...Star Trek is always at its best when philosophical and with layered plot points and/or characterizations...
So season two starts out with "Amok Time", where we get to see Spock's world and a glimpse into his culture - in a way that whets the appetite but doesn't go overboard or, worse, demystifying everyone's then-favorite alien culture.
What angle is being used to explore Spock's world, thanks in part to a ton of fan letters? Well, the angle revolves around Spock's hormones of course, because... why not, it's the 1960s, the era of sexual revolution! Wheeee! (No worries, look up some fanfic hand-drawn imagery circa 1972 or so as to what make Vulcans' good parts might look like and wince despite some creativity utilized... yup, fandom was hot to trot back then as well, and it's genuinely amazing what fans of the 70s created, some with actual creativity too! But I'm keeping my review limited to the TV episode and not doing a historical essay on fandom of the time, but it's not inconceivable that Studio 54 wouldn't have had a Star Trek day, given the popularity of the time. But I digress, the first time of many (surprise, surprise)... )
As a kid, I remembered only the action sequences -- oh, nice job with some camera angle jump cuts and even the fake blood on Kirk's chest when Spock grazes him. Spoiler alert: In a well-written twist of events, Spock has to fight Kirk in a strangely surprisingly complex ceremonial ritual. And to the death. Which reminds, Dr MyCoy's playing "the old Triox compound" trick was another moment of excellent writing. In a story loaded with much and nuanced writing, which I really started to appreciate in my late-teens and only increasingly so since.
The continuity revolving around Spock, about how few outsiders have observed the challenge, it spot-on perfect. When Spock's first mention of an ancestor being human was said in season 1, this quickly became refined and applied to Spock via a series of stories, culminating/peaking in "Babel" as his "ancestor" was indeed his own father! Already that old, is he?! I'll be circling back to that later...
The continuity of the soup-stained wall was a nice touch, but the opening scene where McCoy walks out of a room whose briefly-shown innards are that for was generally used for Engineering still engenders a giggle.
The whole episode really has a tone of maturity that excels, with some honed crafting, and is rarely seen in sci-fi of any sort. That tone and handling alone makes it a 10/10.
A quick aside: The CGI introduced is really thoughtfully done and may be a retroactive bit of continuity to what TSFS introduced, but augmenting rather than recreating the same visage - nice touch on a nice touch, as Vulcan's new nuances look astonishing and feel like something they would have done in 1967 if time and money were available, even if the old cliché of "no handrails" is on display*. Even more, the scene of Spock dematerializing via long-shot adds that much more nuance to his departure from his home planet. #WIN!
Hmm, is Spock is taking this personal life stuff too personally perhaps? Every species breeds, but Spock almost seems embarrassed over this. Some humans feel embarrassment, true, but I'll save the pop dilettante psychology for another day. Are Vulcans using a sly form of emotion to hide the fact that they have them? (Well, yes, which is the point that later Trek episodes and TMP make. They aren't born emotionless, it is a structured, disciplinal practice and process -- and is an intriguing one. Amazing how the build-up of Vulcans from 1966 to 1979 fits together more easily than it should, since "an ancestor" implied a negative emotional connotation by Spock in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Yes, this was still during Spock's character formation behind-the-scenes but on-screen could be a form of psychological disassociation, personal embarrassment. Ouch. But that inner struggle has always been a Spockism as well. Again, unintentional or not, it all somehow fits. Like that glove at the store that read XXXL, but my hand is only XXL, but then I noticed "100% cotton and will shrink if washed in hot water". So I did that and now the glove feels like a M. Drat, and oops. Next time for my new pair, I am never washing it. Ever. Never ever. So it may stink to high heaven and passer-bys retching and upchucking as a result, but why did I digress into blabbering about incense and jellybeans? Oh well...)
Getting back into the episode itself, Kirk also starts a trend in fighting for his crew. We'll see this time and again in the show, and - indeed - the movies.
Actually, going back to "the jiggy" aspect, the thoughtfulness, care, and maturity accorded the subject of reproduction is still mind-blowingly mature and impressive. From situational plotting to character moments, this episode I would even deemed "underrated" in terms of strength, and it's incredibly strong.
