This is the first episode of TAS that could have just as easily been a TOS episode. Even with the limited effects budget I am pretty sure a giant space cloud was within the reach of TOS. I supposed the Enterprise going magic school bus through the digestive tract of the space cloud would have been harder, but whatever. Spock joining minds with the space cloud was another element that felt straight out of TOS.
The episode begins with the Enterprise encountering a cloud of both energy and matter that is in the process of engulfing an unoccupied planet. As they watch the planet starts breaking down inside the cloud as if being consumed. This would be nothing more than an interesting note except for the fact that the cloud is headed towards a planet with 82 million people on it! Shooting it doesn't work so Uhura warns the governor of the next planet it its way and Kirk tries blasting the cloud with phasers. The phasers don't work so the next obvious course of action is the let the cloud consume the Enterprise. Wait, really? Yup, and inside things are even worse. It appears the clouds is made of mostly anti-matter and the strain of keeping the shields up is taking all their power.
As they move deeper it becomes apparent that they are inside a solar system sized organism that is consuming planets as food. To solve their own fuel problem Scotty convinces Kirk to blast of a chunk of the enormous creature to use to regenerate the anti-matter engines. Strangely Scotty also talks about them having matter engines, but whatever. The plan works, but they only have a few minutes now before the cloud starts eating the populated planet. The only choices left are destroy the ship in an effort to stop the cloud and have Spock try an mindmeld. Kirk decides to try both and luckily for all of them the cloud turns out to be friendly and agrees to not eat anymore planets with people on them.
Review: This one is definitely on the scifi side of things more than action and that may weight the episode down more than would be ideal. The shortness of the episode was great in this case, had it been an hour it may well have scored lower.
6 out of 10
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
TAS: Yesteryear
For the second time in the pre-TNG era Starfleet is using time travel to study the past, and as you would expect there are unintended consequences. This time they have returned to the guardian of forever which at least allows them to passively observer the past. But of course this isn't good enough for Kirk who has to go messing around in the past of Orion. I think the most interesting part to me was the scene of young Spock being hassled by his Vulcan peers and getting into a fight in pretty much the exact same way it took place in the recent reboot.
The episode opens with Kirk and Spock coming out of the guardian of forever after having spent time on early Orion learning about the development of its culture. There are also historians there who have been passively looking through the guardian to study the history of Orion. When they beam back to the Enterprise something is wrong, nobody recognizes Spock. Kirk it turns out has had an Andorian second in command for the last five years. Looking through historical databases they learn that in this timeline Spock died at the age of 7. Spock suddenly remembers that as a child he had a near death experience, but was saved by a cousin he never saw before or since who happened to look a lot like himself as an adult.
Spock goes back through the guardian to try and set things right. First he sees himself being harassed into a fight by Vulcan youths. Sarek approaches him and apologizes for having to see such an emotional display by a Vulcan. Spock explains that he is their cousin Selek here to visit the family shrine. Sarek invites him to stay with them in the mean time. It turns out young Spock is having a hard time deciding if he would rather follow the human path of his mother or the Vulcan path of his father. It is almost time for him to take a dangerous journey into the wilderness to prove he is a man so young Spock decides to test himself personally first by wandering into the desert.
Young Spock is followed by the family pet I-Chaya and more distantly by the adult Spock still pretending to be his cousin. Young Spock is attacked by a dangerous dragon like animal that adult Spock knocks out with a neck pinch. Unfortunately I-Chaya was injured by the poisonous claws of the other animal and young Spock must hurry back to town to get the healer to come save I-Chaya. When the healer arrives adult Spock explains that to be Vulcan is to realize that all things die and that it is how we die that matters. When the healer tells him that I-Chaya can not be saved young Spock decides it is best to not prolong suffering and lets I-Chaya die with dignity. Back home Sarek thanks adult Spock for his help and then Spock returns to the Enterprise as if nothing had happened.
Review: While not quite as broadly impactful as the last episode, this one manages to tell a personal tale of Spock's past without being overly cheesy. The voice actor for young Spock was a little annoying, but overall a good episode that added to the canon of Trek.
6 out of 10
The episode opens with Kirk and Spock coming out of the guardian of forever after having spent time on early Orion learning about the development of its culture. There are also historians there who have been passively looking through the guardian to study the history of Orion. When they beam back to the Enterprise something is wrong, nobody recognizes Spock. Kirk it turns out has had an Andorian second in command for the last five years. Looking through historical databases they learn that in this timeline Spock died at the age of 7. Spock suddenly remembers that as a child he had a near death experience, but was saved by a cousin he never saw before or since who happened to look a lot like himself as an adult.
Spock goes back through the guardian to try and set things right. First he sees himself being harassed into a fight by Vulcan youths. Sarek approaches him and apologizes for having to see such an emotional display by a Vulcan. Spock explains that he is their cousin Selek here to visit the family shrine. Sarek invites him to stay with them in the mean time. It turns out young Spock is having a hard time deciding if he would rather follow the human path of his mother or the Vulcan path of his father. It is almost time for him to take a dangerous journey into the wilderness to prove he is a man so young Spock decides to test himself personally first by wandering into the desert.
Young Spock is followed by the family pet I-Chaya and more distantly by the adult Spock still pretending to be his cousin. Young Spock is attacked by a dangerous dragon like animal that adult Spock knocks out with a neck pinch. Unfortunately I-Chaya was injured by the poisonous claws of the other animal and young Spock must hurry back to town to get the healer to come save I-Chaya. When the healer arrives adult Spock explains that to be Vulcan is to realize that all things die and that it is how we die that matters. When the healer tells him that I-Chaya can not be saved young Spock decides it is best to not prolong suffering and lets I-Chaya die with dignity. Back home Sarek thanks adult Spock for his help and then Spock returns to the Enterprise as if nothing had happened.
Review: While not quite as broadly impactful as the last episode, this one manages to tell a personal tale of Spock's past without being overly cheesy. The voice actor for young Spock was a little annoying, but overall a good episode that added to the canon of Trek.
6 out of 10
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
TAS: Beyond the Farthest Star
For the first time in my journey through Trek I watched two episodes today, and I am glad I did. My mental justification was that I missed an episode last Saturday due to work commitments and I wanted to keep going at the same one episode a day pace as long as I could. But it was a really cool comparison to watch the final episode of TOS and then go straight into TAS. I am really impressed with the attention to detail on the drawings of the ship and especially the bridge. They seem to have taken much greater liberties with such things as main engineering, but those sets weren't really all that impressive in the live action run.
The episode begins with the Enterprise not dealing with a crisis like so many TOS episodes, but instead on a routine star charting patrol beyond the edge of the galaxy. And for the first time there doesn't appear to be any of the silliness of a, "galactic barrier," or any of that garbage. While flying through seemingly empty space Uhura detects a radio transmission coming from the remains of a dead star. As they approach the gravity is much more intense than expected and they only barely manage to make orbit rather than hit the dead star. Once in orbit they encounter a huge organic looking alien vessel that appears to be the source of the radio transmissions. It has been there hundreds of millions of years so of course they have to check it out.
Putting on their magic life support belts Kirk beams over with Spock, McCoy and Scotty leaving Sulu in command. Kirk has the transporters locked onto them as they explore the insides of the colossal vessel. Some of the systems seem to be working, even after so long. They enter a room full of equipment and suddenly the door seals behind them. Their communicators and phasers aren't working, but evidently the door was sealed to protect them as something starts trying to break through. They find a recording of someone from the ship warning them of the dangerous lifeform on the other side of the door and it tells them that the ship was left here to keep it trapped for all eternity. The room explodes and they are rescued just in time. However the alien has also been beamed over and starts wrecking havoc all over the ship.
The alien is apparently of electromagnetic nature and it starts reading the computer memory banks and shutting off life support to most decks. Kirk has the ships controls locked out before it can take them over, but it does manage to use the phasers to destroy the other ship. Kirk figures out a plan to have Spock calculate a slingshot maneuver in is head to get them away from the dead star by diving apparently straight at it. The alien is fooled and thinks they are destroying the ship and fleas to the dead star. It works and as they fly away the alien pleads to not be left by itself forever.
Review: I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this part of my voyage, but so far I am impressed. The shorter format works well with adventure stories like this and the animation seems quite good. The music cues are pretty disparate from what I am used to from TOS, but I think I can get used to it. Not the greatest of trek, but an above average episode.
7 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise not dealing with a crisis like so many TOS episodes, but instead on a routine star charting patrol beyond the edge of the galaxy. And for the first time there doesn't appear to be any of the silliness of a, "galactic barrier," or any of that garbage. While flying through seemingly empty space Uhura detects a radio transmission coming from the remains of a dead star. As they approach the gravity is much more intense than expected and they only barely manage to make orbit rather than hit the dead star. Once in orbit they encounter a huge organic looking alien vessel that appears to be the source of the radio transmissions. It has been there hundreds of millions of years so of course they have to check it out.
Putting on their magic life support belts Kirk beams over with Spock, McCoy and Scotty leaving Sulu in command. Kirk has the transporters locked onto them as they explore the insides of the colossal vessel. Some of the systems seem to be working, even after so long. They enter a room full of equipment and suddenly the door seals behind them. Their communicators and phasers aren't working, but evidently the door was sealed to protect them as something starts trying to break through. They find a recording of someone from the ship warning them of the dangerous lifeform on the other side of the door and it tells them that the ship was left here to keep it trapped for all eternity. The room explodes and they are rescued just in time. However the alien has also been beamed over and starts wrecking havoc all over the ship.
The alien is apparently of electromagnetic nature and it starts reading the computer memory banks and shutting off life support to most decks. Kirk has the ships controls locked out before it can take them over, but it does manage to use the phasers to destroy the other ship. Kirk figures out a plan to have Spock calculate a slingshot maneuver in is head to get them away from the dead star by diving apparently straight at it. The alien is fooled and thinks they are destroying the ship and fleas to the dead star. It works and as they fly away the alien pleads to not be left by itself forever.
Review: I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this part of my voyage, but so far I am impressed. The shorter format works well with adventure stories like this and the animation seems quite good. The music cues are pretty disparate from what I am used to from TOS, but I think I can get used to it. Not the greatest of trek, but an above average episode.
7 out of 10
TOS: Turnabout Intruder
I made it through The Original Series! And wow, what a let down of an ending. By stardate All Our Yesterday is the last episode, and it would have been a better ending. I think in this episode the writer intended the woman who steals Kirk's body to be actually insane, but it still comes across as kinda sexist to think that Dr. Lester was unable to become a starship captain because she is a woman. They have had women in all sorts of rolls across Starfleet, and while we haven't seen any women captains I had always assumed there were some around.
The episode opens with the ship checking in on an archaeological expedition that has been devastated by some form of radiation. The head of the expedition is a Dr. Janice Lester who had a long term relationship with Kirk when they were both in the academy and now she is unconscious and not doing well. Kirk is left alone with her for a few minutes while the others check on another survivor. Just as they are along Dr. Lester stuns Kirk with some sort of box and then uses a machine on the wall to switch bodies with him. Kirk in the body of Dr. Lester is left unconscious as the real Dr. Lester relishes having taken over Kirk's body. Just as she is about to kill the real Kirk the others return and they all beam aboard the Enterprise.
