One of the things I enjoy about Trekathon is the unique possibility for a fast-forward trip through five decades of entertainment industry. To us, most of the stuff is already aged, so it’s interesting to see how an entertainment form such as TV drama has evolved in over 40 years. In addition for being seriously nerdificated during the process, I’m quite confident we’ll learn much more than we expected.
So far, the Trekathon has been quite an interesting ride. We’ve found ourselves enjoying Trekking far more than we expected, and surprised on how big an effect it has on our lives. It’s also great to hear people asking on how we’re progressing, and see that there’s a lot of people following us on Twitter as well, and we’ve even seen people starting to wear Twibbons to encourage us. A genuine thank you for everyone for the support and interest, we’ll keep on Trekking!
So far, we’ve seen 82 episodes, and we have 644 episodes and 11 movies more to go – and 331 days left to complete our mission.
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Here’s some thoughts about the Second Season of Star Trek: The Original Series, which I’m pronouncing as the best season of TOS – and possibly, of the whole franchise.
01: AMOK TIME
Suffering through his first infliction of pon farr, the Vulcan biological mating urge, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) must return to Vulcan to marry his betrothed or he will die. However, when the Enterprise arrives at Vulcan, complications at the ceremony may endanger Captain Kirk (William Shatner) as well.
Mr. Spock and Kirk have an interesting relationship. Mostly, it’s very professional, and both respect each other in their assigned posts – and quickly judging, that would be the case. But then there’s something else. Although Spock is a Vulcan who can’t show his emotions, and Kirk is a captain who needs to keep his commanding position clear, there’s a deep friendship between these two. It’s not uncommon to say it’s almost Platonic love. Hell, the Internet is full of Kirk/Spock -fiction, so to be honest, it would only take a small nudge towards a modern TV-series, and these two would be a gay couple.
Just look at them two... Aren't they a match made in heaven?
But then there’s the hate, too. Especially, coming from Mr. Spock’s side. Whenever he’s somehow mentally unable to control himself, he’s the first person to lose it all, fight the Enterprise crew and kick Kirk’s ass, if possible. The whole series is full of episodes with Kirk vs. Spock, and Amok Time is the ultimate variation of the theme. Here it’s horny Spock fighting Kirk on a Vulcan over a woman who’s – again – fallen in love with Kirk. Well, at least that’s how it seems.
02: WHO MOURNS FOR ADONAIS?
The Enterprise is captured by an alien claiming to be Apollo (Michael Forest), the Greek god of the sun
A ragisode with Greek sun god Apollo, who seduces the Mandatory Hot Chick (Leslie Parrish) with his muscles, twisted nipple (it’s dislocated!) and general godness.
The Divine Dislocated Nipple is trying to make it's way to Apollo's armpit.
Apollo is no god, to be exact, but the last of a race of superhumanoids who visited the Earth in the dawn of Greek civilization, gave a big bag of tips and tricks to the Earth people, and enjoyed being worshipped as a gods. I like the idea of some greater, extraterrestial beings visiting Earth every now and then and sharing their knowledge quite a lot. There’s so much that’s still unexplained in history, the sudden leaps of culture and technology, the discovery of the most improbable elements almost simultaneously in different corners of the Earth etc, that it’s no wonder it’s quite a common theme in science fiction.
03: THE CHANGELING
The Enterprise finds an ancient interstellar probe from Earth, missing for 265 years, which has somehow mutated into a powerful and intelligent machine bent on sterilizing (eliminating all life from) whole planets that do not meet its standards of perfection.
Kirk’s oratory in action, again. There’s no computer, robot or alien super brain that can resist his Monologues of Destruction. In The Changeling, a super-robot is found floating around in space, a robot that’s supposed to destroy all of the impure elements it encounters. Well, surprisingly, nobody did teach any Asimovian Laws of Robotics to it, so it’s basically been going around, killing few billion people and now it’s the time of Enterprise. Because of some quite far-fetched reason, it doesn’t kill Kirk right from the beginning (like the name of it’s inventor resembles the name of Kirk), so he has time to prepare his speech. Few blurbs, and the robot is ready to blast itself to bits.
04: MIRROR, MIRROR
A transporter malfunction sends Kirk, McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Scotty (James Doohan) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) into a parallel universe where the Federation is replaced by an evil Empire, Kirk is a despot, and Spock is a cunning pirate.
