Turn The Channel On This TOS Episode…

[CoveTom]

My cousin used to record the audio of TOS episodes using a cassette recorder because there were no VCR's back then (at least no affordable ones).

I have personally repaired numerous VHS video tapes and have done the pencil rewind thing for an unspooled cassette tape...

 

[Captrek]

The first remote control I ever had was the remote control for a VCR. It was connected to the VCR with a long cable.

 

[BillJ]

The first remote control I ever had was the remote control for a VCR. It was connected to the VCR with a long cable.

I vaguely remember my grandparents having one with a corded remote. It was a top loading VHS.

 

[JunkTARDIS]

Just watched The Paradise Syndrome…would maybe turn the channel…why did the denizens of the planet have to be based First Nations people? The plot would have worked with just a pre-technology community of aliens…and that’s not even mentioning the brown face and other issues of the time…

 

[BillJ]

Just watched The Paradise Syndrome…would maybe turn the channel…why did the denizens of the planet have to be based First Nations people? The plot would have worked with just a pre-technology community of aliens…and that’s not even mentioning the brown face and other issues of the time…

Preservers sci-fi angle. Plus it was probably fairly inexpensive as the sets would be easy to construct with what was on the lot and costumes that were ready to go.

See: Hodgkin’s Law of Parallel Planetary Development.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

By having a type of culture viewers already recognized from westerns, it would allow us to focus less more on the amnesiac Kirk in love storyline during his scenes than having to absorb the world-building of an alien culture. We have two storylines-the Kirk romance and stopping the asteroid. A third one would diminish the other two.

 

[Forbin]

After 60 years, yeah, there are plenty of episodes I don't care to see any more. But there are still plenty of episodes I want to sit down and watch with a big smile on my face.

Partial "Oh not that one again" list:
Alternative Factor
And the Children Shall Lead
The Way to Eden
Turnabout Intruder
I, Mudd
Spock's Brain
Spectre of the Gun
Savage Curtain

Partial "get a cup of cocoa and sit down" list:
Balance of Terror
Galileo 7
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Paradise Syndrome
Ultimate Computer
Metamorphosis
Requiem for Methuselah
Conscience of the King
Where No Man...
Corbomite Maneuver
...

 

[Commander Troi]

I just hit Mark of Gideon in my rewatch of TOS and I can honestly say I'll be happy not to watch it again any time soon. It's just Stoopid.

 

[Bynar0110]

Charlie X is one of my least favortive episodes.

 

[Qonundrum]

My current list o' "I absolutely refuse to rewatch these baddies":

Season 1:

1. What Are Little Girls Made Of?
2. The Alternative Factor
3. Shore Leave
4. The Galileo Seven
5. The Return of the Archons
6. The City on the Edge of Forever
7. Operation Annihilate

Season 2:

1. The Changeling
2. The Deadly Years
3. Obsession
4. A Piece of the Action
5. Assignment Earth

Season 3:

1. Spock's Brain
2. And The Children Shall Lead
3. The Empath
4. The Lights of Zetar
5. The Savage Curtain

 

[BillJ]

I just hit Mark of Gideon in my rewatch of TOS and I can honestly say I'll be happy not to watch it again any time soon. It's just Stoopid.

This one, while not the best, has some interesting questions behind it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

This one, while not the best, has some interesting questions behind it.

Has a Twilight Zone vibe.

 

[Commander Troi]

This one, while not the best, has some interesting questions behind it.

It does, but I was disappointed in the execution.

 

[BillJ]

It does, but I was disappointed in the execution.

Still better than what CBS is peddling!

*runs*

 

[Warp Core Breach]

Mark of Gideon is probably in my bottom five TOS episodes. Even shitty TOS can be good if you're baked enough, but I kinda want to put that and And The Children Shall lead into the spinning newspaper dimension of doom that the Lazari are trapped
in, just to give them something to watch when they're tired of strangling each other. You know. The SPECIAL Hell.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Wouldn’t have had to have made it to the US for it to be a borrowed idea though. Doctor Who premiered in 1963, plenty of time for someone to try and sell a “copied” version of it to an American audience. Of course, I’m also just speculating here.

If anyone watched a 1967-8 episode of Doctor Who, they wouldn’t have found a show like Gary Seven.

At this point, the Doctor didn’t have the sonic, had several companions (Doctor plus one female companion didn’t become a thing until 1971) and the Doctor was very far from Gary Seven in character at that point.

It’s more likely to be a sci-fi twist on spy-fi stuff like Bond or The Avengers.

 

[Spock's Barber]

This one, while not the best, has some interesting questions behind it.

I always questioned why all of the Gideon Council Members were bald except Hodin.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I always questioned why all of the Gideon Council Members were bald except Hodin.

Sounds like a barber question.

 

[Henoch]

If anyone watched a 1967-8 episode of Doctor Who, they wouldn’t have found a show like Gary Seven.

At this point, the Doctor didn’t have the sonic, had several companions (Doctor plus one female companion didn’t become a thing until 1971) and the Doctor was very far from Gary Seven in character at that point.

It’s more likely to be a sci-fi twist on spy-fi stuff like Bond or The Avengers.

1. The sonic screwdriver first appeared in the Doctor Who episode titled "Fury from the Deep." which was broadcast (in England) on March 8, 1968.
2. TOS Assignment: Earth broadcast on March 29, 1968.

Did one writing team steal the concept of the magic screwdriver from the other? Or could this be other example of Hodgkin’s Law of Parallel Planetary Development.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

1. The sonic screwdriver first appeared in the Doctor Who episode titled "Fury from the Deep." which was broadcast (in England) on March 8, 1968.
2. TOS Assignment: Earth broadcast on March 29, 1968.

Did one writing team steal the concept of the magic screwdriver from the other? Or could this be other example of Hodgkin’s Law of Parallel Planetary Development.

You’re being disingenuous. The Sonic became a staple of the show from 1970 onwards. It appears in Fury, in one scene and is forgotten about. A scene from a story that was never sold to the USA.

The comparison is lazy and doesn’t hold up. Ditto Cybermen>The Borg.