"Is There in Truth No Beauty?" Full Reaction! - Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3
Added 2024-08-30 18:00:10 +0000 UTCFollow along with me using your own copy of the episode!
Comments
Wait a minute here! The way the last scene was edited, Kirk NEVER left the transportation room on the final beam out nor was he wearing a visor. Are we to ASSume he was ok just closing his eyes? Love Diana when she was so young. They made a mistake making her Pulaski imo.
Anthony Silva
2024-09-08 02:14:47 +0000 UTCI never really thought about how editing would be so drastically different back then. Literally cutting film with scissors! There would be no room for error there!
bunnytails
2024-09-05 17:50:52 +0000 UTCI loved those moments as well!
bunnytails
2024-09-05 17:41:43 +0000 UTCI really enjoyed her as well!
bunnytails
2024-09-05 17:40:52 +0000 UTCYes but I was sad I could not remember the names of the characters she played in that episode :(
bunnytails
2024-09-05 17:40:26 +0000 UTCGood episode. I appreciate it more now. I'm glad you're observant to see that there are actors playing different roles. Not a first in TOS or across Trek series. Personally, I don't like it. I am constantly comparing the current character with the other(s). Even in make-up, if the actor has a distinctive voice or mannerisms, it is distracting. Although, Jeffery Combs seems to get away with it, or I give him a mental pass for his performances.
Mark Gosine
2024-09-04 01:41:12 +0000 UTCHe does try to distract her a few times, yes, especially keeping her away from Spock and Kollos. But I think he's also genuinely into her long before then. He gives her a rose at the banquet table, and gives it to her a second time when she leaves the Enterprise. I know the rose is supposed to be another metaphor, but no man gives a rose to a woman when he's not actually interested, even as a gesture.
SuicuneSol
2024-08-31 19:39:49 +0000 UTC"Philosophical things..." ok this is the episode that demonstrated that Captain Kirk is an ENFP. Very much an ENFP. (for those who dare to disagree, ENFP's primary function is Extroverted Intuition.)
Carlos Stevens
2024-08-31 06:42:56 +0000 UTCHeh, I said this before you said you were going to watch it again. So I'll take it one step further. This episode has so much in it that became Star Trek Cannon.
Carlos Stevens
2024-08-31 06:39:58 +0000 UTCAh yes... 3rd time the Enterprise went into the Galactic Barrier... Yet they had an ESPER on board... who didn't turn in to a God... Or did she???
Carlos Stevens
2024-08-31 05:59:26 +0000 UTCThis is one of those few episodes where you really don't fully get it until you've seen it at least twice.
Carlos Stevens
2024-08-31 05:50:26 +0000 UTCFor starters, I will say that, as a legally blind man, my opinion is that Miranda is a fucking amazing character
Matthew Graves
2024-08-31 04:54:10 +0000 UTCIm aware of Roddenberry’s more, shall we say, commercial inclinations. Nevertheless I maintain that the idea behind IDIC is a wonderful and powerful example of humanism (in the real life sense of the term) thought at its best
Matthew Graves
2024-08-31 04:50:06 +0000 UTCJust an okay episode for me. But pretty deep. I interpret the title to refer to Kirk's rant, where he exposes thd "ugly truth" to Miranda - but even something so ugly can be beautiful. Two deep thoughts... When Spock gera "the opportunity" to which Miranda is blocked, I feel she pities herself and her blindness. Self-pity has to be the bitterest flavor. And second, Kollos saw the universe through Spock's eyes. And, as a result, when Miranda melded with Spock sge saw the universe through both Spock's and Kollios' eyes. If she got the job of melding with Kollos instead of Spock, Kollos' perception would have been as a blind person - and Miranda would have had no chance to "see" through the eyes of others. Two technical notes: The "quick cuts" during tge insanity sequences misr have driven the film editors nuts! This was, after all, done on FILM back in the day, so each cut had to be a literal "cut" in the film with scissors or a razor knife, then carefully aligned with the next "cut" and stuck together with clear tape. Many if those cuts lasted only a fraction of a second. How many had to be done? It is SO much easier today with digital videos and computer-based editing! Second, the camera lenses and angles. The focal length of a lens determines how wide of a view the lens sees. Normally we view people from a few feet away, so if we use a lens that shows enough of a view so that a person's face fills up mist of the frame that looks normal. We call that a "portrait" lens. A very narrow or "telephoto" lens works like a telescope and can bring people "closer" to the camera. You can, for example, get a closeup of an athlete in a game from the sidelines. A wide-angle lens has just that - a wide view that could capture a scenic vista like the Grand Canyon. Now, mental exercise time... place three men lined up front-to-back two feet apart. We want to try to shoot at an angle to capture all three faces side-by-side, and we want the middle man's face to fill up 1/3 of the frame. Let's start with the sports photographer's telephoto lens. To get the middle man's face to fill up 1/3 of the frame, let's say he has to be 100 feet away. The man in front of him would by 98 feet away, and the man behind him 102 feet away. The man in fron would be closer, and appear 2% larger. The man behind would be further away and appear 2% smaller. All three faces would be about the same size in the photo, and they would all look very clisw together. Let's say with the portrait lens to get the middle guy to fill 1/3 of the frame he needs to be 4 feet away. No problem. But the guy in front would now only