Star Trek: The Original Series REACTION | The Man Trap | Season 1

[@PennyisWatching]

I am still getting used to the editing, future reactions are going to be higher quality! You can find the full reaction on my patreon, it's free! www.patreon.com/posts/star-trek-tos-1-110536925

[@neutrino78x]

penny, Captain Kirk -- William Shatner -- is still alive too! He's like 93 🙂 I saw Mr. Sulu -- George Takei -- at a Comic Con here in San Jose ("Silicon Valley", part of "San Francisco Bay Area")! He was giving a lecture to a packed room, and I was in the audience, front row, maybe 50 feet (15.24 m) away! 🙂 lol in the real Navy there is no engage either! I stood helm/planes watch on the submarine for a while! This is how it goes: Officer of the Deck: Helm, come right, steer course 120 Helm: come right, steer course 120 helm aye [swing the steering yoke all the way to the right] Officer of the Deck, my rudder is right. Officer of the Deck: very well, Helm. [wait to be 10 degrees from ordered course, then swing yoke all the way to the left until it stabilizes] Helm: Officer of the Deck, coming up on ten degrees from ordered course. Officer of the Deck: very well, helm. Helm, all ahead 2/3. Helm: all ahead 2/3, helm aye. [turn engine order telegraph to the 2/3 position, wait for the "ding" that indicates maneuvering (room where they control the nuclear reactor) made the appropriate adjustment, verify they did all ahead 2/3] Helm: Officer of the Deck, maneuvering answers all ahead 2/3. Officer of the Deck: very well, helm.

[@tofersiefken]

I've been a fan of TOS since the early '70s. I'm always happy to see later generations discover the roots of the franchise. My personal experience with each show was with TOS first, then TNG, Voyager, Enterprise, and finally DS9. I'm also 3 seasons into Discovery but am taking it slow rather than binging those episodes because they are fairly dense and heavy, deserving of some time to process.

[@SG-js2qn]

As for why the captain beams down and handles all affairs personally, I think it's best to think of the era of sailing ships and that type of captain. He's basically the only person on the ship that others would take seriously, or who is authorized to handle typical diplomatic missions. Wherever they go, everybody expects to talk to the captain, not some flunky.

[@Vlakabaka]

A lot of fans of the original show often say its about Captain Kirk flying around in space saving damsels in distress and then gets to do some "Netflix & Chill" with them. 😊 I feel that's very accurate.😏

[@vincentsaia6545]

Kirk leads the landing parties himself because he feels he should take whatever risks the crew may face personally.

[@spacemanspiff3052]

So excited to watch along with your trek through TOS! Your reaction is very engaging and I look forward to seeing more of your posts as you explore more TV shows and movies. Sorry, Kirk doesn’t do engage, he tends to say different things equivalent to Picard’s engage. Given this show is in the later 1960s, the style of TV programs really focused on a small core of regular characters, in this case Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Additionally, Kirk, as the main protagonist, is supposed to be a swashbuckling hero in the mold of English novelist CS Forester’s character Captain Horatio Hornblower mixed in with the grit of a Sheriff of the American Old West, but in space. Therefore, Kirk and his brain trust of Spock and McCoy tend to go on almost all the away missions, a number of regular side characters help do stuff on away missions and aboard ship, and a whole bunch of extras walk around looking busy and die from time to time. Ciao!

[@robertmills8640]

Great Reaction 👍👍👍

[@vincentsaia6545]

We have truth serum now.

[@Asher8328]

I think a lot of what you see in TNG is a direct response to what happened in TOS. For example, the captain going with landing parties (that is what away teams are called in TOS). Many fans criticized the show for years for doing this, and so I believe by the time TNG was being created they decided to address the problem by having mostly stay on his ship. Another issue, even if it's mostly a joke, was about Star Trek "red shirts," meaning if you saw anyone with a red shirt in TOS they were almost certainly going to die (security wears red, and a lot of them do die, so the joke has truth to it). This joke became so popular over the years that it became well known even among non-fans of the show. I've always felt like rearranging the colors for TNG so that command officers like the captain now wear it was almost like an "apology" to all the red shirts that were killed off in TOS. lol

[@UnderDriven17]

