Dark Bilious Vapors

A bit early, but we've got a fair slew of answers this week.

1) Of course, hand phasers can be set to stun or to kill. Could the ship's phasers be set to stun?
Yes. This was done in the Original Series episode, "A Piece of the Action" (this was the only time this was done, however).

2) Can you name a connection between Star Trek and Mission: Impossible? (There are at least two that I'm thinking of here.)
Both Star Trek and Mission: Impossible began as Desilu Studios productions (before that studio was acquired by Paramount; anyone who answered that they're both Paramount shows can take full credit). In addition to that, Martin Landau, who played Rollin Hand, master of disguise in the IM Force in Mission: Impossible, was offered the role of Mr. Spock and turned it down. After Landau left Mission: Impossible, the role of Paris, the IM Force's new master of disguise, was taken by Leonard Nimoy, who (of course) was the one who was offered the role of Spock after Landau turned it down.

3) One episode of Star Trek was actually a pilot for a proposed spin-off which would have featured Robert Lansing, Barbara Babcock and Terri Garr playing the main roles. Can you name that episode, and the roles played by Mr. Lansing, Ms. Babcock, and Ms. Garr?
"Assignment Earth". Robert Lansing played Gary Seven, Barbara Babcock his companion Isis (who actually took the form of a cat for most of the episode), and Terri Garr played Roberta Lincoln.

4) What phrase is Star Trek's analogue to the Sherlock Holmes canon's "Elementary, my dear Watson" and Casablanca's "Play it again, Sam"?
"Beam me up, Scotty." All of these expressions are closely associated with the works in question, but were never actually said in them.

5) How did the character of Pavel Chekov come to be added to the cast of Star Trek (two factors are involved here)?
Gene Roddenberry thought the crew of the Enterprise needed a brash young "mod-Brit" type to attract younger viewers; the "model" he was thinking of was someone very much like Davy Jones of The Monkees (which was at the height of its popularity at the time). Meanwhile, Roddenberry was also informed of an editorial in the Soviet newspaper Pravda which criticized him for not including a Russian in the Enterprise crew (which was otherwise noteworthy for its ethnic and species diversity), given the importance of the Soviet Union in the early exploration of space. Roddenberry managed to kill both birds with one stone by casting Walter Koenig (who was allegedly chosen for his resemblance to Davy Jones) and making him the Russian, Pavel Chekov.

6) (BONUS TOS/Movie question) What is Mark Lenard's claim to fame (Hint: NOT the fact that he plays Sarek, Spock's father)?
He is the first actor to play a role as a member of every major alien race in the Trek universe: in addition to playing the Vulcan, Sarek, he also played a Romulan Commander in the TOS episode "Balance of Terror" (in that role, he was the first Romulan ever seen in the series) and he played a Klingon captain in the first attack group seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and thus was one of, if not the first "new style" Klingons (i.e., with the forehead prothstetics) to be seen in the Star Trek franchise.

Len on 03.14.05 @ 07:17 PM CST