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Tag Archives: Leonard Nimoy

How Star Trek The Wrath of Khan Became the Perfect Movie

15 Monday Jun 2020

Posted by therealmcteag in s, Star Trek, Star Trek 2 Backstory, Star Trek Movies, Star Trek the Original Series, The Wrath of Khan

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2001 A Space Odyssey, behind the scenes of star trek 2, Best Sci-fi movies, EFAP, gene roddenberry, harve bennett, How wrath of khan became the perfect movie, jerry goldsmith, lawrence kasdan, Leonard Nimoy, long form production storys, Movie Reviews, nedrotic, ricardo montalbon, Sci Fi movies, Space Seed, Star Trek, star trek 2, Star Trek the Motion Picture, star trek the wrath of Khan, star trek TOS, the best scifi movie, the ciritical drinker, The making of Wrath of Khan, William Shatner, Wrath of Khan

On June 4th, 1982 all of Star Trek Culminated in what may be the greatest Science Fiction movie of all time- Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan!

It stormed into theaters and held audiences in the palm of its hand for 113 completely brilliant minutes.

Fans were enraptured by the amazing story that features brilliant exposition and a natural flow of action that make this a highly watchable gem. Every Sci-Fi fan needs to see and appreciate this great movie. Few can watch this and not feel the emotion of the great scenes. Solidly acted and well directed the movie is Star Trek’s best story and a triumph for the often troubled franchise.

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Wrath of Khan is on most every Sci Fi Movie Top 10 List fighting it out with Empire Strikes Back for the number one slot in several categories. Any list ranking it lower than Third Best SciFi movie of All Time should be disregarded out of hand!  It’s as good as Stanley Kubrik’s sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Recently covered by amazing critic The Critical Drinker and guest Nerdrotic in a brilliant podcast I’ve pasted at the end of this article; I have some reactions to what they said in here but its not built off the podcast. So while this post does react to some of what they bought up, it was actually mostly finished about a couple of weeks ago and I’ve just been redrafting. So while I recommend and, as I said, will link the cast for you at the end of the post, this is my account of how the movie got made.

I picked it all this up from a lifetime of following Star Trek and tried to source it all, please correct me if you find a mistake.  On certain aspects of the Final Frontier I do have expert knowledge, but if I cant find something I will mention that its more rumor. Comments are as always, enabled.  Back and forth discussions with you the reader have helped for better Star Trek posts every time, and I will fix any errors I confirm. None of this was ever secret and it will check out.

For this post I’ve scoured through all the internet has to say and what I recall and I have compiled all the best of it here!

Making A Perfect Movie

Making a Perfect Movie isn’t easy and it doesn’t happen by mistake, obviously.  Wrath of Khan may just be a perfect sci-fi movie. This is it’s voyage.

After a traumatizing and even sort of bad experience all around for writers, financial backers, cast and fans with Star Trek The Motion Picture, we get what could be described as “The perfect Star Trek Movie.” The second Installment of the series, Wrath of Khan is the best Star Trek movie. This is ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ of the first Trek movies franchise.

Why is it so perfectly brilliant? Lets explore!

One Last Chance

The first movie was a confusing, kind of boring mess. It was a hybrid compromise that started as a TV pilot and fails its way up to feature film by sucking up a lot of money and getting sidetracked a lot.

It’s the Phantom Menace of the first crews Star Trek movies.  You could make a case it’s actually pretty good, but you really need to know how that thing was conceived and what it became to understand how that story made it on to the Big Screen.

The would be TV pilot was just so expensive the idea of doing something like this on TV weekly slowly started seeming a bad idea. There was a need to recoup the money and the fastest path was simply turn the TV pilot a mediocre movie.

With a new ending soldered on to make it more Movie-like, the first movie is released and makes a tidy sum. Its kind of boring it’s a bit confusing, lacks humor and is overall a fans only recycled Original Series episode re-do on a grand scale.

No one was really crazy about the first movie. But something the studio had counted on happened anyway – people still showed up in droves despite bad reveiews because they loved the characters and they loved Star Trek.

Leaving the theater as a kid all my cousin and I talked was how awesome seeing the crew was and how cool the ship looked. We surely made reference to the story being just like an episode (The Changeling). It was that obvious I could tell even then. Then we were back to how great it was just seeing Scotty,  Uhura and so on.  It was a success in spite of itself.

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By the time they start gearing up for sequel Paramount was fed up and felt it was time for this franchise to make a profit in a timely manner with a good film. They weren’t really opposed to another movie with some cerebral elements and a kind of a deep story though.

The idea Star Trek stories should be a bit brainy was sort of baked in to its culture still. The difference was this time the mission needed to feature action and adventure as well as a smart storyline. The other driving force was for the production to remain under control and on budget.

Somehow they make that happen. In a stunning tale of the tape they make Wrath of Khan for a mere 11 million, this movies dirt cheap compared to its predecessor.

All goals for the concept seem to have been met in a great final product.

This movie is pure Action and Adventure at the Final Frontier, but also smart and respectful of the material. Instead of being a mere reprise of an episode, it’s a bolder concept.  It’s a sequel to the beloved episode “Space Seed.”

As episodes of the original series go Space Seed’s tied with several others for “Best Ever”. Its a top 5 at the very least. It has an awesome villain, played by Ricardo Montalbon, some Starfleet turncoats thrown in and a compelling story that defied any sci-fi fan to look away.

