In brief, as this episode unravels, we discover that Dr. McCoy (henceforth known as "Bones") had another nickname--Plumb--given to him by his old flame, Nancy Crater. We aren't told from whence the nickname came, but my personal theory is the eyeshadow that DeForrest Kelly seems to wear on the set of Star Trek. Tell me that doesn't look like eye shadow.
 |
| I'm a doctor, not a cosmetologist! (Borrowed from startrek.com) |
 |
| The M-113 Salt Vampire is still scarier and more vampire-y than Twilight "vampires." |
A 23rd Century Rand Paul
Dr. Robert Crater is featured in this episode as the bent on personal liberty (and secretive) archaeologist inhabiting M-113. Somehow, he makes archaeology seem less exciting than Indiana Jones, which is probably more realistic. Dr. Crater (played by Alfred Ryder) seems to possess a strong sense of personal liberty, often complaining about the presence of Kirk and his crew on the planet. At one point, he even claims Kirk is trespassing on his planet! It's possible this is due to his desire to keep the Salt Vampire's secret, but I'm intrigued that a character like this shows up in the Trek universe at all. If you spent any amount of time watching, Star Trek tends to portray the massive government of the Federation as the symbol of goodness in the universe (although, there are notable exceptions to this). Perhaps we can chock this one up to the wagon train to the stars Roddenberry envisioned early on. However, the family resemblance is undeniable:
Star Trek Meme on Viewer
Trek is known for a few running jokes (well, they probably became jokes later), and this, the first aired episode, is where one of them starts. Dr. McCoy is very good at identifying a dead person, usually with the line, "He's dead, Jim." To be fair, he gets a lot of practice in this episode, as the body count is high (being in Starfleet might be the most dangerous thing to do in the 23rd century). In fact, Bones utters these oft-repeated words at the first death in canonical Star Trek, the death of crewman Darnell. Interesting to note, none of the deaths included men wearing red shirts.
Although this isn't really a meme, we get an interesting look at what it's like to be hit by a phaser on stun in this episode, too. At one point, Kirk and Spock are trying to bring crater in and end up having to stun him. As they talk to him, Crater is slow to react, which includes a slowing down and deepening of his voice. To my knowledge, this occurs nowhere else in Star Trek.
Another funny moment occurs on the bridge, as Kirk receives an urgent message from Space Commander Dominguez on Corinth IV about an urgently needed shipment. It turns out Commander Dominguez is in urgent need of the prime Mexican red chile peppers Kirk himself picked by hand. You know, because he can do that from the Enterprise.
One last moment worth mentioning: Uhura, in an attempt to flirt with Spock, asks what the moon looks like on a lazy evening on Vulcan. Spock, clearly confused by the communication officer's illogical advances responds, "Vulcan has no moon." She replies, "Why am I not surprised?" And yet, JJ Abrams felt the need to make Spock a suave character, who has a romantic relationship with Uhura. #ugh #whatevs
Scan Complete
This episode presents two things worthy of deeper consideration. The first is the writers' use of evolution to advance the storyline. In a scene near the end, Dr. Crater and Bones (who, it turns out, is the Salt Vampire in disguise) defend the creature's actions of killing the crew (not by using a borgia plant, mind you). Dr. Crater opines that the creature's ability to shape shift is an evolutionary trait retained from the creature's primitive past, like a chameleon's ability to change colors and the human's incisors (which use to be fangs, Crater claims). Setting aside the creation and evolution debate this seems to indicate a slight misunderstanding of the modern conception of evolution. The chameleon currently retains the ability to change colors as a defense. Evolutionary theory would more likely indicate that this trait developed in chameleons over time, not something that was eventually going to be evolved out. It would be interesting to take a look at evolutionary theory from the middle 1960s to compare it to today. Maybe 23rd century chameleons work differently than today.
