Shore Leave (Star Trek TOS - S1E16)

[Hailing Frequencies]

This week on Treks and Tangents, it’s "Shore Leave": the episode where the Enterprise goes on vacation, no one questions anything, and everyone has fun (eventually).

Between imaginary tigers, fairy-tale princesses, and everybody's favorite Fighting Irishmen, the crew learns that even R&R is hard work. 

Paradise has problems, and we absolutely have thoughts. Join us to see why Holodecks were invented!

[End Transmission]

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro/Turbolift Tease Recap
• 2:03 Initial Impressions
• 7:06 Treking Through the Episode
• 1:03:15 Final Thoughts
• 1:07:13 Tribble Tidbits
• 1:13:54 Episode Ranking
• 1:18:52 Turbolift Tease

Transcript

0:00

[Music] Haley, Freakancy is open and welcome aboard Tracks and Tandens. I'm your co-host Brian. And I'm your co-host Jackie. I'm your star trek movie who tracks off on Tandens. And I'm your star trek expert who is here to get the Tandens back on track. Each episode we watch and talk about a different star trek episode and this week we watched... Star Trek, the original series season one episode 15 shortly. Welcome back to another episode everyone thanks for joining us this week. Whoa, it was a good one. It was a good one but let's start it off with last week jumping back in time to Jackie's Turbo Liftes. 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. Computer, what did Jackie think this week's episode was going to be about? Jackie stated last week they are going to go to another planet or galaxy and they are going to have a break and enjoy some time with some of the cultural fun on that planet. So Jackie how did you think you did because I think we're going to have vastly different opinions on this? Well, on a very wide birth I did really well and I got it right on. A wide birth is a very generous way to describe being a vague guess and hedging your bets. Hey it was that one person's cultural idea. That's not how it happened but I think this was a soft pitch over the plate and I think you connected with it because I think we'd be more surprised if you didn't hit the ball on this one. So what did you think of this week's episode? I really liked it. I let's learn about the past and some weird fantasies but I'm really mad that Janice is no longer with us and we have this other human. Yoman borrow. She can go away. Yeah no more Janice ran until the motion picture comes out which we'll cover at some point I'm sure. Yeah. I can almost guarantee at some point we will. So yeah but this chick she does not do her job she's just flirting with the boss. The boss being Kirk the boss being Dr. McCoy. Yeah any man she's like hi. Well we have I'm a cute little boonette can you help me? We he really didn't like her did you? No I didn't think she we're in a princess dress. How do I look? Well okay so let's talk about the elephant in the room with this episode. We can like it as much as we do. I think it's a good episode. Yes it's enjoyable to watch. It's whimsical it's goofy. It's a different pace than other episodes we've watched. We get some more comedic elements to the plot. We get some laughs kind of like we did with the naked time with Sulu running around everyone getting drunk and acting crazy. Sulu did great in this one too. And we get some more comedic themes like we did in muds women where we get more laughs than we get drama or suspense. Naked ladies. Well they're not really naked. No you can't do that this is still 1966. We'll have feathers instead. Yes this isn't Star Trek after dark. Although that would be for a good side plot. We're copywriting that right now as a matter of fact for future use but back to my original point the elephant in the room. How many times did these hallucinations? Let's call them that. These fantasies manifest themselves and how many opportunities were there for the members of the enterprise to question what was going on and they blow right past questioning it. Like every time the only one asking a question is no one is just Spock at the very end Spock is the one who I think puts two and two together and recognizes everything that's going on. I think the show tries to portray that Kirk comes to the same conclusion in a similar time frame but boy I don't think that's the way it was. I think Spock really saved the day for everyone. Right I mean it's the only thing that Kirk did was why can't you answer my questions? Why won't you tell me and then his pretty blonde lady goes I'll be here when you need me. Yeah that's not an answer. Yeah but Spock on the other hand very much I think not only puts the pieces together he's the one who discovers the pieces. And he sees well yeah he sees the underlayer because supposedly this planet is beautiful it's earth like no humans no animals none just gorgeous earth like beauty and then they land and they're having so much fun and then danger and I have money and a bunny and the planet is entirely manufactured the planet is entirely artificial it's not even a real planet fun fact in the non-restored versions of the original version with the version we don't watch the planet itself is just a globe of earth and they had to reverse those scenes so that it kind of ran mirrored not reversed mirrored is a better way to describe it because it was so recognizably earth they didn't want it to be so they had to flip the negative so in the original version when you watch it the ship as it's orbiting the planet goes from right to left instead of left to right and the letters and numbers on the ship are backwards they fixed it of course later on with editing and the remastered versions but fun fact I mean the brains that worked on this show I mean they know of the one awards or got some recognition because I cannot even think of a weird alien person in the future and then they've already made 15 episodes is something weird happening yes the minds that made this show these very very horny minds have won awards for their work but I think that's a good intro to this random episode just random thoughts and with that why don't Jackie you walk us through the episode happily can I am else skip because it's whimsy please don't our microphones suck and would pick that up instantly okay so we are starting on the enterprise bridge and spark Kirk and then our new yeoman I didn't know her name yet so I just have her as yeoman yeah because Star Trek is terrible at introducing new characters to the audience this is partially due to the fact that the writers don't fully flesh out some of these minor background characters we'll get to that in a bit but also it seems like they have this thought of we introduce the character eventually so that's perfect but you are right in this intro the yeoman is the yeoman we learn later her name is her last name is borrows barrows weird b-a-r-r-o-w-s I think and even then I didn't know what it was until until I put this you know I watched with the cap close captioning and then finally they said her name I was like oh that's her name oh it's barrows like a wheelbarrow yeah barrows I'm just gonna say it with a stupid accent barrows but I picked it up for the same way I have the close captions on when I watch it as well and at some point before they said her name when she has dialogue the close captions used her name to point out who was speaking I mean like who's that right but anyway so I mean there's nothing like like against her she's lovely she's very beautiful we only have to put up with her for one episode you don't have to kiss her but that much okay cool well she is pretty in a like her hair so but so it's it's been three months we learn it's been three months they've been working really really hard and Kirk Kirk is waiting for a report from the landing party about this planet that they're gonna go on that's you know like earth but he's like oh my back hurts and yo man she like gets right in there and starts rubbing out that kink and Kirk's like oh thanks because Spock walks ahead to show that he's not rubbing out the kink and then Kirk's like