Wolf in the Fold (TOS - S2E14)

[Hailing Frequencies Open]

On this episode of Treks and Tangents, Brian and Jaci take on "Wolf in the Fold". Scotty becomes the prime suspect in a string of murders on Argelius II, leading to séances, lie detectors, Jack the Ripper, a fear-feeding entity, and more plot holes than we know what to do with.

It’s a murder mystery that quickly turns into full-on sci-fi chaos. 

Did “Wolf in the Fold” work for you, or were there too many plot holes to ignore? Let us know in the comments!

[End Transmission]

Transcript

Intro/Turbolift Tease Recap

SPEAKER_03 0:10

Alien Frequencies Open and welcome aboard Treks and Tangents. I'm your co-host Brian. And I'm your co-host Jackie.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

I'm the Star Trek newbie who checks off on tangents.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

And I'm your Star Trek expert who is here to get the tangents back on track.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode, and this week we watched Star Trek, the original series, season two, episode 14, Wolf in the Fold.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Welcome back to the Star Trek episode with more holes in its plot. And I knew you were gonna talk about that. Yeah. It's uh this is an interesting episode. Three women stabbed to death. But still more holes in the plot than those vic stabbing victims. Before we get too far into it, don't forget to stick around to the end of the episode where we'll reveal our Star Note episode for this week. That's where we'll take one or two topics from the episode and do a deeper, more unstructured dive, and we'll post that bonus Star Note episode for free for everyone over at our Patreon, patreon.com slash treks and tangents. And now we'll revisit the turbolift tease and see how accurate Jackie was last week. That's where we gave Jackie the title of this week's episode, and Jackie, without any other information, tried to guess the plot of this week's episode.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

So, computer, what was Jackie's prediction last week? Jackie's prediction last week was the Enterprise is going to the galaxy doing their charting because they are on the edge, and suddenly they are able to see that there are distress signals coming from an area that they don't even know about. And so they go over to check it out, and they find out that once they bring it on the Enterprise, this person, or thing, is actually someone on the run, and they were hiding in this end of the galaxy trying to stay away until they got picked up by the Enterprise, being nice, and oops, now you have to go to jail.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

So, Jackie, how accurate do you think your prediction was last week?

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Well, first I want to commend myself for using terms and uh, you know, actions that I've learned over this series. You know, I didn't know all about this, so yeah, I got a F.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

Uh No, I mean, I do think it's funny that you said person or thing. See, I'm learning. Let's not make an assumption on their on their on their uh specific race, but uh I'll give you you hit one point, someone was technically kind of on the run. Yes, and they were they were okay till they got picked up by the enterprise because they were laying low. And it was a thing, and it was a thing, so okay, couple points. So a D. Okay, I'll give you a D. I'll give you a D. A for effort? Sure. A for effort every week. Yay. But let's jump into it, Jackie. Let's let's start talking about this. Let's talk about

Initial Impressions

SPEAKER_03 3:08

what are your first thoughts after watching the episode.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

I was so confused, and I was I didn't really there was a lot of things going on in this episode, and yes, it was nice to end the episode with everyone laughing.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Which is probably part of the episode that makes the least amount of sense.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, exactly. This is what I was gonna ask you because they're all they're all like sedated, supposedly, but sedation to me means conked out.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

Right. And so they're giving instead stimulants or just narcotics, uh, and then it kind of makes the it it I mean that jumping straight to the end. Sorry. What are we gonna do? They've got six hours before the dosage wears off. They're all high as a kite except for Spock and Kirk, and so they're all expected to run the ship while high.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Well, Spock did suggest that the crew go use Argilius for their resting period.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

Right, but that's that then they don't do that, and I think that's Kirk's most rational decision in the episode is like, no, we just barely got away from that planet intact. We're not gonna send a bunch of stoned crew members back down to cause trouble.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

I don't know. They're all they're gonna play on on the Enterprise. They there's like a gym, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:39

Yes, there is a gym on the Enterprise that we saw back in Charlie X for the one time that we see it. But in any case, breathe through in the port and hunkered down. I guess they're just gonna stay in orbit for a a couple hours, but breaking it down, starting with the interesting fact that the whole reason that they're down on this planet is because Scotty was the victim of an accident, and the accident was caused by an incompetent female crew member, which we don't see and we don't really get reference to in the episode.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

I had to read the m the beta memory, no memory alpha memory alpha to figure out that he has had how he got the concussion and that it was by a woman.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Right. And that somehow leads Scotty to instantly developing this huge detestment to women, an unprofessional detestment to women, because again, they're down on this planet and they went specifically to this planet because Kirk was like, Well, if we give Scotty some good experiences with women, he'll start to like women again and he won't hate every female crew member. And I'm like, just from one accident, that doesn't sound like Scotty at all.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

No, that was just maybe an excuse.

SPEAKER_03 6:03

Maybe, but then it jumps, and then so then you go into the murder mystery, which is Jack the Ripper, and Jack the Ripper was really this entity that jumped from planet to planet, and well, it went with man because it needed a ride, it was a parasite, right? That's a good way to put it a parasite, and it went from host to host, but then that doesn't make a whole lot of sense because it turns out that it came to Argilius II on Hengist, the little administrator guy from Ryzen. And it was in him, but then it's jumping to Scott, or like how is that working?

SPEAKER_01 6:48

I don't think it is jumping from person to person when it murders, because Scotty felt the thing in front of him when he finally was able to remember. Yeah. Because the other two, he was blacked out. So then it was to the first two were to check out if Scotty could do it, and then the third one was like, he's already gone, so I'll just be myself and kill this chick. But so it's not jumping into Scotty, it's is it making is it in the end I think it's being like Whoopi Goldberg and Dimmy Moore from Ghost.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

This is not the turn I expected the episode to go, but okay. So it's an entity that can't well no, please explain this theory, because I think I'm gonna stab some holes in it, like like a lieutenant.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Oh, ri I that's what I presumed because Scotty explained what he felt and what he what happened to him when the third woman was killed, because he's actually holding he's never holding the knife when it's in the woman. He's holding the knife after and like a petrified look on his face, like he saw a ghost.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Okay. So your theory is that the evil entity always is in possession of Hensgist, even though we know that it can possess other people because obviously it's jumping from other people. You think that it's always because it has to be possessing someone in order to interact with something, it doesn't take on its own form. Correct. Okay, so then who ultimately in your mind is the one physically holding the knife in each murder? Now this is gonna be like clue.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Okay, well, if we think back the And this is a trick question because I don't think there's a real answer. But I mean, but it's good to think. But I think Mr. Hinges is the one doing it because he's actually the host for this entity and he is no one knows where he is where the other two women were murdered. Right. And but he is like a weird, scary form that scares because we learn uh later that this entity feeds on fear, so maybe it takes on a scary form, which is why Scotty looks so wildly terrified after each one, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

So I think that's the easiest explanation, and we'll put it to the test in further detail when we get to each murder. But my question is is then how does Scotty end up with this amnesia? Like, how is this entity able to kill the woman, cause Scotty to black out, give him the knife, and disappear? It's a it's a big plot hole in my mind. Fear does that, so Scotty's just susceptible to the fear?

