Plot – I love the melodramatic of Kirk and crew being giving ten Earth-type rotations known as minutes to contact their deities before it wipes them out. Star Trek lacks that kind of extreme dialogue in later years and is far less entertaining for it. Spock later exclaims that they are ‘super heating’, which is obvious a lot more dramatic than a regular heating up.
Character – Introducing Leonard McCoy, and the creation of the triumvirate that ensured that this series lasts three years. Without McCoy to provide a counterpoint to Kirk and Spock (a wise advisor and a curmudgeonly rival respectively) then neither character would have been as successful. Deforest Kelly is instantly charismatic and a formidable figure. Even if he does commit a court martialble act in his very first scene. Goodness knows why he is hanging around on the Bridge for now readily apparent reason but he certainly provides an entertaining commentary at all times.
Performance – Because this episode is essentially a reaction to an unknown threat throughout it means that the director has to rely on the cast more than ever to provide the interest. Cue William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy doing their best ‘stare at the viewscreen in wonderment and fear’ acting. To give them their credit they sell this material and then some.
Shatner can’t resist getting his chest out as much as possible and relishes the sweaty medical test sequences. At this point he is playing the part as cool as a cucumber. Even Leonard Nimoy is panicking in the face of the cube but Kirk is determined to escape the cube at any cost. He’s playing a dangerous game when he bluffs his way out of their situation by pretending that the ship can withstand any attack and that he is growing annoyed at Balok’s foolishness, especially given the being has already proven that it is vastly superior in ability. But that’s what it takes to sit in the Captain’s chair. Sometimes you’ve got to risk death to get out of a tight scrape.
You need Bailey in this story to pad out its running time. Without the tension of one of the Enterprise crew cracking under pressure it would be a long 50 minutes of looking a the viewscreen waiting for something to happen. That doesn’t make him any less annoying though because it is clear that is his function. He’s not somebody we have met before and we lose him at the end of the episode in a particularly pat ending for the character and so he is literally a device to extend the running time of this episode. We don’t learn much about him, just that Kirk pushes him harder than he can handle.
Production – You can tell that this is the first episode to be made after the pilots because the director is trying to sell the hell out of the Enterprise sets with some impressive and imaginative sweeps and zooms. There’s a sense of dynamism to the show that feels like it is really trying to impress. Fast forward to series three where there is a real feeling of ‘point and shoot’ about the realisation of the Enterprise scenes because of the ‘been there, done that’ feeling that pervades the series. There’s an impressive over the shoulder shot from Kirk’s POV as he enters the Bridge that really stands out.
It also explains the unfinished look of Mr Spock, especially his demonic eyebrows. The decision to tone down his make-up hadn’t been made yet. And why Uhura is in a yellow uniform instead of a red one. Everything is still a little unfinished and forming, which is rather exciting. You feel like you’re experiencing a classic TV show coming together slowly.
The Corbamite Maneuver has one of my favourite music scores of all of Star Trek, from The Original Series until the present day. The cues may have been cannibalised for other episodes but this remains very much the music that I associate with this episode and its mysterious goings on. Fed Steiner writes a brilliantly dramatic and memorable score, going made on the xylophone to suggest an escalation of drama. The sequence where the vessel first appears in all its majestic glory with Steiner’s awesome cello score is one to be remembered. When I think TOS, I think this music. It suggests drama and wonder and the unknown.
On the CGI improvements you have the cube spreading its light on the Enterprise in a very nice touch that they didn’t really have to bother with. You might think that improving the effects of vintage television is a pointless exercise but the creators of the HD Trek have gone to some effort to mimic the originals and offer gentle and persuasive enhancements. It feels like the CG that would have been created had they had the technology at the time.
The Balok puppet face is one of the most iconic visuals from the Original Series, probably because it featured at the end of the closing credits. It’s not the most mobile of masks but it does have the shock factor when it first appears, looking for all the world as though it is screaming.
For once making the corridors of the Enterprise appear busy and crowded has a purpose. As the first shipboard show, the director needs to make sure that there a decent visual stake to the episode and by making this feel like a functioning starship there is a feeling that many lives are at stake at the hands of this unknowable alien.
