Season one episodes were filmed more or less in stardate order (except for "The Squire Of Gothos" and "This Side Of Paradise") but season two episodes were both made and produced with the stardates all jumbled up.
In this episode, DeSalle is in command of the Enterprise, one of the rare occasions in the original series that a non-regular character is in charge.
This begs the question: why did Scott and Sulu beam down to the planet in the first place?
Lesley / Leslie was put in command in both "The Squire of Gothos" and "The Alternative Factor"
To Elio, 10/98,
Funny I should happen upon what you just said. See my entry in the previous episode.
Spock says there should be no cloud formations, but every shot of the planet appears to be cloudy. If there were no clouds we should see mountains and valleys and such.
Kirk's hair was very messed up in the blowing wind, but in the very next shot it is back to normal.
The castle hallway looks like the same hallway that James West would occasionally run through in many episodes of The Wild, Wild West.
Spock doesn't know about Trick or Treat, but he does know about Familiars?
If they can create baubles such as gems as Kirk claims, does this mean that the miners on Janus VI are now out of jobs, because if you can create valuable gems, why not valuable minerals.
(Why does everyone assume this create gems at will statement is a fact? Do veiwers want Kirk to accept the bribe and leave without his men?)
That skeleton in the dungeon seems to have its head in different positions in different shots.
Spock says, "Saber-tooth tiger." There is no such thing as a Saber-tooth tiger, the correct name is Saber-tooth cat.
Kirk, Spock and Korob run down the hallway away from the giant cat. The camera shows a giant shadow on the wall, but considering how big the cat is and where the camera is placed, shouldn't we see the cat as she passes?
(I know that in 'reality' the shadow on the wall was just a trick of light, but according to the story Sylvia is a giant cat at this point.)
In the fight Sulu appeared to get knocked out when he is slammed against the wall, but if you watch him, his head doesn't hit the wall.
If Spock is so interested in preserving and studying Korob and Sylvia, then why isn't he taking readings with his tricorder?
Since no readings were taken with Spock's tricorder and their bodies dissolved, then how can a picture of Korob and Sylvia's anatomy be on display in Keiko's classroom on several episodes of Deep Space Nine?
You'd think that with Kirk, Spock, Scott, and Sulu all on the planet's surface that perhaps Uhura might get a chance at bridge command, but alas, instead they haul this guy DeSalle out of the woodwork.
How come Korob gets a spiffy alien-sounding name when Sylvia has to settle for a human name?
Can you imaging the reaction of 1960s America to seeing a black woman in command??
I hate to pick on McCoy now that Kelley has passed away, but this nit is worth mentioning. When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy first beam down, and after they see the witches, Spock picks up a reading, and they head off in the direction of the castle. McCoy holds his phaser at his side, but if you'll notice, he's holding it backwards, with the
mouth aimed straight at him! Not the wisest way to carry a gun.
My reaction to Sylvia?
MEOW!
A wonderful line from Sylvia (in light of the little you- can- see- the- strings aliens at the end of the episode):
"I'm not a puppet, Korob, like you!"
5 words to describe Chekov in this episode:
"Hey, hey we're the Monkees!"
With this episode being the first show of the second season it marks the first time in which the lovely lady with the siren-like voice sings the theme from "Star Trek"...also Gene Roddenberry's name appears with the title "Star Trek"
When Sylvia & Korob return to their true form, they make the same noise as the Denvian Parasite creature from "Operation: Annihilate!"
Chekov is having a REAL bad day...not only does his hair look goofy...he's also missing a tooth on the bottom row of his mouth!
FUNNY MOMENT: Kirk looks at McCoy and says "Bones" then sees the skeleton in back of him then changes his summons to "Doc"
When Sylvia changes into different women before Kirk, the censors were sleeping on the first apparition...this version of Sylvia is wearing a very low cut dress that goes all the way down to her navel and also has large slits in the leg areas...this is quite a lot of flesh exposed for the late 1960's! (Not that I'm complaining, mind you...she looked yummy!)
At one point, Sylvia & Korob discuss "The Old Ones".....are these the same "Old Ones" that Ruk mentioned in "What are Little Girls Made of?" or are they referring to a different race of "Old Ones"? If so, how many "Old ones" are there?
I doubt it. Old Ones isn't exactly a race name, now is it?
IIRC Ruk speaks of the Old Ones meaning the race who built him that he has forgotten about, so it's unlikely to be their name. From Ruk's perspective the builders were the Old Ones and Humans are the New Ones.
