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Matt and Sean talk about getting to the good stuff when no one is watching, in Star Trek The Original Series’ Season 3, Episode 2, "Enterprise Incident.”
Matt and Sean talk about getting to the good stuff when no one is watching, in Star Trek The Original Series’ Season 3, Episode 2, "Enterprise Incident.”
- (00:00) - - Intro
- (03:25) - - Viewer feedback
- (06:44) - - Today's episode
- (08:25) - - This time in history
- (19:15) - - Episode discussion
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Creators and Guests
What is Trek In Time?
Join Sean and Matt as they rewatch all of Star Trek in order and in historical context.
Sean Ferrell: This week on Trek in Time, we're talking about being too speksy for this show. That's right. Combined sexy and Spock. I thought I coined something, but maybe I didn't. Anyway, we're talking about Star Trek. That's right. Enterprise incident. This is the 59th episode produced but the 57th aired overall, the second of the third season. So they thought they had something here to share early in the third season to really capture the viewers and what happened. Second lowest ratings of the season, some of the lowest that the show would see. I did a little research and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why. Looked. Was there something happening? Was there something being broadcast on this day in history? If anybody knows what was being broadcast on September 27, 1968, that would have undermined Star Trek, because the only thing I can find is possibly the premiere of the Don Rickles show, which we talked about a couple weeks ago, and I can't believe that. Let us know. So anyway, everybody, welcome to Trek in Time. This is, of course, the podcast takes a look at Star Trek in chronological stardate order. We also take a look at the world at the time of original broadcast. So we are going to be talking about 1968, September 27th, to be specific. And who are we? Well, I'm Sean Ferrell, a writer. I write some sci fi, I write some horror. I write some stuff for kids. And with me, as always, is my brother Matt. He is that Matt from Undecided with Matt Frell, which takes a look at emerging tech and its impact on our lives. So together, just a couple of nerds talking about Star Trek. Yep. How are you doing, Matt?
Matt Ferrell: I'm doing good. This nerd is doing good. How about you?
Sean Ferrell: I'm doing all right. I'm looking forward to this conversation. I think it's going to be a fun one to talk about. And it's one that for me, stands out in my memory as one of the ones that are just like, oh, goody. So imagine my surprise when I saw the low ratings this one got and just kind of like a peek behind the curtain. Very briefly, this is the second episode of the season. I don't know if you've noticed. You probably have. We're watching these out of broadcast order, but when we're going into whatever app or DVD that we're going to to watch these episodes, you can't help but see what was where around each other. So have you seen what the first episode of this season was?
Matt Ferrell: Not yet. I haven't really paid attention to that.
Sean Ferrell: It was Spock's Brain.
Matt Ferrell: Oh, that's right, Spock's Brain. I'm really excited for that one.
Sean Ferrell: The first episode of the season was Spock's Brain, and it received one of the highest ratings of the season. And a week later, the Enterprise incident gets one of the lowest. So I'm sitting there thinking, is it possible that people tuned in in big numbers for Spock's Brain? And were like, no. And then this one struggled. We'll find out when we talk about it. Before we get into talking about our current episode, we always like to visit the mailbag and see what you've had to say. And it's been confusing. Matt, we've had multiple episodes we've recorded and I talked about this last week. I don't know where I am, I don't know when I am. We're recording, but why don't we have any comments? When was the last time we dropped a new episode? Is anybody out there? Hello? Well, turns out, yes, the answer to that is yes. People are there. People are there. Matt, what have you found in the mailbag for us?
Matt Ferrell: So from our episode, Elaan of Troyius, which for Sean and I is two episodes ago, because it's very confusing.
Sean Ferrell: Yep.
