This show has a nit that all of the Star Trek shows featuring androids seem to have. Every time we see a Star Trek android, the machine is incredibly smart. The machine will tell us that it has all sorts of reference books and information programmed in its memory banks. But everytime someone asks the machine-life if it if lonely/happy/sad/etc., the machine will say, "What is (blank)?"

Didn't anyone think to program the machine with a DICTIONARY? I understand if the machine doesn't have the feeling, but the script always makes it sound like they've never even heard of the word.

The special edition of this episode adds on to an existing nit--the pronunciation of Reena's last name. Kirk says KAY-peck, Flint says KO-peck, and Shatner says KAP-peck. I think the first one is correct.

Kirk seems supercharged with testosterone in this episode. From the moment he meets Flint, he's ready to fight. Once he meets Reena, Kirk goes completely mental. I'll admit Reena was actractive, but come on! And Mr.-I'm-more-advanced-than-you Flint tells Kirk right away "I have twice your physical strength (translation: "I could kick your Federation butt back to Earth").

Interesting how the "unemotional" Spock knew all the emotions that were motivating Kirk and Flint, while McCoy seemed oblivious. Kind of makes McCoy little speech at the end seem extra pompous.

The last scene is unclear, but I don't think Spock was trying to make Kirk forget the events on the planet. I think he was trying to share Kirk's thoughts, and was just repeating what Kirk himself was thinking. Spock usually repeated his subject's thoughts while in mind-meld (check out "Devil in the Dark" and "The Changeling").

Don't worry, he's just an actor from Vegas. He does a good King and I, though:) (It's from an X-Files episode, Dreamland II)

Yep, Ccabe, I remember. He's played by John Gillinitz. <alien smiley> :::-)

When they landed on the planet, they said the rytalin source was kilometers away. Why didn't they beam down closer?

The moon around the planet seemed to get darker after the first commercial.

I'm surprised that Phil didn't mention that Flint's fortress looks exactly like on on Rigel VII, from the episode "The Cage". Maybe Flint bought it and had it transferred to his planet.

I notice that Rayna (I spell it this way because that's how they pronounced it, not REEEna) has an excellent grasp of grammar. Although she does not know the word "lonely" she understands enough to refer to "loneliness." Why didn't she say, "What is lonely?"

McCoy sure knows his booze. He can tell a Saurian brandy--and the age!--just by looking through a clear glass decanter.

McCoy said that they would need large quantities of rytalin. A double handful is a large quantity?

There was a nice touch to Spock's piano playing. He flubbed a note, and his face twitched faintly, as if in brief annoyance.

Where did Rayna disappear to after the waltz?

If the planet had been purchased thirty years ago, why didn't they know it in the first place?

Did Flint program Rayna not to notice that every now and again she would go to sleep and wake up taller and more physically mature? And if he could do that, why didn't he just program in sexual awareness?

Flint mentions several famous names. Does anyone know what the "Abramson" is in reference to?

Why didn't Flint lock the door so Rayna couldn't get in?

Didn't Flint ever notice that he was aging?

Kirk tells Spock to keep out the fight--"We're fighting over a woman!" Like that makes it right?

Rayna died rather like Lal did.

I've noticed that all of Kirk's most profound affairs died. Guess it doesn't pay to get TOO close to the man.

Did Spock ever soften Kirk's memories of Edith Keeler? Or Miramanee?

Finally, I just have to put this in, in response to Harlan Ellison's interview on the Sci Fi channel. Harlan sounds like he was the SNL writer who had Shatner telling his fans to get a life. He says that Star Trek fans aren't in the real world. Like he is? A science fiction writer? He seems to have the utmost contempt for television and anyone who likes the shows, but as Stephen King pointed out in his book DANSE MACABRE, Harlan Ellison has a T.V. A big one.
I'll admit that there are probably fans out there who take things to extremes, but you'll find that true in any walk of life. As long as our interest doesn't get in the way of day to day living, well...I can think of a lot worse things we could be doing.

D.K. Harlan Ellison is a strange man and a great writer. Most writers are strange people.

Generic nit for all seasons of TOS.

In many shots of the Enterprise from behind, they use the F/X from The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before, where the nacelles have vents rather than those little spherical light bulb things.

