I love the cold open of that two-parter.

yup

No I meant before the opening credits. But that works too.

oh yeah that's good too

Don't have much to add except that, totally agree it's a classic.

And as many times as I've seen it, I still get a kick out of Scotty's line when McCoy explains how the antidote works by deadening nerve inputs: "any decent Scotch'll do that!"

Plato's Stepchildren SEASON 3 EPISODE 10



Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato's_Stepchildren

This has many silly, silly elements (Kirk and Spock dancing about for example), but there's also a lot of darkness here. The powerful aliens they have to deal with here are maybe the most straight-up evil we've seen, totally corrupted by their powers, and completely without any sort of empathy. They are civilised psychopaths. There's also some great scenes. I really like the dwarf talking about how they make him feel - it did feel like someone who has been a chronic victim realising that his victimhood wasn't something he should be blaming himself for. The scene with Nurse Chapel and Uhura, where the women are scared was good. Hell, I even like Spock's little song about bitter dregs.

It just winds up way to neatly for my liking.

I think this is very good, but I suspect I may be alone there.

Redshirt Count: 23 (I'm not counting all the redshirt bodies on the Defiant).

Classics -
Amok Time (S2E01)
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
Spectre of the Gun (S3E06)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
The Tholian Web (S3E09)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)o
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Mirror Mirror (S2E04)
Arena (S1E18)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)
Patterns of Force (S2E21)

Very Good
The Ultimate Computer (S2E24)
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)
Is There in Truth No Beauty? (S3E05)
Plato's Stepchildren (S3E10)
A Piece of the Action (S2E17)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S2E15)
By Any Other Name (S2E22)
Return to Tomorrow (S2E20)
Wolf In The Fold (S2E14)

Decent
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Bread and Circuses (S2E25)
Day of the Dove (S3E07)
Return of the Archons (S1E21)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
I Mudd (S2E08)
The Omega Glory (S2E23)
Journey to Babel (S2E10)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
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)
And The Children Shall Lead (S3E04)
Galileo Seven (S1E16)
The Changeling (S2E03)
Catspaw (S2E07)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)
The Apple (S2E05)
The Doomsday Machine (S2E06)
Assignment: Earth (S2E26)
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (S3E08)

Ho-Hum

The Gamesters of Triskelion (S2E16)
A Private Little War (S2E19)
The Paradise Syndrome (S3E03)
Obsession (S2E13)
The Deadly Years (S2E12)
Who Mourns for Adonais? (S2E02)
The Immunity Syndrome (S2E18)
Friday's Child (S2E11)
Metamorphosis (S2E09)
Spock's Brain (S3E01)
The Enterprise Incident (S3E02)

Terrible -
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

This episode was actually pulled from the initial airing on BBC because of the "sadistic plot elements" (source: wikipedia) and not aired on that network until 1994.

Any episode where Nichelle Nichols gets into a low-cut nightgown is a classic in my book.

Seriously, though, Plato's Stepchildren is famous for featuring one of the first interracial kisses in TV history, at a time where interracial relationships were extremely controversial. The network actually decided to make an edited, kiss-free version of the episode for the South. When asked to do the kiss-free version, Shatner and Nichols engaged in a hilarious bit of passive resistance by deliberately screwing up the scene to make it unairable. According to Nichols:

Oh man, I would love to watch some of those outtakes.

The theme of superpowerful beings acting like dicks has been done just a few times too many in this series, but other than that I also really liked it. The Alexander character was handled quite well, especially the bit at the end where he's tempted to exact revenge. Apparently, Alexander joins the crew on board the Enterprise at the end, although we never see him again. Too bad.

Misc:

That song Spock sings was written by Nimoy.

Wink of An Eye SEASON 3 EPISODE 11



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

Interesting concept around aliens living at different rates of time than anyone else, but this has got more holes than a swiss cheese. So you can detect them by sound/buzzing, but you can't see them, even when they stand still for a while? There's other logic holes, but ultimately you can look over all that if the episode is decent. This was very mundane. I did notice plentiful usage of dutch angles whenever they where in 'fast time'.

Otherwise, this was forgettable.

Redshirt Count: 24 (one gets it by ageing rapidly)
Classics -
Amok Time (S2E01)
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
Spectre of the Gun (S3E06)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
The Tholian Web (S3E09)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)o
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Mirror Mirror (S2E04)
Arena (S1E18)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)
Patterns of Force (S2E21)

Very Good
The Ultimate Computer (S2E24)
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)
Is There in Truth No Beauty? (S3E05)
Plato's Stepchildren (S3E10)
A Piece of the Action (S2E17)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S2E15)
By Any Other Name (S2E22)
Return to Tomorrow (S2E20)
Wolf In The Fold (S2E14)

Decent
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Bread and Circuses (S2E25)
Day of the Dove (S3E07)
Return of the Archons (S1E21)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
I Mudd (S2E08)
The Omega Glory (S2E23)
Journey to Babel (S2E10)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
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)
And The Children Shall Lead (S3E04)
Galileo Seven (S1E16)
The Changeling (S2E03)
Catspaw (S2E07)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)
The Apple (S2E05)
The Doomsday Machine (S2E06)
Assignment: Earth (S2E26)
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (S3E08)

Ho-Hum

The Gamesters of Triskelion (S2E16)
A Private Little War (S2E19)
The Paradise Syndrome (S3E03)
Obsession (S2E13)
The Deadly Years (S2E12)
Who Mourns for Adonais? (S2E02)
The Immunity Syndrome (S2E18)
Friday's Child (S2E11)
Metamorphosis (S2E09)
Wink of an Eye (S3E11)
Spock's Brain (S3E01)
The Enterprise Incident (S3E02)

Terrible -
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

I thought VOY did a good job with their spin on this idea.

