Tormolen was on the surface as part of Spock's team; why wasn't he in the debriefing? Even if he didn't have anything to offer, such a meeting could only give him future experience.
Why didn't Uhura get the disease? When Sulu shows up on the bridge, he yanks her forward by hand, and then her own hand touches his waist.
Also, Leslie gets the disease, but how? He was at the helm for only a few minutes, and nobody on the bridge touched him. And why is Spock calling him 'Rand' when he takes the helm? Surely, Leslie's legs aren't as pretty as her's?!
I can't get past how fast everything happens so fast. From the time that Tormolen has his physical to his outburst on Sulu, lots of time must pass, because once he's injured, he's immediately operated on, while Sulu starts to feel the first effects of the disease. Tormolen dies, and Spock notices that Sulu is gone, leading to Riley leaving and infecting Chapel. An unspecified amount of time passes, and then Engineering is locked off by Riley, who disables the engines, at which point it's only 20 minutes until the end of the show.
However, it's those 20 minutes that get me. Sulu is caught and given an injection, which McCoy discovered very quickly. However, everyone makes it seem like much more than 20 minutes elapse.

>And why is Spock calling him 'Rand' when he >takes the helm? Surely, Leslie's legs aren't as >pretty as her's?!

It does sound like Spock is calling him "Rand". But what he is actually saying is "Ryan", the name of Eddie Paskey's character in this episode.

Makes sense; one week he's Leslie; the next Conners, the next dead; the next alive.
I agree with John A.Lang; the guy deserves to be in the credits, because he's playing so many kinds of people!
I realize that the creators could never have foreseen the popularity of the series, and the ability of fans to one day own copies of the episodes and nit-pick them, but even viewers back then must have noticed the re-using of certain actors with distinctive faces like Paskey and the guy that played Galloway. As such I don't know why Paskey wasn't assigned one character name and one name only. He's in the show; call him 'Leslie', not 'Ryan'.

They had not named him Leslie yet at this point. William Shatner gave him the name as a reference to his daughter.

(Btw, David L. Ross who played Galloway is credited in all his appearances.)

Some fans have speculated that "Ryan" must be Leslie's first name as that is what Spock calls him in this episode. But I don't think that explanation holds water, since Spock never refers to anyone in so informal a matter - it's a big deal when he calls Kirk "Jim".
I'm not sure, but I think it wasn't until "The Alternative Factor" that Eddie Paskey was called "Leslie".

Go dig up Who is that Extra 1 and see a rather lengthy discussion on the Ryan Leslie topic :P

What's wrong with this crew? Tormolen starts a fight with Sulu & Riley and nobody....NOBODY calls Security to break it up. Must be ancestors to Capt. Harriman (Mr. Gawk & Dawdle)

This episode marks the first time Mr. Leslie had any lines. (Yet he isn't mentioned in the credits--Hey, S.A.G.!)

It does sound like Spock is calling him "Rand". But what he is actually saying is "Ryan", the name of Eddie Paskey's character in this episode.
Sorry, Todd. Spock does call Eddie Paskey's character "Rand." It's in the captions on the DVD. By the way, the crewman who harasses Janice Rand on the way to the bridge is named "Moody."
When Spock and Tormolen first beam down to Psi-2000 (sp?), the transporter whine goes on even after they start moving about.

The diseased water infects Tormolen on his right hand. Yet, in the lounge, he's wiping off his left hand.
Why didn't any of the other crew personnel in the lounge intervene in the fight between Tormolen, Sulu and Riley? Or at least hold Tormolen back and take the knife away?
On the new first season DVD set, by the way, the shots of Psi-2000 winking in and out on the view screen haven't been fixed.

>Sorry, Todd. Spock does call Eddie Paskey's >character "Rand." It's in the captions on the >DVD. By the way, the crewman who harasses Janice >Rand on the way to the bridge is named "Moody."
>When Spock and Tormolen first beam down to Psi->2000 (sp?), the transporter whine goes on even >after they start moving about.

The captions are erroneous then. They must have been taken from inaccurate transcriptions and not the original script. The name of Paskey's character in the script is Ryan, and careful listening to Spock's speech corraborates this. It sounds much more like "Ryan" than "Rand".

If Time Travel is First Discovered in this Episode,

Then how can we Explain, all the Time Travel
Episodes of "Enterprise"

How can we Reconcile them with the Continuity.

In Enterprise they have eps where the technology of others is used for time traval. This is the first one where the federation's own tech can do it.

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.


I think, for the 1960s, the planet effects were done quite well. However, the sound effects when Psi 2000's gravity shifts are rather strange. Since the red light on the helm console indicates sudden gravity shifts, the sound of the ship shuddering then groaning before the SIF kicks in could replace the sound effect originally used.

At the beginning, the Enterprise is flying through space, no planet in sight, yet Kirk says in his log entry that their position is in orbit around Psi 2000. A fix-up here? I suggest a fix-up might open with Kirk indicating that he is "revising" his log entries because he is now looking back at the three days from the wind-up of the incident.

When they are viewing the spectro-analysis tape in the briefing room, the viewer shows what looks like fairly normal visual light. I don't know if something was supposed to show, probably not, otherwise, they would be trying to check it out and then they discover the red blech on the control desk support.

The diagnostic panel over the operating table, while McCoy works on Tormolen, jumps in its readings between the close-ups and as viewed behind Christine. When Christine is in front of it, it looks like Spock's readings. I would also ask, that when Tormolen dies, should all of the readings be dropping together? The vertical bars, left to right, indicate: temperature, brain, lungs, cell rate, blood, blood, according to a "medical" tech manual I saw in a bookstore in the mid 1970s. I'm not sure what they all measure, but perhaps some would fall after the victim dies.