The number of episodes this occurs in is too many to count, but is generally most noticable in the closing shot as the Enterprise is warping out of orbit on its way to its next adventure...

GUEST STAR PATROL (That's him all over!)

James Daly (Flint) starred in Medical Center. He also is the father of Tyne and Tim Daly.

Lousie Sorel (Rayna) appears in the soap, "Days of our Lives".

I don't see where her name is spelled 'Reena', it's supposedly in the credits but on my tape it's spelled 'Rayna' there too!

One problem with been an immortal is that you've got to keep changing your identity. Until the mid 19th century this wouldn't have been to tricky but with the introductions of birth registers and social security numbers have made this a very tricky task. Becoming famous is one thing to be avoided becuase it must be tricky to fake your death & become someone else. I guess the creators where trying to generate some short term "Wow" factor suggesting that Flint had been many famous people from history, without realising that it wouldn't stand up to someone giving the subject a good nitpick. It's possible that Flint has spent all his free time learning the tecniques of the artisans mentions, & Spock's still suffering side effects from his brain operations. (Phil got good milage suggesting that most of Spock's mistakes in season 3 are caused by the after effects of having his brain removed & replaced.)

Presumably the Abramson Flint mentions is some famous person from the Trek universe's past.

Interesting how close rytalin is to ritalin, the drug given to Attention Deficit Disorder sufferers and the subject of much controversy in recent years.

How DID they get the Enterprise model to stand on the edge of the table?

Does anyone know of a source for the sheet music to the "Brahms" waltz? I'm gonna wear out my videotape if I play it much more trying to learn this puppy by ear!

Dick Clark?? No... He's still recording as Cliff (Flint) Richard.

Cliff Richard?! Explains a fair amount, if you ask me! "Living Doll" will never have the same meaning to me ever again now! I'm only glad Flint didn't try to charm the crew with his rendition of "The Millennium Prayer"....

Funny thought: Either Mr. Flint's mother was Shirley McLaine or Mr. Flint was Ms. McLaine herself now in a male body.

M4 resembles a Chinese rice steamer, I guess someone was trying to keep the budget down, which had to be done a lot in season 3.

The probe that attacks the landing party has a "slice" of NOMAD to it...other than that...the floating probe looks rather realistic.

I forgot to add...it even SOUNDS like Nomad!


The shot of Kirk looking inside the Enterprise is pretty cool.

KUDOS to the casting dept....

They used REAL WOMEN to portray the other Rayna incarnations instead of using mannequins...like they did in "The Naked Time"...perhaps TPTB learned their lesson after that horrible incident.

Flint likes Deltan women!
One of the Rayna androids is bald!

The billiard table comes from "A Piece of the Action"

The piano comes from "The Squire of Gothos"

The piano in "The Squire of Gothos" was supposed to be a harpsicord. At least that's what it sounds like when Trelane and Uhura play it.

It was. They fudged on the budget and changed the sound effect for this episode.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Shatner and Louise Sorel appear together as guest stars as husband and wife in an epsiode of which TV series? (Hint: Glen Corbett of "Metamorphosis" fame is also in this episode)

DUMB LINE:

"She's (Rayna's) human...right down to the last blood cell!"--Kirk

Um...Jim...She only got her emotions...she didn't become THAT human...she's still an android. The only "blood" she has is Penzoil 10-W-40

IDIOT ALERT:

The end credits person screws up again!

They identify Louise Sorel as being "Reena" instead of "Rayna"

I hearby nominate the End Credits Person as the Golden Dunce Cap Winner!

Must be "Route 66," Todd.
Louise Sorel did a late '60's or early '70's sitcom; the name of which escapes me. Does anyone know the name of that one?
As Data is a new model android, does that mean he can use "Mobil 1?"

Wasn't part of M-4 also one of the globes from "Return To Tomorrow?"
"Ryetalin" is very close to the contemporary drug "ritalin", used to calm hyperactive children.

Adam, according to the IMDb she was a regular on a few short-lived shows around that time; the best fit here seems to be The Don Rickles Show.

Todd, is it the Twilight Zone?

Adam Bomb got the answer right. Sorel played Shatner's husband on the "We Build Our Houses With Their Backs To The Sea" episode of Route 66. Glenn Corbett (the original Zephram Cochrane) is also in this episode. Route 66 also happend to be my favorite TV series of all time!

