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Series and Season: Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 3

Episode #,and Episode Name: 5 – “Is There In Truth No Beauty?”

Setting the Stage: I started at 6:30 pm, still watching via Netflix and using their viewing order. As it is laundry day, and we stopped for dinner, it took me almost 2 hours to watch this episode. I fully intended to watch a second episode while I worked out, but it’s already 9:30 and I am exhausted. Travel will do that to you, kids. Well, travel and grocery shopping, and four loads of laundry, and walking your dog, and… yeah. Tempura, the husband, and Professor Zoom were all in attendance for the entire episode. I’m pretty sure Jazz and Thor made a cameo appearance, but Loki still wants absolutely nothing to do with Star Trek.

Tonight I write to the melodies of Minus the Bear and The London Symphony Orchestra (Star Wars: A New Hope soundtrack). I also have one very tired puppy sleeping next to me, who clearly missed me while I was out of town. I am missing New York; my friends, their cats, and the fooooood (salty Italian meats and pizza to be exact), but it is good to be home with my furbabies.

Quick Summary with my Impressions: “Is There In Truth No Beauty?” Apparently humans go nuts when they see Medusans, and the Enterprise is picking up an ambassador and some assistants to transfer. Vulcans, however, may use a visor so Spock gets to greet Dr. Jones and Ambassador Kollos; or as I like to call him the “ambassador in a box”. Looks like Spock has met his personality match with Dr. Jones, and I am loving her outfit. Why do I want to cosplay all of the things?

Kirk says “fascinating” and I’m howling with laughter, it was well timed. All of the men, including Spock, are head over heels with Dr. Jones at dinner, but something is wrong and she leaves for her quarters. Apparently Larry has the hots for Dr. Jones and shares a passionate kiss with her; he wants her and she wants to go away with the ambassador to do her work. Oh poor, dumb Larry – he looked at the ambassador and runs away, whereas Dr. Jones doesn’t even need the visor apparently, interesting. Larry gets into it with Scotty in the engine room and puts the Enterprise into unknown space, and then he dies. Kirk is being flirty with Dr. Jones to try and distract her from stopping Spock, but he’s also being a pushy bastard telling her she is young and shouldn’t give up her youth for something “ugly”. Oh snap, Miranda is blind… that’s why she can deal with the Kollos. Spock does some Vulcan mind magic to bind with Kollos, and WHY IS SPOCK LAUGHING and SMILING? This is weird. After the crisis is averted, and the Enterprise is back to where they needed to be, Spock needs to reverse the mind meld but he forgets the visor. Kirk believes Dr. Jones made Spock forget the visor and he berates her, but she understands Spock needs to be cured and she tries to help. As they leave, why was Kirk standing in the transporter room NOT wearing a visor? They made SUCH a big deal of it at the top of the episode and then just forget? Sigh.

Not only is this apparently the “season of the brunette”, but it’s also where Spock gets to have some “romantic” interludes with some of the female guest stars – in the most Spock was ever, of course. I liked that there were several hints to why Dr. Jones was different than other humans, but the reveal about her being blind truly stunned those on the ship (and likely many viewers). I also believe this marks the first person with no vision on the show, and aside from McCoy being a bit snotty to her about not being able to fly the ship, it was not made into a big deal. For the 1960’s, Star Trek was pretty diverse and progressive in some ways, and in others it was just a product of the time. Overall this was not a terrible episode, but it wasn’t all that great either. 6 tiny piglets running through the mud for this episode.

The one question I have for Spock is: What’s in the box?

TA out!

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Series and Season: Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 3

Episode #,and Episode Name: 3 – “The Paradise Syndrome” and 4 “And the Children Shall Lead”

Setting the Stage: I actually watched these episodes yesterday, still watching via Netflix and using their viewing order. I watched these two episodes with my friends; the third episode was spent on the couch, with a cat to my left and a Trekkie to my right. The fourth episode was shared while the three of us ate a very tasty dinner and I got to drink some Manhattan Special, I really do have the best friends.

I’m sitting at the airport trying to finish this post, because I have an engagement party to go to as soon as I arrive back home. Thank the internet gods for free WI-fi at LGA, although it’s cold, rainy, and windy outside. I’ve got my iPod running and we’re starting out with “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” from Pink, so it’s going to be an interesting writing session. Just as I finished writing the last sentence, we moved to “Blown Away” by Carrie Underwood and apparently I’ll be writing to angry, passionate, wronged women today.

