RIP Walter Koenig you will really be missed.

than the late Walter Koenig (RIP)!

Gary Lockwood
February 21, 1937 (age 89) and still with us.

Walter Koenig

September 14, 1936

Der Running Gag, bei dem Pavel Chekov behauptet, dass fast jede historische Errungenschaft, jedes Sprichwort oder jede Erfindung aus „Mütterchen Russland“ stammt, zieht sich durch mehrere Episoden von Star Trek: The Original Series (Raumschiff Enterprise).

Die bekannteste Einzelszene, in der dieser Gag im Zentrum steht, ist in der Episode „Kennen Sie Tribbles?“ (Originaltitel: The Trouble with Tribbles, Staffel 2, Episode 15) zu finden:

In dieser Folge sitzen Chekov und Scotty an der Bar der Raumstation K-7. Chekov versucht ununterbrochen, die russische Überlegenheit zu betonen. Als das Getreide Quadrotriticale zur Sprache kommt, erklärt Chekov stolz:

„Das ist eine russische Erfindung!“

Daraufhin korrigiert ihn Captain Kirk amüsiert, dass es in Wirklichkeit in Kanada erfunden wurde. In derselben Szene behauptet Chekov außerdem, dass der nahegelegene Planet zuerst von einem russischen Astronomen kartografiert wurde und dass Scotch Whisky von einer „alten kleinen Dame aus Leningrad“ erfunden wurde – was den stolzen Schotten Scotty natürlich zutiefst empört.

Weitere berühmte Szenen dieses Running Gags:

• Staffel 2, Episode 3 („Die Stunde der Erkenntnis“ / Friday's Child): Der allererste Moment des Gags. Scotty zitiert das Erden-Sprichwort: „Täusche mich einmal, Schande über dich. Täusche mich zweimal, Schande über mich.“ Chekov grätscht sofort dazwischen: „Ein altes Sprichwort. Es wurde in Russland erfunden!“

• Staffel 3, Episode 20 („Die Reise nach Eden“ / The Way to Eden): Als Pille (Dr. McCoy) und Chekov über den paradiesischen Planeten sprechen und Pille ihn mit dem Garten Eden vergleicht, entgegnet Chekov todernst: „Natürlich, Doktor. Der Garten Eden lag direkt außerhalb von Moskau. Ein sehr schöner Ort.“

• Kinofilm „Star Trek VI: Das unentdeckte Land“: Selbst in den Kinofilmen wurde der Witz beibehalten. Chekov behauptet hier während eines Abendessens felsenfest, dass das Märchen Aschenputtel (Cinderella) ein „russisches Epos“ sei.

Hintergrund des Witzes: Der Gag wurde von Serienschöpfer Gene Roddenberry und den Autoren eingebaut, um die damalige sowjetische Propaganda während des Kalten Krieges und des Wettlaufs im All („Space Race“) aufs Korn zu nehmen, bei der die UdSSR oft behauptete, alles zuerst erfunden zu haben. (Grog Gemini)

Specter of the Gun?

In memory Walter Koeing whats best Russian Joke he made in Franchise History

Star Trek VI Undercovered Country:

"I don't know you heard Russian Epic of Cinderella if shoe fits were it" when I was kid first time I hered that line I couldn't not stop laughing. I love You Walter Koeing my profits guide you to the Next life.

Please vote for Gina! Your free vote is doubled today. A small donation which goes to the Ryan Seacrest Foundation will get you 20 votes!

I met her at the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga NY, where she is an incredibly knowledgeable tour guide.

Thank you for your support. 🖖

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

Surely it can melt out the pump but not carry it?

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.

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

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