21st Century Trekkie

TOS 52: By Any Other Name

2012-04-26T19:43:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 02/23/1968
Star date: 4657.5 (given 15 minutes in)

Summary: Kirk, Spock, McCoy and two redshirts beam down to an unnamed planet in response to a distress call. They find there a man and a woman who demand that Kirk turn over command of the Enterprise. Kirk and the rest think they're joking, until they paralyze the landing party by pressing a button on their belts. The man, Rojan, explains that he, the woman Kelinda, and a few others are from the planet Kelva in the Andromeda galaxy, that radiation will make their galaxy uninhabitable in a few millenia, and that they are a scout party looking for a new galaxy to conquer. Rojan, Kelinda and the others are the last generation of Kelvans from their spacecraft, born during the centuries-long journey from Kelva. They have found our galaxy suitable, but since communication is impossible over such great distances, they must commandeer the Enterprise and return to Andromeda. It looks like Kirk and the rest are powerless to stop them, since the Kelvans can paralyze them at the touch of a button.

That's not the only weapon the Kelvans have at their disposal. Rojan and Kelinda keep Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the redshirts imprisoned in a cave while three others work with the rest of the crew on the Enterprise to prepare the ship for its journey to Andromeda. Using the same mind control technique he used on Emeniar-7 in "A Taste of Armageddon", Spock lures Kelinda into the cave and they are able to escape momentarily. However, Rojan quickly subdues them and, as punishment, uses other powers of his magic belt to reduce the two redshirts to small styrofoam blocks. Rojan crushes one of them in his hands, killing the female redshirt, but demonstrates that a life form reduced to this state can be restored, bringing the male redshirt back.

Not wanting to risk the death of more crew members, Kirk turns his attention toward trying to neutralize the Kelvan paralyzers. Back aboard the Enterprise, Spock and Scotty locate the central projector for the paralyzers, but are unable to destroy or disable it. The Enterprise begins its journey to Andromeda, which starts by passing through a "galactic barrier". Spock and Scotty rig the nacelles so that Kirk can destroy the ship as they pass through, killing the Kelvans and themselves, but Kirk chooses not to activate the self-destruct mechanism. Once through the galactic barrier, the Kelvans "neutralize" --- that is, reduce to styrofoam blocks --- the entire Enterprise crew except for Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty. The remaining four are left to figure out some way to defeat the Kelvans during the roughly 300-year journey back to Andromeda, which will arrive after everyone on board has died of old age, on a ship led by Rojan's descendant.

The only possibility they have lies in the fact that the Kelvans are not human, but have assumed human form in order to allow them to travel on the Enterprise. As a result of his earlier mind contact with Kelinda, Spock concludes that the Kelvans are not accustomed to human sensations such as touch, taste and emotion. The remaining four thus formulate a plan to overstimulate the Kelvans in their human bodies: McCoy makes Hanar irritable by giving him injections, ostensibly of vitamins. Scotty gets Tomar drunk, and Kirk sparks a love triangle and feelings of jealousy between Kelinda and Rojan. The plan succeeds, with Rojan's jealousy ultimately causing him to engage Kirk in a fistfight. Kirk tells Rojan he is no longer a Kelvan but a human, and Spock points out that he is but the final link in a chain following a centuries-old command. Kirk tells him he can create his own destiny. Rojan decides to remain in our galaxy on friendly terms with the Federation, and returns control of the Enterprise to Kirk.

This is a pretty good episode for the first 45 minutes, but the ending stinks. It's almost as if the writers didn't know how to end it, and so after 48 minutes they decided for everyone to just suddenly be friends. It's a shame they couldn't have written a different ending like, for example, Kirk turns the tables on the Kelvans, reduces them all to styrofoam blocks, and ships them back to Andromeda on a shuttle craft (the Galileo, no doubt). Or pretty much anything else, really --- Rojan's sudden change of heart at the end really ruins an otherwise pretty good episode.

Actually, Rojan's capitulation isn't the only sour note at the end. Rojan is going mano-a-mano against Kirk because he's jealous of the attention Kirk is receiving from Kelinda. It makes sense that Rojan wants to kick his ass instead of simply paralyzing him. But why does Kelinda stand by idly and watch, without paralyzing Kirk or Rojan? And why do Spock and McCoy stand by idly and watch as well, instead of helping out by, say, subduing Rojan and Kelinda with a Vulcan nerve pinch and getting their paralyzer boxes away from them? Terrible writing and terrible directing.

Setting that aside, the plot is pretty good. The Kelvan paralyzer weapon is a great idea: nonviolent, but extremely effective. The ability to "freeze-dry" living beings is an interesting concept as well, thought they could have done more with it. Instead of everyone shrinking down to a plain white block, it would have been a nice touch for each block to have a unique pattern and coloring to reflect the uniqueness of each individual.

And despite Rojan's murder of one of the redshirts, the Kelvans are not a particularly brutal or authoritarian enemy. They are simply doing what they believe they must do in order to save their race. They use force only when necessary, and otherwise treat the Enterprise and its crew with respect. And while this is hardly the first time we've seen the crew of the Enterprise use human exceptionalism to solve their problem, we usually see it used against computers or androids. Watching the Kelvans fall prey to human weakness is somewhat engaging and entertaining.

On the other hand, it does seem that the writers are convinced that humans are the only creatures in the universe prone to feelings of love, jealousy, frustration, gluttony, etc. I would imagine that most alien societies, if any exist, tend to be more like humans than the Vulcanoid/stoic/bland humanoids in the show.

Other observations about this episode . . .

Rojan looks one hell of a lot like the comedian Bob Odenkirk:

Rojan, when the Enterprise crew first encounter him

Bob Odenkirk was actually their first choice for the role,

but he was only 6 years old at the time.

Another of Kelvans, Hanar, bears more than a passing resemblance to the comedian Kevin McDonald, but I couldn't find a decent picture of Hanar to use for comparison purposes.

Spock claims not to understand human emotion, but he certainly knows how to get under Rojan's skin --- on two separate occasions --- to make him jealous of Kirk's relationship with Kelinda.

The scenes where Enterprise crew members are "frozen" with the paralyzer devices seem reasonable, until you think about the physics of it. Unless you're sitting down or lying down, instantaneous paralysis of your voluntary muscle movement would almost certainly cause you to fall over. So the show would be more realistic if the Enterprise folks fell down when they were paralyzed --- not to mention a whole lot funnier.

And on the subject of faking paralysis, Shatner can't freeze worth a damn.

I do have to give the writers credit for a rare consistency. When the "good guys" were imprisoned on the unnamed planet, I immediately thought of the mind-control trick Spock used in "A Taste of Armageddon", and sneered to myself that surely he won't use that ability again, since the writers have probably forgotten that he has it. But I was wrong.

On the other hand, this is the second consecutive episode where the writer's have forgotten about the wise policy Kirk put forth in "Return to Tomorrow", that he and Spock should never beam down anywhere together. And since I'm sure this policy will continue to be forgotten for the duration of the series, I shan't mention it again.

The Moral of the Story: It's great to be human.

TOS 51: Patterns of Force

2012-04-25T19:41:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 02/16/1968
Star date: None given

Summary: The Enterprise approaches the solar system of the planets Ekos and Zeon, searching for Kirk's former instructor at the Academy John Gill, who has disappeared after going to Ekos as a Federation cultural observer. As they approach, a nuclear warhead targeting them is launched from Ekos. They destroy the missile easily, but are surprised because neither the warlike and primitive Ekosians nor the somewhat more advanced and peaceful Zeons should have the capability of building and launching such a device.

Since their efforts to establish communication with Gill fail, Kirk and Spock beam down to Ekos wearing local clothing which, like Ekos itself, closely resembles that of 1930's-era Earth. They are stunned to learn that Ekos society has modeled itself after Nazi Germany, and even more stunned to find that John Gill is their Fuhrer. They learn that Ekos arbitrarily arrests, tortures and executes Zeons. Before long they are arrested as Zeons and subjected to harsh interrogation. The Nazi party chairman, Eneg, orders them to be held in prison for one hour, after which they will be executed if they refuse to talk. They escape with a Zeon named Isak, who connects them with Zeon underground.

Shortly after meeting up with the underground, the Zeon hideout appears to be raided by Ekosians, including a woman named Daras, the Nazi party secretary and recently publicly decorated for her service to "the Fatherland". However, it turns out that Daras is a double-agent aligned with the Zeons, and the "raid" was simply a test to verify that Kirk and Spock are not Nazi sympathizers. With Daras' help, they hatch a plan to confront Gill that evening, when he will be making a nationally televised address.

Posing as party officials photographing Daras' appearance at the speech, Kirk, Spock, Isak and Daras enter the building where Gill is broadcasting. However, they can't speak to Gill, because the Deputy Fuhrer, Melakon, controls all access to him. Gill is being held in a closed and guarded broadcast booth, but Spock is able to get a brief glimpse of him and believes he may be in a drugged state. Kirk manages to get McCoy down to the surface dressed as a Nazi doctor, and they break into the booth immediately after Gill makes his address to the nation, an address in which he calls for the total annihilation of all Zeon people.

McCoy concludes that Gill is heavily drugged and that Melakon is really running the show, using Gill as his puppet. Kirk realizes that as Fuhrer, Gill can call a halt to the slaughter of the Zeons, but he must first counteract the drug in his system. A stimulant from McCoy isn't sufficient to the job, and they are about to be discovered by other Nazi guards. Kirk gives Spock up to the Nazis to buy time, and Spock is brought before Melakon, who comments on how Spock's Vulcan features clearly indicate his is an inferior race. Kirk manages to rouse Gill sufficiently to make another broadcast to the nation calling off the attack and denouncing Melakon as a traitor. Melakon grabs a gun and shoots Gill dead in the booth, and Isak shoots and kills Melakon.

It turns out that party chairman Eneg is also a Zeon sympathizer, and with Gill and Melakon dead, it falls to him and Daras to pick up the reins of power, heal the rift with the Zeons, and move their two planets forward together.

This was a good episode, and like most good episodes in the series, it's good because it doesn't rely on the outer space setting and creatures with "godlike powers". The script also had no obvious plot holes (though the way Kirk and Spock escape from prison strains credibility to the breaking point), and the dialog and pacing are good.

The script also has a decent amount of originality to it. The Federation "non-interference" directive is put to an extreme test: if you're ever going to interfere with another culture, interfering to halt Nazi atrocities would be the time to do it. Since Gill is the leader of this Nazi regime, Kirk and Spock's goals (finding out what happened to Gill) align with the goals of the Zeon underground (get to Gill to stop the atrocities), but for different reasons and with different motives. The underground wants to kill Gill, and Kirk can't allow it. And the scene with Daras pretending to be a true Nazi in order to test Kirk and Spock's motives is great.

This is the third episode in the past five (including "A Piece of the Action" and "A Private Little War") in which the Prime Directive plays a major role, and while it was not the most persuasive about the Prime Directive's merits --- the major takeaway here is that teaching primitive cultures to be Nazis is bad --- it is the most entertaining. Indeed, this episode and "A Piece of the Action" tell a similar story, but while "A Piece of the Action" is a farce, and one I didn't much care for, this episode treats its subject with the seriousness it deserves.

Other observations about this episode . . .

In the previously-aired episode, "Return to Tomorrow", Kirk made the prudent decision not to have himself and Spock both beam down to a planet at the same time. Here, one week later, Kirk (or really, the writers of the show) have forgotten that wise policy, as Kirk and Spock are the only crew members to beam down until late in the show.

There is a surprisingly large number of Zeons on Ekos, considering the way the Ekosians treat them.

It's remarkably fortunate for Kirk and Spock that so many high-ranking Ekosians (Eneg, Daras) are actually Zeon double-agents. Remarkably fortunate, too, that they happen to break into Gill's broadcast booth immediately after his broadcast ends. Just a few seconds sooner, and Melakon would have seen what was happening and killed them all.

The way Kirk and Spock break out of jail is completely ridiculous, of course. What great luck that this is the first time, ever, that a landing party has subcutaneous transponders implanted, and they just happen to need them to get out of jail. And what great luck that the support in the bed is exactly what they need to dig the crystals out of their arms and hold them the correct distance away from each other. And how amazing that Spock is able to focus the resulting laser exactly where he needs it, even as he is weaving back and forth on Kirk's back.

Considering the serious subject matter, there are still some funny lines in the script. The best is when Kirk and Spock knock out a Nazi officer, and Kirk starts to put on his uniform as a disguise. Spock remarks: "You should make a very convincing Nazi".

Also, Valora Noland is a smokin' hottie.

The Moral of the Story: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

TOS 50: Return to Tomorrow

2012-04-22T17:58:00.002-07:00

Original air date: 02/09/1968
Star date: 4768.3

Summary: The Enterprise is summoned by an unknown agent to a dead planet hundreds of light years further into deep space than any human has ever traveled. Spock estimates that the planet was once inhabited, but its atmosphere was destroyed a half million years before, leaving it devoid of life. Nonetheless, a voice greets them upon their arrival. The voice seems to be emanating from a chamber more than 100 miles beneath the planet's surface, a chamber in which Spock can detect energy readings, but no life.

The voice gives its name as Sargon, and has the power to transport Kirk, Spock, McCoy and an astrobiologist named Dr. Ann Mulhall down to the chamber, even though the transporter cannot ordinarily beam people through that much rock. Upon arrival, the team discovers that Sargon is indeed a life form consisting of pure energy, residing in a translucent sphere. Sargon explains that he was once part of a humanoid race which lived on this planet half a million years ago, that sent explorers into space just like the Federation does, and refers to the Enterprise crew as "my children", speculating that perhaps Adam and Eve were descendants of his race. Sargon then explains that he and the two other survivors of his race --- his wife, Thalassa, and a former enemy, Henoch --- need to temporarily occupy the bodies of Kirk, Mulhall and Spock, respectively, in order to build android bodies that they may occupy on a more permanent basis.

Sargon temporarily occupies Kirk's body, and greatly appreciates experiencing human sensations again. While Sargon is in Kirk's body, Kirk's consciousness is transferred to the sphere. McCoy and Mulhall note that Sargon's presence in Kirk's body is unsustainable --- when Sargon is present, Kirk's metabolism races, putting Kirk's life in danger. After making the request to exchange bodies, Sargon and Kirk switch back, and Sargon permits the crew to return to the Enterprise to discuss his proposal.

After some discussion, Kirk is able to overcome reservations on McCoy's part, and they agree to help Sargon, Thalassa and Henoch. All three of them switch places, but Kirk's body and Mulhall's cannot sustain Sargon and Thalassa for very long. However, Spock's Vulcan body is more robust, and Henoch is able to remain in his body long enough to prepare an injection which will control their metabolisms and allow the beings to occupy the mortal bodies long enough to construct their permanent android homes. Henoch is much more emotive than the stoic Spock, smiling and jovial, and takes an instant liking to Nurse Chapel.

However, Henoch has already decided that he likes Spock's Vulcan body and intends to keep it. He intentionally prepares an injection for Sargon which is insufficient to preserve Kirk's body, planning to have Kirk's body die while Sargon is in it, thus killing Sargon as well. Henoch makes these preparations in the presence of Nurse Chapel, and explains his plan to her quite calmly, using some kind of mind control to prevent her from alerting the others.

By the time Kirk's body dies --- with Kirk's consciousness still present in the sphere --- Henoch has also persuaded Thalassa that an android body is an unacceptable substitute for the living bodies they currently occupy. Thalassa tells McCoy she intends to keep Mulhall's body, and offers to restore Kirk's consciousness to his body if McCoy keeps his silence. McCoy refuses, angering Thalassa and causing her to use her considerable mental powers to attempt to kill him. But before it's too late, she realizes how dangerous her powers are, and that she cannot allow herself to remain in Mulhall's body. We then hear approval from Sargon who is not dead after all, but who transferred his consciousness into the Enterprise when Kirk's body died. Sargon then summons Nurse Chapel, who will play an integral part in his plan to stop Henoch.

When McCoy returns to sickbay, he finds Kirk and Mulhall returned to their bodies, and the three spheres destroyed, indicating to him that Sargon's, Thalassa's and Spock's consciousness have all been destroyed. Kirk explains that it was necessary to stop Henoch, and orders McCoy to prepare an injection which is the most lethal to Vulcans that he can manage. The intent seems to be to kill Spock's body, and Henoch's consciousness with it.

We next see Henoch in Spock's body on the bridge, having taken command of the Enterprise, Nurse Chapel at his side. When Kirk, Mulhall and McCoy arrive on the bridge, Henoch inflicts debilitating pain on Kirk and Mulhall, and halts McCoy before he can deliver the injection, pointing out that he knows "every thought of every mind around him". He then orders Nurse Chapel to apply the injection to McCoy --- but at the last minute, she injects Henoch instead. Henoch attempts to flee to another body, but then discovers that Sargon is still 'alive' in the ship, along with Thalassa. Somehow, Sargon prevents Henoch from inhabiting another body, forcing him out of Spock's body and into oblivion. Once Henoch is gone, Sargon revives Spock, explaining that McCoy's injection was not lethal after all --- Sargon just needed everyone to believe that so Henoch would read it in their minds --- and that Spock's consciousness had been carried in Nurse Chapel's body.

After occupying Kirk's and Mulhall's bodies one final time, so that they can touch one another again, Sargon and Thalassa also destroy themselves, having concluded that their existence is too dangerous to human life in the galaxy.

I have to admit, at the beginning of the episode, I was dreading having to sit through another "godlike powers" episode. However, it turned out to be pretty good because unlike previous episodes, the "gods" turn out to be largely benevolent for a change, and because although they have godlike powers, they are mortal after all. The tension largely comes from divisions between the godlike creatures, rather than the godlike creatures toying with the Enterprise crew, which makes it sufficiently different to be interesting.

Also, it's fun to see Leonard Nimoy playing a character so very different from Spock, and an interesting character at that. Evil, but a very casual, genial sort of evil.

Shatner, on the other hand, demonstrates his incredibly narrow range as an actor, continuing to use his same, distinctive halting speech cadences, even when he is playing Sargon.

We never really learn why Sargon's race was wiped out and reduced to living in spheres. Sargon explains that they did it to themselves somehow: "One day our minds became so powerful, we dared think of ourselves as gods". This is actually the second episode where we get the old Garden of Eden reference, that humans who aspire to be gods condemn themselves to ruin (the first being "Where No Man has Gone Before") --- with even a mention of Adam and Eve to boot. However, it appears that even after a half million years to ruminate on it, it is a lesson Henoch failed to learn.

