May 2009
47 posts
1 tag
7 tags
The Return of the Archons
The Return of the Archons (Memory Alpha; SD Video) takes our favorite crew to Beta III, where the Archon disappeared a century ago. There they find a society without war, without fighting and populated by people with only happy thoughts. Kirk immediately sets out to destroy it.
Which is ironic, since this is the first time we hear about the “Prime Directive.” Spock doesn’t want...
2 tags
6 tags
Court Martial
Court Martial (Memory Alpha; HD Video) is a Trek-flavored courtroom drama, and it pulls it off.
The Enterprise has just been through an ion storm, and a crewman has died. But the computer claims that Kirk jettisoned the ion probe before he needed to, so a court martial is convened. Did Kirk kill the crewman?
This episode keeps up its tension quite nicely, and even has a plot twist that I...
1 tag
3 tags
Tomorrow is Yesterday
Tomorrow is Yesterday (Memory Alpha; SD Video) is incredibly promising, but suffers by putting the crew into such a bad position that the way they get out of it has to be contrived and dumb.
This, as you can tell, is a time travel episode. The Enterprise accidentally slingshots around a “black star” and ends up in the 60s. There, they are spotted by Captain Christopher of the US Air...
2 tags
Whither Star Trek Remastered?
CBS used to provide the entire first season of Star Trek Remastered, but now when I go there it’s just five episodes. All the old links to individual episodes from my previous posts still work; the episodes just don’t show up on the index page. Weird.
4 tags
Kirk versus Spock on Retaliation
Arena sees another in the long-running dialogs between Kirk, who jumps immediately to a “Kill ‘em all” stance, and Spock, who wants to show all sentient creatures compassion. This is an undercurrent with particular implications on this episode, but it’s been present in a lot of episodes and it’s something I don’t remember from my occasional viewings before...
2 tags
5 tags
Arena
Arena (Memory Alpha; SD Video) is that episode where Kirk fights the big green lizard-suited guy. And it’s both just as bad as you think it is, and not at all.
The command staff is about to beam down to the outpost on Cestus III, and are looking forward to a nice welcome from the commodore, who’s got a reputation for hospitality:
McCoy: I, for one, could use a non-reconstituted...
3 tags
5 tags
The Squire of Gothos
One of the few episodes I remember in it’s entirety, The Squire of Gothos (Memory Alpha; SD Video) brings our fearless crew to a rogue planet that isn’t on any of the maps. And when they get close enough to investigate, Sulu and Kirk disappear from the bridge.
Begin Spoilers
It soon becomes apparent that they’ve been captured by a man on the planet that has been studying...
2 tags
1 tag
5 tags
The Galileo Seven
I might have enjoyed The Galileo Seven (Memory Alpha; HD Video) if not for CBS’s woeful servers. Every night around 11pm PST their server farm seems to overload and melt. This lasts for somewhere between an hour and three, but during that time it’s pretty much hopeless to try to watch anything: it’s a second of video, two seconds of loading, repeat.
To add to that misery, this...
2 tags
4 tags
Shore Leave
This episode is just plain silly. The crew is tired, so McCoy and some other officers are exploring an idyllic, uninhabited world to see if it’s a good place to take some Shore Leave (Memory Alpha; HD Video). But this world is neither idyllic not uninhabited. That much is clear as soon as McCoy sees a White Rabbit, followed along by Alice.
Yes, really.
Begin Spoilers
Other crewmen...
2 tags
6 tags
The Balance of Terror
Balance of Terror (Memory Alpha; HD Video) is the first episode to show the Romulans and the first to show space combat. It feels much more like a modern-day show, with a brisk pace, action, and a serious B-Plot. It is easily the best episode since The Naked Time.
My friend Gabe talks about his racial sensitivity class at work being taught using a Star Trek episode, and this is that episode....
1 tag
4 tags
The Conscience of the King
If the William Shatner that exists only in the worst stereotypes was allowed to ghost-write an episode of Star Trek, what he would write would be The Conscience of the King (Memory Alpha; HD Video).
Badly written, poorly paced, and terribly acted, this episode is a mystery where you know who did it and how, and the only question is when Kirk will decide to do something about it. There’s a...
1 tag
9 tags
The Menagerie, Part II
The Menagerie, Part II (Memory Alpha; HD Video; Review of Part I) starts with a ‘previously on’ for the first time.
Begin Spoilers
Pike is trying to escape from the Talosians, and the Talosians are using their mind powers to show him pleasant lies in hopes that he’ll stay and be in their zoo to teach them how to live, since they’ve forgotten. The crew try to rescue...
