Such a powerful moment. It's what good sci-fi is all about and one of my all-time greatest TV memories.

So I got around to watching Balance of Terror. Really solid episode that's a homage to the classic submarine movies. The Federation vs. Romulan/Klingon empire as a metaphor for the Cold War works well, and will become a recurring theme for TOS and the TOS movies. I think that as the Cold War fades into the past, the impact of it may diminish a bit. The wedding bits were a distraction that really didn't work, however.

This is also the first time we get to see the cloaking shield, which was a great idea that will become a staple of the franchise, perhaps most notably in Star Trek VI. The Romulans apparently have some kind of super plasma weapon thingy that I don't think is ever mentioned in the series again.

Oh, and Mark Leonard puts in a solid performance as the Romulan Commander.

Misc:

I think this may be the only time we ever get to see the Phaser Room.

Metamaterial-based cloaking devices have actually been invented recently, although they only work in the microwave frequency. Still absolutely amazing technology, and it works in the same way as described in this episode; by bending the light around the object.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/314/5801/977.abstract

I think the good thing about TNG is even the rubbish characters (apart from wesley, but he's not in it that much), were fairly watchable. The rubbvish characters in DS9 and Voyager (Kira, Janeway, Tuvok, that Klingon engineer, the first officer, the ensign who never seem to get promoted despite performing rly well for years etc etc) made an episode awful if they had any role.

TNG was also better at bringing general themes into the plot without being preachy.

DS9 was good apart from the Bjoran religion episodes and the ending. The last episode is terrible.

Nothing pisses me off more about the DS9 finale than the fact that they used stock footage in the battle scenes.

was it DS9 that had the episode where they used Original star trek footage and placed teh ds9 characters in the time line?

yeah, that's the only DS9 episode I've ever seen, it was terrific.

Shore Leave SEASON 1, EPISODE 15



Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shore_L...iginal_Series)

This is an iconic episode - everyone remembers it - but it's just plain goofy. It feels like they had some stock footage, some costumes they had knocking around, and a spare tiger, and then worked out how to use these in a 50 minute episode. I'm sure it was more intelligent and detailed than that, but that's how it feels. So we have a knight, a samurai, Don Juan, a tiger, a white rabbit (+ Alice), a Japanese fighter plane, and some old Kirk flame who Kirk says hasn't aged a day in 15 years, but who plainly looks about 35...

Kirk also has a big fight with some Irish guy called Finnegan (who is so Irish, I was expecting him to pull out a packet of Lucky Charms to go along with the Irish jig music that constantly played whenever Finnegan spoke) and rips his shirt off, though not enough to see his corset.

Feels like pure fluff with a hokey ending, but... it isn't boring.

Running Red Shirt Dead Count: 2



Classics -
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
Miri (S1E08)
Charlie X (S1E02)

Decent -
Mudds Women (S1E06)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
Shore Leave (S1E15)
The Conscience of the King (S1E13)
Where No Man Has Gone Before (S1E03)
The Man Trap (S1E01)
What Are Little Girls Made Of (S1E07)
Dagger of the Mind (S1E09)

God I love the 60's sometimes

Looks like a standard Saturday night for Dominic.

also, the girl on the right is definitely an inspiration in hair styling to Donald Trump.

McCoy coming back from the dead with a pair of Vegas showgirls is just the most gangsta thing ever.

Some Trek episodes are serious-business sci-fi with clever ideas and social commentary, and some are just plain goofy, campy fun. It's a bit like Twilight Zone in that respect. We just saw a serious Cold War allegory in Balance of Terror, now it's on to silliness in Shore Leave.

So help me, I love this episode and I have no idea why. It's not a great episode in any objective sense, but it stays with you somehow. Shore Leave may perhaps have been an inspiration for several TNG episodes in which the recreational holodeck becomes dangerous.

Misc:

Ay yo, why is it always the Irish guy who's the drunkern fighting goofball? We had Bailey and now this Finnegan guy.

