I forgot entirely about this one. It’s a harmless episode: Lee Meriwether wants to touch Kirk’s shoulder and he hides behind Sulu and McCoy. Lee Meriwether advances, Sulu and McCoy step up to her, a united front, and Kirk stands behind them. The effect is a bit like the fairtytale-theater shows I saw now and then as a kid: adults gathered on stage to do something that resembled kids playing, and to do it without identifiable scenery. An intimate effect results; it’s pleasant. I like quiet, undemonstrative ways of passing the time

She’s an android representing the dead commander of a space ship/base left long ago by aliens. Three androids in all, all of the lady captain. The ship/base’s automatic system causes the androids to try to kill intruders (which they do just by touching). Or so I think, since the plot just doesn’t really come thru for me. The upshot: the lady captain is not to blame, and the men toast her memory as her prerecorded taped message (a matte blur against the wall) explains what has been going on and how no harm was meant.

D. C. Fontana wrote the outline. Maybe it made more sense early on. But J.M. Lucas wrote the final, and I liked his stuff okay. He produced “Piece” and wrote/directed “Elaan.”

Labored snippiness.  The ep is divided between the landing party’s doings and the vigil of the anxious team up on the Enterprise. The ship scenes become painful.  As with so much of old Trek, the intended humor of the dialogue comes across as simple meanness. Spock apparently is the kind of boss who will respond to a perfectly clear but figurative remark by laboriously informing the subordinate that his/her remark, taken literally, does not make sense, then adding that one must not waste time. This happens again and again; the script can’t think of anything else for the characters to do. And Spock is incapable of speaking quickly, so you have plenty of time to sit there and wait for his pointless, time-wasting rebuke to trundle past. It’s maddening.

Then there’s Kirk and his snippiness toward Sulu, though Shatner does it very well: the murmured “Mr. Sulu” when he hands off Sulu’s tricorder to him after a rebuke. (I think that during the shoot Koenig was off in the midwest doing a play, which is why Sulu goes down with the landing party, mentions a meteorite in Siberia, and gets put down all the time by Kirk.)

Don’t be an Asian guy.  More support for my theory that being an Asian man is the most thankless task on television: Sulu feminized, scrambling back from Lee Meriwether and squealing.

The ep features yet another nothing crisis, this time not an approaching meteorite or space plague but the impending explosion of the Enterprise. Still, there’s the reward of seeing the look on Doohan’s face when Scotty has to make that last decision and go ahead with fixing the Jefferies tube in whatever highly risky way Spock just recommended. I agree that all the second-rank regs could have done more than they were given (except Takei—acting just was not his thing), but Doohan could have done the most.

Production notes.  From Mem Alpha:

In addition to the standard planet set, Matt Jefferies designed a “rocker plate” set within the set that gave the illusion of a “real” quake. Evidence of this new “rocker stage” can by the movement of the individual “plates” on the stage, followed by sequence of the landing party stepping off it onto the main stage and resting on their hands and knees …

The bypass valve room that Watkins enters consists of re-used pieces of the Yonada control room from “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky“. The control panel was re-used from the Vians torture chamber in “The Empath“.

A new access tube was created to show where the matter-antimatter reaction chamber was. Designed by Matt Jefferies, it had sliding doors accessing the crawlway. …

Spock’s calculation device was a reused of the remote control prop created for “Spock’s Brain“.”

The central chamber which housed the outpost‘s central brain was created especially for this episode. Designed by Jefferies, … the central chamber contained a “frosted 2^D cube – rotating lights inside.””

Sulu mentions the Hortas of Janus VI from “The Devil in the Dark“. “

That last one went right by me. I think it’s a real stride for continuity because it’s gratuitous. Writers have to remember that phasers can fire on stun and that Vulcans don’t show emotion. But whoever threw in the horta did so for the hell of it, just because continuity is fun. That’s when the habit really starts to entrench itself.

(The makeup around the eyes could be a wall painting; the lashes are like a sculpture … sorry, that sounds a bit like a Troy McClure. Anyway, I think Trek did this to its heroines’ eye makeup a lot more in the third season; at least I’ve started it noticing just recently.) 

