TOS - 2.10 - Mirror, Mirror

An ion storm leads to a transporter accident in which Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and McCoy are transported to a parallel universe. They find themselves on a version of the Enterprise which is operated by the Empire, a brutal and warlike institution, and they meet some very different versions of their crewmates…

It is really interesting to view this episode, given that the Mirror universe has become such an intrinsic element of Star Trek that has endured even up to Discovery. “Mirror, Mirror” is actually quite a low key episode, being essentially a bottle show as we follow Kirk as he comes to terms with his situation and attempts to find a way home for him and his crew. The show had previously dabbled with the idea of parallel universes in “The Alternative Factor” back in the first series. “Mirror, Mirror” is superior to that in so many ways, but its cleverest move is using the conceit to show us alternative versions of our regular characters. However, the episode is constrained in its decision to do this by sending four of our regulars into the Mirror Universe. Each of these characters does contribute something to them all getting home, but it’s unfortunate that this does reduce the number of Mirror versions that we meet. The Mirror Sulu and Chekov are both pretty vicious and nasty as I was expecting, but it is in the treatment of the Mirror Spock that the episode does something realty interesting. Despite him having a Beard of Evil, the Mirror Spock retains his logic and his interest in science, and also some sort of loyalty to Kirk (thus warning him of his instructions to kill his captain if he doesn’t fulfil the Enterprise’s mission). It’s actually refreshing that the script has not used the Mirror conceit to unleash a more emotional Spock again, and this subtlety actually makes him seem a more dangerous threat to Kirk

The storyline is cleverly constructed in testing Kirk. The episode uses the contrasting attitudes of the Mirror universe to emphasise Kirk’s compassion and showing that his determined to avoid committing genocide, despite the fact that this risks alerting Spock that something odd is going on. This also extends to Kirk ordering that McCoy should save Mirror Spock’s life, something which is ultimately rewarded when Spock helps him return. Kirk also encourages Spock to do things differently and make a difference in this universe. The multi-faceted nature of the Mirror Spock means that this does seem like a credible next step and a nice means of showing that Kirk is potentially making a difference even in this alternative universe.

The method by which Kirk and the rest of the landing party travel to the Mirror universe is quite novel in this episode, and seems to have shades of Quantum Leap, not least because they have replaced their counterparts and they arrive already wearing their Mirror style uniforms. This does raise all sorts of questions about the likelihood of the same crew members transporting at exactly the same time despite all of the other differences between the universes, which I guess are probably best ignored. But it does mean that Mirror Kirk and company have ended up on our Enterprise. This in itself would make for an interesting premise for an episode, but it was probably the right decision for this one to on the events in the Mirror universe and it is nice that we do at least get one scene to show that Spock has quickly detected the impostors and for William Shatner to have a bit of fun as the Mirror Kirk.

The episode still finds time to include a love interest for Kirk, although this cleverly exploits the morals of the Mirror Universe through introducing the concept of a “captain’s woman”, which appears to be an official position on an Imperial starship. The Mirror Kirk’s “woman” is a lieutenant called Marlena Moreau. Despite the trappings of her role, Marlena is a strong character and she is the first person to work out that this Kirk is not the man she knows. We are left a little uncertain as to what she will do about this knowledge, but she ultimately saves Kirk’s life. When Kirk returns to his normal universe, he discovers that a version of Marlena has just transferred to the Enterprise. This is not unexpected, but his attitude is just a little creepy as he indicates that he thinks she is a “nice girl” and that he thinks they could be friends…

The Mirror Marlena must have been close to the Mirror Kirk, since she was taken into his confidence about the fact that the captain had his own secret weapon. This is the Tantalus field, a device that had been invented by an alien scientist and which could make anyone just disappear. This had enabled the Mirror Kirk to hold his position, and our Kirk reveals its existence to Mirror Spock in the hope that this will enable him to change things. Giving such a powerful weapon to someone that Kirk doesn’t really know does seem like quite a gamble, since there is no guarantee that Spock won’t use this for his own ends. Indeed, the very inclusion of the Tantalus device in “Mirror, Mirror” stands out, since it is the one part of the episode that isn’t that elegant. It’s a powerful science fiction idea, but it doesn’t really add anything to the narrative and so is somewhat wasted.

Planetary Gazetteer

The Halkan Homeworld: A planet that is rich in dilithium crystals that the Federation and the Empire both wish to mine but they are refused permission by the native Halkans who have a pacifist society in both universes.

Vega IX: Where the Mirror Kirk executed five thousand colonists.

Starship Spotting

The Enterprise in the Mirror universe bears the designation “ISS”. It is not explicitly stated what this stands for, but it is presumably Imperial Starship. In a subtle touch to show the differences, the Mirror Enterprise has a male computer voice, rather than the usual female one. In contrast to the Prime Universe, Spock is not the only Vulcan on the ISS Enterprise (this is mentioned in dialogue and we see one acting as Spock’s bodyguard).

General Observations

• No Stardate is given during the episode – Kirk’s log entries record it as “Unknown”, presumably due to the complications of him having travelled to a parallel universe.
• Even though the Federation has become the Empire in the Mirror Universe, the ISS Enterprise still reports to Starfleet Command.
• The Mirror Sulu is the Security Chief as well as the helmsman (and so he wears a red tunic rather than his usual gold). He has a large scar on his face (although the make-up for this is unfortunately not that convincing).
• McCoy gives another (somewhat less colourful) version of his catchphrase when he tells Scotty that he is a doctor “not an engineer”.
• In a moment of continuity that is unusual at this stage, it is mentioned that the Mirror Kirk gained command of the ISS Enterprise by assassinating Captain Christopher Pike.
• John Winston makes his 9th appearance as Mr Kyle (including as a Mirror version).

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TOS - 2.09 - The Apple

The Enterprise is investigating Gamma Trianguli VI, an apparently idyllic planet that is not quite as welcoming as it seems after members of Kirk’s landing party are killed and even the starship affected and giving Scotty a race against time to prevent it from crashing into the planet. The secret to the planet is that it is being controlled some sort of machine, known as Vaal by the native inhabitants. Vaal maintains the conditions on the planet, and has also prevented the natives from advancing and developing – or even reproducing – since they never age.

“The Apple” is probably the very definition of an uneven episode. It’s based on a clever idea in terms of being a metaphor for the Biblical Garden of Eden with the Enterprise and its crew acting as the apple which brings knowledge to the People of Vaal and leads to the collapse of their paradise. This is all quite clear as the subtext, so it is something of a shame that the script choses to point this out in the final scene. The episode also features some lovely dialogue and character scenes – particular highlights being Kirk threatening to fire Soctty if he doesn’t save the Enterprise from destruction, and a whole scene in which the landing party wonder whether the People of Vaal know how to reproduce which is cleverly scripted in terms of getting its point across within the constraints of 1960s network television. The premise of the episode also gives us the first example of a proper debate about the Prime Directive (here just referred to as the Non-Interference Directive) and whether our crew should interfere in the development of an alien society. This is effectively shown through the prism of our regular characters, as Kirk and McCoy think that it is wrong that the native tribe has been held back whereas Spock takes the opposite position. Unfortunately, the episode doesn’t really follow through on the moral ambiguity of such a decision since the fact that Vaal is posing a direct threat to the Enterprise means that Kirk must attempt to defeat Vaal to save himself and his crew, regardless of the impact on the local society.

