I once knew someone someone who attributed this to be his favorite episode!

Strange but true...

By Jack B. on Saturday, October 31, 1998 - 01:32 pm:

Me again! I would like to point out that the new ion engine for that probe that's going up was apparently use by the alien ships in this episode (I haven't actually seen this one yet, I read about it in a newspaper).

By Jennifer Pope on Saturday, October 31, 1998 - 03:41 pm:

The ion drive is also similar to that used by some spaceships in the Star Wars trilogy. Another Star Trek tie - the probe is named Deep Space 1. Perhaps by the time NASA gets around to Deep Space 9 it'll be able to equip it with impulse engines. Wouldn't that be fun!

By Todd Pence on Sunday, November 01, 1998 - 01:19 pm:

How come the race on the planet speaks perfect English in all respects except that they have different words for "male" and "female"?

By Rebekah Bunch on Tuesday, November 10, 1998 - 03:05 pm:

Re: Todd Pence's comment. Probably a result of the same kind of problem the UT was having in the Voyager ep "Nemesis" (the one where the characters say "glimpses" instead of "looks" and "plantings" instead of "farms" and so on, but 99% of what we hear sounds like standard English.)

By Brian Lombard on Thursday, November 19, 1998 - 07:27 am:

Not really a nit, just my two cents. Yes this episode is bad. Definitely not one of Trek's better outings. But it's not their worst. For that, look no further than "The Way To Eden".

By Rebekah Bunch on Thursday, November 19, 1998 - 10:59 am:

At the very end of the episode (can't quote - it's not as if I bothered taping this one!) when Spock is ranting about the fascinating cultural development of this society, he says something about there having been something similar on old Earth, in the Roman (something). I don't even know if he said Republic or Empire. My ancient history is a little rusty...was there anything like this in Roman history? (all that comes to mind is maybe the Amazon legend)

By D.K. Henderson on Tuesday, November 24, 1998 - 06:34 am:

When the leader appeared on the bridge, I noticed that, in spite of her current level of intelligence, she still had a rather vacant smile.

After everyone woke up, why did Checkov walk clear across the bridge and start examining the console?
Shouldn't he have started by checking his OWN station? Especially since there was already someone over there.

I found it odd that three planets, side by side, would have such widely varied technical progress. I also wondered why, when the third planet began entering a glacial age, they didn't just move to one of the other planets?

A glacial planet and they didn't bother to wear coats? No wonder they were cold.

Phil commented in his book about the clicking noise Spock made. I think it was actually the device McCoy held that clicked, since the clicking began a few moments before Spock moved. I was wondering why they bothered to change Spock's clothes?

When Spock's thoughts came through on the communicator, it was recognizeably Spock's voice. Considering that he didn't have vocal cords at the time, it was quite an achievement.

It was pretty smart of the leader to make the connection between "brain" and "Controller."

During the fight with the tamed Morgs, McCoy got tossed right next to the table with their equipment, but it didn't occur to him to grab something.

When the three men doubled up with their pain devices, who was it that manipulated Spock's body to approach the leader, grasp her arms, and even manipulate his fingers to push the red button? Was it McCoy, who had been controlling Spock all along? Was it Scott, who doubtless helped to put together the device? No, it was Kirk, who had never touched it before. With Kirk's tendency to hog all the heroic actions, I'm surprised that he didn't put the Teacher on his own head and finish the operation himself.

By Brian OMarra on Wednesday, November 25, 1998 - 08:43 am:

Not a good episode. However, I do love the use of the rear projector on the viewscreen. The video box says it was its first use. I just wish they didn't waste it on this episode.

Now on to the nits. First: They take only Spock's brain out and leave the rest of him behind and intact. This includes his vocal chords. Then how could his voice be heard as the controller on the planet?

Also, it was McCoy, I believe, in "The Menagerie" who said that the only area where medical science hasn't yet tapped was the brain. Yet here is Spock telling Bones how to operate!

By Kail on Sunday, February 28, 1999 - 09:00 pm:

I like this episode. It's SO bad it's funny.

By Johnny Veitch on Tuesday, March 02, 1999 - 04:28 pm:

Near the beginning of the episode, Kirk gives the stardate as 5431.4. Later he gives it as 4351.5.

By Jeff on Wednesday, January 27, 1999 - 04:13 pm:

Ion power (an advanced technology according to Mr. Scott) and the Teacher to train Starfleet engineers how to use it. This definitely goes down on my list of missed Federation opportunities.

By Mike Konczewski on Friday, January 29, 1999 - 08:03 am:

I thought the Teacher only worked when there was a brain to work the whole system. Once Spock's brain was taken out, the whole system shuts down.

And as far as ion power, I don't know why Scotty thinks it's so advanced. The theory of ion drives has been around for decades, and we just launched an ion drive probe last year.

