Hmm... "Who Mourns for Adonis", anyone?
Kudos to the animators on one thing. They used actual ancient carvings for the design of Kulkukan.
The animation in this episode is probably the best of the whole series. I believe it was done by a japanese team.
It was rather fortunate Walkingbear was on the bridge to recognise the alien - what would have happened if Sulu was there instead?
It's been ages since I've seen this one (we don't get TVLand), but for some reason this one has stuck with me for 25 years...
Kirk mispronounces Kulkulkan's name. He pronounces it "Kuklakan".
Incidentally, if that's correct (someone please check), I get the record for the longest remembered nit! The last time I saw this ep, it was in its original run on Saturday mornings on NBC.
At least a redshirted ensign gets to beam down and isn't brutally killed by the end of the episode.
Kulkukan's morphing ship is...interesting.
This is yet another TAS episode directed by Bill Reed. I'm beginning to think Hal Sutherland did not direct any of the second season eps. (I'll know for sure after I get done with "The Counter Clockwise Incident".)
After the Entreprise is fired on, there's an overhead shot of the Bridge. (One that appears in just every episode.) In this one, Uhura has white skin.
As Kirk and Spock are talking about the legends of Kulkulkan, Ensign Walking Bear has left his position at the Helm and stands next to Kirk in his command chair? Why? In this situation, a yellow alert situation, shouldn't the Ensign stay at his post - the Helm?
I realize Kirk didn't really give the others any orders, but why was Scotty climbing one of the towers and messing with the serpent's head?
We hear Walking Bear say, "The last one, sir", but it is Dr. McCoy that we see.
Whatever those red and yellow circles are supposed to be that the Enterprise is emitting (the tractor beam?), at first they come from the primary hull. However, in a subsequent shot, they come from one of the engine nacelles. In yet another shot, they come the side of the primary hull.
McCoy's hypo is an air hypo, right? So if Kirk jams it into the side of the Capellan power cat, there's no reason it should stick to the creature, right? I mean, it's not like James jabbed a needle into its side.
Whenever Kulkulkan closes his mouth, his white fangs turn green. (Clearly a colorist's error.)
Just as the scene fades at Kulkulkan's line, "I have done all that I can", his fangs go from green to white.
"Live long and prosper."
Benn, could you check my nit from 12/20/99, please?
I know the one you're talking about, Scott and yup, Kirk does mispronounce Kukulkan's* name. In the commentary track for the ep, the story's co-author, David Wise, talks about it and how he and Russell Bates, the other writer of this ep, were amused by Shatner's mispronuciation. They started callng the alien "Kuklakan and Ollie", a pun on "Kukla, Fran and Ollie", the old children's show.
Congratulations on having one of the oldest remembered nits on the boards, Scott!
*I kept mispelling it in my post.
"Live long and prosper."
NANJAO. Watching them try to understand the clue in the city I had a flashback to the games Myst & Riven.
Kukulkan comes from a ridiculously long-lived species. Yeah, yeah, he's not the only one, but frankly why the heck didn't all these long-lived species ever get together?
Sometimes when Kukulkan closes his mouth his fangs are outside, sometimes they are inside.
One or the other please. Also when he has his mouth open there doesn't seem to be any room for his fangs to go on the inside.
"We don't need you anymore!"
Not that this is a nit, but wouldn't it be more in keeping with Federation ideals for Kirk to add that there is a Federation of various beings that Kukulkan could join? Searching out new life is part of the reason they are out there. Not to mention the archeologists who would love to talk to an entity that was there when humans were founding civilizations.
It takes both Scotty & Ensign Walking Bear working together to turn the head of the statues at the base of the pyramid,but Bones manages to do it all by himself.When McCoy says something to Kulkukan,Kirk orders Bones & Scotty to keep quiet.Why Scotty,he never said anything? At the conclusion Kirk states that they could have learned much from Kulkukan but that the price of being his children was too high.Agreed,but why could not Kulkukan understand this & work with the Federation as equals? Kulkukan had no arms at all,wonder how he was able to create anything or use tools of any kind?
The title is wrong. It's not that they're ungrateful, it's that they're more advanced now and don't need the kind of guidance Kulkukan had been giving them. And Kirk should have said something along the lines of, thanks, but we're more advanced now.
We should have found out more about Walking Bear's background.
I didn't like this episode much either.
ScottN on Monday, December 20, 1999 - 3:39 pm - It's been ages since I've seen this one (we don't get TVLand), but for some reason this one has stuck with me for 25 years...Kirk mispronounces Kulkulkan's name. He pronounces it "Kuklakan".
Lots of names get mispronounced - people have been getting mine wrong for over forty years!
(If anybody is interested, the correct pronunciation of my name is WERS-LEE!)
Kukulkan must have visited Earth several times, the cultures he supposedly influenced did not exist in the same time periods.
Why would the probe he sent to Earth destroy itself instead of just returning to him? Seems like a needless waste of resources.
This episode featured a Native American character (Ensign Walking Bear), 20 years before Voyager introduced one.
Kukulkan: "The violence of your kind surpasses even that of the power-cat."
Also Kukulkan: "I WILL SMASH IT THIS TIME!"