On the negative side, the episode does take a very long time to get to its premise with endless scenes of the landing party moving through the jungle whilst various Red Shirts get killed in various ways. The studio bound interior of the planet is effective, but unfortunately the appearance of the People of Vaal is somewhat comical – they look uncomfortable like overgrown Oompa Loompas with their orange skin and white bouffant wigs. The People of Vaal are pretty much the typical primitive alien species that people think of as a common Star Trek trope, even down to their ignorance of love and Kirk having to explain it to them. This means that one has to make a particular effort to think about “The Apple” in context and the fact that it is probably this episode that pretty much originated this cliché.

The portrayal of Vaal in the episode is somewhat disappointing. It is the antagonist for everything that happens, but it is portrayed just as a cave in the form of a snake’s head (more Biblical imagery) with flashing eyes. The natives do go inside the cave to feed it (with fruit, which is interesting since is apparently a machine) but we never see what is inside. And Vaal never actually says anything itself, so we never understand its motivation. Even when it has been destroyed, there is no explanation as to where it has come from, or how this strange society came into existence. I guess that this is not the point of the story, which instead is concentrating on the consequences of what Vaal is doing (and this is clear from the fact that this is a computer controlled world is revealed fairly early on, rather than being a big plot twist), but it would have been nice to have had a line or two to provide some background.

The subplot about the crew introducing love and s** to the People of Vaal works well within the context of the episode by itself, but is somewhat clumsy when viewing Star Trek as a continuing series due to the sudden introduction of Yeoman Martha Landon, who appears to be Chekov’s girlfriend. She hasn’t been seen before and I assume will never be seen again, and so she is clearly just there to give some substance to the discussion of love. However, Celeste Yarnall is charming in the role. She doesn’t get a lot to do, but it is refreshing that Yeoman Landen gets to take part in the climatic fight sequence and is seen to be just as successful in beating her opponents as the male crew members.

Planetary Gazetteer

Gamma Trianguli VI: The planet on which the episode is set. Vaal maintains its temperature at a constant 76 degrees, even at the poles, as well as operating a powerful planetary defence system that is able to affect orbiting starships, as well as people on the surface.

General Observations

• Two Stardates are given in the episode – 3715.3 and 3715.6.
• Neither Nichelle Nichols nor George Takei appear in the episode; Sulu’s position at the helm is taken by Lt Kyle (John Winston’s 8th appearance as the character). 
• Chekov is called “Pav” by Yeoman Landen – the first indication of his first name (Pavel).
• The landing party features no fewer than four red-shirted security officers (Kaplan, Marple, Hendorff and Mallory) – all of whom perish in various ways while on the planet (Hendorff by a dart firing plant, Kaplan is struck by lightning, Mallory by an exploding rock and Marple by the natives). Mallory is given some background since Kirk mentions that he knows his family, with Kaplan’s father having helped him get into Starfleet Academy.
• Spock is something of a fall guy in the episode – getting shot with darts from a poisonous plant and then hit by lightning. Fortunately, he appears to suffer no ill effects from this (unlike the unfortunate Hendorff and Kaplan).
• Kirk and McCoy joke with Spock about him looking like Satan. This is presumably a reference to some of the concerns that the network chiefs had about the character when the first saw “The Cage”, with the production team now feeling sufficiently confident to poke fun at their bosses given that Spock had by now proved to be immensely popular.

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TOS - 2.08 - The Changeling

It seems like a case of déjà vu when the Enterprise encounters a mysterious and immensely powerful machine that is wiping out all life that it encounters since “The Changeling” comes only a few episodes after “The Doomsday Machine” in which the Enterprise encounters a mysterious and immensely powerful device that is destroying all planets that it encounters. Much as I enjoyed “The Doomsday Machine”, I wasn’t sure that I wanted a rerun quite so soon. Fortunately, “The Changeling” does have a different emphasis to the earlier episode. The eponymous Doomsday Machine was just a device in every sense of the word, an unexplained threat just serving as the catalyst for conflict between Kirk and Commodore Decker. This time, the episode is very much about the device which is essentially the principal guest character.

I was aware of the plot of this episode from the fact that it provided the basis for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in which it is revealed at the climax that the mysterious V’Ger that is threatening the galaxy is actually a Voyager space probe that was launched from Earth hundreds of years previously but has been changed by encounter with aliens. Given this link, I was actually surprised how early it was that “The Changeling” revealed that the device encountered by Kirk was Nomad, a 21st Century probe that had been thought destroyed but had become changed through an encounter with a powerful alien probe, rather than leaving this as surprise twist. However, this is to the benefit of the episode since it can spend time exploring the implications of Nomad’s creation, which is actually a very clever idea given that it is not actually malevolent and is only intent on destroying all human life due to a corrupted conflation of its own programming (to seek out new life) with that of the alien probe that it encountered (sterilising soil).

“The Changeling” is another bottle show, with all of the action taking place on board the Enterprise with Kirk bringing Nomad on board. This means that so much of the episode is dependent upon the execution of Nomad itself. Fortunately, this is very successful – it is well designed and the effect of it floating around the ship is entirely convincing when it could so easily have been comical. Vic Perrin also gives Nomad a voice that manages to be convincingly robotic without being boring. This all makes Nomad sufficiently threatening, enhanced by its throbbing and menacing theme. There is actually great tension in the episode since the Enterprise has only survived destruction since Nomad has mistaken Kirk for its creator, a human scientist called Jackson Roykirk, and we are expecting it to find this out at any moment. The stakes are also raised when Kirk and Spock have realised that they have given Nomad the directions to Earth (which it remembers as its place of origin) and that is keen to return there in order to sterilise it of its problematic biological infection…

Whilst the episode has an interesting threat that is well executed, the script of the “The Changeling” unfortunately struggles to find much actual story and instead is reduced to filling time with old chestnuts with Scotty actually being killed before being “repaired” by Nomad in a manner that is reminiscent of what happened to McCoy in “Shore Leave” (it’s fortunate her the Nomad didn’t chose to completely disintegrate Scotty as he does with the four security guards later on). There is also a bizarre subplot in which Nomad becomes interested in Uhura’s singing (which she conveniently does over the intercom) and decides that this is illogical behaviour and so wipes her mind completely. This is not something that Nomad can reverse and so McCoy must re-educate her from scratch! This is addressed only through one interminable scene of Chapel teaching Uhura to read, but the plan is presumably successful since I can’t imagine that she will have any adverse effects in future episodes (with her memory and personality also restored somehow). Whilst it is nice that the script gives Nichelle Nichols something to do other than sit at the communications console, it is a shame that this subplot is so daft.

Fortunately, the episode does have a satisfying resolution. Whilst it is another example of Kirk talking a machine into destroying itself (as per “The Return Of The Archons”), it is clever that his argument hinges on him revealing that he is not Jackson Roykirk and therefore Nomad is not perfect as it claims to be. We also get a tag scene that manages to be amusing rather than completely tone deaf as Spock congratulates Kirk on his logic, and the captain refers to a Nomad as a promising son.

Planetary Gazetteer

The Malurian System: A star system of four planets with a population of four billion people who are wiped out by Nomad.

