ST:TOS: The Enemy Within

It's been quite a long time since I posted a review here, but I think it's about time that I get back on track (feel free to keep track of how many times I say that). A few months ago after I made my last entry I decided to begin a full-fledged rewatch of all of star trek. Yes, that's around 700 episodes and 11 movies. At a reasonable rate (about one per day), I worked out that it would take at least until the next star trek movie comes out to finish everything, except for The Animated Series, whose existence I try not to acknowledge. As a result, I'll have to put all the other shows here on hold at least until I get caught up with the star trek reviews.

But enough babbling; let's get on with the review. Although Kirk pretty much demands full attention towards him in every scene that he appears, partly due to how he is written and mostly due to Shatner's peculiar acting, but this episode really takes the time to flesh out his character. The Enemy Within does this in a rather straightforward manner: by splitting Kirk into two people. One Kirk embodies all of his negative, primal, and aggressive tendencies, and the other contains all of his positive qualities.

Not even Spock could resist the attraction of Unicorn Dog

The trouble all begins on a geological survey when ensign blue shirt slips on some rock and injures himself. He is beamed aboard and carries a plot device with him, some strange type of magnetic ore, that does something to the transporter. However, he and Kirk beam back fine, so Scotty doesn't recognize anything out of the ordinary. To close off the teaser, we are introduced to evil Kirk, not to be confused with Mirror Universe Kirk, who conveniently materializes after everyone leaves the transporter room.

This is yet another prime example of how TOS pushes the envelope when it comes to its sci-fi story elements. Ultimately I'm willing to suspend my criticisms when it comes to the imaginary physics that star trek presents, because the genre is science fiction. I have no problem with transporter technology, regardless of whether or not it would work in real life, because TOS has established it as a critical part of the series, and there is a reasonable explanation of how it's supposed to work. However, I do have a problem with the transporter suddenly being able to split a person into two different beings that are polar opposites in terms of personality, which as far as we know isn't explicitly determined by some structure in the brain, or something simple like that. The only reasonable explanation that I can come up with is that the ore is magical, and if I'm willing to admit that, then I might as well be watching Harry Potter (yeah, I went there).

If there's one thing I have to say about evil Kirk, it's that Shatner sure enjoyed playing the role. The many moments that displayed evil Kirk lurking around the ship with a menacing look on his face merited more than a good laugh from me. However, most of his outbursts are so over-the-top that he doesn't bring very many serious feelings to the table, except for maybe when he tries to assault Janice Rand. He doesn't have too many lines of dialogue, so he acts as more of a foil for the good Kirk to realize the flaws he has as a captain.

"I can't believe I let Scotty install Windows Vista on this thing!"

And that's where the real story of the episode lies. Janice swears she saw the good Kirk, who was actually the evil Kirk, trying to assault her, which has most of the crew believing that the good Kirk really did do that. To make matters worse, evil Kirk has covered up the scratches on his face that Janice gave him using makeup, which only has me wondering why Kirk stores makeup in his quarters. On top of that, the transporter is now officially broken, so the landing party must be rescued before they freeze to death. Even Sulu can't cuddle up with somebody for too long.

As the episode nears its conclusion, good Kirk realizes that without his evil, aggressive side, he is incapable of commanding the Enterprise. As he loses his ability to make decisions, a situation that would have had Freud jumping up and down with excitement, his confidence weakens. Just as his evil side lacks intelligence and skill, his good side lacks the authority to make command decisions. Neither can live without the other. Eventually, Kirk is re-integrated and the landing party is rescued.

On the surface, this episode is littered with campy acting, mostly on Shatner's part, but it works brilliantly on a deeper level. Although there are quite a few plot contrivances, especially for TOS, The Enemy Within shows significant character growth for Kirk as well as offers an interesting look into the human psyche. These two points come together in the quote near the end, "I've seen a part of myself no man should ever see." The question is, was he referring to the good Kirk, or the evil Kirk?

Score: 8

Best Quote: "I've seen a part of myself no man should ever see."

Best Moment: Evil Kirk yells "I'MMMM Captain KIIIIIIRK!"

Red Shirt: 2 (+1)

ST:TOS The Naked Time

I don't know who came up with the title for this episode, but I can't think of any other episode off the top of my head that has a more misleading title than The Naked Time, or a funnier one when taken out of context. Sure, at one point Sulu takes his shirt off and chases men around with a sword, but it doesn't get as bad as the title would suggest. In reality, the title refers to the crew's inhibitions being stripped rather than their clothes, but let's move on, shall we?

