Why did the Preservers bother putting the colony on a planet in an asteroid bowling alley anyway? Surely there are countless alternatives...

These Indians (the episode's term) have been on this planet for four centuries or so. Unless the Preservers make an active effort to "preserve" them, why have they not developed technologically or socially, even a little? Does this episode reflect a bit of roundabout racism? Think about it- the Indians are unable to progress until Kirk steps in to bring them civilization. Hmm...

"Progress" is a relative term. Maybe the Indians were happy with their society and felt no need to improve upon it. The real-life native Americans may not have had the technological advancements that the European settlers had, did have a viable and stable civilization with enough knowledge of how to live off of their environment and arrange their society. In many ways, they may have been a happier people then we are today . . .

Yet another culture that speaks English. Why didn't they speak one of the three tribal languages that made up their race, or a language composed of all three languages.

The deflectors used on the asteroid looked remarkably like phaser beams.

When they shot phasers at the asteroid, Checkov said that they hit dead center. It didn't look anywhere near dead center.

Learning that Miramanee was Kirk's wife, why didn't they beam her to the ship and let the medical staff work on her there? Granted, this would have made for an awkward ending....

Whent the Enterprise fires on the asteroid the first time and the phasers have no effect, the scene cuts to reaction shots of the people on the bridge. The one of Uhura must have been from another episode, since she`s not on the bridge in all the wide shots!

Whoops! Look like Uhura WAS in this episode after all. (See nits for "The Doomsday Machine."

I don't suppose it occurred to Spock to leave a search party on the planet to look for Kirk while the Enterprise raced to divert the asteroid.

It must be that, apart from the bridge crew, every other member of the ship is absolutely indespensible and can't leave their post. How else can you explain that only Kirk, Spock, and Co. are allowed to beam down week after week?

One of the ideas that Russian scientists have come up with to deal with comets and asteroids on a collision course with the Earth is to focus a laser on the side of the object, vaporize a part of it and the force of the gaseous matter leaving the object will alter the object's course, which seems like a much better plan than trying to split the asteroid or using some kind of repulsor beam.

What was the purpose of the initial landing party? If time is of the essence, and their chances for diverting the asteroid are greatest when they encounter it the earliest, why bother to waste time checking out the planet? Did they want to learn if the society was worth saving?

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think that Native Americans wore makeup before meeting Europeans. Miramanee seems to be wearing lipstick.

Oh come on! Miramanee wasn't wearing lipstick. The actress playing her was. Just like Captain Kirk doesn't wear makeup and has his own hair. Bill on the other hand....

You forgot a larger question. Doesn't beaming down violate the Prime Directive?

Yah, sure, like Captain Kirk cares about some silly ol Prime Directive.

I find it hard to beleive that in order to open the "secret door" on the obelisk is to open a communicator (to get the noise) and say, "Kirk to Enterprise, acknowledge"

How did these people know about Kirk and his famous 'hail'?

How did these people find out about the Enterprise?

And most importantly....

How would these people know how a communicator sounded like?

Maybe they watch "Star Trek"?????

It's supposed to be the intonation of those words exactly match the musical notes needed to open the portal . . . but you're right, it is one of the most improbable coincidences in the entire series.

Were those rocks Spock used for his demonstration really neccesarry?

I assume the obelisk gave Kirk Miramanee`s language.

After the phasers are ineffective, a voice can be heard to say "Engineering to bridge" but it doesn`t sound like Scott. And Spock doesn`t even respond! I`m betting they needed a background sound and they grabbed this one from "Mudd`s Women".

According to this episode, Warp factor 9 is the maximum warp speed of the Enterprise. In season 2 I believe it was warp 8.

At one point Spock gives a heading of 883 mark 2. So didn`t they use degrees of a circle in James T Kirk`s glorious days?

I've always wondered if that obelisk from "The Paradise Syndrome" was real or not. Is it in a park somewhere? Can I go visit it? Does anyone know where that episode was filmed?

Since the third season was done under a strangled budget, I always found it hard to belive they built such a monstrosity and only used it once.
Anyone have any ideas?

Brian, as far as I know the obelisk was a set constructed for the episode. I have yet to see in any TREK reference books any references to it. If it were already in the park ("Africa U.S.A.", I think was where most of TREK's outdoor scenes were shot), I'd think there'd be mention of the fact. As it is, the obelisk looks an awful lot like many other sets and props from the original series. But, hey! I could be wrong, y'know!

If Miramanee had a baby girl, would she call her:
"Trekahontas"?

Oh, puh-leeze! Someone get a muzzle for that man!

Speaking of the rocks that Spock used:
He says, "In the time it has taken me to explain the problem, the asteroid has moved from here...to here." He moves one rock about half of the distance to the other rock. Logically extrapolating, the asteroid would hit the planet in about twenty more seconds. Does this make sense for someone as precise as Spock?
Also, Chapel's hair is already windblown while still in the transporter beam.