General Observations

• A single Stardate is given in the episode – 3541.9.
• Walter Koenig does not appear as Chekov. Majel Barrett makes her second appearance of the series as Christine Chapel. We also briefly meet Lt Singh (who works in Engineering) and a security officer called Lt Carlisle.
• Earth’s star is referred to as Sol by both Kirk and Nomad.
• We get another “He’s dead, Jim” from McCoy, this time referring to Scotty.
• Spock uses a Vulcan mind meld to understand Nomad (last used in “Devil In The Dark”), but it is still not named as such. This is a convenient way to explain Nomad’s background, but it does seem somewhat unlikely that a mind meld would work on a computer!
• Nomad’s weapons travel at Warp 15 and the device later increases the efficiency of the Enterprise’s engines so that it can reach Warp 11 – this beyond what the structure of the Starship can withstand. This indicates that the warp scale was still being developed by the show since, by the time of Voyager (and the episode “Threshold” in particular), no ship can reach Warp 10 since this corresponds to infinite speed.  
• One nice touch about Uhura’s mind wipe is that she is learning English whilst defaulting to Swahili which had been established as her first language in “The Man Trap”. She sings is “Beyond Antares” which was the song that she sang in “The Conscience Of The King”
• Nomad seems to have an inherent knowledge of which Enterprise crew members are regulars and which are disposable Red Shirts – as well as not disintegrating Scotty, it only knocks Chapel unconscious when she tries to stop it accessing Kirk’s medical records – and this occurs shortly after it has had no problem with zapping the security guards into oblivion.

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TOS - 2.07 - Wolf In The Fold

I was vaguely aware of this episode, albeit as one in which Scotty is possessed by Jack the Ripper. Fortunately, it wasn’t quite as daft as I was expecting, and this supposed foreknowledge actually resulted in me finding the resolution quite surprising.

 The bulk of the episode is essentially a murder mystery as Scotty is incriminated in murdering a number of women on the pleasure planet of Argelius II. Things look bleak for him as he is found next to each body with a bloody knife and no memory of what has happened. Unlike many episodes of shows in what a regular character is accused of a heinous crime and is clearly innocent, “Wolf In The Fold” does attempt to make the viewer uncertain since it is explained that Scotty has recently suffered a severe head injury and therefore may not be responsible for his actions. This does introduce some effective drama for Kirk, who also can’t be certain about what has happened as he must balance his loyalty to his friend against his duty of doing the right thing for Argelius II, especially given that this is a strategically important space port.

The episode does throw in another suspect in the form of the first victim’s rejected fiancé, but it is fairly obvious that he is a red herring. The investigation does take an odd turn with something similar to a séance taking place in order to determine the truth of the situation. This scene is superbly directed, with a notable overhead shot, and it does reveal that this is not a normal crime drama since the crimes are being committed by some evil force. It is eventually revealed that the culprit is a shapeless form that feeds off death and fear, and which had been responsible for the Jack the Ripper murders back in the 19th century and was now working its way across the galaxy. However, I was surprised when it was revealed that the host of this entity was not Scotty, but rather Hengist, the mild mannered administrator. This is actually a good example of a less likely character being responsible but where there is also effective foreshadowing since Hengist was the one local character who was suspicious of Scotty and dismissive of Kirk’s investigations, but not enough to be suspicious. However, the fact that Scotty is completely innocent does make his convenient memory lapses a bit odd – it would have been nice to have had an explanation for these!

James Doohan is great in the episode and its nice that he gets to show another side to the usually stoic Scotty. I was also very taken with Charles Macauley who plays the leader of Argelius II with an unexpected nobility, always keen to help Kirk and play fair even when his own wife falls victim. Macauley had previously played the fake form of Landru in “The Return Of The Archons” but is completely unrecognisable here.

The episode had further surprises after revealing the identity of the murderer since it takes a somewhat bonkers change of direction for the last 10 minutes as we learn that the entity has the completely random ability to take over the Enterprise computer, thus giving it the power to terrify the crew. It is interesting to read that this plotline was originally intended to be a key part of the episode, since it comes across as somewhat rushed in the final script since we don’t really feel that anyone at risk – there is a scene in which Spock narrowly avoids being cut in two by an automated door, but this isn’t really shot in a manner that makes it clear that this is what has happened. Kirk’s solution to the problem makes things even more bizarre as he gets McCoy to inject everyone with a powerful tranquiliser that has the effect of everyone appearing stoned. The resulting comedy should jar with the bloodthirsty murders that have come previously, but somehow it doesn’t – provided you don’t think about it too much…

Whilst “Wolf In The Fold” is generally an entertaining episode, it is unfortunate that the rampant sexism of “Star Trek” makes a return with a vengeance. The teaser scene consists pretty much entirely of Kirk, Scotty and McCoy ogling a belly dancer (Scotty very much appears to have got over Carolyn Palamas from “Who Mourns For Adonais?”). Worse, McCoy fears that Scotty could have a resentment of all women after his injury resulted by an explosion caused by a female crew member! This isn’t even used as further justification as to why he might be committing women in his concussed state. Further, the script treats its female characters as victims (all of them are murdered apart from the virtually non-speaking yeoman who sits in on the enquiry), attempting to justify this by stating that women get more deeply terrified than men! Whilst the victims of Jack the Ripper were indeed female, there was no real reason for this emphasis, especially when the entity becomes less discriminating when it has taken over the Enterprise..

Planetary Gazetteer

Argelius II: The setting for the first half of the episode. It has a hedonistic society which originated in a “great awakening” some two hundred years previously. Certain female inhabitants retain empathic abilities that were more common in the past.

Rigel IV: The home planet of Administrator Hengist and where he committed previous murders whilst under the control of the Ripper entity. The planet is home to “the hill people” of the Argus River region who produced the knife used by Hengist. It is presumably in the same star system as Rigel IV (as featured in “The Cage” and “The Menagerie”) and it could potentially be “the Rigel” colony mentioned in “The Doomsday Machine”.

Mars: Earth’s neighbouring planet has been colonised and was the location of an unsolved murder of eight women, which presumably were previous victims of the entity.

Alpha Eridani II: Another planet where the entity committed murders. These took place in a settlement called Heliopolis.

Deneb II: Yet another planet where the entity killed a number of women.

Alpha Carinae V: Home of the Drella, which derives nourishment from the emotion of love.

Alpha Majoris I: Home of a cloud creature mentioned by Spock.

Starship Spotting

The Enterprise is said to be inhabited by “440 humans”, which is slight increase on the figure of around 430 used during the first series.

General Observations

• Two Stardates are given in the episode – 3614.9 and 3615.4. This is something of a decrease again after the previous episode referred to a Stardate in the 4000s.
• This is the first episode to reveal that Scotty’s first name is Montgomery. It is also implied that he is from Aberdeen.
• Neither Nichelle Nichols nor Walter Koenig appear in the episode. John Winston appears again as Mr Kyle (his seventh appearance) and he gets to indulge in the fun of being stoned. We episode features a new crew member, a technician called Lt Karen Tracey, who is killed virtually immediately by Jack the Ripper (despite not even wearing a red shirt).
• McCoy uses the famous phrase “He’s dead, Jim” when it appears that Kirk has killed Hengist with a single punch

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TOS - 2.06 - The Doomsday Machine

The stakes are high when the Enterprise encounters an automated robotic weapon that is moving through the galaxy, destroying every planet that it encounters. The power of this Planet Killer is displayed by the fact that it has already severely damaged the USS Constellation, another Starship that is identical to the Enterprise.