Quick Summary with my Impressions: “The Paradise Syndrome” opens with a big green obelisk and apparently a meteor is coming in a few months to destroy the planet. The Enterprise is on a mission to help nudge the meteor elsewhere, but as soon as they are about to leave Kirk falls into it and is electrocuted. McCoy and Spock have no idea where their captain went, so they leave him as the meteor window is closing. Back on the Enterprise, Scotty is worried about his engines like a father who is worried about his child, and it’s adorable. Due to the electrocution, Kirk has amnesia. So when he exits the obelisk, the locals think he is a god come to save them. He is then invited to the tribe and performs CPR to revive a drowned child, so they are now certain he’s a god. That reminds me of another false, gold god:

For the record, Shatner does not give as good of eyebrow as Nimoy. Back on the Enterprise they can’t move the asteroid, they are losing power, and they decide to make their way back to the planet – but it will take almost 2 months. There’s a whole lot of “awww” in the exchange between Miramanee and Kirk, he really does look happy and I’m sure this is what it might be like if he didn’t choose a life of service to Starfleet. McCoy is dramatic as usual and Spock is thinking, also as usual. Silash is jealous and tries to knife Kirk, but Kirk is merciful. Ah, shirtless Kirk with his new bride… I knew we couldn’t go too long without seeing him shirtless. This kind of feels like On Her Majesty’s Secret Service when James Bond gets married, it’s a little weird. Spock figures out the symbols, but Kirk and Miramanee are being stoned by the villagers. When McCoy and Spock show up they COMPLETELY ignore Miramanee, what gives? More Vulcan mind magic and Kirk is back, and they save the day… but not the girl.

I totally get why the wife had to die, they did it in OHMSS too. What I don’t get is why did they all act like she wasn’t even there? There’s also the issue of Native American stereotypes, the, jamming two months into a 50 minute episode, and McCoy being overly dramatic and almost insubordinate to Spock when he was in control. My biggest question, though, is why didn’t they just check out the planet AFTER they destroyed the meteor? Doesn’t make much sense to only leave a 30 minute gap to meet your deadline. The only two things about this episode that were good and pure were Scotty and, surprisingly, Kirk. We get to see Scotty being a mother hen to his beloved Enterprise and we get a glimpse into the future Kirk may have had if he had not the desire to captain a star ship. I give this episode 4 macarons, you know the French ones that almost always have almonds in them so I can’t eat them… those.

“And the Children Shall Lead” begin with the landing party encountering at least eight dead adults, and it looks like a mass suicide. All of a sudden, their children run out and are not in the least bit concerned, they are running and playing. Kirk and Spock check out the cave and Kirk becomes anxious, a very strange feeling overcomes him… but not Spock. Back on the ship the kids eat ice cream but then are snotty to Kirk and Chapel and only want to play. The kids chant and this creepy guy we later find out to be named Gorgon, shows up, and he gets the Disney Villian treatment.

One by one, the children take over the bridge, engineering, and other areas of the ship. Kirk doesn’t realize they have left orbit of the planet and sends down two red shirts to relieve the two they left, and they get spaced. Chekov tries to arrest Kirk and the kids have taken over the ship and most of the crew members. Kirk has a hunch and shows the kids a video of them having fun with their families, which breaks the connection with Gorgon. However, he then shows them their dead parents, so it’s slightly traumatic, but kids are resilient and they’re now crying so McCoy thinks they can now help. On this bit, I agree because you need to face your trauma and, sometimes, cry it out before you can start working on your grief and healing. I am curious, however, whatever happened to the two security guards they left on the planet?

I did not care for this episode. There are three groups that cannot always advocate for themselves: animals, the elderly/infirmed, and the young. To have children be influenced, manipulated, and traumatized, it’s just not okay. There were some elements that would have been okay of Gorgon was taking over the crew or got loose on the ship, so this earns a rating of 2 melted ice pops.

TA out!