Matt Ferrell: We have a comment from GSR4535 who said, I always enjoyed Elaan. Not top tier Trek, but enjoyable romp. Shakespeare. Pair that with PaleGhost69. Is all of season three going to be this bad, by the way? Ouch.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: And then we had a comment from. We had mentioned Stargate and talked about Stargate a little bit. And Eric Dunn wrote, on the Stargate front, I loved Universe most of all. In regards to the reboot continuation, as long as they address three shots, the body disappears, and they acknowledge the time loop episode with o' Neill yelling at General Hammond in the middle of my backswing as he was golfing into the portal. I will be happy. I would be too. Then we had, for wrong answers only, Baba Rudra. I'm sorry, Baba Rudra, I'm not going to read it. But Baba Rudra wrote a very long, very long but hysterically funny and incredibly well written wrong answers only. So I recommend going to the YouTube channel and looking at the Elaan of Troyius. Go to the comments and read Baba Rudra's wrong answers only.
Sean Ferrell: Pretty.
Matt Ferrell: It's pretty amusing. But there was another one that caught my eye, which was just old Trekkie doing the exact opposite of Babarudra, wrote the shortest wrong answers only, I think I've ever seen, who wrote Paradise Syndrome? Wrong answers only. Spock and McCoy must help Kirk overcome his gambling obsession. Known by McCoy as the Pair O Dice Syndrome.
Sean Ferrell: Oh, boy. Oh, O Dice Syndrome.
Matt Ferrell: To which old trekky, I'll see myself out now. To which BabaRudra replied, they don't call him Bones for nothing. To which Mark Loveless replied, oh, my God, that's horrible. And you beat me to it. To which Paleghost responded, oh, they call you Bones because you're a doctor. No, I'm a gambling addict.
Sean Ferrell: We just created an alternate universe. It takes a village. It takes a village of old Trekkies. Thank you, everybody. Those are fantastic. And now that noise you're hearing, those lights you're seeing. No, it's not me falling in love. I'm already in love. Thank you very much. It's the Read alert. It's time for Matt to tackle the Wikipedia description. And as always, Matt, this season three trends of brief is better. Yes, don't blink. You'll miss this one.
Matt Ferrell: Okay, everybody, strap yourselves in. I'm very excited to read this one. The crew of the Enterprise attempts to steal a Romulan cloaking device.
Sean Ferrell: That pretty much says everything you need to say. That's it. The man didn't lie. This is season three, episode two, directed by John Meredyth Lucas, written by one DC Fontana. When I saw that name pop up across the screen, Yes, I did a little happy dance. Original Air Date September 27, 1968 and our guest appearances include Joanne Linville as the Romulan Commander, Jack Donner as Sub Commander Tal, Richard Compton as the Technical officer, Robert Gentile as the technician, and Mike Howden as the Romulan guard. We also have pretty much the entire main cast on hand. Everybody's there to pop in at the right moment, give us a little bit of fan service, of like, oh, look at Sulu. And there's Chekov. We even get Magel Barrett as Christine Chapel. In a moment that I couldn't help but think back to Strange New Worlds and how I'm always excited at how that new show informs this older show. So I'll just say that for now, but September 27, 1968. What was the world like at that time? Well, I've been warning people, get ready for a lot of Hey Jude, because it was the number one song for quite a while. But this episode falls into a single week gap where, yes, it's a different song. It is one of Matt's favorites. Harper Valley PTA by Jeanne C. Reilly Take it away, Matt. It's So good. So good. I'll give our listeners and viewers a little hint about Matt's renditions of these songs. You can tell when he really loves a song because of all the passion that goes into it. So this week I went into a little bit of a deeper dive on the things this week than I have in the past few months, because this is a song that as soon as I saw this was the song, I was like, I know that song. But I was also like, I have no idea what that song is about. I am one of those people for whom lyrics in songs are effectively like an instrument. I don't really pick up on the details.
