This whole third season business isn't as bad as they said it would be. Spectre of the Gun isn't the greatest episode of all time, but it manages to tell its story convincingly. It also really helps that the planet of the wild west gun slingers is just an illusion made from Kirk's mind to test them rather than an actual planet of gunslingers (I am looking at you Gangster, Roman, Nazi, and Space America episodes!). It does feel more cheaply made than the first two seasons with lots of cheesy cuts to show time passing or them being teleported, crappy lighting and interesting camera work.
The episode begins with the Enterprise on a do or die mission to contact the Melkontians. It isn't really clear why this is so important, but they must do it! A space probe comes out to greet them and by greet I mean warn them to turn back or else. But their orders are clear so they approach the planet and beam down. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Chekov find themselves in a thick, featureless fog. The puppetlike head of an alien appears and tells says since they ignored the warning, they must die! And then they find themselves armed with pistols on an old west set. And I do mean set, only the fronts of buildings and sometimes a few pieces of furniture are present. They discover they are in Tombstone Arizona. Not only that, everyone there sees them as the Clantons, famously the losers of the showdown at the OK corral.
Chekov seems to be fitting in just fine flirting with a lovely lady most of the time. Kirk tries to talk the Earps out of the showdown, but they won't listen to him. Even the sheriff tells him he should just shoot it out. Chekov is killed by Morgan Earp and appears to be actually dead. McCoy comes up with a plan to make tranquilizer grenades, but after spending about 15 minutes of the episode making the grenades they don't work. Just before the showdown is to occur Spock realizes that the reason the grenades didn't work is that they didn't believe they would work and that this is all an illusion. It is too convincing for the rest of them so Spock mindmelds with all of them to make them believe the bullets are illusory.
When it comes time for the showdown Kirk and company refuse to go for their guns and the Earps bullets pass right through them. Kirk gets into a fist fight with one of them, but even after winning he refuses to shoot him. They find themselves back on the bridge and Chekov is fine! The alien probe explodes and his giant, disembodied head appears in space before them. He explains this was all a test to see if the Federation was violent, and they passed, welcome to Melkot!
Review: The middle of the episode drags a little bit, but overall it is tense and keeps moving. I was glad to learn this was just an illusion, and one taken from Kirk's mind. So much more logical than a planet exactly like Earth, or several of them.
6 out of 10
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
TOS: Is There In Truth No Beauty?
Wait, a season 3 episode that has a character learning and growing? This episode is far from perfect, but it does has a lot more going for it than the rest of the season so far. It also manages to play off the characters in ways they don't see coming. There is a moment where Spock tells Kirk he needs the beautiful woman in the episode distracted to which Kirk responds, "I think that could be arranged," while looking suggestively at the camera. But in fact he is totally unable to either seduce or distract Dr. Jones.
The episode opens with Kirk introducing the idea of the Medusans, aliens so different from us that seeing them drives humans mad, and Vulcans without proper eye protection. The medusan ambassador is to beam aboard with the psychic Dr. Jones and engineer Larry Marvick. They are working on a plan to use medusans with their advanced senses and navigational skills to navigate starships with far greater accuracy and efficiency. Spock operates the transporter controls with safety goggles on and the ambassador appears in a metal box. Dr. Jones is a human psychic trained on Vulcan to be able to control her abilities. She is working on forming a mind link with the medusan ambassador Kollos and is not eager to let Spock try his mindmeld on it. At a dinner in their honor the men of the ship express their disbelieve that Dr. Jones would abandon human men in favor of a life with an ugly alien, but she seems unfazed, until she detects murder! Well, the psychic intent to murder.
