Wanderlust

1.4 — “The Naked Time”

1.4 — “The Naked Time”

I’m on east coast time and need to start the discussion now!

All I can say is that, while “Charlie X” proved that Kirk needs to keep his shirt on, Sulu can take his off any time he likes!

“Take D’Artagnan to sick bay!”  Spock the wit!

It seems like they gave Chapel’s lines to Yar virtually unchanged for “Naked Now”, only Yar gets lucky.

“I’m a space officer!  My duty… is to eat cake.”  Spock losing control here would work better a few more episodes in.  We just haven’t had enough time to absorb his usual logical nature for this to be as big a deal as it really is.

The first appearance of “I cannot change the laws of physics!”

Jim… there’s no right way to hit a Vulcan… and so Kirk/Spock fiction was born.

McCoy tears off Kirk’s shirt at the right shoulder for more /Trek action!

Time travel out of nowhere and to no real purpose!  (Unless… it gets used in a later episode??)

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R. Alex Reutter

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24 responses to “1.4 — “The Naked Time””

  1. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    Oh, and another routine mission?  Bah.  What happened to the Enterprise going where no one has gone before?  The /Enterprise/ should have discovered this system’s instability, and the scientists on the planet should be part of her crew.  The rest of the episode can play out as-is, but these little things need fixing.  We just don’t get the sense that the Enterprise is out on the edge of known space and making important discoveries.

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  2. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    I thought this was a perfectly responsible rescue mission with a scientific research component! The fact that they are observing the disintegration of a planet similar to Earth provides a partial answer to Ensign Joe’s fret about “we don’t belong in space!”

    Lengthier thoughts after I get some clothes on and pass them through a final edit (the comments not the clothes).

    Reply
  3. Sarah MacMillan Avatar
    Sarah MacMillan

    Wouldn’t a waterborne infectious agent make more sense that this nonsense about water changing into “a complex chain of molecules”?   That aside, Sulu is hilarious in this episode. 

    Alex has stolen all of my points, the pointy-eared bastard.

    I wish I could invent time warp by accident. Whoo-ee, that was out of nowhere.

    Reply
  4. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    The dangers of watching the episode together and talking about it…  FWIW, I’ve been automatically assuming that half of Kevin’s talking points should be attributed to Jim.  🙂

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  5. Sarah MacMillan Avatar
    Sarah MacMillan

    Really, Alex has toned it down. We were a bit slap-happy about all the /slash fiction possibilities in this episode. After all, losing all control, silly melodrama, hopeless love declarations and curiously flimsy shirts usually takes us into fan territory. 

    Reply
  6. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    This is my favorite episode so far! I feel like I’m watching real Star Trek, almost for the first time. What makes “The Naked Time” different? 

    The performances–the actors seem to have locked in their roles as never before. This cast believes in their characters and jobs in such a complete and thorough way. In the opening scene, Spock uses a hair dryer to scan the dying planet exactly as if he knows how it works, could take it apart and rebuild it if necessary, yet he’s done this so many times, he barely has to pay attention. This kind of naturalistic acting is rare and generous, because it doesn’t call attention to itself. But it makes us believe in the reality of the ship, no matter how outlandish things get–and this episode gets pretty frelling outlandish. I even believed that those disco shower curtains were functioning environmental hazard suits. Almost.

    The writing, which makes everything else possible. The actors were clearly encouraged to collaborate in the development of their characters, and this episode is so critical to define so many of them–Spock, Sulu, Scotty, Kirk, and Chapel in her first appearance. The script is so full of great lines! Spock and Bones’ exchange in sick bay (“As for my anatomy being different from yours, I am delighted”). Scotty getting cheeky about his engines. “Bones, I want the impossible checked out, too!” “Instruments register only those things they’re designed to register. Space still contains infinite unknowns.” “ I can’t change the laws of physics. I’ve got to have thirty minutes!” “Jim, when I feel friendship for you, I’m ashamed.” “SULU: I’ll protect you, fair maiden. UHURA: Sorry, neither.”

    My favorite line, though, comes from Spock:  “Fascinating. A pattern is developing. First, Tormolen. Hidden personality traits being forced to the surface. . . . and now Sulu, who is at heart a swashbuckler out of your 18th century.” I really want to read Sulu’s personnel file.

    For all the drama (another countdown to the sure destruction of the ship!) this episode is also hilarious. Nothing–to this day!–says high camp like Sulu with a rapier. It’s fantastic, and he sells it to the hilt. Riley singing “Oh Kathleen” is ridiculous, but it also shows how fragile, and human, the crew of the Enterprise can be. The first Vulcan neck pinch, followed by “You’ll have to teach me that some day.” I love this episode! Unlike the other episodes so far, I remembered every scene from earlier days.