Best moment – The size of the object is truly accentuated in the CGI version but it was still an impressive spectacle in the original. It’s an awesome piece of design and its sheer scale makes it a genuine threat to the Enterprise. It looks like it can gobble her up in a second. ‘5000 miles away and it still fills the screen.’
I’m not sure if the real Balok is supposed to be super cute because he is played by a child but there is something extremely sinister about this grinning, adult sounding infant that commands such technical wizardry. If anything suggests the weirdness of the space visually then it is Clint Howard miming complicated dialogue and grinning like a loony. It gives me the shivers.
Worst moment – Janice Reed turning up during what is supposedly tense moment with hand-phasered coffee. Sexist and tension destroying, if there is time for a quick brew made by the missus then things can’t be that bad.
I wish they hadn’t done that – There’s a worrying moment when Kirk and McCoy discuss the fact that he has a female Yeoman and McCoy asks if he doesn’t trust himself. It’s indicative of the notion that woman are treated as objects of sexual attraction and little more in early Trek that is very troublesome.
A reason to watch this episode again – What astonishing about this episode is how much suspense can be drawn out of nothing in particular happening. If this was an episode of Voyager or Enterprise where really have seen it all before this would be pretty intolerable but at this stage of the game everything is fresh and dangerous in space and so a mysterious cube menacing the Enterprise feels like a genuine threat. What truly stands out is how well characterised everybody is, the efforts of the cast to make these roles interesting in the face of a plot that barely moves for half an hour and the superb direction from Joseph Sargent who is trying to make all the shipboard scenes as dynamic and capturing as possible. Add to it one of the best scores for a Star Trek episode (up there with The Best of Both Worlds, Call to Arms and Anomaly) and you have a production team that are truly attempting to impress and it works. Whilst The Corbamite Maneuver is little more than a shaggy dog story (albeit one with a sweet ending that lingers in the memory) it is one from the opening salvo of The Original Series where the series was still proving itself and succeeding. The approach of the mysterious crystalline vessel is still one of the best ever scenes in all of Trek.
**** out of *****
Character – Introducing Leonard McCoy, and the creation of the triumvirate that ensured that this series lasts three years. Without McCoy to provide a counterpoint to Kirk and Spock (a wise advisor and a curmudgeonly rival respectively) then neither character would have been as successful. Deforest Kelly is instantly charismatic and a formidable figure. Even if he does commit a court martialble act in his very first scene. Goodness knows why he is hanging around on the Bridge for now readily apparent reason but he certainly provides an entertaining commentary at all times.
Performance – Because this episode is essentially a reaction to an unknown threat throughout it means that the director has to rely on the cast more than ever to provide the interest. Cue William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy doing their best ‘stare at the viewscreen in wonderment and fear’ acting. To give them their credit they sell this material and then some.
Shatner can’t resist getting his chest out as much as possible and relishes the sweaty medical test sequences. At this point he is playing the part as cool as a cucumber. Even Leonard Nimoy is panicking in the face of the cube but Kirk is determined to escape the cube at any cost. He’s playing a dangerous game when he bluffs his way out of their situation by pretending that the ship can withstand any attack and that he is growing annoyed at Balok’s foolishness, especially given the being has already proven that it is vastly superior in ability. But that’s what it takes to sit in the Captain’s chair. Sometimes you’ve got to risk death to get out of a tight scrape.
You need Bailey in this story to pad out its running time. Without the tension of one of the Enterprise crew cracking under pressure it would be a long 50 minutes of looking a the viewscreen waiting for something to happen. That doesn’t make him any less annoying though because it is clear that is his function. He’s not somebody we have met before and we lose him at the end of the episode in a particularly pat ending for the character and so he is literally a device to extend the running time of this episode. We don’t learn much about him, just that Kirk pushes him harder than he can handle.
Production – You can tell that this is the first episode to be made after the pilots because the director is trying to sell the hell out of the Enterprise sets with some impressive and imaginative sweeps and zooms. There’s a sense of dynamism to the show that feels like it is really trying to impress. Fast forward to series three where there is a real feeling of ‘point and shoot’ about the realisation of the Enterprise scenes because of the ‘been there, done that’ feeling that pervades the series. There’s an impressive over the shoulder shot from Kirk’s POV as he enters the Bridge that really stands out.
