When the episode opened with Sulu in period clothing in a setting resembling 1800's earth I was worried this was another time travel episode. Fortunately it was something even stranger. Sulu and another crewman are being hunted down by robed figures with staffs of some kind. Just before beaming to the ship Sulu is touched with a staff and when he is beamed aboard seems to have been brainwashed. After examining him Kirk beams down with a larger away party to figure out what is going on. We also are told the Enterprise is here to investigate the disappearance of the Federation ship Archon one hundred years earlier (I guess they weren't in much of a rush).
All the inhabitants of the planet seem tranquil and brainwashed as hell. They keep talking about some festival and somebody named Landru they hold with godlike reverence. Then suddenly the festival starts and people go nuts. Women are dragged way, windows are smashed and the away team is forced to flee for shelter. Fortunately the place they had randomly recommended to them before the festival happens to belong to a member of the resistance. From him they learn that one hundred years earlier a spaceship arrived and was destroyed by Landru. Kirk is naturally worried by this a contacts Scotty only to learn the Enterprise is being attacked and will lose power in less than 12 hours. Suddenly they are confronted by two hooded lawgivers, but figure out they are acting like machines. Then a holograph of Landru appears and stuns them with a, "hypersonic," attack.
They awaken in prison and soon McCoy has been brainwashed. Kirk is next and it looks to have worked on him too, but when it is time for Spock he learned Kirk wasn't brainwashed because another member of the resistance is in charge of the brainwashing. After being willing to give Kirk and Spock weapons the two resistance members are not quite as excited to actually have to help destroy their beloved Landru. Kirk talks his way into the audience hall however and is again confronted by the hologram. Not taking any guff he blasts a hole in the wall revealing Landru to be a computer built by the original Landru 6000 years earlier. Kirk and Spock pull the old logic trap game and destroy Landru in moments. They leave behind a team of socioligists to help rebuild society.
Review/discussion: There are a number of unaddressed odd features to this episode. I was thinking it would be revealed that the crew of the Archon were the source of humans on this planet, but no, humans just pop up everywhere it turns out. Just one of those TOS things that TNG would have at least addressed I guess. Also, why can the lawgivers brainwash Sulu just by touching him with a staff, but everybody else has to be taken to an indoctrination chamber? Not a bad episode, but also not the best of Trek. As a final note, this is the episode that introduced the Prime Directive, and also introduces ignoring it.
5 out of 10
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
TOS: Court Martial
Today is a sad day for all trek fans, for we have lost the iconic Leonard Nimoy. As much as captain Kirk was clearly the main character of TOS, the most interesting character and the only one who grew as a person before us on screen was Mr. Spock. His ears told anyone who saw him he wasn't quite human, but his dedication to logic and reason set him apart from the chaotic humans around him more than any ear extensions ever could. And at the same time through the course of the television show and movies he also proved to have a human side that inspires all of us.
Today I watched another episode I am pretty sure I have never seen. Like many other episodes Kirk finds himself in a crisis no human seems capable of thinking their way out of, only to be saved by an intervention from Mr. Spock. The episode opens with the Enterprise scarred and damaged from passage through an ion storm. Kirk notes that in addition to damage to his ship he has lost a member of his crew. Down on the planet Kirk meets with the commodore of Starbase 11 to investigate the incident. Spock arrives with the computer records which the commodore examines, and sudden the tone shifts. It appears from the records Kirk jettisoned a pod containing the now deceased crewman before it was necessary. Adding to this it appears this particular member of crew had a grudge against Kirk dating back decades.
There is an initial hearing where to commodore encourages Kirk to take a demotion and let the whole thing go away, but Kirk won't hear of it and demands a court martial. But before that Kirk stops by the Starbase bar for a few drinks where he encounters his beautiful ex-girlfriend. After recommending a good defense attorney she reveals she will be prosecuting the case! The attorney she recommended turns out to be a bit of a Luddite, but that may not be inappropriate in this case.
At the trial Spock testifies that the computer could not have made a mistake, but that he knows it is wrong because he knows the captain. Two more witnesses testify without cross examination before Kirk is called to the stand. He gives an impassioned defense, but is confronted with video evidence. It appears the case is open and shut. During a break Kirk discusses the matter with Spock, and all appears lost but for a comment about chess. Spock takes on the computer in a game of chess and wins, something which shouldn't be possible. The court martial moves to the Enterprise so that the computer itself can testify (which it doesn't, Spock just talks about it in a way he could have in court, but then there would be no drama!). It appears the computer has been tampered with, but three people could have done it: Kirk, Spock, and the dead man. They move to the bridge and evacuate the rest of the ship. Spock rigs up a sound detector that can hear all the heart beats on the ship and then cancels all known heart beats leaving one behind in engineering.
Now for the part that makes not much sense. Kirk goes to engineering alone and gets into a fist fight with the very much not dead man he is accused of killing. It turns out he has sabotaged the ship and again, Kirk can't possibly accept help and has to rewire things just in time to be acquitted. After one parting kiss from the prosecutor the ship is back in business with Kirk proudly in the captains chair.
Review commentary: After all the scifi stories this one is pure character. Both Kirk and Spock are at their best in this episode. I feel like some of it may have been cut explaining better the antics of the space-schoolgirl outfit clad daughter of the alleged dead man, but it doesn't really detract from the episode.
7 out of 10
Today I watched another episode I am pretty sure I have never seen. Like many other episodes Kirk finds himself in a crisis no human seems capable of thinking their way out of, only to be saved by an intervention from Mr. Spock. The episode opens with the Enterprise scarred and damaged from passage through an ion storm. Kirk notes that in addition to damage to his ship he has lost a member of his crew. Down on the planet Kirk meets with the commodore of Starbase 11 to investigate the incident. Spock arrives with the computer records which the commodore examines, and sudden the tone shifts. It appears from the records Kirk jettisoned a pod containing the now deceased crewman before it was necessary. Adding to this it appears this particular member of crew had a grudge against Kirk dating back decades.
There is an initial hearing where to commodore encourages Kirk to take a demotion and let the whole thing go away, but Kirk won't hear of it and demands a court martial. But before that Kirk stops by the Starbase bar for a few drinks where he encounters his beautiful ex-girlfriend. After recommending a good defense attorney she reveals she will be prosecuting the case! The attorney she recommended turns out to be a bit of a Luddite, but that may not be inappropriate in this case.
At the trial Spock testifies that the computer could not have made a mistake, but that he knows it is wrong because he knows the captain. Two more witnesses testify without cross examination before Kirk is called to the stand. He gives an impassioned defense, but is confronted with video evidence. It appears the case is open and shut. During a break Kirk discusses the matter with Spock, and all appears lost but for a comment about chess. Spock takes on the computer in a game of chess and wins, something which shouldn't be possible. The court martial moves to the Enterprise so that the computer itself can testify (which it doesn't, Spock just talks about it in a way he could have in court, but then there would be no drama!). It appears the computer has been tampered with, but three people could have done it: Kirk, Spock, and the dead man. They move to the bridge and evacuate the rest of the ship. Spock rigs up a sound detector that can hear all the heart beats on the ship and then cancels all known heart beats leaving one behind in engineering.
Now for the part that makes not much sense. Kirk goes to engineering alone and gets into a fist fight with the very much not dead man he is accused of killing. It turns out he has sabotaged the ship and again, Kirk can't possibly accept help and has to rewire things just in time to be acquitted. After one parting kiss from the prosecutor the ship is back in business with Kirk proudly in the captains chair.
Review commentary: After all the scifi stories this one is pure character. Both Kirk and Spock are at their best in this episode. I feel like some of it may have been cut explaining better the antics of the space-schoolgirl outfit clad daughter of the alleged dead man, but it doesn't really detract from the episode.
7 out of 10
Thursday, February 26, 2015
TOS: Tomorrow is Yesterday
The first time travel episode! This is another classic episode that I have no memory of seeing before tonight. I was aware that the Kirk and Spock had figured out that time travel was possible by warping around a star in The Voyage Home. Time warp occurs first in TOS on The Naked Time, but it is hardly used to full effect in that episode. Tomorrow is Yesterday is a much better introduction to how time warp works from here forward in Trek and I am sad to have missed out on it for so long!
The episode opens with what looks a whole lot like stock footage of jets from the 60's doing jet stuff. Back on the Enterprise the bridge is in disarray, the ship was pulled in towards a, "black star," (I assume they mean black hole) and when they escaped they flew soooooo fast they ended up back in time! And of course if you are going to be propelled at hypervelocity in a random direction of course you would end up in the atmosphere of earth over America. Speaking of, the air force has taken notice and is scrambling fighters to intercept.
Sulu tries to get away, but the ship is slow to respond and one fighter gets close enough Spock is worried it may launch a nuclear missile (yes, that was a thing back then) and cripple the ship. Kirk locks a tractor beam for some reason, but the primitive jet can't take the stress and breaks a part, but just in time (hah) the pilot is beamed aboard. This is where we learn that no one in Starfleet ever thought time travel would happen so there is no protocol and the pilot is invited to the bridge by Kirk. Spock suggests this may not be a good idea since now they can't send him home without threatening the future.
Fortunately for them it turns out the pilot has a unborn (and unconceived) son who is important to man's journey towards the stars so they have to send him back. Luckily for them he turns out to be a cool dude and agrees to help them erase any evidence. This goes horribly and while Sulu gets the records Kirk ends up arrested and guard from base ends up on the Enterprise. Again luck is in their favor since the guard is some sort of idiot who can't comprehend anything. Finally they wrap things up extremely quickly by launching into time warp in just such a way as they can beam the pilot and guard back just when they left (apparently not dooming the pilot, so maybe a little earlier) while warping through time and then going back to the future! This all works perfectly and all is same at end of episode.
Revu: First season of TOS just keeps delivering on the good episodes! This one has solid scifi, social commentary, a bit of time travel humor, and a strange gag about the ships computer being rewired to be more feminine. Ok, that last bit was kinda odd, but the rest sums up to a worth introduction of time travel into trek lore. Also they traveled back to the 1960's without a hippie to be seen, well done.
8 out of 10
The episode opens with what looks a whole lot like stock footage of jets from the 60's doing jet stuff. Back on the Enterprise the bridge is in disarray, the ship was pulled in towards a, "black star," (I assume they mean black hole) and when they escaped they flew soooooo fast they ended up back in time! And of course if you are going to be propelled at hypervelocity in a random direction of course you would end up in the atmosphere of earth over America. Speaking of, the air force has taken notice and is scrambling fighters to intercept.
Sulu tries to get away, but the ship is slow to respond and one fighter gets close enough Spock is worried it may launch a nuclear missile (yes, that was a thing back then) and cripple the ship. Kirk locks a tractor beam for some reason, but the primitive jet can't take the stress and breaks a part, but just in time (hah) the pilot is beamed aboard. This is where we learn that no one in Starfleet ever thought time travel would happen so there is no protocol and the pilot is invited to the bridge by Kirk. Spock suggests this may not be a good idea since now they can't send him home without threatening the future.
