Everybody in the galaxy seems to either develop exactly like earth, or want badly to be like earth. The Omega Glory is an example of the former. But where it would make sense for societies to parallel each other, in this case they are our exact duplicate up until the Trek 1990's. Down to the font choice for the constitution this planet is has a culture exactly like america, only devastated by disease hundreds of years ago. The story the episode appears to be telling about a starship captain who has lost his way gives way to the way cheesier, "who is the real prophet of post-apocalyptic america?"
The episode opens with the Enterprise encountering the USS Exeter in orbit around Omega IV. The ship appears undamaged, but also unoccupied. Kirk beams over along with Spock, McCoy and a red shirt. They find the crew has been transformed into piles of chemicals devoid of water. They discover the ships medical log contains a warning to flee the ship to the planets surface. On the surface they interrupt an execution being overseen by the former captain of the Exeter, Ronald Tracey. The natives recognize their phasers and Tracey explains the Asian people he is living with are under constant siege from a Caucasian group who are completely psychotic and attack without reason.
As they discuss how Tracey has clearly violated the prime directive and needs to be arrested Tracey busts in and kills the red shirt when he reaches for a phaser. The rest are imprissoned other than McCoy who is tasked with discovering a cure for the disease that killed the Exeter crew. Tracey tries to explain to Kirk that the natives live for hundreds of years so that is why he used his phaser to slaughter hundreds of the rival group. Kirk doesn't buy it and is thrown into a cell with the savages. They fight for hours, but stop when Kirk says freedom. Suddenly the savage is willing to speak with him after Kirk spoke a, "holy word." Kirk shows them how to break out the bars on the window, but when it is done the native knocks Kirk out and escapes.
When Kirk regains consciousness he and Spock escape, but are caught by a now bloodied Tracey. The natives who escaped warned the others who attacked and won. Kirk and Tracey fight until the savages show up and tie everybody up. They take them to their leader who brings out an American flag. Kirk impresses them by saying the pledge of allegiance. They are apparently the descendants of parallel Americans and agree to let Kirk and Tracey fight to determine who is evil or something. Just as Kirk wins, but refuses to kill Spock contacts the ship and Sulu beams down with armed security. Kirk gives a nice speech freedom being for everybody and their are on their way.
Cheese factor: I am not sure if the writers actually think that life on other planets will be exactly the same as on earth and will even develop the same culture that we have or if they are just lazy. Probably lazy. The story about a captain corrupting a primitive culture with his technical know how was more interesting than the American twist at the end. Not boring, but pretty silly.
4 out of 10
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Monday, March 30, 2015
TOS: By Any Other Name
Finally we encounter a dangerous race of aliens determined to conquer humanity that lack godlike powers! I still don't really understand why they thought there would be a powerful energy barrier around the outside of the galaxy, but I guess it was canon by this point so whatever. Also, warp 11 always makes my mind hurt a little bit. Finally, this episode proves why they had to go an invent synthehol, Scotty has bottles of various booze stashed all over his quarters!
Answering a distress signal Kirk beam to the surface of an uninhabited world with Spock, McCoy and two red shirts. Two human looking aliens show up and paralyze them with these little boxes on their belts. The male alien, Rojan, explains they he just conquered them and intends to use their ship to fly to the andromeda galaxy. He sends his people up and they easily take over the Enterprise with their paralysis boxes. Kirk and company are imprisoned. Spock manages to mind probe the guard and Kirk knocks her out (with a hit to the shoulder, classic trek combat) and they steal her paralysis box. But they are immediately caught by Rojan who has a goon turn the two red shirts into some sort blocks resembling giant dice. He then crushes one to show how much he is serious before restoring the other red shirt. During his mind probe Spock learns the aliens are not in their normal bodies, they have taken human form to be able to use the Enterprise.
Spock fakes being sick and the guard takes him and McCoy to the ship. Spock and Scotty rig the ship to explode when it passes through the galactic barrier, but on the bridge when the time comes to decide Kirk won't do it. They proceed into intergalactic space. Not needing the crew any longer Rojan has everyone by Kirk, Scotty, Spock and McCoy reduced to blocks. While enjoying a dinner in the rec room one of the aliens walks in and asks why they are eating. They convince him to try it and he loves it. This along with Spock suddenly remembering more from his mind probe gives them the idea to get the aliens to react emotionally and to start to enjoy being human.
McCoy starts injecting the aliens with drugs to make them irritable, Scotty gets one of them drunk, and Kirk starts a romance with Kelinda, the guard he knocked out earlier. Rojan becomes jealous of Kelinda being with Kirk and orders her to stay away from him, but she ignores him. The guy McCoy has been messing with freaks out on the bridge and Rojan realizes he is losing control. He catches Kirk kissing Kelinda and freaks out in a jealous rage. He fights Kirk hand to hand, but when Kirk gets the upper hand he convinces Rojan to return to the milky way and start enjoying life in human bodies. This of course works because there are only a few minutes left in the episode and they turn the ship around to go home.
Scoring: While not one that gets talked about a lot this is actually probably my favorite, "aliens want something vague from humanity," episode so far. Partially because what they want at first actually makes sense. And what it turns out they really wanted is a big surprise to them.
7 out of 10
Answering a distress signal Kirk beam to the surface of an uninhabited world with Spock, McCoy and two red shirts. Two human looking aliens show up and paralyze them with these little boxes on their belts. The male alien, Rojan, explains they he just conquered them and intends to use their ship to fly to the andromeda galaxy. He sends his people up and they easily take over the Enterprise with their paralysis boxes. Kirk and company are imprisoned. Spock manages to mind probe the guard and Kirk knocks her out (with a hit to the shoulder, classic trek combat) and they steal her paralysis box. But they are immediately caught by Rojan who has a goon turn the two red shirts into some sort blocks resembling giant dice. He then crushes one to show how much he is serious before restoring the other red shirt. During his mind probe Spock learns the aliens are not in their normal bodies, they have taken human form to be able to use the Enterprise.
Spock fakes being sick and the guard takes him and McCoy to the ship. Spock and Scotty rig the ship to explode when it passes through the galactic barrier, but on the bridge when the time comes to decide Kirk won't do it. They proceed into intergalactic space. Not needing the crew any longer Rojan has everyone by Kirk, Scotty, Spock and McCoy reduced to blocks. While enjoying a dinner in the rec room one of the aliens walks in and asks why they are eating. They convince him to try it and he loves it. This along with Spock suddenly remembering more from his mind probe gives them the idea to get the aliens to react emotionally and to start to enjoy being human.
McCoy starts injecting the aliens with drugs to make them irritable, Scotty gets one of them drunk, and Kirk starts a romance with Kelinda, the guard he knocked out earlier. Rojan becomes jealous of Kelinda being with Kirk and orders her to stay away from him, but she ignores him. The guy McCoy has been messing with freaks out on the bridge and Rojan realizes he is losing control. He catches Kirk kissing Kelinda and freaks out in a jealous rage. He fights Kirk hand to hand, but when Kirk gets the upper hand he convinces Rojan to return to the milky way and start enjoying life in human bodies. This of course works because there are only a few minutes left in the episode and they turn the ship around to go home.
Scoring: While not one that gets talked about a lot this is actually probably my favorite, "aliens want something vague from humanity," episode so far. Partially because what they want at first actually makes sense. And what it turns out they really wanted is a big surprise to them.
7 out of 10
Sunday, March 29, 2015
TOS: Patterns of Force
A tale of two planets, or PLANET OF THE NAZIS's, you decide. Patterns of Force would seem a bit more creative it it didn't follow so quickly behind A Piece of the Action. Both are tales of the influence of earth and it's awesome culture totally overwhelming the culture of another planet and remaking them in our image. I suspect it may also have something to do with it being a lot cheaper to use a bunch of props and uniforms they already had rather than making up a new alien culture every week, but I don't know that for sure. Other than the classic trek ending that resolves everything in the last 3 minutes problem this is actually an enjoyable episode to watch.
The Enterprise sure does spend a lot of time checking in on outpost and researchers, in tonight's episode they are checking in on Kirk's old history professor who has been a cultural observer on a primitive world of humanoids. There are two planets with fairly advanced cultures in the system, Ekos and Zeon. Zeon hosts an early space faring culture that is entirely peaceful, and Ekos is more primitive and hostile. John Gill, the Federation observer has been stationed on Ekos for several years. As they approach Ekos they are attacked by a thermonuclear missile, something unknown on Ekos when the Federation last visited. After shooting it down Spock and Kirk beam to the surface to investigate.
On the surface they find a Zeon man being dragged away by Ekosian soldiers, dressed as Nazi's. Spock and Kirk steal Nazi uniforms to fit in, but Spock makes a terrible Nazi so they are immediately discovered an imprisoned. After being tortured ineffectively for a while they are left alone in a cell. Spock magically makes a cutting laser beam out of the transponder chips embedded in his and Kirk's arm and they escape with a Zeon freedom fighter and make their way to the sewer. There they are tested by an important Ekosian hero showing up and, "capturing them," but when Kirk and Spock don't switch sides they learn it was a test. They come up with a plan to get to the John Gill, who is now the fuhrer.
They sneak into Nazi central and discover the fuhrer is drugged. Right after the speach they disable the guards and get to Gill along with McCoy who they beamed down in a Nazi doctors uniform. McCoy gives him a stimulant and they learn the deputy fuhrer has been drugging Gill for years. Just then they are caught, but the Nazi hero lady pretends to have captured Spock and he is taken to the deputy fuhrer. As he examines Spock, Kirk gives Gill a dangerously high does of stimulant and gets him awake enough to go back on television and denounce his deputy as a traitor. The deputy shoots him through a window but is killed by an Zeon pretending to be a Nazi. The new leader apparently never liked the Nazi's anyway and the two planets are apparently on the path to peace.
Dissertation: My biggest problem with this episode is it seems like it would take more than a 3 minute long speech by a leader who is obviously not all there to totally reverse a planet of Nazi's, but I guess it is a nice thought. Other than somewhat abrupt conclusion this one manages to be tense and interesting through out.
7 out of 10
The Enterprise sure does spend a lot of time checking in on outpost and researchers, in tonight's episode they are checking in on Kirk's old history professor who has been a cultural observer on a primitive world of humanoids. There are two planets with fairly advanced cultures in the system, Ekos and Zeon. Zeon hosts an early space faring culture that is entirely peaceful, and Ekos is more primitive and hostile. John Gill, the Federation observer has been stationed on Ekos for several years. As they approach Ekos they are attacked by a thermonuclear missile, something unknown on Ekos when the Federation last visited. After shooting it down Spock and Kirk beam to the surface to investigate.
On the surface they find a Zeon man being dragged away by Ekosian soldiers, dressed as Nazi's. Spock and Kirk steal Nazi uniforms to fit in, but Spock makes a terrible Nazi so they are immediately discovered an imprisoned. After being tortured ineffectively for a while they are left alone in a cell. Spock magically makes a cutting laser beam out of the transponder chips embedded in his and Kirk's arm and they escape with a Zeon freedom fighter and make their way to the sewer. There they are tested by an important Ekosian hero showing up and, "capturing them," but when Kirk and Spock don't switch sides they learn it was a test. They come up with a plan to get to the John Gill, who is now the fuhrer.
