EARLY ACCESS - The Tholian Web: Memorable & Hilarious… But Too Messy? (S3E9)
Added 2023-02-28 16:07:09 +0000 UTCOur YouTube edited reaction to The Tholian Web will be posted tomorrow, but you can watch it right now!
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Comments
Oh wow I just checked on Audible. It doesn't have the third book, but it does have an audiobook for his report on Season 1. And guess who the narrator is? Vig Mignogna, the guy who plays Kirk in "Star Trek Continues" :) :)
Andreas Schmitt
2023-03-02 17:38:50 +0000 UTCThat's very interesting. I'll have to get that book :) And I second your statements regarding seeing the episodes "again for the first time" along with them :)
Andreas Schmitt
2023-03-02 17:36:24 +0000 UTCHey, guys, I would personally buy Cushman's 3-book series for you myself and send it there, but I'm in serious financial issues due to the economy. But should that change, and you have yet to get a copy of the 3 books at that time, I'll do just that.
Rhett Coates
2023-03-02 01:47:18 +0000 UTCThere are about THIRTY PAGES on this episode written about in Marc Cushman's book "These Are The Voyages - Season Three" .... everything that happened to make The Tholian Web what it became, and then some. The Production logs related in the text are quite extensive, and it should be noted that it was apparently the first time that the entertainment industry's trade press in L.A. actually broke that story about replacing the director, and it made serious (not good) waves in Hollywood. Paramount had taken over Desilu and, according to the text, everything Lucy's people had done to make their shows (including Star Trek) what they were using a FAMILY mentality were instantly changed to a Corporate mentality, including (or especially) budgetary issues. That's but a small part of "The Making Of...." this episode, though - the production LOGS in Cushman's LONNNNG chapter about this one episode are so in-depth, it would take a good 40 minutes to get through just that one report, if you didn't stop reading. It is also noted that Gene Roddenberry was no longer producing, so others were running 'Trek's 3rd year. Now, about your comments about [Shatner] not being in most of the story: that was first written as another character, but the show-runners made drastic changes and made it Kirk who stayed behind.... in order to see what would happen if one of the 3 "chair legs" fell off of the chair which was the Big Three. That was an interesting character exploration attempt, but I personally fear it didn't come across well - OR - there was more to the story that, for more Paramount budgetary reasons, wound up on the cutting room floor. The Tholian species are spider-like beings that exist in room temperatures near 400 degrees-F. Yes, we eventually get to see one's full body in that ST: Enterprise series episode (noted in the messages here by another posting member), which is one YOU GUYS WILL LOVE due to "where" it takes place - somewhere you continually say you'd love to see the show go back to. (*wink-wink*) I will leave it at that. Yeah, Cushman's book series is astonishing in its complexity and detail which show everything that happened EVERY DAY during the entire series, and adds even more for continuity and context. I'm still learning things from it I never knew, including LOTS of "whys" and "what fors" regarding the many production decisions, of every category, which were made on EVERY episode. I AM TRULY MOVED by how you both are reacting to seeing this show for the first time; I've seen them since their FIRST RUN on NBC in the 1960's and it never gets old - watching you watch them anew is like seeing each episode *again for the first time, and that is SO refreshing. No kidding.
Rhett Coates
2023-03-02 01:39:28 +0000 UTCApparently this was the only time Spock ever referred to McCoy as "Bones".
Andreas Schmitt
2023-03-01 23:24:56 +0000 UTCI never liked Plato's Stepchildren, which is why I haven't seen it in over 30 years. I'm intrigued to see what I'll make of it now.
deconstructionist66
2023-03-01 17:02:57 +0000 UTCI think the next 6 -8 episodes define the "uniqueness" of season 3. I think some are good and some are questionable but not out right bad. They do push some boundaries. Tholian Web was good for adding lore - the back story about what happened to the Defiant is an episode in Star Trek Enterprise - that you guys will see in about 15 years after watching the animated series, TNG, DS9, and Voyager.....
Ricky Johnson
2023-03-01 02:45:26 +0000 UTCI think the ship passed through interspace (the weakness they were dealing with) to get out of the web. That's why Spock asked for the coordinents, to find where they were now. And they had Kirk in the transporter's beam to pull him with them.
Heather Fain
2023-03-01 02:40:07 +0000 UTCMy thought is Spock was upset and thinking about Kirk.
Heather Fain
2023-03-01 02:34:23 +0000 UTCNext week: Another of my Bottom Five. Lots of uncomfortable moments, but there is TV history made during this episode.
KatWithAttitude
2023-03-01 00:10:07 +0000 UTCThe story of Ralph Senensky's firing, in his own words: https://senensky.com/the-tholian-web/
MntrTodd
2023-02-28 22:29:32 +0000 UTCThis was the final Ralph Senensky episode. I guess he liked the fish-eye lens. Third-season producer Fred Freiberger fired him as director midway through shooting the episode as he thought Senensky was taking too much time, but he had to wait for the special space suits to be created. Rodenberry was not happy about the firing. Nichelle Nichols described "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "The Tholian Web" as two of her favorite episodes The Japan episode title was "Crisis of Captain Kirk, Who Was Thrown into Different-Dimensional Space".
Chtphr Rrr
2023-02-28 17:19:03 +0000 UTCIn the early '90's there was a deal where you could buy a subscription to receive 2 VHS video tapes a month of the original series. I did this and receive all 78 (+ The Cage) episodes over 5 years and I ended up paying about $1000. It was a shame when I ended up throwing them away during a move. 🏴☠
Edweirdo
2023-02-28 17:01:25 +0000 UTCWhen I saw the thumbnail, I was afraid you were going to hate the episode, but you had a nicely balanced review at the end. For me, this is a top 20 episode of the series. The Tholians are an interesting alien race, and they are given a return in the Enterprise series. The things that seem ridiculous to you in 2023, like the space suits, seemed perfectly acceptable to me in 1968 when I first saw the episode. It's very hard for a series to be perfectly relevant 55 years later, and I think Star Trek, for the most part, holds up pretty well. Thanks for doing these reactions !
John5193
2023-02-28 16:58:49 +0000 UTCThis stuff was what we lived for in 75. I rode my bike 5 miles to buy these. https://youtu.be/gNTP9xroLSE
Rich Cirivilleri
2023-02-28 16:34:04 +0000 UTC
