Star Trek: Start to Finish

Assignment: Earth

Assignment: Earth (HD Video; Memory Alpha) starts with the Enterprise in 1968 to conduct historical research. No extraordinary circumstances; they’re just there. Or then, I guess. Time travel being new and interesting is so last season.

But oh no! Someone is beaming onto the Enterprise from a thousand light years away! What the heck!?!

Oh, it’s a guy and a cat. They can’t be all that bad. And “Gary Seven” just wants to go down to Earth and make sure everything turns out like our favorite starship crew remembers it. But how can the crew be so sure that he’s not trying to muck up history? (why the heck are they there, again?)

The rest of the episode involves the crew trying to decide if Gary Seven is a good guy trying to help the Earth or a bad guy trying to screw things up. The audience, though, is almost immediately told that he’s a good guy.

That’s a mistake when you’re viewing this as an episode of Star Trek; the tension would be more interesting if you weren’t told. But this is only nominally an episode of Star Trek; this is really the pilot for another show about the mysterious Mr. Seven and his spunky twenty-year-old secretary, and the Enterprise crew is largely relegated to reacting as those two do the interesting parts of the episode.

And I’ve got to say, Gary Seven would have been a pretty neat show. Gary is a good leading man and has a lot of moves that make him fun to watch. The spunky secretary is a bit of an overdone trope but isn’t played too far here; her primary role is as exasperated modern and she does that well.

The show has a heavy dose of Trek (pacifism; utopianism; light humor) but has some decidedly un-Trek aspects: Gary’s computer isn’t cooperative and gives him guff when he’s terse; Gary has no problem lying and sneaking around; the secretary actually wears clothes.

Overall, it’s a good episode, but not great. I’m a little sad the spinoff never went anywhere (at least in the canon).

Grade as Star Trek

B+

Grade as Pilot

A

Journey to Babel

Journey to Babel (Memory Alpha; SD Video) starts with the Enterprise picking up the Vulcan Ambassador to the Federation, Sarek. He comes on, is a little cold and a little rude to Spock, and then we learn that he’s Spock’s dad.

The Enterprise, you see, is picking up delegates to convene and decide if a new planet will be allowed to join the Federation. Everyone is traveling toward Babel, where the conference will take place. As such, this episode seems like part one of a two-parter, but the second part would have been more political and more challenging, and was never shot. I’m not sure if that’s because it would have been too political (which Trek mostly skirts) or because it would have been too challenging (involving lots of stuff Trek mostly skimps on, like big sets and nitty gritty details).

But in the course of talking a little bit about politics, we get this from Kirk:

Kirk: [In] Star Fleet force is used only as a last resort: we’re an instrument of civilization. And it’s a better opportunity for a scientist to study the universe than he could get at the Vulcan Science Academy.

This plays quite nicely into my view of the Federation as an interplanetary UN. It is also pretty much completely at odds with the series so far. The Enterprise does go on the occasional scientific expedition, but is just as often a warship looking for a fight. It fits very closely to what I would have told you about Star Trek before watching TOS closely, and it’s stated quite clearly in Next Generation, but I’m sorry to say that it’s not as explicit as it could be, or as obvious as I think Roddenberry thought it was.

This episode also goes to great lengths to make Spock a little more alien:

McCoy: [Spock, you had] a teddy bear!
Spock: Not exactly, Doctor. On Vulcan, the teddy bears are alive. And they have six inch fangs.

Seriously, that’s just bullshit. It would be incredibly illogical to give a youngster anything alive, let alone something with six inch fangs.

Also, this:

Telerek: There will be payment for your slander, Sarek!
Sarek: Threats are illogical.

Again, that’s just crazytalk. Threats are incredibly logical: they are a way of stating your position in such a way that the opposite party is aware of your intentions and the price you expect to exact for noncompliance. This could just be bluster, but Sarek is a freakin’ ambassador; he should know how threats work.

And why can’t they replicate blood?

Focus…

But we’re getting lost in the weeds, here. This episode is really rather good. It’s not as political as it first appears, which is disappointing but par for the course. It continues the trend of putting more moving parts into the picture than early episodes, which is great; the beginning of the show felt like it was trying too hard to fill airtime, but with the introduction of B-plots, layered mysteries, and progressive revelations the pacing has really gotten a thousand times better.

Grade

A

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis (Memory Alpha; SD Video) really doesn’t have anything to do with a metamorphosis, but it’s a good enough episode that we can forgive it a misleading title.

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have picked up a Starfleet Commissioner, who was acting as a diplomat to stop a war when she caught Sakuro’s Disease. Now, she needs to get back to the Enterprise to be treated, or she’ll die.