The second season of the Original Series had a somewhat ropey start, but we’ve now had a second great episode in a row. “The Doomsday Machine” is hugely entertaining despite the fact that, if you think about it, not much actually happens. The Planet Killer is a daunting a threat but by itself is’t that interesting – it is just something of a Macguffin rather than a character in its own right with any motivation. Instead, the drama comes from inside the Enterprise and the presence of Commodore Matt Decker, the commanding officer of the Constellation and the last survivor after his mistakes have resulted in the death of his entire crew. Throughout its history, Star Trek often introduces senior officers as obstacles for respective captains to overcome, but Decker’s behaviour here makes perfect sense as he attempts to deal with what he has done. Indeed, Decker is said to be a friend of Kirk’s, which implies that he must have been an upstanding and rationale Starfleet officer before the events of the episode. However, Decker has now become a version of Captain Ahab from “Moby Dick”, obsessed with destroying the Planet Killer and prepared to put the Enterprise at risk in order to do so. With Kirk stuck on the Constellation, there are some great scenes as Decker pulls rank on Spock, who is powerless to stop him. McCoy is well used here as a means of presenting the emotion of the situation (I love the way that he manages to make adding “Sir” to one of speeches sound like an insult). When Kirk finally makes contact with the Enterprise again and realises what Decker is doing , we see probably his first act of real subordination as he is the one person prepared to stand up to Decker. Kirk’s anger at the commodore endangering his ship manages to be both satisfying and amusing.

William Windom's performance as Decker is great, making the commodore suitably restless in his body language and the way that he is constantly playing with some data bricks. It’s a role that gives plenty of scope for going over the top but Windom generally manages to avoid this; the closest he comes in his first scene and even there he seems subtle compared with William Shatner’s shouty line readings as he demand that Decker tell him what has happened. Despite Decker essentially being an antagonist for the first half of the episode, he is still ultimately a sympathetic character with his decision to sacrifice himself in an attempt to destroy the Planet Killer by flying a shuttlecraft in it. It is a nice inversion of the cliché that his actions aren’t actually successful, but he doesn’t die completely in vain as it gives Kirk the idea to create a bigger explosion using the Constellation. The climatic scenes as Kirk sets the Constellation for destruction but his attempts to escape are frustrated by inevitable problems with the transporter manage to be very tense even despite the fact that we all know that he will be fine.

No definitive explanation is given for the origin of the Planet Killer, other than the fact that It appears to come from another galaxy. Kirk theorises that it is a Doomsday Machine left over from an ancient war, but there is no evidence for this. His attempts to compare it the H-Bombs causing so much concern in the world when the episode was made are unusually clumsy for a show that doesn’t normally need to explain its metaphors. However, this is a very small problem in a script that manages to make so much from a very simple situation and which is satisfying in both its plot progression and character work.

Planetary Gazetteer

The Rigel colony: Located on a planet that is at risk from the Planet Eater. It is presumably in the same star system as Rigel VII as featured in “The Cage” and “The Menagerie”.

Starship Spotting

The USS Constellation is the first Starfeet starship other than the Enterprise to actually appear in the series. It has the same design as the Enterprise (not yet named as Constitution class) since it was portrayed by a commercial model of the Enterprise. Its registry number is very similar to the Enterpise (NCC-1017) as a result of the model kit’s decals just being re-arranged! The Constellation has been under the command of Commodore Matt Decker; there is no explanation as to why its captain has thus higher rank (other than to provide him with the ability to outrank Kirk with the story, anyway). The Constellation has been badly damaged in an attack by the Planet Killer, but Scotty is able to repair its impulse engines and a phaser bank. It is destroyed together with the Doomsday Machine. Decker wears a different Starfleet logo; since he is the only Constellation crew member to appear it is unclear whether this is due to his rank, or if this was worn by everyone on the Constellation. The Science Officer on the Constellation was called Masada.

The shuttlecraft that Decker steals is not named on screen but it appears to be the Galileo, resulting in the destruction of the shuttle featured in “The Galileo Seven” and “Metamorphosis”. This is problematic in terms of the order in which the episodes were originally transmitted since “Metamorphosis” was shown after “The Doomsday Machine”.

General Observations

• No Stardate is given for the current events, but Decker’s log states that the Constellation encountered the Planet Killer on 4202.1. This is the first Stardate in the 4000s.
• Neither Walter Koenig nor Nichelle Nichols appear in the episode. Uhura’s communications position is instead taken by a new female officer, Lt Palmer. John Winston appears again as Kyle (his sixth appearance), back in his familiar position as the transporter operator after his role as a bridge officer in “Who Mourns For Adonais?” A number of other Enterprise crew members appear in the episode – Washburn, Elliot and Russ who are all part of the damage control party sent to the Constellation (although only Washburn is named on screen with the other names used only in the credits), plus Montgomery (the security guard who is beaten by Decker in an unusual fight scene that doesn’t feature any of the regular characters).
• McCoy gives another version of his catchphrase when he states that he is a doctor, not a mechanic.
• George Takei doesn’t get to do much as Sulu in this episode, but I love his little satisfied smirk when Kirk and Spock finally convince Decker to stand down.
• “Space Dock” is mentioned for the first time (Scotty states that it is the only facility that would allow him to repair the Constellation’s warp drive.

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TOS - 2.05 - Amok Time

We’ve previously seen the Enterprise crew tested and challenged by external circumstances, but “Amok Time” is the first episode to inherently about one of the regular characters. This, together with it providing more details on Spock and visiting his homeworld, makes it something of a landmark episode.

“Amok Time” is an episode of two halves, with it actually spending a surprising amount of time on the Enterprise as Kirk and McCoy become concerned about Spock’s behaviour. It has become a not infrequent occurrence for Spock’s logical demeanour to break down, and so his emoting doesn’t quite have the same dramatic effect as if we had never seen it before. However, there is at least a mystery as to what is causing this change in Spock since we haven’t seen him infected by any virus or alien spores as in previous occurrences. The mystery is deepened since Spock seems to know what is going on, but is refusing to tell anyone.

Even though Spock and his Vulcan background provide the catalyst for the episode, “Amok Time” seems actually to be all about the deep friendship between Kirk and his first officer. It is actually heart-breaking to see Spock initially refusing to confide in Kirk, who in turn is powerless to help, especially when McCoy diagnoses that Spock will die if he does not get back to his home planet in the next few days. But this does make it quite affecting when Spock does start telling Kirk about what is going on, despite it being taboo, even amongst Vulcans. In return, Kirk is prepared to ignore direct orders from Starfleet to help Spock. I think this is probably the first time that we have seen Kirk as a maverick in the way that he was later characterised, but it is certainly effective here when he is prepared to sacrifice his career for his friend. It is also nice that the episode shows that these feelings are reciprocated as Spock allows Kirk and McCoy to accompany him to Vulcan.

The reason for Spock’s behaviour is revealed to be something called “ponn farr” – a biological event that leads to a neurochemical imbalance and violent emotions. Spock is very circumspect in the way that this is described (presumably to avoid upsetting the network censors), but it is essentially a drive to procreate and means that a Vulcan will die if they do not mate with another of their species. I know it will be established later than ponn farr is something that occurs every seven years; this is not mentioned here with it instead implied to be a single event that leads to a Vulcan taking a life partner. In Spock’s case, this is T’Pring. His marriage to her has been arranged by their parents and they are already in some sort of relationship – something “more than betrothal but less than marriage”. This is certainly the first time that Spock has experienced ponn farr since he had wondered whether his half-human heritage would have meant that he might not have had to go through it.

