TOS - 1.12 - The Conscience Of The King

By this point, I have been very much conditioned to expect each episode to start with an establishing shot of the Enterprise flying through space. It is therefore somewhat startling when “The Conscience Of The King” opens with an excerpt from a Shakespeare play. This conceit isn’t held for long, and it is soon revealed that this is a performance that Kirk is watching. An old friend, Dr Thomas Leighton, is convinced that Anton Karidian, the lead actor, is actually Kodos, a mass murderer who is believed to be dead. Dr Leighton is soon killed, like six other people who could have identified him. Kirk, who has also met Kodos, then invites the troop of actors on board the Enterprise so that he can investigate further.

It is probably fair to say that this is not the most action packed episode of Star Trek – certainly, my 10 year old daughter (who has often watched previous episodes with me) very quickly lost interest. Instead, we have a somewhat wordy combination of character drama and moral dilemma that takes the Shakespearen theme and runs with it. It is lovely to see that the bard is still being performed within the future society of the series, and it is a very clever idea for Hamlet (one of the plays to be featured) to be reflected in the plot and script, and the opening scene, where Karidian as Macbeth murders King Duncan, has a very different meaning in retrospect.

The episode is an interesting one for Kirk. We never find out exactly what impact Kodos has had on Kirk’s life, but the potential of encountering him again does make the captain start to act of character. His act to invite Karidian on to the Enterprise is somewhat reckless, and he doesn’t even let Spock into his confidence and this leads to a rare scene of conflict between the characters. However, he never becomes truly obsessed with Kodos, probably I guess to make sure that he remains relateable and likeable.

For much of the episode, we follow Kirk’s point of view and supposedly left in doubt as to whether Karidian is a murderer or just an actor. But it’s not exactly surprising when it is finally revealed that Karidian is Kodos. This is combined with a twist that it has been Lenore, Karidian’s 19-year old daughter, who has been killing the people who could pose a danger to her father, but that is not exactly unexpected given the anonymous nature of the actor and the fact that there aren’t really any other important guest character. It also gives Kirk something of a let off in terms of his treatment of Lenore, who he has been seducing in order to try and find out the truth about her father (McCoy indicates that Kirk may really have been in love with her, but there isn’t a lot of evidence for this). Barbara Anderson is really good in the role of Lenore – initially charming and able to pull off some really daft costumes, and then suitably deranged when her true colours are revealed.

Bruce Hyde returns as Lt Kevin Riley, previously one of the victims of the virus in “The Naked Time”. Riley is someone else who could have identified Kodos and he is almost killed by Lenore but saved by McCoy. He subsequently learns that about Kirk’s suspicions that Karidian is Kodos (thanks to McCoy being less than discrete), leading to him attempting to kill Karidian himself in revenge for his parents who were amongst his victims. The use of a returning character in this role, especially one as endearing as Riley, is effective since we care a lot more about him than a random crewman of the week, but it’s again something of a lost opportunity that nothing more was made to contrast Riley’s response to Kodos with Kirk.

Although the episode poses some interesting moral dilemmas, it never really follows through on them. It is explained that Kodos was the governor of an Earth colony that was facing starvation when an alien fungus destroyed its food supply and so he ordered the execution of 4,000 people (half the population) so that the others could survive. However, there is no examination of the moralities of Kodos’s actions and what a leader may have to do to for the greater good - it is explained that Kodos’s victims were selected on the basis of his theories of genetics, which instantly removes any ambiguity from the situation. It is only with the revelation that Lenore was the murderer that we get some subtlety to Kodos, given that Karidian is horrified and he clearly is now committed to his life as an actor in an attempt to forget what he has done. He is subsequently accidentally killed by Lenore, a convenient solution that means that Kirk never really has to answer McCoy’s question as to whether he is seeking justice or vengeance...

Planetary Gazetteer

Cygnia Minor: An earth colony. Dr Leighton gets Kirk to visit him by claiming that he has invented a new synthetic food that will cure the famine there, but this is just a ruse to get Kirk to meet Karidian.

Planet Q: Where Dr Leighton is living and the latest planet being visited by Karidian’s acting troop.

Tarsus IV: The Earth colony where Kodos committed his crimes. This events took place 20 years prior to the episode.

Benecia: Another Earth colony, which is where Karidian’s acting troop is due to be performing after Planet Q.

Starship Spotting

Karidian’s troop is due to be transported to its next planet by the Astral Queen. Kirk appears to know Jon Daily, its commanding officer, and he persuades him to let the Enterprise carry out this task.

It is established for the first time that the Enterprise has a shuttle craft – foreshadowing the next episode. Presumably this is something that was added to the starship after the unfortunate events of “The Enemy Within”?

