Cookie Monster and I will get the ball rolling on the discussion. Join in the comments section!
Me: Of all the iconic images of the original Star Trek, the shot of a shirtless Sulu running the corridors with his fencing swords ranks up there as one of my favorites. Again, it’s great to see the character play a pivotal role in this episode concerning a shipboard infection and its psychological effects on the Enterprise’s crew. Some very nice character moments in this one, especially with regard to Spock, his backstory, and how his Vulcan-human heritage is a surprising source of conflict for the typically inscrutable first officer. Like Charlie X, however, it’s somewhat sullied by a deus ex machine ending that solves everything, nice and neat.
Cookie Monster: Forget de ending. Monster’s biggest problem wit dis episode be de title. If you promise Naked Time, me expect Naked Time!
Me: The episode gets off to a strange start with Spock and some idiot investigating a dead science team on a dead world. The shower curtain hazmat suits they wear presumably affords them some measure of protection – but the concept is lost on Spock’s escort who takes off his glove long enough to scratch his nose and get infected. Then, upon returning to the Enterprise, he attempts to stroll out of the transporter room without going through the decontamination protocol. Dude, seriously? It’s like Spock was on his way to to the transporter, happened upon this moron enroute and offered to let him tag along. No experience necessary!
Cookie Monster: Despite dis guy’s stupidity, episode open wit great mystery on planet. All science team dead. One woman strangled. One guy frozen at his post. Other guy frozen taking a shi…ower.
Me: It’s another suspenseful build as the infection spreads to the rest of the crew. The idiot is the first one to have it affect his mind, going off on his fellow crew members before pulling a knife on them.
Cookie Monster: Look out! Me have a butter knife and me not afraid to use it!
Me: But apparently even a butter knife can be deadly – if you fall on it.
Cookie Monster: Sulu and Riley next to fall viktims to infektion. While Sulu run around trying to skewer everyone in sight, Riley lock himself down, set ship on crash course, and sing his lungs out. Kirk and co. horrified. Crashing into planet is bad enough, but having to listen to guy sing while dey await inevitable death be final ignominy. It be small consolation dat Uhura not join him in duet.
Me: A shirtless, ripped Sulu hits the bridge – only to get taken out by a Kirk-Spock combo. By the way, did you notice Spock actually make a joke in reference to the unconscious Sulu: “Get D’Artagnan here to sick bay.”?
Cookie Monster: He better off sticking to his broody persona. Chicks seem to dig it – like nurse Christine who tell him she in love wit him. You know what dey say: “Once you go vulcan, you never be sulkin’!”.
Me: Right. Anyway, once Spock is infected, we’re treated to some great insights into his past and his attitude toward his dual vulcan-human culture, the regret he experiences for never having told his mother he loved her, his sympathy for her – a human living in an emotionally bereft vulcan society, the shame he sometimes experiences in friendship with Kirk. Great stuff. Things build to an unbelievable narrative crescendo as McCoy, in a race against time, manages to devise an antidote for the infection.
Cookie Monster: And den dey go back in time and it’s tree days earlier.
Me: Er, yes. They go back in time. For some reason.
Cookie Monster: Becuz cold matter and antimatter mix in explosion.
Me: Uh, right.
Cookie Monster: And it be tree days earlier. And dey have to relive dose tree days over again.
Me: Whatever that means because they clearly still possess memories of what happened to them.
Cookie Monster: De End.
Me: Minus three days.
Tomorrow = the highlights of my east coast trip including more details about my new scifi series!
Yeah I never understood that ending with the going back in time due to a cold restart of the engines. And of course there is only one possible mixture of matter to antimatter – 1 to 1! Any other mixture would be pointless as you’d have extra unused matter or antimatter in the reactor. I suppose when I was younger prior to my high school physics courses I would have just gone with it, now its like huh?
And taking off your environmental suit glove in what appeared to be absolutely frigid conditions is like wtf! Wouldn’t his hand like freeze?