So imagine you're listening to a group of people singing Happy birthday to you, and what you're picking up is the melody that, not the message. So that's how I hear a lot of pop music. So Harper Valley PTA. And I'm typing that into my notes and I'm like, Harper Valley PTA. What could this song possibly be about? So let's talk about that for a minute, shall we? It is effectively a song about somebody showing up at a PTA meeting because they've been criticized by the PTA and they are calling out the hypocrisy of all the other people in the town. So you end up with Mrs. Johnson barges in unannounced wearing a miniskirt, and she's been criticized for being kind of like wearing miniskirts, going out with guys. And people are complaining about her not being a proper mother. So she shows up and she points out that Mr. Baker had a secretary who had to leave town, probably for an illegal abortion. Widow Jones leaves her window shades up a little too much so that onlookers can see her getting undressed. Mr. Harper was absent from the meeting due to the after effects of a recent drinking binge. Shirley Thompson also has a drinking problem by the. And you can tell because of the smell of gin on her breath. Ultimately, it is revealed in the final lines of the song that the singer of the song, Mrs. Johnson, the woman making all these accusations, is her mother. So it's the story from the perspective of a daughter whose mother was defending herself against hypocrisy in a town full of finger wagging judges. So I thought that was interesting. So I just wanted to share all that with everybody. Like Harper Valley PTA. Yeah, it's one of those goofy songs from the 60s, but it's kind of a progressive message of, yeah, judge not lest you be judged number one movie at this time. Well, we talked about this last time we recorded it is Rachel Rachel.
It's the 1968 drama produced and directed by Paul Newman, starring his wife Joanne Woodward, about a woman's sexual awakening in her 30s in a small Connecticut town. And we've been talking about TV shows that were on Friday nights competition for Star Trek. The question is always, well, what kind of shows end up on prime time on a Friday night when Friday night has historically been the graveyard for shows that time forgot? And I've been enjoying uncovering all these programs that literally time did forget, finding programs that I like. The what, what are we talking about? We're talking about the Guns of Will Sonnet. We're talking about the Don Rickles show, not to be confused with the Don Rickles show of a different network years later. We're talking about Felony Squad, which I just. When you've had a show called Police Squad that turned into the Naked Gun movies and there was really a show called Felony Squad. I mean, come on, you gotta love that. So this week, talking about one of Matt's favorites, Judd for the Defense.
That's right, Judd.
Matt Ferrell: No idea.
Sean Ferrell: For the defense. What is this? Well, Judd for the Defense is an American legal drama broadcast on ABC on Friday nights from September 8, 1967 to March 21 of 1969. It was focused on the character of Judd, who is a public defender. And it was played by Carl Betz, who had been on the Donna Reed Show. And effectively this is. It's the formula you see all the time now. It's Matlock. It would be every week would be a different legal case that this lawyer would be getting involved in. But here's what I found really interesting about this. The show was rumored to be based around high profile lawyers of the era like F. Lee Bailey and Percy Forman. In fact, Percy Foreman, we'll get into it in a minute. Was trying to sue the show for having effectively appropriated his life story without having paid for it. So the show was that kind of like case of the week formula that we're all very familiar with. But what I found fascinating is that the point of the program was actually to push a more progressive agenda. So the programs revolved around things like voting rights and cases of race, racial profiling, the drug use epidemic of the 60s. It left viewers, it had trouble apparently catching on because it didn't land on a moral message at the end of every episode that wrapped everything up neatly. It would sometimes end in what to me sounds like a Law and Order esque moral conundrum of sometimes the law makes a decision, but is it the right one or is it the one that we were hoping for? And I found that fascinating. So this is yet another program that in learning about it, I'm like, do I actually want to go and find this show and watch it? Because I kind of think I do. They even tried a crossover stunt in the end of this show's second season before it was canceled. Guess what show they tried to do a crossover with? Yep, Felony Squad.
So the two programs that ABC had on Friday nights, neither of which was gaining a big enough audience to sustain itself, they tried doing a crossover episode to see if they couldn't build out a bigger audience, pulling the audience from the earlier show, which was Felony Squad, to this show, which was a 10pm show. Clearly this is intended to be a serious moral program about a morality play. Didn't hold on though. So it was cancelled in 1969. And in the news on this day, September 27, 1968, one article jumped out. There were a lot of articles. It was a very busy news day. And the front page did not have a single headline that was like, this is the big story of the day. It was a lot of little things about teachers strike. There was an ongoing strike that was keeping kids out of school as late as late September. And there was hope that kids would be returning to schools shortly, maybe in early October. There were some things about what was going on in Congress. There was political stuff because we were headed toward the next election. Herbert Humphrey was making claims about what he would do as president. He was running on the Democratic ticket. So the one headline that jumped out to me, and it jumped out largely because like, wow, this is really kind of of the moment for this particular episode, was about the Soviet Union's denial that it violated the sovereignty of Czechoslovakia by invading Czechoslovakia. So here we have a Cold War moment. It was the Prague spring, August of 1968. The Soviet Union and a number of other Warsaw Pests allies invaded Czechoslovakia because Czechoslovakia was basically becoming too liberal. They were letting up on censorship and they were letting up. They were introducing more democratic freedoms.
