{"id":4403,"date":"2014-03-17T04:52:03","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T04:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/36-Spectre-of-the-Gun"},"modified":"2014-03-17T04:52:03","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T04:52:03","slug":"36-spectre-of-the-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2014\/03\/17\/36-spectre-of-the-gun\/","title":{"rendered":"3.6 — \u201cSpectre of the Gun\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

3.6 — \u201cSpectre of the Gun\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> \u00a0Having angered the Melkotians by beaming down to their homeworld after disregarding a warning buoy asking for the Enterprise<\/em> leave their space, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekov are transported into a surreal version of Tombstone, Arizona, in 1881. The town has been incompletely assembled by the Melkotians out of Kirk\u2019s history-book memory. Despite their Federation uniforms, our heroes are mistaken by the locals for the members of the Clanton gang. The U.S. Marshall, Wyatt Earp, tells them that if they don\u2019t leave town, they have a date at the O.K. Corral at 5 o\u2019clock–for a shootout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> This was the first produced episode for third season, written by former producer Gene Coon under his pseudonym, Lee Cronin. It\u2019s kind of a mashup of \u201cArena\u201d (also written by Coon), \u201cThe Corbomite Maneuver,\u201d and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral<\/em> (coincidentally, DeForest Kelley played Morgan Earp in the 1957 film version starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is basically an enjoyable episode. I think you go along with it more because of the conventions of old television (“Oh, now they’re in an old Western”), rather than the logic of the situation. Spock\u2019s argument as to why the crew should not believe in the reality of their situation is quite cogent. The finale in which they emerge from the gunfire unscathed is exciting. The idea that reality will stop existing if you stop believing in it may not have a solid scientific basis, but it sure does crop up a lot in fantasy\/science fiction–see, e.g., Douglas Adams (\u201cthe secret to flying is to throw yourself at the ground, and miss\u201d) and The Matrix<\/em> (1999).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The surreal, incomplete Western facades may have come into being because the show couldn’t afford proper location shooting with its slashed budgets in the third season (Wikipedia says that the only location shooting in third season came in 3.3 — \u201cThe Paradise Syndrome\u201d), but they are still well executed, fun and effective. Necessity can be the mother of invention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The scene where the four senior officers discuss Chekov\u2019s death is the high point. When Spock\u2019s pride is pricked and he admits to having feelings of grief coming from his human half. I think that\u2019s a first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What I didn’t like was they way the script approached some of the crew as one-dimensional joke characters (Scotty likes to drink! Chekov is a horndog!). Also, the Earps were distinctly one dimensional, which I guess you can sort of justify if you think of them as being unreal mental projections as part of the Melkotian\u2019s test. Also, imho, this episode borrows a little too<\/em> heavily from \u201cArena\u201d and \u201cThe Corbomite Maneuver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3 out of 5 nineteenth century dental offices.<\/p>\n\n\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Spectre_of_the_gun<\/a>