Answers to Never Asked Questions

(1) Yes, it is possible to watch old "Star Trek" episodes on the video iPod while waiting for the BART, and enjoy them (as much as one can enjoy Star Trek TOS episodes, that is: YMMV).

(2) Yes, Mark Lenard is a remarkably good actor to be able to do the things he does with the incredibly cheesy role of the Romulan Starship Commander in "Balance of Terror."

(3) Yes, if I had seen "The Enemy Below" before seeing "Balance of Terror," I would have found "Balance of Terror" to be an awkward and pathetic cheesy knockoff of a pretty good WWII submarine movie.

(4) Yes, because I saw "Balance of Terror" first, I still enjoy it: my brain paths are too-deeply engraved.

(5) Yes, I do want my HUDs from A Deepness in the Sky, as soon as possible please.

Comments

[Zeke]

Reading Deepness recently, it was amusing to note that the Qeng Ho were apparently using some descendent of Unix (their computers all counted time from just after the first moon landing, ala the "Unix Epoch"), while the Emergents forced everyone to use windows.

[Andrew]

Dang. "Balance of Terror." My favorite episode in the Star Trek - TOS cannon.

"I long to see again the stars of home." "He is a magician, that captain." "In another time, I might have called you friend." Pulled from memory, so I could have botched them, but still...

Also, remember Spock's briefing to the crew of the Enterprise, about ten minutes into the show? 40 years ago, that was how the future looked 300 years from now.

The Neutral Zone. The Bird of Prey. "Can you see it, Enterprise?" Good times....

[jerry]

It wasn't cheesy! And it set the stage for all sorts of Star Trek metaphors to submarines and Star Trek battles to those of WWII.

Take that back!

[Brad Holden]

I would just like to add that "Space Seed" has some painfully bad plotting.

But, hey, for $1.99...

[Calton Bolick]

Geez, what a coincidence, I just bought one of those spiffy Video iPods so I could watch TV while waiting for and riding trains, and yeah, I bought one of those spiffy remastered "Star Trek" episodes to watch on it (though it was "Where No Man Has Gone Before" that I bought), mostly 'cause I haven't seen any of the original series episodes since, probably, college and I was curious.

The new FX are not too distracting and I also noticed (easy to tell when you're watching while wearing headphones) that the theme music and the whooshing of the Enterprise as it zips past are now in stereo. But geez, I don't think the show has aged well.

Unfortunately, you've now inspired me to buy "Balance of Terror" and see if THAT holds up.

"My favorite episode in the Star Trek - TOS cannon."

I thought they used photon torpedoes, not cannons.

[David Graves]

And nobody cares that TEB was directed by ex-crooner turned film noir detective Dick Powell? Or that Mitchum was brilliant? Or that some part of the audience had some personal "enemy" experience, TEB being released only 12 years after WW2? Wow, these sci-fi people do live in a parallel universe...

[rdb]

"Balance of Terror" was a key part of my moral/ethical tool kit: You shouldn't assume that everyone who looks like your enemy is an enemy; your enemy could be honorable, even if he is your enemy; you defend what is yours, but you don't provoke a greater escalation; never underestimate nor overestimate your enemy's capabilities; asymmetrical warfare is a fact of life, even for great powers; you can envision finding common ground with your enemy. Oh, and workplace romances are DOOMED. (Yes, I met my wife at work, oh well.) All in all, a remarkably effective teaching tool for a pre-schooler circa 1972.

[save_the_rustbelt]

I watched these shows on first run, and I wonder how perceptions differ for those who picked up the "canon" later.

At the time it was a HUGE leap ahead of anything ever seen on tv, with the possible exception of the Twilight Zone (trivia: Shatner was featured on one of the best TZs ever).

[save_the_rustbelt]

For the hardcore Trekkies....

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The ashes of James Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original "Star Trek" TV series, have been loaded into a rocket that is set to launch in New Mexico later this month.

[Andrew]

Calton Bolick: Ttouche.

[Kimmitt]

How far into the Slow Zone do those HUD things work, anyways?

[andres]

I don't think "The Enemy Below" is cheesy in spite of its derivative origins. In wartime (and usually a war more total in aspect than the cable-news fest we currently see each day from across the planet, and whose reality is only testified to by mained or suicidally depressed vets), both pro-war sentiments and war-wearyness sound rote and unoriginal, cheesy if you will, and one has to keep that in mind. Not to mention that one man's Roquefort is another man's Velveeta.