And Moscow at that time had the attitude of if you weaken the socialist state in a way that makes the Soviet Union look like it's too iron fisted, you are undermining socialism writ large. And we have the moral obligation to come to the aid of socialism by coming in and taking over your country. So in order to save face, you become an invasive army and take away freedoms. But that's not removing sovereignty. It's logic, magic. It's described as the Brezhnev Doctrine. Of course, Brezhnev was the premier at that time in the Soviet Union. So it was all about reasserting Soviet dominance and establishing the principle that the Soviet Union could intervene in any socialist country where its leadership was deemed to be under threat. So the Soviet Union needed to be writ large and if you were doing anything that might look critical of it, the Soviet Union had the right to come in and stop you. So Prague Spring, August 1968. Obviously before we would have been touching any episodes, there would have been no episodes at that time. But the headlines of this day are pointing right back to that moment in history. On now to our discussion of the Enterprise incident. Matt, you may have picked up on a little tidbit, a little bit of information about this episode. When I read the guest actors names.
Did you pick up on what was subtly a part of that summary?
Matt Ferrell: No.
Sean Ferrell: We have the Romulan commander, we have Sub Commander Tal, we have the technical officer, we have the technician, we have a Romulan guard. Yes, that's right. The Romulan commander has no name. She secretly tells Spock but she does not tell us. And we I think it's interesting that there were two different Star Trek novels that picked up on her character in different times. They continued her storyline in two different ways that were not compatible. So it's effectively one book was written and this was the norm for a lot of Star Trek novels. This is one of the reasons why the companies the Star Trek novels are always described as those are not canon. And the reason why is because they were written without any real concern about contradicting each other. So somebody would write a book and then somebody else would write a book 10 years later and it would contradict the earlier book. And there was no need to make sure that they all meshed together. They didn't worry about that. So there is one storyline that apparently she is she returns to power in the Romulan Empire and there is a follow up incident involving the Enterprise and there was another story. But it's one of those things where I can't help but wonder if Star Trek had continued beyond season three. This felt like a character who deserved to come back in another episode. I feel like this character really feels like they put together a kind of a counterpoint to Kirk and involvement with a Spock storyline that really kind of laid the ground for yeah, it would be fun to follow that up and see what comes of that because there's the going toe to toe against Kirk in the kind of chess match scenario that we like to see when it comes to Nemesis.
But then there's the, for lack of a better word, humanization of Spock in this one in a way that really no other original series story really does to him what this one does. So I think that her character is one that, for me, when I was watching this as a kid, this one has a little bit of everything. It's got some action, it's got some space battles, and of course, we all like to see that. But I also remember being very intrigued by this Romulan commander as a character and thinking a lot of cool things come out of it for the crew of the Enterprise. How did you feel about her as a apparently unnamed but pivotal character in the episode?
Matt Ferrell: I like her, but we're also about to dive right into why. I thought there was some. There's some aspects of her portrayal. Not her portrayal. The way she's written that rubbed me the wrong way and feels like she gets shortchanged by the end of the episode. It's one of those. It does feel to me like she's a character that deserves more, and I'd want to see her come back again to get her revenge or whatever storyline you want to do. But it's like she feels like a character that could have been tapped into, you know, for a movie like. Got Wrath of Khan. Yeah. What about Wrath of the Nameless Commander? You know, it could have been something, but it's like, it. There's a lot of potential there. I don't know how far you want me to go off track here, but it's kind of. It ties into kind of. I was excited about this episode because, like, Spock's brain is one I have memories of, and I can't wait to go back and re watch that one. And this is another one I was excited to see because I remember liking the Enterprise incident. I didn't remember all the details, and so when I watched it, I was like, DC Fontana. Yeah. All right. Oh, wait. What? What? No, wait. Oh, my God. What the hell's happening right now? I got very frustrated watching this, Sean. I still like it, but there are some things about it I really did not like on the rewatch, and I was really surprised.
