Chekov is trolling hard in this episode, clearly getting a rise out of Spock.

Some TOS episodes are serious, cerebral sci-fi, and some are just good silly fun. This is def one of the latter.

The Gamesters of Triskelion SEASON 2 EPISODE 16



Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gam..._of_Triskelion

In a stunningly original move, we get an episode where a powerful alien race/being use the crew of the Enterprise for entertaining themselves.

A decent enough episode with some odd elements (the weird, slightly hermaphrodite woman who takes a shine to Chekov; Uhuhra's chosen mate getting a little too rapey on primetime TV to be comfortable), and a Star Trek cliché in full swing where Kirk enlightens an alien underclass my teaching them about this thing that humans call 'love'. (I think Kirk gave her a good sorting-out in an unflimed scene, imo).

The female alien of the week had a Thing 1 + Thing 2 from Doctor Seuss, and I do believe Kid Creole saw this when he was deciding on the original look for his Coconuts.

I could have it wrong, but I do believe we got a McCoy "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR VULCAN MIND?" in this one.

Redshirt Count: 19

Classics -
Amok Time (S2E01)
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Mirror Mirror (S2E04)
Arena (S1E18)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)

Very Good
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S2E15)
Wolf In The Fold (S2E14)

Decent
Return of the Archons (S1E21)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
I Mudd (S2E08)
Journey to Babel (S2E10)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Court Martial (S1E20)
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)
The Changeling (S2E03)
Catspaw (S2E07)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)
The Apple (S2E05)
The Doomsday Machine (S2E06)


Ho-Hum
The Gamesters of Triskelion (S2E16)
Obsession (S2E13)
The Deadly Years (S2E12)
Who Mourns for Adonais? (S2E02)
Friday's Child (S2E11)
Metamorphosis (S2E09)

Terrible -
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

Even Roddenberry never imagined a future where androids would try to sell us stuff.

It's not really serious-business science fiction, but in my book The Trouble With Tribbles is an easy candidate for a classic episode. That shot of Kirk buried in an avalanche of tribbles in one of those iconic Star Trek moments that everyone remembers.

It's good silly fun to watch the Enterprise overrun with tribbles, Scotty drinking scotch and throwing down against Klingons is the best Scotty bit ever, and the tribble vendor has a magnificent Harvey Mudd quality to him. Plus, the ending is just trolltastic.

Misc: That distinctive tribble cooing sound is a combination of a dove, a screech owl, and air coming out of a balloon. The sound engineering has always been memorable on Star Trek; I'll bet all of you can remember from heart what communicators, transporters, and the bridge sound like.

"Tribbles" has some of the funniest lines/scenes in ST history. Kirk just keeps zinging the Federation guy.

The show really did have fantastic sound design. Every time I flip open my phone I hear the distinctive communicator sound in my head. And every time I walk through an automatic sliding door, I go "tssssssshhhhh" to myself.

^^^ haha like they did in Airplane 2

okay, every time I flipped open my phone when I had a flip phone. Better?

I actually sort of miss my flip phone.

Wow yeah best of all time is a pretty big call - so many really solid TNG episodes. Off the top of my head i'd go "Family" and "Yesterday's Enterprise", but you could probably present a dozen others i'd have a hard time arguing against.

From Voyager i always enjoyed "Flashback" - ok, a ham-fisted way of crowbarring a guest star in, but i never really felt any Voyager episodes were classics compared to TNG, and i'm sure them thrashing the Borg single handed every other week didn't help in that respect either.....

Do you want to see Shatner bare-chested in a bondage outfit? Well, you're gonna love The Gamesters of Triskelion. Otherwise, it's kind of a meh episode. Not a terrible sci-fi premise, but it just feels like the studio execs said they wanted more action scenes and more girls in space bikinis. That almost-rape scene is way more intense than I would have thought would be allowed on TV at the time.

Piece of the Action SEASON 2 EPISODE 17



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

This is a LOT of fun, and I think the first time ST uses the meme of 'other planet adopts past earth culture as its template', and it's fun to watch Shatner hamming it up as a Chicago gangster (especially when he has to explain what he's talking about to Scotty). I swear at one point he was doing an act that Brando based Don Corleone on.

Them clothes look pretty good on Kirk and Spock.