Lee Meriwether, b. 1935 in LA. I thought she was fine. She’s given absolute dumbass s.f. exposition dialogue and has to deliver it w/ an android affect, a deadly combination. But she gets thru okay. Says she was a reg on Time Tunnel, so maybe that had toughened her up.

Won Miss America in 1955, married 1958, divorced 1974; two girls b. 1960, 1963.  IMDB lists 43 screen appearances as “Self,” starting w/ Miss America, 84 as an actor, starting in 1954 with The Philco Television Playhouse, 3 eps., but picking up in 1958, an appearance on The Millionaire, then Bilko, etc. Around her Trek ep, the Time Tunnels, two Batmans (not counting her movie appearance), Land of the Giants, Mannix, The Name of the Game, six eps of Mission: Impossible because Barbara Bain had left. Since the 1990s her main work has been 38 eps of a soap, All My Children, plus some movie roles here and there.

Hey, meat! Old Max Kirkland in the Police Academy movies, and a blueshirt who died like a redshirt.

Arthur Batanides, b. 1922 in Tacoma, Wash. IMDB lists 122 acting jobs. His first was for a tv show called Out There in 1951; his last was Police Academy 6 (1989). Wiki says he was the police sergeant in a 1959 crime show called Johnny Midnight. Around his Trek ep he was doing Death Valley Days, Run Buddy Run, The Man from UNCLE, Time Tunnel, The Green Hornet, Lost in Space, Cimarron Strip, I Spy (5 eps as “Rocco), Wild Wild West (4 eps), Gomer Pyle USMC (3 eps but not the same character), The Mod Squad, “Tony” in The Maltese Bippy, and so on.

… Accidental Family. What a great title for a mid-60s tv series. From The Brady Bunch on, you could imagine the premise. But pre-Brady — what the hell?

Sulu’s replacement.  She gets a lot of lines, actually. She’s Spock’s feed for much of the tense helming that must be done because of the forces unleashed by the Lee Meriwether androids. In “The Paradise Syndrome” she helps dress the Indian princess and tells her to buck up. Her character’s name in this one is Rahda. IMDB says she was in The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968) as “Indian Squaw” and the series Korg: 70,000 B.C. as Mara (1974). That’s it, that’s the list.

Harvard grad.  Dr. M’Benga played by Booker Bradshaw, b. 1940 (or ’41) in Virginia. Wiki says, “an American record producer, film and TV actor, and Motown executive.” In the 1970 his IMDB credits are mainly for writing tv scripts (did a Columbo, a McMillan and Wife, a Jeffersons, a Rockford, credits on 4 eps of Richard Pryor’s 1977 variety show, bunch of others). Cartoon voice work in the ’80s. Career started in 1960s with “Prince Nicholas” in a Girl from UNCLE (1966), 2 eps as “Dr. B’Dula” on Tarzan, then 2 eps as Dr. M’Benga on Trek, tailed out in early ’70s. Howard Brunswick in Coffy (1973), Lucas (militant, I guess) in The Strawberry Statement (1970).

Wordless, beautiful redshirt.  Brad Forrest, birth year unknown. He did “Which” in 1968 and an episode of Man in Space (“Dateline: Moon”) in 1960. That’s it.

Hogan’s Heroes reg.  “He is perhaps best known for playing Sgt. Richard Baker during the final season of the television series Hogan’s Heroes.” Kenneth Washington, b. 1946, IMDB lists 26 acting jobs, couple as a kidm, then picks up in 1966 with “Man” in a I Dream of Jeannie, “Corporal” in My Three Sons, a policeman in Dragnet 1967. Did his Trek episode in the same period he was doing about a half dozen eps of Adam-12 as “Officer Miller,” eventually his 24 eps on Hogan’s Heroes, the ’70/71 season, and after that things dwindle: “Guard” on 2 Rockford eps in 1977, etc.    

Another of the 4 eps that I’m missing. Involved a sort of Julius Schwartz s.f. idea, but one that Mem Alpha says had already shown up on a Wild Wild West ep back when Gene L. Coon produced that show; Coon also did the outline for “Wink,” part of his batch of contractually obliged script work done after he left Trek. The ep idea: people moving so very fast that they can’t be seen, and the movement isn’t running or push-ups, it’s vibrating. The ep uses the idea as justification to claim that an entire civilization could exist and be invisible to us, perceived only as an occasional buzzing sound like that of an unseen insect. I would guess that this notion takes the idea further than Wild Wild West did. In other words, “Wink” is another third-season ep with a premise that’s pretty advanced and complicated for tv s.f. of the time.