It's pretty unbelievable that the Enterprise couldn't get any help whatsoever in the two months they travelled back towards the planet, and in all that time didn't try other methods to stop the asteroid.
For example, in 'Obsession' the crew built a bomb capable of ripping half the atmosphere off of a planet. Why didn't they build numerous bombs (but not of that destructive ability, obviously) that could have blown off chunks of the asteroid, little by little, so if it had to hit it would be only a quarter of the size?
And with 2 months to deal with, why not send shuttle teams to back to the planet to look for Kirk?
McCoy complains that Spock has been driving himself too hard, hardly eatting in 2 months. Why? Can't Spock eat and think at the same time? His own logic should tell him that a weary body and stressed-out brain won't help Jim if he collapses from fatigue.
Spock says that he believes the Preservers saved races in danger of extinction. I don't know how long the tribes on the planet lasted on Earth, but wouldn't this mean that the Preservers came to Earth around the 1890's or maybe even as late as the 1920's?
I think it slipped everyone's mind that by the end of the show...the warp drive is still dead! They received no help from Starfleet, and Scott couldn't fix it himself. It sure couldn't have taken him exactly 2 months to fix it. So when did the ship get that help? 2 and a half months after this episode started?

Because in TOS, shuttles were impulse only, IIRC.

It was always implied that that was all they were, but realistically, they couldn't be.
We're never given a distance from the planet that the asteroid is, nor how fast the rock is travelling. Surely a shuttle could reach the planet in less than 2 months?

Spock is quite correct is saying that the asteroid is easier to move it they get to is sooner. However, he gives the impression that impact is imminent.

His indecent haste in getting to the asteroid and blasting it, which cripples the ship, also suggests that seconds count.

Then we learn that the asteroid is 2 months from the planet! You crazy Vulcan ****wit! Just imagine how far the asteroid could be deflected by a gentle tractor beam in 2 months, if only the engines hadn't been wrecked to save a few seconds! It looks as if Spock panicked.

(Actually, this is a case where they think an insufficiently strong tractor beam won't move an object at all. In space, even the smallest force will move an object if that force is applied long enough. The same error occurs in TNG: The Masterpiece Society.)

Also, why do they barely get to the planet before the asteroid? They have impulse engines don't they? I don't see any engines on that rock.

What I fail to understand is when the phasors failed, they didn't use the photon torpedoes.

A few dozen of those would make the asteroid a dust pile.

Because the SCPIPT SUPERVISOR realized that they use "Phasers" and not "Phasors".

What is a Scpipt Supervisor? I don't see that name in the credits. Is it an uncredited member of the production team? And is there any relation to the Script Supervisor?

Um...Grammar Police...do you seriously think he doesn't know how to spell "Script Supervisor"? Didn't you read the MANY TIMES it's been stated that "script" was mispelled in the closing credits of TOS.

Sorry. I am an idiot.

Hay, stahp impursuhnayting mee!

Rene-

No. I seriously didn't think that. It was a joke. As often as you comment on people's spelling and grammar, I'd think you of all people would get it.

No, I didn't read the MANY TIMES the title was often misspelled on the credits. I thought ScottN simply misspelled the word, and in light of what he was attempting to do in his post I thought it was ironic (it turned out he was being facetious).

Though I appreciate the correction, I do not appreciate the delivery. Why do you have to be so confrontational?

Incidentally, questions should end in a question mark. (It's the squiggly thing with the dot under it).

A final note to whomever it was that chose to impersonate me in the last post... I don't mind that you choose to poke fun of me. But at least be clever about it.

Actually, according to several English teachers I know, questions can now end in periods if "the question is meant as a statement." Don't ask me what this means, but it is what is being taught now. This is probably comming from the same people who are forcing Americans to now use the British term "are" when refering to a collective entity. For example, for a very long time in the U.S. people were supposed to say "the croud is going wild" but now we are supposed to say "the crowd are going wild."

Grammar Police: A final note to whomever it was that chose to impersonate me in the last post... I don't mind that you choose to poke fun of me. But at least be clever about it.

Luigi Novi: I didn't impersonate you. I made a joke pertaining to a comment made by the previous poster, much as when someone posted "Happy Birthday America" on July 4th, and I posted "Why, thank you!" under the name "America", or when someone pointed out that a member of the British royalty was a lord, and, I posted "No, I'M a Lord" as Jesus Christ, or when, posing as Chewbacca, I answered a comment made a female poster (I think it was Margie) about her not liking hairy men.

Relax, GP.

Yes, it was me with Chewbacca. We're very happy together now, raising the little fuzzballs!

