Post by Finarvyn on Apr 14, 2024 6:43:27 GMT -6
I'm not a big fan of Star Trek Discovery. I don't like the character of Michael Burnham, don't like the fact that they created a never-heard-of-before sibling for Spock, don't like a lot of the plotlines they built. The best thing about Discovery (for me) was the creation of the plot arc which led to the Strange New Worlds series spinoff.
A thing popped up on my facebook feed today, and I thought it was interesting and may be interesting to others who like TOS Star Trek. I may even go back to watch Discovery episode 2.08 just to see how it holds up.
The FB page was called "Movie and Entertainment Sphere" if you are interested. I didn't see an author credit, or I would have given it. It appears to be mostly random movie and TV stuff with some Star Trek thrown in.
I liked the historical context in which the original series and the newer series are connected.
A thing popped up on my facebook feed today, and I thought it was interesting and may be interesting to others who like TOS Star Trek. I may even go back to watch Discovery episode 2.08 just to see how it holds up.
What is your review of the Star Trek: Discovery episode 2:08 "If Memory Serves"?
That was pretty cool. The nature of a prequel is that it engages in retroactive continuity. That can induce all kinds of response from the audience. Sometimes it needlessly changes things to suit a new story but occasionally it actually improves the original story - and this is such a case.
In the original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage”, The Enterprise is commanded by Captain Christopher Pike. In response to a S.O.S, they visit a planet called Talus IV where they find survivors of a lost ship - or so it seems. Captain Pike is briefly held hostage alongside the sole true survivor of that ship, a woman named Vina. Their captors are telepathic aliens who want to study them by inserting illusions or hallucinations directly into their brain and having them - via these illusions - live out scenarios that involve emotions and character and choices. Spock, Number One, and other Enterprise crew members work to rescue Pike. Eventually he is released and the ship leaves the planet, adventure complete.
That pilot never aired and wasn’t accepted by NBC. They asked for a second pilot with a lot of changes and that’s how we got the Star Trek we all know and love, commanded by James T. Kirk, with lots of colorful scenery and costume intended to convince people to go out and buy a color TV (NBC was owned by RCA, a maker of color televisions).
Halfway through the first season of Star Trek, they were over budget and needed a couple of bottle episodes (cheap episodes that require little to no additional sets or actors). They decided to write a story that would utilize footage from that original pilot. The story they wrote and produced involved Spock committing mutiny and taking over the Enterprise in order to ferry his former Captain, Christopher Pike) to Talus IV. Pike has been crippled by radiation burns that occurred in a heroic activity - rescuing cadets from a damaged ship. He is confined to a chair and unable to move or talk.
Spock’s plan is to take him back to Talus IV, where the Talosians can give him the illusion of perfect health and let him lead a happy active, if mostly imaginary, life with Vina, the woman he met there a decade earlier. The complication is that after that first adventure on Talus IV, Captain Pike reported to Starfleet the dangers of visiting Talus IV - that one could become absorbed in an illusion and never escape. Starfleet passed a rule called General Order 7 - no vessel under any condition, emergency or otherwise, is to visit Talos Four, under penalty of death.
It’s a great two part episode of the original Star Trek, and for many years was the only way for fans to see footage from “The Cage”. But there was always one problematic thing - Why and how did Spock and the Talosians decide to cooperate to help Captain Pike?
In “The Cage”, Spock has little to no contact with the Talosians. He doesn’t establish a relationship of any sort and nor do they. The danger from Talus IV is quite evident and the crew leave the planet knowing they got lucky.
This episode of Star Trek: Discovery, “If Memory Serves” fixes that problem. It establishes a relationship between Spock and the Talosians. It establishes that the Talosians are willing to be of help. Spock, in his time of need, is aided by the Talosians and that having happened makes him risking everything to take his infirm former Captain back to Talus IV completely sensible.
