Star Trek: Start to Finish

The Cloud Minders

The Cloud Minders (Video; YouTube; Memory Alpha) brings us to Ardana, the only known source of zenite, needed to stop an agricultural plague. But when they get there, the crew is attacked by the miners!

The local government (played very well) is hush-hush about why the miners are upset, and try to play it off as a simple uprising. But it soon becomes evident (in multiple ways, including a terrible voice over by Spock) that Ardana is a bifurcated society with the workers oppressed by an upper class who literally lives in the clouds.

There’s a lot of great stuff in this episode. There’s prejudice and class, torture and diplomacy, intrigue and technobabble. There’s even a teleporter that uses a new special effect for no apparent reason.

But in the end it’s weak tea. The problem isn’t prejudice; it’s this magic gas that McCoy finds easily but has gone undiscovered forever. The ruling class really is smarter and really is right to rule; the working class really is dumber and are doomed to just go on working the mines, but now with gas masks. And neither side learns a lesson about anything; they aren’t even sure they believe in the gas, let alone their mistaken assumptions about each other. In short, this episode tries to say lots of big important things and gets in its own way while making it a sci-fi.

Grade

C

Kirk’s Empathy

Kirk will and does go to great lengths for those he cares about, and that empathy is what makes Kirk an interesting character.

He is at his best when he’s fighting against long odds to help those he feels responsible for, because it’s when he stops being an action hero and starts being a guy you root for. His empathy is what connects you into the story, because you want him to succeed in his efforts to protect the other characters.

The flip side is Kirk’s empathy for those he’s just met. There are countless episodes where the crew discovers some enslaved group or oppressed minority or hoodwinked populace and Kirk just wants them to be free. His desire for everyone everywhere to have control of their own destiny is the motive force that drives the series, and it reflects the core ideals behind the show: that sixties-America binge of freedom as unadulterated good, as the axis around which everything turns.

That Kirk is a starship captain is the most fitting piece of the puzzle; he is freedom incarnate, zooming around the galaxy doing things that he wants to do because he thinks that doing them is awesome. That his adventures so often find him freeing people from bondage or escaping bondage himself is part and parcel of the enterprise.

The Gamesters of Triskelion

The Gamesters of Triskelion (Memory Alpha; SD Video) is another episode where the crew gets kidnapped and must escape their cage.

It all starts with the familiar BOING of alien transporters in action.

Then Kirk, Chekov, and Uhura are surrounded by four warriors.

Naturally, Kirk and Chekov take one guy each, leaving Uhura to take the two pike-weilding women.

Once subdued, the crew learns their fate: they are to stay here and fight for the amusement of the Providers, who will bet quatloos on the outcomes.

Yes, quatloos!

Kirk does his normal people-want-to-be-free schtick, kisses a girl, and ends up in a fight against three warriors with the fate of the whole crew hanging in the balance.

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Kirk wins.

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There are a few things interesting about this episode. The relationship between Kirk and Shahna is the primary one. Kirk, pulling his freedom-is-great move, tries to convince her to help foment rebellion, or at least give him enough information that he can do so. She just doesn’t understand. She knows the fighting culture and nothing else; in a very real way, she’s like a child who has no understanding of the world outside the screwed up game she lives in. So what does Kirk do? He convinces her that she should love him.

That’s pretty close to abuse, I think. Here’s an innocent with no understanding of the consequences of her actions (because she has no agency; they aren’t really her actions), and no understanding that actions have consequences. And Kirk plays with her trust.

Can we talk about slavery?

The other interesting bit is the very obvious parallel with slavery here, and the complete lack of engagement this episode has with the topic. In a lot of episodes the crew is enslaved in some way, but there has yet to be a case where narrative is more than just “let’s get free because we like freedom.” Slavery in Star Trek is a short-term annoyance overcome by clever talk, and the only impact it has is to mess up those other people who’ve been denied the sweet nectar of freedom. The slavers are never dealt with. The corruption of that power structure is assumed but never examined. The long-term after effects are never even thought about. For an issue that we return to so often, how do we avoid talking about it so much?

Grade

C; mostly for the saccharine sweet ending, and the treacly lead up to it

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.

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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.

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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

I, Mudd

I, Mudd (Memory Alpha; SD Video) features the return of Harcourt Fenton Mudd. But first, we see that whoever designed the Enterprise was an idiot.

