John is incorrect. As far as I know, it's pronounced a-doh-nis. It's from Greek, not the Hebrew. See the link I gave on board 1.

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.


Again, as in "Metamorphosis", Apollo's hand moves against the stars when Sulu steers away from it, instead of the stars and hand moving together.

One of Apollo's lightning bolts is missing as he tries to stop the Enterprise from firing on his temple. Also, the hand-shaped forcefield should have holes in it but still be seen holding the Enterprise when the ship starts firing on the temple. Once the firing starts, the hand could "sizzle" and flicker before finally collapsing as Apollo runs low on energy and concentrates on lashing out at the ship rather than holding it.

When Palamas grabs Apollo's finger, a LOT of Palamas' back is exposed. Apollo's eyes are bugged out. I can't help but wonder if Michael Forest (Apollo) saw something that we didn't!

(I could've happened ya' know, that dress was taped on the woman's body and the tape MIGHT have given away)

Lucky him if he did! The lady playing Palamas was very attractive!

"When Palamas grabs Apollo's finger..."
:X hee hee hee

In the opening sequence, the ship is "grabbed" by the energy field hand and the crew on the bridge is tossed violently from their seats as the hand grabs on. Later, after the opening credits break, McCoy tells Kirk that Sick Bay reports five minor injuries, all being treated.

The big question is --- if the bridge crew was violently flung from their stations, I wonder HOW there were only five injuries reported, when only the bridge crew was aware of any imminent danger. Since the ship was suddenly halted, you'd think that the other hundreds of crewmembers were unaware of the danger and was not braced for the impact, and as such would have AT LEAST bumps, bruises and sprains totaling to more than only five.

When Palamas grabs Apollo's finger, a LOT of Palamas' back is exposed. Apollo's eyes are bugged out. I can't help but wonder if Michael Forest (Apollo) saw something that we didn't!

(I could've happened ya' know, that dress was taped on the woman's body and the tape MIGHT have given away) -JAL

I read in a book that the part of her outfit that covers her top half just hung over her shoulder and there wasn't any tape, just the weight of the fabric.

According to the "Memory Alpha" website, the giant hand was the hand of Gene Roddenberry!

So since Shatner is the Big Giant Head, would that make Roddenberry the Big Giant Hand?

I can't help but wonder just how different this episode had been that instead of Apollo showing up and falling for Palamas, Aphrodite or Artemis was in Pollux IV, and she fell for Kirk. I think his plans for escape might have been a little different!

I think escape is not his plan, he must face her... alone.




that is... until John A. Lang tried to get in and save the day

The lady playing Palamas was very attractive!
Leslie Parrish was married to writer Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull) from 1977-1997. Bach had submitted a story outline for the never-produced Star Trek - Phase II series in 1977, titled "Practice In Waking." Small world, ain't it?

The remastered "Who Mourns for Adonais?" airs next weekend. The giant hand effect is the most notable one in this episode. They'll probably fix the nit where it vanishes when they're firing phasers, when the dialog indicates they've just punched "holes" in it.

I would also hope that they'll enhance the fx in the scene at the end of the episode where the Enterprise fires its phasers upon Apollo's temple.Later on,Apollo allows himself to fade away.It'd be nifty to see them tweak that in some way.As I recall,the energy blast Apollo strikes Scotty with was always pretty cool looking as is.

The new hand effect is somewhat fuzzy and wavy -- I actually think the solid looking (but transparent) original effect was better. Using Pollox IV in the background looked nice. The stars moving while the planet did not looked strange, though.

The phaser effect on the temple was slightly changed, with blue beams and a sparkle effect where they strike the temple. The ship shot did show them shooting through the hand.

Apollo's lightning bolts are unchanged.

Hey Alan, think someone said that was gene R's hand in the originial Tos.

I dont remember if you answered this ,but what was your first Trek and how old were ya? What got you hooked?

I have no idea; I first saw it in syndication in the 1970s, and I don't remember a first. I've always been interested in science fiction.

Re: the Hand of Rod story, I dunno. It seems unlikely a producer would pose for however many hours it took to do the effects shots for a cameo. I would think it's more likely to be just someone in the effects department or an extra.

Just someone walking by and they said, "Hey come here, we need your hand!"