be 2 feet away from the camera - he'd look twice as big! And the man in back would be 6 feet away instead of 4, so he would appear a third smaller. So instead of the Telephoto 98%, 100%, 102% (all about the same size) we'd have 66%, 100%, 200% - radically different head sizes in the photo. With the Wide Angle, let's say we need the head only 6 inches from the camera to fill 1/3 of the frame. Super close! Awkwardly close! In fact, we have to shoot the front guy, because if we shot the middle guy from 6 inches away the front guy would be behind the camera! So the distances of the three heads are 6", 2'6", and 4'6" away drom the camera. Near guy 100% size, middle guy 20% size, and third guy only 4% size - super tiny! But the near guy, lets say eyes 6" from the camera. Nose, 4.5". Ears 9". So the nose would be 25% too big, and the ears half size from what we would expect to see. If the actor backs up only 6", his head shrinks by 50% and his features get slightly less distorted. If he backs up another foot and reaches out with his arms, he has a tiny head and his hands are HUGE! (Kirk reaching to Spock on the bridge; the other actors look veey tiny and very far away.) Wide angles, shooting up close, produce massive distortion, further compounded my radical movement. Our brains don't usually see things that way so it looks crazy, uncomfortable, and threatening. Does that make sense? Now back to coniltinue to wrap up season one! ;-)
John DiGiantomasso
2024-08-31 04:28:37 +0000 UTCTo be fair, Kirk's not really into her, either. He's trying to distract her, not seduce her. If he betrays any disappointment, it's that he didn't succeed in keeping her from Spock and Kollos.
Lee
2024-08-31 04:11:56 +0000 UTCThis episode aired on the day I was born, October 18th, 1968. It’s one of my favorites (thankfully I was not born when The Alternative Factor aired, yeesh). Very glad you enjoyed it, I knew you would. My favorite bit was when McCoy revealed Miranda’s secret, and when Spock/Kollos lamented human isolation. Also when Miranda decided to live or die with Spock in an attempt to rescue his mind. Dunno if anyone has mentioned Spock’s IDIC medallion stands for Infinite Diversity Infinite Combination. Also, very glad your AC is back, and looking forward to watching Flight of the Phoenix!
Trilogian
2024-08-31 01:14:20 +0000 UTCAnd, Bunny, I failed to acknowledge your razor sharp recall as you identified not only that the lead actress had played another role in a previous episode, you nailed the name of the episode on the fly! : )
Skyman's Follies
2024-08-31 00:39:17 +0000 UTCI was looking at you pretty closely throughout the episode, Bunny lol. I don't think you spoke as often as usual, but your confusion was pretty easy to pick up. :P I could tell this episode production-wise was a cut above the rest, even without fancy spaceship battles. One thing about Kirk in this episode... even though he doesn't act any different than he usually does, I think Miranda spurning his advances makes Kirk look more sleazy than usual. It's rare that Kirk doesn't "get the girl" by the end of the episode, and as a result we see the limit of Kirk's charm. Because it's not about Kirk and Miranda at all; we know Miranda isn't into him. It's all about Miranda and Kollos and not wanting anyone to get between them.
SuicuneSol
2024-08-30 22:35:09 +0000 UTCGreat article from Senensky, thanks. In kind, here's a link to Gerald Finnerman's interview with the Television Academy. It's a tad meandering, but he spills some good tea on Senensky and others, if you can endure the 28 minutes : ) https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/gerald-perry-finnerman?clip=76390#show-clips
Skyman's Follies
2024-08-30 21:42:30 +0000 UTCI liked this one, thanks bunny!🌹🌹🌹😁
ded cowbowee
2024-08-30 21:36:24 +0000 UTCI’m glad you liked this Bunny. This is top 5, contender for number one of all of TOS for me. I’d have to collect my thoughts a bit to address all the amazing things about this episode but suffice it to say you are correct that this episode rewards repeat viewings
Matthew Graves
2024-08-30 21:01:14 +0000 UTCThere's no question in my mind that this is one of the best third season episodes, but it took me a long time to appreciate it. I grew up watching Star Trek in the 1970s, and as a young viewer, I found this story rather boring. The only action in the episode occurs after someone sees the flashing green lights, and then it's just frenetic "crazy man" thrashing about. The philosophical questions being posed were far too lofty for my adventure-oriented brain to contend with at the time. Fortunately, rewatches like this one allowed me to see just how good it is. Funny thing: even when I didn't understand what was going on, I knew this was one of the better shows of the season. It just wasn't made for adolescent me. The IDIC symbol worn by Spock sparked a huge controversy during filming. Gene Roddenberry wanted some merch for his mail-order memorabilia shop, so he inserted the pendant into the script. Realizing it was purely a cash grab by the mostly absentee show's creator, Shatner and Nimoy objected vigorously. Roddenberry was compelled to visit the set and negotiate the symbol's use, resulting in a rewrite of the dinner scene that minimized mention of it. Director Ralph Senensky wrote about the incident in his blog, and I highly recommend reading it (as well as his other entries involving directing for Star Trek). https://senensky.com/is-there-in-truth-no-beauty/ Edited to add: What was Kirk doing in the transporter room when Miranda and Kollos were beaming off the ship? Having established that only visored Vulcans can be present for such an event, Kirk being there is more than a minor continuity issue!
