I really like the twist ending of that episode,it was more like a Twilight-Zone episode. Once you find out what Trelane really is you FEEL for him,at least I did. LOL. You won't be allowed to make any more planets,that comment always gets me as a viewer.
I've been into your reactions for a while now. You pointed out something that gets lost in the discussion about original Trek- these are talented, competent people who work well together and solve difficult problems. That's what Leonard Nimoy understood so well when he directed his movies. And the actors are all professional and charming.
These are all solid episodes, Tomorrow is Yesterday is probably my fav. I met William Campbell at a convention some years ago & he said he loved playing Trelane, it was a dream role for him. Enjoyable reactions from you, keep em' going.
Both William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy experienced permanent hearing issues of Tinnitus after the Arena episode. Those practical explosions were dangerously too close to them in some of the scenes during filming
The Arena is one of my favourite episodes. Filmed in the same desert area used to film a ton of other Star Trek out door scenes. As a 10 year old with an old time not exactly child-safe chemistry set in the 60's that contained all the ingredients Kirk harvested, (except the diamonds), and using basic chemistry to make a cannon, I thought this was such a scientific episode. Plus the slow moving Gorn dinosaur looking alien was so cool to child me too.
A bit of trivia for you: “Tomorrow is Yesterday” was written by D.C. Fontana…a name which pops up all over in SF in general and Trek in particular for decades after this episode. Among other things, Fontana wrote the screenplay for “Charlie X”. “D.C.” stands for “Dorothy Catherine”, and what being a woman writing for SF in the 60’s was like I cannot begin to imagine.
D C Fontana was a key member of Star Trek's writing staff. She had many episodes that offered much of the history of the Star Trek universe. BTW even with the Animated series episode "Yesterday" (another D C Fontana creation) it will be an outstanding episode.
Trelane is one of the series' most memorable characters! He's a little like Harry Mudd, an absolutely dreadful character but played with humor in such a way that he becomes a likable favorite. Some trivia about "Arena": 1) It was filmed at Vasquez Rocks, a park near Los Angeles that is used in a lot of shows. It makes a fun and memorable appearance in the second film of the Bill and Ted trilogy "Bogus Journey". 2) The gorn was voiced by Ted Cassidy, who played Ruk in "What are Little Girls Made of?" and the voice of puppet Balok in "The Corbomite Maneuver". 3) Sean Kenney played Mr. DePaul, the navigator of the week, and also wheelchair Pike in "The Menagerie". 4) When we first hear the gorn speak to Kirk, one of his lines, according to the subtitles, is "this is your opponent, earthling." But I hear "this is your opponent cursing" which I think works much better in several ways. "Tomorrow is Yesterday" is arguably my favorite episode. The stakes are high, the humor is great, and our favorite characters are brilliant. It's the second time we see the Enterprise travel through time under its own power (after "The Naked Time") in a maneuver that is used several times throughout the franchise. The first time, the engines imploded, whereas the second time, they buckled. They're getting better at this, but Starfleet must be getting tired of doing major overhauls every few weeks. But then, they seem to "put in" for refits even more often than we see in the episodes, as we didn't see Cygnet 14. Yes, our characters are all at the top of their game. But you didn't mention Uhura! Not only does she operate the communications station, but we've seen her navigate the ship, twice! In her backstory, she's also a brilliant linguist. In another episode she repairs equipment and draws praise from her crewmates. (Plus she can sing, and thanks to Trelane, she can play the harpsichord.) Nichelle Nichols and her character Uhura inspired so many people to do so many amazing things!
Question about Return to tomorrow: they make a point of the female computer voice, though it’s very wacky, yet I’m used to the computers always having a female voice! Is this the first episode we hear the computer voice? That’s amazing if true. Of course for all future episodes, the voice is very professional.
25:06 "So shouldn't y'all _explore_ more before you establish outposts?" Well, I mean, how much exploration do you think is necessary? How much is appropriate? Presumably, they had explored the entire star system and found no technology. What I don't get, though, is why the Gorn didn't do a better job of marking their borders? I mean, the Federation would _never_ have tried to establish a settlement on that planet if they had known it was in someone else's territory, and space faring civilizations inevitably exert authority over domains they enclose within _borders._ Ideally, they make it a point to mark these borders as unmistakably as possible in order to prevent _precisely_ this kind of conflict.
Courtney-- A big star trek here and I just had to make a comment on epi. 17. At the end in wrap up Kirk mentions to Spock how he probably did things like dip little girls hair into inkwells. Im showing my age but back when I was in school those round holes in wooden desks were made for inkwells. When I was in elementary we did have to use ink pens in which we dipped into those ink wells, man those things made a mess on paper. You may have even wondered and said what are inkwells,, anyway just had to bring it up. Have a great day,,,, Steve
Courtney! You hit upon one of the really neat aspects of this series. The characters each have his or her own skills and personalities, and they all work together synergistically as a competent group.
Warp factors are a mite tricky. TOS didn't have much of a cap on them, but the general gist was supposed to be that Warp 1 was equivalent to the speed of light, only without the relativistic effects, and every warp factor after that was an order of magnitude faster than the last. I think the highest they got was a brief mention of Warp 14. When they wrote the setting bible for The Next Generation, they tweaked the scale. They kept Warp 1 as light speed, but set Warp 10 as the functional cap of 'infinite velocity', saying that at that point you're going so fast and warping space so much that you are effectively everywhere. It's considered functionally unreachable, as going at infinite velocity would require infinite power. The intervening 'warp factors' on the scale were noted as points in the warp scale where one could maintain a specific warp speed with a drop in energy requirements... like 'at this point, you can save fuel by just maintaining speed rather than accelerating or letting yourself slow down' (imagine if you could save gas by trying to maintain speeds that are a multiple of 10 for as long as possible, that's kind of what the TNG warp scale is like). This was explained as an in-setting scientific development discovered by scientists somewhere between the TOS movies and the TNG pilot. A lot of fans like to think it's an outgrowth of the transwarp experiments run aboard the USS Excelsior during the TOS movies, and that's not an unreasonable notion.
