McCoy : "Well then, thank pitchforks & pointed ears" . . . which is a humorous way of saying, if you don't thank God, then by default, you're thanking the devil.
13:46 When Spock calls his captain Jim, you know he's really trying and really sincere. Love these moments and the Spock McCoy interactions in this one. Another great reaction.🖖
Considering the logic of sending all the top ranking officers down into dangerous situations... constantly... they're lucky if they remember to bring the Band-Aids...
One of my favorite episodes. It often gets overlooked but it's great. A redshirt that is finally an actual character. Garovik is a great character. We also get great details on Kirk's back story. The scene with McCoy and Spock questioning Kirks motivations is great. An exceptional episode that's in my top 10.
Garrovick is a legend in the Red Shirt community. He had multiple scenes with lines and survived three encounters with a deadly enemy. He was even acknowledged by one of the main characters at the end and it wasn't in a eulogy. In Red Shirt world lore this makes him almost Superman.
@@jupreindeer That is how Kirk survived to be a captain. He didn't have his first deep space mission until he was already a lieutenant. He bypassed all the sure-death assignments that are routinely given to ensigns.
In the Deadly Years, Commodore Stocker insisted that Spock have the trial. In Obsession, It was just Spock and McCoy so they kept it a little more low key and had an intervention with Kirk.
One of the Red Shirt security men in the background is future film composer Basil Poledouris. He wrote the scores to Conan the Barbarian and Starship Troopers.
Lo and behold there was rejoicing across the Federation and the word spread to the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire and Beyond. Yes, A Red Shirt survived a tour of duty on the Enterprise......
Bunny, this is from questions and comments you made last episode. I had to mull them over a bit. I turned 70 this year. Is getting older scary? No, not for me. Mostly depressing. I NEVER thought I'd still be here (what the good Lord still expects is beyond me). No, it's not easy, I can't physically do things I could do 5 years ago, let alone 20. Getting lucky is remembering what you walked into a room for. The hardest part is seeing people you've been close to for decades fall by the wayside. It gets lonely no longer having someone around with shared experiences. Although you and a few others make that a bit better by experiencing what we did for the first time and sharing it. Girl, don't worry, most of us went through that OMG feeling at about your age. It's tough when you realize life truly is finite, and you begin to fear what's left to come. But it REALLY is all good. Things will happen as they are meant to, have faith in yourself that you'll handle it. (And I had this perfect monolog memorized and forgot half as I was writing. Old age I guess. Ha).
I am overjoyed watching your reaction videos of the Original Series episodes. I’m 55, and ever since I could remember, I watched Star Trek with my Dad. It’s my all time favorite show. I have my memories, and you have a journey. May you find your way as pleasant.
This episode contains the best reuse of Sol Kaplan's epic suspense music from "The Doomsday Machine" and what I consider to be the series' most nail-biting transporter scene.
This episode was written by Art Wallace, who developed the basic bible of the 1966-71 Gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows. This soap opera, which can be found on Tubi, featured vampires, most notably Barnabas Collins, witches, ghosts, werewolves, a phoenix, a Lovecraftian shapeshifter, etc. Wallace, however, was gone from the series by the time those elements were introduced.
Digging the pirate look! I'm not a big fan of this episode but I will always love the moment when young Garrovick karate chops Kirk from behind. It's so wonderfully subversive, a redshirt for once becoming a central character in his own right. Trek on!
When Kirk restores Garrovick to full duty and explains to him that his delay in firing would've made no difference. Kirk in essence is forgiving himself also for what he did 11 years ago as a young ensign. Shatner also sounded like he had a cold during filming. Nice work as always Bunny!
It's a great character study for Kirk, and yet another wonderful showcase for the Kirk/Spock/McCoy friendship. I just love how they make Kirk a real person with fears and imperfections, and we love him all the more because he's such a great man, in spite or or perhaps because of, these imperfections and the way he rises above them. Regarding Garrovick, in the "old days" most of the guest characters on shows were kind of "one and done." I agree that it was frustrating at times when a compelling new character was featured and then just disappeared, though. Shows tended to have very stable and smaller casts back then, sadly. Nice reaction!
You don't show it here but at the very end as the Enterprise leaves orbit you can see the planet below them and there is an enormous circular burn over at least a third of the surface. It's the scar left by the antimatter explosion that destroyed the creature. Shout out to the digital update effects team for amazing attention to detail!
Another great review Bunny. Under Kirk's tutelage, Ensign Garrovick would make a decent senior officer one day, maybe even a decent starship captain. You're in for a treat with the rest of this season. Can't wait for your next review to drop. Have a great week.
This was a particularly good episode from a character perspective. I haven’t started watching your review yet, but I have a strong feeling that you enjoyed it ❤
Lt. Leslie (played by Eddie Paskey) was one of the red-shirt casualties in this episode. Yet, he was back at his post for the next episode and 17 more episodes after that. They didn't intend to kill him off ... there was a scene where McCoy saves his life, but it wasn't shot because of time considerations. It was assumed that the average viewing audience wouldn't catch that a semiregular background character came and went and came back. That may have been true in 1967, but little did they know how "obsessive" Star Trek fans would quickly become.😊
Home audiences having the ability to retain shows? A world wide technology that gives anyone the ability to repeat episodes on infinite loops? Or makes marathoning possible? How about the ability to enhance visuals or freeze frame any chosen frame outside of a studio's editing room? That was more of a science fiction idea then the show they were making... at the time. After all, one had to invest a lot of money to have a reel-to-reel for public use. Why, one would have to have the brains of Spock to go about inventing a time traveling modem made out of vacuum tubes and crude wiring.
The best part of this episode is seeing Kirk in angry conflict with Spock and McCoy. We see how even James T. Kirk can lose control of himself and let personal revenge affect his command decisions. He had no excuse this time! No aging disease, no weirdo spores, no evil twin…..Kirk! Get over yourself and DO YOUR DUTY! We also get to hear the same great music from “The Doomsday Machine”. 👍👍
It's proof that he's human and susceptible to the traumatic aftereffects of tragic events. ST Voyager effectively revisited this thesis with Captain Janeway.