Fortunately for them it turns out the pilot has a unborn (and unconceived) son who is important to man's journey towards the stars so they have to send him back. Luckily for them he turns out to be a cool dude and agrees to help them erase any evidence. This goes horribly and while Sulu gets the records Kirk ends up arrested and guard from base ends up on the Enterprise. Again luck is in their favor since the guard is some sort of idiot who can't comprehend anything. Finally they wrap things up extremely quickly by launching into time warp in just such a way as they can beam the pilot and guard back just when they left (apparently not dooming the pilot, so maybe a little earlier) while warping through time and then going back to the future! This all works perfectly and all is same at end of episode.
Revu: First season of TOS just keeps delivering on the good episodes! This one has solid scifi, social commentary, a bit of time travel humor, and a strange gag about the ships computer being rewired to be more feminine. Ok, that last bit was kinda odd, but the rest sums up to a worth introduction of time travel into trek lore. Also they traveled back to the 1960's without a hippie to be seen, well done.
8 out of 10
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
TOS: Arena
Another day, another godlike being! TNG may have been in love with the Q continuum, but TOS is certainly in love with different godlike beings each week. Arena is an episode most know for it's climactic battle between Kirk and the lizardman Gorn. I suspect I saw this episode as a kid, but I don't really remember much so it was really fun watching it for essentially the first time.
As Kirk and company prepare to beam down to a colony with a governor famous for hospitality they receive and odd request to beam down all the Enterprise tactical teams. Thinking nothing of it Kirk beams down only to find the colony destroyed. There is only one survivor and they come under fire soon after arriving. Before moving on I want to point out this episode features a huge (by TV trek standards anyway) set of the destroyed colony, and it really helps set the scene. While Kirk and several crewman battle the unseen enemy the Enterprise comes under attack from an unknown opponent.
Sulu warps away on orders, but apparently not far because he can beam Kirk back immediately when the attack stops. The Enterprise races after the attacker moving to the highest non-time warp speed seen so far, warp 8 which puts a severe strain on the Enterprise, but allows them to gain on the attacker. Kirk has decided this was an act of war (not unreasonably I have to say) and is determined to destroy them. Just as it appears the Enterprise is onto the enemy both ships come to a complete stop and lose weapons capabilities. A strange image comes on the viewscreen telling them Kirk and the Gorn captain will fight to the death to resolve this dispute.
Kirk disappears and finds himself facing down a dude in a cheesy lizard suit. After some frankly silly fight scenes (fought in slow motion since the Gorn guy clearly can't see well) the two separate and begin planning. The Gorn builds a trap and Kirk pushes a rock onto the Gorn. Neither plan works out, but Kirk has a MacGyver moment and builds a cannon out of bamboo plus some chemicals judiciously spread across the Vasquez rocks. After blasting the Gorn Kirk decides to spare his life. Suddenly an sparkly alien in a toga appears and congratulates him. Kirk explains he realized perhaps he was wrong about the Gorn and there is much self congratulations and everybody goes on there way.
Review segment: This is a fun and action packed episode. Despite some stunt silliness it manages to keep things tense. The use of sets other than rocks made of spray foam really helps things look a lot less cheesy.
8 out of 10
As Kirk and company prepare to beam down to a colony with a governor famous for hospitality they receive and odd request to beam down all the Enterprise tactical teams. Thinking nothing of it Kirk beams down only to find the colony destroyed. There is only one survivor and they come under fire soon after arriving. Before moving on I want to point out this episode features a huge (by TV trek standards anyway) set of the destroyed colony, and it really helps set the scene. While Kirk and several crewman battle the unseen enemy the Enterprise comes under attack from an unknown opponent.
Sulu warps away on orders, but apparently not far because he can beam Kirk back immediately when the attack stops. The Enterprise races after the attacker moving to the highest non-time warp speed seen so far, warp 8 which puts a severe strain on the Enterprise, but allows them to gain on the attacker. Kirk has decided this was an act of war (not unreasonably I have to say) and is determined to destroy them. Just as it appears the Enterprise is onto the enemy both ships come to a complete stop and lose weapons capabilities. A strange image comes on the viewscreen telling them Kirk and the Gorn captain will fight to the death to resolve this dispute.
Kirk disappears and finds himself facing down a dude in a cheesy lizard suit. After some frankly silly fight scenes (fought in slow motion since the Gorn guy clearly can't see well) the two separate and begin planning. The Gorn builds a trap and Kirk pushes a rock onto the Gorn. Neither plan works out, but Kirk has a MacGyver moment and builds a cannon out of bamboo plus some chemicals judiciously spread across the Vasquez rocks. After blasting the Gorn Kirk decides to spare his life. Suddenly an sparkly alien in a toga appears and congratulates him. Kirk explains he realized perhaps he was wrong about the Gorn and there is much self congratulations and everybody goes on there way.
Review segment: This is a fun and action packed episode. Despite some stunt silliness it manages to keep things tense. The use of sets other than rocks made of spray foam really helps things look a lot less cheesy.
8 out of 10
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
TOS: The Squire of Gothos
TOS certainly does like it's godlike beings! This is the first episode I am pretty sure I have never seen, and it makes the episode of Futurama with the TOS cast make a hell of a lot more sense. Tonight I got to watch an attempt at making Hard scifi, but it comes off as a little silly. But certainly quite a bit less silly that some of the antics of Q in TNG so I will give it that at least. There are no merry men in this one.
While warping through a star desert (not star dessert, that would be tastier) the Enterprise suddenly comes across a lone planet. From the dialog I think we are supposed to think this is a rogue planet, but maybe that idea wasn't a thing when this episode was written. And it certainly has star light on the surface so maybe not. While investigating Sulu and then Kirk suddenly disappear from the bridge. After scanning the surface the geologist they just happened to have working that day determines the surface is uninhabitable. McCoy insists they should beam down anyway. Spock gives in an an away team is assembled.
After beaming down it appears theirs scans were incorrect, the surface is lush with plant life and the atmosphere is breathable. Nothing strange at all, other than that giant castle. Inside they find Sulu and the captain frozen in some sort of green energy field that makes them have to try and stand still really hard. Suddenly there is a man playing the harpsichord who introduces himself as general Trelane, retired. He unfreezes the captain and Sulu and explains he has been examining earth and just wanted to have some fun with a few earthlings. They figure from the castle it must mean he has been watching from far away and doesn't understand how space-time works.
They bicker for a while but eventually Spock manages to beam them back to the ship, but Trelane appears on the bridge and brings everybody back to the planet. More bickering and they figure out that his mirror may be the source of Trelane's power so Kirk challenges him to a dual and shoots the mirror allowing them to escape. When the ship tries to warp away however it keeps finding it's path blocked by the planet. Kirk beams back down and Trelane puts him on trial before deciding to chase him down with a sword. Just when it seems like Kirk is beaten two green energy clouds appear at scold Trelane for being a bad boy and not playing nice. They take him home for punishment and Kirk is free to go.
Review bit: As an obvious predecessor to the Q episodes in TNG this one isn't bad, but it suffers some from cheesy sets. The actor portraying Trelane pulls it off quite well keeps what could have been a bit of a boring episode fun to watch.
6 out of 10
While warping through a star desert (not star dessert, that would be tastier) the Enterprise suddenly comes across a lone planet. From the dialog I think we are supposed to think this is a rogue planet, but maybe that idea wasn't a thing when this episode was written. And it certainly has star light on the surface so maybe not. While investigating Sulu and then Kirk suddenly disappear from the bridge. After scanning the surface the geologist they just happened to have working that day determines the surface is uninhabitable. McCoy insists they should beam down anyway. Spock gives in an an away team is assembled.
After beaming down it appears theirs scans were incorrect, the surface is lush with plant life and the atmosphere is breathable. Nothing strange at all, other than that giant castle. Inside they find Sulu and the captain frozen in some sort of green energy field that makes them have to try and stand still really hard. Suddenly there is a man playing the harpsichord who introduces himself as general Trelane, retired. He unfreezes the captain and Sulu and explains he has been examining earth and just wanted to have some fun with a few earthlings. They figure from the castle it must mean he has been watching from far away and doesn't understand how space-time works.
They bicker for a while but eventually Spock manages to beam them back to the ship, but Trelane appears on the bridge and brings everybody back to the planet. More bickering and they figure out that his mirror may be the source of Trelane's power so Kirk challenges him to a dual and shoots the mirror allowing them to escape. When the ship tries to warp away however it keeps finding it's path blocked by the planet. Kirk beams back down and Trelane puts him on trial before deciding to chase him down with a sword. Just when it seems like Kirk is beaten two green energy clouds appear at scold Trelane for being a bad boy and not playing nice. They take him home for punishment and Kirk is free to go.
Review bit: As an obvious predecessor to the Q episodes in TNG this one isn't bad, but it suffers some from cheesy sets. The actor portraying Trelane pulls it off quite well keeps what could have been a bit of a boring episode fun to watch.
6 out of 10
Monday, February 23, 2015
TOS: The Galileo Seven
Last night I watched a, "serious science fiction," episode so today I get an adventure episode. The setup is that there is an officious government official in charge of getting medicine to stop a plague to a planet and Kirk doesn't want to do what he says. Kirk stops along the way to investigate a quasar and sends the shuttle Galileo. Of course there is some sort of interference or ion storm and shuttle crashes on a large planet in an ion storm that blocks sensors. The hunt is on to find the seven marooned crew before the bureaucrat can take over and force them to leave.
Meanwhile down on the planet Spock is in charge along with McCoy, Scotty, and 4 other crew. Scotty starts working on repairs, but it looks like they only have enough fuel for five people to fly into orbit. Two of the crew on are guard until one is hit with a giant spear and killed. Rather than interrupt repairs and have a funeral Spock opts to stay focused on saving their lives which angers pretty much everybody. All hope is lost when then somehow vent the fuel, but Spock figures a way to use their phasers for power, but will take time. Another crewman is killed by the giant savage aliens and all the survivors retreat into the shuttle.
Back on the Enterprise they are working to get sensors and transporters working and Kirk is being constantly pestered by the Galactic High Commissioner. He sends down search parties and shuttles to search, but there is little hope. One of the search parties loses a crewman to the savage aliens. Time is up and the Enterprise turns to leave, but Kirk orders Sulu to proceed at impulse power only and direct all sensors aft to keep looking.
Back on the surface they drive the aliens away by electrifying the hull, but when they go to take off an alien is holding on a Spock has to sacrifice the boosters they need to survive reentry of they aren't rescued to get it off. Once in space, but not in orbit Spock sacrifices more fuel by venting and lighting it shortening their time in space before reentry, but leaving a glowing plasma trail behind them, which Sulu notices. The Enterprise rushes back and beams the crew to safety just as the shuttle burns up. There is just enough time at the end to hassle Spock about being illogical by lighting the fuel which was the thing that saved them so that seemed kinda dumb.