Tomorrow is Yesterday does a lot of things I agree with but the ending has always bugged me. To my mind, either they transported Christopher into the plane at the end at precisely the same time he was beamed out at the start of the episode, or they beamed him on top of himself at the end of the episode. In the first part of the episode, the plane was breaking up at the time he was beamed out, so option 1 is off the table. Even if it weren’t off the table for that reason, future Christopher still has all the memories of the Enterprise. Option 2 seems to imply they somehow beamed Christopher into himself, magically getting him off the ship /and/ resetting his memories. I would absolutely believe a story where the enterprise crew rigged things to prevent them from beaming him out in the first place and being seen by him; that takes care of both his appearance on the ship and his memories. But transporters basically convert matter to energy and back; so if you beam future Christopher on top of past christopher, you’re trying to get two people to occupy more or less the same place at the same time, which is generally fatally (and horribly so).
21:27 I agree with Courtney, it seems Uhuru was not paying attention to what the Metrons were saying. If someone is going to freak out in horror when someone vanishes in front of them, then they really should not be a Starfleet officer. 🙄
Another short lived series about time was called the time tunnel. Two good time movies from the 1980s you should see 1: The philidelphia experiment. 2: The final countdown.✌️❤️
If youre into time travel shows you need to check out the original Quantum Leap from the 80s/90s which stars Scott Bakula who would go on to play Captain Archer in Star Trek Enterprise.
TV episodes on sci fi, cop shows, westerns etc... were often written by a variety of contributing writers instead of the same people every time. That's why the mood or story might seem to jump around sometimes. The Gorn is the spiritual predecessor to the slow-moving Sleestak from 1974. If you like time travel watch the tv series Quantum Leap.
court, have you seen In The Heat of the Night? It was a book, a movie, and a TV show. The movie stars Sidney Poitier! The TV show was awesome but mainly in the first few seasons when it still had Mr. Tibbs. But the movie you definitely have to check out. It's about a police detective from Philadelphia who goes down to a very racist part of the south to visit I think it was his grandmother. Well, there's a murder, and the very racist local PD is looking for a suspect, and he is racially profiled 😞 the local PD chief founds out he is a detective and releases him. Says to him, "virgil, that's a strange name for a [n-word] from Philadelphia. What do you they call you there?" and he says, raising his voice, "THEY CALL ME MR. TIBBS!!" Well, long story short, he solves their murder for them and goes back to Philadelphia, and the chief is far less racist as a result, and says as Tibbs leaves on the train "hey virgil, y'all take care!" and Tibbs smiles and says "yeah!" (meaning, they are "cool" with each other now). The TV show takes place in the 90s and "retcons" the story from the movie as having taken place in the 80s....same character different actor. Anyway you should check it out. 🙂
21:46 "This is, uh, _very different_ from what I _thought_ was gonna happen." If the writers have done their job right, you say that with _every_ episode.
For me I saw everything out of order in reruns starting in the early '70s. The local station aired them on weekends in no particular order. Airing things in order was a serious challenge for local stations, not just due to incompetence, which famously lead to the catastrophe of the Roots mini-series being aired out of order. Soap operas got around this with a strictly enforced "destroy after playing" policy for the recordings. It wasn't until satellite broadcasts that the problem would be solved and multi episode plot arcs became possible in the US. The biggest hurdle to airing things in order were the cheap sticker labels on the giant cassettes video was stored on. These frequently fell off or rodents/insects ate the labels as the glue was organic, or the labels were removed to keep them from falling into the machine, or the label was unreadable or confusing, or something spilled on it, or the heat from the machine turned them brown, or they were put back in the wrong case, or the case was put on the wrong shelf, and any of a zillion other things. Notably other countries did not have this problem and Doctor Who would manage multi episode plot arcs in the '50s.
8:22 "Yeah, he loves _this_ time period." This is the time period he (allegedly) sees when he looks at Earth, because of time displacement. They kind of screwed up the numbers, but you know how the spaces between stars are so great that they have to use _light_ years instead of miles and kilometers. Of course, this means they have to account for the time it takes light to cross that _distance._ So if you point a telescope at something 20 light years away, you will see it as it was 20 years previously. If you point a telescope at something _1000_ light years away, you will see it as it was _1000_ years previously. Trelane's environment is saturated with elements from _this_ century because he has no way of directly observing anything more _recent._ Its light has not reached his _world,_ yet. It's on the way, but the distances are so great that it's going to _take_ a while.
Aren't you more curious how Trelaine knew about the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Raymond Burr when that only happened.... 🤔⏲️🗓️📐⏳📜💫 Happened a few hundred years sooner than Trelaine's view of the Earth?
@@TheNoiseySpectator Well, I mean, I'm not the first one to point it out, but they got the time displacement wrong. They were off be a few centuries. But, I mean, you start picking up on conflicts between the _apparent_ time dilation and the _actual_ time dilation, and the inconsistencies become glaring long before that particular one.
Hi Courtney :) When I first saw Squire in the late 60s, I was 3-4 years old and it kind of scared me. It took a while to realize that he was just a spoiled brat acting out. Bill Campbell was a great actor, and you will see him again in a different role. Arena is great because it puts us in real combat situations off the Enterprise, and we aren't sure what's going on. The only bit so see is Kirk immediately chasing the Gorn without even calling them first. I'm surprised Starfleet didn't reprimand him for trying to attack first.
