I found a nit in Phil's book! He wrote that the episode never mentioned the anti-matter probe drifting, so why did they set such a short timer and hasten away so fast? He reflected that it was to add suspense and excitement. However, I just watched my tape of the Special Edition and Kirk clearly states that with the eddies and currents in the protoplasm, the probe could drift thousands of miles from the target, and the explosion might not be as effective. That was why they had to go in at point-blank range, and set it off quickly, before it could drift. As to Phil's suggestion that the timer could have been set for 10 hours--they all would have been dead by then.
My vote for the best dialog: McCoy: "Shut up Spock! We're rescuing you!" Spock: "Why, thank you--CAPTAIN McCoy."

Hey in this episode Spock says his shields have only 47 minutes of power. 47! Was this the original 47?

A possible anti-nit in defense of the Chief regarding D.K. Henderson's Nov. 8 observation about the short timer on the anti-matter probes. I'm just guessing, but maybe what you saw on the ScFi Channel was from that 5-6 minutes that is normally edited out in rebroadcast? I don't know what version was used for the Nitpicker guides. Most hourlong shows these days run about 41 or 42 minutes, but in the good old days it was about 47. BTW, I too got the internal error message when I posted.

If memory serves me right the Chief had access to an unedited copy of the episode like the one you see on the SCI-FI Channel and an edited version.

In the Classic Guide, Phil pointed out that Lieutenant Kyle, the helmsman, wears a gold shirt instead of his usual red. However, in the teaser he wears his usual red shirt.

After launching the antimatter probe, the Enterprise escapes before the probe detonates. Chekov states they will be out of range in "six point thirty-eight minutes". As he includes a "point" he must be using decimals. Are minutes decimalised by the 23rd Century? The chronometer wouldn`t suggest so. And even if they have, he shouldn`t have said "point thiry-eight", he should have said "point three eight". (Picky, picky, picky, picky)

About the 47 . . . guess what number this episode is in production order, starting with "Where No Man Has Gone Before"?

Why would a ship manned entirely by Vulcans be named Intrepid? Couldn't Starfleet have named the ship Surak or something?

Kirk looks in Spock's scanner and says that Gamma 7A is a fourth magnitude sun. At first I thought this was a mistake, since magnitude usually refers to how bright a star appears in the Earth's sky, but there are two magnitude scales which Kirk could be referring to, Absolute Magnitude and Bolometric Magnitude. Bolometric Magnitude measures infrared, ultraviolet, radio waves and visible light, whereas Absolute Magnitude measures visible light and is probably what Kirk is referring to. Our sun has an Absolute Magnitude of 4.7, and a Bolometric Magnitude of 4.8, so Gamma 7A was brighter than our sun. Amazing the stuff one learns when trying to find mistakes.

All this talk about Gamma 7A, but shouldn't there also be a Gamma 7B?

Spock talks about feeling for the deaths of millions and McCoy comments about feeling for the death of thy neighbor and Spock says it might have rendered Earth's history a little less bloody. However, in Balance Of Terror didn't Spock mention that Vulcan's history was far more bloody than Earth's history?

When they pass into the organism, there is a high pitched screech and all the Humans clutch their ears, but Spock, with his greater hearing ability, does not.

When talking about amoebas and the space amoeba, Kirk refers to them as a "one-celled animal." There is no such thing as a one-celled animal, it is a one-celled organism.

When saying goodbye to Spock at the shuttle, McCoy is wearing his short sleeve shirt and seems to have his shoulder next to the control panel for the door, then when Spock asks McCoy to wish him luck, we see a close up of the panel and an outstretched arm, wearing a long sleeve, bang into the panel, then we see McCoy standing next to the panel again.

Watching all those people falling on the Bridge, one guy even flips head over heels, I wondered about all those poor people we saw earlier lying on the beds in Sick Bay, they must have really hurt themselves.

After the two tractor beams are hooked on the shuttle, an outside shot shows the Enterprise, but not the shuttle.

The final shot uses the clipped nacelles shot.

Just what is making that high pitched noise after the telemetry probe is launched? Uhura must have goofed; she was supposed to route the data to Mr. Spock - did she put some sort of signal through to the speakers? When the noise occurs later, Spock says it was caused by the penetration of a boundary layer. The first one occurs while they are still in normal space.

When Kirk visits Engineering and asks Scotty what's going on, he says he doesn't know; all he knows is that the power levels are down 12 percent and are steadily decreasing. He adds he's never seen anything like it. Come on - how many times have we seen the Enterprise's power being drained by some phenomenon?