Spock has a beard, and Kirk is being an asshole – guess which one is from the mirror universe? A great fun, and the starting point for the Evil Mirror Universe Beard –meme we’ve seen re-used in science fiction TV so many times afterwards.
05: THE APPLE
The Enterprise crew discovers an Eden-like paradise on Gamma Trianguli VI, controlled by a machine that is revered by the local humanoid primitives as a god.
The Starfleet Prime Directive states that members of Starfleet are not to interfere in the internal affairs of another species, especially the natural development of pre-warp civilizations, either by direct intervention, or technological revelation. When studying a planet’s civilization, particularly during a planetary survey, the Prime Directive makes it clear that there is to be “No identification of self or mission. No interference with the social development of said planet. No references to space, other worlds, or advanced civilizations.”
Apparently, these rules don’t apply to Kirk – no sir. So there’s a planet full of people who have lived there happily for 10000 years or something, in perfect harmony. And then comes Kirk, breaks everything, and leave them on their own devices, patting them on the back as he beams the shit out of there. “How do we get food ‘n’ stuff, we’re going to die!” “Just figure it out yourself, you know, plow a bit of ground here, plant a seed there, you’ll get a hang of it!” “Thanks… I guess…”
06: THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE
The Enterprise discovers a superweapon capable of destroying entire planets, and a Commodore whose crew was killed by the machine jeopardizes the crew on a crazed mission of revenge.
Here’s a good point to discuss the remastered special effects of Star Trek. The Doomsday Machine is an excellent episode, a good old science fiction space fight with nice doze of Starfleet regulations, machines of incredibly destructive capabilities and Kirk saving the day. But really, why did they remaster the visual effects? The reason should be that they’d be able to turn them cool, up-to-date and look nice – well, they failed. I’ve made one Star Trek –spinoff, and our special effects were better than those remade by a big studio. This means they didn’t have a clue on what they were doing, and wanted to do it as cheaply as possible. In-house, on budget and on a deadly schedule – that’s not how you treat a legendary series like Star Trek.
What do you think, which one looks better?
07: CATSPAW
The Enterprise crew finds witches, black cats, and haunted castles on a distant planet.
Although the Second Season was far more coherent than the First Season, it did have its pitfalls. Catspaw was one of those – a strange ragisode with cats, witches, old castles etc. Really didn’t make too much sense, and wasn’t that good an episode. But guess you have to have these, too.
08: I, MUDD
Harry Mudd, now ruler of a planet of androids, captures the Enterprise and attempts to imprison Kirk for revenge.
Mudd is back! Remember the weird guy transporting hot chicks to a mining colony from the first episode? Well, he’s back, and this time he’s a king of a whole planet full of even hotter chicks – even his evil, nagging ex-wife is there, as an android… It’s a fun episode; Roger C. Carmel, who plays Mudd, overdoes his role so violently it becomes an entertainment on its own. Kirk uses his brains and pulls out a great show of illogical action that – again – breaks down the programming of the androids and free they go again! One could release the illogical play the Enterprise crew pull out as a video installation in Kiasma, added with some of the visual effects from The Alternative Factor - there’s some modern art for you.
(Isn’t it ironic, that the character with the best taste for women was played by a gay actor?)
09: METAMORPHOSIS
On an isolated asteroid, Kirk finds Zefram Cochrane, inventor of the warp drive, who has been missing for 150 years.
A beautiful science fiction love story between two entities – real interracial thing, you know. This one features Zefram Cochrane (Glenn Corbett), a character later seen in Star Trek: The Fist Contact. It’s a really strange episode in many ways, but the music and the romantic approach makes it an outstanding experience!
10: JOURNEY TO BABEL
As the Enterprise comes under attack on the way to a diplomatic conference on Babel, one of the alien dignitaries is murdered, and Spock’s sick father Sarek (Mark Lenard) is the only suspect.
Polisodes usually don’t go wrong, and Journey to Babel is a prime example of them. I love to see the races, hear their disputes and history, and feel as my general understanding of the scale of the galaxy grows in warp speed. I’m not sure if it’s the direction the later series are going, but I think at least Babylon-5 was especially inspired by Star Trek’s intergalactic politics, and I remember digging it quite a lot back in the days… Also, Spock’s family history tends to be quite interesting – first, it was a shock as Sarek, Spock’s father was played by the same actor who did the role of the Romulan commander, and Essi was (and still is!) convinced that Spock’s father is actually a Romulan.
11: FRIDAY’S CHILD
The Enterprise becomes involved in a local power struggle on planet Capella IV, where the Klingons want mining rights.
