In the Classic Trekkers Guide, Phil theorized that women on Starships is a relatively recent phenomenon, because both Captains Pike and Kirk complain about female yeomans, but there are about 12 to 13 years between The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before. That is a long time to be a recent phenomenon. Now it could be argued that Kirk's 'uneasiness' around female yeomans is because he's extremely horny, but sexual harassment laws won't let him get a little shipboard tail. As for his theory being accurate during Pike's time, we have Number One to dispute that. She is Second in Command of the ship, if something happened to Pike, she would be Captain. Surely one does not become the First Officer of a Starship overnight, she would have to have gone to the Academy then served on ships for years before achieving this rank. Pike even refers to her as "the most experienced officer", so clearly she didn't just rise in rank when those crewmembers were killed and injured on Rigel VII. So Phil will have to amend his theory from "Women on starships is a recent phenomenon" to "A lot of women on starships is a recent phenomenon."
Arena: In the Classic Trekkers Guide, Phil wrote, "Trying to make a hand weapon, the big lizard uses a rock to chip away at a chunk of crystal." Later we see the Gorn holding an Obsidian knife. Obsidian is natural glass, not a crystal. (In case you were interested, an Obsidian knife is actually sharper than a metal one.)
I, Mudd: In the Classic Trekkers Guide, Phil commented on the cuteness of the twins being credited with playing Alice #1-250 and Alice #251-500 and mentioned one scene showing Alice's 3 and 11 standing side by side. However, most of the Alice's seen throughout the show have numbers less than 250. He even mentioned Alice's 2 and 118 in one of his entries.
YOU STOLE MY IDEA.
For the closing stills in "The Lights of Zetar", Phil says that the final still comes from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. This episode came out in the 1968-69 season. Star Trek III came out in 1983. I think you see my point.
Under Changed Premises for "The Alternative Factor", Phil states that the trip to center of the galaxy in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier seemed short. I'm afraid I'm going to have to disregard that piece of evidence, since Star Trek V isn't canonical, and in this book, the Prime Directive states that everything needs to be canonical(I'm tough).
Phil was just having a little fun. It gets boring to continually repeat "empty star field", every time that shot comes up, so he was just trying to be creatively humorous with it.
Star Trek V is canonical. If you'll look under the section for that movie, you'll see Phil explain why, quite simply they spent all that time and money filming it. Why wouldn't it be canonical? Unless you're one of those really fundamendalist Trekkers who think that only the original series are canonical and all the subsequent movies and series are apocryphal.
Two times Phil violates an unwritten (though often mentioned) nitpicker directive. In one of the plot oversights from "The Conscience Of The King" he says that "I know DNA matching wasn`t in vogue at the time this episode is written." It will be by 2266/67. Also, in the "Journey To Babel" ruminations, he mentions Leonard Nimoy. The unwritten directive being: Nitpickers don`t deal in the reality of the creators!
I read someplace that Gene Roddenberry said that he considered STV to not be canocial because of Spock's half-brother. (Or something like that. Please correct any inaccuracies in that statement.)
A theory put forth by Phil really disgusted me, and I can't believe he could even suggest it. For 'That Which Survives', he suggests that since the surface of the planet is indestructible to phaser fire, how did Kirk manage to 'write' D'Amato's name on his gravestone. He then suggests that Kirk used D'Amato's OWN BLOOD to write it!! That's sick! The point, I think the writer of the episode was suggesting was that the underground surface of the sphere of the planet is made of this impervious material, and everything else, the rocks and plants, are normal material.
In the "Romance Tote Board", under item 12 (the "number of times the creators strongly hint that 'something' happened when we weren't looking" (i.e. Kirk sleeps with somebody)), Phil forgets to mention Kirk's "last few hours as a man" with the slave Drusilla in "Bread and Circuses".
What do you consider the best "Nitpicker's Guide"?
My favorites, in order
1. Nitpicker's Guide to NextGen II (This is when Phil was at his peak of humor and writing, in my opinion)
2. Nitpicker's Guide to X-Files (Love the change in format--easier on the eyes, very pleasantly written, might be my favorite if it wasn't incomplete)
3. Nitpicker's Guide to Classic Trek (The first book when he began inserting more and more humor)
4. Nitpicker's Guide to DS9 (Not a DS9 fan)
5. Nitpicker's Guide to NextGen (Very dry as compared to the others)
I'd go in this order:
1. X-Files (Love the show, love the format, just wish I hadn't given my copy away!)
2. DS9 (LOVE DS9. Shame Phil never got a chance to do DS9 II.)
3. NextGen (gotta love the original!)
4. NextGen II (Except for the seventh season and the movie, I didn't really think there was enough original content.)
5. Classic (Not that it was bad, but I'm just not a Classic fan.)
I hated all that wink, wink stuff Phil had in brackets all through the DS9 book - OK once or twice, very, very tedious when used over and over.