Spock's sensitivity to the deaths of the 400 Intrepid crewmembers raises an interesting question about death; what would happen to all of the Vulcans living on Vulcan, should an earthquake claim just as many or more? Would the entire planet be stunned by the mental emanations of all those strangers dying?

I can't see the scene with Spock feeling the death of the Intrepid without imagining him saying, "I felt a great disturbance in the Force."

I wonder if Star Wars got the idea for that from this episode?

You know what might have been a neat "tie-in" to this episode?

Spock saying,"Sensors indicate that the space amoeba is the point of origin for the Denevian Parasite" (Operation:Annihilate!)

It makes sense to me.

I agree, John. Would've been, but I think there are a grand total of two episodes that pick up previous adventures: Mudd's Women-I, Mudd, and Assignment Earth-Tomorrow Is Yesterday.

Turnabout Intruder refers back to "The Empath" and one other episode. And By Any Other Name refers back to A Taste of Armageddon.

As to Chekov's "six point thirty eight minutes". Well, the poor guy was being held together by baling wire, er, stimulants, so maybe his brain was getting furry. At least he didn't become the designated screamer in this episode.

This was an eerie, creepy episode before they find the amoeba. Funny thing is, the very first time I saw it, in 1970, I could have sworn that the "hole in space" was non-moving, jagged-sided, rather than curved-edged and shifting around.

That was a good effect, too. I think the sound effect at the boundary was nifty, too. This episode had a lot of nice touches like that.

Once again the creators treat us to some very impressive shots of the Enterprise.

Inside the shuttle is the same device Spock used in "Metamorphosis" to try & disrupt the Companion.

The red alert lites don't flash...AGAIN! (They do for a little while then stay on)

The panel for the hangar deck looks a lot like the panel for the decompression chamber in "Space Seed"

Interesting moment: Kirk puts his hands on Uhura's shoulders....oooooh! (Getting ready for that kiss in season 3)

GREAT MOMENT: During one of the impact scenes, a crewman in blue flies over the railing!

RUMINATION: It looks like the creators added more detail to the Enterprise exterior...it looks SOOOOO much better!

ANTI-NIT (maybe)

Phil noted that Kirk screwed up Kyle's name by calling him "Mr. Kowel" throughout the entire show & the end credits list John Winston as "Lt. Kyle"...well....let me ask you....after that big fiasco in the first season with the "SCPIPT SUPERVISOR" nit...who's to say the end credits are right in this episode?! MAYBE...JUST MAYBE...John Winston is playing a DIFFERENT GUY...namely...Mr. Kowel....it's an interesting though...ain't it?

After Scotty cuts all thrust, the camera cuts away to an exterior shot....the Enterprise seems transparent in some places.

After the antimatter explosion, Kirk orders, "Activate main viewing screen" Why was it off?

Last of all...the most important note of this episode is that Kirk is smarter than 400 Vulcans.

Doesn't that statement apply to all Federations ships in the TOS era? How many times has Kirk solved a mystery/problem/crisis that destroyed a previous ship?

I dunno...the question that everyone should be asking is why is Kirk such a good Captain in all things & the other Captains in his generation and the generations following are so lacking in a lot of areas? Kirk was supposed to be the prototype for future generations. SO....Why haven't we seen Picard fight like Kirk? Why haven't we seen Sisko think like Kirk? Why haven't we seen Janeway "score" with members of the opposite sex like Kirk? The answer is somewhere out there.

Perhaps Kirk was genetically engineered. This could lend additional depth to "Space Seed."

I just watched this episode and have hopefully found a nit that has gone un-noticed in the book. Kirk orders Scott to use the remaining power to fight the pull of the organism, and Scott says that this makes them stationary. However, all camera shots of the ship during this time show the ship moving towards the organism. Since I'm new to this I might very well be wrong. Can anyone verify this?

Another thing. How come whenever there is turbulance, everyone on the bridge is thrown out of their chair apart from Kirk who's chair just sways from side to side?

Mikell----Yes, the ship moves forward and it also moves backward after shooting off the antimatter probe....I must say also that when the ship moves backward, it's a cool shot...however, I can't help but wonder if it's the shot of the ship moving forward played backwards (?)

>Last of all...the most important note of this episode is that Kirk is smarter than 400 Vulcans.