.... Assuming he was telling the truth. ☝️ On the other hand, Kirk was so proud, how could he resist pointing out that fact at every opportunity. ➡️ "😁".
You might enjoy this. You asked about when the Man Trap was made in relation to The Squire of Gothos. Here’s the order. Counting The Cage as the first, Man Trap was number six, right before The Naked Time. The Squire of Gothos was number nineteen, after Shore Leave. After Gothos was Arena, then that weird one, The Alternative Factor. Tomorrow Is Yesterday (#22, after The Alternative Factor) was intended as a sequel to The Naked Time. Remember the time warp at the climax of that one? This aired in January 1967. It happens to predict the moon shot would be made on a Wednesday “in the late 1960s”. From what you said about the show, Timeless, it seems interesting. You might enjoy a 1982 series called Voyagers! It didn’t last long.
The Gorn type of alien is, for me, somewhat reminiscent of the type of alien they had for a slightly earlier series called "Lost in Space." "Lost in Space" had a bit more of a goofy element to it than "Star Trek," though most of the time they played their roles straight, despite the campy aliens. IMO, you can't play it completely straight in scifi - like we do now - until you have very believable special effects, and we just didn't have that in the 60s. Things were a bit better by the end of the 70s, but if you watch the original "Star Wars" - not digitally enhanced - you'll see that once they got away from practical stuff and tried to use embryonic computer FX, it was risible. "Alien," from 1979, was excellent mainly because they were able to turn the camera to other things.
21:38 Well Connie, Kirk made a big, *big* mistake here. And it almost cost him his life, and the life of all his crew. He realized the device was a recorder, but _not_ that it was a translator. The Aliens have them the opportunity to discuss The Cestus III situation, and maybe that would have been better. But like I said, Kirk blew that opportunity, and *very nearly* got them all killed. BTW, wouldn't it have been funny if instead of the Gorn, the other ships captain had been the road runner? 😝 😄
They mention a black star, not a black hole. Wikipedia entry for black star: "A black star is a gravitational object composed of matter. It is a theoretical alternative to the black hole concept from general relativity. The theoretical construct was created through the use of semiclassical gravity theory. A similar structure should also exist for the Einstein-Maxwell-Dirac equations system, which is the (super) classical limit of quantum electrodynamics, and for the Einstein-Yang-Mills-Dirac system, which is the (super) classical limit of the standard model. A black star does not require an event horizon, and may or may not be a transitional phase between a collapsing star and a singularity. A black star is created when matter compresses at a rate significantly less than the free fall velocity of a hypothetical particle falling to the center of its star, because quantum processes create vacuum polarization, which creates a form of degeneracy pressure, preventing spacetime (and the particles held within it) from occupying the same space at the same time. This vacuum energy is theoretically unlimited, and if built up quickly enough, will stop gravitational collapse from creating a singularity. This may entail an ever-decreasing rate of collapse, leading to an infinite collapse time, or asymptotically approaching a radius bigger than zero. A black star with a radius slightly greater than the predicted event horizon for an equivalent-mass black hole will appear very dark, because almost all light produced will be drawn back to the star, and any escaping light will be severely gravitationally redshifted. It will appear almost exactly like a black hole. It will feature Hawking radiation, as virtual particle pairs created in its vicinity may still be split, with one particle escaping and the other being trapped. Additionally, it will create thermal Planckian radiation that will closely resemble the expected Hawking radiation of an equivalent black hole." See Barceló, Carlos; Liberati, Stefano; Sonego, Sebastiano; Visser, Matt (October 2009). "Black Stars, Not Black Holes". Scientific American. From Science News: "This year [1964] marks the first known use of the term “black holes” in print, in Science News Letter, the predecessor of Science News (SN: 1/18/64, p. 39). Reporter Ann Ewing noted that scientists used the term in Cleveland at an American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting. The term was later popularized by physicist John Wheeler." If Science News is not big enough to be considered mass media, then the next appearance of the term black hole was in Life Magazine on January 24, 1964. Life’s science editor, Al Rosenfeld, had attended the first Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics in December 1963, and used the term in his report. Rosenfeld has confirmed that he had heard the term at the meeting (he didn’t make it up himself), but he didn’t remember who said it, either. Someone suggested that the first to use the term black hole may have been Hong-Yee Chiu, who organized the session at the 1964 AAAS meeting in Cleveland at which Science News reported the use of the term black hole. Chiu said, he may have used the term black hole at the meeting, but it didn’t originate with him. Chiu recalled a seminar in Princeton, about 1960 or 1961, when the physicist Robert Dicke was talking about gravitationally collapsed objects. Dicke, according to Chiu, described the objects as “like the Black Hole of Calcutta.” So perhaps Dicke inspired the shortened version of the phrase that was used informally at the 1963 Texas symposium and the 1964 AAAS meeting. But it didn’t catch on until physicist John Wheeler began using it a few years later in 1967.
A mistake in the script of "Tomorrow Is Yesterday". Kirk introduces Spock as a "Lieutenant Commander". Only Scotty & McCoy are that rank. Spock is a Commander which is one rank higher than a Lieutenant Commander. If you notice the gold "wrist bands" on their uniform shirts, Spock has 2 solid bands, while Scotty/McCoy have 1 solid, 1 semi-solid. Kirk has 2 solid, 1 semi-solid signifying the rank of Captain.
With "today is yesterday" the only criticism I have about that episode is the part where they say the guys would lose their memories....but I guess we have to suspend disbelief, after all, as far we know, the past no longer exists and one cannot travel back in time....but I can't imagine why they would lose their memories. You're transporting present Captain Christopher to a past time. He still has experienced everything he experienced. 🙂 Definitely agree that it's a fun episode. 🙂
Once “Present Christopher” is transported back to before his memories are formed, there is nothing to remember, as he has never experienced them. Spock explains this in the ep.
