From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos
From Address: sdlitvin@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: Amok Time: my review
"jphalt@gmail.com" wrote in message
news:01e32f72-37ad-4150-a682-e46f2cb37bce@k23g2000yqa.googlegroups.com:
> AMOK TIME
>
> Spock gets space-horny, but feels much better after tearing Kirk's
> shirt open and wrestling around in the dirt with him for a while.
>
>
> THE PLOT
>
> Less facetiously...
>
> The Enterprise is ordered to Altair VI for the new President's
> coronation. But there is a conflict: Spock has begun behaving
> erratically, and has requested leave on Vulcan. Kirk puts in a request
> with Starfleet to divert to Vulcan, but it is denied. Then McCoy drops
> a bombshell: Spock's body is undergoing massive internal stress, and
> if he is not brought to Vulcan, then he will die!
>
> Spock finally informs the captain of the reason for this sudden change
> in him. He is undergoing the pon-farr, the Vulcan mating ritual which
> occurs once every seven years. Kirk agrees to divert the ship, against
> orders, to deliver Spock to his bride - T'Pring (Arlene Martel). But
> when they reach Vulcan, there is a further complication. T'Pring
> refuses the match, leading to a ritual challenge: a fight to the
> death. And the champion T'Pring chooses to fight Spock is none other
> than James T. Kirk!
>
>
> CHARACTERS
>
> Capt. Beefcake: Kirk being Kirk, he cannot possibly get through the
> battle with Spock without having his shirt cut open, revealing that
> Kirk appears to have a mascara fetish, as he has drawn a neat makeup
> line across his own chest. Guffaws aside, though, Kirk has an
> excellent episode here, and Shatner returns to his "A" game for
> probably the first time this season. The different parts of Kirk's
> personality are put into direct conflict.
>
> No matter what the later Trek films would insist, TOS Kirk is actually
> quite a stickler for following orders. Having Spock's welfare put into
> conflict with his orders creates a significant dilemma for him.
> However, he is both a good captain and a good friend to his first
> officer. He stays with following orders right up to the point at which
> McCoy informs him that Spock will die... and then he breaks orders,
> putting Spock's welfare above a directive whose value is purely
> ceremonial. Kirk's more intellectual side (rarely referenced, but
> established as early as Where No Man Has Gone Before) also is seen,
> once they arrive on Vulcan. He cannot resist meeting the famous T'Pau
> (Celia Lovsky), and his desire to impress her and to participate in a
> Vulcan ritual ends up putting him right in the middle of the climactic
> battle.
>
>
> Spock: Almost certainly the most significant Spock episode of the
> series. This is the episode where we find out about the Vulcan mating
> process. We also learn that, while Spock has strongly identified
> himself as Vulcan, he nevertheless hoped that his human blood would
> save him from having to go through this process. The level of both his
> self-discipline and his friendship for Kirk are displayed when he
> manages to break through the burning in his blood to plead with T'Pau
> to excuse Kirk from combat. Finally, Nimoy manages to convey the grief
> Spock feels at the outcome of this fight, all within the utter self-
> control of Spock once he is returned to normal. It is a standout
> performance by Nimoy, very probably his best of the series.
>
>
> McCoy: His friendship with Spock is explicitly stated in this episode,
> when Spock invites him down to the surface along with Kirk, and his
> response is to be genuinely honored at the invitation. When he sees
> that the ceremony has taken a deadly turn, and that the rules are far
> from fair to Kirk, McCoy intercedes. When his first attempt is
> blocked, with a threat of deadly force, he finds another tactic, and
> uses his medical knowledge to save both Kirk and Spock. Finally, being
> McCoy, he cannot resist needling Spock about a brief emotional
> outburst. As with Shatner and Nimoy, DeForest Kelly rises to the
> quality of the material and delivers his best performance of the
> season thus far.
>
>
> Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Arlene Martel is T'Pring, Spock's
> intended bride. T'Pring (and, to an extent, T'Pau) serve as prime
> rebuttals of some fans' insistence that the Enterprise Vulcans are too
> shady, when the original series' Vulcans were always honorable.
