***Leslie alert*** Mr. Leslie appears at the Engineer's station on the Bridge. (Geez, this guy REALLY gets around!)
(Looking for some Visine for my vision impaired eyes)
For some strange reason, McCoy has the Spock-bot dressed in the jump suit from "This Side of Paradise". Was his uniform at the cleaners?
I wonder if Nurse Chapel was the one who dressed Spock. :p
Bloody Sci-Fi channel cut the bridge scene with the rear projection viewscreen shots.
Spock's head changes positions slightly from shot to shot, relative to the partition, when McCoy is doing the surgery.
I believe the shot of Sulu in the command chair was taken from "Omega Glory."
The last shot of this ep, where Kirk and co. are laughing up a storm, trying to quiet a motormouth Spock, is fascinating to me. It seems like everyone, including Jimmy Doohan, is having a great time. This makes the nasty comments he's made about Shatner in recent years all the more curious. Also, was this a blooper that for some reason they decided to leave in?
At the Trek convention I went to, Nimoy hinted that he disliked this episode by saying: "Spock's Brain....GROAN!"
He said that there was no one he could go to and complain about the quality of this episode because Gene Roddenberry had turned the helm over to his other producers.
Given the choice of 3 planets to visit, Kirk chooses only one. Not very smart...seeing Spock's life is in jeopardy. Wouldn't it have been more sensible for Kirk & his landing party to beam down to one planet & send shuttles with other landing parties in them to the other two planets to cover more territory?
I guess Kirk simply knows that everything interesting will be discovered by his landing party, not by one manned with extras. 
I just love that chick in the mini-skirt and go-go boots who babbles on about not knowing what a brain is. It's always nice to see intelligent science fiction.
For some reason, Spock is much lower than McCoy while having his brain restored. Just how is McCoy reaching his head? For that matter, doing a brain reconnect through just the top of the head would be pretty difficult, as the main nerve bundle comes out the bottom.
After Kirk uses the remote-control Spock to remove the pain belts, their leader seems to forget she also has a knock-everybody-unconscious button (used on the Enterprise and when the landing party is first caught). This doesn't require the belts.
The tabletop that the Eymorgs sat at was used again in "The Empath."
I saw this episode dozens of times over the years, and I only noticed this yesterday, while watching my DVD set: There are two identical, and identically hideous, lamps in the room where Kirk and company are taken - one by the table, the second by the doorway. They look so out of place.
The planet in this episode has just emerged from an ice age and is obviously a bit chilly. We see Chekov heating up a rock with his phaser to keep warm. Too bad nobody thought to bring jackets down with them.
I guess Captain Pike took all of them when he handed over the Enterprise to Kirk.
All the way back on the first posting, Jack B noted on Tuesday, October 20, 1998 - 07:54 pm
(Archive section)
Quote:I once knew someone someone who attributed this to be his favorite episode!
Dumped some posts. Topic is "Spock's Brain," not who's posting as who or where or whatever, especially in reference to banned posters anyway.
Polite Suggestion to Benn and Anybody Else for That Matter: Mentioning banned posters seems to make them post.
In this episode's defense, there were great shots and angles of the Enterprise bridge (probably my favorite movie or TV set of all time) taken here. How come director Marc Daniels, and head cameraman Jerry Finnerman, both longtime Trek vets, never gave us nice angles like that before?
For some strange reason, McCoy has the Spock-bot dressed in the jump suit from "This Side of Paradise". Was his uniform at the cleaners?
Maybe there's a starfleet rule that says you can't wear a uniform if you're not on active duty. (or have had your brain removed.)
Nope. Capt. Christopher wore a uniform in Tomorrow is Yesterday, as did Kha(aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)n(!) in Space Seed.
True, but if I recall correctly there were no rank stripes on their sleeves.
The close-ops of Kirk, and Spock hunching over his scanner, in this ep's teaser, were lifted from the teaser of "Spectre Of The Gun."
Also, in this ep's teaser, there's a red alert going on, but in a medium shot (from the p.o.v. behind the captain's chair toward the view screen) the alert light isn't flashing.
The shot in the teaser of Sulu, and his scanner coming out of the helm console, was (IMHO) lifted from "Friday's Child." In that shot, the alert light is flashing.
Capt. Christopher had one stripe on his sleeve.
Ok. I guess it's just brainless people who can't wear uniforms. (We do have our standards after all!! )
Check these stills from a cut scene from this episode out (scroll down.)