@@jefetters7182 "Once “Present Christopher” is transported back to before his memories are formed, there is nothing to remembe" But Present Christopher did in fact experience all that. And all they are doing is transporting current Christopher back where they found him. No reason to expect his memories to change. If I were transported back to 2003, without being modified, I would still remember everything that happened 2003-2024.... 🙂
@@jefetters7182 "friend, no you wouldn’t because then what happened between 2003-2024 would have never happened. " It wouldn't have happened in my future anymore, but that doesn't change my memories. I experienced it happening. It just means I remember things happening that turn out never to happen. 🙂 Let me put it this way: why would he not remember, yet the crew of the Enterprise does remember? It's a minor nitpick... I actually don't think there are major consequences to sending Christopher back; they destroyed the pictures and the radio reports etc. So at best he would have a story he can't prove. And he wasn't aboard long enough to know anything to change in his present. I would have left the episode the same, but I would have deleted the dialog about him not remembering things. 🙂
@@neutrino78x your point about the Enterprise crew remembering has me rethinking my view. Of course it wasn’t this deep in the 60’s show, but I can think of 2 instances in 2 of the sequel series off the top of my head where the crew is protected from being affected by their time travel because of “fake science plot reasons.” But the way this episode is specifically set up, you’re right. There is no reason one group of people remembers and one man doesn’t, if they both return to their original times.
In "Arena", we have to suspend our disbelief with the Gorn's speed and it's general appearance lmao. 🙂 Don't forget though, both ST and SW are far from Hard SF....there's FTL, magic gravity floors, transporters, shields, etc. 🙂
@@filthycasual8187 "Everything you listed except the transporters is more than capable of being a reality someday." Nope, as far as we know, FTL is impossible. Yes, Alcubierre proposed something under general relativity, but it requires negative matter. Show me some naturally occurring matter that pushes other objects rather than attracting them (in terms of gravity, not magnets). You have to check out actual "HARD SCIENCE FICTION". It's a whole category, that restricts itself to science as know it today. Ship has to accelerate or rotate, otherwise people float, there's no FTL travel or comms, no transporters etc. Both ST and SW are very far from that, my friend. Both are very soft SF.
Trelane is not a Q. Trelane’s species needs that machine behind the mirror and even then he is incredibly inferior to what a Q can do. Q don’t need assistance from tech.
I wonder just how accurate it might be to classify _The Squire of Gothos_ as a Deus ex Machina. I mean, the conflict was resolved with threads that were not introduced until _right_ before the story needed them which smacks of lazy writing. _Good_ writing resolves the conflict with threads that have been there since before the conflict was introduced.
7:19 "And this. Is this the face that launched 1000 ships?" That's a reference to Helen of Troy, who is rumored to have been so beautiful, her face launched 1000 ships. This has long puzzled me as a description. I mean, is it supposed to be a compliment? It doesn't sound like one, to me. Why are they launching? Why do they wish to leave such a lovely face? Why do they wish to stop gazing on such a lovely face? Oh, no. It sounds like an insult, to me.
Sigh. . . I got stories. I knew James Doohan (scotty) I was his butcher. He was funny and sad. Kinda think star trek wrecked his life. Kinda like he didn't earn his fame. Just got a ton of money married to a trophy wife and didn't know what to do with himself. Had a few coffees at statarbucks with him. I'm not an awestruck person I have my accolades as well as a chef and a opera singer. Seattle opera. Why I was a butcher is cause im a chef why I was a bartender cause I was a chef why I hang out with rich and famous people opera singer and chef. James Kinda got lost. Nut seriously a funny nice man. I think he made extra trips to the Redmond QFC to have a coffee with me. The day he died and Lenord Nemoy my heart broke. Im am ex canadian. So are they. And will be forever missed
Boooooooo. I watch them both and Courtney is way more insightful than Bunny. Even taking Courtney out of the equation, Bunny brings very little to the table in terms of actual analysis. She just watches and says what is happening.
Trelane's power is a natural part of him, but because he's a child of his species he needs the mirror to help him focus that power.
I really like the twist ending of that episode,it was more like a Twilight-Zone episode. Once you find out what Trelane really is you FEEL for him,at least I did. LOL. You won't be allowed to make any more planets,that comment always gets me as a viewer.
I've been into your reactions for a while now. You pointed out something that gets lost in the discussion about original Trek- these are talented, competent people who work well together and solve difficult problems. That's what Leonard Nimoy understood so well when he directed his movies. And the actors are all professional and charming.
In "Arena", both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy wound up with bad cases of tinnitus from being too close to the explosions going off.
These are all solid episodes, Tomorrow is Yesterday is probably my fav. I met William Campbell at a convention some years ago & he said he loved playing Trelane, it was a dream role for him. Enjoyable reactions from you, keep em' going.
Gothos is in my top ten for sure. That was awesome that you got to meet him.
Both William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy experienced permanent hearing issues of Tinnitus after the Arena episode. Those practical explosions were dangerously too close to them in some of the scenes during filming
The Arena is one of my favourite episodes. Filmed in the same desert area used to film a ton of other Star Trek out door scenes. As a 10 year old with an old time not exactly child-safe chemistry set in the 60's that contained all the ingredients Kirk harvested, (except the diamonds), and using basic chemistry to make a cannon, I thought this was such a scientific episode. Plus the slow moving Gorn dinosaur looking alien was so cool to child me too.
A bit of trivia for you: “Tomorrow is Yesterday” was written by D.C. Fontana…a name which pops up all over in SF in general and Trek in particular for decades after this episode. Among other things, Fontana wrote the screenplay for “Charlie X”. “D.C.” stands for “Dorothy Catherine”, and what being a woman writing for SF in the 60’s was like I cannot begin to imagine.
