Who was that redshirt who went down to the planet with the others? He didn`t have anything to do, he didn`t have anything to say, and he was never referred to.

Actually the plot is also VERY similar to "Abbot and Costello Go to Mars" They don't really go to Mars though, they go to Venus and it's inhabited by women.

I was actually impressed Uhura got to take command of the Enterprise - I love episodes where other members of the crew take command and to see Uhura finally do it was satisfying in a strange way.

The Lorelei Signal is currently the featured episode on my animated Star Trek site. Lots of pictures, 3 avi's, RealVideo, a link to buy the video,
and the entire episode in RealAudio format. http://mainengineering.simplenet.com/tas_main.html
Please stop by, and comments are always welcome. Thank you.

Somehow the artists screwed up, keeping the four landing party's hair the usual color, while simply aging their faces. For me, this didn't help the plotline that the men are aging rapidly and will die soon. Otherwise, it's just about every man's fantasy to turn up on a planet inhabited solely by gorgeous blonde women. Not enough of those in the galaxy, as far as I'm concerned..

Actually, that's the first time I've seen anyone get it right. Color change in the hair begins at the root and slowly grows out. The only way their hair should have turned white would be if it grew out as rapidly as they aged, in which case they all would have had hair down to their ankles.

IT SUCKS! This is one of the episodes that give
the animated ST a bad name! And if the Klingons
and Romulans have had their guys Loreli'd by these
ladies, then surely they'd have done something
about it---in a lot more merciless way than
Starfleet.. And if none the Klingons never got
wise to these gals, the ROMULANS sure
would've---their crews are coed, remembe

Klingon crews were co-ed. See "The Day of the Dove".

Actually, Mara was the only Klingon we saw in "Dove", and her presence was probably due to the fact that she was Kang's wife. In "The Trouble With Tribbles", Koloth indicated there were usually no women on Klingon ships.

===Actually, Mara was the only lady Klingon we saw in "Dove", and her presence was probably due to the fact that she was Kang's wife. In "The Trouble With Tribbles", Koloth indicated there were usually no women on Klingon ships. ===

In TNG's "Redemption," Gowron said women could not serve on the council....

First of all to answer Johhny Veitch's(the Padawan Nitpickers) question of almost five years ago, Kirk does refer to the security guard that beams down with them as Carver. Second, I have seen four episodes now and realize that this nit will probably be a recurring one so I will not post it again, but Kirk has no tricorder on, then he has one, then he doesn't. This happens throughout the episodes I have seen so far. Note just before Bones realizes he has his Medi-kit, that he and Carver do not have their headbands on. Also the biggest nit of this episode is that when the Ladies beam down, their are six of them, five redshirts and Chapel in blue, after they rematerialize, Uhura and Chapel have switched places and all six have redshirts on.

That must have been an interesting transporter ride!

If Deanna Troi was a Taurean, she wouldn't need to use the headband on me to submit to her will.

How did I know that one was coming?

GREAT MOMENT:

Uhura in command!

YOU GO GIRL!!!

In "Beyond the Farthest Star", I mentioned a panning shot on the bridge that ended at the left side of the main viewing screen and Scotty's Engineering station. I noted that there was a recessed area where there should have been more consoles. Looking at it again in this ep, it's clear this is meant to be the turbolift alcove.

Look at the upper ends of Spock's eyebrows when he describes the transmission being like a "Vulcan marriage drum". The ends are forked.

"Vulcan marriage drums"? In "The Amok Time" we saw bells and a gong, but I don't remember any drums at Spock and T'Pring's wedding ceremony.

When addressing the landing party, why does Theela neglect to welcome Lt. Carver? For that matter, why is her greeting, "Welcome James Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Spock"? Kirk is the only who Theela addresses by his full name. The other two are addressed by titles.

Come to think of it, why did TPTB even include Carver? He doesn't really do much of anything in this ep. As a matter of fact, I think he may have only one line. Now, if this was the live action show, Carver being a redshirt, would have been the crewman to die from old age. But this is the Animated Series, so redshirt have a better chance of survival.

McCoy makes a reference to Saurian Brandy. I wonder if there was any problem from the NBC censors about the mention of an alcoholic beverage in a children's show?

The structure the landing party hides in... How does Kirk know it's an urn? As tall as it is, there's no way for the Captain to see the top of it and learn it is hollow. For all he knows, it's some kind of Taurean abstract sculpture.

This is really weird. When Nurse Chapel pushes the button to open the door of the room Spock is in, the sleeve on her left arm is red, not blue. This really stands out.

Why is Spock telling Nurse Chapel to order Engineering to divert all of the ship's energies to the deflector shields? Shouldn't he be giving that order to Uhura, who's in command of the Enterprise now?

Spock's voice sure suddenly sounded lively when quoting the odds that the transporter would successfully restore the landing party, didn't it? I guess even in old age, Spock's passion for quoting odds is irrepressible.

Man, forget plastic surgery. You wanna stay looking young forever, use the transporter as it was used in this ep. Heck, it would also provide the perfect cure for cancer (or other incurable diseases). Just use the transporter to restore an individual to their previously healthy form. Heck, you could probably even use it to restore decapitated limbs. The possibilities are almost endless.

Upon learning they'll be transported to another planet, Theela looks forward to the possibility of love being in the Taurean women's lives. Not to be tacky or anything, but given how old these women are supposed to be, and how long they've been without men to form romantic relationships with, you'd think the Taureans would have long ago found, shall we say, solace in each other's company. Possibly even become, pardon the expression, life partners.

What is wrong with the end credits in this ep? At the start of them, the image is shaking back and forth. Was someone shaking the camera? It's odd because the end credits should consist of footage shot once and only once.