They sneak into Nazi central and discover the fuhrer is drugged. Right after the speach they disable the guards and get to Gill along with McCoy who they beamed down in a Nazi doctors uniform. McCoy gives him a stimulant and they learn the deputy fuhrer has been drugging Gill for years. Just then they are caught, but the Nazi hero lady pretends to have captured Spock and he is taken to the deputy fuhrer. As he examines Spock, Kirk gives Gill a dangerously high does of stimulant and gets him awake enough to go back on television and denounce his deputy as a traitor. The deputy shoots him through a window but is killed by an Zeon pretending to be a Nazi. The new leader apparently never liked the Nazi's anyway and the two planets are apparently on the path to peace.
Dissertation: My biggest problem with this episode is it seems like it would take more than a 3 minute long speech by a leader who is obviously not all there to totally reverse a planet of Nazi's, but I guess it is a nice thought. Other than somewhat abrupt conclusion this one manages to be tense and interesting through out.
7 out of 10
Saturday, March 28, 2015
TOS: Return to Tomorrow
Enough with the godlike beings already! I guess they did at least take a break for a good portion of this season, but tonight's episode rushes right back to god country. This one at least gives the gods the encumbrance of not being able to create matter with their minds, but their psychic and technological powers seem to know almost no limits. There is a reference to Sargon's people having spread themselves across the stars and for once it is pointed out this wouldn't really explain humans who are clearly the product of evolution, but Spock mentions that it may explain certain parts of Vulcan prehistory, interesting! This one drags a bit in the middle, but is tells a decent story.
We begin with the Enterprise chasing a distress signal far beyond the edge of explored space. They find a planet that Spock describes as M-Class even though it had it's atmosphere wiped away half a million years ago. A voice rings out on the bridge welcoming them and encouraging them to beam hundreds of miles below the surface of the planet for a chat. Even though it is stated as a request it is clear they have little choice. Under the surface of the planet they find the voice is a sphere containing, "the pure mental energy," of Sargon, a being from before the planet was destroyed. He steals the captains body and explains that he just wants to use it to build some robots. Despite almost killing him Kirk agrees to help.
Along with Kirk's body they also need Spock and the beautiful, and new to the show, Dr. Lt. (which goes first???) Mulhall. McCoy and Scotty try to talk them out of it and even though it seems likely they are being psychically influence, or I guess because of it, they all agree. Sargon occupies Kirk's body, his wife occupies Mulhall, and the leader of the former rival faction Henoch occupies Spock. We quickly learn Henoch has no plans to give up the body and he sabotages a drug for Kirk that is supposed to help him deal with having a powerful energy being living inside him. Henoch manages to convince Sargon's wife to join him, but after Kirk dies from bad drug she realizes it was wrong. Sargon's voice suddenly addresses them, it was apparently all a ruse. He gets McCoy to make a powerful poison and they use it on Spock to kill Henoch. Henoch flee's Spocks body before he dies and is destroyed by Sargon. Spock wakes up and Sargon explains it was only a fake poison, but they needed to believe in it because Henock was reading their minds.
Dissection: The summary above skips a fair bit of the episode. Almost all the skipped time is spent debating the ethics of body stealing and the horror of living inside a machine. We all know stealing bodies, especially Spock's body, is clearly wrong, and why not just make super machines with your godlike tech? A good concept for an episode that feels like it had some filler added to pad out the run time.
5 out of 10
We begin with the Enterprise chasing a distress signal far beyond the edge of explored space. They find a planet that Spock describes as M-Class even though it had it's atmosphere wiped away half a million years ago. A voice rings out on the bridge welcoming them and encouraging them to beam hundreds of miles below the surface of the planet for a chat. Even though it is stated as a request it is clear they have little choice. Under the surface of the planet they find the voice is a sphere containing, "the pure mental energy," of Sargon, a being from before the planet was destroyed. He steals the captains body and explains that he just wants to use it to build some robots. Despite almost killing him Kirk agrees to help.
Along with Kirk's body they also need Spock and the beautiful, and new to the show, Dr. Lt. (which goes first???) Mulhall. McCoy and Scotty try to talk them out of it and even though it seems likely they are being psychically influence, or I guess because of it, they all agree. Sargon occupies Kirk's body, his wife occupies Mulhall, and the leader of the former rival faction Henoch occupies Spock. We quickly learn Henoch has no plans to give up the body and he sabotages a drug for Kirk that is supposed to help him deal with having a powerful energy being living inside him. Henoch manages to convince Sargon's wife to join him, but after Kirk dies from bad drug she realizes it was wrong. Sargon's voice suddenly addresses them, it was apparently all a ruse. He gets McCoy to make a powerful poison and they use it on Spock to kill Henoch. Henoch flee's Spocks body before he dies and is destroyed by Sargon. Spock wakes up and Sargon explains it was only a fake poison, but they needed to believe in it because Henock was reading their minds.
Dissection: The summary above skips a fair bit of the episode. Almost all the skipped time is spent debating the ethics of body stealing and the horror of living inside a machine. We all know stealing bodies, especially Spock's body, is clearly wrong, and why not just make super machines with your godlike tech? A good concept for an episode that feels like it had some filler added to pad out the run time.
5 out of 10
Friday, March 27, 2015
TOS: A Private Little War
Finally an episode where they at least try to not totally disregard the prime directive! It is almost like it is important to the Federation or something. This is an episode I have no memory of watching and it was a fun surprise. Both Kirk and Spock are seriously injured in this episode and have to trust the healing of a culture in which they don't belong which is a cool part. It also moves forward the plot about nurse Chapel being interested in Spock, but only a little.
We begin with the ship checking in on a planet Kirk surveyed 13 years earlier. When he left they were a hunter gatherer culture with a fairly advanced understanding of plants a not much more. On the surface Spock and Kirk witness a group of the natives using flintlock muskets to ambush the man Kirk worked with here 13 years before. Kirk distracts the gunmen by throwing a rock at them, but they manage to shoot Spock through the chest before they can beam up. Spock is in critical condition, but there is a specialist in Vulcan medicine on board so McCoy is free to beam back down with the captain to investigate. Just before they beam down a Klingon warship shows up out of nowhere. With Spock out of commission Scotty is left in charge with orders to avoid the Klingons.
On the surface McCoy and Kirk are attacked by a horned ape monster and Kirk is poisoned by it before McCoy can blast it with his phaser. Before he passes out Kirk tells McCoy to find his friend Tyree who can save him from the toxin. Fortunately the first group of natives he encounters are part of Tyree's group so they bring Kirk and McCoy to their village. Tyree is busy being drugged into a stupor by some plant his wife is giving him and she rushes to Kirk just in time to see McCoy heating up rocks with the phaser. Feeling a little less stoned Tyree shows up and together with a creepy moving root they manage to heal Kirk.
Kirk recovers quickly and along with McCoy and Tyree they sneak into the village of their enemies. After knocking out the guard and leaving Tyree to keep watch they sneak into a building and find a forge. But not just that, they also find chrome steel drill bits and musket barrels made to look homemade. They even encounter the Klingon who is giving them these weapons. A fight breaks out because Kirk has a hard time not punching Klingons and they narrowly escape.
Back at the village Kirk trains them how to use the musket they captured from the guard and there is a big fight between McCoy and Kirk over whether it is ethical to arm Tyree's people to match what the Klingons have done. Tyree doesn't want to kill anybody, but when he sees his wife using her plant drugs on Kirk he gets pissed. Even more so when she knocks Kirk out, steals his phaser and tries to take it to the enemy village to arm them. It doesn't work out for her though as she is attacked by rival villagers and just as Kirk shows up with Tyree they kill her. Suddenly Tyree is ready for a war. The episode ends with a recovered Spock arriving to pick them up and Kirk asking for flintlocks to arm Tyree and his people, but possibly having second thoughts. It ends kinda ambiguously.
How things went: Normally I am not a big fan of episodes with a lot of social commentary. It can get pretty heavy handed and often gets in the way of telling the story. But this one felt more like a story that is also about something rather than shoehorning in the message. Not the greatest of all time, but a little above average.
6 out of 10
We begin with the ship checking in on a planet Kirk surveyed 13 years earlier. When he left they were a hunter gatherer culture with a fairly advanced understanding of plants a not much more. On the surface Spock and Kirk witness a group of the natives using flintlock muskets to ambush the man Kirk worked with here 13 years before. Kirk distracts the gunmen by throwing a rock at them, but they manage to shoot Spock through the chest before they can beam up. Spock is in critical condition, but there is a specialist in Vulcan medicine on board so McCoy is free to beam back down with the captain to investigate. Just before they beam down a Klingon warship shows up out of nowhere. With Spock out of commission Scotty is left in charge with orders to avoid the Klingons.
On the surface McCoy and Kirk are attacked by a horned ape monster and Kirk is poisoned by it before McCoy can blast it with his phaser. Before he passes out Kirk tells McCoy to find his friend Tyree who can save him from the toxin. Fortunately the first group of natives he encounters are part of Tyree's group so they bring Kirk and McCoy to their village. Tyree is busy being drugged into a stupor by some plant his wife is giving him and she rushes to Kirk just in time to see McCoy heating up rocks with the phaser. Feeling a little less stoned Tyree shows up and together with a creepy moving root they manage to heal Kirk.
Kirk recovers quickly and along with McCoy and Tyree they sneak into the village of their enemies. After knocking out the guard and leaving Tyree to keep watch they sneak into a building and find a forge. But not just that, they also find chrome steel drill bits and musket barrels made to look homemade. They even encounter the Klingon who is giving them these weapons. A fight breaks out because Kirk has a hard time not punching Klingons and they narrowly escape.
Back at the village Kirk trains them how to use the musket they captured from the guard and there is a big fight between McCoy and Kirk over whether it is ethical to arm Tyree's people to match what the Klingons have done. Tyree doesn't want to kill anybody, but when he sees his wife using her plant drugs on Kirk he gets pissed. Even more so when she knocks Kirk out, steals his phaser and tries to take it to the enemy village to arm them. It doesn't work out for her though as she is attacked by rival villagers and just as Kirk shows up with Tyree they kill her. Suddenly Tyree is ready for a war. The episode ends with a recovered Spock arriving to pick them up and Kirk asking for flintlocks to arm Tyree and his people, but possibly having second thoughts. It ends kinda ambiguously.
How things went: Normally I am not a big fan of episodes with a lot of social commentary. It can get pretty heavy handed and often gets in the way of telling the story. But this one felt more like a story that is also about something rather than shoehorning in the message. Not the greatest of all time, but a little above average.
6 out of 10
Thursday, March 26, 2015
TOS: The Immunity Syndrome
There are episodes I question whether or not I have seen them before. Not the immunity syndrome. You don't forget a giant (and I mean thousands of miles long) space amoeba surrounded by a zone of darkness that eats starships. This is also an episode about self sacrifice and about how much McCoy wants to sacrifice himself to prove Spock inferior to him. Unlike the last few episodes this one is pretty straight forward and that isn't a bad thing.