Rowf rue rawf fauf raaarrragh ruaf!----- RAAWWWW!

Translation: But believe me, you don't EVER want to change a baby Wookie's diaper! ----- Pewewwwww!

Scotty musta been hitting the Saurian Brandy too hard.....
Here's another idea to try after the phasers failed...antimatter bombs! Why not? They worked in "The Immunity Syndrome" and "Obsession" Or are antimatter bombs RESERVED for space amoebas & vampire gas clouds only?

It was noted in "The Cage" AND "Bread & Circuses" AND "A Taste of Armegeddon" that the Enterprise can lay waste to an entire continent with the ship's phaser power....yet all of a sudden, they can't handle a simple asteroid.(?)
(With the engines smoking due to being overworked and everything)

Yeah, right.

(All my nits so far are from memory & from watching the preview trailer on my last DVD...just wait until I get the actual episode on DVD...whoa, boy!)

ANOTHER AMAZING COINCIDENCE!

When Kirk is zapped by the device inside the obelisk, the sound effects is the same ones used for the automatic doors on the Starship Enterprise! (Swish swish!) Turn up the volume & you'll hear it! These Preservers DID watch "Star Trek"!!!!

GREAT SFX: The deflector beam from the Enterprise & the obelisk are superb...as well as the phaser shot from the Enterprise.

GREAT CAMERA SHOT: The Enterprise going head to head with the asteroid...too cool to describe!

ALL NEW MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE! The guitar solo is beautiful!

In Spock's quarters, the ceremonial bells from Vulcan are hanging on the wall. (The instrument with the little bells dangling on it)

Kirk gives the kid CPR correctly only one time...he holds the nose and breathes into the mouth at the same time...the other times he does not hold the kid's nose. Air will escape that way.

At one point in the story, Kirk has only one stripe on his sleeve!

I must note that Kirk's (Shatner's) sideburns are real wide in this episode again!

Why didn't Miramanee call her unborn child a "papoose"?

The costuming is extra-superior in this episode. KUDOS!

So what if it's third season.

John, you missed:

Rand, newly reassigned to the Enterprise, beams down and attacks Miramanee, saying...

HANDS OFF, HE'S MINE!!!

Thanks, ScottN. I'm glad I've got a "support group"

Salish "forgot" to tell the Chief that Kirok bleeds... (In other words, it don't happen.)

I think Kirk's recovery from the amnesia was a little too quick (IMHO)

The death of Miramanee is DEFINITELY a 3 hanky moment.

The head & helmet statue is missing from Spock's quarters...you know the one...it was last seen in "Mirror, Mirror", and "Amok Time"

BEST LINE: "I am Kirok!!!!!" Kirk (Kirok) yelling from the obelisk's platform during the storm.
It reminds me of "The Enemy Within"'s "I am Captain Kirk!!!!!"

FUNNY THOUGHT: Kirk's sideburns...maybe he let them grow like that so someday he can stand on the obelisk's platform and swivel his hips and break into an Elvis act....
Kirok (singing Elvis style) "Uh huh huh...I'm all shook up...."
Then all the Indian maidens would start to scream, run up on stage and rip Kirok's shirt off.

And Yeoman Rand would beam down and say... (all together now...)

HANDS OFF! HE'S MINE!!!

Sorry, I couldn't resist

Another note on the music...I'm surprised Fred Steiner didn't get a Grammy for this episode. The violins & oboes combo in certain scenes is beautiful. It sounds like something from "Scherazade" by Korsakov.

Uhura is missing in this episode.

Anti-nit....I noted before that Kirk (Kirok) has only one stripe while making the lamp....what I failed to notice in the scene is that Kirk (Kirok) has his sleeves slightly rolled up...the cuffs are hiding the other stripes. So, the stripes are there, you & I just can't see them.

CAMERA KUDOS...Once again the creators took some extra time and treated us to some really hard angles of the Enterprise vs. the asteroid.

Here's a thought...If deflecting the asteroid was so important...why didn't Kirk take the Enterprise to the deflection point BEFORE beaming down to the planet? (SSS *)

(*=Short Show Syndrome)

Will S. was wondering why the Enterprise couldn't get any help....quite simply, the Enterprise is the only ship in the quadrant. (You'd think Starfleet would learn a lesson)

Here's one...Did Kirk (or someone) tell the Native Americans on the planet how to open the obelisk and work the controls before leaving?

Or is Kirk having the Enterprise come running to the rescue everytime an asteroid threatens the planet?

I was under the impression that they were going to be able to reset it to automatic since they were able to figure out the controls.

Nope...earlier in the episode, Miramanee said something about the tradition of the Medicine Chief passing on the temple secrets to his son. But Salish didn't get to hear it because his father died before he could tell Salish. Also, everyone says that Kirok must go to the "temple" and enter it to arouse the "blue flame". So, it has to be done MANUALLY.