Reviewilybob: Unlike the Corbomite Maneuver which was all about showing how Kirk always trusts his gut and is always right, this episode is a more nuanced look at Spock trusting his logic. He is right in the end, but his disbelief at the hostility of the aliens kills two crewman, but they didn't have enough fuel anyway, so more logic? Not the most memorable episode, but a fun tale of adventure with some good character time with Spock.
7 out of 10
Meanwhile down on the planet Spock is in charge along with McCoy, Scotty, and 4 other crew. Scotty starts working on repairs, but it looks like they only have enough fuel for five people to fly into orbit. Two of the crew on are guard until one is hit with a giant spear and killed. Rather than interrupt repairs and have a funeral Spock opts to stay focused on saving their lives which angers pretty much everybody. All hope is lost when then somehow vent the fuel, but Spock figures a way to use their phasers for power, but will take time. Another crewman is killed by the giant savage aliens and all the survivors retreat into the shuttle.
Back on the Enterprise they are working to get sensors and transporters working and Kirk is being constantly pestered by the Galactic High Commissioner. He sends down search parties and shuttles to search, but there is little hope. One of the search parties loses a crewman to the savage aliens. Time is up and the Enterprise turns to leave, but Kirk orders Sulu to proceed at impulse power only and direct all sensors aft to keep looking.
Back on the surface they drive the aliens away by electrifying the hull, but when they go to take off an alien is holding on a Spock has to sacrifice the boosters they need to survive reentry of they aren't rescued to get it off. Once in space, but not in orbit Spock sacrifices more fuel by venting and lighting it shortening their time in space before reentry, but leaving a glowing plasma trail behind them, which Sulu notices. The Enterprise rushes back and beams the crew to safety just as the shuttle burns up. There is just enough time at the end to hassle Spock about being illogical by lighting the fuel which was the thing that saved them so that seemed kinda dumb.
Reviewilybob: Unlike the Corbomite Maneuver which was all about showing how Kirk always trusts his gut and is always right, this episode is a more nuanced look at Spock trusting his logic. He is right in the end, but his disbelief at the hostility of the aliens kills two crewman, but they didn't have enough fuel anyway, so more logic? Not the most memorable episode, but a fun tale of adventure with some good character time with Spock.
7 out of 10
Sunday, February 22, 2015
TOS: Shore Leave
We are now entering the realm of the strange episodes. This one is by far the most scifi/experiment so far. It suffers from some set issues and blatant use of stock footage, but still managed to pull of a westworld kind of story with clearly not a lot of budget.
The episode opens with Kirk on the Enterprise being examined/massaged on the bridge by yeoman Barrows and we learn that he is stressed and and refusing to rest. What timing! McCoy and Sulu along with a team of scouts are down on the surface of an apparently unoccupied below checking to make sure it is safe for shore leave. Spock tricks Kirk into beaming down for some relaxation. Just before he arrives McCoy is spooked by the sight of a giant, human shaped rabbit being chased by a little girl who looks like Alice. When Kirk arrives they investigate and find giant rabbit tracks. At this point it seems like maybe it is time to stop just randomly wandering around, but nah.
The camera shows us a rock opening up revealing a revolver and moments later Kirk and McCoy rush towards the sounds of gunshots. Sulu has found the revolver, just the kind he always wanted, and starts shooting it over a lake. Lets stop for a minute and talk about the outdoor sets in this episode. The grass is obviously mowed and there are even power poles and grass huts (they filmed this part at the Africa USA theme park, ironic since this episode is about a theme park) visible in the background. This makes the episode feel kinda cheap.
The action continues when Yeoman barrows is attacked by Don Juan and Kirk meets his old lover Ruth. They are also attacked by a diving WWII fighter aircraft and a tiger that alternates between being stock footage obviously shot on different film that the episode and a tiger with a chain around it's neck. Spock beams down to assist and informs Kirk the Enterprise is losing power and no one else will be able to beam down. After splitting up and getting back together several times they all meet in a grassy field just in time to see McCoy killed by a charging black knight. Kirk shoots the knight with a revolver killing him, but also revealing he is some sort of dummy or robot.
Even though they are most of the way towards figuring out the figures they keep encountering are being made from their thoughts, Kirk can't resist a good old fashioned fist fight with his rival from his academy days at Vasquez Rocks, a location trek would return to many more times. Finally they all get back together and figure it out, and as they do a man emerges from the bushes and explains the whole planet is set up as an amusement park and McCoy comes out two who a chorus girl on either arm. The man tells them it is too advanced for humans, but they are welcome to enjoy the place which is good enough for Kirk who orders the crew to beam down and party on.
Review time! After watching I read up a bit on this episode and it started life as a Theodore Sturgeon script, but Roddenberry had it rewritten and it just kept getting stranger. It got so bad that Roddenberry was working on set to try to make it all work. Despite it strangeness and fantasy elements the actors are all taking it seriously and the core idea is an interesting one.
6 out of 10
The episode opens with Kirk on the Enterprise being examined/massaged on the bridge by yeoman Barrows and we learn that he is stressed and and refusing to rest. What timing! McCoy and Sulu along with a team of scouts are down on the surface of an apparently unoccupied below checking to make sure it is safe for shore leave. Spock tricks Kirk into beaming down for some relaxation. Just before he arrives McCoy is spooked by the sight of a giant, human shaped rabbit being chased by a little girl who looks like Alice. When Kirk arrives they investigate and find giant rabbit tracks. At this point it seems like maybe it is time to stop just randomly wandering around, but nah.
The camera shows us a rock opening up revealing a revolver and moments later Kirk and McCoy rush towards the sounds of gunshots. Sulu has found the revolver, just the kind he always wanted, and starts shooting it over a lake. Lets stop for a minute and talk about the outdoor sets in this episode. The grass is obviously mowed and there are even power poles and grass huts (they filmed this part at the Africa USA theme park, ironic since this episode is about a theme park) visible in the background. This makes the episode feel kinda cheap.
The action continues when Yeoman barrows is attacked by Don Juan and Kirk meets his old lover Ruth. They are also attacked by a diving WWII fighter aircraft and a tiger that alternates between being stock footage obviously shot on different film that the episode and a tiger with a chain around it's neck. Spock beams down to assist and informs Kirk the Enterprise is losing power and no one else will be able to beam down. After splitting up and getting back together several times they all meet in a grassy field just in time to see McCoy killed by a charging black knight. Kirk shoots the knight with a revolver killing him, but also revealing he is some sort of dummy or robot.
Even though they are most of the way towards figuring out the figures they keep encountering are being made from their thoughts, Kirk can't resist a good old fashioned fist fight with his rival from his academy days at Vasquez Rocks, a location trek would return to many more times. Finally they all get back together and figure it out, and as they do a man emerges from the bushes and explains the whole planet is set up as an amusement park and McCoy comes out two who a chorus girl on either arm. The man tells them it is too advanced for humans, but they are welcome to enjoy the place which is good enough for Kirk who orders the crew to beam down and party on.
Review time! After watching I read up a bit on this episode and it started life as a Theodore Sturgeon script, but Roddenberry had it rewritten and it just kept getting stranger. It got so bad that Roddenberry was working on set to try to make it all work. Despite it strangeness and fantasy elements the actors are all taking it seriously and the core idea is an interesting one.
6 out of 10
Saturday, February 21, 2015
TOS: Balance of Terror
TOS is starting off with a solid run of episodes! After last nights solid Shakespeare inspired episode tonight's episode was as intense as they come! This episode introduces one of treks top villain races, the Romulans and from the beginning it is clear they are a violent offshoot of the Vulcans. This episode also tackles racial bias head on in the form of Lt. Stiles, the ships navigator who lost several family members in the Romulan war a century before and doesn't trust Spock after learning the Romulans look just like Vulcans.
The episode opens with Kirk about to perform a wedding between two crew members from phaser control, but is interrupted by an announcement that a Federation outpost is under attack. They go to condition red (they still haven't quite worked out the yellow and red alert system yet) and head toward the outpost at maximum warp. Uhura manages to establish communications but they can't get there in time to stop a mysterious vessel from uncloaking, blasting the outpost into oblivion and disappearing once again.
Spock has managed a basic form of tracking on the cloaked vessel and Kirk decides to follow behind matching their every move hoping it will look like an echo. We then cut to the bridge of the Romulan vessel where the romulan captain has figured out Kirk's game, but his crew is struggling to keep up. Back on the Enterprise Spock has detected a comet the Romulan vessel will pass through making it visible enough to lock weapons. The Enterprise maneuvers to firing position, but this reveals to the Romulan captain that the Enterprise is tracking them and he evades at the last minute. The Enterprise fires a wide spray of phaser fire damaging the Romulans who uncloak and shoot a powerful blast of deadly red plasma (read that in your scary voice) at the Enterprise.
The Enterprise speeds away at full warp and managed to stay ahead just long enough for the plasma to disperse revealing it's range limit. The Enterprise moves in to blast the Romulans before they can return into the neutral zone, but the Romulans managed to lose them after taking some damage and dumping debris out the chutes. They wait each other out, but Spock slips activating a panel that somehow lets the Romulans know where they are. Kirk evades and fires doing some serious damage, but the Romulans respond be jettisoning an, "old fashioned," nuclear bomb injuring many crew on the Enterprise including the crewman set to be married alone in phaser control.
Lt. Stiles rushes down to help and turns down an assist from Spock only to be overwhelmed by a coolant leak a few seconds later just as the Romulans move to attack. Spock still manages to swoop in and save the day but activating the phasers just in time. Kirk finally gets to face his foe face to face in a touching moment just before the Romulan captain destroys his own vessel rather than take the offer of aid from Kirk. In a depressing conclusion we learn the only fatality was the crewman set to be married that morning.
Reviewdewy: The episode centers around the confrontation between Kirk and the unnamed but clever Romulan captain. It even features some refreshing moments of self doubt from Kirk and some political struggle on the Romulan vessel which as a fan of Romulan episodes of TNG seemed to be pretty much the same as in TNG. This episode is both exciting and sets up a new threat to the peace and safety of the Federation.
9 out of 10
The episode opens with Kirk about to perform a wedding between two crew members from phaser control, but is interrupted by an announcement that a Federation outpost is under attack. They go to condition red (they still haven't quite worked out the yellow and red alert system yet) and head toward the outpost at maximum warp. Uhura manages to establish communications but they can't get there in time to stop a mysterious vessel from uncloaking, blasting the outpost into oblivion and disappearing once again.
