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Aaronb00
Reviews
Star Trek: The Galileo Seven (1967)
At Least Let Us Die Like Men
Stardate 2821.5 through 2823.8
Approximately 2267 AD
En route to Makus 3 to deliver medical supplies, the crew of the enterprise encounters a quasar-like formation near Murasaki 312. There is a standing order for the Enterprise to investigate all quasars and quasar-like phenomena, so Kirk dispatches the shuttlecraft Galileo to the region to learn more. This, of course, is in direct opposition to the desires of the Galactic High Commissioner Ferris' wishes to deliver the medical supplies to New Paris on Makus 3. Ferris is anxious to deliver the medical supplies due to a plague that is apparently ravenging the city.
The Galileo consists of 7 crew members including Spock in command, Scotty, and Bones. Of course because of the ionization effect that the quasar is giving off the galileo quickly loses contact with the Enterprise and crashlands on a type M planet named Taurus II. This sets up perfectly for a tense episode where Kirk is in a race against time to save the crew of the Galileo while there is a plague in New Paris, and Spock and company are in a race for survival.
This is another perfect set up for Star Trek, working well within their budget constraints. The Aliens on the surface of Taurus II are very wisely kept mostly obscured, only showing them in short clips from a distance or from the back. This is an episode where the writers know perfectly well what their jobs are and what kind of capabilities they have, not relying on special effects or alien costumes but rather relationships between crew members and the need to make difficult decisions.
Kirk and Spock are both in similar situations. Both act in a cool logical manner in opposition to their subordinates, or in Kirk's case, the Galactic High Commissioner. Spock understands the need for logic in their scenario and doesn't let his crew's illogical reactions to the situation cloud his judgment. In fact it seems that the only other reasonable crew member on the Galileo would be Scotty who just focuses on his work the whole time.
Whereas Kirk is fully aware of the nature of the situation. He understands that there is a plague that he has the power to stop using the medical supplies on board the Enterprise. The rendezvous isn't for a few days so he still has time to search for the Galileo and he plans on using up all the time he has available. However, he still seems to apply Spock's logical axiom of "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." At the end of the episode Kirk was still completely prepared to leave the crew of the Galileo to deliver the medical supplies necessary to stop the plague.
The whole ending is trying to convey the idea that Spock had to perform an act of human desperation, or illogical hope, in order to save the galileo. But the way it was framed in the episode leaves me wondering if Spock's final actions were as irrational as the writers were making it out to be. The Galileo finally made its way into orbit but Scotty informs the crew that they only have enough fuel for 45 minutes of orbi before the shuttlecraft burns up in the atmosphere of Taurus II. So spock jettisons the remaining fuel making the Galileo begin its burn in the atmosphere sooner than predicted. This fuel jettison leaves a trail that the Enterprise can see and consequently save the crew of the Galileo. Spock's options were either burn up in the atmosphere without a distress signal in 45 minutes, or burn up now with a distress signal. Spock's choice seemed like a logical one to me.
Star Trek: Shore Leave (1966)
I am not a plebe!
Stardate 3025.3 through 3025.8
Approximately 2267 AD
After several months of hard work, the crew of the Enterprise is in desperate need of shore leave where they can rest and operate at 100 percent again. So when an uninhabited planet in the Omicron-Delta region is found, Kirk wastes no time to dispatch a landing party to make sure the planet is safe for shore leave. Soon after the landing party (consisting of Bones and Sulu) arrives they both see strange apparitions.
This is my least favorite episode of the Original Series since I've started rewatching it. There are so many corny moments and little to no attempt to make anything bigger of it. Usually when Star Trek gets fantastical in this sense they at least try to give it some broader philosophical point. But in this episode the race behind all the strange apparitions dismisses it as "your race is not yet ready to understand us." This, of course, tells us as the audience that they didn't put a whole lot of thought into it either.
So now we have to sit through an entire episode of Sulu playing with guns and running from samurais, Kirk getting picked on by a childhood bully, and Bones literally following a cheap costume of a white rabbit straight out of "Alice in Wonderland."
I did, however, enjoy the rare sight of bones being affectionate with Yeoman Tonia Barrows. He was being very sweet with her until he showed up at the end arm and arm with half naked women that the caretaker provided for him. We also get to see Kirk with yet another of his love interests, this time one from his distant past. But in this case it's difficult to take it too seriously knowing that 1) it's fake, and 2) in the next episode he's likely going to find himself yet another lady to swoon over.
Overall, it is much too cheesy and empty an episode for me to take too seriously. The costumes are bad, I don't like seeing Kirk being pushed around, and there was really no point behind any of it.
Star Trek: Balance of Terror (1966)
I wish I were on a long sea voyage somewhere ... no responsibility.
Stardate 1709.2 through 1709.6
Approximately 2266 AD
After losing contact with Outpost 2 and 3 on the Earth occupied side of the neutral zone that borders the Romulan empire, the crew of the Enterprise is dispatched to investigate. On approach to the neutral zone a distress signal is sent from Outpost 4 and the Enterprise arrives just in time to witness the death of all who live on the outpost by a mysterious enemy and their mysterious weapn.
In this installment of Star Trek we get to learn more about Vulcan's violent history and their distant relation to the mysterious Romulans. We appreciate why the Vulcan race decided to abandon their emotions and turn solely to logic. We learn about navigator Stile's dark family history in regards to Romulans and where some deeply rooted bigotry toward fellow crew members might come from.
The idea of the Romulans literally using nuclear weapons against Earth on the borders of a neutral zone possibly igniting a war between two peoples that know very little of each other stinks to me of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. But this episode is much more than an allegory of US-Russia relations; it covers bigotry and suspicions of fellow crew members that might look like the Romulans, and we learn much more about the Star Trek universe and some of this Earth's alternate history.
Near the beginning of the episode there is a reveal where the crew gets a glimpse into the command deck of the enemy craft. The captain of the enemy craft is played by none other than Mark Lenard, who, in future episodes, also portrayed Sarek, Spock's father. This was a confusing revelation for me mostly because I already have prior knowledge about Star Trek and its important characters, though I know the writers at the time certainly did not. So when I saw Mark Lenard turn around for the big reveal I was already thinking that Sarek was the captain of the enemy craft and that I was in for a father son drama.
A story about a father and his son this episode is not. It is a drama about two peers attempting to outmaneuver each other. The talented captains of our two ships go head to head in a battle with potentially deadly consequences for not only the crews, but between two civilizations that know close to nothing about each other. Even though I know nothing of naval battle tactics, I really enjoy watching stories of two people who are so good at what they do that they can learn about each other's personalities solely through the way they do battle. Kirk and the enemy captain grow to respect each other as people. Near the end we learn that our mysterious enemy would even be able to regard Kirk as a friend under different circumstances.