Suspicions are immediately aroused when "Kirk" insists that care of Dr. Lester be left to the archaeological expeditions doctor despite his lack of experience when compared to McCoy. There is a throwaway line about how Dr. Lester spent years studying the operations of the Enterprise, but that doesn't explain how she knows everyone's name. She changes the ships course to an isolated colony the opposite direction they had been traveling arousing Spock's suspicion something is wrong. McCoy insists on examining "Kirk" to make sure he is ok while Spock violates direct orders and talks to "Dr. Lester" who has escaped from medical custody and is now in the brig. Spock confirms that the body switch has occurred with a mindmeld.
Spock is caught and "Kirk" insists on court martially him for mutiny immediately. At the hearing "Kirk" is clearly losing control. After the hearing has concluded but before the vote Scotty and McCoy discuss what they will have to do if the captain doesn't accept their verdict, but the captain hears what they said and insists on executing the lot of them. This is too much for the rest of the crew who stop listening to "Kirk's" orders. "Kirk" and the doctor he has been working with agree to kill Dr. Lester to keep their secret, but just as they attempt it Spock assists in reversing the body swap. Somehow they all know it has happened and the real Dr. Lester, back in her body, is left in the care of the doctor.
Review: What an odd episode to end the series with. To be fair I am glad this happened in third season since by now we are familiar with how the captain usually behaves and how the crew, while loyal, have seen some strange stuff by this point. Also, this plan was clearly never going to work. Dr. Lester was way to crazy to succeed as a starship captain irregardless of her gender.
4 out of 10
The episode opens with the ship checking in on an archaeological expedition that has been devastated by some form of radiation. The head of the expedition is a Dr. Janice Lester who had a long term relationship with Kirk when they were both in the academy and now she is unconscious and not doing well. Kirk is left alone with her for a few minutes while the others check on another survivor. Just as they are along Dr. Lester stuns Kirk with some sort of box and then uses a machine on the wall to switch bodies with him. Kirk in the body of Dr. Lester is left unconscious as the real Dr. Lester relishes having taken over Kirk's body. Just as she is about to kill the real Kirk the others return and they all beam aboard the Enterprise.
Suspicions are immediately aroused when "Kirk" insists that care of Dr. Lester be left to the archaeological expeditions doctor despite his lack of experience when compared to McCoy. There is a throwaway line about how Dr. Lester spent years studying the operations of the Enterprise, but that doesn't explain how she knows everyone's name. She changes the ships course to an isolated colony the opposite direction they had been traveling arousing Spock's suspicion something is wrong. McCoy insists on examining "Kirk" to make sure he is ok while Spock violates direct orders and talks to "Dr. Lester" who has escaped from medical custody and is now in the brig. Spock confirms that the body switch has occurred with a mindmeld.
Spock is caught and "Kirk" insists on court martially him for mutiny immediately. At the hearing "Kirk" is clearly losing control. After the hearing has concluded but before the vote Scotty and McCoy discuss what they will have to do if the captain doesn't accept their verdict, but the captain hears what they said and insists on executing the lot of them. This is too much for the rest of the crew who stop listening to "Kirk's" orders. "Kirk" and the doctor he has been working with agree to kill Dr. Lester to keep their secret, but just as they attempt it Spock assists in reversing the body swap. Somehow they all know it has happened and the real Dr. Lester, back in her body, is left in the care of the doctor.
Review: What an odd episode to end the series with. To be fair I am glad this happened in third season since by now we are familiar with how the captain usually behaves and how the crew, while loyal, have seen some strange stuff by this point. Also, this plan was clearly never going to work. Dr. Lester was way to crazy to succeed as a starship captain irregardless of her gender.
4 out of 10
Monday, April 27, 2015
TOS: All Our Yesterdays
Of all the episodes I haven't seen before this one may be my favorite. It also makes me quite sad they never got to attempt a fourth season. This episode doesn't have the broad implications for changing the fate of the universe that City on the Edge of Forever had, but it is at least as touching a tale of personal loss. By waiting so late in the run to have an episode where Spock is overwhelmed by emotion and specifically love this episode really got me. If all scifi show reserved time travel for such touching stories it might not have ended up being a bit of a silly trope.
The episode begins with the Enterprise checking on a planet that is doomed to be destroyed by a supernova in mere hours. The planet had previously had a population of millions but now they don't detect any signs of life. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to the location of the only energy source left on the planet and discover a library manned by mostly replicants. There is one living man there who is extremely distraught at their presence. He insists he must prepare them, but they aren't sure for what. The library is full of discs that when put on players show short videos of the past of the planet. Kirk views one of a medieval era and suddenly hears a woman screaming. He rushes through a door only to find himself on the medieval street he was seeing. He defeats the two men attacking the woman only to learn she is a pickpocket. More soldiers arrive and arrest Kirk, but not before hearing the voices of his friends across the portal convincing them he must be a witch.
Back at the library McCoy has been viewing a disc of the planets ice age and when he and Spock try to follow the captain through the door they find themselves in a icy hellscape. McCoy quickly succumbs to the cold and Spock manages to carry him a little further. They come across a lone figure dressed in furs. The figure takes them to a warm cave where Spock learns the figure is a beautiful woman. While Spock tends to McCoy the woman explains to him that the portal is a one way time travel device and that she was sent here by the dictator of the planet as a punishment. She also explains that the preparation for the portal makes it a one way trip and that to go back is to die.
Kirk meanwhile learns that the official accusing him of witchcraft is also from the future. He learns that what should be a one way trip is for him a death sentence as he was not prepared for the trip. He along with Spock and McCoy must go back or they will die. He helps Kirk get back through the portal. Back at the library Kirk gets into a fight with the librarian but eventually convinces him to help in his search. Back in the ice age Spock has reverted to his more primitive Vulcan state and has fallen deeply in love with the woman who saved them. So much so that he is willing to attack McCoy for suggesting they leave. Spock is extremely torn between staying behind with the woman he loves and returning with McCoy. They make their way to the portal but discover that they both must go back or neither can. It is a hard choice, but both Spock and McCoy return to their time. The librarian jumps through the portal and they beam to their ship just as the star explodes and they escape just in time.
Review: When I realized it was a time travel episode I got worried, but I was wrong to worry. This is in fact a far more personal story that most Trek adventures and it is helped a lot by the multiple story lines going at once to keep things interesting. Also it grows the relationship between McCoy and Spock substantially.
9 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise checking on a planet that is doomed to be destroyed by a supernova in mere hours. The planet had previously had a population of millions but now they don't detect any signs of life. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to the location of the only energy source left on the planet and discover a library manned by mostly replicants. There is one living man there who is extremely distraught at their presence. He insists he must prepare them, but they aren't sure for what. The library is full of discs that when put on players show short videos of the past of the planet. Kirk views one of a medieval era and suddenly hears a woman screaming. He rushes through a door only to find himself on the medieval street he was seeing. He defeats the two men attacking the woman only to learn she is a pickpocket. More soldiers arrive and arrest Kirk, but not before hearing the voices of his friends across the portal convincing them he must be a witch.
Back at the library McCoy has been viewing a disc of the planets ice age and when he and Spock try to follow the captain through the door they find themselves in a icy hellscape. McCoy quickly succumbs to the cold and Spock manages to carry him a little further. They come across a lone figure dressed in furs. The figure takes them to a warm cave where Spock learns the figure is a beautiful woman. While Spock tends to McCoy the woman explains to him that the portal is a one way time travel device and that she was sent here by the dictator of the planet as a punishment. She also explains that the preparation for the portal makes it a one way trip and that to go back is to die.
Kirk meanwhile learns that the official accusing him of witchcraft is also from the future. He learns that what should be a one way trip is for him a death sentence as he was not prepared for the trip. He along with Spock and McCoy must go back or they will die. He helps Kirk get back through the portal. Back at the library Kirk gets into a fight with the librarian but eventually convinces him to help in his search. Back in the ice age Spock has reverted to his more primitive Vulcan state and has fallen deeply in love with the woman who saved them. So much so that he is willing to attack McCoy for suggesting they leave. Spock is extremely torn between staying behind with the woman he loves and returning with McCoy. They make their way to the portal but discover that they both must go back or neither can. It is a hard choice, but both Spock and McCoy return to their time. The librarian jumps through the portal and they beam to their ship just as the star explodes and they escape just in time.
Review: When I realized it was a time travel episode I got worried, but I was wrong to worry. This is in fact a far more personal story that most Trek adventures and it is helped a lot by the multiple story lines going at once to keep things interesting. Also it grows the relationship between McCoy and Spock substantially.
9 out of 10
Sunday, April 26, 2015
TOS: The Savage Curtain
Planet of the space Lincoln! Well, not really, but pretty close. I am honestly not sure I get what this episode was going for in terms of its struggle between good and evil. I am not sure what the alien overlords in this episode expected when they pitted Kirk and Spock along with their greatest inspirations against the allied forces of evil. The episode does introduce us to the much talked about founder of the Klingon empire, Kahless, so it has at least secured a place in trek lore.
While surveying a barren planet of lava the Enterprise briefly detects what appears to be signs of life and energy, but they quickly disappears. Just as they are about to leave their view screen flashes and suddenly they are confronted by Abraham Lincoln who requests to be brought aboard the ship. Kirk beams him over with full presidential honors much to the dismay of Scotty and McCoy. While Kirk agrees that the man they see cannot be Lincoln, he is also fascinated by the opportunity to interact with someone he respects so much. An area of the planet below is converted to earth like atmosphere and Lincoln, Spock and Kirk all beam down.
On the surface they are greeted by Surak, founder of the modern logical Vulcan state. They also meet a rock that transforms into an actually pretty cool looking rocky alien which explains why there are here. It seems the aliens have no concept of good or evil and have decided the best solution to their dilemma is to make Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Surak fight to the death with a team of ultimate evil for the fate on the Enterprise and its crew. They are naturally not excited by this idea, but after a sneak attack by the enemy forces they are forced to retreat and make a plan.
Kirk wants to make weapons and establish a base, but Surak insists in attempting to negotiate. Surak is captured and they are tormented by his cries of pain. Lincoln proposes that Kirk and Spock fake an attack to distract their foes while he sneaks behind the to save Surak. And of course it is a trap, Surak is already dead and Lincoln falls with a spear in his back right in front of Kirk. The fight is then on and it turns out the whole thing wasn't quite as deadly as they thought as Kirk and Spock drive off their foes and are told they have won and may go on their way. The rock creature turns back into a rock and they get the hell out of there.
Review: This is one I hadn't seen before so when I saw it was the one about space Lincoln I wasn't looking forward to it. But it is handled pretty well and keeps the action moving forward. Also, damn, they did it again with the cool suit for the silicon based life form!