My only quarrel with this episode is that the ending breaks the rules. For about 48 minutes, we're lead to believe that a body can only contain one consciousness at a time. But then Sargon stuffs Spock's consciousness into Nurse Chapel along with her own. If that sort of thing is allowed, why didn't they just shove all three of Sargon, Thalassa and Henoch into Scotty from the beginning, and let him build all three androids?

Also at the end, if Henoch really knows every thought of every mind around him, why doesn't he realize that Nurse Chapel/Spock plan to inject him? For that matter, wouldn't he detect Spock's consciousness on the bridge and wonder what the hell was going on?

Other observations about this episode . . .

Since Sargon and (eventually) Thalassa are enlightened and benevolent, I don't see why they must destroy themselves at the end. But even if they must, why can't they provide the Enterprise crew with all of their wonderful knowledge before they go?

When Sargon first introduces himself to Kirk, he says "If you let what is left of me perish, then all of you my children, all of mankind must perish too." But clearly this was B.S.

When Kirk is preparing to beam down to the planet, he explicitly states that Spock should remain on the ship, because it risks too much for them to both go to the surface. This is sound logic --- and it is also sorely missing from a great number of other TOS episodes.

Sulu's back again, and back to third in command. Where the hell had he been?

The Moral of the Story: From Kirk, when giving McCoy "one good reason" to accommodate Sargon's wishes: "Risk. Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her!"

TOS 49: A Private Little War

2012-04-18T19:29:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 02/02/1968
Star date: 4211.8 (from McCoy's medical log)

Summary: Kirk, Spock and McCoy are visiting an "Eden-like" planet Kirk had previously visited 13 years before. Just as Kirk is telling Spock about how peaceful the inhabitants are, they see three men (villagers) with flintlock rifles lying in wait to ambush another group of men (hill people), including Tyree, the man Kirk lived with during his earlier visit. Due to the relatively primitive nature of the inhabitants, use of phasers is strictly prohibited, but Kirk distracts the villagers by throwing a rock at them. This draws the villagers' attention to Kirk and Spock, and Spock is critically shot before the three can return to the Enterprise.

Upon returning to the ship, Chekhov informs Kirk that a Klingon ship has been sighted orbiting the planet, but he believes the Klingons have not yet seen them. Kirk immediately concludes that the Klingons are responsible for arming the villagers, who had barely learned to forge iron 13 years before. With Spock's recovery in the capable hands of Dr. M'Benga, a specialist in Vulcan medicine, Kirk and McCoy return to the planet to contact the hill people in violation of Starfleet orders. Shortly after arriving, Kirk is attacked by a mugato, a large, white ape-like creature. McCoy vaporizes the mugato with his phaser, but cannot cure Kirk of the toxic poison of the mugato bite. Before losing consciousness, Kirk instructs McCoy to find Tyree, who will be able to help him.

Tyree, now the leader of the hill people, arrives with his wife Nona, who is a Canutu, a race skilled at curing people using the natural herbs and roots of the planet. Nona cures Kirk and, according to custom, believes that Kirk is now unable to refuse her any request. One of the things Nona wants is more powerful guns to use in their fight with the villagers. However Tyree is adamantly opposed to killing and insists that the villagers will eventually return to their peaceful ways. This leads Nona to grow disgusted with him, saying she married the wrong man.

That night, Kirk, McCoy and Tyree infiltrate the village and discover that the Klingons have indeed been supplying the villagers with weapons as Kirk suspected. They return to the hill people's settlement with one of the guns, and Kirk begins to teach them how to use it. In a private conversation, Kirk and McCoy debate the merits of arming the hill people, with Kirk insisting that the hill people must have the same level of weaponry the villagers have, in order to maintain a "balance of power". McCoy is vehemently opposed to this idea, insisting that such an action will only lead to "massacre after massacre". However, Kirk is unpersuaded, and goes off to find Nona in the hope that she can convince Tyree to drop his pacifist stance.

Kirk finds Nona, who attempts to seduce Kirk using an herbal aphrodisiac. Tyree happens to see this and raises the flintlock as if to shoot either Kirk or Nona, but then realizes what he is about to do, and drops the gun in disgust. A mugato then attacks Kirk and Nona. Under the influence of the aphrodisiac, Kirk is slow to react, but eventually he vaporizes the mugato with his phaser. Nona is impressed, and knocks Kirk unconscious so she can take his phaser. She attempts to bring it to the villagers, presumably because she is fed up with Tyree's pacifism, but the villagers disbelieve her claim of having a great weapon and decide to rape her instead. Meanwhile, McCoy and Tyree find a recovering Kirk, who realizes Nona took his phaser. They run to rescue Nona from the villagers, who kill her as soon as they see Tyree. A battle ensues in which McCoy is shot in the arm and Tyree kills a villager by hitting him in the head repeatedly with a rock.

Overcome with anger over Nona's murder, Tyree demands "many more" guns from Kirk, intent on killing the villagers. Kirk calls up to the Enterprise to ask Scotty how long it would take to create 100 flintlocks, then reconsiders, and decides to leave the planet as it is.

This is another good episode, and the main reason it's good is that it doesn't rely on creatures with "god-like powers" or bizarre outer-space phenomena. It is a story which could occur anywhere, and thus stands on the strength of its story-telling. And it stands up very well.

The central point, of course, is the question of arms control. The show subtly, yet unambiguously, makes the point that the introduction of advanced weaponry into this culture is responsible for increased violence and cruelty --- the villagers talk to the Klingon representative about how they've come to enjoy killing. Then there is the more direct question of what to do now that the "serpent" has introduced forbidden knowledge into this "Eden-like" planet, where the "serpent" is the Klingon Empire, and the forbidden knowledge is that of gunpowder. The problem is one that has occurred many times in human history, with more advanced societies arming less-advanced ones for political or economic reasons. It also makes the point that knowledge cannot be unlearned: the knowledge of firearms could not be removed from this planet in the same way that our current knowledge of nuclear weapons cannot be removed from ours.

Kirk seems to be left with two options, both unpleasant: either add fuel to the fire by contributing his own weapons to a villagers-versus-hill people proxy war with the Klingons, or stand idly by while the villagers slowly extinguish his friend Tyree and his people. The bleak choices are well-described in the following dialogue between Kirk and McCoy, some of the best in the series:

McCoy: Do I have to say it? It's not bad enough there's already one serpent in Eden teaching one side about gunpowder, you're gonna make sure they all know about it!
Kirk: Exactly. Each side receives the same knowledge and the same type of firearm.
McCoy: Have you gone out of your mind? Yes, maybe you have! Tyree's wife, she said there was something in that root, she said now that you can refuse her nothing.
Kirk: Superstition.
McCoy: Is it a coincidence this is exactly what she wants?
Kirk: Is it? She wants superior weapons; that's the one thing neither side can have. Bones --- Bones, the normal development of this planet was the status quo between the hill people and the villagers. The Klingons changed that with the flintlocks. If this planet is to develop in the way it should, we must equalize both sides again.
McCoy: Jim, that means you're condemning this whole planet to a war that may never end! It could go on for year after year, massacre after massacre ---
Kirk: All right Doctor!! All right, all right, say I'm wrong, say I'm drugged. Say the woman drugged me. What is your sober, sensible solution to all this?
McCoy: I don't have a solution. But furnishing them firearms is certainly not the answer!
Kirk: Bones, do you remember the 20th-century brush wars on the Asian continent? Two giant powers involved, much like the Klingons and ourselves? Neither side felt that they could pull out?
McCoy: Yes I remember. It went on bloody year after bloody year!
Kirk: What would you have suggested? That one side arm its friends with an overpowering weapon? Mankind would never have liked to travel space if they had! No, the only solution is what happened back then: balance of power.
McCoy: And if the Klingons give their side even more?
Kirk: Then we arm our side with exactly that much more! A balance of power! The trickiest, most difficult, dirtiest game of them all, but the only one that preserves both sides.

Unlike other episodes, in which the writers feel compelled to offer a pat solution at the end, even when the "solution" is nonsense (see for example, "A Piece of the Action"), this episode presents the hard choices, and ends with Kirk still torn between them, just barely inclined to honor the Federation's non-interference doctrine.

Of course, there is something the Federation can do, and that is to confront the Klingons about their actions. It appears that this sort of Klingon involvement violates some sort of treaty, and in "real life", I have no doubt the Federation will react in some manner. But Kirk is quite right that his Eden has now changed forever.

Finally, Tyree's transformation from adamant pacifist to bloodthirsty leader is quite a striking example of how the poison of advanced weaponry has completely and irreparably changed this society.

Other observations about this episode . . .

Why are the Klingons arming the villagers anyway? What will they gain by it? That is never made clear.

It sure is convenient that there just happens to a be a doctor expert in Vulcan care when Spock is shot --- a guy we've never seen before and certainly never will again.

Even though the white furry creatures are clearly identified by the cast as "Mugato" or "Mugatu", the actor playing the creature is credited as "The Gumato".

The Moral of the Story: When a society's weapons grow faster than its wisdom, paradise can quickly become hell.

TOS 48: The Immunity Syndrome

2012-04-17T20:33:00.002-07:00

Original air date: 01/19/1968
Star date: 4307.1

Summary: The Enterprise crew is exhausted after its last mission, and is heading toward Starbase 6 for some much needed R&R, when Spock suddenly suffers an attack of some sort, and somehow intuits that the Intrepid, a Vulcan ship with 400 crew members, has been destroyed. Shortly afterward, the Enterprise receives orders from Starbase 6 to lay in a course for sector 39J to investigate why contact has been lost with the Intrepid and with solar system Gamma 7A. Shore leave will have to wait for a while.

As they approach solar system Gamma 7A, Chekhov's scan shows that all life in the solar system has been eradicated. On the view screen, they see what looks like a hole in the universe: a ghostly ring of misty white, with a dead black center. As they approach this entity, some crew members start to feel weak, and the ship's power levels begin to drop. The ship continues forward, and the energy drain from both the ship and its crew continues, until the ship is immersed in total darkness. McCoy suggests that they should turn back, but Kirk insists that they have a duty to investigate.

Kirk changes his mind in short order, but by this time the Enterprise is being drawn forward by something. They discover that reverse thrust somehow pushes them forward, but they can slow their forward progress with forward thrust. They soon realize that they are in a negative energy field, where all electronic and organic energy is slowly drained, and certain laws of physics are reversed.

As they continue their progress, they eventually find what seems to be the cause of the negative energy field: what appears to be a single-celled organism which is 11,000 miles long and 2,000 - 3,000 miles wide. Since a couple of probes sent out to gather data on the organism sent back limited data, Spock and McCoy both volunteer to fly a shuttle into it, in what is likely a suicide mission. After much agonizing, Kirk decides to send Spock.

Spock sends back more useful information, and seems to have determined a means of destroying the creature, but interference prevents his information from reaching the Enterprise. After communication with Spock is lost, he is presumed dead. Kirk decides to push the Enterprise as close as possible to the organism's nucleus and leave an anti-matter bomb there, reasoning that if it consumes positive energy, negative energy should destroy it. They leave the bomb in the nucleus set with a 7-minute fuse, and with only impulse power remaining, start to back out of the organism's body. On the way, they happen to brush past Spock's shuttle, and latch onto it with a tractor beam. The bomb kills the organism and Spock is reunited with the Enterprise crew. It's Miller time, and Kirk orders the Enterprise to proceed to Starbase 6 at warp 5.

This episode had a simple, straightforward plot, with no real holes in it. On the other hand, the pacing was slow and the ending predictable. So, it sort of rates a "meh".

As a subplot, there was an effort to develop the friendly rivalry between Spock and McCoy, but it doesn't really work. I watched this episode twice (like I do with all of them), and the two dialogues they have --- the first shortly after Spock's empathetic reaction to the loss of the Intrepid, the second as Spock is about to depart on the suicide mission McCoy had also volunteered for --- don't really work. In the first, McCoy refuses to believe Spock suffered a reaction to the death of 400 of his species, which leaves Spock saying that if humans were more empathetic, "It might have rendered your history a bit less bloody." The second is completely independent of the first, and seems to boil down to McCoy expressing a bit of sour grapes about the fact that Spock gets to risk his life while McCoy doesn't. But despite the close-ups on their faces, indicating that the director thought these were speeches of great import, they left me feeling, once again, "meh".

And I have one small quibble with the script. Shortly after entering the negative energy zone, McCoy recommends survival, which I interpret to mean he thinks they should turn back. Kirk forges ahead, telling the crew: "Our orders do not say 'stay alive' or 'retreat'; our mission is to investigate. We're sick and, we're getting sicker. We have no guarantees but we have a good ship, and the best crew in the Starfleet, so do your jobs, carry on." But it seems they could at least start by investigating the phenomenon from OUTSIDE the negative energy zone.

Other observations about this show . . . .

Spock insists that the Vulcans on the Intrepid were "astonished" to be destroyed by the organism, explaining that the planet Vulcan has not been conquered at any time in their history; thus no living Vulcan can comprehend the possibility of being conquered, or, in this case, destroyed. I can't pinpoint the show, but I seem to recall an early episode where McCoy makes a wisecrack about the Vulcans being conquered.

Either way, I find it hard to believe that on a ship of 400 Vulcans, none of them realized the danger they were facing.

Once again, I am amazed by 23rd-century technology. Somehow Chekhov is able to discern that all life in the entire Gamma 7A solar system has been eradicated.

The Enterprise uses up practically all of its energy trying to exit the organism. But after it explodes, somehow power levels increase again, until they're able to head toward Starbase 6 at warp 5. How does that work?

The exterior shots of the Enterprise when they are in the negative energy zone are pretty cool.

Kirk starts of the show with a funny, if somewhat raunchy line, when he's making his Captain's log entry about the need for R&R and states: "I, too am looking forward to a nice period of rest on some lovely . . . (gazes at short-skirted blonde yeoman) . . . planet." He repeats the line at the end of the show, and it's just as funny then.

The Moral of the Story: Eliminating threats to the galaxy is a typical day's work in Starfleet.

TOS 47: A Piece of the Action

2012-04-16T19:09:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 01/12/1968
Star date: None given

Summary: In response to a 100-year-old radio transmission from the planet Gamma Iotia 2, the Enterprise is following up on the planet's encounter with the Federation starship Horizon which was destroyed shortly after leaving the planet 100 years before. It is suspected that the Horizon "contaminated" the planet, then on the brink of industrialization, by leaving behind information about the Earth's past. Kirk arranges to meet with one of the planet's leaders, Boss Bela Okmyx. When he beams down with McCoy and Spock, they are startled to find that the Iotians have modeled their society after Chicago gangsters of the 1920's.

Okmyx is the most powerful gangster boss on the planet, and he wants Kirk to provide him with advanced technology --- primarily phasers --- so he can consolidate his grip on power. When Kirk refuses, Okmyx detains them, and radios up to the Enterprise that they have 8 hours to acquiesce or Kirk, Spock and McCoy will be killed. Kirk facilitates an escape by drawing Okmyx's guards into a nonsensical card game, then orders Spock and McCoy to return to the ship while he captures Okmyx. However, before he can reach Okmyx, Kirk is recaptured by gangsters working for Boss Krako, one of Okmyx's many rivals.

Like Okmyx, Krako also wants phasers so he can be the top boss. As with Okmyx, Kirk refuses, and is once again locked up. Once again Kirk escapes. In the meantime, Okmyx contacts Spock on the Enterprise and offers a truce, telling Spock he'll help find Kirk if Spock and McCoy return to the surface. Seeing no option but to trust Okmyx, Spock once again beams down with McCoy, and Okmyx immediately takes them prisoner again. This lasts only moments, however, as Kirk bursts through the door, turning the tables yet again. For some reason, Kirk decides to pay another visit to Krako, this time dressed appropriately; he orders two of Okmyx's lieutenants to undress, so that Kirk and Spock pay their visit to Krako in the height of 1920's fashion. Along the way, we find that Kirk has much to learn about driving 1920's-vintage automobiles.

In the end, using what is presumably a Chicago accent, Kirk manages to collect all of the Iotian bosses in Okmyx's billiards room, and offers them a deal wherein Okmyx will be the head boss with the others working for him, and the Federation will come by once a year and take a 40% cut. The bosses are reluctant to agree, until they see a demonstration of the Federation's might: the Enterprise using its phasers set on stun to knock out all combatants on both sides of a gunfight. Once they have returned to the ship, Spock raises concerns about the Federation's cut. Kirk addresses this concern by proposing that the money will be used to "guide the Iotians into a more ethical system".

Oh, those fun-loving, devil-may-care gangsters! Is there anything more adorable? With their amusing speech patterns and slang expressions --- when you "bag" one of your enemies so you can "put him on ice" or "smoke 'em", and those folksy accents they use! There's hardly anything cuter, unless it's the 10-year-old boy merrily running around the street waving his switchblade knife, or perhaps the prostitutes with the handguns strapped to their hips, complaining about street conditions even after they've paid Boss Okmyx his percentage. And most adorable of all, the way one of Okmyx's boys falls backward into some bags of trash after Krako's boys execute a "hit" on him.

No, wait a minute. That part was supposed to be serious. And perhaps the part with the prostitutes was, too. But the 10-year-old with the switchblade really was meant to be endearing, which is kind of awful.

This show almost has more things wrong with it than I can name, but its biggest problem is that it doesn't know whether it wants to be serious or funny. Let's be clear: organized crime is not funny, it's serious. Prostitution is serious. Kids growing up carrying knives in a world full of guns is serious. Drive-by shootings are serious. Full-blown shootouts between gangs in the middle of the street in the middle of the day are serious. All of these things are presented in this show, but rarely are they presented seriously.

Unfortunately, they are presented seriously just often enough to take most of the fun out of Kirk's gangster impersonation, for example. So while I am willing to give a pass to an episode like "I, Mudd", which never tries to be anything more than fairly corny improv comedy, I can't overlook the really bad writing and treatment of gangsterism in this show.

Let's see --- Kirk, Spock and McCoy are captured. Then they escape. Then Kirk is captured again, by different gangsters. Then he escapes. Then Spock and McCoy return to the surface for no apparent reason other than to get captured again. Then Kirk rescues them. Then Kirk and Spock go visit Krako, where they are captured. Then they escape. Then they return to Okmyx's place and capture all of the bosses, then are captured by them, then finally turn the tables one them on last time. And through all of this, no one is shot or killed. Well, two of Krako's men are hit by phasers set to stun. And one of Okmyx's men is killed, but that occurs at the very beginning of the episode, before the Enterprise crew is really involved.