Kirk must not be very important to Starfleet...otherwise Spock would have left behind about several dozen people behind on the planet to find Kirk while the rest stay on the ship an go deflect that asteroid. I mean, Kirk left behind some of the medical staff on Cestus III while he & the others pursued the Gorn ship in "Arena".
They REALLY don't need ALL 400 & some odd crewmembers to make the ship work, ya' know!

With all the countless alternatives they could have used, maybe this episode SHOULD HAVE been called: "The Short Show Syndrome"

THE PRESERVERS DID WATCH "STAR TREK"...

When the computers on the obelisk panel "warm up" when Kirk accidently presses the button, the noises are simular to the PANEL NOISES heard on many parts of the Enterprise.

Maybe the "Original Wise One" was Gene Roddenberry...I mean, he IS nicknamed, "The Great Bird of the Galaxy", right?

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING MUSIC:

I really wish they'd put the music from this episode on a CD or audio cassette...I really like it.

The real thick sideburns were fake additions. Even with the limited detail of 1968 TV sets, you could see Shatner's real pointy sideburns through them.
Shatner came full circle in "Generations." In his book, "Movie Memories," he stated that he forgot to grow his sideburns enough tp point them. To compensate, the makeup man cut a fake mustache in half, and used one part on each side of his face.

>GRAMMY AWARD WINNING MUSIC:

>I really wish they'd put the music from this >episode on a CD or audio cassette...I really >like it.

They DID release it on cassette at least . . . I have it.

Chalk one up for "Preview Trailers Lie"....

The ORIGINAL energy bolt that hits Kirk was a thunderstorm sound effect.

Here's some fun math to show how absurd the episode is. A solar system body might travel something like 33 miles per second.
So...

86400 seconds times 59 days times 33 miles per second comes to 168,220,800 miles away. They could have set up some antimatter rockets at various points on the asteroid's surface to slow it down so it would miss the planet.

But suppose the Klingons had fought the Enterprise just before the episode, because they'd been speeding up the asteroid and aiming it directly at the planet.

That would explain why the ship's engines and phasers were so weak, and they'd used up all their photon torpedoes.

But it still doesn't answer all the nits. It's just a silly episode with nice scenery and music.

I hope the rest of the planet has lots of other endangered and extinct cultures, like maybe the Hittites and the Picts.

UNIQUE MUSIC AWARD....

Take a good listen to the soundtrack for this episode...it is never heard again in any way, shape or form in future episodes.

John-I believe I still have a vinyl disc copy of the soundtrack from this ep, probably the vinyl version of the cassette Todd mentioned above. If you want, e-mail your info at abomb@nitcentral.com, and I will be happy to make you a cassette copy. It is not the original soundtrack, but a re-recording done in 1985. It will get me some use out of a good cassette deck I bought a few years ago, to make tapes for my car, before I abandoned cassettes this April when I installed a CD player in my car.

BAD USE OF STOCK FOOTAGE AWARD:

Originally, I noted that Uhura was not in this episode....I was wrong. There is a short snippet of her at the Communications console from the stock footage library....It's not that I don't like Uhura, but the use of this segment of stock footage is bad because it does not correspond to any other footage in the episode...not only that, they don't even mention her in the end credits!

I think TPTB threw that piece of footage in to make Uhura's (Nichols') fans happy...well, guess what, Bozos? You failed...You would have done better by actually putting Uhura IN the episode AND give her some lines!

I already mentioned that.

Sorry. Chalk up another one for laziness on my part.

(However, I'm relieved I'm not the only one...some of my nits were repeated too)

Spock says the asteroid is nearly as large as earth's moon. As asteroids go, that's huge. It would certainly have enough gravity to pull itself into a nearly spherical shape (as our moon has). It would certainly not appear as irregular as depicted in this episode.

Watch when Kirk wins the medicine badge from Salish. When it is transferred from Salish's head to Kirk's, it appears to be made of Ye Olde Indian elastic.

Spock seems to have the ceremonial bells from his "wedding" from the episode "Amok Time"..they're hanging on the wall.

Salish can't seem to make up his mind as to which hand he should have the knife in. He switches it from left to right several times before the fight starts.

Note near the end when Goro and Salish come to Kirok and Miramanee in the tee-pee, with the wind blowing(one tree not the rest)and Salish finally says "Well,What do you wait for God, your robe?". Watch Kirok as he starts to put his right arm around Miramanee and starts to leave with her, but the scene shifts and he walks away without her.

I'm not an expert on native americans, only an interested layperson, but the behaviour of the natives seems to me to be way off:
Having not only a medicine-man, but also a female priestess? I've always understood that part of the medicine man's duty was to talk with the gods and spirits.

worshipping one god, instead of nature spirits? I know most tribes believed in a creator god, but the way they treat kirrok doesn't fit for me.

