Yes, I'm running late, but I have a good reason: I didn't get
around to writing or posting this sooner. All right, that's not any
kind of reason.
By Any Other Name
The Plot:
- A band of hostile aliens from the Andromeda galaxy uses a
distress signal to lure the Enterprise into a trap. (Tivo).
If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time the Federation faces
invasion from creatures sufficiently technologically advanced that they
could take over the Federation as swiftly as the United States could
take over a Persian Gulf dictatorship. While they've faced
nigh-omnipotent beings before they haven't had ones that particularly
cared about the Federation or whether they had anything to do with them.
That's something the Original Trek did erratically, and Modern
Trek did less reliably -- admitting that there are just going to be
other polities with technology far in advance of Our Heroes and that
this is just part of what makes life in space so exciting. Usually by
the time of The Next Generation these vastly more advanced aliens would
just be relics and archeological digs.
In a plot twist which would surely have done John W Campbell
proud, although Star Fleet's Finest can't do anything technologically to
upstage the Kelvans, there is that essential human-ness which overwhelms
the expansionist, controlling Kelvan society that the invading party
grew up in. In fact, the episode lays out a couple of attempts that Our
Heroes make to capture or subvert Kelvan technology, none of which comes
to anything.
It's an unusual bit of plotting to have things set up with the
payoff being just Scotty drinking Tomar under the table. I had
completely forgotten the thread about attempting to jam the Kelvan
Generator of Mightiness since the end of it is simply Kirk noting that
they can't destroy the Generator without losing the crew. Usually these
sorts of threads would end up making the situation more perilous (before
the final act) or solving things (the final act).
On the other hand, dropping these attempts at all would be
illogical to the characters: Kirk can't simply do *nothing* before
hitting on the one successful line of attack.
Oddly enough they kind of did this story before, with I, Mudd,
but that was played for much broader laughs. Not that this story
doesn't turn out to be funny, but by starting off with a much more
serious -- and credible -- threat the change is ... abrupt isn't the
right word, but it does mean there's a deeper difference in tone between
the first half and the second than there is in I, Mudd. I'm not sure
how I feel about that shift; but on the other hand, I don't see that any
other approach than pushing the Kelvans' humanity in their faces would
have any chance of working.
So, the Kelvans transformed themselves from vaguely Lovecraftian
monsters into humans for the sake of stealing the Enterprise. There's a
comedy bit to be written based on the notion of their transforming
themselves into something else, you know. Is it part of the same powers
as the belts to turn people into polyhedrons, or do they have to go
through the transporter the old-fashioned way that they didn't start
applying until the Animated Series?
Thoughts While Watching:
- Brand-new beaming in effect so the mighty good set stands out
more and suggests the existence of a whole place.
- 300 mark 7 is apparently pretty close to the ground, for human
forms.
- The Kelvans have magic belts of twink powergaming!
- It seems rare that the opening credits should be over action
rather than starship shots and Captain's Logs. I'm not sure whether it
actually is.
- Rojan can't help monologuing about how his freezing spell
works. Kirk's sheer Mister Incredible-ness shines through.
- How does Rojan know what humans call his galaxy?
- Within ten millennia the Andromeda galaxy is going to be
uninhabitable. Dang. Particularly since the Andromeda galaxy is
heading towards the Milky Way, although it will take more than 10,000
years to get here.
- I don't envy actors who have to pretend to be motionless.
- ``Drea, Tomar, report!''
TOM SERVO: We Martians have kidnapped Santa Claus!
- Ensign Woman is stunned by a 300-year journey, even though
someone who'll live at least 200 years is one of her shipmates.
- Transmissions out can't penetrate the Galactic Barrier, and it
destroyed an incoming Kelvan vessel even though the Enterprise struggled
through it some.
- The Federation has handled invasions before, although we learn
in The Wrath of Khan that it's kept the peace for a century too.
Apparently these earlier invasions were no big deal.
- So these so-called advanced aliens actually use *prison bars*
to make a prison. Why not a force field anyone magic enough can walk
through? (Perhaps they didn't have the effects budget left for fiddling
with force fields, given the relatively ornate sets provided for the
planet.)
- Kirk mentions 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' *and* 'A Taste of
Armageddon'. For the Original Series this is almost continuity porn.