Sean Ferrell: Do you want to jump into what those were? I. Well, for note, for me, that stand out as a little bit clunky.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah.
Sean Ferrell: And there's a lot that's done in order to get us into the moments. We've talked about that before, like, get us past the setup and get us into the meat of the episode where the action is taking place. We don't need there to be logic in how they're doing this thing. They just need to do it. And some of that I, as I was watching it, I was like, this isn't so great. But there's also some of it that despite the fact it's not so great, I found myself really kind of enjoying and so well, like.
Matt Ferrell: The DC Fontana stuff she does so good at. Like, she's the one who really built up the Star Trek universe. And like, this is where it's like, oh, the Romulans are from the same root system as the Vulcans. It's like, oh, we're landing that groundwork here. Awesome. So cool. Really great stuff. And like, she's talking to him as a Vulcan, like we're kind of like distant cousins and like, she's broken that angle. It's very cool. But here, here's my problems, Sean, specifically with the captain. I was so frustrated that they kind of portray her in the way of that era. A woman is driven by her emotions. She's a commanding officer.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: In the fleet. And they have her behaving sexy. Man just showed up in front of me. I can't control myself anymore. Let me put on this dress for you. It was like, what is happening it, like I was kind of shocked that it was a DC Fontana, her name on this script because it was like, I. I expect more out of her than this. And it feels like she may have had.
Sean Ferrell: Do you want to know a secret?
Matt Ferrell: Some fingers in the script that weren't hers.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah. Do you want to guess whose fingers?
Matt Ferrell: Gene Roddenberry.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah.
Sean Ferrell: Gene Roddenberry went in to sexy it up.
Matt Ferrell: Yes. So that, that's why it felt. It felt discordant to me because I know her as like top tier S tier science fiction writer and she's the brain, in my opinion, behind Star Trek. And to have that in there was felt so discordant from what we've seen from her. And it was just jarring to me of like, why is she behaving? She would never behave like this. DC Fontana wouldn't do this. This doesn't feel right.
Sean Ferrell: Right.
Matt Ferrell: So that got me really angry. The second thing was there's an aspect to the. And this might be more on DC Fontana than not, I don't know. But the I, I find it a cheat and very kind of distasteful when a writer lies to the audience and keeps lying to them and keeps lying to them and the last second tells them the truth. Like, it's some big cool reveal. It's like, no, you've just been lying to me this entire thing. Screw you. You have just made me feel stupid. You haven't revealed something that I was like, oh, I didn't get that. It was like a. You just lied to me. This episode lies to you for the first two thirds of it. Yeah. Why is Kirk acting like a dick? Why is he out of his mind? Why is Shatner being the most Shatner we have ever seen? Shatner, Shatner, I will kill you. Like, all that stuff is so crazy. It's not uncommon that Star Trek does this, but that's like the cold open. And then they explain it or at least give hints to the viewers to what's going on. Now, me, Modern Matt, I understand. Oh, Kirk's up to something. He's been ordered to do something. Is doing this deliberately. But, like, in a better written episode, they would have told the audience right away. They would have revealed it to us or given us hints that Kirk is up to something that's not being revealed. And the fact that Spock was in on it was just like, what the hell? So it's like. It felt like they were doing it to get those cheap dramatic moments before a commercial break where Spock's, like, turning on Kirk and it's like, yeah, I'll go with you. It's like it's. It was just all soap opera melodrama, just lying to the viewers. I just found that so discordant, layered on top of. Oh, here's this womanized. Like, this woman that's ruled by her emotions, but yet she's a commander in the fleet. Sean. Yeah, tell me, tell me, tell me. Please tell me. Gene Rodberry's at fault for that, too.
