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Star Trek: The Original Series 123-124 (Patreon)

Published:
2024-10-02 12:00:03
Edited:
2026-01-08 03:08:09
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Episodes: A Taste of Armageddon & This Side of Paradise

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Comments

Raven Dark

I've only watched A Taste of Armageddon, but I wanted to make a few comments before I watch This Side of Paradise in case I forget later. I imagine the reason the guards or whatever they were jumped out of the way of the phasor fire when they were already going to die anyway has to do with how the Disintegration machine works. It would make sense to me that a society that's as advanced as the aliens on that planet (I can't recall their name) have figured out a way to make the disintegration painless. Especially since they choose to fight war through a computer and then commit suicide in order to avoid the horror and pain of war. That would explain why they're so willing to go to their deaths and seem unafraid of it. Being shot (or hit with phasor fire) must be extremely painful, so they probably leaped out of the way in fear of a painful death, whereas they don't have the same fear of death by disintegration. The scene where Spock tricks the guard with "There is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder," was a fun highlight for me. It's so simple, yet so believable, because so many people would absolutely look, the way they guard did. I would. Plus his delivery of the line made it even funnier. Onto the next...

Tony E Crumpton

As others have commented in previous episodes, while there are non-bi-pedal humanoid species in the Star Trek universe, there is an in-universe explanation for why so many are humanoid-looking. This is a small spoiler for an episode of TNG that you won’t be getting to for a couple of years, but most of the humanoid species originate from a common ancestor. Yeah, it’s a bit of intelligent panspermia…panspermia all over the place.

Darin Foat

You could suppose that the guards in Taste of Armageddon are all shit at hand to hand fighting because they've never actually had to do it before. That being said, there are some pretty goofy moves in the fights.

John M.

Sabotage! I had never noticed that he pronounces it that way here. There's an infamous bit of audio where he gets into an argument with someone while he's doing an audiobook because they ask him to say it correctly and he refuses.

Gaius Frakking Baltar

"For the first time in my life, I was happy". 😭 This Side of Paradise is one of Dorothy Fontana's best teleplays for the series, one of Ralph Senensky's best directing efforts, one of DP Jerry Finnerman's best-looking episodes, and one of Leonard Nimoy's finest performances. Throw in the palpable chemistry between Nimoy and the lovely Jill Ireland, and you have a perfect storm of talent and creativity. Shortly after filming was completed, Nimoy sent this appreciative letter to Senensky: Dear Ralph, I would like to have you know how much I enjoyed the work that we did together on “This Side of Paradise.” It was not only a special Spock experience, but it was special for me as well in that I felt safe in the hands of a capable and sensitive director. Unfortunately, a rare experience in TV. I sincerely hope that we will spend much more time working together on sound stages and locations in the future. Many, many thanks. Sincerely, Leonard Nimoy https://senensky.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/nimoy_letter_2.jpg

gfixler

I have to share this incredible project I've been following for a while now. This guy is on a mission to build a 1/25th scale TOS Enterprise. https://www.youtube.com/@mrtrek2117 This video will give you a good sense of things, and about 2/3rds of the way through, he shows the cross section of the widest part of the saucer, to give you a sense of how big the final model will be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee1gULdMP28 But all the videos are incredible. I've been so stoked for a while. He's building a 1/100th scale to start, to work through a bunch of issues, and that's coming along beautifully, too. In one of the recent videos, he shows off hundreds of those blue chairs they sit in on the show, which a fan 3D resin printed and sent to him, which will be used all through the ship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Z-D08JSy0

Monica Alarcon

Well Dr. McCoy is from Georgia. So I guess he just reverted to his natural accent.

D. T. Nelson

I think Futurama has ruined my ability to appreciate Star Trek as it was intended. In the episode This Side of Paradise, every time they referenced the planet, Omicron Ceti 3, all I could think about was Lrrr from Futurama shouting "I am Lrrr of the planet Omicron Persei 8!"

