TOS, Ep. 4: "Mudd's Women"

Links: Wikipedia, Memory Alpha, IMDB.com, Star Trek.com

The original "Star Trek" always had some sex appeal. Sex was always one of the ways in which Roddenberry set his show apart from the rest and established it as adult fare. Also, it was standard operating procedure at the time for the star of an action show to meet, fall in love and smooch with a beautiful guest star in each episode. Interestingly, Kirk is pretty much unfazed by Mudd's beauties and is in this case the sole man on the Enterprise (except for Spock) who fails to drool over them. Instead, this episode is much more concerned with setting up Kirk as a the commander — the guy with hundreds of lives resting on his every decision. Despite every attempt to do the right thing, Kirk finds that the foolish, childish Mudd beating him at every turn and putting the ship in extreme danger.

This episode, originally one of three stories Roddenberry proposed for the series' second pilot, really has a bit of everything — drama, humor, sex and action — making it a prime example of the series' many strengths and its potential to be a truly top-notch TV series.

Here's the running commentary:

Looks like Sulu's collar has been fixed so it matches the rest of the crew uniforms. Other costume notes include Uhura still wearing the gold skant dress, a shot of McCoy in the transporter room switching between his regular tunic and his scrub tunic, and Farrell's tunic missing its chest emblem in one shot.

Lithium (later dilithium) crystals were first introduced as a power source fro the ship. This ep's not clear on exactly how they're used — and the specifics were later altered.

I don't know if Mudd was intended from the start to be a slightly comical character or if the idea was for him to be more of a rogue-ish scoundrel. Actor Roger C. Carmel definitely has some fun with thim.

The women's dresses are, interestingly, green, pink and blue — almost replicating the colors of the crew tunics. Again, 1966 was the early days of color TV and they played up bright colors as much as possible.

Obviously, 23rd century grooming habits don't extend to some magical cure for the carpet of body hair that peeks out from under Mudd's tunic.

The girls look like they could break out into a round of "Stop! In the Name of Love" any moment.

Spock takes obvious pleasure in introducing the women to Kirk, whose reaction he likely anticipates will be ... fascinating. His glance at their booty as they leave is priceless, though out of character.

The plot of bringing wives to settlers is a classic Western tale that was developed as part of Roddenberry's promise to deliver to NBC a show that could be described as "Wagon Train to the Stars." This was one of the scripts developed as a potential pilot.

Now that George Takei's homosexuality is public knowledge, it's interesting to watch him leer at the girls.

The security guards posted to watch Mudd and his women is another early example of the diversity the show came to represent.

Mudd's hearing is the first of many legal proceeding that are convened on the Enterprise. At this point, they likely hadn't designed or made the dress uniforms worn at hearings in later episodes.

For a conniving scoundrel, Mudd isn't too swift. He should know that Starfleet technology would quickly expose his fake identity of Leo Walsh.

In Mudd's record, it's weird to see he has a "Future Police Record-Code." It's kind of a relic to see things in sci-fi that are futuristic actually called such. Mudd also appears to be wearing the same clothes in the mug shot as he has on now ... more proof he's not the most cleanly of guys.

The soft focus on the women is really strange to modern eyes, though it was a common technique in decades past.

Thank god the computer has the good taste not to mention the boners Scotty, Bones and Ferrell are sporting.

Magda's disruption of McCoy's medical scanner is the first such disruption of the device in the series, though she too obviously seems to activate it by touching the side of it.

Magda's line, "No, I'm just me!," it's a bit of a low point for the acting in this episode.

Bones does some nice Trek-style thinking (with his big head) long enough to wonder if these women are really as beautiful as they seem.

The sudden appearance of the women in their "ugly" modes is a bit of a shock. While the secret of the intensity of their beauty has been a question to be resolved, this is the first hint that there is something specific behind it or that the women are anything but attractive young women.

That it's a pill of some kind turns Mudd into a sort of drug dealer, taking advantage of the lonely young women's insecurity and loneliness for his own gain. Given that the drug culture was on the rise, this take on the drug as not being completely destructive is a bit ahead of its time.