I always wished that Stephen Brooks (Ensign Garrovick) had been included in more episodes of Star Trek, he fit in so well and would have been great to see his character grow with the series. Very sad that Stephen Brooks died so young.
Avest! You look like you are ready to go to a Renaissance Faire! "Did you write a will" about the red-shirt was the best laugh I've had in a good while!
Garrovik is the son of Captain Garrovik of the Farragut, also seen in the TPB 'Debt of Honor', where we also see Lt. Kirk. Ensign Garrovik is also featured in a Prodigy episode, a great callback to this ep.
First, luv Bunny tails the pirate. Best introduction with an Arrgh!! EVER. I liked this episode because it shows just how well Spock, McCoy, and Kirk know each other. The moment Kirk started acting oddly Spock and McCoy called his behavior into question. Once Kirk calmed down and realized that they were not "conspiring" against him, Kirk was much less combative. Bunny tails IS THE BEST!!!!
Fun fact: Nurse Chapel is played by the same lady that does the voice acting for the ship's computer's voice in every series from Star Trek: The Next Generation and on, except for Star Trek Enterprise which takes place before the original Star Trek.
Another great reaction , it wasn’t one of my favourite episodes originally, but it’s grown on me over the years.i love bones “ thank pitchforks and pointed ears “ these guy can bust each others chops and are ok with it as long as it comes from a good place, love it.
So often redshirts risk their lives and frequently lose them. Only here do we get to know a redshirt. If we had lost him we would have truly felt the tragedy of the loss of each redshirt.
Not a pirate. A medieval tavern matron or a late 70s Heart fan. In case you didn't know, that nurse is Majel Barrett, to become Majel Barrett Roddenberry, wife, and later to appear in episodes of TNG (also the voice of the ship computer), and Deep Space Nine.
Garrovik was played by Steve Brooks, who first starred on an older tv show, "The FBI". Two of the first guards that are "killed" in this episode, one was Eddie Paskey "Lt. Leslie", and the other looks like Steve Brooks, ironically! But yet we see Leslie in other episodes! And we know Garrovik didn't die!!
I think you may be the most perceptive and fulsome reviewing of Star Trek that I have ever seen. Thank you for putting that all out there. Yes, it is validating to have someone also embrace and enjoy the episodes I've enjoyed for 50 some-odd years but more than that, it's just great to hear your insights make the episodes come alive again. Keep doing what you are doing... please!
Ahoy there, matey! International Talk Like a Pirate Day is celebrated annually on September 19th, providing landlubbers around the world with a chance to channel their inner buccaneer and speak in the colorful lingo of the high seas! So mark your calendar and prepare to unleash your best "Arrrrrr!" on that day!
I think you could explain the situation in the last episode where Kirk had to be put to trial by the fact that the Commodore demanded the trial take place. His crew, as much as they saw him deteriorating still didn't want to take his command away at that point. As you pointed out then even without his short term memory he would still have been a better captain, at least with his crew's support, than anyone else.
Great reaction! I always liked this one when I was a youngster. Now it doesn't have the weight of some of the other episodes. I guess we're supposed to laud Kirk for his intuition, but he was risking the lives of a lot of people who needed the medicine. That was a sure thing--the creature wasn't. In the end he is vindicated, but he's risking his career on a hunch. And was that hunch based on guilt? Kirk is self-aware enough to ask himself that question, but can he really evaluate it rationally? One interesting thing is that Kirk did not negatively affect his career by claiming he delayed firing on the creature. That sort of admission might be a black mark which could prevent him from ever becoming a captain, especially given the number of casualties (remember Finney from "Court Martial" who went to the bottom of the promotion list for a mistake reported by Kirk). Maybe no one corroborated his account (captain Garrovick was dead and maybe several other senior officers), but there may have been recordings which showed his hesitation. Perhaps hesitation in the face of the unknown was considered a normal human response, whereas Finney's lapse was carelessness which cannot be overlooked. Note that 1 ounce of antimatter would be equivalent to ~600 kilotons of TNT (total conversion with matter), which is a big explosion but not enough to "rip away half the planet's atmosphere." The Chicxulub impact was equivalent to 72 teratons of TNT and we still have an atmosphere.
All the best science fiction deals with the human condition, so it's no surprise that the best episodes of Star Trek do the same. We watch these shows for the characters, to see their interactions and feel their emotions - guilt, friendship, loyalty, humor, anger, even obsession. Shatner's acting was perfect for Kirk's Ahab moment, and as always, it was his friends that brought him back.
I’m 73 and this show was as transformational in the 60s to provide a new perspective on the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Appreciate your Appreciation of this “Way Ahead of its Time” Gene Roddenberry Masterpiece only to be Surpassed by SNG. Thank BTail for this reminder of violent and controversial context of those times. I was completely enthralled captivated & fascinated by this vision of the future
It's possible that Starfleet has a rotation system for its ensigns, wherein after a period of time they transfer to another starship and serve under another captain, giving them experience dealing with different styles of command. This may be optional or mandatory. It would explain the presence and subsequent absence of many a crew member we see only once. Or perhaps, after six to twelve months, with the recommendation of his commanding officer, the young ensign returned to the academy to go into the officer's training program, so as to follow in the footsteps of his late father.
In this episode Kirk encounters the same internal crisis that Commodore Decker did in "The Doomsday Machine". The difference is that he had two friends that were able to intervene and save him from his own rash actions.
@@HunterSchoumacher The thing about Doomsday is the explosion didn't happen on screen during the beam-out. This one did. But the stakes and challenge/risk were the same.
The Captain Ahab episode. DeForest Kelley was really good in this one. I like that new shot of the planet with its atmosphere ripped away at the end. Another one of my favorite Star Trek episodes. Great reaction and analysis Bunnytails!!
7:51 Good question; the thing can move fast enough that it could have been gone by the time they got back. The rest of them didn't know that, but Kirk knew.
What's funny, is listening to your questions about this and that because you've never seen the episodes. I've seen them so many times that I've memorized the lines
"Did you write a will?" has taken over as your best comment. it was close, but it replaces "Poor Smitter" when the Horta from Devil in the Dark got the miner Smitter. 3rd place Apollo's hand - "I got ya! Got your nose" Keep 'em coming bunny!