Back in her quarters Dr. Jones is confronted by Marvick who expresses his love for her, but is rejected. He returns and tries to kill Kollos with a phaser, but is driven mad by the flashing lights I guess. He runs to engineering where he takes the ship up to warp 9.5 (TNG warp rules seem to be sinking in) and takes them the the GALACTIC BARRIER!!! They are really into the whole galactic barrier thing I guess. Anyway, Marvick is confronted by Dr. Jones in engineering and accuses her of killing him out of jealousy, and then promptly dies to prove his point I guess. Back on the bridge the Enterprise is in a green glowing place outside the galaxy (I guess they really didn't understand galaxies in the writing room) and can't find their way home without a point of reference. This is where Spock decides he has to mindmeld with Kollos over Dr. Jones objections and Kirk gets the job of distracting her.
Kirk takes Dr. Jones to the Enterprise flower room, and doesn't get why she pokes herself on a rose thorn. She rejects his romantic overtures and then psychically detects that Spock is going to mindmeld and runs out, where she meets Spock and McCoy. It is then she reveals she is blind which is why she can be around Kollos and not go mad. She wears a web of sensors that tell her what she needs to know about her environment. After talking with Kollos she agrees it is their only option, but she is also pissed about it. On the bridge Spock successfully merges with Kollos and navigates them back into the galaxy, but when he leaves Spock's body he forgets to put on the safety glasses and Spock is driven mad. Dr. Jones tries to help, but is unable to until Kirk confronts her about her jealousy of Spock for his Vulcan mindmeld abilities. Seeing the truth she is able to heal Spock and in the process gains his mindmeld.
Review: I know calling something among the best of third season (the best so far) is faint praise, and yeah, it is. This episode would have been one of the middle grade episodes of the first few seasons. Still it manages to play off trek conventions in interesting ways and has some pretty solid scifi premises despite also being about a psychic.
7 out of 10
The episode opens with Kirk introducing the idea of the Medusans, aliens so different from us that seeing them drives humans mad, and Vulcans without proper eye protection. The medusan ambassador is to beam aboard with the psychic Dr. Jones and engineer Larry Marvick. They are working on a plan to use medusans with their advanced senses and navigational skills to navigate starships with far greater accuracy and efficiency. Spock operates the transporter controls with safety goggles on and the ambassador appears in a metal box. Dr. Jones is a human psychic trained on Vulcan to be able to control her abilities. She is working on forming a mind link with the medusan ambassador Kollos and is not eager to let Spock try his mindmeld on it. At a dinner in their honor the men of the ship express their disbelieve that Dr. Jones would abandon human men in favor of a life with an ugly alien, but she seems unfazed, until she detects murder! Well, the psychic intent to murder.
Back in her quarters Dr. Jones is confronted by Marvick who expresses his love for her, but is rejected. He returns and tries to kill Kollos with a phaser, but is driven mad by the flashing lights I guess. He runs to engineering where he takes the ship up to warp 9.5 (TNG warp rules seem to be sinking in) and takes them the the GALACTIC BARRIER!!! They are really into the whole galactic barrier thing I guess. Anyway, Marvick is confronted by Dr. Jones in engineering and accuses her of killing him out of jealousy, and then promptly dies to prove his point I guess. Back on the bridge the Enterprise is in a green glowing place outside the galaxy (I guess they really didn't understand galaxies in the writing room) and can't find their way home without a point of reference. This is where Spock decides he has to mindmeld with Kollos over Dr. Jones objections and Kirk gets the job of distracting her.
Kirk takes Dr. Jones to the Enterprise flower room, and doesn't get why she pokes herself on a rose thorn. She rejects his romantic overtures and then psychically detects that Spock is going to mindmeld and runs out, where she meets Spock and McCoy. It is then she reveals she is blind which is why she can be around Kollos and not go mad. She wears a web of sensors that tell her what she needs to know about her environment. After talking with Kollos she agrees it is their only option, but she is also pissed about it. On the bridge Spock successfully merges with Kollos and navigates them back into the galaxy, but when he leaves Spock's body he forgets to put on the safety glasses and Spock is driven mad. Dr. Jones tries to help, but is unable to until Kirk confronts her about her jealousy of Spock for his Vulcan mindmeld abilities. Seeing the truth she is able to heal Spock and in the process gains his mindmeld.