The episode begins with the Enterprise on it's way to a starbase for some rest and relaxation. So not at all shockingly the receive a garbled message from a starbase about the Intrepid, a Vulcan ship. Before they can get clarification Spock is hit by a wave of pain as he feels the Vulcan crew of the Intrepid suddenly die at once. The Enterprise diverts to investigate and scanners reveal the entire star system is now lifeless. Suddenly they encounter a zone of darkness that makes them feel tired and starts draining the ships systems. This is apparently what destroyed the Intrepid so Kirk makes the obvious choice and flies right in.
Inside the find themselves being drawn into the center of the darkness and reversing engines only seems to make them go faster inward. Forward thrust at least slows them down but the ship and crew are being drained of energy at an alarming rate. In the center of the cloud they encounter an 11,000 mile long space amoeba surrounded by wreckage from previous ships it has eaten. After exhausting their options McCoy and Spock agree someone should fly a shuttle in to investigate from the inside for some reason. They can't agree who should go and Kirk has to pick Spock for the role which he is deeply unhappy about.
Spock flies inside and discovers the organism is about to reproduce. He locates it's chromosomes but loses contact with the Enterprise. Realizing they are out of options Kirk allows the ship to be drawn inside the organism and they plant antimatter bombs on the chromosomes. Just before the bombs go off Kirk uses the last of their energy to lock tractor beams on the shuttle with Spock in it. The bomb destroys the creature and blows both ships clear somehow.
What I thought: The write up for this episode is substantially shorter than most of the ones I have done lately, but that is due to lack of convolutedness more than anything else. This is a solid tale of adventure and risking everything to save the galaxy.
8 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise on it's way to a starbase for some rest and relaxation. So not at all shockingly the receive a garbled message from a starbase about the Intrepid, a Vulcan ship. Before they can get clarification Spock is hit by a wave of pain as he feels the Vulcan crew of the Intrepid suddenly die at once. The Enterprise diverts to investigate and scanners reveal the entire star system is now lifeless. Suddenly they encounter a zone of darkness that makes them feel tired and starts draining the ships systems. This is apparently what destroyed the Intrepid so Kirk makes the obvious choice and flies right in.
Inside the find themselves being drawn into the center of the darkness and reversing engines only seems to make them go faster inward. Forward thrust at least slows them down but the ship and crew are being drained of energy at an alarming rate. In the center of the cloud they encounter an 11,000 mile long space amoeba surrounded by wreckage from previous ships it has eaten. After exhausting their options McCoy and Spock agree someone should fly a shuttle in to investigate from the inside for some reason. They can't agree who should go and Kirk has to pick Spock for the role which he is deeply unhappy about.
Spock flies inside and discovers the organism is about to reproduce. He locates it's chromosomes but loses contact with the Enterprise. Realizing they are out of options Kirk allows the ship to be drawn inside the organism and they plant antimatter bombs on the chromosomes. Just before the bombs go off Kirk uses the last of their energy to lock tractor beams on the shuttle with Spock in it. The bomb destroys the creature and blows both ships clear somehow.
What I thought: The write up for this episode is substantially shorter than most of the ones I have done lately, but that is due to lack of convolutedness more than anything else. This is a solid tale of adventure and risking everything to save the galaxy.
8 out of 10
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
TOS: A Piece of the Action
Tonight's episode was A Piece of the Action, aka planet of the gangsters! This is one of those episodes the pushes towards campiness without totally falling into the pit of silliness. The premise is that 100 years ago a Federation ship stopped by this then primitive planet and left them some textbooks and a book about Chicago gangs of the 1920's and they built an entire civilization based on it. The episode has lots of Kirk punching people and Spock neck pinching, but it doesn't really get going until Kirk dresses up in a suit and starts talking like a gangster.
The episode opens with the Enterprise checking in on a planet that hasn't been contacted in 100 years. When Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down they are kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to the offices of the head of the local mob. Literally everyone they meet has at least one gun throughout the episode. And so not shockingly Bela wants more phasers so he can kill the other bosses and take over the planet. Fortunately he isn't too bright so he leaves Kirk, McCoy and Spock in a warehouse with three guards. Kirk makes up a fake card game for some reason since his actual plan is to just fight the three guards. They escape and Spock and McCoy use a local radio station to talk to the Enterprise and beam up.
Kirk meanwhile gets kidnapped by the other major crime syndicate lead by a man named Krako. Krako leaves Kirk alone in a room with a radio which Kirk tears apart. I was thinking he was going to figure a way to use it to contact the ship, but no, he just uses some of the wire to trip Krako's guys when they come to check on him. Spock and McCoy beam back down for some reason and are immediately kidnapped by Bela again. But luckily Kirk returns armed and takes over the situation.
Kirk has Krako beamed aboard the Enterprise and then gets Bela to call the other crime leaders one the phone and has them beamed to his office. Krako is beamed in as well and Kirk explains that the Federation is taking over and demands that they form a Syndicate and work together to run things. They are unimpressed and realize they have only seen 6 total members of the Federation. Suddenly several of the leaders goons show up and start battling in the street. A perfect opportunity for Kirk to stun them from orbit which puts him in a much better position to negotiate with the leaders. They agree to work for Bela and give him a 40 percent cut.
Whatdayathinkathat: As much as this is one of the sillier episodes I really enjoyed it. At the same time living on a planet run entirely by gangsters isn't exactly a pleasant thought. Also, what prime directive?
8 out of 10
The episode opens with the Enterprise checking in on a planet that hasn't been contacted in 100 years. When Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down they are kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to the offices of the head of the local mob. Literally everyone they meet has at least one gun throughout the episode. And so not shockingly Bela wants more phasers so he can kill the other bosses and take over the planet. Fortunately he isn't too bright so he leaves Kirk, McCoy and Spock in a warehouse with three guards. Kirk makes up a fake card game for some reason since his actual plan is to just fight the three guards. They escape and Spock and McCoy use a local radio station to talk to the Enterprise and beam up.
Kirk meanwhile gets kidnapped by the other major crime syndicate lead by a man named Krako. Krako leaves Kirk alone in a room with a radio which Kirk tears apart. I was thinking he was going to figure a way to use it to contact the ship, but no, he just uses some of the wire to trip Krako's guys when they come to check on him. Spock and McCoy beam back down for some reason and are immediately kidnapped by Bela again. But luckily Kirk returns armed and takes over the situation.
Kirk has Krako beamed aboard the Enterprise and then gets Bela to call the other crime leaders one the phone and has them beamed to his office. Krako is beamed in as well and Kirk explains that the Federation is taking over and demands that they form a Syndicate and work together to run things. They are unimpressed and realize they have only seen 6 total members of the Federation. Suddenly several of the leaders goons show up and start battling in the street. A perfect opportunity for Kirk to stun them from orbit which puts him in a much better position to negotiate with the leaders. They agree to work for Bela and give him a 40 percent cut.
Whatdayathinkathat: As much as this is one of the sillier episodes I really enjoyed it. At the same time living on a planet run entirely by gangsters isn't exactly a pleasant thought. Also, what prime directive?
8 out of 10
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
TOS: The Gamesters of Triskelion
Welcome to Triskelion, the planet where everything comes in threes! Three suns, three brains, and even the time is trisecs! On the less fortunate side it is also a horribly depressing planet of slaves whose only job is to fight each other to to the death so brains in a dome can gamble on the outcome. This episode also features a whole lot of McCoy and Spock fighting over just about everything while Kirk is gone.
The episode opens with a standard, "checking in on an outpost," but when Kirk, Chekov and Uhura step onto the transporter pad they disappear abruptly and without a trace. They find themselves in a courtyard under unfamiliar stars and without working communicators. Suddenly armed figures appear and it seems like a fight to the death, but they all stop when a bald figure appears. He is Galt, master thrall of Triskelion. They are fitted with the collars everyone on the planet wears and when they try to escape the collars either choke them or give them severe pain, it isn't stated or entirely clear from the acting. They are to be trained to fight for the providers, the apparent rulers of the planet.
Back on the Enterprise Scotty is checking the transporter and Spock is scanning the surface of the planet they are orbiting. There is nothing on the surface, but just as the three disappeared there was a powerful energy beam from a distant hydrogen cloud which Spock pursues over the loud objections of McCoy and Scotty. It gets so bad Spock tells them to mutiny or let him search and they agree to help on the condition that he go back to where they started if he doesn't find them.
Back on Triskelion they are taken to cells and it seems Uhura is raped in a very unpleasant scene which cuts to commercials and suddenly she seems fine. As I said, this planet really sucks. Chekov and Kirk both meet their trainers and Kirk immediately starts trying to seduce his green haired female trainer. He gets her in trouble for talking about the Providers, but the romance apparently entertains them too much to do more than warn. Back on the fighting courtyard Kirk and company refuse to strike a tied up thrall and so Kirk has to fight a giant with a whip while his hands are tied behind his back. He manages to win and suddenly the voices of the Providers are heard bidding on them.
The Enterprise arrives at Triskelion but is immediately disabled by the Providers. Kirk gets them to bet himself and his crew against the freedom of themselves and the entire planet. Even though it would be the total end of their way of life the Providers, nothing more than pulsing rubbery brains, agree to the bet. Kirk has to fight three on one for everyone's life, but of course wins in the end despite breaking several rules and they are all freed.
Aftermath: Coming right after the hilarious and lighthearted Trouble with Tribbles this episode comes across as especially dark. Of course Kirk manages to save literally everyone in the end, but on the way it features by far the most disturbing content so far.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with a standard, "checking in on an outpost," but when Kirk, Chekov and Uhura step onto the transporter pad they disappear abruptly and without a trace. They find themselves in a courtyard under unfamiliar stars and without working communicators. Suddenly armed figures appear and it seems like a fight to the death, but they all stop when a bald figure appears. He is Galt, master thrall of Triskelion. They are fitted with the collars everyone on the planet wears and when they try to escape the collars either choke them or give them severe pain, it isn't stated or entirely clear from the acting. They are to be trained to fight for the providers, the apparent rulers of the planet.
Back on the Enterprise Scotty is checking the transporter and Spock is scanning the surface of the planet they are orbiting. There is nothing on the surface, but just as the three disappeared there was a powerful energy beam from a distant hydrogen cloud which Spock pursues over the loud objections of McCoy and Scotty. It gets so bad Spock tells them to mutiny or let him search and they agree to help on the condition that he go back to where they started if he doesn't find them.
Back on Triskelion they are taken to cells and it seems Uhura is raped in a very unpleasant scene which cuts to commercials and suddenly she seems fine. As I said, this planet really sucks. Chekov and Kirk both meet their trainers and Kirk immediately starts trying to seduce his green haired female trainer. He gets her in trouble for talking about the Providers, but the romance apparently entertains them too much to do more than warn. Back on the fighting courtyard Kirk and company refuse to strike a tied up thrall and so Kirk has to fight a giant with a whip while his hands are tied behind his back. He manages to win and suddenly the voices of the Providers are heard bidding on them.
The Enterprise arrives at Triskelion but is immediately disabled by the Providers. Kirk gets them to bet himself and his crew against the freedom of themselves and the entire planet. Even though it would be the total end of their way of life the Providers, nothing more than pulsing rubbery brains, agree to the bet. Kirk has to fight three on one for everyone's life, but of course wins in the end despite breaking several rules and they are all freed.
Aftermath: Coming right after the hilarious and lighthearted Trouble with Tribbles this episode comes across as especially dark. Of course Kirk manages to save literally everyone in the end, but on the way it features by far the most disturbing content so far.