General Observations

• The episode takes place between Stardates 2817.6 and 2819.8.
• Sulu and Scotty are again both absent. Grace Lee Whitney appears as Janice Rand in only a brief non-speaking cameo as she walks on the bridge. This was to prove her last appearance, fulfilling her contract for seven episodes, since it had already been decided that she would be dropped.
• Uhura performs another song to provide entertainment in the recreation room (following “Charlie X”) – here she accompanies herself on the Vulcan harp (in the previous episode it was Spock who played this).
• When Lenore attempts to kill Kirk with an overloading phaser, the captain declares a “double red alert” emergency – a somewhat amusing designation that is never used again.
• Riley is said to serve in the “Star Service”, another embryonic name for the organisation that operates the Enterprise prior to the invention of Starfleet by the producers.
• Spock implies that Vulcans don’t drink alcohol, and McCoy comments that this must be why their planet was conquered (though it’s not specified by whom).

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TOS - 1.11 - Miri

A distress signal takes the Enterprise to a planet that has suffered a catastrophic plague 300 years previously that wiped out all of the adults, leaving only a population of children. The virus was caused by experimentation aimed to prolonging life but this was only successful for the children who have been ageing at a rate of one month every 100 years. The virus is still prevalent and the landing party is infected, leading to a race against time to find a cure.

For the most part, “Miri” is an immensely satisfying and well-plotted episode. We’ve seen the Enterprise crew fall victim as a virus only a few episodes previously in “The Naked Time”, but the presentation is completely different here with only the landing party being affected. The link between the virus and the survival of the children is also very satisfying as it is explained that it only affects a person who has been through puberty and therefore still posing a threat to the children, albeit a less immediate one. There is also some lovely direction from Vincent McEveety, particularly a shot where Spock is seen through a partly cleaned window. It’s also nice to get outside on the planet after the claustrophobia of the caves of the last few episodes, and the studio backlot is used effectively in displaying the remains of the collapsed civilisation.

The episode is named after its main guest character, played by Kim Darby (soon to star opposite John Wayne in “True Grit”). Miri is on the verge of adolescence and so it is not unsurprising that she takes a shine to Kirk who  is not afraid to use Miri’s feelings in order to persuade her to help the landing party understand what is going on. Aside from the dubious morality of this tactic, this does lead to some scenes that are somewhat uncomfortable to modern viewers with Kirk’s flirting and tactile approach (and I’m not sure that the fact that she is really over 300 years old mitigates against this). But there are at least some consequences reminiscent of “Charlie X” (albeit without super-powers) when this leads to Miri becoming jealous of Kirk’s apparent relationship with Janice Rand and then turning against the Enterprise crew. Darby manages to make the character convincing and likeable, despite this left turn for the character.

There are some slight shades of “The Naked Time” as the progression of the virus starts to make the landing party act out of character, with tempers fraying as McCoy and Spock work on finding a cure. The tension in these scenes does manage to be effective, despite the fact that we all know that they will be successful. McCoy and Spock are well-used, with the virus exaggerating the conflict between them (although it is somewhat reckless of McCoy to test the cure on himself despite not knowing the correct dosage before Spock has even attempted to find out whether Kirk has retrieved their communicators). Unfortunately, Janice Rand again doesn’t really have any agency of her own with her role in the landing party seemingly being only there to prompt Miri’s jealousy before she becomes a damsel in distress. It’s also somewhat demeaning for the character when she tells Kirk that she has tried to get him to look at her legs!

Aside from Miri herself, the other children are used sparingly which was a wise choice. They are an eerie background presence for the first half of the episode before being properly introduced. Even then, the episode manages to avoid becoming embarrassing, mainly thanks to Michael J Pollard (as Jahn) and John Megna (the un-named toothy boy) who are suitably unusual looking individuals (it is possibly stretching it somewhat for 27-year old Pollard to be playing a pre-teenager even give his baby-faced appearance, but he’s great so I’m inclined to forgive it). The tribe of feral children is given an understandable point of view in viewing the landing party as dangerous, and they still manage to pose a credible threat to the Enterprise crew in the scene where they attack Kirk which is still disturbing today (although it does require the utmost stupidity from the entire landing party for the children to be able to steal everyone’s communicator!). The resolution of the episode again requires Kirk to talk his opponent around, but he doesn’t have an easy time of it. Indeed, the actual resolution all happens off-screen – one minute he is still struggling to get through to them, and the next they are all friends. Oh well, it is Kirk after all…

Planetary Gazetteer

The episode is set on an un-named planet which is an exact duplicate of Earth in terms of its size, mass, atmosphere and even continents. It is also the third planet in its star system. The technology of the planet at the time at which civilisation collapsed was also reminiscent of Earth in the 1960s (presumably apart from bio-technology) and it even has signs in English! The reason for this parallel evolution is never explained and actually seems a somewhat bizarre inclusion in the episode since it is completely irrelevant to the story being told (and it isn’t even referred to again after the first act). It seems to have been added as a purely cost cutting measure (avoiding the need for futuristic sets, props and costumes), but it is a bit odd that nothing was made of the concept.