When the Enterprise is entering the atmosphere, the bridge viewscreen probably should show redness overlaying the planet surface spinning below. The opening scenes in the episode show snow blowing around, so there evidently is still enough of a gaseous atmosphere to allow weather. Besides, Uhura reports the hull is heating up from atmospheric friction.

If the planet's star "went dark", why should the planet be lit at all? Perhaps "went dark" is a euphemism for fading down to a white dwarf, without going through red giant and frying the planet on the way. Even so, the planet should still have a dark half, and if Enterprise is spiraling down, it should be passing over the dark half on some part of each orbit, even if that is an inclined orbit. If the orbit is perfectly aligned with the terminator, half the screen image should be dark, or else it should be on the top or bottom edge.

Near the end of the episode, the close-up of the helm console's time readout would be converted to the same digital readout suggested for Corbomite Maneuver, with a stardate readout and a Terran clock readout of ship's time.

If the stardate reasoning I gave for the series sounds reasonable, then a stardate readout on Sulu's console in this episode would have a 7-digit stardate showing 05417 as the first five digits. Each day of the year would consume approximately 2.738 units. Since it looks like the same watch was on duty at the end of the episode as the beginning, other than people taken off due to illness or who left their posts without being relieved, it may have happened within 10 hours, so from 1704.2 at the beginning, it might be about 0541705.4 when they started the implosion warp, and 0541697.3 when they reverse the implosion warp. If this makes sense to you, the chronometer could show both stardates and Terran clock readouts at the same time.

By the way, the crewman who harasses Janice Rand on the way to the bridge is named "Moody."
For some reason, that dude reminds me of Bert Parks.

For some reason, that dude reminds me of Bert Parks.

Here she comes!
Yeoman Janice Rand!
There she goes!
Kirk's ideal!

My first impression after seeing this one (oh, I know I'm years behind, just like to add my two cents) is how reckless the crew of the Entrprise is.

I'm not even referring to Tormolen taking off his glove - that one's obvious. However, on two or three separate occasions we can hear security called and we never see them... No one escorts Railey to sickbay and makes sure he stays there!

Spock simply orders the crewman to let Rand pass and never thinks to have him brought to sickbay. The same with the laughing crewman.

Once Tormolen is dead, Kirk mentions an unknown disease, even before Sulu or Railey display any signs of contamination. How come? For all he knows at the moment, Tormolen's outburst in the longue could have been a reaction to stress of seeing the dead people on the planet. McCoy hasn't found anything yet!

When Tormolen stabs himself with this knife in the longue, his shirt gets red (or purple) but it's not even torn!

(Spock and Tormolen on the planet's surface)

Spock: Spock here, do you read, Enterprise?
Kirk: Kirk ... affirmative.
Spock: All station personnel are dead.
Kirk: What caused it?
Spock: Unkown, Captain ... it's like nothing we've dealt with before.

... a little presumptuous, aren't we, Mr. Spock? If a cause is "unknown", how in heck can you say that the Enterprise has never dealt with it before?

That's not really a contradiction. Spock is saying that while the CAUSE is "unknown," by using his vast memory he can report to Kirk that they have never dealt with a SITUATION like this before before.

Sir Rhosis

Or put better, "The cause is currently unknown to me, as it is a situation I am not familiar with, (but with further study I may pinpoint a cause for this situation)."

Sir Rhosis

Doesn't Scotty's explanation of how Riley got into engineering seem a little goofy. Riley ran in and said they were wanted on the bridge??
At a critical time like this, why would the captain send the navigator all the way down to engineering, and want all the engine personel to go to the bridge? I can't believe that Scotty fell for this. Shouldn't Scotty at least call the captain to make sure?

And if engine efficiency is so critical at this point, was were there only two guys in engineering at that time?

And why is there only one door into engineering? Sounds like a design problem that the fire marshal didn't pick up!

>.> <.< I, personally, haven't seen this episode, but I saw the TNG version, "The Naked Now".

Don't you think it's odd that Riker didn't seem to get as infected as quickly as everyone else? Deanna touched him in at least the first half hour and he never showed any symptoms except the sweating, whereas we get to see some nice drunken Picard action. I loved that episode.

^^

By the way, why is it called Naked? I don't recall reading summaries that mention any nudity... though Data and Yar get some hot stuff done in the TNG one... *blinkblink*

Naked as in "emotionally naked".

which makes no sense for Data...

Now if only Victoria’s Secret would adopt this technology for their stuff…
In the beginning of the last Act, after getting Spock to snap out of it, Kirk wanders back to the bridge. Bones barely tugs at his shirt’s shoulder, and it instantly breaks apart.

At one point, Mr. Leslie starts laughing because he was infected with the virus. Who touched Mr. Leslie & when?

I guess it must just be the power of narrative imperative: Kirk's shirt is ALWAYS ripped by the end credits!

(And before you provide 5,425 counter-examples from your encyclopaedic knowledge of Trekdom, Luigi, I was being metaphorical). ;)

I've finally got one!!
I HOPE this is a brand new nit, but knowing my luck, it probably isn't.
When the bridge finds out that Sulu is chasing people with a sword, Spock comments that Sulu is acting like a swashbuckler, which he is. But how does Spock know he is acting like a swashbuckler? Why not a Sameri (can't spell, sorry), or some other swordsman?

Another nit, but you have to watch closely. It's when Sulu and Riley are having lunch (or dinner). When you see a close-up of Riley, he looks like he's leaning foward on the table. In the next shot, he's leaning back and his hands are in his lap.
Anyone else see this?