Spock theorises that the Intrepid encountering the organism while it was low in energy - hungry. The Vulcans had less time to act.

--

Spock suggests that the organism is invading the galaxy like a virus. A virus has no cell structure. Wouldn't a better analogy be 'like a bacterium'?

Just finished rewatching this one. It really is a great episode. Love Spock's reaction to Intrepid's death, also that blueshirt flying across the rail.

KAM - great catch with McCoy's sleeve on the control panel. :-)

I liked the inner/outer doors leading onto the shuttle bay too. Pity they don't have them where they're really needed - on the turbolifts!

Thanks.

Mikell, this is one of the few times that Star Trek acknowledges momentum. Sure, Scotty cut all power to the engins, but because they were moving before they will still be moving.

Oh, just noticed the "stationary" line. Oh well.

I believe my anti-nit was confirmed upon viewing "A Private Little War" with the "Mugato/Gumato" error.

(The end credits person had the "SCPIPTS"----
See my note in "A Private Little War" for a brief description of the "SCPIPTS")

John Winston is playing MR. KOWEL

The end credits sy "Kyle", but Kirk calls him Kowel or Karl.

IMHO The end credits are wrong, Padawan...sorry.

The end credits person can't spell to save their life.

Examples:
GUMATO instead of MUGATO (Private Little War)
OXMYX instead of OKMYX (Piece of the Action)
UHURU instead of UHURA (STVI)

AND LET'S NOT FORGET....

SCPIPT instead of SCRIPT!!!!!!!!! (the whopping 13 episodes during the 1st season)

THEREFORE....it should have been KOWEL in the end credits because that's how Kirk said it and the end credits person screwed up again.

BUT his name is Kyle BECAUSE he is called that in the others episodes he appears in. KIRK just got it wrong.

OXMYX should be CORRECT because that's how the name is PRONOUNCED.

Gud thing I'm in the onion, or those misteaks cood uv got me fried.

mmm, fried onions.

OK...so if Kirk got "Kyle's" name wrong, why didn't someone catch the "Kowel" error and have Shatner do a dub-over saying "Kyle"? I mean, they did dub-overs for "Arena"

ALSO I must note....Craig Hundley plays Peter Kirk in "Operation: Annihilate!", but yet plays Tommy Starnes in "The Children Shall Lead"

THEREFORE....

Why can't John Winston be Mr. Kyle in "The Doomsday Machine" yet be "Mr. Kowel" in this episode?

BECAUSE Tommy Starnes and Peter Kirk are completely different people.

KYLE and KOWEL look and sound the SAME, they both use the HELM, and both are officeras on the ENTERPRISE.

1.GUMATO instead of MUGATO (Private Little War)
2.OXMYX instead of OKMYX (Piece of the Action)
3.UHURU instead of UHURA (STVI)

I've numbered them to address them.

Number 1: the end credits person *did not get this one wrong* DeForest Kelley would say Mugato instead of Gumato so they changed it, but probably didn't bother to print a new script. There's also a possibility that the end credits were done *before* they filmed the thing and changed it. So it's not the end credits person fault that the name was changed and no one told him or her. (This information, about the Gumato/Mugato thing, is in William Shatner's Star Trek Memories).

2: Oxmyx is the correct spelling of the gangster's name.

3: I doubt that they had the same person do the end credits for the movies as they did for the TV series.

Maybe Mr Sh*tner was just indulging in some DeForrest Kelley bashing.

Padawan noted:
"BECAUSE Tommy Starnes and Peter Kirk are completely different people.
KYLE and KOWEL look and sound the SAME, they both use the HELM, and both are officers on the ENTERPRISE."

Well....Peter & Tommy looked pretty much the same too...yet they are supposed to be different people.

Let's not forget Van Gelder (Dagger of the Mind) & Capt. Tracey (Omega Glory) Same person...different character.(They look alike too)

Therefore, I say again that John Winston was Kyle in "Doomsday Machine" and Kowel in this episode.
PLUS Kyle wears RED...Kowel is wearing YELLOW.
(Same person---different character)

In conclusion: (I hope)
The end credits are wrong & Kirk said the name right.

Just for the sake of completeness, I must add that I know that John Winston NORMALLY plays Kyle. But IMHO....not in this episode. I don't know why if Winston was SUPPOSED to be Kyle but Shatner said, "Kowel" instead.(maybe bad eyesight for the cue cards? I dunno.)
But until I get some authoritative proof, Winston will be Kowel in this episode and the end credits are wrong. I'm flexible.