By Todd Pence on Friday, January 29, 1999 - 10:13 am:

I remember reading somewhere that Gene Coon wrote this episode as a joke because he was mad at Freiberger about something or other. While this woould explain why the episode is so bad, I personally find it hard to believe that Coon would be so vindictive as to hurt the show.

Nonetheless, this remains one of the most well-remembered episodes of classic Trek, if for all the wrong reasons. It was paid homage to by an episode of "The Wonder Years" and also by the motion picture "Taps."

By Hans Thielman on Friday, January 29, 1999 - 12:48 pm:

When Kirk mistated the stardate in this episode, was that really a flub or was that mistake deliberate in the sense it was scripted?

By Jeff on Tuesday, February 09, 1999 - 09:10 am:

The woman who TOOK Spok's brain used the teacher without the benefit of the controler.

By Allan Olley on Monday, March 08, 1999 - 10:42 pm:

I think it is quite possible that the old brain was on the verge of death and that when Spock's brain was procured, they threw out the moldy old brain and put in the shiny new Vulcan brain.

Yours Truly,
Allan Olley

By Kail on Sunday, March 14, 1999 - 09:54 am:

LOL! Moldy old brain!

By BrianB on Wednesday, April 07, 1999 - 02:31 am:

There goes the Prime Directive again. And speaking of KIRK controlling Spock-bot, Just how many buttons were on that control pad and which were the ones that transmitted the commands approach target woman, seize her wrists, turn off the pain machine...?

By MattS on Tuesday, May 25, 1999 - 03:22 pm:

Why are Kirk and company so convinced that these supposedly unintelligent people cannot be living in this underground city without some smarter people pulling the strings? By this point, Kirk should be expecting a computer to be running societies all over the place, since they've seen it so much.

Why does Scott have his shirt tucked in his pants this episode? He looks pretty goofy.

By Stephen Mendenhall on Thursday, June 17, 1999 - 11:16 am:

It's strange and ironic that they use an actual solar-type star, Sigma Draconis, which could have earthlike planets. But they still goofed because that star couldn't have 3 planets close enough to be earthlike. I liked the solar system map we see at the beginning.
When Chekov gives the technological levels of each planet, Kirk tries to assign specific Earth years for each level, which is ridiculous. There are too many variables to specify corresponding years in our history.
Supposedly two of the planets are at 1485 and 2035. So why didn't the 2035-level planet have spaceships and satellites in orbit? Why didn't Kirk contact them and ask them what was going on? If earlier probes had been able to determine the tech levels of each planet why weren't the planets explored sooner? Sigma Draconis is only about 20 lightyears away so why wasn't the Federation completely familiar with the situation there?
Somebody earlier asked about Spock talking about the male-female schisms around the time of the Roman Empire. Well, there were many different kinds of schisms going on, many different cults arising, which was part of the reason why the empire broke up. We aren't told much about Sigma Draconis, but I'm sure we could find something in Roman/medieval history which might have a parallel with the Morgs and Eyemorgs.
About ion power--maybe it's the ions of some element or alloy we don't know about. Ion power was even discussed at NASA at the time the episode was written, but Gene Coon obviously didn't care.
In the book "Captains' Logs" they said this episode was a parody of ST fans obsessing over Spock.
Spock's telepathy sounded like his voice? Well, we don't know how telepathy works, but...you remember the distinctive voices of other people, so you can think of them saying things they never said, like Jack Nicholson saying, "Captain's log, stardate..." So Spock is thinking at the communicator in his own voice; if he'd wanted to think in Jack Nicholson's voice, we would have heard that voice coming out of the communicator.
Does that make sense?
The episode doesn't explain why Spock can't do this when his brain is re-connected to his body.
Phil asked why McCoy couldn't get the Teacher to re-install the knowledge; why couldn't they have Chapel, Scott, Sulu or anybody else on the ship go under the Teacher? Why couldn't they use the transporter beam to beam the brain into the body?
I wonder where they'd gotten the previous brain? And why didn't the people on the 2035 level planet send a spaceship to explore this place?
Why didn't Q show up to tease Kirk? (Well, maybe he did after the episode ended.)

By Mike Deeds on Thursday, June 17, 1999 - 11:34 am:

Does anyone else think that the plot of this episode is similar to Star Trek III:The Search For Spock?

By D.K. Henderson on Friday, June 18, 1999 - 06:26 am:

Just thought of something. The Leader refused to assist them in any way with the Teacher. How did they know how to program it to push that specific knowledge in McCoy's brain? It had to be specific; if it gave a person all the information stored, the person would probably collapse under the strain.

By Erich P. Wise on Saturday, August 28, 1999 - 04:42 am:

What moron thought this episode would make a good season premiere when "The Enterprise Incident" and "The Paradise Syndrome" had already been filmed?