oh okay I feel much better now thank you yeah definitely becomes very uncomfortable when he realizes he's getting a back massage from his subordinate personal assistant okay kudos Kirk HR sees you so he's a little embarrassed so he dismisses her and she says you know you should probably take a nap she says she she says you need more sleep she doesn't send them off for nap time so Kirk goes to his quarters and he asks your her to send the report to him once it comes a backup from the landing party and then meanwhile well that's happening on the enterprise soo lu and dr. mccoi are on the planet and they're like this is so beautiful no animals no humans no insects it's like earth so lovely and they've made sure that they're their instruments everything's peachy but they're just there to make it to make assurance in person and then sue asks if Kirk would approve a shore leave at this at this planet because i'm presuming that they are doing all these planet researchers to find the right one for the team it seems like that is their current mission is they're looking for a location for vacation they're too far out to return back to known space and go vacation at somewhere that they normally would so they're just looking for some kind of planet where they can spend some time got it yes because dr. mccoi is like well that's a good opinion of yours but we have 430 other people to discuss with but then mccoi makes a comment about how the planet reminds him of Alice in Wonderland and yes he would have to approve it Kirk and then next thing we know but dr. mccoi turns around and there is a giant white bunny in a vest and a jacket and he is looking at his clock going my paws oh my i'll be late an obvious reference to the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland yes and then right behind him guess what is a little girl saying how do you see in a white rabbit and yes follow right through the hedge there the hole right there he already made so that was odd but then he calls sulloo over to try to see if sulloo saw anything sulloo didn't because sulloo was taking samples of the plants and the flowers as part of the study and we get the opening credits and it seems like it was a longer i don't know at least for me it felt like a compared to some of the last two episodes we've seen this was a very long cold opening or long opening for the show it just kind of tried to cram a lot into it and it makes it very obvious like you said from the beginning this is going to be a different episode it it's going to be whimsical it's going to be a little goofy and a little funny the music that plays makes light of the situation even everyone's reaction seems to be more cartoonish throughout even just this brief scene before we go to the opening credits of mccoi and sulloo staring off into the hedge where the white rabbit and Alice ran off to i got gilligan's island vibe from the whole thing i was enjoying the bassoon and oboe playing it felt very much like less of a sci-fi show from this time period and more of a comedy show from this time period oh well i think also though they had to have both of these scenes before because we have essentially two shows going at once i mean you have spock in the enterprise and then you have what's happening on the planet true at least that's what i got from it so then we have our captains log and you can hear in the log that Kirk is very tired might he makes it super obvious yeah they purposely insert even just the moment when Kirk gets confused as to what day it is and he verbally utters um as he's trying to spit it out i liked it as a little homage or a little fine touch detail to the viewers to point out yeah Kirk's actually really tired it really drove home right because he does play off a lot i'm not no i'm fine i'm fine at least what i've seen in the past yeah so yes the captain's log he's like uh all of this but he does tell us that the planet is in the amacon delta region and it's very much how earth used to be at least from what they're a member so does that it's zoom that earth may have changed it's just a it's just to draw a point home that this is in the future and the earth that they come from is not the same earth that we are experiencing in 1966 okay there's a lot of history and what happens they don't dive into it too much this early into star trek but they're obviously at star trek so there's a rich history as to what happened fun fact this is being recorded in 2026 in the star trek timeline there was a whole eugenics war in the 90s world war three starts in 2026 so there's a lot that went on on earth before we get to star trek but we're we're not going to get into any of that that's a much deeper topic for a later time ex-hab no idea what you're talking about but now I know why we have airplanes in in this episode later on but and 15 years is also mentioned so it has been at least 15 years since they saw earth originally no it's been it's just a milestone it's been one week since you looked at it I was seeing it so I know I was just singing it in my head I let the demons I let the voices went on that one it's been I happen you it's been less than a year again it's it's been less than a year a year it has not been 15 years since the enterprise embarked on this mission again this is supposed to be a five year mission right the first season is year one so it has not been that long the reference to that you're thinking of a 15 years he mentions it to Ruth later on the planet it's been 15 years since Kirk has graduated or has been in the academy the Starfleet Academy on earth okay that makes sense which again puts them in the early to mid 30s okay I got it so we are still in his quarters and while he is in his quarters he is talking to yeoman and spock but you can hear in the background that there's announcements for those going to the planet you need to get get in mind it's gonna be alphabetical order get ready you know get packed up and ready to go but we're not going yet but get ready definitely again putting forth this idea that the ship is getting ready for a major excursion of crew members down to the planet for short leave kind of weird because they don't have the reports back if it's safe for not yet but I guess being prepared is a good thing fun fact the voice that's making all of the announcements is the same actor who gave the voice for the white rabbit down on the planet oh I love him already so well I guess he's Kirk has to talk to them now that they're in his office and and the yeoman I associate to call her now yeoman barrows wants to know when Kirk is going because he's not on the list anywhere and he says he doesn't plan on going because he doesn't need to he's just gonna hang out so she leaves but then spock comes in and again which section are you going to go and Kirk ask spock which section are you going to go in and I think it's funny spock's like you you go on a vacation and expend energy that you are low on to have fun but logically when we rest meaning me Vulcan me Vulcan you cars in when we rest we actually rest like we actually nap her or whatever they do to rest and recharge their batteries McCoy calls an inter-urface discipline conversation and asks again when is Kirk being mean down and he's explaining that the prior landing party who first checked the planet must have been mesmerized by the planet's beauty or something because something is not something's off or he's not fit for duty and they're like wait I'm sorry what because he's explaining that he just saw a giant white rabbit and Kirk stops him and makes it like a joke he's like and was it followed by a blonde little girl and Kirk is playing it off like a joke where McCoy think is actually serious like I mean our instruments right do we do do we just say this is pretty let's go I don't know what's happening well and Kirk dismisses McCoy and shares with spock that this is McCoy's way of trying to get Kirk down to the planet McCoy knows that Kirk doesn't want to go down simply for vacation so Kirk thinks McCoy is inventing some kind