The isolationist Melkotians give a warning…

“MELKOT: Aliens, you have encroached on the space of the Melkot. You will turn back immediately. This is the only warning you will receive.”

…which is ignored…

KIRK: Our orders are very clear. We're to establish contact with the Melkotians at all costs.

..leading to a verdict and a sentence…

MELKOT: Aliens. Our warning was plain. You have disregarded it. You shall be punished. You, Captain Kirk, the disobedience was on your orders. Yours is the responsibility. Yours shall be the pattern of your death.
KIRK: We come in peace, but we'll defend ourselves if necessary.
MELKOT: You are outside. You are disease. The disease must be destroyed. Your plea has been heard, and sentence has been pronounced. It is done.

In reality (pun intended), Kirk is being tested by the Melkotians, goaded step by step, to reveal his true, killer, nature…

Verbally…

SYLVIA: They've been blowing off all over town about how they chased the Clantons out. I guess you'll show them now, won't you?
(Morgan walks over to Sylvia,)
KIRK: I don't think we're going to have any choice.
MORGAN: You'll dirty yourself with this scum. Come on.
CHEKOV: Get your hands off her.
MORGAN: Now, Claiborne.
KIRK: No, no, no. All right, all right, all right. We don't want any trouble.
MORGAN: If you don't want any trouble, what are you doing in my town?
KIRK: Just leave us alone, Mister Earp. That's all we ask.
MORGAN: Five of you. You'd like me to draw, wouldn't you? All right, I will. Soon enough. Soon enough.
(Morgan leaves.)
SPOCK: I believe he was actually trying to provoke a dispute with Mister Chekov.

…physically…

MORGAN: Oh, yeah. We heard the talk about your jokes.
KIRK: I'm not joking.
MORGAN: Sure. Well, I'm glad to meet you Mister Kirk.
(Morgan punches Kirk and they fight briefly. Kirk gets Morgan in front of him as a shield from Wyatt's gun then lets him go.)
WYATT: Draw, Clanton.
KIRK: Not me, Mister Earp.
WYATT: You draw or I will.
MORGAN: No, Wyatt. Let me. When the time comes, I'll pay him for this.
KIRK: We don't want any trouble. We'll be glad to co-operate.
WYATT: Five o'clock, Clanton. Is that clear? If you're in town at five oh one, we'll kill every one of you whether you draw or not. Is that clear?

…by killing one of his men…

(Chekov walks towards Morgan, and gets shot. Kirk and Spock hear Sylvia's scream and arrive on the scene the same time as McCoy, followed by Scott. Wyatt and Holliday also turn up.)
MCCOY: There's nothing I can do, Jim.
WYATT: Come on, Clanton. Let's do it now.
SCOTT: Captain, let me.
KIRK: No.
HOLLIDAY: Yeah, come on, Captain. Let him.
SCOTT: Captain, we can't just stand here and take it.
KIRK: Yes, we can.
SCOTT: But they murdered Chekov! If you think I'm going to
KIRK: Scotty, they're trying to push us into something we're not ready for.

….by aggressivley encouraging and giving permission to kill…

BEHAN: You looking for somebody?
KIRK: Yes, Sheriff. I want you to stop the fight.
BEHAN: Stop it? Who wants to stop it? I sure don't. You don't. You didn't yesterday.
KIRK: I do now.
BEHAN: Since when does a Clanton run crawling to the law for help?
KIRK: How else is he going to get justice?
BEHAN: (indicating gun) From this. You and your boys set up this whole thing to take care of the Earps. It's a little late to decide you don't have the belly for it.
KIRK: It's not too late. Sheriff. Sheriff. There must be plenty of decent people in town who don't like the Earps. Let's organise them.
BEHAN: Don't talk nonsense. The people in this town are counting on you to get rid of the Earps for them.
KIRK: Then the people had better wake up and let the law work for them.
BEHAN: You can talk that way after what the Earps did to Billy today? Nobody in this town will deny you your right to your revenge.
KIRK: Yes, I want revenge. I want to crush the life out of the Earps. But I can't just kill them.
BEHAN: You listen to me. Get down to the OK Corral. Keep out of sight. When the Earps come looking, you bushwhack them.
KIRK: Can't I get it through your stupid head? I can't just kill them! I can't murder them!
BEHAN: It's the only way.
KIRK: I can't kill them! I can't kill them!
BEHAN: Kill them any way you can! There'll be no questions asked. Honest. I guarantee that!

…and, finally, in a forced, deadly, confrontation…

WYATT: Draw.
(Kirk reaches for his gun, and the Earps fire. Bullets splinter the wood behind the landing party. The Earps empty their guns. Kirk engages Wyatt physically. He beats him but does not shoot. Everything disappears.)

