Thoughts on Season One

Revisiting the original, 1960's Star Trek is worthwhile in a lot of ways. It's always interesting to revisit the beginnings of a franchise, to see the seed from which everything else sprang. It's interesting to see how the characters and universe of Star Trek evolved. It's interesting to take a look back at archive television, to see how different weekly series were more than four decades ago.

But more than that, revisiting the first season of Star Trek has been worthwhile simply because it's a damn good show. More impressively, it's that good right out the gate.


Two Pilots

Of course, just about everyone who'd be interested in looking at Star Trek reviews knows by now that this was a series with two pilots - both of which are thankfully available. Even more fortunate is that both pilots are actually quite good.

Though it was rejected as the basis for the series, The Cage stands up as the stronger of the two as a standalone piece of television. It's a very intelligent piece of television, which cannily mixes a respectable stab at serious science fiction with a healthy dose of action and sexuality. All of these facets would reappear in the series proper, though the sexuality would be transformed from Vena's sensuality to a more juvenile, leering treatment. The Cage holds up remarkably well, and could probably have received a respectable, "B" movie theatrical release in its day.

For all of that, I can't be sorry that the network insisted on the retooling which took effect with Where No Man Has Gone Before.  This second pilot is far less intellectual, and far more basic. But it does have leads who are easier to empathize with and a crew that has a stronger sense of cameraderie. The Cage is a good mini-movie, but I don't particularly want to spend more time with its characters. Where No Man Has Gone Before presents us with characters who feel as well as just think, and that does make a difference.


Strong Writing

The element that stands out the most about the first season of Star Trek is the writing. It's good. 45 years later, much of the series has dated. The effects look a bit hokey, the backdrops are obvious (though less so in the remastered versions), even the acting has a theatrical quality that by modern standards seems a bit hammy at times. But the show still holds up as good television, and it does so because of the writing.

One of Gene Roddenberry's master strokes was to recruit genuine science fiction writers, people like Robert Bloch, Theodore Sturgeon, and Harlan Ellison. We get scripts that deal with high concepts ranging from time travel to genetic engineering to alternate realities to meditations on the positive and negative aspects of human nature. With strong script editing, most of these are turned into tight, focused television narratives. Structure is the key, and it's very rare to find a poorly-structured episode of first season Trek. I can only think of one truly sloppily-written episode, and even that had behind-the-scenes complications involving the replacement of a key actor late in the day.

These are literate, intelligent scripts that defy the reputation of Star Trek as something hammy and hokey. The ham and cheese is there, make no mistake of that. But it's a smart show too, one that rarely talks down to the viewer. Not that it always works. One concept that is seriously overplayed in the first season is that of the Enterprise encountering a godlike superbeing. By the time Kirk is receiving a lecture from a golden superbeing in Arena, I'm docking the episode's final score simply because I have grown incredibly weary of superbeings by this point. But the season is one of highly literate teleplays, with allusions to Shakespeare, Melville, Milton, and Faulkner, among others. For all the cheese (which, make no mistake, is itself part of the show's appeal), this is one of the most intelligent series of its era, and should be respected as such.


Actors & Characters

The strongest enduring appeal of the original Star Trek lies with its cast and characters. Unlike later Star Trek series, this is not an ensemble show. Kirk is the lead, and he is at the center of pretty much every episode. Spock is the second lead, and backs Kirk up. When William Shatner has a slightly lighter weak, Spock takes the focus. Both actors are consistently good in their roles, with Shatner both better and more controlled in his acting than reputation would suggest. It takes a few episodes for Leonard Nimoy to fully "find" the character of Spock. By The Naked Time, however, Spock is fully formed, and Nimoy is arguably the cast standout.

That's arguable only because of how good the third member of the "Big Three" is. After the two unsuccessful one-shot doctors featured in The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before, the series finally got it right with DeForest Kelly's Dr. McCoy. Introduced as a recurring character, it didn't take long for McCoy to become the series' third lead. Kelly is consistently excellent, with just the right mix of crustiness and compassion to be a good foil for his two co-stars and to be convincing in his role. Writers and actor establish a different dynamic between Kirk and McCoy than what exists between Kirk and Spock or Spock and McCoy. As a result, these three establish a dynamic partnership, with often multiple levels of interaction occuring within the same scene.

Not all is perfect. The loss of Grace Lee Whitney is a blow. Janice is extremely prominent through the first half of the season, and it's clear that she was intended to be the show's female lead. Then she disappears, with her character never so much as mentioned again. Exactly what happened isn't clear, given that there are at least three different stories I've read that all conflict with each other. It is clear that something happened behind the scenes, and it was something pretty nasty. Within the world of the show - which is what I'm reviewing, after all - the loss of Janice robs Kirk of a key character interaction, taking away one of his more interesting vulnerabilities. The evolving interactions with Spock and Dr. McCoy, and the increasing strength of the supporting cast, ultimately make up for it. But I can't help but wonder what the series would have been like had Janice remained in place.