Warning! Warning!
The enhanced version of this episode airs this weekend (June 9 & 10) in syndication.
Brain and Brain ,What is Brain??
So said Paris Hilton.
A few bits of eye candy. A new ion ship, new orbital shots, and a new wide shot of them beaming in with a snowy mountain background. However, the closeups show the old featureless background. The old phaser shots are unchanged. The screen diagrams are unchanged, but are much more legible.
Equipment oddity: when they beam down, Kirk says "Suit temperatures to 72" and everyone reaches behind their backs like they're adjusting something. Apparently the uniforms have heaters built-in. Sulu could have used that in "The Enemy Within".
I just watched the remastered version of "Spock's Brain,"in order to check out the new CGI visuals.When Kirk orders Uhura to alert the Transporter Room,she gets up from her chair at her station on the Bridge & heads towards the Turbo Lift doors.Why didn't she simply call the Transporter Room from her communications board? Maybe she just needed to get off the Bridge for a spell.
This was one episode that improved the show(.Not like the Doomsday remastered.)
I loved The Doomsday Machine remastered episode & what the CGI tech team did with the most visual episode Star Trek ever did on the original series.On Spock's Brain they created a completely different alien space vessel from the original one & I salute that they did that & don't feel that they must absolutely adhere to original artistic concepts all of the time.It's a tricky balance of knowing what to not alter at all,tweak a little bit,or overhaul completely.Some fans will cheer & others will groan & we'll all probably do both depending on our point of view.
From what I saw on YouTube I like very much. Great to see a wide-angle view of the frozen wasteland. TNG and DS9 gave us long views, so I appreciate anything new on TOS.
Now theres the best reason to spend all that time and money on new CGI effects: to give us long views of planets because TNG and DS9 did! It added SO MUCH to this already fantastic episode!
Kirk asks Kara how long the knowledge lasts and she says "Three of your hours." Did the Enterprise men really take the time to explain Earth timekeeping to her previously? Why?
Before the opening credits, one guard gets knocked out on the bridge. After the credits, there are two guards lying unconscious! - Luigi Novi
There were two security guards that came out of the turbolift.
the camera pans until it shows Spock, Kirk Bones and Scotty in a full body shot, with the latter three hunched over, asleep. Notice anything peculiar about Bones? He has a fully grown beard, for crying out loud! - Luigi Novi
I think that's just a shadow. If you look closely, you can see a shadow on McCoy's shirt as well. It does look odd, but I think it's just a weird quirk of the lighting.
Next weekend's remastered episode is "Spock's Brain", with "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" the following week.
Phil says that a log entry from Sulu mentions Sigma Draconis VII rather than VI. Kirk's log after the landing party is caught also mentions Sigma Draconis VII.
This is another case where there's an absurdly precise countdown. Spock's brain has to be restored in 24 hours. Not in about 24 hours, but 24 hours exactly -- they frequently give the remaining time down to the minute. And McCoy comes up with this deadline right after he said he didn't know how long Spock's body could live.
Anti-nit: I previously mentioned that Kara seems to have forgotten her bracelet had a knock-everyone-unconscious button in addition to the pain belt button. However, her bracelet disappears -- apparently they took it while we weren't looking.
last week the powers that be switched Tos Remastered one hour early while I was in China...
all I got was Tmz something...for 3 weeks!
I got home and....
As the Enterprise is flying toward the camera you can see three stars that look like Orion's Belt below the ship. On the viewscreen showing where they are going you can see the same three stars indicating that they are heading in that direction. (I commented on the General Nits & Thoughts board that they seemed to have a basic starfield they used as a backdrop & sometimes put other stuff in front of it. Now I just look for those three stars whenever they show a starfield.)
I'd like to know how the women found out about Spock to begin with
John _ "I'd like to know how the women found out about Spock to begin with"
The 23rd century intergalactic version of Facebook: 'Brainbook' !
About Kara's power bracelet, as Alan mentioned, it disappears between the time that Spock-bot presses the red button to release the pain belts, and the next time we see him still holding her forearms. There's no explanation as to what happened to it, especially since Kirk clearly didn't give Spock-bot instructions to remove it.
Between the time that the Morg-cavemen gather to attack Kirk and party, and when they actually do start throwing rocks and sticks at them, the Leader's furry arm covering is switched from his right arm to his left. He's wearing it on the right side originally, but it switches to the left when Kirk interrogates him after he's stunned.