Sometimes when you are writing a TV episode, you wrap up the story and still have airtime minutes left to fill. That is when you write extra scenes that just take up time without moving the plot forward. That may be what happened last week.
The dinner with soup and coffee looked good! I always get hungry when they show food in the episodes. Starburst candy for dessert! Applied psychology! Heehee :)
In the Deadly Years episode, the hearing was instigated by the authority of that Commodore. Spock didn't want to go there. It was a waste of precious time when they particularly had so little to spare. -OG
Ensign Garrovick makes one more "canon" appearance in Star Trek: Prodigy (All the World's a Stage/2022). Otherwise, he's appeared in various comics and books and mostly with a different first name (no official first name was established in this episode) and even his parents' name vary from source to source.
I agree about Garrovick. What's interesting is that one of the initial red shirts who dies was a series regular. And I'd initially thought we were introducing his replacement. But alas, it wasn't to be I also appreciated that Nutse Chapel got some business to do besides pining for Spock. It was a great character moment. I think what you're running into is the problem with a weekly serial format. Television these days always has a season arc, but TOS does not. So, Kirk is supposed to be a cross of Horatio Hornblower and Hamlet. Hence, a swashbuckler with a guilty conscience. However, the show writers weren't given any other direction for Kirk, and thus, he was capable of anything. And it seems the writers ran with that as some episodes he seems entirely out of character. If you opt to continue with the movies, you'll find a much more consistent portrayal of the character.
You make a very valid point, comparing this episode to The Deadly Years. You can say the difference was that Bones was primarily trying to force Kirk to talk about something he wasn't willing to. Maybe not a bluff, exactly, but not quite as far as the very legitimate concerns over Kirk's competency in the Deadly Years. Also bear in mind that Commodore Stocker was a by the book bureaucrat and was being more official because that's what he knew. The fact that it was a really bad time for the hearing might just not have occurred to him. As for the rest, the vent thing in Garrovick's quarters always bothered me, too. Obviously it's not an air vent to the outside. The best explanation was it's linked to the central ventilation, and the external ventilation is more for excess heat and energy from the engines, etc. Why there's any real connection between those you might explain since the engines are the primary power source for everything and a cloud might get into the electronics, but it's still kind of a shaky idea that something from outside could get into the enclosed atmosphere you'd do everything you could to isolate and protect from anything outside. The cloud being intelligent makes it a little more likely, since it would look for a way in, but it's one of those things you're just supposed to accept makes sense when you'd need a lot of technical details to determine if it actually makes sense. Flushing it out with radioactive waste, or whatever, is also extremely questionable. You'd have to carefully close off ventilation to herd it into some kind of location where you could flush it out of the ship, get rid of radioactive whatever, and then reopen the ventilation system. Again, not impossible to do all that but not explained well at all. That's the problem with some science fiction is sometimes issues and solutions can be a little opaque to the audience because the writer has a definite idea of how things work that they may not convey very well. I'm pretty sure Garrovick never returns, and that is part of the episodic nature of the show. Kirk taking him under his wing might have been interesting, but it would have obligated the various individual writers to account for him somehow, or leave questions about what happened to him. It's seems like they had a very clear idea of who Kirk was, and that was a commanding adventure figure with no real emotional attachments, and they wanted the crew and setting a consistent template they could build bottle stories on top of. Things were often aired out of order, and they were desperately afraid that any continuing stories would become confusing and turn off an audience. Nowadays streaming and physical media make it easier to follow stories to beginning to end, and have recurring characters playing a more important role without confusion.
Wow. You look Pretty In Pink and look Bad-Ass in your pirate belt. So... the Big Question for this episode: where was Buffy to slay this Vampire Cloud????? They wanted to show the level of Kirk's PTSD and obsession over this creature, and its attack on the USS Farragut 11 years earlier. It was indeed a fascinating form of life and was a spacefaring creature that was capable of traveling at warp speed. Yes, very good question you asked about why didn't they just deliver the medicine to Theta 7 and THEN get back to dealing with the creature. They wanted to showcase Kirk's obsession and PTSD over the creature, how it might have clouded his judgment. However, since we saw that this creature was able to travel at warp speed to other planets, we know that it would not be confined to just one planet. Also, when Spock realized that the creature was about to reproduce into thousands via fission, he concluded that getting the drugs to Theta 7 had to wait, that this was a higher priority. And very good point about the contrast between this and The Deadly Years when it came to declaring Kirk unfit for command. Regarding the creature entering the ship thru the vents, Scotty was doing a cleaning of the ventilation system earlier but hadn't finished and hadn't closed all of the vents yet, unintentionally providing the creature a way inside the ship. You may have noticed the reference to cobalt bombs (or C-Bombs) in this episode when Garrovick said "just think. This is as powerful as 10,000 cobalt bombs." A cobalt bomb is a theoretical type of nuclear weapon salted with cobalt to release a lot more radiation than standard nuclear weapons would. A physicist discussed this on the radio back in 1950 as his way of warning us that this would be a doomsday weapon that would kill everyone on earth, that it should never, ever be developed or built for real. We've seen C-bomb weapons in various sci-fi TV show sand movies over the years. In Beneath The Planet of The Apes (1970), the 2 astronauts from the past learn that the mutated telepathic humans had possession of a C-Bomb called Alpha and Omega, a doomsday weapon leftover from the peak of human civilization. For the 2nd time this season, Kirk used a doomsday weapon to destroy a dangerous threat to the galaxy. Thank God Spock's blood was based on copper and not hemoglobin! Actually in real life, some animals blood do use copper rather than iron to transport oxygen, like octopi. Instead of using the protein hemoglobin, it uses hemocyanin, and their blood is bluish rather than green. Lobsters are like this too. Yes, Kirk would make a good mentor for Garrovick. This was the word you were looking for.
I was a bit worried we weren't going to have a 'Bunny Trek' this weekend, but you came through in the clutch. 😁 It's a shame there wasn't many reoccurring crew members on TOS. When they did ut was to sub for Chekov, Sulu or Uhura when they went missing for an episode.