Just how freakin' awesome is T'Pau? I don't mean Kirk and others fawning her excellence. Who we get on screen and how she is presented is never anything less than pure awesome. Even her asking in a rhetorical manner, "Are our ceremonies for outworlders?", just has a level of authority. Plus, the question is only to confirm since there was rare but historical precedent that was generally not allowed but tolerated. Vulcans are definitely complex, like a 1,000 piece Jackson Pollock jigsaw puzzle, like this one: https://www.pomegranate.com/product...fm37Z8PWfokTAyl1H6GeI5EizkrtBG69H8Hy7OEQA2shf
(I don't know them, but it's a common puzzle and that site had some historical background on the painter along with the proof that somebody made a puzzle. Now if anybody completed it before all their hairs turned gray and fell off, then so much the better... probably would take decades to complete, but there I go wandering into my fascination for 1970s computers and Galagos again... Galagos are so cute. People equate me to one. Not sure why, oh well, until then there's always a coffee spoon. Decaf, I'm hype enough already...) Otherwise, there's this more generic example: https://www.bing.com/search?q=jackson+pollock+painting+puzzle Dang, didn't realize there were so many to choose from!
And now for what you've really been waiting for: My whiny Vulcan nitpicks*, woohoo!
0. Kirk must have given Starfleet Command a hint that two other ships of sufficient cloud and stature and pomp were in the area to cover, since Kirk's request was granted. The audience is told the fact, but would the episode break its flow just to show Kirk telling Uhura to ring 'em up to tell them what they would already know? Oh, it's nice that we don't have another "commander of the week gone bad" trope, and Kirk thankfully manages to avoid falling into this category due to the wonderful power of "the tidy yet subverted plot twist at the end". The episode acknowledging it as "better late than never" was brill*. Even then, Kirk's last line is to order the ship to the planetary system. Hope they make it on time, but if not there are still two ships with regal commanders but this ensures Kirk is able to do it all and then some... Wut, you weren't expecting me to use 0-based list notation? My apologies, but 0 needs far more love and recognition, especially as some say that 1 is the loneliest number that-- nope, 0 is. Even 0 isn't narcissistic!
1. Between the aftermath of this episode and later episodes, Spock becomes a lot looser with discussing his private life, to complete strangers no less and some of them violate 1960s censors by showing their navels*. I mean, I used to be shy about this sort of thing and, decades later and having done it-- wait, I still am, sorta. If you want the diary, please visit my personal website at w3.foragoodtimethisisntthesitebecauseitsfakeandnot976.com. In other words, I may have answered my own question. Actually, in real life I don't freely traipse about to total strangers, not even in pick-up joints never mind the entry hall of a prominent building, to any semi-clad hottie. So there's still some nominal context.
2. Later Trek entries cite that Vulcans endure it every seven years. Prior to that, just the males - every seven years. Spock seems to look like a 40-something human, which means the dude is already old as Vulcans have far greater lifespans. Has he not gone through the jiggy desire ever before, since dialogue states he and T'Pring were pair-bonded at age seven and both would feel the urge only at the appropriate time? (Sheesh, after all this time, it's no wonder he's so moody, yeesh!) But there was no set number stated here, only a semi-vague "If we don't do it we go nuts". A shame this got defined later on in the lore, what with "7" being "a lucky number" and all. (In-joke alert!) Also, "T'Pring" sounds a bit like "Spring". As in what many mattresses are made of. I'll roll with that... so will they...
3. Spock hits on a monitor panel but not in a good way. They should have put in toffy board or something to show smashed electronics as the plastic casing, which looks like the usual screen fare but was made with softer and pliable plastic to look like it was being dented, splits open.
4. "Women as property". I'd forgotten about this line entirely and I was about to knock of a bunch of points at its face value. But this is another planet and another culture, and - more important - I must admit that T'pring manages to sell what otherwise could be considered "greed" an impeccable manner, which also suggests far more and other than the woman being the property... it suggests it's all a big "sleight of hand" and it's arguably the men who are since the women are in control of it but the men see only an illusion. To coin a phrase, it's definitely "Fascinating!"
At the end of the day, I really can't knock off points as the story is more than the sum of its parts, where the strong parts tower over the nitpicks. 10/10, with ease.
So season two starts out with "Amok Time", where we get to see Spock's world and a glimpse into his culture - in a way that whets the appetite but doesn't go overboard or, worse, demystifying everyone's then-favorite alien culture.
What angle is being used to explore Spock's world, thanks in part to a ton of fan letters? Well, the angle revolves around Spock's hormones of course, because... why not, it's the 1960s, the era of sexual revolution! Wheeee! (No worries, look up some fanfic hand-drawn imagery circa 1972 or so as to what make Vulcans' good parts might look like and wince despite some creativity utilized... yup, fandom was hot to trot back then as well, and it's genuinely amazing what fans of the 70s created, some with actual creativity too! But I'm keeping my review limited to the TV episode and not doing a historical essay on fandom of the time, but it's not inconceivable that Studio 54 wouldn't have had a Star Trek day, given the popularity of the time. But I digress, the first time of many (surprise, surprise)... )
As a kid, I remembered only the action sequences -- oh, nice job with some camera angle jump cuts and even the fake blood on Kirk's chest when Spock grazes him. Spoiler alert: In a well-written twist of events, Spock has to fight Kirk in a strangely surprisingly complex ceremonial ritual. And to the death. Which reminds, Dr MyCoy's playing "the old Triox compound" trick was another moment of excellent writing. In a story loaded with much and nuanced writing, which I really started to appreciate in my late-teens and only increasingly so since.