Spock has managed a basic form of tracking on the cloaked vessel and Kirk decides to follow behind matching their every move hoping it will look like an echo. We then cut to the bridge of the Romulan vessel where the romulan captain has figured out Kirk's game, but his crew is struggling to keep up. Back on the Enterprise Spock has detected a comet the Romulan vessel will pass through making it visible enough to lock weapons. The Enterprise maneuvers to firing position, but this reveals to the Romulan captain that the Enterprise is tracking them and he evades at the last minute. The Enterprise fires a wide spray of phaser fire damaging the Romulans who uncloak and shoot a powerful blast of deadly red plasma (read that in your scary voice) at the Enterprise.
The Enterprise speeds away at full warp and managed to stay ahead just long enough for the plasma to disperse revealing it's range limit. The Enterprise moves in to blast the Romulans before they can return into the neutral zone, but the Romulans managed to lose them after taking some damage and dumping debris out the chutes. They wait each other out, but Spock slips activating a panel that somehow lets the Romulans know where they are. Kirk evades and fires doing some serious damage, but the Romulans respond be jettisoning an, "old fashioned," nuclear bomb injuring many crew on the Enterprise including the crewman set to be married alone in phaser control.
Lt. Stiles rushes down to help and turns down an assist from Spock only to be overwhelmed by a coolant leak a few seconds later just as the Romulans move to attack. Spock still manages to swoop in and save the day but activating the phasers just in time. Kirk finally gets to face his foe face to face in a touching moment just before the Romulan captain destroys his own vessel rather than take the offer of aid from Kirk. In a depressing conclusion we learn the only fatality was the crewman set to be married that morning.
Reviewdewy: The episode centers around the confrontation between Kirk and the unnamed but clever Romulan captain. It even features some refreshing moments of self doubt from Kirk and some political struggle on the Romulan vessel which as a fan of Romulan episodes of TNG seemed to be pretty much the same as in TNG. This episode is both exciting and sets up a new threat to the peace and safety of the Federation.
9 out of 10
TOS: The Conscience of the King
Wow, now this is a solid episode! Other than being the first really good episode so far it is also the first (and possibly last) episode where Kirk orders the Enterprise to double red alert! This is another Kirkcentric episode, but unlike The Corbomite Maneuver this one isn't confined to the bridge and in fact introduces some new sets, or at least come creative reuses of sets. Also Uhura sings a song as a man is poisoned to near death!
The episodes starts with a classic Trek misdirection of the ship being diverted to a planet to investigate a new source of food that will solve hunger forever (no replicators yet!) only to discover it was a ruse. Instead Dr. Leighton, a longtime friend of Kirk, has called Kirk here because he believes the head of a company of actors is the notorious Kodos the Executioner, a war criminal from 20 years ago. Leighton and Kirk are among a group of less than a dozen men who saw Kodos and can in theory identify him on sight. Kirk doesn't believe him, but starts having doubts after beaming back to the Enterprise, but after looking at the records decides it is worth looking into. He beams down to a party Leighton has invited the actors to, but Leighton is late and Karidian (the actor suspected of being Kodos) isn't coming.
Instead Karidian's daughter arrives and Kirk starts flirting immediately and gets to to leave the party with him in less than 3 minutes. As they wander the surface of Planet Q (not that creative with planet names this week I guess) the discover the body of Dr. Leighton, it was murder! Kirk beams up and talks the captain of the ship hired to take the actors to their next destination into leaving them behind so the actors will have to travel on the Enterprise. Karidian's daughter Lenore beams up to negotiate a ride in an outfit so skimpy it draws a look of ire from yeoman Rand as she exits the turbolift.
Kirk keeps digging into the records and discovers that another eye witness is on board the Enterprise, lieutenant Kevin Riley, who Kirk then transfers to the late shift on the engineering deck. Spock figures all this out in about 5 minutes and also that Kirk and Riley are the only eye witnesses who haven't yet been murdered, and also that the actors have been present for all the deaths! Meanwhile Riley is busy listening to Uhura sing while working the engineering deck. While distracted a shadowy figure sprays something into his drink. He takes a sip and collapses, but McCoy is able to save him.
Kirk confronts Karidian who doesn't exactly deny being Kodos and even gives a voice sample, but the analysis is inconclusive. Karidian and Lenore along with the rest of actors put on a production of Hamlet for the crew, but while in sickbay Riley hears that Kodos may be on the ship, and we learn Kodos killed his family. Kirk stops Riley from shooting Karidian from back stage. Karidian isn't handling the stress well and he talks about it with Lenore who admits to killing all the other witnesses and he is horrified. Kirk emerges from behind scenery and call a guard who allows Lenore to steal his phaser. But instead of killing Kirk as she was attempting to do she accidentally kills her father.
Reviewishness: The actors portraying Lenore and Kodos/Karidian are great and the episode manages to be Shakepearean without being a retelling of one of his plays. The story holds together and doesn't happily resolve everything in the last 5 minutes. Star Trek near it's best.
9 out of 10
The episodes starts with a classic Trek misdirection of the ship being diverted to a planet to investigate a new source of food that will solve hunger forever (no replicators yet!) only to discover it was a ruse. Instead Dr. Leighton, a longtime friend of Kirk, has called Kirk here because he believes the head of a company of actors is the notorious Kodos the Executioner, a war criminal from 20 years ago. Leighton and Kirk are among a group of less than a dozen men who saw Kodos and can in theory identify him on sight. Kirk doesn't believe him, but starts having doubts after beaming back to the Enterprise, but after looking at the records decides it is worth looking into. He beams down to a party Leighton has invited the actors to, but Leighton is late and Karidian (the actor suspected of being Kodos) isn't coming.
Instead Karidian's daughter arrives and Kirk starts flirting immediately and gets to to leave the party with him in less than 3 minutes. As they wander the surface of Planet Q (not that creative with planet names this week I guess) the discover the body of Dr. Leighton, it was murder! Kirk beams up and talks the captain of the ship hired to take the actors to their next destination into leaving them behind so the actors will have to travel on the Enterprise. Karidian's daughter Lenore beams up to negotiate a ride in an outfit so skimpy it draws a look of ire from yeoman Rand as she exits the turbolift.
Kirk keeps digging into the records and discovers that another eye witness is on board the Enterprise, lieutenant Kevin Riley, who Kirk then transfers to the late shift on the engineering deck. Spock figures all this out in about 5 minutes and also that Kirk and Riley are the only eye witnesses who haven't yet been murdered, and also that the actors have been present for all the deaths! Meanwhile Riley is busy listening to Uhura sing while working the engineering deck. While distracted a shadowy figure sprays something into his drink. He takes a sip and collapses, but McCoy is able to save him.
Kirk confronts Karidian who doesn't exactly deny being Kodos and even gives a voice sample, but the analysis is inconclusive. Karidian and Lenore along with the rest of actors put on a production of Hamlet for the crew, but while in sickbay Riley hears that Kodos may be on the ship, and we learn Kodos killed his family. Kirk stops Riley from shooting Karidian from back stage. Karidian isn't handling the stress well and he talks about it with Lenore who admits to killing all the other witnesses and he is horrified. Kirk emerges from behind scenery and call a guard who allows Lenore to steal his phaser. But instead of killing Kirk as she was attempting to do she accidentally kills her father.
Reviewishness: The actors portraying Lenore and Kodos/Karidian are great and the episode manages to be Shakepearean without being a retelling of one of his plays. The story holds together and doesn't happily resolve everything in the last 5 minutes. Star Trek near it's best.
9 out of 10
Thursday, February 19, 2015
TOS: The Menagerie, Part II
This is going to be a shorter than normal write up, since there is probably less than 15% new material in this episode. Other than occasional interruptions where Mendez and Kirk get mad and then convict Spock of violating a law punishable only by death and then go back to watching the pilot, there isn't much new to see here. Having just watched the Cage 11 days ago I did notice right at the end they did a little clever editing by not showing the illusion of Pike left behind to keep Vina happy.
The other clever thing the episode does to resolve Spock being conivted of all sorts of dire offenses is to have the entire court martial be a ploy to keep Kirk busy when in reality Mendez was back on Starbase 11 watching the same video Kirk and Spock were watching. It may seem like a silly cover, but the idea of an unpleasant court martial to keep Kirk too busy to work hard at getting back control of his ship was actually a pretty good idea. When Pike does beam down to the surface they use the edited out piece of footage of Vina and Pike happy together to show Kirk and the audience (who hadn't just watched the Cage at the time) how things had turned out ok.
Review time! I guess if I had a complete pilot episode that was close enough to Trek to sell as an adventure on the Enterprise pre-Kirk I would have done something like this too. The added in story line is better than many Simpsons clip shows which are my main basis of comparison. They turn what could have been a disaster into a watchable episode.
5 out of 10
The other clever thing the episode does to resolve Spock being conivted of all sorts of dire offenses is to have the entire court martial be a ploy to keep Kirk busy when in reality Mendez was back on Starbase 11 watching the same video Kirk and Spock were watching. It may seem like a silly cover, but the idea of an unpleasant court martial to keep Kirk too busy to work hard at getting back control of his ship was actually a pretty good idea. When Pike does beam down to the surface they use the edited out piece of footage of Vina and Pike happy together to show Kirk and the audience (who hadn't just watched the Cage at the time) how things had turned out ok.
Review time! I guess if I had a complete pilot episode that was close enough to Trek to sell as an adventure on the Enterprise pre-Kirk I would have done something like this too. The added in story line is better than many Simpsons clip shows which are my main basis of comparison. They turn what could have been a disaster into a watchable episode.
5 out of 10
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
TOS: The Menagerie, Part I
The first two part episode is also the first clip show much to it's detriment. The new parts about Spock betraying everything he holds dear for no apparent reason are tense and interesting making this seem like it is destined for great things. But the unedited clip segments from the rejected pilot are hard to take. I guess it wouldn't have been possible to make this a one and a half part episode, but they should have tried.
Things get going with the Enterprise arriving at Starbase 11, Spock has received a message from his former captain requesting he stop by. But it turns out there never was a message and captain Pike is an invalid trapped in a broken body only able to signal yes or no through a light. For once Kirk's trust in Spock seems to be misplaced as Spock steals the ship along with McCoy and the wheelchair bound Pike. Spock programs the computer to only respond to him and fly them directly to the only forbidden planet of Talos IV. It is so forbidden that going there is the only reason starfleet will sentence someone to death. Kirk traps Spock into rescuing him by flying towards the Enterprise in a shuttlecraft (sorry I missed it at the top, but this is the first appearance of a shuttle in TOS) with limited fuel and going beyond safe return range forcing Spock to pick up him and Commodore Mendez.
Before Kirk can arrive Spock surrenders himself to McCoy for mutiny. Kirk and Mendez setup a review board to investigate Spock's actions, but Spock demands an immediate court martial, but they need three command officers! Fortunately for them starfleet had too much heart to take away Pikes rank of captain so off we go with the trial. Spock pulls some sort of BS legal move of tricking Mendez into asking him why he did what he did which apparently means Spock is entitled to enter whatever form of testimony or evidences he wants no matter what. Which incidentally is also where the episode takes a nose dive.