But I get all this from synposes. The ep itself is clean gone out of my mind. It appears to have been another arrogant-advanced-race set-up, with a queen interested in Kirk. 

From Mem Alpha:

At the beginning of the episode, Scotty is shown on the bridge recording a log while other dialogue is played over this scene. The footage is reused from “The Empath“. This is evident because Scotty wears a very different hairstyle, and another woman takes the place of Uhura

… only one set, a fountain, which was designed by Matt Jefferies.

The environmental engineering room, also designed by Jefferies, was a redress of the briefing room set.

The Scalosian weapon, also designed by Jefferies, was made from lathe-turned aluminum, and measured approximately 6 ¾” in length. … The weapon made a sound identical to Klingon disruptors and the Ardana torture device in “The Cloud Minders“.

This was Andrea Weaver‘s last episode as women’s costumer. She went on to join another Desilu production, Mission: Impossible.

The queen, b. 1930, in San Luis Obispo, Calif.  Married Darren McGavin year after “Wink,” stayed married. IMDB lists 85 acting jobs; start: ep of The Gray Ghost (1957), end: 2 eps of Love Boat (1980). Around the time of “Wink,” parts in Laredo, Mr. Terrific, Felony Squad, The Wild Wild West, Hondo (5 eps, recurring role), The Big Valley, The Name of the Game (which had an ep titled “Shine On, Shine On, Jesse Gil”), Get Smart, The Outsider, Love American Style.

Epicene alien, b. 1922 in NYC; orig name: Herb Evers. Dropped out of high school, went into army, then became actor. Took a long time to get anywhere, never did anything too big, but he worked steadily for years. Quite a looker. IMDB lists 109 acting jobs, starting with extra work in Guadalcanal Diary (1943), ending with “Lou the Editor” in Basket Case 2 (1990). Was getting tv work thru most of the ’80s, primetime mystery/crime dramas for old folks. Around time of “Wink” he was quite busy, doing guest shots on Bonanza, The Invaders, Three for Danger, Tarzan, Run for Your Life, Judd for the Defense, Capt. Coleman in The Green Berets, The Wild Wild West, It Takes a Thief, The Mod Squad, a recurring part on The Guns of Will Sonnett (as Walter Brennan’s son).

Look at this guy! B. 1922 in Sandness, Norway. He was in Stargate (Prof. Longford) and Titanic (Olaf Dahl), the fire commissioner in Ghostbusters II, did a St. Elsewhere ep (Dr. Sven Hosltrum), “Hotel Travel Clerk” in Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain (1966). Imdb lists 80 acting jobs, starting with 2 a two-parter for GE True (1962, so he was 39 or 40), ending with a part (Sven Halleus) in some kind of wacky comedy called Formosa (2005). Around “Wink,”  he was doing The Invaders, The Outcasts, Bonanza, Guns of Will Sonnett, “Digger” in Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, 3 eps of Mission: Impossible in minor roles.

Dead redshirt, no birth year. “He was so young!” Kirk says, because the guy’s character has to age really fast and die. IMDB lists a dozen acting jobs. “Wink” was his first, followed by Medical Center a couple of years later, then a dribble of parts: Room 222, Mod Squad, Adam-12, nothing big. In 1974 he played J. Edgar Hoover’s special friend, Melvin Purvis, for a TV movie about Pretty Boy Floyd. “Second Warrior” in an ep of Battlestar Galactica (1978). Last role: Mike O’Malley in a movie called Raw Force (1982).

Stunt redshirt, no birth year. Eddie Hice, Mel Apha says he’s “a stuntman, stunt coordinator and second unit director whose work includes films such as all of the four Planet of the Apes films,” plus lots else. IMDB lists acting jobs that start in 1959 (two eps of The Texan) and end in Hard to Hold (1984, he was “Waiter”). Stunts start with a Get Smart in 1965 and end in 2007 with the film Georgia Rule. Around “Wink” his stunts were mainly for films, including Countdown, Bonnie and Cyde and MASH. Acting he had 3 eps of Get Smart (“Blindfolded Accountant”). In 1970 a part in a movie called The Girl in the Leather Suit, part was “Red Beard”—bet he was some menacing young hipster hanging out in vicinity of the girl in the suit.