While you are correct, NextGenII had very little original content, what I liked is this (1) It showed that the writer cared about input. He talked to his fans, and (2) It showed that the writer cared about updating, and being complete.
As the books went on, Phil began doing more humor...although I must admit, his style of humor became a little more, "unsubtle". As George said, "Wink Wink" became the norm. Some of the funniest stuff Phil did was, (1) in the original guide, "The Creator is Always Right", and (2) the Classic Trek Guide, the stuff he put in for the star field in the End Credits of the Third Season ("cloaked Klingon Bird of Prey", "Bele's ship", now that is subtle). On the plus side, Phil became a better WRITER. The "Whose Truth?" sidebar in the X-Files Guide is well-written and thought-provoking.
I like 'em all equally! How can you rank classics? :-) :-)
The NextGen II Guide was the first one I looked at. Just decided to flip through it in the store, cracked up at some of the entries, and bought it.
If it didn't take me so long to send Phil my first batch of Nipickings, I might of been in the DS9 Guide. Oh, well. I did make it into the Newsletter. Twice.
NOTE NOT A NIT....
Phil made a note in "Court Martial" (pg 82)
under "Changed Premises" that Spock didn't have
a prosecuting attorney.
I think in that particular case, Spock was
already guilty and sentenced to die. Therefore,
there was no need for a prosecuting attorney.
Commodore Mendez stated that Spock was "dead" the
minute he & Kirk stepped aboard the Enterprise.
(Must of been something they kept from "The Old West" or something)
As for Spock's attorney, he waived that right.
This is not really a nit, just a question. When Phil nitpicks "Mirror, Mirror" in the classic guide, he expresses amazement that Marlena's line (when she appears before Kirk in a see-through neglige) "Oiling my traps, darling" made it past the censors of the time.
Is "Oiling my traps" a set phrase, or just something that the writers made up? And how should it be interpreted? I assume this is how Phil took the line: "traps" would be, um, er, a female body part, and "oil" would be a form of...ahem...lubrication, perhaps? If that were the true meaning of the line, yes, I would be surprised if it made it past the censors. However, I interpreted the line to be a little more innocent: Marlena later makes a reference to being "out of practice" and it being "hard for a working officer to shine as a woman every minute," so I took "oiling my traps" to mean simply that her feminine wiles were a bit "rusty."
So what I want to know is, a) am I hopelessly naive, or b) does Phil have a dirty mind?
"All of the above" is not an acceptable answer!
Just because it's not acceptable, doesn't mean it's not right. ;-)
Actually, I didn't get Phil's comment either. I took the phrase to mean that women set traps to catch men, & that Phil's interpretation was a little excessive. However, Phil did grow up in the Philipines, so maybe "traps" means something different down there. There's some parts of the US where guys will talk about beavers, but they don't mean the animal.
Well, I feel a little better. I think....
A few times Phil identifies a person as "African-American". African maybe, but "American" seems a bit presumptive. Why not African-Alpha Centurian? And where does Tuvok fit in?
Don't get me wrong, I don't object the term per se. It's just funny to see "American" applied to someone that's, well, not from America. Uhura, for example, appears to be African, period. She has a Swahili name, and speaks it fluently. Considering that she spoke it easier than English in "The Changeling", it may have been her first language.
The first trivia question for "I, Mudd" starts with 'Who does Norman...' when it should be 'WHOM does Norman...'
I'm guessing here but I would imagine Phil used the term African-American because it's the current politically correct term for people of color. Basically, he didn't want to offend anyone.
Doesn't Abraham Lincoln in an episode of Classic Trek refer to Uhura as a "negress" in an episode, implying she is African-American?
I don't know if it's canonical or not but I've read several times that Uhura was from the United States of Africa... which would make her just plain African. Lincoln probably just assumed she was an African-American. But he was just a duplicate Lincoln anyway, so what does he know?
Created from Kirk's mind, remember.
Phil's guide mentioned on a humor site. Check it out:
http://www.theonion.com/onion3612/books_about_tv.html
Area Man Only Reads Books About Movies, TV, Music
GLENDALE, AZ--When Matt Kaiser gets tired of watching movies
or TV, or listening to music, there's nothing he likes better than to curl up
in his favorite chair and escape into a good book about movies, TV, or
music.
"You can only watch TV for so long," Kaiser said. "After a while, you
need something a little more mentally stimulating. That's when I like to
crack open one of my favorite books about TV, like The Nitpickers
Guide To Star Trek or The Real Real World. Or, if I'm tired of television
altogether, I'll read up on the making of Titanic or flip through one of my
many video or music guides. It's a relaxing and contemplative time for
me."
Added Kaiser: "I just don't understand people who don't like books."