Kirk's a tough negotiator, but he can't compete with the emotional (and hormonal) argument Mudd makes tot he minors with logic alone.

The alien planet is not the best effect, but the blowing fake snow and clouds obscure it. I love how the minors live in what's basically an Airstream trailer on the outside and a styrofoam cave on the inside. The same trick was used in alter episodes and in "Star Trek II."

At this point, characters are still being defined and Kirk's devotion to the ship is still dominant. Interesting to note the way Kirk is able to argue with his crew — look at how he snaps at Scotty and then apologizes — something that was deemed verboten by Roddenberry on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Karen Steele as Eve and Gene Dynarski as Ben are both very good in their small roles — something that you can't always say about a TV show from any era.

Eve's dilemma is an interesting one. She's lonely enough to seek out a husband through Mudd, but resists the overbearing men who expect her to be only a wife and cook. Childress' reaction is understandable — he's lonely, too — but to his credit, he smartens up very quickly.

I'm not sure what they're saying by having Eve's final transformation be achieved with a placebo, but it punctuates a classic "Trek" message of women and men as equals — one that was a bit harder to play out on a regular basis than it was in this single episode.

Harry's description of the Venus Drug makes it sound like any of the dozens of ill-defined prescription drugs that are now advertised on television.

The comedic tag with Mudd and Kirk is one of those odd relics of the era. The final tag, with the banter between McCoy and Spock, was another tradition in the making.

I remember back when "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was in its first season that there was talk of Roger Carmel reprising his role as Mudd for Captain Picard and crew, but he passed away before the episode could be made.

TOS, Ep. 3: "The Corbomite Maneuver"

Links: IMDB, Star Trek.com, Wikipedia, Memory Alpha

The first episode filmed for the series, The Corbomite Maneuver was an influential series, both for what it did do and what it didn't.

A number of changes were made to the sets and a lot of new ones added, most importantly the sick bay sets. The costumes evolve once again and get to meet both Dr. McCoy and Lt. Uhura, while Sulu takes the helm. We get our first look at the red uniforms (though none of them die in this episode). While this being the first episode, there was probably a lot of money spent on it, it also established the cost-saving format of a "bottle show" -- i.e., one that takes place completely on the ship and uses a minimum of visual effects.

Running commentary:

* I've learned that the patterns of near-identical blue, white and pearl colors seen on the ship's exterior is called "aztecing" by modelers.

* The collars on the starfleet uniforms are still not standardized. The tunics and Uhura's skant all fit kind of loosely and look lumpy and unattractive, almost as though it's an entire crew wearing sweatshirts. Uhura is wearing the gold color here; it would be a few more episodes before she switched to her usual red.

* I like the spinning cube. It's simple and effectively weird enough to work. And they do a nice job matching the color of its faces as it spins the light spun around the bridge set. The music, however, that plays every time the cube appears gets a little hold.

* The familiar voice over is added as of this episode. Also, the credits are done in yellow and only mention Shatner and Nimoy. The episode title appears right after the credits, but in a regular font and not including the writer's name.

* The exam is McCoy's true introduction. His ignoring the alert to attend to Kirk is a good intro to his character. McCoy has a unique uniform "scrub" he wears when working.

* McCoy gives the first iteration of one of his classic lines, with "What am I, a doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?" followed by the little bit about "if I jumped every time a light when on around here ..." Obviously, his character was pretty well defined right from the start. But it is a question to ponder as to how anyone becomes a doctor in the 23rd century society of "Star Trek" and have so much resistance to technology.

* Bailey is a kind of 1960s archetype -- the regular guy who feels overwhelmed and/or dehumanized by modern society,

* If the actor who played Bailey were 10 years younger, he would have made for a great Rebel pilot in one of the Star Wars movies.

* First phaser blast! That' s a pretty good effect for 1966.

* Kirk and Spock's relationship was very well established in the short exchange. McCoy also interfaced with Kirk but not with Spock at first. McCoy is the only one who criticizes Kirk and bursts the bubble of authority that surrounds him.