7 out of 10
Monday, March 23, 2015
TOS: The Trouble with Tribbles
As a child I appreciated the artfulness and story telling of The City on the Edge of Forever, but this was my favorite episode. Fortunately for my memories of childhood this is in fact a rather good episode. I know it is a ways until I get to the review bit, but I am going to set down a rule right now that I add a point to the score of any episode will to end of a pun. This also really made me want to watch the DS9 episode that revisits these events, but that won't be for a while!
The episode begins with the Enterprise on route to Deep Space Station K-7, a station an a critical location for the Federation to claim the valuable Sherman's Planet. The station and planet are both at the edge of Klingon space and the Klingons are determined to have the planet for themselves. It is however apparently space law that whoever can do it better gets to take the planet or something. The Enterprise receives a Code One alert which signals that the station is under attack so they race there at warp 6. Arriving they find that things are in fact fine and the Federation Agriculture official in charge of getting the super grain quadrotriticale to Sherman's Planet wants it guarded. For which he declared a quadrant wide emergency and Kirk is pissed. Kirk orders two guards and allows his crew shore leave.
While exploring the station Uhura and Chekov bump into the captain who gives them a sample of the super grain. Uhura then runs into Cyrano Jones, a trader of some sort who offers her a tribble. The tribble seems to love the super grain, but Uhura loves the tribble even more and takes it back to the ship. Just then a Klingon battleship arrives and demands that they be allowed shore leave. Kirk agrees, but sends down lots of red shirts to keep things under control. Scotty is in charge of the security detail and starts by going to a bar full of Klingons and drinking a giant cup of scotch. Cyrano arrives and tries to sell them all tribbles and we learn that tribbles hate Klingons. But Klingons hate humans even more and they get Scotty to start a fight by insulting the Enterprise.
Back on the ship it seems the tribbles are reproducing at an alarming rate. McCoy takes one to sickbay to analyze and before he can figure out what is going on he has buckets of them. The tribbles multiply so fast that they are literally all over the ship in no time getting through the ventilation ducts into the food storage. Kirk realizes that there are also air vents in the grain stores on the station and beams over with Spock. Kirk checks on the grain by opening a door directly over his head that apparently holds several tons of grain. Luckily for him instead of being crushed by grain he is instead smothered in tribbles. The tribbles have eaten all the grain, but McCoy discovers they are also dying from it!
The finale of the episode takes place in the station administrators office. The Klingons are trying to start an incident over the bar brawl, but Kirk isn't having any of it. They inadvertently discover that the aide to the Agriculture guy is a Klingon in disguise! And by waving a tribble in his face they get him to confess to poisoning the grain with a virus that fills you up with, "inert matter," which makes you starve or something! Kirk returns to the ship to find it tribble free. It turns out Scotty sent them all to the Klingons as a parting gift.
Discourse: Having a comedy episode of Star Trek on it's surface seems like a terrible idea. This one saves itself by being actually well written and having an interesting enough story to keep it moving. Seeing the hardened Klingons freak out about being near a purring ball of fluff doesn't get old.
9 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise on route to Deep Space Station K-7, a station an a critical location for the Federation to claim the valuable Sherman's Planet. The station and planet are both at the edge of Klingon space and the Klingons are determined to have the planet for themselves. It is however apparently space law that whoever can do it better gets to take the planet or something. The Enterprise receives a Code One alert which signals that the station is under attack so they race there at warp 6. Arriving they find that things are in fact fine and the Federation Agriculture official in charge of getting the super grain quadrotriticale to Sherman's Planet wants it guarded. For which he declared a quadrant wide emergency and Kirk is pissed. Kirk orders two guards and allows his crew shore leave.
While exploring the station Uhura and Chekov bump into the captain who gives them a sample of the super grain. Uhura then runs into Cyrano Jones, a trader of some sort who offers her a tribble. The tribble seems to love the super grain, but Uhura loves the tribble even more and takes it back to the ship. Just then a Klingon battleship arrives and demands that they be allowed shore leave. Kirk agrees, but sends down lots of red shirts to keep things under control. Scotty is in charge of the security detail and starts by going to a bar full of Klingons and drinking a giant cup of scotch. Cyrano arrives and tries to sell them all tribbles and we learn that tribbles hate Klingons. But Klingons hate humans even more and they get Scotty to start a fight by insulting the Enterprise.
Back on the ship it seems the tribbles are reproducing at an alarming rate. McCoy takes one to sickbay to analyze and before he can figure out what is going on he has buckets of them. The tribbles multiply so fast that they are literally all over the ship in no time getting through the ventilation ducts into the food storage. Kirk realizes that there are also air vents in the grain stores on the station and beams over with Spock. Kirk checks on the grain by opening a door directly over his head that apparently holds several tons of grain. Luckily for him instead of being crushed by grain he is instead smothered in tribbles. The tribbles have eaten all the grain, but McCoy discovers they are also dying from it!
The finale of the episode takes place in the station administrators office. The Klingons are trying to start an incident over the bar brawl, but Kirk isn't having any of it. They inadvertently discover that the aide to the Agriculture guy is a Klingon in disguise! And by waving a tribble in his face they get him to confess to poisoning the grain with a virus that fills you up with, "inert matter," which makes you starve or something! Kirk returns to the ship to find it tribble free. It turns out Scotty sent them all to the Klingons as a parting gift.
Discourse: Having a comedy episode of Star Trek on it's surface seems like a terrible idea. This one saves itself by being actually well written and having an interesting enough story to keep it moving. Seeing the hardened Klingons freak out about being near a purring ball of fluff doesn't get old.
9 out of 10
Sunday, March 22, 2015
TOS: Wolf in the Fold
Wolf in the Fold should have been a serious episode of Trek. It certainly tries pretty hard by setting up Scotty as a murderer of women. But then it turns out the murderer is actually an invisible alien who is actually Jack the Ripper. Yeah, you read that correctly. It includes a, "he's dead Jim!" for full effect and even includes a seance. Also more sexism. The episode doesn't exactly fall apart, but Kirk and Spock throwing out random theories about invisible murderous clouds that just happen to be exactly correct is a bit of a stretch.
This one begins with Kirk, McCoy and Scotty hanging out at a belly dancing club of some sort on planet Argelius II. It turns out Scotty was badly injured by a mistake made by a female crew member an this is apparently their plan to get him to not hate women. It seems to be working and he leaves the place with the beautiful dancer. Moments later we hear a scream and she is dead in front of him and he is holding the bloody knife. The three enterprise crew meet with the administrator of the planet, a Rigelian named Hengist who doesn't seem to have a lot of respect of Argelian culture. After questioning Scotty in the club they learn Scotty has no memory of the events and in fact received a concussion at the time of the murder. The actual head of the planet arrives unannounced and insists they return to his house so his wife Sebo can perform a empathic probe of all involved.
While Sebo is preparing Kirk is allowed to bring in a technician with a psychic tricorder (WTF???) to probe Scotty's memory. Instead as soon as they are alone the technician is murdered and Scotty is again found with her hold a knife, and again he has no memories. They move on the the seance lead by Sebo, and she immediately detects a deadly evil spirit is present with them, one that feeds of death and fear. But then the lights go out and Sebo is stabbed in the back and Scotty is found holding her. Things are looking pretty bad, but Kirk convinces the head of the planet that they should all go to the Enterprise so they can use the ships truth scanner and he agrees for some reason.
Back on the ship they all meet in the hearing room and Scotty is questioned and confirmed to not be the murderer. They also question the other suspect, the first girls ex-boyfriend, but he too is innocent. Without many other obvious alternative Kirk and Spock start wildly speculating and asking the computer to theorize and they decide that it must be Jack the Ripper who of course all the aliens have heard of. They then somehow conclude that the alien was last on Rigel so it is obviously Hengist who then proves his innocence by try to fight them all. He fails but the energy cloud thing that is occupying him flees into the ships computer.
Once in the computer it starts ineffectively trying to scare/kill every one on the ship. Spock manages to drive out out of the computer with the old, "calculate the last digit of pi," trick. It then returns to Hengist's body which quickly submits to a Vulcan neck pinch. Not caring if the cloud thing is actually Hengist or is just using him they beam him into deep space on, "wide dispersal pattern," no wonder McCoy doesn't trust the transporters.
Post episode commentary: This one tries to be tense by having a lot of twists, but having one of them be that Jack the Ripper was an alien cloud monster was a twist too far for me. This episode does at least manage to not be boring and that is always a good thing.
5 out of 10
This one begins with Kirk, McCoy and Scotty hanging out at a belly dancing club of some sort on planet Argelius II. It turns out Scotty was badly injured by a mistake made by a female crew member an this is apparently their plan to get him to not hate women. It seems to be working and he leaves the place with the beautiful dancer. Moments later we hear a scream and she is dead in front of him and he is holding the bloody knife. The three enterprise crew meet with the administrator of the planet, a Rigelian named Hengist who doesn't seem to have a lot of respect of Argelian culture. After questioning Scotty in the club they learn Scotty has no memory of the events and in fact received a concussion at the time of the murder. The actual head of the planet arrives unannounced and insists they return to his house so his wife Sebo can perform a empathic probe of all involved.
While Sebo is preparing Kirk is allowed to bring in a technician with a psychic tricorder (WTF???) to probe Scotty's memory. Instead as soon as they are alone the technician is murdered and Scotty is again found with her hold a knife, and again he has no memories. They move on the the seance lead by Sebo, and she immediately detects a deadly evil spirit is present with them, one that feeds of death and fear. But then the lights go out and Sebo is stabbed in the back and Scotty is found holding her. Things are looking pretty bad, but Kirk convinces the head of the planet that they should all go to the Enterprise so they can use the ships truth scanner and he agrees for some reason.
Back on the ship they all meet in the hearing room and Scotty is questioned and confirmed to not be the murderer. They also question the other suspect, the first girls ex-boyfriend, but he too is innocent. Without many other obvious alternative Kirk and Spock start wildly speculating and asking the computer to theorize and they decide that it must be Jack the Ripper who of course all the aliens have heard of. They then somehow conclude that the alien was last on Rigel so it is obviously Hengist who then proves his innocence by try to fight them all. He fails but the energy cloud thing that is occupying him flees into the ships computer.
Once in the computer it starts ineffectively trying to scare/kill every one on the ship. Spock manages to drive out out of the computer with the old, "calculate the last digit of pi," trick. It then returns to Hengist's body which quickly submits to a Vulcan neck pinch. Not caring if the cloud thing is actually Hengist or is just using him they beam him into deep space on, "wide dispersal pattern," no wonder McCoy doesn't trust the transporters.
Post episode commentary: This one tries to be tense by having a lot of twists, but having one of them be that Jack the Ripper was an alien cloud monster was a twist too far for me. This episode does at least manage to not be boring and that is always a good thing.
5 out of 10
Saturday, March 21, 2015
TOS: Obsession
Obsession is a well named episode. It tells a tale of a Captain driven almost to madness by a desire to right the mistakes of the past and to escape the guilt of hesitating in combat. After last nights command failures, this episode seemed to be going down a similar path, but was saved by a tight scene where McCoy and Spock confront Kirk in his quarters over the issue of competence. Rather than a long, drawn out hearing this scene quickly establishes that while Kirk may obsessed, he is driven by a legitimate concern to the safety of all life in the galaxy that probably should be pursued, even at a fairly high cost.