The episode begins with a “previously on Star Trek” that shows a montage of clips from that original Star Trek pilot. I found the weird PowerPoint type editing effects off-putting, but it was wonderful to see that footage and then to see the screen fade from a closeup of Jeffrey Hunter (the actor who originally played Captain Pike) to a closeup of Anson Mount (the actor currently playing Captain Pike). The two bear an eerie resemblance.
This season of Star Trek: Discovery takes place three years after the events of “The Cage”. Spock is suffering from attempting to perform a Vulcan mind meld with the Red Angel that resulted in, as they say in the episode, his experience of time being fluid instead of linear. He has memories of the future and is so tormented he is near catatonic, but he is alert enough to know that the Talosians may be able to help him, so he gets Michael Burnham, his adoptive sister, to break Starfleet regulations and take him there.
It’s a very packed episode with great work for so many characters. We have Michael and Spock finally confronting the events that have led to them being estranged for decades. We have Dr. Culber trying to process the experience of having been dead and then reborn and this has big impacts for both Stamets and Tyler. We have Saru adapting to his new emotional state and freedom from ever present fear. We have Leland and Georgiou tangling with each other on the Section 31 ship. And we have Captain Christopher Pike calmly wrangling all of it, like the badass that he is.
At the end of last week’s episode, when they showed the “next time on Star Trek” clips from this episode, I about leaped out of my seat and exclaimed “Holy crap! the freaking Talosians are back!” quickly followed by “oh please let Vina be with them!” My wishes were granted.
I must say, though, I kind of preferred their physical appearance in the original pilot than in this new episode. The new ridge down the center of the forehead felt unneeded and like it actually reduced the awesome impact of their giant brains. I also think that the Discovery team made a mistake in casting a male actor to play the Keeper. In the original pilot, part of the eery, uncomfortable and alien appearance of the Talosians was that all three were played by middle-aged women but were overdubbed with male voices. It provided the sensation that we were seeing aliens who had little use for their physical bodies other than to carry their enormous brains - brains capable to great telepathy. The new version of the Talosians were physically robust and imposing.
And excuse the teenage boy in me for making an appearance, but as lovely as Melissa George is, she pales in beauty and presence when compared to Susan Oliver, as both played Vina.
Watching this episode reminded me of watching the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Trials and Tribble-ations” in November of 1996. That episode also played retcon and inserted its characters into an original Star Trek story and in doing so actually improved the original story.
Oh, I love Star Trek.
That was pretty cool. The nature of a prequel is that it engages in retroactive continuity. That can induce all kinds of response from the audience. Sometimes it needlessly changes things to suit a new story but occasionally it actually improves the original story - and this is such a case.
In the original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage”, The Enterprise is commanded by Captain Christopher Pike. In response to a S.O.S, they visit a planet called Talus IV where they find survivors of a lost ship - or so it seems. Captain Pike is briefly held hostage alongside the sole true survivor of that ship, a woman named Vina. Their captors are telepathic aliens who want to study them by inserting illusions or hallucinations directly into their brain and having them - via these illusions - live out scenarios that involve emotions and character and choices. Spock, Number One, and other Enterprise crew members work to rescue Pike. Eventually he is released and the ship leaves the planet, adventure complete.
That pilot never aired and wasn’t accepted by NBC. They asked for a second pilot with a lot of changes and that’s how we got the Star Trek we all know and love, commanded by James T. Kirk, with lots of colorful scenery and costume intended to convince people to go out and buy a color TV (NBC was owned by RCA, a maker of color televisions).
Halfway through the first season of Star Trek, they were over budget and needed a couple of bottle episodes (cheap episodes that require little to no additional sets or actors). They decided to write a story that would utilize footage from that original pilot. The story they wrote and produced involved Spock committing mutiny and taking over the Enterprise in order to ferry his former Captain, Christopher Pike) to Talus IV. Pike has been crippled by radiation burns that occurred in a heroic activity - rescuing cadets from a damaged ship. He is confined to a chair and unable to move or talk.