It also explains the unfinished look of Mr Spock, especially his demonic eyebrows. The decision to tone down his make-up hadn’t been made yet. And why Uhura is in a yellow uniform instead of a red one. Everything is still a little unfinished and forming, which is rather exciting. You feel like you’re experiencing a classic TV show coming together slowly.
The Corbamite Maneuver has one of my favourite music scores of all of Star Trek, from The Original Series until the present day. The cues may have been cannibalised for other episodes but this remains very much the music that I associate with this episode and its mysterious goings on. Fed Steiner writes a brilliantly dramatic and memorable score, going made on the xylophone to suggest an escalation of drama. The sequence where the vessel first appears in all its majestic glory with Steiner’s awesome cello score is one to be remembered. When I think TOS, I think this music. It suggests drama and wonder and the unknown.
On the CGI improvements you have the cube spreading its light on the Enterprise in a very nice touch that they didn’t really have to bother with. You might think that improving the effects of vintage television is a pointless exercise but the creators of the HD Trek have gone to some effort to mimic the originals and offer gentle and persuasive enhancements. It feels like the CG that would have been created had they had the technology at the time.
The Balok puppet face is one of the most iconic visuals from the Original Series, probably because it featured at the end of the closing credits. It’s not the most mobile of masks but it does have the shock factor when it first appears, looking for all the world as though it is screaming.
For once making the corridors of the Enterprise appear busy and crowded has a purpose. As the first shipboard show, the director needs to make sure that there a decent visual stake to the episode and by making this feel like a functioning starship there is a feeling that many lives are at stake at the hands of this unknowable alien.
Best moment – The size of the object is truly accentuated in the CGI version but it was still an impressive spectacle in the original. It’s an awesome piece of design and its sheer scale makes it a genuine threat to the Enterprise. It looks like it can gobble her up in a second. ‘5000 miles away and it still fills the screen.’
I’m not sure if the real Balok is supposed to be super cute because he is played by a child but there is something extremely sinister about this grinning, adult sounding infant that commands such technical wizardry. If anything suggests the weirdness of the space visually then it is Clint Howard miming complicated dialogue and grinning like a loony. It gives me the shivers.
Worst moment – Janice Reed turning up during what is supposedly tense moment with hand-phasered coffee. Sexist and tension destroying, if there is time for a quick brew made by the missus then things can’t be that bad.
I wish they hadn’t done that – There’s a worrying moment when Kirk and McCoy discuss the fact that he has a female Yeoman and McCoy asks if he doesn’t trust himself. It’s indicative of the notion that woman are treated as objects of sexual attraction and little more in early Trek that is very troublesome.
A reason to watch this episode again – What astonishing about this episode is how much suspense can be drawn out of nothing in particular happening. If this was an episode of Voyager or Enterprise where really have seen it all before this would be pretty intolerable but at this stage of the game everything is fresh and dangerous in space and so a mysterious cube menacing the Enterprise feels like a genuine threat. What truly stands out is how well characterised everybody is, the efforts of the cast to make these roles interesting in the face of a plot that barely moves for half an hour and the superb direction from Joseph Sargent who is trying to make all the shipboard scenes as dynamic and capturing as possible. Add to it one of the best scores for a Star Trek episode (up there with The Best of Both Worlds, Call to Arms and Anomaly) and you have a production team that are truly attempting to impress and it works. Whilst The Corbamite Maneuver is little more than a shaggy dog story (albeit one with a sweet ending that lingers in the memory) it is one from the opening salvo of The Original Series where the series was still proving itself and succeeding. The approach of the mysterious crystalline vessel is still one of the best ever scenes in all of Trek.
**** out of *****
1 comment:
when Kirk gets mad because McCoy didn't tell him about the Red Alert and stomps out : "What am I a Doctor, or a MOON-shuttle conductor?" and then quietly to himelf "If i jumped every time a light came on around here, i'd end up talking to myself."
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