General Observations

• Three Stardates are given in the episode- 2713.5, 2713.6 and 2717.3.
• Scotty, Uhura and Sulu are all absent from the episode. Uhura’s role at the communications console is instead taken by Lt Farrell, with Jim Godwin returning after appearing previously in “Mudd’s Women” and “The Enemy Within”, although the character had been the navigator in those episodes.
• The landing party includes two red-shirted security guards who, against all expectations, both survive. The characters aren’t referred to by name here, but they are played by regular supporting actors who appear in other episodes as characters called Fields and Galloway. They actually do very little other than stand around, and they virtually disappear completely in the second half of the episode.
• Since Starfleet Command doesn’t yet seem to be have been invented, the Enterprise makes a report about the children to something called “Space Control” which will then arrange their welfare.

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TOS - 1.10 - Dagger Of The Mind

When the Enterprise exchanges Cargo with the Tantalus Penal Colony, it also receives an escapee in the form of a disturbed individual who starts battling his way towards the bridge. So, at first it looks like this is going to be an episode where the Enterprise crew have to protect themselves and the ship against this stowaway. However, despite the best efforts of some particularly dim security guards, he is defeated with relative ease and, in an effective early twist, it is revealed that this is Dr Simon Van Gelder, a member of staff at the penal colony, rather than an escaped convict as expected.

The Enterprise makes contact with Dr Tristan Adams, the head of the facility and an esteemed psychologist who has revolutionised the treatment of convicts. Adams explains that Van Gelder was the victim of an accident related to a new experimental treatment. McCoy is not convinced and so requests that Kirk investigate further. The captain beams down to the facility, accompanied by Dr Helen Noel, a member of McCoy's team who has experience of rehabilitation. Despite the warm welcome from Adams, it ultimately transpires that he is up to no good and is using a "neural neutraliser" in order to brainwash prisoners (and presumably members of staff) to do his bidding.

One of the issues arising from watching Star Trek in production order is that it is clearly going to throw up a sequence of episodes that is less than ideal. And we get an example here since "Dagger Of The Mind" is remarkably similar to "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", the episode that immediately preceded it, since both involve Kirk and a female colleague visiting a respected scientist who, it turns out, has a secret plan for nefarious activities. Unfortunately, "Dagger of The Mind" compares poorly with its predecessor since there is absolutely no motivation for Adams to be doing what he is doing (whereas Roger Korby's descent into madness underpins the very moral of his episode). Indeed, "Dagger Of The Mind" doesn't really have any moral or message at all, and is therefore something of a missed opportunity since it says absolutely nothing about the moralities of treating or rehabilitating dangerous criminals.

Probably the most effective element of the episode is its guest performances. James Gregory initially suitably suave and then villainous as Adams, and he is an appropriate counterpoint to Morgan Woodward, whose ranting and eye-boggling manages to be disturbing rather than comical. The other main guest star is Marianne Hill as Dr Helen Noel, a character who illustrates the confused portrayal of female characters within the series - she is a professional with extensive knowledge, but that doesn't stop her being attracted to Kirk and jumping into his arms when simply startled by a lift moving.

A key part of the storyline features Kirk trying the neural neutraliser on himself - a quite foolish endeavour, especially when Dr Adams takes over and programmes the captain to believe that he is madly in love with Dr Noel and wants her to the exclusion of everything. I was expecting this to have major consequences for the rest of the episode and, at first, we appear to be heading for similar territory to "The Enemy Within", but Dr Noel is able to help Kirk manage his conditioning quite easily. It is not, however, completely broken but this is able played for laughs at the close of the episode when Spock beams down the facility and walks in on Kirk kissing Dr Noel. Presumably both is subsequently completely cured off-screen..?

We get a classic example of a villain being hoist by his petard when Dr Adams ends up victim to the neural neutraliser himself. This empties his mind, leading him to apparently die of loneliness - an odd ending that could have also been exploited more thematically.

Planetary Gazetteer

Tantalus V: Location of the Tantalus Penal Colony being operated by Dr Adams. The planet appears to have a cold and  inhospitable surface, so the facility is built deep underground.

General Observations

• There are two Stardates given in log entries - 2715.1 and 2715.2. We actually see the end of Kirk making his log recording on the bridge, rather than this being entirely in voice-over as usual.
• Scotty, Sulu and Rand are all absent from the episode. The original script featured Janice Rand accompanying Kirk down to the penal colony, but this was changed to Dr Noel, which makes a lot more sense given her background.
• Stockholm still exists as a city in its own right but it is apparently now in a region called "Eurasia", rather than Sweden or even Europe. 
• Kirk has encountered Dr Noel at the science laboratory Christmas target, indicating that Christmas is still celebrated on the Enterprise. 
• This episode introduces the Vulcan mind meld when Spock uses this to communicate with the deranged Dr Van Gelder. This technique, which is not named here, is another example of something that was introduced to get around a problem since the script originally had Spock using hypnosis but the network would only allow this if it could be shown that he was a properly trained practitioner of this discipline!