Review: I know calling something among the best of third season (the best so far) is faint praise, and yeah, it is. This episode would have been one of the middle grade episodes of the first few seasons. Still it manages to play off trek conventions in interesting ways and has some pretty solid scifi premises despite also being about a psychic.
7 out of 10
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
TOS: And the Children Shall Lead
Ugh, this episode makes me feel maybe Picard is right about kids. And to be fair it isn't entirely the actors faults, this wouldn't have been a great episode even with more mature actors. I guess the idea of an alien using children to kill their parents is interesting, but it suffers from unclear rules about how the alien power works and who it effects. It features both a, "he's dead captain," and some seriously over the top acting by Shatner.
The episode opens with Kirk and an away team beaming to the surface of a Federation colony that sent out a distress call. They find a group of corpses and one man who dies moments after their arrival. After looking around for a minute the kids from the colony come cheerfully out of a cave and proceed to play in the area with the bodies of their parents. A funeral is performed apparently, all we see is the tombstones and the kids are once again unphased. They get beamed aboard by the doctor and pass all his medical tests. Before beaming up Spock and Kirk venture into the cave the kids came out of and Kirk experiences extreme anxiety and has to go back out quickly. Back on the ship Spock pours over the logs from the colony and finds some disturbing entries about them being mind controlled.
Kirk decides to question the children and interrupts ice cream time to ask about their parents. They are totally unremorseful about leaving their parents behind so he sends them to bed early and assigns a guard to their quarters. In their quarters the children chant and summon a glowing, "angel," who tells them to take control of the ship and proceed to a larger Federation colony. They spread out and start mind controlling the crew with a fist bump gesture. On the bridge the get everyone to see the view screen as showing them in orbit while Sulu takes them to the colony. For some reason they summon the angel onto the bridge in time for Kirk to see it kinda ruining their plan. Kirk is overwhelmed by terror of losing control, but Spock gets him off the bridge and he makes a rapid recovery. Spock and Kirk conspire to take the ship back but are confronted by Sulu and two redshirts who they pummel.
Kirk returns to the bridge and summons the angel and all the children show up conveniently. Kirk uses a recording to summon the angel and shows he isn't afraid anymore because he has the POWER OF COMMAND!!! Kirk gets the kids to cry by showing them videos of them playing and having fun with their parents and then of their parents dead. This causes the angel thing to lose all it's power and grow hideously ugly and die the end.
Review: I skipped several instances of the crew being mind controlled above because they get kinda repetitive. This whole episode feels like it could have been a lot better with another rewrite to get things a bit more coherent. Also fewer children.
3 out of 10
The episode opens with Kirk and an away team beaming to the surface of a Federation colony that sent out a distress call. They find a group of corpses and one man who dies moments after their arrival. After looking around for a minute the kids from the colony come cheerfully out of a cave and proceed to play in the area with the bodies of their parents. A funeral is performed apparently, all we see is the tombstones and the kids are once again unphased. They get beamed aboard by the doctor and pass all his medical tests. Before beaming up Spock and Kirk venture into the cave the kids came out of and Kirk experiences extreme anxiety and has to go back out quickly. Back on the ship Spock pours over the logs from the colony and finds some disturbing entries about them being mind controlled.
Kirk decides to question the children and interrupts ice cream time to ask about their parents. They are totally unremorseful about leaving their parents behind so he sends them to bed early and assigns a guard to their quarters. In their quarters the children chant and summon a glowing, "angel," who tells them to take control of the ship and proceed to a larger Federation colony. They spread out and start mind controlling the crew with a fist bump gesture. On the bridge the get everyone to see the view screen as showing them in orbit while Sulu takes them to the colony. For some reason they summon the angel onto the bridge in time for Kirk to see it kinda ruining their plan. Kirk is overwhelmed by terror of losing control, but Spock gets him off the bridge and he makes a rapid recovery. Spock and Kirk conspire to take the ship back but are confronted by Sulu and two redshirts who they pummel.