Overall

What more is there really to be said? A "second season wishlist" would seem redundant. My wishlist for Season 2 would simply be that it match the accomplishment of the first season. This is one of the finest first seasons of a television series I think I've seen. It's not flawless. The abrupt loss of someone who was clearly intended to be the series' female lead leaves a slight hole in the second half of the series, and there are at least two too many cases of Kirk & crew encountering superbeings with godlike powers. But it's an outstanding first season, with only one really bad episode and only a couple of others that dip as low as "mediocre."

Really, the only seriously bad thing I can think to say about the first season of Star Trek is that it sets the bar so high, the rest of the series - let alone its spinoffs - can't really hope to match it.


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#7 (1-4): The Naked Time

Sulu is infected with an alien disease!

Original Air Date: Sept. 29, 1966. Written by: John D. F. Black. Directed by: Marc Daniels.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is observing the impending disintegration of a planet. When they arrive and beam down to a lab tasked with directly monitoring the planet, they discover that all the inhabitants are dead - and bizarrely dead. One man died in the shower with his clothes on. A woman was strangled. Another man is slouched at his console, where he apparently just sat and waited for the end. While there, one crewman's moment of carelessness exposes him to a contagion... which he brings back to the Enterprise!

As the contagion spreads, more and more members of the ship's crew begin behaving as if drunk on on drugs. Sulu, who is fond of fencing and enjoys classic adventure literature, imagines himself as the hero of an Alexander Dumas novel and runs around the ship's halls with a rapier, chasing other crew members. Nurse Chapel becomes hopelessly besotted with Spock. Spock, in turn, ends up weeping about how his culture won't allow him to express his feelings.

The worst disruption comes from Lt. Kevin Riley (Bruce Hyde). He takes over Engineering, leaving the ship unable to react as quickly as it needs to in order to escape orbit. If Kirk cannot retake control, then when the planet disintegrates, the Enterprise will be destroyed!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: Maintains a level head throughout the crisis, even as most of his crew falls apart around him. He presses Scott to retake Engineering and McCoy to work on finding a cure for the contagion. When he is exposed to the virus, it's revealed that Spock isn't the only member of the command crew at war with himself. His "Animal Side's" aggression toward Janice didn't emerge from nowhere. Kirk is strongly attracted to her, and he feels frustrated that, as captain, he's "not allowed to notice" her. At the same time, his love for his ship allows him to regain control of himself sufficiently to carry on until McCoy can administer a cure.

Mr. Spock: This is a significant episode in Spock's development. It is here that we see what Leonard Nimoy's performance had already indicated: that beneath Spock's logical surface lurks a sea of raging emotions. Spock's long practice at keeping these under control is directly demonstrated. When infected, he flees to an empty conference room to clear away distractions, then forces himself back to full function - something that, at a lower level, he likely does every morning when he gets out of bed.

Sulu: A good episode for his character, as we learn about some of his interests and see the usually reserved officer being downright flamboyant. George Takei is obviously having great fun getting to do a bit more than just say, "Warp Two, aye, sir." He throws himself into Sulu's "under-the-influence" scenes with glee, and his scenes are a high point of the episode. I also found Uhura's acidic response to Sulu declaring, "I will protect you, fair maiden" ("Sorry, neither"), absolutely hilarious.


THOUGHTS

The first Trek episode to really delve into comedy, and it works well. Part of this is that (unlike its TNG sequel/remake) the story isn't just an excuse for broad comedy. The contagion may result in many of the regulars behaving in a way best described as "goofy," but it also shows us much about their characters. We learn more about Sulu in this episode than in all of the prior episodes put together; much the same applies to Spock, and even to Kirk. Each exposed character reveals some new facet.

Also, the stakes are constantly rising. At the outset, we are told that there is no real danger, that Scotty is on top of the Enterprise's tricky orbit. After the contagion is brought to the Enterprise vital crew members (Sulu, Riley), who will be needed to pull the ship out, are affected. Then Riley takes over Engineering, and Scotty has to try to cut his way in to retake control. The script, by series story editor John Black, expertly juggles the comedy and suspense in such a way that not only does neither element suffer, each actually feeds the other. It may not be the best episode yet (though it's a close call between this and The Corbomite Maneuver)... but I think I'd rate this as the best script so far.

The remastered edition has some stunning new effects, particularly at the very beginning. The lead-in to the arrival at the lab is far more visual, and is done in such a way as to merge well with the original footage. When done this carefully, the tweaks done to the remastered versions are purely assets to the episodes (as opposed to the more jarring case that I referenced in my review of Mudd's Women).