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TOS - 1.09 - What Are Little Girls Made Of?

The Enterprise is on a mission to locate Dr Roger Kirby, an esteemed medical archaeologist who has been missing for the last five years. Korby is located on the planet Exo III and is keen to receive Kirk, but, inevitably, all is not as it first appears. It is slowly revealed that Korby is harnessing the technology left over by the original inhabitants of the planet in order to create lifelike androids. He plans to use this to enable people to transfer their consciousness into these artificial bodies, thus making them immortal and enabling negative emotions to be revealed. Whilst this initially seems to be a simple case of Mad Scientist Syndrome, it is ultimately revealed that Korby is himself an android, having tested his process on himself as his real body died. This is very clever resolution, explaining how someone so respected would act in this way by exploring what it is that makes us human. I certainly wasn’t expecting the title to have quite so much resonance.

Extra substance to the episode is provided by Korby being the fiancé of Christine Chappel. It is revealed that she was a bio-researcher who joined the Enterprise’s five year mission specifically in the hope of finding Korby (which must have led to an interesting off-camera scene as the nurse persuaded her captain to co-opt his starship on a personal mission). Interestingly, Christine met Korby when she was his student, suggesting that the real man’s morals were at least little suspect. Unfortunately, this additional background doesn’t make Christine any more interesting, since she is just now worrying about Korby rather than having any agency herself - the episode seems to be setting up her having a dilemma in terms of whether her loyalties should be to Kirk or Korby, but nothing is ultimately made of this.

Korby has two very different android servants. Ruk, played by Ted Cassidy of Addams Family fame, provides the muscle. He is certainly a striking figure, but he is not helped by the direction –his introduction could have been handled better than the sudden cut to him lurking in the caverns, looking somewhat comical in his baggy outfit. Ruk is explained to be a relic created by the original inhabitants of Exo III, thus explaining why he doesn’t look like a normal person and providing an opportunity for Kirk to learn what really happened in the past of the planet. Korby’s other android is Andrea, who appears as a very attractive young woman wearing an outfit that is very revealing even by the standard of the series. It is made very clear exactly why Korby has created Andrea, which at least prompts some different emotions from Christine in her jealousy. Andrea becomes the first of what I’m sure will be many guest female characters of the week to kiss Kirk. This is initially when Korby orders Andrea to do this in order to prove to Christine that he has no emotional attachment to the android. However, Kirk later attempts to seduce Andrea. Whilst this is explained as a means of attempting to confuse her programming, the scenes do come uncomfortably close to him forcing himself on her, although he does ultimately give up.

Korby uses his technology to make an android duplicate of Kirk so that he can use the Enterprise to be transported to a suitable planet to pursue his plan. It is somewhat odd that we get an evil copy of the captain so soon after “The Enemy Within”, but I suppose that it is only a minor element here. As in the earlier episode, there is some clever editing featuring the two Kirks, particularly one where they appear on both sides of the rotating centrifuge in apparently the same shot.

Kirk is very much on the back foot throughout the episode. His initial suspicions about Kirby don’t do him any good, and he fails to win the day through simple physicality. As a result, we see Kirk’s ingenuity, both in the way that he implants some unusual brain patterns during the android duplication process in order to give a clue to Spock that all is not as it seems, and his attempts to break the programming of both Ruk and Andrea, as well as ultimately talking Korby round. The final resolution, in which Korby kills himself and Andrea (as she does express her love for him), doesn’t make it immediately clear what is going (I thought at first that it was Andrea who activated the phaser), and it is a little convenient in tidying up all of the loose ends. There also isn’t any time given to explore the effect of all of this on Christine, other than to confirm that she is happy to stay on the Enterprise.

“What Are Little Girls Made Of?” is an episode that does pose some interesting questions, but it is unfortunate that these are pretty much held off until the climax and we spend an awfully long time getting there as Korby constantly delays explaining what he is doing and obfuscating at every opportunity. Despite the best efforts of actor Michael String, this does have the effect of making Korby appear inconsistent and difficult to properly understand, to the detriment of the whole episode that didn’t really fulfil the potential of its premise.

Planetary Gazetteer

Exo III: Location of Korby’s mission. It has gravity of 1.1 times that of Earth and a safe atmosphere, but a surface temperature of 100 below zero due to the fading of the local star. Exo III was once home to a civilisation (referred to as the Old Ones) who created a race of life-like androids that ultimately destroyed their “inferior” creators (shades of “The Terminator”!)

Orion: Where Korby translated a set of medical records from ancient ruins, transforming immunisation techniques. This is, of course, the home of the green-skinned slave girls as mentioned in “The Cage”.

Midas V: A small colony where Korby aims to set up a base and carry out his plan.