Another place the writers use evolution is to explain why the creature was unable to feed on Spock. In the final "chase" scene, Spock is found bleeding (our first glimpse at a Vulcan's green blood), having been jumped by Crater and the creature. However, the creature is unable to feed on Spock because, Spock's ancestors evolved in a different ocean than Kirk's. We're not really told what that means, however. Again, it would be interesting to know the state of the creation/evolution debate in science and education in the 60s, because it obviously influenced the writers of this episode in no small way.
The moral question presented by the issue is another timely one, too. As the episode winds down and more and more of the Enterprise crew are found dead, Dr. Crater defends the Salt Vampire's right to try to survive. Kirk remains unconvinced that the creature's life is worth saving at the cost of so many of his men. Every once in a while, I run into a person arguing that mankind is a plague on the earth, and how things will be much better for the world after humans die off. However, is the existence of one life form really of greater value than human life? In other words, should humans voluntarily give up their existence in order to facility a "better" world? I've had conversations with people who actually hold to this idea, and I usually ask (tongue firmly planted in cheek), "Why don't you volunteer?"
Wouldn't this, however, fight against the evolutionary principle of survival of the fittest? It seems that allowing humanity to dominate the earth (or a small slice of the galaxy in Star Trek's case) would open the door for stronger species to evolve and eventually displace mankind as the dominate form of life on earth. I think this betrays a bias against humanity that we continue to see in the world of 2015 that was brewing in 1966 that's wrapped up in the now-debunked overpopulation hypothesis. This question feeds into conversations now taking place in many European countries, whose birthrates have fallen below the rate of replacement, despite government's best efforts to encourage young couples to have children. This is even becoming an issue in the United States, where population growth estimates are bolstered by immigrants from the global south, whose family size far outpaces most other sectors of the population.
Ironically, Dr. Crater, advocated for the survival of the M-113 Salt Vampire, appealing to the extinction of the American buffalo (which are completely gone by the 23rd century). In the end, Crater is killed by the creature he grew to love, despite the fact he fought to save it. The episode closes on this thought, too, in a scene the occurs again in future Star Trek episodes. Kirk is on the bridge, deep in thought, and Spock asks him about his thoughts. Kirk replies, "I was thinking about the buffalo." Kirk exchanges glances with Spock and Bones before warping off to the next exciting mission--the delivery of hand-picked chili peppers to Space Commander Jose Dominguez on Corinth IV.
As for our next mission, we will be looking at Season 1, Episode 2, "Charlie X." This blog is still young, and I'm looking for your feedback. Please comment below and share this on whatever social media platforms you use--MyPage, FaceSpace, etc. Let me know what you think!
 |
| Dr. Robert Crater and his 9th great grandfather, Rand Paul. (Left image borrowed from en.Memory-Alpha.wikia.com) |
Trek is known for a few running jokes (well, they probably became jokes later), and this, the first aired episode, is where one of them starts. Dr. McCoy is very good at identifying a dead person, usually with the line, "He's dead, Jim." To be fair, he gets a lot of practice in this episode, as the body count is high (being in Starfleet might be the most dangerous thing to do in the 23rd century). In fact, Bones utters these oft-repeated words at the first death in canonical Star Trek, the death of crewman Darnell. Interesting to note, none of the deaths included men wearing red shirts.
Although this isn't really a meme, we get an interesting look at what it's like to be hit by a phaser on stun in this episode, too. At one point, Kirk and Spock are trying to bring crater in and end up having to stun him. As they talk to him, Crater is slow to react, which includes a slowing down and deepening of his voice. To my knowledge, this occurs nowhere else in Star Trek.
Another funny moment occurs on the bridge, as Kirk receives an urgent message from Space Commander Dominguez on Corinth IV about an urgently needed shipment. It turns out Commander Dominguez is in urgent need of the prime Mexican red chile peppers Kirk himself picked by hand. You know, because he can do that from the Enterprise.