The episode begins with Kirk and Spock leading a team surveying a planet for valuable minerals. Just as they are finishing up Kirk stops, he has noticed a sweet smell that triggers a memory he can't escape. He orders a scan for dikironium and sends a team of security crew looking for a gas cloud with orders to shoot on sight. The team encounters the cloud and all but one are killed before they can shoot. The survivor is badly hurt and is beamed back to the ship. All those attacked by the creature have been drained of all red blood cells. McCoy revives him momentarily and he tells Kirk that he smelled the sweet smell and sensed an intelligence before he was attacked. The crewman dies minutes later. Back on the bridge Kirk orders a scan of the surface and ignores orders from Starfleet to pick up critical medical supplies so he can pursue his white whale I mean energy cloud.
The new head of security, an Ensign Garrovick reports to Kirk and is recognized as the son of Kirk's commander on the USS Farragut, the same ship that encountered the energy cloud thing before. Kirk is short tempered with Garrovick and orders him to form a security detail to beam down to the surface along with the captain. On the surface Garrovick and Kirk each lead teams, but it is Garrovick's team that that encounters the cloud vampire first and Garrovick fails to shoot in time to stop it from killing his two crew. Back on the ship Kirk flips a wig and removes Garrovick from duty. Back on the bridge Scotty informs Kirk that he is maintaining a vent on one of the impulse engines and it will take a half an hour.
Spock shows up in sickbay asking McCoy for advice for probably the first time ever. Spock has learned that 11 years earlier when the Farragut encountered the cloud monster Kirk failed to shoot in time and perceived his failure as being responsible for hundreds of deaths including captain Garrovick, a man he respected deeply. They confront Kirk in his quarters about this and Kirk explains fairly calmly actually that he thinks this thing has the ability to travel through space and is probably a risk to much more than explorers on barren rocky planets. Spock agrees it is worth pursuing, and just then the bridge calls, the creature is moving into space.
The ship gives chase, but can barely keep up at maximum speed. They are forced to slow down, but for some reason the cloud does as well. They are able to catch up with it and fire both phasers and photon torpedoes to absolutely no effect. Ensign Garrovick shows up and asks Kirk if he can return to duty, but he is ignored, but to be fair things are a bit busy right then. He returns to quarters as the cloud flies through their shields and into the vent Scotty was working on shutting down ventilation. Earlier Garrovick through something and hit the controls for ventilation. Spock enters Garrovicks cabin to try to convince him it wasn't his fault, but just then the cloud creature flies in through the vent he accidentally opened earlier. Garrovick runs to get help leaving Spock trapped with the monster. Fortunately his green blood saves him as he lacks the red blood cells the cloud eats.
The cloud creature takes off at high speed, but Kirk knows where it is going for some reason. Of course he is right and they arrive at the home planet of the cloud monsters. Kirk and Garrovick beam to the surface with an anti-matter bomb and a bunch of blood to use as bait. They fight over which one of them is going to self sacrifice to save the other, but in the end Spock and Scotty manage to beam them both back just as the bomb goes off. The episode finishes with Kirk ordering Garrovick back to duty and inviting him to hang out at hear some stories about his father.
The break down: This episode started off with some warning signs at it was going to be a story about the captain freaking out, but still be right and why the hell do people keep questioning him. But it turned out to be a much more human story where the characters actually grew as people and even admitted to having been wrong as things worked out. I can't help but wonder how pissed Starfleet was that their vaccines never got picked up, but obviously not enough to relieve Kirk of command.
8 out of 10
The episode begins with Kirk and Spock leading a team surveying a planet for valuable minerals. Just as they are finishing up Kirk stops, he has noticed a sweet smell that triggers a memory he can't escape. He orders a scan for dikironium and sends a team of security crew looking for a gas cloud with orders to shoot on sight. The team encounters the cloud and all but one are killed before they can shoot. The survivor is badly hurt and is beamed back to the ship. All those attacked by the creature have been drained of all red blood cells. McCoy revives him momentarily and he tells Kirk that he smelled the sweet smell and sensed an intelligence before he was attacked. The crewman dies minutes later. Back on the bridge Kirk orders a scan of the surface and ignores orders from Starfleet to pick up critical medical supplies so he can pursue his white whale I mean energy cloud.
The new head of security, an Ensign Garrovick reports to Kirk and is recognized as the son of Kirk's commander on the USS Farragut, the same ship that encountered the energy cloud thing before. Kirk is short tempered with Garrovick and orders him to form a security detail to beam down to the surface along with the captain. On the surface Garrovick and Kirk each lead teams, but it is Garrovick's team that that encounters the cloud vampire first and Garrovick fails to shoot in time to stop it from killing his two crew. Back on the ship Kirk flips a wig and removes Garrovick from duty. Back on the bridge Scotty informs Kirk that he is maintaining a vent on one of the impulse engines and it will take a half an hour.
Spock shows up in sickbay asking McCoy for advice for probably the first time ever. Spock has learned that 11 years earlier when the Farragut encountered the cloud monster Kirk failed to shoot in time and perceived his failure as being responsible for hundreds of deaths including captain Garrovick, a man he respected deeply. They confront Kirk in his quarters about this and Kirk explains fairly calmly actually that he thinks this thing has the ability to travel through space and is probably a risk to much more than explorers on barren rocky planets. Spock agrees it is worth pursuing, and just then the bridge calls, the creature is moving into space.
The ship gives chase, but can barely keep up at maximum speed. They are forced to slow down, but for some reason the cloud does as well. They are able to catch up with it and fire both phasers and photon torpedoes to absolutely no effect. Ensign Garrovick shows up and asks Kirk if he can return to duty, but he is ignored, but to be fair things are a bit busy right then. He returns to quarters as the cloud flies through their shields and into the vent Scotty was working on shutting down ventilation. Earlier Garrovick through something and hit the controls for ventilation. Spock enters Garrovicks cabin to try to convince him it wasn't his fault, but just then the cloud creature flies in through the vent he accidentally opened earlier. Garrovick runs to get help leaving Spock trapped with the monster. Fortunately his green blood saves him as he lacks the red blood cells the cloud eats.
The cloud creature takes off at high speed, but Kirk knows where it is going for some reason. Of course he is right and they arrive at the home planet of the cloud monsters. Kirk and Garrovick beam to the surface with an anti-matter bomb and a bunch of blood to use as bait. They fight over which one of them is going to self sacrifice to save the other, but in the end Spock and Scotty manage to beam them both back just as the bomb goes off. The episode finishes with Kirk ordering Garrovick back to duty and inviting him to hang out at hear some stories about his father.
The break down: This episode started off with some warning signs at it was going to be a story about the captain freaking out, but still be right and why the hell do people keep questioning him. But it turned out to be a much more human story where the characters actually grew as people and even admitted to having been wrong as things worked out. I can't help but wonder how pissed Starfleet was that their vaccines never got picked up, but obviously not enough to relieve Kirk of command.
8 out of 10
Friday, March 20, 2015
TOS: The Deadly Years
Welcome back to the land of camp! I want to point out that even though I am about to rip into certain parts of this episode it is quite a fun one to watch. Before I start ripping I want to point out that one of my favorite parts of this episode is the Commodore. The last several Commodores have ranged from incompetent to insane. This one isn't exactly captain material, but he clearly respects Kirk and only step in after his hand has been forced. However the competence hearing he calls is by far the most boring part of the episode and could have been cut down to 3 or 4 minutes to the great benefit of the episode.
The episode opens with the Enterprise checking in on a Federation colony. When they beam down the find the place deserted. Chekov discovers a dead body and is absolutely terrified. The man died of old age, but just before Spock can point out that is impossible, none of the colonists were old enough, two surviving colonists arrive. Despite being chronologically 29 and 27 years old, they appear to be in their 80's. And unlike the rest of the aging in this episode it is very believable due to hiring aged actors rather than resorting to questionable aging makeup... Soon after beaming back Kirk's memory starts to go and when he asks McCoy about it Scotty also arrives with suddenly grey hair. Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Lt. Galway and Spock to a lesser degree all start having progressively heavier aging makeup applied through the rest of the episode.
The B story this episode revolves around Dr. Janet Wallace, a former lover of the captain who is aboard on her way to Starbase 10 with Commodore Stocker. Despite breaking off her relationship with Kirk 6 years ago and marrying another man, she has found the only one she wants in her life is Kirk. Kirk clearly enjoys her company, but doesn't seem to share her enthusiasm for starting their relationship over.
Back to the main story Stocker is increasingly agitated on the bridge as Kirk continues to refuse to head to Starbase 10 while they investigate the aging problem. The captain is starting to lose his ability to command as he can't remember which orders he has given and what documents he has signed. Stocker pulls Spock aside to insist a competency hearing be called. He is clearly right, Kirk is in no shape to command, but Spock resists, maybe he knows what it would do to the pacing of this episode. But the Commodore prevails and the hearing is on. The bridge crew are called upon to state if the captain is repeating himself/losing his memory and the hearing concludes with Spock refusing to take command on the grounds that he is also being effected to the Commodore takes command.
And what a command he takes, his first orders are to fly to Starbase 10 directly through the neutral zone. Meanwhile they have discovered that Chekov getting hella scared may be preventing him from aging which clearly means they need to use adrenalin or something. A classic Star Trek last minute technobabble solution is arrived at just before Stocker can get the ship destroyed by Romulans. Kirk recovers just in time to take back control and save the day with a bluff.
Episodic judgement: I can't call this one of the truly great episodes. The cheesy makeup, pacing problems and overall silliness prevent that. But overall it manages to stay tense while still having moments of humor. Also it is really nice that Kirk was in fact clearly wrong to not leave sooner for Starbase 10.
6 out of 10
Side note: The remedy in this episode reminded me pretty strongly of the solution to the space virus in The Andromeda Strain which was published two years later.
The episode opens with the Enterprise checking in on a Federation colony. When they beam down the find the place deserted. Chekov discovers a dead body and is absolutely terrified. The man died of old age, but just before Spock can point out that is impossible, none of the colonists were old enough, two surviving colonists arrive. Despite being chronologically 29 and 27 years old, they appear to be in their 80's. And unlike the rest of the aging in this episode it is very believable due to hiring aged actors rather than resorting to questionable aging makeup... Soon after beaming back Kirk's memory starts to go and when he asks McCoy about it Scotty also arrives with suddenly grey hair. Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Lt. Galway and Spock to a lesser degree all start having progressively heavier aging makeup applied through the rest of the episode.
The B story this episode revolves around Dr. Janet Wallace, a former lover of the captain who is aboard on her way to Starbase 10 with Commodore Stocker. Despite breaking off her relationship with Kirk 6 years ago and marrying another man, she has found the only one she wants in her life is Kirk. Kirk clearly enjoys her company, but doesn't seem to share her enthusiasm for starting their relationship over.
