So when Uhura informs the Captain that "She's Deltan", followed by the turbolift doors opening, Lt Ilia stepping out, and all the guys go googooeyes over her, Kirk mentions utmost confidence while describing Decker's multiple job functions, says "Same for you, Lt", then Ilia states how her oath of celibacy is on record... I know it's 1979 and disco and sexual revolution and all, but as easy as it was to get the gist of Spock's opening scene, as well as the demise of the Klingon ships, despite little English word spoken, this "celibacy" underpinning remains a larger mystery.
Now expanded media and documentaries and all do tell us that the Deltans are more sexually civilized than humans are and they don't, um, "fraternize" with anybody because Deltans are more advanced and won't do it with more primitive life forms, but all that's told later on.
But wouldn't this oath be for everybody, and more likely so, because of - in all probability - Kirk's antics? Keep in mind, in 79 episodes of TOS, which were repeated regularly, we saw Kirk going at it with any number of ladies across the galaxy - generally hinted at, but "Wink of an Eye" makes it more direct thanks to the commercial break leading into Kirk and Deela putting clothes back on and brushing hair and all. Did 5 years out of the captain's chair really change Kirk so much to become a stickler for the rules? Did he get promoted to Admiral but on the condition he stop banging every wriggling thing in the universe?! (Plus, it's 48 hours until VGer arrives to party and if the humans have sufficiently evolved to focus on an urgent issue despite distraction, so are the more superior Deltans. The scene just makes no sense, and they could show Tex Avery cartoon eyes popping out of everyone... or might do 50 years later, but TMP was made without any self-lampooning.)
So here it is: In the theater, in 1979, while general audiences were otherwise listening to any number of musical hits and you can guess what will follow by the end of this post to, uh, set the tone, so to speak, what were audiences thinking when seeing Ilia's introduction followed by her open-ended line? Should there have been a little more context and dialogue to confirm onscreen? Or is that the point, as with so many previous scenes, it's up to the audience to think it through despite telling just enough on screen to give it a form of sense? (even though this scene is about as vague and contextless as anything could get, as enough was given to Spock's scene beforehand, or mentions of it later on to fill in the blanks, but not for this one throwaway moment.)
And now it's Tangent Time: Some examples of contemporary, then-relevant pop culture goodness. Caution, much disco follows what with all this being part of the late-70s cultural zeitgeist (and penicillin!), but it helps demonstrate what Star Trek was up against and I'm still amazed the new Enterprise's big rec room didn't have a bunch of disco balls hanging and glittering from the top of the deck:
(love the optimistic tone of the music... the lyrics definitely are of the time (60s/70s))
(There's the main anthem right there, though I think the musical instruments used feel more timeless, it's a marvel how they did it)
(Note some similar themes about that feeling from within... but, dang, those vocals really are timeless!)
(Okay, what video system was used to generate those effects from these and other videos? It's a bit impressive given the technology of the era. 480i or not, that's all pretty slick. Plus, the 70s were more about individuality, so there was less line dancing and more people just acting incongruous while dancing...)
(For no other reason than looking at the dancers on the floor spending more time looking for the camera out of sheer embarrassment/terror... I think one of them was in a video for "Let's Go Chant" as well, and I'm certain, what with it being 1978 and all, that "Chant" was as much a euphemism as "no sugar tonight" was in 1970... sheesh, is that the only thing songs are about, how to get or keep coital partners? I miss really music storytelling. I'm going back to Wall of Voodoo, Information Society, Devo, etc, for now, so there!
)
Now expanded media and documentaries and all do tell us that the Deltans are more sexually civilized than humans are and they don't, um, "fraternize" with anybody because Deltans are more advanced and won't do it with more primitive life forms, but all that's told later on.
But wouldn't this oath be for everybody, and more likely so, because of - in all probability - Kirk's antics? Keep in mind, in 79 episodes of TOS, which were repeated regularly, we saw Kirk going at it with any number of ladies across the galaxy - generally hinted at, but "Wink of an Eye" makes it more direct thanks to the commercial break leading into Kirk and Deela putting clothes back on and brushing hair and all. Did 5 years out of the captain's chair really change Kirk so much to become a stickler for the rules? Did he get promoted to Admiral but on the condition he stop banging every wriggling thing in the universe?! (Plus, it's 48 hours until VGer arrives to party and if the humans have sufficiently evolved to focus on an urgent issue despite distraction, so are the more superior Deltans. The scene just makes no sense, and they could show Tex Avery cartoon eyes popping out of everyone... or might do 50 years later, but TMP was made without any self-lampooning.)
So here it is: In the theater, in 1979, while general audiences were otherwise listening to any number of musical hits and you can guess what will follow by the end of this post to, uh, set the tone, so to speak, what were audiences thinking when seeing Ilia's introduction followed by her open-ended line? Should there have been a little more context and dialogue to confirm onscreen? Or is that the point, as with so many previous scenes, it's up to the audience to think it through despite telling just enough on screen to give it a form of sense? (even though this scene is about as vague and contextless as anything could get, as enough was given to Spock's scene beforehand, or mentions of it later on to fill in the blanks, but not for this one throwaway moment.)
And now it's Tangent Time: Some examples of contemporary, then-relevant pop culture goodness. Caution, much disco follows what with all this being part of the late-70s cultural zeitgeist (and penicillin!), but it helps demonstrate what Star Trek was up against and I'm still amazed the new Enterprise's big rec room didn't have a bunch of disco balls hanging and glittering from the top of the deck:
(love the optimistic tone of the music... the lyrics definitely are of the time (60s/70s))
(There's the main anthem right there, though I think the musical instruments used feel more timeless, it's a marvel how they did it)
(Note some similar themes about that feeling from within... but, dang, those vocals really are timeless!)
(Okay, what video system was used to generate those effects from these and other videos? It's a bit impressive given the technology of the era. 480i or not, that's all pretty slick. Plus, the 70s were more about individuality, so there was less line dancing and more people just acting incongruous while dancing...)
(For no other reason than looking at the dancers on the floor spending more time looking for the camera out of sheer embarrassment/terror... I think one of them was in a video for "Let's Go Chant" as well, and I'm certain, what with it being 1978 and all, that "Chant" was as much a euphemism as "no sugar tonight" was in 1970... sheesh, is that the only thing songs are about, how to get or keep coital partners? I miss really music storytelling. I'm going back to Wall of Voodoo, Information Society, Devo, etc, for now, so there!
)