of mystery to investigate which Kirk will be too intrigued to ignore and will go down to the planet only to discover there's no real mystery but now the biggest hurdle is overcome Kirk's on the planet so now it's time to just relax exactly but then to push Kirk more Spock also brings up that Dr McCoy and his logs is concerned about one of the crew members and Kirk's like what's wrong with this member and he says that this this crew member is very fatigued he's irritable he's grumpy he's not reacting to important things fast enough and Kirk's like whoa that's unacceptable this guy has to go he always assumes it's a guy this guy has to go on leave and get a rest and you know come back better who then he goes who is this and Spock's like the straightest face ever James Kirk yeah it's a great little scene it shows a lot of the friendship and connection between Kirk and Spock it definitely fits the theme of the episode of being whimsy and goofy but it doesn't come across to me as cheesy it's very well inserted into the the dialogue of this scene well I think in general all three of them care about each other I mean Spock can say I have no human emotion whatsoever but like if he didn't care he wouldn't care you know right then we are popping back onto the planet and for no reason we don't know why but a rock opens like a treasure chest and it exposes a gun yeah and then we leave that scene and go to two other crew members who are in like these giant fern plants it's loose in it Rodriguez and who member Teller who I am sure it's actually Angela Martini but she's just you know change her name for the next episode so yeah we'll jump forward slightly because they're scanning and they're making their reports they're part they're not part of the shore leave party they're part of the first wave of investigators to make sure that the planet is suitable for shore leave and safe so they're scanning all these plants and Kirk and Yomin Barrows beam down and Kirk does refer to the female crew member as Teller that is a mistake that made it past the editors will get to it later so I'm right it is Angelina Martini it's the same actress so it's the same character I can't get in Martini now that's so excited but anyway sorry I got too excited Kirk tells Martini and Rodriguez is the male crew member's name to finish up your reports and then go start shore leave because Kirk's pretty much made the decision this is what's gonna happen at this point they are gonna do their shore leave on this planet so as Kirk and Yomin Barrows are walking around checking everything out Kirk they're specifically going to look for Sulu and McCoy to further investigate McCoy's reports of the bunny and the young girl thank you I just got sidetracked with the beauty you guys sidetracked with the fact that you correctly identified a crew member from last week's episode yes sorry I lost my place all right so they're commenting on Kirk and making comments and then the Yomin she's like trying to be 40 and then he like looks at her weird and she goes oh yeah affirmative it's like calm down girl just do your job right so finally they find McCoy and he is so proud of himself because he found rabbit tracks like proof that there is at least something that has rabbit feet yeah that this isn't just a hundred percent a hallucination something is a foot oh and of course that's a pun that's a rabbit foot pun that's a good joke Kirk asked well did Sulu you see the rabbit and then of course he can't say yes because Sulu was examining the flora and taking more specimens you know because Sulu does like plants like our plant that we met earlier and now she's not longer with us the pink one but I don't remember we want you with Gertrude I think you can do Gertrude yes all the way back to the Ardenus Fire Chapel oh no what it was a second episode it was Charlie X no no it was the man trap because the salt monster goes in that's from the man trap you're thinking of man beautiful plant that he harmed it's a good episode everyone should go back and watch it yeah so Kirk then decides he's just gonna call you hurrah up at then to price and to have the shore leave be put our hold like we need to investigate a little bit more and as he's talking to her there are gunshots does remember the gun so they all go running towards the sound of the gun Kirk are Yomin McCoy and Sulu has the biggest grin shooting this gun at a tree random trees and they're like what are you doing and he says well I found this gun and it's this beautiful police his street like apparently Sulu has a gun collection two hours of gun fetish and this is a piece that he does not have and he's in love with it and like you can see that he is so happy to just be pulled in and again I understand the importance of this scene it again ties into the fact and leads the viewers down the path of the crew members think of something and it suddenly becomes real but up until this point all they have is the hallucination of the white rabbit and the little girl they find some tracks they at least with those have some kind of sense of curiosity some sense of caution because Kirk cancels the shore leave until they can look into it a little bit further hey it doesn't make any sense that our sensors say there's no animals on the planet but here are tracks but by golly we find a gun that's that would have had to have been on this planet for hundreds of years because Sulu says they don't make them like that anymore right on a planet that has never been explored and in theory has never come in contact with humans but here we have an earth style gun from 200 years ago one no one questions it two Sulu just thinks let's just pick it up and start shooting things with it right and we never see anything about someone thinking about it good it like literally the rock is lifted up and there it is well and you have to you have to suspend a little bit of disbelief and have to assume that at some point Sulu's mind started to daydream ah true and he started thinking of his gun collection because he has a gun fetish and he imagined this one piece that wasn't in his collection that he desired to have as part of his collection and it just all happens off camera it is very random much like most of their thoughts and desires that become real don't really make sense or don't fit a narrative why would anyone compare that particular setting to Alice in Wonderland amongst all the other references they could have chosen they come up with these fantasies the writers specifically Roddenberry because he's rewriting this episode as it's being filmed spoiler this took forever to film it ran over it ran late in filming because Roddenberry is writing the script literally they're shooting a scene over here and Roddenberry is sitting under a tree over there writing the next scene and they're just coming up with the most crazy things they can come up with but also the things that are available in on hand that's insane so makes no sense Kirk actually takes the gun away from Sulu he says thank you i'll keep this for now and then Yohman Barrow's is like whoa there's more tracks here more bunny tracks Yohman Barrow's and Sulu follow the rabbit tracks and Kirk and McCoy go back to the grassy area at the beginning to see who else is there as they leave we see and antenna might think those crazy antennae you put in your house in the country or all the birds sit on it just like pops up and watches them and then next scene yes specifically it's a point of view where we is the the cameras behind the antenna as it's watching it it gives this force perspective that it gives us the force perspective like we the audience is the antenna again something a little bit new i don't i don't think we've seen that in Star Trek to this point so no i think it was a really great addition again i think it really fits the theme or the the mood of the episode so as they're walking back um McCoy is kind of filling down he feels picked on because like about seeing this rabbit and the whole owl's the wonderlamp thing and he's like you know my