Trekstravaganza: TV Trek 2017 Edition - Star Trek Discovery (Season 1A)

Ever since Star Trek Enterprise ended in 2005, Star Trek fans have waited for the franchise's return to TV. Sure, JJ Abrams rebooted the series in 2009, but Trek has always been a TV show. Since I didn't catch Enterprise during its original run, I've been waiting for new Trek for almost two decades now.

When Star Trek Discovery was announced in 2015, I was hopeful but skeptical. The series would be another prequel series, set 10 years before Star Trek The Original series. It would not be an ensemble series in the normal sense, and for the first time in the franchise's history, the captain would not be the central character.

Having seen the first half of the series (comprising episodes 1-9,) Star Trek Discovery may very well be one of the strongest first seasons of Star Trek ever. With its serialized, long form storytelling (as opposed to the usual episodic storytelling we've seen in most of Trek,) it's a different storytelling method than Trek fans are accustomed to seeing.

Some Star Trek fans have come out against the series, saying that it's not Star Trek. I think it's both: while it doesn't immediately show us the hopeful and promising future we've been accustomed to in Trek, I think it tells a story about how we got there eventually, and the later episodes seem to be approaching that ideal.

Let's take a look at each episode of the first half of the first season of Star Trek Discovery.

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The Vulcan Hello/Battle of the Binary Stars

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Story Description: Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is the first officer of the USS Shenzhou. While investigating the destruction of a communications relay, the crew of the Shenzhou encounter a faction of Klingons who threaten to unite and present a clear and present danger to the Federation.

Thoughts: These two episodes make up the prologue for the series, setting up some of the characters, premise and story. It boasts feature film-level production quality and great performances from all involved. Michelle Yeoh is the kind of Starfleet captain we'd like to serve under - she's sort of like a proto-Jean Luc Picard. As for the Klingons, the makeup isn't exactly working in their favor as they act, and Klingon isn't the most elegant sounding language for acting. It's fun, but it's not exactly descriptive of Discovery as a series. Moreover, some of the character actions come as a bit weird or too contrived for my taste, but that's subjective stuff.

Context is For Kings

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Story Description: En route to a penal facility, disgraced Starfleet Officer Michael Burnham is intercepted by the USS Discovery. Discovery's captain, Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs), assigns Burnham on a mission to investigate the mysterious events surrounding the Discovery's sister ship, the USS Glenn.

Thoughts: Not gonna lie, I hated this episode when it first came out. Aside from our main character Michael Burnham and her previous shipmate Saru (Doug Jones), none of these characters were in any way likeable. They were all mean to Burnham and uncharacteristic of what we knew about humans in the 23rd century: that they were above pettiness and other 21st century emotions and concerns. It took me a while to justify their attitude towards Burnham, but to be fair justifications do exist. I've come to think of this early part as a consequence of switching over to serialized storytelling. Way back when Trek was episodic, the premiere usually introduced all of the characters in one go. In any case, this is Discovery's true first episode.While I can't say it worked for me, the concepts introduced in this story help set up the rest of the half season.

The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry

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Story Description: The crew of the USS Discovery deal with a potentially dangerous creature. Meanwhile, on the Klingon Ship of the Dead, the heir to T'Kuvma's legacy gets embroiled in political intrigue.

Thoughts: Here's where Discovery starts to find its legs. It's inspired by a number of classic Trek Episodes, namely TOS's Devil in the Dark, TNG's Tin Man, Encounter at Farpoint, Galaxy's Child and so on. Finally, it takes a stand that Starfleet isn't composed of a bunch of warmongers, but scientists and explorers. The Klingon scenes tended to drag, but I suspect the events of this episode will reverberate in the second half of the season.

Choose Your Pain

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Story Description: Lorca is kidnapped by the Klingons and meets conman and criminal Harry Mudd. Meanwhile, Saru and Burnham butt heads over the ethical repercussions of what a rescue attempt might entail.