Wink of an Eye has a fun, Twilight Zone-ish feel to it in the first act, but once the mystery is revealed, the rest is implausible and full of plot holes. I vote bottom end of ho-hum and possibly terrible.

Her outfit though.

The Empath SEASON 3 EPISODE 12



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

This one really bored me. I didn't loathe it, but it was dull. The microbudget really became obvious in this one, with bare sets, poor effects and overuse of music to try and drum up some emotional engagement. A lot of talking over a threadbare plot, and a lot of unspoken moments intended to be high emotion but were just...dull. I feel like I'm not giving this one a fair shake, but I just couldn't get into it at all.

Interestingly, banned for some time by the BBC for some years for its elements of sadism. (did they feel showing this to people was the act of a sadist?)

Redshirt Count: 24

Classics -
Amok Time (S2E01)
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
Spectre of the Gun (S3E06)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
The Tholian Web (S3E09)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)o
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Mirror Mirror (S2E04)
Arena (S1E18)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)
Patterns of Force (S2E21)

Very Good
The Ultimate Computer (S2E24)
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)
Is There in Truth No Beauty? (S3E05)
Plato's Stepchildren (S3E10)
A Piece of the Action (S2E17)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S2E15)
By Any Other Name (S2E22)
Return to Tomorrow (S2E20)
Wolf In The Fold (S2E14)

Decent
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Bread and Circuses (S2E25)
Day of the Dove (S3E07)
Return of the Archons (S1E21)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
I Mudd (S2E08)
The Omega Glory (S2E23)
Journey to Babel (S2E10)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
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)
And The Children Shall Lead (S3E04)
Galileo Seven (S1E16)
The Changeling (S2E03)
Catspaw (S2E07)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)
The Apple (S2E05)
The Doomsday Machine (S2E06)
Assignment: Earth (S2E26)
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (S3E08)

Ho-Hum

The Gamesters of Triskelion (S2E16)
A Private Little War (S2E19)
The Paradise Syndrome (S3E03)
Obsession (S2E13)
The Deadly Years (S2E12)
Who Mourns for Adonais? (S2E02)
The Immunity Syndrome (S2E18)
Friday's Child (S2E11)
Metamorphosis (S2E09)
Wink of an Eye (S3E11)
Spock's Brain (S3E01)
The Enterprise Incident (S3E02)

Boring
The Empath (S3E12)

Terrible -
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

Absolutely terrible. I think the show ran out of money at this point, so they just went with a completely empty set, giving the episode a kind of arthouse theater vibe. Plot just drags on, one of the characters literally says nothing, much of the story seems borrowed from earlier episodes.

There's definitely an S&M feel to a couple of scenes. I wonder, did the BBC also ban the episode where bare-chested Kirk gets tied up and whipped by Nazis?

Misc:

Apparently DeForest Kelley actually liked this episode. Goodness knows why.

So I've thought on The Empath a bit. Cranberry Tea is right, it is terrible. I'm going to do some reordering of the whole list

Classics - (must watch)
Amok Time (S2E01)
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
Spectre of the Gun (S3E06)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
The Tholian Web (S3E09)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Mirror Mirror (S2E04)
Arena (S1E18)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)
Patterns of Force (S2E21)

Very Good - (very entertaining and well made)
Is There in Truth No Beauty? (S3E05)
The Ultimate Computer (S2E24)
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)
Plato's Stepchildren (S3E10)
A Piece of the Action (S2E17)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S2E15)
Day of the Dove (S3E07)

Good - (entertaining)
By Any Other Name (S2E22)
Return to Tomorrow (S2E20)
Wolf In The Fold (S2E14)
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Bread and Circuses (S2E25)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
I Mudd (S2E08)
And The Children Shall Lead (S3E04)

Passable - (watch if you want to kill the time)
The Omega Glory (S2E23)
Journey to Babel (S2E10)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
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)
Return of the Archons (S1E21)


Ho-Hum - (if you must)
Catspaw (S2E07)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)
The Apple (S2E05)
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (S3E08)
The Doomsday Machine (S2E06)
Assignment: Earth (S2E26)
The Gamesters of Triskelion (S2E16)
A Private Little War (S2E19)
The Paradise Syndrome (S3E03)


Weak - (for completists and OCD cases)
Obsession (S2E13)
The Deadly Years (S2E12)
Who Mourns for Adonais? (S2E02)
The Immunity Syndrome (S2E18)
Friday's Child (S2E11)
Metamorphosis (S2E09)
Wink of an Eye (S3E11)
Spock's Brain (S3E01)
The Enterprise Incident (S3E02)


Terrible - (don't bother, it will annoy you)
The Empath (S3E12)
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

Oh heck yeah, I finally got to the episode with the green space chick. Instant classic.