SPEAKER_01 9:59

At this point, possibly, yes, because it um it's helped fear plus the head injury is probably not helping with his memory.

SPEAKER_03 10:09

Yeah. Okay. Well,

Treking Through the Episode

SPEAKER_03 10:11

I think we've talked about it an extensive amount for initial theories. Why don't we get into it? Jackie, why don't you walk us through the episode and we'll put some of these theories to the test as we walk our way through our own Jack the Ripper murder mystery episode?

SPEAKER_01 10:27

So we are opening uh in a cafe where we have a lovely belly dancer playing the castanets, they're actual musical instruments, and instead of wearing clothes, she's wearing tinsel, but in different colors.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

It's beautiful, and so she's dancing, dancing, dancing, and after she's done dancing, Scotty is like pounding on a table, and then Kirk's trying to tell him we applaud by using the lights.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

Yeah, and that's the local tradition on this planet, and Scotty's like, I don't care. Don't tell me how to clap for a beautiful woman.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

You don't have to tell me how. So we keep going on and on, and it starts immediately with something creepy happening because she goes to their table to take a pillow, and this creepy man by their table is watching, and he gets up and he like you know, walks away weirdly.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Right. Yeah, I mean he pretty much is like glaring at them the for you know giving them the the evil eye, and then he gets up and leaves. And and amongst all of that, also one of the musicians is also like keeping an eye on her. So yeah, definitely gives this aura an early impression of like sinister people and and bad doings going on.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

But Scotty would love to go on a walk with her, so yay, they go outside to go on this lovely walk, and it's dark, and next thing we know, there's a scream. Yes, and we run out, and poor Tinselady is dead, stabbed a dozen times, we are told, and poor Scotty is against the wall, petrified, holding the knife.

SPEAKER_03 12:25

And that's where we transition into the opening credits. Definitely well, I fun at fun opening to the episode. Okay, fine. There's the obvious, gorgeous, beautiful woman for the audience, but also I think again, they just kind of drop in this little tidbit of Scotty was in an accident, why he was in an accident, he now detests women. It's a huge, far-fetched reason to just get there. I kind of like your headcanon that you mentioned of this just was Kirk's excuse to get to this planet.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Well, you can see that they're all smiling like a kid on their birthday with a cake.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

Right. And it's doubly weird because it's not shore leave. Right. No one else from the enterprise is taking shore leave or taking rest on the planet. It's specifically set up as a medical mission to treat Scotty's little condition and his opinion toward women. A little weird that you would divert the entire enterprise and crew's resources to that when ultimately, I would like to think they would have just said, Scotty, you had one mishap with a female crew member who made a mistake. You need to get over it.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

And you would think he would be at least the one to do that.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Right. Again, super against Scotty's character, I think.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Agreed. I mean, I can see McCoy being, you know, grouchy about it, but none to the level that they're saying.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

Right. So maybe less of Kirk's excuse to get to the planet and more of the excuse for the writers and developers of the show to get to the planet.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

There you go. So after the musical break, then intro, this is where we learn we're on Argellius 2. They didn't tell us earlier. And now Scotty is charged with the suspicion of murder. They don't have like a like a law, a law enforcement on this planet, because this planet is supposed to be peaceful and calm. But they do have like an admin officer who does the investigation, and he's Mr. I'm gonna butcher his name every time.

SPEAKER_03 14:49

We're gonna continue the tradition of butchering names.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

But it's Mr. Hingist, and he is this little dude with big blue eyes and no hair.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Right. And a super high voice, and I kind of liked that little toss-in, and then we meet him, of course, and we're back in the tavern, and he's explaining that the Argillians are so unfocused in their way of life and carefree that they're not very productive when it comes to administrative matters and so forth. So, as a population, they hire these outsiders uh from other planets and other societies to come in and do that administration work and so forth. Again, I thought it was really kind of a cool concept, and I was like, Well, how much power do they have and what's gonna happen? But then we get Jarrus and we get this weird little power struggle where he's like, You're just the administrator, but I'm the leader.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

And it's like, so you're the leader, and you just so you have a structure in society where you have leaders, but they're so lackluster in their focus and their skills that you delegate to these outside administrators.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

So, and also at this time when we meet Mr. Heinz Hinges, he mentions that his home planet would have a dozen inspectors on this, you know, trying to like throw his weight around. And then he asks Scotty if he recognizes the knife.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

Right. Uh yeah, like, okay, this is your way of investigating. Like, hey, dude, do you recognize the murder weapon? Okay. Sure. I guess that's a valid question to get out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

And of course, Scotty doesn't remember anything about the knife. And this is when Kirk and McCoy go to like a sidebar and they say, you know, Scotty has a concussion. Uh this might not be helpful at all. I mean, what are the laws here at Argyllis? And then this is when Yaris appears and he says, The laws is love. Right. And I was like, Okay, who's in charge now? And he says it with like a dozen beautiful ladies around him, and we learn that the title he carries is a prefect, which I don't know what it's equalizing to. I guess it'll just be like almost perfect.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

Well, that's just a title that's given to a leader. I mean, it's we have him here on earth and other cultures as well, so.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Okay. Sounds good. So he and his half a dozen ladies um explain that there is an Argillian empathic contact, and it is a gift that his wife has, and this little gift is over 200 years old. So she'll be able to tell who's telling the truth.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

Right, because we're gonna introduce this idea that this society is recent within a couple centuries, and that they had a different type of societal structure, kind of like I guess the Vulcans, just a shorter timeline. So it's also in this scene that Hengist is mentioning that they only found Scotty's fingerprints on the knife, and that they're gonna go track down the other people that were in the cafe with them and so forth. So, first litmus test to how this whole murder can take place. If Hengist is holding the knife when and doing the actual stabbing, obviously Scotty's fingerprints end up on the knife. So, are we just supposed to take like a leap of faith simple explanation that he wipes the knife clean and then shoves it in Scotty's hand?

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

Okay, so still on the theory that Hengus leaps out of the shadows, stabbed the belly dancer to death, Scotty is overwhelmed with whatever fearful aura that is put forth from this entity, freaks out, maybe susceptible by the concussion, and after the woman is dead, and as Scotty is freaking out in the doorway, wipes the knife clean, shoves it in his hand, and runs away.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

I like that.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

Okay, let's see how well that holds up in a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

And so um his wife, her name is Saibo, she has to go meditate before she does this special thing.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

And so while she's off meditating, at we should say they've transitioned from the cafe to Jaris' house at his invitation.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Kirk also offers that he can bring down a device called a psycho recorder and it will record everything that has happened to Scotty in the last 24 hours, like subconscious and conscious.

