The Naked Time

The Naked Time is one of the most well known episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. Mainly it is known for Sulu running through the halls of the Enterprise topless with a sword – because who wouldn’t want to do that?

This is an episode that I am not complexly sure how to judge.  It is a very silly and perhaps that is the whole point.

A lot of TV shows have an episode with alternate versions of the characters. This is brought about by magic, memory wiping, another universe, or maybe just using the actors to tell a story in the past. JAG did this in one episode. My Googling failed me on this one. Basically the main cast are playing new characters. I think it was set in the 1940s but I am not sure.

The most obvious one for TOS is Mirror, Mirror but The Naked Time is another. This episode is about the crew getting drunk and the ship being in danger because of it.

When I look back at TOS now Spock is my favourite character. I think Nimoy did an excellent job in bringing the character to life. The scene where he tries to come to terms with his emotions is well acted and shot. He too has been effected by the condition present on the Enterprise and is ill equipped to handle the emotions he is feeling. As the series goes on Spock gets some of the best lines in the show.

When I first watched TOS Scotty was my favourite character. And this episode has that classic of Mr Scott – telling Kirk how impossible something is before making it happen ‘I can’t change the laws of physics.’

The skill of Mr Scott is particularly funny in The Enterprise Incident where he hooks up a Romulan cloaking device in about five minutes. As pointed out by SFDEBRIS it takes longer to hook up a games console to a TV it was designed for than it takes for Scotty to hook up a complex piece of alien technology. That however is just what makes Scotty such a great engineer. In this episode Scotty has to restart the engines which have been completely shut down by a drunk Irishman.

From this episode and Up the Long Ladder Star Trek didn’t really portray Irish people well did it? At least until we get to a certain Chief of Operations of course.

At the end of the episode the Enterprise is facing destruction. Which for Star Trek doesn’t really narrow it down. In the original series the ship was taken over, or out of Kirk’s control, rather a lot.

It is a tense scene. We know that everything is going to work out. The writers are not going to blow the Enterprise up over some random planet because of incompetence are they? At least not until Generations!

Yet here, just for a fleeting second, you can almost believe it could happen. And what is even better they do this without too much technobabble. Then at the end of the episode the Enterprise, as a result of the engine restart, is sent back in time. Which I am so glad that that ability didn’t become over used in the franchise – oh wait.

This episode is not particularly deep or clever but it is entertaining. It does have to be said though that this situation, like so many other episodes, could have been avoided if they simply practised basic safety. Like maybe having an actual environmental suit and an officer who keeps his bloody gloves on.

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I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.