Ep. 23 A Taste of Armageddon

The Enterprise goes on a diplomatic mission, but is warned away from the planet. Kirk, Spock, and a small landing party beam down anyway, and are told that the Enterprise has been destroyed in their war, fought on computers, and the crew must report to disintegration chambers to die. Kirk refuses, and is locked up. The planet first tries using Kirk's voice to get the crew down, then fires on the ship, then tries to trick the ship into lowering its shields. None of that works, of course, thanks to Scotty, though the ambassador does manage to beam down. On the planet, Kirk escapes, then is recaptured, before freeing himself and destroying the war computer, making the other planet in the battle think that the first one would begin attacking for real, escalating the war.

This was a fantastic episode, don't get me wrong. It was an intriguing, dramatic story with some great acting. Removing the horror of war, war wages indefinitely. Cool concept, beautifully executed. That being said, this episode had more plot holes than just about any other I have seen. Another starship went missing, as one did in the last episode, and the Enterprise finally goes to investigate, though that is not their primary mission. Does Starfleet not care about their missing ships? A century later there was a massive hunt for Voyager, but in this time, they only have a ship check it out if they happen to be in the area? Really? What was up with Spock using telepathy through a wall to convince a guard to come inside? He never did that again that I can remember! That is one handy skill. How come he didn't reuse it? I also don't understand why Spock and Kirk attacked the disintegration chamber instead of sending the security guard they had with them. Why else would security go if not to engage in offensive or defensive procedures? And since when can the Enterprise not use full phaser power with the shields up? That seriously hinders their ability to fight. Weird. Then Fox left the bridge after giving a few orders, in the middle of the crisis. That made no sense. And why did Kirk set out through the base by himself instead of taking Spock and the security guards with him? Not that I have only complaints. Kudos to Scotty, however, figuring out the plan and thwarting it. That was by far the coolest thing he has done so far in the series. Yay for Bones for backing him up. It was thrilling to see the ship without the two main characters still functioning heroically with the third and fourth in command in charge. And overall, as I said before, fantastic episode.

RECURRING CHARACTERS:
DeForrest Kelley as McCoy
James Doohan as Scotty
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Sean Kenney as DePaul
David L. Ross as Lt. Galloway

NOTABLE GUEST STARS:
Gene Lyons as Ambassador Fox
David Opatoshu as Anan 7
Barbara Babcock as Mea 3

Quote:
"Sir, there is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder." ~ Spock, distracting the guard

Ep. 19 Arena

Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the landing party find a destroyed outpost, and are almost immediately attacked. The alien ship flees, and the landing party beams up and gives chase, discovering that the outpost was a trap, with the goal being to destroy the Enterprise. A mysterious Metron stops both ships cold, deciding to pit the enemy captains in a hand to hand battle to the death instead of allowing the ships to fight in their space. The winner of the battle gets to leave, the loser's ship is destroyed. Once the Gorn talks to Kirk, it is realized that the outpost may have been Gorn territory first, and perhaps Starfleet was in the wrong this time, humanizing the reptilian monster. Eventually, with the crew watching, Kirk makes gun powder, shoots diamonds, and defeats the Gorn, but refuses to kill him, convincing the Metrons to let both ships go, noble to a fault.

This episode established that you can't beam through shields. I was very disappointed that the Gorn's ship was never shown. I'm sure it was for budget reasons, but the Enterprise fought it, for goodness sake! It is episodes like this when you can see why Kirk became the youngest captain in the fleet. He's smart, he's tough, and he always beats the odds. Is that the crippled Captain Pike on the bridge? It is! How did he get better and become a Lieutenant? Is it a conspiracy? The Gorn captain is a memorable character, despite not talking, and that also takes skill, especially because the costume was a bit cheesy. The look on his face (sort of) as the boulder rolled towards him was great. I liked this episode, really. A simple battle of wits and strength testing the hero, Kirk.