By D.K. Henderson on Tuesday, August 31, 1999 - 06:05 am:

They probably wanted to get it out of the way.

By The Kailer on Tuesday, August 31, 1999 - 08:39 am:

They ran it first so nitpickers could explain why Spock was acting so differently in the third season. Phil loves this episode. (/:-)

By Todd Pence on Tuesday, September 07, 1999 - 12:29 am:

That cool-looking star map was one of the best things about this episode. That and the musical score. In fact, the musical scores for all the third season episodes were exemplary.

By wiseguy on Thursday, September 09, 1999 - 01:58 am:

They must have run out of music, since in the late 3rd season they started using music from "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (The Mark of Gideon, The Lights of Zetar, The Cloud-Minders, etc.)
Also, the rear-projection was seen in "The Doomsday Machine" in the 2nd season, so this was not the first episode it was used.

By Chris Todaro on Thursday, September 09, 1999 - 02:50 pm:

I don't think that was rear projection in "The Doomsday Machine." It looked more to me like a piece of black cardboard with stars drawn on it.

By Todd Pence on Thursday, October 07, 1999 - 03:58 pm:

When Kirk first asks McCoy for the amount of time he can keep Spock's body functioning McCoy says he isn't sure and can't give him a definite time limit. Yet just a few moments later he gives him a definite time limit of 24 hours.

By Anonymous on Friday, October 08, 1999 - 11:38 am:

FROM THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT OF A DIFFERENT NAME:

Woman; "Bladder and bladder! What is bladder?!"
McCoy; "You'll find out soon enough."

By Scott McClenny on Tuesday, November 16, 1999 - 03:51 pm:

Actually this does make rather a funny and
charming little comedy.:)

By Ed Jefferson (Ejefferson) on Thursday, December 30, 1999 - 01:51 pm:

Cool, I just heard a reference to this episode on the new Semisonic Album, on the track 'never you mind':

Switch on the box, Mr Spock is on the table, Dr. McCoy is unable to connect his brain, sweating and straining, well it seemed so simple at the time...

:-)

By John A. Lang on Friday, February 18, 2000 - 02:28 am:

Spock's brain was INDEED missing in this episode... it defies all logic!

How can one survive without a brain?
(Perhaps Spock was considering a job in politics)

If he was missing his MIND...it would make more sense.

By Padawan on Thursday, April 20, 2000 - 03:01 pm:

In the first shot of the bridge, an extra is at nav, and at the consoles to the left of Sulu, from the viewscreen out, are a male blueshirt and a femal redshirt. Then we get a close-up and, while a male blueshirt who COULD be the same still occupies that console, the female redshirt has been replaced by a male redshirt. When we next see the nav station, Chekov is now there, and when Kara beams aboard the two left consoles are now unnocipied. This is most likely due to "stock scenes" used.

By tim gueguen on Tuesday, May 09, 2000 - 11:53 pm:

Presumably a device which can impart knowledge into a human brain can also scan human brains, so presumably there's some sort of subroutine in the Teacher unit that scans the brain of the user for what information he/she wants from it.

By Adam Bomb on Monday, January 01, 2001 - 05:54 pm:

To Todd and Wiseguy-The music is cool. However, at the time, the music contract required that six or seven shows a season had to have an original score. After that, library material was used. Shatner's "Star Trek Memories" paints a clearer picture of this-my info came from there.
The rear-projected view screen was way cool, especially with Kirk pacing nervously in front of it.

By John A. Lang on Thursday, February 08, 2001 - 02:43 am:

Let's see....McCoy dons "the Teacher"......you know what would've made the episode funny?
Having the teacher make "wah wah" noises like on "Peanuts"

Teacher "Wah wah wah wah wah"
McCoy: Yes, Ma'am?

By Adam Bomb on Sunday, February 11, 2001 - 04:01 pm:

On the bridge in "Doomsday Machine," as Kirk and Spock walked past it, the stars were static; they did not move. This leads me to believe that it was not a rear projection, but rather a still pic of stars put in place of what is normally a blue screen, which was used for the opticals. Therefore, I believe that "Spock's Brain" is the first (and maybe last) ep that used the rear projection viewscreen.

By Chris Todaro on Sunday, February 18, 2001 - 10:08 am:

I couldn't agree more , Adam (See my post of September 9, 1999 above). It's too bad the rear projection effect was wasted on what is arguably the worst Trek episode of any generation.

By Rene on Sunday, February 18, 2001 - 12:56 pm:

Worst than the hippie episode?

By Chris Todaro on Sunday, February 18, 2001 - 09:26 pm:

I'll admit that's a strong contender, but at least that episode had some redeeming features, such as Spock's line, "They consider themselves aliens in their own world, a feeling with which I am somewhat familiar." as well as as pretty good special effects of the space crusier Aurora.