Robert Evans

I think the dark side of the Omicron Ceti Spore is that your are perpetually content. You do nothing more than is required to maintain survival. For example, you wouldn't sit down and struggle to write a novel, or a song, or a film because that's strife and hard and you's rather just sit in a what is very much a drugged stupor. The spore only wants you alive and no more.

Rupert Purcat

An interesting aside to 'A taste of Armagedón' is the appearance of Japanese actress Miko Mayama as Yeoman Tamura. This was filmed only 22 years after dropping atomic bombs on Japanese cities (about the same time as 9-11 from today) and there was still much resentment against Japanese people and products. Her inclusion in the good guys team is still very significant to the episodes message about war.

Actuarial Lurker

War with no physical collateral damage to infrastructure just death

Molly Jacobs

On the Eminians being afraid of the crew with disrupters while not being afraid to die in the chambers, it brings to mind remarking to a Christian online (I'm an atheist) that while we starkly disagree on the results of death, we can both completely agree that the actual process of dying part sucks and is perhaps the most important factor of a fear of death. The Christian concurred. So the Eminians saw the disintegration machines as painless but were fearful of suffering wounds, deadly or not. Also if they died outside the machines, their deaths wouldn't be recorded properly I suppose.

SpankTheMonk

Dang George was sooo close on the guess with A Taste of Armageddon!

SpankTheMonk

I am guessing the paper clip game is based on a similar philosophical thought experiment of giving artificial intelligence the objective to make paper clips in the most efficient manner it would potentially destroy everything for that one pursuit.

Molly Jacobs

TSOP probably was a commentary on 60s hippy idealism, typified by the summer of love (1967) and hallucingenic drug using as popularized by psychologist Timothy Leary who famously said in 1966, "Turn on, tune in, and drop out" Basically telling people to drop out of society, live on a commune along with "mind-expanding" substances to seek happiness.

Young Blood Priest

That was “supposed” to be the appeal of the neutron bomb back in the late 70s early 80s. Kill all the people but leave the buildings standing.

Amos T Fairchild

Let's face it, Kirk is the reason they have the Prime Directive. lol.

Kurt Hockenbury

It also looks like the people on This Side of Paradise are not reproducing, but are still apparently aging. Eventually they'd all die off of old age with no next generation.

Kurt Hockenbury

I just realized, you have 5 episodes left in Season 1; what are you going to do, release 2, 2, & 1, or 2 + 3? Or start in on Season 2 immediately? Or maybe you could pair the last season 1 episode with the original pilot episode they cut up to make The Cage.

JBK405

Philip J. Fry when speaking to Leonard Nimoy: Remember that episode where you got high on spores and smacked Kirk around? I'm obviously already slanted in one direction since I personally abstain from all mind-altering drugs (I don't drink, I don't get high, etc.), but it seems obvious to me that the people aren't "fully" happy while under the control of the spores. They're content, but nothing more. And contentment is fine for a while. But what about FOREVER? A year from now, five years from now, ten years from now, they're going to be doing the exact same things and be EXACTLY THE SAME LEVEL OF CONTENT. Wake up, do your chores and farming, then just lie about and...that's it. Nobody will tell any new jokes, perform a new play, invent a new sport, or anything. Forget even talking about "struggle" and hardship, which was Kirk's main point. With this level of breezy, vague contentment even the things that make joy aren't here. It's why people shouldn't be drunk or high ALL THE TIME. You can't function at that level.

Andrew Roach

Ah the greatness of Trek. Not just a dumb action show, sometimes it is. Not just a comedy, sometimes it is. Not just a horror, sometimes it is. A show were evil monsters may not be evil, a show that makes you think sometimes and sometimes you may not even know what to think, certainly not a one trick pony.

REDR58

George if you’re interested in seeing non-humanoid aliens in a good sci-series you’ll have to watch Babylon 5!

mky

The problem, George, is that the settlers and crew did not give their consent to be subjected to the spores. The spores were uninvited invaders of their bodies.