feelings are hurt and i'm like i understand how you feel friend and Kirk opens up himself saying that he is no stranger to being picked on he was super strict on himself in the academy so that he could be a good captain and be a good leader in general and this one kid finnegane always picked on him he never knew when he would be attacked bowls of water on doors super in bed like uh he like he gave ideas for me to try on you bran yeah that's not gonna happen but like they kind of like bonded and then all of a sudden we see more rabbit tracks and again the young girl tracks like they popped up again and the two McCoy and Kirk split up again so we just keep splitting everybody up and as Kirk is following the rabbit tracks finnegane is manifested as if it was 15 years ago in academy he's wearing this like silver outfit yeah i like an academy outfit but important to point out and as mentioned finnegane appears as he did 15 years ago not as someone who is finnegane who is aged 15 years to be the same age as Kirk it is literally supposed to be finnegane as a 20 year old it did take me while to figure that out but the actor who plays him is in his early 30s that's probably why yeah but he did a great job like he was rude he was obnoxious he yes he from phenomenal and then of course the music they had for him you know chef's kiss we'll talk about the music in the triple tidbits at the end of the episode so and he just kept like antagonizing Kirk and then when he finally walks up to him you know my bro he just punches him in the face and Kirk's like uh well that's not nice and he's being more and more antagonized and he's like well i'm gonna do what i didn't do before and punch you out yeah again pointing out that we have another manifestation of something of incredible disbelief someone from Kirk's past from 15 years ago who appears not to have aged one bit and Kirk doesn't question it in the moment he very much is just like oh hey finnegane what are you doing here and again part of my part of my few hangups with this episode is the fact that no one just has those lot leaps of logic and no one in any point really questions some of this as much as they should i agree with that maybe that's the mystical part of the planet yes maybe that is maybe it is maybe the planet has some hypnotic effect as well as oh i'm getting there yeah we'll get there for sure so but while they're tussling now they're screaming so they're interrupted and Kirk is running towards the screams which is young and baro and finnegane is just you know jumping around like a leprechaun going okay why why the image of a leprechaun Jackie well because he was doing like the little arm bend in the skippy legs like when i saw him i imagined one of those little leprechauns on the cereal boxed okay well we'll move past that uh uh uh so yohman was screaming and clinging to a tree with her uniform all ripped up when both Kirk and dr. mccoe arrived this was the scene as their as Kirk is running to investigate the screams and mccoe comes running out of the bushes to the side to join Kirk to run to the screams to investigate this was the moment that i got her name oh yeah i think this is the moment that i really figured out that yohman has a name because it says screams baros yes and i think also Kirk asks or mccoe asks Kirk what's wrong and Kirk responds with its baros and so i i think this is the moment that the episode gives her the name it just sucks as a part of like this dramatic part and you're trying to listen to what they're saying and then they bring up something silly that we could learn to meant to go yep again start trek not doing a good job introducing new characters at this point so she's like i was enjoying my walk and something just came and attacked me and then Kirk had the nerve to ask her are you sure it was a man in a cloak and like a jewel dagger because she said jewel dagger and she's like no i rubbed my own uniform like i was like girl power but still this is the wrong this is the wrong moment to be questioning other people's hallucinations when like she's beat up yeah we we've got all these other examples the white rabbit and he's like and maybe it happened maybe it didn't we've got the gun the biggest moment up to this point where it's like really no one wants to question the legitimacy or the reasoning behind this gun being here you have Kirk seen his bully from the academy from 15 years ago suddenly show up out of nowhere but yeah let's question the legitimacy of the woman female assistant yeoman with a ripped up uniform yeah and she's like so but i mean they're pretty you know not modest to begin with but like she's like trying to keep the top part up as much as you can and there's still question like it's just uh it that made me mad and but mccoy put it together because she was like they jameen about how romantic and everything could be well done one would be a great story because of living a story book world yep on this planet another story reference so okay that's cool basically is how i felt after they left and suly was like all right i'll go run after dawn one and get him but Kirk's like no no no come back and then we have another amp antenna i think it just pop up so Kirk has left the grassy area we don't know where suly went but he's like now like a desert dirt area but he comes also upon this beautiful flower bush and he picks a flower and then as he does that this woman blonde beautiful you know you get the picture walks up to him and he's like oh roof and he's like hypnotized yep and we get another commercial break important to point out i think the purpose of the the flower that he picks and sniffs is it's a question of did he him was he thinking of roof in that moment and the flower generated and was part of the planet manifesting roof or did the flower happen to exist there naturally the flower just happened to trigger the memory of roof and then we have roof oh chicken of a there you go the flower or the chick so he come back from the commercial break and he has another captain's log and he's basically just says we're still investigating the planet we're seeing things that we sonnet but it like it's actually there so why that's basically the the entry back to Kirk being with this woman named Ruth and we learn also she hasn't aged she's been 15 years she's so gorgeous and Kirk is trying to answer all these phone calls that keep coming in it's like everybody decided to call it once and he is so glued to roof he's just like sure do whatever you want oh you found this or he's just no he's not being a leader at this time he's just trying to get off the phone yeah he definitely is dismissive these quote unquote phone calls well a little communicator communicator things yeah messages we'll call him okay uh McCoy calls Kirk and is trying to check in with Kirk don't get a lot of plot development there Rodriguez calls and says he saw a flock of birds and again this is important because there's not supposed to be any animals on the planet Kirk dismisses it is don't you like birds don't you like birds your the equipment must be malfunctioning Rodriguez leave me alone I got to talk to Ruth I don't know why Kirk has that accent but yeah he's super dismissive but he does eventually seem to snap out of it for a moment he tells Rodriguez to pass the word on to everyone else that they all should meet back at the glade where they first beam down and met for better reference it's where McCoy first saw the white rabbit and then we don't get Ruth anymore they kind of have a tender moment she does tell him though hey go attend to what you need to I'll be waiting for you I don't know why Ruth has that voice either but I think Kirk can I popped out because he kept asking her questions and she never answered them right and so he was like why am I even here when I have a job to do right and we don't ever really find out who Ruth is in the episode which is stupid I think you are supposed to infer just like Finnegan was a prominent person during Kirk's Academy years Ruth was a love interest