Kirk returns to the bridge and summons the angel and all the children show up conveniently. Kirk uses a recording to summon the angel and shows he isn't afraid anymore because he has the POWER OF COMMAND!!! Kirk gets the kids to cry by showing them videos of them playing and having fun with their parents and then of their parents dead. This causes the angel thing to lose all it's power and grow hideously ugly and die the end.
Review: I skipped several instances of the crew being mind controlled above because they get kinda repetitive. This whole episode feels like it could have been a lot better with another rewrite to get things a bit more coherent. Also fewer children.
3 out of 10
TOS: The Paradise Syndrome
Planet of the Native American stereotypes! This is another odd episode about a parallel earth populated by people who are literally Native Americans, "a mixture of Navajo, Mohican, and Delaware," according to Spock. And boy are they into medicine men and worshiping white people as gods. I don't see any modern Trek doing an episode quite like this. Or if they did they would at least make them aliens who are only similar to Native Americans. They don't offer him a peace pipe, but they do just about everything up to that point.
The episode begins with the normal planetary scouts at work. And by that I mean Kirk, Spock and McCoy, never mind all the scientists and other qualified people back on the Enterprise. They only have 30 minutes to explore the planet and observe its peaceful inhabitants before they have to warp away and go push an asteroid that is on its way to destroy the planet. It isn't ever explained why they don't take care of the asteroid first. It isn't like three bridge officers are going to make a discovery in 30 minutes just in case they can't move the asteroid. But they do find something. A very out of place metal obelisk on a stone platform with odd markings on it. While Spock and McCoy are messing around Kirk stands next to it and calls the ship. The floor below him opens and he falls into a chamber full of lights and buttons. He falls onto the controls and is hit with a green beam and passes out.
Spock and McCoy search fruitlessly until Spock decides to head back to the ship an go try to deflect the asteroid. Kirk has had is memory washed by the obelisk and stumbles out to only to be seen by two native women. Apparently coming out of the obelisk makes him a god or something so they start bowing. He is taken to the village and performs the strangest CPR I have ever seen on a boy who drowned and saves him! (I have been training in CPR for 20+ years and never have they recommended folding up the persons legs and rubbing them vigorously!) This miracle seals the god deal and now he gets to marry the hot priestess. He is now also the medicine man so he is in charge of operating the obelisk when the sky darkens.
Back on the ship Spock tries to blast the asteroid, but fails and burns out the warp engines. Fortunately they are slightly ahead of the asteroid and will arrive at the planet 52 days later leaving Kirk plenty of time to get busy with the priestess. The former medicine man is pretty pissed Kirk took his job and seems to be doing a pretty crappy job. But Kirk wins the first/knife fight they get into so he gets to marry the priestess. Back on the ship Spock has deciphered the writing on the obelisk and learned it was placed there by an advanced culture to protect the primitive people on the planet from asteroids. And also that it isn't working somehow. And that they are musical notes.
Kirk is busy getting married and even ignores when the wind starts ripping the village apart and the sky gets dark. But the people convince him to go to the obelisk, but it won't open for him. Kirk and his wife are stoned by the villagers on the steps of the obelisk until Spock and McCoy beam in and save him. Spock mindmelds the captains mind back into place and fixes the obelisk just before the planet is destroyed. Kirks wife dies and he is genuinely sad and it ends with him mourning her passing.
Review: This is a touching story buried under a pile of outdated stereotypes. It also offers a fairly crappy explanation for why there are so many humanlike civilizations in the galaxy, because the protectors kept us from dying! Overall not a great episode, but it does have some touching moments.
3 out of 10
The episode begins with the normal planetary scouts at work. And by that I mean Kirk, Spock and McCoy, never mind all the scientists and other qualified people back on the Enterprise. They only have 30 minutes to explore the planet and observe its peaceful inhabitants before they have to warp away and go push an asteroid that is on its way to destroy the planet. It isn't ever explained why they don't take care of the asteroid first. It isn't like three bridge officers are going to make a discovery in 30 minutes just in case they can't move the asteroid. But they do find something. A very out of place metal obelisk on a stone platform with odd markings on it. While Spock and McCoy are messing around Kirk stands next to it and calls the ship. The floor below him opens and he falls into a chamber full of lights and buttons. He falls onto the controls and is hit with a green beam and passes out.
