The Apple // Star Trek: The Original Series Reaction // Season 2 

Yeoman Martha Landon is played by Celeste Yarnall. Another amazing 1960's beauty. She later rejoined the Trek universe for a fan film in 2008.

No Sulu was because George Takei was away making the Green Berets with John Wayne.

Poor Spock!!! Plant spikes to the chest, laughed at because of his name, struck by lightning with 2nd degree burns on his back, and Kirk comparing him to pointed ear Satan. Good thing he is a Vulcan or he wouldn't have survived!!

"the holding, the touching ...Vaal has forbidden this" always gets a laugh out of me. Vaal is such a killjoy.

03:14 "I love me some good cleavage." I like how she can just say that so deadpan 😂😂😂

13:35 This male native is played by David Soul. He was best known for his role as Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson in the 70's classic tv show, "Starsky & Hutch".

I love that you got a little deep there at the end in your discussion. It's great when Star Trek makes you think and question ideas.🖖

16:08 "She's been _practicin'._ Yo. Keep her on full time!" Personal combat skills are a source of pride for Starfleet personnel.

During TOS the Prime Directive-also known as General Order One-was more of a guideline to not interfere in other societies, particularly those less advanced. But we do see evidence of the Federation interacting with primitive societies who are aware the “strangers” are not of their world, such as in “Friday’s Child.” Because the inhabitants of “Friday’s Child” refer to Kirk and his crew as Earthmen it’s possible their contact predates the founding of the Federation and the non-interference directive. We also know the Federation can waive the directive in certain situations, like potential hostilities as seen in “Errand Of Mercy” and “A Taste Of Armageddon.”

I was impressed when you called it early and mentioned/asked, "Landru"

4:33 "Not to worry, Captain. My shirt is blue. I'm fine."

I'm glad Captain Kirk finally used the ship's phasers to destroy a superior machine instead of talking it to death.

Your discussion reminded me of an incident in my past. I was visiting India and was in a remote village. The tour guide told us that ten years ago "all of us were very happy." Then, they obtained the technology to catch the airwaves and see the world on television sets. They then saw themselves as being in absolute poverty and were discontented with life. They sent their children to schools to try and better themselves but their children experienced great shame at being so backwards. It would be interesting to go visit them now that it is twenty years later. How is the village doing? The people were all extremely beautiful. It was said by others that these people were the absolute standard for the perfect human physique. It is the calling card of this village.

They were making fun of Spock’s pointed ears, which is in some descriptions of Satan and other demons.

Bunny is a great combination of deep thinker and sense of humor. Another fantastic reaction.

I’m convinced that this episode single handedly established the whole redshirt means death trope…

My favourite moment is the Yeoman kicking ass. No Mary Sue here. A girl you don't want to mess with...... And Scotty gets his job back. Sadly the curse of the red shirts who get a tour of the enterprise strikes again... The insurance premiums must go through the roof when signing on for Starfleet.....

You probably already know that you got a shout out by Robert Meyer Burnett on his channel, that he watches your TOS reactions video and finds your perspective interesting and it gives him hope a new generation can be interested in this old show. He was involved in the Berman era of Star Trek (1987 to 2005) at Paramount as consultant, video editor for the Las Vegas "Star Trek Experience" and producer/interviewer/editor for the TNG Bluray extras (he produced also the extras for the LOTR and Tron DVDs).

@bunnytailsREACTS you're quite the brave one to watch this while wearing a red shirt.

Evil spores, force fields, lightning, McCoy's potions.... The episode's real title should be "Spock Gets His Ass Kicked!"

Great episode, ... unless you're a "Red Shirt" dude.

I could be wrong, but I think this is the episode where the largest number of "red shirts" die.

Akuta's body is the color of Donald Trump's face.

Sulu missed quite a few episodes this season because he had asked to be let out to make a John Wayne movie.

The builders of Vaal were so advanced they made a machine that can control weather and cripple a starship in orbit, powered by daily offerings brought by locals on foot.

The name "Vaal" is kind of an interesting choice as it is very close to "Baal" (Referring to false gods)

No this is a classic case of Kirk totally ignoring the prime directive.

I like how Vaal was portrayed as a god, providing the inhabitants of this "Eden" with everything that they needed but was depicted as a serpent.

Everyone knows you shouldn't put a fly in the transporter.

Lightning completely disintegrated the red shirt, but Spock's blue shirt protected him, so he only received 2nd degree burns. Likewise with the poison dart plant: Spock's blue shirt absorbed most of the poison.

16:00 - yeah, not only Star Trek included women as crew on starship, but also as capable fighters. And it's in 1967.