Sean Ferrell: Because I don't know how much of that he would bear the responsibility for. He apparently came in and tried to sexy up the episode with. He wanted. He wrote it into the episode and. And here's, I think, a very interesting hero who comes in at the last minute to stop this. He wrote into the script that Spock rained kisses on every part of the Romulan commander's body. What?
Matt Ferrell: That is so not. Did he not understand his own characters?
Sean Ferrell: And Leonard Nimoy was like, how about we just do a subtle hand touch? And that makes it sexy. Like, that makes it like. It raises the stakes of, like. This is an intense intimacy from a Vulcan. So it adds something to it that the physicality of lots of kissing wouldn't have had. But DC Fontana did have a kiss she had written in the script. They kiss and Nimoy turned it into the hand gesture as opposed to what Roddenberry wanted, which was a big makeout session.
Matt Ferrell: But the other aspect, to me, you brought up Strange New Worlds earlier. They. They kind of fast forward into this obsession with Spock and her kind of losing her self in him so quickly. It's not earned at all.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: And all I thought was a Strange New Worlds with Patton Oswald as Doug. Yeah. And his character and the first officer just can't keep their hands off each other. And the joke is when he shows up, it's like, how is he like the sex object for the first officer? It's like that's. I felt like were watching Doug. It's like what Spock has done. Nothing other than he's standing on the bridge and said something to the captain. It's like there's nothing that would have made her start to lose her mind over Spock, but yet she was obsessed with getting him on the ship because she wanted to, like, have dinner with him.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: Weird. Just weird.
Sean Ferrell: I feel like a lot of this episode lives in backstory, that you have to, as a viewer, construct yourself.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah.
Sean Ferrell: But that if you do construct it, you're like, okay, I could see maybe where they were trying to get. But it's more than one hour could give you. So it's the kind of thing, like she says, there are Starfleet officers that we are aware of, meaning I am aware of Spock. She may be already kind of intrigued. She may see him as a potential turncoat to be able to convince to switch sides because she maybe thinks that there are angles to say, like, he's already. He calls himself Vulcan, but he's rejected being a part of the Vulcan Science Academy. He is already on the outside with Vulcans, and how is he possibly going to be accepted by humans? He is superior to them. She's thinking as a Vulcan now and maybe thinking like, oh, I think I could leverage him. I could get him to join us. And maybe it turns into a kind of erotic fascination that turns into. When she meets him face to face and he's got those dark eyes and he's kind of brooding and quiet, and she's just like, I'm into this. Like, okay, but that's maybe a season long storyline that is not a. We just introduced this character and in 20 minutes she's like, let me slip into something more comfortable and seems like it's Meline Khan in blazing Saddles coming back into the room as opposed to making sense. And I found myself. I'm like, yeah, that's not great, but I'm enjoying this episode. I'm enjoying the melodrama of it. I'm enjoying Shatner chewing the scenery up. I'm enjoying. I get everything you said. They are lying to the audience. And as a writer, I hate that. I hate, hate, hate lying to the audience. I hate withholding information from my readers just so that I can feel like I'm surprising them. It's not a surprise, it's a lie. If you are knowingly withholding information that would make sense logically to be revealed in a moment, you are lying to your reader or your. In this case, your viewer.
So I'm on board with you. I do not like that. And yet here I was watching this one and, like, I'm into this. The whole Kirk is acting out of control at the beginning, and people are looking at each other sidelong and I'm like, yeah, I get it. I'm an audience member who's nuanced enough to say, like, I get what's happening. He's pulling these strings so that everybody has deniability. All of his crew can accurately say, I thought he was acting erratically. And that's he's doing it because that's their out, whether the Enterprise is lost or not. He's like, the angle is, I want to make sure if the worst case scenario is they get a hold of the ship. My crew could pass any lie detector test and potentially be treated better than if they were a part of a plot to invade the Romulan Empire. So I'm like, I get it. Is it the best way to tell that? No, But I'm still sitting there eating my popcorn. And I was just like, okay, yeah, like, give me that moment where Shatner dies. It's ridiculous. He dies because of the death grip. And somebody pointed out in IMDb somebody was just like, so she's an expert in Vulcan history, but she doesn't know that there's no such thing as the Vulcan death grip. Fine, Give me that moment. Give me. They take him back and Nurse Chapel is like, oh, my God, he's alive. And McCoy's response is, well, now that you know, you should help me. Like what? Like you've got an assisting nurse in the sick bay with you, but you're not going to tell her he's not really dead. Like, you're not going to reveal that? Like, it's. And I'm fine. I'm Fine. Like, all of it. I was just like it at the end of the day, for me, this feels like a bit of a Saturday morning cartoon, but it's one I enjoyed watching.
