DVD Transfer 12 (WFLD - November 16, 1986)

About

This DVD is the first one featuring a recording from outside the Tidewater/Hampton Roads region of Virginia and is the oldest footage I have acquired. I bought this tape from eBay back in June. This is a recording primarily consisting of Star Trek episodes taped from a marathon recorded from WFLD-TV 32, an owned-and-operated station of the then-new FOX network in Chicago, on November 16, 1986.

CONTENTS (all but the end are Star Trek episodes. Included are several trivia questions done as a promotion for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

1. Star Trek ("Miri" {S1E8}; Includes guest appearances by Michael J. Pollard (best known for his role as C.W. Moss in 1967's “Bonnie and Clyde”) and Kim Darby (best known for her role as Mattie Ross in 1969's “True Grit”. Also, some of the minor child roles were played by Phil & Iona Morris (children of fellow Desilu produced series “Mission: Impossible” star Greg Morris); William Shatner’s daughter Lisabeth; Grace Lee Whitney’s two sons; Keith Taylor (who played the title character’s friend Harry on later episodes of “Leave It to Beaver”) and Gene Roddenberry’s daughters (Leonard Nimoy had been approached about possibly bringing his kids, but he declined due to being hesitant about his kids getting into showbiz). First episode produced by Gene Coon; while Roddenberry assumes the title of Executive Producer. Unlike other episodes, the title is in italics. Outdoor scenes were shot on the same set as that used for outdoor sets on fellow Desilu production “The Andy Griffith Show” (the outdoor set was previously part of the RKO Forty Acres backlot before its acquisition by Desilu). William Shatner would later state this episode wasn't one he was too fond of; though in contrast both Leonard Nimoy and Grace Lee Whitney often spoke of the episode as one of their favorites, though Whitney would also acknowledge having been sexually assaulted by someone identified only as "The Executive" during an end-of-week party on August 26, 1966, hastening Whitney's departure and also worsening her depression and alcohol addiction)

2. Star Trek ("Tomorrow is Yesterday" {S1E19}; Roger Perry guest stars as Captain John Christopher (incidentally; Perry served as an Air Force intelligence officer in the 1950s before going into acting). Also features Ed Peck (later noted as Officer Kirk on ABC's "Happy Days" from 1975-83 {after which Peck retired from acting}) as Air Force police colonel Fellini. This was supposed to be the 2nd half of a 2-part story (coupled with "The Naked Time"). This was apparently plagiarized beat-for-beat from a one-page synopsis penned by associate producer Bob Justman early in production. Majel Barrett (who normally played Nurse Chapel) provided the voice of the sultry-sounding malfunctioning computer. One scene mentions three astronauts would be preparing for a moon mission scheduled to launch on a Wednesday. Fast-forward to Wednesday, July 16, 1969; when Apollo 11 (carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins) launched en route to the moon. The collapsed star discussed is referred to here as a "black star". 8 days before the episode's original air date of January 26, 1967; physicist John Wheeler delivered a lecture where he referred to the collapsed star as a "black hole". While the term existed beforehand, it was Wheeler's lecture that made the expression commonplace. First of two episodes (along with the Season 2 finale "Assignment: Earth") where much of the plot is set in the present day)

