ST: TOS, S1, E3: Where No Man Has Gone Before

So, this is the pilot with the crew that we know and love. They are still in comfy sweaters, but you know, it's almost there. This piolet also establishes a personal relationship between Kirk and a crew member, this time Operations Officer Mitchell. They've had some adventures together. They've seen things, man. We are also introduced to what I think is Starfleets only recognition of human psychics ever, in Dr. Dehner. There's talk of ESP tests and human psychic potential, but after this episode I don't think it ever appears again, at least not in TNG.

The Enterprise finds a destroyed ship and it's incomplete logs that have some unclear entries on ESP, a wave that hit the ship, and an apparent self destruct order. This is the first mention of a self destruct mechanism, which is interesting. It's just mentioned in passing but seems like a huge deal. Anyway.  The wave clearly affects Mitchell and he is all weak and stuff.

While in sick bay, or maybe they are still calling it the dispensary, Mitchell learns how to do all kinds of things with his mind, like change the readouts on the medical equipment and floating a cup of water across the room so that he can have a drink. During his stay he develops a relationship with Dr. Dehner.

Spock comes across very cold in the episode when he repeatedly tells Kirk that Mitchell is getting too powerful, probably quotes Animal Farm, and that the only course of action is to put Mitchell down. It's logical, cold, terrible and calculated.

It's also right.

My ESP brings all the blonds to the yard.

As Mitchell edges ever nearer his God complex Kirk hems and haws at what to do with his old friend. He can't be detained on the ship. The crews attempts to keep him subdued with a hypospray seem to have diminishing returns. Luckily, after being injected, Mitchell can still stand up on the transporter pad. Kirk decides on exile to a lifeless automated mining planet that sees maintenance only every few decades. I'm sure that wouldn't be an unpleasant surprise for any one who decided to visit it.

Oh, also, Dr. Dehner is also starting to go power mad with psychic power. You know, so there can be a mating pair.

The end is a little foggy, at the moment, but Mitchell, while imprisoned, uses his mind to strangle the technician set to watch him with some wires and escapes some how.

The whole thing cumulates with a fist fight versus Kirk on the planet surface while Dehner watches. I miss Pichard here, because he would never say "I'm the Captain, it's my responsibility." and then run off and fight a mini-god with a phaser rifle and his fists. He'd send Riker, or Yar, or Worf, or Data. Kirk pretty much gets his ass handed to him and only come out on top because Dehner isn't all the way gone and pulls a Vadar before dying. Once again, the crew is helpless against a force and an outside influence has to help them. TOS is scary so far.

Spock was right. When you find a rabid psychic dog, you put it down.

Star Trek Episode 4: The Naked Time

This episode's title was misleading. That is my biggest complaint. 
This is the first episode in the Star Trek world in which the plot is that the characters all act strange and lose their impulse control. In this one, it is because of a red blob of ooze that appeared on this dying planet for no reason and apparently spreads through sweat.
Shawn was happy to see that this is the classic shirtless Sulu episode. I guess for him the title was not misleading. 
I guess this was a fun hour, my only qualm would be that the joy of an episode like this is knowing the characters and being surprised at their actions. We still aren't entirely sure if Sulu is the helmsman or the science officer yet, so when he shows up and starts fencing we think "maybe he's the fencing officer?" We haven't had time to really get to know them and so we aren't as amused as we could be.
The crazy drunken Irishmen could have BEEN Scotty. Why on Earth go through all that work getting him to the engine room, locked in and then not explain why he has the knowledge needed to do all of these things and mess with the ship. Just let Scotty lock himself in and then be crazy and need to be stopped. Makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?
Why doesn't anyone get taken over by fear if they are all going to die and the madness is a lack of impulse control and are we implying that Kirk can hold back the emotion, but Spock can't? I hate that. If they are going to be all crazy pro-human then Kirk has to be a bit of an average guy. Those are just the rules. Sorry.