Can we please call him Mr. Cowl instead? A cowl is a real thing, whereas a kowel is not.

A Kowel is a variant of a Gumato or a Scpipt.

Or a Uhuru?

With 430 names to remember, why couldn't Kirk occasionally get one wrong? I recall Picard calling a crewmember Broccoli.... Or... Maybe Cowl was Kyle's nickname (ever since he expressed interest in becomming a monk when he was seven... he changed his mind and joined starfleet, but the name stuck) and Kirk used it by accident. Or maybe it's his first name: Cowel Kyle (damned funny sense of humour on his parent's part... but it's possible)

Yes, Jean-Luc called Reg Barcley "Broccoli," which was a nasty nickname that someone (Wesley?) had given him.

And as for "damned funny sense of humour on his parent's part... but it's possible" I once knew a kid named Justin Case. Seriously.

And YOU called Barclay "Barcley", so I guess YOU were being mean to him too, Merat!

And yes, Wes gave him that nickname.

Maybe someone gave Kyle the nickname "Kowel" or however it's spelled?

Perhaps Kyle's first name is "Kowel" (?????)

If so, that'd make him Lt. Kowel Kyle.

When the ship penetrates the ameoba, they launch a probe...you hear a "launch" noise...however, when they first encountered the area of darkness, they launched a probe then also...but there was NO "launch" noise at that time...why is the probe launcher making noise NOW?

There are several places in which they show the entire viewscreen with two people at the helm / nav position...at the nav is Chekov....at the helm is a dark haired guy...it ain't Kowel (Kyle) for he has blond hair...and it ain't Sulu either! (His hair style is different from the guy at the helm.....) So........
WHO IN THE HECK IS AT THE HELM NEXT TO CHEKOV?!?!

I must also note that the shuttlecraft interior is different than what we saw in "The Galileo Seven" and "Metamorphosis"

I might as well mention a one-celled organism wouldn't work if it was that big, but you knew that. But I wanted to say that Alan Dean Foster has a much more scientifically accurate version of the same idea in his novelization of one of the animated Trek episodes...Beyond the Farthest Star, I think. One of them, anyway. All his novelizations were great.

GREAT LINE:

At the very end, Kirk says he's still looking forward to some rest and recreation "on some lovely ... planet".

What makes this line so great is that he's staring at an attractive yeoman during the pause.

Just after the great nit that Keith uncovered, with McCoy and Spock at the shuttle bay doors, watch as Spock walks out to the shuttle. The shuttlecraft is surrounded by a Blue-ish Circle, but as the long shot shows it is surrounded by a Red Square.

DVD NOTE: This episode is on the same DVD as "Obsession"...an amazing coincidence...seeing that both episodes dealt with antimatter.

GREAT SFX: The hole in space was done very well.

LESLIE ALERT: Mr. Leslie appears at the Engineering station. Funny thing is, he just got bumped off in "Obsession"

McCoy's sensitive side wasn't very evident this time;
Back when a crewman had the salt in his body sucked out, McCoy told Kirk over the intercom that he'd rather not discuss it aloud.
Here, he tells Kirk over the intercom, 'According to the life monitors...we're DYING! We're ALL DYINGG!"
Now, how is anybody in earshot supposed to concentrate on their work with that little tidbit hanging out there?

Starfleet requirement: VENTRILOQUISM 101: When Spock does the countdown for the probe's entry, his lips do not move!

It occurs to me that McCoy was paying Spock a compliment and he didn't notice it, nor did I until now.
McCoy is dismayed that the Intrepid was lost, saying, "But 400 Vulcans?!"
I always thought he'd been shocked that so many of Spock's people were lost, but perhaps he was really saying; "But 400 Spocks?!"
Meaning that McCoy has come to expect Spock to always know how to fix a problem and live to tell about it, so surely 400 people equal to Spock's intelligence and resourcefulness should have survived the attack, but they didn't. Maybe that's what he's incapable to believing.

Wow! Im suprised no one noticed this one. When Kirk goes up to Spock with his "dont tell me what it is, tell me what it isn't" speech, look be hind Spock as he is talking. There is a black screen with lines running across it directly behind him. A quick check shows that that black screen is actually directly over the engineering station. Indeed, a few minutes later, when Kirk goes back to Spocks station, to ask the "Are you trying to be funny Mr Spock" line, the lighting is drastically different.

