Courtesy of the good folks at Memory Alpha, we can see that the Corbomite Maneuver was the only the third episode of Star Trek ever filmed, after the Cage and Where No Man has Gone Before. Consequently we notice some strange anomalies such as Uhura in a different uniform and Mr Spock's monotone delivery. The Captain/Doctor scene is very close to a re-run of the unaired one in the Cage and Kirk's discomfort at having a female yeoman is lifted almost word for word from its predecessor. It was also the first appearance by DeForest Kelley as Dr Leonard McCoy.
Shatner attends his physical and gets his shirt off to reveal a well-upholstered torso and immaculately-shaved chest. He obviously met the beefcake standards of the day though, because he gets a number of carefully lit close-ups which, by today's standards, might even be judged a touch homoerotic. No, really! Kirk is the only male that gets that coloured lighting, soft focus treatment. It's usually reserved for the ladies.
It's an extremely good story nonetheless, and one that bears re-watching again and again for an extremely tense countdown, the challenges faced by an inexperienced crewman and one of the best foes ever encountered in the whole of Star Trek. Anthony Call, who was so memorable as the young Dave Bailey, quit the acting business for more than twenty years, only to return in 2001 to pursue a very successful career in voice work but the Star Trek guest star for all times has to be Clint Howard.
He may have been only aged seven when he played the role of Balok but he was an experienced actor, having already appeared in numerous television parts by 1966. The strangeness of his appearance combined with the carefully dubbed adult voice and reduced-size sets gave the latter part of the episode a distinctly weird ambiance. It was easy to laugh at the sparkly curtain fabric and Wizard of Oz style fake monster when this first aired but no-one ever forgets it.
Mr Howard broke all Star Trek records when he appeared in Discovery fifty two years later as the "Creepy Orion". The man is Star Trek Royalty, people. Didn't he deserve a better part in 2018?
Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.
Shatner attends his physical and gets his shirt off to reveal a well-upholstered torso and immaculately-shaved chest. He obviously met the beefcake standards of the day though, because he gets a number of carefully lit close-ups which, by today's standards, might even be judged a touch homoerotic. No, really! Kirk is the only male that gets that coloured lighting, soft focus treatment. It's usually reserved for the ladies.
It's an extremely good story nonetheless, and one that bears re-watching again and again for an extremely tense countdown, the challenges faced by an inexperienced crewman and one of the best foes ever encountered in the whole of Star Trek. Anthony Call, who was so memorable as the young Dave Bailey, quit the acting business for more than twenty years, only to return in 2001 to pursue a very successful career in voice work but the Star Trek guest star for all times has to be Clint Howard.
He may have been only aged seven when he played the role of Balok but he was an experienced actor, having already appeared in numerous television parts by 1966. The strangeness of his appearance combined with the carefully dubbed adult voice and reduced-size sets gave the latter part of the episode a distinctly weird ambiance. It was easy to laugh at the sparkly curtain fabric and Wizard of Oz style fake monster when this first aired but no-one ever forgets it.
Mr Howard broke all Star Trek records when he appeared in Discovery fifty two years later as the "Creepy Orion". The man is Star Trek Royalty, people. Didn't he deserve a better part in 2018?
Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.