When Sylvia & Korob speak of the Old Ones it's as if they are speaking about their Elders. Kind of like teenagers questioning authority figures. ("Man, them Old Ones is sooooo square. Can ya dig it?";-)
There`s a discussion about this on the WALGMO board.
The archway with the railing above it comes from "The Squire of Gothos"..and "I'll bet credits to navy beans" that a lot of the props come from the same episode too.
Tip of the hat to DeSalle...he reminds me of "vintage Kirk"
GREAT LINE:
"You'd be a natural"....Kirk to Spock after his brief explanation of "Trick or Treat"
All during the first season during the opening credits, we saw the Enterprise orbiting a "Jupiter-like" planet....durning the second season, it orbits a blue planet
Correction:
Sorry it was red...not blue.
Robert Bloch cannibalized his 1957 short story "Broomstick Ride" for this script. It concerned a ship from Earth which visited a planet called Pyris (the same as in this episode) and then is destroyed through voodoo when the Pyrisians hold a model of the ship over a flame.
Fortunately, the Enterprise had better luck in the "Catspaw" version of the story.
Other things that began with the start of the second season....
As I mentioned before, the theme song is changed with the use of the lady's siren-like voice, Roddenberry's name shows up under the words "Star Trek" but also...
The Enterprise comes warping towards the camera AFTER Kirk (Shatner) says "Space the Final Frontier"...the 1st season had the Enterprise gliding into the shot from the left then moving forward during the opening narration.
Also the name of the writer & director of the episode show up after the title of the episode is shown.
Dear John: You forgot one of the most important second season changes-the addition of DeForest Kelley's name during the opening titles.
Dear Adam,
I didn't forget....I just didn't mention it because Phil already mentioned it in his book
"The Nitpicker's Guide to Classic Trek"
Thanx, anyway.
I try to avoid repeating nits already mentioned.
If I do, it's an accident.
I must note that when Jackson fell over, it looked quite painful. I can't help but wonder if the man hurt himself after that fall.
John, it's "The Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trekkers".
Gotta be careful, there's Nitpickers around here. ;-)
I'm surprised at the DVD version of this episode, they made no effort to "erase" the wires on the true form of Sylvia & Korob...yet they fixed the shuttlecraft scenes in other episodes....does that make sense?
The DVD version have better versions of the shuttlecraft scenes.
The "original" showing had the shuttlecraft flying thru space and you could clearly see black rectangular boxes surrounding the shuttlecraft.
This is called "garbage matte".
Apparently, the lights inside the shuttlecraft model were so bright, you could see the wires and stuff that made the scene work. So the creators spliced in some "garbage matte" to cover up the wires & stuff.
On the DVD versions you cannot see the "garbage matte"
DARE TO COMPARE and you'll see what I mean.
Other Trek theme episodes: "Bread and Circuses" aired originally on the Ides of March, "Spectre of the Gun" aired a day before the anniversary of the Ok Corral gunfight. I also suspect that "Friday's Child", an early-produced year two episode, was held over until December for airing because of the Christmasy plot element of a child being born in a cave.
A new season & a new look.....pt. 3
Another thing I forgot to mention is the departure of the Orion Slave Girl from the end of the closing credits and the entrance of the Balok puppet.
I must add that Sylvia is *magically* delicious.
She's got "Lucky Charms"
Isn't THIS the episode where we see the little, teeny "muppets" at the end? Perhaps that's why John A. Lang calls it "a new season and a new look" ...
Yeah....and not bad puppets (muppets) either.
Apparently they were made from pipe cleaners & feathers. Not exactly "state of the art"...but nonetheless...interesting. I give them a "C+" for trying.
Korob has a hard time deciding whether or not he wants to watch Kirk & Sylvia making goo-goo eyes at each other. Korob is seen peeking thru the holes in the woodwork and leaving several times.
I am not 100% certain, but I think DeSalle is referred to as "chief engineer" DeSalle. Perhaps Scotty got a brief demotion, explaining why he was sent to the planet? *g*
On the gemstone question- it is possible now to artificially create dimonds (by compressing carbon, or somesuch). Thus it is possible that the Enterprise can create such gemstones, but that natural minerals are needed, and also that 'natural' gemstones are still desired for their natural value- or that it is simply more economically efficient to mine than to create.
How do you 'artificially create'?
I believe the first man-made gemstones (created by man in a lab as opposed to being created by geological forces, but chemically the same) came about in the 1700s. (Unfortunately, I can't find the book that contained that info.)