Rating: 8/10

Previous Episode: The Man Trap
Next Episode: Charlie X

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#6 (1-1): The Man Trap

Kirk is attacked by a salt monster!

Original Air Date: Sept. 8, 1966. Written by: George Clayton Johnson. Directed by: Marc Daniels.


THE PLOT

The Enterprise comes to an archaeological dig site on an otherwise uninhabited planet so that McCoy can perform routine physicals on the archaeologist and his wife stationed there. The archaeologist, Professor Robert Crater (Alfred Ryder), is far from pleased to see them, insisting that he and his wife are fine and that Kirk should just take his ship and go away. Kirk initially suspects that Crater might be harboring jealousy against McCoy, who was in love with Crater's wife, Nancy (Jeanne Bal), long ago. But then - very abruptly - a crewman is found dead, all the salt having been drained from his body.

Crater and Nancy insist the crew member died from a moment of bad judgment, from eating a lethal fruit from a local plant. But McCoy's medical scans simply don't bear this out. The reality is that the crewman was killed by the sole survivor of the planet where the Craters were stationed - a creature that lives on salt, and that has the ability to assume any form. When another crewman is killed, the creature poses as that crew member and gets aboard the Enterprise - whereupon it begins to feed on Kirk's crew!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: In a moment of uncharacteristic stubbornness, Kirk refuses to listen when McCoy is providing relevant information early on. I suspect this is a moment of heavy-handed writing, rather than characterization. Kirk displays both courage and recklessness by luring the salt creature with a handful of salt tablets. At the end, he reflects thoughfully on the buffalo, showing that he is more mindful than he had appeared about condemning a species to extinction.

Dr. McCoy: Though infatuated with Nancy - or, probably more accurately, with his memories of her - McCoy remains professional, doing his job throughout the episode. He is the first to note the discrepancy between how he first saw Nancy (as young as his last memory of her), and how Nancy appeared to everyone else... a clue that Kirk ignores because the plot isn't ready for the pieces to be put together yet. He does freeze at the climax, torn between his lingering affection for Nancy and his loyalty to Kirk. But he doesn't actually freeze for long, and reacts decisively when he un-freezes.

Villain of the Week: The Salt Creature can assume any form, and has enough low-level telepathy to shape itself in a manner that will be pleasing to its potential prey. Crater observes that the creature is intelligent, and insists that it is not evil. It is treated as evil here, of course. But its situation as the episode opens is a desperate one; it is literally starving throughout, and then spends the second half of the episode being increasingly hounded into a corner. A more thoughful script may have been able to play with ambiguities. Then again, 1960's television didn't tend to have much time for moral gray areas.


THOUGHTS

The first episode of Star Trek to actually air, even though it was surprisingly far down the production schedule. William Shatner, among others, has observed that of the episodes in the can, the network picked "the worst one" to air first. He has a point - this is not a very good episode, certainly not compared with The Cage, The Corbomite Maneuver, or Where No Man Has Gone Before. However, if one takes a moment to realize that to the network - and most U. S. television audiences of the time - TV science fiction was the generally creepy confines of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, it perhaps becomes easier to comprehend why this rather pedestrian installment was chosen to kick off the series.

George Clayton Johnson's script has a bizarre dichotomy. It is actually very well-structured. A scene-by-scene breakdown would show events proceeding in a reasonable fashion, building from beginning to climax. However, his dialogue is frequently cringeworthy. I have already mentioned the scene in which Kirk cuts off (a potentially useful) musing by McCoy to launch into a mini-tirade. There is also a leadenly on-the-nose scene between Spock and Uhura, in which Uhura needles Spock about his lack of romanticism to such an extent that I'd half-expect the first officer to upbraid her for insubordination. Then there's the characterization of Professor Crater, who is over-the-top from the very first scene, when a little cooperation would actually have been far more apt to have sent Kirk & co. on their way much, much faster.

It's probably best not to go too far into the relationship between Crater and the shapeshifting creature who provided companionship in exchange for salt. I suspect my mind is likely going to nastier places here than the writer's mind did. However, the Craters' archaeological dig does beg the question: Where is the rest of the archaeological team? A one-man dig (Nancy being purely characterized as wife, not as fellow archaeologist) seems quite unlikely, somehow, and yet that apparently is exactly what we are meant to accept. Admittedly, having a close friend who has done archaeological work may color my perceptions on the characterization of this dig, but I can accept the existence of The Salt Creature a lot faster than I can accept Professor Crater's one-man, planet-wide, archaeological survey.