REALLY? Instead of just, I don't know, telling Okmyx at the very beginning: "I don't know who you think you are pulling guns on us, but we can kill you and everyone you ever knew so stop screwing around."

Then there's the ending, where Kirk leaves the planet still in the hands of gangsters, just unified under Okmyx's control. Yes, this is probably a better arrangement than the one they had before the Enterprise arrived, to the extent that there should be less turf warfare. But the prostitution will continue, and the kids with knives, and probably the other things one associates with organized crime but which aren't shown in this episode: racketeering, drug trafficking, etc. Not that there's an easy fix to a situation like the one on Gamma Iotia 2, but Kirk's "fix" isn't really a fix at all.

I guess my real problem with this episode is that the writers decided to write a comedy about gangsters. And that's fine, so long as your script is totally divorced from the reality of how awful organized crime is. This script was not.

Here's the big payoff, in Kirk's explanation to Spock about what will happen when a Federation ship arrives once a year to collect the Federation's "cut":

I propose that our cut be put into the planetary treasury and used to guide the Iotians into a more ethical system. Despite themselves, they'll be forced to accept conventional responsibilities. Isn't that logical?

No Kirk. No it isn't. In fact, it is gibberish.

Other observations about this episode . . .

I get it that this show never really had much in the way of a budget. So we keep seeing episodes where the Enterprise returns to Earth --- or something like it --- at least in part due to the fact that Desilu already had a lot of these sets built. But it is getting a little old, and I see we're not close to done with them.

The whole premise is pretty dumb, too. The Horizon left all kinds of educational materials, but a history book about 1920's Chicago gangs is apparently the only thing the Iotians read. And why are they still stuck in gangster culture? Chicago grew out of it in far less than 100 years, why not the Iotians, who are supposedly "highly intelligent".

Why do Spock and McCoy beam down to Okmyx's office with phasers if they aren't prepared to use them?

I get it that the writers wanted Kirk leading a meeting of gang bosses in a 1920's billiards room, but it would have made hella more sense to beam all the bosses to the Enterprise. That way, Kirk might have been able to broker a resolution that didn't involve perpetuating gangster culture.

The Moral of the Story: Meet the new Boss; same as the old Boss.

TOS 46: The Gamesters of Triskelion

2012-04-15T14:43:00.002-07:00

Original air date: 01/05/1968
Star date: 3211.7

Summary: As they are about to beam down to Gamma 2, Kirk, Uhura and Chekhov suddenly disappear. The rest of the Enterprise crew has no idea what happened to them, but it turns out they have been abducted to the surface of the planet Triskelion. In short order, they are approached by four fighters of different humanoid species. Their communicators and phasers have ceased to function, so they engage in hand-to-hand combat and are eventually subdued. A fifth humanoid appears out of nowhere, introduces himself as "Galt", and explains that they are all of them --- himself included --- thralls on the planet, held and made to fight for the amusement of the Providers, unseen, all-powerful beings who observe the fights and wager on the outcome.

Galt addresses Kirk, Uhura and Chekhov by name, making it clear that they have been intentionally selected by the Providers for abduction. Each of them is assigned a trainer thrall so that they can be trained as thralls and remain on Triskelion for the rest of their lives. Like the other thralls, the obedience of the Federation officers is ensured by means of a shock collar around their necks, which either Galt or the Providers can activate to cause them debilitating pain.

Back on the Enterprise, Spock, McCoy and Scotty work to find out what happened to their colleagues. After finding nothing in the solar system of Gamma 2, Ensign Jana Haines detects an unusual ionization trail which Spock decides to follow. It appears we are to conclude that the trail was left when the Providers abducted Kirk and the others.

Kirk's trainer thrall is an attractive, green-haired woman named Shahna who, despite having spent her entire life as a thrall, shows no sign of scars or other injury on any part of her body, most of which is visible in the shiny, skimpy outfit she wears. Kirk asks Shahna many questions about the nature of the providers, which Shahna either cannot or will not answer. When she does start to give Kirk some information about the Providers, her shock collar is activated, causing Kirk to plead with the invisible Providers to punish him instead. The Providers acknowledge that Kirk's compassion, along with other human aspects, interest them. Kirk also speaks to Shahna about free choice and love, and gives her a taste of it by kissing her.

Later on in Kirk's cell, Shahna decides she is uncomfortable with Kirk's affections, and tells him she would request that he have a different trainer if such things were allowed. However Kirk has other plans, kissing Shahna again merely so he can distract her, coldcock her, and escape from his cell along with Chekhov and Uhura. However, Galt is waiting for them and activates all three shock collars, but the Providers stop him because they enjoy watching the humans.

At about this time the Enterprise arrives at the planet, Spock's decision to follow the ionization trail proving to be correct despite Scotty's and McCoy's skepticism. However, the Providers have anticipated his arrival, and take control of the Enterprise, leaving them helpless in orbit around Triskelion. Kirk demands to see the Providers, and so they instantly transport him to their underground location. The Providers turn out to be only brains with no other physical bodies, and are able to control the thralls and the Enterprise with pure thought. But since Kirk knows the Providers enjoy gambling, he makes a bet with them: if Kirk wins, the Enterprise may go free AND the Providers must release the thralls and teach them to self-govern. If Kirk loses, then the full Enterprise crew will willingly become thralls and provide the Providers with the most entertaining duels. The Providers agree, but stipulate that Kirk must fight and defeat three thralls --- and if any one of the three is injured rather than killed, that thrall will be replaced by another.

Kirk kills two of the three thralls but only injures the third, and Galt chooses Shahna to take his place. Neither Kirk nor Shahna want to fight the other, but they do, and at one point it looks like Shahna will kill Kirk. However, Kirk turns the tables on her and is holding a knife at her throat when she surrenders. The Providers consider this a win for Kirk and hold up their end of the bargain, releasing the Enterprise and all of the thralls. Although Shahna wants to go with Kirk he refuses, telling Shahna she still has much to learn, but kissing her goodbye.

This show has a decent idea, but its execution is just terrible. Plus, it's another "godlike powers" episode that I'm really getting tired of. Why did the Providers have to be these beings who can control practically everything with their minds? Why couldn't they be some humanoid race like the Klingons or something? We're just a bit more than halfway through season 2, and the "godlike powers" bit has already been done to death.

However, at least the ending has a bit more originality, with Kirk winning by making a bet with them, rather than "mommy and daddy" showing up and making the godlike creature go home.

The biggest problem I have with this show is that Shahna is so obviously a sex object. She's supposed to be an adult gladiator who's lived and fought on Triskelion her whole life. Why is she such a doe-eyed innocent? Why does she walk around practically naked, in a shiny swimsuit? Why isn't there a scar or scratch anywhere on her large quantities of visible skin?

For that matter, only ONE of the other thralls really looks like he's ever been in a fight. Add to that the fact that there are really only four of them plus Galt (we do see two others, but briefly), and it doesn't seem like the Providers are really that interested in watching the thralls fight at all. Plus, despite the fact that arena fighting is supposed to be the main thing the thralls do on Triskelion, we actually see precious little of it in this episode. And what fight scenes we do see are pretty bad. Not first-season, "Arena" bad, but pretty bad.

Another problem with this show is that all of the thralls are so one-dimensional. I don't know what I expect a battle-slave to behave like, but I would expect them to have some kind of personality. Mostly angry and depressed, but possibly belligerent or psychotic or even friendly, wanting to help the new folks through a difficult experience. But these thralls have no personality at all --- I was half-expecting that they'd be revealed as androids halfway through the episode.

My biggest problem, however, is Kirk's behavior with Shahna. Kirk tries to pump Shahna for information about the Providers, and when that doesn't work, he makes a play for her heart, kissing her a few times. On the one hand, this is disgusting. Kirk may feel compassion for her, and may even want to help her find a better life than the one she has, but there's NO way he feels anything like romantic attraction for her, and since he doesn't, he has no business kissing her. On the other hand, war is hell and all that, and despite it being a very slimy thing to do, it makes sense that Kirk would try to romance to to get her off guard for his later escape.

What doesn't make sense, however, is Kirk kissing her again after he's won his battle and all the thralls are freed. He can't possibly be in love with her, and he no longer has any reason to try to manipulate her. What the hell was that kiss about? It's about Nielsen ratings in the 1960's: the writers thought viewers wanted to see Kirk kiss a half-naked woman one last time.

The Providers are problematic as well. Gosh, they've been abducting humanoids and making them fight for how long? And humans are the FIRST species they've encountered to show compassion or a bit of intellect? And since they don't have bodies, they can't possibly care about material wealth, so how can they be interested in gambling? And if they're SO advanced that they don't need bodies, it seems likely they would also be advanced beyond torturing other species for fun.

This is actually a fairly dark episode. Kirk emotionally manipulates Shahna so he can escape his prison cell, and then has to kill two innocent (relatively-speaking) thralls in order to win the release of the Enterprise and the remaining thralls. But the writing and presentation is so flat and cartoonish that there's no real sense of drama.

Other problems with this episode . . .

Kirk may be a starship Captain and a good fighter, but it beggars belief that he could win a 3-on-1 match against seasoned thralls. And especially Shahna. She's supposedly been doing this her whole life and doesn't have a scratch, so she must be really good. No way Kirk could have beaten her.

Shortly after Kirk, Uhura and Chekhov are captured, Galt informs them "your old titles mean nothing here, Captain." While that one statement may be considered ironic, Galt and the Providers continue to address Kirk as "Captain" for the rest of the show.

When Kirk & co. go missing, Spock is able to conclude that "they are not within the confines of this solar system" in less than an hour. That's some damn fine search technology they have.

There are some sort of controls outside the glass dome within which the Providers reside. What are those for? Does some thrall come and twiddle the knobs every now and then?

When Kirk makes his bet with the Providers, stating that they must teach the thralls how to self-govern if they lose, the Providers insist that the thralls are not capable of self-government. But Kirk insists: "we have done the same with cultures throughout the galaxy". That seems like some major Prime Directive violation there, unless Kirk is just BS-ing.

Although the thrall collars are red, yellow or blue to indicate which Provider owns them, the Providers themselves are red, yellow and green.

The episode climax comes when Kirk has killed two thralls and is on the brink of killing Shahna, leading her to surrender. Gosh, thralls can just surrender? Since a Kirk victory would mean freedom and self-governance for all the thralls, why didn't they just surrender right out of the gate?

The Moral of the Story: Don't force people to fight each other just because you think they're inferior to you.

Managing Expectations

2012-04-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

Just FYI --- I would really like to be posting more often, at least 5 times a week. But that's not likely to happen again any time soon, if ever.

The thing is, my fiancee and her two adult children will be moving in with me soon, and there's a lot of preparation that needs to be done. I've spent most of this weekend so far painting my laundry room, which will be my stepdaughter's bedroom eventually. And once they've moved in, I'm going to have to share the TV, etc. etc.

So, the upshot is that I do intend to keep posting through the end of TOS, which I hope to have done by the end of June. TAS should go rather more quickly, as there are only 22 of them and they're each only 24 minutes long. After that, the TOS movies would be up next, and I'll just have to evaluate where things stand then.

Thanks for your patience.

TOS 45: The Trouble with Tribbles

2012-04-12T19:09:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 12/29/1967
Star date: 4523.3

Summary: The Enterprise receives an emergency signal from Space Station K7, near the Klingon Empire. Expecting to find the station under attack, Kirk is surprised to find things peaceful upon arrival, and is angry that the emergency signal was sent without cause. Beaming over to address the space station's administrator, Kirk and Spock find that the signal was sent out on the authority of Nilz Baris, Federation Undersecretary in charge of agricultural affairs for the quadrant. Baris is storing a large quantity of quadrotriticale at the space station, a designer wheat bound for "Sherman's planet", a planet claimed by both the Federation and the Klingon Empire. By treaty, the planet will ultimately be claimed by whichever government can develop it most efficiently, and the Federation hopes that the quadrotriticale --- the only wheat which will grow on Sherman's planet --- will win the day for them. Baris, along with his young, weaselly assistant Arne Darvin, want Enterprise security to protect the grain from possible Klingon subterfuge.

Vexed at receiving an emergency call just to stand guard over some grain, Kirk orders "two guards, no more" to monitor the grain on the space station, and allows the rest of his crew to beam down on shore leave. In the space station bar, Uhura meets a trader named Cyrano Jones, who gives her a small, cuddly, furry animal called a tribble, which Uhura takes back to the Enterprise with her.

Much to Kirk's consternation, Starfleet backs up Baris and orders Kirk to follow Baris' instructions. The situation gets more tense when a Klingon ship arrives. At first concerned that he may have to do battle after all, it turns out that the Klingon captain, Koloth, merely wants to use the space station for shore leave as well. Under treaty, Kirk cannot refuse them, but he limits the Klingons to come down 12 at a time, and he assigns an Enterprise security guard to each Klingon.

Meanwhile, we discover that tribbles breed at a prodigious rate. Uhura's one tribble has produced several others, which she gives away. The one she gives to McCoy quickly turns into 11.

Meanwhile, another group of Enterprise crewmen beam down to the space station for shore leave, with Scotty as their chaperone --- Kirk is trusting Scotty to make sure there is no trouble between the Enterprise crew and the Klingons on the space station. In the bar, a Klingon tries to bait the Enterprise crew into a fight by insulting Kirk. Chekhov rises to the bait, but Scotty orders him to sit down, saying that they're big enough to take a few insults. The Klingon crosses the line, however, when he compares the Enterprise to a garbage scow, goading Scotty into throwing the first punch in a no-holds-barred bar brawl. But before the brawl, we learn that tribbles don't like Klingons, rearing up and hissing when they get close to one.

Once that's been taken care of, we see that the tribbles are endangering the Enterprise, getting into the engines and lots of other inconvenient places. Kirk realizes that the tribbles can probably get into the storage units on the space station as well, and when he goes to check he finds that indeed, while there are lots of tribbles in the storage units, the grain has all been eaten. Baris is livid and promises to have Kirk relieved of command. It looks like Kirk is done for until Spock notices that some of the tribbles are dead.

As it turns out, the quadrotriticale has been tampered with, making it deadly to whomever eats it. Fortunately, Kirk doesn't have to look far to find the guilty party: as chance would have it, a pair of tribbles pass by Baris' assistant Darvin, and when they start hissing at him, he is revealed to be a Klingon agent. He quickly confesses to tainting the grain, thus making the tribbles heroes rather than villains. Kirk ties up the loose ends by giving the Klingons 6 hours to leave Federation space, and ordering Cyrano Jones to clean up all the tribbles on the space station. He returns to the Enterprise to find that Scotty has taken care of their tribble problem: he beamed them all aboard the Klingon ship right before it jumped to warp speed.

This episode could just as easily have been titled "Kirk's Terrible, Awful, No-Good, Very Bad Day," but the title they gave it has more pizazz. Seriously, Kirk has to serve a stuffed-shirt bureaucrat, he has to babysit Klingons, his crew gets in a bar fight not to defend him but to defend his ship, and his ship is being overrun by wool mittens. It is considered a Star Trek classic, and deservedly so. It has a number of different plot lines which all work together well, and it is generally well-written and well-acted. As I am now a bit more than halfway through TOS, I've come to the conclusion that the Star Trek writers and cast do comedy better than drama, and this episode is a comedy gem. Unlike "I, Mudd", which was funny but really more silly than anything else, "The Trouble with Tribbles" is genuine comedy, with good writing and good comedic timing, particularly by Shatner.

Another thing I like about this episode is that the greatest thing at risk is a few tons of wheat. In most of the episodes, the writers seem to think that life and death must hang in the balance or we won't watch. This episode was much more relaxed, and therefore more enjoyable.

In the trivia department, this episode sees the return of William Campbell, formerly Trelane in "The Squire of Gothos", this time appearing as captain Koloth of the Klingon ship. Trelane was more annoying than Koloth, but you'd have to expect that since he got more screen time.

This episode did not feature Larry Hankin of "Friends" fame, though I could have sworn he played the bartender at the space station. It turns out Hankin was only 27 when this show was shot, and that part was played by Guy Raymond. But the resemblance is uncanny.

Guy Raymond tending bar on Space Station K7.

You owe me a tribble.

Finally, no mention of guest stars would be complete without pointing out Stanley Adams' excellent work as Cyrano Jones.

This show has far too many funny bits to relate them all --- you'll just have to watch it, which I highly recommend that you do. But I will quote this one bit of dialog between the TOS Holy Trinity on the bridge, which is nearly overrun by tribbles:

McCoy: The nearest thing I can figure out is that they're BORN pregnant. Which seems to be quite a time saver!
Kirk: I know, but really . . .
McCoy: And from my observations, it seems they're bisexual, reproducing at will. And brother, have they got a lot of will!
Spock: (edited a bit) They are consuming our supplies and returning nothing.

Actually, Mr. Spock, it could be worse. Logically, where there are thousands of tribbles, you would also expect to find tons of tribble shit. Lucky for you, you were on a TV show airing in the late 1960's, where such biological realities were not discussed.

The ending is a bit too pat, with the Klingon agent confessing to poisoning the grain almost immediately, but hey, you can't have everything.

Other observations about this episode . . .

Spock seems to show his human side and find the tribble cute the first time he encounters one.

In the scene where they find the tribbles in the grain storage, there is clearly someone off screen throwing tribbles at Shatner's head periodically, which adds a lot to the scene. Great touch.

Kirk shouldn't be so hard on Cyrano Jones at the end --- without his tribbles, the tainted grain would have killed a lot of people on Sherman's planet.

The Moral of the Story: Sometimes luck is the best strategy.

TOS 44: Wolf in the Fold

2012-04-11T18:46:00.002-07:00

Original air date: 12/22/1967
Star date: 3614.9

Summary: Kirk and McCoy are with Scotty on Argelius II, a planet well-known for its hedonism, shortly after Scotty has suffered a concussion. A belly dancer at a nightclub strikes Scotty's fancy, and the two of them leave to take an evening walk. But Kirk and McCoy hear a scream as they are leaving the club, and they find the belly dancer (named Kara) dead and Scotty standing next to her holding a knife. Scotty claims to have no memory of the events leading to Kara's death --- presumably an effect of his concussion.