The only good thing you can say about "Spock's Brain" is that it was better than the "Lost in Space" episode with the talking carrot.

By Todd Pence on Sunday, February 18, 2001 - 10:41 pm:

Actually TV guide, in their list of the 100 best episodes ever a few years ago, ranked that "talking carrot" epsiode ahead of "City on the Edge of Forever" (!!!)

By Anita on Friday, March 23, 2001 - 10:16 am:

Why is Kara the only Eyemorg that requires an under-garment beneath her outfit?

By Adam Bomb on Saturday, March 31, 2001 - 12:54 pm:

FYI-The "talking carrot" was played by the late Stanley Adams, Trek actor ("Trouble With Tribbles") and writer ("Mark of Gideon.") I was looking forward to seeing him at a 1977 con, but he committed suicide a few days before.

By John A. Lang on Saturday, May 26, 2001 - 09:53 pm:

MISSED OPPORTUNITY:

What Spock SHOULD have said to the women of this planet: "You only love me for my brains"

By LUIGI NOVI on Sunday, May 27, 2001 - 03:23 am:

This brainless concept is something of an ongoing theme in this episode.
Phil pointed out that when Bones loses the Teacher�s knowledge, he could let another member of the landing party to use the Teacher, but instead lets Bones fumble around for the rest of the procedure with only his natural abilities. I would add that Bones could simply go one more round with the Teacher.
Perhaps you can buy a model of it for your quarters, Scotty. You can put it right next to the Titanic, Hindenburg, Edsel and Challenger models.
In the teaser, Scotty expresses amazement of the ship being powered by ion propulsion, saying that "they could teach us a thing or two." Further, when studying the M-class planets in the Sigma Draconis system, Sulu also mentions that the design of the ship is very noteworthy, and a moment or two later, Kirk tells Sulu that advanced ion propulsion is beyond Starfleet�s current state of technology. I find this highly questionable. First of all, simple action-reaction propulsion methods like ion, chemical, solar sail, or matter-antimatter propulsion are extremely primitive in terms of interstellar travel. Because of relativity, the faster a ship goes, the more mass it adds to itself, and as this happens, more energy is required to do so, so that an object travelling at the speed of light would require an INFINITE amount of energy, which is impossible. Ships using these technologies could go no more than a fraction of the speed of light. Some scientists believe that we can get around this by creating a type of propulsion that would warp space by bunching up it in front of a ship, and letting it contract once behind it, so that the ship could travel at sublight speeds through the warped space, traversing distances in less the time it would take light to do so, thereby technically travelling faster than light. This is essentially what the creators did by inventing warp drive. The idea that ion propuslion, advanced or not, would be superior to warp drive, is laughable. Not only could such a technology travel only at fractions of lightspeed, but the time required to achieve even these speeds is great. According to Marc Rayman, the Chief Mission Engineer of the Deep Space 1 mission (the first deep-space ion-propulsion satellite, sent to Asteroid 1992 KD on Saturday, October 24, 1998), the force exerted by an ion engine is incredibly gentle, comparable to the force exterted on someone�s fingers when holding a piece of paper flat on top of them. Significant speed is accumulated by the satellite as it travels through space. (This, of course, is known as impulse, not to be confused with the term as used in Trek, which gives an instant burst of speed, which would more appropriately be called thrust.)
Second, the computer described Kirk�s and Mendez�s shuttle in the beginning of Menagerie part I as having an ion engine, and even if that shuttle didn�t have advanced i-pro, as Kirk call it, the creators should have known, even when this episode was first produced, that no real-life theoretical propulsion could go faster than warp drive. Warp drive, after all, changes the very nature of space-time. Warp 11.8 under the original series calibration system (or warp 9.2 under the NextGen system) is 1,649 times the speed of light, according to page 555 of The Star Trek Encyclopedia. As aforementioned, ion propulsion can theoretically go as much as a quarter of the speed of light, or half tops. It can�t warp the fabric of space.
"Oh, yeah, captain, (YAWN!) I got knocked out too!"
Before the opening credits, one guard gets knocked out on the bridge. After the credits, there are two guards lying unconscious! Who�s that other guy? Some lazy schlep trying to get out of work?
So that�s what the Gilette blades are doing over there on the craft services table
I don�t know which is crazier: How this nit occurred, or how Phil didn�t notice it himself, given his eye for detail. After Kirk and crew are zapped by Kara the second time, this time on the planet, the episode cuts to a commercial. When it resumes, the camera pans until it shows Spock, Kirk Bones and Scotty in a full body shot, with the latter three hunched over, asleep. Notice anything peculiar about Bones? He has a fully grown beard, for crying out loud! And it�s gone in the next shot!
Next on Jerry Springer: Grown men who like to play with dolls (life-size and animate!)
Did Kirk take a double dose of st upid pills before deciding to take Spock with him on the mission to retrieve his brain? What did he do this for? It�s not like he can use him as a weapon, or anything, Scotty has to work to control him, making himself vulnerable as well, and his body could get seriously hurt! Why didn�t he just intend to steal back Spock�s brain, and restore it on the Enterprise, or at least bring Spock�s body down only when the brain was secured? Did Kara steal Kirk�s brain too? The real reason is that they were going to need the Teacher, which couldn�t be brought back up to the Enterprise, except the characters couldn�t have any way of knowing that when the landing party went down. But even then, Kirk could�ve simply brought Spock�s body down when the Teacher and the women were secured.
Maybe Bones was��lying?
In Mudd�s Women, the crew used a device mounted on the conference table to detect truth or lies from Harry Mudd, and Worf spoke of a similarly convoluted-sounding device in The Drumhead(TNG), but in this episode, when the crew first encounter Luma, Bones is able to discern the truth from her using only tricorder readings.
Johnson, your starship was here on time, but its nacelles were 2 hours late!
Look very closely at the aft ends of the Enterprise�s nacelles in the closing shot. The last part of them seems to emerge from behind a screen after the ends first seemingly appear to come into view when the entire length of the Enterprise comes into view. Slow it down frame by frame to see for yourself.