So far, the worst episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, even challenging The Menagerie in its shitness. Don’t know where to start… It’s a rock/ragisode, but I could write a full 100-page essay on the full body condoms the goons are wearing, and then just chop down the script’s badness in five-part encyclopedia – and that would be just the index. So instead I just call it shit and move along.
12: THE DEADLY YEARS
When Enterprise discovers a colony full of rapidly-aging scientists, whatever caused the rapid aging afflicts them as well. Chekov (Walter Koenig) may be their only hope for survival.
An episode with quite extensive makeup makes this an interesting piece. For the first time, the Hot Chick Beaming Along (Beverley Washburn) isn’t that hot (looks like quite a believable female military crewmember), but reason comes quickly – she’s the first one to get old as bat (not sure if that’s the right expression, but sound fun, anyway). It’s shocking how good makeup work they’ve done with McCoy – guess his face was already so wrinkled it was easy to add on to that. But McCoy also plays his part quite well, as he usually does, and the viewer can really believe he’s getting rapidly old (unlike Kirk, who looks just plain… strange).
13: OBSESSION
A survey of Argus X brings the Enterprise crew in confrontation with a vampiric cloud that killed a crew Kirk was on years ago, captained by the father of an ensign currently assigned to the ship.
A strange topical rockisode – meaning most of the time the script focuses on chasing the topic, instead of actually – you know – stating its point and moving along. It’s a cloud that drinks the life force out of people – we’ve seen these before, in different shapes and forms – and redshirt kill count is impressive. Never been a huge fan of rockisodes, they tend to be too much alike, and usually features the crappiest monsters / enemies.
14: WOLF IN THE FOLD
Scotty is suspected of killing several women while on shore leave on Argelius II. However, a more sinister force may provide a connection between this murder and many previous around the galaxy, including a rampage on ancient Earth.
Episodes with Scotty in such an important role are rare, but Wolf in the Fold plunges bravely into the head of this semi-alcoholic Scotchman. They play the good old card of old Earth legends, but the episode fails to be interesting enough. It’s sort of a galactic Sherlock Holmes episode, which as a concept is not a bad idea at all… I’m getting some interesting ideas here… Anyone wanna partner up, let’s write a detective mystery/horror/supernatural TV-series in a scifi setting?
15: THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES
A dispute over control of a planet brings Enterprise to a space station, where they must deal with Klingons, edgy Starfleet Command officials, and a previously-unknown race of small, unbearably cute, voraciously hungry and rapidly-multiplying furry creatures.
The legendary trouble with those furry creatures called Tribbles is an example of excellent Star Trek writing – it’s funny, self-ironic and features a hefty dose of intergalactic politics. Not surprisingly, this remains to be one of the most famous Star Trek episodes of all times. There’s even a book made about the production of the episode.
16: THE GAMESTERS OF TRISKELION
Kirk, Uhura and Chekov are kidnapped by aliens and forced to fight other aliens so that a mentally superior race can gamble on the winner.
Some sort of a gladiator –episode, which isn’t completely uncommon to Star Trek, at all. This time it’s Kirk & crew taken over to a planet where a group of gladiators fight to entertain some superintelligent brain creatures. To be honest, I can’t remember too much about this episode, except – not surprisingly – Kirk had the hottest chick who fell in love with our main man.
17: A PIECE OF THE ACTION
Returning to a planet last visited by a Earth ship 100 years ago, the Enterprise finds a planet that has based its culture on the gangsters of Earth’s 1920s.
A ragisode that takes us back to the Paramount back lot we’ve seen so many times – this time dressed up as the 20’s New York. This could’ve gone wrong, but again, the trick is that the episode doesn’t take itself too seriously. It actually feels a bit more like an episode from Red Dwarf than Star Trek.
18: THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME
The galaxy is threatened by a giant space amoeba.
I’ve always liked the idea of creatures existing in the void. In this episode, that’s what the Enterprise encounters, a huge virus-like creature that’s about to divide and consume the whole galaxy. The episode was thrilling ride, well written, directed and acted. The friendship between the main characters of Star Trek is very well portrayed here. But most importantly, it was the last episode when Kirk wore his horrible green wrap-around shirt-thing. What the hell was that about?
The horrible future: green wrap-around tunics are going to be in style in just few hundred years.
19: A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR
On a planet with a primitive civilization, the Enterprise discovers that the Klingons are providing a Stone Age society with increasingly-advanced weaponry.