In a show that could sometimes be corny and just dumb fun in some flubbed episodes it was well conceived and brilliantly acted. Stand out broadcast TV excellence.

Failure Analysis and a New Look

We had the bad first movie lighting the way to “How Not To Make A Star Trek Movie”. It’s fair to say that “Failure Analysis” is the biggest contributor to this movies success.

The bad first movie was a clear road map to a film people would actually enjoy. In a moment more like Seinfeld, we get “Opposite Day” where they just make a movie that avoids the pitfalls of Star Trek The Motion Picture, aka Star Trek TMP.

The movie would be serious, but human and action packed. A more military and orderly Starfleet is the first thing we see.

The costumes completely depart from all past uniforms and now have 19th century British Royal Navy feel while still looking futuristic.

This was actually a big part of setting the more serious tone. All future uniforms seem for this crew will be more or less the same.

Phazers and notably communicators are more like they were in the show than the first movie. Things looks look tactile and real.

Then there was a bigger problem to deal with…

Axing the Creator

Originally, series creator Gene Roddenberry was on the project. He shocked and scared people with his idea for the second movie!

Paramount was appalled by a JFK Assassination script with Time Travel courtesy of the Guardian of Forever. It even sounds bad. This was just too shocking and far out to even seriously consider for the studio and that could have been it for Star Trek. No one was going to tolerate another bad, slow, overly important movie. And Kennedy’s assassination was still in most living memories. There’s proably even legal implications along the lines of Defamation.

That was it for Gene Roddenberry as a writer for this or any other Star Trek movie, ever. Paramount had been severely strained under the bloated budget and failed story of Roddenberry’s first Star Trek movie. “45 MILLION DOLLARS!” is just burned into the minds of the Paramount People.

They decide Gene’s a TV genius and to set him to work on what he’s best at – a Star Trek TV Show.

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So here’s how I see it going down – Gene Roddenberry was called into the Paramount office for a friendly chat. The Cuban cigars and good booze are probably out. It’s a set up!

They tell him he’s a genius, they give him an unexpected Golden Hand Shake and then THE KNIVES COME OUT and they FIRE HIS ASS for the mockery of a sham that Star Trek :The Motion Picture had been AND the shockingly bad idea for a sequel.

We can only imagine the scene.  Paramount is horrified and out of patience. The unacceptable sequel idea was beyond the last straw.

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What could have been said? Maybe it was; “We saved this franchise at great financial risk and we all got raked over the coals because lot’s of people thought that movie was so bad! You got the smell on you Gene! You can’t write this one.

“Hey, hey, hey….its not all bad news. Go to the awesome office we gave you (on the far side of the lot) and write more TV stuff that we’ll get out there when the times right. Here’s a check in advance for the show. Did we mention we think you’re a genius? Meanwhile, DON’T WRITE OR TALK ABOUT THIS SEQUEL!”

Star Trek The Motion Picture was proof to the studio that Gene was no movie maker. The fact we get The Next Generation from him on the small screen is proof they were probably right. He makes one of the best TV shows ever that’s hands down the best Live Action Sci-Fi series.

He still manages to sort of haunt the production and the Paramount people blame him for some plot leaks. I don’t believe it. I guess possible he got trashed and revealed he hated it with the heat of a thousand suns, but I don’t think he wanted Paramount any more mad at him then they were. Next step was probably a Hit-Man! Besides he has a new agenda- to dream up Jean-Luc Picard and the Next Generation where he could have total control!

Besides Gene wants the movie to be a hit despite any bruising to his ego.

New Blood

Someone new was needed to be what we would now call a Showrunner for the franchise. Preferably someone not so taken with the franchise they gushed too much and produced another mediocre movie.

Things would be different this time. A deadline is imposed and a small piece of the profits from TMP are allocated to a movie. First order of business, someone not named Gener Roddenberry to create this one.

Enter non Star Trek fan Harve Bennett. His genius in thie production starts a three movie arc of movies that could rightly be called a trilogy sandwiched into the other Trek movies.

Paramount was NOT going through another creative genius melting down on them. In accordance with this, upon hire, Bennett was warned strongly about not blowing tons of cash or ending up with a meandering, mediocre movie. Bennett absorbs it and is sure he can do the movie for about one-fifth the money of the original.

This is what the studio wants to hear. Bennett really works out. He cared about making a good movie that respected the fans who saved the flawed first movie from failing is spite of its problems.

Research is Key

Bennett goes and watches the entire series and the first movie. His take-away? The show had some truly great stories and there were a few very good episodes to build on. The movie however, was really boring and he figured out why. This was probably harder than you’d think because so much is bad and wrong in TMP.

Bennett narrows the first movies biggest problem down to one major issue-The movie had no real villain. The Bad Guy is an Evil Cloud.

The monster is even rehabilitated instead of killed too. In fact at the end the Genocidal and murderous V’ger entity is sort of given one more victim and exonerated. This thing was a threat and Starfleet’s solution is a bit bizarre, but hey it did veer away from Earth and never enter lore again, so okay. Minimal damage.

The plus side is there’s No In-Universe damage from the first movie. Anyone who doesn’t appreciate this just watch Last Jedi and imagine trying to come back from that. You’ll get it. This franchise’s mistakes had limited implications.