Galileo Seven SEASON 1, EPISODE 16



Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Galileo_Seven

This one irritates me. I'm not saying it's a bad episode, because it's fine, it's just the constant undermining of Spock's authority by that guy drove me bananas. Spock should have told him to STFU or be courtmartialled, because his undermining of Spock's authority just didn't feel authentic to me. Also the alien things looked dreadfully cheap.

Overall not bad, but the ending is very deus ex machina.


Classics -
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
Miri (S1E08)
Charlie X (S1E02)

Decent -
Mudds Women (S1E06)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
Shore Leave (S1E15)
The Conscience of the King (S1E13)
Where No Man Has Gone Before (S1E03)
The Man Trap (S1E01)
What Are Little Girls Made Of (S1E07)
Dagger of the Mind (S1E09)
Galileo Seven (S1E16)

No Red-Shirt count?

I always hated when Star Trek shows were soft on insubordination. Like janeway inexplicably giving chipotle the xo slot ruined voyager for me. Hanging him would have been a better option! And that wasn't insubordination, but treason!

One of my favorite Star Trek moments is data dressing down his insubordinate xo in the Klingon civil war two parter.

Also I despised Riker acting like an insubordinate petty little bitch in Chain of Command. Boo hoo you miss your widdle captain Picard? GTFO!

WHOOPS!

No red shirts died in this, just a yellow shirt.

star trek is the best tv series ever

I think the insubordination in Galileo Seven makes a lot of sense in context. The whole episode revolves around the pros and cons of Spock's hyper-logical philosophy: Spock is able to handle the emergency landing cooly, and he quickly works out a gameplan to get them back in contact with the Enterprise.

The downside is that Spock's lack of empathy undermines his leadership ability. His men don't understand him or respect him. Also, Spock's lack of interpersonal skills causes him to misjudge how the aliens will act, which is an almost fatal mistake.

This was a balanced, well-written episode, and I rather enjoyed it. I walked away feeling like there weren't really any heroes or villains in it. The downside is that Kirk is hardly in it except for a few really unnecessary scenes where he argues with High Commissioner Whatshisname.

Misc:

This is the first time we get to see the shuttecraft. The transporter concept came about because the show's producers didn't have enough of an effects budget at first to show a shuttlecraft flying down to alien worlds, so they had them beam down instead.

There's a Yeoman Mears in this episode, which was a part originally written for Grace Lee Whitney. I still don't get why they thought it was a good idea to send a clerical officer off to investigate alien worlds.

Picard and Saruman are homies!

lol....that was pretty good. Love Chekov's dance.

So Ed Lauter died today. He's one of those guys who plays a ton of bit parts, who you recognize but don't know his name.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491590/

I immediately recognized him as the father of that kid in Wesley's cadet squad who was accidentally killed when they were trying to perform that illegal flight maneuver.

The Squire of Gothos SEASON 1, EPISODE 17



Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Squire_of_Gothos

Well, another stone cold classic, with the Squire himself giving a memorable and somewhat amusing performance, part liberace, part Shatner himself and part Rat Pack(??). Yep, the meme of the all-powerful alien being a kid is a huge old chestnut these days, but this one was a lot of fun. I liked the weird animal heads on the wall too. Very enjoyable episode.

They were really firing on all cylinders in this Season of Trek.

No redshirts died - I'm starting to think the whole redshirts/death ratio thing is something of an urban legend.

Classics -
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)
Miri (S1E08)
Charlie X (S1E02)

Decent -
Mudds Women (S1E06)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
Shore Leave (S1E15)
The Conscience of the King (S1E13)
Where No Man Has Gone Before (S1E03)
The Man Trap (S1E01)
What Are Little Girls Made Of (S1E07)
Dagger of the Mind (S1E09)
Galileo Seven (S1E16)

And the one I've got pencilled in for Monday is the episode EVERYONE remembers, Arena. If anyone wants to watch too. It gets lonely being a trekkie, sometimes.