On top of that, Spock attempts mind-melding with the rocks and learns
not to *do* that.
- Kelvan security guards are no better than any other security
guards.
- They have the power to turn people into d16s! The Federation
is being invaded by Dungeons and Dragons fanboys!
- And the Black Guy doesn't die first! Instead it's the Woman!
Well, as long as she's never been seen before.
- Grabbing or jamming the magic belts turns into a
running theme, although it turns out not to pay off. That's
surprisingly authentic -- it would have been awfully easy writing to
have Kirk find the way to turn the belts against the Kelvans.
- And a backhanded allusion to Shore Leave, and Vulcan
alternatives to vacationing.
- A sick man? In a jail? This can't possibly be a trick!
- Enough Enterprise systems are shut down, apparently, that
sickbay has to resort to the medical transports of the 1960s.
- Back on the Kelvan homeworld, apparently, people watch rock
candy form.
- It's a rare episode where the title of the episode is
explicitly said.
- ``Increase speed to warp eleven, Mister Chekov.''
CROW: Unless that's impossible again this week.
- Ship speed gets suggested by a couple of neat tricks in the
episode, including editing the inset shots of the Enterprise at warp
shorter than usual. That's a basic trick, but a good one, and one that
I don't think later Treks picked up on.
- Positive energy would, apparently, cause trouble with the
Galactic Barrier. This supports the idea that the barrier was negative
energy, rather than lacking in energy readings, the first time through.
- And so, Kirk, faced with his ship being stolen and the
Federation facing invasion, wusses out instead of self-destructing the
ship. It worked out well, considering, but Kirk did get lucky in the
subversion plan. Does raise the question of what the alternate Kelvan
plans were, though. If they heard nothing from the expedition team,
what would they have done?
- The Kelvans never would have guessed the self-destruct plan if
Kirk hadn't recorded a log entry in the middle of it.
- The Barrier is a lot less destructive this time around.
Apparently the first taste of it lead to some major shielding
improvements, which is reasonable enough.
- Chekov waiting to be turned into dice looks like a helpless
little puppy who has no idea he's going to be hit with a rolled-up
newspaper.
- McCoy has four doctors and nurses on duty at the moment.
- The galley's still working without crew. And the Kelvan opens
himself up to eating a couple bowls of those food capsules every day.
- Spock's come to the slightly Kafka-esque conclusion that
having human form is going to make the Kelvans become emotionally human.
- And so, Scotty's reputation as an alcoholic is born.
- I wonder if McCoy gave the wimpy Kelvan a lollipop after his
injection.
- Kelinda's outfit is kept on purely by the power of Broadcast
Standards's angry glares.
- I think I've got it: Rojan is what Frank Burns would look like
in the 23rd century.
- WOR's syndication cuts chopped out most of the Scott/Tomar
drinking scene. They left in the punch line ``it's green'', but without
the setup it's really tough to fathom.
- McCoy's in the rec room playing Rigellian solitaire.
- James Doohan does a really funny drunken fall.
- The Kelvan empire is so advanced they've all but lost the
manly art of sissy slap-fighting.
- Kirk asks why Rojan doesn't use his paralyzer. That's really
not the moment to ask that. It's to be asked later, when he's got Rojan
in a hold.
- ``I'm stimulating him'' is another great little throwaway
moment.
- So there's an interesting point: humanity as an assimilative
culture, one that can't help but absorb the aliens who encounter it.
Humans as the United States.
- Rojan is so distraught his close-ups don't match his
two-shots.
- Drea is *never* included in the fun stuff. It's a bit odd
that she wasn't dropped from the story, although perhaps a four-person
invasion crew was a little too obviously small and left the
quasi-romantic lead too obvious. Or maybe she had a larger role
(quasi-romance target for Spock?) in earlier drafts and her character's
existence was a hint of that, or they figured they didn't have a fifth
Regular Hero character to pit against her (George Takei was off in the
jungles, never to be heard from again; Uhura could have done something,
though). They may have also felt that somebody had to be on the bridge
or else Kirk would just fiddle with the controls when nobody was around,
although as the helm could be locked (we've seen that before) the plot
point could have been addressed.
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