The continuity revolving around Spock, about how few outsiders have observed the challenge, it spot-on perfect. When Spock's first mention of an ancestor being human was said in season 1, this quickly became refined and applied to Spock via a series of stories, culminating/peaking in "Babel" as his "ancestor" was indeed his own father! Already that old, is he?! I'll be circling back to that later...
The continuity of the soup-stained wall was a nice touch, but the opening scene where McCoy walks out of a room whose briefly-shown innards are that for was generally used for Engineering still engenders a giggle.
The whole episode really has a tone of maturity that excels, with some honed crafting, and is rarely seen in sci-fi of any sort. That tone and handling alone makes it a 10/10.
A quick aside: The CGI introduced is really thoughtfully done and may be a retroactive bit of continuity to what TSFS introduced, but augmenting rather than recreating the same visage - nice touch on a nice touch, as Vulcan's new nuances look astonishing and feel like something they would have done in 1967 if time and money were available, even if the old cliché of "no handrails" is on display*. Even more, the scene of Spock dematerializing via long-shot adds that much more nuance to his departure from his home planet. #WIN!
* To be fair, look at the rock walkway - possibly a natural occurrence, having to drill in handrails might cause the rock to lose internal cohesion and break apart due to the force of the construction. Give it a few more centuries and it will probably collapse on its own due to erosion, the half-life of the material, everyone walking on it all the time, the effects of someone who spilled ceremonial tea in the same spot too many times if not general entropy, etc, etc, will somebody pleeeeeeeeeeeeease think of the sandstone! Or limestone, or whatever form of stone that is...
Hmm, is Spock is taking this personal life stuff too personally perhaps? Every species breeds, but Spock almost seems embarrassed over this. Some humans feel embarrassment, true, but I'll save the pop dilettante psychology for another day. Are Vulcans using a sly form of emotion to hide the fact that they have them? (Well, yes, which is the point that later Trek episodes and TMP make. They aren't born emotionless, it is a structured, disciplinal practice and process -- and is an intriguing one. Amazing how the build-up of Vulcans from 1966 to 1979 fits together more easily than it should, since "an ancestor" implied a negative emotional connotation by Spock in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Yes, this was still during Spock's character formation behind-the-scenes but on-screen could be a form of psychological disassociation, personal embarrassment. Ouch. But that inner struggle has always been a Spockism as well. Again, unintentional or not, it all somehow fits. Like that glove at the store that read XXXL, but my hand is only XXL, but then I noticed "100% cotton and will shrink if washed in hot water". So I did that and now the glove feels like a M. Drat, and oops. Next time for my new pair, I am never washing it. Ever. Never ever. So it may stink to high heaven and passer-bys retching and upchucking as a result, but why did I digress into blabbering about incense and jellybeans? Oh well...)
Getting back into the episode itself, Kirk also starts a trend in fighting for his crew. We'll see this time and again in the show, and - indeed - the movies.
Actually, going back to "the jiggy" aspect, the thoughtfulness, care, and maturity accorded the subject of reproduction is still mind-blowingly mature and impressive. From situational plotting to character moments, this episode I would even deemed "underrated" in terms of strength, and it's incredibly strong.
Just how freakin' awesome is T'Pau? I don't mean Kirk and others fawning her excellence. Who we get on screen and how she is presented is never anything less than pure awesome.
Even her asking in a rhetorical manner, "Are our ceremonies for outworlders?", just has a level of authority. Plus, the question is only to confirm since there was rare but historical precedent that was generally not allowed but tolerated. Vulcans are definitely complex, like a 1,000 piece Jackson Pollock jigsaw puzzle, like this one: https://www.pomegranate.com/product...fm37Z8PWfokTAyl1H6GeI5EizkrtBG69H8Hy7OEQA2shf(I don't know them, but it's a common puzzle and that site had some historical background on the painter along with the proof that somebody made a puzzle. Now if anybody completed it before all their hairs turned gray and fell off, then so much the better... probably would take decades to complete, but there I go wandering into my fascination for 1970s computers and Galagos again... Galagos are so cute. People equate me to one. Not sure why, oh well, until then there's always a coffee spoon. Decaf, I'm hype enough already...) Otherwise, there's this more generic example: https://www.bing.com/search?q=jackson+pollock+painting+puzzle Dang, didn't realize there were so many to choose from!