of Kirk while he was at the Academy and they also got a lady that's not looking too young yeah so let's I wasn't gonna mention that but since you brought it up the same observation she is also an actress who is in her early 30s I mean she's beautiful I don't get me wrong she's thirsty she's gorgeous but she does not look like she is in high school right so even her outfit so she hasn't aged a day in 15 years that means that when Kirk was in the Academy he was dating his teacher that's kind of the insinuation that I got from the episode but again that's all can that's all our hypothesis that is all us projecting fan theories into the show not sure Kirk doesn't really establish his age at this point so and there's lots of little inconsistencies with the age and again they're just trying to fill roles with actors and actresses but it's Star Trek so we're gonna read into it more and as we say goodbye to Ruth we start going to the glade now we hear from Spock who has contacted Kirk through our message communicator com thing he tells Kirk that he found a weird he even used a weird power field and it's affecting the communication between all of the between the ship and on the planet and it's draining the energy from the ship from the enterprise yes and but he can only presume that it's under the surface and that it may be dangerous so like be cautious we cut to McCoy and you know I'm embarrassed walking along a path and she's just going on and on and on about being a princess and having people fight over her and wearing a tall hat and a veil like like a little girl she's like oh she's inspired by the plants and the scenery around her yes and then what do you know she walks by and there is everything she's been talking about just hanging out on the trees like make it in a frayed banks right right before she sees the dress though there's that flirtatious moment between her and McCoy where Yoman makes the comment that she wants to be dressed up as a princess McCoy makes the comment that she'd have to fight off a whole army of dawn ones including him including him she looks at him and says is that a promise they have this little tender moment and then yes she sees the dress and but she goes and she's super infatuated with it McCoy encourages her to put it on she has half a moment of being hesitant to put it on again we have characters that are not questioning the bullshit reality that the planet is putting forth for them but McCoy encourages her as he'd like to see her wearing it she should wear it and she just gets gets over her fear or caution and she starts to change into the dress behind the plant teasing McCoy not to peak while she does he only peaks in the line of duty though that's right because he's a doctor so she is changing and while she's changing Rod Riegas gives a call to McCoy and is really in a message that they need to be going to the glade to all meet up right on Kirk's orders and it's a again a fun flirtatious scene where McCoy is only half listening to the call he's peeking over his shoulder we're getting shots of off camera Yoman borrows draping various articles of clothing over the plant as she's changing into the princess uniform I mean she doesn't have much to wear already but she put a lot of clothes on the tree she sure did so while that's not but now we are popped over to Rod Riegas could to see what he's doing along with our girl Angela Martini and they are being attacked by a tiger I don't know though why they got attacked by a tiger they're not really being attacked by a tiger there's a tiger that's climbing out of a tree that's very close to them and they're kind of huddling and half hiding and half hoping it goes away I don't know why either I'll give criticism the guy has a phaser strap to his belt and we have not yet learned that the phaser doesn't work right this would have been a good opportunity to introduce that concept to the viewers maybe he tried using the phaser off camera and it didn't work and that's why he's not using it now I don't know there's also a whole controversy we won't get into about people criticizing Martini by saying that her fiance died in last week's episode and she now is seemingly attracted to Rod Riegas and not giving enough time to mourn he's saving her life it's a fearful situation there was a little flirting going on before when they were collecting plants irregardless there's also no way to really determine what order chronologically these episodes are taking place in so for all we know it's been months or they're actually really good friends or they're just really good friends or this all takes place technically before she gets engaged to her fiance so no way to know so we're not gonna we're not gonna try to break it down perhaps also they have Rod Riegas focus on the animals because he is the one that brought up the birds he's the one that brought up the plains that could be seen as mean and angry or that he just has a fascination with early earth history yeah so you know like he showing you so different true and he's the only one that actually wanted to finish his report before he could have done true a goody too shoo I like him we do a quick cut from martin and rodriegas and the tiger back to yomin and mccoi she's changed into the dress she comes out from behind the bushes mccoi smiles with approval we do a hard cut to Kirk he's talking to Spock on the communicator looking for answers Spock says he'll be down with some armed crew members Kirk says no we do a super hard awkward cut because I originally thought we were watching Kirk in the scene but it's not it's sulu sulu gets attacked by a samurai warrior out of nowhere he has come out of the ground this is the first moment that we see that the phaser doesn't work but again it's awkwardly introduced is it not working is sulu fumbling with it does he not have enough time to fire off a shot who knows all of that to say we finally catch up to something that's a little more normal sulu comes running in from off screen to catch up with Kirk saying he's being chased the warrior has disappeared shares with Kirk finally in some clean fashion that the phasers don't work but we see Spock being down at this point and Spock shares that the communications are now completely being blocked by this mysterious energy field the ship is still losing power it's being drained by the energy field they had just enough power to do one more transport so they sent Spock down now they're stranded on the planet unless they figure something out you know minimcoi are first to the glee they hear a rustling in the foliage and then in walks of night in shining armor on his horse remember she's still in her princess outfit specifically it's important to point out they hear the rustling they get a little scared yes mccoi makes the line princesses shouldn't be afraid when they have a night in shining armor to protect them then the night appears the question becomes the night wouldn't have been manufactured until mccoi thought about it so who is wrestling or mccoi already has a fantasy in his brain that he is the night in shining armor that is there to protect the princess oh and is that mccoi or is that the planet influencing how he thinks don't know it's muddled and confused i didn't even think about that so our night in shining armor actually decides to fight mccoi with his josteen stick and it's called the lance hello that's a call back to a night's tale thank you we'll be here all week tip your waitresses they also jost so i'm sorry you're right josteen is what you do with the lance yes the art versus the item but the night quote quote kills mccoi he runs him through mccoi stands his ground for the night's charge on horseback because the hallucination because he's convinced that it's not real despite the fact for everything else they've seen to the contrary the gun was real it fired real bullets dawn one was really toward the uniform of yeoman the dress is certainly real but now it's a hallucination it's not gonna hurt him it in fact kills him and we get another fun commercial