One more thing. Why does Sulu scream when given the serum and Kirk doesn't?

Observations (hopefully new!):

Joe Tormolen did something very odd in the teaser. When his nose was itching, he removed his glove to deal with it. As pointed out earlier here, that in itself wasn't too smart. However, when he removed the glove, he plopped it on the head of the dead, frozen man in the chair. I'm not sure if that'd be disrespectful to the dead, or what, but I thought it warranted mention.

In the rec room, right before Tormolen began his "we've no business in space" bit, the bridge personnel (via intercom) are ordered to report back. Sulu and Reilly get up to leave. Watch Reilly get up and finish his (admittedly empty) cup of coffee. That must be really, really 'good to the last drop' coffee!

I realize this is a real cheap shot, but whatever happened to the EV suits from the NX-01 Enterprise? Those suits were air tight. If Spock & Tormolen were wearing those when they beamed down, no one would have gotten infected

One more thing. Why does Sulu scream when given the serum and Kirk doesn't?

Diffrent people react diffrently to medicine. It's also possible that the disease (or condition, or whatever it is) affects people diffrently and thus, Sulu's reaction was based on his condition.

I realize this is a real cheap shot, but whatever happened to the EV suits from the NX-01 Enterprise? Those suits were air tight. If Spock & Tormolen were wearing those when they beamed down, no one would have gotten infected

Bacteria and such could still get attached to the outside of their suits.

Did they go through decon? IIRC, after they beam up, they do an effect where the transporter pads lights up or something to disinfect. I honestly prefered it the way they did it durring TNG (ie, the transporter detects harmful things while you're beaming up and removes them).

Either way, isn't beaming them into a room with unprotected people and then decontaminating be a bad idea? Woulden't it make more sence to beam them into an area that's isolated from the ship's life support systems first. Although in Unnatural Selection they said they coulden't do this. Which does bring the idea of ENTs decon room into question.

Joe Tormolen did something very odd in the teaser. When his nose was itching, he removed his glove to deal with it. As pointed out earlier here, that in itself wasn't too smart. However, when he removed the glove, he plopped it on the head of the dead, frozen man in the chair. I'm not sure if that'd be disrespectful to the dead, or what, but I thought it warranted mention.

Not only that but I would assume that Starfleet has strict guidelines as to what you do and do not do in an area where people have died, especially if a lot of people have died suddenly and mysteriously. To me the number one rule is, you don't touch anything or anyone until a doctor and decon team says that it's okay and when they say that, they mean it.

According to (IIRC) Trek 2.0, the suits Tormolen and Spock wore were made from shower curtains. They should have been sealed off from the outside environment, though.

Did they go through decon?
Yes. Scotty had Spock and Tormolen decontaminated while they stood in the transporter chamber. The transporter pads blink, and a humming noise occurs.

That's the only time we ever see the transporter used that way. Betcha the crew of the Exeter wish they'd have thought of that.

Good point, Todd. Why didn't they?
Also, in "The Enemy Within," Fisher beams up wearing his contaminated uniform. Scotty orders him to decontaminate it. Why couldn't Scotty do that right then and there, in the transporter chamber, just like in this episode?

To try and answer a question posed by mertz over a year ago, I believe Spock was just relaying the report made by whomever was calling him a swashbuckler. Although they do call it one in the show, is a fencing foil considered a sword? It certainly hurts when you get whacked by one, and I don't doubt that you can kill somebody by stabbing them, but fencing is a sport while swordfighting is for combat.

Was it really a foil? Or was it intended to be a rapier?

By the way, as a fencer, I'd argue that there's not really much difference. The rules for fencing derived from that of formal duels.

Notes on the revised effects:

In the teaser, a generic shot of a misty mountain is updated to include the Psi 2000 research station. The new model of Psi 2000 looks great as the Enterprise descends over it. As was publicly noted, Scotty now has a phaser beam when cutting into Engineering.

They've fixed the gearing on the chronometer and somewhat changed the look. The rather old-fashioned reels labeled HRS-MIN-SEC are replaced with digital displays showing "STARDATE" and "SHIPBOARD".

This introduces another nit. The chronometer is running backwards at about 10 times normal speed. During a brief Sulu reaction shot, it goes from 00:13:53 to 22:36:19, which should have taken about 9 minutes and 45 seconds.

Also, in the first shot the stardate is 1705.0, and is 1704.9 in the second. It changes to 1704.8 at 22:36:00. This fits the idea that 1000 stardates = 1 year, so .1 stardate = 3153.6 seconds or 52 minutes 33.6 seconds.

However, it can't be 1000.0 on Jan 1 because that would make 1705.0 September 15th at 7:48 am. OTOH, they may not adjust the stardates for leap years, so every four years the stardate's x000 will drift one day backwards. OTOOH, if they're only up to 1705 they've only been using stardates for less than two years. OTOOOH, there's no reason to believe the Federation based it on the Gregorian calendar's new year; it could be a more culturally neutral date.

I'm fairly certain it was a foil, and I didn't think there was much difference, I just thought I'd pose the question. If it was indeed a foil I would've thought members of SF would know the difference, assuming they aren't infected or running in terror. Touche ScottN

One other nit with the chronometer -- shouldn't the SHIPBOARD clock reflect time as those on the ship are experiencing it? It's running backwards while the crew is living forwards.

It would make more sense for the STARDATE clock to run backwards while the SHIPBOARD clock ran forward.

The sign outside Briefing Room 2 moves during this episode. When Spock enters the briefing room and starts blubbing, the sign is on the left-hand side of the door. When Kirk leaves the briefing room later in the episode, the sign has moved to the right-hand side of the door.