It didn’t break a bunch of Star Trek rules and was in direct sequence to the events of the show. At the end of the day it did no harm and showed people what not to do story-wise.  It was merely one of the less exciting adventures for the ship. The whole Planet Destroying Probe concept will be back in a couple of movies anyway with a new dangerous entity.

Things weren’t like they were for the Star Wars franchise after the Last Jedi at all.  Final Frontier was still intact.  In fact things that hurt the experience of watching the first movie clear the way for the sequel by sweeping away characters never meant for the big screen.

Bennett decides that more time will have passed for the crew than had elapsed in real life and now the series is 15 years in the past just like in real life. So the actors are the age their characters supposed to be (at least the human ones). No ones trying to hard to hide their age, they look the part at this point. Theyre known and beloved, they can hit 40 and 50. In fact he works this in to the movie.

The ageing of Kirk and the other characters gets due attention and enters into their motivations as characters. The actors had to love it. They could look like themselves outside Leonard Nimoy. He’s somewhat made up for the character but still gets to age. Spock really is about 100 anyway.

Bennett’s next good choice is that his movie will have a strong villain and have ties to an actual episode or two. He also became familiar with the characters and ends up writing for them as good as anyone ever had.

The episode Space Seed was the best path and its obvious when you watch it. Some rumors say that Harry Mudd would be the one who blundered into Khan. It would not have worked better. The opening is fantastic and Khan is immediately frightening and familiar.

While its not a huge issue Chekov is not in the episode for Khan to recognize, but Chekov and Captain Tyrel of the Reliant get to have the first, amazing encounter with Khan.

It’s still one of the most amazing villain scenes in Sci-Fi History. They just play it like Chekov was there but we just don’t see him in the episode and its no problem. It’s even believable.

And that’s the right move. Ricardo Montalban is a force on the small screen and starring in a huge show, Fantasy Island. Bennett was aware and was lucky Ricardo could fit the movie into his schedule. For Ricardo Montalban’s part, he considered the role a career high both times he plays it.

He menaces and kills crew members, partly destroys the Enterprise and is just brilliant vile and mean. He’s a real adversary. They’ve tangled with him before and he’s had 15 years to grind an axe while using his genius IQ to come up with all sorts of revenge plans on Admiral Kirk. The crew knows he’s fully capable of beating them. He’s got as much gravitas as Kirk and his command of military tactics is pretty up to speed, even if two dimensional.

Mostly relegated to relatable Native Americans in Bonanza and other shows for the entire 60s, Ricardo got better and more successful with age. This movie is a home run for Ricardo. No one in Trek has achieved his status as a bad guy.  It’s probable he’s always going be their best bad guy.

Physically impressive for a roughly 60 year old man (playing a 200 year old man) , they say those are his real muscles, I suppose its true.

Whether they are or not they put together an excellent look for Khan and it manages to be pretty authentic. He looks threatening, he’s got some wild hair and his worn out clothes are perfect. The partially destroyed Starfleet logo he wears around his neck is clearly an albatross-like burden symbolizing his desire to destroy, well everything, but the Enterprise more than anything else. I want one.

Khan and his crew easily could have degenerated into Road Warrior bad guys had so much detail not gone into their costumes. They work well.

Space Seed

In this episode Khan makes a bid to take the Enterprise but instead Kirk turns the tables and, after a hearing, he convinces Khan to agree to exile on an Earth-like planet with his genetic freak cohort and Starfleet traitor Marla McGyvers, ships historian and girlfriend of Khan. So spared prison Khan to his own devices on an unexplored sort of earth-like planet.

Space Seed shows us a worthy adversary. It takes un-frozen Khan maybe a weekend to get up to speed for the 200 hundred years hes been out of it and of course he keeps to himself that he used to be a slightly less mean Hitler type.

The best scenes are verbal cat and mouse games when McCoy, Kirk and Spock work in tandem against Khan to get him to slip up and admit, through a fit of anger, that yeah, he’s that Hitler-ish guy they had suspected he was.

Khan is the greatest foe this crew will ever face. Both times.

He really pushes Starfleet people around. He’s a super genius and he’s like 5 times stronger than the average human. In his time, the 1990s, he had been a semi-benevolent (so he believed) dictator who was forced to flee into space in a pre-warp speed ship. This requires they hibernate, much like in Alien. So of course they need to wake him up and leave the other genetic freaks in cold storage while they figure out what the deal is with these 200 year old popsicles.

Khan successfully takes the ship and is going to kill everyone in reverse rank order. Slowly and painfully, of course. Only his new girlfriend returning to the Starfleet side, briefly stops him. She saves Kirk and the captain foils Khans plan.

Very quickly Khan takes control of the movie and everyone’s destiny in a big way and doesn’t let go. Intellectual Vanity and a huge reservoir of anger are his greatest assets and greatest flaws at the same time.

He gets up to speed quick on everything thats happened since he’d been marooned 15 years earlier. He’s so well written, right down to his angry incredulity on learning Kirk is now an admiral. Ricardo delivers in every way.

Khan also learns all about far too powerful “Project Genesis.” A high minded but ultimately very flawed Terra-Forming Miracle Device. Also, it makes any ship with it into an immediate Death Star! It absolutely destroys a ‘dead’ planet and remakes it. Good thing its safe on Space-station Regula One where some scientists are playing god…. and cards.

