Archive for May, 2009

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The Galileo Seven”

– May 28, 2009 5:22 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“The Galileo Seven”
Written by Oliver Crawford and S. Bar-David
(story by Oliver Crawford)
Directed by Robert Gist

Season 1, Episode 16
Production episode: 1×13
Original air date: January 5, 1967
Star date: 2821.5

Mission summary

The Enterprise is enroute to the New Paris colony on Makus III to deliver medical supplies to victims of an ongoing plague, when Captain Kirk gets distracted by a shiny quasar, Murasaki 321. Galactic High Commissioner Ferris, a grumpy officer in fancy duds, objects to stopping to investigate, but Kirk insists his mission includes scientific study of cosmic phenomenon. They dispatch shuttlecraft 7, the Galileo, to take a closer look with seven crew members on board: Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott, Lieutenant Boma, Mr. Gaetano, Mr. Latimer, and Yeoman Mears. It shouldn’t take long to get some readings and return to the ship and resume their journey to Makus III.

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Tags: emotion, Galileo, giant props, logic, monkeymen, rocks, Scotty works a miracle, shuttle

Star Trek Re-Watch: “Shore Leave”

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– May 27, 2009 5:12 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“Shore Leave”
Written by Theodore Sturgeon
Directed by Robert Sparr

Season 1, Episode 15
Production episode: 1×17
Original air date: December 29, 1966
Star date: 3025.3

Mission summary
The Enterprise stumbles upon a lush paradise planet, green and peaceful. Aside from strangely lacking in any animals or other life forms, the planet is reminiscent of Earth. Since the ship’s crew has had a grueling three months, Kirk agrees to survey the place as a possible site for shore leave, which is a little mysterious since there’s absolutely nothing to do down there. I guess there’s no Risa yet. Sulu and McCoy beam down to take some readings, and everything seems to check out…just a little bit too well. “It’s like something out of Alice in Wonderland,” McCoy remarks.

Then, out of nowhere, a huge white rabbit appears, checking its gold watch. “I’m late!” he cries, and runs off. The rabbit is followed by a little girl in blue. McCoy looks absolutely terrified.

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Tags: half-naked man-wrestling, space douches, space hussies

Star Trek Re-Watch: “Balance of Terror”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– May 21, 2009 5:02 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“Balance of Terror”
Written by Paul Schneider
Directed by Vincent McEveety

Season 1, Episode 14
Production episode: 1×09
Original air date: December 15, 1966
Star date: 1709.2

Mission summary
Captain Kirk is presiding over a non-denominational wedding ceremony of two members of his crew when an emergency calls him back to the bridge. There’s no time for romance on the Enterprise, at least not while Earth Outpost 4 is being attacked by an unknown vessel. Kirk orders condition red and the ship warps to the rescue.

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Tags: plasma thingeys, prejudice, romulans, Ships, space wedding, submarines, weird paint jobs, when in rome

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The Conscience of the King”

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– May 19, 2009 4:53 pmPosted in: Favorites, TOS Re-Watch

“The Conscience of the King”
Written by Barry Trivers
Directed by Gerd Oswald

Season 1, Episode 13
Production episode: 1×12
Original air date: December 8, 1966
Star date: 2817.6

Mission summary
This week on Masterpiece Theater… Shakespeare’s Macbeth! We get a play within a play with this episode as Kirk and a Dr. Thomas Leighton quietly watch Anton Karidian ask, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hands?” (Answer: Umm, no.) Dr. Leighton is convinced that the man is actually “Kodos the Executioner,” a former governor of the Earth colony Tarsus IV who ordered the execution of 4000 individuals nearly 20 years ago. Leighton, under the pretense of having invented a synthetic food that could end famine on a nearby colony, has invited Kirk to the performance to prove his theory.

Kirk, furious at being duped, assures Leighton that Kodos is dead—his charred body was discovered after the massacre. It was never positively identified, but he’s definitely totally 100% dead…isn’t he? Leighton pleads with Kirk, the two of them being only a handful of people who ever actually saw Kodos, to expose Karidian for who he really is. Kirk firmly tells him this is nonsense and returns to the ship.