Back to the main story Stocker is increasingly agitated on the bridge as Kirk continues to refuse to head to Starbase 10 while they investigate the aging problem. The captain is starting to lose his ability to command as he can't remember which orders he has given and what documents he has signed. Stocker pulls Spock aside to insist a competency hearing be called. He is clearly right, Kirk is in no shape to command, but Spock resists, maybe he knows what it would do to the pacing of this episode. But the Commodore prevails and the hearing is on. The bridge crew are called upon to state if the captain is repeating himself/losing his memory and the hearing concludes with Spock refusing to take command on the grounds that he is also being effected to the Commodore takes command.
And what a command he takes, his first orders are to fly to Starbase 10 directly through the neutral zone. Meanwhile they have discovered that Chekov getting hella scared may be preventing him from aging which clearly means they need to use adrenalin or something. A classic Star Trek last minute technobabble solution is arrived at just before Stocker can get the ship destroyed by Romulans. Kirk recovers just in time to take back control and save the day with a bluff.
Episodic judgement: I can't call this one of the truly great episodes. The cheesy makeup, pacing problems and overall silliness prevent that. But overall it manages to stay tense while still having moments of humor. Also it is really nice that Kirk was in fact clearly wrong to not leave sooner for Starbase 10.
6 out of 10
Side note: The remedy in this episode reminded me pretty strongly of the solution to the space virus in The Andromeda Strain which was published two years later.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
TOS: Friday's Child
Friday's Child is an episode about the trio almost to the complete exclusion of the rest of the cast. Scotty leads the bridge crew on a very minor B story, but other than that it is strictly Kirk, Spock and McCoy on the planet of the giants. Not one of those episodes that wins awards, but definitely a solid adventure episode. It is kinda funny how when negotiating a treaty with a pre-warp society the prime directive never comes up once. I guess that only counts when the natives don't live on top of valuable mineral resources. McCoy adds to his collection with, "I'm a doctor, not an escalator."
The episode begins with McCoy leading a briefing on a primitive society that Kirk is to negotiate a treaty with. It is never explained why McCoy was the one that Starfleet chose to send down and study these people. I guess they give some excuse about trying to give them medical tech, but really, the chief doctor on the Enterprise? The aliens are 7 feet tall and use deadly throwing weapons, "as deadly as our phasers up to 100 feet." Upon beaming down they discover the Klingons have gotten there first, but the Capellans (see, I finally looked it up) want to hear from Kirk as well. The leader of the Capellans seems more willing to work with the Federation than the Klingons, so the Klingon leads another Capellan faction in killing the leader and taking over.
The pregnant wife of the overthrown leader is to be killed now that he is dead, but Kirk grabs her and intervenes, a grave violation of Capellan customs. Now Kirk is to be killed, but fortunately the Capellans are dumb so they manage to escape with Eleen, the dead leaders wife. At first she refuse to be touched by any of them, but McCoy insists getting his way after slapping her in the face which she apparently finds highly romantic. McCoy learns she is about to give birth and we learn through narration that she doesn't want to keep the child. The Cappellans attack, but Kirk and Spock manage to create a rockslide (on the Vasquez rocks again) with some sort of magic sonic blast from the phasers. One of the Capellans is crushed and the Klingon sneakily steals a Federation phaser from his body.
This whole time Scotty is in charge back on the Enterprise. He is fooled into flying away from the planet by a false distress signal. Eventually they figure it out and turn back, but are confronted by a Klingon bird of prey. We are left wondering if they will survive or come to the rescue in time. There is a cool scene where Sulu's scanner unfolds from his console which they haven't shown before.
McCoy manages to deliver the baby successfully, but Eleen flees leaving the baby with McCoy. Kirk and Spock make highly effective bows and arrows in a few minutes and they are ready to confront the Capellan forces. Just before they are about the fight Eleen comes out from somewhere and tells the leader of the Capellans that the baby is dead and she killed the humans. The Klingon doesn't believe her and pulls his phaser on the group of them. Kirk shoots him with an arrow and the fight is on. Several Capellans are killed and for some reason the new Capellan leader throws his life away allowing the Klingon to kill him just as one of his men kills the Klingon. Now Eleen's new son is the ruler apparently and Scotty shows up with a crew of red shirts just after everything is resolved. The baby gets named Leonard James Akaar pleasing Kirk and McCoy to no end.
Scoring: This is a really fun episode. It has humor, but is hardly lighthearted. It really cements that Kirk, Spock and McCoy are the main characters of the show. The Capellan costumes are kinda funny looking, but they manage to come across as not overly silly primitive people. Kirk and Spock making effective stone age weapons faster and better than the Capellans is unbelievable, but less so than the Gorn cannon...
7 out of 10
The episode begins with McCoy leading a briefing on a primitive society that Kirk is to negotiate a treaty with. It is never explained why McCoy was the one that Starfleet chose to send down and study these people. I guess they give some excuse about trying to give them medical tech, but really, the chief doctor on the Enterprise? The aliens are 7 feet tall and use deadly throwing weapons, "as deadly as our phasers up to 100 feet." Upon beaming down they discover the Klingons have gotten there first, but the Capellans (see, I finally looked it up) want to hear from Kirk as well. The leader of the Capellans seems more willing to work with the Federation than the Klingons, so the Klingon leads another Capellan faction in killing the leader and taking over.
The pregnant wife of the overthrown leader is to be killed now that he is dead, but Kirk grabs her and intervenes, a grave violation of Capellan customs. Now Kirk is to be killed, but fortunately the Capellans are dumb so they manage to escape with Eleen, the dead leaders wife. At first she refuse to be touched by any of them, but McCoy insists getting his way after slapping her in the face which she apparently finds highly romantic. McCoy learns she is about to give birth and we learn through narration that she doesn't want to keep the child. The Cappellans attack, but Kirk and Spock manage to create a rockslide (on the Vasquez rocks again) with some sort of magic sonic blast from the phasers. One of the Capellans is crushed and the Klingon sneakily steals a Federation phaser from his body.
This whole time Scotty is in charge back on the Enterprise. He is fooled into flying away from the planet by a false distress signal. Eventually they figure it out and turn back, but are confronted by a Klingon bird of prey. We are left wondering if they will survive or come to the rescue in time. There is a cool scene where Sulu's scanner unfolds from his console which they haven't shown before.
McCoy manages to deliver the baby successfully, but Eleen flees leaving the baby with McCoy. Kirk and Spock make highly effective bows and arrows in a few minutes and they are ready to confront the Capellan forces. Just before they are about the fight Eleen comes out from somewhere and tells the leader of the Capellans that the baby is dead and she killed the humans. The Klingon doesn't believe her and pulls his phaser on the group of them. Kirk shoots him with an arrow and the fight is on. Several Capellans are killed and for some reason the new Capellan leader throws his life away allowing the Klingon to kill him just as one of his men kills the Klingon. Now Eleen's new son is the ruler apparently and Scotty shows up with a crew of red shirts just after everything is resolved. The baby gets named Leonard James Akaar pleasing Kirk and McCoy to no end.
Scoring: This is a really fun episode. It has humor, but is hardly lighthearted. It really cements that Kirk, Spock and McCoy are the main characters of the show. The Capellan costumes are kinda funny looking, but they manage to come across as not overly silly primitive people. Kirk and Spock making effective stone age weapons faster and better than the Capellans is unbelievable, but less so than the Gorn cannon...
7 out of 10
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
TOS: Journey to Babel
Murder on the Enterprise Express! Not quite, but Journey to Babel managed to be a solid murder mystery with a story about Spock's struggles with his father and his people along for the ride. In addition to meeting Spock's father Sarek we also meet his human mother Amanda. I think of Sarek as a regular, but this is actually his only appearance in TOS. This episode also introduces several other alien races previously only mentioned in passing greatly expanding the lore of Trek.
The episode opens with the ship crowded with diplomats on their way to a conference to discuss the inclusion of a valuable mining world into the Federation. Kirk and Spock personally greet the Vulcan ambassador who Kirk discovers is Spock's father Sarek. Sarek doesn't seem pleased to see Spock, even for a Vulcan. Amanda explains to Kirk that Sarek wanted Spock to follow in his footsteps rather than join Starfleet, but Spock only ever felt truly at home in the multiracial world of Starfleet. At a social gathering of ambassadors the Tellarite ambassador Gav confronts Sarek about how he will vote on inclusion, but Sarek refuses to answer and Gav storms off. Later Gav returns and confronts Sarek again and it gets heated this time. Gav again storms off and is found dead soon after.
Examining the body Spock explains that Gav's neck was broken in a way traditional to Vulcans. The confront Sarek, who refuses to explain what he was doing on classic Vulcan, "we do not discuss such things with outsiders," excuse. Sarek then collapses and McCoy discovers he has a heart condition that will kill him without a risky surgery, a surgery that requires a large amount of Vulcan blood. Meanwhile on the bridge a vessel approaches the Enterprise, but stays just outside weapons range. Without warning an Andorian attacks Kirk in a hallway and wounds him badly in the lung (he clearly stabbed Kirk in the kidney) narrowly missing his heart. Spock assumes command and refuses to give his blood to McCoy to save Sarek on the grounds that his duty is to Starfleet.
Kirk awakens from surgery in a lot of pain, but manages to drag himself onto the bridge and fake it to get Spock to save Sarek. Spock agrees and McCoy begins surgery, but before Kirk can turn command over to Scotty and go recover they are attacked! The small ship that has been staying near them flies in at warp 10 (arrrr, TNG warp rules make it hurt every time they say warp 10 or higher) and shoots them with phasers. Kirk has the Andorian prisoner brought to the bridge, but in a struggle with security part of his antenna is damaged and revealed to be fake. Kirk manages to draw in the hostile ship by pretending to be badly damaged and cripples the vessel. Before they can be beamed about the ship self destructs followed by the so called Andorian who commits suicide. Medical examinations reveal he was Orion, a planet trying to profit from the valuable system staying out of the Federation. The episode ends with Kirk, Spock and Sarek all in sickbay where McCoy is gloating over being able to order them all to stay in bed.
Commentation: This is a solid episode which introduces numerous new aliens into Star Trek lore and manages to stay tense and exciting throughout. I guess it wasn't all that shocking that Sarek isn't a murderer, but the mystery of why he would be framed is plenty interesting. It also explores the sometimes twisted logic of the Vulcans in ways that would continue to develop over the decades.
9 out of 10
The episode opens with the ship crowded with diplomats on their way to a conference to discuss the inclusion of a valuable mining world into the Federation. Kirk and Spock personally greet the Vulcan ambassador who Kirk discovers is Spock's father Sarek. Sarek doesn't seem pleased to see Spock, even for a Vulcan. Amanda explains to Kirk that Sarek wanted Spock to follow in his footsteps rather than join Starfleet, but Spock only ever felt truly at home in the multiracial world of Starfleet. At a social gathering of ambassadors the Tellarite ambassador Gav confronts Sarek about how he will vote on inclusion, but Sarek refuses to answer and Gav storms off. Later Gav returns and confronts Sarek again and it gets heated this time. Gav again storms off and is found dead soon after.
