Category: Podcast

In this episode:

Star Trek does Shakespeare for the first but by no means the last time.

Kirk continues his habit of seducing women to get close to a criminal mastermind–this time with another TOS sexist female stereotype character.

And she hides a phaser on overload in the most easily foiled murder plot ever.

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In this podcast:

Another case of the producers hammering home the idea that Star Trek should not  be be written as straight Science-Fiction

An exploration about how this episode used the parallel Earth trope, and how future Trek writers tried to explain/retcon its use for Miri’s World

A takedown of the episode’s premise: 300 year old children would not act this… childish.

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In this podcast:

A fascinating window into the producers’ views on how to avoid technobabble and other science-fiction cliches

The first episode that depicts Kirk as a cad, and not just because he kisses a sexy android

Another average episode about a mad scientist who lacks clear motivation for his dastardly deeds–didn’t this happen in last week’s episode?

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In this episode:

• Why this TOS episode earns its reputation as one of the most disappointing–it could have been great but unravels in the last act.
• Poor Nurse Chapel–why she is not well loved, even by the actress who played her.
• But it can’t be all bad when you have a dead alien race called the Old Ones killed off by their android progeny (Take note Silicon Valley singularity hustlers).

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In this episode we discuss:

• Why this classic is good but by no means perfect
• Roddenberry’s explanation of why NOT to use technobabble and HOW to avoid it
• More world building: still no mention of Starfleet or a Federation
• More on Kirk’s inner conflict and how it explains his deep friendship with Spock
• Oh, and we get one of the best alien species introductions in all of Star Trek: the Romulans

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In this episode of Masterpiece Science-Fiction Theater we look at the narrative trends over the first 7 episodes of Star Trek.

Listen for the analysis, but you can see some of the tabulations below:

Narrative Structure

Antagonist Type

Monster Episode: a non-human, mysterious antagonist puts the ship and/or crew in danger	Where No Man… (1) The Man Trap (5) Charlie X (6) The Corbomite Maneuver (2) The Enemy Within (4)	71%
Action/Adventure: a human(oid) antagonist or a force drives the conflict; the ship and crew overcome a series of obstacles to achieve a goal	The Naked Time (7) Mudd’s Women (3)	29%

Narrative Type

Boiling the Frog Plot: introduce a threat and ratchet up its danger over several acts	Where No Man… The Man Trap Charlie X	43%
Dodgeball Plot: continuous pile on of multiple conflicts and narrative threads	The Corbomite Maneuver Mudd’s Women The Enemy Within The Naked Time	57%

World Building

Michael Okuda: Whenever you have an invented universe, the most important thing is your look, your style. Even if you have a huge budget, you can’t really build a Starship enterprise, you cannot really build Star Fleet Command. What you can do is suggest it and let the audience’s mind fill it in. So you do you do that? It turns out, you pick a style, you pick a particular color planet, a particular way of shooting things, a particular way of shooting visual effects, a particular way of telling stories, and that becomes your style. And once you define that, if you defined it well, if you believe in it, if your stories believe in it, the audience will by into it.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHOpSrDwZNM

5 planets–all desolate and deserted or near-deserted:

WNM: Delta Vega

Mudd’s Women: Rigel 12

Enemy Within: Alpha 177

Man Trap: M-113

Naked Time: Psi 2000

Charlie X: Thasus

TNG Season 1 comparison: Encounter; Lonely Among Us (Antica and Selay): 2 of first 6 are exclusively about admission to the federation. 9 of 25 episodes (36%) are either have either the A plot or the B plot be about the Enterprise settling a political dispute between different worlds or between the Federation and an alien group (and I’m not counting the Ferengi, Klingon or Romulan episodes)   

Final Analysis

Masterpiece (5 points)	Corbomite Maneuver The Naked Time	10
Classic (4 points)	Where No Man Enemy Within Man Trap Charlie X	16
Average Outing (3 points)		2
Dime Store Paperback (2 points)	Mudd’s Women
Hackish Drivil (1 point)
Total Score		28

 

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In this podcast episode I discuss my big take aways from the first Discovery trailer.

If you have not see it yet, here is the link to Trekmovie’s screen cap breakdown.

Also, if you have not read my piece on the implications of Sonequa Martin-Green’s Commander Burnham being the lead character but NOT the captain, check it out here.

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In this episode:

• A return to the Trekian theme of absolute power corrupting absolutely, this time with a hormonal teen
• Some interesting world-building tidbits: our first non-Enterprise Earth ship
• Discussion of the studio conflict with Roddenberry over ship-board versus planet-based stories (Spoiler Alert: Roddenberry won)
• The first Trek episode written by a woman: D.C. Fontana

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In this Episode:

• An explanation of why Spock became the most iconic Trek character
• Why this episode is the one of the most consequential episodes of the Trek franchise
• How Spock invented time travel, and how Star Trek might have become Time Trek
• Kirk, Spock and Queer Theory–because why not?

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