Thoughts: The A story, where Lorca is kidnapped, is pretty solid. It reintroduces us to the Discovery-era Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson), who is more serious than his TOS counterpart. The plot also introduces us to Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif,) who is one of my favorite characters of the series. The B plot continues the plot from the previous episode, and the ending is very Star Trek. Also, it has to be said: I'm glad that the series seems to consider The Animated Series canon.

Lethe

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Story Description: Sarek (James Frain), Burnham's adoptive father (and Spock's dad), is near death after an assassination attempt. Burnham must race against time and find him before it's too late. Meanwhile, Admiral Cornwell (Jayne Brook) meets up with the Discovery and finds out something regarding her old friend Lorca.

Thoughts: Discovery deviates from the main arc a bit for the next two episodes. This is a character-centric episode that focuses on Burnham's relationship with her adoptive father. There's a good bit in there too about her relationship with her adoptive mother, Amanda Grayson (Mia Kirshner). All in all, it's a really nice breather episode that further develops Burnham's character and helps her open up emotionally to her new friends on the Discovery. Personally, this is the episode where Discovery finally finds its footing and ends up being genuinely enjoyable for me.

Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

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Story Description: Harry Mudd traps the USS Discovery into a time loop in order to unearth her secrets and sell the ship to the Klingons.

Thoughts: My favorite episode of the series thus far. The basic premise of this episode is similar to the TNG episode Cause and Effect. It uses the time loop concept to tell a love story, and for the most part it works. It reminded me of the episodes of Classic Trek that are fun, engaging and endlessly rewatchable.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

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Story Description: Saru, Burnham and Tyler are sent to the planet Pahvo, where they must negotiate a treaty with the native species and use their giant transmitter to act as a sonar that can detect the Klingon cloaking device.

Thoughts: "If you want peace, prepare for war." This episode mostly acts as setup for the midseason finale, while also acting as a character episode for Saru. His race, the Kelpiens, are historically prey species, and are thus born afraid (one wonders how someone like Saru could get through Starfleet!) Saru experiences a life without fear and the results are intoxicating to him. This episode was written by Kirsten Beyer, who wrote a number of Star Trek Voyager novels and she knows the canon inside out.

Into the Forest I Go

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Story Description: Faced with the destruction of Pahvo, the USS Discovery is the planet's sole line of defense against a Klingon attack.

Thoughts: The nice thing about serialized storytelling is that when it pays off, it does with much greater magnitude compared to an episodic form. Into the Forest I Go (the title comes from a line by John Muir) is a very emotionally satisfying episode and at least for the moment resolves some of the series' arcs. There's a scene in this episode where Burnham looks at Saru and it was hard not to get teary-eyed. Also, in this episode Klingons were finally made to speak in English, and their scenes flow far better than their all Klingon speaking scenes. But as season finales go, it needs to have a little cliffhanger to excite us for the season continuation and it delivered. The next episode is directed by none other than Jonathan (Cmdr. William T. Riker) Frakes, who also directed a number of Star Trek episodes and two Star Trek The Next Generation movies.

So while Star Trek Discovery took a while to get off the ground, it personally turned into one of the most engaging and interesting science fiction shows currently out there. There are still a number of aesthetic and design choices that I'm not fully on board with, but I can live with it.

Star Trek Discovery resumes January next year, and once the season is finished, I might do another one of these. Till then, live long and prosper~

Trekstravaganza: Movie Edition

(Yeah, we didn't really manage to get to TOS Season 2, but what the heck. Season 1 had a lot of memorable episodes. I guess I'll have to post that season 2 Trekstravaganza then... one day)

Star Trek Movies! Nothing beats sitting back, relaxing, and watching a movie you've probably seen hundreds of times already. I remember being 3 and hearing about Star Trek IV premiering. I was in the best place to watch it too... in San Francisco, where all the space whales were at. I really don't remember if I went there with my aunt or not, but...]

For more on the pictures that grace this post, take a look at the Star Trek Reel Rewind series: http://cromeyellow.com/?tag=reel-rewind
And:
http://rodolforever.deviantart.com/art/Star-Trek-Into-Darkness-371459964

Capsule Reviews, Engage!