3. Star Trek (Return to Tomorrow {S2E20}; This episode is the first for George Takei (Sulu) since “I, Mudd” 12 episodes earlier (Takei was off shooting “The Green Berets” during that time period). In addition to his role as Scotty; James Doohan provides the voice of a being known as Sargon. Diana Muldaur makes her first appearance in the Star Trek franchise, playing Dr. Ann Mulhall in this episode. Muldaur (whose best-known role was arguably one of her last, as manipulative law partner Rosalind Shays during Seasons 4-5 of “L.A. Law”) returned to play Dr. Miranda Jones in Season 3's “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” and 2 decades later appeared Dr. Katherine Pulaski during the second season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (whose role was effectively a female parallel to Dr. McCoy in the original series); replacing Gates McFadden's Beverly Crusher character after McFadden's contract wasn't renewed (upon her departure for the aforementioned L.A. Law role; McFadden returned and reprised her Dr. Crusher role for the remainder of “The Next Generation”). Incidentally, Dr. Mulhall's position as Lieutenant Commander made her the highest-ranking named female member of Starfleet, at least in the original series. Over a quarter-century later; much of the plot was reused for the episode “Possession” of the 1990s Disney cartoon “Gargoyles” (which becomes hilarious considering that a good chunk of the voice actors were fresh off the then-newly concluded Star Trek: The Next Generation). Kirk's speech on pursuing the future includes a reference to the first Apollo mission landing on the moon; which – as it happened – was still a year away. Additionally; this aired about a year after the original Apollo 1 malfunctioned, killing all three astronauts on the launch pad, and some could view it as an appeal to continue (the proceeding tests were unmanned and there was talk of the moon program being scrapped altogether). This episode had a troubled (to put it mildly) production even by TOS standards. The episode's writer, John T. Dugan, wrote the script after taking inspiration from an article on highly sophisticated robots; ending his original draft by having Sargon and Thalassa continue their existence as disembodied spirits floating around the universe; only for Gene Roddenberry (an atheist) to (once again) meddle with the script, changing the ending to having them fade into oblivion – something which Dugan, a devout Catholic, was strongly opposed to; emphasizing that he did not believe in oblivion in the afterlife (the ending sounds somewhat closer to the concept of annihilationism as taught by, for instance, the Jehovah's Witnesses), complaining “When you write a script, you don't expect to have your worldview changed by a producer”. This led to Dugan being credited under the pen name John Kingsbridge in protest. Incidentally, Dugan's original outline was approved on May 15, 1967 by NBC program manager Stan Robertson, albeit with the caveat that “the highly cerebral portions of the story would be eliminated and the complex nature of the plot would be materially simplified”. Robertson – incidentally one of the first black network executives - also felt a line by Sargon speculating that “your own legends of an Adam and an Eve were two of our travelers” would be viewed as sacrilegious and offending to Christian viewers (pretty sure a network executive would care about that nowadays); thus to alleviate that concern Dr. Mulhall's line about “out beliefs and out studies indicate that life on our planet, Earth, evolved independently” was inserted into the script (oddly, four years earlier the CBS sci-fi series “The Twilight Zone” aired an episode “Probe 7, Over and Out” depicting Adam and Eve as space travelers; presumably with little significant complaint). Additionally; Ralph Serensky was tapped to direct the episode after the director originally assigned to the episode, Joseph Pevney, quit following the episode (“The Immunity Syndrome”) due to lack of discipline from the actors following the departure of producer Gene L. Coon (who left after the previous episode to air, “A Private Little War”); such as stills of a smiling Spock leaning on a doorway and William Blackburn dressed as an android (appearing in the credits of “The Immunity Syndrome” though that episode was produced presumably well before this one – it didn't air until a couple of weeks earlier, on January 19, 1968); while a still from a blooper where Blackburn needed help from assistant director Tiger Shapiro removing the latex android makeup from his head appeared in the credits of “By Any Other Name” (produced the week before this one and airing two weeks later on February 23, 1968). Speaking of Blackburn's android character; the latex makeup made it impossible for Blackburn to eat or drink normally during the 12 hour shooting day, forcing him to consume nourishment through a straw, while Blackburn moving and holding his eyeballs up was how they pulled off the android's white, blank eyes.)