In the end, a mediocre episode. Well put-together on a mechanical level, much of the dialogue falls flat, and the characters often seem to be cardboard figures put through the paces of the plot. It's competent... but only the dismal second half of Mudd's Women prevents me from completely agreeing with Shatner's assessment.


Rating: 5/10

Previous Episode: The Enemy Within
Next Episode: The Naked Time

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#5 (1-5): The Enemy Within

A transporter accident creates a second Kirk
 - only this one is feral and vicious!

Original Air Date: Oct. 6, 1966. Written by: Richard Matheson. Directed by: Leo Penn.


THE PLOT

The first-ever transporter accident! Kirk beams up from a planet where the crew is doing a geological survey. Unfortunately, a previous beam-up has contaminated the transporter, overloading some key circuitry. The result? Two Kirks - one "good," but weak and ineffectual; the other, strong and decisive, but pure animal.

It takes a while for this to be discovered (when "Bad Kirk" shows up, the transporter room is conveniently empty). Once Spock and McCoy have finally put the pieces together, they realize why "Good Kirk" is acting in an increasingly indecisive manner. All his leadership qualities stem from his other side. Now they must find a way to put the captain together again, or else Kirk will have to relinquish his command.

And just to add a bit more urgency, there's the small matter of the landing party, marooned on the planet, with the surface temperature dropping precipitously. If they can't fix the transporter issue and put Kirk back together again - and soon - then the landing party will die!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: This episode provides a fairly strong study of Kirk by splitting his character traits in two. His intellectual side provides reasoning, empathy, and courage. I find it both interesting and convincing that the "weak" intellectual side is actually the braver one. Instincts call for self-preservation; it takes mental discipline to act against that urge. Meanwhile, his animal side is pure self-interest: unrestrained id, sexual and violent, sometimes at the same time. Nevertheless, this side is the one capable of the snap decisions necessary for command. It is also this side that gives Kirk the rough charm that's key to his appeal to women - though it's his intellectual side pulling back that keeps him from going too far (as with Janice in this episode).

Spock: Quickly puts the pieces together, which stops this from being an "evil twin" episode in which "Good Kirk" has to constantly prove that he's not responsible for his "twin's" actions. Spock observes that being split in two isn't a new concept for him, given his mixed heritage. He is very loyal to the captain, backing him up throughout and doing his best to make sure that "Good Kirk's" indecisiveness doesn't show to the rest of the crew. His observation about why the captain must appear infallible rings true, and it provides another example of how early Trek tries to portray a halfway believable military atmosphere (see also, and even more particularly, The Corbomite Maneuver).

Janice Rand: Her loyalty to Kirk shows in her reluctance to report "Animal Kirk's" assault on her. Various bits also show her wrestling with her normal attraction to Kirk vs. her shock at this crueler Kirk's assault. This subplot is unusually strong for '60's television, showing how sexual harassment can be very hard on women. Note how Janice is conflicted, even apologetic when reporting Kirk's behavior.


THOUGHTS

A Richard Matheson script is generally good news for any series, and it proves to be good news for Trek. Matheson writes strong dialogue and good character beats for all of the featured regulars. Shatner gets the best material, but there are good bits to go around: Spock and his mixed heritage, McCoy, and even previously underwritten characters such as Janice, Scotty, Uhura, and Sulu get good bits. Did anyone at the time realize what a terrific writer this man was? The Twilight Zone... Trek... Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Matheson was regularly terrific with concept, with structure, and with characterization. A writer who's strong with any two of these is good - a writer strong with all three is remarkable!

The episode's obvious weakness comes from positing the transporter as the sole means by which the landing party can get back to the ship. This is necessary to provide a crisis, but it seems iffy. Even allowing that shuttlecraft hadn't yet been introduced to the series, Even the most reliable technology will sometimes break down. I just can't make myself believe that there would be no back-up for so foreseeable a problem. 

Looking past that issue, however, the rest of the episode flows smoothly. The direction makes strong use of the opportunities in the script, particularly in the scene in which "Animal Kirk" tries to take command of the bridge. The shots of this out-of-control Kirk practically devolving before our eyes are imaginatively framed, and heighten a sense of intensity.

A very strong episode overall. I still prefer The Corbomite Manuever, but I would probably rank this a reasonably close second out of the episodes I've reviewed to date.


Rating: 8/10

Previous Episode: Mudd's Women
Next Episode: The Man Trap

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#4 (1-6): Mudd's Women

Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel), with his human cargo.

Original Air Date: Oct. 13, 1966. Teleplay by: Stephen Kandel. Story by: Gene Roddenberry. Directed by: Harvey Hart.


THE PLOT

The Enterprise intercepts an unregistered ship, whose attempt to evade the starship leads to its destruction. The transporters are barely able to rescue the captain and his "cargo" in time... said cargo being three beautiful women, wives being transported to a colony world. The captain is a man of large figure and personality named Leo Walsh - though he is, in reality, a con man named Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel).