Spock and McCoy search fruitlessly until Spock decides to head back to the ship an go try to deflect the asteroid. Kirk has had is memory washed by the obelisk and stumbles out to only to be seen by two native women. Apparently coming out of the obelisk makes him a god or something so they start bowing. He is taken to the village and performs the strangest CPR I have ever seen on a boy who drowned and saves him! (I have been training in CPR for 20+ years and never have they recommended folding up the persons legs and rubbing them vigorously!) This miracle seals the god deal and now he gets to marry the hot priestess. He is now also the medicine man so he is in charge of operating the obelisk when the sky darkens.
Back on the ship Spock tries to blast the asteroid, but fails and burns out the warp engines. Fortunately they are slightly ahead of the asteroid and will arrive at the planet 52 days later leaving Kirk plenty of time to get busy with the priestess. The former medicine man is pretty pissed Kirk took his job and seems to be doing a pretty crappy job. But Kirk wins the first/knife fight they get into so he gets to marry the priestess. Back on the ship Spock has deciphered the writing on the obelisk and learned it was placed there by an advanced culture to protect the primitive people on the planet from asteroids. And also that it isn't working somehow. And that they are musical notes.
Kirk is busy getting married and even ignores when the wind starts ripping the village apart and the sky gets dark. But the people convince him to go to the obelisk, but it won't open for him. Kirk and his wife are stoned by the villagers on the steps of the obelisk until Spock and McCoy beam in and save him. Spock mindmelds the captains mind back into place and fixes the obelisk just before the planet is destroyed. Kirks wife dies and he is genuinely sad and it ends with him mourning her passing.
Review: This is a touching story buried under a pile of outdated stereotypes. It also offers a fairly crappy explanation for why there are so many humanlike civilizations in the galaxy, because the protectors kept us from dying! Overall not a great episode, but it does have some touching moments.
3 out of 10
Sunday, April 5, 2015
TOS: The Enterprise Incident
This is an episode that I wasn't sure I had seen, until it came time for the old Vulcan death grip. That particular moment was one of my all time favorites from childhood for some reason. I guess I was super gleeful that they had outsmarted those damn romulans or something. I guess it is probably, "because they were running out of money," but the whole having the romulans suddenly use klingon ships was really strange. I feel like it got retconed in later that they had done some tech trading or something, but they are both insanely hostile to everybody so that seems kinda unlikely.
The episode begins with McCoy giving a medical log about his worries over the mental condition of the captain. This transitions into Kirk yelling at everybody on the bridge and then ordering the ship into the neutral zone. Scotty objects, but Kirk won't listen. Soon after crossing over they are surrounded by three romulan ships, two apparently of klingon design. The romulans demand they surrender, but then demand that Kirk and Spock beam over to negotiate. They agree for some reason and as soon as they are aboard Spock betrays Kirk and tells the romulans Kirk is losing it and is out of control. Kirk proves him totally wrong by freaking out and trying to attack until the romulans subdue him and take him to the brig. In the brig he throws himself against the forcefield injuring himself.
Meanwhile Spock and the female romulan commander are talking a lot. She is seeming to be succeeding at convincing Spock he will be rewarded greatly for helping out the romulans. Back in the brig Kirk isn't doing well so they call for McCoy to treat him. McCoy insists that he can't do much here so Spock shows up with the romulan commander. Kirk freaks out and tries to attack Spock who uses a, "Vulcan death grip," on Kirk killing him. Kirk is beamed back to the Enterprise where we quickly learn he is in fact fine since there is no vulcan death grip.
Spock follows the commander back to her quarters and has a few drinks to relax while back on the Enterprise Kirk is surgically altered to look like a romulan and beams to the romulan ship. He manages to call Spock to learn the location of the cloaking device on the romulan ship, but this gives Spock away to the romulans. Kirk manages to fight his way to the cloaking device which he steals and beams back to the Enterprise. The commander can't believe Spock betrayed her and takes him back to her quarters to scold/threaten to kill him. Scotty locates Spock and beams both Spock and the commander aboard and the Enterprise flees using the cloaking device to aid in its escape.