General Observations

• There is a single Stardate given in the episode – 2712.4. This is a lot higher than the previous Stardates which were in the region of 1700.
• This is the first episode of Star Trek to be set predominantly off the Enterprise. The focus on Kirk and Chappel on Exo III means that we see little of the rest of the regular Enterprise crew with only Spock and Uhura also appearing (Scotty, Sulu, Rand and even McCoy are all absent).
• Did no one involved in the production realise that the stalactite that Kirk uses to attack Ruk has a very…er.. suggestive shape? (See the screen cap above). Or was it a deliberate joke that somehow got past the censors? 
• It is mentioned at the start of the episode that two previous expeditions failed to recover Korby, but we never find out why. They don’t seem to have disappeared (and therefore killed by Korby for some reason), so why was he hiding from them?
• Kirk has a brother – George Samuel Kirk (known as Sam to the captain), who is married with three sons. George works on the Earth Colony 2 research station.
• “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” is the first episode to feature the true Red Shirt trope as Kirk is supported on Exo III by two crew members (Security Officers Rayburn and Mathews) who perish – we’ve seen crew members of the week killed in earlier episodes, but they were wearing different coloured tunics. Here, Kirk is actually bothered by the deaths of his crewmen, and does refer to them later in the episode.
• The episode was written by Robert Bloch, who is most well known as the writer of the novel on which Hitchcock’s “Psycho” was based.(Bloch is the only credited writer, but it seems that the script was substantially rewritten by Gene Roddenberry and other members of the production team).
• We see more than just William Shatner’s chest this time since the duplication process requires Kirk to be naked. Thank goodness for the strategic bar that hold both Kirks in place!

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TOS - 1.08 - Balance Of Terror

“Balance Of Terror” is something of a landmark episode since it introduces the Romulans who were created by screenwriter Paul Schneider as the antagonists for this episode, but who would go on to be one of the major recurring alien species within the Star Trek universe. Spock explains, through an inelegant but effective briefing to the crew, that there was a war between Earth and the Romulan Star Empire one hundred years previously. A peace treaty had established a Neutral Zone between the two sides, entry into which by either side would constitute an act of war. Earth had established seven outposts on asteroids to monitor the Neutral Zone, and the Enterprise is now alerted as these are starting to be destroyed by an unknown vessel. This political background seems quite abstract now, but it would have been familiar to contemporary American viewers since there are clear parallels with what had been taking place in  in 1966 when a Demilitarised Zone had been established between North and South Vietnam but this was not stopping incursions by North Vietnamese troops into the South

The episode is itself is essentially a remake of the 1957 movie “The Enemy Below” which concerned an American destroyer hunting for a German U-boat during World War II and is here reinterpreted as the Enterprise playing a game of cat and mouse with a Romulan vessel with its “invisibility screen”. The interior of the Romulan vessel is small and reminiscent of a submarine, and it is battered by phaser fire from the Enterprise as it if were an underwater detonation of a depth charge.

A key element at the start of the episode is that no human or Romulan has ever seen each other. This of course leads to the revelation that the Romulans look remarkably like Vulcans – a plot twist that has been rendered ineffective by subsequent familiarity with the Star Empire but which must have been surprising at the time. But this is also used to drive a subplot relating to Mr Stiles, the latest disobedient Enterprise navigator. Stiles has already been shown to hate the Romulans since he has an ancestor who was a starship captain who died during the war, and he now becomes highly prejudiced towards Spock. However, Stiles is ultimately humbled when Spock ends up saving his life.

Amongst the excitement and tension of Star Trek’s first real ship-to-ship battles, “Balance of Terror” still finds time for human interest. In addition to the prejudices of Styles, we see the pressures on Kirk as he needs to make decisions that could affect more than just crew, especially given his dilemma as to whether or not to enter the Neutral Zone. It is down to McCoy to give some reassurances as he gives a lovely speech about the importance of individuality and Kirk in particular. We also see the real price of conflict, with the episode opening with the interruption of the wedding of crew members Robert Tomlinson and Angela Martine . It is not exactly surprising when Tomlinson is subsequently killed, but the closing scene in the chapel in which Kirk comforts Martine is a poignant bookend to the opening celebrations, and the first time that we have seen grief in response to a death in the series.

After so many episodes focused virtually entirely on the Enterprise and its crew, it is jarring at first when “Balance of Terror” suddenly jumps to show us the Romulan perspective on the conflict. The script provides a surprisingly nuanced and respectful portrayal of the alien antagonists, who aren’t hateful Black Hatted villains and there are hints in the dialogue of a complex, political society. This is all anchored by Mark Lenard, who gives a lovely performance as the un-named Romulan commander who is portrayed pretty much as Kirk’s equal and who is having his own doubts since he is tired of death and war. It’s easy to see why Lenard was brought back when they needed to cast a later pointy-eared role of importance.

