Hello and welcome to Truth or Myth? Well, here we are again, an Error Error Mistakes video, back by popular demand! In today’s episode, we’re taking a fun and fast look at the mistakes made in episodes 16-20 of Season 2 of Star Trek: The Original Series.
Just a reminder, if you want to explain away any of the mistakes in this video, then it has to be with in-universe canon explanations only. So Novels, Video games, tech Manuals and your ex-girlfriend’s second cousin twice remove Betty are NOT valid sources to explain away the mistakes. And so, with all that out of the way, let’s begin!
So let us kick this video off with what in my opinion is a really bad episode. As happens in a lot of the Original Series, Kirk ends up making a log entry after He, Uhura and Chekov are captured. The problem here, of course, is how exactly is he making that log entry?
Now there are some fans that believe Star Trek is a dramatization of future events. Sort of like today’s documentaries. And these sort of things do lend some credence to those theories. It certainly would remove the error with the log entries. Personally, though I don’t believe in that theory, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Watch when Chekov gets his nourishment from his assigned drill thrall. If you look above his head, you can see the shadow of what appears to be a microphone, dancing around.
Shawna’s behaviour is a bit bizarre in this episode, especially when it comes to kissing our hero Captain Kirk, watch her closely… Now bear in mind, she has never kissed anyone before, but yet miraculously she knows exactly how to do it, and does an expert job of it… I remember my first kiss and trust me it was a very awkward, very messy business.
Another one of these episodes that flip flops between the Metric and Imperial Systems of measurement… You’d think by the 23rd Century Earth would have that all figured out and have settled on one system…
Weird isn’t it? How the knives on Triskelion look exactly like those used aboard the Imperial Star Ship Enterprise from the episode “Mirror, Mirror?”
The final battle also deserves a bit of scrutiny here. Kirk is assigned the yellow sections of the floor while the enemies are assigned the blue sections. Straying off your section means you’re supposed to lose a weapon. Kirk, however, goes hog wild and is constantly off his yellow section, yet miraculously, though disobeying the game’s rules, he loses nothing, and wins the day!
From a Bad episode to a good episode! But this episode has a LOT of problems. But it is also a clear example of how when an episode is good enough, fans will overlook its mistakes in favor of a great story…
At the beginning of this episode, when Kirk Spock and McCoy beam to the planet surface we’re treated to a nice long shot of Kirk walking up and touching a bench, then in the next shot, a close-up shot, we’re treated to Kirk walking up to the bench and touching it again…
In fact, this whole sequence is riddled with mistakes. At the beginning, we see a woman in a peach dress walk down the street. A few minutes later, the same woman walks by once again. I guess a game of pool on this planet, is a bit different than on ours, at one point Oxmyx uses a blue ball as the cue ball… So this whole episode says the OXmyx’s name is Oxmyx, O X M Y X, however, a poster in Krackos Office spells the head gangsters name as OKmyx, O K M Y X…
When Kracko puts the bag on Kirk, his men, end up a locking him in a room. The problem here is that the room they lock him up in has a large area of objects that ANYONE could easily use as a weapon, such a the letter opener or even the type writer, are they really that incompetent?
Just before Spock and McCoy beam back down for the second time, one of Oxmyx’s men says, they can’t do anything till they’re done Sparkling… Wait, What? How does he know this? He wasn’t even around when the landing party beamed down the first time. And it seems like the Horizon didn’t have personnel rated transporters as Kirk has to explain transporter technology to Oxmyx at the beginning of the episode… Maybe the Enterprise transmitted all usable weaknesses of the landing party to the entire planet’s population as a sign of good faith?
Actually the second beam down is a bit illogical in its entirety. It seems to me to be absolutely ridiculous than Spock and McCoy beam down alone once again into the stronghold of a man that betrayed them in the first place. Wouldn’t a more logical thing to do, be to transport security officers into the place, hidden somewhere, should OxMyx decide to turn again? Wheres the logic in given Oxmyx the upper hand again?