The Enterprise approaches the planet that sounds like a bad sci-fi movie, 'Psi 2000', and the crew takes note of its impending disintegration. Spock takes an away team to the planet's surface, and discovers some frozen scientists who bear evidence of killing each other. Unknown to himself or the rest of the team, Tormolen catches supposedly what is some sort of virus in classic TOS fashion and brings it aboard the ship.

From there, we see the disease spread from person to person, as noted by suspenseful sounding music and the infected crew members furiously rubbing their hands. After feeling intense dread about the Enterprise's mission and saying things like "we shouldn't be out here", Tormolen falls ill and soon dies. McCoy is confused about the whole ordeal, and can only conclude that he has gone the way of Padme Amadala and simply lost the will to live.

What makes this scene even weirder is that this is supposedly Takei's favorite episode

But before anybody thinks of washing their hands, the disease gets out of control, and soon all heck breaks lose on the ship. This begins the most entertaining part of the episode, as we see crewman after crewman falling to the disease and Kirk trying to remain in control of the situation. After Sulu and Riley struggle to maintain orbit and are shoved off the bridge, they begin to create problems of their own. Their inhibitions have been lowered, so naturally Sulu appears topless in the corridor with a sword and starts chasing people around, and Riley locks himself in Engineering and starts singing an annoying tune over and over again. I half expected Kirk to insert a statement in his captain's log saying, "Note to self, remove all alcoholic beverages from the mess hall."

The Enterprise begins to fall closer to the planet, and after some time Scotty is able to retake engineering. A cold restart of the engines is the only possible way to escape in time, but it requires Spock, whom is now incapacitated, to perform some calculations. Kirk manages to make him regain control of his emotions, and by now Sulu has been cured by McCoy, so they barely manage to escape, as Kirk himself begins to fall victim to the disease and longs for a woman in his life.

As if we haven't had enough crazy things going on in this episode, the cold reboot actually goes better than expected, so much so that it actually knocks them three days back in time. I'm still trying to figure out how that one works, but at least they didn't evolve into salamanders.

"Dang, this is not looking anything like Nevada."

The thing I like the most about this episode is that it doesn't need a guest star villain or a subtle political statement to be full of value. It's just a simple story about the crew getting infected by an alien pathogen, and yet we see some classic character moments here. McCoy facing something he doesn't quite understand, Scotty running out of time and power, Spock struggling with his human half, Kirk trying to maintain command and save his ship, Uhura...monitoring stuff. There's so much going on here without the episode losing integrity that I have to give this one a high score.

Score: 9

Best Quote: "It is like nothing we've dealt with before."

Best Moment: Sulu chasing crew members with a sword.

Red Shirt Death Count: 1 (+0)

ST:TOS Charlie X

Another day, another god-like entity. No, I'm not being facetious. It's been a total of two episodes since Where No Man Has Gone Before, and we already have a plot that revolves around much of the same idea and a similar story. But this time it's about a teenager, so I guess that's different. *shrugs*.

Contrary to what you might expect, however, TOS actually does a great job at keeping the audience, or at least me, interested throughout the episode while forcing you the think about the situation and draw your own conclusions. And here's the situation. A boy is discovered on an abandoned planet and comes aboard the Enterprise. His name is Charlie Evans, and the exact circumstances surrounding his life are somewhat of a mystery, hence the title of the episode. Because he has been away from civilization for most of his life, he knows little about society's social "rules" and therefore has problems fitting in correctly with the rest of the Enterprise crew.

"Three more strokes and you beat Kirk."

The twist is that Charlie appears to have god-like powers, those very similar to Gary Mitchell, something he doesn't reveal fully until he becomes infuriated with being unable to do anything right in the real world. Eventually his powers pose a threat to the crew, and Kirk is forced to stop him as long as he can. Apparently Charlie can only be concentrating on several targets of his powers at one time, so the bridge crew help create problems around the ship, so many that Charlie cannot possibly stop them all.

3D Chess: The chess of the FUTURE!

But Charlie's race returns, in their evolved state, and Charlie finally gets what he deserves. He unwillingly leaves with his race, crying out in anguish that he will never be able to love, or touch anybody for that manner. So, on the surface, this episode seems dull and cheesy, but Charlie's character really progressed throughout this episode. At first, he seemed like the innocent child who didn't understand the rules of life, or how to be in a relationship with someone. He failed each time he tried to do something right and could only hang his head in shame. Eventually, though, his anger caught up with him and he found that he could only effectively get things done through using his power. In the end, though, you still feel sympathy for his situation. He only ever wanted to belong, but he found that he couldn't even do that with his power.