Enjoyable as the episode is on its own terms, it does lead to a number of loose ends. What prompted the apparently unprovoked Romulan attack on the Earth outputs? What are the consequences going to be of this act of war? Clearly, a modern series with its serialised storytelling would doubtless address these, but I’m not expecting anything to be followed up given the more episodic nature of the Original Series…

Planetary Gazetteer

Romulus and Remus: The twin homeworlds of the Romulan Star Empire [Spock refers to “Romulus and Remus” in dialogue – and this clearly makes sense given the Roman influence – but the star chart seen in the episode shows two planets that are labelled as “Romulus and Romii”. I see that later writings about the Star Trek universe disagree as to whether Romii is another planet or just another name for Remus].

Starship Spotting

Consistent with the reference in “The Corbomite Maneuver”, we see that the Enterprise’s phasers are fired by crews under the direction of the bridge. We see the full firing chain of command here, with Kirk instructing Stiles who then communicates with the phaser room.

The Romulan vessel in the episode is referred to as the flagship of the Star Empire. It is equipped with an immensely powerful plasma weapon capable of destroying cast rodinium, the hardest substance known to Earth science, and also a cloaking device which renders it invisible (handy in terms of reducing the number of model shots needed in the episode). Somewhat bizarrely, the vessel appears to have only impulse engines which means that it is not capable of faster than light travel and so would have rather a long journey home. The vessel is not yet explicitly referred to as a “Bird of Prey”, although it is easy to see where this designation comes from given that this is the marking on its underside.

General Observations

• Two Stardates are given in log entries during the episode – 1709.2 and 1709.6.
• The Romulan Star Empire seems heavily influenced by the Ancient Roman empire of Earth – most obviously with the names of its homeworlds, but also through using titles such as Praetor and Centurion. This all seems a little odd given that the whole point is that there has been no contact between humans and Romulans. This is no explanation at this stage as to why they look like Vulcans – Spock speculates that they are an offshoot of his race from a time when the Vulcans had an aggressive colonisation phase in their history. Romulan society seems to be based very much on duty in a manner that is reminiscent of the system of honour that will later become familiar with the Klingons.
• With the exception of the Commander and the Centurion, all of the Romulans where helmets that very handily cover their ears and eyebrows, thus saving the need for additional make up time and expense.
• Tomlinson and Martine seem to be getting married in their uniforms, which seems a little odd. Toimlinson is killed by a phaser coolant leak – he is the only human casualty in the episode.
• There are again hints of a romance between Kirk and Rand – they hold each other when it appears as if the Enterprise might be destroyed, and there is later very much a moment between them in Kirk’s quarters until they are interrupted by McCoy.
• There is an element of plot that seems to come out of nowhere when Stiles and Sulu believe that they might be Romulan spies on board the Enterprise. This is actually following up a scene that was shot but not filmed when Commander Hansen of Earth Output 4 informs Kirk that the Romulan vessel is of "starship design" and that the Romulans had probably stolen Earth designs via espionage and traitors.
• Commander Hansen wears a sandy coloured tunic and another emblem (an odd shape with spikes on one side and a black background) which seems to be one specific to Earth Outpost personnel. 

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TOS - 1.07 - Charlie X

The Enterprise takes on a new passenger, Charlie Evans, a teenager who was the sole survivor when his ship crashed on the planet Thasus 14 years previously when he was just three years old. Charlie is having to adjust to mixing with people, but it soon transpires that he has immense mental powers that means he can change reality and make people disappear. The plot of the episode clearly has similarities with “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, but here we have the added complication that the super-powered individual is afflicted by the raging emotions of adolescence. Charlie starts off as naive, but there is a very real sense that there is something not quite right about him beyond an understandable lack of social skills. However, things soon start to get out of control and Charlie starts punishing anyone who upsets him, initially just in anger but then with increasing cruelty that leads to some very unsettling moments, particularly one young women who is aged and the other who has her face removed (although this is seen only very briefly, possibly due to a lack of confidence in the effect). Guest star Robert Walker is very effective as Charlie – it helps that he is a suitably odd-looking individual with his piercing blue eyes – but he is excellent in portraying Charlie’s mix of emotions and, as a result, we never completely lose sympathy for him.

Yet again, Janice Rand is the subject of male attention, but this does at least make sense her since she is the first female that Charlie ever meets and it is therefore understandable that she becomes his first crush. Janice does at least stand up for herself (explaining that it is not acceptable to slap a woman on the backside), and her rejection of Charlie’s advances further contributes to his descent into downright villainy.

The development of the various characters is helped by the fact that we spend a lot of time on the ship without much really happening other than characters interacting. There’s a lengthy sequence in the recreation room in which it is revealed that Spock plays a lyre-type instrument whilst Uhura serenades him (leading to some wonderful wordless reactions from Nimoy) – although it is probably asking for trouble when she starts singing about Charlie in a somewhat mocking manner, something that is probably not advisable even when dealing with a teenager who doesn’t have dangerous superpowers.

Kirk has an interesting role in the episode, becoming a father figure for Charlie despite his best efforts (there’s an amusing scene in which Kirk and McCoy argue about who should have a word with their guest about how to deal with women).