Examining the body Spock explains that Gav's neck was broken in a way traditional to Vulcans. The confront Sarek, who refuses to explain what he was doing on classic Vulcan, "we do not discuss such things with outsiders," excuse. Sarek then collapses and McCoy discovers he has a heart condition that will kill him without a risky surgery, a surgery that requires a large amount of Vulcan blood. Meanwhile on the bridge a vessel approaches the Enterprise, but stays just outside weapons range. Without warning an Andorian attacks Kirk in a hallway and wounds him badly in the lung (he clearly stabbed Kirk in the kidney) narrowly missing his heart. Spock assumes command and refuses to give his blood to McCoy to save Sarek on the grounds that his duty is to Starfleet.
Kirk awakens from surgery in a lot of pain, but manages to drag himself onto the bridge and fake it to get Spock to save Sarek. Spock agrees and McCoy begins surgery, but before Kirk can turn command over to Scotty and go recover they are attacked! The small ship that has been staying near them flies in at warp 10 (arrrr, TNG warp rules make it hurt every time they say warp 10 or higher) and shoots them with phasers. Kirk has the Andorian prisoner brought to the bridge, but in a struggle with security part of his antenna is damaged and revealed to be fake. Kirk manages to draw in the hostile ship by pretending to be badly damaged and cripples the vessel. Before they can be beamed about the ship self destructs followed by the so called Andorian who commits suicide. Medical examinations reveal he was Orion, a planet trying to profit from the valuable system staying out of the Federation. The episode ends with Kirk, Spock and Sarek all in sickbay where McCoy is gloating over being able to order them all to stay in bed.
Commentation: This is a solid episode which introduces numerous new aliens into Star Trek lore and manages to stay tense and exciting throughout. I guess it wasn't all that shocking that Sarek isn't a murderer, but the mystery of why he would be framed is plenty interesting. It also explores the sometimes twisted logic of the Vulcans in ways that would continue to develop over the decades.
9 out of 10
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
TOS: Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis tries really hard to be feminist, but misses the mark to a modern audience. On the surface it is a very scifi story about an immortal energy cloud, but deep down it is about how a woman may achieve success, but what she really wants is love. This time the godlikeness of the energy cloud is toned down a bit and it can't leave the tiny rock it lives on for more than a few days. On the planetoid though it is your garden variety pseudodeity.
The episode begins with Kirk, Spock and McCoy flying a shuttle with Federation Commissioner Nancy Hedford. It is never explained why the hell they are in a shuttle instead of on the Enterprise, other than for plot convenience. It makes even less sense than you think though, because the commissioner has contracted a deadly disease and will die unless they make it back to the Enterprise, in four days. Suddenly Spock notices something on the scanners, a flashing cloud of energy which seizes control of the shuttle from them and takes them to a tiny planetoid.
They find their shuttle totally disabled along with their communications equipment. They are startled to hear someone calling out greeting them. It is a human named Cochrane who has been marooned here for years. He eventually admits that the same energy cloud brought him here is called the Companion, and that it both made him young again and has kept him from aging ever since. Kirk thinks he recognizes him, and it turns out he is in fact the same Zephram Cochrane who invented warp drive (and played such a bit role in First Contact). While attempting to repair the shuttle Spock is attacked by the Companion with a powerful electric shock. Meanwhile the commissioners condition is deteriorating.
Spock realizes that if it is made of electricity it can probably be disrupted and Cochrane agrees to help them, he is tired of living alone on a rock. Spock rigs up a disruptor, but the Companion overwhelms them and almost kills Spock and Kirk, but Cochrane intervenes. Kirk then directs Spock to rig the universal translator to try and communicate with it. They do and discover it is female and cares deeply for Cochrane. The commissioner is about to die and reveals that despite her amazing career, her one regret is never knowing love. Kirk explains to the companion that since it isn't human it can never love so it merges with the commissioner giving up immortality to live with Cochrane. At first he is put off by the idea, but realizes he love her and decides to stay with her until the grow old together.
Conversation: This episode is both touching for it's humanity, and kinda sexist for its depiction of woman as only being able to have jobs or love interests, not both. The commissioner half the the merged being at the end seems perfectly happy to give up her life as one of the most important people in the galaxy to live on a tiny rock for the next 50 years. I had mixed feelings about some of the messages, but I enjoyed watching it.
7 out of 10
The episode begins with Kirk, Spock and McCoy flying a shuttle with Federation Commissioner Nancy Hedford. It is never explained why the hell they are in a shuttle instead of on the Enterprise, other than for plot convenience. It makes even less sense than you think though, because the commissioner has contracted a deadly disease and will die unless they make it back to the Enterprise, in four days. Suddenly Spock notices something on the scanners, a flashing cloud of energy which seizes control of the shuttle from them and takes them to a tiny planetoid.
They find their shuttle totally disabled along with their communications equipment. They are startled to hear someone calling out greeting them. It is a human named Cochrane who has been marooned here for years. He eventually admits that the same energy cloud brought him here is called the Companion, and that it both made him young again and has kept him from aging ever since. Kirk thinks he recognizes him, and it turns out he is in fact the same Zephram Cochrane who invented warp drive (and played such a bit role in First Contact). While attempting to repair the shuttle Spock is attacked by the Companion with a powerful electric shock. Meanwhile the commissioners condition is deteriorating.
Spock realizes that if it is made of electricity it can probably be disrupted and Cochrane agrees to help them, he is tired of living alone on a rock. Spock rigs up a disruptor, but the Companion overwhelms them and almost kills Spock and Kirk, but Cochrane intervenes. Kirk then directs Spock to rig the universal translator to try and communicate with it. They do and discover it is female and cares deeply for Cochrane. The commissioner is about to die and reveals that despite her amazing career, her one regret is never knowing love. Kirk explains to the companion that since it isn't human it can never love so it merges with the commissioner giving up immortality to live with Cochrane. At first he is put off by the idea, but realizes he love her and decides to stay with her until the grow old together.
Conversation: This episode is both touching for it's humanity, and kinda sexist for its depiction of woman as only being able to have jobs or love interests, not both. The commissioner half the the merged being at the end seems perfectly happy to give up her life as one of the most important people in the galaxy to live on a tiny rock for the next 50 years. I had mixed feelings about some of the messages, but I enjoyed watching it.
7 out of 10
Monday, March 16, 2015
TOS: I, Mudd
I, Mudd marks the first return antagonist to Star Trek, Harry Mudd. Mudd isn't as competent a villain as Q, but he is just as flamboyant. The episode manages to dodge and weave it's way around several pitfalls that could have turned it into a rather bland episode. It also marks the third time that Kirk has destroyed a powerful artificial intelligence by acting illogically, it is a wonder Spock survives his presence.
The episode begins with McCoy pointing out an out of place crewman to Spock, but fortunately for crewman Norman he doesn't do anything other than that. Norman goes directly to the auxiliary control room where he disables the crewman working there and overrides the ships navigation. He goes from there to engineering where he sabotages the controls to prevent interference and starts up the warp drive. Kirk is understandably upset to have his ship out of his control, but before he can do anything Norman shows up on the bridge. Norman tells them that the ship will fly for 5 days to a planet and that he is an android, but pretty much nothing else.
Arriving at the planet Norman forces the captain and officers to beam to the surface where they are greeted by female androids who lead them to their ruler, Harry Mudd. Mudd is having a great time explaining how he took over the place when he found a planet of androids desperate for leadership. He tells them their every wish will be granted, but they are stuck here. They explore around and figure out he was pretty much telling the truth. Suddenly Scotty arrives and Mudd explains he has emptied the Enterprise of crew and will be leaving them behind and taking their ship. Kirk explains to one of the androids that he can't be happy without his ship and it takes her a while to process.
It is time for Mudd to leave, but the androids won't let him. He is apparently too flawed for them and they decide humans are too dangerous so they must be helped by being conquered by the androids. Fortunately Kirk figures out their only weakness, being illogical. They fake an escape because apparently the androids are expecting it (not sure why Kirk is so certain of this, but whatever). Then they start acting crazy and dancing and pretending to have invisible bombs until all the androids shut down except for Norman. Kirk pulls out the old logical paradox of, "everything Mudd says is a lie," followed by Mudd saying, "I am lying." This causes Norman to overload. Before marooning Mudd on the planet Kirk mades 500 androids of his ex-wife to keep him in line.
Lookback: I was kinda dreading this episode since Harry Mudd is a pretty goofy villain, but this one manages to have enough story and action to keep things fun. It is nice to see Uhura tempted by immortality, too often the characters it Trek are such exemplars of moral fortitude they seem like machines.
7 out of 10
The episode begins with McCoy pointing out an out of place crewman to Spock, but fortunately for crewman Norman he doesn't do anything other than that. Norman goes directly to the auxiliary control room where he disables the crewman working there and overrides the ships navigation. He goes from there to engineering where he sabotages the controls to prevent interference and starts up the warp drive. Kirk is understandably upset to have his ship out of his control, but before he can do anything Norman shows up on the bridge. Norman tells them that the ship will fly for 5 days to a planet and that he is an android, but pretty much nothing else.
Arriving at the planet Norman forces the captain and officers to beam to the surface where they are greeted by female androids who lead them to their ruler, Harry Mudd. Mudd is having a great time explaining how he took over the place when he found a planet of androids desperate for leadership. He tells them their every wish will be granted, but they are stuck here. They explore around and figure out he was pretty much telling the truth. Suddenly Scotty arrives and Mudd explains he has emptied the Enterprise of crew and will be leaving them behind and taking their ship. Kirk explains to one of the androids that he can't be happy without his ship and it takes her a while to process.
It is time for Mudd to leave, but the androids won't let him. He is apparently too flawed for them and they decide humans are too dangerous so they must be helped by being conquered by the androids. Fortunately Kirk figures out their only weakness, being illogical. They fake an escape because apparently the androids are expecting it (not sure why Kirk is so certain of this, but whatever). Then they start acting crazy and dancing and pretending to have invisible bombs until all the androids shut down except for Norman. Kirk pulls out the old logical paradox of, "everything Mudd says is a lie," followed by Mudd saying, "I am lying." This causes Norman to overload. Before marooning Mudd on the planet Kirk mades 500 androids of his ex-wife to keep him in line.
Lookback: I was kinda dreading this episode since Harry Mudd is a pretty goofy villain, but this one manages to have enough story and action to keep things fun. It is nice to see Uhura tempted by immortality, too often the characters it Trek are such exemplars of moral fortitude they seem like machines.
7 out of 10
Sunday, March 15, 2015
TOS: Catspaw
Red alert, all hands to battle stations! We have entered into the realm of camp. Tonight's pair of godlike beings take the form of two new age magicians who use, "sympathetic magic," to threaten the Enterprise. I am going to bash this episode a bit, but it does manage to avoid some of the trek tropes, (McCoy finds a man dead and DOESN'T say, "he's dead Jim") but it has way too much mumbo jumbo to be great.
We start on the bridge over a seemingly unoccupied planet. Unoccupied other than the landing party of three that is now missing. They hear from one of the landing party requesting to beam aboard, but when he does he is dead. A voice comes from his body and warns Kirk that the ship is now cursed and they must leave. With Sulu and Scotty on the surface that just won't do, so Kirk beams down with Spock and McCoy.