So our good Captain Kirk comes to the rescue of Spock and McCoy. Kirk and Spock then head out to the street and decides to steal a car and miraculously, the key for that car is in it’s ignition. Does this seem right? On gangster Planet, riddled with crime, people would leave their car keys right there in the ignition? Also why didn’t Kirk and Spock just beam to the area? After all, isn’t beaming faster than walking OR driving?
The hypocrisy of Kirk in this episode is just plain nutty. When arriving at Krackos lair, Kirk refuses to use the Phasers because well it would violate the Prime Directive, and normally he’d be right. In this instance, however, the Prime Directive has essentially already been broken. Sure the Horizon visited before General Order One, but the damage, of course, has carried on right into Kirk’s time, and we know from other episodes all through out Star Trek’s history, that once the damage has been done, to correct that damage, you do what you have too.
However that really isn’t my problem here, the problem here is that Kirk is spouting off about the Prime Directive while in essence, by his own logic, he is already about to violate it. By rushing in, and strong-arming the Iotian People into a life of his choosing. Instituting what he views as the perfect government.
Now of course what Kirk sets up for the planet is very Federation, but the Prime Directive itself has been set up to prevent this sort of planetary interference in the first. So if you think about it, you get into this circular argument with yourself. If the Prime Directive does not apply, then Kirk can use the Phasers if it does apply, then Kirk cant creates a new government, so which is it?
So while Kirk and Spock are bagging Kracko, McCoy is left in charge of Oxmyx and his men. And the good doctor covers them with a trusty machine gun. Does this make sense? Wouldn’t it be better and more Starfleet to hold them at Phaser Point? I mean if someone tries to jump McCoy is he really going to fill them full of lead?
When Kirk announces the Federation is taking over the planet, Kracko says, I thought you guys had laws against interfering… How does Kracko know this? Again the Horizon didn’t have the Prime Directive when it visited, so as far as Kracko knows, Kirk and his gang can do whatever they want!
Yet again another episode were the Imperial and Metric Systems are flip-flopped and intermixed. Also, another episode where the communications button on Kirk’s chair seems to be whichever he decides to push…
It looks like Lieutenant Kyle is expanding his Starfleet training. In this episode, the Transporter Chief is seated at the helm console wearing a gold shirt. The Interesting part, however, is Kirk keeps referring to him as Lieutenant Kowl, not Kyle… Now before I get people furiously typing in the comments below that this was an entirely different character that just happened to look exactly like the transporter chief, I refer you to the end credits that does in fact list the officer and Lieutenant Kyle…
Scotty needs to get the cleaners to Engineering Fast! When the ship lurches forward, Scotty gets thrown to the ground and when he gets up, there is a rather large dust mark on his uniform. Maybe it was the cleaners day off…
Watch Spock when he heads to the Shuttlebay… He reaches up to open the doors to the bay, but if you look at the indicator, you’ll see, the bay isn’t pressurized! Guess it was a good thing McCoy was there to smack Spocks hand away! And also miraculously if you watch the indicator, the bay suddenly begins to pressurize itself.
Now I suppose someone else could have pressurized the bay, but if that were the case then what was Spock reaching to do on the panel other then opening the doors? And if Spock was going to pressurize the bay, as what previous episodes have shown us, then how did it start to pressurize on its own?
In fact, why is the shuttlebay depressurized at all? Didn’t McCoy say he helped equip the shuttle for this mission? So shouldn’t the bay already be pressurized?
In this episode, Kirk mentions how if the Klingons are interfering with the people on this planet, it would be against the treaty and could mean interstellar war. Kirk MUST be referring to the Organian Peace Treaty from “Errand of Mercy” and mentioned in “The Trouble With Tribbles”. Well if this is true, isn’t there a good chance that providing the Organians with proof of these violations would have the Organians take action against the Klingons? Nope, instead, Kirk sets the planet up with even more weapons so the death toll can skyrocket.
Why after Kirk gets bitten by the Mugato, does he go all rigid? When the men are carrying Kirk back to the Cavern of Paradise, you can clearly see this even though Kirk is supposed to be unconscious. Are you rigid when unconscious? And in the cave, McCoy decides to use his type one phaser to heat up some rocks for Kirks Comfort. The problem here is how the phaser fires, in short bursts, even though McCoy’s finger stays firmly planted on the trigger.