Since Diamonds are pure Carbon you would have to compress carbon to create man-made diamonds. Otherwise it wouldn't be a diamond.
I also seem to think that man-made diamonds were made back in the 60's, although I believe these were industrial diamonds, being too small to use for jewelry purposes.
Man-made Emeralds exist although you can tell the difference by the fact that they have less flaws than emeralds found in the field. ;-)
Nobody has figured out how to create man-made opals that look like the 'real' thing yet.
John (or anyone)-if I repeat nits already mentioned in Phil's book, it is because I don't have a copy. By the time I got around to being able to get one, it was unfortunately out of print.
Spockiania He was called "Assistant Chief Enginner Desalle"
When did De Salle get his promotion and transfer? In his last ep ("This Side of Paradise") he was not even in an Engineering shirt (red) but the command uniform (green or tan, depending on the color mix of your broadcast signal.)
At the end, Spock does remember to get some scans of the creatures. But he assumes they come from Outside--outside our galaxy, just because they have psychic powers. The physical laws are supposedly different elsewhere. But then they'd have to obey the physical laws of this galaxy instead.
Spock's assertion means that the food they eat has to obey the physical laws of whatever galaxy the food comes from.
He doesn't say anything about the Galactic Barrier giving them the psychic powers. And why doesn't anybody assume all the other super-races from the Thasians to the Zalkonians are from other galaxies?
They're totally non-humanoid, so why doesn't Spock think the Horta is from outside the galaxy?
In "Gambit" Vulcans had lots of other psychic powers, but nobody says they came from outside the galaxy.
The woodwork that Korob peeks thru is the same woodwork that was used at the Starbase bar in "Court Martial" and the same woodwork used for the interior shots of Balok's ship in "The Corbomite Manuver"
When Kirk leaves for the transporter room to meet the returning Jackson, Spock accompanies him, but Spock isn't in the transporter room.
I mention this because McCoy notes that Scott and Sulu's eyes hardly blink, and then Spock says that neither did Jackson before he died. How could he know this? He wasn't present when Jackson beamed up! And even then, Jackson materialized, stood there for about 2 seconds, and then fell on his face, dead. Not enough time to say that Jackson had also undergone hypnosis.
I've been freeze-framing and going forward a frame at a time with some of the fights in the series recently, and although the punches look decent, they're waaay off at times, like when Kirk has to deck a reviving McCoy.
Those witches just got more and more incoherent the longer they spoke. The male one sounds like he says something like, "So leeeave here or medioraaay!" Medioraaay???? Anybody got a universal translator out there?
Could it be 'So leave here immediately'? (I checked the Blish adaptation, but that line is absent.)
The last time we saw Mr. DeSalle, he was wearing YELLOW. (Squire of Gothos, This Side of Paradise) This time he's wearing "deadly red"
DELETED LINE:
Sylvia: Excuse me. I have to use the litter box.
Some of the music for this episode can be best described as "Wagon Train To The Stars"...sounds like something you'd put on "Bonanza"
In the first season, DeSalle was a navigator. In this episode, he is referred to as an "Assistant Chief Engineer". Like Farrell (who went from being a navigator to a communications officer) he has switched specialties.
He does a great job in command in this episode, BTW.
In the blooper reel, Scotty stumbles down the stairs and collides with McCoy.
At one point Chekov says to Desalle: "I know how to do it! I'm not that green!" (or something like that) Isn't Chekov's attitude a bit insubordinate? DeSalle is in command, Chekov should respect him as he would Kirk.
It might be overlooked given the tension of the situation or if (off camera) Pavel and Mr. DeSalle were friends. I mean, c'mon John, how many outburst has McCoy had that bordered on the insubordinate?
Live long and prosper.
CG enhancing: Following up on an idea in the Space: 1999 threads, if Star Trek the Classic Series could be enhanced with CG, these are ideas I have for this episode.
Unless you overlay animation, Sylvia and Korob's true forms are not fixable. Perhaps the pipe cleaners could be embellished with a fuzzy optical effect that tracks their movements. Better imaging of the giant cat would be nice.
I mean no disrespect to John A Lang, but you have GOT to be kidding when you say Syliva is hot!?!?!?! Im sorry, she does NOTHING for me! YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK a thousand times YUCK!!!!!!!!!
Course this is the same John A Lang that has an obsession with Troi.
Boys, boys. (waggles finger) We all have our own tastes. If we all found the same women attractive, there wouldn't be much in the way of human reproduction going on because we'd all be fighting over the same small pool of females.