Redshirt Count: 19

Classics -
Amok Time (S2E01)
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Mirror Mirror (S2E04)
Arena (S1E18)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)

Very Good
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)
A Piece of the Action (S2E17)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S2E15)
Wolf In The Fold (S2E14)

Decent
Return of the Archons (S1E21)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
I Mudd (S2E08)
Journey to Babel (S2E10)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Court Martial (S1E20)
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)
The Changeling (S2E03)
Catspaw (S2E07)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)
The Apple (S2E05)
The Doomsday Machine (S2E06)


Ho-Hum
The Gamesters of Triskelion (S2E16)
Obsession (S2E13)
The Deadly Years (S2E12)
Who Mourns for Adonais? (S2E02)
Friday's Child (S2E11)
Metamorphosis (S2E09)

Terrible -
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

So help me, I love this episode. Maybe the dumbest premise for a ST episode ever: why is a ginormous encyclopedia on 20th century gangsters on a starship? Don't they have Kindles in the future? Was there no other bit of technology on the ship worth copying? Man who cares as long as we have an excuse to have Shatner ham it up gangster-style.You can just tell everyone involved had good silly fun making this episode.



Misc:

This was almost certainly the inspiration for the TNG episode The Big Goodbye.

Officially, the Horizon made contact with the Iotians before the Prime Directive was established.

oh, also, Krako




Why did I keep getting the urge for some chilli during this episode?

Jojo Krako is a megaelite sci-fi name. Bela Oxmyx is not too shabby.

Immunity Syndrome SEASON 2 EPISODE 18



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

Not a very thrilling episode, but notable because the remastered special effects are quite spectacular. Some interesting dynamics here, with Kirk kind of having to choose between Spock and McCoy for a suicide mission (kinda, everyone will eventually die, it seems), but it still feels a little dull, in spite of all that. Another episode I'm sure I must have seen, but have no recollection of.

Redshirt Count: 19

Classics -
Amok Time (S2E01)
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Mirror Mirror (S2E04)
Arena (S1E18)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)

Very Good
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)
A Piece of the Action (S2E17)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S2E15)
Wolf In The Fold (S2E14)

Decent
Return of the Archons (S1E21)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
I Mudd (S2E08)
Journey to Babel (S2E10)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Court Martial (S1E20)
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)
The Changeling (S2E03)
Catspaw (S2E07)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)
The Apple (S2E05)
The Doomsday Machine (S2E06)


Ho-Hum
The Gamesters of Triskelion (S2E16)
Obsession (S2E13)
The Deadly Years (S2E12)
Who Mourns for Adonais? (S2E02)
The Immunity Syndrome (S2E18)
Friday's Child (S2E11)
Metamorphosis (S2E09)

Terrible -
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

I thought this one was decent. Mostly, I just like the trippy sci-fi elements: a black hole that's actually the defensive membrane of an amoeba the size of a planet. Teh Enterprise as a virus. Reverse thrusters, reverse energy, even REVERSE LOGIC --which was probably just Kirk trolling Spock. Although they're common devices in sci-fi these days, back in the late sixties black holes were a fairly new concept. Kudos to the writers for being so forward-thinking.

Misc:

I continue to be fascinated with the mysterious Lt. Kyle, who takes the helm in this episode whilst Takei was away filming The Green Berets. Even though Lt. Kyle appears in all three seasons of TOS and in the animated series AND in one of the ST movies, I swear I've never noticed this character until he was pointed out to me in this thread. Perhaps part of his elusiveness comes from him switching roles from transporter chief to helmsman, and from red shirt to yellow shirt. What's his deal? How is it that he goes unnoticed when other recurring minor characters like Yeoman Rand, Nurse Chapel, and that Riley guy from season one are memorable?

Kyle is also the big discovery of this rewatching process for me. I think the issue of why he is so anonymous is because he is never, ever centre stage, for even the briefest time, in any episode. Chapel, Rand, and O'Riley have been.

Coupled with the fact he seems to change his hairstyle, and shirt colour, a fair bit, and he's hard to spot, and doesn't stick in the memory.

I was watching my favourite quizshow "Pointless" recently and the jackpot question was:

"Name any character who appeared in 30 or more episodes of TOS?"

(for those unfamiliar with the format, they give 100 people, 100 seconds to answer the question, with the contestants objective to name the least popular answers, with the best possible answer being one that none of the 100 people could answer).

Anyway, aside from the main cast, there were 2 low scorers - one scored 1 point, and the other was a pointless answer. I got the 1 pointer (fairly obvious to a Trek fan) but much to my annoyance i failed to get the pointless answer, and having just done a search of names in this thread, the character is not discussed once.

Anyone want to have a stab?? (yeah, yeah the answer is on IMDB, but not wikipedia)

Nurse Chapel

ahh, I just checked on imdb. That character never, ever registered with me, that character's more under the radar than Lt Kyle!

Was the one i got and scored 1 point

Oh wow... I've never noticed that character before. Would have guessed Chapel.

Wow. never would've occurred to me but I recognized him as soon as I googled the name and saw a photo.