    Technical details: I don’t know why the engine room is full of purple light, but I love it. Love the camera pull out from the Captain’s chair to the full bridge that happens at the critical moment when matter is being combined with anti-matter in the engine room, underscoring that _Star Trek_ is the story of the Enterprise and her crew, not the person sitting in the chair of command (something J.J. Abrams doesn’t get).

    I could go on and on. I recommend reading Torie and Eugene’s review in full: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/04/lemgstar-treklemg-re-watch-the-naked-time. Only one casualty (blue shirt).

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  7. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    There are a lot of great BIG moments in this episode–my favorite small moment is the look exchanged between Kirk and Uhura when they both snap at each other under stress on the bridge and then remember themselves.

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  8. Don Glover Avatar
    Don Glover

    Why did they know to wear hazmat suits? It thought this was a routine pick up mission.

     

    What good are those head pieces?

     

    Why would someone strangle a mannequin? (Hazards of HD)

     

    Glove off! Hazmat training at the academy must be an optional course.

     

    Biofilters for the transporter haven’t been invented yet.

     

    Ahh.. Probalby going to get more comments about sexism.

     

    Shouldn’t Sulu’s wrists immobilized?

     

    What ARE the stories about Vulcan men? Hmmm…..

     

    McCoy, Explaining the serum to the madman. Not the brightest bulb on the ship is he.

     

    Tear away shirt. Cool. Must make trips to the pleasure planets easier.

     

    Ok, Why were only Uhura, McCoy, and Kirk affected by the implosion noise? Why was there an implosion noise?

     

    First time travel episode! 

     

    This episode was remade in TNG as “The Naked Now”.

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  9. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    They could have done considerably worse in the sexism department, considering the subject matter of the episode. Janice Rand doesn’t come off too bad, Uhura is practically the only crew member who keeps her head together, Chapel… not a practical hairstyle, maybe she could have been given more to do, but she shows us how an introvert reacts to the virus, and reveals that she doesn’t care about Spock’s turmoil about the internal war between his halves, but loves him just for who he is. Kirk recognizes and articulates his duty to respect female crewmembers, and no one threatens sexual violence (a streak that will be broken by the next episode).

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  10. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    The Naked Time:

    1) I am finding Mr. Spock strangely attractive in the orange bubble wrap.

    2) Worst infection control technique… ever!  This scene probably should be featured in a hospital staff training video on this topic.

    3) Major eyebrow pyrotechnics from Mr. Spock on the examining table.

    4) “Instruments register only the things they are designed to register.”  Too true.

    5) I think Joey just stabbed himself with a butter knife?  And the crew is getting infected by a virus that makes a sound like a rattlesnake when they wipe their hands on things?  Even in the 60’s you would think they could do better special effects.

    6) “His breathing rate is dropping, Doctor” = first intelligent comment from a woman on the show!  Yay!

    7) Wow… Uhura can steer the ship and even try to divert Sulu from attacking the crew.  Feminism returns!

    8) Perhaps I spoke too soon.  Can I please strangle Yeoman Rand???  (i.e. ship is self-destructing yet she is seemingly unable to make her way past one annoying crewman, and then needs to complain about it later… ugh.)

    9) Glad to see there is an obvious need to rip Kirk’s shirt.

    10) Oh, come on… please don’t say Kirk is supposed to have a secret crush on the World’s Most Helpless Female Crewman.  Ugh.

    11) Wouldn’t it be funny if the Enterprise went backwards along its path and wound up hitting itself in the past?  That would be an abrupt ending to the series.

    That all being said, this was very fun and interesting.  Especially considering it was the first “real” episode, the writers did so much character-building.  Also, my hands-down favorite in this episode was Uhura.  She is a tough chick.  I agree with Kevin on my favorite moment being the Kirk-Uhura look afterward.

    It’s also interesting that Spock, as far as I can tell, cured himself of the virus/water/whatever it is.  And, how the hell Bones figured that out given lack of anyone intelligent to help him is beyond me.

    By the way, Sarah, I don’t mind the changing of water into “a complex chain of molecules”… I guess if there was some kind of catalyst that changed water into a hydrocarbon mixture that would be pretty interesting and science fictiony.  Although really it would probably immediately kill anyone it infected due to how much that would screw with a person’s basic biology.

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  11. Don Glover Avatar
    Don Glover

    Kevin, my sexism comment was meant as comment on how the writers had written Yeoman Rand dealing with the over amorous crewman.