SPEAKER_03 19:56

Right, which fantastic idea, Kirk. I have no idea why they don't follow through with this immediately after when the first attempt that we learn about first fails, because this seems like it would be far more accurate to this seance that they're going to do. And it also seems like there's no pushback or anything because they've already said, yeah, go ahead, do it. We'll we'll take that into consideration with all the other evidence. So it seems like it takes way too long to get around to that.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

And of course, Hingis, you know, pops in and says everything has to be done in a special manner, but again, more manly man. Jaris says he's the highest man of law. So what he says, go. So, yes, Kirk, send the coordinates to Spock, and then we will prepare for our seance. So we have like a break, and then we come back, and Jaris is pouring everyone a drink, saying that his people are so very concerned. Um, you know, they're talking about closing down everything and no longer allowing other vehicles to use their ports. And that's when I learned about the spaceport, that this is a very special planet, not only for fancy tinsel dancers.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

Well, yeah, it's just an important um spaceport in the sense that it happens to be the only spaceport in that general area.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

And so we have Lieutenant Karen Tracy beaming down from the Enterprise with the psycho recorder. And she and Scotty are shown to a room on you know, to the side of this beautiful room that they're already in.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

So when they say yeah, there's a little room to the side, do you imagine it's just another room? Did you imagine it's the basement?

SPEAKER_01 21:52

No, I thought it would be like a bedroom.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Yeah. Weird.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

No, it was like here, here's my dungeon.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

Yeah, it's like, oh yeah, go record. Down in this dank basement dungeon.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Yeah, because you know their their big room is beautiful. And you don't notice that it the flame, the fire that they have is for the seance until they move the camera over just a bit more. Right. I it's like mine like woo. So Scotty and Lieutenant Tracy go to the dungeon to start their process. And then McCoy and Kirk discuss that in normal situations Scotty would never be in this situation. But then that's awkward because no one should be in this situation. And then we hear a scream. And we all have to run down to the dungeon, and Lieutenant Tracy is stabbed with a dozen knife wounds again, and Scotty's out cold.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

Right. And again, the knife is in his hand. Because before we hear the scream, we have a little scene where Jaris' wife asks to inspect the murder weapon to prepare for her little psychic seance thing. And they can't find the knife. And everyone's concerned, and they're like, Well, wait a minute, I brought it in, I put it down, blah, blah, blah. I went back and I rewound it to try to track the knife. And you don't ever see the knife. When you were, if you go all the way back to the cafe when they're leaving to go to Jarus' house, Hengist still has the knife. Then they get to the manor and you see Jarus walk in with Kirk. Jarus is not holding the knife. At no point in the scene is the knife anywhere near that little fire altar. You never see it. So it's weird that he would make the comment of, Well, I thought I put I put the knife here down when I got here and now it's missing. Even if that's true, we have to assume, based on, again, we're going to break down the theory of the murder. As Hengis leaves, because Hengis leaves to go round up more of the people at the cafe, we have to assume that he either had the dagger the whole time or he grabbed the dagger on his way out. Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 24:17

Yeah, that yes, because I was like, I can't find I can't see the knife.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

Okay. So Hengus has the knife, and according to your theory, then, because they want to figure out, well, can anyone else get into that room, basement, dungeon? Yeah. And Jara says, Well, there's a door that leads out to the garden, but it's been locked forever. And they investigate it and they say, Oh, well, I'm sorry it, you know, it either we can't tell. It either could have been opened and the lock could have been picked, or it could not have. So your theory is Hengist leaves with the knife, runs around through the garden to the door, picks the lock, goes inside, and then stabs the lieutenant, gets Scotty to freak out again, and then leaves the knife and runs away again?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Well, as we learn this later, this entity is like gas-like. So I'm gonna presume he can jump out of Hingus after he's unlocked or locked it, but he can slip through the door in his gas state, be a part of Scotty somehow, and then stab Lieutenant Tracy, and then run away back to Hingus, leaving Scotty knocked out.

SPEAKER_03 25:40

So the MO changes because in the first murder, you're saying Hingus jumped out of the shadows and and killed the belly dancer, and in this, Hingus couldn't get into the room because he couldn't get through the locked door. So then the entity leaves Hingus, goes into the basement, and possesses Scotty.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Well, it might be the same MO. We just don't know from the beginning because no one's there.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

True. The only hole that I'll put in that is because I like to think that that's what happens is that this thing is jumping, it makes more sense and is a cleaner story in my mind, is that this entity jumps into Scotty from Hingus, commits the murder, and then gets back into Hingus. But we'll get to that plot hole later, and we'll jump back to the murder mystery unfolding. And now we're again back upstairs in the large room in Jaris' house. They've questioned Scotty several times again, and we're still in that roundabout kind of way of well, Scotty has a concussion, maybe he doesn't remember doing the murders, but he's actually doing it. And important to note, Hingis is definitely like pushing that narrative of like, hey, maybe Scotty is doing the murdering and not remembering it. Maybe Scotty's lying about not remembering. But in any case, Hingist is definitely putting the pressure on Kirk to believe the narrative that Scotty is the murderer. Motive aside.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Exactly. And then when he brings those people who were at that cafe, we learn one of them was her father. How sad.

SPEAKER_03 27:25

How sad. And he gives well, so we have the father and we have fiancé. Stalker. Stalker, you know, spurred lover, whatever. Maybe they were engaged. And again, maybe this is a society that monogamy is not necessarily the most popular choice in relationships, and he's just jealous. But yeah, they bring them back. First thought there was a hell of a lot more people in the cafe that they didn't bring to provide testimony.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Like three tables.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Yeah, and multiple musicians, but they just happened to bring the two people with the most connection to the belly dancer. Her name's Kara, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Oh, yeah, we learned that finally.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

Yeah, we learned that finally. And okay, convenient because they don't know it. They have to like drag it out of them of what is your relationship? How are you familiar? I guess it's also relevant because I guess they were the two people that left before Scotty and Kara. Fine. But we also get the most cringe worthy quote from the father where she was he says, Since she was a little girl, she danced for me. I knew you were gonna say she was my daughter, and I was just like phrasing writers. Come on. There's a better way to there's a better way to write that.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

And Kirk is super unhappy with the lack of urgency Hingis is using. Like he's he doesn't want it to be anybody but Scotty.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

Right, and wants to jump to that conclusion without making it seem like he jumps to that conclusion. And Hingis also is not really pushing any further investigation, doesn't want to do the seance, doesn't really want to follow through on that psycho reader from the Enterprise and so forth.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

And then we also have the other side that Jariz is asking Kirk, would you do this for anyone? Meaning trying to prove their innocence um as much as you are, or are you fighting this much because you want to keep our ports, everybody front continue to be friendly with our ports and whatnot?