P.S. It was one of Shatner's most brilliant performances in his screen career.

Shatner played in two twilight zones that i know of. one where he was in a diner with his wife and the fortune machine with a little devil on top of it would keep giving him messages that kept him coming back.. He also was in the one that was remade in the Twilight Zone Movie where the creature was on the wing of the airplane called "terror at 20,000 feet". Leonard Nimoy also starred in an episode of Twilight Zone.

John Lithgow had Shatner's part in the movie remake of 'Terror at 20,000 feet' portion of 'Twilight Zone; The Movie', and when Shatner guest-starred as the Big Giant Head on 'Third Rock From The Sun' he told Lithgow, "I was on a plane and some weird creature was flying on the wing", and Lithgow said, "That happened to me, too!" Cute in-joke for those that knew the connection.

GREAT LINE: "I choose" Rayna

Kirk REALLY needs to recall Rand if he's so lonely that he "forgets" about his dying crew!

I must note also, that with one touch, Spock can make someone "remember" as well. (STIII)

Of course Kirk misses the most obvious way to get the Rytalin (SP?) Lock onto the coordinates and beam the stuff up. The transporter is also programmed to beam up inanimate objects as well.
(Of course if he did that, it'd be a short show indeed)

DVD OWNERS:
Does anyone else besides me have problems playing this episode on their DVD player? Mine seems to quit near the end.

How convenient, in his early life he kept such good track of his age that he can tell the exact year of his birth. Well, maybe something important happened that year and the first time he died and came back he calculated his exact age, or as exact as he could figure, based on some memorable event of that year. "The tenth year of the reign of King Narmur." Then let's hope his diary got preserved and donated to the British Museum.
McCoy says when he left Earth his immunity and immortality went away, but maybe if Flint goes back he'd become immortal again.

MUSIC KUDOS: The waltz by Johnannes Brahms is actually a variation of an actual piece by Johannes Brahms! (Don't ask me which...I saw this notation in the end credits)

Is it just me, or does this episode seem like the inspiration for the movie Highlander, and possibly Highlander 2? The idea of an immortal whose immortality goes away when he leaves Earth exists in both this episode and those two movies.

Eh wot? In Highlander Connor was immortal for mystical unknown reasons and he lost his immortality only when he was the last one left standing. In the allegged second movie (which I only vaguely recognize the existence of) The Zeistiens where immortal only when they came to Earth. I am sorry but I do not see much correlation between this episode, any other episode/movie dealing with immortality and the Highlander.

Flint, like McLeod has changed identity every few years to cover up the fact that they were immortal.

Ok I see that. But then that is just simple logic as any long lived individual is going to have to do that. Although in our modern (American)society it would be more difficult (not impossible) to pull that stunt off. Lazarus Long did that trick too in RAH's universe.

The major similarity between this episode and Highlander 1 and 2 (note that I mentioned both) is the idea of someone being immortal only while on Earth, but not on another planet. This comes from something McCoy says about Flint aging. He suggests that whatever made Flint immortal ended after he left Earth. There is no parallel to the idea of killing an immortal by beheading him or to the game, but the basic idea is similar in both stories.

Right after Flint destroys M-4, He says "Death when unnecessary is a tragic thing". Watch for a shadow which goes across Kirks right shoulder. Also when Kirk looks into the Enterprise, it is not a still picture of the bridge, the actors are just freezing because the lights on the panels are blinking, but when you see Kirks face in the main screen, all the lights are frozen. Several references say there is an orderly played by John Buonomo who helps Bones. I dont see him in this episode.

The way events unfold it almost seems like Kirk and the others have spent alot of time on Flint's planet, but the search and processing of ritalin, and the disease deadline makes it clear that only a few hours pass.
And yet Kirk falls head over heels, ultra-smitten, in L-O-V-E with someone he's only spoken a few words to. So illogical, and not believeable, at all, when he insists that Rayna loves him, not 'likes him', but 'loves HIM', and not Flint. Funny, just 2 years earlier when he was on trial for court martial he 3was adamant that his ship meant more to him than anything else. What did Rayna have that all the previous other women in his life lacked? She's certainly not the most attractive. He offers her 'happiness', but where? On the Enterprise? On Earth, because he's going to retire with her?
He accuses Flint of 'using him from the beginning'. What beginning? You've only been on the planet a couple hours, Jim!
And yet, Spock, cool, unemotional, hal-Vulcan Spock knows more about what the pressures of love and humanity could do to harm Rayna.
Strange episode.