By John A. Lang on Friday, June 08, 2001 - 06:32 pm:

ANOTHER MISSED OPPORTUNITY: I agree with Phil when he stated that Chapel should have grabbed that remote control and played around with it for a while...she'd have the "kiss me" button glued down.

By John A. Lang on Saturday, July 07, 2001 - 06:49 am:

A (THANKFULLY) MISSING LINE:

Someone saying, "Any sign Spock's brain?"
(Ala "Phage"--Voyager)

By ZeroWing on Saturday, July 07, 2001 - 11:16 am:

Missed Line:

Kara: All your brain are belong to us!

By John A. Lang on Friday, August 17, 2001 - 06:56 am:

Alternate title: "For the Writer's Head is Hollow and They Have Roused the Fans Ire."

This story is probably the flimsiest ever.
Stealing someone's brain...yeah, right!
Stealing the MIND is more believable as I said earlier.

I STILL can not figure out why they brought along Spock. I mean, once they found his brain (sic) they could've beamed his body down and THEN use the teacher on McCoy and have him operate.
Could this whole idea of bringing Spock along been one of those rumored "whining incidents" that we've heard so much about? You know..."I want more screen time in this episode or I'm walking" It certainly seems like it.If so, their whining made a possible good story go bad.

By NarkS on Friday, August 17, 2001 - 10:01 am:

You're just sad because Rand didn't run up to McCoy, hit him over the head and steal the remote control yelling (all together now...)

HANDS OFF! HE'S MINE!!!

By ScottN on Friday, August 17, 2001 - 11:26 am:

uh, no, NarkS, that would have been Chapel, not Rand!

By John A. Lang on Friday, August 17, 2001 - 12:04 pm:

NarkS & ScottN...Please leave me outta this if you wish to say something like that.
It's not that I don't want to have fun anymore, but certain individuals are getting honked off about my "fantasy episodes"...which if TOS were produced today...would be reality.
(See Dallas, Flamingo Road, & Dynasty for proof)

FUNNY THOUGHT: McCoy could have made a fortune with that remote control...he could've contacted Maxis Games and created "Sim Spock"

By John A. Lang on Saturday, August 25, 2001 - 03:37 pm:

Another idea that would've made this story better...have Kara kidnap Spock...both body AND brain together and hook him up to a machine. Kirk & co. find Spock in a coma then Kirk & Co. rescue him.

Why didn't the writers think of THAT one?
Was this story DELIBERATELY written bad?

By Todd Pence on Sunday, August 26, 2001 - 08:04 pm:

Some Trek researchers seem to think so. The story goes that Gene Coon was miffed about something so he deliberately tried to write the worst show he could possibly come up with.

By Adam Bomb on Monday, August 27, 2001 - 08:27 am:

This is a first for me, Todd. What could Gene Coon have been miffed about? I know from Shatner's "Star Trek Memories" that Coon was having marital problems about this time.

By kerriem. on Monday, August 27, 2001 - 12:23 pm:

If you go by the Blish version, Coon's early drafts of this show weren't actually all that bad! (For one thing, the Spock-bot isn't included. In the print version, they do - very sensibly - leave Spock in Sickbay until the actual operation.)

This of course is assuming that Blish didn't decide to clean up Coon's original mess. But somehow, if the 'worst-possible-show' theory was true, I can't for starters see Shatner leaving it out of his extended tribute to Coon in Star Trek Memories.

By Todd Pence on Monday, August 27, 2001 - 03:22 pm:

I read about this in one of the recently published episode guides. I think it may have been "Enterprise Logs" or something like that.