So I'm with you.
Matt Ferrell: I'm with you. Yeah, I'm right there with you of I like this. My modern viewing complaints of this, that kind of surprised me because I didn't remember. I didn't remember, like, all those details that made me kind of recoil a little bit now. Yeah, I still enjoy this. I. I do not dislike. I hope people don't take this as way. As I'm saying, just dunking on this episode, because I'm not. I would watch this if it was on tv without hesitation because there's so much about it. There's some interactions between the characters I like. There's some world building that DC Fontina is doing that I really like. I like the action aspect of. They're just trying to get this cloaking technology out of the ship. So there's a little thriller aspect to it. And for the lying thing, it could have been easily diffused right at the beginning of the episode where Kirk's acting all this craziness. He ends up in the Neutral Zone, and the ships show up, and the next scene is him and Spock on the turbo lift. And Spock is saying, I hope the ruse went well.
Sean Ferrell: Right.
Matt Ferrell: Because this plan, you know, I hate keeping the rest of the crew in the dark. And Kirk's like, well, we were under orders. We have to do this. And then go about the rest of the episode. And just doing that, it then turns it into more of a thriller of not a why. What the hell is wrong with Kirk? It's more like, I hope Kirk doesn't get caught, because I hope they can pull this off. Because then they're on the enemy ship and we as viewers would know they're faking everybody out. Yeah, I hope they can keep faking. So it creates more of a thriller. If they did that.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah, it would have even. I think it could have upped the stakes. If you'd had a moment where Kirk would say, he's been acting erratically. He goes, as you said, go to the transporter room with Spock. And just before they teleport over, Kirk looks at Spock and says, you do understand you're going to have to lie.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah.
Sean Ferrell: And have Spock just raise an eyebrow. And Kirk's response being like, I know, that's a challenge. And then they go over like, yeah. And then you end up with that moment. Of like, as the. As the Romulan commander says, like, I know Vulcans are not able to lie. And then the audience is like, ooh, this is all a lie. And I know it's a lie. And so now it's supercharged. How is he going to be able to do this? And then, of course, you have the moment at the end where it's just like, I am able to say whatever I need to say as long as it's under the proper circumstances. And this was about defending Starfleet, so it is not a lie if I am omitting truths. So you end up with great moments for Vulcan logic. You end up with the intrigue and the powder keg of. We, the audience know Spock is doing something that he's not supposed to be able to do. I love the nefarious. Gotta get a hold of this cloaking device, which looks like a lamp sitting on a table. And then when the Romulans come in, they look around a little bit and one of them goes, it's gone. It's just a little bit like yadoy.
Matt Ferrell: Because it's huge.
Sean Ferrell: It's a lamp. And not only is it a lamp, it is from the earlier episode where it was the Nomad. The malfunctioning. Oh, yeah, it was that. So they had just. They put a giant ball on it and they were like, now it's a different thing. So it's great. I love that it's like a Doctor who, where they're just like, yeah, oh, the Daleks are here. And it's like one Dalek that comes through a cardboard wall and everybody's like, oh, no, they're terrifying. And like. Are they? Yeah. So it's, you know, the plunger and the light bulb. So this one being the, you know, oh, got to get in and steal the lamp off the table and get back to the Enterprise. I like the getaway. I like the using the device to cloak the Enterprise. I like that they set up in the earlier episode. They can see through the Romney on the cloaking devices. This is a new one that has the ability to even avoid evade Romulan sensors. So it's. There's just a slight twist of like, yeah, it's just that new. It's just new enough to make. Make a difference. And the idea that when the Enterprise circles back around, when Kirk gives the command, like, take us to a different heading. And they get the perpendicular shot of the Romulan ship attacking the Romulan ships. This is the first appearance of the new Klingon ship design. But they filmed this one earlier than the one where they introduce it as an actual Klingon ship. Which is why they had to add in the line, oh, the Romulans are using Klingon ship designs now? Because that means the reason they did that. The reason they did that is because the original Romulan model.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah.
