Right! Well recently I have been watching alot of the old classic 1960's Star Trek episodes on Netflix so I figured I might aswell do a post on some of my favourite episodes of the series.
Now I'm not going to list these in any order of preference but more just give a list of the episodes that I have enjoyed the most but I will list them in chronological order and I will split the post into two parts so there will 10 in all and 5 episodes for each post.
So with that in mind let's set phasers on stun, beam down and find out what they are...
The Enemy Within (Episode 5 of Series 1)
Right my first on this list is The Enemy Within, which is a somewhat unique episode as it shows the darker side of Captain Kirk's personality and allows William Shatner to play the part differently.
The plot to summarise it briefly sees James T. Kirk beam back onboard during a geological exploration however the transporter appears to malfunction and a second version of Kirk is beamed aboard, who is highly malevolent and aggressive nature. And the "evil" Kirk begins to wander the ship and he assaults one of the female officers, Yeoman Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) who scratches his face, however the evil Kirk somehow does manage to fool the other officers but he is soon captured. However things soon turn out to be far from simple as the evil Kirk has the more decisive and commanding qualities of Kirk's personality, which soon leaves the original Kirk feeling undecisive in his job as the captain and they must find a way for Kirk to reconcile himself and rid the ship of his evil counterpart.
This is an early favourite episode of mine from the series as it does show that Bill Shatner could play a darker version of Kirk and it provided the show with something a bit different in the process. It also has some memorable moments too and the one that stands out the most is when the evil Kirk overhears Kirk saying that he is the captain and not him and the evil Kirk yells "I'm Captain Kirk! I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!!!".
The episode also has a fairly poignant end where the evil Kirk eventually realises that he must reconcile back into Kirk's own body so that Kirk himself can function as a whole again. So its definitely one that's worth a watch.
Space Seed (Episode 22 of Series 1)
Well there is no getting away from this one as "Space Seed" was the episode that inspired the franchise's most successful film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which saw the return of one of the series most memorable villains in Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban).
The story of the episode itself sees the Enterprise crew find a derelict spacecraft, SS Botany Bay floating in space, and the ship itself was launched from Earth in the 1990s. The Enterprise crew board it to find a cargo of 84 humans of which there are 72 alive in suspended animation for what has been nearly 200 years. However the group's leader, Khan, is soon awakened and taken onboard the Enterprise where he soon get's involved in a power struggle with Kirk as Khan is intent on taking control of the Enterprise.....
There is not much doubt this is one of the best episdoes of the series and it stands out as a real classic in the show and it is helped along immeasurably by Ricardo Montalban's charismatic performance as Khan. The power struggle between Kirk and Khan also makes it a fascinating episode in itself and I would have to say its only real flaw is the rather dodgy stunt double work during Kirk's climactic fight scene with Khan as you can clearly its just two stunt actors wearing wigs during the fight!
But if you can forgive that then Space Seed is still a great Star Trek episode and it rightly remains as one of the very best from the original series, which would later into the film series best film in Star Trek II.
This Side of Paradise (Episode 24 of Series 1)
Next is another episode from the first series, This Side of Paradise, which is again something of a departure as here we get to see the romantic side of Spock come to the fore after he is exposed to spores on a strange planet.
And to briefly sum up the story, the Enterprise crew beam down to Omicron Ceti III, which is a paradise like planet that is surrounded by plant life and was thought to have been contaminated by radiation, however they find the inhabitants alive and well. And during their time, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) encounters a woman from his past, Leila Kalomi (Jill Ireland) who says she will show him how her people survived but she then takes him to some strange plants, which shoot out spores than cause Spock to become emotional and this causes him to fall in love with Leila. Spock and Leila under the influence of the spores, soon bring the plants back to the away team and expose them to the spores and they are all too are affected by them, with the exception of Kirk, who becomes intent on finding a way to get his crew back on his side and Spock....
This was actually one of the more emotional and poignant episodes of the series and it succeeds really well thanks in part to the concept of Spock falling in love and becoming emotional, which even allows for some moments of humour for Nimoy. And the most notable moment is in the scene where we see Spock dangling nonchalantly from a tree to impress Leila, only for him to be confronted by an irritated Kirk who Spock refuses to obey.
And the episode has quite a touching moment between Spock and Leila when Kirk (SPOILER!) manages to get Spock to overcome the effects of the spores by making him angry and then later Spock tells Leila he can't be with her. And Leila too then feels the effects of the spores wear off her and she pleads for Spock to stay with her but he refuses and as they hug for the last time she asks him what his first name is and he smiles faintly and touches her face gently and says "You couldn't pronounce it". And the episode also finishes with Spock back to his normal logical state saying how his experience on the planet was the only time in his life he was happy.
So "This side of paradise" is an ambitious episode and works really well and it succeeds in being both a touching love story and as a piece of sci-fi telefantasy.