SPEAKER_03 29:42

Right. Are so are you are you trying to drag out this investigation and you're trying to do all of this because you're trying to save your friend and potentially ignoring your diplomatic mission to keep these star ports open and so forth? And so questioning Kirk's motive.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Saibo is now ready to perform her empath gift, and then Scotty is like freaking out, saying, like, is my life gonna be judged using this mumbo jumbo?

SPEAKER_03 30:12

Right. And so while they all gather around this little fire altar of truth, whatever you want to call it, Kirk gets a message from Spock and kind of jumps away for half a second. And Spock is communicating down to Kirk that he's researched this ritual, for lack of a better term. And he's like, Yeah, it's a legitimate thing. She's not making it up, but it's not super reliable. And the examination on the Enterprise, the psycho examination, the tricorder, and all of that into Scotty's memory would be a more accurate way of doing it. And Kirk's like, Well, they're a proud people and we have to respect their traditions. And I'm like, why? Jaris just said he would be fine with the lieutenant coming down and doing the analysis and comparing that evidence.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

So you would assume he'd be okay with everyone going up to the enterprise for exactly.

SPEAKER_03 31:15

Why can't you just tell Jarris in that moment, like, well, this didn't work? Hey, let's do the little mumbo jumbo ceremony, but you've promised to be impartial and allow us to conduct the you know, assist in the investigation and so forth, and hengist is in the corner going, no, Scotty's guilty, kill him. But Jaris would absolutely, I believe, because he agreed before and agrees later to just be like, You're right, all evidence must be considered. Let's do my wife's mumbo jumbo parlor trick, and then we'll go up to the enterprise to do your investigation. Anyway, again, no sense.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

And then Kirk's like, this room needs to be sealed, and all the like entryways, their doors like slide out, and they're startled. They have these sliding doors on the enterprise.

SPEAKER_03 32:06

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

That totally, I was like, hello, these are the same.

SPEAKER_03 32:10

I mean, it is kind of funny because he's like, I suggest and I insist that the room is sealed, and then Jaris doesn't say anything, he just starts flipping switches, and he's like, It has been sealed. Love is the law, and love will be confined.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Oh man, it was just fun. So the group gathers around the fire, and so shaibo has been playing with it all this time. Well, everything else that's been going on, she just standing there, like wringing her hands above it. Yeah. So they all have to like hold hands, and she begins to start to do kind of like just humming and chanting, and then now she's starting to use words, and she says that there is a monstrous evil that is present. This evil hates the living, it hates women and has a hunger. Right. It's just very obviously this evil entity is very evil and wants to kill things, and then she calls out a name. I'm gonna kill it. Baratis Kesla Red Jack.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Yeah, I think that's an accurate pronunciation of these two of them are made up. I'm also 99. I'm gonna go out on a limb, post in the comment if I'm wrong. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Red Jack is not an accurate nickname for Jack the Ripper.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

That'd be interesting.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

I don't know. Hold on, let me just find out. Yeah, confirmed right here that Red Jack is a fictional name for Jack the Ripper, only appearing in this episode of Star Trek, which makes sense. Because if it was a more popular nickname or synonym for Jack the Ripper, I think as an audience we would hear that name and it would spoil pretty much the rest of the episode.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Agreed.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

Agreed. So, but also kind of weird that you wouldn't invent a name to tie it in, fine.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Well, two other names too.

SPEAKER_03 34:21

Yeah. Well, I think the two other names make sense because it's describing a series of stabbings on other planets and so forth. I think they could have just left out the whole red jack kind of thing, and I think you could have drawn a new parallel to the stabbings and found. I think you could have just had Spock in the computer later in the little examination on the Enterprise, compute all the facts of all of these other instances on other planets of these stabbings of women, and I think Spock could have just simply asked the question name other similar examples of mass murders, and I think the computer could have spit out a couple more fictitious examples, and then the computer could have then just said Jack the Ripper. But now it's too easy, and you could have just gotten rid of red jack altogether.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

But then we have another horrible scream and the lights come back on. Sorry, they were turned off first. Right. Then we had a horrible scream and the lights are back on. Yes. And Scotty is holding Saibo again with another horrified look. Like, and he dropped her over McCoy, and she has a knife in her back.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

Right. And it's the same knife that has been used in the past two murders. Okay, so now explain this, Jackie. Third murder. A, let's ignore the fact that there's no plausible way that the lights could be turned off and turned back on. That's just kind of weird. I think that it would have been more fun if they had dimmed the lights, had the fire going, and then the fire was extinguished, and that's what caused the blackout. But in any case, who holds the knife that kills Saibo? And the reason why I'm asking the question is we've got the overhead shot of all of the people in the room sitting around the little altar flame thingamajiggy. No knife.

SPEAKER_01 36:25

No, and you got me stumped because I had a perfect answer for you.

SPEAKER_03 36:29

And looking at, and they're all holding hands like a seance. Yes. And so this is the layout when the lights are dimmed, Saibo screams, the lights come back up, Scotty. We're really breaking this down like the end of clue here. Scotty comes forward around to his left to catch Saibo because she screams. Yes. And he that's where he mentions, we find out in a little bit, that he has some memory and he went and it wasn't something he he felt like some resistance, and there was like an entity present and so forth. Yes. And it, you know, smelled like a butcher shop, blah blah blah. And it prevented him from reaching her at first, blah, blah, blah. So, but to get to her, it's gotta go through Kara's fiance. Yeah, like crawling over.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

This is wild.

SPEAKER_03 37:24

Hengist is like almost all the way across the table from Saibo. And no one, not Kara's dad, and not Jaris, Jaris would be the first to speak up, say that he goes limp or something. He goes limp because we find out later. But anyway, so the entity leaves Hengist and possesses Scotty, but now Scotty has the mental fortitude to remember.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

He would not possess Scotty in that way. He'd be more in front of him when he the knife is in his lap.

SPEAKER_03 38:02

The knife is in the knife is not in Scotty's lap. That's just some random thing. Oh, just kidding. But so I propose, wouldn't it be funnier if the entity leaves Hengist and jumps across and possesses Kara's fiance? And the reason why Scotty, you know, because again, then Scotty has to push his way forward to get to Saibo, but he's encountering the entity either entering or leaving Kara's fiancee.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Ooh, that that I like that.

SPEAKER_03 38:36

No, I'm sorry for Saibo being killed, but Yeah, but I think that is the explanation. And so again, it leads to, and I propose that because it leads to my overall conclusion that Hengist is never holding a knife when he kills someone. The entity is leaving Hengist, possessing someone else, Scotty for the first two murders, and Kara's fiancee for the third murder, and then returning to Hengist at the end. And it's real quick.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

So we are for sure that the entity is in Hengist.