The Musical Score

The series retains the great Jerry Goldsmith and the musical score is perfect. Give it a listen, its great. He’d been with Star Trek from Day 1 and his powerful music has been all but a character to this point. It helps move the narrative along and theres some leit motif thrown in, where individual characters and ships have their own themes.

Red Hot Writer

If JJ Abrams were actually good he’d be Lawrence Kasdan in the early 80s. Writing Empire Strikes Back, The Return of the Jedi and an intriguing Sherlock Holmes movie called  The Seven Percent Solution that shows Holmes struggling with addiction.

So he knew how to use and treat existing characters. This would is a key skill jumping into a franchise. They just bagged their show runner, so they played it safe and paid for a top knotch screenwriter.

His script is a masterpiece.

So get together a drink or a soda, relax and rent and watch the Best Sci Fi Movie of All Time, certified by me. Put on Star Trek 2- The Wrath of Khan!

 

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Crazy Dystopia’s of Star Trek- A Piece of the Action

10 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by therealmcteag in science fiction, Star Trek, Star trek a piece of the action, Star Trek the Original Series, Star Trek the Original Series Episode Analysis, Star trek TOS, William Shatner

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A Piece of the Action, Cargo Cults, Deforest Kelly, Dystopia, dystopic societies, Krakko, Leonard Nimoy, Okmyx, Star Trek, Star Trek 1967, star trek TOS, Vic Tayback, William Shatner

Star Fleet vessels routinely encounter Dystopic Societies. Sometimes a mad computer has been left in charge by a vanished race, sometimes they cause their own problems, and every once in a while it’s Federation ineptitude. Because my buddy Paul suggested this episode as one of the best (and i pretty much agree) I’m going with a fan favorite. I think this is perhaps the most interesting planet, as well easily as the most hilarious, so I’ve decided to start with The Gangster Planet! AKA Sigma Iotia II from the Episode “A Piece of the Action”

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I had touched on the Iotians in an earlier blog about the Republican Cargo Cult of Ronald Reagan. Since I am now turning to analyzing Star Trek episodes on their own merits there’s no question its worth giving these lunatics a blog post of their own.

The Iotians are completely normal looking humans. The only difference is that every single female on Iota is very young and FUCKING SUPER HOT.

The innately impressionable  and imitative Iotians are one of the first societies we see that’s been contaminated by earlier contact with the Federation, in the days before the Prime Directive. In this case the previous ship, the Horizon, which may just be the same USS Horizon that’s featured in the underrated show Enterprise (there’s clues, among them a copy of ‘The Book” visible on the Horizon of that shows era and continuity. Whichever ship it was, Federation personnel interacted for a while with the Iotians, who were then on the edges of becoming an Industrialized Society, resembling something akin to 1400-1600 ce in Northern Europe.

Before departing the Horizon left behind books, for the most part technical in nature. It would seem the Horizon crew was intentionally providing them with enough information to advance Iotian society faster. They did not consider for a moment the implications this might have on the impressionable Iotians.  A History book; ‘Chicago Mobs of the Twenties‘ published in 1992, was also left behind. The Iotians were sort of overwhelmed by the First Contact. They were immediately driven on by their other innate trait, curiosity. They tore into all the materials the doomed Horizon left them, especially the lurid tales of violence and rebellion of the colorful and glamorous American gangsters of the prohibition era.

100 years later the Enterprise, having only received the distress signal from the Horizon (Lost with all Hands shortly after leaving Iotia) a few weeks earlier arrives in the system. It’s noted that Iotia is on the edge of the known Galaxy. The purpose of the mission is to assess and report any Cultural Contamination the Horizon’s presence on the planet may have had. There’s some things suggesting it may have happened, though Kirk points out, in pure Shatnerian; “The ….evidence is only….circumstantial.” Still, in this episode Kirk is more a scientist and explorer than a soldier. He’s more than up to it too,  until he attempts to drive a car at least.

The Enterprise bridge is as busy as always as the episode opens. Kirk’s in his standard uniform and almost everyone of importance is on duty. McCoy is on hand along with Spock, Chekov, Uhura and even Scotty at the bridge’s engineering station.  For some reason Workaholic Sulu is not around. Kirk’s upbeat and cheerful. He even manages a paternalistic chuckle when the planet’s representative hails the Enterprise using archaic titles (Boss) and outdated radios.

A bizarre conversation with the “Boss” Bela Okmyx ensues. The Iotians have to know that there is life on other planets , but Okmyx betrays they have no understanding of things beyond their solar system.  Realizing their apparent leader lacks educational  sophistication Kirk goes with small words and specific basic information we rarely see him bother with. “The ship won’t actually land,” he tells Okmyx, blowing off explaining the Transporter or much else til he can size up what the deal is on Iota.

pieceoftheaction_018Kirk puts Scotty in charge and brings Spock and McCoy to Iotia to meet Okmyx. In the turbolift they ponder the possibility of Cultural Contamination plus 100 years since the Horizon departed. All three are very curious, even Spock betrays enthusiasm. The Iotians are described as highly intelligent. Kirk makes clear it’s their job not only to assess whats gone on, but to try to mitigate any damage to the planets development that may have occurred. McCoy and Spock are on the same page here for once, seeming more biased towards the idea there’s surely been contamination.

