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
No comments:
Post a Comment