Ouch! Somehow i don't think that 'Onion' piece was meant to be complimentary.
Meanwhile...I've always liked this 'Guide' (except howcum no 'Animated Series'? ). It contains a couple of my favorite Phil-isms:
Re: a perspective problem in ST V -- "Just where is this shot coming from? 'God'-cam?"
Re: a practical difficulty with the same scene -- "Sure looks like 'God' could have parked a little closer. It's not like the lot was full or anything."
That "God-Cam" thing cracks me up every time i read it.
My favorite funniness in this one however is his torment of the balok stills.
I think "God-cam" was used as a riff in an early MST3k episode - the end of "Side-Hackers", I think the movie was.
My favorite bit deals with the stills, but the Vina ones. "Editor's note: Pending a review of policy, the author hereby suspends all descriptions with regard to Vina and her various Talosian incarnations."
Also, "Vina, skilled exotic dance artist by night, baker of cookies by day, collector of aluminum cans by morning, assistant of little old ladies who wish to cross the street by afternoon, and all-around nice person by evening, 'The Cage.' "
In "Shore Leave", Phil comments that the Caretaker seems a tad prejudice against Spock. The Caretaker calls everyone else by their rank and last name, yet refers to the Vulcan as Mr. Spock. However, if the Caretaker was calling him "Mister Spock", it is an indication of rank. (As in the movie "Mister Roberts".) As for "Spock" being his last name, I can not remember him having a last name.
He does have one...but it's not pronounceable, at least for humans (see ep 'This Side of Paradise'). Although you'd think this representative of a supremely advanced race could handle it...
Point taken about the 'Mister', tho. (I always just figured the Caretaker was reading their minds and came up with the mode of address Spock would be most comfortable with.)
As Keith Alan Morgan stated on June 13, 1999 - "Phil theorized that women on Starships is a relatively recent phenomenon, because both Captains Pike and Kirk complain about female yeomans, but there are about 12 to 13 years between The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before." I assume that Keith is talking about 'TV' years, because BOTH 'The Cage' and 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' was produced before 1970 and after 1960 which makes them LESS than ten years apart.
Thank you, Mr. Obvious.
The Menagerie states that the events of The Cage happened 13 years earlier. Since Where No Man Has Gone Before happened before The Menagerie, 12 to 13 years is a reasonable assumption.
I am a Nitpicker. I don't deal in reality. ;-)
Point well taken about the rough time Reality has in this forum. Your statement months ago gave me pause to think about it, though. Thanks for the "trek" reference that ties the 13 years in for me.
This Nitpicker's Guide takes the Next Gen "Prime Directive" and updates it. The Classic definition gives the Nitpicker's Prime Directive as anything approved by Paramount (TV or Movies) or Pocket Books (the official sponsor of Nitpicker's Guide) as "cannonical". Any novel, or other so-called "Star Trek" publication is not considered authoritative based on the above criterion.
Is there any other non-profit reason for this basis for a "cannonical" source for Trek lore? Or is the Nitpicker's Prime Directive soley capital driven? (i.e., it MUST come from a source that will reap capital benefits for the people who has allowed Phil Farrand to publish his Nitpicker Books?)
I figured it was because the novels don't usually have an actual continuity. Kirk might die in one novel, but in another one set in the same time period something completely different happened, and he lived.
Derf, the Nitpicker's Guides were published by Dell books, not Pocket Books.
But is commercial interest the only factor? We can tolerate a novel with conflicting views if it were given the nod by whoever gives the nod.
I guess my question is, who gives the nod?!
Sorry about the Dell Book mix-up, but I've yet to find a copy of the Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trek. I own only an audio copy of Part One. (I found it at an "Everything's a Buck" store. I have no nitpicking knowledge beyond Season One and The Cage, so far. But, I DID find a complete printed AND audio copy of the Next Gen Guide at Half Price Books. So if I wait long enough, the Classic Guide should be available soon.)
By the way, there have been only three-letter word or smaller differences in the audio-copy and the printed book, and few-and-far-between at worst. There isn't much to crab about in the differences between these two incarnations of the Nitpicker's Guide.
Doesn't Robert Reilly (Gowron) read that book?
Yes, Robert O'Reilly (Gowron). Also with Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar) and Dwight Schultz (Reginald Barclay).
The only REAL nitpick I've found so far (in the Next Gen audio copy) is that Dwight Schultz continuously called the episode "Menage a Troi" mistakenly as "Menage a Twa". I guess he had his mind on romance that day.
Derf, the 'novels-aren't-canonical' rule applies because the writers aren't under any direct supervision from the Trek powers that be. (Other than a few guidelines - no killing/marrying/resurrecting characters, etc.)