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  12. Katharine Bond Avatar
    Katharine Bond

    Seriously, another pick up people and ferry them episode? Although, actually, watching a planet disintegrate sounds kinda cool. I’m not sure why taking a shower fully clothed is ominous, and seriously, who takes off their gloves in a Hazmat suit? That is SO STUPID!

    Yay! We have the “To Boldly Go” speech for the first time!

    I keep getting blown away by how young Nimoy and Shatner look. For some reason, it doesn’t hit me as much with the others.

    Sulu talking about botany! You know, the crazy person is making some sense. I also don’t think that he’s going to hurt himself too badly with the butter knife.

    Hallucinating people should not pilot starships.

    I keep going back and forth on whether the music to signify infection is genius or not.

    I do like that they let Uhura pilot the ship, but she ends up playing the damsel role anyways later on. And, the blonde in the red needs Spock to rescue her.

    I’m not sure that it should be that easy to lock people out of Engineering. And really, it took that long to cut through the wall?

    Kirk seemed to succumb really fast, and Spock recovered too fast. And, how does Uhura not get it after Sulu grabbed her? Or for that matter, McCoy manages to avoid it?

    Time warp? Really?

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  13. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Don–The crewmen were interfering with her. I guess I don’t understand–if the writers were less sexist she would have reacted more irritably or violently? She would have persuaded them not to? Spock couldn’t persuade them not to, and he outranks Rand by a mile. What that scene illustrated to me was how so much depends on order and discipline during a crisis–take that away and the almighty Enterprise is way more fragile than you would think.

    I get it that the existence of Rand is troubling. The writers use a female with a girlish manner to be the face of all the junior inexperienced crewmembers who perform menial tasks, and she seems to get frequently thrown into victim roles (at least that happened in “Charlie X” and will happen in the next one). But in “The Naked Time” she’s practically the only person who keeps her head and minds her duty (okay, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura do too), she isn’t given a large damsel in distress role, and she does navigate the interference on her own. If all her lines and business were given to a male character I don’t think there would have been anything to comment about.

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  14. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    A more capable Yeoman Rand sees that the crewmen interfering with her are affected by the disease, recognizes that in an emergency she might need to take drastic action, and sets her phaser on stun.

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  15. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Agree, agree, agree with Alex.  Also, you don’t whine to the Captain of a starship that people are harrassing you during a ship-wide emergency.  You probably don’t do it at all, but if you do, it’s not while the emergency is still going on.  Very unprofessional.

    Reply
  16. Michael Hanscom Avatar
    Michael Hanscom

    Just got done watching this one (this was also the first chance I had to watch one off the Blu-ray set rather than Netflix…so pretty!).

    I think most of my potential comments have already been taken care of already. I really enjoyed O’Reilly’s not-a-care-in-the-world wander through the Enterprise — he did a great job vamping that up. “No dance tonight!”

    Sulu is wonderful, of course. Though he’s only given a few chances to really shine throughout the series and movies, Takei has such natural charisma that it’s incredibly easy to see how he gained the fan following he did.

    The Enterprise has a bowling alley! I remember this from the old blueprints that were issued — if I remember correctly, it sits in the engineering hull, just below the hangar deck. I hope they boost the antigrav generators there, otherwise they must constantly be repairing bowling ball sized holes in the decks, walls, and ceilings every time the Enterprise gets knocked around.

    Rand may be the fluffy bit of eye candy much of the time, but she’s at least competent enough to be given the helm in an emergency. Not bad for someone who normally just hands Kirk documents to sign or oddly-colored snack cubes.

    Spock and Kirk both seem to succumb to the infection extremely quickly. At first I figured that Spock’s different biochemistry might have played a part in that, but then Kirk was affected quite quickly as well. My best guess is that they were picking it up from people who had already been affected for a while, so maybe the infection was stronger than when it initially infected the blue shirt.

    I never figured that Spock cured himself — my assumption is that he was able to regain control (possibly assisted by the shock of seeing Kirk fall apart), and was later vaccinated by McCoy sometime off-camera. Remember, most of the victims didn’t realize that they were infected, so would have been more likely to just go along with it, without consciously realizing that they were in an altered state. By the time Spock and Kirk were infected, they knew that something was affecting people, so after the initial effects hit them, they’d be more likely to be able to assert control (and Spock more able than Kirk, given that he’s already trained to master his emotions).

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  17. Geoff Gill Avatar
    Geoff Gill

    I’ve got a lot less to say about this one. Virus infects crew, crew acts wacky, ship is saved. Star Trek history is littered with these episodes (indeed, there’s a TNG episode that was deliberately written as a sequel to this one), and they all suck.

