![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/nakedtime.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n- \n
- This time the planet is blue, appropriately, since it\u2019s a cold ice-planet. In the enhanced graphics, there\u2019s a new shot of the domed building of the scientific outpost.<\/li>\n
- The story is triggered by a doofus move \u2013 an idiot plot device<\/strong> \u2013 in that not only are the suits that Spock and Tormolen beam down in not sealed (so that any airborne contagion could still infect them), but Tormolen takes his glove off, to scratch his nose, and then touches a surface and gets infected.<\/li>\n
- Trek physics<\/strong>: the crisis of the episode depends on the idea that this planet, Psi 2000, is \u201cbreaking up\u201d, which somehow means that its mass and magnetic fields are changing, which affects the Enterprise\u2019s orbit, which is problematic because people on board are infected with a disease that renders them unstable and that puts the ship in jeopardy. What were they thinking of? What does it mean for a planet to \u201cbreak up\u201d? Real astrophysics suggests planets are extremely stable unless they are hit by something, in which case chunks might be blown out of them, yet would still remain largely stable (as Earth perhaps survived an impact that split off the Moon). Otherwise\u2026 even if a planet were disintegrating for some reason, its mass would have to go *somewhere*; that mass wouldn\u2019t somehow just disappear, disrupting the Enterprise\u2019s orbit.<\/li>\n
- Later in the show there\u2019s a line about how, as the planet shrinks, the Enterprise adjusts its orbit to \u201cmaintain the same distance\u201d from the planet\u2019s surface. Why would it need to do that?<\/li>\n
- The enhanced graphics exacerbate the problem<\/strong>: we see the planet surface spinning past so fast, beneath the Enterprise, on the view monitor, that it\u2019s amazing the ship doesn\u2019t slingshot away into space. The new graphics aren\u2019t any more valid scientifically than the old.<\/li>\n
- There\u2019s a serious ethical theme<\/strong> here, as Tormolen wonders \u201cif man was meant to be out here\u2026\u201d It\u2019s not as trivial an issue as it might have seemed at the time, as here in the 21st<\/sup> century we realize what humanity has done and is doing to this planet.<\/li>\n
- This has long been a favorite episode \u2013 it was a Hugo nominee \u2013 mostly I suppose for its revelations of character among the crew: Sulu and his rapier; Riley and his song; Spock and his confessions; Kirk and his anguish.<\/li>\n
- Sexism:<\/strong> Riley, infected, locked into the engineering room, gives out fanciful orders over the intercom to the entire ship, focusing on women\u2019s makeup and how their hair should be worn loosely around their shoulders.<\/li>\n
- It\u2019s been one of my favorite episodes for one particular reason: the rhythm and pacing, especially of the second half of the show, maintains a tension unmatched in any other episode. You see it ratchet up, in a yin and yang of competing forces: routine communications alternating with increasingly emotional outbursts: Uhura to Kirk rather blandly: \u201cHave you found Mr. Spock?\u201d Kirk responds, almost hysterically: \u201cYES I\u2019VE FOUND MR. SPOCK I\u2019M TALKING TO MR. SPOCK RIGHT NOW!\u201d at which point Kirk realizes he\u2019s infected too.<\/li>\n
- There are plot issues, of course \u2013 any show, like a series produced every week, is done so quickly it\u2019s amazing they get so much done that still seems right decades later \u2013 but I couldn\u2019t yet notice that, why weren\u2019t Kirk and Spock infected earlier, when they brought Sulu down, instead of later via Nurse Chapel\u2019s tears?<\/li>\n
- Famous line<\/strong>: Sulu, infected and playing swashbuckler, presumes to protect Uhura, calling her a \u201cfair maiden\u201d. To which Uhura replies, so quickly you almost don\u2019t notice, let alone absorb the implications of what she says, \u201cSorry, neither.\u201d<\/li>\n
- First time we see the (first season) engine room. I think. I really should watch these episodes in production order, rather than broadcast order.<\/li>\n
- And first time we see Scott\u2019s \u201cJeffries Tube\u201d. I think.<\/li>\n
- And first time we see Spock\u2019s neck pinch, or nerve pinch, I think.<\/li>\n
- Trek physics<\/strong>: talk about the engines having been turned off, the \u201cintermix formula\u201d for matter and antimatter, and having to raise the temperatures of those without risking \u201cimplosion\u201d.<\/li>\n