Star Trek: The Motion Picture

 

The motion picture had Isaac Asimov as science consultant, experienced director Robert Wise at the director's helm, and the original cast all back for what should have been a balls out crazy Star Trek Adventure. What came out at first was a chore to watch: it was basically reaction shot: the movie. When Wise had a director's cut released a few years ago, it was a bit better. And the director's commentary helped a lot.

This movie is about a massive... thing called V'ger headed on a direct course towards earth. The United Federation of Planets calls on Admiral James T. Kirk, badass extraordinaire, to reassemble his old crew and go kick some ass.

I was astounded by the scale of V'ger, and I never really understood what it looked like with all the clouds and everything.

 

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

I really have nothing more to say about this film. This is the greatest Star Trek film of all time, and one of the best Sci-fi films. It's Horatio Hornblower in space! Also, it's a film about growing old and Kirk having a midlife crisis. He was banging alien chicks and random Enterprise crew members, debating computers to oblivion and punching Gorn in the face. Now, he's beginning to develop that beer belly, he's relegated to a desk job and things aren't as hotly exciting as they used to be. His past then punches him in the face in the form of Khan. But Kirk doesn't take punches sitting down, no sir.

I did notice that Kirk and Khan are having the fight of their lives but they never physically come face to face (Space Seed showed us that it was a bad idea.) There was originally a scene where they would engage in a fist fight but it was scrapped.

 

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

The Search for Spock is, at best, a film trapped in between two really good films. It almost feels like filler, in a way. But nothing capitulates the spirit of this movie better than one exchange near the end of the film:

Sarek: "Kirk, I thank you. What you've done is - "
Kirk: "What I've done, I had to do."
Sarek: "But at what cost? Your ship. Your son."
Kirk: "If I hadn't tried, the cost would have been my soul."

You could say that it kinda ruins all the things Wrath of Khan established (that everyone has to face a no win situation) but that's up to your personal taste. The best scene here was when Kirk kicked Doctor Brown in the face. Also that scene where the Enterprise leaves Spacedock and the Excelsior sputters like a limp balloon.


 

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

 

Space Whaaaaaaaaaaaales! Star Trek takes a lighter, slightly comedic turn in this movie. But it was fun! That scene in the hospital where Bones gives this old lady a pill that makes her regrow her kidneys is awesome and a bit funny at the same time.

Once again, gigantic probes speaking in Humpback threaten earth, and it's up to Kirk and company in a Klingon Bird of Prey to save the day. I wonder if the Treaty of Algeron also applies to Klingon cloaking devices...

Our crew now starts to get used to the Earth of the late 20th century with boomboxes and nuclear wessels and "double-dumbass-on-you."

The first time I saw the Enterprise-A bridge, I thought it was sparkling white. The effect was almost reminiscent of the time I saw the Alternate Enterprise bridge in the 2009 movie. But upon rewatching the movie, I see my memory has been playing tricks on me.


Star Trek V: The Final Frontier 

I'll confess this: I liked The Final Frontier. I read the novelization first, that really fleshes out a lot of things about the characters, especially the three hostages on Nimbus III and the Star Trek Trinity (Kirk, Spock and McCoy). It's Shatner's film, and it shows. The El Capitan scene for example figures in a lot of his Shatnerverse novels. I guess the whole thing influenced my viewing(s) of the film and I didn't hate it as much.

Kirk then finds the ultimate guy to debate with, after being tired of debating with computers: god himself. And he kicks divine ass by asking just one question. "What does God need with a starship?" Old floaty head then gets exposed like the charlatan that he is and gets fucked by Spock in a Klingon Bird of Prey. That sentence didn't make a lot of sense, did it?

I wonder what a Shatner Director's cut would have looked like. Based on his description in Star Trek Movie Memories, it would have had rock monsters, angels and crazy shit. That would probably have been insane.



Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Man, the Nick Meyer Trek films are really a cut above the rest. Klingons become Space Russians (after the fall of Communism). Shakespeare references abound. And one of the most suspenseful space battles in the six Trek films so far is basically Chang taking potshots at Enterprise and Excelsior. It is glorious.

I've almost memorized all the lines by heart. Christopher Plummer is badass. Plus Worf drops by for a cameo! It's a fitting end to the TOS films and I really couldn't ask for anything more. I can't believe Gene Roddenberry wanted to do the JFK assassination thing instead of this film.

 

Star Trek: Generations

Generations has a lot of things on its back. You have a film where Kirk dies... how the hell do you do something like that? I really don't know how, and I bet the writers of this film had a hard time too (they even had Kirk shot in the back in an early edition of the film.) It also killed off Picard's family (as seen in Family, one of the best episodes of TNG.) It also has Data finally getting emotions! It's a very ambitious film and in that respect, one understands why it wasn't as good - it tried to do something with too much.

There were a lot of fun moments in the film, and thanks to a bit of spy work a small Bird of Prey manages to destroy a Galaxy-Class Starship... which is kind of a bummer. Kirk's death was really sad, but I would have preferred to have him fade away and live a normal life somewhere... like in the Shatnerverse novels. They're really nice to read, although they're not compatible with the continuity of the series and films that have come since then.

 

 
Star Trek: First Contact

First Contact is a great film. It has Borg, and it has Picard going all Die Hard on them instead of being diplomatic like he usually is. I guess that's out of character, but hey, why the hell not. (Apparently some people aren't too cool with this.) Although he did manage to get some emotional closure after "Family," something as traumatic as Borg Assimilation never does leave someone's psyche that easily.

The Dixon hill reference was nice, and the cameos by Neelix's actor and the EMH are nice additions (some cross publicity for Voyager ain't bad.) Having Reg Barclay there was also cool (I didn't notice him until after seeing the film a couple more times.)

This movie also introduces a number of new ship classes, like the Akira and Steamrunner classes. They're destroyed by the Borg Cube, of course, but they still looked great before they blew up.



Star Trek: Insurrection

Insurrection was an indication that the TNG movies were starting to lose their steam. This movie felt like a TNG two parter or a made for TV movie. Again Picard goes all gung ho and blasts his way to free the Baku from being oppressed. Riker pilots the Enterprise with an Atari 2600 joystick and Geordi gains sight for the first time.

There was an interesting movie idea after Insurrection came out where Patrick Stewart and co. were thinking of a movie where the Enterprise would rebel against a corrupt Federation. That would have been a pretty good idea for a movie, but instead, they made...

 

Star Trek: Nemesis
 

...sigh. I wanted to like this film, but you know that this movie is like someone took the script for Wrath of Khan, photocopied it, and they deleted all of the names and replaced them with TNG members. Data sacrifices himself for this one, and his loss is not as heavily felt as Spock's sacrifice in Wrath of Khan. The Enterprise faces off against a really powerful Reman/Romulan ship, but the Romulans as villains didn't seem that fleshed out. Shinzon as a character also felt kinda flat, even though Tom Hardy is an awesome actor. And did he really have to be bald!? I guess the connection wouldn't have been as obvious. I think the whole Picard clone thing was ridiculous in the first place.



Star Trek (2009)

It's fun, but it's riddled with a ton of plot holes. I'd recommend reading the comics/novelization to get the full experience of the film. It's a nice film that manages to respect the continuity of the original (by presenting itself as an alternate continuity) and launch itself as a new thing.

 

Star Trek Into Darkness

It's also fun, but it has more plotholes from the first, and in retrospect, it wasn't as good as I'd thought. This is the SECOND film that borrows from Wrath of Khan. Come on, guys, that was a good film, but please don't keep on cannibalizing it for the sake of making new films.

That's it for now. Hopefully before the 23rd century really comes along, I'll be able to post that TOS season 2 Trekstravaganza.

