ST01 008: 1st Quarter Analysis

In this episode of Masterpiece Science-Fiction Theater we look at the narrative trends over the first 7 episodes of Star Trek. Listen for the analysis, but you can see some of the tabulations below: Narrative Structure Antagonist Type Monster Episode: a non-human, mysterious antagonist puts the ship and/or crew in danger     Where No Man… (1) The Man Trap (5) Charlie X (6) The Corbomite Maneuver (2) The Enemy Within (4) 71% Action/Adventure: a human(oid) antagonist or a force drives the conflict; the ship and crew overcome a series of obstacles to achieve a goal The Naked Time (7) Mudd’s Women (3) 29% Narrative Type Boiling the Frog Plot: introduce a threat and ratchet up its danger over several acts Where No Man… The Man Trap Charlie X 43% Dodgeball Plot: continuous pile on of multiple conflicts and narrative threads The Corbomite Maneuver Mudd’s Women The Enemy Within The Naked Time 57% World Building Michael Okuda: Whenever you have an invented universe, the most important thing is your look, your style. Even if you have a huge budget, you can’t really build a Starship enterprise, you cannot really build Star Fleet Command. What you can do is suggest it and let the audience’s mind fill it in. So you do you do that? It turns out, you pick a style, you pick a particular color planet, a particular way of shooting things, a particular way of shooting visual effects, a particular way of telling stories, and that becomes your style. And once you define that, if you defined it well, if you believe in it, if your stories believe in it, the audience will by into it.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHOpSrDwZNM 5 planets–all desolate and deserted or near-deserted: WNM: Delta Vega Mudd’s Women: Rigel 12 Enemy Within: Alpha 177 Man Trap: M-113 Naked Time: Psi 2000 Charlie X: Thasus TNG Season 1 comparison: Encounter; Lonely Among Us (Antica and Selay): 2 of first 6 are exclusively about admission to the federation. 9 of 25 episodes (36%) are either have either the A plot or the B plot be about the Enterprise settling a political dispute between different worlds or between the Federation and an alien group (and I’m not counting the Ferengi, Klingon or Romulan episodes)    Final Analysis Masterpiece (5 points) Corbomite Maneuver The Naked Time 10 Classic (4 points)   Where No Man Enemy Within Man Trap Charlie X 16 Average Outing (3 points)   2 Dime Store Paperback (2 points)   Mudd’s Women Hackish Drivil (1 point) Total Score 28