"Hey you, come here, we need a hand with this effect shot." Literally.

say Gcapp, what do you think of your cgis of Tos?

"your cgis"? I assume you mean CBS/Paramount's cgis.

I generally like them. I wish they'd fixed just a few of the sound effect errors.

Here's an analysis of the first draft of the script, along with a few nice photos, from our friends at Orion Press. They're wrong about the credit, though - maybe (probably - that was his job) Gene Coon did beef up the shooting script, but Gilbert Ralston got sole on-air credit.

So what exactly were Apollo and his people. We learn virtually nothing about them. Who or what were they

Is Pollox IV their home planet? If they needed worshippers for strength, how did they survive before coming to Earth?

What did happen to Apollo when he vanished? Has he left his universe?

When they left Earth, presumingly after Christianity replaced the worship of the Greco-Roman gods, why didn't they just move to the Bread And Circuses planet? The Roman Empire never fell there, and the old gods were still worshipped.

I wonder how Picard would have handled this? Would he have done the same thing, or tried a more diplomatic approach. Kirk did seem to regret what he had done when the episode ended. Perhaps he should have let Apollo view the history computer (or downloaded the history files into a tricorder), and let him see how humanity had evolved. Maybe he should have tried to convince Apollo to return to Earth with them, and take up a teaching position somewhere. There would be historians tripping over each other to talk to him!

The remastered "Who Mourns for Adonais?" runs next weekend, followed by "The Changeling".

Apollo - "Carolyn...see what you've done to me."

Done to YOU, ya jerk??? Look what YOU did to HER!!!!
She's beaten, bruised, dishevelled, exhausted, and was frightened out of her skin by YOU!
Nice way to turn around the blame, turkey!

I still wonder why Apollo and Co. didn't just move to the Bread And Circuses planet? The Roman Empire never fell there, and the old gods were still worshipped.

Probably didn't know about it. I can see it... just as Apollo is fading out, Kirk says "Too bad he didn't know about the planet where Rome never fell."

"WHAT!? Why didn't you tell...." and he fades away.

It would have been a cute scene--but Kirk doesn't know about it yet either.

And Apollo and the others visited Greece, not Italy, and a looong time before there was such a thing as the 'Roman Empire'. Bit of a difference there.

I got the impression, from what Apollo said (your fathers turned away until we were only memories) that he and the others were here on Earth until Christianity got a foothold. Which meant they were here until towards the end of the Western Roman Empire.

So I guess these "gods" were not so smart if they didn't know about the Bread And Circuses planet.

There is a show on History called Ancient Aliens, in which the premise is that aliens visited the Earth thousands of years ago and interactied with ancient humans. The show is silly, but I like it.

The one I saw tonight was what if the Greek Gods were aliens, they even mentioned Apollo. I couldn't help but think "Star Trek explored this idea nearly fifty years ago."

This episode of AA also mentioned the serpent gods of Mexico and Central America, which was covered in the animated episode How Sharper Than A Serpents Tooth

Go easy on me—I'm new.

And I just saw this ep for the first time yesterday (I've been into TNG/DS9/VOY and had never seen TOS, except for a few scenes here and there. Btw: it's actually much better than I thought it would be. No wonder ppl like it!)

Anyway, here's my big *NIT*: when the Enterprise fires on the temple, it shows a shot of it firing from space. If you notice, the two phaser were not parallel; they formed a rather large angle, probably about 15 degrees.

EVEN IF they were firing from near-planet orbit (though it looked more as though they were in space), the two phaser beams would've been spaced at least hundreds or thousands of miles apart.

Think of the temple and two phasers as forming a triangle (which they do). Even a *tiny* non-zero angle (0.01 degrees) would place the end of the phasers a LONG ways apart. The *only* way they could have hit so close to each other at the temple is if the phasers were parallel—well, IRL infinitesmely(sp?) close to parallel.

Did they correct that in the remastered version?


Off-topic: what kind of HTML support does this BB have? I noticed I could use only very basic stuff. Not a big deal, of course!

--Thyme

Thanks!

Spock knows who Apollo is, despite not being on the planet below. The only explanation is an obvious one; Apollo allowed McCoy and Chekov to scan him with their instruments, so an open communicator line must have been secretly in use, thus allowing Spock and the bridge crew to learn Apollo's identity.
Once Apollo prevented Kirk's communicator from operating, the secret communications line was cut.