You might have already noticed that Kirk's security chiefs are akin to Spinal Tap's drummers... but not all of them die. Security is the department with the fastest advancement, though unfortunately that's partly due to the fact that it has the worst mortality rate. Indeed, I'm suspicious that this episode originated the slang word "redshirt." Those of Kirk's security chiefs that don't die tend to distinguish themselves and get promoted - fast. In Starfleet, as it is in real-world military organizations, promotion often means transfer. That said, you're right about Garrovick. He's an interesting character.😀
This episode sort of got me thinking that they should have had an episode (which I suppose Court Martial from the first season is one, kind of) where Kirk has to go to a Starbase and requisition guys in red shirts. "Yeah, we're gonna need like, 50 guys or so, to replace the ones we've lost." "Wtf Kirk, wth are you doin' out there?" "Hey, it's dangerous out there. You know, space and all that crazy stuff. So, you got 50 for me, or what?" "Un, no. We've got like 5 or 6, and they ain't real keen on hitchin' a ride with ya, and wanted to let ya know, nothing personal, but they'll catch the next bus that comes through, thank you very much." Some sort of episode like that.
Seemed like the Enterprise needed its warp engines replaced every couple of weeks back then, too. They were damaged irreparably by the galactic barrier in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", imploded at Psi 2000 in "The Naked Time", and buckled during the return from 1967 in "Tomorrow is Yesterday". You'd think Kirk would be given command of a shuttle and Scotty would be sent to Janus VI to maintain their circulating pump for a while.
@@paulsander5433 Yeah, Kirk would need lots of starbases, and lots of downtime and maybe switching commands, not to mention tying to plot their course through the series on a star chart has them zigzagging all over the place. But the show is fun.
Oh my…a pirate bunny! I would lean toward pirate fox but you already have your channel established. Looks great and enjoying the Star Trek voyage with ya!
Kirk was having a Captain Ahab moment, and the cloud is his white whale.
Nice analogy. OK episode. I like the interaction between Kirk and the younger crew member.
Very much like Commodore Decker and "The Doomsday Machine."
Totally! I wonder if that was the actual inspiration for it? Nice observation.
What about Khan quoting from Moby Dick in TWoK?
By law, every sci-fi series has a Moby Dick episode.
11:59 "That was awesome. I loved that."
Nurse Chapel doesn't have many opportunities to shine, but when she does, have your shades ready.
I wish Nurse Chapel had more of those opportunities to shine.
"There was no deity involved. It was my cross-circuiting to channel B."
Yep, one of Spock's best lines of the series. 😄
McCoy : "Well then, thank pitchforks & pointed ears"
. . . which is a humorous way of saying, if you don't thank God, then by default, you're thanking the devil.
"Did you write a will?" Lmao 🤣
Yeah, the red shirts really took a beating in this episode!
That might be the funniest thing she’s ever said about this series… 😂
Ms. Bunny does come up with the great ones.😄
LOL. yeah so funny!
When a Trekiverse newbie at last understands the well-established red shirt plight, she is no longer a newbie. She is now one of us.
13:46 When Spock calls his captain Jim, you know he's really trying and really sincere. Love these moments and the Spock McCoy interactions in this one. Another great reaction.🖖
Guilt and regret are powerful emotions. Star Trek did a great job of showing just how powerful they can be in many episodes.
I have followed Shatner for decades and he always speaks of 'regret.'
"Should they be wearing some protective gear?"
That's what the red shirts are for.
"Shields!"
Considering the logic of sending all the top ranking officers down into dangerous situations... constantly... they're lucky if they remember to bring the Band-Aids...
Where would be the fun if a red shirt didn't die......
Yes Red Shirts protect main characters from being killed😂😂😂😂
Hey, shower curtains are expensive!
In the previous episode, the Commodore was on board and was likely the one driving the whole inquiry into Kirk's ability to command the Enterprise.
One of my favorite episodes. It often gets overlooked but it's great. A redshirt that is finally an actual character. Garovik is a great character. We also get great details on Kirk's back story. The scene with McCoy and Spock questioning Kirks motivations is great. An exceptional episode that's in my top 10.
04:05 "Did you write a will?" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Garrovick is a legend in the Red Shirt community. He had multiple scenes with lines and survived three encounters with a deadly enemy. He was even acknowledged by one of the main characters at the end and it wasn't in a eulogy.
In Red Shirt world lore this makes him almost Superman.
The most suicidal line in science fiction "vent the radioactive waste into the ventilation system"
It's the kind of thing you wouldn't even wish on your worst enemy.
Maybe it's only a mildly radioactive gas to humans, but dangerous to sentient clouds of gas.
Why is it always DUCTS?
That's why they got all these Ensigns hanging out. Those recruits will be scrubbing out the pipes for the next solar year.
@@jupreindeer That is how Kirk survived to be a captain.
He didn't have his first deep space mission until he was already a lieutenant. He bypassed all the sure-death assignments that are routinely given to ensigns.
To answer your question about the " Deadly Years" is that those senior officers who would write Kirk up- were afflicted by the same disease.
In the Deadly Years, Commodore Stocker insisted that Spock have the trial. In Obsession, It was just Spock and McCoy so they kept it a little more low key and had an intervention with Kirk.
One of the Red Shirt security men in the background is future film composer Basil Poledouris. He wrote the scores to Conan the Barbarian and Starship Troopers.
Lo and behold there was rejoicing across the Federation and the word spread to the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire and Beyond. Yes, A Red Shirt survived a tour of duty on the Enterprise......
This episode is the source for one of the best Star Trek memes: "Dig 3 graves up there, I'll explain it to you later"
@@zhaley1980 OK, never heard that one.....
@@zhaley1980 Ok get it now... Very good.
You *do* realize that Scotty wears a red shirt, right... 🤣 (Sorry, had to do it. lol)
@@SuperDave1426 Scotty has died a few times, too, courtesy Apollo and Nomad.