By John A. Lang on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 - 07:33 pm:

The DVD for this episode is now out and there are SOME redeeming qualities about this episode....

The alien spaceship on the viewer looks very well done....now if they spent that much time on SFX, why not the story too?

The overlays of Kirk's, McCoy's & Scott's faces during the operation is very dramatic...again, why not make the story this good?

Kara's beam in was very good. (ditto)

The rear projector for the viewscreen is not just KUDOS...but SUPER KUDOS!!!!!! (They should've spent that much money on script too)

Now for the nits...

In Sickbay, if Spock's brain is gone, why is the scanner showing brain activity? (Note the arrow on the med scanner...it's up 2 notches on "Brain")

A lot of the wide shots are messed up again, Sulu disappears in a couple, so does Chekov.

The blue globe in which the Teacher rests on looks like (dare I say?) A BOWLING BALL!

Some of the computer components are from the panel of the M-5 computer from "The Ultimate Computer" AND from the panels of the obelisk controls in "The Paradise Syndrome"

Kara presses a button to induce pain..you hear a "boing" noise...and hey! It's Trelane! Get out of here! Your episode was over 2 seasons ago! (just kidding...same sound effect)

When Kara presses the button on the Enterprise, the lights go dim and the people fall...I cannot believe she has that much power at the press of the button...make people fall, yes...make the lights dim, no...this is obviously a "cue light" for the crew to hit the floor.(I can imagine the director saying before the show, "OK everyone, when the lights dim, fall down and go boom!"

Speaking of which Chapel hits the floor pretty hard...(Ouch!)

A GREAT COVER-UP...On the planet surface, Kirk says, "Life readings, Mr. Spock....Scott"
(Shatner either forgot Nimoy was not in the scene and is so used to asking Spock for a life reading or Kirk has fallen into a habit of asking Spock for a life reading, either way, it's the best cover-up I've seen EVER!

No beams from hand phasers AGAIN!

GREAT LINES: "I never should have reconnected his mouth" AND "I'll never live this down. This Vulcan is telling me how to operate" McCoy in the operating room.

By John A. Lang on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 - 10:09 pm:

New music again.....however, there's this one piece that's used in this episode that they seem to repeat a lot...it sounds like a dirge of some kind with brass instruments playing and a kettledrum beating very slowly. It's nice, but, why did they repeat it so many times?

By John A. Lang on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 05:04 am:

Clarification: The computer panels I was referring to are on the "Teacher" mechanism ...it has panels from the M-5 & the obelisk.

Both Kirk & Sulu refer to the planet as Sigma Draconius VII...it's supposed to be # VI.

By John A. Lang on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 05:05 am:

Kara must be a strong woman...she steals Spock's brain (sic) and takes him to sickbay.

By Adam Bomb on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 08:38 am:

I happen to like that "dirge", John. It was re-used in "Turnabout Intruder", "Plato's Stepchildren" and several other third season shows. A musical theme used a lot in the first season turns up in the scene when Kirk is controlling the "Spock-bot" (I love that one, kerriem) to push the button to release the pain belts. The music used in this ep was of very high quality (as were most Trek scores), and turned up a lot in third season shows.

By Will on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 11:15 am:

I can't remember where, but I thought I read that Gene Coon wrote this as a comedy, then it was re-written to be more serious. Stealing brains is funny? Only in Hollywood...

By Adam Bomb on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 11:22 am:

Some "stealing brains/heads" pics, some of which were unintentionally funny:
"The Man With Two Brains" (1983)
"Change Of Mind" (1968)
"The Thing With Two Heads" (1972)
"The Head That Wouldn't Die" (c. 1958)

By John A. Lang on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 05:51 pm:

The "clicking noise" sounds familiar...Egad! it's the sound effects from the robot from "Lost In Space"

Adam..Let me clarify...I liked the "dirge" too...but they abused it. Once or twice would've been enough...but it seemed everytime they got into a tense situation, they played the "dirge" again. It got KIND OF annoying. (They need better intermix)

By Todd Pence on Thursday, August 30, 2001 - 12:42 am:

Some "stealing brains/heads" pics, some of which were unintentionally funny:
"The Man With Two Brains" (1983)
"Change Of Mind" (1968)
"The Thing With Two Heads" (1972)
"The Head That Wouldn't Die" (c. 1958)

You left out the all-time classic: "They Saved Hitler's Brain".

By Adam Bomb on Thursday, August 30, 2001 - 04:28 pm:

Better music editors too, John.
Sorry about "They Saved Hitler's Brain." (Wasn't Tim Holt in that one?) I also forgot "The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant" (1971), with Bruce Dern and Pat Priest (Marilyn #2 on "The Munsters.")