Upon arrival they’re initially charmed by the Iotian city, a time capsule of Pre World War II Chicago. This would seem to be pretty good progress technically for the Iotians, who were at the beginning of Industrialization when the Horizon arrived. They’ve quickly advanced considerably from “the beginnings of Industrialization”, so say the printing press and the first mechanical devices, to the mid 20th century in 100 years. Something like 150-300% faster than on Earth. They had help, but hey, not bad! They have media via radio and telephones as well as every fucking gun you can think of from the first half of the 20th Century.

No one is unarmed. Most carry tommy guns with drum magazines. Citizens dress as though it were 1930’s America. The “Law of Parallel Development”, the usual excuse for a planet being nothing more than a Paramount back lot set isn’t mentioned. It doesn’t apply. The planet worked to remake itself into early 20th century Earth after the First Contact. Kirk, Spock and McCoy are fascinated and concerned at the same time.

Of course he real reason for all this is because the wardrobe and sets were available at no cost to show via the Paramount Studio they filmed at. Unlike the episode Miri, where the city is in fact none other than a made over, uglified Mayberry from the “Andy Griffith Show”, this is a movie quality (of the era) Chicago street set. Patterns of Force is made for similar reasons, as is “Specter of the Gun”. In other words, if the production department at Paramount wasn’t so cheap we don’t get this awesome mid Season 2 episode. We pay the price in other episodes like “Of Bread and Circuses” but here everything works.

The landing party is quicklly taken prisoner and disarmed by the ‘reception committee” , 2 thugs with tommy guns, who threaten them in barely decipherable early 20th century “Gangster” talk (as opposed to late 20th century “Gangsta” talk). The city is populous. The streets are pretty packed. Hot flapper girls are everywhere. There’s some Cult of Personality type ads for Boss Okmyx here and there, shown holding a tommy gun himself.

The Gangster Talk is so far away from standard english it nearly gets McCoy killed by the  leader of the “Reception Committee”. Communication is very inhibited. Spock, though regarded as sounding moronic, has the best results in the initial conversation.

Then en route to Okmyx an old school drive by shooting goes down, killing one of the Reception Committee. Only the Star Fleet personal are surprised by the apparently random violence and the fatality . McCoy notes “That man back there’s dead!” They’re basically told to shut up and keep moving. The landing party is shocked and now sure the planet has been negatively impacted by the Horizon contact. “The crew of the Horizon wasn’t composed of cold blooded killers!” a frustrated and somewhat disgusted Kirk notes to McCoy and Spock. All agree the level of contamination is so high the planet is effectively a Hellhole and the Federation is the culprit. From what we see no trace of their previous culture survives. The landing party is as annoyed as they are freaked out.

Pieceoftheaction_M1903 (1)Next two beautiful flapper girls berate the remaining thug of the reception committee with public service complaints pointing out they pay Okmyx ‘their percentages” for protection and civil services. This is pretty telling as on the block his own office is on Okmyx can’t keep the streetlights on or maintain any kind of ‘Green Zone‘ where machine gun duels aren’t prevalent. No two ways about it the Federation fucked the place up. In what amounts to a “You break it you bought it” policy the Federation is going to have to do some reparative social engineering.

Entering Okmyx office he preens, scratching a shot with the cue ball on his office billiard table betraying an utter lack of skill. Its unimportant, Bosses have pool tables, nothing else

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Okmyx playing at Pool

mattered. To him its ritual, because IT’S A CULT! A Cargo Cult in fact, though the words are never uttered.

 

What is a Cargo Cult? They appeared on the islands of the pacific where we built bases  during World War II. It’s believed they were a result of the culture shock experienced by the never before contacted natives in places like Papua, New Guinea. The natives were stone age peoples who suddenly had parts of their home islands turned into a mid 20th century military base, usually with a port and an airfield. The planes seemed like great dragons. The Crates from within opened to reveal treasures, so the natives related them to eggs.  They start to worship a deity based on an african american United States Navy SeaBee they dub John Frum (possibly short for John From America). They covet everything they can get from the base personnel and get modern things through barter. Things like a case of coca cola, or a mirror, or iron pots and pans to cook with. When the war ends shit gets seriously weird because the bases are abandoned as fast as they were built not more than three years earlier.

The “Cargo” was gone. That’s when the natives tried an experiment that becomes a full blown religion, the John Frum Society and the Prince Phillip Movement (on British occupied islands). They occupied the abandoned bases (and build a few of their own with  bamboo mock ups) and start to imitate military drills in the best possible pseudo uniforms they could get hoping to bring the planes full of goods back. Their society was co-opted by this. It was 1941, there was a war to win, no one bothered to think about the impact of the bases on the locals until sociologists start remarking on it post war. Over 70 years later they still exist. It’s worth noting the Imperial Japanese were so fucking mean no one wanted imitate them and there’s no known Japanese oriented cargo cult, so at least it might be a sign we were sort of benevolent.

Back to Star Trek, this is a humorous allegory on the concept of the Cargo Cult, and we’ll Chicago_Mobs_of_the_Twentiessee more in the Final Frontier. The Iotians are an extreme case and its all on the Federation.

Shortly after meeting Okmyx the landing party spots “The Book”, the aforementioned Gangster Chronicles of the early 1900’s, prominently displayed on a stand in Okmyx office. Kirk, Spock and McCoy instantly get it, this particular book had an extreme impact on  the Iotians, arresting and retarding the planets development. Everything on Iotia is based on graft, violence and bribery.