All in all, a decent episode. Charlie's character got annoying at times, but there were many interesting scenes. Uhh, except for the Uhura singing scene, which I admit was ten times better than watching her nude shadow dance in Star Trek V, but still...uncomfortable.

Score: 5

Best Quote: "I wanna...stay...stay...sta..." (Charlie fading away)

Best Moment: Kirk trying to explain to Charlie why it's wrong to hit a girl.

Red Shirt Death Count: 1 (+1) Our first red shirt death, which I'm counting as a death because it was never shown that the crewman was brought back from oblivion.

ST: TOS The Man Trap

The Enterprise arrives at planet M-113 to hand over some medical supplies to Dr. Robert Crater, when McCoy identifies the Doctor's wife as "Nancy", the woman with whom McCoy used to be romantically involved with. Kirk finds this a bit odd, but he doesn't really start to question it until a couple crewmen on the planet are found dead with several hickeys on their heads.

Kirk pays a visit to the props warehouse

Known to the audience, but not known to the crew, Nancy is actually a creature that can take the shape of any being. The reason that it has been attacking the crew members is that it needs salt to survive. It lures men by changing into an appealing woman, catching them with a hypnotic stare, and then sucking the salt out of them. Hence, "the man trap".

In the middle part of the episode, the creature finds its way onto the Enterprise and wanders around, looking for its next victim. It takes the form of various crew members in order to stay under cover, and it's a wonder that the rest of the crew don't put much thought into it's strange behavior. There is some very strange dialogue during this part, such as "go chase an asteroid", "he must have gone Space Happy", and "your own personal Yeoman". Despite this, however, we get an interesting look into how the crew operates on a daily basis and a feel for the unique space-venturing atmosphere of the show.

Insert your own "Sulu is gay" joke here

While McCoy goes back to his quarters and rests, Kirk and Spock hunt down Dr. Crater and question him about death of his crewmen and "Nancy". Dr. Crater tells them all about the creature, but claims that it's only trying to survive. The creature, who has now taken the form of McCoy, also agrees with this viewpoint, but this only leaves Spock suspicious about McCoy. Dr. Crater reveals that the creature and him have developed a sort of symbiotic relationship ever since the creature killed the really Nancy Crater for salt.

But the stress from the lack of salt and the investigation starts to get to the creature, and it kills Dr. Crater. It nearly kills McCoy when Kirk and Spock rush in, having discovered the creature's secret. McCoy is eventually forced to kill the creature to save himself and the rest of the crew.

This episode was not great by any means, but it still had the atmosphere and character interactions that would be prevalent throughout the rest of the series. Most importantly, though, this episode showed how original Star Trek could be when written and acted correctly.

Score: 7

Best Quote: "It needs love as much as it needs salt."

Best Moment: The creature begins to suck the salt out of Kirk, and McCoy is forced to kill it.

Red Shirt Deaths: Still 0, but there could have been at least 4 this time...

ST:TOS Where No Man Has Gone Before

Here's where the Star Trek episode order starts to get confusing. As I talked about in the last TOS review, The Cage was rejected as a pilot and never initially aired. The second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before(WNMHGB), had a much better reception and was accepted by NBC. However, The Man Trap was actually aired as the first episode and WNMHGB became the third episode. Yeah, I don't get it either.

WNMHGB begins with Kirk and Spock playing a game of three-dimensional chess, and we get some nice opening banter between them. Kirk, however, is too preoccupied with a ship's distress call to have a chance against Spock. The crew recovers a ship recorder in dead space from the SS Valiant, which is supposed to be sent out in the event of an emergency. Soon, they discover that the crew had accessed records on the subject of "ESP" in humans before the captain had initiated a self-destruct.

The Enterprise soon encounters a strange field or barrier of some sort that wreaks havoc on the ship. Consoles explode, light fills the bridge, and the Enterprise is forced to travel on impulse power only. Two crew members who have been identified as having high levels of ESP, Dr. Dehner and Gary Mitchell, are targeted by the light, but they both appear to be unharmed except for some brain damage in specific areas. Here is where I start to disagree with the episode. The whole idea of ESP seems really illogical and foreign to me, mostly because the premise itself doesn't make much sense. Perception without sensation? That doesn't make much sense, but the episode takes it one step further when Spock suggests that people with these abilities could potentially be dangerous. Wait, what? ESP doesn't imply any "dangerous" abilities, it just implies that one can perceive things without actually sensing them.