Marion Zimmer Bradley was another pioneer from that era.
D C Fontana was a key member of Star Trek's writing staff. She had many episodes that offered much of the history of the Star Trek universe. BTW even with the Animated series episode "Yesterday" (another D C Fontana creation) it will be an outstanding episode.
The actor that played Trelain also played the captain of a Klingon ship in the episode The Trouble With Tribbles.
That’s a spoiler
I like how you did 3 Episodes at a time because this is a huge franchise.
Trelane is one of the series' most memorable characters! He's a little like Harry Mudd, an absolutely dreadful character but played with humor in such a way that he becomes a likable favorite.
Some trivia about "Arena": 1) It was filmed at Vasquez Rocks, a park near Los Angeles that is used in a lot of shows. It makes a fun and memorable appearance in the second film of the Bill and Ted trilogy "Bogus Journey". 2) The gorn was voiced by Ted Cassidy, who played Ruk in "What are Little Girls Made of?" and the voice of puppet Balok in "The Corbomite Maneuver". 3) Sean Kenney played Mr. DePaul, the navigator of the week, and also wheelchair Pike in "The Menagerie". 4) When we first hear the gorn speak to Kirk, one of his lines, according to the subtitles, is "this is your opponent, earthling." But I hear "this is your opponent cursing" which I think works much better in several ways.
"Tomorrow is Yesterday" is arguably my favorite episode. The stakes are high, the humor is great, and our favorite characters are brilliant. It's the second time we see the Enterprise travel through time under its own power (after "The Naked Time") in a maneuver that is used several times throughout the franchise. The first time, the engines imploded, whereas the second time, they buckled. They're getting better at this, but Starfleet must be getting tired of doing major overhauls every few weeks. But then, they seem to "put in" for refits even more often than we see in the episodes, as we didn't see Cygnet 14.
Yes, our characters are all at the top of their game. But you didn't mention Uhura! Not only does she operate the communications station, but we've seen her navigate the ship, twice! In her backstory, she's also a brilliant linguist. In another episode she repairs equipment and draws praise from her crewmates. (Plus she can sing, and thanks to Trelane, she can play the harpsichord.) Nichelle Nichols and her character Uhura inspired so many people to do so many amazing things!
Question about Return to tomorrow: they make a point of the female computer voice, though it’s very wacky, yet I’m used to the computers always having a female voice! Is this the first episode we hear the computer voice? That’s amazing if true. Of course for all future episodes, the voice is very professional.
25:06 "So shouldn't y'all _explore_ more before you establish outposts?"
Well, I mean, how much exploration do you think is necessary? How much is appropriate? Presumably, they had explored the entire star system and found no technology.
What I don't get, though, is why the Gorn didn't do a better job of marking their borders? I mean, the Federation would _never_ have tried to establish a settlement on that planet if they had known it was in someone else's territory, and space faring civilizations inevitably exert authority over domains they enclose within _borders._ Ideally, they make it a point to mark these borders as unmistakably as possible in order to prevent _precisely_ this kind of conflict.
The next generation did an episode very much like this one with Picard on a lonely planet with a similar alien.✌️❤️
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra 🖖
You are coming very close to spoiler territory....😒
Courtney-- A big star trek here and I just had to make a comment on epi. 17. At the end in wrap up Kirk mentions to Spock how he probably did things like dip little girls hair into inkwells. Im showing my age but back when I was in school those round holes in wooden desks were made for inkwells. When I was in elementary we did have to use ink pens in which we dipped into those ink wells, man those things made a mess on paper. You may have even wondered and said what are inkwells,, anyway just had to bring it up. Have a great day,,,, Steve
Another great reaction! It's is refreshing to find another reactor to TOS that truly gets it. As always GOD BLESS ALL HERE!!!
You can visit Vasquez Rock in California where the arena with the Gorn episode was filmed.✌️❤️
I like the Charlie X and Squire of Gothos connection. I didn't think of that.
Courtney! You hit upon one of the really neat aspects of this series. The characters each have his or her own skills and personalities, and they all work together synergistically as a competent group.
"Arena" was first done on an Outer Limits episode. Same title! 👍
Warp factors are a mite tricky. TOS didn't have much of a cap on them, but the general gist was supposed to be that Warp 1 was equivalent to the speed of light, only without the relativistic effects, and every warp factor after that was an order of magnitude faster than the last. I think the highest they got was a brief mention of Warp 14.
When they wrote the setting bible for The Next Generation, they tweaked the scale. They kept Warp 1 as light speed, but set Warp 10 as the functional cap of 'infinite velocity', saying that at that point you're going so fast and warping space so much that you are effectively everywhere. It's considered functionally unreachable, as going at infinite velocity would require infinite power. The intervening 'warp factors' on the scale were noted as points in the warp scale where one could maintain a specific warp speed with a drop in energy requirements... like 'at this point, you can save fuel by just maintaining speed rather than accelerating or letting yourself slow down' (imagine if you could save gas by trying to maintain speeds that are a multiple of 10 for as long as possible, that's kind of what the TNG warp scale is like). This was explained as an in-setting scientific development discovered by scientists somewhere between the TOS movies and the TNG pilot. A lot of fans like to think it's an outgrowth of the transwarp experiments run aboard the USS Excelsior during the TOS movies, and that's not an unreasonable notion.
Thanks Court. I'm enjoying this trip into space and time with you aboard the Enterprise.
You chose 3 great episodes and am impressed with your desire to learn about Star Trek.