SPEAKER_03 39:10

Yeah, I mean, spoiler, yes, Hengist has the entity, and we know why in just a little bit. So, in any case, we've lost the opportunity to do this psycho tricorder examination from the Enterprise in the basement. We've lost the opportunity for Saibo to perform her mumbo jumbo seance to get the truth, and so Jaris agrees with Kirk and says, fine, let's go to the Enterprise and let's use your instruments to investigate the truth.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

And Kirk promises him there'll be no doubt about truth or about the truth, no doubt. Right. So we are in the briefing room again, and they set up a chair that's like a polygraph machine. The person testifying just puts their hand on, we'll call it a plate, and everything will be trickling into a computer that's set up to say, yes or no, that you said that right.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Right. It's a glorified polygraph machine, which is disappointing because Kirk has set up and explained it away as a high-tech device that would be able to scan Scotty's memories for the last 24 hours and extrapolate all this. So when they got up there and they were explaining it, I'm like, this is literally just a lie detector. This is not what Kirk promised. But this is also the longest scene in the episode. So let's jump through it real quick just for time. They put Scotty up on the chair and Question really quick.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

They make sure to tell us that McCoy's input all of Scotty's health records and information in. Do they put everyone's records in, or is it just because Scotty is the accused?

SPEAKER_03 41:05

I think it's just because Scotty's the accused and they have access to it. I don't think they take the time to investigate Morla, his health, Kara's dad's health, Hengis' health, because why would they? They don't suspect him at this point. So it's just Scotty.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

And the knife is being examined in another room.

SPEAKER_03 41:25

Right. Well, we'll get to that in a minute. But in any case, again, we get the questions to Scotty. We've gone over all of them. Scotty felt the circle of hands break when the lights went out, heard Saibo scream, jumped up, had that invisible force field that smelled like a butcher shop, and then he catches Saibo, the lights come back on, and oh Scotty, you rascal, you killed another one. So, but in any case, the lie detector proves that Scotty literally does not remember any of it. And again, it still kind of leaves it open-ended. Did Scotty actually do it and he just doesn't remember doing it? But in any case, we jump to Morla, who would be the next likely suspect who is jealous of Kara's attention to Scotty, and he provides the story that he was so jealous he just got up and he left, and he just walked home and he went home. And again, we're satisfied with his answers that they are true and accurate, so he's not the murderer. And then we just abandoned the whole lie detector test in general because we start talking about and analyzing what Saibo's last words were before she was stabbed to death.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

And Kirk also brings up the stupid psycho tricorder. If they would have done it, wouldn't they have done it already?

SPEAKER_03 42:54

Right. Why can't we do that? So in any case.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

Yes, now we're talking about what she said.

SPEAKER_03 43:01

Right, and they go through and they analyze those words, and we get this long, prolonged search through the computer, and then we come to the conclusion that those three proper names that she gave were s uh assigned as names and identities to unsolved murders throughout history on other planets. Of mass women. Right. Stabbing of women, all the way back to Red Jack, which apparently is another name for Jack the Ripper, but whatever. Most importantly, the most recent event and one of the unidentified killers was less than a year ago and took place on Rigel 4, which is exactly where Hingist came from. And we do a quick breakdown of the knife, because hey, let's just decide to examine the knife at this point. And oh, what do you know? It's a knife with carving. And manufacturing that ties it directly again to Rigel 4.

SPEAKER_01 44:06

So Kirk invites Hengus to go on the chair.

SPEAKER_03 44:12

Because all evidence points to him now.

SPEAKER_01 44:14

Yes. And he refuses. Like, well, I thought you didn't have anything to hide. And then he tries to run out of the room, but we get into a little scuffle. And it was like the fastest fight ever. With one hit, Kirk like kills him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:33

So we get into a fight between everyone in the room and the stunt double for the actor for Hengist. But it is quick. I like it. It's it's well choreographed. It's kind of cool. But yeah, it ends with Kirk punching Hengist, which knocks him to the ground, and then McCoy checks, and he's dead.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

And they're like, that can't be. And then next we have this horrible sounding screaming of like, kill, kill, kill, you're gonna die. Just, you know, they're trying to make everybody afraid because that's what it like feeds on. And it's actually coming from the computer. Right. And the computer controls the ship.

SPEAKER_03 45:21

Right. So it's implied or it shows that this evil entity has left Hingis's body and is now inside the computer. Weird that we don't get some kind of effect to show the entity leaving Hingis and going into the computer. But maybe that works to the advantage of explaining how this entity is allowed to jump around without being noticed and killing people.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

That is true.

SPEAKER_03 45:46

It would have been nice if we had one of the characters make mention of smelling that butcher shop smell like Scotty smelled when Saibo died, but regardless. But this leads to the whole in my theory. I don't think Hingis died in that moment. I think Hingist has been dead for a while.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

So he's like a zombie.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

In a sense, and the entity in possessing his body has when it left to go into the computer, it just abandoned and so he's dead. Because we're gonna see it reverse and it's gonna go back into his body later, which is what tells me. But if that's the case, then we have to then assume for the other murders, when the entity leaves Hingis' body, the body just collapses because he's dead, and so he has to do it in a way so the entity has to take the extra step to make sure whenever it leaves its host body to infect and take over Scotty or Morla, in my example, for the third murder, that Hengis' body won't be discovered in that brief period of time.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

Well, that's why it was really dark, uh the first one with car with Kara.

SPEAKER_03 47:00

I guess it was in the shadows. And I guess you can, yeah. And you could have him do it right outside in the garden for the murder of the lieutenant in the basement of Jarus' house, fine. And then in the third murder, the body could just go limp, and people are gonna let go of the body anyway, and it can go undiscovered. So I guess maybe that works. It's not really a hole, but it just has to be explained away. So, but then we get into act four. The fun, the let's really jump the space shark on this.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

And Kirk is telling his crew to stay at their post and stay calm.

SPEAKER_03 47:40

Right, because again, another little plot injection is the fact that not only does this entity feed off of killing women, but it really feeds off of that fearful emotion and causing the fear in people around them. So the theory is it can kill the crew at any time, but it won't do so until after it sufficiently feeds off of their fear. So by keeping everyone calm, it's not gonna have anything to feed off of and it can't kill them yet.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

Right. And if it kills them, he kills himself. Oh well. And so Kirk asks McCoy if he has any sedatives, and McCoy is like, I have enough for a volcano. And I didn't understand why they needed that until later.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

They don't show anything.

SPEAKER_03 48:32

Well, it's the most absurd plot point because again, we're gonna give sedatives to everyone, but it's not gonna sedate them, it's going to just make them goofy, so it's more of a narcotic than a sedative, and we're gonna do it to the whole ship, and we're gonna administer this drug to 400 people within 10 minutes, it seems like.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

Yeah, and Sulu was the first one that I saw it happen to, and I was like, why is he acting like that?

SPEAKER_03 49:02

Right. Again, I think it's just a way for the writers to kind of have this goofy, funny moment to tie up the episode. It's not needed.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

So while McCoy is uh shooting everyone up, Kirk and Spock are working up, they're trying to think of a mathematical problem that can't be solved for the computer to work on as like top priority.