The kind of testimony it turns out Spock wants to give is a showing of the pilot episode on a view screen, and I do mean the whole pilot. To it's credit both Mendez and Kirk object that what they are seeing could not have possibly been recorded at the time which I answer, "damn right!" I know there is a reason in Part II, but so many shows/movies have people watching recordings of things that obviously weren't recorded at the time and this is the only time I have seen a character object to it. For the purposes of the trial all it apparently takes is Pike flashing once for, "yes, this is actually what happened."
I am not going to recap the pilot here, if you want to see that scroll down on the page, but what I will discuss here is now lazy it felt to just say it was 13 years ago and that is why everything is so odd. For instance they didn't remove the sequence of Spock grabbing a vibrating blue leaf and grinning like a maniac. After watching about half the pilot they receive a message from starfleet saying they are violating the law by receiving a transmission from Talos IV, the very pilot I was just complaining about. The episode ends with Spock insisting we tune in for the second half of the pilot and Kirk doing the most reasonable thing he has done all episode, order Spock locked up.
Review bit: I remember watching this episode as a kid and really liking it, but then again I hadn't watched the pilot this episode so heavily steals from just a week before which may have made those segments more watchable. But as is the episode has some cool tense parts and the first court martial, but also so much of the bland pilot.
5 out of 10
Things get going with the Enterprise arriving at Starbase 11, Spock has received a message from his former captain requesting he stop by. But it turns out there never was a message and captain Pike is an invalid trapped in a broken body only able to signal yes or no through a light. For once Kirk's trust in Spock seems to be misplaced as Spock steals the ship along with McCoy and the wheelchair bound Pike. Spock programs the computer to only respond to him and fly them directly to the only forbidden planet of Talos IV. It is so forbidden that going there is the only reason starfleet will sentence someone to death. Kirk traps Spock into rescuing him by flying towards the Enterprise in a shuttlecraft (sorry I missed it at the top, but this is the first appearance of a shuttle in TOS) with limited fuel and going beyond safe return range forcing Spock to pick up him and Commodore Mendez.
Before Kirk can arrive Spock surrenders himself to McCoy for mutiny. Kirk and Mendez setup a review board to investigate Spock's actions, but Spock demands an immediate court martial, but they need three command officers! Fortunately for them starfleet had too much heart to take away Pikes rank of captain so off we go with the trial. Spock pulls some sort of BS legal move of tricking Mendez into asking him why he did what he did which apparently means Spock is entitled to enter whatever form of testimony or evidences he wants no matter what. Which incidentally is also where the episode takes a nose dive.
The kind of testimony it turns out Spock wants to give is a showing of the pilot episode on a view screen, and I do mean the whole pilot. To it's credit both Mendez and Kirk object that what they are seeing could not have possibly been recorded at the time which I answer, "damn right!" I know there is a reason in Part II, but so many shows/movies have people watching recordings of things that obviously weren't recorded at the time and this is the only time I have seen a character object to it. For the purposes of the trial all it apparently takes is Pike flashing once for, "yes, this is actually what happened."
I am not going to recap the pilot here, if you want to see that scroll down on the page, but what I will discuss here is now lazy it felt to just say it was 13 years ago and that is why everything is so odd. For instance they didn't remove the sequence of Spock grabbing a vibrating blue leaf and grinning like a maniac. After watching about half the pilot they receive a message from starfleet saying they are violating the law by receiving a transmission from Talos IV, the very pilot I was just complaining about. The episode ends with Spock insisting we tune in for the second half of the pilot and Kirk doing the most reasonable thing he has done all episode, order Spock locked up.
Review bit: I remember watching this episode as a kid and really liking it, but then again I hadn't watched the pilot this episode so heavily steals from just a week before which may have made those segments more watchable. But as is the episode has some cool tense parts and the first court martial, but also so much of the bland pilot.
5 out of 10
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
TOS: The Corbomite Maneuver
Another interesting, and kinda odd episode. This is the first episode that has had almost all of it's action on the bridge and has been almost entirely about Kirk. The episode opens with the Enterprise exploring and mapping a new area of space which seems kinda boring to new guy at the navigation station Dave Bailey. Suddenly their sensors detect an object approaching directly at them at warp speed, when they try to get around it matches their maneuvers. Finally they meet and discover the sinister object is a multicolored rotating cube! Oh no, they have found their way into the RPG quadrant!
I am watching this on Netflix which has the, "improved graphics," but from the dialog I think they nailed the kinda dull spinning cube. This whole time Spock has been in charge and it is time for Kirk, but where is he? In sick bay getting his physical of course. McCoy fails to mention the red alert light flashing so he can watch Kirk sweat a but, but finally he notices and storms out and down the hallway shirtless and sweating which seems to be standard operating procedure to the crew.
They hold a meeting to make a plan where Bailey again makes an ass of himself, and of course Kirk ignore all advice and goes with his gut. They attempt to fly away from the cube but it only gets closer and starts blasting them with radiation until Kirk blast it with phasers and yells and Bailey a bit. The cube explodes and they go back to surveying as if nothing had happened. But of course they run into an even bigger object, this time it scans them and tractor beams them in for interrogation.
For some reason the alien vessel only wants to use voice communications to threaten the enterprise, but Spock figures out a way to break through and discovers they are being addressed by a hella goofy looking alien. The alien gives them 10 minutes to make good with god and then says it will destroy the ship. McCoy keeps pestering Kirk to give Bailey a break, but this episode is about Kirk always being right so he ignores him. Finally Kirk decides to bluff and informs the alien that he has a Corbomite device that will destroy any ship that destroys the enterprise. The alien pretends to ignore them, but the deadline passes and no boom!
The huge alien vessel heads for the hills but leaves a tub behind to tow the enterprise to an earth like planet to maroon the crew and then destroy the ship. Not wanting to give in to this totally reasonable offer Kirk risk the destroying the ships engines shaking free of the tug which of course works, it was Kirk's plan! The tug is disabled and broadcasts a signal home saying it has no life support. Kirk beams down with McCoy and Bailey for some reason and they find the goofy alien was in fact a goofy alien puppet. The real alien is a midget who the trust without reservation and even leave Bailey behind as an ambassador for some reason which was apparently his hidden dream that only Kirk knew.
Not sure where to fit this in, but the episode is has a hilarious scene where Kirk and McCoy are bickering when in walks yeoman Rand with Kirk's dinner which turns out to be a bowl of salad. Classic McCoy/Kirk bickering!
Review bit: I know from the description above it may sound like an exercise in stoking Shatner's ego, but it felt more like an episode to establish the credibility of Kirk's gut. The ability to read a situation and bluff his way out will prove useful it episodes with far less goofy villains.
7 out of 10
I am watching this on Netflix which has the, "improved graphics," but from the dialog I think they nailed the kinda dull spinning cube. This whole time Spock has been in charge and it is time for Kirk, but where is he? In sick bay getting his physical of course. McCoy fails to mention the red alert light flashing so he can watch Kirk sweat a but, but finally he notices and storms out and down the hallway shirtless and sweating which seems to be standard operating procedure to the crew.
They hold a meeting to make a plan where Bailey again makes an ass of himself, and of course Kirk ignore all advice and goes with his gut. They attempt to fly away from the cube but it only gets closer and starts blasting them with radiation until Kirk blast it with phasers and yells and Bailey a bit. The cube explodes and they go back to surveying as if nothing had happened. But of course they run into an even bigger object, this time it scans them and tractor beams them in for interrogation.
For some reason the alien vessel only wants to use voice communications to threaten the enterprise, but Spock figures out a way to break through and discovers they are being addressed by a hella goofy looking alien. The alien gives them 10 minutes to make good with god and then says it will destroy the ship. McCoy keeps pestering Kirk to give Bailey a break, but this episode is about Kirk always being right so he ignores him. Finally Kirk decides to bluff and informs the alien that he has a Corbomite device that will destroy any ship that destroys the enterprise. The alien pretends to ignore them, but the deadline passes and no boom!
The huge alien vessel heads for the hills but leaves a tub behind to tow the enterprise to an earth like planet to maroon the crew and then destroy the ship. Not wanting to give in to this totally reasonable offer Kirk risk the destroying the ships engines shaking free of the tug which of course works, it was Kirk's plan! The tug is disabled and broadcasts a signal home saying it has no life support. Kirk beams down with McCoy and Bailey for some reason and they find the goofy alien was in fact a goofy alien puppet. The real alien is a midget who the trust without reservation and even leave Bailey behind as an ambassador for some reason which was apparently his hidden dream that only Kirk knew.
Not sure where to fit this in, but the episode is has a hilarious scene where Kirk and McCoy are bickering when in walks yeoman Rand with Kirk's dinner which turns out to be a bowl of salad. Classic McCoy/Kirk bickering!
Review bit: I know from the description above it may sound like an exercise in stoking Shatner's ego, but it felt more like an episode to establish the credibility of Kirk's gut. The ability to read a situation and bluff his way out will prove useful it episodes with far less goofy villains.
7 out of 10
Monday, February 16, 2015
TOS: Dagger of the Mind
This is a pretty intense episode, and probably my favorite so far. We are past the first few episodes with a noteworthy milestone or two in every episode. The episode has the first of what would be many Vulcan mind melds. It is also the first episode so far that Kirk has apparently been turned off by an attractive female crew member, but I will get to that soon!
The opening scene starts with an engineer and a redshirt loading cargo onto the transporter, but just as the attempt to beam it down to a the cleverly named penal colony of Tantalus the captain walks in. Just in time to see them embarrass themselves by forgetting to ask the penal colony to turn off it's forcefield first. Fortunately for them Kirk is there to correct them and then reprimand the redshirt right after they beam a conveniently man sized box of secret do not open over to the enterprise. Kirk and the redshirt leave the transporter room and moments later the man sized box opens revealing a sweaty, crazed looking man who knocks the engineer out with one blow and steals his uniform.
By now the penal colony realizes they are missing a prisoner and the hunt is on! Enterprise security proves no match for this one crazy man however and he makes it all the way to the bridge only to be neck pinched by Mr. Spock. The lunatic turns out to be the recently assigned assistant to the revolutionary doctor who heads the penal colony. Just like the medical anthropologist Kirk immediately trusted this new doctor inspires instant trust in the captain, but McCoy isn't so sure. Dr. Adams, the head of the penal colony, agrees to let Kirk and company beam down to check things out.
When Kirk arrives in the transporter room he finds Dr. Helen Noel. She is beautiful, seems to trust everything Dr. Adams says, and was apparently turned down by Kirk at the ships Christmas party that year. They beam to the surface and while looking around with Dr. Adams find a, "treatment room," with neural neutralizer beam in the ceiling aimed at a patient and a blank faced therapist operating the controls. Adams clearly doesn't want to talk about it which Dr. Noel seems to think is just fine, but Kirk is suspicious.