Maybe because it's one of the few where his character actually gets to do something heroic (other than the routine lifesaving he does, but of course that's his job).

Pretty terrible episode overall, though I did enjoy Spock's trolling attempt at the very end.

Elaan of Troyius SEASON 3 EPISODE 13



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

Well, we get Kirk giving an alien princess a good sorting out, in a variety of ways (sex, slapping and spanking - or at least the threat of it). But overall, the episode is all over the place plotwise, and I found the performance of the actress playing Elaan as quite dreadful in places. When she was being a haughty princess she was about okay, but anything with any other emotion just did not work. I also liked the space battle at the end, but didn't understand it - why did they have to go to warp 2 to fight the Klingons?

Mess and not that much fun.

Redshirt Count: 25

Classics - (must watch)
Amok Time (S2E01)
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
Spectre of the Gun (S3E06)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
The Tholian Web (S3E09)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Mirror Mirror (S2E04)
Arena (S1E18)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)
Patterns of Force (S2E21)

Very Good - (very entertaining and well made)
Is There in Truth No Beauty? (S3E05)
The Ultimate Computer (S2E24)
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)
Plato's Stepchildren (S3E10)
A Piece of the Action (S2E17)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S2E15)
Day of the Dove (S3E07)

Good - (entertaining)
By Any Other Name (S2E22)
Return to Tomorrow (S2E20)
Wolf In The Fold (S2E14)
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Bread and Circuses (S2E25)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
I Mudd (S2E08)
And The Children Shall Lead (S3E04)

Passable - (watch if you want to kill the time)
The Omega Glory (S2E23)
Journey to Babel (S2E10)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
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)
Return of the Archons (S1E21)


Ho-Hum - (if you must)
Catspaw (S2E07)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)
The Apple (S2E05)
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (S3E08)
The Doomsday Machine (S2E06)
Assignment: Earth (S2E26)
The Gamesters of Triskelion (S2E16)
A Private Little War (S2E19)
The Paradise Syndrome (S3E03)


Weak - (for completists and OCD cases)
Obsession (S2E13)
The Deadly Years (S2E12)
Who Mourns for Adonais? (S2E02)
The Immunity Syndrome (S2E18)
Friday's Child (S2E11)
Metamorphosis (S2E09)
Wink of an Eye (S3E11)
Elaan of Troyius (S3E13)
Spock's Brain (S3E01)
The Enterprise Incident (S3E02)


Terrible - (don't bother, it will annoy you)
The Empath (S3E12)
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

Elaan of Troyius had its heart in the right place, and in fact the writers wanted to make an episode to appeal to women who weren't normally big sci-fi fans. A black woman in a strong leading role/Kirk love interest had potential, but this episode devolves into Kirk lecturing a grown woman on how to behave --it's not a great look. I've noted in past how poorly ST:TOS does with producing compelling female characters.

There's also bits at the beginning where Kirk more or less allows Elaan to appear to boss him around. It's way out of character for Kirk and a huge breach of military tradition for him to allow his command to be challenged. Story is really ham-handed and unsubtle; poor episode.

Misc:

One redeeming feature of this episode is McCoy's classic line "Are you out of your Vulcan mind?", which is one of the absolutely best quotes in the entire ST franchise, and will be re-used later in The Wrath of Khan.

What black woman? France Nuyen, who played the Elan, is French-Vietnamese

D'oh. Typo, meant to say Asian.

lol...how is that a typo?

you blew me away on the episodes diebitter... I was on my last disks and kind of lost the momentum to continue watching them at least for the time being.

HOWEVER, I did manage to watch Star Trek: the Motion Picture and Star Trek: Wrath of Khan this past weekend back to back.

I might be one of the very few... but I really love STTMP.

As hokie and and overly drawn out some parts of the movie are, as a concept and (for the most part) story, I think STTMP is a superb Science Fiction. When I speak of Science Fiction, I am speaking of real sci fi, not some contrived action or horror movie with elements of a Medieval story telling mixed in as a humanizing factor.

it's a different Kirk in the movies though, more demanding and pushed more towards the front of the story than the television show. In the episodes, I think the ST characters themselves somewhat play second fiddle to the episodes protagonists... which I feel is enriching to the episodes.

Yeah, I never felt TMP was a great Trek movie and I find it way ponderous and self-indulgent for a Trek movie. Someone somewhere thought slow meant thoughtful, and it takes a really great visionary director to make that work. It's trying to be 2001, but it's beat flat by other high-brow scifi, like 2001 or Solaris. I did a podcast about this a while back. I'll dig out the link and post it later.