The Morg-caveman leader is played by James Daris, and in the credits he's listed as 'creature'. Hardly fitting, when they could have listed him as 'Morg Leader', 'Caveman', or 'Morg'.
The Spock-bot actually blinks while Spock-brain explains the Teacher to his shipmates. Up until then, Spock-bot never made any kind of involuntary movement like blinking.
And speaking of Spock-bot, it requires a little bit of muscular use to hold your eyelids open and your mouth shut. As such, shouldn't Spock-bot be walking around with his eyes closed and his mouth partially open and slack? If you picture it, it's really creepy, and Zombie-like, which would have been a little too horrific in 1968.
Kara tells Kirk that the Morg won't help them without the pain. She better get used to the Morg not helping the women without the 'delightful' aspects from now on, instead! :-)
Kara: Morg! Take out the garbage and fix the door!
Morg: Only if I get to cuddle with you!
The new CGI effects overlap the final scene, and in turn erase a little sight gag from the original. McCoy hands Kirk the remote control, and the Captain mimes trying to turn off Spock's runaway mouth and explanations to Kara originally, but now it only goes as far as laughter and McCoy handing the remote to Kirk.
Me (previously) - "Great to see a wide-angle view of the frozen wasteland. TNG and DS9 gave us long views, so I appreciate anything new on TOS."
Mr.Crusher - "Now theres the best reason to spend all that time and money on new CGI effects: to give us long views of planets because TNG and DS9 did! It added SO MUCH to this already fantastic episode!"
What do you care? It's not like you're paying for it, or even have to watch it if it's not worth it to you.
Maybe if you were a tv viewer in 1966 you might have thought that adding color programes were a waste of time and money, but I see the new effects as an improvement.
Many episodes used hot, bright stars which are unlikely to have earthlike planets. But this episode uses Sigma Draconis, a solar-type star. It's ironic the episode isn't very good but used a semi-plausible star.
But the episode postulates 3 inhabited planets around this star. We've assumed the habitable zone would be too narrow, but maybe one or more of the planets had been terraformed by some ancient aliens.
Now scientists have found planets around a red dwarf star, Gliese 581, and they say 3 of the planets may be within its habitable zone.
http://www.starshipnivan.com/blog/?p=3029
It seemed like in the remastered version they clipped the ending a bit so to leave out Kirk Scotty and McCoy laughing, which would be very smart since it always seemed like the actors were saying "we give up, this episode sucked!".
Why would Kirk tell Kara that she and the
women would need to move to the surface? Obviously, Spock's brain no longer powers the complex, so converting the system to nuclear power or hydro electric, or some other power source makes more sense. The women have warm, comfortable underground rooms and buildings. Kinda better than Kirk's suggestion of living in caves on a post-ice age surface.
Did anyone notice that the lights and everything remain 'on', even after Spock's brain was disconnected from the environment controls? Once McCoy disconnected the brain, shouldn't the lights have all gone out?
As someone else mentioned above, WHY did they need Spock's brain, specifically, and HOW did they find out about him? Or did they need any Vulcan or alien brain? They seemed to go out of their way to chase the Enterprise down, so it seems like they needed Spock, specifically. But how did they know this? It was never explained.
Kara mentioned that she could only use the Teacher by command of the old ones, or ancient ones, or some other authority even above her, even though she told Kirk that she's the leader. She even cried out at the last moment that she would be punished. By whom? She's the leader.
Long before Marvel Comics invented Marvel Zombies, we had this, Star Trek Zombie.
Chekov couldn't explain how an ice-age world possessed generated power. I can. It only took me 35 years of re-watching this episode, but here goes; the power source isn't from the inhabitants, it's an alien base from aniother alien race not native to Sigma Draconis.
Listening to Spock speaking on the communicator reminded me alot of KITT from Knight Rider.
Was the device McCoy used to control the mindless Spock the same type of thing the Ferengi used to animate the dead Vorta for the "Weekend at Bernie's"-esque climictac prisoner exchange scene at the end of the Deep Space 9 episode "The Magnificent Ferengi"?
Alan Hamilton (Alan) on Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 11:10 pm: Equipment oddity: when they beam down, Kirk says "Suit temperatures to 72" and everyone reaches behind their backs like they're adjusting something. Apparently the uniforms have heaters built-in. Sulu could have used that in The Enemy Within.
The self heating uniforms could have been developed specifically because of the events in The Enemy Within.