7 out of 10
While surveying a barren planet of lava the Enterprise briefly detects what appears to be signs of life and energy, but they quickly disappears. Just as they are about to leave their view screen flashes and suddenly they are confronted by Abraham Lincoln who requests to be brought aboard the ship. Kirk beams him over with full presidential honors much to the dismay of Scotty and McCoy. While Kirk agrees that the man they see cannot be Lincoln, he is also fascinated by the opportunity to interact with someone he respects so much. An area of the planet below is converted to earth like atmosphere and Lincoln, Spock and Kirk all beam down.
On the surface they are greeted by Surak, founder of the modern logical Vulcan state. They also meet a rock that transforms into an actually pretty cool looking rocky alien which explains why there are here. It seems the aliens have no concept of good or evil and have decided the best solution to their dilemma is to make Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Surak fight to the death with a team of ultimate evil for the fate on the Enterprise and its crew. They are naturally not excited by this idea, but after a sneak attack by the enemy forces they are forced to retreat and make a plan.
Kirk wants to make weapons and establish a base, but Surak insists in attempting to negotiate. Surak is captured and they are tormented by his cries of pain. Lincoln proposes that Kirk and Spock fake an attack to distract their foes while he sneaks behind the to save Surak. And of course it is a trap, Surak is already dead and Lincoln falls with a spear in his back right in front of Kirk. The fight is then on and it turns out the whole thing wasn't quite as deadly as they thought as Kirk and Spock drive off their foes and are told they have won and may go on their way. The rock creature turns back into a rock and they get the hell out of there.
Review: This is one I hadn't seen before so when I saw it was the one about space Lincoln I wasn't looking forward to it. But it is handled pretty well and keeps the action moving forward. Also, damn, they did it again with the cool suit for the silicon based life form!
7 out of 10
Friday, April 24, 2015
TOS: The Cloud Minders
Planet of the class struggle! This is a pretty straight forward episode where the high minded elites live in a city in the sky and torture the troglodytes who live below to keep them from rebelling. They even go ahead and call them troglodytes to keep it from being too subtle. It doesn't feel cheaply made like so many third season episodes with several original costumes and some sets that aren't the enterprise!
The Enterprise is on a mission to Ardana to get a rare mineral the is the key to stopping a plague that will kill millions. Ardana is a starkly divided world with most of the population toiling in mines away from the sun while a few elites live in a floating city in the sky pursuing art and philosophy. Kirk beams down with Spock to the mines where the rare zenite is produced. Instead of finding the zenite they instead find a trap. While struggling with the troglytes (see what I am saying about the subtle names?) three men from Stratos, the city in the sky, appear and blast one of the troglytes driving the others away. They teleport up to the city with the high adviser and meet with his daughter who is quite taken with Spock. While they talk the guards bring in a rebel troglyte, a disrupter, and rather than be held he jumps of the balcony and off the floating city. The high adviser promises to get the zenite no matter what!
While Spock flirts with the daughter of the adviser Kirk takes a nap and is attacked by a beautiful female disrupter named Vanna. Vanna fails kill him and is taken to be tortured. When Kirk objects to her torture he is forced to leave the planet. Back on the ship Kirk learns that the zenite gas is damaging the intellects of the troglytes and that simple masks could cure their condition. The adviser refuses to listen to him so Kirk beams down to Vanna's cell. She promises him the zenite in exchange for the masks and they escape, but she turns on him as soon as their are free and takes him prisoner. Kirk manages to get his phaser back and caves in the mine section they are in trapping him and Vanna with the zenite gas. He has the adviser beamed down long enough for them all to be messed up pretty good by the gas.
Kirk starts fighting with the adviser after the gas takes full effect and Vanna has to use Kirk's communicator to call the ship and get them beamed back up. Vanna manages to convince the disrupters give them the zenite in exchange for the masks after having seen the effect of the gas, but the adviser seems determined to stop it. Spock and his lover exchange a few words before the Enterprise heads off with the vital zenite.
Review: Other than being a little boring in the middle this episode is fairly well executed direct social commentary. It isn't entirely successful, but I will at least give it credit for being a solid effort.
6 out of 10
The Enterprise is on a mission to Ardana to get a rare mineral the is the key to stopping a plague that will kill millions. Ardana is a starkly divided world with most of the population toiling in mines away from the sun while a few elites live in a floating city in the sky pursuing art and philosophy. Kirk beams down with Spock to the mines where the rare zenite is produced. Instead of finding the zenite they instead find a trap. While struggling with the troglytes (see what I am saying about the subtle names?) three men from Stratos, the city in the sky, appear and blast one of the troglytes driving the others away. They teleport up to the city with the high adviser and meet with his daughter who is quite taken with Spock. While they talk the guards bring in a rebel troglyte, a disrupter, and rather than be held he jumps of the balcony and off the floating city. The high adviser promises to get the zenite no matter what!
While Spock flirts with the daughter of the adviser Kirk takes a nap and is attacked by a beautiful female disrupter named Vanna. Vanna fails kill him and is taken to be tortured. When Kirk objects to her torture he is forced to leave the planet. Back on the ship Kirk learns that the zenite gas is damaging the intellects of the troglytes and that simple masks could cure their condition. The adviser refuses to listen to him so Kirk beams down to Vanna's cell. She promises him the zenite in exchange for the masks and they escape, but she turns on him as soon as their are free and takes him prisoner. Kirk manages to get his phaser back and caves in the mine section they are in trapping him and Vanna with the zenite gas. He has the adviser beamed down long enough for them all to be messed up pretty good by the gas.
Kirk starts fighting with the adviser after the gas takes full effect and Vanna has to use Kirk's communicator to call the ship and get them beamed back up. Vanna manages to convince the disrupters give them the zenite in exchange for the masks after having seen the effect of the gas, but the adviser seems determined to stop it. Spock and his lover exchange a few words before the Enterprise heads off with the vital zenite.
Review: Other than being a little boring in the middle this episode is fairly well executed direct social commentary. It isn't entirely successful, but I will at least give it credit for being a solid effort.
6 out of 10
Thursday, April 23, 2015
TOS: The Way to Eden
When I think about this episode all I can think of is a version of the song from the, "History of the World Part II," trailer with the words, "the Hippies are in SPAAAACE!" And yes, it is as bad as it sounds. The concept of a group seaking Eden doesn't seem unlikely at all, the problem is this is the most annoying bunch of hippies this side of Vega. This is one episode where I am firmly on team Kirk, not team Spock. I could put up with their obnoxious chanting, but all the singing is way way too much.
The episode opens with the Enterprise encountering the stolen vessel Aurora. They refuse to respond to a hail and put up a fight against the tractor beam. So much of a fight that their ship is destroyed moments after they are beamed aboard the Enterprise. But instead of cowering in what they must have assumed would have been their final moments they are calmly standing there. Fortunately for them one of the space hippies father is an ambassador to the Federation to they are forced to be nice. The hippies are determined to find Eden and loudly protest anyone who stands in their way. They also sing, a lot.
The hippies agree to be examined in sickbay and their leader turns out to be a carrier of a deadly disease. He is isolated while the crew are immunized. Meanwhile the other hippies try to recruit members of the crew through more singing, or in the case of the girl Chekov is into, lots of kissing. From Chekov the hippies learn they can control the ship for the auxiliary control room. This whole time Spock seems to be genuinely enjoy the hippies and even jams with them on his Vulcan harp.
While distracting as much of the crew as possible with their awful music the hippies seize control of the ship and fly into Romulan space. They find their Eden and knock on the crew with a sonic weapon, then steal a shuttlecraft and make their way to the surface. Since the Romulans apparently have nothing to watch their border the Enterprise has plenty of time to send an away party down. They discover that while the planet is beautiful all the plants emit powerful acids that burn the skin and the fruit is all poison. Two of the hippies dies to the fruit before the rest give in. The Romulans never show up and they all go on their way.
Review: Wow, this one was pretty hard to watch. The script didn't have any giant holes in it, but all the singing (and I know I complain a lot about the singing, but it is barely singing. More like rhythmic talking over terrible instrumentals, arrrr.) really makes me not enjoy it. I feel like things may go lower still so I am going with:
2 out of 10
The episode opens with the Enterprise encountering the stolen vessel Aurora. They refuse to respond to a hail and put up a fight against the tractor beam. So much of a fight that their ship is destroyed moments after they are beamed aboard the Enterprise. But instead of cowering in what they must have assumed would have been their final moments they are calmly standing there. Fortunately for them one of the space hippies father is an ambassador to the Federation to they are forced to be nice. The hippies are determined to find Eden and loudly protest anyone who stands in their way. They also sing, a lot.
The hippies agree to be examined in sickbay and their leader turns out to be a carrier of a deadly disease. He is isolated while the crew are immunized. Meanwhile the other hippies try to recruit members of the crew through more singing, or in the case of the girl Chekov is into, lots of kissing. From Chekov the hippies learn they can control the ship for the auxiliary control room. This whole time Spock seems to be genuinely enjoy the hippies and even jams with them on his Vulcan harp.
While distracting as much of the crew as possible with their awful music the hippies seize control of the ship and fly into Romulan space. They find their Eden and knock on the crew with a sonic weapon, then steal a shuttlecraft and make their way to the surface. Since the Romulans apparently have nothing to watch their border the Enterprise has plenty of time to send an away party down. They discover that while the planet is beautiful all the plants emit powerful acids that burn the skin and the fruit is all poison. Two of the hippies dies to the fruit before the rest give in. The Romulans never show up and they all go on their way.
Review: Wow, this one was pretty hard to watch. The script didn't have any giant holes in it, but all the singing (and I know I complain a lot about the singing, but it is barely singing. More like rhythmic talking over terrible instrumentals, arrrr.) really makes me not enjoy it. I feel like things may go lower still so I am going with:
2 out of 10
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
TOS: Requiem for Methuselah
I am not sure what to say about this episode. I really like the idea of an immortal man living alone trying to make the perfect android mate, but I am not sure this is the telling of that story that I desire. It does a good job of capturing the essential creepiness of trying to create your own romantic partner. However it also feels like quite a stretch that this particular man is all the various historical characters he claims to be. Although I guess he is in good company with Keanu Reeves who we all know was Charlemagne.
For once the Enterprise is not checking in on a outpost, instead the crew is sick with the deadly Rigelian fever for which the only cure is the rare element ryetalin. They detect it on a world which appears uninhabited, but when they beam down Kirk, Spock and McCoy are attacked by a robot. Its owner appears, a man named Flint who insists he owns the planet and that they must leave. Kirk threatens to kill them all with the ships phasers until Flint agrees the have his robot gather the ryetalin they need so they can leave. He invites them to his home for refreshments and they discover it is littered with valuable historical artifacts including a Gutenberg bible paitings by Leonardo da Vinci. The robot returns with they drug and while McCoy tests it Flint has a discussion in a hidden room with the beautiful Rayna, apparently his companion here. She expresses a strong urge to talk with the guests.