OK, I've moved that whole exchange to the Garbage Dump. Please, let's not bring it up again.

Thanks Butch!

You're welcome.

I think there are a grand total of two episodes that pick up previous adventures: Mudd's Women-I, Mudd, and Assignment Earth-Tomorrow Is Yesterday.

Turnabout Intruder refers back to "The Empath" and one other episode. And By Any Other Name refers back to A Taste of Armageddon.

Corbomite / Deadly Years? By Any Other Name / Where No Man?

I noticed in this ep that both Hadley and Chekov actually hold on to the bottom of the navigator's chair and tug it a little bit forward as they sit down - whilst the 'railing somersault' blue shirt's chair actually falls over when he falls out of it near the end of the ep.

Also noticed that that blue shirt is helping out in sickbay when the hypo shots begin.

At one point in the middle of the ep, can't remember where exactly, Kirk says Kyle's name, and it does sound like Kyle...but also Kowel.

Any ideas why he's wearing a red shirt in the teaser? The only thing I could think of was to avoid a continuity problem in shots of the viewscreen with two goldshirts sitting in front of it, but they seemed to be bothered with that sort of thing before.

Just before the Enterprise does the 'one enormous forward thrust' bit, Kirk goes on the intercom and warns everyone to brace themselves. I love that a redshirt in Engineering decides that that would be a good moment to be on the ladder...

Near the end of the ep, Kyle receives a stimulant from McCoy, but there's no hypo sound effect, so it just looks like McCoy is stroking Kyle's arm.

"The Tholian Web" is the other episode referred to in "Turnabout Intruder."

"The Menagerie" is also referenced in "Turnabout Intruder."

"The Devil in the Dark" is referenced in "That Which Survives". As is... any episode in which Chekov appears. (Since Kirk mentions him, but he doesn't appear in the episode)

The voice of the man who orders Kirk and the Enterprise to proceed to Sector 39J was no doubt that of the late Bob Johnson, who did the voice on the tape (and disc) for Mission:Impossible.

Couldn't Starfleet have named the ship Surak or something?
The shuttle that carried Spock to the Enterprise in Star Trek - The Motion Picture was named "Surak."
The semi-circular control panel in the Emergency Manual Monitor is actually the panel that was used in Auxiliary Control. By the time we see the EMM again (in "By Any Other Name") the control panel is back to its regularly used straight edged one.

The new version airs this weekend.

To go back to a point way back in 1998 regarding the time on the fuse, the Enterprise was 10 minutes away from losing all power. At that point, its shields would collapse and it would be destroyed. They had to detonate the antimatter bomb within that time period to have any chance of saving the ship.

The Federation starships use Earth Naval terminology for various sections of the ship such as the bridge,sickbay,engine room,etc. Yet during this episode I noticed that when Dr.McCoy responds to Kirk's inquiry about how bad things are down there,McCoy replies that he has crew backed up into the corridor.The proper naval term should be passageway.But I cannot just pick on Trek on this issue.Seems to me that almost all the TV series about spaceships never use passageway.

Gorgeous new effects for this episode can be seen at YouTube; just type in a search for The Immunity Syndrome - FX reel.
D*** I wish this was being shown in my city!!!

I really liked this one- the effects seemed very retro, yet gorgeous looking- I especially liked the Enterprise in the zone of darkness... very reminiscent of The Motion Picutre, with some gorgeous lighting from the nacelles, those red and green lights on either side of the saucer, etc. And nice touch in adding in the ameoba even in the front-facing shots of Spock getting thrown out of his chair in the shuttle where the camera was shaking! Nice shot fo the shuttle exiting the ship, too.

My big question: The shots of the viewscreen in the zone of darkness... re-done or not? :-)

The shots of the viewscreen in the zone of darkness... re-done or not?

I think not. Why bother to re-work essentially a shot of blackness?

I'll go a little further than you. This was the best enhancement done so far. Better than "Mirror Mirror" and "The Doomsday Machine." And, I really liked those enhancements. The new shots just blew me away, and I haven't felt like that in a looong time. Check out the shot of the Enterprise while it was backing out of the amoeba; they thought to show the (listing) shuttlecraft in tow. And if you look close enough, you can see rooms inside the Enterprise windows. A very good episode made even better. My congratulations to Dave Rossi, Neil Wray and the crew at CBS Digital for a job better than well done.

"I think not. Why bother to re-work essentially a shot of blackness?"

