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| Genies and Ladlemen, presenting the Kevin Thomas Riley Revue... |
This episode was also Bob Justman's choice for the premier on the grounds that the reduced inhibitions brought upon by the disease would be a good introduction to the characters and their personalities. Justman has a point and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the thinking that went into making an unapologetic remake of “The Naked Time” the very first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation twenty years later. There are issues with Justman's argument here I'll look at a little later, but I do agree with him in the broader sense that the strength of “The Naked Time” is in the fact it's an Actor Showcase Episode, which is a good thing to put near the beginning of a TV series. Before I get into that though, I want to square the plot away because, well, it has all the same problems every other Roddenberry-produced Star Trek episode does. It's not as bad in this regard as something like “The Corbomite Maneuver”, “Charlie X” or “The Enemy Within” so I don't need to go into the same level of detail as I did with those episodes, but it is worth mentioning if for no other reason then to point out how systemic a problem this has become for the show.
The PSI 2000 virus works by producing an effect similar to serious intoxication and strips the victim of all inhibitions. “The Naked Time” thinks this is absolutely disastrous. The Enterprise quite literally spirals out of control because the bridge crew can't keep their heads about them (a plot point telegraphed in the bluntest, most obvious manner known to mankind by Scott in the briefing room in the first act). It's clear the episode is treating this as another reiteration of the logic vs. emotions conflict, and given how upfront it's being about its symbolism we should take this as the definitive statement of Star Trek's position on the matter, or at least that of Star Trek under Gene Roddenberry. While there was some room for debate when Spock touts the superiority of logic in something like “Where No Man Has Gone Before” or “The Corbomite Maneuver” because it's Spock and we're always meant to be at least a little suspicious of him, there's really no other way to read the Enterprise screaming towards a fiery death because the crew can't control their emotional desires. Also, just for fun, count the number of times the word “irrational” is used in this episode, and keep in mind that there is a very strong Western patriarchal tradition of associating rationality and logic with men and irrationality and emotion with women and see where that leaves you.
In the “Mudd's Women” post I looked at the notion of sexuality as taboo and the subsequent fetishization of it in Western culture. “The Naked Time” has this in droves as well, most clearly observable in its really strange conception of romantic love. Kirk's attraction to Janice Rand, already broken beyond repair thanks to the appalling rape culture mess of “The Enemy Within”, is once again framed in terms of a forbidden fruit because of his responsibilities to the Enterprise (which, taken on its own, is of course only problematic if you're thinking purely in military terms) and now we have the added metaphor of Spock's inner turmoil over his human desire to express his emotions conflicting with his Vulcan desire to repress them. Now it seems we have Star Trek equating romantic love with blunt sexual drive, which is not only laughably puritanical but also really confusing: If the show is trying to make a point other than that we need to suppress each and every one of our emotions and strive to be unfeeling automaton taskmasters I can't find it.
But the plot and ethics of “The Naked Time”, eyeroll-inducing as they may be, are par for the course at this point. This episode also adds the troubling wrinkle of Joe Tormolen, whose “irrational” thoughts seem to be concern that humanity's unchecked expansion into space will damage or pollute it, which is a self-evidently valid and laudable thing to be worried about that the episode once again completely glosses over and disregards, but even that is still run of the mill Roddenberry Ethics. That said, this also ties into the other big thing to note about “The Naked Time”, which is that it's an Actor Showcase, and it's a good one to boot. It's easy to see how this could become an instant fan favourite: It's an absolute riot watching the actors freed from any kind of constraints just allowed to completely run wild with their characters in ways they'd never typically be allowed to.
As much fun as it is seeing George Takei run around the hallways shirtless brandishing a rapier, the immediate standout has got to be Bruce Hyde as Kevin Thomas Riley. Hyde's performance is completely at odds with something that's supposed to reduce inhibitions: Far from “giving in to baser instincts” as the script tells us the PSI 2000 virus makes people do, Hyde has Riley put on a one man musical comedy act, hijacking the Enterprise through engineering, declaring himself captain, belting out “I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” throughout the entirety of the last two acts over the loudspeaker and giving everyone ice cream. It is absolutely glorious. Spock gets some tossed-off line how Riley's actions are the result of his “longstanding belief” that he's “descended from Irish kings”, but this of course does not take at all: Riley's role in the story is to do nothing more or less than singlehandedly turn Star Trek, for a few beautiful, fleeting moments, into a Vaudeville routine and that alone makes this possibly the best episode in the series so far.
Though Hyde is amazing, this also segues into the episode's biggest problem (aside from its ethics, of course): A lot of people, Bob Justman included, praise “The Naked Time” for using its Actor Showcase structure to convey intimate details about the main characters (hence Justman's claim it would have made a good premier) and this isn't entirely true I feel. While it's fun to watch the cast act against type, “The Naked Time” is actually rather thin on character development. Let's look at what we learn about each main character through how they act under the influence of the virus: Sulu is apparently “at heart a swashbuckler”, and while the episode was kind enough to telegraph this early on through his conversation with Riley about fencing, this is never actually brought up again in any subsequent episode (although his interest in small arms is briefly mentioned in “Shore Leave” and the Animated Series episode “The Slaver Weapon”). Even if it were, though, “enjoying fencing” is hardly a significant, intimate reveal about Sulu's personality.