Things do get a little disorientating when we arrive on Vulcan for Spock’s marriage ceremony as things aren’t really that well explained (not least the fact that Spock doesn’t appear to have any familiar there). It is particularly confusing when T’Pring suddenly declares that Spock must fight for him. This is ultimately explained at the end of the episode as a plan that she has to get out of her arrangement with Spock and instead get together with her true love, but it comes out of nowhere within the story. The emphasis on Spock and Kirk’s friendship makes it inevitable but no less effective when T’Pring choses Kirk as her champion, especially when Kirk miscalculates by agreeing, not realising that this is a fight to the death. Whilst this fight is the event that the episode has been building to, I can’t help thinking that it does go on a little too long and it is afflicted by all too obvious stuntmen. Given that we know that both characters will be fine, it is never that convincing when McCoy declares Kirk to be dead, although I was expecting him to be just lying rather than a more complicated deception involving a drug. It is not an unreasonable resolution, but I can’t help wondering what the implications will be when the Vulcan authorities find out that Kirk is still alive. Indeed, the whole resolution is somewhat rushed, with Kirk essentially Kirk off the hook for his disobedience and Spock’s violent urges suddenly disappearing after his fight (it’s unclear how given the biological nature of ponn farr.

After some horrendous sexism in recent episodes, it is nice that “Amok Time” features some strong female characters who are not undermined and patronised. It is just a shame that this only happens when the females are not human. T’Pring doesn’t do much, but she is clever and devious. And then there is T’Pau, the most senior Vulcan that we meet and a very formidable character. It’s easy to see how she inspired a 1980s pop band.

"Amok Time” was the first episode to be transmitted in the second series. This is surprising to some extent given that it features Spock acting out of character for much of its duration, but I suppose this just shows how confident the producers were that the audience already understood Spock’s nature and that this would not be forgotten between seasons. However, it is easy to see why this potential concern was ignored since “Amok Time” has been by far the strongest episode so far in the second series, both in terms of script, production and its clear focus on the regular characters that we now care about.

Planetary Gazetteer

Vulcan: We visit Spock’s homeworld for the first time. It is rocky and mountainous with a red sky and an atmosphere that is thinner than that of Earth.

Altair VI: The planet to which the Enterprise is heading until Kirk diverts it to Vulcan. The Enterprise is to be one of three starships that is attending the inauguration of a new president, an event that is seen to be very important by Starfleet since there has been a long period of interplanetary conflict in this system. The fact that the Enterprise keeps changing course between Vulcan and Altair VI leads to some amusing scenes between Sulu and Chekov.

Regulus V: A planet which is home to giant eel-birds which must return to the caverns from which they were hatched every 11 years in order to mate.

General Observations

• A single Stardate is given in the episode – 3372.7.
• James Doohan does not appear as Scotty in the episode.
• Majel Barrett makes her first Series 2 appearance as Christine Chappel following three episodes of the first series; I see that she will appear more frequently in Series 2. Christine’s affection for Spock remains, but it is surprising that we don’t get any reaction from her to Spock’s impending marriage, especially since she happens to be on the bridge when T’Pring is revealed.
• This is the first episode to feature the Vulcan phrase “Live long and prosper” and the associated salute.
• Spock gives a very real emotional reaction at the end of the episode when realising that Kirk is still alive. Whilst we have seen him emote many times previously (especially in this episode), there has always been a reason for him to act out of character and so this genuine emotion is very disconcerting.
• Admiral Komack, who orders Kirk to keep going to Altair VI, had previously been mentioned in “This Side Of Paradise”.
• Lawrence Montaigne, who plays Stonn (Spock’s love rival), had previously worn pointy ears as a Romulan in “Balance Of Terror” and he had been considered to play a new regular Vulcan in the second season to replace Spock when it appeared as if negotiations over Leonard Nimoy’s salary were breaking down and the actor would not be returning.
• Spock’s rank is given as commander (both in the label on his quarters and in dialogue).
• The music score is particularly effective in this episode, with many of the scenes involving Spock’s Vulcan issues accompanied by a weird theme played on a bass guitar.

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TOS - 2.04 - Who Mourns For Adonais?

There is something of a sense of deja vu in this episode as Kirk and his crew are held captive on a distant planet by yet another god-like being. There is at least an interesting twist here since Kirk's captor is the Greek god Apollo. Despite initial scepticism from the Enterprise crew, it is ultimately explained that Apollo is indeed who he claims to be and he is the last survivor of a race of powerful aliens who visited Earth some 5000 years previously and therefore provided the origins of the Greek myths. These aliens left Earth when mankind outgrew them and so Apollo wants to keep the Enterprise crew on his planet so that the can look after them in return for being worshipped.

The Grecian window dressing for this episode is successful in making it distinct from similar previous instalments such as "The Squire Of Gothos" and "Catspaw", as well as distracting the viewer from the fact that not a lot actually happens other then repeated scenes of Kirk arguing for his freedom and Apollo constantly zapping Scotty. The set dressing actually does the bare minimum in making Apollo's planet look like Ancient Greece, but the imagery of the Enterprise being held in space by a giant green hand is certainly striking and makes for a very memorable opening. A lot of the success of the episode actually comes down to Michael Forest who gives Apollo dignity and is able to make his changes in mood not seem too abrupt, as well as allowing the character's origins to be suitably ambiguous, He has even able to make us feel somewhat sorry for Apollo as he decided that he cannot continue to exist without love and he ultimately chooses to disperse himself. This makes for a surprisingly melancholy ending

The similarities with previous episodes continue since, like "Space Seed", Kirk must deal with a female crew member who is seduced by the guest villain of the week and must choose where her loyalties lie. This time it is Lt Carolyn Palamas, yet another female character who is treated badly by the series. She is instantly ogled by the guest villain before being forced to wear an extremely revealing outfit (which somehow manages to remain in place during the climatic storm) and then falling in love virtually immediately. At least Kirk is able to convince Palamas to do her duty before too much damage is done. The scene in which she lies to Apollo, overcoming her own feelings to tell him that she doesn't love him should be heart-breaking, but Palamas has been such a naive and unsympathetic character previously that we don't really care. This partly arises since it is also established previously that Scotty is in love with her but she seems oblivious to this and unlikely to return his affections. This also has the effect of the usually dependable Scotty acting completely out of character - repeatedly trying to attack Apollo and getting zapped for his trouble, even after Kirk has chewed him out for doing this.

Planetary Gazetteer

Pollux IV: An M-class planet in the Beta Geminorum on which Kirk and his colleagues are trapped by Apollo. This appears to be the homeworld of his species. Apollo appears to draw his power from the planet using an organ in his body.

Pollux III: A neighbouring planet in the Beta Geminorum system which has been surveyed by the Enterprise and found to be uninhabited.

Antos IV: The homeworld of a giant dry worm mentioned by Chekov.

General Observations

• A single Stardate is given in the episode - 3468.1.
• Starbase 12 is mentioned; this was previously mentioned in "Space Seed" as being on a planet in the Gamma 400 system.
• Chekov, who is seen at the navigation position for the first time in this episode, gives his age as 22.
• John Winston makes his fifth appearance as an Enterprise crewman, now finally named as Lt Kyle. He has previously been seen operating the transporter but is here supporting Spock on the bridge.
• The inherent sexism in the series even extends to Kirk and McCoy as they seem to find it impossible that a woman can have a family and a career!

