Ladies and Gentleman, we have the first official Red Shirt death: 309 minutes in to Star Trek as aired. And Red Shirt #2 at 11 311 minutes, just for spice.
A really good SF tale. It’s the ‘mad scientist’ well, which is well explored. But it’s nicely put together, and it’s nice that the story is resolved through Kirk out-thinking the mad scientist, rather than through action. It’s not entirely clear why they bothered with the personal relationship with Nurse Chapel (other than giving the producer’s girlfriend a part, of course).
I have to admit to not having watched a lot of original trek, so most of these episodes are new to me. What’s really noticeable so far is how much more of the overall weight of the series is carried by Kirk. In the early episodes at least, TOS is really a star vehicle for Shatner, compared to the ensemble show of most of the other series.
On a side note: Andrea’s costume is remarkable: it takes a lot to make the normal uniform mini-skirts look modest. Her costume managed.
7 down, 730 to go. And officially 1% finished by duration. 1 episode behind still.