RECURRING CHARACTERS:
DeForrest Kelley as McCoy
James Doohan as Scotty
George Takei as Sulu
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Grant Woods as Kelowitz
Sean Kenney as Lt. DePaul

NOTABLE GUEST STARS:
Bobby Clark and Gary Combs as the Gorn
Ted Cassidy as the Gorn voice

Quote:
"We'll either catch them or we'll blow up, Captain." ~ Scotty

Ep. 16 The Menagerie Parts I & II

Spock kidnaps his former captain, Pike, who has been seriously wounded, and hijacks the Enterprise to take Pike to Talos IV, an act that will condemn Spock to death. Kirk and Commodore Mendez chase Spock down, and he is forced to slow to pick them up or let them die when their shuttle runs out of power. Spock saves them and surrenders to McCoy for the charge of mutiny, triggering his court martial, but leaves the Enterprise on his automatic program to continue to Talos IV. During Spock's trial he plays a mysterious tape from an unknown source on Talos, showing Pike's mission to the planet years ago, which included a younger Spock serving on the ship. During that mission, Pike was captured as a mate for another human, Vina, by a superior species. They could make Vina look any way they want, and make Pike's fantasies comes true. When it is discovered where the evidence is coming from, Kirk is relieved of command and both Spock and Kirk face the death penalty. Spock is trying to return Pike now that he is an invalid so he can live out the rest of days in happiness. It turned out that Mendez was never on board, and the court martial was merely a distraction until Pike was able to get to the planet, so it all ended happily, without Spock being punished, and Pike living out a fantasy life.

This was the only two part episode of the original series, though it is only listed by one episode number in the episode guide because that was how it was budgeted, due to use of old footage. It is a little odd because Kirk was just tried for court martial in the last episode, and tampered records were involved again. But this episode was so different that it can be forgiven. Not many shows make two completely different pilots, but only Star Trek continued the original pilot canon, in large part because much footage from the original pilot was used in this two parter so that the studio didn't feel that it had thrown away money on the original episode. It was a good thing that Chapel wasn't in this episode because she was playing Number One on Pike's ship and the computer voice, and having a third character might have been chaos. It is interesting that Pike only had about two hundred crew on the Enterprise in his day, when Kirk had over twice that many on the same ship a few years later. It is also weird when Spock smiles, Roddenberry not having decided that Vulcans would not show emotion when he made the original pilot. It was also a bit odd that the fake Mendez was never swayed in Spock's guilt, while the real Mendez, seeing the evidence, absolved Spock. I just wonder if the Pike / Vina happy ending was pre-filmed, or if they tried to recreate it for this episode. It had to have been pre-filmed, as Jeffrey Hunter wasn't available to play Pike again. Whatever. It was good.

Despite some glaring differences, I love the original pilot, and this was a very clever way to use it in the series. When "The Menagerie" was first aired, no one had seen the original pilot, so this would have been very interesting, finding out more of Spock's history. Both hours were compelling, and it was a successful experiment. It is no wonder that many choose this episode as one of the best, and it was released at select movie theaters last year. The framing story was engaging, and the idea of living in an illusion is intriguing.

RECURRING CHARACTERS:
DeForrest Kelley as McCoy
James Doohan as Scotty
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Hagan Beggs as Mr. Hansen

NOTABLE GUEST STARS:
Malachi Throne as Commodore Jose Mendez
Sean Kenney as Captain Christopher Pike (injured)
Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike (evidence footage)
Susan Oliver as Vina
Meg Wyllie as The Keeper
Majel Barrett (credited M. Leigh Hudec) as Number One
John Hoyt as Dr. Phillip Boyce
Peter Duryea as Jose Tyler
Laurel Goodwin as Yeoman Colt

Quote:
"Mr. Spock is, um, under arrest. Is confinement to quarters enough?"
"Adequate, Doctor." ~ McCoy and Spock