Overall I really enjoyed this episode. I love watching the two captains realize what the other was doing in the nick of time "because that is exactly what I would do." With that being said, there was an awful lot of stuff thrown into this one. A wedding that ends in tragedy, Kirk losing himself in battle, bigotry between crew members, and even introducing a whole culture that appears regularly throughout the series. Any one of these things could probably operate as an episode by itself and it felt a little crammed. The tragic ending didn't quite have the punch that it could have had if there was more focus on it throughout. Ultimately I don't think there was one coherent vision for it which is why I"m giving it a 6/10.
Moon Knight: The Friendly Type (2022)
An Inflated Third Episode
As expected, the third instalment of Moon Knight takes place in Egypt. The two parties, Harrow and Marc/Steven/Khonshyu, are in a race to find the tomb of Ammit. Concerned that Harrow will reach the tomb before Marc/Steven, Khonshu summons the other gods of the Ennead to convince them to stop Harrow before it's too late.
I think this is the weakest episode of the series so far and felt the most like television of the three. My problem with it is primarily the lack of brevity with the narrative and feels like the writers are trying desperately to make the show last longer than it should. This, of course, is my problem with shows in general. They tend to be artificially inflated to suit the needs of the medium, rather than take a natural course. When episodes like this need to be made then that tells me this would be better suited as a movie with all the fluff edited out.
The course of events are as follows; Marc/Steven/Khonshu are trying to find the tomb of Ammit before Harrow and his people (why Harrow is taking so long to find the tomb when he posesses the scabbard is not really explained in the episode... I thought that was the point of the scabbard to begin with). Because Marc/Steven/Khonshu do not have the scabbard they need to find a sarcophagus which allegedly has information to finding Ammit's tomb. This sarcophagus is under the care of a black market artifact dealer named Mogart. On this sarcophagus is a star map which allegedly points the way to the tomb of Ammit. But because the stars slowly drift their position over the course of thousands of years Khonshu, with the help of Marc/Steven, must reposition the stars so they are where they were thousands of years before. Then with some fancy computer work and star mapping Layla was able to determine the exact position of the tomb. This is of course significantly more convoluted than it needed to be and I would rather see a 30 minutes episode with most of it cut out instead of this 46 minute fluff piece.
The majority of the episode is just finding some new obstacle to find a thing that Harrow should have been able to find relatively quickly with the help of the scabbard that we dedicated the last two episodes learning about. It all just feels like a big waste of time.
I will say however, the visuals and fight scenes, especially those when Marc is wearing the Moon Knight suit, are really cool. I do enjoy watching Moon Knight. Beat up the bad guys. The music for the series by Hesham Nazih is also really cool and I enjoy the theme that was written for the appearance of Moon Knight. And Ethan Hawk does a great job playing a charecter convinced of the his good deeds and noble cause
This isn't a criticism so much as it is a funny observation. When Layla determined the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates "29°N and 25°E" they didn't include any minutes. This means that they narrowed down the location of Ammitt's tomb to an area of about 360 square nautical miles. I would say that is hardly helpful in their quest.
This episode still doesn't explain how Steven fits into all this, or specifically how Marc and Stevn fit into this together. I understand how the body is the avatar of Khonshu, and I understand that Marc is a mercenary with badass fighting skills, and Steven is really smart about Egyption history. But I don't get how they're related. Have they only recently been sharing a body? Have they always been sharing a body since birth and this poor person suffers some kind of multiple personality disorder? And if that's the case why is Steven just now learning about this? Has Khonshu decided to combine these two people for whatever reason? I'd say that doesn't make much sense because Khonshu clearly didn't care too much for Steven since the beginning of the series.
I still think the series looks really good and there are a lot of cool visuals with the Moon Knight charecter. If you are at all interested in Marvel this is definitly worth watch. I just think it's a weak third instalment, though I'm still looking forward to next week's episode.
Moon Knight: Summon the Suit (2022)
Summon the Suit
In this second episode of Moon Knight, we explore the alter ego of Steven Grant, Marc Spector (both played convincingly by Oscar Isaac). We now know a lot about Marc Spectre and some of his history and even some of the nature of his relationship with the Egyptian god of the moon, Khonshu. But we are now left a little confused on how Steven Grant fits into all this.
In the first episode we discovered that Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawk) punishes people for possible future crimes. In this second episode we learn that Arthur punishes people in this way because he believes himself to be the avatar for a different Egyption god, Ammit, who punishes future crime. Khonshue punishes past crime and has chosen Marc/Steven as his avatar for justice, "true justice." So we can see pretty early here a battle between two fundamental philosophies of justice; one willing to punish for crimes you might commit in the future, and the other punishing crimes of the past. So far it seems Harrow's version of "justice" is always the death penalty regardless of the crime, so we're pretty well forced to side with Khonshu on this one.
We are also introduced to a new charter, Layla (May Calamawy) who has a significant relationship to Marc/Steven/Khonshu which I will not spoil here. But she obviously cares very deeply for these characters and seems to know a lot more about what they are and their relationship with each other a lot better than we do, or even than Steven does.
Ultimately, at the end of this episode I have more questions than I do answers but I think that is by design. How does Spectre expect to find the tomb of Ammit when he does not have the golden scabbard? Why is Marc so secretive regarding Layla? How did Spectre and Grant come to occupy the same body? Have they always been that way and if so, why is Steven just now realizing what is going on in his mind?
These big questions aside, there are still plenty of visual moments that I think work very well. It's a great looking series and I think Moon Knight as a character is one of the more interesting superheros. I'm pretty well married to this show at this point and am looking forward to next week's episode and hopefully getting some of these questions answered.
Star Trek: The Conscience of the King (1966)
What you call genocide, I call a day's work
Stardaye 2817.6 through 2819.8
Approximately 2266 AD
Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are diverted to the nearby Earth colony Cygnus Minor under false pretenses by Dr. Thomas Leighton. Here we discover that Dr. Leighton believes a shakspearian actor to be the aged mass murderer known as "Kronos the Executioner." Apparently 20 years prior, Kronos was the governor of Tarsus IV during a massive famine and decided to kill half the population so that the other half may survive. To this day there are only three survivors who can recognize the evil Kronos; Dr. Leighton, Kirk, and another officer on the Enterprise named Riley.
In typical Star Trek fashion, Kirk is highly hesitant to go along with the accusation that this actor is a disguised Kronos, after all, such a conviction must be followed by the death penalty. So Kirk is highly secretive in his investigation into the actor. Of course Spock knows something is amiss in his captain's actions and starts to pursue his own investigation into matters. I do not understand why Kirk didn't just come clean to Spock in the first place, surely Spock would be an invaluable resource in Kirk's own investigation and would understand the importance of discovering the truth of the executioner. I just think it is far out of Kirk's character in keeping Spock out of the loop in such matters.