Trekstravaganza 2009: Season 1

In the wake of the latest Star Trek film, I wanted to revisit the original series, the 79 episode beast that started it all (80 if you include the pilot) and give a taste of what made the series so interesting to so many people. I’m going to use these three marks to denote what a particular episode has.

Of course I won’t be covering all of the episodes, just those where I have something to say.

Denotes a well-known Trek episode, the kind Tom Hanks blurts out during interviews at late night talk shows, or parodied in shows like Family Guy.

Denotes a favorite episode of mine. Doesn’t have to be the best in everyone’s eyes.

Denotes a weirdass episode. Full of the psychedelic shit of the 1960’s.

Season 1

Season 1 of Star Trek was Trek trying to find its groove. Characters shifted around, people’s jobs were shifting around like Sulu, and there were a number of inconsistencies from episode to episode. Despite that, a lot of classic episodes came out of the series, including the episode considered as the series’ best.

Episode #3: Where no Man has Gone Before

Kirk and company pass through the Great Barrier, which totally mindfucks one (and later two) of his crewmembers, turning them into really, really powerful beings. Unfortunately, their EQ isn’t up to par for being able to make mindbullets, so Kirk faces them down. What a badass.

Essentially the second episode created for the series, this episode has a smiling Spock (maybe he was just smug) old uniforms and mention of ESP among Starfleet personnel. They didn’t revisit that in later series IIRC, unless there was some kind of Section 31 shit that I didn’t know about.

Episode #4: The Naked Time

Kirk and company get a virus that makes them act like a bunch of drunk or high teenagers. Shit ensues. Oh, and Sulu is fencing. I originally saw that as kind of lame. Being asian, I wanted him to weirld at least an asian sword, going batshit around the Enterprise with a katana. They did manage to do that in the new movie, however, so it’s all good.

Episode #5: The Enemy Within

Kirk gets split into goody goody Kirk which is like Jean Luc Picard with slightly less spine, and 100% Bad Kirk. (note bad, not badass.) He totally makes out with the girl and shit. The moral lesson of this? We are the sum total of our good and bad selves and one cannot exist without the other. Not bad.

Oh, and what was up with that “alien?” It was a dog dressed in pink fur with a plastic horn. I mean what the fuck.

Episode #7: What are Little Girls Made of?

Kirk and company go to this planet where Nurse Chapel’s fiancee is stationed. They go in and realize that they are all ROBOTS. Most notable is Kirk’s babe of the week, Sherry Jackson, who shows up as pleasure robot Andrea. Lol Roger Korby is cheating on Nurse Chapel hahaha.

Anyway, Korby is actually batshit insane and kills himself, Kirk makes out with the babe of the week and all is right with the world.

Episode #8: Miri

Kirk comes across a near duplicate of earth where kids are the only surviving individuals. Star Trek will revisit this parallel earth scenario again and again throughout the series. IMO it’s infinitesimally rare to have a parallel earth but the episodes with parallel earths usually had a point to it, especially as a mirror to our own contemporary culture. Here it was about growing up and the divide between generations. In the 1960s the people who grew up with WW2 and this growing peaceful generation that would later have this peace revolution hippie shit was experiencing such a divide.

Oh, and Kirk’s babe of the week is either Janice “I always wanted you to look at my legs but not now, deadly pathogenic organism causing skin lesions kthxbye” Rand or Miri, who is like 13 years old. Granted, it’s not technically so but. DUDE. Kirk hitting on a 13 year old. Chris Hansen would be all over his ass now.

Episode #9: Dagger of the Mind

Kirk has a stowaway from a prison, returns said stowaway, shit hits fan. Anyway the only person I wanted to talk about in this episode was Kirk’s babe of the week, which IMO was one of the best babes of the week in the first season. She was Marianna Hill, who played Dr. Helen Noel. She was cool in that she was not only Kirk’s kissing target, she also hauled ass and kicked it just as well as the captain. Damn it, Kirk gets the best girls.

Episode #10: The Corbomite Maneuver.

