“Space… the final
frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It’s five-year mission… to explore strange new worlds,
to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone
before.”
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Rhode Island Movie
Corner’s second annual ‘Trek Week’ in which I cover highlights from one of the
most iconic franchises in all of pop culture history; Star Trek. The last time I did this was back in May 2013 during the
week of the release of the then-newest film in the series, Star Trek Into Darkness. And as you might have guessed, I’ve
started it up again in honor of the impending release of the now-newest
installment of the franchise, Star Trek
Beyond. And this new film happens to come at a very special time as this
year marks the 50th anniversary of the franchise. We’ve certainly
come a long way since the original Star
Trek series, created by Gene Roddenberry and starring William Shatner as
James T. Kirk, captain of the USS Enterprise,
and Leonard Nimoy as his Vulcan first officer, Spock, first aired on NBC on
September 8, 1966. And while the show unfortunately only lasted three seasons,
it would end up becoming a phenomenon once it hit syndication and would ultimately
go on to spawn a full-blown media franchise ranging from multiple TV spin-offs
to feature films. And today, we’re looking back at the classic series that
started it all. Now originally my goal was to do a ‘full review’ of the entire
series. However, due to time constraints (e.g. me wanting to have this and the
next ‘Trek Week’ post posted in time for Beyond),
I realized that this would be rather impossible to do. So instead, I decided to
just list my Top 10 personal favorite episodes of the show’s first season
which, to be perfectly frank, was the season that arguably had the series’ most
iconic episodes. As for Seasons 2 and 3 of this show, I promise that I will try
to do posts for each of those seasons in the future. For now, though, here are
my Top 10 favorite episodes of Season 1 of Star
Trek: The Original Series.
But first, here are
two Honorable Mentions:
THE MAN TRAP (EPISODE 1)
While it isn’t the official ‘pilot’ episode, ‘The Man Trap’,
which was actually the series’ sixth produced episode, was the very first
episode of Star Trek to air. And
ultimately it did start off the series on a solid note with a dark storyline
that had a solid emotional arc for Dr. McCoy. The episode starts off with the Enterprise crew traveling to the planet
M-113 to offer medical assistance to a professor and his wife who are stationed
there at a research facility. And to make matters even more interesting, it is
revealed that McCoy was once romantically attached to the professor’s wife,
Nancy. But when they arrive on the planet, they find that something is off
about Nancy as she appears differently to each of them. While to McCoy she
appears as if she hasn’t aged a day, Kirk sees her as a much older woman. As it
turns out, this is not Nancy but instead a shape-shifting creature that feeds
off of salt. So yes, this creature is, at least according to fans, a ‘salt
vampire’ and it then proceeds to attack members of the crew for the salt in
their bodies. All in all, for an episode that was criticized for its
‘excessive’ violence when it first aired, this is a solid plot built around a
really nice emotional arc for McCoy. To escape its pursuers, the creature ends
up coming to McCoy as ‘Nancy’ and the feelings that he still has for her (note:
at this point he’s not aware yet that this isn’t really Nancy) end up getting
in the way of Kirk and Spock’s efforts to subdue the creature. However, when
the creature reverts back to its natural appearance and proceeds to attack
Kirk, McCoy finally snaps out of it and fires his phaser at the creature, which
turns back into ‘Nancy’ one more time before McCoy finishes it off for good.
One can only assume how troubling this whole situation must’ve been for the Enterprise’s chief medical officer.
THE MENAGERIE PARTS 1 AND 2 (EPISODES 11/12)
Now from a technical perspective, ‘The Menagerie’ is more or
less just a simple ‘clip show’ episode. While there is a main plot, which
consists of Spock ‘kidnapping’ his former commander and former Enterprise captain, Christopher Pike,
and attempting to bring him to a planet, Talos IV, that’s designated as being
‘off-limits’ to any Starfleet personnel, most of this two-parter story (the
only two-part episode of The Original
Series) consists solely of archive footage, shown during a court-marital
for Spock for his apparent act of defiance against Starfleet. However, said
archive footage is actually rather special because it is of the ‘original’
pilot episode of Star Trek; ‘The
Cage’. This episode was made back in 1965 when Jeffrey Hunter was originally
set to star as Captain Christopher Pike, with Nimoy having appeared in the
episode as well, still in the role of Spock. However, the pilot was rejected by
NBC for being too cerebral and the show went on to become what we know it as
today with Shatner taking over the lead role as Kirk. As for ‘The Menagerie’,
this episode was a case of Roddenberry being able to cut down on production
costs as well as dealing with growing delays affecting the show’s production
due to its extensive use of visual effects, with this episode only requiring
about a week of filming. The only major difference is that in scenes set in the
present, Pike is played by Sean Kenney due to Hunter being unavailable, with
the character being shown to have suffered severe burns following a recent
accident during a training exercise. As a result, he is now confined to a
wheelchair, only able to communicate via the wheelchair’s ‘light’ system; one
flash for ‘yes’ and two flashes for ‘no’.