This obeseiance (?) Bowing thing in front of kirk must have pleased shatner, but I find it unusual for a proud warrior people.

Likewise, Miramanee's acting like a meek white housewife clashes with that indian woman were usually very capable and had a good deal of control over their part of affairs.

And finally, the biggest nit: why would the indians stone kirk and miramanee in the end? Even if they have some kind of punishment for false gods, I would expect a council of old people together with the medicine man decide about punishment, not everybody start throwing rocks, which is a judeo-christian idea to my knowledge.

I agree about the strange idea of having the "password" to the obelisk consist of kirk hailing the enterprise - singing a song would have been much more "alien".

The prservers had a bad method of keeping their wisdom: only one medicine man knows it, and there is no backup source? This was just waiting for an accident to happen in which the old guy dies before the knowledge could be passed on.

Kirk (or the writers) are almost insulting the indian culture when they have kirk invent lamps and conservation of foods: the indians knew well enough how to preserve food. The only trouble may be that the preservers took plains tribes and made them settle down to become farmers, when they would lack the knowledge, but there were enough tribes besides the prairie/plains tribes which knew about gardening (small-scale, but well managed). And why is it so necessary to double the amount of food grown? Were the indians starving before kirk came? They certainly look on the well-fed side.

Salish isn't too observant, or at least not very persistent. He tells Kirk that he won't rest until the people discover that he's no god; this after he cuts Kirk's hand and shouts, "Behold the god who bleeds!" Kirk is known as Kirok for 59 days there, and in all that time Salish wasn't able to tell the people, "Belohold the god who has an itch!", "Behold the god who needs to eat!", "Behold the god who has to use the bathroom!", "Behold the god who belches!". Get the picture? There's no way he could have spent 2 months around these people and not do any of the day-to-day things we all need to door, biologically. And for all his help, Kirk accomplishes things that any mere mortal could have performed, and didn't act like a god (even though he was pretty sure he wasn't one). 59 days in the tribe and he must have looked very mortal to everyone, especially Miramanee, whom he lived with.

Contanze referred to the Indians as 'proud warrior people', but actually Spock identifies them as three of the more peaceful Indian tribes at the beginning of the show.
Explaining that 'Kirk to Enterprise' was the exact wording needed to open the temple is obviously stretching reality, but to a lesser degree might be the explanation that only certain parts of that sentence triggered the mechanism. For example, if the sound required sounded more like 'ir-oo-eh-er-i' (kIRk tO EntERprIse).
That cloak of feathers Kirk wears at the wedding seems to be an homage to the Great Bird Of The Galaxy.

What is that asteroid made of anyway? It remains unscathed after several phaser shots.

NANJAO: This is one of the most obviously looped episodes ever. Almost every line of dialogue delivered on the planet is subtly or glaringly out of synch with the actors' mouths--De Kelly's seem the worst in some of the early scenes.

The Kirk romping with Miramanee scene is also obviously redubbed.

Sir Rhosis

I must note that the planetoid's Native Americans' idea to keep the secrets of the obelisk confined to one person (the Medicine Chief) really defies logic. Would not it have been better if more than one person knew the secret of the obelisk...just in case someone dies prematurely...like Salish's father did.

And if the obelisk door opens with the noise of the communicator & someone saying, "Kirk to Enterprise", where is the Indians' communicator? And why is it no one ever wondered who this "Kirk" was or what this "Enterprise" means?

It may have just been the word "Kirk" or "Enterprise" which could mean something like "Open Obelisk" in the Preserver language.

I must note that the planetoid's Native Americans' idea to keep the secrets of the obelisk confined to one person (the Medicine Chief) really defies logic.

Not necessarily. Remember it's the shaman, the medicine man, who holds that secret. Being the only person who knows the secret is a good way to insure one's station in life and maintain the power you would hold as the medicine man of the tribe. It's not like the secret of the obelisk is the only secret the medicine men probably kept to themselves. Many more were undoubtedly kept. It's a way to maintain control. There's also the possibility/probability that it wasn't always like that. The secret of the obelisk was probably common knowledge at one time, early in the Indians' settlement of the planet. Then it slowly became part of the shaman's duties, and from there a secret handed down from generation to generation.

And if the obelisk door opens with the noise of the communicator & someone saying, "Kirk to Enterprise", where is the Indians' communicator? And why is it no one ever wondered who this "Kirk" was or what this "Enterprise" means?

"Kirk", "Enterprise" and the communicator beep may sound similar enough to the actual words used to open the obelisk. It may also be the "kay" sounds followed by the "en", "tee", "eye" and "ess" or some combination thereof that triggers the opening. I doubt the communicator's beep had anything to do with it.