There is a fan made web episode out called Pilgrim Of Eternity. It's a sequel to Who Mourns For Adonais.

In Pilgrim Of Eternity, Apollo returns. They even got the actor who played Apollo in the original episode, Michael Forrest, to reprise the role here (of course, they had to explain away why Apollo look so much older as Mr. Forrest is forty-five years older). Another cast member of this little gem is Christopher Doohan, who plays Scotty. He takes on the role his father, James Doohan, made famous.

They got everything right. The sets, the sound effects, the music. I could almost believe this was a long lost episode dug up from some vault somewhere. As for other actors playing the Classic characters, after the Abrams movies, I have no problem with that. They did a good job here.

Unlike the new movies, this is clearly set in Trek Reality Prime.

Chris Doohan is a good buy. My brother-in-law was in a band with him for a while.

Doh!!! *GUY*, not "buy"

1,000 quatllos for young Doohan!

Chris Doohan has done his father proud in his portrayal of Scotty.

Leslie Parrish appears in the gown from this episode (briefly) in the season one MANNIX finale, "The Girl in the Frame".

Pilgrim Of Eternity gives Apollo a happy ending, at least.

I wonder why the Greek gods retreated to that planet and just sat around waiting, pining for the good old days of being worshiped on Earth. There must have been thousands of primitive planets that could have provided them with the worship they craved. What was so special about humans?

They should have gone to that Roman planet that we saw in Bread And Circuses. They would have been right at home.

Can you imagine if they'd landed on Gamma Triangul 6 and had to deal with the 'God' there-- Vaal?
I checked Google, and found that Pollux is 33.72 light years away from Earth. If that's where Apollo's planet was, then maybe they weren't able to travel so far. Did they remain on Earth for centuries? That means their ship (or ships) were centuries old. Maybe that's why they didn't start all over again-- their star flight capability was limited.

Did they remain on Earth for centuries?

Judging from what Apollo said, they arrived on Earth during the early Greek civilization, and were taken for gods.

They stayed on Earth until the late Roman period, when Christianity began to take hold. Once humans stopped worshipping them, that's what they left Earth.

Of course, why they just didn't find another primitive planet. Guess they just loved us humans.

Chekov is on the bridge when Apollo's hand grabs the ship. He isn't injured when the ship is stopped, and yet he's missing and the navigator's station is empty, when Kirk speaks to Apollo on screen.
That cup of coffee between Scotty and Carolyn will have to wait. They leave just before Apollo's hand catches the ship, and while they're held, Scotty is back on the bridge.
I suppose Spock isn't that worried about the landing party. He fires the ship's phasers at Apollo's temple, and NEVER checks in with the landing party! The last we see of him is the last time she ship shakes from Apollo's lightning bolts. No check-in, no status request.
What a missed opportunity for Kirk to have Apollo brought to the outside world and learn, firsthand, about ancient history. The events and history of his people and ancient Greece is lost forever.

What a missed opportunity for Kirk to have Apollo brought to the outside world and learn, firsthand, about ancient history. The events and history of his people and ancient Greece is lost forever.

I know, Kirk should have tried harder to convince Apollo to return to Earth with them. Historian would be falling over each other to interview him.

Of course, Kirk and Co, would run into Apollo again, and things went much better than time.

Yeah, I consider Star Trek Continues canon. It's much more faithful to Trek than the cr*p the CBS Swindlers are peddling.

For someone that's well over 5000 years, Apollo's libido still works! Imnpressive!

I'm glad they didn't include the scene that says that Carolyn is pregnant. For most of the time I ever saw this episode, I thought he just scared the heck out of her, not sexually attacked her.
As it is, Apollo ends up looking more like a tragic figure, rather than, you know, an abuser.

Zeus was the king of the Greek gods, and yet he couldn't survive as long as Apollo. Maybe he missed Hera too much, who was the first to disappear.

I guess it seemed like a dramatic effect back then, but this is the third example of a guest character fading away, while repeating his last words;
Charlie Evans; "I want to stay...stay...stay...stay..."
Trelane; "I would have! I would have! I would have!"
Apollo; "Take me. Take me. Takemetakemetakeme..."

At least Apollo finally gets a happy ending. Took nearly fifty years, but he got one.