The principle of the thing, of course! :-) (Actually, that was just a joke...)

I really liked the Doomsday Machine enhancements, but... I think I agree with you, actually. In retrospect, I think this is the one that's impressed me the most so far.

In Peter David's novel "Martyr", some in Starfleet suspect that the amoeba adventure and the "stolen brain" adventure were two which Kirk made up just for the heck of it. It's just mentioned in passing, near the beginning, I hope I didn't spoil it for you.
I liked the novel, which does begin with an absurd premise.

The remastered "The Immunity Syndrome" reruns this weekend.

It's been nit-AGES. Long ago, gave some nits to Phil for his books.
More an observation than a nit-picking. AMOK TIME, Spock goes nutty, which is fine. And that's just one Vulcan.
What about the all-Vulcan crew of the USS INTREPID (obliterated
in THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME? 430 or so Vulcans in one ship?
How would they ever get too far from Vulcan without somebody
going crazy, tossing soup around, and wanting to go "home"?

They did redo the hole in space.

I know, because they stuck the shot of it in twice before Uhura asks Spock what they're looking for. Chekov even looks up at the screen, where the hole is plainly visible, but doesn't say, "Look, keptin! Doesn't that look wery strange?"

Here's the actual outline of what happened in the episode after Spock returned to the bridge...

Spock: Indications of energy turbulence ahead. Unable to analyse. I've never encountered readings like this before.

Kirk: Scanners on.

(screen shows hole in space)

Kirk: Magnification three on screen.

Kyle: Magnification factor three, sir.

Uhura: Exactly what are we looking for, Mr. Spock?

Spock: I would assume... (tapping console) that.

(screen shows hole in space)

Kirk: What _is_... that?

After Kirk said, "Scanners on", it should have been a plain star field, and in the remastered version, probably slowly scrolling around stars. Perhaps the "hole" would be minuscule until Spock identifies the coordinates and zooms the image closer.

I should clarify. The hole only showed _once_ prematurely in the remastered version, and never showed prematurely in the 1967/8 version.

In the original 1967/8 version, after Kirk says "scanners on", the screen showed a normal star field with nothing suspicious on it. Remastering should merely have changed it, if changed at all, to a slowly scrolling view, as they visually scan for something suspicious.

McCoy's image of an amoeba looks like a map of Greenland!

The first time the Enterprise lurches forward, Kirk is shoved to his left against a bulkhead as he entered the room, while Scott is thrown out of his chair backward, in the opposite direction. Inertia should have shoved them both in the same direction, either with Kirk being shoved to his right, or Scott against his control panel.

However, neither action would have been correct. The way engineering is setup, a forward lurch would have tripped Kirk forward as he entered the room and Scott would have been thrown out of his chair to his right.

When the first probe enters the “Zone of Darkness” the high-pitched squeal ensues, and then everybody grabs their ears (except Spock) and feels sick. Bones calls the bridge IMMEDIATELY and there’s already scores of people in sickbay. What, were they there for a party or something? There’s no way they could have reported there so quickly.

It seems silly that when a terrific force (acceleration) is applied to the ship, the crew consistently flies off in random directions when I would think they would all be thrown in virtually the same direction. Careful direction could have accomplished this with the cast.

After we see Spock adjust the tri-shift controls in the shuttle, the following communications exchange occurs that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever:
“CHEKOV: Sir, Mister Spock has reduced life-support systems to bare minimum.
KIRK: Spock, save your power for the shields.
SPOCK: Calculations indicate the shields will last only forty seven minutes.”
Shouldn’t Kirk be asking Spock to reserve some power for life support? Isn’t that what he’s concerned about. Spock is obviously already diverting life-support power to the shields. Then, Spock’s response doesn’t really RESPOND. I really didn’t understand that exchange at all.

Right before Kirk figures out Spock wants them to use anti-matter to destroy the system, there’s another exchange that shows people not listening to each other at all:
“KIRK: This thing, this cell, this virus. It's eleven thousand miles long, and it's one cell. When it grows into millions, we'll be the virus invading its body.
MCCOY: Now, isn't that a thought? Here we are, antibodies of our own galaxy, attacking an invading germ. It would be ironic indeed if that were our sole destiny, wouldn't it?”
McCoy isn’t catching Kirk’s thought at all. He should rather be saying, “Now here’s another thought.” Because Kirk says we’re a virus in the amoeba-universe, but McCoy is saying they’re antibodies protecting OUR universe FROM the amoeba. C’mon.