Kirk and company are ready to return to the ship Flint comes back with Rayna and asks them to stay for a while. Kirk and Spock are both intrigued by Rayna and Kirk falls in love with her after a dance. McCoy returns from testing the ryetalin and he has discovered it is contaminated. They must gather more to try and get a pure sample. Spock and Kirk discover using Spock's tricorder that there is a sample of purified ryetalin behind a locked door and when they enter they discover numerous revisions of Rayna who is apparently an android. Flint explains that he is almost 6000 years old and that he has loved many women and decided the only solution was to make an immortal lover. Kirk can't stand that Flint wants the woman he loves and they confront Rayna. She is so torn between the two of them that she dies suddenly.
Kirk and Flint are both devastated and Flint agrees to give them the drug without and further fight. McCoy learns that Flint isn't immortal anymore in any case. Flint decides to spend the rest of his life working to improve the human condition and Kirk mopes on the ship until Spock erases his memory.
Review: Lots of little things seemed off in this episode including Spock doing a memory wipe on Kirk at the very end of the episode. This is one of those episodes that I really think could have been improved with another rewrite or two.
4 out of 10
For once the Enterprise is not checking in on a outpost, instead the crew is sick with the deadly Rigelian fever for which the only cure is the rare element ryetalin. They detect it on a world which appears uninhabited, but when they beam down Kirk, Spock and McCoy are attacked by a robot. Its owner appears, a man named Flint who insists he owns the planet and that they must leave. Kirk threatens to kill them all with the ships phasers until Flint agrees the have his robot gather the ryetalin they need so they can leave. He invites them to his home for refreshments and they discover it is littered with valuable historical artifacts including a Gutenberg bible paitings by Leonardo da Vinci. The robot returns with they drug and while McCoy tests it Flint has a discussion in a hidden room with the beautiful Rayna, apparently his companion here. She expresses a strong urge to talk with the guests.
Kirk and company are ready to return to the ship Flint comes back with Rayna and asks them to stay for a while. Kirk and Spock are both intrigued by Rayna and Kirk falls in love with her after a dance. McCoy returns from testing the ryetalin and he has discovered it is contaminated. They must gather more to try and get a pure sample. Spock and Kirk discover using Spock's tricorder that there is a sample of purified ryetalin behind a locked door and when they enter they discover numerous revisions of Rayna who is apparently an android. Flint explains that he is almost 6000 years old and that he has loved many women and decided the only solution was to make an immortal lover. Kirk can't stand that Flint wants the woman he loves and they confront Rayna. She is so torn between the two of them that she dies suddenly.
Kirk and Flint are both devastated and Flint agrees to give them the drug without and further fight. McCoy learns that Flint isn't immortal anymore in any case. Flint decides to spend the rest of his life working to improve the human condition and Kirk mopes on the ship until Spock erases his memory.
Review: Lots of little things seemed off in this episode including Spock doing a memory wipe on Kirk at the very end of the episode. This is one of those episodes that I really think could have been improved with another rewrite or two.
4 out of 10
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
TOS: The Lights of Zetar
This is the second episode about Scotty falling in love, and it ends much better than the last time. I know I hadn't seen it before because I always wondered what specifically Memory Alpha was a reference to. I guess it was their library of Alexandria because it was also destroyed. This is one of those episodes where they almost never leave the Enterprise, but it at least makes sense for what is going on (ahem Mark of Gideon...). It also kinda feels like it has been done before Return to Tomorrow, but I guess this is different since it is a whole collective of minds looking for a body.
The episode begins with the Enterprise transporting Lt. Mira Romaine to her assignment on Memory Alpha, the Federation library planet. Scotty is quite taken with her and is barely able to perform his duties in her presence. As they get closer to Memory Alpha they encounter what appears to be a storm travelling at warp 2.6 in their direction. Spock correctly figures that it must not be natural since it is traveling faster than light. The storm encounter the Enterprise and after some flashing lights Mira collapses making a very unsettling sound. McCoy is summoned by she appears to be ok. The storm rushes on to Memory Alpha where it kills everyone and destroys the database.
The Enterprise gets there to late and when they beam down they find nothing but bodies. Other than one woman who emits the same noise Mira made and then dies. Suddenly Mira warns them the storm is approaching but they don't believe her until Sulu confirms it. Back on the ship she tells Scotty she foresaw all the attacks, but Scotty tells her it is just space madness and she shouldn't report it. The storm returns and they blast it with phasers which causes Mira to collapse. They break off the attack and question Mira. It turns out her brain waves are now a perfect match for the alien cloud thing.
The storm closes on them again and this time they are unable to evade. It enters Mira and somehow they decide she needs to be put into a pressure chamber. Scotty is able to get her in there through the power of love. When the pressure is high enough the aliens are killed and she returns to normal. They all agree there is nothing to report about her having been occupied by a hundred alien minds and send her back to work fixing up Memory Alpha.
Review: Not a terrible episode, but there are a few plot holes that don't help much. Why the storm thing destroyed Memory Alpha is totally unclear. Not only did it not find a mind it could use, it already found that mind in Mira. Why not just stay with the Enterprise? This episodes does manage to keep things moving rating it a firm:
5 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise transporting Lt. Mira Romaine to her assignment on Memory Alpha, the Federation library planet. Scotty is quite taken with her and is barely able to perform his duties in her presence. As they get closer to Memory Alpha they encounter what appears to be a storm travelling at warp 2.6 in their direction. Spock correctly figures that it must not be natural since it is traveling faster than light. The storm encounter the Enterprise and after some flashing lights Mira collapses making a very unsettling sound. McCoy is summoned by she appears to be ok. The storm rushes on to Memory Alpha where it kills everyone and destroys the database.
The Enterprise gets there to late and when they beam down they find nothing but bodies. Other than one woman who emits the same noise Mira made and then dies. Suddenly Mira warns them the storm is approaching but they don't believe her until Sulu confirms it. Back on the ship she tells Scotty she foresaw all the attacks, but Scotty tells her it is just space madness and she shouldn't report it. The storm returns and they blast it with phasers which causes Mira to collapse. They break off the attack and question Mira. It turns out her brain waves are now a perfect match for the alien cloud thing.
The storm closes on them again and this time they are unable to evade. It enters Mira and somehow they decide she needs to be put into a pressure chamber. Scotty is able to get her in there through the power of love. When the pressure is high enough the aliens are killed and she returns to normal. They all agree there is nothing to report about her having been occupied by a hundred alien minds and send her back to work fixing up Memory Alpha.
Review: Not a terrible episode, but there are a few plot holes that don't help much. Why the storm thing destroyed Memory Alpha is totally unclear. Not only did it not find a mind it could use, it already found that mind in Mira. Why not just stay with the Enterprise? This episodes does manage to keep things moving rating it a firm:
5 out of 10
Monday, April 20, 2015
TOS: That Which Survives
This would have been one of the more poorly received adventure story lines in the first two seasons, but by now in the third season this one feels a bit above average. Not the deepest of concepts, but at least it manages to not fall apart into plot holes and by leaving some questions unanswered manages to be at least a little intellectually stimulating. It is also an episode that has strong parts for both Scotty and Sulu which is especially nice since everything lately seems to be entirely focused on Kirk/McCoy/Spock.
The episode begins with the Enterprise investigating a strange planet the size of earth's moon which has an atmosphere and is apparently only a few thousand years old. Just before beaming down a woman appears and tries to stop them. She fails and then touches the transporter operator killing him. Just after they appear on the surface it is rocked by a powerful quake and they are knocked to the ground. The Enterprise is rocked as well and finds itself almost 1000 light years from the planet. On the surface Sulu discovers the Enterprise is gone and guesses it may have exploded.
Kirk and company begin to search for food and water with no luck. While they search Sulu notices an electromagnetic surge. The redshirt geologist they brought along suddenly sees the woman from the transporter room. She tells him she is for him and then touches him killing him. Back on the Enterprise Spock has the ship head towards the planet at warp 8, but Scotty feels something is off. The woman appears in engineering and questions one of the red shirts there about the antimatter reactor before killing him. The Enterprise suddenly stars accelerating out of control and will explode in about 15 minutes unless they find a way to stop it!
Back on the planet the woman appears to Sulu, but he isn't lured in by her beauty and even tries to hit her with the phaser to no effect. (No, I am not going to make a gay Takei joke.) He trips over a rock and the woman manages to touch his shoulder for a moment injuring him, but before she can finish the job Kirk and McCoy show up. It turns out the woman's touch has no effect on them since she is there for Sulu. They push each other around for a few minutes before she gives up and disappears.
On the Enterprise it is a race against time and Scotty has to crawl back into the engines to try to cut the fuel flow off manually while it is running over powered. Just as he is about to mess it up and kill them all the computer search Spock has been doing tells him Scotty needs to reverse the polarity which he does about half a second before the ship is going to explode and he saves the day, just in time. Back on the planet the woman appears again, this time for Kirk and McCoy and Sulu have to hold her back. They learn she is a protector of the planet, but that all the living occupants have been gone for a long time. Eventually a door in a cliff opens and they find themselves in a computer room. Three of the women show up to kill them all, but Spock beams in just in time to have the red shirt he brought blast the computer saving their lives.
Review: The only big idea in this episode is the concept of a computer defense system which outlives those it is intended to protect. It is never clear how the Enterprise was thrown so far away so quickly, but whatever, it would have been some BS technical excuse anyway.
5 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise investigating a strange planet the size of earth's moon which has an atmosphere and is apparently only a few thousand years old. Just before beaming down a woman appears and tries to stop them. She fails and then touches the transporter operator killing him. Just after they appear on the surface it is rocked by a powerful quake and they are knocked to the ground. The Enterprise is rocked as well and finds itself almost 1000 light years from the planet. On the surface Sulu discovers the Enterprise is gone and guesses it may have exploded.
Kirk and company begin to search for food and water with no luck. While they search Sulu notices an electromagnetic surge. The redshirt geologist they brought along suddenly sees the woman from the transporter room. She tells him she is for him and then touches him killing him. Back on the Enterprise Spock has the ship head towards the planet at warp 8, but Scotty feels something is off. The woman appears in engineering and questions one of the red shirts there about the antimatter reactor before killing him. The Enterprise suddenly stars accelerating out of control and will explode in about 15 minutes unless they find a way to stop it!
Back on the planet the woman appears to Sulu, but he isn't lured in by her beauty and even tries to hit her with the phaser to no effect. (No, I am not going to make a gay Takei joke.) He trips over a rock and the woman manages to touch his shoulder for a moment injuring him, but before she can finish the job Kirk and McCoy show up. It turns out the woman's touch has no effect on them since she is there for Sulu. They push each other around for a few minutes before she gives up and disappears.
On the Enterprise it is a race against time and Scotty has to crawl back into the engines to try to cut the fuel flow off manually while it is running over powered. Just as he is about to mess it up and kill them all the computer search Spock has been doing tells him Scotty needs to reverse the polarity which he does about half a second before the ship is going to explode and he saves the day, just in time. Back on the planet the woman appears again, this time for Kirk and McCoy and Sulu have to hold her back. They learn she is a protector of the planet, but that all the living occupants have been gone for a long time. Eventually a door in a cliff opens and they find themselves in a computer room. Three of the women show up to kill them all, but Spock beams in just in time to have the red shirt he brought blast the computer saving their lives.