SPEAKER_03 49:28

As a way to distract the evil entity or block the evil entity from accessing systems and giving them an opportunity to turn over the systems to manual control away from the entity's control.

SPEAKER_01 49:42

Totally, because the computer's working on something, it's not gonna change course. So Spock asks the computer to find the last digit of Pi. And he inputs that the bridge is all sedated, and Sulu is like, oh, this guy talks so gloomy, you know, his twirling self, and they all go, and then Kirk and Spock go back to the briefing room to meet up with everyone there because no one left.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

Right. And I I think the explanation they give is because Jaris would be like the last one to be sedated or something, because again, they know that by jamming up the computer with the impossible problem of pie, the last digit of pie, that the entity is going to leave the computer and try to re-enter someone's body. They don't know yet that it can re-enter its original host, Hengist. So they narrow it down to, well, the last people to be sedated are gonna be the people in the conference room.

SPEAKER_01 50:50

Yes. And that comes up to be McCoy and our our friend Jaris. And then Kirk has to order McCoy to give himself a shot.

SPEAKER_03 51:03

Right. At first he's like, All right, I guess it's time for you to inject up McCoy. McCoy's like, I think I should stay sharp. You know, I think I should, I think I should pass. Of course, giving the moment of it's McCoy. But the whole time, Jaris is standing there with his back to the camera.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

Yeah, staying like a away from everyone.

SPEAKER_03 51:21

Yeah. And so of course Kirk goes, No, really, McCoy, do it. And then McCoy's like, okay, you know.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

And then he chuckles.

SPEAKER_03 51:29

Yeah, he's like, I won't be a narc, I'll take the drug.

SPEAKER_01 51:32

So now it's Jaris' turn. And when Kirk asks for his arm, Jaris is now yelling the die, die, kill, kill, terror, all the words.

SPEAKER_03 51:46

Yes. And so they manage to sedate Jaris. Thanks to Spock's little Vulcan grip. Right. And the entity jumps back into Hengus' dead body, which he immediately jumps up, grabs the knife that's in the conference room for some reason, and holds the little stenographer yeoman hostage. I don't even know if she's sedated at this point.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

Oh, she's laughing up a storm while he has the knife to her neck.

SPEAKER_03 52:20

So then they must do that. But in any case, there's a struggle. They end up sedating, injecting the drug into Hingist, which now I guess traps the evil entity into Hingist. That's what I presumed. I guess because well, because it makes you wonder, because at this point there's still two people left, not quote unquote sedated, drugged, Spock and Kirk. True. And everyone doesn't want to sedate Spock because Spock can control his emotions, but the thing makes no effort to jump into Kirk.

SPEAKER_01 52:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:55

So the drug must trap the entity in Hingis's body. They rush it over to the transporter. Since Hingus, the person, is dead, they don't have any qualms in just beaming the body with the entity trapped into it out into space. I guess they they talk about how they they don't re-materialize it, they just beam all of his little data bits into deep space, and that way it can't come back together.

SPEAKER_01 53:25

They use the word maximum dispersion.

SPEAKER_03 53:29

Right. So they basically break it up, send it all out there, and now the entity is dead.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

And our man Kyle's like, I would have gotten round to it. Just let's Spock pushed him out of the way to send him out.

SPEAKER_03 53:44

Yes. Of note, Kyle, who famously died last episode in Obsession, he was one of the six people that got all the blood cells taken out. So okay. He's very popular.

SPEAKER_01 53:57

He comes back all the time.

SPEAKER_03 53:59

Yeah. So welcome back, Kyle. Appreciate it. But then yeah, we just kind of end on this weird little scene where they're like, oh, let's go back down to the planet, and you know, and oh, I you know, Kirk's trying first Kirk tries to convince Spock to go down to the planet since we're here. The women. Because the women, and Spock's like, you know, glaring at Kirk like, you know better. And then Scotty's like Kirk's like, Come on, Spock, I know this this great place. And Scotty's like, I know the place. A throwback to the first scene. Yes. And Kirk's like, Absolutely not. You guys are stoned out of your mind. You guys are drugged up. We're not getting into any other trouble. And Kirk's like, and I don't want to go down alone. So they just all kind of wander back out into the hallway.

SPEAKER_01 54:44

Yeah, it was weird. He stood in the in the doorway and just was like, come on.

SPEAKER_03 54:49

Yeah, like, oh, I guess Spock and I are trapped on this ship full of drugged up people for the next six hours. Like, how can you even consider beaming down to the planet with Spock to go on holiday, leaving literally everyone on the ship drugged up, running around? We've had that episode where they all got drunk on the heavy water and it was a problem. So, what the hell, Kirk? Terrible plan. As bad of a plan as it was to flush the air vents with radioactive waste last episode.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

Well, he does admit not much work would be done.

SPEAKER_03 55:27

Yeah. But that's gonna be the end of it. Roll credits.

Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_03 55:31

So, Jackie, what did you think about season two, episode 14, Wolf in the Fold?

SPEAKER_01 55:38

I felt like I was on like a mental uh like circus act. Like everything was happening, but no real answer was being given.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

I mean, it was interesting.

SPEAKER_03 55:52

I I kind of feel like this episode is like the movie Clue starring Tim Curry, fantastic movie, everyone should go watch it, where you have this murder mystery and nothing is really being revealed in the plot as you go. As you watch the you you you never get led along the way. This isn't an episode where as a viewer you instantly go, it's Hingist, and then you spend the rest of the episode watching the other characters come to the same conclusion. You go through the mystery as much as the characters on screen, but it doesn't have that satisfying payoff at the end like Clue does, where it ties everything back up. It just kind of throws this random thing out at the end where it's like it's Jack the Ripper, and we get this chaotic fourth act where we just watch everyone get drugged up and we go through the special effects and the funny voice changer for the actor, and it just wraps up. In a very awkward way. In a super awkward way. I don't really know really know else to describe it. It's just way too many plot points. It's like they introduce all these plot points and then they just poke holes in all the plot points, like I said in the beginning. And it just leaves you at the end kind of going, What the hell did I just watch? So Well, it's setting us up for the next one. Yes. So, as mentioned, don't forget to pop over to our Patreon when you're done listening to this episode to catch our Star Note bonus episode, or we'll take a deeper dive into one main topic and whatever else we feel like in a more fun, non-structured dive into the episode. This week's Star Note topic is going to be when Starfleet personnel are accused of crimes on another world, whose laws should take priority? That's a good one. Yeah. And it kind of takes us away from some of the other ridiculous questions. We'll dump into I've got some other questions to bring up that we haven't really dived into.

SPEAKER_01 57:55

So you said we were supposed to have fun in Star Notes.

SPEAKER_03 57:58

We do. So again, pop over to our Patreon, patreon.com/slash treks and tangents. Our bonus star note episodes are free for everyone who follows our Patreon. So we'll see you over there at the end of this episode. Jackie, to rind out our final impressions. What is your favorite quote from the episode?

