Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Yeah, I like the weird bleak tone, something I wish the show did a bit more from time to time.
His singing was a duke-trastrophe
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Star Trek Blind! -- The Original Series
- Thread starter Isrieri
- Start date
Isrieri
My father told me this would happen
ep 78 – "The Savage Curtain" (★)
Yes. Yes. This is the one that broke me. I liked The Way to Eden more. Yes. Yes. I know.
Everything about this rubs me in places I don't appreciate. The only thing I could think was "This show has done lost it's damn mind." Now, the intro was fun. Abraham Lincoln is out there sitting in a chair floating in space and, yes, no one for even a moment thinks that its the man himself. But we go along with it and invite him aboard and there's a cute little ceremony and we get to explain to him all the cool gadgets we've developed in the last five centuries. Pure fan fiction. But once you get past your bewilderment, we actually beam down to the planet. There it just becomes absolute horseshit of the highest order. For also on the planet, aside from Surak the vulcan we see four great villians of history. Kahless the Unforgettable, Colonel Green of WWIII, Genghis Khan....excuse me what? Genghis khan?! WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?!?! And then they fight. Sure, lets just get vulcan jesus and the 16th president of the united states (is there even a U.S left on earth?) and we can crouch behind rocks and throw sticks at each other. Its an insult! I don't think genghis khan even has a single line of dialogue. I just don't understand what the hell they were thinking. Maybe it was meant to be a silly episode all in good fun but its.... like.... like okay listen:
Surak refuses to fight because this is literally pointless carnage, but also because he refuses to hurt anyone on principle. So he goes to the villains to talk to them. Now the impression that I get of Surak, having been the father of vulcan's philosophy of logic over emotion, is that he is a great diplomat and negotiator. So what does he say to them?
"If you accept the solution I offer, the others will agree to it." says Surak.
"No one talks peace unless they can back it up with war." says Green.
"He talks peace if it is the only way to live."
"Then tell me what we have to gain."
"Your life and the lives of the others."
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. WHAT IS THIS. WHERE ARE WE. Ask HIM what they gain by fighting each other! What did the rock monsters promise them? Are they gonna bust off of the planet with wooden spears and slings?! This whole thing is a test by the rock monsters to see....uh....hm. Which is stronger, good or evil?? Yes, and they propose to test these philosophies by making them fight to the death.
Abraham Lincoln gets speared in the back trying to rescue a dead Surak. Nothing was learned and the enterprise's time was wasted.
ep 79 – "All Our Yesterdays" (★★★)
A library of ages, chronicling all of your planet's history, and a portal to take you there. I'd be over the moon.
Kirk, Spock, & McCoy beam down to a planet right before it's star is about to go supernova. I forget why but I presume its to rescue the remaining population of the planet. Well there is one man left, the librarian Mr. Atoz. He keeps the books and has saved what remained of his people by thrusting them back through time into the old ages of their history. Through a muddled misunderstanding, Kirk and co unwittingly travel into the planets past and trap themselves, each with its own peril. I think the highlight here is Spock, who meets Zarabeth, a political prisoner who was exiled to a frigid and desolate ice age. Although she is able to fend for herself she is doomed to a life of solitude. Thus she's intrigued and overjoyed when she finds Spock & McCoy, her first and last companions. She tells Spock that the portal readjusts people on a molecular level to live in the time they are sent. You can go in, but you can't come back. Spock, analytical as always, knows now that there is no going back, and reluctantly acquiesces. That reluctance seems to melt away as he falls for Zarabeth (I fell for her too!) and begins to adjust to a more simple life.
Meanwhile McCoy, in his most insufferable performance yet, is unabashedly sexist. He accuses Zarabeth of hiding the truth and trying to trick he and Spock just so that she would not be lonely. Not only is he wrong as we learn from Kirk's perspective, Zarabeth was not given all the information to give Spock a proper assessment. This is one of those very few episodes where Spock shows emotion, and McCoy naturally taunts him for it to try and shock him back to his senses. Just give the man a break Bones, maybe if Spock is feeling emotion it might be because the situation is affecting him so heavily. He's torn between finding Kirk or nusring McCoy, the pain of being trapped in a place against his will, and slowly trying to overcome that pain to accept his new station. Eventually the facts all click into place, Kirk shenanigans his way out of his own scrape, and they are able to just barely beam off the planet in the nick of time. Not before Spock can say one last heartfelt goodbye to Zarabeth, who's lonely fate is left unsaid.
