Star Trek Thoughts - Part 8.5
May. 12th, 2026 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribI am continuing my ongoing (semi-) rewatch of Star Trek: The Original Series. As evidenced by the title, this is a minor update, covering only Season 2, Episode 22 "By Any Other Name." I see from my blog that the last batch of episodes I watched, episodes 18 to 21, kind of put me off my feed for Star Trek, as I haven't watched an episode since March 27.
"By Any Other Name" is better than the previous batch, but not by a lot. It's what's become a typical plot - Kirk and company beam down to asoundstage alien planet where the locals promptly attempt to take over the ship. In this case, the Kelvan Empire of beings from the Andromeda Galaxy are doing the taking-over. We learn that said aliens are too alien for 1960s TV budgets to film, so they've conveniently taken human form. This taking human form is their downfall - Kirk and company are able to play on their emotions to win the day.
Other thoughts:
1) Basically all the crew except Kirk, Spock, Scotty and McCoy are done for the day by the end of Act 1. Sucks to be them.
2) Kirk as womanizer is well-established - his method of "playing on emotions" is to seduce the blond female alien. There's another hot alien chick played by Lezlie Dalton who is basically ignored. I was not able to find much about the actress - seems like she was another woman who "aged out" of Hollywood.
3) In the remastered version, it is painfully obvious when they swap in the stunt doubles for the fight scenes.
4) Reactormag.com had an article about what Gene Roddenberry did between the end of the Original Series and the start of the movies. They mentioned William Ware Theiss as his long-time collaborator for costumes. The guy was up to his usual tricks on this episode - the female aliens wore backless shirts.
"By Any Other Name" is better than the previous batch, but not by a lot. It's what's become a typical plot - Kirk and company beam down to a
Other thoughts:
1) Basically all the crew except Kirk, Spock, Scotty and McCoy are done for the day by the end of Act 1. Sucks to be them.
2) Kirk as womanizer is well-established - his method of "playing on emotions" is to seduce the blond female alien. There's another hot alien chick played by Lezlie Dalton who is basically ignored. I was not able to find much about the actress - seems like she was another woman who "aged out" of Hollywood.
3) In the remastered version, it is painfully obvious when they swap in the stunt doubles for the fight scenes.
4) Reactormag.com had an article about what Gene Roddenberry did between the end of the Original Series and the start of the movies. They mentioned William Ware Theiss as his long-time collaborator for costumes. The guy was up to his usual tricks on this episode - the female aliens wore backless shirts.