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Series and Season: Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 3

Episode #, and Episode Name: 1 – “Spock’s Brain” and 2 – “The Enterprise Incident”

Setting the Stage: I started today at 4:00 pm, still watching via Netflix and using their viewing order. I watched the first episode alone while everyone was taking a nap, including the cats! As this was a new season, I watched credits. Was the text blue before? If it was, nothing has changed. I watched the second episode while I was watching one of my friends teach a kid’s karate class. I watched two other episodes with my friends, and had quite the tasty dinner, but I am exhausted and don’t have the heart to finish writing them up tonight, so you’ll get to read about them tomorrow.

I’m using my husband’s laptop, and there seem to be some different settings for some reason. I was having troubles uploading pictures, but it should be all fixed now. Sorry for the technical issues, everyone!

Quick Summary with my Impressions: “Spock’s Brain” starts off with Scotty being in love with the ship that is trailing them. Oh, there’s a brunette this time but she makes everyone pass out and steals Spock’s brain! Okay McCoy, I give, what’s worse than dead? Also, now that I’m looking more closely, what did Scotty and Kirk do to their hair?? McCoy is ridiculously dramatic. At first he won’t give Kirk a timeline, but then he says 24 hours, what changed? We use fuzzy logic to find where the intruder landed. Kirk beams down to a Hoth-like planet. Kirk uses the “I’m going to stun you, not here to harm you, just want to be friends” line. McCoy and brainless Spock beam down, this is ludicrous, they spring the trap, and stun the woman. This one doesn’t know about men, and the men up above don’t know about women, what is going on? All of a sudden, Spock’s voice comes out over the communicator. The women don’t know a lot of terms, but Kirk and McCoy think the women can’t be in charge, I mean maybe it’s because they don’t know shit, but women can totally run things.

Poor Nimoy is just sitting around because his character has no brain, but he plays it so well. Anyway, Spock’s brain is the “controller” and his voice is more robotic than usual, but not by much. I should have developed a drinking game for the number of times Spock says “fascinating”. Scotty comes through with the most ridiculous diversion, Kirk argues with the woman to no avail, and McCoy is willing to risk his brain for the medical knowledge. McCoy reinstates Spock’s brain, with some dramatics. Kirk believes men and women should live together and develop the way Earth did, le sigh.

I did not hate this episode, but there were a lot of strange things going on. I’m kind of over how Kirk has this very singular way of thinking, that men and women should get married and have babies and should all evolve as those on Earth did. Again, I get it’s the 1960’s. Their portrayal of the tribe on the planet wasn’t great, a lot of stereotypes and potentially some brown-face (it’s hard to find the background of some of the actors). One thing I really liked about this episode is it sort of explains why there are so many humanoids throughout the galaxy. In real life, it’s because of the (lack of) budget, but I thought their explanation was a plausible one. I give this episode fiiiiiiiiive golden rings.

“The Enterprise Incident” starts off with a cranky Kirk who purposefully goes into the neutral zone and then directly into Romulan space; Scotty and McCory are rightfully concerned. All of a sudden, the Enterprise is surrounded by three ships and has one hour to surrender to the Romulans. Now there are three options: fight and be destroyed, blow up the Enterprise, or surrender. Kirk and Spock go aboard to discuss with the Romulan commander, who is a woman, nice! Kirk lies about why they are there and the Commander spills the beans about the cloaking device being real. Spock is summoned and eventually tells the truth, so naturally Kirk threatens to kill Spock and calls him a traitor. Please read that naturally with a heavy sarcastic connotation. Scotty is not taking shit from the Romulans, I love when he is in command of this ship. Spock totally shows his Ravenclaw in this episode, or really his not Slytherin, as he doesn’t have the ambitious nature, but I’m sure there is going to be a very twisty plot device soon as it is not in Spock’s character to be disloyal. Wait, what’s with the Commander being all flirty with Spock? I don’t believe Kirk is dead, it’s only episode 2 after all, and my suspicion is confirmed. Scotty’s goofy grin with Kirk being alive and looking like a Romulan is everything. I have also now lived to see Spock talk a woman out of her clothes, oh my. It was all a ruse to get the cloaking device, figured as much but wasn’t sure who was in on it. Scotty presses the button and the Enterprise disappears, along with the Commander on board… a happy accident to be sure.