...This is the only episode that gives a stardate with 2 digits after the point....5843.75 They probably shot the middle last and realized they opened with 5843.7 and ended with 5843.8 so they just added another digit to fit it inbetween.

I'm not sure of this one. When Kirk, McCoy & Spock find the bodies of the other Raynas, Kirk pulls the blanket away from the bald Rayna. Then, after Kirk is done looking, he places that blanket back...the problem is: when Kirk puts the blanket back, he returns it the same way he did when he pulled it off. So, in other words....it looks like TPTB ran the film of Kirk pulling off the blanket backwards so that it'd appear he was putting it back on again! Does it appear that way to anyone else?

At one point Kirk tells Spock that he will go to the lab and try and see if he (Kirk) can find a way to salvage the bad Rytalin just in case there is no more good Rytalin on the planet. (This occurs after the Waltz scene)

Um....err....Since WHEN does Kirk have a license to practice medicine? Wouldn't this be a job for McCoy?

Mike Konczewski:
This show has a nit that all of the Star Trek shows featuring androids seem to have. Every time we see a Star Trek android, the machine is incredibly smart. The machine will tell us that it has all sorts of reference books and information programmed in its memory banks. But everytime someone asks the machine-life if it if lonely/happy/sad/etc., the machine will say, "What is (blank)?" Didn't anyone think to program the machine with a DICTIONARY?

I assumed that Rayna knew the definition of "lonely," but she was asking Flint what it felt like, so she could answer whether she was feeling it. That's why Flint didn't give her a literal definition, but an idea of what the experience of feeling it is like ("a flower dying in the desert").

D.K. Henderson: Did Flint program Rayna not to notice that every now and again she would go to sleep and wake up taller and more physically mature? And if he could do that, why didn't he just program in sexual awareness?

Maybe I'm just slow, but could you clarify that? I'm not sure what you're trying to say there.

glenn of nas: Right after Flint destroys M-4

Just a nit here: Spock destroyed M-4.

Flint claims that he's had guardianship of Rayna since she was a child. When you look in his laboratory, you see the "younger" editions of Rayna. Some of them, anyway.

Ivan Ditmars did the Brahms interpolation heard in this episode. He also composed the theme for the long-running game show Let's Make A Deal.

We're nitpickers! EVERYTHING'S IMPORTANT!

D.K. Henderson,
I see what you mean now. He was moving her consciousness from one body to another so she would seem to be aging.

However, I looked at it a different way. I figured each successive model was an improved version (Rayna 1.0, Rayna 2.0, etc.) and he programmed each consciousness separately, in an attempt to get the psychological and physical elements just right (and hair presence and/or color was apparently one of the more superficial elements). When one didn't work (for several reasons, including nonexistence of emotions), he would put it aside and start another one, perhaps using bits of the previous ones. I also assumed that each of them had "false" memories of childhood and so forth programmed into them. But that was just my assumption.

Yeah..but Rayna ME & Rayna XP crashed

The stock footage of the castle from Rigel VII is in bad shape -- when they show it, there are spots all over the film.

If Flint's rejuvenating powers are so great, how come he has white hair and an aged appearence?

Because he only regnerates while on Earth. Once he leaves earth and goes someplace else he is no longer immortal.

Because he got the prize.

>Because he only regnerates while on Earth. Once >he leaves earth and goes someplace else he is no >longer immortal.

Yes, that's true of course. Good explanation. But I would think then he would notice he was aging and then he wouldn't have had to have learned it from McCoy at the end of the episode.

Flint's lucky that when he left Earth he didn't suffer the fate that Brian Blessed's character did in the Space:1999 episode "Death's Other Dominion", when he left the atmosphere of the planet that gave him his immortality and immediately turned into a rotting, ancient, decomposed skeleton.

You would think he would notice it but then again I have a cousin who will not admit he is going bald and there is more hair on a month old slice of bread than is on his head. Sometimes people who have a rather forceful personality will not see what is right in front of them.

Then again, Flint, with all that medical equipment in his home probably knew ahead of time that he was finally ageing, and McCoy simply confirmed it. Having lived 6000 years he was probably tired of immortality and welcomed the end of his life. Kinda puts Zefrim Cochrane's 200 (?) year life span to shame, huh?

