Month: February 2010

I was really torn in my reaction to this episode. Should I start this note with: “Star Trek, a one act play” or “Welcome to Planet Zero-set-budget”? Luckily enough, that at least gives me something to say about this otherwise soporific episode. Just dull, not even bad. Although I suppose super-powerful aliens who weren’t malevolent…

So far I’ve had at least some memory of the episodes I’ve seen. Only in a few cases has the episode been completely new to me, and most of those have been fairly mediocre. But this episode was new to me, and really clicked with me. I’d probably rate this one of the five or…

Technically speaking I suppose that super-powerful Humans is a change from super-powerful aliens. Not really enough of one. I found the central ‘psychic humans make Kirk and Spock dance for their enjoyment’ plot dragged on way too long. The scandal of the episode, the first black-white kiss on TV, is difficult to even notice from…

Another pretty strong episode. I think Season 3 gets a bit of a bad rap overall. While there have been some stinkers, there have been four or so pretty good episodes so far. McCoy’s characterisation bothered me in this episode. He seemed to just be disagreeing with anything Spock did. Here he was angry because…

The episode of Star Trek which is, I suspect, rather more famous for having the longest title than any other distinction. The fundamental handicap this episode has is that everyone knows this is a weekly TV show. Therefore we know that McCoy will be cured of his disease by the end of the hour, and…

This episode brings up something that’s been bugging me for a bit now in my rewatching of Star Trek: From [Star Wars vs Star Trek: Brain Bugs](http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/BrainBugs.html): > In the original series, the Klingons were an aggressive military superpower with expansionist ambitions. In the Cold War politics of the time, they obviously represented the USSR,…

I have a strong suspicion that in a different mood I would have enjoyed this episode a lot more. The basic plot idea, of putting Kirk and crew into the middle of the Wyatt/Earp feud in the 1880s, has a lot of potential. And some of the direction and budget choices, like not having a…

A surprisingly solid episode. I was expecting something a little bit more didactic from the early moments of the episode. The setup smelled like a “don’t judge a book by its cover” fable. But the episode really didn’t go there – instead, a much stronger story gets told. The reveal on Dr Jones was surprising…

A fairly middling episode – not as bad as some, not as good as some. The children never really felt menacing. There can be a quiet menace to children, but the direction of the episode falls a little flat in that regard. The children come across as bratty and spoiled, but are never menacing or…

And Season 3 swings straight back into mediocre. The episode isn’t all bad. The B-plot, with Spock, Scotty and McCoy on the Enterprise is quite good. But the scenes with the amnesiac Kirk (“Kirok”) down on the planets are dull, badly written, and badly acted. I haven’t wanted to hit the fast forward button more…