Much has been said of the mannequin used in the teaser representing a dead woman. I can't really criticize that, looking at the set. I would imagine that "ice" integrating the body with the floor wouldn't allow her any freedom of movement at all without necessitating a time-consuming set fix-up. She wouldn't be able to use the ladies' room, eat lunch, etc. A mannequin would't mind the inconvenience.

Great job by Takei, when he recoils his finger back away from the (supposedly) sharp point on Sulu's sword. Convincingly portrayed!

Just an idle point to ponder: considering what we later learned of Kevin Reilly, you'd think that while under the influence of the Psi 2000 virus, he'd be lamenting the death of his parents at Kodos' hands, instead of acting like some wise-guy kid at school who got control of the office intercom.

Well I don't know. Some people are depressed drunks , who can't stop wallowing in bad things that have happened to them. Others are happy drunks who block out the bad stuff on their minds and act like a giddy child when drunk.

Good point, Brian. Having known both types in my life, I should've known better!

Additional observations:

These early episodes seem to feature the Rec Room quite regularly. I must say it appears to be a rather drab place. Judging from that slouching crewwoman playing what looks like 3D checkers when Sulu and Reilly enter the room, she doesn't seem too thrilled to be there!

For trained Starfleet officers, Sulu and Reilly did a pretty ineffective job of getting the knife from Tormolen. When Reilly grabs the knife-weilding hand, he grabs Joe's hand and elbow in such a way that Tormolen still appeared to have the advantage, leverage-wise. Maybe Reilly should've gone for the wrist, instead.

When Scotty was in the Jeffries tube making adjustments while Reilly was doing his "Kathleen" bit, the sound effects of Kevin singing were very effectively echoed and subdued, giving a nice impression of Scotty being in an "out of the way" place on the ship. Kudos to the sound man.

I always have wondered why they didn't just blast the door to engineering to get in. Better to replace a door than lose a ship.

After Sulu was injected with the serum and let out his blood-curdling scream, McCoy called the lab to tell them to the serum worked. Sulu. who seemed just fine at that point, was being physically held in restraint by some guy. This seemed to be a bit excessive, since Sulu seemed clear-minded and was making no trouble whatsoever.

Kirk's outburst in the briefing room with Spock was great. Shatner had a lot of dialogue to get out, and he kept the emotional pitch high. Nice work! Nimoy's struggling to compose himself in the corridor was especially nice, too. He even appeared to do that 'straighten the shirt' bit he'd re-visit in ST II.

Is it me, or is 'Wardrobe Mistress' an unusual title in the credits?

My guess is that Engineering's doors are blast-proof to contain any explosions that might happen inside.

A few years ago, a number of the Nitpickers stated that the frozen lady was a mannequin. I insisted it was a live lady wearing makeup. Well, I'm eating those words now. According to Justman and Solow's book "Inside Star Trek", it was a mannequin. Plus, it was damaged during filming, so they had to pay for it and keep it, straining the already tight budget.

I really liked the description of decontamination in one of the Shatnerverse novels. They beam the people in isolation suits into space, then beam the people out of the suits and into the ship. Then they can either beam the suits into a decontamination room or simply destroy them. Much more sense than the decontamination scene in this episode. I don't know if the TOS transporters have this fine control though. Sometime they seem to, other times they dont.

The Naked Enhanced was a lot better than the Doomsday Machine effects,

sorry, my 2 cents..I stayed up till 1:30am local time to watch!

I found a new nit!

At the end, Spock says they've gone back 71 hours, and they have 3 days to live over again.

But in other episodes Spock always insists on giving precise measurements to several decimal places.

So why didn't he say they have 2.9583 days to live over again?

Two anti-nits for Luigi, one from the Archived Nits.

By LUIGI NOVI on Saturday, May 26, 2001 - 07:06 pm

Why are the crew in pain when the engines implode? Also, Bones holds one of his ears, as if its the sound of the engines that’s hurting him, but if that’s the case, why aren’t the others covering their ears?

Maybe subsonic frequencies are causing pain,
but they don't realize at first it's subsonics--the high-pitched sounds can't be consciously perceived by the crew (or by the TV viewers). To them, it's just a severe headache/nausea. Many different wavelengths are being produced--some of the sounds we hear are at normal wavelengths and are not so painful.

Anyway, the crew doesn't realize at first that the pain is being caused by subsonic frequencies so they don't cover their ears. But the frequencies change, the sound does begin to be audible, their ears do hurt, and that's when they cover their ears.

Of course they didn't want to hurt the TV viewers' ears so the sounds we hear aren't quite the same.
O:

Does that make any sense at all??

And...

By LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - 3:41 pm:

Now if only Victoria’s Secret would adopt this technology for their stuff…
In the beginning of the last Act, after getting Spock to snap out of it, Kirk wanders back to the bridge. Bones barely tugs at his shirt’s shoulder, and it instantly breaks apart.

Um, I just saw the scene again. McCoy grabs at the collar, misses, his hand goes down the arm, he grabs again and it tears easily. McCoy does give it a good yank.

I guess it does seem like the fabric is very flimsy.

As they're going back in time, we see the chronometer reading:

Stardate Time
1705.0 00:14:14

Transition
from
1704.9 22:35:59
to
1704.8

1702.0 01:08:02

This suggests .1 stardate is 40 minutes.

1702.0 to 1705.0 may be 20 hours.

I just wanted to record the numbers here in case anybody else wants to fuss with stardates.

I notice they avoided 1701, the Enterprise's number. Oh, well.

