Now that I’ve raved, I’m gonna rant. As is my wont, I’m compelled to compile. That is, reel off a list of mistakes that
should have been caught.
- ·
In several
places, instead of referring to sensors, the word “censors” is used
- ·
On page 197,
Clark says that Alexander Courage’s eight-note “fanfare” is bongo-driven, but
the bongos don’t come in until much later, after Shatner’s narration ends
- ·
On page 210,
someone moves to a “Zen-like metaphysical plain” – the appropriate term for
levels of existence is spelled “plane”
- ·
On page 229, “how
per powers work” should be “her powers”
- ·
On page 243,
we’re informed that Chekov said scotch was invented by a little old lady from
Moscow – we all know that in “Tribbles,” Chekov says “Leningrad”
- ·
On page 250, we
learn that in “I, Mudd,” Harry Mudd is “monarch of a planet populated entirely
by curvaceous female androids,” somehow overlooking the Norman, Herman, and
Oscar series of male androids
- ·
Page 253’s
summary of “The Savage Curtain” mentions “the Vulcan hero Sarek” when it should
be Surak, not Spock’s own daddio
- ·
Page 332 refers
to Star Trek “stationary,” not “stationery”
- ·
348 mentions
someone holding “the financial reigns” of Trekdom, not its “reins”
- ·
Page 360: It’s Kirk, not Uhura, who delivers the “too
much of anything, even love” line in “Tribbles”
- · Page 364 reports that Yeoman Rand says, “May the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless your planet,” when Sulu says it to her in “The Man Trap”
Clark’s
schtick of using Trek-related phrases for chapter or sections titles seemed too
self-consciously “precious” at first, but I warmed to it. For instance, Clark
gives a nice précis of antecedents
and inspirations for Roddenberry’s Trek vision in a chapter titled “Space
Seeds.”
I
would argue with him about the transporter sending a person’s atoms (along with
their “pattern”) across space. I think
only information is supposed to be “beamed” here or there.
His
chapter on goofs and gaffes that made it onscreen left out one of my favorites,
from “Space Seed.” When Kirk breaks the
glass of Khan’s glass sleep unit, his phaser falls off. McCoy notices and throughout the rest of the
scene, De Kelley keeps glancing to the phaser on the floor, At fadeout, McCoy is bending down to pick up
that fallen weapon.
This
is a fun potpourri of information and musings on that inescapable, ineluctable
phenomenon Star Trek, which (like Julius Caesar) doth bestride the narrow world.