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Okmyx copy of “The Book”

After making it clear questioning anything in ‘The Book’ is blasphemy and shutting down all criticism of it, Okmyx explains, in a fourth grade vocabulary; that he’s not exactly the leader of the planet, just the biggest, richest and toughest of the planets dozen or so “Bosses” and his territory is by far the largest. It’s a dog eat dog Iotia though, and he does take a moment to lament how someones always nipping at his heels.

 

Still amazed the planets lasted this long with these kinds of problems the landing party is informed of the terms Boss Okmyx is demanding. Surprisingly futurist, it’s right out of the Ronald Reagan Playbook (still well into the future when this aired).

Step One-Arms for Hostages. Send him a hundred or so “fancy heaters” (phasers) and some training personnel and he will cooperate as far as answering any questions and of course they’re free to go. If not he will kill them all.

Step Two-World Domination,  Okmyx demands the Federation back him in violently unifying Sigma Iotia II. Kirk, Spock and McCoy share the same mixed reaction. No way on Step One, there’ll be no phasers, but a tacit Okay on an alternative attempt at Step Two where they install a Boss peacefully. Things are that far gone.

The planets doomed to degenerate into total chaos unless it unifies soon and Okmyx seems typical enough and has the local gravitas and potential to just maybe be the Federations guy if he shapes up. His estimation that the Federation (“You Feds”) must have advanced technically in the last 100 years is spot on, showing off the “highly intelligent” aspect of the Iotians. He’s a not a criminal by his society’s standards. He’s actually just the best enactor of the policies from ‘The Book’.

Radical Social Re-Engineering’s pre approved. The landing party is thinking on the fly. They don’t bother telling Okmyx about their Step Two feelings for the moment as his heads already big enough. For the moment they’re captives but their hopes of controlling the situation seem pretty high, so they play along.

scottyapota

Scotty’s WTF moment

Using a communicator with some grudging assistance from Kirk ,Okmyx tries to shake down Scotty, who consults the ships computer to try to figure out just what the fuck Okmyx is trying to say. Notable is how hot Okmyx secretary/ girlfriend is. An adorable pepper pot.

As for his part Okmyx has the landing party taken to a warehouse under guard. Amongst the broken pinball machines and crates; a few feet from another prominently displayed copy of ‘The Book” the guards play cards while the landing party ponders the situation.

McCoy thinks Okmyx is a repulsive creep. Spock puts Okmyx in a different light- the most successful of all Iotians and a visionary of sorts. His methods are all wrong, a war is the last thing the planet needs. But “his goal is essentially correct.” Kirk makes a decision its time to invoke the “You broke it you bought it” clause in their orders and see if they can’t set things right., or at least minimize the dysfunction in the Iotian society the Federation has caused. They need some help from the ship, so it’s time get the guards out of the way and locate and grab up the phasers and especially the communicators. Seems like a tall order, but Kirk has a trick up his sleeve, he’s going to use the imitative qualities of the Iotian’s against them to distract and subdue the guards.

Enter – Fizzbin;  a card game that Kirk describes as “a real game, a man’s game. It’s probably a little beyond you… it requires intelligence.” Bait= Taken! The three thugs are fascinated and the alpha thug starts a game against Kirk who’s also acting as dealer.

fizzbinAs Kirk explains; it’s really quite a simple game.

  • The game can be played with a standard Earth deck of cards, despite the slightly differing deck on Beta Antares IV.
  • Each player gets six cards, except for the player on the dealer’s right, who gets seven.
  • The second card is turned up, except on Tuesdays.
  • Two jacks are a “half-fizzbin”.
  • If you have a half-fizzbin:
    • a third jack is a “shralk” and results in disqualification;
    • one wants a king and a deuce, except at night, when one wants a queen and a four;
    • if a king had been dealt, the player would get another card, except when it is dark, in which case he’d have to give it back. [1] Memory Alpha Fizzbin entry

The top hand is a “royal fizzbin”, but the odds against getting one are said to be “astronomical”.

So as you can see Fizzbin is really very simple.

Whats not said is the reason the guards want to play so badly is the innate imitative traits as well as the fact that they are aware ‘The Fed’s’ are the source of the book and might just lead to more cargo. Its the same reason Okmyx mindlessly plays pool. They don’t see the landing party as gods like the cargo cults of earth, but they’re definitely taken with them.

As the Fizzbin game reaches its end the guards are so distracted that the landing party makes its move. A fight right out of the 60’s Batman show ensues. with Kirk, McCoy and Spock kicking the guards asses. McCoy especially distinguishes himself, needing a mere judo chop to subdue his adversary.

Kirk sends Spock and McCoy to locate and take over one of the planets radio stations in lieu of communicators, Uhura is monitoring the planets communication. Kirk’s going back to the original beam down area to try a little gunboat diplomavy with Okmyx. The Prime Directive’s so out the window now they can basically do anything they want, including using a local broadcast station to have a conversation with the Enterprise that anyone tuned in on the planet will hear. Everyone’s got a tommy gun and Spock sporting a .45 to boot

Kirk makes it about 30 feet before being captured and tossed into a classic 1920’s car.

Spock_on_the_radioSpock and McCoy are more successful, the former uses his Vulcan Nerve Pinch to subdue the gorgeous female Deejay. They jump on live in what must’ve been a ‘War of the Worlds Caper” on super steroids to the locals. They return to the Enterprise.