Similarly, Riley's fascination with Irish royalty is only mentioned in an offhand comment by Spock to handwave away the aforementioned impromptu musical theatre performance: Riley never mentioned Ireland before or after and when next we see him it isn't even brought up at all (that Star Trek doesn't turn him into an excruciatingly awful and bigoted comedy stereotype like the last time an Irishman showed up is something of a miracle, however). Tormolen has his environmental concerns which were again mentioned at the outset, which was good, but he's dead so it doesn't matter. Kirk gets some painfully generic speech about the burdens and responsibilities of command which was stale and boring when Pike gave Doctor Price the exact same story in “The Cage”. Everyone else just defaults to “act silly”.
Really the only genuine moments of character drama we get here come from Spock, who I'll touch on in a minute, and Nurse Chapel, played by Majel Barrett, who makes her first appearance in this episode. Even though she didn't get the lead role originally written for her, of course Majel Barrett was going to show up on Star Trek once it went to series: She's just as inexorably linked to it as Gene Roddenberry is, and it makes sense for her to reappear in a Roddenberry-penned episode (once again, the name on the credits says John D.F. Black, who was also working as the show's story editor at the time, but apparently the script was completely rewritten by Roddenberry before going to air, who didn't even bother to consult or inform Black).
Chapel is the first character we see who actually does seem to be affected on a personal, emotional level as we learn she's in love with Spock and, shockingly, the show actually plays it like a serious, proper love scene: Chapel isn't lusting after or fantasizing about Spock like how every single other relationship on the show to date has been framed, she genuinely seems to love and care for him as a person. And, to her credit, Barrett sells it like an absolute pro, delivering a very sweet, caring, mature and affectionate performance that's probably her best bit of acting in the entire Original Series. Of course, the show does her no favours given that this is Chapel's first appearance and thus we've had absolutely no opportunities to see this side of her character meaningfully develop to the point where this scene could serve as an effective dramatic climax, but I'll take what I can get.
Leonard Nimoy is no slouch here either, and plays off of Barrett's tender confessions to absolutely brilliant effect, portraying Spock as at first recalcitrant and taciturn, then confused, and finally heartfelt, vulnerable and apologetic as he tries to express to Chapel his fear that he'll never be able to reciprocate and care for her the way she does him. And Barrett is once again magnificent, showing Chapel to be overwhelmingly compassionate and unwaveringly loyal. It's little wonder this scene is so well remembered and why there is such a strong contingent to pair up these characters. Actually, having seen both “The Naked Time” and its Star Trek: The Next Generation remake quite recently as of this writing, I have to wonder if Denise Crosby and LeVar Burton echoed and inverted this scene for their own private moment on the latter show. As great and iconic as this scene is however, I do leave it up to you all to draw your own conclusions about the significance behind Gene Roddenberry making all the female crewemembers (save Janice Rand) swoon over Spock and then giving him a love scene with his own loverXmuse.
Of course Nimoy's best performance comes immediately after this as he breaks down in tears alone in the briefing room lamenting his inability to love others. It's by far the defining moment of the episode, sold even better by the absolutely brutal camerawork: We slowly follow Spock as he staggers out of sickbay into the briefing room, passing graffiti that says “Love Mankind”. Then, once he sits down, the camera creeps around him, just wallowing in his breakdown. It's pure cinematic voyeurism, but it's effective. What's the most astounding thing about this scene is that none of it was scripted: The original plan for this scene was to have a *really* dumb comedy bit where someone draws a mustache on Spock. Nimoy felt he needed something more emotional (how ironic) and ad-libbed this entire sequence starting from where he leaves Chapel and ending when Kirk storms in and screams about antimatter implosions. Shatner's reaction here is a bit changeable; he doesn't seem sure of how he should respond to Nimoy's raw emotion. In the end he decides to have Kirk just flip the hell out and start whaling away at Spock to get him to snap out of it before Nimoy has Spock throw him backwards over the table.Shatner's performance is suitably histrionic and he rightfully devours half of the conference room in the process, but he really could have played off of Nimoy here a lot better: This exchange doesn't hold a candle to the one with Barrett.
But even so it was enough: This is Shatner and Nimoy's first real hyper-emotional scene together of the type they'll soon become famous for (the exchange in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” having clearly been written for Jeffrey Hunter's Pike and Barrett's Number One), and, pairing it with Barrett's show-stealing scene in sickbay it's easy to see how “The Naked Time” got a reputation for being a strong character drama even if they're in truth the only two real character moments in the episode. They're iconic, memorable moments that stick with people, and that's really all something like this needs to go down in history. That's the real strength of “The Naked Time” I feel: reconceptualise it as a collection of fun and giddy setpieces and these moments of tender character drama fit right in alongside Bruce Hyde's grandstanding and George Takei's rapier. I wouldn't call it the episode where we get to know the characters better, but I would call it the episode where Star Trek proves it can have fun once in awhile and stumbles onto the path towards becoming an evergreen pop phenomenon.