Why didn’t they pick her up in the Enterprise, you ask? Well, because if they had the episode wouldn’t work. So instead they’re in a shuttlecraft. And their shuttlecraft is easily abducted by a shimmering field of energy, which takes them to a planetoid not too far away.

Begin Spoilers

There they meet Zefram Cochrane, inventor of the warp drive, who disappeared 150 years ago, at the age of 87. But here he is looking hale but bored on this planetoid in the middle of nowhere.

He’s survived because that shimmering energy field is The Companion, and it has healed him, cared for him, and loved him for all that time.

End Spoilers

This episode deals in the currency of love. What does it mean to love? Can love be stifling, and can the lover be made to realize it? Whom can you love?

These are all interesting questions, but they’re not enough to fill up the episode. But here, for a rare change, that doesn’t matter. This is a leisurely paced episode that pulls off the slow burn. You feel the truth of it when Cochrane claims that “immortality consists mostly of boredom.” And the grinding pace makes it obvious that this story– which has been going on for decades before this episode begins– is a slow burn itself, and it’s not a comfortable one. But it is worth telling.

Grade

A

Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror (Memory Alpha; SD Video) is that episode where they go to the alternate universe where everyone has a goatee.

Except only Spock has a goatee.

Now, everyone remembers the savage-alternate-universe thing, but it’s played rather nicely as a foil against the planet this episode takes place in orbit of. The inhabitants are a peaceful people who are refusing to give their dilithium crystals to the Federation, because they as a people are pacifists. The episode begins with Kirk’s assurance that the Federation can be trusted with the crystals, since they are good guys. And immediately we’re thrown into the goatee universe, where no one is a good guy.

Begin Spoilers

Except the one guy with a goatee. Chekov attempts to assassinate Kirk, and fails. Sulu does, too. So all the foreigners are sinister in the mirror universe, but the jewish guy is alright. There’s some subtext here, and it’s not buried very deep.

End Spoilers

There’s also a nice talk by Kirk about society, and how harmonious living is beneficial for all and sustainable, whereas the kill-or-be-killed mirror universe is destined for destruction down it’s path of constant sorrow. I read this as Kirk’s preëmptive rhetorical strike against the neoconservatives. Especially this bit, which seems rather prophetic:

Kirk: Conquest is easy; control is not. We may have bitten off more than we can chew.

Also, Uhura is actually important this episode. She gets not one but two good scenes, and a fight sequence. She almost but doesn’t say that she’s frightened. She actually makes a difference.

And Marlena is another female character who’s interesting and strong and smart, who takes a stand. She’s a love interest, but not really; her interest is the other Kirk, and the internal conflict she plays with “our” Kirk is well done.

All told, this is a strong episode. The mirror universe is cheesy, but not really more so than the “actual” universe. And the mechanics for interdimensional travel are all sorts of vague while also being a snap for the computer to calculate. But if you overlook that, it’s well-constructed and does a fine job.

Grade

A

Amok Time

Amok Time (Memory Alpha; SD Video) is that one episode where Spock goes into heat and goes crazier than a Aldebran Shellmouth.

Spock needs to get back to Vulcan. And by “needs” I mean “orders the ship to redirect there behind Kirk’s back.” By “needs” I mean “can’t recall subverting the chain of command because he’s all crazy on the inside.”

Speaking of crazy, season two is crazy! They moved the writer and director credits to the opening credits. This makes perfect sense; the writing is the strongest part of this show. And they picked up dozens of props that now line all the walls, making the formerly utilitarian crew quarters look like something that people live in. And they got moodier lighting and weirder music.

They even bought an entire new cast member, Chekov! And they gave him some good lines:

Sulu: How do you figure it, Chekov? First we’re going to Vulcan. Then we’re going to Altair. Then we’re headed to Vulcan again, and now we’re headed back to Altair.
Chekov: I think I’m going to get space sick.

Another new thing they brought in is the Vulcan salute. We see it here when Spock finally gets to Vulcan and greets the others.

But they didn’t buy any acting lessons for Shatner. In the most glaring example of der haltingspreken yet, we get this beautiful line:

Kirk: Why…
must he die?
Why…
within eight days?
Explain!

However, amidst all this novelty is a pretty great story. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are all established characters at this point, and this episode makes perfect use of them, really fleshing out the relationship that they share. This trio is what makes Trek approachable, and here they are in fine form at this task. It was perfect to slot this in as episode one of the new season; new viewers will have an easy in and old viewers will remember what they liked.

Grade

A