Talk:Catspaw (episode)

Stardate
Despite the stardate, the clue that tells us this didn't happen before "Space Seed" is that DeSalle is Assistant Chief Engineer in "Catspaw". "This Side of Paradise", coming right after "Space Seed", has DeSalle as a botanist.


 * Was he a lieutenant on both occasions? We don't necessarily know which assignment came first, do we? -- Captain Mike K. Barteltalk 23:35, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

No. I'm simply a purist who chooses to use production order as the correct sequence of episodes. Roddenberry himself said that stardates were not necessarily going to be in sequence. Chekov was only an ensign, and if he was not on the bridge, it would be totally logical that he would go unseen by we, the audience, throughout "Space Seed." Khan may have seen Chekov's face and name when he was memorizing the ship's technical data in Sickbay. --Kurt of North Bend


 * According to Robert Justman and Herb Solow in INSIDE STAR TREK the production team would keep the "planet" shows in reserve while completing "bottle" shows ... as the NBC execs kept asking for "more strange new worlds'" shows, which actually cost more to produce than Desilu was paid. Point being, production order isn't really an authoritative indication of chronological order, any more than airing order.


 * Remember also that Sulu was Astrophysics ("Where No Man Has Gone Before," "Charlie X") before being helmsman. And LT Leslie was all over the place ... Engineering post on the bridge, and elsewhere. Not unusual, in the contemporary naval services, junior officers will get shuffled from one dept. to another, promoting varied and broad experience prior to promotion. Just putting in my two credits' worth. -- Kojirovance 00:50, 30 October 2006 (UTC)


 * User:TheHYPO just removed this:
 * * As this episode's stardate (3018) actually precedes the stardate of Khan's TOS Season 1 appearance, "Catspaw" could have occurred before "Space Seed." This would be contradicted by DeSalle's change from botanist to assistant chief engineer, however. He had been a botanist in, soon after "Space Seed". As series creator Gene Roddenberry himself stated, stardates (during the original Star Trek series) are an unreliable indicator of episode sequence.


 * I just wanted to put it here to preserve the large removal. -- Sulfur 20:15, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Mike Howden
Removed Mike Howden from the cast list, as he is not in this episode. He was in an episode of "Mannix" that also happened to be titled "Catspaw."

Removed background information

 * Spock comments that Jackson hardly blinked after he returned to the ship. However, Kirk, McCoy and Kyle were the only people in the transporter room when Jackson beamed up. The fact that he hardly blinked does not seem like something important enough to repeat and it seems unlikely anyone, besides Spock, would have even noticed.


 * Kirk seems surprised that Korob knows his name however he already heard Korob, through Jackson, use his name (although he was unaware it was Korob at the time) as did the three witches that he, Spock and McCoy saw soon after they arrived on the planet.


 * Although the true forms of Syliva and Korob look very alienesque, the black strings animating the little puppets are painfully easy to see.


 * In one syndicated version the witches chant is cut out-although listed by credits at the end!!


 * During the first encounter between Kirk and Korob, at one moment Sylvia, in her cat form, plays with Korob's sleeve; and we can see the actor's watch.

The above was removed per the discussion on Memory Alpha: Ten Forward and the follow up on the Memory Alpha: Reference Desk. --Alan del Beccio 23:20, 13 March 2006 (UTC)


 * According to the background information section, "Kirk calls McCoy "Bones" until he sees the skeleton in the dungeon, whereupon, for the rest of the episode, he calls McCoy "Doc" instead." This is not the case as Capt. Kirk referred to Dr. McCoy as "Bones" at least one other time in the episode (at approx. 32:30). Capt. Crunch


 * Indeed, I noticed that too. I'm removing the note, its fairly worthless anyway. Wheatleya 23:09, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

Here's some more:


 * Kirk says that the rubies, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds that Korob offers them are worthless: the Enterprise, he argues, could manufacture "a ton" of them. Yet in, he notes that he is surrounded by "a fortune" in diamonds.
 * Perhaps to give Bower a more artificially-Human appearance, she wears a wig while playing Sylvia. Bower's real hair can be seen (with extensions) in the first of the exotic women she transforms herself into.

Now per MA:NIT. --Alan 05:37, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Jimmy Jones/Jay Jones
I've seen references to the brothers Jones in other ST references, but IMDB indicates that "Jay D. Jones" performed under both names. 

Fontana as writer?
I removed Fontana's name as co-writer in the sidebox. The on-air credits only list Bloch. If she did an uncredited rewrite which can be verified, it should probably go in the Trivia section. Sir Rhosis 00:28, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Needs citation
This almost trivial bit of information would be much more appropriate if there were a citation for it. --Alan 05:18, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Charlie Washburn, assistant director during the second season, said Antoinette Bower was the most professional actor to appear on the series while he worked on it. 

Removed

 * The stardate given places this episode between and  (both in the first season). As this is the case, it is plausible that Chekov was stationed on the Enterprise when Khan interacted with the crew in  on stardate 3141.9.

There may be a way to include this in either this article or another one, but this seems nitpicky to me, and it is speculative("it is plausible") as the stardate system was not consistent, as far as I am aware.--31dot 23:17, December 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * The skeletons all have a craniotomy line around the upper skull, indicating that they are medical teaching skeletons, or have been autopsied, but in any case cannot be natural decomposed bodies. McCoy misses this.
 * Kirk refers to "iron maidens" but what is actually shown is a gibbet cage, a different device.

Worded as nitpicks. Should be reworded before being re-added. - 20:14, November 2, 2011 (UTC)

Jazzy music?
I may be wrong, but isn't this the only episode which uses the "jazzed up" transitional theme. It's at 11:22 and only a few seconds long, but I don't recall ever hearing it anywhere else.