    The mass of the planet is changing?

    3d checkers?

    The stabbing incident looks a lot more like spilled grape juice than it should.

    More than an optimistic view of the future, the prevailing theme of the show seems to be female crewmembers menaced by male ones. Seriously.

    I do love that the “chronometer” has a “YOU ARE GOING BACKWARDS IN TIME” warning light.

    In short, it’s boring. There’s no conflict other than crew vs. disease, really. And at the end, again, they demonstrate incuriousity – only this time it’s “WE INVENTED TIME TRAVEL. MAYBE WE WILL USE THAT SOMEDAY.”

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  18. Melissa Simms Avatar
    Melissa Simms

    I love “The Naked Time” and agree with what Kevin said about it.  Everybody seems a lot more secure with their roles, Sulu and Riley are classic comedy gold. 

    I’ve been thinking about what it is specifically about Chapel and Rand that annoys me in this episode.  As a kid watching in the 70’s, I thought they were both dumb.  They had to have been one of the earliest images in my head of professional women, yet they had impossibly silly hair, and ridiculously short skirts.  I’m remembering the disgust and annoyance of the Rockford Peaches in “A League of Their Own” when told they had to do their jobs in short skirts.

    As a fortysomething woman, watching two actresses in their mid-to-late thirties playing characters in their mid-to-late thirties, I think what I find most jarring is the then-mandatory assumption of virginal innocence in these middle-class white women.  The phrasing of Chapel’s drunk declaration of love for Spock is what we would today expect of a girl of 17, not a woman of 35.  I love a love story, but Nurse Chapel’s unrequited love always seemed sort of sad and pathetic, probably because of the  bias trained in me and everyone else about the relative media ages of male and female characters.  If Rand and Chapel were ever intended to be love interests for Kirk and Spock, they’d have gotten actresses who were ten years younger.  So Rand gets the axe and Chapel’s stuck on the sidelines.  All this because studio execs thought the public couldn’t handle the much cooler Majel Barrett character, Jeffrey Hunter’s black-haired, pants-wearing first officer.  (And they were probably right.  Look how quickly Tasha Yar gets axed in ST:TNG)

    Lt. Uhura has a different set of contraints to work with.  Her name would seem to indicate that she is intended to be African, not African-American, so she’s as much a part of the multi-cultural vibe as Spock, Sulu and later, Chekov.  As such she gets to be “exotic” and therefore a little bit sexy in a way that probably seemed slutty to an adult viewer in the sixties, and seems much more age-appropriate to a contemporary viewer.  She gets to flirt a little, to sing in public, and she specifically denies her notional virginity in this episode. 

    Also you can tell that none of the female characters are presumed to have any kind of physical training or athletic skills kills of any kind, thus Rand’s complete helplessness in the face of an annoying crew member, in the Naked Time and the animal captain in Enemy Within. 

    Anyway, that’s my attempt to elaborate on my general feeling of “Ugh!” about the ladies into something more specific. 

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  19. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    I agree with most of the above, but will note that Yar was axed because Denise Crosby chose to leave the series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Crosby#Star_Trek), not because anyone wanted to get rid of the character.  I think I disagree with the assertion in the article that Yar was “moved to the background”; I mostly remember the episodes in which Yar/Picard/Data are the main characters from season 1, and it was only after her death that Worf begins to be developed at all.

    Also, I think I would have liked Riley’s role better if he were at least a slightly capable singer, more in the Johnny Nolan mold (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tree_Grows_in_Brooklyn_%28film%29).

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  20. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Melissa, that is an outstanding comment. It definitely helps me understand the issue better. Thanks for articulating it so well!

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  21. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Oh, we found out that Uhura is African in “The Man Trap” when the salt vampire delights her by talking to her in Swahili!

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  22. Melissa Simms Avatar
    Melissa Simms

    Thanks, Kevin!

    Reply
  23. Allen Knutson Avatar
    Allen Knutson

    Probably nobody remembers this episode so late in the game, but I really liked the black tank tops that Spock and the casualty were wearing under their uniforms. I had no idea!

    “Jim, this man shouldn’t have died. His wounds weren’t that serious. He had a butter knife, for Chrissake! Also, his body grew cold in under a minute!”

    I really liked that Spock asks Riley where Sulu is, and having exchanged one sentence with him, says “Mr Riley, you’re relieved, go to sick bay. Security, make sure he does.” Too bad about that third part, eh?

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  24. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    We’ve learned that security procedures are extremely lax on the Enterprise.  Worf would never have allowed this… unless it was convenient to the plot.

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