So, Star Trek season 3...

[lizbee]

I find it difficult to believe that "Spock's Brain" and "The Enterprise Incident" come from the same series. Did contemporary audiences suffer explodey!brain from the discombobulation of seeing them in consecutive weeks without fair warning?

Memory Alpha informs me that the team of the time considered "The Enterprise Incident" a failure. Which just goes to show that authors should never be allowed to judge their own work, because it was made of EPIC WIN, and as soon as I have spare time that doesn't need to be devoted to packing or writing fic for that fest I totally forgot about until last night and OH HAI the deadline is today! I am going to seek out fic involving Spock and the Romulan commander in the movie-verse.

Speaking of explodey!brain, I am a wee bit sad that Assignment: Earth never got picked up for a series, because it had the potential to be, like, a cross between Sapphire & Steel, The Avengers and some kind of Cold War drama. On the other hand, using what might well be the very last episode of your show to introduce a whole different show? Pretty shitty move, Roddenberry. Not quite on the level of, "Surprise! From now on, 'Horns of Nimon' is the season 17 finale!" -- although, as everyone knows, Nimons >>>>> Shada, but still.

It's especially a shame, because "Bread and Circuses" is a great satire about television culture, full of cancellation!bitterness. And random religious parallels which are only marginally more subtle than a Left Behind novel, but cheerfully undermine Trek's future claims that humanity has "outgrown" religion.

AND NOW, I'm having stomach cramps due to some bad ham at lunch, but I'm also hungry. Solution: a shot of Mylanta followed by toast. LIVING IT UP, BABY!

Comments

[lonemagpie]

Spock's Brain was never actually intended for production- Gene Coon wanted out of his contract but *had* to deliver one last (in order of being written, not airdate or production) script to get out without losing a ton of cash- so he wrote one that he was convinced was so daft they could never actually produce it.

And they did.

Enterprise Incident is fun- Mission Impossible in space.

Bread And Circuses, yeah, that's a real WTF bit that Uhura delivers at the end... And not for the intended reason!

[lizbee]

That makes a lot of sense about "Spock's Brain" - it's the televisual equivalent of the best-of album that a band releases to fulfill their contract. I particularly loved the bit where Leonard Nimoy wasn't so much playing an unemotional Vulcan, as a sarcastic maitre'd.

[rembrandtswife]

Not only did "Spock's Brain" give us the immortal line, "Brain and brain! What is brain!" it also gave us a McCoy line that should be remembered with honor: "I never should have reconnected his mouth."

*would like to hear Karl Urban say that line*

[neigedens]

One of these days I'm going to get really drunk and watch "Spock's Brain" because I think that's only time I could and not be killed by embarrassment squick.

[tree_and_leaf]

The Enterprise Incident was absolute win, and I always had some fondness for "Bread and Circuses", despite the crackiness and lack of subtlety.

[geekturnedvamp]

I remember being really into these TOS-verse stories about Spock and the Romulan commander, and now I wish I had time to reread them. In conclusion: "The Enterprise Incident" = awesome.

[my_daroga]

There's a really super-horrible (and infamous) couple of TOS novels that include the Romulan Commander (and also cloned!Kirk and lots of naked wrestling and not-at-all-veiled slash) called Price of the Phoenix (cover art here) and The Fate of the Phoenix. Both are simply appalling in multiple ways. But I thought it worth mentioning.

"Spock's Brain" got infinitely better (for a certain value of better) for me when my roommate and I decided it should be redone as "Kirk's Cock" since it is the obvious equivalent and surprisingly easy to keep all the dialogue the same.

Season three, in general, is just... sad. Never more so really than when a good episode happens, and you remember they exist.

[lizvogel]

Now, now, Price isn't all that bad. If you're in the mood for blatantly button-pushing hurt-comfort, you could do a lot worse.

Every few years, I reread Price. And then I reread Fate, and then I am sorry. Last time, I put a note in the end of Price to just stop there, no matter how good an idea it seems at the time to read the next one.

[my_daroga]

See, I love Price for the slashiness, and I am a sucker for multiple-Kirk stories. But the writing is so abstruse as to be nearly indecipherable: I kept thinking I was just too stupid to get the sense of their convoluted sentence structure but I really don't think that was the problem. Oddly, Fate and The Prometheus Design are much "better" written, and much less interesting.

[lizvogel]

I kinda like the writing style in Price, myself. Wouldn't want a steady diet of it, but once in a while it really hits the spot. Ah well, IDIC in action!

[my_daroga]

Indeed! It's also possible I was just very sleepy when I read it.

[phosfate]

Gary Seven has a couple of decent paperback novels of his own, and some comics collected in a trade (which I haven't read).