* It's not clear at this point how long McCoy and Kirk have known each other. Obviously, they're already good friends — they're talking casually and drinking together — but how McCoy, who's obviously older, came to be friends with the younger Kirk isn't clear.

* Yeoman Janice Rand — she could have been a very interesting character, but the times seemed to relegate her to the status of a nursemaid for Kirk.

* The second craft the enterprise encounters is less convincing than the cube. It still works, but it can't help but look like a decorative glass lamp shade with smaller lights inside of it.

* The revelation of the Enterprise's unintentional incursion into First Federation space was probably pretty innovative in 1966. This kind of conflict and its resolution became a bit of a Trek cliche over the years.

* Again, a subtle hint that greater intelligence would spurn religion in Balok's condescending 10-minute deadline. Kirk, to his credit, tries to counter with reason.

* I'll always remember the alien image seen on the monitor (eventually revealed as the puppet) as the image that was used for the tricorder screen in the old "explorer" model kit that I had as a kid.

* Bailey here can't take it any more. Stress and the unknown are just too much for him. This is interesting because it kind of represents his lack of commitment to the Starfleet mission. Again, he represents a kind of old way of thinking, and since it's the 1960s he's the square dude over 30 you just can't trust. (Kirk, being a with-it dude, doesn't have this problem.)

* Spock's logical chess analogy comes up short, reinforcing the theme of logic and emotion as necessary elements of the human condition. The evocation of poker is the start of a long tradition of the game being referenced in the series, especially on The Next Generation, in which the characters not only discussed the game, but frequently were seen playing it too.

* Kirk's gamble really shows that he has gigantic, galactic-size balls of steel. Spock, of course, is not impressed.

* Spock makes a first reference to his mother as being from Earth.

* I just can't get over how characters actually apologize to each other on this show - and not only do they mean it, they accept those apologies without drama! This country's popular propensity for drama has definitely increased since this show ...

* The simple countdown is a great example of creating tension and conflict without a lot of splashy visual effects.

* Balok's obviously not what we thought. That he's now looking to imprison the crew of the Enterprise indicates that maybe he doesn't have the ability, will or authority to destroy the ship. This is only confirmed when the Enterprise breaks free, leaving Balok stranded. Though, of course, this gives Kirk a chance to show how generous he can be.

* Kirk's little speech about how putting action behind the big words they espouse is another 1960s element that would be a lot harder to accept today on an American TV show because of the way the country has squandered and abandoned its moral authority.

* Damn it, Balok is creepy! That kid with the bushy eyebrows and adult voice and strange meter is just plain creepy. It kind of exhausts the idea of mixing and matching gender/age/voice established in the Talosians of "The Cage."

* Balok's "testing" of the Enterprise with his distress signal became another Trek cliche. The feel-good finale in which everyone realizes we all really can get along is a bit sudden, but satisfying enough for an early episode.

TOS, Ep. 2: "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

Links: IMDB, Star Trek.com, Wikipedia, Memory Alpha

First off, this is a much better pilot than "The Cage." It's brighter, tighter and a lot more action packed. It's no surprise this one sold to NBC.

What's most fun is the way this episode gets into the same sort of philosophical ground as 'The Cage" -- what it means to be human and how vain it is to pretend to godhood -- but is just more affecting all around. The key is Kirk, who is a much more accessible character than Pike -- the torment he feels as he's pulled between his desire to help his friend, Gary Mitchell, and his need to protect his crew from what is obviously a growing threat is palpable and completely sympathetic. The first glimpse of Spock as the logical side of the command decisions Kirk has to make appears, though Kirk himself has to express the emotional side, which is something McCoy does better when he shows up in the series.

Gary Lockwood as Gary Mitchell and Sally Kellerman as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner are both excellent, too. Kellerman brings a convincing femme fatale to the table -- a scientist doomed to love a man who represents all she desires but is completely insane and destructive.