Thus they can be contradicted at any time by what happens in official-dom (and often are - 'Dark Mirror', anyone?) or, come to that, in other Trek novels. (Note that this is in direct contrast with the 'Star Wars' universe, in which every novel is thoroughly vetted by Lucasfilm and thus can be considered canonical.)
Besides, from a practical standpoint...there are nearly 100 Classic titles in the series, upwards of 60 NextGen, 30 or so DS9...you wanna spend the rest of your life cataloguing - to say nothing of cross-referencing - the nits in each book?
No. But it WAS fun to imagine the hackles on you slowly rising as you wrote your response.
I do remember, a million years ago, reading the printed soft-bound versions of the original series episodes and noting several things added that were not in the episodes. I wondered then why this had to be. Why they couldn't just tell the story.
Even Isaac Asimov, when retained to write the novelized version of "The Fantastic Voyage" found it necessary to fluff-up the story so that it would be large enough to be considered a novel. (Not to mention he had to inject his own scientific thought into the story, instead of the weak assumptions the movie used.)
Derf, the Blish novelizations were from early drafts of the scripts, not from the final scripts.
I read a James Blish novel (also a million years ago) called "Spock Must Die!" in which Spock was split by a transporter accident into his Vulcan and Human halves. This may belong on the "The Enemy Within" board, but did anyone consider that splitting Spock into his biological halves may have made a better story than splitting up Kirk into his emotional halves?
Derf: What hackles? I work with books for a living and just thought you'd like to know - sorry if i came off too cranky.
P.S. - a lot of movie novelizations include stuff that was in the original screenplay but was cut out for time/artistic reasons. Thus reading a good one can be a real treat if you're a fan of the movie itself.
Derf,
In "Spock Must Die!", he was "cloned" by a transporter accident into himself and a mirror image of himself. The one where Spock was split was in a fanfic called "Ni Var", I believe it was in the original "New Voyages".
Kerriem,
I suppose I must have realized you worked with books for a living. The apology is mine to give. My wife has spent her entire existence in the Library Science demeanor, so I must have picked up on your aggresive desire to defend the printed word, even though it meant telling me that Trek related items were not cannonical due to the fact that Rodenberry/Desilu/Paramount/Whoever-Else could not control the novelization/printed matter to the nth degree as you state in the "Star-Wars" world. Maybe we need a tighter "money-driven" set of reigns on Star Trek.
I should correct myself and say that Kirk was not split into his emotional halves, but rather his moral halves ... "Good" and "Evil". (although Shatner gave some really emotional renditions of being split into moral halves)
Derf: (Graceful) apology accepted. :)
One discrepancy i've noticed in the Nitpicker's Guide re: 'Enemy Within': In every official ep guide i've read, they explain the 'shirt insignias missing on the planet' nit as just an "oops-we-forgot-to-sew-'em-on" production problem.
But Phil seems to think it was done intentionally - that they were going to flip that film later.
It's been awhile since i've seen the ep (like 3 years or so) so what does anyone else think?
Transporter error. ;-)
By the way Derf, there is a Star Trek Novels board if you want to nitpick them.
I believe Babylon 5 keeps a tight reign on their Ties and considers the novels, comics & video games to be canonical.
I think original novels of Doctor Who are supposed to be canonical, but some of the things I've heard about them (lousy deconstructionist hacks) I wouldn't consider them to be.
From “Shore Leave”
Phil states that “… the Caretaker says that everything has been fixed, and McCoy certainly looks recovered (if the silly grin evoked by the pleasure girls is any indication) …”. Later in his section on Equipment Oddities, Phil offers that Barrow’s tunic was torn when she was roughed-up by Don Juan, but at the end of the show it is completely repaired. According to the first excerpt, the Caretaker fixed everything. (including the torn tunic)
If a Star Trek episode/movie is canonical, and then becomes canonized by Star Trek fans, would it then be known as canon-canonical?
(this elicited no response on the Next Gen board, so how about a go at it here? eh?)
3 weeks and NO response? (Dern - it really WAS a bad joke, then ... note to self - delete joke #14,879 from Trek Joke Log)
Sorry, Derf...but given that I've spent the las few weeks trying to figure out if you were kidding or not...yeah, it was a pretty bad (but pretty clever) joke.
99.9% of any verbage by me is usually compost, and is only good for making the reader thereof cringe. (sinister laugh)
>>I've yet to find a copy of the Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trek. I own only an audio copy of Part One.
I know nobody cares, but I found a printed copy! I can now move on to the other two seasons and the movies with utmost confidence! (thank you ... thank you ... no applause is necessary ... no really)
Oh, Okay.
(sits down)
Phil Nit#1: Phil states "Did someone build the barrier that kept the evil being enclosed? The being said it had been imprisoned there for millenia." This is an incorrect quote. The exact quote is "An eternity I’ve been imprisoned in this place." With this phrase it is possible to assume that the barrier was always there, and was NOT constructed.