SPEAKER_01 58:17

They were all good ones, but I decided on, in a strict scientific sense, Doctor, we all feed on death, even vegetarians. And that is Spock talking to McCoy when they're discussing Red Jack feeding on death. And then, you know, that's what happens. Everyone eats dead things.

SPEAKER_03 58:41

Okay. Well, my favorite quote is going to be uh between it's gonna be when Jarus is introduced in the episode. Captain Kirk says, What is the law in these cases? And he's asking Hengist. But then Jarus appears and he says, The law of Argilius is love. And so I like it because Jaris kind of reminded me, and I wish they had leaned more into it. He's a prefect, he's a local leader of his people, but it would have been more fun instead of a leader, he was a respected or influential religious person tied to his wife having these mystic powers, and he certainly put on this air about it. He immediately reminded me of Alistair Crowley. Jackie doesn't know Alistair Crowley too much, he's trying to think. But that is a deeper dive than we will get into. But his quote, the law of Argilius is love and the way he portrays himself as this in my mind as a kind of offshoot of uh Crowley reminded me of Crowley's quote, which is do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will. There is no law beyond do what thou wilt. So again, it just is when he says it, it just and his presence in that moment just reminds me of Crowley and the tie to that quote. That's why it's gonna be my favorite quote for the episode. So a far deeper dive and deeper topic than we have time to get into. Mr. Alistair Crowley. Maybe a bonus episode at some point. Certainly a controversial uh uh episode that would be. So

Tribble Tidbits

SPEAKER_03 1:00:18

but I do have some triple tidbits or interesting facts to the episode. And Jackie, why do we call them triple tidbits? Because they're the best. Because sometimes triples are fun, cute, adorable, interesting, terrifying, problematic, and so forth, just like facts to Star Trek. So, first airing December 22nd, 1967. This is the same release date as the movie The Graduate with Dennis Hoffman. Have you seen The Graduate? I think so. It's a different vibe, but thought I'd throw it out there. The show originally had a bit that when McCoy, Scotty, and Kirk were all in the cafe, bar, tavern at the beginning of the episode, that they would all be consuming drinks that had different colors layered in the drink. And every time they drank a new color, their mood would change. It's kind of a bit that got dropped, but it was severely pushed back by the network sensors because they didn't want to give the appearance that the characters on screen were partaking in recreational drugs. And the producers and the writers pushed back that were basically like, they're not taking drugs, they're drinking an alien cocktail that is affecting their mood. But regardless, they dropped it not because of the sensors, but because it was too difficult of uh effect to do on screen with the color change and the the drinks and so forth. Also, kind of stupid because at the end of the episode, you have every member of the Enterprise getting high.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:57

I was just gonna say they allow dosing, though.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:01

And apparently that didn't affect the network sensors whatsoever. Also, interesting of note, it was around this time that Leonard Nimoy earned an Emmy for his portrayal of Spock on screen, which absolutely ticked off William Shatner because of his ego. This episode was partially made as a conscious effort by the developers and producers of the show to give Spock a sideline role in an episode and to put Kirk in the forefront of the episode to try to placate and keep Shatner happy.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:40

That is so sad.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:42

And of course, again, Shatner and Nimoy had made up af during the show. Everything was fine. Oh, they're friends, they they they were for a long number of years, but yeah, there was this is the start of some contention during the filming of the original series where Kirk feels like the show is starting to get away from him, and Leonard Nimoy is becoming the star of the show, and Kirk or Shatner doesn't like that. So this is kind of one of the first moments of that example. The belly dancer character Kara originally had makeup and effects that included colored feathers that covered much of her face. That was scrapped because the director didn't like it. There literally, like four days of makeup testing where every day she would come back and they would show the director concept uh with her covered in feathers. He's like, Too much feathers, take off the feathers. And then finally, on like the fourth day, she just showed up in no makeup, and he's like, Yep, that's what we needed. Thank you. So she also did all of her own choreograph uh work for the belly dance scene. I was gonna ask because she dances and looks like she's a belly dancer. Yes, so she did all of that herself, and then her and James Dohan, who's the actor who plays Scotty, dated a few times after the episode was over.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:04

Aw, he kills her and then he brings her back to life.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:08

Yes. The lie detector scene that we jumped through because it's just so long, I mentioned, is literally the longest continuous scene in the entire original series. It takes about 15 and a half minutes to get through. So it is the longest scene in any of those original uh episodes. This episode's also the first time it's established that Scotty's first name is Montgomery. Oh, yeah. Lieutenant Karen Tracy, who is the uh science officer who beams down to do the examination, the second murder victim, is only one of two female blue shirts who die in the original series. We've already seen the first death. Who was it? It was Lieutenant Galway.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:58

Oh yes, I forgot she was in a blue I I was distracted by her tiny self.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:04

Yeah, the little toy woman, as you described her.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:07

So she's the other one. And that's it. John Fieldler, who is the actor who plays Hengist, is best remembered as either Mr. Peterson on the Bob Newhart show, or he also played the voice of Piglet in some of the Winnie the Pooh animated cartoons from this series. So completely different roles to what we see on screen here in Star Trek, but he is he had commented many times that his role in Star Trek is the one he gets asked about the most.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

So well, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:44

Uh the belly dance music that was played at the beginning is the same music as from the failed pilot, The Cage with Vina. Jackie noticed that, she's nodding. Interesting enough, early in Star Trek, the Cage and some of those earlier episodes, The Man Trap, and so forth. The music composer was a man named Alexander Courage. He withdrew from the show only a couple episodes in because of a falling out with Gene Roddenberry. In and amongst all of his musical score writing for the show, he also wrote the original opening credits theme. Roddenberry decided to write lyrics to the opening credits music, which effectively gave Roddenberry half of the royalty rights to the music. So he got royalties, half the royalties every time it was used. And Alexander Courage did not know that going into it. And so he was quite upset. And so he left the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:50

Oh, that's what made him leave. I thought Roddenberry did it afterwards as like a jab.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:56

No, no, no. And those lyrics, those lyrics never get used. We never see them in the show. But the way, and again, I'm not a music contract expert, but the way I read it was Alexander Courage as his contract with Star Trek. It was written into the fine print that you get 100% of the royalties unless lyrics are added to the music. At which point, whoever writes the lyrics gets half the royalties. Well, he didn't s he just assumed that no one was going to write lyrics, and Roddenberry said, Well, I'll just write some stupid lyrics. And they are terrible lyrics, you can look them up. But they never get used. And Roddenberry has fully admitted, I didn't write them to get used. I literally wrote them so that I could get half of the royalties for the the music. So justified in leaving, in my opinion, but depending on what resource you look to, some people say that they made up toward the end of their lives, some people say that they never fixed that rift between them, so who knows?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:58

But that's probably what the lady is singing in her own little voice that I don't like.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:04