Well, it turns out Spock was right, as Mitchell begins exhibiting some strange behavior. He increases his reading speed dramatically, and develops the ability to manipulate things entirely with his mind. *Sigh*, okay. From now on I'll just let the ESP stuff go because it is, after all, science fiction. Anyway, Spock calculates that in about a month, Mitchell will have developed to the point where the crew will just seem like mice to him. He urges Kirk that the crew's safety depends on Mitchell being taken out of the picture. Kirk does not want to accept this, partly because he has known Mitchell for so long and partly because he does not want to leave a man behind.

Things take a turn for the worse as Mitchell shocks Spock and Kirk with, I guess you could call it force lightning, and Kirk is forced to sedate him and bring him down to the deserted planet of Delta Vega. Hey, wasn't that the same planet that Kirk was marooned on in latest Star Trek film? Interesting. It's not long before Mitchell breaks free of his cell before the Enterprise can leave, and he takes Dehner with him, who has also been recently endowed with the "powers". The two now god-like people set up their paradise, but Dehner is still uncertain about the power that they now yield and how Mitchell is using it.

Beware the haunted extension cords on Delta Vega

Eventually Kirk arrives and tries to battle Mitchell. He is now impenetrable to phaser blasts, though, and Kirk is powerless against him. Mitchell even creates a grave for Kirk, but his reign ends when Dehner and Mitchell have a lightning battle, ending with Kirk pushing a boulder into the grave into which Mitchell falls. Yes, apparently huge rocks can destroy Gods.

Kirk is caught in a grave situation...

This was a pretty good pilot. Although we didn't necessarily get much back story on the characters, I don't think we needed too. It was a nice opening for the series because we got to see where the show might be headed, and a feel for the episodic nature of it. Mitchell really went where no man has gone before, but on a deeper level, Kirk also did because he was forced to kill his own friend for the sake of the crew.

Score: 6

Best Quote: "Will you try for a moment to feel? At least act like you've got a heart."

Best Moment: The force lightning battle

Red Shirt Deaths: 0, but 3 people did die

ST:TOS The Cage

So here we are at the first episode of Star Trek ever produced. Technically The Cage is not part of Star Trek canon because NBC rejected it and it never became the pilot. They made the daring move of ordering a second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, that actually began the series. I decided to review The Cage this week anyway because it is nevertheless science fiction.

The most interesting thing about this episode is how different it is from the Star Trek we know and love. For one thing, the characters are completely different. Captain Pike is in Kirk's place, and is played by Jeffrey Hunter instead of William Shatner. The bridge crew is less diverse than it is in the real Star Trek, and only a few cast members, like Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett, appear in later episodes.

The bridge is also a bit less colorful, and the uniforms are somewhat different. The crew also carry different looking weapons.

I'm okay with most of the original elements that they later changed for the real pilot, except for the characters. The characters in The Cage are mostly boring and not very interesting to watch. They don't quite have the appeal that the Kirk, Spock, and Bones team have on screen.

It is logical to suppress all emotion, except when dealing with blue leaves

But let's get to the actual plot of the episode. The Enterprise crew picks up an 18 year old distress call, and they find that it's originating from a planet that doesn't appear to have much on it except for a few forms of plant life and a few scientists who were on an expedition. A group of aliens with pulsing veins on their huge heads capture Pike and imprison him in a cell with one of the surviving scientists, named Vina. They have the ability to create illusions, so they put Pike and Vina into several virtual situations in attempt to get Pike interested in Vina. Their main goal is to study how humans of the opposite gender interact. The aliens are surprised to learn that the humans hate being imprisoned. Huh, what a thought.

Despite their intelligence and the "illusion torture" that Pike receives when he does not comply with the situation, Pike resists and eventually takes one of the aliens hostage, using him to escape.

Back on the surface of the planet, the aliens reveal Vina in her actual, deformed look under all the illusions. Vina decides to stay on the planet with a virtual Pike, while the Enterprise crew leaves.

Yeah, 18 years without Proactive will do that do you

This episode feels more like a 60s movie than a Star Trek episode. The plot is original and actually pretty interesting, but it just doesn't work for a pilot episode. The characters are pretty bland and don't do anything to make them deserve any special attention. Spock is actually the most interesting character, but he is portrayed differently than in other episodes. In fact, the main reasons that NBC rejected the pilot was because Spock was not what they had wanted him to be, and the story was too cerebral(no pun intended) and slow-moving for a 60s audience. If this episode had aired as the pilot, I probably wouldn't have watched any other episodes.

Score: 4

Best Quote: "Sometimes, a man will tell his bartender things he'll never tell his doctor."

Best Moment: Pike taking the alien hostage.

Red Shirt Deaths: 0. Red shirts don't exist in this episode.