Even though this is just a ‘clip show’ episode, I do think
that there actually is a decent amount of depth in the main plot, namely in
regards to Kirk having to do the unthinkable and question the actions of his
friend. However, as it turns out, Spock did have good intentions for his
actions. During his court-martial, Spock shows footage of what happened the
last time that the Enterprise, as
captained by Pike at the time, traveled to Talos IV (‘The Cage’). During this
mission, Pike and the crew came across a group of aliens known as the Talosians
who are capable of projecting illusions. For example, they manage to fool the
crew of the Enterprise by projecting
a whole camp of survivors from the crew of the Columbia, a ship that disappeared many years ago. The Talosians
then proceed to capture Pike and attempt to have him mate with another captive,
a young woman named Vina who actually was a part of the Columbia’s crew, in order to repopulate their planet. Pike and the
crew are able to escape but it is revealed that Vina is, in reality, heavily
disfigured following the crash that left her as the only survivor of the crew
of the Columbia. As their ‘captive’,
the Talosians have been projecting their illusions onto her to give her the
appearance of a beautiful young woman, so she stays with them. Many years
later, 13 to be precise according to the series’ canon, Spock’s actions are
shown to be orchestrated by the Talosians who offer to give Pike the same ‘treatment’
as Vina. And so Pike is transported down to the planet to live the rest of his
life with Vina and Spock is cleared of all charges. So while it may be a simple
episode in terms of execution, ‘The Menagerie’ is still a pretty interesting
episode of Star Trek. When it aired,
it allowed audiences to view the original pilot of the show for the first time
ever, as it wouldn’t be until many years later when the episode was finally
aired in full on TV.
And now… The Top Ten…
10. SHORE LEAVE (EPISODE 15)
This was a pretty darn fun episode of the show and also one
that was rather surreal in some places. How surreal, you ask? Well the episode
begins with McCoy fantasizing the White Rabbit and Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Yep… it’s that kind
of episode. In this episode, the crew of the Enterprise travel to a planet in the Omicron Delta system where
they plan to stop for some much needed shore leave, hence the title, after
three long months of operations. However, when they beam down to the planet,
the landing parties then proceed to come across all sorts of strange
occurrences. McCoy has his aforementioned run-in with the characters from Alice in Wonderland, Sulu finds an
antique revolver, the landing parties are attacked by WWII fighter planes, and
Kirk comes across an old girlfriend, Ruth, as well as the cadet, Finnegan, who
constantly bullied him during his days at Starfleet Academy. As it turns out,
these are all just a series of illusions (sound familiar?). Kirk and crew are
then approached by the ‘Caretaker’ of the planet who informs them that the
planet is an ‘amusement park’ meant to entertain weary travelers and apologizes
to them for any misunderstandings that occurred as a result of some of the more
‘dangerous’ illusions. All in all, a very entertaining episode of the series
and one that was actually handled very well given the nature of its plot. This
could’ve easily turned out to be a very, very campy episode but thankfully it
never goes to ‘that level’.
9. THE SQUIRE OF GOTHOS (EPISODE 17)
This is another really fun episode, in this case mostly due
to its main antagonist. The episode sees the Enterprise crew confront a mysterious and eccentric figure named
Trelane who acts like he’s someone who came straight out of the French
Revolution (“Tallyho!”). He also happens to somehow have the ability to
teleport objects and even people from place to place and manipulate matter to
his own will. This leads to one particularly memorable conflict as Kirk tries
to fight the omnipotent being, who at one point even puts the captain on trial
for ‘treason, conspiracy, and fomenting insurrection’. In fact, the general
nature of Trelane’s powers would no doubt go on to inspire another famous Star Trek character, Q, the cosmic being
that constantly came into conflict with Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew in
Star Trek: The Next Generation. This
connection is so apparent that in a non-canon novel, Q-Squared, it is established that Trelane is indeed a part of Q’s
alternate dimension, the Q Continuum, and that Q is his godfather… but again, that’s
only in a non-canon novel. Still, the episode is really fun namely due to two
things. The first is all of the wacky situations that the crew gets into as a
result of Trelane’s powers. The second great thing about this episode is
Trelane himself, played by William Campbell. Campbell clearly had a lot of fun
playing the part and its shows through his energetic and playful performance.