Unknown aliens. She’s a looker, though maybe her face is too long for tv. The poor guy is being humiliated by costume and wig.

This is another of the four episodes I’m missing. Saw it last summer but not this summer, so I’m going from memory and the relevant Web sites.

Another ancient Greek temple found in outer space? All right, I guess that stuff is okay. As long as the plot doesn’t have too many wide-open structural faults and people don’t just stand around and let their mouths run with no result. This ep has a lot of horsing around induced by telekinesis, so I guess that helped move the show along

A good line for Spock in one of his McCoy banter sessions: “I have noted that the healthy release of emotion is frequently unhealthy for those closest to you.”

… A 1967 NBC musical special called Movin‘ with Nancy, starring Nancy Sinatra. Mem Alpha mentions the program because on it she kissed Sammy Davis hello, making for the first interracial kiss on U.S. tv. Kirk and Uhura were second.

Mem Alpha says: 

… both Shatner and Nichols claim in Star Trek Memories that NBC exerted pressure to forbid lip contact, and to use a clever camera technique to conceal the “separation.” If you look closely at the image, you can tell that the actors’ lips are not touching, the angle only makes it look like they might be slightly touching.

 MemAlp: “Leonard Nimoy composed ‘Maiden Wine,’ the song that he performs in this episode.”

Michael Dunn, b. 1934 in Shattuck, Okla., “during the Dust Bowl drought,” Wiki says. Orig name: Gary Neil Miller. He had a high IQ and a dynamic personality. He entered the University of Michigan just before he turned 17, then transferred to University of Miami, where he became an all-around campus star (check out the Wiki account, it’s interesting). At 23 he became an actor in New York theater but soon moved on to Hollywood.

Dunn made a career of dramatic roles, received a Tony nom for Best Supporting in 1964, an Oscar nom for Best Supporting in 1965. These were for performances in highbrow vehicles, adaptations of Carson McCullers and Katherine Anne Porter. When somebody needed to make a visual statement about the condition of mankind, Dunn was right there and ready to go. So again with “Plato’s Stepchildren,” I guess, given the ep’s statement about human dignity and what it means for a human to be worth something.

IMBD lists a lot of mid-’60 guest shots: Get Smart, etc. Most notable are his 10 eps with Wild Wild West as a villain, Dr. Miguelito Loveless. (Some enthusiastic discussion of his performance at the blog The College Crowd Digs Me. Warning: I took my Dunn photos from this post, so it may look a bit familiar. Still, there’s also a clip of Dunn doing one of his Loveless scenes.)

The actor died at age 38. Per Wiki, rumors of alcoholism were contradicted by autopsy reports, nothing to back up suicide rumors either. His lungs had trouble functioning because of the shape forced on his body by the condition that had made him a dwarf.

The Kirk/Uhura kiss—I really don’t remember it. Mainly I was embarrassed by the presence of the dwarf, a dumb reflex I have. The actor did fine and the character played a big role in the story, though he also had to put up with Kirk’s speech about how even short people are respected by the Federation. There’s a lot of gratitude on the character’s part: “That’s the first time anyone’s thought of my life before his own.”

The mean man, b. 1923 in Jacksonville, Ill. Wiki says he played a lot of villains. IMDB lists 113 parts. Start: tv show Lights Out in 1950; finish: “Reporter” in George Wallace, a 1997 tv movie. Around the time of his Trek role he was doing Gunsmoke,  26 eps as a reg on The Monroes, Dragnet ’67, Family Affair, Bracken’s World, Daniel Boone.

The mean lady, b. 1937. This is Barbara Babock again, so see the post here.

Only known appearance.  Ted Scott, no birth year, as giggling flunky.

Attending fop. Derek Partridge, no birth year. IMDB lists 25 roles. Start: two eps of Studio 4 in 1962 (“Stamboul Train” and “Flight into Danger”); finish: “Doctor” in a Murder, She Wrote in 1989.

