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Goofs and Gaffes That Survived the Final Cut
During the early 1970s, when the first Star Trek conventions began popping up in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other cities across the U.S., one of the most popular attractions was the show’s now-famous “blooper reel.” Fans roared with laughter at the sight of actors flubbing their lines or bumping their noses when the Enterprise’s “automatic” doors (actually controlled by a technician hidden backstage) failed to open. Trek staffers, including associate producer Bob Justman, originally assembled these outtakes to run at the show’s end-of-season wrap parties. But not all the program’s mistakes were consigned to the cutting-room floor. A plethora of goofs, gaffes, plot holes, scientific errors, and miscellaneous blunders made it into broadcast episodes, many more than can be covered here. (Delineating all the problems with “Spock’s Brain” alone could fill an entire chapter.)
To be fair, many of these flaws are relatively minor and require careful scrutiny or thoughtful reflection to identify. Similar gaffes go unnoticed on most TV shows, but most shows don’t have fans like Star Trek’s, diehards who have rewatched every episode countless times in syndication and on home video and DVD, poring over each installment in minute detail. Upon close inspection, fans began to recognize—and even to take a kind of bemused enjoyment in—the show’s occasional lapses, which range from garden variety technical snafus (the shadow of a boom mike visible in sick bay, for instance) to egregious and sometimes hilarious lapses in continuity or simple logic.
Continuity Errors
Every film and television show employs a script supervisor whose primary responsibility is making sure that on-screen details remain consistent from take to take, shot to shot and scene to scene—so that a coffeepot sitting on the table doesn’t appear to refill itself in the middle of a scene, for instance; or to make sure that if a character gets socked in the face in one scene, he has a visible black eye in the next one. However, since all script supervisors are human, no film or television show is completely free of such inconsistencies. Prime examples of Star Trek continuity errors include:
• When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy visit pool-playing gangster Bela Oxmyx in “A Piece of the Action,” the billiard balls change positions between shots. Also, Oxmyx inexplicably begins knocking the numbered balls directly into the pockets without using the white cue ball! Perhaps the USS Horizon should have left behind a billiards manual along with that Chicago Gangs of the 1920s history book.
• When the Good Kirk and the Evil Kirk meet on the bridge at the conclusion of “The Enemy Within,” the Evil Kirk has scratches on his right cheek. But earlier in the episode, Yeoman Rand scratched him on his left cheek.
• In “Assignment: Earth,” Gary Seven’s cat Isis is solid black—except for a few shots, where a different cat with white paws was substituted.
• The food cubes on Sulu’s dinner tray in “The Man Trap” jump back and forth between shots. First they’re in a bowl, then (during an insert close-up) on his plate, and then suddenly back in the bowl.
• In “Turnabout Intruder,” after calling for a vote on Spock’s court-martial, Kirk (or, rather, Dr. Janice Lester-inhabiting-the-body-of-Kirk) turns and walks dramatically out of the room. Unfortunately, the briefing room has only one door, and it’s on the opposite wall, so it’s obvious Shatner is simply walking off the set.
Stock Footage Snafus
Given the tight schedules and skimpy budgets that the Star Trek team faced on a weekly basis, producers made liberal use of stock footage, especially for shots of the exterior of the ship, which were expensive to produce. A single shot of the Enterprise firing phasers was reused dozens of times throughout all three seasons of the series, for instance. However, the use of stock footage sometimes created jarring continuity problems, such as:
• In “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” the alien Lokai arrives in a shuttle supposedly stolen from Starbase Four. Yet, due to the use of stock footage, the vessel is clearly marked as “Galileo, NCC 1707/7, USS Enterprise.”
• During several Season Three episodes, including “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” and “Friday’s Child,” Ensign Chekov is momentarily replaced by an unnamed blonde navigator when a reverse-angle stock shot of the bridge, showing the view screen, is employed.
• For similar reasons, Lieutenant Sulu’s retractable viewer appears and disappears—depending on the camera angle used—during the opening sequence of “Day of the Dove.” It’s visible when Sulu is shown in close-up but gone when a wider (stock) angle is used.
• The sky of planet Gamma Trianguli VI is red throughout “The Apple”—except when it begins to storm. Suddenly, when clouds roll in and lightning strikes, the sky is blue, thanks to the employment of library footage.