Review: A tale of adventure that has Spock romancing in place of Kirk. Also it is now far enough into trek to have an episode that plays on numerous conventions to good effect. Faking Kirk's death is also always going to be a crowd pleaser.
7 out of 10
The episode begins with McCoy giving a medical log about his worries over the mental condition of the captain. This transitions into Kirk yelling at everybody on the bridge and then ordering the ship into the neutral zone. Scotty objects, but Kirk won't listen. Soon after crossing over they are surrounded by three romulan ships, two apparently of klingon design. The romulans demand they surrender, but then demand that Kirk and Spock beam over to negotiate. They agree for some reason and as soon as they are aboard Spock betrays Kirk and tells the romulans Kirk is losing it and is out of control. Kirk proves him totally wrong by freaking out and trying to attack until the romulans subdue him and take him to the brig. In the brig he throws himself against the forcefield injuring himself.
Meanwhile Spock and the female romulan commander are talking a lot. She is seeming to be succeeding at convincing Spock he will be rewarded greatly for helping out the romulans. Back in the brig Kirk isn't doing well so they call for McCoy to treat him. McCoy insists that he can't do much here so Spock shows up with the romulan commander. Kirk freaks out and tries to attack Spock who uses a, "Vulcan death grip," on Kirk killing him. Kirk is beamed back to the Enterprise where we quickly learn he is in fact fine since there is no vulcan death grip.
Spock follows the commander back to her quarters and has a few drinks to relax while back on the Enterprise Kirk is surgically altered to look like a romulan and beams to the romulan ship. He manages to call Spock to learn the location of the cloaking device on the romulan ship, but this gives Spock away to the romulans. Kirk manages to fight his way to the cloaking device which he steals and beams back to the Enterprise. The commander can't believe Spock betrayed her and takes him back to her quarters to scold/threaten to kill him. Scotty locates Spock and beams both Spock and the commander aboard and the Enterprise flees using the cloaking device to aid in its escape.
Review: A tale of adventure that has Spock romancing in place of Kirk. Also it is now far enough into trek to have an episode that plays on numerous conventions to good effect. Faking Kirk's death is also always going to be a crowd pleaser.
7 out of 10
Saturday, April 4, 2015
TOS: Spock's Brain
I am now boldly going into the third season which starts with one of the most notorious episodes of TOS, Spock's Brain. This one gets listed pretty often as the worst episode in either all of Trek or at least in all of TOS, so I went in expecting the worst. And while it isn't great, it also is a lot less boring than The Alternative Factor. It has some pretty sexist remarks about insisting the leader of the world must be a man and that the women couldn't have possibly built the building they are in. But at the same time it does have an interesting scifi concept of a formerly advanced civilization surviving with the assistance of a brain powered computer.
The episode opens with the Enterprise encountering a super advanced, "ion powered," space ship. I guess they don't mean the kind of ion drive we use all the time today, but whatever. They detect a life form, and she beams to the bridge and knocks everybody out with a wrist controller and then fondles Spock's head. When they awaken McCoy calls for Kirk to rush to sickbay, upon arriving he explains someone took Spock's brain. But they did such a good job and Vulcan's are so tough they have 24 hours to find it. The ion trail is easy to follow, but the star system it leads to doesn't have any cultures advanced enough to have done it. Only the most primitive one has a strange power source so they beam down to investigate.
On the surface they encounter primitive giants and stun one for interrogation. He talks about others who give pain and pleasure, but is too terrified to help. Despite him seeing phasers in action they let him return to his people because fuck the prime directive, and go looking for the power source. They find a cave with food and metal weapons that is pretty clearly a trap, so while Chekov waits on the surface with two redshirts Kirk, Scotty, McCoy and Spocks mindless body trigger the trap and are taken below. When the door opens a woman is there and Kirk blasts her before she can stun them again. Kirk tries to call Chekov, but instead encounters Spock's disembodied voice. They start looking around but encounter the woman who beamed to the bridge who knocks them out again.
