Talk:This Side of Paradise (episode)

Health spores
The enterprise discovers a spore on this planet that gives you perfect health, apparently regardless of your present condition, and that can be removed simply by inciting anger in the host. Does anyone see the loophole here? The federation should have built a hospital station to orbit this planet as the medical benefits are impossible to deny. Don't get me wrong, I love this episode to death, but it really bothers me that a perfect cure with easily removeable side effects was so easily trivialized.
 * Sure, they get perfect health, but they also get a bit of their Humanity stripped away as they are reduced to docile, peaceful beings, essentially altering their personalities. Anger, pain, and internal struggles are part of what makes us human, and the spores seem to eradicate that. --From Andoria with Love 04:33, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
 * The health benefits evidently remain after the spores have been eliminated by strong emotions. Witness McCoy's final scene on the bridge: "They're all in absolutely perfect, perfect health. A fringe benefit left over by the spores." I agree with Shran that we need the things that are stripped away by the spores, but we can have those things back after the spores do their repair work. The OP has a terrific point.Spider 21:58, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
 * A reminder to everyone involved that this is not what article talk pages are for. --OuroborosCobra talk 22:53, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Just re-watched this episode and gotta agree with the OP and Spider. Nowhere in canon does it state the spores were destroyed, so it must be assumed that anyone can just go down to the planet, regain full health, get angry (or display some extreme emotion), and be on their merry way, all cured. No?--Brumagnus 02:52, November 22, 2010 (UTC)

Removed Text
I removed the following bloopers:
 * A small blooper occurs in this episode. When Spock beams back to the Enterprise at Kirk's request, the transporter chamber does not blink.


 * Another minor mistake: During one of Kirk's voice-over log entries, he refers to the planet merely as "Omicron III."


 * When Kirk packs up his belongings as he prepares to leave the Enterprise, he uses a very twentieth-century type suitcase.

-- Renegade54 17:14, 12 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I originally added the item about Kirk's suitcase to the article, and I put it back in, as it's not really a blooper. And, I feel it kind of dates the episode. I flew to France with my girlfriend last year, and I didn't see that style of suitcase used at all. In fact, I didn't even use that type myself; I used the style with wheels and a handle. - Adambomb1701 16:08, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Other Information
Removed the above as it belongs on the tributes page and not adding information to every single episode... &mdash; Morder (talk) 21:23, November 23, 2009 (UTC)
 * An episode of The Outer Limits ("Specimen Unknown") also had alien plants that shot spores, although they killed their victims. Wah Chang and Projects Unlimited created those plants and likely, Chang made the ones seen in this segment of Star Trek as well.
 * Mystery Science Theater 3000 paid tribute to this episode during the opening host segment in episode 503, "Swamp Diamonds". Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo were obsessing over the scene where Spock does not want to go back to the ship. Crow was Spock, Tom was Leila, and Joel Robinson had to play Kirk angering Spock to make the 'bots snap out of it.
 * Futurama also paid tribute to this episode in its Star Trek homage, "Where No Fan Has Gone Before." When speaking with Leonard Nimoy in the head museum, Fry reminds Nimoy of this episode, referring to it as "that episode where you got high on spores and smacked Kirk around."
 * In Stone Trek, this episode was spoofed as the "The Deadly Ears".
 * The episode draws many parallels with the encounter with the lotus eaters in Homer's Odyssey.

More

 * Leila Kalomi says she has "never seen a starship before". But then how did she get to the colony from Earth?
 * What happened to the livestock is never fully explained. It is assumed that they were not affected by the spores and died from tissue degeneration caused by the rays.

First one is a nitpick. She may never have seen a starship. Second, speculation and unknown fluff. &mdash; Morder (talk) 01:58, January 19, 2010 (UTC)

Bronson Canyon
I've just noticed that Jörg removed the Bronson Canyon location reference from the episode's page, stating that "definately no scene shot at Bronson Canyon." However, Ralph Senensky wrote in his blog: "The fortunate thing for us was that all of the scenes that involved buildings at the ranch had been completed, so arrangements were made for us to complete our location filming in Bronson Canyon, an area in the hills close to the studio and an area with which I was very familiar." So, I suggest putting that reference back, unless Jörg or someone else here knows it better than the director of the episode himself. -- Ltarex 18:08, March 17, 2010 (CET)

Scotty - I think he was in this
The article says that Scotty was not in this episode. I just saw it, and I'm not entirely sure that this is correct.

There was a scene, post-infection, where a bunch of crew members were standing on the transporters waiting to beam down. The shot was over the shoulder of the person manning the transporter controls. That person, to me, looked like Scotty. It was from behind, so I'm not sure, but he seemed like Scotty to me.

Edit - no, never mind, I just went back and looked again, and there's a frame or two where you can see his face from over his shoulder. Doesn't look like Scotty to me. 68.196.8.50 04:07, August 26, 2011 (UTC)

Maybe I'm Missing Something
Jim is frustrated after everyone is under influence of the spores and he says he's going back to the ship. How did he get back up there? Because later when he is going to leave and join the colony, he says that once they're all down there, no one can come back to the ship. So was there someone up there the last time he beamed up? If so, I do not remember seeing them.

Nitpick

 * While under the effect of the spores, McCoy uncharacteristically switches to a Southern US accent, addressing Kirk as "boy". He would later speak with this accent again as a 137-year-old man in TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint", in which he also addressed Data as "boy".

Removed the above per MA:NIT. 31dot (talk) 18:51, July 19, 2012 (UTC)


 * I don't see how this is a nitpick. According the guideline you cite, a nitpick cites a contradiction. But here I'm not citing a contradiction at all. On the contrary, I point out the recurrence of McCoy's Southern parlance (hence the placement of this remark under "Continuity"). Also, McCoy is indeed established as being from the American South, so it's a case of consistency, not contradiction. I'm just pointing out that his accent has only surfaced on a few occasions. It's kind of like citing the few occasions when Picard says something in French.

Sign your posts in the future, by clicking the Signature button above the posting area, please. A nitpick can be noting a contradiction, but does not exclusively do so, and further down the policy mentions "something out of place, irrelevant observations", which is what I feel this comment is. 31dot (talk) 09:23, July 20, 2012 (UTC)


 * In a wiki that notes the sole instance of a captain's log ever being called "supplementary" instead of "supplemental", and other such minutiae, I don't see how this is irrelevant. This is a recurring character trait that the actor maintained over a 20 year span (1967-1987). McCoy's profile on startrek.com states "His "old South" roots led to the old-time physician manner of doctoring, with a Southern accent that was most apparent when under stress". --184.161.251.92 18:09, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

Seeing nitpicks elsewhere is not a reason to keep this one. If what you say about his character is true, then it should be discussed with citations on either the Leonard McCoy or DeForest Kelley pages, not here. 31dot (talk) 20:08, July 20, 2012 (UTC)