Wardrobe Malfunctions
No, not that type of wardrobe malfunction. Although costume designer Bill Theiss created many outfits that looked as if they might fall off the show’s nubile guest actresses at any moment, the one time anything like that actually happened—to Sherry Jackson during the filming of “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”—the footage did not make it onto the air. Nevertheless, Starfleet uniforms and other costumes often created continuity gaffes, such as missing or incorrect insignias, and sometimes bigger problems.
• Captain Kirk, on the way to the bridge with Charlie Evans in “Charlie X,” enters the turbolift wearing a standard gold command tunic but exits the lift wearing his green V-neck captain’s jersey. (Maybe on the way up Charlie used his psychic superpowers to change it.)
• In “Mudd’s Women,” as Harry Mudd and his gorgeous “cargo” beam aboard the Enterprise, Dr. McCoy’s uniform switches back and forth between the standard blue tunic and his medical smock. (This may be another stock footage problem.)
• Spock is wearing his standard-issue uniform when, during “This Side of Paradise,” botanist Leila Kalomi (Jill Ireland) leads him to a flower that shoots mysterious, happiness-inducing spores into his face. But when we next see him, under the influence of the spores, Spock is lazing in the grass with Leila wearing a pair of green coveralls. The abrupt costume change may have been made to suggest that Spock (and, presumably, Leila) disrobed while off-camera, but this does not explain where his jumpsuit came from (the couple do not appear to have moved from the same wooded grove) or what happened to Spock’s uniform.
• In the episode “The Alternative Factor,” the fake goatee worn by guest star Robert Brown as Lazarus is so poorly and inconsistently applied that the bogus facial hair seems to perform gymnastics on the actor’s face between shots. This is by far the worst makeup job seen in the entire series and uncharacteristic of the usually fine work of Fred Phillips.
• In the final episode of the series, “Turnabout Intruder,” Nurse Chapel is a brunette. Of course, it’s a woman’ prerogative to change her hair.
Equipment Failures
Twenty-third-century technology must be tricky to operate. In many of the original seventy-nine episodes, the following peculiarities may be observed:
• Communicators often chirp when opened, but sometimes they do not.
• Captain Kirk presses the same four buttons on his captain’s chair to perform dozens of different functions.
• The “whee-oh” communications whistle used in the hallways, briefing rooms, and other public spaces of the Enterprise is sometimes followed by a page and other times not. Yet, even without benefit of a page, Kirk always seems to know when the message is for him and not for, say, Dr. McCoy or Security Officer Kerplotsky.
• The whole “stardate” concept is fraught with confusion. In numerous episodes, events with lower stardates take place after events with higher star-dates. The official explanation for this is that these “dates” denote specific points on the curved continuum of space-time. The Star Trek Writer’s Guide explained the concept to prospective screenwriters this way: “Stardates are a mathematical formula which varies depending on location in the galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors.” But what is the use of constantly referring to “dates” that most viewers find incomprehensible?
• In several episodes, Kirk and company watch videos supposedly taken via tricorder. The tricorder must be a very sophisticated instrument, since these videos often include complex pans, zooms, and tracking shots, and sometimes show the tricorder itself recording the event!
• After the two pilot episodes, production designer Matt Jefferies tweaked the Enterprise’s nacelles (the tubular engines attached to the main body of the craft by long struts). But since stock footage from the pilot was reused throughout the run of the series (and to create the title sequence), in some shots the ship’s nacelles have vents on the end, and in others they have bubble-like protrusions.
Screwy Science
Star Trek bloopers were so popular that, in the days before home video, bootleg record albums like this one were produced so fans could at least hear them at home.
For the most part, Star Trek did a solid job of holding up the science end of the term science fiction. Creator-producer Gene Roddenberry took pride in the show’s credibility and hired big-name sci-fi authors to contribute teleplays. Nevertheless Star Trek’s scripts featured some glaring scientific blunders, such as:
• In “Court Martial,” when Spock scans the Enterprise to search for the supposedly dead Finney (who is actually hidden aboard the ship), he mentions that a special device has been installed to magnify the computer’s censors “one to the fourth power.” That means no magnification at all, since 1x1x1x1=1.