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TOS - 2.03 - Friday's Child

Kirk, Spock and McCoy arrive on Capella IV in order to negotiate a mining agreement with the indigenous species, a race of tall humanoids who live by a set of very strict rules and are potentially very dangerous to any outsiders who upset them. However, their mission is made more complicated by the fact that the Klingons are also interested in Capella and an agent has already arrived and made contact with the Capellans.

“Friday’s Child” is certainly an eventful episode, especially in its first half. It is just unfortunate that it keeps throwing plot developments at the viewer at an extraordinary rate without really that much logic. The episode has a very disconcerting opening as we are thrown into an exposition filled briefing without even a log entry to explain why we should be interested in everything that McCoy tells us about the Capellans. Once, Kirk and his team arrive on the planet, things just keep happening. A hot-headed underling initiates a sudden coup against the fair minded leader of the Capellas. This new leader, who previously seemed to be hostile to Kirk and more keen on doing business with the Klingons, suddenly takes a liking to Kirk with no real justification. Then Kirk immediately jeopardises this new favourable position by helping Eleen, the widow of the previous leader who is pregnant with his child, leading to the Enterprise crew being sentenced to death. Their imprisonment then lasts mere minutes before they escape (partly by attacking one of these fearsome warriors with a cushion). It soon becomes clear that this is all pretty much a set up for the meat of the episode, with Kirk, McCoy and Spock on the run with the heavily pregnant Eleen, but I can’t help thinking that there could have been a more elegant means of establishing this situation.

This inconsistency extends to the characterisation of Eleen. It is refreshing that she is a strong woman who doesn’t fall in love with Kirk, and it is clear that she is not intended to be likeable, but her motivations keep changing constantly throughout the episode and this makes it difficult to relate to her, despite the charisma of original Catwoman Julie Newmar. She is first prepared to die when her husband is killed, but then happy to live. She doesn’t like Kirk and his colleagues, but then bonds with McCoy but then still hits him over the head with a rock to allow her to return to her people, but she still then lies to protect the Enterprise crew. She doesn’t want her baby and runs off and abandons it. Until the end of the episode when she decides that perhaps being a mother isn’t too bad after all for no apparent reason. Yes, there are some nice moments in the building of her relationship with McCoy, but the fact that he wins round this pregnant woman by slapping her (albeit in response to her repeatedly slapping him) doesn’t play well these days…

“Friday’s Child” reintroduces the Klingons after their debut in “Errand Of Mercy” at the end of Series One. Well, one Klingon anyway since we only get a single individual here rather than an army like the earlier episode. And this Klingon is far less impressive than John Colicos’s Kor, even to the extent of not even being named on screen (he is referred to just as “the Klingon” in dialogue and is only named as Kras in the credits). Tige Andrews is suitably smarmy as Kras, but he never really poses any sort of threat to Kirk (and his “beard but no moustache” look isn’t exactly fearsome, either). Indeed, whilst Kras is presented as a complicating factor for Kirk’s mission, he doesn’t really contribute anything to the episode other than providing visibility of the Klingon claim on the Capellan minerals. This does provoke some siagreement amongst the Capellans, and is therefore probably a catalyst for the coup, but the character is pretty much irrelevant after that.

The episode is very similar in structure to “Metamorphosis”, with Kirk, Spock and McCoy having an adventure on a planet whilst Scotty is in command of the Enterprise. We again get to see Scotty be an effective commander despite him being given the run around trying to answer a fake distress signal. The reason for this deception is never properly explained – it is presumably mischief caused by the Klingons, but it is unclear what they seek to gain from this since the Enterprise’s absence only causes issues for Kirk once he starts having problems with the Capellans, something that the Klingons couldn’t have foreseen happening. When Scotty ignores this trick, he is faced with a Klingon ship blocking his way back to Capella IV. This seems to be setting up a big confrontation but this never occurs. The next we see of Scotty is when he arrives on the planet to rescue Kirk, merely starting that the Klingons didn’t have the belly for combat – something which already seems out of character for them!

Planetary Gazetteer

Capella IV: The setting for the episode. The Federation and the Klingons are both interested in the deposits of topaline that have been discovered on the planet; this is a rare mineral that is critical to the function of life support systems for planetoid colonies. The native Capellans are divided into Ten Tribes, all led by the HighTeer. McCoy has spent a few months on the planet previously and therefore knows a lot about the Capellans.

Starship Spotting

The distress signals that the Enterprise receive are supposedly from the SS Dierdre (a freighter with a maximum speed of Warp 2) and the USS Carolina (a starship known to be in the same sector as Capella IV).

We see a Klingon warship on the Enterprise viewscreen. This was originally just a blurry green blob although the remastered version replaced this with a CGI version of the classic D7 design.

General Observations

• Three Stardates are given in the episode – 3497.2, 3498.9 and 3499.1
• This episode features probably the most blatant example of the Red Shirt trope so far as Kirk, McCoy and Spock beam down to Capella with a security office who dies almost immediately! Kirk is at least upset about this initially, even to the extent of being grumpy with McCoy in the aftermath, although he soon gets over this and the poor crewman is never mentioned again after this. This security officer was called Grant, although this name is only given in the credits.
• Walter Koenig returns after being absent from “Metamorphosis”. This is the episode that establishes him as a regular since he is present at the initial briefing and Chekov also gets some character development through the introduction of his Russian patriotism and the introduction of what will become a running joke about him saying that everything comes from Russia (in this case the saying “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”), although his smirk here suggests that he is joking. This of course establishes Chekov’s nationality (if it wasn’t already obvious from his name and Koenig’s accent).
• The episode features another amusing variation of McCoy’s catchphrase when he says “I’m a Doctor not an escalator” as Eleen clambers over him to get up some rocks.
• We see that Sulu has a special scanning device at his helm position – this unfolds from his console extremely slowly in a shot that seems to go on forever.

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TOS - 2.02 - Metamorphosis

Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Assistant Commissioner Nancy Hedford are marooned on an isolated planetoid when their shuttlecraft is drawn off course and a strange damping field prevents the craft from operating or even sending a message back to the Enterprse.. Kirk is surprised to find that there is already a human living here and that this is Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive who was thought to have died some 150 years previously. It turns out that Cochrane has been rejuvenated by a strange non-corporeal being that he calls the Companion. This creature has been preventing Cochrane from ageing, so he is now essentially immortal, but he has been wracked with loneliness and so the Companion has brought Kirk and his crew to the planetoid in order to provide him with company, and this is where they will remain trapped forever unless Kirk can find a solution.

This is a very self-contained episode, being set mainly on the planetoid with a small cast of characters. The Enterprise doesn’t appear until about half way through, and even then there is only a small number of scenes showing Scotty’s search for the missing shuttle. Despite this, “Metamorphosis” does prove to be an engaging and unpredictable episodes. When Kirk first meets Cochrane, it is very clear that there is something odd about him due to his evasiveness, but he doesn’t turn out to be as untrustworthy as we might expect. We get a little action, as Kirk and Spock unsuccessfully attack the Companion, before McCoy reinforces the ideals of the show by reminding Kirk that he is trained as a diplomatic as well as a soldier. Kirk’s attempts to negotiate with the Companion results in the revelation that it is female and it is essentially in love with Cochrane. This is a good twist, but it does then lead to a lot of scenes of Kirk making speeches at the Creature about the power of love.