Kirk is the one person to whom Charlie will listen, and there is a nice scene in which the captain gives him a pep talk, revealing that even Kirk himself has had his struggles despite his outer confidence. But Charlie ultimately rejects even Kirk’s authority. By this stage, Charlie is such a powerful adversary that we wonder what Kirk can actually do and his plan is actually
quite clever (essentially overwhelming Charlie’s powers as he attempts to retain control of the Enterprise). However, the situation is ultimately resolved when the Thasians turn up to take Charlie back to their planet. At first, this appears to be a somewhat disappointing deus ex machina type ending, but it is elevated by Charlie’s pleas to stay and Kirk actually arguing his case. Of course, the Thasians are unwavering and I’m minded to think that they are right – Charlie is just too far gone – but we still feel sorry for him and his fate away from his own kind since he was after all just a boy who wanted to be liked and didn’t really know any better.

Planetary Gazetteer

Thasus: The planet on which Charlie Evans has been marooned. It is home to the Thasians, a race of non-corporeal beings with telekinetic powers who were thought to be mythical

Colony Alpha 5: The location to which the Enterprise is transporting Charlie Evans since this is where his closest relatives are living.

Starship Spotting

The vessel that rescues Charlie is the Antares. It is later destroyed by Charlie (who used his powers to remove “a warped baffle-plate on the shield of their energy pile”) since the crew weren’t nice to him. It had a crew of 20 people, including Captain Ramart and navigator Tom Nellis. There is some confusion over the role of the Antares – Kirk’s initial Captain’s log state that it is a cargo vessel, but later dialogue states that it is a science probe vessel and then a survey ship.

The crew of the Antares wear a tunic insignia that is different from the familiar Enterprise arrowhead, being a weird squashed circle with a segment removed. This introduces what seems to be the very complicated world of Starfleet insignia in the Original Series. It’s often suggested that every vessel has a different symbol, but there is evidence to suggest that there are just different versions for the various duties within Starfleet and the Antares crew wear a different emblem since they are essentially part of the Merchant Navy section.

The Antares is operated by an organisation called UESPA (which I see in later episodes will be spelt out as meaning the “United Earth Space Probe Agency”) – we are clearly at a point in the produtgion before Starfleet has been named but there is not particularly a contradiction here since it is not explicitly stated that the Enterprise is operated by UESPA and it appears to have been rationalised that UESPA and Starfleet operated together at this point in Star Trek history.

The Antares was not seen in the original version of the episode but a CG model was created for the remastered version released on Blu-ray – this model has the registry number NCC-501.

General Observations

• Two Stardates are given in log entries – 1533.6 and 1533.7.
• The episode features only a small subset of the regular Enterprise crew – Sulu, Scotty and Chappel are all absent. The only new named crew members to appear are Sam (no surname given, with whom Kirk spars and who is made to disappear by Charlie for laughing at him) and Yeoman Third Class Tina Lawton (to whom Janice Rand introduces Charlie as someone who is closer to his own age).
• The episode reveals that the Enterprise has a galley, which is interesting since we saw a food replicator in the previous episode. The head chef, voiced by Gene Roddenberry himself, is preparing for a Thanksgiving meal. It is interesting that such a unique American festival is being celebrated on a supposed United Earth vessel!
• The Enterprise has a crew of 428 at the start of the episode. One assumes that all of the crew members who are removed and mutilated by Charlie are restored by the Thasians, given that we see Janice return.
• This episode shows that there is a gymnasium on the Enterprise (which apparently is never to appear again). One of the sports available includes a strange jousting with cotton buds (shades of Gladiators). The gym outfits feature plentiful use of the Enterprise logo – although Kirk chooses to exercise without his shirt on, giving us yet another topless Shatner scene. 

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TOS - 1.06 - The Naked Time

When the Enterprise attempts to collect a science party from Psi 2000 they find that all of the scientists have died under mysterious circumstances. Reckless behaviour from crewman of the week Tormolen unwittingly brings an infection back to the ship which makes affected individuals act as if they are intoxicated. As such, the episode is very much a bottle show in the same mould as "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (which previously featured Enterprise crew members being affected in the same way as a previously ill-fated group of people and then trying to avoid the sane fate).

The episode surprised me in the great restraint that it showed in not immediately infecting the regular crew members, with only Sulu being affected initially. This leads to probably the most  memorable element of the episode in which he runs around the ship with a bare chest and a sword. Instead, the  threat first comes from guest crew members, which at least introduces an element of unpredictably. It is only towards the climax that we get first Spock and then Kirk infected. Leonard Nimoy in particular must have loved the opportunity that this gave him to emote and show Spock's normal internal struggles. The effect on Kirk is less marked (seemingly just bringing to the surface a desire for Yeoman Rand), which is probably understandable given that we have only recently seen a different side to the captain in "The Enemy Within". We get tantalised with the potential for a full-on fist fight between Kirk and Spock as a result of their irrational behaviour, but this doesn't actually happen.