This episode also was key for defining a lot about the Star Trek ethic. Gary Mitchell encounters powers beyond those of regular men, and they corrupt him. His powers cause him to abandon his reason and his humanity -- both of which Kirk tries to appeal to, to no avail. Kirk at first doesn't want to believe this has happened to his friend, but Spock's unrelenting logic eventually win out. Dehner is a different case, and it's perhaps more reflective of the times for a woman to be more resistant to corruption of this sort than Mitchell. But it's satisfying drama, punctuated by an excellent knock-down, drag-out fight between Kirk and Mitchell.

Here's the running commentary:

• This episode is the first appearance for a lot of common Trek elements, including the 3-D chess game, the red alert, phasers, Sulu, Scotty, the Captain's Log and the Stardates. The idea for Stardates seems to have been for them to advance more slowly than they did later on. For example, this episode is said to take place on Stardate 1312.4. A look at the medical records flashed on the screen later on show Dehner's date of birth as Stardate 1089.5 and her age as 21. That means she's lived through 222.9 Stardates! But that' s nothing compared to the dates seen on Kirk's tombstone at the end, which list him has having "lived" from 1277.1 to 1313.7, making him much younger than Dehner. It also lists Kirk's middle initial as "R." It later became "T." for Tiberius.
• Pilot begins with another distress signal, just like "The Cage."
• This was the third episode aired, and it must have seemed odd to viewers for the uniforms to suddenly change, McCoy to have vanished and many other elements to have changed for just this one episode.
• Gary Mitchell does the cool gesture control thing with his console that Spock did in Cage.
• The uniforms are interesting. There's two shades of gold and no red. Also, a close look at the sleeve dress on Kirk and Spock shows the former has two stripes (he had two solid and one broken stripe on the series) and Spock had one.
• Mitchell plays with the computer display and the medical monitors, both of which were repeated rather quickly in later episodes. Mitchell is reading Spinoza, which he says is right up Kirk's alley and adds further fuel to the "Is Trek atheist?" fire.
• The little blonde lab tech Mitchell says he sent Kirk's way has long been assumed to be Carol Marcus, who was revealed in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" to be the mother of Kirk's son, David.
• Dr. Dehner actually seems to mean it when she apologizes to Gary for her behavior — sharply setting the show in the past or the future given the current inability of anyone in 21st century American culture to make such an admission.
• I always liked that they used little cards to store data on. Not too different from floppy disks or even from CDs/DVDs.
• It's interesting that greater intellect is frequently linked to megalomania in "Star Trek." The point is that humans have to grow into their abilities naturally, though you could argue that exceptions to this case could be made. After all, Spock is much more intelligent than most humans and suffers none of the drawbacks seen in other scenarios.
• Dr. Dehner says Gary isn't evil: Is she right? Is Kirk jumping to conclusions? The structure of the story supports Kirk's decision, but it could have been just as interesting to do the other direction.
• Why does Denher turn on Mitchell? What is it about her that gives her the ability to make this decision? It can't be just because she's a woman ...
• The fight is great and inaugurates the torn shirt and sweaty, manly Kirk tradition
• 

Sing along with 'Star Trek'

When I was in college, there was a terrific bookstore in Tucson, Ariz., called Bookman's. The size of a medium size grocery store, Bookman's was a bright, well-organized and deeply stocked emporium of used books, magazines, CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, international newspapers and even comic books. I bought lots of great sci-fi novels there for cheap — more than a few of them "Star Trek" based.

One of the great treasures I scored there sometime around 1990, for less than $5, was a first printing from 1968 of "The Making of Star Trek," by Gene Roddenberry and Stephen E. Whitfield in great shape. This book featured lots of very cool info on the creation of the series, including memos, sketches, photos and script treatments. I have no idea if it's still in print or easy to find, but it's highly recommended for its contemporary, though not PR-free, history of the show's creation.

The book starts out with an often-overlooked bit of trivia: the lyrics to the "Star Trek" theme song as written by Gene Roddenberry. The music, of course, was by Alexander Courage (a great name for a composer).