Perhaps Kirk was genetically engineered. This could lend additional depth to "Space Seed."

There is no way that Kirk is genetically engineered - if he had been, he wouldn't have been allowed to enter Starfleet, as genetic engineering was banned by the Federation!

Who threw that?!

I just had an inspiration on the origin of the amoeba. It hinges on the nature of the relationship between the Federation and Gamma 7A. I've gotten the impression that Gamma 7A had contact with the Federation.

What if scientists on Gamma 7A were engaged in some sort of genetic engineering project, perhaps to discover if a biological source of energy could be created.

It backfires terribly. The amoeba begins to absorb energy, and as it does, it enlarges morbidly, drawing more and more energy, killing people on the planet, drawing all of the society's artificial power, and eventually becoming hungry enough, and able to extend far enough, to draw off the star's ready energy.

Gamma 7A: annihilated. The planet's sun: drained except for energy deep within that has not yet worked its way to the outer layers. Still in need of some energy to commence duplication of its chromosomes, it is investigated first by the Intrepid and then by the Enterprise.

I can't think of any other way to explain this organism being unnoticed for so long other than it hasn't been there that long, and any explanation of its origin than a humble beginning in the micro-world.

That's excellent, Geoff! I wish I'd thought of that. And it makes complete sense, considering another amoeba was never seen after that, or how others hadn't multiplied to become something even more massive.
And you can't really say it came from outside of the galaxy, since it would have had to travel through the Great Barrier and that could have killed it.
Good work, Geoff!

Thanks, Steve. It's good to know I wasn't too out-of-line with my theory.

There is the question of where it got the material for its growth. It may have absorbed the materials available in the Gamma 7A environment (bodies of other beings, atmospheric components, oceans), but I wonder... is it capable of converting energy to matter? That would be a tremendous leap of capability, but it would explain what it used so much energy for. The size might have been its priority in order to secure additional energy.

Janeway's Voyager encountered macroviruses a century later, which themselves emerged from the microscopic environment.

Once again the Federation's ban on genetic engineering is justified.

This was the best enhancement done so far. Better than "Mirror Mirror" and "The Doomsday Machine."

It was even better in my most recent viewing. When Spock enters the Hangar Deck to board the shuttlecraft, I saw that CBS Digital added the observation deck in the hangar bay. I never noticed that before, but it did make sense to add it in.

Yeah, the enhancements helped this episode.

It occurred to me that the Intrepid may have met it's end rather quickly, because of the life-draining ability of the Space Amoeba. Spock already suggested that the organism was 'hungry' when the starship found it, but considering how often people are passing out on the Enterprise, the Intrepid may have lost their Captain, Science Officer, bridge crew and whoever else quickly, leaving the ship practically defenseless.

Unless the anti-matter explosion vaporized the Amoeba and it's Zone of Darkness, there should be millions or billions of bits of debris to analyze. But once again, the Enterprise just flies away.No attempt is made to visit Gamma 7A, either, to search for survivors. Chekov said it was 'dead', but at that distance they could be wrong.

No attempt is made to visit Gamma 7A, either, to search for survivors.

There was no point, the whole system was destroyed.

That's like saying, 'Well, the Titanic sunk. Guess there's no survivors. Let's turn around!"

Not knowing anything about Gamma 7A, we could speculate that there could have been ships or space stations in the system that weren't swallowed up.
Or not.

I got the impression that, given the size of the space amoeba, the whole system was devoured at once.

Of course, it is possible that a ship was sent to search for possible survivors, but since it happened after the episode ended, we just didn't hear about it.

It couldn't be swallowed all at once, Tim, since the amoeba was only 11,000 miles wide, nowhere near the size of a solar system. There was no measurement, from what I remember, of the zone of darkness, but it had to be massive to hide the amoeba at the center. At the most, maybe it was a million miles in diameter, which is still peanuts compared to the size of a solar system.

So, as I said, perhaps a ship was sent to search for survivors. However, since it wasn't the Enterprise, we didn't see it happen.

I guess I can accept that. After all, the Enterprise WAS en route for R & R, and had just taken a pounding.

Works for me too.

They reran this the other night and the remastered scenes tended to throw me out of the story since the look of the remastering looked so different from the show itself.

Also the new space amoeba just had too many brightly colored blobs. The old SFX may have stretched credibility, but at least it matched the surrounding show and didn't stand out as a garish eyesore.