SpankTheMonk

By Will Shatner alone he sets his mind in motion… Bill bends reality to his Will. The Flower has no power over him.

SpankTheMonk

Ok this is what makes your channel great! My 400 cents :). Spock is half-human but he chose to become a being without emotion, it is only subtlety hinted so far but you will find out about it later. His mention of being “happy” to me is an expression of the incident not so much longing. His human half may have a tiny bit of emotional tug for that, but he is the makeup of both. As for our struggle for peace, and if a symbiotic organism providing the Elysium field effects both emotional and physically is great but it removed the human/organism choice, apply that to American and Western culture. The show is about a mostly human focused, American ideal focused POV. Independence even in our right to fail is almost a right in our value system . Pursuit of happiness is an option not a contract or a requirement, at least in the US Constitution. There seems to be an inherent human desire, need, and perhaps collective curiosity that goes beyond finding Nirvana even if you go toward harm. Not sure if this is universal or forever, but it seems that this helped separate ourselves from other animals. It is a great conversation thanks for watching and bringing it up for us to hear. It is one of the things that makes, in my opinion, Star Trek great. And Star Trek is different from other long lasting science fiction like Star Wars where SW is, IMHO, inherently about myth, legend, grand emotion of heroic journey philosophy.

Simon Pegged Me

The spores, while benign, do rob creatures of their free will. In this case, they don’t have the opportunity or right to decide from themselves what makes them happy. They get the one-size-fits-all state of bliss given to them by the spores. But happiness isn’t that. Happiness derives from something. Happiness comes from personal satisfaction, doing things or experiencing things that give a person pleasure. It’s more than just feeling good all the time, and the spore is robbing the infected of knowing what makes them happy, for one, and from allowing to do the things that make them happy. I think it’s telling that when Bones is coming back to himself from a temporary vacation with the spores, he says, “What do you mean you’re going to assign me a duty? I’m s doctor.” It’s a manifestation of the irritation Spock and Kirk are generating, but it’s also true. Bones normally gets pleasure and experiences happiness when he’s allowed to be a doctor. Ditto for Kirk. He snaps out of the spore’s control when he’s reflecting on the medals he’s been awarded for his achievements in Star Fleet. I think the strong emotion that eradicated the spores from his system was the sense of loss, the grief suffered from no longer being the captain of the Enterprise. That’s, usually, the source of his happiness. Spock chooses to live as a Vulcan, but he could also choose to live as a human. He could experience happiness again if that were something he wanted. He chooses to turn his back on it. In forcing Spock to exist in a state of happiness, the spores have done him the most harm.

Paul Davey

"Youcouldn'tpronounceit Spock" is definately a strange name.

Robert Evans

Buckle up, Kiddos. 'This side of Paradise' is not the most heartrending episode of Season 1.

Stuart Sutcliffe

What's fascinating about both episodes was how they were clearly layered with satire and social commentary. "A Taste of Armageddon" is a critique on the so called "peace" of the Cold War and nuclear war planning. "This Side of Paradise" has been acknowledged as Star Trek's contemporary take on the Hippie Movement. What I appreciate is that the network and Producers were willing to air challenging messages in their media back in the 1960s, as opposed to broadcasting media which is sanitized to nurture multiple sides of the issues of their time. Star Trek, in these episodes, appeared set out to attack them, even if its messages were buried in nuance.

Stuart Sutcliffe
>>151280837

On another note, on the ethics of freeing the humans from the Spores, Simone is right in that there are a few episode plots in Buffy and its spin offs that ask the same question. But as to George's point about whether the emotions of the characters was correct, the episode stops at a point where I think George does. The episode clearly ends on a note where we are uncertain as to the moral correctness of Kirk's decision. Spock's last line is a counterpoint to the audience. But there is another question unresolved. Do people's feelings have any moral basis on whether freeing people from a brainwashing infection is right or wrong? This is not a rhetorical question, philosophers still debate as to the morality of happiness and suffering--especially when against one's will. And to George's point, feelings are chemical responses. If so, are they as amoral as nature appears to be? Does it matter then that Kirk was depriving his crew from happiness, as long as doing so was not traumatic to his crew? Maybe I can write dispassionately about these topics because I disagree with Aristotle as to the moral goodness of "happiness." I am not even sure if I have experienced the thing, or if I did I was so unmoved that I do not remember. But it needs to be asked whether the feelings of the individual are as important as the person themself, and after that, what the H all that means anyway.