Kirk, on the other hand meets Jojo Krakko, aka Mel from Mel’s Diner on Alice aka the great Vic Tayback. He’s got the same plan as Okmyx, who he hates. Krakko refers to his territory as ‘the whole South Side’, a very Chicago flourish. His secretary/ girlfriend is blond and beautiful. He also has a copy of “The Book” on display. As an added incentive the Fed’s get a third, something Okmyx would never do.

 

Kirk makes a counter proposal let’s all sit down and divide up the planet like reasonable men and try to work together to keep the lights on and break out of the Gangster culture.

pieceoftheaction_218

Jojo Krakko

Krakko balks at this ridiculous blasphemy. ‘The Book’ dictates all disputes be settled with violence and that’s how he’s going to do it. So we’re back to “Arms for Hostages”. He stashes the captain to maybe snuff him later. Kirk works on escaping by tearing apart an old fashioned tube radio.

 

Back on the Enterprise Spock and McCoy are trying to come up with a plan to undue the “Moral Inversion” on the planet. Okmyx interrupts them to let them know Krakko’s got Kirk. A truce is declared and Spock and McCoy  talk to Okmyx, agreeing to come down soon to hammer things out. Spock points out they need some help from a cooperative Iotian or two if they’re going to get the captain back, McCoy is less than thrilled. He’s probably thinking about Romulan Ale at this point or maybe some space drugs.

On the planet Kirk’s “advanced technical skills” have given him the ability to unravel the copper filament from the radio in his room  to create a tripwire by the door. then he trashes his room and calls for help. The guard rushes in and trips, Kirk throws a blanket over his head and kicks his ass Star Trek Style (in other words with minimal believability).

Spock and McCoy discuss with Okmyx how to get Kirk back from Krakko (no one knows he’s already escaped).  He promises the games are over and he’ll help them get Kirk back. They take another trip down to Iota via transporter to Okmyx office where he immediately double crosses them.

Spock’s’ supplemental log notes that the whole situation is “unlikely”, but there they are, held at gunpoint again and stripped of their phasers and communicators. Okmyx is feeling pretty sly.

Spock and McCoy drop all pretense and level with Okmyx. They’re trying to help and he’s not comprehending it, thinking by The Book, looking to solve his problems with leverage and threats. Spock tells Okmyx the Federation isn’t against the idea of unifying  the planet. They’re trying to tell him he can be Boss Number One when megalomania gets the better of him and he rants about his power and potential only to be interrupted by an armed and angry Kirk who has somehow found Okmyx office and beaten security. Hey, he didn’t get to be captain for nothing, right?

Reunited in Okmyx office Kirk, McCoy and Spock review the situation.  Spock’s got no idea how to proceed. The situation on Iota is unique and completely illogical. There’s no time for gradual change. The Iotians are fanatical about The Book, which has made reason impossible.   Planetary societal collapse is inevitable, continued radical social engineering is allowable under both the circumstances and their actual orders.

Kirk, ever the First Contact gambler, announces, with whimsical Kirk enthusiasm, he’s ‘going to play a hunch.’ Spock hates it right away.

The rest of the episode is maybe the best Star Trek we get out of the first series. It overcomes all the cheesey budgetary mandates, like using existing sets and wardrobe. Decked out in appropriated Gangster Outfits he leaves McCoy in charge of the prisoners and takes Spock, also in native gangster garb, to ‘put the bag on Krakko!”

apieceoftheactionhd0722Then the hilarious driving sequence ensues. The 23rd century Starship captain and his Vulcan first officer are stymied by a five speed transmission but manage to grind their way across town to Krakko’s.

The unforgettable con with the street urchin ensues. The kid proves invaluable by providing a rouse for “A Piece of the Action” if they can get Krakko. The kid takes the lead, playing at being a knife welding murderer, which charms the guards. The kid fakes an injury and Kirk and Spock subdue the guards. Inside they casually stun a few people but Krakko’s not bothered. He’s got a few more goons who quickly to take Spock and Kirk prisoner, back to “Arms for Hostages.”

Kirk quickly uses The Book’s emphasis on criminality and underhanded deeds to convince Krakko they need to talk alone. Spock and Kirk give him the bottom line, with Spock sort of playing catch up as Kirk re-engineers Iota. In gangster talk Kirk tells Krakko he’s basically a pieceoftheaction_330nobody and the whole planet is “Peanuts to an outfit like the Federation.” Their tech is amazing, they have many planets to draw from, they have a Star Fleet and its all pretty kick ass.

Krakko, like a good criminal, knows the law and asks what happened to non Interference.

“Who’s interfering? We’re taking over!” Kirk tells him in no uncertain terms. The Iotians are finally back on their heels after having used their criminal genius to maintain the apieceoftheactionhd0849initiative up to this point. Now Kirk’s on a roll. “We don’t come in here and use our muscle. We let one guy take over and pull the strings and then we pull his, eh??”

Kirk’s idea is crazy but it has the advantage of being close to the current political reality, unification has to happen to stave off disaster, they can fine tune it later. For the meantime they put their feet up and cut a deal with Krakko. Kirk gets on the line with Scotty and makes as though the Federation is about to launch a violent coup backing Krakko, but its a rouse to beam Krakko up. The Enterprise crew has put the bag on Krakko and Scotty has him at phaser point.  Krakko tries to figure out how he ended up in the transporter room, which is filled with amazing tech he’s gotta be fascinated by as he rants. Scotty casually threatens to kill him to shut him up, trying his hand at the planets gangster speak.