This episode reminds me of the Deep Space Nine episode called "Duet" from season one. They both have very similar premises and archs and the endings are almost identical, but with very different takeaways. I think "Duet" is a much better example of Trek, but it is still a lot of fun to see how the original series bleeds into later generations of Star Trek.
Overall this is a pretty solid Star Trek episode. I was hesitant initially because when Star Trek tries to get shakespearean it tends toward campiness rather than dramatic. But when it's in this context of stage actors performing to hide some dark hidden secret I think it worked out pretty well. The ending legitimately caught me by surprise and was very emotionally effective.
Moon Knight (2022)
Moon Knight's Screen Debut
As a lifelong fan of the Moon Knight comic books I was excited to see that they were finally adapting this character for screen, though I was also mildly disappointed by the fact that it was going to be a Disney+ original series instead of a feature length film like I think this character deserves. Though I also understand that Moon Knight is historically not as popular a character as some of the other marvel heroes such as Spider-Man, or Iron Man. So I suppose it makes sense that studio execs would be hesitant to spend the money necessary for a feature length film.
Being an original series aside however, Moon Knight looks much more cinematic than one would usually expect from a show kin to television which was a huge relief to me because I tend to greatly dislike the cheap quality of television in terms of the general look and feel of things. The show has a dark, almost Batman like quality (which I don't think was an accident) and has very snappy, deliberately disjointed editing to really help us get in the head of Steven Grant.
Steven Grant is a troubled individual who works in a kind of natural history museum's gift shop. He clearly has a significant interest and nack for Egyption history that his boss refuses to see. Steven also feels the need to tie himself up in bed and take other various precautions because when he falls asleep he tends to wake up in other parts of the world or in awkward confusing situations. This episode is mostly an expository episode where we learn about the character Steven and his alter-ego(s).
Oscar Isaac does a great job portraying this character and looks like he is completely sleep deprived and stressed out all the time. This first episode we only see Isaac play Grant and very briefly play Spectre. These two characters obviously being very different from one another, I'm excited to see how Isaac does transitioning between an innocent and shy gift shop clerk to a ruthless mercenary in future episodes.
Ethan Hawke is in it as well as some kind of cult leader that judges people's characters by what they will be in the future as opposed to who they are in the present or what they have done in the past with dire consequences if being found guilty. Again, this opens up some doors to interesting moral questions that can be addressed in future episodes. Is this minority-report-esque future judgment the right thing to pursue? Is it moral to kill baby Hitler? I think this take can certainly go interesting places, especially in a show about a hero of dubious morals such as Moon Knight.
So far the series has plenty of interesting visuals and creative decisions to keep me interested in continuing watching the series. I'm Looking forward to seeing where they take the series in the coming episodes.
Kimi (2022)
"Blow Out" for a New Generation
Steven Soderbergh's "Kimi" is a surprisingly tense thriller that takes place in our modern world of technology and constant monitoring. It is about Angela Child (played by Zoe Kravitz), who is an agoraphobic analyst for an Alexa type home system called "Kimi." Angela's job is to listen to people's personal recordings of the errors that Kimi makes, and write the code to correct the system's misunderstandings and mistakes. While Angela is hard at work listening in on the personal lives of Kimi's users she stumbles upon what sounds like an act of violence against an unknown woman which spirals Angela into a deep conspiracy involving a multimillion dollar cooperation.
We quickly learn that Angela has intense anxiety about leaving her home, but in our world of video chats and text messaging, Angela can function semi-normally in society nonetheless. She lives in a highly sanitized world that she created for herself, is constantly taking prescription drugs, and even goes so far to see her dentist via zoom.
Brian De Palma fans will quickly note the similarities between the narrative of "Kimi" and that of "Blow Out" (or Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow Up"). Both films involve the protagonist hearing evidence of a crime and spiraling into a huge conspiracy involving a hitman. I, for one, really enjoyed how quickly Angela's situation completely went out of control and how dire the potential consequences for her are. There aren't any cheap twists or tricks and the movie lets you know what is going on straight from the beginning, giving us the opportunity not to figure out what's going on, but watch as Angela tries to navigate the plot unfolding before her.
I love when Soderbergh does these little genre films, and I imagine they are fun projects for him as well. The pace and editing really heightens your concern for Angela. Zoe Kravitz's performance of Angela does a great job portraying the stress that a person like Angela might experience living in a post-pandemic world. This is the first Post-Pandemic film that I have seen, and what I like about it is that Soderbergh doesn't use this fact as a gimmick, rather it is an important part of the narrative. Covid makes Angela's ability to go outside and function normally that much more difficult.
Star Trek: The Menagerie: Part II (1966)
Spock, the Liar
Stardate. 3013.1
Approximately 2266 AD
Part 2 of "The Menagerie" picks up right where part 1 left off. Spock is being court martialed aboard The Enterprise after having kidnapped Christopher Pike and programmed the ship's computer to fly to Talos IV against the crew's will. Spock show's clips from the series' pilot "the Cage" in order to show his reasoning behind his actions.
I'm not sure why the footage that Spock show's in the court martial is actually necessary to begin with. Why couldn't Spock just explain the circumstances in half the time when asked directly what he's getting at? After all, not only do we know Vulcans cannot lie but there is also a computer that can tell if he is lying or not (see "Mudd's Women"). The whole episode just feels very manufactured to me, Spock felt that he couldn't explain the circumstances to Captain Kirk in order to protect Kirk from a potential death penalty by going to Talos IV (Kirk goes anyway). At no other point in the series does Spock feel he can't tell Kirk the complete picture and it's completely out of Character for Spock.
Another departure from Character is Pike agreeing to live with the Talosians. In "The Cage," Pike makes it very clear that he has no desire to live a false reality as a kind of pet to the Talosians. It doesn't seem fitting that a strong willed starship commander would desire the illusion of health as opposed to his reality.
So between the foggy motivations and significant departures from character "The Menagerie" Parts 1 and 2 are far from my favorite Star Trek episodes.
Star Trek: The Menagerie: Part I (1966)
Lock Him Up!
Stardate 3012.4 through 3012.6
Approximately 2266 AD
13 years after the events from "The Cage," Spock claims to have received a message from Starfleet requesting the Enterprise make a course to Starbase 11. Upon the Enterprise's unexpected arrival to Starbase 11 we learn that the senior officer's never sent a message to the Enterprise and there is no reason for the Enterprise to be there. While on the surface we discover that Fleet Commander Pike became completely disabled during the inspection tour of a cadet vessel, an old class-J starship, when one of the battle plates ruptured due to the delta rays.