Interestingly enough, in the ST novel Federation, Flint, living as industrialist Micah Brack in the 21st century, was the financial backer of Cochrane's warp-drive project.

True again after a long enough life of seeing all around you change and crumble to dust I would welcome the eternal sleep.

When Flint miniturizes the Enterprise, Kirk looks inside and sees the Bridge...all of the lights on all of the panels have stopped blinking....well...ALMOST all of them...Uhura's light panels are still blinking!

Just to let everyone know, it wasn't the DVD that was giving me the problems...it was my player (Oritron). I now own a JVC DVD player...works like a charm.

Looks like Flint has been to Stratos (The Cloud Minders) The golden curvy sculpture that was hung on the wall on Stratos is also in Flint's Billiard Room

RUMINATION: Rayna is the last android woman Kirk gets to kiss.

Just how many others were there?

Live long and prosper.

Andrea from What are Little Girls Made Of?

That many, huh?

Live long and prosper.

I want to second the earlier request for sheet music to Spock's waltz - I've watched it so many times that I am getting sick of it and I still can't play most of the thing. I've got the chorus right but i need the transitions.

Thanks,
michaelsalley@bellsouth.net

Memory Alpha's entry for this episode points out what it feels is a nit. They said that Flint states that "the rats died of the plague", when of course, the rats did not die of plague since they were immune to it and were the carriers. Of course, a careful examination of Flint's actual dialogue reveals that he never describes the rats as actually dying "of the plague". He merely talks about the rats "rustling and squealing in the night, as they too, died," he might have been referring to the rats dying of the efforts of the people to poison or kill them.

It looks like Flint has been to Rigel, he built his palace to look like the palace Pike saw in "The Cage" & "The Menagerie"

M-4 is nothing short of amazing. It gathers Rytalin and puts it into small plastic bags with no visible robotic arms whatsoever.

=================================================

Near the end, Kirk, Spock & McCoy find Rayna #'s 14-16. OK...where's Rayna 1-13?

I wonder if Data heard about Rayna's pursuit for emotions...if he did, I'd have second thoughts if I were him....seeing that Rayna died when she received them.

Re:John A.Lang's 01:31pm comment
Er, recycled....
(I could argue that the mechanical parts of the early Rayna series androids, could be recycled for use in later units, although their "positronic brains" might not....
In addition, Rayna 1-5 may have only existed in computer memory, & may not have even had a physical existance....).

GREAT LINE: "A misfortune to men everywhere, and our priveledge". McCoy to Rayna

RE: Mark V. Thomas...then it's a good thing that Kirk did not meet Rayna #1...he would have talked her to death like he does to other alien computers.

Well, he got to cause the android's death, anyway.

In the Preview Trailer, it shows Kirk's ENTIRE FACE as he looks at the miniturized Enterprise and says, "My crew!". (The actual episode just shows his EYES looking into the Viewscreen and saying, "My crew!")

The floor of Flint's home is identical to the floor of the Elba II asylum. I guess Flint brought enough U-Coat-It to last a long time.

Kirk's behavior in this episode seems to me to be totally out of character. He becomes infatuated with a "woman" to the extent that he seems to forget about his crew who are dying of the plague.

Granted, Kirk has romanced a number of women, but he didn't forget his responsibilities, and in some cases was using his romancing as part of his plan to carry out his duties. In Requieum for Methuselah, Kirk was out of control.

The only explanation I can think of for his behavior is that Kirk had already contracted the plague, was in the early stages, and this affected his mind and his judgment.

GREAT DESIGN: Flint's flat screen monitor. Little did they know in the 60's we'd have flat screen monitors similar to the one seen in this episode.

Louise Sorel co-starred with William Shatner four other times in addition to "Requeim".

Scott states that nearly everyone aboard has Rigelian fever and they're operating with a skeleton crew, while McCoy mentions during the episode that it takes a day for the fever to kill.
That's extremely tight timing to find a cure in time, when some crewmen might not survive a full 24 hours.
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy show no signs of the illness, nor could they be carriers. Why? Not only would it have definitely come up in conversation ("Your life is in danger, Mr.Flint; we carry the deadly contagious Rigelian fever bug in our systems), but Kirk KISSES Rayna, despite the fact that he was probably around infected crew!
Kirk wants Rayna to leave Flint and come with him; yeah, uh, let's wait for your ship to be disinfected from that highly contagious DEADLY disease before you bring Rayna up there, Captain!