David Soul was the amorous young alien; he was Hutch in Starsky and Hutch, and later was Ben Mears in Salem's Lot. It's a good episode with a lot of tough questions involving the Prime Directive. Once again Kirk does interfere and I agree with his decision. That presumes people who have free choice, and these folks definitely did not. There's an odd mix of tragedy and humor here, but it mostly works. I would have liked to see the young yeoman return, honestly. And yes, there's a lot of great character stuff here again. Thanks for another nice reaction!

Bunny, alien humanoid species throughout Star Trek TOS seem to speak English because of the Universal Translator. It's a plot device which helps explain why, no matter where our heroes go, everyone can communicate with little effort.

Unfortunately, Chekov didn't get the Yeoman. Elvis picked her up at a party in "Spinout" ( Not that I am recommending the movie ).

"Vaal"--"Baal"? Baal was the most important "non-God" god of the Old Testament; he is mentioned about 90 times. Elijah defeated the priests of Baal in I Kings 18. Unlike I AM, who decreed against graven images, votive figurines of Baal exist.

The title of this episode should have been, "Vol Hates Spock". He was attacked by a plant, stunned by a forcefield and struck by lightning..

Kirk was making fun of Spock at the end because he looks like Satan with his pointed ears. Some interesting references to Genesis in this episode and David Soul in a small role. He was great on the 1970's show Starsky & Hutch. I used to watch that when I was a kid. RIP Mr. Soul. Great reaction Bunnytails!!

Mini-golf! LOL!! That made me laugh!! Adorable!!

I am quite old now, internet, what was that, cell phones, HUH. I rode my bicycle, played cricket with the neighbors and at night did jigsaw puzzles and crosswords. Now today if you watch the crime RU-vid videos, the first thing people do is scream for their phone. The point being, yes we were poorer, less well equipped but we were perfectly happy with my mothers baking and my fathers Sunday roast and actually talking to people. Should Kirk have interfered, well only enough to save his crew.

Great critical thinking skills, Bunny 🙂. We need a lot more of this nowadays.

The kissy face Man of Vaal was the late David Soul, of Starsky and Hutch, Salem's Lot, and other fame.

Another Great Reaction 👍👍👍. Watching along with you makes these episodes seem fresh to me😊

Once again, a most enjoyable review. I can't wait until you review the Doomsday Machine! You'll love it. Have a great weekend.

Both Spock and McCoy had good points about whether this was a situation that needed to be altered. The *important* question is whether these people *chose* to stop progressing and become the servants of Vaal or Vaal just stepped in and took over their society. Given Vaal's actions when the Enterprise arrived (shooting first and not even asking questions later), we can assume that Vaal's motives are less than altruistic. And after all, if he cared for his people, wouldn't he allow them to indulge their...curiosities? By the way, this won't be the last time Spock is compared to Satan in this show. There were concerns at NBC headquarters when Star Trek was first set to air that viewers might associate Spock with Satan (because of the ears and eyebrows), but those fears proved baseless. Still, it gave them a couple of funny in-jokes to tell.

If memory serves Scotty was threatened to be fired twice including this one, obviously. (It wouldn’t make sense though; Kirk knows Scotty is the best engineer 😅)

This is THE "Redshirt" episode. So many of them die, that fans Really began noticing that crewmen/women in Redshirts, tend to die. When I was a kid, we only had a black & white tv... so I didn't catch the issue, until I was in college and got to see them in color. Then it became somewhat comical. I don't consider this a serious episode. I just enjoy the ride... on this one. It's a fun one, if you don't think too much about it.

the doomsday machine is one of the best.

Ooh, can't wait for The Doomsday Machine!"

This is true about becoming overly reliant on technology. I remember hearing about how catastrophic a huge solar flare directed at the earth (or Electromagnetic Pulse /EMP weapons) could be if it knocked all power and destroyed equipment. People would starve and society fall into chaos, where as if it were the 19th century, say 1830, it wouldn't be so bad, because there was no electricity (power grid) and many people farmed, fished and hunted for themselves and sold surplus to those that didn't (i.e. city folk and the wealthy).

Spock: "I am Spock." [Entire tribe laughs at Spock] Spock: "Well, so much for Vulcans signing a peace treaty with you guys...."

I love your reactions and I love Star Trek the original series. There’s only a few episodes i think are too dumb to watch... the Apple is one of them 😁 good god!

The late David Soul went on to stardom. He was in "Here Come The Brides" and "Starsky and Hutch". He had a big late-70s hit with "Don't Give Up On Us, Baby". Pretty good tune.

While this episode provides campy fun, it doesn't quite serve Vaal.

Great reaction! You have a great sense of humour too! Thanks!✌❤✌

A more SERIOUS comment. My other comment was more comedic. But on a serious note after having finished watching the vid and hearing your deeper comments about technology and it's advances I appreciate technology not because of entertainment but production, medical advances, travel, communication and on and on. Technology doesn’t solve every problem and sometimes it is abused but it does serve many benevolent purposes for civilized society way beyond just goofing off for entertainment purposes. Some of technology is life changing or life saving.