When they awaken they have metal belts on and are before a council of three women. The women demand to know who they are, but Kirk just keeps yelling about needing Spock's brain back. After delivering a debilitating amount of pain through the belts the women leave. Kirk and company manage to overwhelm their guards and get their communicators and tricorders back. Kirk calls Spock again and gets him to send a signal which they follow to a control room of some sort. The woman from the bridge is there and she again disables them, but Kirk manages to get brainless Spock body to grab her arm and release the pain belts. They eventually figure out there is a machine that can impart knowledge into her and use her to get a new brain to run the machines. She refuses to help so McCoy uses the teaching machine to learn how to reinstall Spock's brain. When he is almost done he forgets the knowledge and Spock has to talk him through the rest. They leave the people without their machines and basically totally screwed. Take that prime directive.
Review: This is episode has a lot of trek camp going on. It also manages to keep moving and lacks the terrible filler parts that made Alternative Factor so unwatchable. Also it really feels like the budget is lower this season. Things just all feel a little cheaper.
4 out of 10
The episode opens with the Enterprise encountering a super advanced, "ion powered," space ship. I guess they don't mean the kind of ion drive we use all the time today, but whatever. They detect a life form, and she beams to the bridge and knocks everybody out with a wrist controller and then fondles Spock's head. When they awaken McCoy calls for Kirk to rush to sickbay, upon arriving he explains someone took Spock's brain. But they did such a good job and Vulcan's are so tough they have 24 hours to find it. The ion trail is easy to follow, but the star system it leads to doesn't have any cultures advanced enough to have done it. Only the most primitive one has a strange power source so they beam down to investigate.
On the surface they encounter primitive giants and stun one for interrogation. He talks about others who give pain and pleasure, but is too terrified to help. Despite him seeing phasers in action they let him return to his people because fuck the prime directive, and go looking for the power source. They find a cave with food and metal weapons that is pretty clearly a trap, so while Chekov waits on the surface with two redshirts Kirk, Scotty, McCoy and Spocks mindless body trigger the trap and are taken below. When the door opens a woman is there and Kirk blasts her before she can stun them again. Kirk tries to call Chekov, but instead encounters Spock's disembodied voice. They start looking around but encounter the woman who beamed to the bridge who knocks them out again.
When they awaken they have metal belts on and are before a council of three women. The women demand to know who they are, but Kirk just keeps yelling about needing Spock's brain back. After delivering a debilitating amount of pain through the belts the women leave. Kirk and company manage to overwhelm their guards and get their communicators and tricorders back. Kirk calls Spock again and gets him to send a signal which they follow to a control room of some sort. The woman from the bridge is there and she again disables them, but Kirk manages to get brainless Spock body to grab her arm and release the pain belts. They eventually figure out there is a machine that can impart knowledge into her and use her to get a new brain to run the machines. She refuses to help so McCoy uses the teaching machine to learn how to reinstall Spock's brain. When he is almost done he forgets the knowledge and Spock has to talk him through the rest. They leave the people without their machines and basically totally screwed. Take that prime directive.
Review: This is episode has a lot of trek camp going on. It also manages to keep moving and lacks the terrible filler parts that made Alternative Factor so unwatchable. Also it really feels like the budget is lower this season. Things just all feel a little cheaper.
4 out of 10
Friday, April 3, 2015
TOS: Assignment Earth
This episode features something we don't see as far as I know again until DS9. Officially sanctioned time travel. And not to one of the many duplicate earths that seem to litter the cosmos, to our earth. The Enterprise is apparently here to watch the most critical time in our history. What time is that? When the show was being produced of course! Now to be fair that was at the height of the cold war when things were probably as close as they have ever been to destruction. Also, maybe this proves that the Enterprise isn't from our earth at all and is in fact from one of the many alternate earths and this is where their history deviated from our own. I guess them messing with it leads to the eugenics wars.
