Star Trek moment #3

Heavenly shades of night are falling, it's amok time...



Spock feels an urgent need to beat something.
This Star Trek moment occurs during episode #34. This episode was first broadcast on September 15, 1967 and later repeated on April 26, 1968. It was the first episode of the second season, and the first to air after the series moved to Friday nights at 8:30pm. In "Amok Time," Mr. Spock returns to his homeworld for a brutal Vulcan marriage ritual which results in the "death" of Captain Kirk.

Like adolescent boys around the world, Spock attempts to forget his frustration by playing a musical instrument.

During that scene where Spock plays the Vulcan lyre, this is the strangely haunting, yet beautiful music (Sol Kaplan and Gerald Fried composed) used, called "Mr Spock." I always imagined Spock was playing the guitar part on the lyre.


Here is the music played during the ritual. It's appropriately titled "The Ritual-Ancient Battle-2nd Kroykah" (I shortened it by about a half). You may remember Jim Carey's interpretation of it in The Cable Guy.

Dr. McCoy (hoping to prevent Kirk's slaughter) injects the Captain with a neuroparalyzer drug that simulates his death, and ends the ritual.
Back on the Enterprise, Spock lowers his guard momentarily when he realizes Kirk isn't dead.

Star Trek moment #2

Special delivery for Captain Kirk
For those of you playing along at home, here are the current parameters for a moment from Star Trek to be considered a "Star Trek moment":

1. It is any moment that causes the show to transcend itself, the medium of TV, and science fiction genre. This can come about as a result of chemistry between the actors (particularly between Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley), or perhaps the mention of a subtle detail that lends a level of believability to the Star Trek "universe." #1 is the most elusive and difficult to explain. I just know them when they occur.

2. Really, any moment that causes the hair on my arms or the back of my neck to stand up is a "Star Trek moment."

About halfway through "The Conscience of the King" (episode #13, aired on December 8, 1966), just such a moment occurs. It is a Zapp Branigan* scene (hey! a "Star Trek moment" sub-genre?!).

The Enterprise is transporting a Shakespearean acting troupe to its next gig. Kirk, being Kirk, is smitten by Lenore, the daughter of the troupe's leader. They first meet at a swingin', outer space cocktail party. Here's just a bit of that scene, complete with a jazzy, lounge version of the show's theme playing in the background (this is not the moment, though):


Lenore is later beamed aboard the ship, where Kirk gives her a tour...of the ship. They end up on the ship's observation deck (a small detail adding to the overall believability of there actually being a starship Enterprise; see rule #1), where the double entendres ("All this power - surging and throbbing, yet under control. Are you like that, Captain?") fly.



The moment comes precisely during this line of dialogue from Lenore (Barbara Anderson):

"All this...and power too? Caesar of the stars, and the Cleopatra to worship him."
I love that line (see rule #2), and I think it's indicative of the great writing (particularly during season one) that raised the show above the level of Lost in Space (which I like) and its ilk. The very concept of Kirk being a "Caesar of the stars" is very cool. While the romantic nature of the scene would have made me squirm as a child, it no doubt reinforced in my mind the appeal of Captain James T. Kirk, as well as William Shatner. Judge for yourself:



*Zapp Brannigan

Star Trek moment #1

A "Star Trek moment" is a moment where, because the actors are so believable and characters so authentic, the show transcends itself, the medium (television), and genre (sci-fi). During the doldrums of season three (think "Spock's Brain"), or any other of the more far fetched, awkward, cheesy, Lost in Space-type episodes, these quick, seemingly insignificant moments pop up.
The first is from the seventeenth (wow! no wonder they ran out of money so frequently) episode of season one, "The Squire of Gothos." The moment comes right towards the end, just when the camera rests on Shatner. Alexander Courage's music kicks in, and suddenly, it's one of those brief, yet transcendent moments that never fails to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It's 1974 again, and I believe in Santa Clause, I believe in Captain James T. Kirk, and I believe he is in charge of a huge space ship named Enterprise. Spock has just asked the Captain how they should categorize the episode's antagonist, Trelane (the squire of Gothos), in the ship's library banks. Kirk suggests first "god of war," and finally "small boy":