I've never heard this sung, but you can get the idea by following along in your mind ...

Beyond
The rim of star-light
My love
Is wand'ring in star-flight
I know
He'll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me.

"Trek" never got a musical episode the way "Buffy" did, but for whatever reason this stuck in my head and would have made a very cool alternate track for one of the soundtrack CDs.

TOS, Ep. 1: "The Cage"

Links (I'm putting these here so I don't have to repeat synopses, credits, etc.): IMDB, Star Trek.com, Wikipedia, Star Trek History.com

This was the first pilot for the series, written by Gene Roddenberry and produced in 1964. Famously, this pilot wasn't picked up because it lacked the action Roddenberry had promised the execs at NBC, but the network was impressed enough to order a second pilot.

If this pilot had been picked up, "Star Trek" would have been a very different show. Obviously, Captain Pike, as played by Jeffrey Hunter, was in charge here, with a mostly different crew. Majel Barrett played Number One, the female first officer with the logical computer mind, John Hoyt played a older and kinder medical officer in Dr. Boyce, and Mr. Spock was alien, curious and emotional.

Even deeper, the plot and tone of this pilot is very serious and gets into some interesting moral territory. Pike is a different sort than Kirk or Picard; he's less sentimental than the former and more inclined to brute force than the latter's preference for diplomacy.

Watching this again was fun, and this stands up really well. Here's some of the thoughts that came to me as I watched.

* I think it's cool that Spock uses hand gestures to control the monitors on the bridge. Why was this idea not kept around?

* The crew is seen for one of the few times in casual fashions that reflect our times and aren't "futured" up. Also, the women wear pants with their tunics; the miniskirts (and the need to pander) were still a ways off.

* I wonder if Spock's satanic appearance was inspired by the Overlords in Arthur C. Clarke's excellent novel "Childhood's End." Since he wasn't supposed to be the logical one at this point, at least it's likely that Roddenberry gave him this appearance for much the same reason Clarke did.

* Many elements from this pilot showed up later in The Next Generation, such as Pike saying "Engage!" and the name of Number One.

* The sound work is pretty innovative and more robust than it was later in the series. (Yes, I know it was originally mono, but it still sounds good.) I especially like the very powerful hum of the transporter. It makes them seem more powerful and dangerous.

* The backgrounds on the planet sets were all much more detailed than we got later on, when orange skies and foam rocks stood in for most planets. Most impressive are the detailed images of distant cities and clouds. The clouds gave this show a more glum, overcast kind of look that suits its melancholic tone.

* A friend of mine always called the Talosians "assheads," and it's hard to disagree. They even had what looks like a butt crack on top!

* The fight scene at Rigel 7 appears to be the only sequence shot outdoors, most likely on a backlot somewhere.
* Having an opponent fall to his death from about 10 feet up, as the gladiator does, was used in the second pilot with Gary Mitchell, becoming perhaps the first Trek plot cliche.

* I'd never noticed that the tunic collars when worn with the crew jackets foreshadow the red jackets and sweaters look created in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."

* Best line cut from the re-edit used in "The Menagerie" was from the very sexy Susan Oliver when she says, with just the right tone, "I have to wear something .... don't I?"

* The Talosians evoke a punishment for Pike very much like hell "from a fable you heard in childhood." Does Pike consider hell a fable, or is that the Talosians' judgment? Trek has always been tolerant of native religions, but few members of the crew or Starfleet is ever shown to have much of a religious bent. What's interesting is that, in the history of humankind, religioun and missionary goals have always been (and still is) perhaps the prime motivator after greed of "Trek"-like explorers.

* Those Talosianas sure are creepy watching Pike and Vina confess their attraction. Even more so considering you can't see their hands.

* I always liked the dancing green slave girl sequence and can't help but laugh when Spock reacts to Colt and Number One vanishing from the transporter room by screaming, "The women!"
* Man, Pike's got a mean streak that'd make Worf blush: "Is your blood red like ours? I'm going to find out."
* Seems like Federation technology even at this point could have helped Vina look a little more normal. Still, a pretty good effect for a TV pilot in 1964.