Spock’s plan is to take him back to Talus IV, where the Talosians can give him the illusion of perfect health and let him lead a happy active, if mostly imaginary, life with Vina, the woman he met there a decade earlier. The complication is that after that first adventure on Talus IV, Captain Pike reported to Starfleet the dangers of visiting Talus IV - that one could become absorbed in an illusion and never escape. Starfleet passed a rule called General Order 7 - no vessel under any condition, emergency or otherwise, is to visit Talos Four, under penalty of death.
It’s a great two part episode of the original Star Trek, and for many years was the only way for fans to see footage from “The Cage”. But there was always one problematic thing - Why and how did Spock and the Talosians decide to cooperate to help Captain Pike?
In “The Cage”, Spock has little to no contact with the Talosians. He doesn’t establish a relationship of any sort and nor do they. The danger from Talus IV is quite evident and the crew leave the planet knowing they got lucky.
This episode of Star Trek: Discovery, “If Memory Serves” fixes that problem. It establishes a relationship between Spock and the Talosians. It establishes that the Talosians are willing to be of help. Spock, in his time of need, is aided by the Talosians and that having happened makes him risking everything to take his infirm former Captain back to Talus IV completely sensible.
The episode begins with a “previously on Star Trek” that shows a montage of clips from that original Star Trek pilot. I found the weird PowerPoint type editing effects off-putting, but it was wonderful to see that footage and then to see the screen fade from a closeup of Jeffrey Hunter (the actor who originally played Captain Pike) to a closeup of Anson Mount (the actor currently playing Captain Pike). The two bear an eerie resemblance.
This season of Star Trek: Discovery takes place three years after the events of “The Cage”. Spock is suffering from attempting to perform a Vulcan mind meld with the Red Angel that resulted in, as they say in the episode, his experience of time being fluid instead of linear. He has memories of the future and is so tormented he is near catatonic, but he is alert enough to know that the Talosians may be able to help him, so he gets Michael Burnham, his adoptive sister, to break Starfleet regulations and take him there.
It’s a very packed episode with great work for so many characters. We have Michael and Spock finally confronting the events that have led to them being estranged for decades. We have Dr. Culber trying to process the experience of having been dead and then reborn and this has big impacts for both Stamets and Tyler. We have Saru adapting to his new emotional state and freedom from ever present fear. We have Leland and Georgiou tangling with each other on the Section 31 ship. And we have Captain Christopher Pike calmly wrangling all of it, like the badass that he is.
At the end of last week’s episode, when they showed the “next time on Star Trek” clips from this episode, I about leaped out of my seat and exclaimed “Holy crap! the freaking Talosians are back!” quickly followed by “oh please let Vina be with them!” My wishes were granted.
I must say, though, I kind of preferred their physical appearance in the original pilot than in this new episode. The new ridge down the center of the forehead felt unneeded and like it actually reduced the awesome impact of their giant brains. I also think that the Discovery team made a mistake in casting a male actor to play the Keeper. In the original pilot, part of the eery, uncomfortable and alien appearance of the Talosians was that all three were played by middle-aged women but were overdubbed with male voices. It provided the sensation that we were seeing aliens who had little use for their physical bodies other than to carry their enormous brains - brains capable to great telepathy. The new version of the Talosians were physically robust and imposing.
And excuse the teenage boy in me for making an appearance, but as lovely as Melissa George is, she pales in beauty and presence when compared to Susan Oliver, as both played Vina.
Watching this episode reminded me of watching the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Trials and Tribble-ations” in November of 1996. That episode also played retcon and inserted its characters into an original Star Trek story and in doing so actually improved the original story.
Oh, I love Star Trek.
The FB page was called "Movie and Entertainment Sphere" if you are interested. I didn't see an author credit, or I would have given it. It appears to be mostly random movie and TV stuff with some Star Trek thrown in.
I liked the historical context in which the original series and the newer series are connected.
