Author: robert

A subtle call back to the first episode here, with the Enterprise doing another check of remote scientists. The ‘comedy old people’ bit gets old. Yes, we get it: old people are cranky and have arthritis. I thought the makeup was pretty good for the time, and it was a nice touch to have the…

The return of the Klingons. And another example of ‘what Prime Directive’, although with a bit more justification than in most instances here. This episode’s moral has actually improved a bit. The idea of the difficulties of obeying a culture’s rules at the expense of your own is something that has become more important in…

Spock gets a family, and unlike Kirk’s relatives last season these ones get to live. While the episode was a lot of fun, I had some problems with the premise. Why would you cram a starship full of disputing delegations – surely a few different starships are the way to go here. Still, the overall…

Another episode with an important later tie-in, with Zefram Cochrane making his first appearance. He’ll be back in the movie First Contact. He must have aged in a pretty strange way, judging from the later movie. Also, I look forward to some eventual explanation as to why he was described as “Zefram Cochrane of Alpha…

So, what was the first protagonist to recur on Star Trek? The Romulans? No. The Kinglons? No. The Mirror Universe? No. Nope, none of those, or any other of the protagonists from the good episode. No, it’s Harry Mudd. Star of what I thought was the worst episode of Season 1. Again, this episode is…

I was not previously aware that Star Trek had done a Halloween episode. All things considered, I think I preferred it when I didn’t know. I couldn’t shake the impression that the genesis of this episode was simply in ‘hey, why don’t we have a halloween episode’, rather than any of the other plot points.…

Star Trek so far hasn’t been quite as ‘preachy’ in its messages as later shows. This, however, was a bit of an exception. The ‘nuclear weapons are bad’ bit was way too direct. And a little nonsensical – there doesn’t seem to be a lot of connection in my mind between nuclear weapons and autonomous…

One thing they never really show in Star Trek is the sexual harassment contact officer. It must be a full time position on Kirk’s enterprise, with Mr Chekhov off for the compulsory class this week.[^1] Once again, Kirk shows a complete disregard of the Prime Directive. I wonder why the writers even came up with…

A Star Trek episode so iconic that it has entered into common usage. Everyone knows that your evil universe counterpart [has a beard](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeardOfEvil). Again, the episode gives Kirk a chance for some good acting, with his brief appearance as the mirror universe Kirk. There’s also an opportunity for a lot of interesting work from the…

Ah, the good old ‘talk the all powerful computer into a logical inconsistency’ ploy. Pretty sure we have Isaac Asimov to blame for that one. If I remember the first Star Trek movie properly, it’s a bit of a plot hole there that this episode never gets mentioned there. Oh, we’re facing an earth probe…