• Star Trek’s astronomy was generally sound, but in “Day of the Dove,” Captain Kirk calls the Enterprise “a doomed ship, traveling between galaxies” when, in fact, the Enterprise was capable of interstellar but not intergalactic travel. Similarly, in “Arena,” Kirk refers to a planet as an “asteroid.”
• In “Elaan of Troyius,” Spock reports that a Klingon ship is approaching at Warp Six, but Sulu calculates the vessel’s speed at 50,000 kilometers per second—that’s about 250,000 kps below the speed of light.
• The planet-based supercomputer Landru, in “Return of the Archons,” holds the Enterprise at bay with a sonic weapon whose power is measured in decibels. How is this possible, since sound doesn’t carry in the vacuum of space? For the same reason, why does the crew of the Enterprise whisper while “playing dead” in “Balance of Terror?”
Plot Holes
These are probably the most damaging problems of all, since they undermine the credibility of the entire story. Fortunately, these weren’t an every-week occurrence, nor were they (usually) all that obvious. Aside from the gaps in logic noted below, one issue hangs over nearly every classic Trek adventure: Is it wise to continually send the captain, first officer, chief surgeon, and other vital personnel on dangerous away missions? Other, episode-specific concerns include:
• Why, in “The Ultimate Computer,” does Starfleet run the colossal risk of testing the experimental M-5 computer on the flagship of the fleet? Wouldn’t it be safer to test this gizmo on a scout ship? Or a garbage scow?
• During “The Naked Time,” Kirk notes in a log entry that “unknown to us, a totally new and unusual disease has been brought aboard.” If it’s unknown to him, how does Kirk report it?
• Similarly, in “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” Kirk recognizes the name of Lokai and Bele’s home planet Cheron, which he says resides in “an uncharted section of the galaxy.” If the sector is uncharted, how does Kirk know the planet exists? (Just as inexplicably, Spock is able to calculate the precise distance to the planet.)
• Spock’s mind meld with NOMAD in “The Changeling” should give away the secret that Kirk isn’t really the creator of the deranged space probe.
• Spock’s Vulcan logic fails him completely during the finale of “Whom Gods Destroy.” Faced with two Kirks—the real one and the shape-shifting Garth posing as the captain—Spock, who’s holding a phaser, stands by and lets the pair slug it out rather than follow the simplest course of action: stun both Kirks and use a mind meld to determine which is which. Or, even easier, try the familiar ploy of asking a question only the real Kirk could answer.
• When the transporter fails during “The Enemy Within,” why doesn’t Kirk simply send a shuttle to pick up Sulu and the other stranded crewmen? (The real-world answer is that production designer Jefferies had not yet built the shuttlecraft.)
Miscellaneous Mix-Ups
Some of the most amusing Star Trek gaffes defy classification. These include:
• During the koon-ut-kal-if-fee ritual from “Amok Time,” T’Pau (Celia Lovsky) declares that Spock is “deep in the plak tow, the blood fever.” Yet when director Joe Pevney cuts to a wide shot, Leonard Nimoy—unaware he was in frame—can be seen casually lounging against a wall, his hands clasped nonchalantly behind his back.
• In “Friday’s Child,” one of the warlike Capellans heaves a boomerang-like weapon at a tree. Although the weapon misses its target, the tree splits in half anyway.
• When NOMAD attacks the Enterprise at the beginning of “The Changeling,” the actors flail around the bridge set in the usual manner denoting turbulence. However, this time when Sulu and another officer grab hold of the helm, the console tips forward and almost topples over.
• During “Plato’s Stepchildren,” Kirk and Spock gain telekinetic superpowers. Yet they never use or even mention them again. Nor does Starfleet take advantage of the discovery that it can create godlike supermen through injections of “kironide.”
• During the finale of “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” Gary Mitchell uses his psychokinetic powers to create a grave for the (he thinks) soon-to-be-dead Captain Kirk. The grave comes complete with a tombstone—clearly marked James R. Kirk.
• At the conclusion of “Galileo Seven,” Kirk seems unaccountably relieved to hear that five survivors have been recovered from the missing shuttle. Why doesn’t he ask who the survivors are? For all he knows, the dead could include Spock and McCoy.