We quickly learn that Spock lied about receiving any signal from Starbase 11 and was actually plotting to kidnap Fleet Commander Pike to take him to Talos IV aboard the Enterprise. The story mostly follows the court martial of Spock, who is now under threat of the death penalty, for mutany. During the court martial we see the events from "The Cage" play out as evidence, though in this episode we never learn why Spock commandeered the Enterprise or what his plan is when he gets there.
I do enjoy the exploration of Spock's character here though. We learn that Vulcans are fiercely loyal, and seeing that Spock served under Captain Pike for over 11 years it would make sense that he still feels a sense of loyalty to his old captain. Even though Pike rejects Spock's plan with a series of beeps (Pike cannot talk) Spock still takes Pike against his will with what we can only assume are good intentions. We also learn that Vulcans cannot lie, but it certainly appears that Spock did indeed lie in this episode, which seems impossible until Bones acknowledges that Spock is only half human. Spock is risking the death penalty for the sake of his injured captain and it seems that a combination of his vulcan and human side allows him to lie in order to succeed in proving his loyalty.
This is a classic example of a flashback episode. Much like in a sitcom when the writers run out of ideas or are running short on time, they take already made episodes and use them as the majority of footage edited between a small amount of new footage. It's certainly an efficient way to make a new episode but it's also kind of lazy. In the context of "the Menagerie" and when it was filmed however it makes some sense. "The Cage" wasn't aired until the late 80's so when this episode came out viewers of the original series would have had no idea the abandoned pilot from a year earlier even existed. The writers managed to stretch this flashback episode out into two episodes. This lack of brevity never impresses me, I'm always annoyed when it takes someone 2 hours to say something when it could have easily taken 1.
Star Trek: The Cage (1966)
As Real As You Wish
Stardate Unknown
Approximately 2253 AD
Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) and crew have just finished a deadly mission on which several close crewmembers of Pike's lost their lives. While on their way to a planet where they can receive more sophisticated medical care, the Enterprise intercepts a distress signal from planet Talos IV. When reaching the surface the landing party finds what they believe to be the crew of a crashed expedition from 18 years earlier. Upon further investigation Pike discovers that the crew on the surface is not all that they appear to be. The stranded crew, and the distress signal all end up being an illusion from the Talosian aliens on the surface. Their goal, from what I can gather, is to keep Pike as a kind of mate for the female child from the crashed spaceship from 18 years ago, so they will eventually reproduce and the Talosians will have a race of slaves to rebuild their ancient civilization.
I think the concept is pretty interesting. After the Tolosians escape their barron planet deep underground, they work on expanding their mental capacities. But now that they are so intellectually advanced they gave up on real, physical goals. They no longer know how to travel, innovate, or live a real life. Instead they live their lives vicariously through their captured "pets."
All this happens in the backdrop of Pike's unhappiness as a captain. He just lost several crew members who were very important to him, and he has confessed that he know longer desires to be captain. Pike instead wants to go back to his farm on Earth and live a simpler life with less responsibility. This desire for a simpler life no doubt made the Tolsians offer of an illusory life at least a little tempting. But for Pike and the other crew members who were offered this life, a life of enslavement, even a happy one, is unbearable.
I enjoyed the matte effects of the Tolosian surface, and enjoyed the attempt to make the planet more alien-like by adding the noisy leaves. The special effects for the alien bulging head, where they pulsate whenever the Tolosians think telepathically, is pretty amusing as well. Spock as an alien isn't quite figured out yet as he clearly has some human-like emotion. And you can see the early signs of Star Trek progressivism by having a female first officer played by Majel Barrett who will later go on to play nurse chapel in the Original Series.
"The Cage" is the first pilot brought to the studio for syndication. When the studio decided it is far too cerebral for their audience they requested a second pilot, so Roddenberry and his team made the episode "Where no Man Has Gone Before" with an almost entirely different cast. The second pilot was accepted to begin the Star Trek saga. Ultimately I think it is for the best that "The Cage" was not accepted as the first pilot because I don't think the cast is a particularly good one. Hunter as captain isn't nearly as charismatic as Shatner, the cast is generally pretty generic and not particularly memorable. It is hard sci-fi in the Star Trek sense, but the studio heads was correct when they said it's boring.
Star Trek: The Corbomite Maneuver (1966)
Not Chess, Poker
Stardate 1512.2 through 1514.1
Approximately 2266 AD
On a routine star-mapping mission, further out into the galaxy than anyone has ever been before, the Enterprise encounters an unusual cube that does not allow the ship to pass. After being forced to destroy the cube the Enterprise is threatened by Balok, commander of the Flagship Fesarius of the First Federation. The Fesarius is a much larger ship which forces the crew of the Enterprise to believe Balok when he said that he will destroy the Enterprise and everyone onboard in a few minutes.
This is one of the all time great "Kirk" episodes, where we see Kirk run out of logical solutions and think completely outside the box to solve his problem head on. We learn a lot about Kirk's character and his relationship to his crew. We see Kirk not only being a great mentor to his crew, but we also learn that he is a stern disciplinarian who demands perfection and runs a tight starship.
There is a misconception about Captain Kirk floating around out there, one that I blame entirely on the newest generation of Star Trek films led by JJ Abrams. People tend to see Kirk as a spontaneous wild card, always following his gut feelings. The original series is a lot smarter in its approach to Kirk. Kirk is an entirely logical individual, almost always taking the advice of his first mate Spock. Kirk differs from Spock, however, in that he still has the capacity to look past pure logic and take advantage of his human nature to bluff, trick, and sneak to a solution. His human nature in the original series does not negate his logical self, but rather enhances it in a way that Spock in later episodes learns from. In the episode "Charlie X," Kirk actually beats Spock in a game of chess, which is much like beating a computer at chess. Spock blames Kirk's irrational playing style but we must not forget that Kirk still beat him in this game of logic. Not cheating, but following the rules to achieve his desired outcome. It's a subtle difference, but I think it's an important one.
Near the beginning Kirk got a checkup from Bones, and we got to follow a shirtless and sweaty Kirk around the starship minding his own business. I actually had a great deal of fun watching Kirk just exist on the Enterprise doing his thing, I think the show could do a lot more mundane day to day actions of the crew.
My biggest complaint of this episode is the very end when we see Balok's true form. I'm not going to get into too much detail, suffice it to say it is certainly the weakest part of the episode. It's not just that the ending is corny, it's that it makes the whole episode entirely pointless from the beginning. Surely there must be a better way to end an episode that has such an interesting concept.
Star Trek: Dagger of the Mind (1966)
May We Never Find a Mind So Empty That We Cannot Fill It With Love and Warmth
Stardate 2715.1 through 2715.2
Approximately 2266 AD
Approaching the planet Tantalus V, home of the Tantalus Penal Colony where the famous Dr. Tristan Adams treats his mentally ill and violent criminals, Enterprise and crew receive a package from the surface. Stowawayed inside the package is the escaped Dr. Simon Van Gelder who has gone violently insane under mysterious circumstances. The crew manage to restrain the renegade doctor but Gelder continues to rave about the dangers of returning to Tantalus and how Dr. Adams is not to be trusted. The only people who believe something is wrong on the surface is Dr. Bones and, surprisingly, Spock.