Having little in the way of formal law enforcement, the death is investigated by the Chief City Administrator, a man named Hengist, who originally hails from Rigel 4. Also involved in the investigation is Jaris, the Prefect for Argelius II. Jaris takes Hengist, Kirk, McCoy and Scotty to his home to convene a seance of sorts, to be performed by his wife Sybo, who is an empath. Kirk would prefer to take Scotty back to the Enterprise, where his memory can be scanned by computer, but Jaris will not allow it. Instead, a Lieutenant Karen Tracy beams down from the Enterprise to do Scotty's memory scan. Jaris leads Scotty and Tracy to a private room to do their analysis just as Hengist leaves to round up other patrons from the night club who might have information about Kara's death.

Before Hengist returns, however, Tracy is heard to scream out. When Kirk, McCoy and Jaris go to investigate, Tracy is dead and Scotty is unconscious and holding a knife --- apparently guilty of a second murder. Hengist returns with two men from the nightclub, and they just happen to be Kara's fiance and father. Convinced that Sybo can discover the truth, the seance begins, with the room sealed and the only light a fire around which everyone is seated. However, after Sybo has called out some information about a terrible evil, and some unfamiliar names such as "Redjac," the fire goes out and Sybo is also stabbed in the dark. When the lights come back on, Scotty is holding her body and has blood on his hands.

For reasons which aren't clear, the recently-widowed Jaris agrees to have the whole party beamed back aboard the Enterprise for Scotty to stand trial. The Enterprise computer is apparently an infallible lie detector, and it corroborates Scotty's claims to having no memory of the first two murders, and of being innocent of the third. Hengist finds this preposterous. In an effort to find more information, the little bit of information they got from Sybo before her death is run through the computer, which informs everyone that "Redjac" is a nickname for the 19th-century English murderer Jack the Ripper. Since Jack the Ripper was mortal and therefore clearly long dead, Spock and Kirk theorize that Redjac is actually an immortal being made only of energy, which feeds on fear and death and possesses mortal bodies. When Hengist once again protests the hearings, Kirk invites him to be subjected to the computer's lie detection, which Hengist refuses. When the computer further reports that the murder weapon in all three murders was a knife made on Rigel 4, Hengist lashes out at the Enterprise crew.

Kirk subdues Hengist, who falls lifeless on the floor. Redjac has left Hengist and moved into the Enterprise computer, threatening to kill everyone aboard. While Spock works on a plan to get Redjac out of the computer, Kirk tells McCoy to inject everyone aboard with a heavy tranquilizer. Since Redjac feeds on fear, Kirk is determined to keep his crew calm. Spock successfully forces Redjac out of the computer, and Redjac possesses Jaris briefly before once again occupying Hengist. McCoy quickly tranquilzes Hengist, thus neutralizing Redjac's ability to do any harm. Kirk whisks Hengist's body to the transporter room, and beams him and Redjac out into space, dispsersing its molecules over billions of miles.

Kirk is then disappointed when he realizes that Spock is the only member of his crew left un-tranquilized, and is therefore the only one who might accompany him back down to Argelius II for some fun.

For me, this episode belongs in the "it was okay" category. There are a couple of problems with the script, but in general it tells a good story. I guess what I don't like about this episode is that it sets you up with the expectation of a good, old-fashioned murder mystery --- and then pulls the rug out from under you when it turns out that Jack the Ripper did it. That just breaks the rules of telling a murder mystery: the viewer is supposed to have a fair chance of figuring out whodunit.

Or does it break the rules? It's possible the writers just screwed up, but it turns out that Hengist actually gives himself away after the second murder. When Hengist first learns of Karen Tracy's murder, he is only told that it was a member of Kirk's crew and (cryptically, by Jaris) "same as Kara". Yet he asks "How was the girl killed?" indicating he knew the victim was female. Later, he also states that Scotty again has no memory of the killing --- but no one has told him that. Hengist tips his hand quite a bit here, but our intrepid ship's Captain fails to notice it (in fairness, I only noticed it myself during my second viewing).

Also, Scotty gets a laughably large number of second chances. One killing? Okay, fine, let's dig a bit further and see what the truth really is. Two killings? Well, we're all set to do this seance-thing anyway, I guess we might as well go ahead. THREE killings? No, I don't think I'll let you return to the Enterprise, Mr. Scott. Stand still while I strangle you to death with my bare hands. No really. Stop squirming.

Then there's the cringe-worthy line of the episode. During Scotty's trial, once they've discovered that the word "Redjac" was used in 19th-century England to refer to Jack the Ripper, Kirk states: "Everything we've uncovered points to Jack the Ripper". No Kirk, only ONE thing points to Jack the Ripper; everything else points to Scotty.

Other observations about this episode . . .

Argelius II is well-known as a planet devoted to hedonism, and at one point Jaris states that jealousy is strongly disapproved of. And even though Kara had a fiance, she still agreed to go for a walk with Scotty. I know they couldn't say this on TV in the 1960's, but it's pretty clear Argelius II is a planet of swingers.

And before the murders begin, Kirk says to McCoy: "I know a little place across town where the women . . ." and McCoy cuts him off, saying he knows where it is. Also pretty clear Kirk and McCoy were heading to a brothel before murder got in the way.

I don't know whether the writers intended it to be funny, but it's downright hilarious to see Kirk walking down the corridor of the Enterprise with a drugged-out Hengist draped over his shoulder, laughing and saying benignly "I'll kill all of you. Die, die, die, everybody die. Kill, kill, kill you all."

As usual, at the end of the episode, Kirk doesn't let a little murder get in the way of his fun. Sure, three women were killed, including one of his crewmen, at the hands of one of the most notorious serial killers of all time, but Kirk's still looking to head down to Argelius II and get his freak on.

The Moral of the Story: Murder will out.

TOS 43: Obsession

2012-04-09T19:44:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 12/15/1967
Star date: 3619.2

Summary: While collecting tritanium (21.4 times as hard as diamonds!) on Argus 10, Kirk smells an odor from his past and suspects it signals the presence of an unusual cloud creature he had encountered when he was a Lieutenant with the USS Farrgut on his first deep space mission 11 years before. He sends 3 redshirts to investigate with the instructions: "If you see any gaseous cloud, fire immediately." The redshirts encounter the cloud, fail to fire at all, and end up dead --- two immediately on the surface, and the third later in sickbay on the Enterprise.

It appears that the cloud creature has the ability to alter its molecular decomposition, making it difficult to track or locate with sensors. It kills humans by somehow eliminating red blood cells from the body. Despite the fact that the Enterprise is expected to rendezvous with the USS Yorktown to receive "highly perishable" vaccines which are needed on Theta 7, Kirk is determined to remain in orbit around Argus 10 and seek out the creature, even though he acknowledges that "it might cost lives on Theta 7".

The captain of the USS Farragut 11 years before was a man named Garrovick, who was killed by the cloud creature. As fate would have it, Garrovick's son is a security officer newly-assigned to the Enterprise. Kirk beams back down to the surface with him and four other redshirts. They split up into parties of three, with Kirk and Garrovick each leading a party. Garrovick's party encounters the creature, and although Kirk has clearly warned him of the danger the creature poses, Garrovick hesitates briefly before firing his phaser at the creature twice with no effect. Garrovick lives, but the other two redshirts die. When Kirk learns of Garrovick's hesitation, he relieves him of duty and confines him to quarters. We later learn that Kirk's anger at Garrovick is due, at least in part, to the fact that Kirk similarly hesitated when he encountered the creature 11 years before, and ever since has blamed himself for the fact that the creature killed Captain Garrovick and half the crew of the Faragut.

Meanwhile, Spock and McCoy grow increasingly concerned with Kirk's single-minded obsession with the creature, which causes him to go so far as to refuse to even hear messages from Starfleet. They approach Kirk in his cabin and question him, possibly as a prelude to declaring him unfit for command, when Chekhov reports seeing the creature leaving Argus 10 and traveling through space at remarkable speed. After a brief chase, the creature turns and attacks the Enterprise. Kirk fires phasers and photon torpedoes at it to no effect, and the creature enters the ship's ventilation system. They flush it from the ship using "negative pressure" and radiation, but not before the creature enters Garrovick's cabin, getting a taste of Spock and leaving behind a scent which somehow tells Kirk it's heading "home" to Tycho 4 --- the same planet where Kirk encountered it before.

Kirk now realizes that shooting the creature with a phaser would have made no difference --- not for himself 11 years before, and not for Garrovick today. Kirk therefore returns Garrovick to duty and orders him to accompany Kirk to the surface of Tycho 4 to prepare a trap for the creature: an antimatter bomb, with human hemoglobin as the bait. However, the creature arrives and consumes all of the hemoglobin before the trap is set, so Kirk and Garrovick use themselves as bait, ordering the Enterprise to beam them up and immediately detonate the bomb. Kirk then orders the ship to its rendezvous with the Yorktown, and invites Ensign Garrovick to his cabin to hear some tall tales about his father.

Meh.

On this plus side, this episode doesn't have any serious plot holes or surreal jumps in logic. But it's just not very good.

Kirk's behavior is obsessive, and not in the best interests of Starfleet. They write in a payoff for Kirk's obsession at the end, when Spock makes the leap --- clearly not based on his famous Vulcan logic, but a simple wild guess as best I can tell --- that the creature is returning to Tycho 4 to spawn and split into a thousand or so of these creatures, thus posing a much greater danger to the galaxy. Remove that element, which is sort of half-assedly thrown in at the end, and the show boils down to Kirk risking the lives of who knows how many people on Theta 7 so he can pursue a creature which killed a few clumsy redshirts. Not exactly a great cost-benefit analysis by our Captain.

Also, why does Kirk assume that this cloud creature is the exact same one he encountered before? Sure, it's only the second time he's seen one, but the galaxy is a big place --- I've only seen one beluga whale in person in my life, but if I ever see another, I won't automatically assume it's the same one.

The best part of this episode is the scene where Spock and McCoy essentially stage an intervention for Kirk. This, of course, is the right way to approach Kirk about relinquishing command, not ordering a time-consuming "extraordinary competency hearing" like they did in the previous episode.

Other observations about this episode . . .

When one makes physical contact with the creature, it is possible to somehow sense the creature's thoughts/feelings.

Spock comes into physical contact with the creature, but walks away unharmed thanks to his green Vulcan blood, which is copper-based, rather than iron-based, like human blood.

On Tycho 4, as the creature approaches Kirk and Garrovick, Kirk orders Garrovick to return to the ship. Thinking Kirk means to sacrifice himself as bait, Garrovick tries to take his place, knocking Kirk down with another one of those pitiful pseudo-karate chop light taps on the back. Pitiful.

I'd like to know what the rules are for the transporter. The antimatter explosion starts before Kirk/Garrovick have completely dematerialized on Tycho 4, and they don't reappear in the transporter room until a full 65 seconds later.

In the scuffle that ensues between Kirk and Garrovick, Kirk throws Garrovick against a large (~10 feet tall) rock. You can see the entire "rock", which is clearly made of styrofoam or something similar, lift about a half inch off the ground and then settle back.

The Moral of the Story: Sometimes, a good Captain follows his intuition.

Trek-A-Day

2012-04-08T19:17:00.001-07:00

Wow. I guess there really aren't any original ideas any more.

While working on the previous post about "The Deadly Years", I did a bit of Googling trying to find a screen shot of a particular image of Shatner as old Kirk. I was going to post it with a caption underneath which read: In a later scene, Kirk warns some teenage kids to stay off his lawn.

Well, I failed to find the screen shot (obviously), but I did stumble upon the site of someone else who had basically the same idea I did. It's called TREK-A-DAY, and the author describes his goal thusly:

I am going to watch one episode of Star Trek a day, and report on the results. Big episodes get big posts; regular episodes get tweets. The wackier, the tweetier.

He started his journey about a month ahead of me, at the start of the year, and I fear that perhaps he's already abandoned the effort; it appears his last post was March 22. But if you like this site (and really, why wouldn't you?), you might want to give TREK-A-DAY a look.

TOS 42: The Deadly Years

2012-04-08T18:57:00.002-07:00

Original air date: 12/08/1967
Star date: 3478.2

Summary: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Chekhov and Lt. Arlene Galway beam down to Gamma Hydra 4 to perform routine annual physical exams on the scientific outpost there. However, they are surprised to find one member of the outpost dead of extreme old age, and two others (Dr. Robert Johnson and his wife Elaine) also showing signs of advanced old age, even though they are only 29 and 27 years old, respectively. Stumbling upon the dead body in a darkened room gives Chekhov quite a serious fright. The landing party beams back up and attempts to interrogate Dr. Johnson about their condition, but he and Elaine both die before they can get any answers.

Kirk convenes an emergency meeting of his senior staff, along with Commodore Stocker, who is traveling on the Enterprise to his new post on Starbase 10, and an endocrinologist named Jan Wallace, whose presence on the ship is never explained. It also turns out that Dr. Wallace is an old flame of Kirk's, who has been married and widowed since breaking things off with Kirk more than 6 years earlier. Possible explanations for the aging phenomenon include radiation from a comet which had passed by recently, or a Romulan weapon of some sort, since Gamma Hydra 4 is near the neutral zone between the Federation and the Romulan Empire.

Before long, all of the members of the landing party start to show signs of accelerated aging, except for Chekhov. Almost immediately, Kirk's memory starts to slip, repeating his orders, falling asleep on the bridge, and telling Uhura to send a message using Code 2, a Federation code which is known to have been broken by the Romulans. Kirk's slips do not escape the notice of Commodore Stocker, who orders Spock to convene an extraordinary competency hearing over Spock's objections. Although Kirk refuses to acknowledge his memory lapses, it's pretty obvious that he is no longer capable of command, nor are Spock or Scotty. As senior officer on board, Commodore Stocker assumes command of the Enterprise, despite the fact that he has never commanded a starship before. His first order is to direct the Enterprise directly to Starbase 10 --- right through the neutral zone on the boundary of the Romulan Empire.

By this time, Spock has determined that the rapid aging is actually a form of radiation sickness due to radiation from the passing comet. After reviewing the facts once again, Kirk realizes that Chekhov's reaction of fright on the planet must be the reason why he has not been affected by the radiation sickness; specifically, the adrenaline rush caused by fear protected him from the radiation's effects. McCoy recalls that adrenaline was a common treatment for radiation sickness in the distant past. Spock and Dr. Wallace quickly formulate an antidote serum.

Just in time, too, because the Romulans have noticed Stocker's transgression, and have sent out a number of warbirds to destroy the Enteprise. In the nick of time Kirk, fully recovered from the radiation sickness, returns to the bridge and orders Uhura to send a message to Starfleet, stating that since the Enterprise is broken down with shields failing, he plans to activate the Corbomite device which will destroy the Enteprise and all other ships within a 200,000 kilometer diameter (yes, he says "diameter" and not "radius"). He orders Uhura to send this message using Code 2, knowing that the Romulans will intercept and decipher the message. His ploy works, and the Romulans quickly vacate the area, giving the Enterprise time to fly out of the neutral zone at warp 8 and back to safety.

I'm not sure if Star Trek is just growing on me or what. Objectively speaking, this isn't a very good episode, but I like it anyway. Maybe it's just because we get to see the "holy trinity" of TOS (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) failing under the same frailties which will eventually claim us all. Maybe it's because Kirk actually appears fallible and vulnerable in the episode, where he is usually presented as close to superhuman. Whatever the reason, I like this episode despite it's many flaws.

As for the flaws, they are as follows. First of all, from the beginning, Kirk insists on remaining in orbit around Gamma Hydra 4, while Commodore Stocker wishes to hurry to Starbase 10 (his new post), thinking that the facilities there will be better suited to find a cure for the rapid-aging affliction. All the scientists of the Gamma Hydra 4 outpost are dead shortly after they are found; so staying there won't help any of them. And despite Kirk's repeated assertions that the facilities on the Enterprise are adequate, they only have one lab and two doctors --- and one of those is a visiting doctor thrown in for a love interest subplot. Hard to believe Starbase 10 doesn't have significantly more in the ways of facilities and medical personnel.

Second, the Dr. Wallace/love interest subplot is poorly done and has no purpose. It is never explained why Dr. Wallace is aboard the Enterprise. She is clearly not a Starfleet officer, because she never appears in uniform, but rather in a couple of different evening gowns. But then why is she present at Kirk's competency hearing, especially when she should be researching a possible cure for a disease which has given Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Lt. Galway days to live? And the subplot is never resolved at the end of the show, so why stick it in the script in the first place?

Third, it takes WAY too long to relieve Kirk of command. I understand that the script needs a competency hearing in it to pad the show out to 50 minutes. But as Kirk correctly points out, there's no time for such a thing. In "real life", Spock would likely suggest to Kirk that he should relinquish command, without waiting for the Commodore to order it, and if Kirk resisted, then McCoy would simply certify that Kirk is unfit for command. At a minimum, the writers should have put these devices into the script and had Kirk refuse to step down, thereby forcing them into a hearing. But to have the hearing, with four of the five affected crew members attending, while they all should be researching a cure for the sickness, is ridiculous.

Particularly ridiculous are the repeated closeups of Dr. Wallace looking upset about Kirk's failling mental faculties --- because SHE'S NOT EVEN IN STARFLEET, and so should be IN A LAB SOMEWHERE helping Kirk by TRYING TO FIND A CURE!!!

And finally, while I understand that Commodore Stocker has never commanded a starship before, it's hard to believe that he would make his it his first order to violate the neutral zone with the Romulans. At a minimum, it seems that a competent Commodore would recognize his own limitations and rely on a more experienced crew member (like, say, Sulu, who up until recently had been third in command) for advice. And even if he's clueless enough to make such a moronic order, it's REALLY hard to believe he would be so clueless as to believe the Romulans would just let them pass through the neutral zone if he can explain the situation to them.

Also, once Stocker realizes he's made a mistake, and the Romulan warbirds are gathering for the kill, the cries out: "What am I going to do? I've got to do something!" How about (1) run, or (2) fight back?

So it seems like this episode is really lame. But for some reason, I like it anyway.

Other observations about this episode . . .

I guess we see now why Sulu is no longer third in command. The writers must have been hoping we'd forget he had been third in command earlier, and so we would expect Stocker to be the only possible choice to command the ship with Kirk, Spock and Scotty all suffering radiation sickness. But it doesn't take much in the way of memory to recall that at a minimum, Sulu, DeSalle, and even Chekhov have commanded the ship in the past.