Great reaction! The colors in TOS are striking as you will see! As for the captain leaning an away team, there are two justifications: (1) on a mission where violence is not expected he could beam down for a change of scenery, and possibly to check out the archeological findings if he was so inclined, and (2) on a purely television basis Kirk is the leading man of the show so they want to show him in action (although that changed with TNG, at least sometimes). However, once there was some danger involved the first reason would no longer be valid and Kirk should have stayed on the ship. But reason #2 outweighed logic, especially since this was the first episode and we needed to get to know the characters. In regard to the alien, I always felt that there could have been a better solution which did not involve its death--even when I was watching the show as a youngster in the 1970's (I was a bit too young to see the show when it was broadcast, but I watched it extensively in syndication in the early 1970's). The alien was clearly intelligent and may have had knowledge that could have been useful, or at least historically valuable. Of course, TOS was intended to be "'Wagon Train' to the stars" ('Wagon Train' was a television western), and killing the bad guy was the norm in westerns. I agree that Crater's lack of negative emotions toward his wife's killer was strange. The last survivor of an intelligent species would be quite an amazing discovery for an archeologist, and it seems he did bond with the creature--perhaps the alien used its hypnotic effect to override negative emotions until Crater bonded with it? The "Nancy understood" statement by Crater was interesting--it means that Nancy and Crater knew about the creature before it killed her. Did it appear to them in its native form or an illusion? Did it kill Nancy because (1) there wasn't enough salt for all of them, or (2) it preferred getting salt from live creatures, or (3) it developed an attraction to Crater and Nancy was in the way? Did it kill Crater because he was the only person who could see through its illusions, and thus became a liability? It is difficult to believe that the planet "ran out of salt," given that there was only one surviving alien. If there was enough salt for "millions" of aliens, where did it go? It's likely that the aliens did not consume salt as a compound, but instead killed some animal to obtain it (as evidenced by its hand adaptations). If the climate changed and the animals died, then there could be a problem. But the alien was able to live on salt tablets, and I would think that any Class M planet should have natural salt deposits. Also, it's an incredible coincidence that Crater and his wife arrived on the planet just as the salt "ran out." Well, TOS didn't always make all the details believable--it was a television show, so some things can be overlooked. What is more egregious are the physics errors in many of the episodes. I would think a science fiction show would consult a physicist to prevent silly mistakes.

[@RaynorBear]

This was the first episode aired on TV, but it was NOT the first episode made. There were two pilots to the show, and then the show itself. The very first regular episode made was "The Corbomite Maneuver", but NBC-TV chose this episode, "The Man Trap" to be the first one aired, as there several episodes had been completed, and NBC-TV had the freedom to decide which order to air the episodes. Because of this, there will be inconsistencies as you watch the series... changes were made as the episodes were produced... but since you are watching in airdate order instead of production order, you will notice the inconsistencies.

[@herbertkeithmiller]

Yes there's a good reason they were taking salt tablets. In the 60s it was widely believed that you needed to immediately replenish any salt lost to sweat. Taking salt pills would keep you hydrated and fatigue free. We now know that's not true but that's what the best medical advice at the time was.

[@fredklein3829]

I like your style and you're very smart -- you had it all figured out quickly. LOL at your "French fries" comment. It will take a while for uniforms, equipment and terminology to stabilize, however, yellow shirts are for command, blue for science and medicine, red for engineering, communications and support services.

[@vincentsaia6545]

William Shatner is also still alive.

[@brandonflorida1092]

People in hot climates need salt because we sweat salt water.

[@photonicus]

In the time of Kirk, captains were a bit on the bold side. They weren't SUPPOSED to beam down into unknown areas first, but they couldn't help themselves. They didn't want to put anyone in danger unless they were facing the same danger themselves. In the time of Picard, Starfleet is much more serious about captains not beaming down first and enforce this accordingly. As for salt, we need it to help hold water in our bodies.. especially in hot climates. We don't want too much salt, but just enough to stay hydrated. You can drink all you want and still be thirsty when there's not enough salt holding that water in. It's why athletes drink gatorade, which has salt and potassium. It replenishes what they lose with sweating and heat. The Nancy monster simply required much more than us.

[@PennyisWatching]

I was also thinking it was maybe a matter of age, since Kirk is definitely much younger than Picard and so he's more adventurous (and also maybe still a bit new on the whole captain thing? Do we know how long has Kirk been captain?) If something happened to Picard and Riker had to become captain of the Enterprise, 100% he would have beamed down all the times as well 😅 Now that I think about it, Kirk is reminding me of Riker in a lot of aspects, I'm curious to see if I'll keep thinking the same as the episodes go on! Thanks for the salt explanation, I honestly had no clue. I have a complete lack of knowledge in pretty much anything scientific - chemistry, biology, you name it! But hey, if there's ever gonna be an episode about Economics, I won't need help there!

[@photonicus]

@@PennyisWatching Yes, Kirk's younger age certainly plays into it. I think he was made captain at 29 or 30 yrs old. That's the youngest anyone has been made captain..at least of a ship as big, powerful and high profile as the Enterprise. They usually want older more experienced men to command the more powerful starships, men Picard's age. However Kirk has unusually high leadership ability, and has the cleverness of someone 20yrs older.

[@miamicool666]

I think you should have started with the two-part pilot, "The Cage," because the events that occur there will help you understand what happens in later episodes of the series.

[@PennyisWatching]

I was torn about it, so I asked around and lots of people online recommend watching "The Cage" either immediately before or immediately after watching the episodes that refer to it, so I decided that's what I'll do!

[@miamicool666]

@@PennyisWatching No worries, my bad.