To easily sum it up, this is a very swiss-cheesy episode. The cheesy part is easy to see, with what the limited number of manufactured units show themselves to be... dangerous-- the samurai, the bomber plane, the tiger, the knight; antagonistic-- Don Juan, Finnegan, the revolver; earth-reality-- the birds; child's fantasy-- the white rabbit and Alice, and the damsel outfit; and sexual pleasure-- Ruth and the fan-girls.
Interesting. But the holes in the swiss cheese begin with trying to sort out how the particular thoughts are selected to be 'manufactured.' The first products, the rabbit and Alice, must come from Dr. McCoy's saying the place makes him think of something from Alice in Wonderland. But before then, he and Sulu were talking about there being no animal life on the planet. Why didn't all kinds of animals suddenly come out of the bushes? Perhaps the thoughts were not specific enough?
Obviously, whether they were thinking about something real or something fictional did not matter. But if it were a question of specific overriding thoughts at the time, one would think a counterfeit Enterprise would show up. And as their communications were jammed, they were thinking strongly about renewing contact. Wonder why that 'wish' wasn't granted-- well, for a while. And before Spock beamed down, he would have been Kirk's thought, as least as much as Finnegan or Ruth; yet a manufactured Spock didn't appear. Perhaps the manifestation had to be something completely unavailable in reality to avoid making that planet a universal crime source?
But maybe the biggest hole is in knowing the personality and operations of the manifestations. From viewer's perspective, the parts are 'all there.' Else, Kirk might have been in for some big surprise when he got 'Ruth' all alone. I suppose we can acquiesce that his thoughts of the female body were quite accurate, but to what extent was 'she' a living being who would have been better than the real thing? Better in that there was no disagreement to win, nothing contrary to what he wanted her to be... but if he kept her long enough, could she have actually have gotten pregnant with a human child? I assume not, as we learn from their analyzing the knight that his tissue was the same as the plant life there. But if a woman's fantasy there was to be impregnated by Mark Antony or Elvis Presley, could she have been? On that I also assume not, as the caretaker declared, "None of this is permanent..."
Well, as I title this, "Just for fun." You can't think too much about it. Like an earth amusement park (as Spock mentioned), you can retain the experiences in your memory, but you can't take home the monsters from the fright house.
Interesting. But the holes in the swiss cheese begin with trying to sort out how the particular thoughts are selected to be 'manufactured.' The first products, the rabbit and Alice, must come from Dr. McCoy's saying the place makes him think of something from Alice in Wonderland. But before then, he and Sulu were talking about there being no animal life on the planet. Why didn't all kinds of animals suddenly come out of the bushes? Perhaps the thoughts were not specific enough?
Obviously, whether they were thinking about something real or something fictional did not matter. But if it were a question of specific overriding thoughts at the time, one would think a counterfeit Enterprise would show up. And as their communications were jammed, they were thinking strongly about renewing contact. Wonder why that 'wish' wasn't granted-- well, for a while. And before Spock beamed down, he would have been Kirk's thought, as least as much as Finnegan or Ruth; yet a manufactured Spock didn't appear. Perhaps the manifestation had to be something completely unavailable in reality to avoid making that planet a universal crime source?
But maybe the biggest hole is in knowing the personality and operations of the manifestations. From viewer's perspective, the parts are 'all there.' Else, Kirk might have been in for some big surprise when he got 'Ruth' all alone. I suppose we can acquiesce that his thoughts of the female body were quite accurate, but to what extent was 'she' a living being who would have been better than the real thing? Better in that there was no disagreement to win, nothing contrary to what he wanted her to be... but if he kept her long enough, could she have actually have gotten pregnant with a human child? I assume not, as we learn from their analyzing the knight that his tissue was the same as the plant life there. But if a woman's fantasy there was to be impregnated by Mark Antony or Elvis Presley, could she have been? On that I also assume not, as the caretaker declared, "None of this is permanent..."
Well, as I title this, "Just for fun." You can't think too much about it. Like an earth amusement park (as Spock mentioned), you can retain the experiences in your memory, but you can't take home the monsters from the fright house.