1:21 "Well I've never been to Russia, but I always... think of... like, snow, and very cold..." Especially around Moscow.

And at timecode 15:55 we see why a miniskirt is the optimal clothing for exploring the galaxy.

If they actually stuck to the Prime Directive then it would be a very dull show.

Interesting question you’ve put to us. I would ask, are the Amish happy in their lifestyle? 🤷🏻‍♂️ The Domesday Machine, looking forward to it.

@bunnytailsREACTS The Prime Directive, aka 'General Order One" as it is sometimes called in TOS, is the general idea that Starfleet cannot interfere with the natural development of civilizations that have not discovered Warp Travel yet. They are supposed to conceal their origin as aliens, conceal the existence of their technology, and not stop whatever is going on. Kirk as you've seen, frequently holds very little regard for the prime directive. Because he's young, cool, charismatic and handsome, he violates the Prime Directive all the friggin time.

This episode of THE APPLE has some similarities to an old movie I once watched. The movie is called THE TIME MACHINE. Don't confuse it with the more modern version. Watch the original one. I highly recommend you watch it. You'll know what I'm talking about if you watch the film. Needless to say, there's a tribe of innocent bright blonde humans who are also stagnant. I do not wish to say anymore. I really want you to discover this movie if you aren't familiar with it already. I'd really like to know what you think of it. It came out .... I don't know. 50s or 60s? It is in color. It has the same main actor who was in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Also, another great film you ought to watch if you haven't already. 👍 -OG

This was a fairly expensive episode to make. They had to build a forrest. They had a large cast with specialized makeup and costumes. And... there was Vaal. They had a vague description and a budget of $10,000. How was he made? Vaal was aluminum foil and paint with some glowing eyes. Star Trek and Mission: Impossible were on the air at the same time. If M:I needed a set for El Presidente's office, they could just pull anything they need out of a warehouse. With Star Trek, everything had to be made, and Star Trek had a smaller budget than Mission: Impossible.

I wish other commenters would stop telling you things that won't appear until The Next Generation! At this point in Star Trek history, the Prime Directive was looser than in other iterations of Star Trek. Basically, when Kirk was explaining the difference between Federation alliance and Klingon dominance to the Organians saying, "Your world... is yours"... this is the extent of the Prime Directive. Remember, they were signing mining agreements in "Friday's Child" with the Capellans who had no space flight.

they where talking about spocks ears looking like satan. at the end.

It would be interesting to return to this planet in a hundred years to see what's come from the seeds planted today. Star Trek VII The Wrath of Vaal.

The Red Shirts took a real hit in this one... but Martha came out okay (she was a great martial artist)!

20:55 Excellent discussion of the Prime Directive, Bunny! 👍👍 Non-Interference! In The Original Series, the Prime Directive was definitely not a clearly-drawn and rigid commandment. It had many flaws. In this episode, McCoy is very biased towards his Human perspective. He believes that the natives, just because they are humanoids, should live like Humans. That's an arrogant assumption to make. Like in "The Return of the Archons" (where the Prime Directive was first mentioned), Kirk decided that the natives were not living "as they should be living". He made a personal decision that would affect the entire civilization - for better or for worse. It's a dangerous game to play, deciding how an entire species is to develop, now that you have introduced new ideas and even technology to them.

"No Sulu in this episode"... because George Takai was filming "The Green Berets"!

People like to make fun of the many times that Kirk interferes with another culture, it's kind of a meme, but what they often don't understand is that there's always a morality issues being argued. People like to argue about the non-interference issue, and The Next Generation makes a big deal out of this, but these original series episodes do take it seriously, and in fact argue it much more than subsequent series. People today make a big deal about this, and they often treat the rules as totally unbreakable. I contend that rules must always be questioned and argued or else we sacrifice our basic humanity.

I love it when you get philosophical. Good questions.

I feel like we have substituted the fictional Vaal with cell phones. And sometimes I wish Captain Kirk would come and set us free.

The trope of the "False Eden" appears repeatedly in Star Trek, apparently because Gene Roddenberry loved it. But it gets beat to death. You can guarantee in any case, Kirk will always destroy these False Edens, Prime Directive or no Prime Directive. The trope keeps deteriorating, until the final travesty that is "The Way To Eden" (unless you want to count Star Trek V). Herbert! Herbert! Herbert!

The prime directive is a bit more clearly defined in TNG, it's more strictly followed, and not everyone likes it. I know the concept wasn't fully fleshed out during the original series, but looking back at it makes it look like Kirk plays very loose with the rules.

The Non interference directive is rule #1 in Starfleet command rules,Captain Kirk had no choice but to interfere because he had to save his crew and the crew of the Starship Enterprise because the machine god vaal prevented this.

There must have been a Mr. Fusion inside Vaal's mouth.