Kirk is so caught up with his personal feelings, and depression over Rayna and Flint that the news that the disease is eliminated and his crew safe seems to go right over his head.
Spock; "McCoy, Chapel, Rand, Uhura, Scotty, Chekov, Sulu, Mulhall, Leslie, Noel, Kyle, Kowel, DeSalle, Boma, M'Benga, Garrovick, Tamara, Spicoli, and Stiles are alive and well, Captain."
Kirk; "Oh, Okay, Whatever. I miss my little android fling. Do you think Flint will build a Rayna for me?"

Spicoli was on the Enterprise? Party on, dude!

KIRK: Mr. Spicoli, you're late for your bridge shift again!

SPICOLI: I know, man, this new schedule is like totally confusing. Hey, are we ever gonna go back to that planet Argo? They've got some totally rad waves there, man!

Ha! Good one, Todd Dude.
I believe the helmsman in 'Space Seed' was Spicoli.
No pizza delivery guys suffocated on ther bridge with everyone, though!

Spinelli.

Well, Sean Penn's dad did direct for Star Trek.

The main effect (other than a few phaser shots) is the reuse of the Orion fortress matte painting. I wonder if they're going to give Flint a new home.

Flint does indeed get a new home. TrekMovie.com has a copy of the new matte painting.

And, here it is. Looks quite nice.

Does one guy really need all that space?

Unfortunately I didn't get this one recorded, but there's a review and FX reel over at TrekMovie.com .

Just as unfortunately, I didn't see it at all; I was away for the weekend. Foolishly, I didn't tape it.
Here's the review from TrekMovie.com. Check out the captions to the photos.

Immortal Coil was fun, but WAY too obvious in it's foreshadowing, and a little Star Wars-y in it's "Small World" concept of all the ST androids having he-knew-him connections. :-)

"The only explanation I can think of for his behavior is that Kirk had already contracted the plague, was in the early stages, and this affected his mind and his judgment."- Amy Aston

That's exactly what I was thinking while watching it- that, or there's xenite gas on Flint's planet... :-)


This seemed a very racist episode in ST terms- Kirk keeps complaining at the end that Rayna wasn't 'human,' and rejoicing that she was- well, heck, that hardly stopped him before! :-)

For some odd reason there were two episodes that I don't remember seeing until the '80s. (While it's possible that I saw them & forgot about them, when I finally saw them in the '80s there was no sense of recognition about any of the scenes or story.) Watching this recently on DVD was the second time I saw this ep. (All Our Yesterdays was the other episode.)

Although third season episodes in general I've seen less than others. Watching them again on DVD I can see why.

NANJAO. It appears that McCoy has poured Spock more brandy than himself.

The shot the crew of the Enterprise frozen looks like the bridge lights are still flashing.
Sooooooo, Flint plans to keep them like that for a thousand years? If the electronics are still working & just the crew is frozen, won't the equipment be burned out in a 1000 years?

I guess when Flint decided to improve humanity he chose not to share his powerful weapons. Just think how that "shrink 'em down & freeze 'em" weapon would have been useful against, V'ger, the Borg, the Dominion, etc.

Years ago I was reading an interview with the guest actress in this ep & she was recounting how the guy who played Flint & her kind of felt this episode was beneath them & that they justified it by telling themselves "Christmas money!" over & over.
Ironically, she, & I think the actor, later went on to a career in Soap Operas. Now while this wasn't the best episode of Star Trek I do think it's better than most soap operas I've seen. (Then again, it itself is a little soapy.)

Ironically, she, & I think the actor, later went on to a career in Soap Operas.
The actor, James Daly, went on to play Dr. Lochner in Medical Center from 1969-1976. He also sired actors Tim and Tyne Daly. Mr. Daly died in 1978.
The actress, Louise Sorel, has done many soaps; she's currently on Days Of Our Lives. More on her here.

