Month: January 2010

The Vietnam war analogy here could not be clearer. Mainly because Kirk takes the little time out two-thirds of the way through the mission to make it painfully clear through a direct reference. But that said it’s a pretty sophisticated analogy for the time (1968 in this case). Kirk is pretty clearly stuck with no…

Another slow developing episode, which turns out to really be about McCoy and Spock’s relationship. This is the first time that the real complexities have been clear, and it seems like this is an important building block in the relationship that can be seen in the Star Trek films. The competition between McCoy and Spock…

So here’s my problem with this episode – there couldn’t be a clearer example of the importance of strictly adhering to the non-interference Prime Directive. The damage that can be done to a culture by even relatively innocuous material (OK, fine, maybe the extent of the mimicry is a little unbelievable) is extensive. But does…

Whoops, that was a little bit of a hiatus. Sorry! Between holidays, work and weddings (OK, and Mass Effect 2) no time for Star Trek until today. So I’m now 18 episodes behind. Better get a move on… *Gamesters* is a nice episode a little bit undermined by not really having enough content to fill…

A beloved Star Trek classic. Does it hold up? I think so. It’s mainly an episode played for laughs, but the laughs are pretty good ones. The story rolls along nice and quickly, and there are some nice character moments for Mr Scott. (One of he surprising things from watching all this Star Trek is…

The inevitable ‘Jack the Ripper’ episode. I thought it all went pretty well, really. The usual problems with mystery episodes like this is that you know the regular cast member is innocent. But they did a good job here in making Scotty look not just plausible as a suspect, but positively guilty. Things went off…

Captain Ahab, ahem, I mean Kirk, chases after a creature that once nearly killed him to the point of endangering his ship and crew. Gee, I wonder where they got the idea for that plot? Moby Dick plagiarism accusations aside this is a clever episode. The part when McCoy and Spock have to ask Kirk…

A subtle call back to the first episode here, with the Enterprise doing another check of remote scientists. The ‘comedy old people’ bit gets old. Yes, we get it: old people are cranky and have arthritis. I thought the makeup was pretty good for the time, and it was a nice touch to have the…

The return of the Klingons. And another example of ‘what Prime Directive’, although with a bit more justification than in most instances here. This episode’s moral has actually improved a bit. The idea of the difficulties of obeying a culture’s rules at the expense of your own is something that has become more important in…

Spock gets a family, and unlike Kirk’s relatives last season these ones get to live. While the episode was a lot of fun, I had some problems with the premise. Why would you cram a starship full of disputing delegations – surely a few different starships are the way to go here. Still, the overall…