I dunno, I just don't see it - that is, I can't see the "logic vs. emotions" at all in this episode. It seems like an unsupportable stretch to say that "getting drunk while operating a starship is a bad idea" equates to "we must be in perfect control of our emotions at all times".
ReplyDeleteThe kicker for me is Spock here. He's one of the last people to be infected with the virus and Nimoy goes out of his way to play up the fact Spock is struggling to keep his emotions under control. His entire breakdown is his internal battle between his (emotional) human side and his (logical) Vulcan side spilling over into the larger plot, and he's desperate to not only not be "drunk", but to get the Vulcan side in a position of control again.
DeleteThough I agree the scene doesn't read that way quite as much in isolation. However for me, watching it coming off of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "The Enemy Within" makes it seem like a very natural extension of this theme.
Isn't that just Spock's character specifically, tho? He has that conflict, but what I take from it is that it's a bad thing that his emotions are so repressed that he can't control them when they're forced into the light.
DeleteFor that matter, that interpretation of The Enemy Within doesn't work for me either. I think the whole point of it was supposed to have the more aggressive, passionate side not be unequivocally evil - after all, it's shown as necessary, both for Kirk to be the awesome dude we all like and for him to survive at all.
It is indeed part of who Spock is, but I'd point to the fact Spock is the character Gene Roddenberry seems to most interested in: I think in many ways he embodies the core values Roddenberry was primarily interested in exploring (this is in fact a thread I'm going to pick up in a few posts). Don't forget he was originally Number One.
DeleteAnd I just can't see "The Enemy Within" that way, sorry: For me it really is just people have a Good Half and an Evil Half and while both are needed, it's "intelligence" (i.e. logic and rationality) that keeps them in check.
I can't agree that it's a good idea to have a show like this (either its TOS or TNG incarnation) early in a series' run. Having the main characters act against type doesn't have much impact if we haven't gotten to know their types yet.
ReplyDeleteI think Justman's idea was that reducing the characters' inhibitions would get them to reveal personal details about themselves they wouldn't normally, thus allowing us to get to know their more intimate desires and beliefs. But, as I noted in the post, this argument doesn't work anyway because that's largely not what "The Naked Time" is doing in the first place.
DeleteI'd also like the draw a distinction between *characters* acting against type and *actors* acting against type. The latter is what I've called an Actor Showcase and is what I'm more interested in and while the former is sometimes a way to get at that it's not a prerequisite (I would call the TNG episodes where Troi is possessed or Brent Spiner plays Lore Actor Showcases too). "The Naked Time" (and, subsequently, any other Trek reiteration of it) is trying to do both and basically not hitting either completely IMO.
It's not true that Leonard Nimoy ad-libbed the entire breakdown scene in the briefing room! Here's the straight scoop:
ReplyDeleteIn his autobiographies, Leonard Nimoy reports that the writer of this episode, John D. F. Black, originally had a crewman come up to Spock in the corridor and paint a mustache on his face, at which point Spock breaks down in tears in the middle of the corridor. Leonard Nimoy objected to this, saying that 1) using Spock for a cheap laugh undermined the character, and 2) Spock would make every attempt to be alone before he broke down. Black brushed him off, saying that there wasn't time for rewrites.
In his autobiography, Mr. Nimoy says, "But the Vulcan was looking over my shoulder by then; and I was stubborn about not letting his dignity be torn away just for the sake of a brief moment of humor." He reports that he went to Gene Roddenberry and shared his concerns with him, and Roddenberry said, "You're right. It really is out of character for Spock. Don't worry, I'll take care of it."
So John D. F. Black came to Mr. Nimoy and asked what he wanted Spock to do instead. Mr. Nimoy reports that he told him, "It's about emotion vs. logic, love vs. mathematics, grief vs. pi-r-squared." And based on that hint from Mr. Nimoy, Black went on to write the great scene for Spock that we saw in this episode.
Leonard Nimoy DID object to the original scene and DID give the writer some suggestions about what an alternate scene should look like, so we do owe that scene to his advocating for his character. But he neither ad-libbed it nor wrote it; as he says in his second autobiography (I Am Spock, p. 55, hardcover first edition), "Based on that bit of information, John went back and wrote the marvelous scene for Spock that now appears in 'The Naked Time.'" And I'd think Mr. Nimoy would know whether or not he ad-libbed it. :-)
Mr. Nimoy's performance during that scene WAS brilliant, and the scene WAS his idea, but the words were written by John D. F. Black, after Leonard Nimoy suggested an idea for the scene. (You basically shouldn't believe the anecdotes on IMDB, because half of them are wrong.)