And Uhura? Still not fourth in command, obviously.

Lt. Galway is the only crew member who dies of the sickness, and she was wearing a blue uniform, not a red one.

It's good to see that Spock is actually affected by the illness this time, rather than being immune thanks to his Vulcan physiology.

Kirk's chronological age at this point is 34 --- if Kirk is recalling it correctly.

Another thing McCoy is not: a magician.

It was great to see the Corbomite maneuver make an encore appearance.

Kirk's message to Starfleet --- which he intentionally lets the Romulans eavesdrop on --- is great fun to watch, though. Shatner as Kirk usually seems quite pleased with himself anyway, and it's amusing to see him play it up now that he has his mojo back. I wish I could find a YouTube video of it to post here.

The writers give Kirk a good final line: "All in all, an experience we'll remember in our old age. Which won't be for some while, I hope."

The Moral of the Story: Age is not necessary for wisdom.

BONUS: If you've watched this episode recently, you may have wondered, as I have, how the artificially aged actors in 1967 look compared to the genuinely aged actors years later. As coincidence has it, there's someone else in the world who had roughly the same idea as I did (to blog TOS one episode a day), who did the research to answer that question.

TOS 41: Friday's Child

2012-04-05T20:19:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 12/01/1967
Star date: 3497.2

Summary: The Enterprise is sent to Capella 4 to attempt to negotiate a mining agreement with the Capellans in order to obtain topaline. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down with a redshirt, and are surprised to find that a Klingon representative has already made contact with the Capellans. Startled, the redshirt pulls his phaser and is immediately struck down by a Capellan kligat, a thrown weapon similar to a ninja shuriken, which Capellans wield with such force and accuracy they are almost as deadly as a phaser. In order to show good will, the trio are obliged to surrender their communicators and weapons as the Klingon, Kras, has done.

There is a brief negotiation between Akaar, the Capellan leader, Kras and the Federation trio. During this discussion, Akaar introduces his very pregnant wife, Eleen. We learn that although the Capellans are a warlike race who prefer to let the sick die, they are also scrupulously honest, and value honesty highly. Akaar's leadership is challenged by another Capellan, Maab, who seems to prefer Kras to Kirk and company.

That night, Maab stages a coup and deposes Akaar. The Federation trio and Kras all attempt to retrieve their weapons and communicators in the confusion, and Maab walks in just as Kirk is holding a knife to Kras' throat. This makes Maab tend to look on Kirk more favorably, until Kirk intervenes to prevent the summary execution of Eleen, which Capellan law requires now that Maab has killed Akaar. Kirk is now similarly sentenced to death, for under Capellan law, it is wrong simply for a man to touch a woman who is not his wife or relative.

Meanwhile in orbit, Scotty is commanding the Enterprise, and receives a distress call from the freighter ship Deirdre, some distance off and reporting that they are under attack by Klingon warships. Unable to make contact with the trio on the planet, Scotty realizes his duty is to go to the Deirdre. We later learn that the USS Deirdre was never there; the message was a ruse on the part of the Klingons to get the Enterprise away from Capella 4.

Back on Capella 4, the Enterprise trio and Eleen are being held prisoner, but are able to escape to the mountains with their communicators. As McCoy tends to Eleen, Kirk and Spock use sound waves from their communicators to cause a rock slide, making it difficult for the Capellans to follow them. While McCoy midwifes Eleen's baby, Kirk and Spock fashion crude bows and arrows and lie in wait for the Capellans. After giving birth, Eleen knocks out McCoy and escapes back to Maab and the Capellans, telling them she has killed the Federation trio in their sleep. Kras, who has managed to recover a Federation phaser from the Capellans, insists on verifying her story. Kirk shoots Kras in the knee with an arrow, starting off a melee in which Kras, believing he is threatened by one of Maab's men, vaporizes him with his phaser.

This makes Kras a target for the Capellans. Eleen, who knows she will die anyway, volunteers to provide a distraction so the Capellans can attack Kras with their klingats, but instead Maab gives himself up to Kras, who vaporizes him, and then is himself killed by the Capellans. This leaves Eleen's baby as the new "Teer", or leader of the Capellans, with her wielding true power as his ward. The Federation gets its mining treaty, and Eleen's baby is named Leonard James Akaar --- to the irritation of Spock.

This episode has a good plot --- at least it isn't another "godlike powers" episode, or another "computers take over" episode. The unexpected appearance of Kras on Capella 4 introduces interesting tension, where Kras and the Federation trio are forced to battle one another indirectly with words, rather than with photon torpedos and phasers. And the volatile nature of the Capellans keeps things interesting, too.

Unfortunately, the writing starts to show problems not quite 20 minutes in, when Kirk prevents Eleen's execution. It strains credibility that Kirk is not summarily executed at this point --- after all, Maab was just about to summarily execute Eleen. But for some reason, after Kirk's intervention, Kirk and Eleen are both allowed to live, and merely taken prisoner. It further strains credibility that although the Capellans have strict rules regarding interaction between men and women, Eleen and the Enterprise trio are all imprisoned together.

After that, it's easy to enjoy the slow-motion chase in the mountains, and the wild goose chase the Kingons send Scotty on. But things fall apart rather badly at the end, where there are a number of problems, including:

Capellans are scrupulously honest, which is why Maab believes Eleen's lie about having killed the Enterprise trio. But why does Maab later exonerate Eleen who, already under a death sentence for having been Akaar's wife, is also proven guilty of lying --- and not just lying, but lying to protect the Enterprise trio?
Kras wants to get a mining deal for the Klingons, perhaps even as much as he wants Kirk dead. So when everything is going his way --- the Enterprise trio has been found and are under attack by the Capellans --- why does Kras reveal his stolen phaser, and then use it on one of the Capellans? I suppose it's possible he targeted Spock with the phaser without thinking, and then once the Capellans knew he had the phaser, he became as much a target for them as the Enterprise crew were. But it's hard to see how Kras managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Hard to believe that Maab would volunteer to give up his life so Kras would die. For one thing, the Capellans killed the Federation redshirt at the start of the show simply for displaying a phaser. When Kras shoots the first Capellan, the others would have kligats in him faster than you can say Akaar. For another, why would he volunteer to be the sacrificial lamb when Eleen --- already under a death sentence, mind you, and now caught in a lie --- has already volunteered to do so? If he lets Eleen be the distraction for Kras, he can kill two birds with one stone. Literally.

On balance, I liked this show more than I disliked it, but the ending was rather disappointing.

Other observations about this episode . . .

Sulu is back from wherever he went, but apparently he got demoted. Kirk leaves Scotty in charge on the Enterprise, even though Sulu is there.

When the redshirt is hit with a kligat immediately after beaming down, why doesn't McCoy immediately beam back up with him and try to save him?

It's kind of amusing when McCoy tries to get Spock to hold baby Leonard James Akaar. Spock rather uncomfortably refuses. Dr. Spock he ain't.

Sticking with the McCoy observations, we learn in this episode that McCoy is not an escalator, when he alone has to assist Eleen up a particularly steep part of the rocks (McCoy is the only man whom Eleen will allow to touch her).

The bows and arrows Kirk and Spock "make" are laughable, of course, as is William Shatner's archery.

As is often the case, the episode ends with an amusing exchange on the bridge, this time on the subject of baby Leonard James Akaar's name:

McCoy: Has a kind of a *ring* to it, don't you think, James?
Kirk: Yes, I think it's a name destined to go down in galactic history, Leonard. What do you think, Spock?
Spock: I think you're both going to be insufferably pleased with yourselves for at least a month! Sir!

The Moral of the Story: Honesty is the best policy --- unless you're recently widowed and carrying a death sentence.

TOS 40: Journey to Babel

2012-04-04T20:23:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 11/17/1967
Star date: 3842.3

Summary: The Enterprise is collecting diplomats from various systems and transporting them to the planetoid of Babel to discuss the application of the Coridan planets to join the Federation. The last delegation to arrive is the Vulcan delegation, led by Sarek and his wife Amanda. Despite displaying coolness toward the ship's only Vulcan crew member, Spock, we learn that Sarek and Amanada are in fact Spock's mother and father. We later learn that Spock and Sarek are estranged as a result of Spock's decision to join Starfleet rather than attend the Vulcan Science Academy. We also learn that Uhura is picking up bits and pieces of a transmission from an unknown vessel.

Tensions run high among the delegates over the Coridan question due to Coridan's rich deposits of dilithium crystals. At one point, Kirk has to intervene when a discussion between Sarek and a Tellarite diplomat, Gav, verges on violence. Shortly afterward, Gav is found dead, his neck broken in the manner of Vulcan "tal-shaya". Of course Sarek becomes a prime suspect, but as Kirk is interrogating him, he collapses due to a heart condition he has recently developed but kept hidden from Amanda. Meanwhile, the unknown vessel has been detected by Enterprise sensors and is visible, but does not respond to hails and continues to follow the Enterprise at the limit of sensor range.

McCoy examines Sarek in sick bay, and determines that he requires surgery; however, Sarek has a rare Vulcan blood type, and Spock, the only viable donor on the ship, cannot possibly supply enough blood to keep Sarek alive through the operation. After some research, Spock and McCoy conclude that the use of an experimental drug might allow Spock to produce enough blood to operate on Sarek --- or it might kill Spock, leaving Sarek to die anyway. Spock wishes to go ahead with the procedure, but McCoy and Amanda both forbid it.

Meanwhile, Kirk is attacked by an Andorian named Thelev. Kirk succeeds in subduing Thelev, but not before Thelev stabs Kirk and punctures his left lung. By now, it is certain that Sarek will die without surgery, and so McCoy and Amanda reverse their earlier position and ask Spock to act as donor. However, with Kirk critically wounded, Spock refuses to relinquish command of the Enterprise. Amanda confronts Spock, begging him to reconsider, and even strikes him in anger, but Spock holds firm in his position. When Kirk learns of Spock's decision, he resolves to act as though he has healed and relieve Spock of command, with the intention of relinquishing command to Scotty as soon as Spock is in surgery. However, before Kirk gets the chance to transfer command to Scotty, Uhura detects that the alien vessel which has been following the Enterprise this whole time is sending transmissions to Thelev in the brig. A search by security discovers a transceiver hidden in Thelev's fake antenna. This discovery prompts an attack on the Enterprise by the alien vessel.

The alien vessel is not as well armed as the Enterprise, but can move more swiftly. Thus it can attack the Enterprise while avoiding counterattacks. The Enterprise absorbs several hits, all while Spock and Sarek are on the operating table in sickbay. Kirk eventually "plays dead", shutting down all power except for life support and phasers. This draws the alien vessel in close enough for Kirk to take a clean shot at them, disabling their ship. However, the ship self-destructs before any survivors can be taken aboard, and Thelev, who is not really Andorian but only disguised as one, also dies as the result of a suicide pill he'd taken earlier.

With the danger past, McCoy is able to successfully complete the operation on Sarek. Spock concludes that the insurgents who attacked the Enterprise were Orion smugglers who stood to profit by sowing suspicion among the delegates and starting a war over Coridan.

This was definitely one of the series' better episodes. So if experience is any guide, the next show will suck. But seriously, there are three different plot lines, all of them well-written and interesting, and they interact with one another well. The climax of McCoy performing an operation with two Vulcan lives in the balance while the Enterprise is under attack is great drama, and of course we get to learn more about Spock, everyone's favorite character.

Speaking of which, we get a brief, private glimpse of genuine emotion from Spock after Amanda has come to his cabin to berate him for refusing to relinquish command in order to be the blood donor for his father's operation. Amanda slaps him in the face and walks out, and after the door closes, Spock places his hand on it, as if in need of support to carry his twin burdens of command and duty to his father.

We learn other interesting tidbits about Spock's background as well, including the fact that other Vulcan children bullied him when he was younger because he is half-human, as well as the more amusing fact that he was very fond of his pet "Salot" when he was a boy, a pet described as a Teddy Bear but alive and with 6-inch fangs.

Considering how generally awful Star Trek sets and special effects are (prior to the recent digital remastering anyway), the few shots we see of the diplomats are fairly well done: the Tellarites, the Andorians, and several others who we only see but learn nothing about --- including the gold-skinned midgets who like to put what looks like Easter eggs in their drinks.

The only criticism I have about the episode --- and it is minor --- is that no explanation is given for McCoy and Amanda's about-face on the subject of Spock being a blood donor. When the possibility first arises, McCoy is opposed and Amanda says "I refuse to permit it. I won't risk both of you." Almost as soon as Kirk gets stabbed --- and Spock is therefore no longer available as a donor --- McCoy is asking Spock to get on the operating table and Amanda is smacking him around for not doing it, even going so far as to say "Nothing is as important as your father's life," and "I'll hate you for the rest of my life," if he doesn't act as donor. People become irrational in life-and-death moments, so a change of view is understandable, even though this one seems remarkably abrupt.

Oh yeah --- the Orion smugglers actually do some pretty dumb things here. Trying to assassinate Kirk makes sense, but with a knife?!? How about something a little surer, like poison or a phaser? And why do it in a corridor of the Enterprise, rather than someplace more secluded? (Answer: because you can choreograph a better fight scene in the corridor). Also, one of the smarter things they do is trying to frame Sarek for the assassination of Gav. But by hovering around the Enterprise just out of phaser range, they at least provide a clue that there might be another party involved.

Other observations about this episode . . .

It's too bad we don't learn more of the history between Sarek and Amanda. I'm still curious to know how Sarek ended up with an Earth woman, what with Pon Farr and all.

This episode occurs after "Amok Time", so I would generally expect that when the Enteprise picks up Sarek and Amanda at Vulcan, we would see T'Pau raging around demanding answers for the trick McCoy and Kirk played during Spock's Pon Farr.

Also, seeing Spock's parents, I can't help but wonder: are Vulcans unemotional, detached and logical in the bedroom too? In which case, how sad for Amanda!

Apparently when Vulcan spouses are together, they are obliged to dedicate significant amounts of time to holding the index and middle fingers of their right hand extended, and touching the similarly extended fingers of their spouse.

It was cool to see the green Vulcan blood getting pumped through the transfusion machine.

Last comment regarding Vulcans in this episode: as all good Trekkies must know, Mark Lenard, who played Sarek in this episode, also played the Romulan commander in "Balance of Terror". No wonder the crew members in "Balance of Terror" saw a resemblance between Spock and the Romulans.

When the danger has passed, Kirk doesn't transfer command to Scotty, as originally planned, but to Chekhov of all people. So at a minimum, all of these people are ahead of Uhura in the chain of command: Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Scotty, DeSalle, Chekhov (if you wonder why I care about this, look here).

Speaking of Sulu, where has he been? He's been AWOL for the past three episodes. On leave or something, I guess.

Finally, there is this amusing exchange between Spock, Sarek and Amanda at the end of the show:

Amanda: Logic, logic! I'm sick to death of logic! Do you want to know how I feel about your logic?
Spock: Emotional, isn't she?
Sarek: She has always been that way.
Spock: Indeed? Why did you marry her?
Sarek: At the time, it seemed the logical thing to do.

The Moral of the Story: Heroes never hesitate to sacrifice for the greater good.

TOS 39: Metamorphosis

2012-04-03T20:34:00.002-07:00

Original air date: 11/10/1967
Star date: 3219.8 (Scotty, in his role as acting Captain, about 27 minutes in)

Summary: Kirk, Spock and McCoy are aboard the Galileo shuttle, bringing Commissioner Nancy Hedford to the Enterprise for urgently-needed medical assistance after she has contracted the rare "Shikuro's disease". Time is of the essence, both to save Hedford's life and also because Hedford is in the middle of trying to broker a peace agreement between two unnamed planets on the brink of war. Unfortunately, a strange force takes hold of the shuttle and forces it to land on an asteroid/planetoid off its course.

After checking to be certain that the planetoid has an atmosphere which is safe for them, Kirk, Spock and McCoy leave the shuttle to scout around, and are surprised to be greeted by a human named Cochrane. Cochrane explains that he has been shipwrecked on the planetoid for some time, and is glad for human company. He invites the four to join him in the home he fashioned from the remains of his ship.

In short order, the crew discovers that Cochrane is in fact Zefram Cochrane, the man who invented warp drive and was thought to have died at the age of 87 roughly 150 years ago. Cochrane explains that he knew he was dying, and so launched himself into space because he wanted to die there. The same force which brought Kirk et al to the planetoid also brought Cochrane there 150 years before --- and since then has reversed the aging process, to make Cochrane appear to be in his early 30's. We further learn that the force which brought them to the planetoid is an intelligent being which resides on the planetoid with Cochrane, and which Cochrane refers to as "the companion". Over the years, Cochrane has learned to communicate with companion non-verbally, which is how he knows that the companion brought the Enterprise shuttle to the planetoid in response to Cochrane's loneliness. The companion felt it had to do this, since it will not permit Cochrane to leave. For this same reason, the companion will not permit the Enterprise crew to leave, either. Meanwhile, Commissioner Hedford's illness has progressed, and McCoy estimates she has only hours to live.

Kirk orders Spock to research a weapon to fight the companion, who will come when Cochrane calls it and appears as a multicolored energy field. The companion appears to Spock when he is near the shuttle, and delivers a shock to both him and the shuttle's electrical system. In the meantime, since Cochrane can communicate with it, Kirk asks him to explain the situation to the companion, in the hopes that the companion will allow them to take Hedford to get the medical help she needs. When Cochrane and the companion communicate with one another, the companion envelops Cochrane in a manner which McCoy describes as "love". The companion will not allow anyone to leave, and indicates that it cannot help Commissioner Hedford.

Having tried diplomacy, Kirk attempts to disable or kill the companion. After Spock's encounter, they conclude that the companion generates electricity, and therefore is vulnerable to electrical devices. Over Cochrane's objections, he agrees to summon the companion again so they can attack it with an electrical device of Spock's creation. The device succeeds in hurting the companion, but also in angering it so that it attacks Spock and Kirk, and only stops when Cochrane again calls to it. McCoy then reminds Kirk that he is both a soldier and a diplomat, and suggests Kirk try diplomacy again.

Kirk then instructs Spock to modify the shuttle's "universal translator" to enable conventional communication with the companion. Using the universal translator, Kirk again appeals to the companion based on (1) the need to get medical assistance for Hedford, and (2) the general need for humans to be free. The companion again indicates it can do nothing for Hedford, and also indicates that Cochrane is important to it; therefore he must remain on the planetoid, and the Enterprise crew must also remain to keep Cochrane company.