Not really...because Deanna Troi is MINE!
They made no effort to "erase" the wires on the true form of Sylvia & Korob...
They still haven't, five years later, in the uncut prints that G4 is running.
They don't do any cleanup on the old shows, other than post-production damage to the prints.
"The Old Ones" -- I'm inclined to think Bloch's use of this term is a tip of the hat to H.P. Lovecraft.
New effects: New space shots as usual. The model seems to look a bit more natural. There's a new long shot of the castle. The transmuter effect is slightly redone, with a bigger flash.
Before Sylvia as a cat breaks into the dungeon, you can see her through the barred window. Previously, you only saw her after she broke the door down.
The strings controlling the puppets have been erased. The design of the aliens is unchanged.
Jay Jones, who plays security guard Jackson in this epsiode, has just two lines at the beginning, he repeats twice that he is ready to beam up. Jones, who was not a fan of the show, was befuddled by the dialogue and wound up having to ask a kid in his neighborhood who was a big Star Trek fan what the phrase "beam up" meant and have it explained to him.
Jones was also injured in two other roles on Star Trek. As Scotty's stunt double in "Who Mourns For Adonais?" Jones was knocked unconcious after hitting his head after he was pulled head over heels by wires when he was supposed to be zapped by Apollo.
Also, while playing security guard Mallory in "The Apple", Jones was severly injured by the explosion of the Vaal rock which killed his character and had to be taken to the hospital again.
no wonder he wasn't a fan of the show.
Jay Jones is incorrectly credited as "Jimmy Jones" for this episode.
The remastered "Catspaw" reruns next weekend for Halloweeen.
Jay and Jimmy Jones are brothers as far as I've heard.
I don't know if Jay Jones has a brother named Jimmy, but if he did Jimmy almost assuredly never appeared on Star Trek. In a 1996 interview, Jay Jones states that he was the one who played "Catspaw" as his first job on the show and recounts the experience in convincing detail. He also makes no mention of a brother named "Jimmy" being involved on the show. So why the credits say "Jimmy" is a mystery.
This was only a so-so episode of Star Trek for me but its always nice to see what the CGI tech team does to any ST episode in the remastered versions.It would have been cool if they could have done something more with the alien forms of Sylvia & Korob.I was very sorry to read that the wonderful actor Theo Marcuse(Korob)died in a car accident shortly after this episode aired.
After watching this episode again today, I can see why they used "Amok Time" as the season opener and held this episode back for 7 weeks.
Actually, the reason this episode was held back seven weeks was it was intended to air on Halloween.
I taped a color bar for Catspaws this A.m!, on tvland.
Those witches just got more and more incoherent the longer they spoke. The male one sounds like he says something like, "So leeeave here or medioraaay!" Medioraaay???? - Will
It sounds like "So leave here all, or meet your end."
It was many years before I saw the scene with the witches, it was usually edited from syndication prints. Of course, the scene was in James Blish's writeup in Star Trek 8, but a lot of scenes that didn't appear on screen made the Blish books. So I was shocked to see it when I finally one day saw the uncut version.
By John A. Lang on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 12:27 am:
At one point, Sylvia & Korob discuss "The Old Ones".....are these the same "Old Ones" that Ruk mentioned in "What are Little Girls Made of?" or are they referring to a different race of "Old Ones"? If so, how many "Old ones" are there?
After watching Babylon 5 and turning my attentions to Star TOS remastered, I find that the term "old ones" sounds like the term "first ones" in B5.
Another Halloween showing of "Catspaw" next weekend. The following week is "The Menagerie" part 1.
Also, "Catspaw" (the original version) will be run on TV Land this Friday (10/24) at 7 a.m. (ET).
Of late. TV Land has run two episodes on Friday mornings - the usual 6 a.m. run, and an episode at 7 a.m.
And, a month later, TV Land dropped Trek with no warning, in favor of infomercials. Which they're still running.
Here's a comparison of Robert Bloch's short story, "Broomstick Ride" and the aired episode of "Catspaw".
At one point, Sylvia & Korob discuss "The Old Ones"
Robert Bloch, who wrote this episode, was a fan of H.P. Lovecraft. The Old Ones are a tribute to the beings that appeared in Lovecraft's stories (Cthulhu, for example).
Bloch was one of the published Sci-Fi and Horror authors that wrote episodes of Classic Trek.
How come none of the later Trek shows asked an author to have a go at writing an episode?
Comic book author Steve Gerber wrote an ep for NextGen, IIRC. The Animated Series benefited had scripts from David Gerrold and Larry Niven.
