More Trek Observations
I continue my meander through Star Trek.
If you don't care, don't read.
Five episodes in and Star Trek is a very high concept series. Each of the first five episodes are thinly veiled examinations of "the dark side" of human nature with an interesting array of writers at the helm. (Except in the case of Fontana, these episodes are the only Original Series writing credit for these guys.)
Episode One: "The Man Trap" was written by George Clayton Johnson, veteran writer of seven Twilight Zone episodes and most noted for having come up with the story for Ocean's Eleven and having written the novel, Logan's Run.
Episode Two: "Charlie X" had, as I've said before, Roddenberry behind the story and Trek scribe D.C. Fontana kicking out the teleplay.
Episode Three: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the second pilot, was written by Samuel A. Peeples. I thought that had to be a Roddenberry pseudonym, but it turns out Peeples has a string of Western stories and teleplays under his belt. Roughly five years after starting Star Trek, he would go on to write five episodes of Space Academy and six episodes of Jason of Star Command.
Episode Four: "The Naked Time" was written, again, by associate producer, John D.F. Black.
And Episode Five: "The Enemy Within" was scribed by SF and Horror heavy-hitter, Richard Matheson. He wrote the screenplays for the Vincent Price versions of The Pit and the Pendulum and The Raven, bunches of Western teleplays, some of The Martian Chronicles mini-series, and Jaws 3. Most notably, though, he wrote the novel and screenplay of The Incredible Shrinking Man, wrote the novel, I Am Legend, and 16 episodes of The Twilight Zone, including the legendary "Terror at 20,000 Feet" (coincidentally(?) featuring William Shatner).
"The Enemy Within" is the one where a transporter malfunction (first time that device is used to set up a Jungian(?) inspired examination) splits Kirk into his "positive side" which expresses compassion, love, and reasoning and his "negative side" exhibiting aggression, lust*, and fear. The lesson we learn is that Kirk's ability to make decisions and his will to command come from his "negative side" and though it's unpleasant, he is (and, by extension, we are) useless without it.
It's a fun little episode with director, Leo Penn (blacklisted actor with actual communist sympathies, who turned to directing; father of Sean and Michael Penn) doing what he can with doubles and shadows to avoid the split screen as much as possible. The really interesting thing is the ticking clock in the episode comes from the fact that Sulu and some anonymous crewmen are on a planet whose night time temperature is plummeting to 100+ degrees below zero. (Fahrenheit, I think.) Their rescue depends on the transporter getting fixed. For seasoned Trek watchers, it's puzzling why they don't just send down a shuttle craft to get them. The answer, of course, is that at this time in the series they hadn't conceived of the ship having shuttle craft. In fact, the whole point of the transporter was to avoid shooting costly shuttle flying sequences. Plus, this is '66. Gagarin and Glen had already orbited the earth ('61 and '62 respectively) and that year would see both the Soviets and Americans land unmanned crafts on the Moon, but return flights are a few years off. Thus it wouldn't, I guess, be as obvious to consider dropping supplies to Sulu and others from orbit.
Interestingly enough, Takei gets some fine face time in this episode as does Doohan (Scotty), while Nichols (Uhura) is never seen, only heard once briefly over an intercom.
* - It's 1966 and "evil Kirk" attempts to rape Yeoman Rand. To his credit, Penn does not glamorize the incident, using camera shots that feel uncomfortably close and invasive, focusing on Grace Lee Whitney's expressions and how this is all effecting Rand. Rand fights "evil Kirk" back and lucks out in getting the attention of a passing crewman. Later on, she has to recount her story in front of Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and "good Kirk". No woman present. No identified advocate. She says she doesn't want to get the captain "in trouble but ..." That moment is a little cringe worthy. But all and all I thought, "not bad for 1966" ... until the very end of the episode when Mr. Spock (of all people!) smirkingly suggests to Yeoman Rand (in a moment played as a piece of throw away ending comedy) that she kind of liked her captain rough and rapin'. Nudge, nudge. -- D'oh!!