The version I watched was on the DVD release of Season 3, which includes both the original version and the restored version.

For those who don't know, the original color version was cut into a two-part episode with a new framing sequence and retitled "The Menagerie." For a long time afterward, it was thought that no full-length color version survived. This "original version" takes the color stuff used in "Menagerie" and fills in the other spots with black and white footage from a reference print. This version was shown extensively at Trek conventions for years, and aired this way with an introduction by Roddenberry shot in 1986 that is included on the DVD.

Shortly afterward, the missing color elements were found and used to create the "restored" edition, which looks great even 44 years later.

The Adventure Begins!

So I've been on a real Star Trek kick of late. At least part of this is nostalgia for the days when I was really into Star Trek and enjoyed keeping up with everything Trek-related, and the rest is because the hype is starting to build for the upcoming J.J. Abrams-directed revamp, of which I am very skeptical.

I have a long history with Star Trek. In fact, my parents say they used to watch the show in their newlywed days. (One of the interesting points they make is that in 1966, it was one of the few shows in color -- and it made excellent use of that advantage). I first encountered the show when I was in Grade 1, when it was required after-school viewing for all the kids at Grandview Heights Elementary School. Trek was soon overshadowed by Star Wars, but I remember making my parents take me to a Star Trek convention in 1977 or 1978 at the Edmonton Gardens, at which George Takei was a guest and they showed several episodes on film! I saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture the opening weekend at a friend's birthday party, and promptly forgot it. I loved Star Trek II, though, and was a moderate fan through the 1980s.

What really set off my Trek fandom was a combination of debut of The Next Generation and my discovery of Star Trek comics. I was already very much into comics when I picked up the first issue of the third Star Trek series (the second published by DC) in 1989 and was very impressed by it. That should come as no surprise, given that Peter David wrote that comic and he's long been one of the better Trek writers out there. (One of the first autographs I got from a comics creator was Peter's signature on Page 1 of Star Trek #1 during an appearance at All About Books and Comics in Phoenix in 1990). I quickly collected the 1st DC series and most of the Marvel series and was tuned in to TNG every Monday night. I read some of the novels, too, though time became a factor as I graduated from university and got myself a proper job. I went to a handful of conventions, though found them to be a bit too repetitive to stay too excited about them. My first interview with a Trek person was with John De Lancie, aka Q, who came to Flagstaff for an almost embarrassingly small convention held in what was essentially a barn. My interest in Trek waned after Next Generation went off the air and the Generations movie came and went. I had trouble getting into DS9, mostly because where I lived it was only broadcast over the air on a weak signal that was very much a pain to tune in as it required disconnecting the cable, etc. I kept up with Trek comics through about 1997, when the rights jumped over to Marvel again. I tried a few issues, but was no longer overly interested.

A few years later, I was working at Variety, I got to attend a very cool premiere for the Director's Cut DVD of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, at which I shook the hand of director Robert Wise (look up his amazing credits if you don't know who he is). And when they were set to publish a giant 90th Anniversary tribute to Paramount, and I got the Star Trek assignment. I interviewed Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Michael Dorn, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, John Billingsley, Nicholas Meyer and, topping it all off, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. I also had the opportunity to chat with producer Naren Shankar (now on CSI) about a year ago, and we talked about the series and the ways in which it holds up so many years later.

Now, we're back to the start of this story and my renewed interest in Trek. I still have all my old Trek comics — a collection bolstered a few years ago by the acquisition of a near-complete run of the old Gold Key series that ran from 1967-78. I'm also intrigued to see if I'll find a new perspective on the stuff I never got much into, Deep Space Nine in particular, as I keep seeing talk about how that series in particular paid off creatively in later seasons.

I'll be starting with the original series and working my way through the episodes. I'm not going to commit to any format or anything, and expect some episodes will evoke long diatribes while others are merely checked off the list. I may post weekly; I may post a couple time a week. But I'll get there one way or another.

First up: The Cage!!