I tend to lump the Animated Series in with TOS, since it starred the same actors, had the same characters, and took place in the same time frame.
As for the TNG one, okay, but that was one guy, one episode, for one series. How come it didn't happen more often? TOS, with only three seasons, five counting the animated episodes, had more episodes written by authors than all the later shows combined.
Tim - "How come none of the later Trek shows asked an author to have a go at writing an episode?"
I wondered this, too, but a new book series might shed some light on that.
'These Are The Voyages - TOS Season One' and 'These Are The Voyages - TOS - Season Two' are supposed to reveal even more behind-the-scenes information that we might not know, even after all this time.
Season One is out, and Season Two is due on book shelves March 25. Season Three should show up later this year.
I read this at trektoday.com, which also states, "Learn which stories by renowned science fiction masters never made it to the screen and why, and which episodes almost didn’t make it in front of the camera."
This episode turned 50 today. It aired on Halloween Day in 1967.
Happy Halloween everyone
Just watched this great episode as part of my annual Halloween celebration.
Happy Halloween
The question is did you get dressed up in your yellow wizard / Korob robe to watch it?
Star Trek and Halloween, two of my favourite things
Why is Scotty, the Chief Engineer, leading a landing party? That's not his job.
The first landing party consists of Scotty, Sulu, two regular characters, and Jackson, a guest character. Guess which one of these ain't coming back to the Enterprise alive.
While Korob is an alien sounding name, Sylvia is a human one. Did she pick it when she assumed human form?
Spock, who has lived among humans for years, doesn't know what "trick or treat" means. McCoy seems to know about Halloween. Mind you, Bones always was kind of a traditionalist. Maybe his family celebrated it (like to think that Halloween is still around in the 23rd Century, like Christmas and Thanksgiving apparently are).
Some fans feel that Uhura should have been given command of the Enterprise since Kirk, Spock, Scotty and Sulu were all off the ship. However, this being 1967 (in the animated series, made in the mid-70's, Uhura was given command a few times).
I like the remastered version of the castle. You get to see the whole thing.
The inside of the castle reminded me of those Edgar Allen Poe movies that Roger Corman was making around that time. I could imagine Kirk and Co. opening a door and seeing Vincent Price standing there (and how cool would that have been).
I wonder where Korob and Sylvia originally came from? Who are the Old Ones? Why did we never hear from this race again (cone on, Greg Cox, how about a novel sequel to this excellent episode).
Theo Marcuse died on 11/29/67, about a month after this episode aired. If he had lived a few years more, he might have made a good Ernst Stavro Blofeld in at least one of the two Bond movies made after this episode that featured the character.
Korob as Blofeld, Sylvia as the cat? ;-)
This episode is a personal favourite of mine.
Moments after Kirk breaks the transmuter, Sulu, Scotty and McCoy join Kirk and Spock, none the worse for wear. However, being knocked out or nerve pinched was not the result of Korob and Sylvia's illusions, they should not have recovered so quickly and completely from their fight with Kirk and Spock.
Actually, what happened is that, after Kirk destroyed the transmuter, he was standing there alone. Spock, accompanied by McCoy, Scotty, and Sulu, joined him seconds later.
And there were those several minutes, before that, when Kirk was having his final confrontation with Sylvia, that Spock and the others were not accounted for.
Spock could have been rounding up McCoy, Scotty, and Sulu at that time.
According to Slashfilm, the costume worn by Theo Marcus' Korob was originally worn by Bob Denver on Gilligan's Island. Must have received extensive tailoring in between.
Halloween again, so I'll be giving this episode my annual viewing today.
Too bad they didn't get Vincent Price to appear in this one. He'd have fit right in.
The dungeon set was used earlier in an episode of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., "The Gazebo in the Maze Affair." David McCallum and Robert Vaughn were even chained next to the same skeleton.
Well, if the set was still up, why not use it
At the beginning of the episode when the bridge gets the request from the redshirt to beam up, Kirk and Spock both enter the turbolift. But only Kirk arrives at the transporter room. Did Spock have stop off to use the restroom or something?
Phil noted this one in his book.
My guess is that they saw Nurse Chapel coming towards them with a tray in hand, and Spock said, "Not that d*mn ploo-meek soup, again?! Excuse me, Jim! I'm going back to the bridge!"
Watched this for Halloween, as always.
Heroes and Icons ran the episode tonight. Out of sequence; the previously aired episode was "Spectre of the Gun".
Not surprising.