Bunny, this is from questions and comments you made last episode. I had to mull them over a bit. I turned 70 this year. Is getting older scary? No, not for me. Mostly depressing. I NEVER thought I'd still be here (what the good Lord still expects is beyond me). No, it's not easy, I can't physically do things I could do 5 years ago, let alone 20. Getting lucky is remembering what you walked into a room for. The hardest part is seeing people you've been close to for decades fall by the wayside. It gets lonely no longer having someone around with shared experiences. Although you and a few others make that a bit better by experiencing what we did for the first time and sharing it. Girl, don't worry, most of us went through that OMG feeling at about your age. It's tough when you realize life truly is finite, and you begin to fear what's left to come. But it REALLY is all good. Things will happen as they are meant to, have faith in yourself that you'll handle it. (And I had this perfect monolog memorized and forgot half as I was writing. Old age I guess. Ha).
This is what sx workers r for.
I am overjoyed watching your reaction videos of the Original Series episodes. I’m 55, and ever since I could remember, I watched Star Trek with my Dad. It’s my all time favorite show. I have my memories, and you have a journey. May you find your way as pleasant.
This episode contains the best reuse of Sol Kaplan's epic suspense music from "The Doomsday Machine" and what I consider to be the series' most nail-biting transporter scene.
This episode was written by Art Wallace, who developed the basic bible of the 1966-71 Gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows. This soap opera, which can be found on Tubi, featured vampires, most notably Barnabas Collins, witches, ghosts, werewolves, a phoenix, a Lovecraftian shapeshifter, etc. Wallace, however, was gone from the series by the time those elements were introduced.
Fun fact, Shatner references this episode and the Farragut incident in his novel The Ashes of Eden.
Where we also see a rudimentary holodeck, IIRC
Digging the pirate look! I'm not a big fan of this episode but I will always love the moment when young Garrovick karate chops Kirk from behind. It's so wonderfully subversive, a redshirt for once becoming a central character in his own right. Trek on!
"I had you in mind, Mr. Garrovik."
Yeah, the vampire cloud didn't just kill your friend, it murdered your father.
I know I'd want a shot at it.
This episode is the steal from Moby Dick, even more than Matt Decker determined to destroy the Planet Killer in "The Doomsday Machine".
Decker met the same fate as Ahab, whereas Kirk did not (but he came pretty close!).
@@Stogie2112 Right; that occurred to me. Kirk is able to pull back to objectivity, while still accomplishing his goal of destroying the creature.
@@Stogie2112Albeit Decker chose to die as much from guilty as much as a desire for vengeance.
"If you're going to steal, steal from the best."
Decker was suicidal, so he was more determined. Kirk was never suicidal, even at the end of this episode.
The number-one rule of the transporter is that you can't do nothin' till you're done sparklin'.
The number-two rules is never transport anyone on LSD.
@@Belzediel Rule number three being that anyone named 'Scotty' can break rules 1, 2 and anything else in the book about transporters.
When Kirk restores Garrovick to full duty and explains to him that his delay in firing would've made no difference. Kirk in essence is forgiving himself also for what he did 11 years ago as a young ensign. Shatner also sounded like he had a cold during filming. Nice work as always Bunny!
Spock: "I need your advice."
Bones: "Then I need a drink."
Dr. Boyce had it right in "The Cage": "Men sometimes tell their bartender what they won't tell their doctor" as he handed Capt. Pike a martini.
@@paulsander5433 "Is that ice you're putting in there?"
"Who wants a warm martini?"
@@paulsander5433 Exactly where my thoughts were going on this one.
Boy,I could use a shot of Saurian Brandy right about now ....
It's a great character study for Kirk, and yet another wonderful showcase for the Kirk/Spock/McCoy friendship. I just love how they make Kirk a real person with fears and imperfections, and we love him all the more because he's such a great man, in spite or or perhaps because of, these imperfections and the way he rises above them. Regarding Garrovick, in the "old days" most of the guest characters on shows were kind of "one and done." I agree that it was frustrating at times when a compelling new character was featured and then just disappeared, though. Shows tended to have very stable and smaller casts back then, sadly. Nice reaction!
For a moment, I was worried there wouldn't be a Saturday post. Great commentary @Bunnytails!
To the Lieutenant of Penzance -- excellent reaction, with good questions and quips throughout! Live long and prosper, Matey!
You don't show it here but at the very end as the Enterprise leaves orbit you can see the planet below them and there is an enormous circular burn over at least a third of the surface. It's the scar left by the antimatter explosion that destroyed the creature. Shout out to the digital update effects team for amazing attention to detail!
Ohh thanks for pointing it out! I did not notice that
Awesome Reaction!! Guess by now you know that Nurse Chapel was in life Mrs Gene Roddenberry!! Great Job Bunny! Peace 🕊️☮️♾️😎
Another great review Bunny. Under Kirk's tutelage, Ensign Garrovick would make a decent senior officer one day, maybe even a decent starship captain. You're in for a treat with the rest of this season. Can't wait for your next review to drop. Have a great week.
I love watching Bunny's reaction to 23rd century weapons and technology.
This was a particularly good episode from a character perspective. I haven’t started watching your review yet, but I have a strong feeling that you enjoyed it ❤
Lt. Leslie (played by Eddie Paskey) was one of the red-shirt casualties in this episode. Yet, he was back at his post for the next episode and 17 more episodes after that. They didn't intend to kill him off ... there was a scene where McCoy saves his life, but it wasn't shot because of time considerations. It was assumed that the average viewing audience wouldn't catch that a semiregular background character came and went and came back. That may have been true in 1967, but little did they know how "obsessive" Star Trek fans would quickly become.😊
Home audiences having the ability to retain shows? A world wide technology that gives anyone the ability to repeat episodes on infinite loops? Or makes marathoning possible? How about the ability to enhance visuals or freeze frame any chosen frame outside of a studio's editing room? That was more of a science fiction idea then the show they were making... at the time. After all, one had to invest a lot of money to have a reel-to-reel for public use. Why, one would have to have the brains of Spock to go about inventing a time traveling modem made out of vacuum tubes and crude wiring.
Actually, Eddie Paskey was in a total of 60 Star Trek episodes, almost always just in the background, usually on the bridge.
that bodice and shirt are great combo
The best part of this episode is seeing Kirk in angry conflict with Spock and McCoy. We see how even James T. Kirk can lose control of himself and let personal revenge affect his command decisions.