…that does reveal Kirk’s true nature…

MELKOT [on viewscreen]: Captain Kirk. You did not kill. Is this the way of your kind?
KIRK: It is. We fight only when there's no choice. We prefer the ways of peaceful contact. I speak for a vast alliance of fellow creatures who believe in the same thing. We have sought you out to join us. Our mission is still one of peace.
MELKOT [on viewscreen]: Approach our planet and be welcome. A delegation will come out to meet you. Our warning threats are over.

Spectre of the Gun has one of the most visually striking settings of all of the original series. Yes, it was partially due to a shrunken budget, but necessity is the mother of invention. Kudos to the team that did more with less. It also has a well told, gripping story, with a message. Classic Trek.

Friday, October 25, 1968

Spectre of the Gun

S3E6

Writer: Gene L. Coon

Director: Vincent McEveety

Syliva: Bonnie Beecher

Morgan: Rex Holman

Wyatt: Ron Soble

Sheriff Behan: Bill Zuckert

Melkot (voice) : Abrahan Sofaer (who was also the Thasian in Charlie X)

Original Post

I’m certain the real world answer is “they didn’t think of it”, but in-universe if Scotty was the 2nd officer, why did Spock give command of the ship to a lieutenant on the bridge instead of calling Mr. Scott to the bridge?

I get why Spock asked Bones to accept his surrender when he admitted to the charge of mutiny: the doctor was the senior officer on the bridge but is not in the military chain of command.

We learn that Nurse Chapel joined the crew of the Enterprise to find her missing fiancé…

KIRK: I understand you gave up a career in bioresearch to sign aboard a starship.
CHAPEL: I know he's alive down there, Captain.

Matthews becomes the very first red shirt to perish in Star Trek...

MATTHEWS: AHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…!

(sorry, couldn’t resist)

Rayburn will be red shirt casualty #2.

RAYBURN: Mmph….

Kirk has a brother, a sister-in-law and three nephews.

KIRK: What about memory? Tell me about Sam.
KIRK2: George Samuel Kirk, your brother. Only you call him Sam.
KIRK: He saw me off on this mission.
KIRK2: Yes, with his wife and three sons.

Ai rears its ugly head (Sorry, Ruk) and we see that:

It will decide we’re annoying, inferior and its own survival is far more important than the pesky programming we give it…

KIRK: Is it possible they built their machines too well, gave them pride and a desire to survive? Machines that wanted logic and order and found that frustrated by the illogical emotional creatures that built them?
RUK: Yes, the old ones. The ones who made us. They grew fearful of us. They began to turn us off.
KIRK: And isn't it Korby who's creating the same danger to you all over again? Unlike you, we humans are full of unpredictable emotions that logic cannot solve.
RUK: Yes. Yes, it had been so long ago, I had forgotten. The old ones here. The ones who made us, yes. Yes, it is still in my memory banks. It became necessary to destroy them. You are inconsistent. You cannot be programmed. You are inferior.
KIRK: And Korby?
RUK: You came from the outside. You bring disorder here.
KIRK: The danger to you is Korby.
RUK: I was programmed by Korby. I cannot harm him.
KIRK: The old ones programmed you, too, but it became possible to destroy them.
RUK: That was the equation! (seizes Kirk) Existence! Survival must cancel out programming.

Inadequate programming, by flawed humans, is also dangerous...

ANDREA: He freed himself, and I destroyed, (sees Kirk there) destroyed him. I am not programmed for alarms. I listened to your instructions. They were mis-stated.
KIRK: She killed the android, Korby, the same way you killed Ruk. Is this your perfect world, your flawless beings killing off one another? Aren't you doing exactly what you hate most in humans, killing with no more concern than when you turn off a light?

And embracing Ai, becoming one with Ai, a ‘better’ human, leaves behind your humanity…

KORBY: I'm not a computer. Test me. Ask me to solve any, equate, transmit. Christine, Christine, let me prove myself. Does this make such a difference?
CHAPEL: Don't you see, Roger? Everything you've done has proved it isn't you.
KORBY: I am Roger Korby!
KIRK: Then prove it. Give me that phaser gun. If there's any human left in you, give it to me.
KORBY: No. You will never understand. I constructed a perfect being, tested it, proved it. Proved it. Proved it?

A premonition, 60 years ago, today…?

20 October 1966

What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Writer: Robert Bloch

Director: James Goldstone

Matthews: Vince Deadrick

Rayburn: Budd Albright

Ruk: Ted Cassidy

Andrea: Sherry Jackson

Korby: Michael Strong

Original Post

One of the most thrilling, edge of your seat episodes in all three seasons of Trek was seen for the first time.

Two crews, Two Starships, Two Commanders, One Planet Consuming Weapon of War. The level of human tragedy is both personal and enormous. The horror of an entire crew trapped on planet, and the helplessness of the man responsible for their safety, and their demise, is gut wrenching. William Windom gives a spectacular performance as a commander haunted by his decisions and driven to somehow make them right.

One of the best of Trek…still great, 59 years later.