"Live long and prosper."

I'd sure like to know how Spock duplicated the EXACT TONE of the "Tune" sung by the Female Leader to activate the computer. Spock's voice is a BASS. (Lowest register) The woman is a Soprano. (Highest register)

When the women beam down, Chapel appears in a RED uniform. Seconds later, she's wearing blue.

That Nurse Chapel nit you point out, John, was mentioned by glenn of nas on Monday, December 01, 2003. Which urks me, 'cos I spotted it, too. It's a really good nit.

"Live long and prosper."

Dang!

GREAT MOMENT: Scotty's Scottish song. Doohan sings quite well.

According to Kirk's opening log entry, the Enterprise is visiting an "unfamiliar sector of space where a series of Earth Federation ships have disappeared mysteriously during the last 150 years". "Unfamiliar" sounds like "unexplored" or at least "out of the way". Yet, if the Federation lost several ships one would expect search and rescue missions to have explored the sector. It's hardly out of the way, since Earth or Federation ships have been traversing it for 150 years. It's also within Klingon and Romulan range, and enough ships from those three powers pass by that there's always one at the appointed time every 27 years.

Spock has calculated a precise time when he thinks whatever happened to the missing ships will happen to the Enterprise. He actually says "twenty seconds" and earlier Kirk's log entry specified the interval between starship disappearances to the third decimal place of a space-year (at least within a day, if "space-years" are Earth years. This is excessive precision. Since starships have differing speeds and all are drawn to Taurus II using normal propulsion, there should be variation either in when they are called or when they vanish. Moreover, although the mechanism by which the Taureans feed on men is unclear, surely factors such as the men running away in the middle of the process or a larger pool of men should have some effect on when they need fresh blood.

Speaking of Spock's twenty-second warning, Kirk hears it and decides to go to Yellow Alert. Alert status seems wise, since something is making ships disappear. Couldn't Kirk have given his crew a bit more than twenty seconds notice? That's basically calling General Quarters and expecting everyone---including those sleeping---to be at their stations within twenty seconds.

Although male crewmembers were progressively debilitated by the Taureans summons, they were still able to function at least until they achieved orbit around Taurus II. There were no suggestions that any of the missing ships had attempted to communicate with the outside galaxy. Why had no one, particularly female crew, from any of the missing ships sent subspace messages that could have revealed what was happening to them (or at least where they were being drawn)?

When Uhura takes command of the Enterprise, all of the male crew (including all of the senior staff except her) are debilitated. There is an away team on the planet that cannot respond to attempts at communication. She apparently does nothing until Spock calls in, specifying a female rescue team. So the women on the Enterprise are so helpless that they can't figure out simple ideas (like "find out what happened to the away team") until a man tells them what to do? Somehow, I expected better of Uhura and the other Enterprise women.

NANJAO: I find Uhura's approach to the Taureans. . .interesting. First she beams down and shoots them all down when they don't look very threatening (okay, the phasers were set on stun. . .). After they wake up, she tells them she will destroy their home piece by piece until they start talking. Compared to Uhura, Kirk looks like a wimp.

Optoward is established to be able to show the Taureans whatever they want. Oddly, they don't try to use it to track down Kirk and his landing party after they escape. Then, perhaps two minutes after being introduced to it, Uhura wonders if Optoward could find Kirk. Sure enough---it works.

At the end of the episode, the Taureans seem enthused about the idea of leaving behind their planet and perhaps becoming normal people again. They've been trapping starships for over a century; shouldn't they have a few around if they had ever wanted to leave before? And shouldn't they be brought up on charges of piracy and murder (against three different interstellar powers, no less)?

GREAT LINES:
"Obstruct them!"
It just flows off the tongue like a George Lucas romance scene. :-) (And has actually become a popular in-joke in my circle of friends...)


And, as for the winner of the "Most Irritating Way To Operate A Computer System In The Entire Galaxy" award... :-)

GREAT LINE: "I'm taking command of this ship." by Uhura.

AW, YEAH!

Amazing that we never see this many female members of security when it's NOT a plot point. ;-)

Todd Pence - Actually, Mara was the only Klingon we saw in "Dove"
Actually there was, at least, one more. I don't think she had any lines though.

Moderator - the similarities to Voyager's "Favorite Son" speak for themselves
Kail - the plot is also VERY similar to "Abbot and Costello Go to Mars"
Not to mention parts of a little story called The Odyssey by Homer... ;-)

Since the viewer device of the Taurean women was able to show them not only the Enterprise but the crew inside & that there were woman,how come they did not prepare at all for the possibility that the female crew members would transport down to their planet to defeat them? The Taureans have incredible architecture,an amazing viewing device & life force draining bands but absolutely no weapons of any kind? They should have had Klingon disruptors & Romulan weapons from when those starship crews came to their planet in the past.

As the time for whatever happens to the missing ships approaches, Kirk orders yellow alert. Not knowing the exact nature of the threat, and considering it can dispatch Klingon, Romulan and Federation starships, red alert would have been a better choice.

After Spock estimates that the men age by about ten years per day, McCoy says that they will be dead in 4 days. That's quite pessimistic, it represents only 40 years of aging, the landing party is relatively young, Spock being a Vulcan should last much longer and even contemporary humans of that apparent age could endure aging by a mere 40 years.

The rain filling the urn where Kirk, McCoy and Carver hide is a biblical deluge. Since no water is being channeled into the urn except for the rain coming in through its opening, this means that a couple of meters of rain fell in a few hours. The whole landscape should be devastated by epic floods.

The landing party was beamed back to the Enterprise, so why does the transporter still have a record of their patterns from when they first beamed to the planet's surface?