Basically this is just a long drawn out game of bluff, which is what the “Corbomite Maneuver” was. Kirk was like totally shouting loud within the Fesarius’ ears, “Okay, destroy us, but we got this really powerful weapon that does over 9000 damage everytime we get hit. So yeah, go ahead. Not like we care.” What a badass. Of course now that would only be loled at, but this is the 23^rd century we’re talking about.

Episode #13: The Conscience of the King

It’s Shakespeare in space! Surprisingly without Klingons! Also throw in some sort of good old murder mystery. Not much to say here, because it would spoil it. The lines at the end are pretty apropos considering the circumstances of the ending and the parallels to Shakespeare.

Episode #14: Balance of Terror

One of the best Trek Episodes, Kirk gets into a submarine type tussle with the Romulans, headed by Mark Lenard, who we all know as Spock’s father Sarek. Although the recent style of fast paced Star Wars fighting is being considered more positively, the slow Wrath of Khan type battle was always a favorite of mine. These ships I consider as capital ships, the Galaxy class of their day. What’s nice about the episode is that it portrays both parties not as stereotypes, but as opposite sides, both with good and bad, fighting a war.

Episode #15: Shore Leave

After one of the best, follows one of the trippiest Trek Episodes. Hopping people in bunny suits, assholes named Finnegan (lol at “Jimmy Boy “ being a total nerd before becoming the galaxy’s greatest badass) and Samurai. Fuckitty fuck shit, this was certainly high on the weirdo scale.

Episode #18: Arena

KIRK VS. THE FUCKING GORN, BABY. It eclipses the rest of the episode, literally. Who cares about the fucking “Metrons” and the other shit that was destroyed when the Gorn attacked? This was all about Kirk vs. the Gorn. He beat the Gorn with a makeshift rifle out of bamboo and some chemicals. Kirk was fucking channeling McGyver even before there was a McGyver. That’s how badass he was.

I guess there was something in the episode about how war was bad, and how conflicts can be borne out of misunderstanding, and how people should look at both sides of a confliWHAT THE FUCK, LOOK AT THAT, KIRK VS. THE FUCKING GORN

Episode #19: Tomorrow is Yesterday

Kirk and company accidentally go back in time and screw up the timeline. Eventually they make everything right again. Notable are the action scenes in this film, as we see the origins of the patented Kirk jump kick. Also we see the warping around the sun time travel thingy that we will see reused in a Season 2 episode and in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home.

Episode #20: Court Martial

I always find Star Trek court based episodes very interesting. This one implicates Captain Kirk in an administrative complaint that claims the life of his crew. He meets a lawyer who stays true to the method of reading law books instead of keeping those books all inside one computer. The lawyer is pretty badass too. While Kirk is getting pwned by the prosecution (who turns out to be the requisite Kirk babe of the week - damn, this guy is more prolific than Wilt Chamberlain) Spock, his bestest friend in the world is… playing… 3D chess. Don’t worry, there’s a reason.

The mystery is pretty nice and the payoff was pretty unexpected. All in all good shit.

Episode #21: Return of the Archons

At first I thought that this was one of the crappy episodes, but it turned out to be one of my favorites. So I have to give a rundown of everything I find awesome about this. Basically, Kirk and co. come across a planet whose history and/or architecture parallels (again with the parallel earths WTF) depression-era America or something like that. The people are unreasonably catatonic, but once the bell rings, people go totally apeshit into an uncontrolled orgy of violence, sex, fistfucking and probably gerbils. They learn that Landru, some computer thing, is controlling the civilization as logically and soullessly as possible, for peace. Kirk no likey, so Kirk decides to totally fuck Landru up and bust a cap in its ass.

Now, generally, under the Prime Directive, since this is a primitive, non-warp capable civilization, the Federation shouldn’t be fucking with this society. In later series, all the captains would probably go, “okay, let’s not interfere, let’s just go to Something IV, warp seven engage.” Or at least they should tiptoe around the planet, interfering with the civilization as little as possible, if there was prior interference. The TNG Episode ‘Who Watches the Watchers’ is an example. Picard and co. may not always like the Prime Directive, but it was a Directive they would not fuck with. That’s why it was Starfleet general order number one.