Review: The only big idea in this episode is the concept of a computer defense system which outlives those it is intended to protect. It is never clear how the Enterprise was thrown so far away so quickly, but whatever, it would have been some BS technical excuse anyway.
5 out of 10
Sunday, April 19, 2015
TOS: The Mark of Gideon
Today's episode could have just as accurately been named, "The Mark of Running Out of Cash." To be fair the story is more average than actually bad, but the premise that these aliens made a complete duplicate of the Enterprise for absolutely no good reason is pretty silly. Also, were there actually supposed to be people outside the windows of the ship or was that a special effect to try to show Kirk that it was like to have too many people? Also, I think this is an episode about over population, but maybe also abortion? Lots more questions than answers.
The Enterprise has been sent on a sensitive diplomatic mission to a planet trying to decide if it will join the Federation. The planet is known to be a paradise, but refuses to allow any outsiders onto the surface or to be scanned by any star ships. But for the first time ever they have agreed to allow a representative of the Federation to beam down, but instead of a stodgy diplomat, they want Kirk. Spock personally beams Kirk to the specified coordinates, but instead of appearing on the surface of the planet Kirk appears right back in the transporter room. The only problem is the ship is empty.
Kirk wanders around checking everywhere because I guess he thinks everybody must just be hiding or something. Eventually he encounters a beautiful woman who claims to not have any memories other than that her name is Odona. She also claims to not be from Gideon. I may have gotten distracted or maybe they just skipped over Kirk finding a bruise on his arm and somehow learning from the fake Enterprise that he is missing 10 minutes of memory. Back on the real Enterprise Spock is about is pissed off as I have ever seen him. He demands to beam to the surface and even convinces the representative from Gideon to beam one of his aids to the Enterprise, but this gives him away, the coordinates don't match those given earlier.
After engaging in some romantic activities with Odona Kirk is suddenly confronted by the ambassador from Gideon who is also Odona father. He couldn't be happier that Odona has apparently contracted a deadly STD from Kirk and will now die. It turns out Gideon is hopelessly overpopulated and loves life so much they refuse to use any form of birth control. But not so much they won't import deadly space diseases to kill off their own people. Spock ignores a direct order from Starfleet and beams down to Gideon and also finds himself on the fake Enterprise. He locates Kirk and beams both Kirk and Odona back to the ship. McCoy heals Odona who despite her love for Kirk insists she has to go home to spread the deadly space disease.
Review: This episode is kinda all over the place. I am not really sure what the message is supposed to be other than don't let your planet get literally covered in people. But are deadly and painful space diseases really supposed to be a good solution to that problem?
4 out of 10
The Enterprise has been sent on a sensitive diplomatic mission to a planet trying to decide if it will join the Federation. The planet is known to be a paradise, but refuses to allow any outsiders onto the surface or to be scanned by any star ships. But for the first time ever they have agreed to allow a representative of the Federation to beam down, but instead of a stodgy diplomat, they want Kirk. Spock personally beams Kirk to the specified coordinates, but instead of appearing on the surface of the planet Kirk appears right back in the transporter room. The only problem is the ship is empty.
Kirk wanders around checking everywhere because I guess he thinks everybody must just be hiding or something. Eventually he encounters a beautiful woman who claims to not have any memories other than that her name is Odona. She also claims to not be from Gideon. I may have gotten distracted or maybe they just skipped over Kirk finding a bruise on his arm and somehow learning from the fake Enterprise that he is missing 10 minutes of memory. Back on the real Enterprise Spock is about is pissed off as I have ever seen him. He demands to beam to the surface and even convinces the representative from Gideon to beam one of his aids to the Enterprise, but this gives him away, the coordinates don't match those given earlier.
After engaging in some romantic activities with Odona Kirk is suddenly confronted by the ambassador from Gideon who is also Odona father. He couldn't be happier that Odona has apparently contracted a deadly STD from Kirk and will now die. It turns out Gideon is hopelessly overpopulated and loves life so much they refuse to use any form of birth control. But not so much they won't import deadly space diseases to kill off their own people. Spock ignores a direct order from Starfleet and beams down to Gideon and also finds himself on the fake Enterprise. He locates Kirk and beams both Kirk and Odona back to the ship. McCoy heals Odona who despite her love for Kirk insists she has to go home to spread the deadly space disease.
Review: This episode is kinda all over the place. I am not really sure what the message is supposed to be other than don't let your planet get literally covered in people. But are deadly and painful space diseases really supposed to be a good solution to that problem?
4 out of 10
Saturday, April 18, 2015
TOS: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
This is an episode I hadn't seen since I was very young. This is also one of those episodes that isn't about Star Trek so much as it is about us today and how so many of us allow ourselves to be driven by hatred. Even in an era with a black President things in America are still pretty tense and maybe more people should watch this episode. On a lighter note it is also the episode where Shatner refuses to correctly pronounce, "sabotage," which I have heard joked about for a long time but didn't catch on my initial viewing.
The episode begins with the Enterprise on a vital decontamination mission to save a planet with billions living on it. While on there way there they encounter a drifting shuttlecraft that was reported missing from Starbase 4 a few weeks earlier. They bring it aboard and find its single occupant to be a black and white faced man named Lokai. He insists he isn't a criminal for having used the shuttlecraft without permission, but isn't exactly happy about the idea of being taken to the Starbase to face the charges. The Enterprise continues on its way but is intercepted by a very fast moving invisible (budget problems any one?) scout ship that destroys itself when it impacts the shields. Before its destruction it beams and opposite pattern black and white faced man named Bele over. Bele demands they turn over custody of Lokai to him to face charges on their home planet Cheron.
Kirk naturally refuses to be pushed around by Bele, but Bele uses some sort of mental powers to take over the ships navigation and only gives it up when Kirk threatens to destroy the Enterprise. There is a lot of fighting between Bele and Lokai and it comes out that the only reason they really hate each other is the difference in the color patterns on their faces. The ship arrives to do its contamination duties, but once done Bele takes over navigation again and takes them to planet Cheron. But instead of finding their homeworld intact it has been totally destroyed by a civil war leaving no one alive. Kirk lets Bele and Lokai beam to the surface and then gets the hell out of their.
Review: Not a super complicated episode, but one with a point to make. The scene at the end of Bele and Lokai running through the Enterprise overlayed with shots of burning buildings went on too long, but otherwise this episode had good pacing.
7 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise on a vital decontamination mission to save a planet with billions living on it. While on there way there they encounter a drifting shuttlecraft that was reported missing from Starbase 4 a few weeks earlier. They bring it aboard and find its single occupant to be a black and white faced man named Lokai. He insists he isn't a criminal for having used the shuttlecraft without permission, but isn't exactly happy about the idea of being taken to the Starbase to face the charges. The Enterprise continues on its way but is intercepted by a very fast moving invisible (budget problems any one?) scout ship that destroys itself when it impacts the shields. Before its destruction it beams and opposite pattern black and white faced man named Bele over. Bele demands they turn over custody of Lokai to him to face charges on their home planet Cheron.
Kirk naturally refuses to be pushed around by Bele, but Bele uses some sort of mental powers to take over the ships navigation and only gives it up when Kirk threatens to destroy the Enterprise. There is a lot of fighting between Bele and Lokai and it comes out that the only reason they really hate each other is the difference in the color patterns on their faces. The ship arrives to do its contamination duties, but once done Bele takes over navigation again and takes them to planet Cheron. But instead of finding their homeworld intact it has been totally destroyed by a civil war leaving no one alive. Kirk lets Bele and Lokai beam to the surface and then gets the hell out of their.
Review: Not a super complicated episode, but one with a point to make. The scene at the end of Bele and Lokai running through the Enterprise overlayed with shots of burning buildings went on too long, but otherwise this episode had good pacing.
7 out of 10
TOS: Whom Gods Destroy
Welcome back to the land of meh. Far from the worst episode so far this season Whom Gods Destroy is a good attempt at a bad idea for an episode. I will be the first to admit I am not super into stories about obviously crazy people, and this episodes villain was totally out of control. So much so that it was unclear why anyone would ever follow him for any reason. I guess he is the one who got them out of their cells, but they are still trapped in a tiny asylum on a hellscape of a planet. He was supposedly a great leader at some point, but by the time the episode happens he is nutty as hell, and sure he has a phaser, but that is pretty much it.
We begin with the Enterprise delivering a special new medicine to an asylum on a world with a toxic atmosphere. Upon beaming down the asylum puts it's shields up again and the head of asylum offers them a tour. They have a famous inmate, Captain Garth, a legendary starship captain well known for his tactics. While on the tour they notice a guy in a cell who looks an awful lot like the guy running the asylum. Being non-idiots they quickly figure out he is in fact the one in charge and the guy leading them is a fake. It the fake head of the asylum turns back into Captain Garth and releases all the inmates who overwhelm Spock and Kirk. They are both imprisoned and the head of the asylum tells Kirk Garth gained the ability to change shapes from some aliens which seems silly if it is that easy, but whatever, bad writing.
We now come to the weakest part of the episode, and it is really too bad that it is so core to the story. Garth turns himself into Kirk and goes to beam back to the Enterprise. Instead of following orders Scotty demands he reply to a chess move, something never done before or since. In fact it is only the kind of thing you would do if you suspected you were about to encounter a shapeshifter of some sort... Garth then tries to convince Kirk to tell him the password first by being nice, then by torture, and then by seduction. None of them work. Garth then tries pretending to be Spock, but since he is crazy it doesn't work.
Now Garth decides to be crowned ruler of the universe to prove he isn't crazy. And then to prove he is crazy he kills his consort by detonating a bomb. Fortunately his insane assistants are also terrible at their jobs so Spock is able to perform the rare double neck pinch and gets a phaser. This leads to the only clever scene in the entire episode when Garth pretends to be Kirk and Spock has to figure out who is real and who is the impostor. It is such a good scene it gets repeated in The Undiscovered Country. When the real Kirk tells Spock to stun them both to figure it out Spock stuns Garth and everything is fine again.
Review: Much like Shatner through most of this episode I found it pretty dull. Also I have figured out by now there is no torture chair you can put Kirk on that will get any information other than that Shatner isn't at his best when pretending to be destroyed by pain rays. The episode does at least not fall apart of feel too much like filler.
4 out of 10
We begin with the Enterprise delivering a special new medicine to an asylum on a world with a toxic atmosphere. Upon beaming down the asylum puts it's shields up again and the head of asylum offers them a tour. They have a famous inmate, Captain Garth, a legendary starship captain well known for his tactics. While on the tour they notice a guy in a cell who looks an awful lot like the guy running the asylum. Being non-idiots they quickly figure out he is in fact the one in charge and the guy leading them is a fake. It the fake head of the asylum turns back into Captain Garth and releases all the inmates who overwhelm Spock and Kirk. They are both imprisoned and the head of the asylum tells Kirk Garth gained the ability to change shapes from some aliens which seems silly if it is that easy, but whatever, bad writing.