break we come back from commercial break and of course yeoman is hysterical over mccoi's dead body curk has to calm her down and remind her that this isn't a fantasy she's a starfleet officer she needs to act as such everyone has to pull it together curk sugo and spark also go to the night to i mean he's laying on this back he may be harmed right because we didn't mention before the commercial break after he runs mccoi through with his lance spark and curk tried to shoot him with the phaser the phaser still doesn't work curk pulls out the gun that he confiscated from suilu earlier and shoots the night dead skipped over that part back to where we were examining the dead night and they are so confused because he is not a human like they're poking his face and they learn he's basically a plant like a literal plant i'll clarify he has the appearance of a mannequin and as they scan the molecular structure of his body they're able to determine that basically he's made out of the same material all of the plants and flowers and everything around them are made out of it's to point out that he's not real he's not a real person he's something that's been manufactured using the same things that have created all the plants around them it's to point out that this is all fake so we do a hard cut to Rodriguez and martin at this point because they have not made it back to the glade they're still making their way back there we guess they see an airplane in the sky this is a manifestation of Rodriguez because Rodriguez recognizes it again maybe he's an old earth history buff but he butters the words were of course safe as long as it doesn't start making a strafing run to attack us and it instantly starts making a strafing run to attack them they run away from it we get a comical moment where they run into a little patch of overgrowth of plants and trees you can't tell if martin was shot or if he just ran her into a tree because she falls down well not looking both the night and the koi's bodies have disappeared right under everyone's noses as they're trying to figure out what happened with that vinegar shows back up spark drills Kirk or questions Kirk a little bit to try to discover the puzzle pieces put two and two together and ask Kirk what he was thinking about before when he started seeing these hallucinations Kirk draws the parallel that he was thinking of the academy and yes Finnegan shows up again and again Kirk does not react to him as if he's a hallucination Kirk buys into the hallucination wholeheartedly and tells spark you stay here and look for mckoi's body i'm going to go deal with Finnegan he's mine and he chases after he chases after Finnegan we get this extremely drawn out this is going to be pretty much a huge conclusion to act three going into act four where Kirk is trying to chase Finnegan we have the music Finnegan keeps popping up impossibly in random places as Kirk is chasing him they get into a huge fight like UFC eight yes you cannot do it justice definitely should watch it but the fight takes a pause when Finnegan knocks out Kirk basically taunting him we go to commercial break Kirk wakes back up you don't know how much time has passed none at all because Finnegan is still right there we get another huge long drawn out fight scene between Kirk and Finnegan Kirk the whole time is just trying to ask i don't necessarily think wholeheartedly but he does occasionally ask Finnegan what's going on who are you what are you doing where did you come from and eventually Kirk wins the fight spark finds them did you enjoy what you did i mean thoughts are being read and fears and wants to being manufactured immediately somehow because Kirk recognizes that yeah this whole time i've always dreamed of getting the upper hand on Finnegan and beating him up and knocking the tar out of him so in a way i think that was the only reason Kirk was able to defeat Finnegan in the fight is because Kirk manifested that victory in his brain the planet picked up on that desire and made it happen i mean spark even accidentally mentions the planes and Rodriguez and then we see the planes in the in the sky and the tiger exactly but i think in my head canon spark is immune to the planet and or at least has control over his thoughts so that he doesn't have these off manifestations because at no point in my mind that happens to spark even though sparks the one who mentions the tiger in the airplanes in my mind when he does that Kirk thinks of the tiger and the airplanes and that's why they manifest themselves is because Kirk is manifesting it that's how it works in my brain all i told you i agree with you because i mean he even says it openly and they're like no no don't don't say that so Kirk and Spock are running back to the glade they've seen the tiger they've outmaneuvered the strafing airplanes they duck past the samurai warrior from earlier the guy had to get his day rate pay so they had to use them in two scenes they get back to the glade there's this awkward moment where Don Juan is holding Yomin Barrow's hostage they're keeping him at bay sulloo macoi not macoi macoi's dead sulloo sulloo and Rodriguez are keeping him at bay Kirk and Spock show up Don Juan is frightened off again i think someone is manifesting we need to get Yomin away from this mysterious person that triggers the guy to run away we get to the ending where the caretaker arrives and he happily arrives after Kirk has made sure that everyone is standing at attention and to not think of anything but staying in attention and what their jobs are the caretaker comes in as full of smiles and happiness and i hope you're having a great time and Kirk's like what is this and he explains is it it's for amusement and Spock those you mean like an amusement park? yes yeah the caretaker explains that the planet was manufactured for his people to have a vacation spot and apologizes for any of the negative experiences that they had because he didn't realize when they arrived they didn't understand the purpose of the planet so i guess that's an explanation as to why he didn't intervene sooner he just assumed that the crew of the enterprise had full knowledge of the fact that this planet would manifest their thoughts and they would be more disciplined in their interactions with this power perhaps that's why he just followed them around with antenna to make sure nobody needed help yeah let's pretend it was him i don't know if it was him or if those are automatic sensor reading places oh my should a photo photo is for you on the on the right sure and then Kirk is angry he's like this wasn't fun you killed one of my people and he's like no one died and in comes dr. mccoi with two pretty ladies on his arm in burlask outfits and he's like hi guys yes space playboy bunnies feathers galore and like he's like i'm healthy he says he's healthy he had been taken below the planet that underneath the planet it's just an entire factory where they can manifest or create anything it's a very vague explanation that doesn't actually explain anything probably for the better of all who have to go down there yeah and he only explains burlask outfits because he was thinking of raijl three two oh but that's who it was two well he was just thinking about that is like why not yeah raijl three has the male space playboy bunnies oh he he don't need that now he went to two no so Kirk ends the conversation and dialogue with the caretaker by trying to find out what alien species they are where they're from the caretaker deflects the questions by saying you guys aren't ready to know us you guys aren't ready to have that information but you're more than welcome to use our planet this amusement park to have your shore leave spock declines the offer he says i'll go back up to the ship i'll help run the ship you guys can stay down here Kirk starts to object but then off from the side starts to walk Ruth and Kirk very much changes his mind quickly and says no never mind i'll stay here for a couple days so they do get there i don't doesn't say how long at