Phil Nit#2: Phil spends considerable text constructing a time-frame that discounts Dar's statement of "20 years ago, our three governments agreed to develop this planet together." He infers this by saying that the Nimbus III agreement started prior to the start of the television series. Why should the production of a television series which began in the mid-20th century have ANYTHING to do with the Nimbus III agreement? Can't the creators construct a past without worrying how old Trek-lore is?
Phil Nit#3: Phil uses the word "turbolift" when speaking about the scenes which involve the large, triangular shaft with the deck numbers from 1 to 78. However, Scotty calls the shaft "Turboshaft #3, which is closed for repairs." It's easy to assume that a turboshaft means "a shaft for use by a turbolift", but it could easily also mean "a shaft for the conductance of air". The word "turbo" (in 20th/early 21st century terms) refers to forcing air through some device. (as in turbo-charged engine)
Sorry, I did not preface the above statements with
(from Star Trek V - The Final Frontier)
A while back, I saw a copy of the uncorrected page proofs of The Classic Guide at Second Story Used Books in Rockville, MD. It's a demo version of the book made before it officially goes to press. Seems like an odd item to get into circulation.
(from ST6-The Undiscovered Country)
1) Phil states “To find the exhaust pie of Chang’s ship, Uhura suggests they use the equipment they are carrying to catalog gaseous anomalies. Was the Enterprise doing this as well as the Excelsior? At the beginning of the movie, Captain Sulu makes a log entry stating that they had just returned from a three-year mission to catalog gaseous anomalies.”
This is all true, but Sulu’s log entry said they had just returned from a three-year mission to catalog gaseous anomalies in the Beta Quadrant. I suppose the Enterprise could have been doing the same in another quadrant.
2) Phil states “After the rendezvous with Gorkon’s ship, Kirk claims he’s ‘never been this close’ to a Klingon vessel before.”
The comment Kirk made was simply “never been this close”. This could be interpreted several ways. One is the assumption Phil made. Another is that Kirk’s comment was to imply he’d never been this close to a Klingon Battle Cruiser before. After all, Kirk was actually INSIDE a bird-of-prey way back in ST3-The Search for Spock.
3) Phil states “After helping Kirk and McCoy escape from prison, a female reveals she is a shape-shifter. Kirk responds that he thought shape shifters were mythical. Wouldn’t the salt creature in ‘The Man Trap’ qualify as a shape-shifter?”
Martia did not call herself a shape-shifter. She called herself a “chameloid”. McCoy actually called her a shape-shifter. Kirk’s comment might then be interpreted as “I thought chameloids were mythical”.
Hey! Maybe she's a changeling.
Okay, point taken. Chameloid, changeling, shape-shifter, whatever ... Kirk probably took his cue from McCoy when saying "I thought you people were mythical." But it was intriguing to note Martia saying "I'm a chameloid" and alot of folks not thinking this was a race of beings, instead of just another name for "shape-shifter". If, in the same scene Kirk had said, "I'm an Iowan", would Martia have easily picked up on the fact that this REALLY meant a Terran from a certain geographical area of the Western Hemisphere of the planet Earth? (unless there was a myth going around that EVERY MALE from that sector of Earth fell in-and-out-of-love in an eye-blink)
(from "Turnabout Intruder")
Phil states "After cutting herself free, Lester/Kirk runs to sickbay. In the presence of Spock and McCoy, Kirk/Lester hits the woman, knocking her out. Two security guards approach, pick her up, and carry her back to her bed. In the process, a guard slips his hand under Lester/Kirk's bare leg very high up on her thigh. One wonders what words of advice Kirk will have for that security guard ..."
A simple reading of this passage reveals that Lester/Kirk was unconscious when the guard slipped his hand high-up under her thigh. Kirk, being unconscious, would have NO words of advice, since he/she was unconcsious at the time. Unfortunately, the guard got a "free feel".
...Thank goodness for his Starfleet career. Can you IMAGINE what Kirk would have done to him? Especially since this ep was originally supposed to end with the Captain worried that his 'manhood' had somehow been contaminated.
(from ST4-The Voyage Home)
"Once Gillian is onboard, Kirk shrugs his shoulders and lets her stay. Kirk would rather pluck her from her own time frame and haul her back to the future. Does he have an alterior motive? He does ask her for her telephone number at the end of the movie."
This is not a nitpick, but a further observation. I believe I can supply the alterior motive. When Gillian arrives at Golden Gate Park and witnesses the sheet of transparent aluminum being lowered into the invisible craft, the wind is blowing against her and reveals that she is not wearing a bra. Hhmm ... the perfect motive for our beloved Captain, don't you think?
Kirk's motive is further revenge on Will Decker.