Pet peeves and Inconsistencies:

• We are told the madness spreads through sweat. How did it get onto the first guy in the first place. There was no liquid on that planet.
• That guy's blood is like Lisa Frank purple.
• Operating on people in the future looks just like it does today except that they shoot them with that light gun that cures fillings at the dentist instead of sewing them up.
• Ok, I'm not even joking. What is that title supposed to refer to?
• So they travel back in time because they went really fast? Am I understanding this right? I don't know if I can complain about this yet, but there is an episode of Vger in which they go so fast that time speeds up.
• Anyone else feel like space scientist is the most dangerous job in the world? No Wonder Sulu is looking for a career change about now!

A last note: My Prius starts up just fine on a cold day and drives immediately. Too bad that technology has been lost to us, but thank god we get it back before the next time a space ship needs to escape quickly from something, because I guarantee that this "engine takes 30 minutes to heat up or we go back in time" issue never comes up again.

Star Trek Episode 3: Where no Man has Gone Before

The other pilot.
This episode introduced some characters, but they obviously had not yet figured out exactly who would be doing what. McCoy, for example was still replaced by a random old guy. A different old guy, I must point out, than the last "other doctor."
The premise of this episode is that some people have ESP. When these people pass through purple clouds, they get pushed over and then become super powered, presumably as a "sorry I pushed you over" gift from the cloud.
The episode begins with Kirk knowing that a ship that passed through this cloud in the past was destroyed, but only after the captain got crazy obsessed with ESP. For some reason, he decides to follow suit and go through the cloud, perhaps because he cannot handle the curiosity. We introduce a character which I would expect to be recurring if this were the actual first episode: the psychiatrist. I don't remember her name. Her death would be slightly shocking if this episode aired first, so I give a tip of my hat to the writers.
We find out that ESP is an accepted characteristic of some humans in the future and that she is one of those people. She's not nearly as psychic though, as Kirk's good buddy (whose name I have also forgotten). I will henceforth call them ESP guy and ESP girl.
ESP guy gets pushed over really hard by the cloud, so he gets to chill in sick bay while he gets his super powers and learns to use and enjoy them. ESP girl spends her time fawning over him, because she has not yet gotten her super powers.
Spock suggests marooning ESP guy on a mining planet and when Kirk says no he suggests the alternative of killing him instead. Kirk must feel like this puts everything in perspective, because he comes around on the marooning idea.
This scene brings me to a huge pet peeve. *See below.
Like Charlie, I can only side with ESP guy here:
He never does anything bad until they force him. He just sits in his hospital bed for days getting exited about the cool stuff that he can do. When Kirk comes by, he wants to chat and show off. He is talking with his friend, as a friend. Eventually, he reads the minds of the people in the room with him and discovers that they want him dead or abandoned.This only bugs him a little, considering.
He is maybe a tiny bit cocky, and he might not be as polite as one could hope, but remember, they want him dead. He does not harm anyone until they lock him up on a deserted planet to be abandoned. He then blasts himself out, trying not to kill anyone, but he did JUST get these powers, so cut him some slack.
ESP couple run off onto the planet to make their lives in seclusion, but Kirk won't have it. He grabs a gun and chases them down. The claim has been made that this is the next step in human evolution. There is even a breeding pair that they could just leave here and wait to see what happens next. Kirk sees to it that they are both dead.
Who's the bad guy?

Pet Peeves and Inconsistencies:

• ESP girl gains her powers late because she does not test as high for ESP as ESP guy does. Shouldn't this mean that people who test even lower than her would gain powers even later. Shouldn't they be at least worried and looking into this?
• *Kirk is constantly (throughout the series) accusing Spock of being insensitive and requesting that he pretend to emote like a human. Spock is extremely tolerant of this. I would find it pretty annoying if every time I pointed out that someone had to act fast or face inevitable peril, I was reprimanded for not wasting time and forced to watch them waste time on an activity which I saw as completely needless. Spock says "here do this" and then someone says "Spock can't you sit around and fret with the rest of us before pointing out the best course of action for everyone?"
• Spock admits that an ancestor married a human female. Is this him downplaying the connection, or am I misremembering that by ancestor he means father?

ST: TOS: The Naked Time

Enter the ever so famous plot where the crew unexplainable becomes foolish, giggly, and otherwise intoxicated. I believe every series after this one has taken advantage of this clever plot. I enjoy it because it's exciting, light hearted and it shows that future spacefaring species can have a little fun too.