least a couple days of shore leave on the planet it has to be a couple days the enterprise can't be run by spock himself so they have to do their shore leave in shifts right i just i just want to know what they talked about though don't know does it change anything that's Kirk knows that Ruth is a manifestation and not the real person oh good question yeah i mean because he's lived 15 more years and she's not real yeah or they just enjoyed their time you know being a lady in a man yeah translation they had sex to after a few days everybody has to go back to work so back to the enterprise they go the spock asks did you all have fun they said they did spock replies that is most illogical then they all laugh and Kirk says warp back to one mr. Sulu and roll credits so Jackie what are your final thoughts about season one episode 15 shore leave i really really liked it i i watched it i always watch them multiple times and i would really watch this one more times just to watch it yeah it's a good as i said in the beginning it's a good episode it's a change of pace which is nice it definitely i think effectively changes the pace of the season again it has more of a comedy goofy feeling like television shows of that time era instead of dramatic sci-fi again it screams Gilligan's island to me it screams Adam's family to me that goofiness of television shows from that time period so i liked it definitely some plot whole problems definitely leaves some things open and questioning why no one was wondering what was happening as obvious things like the gun showed up also never mentioned Sulu McCoy Rodriguez and Martín were not the only away team members down on the planet scouting things out there were other scout parties that are mentioned did they experience any hallucinations are they calling up to the enterprise describing things that they're experiencing and manifesting it's not mentioned i have the same question because i mean they had to have multiple reports yeah and only one came back i would assume at least they had multiple parties because they had to find a suitable location because there's a lot of people going down to the planet but there's only 430 according to McCoy right people on the ship they have to leave some people on the shift they have to go down and waves to do their shore leave so if they're sending down waves of people even if they sent half that's 200 people they have to find a place that's suitable for everyone and so i imagine that they've got multiple people out they're looking for multiple sites but we never hear about them we never hear any of it also what is the whole subplot of the energy field from the planet draining the enterprises energy and power right it's never mentioned it acts as a plot point to somewhat disrupt communications i guess it acts as a plot point to force spock down onto the planet because again if he didn't beam down in that moment he wouldn't be able to go down shuttlecraft or not a thing yet but there's no explanation there's no wrap up to it the caretaker doesn't explain why they were drawing energy from the ship there's no explanation how about the fact that it takes energy for the planet to manifest all of these things for them to interact with and play with and the planet just expects the ship that arrives to supply that power is sort of payment for the services that would make sense in my brain but they never touch it it i think it's a wasted opportunity well you're totally right because then the ship is empty of juice and then how are they going to get it home yeah so part two part two there's no part two to this so that's sad yep it's a plot point that's left on the cutting room floor there was some ideas of returning to the short leave planet as it is affectionately called there were ideas for a sequel episode i won't spoil it it shows up later in another series but it's not gonna be something that we really revisit in any significant way but again final impression i really enjoyed the episode i really really enjoyed that episode i would watch it again so we have a few triple tidbits or fun facts about the episode again it's called triple tidbits why Jackie because they're the best this Jackie likes tribbles even though she doesn't know what they are first airing December 29th 1966 okay yeah it's an episode that would have aired during the holiday seasons so it makes sense to have something a little more lighthearted yeah lovey devi also they weren't fully in control of what they were going to air in what order production post production filming all determined what order things came in the tiger that we see on scene never directly interacts with the crew and the actors every time you see the tiger on screen it is more of a b-roll shot that they edit in so the tiger and the actors are not on the set at the same time except one instance the last appearance of the tiger when Kirk and Spock think of it you do see the tiger in the background behind them and that is the only time that you can clearly see that the tiger is wearing a chain around its neck a leash to chain it into place for crew safety so that it doesn't go attack them otherwise all the other b-roll footage everything else was filmed without the crew in its immediate facility for their safety it's reported that William Shatner wanted to insert a scene into the episode where he wrestles the tiger no and he was not allowed to for his own safety good and for yeah we don't need to be wrestling we mentioned the fact that Kirk called crewman martine as teller and it slipped by the editors the reason why Kirk does that is because the original script had that character named teller it was changed at the last minute to martine and in post-production and in Star Trek canon because the exact reason the actress who plays that character had already played martine in last week's episode the balance of terror and so they recognized well we can't have the same actress play two separate characters so they just made it be the same character so she was supposed to be teller originally like once you got married no oh okay the script was written with a character named teller oh then this actress was cast to play that character then they realized it's a bad idea to have an actress play two separate characters because they look exactly alike and it'll be confusing so then they just retconned it to be that she is martine but again the script called for a character named teller well she's not wearing her feather crown in this episode yeah it's an example of I mentioned earlier this was an episode that was constantly being rewritten it was it was written in such a way and then Roddenberry didn't like it he thought it was too wild too crazy too fantastic but the timing of having to film it and edit it and get it on screen he didn't there wasn't enough time for Roddenberry to really sit down and do rewrite so he's rewriting it as things are happening it was a very it was a very chaotic production to begin with this episode in particular he's literally rewriting scenes hours before they're shot so wow that's intense for everybody yeah so intense that an elephant was rented to be used in the episode what because they're literally just throwing out any idea because this is a this is a script and a story where anything can happen so someone was like let's get an elephant so they rent an elephant and it's not even shot the scenes weren't even shot with the elephant they literally it's not that it was cut out of the episode they ran out of time which ticked off the producers because of all the money that was wasted to rent this elephant yeah it's not cheap Jackie mentioned how much she dislikes yeoman barrows because she's prejudice for yeoman rand go yeoman ran she was originally going to be in the episode the script was written for the yeoman to accompany Kirk to be yeoman rand but because of all the because of the fact that the actress who played yeoman rand had only been hired for eight episodes and she was like she had filmed and appeared in her eight episodes she wasn't