He had no excuse this time! No aging disease, no weirdo spores, no evil twin…..Kirk! Get over yourself and DO YOUR DUTY!
We also get to hear the same great music from “The Doomsday Machine”. 👍👍
It's proof that he's human and susceptible to the traumatic aftereffects of tragic events. ST Voyager effectively revisited this thesis with Captain Janeway.
That's true but he also had the self awareness to question his motivation for his actions
Smell can bring memories and some smells you dream about.
So true! If I smell the same perfume some of my old girlfriends used to wear a get a rush of memories flooding back.
I always wished that Stephen Brooks (Ensign Garrovick) had been included in more episodes of Star Trek, he fit in so well and would have been great to see his character grow with the series. Very sad that Stephen Brooks died so young.
Kirk had the same obsessive tendencies in "The Conscience of the King", one of my favorite episodes.
I've heard of old men yelling at clouds, but I've never seen any make such efforts to track one down and kill it!
Awesome reaction of my favorite Star Trek The Original Series!!!!!😊😊😊😊😊😊
Always a treat when your reactions to STOS pop up!
I love this episode. Kirk's obsession with the creature, the drama with McCoy and Spock doubting him. A personal favorite of mine from this season.
I've been looking forward to this since last week's reaction. Woo Hoo 😁
Avest! You look like you are ready to go to a Renaissance Faire! "Did you write a will" about the red-shirt was the best laugh I've had in a good while!
Garrovik is the son of Captain Garrovik of the Farragut, also seen in the TPB 'Debt of Honor', where we also see Lt. Kirk.
Ensign Garrovik is also featured in a Prodigy episode, a great callback to this ep.
First, luv Bunny tails the pirate. Best introduction with an Arrgh!! EVER. I liked this episode because it shows just how well Spock, McCoy, and Kirk know each other. The moment Kirk started acting oddly Spock and McCoy called his behavior into question. Once Kirk calmed down and realized that they were not "conspiring" against him, Kirk was much less combative. Bunny tails IS THE BEST!!!!
Fun fact:
Nurse Chapel is played by the same lady that does the voice acting for the ship's computer's voice in every series from Star Trek: The Next Generation and on, except for Star Trek Enterprise which takes place before the original Star Trek.
Another great reaction , it wasn’t one of my favourite episodes originally, but it’s grown on me over the years.i love bones “ thank pitchforks and pointed ears “ these guy can bust each others chops and are ok with it as long as it comes from a good place, love it.
So often redshirts risk their lives and frequently lose them. Only here do we get to know a redshirt. If we had lost him we would have truly felt the tragedy of the loss of each redshirt.
Not a pirate. A medieval tavern matron or a late 70s Heart fan.
In case you didn't know, that nurse is Majel Barrett, to become Majel Barrett Roddenberry, wife, and later to appear in episodes of TNG (also the voice of the ship computer), and Deep Space Nine.
Heart fan? More like Ann or Nancy Wilson cosplay! 😆
She was also Number One in the pilot episode.
💯 She could've fit right on the cover of their "Little Queen" release.
@@docsavage8640 Right off the cover of "Little Queen"
@@mcbeezee2120 Crap. I just made this exact exact comment ... then looked up and realized you beat me to it! 😂
Garrovik was played by Steve Brooks, who first starred on an older tv show, "The FBI". Two of the first guards that are "killed" in this episode, one was Eddie Paskey "Lt. Leslie", and the other looks like Steve Brooks, ironically! But yet we see Leslie in other episodes! And we know Garrovik didn't die!!
Yep, he turns up in some manner in an ep of Prodigy.
It’s amazing that you remember the episodes by name!!! Especially the ravioli’s on operation annihilate
@T.elegra.m.Bunnytailsreacts huh???
I think you may be the most perceptive and fulsome reviewing of Star Trek that I have ever seen. Thank you for putting that all out there. Yes, it is validating to have someone also embrace and enjoy the episodes I've enjoyed for 50 some-odd years but more than that, it's just great to hear your insights make the episodes come alive again. Keep doing what you are doing... please!
For me, the two greatest triggers to memory are smells and music. They instantly and viscerally transport you to a place and time.
There's this whole movie that revolves around how music can trigger strong emotions. A really interesting and unique topic.
Ahoy there, matey! International Talk Like a Pirate Day is celebrated annually on September 19th, providing landlubbers around the world with a chance to channel their inner buccaneer and speak in the colorful lingo of the high seas! So mark your calendar and prepare to unleash your best "Arrrrrr!" on that day!
Saying that as he leans on the "arrrrrrrr" key...
I think you could explain the situation in the last episode where Kirk had to be put to trial by the fact that the Commodore demanded the trial take place. His crew, as much as they saw him deteriorating still didn't want to take his command away at that point. As you pointed out then even without his short term memory he would still have been a better captain, at least with his crew's support, than anyone else.
"Did you write a will?" 😂😂
Don't do that to me on a Sunday morning breakfast!
Great reaction! I always liked this one when I was a youngster. Now it doesn't have the weight of some of the other episodes. I guess we're supposed to laud Kirk for his intuition, but he was risking the lives of a lot of people who needed the medicine. That was a sure thing--the creature wasn't. In the end he is vindicated, but he's risking his career on a hunch. And was that hunch based on guilt? Kirk is self-aware enough to ask himself that question, but can he really evaluate it rationally? One interesting thing is that Kirk did not negatively affect his career by claiming he delayed firing on the creature. That sort of admission might be a black mark which could prevent him from ever becoming a captain, especially given the number of casualties (remember Finney from "Court Martial" who went to the bottom of the promotion list for a mistake reported by Kirk). Maybe no one corroborated his account (captain Garrovick was dead and maybe several other senior officers), but there may have been recordings which showed his hesitation. Perhaps hesitation in the face of the unknown was considered a normal human response, whereas Finney's lapse was carelessness which cannot be overlooked. Note that 1 ounce of antimatter would be equivalent to ~600 kilotons of TNT (total conversion with matter), which is a big explosion but not enough to "rip away half the planet's atmosphere." The Chicxulub impact was equivalent to 72 teratons of TNT and we still have an atmosphere.