I think Nimoy has really figured out how to be even more emotionless than before, he really seems to have it down pat during Season 3 (so far). Yet at the end of the episode, he reveals he is intrigued by the commander. Maybe his very own Irene Adler. I hate that she was reduced to a puddle of goo, though, she started off as a badass commander and then was all of a sudden turned into a lovesick teenager who becomes obsessed with her first crush. If you take out the “top woman falls for man” trope, this is a pretty solid espionage episode, so I’ll give it 6-and-a-half feet of black duct tape.

Season 3 appears to be the season of the brunettes, and we’ll find more in episodes 3 and 4… but not until tomorrow!

TA out!

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Series and Season: Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 2

Episode #,and Episode Name: 26 – “Assignment: Earth”

Setting the Stage: I started at 9:45 pm on January 23, 2020, still watching Netflix and using their viewing order. I was traveling today, so I have a different set of viewing companions this evening. Two of my good friends are hosting me tonight and tomorrow before I head back to NC for a friend’s engagement party. They have two cats, that are both currently sleeping and adorable. We ate delicious, authentic, New York pizza and garlic knots, and I am one happy blogger tonight. Instead of music, I am writing to an episode of Murdoch Mysteries.

Quick Summary with my Impressions: “Assignment: Earth” has Kirk on the voice-over explain that the crew is in 1968, great more time travel. In case you didn’t notice, I’m not always a big fan of time travel. Some tomfoolery is happening and all of a sudden a man with a cat beams aboard. He identifies himself as Gary Seven and Kirk is torn – is he lying about being from 1968 or is he there to cause trouble? Spock likes the kitty! All of a sudden, the cat takes the elevator and Seven uses this device that looks like a Sonic screwdriver and sort of acts like a Men In Black neuralyzer. Seven is having computer trouble and the Beta 5 looks a lot like the M5 controls. There’s always a hat for Spock, and a blonde for Kirk. Roberta, the secretary, doesn’t know why the typewriter is typing everything she says or who Gary is, curiouser and curiouser. Kirk and Spock manhandle Roberta while Seven gets away to the McKinley Rocket Base. The cops accidentally get sent up to the Enterprise and now have a story to tell their grandchildren. The cat is the best part of this episode, it’s like “I’ll help dad!” Scotty finds Seven as he is sabotaging the rocket, riiiiight. Roberta breaks into the safe, that’s really some sort of transporter portal, riiiight, and inadvertently summons Seven back so he has to use manual control. Kirk and Spock beam in, Kirk is super paranoid about changing history, and everything is solved by the end of the episode. We also get to hear “Live Long and Prosper” for the second time.

The friends that I am staying with know a thing or two about Star Trek and tell me that this acted as a backdoor pilot to a show that never wound up happening. I could definitely tell that something was up when most of the episode was focused on these two new characters. Maybe if somehow Roberta and Seven were part of Season 3, but I’m assured they are not so it’s kind of a throwaway episode. There’s not much Trek going on, aside from the time travel and making sure to not negatively effect Earth’s past. I have more questions than answers. How does Seven know about Vulcans? What planet was he on and will we ever see it? Does Roberta own anything that isn’t pink? Why do all of the black cats in Star Trek turn into women?

This is not really a Star Trek episode and it’s not really a great way to end the season. I’m a little sad there’s not much more to report – but I am exhausted. I hope to fit some Trek in tomorrow.

TA out!

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Series and Season: Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 2

Episode #,and Episode Name: 24 – “The Ultimate Computer”, and 25 – “Bread and Circuses”

Setting the Stage: I started at 7:00 pm on January 22, 2020, still watching Netflix and using their viewing order. Professor Zoom was in his pen, eating his frozen, pumpkin-filled Kong, and my husband watched with me while we ate dinner. The only difference from yesterday is that we had pasta, wait we had that yesterday too. IS MY LIFE JUST ON REPEAT AND COPY/PASTE? Tempura and Jazz slept while we ate and watched TV. While writing tonight, I am listing to a mix of: Hanz Zimmer (Man of Steel soundtrack) again, more Minus the Bear (again), and some individual pieces by the Foo Fighters, Carlos Santana, and Billy Joel.

My goal this evening was to watch two episodes with dinner and a third while working out… again, my life is on repeat because I was only able to watch two episodes. I am traveling tomorrow and still need to pack and do a whole mess of other things before bed, and it’s already 9 pm, yikes. Looks like I’ll finish Season 2 tomorrow.