Years ago I was reading an interview with the guest actress in this ep & she was recounting how the guy who played Flint & her kind of felt this episode was beneath them & that they justified it by telling themselves "Christmas money!" over & over.
If Ms. Sorel thought doing this episode (not the best of Trek, but passable) was beneath them, why has she been doing soaps? Which I think is beneath any actor, but that's just my opinion. BTW, Sean Young, who had a decent film career in the 1980's, is now on The Young and the Restless. Maybe she couldn't get any other work...? (Soaps are actually pretty hard work for actors, as they have to learn and say pages and pages of dialog per episode. Five days per week. That doesn't lessen my disdain for them, however.)

For the history buffs;
Solomon lived from 1011 B.C. to 931 B.C., Alexander from 356 B.c. to 323 B.C., da Vinci from 1452 to 1519 A.D., and Brahms from 1833 to 1897 A.D.
And Abrahmson was probably a sitcom writer in the 1970's-- an identity that Flint would prefer to forget!
Why was Kirk impressed with Rayna's pool playing? She bounced the ball off some sides, but didn't down any balls. THAT would have been impressive. ANYBODY can hit the ball and make it bounce off the sides!
I wonder what accomplishments we poor slobs of the 21st century have made regarding 'field density and it's relationship to gravity phenomena'? And WHAT is that, anyway???
Funny how Kirk just takes Flint's word for it that the model of the Enterprise really IS his ship!
Forget about the flashing lights on the ship that seem to indicate that the power is still on and the ship isn't completely in stasis-- the sinple fact that the viewscreen is showing Kirk's face PROVES the equipment is still functioning, because we know the screen is NOT a window.
I really, really like the new CGI images of Flint's home, complete with a bridge and the figures of Flint, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy crossing over.

Kirk uses the excuse of seeing what he could do about the iridium in the rytalin to go to the lab.
One question; what COULD he do about it? He's not a scientist! The iridium is in the rytalin, end of story. If M-4 couldn't separate it at first, then what was he thinking?
I watched this again tonight (call me a masochist-- it's not one of my favorites, it's in the bottom 10), but I came to a conclusion.
The story of a man that's 6000 years old, and has been all those famous people, and has strived for centuries to meet or build the perfect woman is a decent premise.
It's the illogical wham-bam-I-love-you-Reena-after-2-hours subplot that kills this story for me.
Take that away, have a different interaction between her and Kirk that doesn't involve him falling in love with her as his entire crew nearly dies from a space disease, and it might not be in my bottom 10.

Those black control panels in the lab look so much like big-screen/flat screen TVs to me these days.
Flint must have programmed Reena to judge whether or not she should answer a question. Kirk asks her a question-- I believe it's something like 'What are you afraid of?' and Flint asks her a question, but both times she doesn't give either of them an answer. Wouldn't her android programming have forced her to respond, even with an 'I do not know.' ?

Those black control panels in the lab look so much like big-screen/flat screen TVs to me these days.
The viewscreen that Flint uses to spy on the Enterprise men looks like a small HDTV, maybe a 19-inch, 720p.
There were two bloopers from this episode I can remember, not having seen them in close to 40 years. One has the M-4 smacking into the door in Flint's lab. Another has a pull-back, in which we see the dolly that supports M-4, and (IIRC) the tech pushing it.

I wonder if Flint would die if you cut off his head (you have to have seen Highlander to understand this reference). He seems to be the same kind of Immortal as Duncan MacLeod or Methos (I wonder if they are still kicking around somewhere in the 23rd Century).

Where did Flint get technology more advanced than the Federation (like that device he uses to grab the Enterprise out of space)? I suppose he could have travelled around the galaxy and got the technology, before he settled on that planet.

Good thing that is wasn't the Klingons or the Romulans that needed the rytalin (sp?). I don't think they would have bothered to ask for it. Rather they would have just come down, blown Flint and his home to kingdom come, and taken it! Despite his techonogy, I doubt Flint could have fought off a whole invasion fleet from either power.

I guess Rayna died from the same that that killed Data's daughter, Lal. A cascade failure.

I agree that Kirk went ga-ga for Rayna WAY too fast, and he was so depressed that Spock had to remove his memories of her!? Did Spock have to do the same thing when Edith Keeler died? She and Kirk were MUCH closer than he and Rayna ever got!

The comic book crossover Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes revealed that Flint and Vandal Savage were the same person taking two different paths in their separate universes.