This is one of my favorite episodes, despite the inconsistencies. I liked Riley singing at the console while the ship is in crash mode. 😀 :p
Going back and watching TOS makes me think how funny it would be to tell Spock his future. “You outlive all your friends, end up alone and without family, then after everyone forgets about you, you wind up in an alternate universe with younger, hotter versions of you and your old friends, where you get stranded on a frozen ice planet after watching Vulcan get destroyed, but hardly anyone knows you’re there except your alternate universe self, the same guy who makes you totally redundant.” Would that warrant a one- or two-eyebrow raise?
I, too, was disappointed that The Naked Time had a distinct lack of nakedness . . . except for Sulu who must have been spending some serious hours in the gym!
I did notice Spock’s joke. I wonder if he’s a member of the Enterprise Improv Club?
And I had to snork at the butter knife. I’m sure it could do a lot of damage but it wasn’t exactly very threatening.
As for the time travel bit at the end, I was also a bit confused as to why it was tacked on there. If this was a modern show then I would be thinking, “Ah ha! They’re setting this up so they can use time travel in a later episode!” but I’m pretty sure we’ll never hear about cold starting the engines again. Sure, there’s some time travel in later episodes and movies but what’s the bet that cold starting engines has nothing to do with it?
My biggest gripe so far with the series is that they’re supposed to be going “where no man has gone before” and yet they only seem to be visiting planets that, while not teeming, people have certainly gone before.
And of course the episode with Kirk de-shirting tally goes to 4 for 4. Bones pulled it off near the last minute, or pulled his upper sleeve off to show that multi-contoured part of the upper arm and shoulder, the bit with that little dip above the deltoid and a good bit of the…anyway, it was obviously completely unnecessary or McCoy would have done that to everyone he inoculated. Totally unnecessary. Yep.
The whole “time travel stuck on the end of The Naked Time” issue made me think that the writers were intending a time-travel arc later in the series (not that they had many arcs), but that they never got around to it.
Hey, at least this episode wasn’t another “god-like power corrupts lowly human” storyline. Two episodes of that back to back were quite enough for one season.
I had enjoyed TOS when it first aired because WOW, finally SciFi made it to TV. Did not discount Twilight Zone or Outer Limits but this was supposed to be stuff in space and not just “normal” human stuff being thrown out of kilter with horror fantasy and bizarre things happening. Was so sad it went away and loved the periodic episodes from time to time. Now, I am at an “oh my” moment in that watching them in a row…is a bit of a downer except of course for the parts I did like. Some of the episode titles seemed like they were shaken out of a box. Perhaps to try to attract attention. “Man Trap” really did not convey anything significant to me at the time…and on re-watching…still doesn’t.
The odd release cycle – where you can plainly see the different uniforms or even Spock’s kinda funny and bushy eyebrows that became “tamed.”
It was almost as though there were some elements of trying borrow from Twilight Zone or Outer Limits with the story lines in the first 5 we are viewing.
So except for some of the “fan girl” parts I did like, these were not favorites.
Later as they really did start to go where no one had gone before, I was more invested. It was very interesting/entertaining when tidbits of “how they accomplished” a special effect. Salt shaker for medical scanner, cartridge tape player for tri corder, etc. And, don’t you just love – no pockets unless they were wearing the jackets? Phaser “holster” Velcro. But, this is what was needed to do what “no one had done before.”
Man Trap – reallllllly, trap for whom? Plum? Doc? Kirk? redshirt? Not!
Charlie X – spoiled brat. Creepy kids to quote Cookie. Don’t know if the Twilight Zone – bad kid one had aired already or not, but it was reminiscent of that.
Where No Man Has gone before – Mitchell could not get used to his contacts.
Naked time – thank goodness for George Takei and his swordsman ship.
Back in the day, I would defend SciFi…so I am embarrassed that I am trashing these episode….shame.
They seem to come across planets that make them lose control a lot. I’m surprised at how many eps had Spock losing control over some toxic flower or virus and showing his sexy side.
Everything out of Sulu does in this ep is so snappy and smart. I love that when he loses his inhibitions he goes RenFaire and talks like an rogue knight. I love that they kept his blade skilz in the current Trek reboot.
I think I will postpone my pet sit that I have to leave for now to read the next entry…..I can do that for 5 minutes. Maybe this storm will pass in the meantime and I can get the dog walked if I do.