By John A. Lang on Friday, August 31, 2001 - 05:54 am:

DUMB MOMENT: Kirk falling to his knees and begging to see the Controller. Too hammy. (ICK)
It's so hammy, it SPAMMY! (Spam, Spam, Spam, wonderful Spam) (We've REALLY got to get a Python discussion board going)

This is definately NOT a great acting moment for Shatner, he could have done better.

FUNNY THOUGHT: I mentioned earlier how the clicking noise is from the robot from "Lost in Space"..well, how about having Spock wave his arms wildly and saying, "Danger! Danger! Captain Kirk! Warning! Warning!"

By Will on Tuesday, September 04, 2001 - 03:57 pm:

Anybody else think that Kara looks like Shania Twain? Or is that Shania Twain looks like Kara?

By scott mcclenny on Wednesday, September 26, 2001 - 06:40 pm:

Kara was played by Marj Dusay.

List Of People Who's Brains Would Never Be Missed:

1.Lenny Koznowski(Laverne & Shirley)
2.Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman"(Laverne & Shirley)
3.Gilligan
4.The Creators Of Seinfeld
5.The USC Marching Band
6.Goober Pyle
7.All the voters who ever vored for Bill Clinton
8.Mr.Furley's(Three's Company)Taylor.
9.Raiders' fans
10.Yankees' fans
11.Homer Simpson
12.Jim Carey's Fan Club
13.Tv Critics(especially the ones who panned
Laverne & Shirley)
14.The CBS person who canceled Doctor Quinn:Medicine Woman and then moved Touched By An
Angel to Saturday.
etc.,

By Todd Pence on Wednesday, September 26, 2001 - 07:09 pm:

Amen to #'s 7, 9, 13 and 14.

By John A. Lang on Wednesday, September 26, 2001 - 09:36 pm:

# 15...The Nielsons...the dopes who cancelled TOS

By Adam Bomb on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 08:29 am:

Would Leslie Nielsen be included in that, even though he's Canadian?
Don't forget the NBC suits who actually cancelled "Star Trek." They later found out that the show had the perfect demographics.

By John A. Lang on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 08:36 am:

Cute Adam,--I'm sure you know I'm talking about the "Nielson Ratings" people...the airheads who "decide" what should be on TV & what shouldn't. The only thing they did right was cancel "Ellen"...and may they do it again!

By Admiral Hiriam Nelson on Thursday, September 27, 2001 - 11:10 am:

I had nothing to do with tv show cancellings! I've been aboard the Seaview all this time, and...oh, wait. You said NEILSON's. Okay. Never mind.

By John A. Lang on Thursday, October 18, 2001 - 09:50 pm:

As much as I like the rear projection viewscreen in this episode, the creators decide to use a blatant BILC when showing it off...several people, including Kirk, walk back & forth in front of it. You can almost hear Shatner saying, "Lookit what we got now, folks! A rear projector viewscreen! Doesn't it look cool? Makes ya' wanna tune into Star Trek every week doesn't it? Don't you wish you had one like it too?" It has the subtlety of a ball peen hammer

By Adam Bomb on Friday, October 19, 2001 - 08:23 am:

I tuned into "Star Trek" every week anyway, even fighting my parents to stay up to 11 p.m. on Fridays to see the third season. I also ignored an assignment to watch a documentary for Bio class to see "Wink Of An Eye." (I was flunking the class, and the teacher didn't like me, so I had nothing to lose.)
The Nielsen ratings are in the toilet for my favorite show of the past few years-"Once And Again", the ABC relationship drama that now has "Star Trek"'s killer time slot. ABC may keep this series going, however, as the demographics are desirable, and it is a in-house (Touchstone) production.

By Todd Pence on Tuesday, October 23, 2001 - 07:43 pm:

When McCoy loses the teacher's knowledge, he concentrates on re-connecting Spock's vocal chords so the Vulcan can assist him in the operation. Why not just dial up Spock's brain on the communicator again?

By Rene on Tuesday, October 23, 2001 - 09:22 pm:

Um...because it's back in his head and not in that box anymore.

By kerriem. on Wednesday, October 24, 2001 - 03:35 pm:

It's an interesting thought, though - what was the communicator picking up on in the first place? Spock's brain waves? He obviously isn't using any type of device to communicate through, after all.
In which case, it wouldn't really matter where the brain was housed...Kirk now has direct-dial to the Vulcan's thoughts! (The mind boggles.)

By Todd Pence on Wednesday, October 24, 2001 - 05:36 pm:

Spock tells Kirk that a BLUE button will release the pain-belts from the landing party. But the Spock-bot later releases the belts by depressing a RED button on the leader's wristband.

By John A. Lang on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 10:38 pm:

Another thankfully missing line:

Spock (after operation) "My brain hurts!!!!!"

By John A. Lang on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 10:39 pm:

For those who don't know...Lee Cronin is really Gene Coon....Hmmmm, after THIS lousy story, I wouldn't want my real name being used either!!!!