Poor Spock...takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Spock resembles Satan in the ending joke.

When 5 red shirts beam down, you know it's gonna be a bloodbath.

Scotty: I thought ye fired me. So why do ye keep givin' me orders. lol

The pagan god Ba'al or Baal worship, especially among children of Jacob (Israel) was like the number one way to make God (Jehovah) mad. Roddenberry liked to mix these themes likely because moms & grandmas would pickup on them, wagging the finger at the kids for watching it, which would make them want to watch them even more. Pushing the cultural envelope was a common trope in the 60s. Now, being traditional is. Good times. Great reaction Bunny!

I know the chief feeder of Vaal, Akuta, is played by Keith Andes. But doesn't he look a lot like William H. Macy? Not the physique, of course, but the face.

Scotty: "There's nothing left to try again. I guess you'll have to fire me, sir." Kirk: "You're fired." [Later on....] Kirk: "Scotty, do you still have phaser power? Scotty! Where are you, Scotty?!" Lt. Kyle: "Kyle here, sir. Mr. Scott is in his quarters, packing his bags. You did fire him, you know...."

That is one Trek's strengths, it makes you think about things.

I think Vaal takes the record for paper mache ...

Funny thing about the "Red Shirt Guy" is that it is just the guys, "Red Shirt Gals" do just fine in the Star Trek TOS universe.

I really enjoy your reviews bunny❤

I call this episode "The Planet of the Barbie Dolls" -- now that the Barbie movie is out, I can imagine Akuta singing "I am Kenough."

Minigolf… brilliant 😂 if only Vaal also had another entrance that looked like a windmill 😂

It was interesting Vaal was depicted is a serpent on a planet called a Garden of Eden.

Not the best episode to start with if you've never watched Star Trek before.

The Prime Directive is a type of Ten Commandments. In this case, "Thou shalt not be upon Gods to lesser developed civilizations." and such. Breaking these rules does bear weight upon the shoulders of the officers of the Federation fleet... especially their captains. Thankfully, the Federation takes every incident with a case-by-case form of judgement and doesn't go with an absolute ruling for breaking them. In the case of "The Apple", Kirk could and may very well have been court-martialed, despite the fact that he was making decisions for saving the lives of his crew and his ship. But that is a very hard choice to make to let the ship go down and the natives kill everyone... to satisfy the Prime Directive. Now, the reasoning behind the Prime Directive can be seen in full effect in other ST: TOS episodes. But, a far better explanation is shown in the reflection show, The Orville. There, they visually explain (Via a technology that even this show has... but never appears in a live episode. They simply didn't know how to make it work. But they do, once they can anime the episodes. It's not a plot point in the slightest. So not a spoiler.) how in the early days before the Prime Directive was in place, early pioneers thought they were helping lesser developed species by sharing their technology. But it was disastrous to the point of becoming a pure apocalypse. On a side note: Another ST show should do a second contact with these people and see how they came along. A particular show that visits other ST shows and makes their crew cry out, "No! Stop! No spoilers!". (Literally.) So, enough about that show due for review in Star Date: Ninety-plus years. Incidentally... I'll omit what I was about to write, here. In time, though...

...I feel you're off the mainstream take here, but that's a good thing. I would consider this a weaker remake of Return Of the Archons. But, RotA doesn't have my single favourite moment of Trek - Kirk punches Anntenna-head and he bursts into tears. It's such a simple, out of the field, whacky moment, stuck with my for decades.

promote this yeoman to captain!

A real massacre of the red shirts! 😂

Great reaction, as always! The lasting contribution of Star Trek is that it stimulates contemplation and intelligent discussion, both by you, Bunny, and by the many commenters below. The ideas explored are still relevant today, providing lasting value.

Bunny brings up an interesting thought. I don't believe the Prime Directive was fully fleshed out till a later episode. We veteran Trekkies only know it in full because of having seen them all. Even so, a true application of the PD would have ended the show, so it couldn't be applied here. Bunny also already called it when she mentioned Landru. In-universe, the principle by which Kirk justified taking out Vaal is about the same as Landru, a static, slave society run by a computer. And as a matter of course in OG Star Trek, Vaal crossed all three of Kirk's red lines: his crew, his ship, and Spock. Even one of those will have Kirk bringing your little playhouse down around your ears, but Vaal messed with ALL of them! Same as in "Who Mourns For Adonais:" when Apollo suggested crushing the Enterprise, he signed his own death warrant!

"In the 'dim times'" presumably because they were the times before they had ears to hear Vol. So, the times before Vol.

"the doomsday machine" is one of my favorites! very much looking forward to the next bunnytails!

If the ship was not in danger, what would they decide to do. Makes the decision somewhat more difficult. Ship in danger, machine in charge - ok lets do it! The danger lets them off the hook. Kirk doesn't have to make the call.

Awesome review Bunny 😊