Todd M. Pence (Tpence) on Saturday, June 14, 2014 - 6:57 pm: Was the device McCoy used to control the mindless Spock the same type of thing the Ferengi used to animate the dead Vorta for the "Weekend at Bernie's"-esque climictac prisoner exchange scene at the end of the Deep Space 9 episode "The Magnificent Ferengi"?
Possibly a more advanced/refined/miniturised version.
Star Trek was supposed to begin its first season on Fridays at 10, the timeslot it began its third season in. More here. (Trek, of course, ended its NBC run Tuesdays at 7:30.)
quote:By Chris Todaro on Saturday, September 23, 2006 - 10:34 am:
Ok. I guess it's just brainless people who can't wear uniforms. (We do have our standards after all!!)
The knowledge only lasts for three hours, but Kara manages to leave her planet, meet the Enterprise and steal Spock's brain within that limited time frame.
How does the teaching device know how to put a brain back in as its main function is to learn someone how to remove it? And why does it give that information to Bones in the first place, knowing it will destroy the 'civilisation'.
On "Spock's Brain" they created a completely different alien space vessel from the original one...
quote:
Which looks like it's the same vessel from different angles. The original one did not.
The last shot of this ep, where Kirk and co. are laughing up a storm, trying to quiet a motormouth Spock, is fascinating to me. It seems like everyone, including Jimmy Doohan, is having a great time.
quote:
The remastered version eliminates most of that, dissolving to the Enterprise fly-away just as Kirk gets the remote control.
Phil raises a good question on how the men on the surface procreate, if they don't have any women.
Why did the men stay on the surface when the ice age hit? Wouldn't it have made more sense for all of them to go underground, until the surface was habitable again?
Phil raises a good question on how the men on the surface procreate, if they don't have any women.
That's simple. The women capture men and bring them down in their city, they have children with them, they keep the girls and send the boys back up to the surface.
Seems like a lot of rigmoral to go through.
How did this crazy set up get started?
If these folks were so advanced, how come they just didn't colonize another planet when the ice age happened?
I never realized how many times the cast said the word 'brain', but here it is. If you played a drinking game and took a shot after every time 'brain' was uttered, you'd be unconscious before the episode ended!
https://youtu.be/lgqbW83slXU
If the pretty women below are mating with the neandrathal-like men above, how are either retaining their opposite features? Shouldn't the women have the brutish genetics of the men, and the men have the softer, smaller genetics of the women?
I wonder what happened after. Did the Federation send specialists to help this planet get back on track?
Another topic for the novels to cover.
Kara; "Federation and Federation! What is Federation?!"
Caveman; "The givers of phasers. And delight!"
Yeah, the Federation is gonna have its work cut out for it.
Still, I am curious here.
I suppose the Eymorg ship seemed somewhat belligerent or unresponsive and on an interception course for the Enterprise, because as a first contact with this alien race the Enterprise is on red alert and has phasers activated. Not exactly a peaceful Federation ship of exploration-- more like the Mirror-Enterprise about to blow away something that might be getting too close.
One can see why Season Three has taken so many lumps over the decades, considering the episodes that started and ended it.
However, there are some pretty good episodes in between.
When Kara tries to explain why the Controller needs to remain, and calls him 'perfect, Spock's voice comments, "How very flattering."
Flattering? I would think that a Vulcan wouldn't acknowledge flattery, since it's the opposite of an insult, and as Spock said in 'Who Mourns For Adonais?', "Insults are only effective where emotion is present."
By those standards, he shouldn't have accepted the flattering comments by Kara.
Unless, Vulcans are like Sheldon Cooper, and will gladly accept any compliments given, as it's obvious that they deserve them.
In Sheldon's case, wasn't it always obvious that he deserved any compliments and praise he got? (In Sheldon's mind anyway)?
Don't forget that Spock is half-human.
And that Vulcans do have emotions, they just suppress them. Hence, Kolinahr
But wouldn't saying, "Yes, you're right. I am perfect." be an emotional response to a flattering comment?
Good point, Scott.
Not to mention that Spock has been out of his head for most of the episode. Who knows what effect that would have on his emotional state. ;-)
In his book, Phil had fun with this one.
Here is the production order for season three. "Spock's Brain" was the sixth episode shot, but was aired as the season premiere. I still wonder why? Maybe it was the only episode completed...The order each episode aired is also listed.
If this was the best script they had that week, I'd hate to see the worst.