All the best science fiction deals with the human condition, so it's no surprise that the best episodes of Star Trek do the same. We watch these shows for the characters, to see their interactions and feel their emotions - guilt, friendship, loyalty, humor, anger, even obsession. Shatner's acting was perfect for Kirk's Ahab moment, and as always, it was his friends that brought him back.
I’m 73 and this show was as transformational in the 60s to provide a new perspective on the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Appreciate your Appreciation of this “Way Ahead of its Time” Gene Roddenberry Masterpiece only to be Surpassed by SNG. Thank BTail for this reminder of violent and controversial context of those times. I was completely enthralled captivated & fascinated by this vision of the future
It's possible that Starfleet has a rotation system for its ensigns, wherein after a period of time they transfer to another starship and serve under another captain, giving them experience dealing with different styles of command. This may be optional or mandatory. It would explain the presence and subsequent absence of many a crew member we see only once.
Or perhaps, after six to twelve months, with the recommendation of his commanding officer, the young ensign returned to the academy to go into the officer's training program, so as to follow in the footsteps of his late father.
In this episode Kirk encounters the same internal crisis that Commodore Decker did in "The Doomsday Machine". The difference is that he had two friends that were able to intervene and save him from his own rash actions.
Ahoy matey! The most famous female pirate was Anne Bonny. A picture about her is Anne of the Indies from 1951. Arr, savvy?
This has the best beam-up sequence of any episode!!!
Doomsday machine did it first, and better
@@HunterSchoumacher I'd say third place, after "Mirror, Mirror."
There are some pretty good ones to come.
@@HunterSchoumacher The thing about Doomsday is the explosion didn't happen on screen during the beam-out. This one did. But the stakes and challenge/risk were the same.
@@shallowgal462 I think I am with you on this. More people, and the setup for the episode.
The Captain Ahab episode. DeForest Kelley was really good in this one. I like that new shot of the planet with its atmosphere ripped away at the end. Another one of my favorite Star Trek episodes. Great reaction and analysis Bunnytails!!
Love the pirate outfit, I wouldn't be surprised if you end up with a sudden uptick in subs, arrrrr
7:51 Good question; the thing can move fast enough that it could have been gone by the time they got back.
The rest of them didn't know that, but Kirk knew.
What's funny, is listening to your questions about this and that because you've never seen the episodes. I've seen them so many times that I've memorized the lines
Mr. Leslie was somehow saved because he appeared in later episodes.
Bunny: "I'm doing Obsession". Me: "Red shirt death alert!"
The vapor from a fog machine actually has a sickly sweet honey odor. I loved this in-joke.
I'm always amazed how a chop to the neck can knock out someone. 😂
Mitch Keller and rookie Paul Skenes be throwing heat for the Buccos me hearties. Raise the Jolly Roger!
"Did you write a will?" has taken over as your best comment. it was close, but it replaces "Poor Smitter" when the Horta from Devil in the Dark got the miner Smitter. 3rd place Apollo's hand - "I got ya! Got your nose" Keep 'em coming bunny!
Sometimes when you are writing a TV episode, you wrap up the story and still have airtime minutes left to fill. That is when you write extra scenes that just take up time without moving the plot forward. That may be what happened last week.
The dinner with soup and coffee looked good! I always get hungry when they show food in the episodes. Starburst candy for dessert! Applied psychology! Heehee :)
I can't believe there are two comments already. I saw it was uploaded 1 minute ago!
yeah it's crazy; Bunny said that people comment immediately to help the algorithm. But so fast!!
Channel members got early access to the video 🙂
@@bunnytailsREACTS I am a channel member :)
@@theroboticscodedepot7736 oops! haha
That's weird though. You don't have the member icon
Nice reaction!
This is primarily a psychological episode. The scientific/technical details don't matter very much. :)
Stephen Brooks (Garrovick) was best known at that point as Efrem Zimbalist Jr's partner on "The FBI"...
In the Deadly Years episode, the hearing was instigated by the authority of that Commodore. Spock didn't want to go there. It was a waste of precious time when they particularly had so little to spare. -OG
Love your energy. Please post more videos!
Garrovick's cousin can be seen on Starship Exeter on UA-cam as well. "The Tressaurian Intersection" is pretty good.
A pirate? I was thinking something out of a Renn-Faire… it’s been far too long since I’ve gone to one.
11:30 Don't back talk to Nurse Chapel!
Unless Vulcan Plomeek Soup gives you the super-power.
I betcha never thought you'd see kirk do battle with a fully sentient killer fart, didja? lol
4:06 "Did you write a will?" 😮 Dayamn that's dark 😂 😂 😂
Ensign Garrovick makes one more "canon" appearance in Star Trek: Prodigy (All the World's a Stage/2022). Otherwise, he's appeared in various comics and books and mostly with a different first name (no official first name was established in this episode) and even his parents' name vary from source to source.
Great episode.
I agree about Garrovick. What's interesting is that one of the initial red shirts who dies was a series regular. And I'd initially thought we were introducing his replacement. But alas, it wasn't to be
I also appreciated that Nutse Chapel got some business to do besides pining for Spock. It was a great character moment.
I think what you're running into is the problem with a weekly serial format. Television these days always has a season arc, but TOS does not.
So, Kirk is supposed to be a cross of Horatio Hornblower and Hamlet. Hence, a swashbuckler with a guilty conscience.
However, the show writers weren't given any other direction for Kirk, and thus, he was capable of anything. And it seems the writers ran with that as some episodes he seems entirely out of character.
If you opt to continue with the movies, you'll find a much more consistent portrayal of the character.