Meanwhile Scotty, in charge of the Enterprise in Kirk and Spock's absence, has decided they are overdue for their rendezvous and begins searching for them.

Although the last communication with the companion was not fruitful, it did provide the surprising revelation --- based on the companion's voice as interpreted by the universal translator --- that the companion is female. It is also abundantly clear that the companion is in love with Cochrane, an idea which Cochrane vehemently rejects. Hedford, near death in the next room, overhears Cochrane's protests and mourns them, stating that she has never been loved or been in love, and cannot understand how Cochrane can reject the companion.

Kirk makes one last attempt to talk to the companion, trying to convince her that if she loves Cochrane, she must set him free. But instead, the companion chooses to inhabit Hedford's body thus solving two problems. By inhabiting Hedford's body, the Shikuro's disease disappears, and now the companion can interact with Cochrane in a form more familiar to him. However, inhabiting Hedford's body also means the companion loses all her powers to detain Cochrane and the rest, to keep Cochrane young, and her own immortality. However, once the companion understands the human feeling of loneliness, she realizes she was wrong to keep Cochrane prisoner on the planetoid in the first place, and at any rate, she believes it was worth becoming human to be able to hold Cochrane's hand. The companion will die if she leaves the planetoid for long, but is content to let Cochrane go and learn what has happened in space exploration in the past 150 years.

However, Cochrane realizes that he loves the companion too --- especially now that she has a human body --- and chooses to remain on the planetoid with her.

Is it just me, or are my summaries getting longer?

I don't have any deep insight into this episode. It wasn't one of their best, it wasn't one of their worst. It was pretty darn average. I do have a lot of "other observations", though . . .

Pretty amazing that after 150 years of relative solitude, Cochrane still apparently bathes, shaves, and gets dressed every day. In clean clothes, no less! Of course, he DID have advance notice that the Enteprise folks were coming ---

Interesting how the companion can shock Kirk and make all kinds of smoke and flame and fireworks appear on the Galileo shuttle, yet at the end of the show, it still works.

When they attempt to electrocute the companion, it's pretty stupid that they wait until the companion has enveloped Cochrane, thus causing the electric shock to affect him, too.

Gee, what a shame Kirk doesn't think to adapt the universal translator until after he's tried to kill the companion with electricity. Oops.

In this episode, McCoy never declares that he's a doctor, but he does claim that he is neither "a scientist or a physicist". Huh. I could have sworn that medical doctors were scientists.

When Kirk makes the suggestion that Cochrane is in love with companion, Cochrane storms out in a rage. Yet minutes later, we see him back communicating with the companion again. Huh?

Final note: The Galileo shuttle, with the number NCC-1701/7 on the side, was actually destroyed on or about star date 2821.5 ("The Galileo Seven"). So what's it doing back here again on star date 3219.8? Did they pick up another one and give it the exact same license plate number?

The Moral of the Story: When you find the right girl, nothing is more important than being with her.
Alternative Moral: There's someone out there for everyone, even if she's a sentient electrical disturbance on a remote planetoid.

TOS 38: I, Mudd

2012-04-02T18:11:00.000-07:00

Original air date: 11/03/1967
Star date: 4513.3

Summary: A new addition to the Enterprise crew breaks into unauthorized areas, and with little difficulty reroutes the ship to an uncharted planet. After he has set the route and booby-trapped the ship so that his work cannot be undone without the risk of the ship self-destructing, he proceeds to the bridge to inform Kirk of his actions, and to reveal himself as an android. He insists that he and the others like him do not wish to harm the Enterprise crew, or humanoid life forms in general, but they need the ship. The android --- who we learn is named "Norman" --- then shuts down for the 4-day trip to his planet.

Upon arrival, Norman insists that Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura and Chekhov beam down to the planet's surface with him. There the crew finds a planet hosting more than 200,000 androids, and a single human: Harry Mudd. Kirk has met with Mudd before, and knows him to be a non-violent and personable crook and swindler. Mudd explains how he escaped from captivity and stumbled upon this planet populated with androids which were created by an earlier humanoid race. He further explains that these androids were built to serve humans; thus as the planet's sole human resident, he became their king, and they will do whatever he says. However, the androids also desire more humans to serve, and would not let Mudd leave the planet until he provided them with more humans. Thus he helped them to hijack the Enterprirse, and it is his plan to take the ship with several of his custom-made female androids and leave the whole Enterprise crew on the surface. Mudd also reveals that for fun, he made a single android modeled on his wife Stella, a shrewish woman constantly nagging at him and pointing out his bad habits. Her made her so he could shut her up and get the last word whenever he likes.

The Enterprise crew are taken to their quarters, where they find that the androids are true to their word, and aim to serve them all and provide them with as pleasant a life as possible, ready and able to provide anything they could wish for: for Uhura, eternal life by transplanting her brain into a female android body; for Chekhov, companionship with as many attractive female androids as he wishes; for Spock and Scotty, access to their extensive libraries and knowledge of technology.

However, when Mudd tries to say his goodbyes, the androids suddenly stop serving him, informing him that they cannot let him go. When their humanoid creators made them, the androids freed their creators to develop a utopian society. Somehow the androids have learned about how badly humanoids are running our galaxy (presumably this refers to hate, war and so on), and so they plan to go out into the galaxy themselves and make it a peaceful place by serving humanoids. They therefore require Mudd to remain on the planet along with the Enterprise crew.

At this point, Kirk hatches a plan of escape. Kirk earlier noticed that the "Alice" series of androids are confused by human behavior, and telepathically call out to Norman for understanding when confused. Spock has also learned that although there are many copies of Alice and other androids, there is only one Norman. They therefore conclude that if they can shut down Norman, they can shut down all androids, and furthermore, they conclude they can get to Norman through the Alices.

They know the androids will expect an escape attempt, so they stage one. Uhura intentionally foils this attempt, telling an Alice that she wants to stay so she can get an android body. Having made a show of trying to escape, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Chekhov and Mudd proceed to shut the Alices down with random acts of nonsense, including dancing without music, pretending to kill Scotty with imaginary guns and a pretend explosion. After all the Alices have shut down, Kirk and Mudd together deliver the coup de gras to Norman, with Kirk telling him: "Everything Mudd tells you is a lie," and Mudd following up with "I am lying". This paradox is too much for Norman, who shuts down and allows the Enterprise crew to regain control of their ship.

In the end, Kirk sentences Mudd to remain behind on the android planet until he can "stop being an irritant," and leaves him with 500 android copies of his wife, nagging him forever.

So we have yet another entry in the "escape from an invincible computer foe by overloading its logic circuits" series of episodes. However, I forgive the writers for re-hashing this plot yet again for two reasons. First, they brought back Harry Mudd, who was one of the more entertaining characters from the first season. Second, this episode is intentionally farcical and humorous (in contrast to the many episodes which are unintentionally farcical and humorous; see for example "What Are Little Girls Made Of?").

This Star Trek episode is extremely silly!

I was critical of "A Taste of Armageddon" because its premise was pythonesque (two planets fighting a proxy war by computer, and sending the designated number of "casualties" off to be killed in disintegration chambers), but this time, the comparison is favorable because they're trying to be absurd. And while much of the absurdity is on the level of a high-school improv group, some of it is truly entertaining. For example, there's this bit with Chekhov talking to two of the "Alice" androids:

Alice 118: You desire something else, Lord?
Chekhov: What a shame you're not real.
Alice 322: We are real, my Lord.
Chekhov: Oh, I mean, real girls.
Alice 118: We are programmed to function as human females, Lord.
Chekhov: You are?
Both Alices: Yes, my Lord.
Chekhov: Harry Mudd programmed you?
Both Alices: Yes, my Lord.
Chekhov: That unprincipled, evil-minded lecherous Kulak Harry Mudd programmed you?
Both Alices: Yes, my Lord.
Chekhov: This place is even better than Leningrad!

Of course, the rare occasions when Spock abandons his strict logic demeanor are amusing too, such as this line, delivered to Norman in complete deadpan:

Spock: Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad.

And finally, at the end of the show, we get another good exchange between Spock and McCoy, where this time McCoy has the last laugh:

McCoy: Well, you must be very unhappy, Mr. Spock.
Spock: That is a human emotion, Doctor, with which I'm totally unfamiliar. How could I be unhappy?
McCoy: Well, we found a whole world of minds that work just like yours: logical, unemotional, completely pragmatic. And we poor, irrational humans whipped them in a fair fight.

I've said it before, and I have no doubt I'll say it again: the idea of shutting down a computer or androids by TALKING to it is absurd. But at least this time it wasn't just Jim Kirk's amazing brain beating the androids; it was a team effort. And the Star Trek writers weren't taking it or themselves seriously, so just lean back, relax, and have a few laughs.

Other observations about this episode . . .

There are over 200,000 androids on the planet. What a stroke of luck for the Enterprise crew that it apparently takes them forever to get on the Enterprise and fly away.

It sure is convenient that all the androids wear numbered necklaces that light up when they wirelessly communicate with Norman --- that was sure a helpful clue to Kirk and the rest.

The actor playing Norman was pretty good, but when Kirk and Mudd shut him down, it would have been awesome if he did a face-first dead fall like that Jackson guy in "Catspaw".

The Moral of the Story: Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad.

TOS 37: Catspaw

2012-04-01T09:31:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 10/27/1967
Star date: 3018.2

Summary: The episode begins with Kirk, Spock and Uhura anxiously attempting to contact Sulu and Scotty, who have beamed down to an unnamed planet with a third crew member, Jackson, and have not reported in for some time. Finally Jackson reports in, but his communication is strange; he will not answer any of Kirk's questions. He beams up, and as soon as he materializes aboard the Enterprise, he falls over dead. While Kirk and McCoy examine the body, a disembodied voice warns Kirk that his crew is cursed, and he must leave.

Of course, Kirk does no such thing, and he leaves assistant chief engineer DeSalle in command while he, Spock and McCoy beam down to try to locate Sulu and Scotty. On the surface, they find fog where none was expected, and Spock's tricorder picks up life readings that the Enterprise sensors cannot detect. Before long, they lose communication with the Enterprise. Then they see the ghostly apparition of three witches, who warn them to go remember the curse and leave the planet. A bit later on, they discover something like a haunted castle. When they go in the front door, they are greeted by a hissing black cat, which then runs off.

Investigating the castle further, a hole suddenly opens in the floor, and the three of them fall through and are knocked unconscious. They awake in chains in a dungeon, and are shortly greeted by Sulu and Scotty. However, it is clear that Sulu and Scotty are not themselves; they are either drugged or under mind control somehow, as they are now acting as prison guards. They release Kirk, Spock and McCoy and take them to a large dining hall where the landing party meets the first of their captors, a man named Korob. Korob appears to be a wizard, holding something like a scepter and talking to the black cat seen earlier. Korob attempts to be friendly to the crew, offering them a sumptuous banquet, then offering them a bribe of a wide variety of jewels if they will abandon Sulu and Scotty and leave. Of course, Kirk refuses the offer.

It is at this point that the cat metamorphoses into a woman named Sylvia, Korob's accomplice. Sylvia explains that she and Korob have control over the Enterprise crew because they can read and control their minds. Kirk tests this claim by disarming Scotty and training his phaser on Sylvia, but Sylvia calmly responds by producing a miniature of the Enterprise on a chain, and dangles it, voodoo-like, over a candle flame. She then permits Kirk to communicate with the Enterprise, and he discovers that indeed, the ship is overheating. He then surrenders to Sylvia and Korob and acknowledges that they hold all the cards.

Kirk and Spock are returned to the dungeon, while McCoy remains behind with Sylvia. We next see McCoy returning to the dungeon under the same mind control as Sulu and Scotty, come to take Kirk up for his interview with Sylvia. In the meantime, we see an argument between Sylvia and Korob, as Korob disagrees with Sylvia's mistreatment of the Enterprise crew. We learn that Korob and Sylvia are creatures from another galaxy, and on their planet they do not have sensations like ours. Sylvia enjoys the sensations of luxury and power, and she wants more. She dismisses Korob as Kirk is brought to her.

Apparently, Sylvia also wants to experience the sensation of love and togetherness, and she wants it with Kirk. She offers him all of her knowledge and secrets if he will agree to be her partner. Kirk pretends to go along with Sylvia, in order to learn her secrets, and he learns that a key to her power and Korob's lies in something called a "transmuter". Sylvia quickly realizes that Kirk is using her and grows angry, sending him back to the dungeon.

By now, Korob has realized that Sylvia is dangerous, and comes to the dungeon to free Kirk and Spock. He urges them to leave without Sulu, McCoy and Scotty, and of course they refuse. As Korob is leading them out of the castle, Sylvia attacks him in cat form and knocks him unconscious. Kirk grabs Korob's scepter, and he and Spock climb back up through the hole they fell through earlier in the show. Sulu, McCoy and Scotty are waiting for them and attack them, but Kirk and Spock are able to subdue them. Kirk then makes the leap that Korob's scepter is the "transmuter" Sylvia referred to, and threatens her with it. Kirk's guess turns out to be correct, and Sylvia transports herself and Kirk back into the dining hall and tries to cajole the transmuter away from him. When this fails, she produces a phaser, and threatens to shoot him if he does not return the transmuter. Kirk feigns resignation, but as he pretends to hand the transmuter to Sylvia, he smashes it against the table instead.

Immediately, the castle disappears, and Spock, Sulu, McCoy and Scotty all re-appear, all restored to their original state. We see Sylvia and Korob as they really are, two small, defenseless, furry blue creatures, as they slowly die on the planet's surface without the transmuter's protection.

In what was clearly intended as a Halloween show --- airing on October 27, featuring witches, a dungeon and a black cat, and with numerous Halloween references in the show --- the Enterprise crew encounters yet another entity possessing god-like powers. This marks at least the sixth such episode in the series, and unfortunately, it's not likely to be the last. And I'm not even counting "Where No Man Has Gone Before" here, in which members of the Enterprise crew start to gain god-like powers before they are destroyed.

This episode at least differs from all of the similar ones in two ways. First, the god-like powers are possessed by two creatures instead of one, and dissent between the two of them is a key component to the show's resolution. Second, the god-like powers are dependent on a fairly delicate physical device, rather than innate abilities. So, at least that much was different.

Otherwise --- the god-like creatures can kill with their minds, create illusions, hold the Enterprise under their control, change shape, read minds --- *yawn*. Wake me when it's over; I've seen it all before.

Other observations about this episode . . . .

There is one fairly amusing bit early on, when Kirk, Spock and McCoy are first investigating the planet and they encounter the apparition of the three witches. The witches give the following warning, followed by a discussion between Kirk and Spock:

Witches: Go back! Go back! Go back! Remember the curse!
Wind shall rise!
And fog descend!
So leave here, all, or meet your end!
Kirk: Spock, comment?
Spock: Very bad poetry, Captain.
Kirk (nettled): A more useful comment, Mr. Spock?
Spock: What we've just seen is not real.
Kirk: That's useful.

Once it's clear that Korob and Sylvia hold all the cards, I don't understand why Kirk won't talk to them about Earth's 'science'. It's not like they're asking for strategic information about Starfleet's defenses; they just want general knowledge. Why not give it to them?

If Sylvia can summon Kirk's communicator without the transmuter, and teleport herself and Kirk while he's holding it, then why can't she simply teleport the transmuter from his hand to hers?

Kirk is lucky that the transmuter is so easily destroyed, with just a relatively light tap against a wooden table.

Jackson, the crew member who dies at the beginning of the show, is wearing a yellow shirt. And the stuntman playing him does quite an impressive dead fall forward to the floor of and then off of the transporter platform.

Uhura is not even fifth in command. With Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Scotty all down on the surface, they pull assistant chief engineer DeSalle out to be in command on the bridge.

The Moral of the Story: None.

TOS 36: The Doomsday Machine

2012-03-31T20:44:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 10/20/1967
Star date: 4202.1 (from Commodore Matt Decker's log)

Summary: The Enterprise is responding to a distress call from the starship Constellation, when they notice several star systems in which the known planets have been completely destroyed. They then come upon the Constellation, which has been badly damaged itself and is drifting through space.

Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and a damage control party beam over to the Constellation to assess the damage, leaving Spock in command of the Enterprise. Initially, it appears that the ship contains no crew members, living or dead, but then Kirk and McCoy find the ship's commander, Commodore Matt Decker, in a state of shock. Decker explains that they were attacked by a huge ship, miles long, which has consumed several planets in the system. Kirk theorizes that the planet-killer is a sort of "doomsday machine" developed by aliens in another galaxy, which has accidentally wandered into ours and is on track to destroy many populations. In addition to destroying several planets and crippling the Constellation, the planet-killer also emits a form of radiation which makes it impossible to communicate with Starfleet.

Decker is in a state of shock and wracked with guilt because, once the Constellation was on the verge of destruction, he beamed his entire crew down to one of the planets in the system. The planet-killer attacked again, disabling the Constellation's transporter. The planet-killer then destroyed the beam-down planet, and Decker's crew along with it. McCoy returns with Decker to the Enterprise while Kirk and the others remain behind to repair as much of the Constellation as they can. The Enterprise takes the Constellation with it in tow.

However, once McCoy and Decker arrive aboard the Enterprise, the planet-killer attacks them. Spock, realizing that there is nothing one ship can do to affect the planet-killer, makes it his number one priority to move away from the planet-killer's subspace interference, in order to warn Starfleet. However, Decker is intent on taking all steps possible to destroy or disable the planet-killer, even though such action seems futile at best and suicidal at worst. He pulls rank on Spock and takes command of the Enterprise, then stages several attacks on the planet-killer, which accomplish nothing more than making the Enterprise a target of the planet-killer's considerable power. Fortunately, Kirk, Scotty and the others have made sufficient progress in repairing the Constellation to have limited impulse power and one bank of phasers available. Kirk distracts the planet-killer long enough for the Enterprise to escape, but when he learns that Decker has taken command of the Enterprise, he orders Spock on his own personal authority as Captain of the Enterprise to relieve Decker of command. Decker reluctantly steps aside, and Spock orders him to sickbay for medical evaluation.

