Ep. 28 The City on the Edge of Forever

After McCoy accidentally injects himself, he escapes to a strange planet and flees back in time to 1930's Earth through the Guardian of Forever. In the past, he saves a woman named Edith Keeler, destroying history. Kirk and Spock are mercifully protected from the time ripple by their nearness to the Guardian, and so follow him. Kirk falls in love with Edith, but allows her to die to fix history.

Arguably the best episode of the series, it does have all the most important recurring characters, even if they are barely used. It is written by a genius of the science fiction world, and has a very compelling, human story to it. It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1968, fully deserved. It also won the Writer's Guild of America Award. The only slightly cheesy part was Edith's death. I love it, and I dare anyone to watch it and not. I won't write a big long review on this one because most people have seen it, and I'd honestly rather let it speak for itself. WATCH IT!!!

RECURRING CHARACTERS:
DeForrest Kelley as McCoy
James Doohan as Scotty
George Takei as Sulu
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
John Winston as Kyle
Michael Barrier as DeSalle
David L. Ross as Galloway

NOTABLE GUEST STARS:
Joan Collins as Edith Keeler

Quote:
"I think I like this century. Simple. Easier to manage. I think we're not going to have any difficulty explaining... "
"...you were saying you'd have no trouble explaining it."
"My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain."
"Perhaps the unfortunate accident I has a child..."
"The unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical rice picker." ~ Kirk and Spock

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. 12 Miri

The crew finds a duplicate Earth, circa 1960-ish, although everyone appeared to have died off then, which was about three hundred years ago in the time line. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Rand, and their red shirts find a society of children, onlies, afraid of adults, grups, who died off. But how are there still children 300 years later? Because they only age a month every century! Of course the landing party gets sick, and begins to die, too. It was ok.

It was a message episode, about what violence does to us, and what danger lies in playing with science we don't understand. I did think it creepy when Kirk hit on Miri, or so it seemed when he told her she was 'very pretty' and he liked her name. Yes, she was over 300 years old, but physically she was ten. I don't think they intended it to be sexual, but that's how it came across to me, and it turned my stomach. And I still miss Scotty and Sulu.

RECURRING CHARACTERS:
DeForrest Kelley as McCoy
Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand
Jim Goodwin as Farrell
David L. Ross as Lt. Galloway

NOTABLE GUEST STARS:
Kim Darby as Miri
Michael J. Pollard as Jahn

Quote:
"Back on the ship I used to try to get you to look at my legs. Captain, look at my legs." ~ Rand