When Akuta receives orders to "kill the strangers", he comes to the clearing with a stick and a melon. After Akuta smashes the melon, the stick he is holding is 100% different from the one he originally had in his hand when he first entered the clearing!
RUMINATION: The greeting that the "people of Vaal" use is later used by Quark on Deep Space Nine. (The cupping of the hands and bowing part)
When Scotty says that he 'couldn't beam up a fly', I wonder if that was the creators way of acknowledging the 1950's movie, 'The Fly', which involved a transmat unit?
Why did Scotty not fire on the source of the tractor beam? Kirk was willing to fire on Vaal, why not a (presumably) unmanned tractor beam system?
Spock is hit by deadly spores, and Kirk contacts the ship, but he doesn't seem too worried-- in fact he doesn't even relay that the situation is a medical emergency. Good thing McCoy knew how serious things were when Spock was shot in A Private Little War.
Starfleet sure could use Vaal's shield technology-- that phaser barrage lasted a long time and Vaal was able to withstand it for quite a while. No ship in space has ever been hit by such a long phaser strike, and the shorter ones seem to get the job done most of the time.
In part one, someone made a comment that "Chekov refers to Martha as "Marta" and she calls him "Pav", which I assume is short for Pavel."
It was a nice touch by Koenig to call her "Marta", as the Russian alphabet has no 'th' sound.
It was a nice touch by Koenig to call her "Marta", as the Russian alphabet has no 'th' sound.
Or, maybe he got her mixed up with:
1. Marta Kristen, who played Judy on Lost In Space. (Jeez, did I ever have a crush on her...) Or,
2. Marta, Garth's green Orion slave girl consort. Although we won't see her until season three, and Chekov isn't even in that episode. 
Walter Koenig's father spoke Russian most of the time when he was at home, so Walter would have been well acquainted with the language.
The remastered "The Apple" airs next weekend. Not too much to do here. The phaser shot on Vaal may be touched up.
New orbital shots of Gamma Trianguli VI. The atmosphere is given a reddish tinge, probably reflecting the red sky seen on the surface.
The phaser shot on Vaals is touched up in the same way as the the one on Apollo's temple.
I assumed that Vaal must have some sort of Mr. Fusion that the villagers are supplying with matter. However, you'd think that something as advanced as Vaal could have robots to do the matter collection for it.
Although they play up the naivety of the villagers with respect to romance, when they first bring it up Akuta says "Ah yes, the holding, the touching. Vaal has forbidden this," like he knows exactly what they're talking about.
It's not quite a "Mr. Fusion". If I recall correctly, the explosive "land mine" rock is described as energy dense, and that's what they "feed" Vaal.
Missed Opportunity - They could have added a new shot of the Enterprise trying to pull away from Gamma Trianguli, cutting away from the bridge for a few seconds. But they didn't.
One goof they introduced -- the shots of the storm clouds were tinted red in the original to match the red sky, but are now conventional blue/grey.
It may not be a "goof". They have been enhancing things in these episodes that they felt needed enhancing. Perhaps the clouds were supost to be conventional blue/grey and the tinted red in the original was a mistake for the past 40 years.
When one of the Vaal men (I think it was David Soul's Makora) asks "What is love?" I couldn't help but think of this.
I'm at work, so I couldn't click the link, but it that the "Night at the Roxy" music?
I'm at work, so I couldn't click the link, but it that the "Night at the Roxy" music?
Yes. Sorry I'm a bit late with my response. Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me no more. 
I don't think the producers ever knew how far a kilometer is, or a meter. The team beams down 17 kilometers from Vaal's village-- 17 kilometers equals 10 and a half miles! Not exactly a short 15 minute walk through the jungle!
At the end, Spock draws a parallel between what just happened on the planet and the story of the fall of man in the book of genesis. Kirk asks Spock if he is casting him in the role of Satan, then asks if there is anyone on the ship that could be said to look like Satan, to which Spock indignantly answers that he can think of no such person. Mister Spock has just told a lie, even though Vulcans supposedly cannot lie. They also cannot feel indignation since this is one of those illogical emotions they have done away with.