Tomorrow is Yesterday does a lot of things I agree with but the ending has always bugged me. To my mind, either they transported Christopher into the plane at the end at precisely the same time he was beamed out at the start of the episode, or they beamed him on top of himself at the end of the episode. In the first part of the episode, the plane was breaking up at the time he was beamed out, so option 1 is off the table. Even if it weren’t off the table for that reason, future Christopher still has all the memories of the Enterprise. Option 2 seems to imply they somehow beamed Christopher into himself, magically getting him off the ship /and/ resetting his memories. I would absolutely believe a story where the enterprise crew rigged things to prevent them from beaming him out in the first place and being seen by him; that takes care of both his appearance on the ship and his memories. But transporters basically convert matter to energy and back; so if you beam future Christopher on top of past christopher, you’re trying to get two people to occupy more or less the same place at the same time, which is generally fatally (and horribly so).
I loved "Timeless" and was sorry when it went off the air.
21:27 I agree with Courtney, it seems Uhuru was not paying attention to what the Metrons were saying.
If someone is going to freak out in horror when someone vanishes in front of them, then they really should not be a Starfleet officer. 🙄
Another short lived series about time was called the time tunnel. Two good time movies from the 1980s you should see 1: The philidelphia experiment. 2: The final countdown.✌️❤️
Star Trek was to make people feel there is hope for the future of man kind after all the situations of the day ✌️❤️
If youre into time travel shows you need to check out the original Quantum Leap from the 80s/90s which stars Scott Bakula who would go on to play Captain Archer in Star Trek Enterprise.
The new Quantum Leap is also great and a very cool sequel.
TV episodes on sci fi, cop shows, westerns etc... were often written by a variety of contributing writers instead of the same people every time. That's why the mood or story might seem to jump around sometimes. The Gorn is the spiritual predecessor to the slow-moving Sleestak from 1974. If you like time travel watch the tv series Quantum Leap.
court, have you seen In The Heat of the Night? It was a book, a movie, and a TV show. The movie stars Sidney Poitier! The TV show was awesome but mainly in the first few seasons when it still had Mr. Tibbs. But the movie you definitely have to check out. It's about a police detective from Philadelphia who goes down to a very racist part of the south to visit I think it was his grandmother. Well, there's a murder, and the very racist local PD is looking for a suspect, and he is racially profiled 😞 the local PD chief founds out he is a detective and releases him. Says to him, "virgil, that's a strange name for a [n-word] from Philadelphia. What do you they call you there?" and he says, raising his voice, "THEY CALL ME MR. TIBBS!!" Well, long story short, he solves their murder for them and goes back to Philadelphia, and the chief is far less racist as a result, and says as Tibbs leaves on the train "hey virgil, y'all take care!" and Tibbs smiles and says "yeah!" (meaning, they are "cool" with each other now). The TV show takes place in the 90s and "retcons" the story from the movie as having taken place in the 80s....same character different actor. Anyway you should check it out. 🙂
Just found your channel. Welcome to the Star Trek TOS family!
21:46 "This is, uh, _very different_ from what I _thought_ was gonna happen."
If the writers have done their job right, you say that with _every_ episode.
For me I saw everything out of order in reruns starting in the early '70s. The local station aired them on weekends in no particular order. Airing things in order was a serious challenge for local stations, not just due to incompetence, which famously lead to the catastrophe of the Roots mini-series being aired out of order. Soap operas got around this with a strictly enforced "destroy after playing" policy for the recordings. It wasn't until satellite broadcasts that the problem would be solved and multi episode plot arcs became possible in the US.
The biggest hurdle to airing things in order were the cheap sticker labels on the giant cassettes video was stored on. These frequently fell off or rodents/insects ate the labels as the glue was organic, or the labels were removed to keep them from falling into the machine, or the label was unreadable or confusing, or something spilled on it, or the heat from the machine turned them brown, or they were put back in the wrong case, or the case was put on the wrong shelf, and any of a zillion other things.
Notably other countries did not have this problem and Doctor Who would manage multi episode plot arcs in the '50s.
At least there are no lost Trek episodes due to being destroyed like the BBC did to Doctor Who.
I love time travel episodes! Great enjoyable reactions!
8:22 "Yeah, he loves _this_ time period."
This is the time period he (allegedly) sees when he looks at Earth, because of time displacement. They kind of screwed up the numbers, but you know how the spaces between stars are so great that they have to use _light_ years instead of miles and kilometers. Of course, this means they have to account for the time it takes light to cross that _distance._
So if you point a telescope at something 20 light years away, you will see it as it was 20 years previously. If you point a telescope at something _1000_ light years away, you will see it as it was _1000_ years previously.
Trelane's environment is saturated with elements from _this_ century because he has no way of directly observing anything more _recent._ Its light has not reached his _world,_ yet. It's on the way, but the distances are so great that it's going to _take_ a while.
Aren't you more curious how Trelaine knew about the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Raymond Burr when that only happened....
🤔⏲️🗓️📐⏳📜💫
Happened a few hundred years sooner than Trelaine's view of the Earth?
@@TheNoiseySpectator Well, I mean, I'm not the first one to point it out, but they got the time displacement wrong. They were off be a few centuries.
But, I mean, you start picking up on conflicts between the _apparent_ time dilation and the _actual_ time dilation, and the inconsistencies become glaring long before that particular one.
@@lazyperfectionist1 Including that there were never salt vampire on Earth.
Or were there?
Hi Courtney :)
When I first saw Squire in the late 60s, I was 3-4 years old and it kind of scared me. It took a while to realize that he was just a spoiled brat acting out. Bill Campbell was a great actor, and you will see him again in a different role.
Arena is great because it puts us in real combat situations off the Enterprise, and we aren't sure what's going on. The only bit so see is Kirk immediately chasing the Gorn without even calling them first. I'm surprised Starfleet didn't reprimand him for trying to attack first.