>>Phil states “To find the exhaust pipe of Chang’s ship, Uhura suggests they use the equipment they are carrying to catalog gaseous anomalies. Was the Enterprise doing this as well as the Excelsior? At the beginning of the movie, Captain Sulu makes a log entry stating that they had just returned from a three-year mission to catalog gaseous anomalies.”<<
Another point to ponder:
Sulu says "cataloging gaseous planetary anomalies". The Enterprise might be cataloging other types of gaseous anomalies.
Then again the vampire beast in Obsession was a gaseous anomoly. Maybe Kirk wants that equipment handy just in case they run into something like it? ;-)
If the crew had a really big meal of burritos and tamales from the galley, they could catalog other gaseous anomalies right onboard!
What is the deal with these gaseous anomalies, anyway? Don't the writers know of any other vaguely cool-sounding astronomical phenomena Starfleet might be interested in?
In the audio copy of the Nitpicker's Guide (part three) Movies, Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, under Changed Premises Walter Koenig reads, "Spock makes an amazing deduction at one point. One that is essential to move the plot forward. The crew of the Botany listens to the distress call from Earth ..." He SHOULD have read "the crew of the Bounty. I suppose he still had discovering Khan in mind during ST2 - TWOK ... "Botany Bay?! ... Botany Bay!! .. Oh NO!!"
OK ... I goofed. It was in the section just before Changed Premises.
To MPatterson (Message of Nov 1999)
Why did Phil not get the Chance to do DS9 II?
Because a lawyer at Dell convinced the publisher that if Paramount and/or Fox should sue Dell for putting out the Guides, it would cost Dell more money than the books had brought in.
Does that mean, that there will not be ANY more Nitpickers Guide, or that there will be no more DS9-Guide?
Correct, Andreas. Phil discusses it elsewhere on the site. Go to the main Nitcentral Page. You'll have to dig around, but I think it's under "Continuing Communications" somewhere.
Look in the "Ask The Chief" columns.
Who needs Nitpick books when you got Nitpick Central? You can submit a nit & it'll get posted.
GUARANTEED!
Specifically, the "Ask the Chief" from 5/15/98. I remember the date quite well.
Thanks!
Another question: A few years ago there had been a list of abreviations like IHRTB (?; It Had Read The Book) and so on somewhere on this page. I digged around on this page recently, but i was not able to find it. Does the list still exixst? Where is it?
It can be found from the initial page ... click on "Guild Services", then click on "Guild Glossary".
Andreas - are you thinking of IRTS (It Read The Script)?
That's it! And That's why I was searching for this list.
The Nitpicker's Guide in audio form is broken up into 4 parts. Parts 1,2 & 3 are the episode/movie summaries, and part 4 is all the trivia questions and interesting facts/lists from the book called "Nitpicker's Fun and Games". It is read by Denise Crosby. This nit involves the way she pronounces Ilia. In the movie STTMP her name was pronounced eye-LEE-ah, but Denise pronounces it ILL-ee-ah.
In Phil's review of The Search For Spock, he points out quite rightly that 1/4 impulse is way too fast for spacedock maneuvering.
Phil goes on to prove that spacedock must be 1 million km wide because the ship takes 1 minute to reach the doors at 1/4 impulse.
The flaw in this reasoning is that is assumes the Enterprise can reach full speed instantly.
Perhaps wisely, the creators are rather vague on how fast a ship can accelerate, but the NextGen technical manual states that the Ambassador class ships could do 10km per second squared.
If the Enterprise were the same, and taking Phil's assumption that full impulse is 1/4 light speed, it would take 31 minutes for the ship to reach 1/4 impulse.
Taking acceleration into account, spacedock would be 18000 km wide, not a million, which still goes to show that Phil's main nit is well founded indeed!
The warp calibration chart in the Encyclopedia under "warp" does indeed establish (insert "canon and not canon argument" here) that full impulse is one quarter lightspeed.
Ah, Luigi, remember the Nitpicker's Prime Directive:
"All nits picked shall derive from sources the creators consider canonical"
--The Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trekkers" by Phil Farrand, pg xiii
MLY, see Luigi's parenthetical.
Actually, ScottN, that is to what I was referring. If the creators consider the Encyclopedia canonical, then it can be used to nitpick
From "Obsession":
Phil identifies one of the closing stills as "The Enterprise orbiting Vulcan"...not true....it's the MIRROR Enterprise orbiting the Halkan planet.
I know because the Enterprise ALWAYS orbits the planet from left to right. The only exception was "Shore Leave"
From The Enemy Within
Phil states that the creators went to great lengths during the television show to cover up the fact of Doohan's missing finger. Couldn't it also be plain old personal choice for James to keep his physical faults from the camera? My wife has a slightly deformed left arm and goes to great lengths to keep it hidden when having her picture taken, and I think this is what was going on with Mr. Doohan.