Another prime directive –episode – question is, what’s the prime directive, actually? “Don’t interfere”? And if you do, what happens? You get to become a starship captain? Anyway, Klingons are always good – but the best thing in this episode is definitively the white, furry and horned monkey-like creature, Mugato!
20: RETURN TO TOMORROW
Three survivors from a race that died half a million years ago “borrow” the bodies of Enterprise crew members so they can build android bodies for themselves
Great balls of intelligence! Here’s an interesting factoid I came across when scanning through Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki: “Writer John T. Dugan wrote the script of this episode after he had read an article about highly sophisticated robots. In his original draft, Sargon and Thalassa continue their existence as spirits without bodies, floating around the universe. However, Gene Roddenberry forced Dugan to change the ending to the aliens fading out into oblivion. This led to Dugan using his pen name John Kingsbridge in the episode’s credits.” I’d be interested to find out more what was actually Gene Roddenberry’s role as “executive director” over the artistic content of The Original Series – this suggests that quite big.
21: PATTERNS OF FORCE
The Enterprise discovers a planet where a Federation historian has apparently interfered with its society to have it model Nazi Germany.
Nazis! In Space! And Spock wearing an officer’s uniform! There’s absolutely nothing I could’ve asked for more. This is a rare gem in science fiction history with actual Nazis, not just evil guys inspired by Nazis. Also, gotta love the 60′s-70′s portrayal of Nazis… If you want even a better understanding of that, watch >Franklin J. Schaffner‘s Boys From Brazil (in that film, there’s a Nazi doctor who’s so evil he *floats*). In those days, Nazis were just expressions of pure, primitive and one-sided evil wearing cool uniforms.
22: BY ANY OTHER NAME
Extragalactic aliens hijack the Enterprise and turn the crew into inert solids, leaving the four senior officers on their own to exploit their captors’ weaknesses.
There has been beautiful women in Star Trek – actually, one might think most of the women of Star Trek are more like moving, pretty furniture. Usually beautiful, rarely very capable of acting… And then there’s Kelinda (Barbara Bouchet). She’s more than just a mere woman, she’s a sculpture. Just look at her.
Barbara Bouchet, the goddess of Star Trek: The Original Series.
23: THE OMEGA GLORY
The Enterprise discovers the derelict starship Exeter drifting in space, its entire crew killed by an unknown plague.
U.S.A.!
U.S.A.!
U.S.A.!
24: THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER
The Enterprise tests a computer that, if successful, could replace Kirk as the captain.
Kirk has quite a good track record of confronting computers, and reasoning them to self-destruction. The Ultimate Computer is a variation of the same theme, but this time there’s more time to build the suspension, the conflicts and the desperate setting, so that it’s not just few words Kirk says to the few-million-year-old machine with godlike intelligence that leads it to blow itself to bits. It’s a nice episode also because it features another starship led by a capable commander, thus expanding the feeling of their universe dramatically.
25: BREAD AND CIRCUSES
Kirk, Spock and McCoy are captured on an Earth-like planet that possesses a 20th-century civilization with a twist: a Roman-style imperial system. They learn they are not the only Earthmen who have had to deal with it as they may.
I wonder why gladiator fights are such a big thing for the writers of Star Trek. In the Second Season alone, there’s at least three episodes of the Enterprise crew fighting in some sort of arena. Bread and Circuses takes quite an interesting stand in predicting how would the society evolve if Roman Empire had never fallen. The Bread and Circuses is also predicting the future of reality TV, way before the phenomenon was born.
26: ASSIGNMENT: EARTH
The Enterprise travels back in time to 1968, where the crew encounters the mysterious Gary Seven (Robert Lansing) who claims to be sent by advanced beings trying to help Earth.
One of the great things about Assignment: Earth is the lack of a specific enemy, other than humankind’s endless stupidity (well, there’s enough of enemy for one lifetime, anyway…). It’s an intergalactic James Bond –story with quite an interesting character, Gary Seven, as an agent who’s trying to prevent a full-fledge nuclear war on Earth. Featuring quite a clever use of stock footage, it’s a fine ending for the best season of The Original Series – maybe a bit too ambitious for the budget they had, but it did it’s job.
Gene Roddenberry even sketched out an episode based on the Gary Seven’s character, had Star Trek been cancelled after the second season. Don’t know what the storyline was, but sounds something that could actually work, if it was about intergalactic agents that try to prevent Earth from destroying itself, tied to historic events.