But Kirk? Fuck no. He’s too badass for the fucking Prime Directive. I paraphrase this exchange between Kirk and Spock.

Spock: Captain, I must remind you of the non interference directive…

Kirk: Fuck Prime Directive! Onward hooooooooooo!

This also starts one of the Kirk vs. Computer scenes seen everywhere in the series, where Kirk totally fucks up a computer and causes it to go into error just by arguing with it in a brilliant display of logic. The producers may have thought it meant that man has the passion and the drive over any computer, no matter the superior mental processing power. I just think it’s badass.

Kirk – 1 Computer – 0 bitches.

Episode #22: Space Seed

No, the title does not imply bukkake in space.

Here we see Khan (the late, great, buff Ricardo Montalban) for the first time. He begins to out-badass Kirk himself, by stealing what was supposed to be Kirk’s babe of the week and claiming it as his own, and taking the entire Enterprise and claiming it as his own. But Kirk manages to outwit him enough and end up offering him his own kingdom. Of course, we all know what happened after that.

I wonder if Kirk knew what would happen. Like if Spock told him Ceti Alpha VI would explode but he care to tell Khan because he stole his babe of the week and tried to kill him/take over his ship.

Episode #23: A Taste of Armageddon

Alien guy: We have this great simulated war! Real casualties though.

Kirk: *Destroys computers*

Alien guy: WTF did you do? Now there will be war for real!

Kirk: lol

That’s pretty much it.

Episode #24: This Side of Paradise

Kirk and co. comes to this planet that turns everyone into pussies except Kirk, who is too badass to be turned into a pussy. Disturbed that everyone in the Enterprise has deserted him, even the redshirts, he calls up Spock to the Enterprise and totally flames him.

Spock lashes out at the trolling Kirk and realizes that strong emotions break the pussyfying agent. So they all return to normal. Happy ending for all.

Episode #25: Devil in the Dark

One of my favorite episodes, without spoiling the plot, I think this episode stresses the importance of understanding between two individuals or groups of individuals. To understand something or someone, one must look at their motivations. You can argue that it doesn’t excuse the action itself, but that’s a debate we can talk about another day.

Also, brownie points to McCoy for curing anything, probably even a rainy day.

Episode #26: Errand of Mercy

Klingons: WAR!

Federation: WAR!

Organians: we’re a bunch of cockblockers. Therefore, NO WAR!

HAPPY END

It was nice to see old school Klingons in TOS. Interesting to note that in the series that chronologically follows this, I have not seen any planet under Klingon rule. There have been Klingon colonies or settlements populated by Klingons, but planets populated by another alien species, ruled by Klingons? None. Feel free to correct me though.

Episode #28: The City on the Edge of Forever

Best episode of the series, according to many critics and fans of the series. It defines high quality Space Opera in a time when Sci fi was generally treated with stereotypes of little green men and B-movies. You really have to watch the episode by itself. Kirk and co. happen upon the Guardian of Forever, and McCoy accidentally goes back in time and changes history. So Kirk and Spock go after him but find that it isn’t as easy as they think.

Episode #29: Operation: Annihilate!

It’s Kirk vs. Space Pancakes! When I was a kid I was awed at the sight of futuristic looking buildings. There weren’t a lot of people though (even though the episode points out millions of colonists inhabiting the planet… maybe they just stayed in the shadows.) Great drama ensues when Sam Kirk and his wife fall victim to the attack. I always wondered what happened to Kirk’s nephew afterwards. Oh well. One question though, where was Sam Kirk when Kodos the Executioner did his shit in Tarsus IV? I’ll have to look that up.

So it turns out UV light kills the Space pancakes, and so Kirk and co. go on an ecstasy fueled rave into the night. Just kidding.

That pretty much wraps up my thoughts on the season. All in all a good season. Don’t worry, the shit only gets better from here – the second season improves by beginning to focus on the ensemble cast as well.