Well, I like the new F/X.

At least they just updated the F/X and left everything else alone (yes, George Lucas, I'm looking at you, and HAN FIRED FIRST). No actual scenes in the episodes were altered.

By itself the new SFX is/are fine. It's mainly that the old scenes have a certain look/color balance that the SFX doesn't match.

Even the new space amoeba would be fine if they just muted the colors a bit.

Of course watching the old show so many times over the decades the new footage conflicts with my memories. What's the old song, "I've grown accustomed to your FX"? ;-)

HAN FIRED FIRST
Han was the only one who fired. And Greedo never said, "McKlunkey"!

It's the opposite for me. Having gotten used to the new F/X, I could never go back to those old 1960's ones.

I'm fine with the majority of new effects. We got to see the SS Antares, a new version of the Aurora, fantastic shuttlecraft scenes in multiple episodes, and the inside of the Amoeba seems gooey and comes into contact with the Enterprise, rather than weird effects overlayed on top of stock footage.
For me, though, you can't beat the original model filmed in space or orbiting a planet. It has a texture to it that makes the hull and the size of the ship realistic. The new effects on the nacelles make it look like they're giant propellors that are spinning, rather than anti-matter glittering and moving about the domes.
Now, about that woman that can't hit the proper notes in the credits as opposed to the original lady...

And we saw Klingon battle cruisers in episodes where we originally didn't see them (Errand Of Mercy, The Trouble With Tribbles and A Private Little War).

And one more thing-- the sky city of Stratos was much, much more realistically rendered with the SFX, too.

Indeed it was.

Another possible origin of the amoeba might be fluidic space (Species 8472) or another like it, coming momentarily into contact with our space enough for some of its matter to move into ours, be exposed to the hard radiation of our galaxy, and then mutate.

Or, combine the two theories. Gamma 7A scientists opened a rift to fluidic space and found new stuff to analyse, test and experiment with, and it got out of control.

We know Harry Kim nearly died because of the bio-contamination from an encounter with an 8472ian. The organisms might be naturally antagonistic with alien life forms.

However, the original "biological energy generation" seems like the most neat intra-universe idea.

Since the Gamma 7A sun was dead, at least enough to no longer read as meaningfully active in Chekov's sensor reading, it would mean the star's planets would quickly freeze over, killing life on the planets.

Once the organism was able to start draining the sun, it should be a threat to all nearby space stations and spacecraft. It is possible that the zone of darkness expanded to reach the star, so if that's the case, it could be 1 AU or more in diameter, and it may be shrinking as it prepares for reproduction. The zone may serve as the mechanism of draining energy, and then the organism receives the energy through some sort of exchange with the zone.

Once it was destroyed, there should be remnants and debris, and Spock may have reminded Kirk to collect some of those remnants before heading for the starbase. OTOH, those remnants may have been regarded as biohazards requiring special handling. Starfleet might have sent in ships to scatter anti-matter in the region to hopefully destroy any significant remnants. Even then, it would be important to collect some remnants and make sure they don't have any chromosomal components.

I got the impression that the amoeba ate the whole system. There would be nothing left to find.

As Spock enters the shuttlecraft bay, the word "hangar" is misspelled as "Hanger" on the control panel. Or, maybe the crew "hangs" their spare uniforms there.

You would think that a Starfleet officer would know how to spell!

The new effects create a nit, but one that can be explained.
As Spock walks into the shuttle, the ship is in the center of a black circle, which would be the hangar deck turntable. No new effects are added showing the far side of the deck-- they keep the nearby wall on the right side of the shuttle.
In the new effects, the turntable circle is yellow in the hangar deck, so what happened?
My solution is that Spock boards the shuttlecraft in a compartment underneath the floor of the hangar deck. Once that section is pressurized, the elevator/turntable raises the shuttle up to the hangar deck level, where we see it turning around to face the clamshell doors.
That would also explain the difference in what we see in the original 1960's version-- just a smaller room where personnel board the shuttles.

Probably noted by someone else, but as Kirk backs up the Enterprise after it sets the anti-matter bomb and has Scotty tractor the shuttle along with them, we see it, listing outside beneath the starboard side saucer section. Too bad they never did that in the original.

McCoy was invaluable in this episode. It was his idea to send a shuttle into the amoeba (judging by Spock's, "Oh, yea! That could work!' expression).
He also triggers an idea in Kirk to use anti-matter when he compares humans to anti-bodies.