After Krakko’s beamed out Kirk and Spock kick the two guards asses just to blow off steam and split. Despite Spock’s protests, Kirk drives and they make it back to Okmyx place.

Kirk belittles and threatens Okmyx, calls him a penny ante operator and tells him more or less what he told Krakko. The Federation is taking over the whole planet. If he plays ball he can be in on it, if he’s not willing to cooperate he’ll be “out, all the way out.” So even if they don’t kill him he’s likely a dead man as an ex Boss. Spock keeps his machine gun level to Okmyx head. The Enterprise landing party are doing things “by The Book” for the moment because that’s just the only way to get through to the brainwashed Iotians.

apota4Because there is a language barrier between these two English speaking cultures due to Iotian slang Kirk has to say everything he tells Scotty twice. Once in 1920’s Gangster speak to impress the Iotians and then again in 23rd century English for Scotty.

Kirk’s plan is to unite the mobs into a syndicate in the hopes the violence and dysfunction would taper off while the Federation itself, with its vast resources, could get some experts to the planet to help. To this end he has Okmyx call everyone on the planet of importance and kidnaps them via transporter to Okmyx office where they are held at gunpoint.

Kirk, seeing the Iotians are not making very quick progress, prances along Okmyx pool table and explains its over. The Federation is going to help them run the planet like a business and they would all make a profit with the Federation getting a 40% cut off the top.

apota5

Kiss my grits, Okmyx!

At this point they finally call Kirk out. They’ve seen nothing but a few explorers with ideas that go against The Book. Where’s the proof of the Federations power? Obligingly, Krakko’s boys choose this moment to attack to break their boss out. Kirk gets the Enterprise to fire a stun burst (a contingency ordered earlier by Spock) at the combatants fighting outside Okmyx office. When the ships phasers level everyone Kirk gains the upper hand permanently. Any questions of the Federations power are silenced in a huge way. Gunboat Diplomacy at it’s purest.

The Iotians are now prepared to go along with the Syndicate proposal. Okmyx admits they’ve definitely got problems and suggests Kirk be Overboss. Kirk immediately defers, its too small time for him, he’s a Big Wheel in the Federation. He puts Okmyx in charge, which is pretty reasonable as he is the most powerful and had just admitted the violence was pointless. To keep Okmyx in check he makes Krakko his lieutenant. Then he tells everyone else to fall in line unless they want the Federation to come back pissed. Every year a Federation Starship will come by to pick up the Federations 40% cut. The Iotians are totally down and offer more, but Kirk gamely holds to 40%.

Everyone drinks a toast to the new Syndicate.

Days later on the bridge Kirk, McCoy and Spock discuss the mission. Spock debates the morality of leaving criminals in charge and how Kirk will explain to the Federation why a starship will need to go to Iota every year to pick up 40% of the gross planetary product. On a whim the captain decides the money be deposited in a planetary fund to guide the Iotians toward a more ethical system in a kind of Nation Building Approach.

McCoy has a more immediate issue. He’s forgotten his communicator on the planet. The Iotians are smart enough to figure it out and extrapolate all key Federation technology from it, albeit not overnight because they’re still stuck in 1930, but they will.

Kirk laughs off this major misstep quipping “One day the Iotians may come looking for a piece of OUR action!”

The episode closes with the ship leaving orbit.

What makes the Episode Great?

Where do we start? The dystopia on Iota is a hilarious and slapstick world of crazy criminal geniuses. Why does The Next Generation not return to show us what happened? We have only a comic book of an unused script, “A Piece of the Reaction” to tell us that. Basically they imitate Star Fleet as a whole but still have some criminal issues. I haven’t read it. Lets just say they aren’t going to be ideal Federation citizens anytime soon.

It’s a genius plot and because the sets were high quality the campyness works. The whole Spacemen with culture shock thing is great fun. McCoy is more cantankerous than usual when it comes to the Iotian culture, making him something of a snob towards them at times.

Kirk is full on Kirk, Shatner doesn’t hold back, he pushes forward. As a starfleet officer with an agenda he’s believable. His flourishes and speech are amazing. He overacts up a storm but lets remember what he’s what he’s got to work with here. Gene Roddenberry was a genius but a lot of his stories and characters relied on some hard to deliver tech babble. In this episode Shatner’s also got 1920’s Gangster Iotian to deal with, although he’s supposed to be bad at it, and Spock’s no better at comprehending the Iotians but somehow they kind of get him. In fact its McCoy whose probably best set up to talk to the Iotians with his blunt mannerisms.

The music in the episode is some of the best ever. The “Floosie Music” and the jazzy 20’s incidental music is pretty different from what we hear in most episodes and adds to the fun.

The sets have lots of well costumed extras and great classic cars. Its not your typical boring Star Trek Planet with an orange sky and a styrofoam rock. Its also not the other planet location they frequently used that becomes the set of MASH (you see that same mountain from the opening credits of MASH you see in like 12 Trek episodes and a couple of Next Generations). It might even be where Soran ‘kills’ Kirk.

All the women on Iota are beautiful. All the men are ugly. I’d be a movie star there. The average age for men is 60, for women its 23.

I can’t recommend this episode enough. It’s Star Trek at it’s finest.

Click for Other Star Trek Posts – A Taste of Armageddon ,  Star Trek Discovery , The Doomsday Machine

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