This wasn't the first time the Enterprise relived a stardate. It was 1514 in both "The Corbomite Manuever" and "The Man Trap".

I pretty much have the idea that Stardates work kind of the same way time here on Earth does, in a relative fashion. Just like at the same moment it is a different time in Los Angeles as it is in New York, it might be a different stardate on Earth than what it is in whatever sector of the galaxy the Enterprise is. This explains stuff like how it can be the same stardate in the two episodes listed above. The ship was in two different "time zones" of the galaxy for each epsiode. Just as I can fly to the West Coast and experience the hour of four o'clock twice in the same day.

That's how I always saw it too, Todd.

The only stardate leftover in the refrigerator of my mind is, just where were the stardate clocks? Whenever seeing Kirk record a stardate, he never, ever seemed to glance anywhere in particular to find out what it was. He always came across to me as always seeming to somehow know what time it was.
Although there was one episode I remember where he mentioned "stardate...unknown". That to me reinforces that he must have to refer to a source to find out, and I don't recall him ever asking the computer.

Maybe Kirk simply says, "Stardate" & the computer automagically puts in the correct date synthesizing his voice? ;-)

You gave me an idea, KAM: suppose actual stardates (as recorded into the ship's log archive) are actually something like sixty-digit numbers, or something. When someone records, say, "stardate 1234.5", that's actually just the end of a much longer number which is, in fact, recorded automatically. That at least explains how the same stardate can be used in different episodes.

Seem plausible?

I was reading somewhere, I think one of the 30th anniversary publications, that there is a number connected with the Julian calendar, I think counting each day since it began, which was the original inspiration for Stardates, so the longer number idea has some validity.

Personally I always liked Rodenberry's technobabble about it. Something to the effect of adjusting for relativistic time dilation, the speed of the ship & where in the galaxy the speaker happens to be at the moment.

If anyone has a copy of "The Making of Star Trek", I believe the Stardate technobabble is in there.

The non-canon DS9 Millenium books made good use of said technobabble.

ScottN- I have it, the orignial.When someone stole it, I got the 6th or 7th edition, and a
a backup.., the 47th reprint.

-------------------------------
the stardate was a vague representation of a timeline for a starship's 5 year mission, it has nothing to do with an earthdate (Gene's quote , best i can do at 7am)

The fact that (in the original series at least) the first digit of the star date runs from 1 to 5 indicates that the first digit may indicate the year of the Enterprise's five year mission.

If anyone has a copy of "The Making of Star Trek", I believe the Stardate technobabble is in there.
It is. I've gone through four or five different copies since 1970. I also think the book is out of print. It seems to be according to Amazon, who is not selling fresh copies.

Anyone want to post the technobabble?

This time system adjusts for shifts in relative time which occurs due to the vessel's speed and space warp capabelity. It has little relationship to Earth's time as we know it.One hour abord the U.s.s Enterprise at different times may equal as little s 3 earth hours.The stardate specified in the log must be computed against the speed of the vessel, the space warp, and its position within our galaxy, in order to give a meaningful reading.

(from Theories of Stardates).

By Todd Pence on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - 12:34 pm:

The fact that (in the original series at least) the first digit of the star date runs from 1 to 5 indicates that the first digit may indicate the year of the Enterprise's five year mission.

Much as the 2nd digit in TNG's stardates reflected the season.

Anyone want to post the technobabble? - ScottN

Not really, but I'll do it anyway. Here goes. From pages 197-199 of The Making of STAR TREK by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry:

"Another problem involved in deep space travel is time. How do you express time when there is no point of reference to make it mean anything, such as we have here on Earth? Our own time on Earth is based on months and years, which are strictly terrestrial cycles tied to the sun and moon. At the other end of the galaxy the cycle doesn't mean a thing. As a matter of fact, the cycle changes from planet to planet, let alone from solar system to solar system.

"It seems logical, therefore, that some sort of time-keeping system would be established in order to solve the problem. Such a system would undoubtedly have to be based on a highly scientific and mathematically complex formula.

"Not so with STAR TREK's 'Star Date'.

"IN THE BEGINNING, I INVENTED THE TERM 'STAR DATE' SIMPLY TO KEEP FROM TYING OURSELVES DOWN TO 2265 A.D., OR SHOULD IT BE 2312 A.D.? I WANTED US WELL INTO THE FUTURE WITHOUT ARGUING APPROXIMATELY WHICH CENTURY THIS OR THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN INVENTED OR SUPERSEDED. WHEN WE BEGAN MAKING EPISODES, WE WOULD USE A STARDATE SUCH AS 2317 ONE WEEK, AND THEN A WEEK LATER WHEN WE MADE THE NEXT EPISODE WE WOULD MOVE THE STAR DATE UP TO 2945, AND SO ON. UNFORTUNATELY, HOWEVER, THE EPISODES ARE NOT AIRED IN THE ORDER IN WHICH WE FILMED THEM. SO WE BEGAN TO GET COMPLAINTS FROM THE VIEWERS, ASKING, 'HOW COME ONE WEEK THE STAR DATE IS 2891, THE NEXT WEEK IT'S 2337, AND THE WEEK AFTER IT'S 3414?'