However, on the way to sickbay, Decker overpowers his guard, steals a shuttlecraft, and flies toward the planet-killer with the goal of destroying it by flying "right down its throat". Despite the pleas and cajoling of both Spock and Kirk, Decker completes his suicide mission, making a negligible impact on the planet-killer. But Decker's actions give Kirk an idea. He has Scotty rig up a mechanism to overload the Constellation's impulse engines on a 30-second delay, then sends Scotty and the damage control party back to the Enterprise. Kirk then steers the Constellation toward the planet-killer's "mouth", and waits until the last possible second to activate the 30-second delay. After a few tense moments of waiting while Scotty works furiously to repair the Enterprise's transporter, Kirk is beamed aboard at the last instant and the Constellation blows up inside the planet-killer, which does not destroy it, but renders it completely inactive and "dead".

The record for season two now stands at 3 above-average shows, and 3 pretty bad shows. I'm not sure why it's so difficult for the Star Trek writers to find some consistency.

I don't have much to say about this episode, except that it was good. Good setup, good plot, good guest appearance by William Windom as Commodore Matt Decker. Good chess match between the two Starfleet ships and the planet-killer, good twist with the battle over command of the Enterprise, good resolution at the end. Good, but not great. Given the collection of clunkers we've had in this series, I'll take good, not great.

The main message of this episode was only lightly touched on, but it was again an anti-war message. Kirk likens the planet-killer to a "doomsday machine" like the H-bomb, something intended only as a deterrent, and never meant to actually be unleashed on the universe. The point here is that mutually assured destruction can have unintended consequences, even for those who are far removed from the parties involved.

Other observations about this episode . . .

The whole time Decker is in command of the Enterprise, he is constantly fiddling with two small rectangular objects about the size of 1990's-style floppy disks, and which seem to serve roughly the same purpose on the show. This is reminiscent of the demented Lt. Cmdr. Queeg, played by Humphrey Bogart in The Caine Mutiny. I'm pretty sure this was intentional.

In this episode, we learn that McCoy is "a doctor, not a mechanic."

Decker is obviously traumatized by the loss of his crew, wracked both with survivor's guilt, and also with guilt because when he beamed his crew down to the planet, he thought he was doing his duty: remaining with the ship and ensuring the safety of his crew. But of course it turned out just the opposite, with his entire crew dead and him the sole survivor aboard the Constellation. It's hard to imagine Kirk/Shatner having the same reaction in Decker's place.

And anyway, why is Decker, a Commodore, commanding the Constellation while Kirk, who is "just" a Captain, in command of Starfleet's flagship, the Enterprise?

While it is true that Enterprise security gets pwned yet again when Decker overpowers Montgomery to hijack an Enterprise shuttle for his suicide mission, at least Montgomery puts up a decent fight, which you don't usually see from a member of Enterprise security.

The Moral of the Story: Mutually-assured destruction is MAD.

TOS 35: The Apple

2012-03-30T17:56:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 10/13/1967
Star date: 3715.3

Summary: Under Starfleet orders to investigate the planet Gamma Triangula 6, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chekhov, Yeoman Martha Landon and four redshirts beam down to find an Eden-like planet. Before long, however, one of the redshirts is killed by poisonous darts shot from a flower. Kirk thinks this is just an unfortunate accident, but then Spock detects a humanoid native following them secretly in the bushes, then runs across a strange type of rock which is both lightweight and highly explosive. Shortly afterward, Spock sees that Kirk is about to be struck by poison darts and pushes him out of the way, taking the darts in his own chest. He falls to the ground unconscious, and remains unconscious even after McCoy gives him an injection to revive him. At this point, Kirk decides it's time to return to the Enterprise, but some force from the planet is preventing the transporter from working.

In the meantime, due either to McCoy's injection, his Vulcan blood, or both, Spock revives with seemingly no ill effects from the poision. However, tragedy strikes again when a storm appears out of nowhere and a bolt of lightning vaporizes a second redshirt. Not long after, a third redshirt dies when he steps on an explosive rock. Fed up, Kirk sets up an ambush to capture the native following them. This turns out to be Akuta, a member of a primitive yet peaceful tribe of people who call themselves the followers of Vaal. Akuta is the only one who can speak to Vaal, and Kirk insists on meeting Vaal. Akuta takes the remaining members of the landing party to a cave entrance which looks like a large serpent's head. Spock and Kirk conclude that Vaal is a machine intelligence which controls all life on the planet, and which is currently holding the Enterprise; but to the simple natives, Vaal is their deity. The natives do what Vaal instructs them to do, and follow Vaal's prohibition against love and procreation. In return, they have perfect health and never age, and thus never need to have children or "replacements". They are also responsible for feeding Vaal, thus providing the source of Vaal's power.

Scotty then reports that Vaal has the Enterprise in a tractor beam and is pulling them toward the surface. They cannot break out, and will only be able to last 16 hours before plummeting to the planet's surface. Meanwhile, Kirk and Spock are unable to talk to Vaal, and are left to sit around their hut and ponder the ethics of destroying the natives' deity and saving their ship. Meanwhile, two natives see Chekhov and Yeoman Landon kissing, and experiment with it themselves, in violation of Vaal's orders. Vaal finally orders Akuta to assemble the male natives and kill the landing party by bashing their heads in. As part of the attack, the final redshirt is killed, but the main cast and Yeoman Landon subdue and detain the natives. As a result, the natives can no longer feed Vaal and replenish Vaal's power supply. Seeing an opportunity, Kirk orders Scotty to direct phasers at the snake's head entrance to Vaal's cave. Vaal defends "himself" from the phaser attack with a force field, but this drains all of "his" power, thus freeing the Enterprise.

The show ends with Vaal "dead" and the natives free to manage their own lives: to love, procreate, and die. Spock questions whether this was the right thing to do, but Kirk laughs him off, comparing him to Satan in the Garden of Eden.

This episode combined the cult-worship aspect of "The Return of the Archons" (only without the good mind-control, assimilation and confrontation of the "deity") with the simple life versus productive life discussion of "This Side of Paradise" (only without the angle that anyone who visits the planet can participate) and the ending of "Who Mourns for Adonais?" (only without involving a mythic Earth deity who spreads himself on the wind in the end). In other words, this episode features a lot of recycled ideas with a lot of the interesting stuff taken out, and not much new added in.

On the other hand, this episode also has: the obligatory death of several redshirts, yet another female Yeoman (tally so far: female Yeomen 356, male Yeomen 0), and Kirk making bad jokes at the end after just having lost several crew members.

So, really not too much to recommend it.

In fact, the only thing that makes this episode even remotely worth watching is the debate it presents over the as-yet-not-fully-explained Prime Directive --- and that debate can be summed up pretty quickly in exactly two of the interchanges which occur in the show. First, between McCoy and Spock, as they (along with Kirk) observe the natives feeding Vaal:

Spock: In my view, a splendid example of reciprocity.
McCoy: It would take a computerized Vulcan mind such as yours to make that kind of a statement.
Spock: Doctor, you insist on applying human standards to non-human cultures. I remind you that humans are only a tiny minority in this galaxy.
McCoy: There are certain absolutes, Mr. Spock, and one of them is the right of humanoids to a free and unchained environment. The right to have conditions which permit growth.
Spock: Another is their right to choose a system which seems to work for them.
McCoy: Jim, you're not just gonna stand by and be blinded to what's going on here? These are humanoids, intelligent. They need to advance, and grow! Don't you understand what my readings indicate? There's been no change, progress here in at least 10,000 years! This isn't life! It's stagnation!
Spock: Doctor, these people are healthy and they are happy. Whatever you choose to call it, this system works, despite your emotional reaction to it.
McCoy: Well it might work for you, Mr. Spock, but it doesn't work for me! Humanoids, living so they can service a hunk of tin.

and the second between Spock and Kirk, as time runs short before the Enterprise is destroyed:

Kirk: Bones was right, these people aren't living, they're existing. They don't create, they don't produce, they don't even think. They exist to service a machine.
Spock: If we do what it seems we must, in my opinion, we'll be in direct violation of the non-interference directive.
Kirk: These are people, not robots. They should have the opportunity of choice. We owe it to them to interfere.
Spock: Starfleet command may think otherwise.
Kirk: I'll take my chances.

Of course, in the end, everyone but Spock is A-OK with the destruction of Vaal. And let's be honest; there's no way Kirk would simply allow Vaal to destroy himself and his whole crew. So there was never really a choice to be made.

On the other hand, let's be clear what Kirk did for the natives. Yes, they are now free to make their own decisions about things, to create and procreate, to produce and reproduce. They are now also inevitably going to die, and suffer from hunger and disease. Is it clear Kirk's actions harmed the natives? No. But it's not clear that he helped them any, either. In typical Kirk style, he's far too flippant about how the natives will adjust to life without Vaal --- and in a usual Star Trek stretch of credibility, the natives are far too willing to forget about Vaal and take Kirk's word for it that everything will turn out just fine.

Aside from this episode's painfully slow pacing and the fact that it lacks much originality, I had a few other objections to it as well. For one thing, when Spock and Kirk first observe the natives feeding Vaal, Spock immediately concludes: "There is no living being there. It is a machine, nothing more." It's not at all clear how Spock arrives at this conclusion.

More troublesome, however, is the fact that NO ONE from the Enterprise crew makes any attempt to communicate with Vaal. When they first meet Akuta, they ask to speak to Vaal and are told that Vaal speaks only to Akuta. All well and good. But Vaal makes numerous attempts to kill the members of the landing party (sometimes successfully), and is also trying to crash the Enterprise into the planet. Kirk makes no further attempts to talk to Vaal. It seems he should be quite a bit more persistent on that point before he "kills" the natives' deity.

And incredibly, when Scotty reports that the Enterprise absolutely will not be able to escape Vaal's tractor beam, Kirk temporarily despairs that his entire crew will die, and it will be his fault. He then seems to come to a sudden realization that since Vaal is no longer feeding, perhaps he can drain Vaal's power --- even though that's been pretty obvious for some time.

Other observations on this episode . . .

Spock really takes a beating on this episode, getting poisoned, shocked, and struck by lightning.

While it's true that Vaal forbids the natives from physical intimacy, it's hard to believe that they don't have normal sexual urges --- and that they don't understand why Chekhov and Landon are making out.

This episode does a strike a blow for feminism, however, as Yeoman Landon takes out not one, but two of the male natives who are trying to bash in the heads of the landing party. This following on the heels of "Mirror, Mirror", where Uhura disarmed Evil Marlena (in a much less impressive way).

One good line by McCoy in this episode. When the landing party are asking the natives of this Eden-like planet where their children are, and what happens when two people fall in love, the following exchange occurs:

Akuta: Love --- strange words, "children", "love" --- what is love?
Yeoman Landon: Love is --- when two people are --- (Chekhov embraces her)
Akuta: Ah, yes, the holding, the touching. Vaal has forbidden this.
McCoy: Well, there goes paradise.

The Moral of the Story: A productive, creative lifetime with occasional hardships and eventual death is preferable to an eternity spent in mindless contentment.

TOS 34: Mirror, Mirror

2012-03-29T19:56:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 10/06/1967
Star date: Explicitly given as 'unknown' twice in the show

Summary: While on a mission to negotiate with the Halkan council for dilithium crystals, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura are caught in an ion storm. When they attempt to beam back to the Enterprise, they end up on another Enterprise in a parallel universe, where the Federation is a barbaric Empire. They need to find a way to return to their universe, but Kirk must also find an excuse to avoid carrying out the Empire's directive to destroy Halkan civilization and take their dilithium crystals.

When Kirk delays Halkan's destruction for 12 hours, Evil Spock informs him that he must report this breach of policy to the Empire. Evil Chekhov takes things one step further, attempting to assassinate Kirk in order to advance his career. Fortunately for Kirk, Evil Kirk has his own cadre of bodyguards who foil Evil Chekhov's plan. Nevertheless, Kirk quickly learns that assassination is a common means of career advancement in this universe, and that Evil Kirk assumed his current position by assassinating his predecessor, Evil Pike.

Kirk sends Scotty and McCoy ("I'm a doctor, not an engineer!") to Engineering to rig the transporters to send them back to their universe, while Evil Spock tries to solve the puzzle of what has happened to his Captain. Evil Spock violates protocol himself when he informs Kirk that the Empire has ordered him to assassinate Kirk and carry out the destruction of Halkan if Kirk does not do so himself within 4 hours. Scotty informs Kirk that they have 30 minutes or less to return to their universe, or remain in the Evil universe forever.

Kirk also discovers that Evil Kirk has his own concubine aboard, a Lieutenant named Evil Marlena. Kirk learns from Evil Marlena that Evil Kirk has a secret device called the Tantalus Field which he uses to spy on his enemies and make them literally disappear.

Later, when Kirk is in the transporter room, preparing the transporter for their return, Evil Spock detains him with a phaser and takes him to sickbay, where he finds McCoy, Scotty and Uhura. The four 'good guys' are able to overpower Evil Spock and knock him out, but McCoy insists on staying and making sure Evil Spock survives. While McCoy is treating Evil Spock, Evil Sulu arrives with three security guards, with a plan to kill both Kirk and Evil Spock, and take command of the Evil Enterprise himself. However, Evil Marlena is spying on this activity, and uses the Tantalus Field to eliminate the three security guards, leaving only Evil Sulu, whom Kirk overpowers. With time running out, Kirk, Scotty and Uhura then leave for the transporter room, leaving McCoy behind to treat Evil Spock.

However, Evil Spock revives and uses the Vulcan mind-meld to read McCoy's mind and learn the truth about the four of them. Having no desire to ascend to the Captaincy himself, Evil Spock takes McCoy to the transporter room to return the four to their universe and get his own Evil Captain back. With seconds to go before the window of opportunity closes, Kirk makes an appeal to Evil Spock to become Captain of the Evil Enterprise and work to make the Empire a kind and peaceful organization, rather than a brutal and authoritarian one. As Evil Spock sends the four back to their universe, he tells Kirk "I shall consider it".

The uneven nature of season two continues. After a strong opening show with "Amok Time," followed by two pretty weak episodes in "Who Mourns for Adonais" and "The Changeling," we now see possibly the best original series episode so far with "Mirror, Mirror". It has an interesting premise, intrigue, skullduggery, a ticking clock and a fresh perspective on the Kirk/Spock relationship. And while there are a couple of problematic parts, the ride here is so enjoyable it's easy to let them slip by unnoticed.

Perhaps the best bit of writing in this episode is in the first 15 minutes or so, as we gradually see the deeper and deeper layers of corruption on the Evil Enterprise. We first see how barbaric this Enterprise is when Evil Spock punishes the transporter chief for a mistake by demanding his "agonizer" and torturing him with it. Presumably all non-commissioned personnel on this ship are required to carry such a device in case they require punishment. This is quickly followed by the "standard" practice of wiping out any civilization which refuses the Empire; in this case, the Halkans for refusing to give up their dilithium crystals. Next we see the Big Brother aspect, as Evil Spock informs Kirk that his failure to wipe out the Halkans will be reported to the Empire. Then comes Evil Chekhov's assassination attempt, and the revelation that assassination is a common means of advancement in this universe --- so common that all commanding officers routinely walk the ship with bodyguards.

The atmosphere of "everyone for himself" makes for a nicely complex ending, where Evil Spock is ordered to kill Kirk, but doesn't want to; Evil Sulu wanting to kill Evil Spock and Kirk; and Kirk not wanting to kill anyone.

It would have been too much for the show to end with Kirk reforming anyone, and thankfully it doesn't. Evil Spock allows the four to return to their universe because it suits his needs, not because he's suddenly become a saint. And the final dialogue between Kirk and Evil Spock, when there are just seconds remaining to return the four to their universe, strikes just the right tone:

Kirk: How long before the Halkan prediction of galactic revolt is realized?
Evil Spock: Approximately 240 years.
Kirk: The inevitable outcome?
Evil Spock: The empire shall be overthrown, of course.
Kirk: The illogic of waste, Mr. Spock. The waste of lives, potential, resources, time. I submit to you that your Empire is illogical, because it cannot endure. I submit you are illogical to be a willing part of it.
Evil Spock: You have one minute and twenty-three seconds.
Kirk: If change is inevitable, predictable, beneficial, doesn't logic demand that you be a part of it?
Evil Spock: One man cannot summon the future.
Kirk: But one man can change the present! Be the Captain of this Enterprise, Mr. Spock. Find a logical reason for sparing the Halkans and make it stick. Push 'til it gives. You can defend yourself better than any man in the fleet.
Scotty: Captain, get in the chamber!
Kirk: What about it, Spock?
Evil Spock: A man must also have the power.
Kirk: In my cabin is a device that will make you invincible.
Evil Spock: (raises right eyebrow) Indeed.
Kirk: What will it be? Past or future? Tyranny or freedom? It's up to you.
Evil Spock: It is time.
Kirk: In every revolution, there's one man with a vision.
Evil Spock: Captain Kirk, I shall consider it.

By playing off Spock's defining trait --- that logic motivates all of his actions --- this exchange also makes the subtle point that tyranny is illogical.

Once again, I think this is quite probably the best episode of the the 34 I've seen so far --- but it wasn't without its problems.

Why would Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura try to beam up during an ion storm in the first place? Isn't that known to be risky? And there's no urgent need for them to do so.

Late in the show, Uhura makes a pass at Evil Sulu on the bridge to distract him while Scotty is makes changes in Engineering. All well and good. But then she smacks him across the face and pulls a knife on him. Evil Sulu is chief of Security, and there are at least three security guards standing around watching this; why don't any of them make a move to detain Uhura?

Also late in the show, Evil Spock arrests Kirk and takes him to sickbay, where he correctly believes he'll find McCoy, Scotty and Uhura as well. Evil Spock has his own henchmen; why doesn't he take some of them with him instead of facing the four alone --- who eventually overpower him?

Kirk's effort to turn Evil Spock to good is noble and uplifting --- provided you don't think about it too much. But what Kirk is really urging Evil Spock to do is to kill Evil Kirk and become Captain, then try to reform the Empire, and destroy any enemies he makes in the process by using the Tantalus Field on them. This really runs contrary to the ideals Kirk and McCoy try to uphold throughout the show, refusing to kill Evil Spock, Evil Chekhov, etc.

Other observations about this episode:

Interesting how in the "barbarian" universe, female crew members must bare their midriffs, while in the "civilized" universe, females only need to wear miniskirts short enough to show off their ovaries. That said, Nichelle Nichols has a decent set of abs.

Another thing McCoy is not: an engineer.

Why does Evil Marlena use the Tantalus Field to kill of Evil Sulu's three henchmen, but not Evil Sulu?

