mnw@trw-unix.UUCP (Michael N. Washington) (01/20/84)
The fact that Spock used only logic during his command on "Galileo Seven", does not show lack of intelligence as P. Rowley of U. Toronto indicates. It does show a lack of intuition that of course Vulcans would not have. A point that the writers could have explored is, since Spock was among Humans so much, some of our emotional responses would have influenced some of his decisions whenever pure logic did not work. But, Vulcans were not known for their use of such knowledge because it was deemed emotional which could not be tolerated. Also, at the end of this episode, Spock did do a desperate act by ejecting and igniting the fuel so that the Enterprise could find them if she was still in the area. This did finally show an emotional response to a situation. Logically, he should have saved the fuel in case the Enterprise was not in the area and they had to land on the planet again. One other point, Vulcans did not completely escape from emotions. Case in point, when Vulcans had to marry, they did not always act logically. I do not remember the episode title, but Spock's metabolic rate had changed radically and McCoy informed the Captain that Spock would die if he did not get to Vulcan within seven days. if you remember the episode, you know what happened.
mnw@trw-unix.UUCP (Michael N. Washington) (01/20/84)
The fact that Spock used only logic during his command on "Galileo Seven",
does not show lack of intelligence as P. Rowley of U. Toronto indicates.
It does show a lack of intuition that of course Vulcans would not have.
A point that the writers could have explored is, since Spock was among
Humans so much, some of our emotional responses would have influenced
some of his decisions whenever pure logic did not work. But, Vulcans were
not known for their use of such knowledge because it was deemed emotional
which could not be tolerated. Also, at the end of this episode, Spock did
do a desperate act by ejecting and igniting the fuel so that the Enterprise
could find them if she was still in the area. This did finally show an
emotional response to a situation. Logically, he should have saved the
fuel in case the Enterprise was not in the area and they had to land on the
planet again.
One other point, Vulcans did not completely escape from emotions. Case in
point, when Vulcans had to marry, they did not always act logically. I do
not remember the episode title, but Spock's metabolic rate had changed
radically and McCoy informed the Captain that Spock would die if he did not
get to Vulcan within seven days. if you remember the episode, you know what
happened.
Michael N. Washington
{ucbvax,decvax,hplabs}!trw-unix!mnwmnw@trw-unix.UUCP (Michael N. Washington) (01/25/84)
To Joe Nunes:
Your options are well taken except that the shuttle craft would NOT
(if I am not mistaken, they had enough fuel to land again) have burned up in
re-entry. They took the shuttle craft (originally) because the transporter was
useless in all of the ionized effect of the Muraski effect. His decision could
be argued to be logical or somewhat emotional. Even though he is a Vulcan, he
is half human and all living being (as far as I am concerned) beings faced
with a life or death situation will do what is necessary to survive.
Michael N. Washington
{ucbvax,decvax,hplabs}!trw-unix!mnwjmike@uokvax.UUCP (02/08/84)
#R:trw-unix:-64000:uokvax:5800003:000:1031 uokvax!jmike Feb 5 14:09:00 1984 Well... you are mistaken. They did have enough fuel to land therefore spock's action was not necessary. One could argue that the logical thing to do would be to land and hope for rescue (probably Kirk would come back to look for them later.) However no-one could be SURE that they would be found later. I look at it this way... 1) Sending a `flare' out (could be seen from quite a distance) was about the only action an otherwise frustrated man could take. - and most importantly - 2) Most of them felt that Kirk would have HAD to have left already to get the drugs to New Paris (or whatever). So the odds were **against** the flare being seen anyway (what a waste). So *I* feel that it *was* an emotional outburst. Besides we all know that Spock *DOES* have an emotional outbursts occasionally on accident (except on the new Star Trek 1). So lets all stop trying to protect Spock and take him for what he is -- an almost-vulcan with an occasional human flaw. mike stanley ...ctvax!uokvax!jmike
jerry@oliveb.UUCP (Jerry Aguirre) (02/15/84)
Regarding the epesode where Spock uses the remaining shuttle fuel as a
flare instead of saving it for landing. It was my impression that they
did not consider their chances of surviving on the planet as very
good. Remember that they were unarmed, having used their phasers to
fuel the shuttle, and there were giants on the planet who had already
tried to crush the shuttle. (All this leaves out the size of a planet
and the odds of landing in an inhabited area.)
My reaction to the show was that Kirk should have left immediately,
made the rendevous, and then returned to search.
1 - The rendevous was only a few hours away. (I don't remember
exactly how long but I seem to remember that the other ship
would be expecting them in ~4 hours.)
2 - The sensors would not be usable for that time anyway, their
whole search was useless and dangerous to the search parties.
If Kirk had used warp 8 to deliver the perishable supplies and returned
at the same speed, he would have arrived at just about the time the
sensors would have become usable.
If the time had been the last time they could leave and still (after
+days at warp 8) make their schedule then it would have been
reasonable. However they repeatedly gave the time as the number
(small) of hours till the time that the other ship would be expecting
them. I remember thinking at the time that twice this time was just
about the time that it was estimated before the static on the sensors
would clear. Of course maybe the Enterprise was expected to do more
than deliver and could not return.
A lot of articles have commented on the inconsistancy with which the
transporter is used. Its capabilities such as being able to store,
filter or otherwise modify the transported object are adjusted to what
is needed for the plot. One show does just the apposite. I don't
remember the name but Sulu and some others are on a planet on which the
temperature is dropping and the transporter is out (I think this is the
episode where Kirk is split/duplicated). The problem they face is how
to get Sulu and party off the planet before they freeze to death. The
obvious sollution is to send a shuttle down for them. The Enterprise
seems to carry several but there is no mention of them. Not even a "if
only the shuttle was working". The writer of that script seems never
to have heard of shuttles. Another option not considered was using the
ships phasers. Sulu uses up his phaser warming rocks which they huddle
around. The ships phasers could be used to heat an area up-wind giving
at least some relief from the cold. Feats of greater precision were
done with the phasers on other shows. Also why didn't Sulu use his
phaser to hollow out a cave as was done on other shows.
The answer to all this is, as was said before, that the shows were
written by different writers, and after all was primarily about people,
not technology. I guess a lot of us could use a little more
consistancy in the technology so we could concentrate on the people.
Jerry Aguirre
{hplabs|fortune|ios|tolerant|allegra|tymix}!oliveb!jerryccrrick@ucdavis.UUCP (Rick Heli) (04/29/85)
> I don't know if Nimoy really demanded the death of Spock as a condition > for acting in TWOK. If that is really the case (I think he denits it) > than perhaps I can excuse the TWOK story. Otherwise, it's not much > better than "Spock's Brain". I seem to recall hearing someone on TV (Nimoy himself?) say that he would only agree to do ST:TWOK if Spock were killed off. Apparently Nimoy really enjoyed the challenge of playing a dying Vulcan so much that at the cast party at the opening of the movie, he approached Harve Bennett and said, "So how are you going to bring me back?" After having expended so much effort to kill the character, Bennett was stunned. Naturally he aceded... I thought that ST:TWOK was one of the better stories; it certainly was able to address many more issues and themes than a regular episode. Perhaps you preferred ST:TMP which was written by the king of the kiddie (goober) SF writers, Alan Dean Foster? -- --rick heli (... ucbvax!ucdavis!groucho:ccrrick)