As mentioned above the episode opens with the Enterprise in orbit around 1968 earth. They are somehow hidden by their deflector shields even though they are close enough you would be able to see something that big visually at night. The ship is rocked for some reason by a powerful transporter beam. And not from earth, from a distant star system. In the transporter room a man and his cat appear on the pad and he seems as confused as they are. He tells them he is from a planet of kidnapped humans trained to help earth through the difficult times it is going through. Kirk doesn't believe him and throws him in the brig. Agent Seven easily escapes with his magic pen and beams down to his New York office.
Seven learns his agents haven't checked in for several days. A woman appears and rather than being one of his agents she is the representative from the past, Roberta. She is reporting for work as a secretary and is told way more than he intends to when he thinks she is an agent. She is convinced by his fake CIA badge and agrees to help. Kirk and Spock appear and get into a fight with Roberta while Seven escapes using his transporter closet. Kirk and Spock end up beaming aboard with two police officers who are beamed back down with confused looks on their faces.
Seven has learned his agents were killed in a car crash so he has to finish their mission. He is at the site of a nuclear missile test that he is determined to sabotage. After subduing a guard and hiding in a trunk he makes his way to the launch gantry and starts pulling out wires on the rocket. Kirk and Spock beam down and are immediately caught by security. Scotty finds Seven and tries to beam him aboard but he instead is intercepted and ends up back at his office where he tries to use the computer to sabotage the missile. Roberta has figured out he isn't CIA and stops him at a critical point where the missile is armed and falling towards Europe. Kirk and Spock manage to beam to his apartment as well and have to decide if they trust Seven. Kirk does and Seven manages to detonate the bomb just in time to not start a nuclear war, but enough to scare the humans away from mutually assured destruction.
Time to look back: Not having lived through the 60's it is hard for me to say how good a take on the times this episode portrays. The tension of not knowing of Seven is evil or not really keeps this one going. Not sure how I missed it before, but this is a good one.
8 out of 10
As mentioned above the episode opens with the Enterprise in orbit around 1968 earth. They are somehow hidden by their deflector shields even though they are close enough you would be able to see something that big visually at night. The ship is rocked for some reason by a powerful transporter beam. And not from earth, from a distant star system. In the transporter room a man and his cat appear on the pad and he seems as confused as they are. He tells them he is from a planet of kidnapped humans trained to help earth through the difficult times it is going through. Kirk doesn't believe him and throws him in the brig. Agent Seven easily escapes with his magic pen and beams down to his New York office.
Seven learns his agents haven't checked in for several days. A woman appears and rather than being one of his agents she is the representative from the past, Roberta. She is reporting for work as a secretary and is told way more than he intends to when he thinks she is an agent. She is convinced by his fake CIA badge and agrees to help. Kirk and Spock appear and get into a fight with Roberta while Seven escapes using his transporter closet. Kirk and Spock end up beaming aboard with two police officers who are beamed back down with confused looks on their faces.
Seven has learned his agents were killed in a car crash so he has to finish their mission. He is at the site of a nuclear missile test that he is determined to sabotage. After subduing a guard and hiding in a trunk he makes his way to the launch gantry and starts pulling out wires on the rocket. Kirk and Spock beam down and are immediately caught by security. Scotty finds Seven and tries to beam him aboard but he instead is intercepted and ends up back at his office where he tries to use the computer to sabotage the missile. Roberta has figured out he isn't CIA and stops him at a critical point where the missile is armed and falling towards Europe. Kirk and Spock manage to beam to his apartment as well and have to decide if they trust Seven. Kirk does and Seven manages to detonate the bomb just in time to not start a nuclear war, but enough to scare the humans away from mutually assured destruction.
Time to look back: Not having lived through the 60's it is hard for me to say how good a take on the times this episode portrays. The tension of not knowing of Seven is evil or not really keeps this one going. Not sure how I missed it before, but this is a good one.
8 out of 10
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