At 08:14 AM 5/6/01 -0700, Jim wrote:
>On Sun, 06 May 2001 09:32:07 -0500, Ronn wrote:
>
> >At 06:28 AM 5/6/01 -0700, Jim wrote:
> >All I needed was _one_ counterexample to the statement that "the
> >original series [has nothing] to apologize for." Unfortunately, it
> >would be possible to come up with several.
> >
> >How about the last 10 minutes of "The Omega Glory" for another
> >example? Up 'til then, it's not a bad episode, but the ending kinda
> >colors most people's opinions of the whole episode. I, too, still
> >think TOS was better than any of the sequelae. Whenever it got
> >preachy, though, look out: it was about as subtle as the proverbial
> >800-pound (362.9 kg) gorilla. Some other examples that come
> >quickly to mind include "Bread & Circuses" and "Let That Be Your
> >Last Battlefield." (Perhaps someone has some other "favorites" to
> >add to those.)
>
>I'm afraid that I don't get the Sci-Fi channel with my cable where I am, and
>none of the local station carry TOS, so my memory of the shows *by name* is
>very fuzzy at best.
Here, neither. I haven't seen any of these in 5 or 10 years, at least,
since the last time a local station carried TOS. I think one local station
does currently carry either TNG or DS9 reruns at something like from 4-5
am, when I'm usually doing something else.
>Are any of those the one where Shatner starts reciting
>the Declaration of Independence in that amazing Shatner style? That's a
>good preachy one.
"The Omega Glory" is the one that ends with the discovery that they are on
a parallel world where the local version of the generic-Asian communists
won a war with the local version of Americans ("Freedom? It is a Yang
worship word! You will not speak it!!"), and it ends with a tattered
American flag being brought out and Kirk reciting the Pledge of Allegiance
(aka the "E Plebnista*," as years of passing it down by oral tradition have
turned the opening words into) and the Preamble to the Constitution of the US.
(*Try to guess what word Eudora's spell-checker suggested in place of
that. Hint: it's a body part.)
One summer day back in the mid-80s when a local station where I was at the
time was running TOS reruns every afternoon, and the local TV program guide
would generally run a capsule description sufficient to identify which
episode was coming up, I turned on the TV at the appropriate time and
immediately noticed that the episode being aired was _not_ the one
described in the program listing. Because it was the 4th of July, the
station had substituted "The Omega Glory" -- obviously, someone there had a
sense of humor. ("Humor...it is a difficult concept." --Lt. Saavik to
Admiral Kirk in ST2:TWoK)
"Bread & Circuses" is the one where the crew lands on a planet where they
find a civilization like the Roman Empire but with 20th-century technology,
and, after repeated references during the episode to "sun-worshippers" --
which confuse our heroes because there was no known group in Earth's
Imperial Rome that worshipped the Sun -- ends with Uhura delivering the tag
line, "Don't you see? It's not the sun in the sky they worship. It's the
Son of God."
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" guest stars Frank Gorshin (who played
The Riddler on the _Batman_ TV series of the 1960s) as one of the only two
survivors of a world destroyed in a civil war between the members of one
race that was white on the left side of their bodies and black on the right
side and the members of the other race that was black on the left side and
white on the right side, in a very subtle (!) allegory for the civil-rights
movement of the day. The episode is also memorable in that it introduced
the self-destruct sequence for the _Enterprise_ that was later used in ST3.
> >P.S. There's a small town named "Eden" not far from here. While I
> >have never visited the town itself, guess what tune rolls through my
> >head every time I pass the sign for the exit from the
> >interstate . . .
>
>To quote Dr. Zachry Smith, "OOOOOHHH the paaaaaaiinnnnnnn!!" That's gotta
>hurt, Ronn. I'd never pass that town if I could help it. :)
Not an option, unless I start off in a completely different direction and
drive at least dozens if not hundreds of miles out of the way whenever I
want to visit my mother's relatives or need to go to Atlanta for any reason.
-- Ronn! :)
