We’re coming out of our shell this week as we explore “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”!
Author Greg Cox returns to the show this week to discuss an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series that is full to bursting with innovative sci-fi ideas. The Enterprise has discovered an ancient civilization living in a hollow asteroid generation ship. Can Kirk and crew save the unknowing inhabitants from their fate or will they—and Dr. McCoy—see their journey end in destruction?
The short run of the Original Series was marked by unbridled creativity, with many episodes presenting multiple, original premises that made the nascent universe of Trek feel living and lived in. Supported by the work of contemporary sci-fi authors and creators, Star Trek delivered prime-time escapism that challenged the existing paradigm of sci-fi television. On this episode, we discuss the way in which TOS reflected the unbridled creativity of ’60s sci-fi, what makes a TOS story, layering multiple premises into a single episode, the attraction of generation ship stories, using religion as a mollifying social force, the technological status quo of the Trek galaxy, and the Original Series’ real opinion of utopias.
We also discuss adding cyborgs to TOS, whether or not Catwoman can fly a helicopter, the lack of CPR in Trek, getting married for the hospice care, “have typewriter, will travel”, thumbing your nose at the Nuclear Age, classic full-sentence episode titles, pandemic storytelling, an “evenness of difference”, having Trek as your only credit, VHS board games, fascinating failures like Lynch’s Dune, “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”, how to tell your congregation your god is just a computer, and once again we play the Starlost game!
Never promise to marry the alien priestess!
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