All of this comes together for another highly memorable, and occasionally
surreal, episode.
8. THE NAKED TIME (EPISODE 4)
A personal favorite of George Takei’s (Sulu), it’s easy to
see why this early episode of Season 1 is a classic. It even went on to inspire
an episode of Star Trek: The Next
Generation, though with that said the TNG
episode in question is generally disliked by fans for its rehashing of the
original episode’s plotline. Anyway, the TOS
episode begins with the crew investigating a research facility on a planet,
Psi 2000, that’s on the verge of dying. One of the members of the landing party
ends up coming into contact with a mysterious red liquid and once they return
to the ship, the crew member ends up acting irrationally, somehow dies from a
minor injury even after it was patched up by McCoy, and the liquid ends up
affecting other crew members as well. For example, Sulu brandishes a fencing
foil and starts acting like a swashbuckler a la The Three Musketeers while another crew member, Lt. Riley, starts
embracing his Irish heritage (e.g. repeatedly singing an Irish tune over the
intercom) and hijacks the engineering section, declaring himself as the new
Captain. And if that wasn’t bad enough, this puts the Enterprise in a particularly compromising situation as the ship’s
orbit around the planet begins to decay, resulting in it running the risk of
crashing into the planet. All in all, a very tense episode throughout but one
that is full of memorable moments as a result of how various crew members are
affected by the mysterious substance. It even sort of sets up the method in
which the series would explore the concept of time travel, which would later be
seen in future episodes as well as Star
Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
7. THE DEVIL IN THE DARK (EPISODE 25)
This was the second episode of the series that I ever saw,
so yeah it’s definitely one of my favorites. It also happens to be William
Shatner’s favorite. In this episode, the Enterprise
is called to a mining colony on Janus VI in order to deal with a creature
that has been causing them trouble. Said creature has already killed 50 crewmen
and is destroying the colony’s equipment via corrosive materials. Kirk, Spock,
the crew, and the members of the mining colony then proceed to pursue the
creature through the mine. But when they finally come across it, they realize
that this silicon-based lifeform, known as a Horta, is only trying to protect
its eggs. Kirk and Spock then manage to coordinate an agreement between the
miners and the Horta, allowing for them to work together and mine the area
without harming anybody, namely the Horta’s children. It’s a very
thought-provoking episode in regards to how Kirk and co. come to understand the
creature’s true motives, initially thought to be threatening but instead just
being a case of it trying to survive. And even though the Horta itself is
basically just a walking lava carpet in terms of its design, it’s still a fairly
fascinating creature to behold. Another great thing about this episode is its
setting, set almost entirely within the mines of Janus VI. It certainly gives
the episode a noticeable sense of claustrophobia, especially whenever someone
is confronted by the Horta. That, the strong writing, and the solid performances
from the leads all come together to produce an all-around terrific episode.
6. THE ENEMY WITHIN (EPISODE 5)
It’s Kirk vs. Kirk in this episode, as a transporter
malfunction causes Captain Kirk to be split into two beings; one good and one
evil. But instead of just being a simple ‘evil doppelganger’ storyline, there’s
actually quite a lot of depth to this one. The real kicker to this whole
situation is that it’s shown that the evil Kirk is a more confident ‘leader’
than the good Kirk. As a result, the good Kirk begins to question his actions
which puts his status as the ship’s captain at risk. There really is a lot at
stake in this episode while also showing Kirk at perhaps the most vulnerable
point of his entire life. Oh yeah and if that wasn’t troubling enough, there’s
also the pressing matter of the Enterprise
trying to get the transporter fixed so that they can beam up the landing
party that is stuck on the planet Alpha 117, where it gets really bitter cold
at night. For such an early episode of the show, this story arguably has one of
the best moral conflicts of the entire series, with Kirk trying to balance out
his ‘dual’ personalities while also trying to become ‘one’ again because
otherwise he’d doom himself and his crew as a result of his inability to make
decisions due to his lack of confidence. It also features one of William
Shatner’s best performances in the role as he gets to take on a ‘dual’ role in
this case as both the good and evil Kirk. For me, this was the very first
episode of The Original Series that I
ever watched. If I remember correctly, I watched this episode just a few days
after watching the 2009 film for the first time. So yes, like ‘The Devil in the
Dark’, this is another personal favorite of mine.