By Adam Bomb on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 07:41 am:

John-You probably know this about Gene Coon, but as I am an expert at beating dead horses, I will relay it anyway. According to sources I have read, Gene Coon used his pseudonym as he was contracted to Universal TV at the time. Any Trek scripts of his that were filmed at that time used "Lee Cronin." ("Spectre Of The Gun" was another.) The original story for this ep was apparently written to be played straight, but it was camped up when it got to production.

By Miko Iko on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 07:58 am:

Spock (after operation) "My brain hurts!!!!!"

Dr. Gumby McCoy: "Well...it'll have to come out!"

By Bill on Monday, February 11, 2002 - 01:32 am:

When McCoy was trying to convince Kirk that he should use the teacher to restore Spock's brain, he says something about afterwards being able to bring this information "to the World". That does not sound quite right. Maybe he should have said "to the Galaxy" or better yet since it already exists in the Galaxy, "to the Federation".

By kerriem. on Monday, February 11, 2002 - 10:29 am:

Yeah, I think the Chief mentioned that in the Classic Guide. It's one of those unavoidable Earthbound-scriptwriter goofs, like Minuet's mention of the 'foreign' language files in NextGen's '1001001'.

By qttroassi on Friday, March 08, 2002 - 04:27 pm:

Everyone complains about this episode-EVERYONE. One person that posted on Amazon.com even refered to it as "the grand stinker" and said that it seemed better watching it with the sound turned off. This episode had great sountrack which was used through out the rest of the season and showed the crew great dermination to help their friend Spock. I think the only real problem with it is that it got goofy towards the end. I think "Wink of an Eye" was the worst, if you sit through it you would know what I mean.

By Butch Brookshier on Friday, March 08, 2002 - 07:07 pm:

I always thought "The Cloudminders" was the worst.

By John A. Lang on Friday, March 08, 2002 - 07:33 pm:

With Droxine as the "eye candy" ? NO WAY!

"The Way to Eden" is the worst!

By Butch Brookshier on Friday, March 08, 2002 - 08:08 pm:

With Trek's high babe per episode factor, I don't use it as a way of determining whether I think of an episode as good or bad. I mean there's just so few episodes that don't have a fine piece of eye candy in them somewhere.

By LUIGI NOVI on Friday, March 08, 2002 - 08:45 pm:

This episode is demonstrative of how hype and reputation can affect one's reaction to an episode or movie, sometimes inversely. I had heard all the horror stories about this episode long before I first saw it.

When I finally had the opportunity to see it, I braced myself. To be honest, it isn't that bad. The worst part about it is merely that it is superificial, without any depth, theme or cleverness, much like Terra Nova(ENT) or Civilization(ENT). It doesn't offend, because it's simply not about anything. What it does have is okay: The shock of Bones announcement to Kirk about the theft of Spock's brain, the idea of Spock's brain interfaced with a machine that can grant knowledge to one who uses it, etc. Many other episodes like The Way to Eden are far worse, especially in the aging process.

By kerriem on Sunday, March 10, 2002 - 06:06 pm:

Good point about the elements for a good story being there - again, check out the Blish version and you can see their quality clearly - it's the way those ideas were handled onscreen that's awful.

I mean:
The Spock-bot?
A civilization of gorgeous women straight outta all those Z-grade sci-fi cheesefests?
Shatner contributing some of the worst overacting of his career?
The Spock-bot?
The 'Teacher' as a sorta hair-dryer-helmet thingee?
Have I mentioned the Spock-bot?
And, last but certainly not least, the final operation scene - featuring a)Spock giving McCoy directions on how to hook him back up, as if he were a Lego set and b)the fact that Spock has just undergone massive brain surgery and his hair isn't even mussed.

By Adam Bomb on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 07:33 am:

This may have been said before, but-
1. Why Spock's brain? No one else (including other Vulcans) was good enough?
2. How did the isolated women of Sigma Draconis even know of Spock, the Enterprise or Starfleet in the first place?
3. What would this episode have been like if it were called "Kirk's Brain"? Would Shatner have been agreeable to play a Kirk-bot, with most of his lines off camera?
However, I do admire the music and the rear-projected view screen shots in this ep. The rear projection works even in Kirk's close-up. Unlike in "The Doomsday Machine," where Kirk and Spock walk across what is obviously a still picture of a starfield-not once but twice.

By Anonymous on Wednesday, May 29, 2002 - 02:32 pm:

brain and brain what is brain !!!! john better watch this disembodied episode 47 times and mccoy coulda given the teacher to scotty

By Anonymous on Wednesday, May 29, 2002 - 04:37 pm:

scotty s missed line : MY brains my poor brains

By Anonymous on Sunday, June 02, 2002 - 09:19 am:

scottn, how about missed brains with al i wanna recount gore???????