When the Enterprise must divert to a mining colony in order to replenish its supply of dilithium crystals - the last of which were worn out by the rescue of Mudd - the con man sees an opportunity not only for profit, but to evade the charges Kirk is preparing against him. He makes a deal with the miners: the women in return for payment and protection from Kirk. Kirk is forced to agree to Mudd's terms. If he refuses, his ship's orbit will ultimately decay, his ship and crew destroyed!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: Not much new in this installment, though he is - against expectations, and perhaps even later character development - shown as an absolute stickler for regulations here, reluctant to deal with Mudd even when his ship is in direct jeopardy. Though suitably entranced by Eve, the most sympathetic of Mudd's women, his prime loyalty remains to his ship and his crew. As Mudd himself observes, Kirk is "married to (his) ship."

Dr. McCoy: Unlike Spock, he is far from immune to feminine charms, absolutely mesmerized any time any of the women stray near him. He is observant, however, and is the first to notice clues that not everything about these women is as it seems.

Hot Space Babe of the Week: Of the three women, two are barely characterized at all beyond "eye candy." However, Eve (Karen Steele) develops an immediate rapport with Kirk, and shows a degree of reluctance to go along with Mudd, whom she despises. At the mining colony, she ends up with the only miner to get any characterization, making her likely the only of the three women who will find a happy ending in this situation.

Villain of the Week: The first appearance of Roger Carmel as space rogue Harry Mudd. I almost typed "loveable rogue," except Mudd isn't very loveable in his first appearance. In fact, he's a downright nasty piece of work, happy to see hundreds die as long as he can escape responsibility for his actions. Still, he's a memorable figure: larger than life (in more ways than one), selfish but shrewdly intelligent, and possessed with a certain wit and charm, even when he's behaving as the scum of the galaxy. Carmel is wonderful throughout, though this is almost certainly the lesser of his appearances.


THOUGHTS

Unfortunately, Carmel or no Carmel, this episode is not good. The interplay between Shatner and Carmel - who spark off each other wonderfully from their first screen encounter to their brief, reluctant partnership at the end - is beautiful to behold. These two actors have real rapport, and they do much to carry the episode. For its first half, Mudd's Women is thin stuff at best, but it works passably well on the strength of the performances.

Then we reach the mining colony, where things grind to a complete halt. The miners are shown to be, if anything, an even nastier lot than Mudd. Eve correctly observes that they aren't really interested in wives. In fact, Mudd could probably make more money - and leave his customers ultimately happier - by running whores back and forth to them, instead of delivering wives. It's pretty clear where their real interests lie, ahd I almost felt sorry for Eve to be left with even the least cretinous of this lot at the end.

I say "almost," because the arrival at the mining colony coincides with Eve's apparent lobotomy. Upset when the men are avoiding her in favor of the shallower, more fun-loving girls, she runs out into a sandstorm. The words, "too stupid to live," spring to mind. A good ten interminable minutes pass with Eve and Slightly Less Cretinous Miner finding each other in the storm, then Eve cooking for him. Then the climax arrives, to tell us all that looks really do matter, but a good girl should be able to automatically transform herself into a Playboy Bunny with just a little self confidence and a sugar cube. It's not only mind-bogglingly stupid, but more than a little insulting toward women - even by 1960's gender standards.

The remastered version sees some nice enhancements to the effects at the mining colony. That's not all good, though, since the strong establishing effects now jar considerably with the very obvious studio shots. Still, a bit of eye candy makes the last (worst) part of this episode go down a bit easier, I suppose, and that's something.


Rating: 4/10. Not quite awful, but far from good.

Previous Episode: The Corbomite Maneuver
Next Episode: The Enemy Within

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#3 (1-10): The Corbomite Maneuver

The alien Balok threatens to destroy the Enterprise!

Original Air Date: Nov. 10, 1966. Written by: Jerry Sohl. Directed by: Joseph Sargent.


THE PLOT

The Enterprise is exploring an uncharted area of space when it encounters a mysterious object: a cube that emits harmful radiation, and which the Enterprise finds itself unable to either navigate around or outrun. In desperation, they destroy the object... only to subsequently find themselves confronted by an enormous sphere, whose commander - an alien named Balok that pronounces a death sentence upon them. Now, with a countdown running and no hope of escaping or outfighting the immense alien ship, Kirk attempts a desperate gamble to save his crew.