Quick Summary with my Impressions: “The Ultimate Computer” has Commodore Wesley beam aboard, we’re going to have some war games against a computer. This means the crew of over 400 is going down to only 20! Scotty is clearly weary of being replaced by a computer. McCoy’s fear that if the computer doesn’t work, there isn’t enough crew on board to run the ship, is totally valid. I see the M5 has the same problem as Babylon 5 had, where the first four didn’t work, oops. Kirk has a bit of a crisis of faith over losing control over the ship, but he allows the M5 to make some recommendations. During the first war game, Kirk is not impressed and although Spock is, he makes a surprisingly sweet speech about loyalty to man and not a machine. During “not a drill”, the crew cannot get control of the ship back, and it destroys an unmanned ore freighter. Unfortunately the M5 does not want to be turned off and murders a red shirt “unintentionally”, sure. Spock butchers the phrase “wild goose chase” and I’m in fits of laughter because I was just talking about the phrase “silly goose” with a friend. Anyway, back to the episode, Spock discovers that the M5 is not behaving logically and that’s due to having some human features programmed in from Dr. Daystrom. Four ships approach for another war game, but the crew doesn’t have control of the ship or a way to contact the other ships, and the Enterprise (controlled by M5) fires for real, yikes. The other ships cannot interact with the Enterprise and there’s a plan to destroy it. Daystrom has a nervous breakdown and Kirk has a plan, surprise surprise. Oh no, Kirk is logicing a computer to death, again. The M5 decides to commit “suicide” and Kirk powers down the ship, and crisis is avoided.

I pushed aside all of the things I know about what happens when you let the A.I. loose on any system, because I was sure the same tropes would be used here… even if this came first or at the beginning. Obviously there’s some repetition of plot devices used by Star Trek; Kirk talking the computer down, the computer trying to destroy everything, Spock liking the computer better but choosing man, etc. What this episode brings that is new is the notion that the Enterprise crew, especially Kirk, would sacrifice their lives for the benefit of a mass of their fellow Federation comrades. There was also the psychological effect of feeling “replaced” by the computer and how the humans felt about it, which hadn’t really been dealt with before. Of course, we’re always okay as long as we can unplug the machine… right? I liked the differences so much, 7 house points are awarded to Gryffindor.

“Bread and Circuses” begins with me yelling at the screen “HOW MANY CLASS “M” PLANETS ARE THERE?” My husband informs me that someone did the math, I bet it was Spock. Also, how many other Earth copies are we going to see? This one is like Ancient Rome, but with guns, some technology, and sassy Spock. Kirk has such a way with words as he explains their situation to the leader of the escaped slaves without giving away that they are from outer space or the Federation. Awww, someone knitted Spock a hat… but they are caught and imprisoned. Merik is the obvious bad guy and sacrificed his crew to have a top spot in the empire, that bastard! Kirk is being blackmailed into beaming down his crew, but Kirk refuses to submit in true Kirk fashion. He really is stubborn. Thankfully they’ve been in this situation enough they’ve created a code to let Scotty know they’re in trouble. Kirk is helped to escape, and our three heroes are beamed up by of Scotty. The Prime Directive was not violated, so Scotty receives a special shout out in the Captain’s log. Uhura schools the men about their understanding of the “Sun” religion, because it’s the “Son” religion, as in Jesus. They muse about being there for Christ as it happens again on this planet and warp away.

I’m so torn on this. On one hand, you have Ancient Rome… but with a twist! This is what they should have done to “The Omega Glory” episode, but that’s a whole other thing. On the other hand, I’m kind of over the whole “oh this is sort of like something from Earth past” thing. I immediately hated Merik, the mark of a good bad guy, and was touched with McCoy was trying to make nice with Spock. McCoy needs a lot more patience, I mean the man is a doctor (pun intended, purposely), but Spock also refuses to acknowledge his human half. I understand he believes Vulcan to be the superior species, but he is half human and that has to count for something. He tries so hard and it’s infuriating at times that he won’t play both sides of his heritage. I give this episode 5 bagel bites, but ones that are full of all the toppings and are heated just right in the oven.

I’m trying a new thing. It’s like “Kirk out” but with my name instead. Wait, why am I explaining this to you? For the four people who read this, I know you’re all avid Trek fans and would get it without an explanation. Oh well, maybe there’s someone out there reading this who needed this paragraph.

TA out!