Cochrane will of course go on become to be a key character in the future of the franchise, but he’s not that interesting here once his is initial evasiveness disappears. He’s pretty much a traditional square-jawed space pilot, so it is not surprising that he was completely reinvented for the James Cromwell version in “Star Trek: First Contact”. I think the episode missed an opportunity to show how things have changed between the time of Cochrane and Kirk, especially in terms of their attitudes. The space pioneer doesn’t even seem that interested in everything that has happened as a direct result of his invention.

Reading around the episode, I see that the script is intended to be an allegory of overcoming the prejudices around inter-racial love. I can’t see that I really got this from my viewing and it does perhaps explain why Cochrane is made to be horrified when he learns of the Companions feelings for him, something which does seem somewhat out of character given how laid back he has been about everything previously. But the resolution does result in a potentially troublesome message as he only accepts the Companion and his love for her when the alien ends up merging with Nancy Hedford and therefore ends up looking like a human woman who he has already stated that he was attracted to – so not exactly a victory for diversity. Further, the treatment of Nancy Hedford in the episode is problematic. She starts off as a strong, independent woman, and the idea that she has contracted a fatal disease is effective in providing urgency to Kirk finding a way for everyone to escape the planet but it does lead to her spending large periods of the episode unconscious and therefore contributing little. The strength of her character also doesn’t last long – she is instantly patronised by Cochrane on their first meeting, and she soon becomes hysterical on the planetoid. However, worse is to come when Nancy’s imminent death leads to her tearfully regretting her independent life and have never been in love. I can see that this is trying to set up a happy ending as she is able to find love via the Companion, but it is somewhat humiliating for the character. And, whilst the dialogue attempts to convince us that the Companion merges with her, I’m not sure how much of Nancy actually remains – or indeed how consensual the takeover is – since the conclusion of the episode focusses very much on Cochrane’s relationship with the Companion. The episode also ends with Cochrane and the combined Nancy/Companion entity mortal, intending to live out their life together on the planetoid since the Companion is unable to leave. This sounds fine in principal, and Cochrane’s decision to remain is a clear way of showing his love, but I can’t help wondering what will happen when the first of them dies…

Planetary Gazetteer

Epsilon Canaris III: A planet on Nancy Hedford has been conducting diplomatic mission in order to prevent a war until she contracted Sakuro’s Disease, thus necessitating her return to the Enterprise.

Alpha Centauri: Where Zefram Cochrane is said to come from. This is a somewhat odd since Alpha Centauri is a star and it is over four light-years from Earth, but he is also said to be human – a clear contradiction since there couldn’t be a human colony in that star system prior to the invention of warp drive. It is unsurprising that this detail will be ignored when Cochrane was featured as a key character in “Star Trek: First Contact” where he is explicitly a human living on Earth.

The planetoid on which the bulk of the episode is set is not named.

General Observations

• Two Stardates are given in the episode – 3219.8 and 3220.3.
• It is stated that Scotty is a lieutenant commander and he now outranks Sulu since he is in command of the Enterprise with Kirk and Spock absent (Sulu had previously been seen as third in command in “Arena”).
• Walter Koenig does not appear as Chekov in the episode.
• The shuttle being used by Kirk and company is the Galileo, as seen in “The Galileo Seven”, conveniently allowing the re-use of effects shows from the earlier episode.
• Cochrane was 87 when he first arrived on the planetoid, making him around 237 at the time of the episode. Kirk promises not to tell anyone that he has discovered that the famous pioneer of warp drive is still alive.
• Cochrane recognises Spock as a Vulcan. This fits in nicely with the events that we see later in “Star Trek: First Contact” when his first warp flight leads to Vulcans arriving on Earth.
• This episode introduces the universal translator as the means by which we hear all aliens talking English. The dialogue even attempts to provide an explanation as to how it works (by instantaneously comparing the frequency of brainwave patterns of an individual, selecting those ideas and concepts it recognises, and then providing the necessary grammar). 

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TOS - 2.01 - Catspaw

And so we come to the second season of the Original Series. There is a new arrangement of the theme tune to go with a modified title sequence in which DeForest Kelley is now credited, reflecting his importance to the show. And we get a new cast member with Walter Koenig making his debut as Chekov in a truly horrendous wig. Chekhov gets no specific introduction (which makes sense given that "Catspaw" was not the first episode to be transmitted in the second series), but it is implied he is relatively inexperienced.

My timing in watching "Catspaw" has been quite fortuitous, since it is essentially a Halloween Special. When Sulu and Scotty go missing on a supposedly uninhabited planet, Kirk, Spock and McCoy follow them down and end up being faced with just about every creepy cliche going, from hideous witches to a forbidding castle complete with dungeon. Unfortunately, this theme isn't maintained beyond the opening of the episode, which soon deteriorates into something reminiscent of "The Squire Of Gothos" as Kirk and company are held captive by a powerful alien, combined with elements of "The Return Of The Archons" with Scotty and Sulu both under mind control. As such, it is all pretty tedious stuff. There is a new twist in that the Enterprise crew are now faced by two aliens, Korob and the somewhat less exotically named Sylvia, and there is some conflict between them, but this isn't really properly explored and so it isn't really earned when Korob decides to help Kirk.

The other big issue with the episode is that nothing is really explained properly. It turns out that Korob and Sylvia are visitors from another galaxy who are experiencing a physical form for the first time. But it is confusing as to what they are trying to achieve - Korob talks at one point about testing the loyalty and bravery of the Enterprise crew but it isn't clear why as things become distracted by Sylvia's sudden hedonistic desires (and why was she happy to be a cat for the whole opening section?). The Halloween trappings are only explained through some mumbo jumbo about the aliens mistakenly creating the wrong setting that they have taken from the human subconscious. And the resolution comes from sinple action of Kirk smashing Korob's magic wand, which miraculously is sufficient for everything to return to normal.

Additionally, the production values for the episode are problematic. The real form of Sylvia and Korob are effectively alien and disturbing, but it is only in the remastered version are they less obviously puppets. The sequence in which Sylvia turns herself into a giant black cat and chases Kirk around the castle is laughable (and not in a good way). As such, the only real pleasures from the episode come from the character moments. It is quite nice to see Kirk's attempted seduction of Sylvia backfiring spectacular, and Spock's answer to Kirk's request for an analysis of the witches is priceless ("Very bad poetry, Captain").

Planetary Gazetteer

Pyrus VII: The planet on which the episode is set. It has previously been mapped by Starfleet and shown to have no indigenous lifeforms; it is just being used as a base by Korob and Sylvia.

General Observations

• A single Stardate is given in the episode - 3018.2.
• Michael Barrier makes his third appearance as DeSalle (after "The Squire Of Gothos" and "This Side Of Paradise"). He is now the Assistant Chief Engineer (and so now wears red rather than gold) and he is command of the Enterprise with Kirk, Spock, Scotty and Sulu all off the ship (presumably it would have been unthinkable in 1967 for Uhura as a black woman to be in charge?).
• John Winston also returns as the Transporter Chief (he was previously in three episodes during the first season). We briefly meet another Enterprise crewman, Jackson, who dies at the start of episode (and he isn't even wearing a red shirt).

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TOS - Series 1 Blu-ray Special Features

So that is the end of the first series of Star Trek, so I've now gone on to have a look through the Special Features on the Series 1 Blu-ray set:

Starfleet Access: This is a second version of selected episodes from the series featuring text captions and in-picture interviews with key players. The episodes that get this treatment for the first series are: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "The Menagerie Parts 1 and 2", "Balance Of Terror" and "Errand Of Mercy".