You may have a point, Derf. There's precedent in Gary (Radar) Burghoff, who throughout his run on M*A*S*H went to great lengths to hide the shortened fingers on his own left hand. (Thus explaining Radar's seeming great need to hold a clipboard in every scene.)
These were not times when displaying a 'deformity' would have been greeted with 'So what - he's an engineer!' More likely the reaction would have been 'Eeeeeewww!'....something both Doohan and the creators probably didn't want to happen.
I seem to remember from Doohan's book that the creators were the ones who wanted to hide his missing finger.
I apologize for using the word "deformed" (especially to my wife) ... I suppose a more appropriate word would have been "malformed".
Anyway, even if it didn't bother Doohan and it WAS due to the urgings of the creators, I would suspect that Doohan would have had a lengthy chit-chat with the director before agreeing to such a thing.
I remember reading that Doohan had no big deal about his finger but the powers that be did, so it got hidden. This was due to Roddenberry's vision of the future not including any handicaps for people that could not be easily or otherwise fixed. That was from another book, that I do not remember the title of but I think it was the making of Trek or something like that.
(from "What Are Little Girls Made Of?")
Phil states that the effects department did a fabulous job on Ruk. They made him look "huge".
If my memory is correct about the actor that played Ruk, he is also the actor who portrayed "Lurch" on the television program "The Addams Family". It would seem to me that the effects department of Star Trek wouldn't have to do very much to make Ted Cassidy look "huge".
IIRC he did wear lifts to look even taller as Ruk & I think his costume had shoulder padding so he would look wider than he really was.
Yeah...pictures of him as Lurch show a tall-but-cadaverous figure. Ruk is much more bulky and intimidating.
Kerriem,
Burghoff's reasoning had more to do with the believability of the series. In 1950-53, anyone with a deformed hand would not be eligible for service in the United States military. If Radar had a hand like Burghoff did, he never would would have made it to Korea.
Interesting. My info came from the IMDB (and other, more vaguely-remembered M*A*S*H sources), which indicate that Burghoff was personally sensitive about his hand. But what you say makes sense too.
It also makes sense in the 'Star Trek' context, come to think of it - a quasimilitary Starfleet would probably want its engineers to have all their parts in order before sending them into deep space.
Who cares!? ... doesn't Doohan's thoughts count for nuthin'? ... according to Lolar Windrunner, Doohan had NO qualms about letting his apparent "handicap" be exposed to the camera ... after listening to the confab after my first gripe about this nit-of-the-nit ... I say "PHIL IS RIGHT!" ... why should the "Powers That Be" be worried over a "missing finger" when it could be easily explained away that Scott "didn't have time" to get it replaced ... ?
Garsh, I just read my own post and I sound ANGRY! Sorry, folks ... it wasn't me talkin', it was the cherry coke talkin'.
On the "Damage Tote Board" (pg 318) Phil forgot something on "Number of women hit by male Starfleet Officers"....He forgot Elaan from "Elaan of Troyius" who was slapped by Kirk.
Um Derf thats why you should maybe switch to Sierra Mist or Something like that. Coke is bad for you, Just say no! :-) I just reported what I read is all. Which I must say I finally got to catch up on this week with my vacation! Yeah. Now back to work on Monday. Oh vell.
(maybe it was what I had stirred in with the cherry coke ... an "extra fingers" worth [nyuk-nyuk])
No Coke. Pepsi
Hmm, I thought Doohan mentioned in his book that he didn't choose to display his missing-finger hand on television. It's in the section when there's a close-up of his hand on one of them lie-detector thingies. It was a "stunt hand" instead. Anybody got a copy? My memory's not so good these days.
The episode is "Wolf in the Fold".
I find it rather hypocritical that Phil uses the term "sturid" a lot in the Kirk's Top Ten Reasons For Violating The Prime Directive, given his censorship of the word here.
I think it's the software, not the Chief, that does the censoring automatically. There may not be a way to disable 'stu-pid' without letting in a lot of other junk as well.
On the "Damage Tote Board' (pg 318) The Chief missed some other episodes in which Chekov screams...He only lists 6
1. The Deadly Years
2. Tholian Web
3. Way to Eden
4. STTMP
5. STII
6. STIV
He also screams in...
"Mirror, Mirror" (Ok..that's alt-Chekov, but it still counts)
and....
"Day of the Dove"
On pg. 140 in "Mirror, Mirror", Phil makes note of the "Closing Stills" as follows...
Enterprise orbiting what looks like North America, "Miri"
Vaal, "The Apple"
Enterprise & Doomsday Machine, "Doomsday Machine"
Romulan Warbird, "Balance of Terror"
* Shuttle Columbus RETURNING, "The Galileo Seven"
Balok puppet after hearing Lt. Marlena Moreau say, "Oiling my traps, darling", "The Corbomite Maneuver"
The one that is incorrect is marked by the asterisk (*) The correct identification for that closing still is: Shuttle Columbus DEPARTING, "The Galileo Seven" (I know it's departing because you can see the VENTS which are on the rear of every shuttlecraft.)