Kirk decides to go to the surface to investigate and he brings along the ship's psychologist, Dr. Helen Noel. Upon his investigation Kirk discovers a machine that is capable of making it's victims forget their past experiences and allows the user to suggest false memories. We quickly learn that for all the good Dr. Adams has done for the criminally insane, he has lost touch with his ethics and began using the machine against the will of his patients
This might be the first episode of The Original Series that is void of silly dialogue, poorly disguised aliens, or some supernatural race. This episode is a pure human drama that explores the consequences of not only experimentation on humans, but also of the need of past experiences to define our personhood. The machine essentially makes the human mind completely blank. The episode suggests that when the mind is blank it becomes like a sponge that accepts any suggestion given to it because of the emptiness and corresponding loneliness. So when Kirk is subjected to the predations of the machine he understands deeply the pain that is felt by Gelder, musing, "Can you imagine a mind emptied by that thing, without even a tormentor for company?"
The sympathy that Kirk has towards those who went under the machine is actually portrayed very lifelike by William Shatner. At the end of the episode we can see Kirk's understanding of the eternal horrors through Shatner's face. DeForest Kelley, too, did a fantastic job as Dr. McCoy in this episode. As a doctor he didn't immediately dismiss the ravings of Gelder but rather showed genuine sympathy towards this character. This sympathy is ultimately the driving force behind Kirk investigating the colony in the first place.
These kinds of episodes are why I enjoy Star Trek so much. Not the aliens or ponderings of what the future will look like, but rather the ethical questions that are oftentimes asked. Dr. Adams seemed to believe that if you empty the human mind of it's cold and darkness, then there will be room to fill it with love and warmth. But in the pursuit of this endeaver Adams created a torture for those who expereiced the machine, literally killing them from loneliness. Dr. McCoy said that it is hard to believe that one can possibly die from loneliness, Kirk responds "not when you've sat in that room."
Star Trek: Miri (1966)
No More Blah Blah Blah...
Stardate 2713.5 through 2717.3
Approximately 2266
The crew of the Enterprise pick up a distress signal from a mysterious planet that is an exact duplicate of Earth. When Kirk, Bones, Spock, and Janice arrive on the planet they learn that not only is it an exact copy of their home planet Earth, but one that is stuck in 1960. Soon after their arrival they are attacked by an old man-child that Bone's determined has a very high metabolic rate which makes the attacker grow old abnormally fast.
Turns out this planet is fully occupied by children, and when the children enter puberty they contract a disease that makes them grow old rapidly and become violently insane. Luckily for the children who reside on this mysterious planet, it takes them hundreds of years to enter puberty, making each child hundreds of years old. Kirk and gang run into a frightened girl named Miri who is right on the cusp of a womanhood awakened by Kirk's charm.
I have a few gripes about this episode, the first being the simplistic view of children, Especially children who managed to become hundreds of years old. In this episode the children on the planet are significantly older than the crew who came down to investigate and for some unexplained reason the children act like caricatures of themselves. They sing silly songs to taunt, they play silly games, and they can't grasp concepts a impaired teenager could figure out. You would think with hundreds of years worth of experience under their belts these kids would be much sharper than the way they are portrayed. When Kristen Dunst was cast in Neil Jordan's "Interview with the Vampire" (1994), she was only 12 years old. But the writer, Anne Rice, understood that if a child became immortal and was permanently stuck in a 12 year old body she would have much of the same worldly wisdom as an immortal adult.
I guess the bigger complaint I would have concerning the children would be that they are all played by child actors. Child actors are generally the absolute worst and I hate seeing them on screen unless they are one of the rare talents. So when you give incompetent child actors a script that makes them act like what an adult thinks a kid acts like you'll more than likely end up with more than a few embarressing moments.
This brings us William Shatner. In many ways Willilam Shatner reminds me of Nicolas Cage. Love them or hate them both actors give whatever role they are in their absolute all. I happen to love this kind of "putting your whole naked self out there for the world to see" kind of acting. Shatner says the most absurd lines (like "NO MORE BLAH BLAH BLAH!") to a group of children with a hilarious amount of sincerity and conviction. This is not my favorite episode of TOS but it's another check in the "William Shatner is pretty cool" box.
All in all, there are far too many embarrassing, blatantly '60's, moments for me to give this episode a high rating. Cringe factor aside though, there are many unanswered and potentially more interesting aspects. The biggest unexplored question is why is there an exact duplicate of 1960's Earth floating around in open space? It seems ridiculous but it's never really answered, and the crew never seemed all that surprised that this planet exists. I feel that this would disturb me far more than old children.
Star Trek: What Are Little Girls Made Of? (1966)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Stardate 2712.4
Approximate year 2266 AD
As the Enterprise enters orbit around planet Exo III in a mission to search for Dr. Roger Korby, who disappeared several years earlier, we learn that the extinct inhabitants of this planet long ago retreated to underground ruins. Exo III orbits a dying star and, consequently, the surface of the planet is negative 100 degrees. The uninhabitable conditions on the surface make this a hopeless mission. This is devastating to Nurse Christine Chapel who was engaged to Dr. Korby before his disappearance. But out of the blue we hear a response to the missing doctor from the surface and he has an unusual request.
Soon after Kirk and Chapel arrive on the surface of the planet, we learn that the ancient inhabitants of the planet survived by turning themselves into Androids, and Korby has been spending all these years duplicating this technology. By simply placing the synthetic organs, Korby merely synchronized them with Kirk's autonomic nervous system, duplicating the rhythms of Kirk's body and at the same time duplicating the mental patterns. So now there are two Kirk's, one real and one android, and they are almost entirely indistinguishable.
There are actually some interesting philosophical questions raised in this episode. Korby seems to believe that if he slowly replaced humanity with androids, then life could be improved by doing away with jealousy, greed, and hate. Kirk naturally acknowledges that life could also be improved without love, tenderness, and sentiment. Like we learned from "The Enemy Within," man is not simply good or evil and any attempt to separate off one side by arbitrarily deciding it's worse than the other would make us less human.
Dr. Korby was so overcome with his obsession of eliminating the bad aspects of human nature, he didn't consider the consequences to the good. Ethical codes would be compromised, and they never even acknowledged what would happen to the poor saps that would be replaced by these androids. Science unchecked by some system of ethics is not an ultimate good as we have seen not only in the world of star trek, but in real world history as well.
Korby, the ethical scientist who would never hurt a fly, abandoned his principles in order to pursue pure science. While they did find the shell of Dr. Korby on the surface, Korby has been lost along with those ancient inhabitants from the very beginning.