Ron

Regarding the disintegration booths in "A Taste of Armageddon," they were spoofed in Futurama and appeared or were mentioned in about half a dozen episodes. They were shaped like a phone call box, had an "In Use" light on it, and cost 25 cents to use. "Sir, you have a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder." All these years later, that still makes me laugh!

Ginger

"Kirk thinks your society is stupid" is a very accurate meme. ^^

REDR58

With “This Side of Paradise” it seems a very boring lifestyle looking at it from the outside. Spock speculated that the plant was drifting through space, but he wasn’t sure. Jill Ireland who portrayed Leila Kalomi in “This Side of Paradise” sadly only lived to be 54, dying of breast cancer. She was British and her second husband was Charles Bronson. I don’t think Simone and George have seen any of his movies, but he was a hugely popular movie star in his day and was featured in a number of big movies including “The Great Escape” and others. He is probably most famous for the “Deathwish” series of films.

algi

As I understand being shot by a disruptor is super painful. They prefer a painless disintegration.

Theadora

The "cold war" between the Soviets and the US was just getting going, plus the fact that Soviets aren't an ethnic minority, so most white Americans wouldn't look at someone "Soviet" and have negative stereotypes to mentally fight against.

algi

I think the people affected in Paradise are a special case, because all of them signed up for a specific mission. The colonists signed up for an expanding agricultural colony and the crew signed up to explore space. They aren't retirees or disenfranchised people who need help, they all left Earth to work not only a struggle for their own happiness, but the widen the horizon of humanity in its entirety: the colonists to push the frontier of the space humans can live in and the crew to push our knowledge of the universe.

Theadora

'cause lust would probably destroy the spores.

Theadora

I also think it's significant that the spores apparently can't affect animals, so all the animals the colonists brought with them died off, AND the "assimilation" pained Spock when it started. I wonder if that means that they're specifically affecting certain areas of the brain, and humans/half-humans just read it as "happiness" because OUR brain chemistry works that way. I wonder if other (non-human) species would be affected differently, or not affected at all.

G Lam

George commenting on Simone's "vague", but she's never commented on him saying "specie" regularly. Then again, I'm probably the worst here for pointing that out.

Foamy

I thought that Kirk was able to fight it effectively because out of everyone on the ship--he was living his best life already. He was already living his destiny. Spores couldn't really offer him much.

Nabikon

The ambassador in AToA just needed a nap. Those bags could carry groceries.

Angela D. Mitchell

I really like "This Side of Paradise" precisely because it asks those tough questions. I know for you, George, they feel like a bug, but for me they're a feature -- that final line from Spock is just freaking devastating. However. I'm with you on wishing the episode was clearer about the spore's influence. Is everyone acting from their real selves, just no more filters and no more sadness? Or is it turning them into generic "happy" people with zero free will? The spore does seem to infect them with its biological imperative -- to spread itself farther via the Enterprise, for instance. So I feel like it's leaning toward the second -- they can do what they want as long as first and foremost, they do what the spore requires them to do. Which is why I wouldn't want them (or me) to stay under the influence of the spores. You get happiness but become a pod person? Nope. I did like the detail that they were barely farming -- which makes sense because of the spores. They're all just wandering around in a dream -- smiling in a fog, not doing anything. I'm not sure this was a successful episode, but this was one of Nimoy's best performances, and I love the complexity it added to Spock. There's a nice subtext to his final scene with the girl, where you can see he WANTS to feel and show tenderness -- his touching her cheek is a nice subtle detail. But he's also still always going to be who he is.