"IN ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS, I CAME UP WITH THE STATEMENT THAT 'THIS TIME SYSTEM ADJUSTS FOR SHIFTS IN RELATIVE TIME WHICH OCCURS DUE TO THE VESSEL'S SPEED AND SPACE WARP CAPABILITY. IT HAS LITTLE RELATIONSHIP TO EARTH'S TIME AS WE KNOW IT. ONE HOUR ABOARD THE U.S.S. ENTERPRISE AT DIFFERENT TIMES MAY EQUAL AS LITTLE AS THREE EARTH HOURS. THE STAR DATE SPECIFIED IN THE LOG ENTRY MUST BE COMPUTED AGAINST THE SPEED OF THE VESSEL, THE SPACE WARP, AND ITS POSITION WITHIN THE GALAXY, IN ORDER TO GIVE A MEANINGFUL READING.' THEREFORE, STAR DATE WOULD BE ONE THING AT ONE POINT IN THE GALAXY AND SOMETHING AGAIN AT ANOTHER POINT IN THE GALAXY.

"I'M NOT SURE WHAT I MEANT BY THAT EXPLANATION, BUT A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE INDICATED IT MAKES SENSE. IF SO, I'VE BEEN LUCKY AGAIN, AND I'D JUST AS SOON FORGET THE WHOLE THING BEFORE I'M ASKED ANYMORE QUESTIONS ABOUT IT."*

Is that the technobabble you were looking for, Scott?

*The portion I've posted in all caps, was printed that way in the book. All I did was follow the format of the original text.

Live long and prosper.

That was the way they printed Roddenberry's quotes in the book - always in all caps, like he was God or something, lol.

I believe it was more a stylistic choice, so that there was no confusion with Roddenberry's comments with other people quoted. You see the ALL-CAPS & you know who said it without any "- Gene Roddenberry" attribution. Given that Whitfield listed him as a co-author & all the times he's quoted it might get a little ridiculous to put an attribution every time.

Me - I was reading somewhere, I think one of the 30th anniversary publications, that there is a number connected with the Julian calendar, I think counting each day since it began, which was the original inspiration for Stardates, so the longer number idea has some validity.
It was in the Special Collector's Edition Star Trek 30 Years.

Roddenberry borrowed the Julian date used by astronomers. It was developed by Joseph Justus Scaliger, & named after his father Julius Ceaser Scaliger. It measures the number of days elapsed since January 1, 4713 BC. For convenience astronmers use the last 5 digits.

Roddenberry took the basic idea, reduced it to 4 digits, added a decimal point & number after it & called it a Stardate.

Which then brings me back to where the stardate clocks on the ship were! But I won't beat that horse to death!

Usually Kirk gives the stardate in a voiceover. Does anyone remember a scene where we can see Kirk as he gives the stardate?

Maybe there's a display on the arm of his chair that shows the stardate, but it's too small for us to see.

Maybe he was seen giving the stardate in 'This Side of Paradise', when he was sitting at the helm recording just before the plant blasted him. Though it may just have been a "supplemental".

Also, at what point does one stop with the "supplementals", and log a new stardate?

Cecil Adams tackles the question of "Stardates" in the current "Straight Dope". Actually, it's a Straight Dope classic, but it's posted online today, so I thought I'd provide the link here.

Live long and prosper.

From the article - Or is it merely sitcom disinformation? --Evan Williams, Austin, Texas
SITCOM??? Star Trek was not a Situation Comedy! (At least, not intentionally. ;-)

Oh, you noticed that, too, didja?

Live long and prosper.

GREAT ENHANCED MOMENTS

A beam now comes from Scotty's Phaser.

New chronometer!

Forgot one: A new science station is on Psi 2000...complete with a lighted window.

I guess I'll chalk up the mannequin as being a android built by Richard Daystrom that malfunctioned and "died"

If Tormolen felt that man does not belong in space, what the heck was he doing in Starfleet? It seems this guy had the same feelings towards Starfleet that Corporal Klinger (Jamie Farr) had towards the Army on M*A*S*H. The difference is that Klinger had no choice in the matter, he was drafted (meaning he had to go into the Army or go to jail). Since Starfleet is a volunteer organization, why was Tormolen in it, since he hated it so much?

I got the feeling it was more his fears surfacing; being overwhelmed, thinking "We don't belong in this world- it's too vast for us!" So I think it was more of subtle anxieties amplified by the virus.

That's how I always interpreted it, anyhow.

Maybe his parents pressured him to join and he felt he didn't belong there but didn't want to disappoint his parents?

Well, he could have taken an Earthbound assignment, like the one "Mr. Adventure" had in ST: III.

Still, committing suicide was going to extremes. Even Klinger wouldn't have gone that far to get out of the Army.

Don't bother looking for the archived nits on this episode-- sadly, Geocities says it no longer exists.

I really like the new effects of the Enterprise spinning down into the atmosphere, but the surface remains on the 'daylight' side of Psi-2000, and the ship never flies over the 'dark' side, which it should have eventually.

And the greedy side of me wishes the new effects team had included just 5 or 6 seconds of an outside view with the Enterprise flying with a fireball in front of it as it enters the atmosphere.

Why the tear-off-Kirk's-shirt-to-give-him-a-shot scene? Not only would the hypo inject the cure through Kirk's shirt, but McCoy could have easily yanked Kirk's sleeve up and injected him there, or in the neck.
The show even ends with Kirk oblivious to his torn shirt, and nobody else mentions it to him! Talk about not wishing to tell the Emperor that he's not wearing pants!

Spock is 'delighted' his internal organs are different from McCoy's? Isn't 'delight' an emotional state of mind?

No wonder the ship is flying crazy-- you have Leslie (a security guard/engineer) there, as well as a mere yeoman, and then you throw in the blue-shirted Lt.Brent-- man, more people know how to fly the Enterprise than just the helm and navigation personnel!

Spock tells Tormolen, "Be sure we expose ourselves to nothing." Does anyone know if this is grammatically correct, or should it be, "Be sure we don't expose ourselves to anything." ?