5. ARENA (EPISODE 18)
Definitely a classic episode of the series; in fact, it’s
arguably the series’ most iconic episode period. This episode sees the crew of
the Enterprise pursuing a rogue enemy
after the latter attacks a Federation outpost on Cestus III. However, when the
two ships end up in unexplored territory, they are suddenly ‘taken captive’ by
an alien species known as the Metrons, who then beam Kirk and the other ship’s
captain, part of the reptilian race known as the Gorn, down to a rocky planet
and pits them against each other in a battle to the death. Now admittedly the
action in this episode can be a little cheesy at times but to be fair that’s
kind of what you’d expect from a show made in the 60’s. Despite that, this
really is an excellent episode that’s well-paced and creates a great amount of
tension as Kirk finds himself on his own trying to evade his dangerous
adversary. Because even though said adversary is a rather slow dude a la an
80’s slasher villain, Kirk clearly won’t be able to outrun him forever. So how
does he defeat the Gorn? With Science!!! Specifically, he uses the various
resources on the planet, including sulfur and bamboo stalks, to create a
makeshift projectile-firing weapon that is able to subdue his enemy. But instead
of killing the Gorn, as ‘ordered’ by the Metrons, Kirk spares the Gorn’s life
as he learned that the Gorn attacked the outpost only in self-defense because
the Federation had entered their territory. And so both ships and their crews
are spared, serving as a fitting finale to one of the most iconic hours in TV
history.
4. THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER (EPISODE 10)
This is definitely a personal favorite of mine and another
episode of Trek that creates a great
amount of suspense. When the Enterprise comes
across, and subsequently destroys, a strange cube-like probe, they are then taken
captive by a giant sphere-like ship, the Fesarius,
commanded by the mysterious Balok… who has one of the creepiest faces ever.
Anyway, this is another tension-filled episode as it appears that there isn’t
very much that the Enterprise can do
in this situation. And that does end up affecting certain members of the crew,
particularly navigator Lt. Bailey. However, Kirk is able to get the Enterprise out of their current
predicament by pulling a good old-fashioned poker-style bluff. Before Balok’s
ship is able to destroy the Enterprise,
Kirk warns him that the ship contains a substance known as Corbomite, hence the
title, that would destroy anyone who dares to attack the ship. Obviously no
such thing exists but Balok falls for it and after the Enterprise manages to break free of his ship’s control, Kirk,
McCoy, and Bailey beam over to the Fesarius
to offer assistance when part of the ship is disabled. As it turns out, the
Balok they thought they were talking to is only a dummy with the real Balok
(played by Ron Howard’s brother Clint in one of his earliest roles) looking
more like a small child and admitting that he was only testing the Enterprise. Because he operates the ship
by himself, he greatly misses company so Lt. Bailey offers to stay with him to
act as an emissary for the Federation. Quite a nice upbeat ending to a tense
episode, which was actually the very first episode of the show produced after
the two ‘pilots’. However, it ended up being the 10th episode
broadcast.
3. BALANCE OF TERROR (EPISODE 14)
‘Balance of Terror’ is quintessential Star Trek with its tense action sequences and great moral dilemmas.
This episode sees the Enterprise confront
a rogue Romulan ship when the latter begins to attack Federation Outposts. Said
outposts are stationed near the Neutral Zone that was set up as part of a peace
treaty following the Earth-Romulan War a century ago. Due to the lack of visual
communication at the time, neither side has ever seen the other. But this time,
the Enterprise is able to see just
what the Romulans look like and to everyone’s surprise, they look a lot like
Vulcans. Heck, the commander of the Romulan ship is played by Mark Lenard, who
would go on to play Spock’s father Sarek in future episodes of the show as well
as some of the films. But first he was this Romulan commander and the
similarities between the Romulans and Vulcans causes some tension on the Enterprise with some major bigotry directed
towards Spock, namely from the ship’s navigator, Lt. Stiles, who lost many
members of his family during the war. Obviously that causes some problems
amongst the crew but most of the episode is a greatly paced game of cat-and-mouse,
as Kirk and the Romulan commander try to outwit one another, with the Romulans
sending out a nuclear device hidden amongst a pile of debris and the Enterprise capitalizing on the Romulan
ship’s flaw of having to de-cloak whenever it fires a torpedo. Ultimately Kirk
and co. win out but the episode ends on a sad note. The whole episode began
with the impending wedding of two crew members, Lt. Tomlinson and Ensign
Martine. Sadly, this ends in tragedy when Tomlinson dies during the final
battle and the episode ends with Kirk consoling the grieving Martine in the
ship’s chapel, perfectly illustrating the horrors of war. All of this is why
‘Balance of Terror’ is easily one of the greatest Trek episodes of all-time.