Lee
2024-08-30 20:19:56 +0000 UTCIs there in truth no beauty is an ambiguous phrase, a staple for ST TOS. I guess they're saying when something is true, even though appearance is irrelevant, there's always something aestheticly pleasing. Not just beauty=truth and vice versa because for some reason the medusan kills people who look at him. On the other hand Kollos is a genius at diplomacy and piloting a starship. Interesting scene after the ship gets back to the galaxy, Kollos first observed how language, while bringing people together, doesn't change our existence as isolated individuals. Maybe living in a box with nobody to mind meld with is what Kollos thinks is everyone's existence, not his only, at least currently. My first impression is that the philosophic truth/beauty conundrum tends to be solved by the don't judge a book by its cover saying. Nowadays we're so inundated with images that choosing based on appearance and how often we see it can result in many more judgments by how something's surface looks. I think they have numerous violations of OSHA in this episode. I think that they tell themselves just be sure to close your eyes around the medusans but they could accidentally open them for a second or when they think the coast is clear and boom... They even bring it onto the bridge with everyone there and light from Kollos bouncing off the wall and reflecting on the view screens. Then they blame Miranda for Spock's and everyone's lapse when it was probably the madness effect of indirect exposure to Kollos that they forget the visor! Thanks again bunny for another terrific episode!
William Terry
2024-08-30 19:49:35 +0000 UTCGreat reaction as always Bunny! This has always been a weird episode to me, but leans more toward me liking it despite some issues. The plot is rather confusing but also very deep and does indeed help with more then one viewing. Great camera work as you noticed and good music as well, and with a wide mix of characters. Yes, we have seen Diana Muldaur in a past ST episode -- and you will see her again in a later show playing another character. A very good actress and her role here gets high marks from me. I don't think there was any deeper meaning intended in this episode except to have a good drama filled sci-fi epiosde with some horror aspects. There's the meaning in the title and the naming of the race, of course, which would be the deepest meaning this episode gets -- that not all beautiful things are good and vice versa, another of 'universal' messages that ST was trying to get across. In short, I don't have a ton to say about this one as it's just....there. It's not great, it's not terrible, it's an interesting episode, but it's like a light lunch which fills you up and then you forget about it a short time afterwards, pushed to the middle of a crowd where the amazing episodes come out at the front. I'll share some interesting trivia about this episode to finish, taken from Wikipedia cause while spend time writing when they did it so well already? :) 1) This was the final episode filmed in the series' production that featured Eddie Paskey as Lt. Leslie. As the episodes were however shown out of production order, the final episode to feature the character was "Elaan of Troyius. 2) The title is taken from a line in the poem "Jordan" by George Herbert. 3) Show creator Gene Roddenberry inserted a speech by Kirk praising the philosophy and associated medal. The "pointless" speech was, according to William Shatner, a "thinly-veiled commercial" for replicas of the medal, which Roddenberry's company Lincoln Enterprises soon sold to fans. Finally, can I say I'm jealous at how easy you do the Vulcan salute -- I've tried for years and I can never do it. LOL
Greg Polander
2024-08-30 19:31:02 +0000 UTCSimply one of the best from Season 3 and from the entire original series. From top to bottom: the one-of-a kind title, the re-casting of Diana Muldaur as the O.G. "Doctor Jones", perhaps the finest score from George Duning (with the possible exception of an episode yet to be aired), Jerry Finnerman's lighting (and wide angle lens work) is so beautiful to look at here. Some of the early scenes showcase his use of feature film noir movie lighting (not simple television lighting) so prevalent in first half of season one, and then peppered throughout since (the guy didn't even use a light meter for crying out loud!). Again, our "emotions" director Ralph Senensky is back at the helm of this one, getting to play with one of the best scripts yet, and boy, did he turn in a good one.
Skyman's Follies
2024-08-30 19:25:42 +0000 UTC