CHARACTERS

Captain Beefcake: Continuing the trend begun in Where No Man Has Gone Before, we are again subjected to Kirk's apparent allergy to shirts. We first see him in the midst of a physical. When his exam is interrupted by the red alert, Kirk wraps his shirt around his neck as if it were a skimpy towel and strides through the corridors of the ship. I'm already starting to wonder if the captain is hiding an exhibitionist streak.

This episode seems far more distinctly written for Kirk than the last. He no longer seems to be uttering lines written for Pike. His own character is emerging. I enjoyed his frustration in his interactions with McCoy and Bailey (the guest character of the week), particularly when he's drilling the phaser crews to get a slightly faster percentage response from them. McCoy, asking him what he's going to do with that percent when he gets it, earns a rather sharp reply. It's a rare Trek moment of seeing something approximating genuine military procedure, too, with drilling and re-drilling making up a significant portion of the crew's activities.

Kirk the Gambler also emerges here, as he turns the tables at the end through... a bluff. This isn't something I could easily see Pike doing, but it fits squarely with Kirk's emerging characterization. This is also William Shatner's best performance thus far. He's convincingly commanding, but he doesn't any really hammy moments.

Spock: Spock's character also continues to develop. Here, in his verbal sparring with Bailey (who seems to have come to a battle of wits unarmed), he displays a hint of the humor that would come to mark his later characterization. We also see Spock's curiosity developed, when he - rather pointlessly, from a strategic stance - works to get a visual image of Balock.

Dr. McCoy: In his first series appearance, DeForest Kelly makes a strong impression, interacting spikily with Kirk throughout. Unfortunately, I found myself entirely on Kirk's side in each of his debates with McCoy, and I'm not sure I was supposed to be. Any commander wants a little bit of extra efficiency. What is "Jim" going to do with those extra percentage points when he gets them? A less spiky, but more accurate, answer would be: In a genuine battle, possibly save the ship by returning fire a fraction of a second faster than he otherwise would. When Kirk snaps at McCoy for not immediately alerting him to the red alert during the physical, Kirk is also 100% right. The physical is routine and could easily wait a few hours or days for an emergency to pass. An emergency, however, could easily become a crisis if the captain is delayed even by a single minute in getting to the bridge. If Kirk put an official reprimand in McCoy's file for such an incident, he'd be dead right to do so. McCoy may complain that he's "just a country doctor," but he's not - a medical officer in a military vessel is still a military officer, and he would damn well know his priorities in an emergency situation.

The Enterprise Crew: More regulars emerging. Sulu actually gets proper dialogue (and his proper post) in this episode. Uhura is introduced, in a rather unflattering gold uniform that would thankfully be soon replaced. Scotty gets little to do, but does get a few decent one-liners (to Sulu, during the countdown: "You have an annoying fascination with timepieces"). Janice Rand also gets introduced, not that she actually does much in the episode beyond find an ingenious way to make hot coffee. Little by little, the cast is starting to come together.

THOUGHTS

Only the second Star Trek episode I actually saw a child. At the time, it bored me, due to lack of "action." As an adult, however, this episode is very, very good. Tightly-structured, it allows new facets of some of the series' leads to emerge while exploring a properly formidable mystery. The cube and the sphere are both relatively simple effects, but both are effective and eerie. The remastered versions of the effects are refreshingly similar to the originals, simply adding more detail without compromising the eerie simplicity of the very basic shapes.

The cracks in the crew's composure as the countdown progresses are well-conveyed, each character finding a different way to deal with the stress. Spock fiddles with getting a visual image, even though such an image can do no real good; Sulu counts down their remaining minutes and seconds relentlessly; Scotty makes wisecracks; McCoy gets confrontational about Kirk's decisions; and Bailey - the guest character - more or less cracks up. It would have been more interesting to have had a regular character crack under the strain, making that character perhaps seem less reliable - or at least, giving him something to make up for - in later episodes. Still, this is '60's television, where regulars more or less had to be heroic, so I suppose that can be allowed to pass. At least even the regulars show their cracks under pressure.

With an intriguingly alien puzzle combined with some good characterization, this probably ranks as my favorite Trek episode yet. It's as far from "Wagon Train to the Stars" as you can get, but it's pretty good science fiction, with an inventive resolution.


Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Where No Man Has Gone Before
Next Episode: Mudd's Women

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#2 (1-03): Where No Man Has Gone Before

Meet the new boss: Captain Kirk (William Shatner),
with the newly emotionless Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy)

Original Air Date: Sept. 22, 1966. Written by: Samuel A. Peeples. Directed by: James Goldstone.


William Shatner beams aboard for the second pilot, which is closer to - but still not quite - what Trek would become.