One last moment worth mentioning: Uhura, in an attempt to flirt with Spock, asks what the moon looks like on a lazy evening on Vulcan. Spock, clearly confused by the communication officer's illogical advances responds, "Vulcan has no moon." She replies, "Why am I not surprised?" And yet, JJ Abrams felt the need to make Spock a suave character, who has a romantic relationship with Uhura. #ugh #whatevs
Scan Complete
This episode presents two things worthy of deeper consideration. The first is the writers' use of evolution to advance the storyline. In a scene near the end, Dr. Crater and Bones (who, it turns out, is the Salt Vampire in disguise) defend the creature's actions of killing the crew (not by using a borgia plant, mind you). Dr. Crater opines that the creature's ability to shape shift is an evolutionary trait retained from the creature's primitive past, like a chameleon's ability to change colors and the human's incisors (which use to be fangs, Crater claims). Setting aside the creation and evolution debate this seems to indicate a slight misunderstanding of the modern conception of evolution. The chameleon currently retains the ability to change colors as a defense. Evolutionary theory would more likely indicate that this trait developed in chameleons over time, not something that was eventually going to be evolved out. It would be interesting to take a look at evolutionary theory from the middle 1960s to compare it to today. Maybe 23rd century chameleons work differently than today.
Another place the writers use evolution is to explain why the creature was unable to feed on Spock. In the final "chase" scene, Spock is found bleeding (our first glimpse at a Vulcan's green blood), having been jumped by Crater and the creature. However, the creature is unable to feed on Spock because, Spock's ancestors evolved in a different ocean than Kirk's. We're not really told what that means, however. Again, it would be interesting to know the state of the creation/evolution debate in science and education in the 60s, because it obviously influenced the writers of this episode in no small way.
The moral question presented by the issue is another timely one, too. As the episode winds down and more and more of the Enterprise crew are found dead, Dr. Crater defends the Salt Vampire's right to try to survive. Kirk remains unconvinced that the creature's life is worth saving at the cost of so many of his men. Every once in a while, I run into a person arguing that mankind is a plague on the earth, and how things will be much better for the world after humans die off. However, is the existence of one life form really of greater value than human life? In other words, should humans voluntarily give up their existence in order to facility a "better" world? I've had conversations with people who actually hold to this idea, and I usually ask (tongue firmly planted in cheek), "Why don't you volunteer?"
Wouldn't this, however, fight against the evolutionary principle of survival of the fittest? It seems that allowing humanity to dominate the earth (or a small slice of the galaxy in Star Trek's case) would open the door for stronger species to evolve and eventually displace mankind as the dominate form of life on earth. I think this betrays a bias against humanity that we continue to see in the world of 2015 that was brewing in 1966 that's wrapped up in the now-debunked overpopulation hypothesis. This question feeds into conversations now taking place in many European countries, whose birthrates have fallen below the rate of replacement, despite government's best efforts to encourage young couples to have children. This is even becoming an issue in the United States, where population growth estimates are bolstered by immigrants from the global south, whose family size far outpaces most other sectors of the population.
Ironically, Dr. Crater, advocated for the survival of the M-113 Salt Vampire, appealing to the extinction of the American buffalo (which are completely gone by the 23rd century). In the end, Crater is killed by the creature he grew to love, despite the fact he fought to save it. The episode closes on this thought, too, in a scene the occurs again in future Star Trek episodes. Kirk is on the bridge, deep in thought, and Spock asks him about his thoughts. Kirk replies, "I was thinking about the buffalo." Kirk exchanges glances with Spock and Bones before warping off to the next exciting mission--the delivery of hand-picked chili peppers to Space Commander Jose Dominguez on Corinth IV.
As for our next mission, we will be looking at Season 1, Episode 2, "Charlie X." This blog is still young, and I'm looking for your feedback. Please comment below and share this on whatever social media platforms you use--MyPage, FaceSpace, etc. Let me know what you think!
No comments:
Post a Comment