From: rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu (Michael Rawdon)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: The Man Trap
Date: 2 Sep 92 03:52:11 GMT
Reply-To: rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Dept., Madison, WI

In <Zk2DqB10w164w@kryton.UUCP> ace@kryton.UUCP (Catherine Beckstead) writes:
>atb@gserv1.dl.ac.uk (A.M.T. Bell) writes:
>> The Beeb showed the TOS episode *The Man Trap* last night, this was the first
>> TOS episode to be broadcast on TV in america. Good to see Kirk, Spock and
>> Bones together with the old polystyrene rocks and stuff. As usual the unknown
>> crewmen got bumped off by the alien creature, it was after the salt in their
>> bodies. There were some strange things though. At the start of the episode
>> Uhura was shown driving instead of communicating, Sulu was in the botany lab
>> instead of driving. McCoy was in the dispensary, not in sickbay.

Well, actually "The Man Trap" was the 7th (or so) episode filmed, so the
series had mostly taken shape by this time.  Most of the discrepancies
above can be explained away pretty easily:

1) Sulu's duties included a few scientific ones on occasion, notably in
   "Shore Leave", as I recall.  Originally (in "Where No Man Has Gone Before")
   he headed the *physics department*.
2) Uhura took over the navigation position in later episodes.  Apparently
   Starfleet officers are expected to be multitalented (not a bad expectation
   given the unforgiving nature of space and vacuum. :-)
3) The "dispensary" sounds like something attached to sickbay.  Most likely
   they just hasn't gotten the terminology down at this point.

>> Spock survives being de-salted by the creature as he's supposedly not
>> got any NaCl in his body. If he's half human surely he should have some NaCl
>> in his body, does Spock have any non-Vulcan body parts?

>Pretty good catch.  Maybe at this point the writers had not quite decided that
>Spock was going to be half human.  Just this alien guy with the ears.  The
>character is obviously not fleshed out.

He may also have meant that he didn't have enough to make any difference if
it was sucked out.  ("Obsession", I think, makes it clear that Spock's blood
is copper-based, not iron-based, so it's possible that he has some salt other
than NaCl in his body.  NaCl isn't the only salt, after all...)

>> There's a scene with Spock and Uhura when Spock is being *logical*, presumabl
>> this is to say to the audience, "look how strange the alien pointy-eared guy
>> Spock hadn't been seen before on TV when this episode was first shown. At the
>> end when the alien creature is about to de-salt his friend the Captain he's
>> acting rather *emotionally*. I imagine that someone somewhere has a list
>> of Spock's illogical/emotional behaviour in TOS.

>Again, Spock wasn't totally fleshed out at that time.  He also smiles in
>"Where No Man Has Gone Before", the second pilot, 3rd or 4th episode shown,
>back '66.

Are you sure about that?  I don't remember him smiling in "Where No Man".  He
smiled in "The Cage" (and therefore in "The Menagerie"), but I think his
logic-over-emotions bit was pretty much established even in "Where No Man"
(albeit with a somewhat quirky sense of humor).

>	   I'm not sure exactly what episode he becomes the Spock we 
>all know and love.  Does anyone know what episode we find out that Spock
>is half human?  My guess is that it is "Journey to Babel", where we first
>see Sarek and Amanda.  But it may have been before.  Me being the young'en
>that I am, (born the same year as Star Trek), I don't remember ever NOT
>knowing that Spock was half human.

Me, neither.  Only one Trek Classic episode was broadcast first-run during
my lifetime. :-)

-- 
Michael Rawdon	    rawdon@colby.cs.wisc.edu  [Note new address!]
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department, Madison, WI

"...I guess I'd rather have mediocre Star Trek then none at all."
				- A friend, about the ST:TNG episode "Legacy"
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current