If you don't care, don't read.
Five episodes in and Star Trek is a very high concept series. Each of the first five episodes are thinly veiled examinations of "the dark side" of human nature with an interesting array of writers at the helm. (Except in the case of Fontana, these episodes are the only Original Series writing credit for these guys.)
Episode One: "The Man Trap" was written by George Clayton Johnson, veteran writer of seven Twilight Zone episodes and most noted for having come up with the story for Ocean's Eleven and having written the novel, Logan's Run.
Episode Two: "Charlie X" had, as I've said before, Roddenberry behind the story and Trek scribe D.C. Fontana kicking out the teleplay.
Episode Three: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the second pilot, was written by Samuel A. Peeples. I thought that had to be a Roddenberry pseudonym, but it turns out Peeples has a string of Western stories and teleplays under his belt. Roughly five years after starting Star Trek, he would go on to write five episodes of Space Academy and six episodes of Jason of Star Command.
Episode Four: "The Naked Time" was written, again, by associate producer, John D.F. Black.
And Episode Five: "The Enemy Within" was scribed by SF and Horror heavy-hitter, Richard Matheson. He wrote the screenplays for the Vincent Price versions of The Pit and the Pendulum and The Raven, bunches of Western teleplays, some of The Martian Chronicles mini-series, and Jaws 3. Most notably, though, he wrote the novel and screenplay of The Incredible Shrinking Man, wrote the novel, I Am Legend, and 16 episodes of The Twilight Zone, including the legendary "Terror at 20,000 Feet" (coincidentally(?) featuring William Shatner).
"The Enemy Within" is the one where a transporter malfunction (first time that device is used to set up a Jungian(?) inspired examination) splits Kirk into his "positive side" which expresses compassion, love, and reasoning and his "negative side" exhibiting aggression, lust*, and fear. The lesson we learn is that Kirk's ability to make decisions and his will to command come from his "negative side" and though it's unpleasant, he is (and, by extension, we are) useless without it.
It's a fun little episode with director, Leo Penn (blacklisted actor with actual communist sympathies, who turned to directing; father of Sean and Michael Penn) doing what he can with doubles and shadows to avoid the split screen as much as possible. The really interesting thing is the ticking clock in the episode comes from the fact that Sulu and some anonymous crewmen are on a planet whose night time temperature is plummeting to 100+ degrees below zero. (Fahrenheit, I think.) Their rescue depends on the transporter getting fixed. For seasoned Trek watchers, it's puzzling why they don't just send down a shuttle craft to get them. The answer, of course, is that at this time in the series they hadn't conceived of the ship having shuttle craft. In fact, the whole point of the transporter was to avoid shooting costly shuttle flying sequences. Plus, this is '66. Gagarin and Glen had already orbited the earth ('61 and '62 respectively) and that year would see both the Soviets and Americans land unmanned crafts on the Moon, but return flights are a few years off. Thus it wouldn't, I guess, be as obvious to consider dropping supplies to Sulu and others from orbit.
Interestingly enough, Takei gets some fine face time in this episode as does Doohan (Scotty), while Nichols (Uhura) is never seen, only heard once briefly over an intercom.
* - It's 1966 and "evil Kirk" attempts to rape Yeoman Rand. To his credit, Penn does not glamorize the incident, using camera shots that feel uncomfortably close and invasive, focusing on Grace Lee Whitney's expressions and how this is all effecting Rand. Rand fights "evil Kirk" back and lucks out in getting the attention of a passing crewman. Later on, she has to recount her story in front of Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and "good Kirk". No woman present. No identified advocate. She says she doesn't want to get the captain "in trouble but ..." That moment is a little cringe worthy. But all and all I thought, "not bad for 1966" ... until the very end of the episode when Mr. Spock (of all people!) smirkingly suggests to Yeoman Rand (in a moment played as a piece of throw away ending comedy) that she kind of liked her captain rough and rapin'. Nudge, nudge. -- D'oh!!
posted by - caj at 12:53 PM
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