DC Comics did a sequel to this episode, back in the 1980's.
They suggested that Sargon's lot made Vaal.
The Vaalians seem to think the name 'Spock' is hilarious. Maybe in their language, 'spock' has another meaning, like it's a type of soup or it means you're drunk;
"I'm called Sayana. Do you have a name?"
"Yes. Soup. I am Soup."
....
"I'm called Sayana. Do you have a name?"
"Yes. Drunk. I am Drunk."
It might explain why they all laugh so hard at a simple name.
Ironically, Kirk never introduces himself or any of his people to Akuta and his people.
Of course, the big question is, who built Vaal in the first place.
DC Comics provided one answer, but the show itself was totally silent on the issue.
Spot the Unspeakably Evil? ;-)
If you listen to The Ensign's Podcast a running gag was making Spot responsible for a lot of bad things in the Trek universe. Don't remember if they gave an answer to the question or not, though.
I'm not familiar with this podcast.
If you are curious.
https://soundcloud.com/lemme-listen/sets/the-ensigns-log-podcast
The premise is two ensigns serving on a certain starship in a five year mission, who are doing a podcast while things are happening on the ship. Very funny and creative, I highly recommend it.
Got it.
Why does Kirk feel the need to send down four security guards? The planet appears to be peaceful and primitive and there's no reason to expect much trouble. Kirk has assembled landing parties with much less guards when beaming into a potentially dangerous situation. So why so many here? (I know, I know, so they can all die in various interesting ways).
Maybe he's just trying to be kind- everything seems safe so he's trying to let them get some fresh air and sunshine.
It's not his fault if it all went bad so quickly.
Well, if that's the case, it was a terrible command decision. If I was captain of a starship, I wouldn't send any superfluous personnel down to get "Some fresh air and sunshine" until the initial away team had investigated the planet and determined their were no immediate dangers.
The only non-regular character to survive was Yeoman Landon.
I agree Todd, but in Star Trek it seems to be standard operating procedures.
Who built Vaal?
The new effects are great, but they pulled an Original Series special effects trick and flipped one of their images instead of creating a new one.
As the opening credits are shown (episode title, directed by...), the Enterprise flies towards the camera, and the planet below shows a land mass, a large sea, and cloud cover.
(Freeze frame when the caption 'Directed by Joseph Pevney' for better reference).
Below the letter 'N' in Pevney's name there is a thin stretch of land, like a finger, pointing south and slightly to the right, and below that across the sea is a cloud with two pointy edges. The sea stretches to the right, looking like the Mediterranean.
Seconds later, as the Enterprise flies by and away from the viewer, (and Pevney's name disappears) the planet's image has been flipped. The finger of land now points south, but to the left, and the sea stretches to the left, not the right. And the pointy cloud is there, so it's not a different view looking down, it's a completely reversed image.
Speaking of flip-flops, in the scene in the hut when Kirk asks the Yeoman to speculate what would happen if something happened to one of the natives, it starts as a long shot. Left to right, it's Chekov (with his right arm propped up on his right knee), McCoy, Landon, Kirk, Spock, and Marple.
The next shot is a tight one with Chekov behind Landon, and her answering Kirk. Suddenly, Chekov now has his left arm propped on his left knee, even though the conversation is flowing without interruption.
Neither image is flipped, unlike the earlier SFX, so somebody messed up on continuity.
Tim - Who built Vaal?
Steve Jobs. It's right there in the title of the episode. ;-)
Steve - Below the letter 'N' in Pevney's name there is a thin stretch of land, like a finger, pointing south and slightly to the right
Florida? That's not as flippant as it probably sounds. Phil mentioned in the book that one planet was basically Earth with clouds or something to obscure the landmarks and I noticed the 'disguised' Earth in a couple of other eps. Not sure if this was one of them or not.
Not this time, Keith. These are new effects, and the planet is rendered more realistic than the original effects.
And the thin strip of land I'm talking about is very, very narrow, much less than southern Florida. It looks like it would be less than 10 miles across and about 100 miles from top to bottom. You can't miss it.
A Trek author really needs to do an origin story for Vaal.