I wonder if Flint was the result of an ancient visit by aliens tampering with the DNA of his mother and/or father?

McCoy says there's a large deposit of rytalyn at 'bearing 2734 kilometers'. He can't mean that it's 2,734 kilometers away, because that equals 1,698 miles! If he'd just made it point 2734 it would be 0.169 miles away.

When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are attacked by M-5, Kirk doesn't request an emergency beam-out. They just stand and wait for the inevitable kill-shot.

How does Reena know that 'lonliness' is the noun for 'lonely'? Flint says the word 'lonely', and she asks "What is lonliness?"

This Reena is apparently number 17, if the one Kirk first uncovers, number 16, is the most recent. Flint has been on the planet for 30 years. Did he build 17 androids in thirty years, or did he start on Earth? If he did build that many in less than 30 years, they sure broke down very fast!

Spock and McCoy just stare and watch Kirk and Flint fight. No intervention, or trying to break them apart.

What a coincidence that a large deposit of the one thing the Enterprise needs, rytalyn, is just a few minutes from Flint's home, and not a hundred miles away!

Spock enters Kirk's quarters and tells him that they've set course-- 513 mark 7. How can you get up to 513 degrees in a 360 degree circle?

Flint's home is much more impressive in the remaster version, IMO.

And I still think that Flint's existence means that Star Trek and Highlander share the same universe.

Read the Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover for a really wild connected universe, especially the page cameoing time travel devices from a variety of franchises. ;-)

Here it is:

https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Star-Trek-Legion-of-Super-Heroes

Flint is a version of Vandal Savage. Well, both are immortal and have claimed to have been several historical figures.


the page cameoing time travel devices from a variety of franchises. ;-)

Including the TARDIS

I've got to wonder how many immortals Flint produced throughout his 6000 years? He's made it clear he's been with hundreds of women down through the millennia, and with his superior genetics, I can't see a lowly normal female human's genes being dominant enough to erase whatever special genes Flint has that makes him immortal.

There can only be one

It probably requires a precise combination of many different genes that will simply not be passed to his children.

This supports my theory that Star Trek and Highlander share the same reality.

Maybe we should copy the Doctor Who thread "Who Else Is A Time Lord?', and make it "Who Else In History Was Actually Flint?'

Well, he did rattle off a bunch of names. Of course, one was the mythical Merlin.

More likely that Flint was the person that the myth of Merlin was based on (just like my theory that Cessair of Diplos, from Stones Of Blood, was the inspiration for the legends of Morgan Le Fay).

Sure he mentioned some names, but who was he in the 20th century? I'm thinking about celebrities that just never seem to age...
Too bad Star Trek - Enterprise never had him in it and fill out more of his history.

Dick Clark. ;-)

As I pointed out in an earlier post, Flint had technology more advance than the Federation (like that trick he pulled with the Enterprise).

Where did he get it? Did he invent it himself? Did some advanced aliens give it to him? Where did it come from?

Flint has turned up in a few novels. Well, he is a character that has lived through all the eras of Trek, the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th Centuries.

In one TNG novel, Immortal Coil, Flint goes by the name Emil Vaslovik, a wink to Gene Roddenberry's The Questor Tapes pilot, which had a character by that name.

Flint shows up in J&GRS's "Federation". He's Zefram Cochrane's patron.

In one TNG novel, Immortal Coil, Flint goes by the name Emil Vaslovik

He should not be in the TNG era. McCoy says at the end of the episode that Flint is dying, the result of him leaving the Earth, and he has the remainder of a normal lifespan to live. He already looks pretty old, early sixties maybe, so he should not make it to late 24th century. I have not read the book though, so what do I know.

The only way Flint can die is if you take his head

Seriously, the novel suggested that he was able to fake the readings McCoy got. And given that Flint has technology that can grab an orbiting ship, shrink it to model size, and stick it on his living room table, his having tech to fake a medical reading doesn't seem that far fetched.

Where Flint fell short in creating the perfect woman was in the dental work. In her last scenes (and maybe more) you can catch a glimpse of a filling in Louise Sorel's teeth. Specifically, her lower left side.

Make one little mistake

That's not a filling, that's a spark plug!

I guess the only way to fix Rayna would have been to give her a full reboot, meaning she'd forget her human feelings and such.

No doubt Flint didn't want to take that away from her.