And now for what you've really been waiting for: My whiny Vulcan nitpicks*, woohoo!
* Thank you Margaret Armen for coining the best slip of the tongue ever, that of "Are you out of your Vulcan mind!!", which was released even prior to Laugh-In's "Look it up in your Funk and Wagnalls" as Laugh-In would start two weeks, three days later. I'll count the hours later, I'm not the amalgamation of Commander Data with Robin Williams... wouldn't mind if I were, though! But, yeah, a slip of inflection, or hearing, can misinterpret "Vulcan" as another word heard often on rated-R movies and some cable channels, along with "Funk and" being something not dissimilar that can also be heard and often in the same aforementioned rated-R movies and some cable channels... but I digress within the digression again, since it is possible that Trek influenced Laugh-In (same channel, but different day) - but that's 100% conjecture.
0. Kirk must have given Starfleet Command a hint that two other ships of sufficient cloud and stature and pomp were in the area to cover, since Kirk's request was granted. The audience is told the fact, but would the episode break its flow just to show Kirk telling Uhura to ring 'em up to tell them what they would already know? Oh, it's nice that we don't have another "commander of the week gone bad" trope, and Kirk thankfully manages to avoid falling into this category due to the wonderful power of "the tidy yet subverted plot twist at the end". The episode acknowledging it as "better late than never" was brill*. Even then, Kirk's last line is to order the ship to the planetary system. Hope they make it on time, but if not there are still two ships with regal commanders but this ensures Kirk is able to do it all and then some... Wut, you weren't expecting me to use 0-based list notation? My apologies, but 0 needs far more love and recognition, especially as some say that 1 is the loneliest number that-- nope, 0 is. Even 0 isn't narcissistic!
* "brill" as in the English slang, not a species of flatfish and flatfish breed too - imagine if they had the pomp(ous) rituals that Vulcans had! Or not, I wouldn't sit here all day contemplating that, what with my just having gotten T2 on 4K and want to see if the reputation of the restoration is worth it and all. Ah, the wonderfulness of numbers and letters as abbreviations...
1. Between the aftermath of this episode and later episodes, Spock becomes a lot looser with discussing his private life, to complete strangers no less and some of them violate 1960s censors by showing their navels*. I mean, I used to be shy about this sort of thing and, decades later and having done it-- wait, I still am, sorta. If you want the diary, please visit my personal website at w3.foragoodtimethisisntthesitebecauseitsfakeandnot976.com. In other words, I may have answered my own question. Actually, in real life I don't freely traipse about to total strangers, not even in pick-up joints never mind the entry hall of a prominent building, to any semi-clad hottie. So there's still some nominal context.
* OMG, that's worse than a trinary sun going supernova, since humans were to be shown in the 1960s as if they had hatched from eggs instead, no noes!!!! /s
2. Later Trek entries cite that Vulcans endure it every seven years. Prior to that, just the males - every seven years. Spock seems to look like a 40-something human, which means the dude is already old as Vulcans have far greater lifespans. Has he not gone through the jiggy desire ever before, since dialogue states he and T'Pring were pair-bonded at age seven and both would feel the urge only at the appropriate time? (Sheesh, after all this time, it's no wonder he's so moody, yeesh!) But there was no set number stated here, only a semi-vague "If we don't do it we go nuts". A shame this got defined later on in the lore, what with "7" being "a lucky number" and all. (In-joke alert!) Also, "T'Pring" sounds a bit like "Spring". As in what many mattresses are made of. I'll roll with that... so will they...
3. Spock hits on a monitor panel but not in a good way. They should have put in toffy board or something to show smashed electronics as the plastic casing, which looks like the usual screen fare but was made with softer and pliable plastic to look like it was being dented, splits open.
4. "Women as property". I'd forgotten about this line entirely and I was about to knock of a bunch of points at its face value. But this is another planet and another culture, and - more important - I must admit that T'pring manages to sell what otherwise could be considered "greed" an impeccable manner, which also suggests far more and other than the woman being the property... it suggests it's all a big "sleight of hand" and it's arguably the men who are since the women are in control of it but the men see only an illusion. To coin a phrase, it's definitely "Fascinating!"
At the end of the day, I really can't knock off points as the story is more than the sum of its parts, where the strong parts tower over the nitpicks. 10/10, with ease.
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