"The Gamesters of Triskelion" Full Reaction! - Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2
Added 2024-05-17 18:00:04 +0000 UTCFollow along with me using your own copy of the episode!
Comments
Now that you've seen the episode, 'A piece of the Action', I was using Kirk's gangster accent.
Mark Gosine
2024-05-27 01:27:40 +0000 UTCI love Shahna
bunnytails
2024-05-23 21:35:19 +0000 UTCGlad I’m not the only one
bunnytails
2024-05-23 21:34:30 +0000 UTCOhh that makes sense
bunnytails
2024-05-23 21:34:18 +0000 UTCKirk, "I demand to see the brains of this outfit!" Galt, "Okay."
Mark Gosine
2024-05-21 01:23:35 +0000 UTCNo no! This was supposed to be the last episode of the series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx0xOgFDXFg
Carlos Stevens
2024-05-19 03:33:07 +0000 UTC8 out of 10. The remastered edition is a 5. The planet is way too small for the landing party to beam down. No atmosphere and its ring system is for a gas giant, not a dwarf planet. Shahna is epic!
William Terry
2024-05-18 14:30:34 +0000 UTCAngelique went on to have a brief porn career
Tony S in Phoenix
2024-05-18 04:16:06 +0000 UTCThis is the first episode of TOS that aired after I was born. While lacking some of the iconic impact of "Mirror, Mirror" or "The Trouble with Tribbles," it still holds a special place in my heart... as does the legendary Angelique Pettyjohn. Now that I think about it, I suppose she was the iconic feature in "Gamesters."
Lee
2024-05-18 02:37:10 +0000 UTCAh dude... The color scheme in TOS was intentional. This was back when color TVs first became a thing (have you seen the old NBC peacock intro they used to play before shows like Star Trek, "Brought To You In Living Color." Thus all the bright primary colors. It was a thing in the '60s, and in the 70s, the colors on TV shows evolved to more realistic and natural.
Carlos Stevens
2024-05-18 02:05:07 +0000 UTCWe all felt the same way about Shahna. The end broke my heart.
3dbadboy1
2024-05-18 01:22:29 +0000 UTCThe word "Gamester" back in the '60s would have been the equivalent of the word "Gambler" today. And for the record... Trelane had more power than these brainiacs.
Carlos Stevens
2024-05-18 01:02:59 +0000 UTCInteresting episode, definitely highlighted by Angelique Pettyjohn's Shahna and the primary colored (or almost primary) brains... seems to have been a color-scheme-theme in TOS. Also, maybe a first for Spock in his own idea of a joke with the mutiny suggestion? Lastly, with Kirk's conversation with the Providers, we get a "first glimpse" of post-TOS Shatner... his mannerisms and speech finally exaggerating to a level showcased in his spoken word performance "Rocket Man". Not all the way, of course, but definitely a foreshadowing... and yes, Bunny, you should have Shahna's costume : )
Skyman's Follies
2024-05-17 22:35:14 +0000 UTCAt one point, this episode was slated to be the end of the series. Here's a quote from Angelique Pettyjohn who played Shahna: "The producer came in during lunch time and made an announcement to the cast and crew that he was sorry to say that the network had cancelled the series, and then everyone was very depressed. And so the last two days of shooting everyone was kind of down around the set because of that and because they all loved working together so much. On my last day of shooting I had a particular speech where I said, ‘Goodbye Jim Kirk, I will watch the lights in the sky and remember;, and I had several tears in my eyes and those tears were real at the time because I was thinking, as my motivation as an actress that seriously it was goodbye Star Trek. I will watch the film and the lights in the sky and I will remember this experience with all of you, and it meant a great deal to me and I cried at that and that’s how I meant it because I knew that the series wasn’t going to be shooting any more." Personally, I love this episode primarily because of Shahna. I wouldn't like the episode nearly as much without her. I know it sucks she was left behind, but that's syndication TV for you. *shrug*
SuicuneSol
2024-05-17 21:45:55 +0000 UTCThis is a middle of the pack episode for me....I don't love it, but it's a solid episode that has a interesting story, once again great guest actors and outfits, some surprise twists, and good pacing between the ship and landing party. Watching this now with you, my first time seeing this episode in several years, I'm reminded of 'living brains' that exist in the Fallout franchise -- context I didn't have the last time I watched this, and I kind of wonder if they were inspired by the brains here. Just wanted to comment on something you said at the start -- and this is not meant as a correction or anything of the sort. Gaming historians debate what the first actual 'video game' was. There's some evidence for a game called 'Tennis for Two' which was created by a scientist named William Higinbotham in 1958 on a oscilloscope for people to play while doing a tour of his work area. He never considered it anything more then a attraction, though, and nothing was done with it. Computer Space was the first arcade cab made to be sold, but it was a failure. Pong really brought in the era of video games as we know them when it came out (first in arcades and then a home version) in 1972. (Amazing how people would play that for hours when it's SO simple by today's standards!). So the writers MIGHT have had one of those early 'electronic game' ideas in mind when developing the script for this, or it could come from the Roman gladiator games, which this strongly resembles. I actually just looked this up as I never thought about, speaking about the title, and a Triskelion is an ancient symbol (usually consisting of spirals) that goes back thousands of years. I totally agree with you about Shahna being both very attractive and having a great outfit! Silver outfits was a popular motif for sci-fi in the 50's to 70's (Barbarella and the like) and the actress who played Shahna, Angelique Pettyjohn, did a great job portraying her in this episode. Angelique is a very fascinating person in her own right -- she stared in a number of guest spots on TV shows and movies, but she was also a burlesque and go-go dancer and later in her career, in the 1980's, she also stared in some adult movies. She even appeared in a issue of Playboy in 1979. Angelique was also quite popular at the Star Trek conventions (those getting started int he 1970's). Sadly she passed away from cancer in 1992 when she was only my age of 48. Also once again we see Kirk's best personality traits on full display here -- courage, determination, smarts, a strong will, a desire to protect his people, and his charm to get what he wanted. Episodes like this one reinforced the popular belief that Kirk was a 'ladies man', something that non fans of the show have taken to believe meant that he was a womanizer, but that's really not true. Finally, it looks like you never got the subtitles issue fixed, which is a shame. I totally understand wanting to leave it off if it was that much of a issue though. Thanks as always for doing these! It's great rediscovering these episodes with you!
Greg Polander
2024-05-17 19:34:57 +0000 UTC