And speaking of Evil Marlena, Kirk's kiss with her is over the top. She's just as corrupt as anyone else in that universe, openly admitting that she'll sleep with every man in the fleet to get ahead. Sure, Kirk is trying to reform her and make her believe that she can be more than just a concubine, but does he really need to get into a lip-lock with her?

The Moral of the Story: Tyranny is illogical.

TOS 33: The Changeling

2012-03-22T19:50:00.002-07:00

Original air date: 09/29/1967
Star date: 3541.9 (given at the 41-minute mark)

Summary: Responding to a distress signal from the Mellurian system, the Enterprise crew is puzzled to find that the "more than 4 billion" Mellurians have all been killed. While digesting this information, the Enterprise comes under attack from an extremely powerful, unknown source. The sole photon torpedo volley the Enterprise manages in return is completely absorbed by the alien vessel. Surprisingly, the alien vessel is remarkably small, measuring just over one meter long. At the point when one more blow by the alien would destroy the ship, Kirk finally manages, after some difficulty, to communicate with the alien, indicating that his intentions are peaceful. The alien responds in kind and agrees to be beamed aboard the Enterprise.

What appears on the transporter platform is the entire alien "vessel", and we learn that the alien is not an organic life form at all, but rather a computer intelligence which floats through the Enterprise. After some questioning, Spock determines that the alien is Nomad, an Earth space probe launched several hundred years before --- or more accurately, a modified Nomad. Nomad states that its mission is to find and sterilize biological imperfection; it is responsible for the death of the Mellurians. It also turns out that Nomad spared the Enterprise from "sterilization" only because it confuses Kirk with its creator, Jackson Roykirk.

While Spock and Kirk ponder what to do about Nomad, it wanders up to the bridge, intrigued by Uhura's singing, which it considers nonsensical. When Nomad starts to read Uhura's mind, Scotty attacks it, and Nomad instantly responds by killing Scotty. When Scotty and Uhura are taken to sick bay, Nomad offers to "repair" Scotty. After uploading Scotty's medical record and other medical information, Nomad proceeds to sick bay to revive Scotty. When Kirk orders Nomad to repair Uhura, Nomad informs him it can't be done, because she is not damaged; rather, her mind has been erased. McCoy and Nurse Chapel get to work to re-educate Uhura.

After Spock uses a mind-meld to better understand Nomad's origin, we learn that Nomad was partially destroyed long ago, but then encountered and merged with an alien probe which was designed to retrieve and sterilize soil samples. The physical merging gave Nomad its remarkable abilities and indestructability, and the merging of instructions left Nomad believing that it must sterilize "imperfection". Spock and Kirk quickly realize that it is only a matter of time before Nomad decides to "sterilize" the Enterprise and wipe out its crew.

In fact, Nomad vaporizes four security guards who attempt to use phasers on it, then shuts down all life support systems. With little time to spare, Kirk confronts Nomad and points out that Nomad is also imperfect, because Nomad confused Kirk with its creator, Roykirk. Kirk then demands that Nomad sterilize the imperfection by destroying itself. While Nomad fights to resolve this seeming contradiction, Spock and Kirk load it into the transporter, beaming it into deep space just as Nomad destroys itself.

Uhura regains her knowledge with miraculous speed, and the episode ends with Kirk lamenting the loss of Nomad, since it looked to Kirk as its mother.

Okay, for the second consecutive episode, season two is failing to live up to its early promise. The idea of an Earth-launched probe returning in a new (and dangerous) form is pretty interesting --- and, I believe, an idea which will be revisited in the future --- but both Nomad's abilities and the ultimate resolution require far too much suspension of disbelief. Consider, the original Nomad was launched more than 200 years before, was badly damaged by meteors, and somehow managed to merge with an alien probe. And it has the following abilities:

Cannot be harmed by phasers or photon torpedoes.
Carries enough firepower to destroy the Enterprise in 5 shots.
Despite expending such deadly energy, has an apparently limitless energy supply.
Has sufficient medical knowledge to raise Scotty from the dead --- superseding
even Bones' medical knowledge, which is presumably much more current.
Has engineering knowledge superior to the engineers who built the Enterprise.
Can erase a person's memory.
Can kill "over 4 billion people" in less than a week.

Okay, then.

As for the resolution, it's highly doubtful that Nomad's incorrect assumption that Kirk is his creator is enough to confuse Nomad into destroying itself. In fact, Nomad makes it quite clear at other points in the show that it relies on information provided to it. When Nomad first makes the assumption that Kirk is his creator, Kirk intentionally does not correct it. So, when confronted with this "imperfection" at the climax, Nomad would be more likely to shrug it off as a consequence of bad information Kirk gave him.

Also, I'm getting a little tired of Kirk using his amazing intellect to talk computer/android villains into destroying themselves.

Other observations about this episode:

I earlier wondered whether anyone thought Nichelle Nichols' occasional musical numbers added anything to the show.

I guess we now have one very definite critic.

On the subject of Uhura, it's interesting that she apparently retains her knowledge of Swahili (which is presumably her native language) when her mind is erased. But she must have an amazing ability to learn and retain information if she can go from first-grade readers to back on the job in about a week.

Why do the four security guards try to detain Nomad by shooting it? If they weren't aware that Nomad absorbed a photon torpedo, then Kirk was negligent not to inform them. They should have known that shooting Nomad would accomplish nothing more than seal their own deaths.

But hey, wasn't Scotty lucky that Nomad killed him by electrocution, rather than vaporizing him like Nomad did to the security staff?

This is the second episode where one of the principal characters is killed and subsequently revived (the other being McCoy in "Shore Leave").

When Nomad is maximizing the Enterprise engines' efficiency, they hit warp 11 (and presumably higher).

And finally --- I understand that end-of-show comic relief is obligatory, but it's difficult to square Kirk's glib comments about Nomad as his son with the fact that Nomad killed "over 4 billion people", including 4 of Kirk's security personnel.

The Moral of the Story: Garbage in, garbage out.

TOS 32: Who Mourns for Adonais?

2012-03-21T20:10:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 09/22/1967
Star date: 3468.1

Summary: While researching the planet Pollax 4, the Enterprise is detained by an energy field which looks like a giant, green human hand. While trying to escape, a creature resembling a human initiates communication with the crew, inviting them to beam down to the planet to join him in a feast of sorts --- but specifically excluding Spock.

Kirk beams down with McCoy, Scotty, Chekhov and an anthropologist named Carolyn Palamas. The creature claims to be the ancient Greek god Apollo, and demands that the Enterprise crew join him on Pollax 4 to spend the rest of their lives worshiping him. In return, he offers them paradise. Naturally Kirk resists, leading Apollo to demonstrate his abilities in a number of ways: shocking Scotty, ruining the crew's phasers, disabling the transporter and communicators, and rendering Kirk speechless. Apollo also takes a fancy to Palamas, magically replacing her Starfleet uniform with a backless Greek(?) dress. Apollo then takes Palamas off to talk, leaving the men of the landing party to try to figure out Apollo's nature and weaknesses.

Meanwhile, aboard the Enterprise, Spock and the rest of the crew work to escape the giant hand and restore communication with the landing party. Independently of one another, the landing party and Spock on the Enterprise conclude that Apollo's powers rely on a power source of immense energy, and work to find its location so they can disable it.

Apollo explains to Palamas that he and the other gods (Zeus, Hera, Athena, et al) visited Earth 5000 years before. Eventually they left as humans began to turn away from them. He further explains that the gods need worship and love in order to survive. Without it, they "return to the cosmos", like Hera, who spread herself on the wind until only the wind remained.

Palamas starts to fall in love with Apollo, but Kirk explains that she owes it to the rest of the crew to spurn him, thus robbing him of his power. At about this same time, Spock figures out how to poke holes in the giant hand holding the Enterprise, and Sulu determines that Apollo's power source is a large building, or "temple" on the planet's surface. Also, Uhura rigs a subspace bypass circuit to restore communication with the ground party. Kirk orders the Enterprise to destroy the temple, thus robbing Apollo of his power. Apollo attempts to fight back, but is ultimately unsuccessful. Apollo cries that the other gods were right, and disappears, presumably returning himself to the cosmos. Kirk and McCoy lament the necessity of destroying Apollo, pondering whether it would have been so awful to gather a few laurel leaves.

Wow. After "Amok Time", I had high hopes for season two. I still do, but this episode was pretty bad. Just to list the obvious problems with it:

McCoy's arm's length examination of Apollo concludes that he is essentially human, except that he has an extra organ in his chest, which is presumably used to harness his power source to perform godlike feats. Of course, this doesn't explain how Apollo can grow in size to more than twice his height, or why he's immortal.
A pivotal point of the episode is that Apollo needs someone to love and worship him, which is why Kirk orders Palamas to spurn him. But it wasn't Palamas' rejection which destroys Apollo, it was the destruction of his power source.
Early in the show, Spock orders Scotty and Chekhov: "Scout around with your tricorders, find the source of that power!" Even though Scotty and Chekhov are literally standing RIGHT ON TOP of the power source at the time, they fail to locate the power source at any time in the show.
Palamas eventually decides she loves Apollo, which is really hard to believe after Apollo (1) Detains the Enterprise with his giant, green hand, (2) Takes them all prisoner, (3) Smacks Scotty around, and (4) Threatens to kill them if they don't do as he demands.
Even though Apollo claims to be lonely and insists on being worshiped, he leaves the males in the landing party alone roughly every two minutes, giving them ample opportunity to plot against him.

The idea that the Greek gods were really immortal space travelers who visited Earth 5000 years ago and thus seemed godlike to ancient Greeks is kind of interesting, but there's nothing else worth watching in this episode.

Other observations on this episode:

As Uhura is working on her subspace bypass circuit, Spock tells her he can think of no one better for the job. This is the first indication that Uhura is more than a glorified telephone operator.

The Moral of the Story: We've come a long way, baby.

TOS Season 1: A look back

2012-03-19T19:30:00.001-07:00

Well, I've finished watching all of the first season --- 30 episodes, including the original pilot. And while some of the shows have been pretty good, most of them were fair to poor, with a few just flat-out awful. I have to admit that I had my doubts about this whole endeavor more than once. Special raspberries go out to:

"What Are Little Girls Made Of?" - The first example (but sadly, not the last) of the Star Trek writers putting forth the argument that computers are soulless machines by writing a lot of computer characters with souls. Plus, the scariest villain looked like Zippy the Pinhead.
"The Menagerie", parts 1 and 2 - How do you get two Star Trek episodes? Cut up a show that never aired, then stitch it together with a plot which makes no sense. Introduce a lot of tension by getting your two principal characters in a lot of trouble with Starfleet, including the violation of a rule which makes no sense and is antithetical to Starfleet values, and let them off with no sort of punishment whatsoever.
"The Alternative Factor" - Similar to "The Menagerie", this episode reeks of trying to squeeze another episode into the first season --- and actually, it just reeks. A mishmash of nonsense about antimatter, hundreds of trips between the ship and the planet, and no security whatsoever on someone who has promised to steal the ship's dilithium crystals. Still the nadir of TOS, in my opinion.

On the other hand, I would recommend the following episodes to my friends:

"The Corbomite Maneuver" - This episode has everything. In addition to suspense and intrigue, there's also some of the best dialog in the series so far. Plus, an astonishing lack of plot holes.
"Balance of Terror" - Great commentary on attitudes towards war, plus a great chess match between Kirk and the Romulans.
"The City on the Edge of Forever" - A Trek classic, and deservedly so. Great writing by Harlan Ellison, great cameo by Joan Collins, and a bit of emotion from Shatner. The final few minutes of this episode more than make up for the stumbles in the first few minutes.
"Errand of Mercy" - Sort of borderline, but worth seeing for its commentary about war and peace. Also, a good cameo put in by the actor playing Kor, the Klingon commander.

I would also recommend "Space Seed", not because it's a great episode --- it isn't --- but because I'm sure it contains information which is good to know when watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

And although I haven't been keeping strict count, I think that so far we've only heard about two things McCoy isn't: a bricklayer and a psychiatrist. We've seen four episodes where Spock saved the day with his special Vulcan abilities ("Dagger of the Mind", "A Taste of Armageddon", "The Devil in the Dark" and "Operation - Annihilate!"). And finally, we've seen about two dozen female Yeomen, even though we're supposed to believe women are rarely placed in such posts.

Ah, Yeoman Rand and your basket-weave hair --- we hardly knew ye.

TOS 31: Amok Time

2012-03-19T18:55:00.001-07:00

Original air date: 09/15/1967
Star date: 3372.7

Summary: As the Enterprise is on its way to Altaire 6 to participate in a presidential inauguration there, McCoy tells Kirk he is concerned about Spock, and his increasingly agitated behavior. Kirk is skeptical until he sees Spock throw a bowl of soup against the wall, berate Nurse Chapel, and then demand shore leave on his home planet of Vulcan. When Kirk asks Spock his reasons for the request, Spock refuses to say anything more than that he needs rest, and it needs to be on Vulcan. Given Spock's track record as the best First Officer in the fleet, Kirk grants the request and orders the Enterprise to fly to Vulcan.

However, soon Admiral Komack notifies Kirk that the inauguration has been moved up one week, and orders Kirk to proceed to Altaire 6 immediately. Kirk complies, figuring that Spock can take his shore leave on Vulcan later, but after examining Spock, McCoy concludes that Spock will die within the week if he does not return to Vulcan. This spurs Kirk to question Spock again, demanding greater detail. Although Spock insists that the details are intensely personal, he eventually tells Kirk that it is his time for Pon Farr, the time in a Vulcan's life when the biological need to mate compels him to return home or die. At this time, biological drives overtake Vulcan rationality, and Spock is driven almost to madness. Kirk makes one last attempt to get the Admiral to accept a detour to Vulcan, and when the Admiral holds his ground, Kirk orders the ship to Vulcan anyway, concluding that Spock has saved his life many times over, so helping Spock is more important than his career.

Arriving at Vulcan, we learn that Spock has already been betrothed, in a sense, to a Vulcan woman named T'Pring. Spock asks Kirk and McCoy to accompany him to his wedding, for although it is highly unusual for outsiders to participate in the ceremony, it is Spock's right to have his closest friends with him. The ceremony is presided over by T'Pau, a high Vulcan dignitary known throughout the galaxy. However, the wedding does not go as planned, for T'Pring exercises her right to have another challenge Spock for her hand, and she chooses Kirk.

T'Pau gives Kirk the option to decline the challenge, but Kirk accepts --- finding out too late that the fight with Spock is to the death. Spock wins the first round, and McCoy goes on the field to give Kirk an injection to help him deal with the thin Vulcan atmosphere and heat. However, under the grip of Pon Farr madness Spock kills his Captain before he realizes what he has done; McCoy confirms to T'Pau that Kirk is really dead, and returns to the Enterprise with the body. Spock then asks T'Pring why she chose Kirk to challenge him. T'Pring explains that she wants to be with another Vulcan named Stonn, and that the challenge was a win-win situation for her. Had Kirk been victorious, he would have rejected her, and she could then be with Stonn. Since Spock is victorious, she expects him to reject her because she requested the challenge, so she can still be with Stonn.

Spock returns to the Enterprise, and starts to explain to McCoy his plan to turn command duties over to Scotty while they fly to the nearest starbase so Spock can turn himself in for Kirk's murder. However, his explanation is interrupted when Kirk makes a surprise appearance, alive after all. Kirk explains that McCoy's injection on Vulcan was actually a drug to make Kirk appear dead, so that the duel would end before Kirk or Spock were seriously injured. We then learn that T'Pau has contacted Admiral Komack and used her influence to get him to approve the Enterprise's detour to Vulcan.

Although this episode was apparently the fifth one made in the second season, it was the first one aired, and it certainly gets the second season off on the right foot. It solidifies DeForest Kelley and his character Dr. Leonard McCoy as the third pillar of the series, along with William Shatner as Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. In addition to McCoy playing a pivotal role in this episode, Kelley's name also appears in the opening credits.

This show also gets the second season off to a fast start by showing us more about the most compelling character on the show, Mr. Spock. We see the planet Vulcan for the first time, and learn more about its culture and rituals. We also get a rare glimpse of Spock as being more than a walking computer, battling with biological drives seated deep within his race.

Apparently, in the case of Vulcans, at least, it really is true. There comes a time when Vulcan men really really REALLY have to have it, or they'll die.

On top of everything else, the fight choreography is greatly improved over the first season --- it actually looks like Spock and Kirk are fighting, not just stage-fighting --- and the final scene on the Enterprise is great, with Kirk's reappearance perfectly timed, and just a glimpse of genuine joy and emotion from Spock at seeing his friend and Captain alive again.

Of course, there were also some minor points we have to overlook, like the fact that although T'Pau was very conscientious about telling Kirk he may leave, and he may decline the challenge, she somehow neglects to tell him the battle is a fight to the death until it's too late for him to back out. Oops. Also, although McCoy has concluded that if Spock doesn't return to Vulcan within a week he'll die, for some reason Kirk doesn't share this information with Admiral Komack when asking for permission to fly to Vulcan (unless that discussion takes place off-screen, in which case Komack is the worst sort of jackass for refusing permission). But it's fairly easy to overlook those points, sit back and enjoy the show.

And hey, is T'Pring a bitch or what? Falling for another man is one thing --- she and Spock were betrothed to one another at the age of 7 after all --- but to force Spock and Kirk to fight to the death just so she can be with Stonn? Outrageous. Good thing Spock kicks her to the curb. And actually, it's a bit difficult to believe that T'Pau would even allow T'Pring to bring Kirk into it, since she's obviously trying to game the system.

I am left wondering about a few things at the end of this episode:

T'Pau thinks Kirk is dead, and she's a very important and powerful Vulcan. I imagine she will be quite upset with Kirk, Spock and McCoy when she learns the truth. It will be interesting to see if we see the three of them receive their comeuppance later in the series (I'm guessing no).

If this is how marriage/mating is handled on Vulcan, then how did Spock's father end up marrying an Earth woman?

Other observations about this episode:

This is the first time we see Chekhov. I'm going to guess that the crew stabilizes this season with the usual suspects, and the only other faces we'll see are guest stars and disposable redshirts.

The Vulcan scenery is good --- although since the last time I complimented the scenery, I learned that the whole series was digitally remastered 4-5 years ago. Which is all for the best, I suppose. Still, it would be nice to know what scenery is original, and what's remastered (probably anything worth looking at is remastered).

The Moral of the Story: Sometimes the animal comes out in all of us.