The Naked Time

I found this episode highly enjoyable. 

We’ve seen Spock smile twice so far, we’ve seen him annoyed, but we haven’t seen him like this. Well, I guess that at episode 5 there really hasn’t been time. Spock goes from neutral, to focused, to irritated, to having had it up to here with everyone’s shit, to his emotional nature breaking through and breaking him down. It’s a great arc and without it this would not be that good of an episode.

Then again, there is Kirk’s bit about love. Kirk loves that ship like the wife he never had (almost married that blonde lab tech though), but not because it’d be against protocol to date his space-secretary - because the ship is the only thing that he can protect, that is there for him, day after day, and that he can die with if necessary. A female crewman love interest may die in an attack or on an away mission, be reassigned, or sent to an escape pod. The Enterprise is the only woman Kirk can love without the fear of losing her obstructing his duties, because preventing her destruction is his duty. 

It is these two arcs from TOS’ principal leads absolutely make the episode. 

Oh, wait, I’m sorry; Sulu going balls out camp makes the episode. “Joey just died? Well I know what’ll cheer us up - how about we go to the gym and get our fence on!” What a card. 

Now, here’s what’s sort of bothering me about TOS this time: Joey takes off his glove to itch his nose under the thermal environmental whatever suit, right? He doesn’t bother to put it back on right away! Don’t they teach these people anything at the Academy? Or in basic training for enlisted men? Spock reminds him after the fact - he shouldn’t have to!

Note the mannequin standing in for a dead, frozen body.

I noted that this is the first episode in which I believe EVERYONE is present; this is the first episode with Nurse Chapel, after all. Why didn’t the reboots have Rand and Chapel? Probably because JJ is a plebeian and a casual. 

Apparently she’s in love with Spock to boot. Her wig was awful, which is surprising. She gets drunk off the virus and stands around rubbing herself with a piece of medical equipment...I wondered if it...nevermind. Don’t go there, keep Star Trek clean.

QUIET, CADET!

I was wondering - why do they have to burn open the access panel for the engineering door controls? My theory: along with the analog controls and lack of view screens, this was a hold-over from the early wars of the Federation. The Romulans are probably dope at invasive malware; imagine reprogramming a ship to shut off all power to life support, jettison escape pods and shuttles, then turn into a giant drone that can terrorize enemy planets. That’s practically Cardassian now that I think of it...

Riley is going to eat shit over this. Joey is dead, and while Starfleet may understand the conditions, it clearly doesn’t file it under ‘important’ since it happens again 100 years later in The Naked Now, which I remember as being much, much less well done than The Naked Time. 

No, Mr. Riley is going to get thrown under the bus for nearly destroying the fucking ship! He shut off the engines! TO A STAR SHIP! He shut off the engines to a star ship orbiting a planet breaking up. If he appears after this, Starfleet either really needs crewmen or it is really understanding when it comes to space crazy - I like to consider the latter regardless of the hazards, because we’ve all done embarrassing things when we’re drunk. Still, the man deserves a court martial for subjecting the crew to intense psychological torture in the form of repeated renditions of ‘Kathleen’. I’ll take him home again - home to the penal colony in New Zealand. 

Btw, they invented time travel off the cuff by mixing matter and antimatter and kickstarting their engines. Maybe Riley gets off with a demerit because of that.

Misc.; 3D checkers! 

Personal Rating: 4/5; Don’t Skip.

This would be just another one of those wacky 60s Star Trek episodes if it weren’t for the profound reveal into Kirk and Spock’s characters in the last 15 minutes or so. In fact, it’s such a good episode I didn’t mind re-watching it to review it; I saw it a week or two ago but life has been happening pretty hard and I didn’t take notes. 

END.