Yes. And I so again I mentioned that little triple tidbit because this is gonna be one of the episodes this late into the original series where we get music from Alexander Courage used. After he left, most of that music stopped being used and new composers and new music was used. So but those are gonna be your triple tidbits. And of course,

Episode Ranking

SPEAKER_03 1:08:25

this is where we're gonna share our episode ranking, where we pretend the episode is a member of our fictitious Starship crew and we assign a Starfleet rank to the episode. A higher rank not only means we were more entertained by the episode when we watched it, but we find the episode to be a more valuable member of our starship crew, and a lower rank, of course, means the opposite. We weren't as entertained, and we find the episode to be a more disposable member of our crew. Our ranking starts at the very bottom. We can have an unlimited number of ensigns, lieutenant junior grades, and lieutenants, and then we get into the top of the ranking where we can have seven lieutenant commanders, five commanders, one captain, and one admiral, or perfect episode. If none of that makes any sense, don't worry. Jump over to our Patreon where we have a graphical representation of all the episodes up to this point, as well as last season of the original series. We can promote episodes as needed, we can demote episodes as needed, so go check it out, follow along, see where the episodes rank uh as we go along. And what they would choose. And make sure, yeah, comment in the episode description in the comments what rank would you assign this episode? But Jackie, for your starship, the USS Luminara, what rank do you assign this episode?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:48

Um Admiral. No, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:50

I was like, that's a bold choice considering what episode's coming next.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:54

I kid, I kid. Um it's going down in the ensign.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:59

All the way to the bottom of the ensign? Yes. Okay, why?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:02

Well, they made my Scotty a murderer or accused murderer, and like there was like eight stories going on at the same time. So it just needs to stay down there with my with the other ensigns.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:16

Okay. So we've got uh also ranked ensign by Jackie is the Changeling, the Apple, and Friday's Child. For my rank for the USS Comet, see, I remembered to give my starship name this time. Yes. I'm gonna go one above, I'm gonna go lieutenant junior grade. You always go one above me. Well, I've always got no, that's not true. We have literally the same ensign rankings except this one. So I'm gonna put this down in Lieutenant Junior grade. Scotty's acting, James Dohan's acting is fantastic in the episode. It's a fun episode where we get to see some of that on the screen. I also like the idea of a murder mystery in Star Trek. That's kind of fun. That's it, and it's fun to kind of follow along and follow it in real time, kind of like I mentioned Clue, the movie, where we're sitting there trying to piece together on a much smaller macro scale for sure, the movements of everyone, the where the murder weapon is, and so forth. But that's gonna be pretty much all that's entertaining about the episode. Like you said, there's far too many plot points that are interjected. The fourth act is just thrown together all the plot holes that fall into this. It's like they took, like you said, eight different plots or stories, threw it into a blender, and then just kind of pulled pieces out and decided to fit it all together. So not the worst episode that I've seen, but not the least entertained I've been, but I'll watch it once, and then if I'm doing a watch through, this is probably going to be an episode that I would skip. Not a guarantee, but I would probably seriously consider skipping it if I saw it come up on the next up. So same. Again, if none of that made any sense, patreon.com slash treks and tangents, where we will post our graphical representation showing where everything lays as far as rankings so far this season. It looks like Tetris. Over on IMDb, because that's kind of our litmus test as to what the rankings are. Jackie, what do you think the rank is for this episode on IMDb?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:30

I'm gonna cross my fingers and hope they also chose six.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:34

Okay, this one's gonna rank 7.2 out of 10, which is identical to last week's episode Obsession. So I think people really like the murder mystery and they like the goofiness.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:48

Yeah, I mean, I can see all of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:51

And I just I I think there's a lot of original series fans that kind of dismiss a lot of the Star Trek structure and allow the show to kind of break some of those rules. Because again, we're to a season and a half into a sci-fi show that's still probably trying to find its feet, it's constantly on the verge of being canceled. And while it's the foundation of what Star Trek is to become, it's not what I think most people think of Star Trek. So I think a lot of people are able to forgive a lot of the episodes and go, ah, it's the original series, it's okay. For me, coming at it from the golden age of Star Trek, the next generation, DS9, Voyager, I just view it as okay, it's fun, but it could be better. And I'm just watching it. But that's gonna be our rankings.

Turbolift Tease

SPEAKER_03 1:13:44

We'll be back next week to trek through another episode, and before we go, we'll give our turbo lift tees or elevator pitch to next week's plot. That's where I'll give Jackie the title of next week's episode, and Jackie, without any other information, is going to try to guess the plot of the episode. Jackie, get excited. Next week's episode is entitled The Trouble with Tribbles.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:11

Yay! I'm so excited. We're gonna finally meet Tribbles, and since you talk so lovely about them, they're gonna be all over, and then sadly, they're going to be so much of them. We have to calm the millions of them down, and so we do have to call the sad ones, but otherwise they're gonna be so cute and cuddly, and we're gonna find homes for them.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:36

And tune in next week to see if Jackie's prediction is correct. Of course it will be. If you want more show information, you can find and directly support our podcast on Patreon, patreon.com slash treks and tangents. As I mentioned, we'll post graphical representations of all of our rankings for the episode. We have all of our bonus Star Note episodes, all free for people who follow the Patreon. For those that want to support the Patreon and be crew members, we do a deeper dive into the animated series for Star Trek. We have all of our test recordings on there. Come check us out. And yeah, leave us a comment uh besides what you would rank, what you thought of the episode, um, just anything you like about the episode. And do you like this episode? Do you not like this episode? Did we get it right in our prediction? Did we get it wrong in our assessment? Let us know in the comments. Always fun to read comments from uh our listeners.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:32

And be sure to share and review it.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:35

Yes, please, wherever you're listening to this, share it with a friend and give us a review. Let us know what you think. It really helps with the metrics for the podcast and gets us out there. Besides our Patreon, you can follow us on x.com at trex underscore tangents. We're on Instagram and Blue Sky at Trex and Tangents, Jackie Working People Find You. And what are you up to?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:57

I am mostly on Instagram lately. Currently, I am uploading photos and videos from our state fair that just ended. And I'm getting ready to go in for my second hip replacement. So I'm working on that. But additionally, my Instagram handle is jaboomjb. And on top of everything else that I have just said, I do makeup, I have advocacy for disabilities, and of course, dressing for your body.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:36

All right. You can find me over on twitch.tv slash piratepoundtown where I stream a variety of video games. My video game content can also be found on YouTube at PiratePoundtown. Some hobby coin collecting and other random content can be found on YouTube at Pirate Treasure Hunting. I'm socially on Blue Sky at Pirate Poundtown, and every once in a while I'm on Instagram at Pineapple Cannibal. Links to all social media mentioned can be found in the episode description. Thank you everyone for tuning in to this week's episode. We hope you had fun like we did, and we will see you all next week. Next week and transmission