I mean, who puts auxiliary control so far away, leaves it manned by a single guy facing away from the only entrance, and gives it complete override of the bridge? Because that guys should be fired.

Aside from the poor design of the Enterprise, though, this episode is pretty good. And that’s after another lag-filled viewing experience.

Let’s start right off with this bit of dialog, which you can click on to hear the full effect:

Kirk: In the meantime, would you mind leaving us?
Androids: Why should we leave you?
Kirk: Because. We don’t like you. Now: boo-boo-boo-boop!

But as to the actual story, this episode doesn’t stand head and shoulders above its peers, but it’s a neat idea: what if the androids from What Are Little Girls Made Of were still around by the thousands, looking for someone to serve, and they found Harry Mudd?

And then, what if they found him wanting? What if they wanted more humans to serve? And here’s the kicker: what if they were actually good at serving? So good that it’s tempting to just sit around and let them do the work while you play with their awesome technology? Would you really object to it?

Kirk does. Kirk’s on this whole necessity-of-freedom thing. And I agree with Kirk. And although they could make the just-say-yes decision a little more tempting than they do, this episode handles that basic problem well: is technology a aide to being truly human, or a distraction? Does too much technology tip the balance? And how much is too much?

Grade

B+

The Apple

The Apple (Memory Alpha; SD Video), disappointly, contains not a single Apple product. This might be explained by the episode being originally aired some fifteen years before Apple was founded, but I thought Star Trek took place in the future.

Now, even if I forgive the suspicious lack of futuristic iProducts, this episode is kind of terrible.

The Enterprise is circling Gamma Trianguli VI, and a landing party is sent down. They think it’s paradise. But obviously, it’s not; one of the crewmen is killed by a poisonous plant and the world seems to be attacking the landing party and pulling the Enterprise out of its orbit.

There’s a lot of wandering here where absolutely nothing happens.

Then they find the natives. This brings us to…

Best Bit of Dialog

[Natives wrap flowers around Spock’s arm]
Kirk: It does something for you.
Spock: Yes, Captain: it makes me uncomfortable.

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We learn that the Natives serve Vaal, who appears to be a machine that controls the entire world. They feed him exploding rocks to keep him running. The solution to all the problems in this episode is violence, and it works.

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This episode has nothing going for it. It tries to work the mistaken paradise angle but just ends up looking lame. It tries to play the should-we-intervene card but is overridden by the impending-danger card. It tries to discuss utilitarianism vs idealism and which is the better method for determining the crew’s course of action, but gets shot down because everyone is about to die. But most of all, it just has no conflict. The baddie is faceless, the henchmen are clueless, the plot starts about two-thirds of the way in, and the resolution involves no insight and no clever tricks.

Grade

F

Who Mourns for Adonais?

Who Mourns for Adonais? (Memory Alpha; SD Video) is a rather smart little episode where the Enterprise stumbles upon the hiding place of the Greek God Apollo.

To fulfill the corny quota, he stops them with his giant green space-hand. Then he requests the officers to join him on his planet. Kirk and friends oblige. Chekov, who as far as I know isn’t an officer, gets to come along for his first on-screen away mission.

Apollo wants the crew to stay and worship him, to be his servants and he their protector. Pretty standard stuff.

But this episode gets at a few deeper points. Gene Roddenberry was a staunch atheist, and held fast to the idea that in his future, humanity had progressed beyond a belief in gods. This episode tilts heavily toward this viewpoint, but at one point, Kirk quips that “mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate.” So it appears that there’s still at least a monotheistic view still surviving.

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And in the final line of the episode, Kirk wonders aloud if they had tried to learn a bit from Apollo by behaving for a while, as thanks for services rendered five thousand years ago. Kirk and Bones obviously acknowledge that Apollo was an important part of their racial history, and they know that they should respect that more than they do.

This episode also waxes poetic about another of Roddenberry’s favorites, how humanity must stick together. It’s well known that before he died Roddenberry decreed that no Trek would feature wars among the humans. And here, we have Kirk talk at length– and rather well– about what connects the Earthlings.

Kirk: Give me your hand. Your hand! Now feel that. Human flesh against human flesh. We’re the same: we share the same history, the same heritage, the same lives. We’re tied together beyond any untying. Man or woman, it makes no difference: we’re human, we couldn’t escape from one another even if we wanted to. That’s how you do it, lieutenant: by remembering who and what you are, a bit of flesh and blood afloat in a universe without end and the only thing that’s truly yours is the rest of humanity. That’s where our duty lies.