2. SPACE SEED (EPISODE 22)
‘Space Seed’ introduced a character that would go on to
become one of Trek’s most iconic
villains; Khan Noonien Singh, played by Ricardo Montalbán. Before he went on to threaten Kirk and the Enterprise crew in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, we first met the tyrannical
‘superman’ in this Season 1 episode. The Enterprise
comes across a derelict spacecraft, the SS
Botany Bay, which contains a party of genetically-enhanced humans in
suspended animation, all of whom were from the 1990’s, which was a time when
the Earth went through its ‘most recent’ global conflict, the Eugenics Wars.
Kirk and co. awaken the leader, a man named Khan, and bring him onboard the Enterprise. However, Khan intends to
rule mankind and plans a coup on the ship with the help of historian Lt. Marla
McGivers, who becomes attracted to him. In short, this is another phenomenal
and suspense-filled episode especially thanks to the terrific performance from
Montalbán in the
role of Khan. This episode very much set the stage for what would become the
legendary second film in the Star Trek film
franchise. And sure, the final fight between Kirk and Khan in Engineering does
contain some very obvious stunt double use but as a whole, ‘Space Seed’ is an
absolutely great episode which gives Kirk and co. an excellent adversary that
would come to haunt them again many years later.
1. THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER (EPISODE 28)
I’m very much well aware that this can be viewed as a
blatantly obvious choice to many of you Trek
fans out there. But in all seriousness, this really is one of the best
episodes of not only TOS but of all Trek in general. It certainly helped
that the episode was written by legendary sci-fi author Harlan Ellison and he
certainly crafts an emotional and dramatic story built around these characters.
The Enterprise comes across a ‘being’
known as the ‘Guardian of Forever’ who allows anyone to travel to any point in
time via an ancient stone-ring monument. Unfortunately, this proves to be a
problem when Bones, who became delusional after accidentally injecting himself
with cordrazine as a result of the ‘time displacement’ distortions caused by
the ‘time gate’ (“KILLERS! ASSASSINS!”), travels back to the 1930’s, which effectively
changes history and leaves the crew stranded on the ‘time planet’ without an Enterprise to return to. Trying to figure
out what happened, Kirk and Spock travel back in time to 1930’s New York right
in the midst of the Great Depression. While there, they meet and befriend a
woman named Edith Keeler (Joan Collins) who runs a homeless shelter. Kirk even
falls in love with her. However, Kirk and Spock soon learn of what McCoy did.
He saved Keeler from dying as the result of being hit by a car. And while that
may seem like a good thing, it ultimately isn’t because she ended up starting a
pacifist movement that kept the U.S. from entering World War II, effectively
allowing enough time for the Nazis to win the war.
And that, folks, is the kicker of this episode; Kirk
realizes that in order to set the timeline right, his new love will have to
die. And you can bet that this is a tough decision for him and also one that is
very thought-provoking. Because even though Edith is right in promoting peace,
to quote Spock “she was right at the wrong time” and if her death is prevented,
then it would impact the future in the worst way possible. It’s kind of like
the controversial scene from Man of Steel
when Pa Kent told Clark that perhaps he shouldn’t have tried to save those
kids in that sinking bus. Obviously that overall speech could’ve been written
much better but the general idea that both Pa Kent and this episode of Star Trek is trying to get across is
that no matter what, not everyone can be saved. So the deed is done and Kirk
prevents McCoy from saving Edith as she is hit by a truck. It’s very much clear
how emotionally devastating this is for Kirk, and this is probably William
Shatner’s absolute greatest performance in the role, as he looks away from the
accident while he subdues McCoy. McCoy asks him if he realizes what he’s done
and Spock replies by simply assuring McCoy that he knows. The trio return to
the ‘time planet’, everything is back to normal, and a completely traumatized
Kirk simply informs the crew that it’s time for them to ‘get the hell out of
here’. This was very much an emotional heavy-hitter of an episode and because
of it, it’s easily the best episode of Season 1 of Star Trek: The Original Series. In fact, it might just be the
series’ absolute best.
And those are my Top
10 favorite episodes from Season 1 of Star
Trek: The Original Series. Be sure to sound off in the comments below about
what your favorite episodes of Season 1 are.
ON WEDNESDAY: “In
Defense of the J.J. Abrams-directed Star
Trek films”
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