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krpalmerI never quite got around to going to see the new Star Trek movie. Being off on vacation when it opened might have had something to do with that, although I did notice it was playing in Bar Harbor, Maine. After I got back, I took a gift certificate I'd got as a present and went to the local theatre to arrive ten minutes before showtime; what I hadn't thought before leaving, though, was that it was Tuesday and lots of people were lined up ahead of me to get cheap tickets. Convinced I'd never get to the box office in time, I turned around and left, thinking I'd just go on a different day next week; by that time, though, the movie had stopped playing in 2D and I'd have to add a surcharge to my gift certificate to see it in 3D. At that point, I admit to deciding I could do without.
I was, though, still intent on watching some more episodes of the original series, moving on to the DVDs I'd recorded off the local science fiction channel. (Getting back from vacation, though, I noticed it had played through to the end of the third season and stopped showing that series altogether, a somehow odd time to stop even if it's been trying to revamp its image.) The appropriate place to start seemed to be the first regular episode filmed, if not the first episode broadcast...
Things still seem a bit plastic in "The Corbomite Maneuver," with Uhura wearing a gold uniform and Leonard Nimoy delivering Spock's lines with more force than you'd expect (although he does say his first "Fascinating," something improvised after the script had been written). That, though, I was just willing to see as part of the "period charm"; there were, anyway, also a few interesting camera moves not attempted later on in the series. In watching the episode, I did find myself thinking of the slightly later "Balance of Terror," included on one of my two "Best of The Original Series" DVDs as another episode featuring the Enterprise facing a mysterious and threatening starship with the navigator-of-the-week stuck showing humanity's fallibility. I started thinking, though, that where different circumstances might have had the first episode of a series setting up a recurring antagonist, this one offers the chance of peaceful reconciliation and getting past your fallibility. (Then, somewhat later, I realised the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced Q in circumstances somewhat echoing this episode, and felt just a little embarrassed. While I might be focusing on "the greatest historic significance," I'm trying to stay away from putting everything else down.) "Corbomite" itself, while not the only thing that gets the ship out of trouble, seemed at first thought a bit of a stretch to bluff with. On reflecting it might not have been a case of needing to head off the sort of "alien" bent on destroying all other forms of life but understanding on a certain level that you're being tested and testing a merely enigmatic intelligence in turn, though, I started thinking it might fit in after all.
I was, though, still intent on watching some more episodes of the original series, moving on to the DVDs I'd recorded off the local science fiction channel. (Getting back from vacation, though, I noticed it had played through to the end of the third season and stopped showing that series altogether, a somehow odd time to stop even if it's been trying to revamp its image.) The appropriate place to start seemed to be the first regular episode filmed, if not the first episode broadcast...
Things still seem a bit plastic in "The Corbomite Maneuver," with Uhura wearing a gold uniform and Leonard Nimoy delivering Spock's lines with more force than you'd expect (although he does say his first "Fascinating," something improvised after the script had been written). That, though, I was just willing to see as part of the "period charm"; there were, anyway, also a few interesting camera moves not attempted later on in the series. In watching the episode, I did find myself thinking of the slightly later "Balance of Terror," included on one of my two "Best of The Original Series" DVDs as another episode featuring the Enterprise facing a mysterious and threatening starship with the navigator-of-the-week stuck showing humanity's fallibility. I started thinking, though, that where different circumstances might have had the first episode of a series setting up a recurring antagonist, this one offers the chance of peaceful reconciliation and getting past your fallibility. (Then, somewhat later, I realised the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced Q in circumstances somewhat echoing this episode, and felt just a little embarrassed. While I might be focusing on "the greatest historic significance," I'm trying to stay away from putting everything else down.) "Corbomite" itself, while not the only thing that gets the ship out of trouble, seemed at first thought a bit of a stretch to bluff with. On reflecting it might not have been a case of needing to head off the sort of "alien" bent on destroying all other forms of life but understanding on a certain level that you're being tested and testing a merely enigmatic intelligence in turn, though, I started thinking it might fit in after all.