Live long and prosper.

Great explanation, Benn.

Thank you, kindly, sir.

Live long and prosper.

I couldn't sleep last night, so I stayed up to see the 5 a.m. telecast of this episode.
When Kirk calls the Enterprise after the mind meld that returned his memory, Scotty answers and says "Aye, Captain." He hasn't heard Kirk's voice in 58 days, and may have thought Kirk was dead. Shouldn't he have said something more emotional than "Aye Captain?"
When Kirk and Spock went into the obelisk, they didn't seem to bother to pick up, or even notice, the phaser and communicator Kirk had left on the floor after his memory was wiped out. Well, they could have retrieved them before they left.
When Miramannee and Kirk were frolicking around, after the joining, a fly landed on Kirk's head. Did the Preservers believe flies were necessary? After all, we do need a balanced ecosystem. Don't we?

John wrote, way back when - Take a good listen to the soundtrack for this episode...it is never heard again in any way, shape or form in future episodes.
I beg to disagree, John. Snippets from this ep's score can be heard in "Wink of an Eye," "That Which Survives," and "The Savage Curtain." (There may be more, but that's all I can remember at the moment.) The marvelous music when Kirk revives the boy, though, was never re-used.
IMHO, the music done for the third season was absolutely wonderful, with this episode, "The Empath," and "Is There In Truth No Beauty" the standouts. It was too bad that more Trek episodes didn't have an original score. Money was the problem there, as they could not afford an original score for every episode.

Now that I think about it, you're right.

SIDENOTE:
"The Paradise Syndrome" is by far one of the best soundtracks used in the 3rd season next to "Elaan of Troyius"

Hope you're enjoying the tape, John. If you wear it out, let me know, and I'll make you another one. Incidentally, those records were available in CD format a few years ago, but unfortunately, I think they're out of print.
Despite the budget restrictions in the third season, TPTB shot the moon on this episode, with such niceties as:
Location filming.
Costructing the obelisk (interior and exterior) which I'm sure was a one shot use. (So many of Trek's props and set pieces were re-used, but not that one.)
Fresh music score.
The asteroid model, and the necessary optical work (which was top notch, BTW, and still looks good 36 years later.)
Costuming for the Indians (also, those were not re-used, although they could have been from Paramount storage.)

When Kirk and Miramanee were being stoned, Kirk was hit harder then Miramanee, but she dies. Go figure.
This episode also implied that the Enterprise does carry spare dilithium crystals, at least sometimes, as Scotty was going to replace them as soon as he saw the ones in use were bad. Until Spock put the whammy on it.

Now that I think about it, I was wrong about the interior of the obelisk being re-used. I'm almost positive it was re-used as the control room that was in back of the Oracle in "For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky."

HMMM! No wonder the Enterprise took so long to get back to Miramanee's planet...the ship was going in reverse!

(BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!)

This is the only episode where the primary guest stars (Sabrina Scharf and Rudy Solari) don't have their character names listed after their own.

How Kirk accidently opens the obelisk isn't as bad a coincidence as the one at the end of the TNG episode "Haven".
Maybe that asteroid's orbit wasn't anywhere near the planet hundreds of years ago when the Preservers were there, but its orbit was perturbed by other planets in the system. The obelisk was to divert any and all large meteors and asteroids, not just that one.
But the episode still had lots of plot holes.

You've heard of the "Beautiful Babe Bypass Button"? (BBBB). Well, the Obelisk had a "Muscular Macho Man Mechanism" (MMMM)

This being the third episode shown in season 3, no wonder people started NOT tuning in!

Of course one must ask, "Why didn't someone WRITE DOWN the "secrets of the obelisk"?

Ever play the game called "telephone"?

You start out with 20 people lined up in a single row.
You tell person #1 a really goofy sentence. His / her job is to pass the same message to person #2...then person #2 passes the message to person #3 and so on.

If the "message" is still in it's pure form, the team wins.

The point is, it's can't be done. The pure message gets "lost" in the shuffle and you get a totally different message than what you started with....which is why God had Moses WRITE DOWN the 10 Commandments so the message would not be lost.

According to the "Memory Alpha" website, The lake location in this episode is "The Ol' Fishin' Hole" from "Andy Griffith"

This is the only episode where the primary guest stars (Sabrina Scharf and Rudy Solari) don't have their character names listed after their own.

No, it's not. I was wrong. Some first season episodes don't list the character names with the guest stars.

This being the third episode shown in season 3, no wonder people started NOT tuning in!

I kept tuning in. Faithfully. As I said on another page, I blew off a bio assignment (to watch some special ABC threw up against "Wink Of An Eye" on its first run) and I watched the Trek episode that Friday night. I was almost flunking the class, and the teacher didn't like me anyway, so I felt I had nothing to lose by watching Trek that night. As it turned out, I passed bio class, but barely.