> T'Pring is as devious as any of the Enterprise Vulcans, manipulating
> the ceremonial rules, Kirk, and Spock to achieve her desired result.
> As she explains at the end, no matter what outcome had resulted, she
> would have gotten what she wanted. Her cold calculations make her one
> of the frostiest characters the series has seen yet.
>
>
> Alien Space Beauracrat of the Week: This role is effectively filled by
> T'Pau, who also comes across as a bit devious. She seems irritated -
> as irritated as a Vulcan might seem, in any case - that Spock has
> brought "offworlders" to this ceremony. When describing the combat to
> Kirk, she deliberately does not explain that the battle would be to
> the death, even when Spock pleads with her that Kirk "doesn't know."
> It's a rather glaring omission, a bit too glaring to simply be an
> oversight. She didn't want "offworlders" present, and finds a way to
> exact a price for Spock's insistence on bringing Kirk and McCoy to a
> Vulcan ceremony. At least, that's how I read it.
>
>
> THOUGHTS
>
> Theodore Sturgeon's previous Trek script was Shore Leave, a vaguely
> surreal, pleasantly jaunty Season One romp that remains rather a
> favorite of mine. Even if I hadn't been aware of Amok Time's
> reputation as an iconic episode, the simple fact of another Sturgeon
> script would have been enough to have me looking forward to revisiting
> this one. This episode doesn't disappoint. Sturgeon has gone for the
> opposite extreme of Shore Leave, following up a romp with one of the
> most intense episodes of the entire series. All three of the main
> characters get some excellent material here, and Kirk and Spock are
> both put through the wringer, both emotionally and physically.
>
> Nimoy always excels at Spock, but he seems to particularly relish
> those episodes that allow him to cut loose and show some actual
> emotion. For obvious reasons - the hardest role for an actor to play
> is an unemotional one. Nimoy gets to rant, scream, and growl here -
> all the things that the very nature of the role regularly deny him. He
> really does convey the unleashing of seven years' worth of suppressed
> emotion, barking and gritting out virtually every line. Even when he
> is relatively calm, describing why he must return to Vulcan to Kirk,
> there is a different pitch to his voice than is usual. He is mindful
> throughout the episode that this is a different Spock, and does not
> give us "normal Spock" even once until the ship actually reaches
> Vulcan. It's a fine performance, but also a careful one, very
> evidently thought through in advance of shooting.
>
> The Remastered version of this episode does see a slight departure
> from the norm, in terms of new effects. When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy
> beam down to Vulcan, they now cross a CGI land bridge to reach the
> ceremony. I have mixed feelings about this. The CGI is impressive, and
> it does mirror the Vulcan seen in the movies. On the other hand, the
> sequence jars when cut between two shots of the regulars in 1960's
> studio sets. It's a lovely shot, and I'm glad to have seen it... but
> it does take me out of the episode, if only for a second or two, and I
> suspect whenever I rewatch, I will choose to rewatch the original
> version because of that.
>
>
> Rating: 10/10. Possibly the best episode I've yet reviewed. Definitely
> one of the Top Three.
I think the original "Amok Time" was great. But I must deduct one point
for the "remastered" version (to give it only 9/10). This is the only
episode in which remastering actually *replaced* an original live-action
scene with CGI: A few seconds of Kirk/Spock/McCoy walking along on
Vulcan was replaced with that CGI shot of the stone bridge, with
*animated* characters walking along.
Remastering should mean just that: Cleaning up the original, but *NOT*
cutting any existing scenes.
I understand why they did what they did. The TAS episode "Yesteryear"
had established Spock's ancestral home as looking that way.
"Yesteryear" had been effectively canonized by Paramount, so continuity
with it had to be maintained. A few other episodes of VOY and so forth,
also alluded to events in "Yesteryear." But like I said, I would rather
have traded off continuity to faithfulness to the original version.
--
--
Steven L.
sdlitvin@earthlinkNOSPAM.net
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