You make a very valid point, comparing this episode to The Deadly Years. You can say the difference was that Bones was primarily trying to force Kirk to talk about something he wasn't willing to. Maybe not a bluff, exactly, but not quite as far as the very legitimate concerns over Kirk's competency in the Deadly Years. Also bear in mind that Commodore Stocker was a by the book bureaucrat and was being more official because that's what he knew. The fact that it was a really bad time for the hearing might just not have occurred to him. As for the rest, the vent thing in Garrovick's quarters always bothered me, too. Obviously it's not an air vent to the outside. The best explanation was it's linked to the central ventilation, and the external ventilation is more for excess heat and energy from the engines, etc. Why there's any real connection between those you might explain since the engines are the primary power source for everything and a cloud might get into the electronics, but it's still kind of a shaky idea that something from outside could get into the enclosed atmosphere you'd do everything you could to isolate and protect from anything outside. The cloud being intelligent makes it a little more likely, since it would look for a way in, but it's one of those things you're just supposed to accept makes sense when you'd need a lot of technical details to determine if it actually makes sense. Flushing it out with radioactive waste, or whatever, is also extremely questionable. You'd have to carefully close off ventilation to herd it into some kind of location where you could flush it out of the ship, get rid of radioactive whatever, and then reopen the ventilation system. Again, not impossible to do all that but not explained well at all. That's the problem with some science fiction is sometimes issues and solutions can be a little opaque to the audience because the writer has a definite idea of how things work that they may not convey very well. I'm pretty sure Garrovick never returns, and that is part of the episodic nature of the show. Kirk taking him under his wing might have been interesting, but it would have obligated the various individual writers to account for him somehow, or leave questions about what happened to him. It's seems like they had a very clear idea of who Kirk was, and that was a commanding adventure figure with no real emotional attachments, and they wanted the crew and setting a consistent template they could build bottle stories on top of. Things were often aired out of order, and they were desperately afraid that any continuing stories would become confusing and turn off an audience. Nowadays streaming and physical media make it easier to follow stories to beginning to end, and have recurring characters playing a more important role without confusion.
My "language" is sometimes "smelling", too, especially after I've eaten beans.
Wow. You look Pretty In Pink and look Bad-Ass in your pirate belt. So... the Big Question for this episode: where was Buffy to slay this Vampire Cloud?????
They wanted to show the level of Kirk's PTSD and obsession over this creature, and its attack on the USS Farragut 11 years earlier. It was indeed a fascinating form of life and was a spacefaring creature that was capable of traveling at warp speed.
Yes, very good question you asked about why didn't they just deliver the medicine to Theta 7 and THEN get back to dealing with the creature. They wanted to showcase Kirk's obsession and PTSD over the creature, how it might have clouded his judgment. However, since we saw that this creature was able to travel at warp speed to other planets, we know that it would not be confined to just one planet. Also, when Spock realized that the creature was about to reproduce into thousands via fission, he concluded that getting the drugs to Theta 7 had to wait, that this was a higher priority.
And very good point about the contrast between this and The Deadly Years when it came to declaring Kirk unfit for command.
Regarding the creature entering the ship thru the vents, Scotty was doing a cleaning of the ventilation system earlier but hadn't finished and hadn't closed all of the vents yet, unintentionally providing the creature a way inside the ship.
You may have noticed the reference to cobalt bombs (or C-Bombs) in this episode when Garrovick said "just think. This is as powerful as 10,000 cobalt bombs." A cobalt bomb is a theoretical type of nuclear weapon salted with cobalt to release a lot more radiation than standard nuclear weapons would. A physicist discussed this on the radio back in 1950 as his way of warning us that this would be a doomsday weapon that would kill everyone on earth, that it should never, ever be developed or built for real. We've seen C-bomb weapons in various sci-fi TV show sand movies over the years. In Beneath The Planet of The Apes (1970), the 2 astronauts from the past learn that the mutated telepathic humans had possession of a C-Bomb called Alpha and Omega, a doomsday weapon leftover from the peak of human civilization.
For the 2nd time this season, Kirk used a doomsday weapon to destroy a dangerous threat to the galaxy.
Thank God Spock's blood was based on copper and not hemoglobin! Actually in real life, some animals blood do use copper rather than iron to transport oxygen, like octopi. Instead of using the protein hemoglobin, it uses hemocyanin, and their blood is bluish rather than green. Lobsters are like this too.
Yes, Kirk would make a good mentor for Garrovick. This was the word you were looking for.
I was a bit worried we weren't going to have a 'Bunny Trek' this weekend, but you came through in the clutch. 😁 It's a shame there wasn't many reoccurring crew members on TOS. When they did ut was to sub for Chekov, Sulu or Uhura when they went missing for an episode.
I wondered where you were love. You posted a bit later than usual.😋 Great reaction, and one of my top 10 favourite TOS episodes.
You might have already noticed that Kirk's security chiefs are akin to Spinal Tap's drummers... but not all of them die. Security is the department with the fastest advancement, though unfortunately that's partly due to the fact that it has the worst mortality rate. Indeed, I'm suspicious that this episode originated the slang word "redshirt."
Those of Kirk's security chiefs that don't die tend to distinguish themselves and get promoted - fast. In Starfleet, as it is in real-world military organizations, promotion often means transfer.
That said, you're right about Garrovick. He's an interesting character.😀
This episode sort of got me thinking that they should have had an episode (which I suppose Court Martial from the first season is one, kind of) where Kirk has to go to a Starbase and requisition guys in red shirts.
"Yeah, we're gonna need like, 50 guys or so, to replace the ones we've lost."
"Wtf Kirk, wth are you doin' out there?"
"Hey, it's dangerous out there. You know, space and all that crazy stuff. So, you got 50 for me, or what?"
"Un, no. We've got like 5 or 6, and they ain't real keen on hitchin' a ride with ya, and wanted to let ya know, nothing personal, but they'll catch the next bus that comes through, thank you very much."
Some sort of episode like that.
So, like the novel "Redshirts", then?
Seemed like the Enterprise needed its warp engines replaced every couple of weeks back then, too. They were damaged irreparably by the galactic barrier in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", imploded at Psi 2000 in "The Naked Time", and buckled during the return from 1967 in "Tomorrow is Yesterday". You'd think Kirk would be given command of a shuttle and Scotty would be sent to Janus VI to maintain their circulating pump for a while.
@@paulsander5433 Yeah, Kirk would need lots of starbases, and lots of downtime and maybe switching commands, not to mention tying to plot their course through the series on a star chart has them zigzagging all over the place. But the show is fun.
Its a solid episode, with particularly great work by Kirk and McCoy and as always I enjoyed your review.
Oh my…a pirate bunny! I would lean toward pirate fox but you already have your channel established. Looks great and enjoying the Star Trek voyage with ya!