The Empath
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 3, Episode 12
Kirk, Spock and McCoy get worked over by some big-headed aliens in shiny robes, but an empath takes on their pain and saves the day. Interesting for the minimal sets but not so for the dreadfully sappy score and overall approach.
McCoyism: I'm a doctor, not a coal miner.
(viewed 07/27/2008)
The Apple
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 5
Mincing simpletons with really bad hair inhabit a dubious paradise ruled by a "god" who gobbles up a few of them every now and then. Along come Kirk & Co. who toss the Prime Directive out the window and proceed to deactivate the cruel overseer.
McCoyism (abridged): Dead.
(viewed 07/21/2008)
The Omega Glory
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 23
A starship captain goes loony and meddles in the affairs of a warring primitive planet. Somehow, a copy of the United States Constitution and a United States flag has come into their possession. Hmmm.
(viewed 07/06/2008)
Whom Gods Destroy
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 3, Episode 14
The lunatics take over the asylum - and the landing party that gets mixed up in things. Histrionics and godawful overacting are the order of the day.
(viewed 05/14/2008)
And The Children Shall Lead
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 3, Episode 4
Obnoxious brats are manipulated by a verbose "angel" to further his nefarious schemes - whatever they may be. Silly.
McCoyism: He's dead, Captain. (Say what?)
(viewed 05/13/2008)
The Paradise Syndrome
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 3, Episode 3
Native Americans in Space. (see Romans in Space)
(viewed 05/11/2008)
Bread and Circuses
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 25
Romans in Space (see Nazis in Space, Mobsters in Space, Outlaws in Space).
(viewed 05/06/2008)
The Enterprise Incident
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 3, Episode 2
Subterfuge on the part of the Enterprise brass as they work on obtaining a Romulan cloaking device while a (female) Romulan commander gets the hots for Spock.
(viewed 05/02/2008)
Obsession
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 13
Kirk goes off the deep end and the red shirts take it on the chin as a deadly cloud type creature runs amok. A bit overblown on the Kirk/Ahab bit, but some good moments of tension between Kirk and his top officers.
(viewed 04/27/2008)
Patterns Of Force
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 21
Space Nazis - not to be confused with Space Mobsters or Space Outlaws.
(viewed 04/23/2008)
Return To Tomorrow
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 20
Incredibly advanced beings who live inside globe lights need to borrow human bodies for a reason that managed to escape me. In a very un-Kirk-like moment, Kirk takes a vote among his top officers and they go for the idea. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this the same guy who said, on at least one occasion, that running a starship is not a democracy?
Anyway, Spock's being is apparently not as advanced as the others. He gets inside Spock's body and proceeds to leer, smirk, wreak havoc and all that sort of villainous stuff.
(viewed 04/22/2008)
The Ultimate Computer
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 24
A computer designed to run a starship goes out of whack on a test drive. It's creator is along for the ride, but he's pretty much off the deep end too. In the end, as with most out of whack computers on TOS, Kirk defeats it by talking it to death. Fast-paced and tense and, for the most part, a pretty good episode.
(viewed 04/20/2008)
A Private Little War
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 19
Spock is shot and Kirk bitten by a stuntman in a weird white gorilla suit and then saved by a local shaman, who puts a hex on him. All the while war rages between the locals, the outcome of which is being tweaked by the gun-running Klingons. A mostly clunky effort, but a good scene when Kirk and McCoy go toe to toe over tactics.
(viewed 04/16/2008)
A Piece Of The Action
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 17
Not a time travel episode, but it might as well have been. This one ranks right up there with Spectre of the Gun in the truly retarded premise category. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a planet where everyone mimics Chicago gangsters of the Twenties. A few somewhat whimsical fish out of water moments, but otherwise pretty lame.
(viewed 04/13/2008)
The Gamesters of Triskelion
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 16
Kirk, Uhura and Chekhov are enslaved and made to fight as gladiators. Kirk romances a green-haired bimbo in a foil bikini. Enough with the pseudo-Roman crapola already.
(viewed 04/12/2008)
The Trouble With Tribbles
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 15
If you prefer your Star Trek lighthearted and fluffy you could do worse than this infamous episode, said to be one of the most popular of them all.
(viewed 04/11/2008)
A Wolf In The Fold
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 14
Another one by writer Robert Bloch, who had previously penned the Catspaw episode. This one wasn't quite so bad but it was a bit of a dud nonetheless. Things are looking bad for Scotty, who just happens to be around when several people get bumped off. Turns out it's all the work of some sort of entity that was also responsible for Jack the Ripper's bad deeds. Among the other low points - as if that wasn't enough - a séance.
On the plus side, there's not just one, but three McCoyisms. That's right, it's a "he's dead, Jim" and two (yep!) separate renditions of "she's dead, Jim."
(viewed 04/10/2008)
The Deadly Years
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 12
A fairly goofy premise as all members of a landing party - except Chekhov - contract a disease that ages them rapidly. Things are pepped up a good bit by a competency hearing and by the presence of Commodore Stocker, a Starfleet bigwig who differs from most by behaving quite reasonably and even respectfully even when he has to take over the ship. Of course, he chokes under pressure, paving the way for one of those Kirk moments when the Captain reappears and whips things into shape right quick.
McCoyism: I'm not a magician, Spock. Just an old country doctor.
(viewed 04/07/2008)
Friday's Child
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 11
Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a Renaissance Faire, where they vie with the Klingons for mineral rights. Plenty of fisticuffs and the like ensue and McCoy gets to deliver a baby and talk cutesy baby talk to it.
McCoyism: I'm a doctor, not an escalator. (!)
(viewed 04/05/2008)
Journey To Babel
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 10
Things are decidedly tense on the Enterprise as Spock's mother and estranged father join a group of diplomats en route to a conference. When one is killed, Spock's father - Sarek - is a suspect. Then a heart problem flares up, endangering Sarek's like. When Kirk is injured Spock refuses to stand down from his command duties and assist with his father's operation. Aside from the ridiculous mix of alien diplomats, a pretty spiffy episode. Well done.
(viewed 04/04/2008)
Metamorphosis
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 9
One of my chief grumbles with the Voyager and Enterprise episodes I've seen thus far is that the aliens are thoroughly human in every way except for a few pieces of latex slapped on their faces. Not so with The Companion - a being of flashing lights - of this episode, who steers a shuttle off course to provide...companionship to a shipwrecked would-be immortal. While it gets points for trying to actually present an alien worthy of the name, it's terribly sappy otherwise.
(viewed 04/02/2008)
I, Mudd
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 8
The Enterprise finds itself in the clutches of Harry Mudd, who now rules over a planet of androids. Attempted comic relief that - a few select zingers aside - mostly falls flat.
(viewed 03/30/2008)
Catspaw
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 7
With all due respect to Robert Bloch, who wrote this episode, it's a resounding clunker. First airing just a few days before Halloween in 1967, it concerns a mysterious planet where a landing party finds witches, black cats, dungeons and all other manner of silliness.
It's all the creation of two poorly-dressed beings who want something or other from the landing party - it's hard to discern exactly what. Pointless and tedious, but how about them puppets?
(viewed 03/30/2008)