I understand that "The Naked Time" is one of the most celebrated episodes from the Original Series, but I struggle to see what the fuss is about. I think the main issue that I had is one of tone - there are elements of the intoxicated crew members that are played very broadly, particularly Sulu's exploits and the Irish affectations of Riley. However, these don't then sit well against the race against time to save the Enterprise as it spirals into Psi 2000 as a result of Riley shutting down the engines - there is virtually zero tension, especially compared with the similar situation in "The Corbomite Maneuver".

That said, there are still some effective character moments such as when the tension causes Kirk and Uhara snap at each other before they each then apologise. Tormolen gets some thought provoking dialogue concerning whether man should be exploring the stars, although this is undermined by the fact that he must be utterly stupid to remove his containment suit glove in order to touch an alien rock, and thus cause the whole crisis in the first place.

This episode introduces another regular member of the Enterprise crew, namely Nurse Christine Chappel (although her surname is not mentioned on-screen here). She is played by Majel Barrett, the girlfriend of Gene Roddenberry who had played Number One in "The Cage" but had not made it into the series proper in that role. Barrett looks very different here, having bleached her hair, presumably in an attempt to fool the network. Nurse Chapel is affected by the infection which leads her to profess her love for Spock. This seems a little odd, coming so closely after Uhura's attempts to flirt with the Vulcan in the previous episode, but I understand that Chappel's affection for Spock will be a key part of her character from here.

Spock and Scotty are ultimately able to save the Enterprise by doing something clever to the engines of the starship. This has the unexpected side effect of resulting in the ship travelling back in time, with Spock implying that this is something that can be reproduced. Kirk is remarkably non-plussed at the revelation that his science officer has invented a time machine! The captain simply notes that this might be useful in the future, no doubt mirroring the attitude of the series writers. This is a quite remarkable way of ending the episode, introducing to the series such a major element as time travel but throwing it away in the last five minutes with no guarantee that this will be followed up at all. This does at least shows how television storytelling has changed over the years - my subsequent reading up on the background of the episode does suggest that it was originally intended that the time travel here would have led directly into "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" with the Enterprise thrown back to the 1960s, but such serialisation was too much of a constraint at the time. This is of course very different to the shows of today, including Discovery which very used this very approach when the eponymous ship there was thrown into the Mirror Universe towards the end of the first series.

Planetary Gazetteer

Psi 2000: An ice planet which is in the process of disintegrating and whose destruction is to be recorded by the Enterprise. It has been home by a science party that all perished after contracting the alien infection.

Starship Spotting

This episode reveals that the Enterprise's engines are powered by the mutual annihilation of matter and anti-matter - a somewhat more futuristic source than the simple use of lithium crystals as explained previously in "Mudd's Women".

General Observations

• The only Stardate given in a log entry is 1704.2. The remastered version on the Blu-ray introduces a chronometer at the end of the episode shows that the Stardate at this point is 1705.0. The Enterprise then travels back in time by 71 hours to Stardate 1702.0. 
• We meet a number of new Enterprise crew members during the episode - Lt Joe Tormolen (who brings the disease up to the ship), Lt Kevin Thomas Riley (the latest navigator who is Irish) and Harrison (who works in the biopsy lab). The crewman played by regular supporting artist Frank Da Vinci is also named as Lt Brent
• It is explicitly specified that Spock has green blood, confirming what appears to be shown by his injuries in "The Man Trap". He has virtually no blood pressure and a pulse rate of 242. Assuming that this is beats per minute then this is significantly greater than humans where the normal resting rate is 60 to 100 beats per minute. This is interesting since we later learn that Vulcans are very long lived species which would tend to imply that they should have much slower pulse rates than humans.
• Although not named on screen, this episode features the first appearance of what appears to be a food replicator. This is in the recreation room where we see the 3D chess set (used by Kirk and Spock in "Where No Man Has Gone Before") and two crew members playing what appears to be 3D draughts. 
• Another phrase that would become a Star Trek cliche is uttered for the first time in this episode when Scotty tells Kirk that he "can't change the laws of physics". Ironically, this is exactly what happens when he does achieve the impossible, and invents time travel to boot.
• Okay, so what does the title mean? Yes, there is some time travel (although it is basically irrelevant to the main plot) but aside from that I can't see any connection.
• Janice Rand is again the subject of male interest. As well as Kirk's apparent desire for his "beautiful yeoman", another intoxicated crewman appears to be harassing her. At least the introduction of Nurse Chappel provides another target for the attention of Riley, although he is comparatively chivalrous in his courting of Christine and this scene does at least have a purpose in the plot since it leads to Chappel's infection. 
• Sulu's swordsmanship comes from the fact that he fences as a hobby. His interest in botany is also mentioned, consistent with what we saw him doing in "The Man Trap".
• Unconvincing special effect of the week - the dead woman who is examined by Spock on Psi 2000 is clearly a shop window mannequin!

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