THE PLOT

As the Enterprise nears the edge of the galaxy, it retrieves a ship recorder from a long-missing vessel, the U. S. S. Valiant. There is no real time to examine it, however, as the ship has now reached the edge of the galaxy. Attempting to cross a galactic barrier, the ship is affected by the strange field, forcing them to turn back... but not before the energy has knocked out two crew members: psychiatrist Elizabeth Dehner (Sally Kellerman), and Kirk's old friend, Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood).

Dehner recovers quickly, but Mitchell is noticeably changed. His eyes glow eerily, inhumanly.  He reads at incredible speeds. His intrinsic ESP abilities have been enhanced to such a level that he can see into other men's minds.  As his abilities grow, he becomes ever colder toward his fellow crew members. Spock urges that he either be killed or marooned, a suggestion Capt. Kirk initially resists.

Finally, the captain capitulates to marooning Mitchell on an isolated planet, an unmanned world which also contains supplies needed to repair the ship. Mitchell, however, does not intend to be marooned - and Dr. Dehner has not been left as unaffected as she seems!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Beefcake: Kirk's uniform is nearly identical to Captain Pike's, save that it appears to have a tearaway function which allows the first of what will be many uniform-rips during a scuffle with Mitchell near the end. This, I suspect, would not have been a major feature of the series had Jeffrey Hunter stayed on.

In any case, Kirk in his first episode is more like Pike than like the character he would later become. I suspect the script was originally written with Hunter in mind, with Pike crossed out and "Kirk" written in when Hunter decided not to return. Some warmth does come through, though. Notably, when Kirk hesitates to kill Mitchell, or when Kirk is playing chess with Spock and - after a winning move - teases Spock about being a bit more familiar with "annoyance" than he claims. Shatner's performance is mostly subdued, with only a tiny flash of ham near the end ("Above all a God needs compassion... MITCHELL!!!").

Spock: The lack of emotions in the Vulcan is introduced here, and perhaps a bit too much is made of it. Spock is colder in this episode than he would become, though his urging to "kill Mitchell while you still can" is proved to be genuinely logical by the unfolding of the plot. Nimoy's performance is far better than in The Cage, but still not as confident as it would become. It is clear that both writer and actor are still finding the part.

The Enterprise Crew: Sulu and Scotty appear, though neither has a significant role. Scotty's later role is essentially taken by a character named Lee Kelso, who is perhaps less competent but still has the ability to "make do" with whatever happens to be on-hand. No McCoy yet. The ship's doctor is an older man named Piper. Though far preferable to Dr. Ham from The Cage, Dr. Piper still lacks strong interaction with the other regulars. I guess third time was destined to be the charm for TOS doctors.

Villains or victims? Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood) and
Elizabeth Dehner (Sally Kellerman) are transformed.

THOUGHTS

Though obviously lower budget than The Cage, Where No Man Has Gone Before is a solid launch point for the series. The leads are agreeable, the story is well-plotted, and there's a strong undercurrent of horror - which likely appealed to test audiences whose familiarity with television science fiction was basically The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.

There are nitpicks. The horror should cut two ways. As the ending notes, Gary Mitchell was a decent man who never asked for what happened to him. We get a postcard glimpse of this, as Mitchell worries to Elizabeth at an early point, "What's happening to me?" But there should be time devoted to a more gradual transformation for Mitchell, to allow him some moments of real fear before he becomes a monster; instead, that single line is about all we see. For that matter, we don't get much sense of Gary Mitchell pre-accident. The only character scene early in the episode is between Kirk and Spock. If the chess scene had been re-written to fit Kirk and Mitchell, to establish a relationship up-front, then it would be easier to sympathize with both men as Mitchell changes.

Effects are spare, particularly compared to The Cage, but they are well-applied. The Galactic Barrier has obviously been retouched by the remastering team (as a simple comparison with the still shot over the end credits shows), but not so much so as to call attention to itself. Meanwhile, the effects in the (rather disturbing) scene in which Mitchell makes his escape, at the cost of one man's life, seem to have been left untouched.

Finally, of course, a quick mention must be made of the name "James R. Kirk" on the tombstone Mitchell conjures at the end.  The real explanation is, of course, that this was still a pilot episode, and the writers hadn't yet settled on "T" for Kirk's middle initial.  Still, this minor discontinuity has provided grist for several fan-pretzel-twists, ranging from the relatively mild ("R" was part of nickname Mitchell had for Kirk) to the hilarious (this episode occurs in an alternate universe in which Kirk's middle name starts with an "R," and which was affected by Mitchell absorbing powers from the "Q" continuum... Aah! My head hurts!).


Rating: 7/10. A step down from the first pilot, but still highly enjoyable.

Previous Episode: The Cage
Next Episode: The Corbomite Maneuver

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#1 (0-0): The Cage

The Talosians use their mental powers to
trap the captain of the Enterprise!