Why would Spock think that Sulu is reliving the life of a 'swashbuckler from the 18th century'? He was told that Sulu was chasing people with a sword, and a fencing sword, at that. Does that mean that Picard, who liked fencing, fancies himself an 18th century swashbuckler?

It makes you wonder what would have happened to the Enterprise-D, a century later, had Tormolen not been infected with this virus. This incident was valuable to Crusher's research (via Riker's previous research into previous Enterprise missions), but without this Enterprise becoming infected, would Crusher have saved the ship?

Steve: this site contains nits for twelve episodes (including this one) and the first six movies that used to be archived on geocities. I posted a message on the "Excuse me, moderator" board a while back asking if someone would replace the geocities archive links on the relevant boards, but no one replied.

In the Briefing Room Kirk orders Mr.Spock & Scotty to clear the ship's corridors.The correct term for ship's is passageways.The end scene for this episode has Kirk sitting in his command chair with Spock,McCoy & Janice Rand standing right next to him,not moving or talking at all & everyone staring at the Bridge view screen.This always made me grin due to it being so unnatural & melodramatic.If you were to shoot this scene in a natural & realistic manner you'd have Spock return to his science station,McCoy head toward the lift & Janice too.

"In the Briefing Room Kirk orders Mr.Spock & Scotty to clear the ship's corridors."

And yet, this was never done! We followed Kirk directly from the briefing room, to the turbolift, to the bridge, and no announcement was made.

When Kirk uses the intercom to contact Scotty to find out how what progress he was making to enter engineering, Scotty replies to the hail with, "Engine room.", even though he was still in the corridor!

Why are they travelling to their next destination at the end of the show? For three days, there will be two Enterprises in existence. If they reach their next destination in less than two days, they'll have to explain how they can be in two places at once.
And also, they weren't quite done with their research over Psi 2000-- the disease interrupted that. Once they entered the time warp, the planet was still intact, and their mission was watch it collapse, which it hadn't by the time they left. Why not hold position for 3 days and go back to Psi 2000 once their earlier selves left?

mertz on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 4:54 pm:
I've finally got one!!<br>
I HOPE this is a brand new nit, but knowing my luck, it probably isn't.<br>
When the bridge finds out that Sulu is chasing people with a sword, Spock comments that Sulu is acting like a swashbuckler, which he is. But how does Spock know he is acting like a swashbuckler? Why not a Sameri (can't spell, sorry), or some other swordsman?

According to the Trivia section for this episode's IMDB entry, George Takei felt that having Sulu enact a Samurai fantasy, which was what the writer originally wanted, would be pandering to racial stereotypes, so he suggested the Three Musketeers fantasy instead.

But how would Spock know that?

Watched it on Netflix.
If the engine imploded thanks to the animatter/matter explosion, how can they still control or use it afterwards? It should have been destroyed or at the least unusable for some time...

Of course probably the explosion was controlled and didn't damage the engines. But it would have been nice to have Scotty give a report about that, or one line from Mr Spock...

Not sure if anybody ever knew that 'I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen' was a real song nor not, but it turns out it is. You can see a version of it on Youtube, but here are the lyrics;

I'll take you home again, Kathleen
Across the ocean wild and wide
To where your heart has ever been
Since first you were my bonnie bride.
The roses all have left your cheek.
I've watched them fade away and die
Your voice is sad when e'er you speak
And tears bedim your loving eyes.

Chorus:
Oh! I will take you back, Kathleen
To where your heart will feel no pain
And when the fields are fresh and green
I will take you to your home Kathleen

Music.......
The smiles that once you gave to me
I scarcely ever see them now
Though many, many times I see
A dark'ning shadow on your brow.

Chorus:
Oh! I will take you back, Kathleen
To where your heart will feel no pain
And when the fields are fresh and green
I will take you to your home Kathleen
I will take you to your home Kathleen

I kind of figured that the song was real.

Guess it's not copyrighted, or their might have been problems.

It's a centuries old Irish ballad, so they didn't have music copyright laws back then. "Charlie is my Darling" from "Charlie X", is also a real song, although Uhura amends the lyrics to the old Scottish ballad

I once read that the end of this episode, where the Enterprise goes back in time, was originally supposed to lead into Tomorrow Is Yesterday (where the Enterprise ends up over 1960's Earth).

Of course, that didn't happen, but they left the time travel bit in.

One of the newest Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments - Sulu with the sword - is, of course, based on the iconic scene in this episode. More on it here. (Maybe if enough people write Hallmark, next year's can be Lt. Kevin Riley singing "I'll Take You Home Kathleen". With a digital copy of Bruce Hyde's voice taken from this episode. Come on, people. Get to it! )

Hey, I'd take that!

All the crew had to do was social distance and wear masks, but did they do it?
I suppose some people thought the disease was a hoax.

Not a lot of room to social distance on a spaceship. Also the disease was spread by touch so masks would have been useless.

In his book, Phil points out that, in exterior views, the planet is rotating right to left, while, on the view screen, it's left to right.

The remastered version does away with this nit.

And not one person was naked.

Neither was anyone in the TNG remake, uh, I mean sequel.

The "naked" refers to emotionally naked.

@Tim, Let us not forget Tasha and Data. Though the nudity was off screen.

Thank the dead gods of Krypton for that.

But for those who want to see Tasha naked there is that photo shoot the actress did for Playboy. ;-)

Oh yeah, there is that.

