The Star Trek TOS Project – Week 13 ( star trek original series )

An on-going series of Star Trek Original Series episode reviews

Hi, I’m Sue.  I all about that space, ’bout that space – no tribble.  And I am an Anomaly.

I was on another episode of All Things Trek recently –  #165 TOS Troubles – along with Andi, better knows as First Time Trekker, as well as regular hosts Oren, Deyvid, and Grace.  We talked a lot of about Season 2, specifically the more problematic aspects of it.  Fair warning – that episode gets real.

3×01 Spock’s Brain
Summary:  A society of women steal Spock’s brain to power the computer that maintains their underground civilization and protects them from the savage men who live on the surface of their planet.  Somehow, Spock does not immediately die, and Kirk and McCoy must got on a mission to find and reconnect his brain.
Thoughts:  Nope.  Uh-uh.  Shut it down.  I wanted to simultaneously vomit, punch things, and fix Scotty’s hair.  But, there are so many issues that I can’t/won’t even write about the, just to save my own sanity and frustration.  The good parts?  The end credits, because it was finally over.

3×02  The Enterprise Incident
Summary:  Kirk is acting like a jerk, and decides to order the Enterprise to cross into the Neutral Zone, without any orders from Starfleet.  Immediately, they are surrounded by a Romulan fleet (who are now using the same ship design as the Klingons, FYI).  Turns out, it’s all a rouse to steal a cloaking device.
Thoughts:  Booring.  I mean, I’ve seen enough of this type of episode of every show to know that Kirk and Spock and really acting on secret orders, etc etc.  It does make me uncomfortable, though, that Starfleet is ordering theft.  Espionage, sure.  But theft?  And, of course, the Romulan Commander is so distracted by Spock that Kirk can easily steal the cloak, NBD.  Ugh.  The best part of this episode was her fashion sense, though.  I would not be surprised to see something similar to either of her dressing on Project Runway.  In fact, I think I have.

3×03  The Paradise Syndrome
Summary:  The Enterprise is on a mission to stop an asteroid from hitting a planet (inhabited by a culture similar to Native Americans), when Kirk’s memory is erased by a 2001-esque obelisk.  Alone on the planet, his is taken in by the tribe, thought to be a god, and marries the princess.  Spock tries to solve the asteroid problem by himself.
Thoughts:  To be honest, when I saw that this whole planet was based on Native American culture, I was expecting problems to the point of Disney’s Peter Pan.  Fortunately, it was not that bad (but I wouldn’t call it good, necessarily.)  I like the idea of “The Preservers”, and the explanation of why there are so many humanoids in the galaxy.  But I also like TNG’s “The Chase” a lot, which is similar in that sense.  (Apparently, Ron Moore said that the aliens in “The Chase” could be The Preservers, but he purposely left it unclear.) I also like that the obelisk “speaks” in musical frequencies.  Unrelated: McCoy references, specifically, “The Tahiti Syndrome”.  Does that mean that Coulson’s trip to “Tahiti” on Agents of SHIELD is a Star Trek reference?

3×04  And the Children Shall Lead
Summary: The Enterprise picks up a distress call from a Federation outpost, and the landing party beams down to find all the adults dead and the children showing no emotion at all, which is weird.  Turns out they are under the control of an alien, whom they call a “friendly angel,” and the kids, in turn, can mind-control the crew.  Kirk must find a way to snap everyone out of it.
Thoughts:  Though not as problematic as some other episodes, this is still pretty darn bad.  I’m still not totally sure what the goal of the “angel” was, or what was going on, really.  The take-away?  Children are creepy.  Especially when they start chanting.  Oof.

Yep, only 4 episode this week.  And, FYI, next weekend is New York Comic Con, so there may be even fewer episodes in next week’s post.  Although, NYCC doesn’t go all night like Dragon Con does – the show floor closes around 8pm every night, so we’ll see.  Anyway, until net time…  brain and brain.  What is brain?!

~s