Original Air Date: Oct. 4, 1988. Written by: Gene Roddenberry. Directed by: Robert Butler.


Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) meets a nice girl but has trouble with her family.


PLOT

Capt. Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) of the U. S. S. Enterprise is thinking of resigning.  The ship is returning from a particularly bloody mission that ended in the deaths of crew members, and Pike feels depressed and weary.  Then the Enterprise receives a distress call from a ship crashing on the planet Talos IV.

Though the message is approximately twenty years old, the Enterprise crew find survivors, ones who are in remarkably good health. Among these is Vina (Susan Oliver), a lovely young woman who takes an instant liking to Pike. She insists on showing him the reason for the survivors' good fortune - and then springs a trap, ensnaring the captain even as all that the crew have seen is revealed to be illusion. No survivors, no encampment - just tricks of the mind, played by an alien intelligence.

Pike finds himself in a cage, unable to escape, his every thought read by the telepathic Talosians. Oddly, Vina is still there, insisting that she is as real as he is. The Talosians proceed to use their mental powers to put Pike into a series of illusory settings: the combat Pike recently experienced, a pastoral scene at Pike's childhood home, and finally a smuggler's den, with Pike in the role of Pirate King. In each new scene, Vina is there - to be protected, or cherished, or even owned as his property, should he choose to claim her. Pike resists... but as the experiences grow more and more tantalizing, he finds that resistance weakening...

Capt. Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) is briefed by his officers.

CHARACTERS

Captain One-Shot: Jeffrey Hunter brings a more naturalistic acting style to Pike than his successor would to Kirk. Pike is a bit world-weary (universe-weary?) as the episode begins, clearly an experienced leader who is starting to cross that blurry line between "seasoned" and simply "burned-out." This had the potential to be developed in interesting ways, had Hunter elected to stay on for the second pilot. However, Pike isn't a very warm character, and the one thing this pilot doesn't do is provide him much interaction with the other would-be regulars. Based on what's here, I'm not sure audiences would have taken to him. I half-suspect a Jeffrey Hunter Star Trek might have lasted only one season, instead of three. Still, he's good in this episode, and the series is a richer place for having had Pike, if only for a very short while.

Spock: Early Spock is surprisingly emotional, grinning openly at a strange alien flower. He also reacts to the captain's kidnapping with a brashness that seems unusual, given where the character would be taken. Leonard Nimoy's performance is adequate, but nothing special here, and he has a regrettable tendency to shout half his lines. It's a good thing he improved so quickly. Certainly, one sees little evidence here of a character or performance who would become the stuff of science-fiction legend.

The Enterprise Crew: A bland bunch, really. I respect Gene Roddenberry's desire to break barriers with a female first officer. Unfortunately, I can't help but agree with the network's assertion that Majel Barrett wasn't the best actress, at least not here. The young yeoman is obviously the prototype for Janice Rand, only dimmer (and not actually very attractive, at least not to my tastes). The doctor has a tendency to strike poses when on-camera, and I am very grateful that this proved to be his only episode. For characters who were clearly intended as regulars, none of them are very well-served by a plot that focuses all its attention on the lead's interaction with a guest actress.

Vina (Susan Oliver) tries to tempt Pike into accepting his captivity.

THOUGHTS

Though that last paragraph points to one of The Cage's deficiencies as a pilot, in its failure to lay much groundwork for the regular cast's interactions, taken on its own the story holds up remarkably well. In fact, I suspect it plays better today than it did to test audiences in the 1960's. The script is both clever and thoughtful, with a resolution that defies expectations. The aliens are not simply evil monsters; they have motivations that are well-explained and even moderately sympathetic. It is also well-structured, with revelations doled out to Pike and the audience at the same time, at a gradual enough pace for an audience unfamiliar with science fiction to absorb, but not so gradually as to make the audience restless. Plus, there's at least one whopping big (and moderately well-staged) action scene thrown in for the plebs.

Susan Oliver does a strong job in the primary guest role. She has considerable chemistry with Jeffrey Hunter, and manages to create a character who is reasonably consistent, while at the same time changing her from one scenario to the next (mysterious wild child; pleading victim; lovely housewife; exotic slave girl; and fellow captive). The episode's content is surprisingly sexually overt for archive television... which was apparently one of the factors in its rejection, though it also makes it more interesting and less dated than most archive television of the era.

I have no idea which effects were changed for the remastered version of this episode, which indicates that the remastering team did their job well in this instance. The episode as a whole looks very good, and I suspect enjoyed a far higher budget than would be allowed for the rest of the series.


Rating: 8/10. An intriguing look at the series that might have been. I'm just as happy that what might have been, wasn't... but it is startling how little this particular slice of 45 (or more) year old television has dated.

Next Episode: Where No Man Has Gone Before


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