brought back for more so they rewrote the script to include yeoman barrows they then had to create a love interest for Kirk so they added Ruth another reason why I think Ruth's character is not very well fleshed out in the episode she was a last minute or lead addition to the script so were they going to make yeoman rand be all flirty and girly like that the original purpose of yeoman rand's character in the very beginning when start trick for started to film was yeoman rand was going to be the love interest for Kirk and then things changed oh I mean I'm all for it but I just didn't want her to be like yeoman barrows no and in fact yeoman barrows we don't see again so oh I'm happy I'm silently clapping so we're gonna start seeing a carousel or a parade of different yeomans come through so we can have like a wheel of fortune yeah that might be fun and our last triple tidbit I mentioned we'll talk about the music briefly Gerald freed was the composer for the episode he wrote all of the new music because there was a lot of fantastic there's a lot of music that was needed for the episode and specifically Finnegan's theme the theme that played when Finnegan was on screen and then expanded during the fight scene was all inspired by the music from the fight scene from the 1952 movie The Quiet Man and specifically the music that played during the fight between Victor McLean and John Wayne yeah so those say told you John Wayne has little sprinkles in there yep and so those are your triple tidbits so this is where we share our episode ranking where we pretend the episode is a member of our fictitious starship crew each season we have a new starship and we assign a starfleet rank to the episode a higher rank not only means we were more entertained by the episode this week when we watched it but we find it to be a more important crew member to the season a more important episode to the starship and a lower rank means the exact opposite we didn't find it very entertaining it's not an important episode for the season it's not an important member of our crew our ranking starts at the bottom with Ensign goes up to Lieutenant Junior Grade Lieutenant Lieutenant Commander Commander Captain and Admiral a perfect 10 plus out of 10 for the season for a full graphical representation be sure to check out our patreon at patreon.com/treksintangents where anyone can view our rankings published the day after the episode heirs every Wednesday will publish an updated graph for those following along for the season I've made one change to the ranking structure the lieutenant commander ranks because we limit some of the higher rank slots to be limited yes hard to so lieutenant commanders right in the middle of the road it's the first limited slot it used to be able to accommodate 10 episodes in that slot I reduced it down to seven I want it to be more of an important rank so as a middle of the road I think it'll better define what is going to be slightly above the middle of the road versus the lieutenant rank which is just below the middle of the road which is an unlimited number of episodes can fit in that slot for reference last week's episode the balance of terror jackie gave that a ranking of commander or an eight or nine out of ten which would be the last commander slot so she wants to put this in that ranking she's gonna have to demote someone jackie for your starship the USS Galactic Glitterby what do you give this episode a rank long need to put them in a commander spot so I sadly have to demote someone and I will be demoting part two of the menagerie so first what are you going to demote the menagerie part two down to I will move it to lieutenant commander so down one rank yes and that way I can pop this one today's episode in that spot okay why do you want to give this episode short leave the rank of commander and why is it a higher rank now than the menagerie part two because I loved it I mean I would probably would not watch the menagerie one and two again and again and again but I would watch this episode alongside my favorite movie kind of all right and for my starship the USS cosmic shark I'm going to give this a solid ranking of commander that's going to be one rank below the captain rank where I gave last week's episode balance of terror this will fill my last commander slot for the moment just like jackie I think this is a unique episode and worthy of a higher rank it is entertaining to watch it is definitely something that pulls you in and if anything else you got to wonder what are they trying to do with this episode wanting to see what happens next wanting to see what crazy thing is manifested for them to interact with I don't think this is something that is going to be effective time and time again if it comes up in future episodes it does fun fact the planet is just going to turn into holodex in later star trek series so we're going to get some weird holodex episodes some are effective some are not but for the first time this being introduced in star trek to a star trek viewing audience pretty entertaining not worthy of a 10 out of 10 or a 10 plus out of 10 but certainly an eight or nine out of 10 for sake of reference IMDB at the time of this recording gives a ranking of 7.3 out of 10 for shore leave so right on the money I think with our ratings again as a reminder we'll post updated graphics to where our ranking stand over at our patreon on Wednesday the day after this episode airs everyone can view at patreon.com/treksintangents we'll be back next week to trek through another episode but before we go this is where we give our turbo lift tease or elevator pitch to next week's episode I will give Jackie the title of next week's episode and Jackie with no other context or knowledge we'll try to guess the plot of next week's episode Jackie next week's episode is entitled the Galileo 7 all right so I'm thinking that we are going to learn about 7 individual moons or planets that Galileo said were special all right tune in next week to see if Jackie's turbo lift tease is accurate if you want more show information you can find and directly support our podcast on patreon patreon.com/treksintangents we post for everyone our episode rankings every Wednesday we also have available for our crew members our animated detour series where on the fourth Friday of the month we post a new episode where we dive into the animated series for star trek it's very similar to our regular podcast episode structure but a little more random a lot more tangents a lot less trek it's super cute we also have posted currently all of the test episodes that we recorded to lead up to our final episode structure we watch some episodes of fringe we watch some episodes of stargate SG1 those can be entertaining to listen to if you want to kind of follow along and see how the show came together you can also follow us on x.com at treks_ tangents we're also on instagram and blue sky at treks and tangents Jackie working people find you and what are you up to? I am busy busy busy you can find me on instagram as jibum i share a whole lot of music dog training fashion for those that are on with last journey or made size girlies and then i also have a wet-nott shop called glitter bobe boutique where you can find treasures that i used to love and can no longer use but you can so i'll see you over there and you can watch me stream a variety of video games over at twitch.tv/piratepoundtown on youtube i post video games and other random content on my main channel pirate poundtown and my often neglected second channel coin collecting and other hobby content over at pirate treasure hunting i post socially on blue sky at pirate poundtown and i can also be found on instagram under pineapple cannibal because let's face it that's just more entertaining than a pirate links to all social media mention can be found in the episode description thank you everyone for tuning into this episode we hope you had fun like we did and we will see you all next week and be sure to watch out for any hallucinations and transmission