Previews: Contemporary trailers for each episode.

Spacelift - Transporting Trek Into The 21st Century (20 mins): A fascinating featurette about the remastering of the series. This covers the picture restoration as well as the CGI effects, and also reveals that the main theme had been re-recorded to give a clearer sound.

Reflections On Spock (12 mins): Leonard Nimoy talks about his character remembers his time on the show in an interview from 2003.

Life Beyond Trek - William Shatner (10 mins): A somewhat tedious featurette in which Shatner talks about his love of horses.

To Boldy Go...Season One (19 mins): A featurette about the making of the first series which a particular emphasis on "The Man Trap", "The Naked Time", "The Menagerie", "Space Speed", "The Squire Of Gothos" and "The City On The Edge Of Forever". It features interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Justman (producer), George Takei, John DF Black (writer and associate producer), Ricardo Montalban (Khan) and William Campbell (Trelane).

The Birth Of A Timeless Legacy (24 mins): A featurette about the creation of the show and the production of the early episodes. It features interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Justman, Gene Roddenberry (from a 1988 archive interview), Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, James Doohan (from a 1994 interview) and DC Fontana (writer and story editor).

Sci-Fi Visionaries (16 mins): Featurette about the writing of the show, with a particular emphasis on "Shore Leave", "The Naked Time", "Balance of Terror" and "The City On The Edge Of Forever".It features interviews with William Shatner, Gene Roddenberry (from 1988 again), DC Fontana, John DF Black, Mary Black (wife of John Black and secretary working on the show) and Robert Justman.

Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest - Rare Home Movies and Special Memories (13 mins): An interview with Billy Blackburn who was a regular supporting artist on the show, as well as being DeForest Kelly's stand-in. It features fascinating home movie footage that Billy shot on the location shoots of various episodes.

Kiss N Tell - Romance In The 23rd Century (8 mins): A featurette about Kirk's romances and other love interests in the show. This is the only feature in the set to touch on elements beyond the first season. It features interviews with William Shatner, DC Fontana, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Wlater Koenig

Interactive Enterprise Inspection: A CGI flypast of the Enterprise allowing the user to select and view different areas of the Starship.

Trailer for Star Trek (2009): Bizarrely, this also autoplays when the first disc in the set is loaded.

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TOS - 1.29 - Operation - - Annihilate!

The Enterprise is investigating a mass insanity that is destroying civilisations, apparently moving from planet to planet. Kirk arrives at Deneva, the next planet in line, to find that he is too late and it has been infested by alien organisms that have infected the population, causing them great pain whilst also controlling them and making them build more starships in order to transport the infection onward.

This is an episode with a lot of interesting ideas. Unfortunately, it’s probably got far too many for a single episode and so none of the plot-lines are really given enough time to develop.

This mission has a personal element since Deneva is home to Kirk’s brother, Sam, and his family. However, this idea is thrown away instantly when, shockingly, Kirk finds that Sam is already dead and his wife dies soon after. Yes, we get an effective moment of grief from Kirk immediately after finding Sam, but this family connection doesn’t really drive anything in the plot after this, despite concerns from McCoy that it might affect Kirk’s decision making. Kirk’s nephew survives, but he remains unconscious for the entire duration of the episode and he contributes nothing further, not being used as extra motivation to drive Kirk’s actions or even sharing any scenes with his uncle (although such a scene was filmed for the end of the episode but it never made it to the final edit), so this family connection is all a bit of waste. It’s also a bit odd that the producers made the decision was made for Kirk to lose someone else close to him so soon after “The City On The Edge Of Forever”.

“Operation - - Annihilate!” is certainly a bombastic title, complete with its two hyphens and exclamation mark. It seems to be referring to a possible cause of action in which Kirk must consider having to kill the entire population of Deneva in order to stop the aliens from spreading further across the galaxy. This is interesting moral dilemma of the type that later Star Trek shows will often grapple with, but nothing is really done with it here, with Kirk rejecting the idea almost as soon as it is raised, demanding that his team find a third option.

At face value, this is another infection episode like “The Naked Time” and “This Side Of Paradise”. However, this time the problems are being caused by the strange single cell aliens. The design of these is quite effective when they are stationary, especially when there are lots of them lurking in the foreground of shots. Unfortunately, they lose any credibility when they are seen flying through the air and attacking the landing party. The aliens are ultimately revealed to be single celled creatures that together make up a gestalt organism – a fascinating concept that is again not explored and is irrelevant to everything that they do and doesn’t even contribute towards their defeat and destruction.

It is clear at the end of this first season that Spock has become an important character. Leonard Nimoy again gets plenty to do, with Spock becoming infected. Given how wealth of ideas exploding from the episode, it is unfortunate that time is wasted on Spock yet again showing emotions and acting out of character, attempting to take control of the ship, but at least this sub-lot is dispensed with relatively quickly as he is able to use his Vulcan heritage to reassert control. Spock’s more interesting contribution comes when Kirk works out that bright light can kill the creatures and the infection and he volunteers to be the test subject for the treatment. Spock is cured, but since he refused to wear any eye protection (for no good reason) and he ends up blind as a result. There’s great potential in this development, especially with the subsequent kick-in-the-teeth when McCoy realises that it was ultra-violet light that kills the creatures and there was actually no reason to expose Spock to the damaging visible light. Unfortunately, this all occurs in the last ten minutes of the episode and so we don’t get any time to explore McCoy’s guilt or how Spock copes with his new condition. Indeed, it is only moments later that Spock strolls back on to bridge as if nothing has happened. Conveniently, his blindness was only temporary thanks to Vulcan’s having an inner eyelid (which he seemed to have forgotten about previously). Clearly, this is all a result of the limitations of episodic television in the 1960s where the reset button is required at the end of each instalment and there was no opportunity to follow through on Spock’s blindness in the way that Doctor Who could in Peter Capaldi’s last season, but I can’t help feeling that “Operation - - Annihilate!” would have been much more effective if it hadn’t tried to do so much in so little time.

Planetary Gazetteer

Deneva: The main setting of the episode and a beautiful planet that was colonised over a century previously. It is a freighting-line base that is used to send supplies onward to miners in the asteroid belt. The route to Deneva is therefore a common cargo route that Scotty has operated previously. The colony has over a million inhabitants.

Levinius V, Theta Cygni XII and Ingraham B: The three planets that have previously fallen victim to the mass insanity.

General Observations

• Two Stardates are given in the episode – 3287.2 and 3289.9.
• There’s another yeoman of the week (Zara, played by Maurishka Taliaferro). Majel Barrett returns as Nurse Chappel for the first time since “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”. She gets a strange scene in which she objects to McCoy’s methods when Bones is operating on Spock, presumably as a result of her concern for the Vulcan, but it does make her seem somewhat less than professional, especially when we all know what a good doctor he is. It is unsurprising that McCoy is very angry in response.
• Sam Kirk was a research biologist. He was married to Aurelan and they had a son called Peter, the only survivor of the family. Kirk’s brother had been mentioned previously in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” although it was said there that he had three sons, so who knows what has happened to the other two. The corpse of Sam is played by William Shatner with a false moustache and modified hair style – a surprisingly effective measure that renders him unrecognisable, especially in the brief shot that we see on screen.
• Starbase 10 is mentioned as the destination to which the Enterprise sets course at the end of the episode.

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