Trivia: The fighter that Captain Christopher is flying is the F-104 Starfighter.
32:32 "There are only twelve like it in the fleet."
😳 _Whoa,_ now. 😠 _Hush!_ 🤫Do you _not_ recognize a need for discretion when you _see_ one?
.... Assuming he was telling the truth. ☝️
On the other hand, Kirk was so proud, how could he resist pointing out that fact at every opportunity.
➡️ "😁".
You might enjoy this. You asked about when the Man Trap was made in relation to The Squire of Gothos. Here’s the order. Counting The Cage as the first, Man Trap was number six, right before The Naked Time. The Squire of Gothos was number nineteen, after Shore Leave. After Gothos was Arena, then that weird one, The Alternative Factor.
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (#22, after The Alternative Factor) was intended as a sequel to The Naked Time. Remember the time warp at the climax of that one? This aired in January 1967. It happens to predict the moon shot would be made on a Wednesday “in the late 1960s”.
From what you said about the show, Timeless, it seems interesting. You might enjoy a 1982 series called Voyagers! It didn’t last long.
Love these Star Trek Reviews
The Gorn type of alien is, for me, somewhat reminiscent of the type of alien they had for a slightly earlier series called "Lost in Space." "Lost in Space" had a bit more of a goofy element to it than "Star Trek," though most of the time they played their roles straight, despite the campy aliens. IMO, you can't play it completely straight in scifi - like we do now - until you have very believable special effects, and we just didn't have that in the 60s. Things were a bit better by the end of the 70s, but if you watch the original "Star Wars" - not digitally enhanced - you'll see that once they got away from practical stuff and tried to use embryonic computer FX, it was risible. "Alien," from 1979, was excellent mainly because they were able to turn the camera to other things.
21:38
Well Connie, Kirk made a big, *big* mistake here. And it almost cost him his life, and the life of all his crew.
He realized the device was a recorder, but _not_ that it was a translator.
The Aliens have them the opportunity to discuss The Cestus III situation, and maybe that would have been better.
But like I said, Kirk blew that opportunity, and *very nearly* got them all killed.
BTW, wouldn't it have been funny if instead of the Gorn, the other ships captain had been the road runner? 😝 😄
"Tomorrow is Yesterday" was probably the first mass media mention of a black hole.
They mention a black star, not a black hole.
Wikipedia entry for black star: "A black star is a gravitational object composed of matter. It is a theoretical alternative to the black hole concept from general relativity. The theoretical construct was created through the use of semiclassical gravity theory. A similar structure should also exist for the Einstein-Maxwell-Dirac equations system, which is the (super) classical limit of quantum electrodynamics, and for the Einstein-Yang-Mills-Dirac system, which is the (super) classical limit of the standard model.
A black star does not require an event horizon, and may or may not be a transitional phase between a collapsing star and a singularity. A black star is created when matter compresses at a rate significantly less than the free fall velocity of a hypothetical particle falling to the center of its star, because quantum processes create vacuum polarization, which creates a form of degeneracy pressure, preventing spacetime (and the particles held within it) from occupying the same space at the same time. This vacuum energy is theoretically unlimited, and if built up quickly enough, will stop gravitational collapse from creating a singularity. This may entail an ever-decreasing rate of collapse, leading to an infinite collapse time, or asymptotically approaching a radius bigger than zero.
A black star with a radius slightly greater than the predicted event horizon for an equivalent-mass black hole will appear very dark, because almost all light produced will be drawn back to the star, and any escaping light will be severely gravitationally redshifted. It will appear almost exactly like a black hole. It will feature Hawking radiation, as virtual particle pairs created in its vicinity may still be split, with one particle escaping and the other being trapped. Additionally, it will create thermal Planckian radiation that will closely resemble the expected Hawking radiation of an equivalent black hole."
See Barceló, Carlos; Liberati, Stefano; Sonego, Sebastiano; Visser, Matt (October 2009). "Black Stars, Not Black Holes". Scientific American.
From Science News: "This year [1964] marks the first known use of the term “black holes” in print, in Science News Letter, the predecessor of Science News (SN: 1/18/64, p. 39). Reporter Ann Ewing noted that scientists used the term in Cleveland at an American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting. The term was later popularized by physicist John Wheeler."
If Science News is not big enough to be considered mass media, then the next appearance of the term black hole was in Life Magazine on January 24, 1964. Life’s science editor, Al Rosenfeld, had attended the first Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics in December 1963, and used the term in his report. Rosenfeld has confirmed that he had heard the term at the meeting (he didn’t make it up himself), but he didn’t remember who said it, either.
Someone suggested that the first to use the term black hole may have been Hong-Yee Chiu, who organized the session at the 1964 AAAS meeting in Cleveland at which Science News reported the use of the term black hole. Chiu said, he may have used the term black hole at the meeting, but it didn’t originate with him. Chiu recalled a seminar in Princeton, about 1960 or 1961, when the physicist Robert Dicke was talking about gravitationally collapsed objects. Dicke, according to Chiu, described the objects as “like the Black Hole of Calcutta.” So perhaps Dicke inspired the shortened version of the phrase that was used informally at the 1963 Texas symposium and the 1964 AAAS meeting. But it didn’t catch on until physicist John Wheeler began using it a few years later in 1967.
Three great episodes in a row! Yes! First rateTOS.
A mistake in the script of "Tomorrow Is Yesterday". Kirk introduces Spock as a "Lieutenant Commander". Only Scotty & McCoy are that rank. Spock is a Commander which is one rank higher than a Lieutenant Commander. If you notice the gold "wrist bands" on their uniform shirts, Spock has 2 solid bands, while Scotty/McCoy have 1 solid, 1 semi-solid. Kirk has 2 solid, 1 semi-solid signifying the rank of Captain.