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)
A Love Story to a Bygone Era
Wes Anderson's "The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun" is told through the lense of magazine editor Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (Bill Murey). Each segment in the film represents a different article from the magazine. These segments include travel, arts and culture, politics, cousine, and obituaries. Though the film has several segments to it, it is so fast paced that it all seems to fly by at the speed of Anderson's trademark whimsy.
We open up with the first segment, "The Cycling Reporter," by Herbsaint Sazarac (Owen Wilson) bicycling around the fictional French city of Ennui, where the entirety of the film takes place. While on his bicycle he distractingly looks at the camera while explaining to us the history and culture of the city. This segment sets the stage perfectly for the subsequent articles in the film.
For the arts and culture section we turn to J. K. L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton) who wrote "The Concrete Masterpiece." While it appears in the French Dispatch, it is primarily told via Berensen in a lecture hall describing the history of artist Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio Del Toro) and his masterpiece on display in Kansas.
"Revisions to a Manifesto" by Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) is the article that is covered under the politics section. This section details the tense relationship between the government officials of Ennui, and the students of the same town. The leader of the students, Zeffirelli (Timothee Chalamet), writes a manifesto outlining the utopia that he and his cohorts hope to thrust upon the world.
My favorite segment of the film was "The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner" by Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright). This section covers the food section of the magazine, specifically it is an expose on the police commissioner's private chef known only as Nescaffier (Stephen Park). It is hilariously devoid of information concerning Nescaffier, rather putting all it's focus on a kidnapping plot. In the end Nescaffier is the real hero of the story, and we circle back to a profound piece of dialogue almost thrown away by the writer.
While the narrative is certainly very unique and entertaining it is still a Wes Anderson film. If you didn't enjoy Anderson's highly symmetric and palette sets, colorful dialogue to describe just about anything, and deadpan acting found in his other films, then this one is probably not for you. This film is Wes Anderson amplified by 10 times. With any given shot or scene or piece of dialogue one can tell immediately who was the mind behind the camera.
There are many recognizable stars in the film including Adrien Brody, Lea Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Liev Schreiber, Willem Dafoe, and Edward Norton to name a few. While they all have much smaller parts than the actors that play their associated journalists, they all fit into this world perfectly. Each one of these characters feel like real, fully fleshed out people, everything down to their mannerisms, backgrounds, and very unique names that can only be found in a Wes Anderson film.
Running at only 1 hour and 45 minutes in a time when lesser films take 2 and a half hours or more to get their point across, this love story to a bygone era of journalism is exactly that, a celebration of a time when journalists wrote real stories about real people and not just click bait articles that end up being entirely vaporous.
I feel that most Wes Anderson films get better over subsequent views, and I suspect that this one is no different. I'm looking forward to the movie being released to blu-ray or some streaming service so I can watch it again with the benefits of foresight.
Star Trek: Mudd's Women (1966)
Paragon of Virtue
Stardate 1329.8 through 1330.1
Approximately 2266 AD
While chasing a small Class J Cargo ship into an asteroid field, Kirk and crew manage to beam the occupants of the small ship onto the Enterprise just moments before it is destroyed. During the pursuit, the Enterprise burned through it's remaining Lithium crystals leaving the larger ship running only on battery power. The crew desperately needs new lithium crystals and resolves to try to pick them up from the miners on planet Rigel XII.
The occupants picked up from the runaway cargo vessel end up being none other than the rogue smuggler, Harry Mudd, and three women which he claimed to be transporting to the planet Ophiuchus III as wives for the settlers there. Mudd's women have a mysterious effect on the men of the enterprise due to their feminine features, enhanced by one of Mudd's dirty tricks.
Roger C. Carmel, hilariously overacts his role of Harry Mudd to the point of being cartoonish. Carmel flashes his sly smile way too much for a man who is trying to avoid provoking suspicion from the Enterprise crew. However, I did enjoy Shatner's Kirk under the stress of his ship slowly running low on power. Kirk snaps at his crew when they press him for information on the much needed lithium crystals from the planet below. I also really enjoyed the music from this episode, composer Fred Steiner was clearly having a great time writing the seductive music representing the three women.
I was a little annoyed near the end of the episode when one of the women opted to stay on the desolate planet, Rigel XII, with one of the miners, when the miner's character was clearly an unstable person from the very beginning. Having to clarify with Kirk that he didn't hurt her in his anger when he was clearly right on the cusp of doing so. Everytime we saw the miner interact with his future wife, he seemed abusive and short. It wasn't until he found out that she was physically beautiful without the necessary drugs that he decided to keep her around.
Even though this episode is centered around some adult themes, it seems somehow to be the most childish in the series up to this point. Not only childish, but also superficial in the way it approaches relationships generally. The man decides to stay with the woman because she's pretty and he's horny, and the woman decides to stay with the man because he has money (even though he literally lives in a cave). Maybe this way of looking at relationships is more traditional and representative of the 1960's, but it certainly doesn't age very well. The ending is especially cheesy where we learn that all you need is a little confidence in yourself in order to be truly beautiful.
Star Trek: The Enemy Within (1966)
Can't Afford To Be Less Than Perfect
Stardate 1672.1 through 1673.5
Approximate year 2266 AD
An Enterprise landing party consisting of Kirk, Sulu and various scientific crewmembers are on the surface of Planet A 177 for a specimen gathering mission. One crewmember fell, was injured, and got an unusual ore all over himself. The fallen crewmember was sent back to the enterprise to see a doctor but the dust that was all over him ended up malfunctioning the transporter unbeknownst to Kirk and Scotty. When Kirk is transported up he is split into two halves, one half is assertive and quick to anger, while the other half is indecisive and mellow. Scottie realizes that the transporter is not functioning properly leaving the rest of the landing party on the planet below.
A significant part of the narrative in this episode has to do with the landing party stranded below, because as evening approaches the temperatures on Planet A 177 can drop to 170 degrees below zero. I was surprised to learn that there is no shuttle to transport people around and the transporter is the only way for anyone to get on or off the ship. So if anything happens to the transporter the crew is stuck onboard (or in this case offboard). One would think that the flagship of the federation would have slightly more redundancy to prevent these sorts of problems.
While it is certainly not my favorite episode of TOS, there are many very interesting aspects to it. Kirk is split into two different individuals with starkly different personalities, however the whole crew seemed to gravitate to the indecisive Kirk as the legitimate captain and consistently referred to the more aggressive Kirk as an imposter. The reality of the situation is that neither side of the captain are the legitimate captain, rather they are both completely necessary parts of the whole. Spock pointed out later in the episode the importance of both of these personality traits in making a good captain, the "evil side" of Kirk, when tamed with his "good side" along with his intelligence, makes Kirk the captain that he is. "Evil Kirk" is just as important as "good Kirk."