We now come to the weakest part of the episode, and it is really too bad that it is so core to the story. Garth turns himself into Kirk and goes to beam back to the Enterprise. Instead of following orders Scotty demands he reply to a chess move, something never done before or since. In fact it is only the kind of thing you would do if you suspected you were about to encounter a shapeshifter of some sort... Garth then tries to convince Kirk to tell him the password first by being nice, then by torture, and then by seduction. None of them work. Garth then tries pretending to be Spock, but since he is crazy it doesn't work.
Now Garth decides to be crowned ruler of the universe to prove he isn't crazy. And then to prove he is crazy he kills his consort by detonating a bomb. Fortunately his insane assistants are also terrible at their jobs so Spock is able to perform the rare double neck pinch and gets a phaser. This leads to the only clever scene in the entire episode when Garth pretends to be Kirk and Spock has to figure out who is real and who is the impostor. It is such a good scene it gets repeated in The Undiscovered Country. When the real Kirk tells Spock to stun them both to figure it out Spock stuns Garth and everything is fine again.
Review: Much like Shatner through most of this episode I found it pretty dull. Also I have figured out by now there is no torture chair you can put Kirk on that will get any information other than that Shatner isn't at his best when pretending to be destroyed by pain rays. The episode does at least not fall apart of feel too much like filler.
4 out of 10
Thursday, April 16, 2015
TOS: Elaan of Troyius
This isn't an episode I was familiar with, so when I saw the name, description and remembered what season this is I got worried. But I was wrong to be worried, this is a surprisingly good episode. Now to be fair, this is an episode that is outstanding in a season mostly know for being total garbage, but even in a more decent time period it would have been a solid episode. It really helps that rather than another helpless damsel in distress Elaan is a powerful woman whose only weakness is her lack of knowledge about the customs of people other than her own.
The episode opens with the Enterprise on a secret mission mission to the planet Elas on behalf of the ambassador from Troyius. The ambassador refuses to answer any questions before beaming over the leader of the people of Elas, the commanding Elaan. She is to be married to the king of Troyius to end a war between the two peoples, but she doesn't seem happy about it. She also isn't happy about the quarters she is given (Uhura agreed to let Elaan use hers) and she can't stand the Troyiun ambassador either. On the bridge Spock is tracking a ghost in the sensors. Elaan and her entourage tour engineering and keep messing with things there. Back on the bridge the ghost turns out to be a Klingon war ship. Just then Kirk is summoned to Elaan's quarters. He discovers she has stabbed the ambassador!
In sickbay the abassador tells McCoy and nurse Chapel that the tears of women from Elas are a powerful love potion with no cure. Meanwhile Kirk now has the job of attempting to teach Elaan manners to deal with living on Troyuis. It isn't going well until he touches her tears and falls instantly in love. Kirk doesn't want to leave when Uhura calls, but when he learns someone on the ship is calling the Klingons he rushes to the bridge and Elaan follows. He learns that one of her guards has turned against her and destroyed the Enterprise dilithium crystals crippling warp drive and weapons. Kirk tries to get Elaan to go to sickbay to be safer, but she makes it back into for the action.
The Klingon ship demands the Enterprise surrender and fires on them when they refuse. After a few rounds the shields are failing. Spock suddenly notices the necklace Elaan is wearing, it is made of large crystals. When Spock scans them they are dilithium! Spock rushes the necklace to engineering and along the Scotty get it installed just in time to pull a fast one of the Klingons warping out of the way and hitting them with photon torpedoes. The Klingons flee and Kirk now has to send the woman he loves off to marry a royal ugly dude. She doesn't like it either, but both have to do what is demanded of them. As a token of her love she even gives Kirk her royal dagger.
Review: This episode does a good job playing around with the idea of who is in charge of the situation. Just when you think you have it figured out it manages to twist things around again to keep it interesting. Not what I expected from the maligned third season.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with the Enterprise on a secret mission mission to the planet Elas on behalf of the ambassador from Troyius. The ambassador refuses to answer any questions before beaming over the leader of the people of Elas, the commanding Elaan. She is to be married to the king of Troyius to end a war between the two peoples, but she doesn't seem happy about it. She also isn't happy about the quarters she is given (Uhura agreed to let Elaan use hers) and she can't stand the Troyiun ambassador either. On the bridge Spock is tracking a ghost in the sensors. Elaan and her entourage tour engineering and keep messing with things there. Back on the bridge the ghost turns out to be a Klingon war ship. Just then Kirk is summoned to Elaan's quarters. He discovers she has stabbed the ambassador!
In sickbay the abassador tells McCoy and nurse Chapel that the tears of women from Elas are a powerful love potion with no cure. Meanwhile Kirk now has the job of attempting to teach Elaan manners to deal with living on Troyuis. It isn't going well until he touches her tears and falls instantly in love. Kirk doesn't want to leave when Uhura calls, but when he learns someone on the ship is calling the Klingons he rushes to the bridge and Elaan follows. He learns that one of her guards has turned against her and destroyed the Enterprise dilithium crystals crippling warp drive and weapons. Kirk tries to get Elaan to go to sickbay to be safer, but she makes it back into for the action.
The Klingon ship demands the Enterprise surrender and fires on them when they refuse. After a few rounds the shields are failing. Spock suddenly notices the necklace Elaan is wearing, it is made of large crystals. When Spock scans them they are dilithium! Spock rushes the necklace to engineering and along the Scotty get it installed just in time to pull a fast one of the Klingons warping out of the way and hitting them with photon torpedoes. The Klingons flee and Kirk now has to send the woman he loves off to marry a royal ugly dude. She doesn't like it either, but both have to do what is demanded of them. As a token of her love she even gives Kirk her royal dagger.
Review: This episode does a good job playing around with the idea of who is in charge of the situation. Just when you think you have it figured out it manages to twist things around again to keep it interesting. Not what I expected from the maligned third season.
7 out of 10
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
TOS: The Empath
I feel like I write this every night now, but wow what a strange episode! It is mostly a mix of the big three getting messed with an woman who can't talk trying to learn to sacrifice herself I guess. The whole whole of the evil kidnapping aliens is unclear. They are trying to decide if they should save the woman's people from planetary destruction, so they have decided to test if she will sacrifice her life for some one else. Also, can no one on her planet talk? Not really explained. Also, she appears to heal after absorbing peoples injuries, but I guess it hurts her energy or something???
The episode begins like so many others with the Enterprise checking in on a lonely outpost. And like so many others there is no sign of life. They find a recording and it shows the crew they are looking for arguing and then suddenly disappearing. They soon do the same and find themselves alone with an unconscious woman. She wakens but can apparently not talk so McCoy names her Gem. Two more ominous aliens appear and threaten them for no apparent reason. The hit Kirk with a stun weapon for talking back and then leave with no explanation. Gem uses her empath powers to heal Kirks injury. They follow Spock's tricorder to a lab with the two missing Federation crewmen dead in test tubes with their names on them. There are also test tubes labeled for Spock, McCoy and Kirk. Nothing ominous about that! One of the evil looking aliens appears and treasures them it is cool, don't worry. Spock gives him the neck pinch and they steal the alien weapon.
The aliens show up again and take Kirk for torture so they can learn about his will to live or something. This goes on for a while and then he is returned to the others and Gem heals him again, but this time she appears to temporarily have his wounds. The aliens tell Kirk he must pick either Spock or McCoy to be tortured next. Spock works on the alien weapon thing and McCoy knocks Kirk out with a hypo. Spock then explains that means he gets to go since his now in charge so McCoy gives him a knockout hypo too.
The aliens nearly torture McCoy to death and then leave him with Gem. They explain to Spock and Kirk that the only reason they are doing all this is to decide if Gem is a good enough person for them to save her planet. But they also keep talking about how she is learning all these things for the first time or something so I am not sure what they hope to learn about her people. In any case she mostly heal him, but Spock figures out how to get Kirk and him free and they overwhelm the aliens and use their tools to heal McCoy. The aliens fly off into darkness with Gem and the crew return to the Enterprise to talk about how much they liked Gem I guess.
Review: Not a great episode by any measure. I kinda forgot the mention the two or three times it jumped back to the Enterprise to see what they were doing, but it felt like the writer forgot them as well.
3 out of 10
The episode begins like so many others with the Enterprise checking in on a lonely outpost. And like so many others there is no sign of life. They find a recording and it shows the crew they are looking for arguing and then suddenly disappearing. They soon do the same and find themselves alone with an unconscious woman. She wakens but can apparently not talk so McCoy names her Gem. Two more ominous aliens appear and threaten them for no apparent reason. The hit Kirk with a stun weapon for talking back and then leave with no explanation. Gem uses her empath powers to heal Kirks injury. They follow Spock's tricorder to a lab with the two missing Federation crewmen dead in test tubes with their names on them. There are also test tubes labeled for Spock, McCoy and Kirk. Nothing ominous about that! One of the evil looking aliens appears and treasures them it is cool, don't worry. Spock gives him the neck pinch and they steal the alien weapon.
The aliens show up again and take Kirk for torture so they can learn about his will to live or something. This goes on for a while and then he is returned to the others and Gem heals him again, but this time she appears to temporarily have his wounds. The aliens tell Kirk he must pick either Spock or McCoy to be tortured next. Spock works on the alien weapon thing and McCoy knocks Kirk out with a hypo. Spock then explains that means he gets to go since his now in charge so McCoy gives him a knockout hypo too.
The aliens nearly torture McCoy to death and then leave him with Gem. They explain to Spock and Kirk that the only reason they are doing all this is to decide if Gem is a good enough person for them to save her planet. But they also keep talking about how she is learning all these things for the first time or something so I am not sure what they hope to learn about her people. In any case she mostly heal him, but Spock figures out how to get Kirk and him free and they overwhelm the aliens and use their tools to heal McCoy. The aliens fly off into darkness with Gem and the crew return to the Enterprise to talk about how much they liked Gem I guess.
Review: Not a great episode by any measure. I kinda forgot the mention the two or three times it jumped back to the Enterprise to see what they were doing, but it felt like the writer forgot them as well.
3 out of 10
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
TOS: Wink of an Eye
Today I watched another mediocre third season episode. Not as truly awful as last nights ep, but still pretty far from quality. This is one of the episodes that feels like it was written with budget restraints in mind since other than a matte painting it takes place entirely on the ship. To its credit the idea of aliens that are accerated so much that they can't be seen is interesting, and other than the, "cell damage causes death," idea, they did mention that it would significantly reduce Kirk's lifespan. Having the entire problem boil down to something in the water wasn't the best, and Spock could apparently solve their entire cultures problem at normal speed in no time.
We begin with stock footage of Scotty on the bridge being narrated over by Scotty. He explains that the Enterprise is investigating a distress call from what appears to be an unoccupied planet. On the surface (in front of a matte painting) there is what appears to be an advanced, functioning society, without any people. Kirk notices a buzz like an insect, but other than that it is lifeless. A red shirt disappears and they flee back to the ship. The buzzing seems to have followed them and the ship starts suddenly malfunctioning. A strange device appears in life support. On the bridge the captain has some coffee to relax when he feels dizzy and the rest of the crew are frozen. A strange woman approaches him and kisses him passionately.