Final thoughts: All Our Yesterdays is a damn good title considering the romance and the library. Its properly bittersweet. It doesn't leave me with much, however. I think they wanted a tragic love with Spock as Kirk had in season 1, but its not executed as well. McCoy is completely unsympathetic, and the love isn't explored. All it really leaves me with is a terrible pity for Zarabeth: Were I the writer, I would have had her walk through the door with them. She would have likely perished, but she said herself: "Stranded for a lifetime without companionship, isn't that a kind of death?" Spock lost his hope, and needed to find it again to return to the present. Holding onto that hope and stepping through the portal with the two men, I think this would have been the more human thing. But maybe the most human thing is to survive. I dunno.
ep 80 – "Turnabout Intruder" (★★★)
"Your world of starfleet captains doesn't admit women." I think she's gotta be full of it here. There's just no way – I refuse to believe that. It doesn't go with the spirit of the star trek universe as its come to be defined even in TOS. There have been plenty of capable women all through the series in important positions. The romulans had a female captain. Why not have a woman command a ship? That line really shouldn't be there because if they didn't permit Janice Lester to the captaincy I would think it would be her willingness to MURDER PEOPLE and viscous self hatred that did her in; not some stuffy sexist regulation.
The most damning thing that is done here in my eyes, is that Janice Lester is labeled as insane. Because a woman clearly would never feel homicidal resentment and hatred over being snubbed a valued career position. She was never able to move on from that; that's not insanity that's a personal failing. They remove from her any dignity (in so far as such a villain can have any) that a better script might given her by trying to paint her crimes in a pitiable light.
Nevertheless I am conflicted because I kind of like this episode? Even though I'm certain we're all expecting me to decry it? I just like this idea of Kirk being body-swapped by a hostile double. I like the growing concerns of the crew, the court-martial, and Spock's defiance. Its a decent premise, just marred by its sloppy execution and insensitive portrayal of Lester via Shatner. That's the thing that really makes the least sense to me here: I think they must have been trying to make a statement with this final episode, but it was lost along the way. Otherwise it would have been easier to write Lester as a jealous rival driven to the extreme rather than someone bound by what she perceives as the shackles of her gender. Its the idea that the only thing that barred her from her dreams of starfleet was her own loathing and vindictiveness; the sexism all fabricated in her mind. In the minds of the writers perhaps that makes sense in the world of star trek where they've worked to eliminate institutional sexism, but it certainly rings hollow after McCoy's tirade one episode prior. Its a crummy way for the show to send us off; the actors are tired, the writers heads are in their hands. You can't always go out with a bang.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SEASON 3 COMPLETE!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Favorite Episodes
The Enterprise Incident
Specter of the Gun
Is There In Truth No Beauty
Plato's Stepchildren
The Tholian Web
Yes. Yes. This is the one that broke me. I liked The Way to Eden more. Yes. Yes. I know.
Everything about this rubs me in places I don't appreciate. The only thing I could think was "This show has done lost it's damn mind." Now, the intro was fun. Abraham Lincoln is out there sitting in a chair floating in space and, yes, no one for even a moment thinks that its the man himself. But we go along with it and invite him aboard and there's a cute little ceremony and we get to explain to him all the cool gadgets we've developed in the last five centuries. Pure fan fiction. But once you get past your bewilderment, we actually beam down to the planet. There it just becomes absolute horseshit of the highest order. For also on the planet, aside from Surak the vulcan we see four great villians of history. Kahless the Unforgettable, Colonel Green of WWIII, Genghis Khan....excuse me what? Genghis khan?! WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?!?! And then they fight. Sure, lets just get vulcan jesus and the 16th president of the united states (is there even a U.S left on earth?) and we can crouch behind rocks and throw sticks at each other. Its an insult! I don't think genghis khan even has a single line of dialogue. I just don't understand what the hell they were thinking. Maybe it was meant to be a silly episode all in good fun but its.... like.... like okay listen:
Surak refuses to fight because this is literally pointless carnage, but also because he refuses to hurt anyone on principle. So he goes to the villains to talk to them. Now the impression that I get of Surak, having been the father of vulcan's philosophy of logic over emotion, is that he is a great diplomat and negotiator. So what does he say to them?
"If you accept the solution I offer, the others will agree to it." says Surak.
"No one talks peace unless they can back it up with war." says Green.
"He talks peace if it is the only way to live."
"Then tell me what we have to gain."
"Your life and the lives of the others."
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. WHAT IS THIS. WHERE ARE WE. Ask HIM what they gain by fighting each other! What did the rock monsters promise them? Are they gonna bust off of the planet with wooden spears and slings?! This whole thing is a test by the rock monsters to see....uh....hm. Which is stronger, good or evil?? Yes, and they propose to test these philosophies by making them fight to the death.
Abraham Lincoln gets speared in the back trying to rescue a dead Surak. Nothing was learned and the enterprise's time was wasted.
ep 79 – "All Our Yesterdays" (★★★)
A library of ages, chronicling all of your planet's history, and a portal to take you there. I'd be over the moon.