Miramanee puzzles about how to remove Kirok's tunic, but they have elastics -- look closely at the medicine badge strap when Miramanee removes it from Salish.

A nit introduced in the remastered version -- Miramanee describes the "blue flame" coming from the temple. The deflector beam coming from the temple was indeed blue in the original, but is red in the remastered version.

I'm not sure that Spock's idea of blasting the asteroid with the phasers was a great idea. Having that amount of debris rain down on the planet would still probably make it uninhabitable.

NANJAO: Spock seems to be the only one on the Enterprise who has an old-fashioned, wooden chair in his quarters. Everyone else has one of the swivel chairs like the ones on the Bridge in their quarters. The chair also looks like one of the ones Parmen's people used in "Plato's Stepchildren". Wonder if Spock picked up there?

I only caught the last half of the remastered version. Did they cut the scene where Miramanee tells Kirk she's pregnant? I don't think I saw it in the half of the ep I saw.

Just after Spock and McCoy beam down on the planet surface and just before the crowd flees from them, you can see one of the natives walking away. I guess he either got tired of throwing rocks at Kirk and Miramanee or was going to get some more.

Live long and prosper.

I only caught the last half of the remastered version. Did they cut the scene where Miramanee tells Kirk she's pregnant?
I only caught the last half of it as well, even though I tried to stay up. (Here, it airs at 3 a.m. early Monday morning.) I woke up to see the second half, and yes, they did cut the scene where Miramanee reveals she's pregnant. The first half of the scene, with Kirk and Miramanee frolicking around, and him saying that he still has dreams about "the great lodge in the sky" was kept.
I think all the episode cuts are made by CBS-Paramount now, and not the local stations. In a lot of the episodes that TV Land has run, they have cuts identical to the remastered versions.

While this was a so-so episode for me,I always found the obelisk set-piece incredible in its design & size,like something from a motion-picture.It was also enhanced by shooting it on location.I wonder what Andy & Opie thought about it went they went fishin',Gomer probably said "Goleeee!"

The TV Land copy shown this morning had the Desilu logo at the end. But...Desilu merged with Paramount, and ceased to exist early in the second season. The Desilu logo was replaced by the Paramount TV logo in the middle of the second season's first run.

also cbs bought paramount?

Here's the skinny on the business end of the CBS/Paramount ownership, and who owns what Trek property.

I only caught the last half of the remastered version. Did they cut the scene where Miramanee tells Kirk she's pregnant?

Not only does the re-mastered version cut the pregnancy angle, but the prints shown on TV Land drop it as well. Which supports my hunch that the re-mastered versions have the same edits as the TV Land ones.

Why don't you guys tape the episodes for viewing later instead of complaining about the late-night showings?

I'm sure it's possible other Indian tribes were placed on other parts of that planet.

But how do they decide where on the planet they'll beam down to? Did they detect the obelisk from orbit?

This is the last episode to be filmed outdoors.

The rest are filmed in the studio.

Why don't you guys tape the episodes for viewing later instead of complaining about the late-night showings?
Because (in my case, anyway) I'd have a whole bunch of tapes built up with little or no time to watch them. I have a job, a son, two aging parents (who still live in their own house, and can still take care of themselves, but me and my siblings do what we can for them) and a great girlfriend, who I don't spend as much time with as I'd like to. Something's got to give, and usually, it's my TV time. (My dad seems to think I have more time on my hands than I actually do, but that's for another time). I do tape the enhanced episodes when I can, but I'll do that if I know I'll have time to watch it soon afterward.
I know that WNBC here in New York schedules the episodes when they can. But, they also have a secondary channel on the digital cable system here, where they could possibly schedule runs of Trek at more desirable times. But, they don't.

Actually,the episode "All Our Yesterdays" would be the final Trek ep to be filmed outdoors.The scenes of Kirk after he stepped through the portal & into that planet's middle ages era appear to have been shot on one of Paramount's backlot streets.It's a shame that severe budget cuts each season eliminated the number of times that they could shoot an episode outdoors. The Trek eps which did utilize outdoor location filming always benefited immensely from doing so,& would suffer when they couldn't.

And Vasquez Rocks was almost like a costar at this point.

I dunno. The lighting doesn't really look like outdoor shooting. You can see the prop wall here. I think they were still on a soundstage.

The scene with Kirk in the alleyway was supposed to be taking place at night,so they shot it with a filter over the camera to duplicate evening.But I believe they were on one of the backlot streets for that segment.

I kinda agree; the sword fight always seemed to me to be outside.

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quote:

Why don't you guys tape the episodes for viewing later instead of complaining about the late-night showings?