The woman is Deela, queen of these people and their problem is they have been accelerated beyond the perception of normal beings. They are planning on freezing the enterprise crew so they can use them one at a time as servants. They already have one crewmember, but Kirk knocks him out, only the cell damage kills him! Kirk has to stop them from freezing his crew and he starts by disabling the transporter. He seduces Deela which sends her male counterpart into such a fury she stuns him with their weapons with cheap special effects.
Kirk manages to record Deela and him discussing what happened and puts in where McCoy will find it. Spock figures out what is causing the acceleration and makes himself a batch of it. Kirk steals a weapon and meets Spock on the way to life support. They destroy the freezer box and send the aliens back to their planet. Spock made an unaccerlate potion before accelerating which Kirk takes. Spock then repairs the ship at super speed and they never use that power again.
Review: These episodes aren't as complex as TNG episodes so when the A story is kinda bland there isn't anything to fall back on. Also it is getting kinda old that every alien race they encounter this season only has 3 or 4 members total...
3 out of 10
We begin with stock footage of Scotty on the bridge being narrated over by Scotty. He explains that the Enterprise is investigating a distress call from what appears to be an unoccupied planet. On the surface (in front of a matte painting) there is what appears to be an advanced, functioning society, without any people. Kirk notices a buzz like an insect, but other than that it is lifeless. A red shirt disappears and they flee back to the ship. The buzzing seems to have followed them and the ship starts suddenly malfunctioning. A strange device appears in life support. On the bridge the captain has some coffee to relax when he feels dizzy and the rest of the crew are frozen. A strange woman approaches him and kisses him passionately.
The woman is Deela, queen of these people and their problem is they have been accelerated beyond the perception of normal beings. They are planning on freezing the enterprise crew so they can use them one at a time as servants. They already have one crewmember, but Kirk knocks him out, only the cell damage kills him! Kirk has to stop them from freezing his crew and he starts by disabling the transporter. He seduces Deela which sends her male counterpart into such a fury she stuns him with their weapons with cheap special effects.
Kirk manages to record Deela and him discussing what happened and puts in where McCoy will find it. Spock figures out what is causing the acceleration and makes himself a batch of it. Kirk steals a weapon and meets Spock on the way to life support. They destroy the freezer box and send the aliens back to their planet. Spock made an unaccerlate potion before accelerating which Kirk takes. Spock then repairs the ship at super speed and they never use that power again.
Review: These episodes aren't as complex as TNG episodes so when the A story is kinda bland there isn't anything to fall back on. Also it is getting kinda old that every alien race they encounter this season only has 3 or 4 members total...
3 out of 10
Monday, April 13, 2015
TOS: Plato's Stepchildren
And just like that we are back into the terrible third season doldrums. Plato's Stepchildren feels like an episode where they knew they didn't have money for anything more than a set, some actors and a few togas. I think it would be fair to call this one planet of the Greeks, but it turns out to not really be more than set dressing. This is a story about dangerous telekinetics determined to keep themselves hidden from the Federation. It is unfortunately mostly an episode about the crew being manipulated by the powerful psychics into doing embarrassing things and then them talking about how that isn't really much of a basis for a culture.
The episode begins with the Enterprise responding to a call for help from an unknown planet. Since they have subspace communications it is ok to beam down and assist so the captain, Spock and McCoy beam to the surface. This culture is apparently descended from people who hung out of earth with the Greeks and now have psychic powers. All except for the court gesture who is exceptionally short. The king has an infected injury on his leg which McCoy treats and while the medicine does it's work the king throws all sorts of stuff around with his mind. When he recovers and they prepare to leave it turns out the Enterprise is unable to control its orbit or beam them up.
Kirk confronts the king who explains he wants McCoy to stay. Kirk and McCoy agree this is a bad idea and the king then forces Kirk and Spock to act crazy and hurt themselves to try and force McCoy to stay. This goes on way to long but eventually they are back in their quarters and McCoy examines Alexander, the gesture. It turns out he lacks a chemical that the king had in his blood that is all it takes to have psychic powers so McCoy injects Spock and Kirk with lots of the stuff. Alexander refuses and it seems to have no effect. Nurse Chapel and Uhura are beamed down and there is more embarrassment/torture including televisions first interracial kiss. Eventually Kirks powers kick in and he stops the whole show. They rescue Alexander and leave without dealing with the fact that Kirk and Spock are apparently now psychic.
Review: There isn't much to this episode. It only has one story and it is a bad one. There is only about half the normal amount of plot so the above summary is quite a bit shorter than normal. If it hadn't had the first interracial kiss on TV this episode would have been wisely forgotten.
2 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise responding to a call for help from an unknown planet. Since they have subspace communications it is ok to beam down and assist so the captain, Spock and McCoy beam to the surface. This culture is apparently descended from people who hung out of earth with the Greeks and now have psychic powers. All except for the court gesture who is exceptionally short. The king has an infected injury on his leg which McCoy treats and while the medicine does it's work the king throws all sorts of stuff around with his mind. When he recovers and they prepare to leave it turns out the Enterprise is unable to control its orbit or beam them up.
Kirk confronts the king who explains he wants McCoy to stay. Kirk and McCoy agree this is a bad idea and the king then forces Kirk and Spock to act crazy and hurt themselves to try and force McCoy to stay. This goes on way to long but eventually they are back in their quarters and McCoy examines Alexander, the gesture. It turns out he lacks a chemical that the king had in his blood that is all it takes to have psychic powers so McCoy injects Spock and Kirk with lots of the stuff. Alexander refuses and it seems to have no effect. Nurse Chapel and Uhura are beamed down and there is more embarrassment/torture including televisions first interracial kiss. Eventually Kirks powers kick in and he stops the whole show. They rescue Alexander and leave without dealing with the fact that Kirk and Spock are apparently now psychic.
Review: There isn't much to this episode. It only has one story and it is a bad one. There is only about half the normal amount of plot so the above summary is quite a bit shorter than normal. If it hadn't had the first interracial kiss on TV this episode would have been wisely forgotten.
2 out of 10
Sunday, April 12, 2015
TOS: The Tholian Web
This was one of my favorite episodes from childhood, but apparently I never paid all that much attention. Instead of being about the Tholians at all it is a story of how the crew deals with the loss of the captain at a critical time. The Tholians are if anything the C story with the B story being that this particular piece of space causes space madness. I am still not sure what was supposed to have happened to the USS Defiant, but I guess it wasn't important enough to warrant more than a single line of dialog, "explaining," it.
The episode begins with the Enterprise finding the USS Defiant which had been lost week earlier doing a routine survey. The Defiant doesn't show up on sensors, but they can see it pulsing green and looking not right at all. Kirk beams over along with Spock, McCoy and Chekov, and in a first for TOS, they wear space suits. And not just any space suits, the lamest glittery and hard to see out of suits you can imagine. I could rant for a while about how silly and hard to operate in the space suits are, but back to more serious matters. On the Defiant they discover all the crew have died in violent struggles. The ship is littered with bodies and while exploring it suddenly starts phasing out of reality. They all return to the bridge and for some reason it is important for Kirk to stay behind while they beam over. Only the Defiant disappears before he can beam aboard and appears to be lost.
Spock now in command figures out the ship is phased into, "interspace," and should be back in just over two hours. Spock also decides/figures out that if they move or use too much energy it will somehow mess things up. While waiting Chekov suddenly freaks out and strikes Spock before being neck pinched and sent to sickbay. All across the ship this space madness is taking over. McCoy discovers it is being caused by staying for too long in this unstable region of space. Spock refuses to move when the C story, I mean main villains arrive, the Tholians! They tell the Enterprise their empire claims this space, but agree to wait an hour or two to see if Kirk can be saved.
When the time comes Kirk does not reappear and the Tholians attack. Spock manages to disable the Tholian vessel but burns out the Enterprise power in the process. Another Tholian ship arrives and the two ships start weaving a web that they won't be able to escape from apparently. Deciding the captain is dead Spock holds a service in his honor and after McCoy insists the two of them listen to the captains last orders. They fight about it for a while, but McCoy prevails. McCoy also accuses Spock of trying to steal command of the Enterprise, but right on cue the orders play and Spock is told to talk to McCoy for advice, and McCoy is told to shut up and accept that Spock is captain. This satisfies both of them apparently and McCoy keeps looking for a cure to space madness when Uhura has a vision of the captain in her quarters. McCoy assumes she has gone mad as well and has her restrained.
On the bridge the Captain appears in his space suit only out of phase with reality. He disappears and they release Uhura from sickbay. McCoy cures the space madness, with booze laced with nerve gas. Just before the web closes Spock fires the engines and somehow they are thrown free of the web and the captain is dragged with them. Just before the oxygen in his suit would have failed he is beamed aboard safe and sound. When asked about the orders McCoy and Spock claim they never listened to them which clearly breaks the Vulcans can't lie rule...
Review: This wasn't the episode I expected, but it was rather enjoyable. The multiple storylines kept things moving and added tension to an already tense episode. Seeing Spock having to deal with command is always interesting, and Scotty's love of the antidote to space madness is pretty funny.
8 out of 10
The episode begins with the Enterprise finding the USS Defiant which had been lost week earlier doing a routine survey. The Defiant doesn't show up on sensors, but they can see it pulsing green and looking not right at all. Kirk beams over along with Spock, McCoy and Chekov, and in a first for TOS, they wear space suits. And not just any space suits, the lamest glittery and hard to see out of suits you can imagine. I could rant for a while about how silly and hard to operate in the space suits are, but back to more serious matters. On the Defiant they discover all the crew have died in violent struggles. The ship is littered with bodies and while exploring it suddenly starts phasing out of reality. They all return to the bridge and for some reason it is important for Kirk to stay behind while they beam over. Only the Defiant disappears before he can beam aboard and appears to be lost.
Spock now in command figures out the ship is phased into, "interspace," and should be back in just over two hours. Spock also decides/figures out that if they move or use too much energy it will somehow mess things up. While waiting Chekov suddenly freaks out and strikes Spock before being neck pinched and sent to sickbay. All across the ship this space madness is taking over. McCoy discovers it is being caused by staying for too long in this unstable region of space. Spock refuses to move when the C story, I mean main villains arrive, the Tholians! They tell the Enterprise their empire claims this space, but agree to wait an hour or two to see if Kirk can be saved.
When the time comes Kirk does not reappear and the Tholians attack. Spock manages to disable the Tholian vessel but burns out the Enterprise power in the process. Another Tholian ship arrives and the two ships start weaving a web that they won't be able to escape from apparently. Deciding the captain is dead Spock holds a service in his honor and after McCoy insists the two of them listen to the captains last orders. They fight about it for a while, but McCoy prevails. McCoy also accuses Spock of trying to steal command of the Enterprise, but right on cue the orders play and Spock is told to talk to McCoy for advice, and McCoy is told to shut up and accept that Spock is captain. This satisfies both of them apparently and McCoy keeps looking for a cure to space madness when Uhura has a vision of the captain in her quarters. McCoy assumes she has gone mad as well and has her restrained.