This concept of what makes us human in Star Trek might be explored for the first time in this episode, but it won't be the last. Kirk spoke of the evil side of man as an integral part of being human in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." In Trek V, Spock's brother takes away painful memories from his victims causing them to be a slave to his will. Kirk explains in the movie that he needs his pain and guilt because that makes him the man that he is. I do think it is an interesting concept philosophically that the darkest aspects of us work together with our intellect and good nature to create a species capable of greatness.
Upon entering the Enterprise, one of eye-shadowed-and-vaseline-covered Kirk's first act was to harass Yeoman Janice Rand in her quarters. This appeared to me to be an attempted rape which is obviouly disgusting. This scene was actually kind of difficult to watch as it was pretty brutal, I'm surprise it was allowed on television in the 1960's. One thing that particularly disturbed me was at the end of the episode when Spock was talking to Janice he coyly suggested that the imposter had some interesting qualities that Janice seemed attracted to. I found that pretty gross considering she was almost raped by the bad Kirk. You would think that instead of suggesting that she enjoyed the company of bad Kirk, Spock would have the presence of mind to send Janice to the doctor for some counseling.
Star Trek: The Naked Time (1966)
Naked and Afraid
Stardate 1704.2 through 1704.4 (Then back to 1702.0)
Approximately 2266 AD
Spock and crewmember Tormolen are sent to the surface of planet Psi 2000 to evacuate a scientific party before the planet rips itself apart. Upon arriving at the headquarters on the surface of the planet Spock and Tormolen find the whole party dead under mysterious circumstances. In an act of surprising incompetence Tormolen removes the glove of his hazmat suit to scratch his nose resulting in him catching the virus that killed the scientific party. Of course when the landing party returns to the Enterprise the virus quickly spreads to the rest of the crew just in time for the planet they are orbiting to self-destruct putting everyone's lives at the precipice of doom.
The virus brought aboard the Enterprise doesn't necessarily seem lethal in and of itself, but rather makes the infected act as if their judgment is severely impaired. Bones compares the symptoms to that of having too much to drink. Because now everyone is running around the enterprise as if they were drunk it leads to some pretty cheesy moments, even for 1960's standards. Helmsman Sulu running around shirtless challenging people to duel, cremember Riley declaring himself captain while locking himself in the engine bay singing Irish love songs over the PA system, and an overly emotional vulcan crying about his upbringing or some such nonsense are just a few examples of things I can't really stand about this episode.
One aspect I do enjoy is that we are introduced to some staples of Star Trek, including the Nurse Christine Chapel, played by Majel Barrett who will go on to marry Gene Roddenberry and play a variety of other characters in later generations of Star Trek. We also get a chance to meet a fleshed out Montgomery Scott, we learn of his confidence as an engineer and hear him say classic lines like "I can't change the laws of physics!" One thing that I forgot about when I watched this series for the first time several years ago, is that Captain Kirk is always logging no matter the circumstances. The Enterprise is plunging down to certain doom and Kirk is logging that they only have 19 minutes to live. Now I understand that the logging is necessary when writing for a television series to recap the audience after a commercial break, but when watching the series on Amazon Prime with no commercials it just ends up being funny.
Not every episode of Star Trek can be a winner and I find the best way to approach Star Trek is with the understanding that you need to dig through the mud to find the gold. This episode is certainly no gold. It is forgettable, cheesy, and the only cultural reference one usually finds concerning it has to do with a throw away line from Uhura. It's an episode about a virus that somehow ends with us traveling back in time before the episode even happened.
Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)
Command and Compassion is a Fool's Mixture
Stardate 1312.4 through 1313.8
Approximately 2265 AD
Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise intercept a distress signal from the ship S. S. Valiant which disappeared nearly 200 years prior. Upon finding the source of the signal it appears that all that is left of the S. S. Valiant is the blackbox which describes the disturbing events leading up to the ship's destruction. While in the same region that the blackbox was found the Enterprise encounters a mysterious radiation that seems to have killed several crew members, and affected the mental state of several others, including Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell.
Gary and Kirk have a long history together and their friendship runs deep. Gary develops significant psychic powers from the mysterious radiation which allow him to read minds, absorb huge amounts of information, and destroy or create anything he desires (see Episode 1.2 "Charlie X"). Sulu reveals to us that Gary's power doubles every single day and within a month he will have godlike powers. Spock fears that in not too much time Gary will view the crew in much the same way as the crew sees an insect, a mere nuisance. There are early warnings that Kirk must make a difficult decision regarding the fate of his close friend.
While "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is the third episode aired in the series, it is actually the second episode filmed. "The Cage" was the first Star Trek pilot pitched to the studio, but the studio saw "The Cage" as too cerebral for the average viewer so they allowed Roddenberry and gang to try a second pilot. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is the second pilot the studio requested and it contained all the dramatic and action packed elements they were looking for. I would argue it is a significantly better first episode than not only the first pilot "The Cage," but also the first episode that actually aired "The Man Trap."
I think William Shatner is underrated as an actual actor and that in large part has to do with some of the campier moments in the later Star Trek movies (pun intended). People tend to forget that Shatner is a formidable personality that appeared in some heavy dramas including one of my personal favorites, Stanley Kramer's "Judgement at Nuremberg'' (1961). That dramatic edge of Shatner's really shines in this episode as he does a very good job portraying the dark circumstances his character finds himself in and I found myself sympathizing with Kirk quite a bit here.
When the Enterprise arrives at the isolated planet near the end of the episode I was really surprised by the beautiful matte paintings depicting the planet. I've always been a big fan of matte backgrounds and this one stood out to me to be particularly elaborate and reminded me of other classic sci-fi films such as Haskin's "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" (1964).
As with the first season of just about any Trek series, the creators are still trying to find their footing and figure out just what this series is all about. However the building blocks are all there and we can see in this episode early glimmers of a legendary world being built.
Red Notice (2021)
Carried by the Cast
Red Notice is a film about the second greatest art thief, Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds), and his attempt to steal Cleopatra's (entirely fictional) three eggs. Nolan Booth is, of course, pursued by the intrepid FBI profiler John Hartley (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). And somewhere in the middle is the first greatest art thief known only as "The Bishop" (Gal Gadot) who tries to steal the eggs out from under the guys' noses.
The Bishop frames Hartley making the international police believe he is not actually a FBI agent but actually an art thief himself, which then lands Harltey in a Russian prison alongside Booth. This is where things get moderately confusing in terms of the narrative. Hartley is forced to work with Booth to not only escape this Russian prison, but to also work together to steal Cleopatra's other two eggs. Why a devoted FBI agent decides to work with a career criminal, and time and time again decide to side with Booth instead of the police is not really explained, or at least not very well, in the movie.