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If you guys can't stay up late to watch these episodes, and DVRing it doesn't work because you don't have time to watch it later, then you are just S.O.L. because local stations arn't going to air a 40 year old show in prime time.

and speaking of plot holes, shouldn't the Natives be speaking Apache or something than good ol English?

WWOR-TV Channel 9 now runs the enhanced episodes...at a more reasonable hour - Sundays at 11 p.m.
Not any more. Now they're run (just once) on Saturday/early Sunday at midnight.

GREAT ENHANCED MOMENT:

The Deflector Beam coming from the Deflector Dish

BAD ENHANCED MOMENT:

The asteroid is smaller than the original. It makes the Enterprise appear weaker than its supposed to be.

They fixed the nit I mentioned above -- the red beam from the obelisk is now blue again. I think they missed that the color was mentioned in the dialog; at least they fixed it.

Just after Spock and McCoy beam down on the planet surface and just before the crowd flees from them, you can see one of the natives walking away. I guess he either got tired of throwing rocks at Kirk and Miramanee or was going to get some more. - Benn

I'm not positive, but I think that was Salish. He apparently walked away after telling Miramanee to die with her false god. Maybe he didn't want to watch her die.

Also, while looking at that scene, I noticed something I never had before: Goro (the tribal elder) is in the back of the group of Indians trying to get them to stop throwing rocks.

Next week's remastered episode is "The Paradise Syndrome", with "The Enterprise Incident" the following week.

Two inconsistencies:

Number one: They already stated they're
needing to make haste because of the Enterprise
needing to get out closer to the asteroid to make the attempt
to deflect it, so NO ONE should be making ANY sidetrips over
to the obelisk before they beam up!

Number two: Captain Kirk would *NOT* have said
"But first I want another look at that obelisk."

THAT is out of character for him! Now, Spock, on the other hand,
he WOULD HAVE said that and would have walked over there with
his tricorder. THAT *IS* consistent with HIM.

So, Kirk's dialogue to have a reason/excuse to
get him (and him alone) over to the obelisk
was SO CONTRIVED and an insult to the audience.

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

Also, Mr. Scott said a derogatory thing when he
called out in the Engine Room, "That Vulcan won't be
satisfied until [something to the effect that something
will be burned or melted out]."

"That Vulcan won't be satisfied until [something to the effect that something will be burned or melted out]."
"Until these panels are a puddle of lead."

They fixed the nit I mentioned above -- the red beam from the obelisk is now blue again.
Not this time out. The beam was back to red. Or closer to orange, as broadcast by our local station on its HD channel.

Yes, I noticed that -- the broadcast version is still using the red beam. It's fixed on the DVD.

The following was overlooked. Spock should not even have taken the TIME on the planet
to show Dr. McCoy the analogy with the rocks! Because, as it turned out, the ACT of
demonstrating and talking about why it was necessary, ITSELF, required them to squat
down, watch Spock handle the rocks and listen to his analogy.

INSTEAD, just prior to the time of this, they should have immediately been hoofing it
back to the Enterprise, if indeed every second was to matter, because Spock wasted
many seconds showing that to the doctor there. (Now, once back aboard, THEN Spock
could demonstrate to
Dr. McCoy without losing the time of explanation back on the planet that was shown in
the episode.)

Spock did not think this through.

I have seen the entire episode - all 50 minutes - on TV now, and this is the first time I've seen the Preservers' deflector beam as blue.

However, to my dismay, they STILL have the Enterprise flying in reverse gear for 59 days!

"beep...beep...beep...beep..."

Here's a hair-raising (sorry, couldn't resist) analysis of the Shat's hair (or rather, toupee) style in this episode. The author makes the point that Shatner wore a different hairpiece in this episode; my jury's out on that one. The additions to his sideburns are, however, definitely fake.

It's so nice to see the first comments are from a past millennium.

Why does the Enterprise wants to divert the asteroid, unless they have been ordered to do so by headquarters? Which means that somewhere somebody knows the planet is inhabited. Yet Kirk & C° seem pretty much surprised there are living beings, although they must have scanned the surface first to land at the exact spot the obelisk is standing (same thing happened in The Apple).

They are not surprised. The episode opens with Kirk, Spock and McCoy observing a village from a distance. They know the place is inhabited.

Kirk/Kirok states to the Indians, as the asteroid is approaching "The wind can't hurt us." What about this? It hurt and killed a lot of people.

Miramanee gets hit by a bunch of rocks, and that puts her beyond he reach of 23rd Century medicine!? Rubbish!

Even if the Prime Directive is an issue, well, just sedate her, beam her up to the Enterprise, do the surgery to save her, then beam her back down before she wakes up. Problem solved.

When she wakes up healed, it'll just be written off as another miracle of the gods.