On the bridge the Captain appears in his space suit only out of phase with reality. He disappears and they release Uhura from sickbay. McCoy cures the space madness, with booze laced with nerve gas. Just before the web closes Spock fires the engines and somehow they are thrown free of the web and the captain is dragged with them. Just before the oxygen in his suit would have failed he is beamed aboard safe and sound. When asked about the orders McCoy and Spock claim they never listened to them which clearly breaks the Vulcans can't lie rule...
Review: This wasn't the episode I expected, but it was rather enjoyable. The multiple storylines kept things moving and added tension to an already tense episode. Seeing Spock having to deal with command is always interesting, and Scotty's love of the antidote to space madness is pretty funny.
8 out of 10
Saturday, April 11, 2015
TOS: For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
This is an episode I am sure I haven't seen before, and I have been missing out. This is one of the more personal stories in TOS and it also has some interesting scifi ideas going on. The idea of a culture sending out a vessel with its people and knowledge when they knew they were doomed is interesting. And seeing what those people are like after thousands of years of living to maintain their vessel which they believe to be a planet is even more interesting. The silly sounding fatal disease that McCoy comes down with was clearly going to be cured by the end of the episode, but it made his story of wanting to move on from the Enterprise much more believable.
As we begin the Enterprise is under attack by primitive chemical rockets. After easily blasting them into space dust with the phasers they follow them back to their point of origin. What initially appears to be an asteroid is actually a fairly primitive, but well disguised space ship. The bad news it is on a collision course with a heavily populated planet and being 250 miles across it won't matter if it is ship or rock when it collides. Meanwhile Kirk is called to sickbay. McCoy explains he has terminal xenopolycythemia, yes, I had to look that one up. McCoy tells Kirk he has one year to live and Kirk informs starfleet. They arrive at the asteroid/ship and Kirk beams to the surface along with Spock and McCoy. They find a series of tubes and no signs of life. Until the tubes open and let out some brightly dressed guards with swords who subdue them and give their weapons to the high priestess Natira.
Natira has them taken below and they are brought to the room of the oracle. Kirk claims they are there to be best buddies, but the oracles decides to show them how it treats its enemies first and gives them a dose of the old pain ray knocking them out. When they awaken an old man comes in and tries to explain that he went outside and learned the truth but before he can tell them more than the name of the episode he dies with a glow in is right temple. Natira arrives and has the body taken away. She then tells them they are now honored guests and can come and go as they please. McCoy starts making nice with Natira while Spock and Kirk wander the ship. Spock recognizes the righting on the walls as belonging to a planet that was wiped out thousands of years earlier. They work their way into the oracle room where they hear Natira ask the oracle for permission to marry McCoy. After the agreeing the oracle detects Spock and Kirk and hits them with the pain ray.
Instead of killing Kirk and Spock, McCoy has their sentence reduced to banishment, but he stays behind to live with Natira. Kirk isn't happy, but understands McCoy is trying to find happiness before he dies. McCoy has an implant put into his head to join, "the people," and then he marries Natira. She shows him a book with all their secrets they are to read when they arrive. She explains the people are being taken to a new world to make a new start. McCoy tries to tell Kirk this, but he is knocked out by the implant before he can. Kirk beams down with Spock and they remove the implant. Natira tries to stop them from getting to the book, but they convince her to help them and she too is knocked out by her implant. But McCoy removes her implant and they go to the oracle room. Spock uses the book to open up the controls and reprograms the ship to orbit the planet it is headed for, not destroy it. Natira convinces McCoy to go without her, but before they leave Spock discovers the cure for McCoy's disease is on the asteroidship and everybody is happy.
Review: This is both a personal story and an adventure. Having seen later content I am obviously aware that McCoy doesn't end up leaving the Enterprise, but this was a more touching way of dealing with it than I was expecting from the third season.
7 out of 10
As we begin the Enterprise is under attack by primitive chemical rockets. After easily blasting them into space dust with the phasers they follow them back to their point of origin. What initially appears to be an asteroid is actually a fairly primitive, but well disguised space ship. The bad news it is on a collision course with a heavily populated planet and being 250 miles across it won't matter if it is ship or rock when it collides. Meanwhile Kirk is called to sickbay. McCoy explains he has terminal xenopolycythemia, yes, I had to look that one up. McCoy tells Kirk he has one year to live and Kirk informs starfleet. They arrive at the asteroid/ship and Kirk beams to the surface along with Spock and McCoy. They find a series of tubes and no signs of life. Until the tubes open and let out some brightly dressed guards with swords who subdue them and give their weapons to the high priestess Natira.
Natira has them taken below and they are brought to the room of the oracle. Kirk claims they are there to be best buddies, but the oracles decides to show them how it treats its enemies first and gives them a dose of the old pain ray knocking them out. When they awaken an old man comes in and tries to explain that he went outside and learned the truth but before he can tell them more than the name of the episode he dies with a glow in is right temple. Natira arrives and has the body taken away. She then tells them they are now honored guests and can come and go as they please. McCoy starts making nice with Natira while Spock and Kirk wander the ship. Spock recognizes the righting on the walls as belonging to a planet that was wiped out thousands of years earlier. They work their way into the oracle room where they hear Natira ask the oracle for permission to marry McCoy. After the agreeing the oracle detects Spock and Kirk and hits them with the pain ray.
Instead of killing Kirk and Spock, McCoy has their sentence reduced to banishment, but he stays behind to live with Natira. Kirk isn't happy, but understands McCoy is trying to find happiness before he dies. McCoy has an implant put into his head to join, "the people," and then he marries Natira. She shows him a book with all their secrets they are to read when they arrive. She explains the people are being taken to a new world to make a new start. McCoy tries to tell Kirk this, but he is knocked out by the implant before he can. Kirk beams down with Spock and they remove the implant. Natira tries to stop them from getting to the book, but they convince her to help them and she too is knocked out by her implant. But McCoy removes her implant and they go to the oracle room. Spock uses the book to open up the controls and reprograms the ship to orbit the planet it is headed for, not destroy it. Natira convinces McCoy to go without her, but before they leave Spock discovers the cure for McCoy's disease is on the asteroidship and everybody is happy.
Review: This is both a personal story and an adventure. Having seen later content I am obviously aware that McCoy doesn't end up leaving the Enterprise, but this was a more touching way of dealing with it than I was expecting from the third season.
7 out of 10
Friday, April 10, 2015
TOS: Day of the Dove
The second, "of the," episode in a row, and another decent if not particularly noteworthy episode. I really appreciate how the writers have moved from needing aliens to be godlike to be threatening, and this weeks dangerous creature feels like something from a horror movie. But since this is Star Trek instead of some sort of horror the creature is driven away by laughter and almost everybody survives. The effects and fight scenes in this episode leave something to be desired, but the storytelling is actually pretty decent.
The episode opens with the Enterprise checking in on a colony of humans. When they arrive there is no sign of the humans or the distress signal. Out of nowhere a Klingon ship shows up, but it is in bad shape. The Klingon captain and several soldiers beam to the surface and accuse the Enterprise of attacking them. They take Kirk hostage and demand he give them the Enterprise. Kirk calls Spock and tells him they have, "visitors," and to beam them aboard. Scotty trick the Klingons and leaves them in the transporter beam longer than the captain so security can be summoned. Right after they beam up a glowing energy cloud appears on the surface of the planet and follows them back to the ship.
On board the Enterprise the Klingons are taken to the rec areas to be held for transport and the survivors of their ship are beamed aboard as well. Chekov seems to be taking all this particularly poorly and keeps ranting about hating Klingons for killing his brother. Scotty seems extra pissed off as well. Suddenly the ship starts flying on it's own at warp nine and most of the crew are sealed behind bulkheads leaving only the same number free as there are Klingons on the ship. When Kirk goes to talk to the Klingons they refuse to cooperate and suddenly swords appear and the Federation phasers are replaced with swords as well and the fight is on! The poorly choreographed sword fight where no one moves very much or actually tries to hit anyone.
On the bridge Sulu is sent with sword in hand to retake engineering and Chekov insists on going as well to avenge his brother. After he leaves Uhura points out Chekov is an only child. After Spock starts talking about hating humans they realize something is wrong. There is an alien presence and it is driving them to hate each other and fight. They convince the wife of the Klingon captain they are correct when she sees the energy cloud. Kirk confronts the Klingon captain and after another ineffective sword fight the cloud of light appears and Kirk convinces the Klingon that they are being used as pawns. Both captains order their crews to stop fighting and then they make fun of the alien and laugh until it leaves. Yes, that is actually now they solve the problem. And credits.
Review: While watching this seemed like an episode that made sense and developed fairly well, but upon reflecting and writing the above summary, wow, this one is odd! Still not terrible, but wow. Also the Klingon makeup looks even worse this season. Can't wait for the movies and "real" Klingon makeup.
5 out of 10
The episode opens with the Enterprise checking in on a colony of humans. When they arrive there is no sign of the humans or the distress signal. Out of nowhere a Klingon ship shows up, but it is in bad shape. The Klingon captain and several soldiers beam to the surface and accuse the Enterprise of attacking them. They take Kirk hostage and demand he give them the Enterprise. Kirk calls Spock and tells him they have, "visitors," and to beam them aboard. Scotty trick the Klingons and leaves them in the transporter beam longer than the captain so security can be summoned. Right after they beam up a glowing energy cloud appears on the surface of the planet and follows them back to the ship.
On board the Enterprise the Klingons are taken to the rec areas to be held for transport and the survivors of their ship are beamed aboard as well. Chekov seems to be taking all this particularly poorly and keeps ranting about hating Klingons for killing his brother. Scotty seems extra pissed off as well. Suddenly the ship starts flying on it's own at warp nine and most of the crew are sealed behind bulkheads leaving only the same number free as there are Klingons on the ship. When Kirk goes to talk to the Klingons they refuse to cooperate and suddenly swords appear and the Federation phasers are replaced with swords as well and the fight is on! The poorly choreographed sword fight where no one moves very much or actually tries to hit anyone.
On the bridge Sulu is sent with sword in hand to retake engineering and Chekov insists on going as well to avenge his brother. After he leaves Uhura points out Chekov is an only child. After Spock starts talking about hating humans they realize something is wrong. There is an alien presence and it is driving them to hate each other and fight. They convince the wife of the Klingon captain they are correct when she sees the energy cloud. Kirk confronts the Klingon captain and after another ineffective sword fight the cloud of light appears and Kirk convinces the Klingon that they are being used as pawns. Both captains order their crews to stop fighting and then they make fun of the alien and laugh until it leaves. Yes, that is actually now they solve the problem. And credits.
Review: While watching this seemed like an episode that made sense and developed fairly well, but upon reflecting and writing the above summary, wow, this one is odd! Still not terrible, but wow. Also the Klingon makeup looks even worse this season. Can't wait for the movies and "real" Klingon makeup.
5 out of 10
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