Table for Seven?

Star Trek. I haven’t watched it since the late 80s. It’s been Remastered. Now it’s being Re-viewed.

“The Galileo Seven”

This has always been a fun episode, with Federation High Commissioner Jackass trying to put the screws to Kirk who is searching for his missing crewmembers, while Spock has a near-mutiny to deal with on the planet surface (only Scotty seemed to be in Spock's corner).

The remastered effects were pretty highminded but came off screaming of CGI. CBS-Digital made a new planet, of course, and they tried to have it reflect the look of the live set where the shuttle was filmed. But when combined with the neon green Murasaki quasar effect the planet looked like something from the kiddie show Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. They had several new shots of the shuttle hanger bay and the shuttle taking off which were neat. One quibble though: every time the shuttle flies by the camera they had the pilot and co-pilot (Spock and Scotty on Galileo, and whomever on the shuttle Columbus) visible through the windows, but on the shuttle interior set it's so obvious that the windows are ABOVE THEIR HEADS. Now unless the chairs raised up really high, like when Bugs Bunny played a barber, there's no way you'd see them through the windows. CGI overlord Mike Okuda should have known better.

I hope Mr. Spock put everyone from that shuttle mission on report when he got back to the Enterprise. No matter what Spock said or did everyone - except Scotty and the uber-cute Yeoman Mears - jumped on his ass. Latimer (a yellow shirt!) is the first to die and not only does Boma insist they bring the body back to the shuttle for burial, but as Spock is in command Boma DEMANDS that he say something at the FUNERAL SERVICE! How did Boma become an officer with this kind of thinking? When Spock tells Boma and Gaetano that they will use their phaser fire in an attempt to frighten and not kill the creatures, they, along with Dr. McCoy, make a big stink that killing them is a better plan, but eventually they do as he orders. When the creatures kill Gaetano (another yellow shirt!) and attack the shuttle, McCoy jumps on Spock's back about his decision! Wow, the ship's chief doctor would rather have some hairy alien Bigfoots killed to save his own skin. What a healer!

The last scene though is precious. On the bridge everyone is staring at Spock with silly smiles on their faces, and after Kirk pokes fun at Spock because of his stubbornness to admit to having a human moment just before they were rescued from the shuttlecraft, everybody busts out laughing. Scotty even staggers over to the bulkhead by the elevator to steady himself.

I think they just wanted to save Spock to have someone to make fun of over the next five years.

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Thanks to Trekcore.com for the Star Trek screencaps.