Great episode 🎉🎉🎉
With "today is yesterday" the only criticism I have about that episode is the part where they say the guys would lose their memories....but I guess we have to suspend disbelief, after all, as far we know, the past no longer exists and one cannot travel back in time....but I can't imagine why they would lose their memories. You're transporting present Captain Christopher to a past time. He still has experienced everything he experienced. 🙂 Definitely agree that it's a fun episode. 🙂
Once “Present Christopher” is transported back to before his memories are formed, there is nothing to remember, as he has never experienced them. Spock explains this in the ep.
@@jefetters7182
"Once “Present Christopher” is transported back to before his memories are formed, there is nothing to remembe"
But Present Christopher did in fact experience all that. And all they are doing is transporting current Christopher back where they found him. No reason to expect his memories to change.
If I were transported back to 2003, without being modified, I would still remember everything that happened 2003-2024.... 🙂
@@neutrino78x friend, no you wouldn’t because then what happened between 2003-2024 would have never happened. There would be nothing to remember.
@@jefetters7182
"friend, no you wouldn’t because then what happened between 2003-2024 would have never happened. "
It wouldn't have happened in my future anymore, but that doesn't change my memories. I experienced it happening. It just means I remember things happening that turn out never to happen. 🙂
Let me put it this way: why would he not remember, yet the crew of the Enterprise does remember?
It's a minor nitpick...
I actually don't think there are major consequences to sending Christopher back; they destroyed the pictures and the radio reports etc. So at best he would have a story he can't prove. And he wasn't aboard long enough to know anything to change in his present. I would have left the episode the same, but I would have deleted the dialog about him not remembering things. 🙂
@@neutrino78x your point about the Enterprise crew remembering has me rethinking my view. Of course it wasn’t this deep in the 60’s show, but I can think of 2 instances in 2 of the sequel series off the top of my head where the crew is protected from being affected by their time travel because of “fake science plot reasons.”
But the way this episode is specifically set up, you’re right. There is no reason one group of people remembers and one man doesn’t, if they both return to their original times.
Earned my sub...when r u pisting tge two towers?????❤
In "Arena", we have to suspend our disbelief with the Gorn's speed and it's general appearance lmao. 🙂
Don't forget though, both ST and SW are far from Hard SF....there's FTL, magic gravity floors, transporters, shields, etc. 🙂
Everything you listed except the transporters is more than capable of being a reality someday.
@@filthycasual8187
"Everything you listed except the transporters is more than capable of being a reality someday."
Nope, as far as we know, FTL is impossible. Yes, Alcubierre proposed something under general relativity, but it requires negative matter. Show me some naturally occurring matter that pushes other objects rather than attracting them (in terms of gravity, not magnets).
You have to check out actual "HARD SCIENCE FICTION".
It's a whole category, that restricts itself to science as know it today. Ship has to accelerate or rotate, otherwise people float, there's no FTL travel or comms, no transporters etc.
Both ST and SW are very far from that, my friend. Both are very soft SF.
I see that you're not opposed to trying something new and out there.
I loved timeless. :)
lot of q things try to say that he the squire is a q or something but he not q can create anything but it has substance and flavor etc...
Spoilers, Bobby!
NO SPOILERS! ☹️
I've been enjoying your videos but I find the volume level is a bit low ❤
Captiain kirk is afry of human lizard 😮😮
"The Man Trap" was the first episode ever broadcast.
Trelane's species, or one exactly like it, appears periodically in "TNG" as the Q Continuum.
Trelane is not a Q. Trelane’s species needs that machine behind the mirror and even then he is incredibly inferior to what a Q can do. Q don’t need assistance from tech.
I wonder just how accurate it might be to classify _The Squire of Gothos_ as a Deus ex Machina. I mean, the conflict was resolved with threads that were not introduced until _right_ before the story needed them which smacks of lazy writing. _Good_ writing resolves the conflict with threads that have been there since before the conflict was introduced.
Why doesn't spock believe in little green men? Do Orions not have little people?😂
I'd rather crew my own arms off than try to beat Kirk!
7:19 "And this. Is this the face that launched 1000 ships?"
That's a reference to Helen of Troy, who is rumored to have been so beautiful, her face launched 1000 ships. This has long puzzled me as a description. I mean, is it supposed to be a compliment? It doesn't sound like one, to me. Why are they launching? Why do they wish to leave such a lovely face? Why do they wish to stop gazing on such a lovely face?
Oh, no. It sounds like an insult, to me.
The Arena is The episode that injured William Shatner's ears.✌️❤️
KEEP ON GOING Q OF Q AVENTURES AWAIT'S
Trelane was a spoiled brat
Sigh. . . I got stories. I knew James Doohan (scotty) I was his butcher. He was funny and sad. Kinda think star trek wrecked his life. Kinda like he didn't earn his fame. Just got a ton of money married to a trophy wife and didn't know what to do with himself. Had a few coffees at statarbucks with him. I'm not an awestruck person I have my accolades as well as a chef and a opera singer. Seattle opera. Why I was a butcher is cause im a chef why I was a bartender cause I was a chef why I hang out with rich and famous people opera singer and chef. James Kinda got lost. Nut seriously a funny nice man. I think he made extra trips to the Redmond QFC to have a coffee with me. The day he died and Lenord Nemoy my heart broke. Im am ex canadian. So are they. And will be forever missed
Enough of the Bunny copycats.
Boooooooo. I watch them both and Courtney is way more insightful than Bunny. Even taking Courtney out of the equation, Bunny brings very little to the table in terms of actual analysis. She just watches and says what is happening.