On the surface they find it foggy which confuses them for some reason. Then three witches appear and warn them off again with what even Spock points out is bad poetry. Then they run across a black cat and follow it into an imposing castle that didn't show up on sensors. Inside they follow the cat into a simple pit fall trap and find themselves chained in a dungeon. Sulu and Scotty show up but they have been brainwashed. Suddenly a magician appears complete with a wand. He spends about 10 minutes trying to talk them into working with him, before his cat turns into Sylvia, the other magician. And when I say magician, I mean it. They use their magic to threaten the ship yada yada yada.
In case you can't tell I am getting kinda bored with having every enemy have godlike powers with some silly weakness. In this case it turns out to be their magic wand. Kirk fails to seduce Sylvia, but fortunately the other magician is apparently less evil and talks about how she is betraying their way or something. Eventually she turns into a giant cat that only appears through doorways and in shadow and kills the other magician. Kirk smashes the wand and everything is as it was, only the two magicians are new tiny green puppets or something.
Me being judgmental: This one wasn't quite as boring as Alternative Factor, but there were lots of scenes that felt like they were being stretched to meet the run time. I am really starting to be ready for Q and some consistency in my godlike beings.
3 out of 10
We start on the bridge over a seemingly unoccupied planet. Unoccupied other than the landing party of three that is now missing. They hear from one of the landing party requesting to beam aboard, but when he does he is dead. A voice comes from his body and warns Kirk that the ship is now cursed and they must leave. With Sulu and Scotty on the surface that just won't do, so Kirk beams down with Spock and McCoy.
On the surface they find it foggy which confuses them for some reason. Then three witches appear and warn them off again with what even Spock points out is bad poetry. Then they run across a black cat and follow it into an imposing castle that didn't show up on sensors. Inside they follow the cat into a simple pit fall trap and find themselves chained in a dungeon. Sulu and Scotty show up but they have been brainwashed. Suddenly a magician appears complete with a wand. He spends about 10 minutes trying to talk them into working with him, before his cat turns into Sylvia, the other magician. And when I say magician, I mean it. They use their magic to threaten the ship yada yada yada.
In case you can't tell I am getting kinda bored with having every enemy have godlike powers with some silly weakness. In this case it turns out to be their magic wand. Kirk fails to seduce Sylvia, but fortunately the other magician is apparently less evil and talks about how she is betraying their way or something. Eventually she turns into a giant cat that only appears through doorways and in shadow and kills the other magician. Kirk smashes the wand and everything is as it was, only the two magicians are new tiny green puppets or something.
Me being judgmental: This one wasn't quite as boring as Alternative Factor, but there were lots of scenes that felt like they were being stretched to meet the run time. I am really starting to be ready for Q and some consistency in my godlike beings.
3 out of 10
TOS: The Doomsday Machine
The second season is really getting into its groove at this point. The Doomsday Machine is a classic episode about a horror from beyond the galaxy that threatens to kill billions. This is also an episode about how Kirk is in charge of the Enterprise even when he isn't in command and is on another ship. It features another, "I'm a doctor, not a mechanic," the third so far. I watched the version with replace special effects and I miss the goofy looking tube monster, but I guess the red glowing on the inside was alright.
The episode begins with the Enterprise searching through a solar system that has had it's planets turned to rubble. They are looking for the USS Constellation which was in the area and hasn't been heard from. Uhura is gone for some reason, so Lt. Palmer detects a distress beacon in another solar system of rubble, but this one has 2 planets still. The find the Constellation badly damaged and adrift. It still has life support so Kirk beams over with Scotty and a team of engineers. The find the ship badly damaged, but overall functional and while looking for the lots stumble across it's commander, Commodore Crazy Eyes (I know his name is Decker, but with the stubble and crazy eyes it isn't clear why anyone takes him serious). Crazy Eyes left his crew on the now destroyed 3rd planet and he isn't taking it well. He beams back with McCoy and promptly takes command stranding Kirk on the damaged Constellation.
McCoy is infuriated by Crazy Eyes crazy move to take command, but apparently doesn't have the medical records to prove he is crazy so oh well. Crazy Eyes risks the entire ship going on a suicidal attack run and only turns back when Spock threatens to relieve him on grounds of suicidal tendencies. The titular doomsday machine is a huge cone that eats rubble from the planets it destroys and shoots a fiery beam at anything that attacks it.
Communications with the Constellation are restored and Kirk orders Spock to take back command. Crazy Eyes doesn't like it one bit, but the security staff are clearly with Spock so he give in, only to attack a red shirt on the way the sick bay. Crazy Eyes steals a shuttle and flies it into the monster with no effect. This gives Kirk and idea though and he has Scotty rig the Constellation to detonate on a 30 second timer and then everybody but Kirk returns to the Enterprise. After positioning the Constellation to be devoured Kirk starts the detonator, but of course transporters go down and he is only saved at the very last minute.
Commentary time: This isn't the most intellectual of episodes, but it is tense and really helped by the actor playing Commodore Decker who does a good job showing a commander broken by having lost his crew. It does seem like Spock could have taken over earlier, but saving it for Kirk to order him works well to show Spock's personal loyalty.
7 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise searching through a solar system that has had it's planets turned to rubble. They are looking for the USS Constellation which was in the area and hasn't been heard from. Uhura is gone for some reason, so Lt. Palmer detects a distress beacon in another solar system of rubble, but this one has 2 planets still. The find the Constellation badly damaged and adrift. It still has life support so Kirk beams over with Scotty and a team of engineers. The find the ship badly damaged, but overall functional and while looking for the lots stumble across it's commander, Commodore Crazy Eyes (I know his name is Decker, but with the stubble and crazy eyes it isn't clear why anyone takes him serious). Crazy Eyes left his crew on the now destroyed 3rd planet and he isn't taking it well. He beams back with McCoy and promptly takes command stranding Kirk on the damaged Constellation.
McCoy is infuriated by Crazy Eyes crazy move to take command, but apparently doesn't have the medical records to prove he is crazy so oh well. Crazy Eyes risks the entire ship going on a suicidal attack run and only turns back when Spock threatens to relieve him on grounds of suicidal tendencies. The titular doomsday machine is a huge cone that eats rubble from the planets it destroys and shoots a fiery beam at anything that attacks it.
Communications with the Constellation are restored and Kirk orders Spock to take back command. Crazy Eyes doesn't like it one bit, but the security staff are clearly with Spock so he give in, only to attack a red shirt on the way the sick bay. Crazy Eyes steals a shuttle and flies it into the monster with no effect. This gives Kirk and idea though and he has Scotty rig the Constellation to detonate on a 30 second timer and then everybody but Kirk returns to the Enterprise. After positioning the Constellation to be devoured Kirk starts the detonator, but of course transporters go down and he is only saved at the very last minute.
Commentary time: This isn't the most intellectual of episodes, but it is tense and really helped by the actor playing Commodore Decker who does a good job showing a commander broken by having lost his crew. It does seem like Spock could have taken over earlier, but saving it for Kirk to order him works well to show Spock's personal loyalty.
7 out of 10
Friday, March 13, 2015
TOS: The Apple
The Apple is one of those episodes I remember mostly from a specific image, in this case the image of a flower with deadly poison darts inside. This isn't one of those episodes that wins awards, but despite the plot holes discussed below, it manages to be a fun one to watch. The prime directive comes up in this episode again, and it seems this is exactly the kind of civilization it was designed to protect. But no, Kirk can't do that, he has to destroy their culture and offer to replace it with human culture.
The episode begins with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Chekov beaming down with an an assortment of red shirts to investigate a planet that appears to be paradise. The weather is perfect from pole to pole and it is covered in the best lush plant life you can buy to decorate a sound stage. Kirk ignores a warning from Scotty that the anti-matter pods are losing potency and they start exploring. But the villain from the first act rears its flowery head and kills a red shirt with a blast of poison flower darts. Yes, the first act villain is a flower, and I say first act like that because the flowers disappear and are never mentioned after the first act. Spock takes a dart load for the captain and they attempt to beam back to the ship, but the energy drain stops it. Spock makes one of his unexplained recoveries, but they lose another red shirt to lightning.
Kirk notices a figure following them and greets the man as only Kirk can, with a punch in the face. The humanoid speaks English of course and appears to be from the village of spray tan. His name is Akuta and he take them to his village. Akuta explains he is the eyes and mouth of Vaal, evidently the deity of this world. They seem much like us, but appear to live forever rather than reproducing. Every day they feed Vaal by bringing minerals to a giant snake head normally protected by a forcefield. Spock seems to think maybe they should follow the prime directive and leave these primitive people as they are. McCoy and Kirk see things differently and decide they are obviously slaves to a machine.
The decision is made somewhat easier when Vaal starts trying to destroy the Enterprise by dragging it down with a tractor beam. Vaal also tells the people to kill the intruders by bashing in their skulls. They manage to get one red shirt, but Kirk stops and confines them before they can kill anyone else. All this fighting and feuding gets Vaal hungry for fuel, but this just gives Kirk and idea. He has Scotty blast Vaal's forcefield with the phasers to drain Vaal of power. It works and Vaal is destroyed. Kirk leaves the primitive villages to fend for themselves and figure out all that love stuff on their own.
The break down: If it wasn't for the threat to the Enterprise, this episode would be Kirk as his most arrogant. They show up at a planet that seems to be doing just fine (other than an infestation of deadly dart flowers) and destroy the thing granting the people immortality so they can be, "free." Not a bad episode, but not the best either.
6 out of 10
The episode begins with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Chekov beaming down with an an assortment of red shirts to investigate a planet that appears to be paradise. The weather is perfect from pole to pole and it is covered in the best lush plant life you can buy to decorate a sound stage. Kirk ignores a warning from Scotty that the anti-matter pods are losing potency and they start exploring. But the villain from the first act rears its flowery head and kills a red shirt with a blast of poison flower darts. Yes, the first act villain is a flower, and I say first act like that because the flowers disappear and are never mentioned after the first act. Spock takes a dart load for the captain and they attempt to beam back to the ship, but the energy drain stops it. Spock makes one of his unexplained recoveries, but they lose another red shirt to lightning.
Kirk notices a figure following them and greets the man as only Kirk can, with a punch in the face. The humanoid speaks English of course and appears to be from the village of spray tan. His name is Akuta and he take them to his village. Akuta explains he is the eyes and mouth of Vaal, evidently the deity of this world. They seem much like us, but appear to live forever rather than reproducing. Every day they feed Vaal by bringing minerals to a giant snake head normally protected by a forcefield. Spock seems to think maybe they should follow the prime directive and leave these primitive people as they are. McCoy and Kirk see things differently and decide they are obviously slaves to a machine.
The decision is made somewhat easier when Vaal starts trying to destroy the Enterprise by dragging it down with a tractor beam. Vaal also tells the people to kill the intruders by bashing in their skulls. They manage to get one red shirt, but Kirk stops and confines them before they can kill anyone else. All this fighting and feuding gets Vaal hungry for fuel, but this just gives Kirk and idea. He has Scotty blast Vaal's forcefield with the phasers to drain Vaal of power. It works and Vaal is destroyed. Kirk leaves the primitive villages to fend for themselves and figure out all that love stuff on their own.
The break down: If it wasn't for the threat to the Enterprise, this episode would be Kirk as his most arrogant. They show up at a planet that seems to be doing just fine (other than an infestation of deadly dart flowers) and destroy the thing granting the people immortality so they can be, "free." Not a bad episode, but not the best either.
6 out of 10
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