I've probably watched this episode over a hundred times in my lifetime. Recently a line of dialogue that I never paid attention to I suddenly found disturbing.
Riley and Sulu go to the bridge after both being infected by the virus. Sulu succumbs first and takes off to go fencing. When Spock asks Reiley where Sulu his, Riley, who by this time is under the influence, replies "Have no fear, O'Reiley's here! And one Irishman is worth ten thousand . . ." and then Spock cuts him off so we never get to hear the rest of the sentence.
Is it possible he was going to say "One Irishman is worth ten thousand asians"? Because that's not cool.

That's probably why it was interrupted. This happens a lot on televisions shows. A character will start to say something racy, but it interrupted before they reach the gooshy part.

Probably not. It was probably something about the Sassenach.

Sassenach.

Wikipedia time again.

I'm sorry- there's enough intolerance out there to go making up more.

It doesn't matter what he might have said-he didn't say it.

My reason for commenting here is this: no one would have a word if he had said " One Irishman is worth 10,000 tribbles.
Just think about it.

Smeg-I hate to type on a tablet- I mess up enough without help.

What I meant to say was no one would say a single word.

Sorry about that.

@Tim, derogatory term for Englishman. Used by the Scots and the Irish.

Welcome back JEP!

You're concern is misplaced, Todd. A quick check of that scene on my DVD and another at http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/7.htm, a.k.a.
The Star Trek Transcripts - Episode Listings, the actual like is "Have no fear, O'Riley's here. One Irishman is worth ten thousand of you", before he's cut off.
I always assumed Riley was going to say 'One Irishman is worth 10,000 of you guys (or you Vulcans)', because he's pointing directly at Spock.
I never assumed he was about to say 'Asians', because of the inclusion of the word 'you'.
There was no attempt to try and slip in some kind of racist comment by John D.F. Black.

Hey, Jep, it's good to see you.

Where have you been these past few years?

Sorry about that Tim, Things got so slow here that it stopped being fun.

These days the only fun seems to be to bait Emily(my favorite game).

Anyone is welcome so long as you don't break Emily(that would ruin the fun).

Long time no see Rodney,I hope everyone here is doing well.

How is it-I proof every post, correct every error that I see(several times)and somehow something sneaks through, it happens every time.

I hear you, Jep.

As for Emily, well, remember, she only controls a small part of this site. However, that small part is the most popular one

Tormolen is wearing a rank braid that's never seen again in the series. He's not a lieutenant with a solid single braid, but rather one that's incomplete- it has the gold portion separated every half inch or so by his blue shirt cuff, essentially a 'broken' lieutenant stripe.

Short Show Syndrome here, but they don't need to re-energize the warp driove to break free of the planet. They could have just used full impulse to leave orbit, but then no drama and a time limit to deal with.

Tormolen's scratching of his itchy nose is something I've always wanted to ask real-life astronauts. Surely, just about every astronaut who ever lived must have gotten an itchy nose when they were wearing a sealed space helmet, but were unable to reach it. Itches drive me crazy-- how did they ever cope? Tough people, I suppose.

I wonder if that's 2nd LT, and the production team decided to abandon that rank, and just go with Ensign (no braid).

Pardon me. I think the naval term is Lt. J.G.

Maybe Scotty was brewing some scotch in the dilithium chamber and they couldn't use the impulse engines.

This joke might work if this tablet would tell how to spell dilithium.

Fixed it for you again, Jep.* For me, the joke still worked because I know what you meant.


*Seriously dude, lose the tablet and use a computer.

Surely, just about every astronaut who ever lived must have gotten an itchy nose when they were wearing a sealed space helmet, but were unable to reach it. Itches drive me crazy-- how did they ever cope? Tough people, I suppose.

If I'm remembering correctly - NASA solved this by having a velcro patch inside the helmet you can turn your head to, and use that to scratch.

Not quite the same situation here.

Tormolen was not out in space. He was on a planet where everyone had died under mysterious circumstance. Under those conditions, scratching his nose could, and should, have waited.

In face, Tormolen is responsible for the whole mess. If he'd lived, I'm sure Kirk would have called him out for being such an idiot.

And the hoods that Spock and Tormolen wore are not practical. The see-through portion is obscured by the same pattern of lines or circles on the rest of the suit.
Spock also uses some kind of handheld device that's not a tricorder. Maybe something to specifically detect radiation or other readings, but the lack of a regular tricorder seems strange since they seem to be able to scan for everything.

Sorry Tim, I can't afford it.

With my quick temper they would be dying left and right.

I'm not sure that Bill Gates could afford my replacement rate.

I've seen bio-hazard suits from out time that are more secure than those Spock and Tormolen wore.

This may have been mentioned before, but I figured out another way how so many of the crew were infected.
Last night the episode was rerun on CTV Sc-Fi, and I caught the whole scene of Sulu/Riley/Tormolen in the rec room, which ends with Riley activating the intercom, and then noticing he's got Tormolen's sweat (actually the infection) on his hands.
IT'S NOW ALSO ON THE INTERCOM BUTTON! The illness continues to live on any surface, as it did down on Psi-2000.
Sulu doesn't realize it's on him, too, and during the commercial break, the two would have accessed the turbolift to get back to the bridge.
The infection is now in that turbolift!
Now anyone touching that intercom or that turbolift (and the next intercom and the next intercom and so on), and anything else that Sulu, Riley, or Tormolen came into contact have a bit of the infection on them, and they're about to spread it to others who'll contaminate even more crew.

So this answers how Leslie, who was on the bridge and seemed to get the sickness out of nowhere was infected-- he probably touched an intercom or turbolift handlke or whatever that had previously been infected by Riley or Sulu or Tormolen and the effects gradually took hold, just as Riley's infection took longer than Sulu's.

By the time they realized this, it was too late.