4. Star Trek (Spectre of the Gun {S3E6}; Fittingly since each of the lead actors had worked frequently on Westerns and the series initially being pitched as “Wagon Train to the Stars”, this episode takes place in the Wild West. The episode's original airdate, October 25, 1968, was coincidentally (given the setting and the featuring of the Earp brothers) one day before the 87th anniversary of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881 (incidentally, in the 1957 film of that name, Morgan Earp – played here by Rex Holman – was played by DeForest Kelley; who had also played Ike Claxton in an O.K. Corral-themed episode of the CBS educational series “You Are There” {that series revolved around hosting events in history as if they were covered by modern [for the 1950s, anyway] news; with the television version hosted by a young Walter Cronkite}). One of four episodes written by former showrunner Gene L. Coon under the pen name Lee Cronin (Coon by this time was under contract to Universal Studios); while this was the first episode produced for Season 3 (and thus having the show's titles in blue instead of gold). Guest appearances included the Earp brothers being played by Ron Soble (Wyatt); Charles Maxwell (Virgil) and Rex Holman (Morgan); with Sam Gilman playing Doc Holliday; Abraham Sofaer as the Melkotian voice; Bill Zuckert as Sheriff Johnny Behan and Bonnie Beecher as Sylvia. Due to the fact that in picking up the series for its 3rd and final season, NBC slashed the budget; forcing director Vincent McEveety to make do with a stylized Western street with no sides and false building fronts. The episode's teaser runs 5 minutes and 25 seconds; running a close second to “I, Mudd” (10 seconds longer) for the longest episode teaser. Walter Koenig (Chekov) would later cite this episode as his favorite.)

5. Star Trek (S3E23 {"The Savage Curtain"}; The one where Kirk and Spock meet their planet's heroes; Abraham Lincoln and Surak, respectively; while a rock monster holds them hostage in order to have them battle in a "play" to see whether good or evil is stronger. Last appearance of Nichelle Norris as Lt. Uhura. The role of Abraham Lincoln (played by Lee Bergere) was originally planned for Mark Lenard; who had appeared on two previous episodes (most notably as Spock's father Sarek in the previous season's "Journey to Babel". However, Lenard was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts (Lenard was starring on the ABC Western "Here Come the Brides", and was approached during a hiatus only for the series to resume production earlier than expected, forcing Lenard to withdraw). Col. Philip Green's death marks the final on-screen character death on the original series. The Col. Green costume was possibly recycled a decade later as the costume for Robin Williams' "Mork" character on "Happy Days" and spinoff "Mork and Mindy"; albeit with a silver triangle added)

6. Star Trek ("All Our Yesterdays" {S3E24}; This is the last episode of the WFLD Star Trek marathon; and the penultimate episode of the series. Guest appearances include Ian Wolfe as Mr. Atoz (“a to z”); Mariette Hartley as Zarabeth (thus marking a rare romantic interest for Spock); Kermit Murdock; Johnny Haymer; Al Cavens (a Belgian-born actor who had been a child actor in silent films; this would be his final credited role prior to his retirement); Anna Karen Morrow and Stan Barrett (a stuntman who later – in an attempt to break the sound barrier – claimed to have reached a top speed of 739.666 MPH {nearly Mach 1}; which would have been a land-speed record, only for the speed to not be recorded. This led to Barrett becoming a part-time NASCAR driver for fellow stunt driver Hal Needham's Mach 1 Racing for 19 races between 1980-90 on the Winston Cup circuit, garnering 2 Top 10 finishes {Needham's team being best known for being the owner of Harry Gant's #33 Skoal Bandit car from his arrival when a second car was fielded until Needham sold the team to crew chief Travis Carter after 1989}). Only episode with just the “main three” crew members (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) to appear on-screen; though James Doohan (Scotty) can be heard in a voice-over role. This also is the only episode with no scenes on the Enterprise. Since Broadcast Standards and Procedures still did not permit Mariette Hartley's navel to be visible; in a later, unsold pilot called “Genesis II”; Gene Roddenberry gave the Zarabeth character two navels, suggesting “the network (NBC) owed him one”. This is the last original series episode with a title containing an allusion to Shakespeare (coming from the 22nd line of Act 5, Scene 5 of MacBeth). If one goes by Stardate; that would have made this the series finale)

7. Entertainment This Week (A Look Back at 1966; partial recording {tape runs out})

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