1 tag
7 tags
The Menagerie, Part I
There’s mischief afoot, and you know exactly how it ends because this is one of the most famous episodes of TOS ever: The Menagerie, Part I (Memory Alpha; HD Video). And let me tell you, knowing the reason everything is happening is kind of detrimental to the suspense.
Kirk and Spock arrive at Starbase 11, summoned by a call from command. But there was no call, insists the starbase. All...
3 tags
1 tag
6 tags
The Corbomite Maneuver
When you’re being tormented by multihued geometric objects, you have to take drastic action. The only thing that can save you is… The Corbomite Maneuver! (Memory Alpha; HD Video)
Aside from the (somewhat intentional) silliness of being chased by shapes, this episode is actually pretty good. But CBS.com decided to be terribly laggy today; it took me about two and a half hours to get...
1 tag
2 tags
Deep Thought
How is anyone supposed to work their way up the command chain when the captain does all the work himself?
6 tags
Dagger of the Mind
Dagger of the Mind (Memory Alpha; HD Video) take our favorite crew to Tantalus Penal Colony, where they’re dropping off supplies and picking up a box full of records. Except that there’s actually an escaped prisoner in the box. Whoops!
This episode contains a couple of significant “firsts:” it’s the first time we’re told that the transporter can’t work...
5 tags
Miri
Miri (Wikipedia; HD Video) is an okay episode with one glaring flaw: the Enterprise finds an exact duplicate of Earth where the only survivors are children.
Wait, what? An exact duplicate of Earth? Why? Why would that exist? There’d better be a great explanation for this, some alien copy-ray or a race of crazed world-builder mice.
But there isn’t. It’s just a duplicate of...
3 tags
TOS Plotting
One of the things that all the episodes have done really, really well so far is tie the characters that span episodes into the action of the current episode. McCoy is visiting an old flame, Nurse Chapel is, too. One of Kirk’s oldest friends has something terribly wrong with him and Spock loses his inhibitions and cannot stay logical.
It’s truly one of the strengths of the show, and...
1 tag
5 tags
What Are Little Girls Made Of?
Nurse Chapel had a fiancé, Roger Korby, and the Enterprise is on a mission to find him in What Are Little Girls Made Of? (Wikipedia; HD Video).
Roger hasn’t been heard of in five years, but Nurse Chapel believes that he’s still alive. And sure enough, he hails the ship right when they arrive! (It would be a pretty boring episode otherwise; just a quick “no answer;...
1 tag
6 tags
Mudd's Women
The Enterprise is chasing down a ship, and on it are Mudd’s Women (Wikipedia; HD Video). Mudd (alias Leo Walsh) is beamed aboard with three beautiful women moments before their ship is destroyed by an asteroid.
But the Enterprise burnt out all but one of their dilithium crystals chasing “that jackass Walsh,” to borrow Scotty’s phrase. So they set course for Rigel XII to...
2 tags
6 tags
The Enemy Within
The Enemy Within (Wikipedia; HD Video) is the first of many Doppelgänger episodes. In this one, the evil copy is distinguished by use of eye makeup. No, I’m serious.
A transporter accident splits Kirk into two; one side is his higher functions and the other his baser instincts. All the Captain’s horses and all the Captain’s men have to find a way to put Kirk back together...
7 tags
The Naked Time
Without question, The Naked Time (Wikipedia; HD Video) is the best of the episodes I’ve seen so far.
Spock and Joey go down to an outpost to see why they aren’t responding, and they find that everyone died doing crazy things. Joey gets goo on him and brings the crazy back to the Enterprise.
The crazy removes inhibitions, so the actors get to explore their characters without having...
6 tags
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Where No Man Has Gone Before (Wikipedia; HD Video) was the second pilot, after The Cage was rejected by CBS’s execs. And there are a slew of little oddities that make it stand out as different.
Let’s start with the weird turtleneck costumes the Starfleet officers wear. The color coding is established and consistent (with the exception of Spock, who wears the command colors in this...
4 tags
Charlie X
Charlie Evans is the 17-year-old sole survivor of a transport crash 14 years ago. And ominous music plays every time he’s onscreen.
Charlie X (Wikipedia; SD Video) sets quite a different tone than The Man Trap; where before it was all suspense, the first half of this episode is farce (including a musical number with Uhura), and the second half tragedy.
Begin Spoilers
Charlie, you...
3 tags
The Man Trap
I’ve been thinking for some time that it would be fun to watch Star Trek from beginning to end: every episode of every series, and each movie. I’ve seen some of them before, but it’s not in any way exhaustive. I thought it’d be fun to record my reactions as I watch, and this is where I’ll do so. But I’m warning you: I’m busy, so this won’t be a quick...