The Devil in the Dark (Episode 25, Series 1)
Next up is the very next episode of the first series, The Devil in the Dark, which has been cited as William Shatner's favourite episode of the original series and with good reason as it really is one of the best in the series.
The episode's story itself sees Kirk, Spock and Dr McCoy (DeForrest Kelly) beam down to the planet Janus IV to help a colony who have attacked by a creature that has killed 50 miners and destroyed their equipment. Not long after they have arrived there is another death as the guard of the main nuclear reactor is killed and the main circulation pump is stolen. Kirk and the others soon encounter the creature and find it is a silicon based lifeform and it has the appearance of molten rock and Kirk uses his phaser to cut a bit off it, which Spock analyses to confirm this. Spock argues however that killing creature would be a crime against science as it may be the only one of its kind but Kirk insists in the meantime it must be destroyed. But as the episode progresses things take a different turn as the Kirk, Spock and McCoy find that the creature, named the Horta, is not all what it seems.
This is another excellent episode, which is very well written and it starts off with the somewhat sinister feel of a monster story but it soon turns into something else as it progresses. And as the story does progress we soon discover that the Horta (SPOILER!) is in fact not really a monster but a scared mother who wants to protect her eggs, which the humans had found and discarded as they thought them to be worthless silicon nodules.
The story also features another use of Spock's mind meld as he makes contact with the creature he gets inside its mind and understands why it attacked the men and it provides some excellent moments from Nimoy. And the story also even manages to end on a happy note where (SPOILER!!) then humans and the Horta agree to live together in harmony as the Horta even aid the humans in their digging for valuable rock deposits. And at the end of the episode we have an amusing moment where Spock tells the others how during his mind meld with the Horta that it found his pointed Vulcan ears attractive!
So for me, The Devil in the Dark is definitely one of my favourites of the original series and well worth putting in the list.
Amok Time (Episode 1, Series 2)
And lastly for Part 1 on this list is Amok Time, which features another first in the series as we get to see Spock endure a Vulcan male condition called Pon Farr, as well as to be the only episode to depict Spock's home planet of Vulcan.
As for the story itself it starts with Spock showing signs of irrational behaviour as he requests to take vacation time and be allowed to go Vulcan. Kirk does agree to Spock's request but by the way enroute to the planet Altair IV first, however Spock unbeknownst to Kirk soon changes the heading and sets the Enterprise on course for Vulcan. Kirk soon confronts Spock over why he changed course, who is at first reluctant but soon reveals he is suffering from a condition known as Pon Farr, which adult Vulcans endure and can cause violent urges and that he must mate or die. McCoy soon backs this up after undergoing a series of tests with Spock as he tells Kirk that Spock's hormones will kill him in seven or eight days unless they get him to Vulcan. Kirk then requests Starfleet command to change course but they refuse, so Kirk decides to change course to Vulcan anyway in order to save Spock's life.....
Amok Time is definitely another classic episode which is well worth checking as it once again delves deeper into the cultural background of the Vulcan people and again we see another side of Spock that we haven't seen before up until now. Spock's irrational behaviour also provides some moments of amusement such as at the start where Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett) tries to bring him some Vulcan soup but we soon see the plate hurtling through his door and smash against a wall!
The episode also makes clever use of the brutal Vulcan mating rituals which involve Spock having to fight for the woman he is to marry and in the story, Kirk is chosen as the man Spock has to fight but does have the choice to turn down but instead he accepts as he is to duel with Spock to the death. And in the battle scene (SPOILER!!!) Spock appears to have killed Kirk only for us later to find out that McCoy simulated Spock's death with the use of a neural paralyser he administers him during Kirk's fight with Spock.
And this later on cures Spock's urges to mate as once he believes he has killed the Captain he goes back to the Enterprise and is about to surrender himself for courtmartial for killing Kirk when he sees Kirk, alive and well stand behind him. And in the scene Spock shows a rare bit of emotion as he is suddenly very happy to see Kirk and he grabs hold of him happily and shouts "JIM!" but then recomposes himself as he notices the reactions from McCoy and Nurse Chapel.
And this brings up a funny exchange between Spock and McCoy where McCoy says to Spock "There's just one thing, Mister Spock. You can't tell me
that when you first saw Jim alive that you weren't on the verge of giving us an
emotional scene that would have brought the house down!". And Spock, rationally as he can says "Merely my quite logical relief that Starfleet had not
lost a highly proficient captain". And as Spock and Kirk are about to leave, McCoy says to Spock "Of course, Mr Spock, your reaction was quite logical" and Spock says "Thank you, Doctor" and as they are about to finally go, McCoy says "In a pig's eye!" which prompts Kirk to awkwardly smile and say "Come on, Spock. Let's go mind the store".
So for me, Amok Time is easily one of the best episodes of the series and as such one of my favourites from the original series.
Right, so that's it for part one and I will be back soon with part 2....
Till then live long and....ochh you know what I mean!
No comments:
Post a Comment