directly contradict its expansive, it’s growing and it’s evolving and, um, and it recontextualizes itself. You can have a show made in the 2020s in Strange New Worlds that speaks so well of Star Trek and our time. In the same way that 1967 production can speak so well of Star Trek and it’s time.
And I find that incredible. To move on to the latter half of the program. And I think that this is a much faster part of our conversation. I mean, this is just classic Trek. You got the fight song. You got them fighting the Vulcan.
This is the most riffed on part of Star Trek ever. You know what I mean? It’s like that, that’s, yeah. This is, you don’t get more classic Trek than this fight scene, you know.
And you get, I think there’s a layer to it that is not often illuminated. The humor of it, the humor of the fight, it is a fight to the death, but the moment that Kirk reluctantly agrees to fight, it is like, look, I’ll let him win and then we’ll be done.
Yeah. And then it turns into this whole like, Oh, it’s to the death and T’Pau is like, you don’t know what you signed up for here, buddy. And he’s like, I, uh. Clearly, like standing there looking at Spock, who looks like a killing machine when he takes that weapon. The directing and the performance by Shatner, Spock takes the weapon in both hands, Kirk takes it and has to fight to keep it up and he’s just like, Oh, this is heavy.
Yeah. And then when Spock takes the first swing, which cuts open his shirt and leaves him bloodied. And for 1967, I thought, well, they’re putting a good amount of fake blood on Shatner’s chest. It’s not just a red line, like a scratch mark. It’s dripping blood. It is dripping blood down his chest. And I found myself thinking like, wow, good on them to make it really like look like that.
But when it happens, Kirk’s response to that is a stunned, like. This dude’s gonna kill me like looks down at his own chest the camera pans down to show the damage. It’s very clearly camera trickery. It’s well done. But the depiction of that, Shatner throughout this fight sequence finds ways of conveying an honest.
I am trying to fight my best friend and I am trying to keep myself from being killed. But I am also trying to quickly figure out how the hell am I going to get out of this? He’s, he’s clearly like by the skin of his teeth at a couple of moments when he’s put over the barbecue pit. Oh, but the, the, the whole, the whole fight scene I thought was brilliant because it really helps to illustrate Vulcans are much stronger than humans.
He’s struggling, but he’s kind of holding his own, but you can see him flagging. And what I love about all of this. Kirk is not the one that figures his way out of this. It’s like, he’s screwed. And I love the fact that McCoy just casually comes up with his own. I’ve like, I got an idea.
And doesn’t even doesn’t give anybody any, it doesn’t give, you know, Kirk isn’t, shooting Kirk in the arm and saying like, this is actually a neuro, uh, blocker and you’re going.
They should have done something like that.
I’m glad they didn’t, because it was a, it was a moment of, within the show, watching this for the first time in 1967, they show Spock kill the captain. And just think of like the dramatic level of that. That’s pretty incredible. And some of the shots are really kind of horrific. If you pull yourself back from like, I’m watching Star Trek where everything is bright day go colors.
He’s killing Kirk to death. He is, there’s a shot where Spock is standing up and holding the rope that’s around Kirk’s neck and Kirk’s body is laying back. His head is completely back and he is limp and Spock drops him to the ground. And it is a incredibly dramatic moment that is depicted very raw. And I found myself as I was watching and I was like, I was like, Oh, if you take away all the day glow colors, that’s just full blown murder on the screen. Yeah.
You don’t typically get that. You don’t typically get the, like, we’re just going to watch the man die right here. And he is choked out dead. Onto the soil. And then McCoy very quickly going over him. He’s dead. I got to get him back to the ship. Like nobody questions, like, why are you in such a rush to get this dead man back to the ship?
He’s dead. Do you want to have something to eat first? Uh, don’t you want to hear the conversation between Spock and T’Pring, and then you get that conversation between Spock and T’Pring, which is. She is, I mean, you mentioned before she is given more depth through this, through the contextualizing of these Strange New Worlds, but even with that her machinations in this are horrific. She is willing to take somebody not connected to any of this
correct
directly
it’s sociopathic.
And plant them as a, as a murder victim. She’s happy with her desires. It is sociopathic. So that she can be with her, her, her love interest. It’s like, it is sociopathic that she’s willing to trade life like this. It was, um, shocking, but at the same time, when she’s giving her rationale.
Yes, it plays into the whole Vulcans are pure logic and she’s just working through the logic and his response to her is I think beautiful. It gives this parting shot where he is just like and Stonn I will give you some advice sometimes the wanting is better than the having and like yeah, basically good luck with this one, She’s a sociopath. Before we finish up our conversation on this one.
I want to revisit my favorite, favorite, favorite scene in this episode. It is one of my favorite scenes in all of Star Trek, Matt. I’m just going to give you a shot at guessing what scene I might be talking about, Spock yelling Jim. That’s number two.
Yeah. Spock yelling Jim is fantastic when he turns around, grabs him and is clearly overjoyed and then recomposes himself. It is a wonderful, wonderful moment is fantastic. My number one in this episode and right at the top of all scenes in Star Trek. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy in the lift, Spock says, would you accompany me, Captain?
And he says, if it’s allowed, and he’s like, it’s normal for the betrothed’s friends to accompany him. And then says, and I also request McCoy. Yeah. For me. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Chef’s kiss. Love that moment. Get a little choked up Sean. Get a little choked up. Get a little, get a little watery in the eye as I’m watching that, as I’m talking about it even now.
I absolutely love that moment. It is those quiet moments where the characters can let each other know where you stand in my hierarchy of things in the galaxy is always where I find Star Trek does the best job. And for that, for that reason, that moment for me is just such a fantastic moment because not only does Spock reveal that in a way that is purely logical, it is just, Oh, I’m allowed this.
You are my friends. Therefore I should invite you to go. But Kirk takes it as like, well, of course, but McCoy puffs up his chest. And there’s a moment with McCoy where he’s like, old Southern gentlemen, I would be honored, sir. I love, I love that scene for all those reasons. Before we sign off, is there anything else you wanted to talk about in this episode?
No, other than just saying, I love this episode. I’ve been looking forward to this episode. I’m glad we got to this episode. Love it. Pure. This is pure. This is like from when somebody says, what is Star Trek? Like original Star Trek. This is the episode I most likely point people at. And in that same vein, next week we’re going to be talking about doomsday machine.
Another one that’s right up there with what is Star Trek? This is Star Trek. Doomsday machine. But remember, jump to the comments, wrong answers only. What is doomsday machine about? Look forward to those answers. Before we sign off, Matt, is there anything that you want to remind viewers and listeners about what do you have coming up on your main channel?
I’ve got, uh, interesting video coming up about, um, building better batteries. How were there’s advances happening around battery technologies that are making them not just better to use, but easier to recycle, things like that. So there’s a really interesting video coming up on that. As for me, if you’re interested in checking out my books, please check out my website, Seanferrell.Com. Or you can go to directly wherever it is you buy your books. That includes your local bookstore places like bookshop. org, amazon. com or your local public library. My books are available everywhere. If you’d like to support the podcast, don’t forget a comment, a like subscribe, share with your friends, very easy ways for you to support the podcast.
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