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But a side plot of this episode is just bizarre. It starts out in the cold open with this dialog:

McCoy: Lieutenant, you look a bit tired this morning.
Pretty Young Thing: Well I was up all night working on this report, sir.
Scotty: Well in that case there’s nothing like a wee bit of coffee to get you back in shape. Join me, Caroline?
Pretty Young Thing: All right, Scotty. Just let me give this to Mr. Spock.
Kirk: Bones, could you get that excited about a cup of coffee?
McCoy: Well even from here I can tell his pulse rate’s up.
Scotty: Gentlemen!
Scotty: [To the Pretty Young Thing] Come along, my dear.
McCoy: I’m not sure I like that, Jim.
Kirk: Why, Bones? Scotty’s a Good Man.
McCoy: And he thinks he’s the right man for her. But I’m not sure she thinks he’s the right man. On the other hand, she’s a woman. All woman. One day she’ll find the right man; off she’ll go. Out of the service.
Kirk: Um-hm. I like to think of it not so much as losing an officer as gaining a… [Beat] Actually, I’m losing an officer.

All alone, this is just a bit of banter. But in the full context of the series, it’s a tipping point. This show treats women terribly. There are no strong female characters. Yeoman Rand was the closest they came, and they axed her character midway through the first season. When a woman appears, she’s inevitably a love interest for someone, and she often has some special skillset that the crew needs but that she neglects because she’s smitten.

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This episode fits this formula perfectly, and then at the end throws in a surprising strength on the woman’s part. On the one hand it’s admirable that she gets to be the one who saves the entire crew, but on the other hand the audience is led to believe that you can’t trust her to do her job, because she’s a girl.

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In spite of it’s shortcomings, however, this is a well-done episode that manages to talk about multiple topics while keeping an interesting plot aloft. Good job.

Grade

A-

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 to disrupt the society, despite them holding the landing party captive and threatening to kill them and destroy the Enterprise. And thus begins a long line where the Prime Directive is basically just something that gets mentioned before being ignored.

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I have no idea what this “Red Hour” “Festival” thing is in the beginning. How does that fit into anything, aside from giving the audience the heebie-jeebies?

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But aside from that one (large) loose end, this episode holds together nicely. It tells a simple story well, and explores how oppression happens, and how hard it is to rebel against what appears to be “The Good.”

Grade

A-

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.

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It soon becomes apparent that they’ve been captured by a man on the planet that has been studying Earth, but (due to his being 900 light years from Earth) has made a slight miscalculation about how advanced humans are.

He’s also kind of petulant. He has the power to create and destroy things at will, and can stop the crew in their tracks if they attempt anything. It’s up to Kirk to outsmart him. Which they do, two or three times. This could be repetitive, but instead has a nice ever-rising stakes feel to it.

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Indeed, a recurring problem with TOS is that a lot of episodes don’t have enough content to keep a brisk pace. This episode (along with The Balance of Terror) manages to fill the time with escalation, which works well. Others don’t pull it off.

Grade

B+

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.

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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 him, but only get stuck themselves. In the end, the Talosians decide that humans are more trouble than they’re worth, and it’ll be easier if the entire Talosian race just slowly fades away.

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The most interesting parts are the what-might-have-beens from the flashbacks to the original pilot.

Pike: My name is Christopher Pike. Commander of the space vessel Enterprise from a star group at the other end of this galaxy.

But of course, in canon Star Trek they’re only in the Alpha Quadrant, and Voyager gets in real trouble when they end up on the other end of the galaxy.

Random Enterprise Crewman: Now that entryway might have stood up against hand lasers, but we can transmit the ships’ power against it. Enough energy to blast half a continent!

Aside from being a neat excuse to trot out a laser canon, this kind of goes against everything I remember about the military capabilities of the Enterprise. Star Destroyers slag planets with turbolasers and Centauri Battlecruisers fling asteroids down on helpless people, but the Enterprise is a science vessel made for science missions, and it doesn’t have the capability to destroy planets.

Spock: All Decks prepare for hyperdrive!

Mr. Spock, don’t you mean “Warp Factor 7,” like you said in Part I? I mean, at least be consistent in the episode. 7 is already way higher than the Enterprise goes in any other episode.

Grade

B+; I liked it in spite of myself, and I did actually forget one of the plot twists, which was a nice surprise.