Confusing motivational narrative aside, it is a fun enough movie with lots of plans within plans within plans, and flashbacks from different perspectives which are pretty amusing. It is definitely a "star movie" where Ryan Reynolds plays Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson plays Dwayne Johnson, and Gal Godot plays Gal Godot. So if you are not a fan of any of these actors' antics from other movies then I would recommend you steer clear from this movie. I don't hate these actors so I managed to have a fun time watching Reynolds and Johnson play off each other throughout the movie.
The writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber, who worked with Dwayne Johnson at least two times previous in his films "Skyscraper" and "Central Intelligence," managed to weave a relatively complex narrative with lots of overlapping plans and timelines into a film that is easy to follow. I enjoyed how all the little things said and done earlier turn out to be significant later on in the film. There were more than a few references to previous classic films similar to this heist genre. I especially liked the underground car chase which was clearly inspired by "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
I'm not sure there was a lot more to the movie aside from some funny chemistry between the main three cast members put into different locales. There were certainly some twists and turns throughout, but by the time we got to the final two or three twists I wasn't all that surprised. I have no idea why Hartley "needs" to join up with Booth to steal the eggs, no clue why the eggs "need" to be stolen for this mysterious Egyption family in the first place nor do we know anything about this family aside from a throw away 1.5 minutes near the end. It's a funny movie made funny by the heavyweight actors but there was never any real sense of danger or surprise. If the cast was made up by less confident (or less famous) people I don't think I would remember anything about the movie.
Star Trek: Charlie X (1966)
Hang on Tight and Survive. Everybody Does
Stardate 1533.6 through 1535.8
Approximately 2266 AD
"Is that a girl?" asks Charlie when he sees a girl for the first time in his 17 year old life. This question should probably set off some alarms in Captain Kirk's head but of course if he knew something was wrong this early in the episode there wouldn't be as much drama. Kirk and crew just picked up a mysterious young man named Charlie from the cargo vessel Antares and has been tasked to transport him to colony Alpha V. The crew of the Antares found Charlie on planet Thasus where he was the sole survivor of an accident and, consequently, raised himself from age 3. Charlie claimed to have taught himself to speak from the crashed ship's memory and fed himself off of the food stores. We learn later that Mr. Spock does not believe this story.
Charlie quickly becomes infatuated with Youman Janice Rand (honestly though, who hasn't?) who makes it abundantly clear to Charlie that she is not interested. But Charlie insists, managing to know exactly what Janice's favorite things are and making them appear out of thin air. Turns out Charlie acquired psychic powers from the Thasusians which allow him to read thoughts(?), and make people and things appear and disappear.
While I am a big fan of Captain Kirk, I am moderately disappointed in Kirk as a captain in this episode. We learn early on that Charlie looks up to Kirk as a father figure, unfortunately for Charlie Kirk is a really bad father figure, at least he is in this episode. When Charlie asks Kirk about basic developmental things like, why is it bad to slap Janice Rand on the butt? Captain Kirk clams up and is utterly incapable of explaining important life lessons. This is actually kind of disconcerting considering Kirk is a captain of a starship that is home to 428 people. You would think that Kirk's basic duties are being a leader and father figure. Aside from not being nurturing to poor Charlie, captain Kirk can certainly be an authority, managing to subdue Charlie with his sweaty stare down on multiple occasions. This further lends to the idea that poor Charlie needs this kind of person in his life
The ending is actually kind of sad. Charlie is a 17 year old with the emotional maturity of a 3 year old. While he did an egregious crime halfway through the episode I can't help but feel bad for Charlie as he has never had the opportunity to develop and learn around real people. Unfortunately Captain Kirk's awkward attempts at being a father figure and inability to understand Charlie's developmental stage didn't really help. I suppose this character flaw in Kirk can be forgiven as this is a very early episode and the writers are still trying to figure out who this Kirk fellow is.
Star Trek: The Man Trap (1966)
You Bleed too Much, Bones
Stardate 1533.1
Approximately 2266 AD
As Kirk and crew approach planet M-113 for a routine medical check up on the husband and wife archeological crew, Nancy and Robert Crater, dispatched by the Federation 5 years earlier to study the planet's long dead ancient civilization, Captain Kirk and Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy discuss how 12 years earlier Bones and Nancy had an intense romance together. When the crew meets the marooned couple for the first time each member seems to see Nancy as a different woman that reminds them of past lovers. Soon after the first meeting the third member of the landing party, after running off alone with Nancy, is found dead with mysterious marks all over his face. Upon further investigation we learn that the dead crew member has had all the salt pulled out of his body by a mysterious force. This same mysterious force makes its way onto the Enterprise, compromising the rest of the Enterprise crew orbiting above in a manner that no doubt inspired the 1982 remake of "The Thing."
A few things that I don't entirely understand about this episode still lingers in my thoughts. Near the beginning Prof. Crater mentioned that they need salt tablets because they live on a desolate desert planet. Kirk replies, "we're well aware of the need for salt in these conditions." I must admit, I am not aware. Why is salt so obviously important? I know when I'm in desert-like conditions the last thing I typically want is salt. Is there some scientific truth to this that everybody knew about in the 60's that I am completely unaware of?
We eventually learn that this creature is capable of taking the shape of whatever it wants. Which confused me because in the beginning of the episode when the crew sees Nancy for the first time she appears to the third crew member to be a blonde woman, Bones saw her exactly the same way he remembered her from 12 years prior, and Kirk seems to have the only consistent vision of Nancy. But if the creature is capable of taking the shape of whoever it wants then why does each crew member see something else? I don't think they were implying that it is psychic in some way, but who knows.
This is a fun enough episode that does a pretty good job exploring some of the characters that we will eventually grow to love, and that's a good thing because this is actually the first Star Trek episode aired. Here we are introduced to Kirk and Bones and explore their friendship a little, back up on the enterprise we see learn that Spock does not have emotion and operates entirely off logic, which is unsettling to the feminen Uhura. We are introduced to Sulu where we meet him taking care of his alien plant life. Plus this is a relatively exciting episode where we get to see a lot of action and emotional turmoil, especially that of Bones in the climax.
We also see classic staples of Star Trekian moral conundrums. The overall theme being that this creature is simply trying to survive and requires salt to survive which is why it kills in the first place... why they can't just give it salt from the Enterprise food stores I don't know. I think we are supposed to take a sympathetic view on this creature, comparing it to the Buffalo from frontier America. But somehow killing this creature is absolutely necessary, and it's a decision that is made all the more difficult because the creature takes the shape of a loved one.
The script could have gone through a few more drafts before filming, I would have liked to see some of these inconsistencies cleaned up. But ultimately i think the point of the episode is more to explore Dr. Bones and introduce other primary characters like Spock and Uhura. I know it's a fan favorite, but it's certainly not my favorite.