This one’s okay; after the last few it’s a relief. Yes, there’s yet another all-powerful light blob, but it isn’t superior and there are a lot of Klingons around. They’re fun, and Kirk and his Klingon opposite number develop something like some kind of relationship. Seeing a Klingon woman is interesting, and she’s science officer, which is presented in an offhand way—back then both the fact and being offhand about it would count as a bit of a twist, I think. And at least there’s no big meteor headed for everyone, or a space fever that’s going to kill everyone, and no one finds the woman who will be the single great love of his life until the next episode.

The light blob does pop up a lot, though. It’s not enough the blob gets the Klingons on board the Enterprise and starts messing with people’s minds. It also has to turn all the phasers into swords, then give the Klingons a leg-up of some kind (which I forget). If you’re doing a script, it’s nice to have an all-powerful light blob around, but the tradeoff is that your story gets a bit weightless.

Klingons.  I was dissing the old Trek version of the Klingons, but there’s something I should acknowledge: the Klingon uniform is a nice design. I like the black and gray, the white sashes and their fringe, which looks like an inch long. True, the sashes look like a plastic tablecloth that got cut up, and the jerseys and leggings and ponchos and so on look like they came out of the bottom of a theater trunk. But that’s execution, not design. The makeup and beards and outfits add up to a suggestion of what one would like to see on the screen; they’re stand-ins. (Did Abrams have Klingons in his Trek movie? My hope is that he’s doing old-style Klingons on a bigger budget. It would be nice to see the sleek, black-and-gray, 60s version done without period handicaps.)

Still, the Klingon ship is far superior to the rest of the gear, as execution and design. Maybe the ship needs a little retrospective help, a little translation from its period version, but not a whole lot. The models look a bit simple, but like the Enterprise and the bridge (also a little simple, in their ways) they work.

Also, I’m amazed anyone back then could have thought up those three designs, Enterprise, Bridge and Klingon vessel. With 40-plus years of Trek now gone by,the three designs still strike me as the most original the franchise has done. Whereas the ’60s Klingons’ makeup and gear strike me as being more in line with what primetime tv offered back then—my impression from childhood memories and from watching Mission: Impossible and Man from UNCLE now and then over the past few years.

From Mem Alpha, random script and production notes:

 a line by Koloth in “The Trouble with Tribbles” suggests that females (“non-essentials”, as Koloth put it) don’t serve on Klingon vessels.

Although intra-ship beaming is routine in later incarnations of ‘Star Trek’, this is the first and only time it is done in the original series.”

This is the only time Sulu is seen in engineering or working in a Jefferies tube. … There is also a room or area called “emergency manual control” which seems to be the famous “Jefferies tube”, because Kirk orders Sulu to go down there and we next see Sulu standing in it fiddling with switches.

The Klingon agonizer used on Chekov is the same one seen in “Mirror, Mirror“.

Footage of the Klingon ship is reused from “Elaan of Troyius” which aired after this 

The footage of engineering, with the hovering entity, was also re-used in “The Tholian Web“, with a floating Kirk instead.

Jerome Bixby’s original draft had the Klingons and Enterprise crew driving the entity away by singing songs and having a peace march. 

According to Emerson Bixby, son of Jerome Bixby, James Doohan was taken aside before filming his dramatic scene on the bridge. Much to Doohan’s delight, Bixby asked him to pronounce the word “Vulcan” to sound euphonically like a certain expletive. Listen closely to Scotty’s stern insistence that Spock keep his hands off of him.

The Klingon, b. 1922, Syria. Married to Barbara Eden when “Dove” was filmed.  Wiki says, “Ansara guest-starred on Eden’s I Dream of Jeannie series, as the Blue Djinn, who had imprisoned Jeannie in a bottle, and as King Kamehameha in the episode “The Battle of Waikiki”. The couple had one son together, actor Matthew Ansara, who died on June 25, 2001, of a heroin overdose. Michael Ansara and Barbara Eden divorced in 1974.”

 “He is one of ten actors to play the same character (Kang) on three different Star Trek TV series…” From the list given, he and Mark Lenard are the only non-regs from old Trek to pull this off. Others were either old-cast regs or late Trek.

Mem Alp: “After co-starring together on Star Trek‘s ‘Day of the Dove,’ Ansara and Susan Howard (who played Kang’s wife, Mara) reunited for an episode of Here Comes the Brides in 1969…” And Mark Lenard was a Brides regular.