Back on the ship Spock performs the first and most free form mind meld in the history of Star Trek and learns the the very same neural neutralizer was used on Dr. Adams now crazy assistant to remove his memories and replace them with new ones. Before Spock can let the captain know Kirk has taken the only logical course of action and put himself under the beam with Dr. Noel at the dials. It turns out the neural neutralizer is a perfect suggestion implanter which Dr. Noel uses to replace Kirk's memory of rebuffing her at the Christmas Party. Just then Dr. Adams bursts in and begins torturing Kirk.
After one round of torture Dr. Adams proves to be the worlds worst jailer by putting Kirk and Noel in the same room with a man sized easily opened vent leading to the power controls. Dr. Noel crawls through the vent to turn of the force field so the Enterprise can help while Kirk returns with Dr. Adams to get some neutralizing done. After a fairly badass fight scene Dr. Noel kills a guard by kicking him into charge power relays. This allows Spock to beam down and the captain to escape the beam and knock out Dr. Adams in the neutralizer room. Noel, Spock and Kirk meet up and return to find Dr. Adams has been killed by his own torture beam when the power came back on.
Review portion: Lots going on in this episode, but it all served well to keep increasing the tension. Doctor Noel managed to make the already skimpy female uniform look even skimpier which did make Kirks lack of interest seem a little surprising, but if that is the biggest plot hole I will take it.
8 out of 10
The opening scene starts with an engineer and a redshirt loading cargo onto the transporter, but just as the attempt to beam it down to a the cleverly named penal colony of Tantalus the captain walks in. Just in time to see them embarrass themselves by forgetting to ask the penal colony to turn off it's forcefield first. Fortunately for them Kirk is there to correct them and then reprimand the redshirt right after they beam a conveniently man sized box of secret do not open over to the enterprise. Kirk and the redshirt leave the transporter room and moments later the man sized box opens revealing a sweaty, crazed looking man who knocks the engineer out with one blow and steals his uniform.
By now the penal colony realizes they are missing a prisoner and the hunt is on! Enterprise security proves no match for this one crazy man however and he makes it all the way to the bridge only to be neck pinched by Mr. Spock. The lunatic turns out to be the recently assigned assistant to the revolutionary doctor who heads the penal colony. Just like the medical anthropologist Kirk immediately trusted this new doctor inspires instant trust in the captain, but McCoy isn't so sure. Dr. Adams, the head of the penal colony, agrees to let Kirk and company beam down to check things out.
When Kirk arrives in the transporter room he finds Dr. Helen Noel. She is beautiful, seems to trust everything Dr. Adams says, and was apparently turned down by Kirk at the ships Christmas party that year. They beam to the surface and while looking around with Dr. Adams find a, "treatment room," with neural neutralizer beam in the ceiling aimed at a patient and a blank faced therapist operating the controls. Adams clearly doesn't want to talk about it which Dr. Noel seems to think is just fine, but Kirk is suspicious.
Back on the ship Spock performs the first and most free form mind meld in the history of Star Trek and learns the the very same neural neutralizer was used on Dr. Adams now crazy assistant to remove his memories and replace them with new ones. Before Spock can let the captain know Kirk has taken the only logical course of action and put himself under the beam with Dr. Noel at the dials. It turns out the neural neutralizer is a perfect suggestion implanter which Dr. Noel uses to replace Kirk's memory of rebuffing her at the Christmas Party. Just then Dr. Adams bursts in and begins torturing Kirk.
After one round of torture Dr. Adams proves to be the worlds worst jailer by putting Kirk and Noel in the same room with a man sized easily opened vent leading to the power controls. Dr. Noel crawls through the vent to turn of the force field so the Enterprise can help while Kirk returns with Dr. Adams to get some neutralizing done. After a fairly badass fight scene Dr. Noel kills a guard by kicking him into charge power relays. This allows Spock to beam down and the captain to escape the beam and knock out Dr. Adams in the neutralizer room. Noel, Spock and Kirk meet up and return to find Dr. Adams has been killed by his own torture beam when the power came back on.
Review portion: Lots going on in this episode, but it all served well to keep increasing the tension. Doctor Noel managed to make the already skimpy female uniform look even skimpier which did make Kirks lack of interest seem a little surprising, but if that is the biggest plot hole I will take it.
8 out of 10
Sunday, February 15, 2015
TOS: Miri
I try not to read or remind myself too much about episodes before watching, but when I read the netflix description of this episode being about a planet of children I cringed. I feel about child actors, especially in trek shows, about how captain Picard feels about actual children. But this episode, while had a few cringe worthy moments, held together pretty well. The premise is the crew detect an ancient SOS distress signal and when they follow it the planet is exactly like the earth! And I mean exactly down to the continents and even language, but more on that later, The only thing missing is most of the people.
Kirk, Spock, yeoman Rand, and two redshirts beam down to the planets surface and find themselves in an abandoned city. When Spock picks up a tricycle from the road he is assaulted by a humanoid creature with some pretty bad zombie/old makeup. After a few punches from Kirk the creature collapses dead. McCoy scans it with his tricorder I guess discovers that it is human, but this is never discussed. He also discovers that the human has rapidly aged or is hundreds of years old, I wasn't quite clear. After poking around some more they find the eponymous Miri, a teenage girl who immediately falls in love with Kirk.
After scanning and looking at old medical records they figure out that the people on the planet were working on a virus that would make them live essentially forever. The only side effect was that it drove mad and eventually killed anyone older than 15 or 16. To make things worse everyone on the away team other than Spock now have the early signs of the disease. It is a seven day race against time to make a vaccine. This is when we start getting scenes of the other children. The actress playing Miri actually does a really good job, the other child actors less so.
After some shenanigans involving stealing the communicators and kidnapping yeoman Rand the episode comes to a conclusion with Kirk confronting the gang of rascals and convincing them to give back the communicators mostly by letting them hit him with various weapons. But to make sure that long and tedious scene is even more meaningless McCoy injects himself with the untested vaccine, passes out, but then recovers in moments as the vaccine takes effect. Cut to Kirk back on the bridge of the enterprise talking to yeoman Rand about how he is sure it will all be fine.
Review segment: Far better than I expected from the description, but still not the most classic of episodes. Suffers a bit from, "everything gets resolved in the last five minutes," syndrome. Still one of the better kids of trek ep.
6 out of 10
Kirk, Spock, yeoman Rand, and two redshirts beam down to the planets surface and find themselves in an abandoned city. When Spock picks up a tricycle from the road he is assaulted by a humanoid creature with some pretty bad zombie/old makeup. After a few punches from Kirk the creature collapses dead. McCoy scans it with his tricorder I guess discovers that it is human, but this is never discussed. He also discovers that the human has rapidly aged or is hundreds of years old, I wasn't quite clear. After poking around some more they find the eponymous Miri, a teenage girl who immediately falls in love with Kirk.
After scanning and looking at old medical records they figure out that the people on the planet were working on a virus that would make them live essentially forever. The only side effect was that it drove mad and eventually killed anyone older than 15 or 16. To make things worse everyone on the away team other than Spock now have the early signs of the disease. It is a seven day race against time to make a vaccine. This is when we start getting scenes of the other children. The actress playing Miri actually does a really good job, the other child actors less so.
After some shenanigans involving stealing the communicators and kidnapping yeoman Rand the episode comes to a conclusion with Kirk confronting the gang of rascals and convincing them to give back the communicators mostly by letting them hit him with various weapons. But to make sure that long and tedious scene is even more meaningless McCoy injects himself with the untested vaccine, passes out, but then recovers in moments as the vaccine takes effect. Cut to Kirk back on the bridge of the enterprise talking to yeoman Rand about how he is sure it will all be fine.
Review segment: Far better than I expected from the description, but still not the most classic of episodes. Suffers a bit from, "everything gets resolved in the last five minutes," syndrome. Still one of the better kids of trek ep.
6 out of 10
TOS: What Are Little Girls Made Of?
What are little girls made of is an odd episode, but upon reflection a pretty good one. The theme of what makes a human and if a machine can be human gets explored a lot more in TNG, but this is an interesting way to introduce the idea. Majel Barrett plays a major role in this episode as the fiancee of the lost genius medical archaeologist Roger Korby. In classic trek fashion Korby's reputation is established with the simple statement that one of his books is standard reading at the academy, so in addition to having the love of nurse Chapel, he has the instant respect of Kirk. After establishing contact Korby requests that the captain beam down alone, and since he is so respected it can't possibly be a trap!
It's a trap. Kirk, Chapel and two red shirts beam down, and within 3 minutes both red shirts are killed by a mysterious figure in a goofy puffy jacket. Kirk and Chapel are greeted by Korby's assistant Dr. Brown who seems both totally certain the red shirts are dead, and also totally cool with it. They also meet the beautiful but cold Andrea, but more on her on a minute because in comes the main attraction, Dr. Korby. After passionately kissing Chapel. And then kinda out of the blue Dr. Brown pulls a phaser on Kirk who doesn't stand for that garbage and blasts him hard enough blow a hole in him but not hard enough for a full vaporization. Which is lucky because this reveals he is an robot!
Korby keeps insisting that everything is cool and he can explain, but never seems to get to the actual explaining. Instead he has the hulking puffy jacket android named Ruk fake Kirk's voice to call back to the Enterprise and reassure Spock. Then to prove things are totally cool and not shady at all Korby makes an android clone of Kirk, insists it isn't to replace him, and then sends it up to the ship to steal some sort of secret command codes. But the real Kirk is way smarter than that and tricks android Kirk into thinking he is hella racist against Spock, so when Spock encounters the android he is clued in pretty quick since real Kirk is only kinda hella racist.
Meanwhile Kirk is trying to teach the beautiful Andrea (yeah, also an android, see a theme here?) how to love, which confuses her poor logic brain. He also convinces Ruk (who is actually millions of years old) that Korby is the real threat. Finally things come to a head when all the androids (including Korby to the surprise of no one by this point) go all Hamlet and kill each other leaving only Kirk and Chapel. Spock bravely arrives after all this is over to be supportive I guess.
Reviewish part: Given the state of computer technology when this episode was made it isn't all that different from the ideas expressed in TNG about androids, but then again these are largely the same issues brought up in classic Metropolis by Fritz Lang. Some of the alleged logic traps seem kinda shallow, but overall a good episode.
6 out of 10
It's a trap. Kirk, Chapel and two red shirts beam down, and within 3 minutes both red shirts are killed by a mysterious figure in a goofy puffy jacket. Kirk and Chapel are greeted by Korby's assistant Dr. Brown who seems both totally certain the red shirts are dead, and also totally cool with it. They also meet the beautiful but cold Andrea, but more on her on a minute because in comes the main attraction, Dr. Korby. After passionately kissing Chapel. And then kinda out of the blue Dr. Brown pulls a phaser on Kirk who doesn't stand for that garbage and blasts him hard enough blow a hole in him but not hard enough for a full vaporization. Which is lucky because this reveals he is an robot!