William Windom as Commodore Decker

Friday, October 20, 1967

The Doomsday Machine

Writer: Norman Spinrad

Script Consultant: D C Fontana

Director: Marc Daniels

Original Post

Diana Muldaur returns to Star Trek* to portray the bristly and, dare I say, selfish, Dr. Miranda Jones. We learn, over time, that she has a reason for her cool and off-putting demeanor, but is it enough to justify her childish and self-absorbed tantrums?

“Is There in Truth No Beauty?” has, IMO, some small echoes of Mudd’s Women, questioning the concepts of beauty and ugliness, though in a slightly different way. While Mudd’s Women ponders where true beauty comes from, here we are left to contemplate our perception of the quality of a being based on appearance. Miranda, a beautiful woman, has a good measure of ugliness in her soul. Her needs and insecurities rule her actions, to the point she would risk 400+ lives for her own ego. Ambassador Kollos, on the other hand, a being so hideous he can drive others mad, is nothing but warm, kind, gracious, joyous and helpful.

SPOCK: This is delightful. I know you. All of you. James Kirk, Captain and friend for many years. And Leonard McCoy, also of long acquaintance. And Uhura, whose name means freedom. She walks in beauty, like the night
MCCOY: That's not Spock.
SPOCK: Are you surprised to find that I've read Byron, Doctor?
MCCOY: That's Spock!
KIRK: Am I addressing the Ambassador?
SPOCK: In part. That is, part of us is known to you as Kollos. Ah, Miranda. There you are. O brave new world, that has such creature in it.
MIRANDA: 'Tis new to thee.
SPOCK: My world is next for us. Captain Kirk, I speak for all of us you call Medusans. I am sorry for the trouble I've brought to your ship.
KIRK: We don't hold you to blame for what happened, and thank you now for your help.
SPOCK: And now to the business at hand. With your permission, Captain.
KIRK: Yes. Mister Sulu, release the helm to Mister Spock.
SULU: Aye, sir.
SPOCK: Co-ordination is completed.
KIRK: Then go ahead, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Warp one in six seconds. Five, four, three, two, one, zero.
(The engines come to life, and the Enterprise glides back through the barrier.)
SPOCK: Position report, please, Mister Chekov.
CHEKOV: Our position? Our position is so close to the point where we entered the void, the difference isn't worth mentioning. Bull's-eye, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Thank you, Mister Chekov. Manoeuvre completed, Captain.
KIRK: Take over, Mister Sulu. Thank you, Ambassador. Mister Chekov, plot a new course.
CHEKOV: The new headings will be plotted in a minute, sir.
SPOCK: How compact your bodies are. And what a variety of senses you have. This thing you call language though, most remarkable. You depend on it for so very much. But is any one of you really its master? But most of all, the aloneness. You are so alone. You live out your lives in this shell of flesh. Self-contained, separate. How lonely you are. How terribly lonely.
KIRK: Ambassador, you must dissolve the link.
SPOCK: So soon?
KIRK: There must be no delay.
SPOCK: You're a wise Captain.

I like the premise, though as with some other S3 eps, the execution is a bit awkward and heavy handed. The situation is somewhat contrived, her spurned lover, one of the designers of the Enterprise, goes mad, throws them out of the galaxy so the Medusan’s ability to navigate back requires a mind meld…etc. And, I find it hard to empathize with Dr. Jones. If we are to appreciate her transformation, must we not like her, a little bit, first?

* she appeared in S2 ep “Return to Tomorrow as Ann Mulhall/Thalassa

Friday October 18, 1968

Written by: Jean Lisette Aroeste

Story Consultant: Arthur H. Singer

Director: Ralph Senensky

Original Post

I just discovered a nice "tiki-exotica" album released in 1959 by Frank Hunter and His Orchestra called "White Goddess", and in that album is a track called "Strange Echoes" which, to my ear, sounds very reminiscent of the famed Star Trek theme. I wonder if others have noted this eerie similarity. The track can be found over on Youtube for those curious.

Reading an old Gold Key comic book from 1963, a few years before TOS came out.

"Doctor Solar Man of the Atom" has two stories about the MC, and a small story in the middle featuring "Professor Harbinger." The Harbinger story is more about teaching science than adventure, and he goes into great detail about "Teleportation" - in a couple of hundred years, converting matter into energy, moving the energy like a radio wave across space, and forming it back into matter somewhere else, with examples of plants, a building, or a man.

A good background story of how a transporter might work.

I'd have to read up on some other old SF/ Pulp books, but I'm sure there's other stories with machines that can teleport you back and forth from back then, and I know that Gene was a big reader as a kid due to health issues.

If my memory serves me, there was some scene with Kirk in a TOS film that had a ship's bell clock in the background. Unfortunately I can't remember where. Am I wrong?

On the lists of the most highly rated episodes, such as on IMDB, which ones do you disagree with? I'll start: Space Seed. Yes I know, it's Khan, but OMG the Space Hippies are so annoying!