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Tags: conscience of the king, crazy ladies, hamlet, i love hamlet, macbeth, murder, shakespeare, tragedians, validation through literature, vengeance

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The Menagerie” Part II

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– May 14, 2009 4:47 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“The Menagerie” Part II
Written by Gene Roddenberry
Directed by Robert Butler

Season 1, Episode 12
Production episode: 1×16
Original air date: November 24, 1966
Star date: 3013.1

Mission summary
The episode begins with an unusually lengthy Captain’s Log entry, recapping the incredible events of the previous episode. Then we dive back into Spock’s court-martial, now in closed session with just Kirk, Spock, Commodore Mendez, and Captain Pike in attendance. Just like Heroes, there’s no way to block the Talosian images, and no one thinks to just turn off the monitor.

Onscreen, the younger Captain Pike awakens in an episode of The Twilight Zone, inside a glass cage with hypercephalic beings studying him. They speak about him telepathically, analyzing his thoughts and predicting his actions. They say he will throw himself against the “transparency” in a “display of physical prowess,” just before he does. Pike speaks to them, insisting he’ll find a way to escape, but they ignore him as though he were a dumb creature and begin planning some experiments on him.

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Tags: big heads, breeding, court-martial, emotional Spock, have fun storming the castle!, illusions, Orion slave women

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The Menagerie” Part I

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– May 12, 2009 4:40 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“The Menagerie” Part I
Written by Gene Roddenberry
Directed by Marc Daniels

Season 1, Episode 11
Production episode: 1×15
Original air date: November 17, 1966
Star date: 3012.4

Mission summary
The Enterprise is diverted to Starbase 11 after supposedly receiving a request from Fleet Captain Christopher Pike, the previous captain of the Enterprise and Spock’s former commander. But when Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down, Commodore Mendez informs them that such a transmission was never sent. In fact, it’s impossible for Captain Pike to send any messages, as he was recently the victim of a terrible accident that exposed him to dangerous delta rays. Instead of gaining amazing new superpowers, he was paralyzed and deformed. Pike is now restricted to a wheelchair, his communication limited to blinking lights that signal “yes” and “no.”

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Tags: big heads, court-martial, emotional Spock, hangnails, illusions, loyalty

Star Trek Re-Watch: “The Corbomite Maneuver”

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– May 7, 2009 4:34 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“The Corbomite Maneuver”
Written by Jerry Sohl
Directed by Joseph Sargent

Season 1, Episode 109
Production episode: 1×02
Original air date: November 10, 1966
Star date: 1512.2

Mission Summary
The Enterprise, gloriously star-mapping previously uncharted space, is approached by a strange object: a cube. The mysterious cube blocks the Enterprise’s path, and Spock, currently in command, tries to out-maneuver it (to no avail). He alerts Kirk, who had been otherwise gratuitously shirtless for a physical exam, back to the bridge.

Unable to hail it, communicate with it, or dodge it, the Enterprise remains stuck for eighteen hours. Kirk convenes a meeting of the bridge crew but they are unable to determine its nature or intent. Spock guesses that the cube is one of two things: some kind of space buoy, or flypaper.

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Tags: bones being awesome, bravado, child-like aliens, corbomite, evil geometry, machismo, space douches, spock being kind of a jerk

Star Trek Re-Watch: “Dagger of the Mind”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– May 5, 2009 4:20 pmPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“Dagger of the Mind”
Written by S. Bar-David
Directed by Vincent McEeevy

Season 1, Episode 9
Production episode: 1×10
Original air date: November 3, 1966
Star date: 2715.1

Mission summary
After the Enterprise boldly goes to the penal colony on Tantalus V to deliver cargo, a man-sized box of research materials is transported to the ship for their next mail run. While the engineering technician has his back turned in the transporter room, a crazed and sweaty man emerges from the cardboard box like some horrible surprise at a bachelorette party, tiptoes around the console, then knocks out the hapless tech. He exchanges his prison garb for the tech’s more stylish red jumpsuit and attempts to blend in with the rest of the crew, which is only slightly less sweaty than he is. After the Enterprise leaves Tantalus, they receive a message from the colony: one of their prisoners has escaped! They suspect he was in the unnecessarily large box that was beamed to the Enterprise, and warn that he is “potentially violent.”

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