The Way to Eden (Video; YouTube; Memory Alpha) is full of hippies. Clad in even-more-graish-than-usual and slightly-more-revealing-than-usual attire, sporting lots of hair and odd medallions, the Space Hippies are following Dr. Sevrin and looking for Eden. They’ve hijacked a space cruiser and the Enterprise is hot on their tail; quick work is made of the chase and they’re brought on board after a tractor beam tug-of-war causes the cruiser to explode.
Yes, the Enterprise was told to go get a hijacked ship and blew it up. No one bats an eye at this.
Then they have to put up with the Space Hippies once they’re onboard complaining about their freedoms being impinged and calling everyone Herbert. The episode does a good job of portraying them as fools under the control of Sevrin, who Spock quickly determines is insane. What evidence does he have? Oh, he talked to him.
But there’s some sedition going on, lots of talking about who people are and what they want. The Space Hippies bring people out and get ‘em going. And then they take over the ship to go to Eden.
It all goes awry, of course, but not because the crew stops them; Eden isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and Sevrin actually is all sorts of crazy.
But this episode is actually pretty good, if you can get past the ridiculously over-the-top nature of the Space Hippies and the more-than-occasional folksy musical interlude (with songs that aren’t half bad, truth be told). The story is simple but interesting, the characters get a lot of screen time to talk, and the situation is relevant. If anything I’d play up the Space Hippies legitimate beefs with the “modern” era (regimented society, technological omnipresence, constant war) and stretch out the end, but neither is possible without cutting something else, so I’m giving them a pass there.
Grade
B+
The Enterprise Incident (Memory Alpha; HD Video) finds Kirk taking our favorite starship deep into Romulan territory because he was bored. They are immediately surrounded by Romulans.
This episode is incredibly predictable, and continues the long line of episodes where a woman in a major role neglects her duties because she’s smitten. The woman in this case is the Romulan fleet commander, and her neglect lets our heros win the day, but only because they play the woman’s emotions against her. If a Romulan woman came aboard the Enterprise, Kirk would see through the same trick so quickly it wouldn’t be worth building an episode around.
This is all the more shameful because Joanne Linville plays a very interesting Romulan; a warrior and an executive, wanting passion but ambitious. But her bounds as a character shrink with every line she utters. The gender stereotypes slowly eat away at what starts as a command performance until there’s nothing left by my retrospective sadness that this show that was so progressive in so many ways was still held hostage to Gene Roddenberry’s personal vices.
Awesome Dialog
Commander: How could you do this to me? Who are you that you could do this?
Spock: First Officer of the Enterprise.
[She slaps him]
Spock: [Unflinching] What is your present mode of execution?
Two technical notes: First, the Enterprise here goes Warp 9, which should blow the ship up. Second, this episode features a lot of beaming onto and off of shielded ships, which should be impossible.
Grade
D
The Deadly Years (Memory Alpha; SD Video) is the obligatory aging-too-quickly episode. What’s that? They already did one? No, this one’s different. In that one, they were trying to avoid aging. In this one, they actually do age.
And snark aside, this episode, which should be terrible, is actually pretty good.
Basically, it’s a pean to Kirk. By aging the captain, they get to show all the little details that distinguish him from a hypothetical older self. If he were a little slower, a little more forgetful, or a little less calculating it could all fall apart. And to top it all off, they show exactly what would happen with another guy in the big swivelly chair.
And for an added benefit, they bring back the Corbomite Maneuver!
Best Bit of Ironic Dialog
Spock: Doctor I have made the necessary computations and produced this serum. It is crude, and dangerous, but we have no time for refinements.
McCoy: Alright! Let’s uh- let’s go!
Spock: It could cure. Or kill, Doctor.
McCoy: Don’t give me any Vulcan de-tails, Spock! Just gimme the shot!
I love that the fact that they may be taking a vial of poison is not just a detail, but a Vulcan detail. Who cares about the difference between medicine and poison? Vulcans! Pfft!
Grade
B+
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. Here the Enterprise crew gets humanity’s first glimpse of the Romulans, and to their surprise, they look like Spock. In the episode this causes all sorts of suspicions, and I can see how it would inform a good class, because that’s exactly what it’s supposed to do.
But better is that the Romulans are treated as a worthy enemy. They are not the usual mad scientist or creepy weirdos; they are a race of honorable warriors who follow a call of duty, much like the TNG representation of the Klingons.
The episode proper is a chase with fight scenes interspersed throughout. There are tactics and tricks and discoveries, and it’s got a nice rising tension.
But what made it really good was the B-Plot, about two crewmen whose wedding Kirk is to officiate. Their story adds a new humanity to the crew of the Enterprise beyond just the command staff, and makes you remember that there’s over 400 people aboard.
Grade
A+