Kirk, Spock, & McCoy beam down to a planet right before it's star is about to go supernova. I forget why but I presume its to rescue the remaining population of the planet. Well there is one man left, the librarian Mr. Atoz. He keeps the books and has saved what remained of his people by thrusting them back through time into the old ages of their history. Through a muddled misunderstanding, Kirk and co unwittingly travel into the planets past and trap themselves, each with its own peril. I think the highlight here is Spock, who meets Zarabeth, a political prisoner who was exiled to a frigid and desolate ice age. Although she is able to fend for herself she is doomed to a life of solitude. Thus she's intrigued and overjoyed when she finds Spock & McCoy, her first and last companions. She tells Spock that the portal readjusts people on a molecular level to live in the time they are sent. You can go in, but you can't come back. Spock, analytical as always, knows now that there is no going back, and reluctantly acquiesces. That reluctance seems to melt away as he falls for Zarabeth (I fell for her too!) and begins to adjust to a more simple life.
Meanwhile McCoy, in his most insufferable performance yet, is unabashedly sexist. He accuses Zarabeth of hiding the truth and trying to trick he and Spock just so that she would not be lonely. Not only is he wrong as we learn from Kirk's perspective, Zarabeth was not given all the information to give Spock a proper assessment. This is one of those very few episodes where Spock shows emotion, and McCoy naturally taunts him for it to try and shock him back to his senses. Just give the man a break Bones, maybe if Spock is feeling emotion it might be because the situation is affecting him so heavily. He's torn between finding Kirk or nusring McCoy, the pain of being trapped in a place against his will, and slowly trying to overcome that pain to accept his new station. Eventually the facts all click into place, Kirk shenanigans his way out of his own scrape, and they are able to just barely beam off the planet in the nick of time. Not before Spock can say one last heartfelt goodbye to Zarabeth, who's lonely fate is left unsaid.
Final thoughts: All Our Yesterdays is a damn good title considering the romance and the library. Its properly bittersweet. It doesn't leave me with much, however. I think they wanted a tragic love with Spock as Kirk had in season 1, but its not executed as well. McCoy is completely unsympathetic, and the love isn't explored. All it really leaves me with is a terrible pity for Zarabeth: Were I the writer, I would have had her walk through the door with them. She would have likely perished, but she said herself: "Stranded for a lifetime without companionship, isn't that a kind of death?" Spock lost his hope, and needed to find it again to return to the present. Holding onto that hope and stepping through the portal with the two men, I think this would have been the more human thing. But maybe the most human thing is to survive. I dunno.
ep 80 – "Turnabout Intruder" (★★★)
"Your world of starfleet captains doesn't admit women." I think she's gotta be full of it here. There's just no way – I refuse to believe that. It doesn't go with the spirit of the star trek universe as its come to be defined even in TOS. There have been plenty of capable women all through the series in important positions. The romulans had a female captain. Why not have a woman command a ship? That line really shouldn't be there because if they didn't permit Janice Lester to the captaincy I would think it would be her willingness to MURDER PEOPLE and viscous self hatred that did her in; not some stuffy sexist regulation.
The most damning thing that is done here in my eyes, is that Janice Lester is labeled as insane. Because a woman clearly would never feel homicidal resentment and hatred over being snubbed a valued career position. She was never able to move on from that; that's not insanity that's a personal failing. They remove from her any dignity (in so far as such a villain can have any) that a better script might given her by trying to paint her crimes in a pitiable light.
Nevertheless I am conflicted because I kind of like this episode? Even though I'm certain we're all expecting me to decry it? I just like this idea of Kirk being body-swapped by a hostile double. I like the growing concerns of the crew, the court-martial, and Spock's defiance. Its a decent premise, just marred by its sloppy execution and insensitive portrayal of Lester via Shatner. That's the thing that really makes the least sense to me here: I think they must have been trying to make a statement with this final episode, but it was lost along the way. Otherwise it would have been easier to write Lester as a jealous rival driven to the extreme rather than someone bound by what she perceives as the shackles of her gender. Its the idea that the only thing that barred her from her dreams of starfleet was her own loathing and vindictiveness; the sexism all fabricated in her mind. In the minds of the writers perhaps that makes sense in the world of star trek where they've worked to eliminate institutional sexism, but it certainly rings hollow after McCoy's tirade one episode prior. Its a crummy way for the show to send us off; the actors are tired, the writers heads are in their hands. You can't always go out with a bang.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SEASON 3 COMPLETE!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Favorite Episodes
The Enterprise Incident
Specter of the Gun
Is There In Truth No Beauty
Plato's Stepchildren
The Tholian Web
Isrieri
My father told me this would happen
Well that's it. The Original Series is complete. This was supposed to just be a one-shot exploration of the old episodes but maybe I'll move onto The Next Generation one day if enough people would like to listen to me ramble more. For now I think I'm all trekked out.
Let it now be enshrined for all time: I finished a project for once!
Let it now be enshrined for all time: I finished a project for once!
I would be interested in that - once you feel ready to do this again.
TAS is only really on CBS All-Access these days, unfortunately. So it's not as easy to watch as other Treks. But I still highly recommend people watch it. Also count me in for more writeups, Isrieri. Always love reading people's ideas and impressions when watching Trek stuff!