I LOVE IT when someone finds something concrete and (mostly) undeniable when nitpicking Phil's books ... 82 1/2% of what I nitpick has a plausible (or somewhat reliable alternative) answer for. Guess I need to stick to the thorny issues ... good job Senior Lang!
Thank you. In my opinion, I received my "crowning glory" with the "Scpipt Supervisor" nit in the first season.
Here's some more...
On pg. 97-98 there are TWO errors...(This Side of Paradise)
This is what's written:
Closing stills:
Enterprise firing phasers, "Balance of Terror"
Kirk & Spock fighting, "This Side of Paradise"
Kirk sprayed by plant, "This Side of Paradise"
Kirk & Spock escaping from jail, "Errand of Mercy"
*Kirk & Spock eyeing tools, "GUARDIAN on the Edge of Forever"
*Balok puppet,"WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE"
Once again I marked the errors with an asterisk (*) and this is what it SHOULD BE:
Kirk & Spock eyeing tools, "CITY on the Edge of Forever"
Balok Puppet,"The Corbomite Maneuver"
Gul Phil: How many errors are there?
Captain Jean A. Lang: There are TWO ERRORS!
Sorry, couldn't resist.
page 252 of the nitpick original asks the trivia question #1 What is the name of the world that Yonada endangers? Answer i believe is Daran V, but the answer given on page 253 is Daran IV.
In his forward to the classic guide, Phil defends his presentation of the episodes in air date order, stating that (exact quote) "ALL the other reference materials list the episodes in production order." Not so. Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance, the most important classic Trek reference work ever, also presents its enteries for the episodes in airdate order in both editions.
In one of the nits for "Charlie X", Phil notes that "It's true that Charlie disposed of the phasers, but couldn't McCoy put him under with a sedative?" That's exactly what Kirk and McCoy are planning to do when the Thasians intervene at the end of the show.
Phil notes that the next episode scenes from "Turnabout Intruder" state that "That Which Survives" is the next epsiode, and suggests that "someone is trying to mess with our minds." Nobody's trying to mess with our minds, Phil. "That Which Survives" was probably the re-run scheduled to originally air after the first-run telecast of "Intruder". Remember, Trek continued to air in re-runs throughout the summer of '69 until it was replaced in the fall by whatever show replaced it on NBC's schedule.
No! it was a subtle psychic clue that proved that sStar Trek would survive until killed by the Brainless duo of Brannan and Braga and their evil spawn voyager and enterprise. The dumbing down of Trek is over. Enterprise has the same quality as everything else on broadcast tv. Sci-fi lives on only on satellite.
page 80 of the nitpick original, Phil asks the trivia question #1 What are the names of the members of the Court-Martial board. One of the answers given on page 83 is Captain Krasnowsky. Actual name is Captain KrasnoVsky.
page 104 of the nitpick original, Phil asks the trivia question #1 What unit reported a Klingon fleet in their sector? The answer given on page 107 is XY75A47. Actual answer is X-Y75847.
page 137 of the nitpick original, Mirror,Mirror, Line 6 states "Hit thumb immediately slides off" Should be "HIS thumb".
In the "Major Themes in Star Trek" section (p. 345), Phil says:
Quote:1. Humanoids can take actions that will threaten or lead to their own destruction. In "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" the inhabitants of Miri's planet create a series of viruses that kill all the adults.
page 250 of the nitpick original,"Day of the Dove", Phil writes in equipment oddities,"This episode marks the first time that more than six people have beamed up to the ship simultaneously." However, in the first season "The City on the Edge of Forever", seven people beam up together at the end.
page 301 of the nitpick original,"The Way To Eden", Phil writes in plot oversights, "Even in death, the index finger on his right hand keeps strumming". However, it is the index finger of his left hand.
Wow, I knew Phil was color blind, but I didn't know he was dyslexic too! 
The back cover of the Classic Guide makes several sarcastic comments about the production values of the show. The phrases "The sets are a hoot", "The uniforms off the rack" and "The special effects done in someone's basement" are all an insult to the production and set and special effects crew who got the most out of their budget and the resources they had for their times to create a believable futuristic world, as well as to Bill Theiss and all the costume designers. I realize though that Phil is probably not responsible for those statements, and they are the work of some ignorant blurb writer.
yeah, well, when you have no money your stuff is going to look cheap and many times, Star Trek did.
Although, some might say that that didn't die when the first series did.
also, the nitpick book was not written until 25 years after the show aired. In the 60's, the sets were great, the uniforms were futuristic, and the special effects were state of the art.