Korby keeps insisting that everything is cool and he can explain, but never seems to get to the actual explaining. Instead he has the hulking puffy jacket android named Ruk fake Kirk's voice to call back to the Enterprise and reassure Spock. Then to prove things are totally cool and not shady at all Korby makes an android clone of Kirk, insists it isn't to replace him, and then sends it up to the ship to steal some sort of secret command codes. But the real Kirk is way smarter than that and tricks android Kirk into thinking he is hella racist against Spock, so when Spock encounters the android he is clued in pretty quick since real Kirk is only kinda hella racist.
Meanwhile Kirk is trying to teach the beautiful Andrea (yeah, also an android, see a theme here?) how to love, which confuses her poor logic brain. He also convinces Ruk (who is actually millions of years old) that Korby is the real threat. Finally things come to a head when all the androids (including Korby to the surprise of no one by this point) go all Hamlet and kill each other leaving only Kirk and Chapel. Spock bravely arrives after all this is over to be supportive I guess.
Reviewish part: Given the state of computer technology when this episode was made it isn't all that different from the ideas expressed in TNG about androids, but then again these are largely the same issues brought up in classic Metropolis by Fritz Lang. Some of the alleged logic traps seem kinda shallow, but overall a good episode.
6 out of 10
Saturday, February 14, 2015
TOS: Mudd's Women
This is an odd one. An episode about a smuggler trafficking women who are being enhanced by magic space drugs, but also tries to be about women's rights in the most jackass of ways. The episode starts with Kirk risking all the lives on the Enterprise chasing down an out of control cargo vessel at maximum speed burning out all the lithium (not dilithium, IKR!) crystals. Just before the cargo vessel explodes the dream transporter team of Spock and Scotty manages to beam the captain of the vessel and his three lovely companions/cargo onto the Enterprise.
All the men on the Enterprise other than Spock promptly lose their shit at how amazingly alluring the women are, so much so the Kirk realizes there must be something wrong. The captain of the cargo vessel is interrogated with a truth'o'scope which reveals his true name is Harry Mudd and he is a notorious space criminal with convictions for smuggling and using counterfeit money to buy a ship. Also operating a ship without a license which I guess makes sense as a crime, but is just kinda funny in the context of interstellar vessels.
Fairly soon we discover that Mudd is giving his women some sort of super sexy making drug that quickly wears off revealing their terrible awful secret! Without the drug they don't have makeup on/have really fake makeup making them look old. To get the Enterprise back off battery power they set course for the mining planet of Rigel 12. Mudd is ecstatic since this is the perfect place to find husbands for his three ladies. This is the part where we figure out he is also a space pimp apparently and he secretly contacts the space miners to work out a space deal.
The Enterprise beams the head of the miners and his one assistant up and they tell the Kirk they don't want his stinking money, they just want the women. Kirk isn't stoked about this, but since they live in a world with Orion slave women I guess he isn't too offended. Mudd, his women, Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet where we learn there are in fact only three miners on the whole planet and everything outside is a dust storm of death. Two of the girls seem totally stoked to be marooned forever on this lonely rock, but one of the girls is either upset at this horrible fate or mad none of the three miners like her. Either way, wow. She runs off into the death storm and the head of the miners go after her.
I want to remind everybody that this whole time the Enterprise has been losing power and will crash into the planet in less than an hour. But it's cool, no one seems to be in a rush of very upset about that. The miner manages to find his bride followed by a super awkward sequence of her cooking for him and him being all mad about it because that isn't what he wants from her, but then her drug wears off and she loses her makeup and he freaks. The conclusion to all this is even stranger than the build up. Kirk and Mudd show up to get the crystal or be mad I guess? The miner says he doesn't want the woman because she is ugly, but Mudd gives her the pretty drug and she gets pretty again, or does he??? Kirk apparently replaced it with a placebo or something so the miner must just really love her after all so everything is ok? I watched this pretty late at night after a long day at work, but I suspect it would leave me confused either way.
Mini Review: Not my favorite episode so far. Mudd's character is pretty despicable and the message of the episode seems to be it is great to buy a wife as long as you think she is pretty even if she isn't.
4 out of 10
All the men on the Enterprise other than Spock promptly lose their shit at how amazingly alluring the women are, so much so the Kirk realizes there must be something wrong. The captain of the cargo vessel is interrogated with a truth'o'scope which reveals his true name is Harry Mudd and he is a notorious space criminal with convictions for smuggling and using counterfeit money to buy a ship. Also operating a ship without a license which I guess makes sense as a crime, but is just kinda funny in the context of interstellar vessels.
Fairly soon we discover that Mudd is giving his women some sort of super sexy making drug that quickly wears off revealing their terrible awful secret! Without the drug they don't have makeup on/have really fake makeup making them look old. To get the Enterprise back off battery power they set course for the mining planet of Rigel 12. Mudd is ecstatic since this is the perfect place to find husbands for his three ladies. This is the part where we figure out he is also a space pimp apparently and he secretly contacts the space miners to work out a space deal.
The Enterprise beams the head of the miners and his one assistant up and they tell the Kirk they don't want his stinking money, they just want the women. Kirk isn't stoked about this, but since they live in a world with Orion slave women I guess he isn't too offended. Mudd, his women, Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet where we learn there are in fact only three miners on the whole planet and everything outside is a dust storm of death. Two of the girls seem totally stoked to be marooned forever on this lonely rock, but one of the girls is either upset at this horrible fate or mad none of the three miners like her. Either way, wow. She runs off into the death storm and the head of the miners go after her.
I want to remind everybody that this whole time the Enterprise has been losing power and will crash into the planet in less than an hour. But it's cool, no one seems to be in a rush of very upset about that. The miner manages to find his bride followed by a super awkward sequence of her cooking for him and him being all mad about it because that isn't what he wants from her, but then her drug wears off and she loses her makeup and he freaks. The conclusion to all this is even stranger than the build up. Kirk and Mudd show up to get the crystal or be mad I guess? The miner says he doesn't want the woman because she is ugly, but Mudd gives her the pretty drug and she gets pretty again, or does he??? Kirk apparently replaced it with a placebo or something so the miner must just really love her after all so everything is ok? I watched this pretty late at night after a long day at work, but I suspect it would leave me confused either way.
Mini Review: Not my favorite episode so far. Mudd's character is pretty despicable and the message of the episode seems to be it is great to buy a wife as long as you think she is pretty even if she isn't.
4 out of 10
Thursday, February 12, 2015
TOS: The Enemy Within
The episode opens with Sulu holding a dog in a double unicorn costume (a horn at each end, google it if you have to) with a rainbow tarp in the background as the captain supervises the collection of geological samples. A crewman is hurt in a fall (and somehow survives the whole episode, a first???) and transported back, but there is some sort of transporter malfunction, so of course the logical next thing to do is beam the captain back to the ship with the broken transporter. And of course this ends with Kirk split into has wimpy compassionate side and his animalistic rage side.
While compassion Kirk (CK) is relaxing in his quarters rage Kirk (RK) assaults yeoman Rand in her quarters, but she escapes after scratching his cheek. RK then assaults but doesn't kill the same crewman who was injured at the beginning of the episode (wow, this guy is lucky to survive two brushes with death). Scotty figures out that the double unicorn dog has been split into a good and evil version and Spock puts it all together, there is an impostor! This whole time Sulu is stuck with the away team on the planet below as the temperature drops rapidly below survivable.
CK orders the crew to search for RK and almost forgets to tell them to set phasers to stun as Spock has decided kinda out of the blue that if RK is hurt or killed it will kill CK. CK out thinks RK and there is a struggle in engineering, but RK ends up strapped down in the med bay while they figure things out. Somewhere around here Spock decides RK is losing, "the force of will," and that he will lose his ability to command. All I could think of was the matrix of leadership from transformers, and if Optimus loses it, on noes! In the fight in engineering RK blasts a hole in some vital part the Scotty later tells them is the reason the transporter malfunctioned. Take that chronological order!
The final crisis of the episode revolves around trying to fix the transporter to both recombine RK and CK and save Sulu and the away team. Of course no challenge is too great for the combined talents of Scotty and Spock and they manage to slap it together just in time for a test on the two double unicorn dogs. This results in one dead double unicorn dog and the first use of the line, "He's dead Jim!" But don't worry, Spock is sure it will work as long as the subject understands what is happening, it is just the shock that killed the dog. Lets stop for a second, I am an EMT and this is not how shock works. Shock is a physiological reaction, not a psychological one. But since Spock is never wrong it works just fine on the captain and we call all get back to business as usual.
A few notes on this episode, throughout most of it the way to recognize RK is that he is sweating and has some black eye liner. How can we be sure he isn't just going through some strange goth/jock phase? Also I am pretty sure this it he first episode where Kirk hasn't gotten any crew killed, well done! Also, why doesn't the Enterprise have shuttle craft yet?
Reviewy section: Already TOS is making episodes about it's made up technology failing and almost dooming them all. This one definitely has some Shatner over acting, but in the context of him being split into id and ego or whatever it worked pretty well. I am going to have to take off a point or two however for what felt like 5 minutes or so of filler in the third act.
5 out of 10
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
TOS: The Naked Time
SPACE MADNESS!!! I, like most people who haven't seen TOS in a while mostly remember this episode for the sequence of shirtless Sulu running around with his rapier. I admit I didn't remember this episode all that favorably, especially in light of the clearly subpar knockoff episode, The Naked Now in TNG. However, despite the goofiness and early TNG knockoff, this is a pretty good episode. It has a number of Star Trek firsts: the first Vulcan neck pinch, the first over acted leaning to the left and right to indicate the ship was turning out of control, and the first mention of the bowling alley on the Enterprise!
This episode also continues the trend of things not going well for the first named crew member who appears on screen and isn't part of the main cast. I suppose they were so new at the time that maybe people didn't catch on, but Lieutenant Junior Grade Joe Tormolen should have been paying more attention. The episode starts with Joe and Spock beaming down to retrieve a crew of Federation scientists from a research base on a frozen planet that is collapsing. You can tell something odd has happened because the two manikins they could afford are doing things that don't make sense! And since poor Joe got sent to the Prometheus school of being in a deadly alien environment he takes his glove off just in time for the creepy red stuff to climb into his hand.
Things get serious when Joe tries to start a knife fight with Sulu in the rec room. He manages to stab himself and then dies of giving up hope, but not before infecting Sulu known Irishman Kevin Riley. Unfortunately for the Enterprise Sulu and Riley are responsible for piloting during a dangerous misunderstanding of how gravity works. Sulu runs off the the gym and Riley heads to engineering where he seizes control of the ship, dooming them all the be destroyed by his drunken renditions of Irish folk songs. Meanwhile Sulu is burning himself into the collective memory of the viewing audience with his swashbuckling antics ending with him tranquilized in sick bay.