It starts off with an away team beaming down to a planets surface to examine the remaining crew of a space station. I first noticed the elaborate stitching pattern on the encounter suits they used. I suppose interlocking circles will help prevent the spread of any noxious or contaminating debris. That is, unless you foolishly remove your glove...

The resulting remainder of the episode involves various characters running around, apparently drunk off whatever it was they came in contact with on the planet. Most notably was when Sulu and the other helmsman we sweating profusely on the bridge. Sulu then get up, puts his arm round the back of the chair of the other helmsman and seductively asks if he wants to go to the "gym".

Things get worse when more crewmen start to feel the effects of the intoxication. There's singing, dancing, and Sulu galloping around half naked with a fencing foil quoting early earth prose. the are some who have not felt the effects of this drunkenness. It's apparent that hey have no idea how to deal with these people when Spock tells one crewman to head to sickbay, unaccompanied. Did he make it to sickbay? No.

I think the moral of the story I took away from this episode is, if people just drank a little more of that Saurian Brandy they keep mentioning, they might know how to better deal with drunken crewmen.

ST: TOS: Where No Man Has Gone Before

My first thoughts after hearing Kirk ask "Did another earth ship probe out the galaxy as we intend to do?":  Wouldn't they know this already?  I mean, it's only been 200 years.  Has there been some breakdown of recorded history?  Is it that easy to forget in the future?

I do love these episodes where the ship is on the edge of the galaxy where they are light years away from any help.  That always seems to be where the most action happens.  I wasn't too thrilled with the actual plot of the episode though.  Yet another supernatural encounter.

I was surprised with the flagrant loss of life that has happened so early on in the series.  When compared with later series (TNG, VOY), the loss of crew seems to be a way of life.  I couldn't imagine if this rate of loss happened on Voyager.  By the time they finally returned to the Alpha quadrant, they probably would have ended only with 7 of 9 and the Doctor. 

ST: TOS: Charlie X

Enter the base plot summary for a childlike character with supernatural abilities who interact with the crew and discovers there is more about humanity that he needs to learn before fitting in.  However in this episode, the fitting in part never really happens. 

I have enjoyed episodes of TNG where they introduce super powerful individuals (the Q for example).  This one seemed slightly different.  Charlie was not a Q, however it would have been neat if the Thasians were a precursor to the Q.  I think this is one notable difference between TOS and TNG.  In TOS, the story lines seem to always want to find a logical explanation to events.  In TNG, they have let go of the logical need to explain everything.  I recall a few episodes where they weren't able to explain a phenomenon and it was OK.  A little unsettling, but still OK. 

I guess this also calls to the difference between the maturity of the Federation as well.  In TOS, the Federation is still quite young, but they have the arrogance to believe they are all knowing and have the best solution for everything.  In TNG, they are slightly more mature, however they still hold on to some of that arrogance.  But, they are starting to realize that the universe is a larger place and there are many things they do not understand. 

Back to Charlie X.  They never should have agreed to that arrangement.  But if they didn't, there wouldn't have been an episode for future episodes to borrow from.  

ST: TOS: The Man Trap

The early introduction of shape shifters in the series is quite amazing to me.  I knew the idea of a shape shifter has always been on the minds of science fiction fans for a long time.  What I guess I didn't know was that the idea had such an early appearance in the series. 

I am trying to recall DS9 when they go into Odo's back story and his his species origin.  As I remember, Odo's race was from the Gamma quadrant.  Early on they did explore (I guess spy is a more apt term) the Alpha quadrant while the Federation was still in its infancy.  However, these shape shifters that are revealed in TOS are a different species than the Founders of the Gamma quadrant. 


For the production values of this episode, I enjoyed that the "original" crew is starting to make an appearance.  Even the intro reel was much better (I particularly enjoyed the symbol crash in the theme song, it adds flare).  Finally we are starting to break into the memorable actors who have been with us all along. 

As for Sulu... Well, I think the franchise has made a living of exploiting the insecurities of the Asian male crew members while they interact with the other females (see also - Ensign Harry Kim, VOY).