“Spock and a scientific party are sent to study the Murasaki 312 quasar aboard the shuttle Galileo. During the survey, the Galileo is forced to make an emergency landing on the planet Taurus II, where the crew fight the planet's dangerous inhabitants.” This is one of my favorite episodes. I just love the shuttlecrafts from TOS and I had a Galileo Seven model hanging from my bedroom ceiling as a kid. Seeing the craft in the bay and watching it fly through space is just too cool, I don’t know maybe I’m just weird.
This is a “classic” Spock episode. His logical side really shines as it consistently annoys the rest of the crew. This dynamic never fails to make me happy. You got to love how everyone hates Spock. While the crew (which consists of Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Latimer, Gaetano, Boma and a sexy girl) are trapped on this unknown planet, Kirk is fighting against time in his efforts to find them. He must take medical supplies to a colony and only has one day to locate the lost shuttlecraft.
One member of the crew is killed by a gigantic spear to the back. The funny thing is that all of the shots of the dead crewman are from mid-spear up … meaning they never show the body. I’m guessing that they didn’t have the “effects” to make a dead guy with a large spear in the back. Spock goes back to the craft and Scotty is working on fixing the shuttle. Spock tells him that most likely they will have to leave someone behind in order to lift off. Then in a curious move he orders one of the crew to wait in the middle of nowhere … alone … seemingly for no reason. Well of course he is killed, by a caveman-giant. Spock then orders everyone to fire at the cavemen but don’t kill them, this will scare them. But, this just manages to make the cavemen even more violent. They flee to the ship as these assailants toss boulders and Spock wonders why his logic is failing. The best thing about Spock is that the more he fails, the more intrigued he becomes … and this annoys the shit out of the crew members.
Spock does have a human moment when he goes back to retrieve the body of the 2nd dead crewman. This is when one of the best fuck ups in Trek history occurs. Spock is carrying his body back to the craft when he suddenly bombarded by the giant spears. One spear hits the crewman right in the head. In reality this should have made a horrible and disgusting mess. But no, it just explodes in a shower of Styrofoam. Ha ha awesome.
They finally lift off. Spock jettisons the last of the fuel in order to make a flare that will be picked up by the Enterprise. Meanwhile Kirks time is up (they have located craft and even sent an away team to the planet but they had been attacked as well). In the final moment, the Enterprise sees the flare and transports them back to the Enterprise. Whew, a close-call.
ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 17 down 63 to go
2 comments:
This episode is in my top ten. Love it.
But why didn't they have a GPS or something?
You think it would be rather easy to locate them, considering the technology on a STARSHIP!
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