- The enhanced graphics include a chronometer on the nav panel where Sulu sits \u2013 it shows not only a clock but a *stardate* counter, which, in keeping with the dialogue and story line, changes from 1705.0 back to 1702.0.<\/li>\n
- Trek physics<\/strong>: the \u201ctheoretical relationship between time and antimatter\u201d, as Spock says, results in the ship going back in time, and moving \u201cfaster than is possible for normal space\u201d, as they start the engines anyway and escape from the planet. This sets up the later episode, \u201cTomorrow Is Yesterday\u201d, in which they accidentally go back in time to Earth in the 1960s.<\/li>\n
- Still, the enduring highlight of this episode is the revelation of the characters. Spock\u2019s breakdown was a last minute story idea (according to Memory Alpha), was shot in a single take, and resulted in fan mail to Nimoy going exponential.<\/li>\n
- The end: calm. They acknowledge the potential for time travel, to any era, any planet, and suppose they might try it someday. And Kirk says, \u201csteady as she goes.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Blish\u2019s adaptation, in ST1:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Blish avoids the contamination scene<\/strong>, in which Tormolen takes off his glove and exposes himself to an infection, entirely. Blish has Kirk make some plausible speculation about why the dead members of the observation station behaved the way they did, in response to having some infection (e.g., someone would take a shower with clothes on in a hurried attempt to decontaminate themselves).<\/li>\n
- Blish has the planet named some long technical string, and the nicknamed \u201cLa Pig\u201d, rather than the Psi 2000 of the script.<\/li>\n
- Blish tries to rationalize the idea of the planet\u2019s breakup, and how it would affect the Enterprise orbit, p79t: \u201cAs the breakup proceeded, the planet\u2019s effective mass would change, and perhaps even its center of gravity \u2013 accompanied by steady, growing distortion of its extensive magnetic field \u2013 so that what had been a stable parking orbit for the Enterprise at one moment would become unstable and fragment-strewn the next.\u201d<\/li>\n
- There are substantial differences between Blish\u2019s version and the broadcast story, since the latter involved some elements introduced in the last stages of production. In particular: Spock\u2019s breakdown<\/strong> in the briefing room, and the entire time travel<\/strong> sequence<\/strong> at the end, are not here<\/strong>. Nor is Scott\u2019s phasering through the wall to get into the engineering room. Instead, McCoy\u2019s antidote to the disease involves a gas spray into the ship\u2019s ventilation system. Riley recovers in the response to that, and lets the others into engineering himself.<\/li>\n
- At the same time Blish has some remarkably implausible sequences<\/strong> in which, Kirk having thrown emergency bulkheads inside the ship, to stop the spread of the disease, has Uhura crawl between the hulls and communicate the McCoy by knocking on the metal in \u201cprisoners\u2019 raps\u201d\u2026! The crews\u2019 communicators don\u2019t work inside the ship?<\/li>\n
- Instead of Spock\u2019s breakdown and recovery seen in the broadcast version, in Blish\u2019s story Spock experiences a \u201cgeneral malaise\u201d and excuses himself to his quarters. At the end of the story, he is heard crooning to himself in his cabin and playing some instrument that \u201cnobody else on board could stand to listen to it\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An infection brought on board the Enterprise causes crew members to reveal their innermost fears and desires, as the ship spirals in toward a disintegrating planet. This time the planet is blue, appropriately, since it\u2019s a cold ice-planet. In the … Continue reading
- Trek physics<\/strong>: the crisis of the episode depends on the idea that this planet, Psi 2000, is \u201cbreaking up\u201d, which somehow means that its mass and magnetic fields are changing, which affects the Enterprise\u2019s orbit, which is problematic because people on board are infected with a disease that renders them unstable and that puts the ship in jeopardy. What were they thinking of? What does it mean for a planet to \u201cbreak up\u201d? Real astrophysics suggests planets are extremely stable unless they are hit by something, in which case chunks might be blown out of them, yet would still remain largely stable (as Earth perhaps survived an impact that split off the Moon). Otherwise\u2026 even if a planet were disintegrating for some reason, its mass would have to go *somewhere*; that mass wouldn\u2019t somehow just disappear, disrupting the Enterprise\u2019s orbit.<\/li>\n