Sean Ferrell: From the earlier episode had been disposed of by the guy who built it. He built it. It was used. This is just a TV show. This isn't a cultural phenomenon. They give the model back to the guy who made it. He needed room in his garage, he threw the model away. They're going to make this episode. They go back to him. They think the model still exists. They say, oh, we need that model back. He's like, I don't have it, but I'll build you a new one if you pay me.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah.
Sean Ferrell: And they say, no, we'll just use this other model that we have for a new alien spaceship. And we'll drop a line in saying, why does the Bird of Prey look different? Oh, they're using Klingon ships now. Something that doesn't make any sense, but there it is. I always love that little nugget in this episode because it makes all the animosity between Romulans and Klingons in Next Generation make no sense.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah.
Sean Ferrell: They hate each other. There's this whole thing like they do not get along. They do not have alliances, they do not like each other. If they are ever talking to each other, somebody's up to no good. And yet here the Klingons are selling their ships to the Romulans. What? They wouldn't do that. They wouldn't just sell their technology to another. Another race. And there's also this little fun fact which I experienced in watching this one because I'm watching it off the Paramount app. I don't know if you saw this as well. In the remastered version, they add an actual Romulan Bird of Prey.
Matt Ferrell: Yes.
Sean Ferrell: Which confuses it even more because now you've got two Klingon looking vessels and an actual Romulan looking vessel. And there was a part of me that I'm like, I get it, they can't just wipe out history. But I also did find myself thinking, what would this episode look like if they just completely replaced the Klingon vessels with Romulan vessels and remove the line. Oh, they're using Klingon vessels now? That would actually enjoyed it better. It would make more sense because if they were suddenly like, oh, here's three Romulan birds of prey. And we need to figure out which one of them has the new cloaking device and we need to get aboard it and we need to do all these things. It would have made a lot more sense for me. But on the whole, as we've said, for me, this one feels like good Star Trek to me. I enjoy this episode. I have a good time watching it and I just scratch my head at the low ratings and I'm like, what happened that this got a 6.7 and Spock's brain a week earlier had gotten like above a 9?
Matt Ferrell: Wow, it's a huge drop.
Sean Ferrell: And I'm like, is Spock's brain to blame? Which is a weird sentence.
Matt Ferrell: That's a very fun sentence.
Sean Ferrell: Was something going on with something else going on? Was something being broadcast? Was there some sort of Friday night sporting event or news or something like that that drew the audience? I just, I found myself scratching my head. Or is the solution simply Sean's enjoyment of this episode is not what other people have. So viewers, listeners, jump into the comments. Do you think that I'm just off on this one? That it's not as speksy as I was hoping and this is just kind of a clunker and you're all like, what is Sean on that he's talking about it this way. Jump into the comments, let us know what you think. We look forward to hearing from you. And as always, wrong answers only. It had been too long as we were recording other episodes. I found myself missing the wrong answers only because we didn't have any comments to go to. But now we're back in sync and we can ask you to jump in and tell us. Wrong answers only what is And the Children shall lead about. Big weird Star Trek title. I love the big weird ones. That sound like somebody took a sentence out of a paragraph and was just like that. That's fine as a title. And the children shall lead. Let us know in the comments what you think that one is about. Wrong answers only. As always, when you're jumping into the comments, don't forget to like, don't forget to subscribe. Don't forget to share with your friends. All those are very easy ways to support the channel. We appreciate that. And if you want to support us directly, you can go to trekintime.Show. Click the join button there. Not only will you be able to throw coins at our heads, which we do sort of duck out of the way of, but we also know the point is you need to bruise us. So we get it.
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