The episode ends in a classic five minute rush to save the ship with Scotty cutting into engineering in time to learn they have to try the even more desperate plan of having now also infected Spock do complicated math to figure out how to restart the engines while McCoy deus ex machina comes out with a serum to return everyone to normal. As an added bonus this episode also introduces the concept of time warp in the last minute, but promises to return to it in a later episode (this feels like a, "don't cancel us," pitch).
Review segment: Finally an episode with some classic Trek action. Lots of medical and engineering mumbojumbo, Spock freaking out and having emotions, and Sulu swinging his rapier around like a madman. While mostly known for it's over the top sequences this is a solid episode the lays the foundation for many more great episodes (I hope).
8 out of 10
This episode also continues the trend of things not going well for the first named crew member who appears on screen and isn't part of the main cast. I suppose they were so new at the time that maybe people didn't catch on, but Lieutenant Junior Grade Joe Tormolen should have been paying more attention. The episode starts with Joe and Spock beaming down to retrieve a crew of Federation scientists from a research base on a frozen planet that is collapsing. You can tell something odd has happened because the two manikins they could afford are doing things that don't make sense! And since poor Joe got sent to the Prometheus school of being in a deadly alien environment he takes his glove off just in time for the creepy red stuff to climb into his hand.
Things get serious when Joe tries to start a knife fight with Sulu in the rec room. He manages to stab himself and then dies of giving up hope, but not before infecting Sulu known Irishman Kevin Riley. Unfortunately for the Enterprise Sulu and Riley are responsible for piloting during a dangerous misunderstanding of how gravity works. Sulu runs off the the gym and Riley heads to engineering where he seizes control of the ship, dooming them all the be destroyed by his drunken renditions of Irish folk songs. Meanwhile Sulu is burning himself into the collective memory of the viewing audience with his swashbuckling antics ending with him tranquilized in sick bay.
The episode ends in a classic five minute rush to save the ship with Scotty cutting into engineering in time to learn they have to try the even more desperate plan of having now also infected Spock do complicated math to figure out how to restart the engines while McCoy deus ex machina comes out with a serum to return everyone to normal. As an added bonus this episode also introduces the concept of time warp in the last minute, but promises to return to it in a later episode (this feels like a, "don't cancel us," pitch).
Review segment: Finally an episode with some classic Trek action. Lots of medical and engineering mumbojumbo, Spock freaking out and having emotions, and Sulu swinging his rapier around like a madman. While mostly known for it's over the top sequences this is a solid episode the lays the foundation for many more great episodes (I hope).
8 out of 10
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
TOS: Where No Man Has Gone Before
So far TOS series episodes seem to be following the theme of a dangerous psychic/vampire on the ship and no one is safe! This episode starts with the crew encountering a 200 year old distress signal coming from what turns out to be the black box from the destroyed USS Valient. So even though this is from a 200 year old ship from a period before humans were known to have been this far it is assumed to be a crisis and that whatever destroyed the Valient must still be a threat! So what is the best course of action? To go directly to where the Valient was destroyed as fast as possible of course. Also for some reason the data logger starts transmitting as they EXIT THE GALAXY. Which is apparently a big deal as it calls for the heads of all departments to report to the bridge.
The head of engineering is a very young Montgomery Scott who also happens to operate the transporters. In addition to Sulu who is apparently in charge of science or something, Dr. Piper shows up as the head of medical because apparently McCoy hadn't been cast or something (this is in fact the first episode filmed which may explain some of the continuity issues). Also the head of psychiatry/ESP Dr. Dehner. This is extremely convient because after she is already on the bridge Spock manages to get information out of the data recorder indicating the Valient was destroyed by crew who gained ESP powers from some sort of energy barrier outside the galaxy.
Again, the obvious course of action is to fly directly into this purple galactic barrier at warp one even though sensors indicate it may be solid. Luckily for them it isn't and instead it only knocks out there engines and kills nine crew. Plus it jolts Kirks best friend from the academy days Gary Mitchell along with Dr. ESP with some sort of energy field or something. When Gary recovers he has spooky silver eyes and has developed a nasty case of being a dick. You have probably already figured out that he is now a dangerous psychic who is going to threaten the ship. Luckily he isn't psychic enough to dodge a good punch from Kirk and with the help of Spock and Dr. Dehner they get him tranquilized and transported down to a planet that conveniently has fuel to fix the engine and no people making it the perfect place to leave Kirk's best friend to die.
You may be asking yourself how you don't know this fine Lt. Commander Mitchell, but of course it is because he is the villain of the episode. After digging Kirk a grave (with a tombstone to some guy named James S. Kirk, yeah more continuity) Dr. Dehner developed enough psychic powers to stun Mitchell long enough for Kirk to get into a good uniform ripping fist fight ending with Kirk burying Mitchell in his own grave. And I guess he gets Dehner to kill herself? Not sure what happens other than Kirk logging her and Mitchell as having given their lives in the service of their ship and flying home.
Not the most memorable of episodes. Lots of 60's ESP shenanigans only made the episode feel dated. Also they went back to using the phasers from the pilot. I guess you could say that Charlie destroyed them all in the last episode and they dug the antiques out of storage, but that would both give the writers too much credit and at the same time discredit the, "all is as it was at the beginning of the episode," floating green head that closed out Charlie X.
4 out of 10
The head of engineering is a very young Montgomery Scott who also happens to operate the transporters. In addition to Sulu who is apparently in charge of science or something, Dr. Piper shows up as the head of medical because apparently McCoy hadn't been cast or something (this is in fact the first episode filmed which may explain some of the continuity issues). Also the head of psychiatry/ESP Dr. Dehner. This is extremely convient because after she is already on the bridge Spock manages to get information out of the data recorder indicating the Valient was destroyed by crew who gained ESP powers from some sort of energy barrier outside the galaxy.
Again, the obvious course of action is to fly directly into this purple galactic barrier at warp one even though sensors indicate it may be solid. Luckily for them it isn't and instead it only knocks out there engines and kills nine crew. Plus it jolts Kirks best friend from the academy days Gary Mitchell along with Dr. ESP with some sort of energy field or something. When Gary recovers he has spooky silver eyes and has developed a nasty case of being a dick. You have probably already figured out that he is now a dangerous psychic who is going to threaten the ship. Luckily he isn't psychic enough to dodge a good punch from Kirk and with the help of Spock and Dr. Dehner they get him tranquilized and transported down to a planet that conveniently has fuel to fix the engine and no people making it the perfect place to leave Kirk's best friend to die.
You may be asking yourself how you don't know this fine Lt. Commander Mitchell, but of course it is because he is the villain of the episode. After digging Kirk a grave (with a tombstone to some guy named James S. Kirk, yeah more continuity) Dr. Dehner developed enough psychic powers to stun Mitchell long enough for Kirk to get into a good uniform ripping fist fight ending with Kirk burying Mitchell in his own grave. And I guess he gets Dehner to kill herself? Not sure what happens other than Kirk logging her and Mitchell as having given their lives in the service of their ship and flying home.
Not the most memorable of episodes. Lots of 60's ESP shenanigans only made the episode feel dated. Also they went back to using the phasers from the pilot. I guess you could say that Charlie destroyed them all in the last episode and they dug the antiques out of storage, but that would both give the writers too much credit and at the same time discredit the, "all is as it was at the beginning of the episode," floating green head that closed out Charlie X.
4 out of 10
Monday, February 9, 2015
TOS: Charlie X
A story about the captain dealing with an out of control teenager? TNG time already? Nope, this is the second aired episode of TOS, Charlie X. Another landmark episode, it features the first appearance of: three dimensional chess, Spock's Vulcan harp/lute instrument, and the always classic Uhura singing parodies of Vulcan harp/loot music. Also making a memorable appearance is Kirk's tight gym pants which of course feature a federation logo because how can he be the captain without it?
The eponymous Charlie is basically your run of the mill out of control psychic/telepath and it is up to Kirk to figure out how to keep him from destroying the ship. Along the way he runs into Spock playing three dimensional chess with Kirk who wisely flees the scene leaving Spock to teach the boy to chess. I wish he had actually taught him, because then maybe I would understand what the hell is going on. I was introduced to it as a game played in Ten Forward on the Enterprise-D and I didn't understand it then, and I certainly don't now.
The scene of the crew recreating playing cards and chess while Spock lutes in the corner is especially memorable. I am not quite sure how to interpret it other than Uhura flirting with Spock for a second straight episode. Yeoman Rand seems to be catching all the creeps in the early episodes because after the song Charlie decides to show off his telepathic powers with card tricks that they probably should have figured out could only be pulled off with some sort of actual magic, but hey, why not ignore it and put the whole ship at risk.
This one wraps most of the way up with a classic battle of the wills between Charlie and Kirk and we all know how that ends. With the floating head of psychic space Kissinger fixing all the damage Charlie has caused to the ship before taking him back to live forever in a world without love. Yeah, not quite where I thought they were going earlier, but after the old trick him into a room with a forcefield trick didn't work, what else are you going to do?
Review segment: This episode features many classic trek themes and a story that doesn't have gaping holes. It does seem like the crew should have figured out they had a problem a little earlier, but I guess meatloaf turning into live turkeys is normal on Kirk's Enterprise. Not a super memorable episode, but better than many first season TNG episodes.
6 out of 10
The eponymous Charlie is basically your run of the mill out of control psychic/telepath and it is up to Kirk to figure out how to keep him from destroying the ship. Along the way he runs into Spock playing three dimensional chess with Kirk who wisely flees the scene leaving Spock to teach the boy to chess. I wish he had actually taught him, because then maybe I would understand what the hell is going on. I was introduced to it as a game played in Ten Forward on the Enterprise-D and I didn't understand it then, and I certainly don't now.
The scene of the crew recreating playing cards and chess while Spock lutes in the corner is especially memorable. I am not quite sure how to interpret it other than Uhura flirting with Spock for a second straight episode. Yeoman Rand seems to be catching all the creeps in the early episodes because after the song Charlie decides to show off his telepathic powers with card tricks that they probably should have figured out could only be pulled off with some sort of actual magic, but hey, why not ignore it and put the whole ship at risk.
This one wraps most of the way up with a classic battle of the wills between Charlie and Kirk and we all know how that ends. With the floating head of psychic space Kissinger fixing all the damage Charlie has caused to the ship before taking him back to live forever in a world without love. Yeah, not quite where I thought they were going earlier, but after the old trick him into a room with a forcefield trick didn't work, what else are you going to do?
Review segment: This episode features many classic trek themes and a story that doesn't have gaping holes. It does seem like the crew should have figured out they had a problem a little earlier, but I guess meatloaf turning into live turkeys is normal on Kirk's Enterprise. Not a super memorable episode, but better than many first season TNG episodes.
6 out of 10
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