Ansara was very busy with tv in mid-’60s. Also, yet another Presley credit for a Trek guest: Prince Dragna in Harum Scarum (1965). IMDB lists 189 roles for career, starts with Battle in Arabia (uncredited, 1944), ends with voice role in cartoon movie (Batman: Vengeance, 2001). A lot of desert-people roles: ’50s movies: uncredited in The Robe (no, Judas, per Wiki) and Ten Commandments; did 3 movies w/ Montalban, inc Saracen Blade; in Greatest Story Ever Told as “Taskmaster,” working for Herod. 1977, Mohammad: Messenger of God, played Abu Sufyan, who opposed Mohammad and then converted.

Career overview:  During the ’50s a lot of Biblical Jews and American Indians, during the ’60s still the Indians but also other roles. Worked steadily with tv guest shots thru the ’80s, crime shows mainly, then in the ’90s it’s pretty much Trek/Babylon 5 stuff and cartoon voice work, with an emphasis on Mr. Freeze in the Batman series.

Klingon gal. b. 1943 or 1944, in Marshall, Tex. Wiki says, “an active member of the leadership of both the NRA and the Texas Republican Party.” Real name: Jeri Lynn Mooney; stage name: Susan Howard.

While in high school she won a statewide scholastic award as best actress. She was a Dallas reg, 189 eps as Donna Culver Krebbs. Wiki: “In 1987 the show decided to not renew her contract. She has blamed this decision on her opposition to what she saw as pro-abortion storylines involving her character.”

Per IMDB, “Dove” was her eighth screen job on a list of 50, and she started in 1967 with a Monkees ep (role: “The Bride”). Whitebread-sounding character names, shows like The Iron Horse, Flying Nun, Tarzan. Lot of roles post-Trek, in 1969 (Ironsides, Bonanza, I Dream of Jeannie, Land of the Giants, others), then down to 3 or so per year in 70 and 71, then picks up the pace in ’72 and continues pretty healthily after that until her Dallas niche. (Note: Mem Alp says she started in 1966.) Post-Dallas, one role listed, appears to be the lead in an indy drama released 1993.

Redshirt with changed name. Played by David L. Ross, b. 1939

Galloway in 5 first-season eps and two second-season eps (and in photo above), Johnson in this one, and then he’s Galloway again in “Turnabout Intruder,” the third season’s last ep. In “Dove,” as Johnson, the actor gets a big scene for a redshirt, if I remember right—he really wants to tear into one of those Klingons and he gets obnoxious with Kirk about it. Also, the character gets wounded early on and we see him in sickbay, not talking but he’s the shot.

Actor started as “Wounded Soldier” in a Combat! ep (1966), then “Delivery Man” in a Man from UNCLE (1967). Then the Trek stuff and then nothing until Rocky II and “Reporter,” which is in 1979.

Two lines, something lke that. Mark Tobin, no birth year. He was in “Space Seed” as a Khan follower, and here he’s the number-two Klingon guy. He gets to say something or other  and pops up in a couple of the scenes aside from the grand melees where everybody was on board.

IMDB lists about 10 roles. He did a McHale’s Navy, three Combats, the Star Trek, and that’s about it. Started in 1960 w/ a Tombstone Territory, then was in something called The Man from the Diners Club (1963). Next the McHale’s in 1966, which was also the years of the Combats. So his years of working in tv were pretty much 1966 to ’68, and Trek was his last acting job until he hosted American Outdoorsman in 1995. Plus a Voyager (as “Klingon”) in 1999.

The immortal. “Crown prince of daredevils,” Wiki says, with 5,000 jobs in 60 years. David L. Sharpe, b. 1910 in St. Louis. IMDB lists 162 acting creds and 227 stunt creds: first acting job was in Scaramouche (1923), last was “Man in Suit” for Blazing Saddles (1974); fourth stunt job was in Thief of Baghdad (1924), last was in Warren Beatty’s Heaven Can Wait (1978).

Wiki: “Sharpe won the US National Tumbling Championship in 1925 and 1926. He began his film career as a child actor in the 1920s. Eventually he became the ‘Ramrod’ (Stunt co-ordinator) for Republic Pictures from 1939 until mid-1942,” then came WWII. … Died of Lou Gehrig’s disease, 1995.