These Villagers may be WAY behind the Federation in terms of technology, BUT certainly not in terms of fashion. Check out Nona’s shoes! Mind you, later in the episode, she decides to start running around barefoot. Oh Oh, Kirk makes a startling admission in this episode, he says that a decade prior he told Tyrie all about Starship and Phasers and Starfleet at large. That would mean that Kirk violated the Prime Directive… I know, shocking right?
Why when Nona is threatening the villagers with the Phaser doesn’t it fire? All the shots show her pressing buttons on it including the trigger… And before you try and say there is some security protocol preventing someone other then it’s assigned user firing it, I refer you, good people, to ALL the other episodes where a phaser is taken by an enemy and Kirk warns to be careful with it because of it’s destructive firepower such as the episode a Piece of the Action. If another person couldn’t fire it, then Kirk wouldn’t have to warn them about it or get so cringy when one is in their hands.
At the end of this episode, While Kirk and McCoy consider the ramifications of what they are about to do, McCoy suddenly looks down, opens his bag and pull out a communicator, hands it to Kirk, Kirk opens it and says Kirk here… It seems someone forgot to dub in the communicator beeping sound effect…
You know, I’m not a huge fan of this episode, not because it’s bad, but simply to me the main plot point doesn’t make much sense.
You see Sargon and his companions need and want new bodies, and to this end, they hire Kirk and company to construct some. That’s all well and good, but in this episode Sargon’s mate, Thalassa complains about how mechanical the bodies will be. First I find this hard to believe, I mean these peoples technological knowledge supposedly extends to warp drives the size of walnuts, yet, their technological development into cybernetics extends only to a “Roomba” with legs and arms?
Putting that aside, the real problem I have here is that we’ve SEEN in many Star Trek episodes androids and robotic life that CAN feel and seem far superior to what Sargon is suggesting be constructed. So why doesn’t Kirk just say, hey remember that planet from Season 1 Spock, That made an almost perfect replica of me you interfering half breed? Let us go back there and give them one of those android bodies. or how about Mudd’s Planet? I mean surely Thalassa would look great in a new Alice Model? It simply makes no sense to slowly construct these horrible mechanical bodies by the crew, when superior tech is but a warp travel away…
When Kirk and crew are beaming down to the planet, watch the Transporter Console, you can clearly see the shadow of someone head reflected on it, and once they realize this, the quickly zip away… Near the beginning of this episode, Spock tells Kirk that Sargon is “matter without form, pure energy,” Kirk is shocked and says impossible! Huh? Has Kirk not been paying attention to his own missions once again? I mean how many times has he encountered beings of Pure energy? Off the top of my head, there was the Companion from Metamorphosis, the Vampire Cloud from Obsession and of course, Red Jack from Wolf in the Fold was also energy, and these are just off the top of my head.
So when Thalassa tries to make a deal with McCoy to Keep Pulaski’s, I mean Mulhall’s body, she says to him no one will ever know. Uhm hello, with Reverb like that on her voice EVERYONE would know…
At the end of this episode, Sargon and Thalassa share one last kiss, a very touching scene, but where exactly do Kirk and Mulhall’s consciousnesses go? In every other transfer, they end up in the spheres, but at this point, those spheres are destroyed.
Now I’ve considered how Spock and Chapel shared a consciousness, however, it seems, since Henach can not detect Spocks Katra, that it must be completely buried, that or Spock’s mind can do an excellent interruption of Nurse Chapel’s mind. At the point that the 2 are possessed, there is no indication of this, they don’t act any different then they had each and every other time they were inhabited, so I guess I’m wondering, did Sargon put the Good Captain and Mulhall into the ship’s computer? Just food for thought…
Thank you for watching today’s episode of Truth OR Myth.
Do you have an explanation for any of the mistakes I’ve listed here? Or did you see one I’ve missed? Leave a comment in the section below. But don’t be fooled into thinking that it will be an easy task to change my mind about any of these, I’ve thoroughly researched each one and considered all the options to explain them away from that I could come up with… But I look forward to hearing ALL your theories!
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