Star Trek: TOS - Space, The Final Frontier.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

Hello again, everybody, and welcome to the quickie review of Star Trek: The Original Series.

Years ago I did this to compare TOS originals to the remastered versions, with an eye on the alterations, though I'm sure I commented on the stories, too.

Today, I'm beginning the re-review so the thread matches the recent Star Trek Threads and follows a similar format and is judged from a similar point of view as the others. I maybe be more forgiving, or even less forgiving, but I'm trying to use the same criteria, and that more or less means being less judgmental on some glaring mistakes and not writing off a whole episode for one bit of stupidity, but just tagging it with a penalty and thinking apart from that stupidity, how was the rest of it?

So we'll see. With only 3 seasons and 79 episodes, it won't take too long.

As always, I invite anyone to come along and make comments on the reviews or the episodes as we go along.

It's half the fun - you know.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

The Man Trap

01/01/01

Memory Alpha: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Man_Trap_(episode)
Transcript: http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/6.htm

Spoiler: show

Captain Kirk sets the scene in his log entry with details one might not normally include since they are relatively trivial, though as the show is still introducing itself, we might excuse it. Even as it was, some complained they felt lost like they were dropped right into the middle of a story without adequate explanation as to what the show was about. Of course, one should be able to pick up on those details as the series develops instead of demanding it all be explained from square one. But even later, Kirk talks about things in his log he shouldn't know about - yet - to explain confusing things to the audience - but more likely as if his log entries are perhaps recorded days later as he reflects on things instead live recordings as he goes, which they normally are, or even more probable, he goes back and edits them with insertions to explain the problems and mistakes they made.

We immediately see Kirk and McCoy are old friends and not just colleagues, as they kid with and confide in one another, and Uhura also mentions Kirk is probably Mr. Spock's best friend, or the closest thing he has to a friend for a Vulcan.

So for routine annual check ups and resupply, Kirk, McCoy, and crewman Darnell go to visit the archeologist, Dr. Crater, and his wife Nancy. However, Nancy is an old flame of Dr. McCoy's and he hasn't seen her in a dozen years.

Immediately we see something strange is going on since McCoy sees Nancy as a young 25 year old, like she hasn't aged a day, just as he hoped or expected, but Kirk sees an older, aging woman, pretty much like he expected, and Darnell sees Nancy was a young hottie he recently left behind on Wrigley's pleasure planet where he doubled his pleasure and doubled his fun. McCoy is offended Darnell was suggesting Nancy was like some tart he knew, and McCoy tells Darnell a little less mouth would be in order, and Kirk tells Darnell to wait outside, and he says, Yes, sir. Thank you, sir - which I thought was hilarious that way he thanks Kirk for extricating him from McCoy's ire. But alas, the hot looking Nancy goes off to find her husband, but stops to flirt with Darnell, practically implying she wants him, too, and Darnell incredibly goes off to take her up on her suggestive offer.

Note: I'd call that stupid and unprofessional, especially after what just happened, except Nancy is an alien creature with the power to entrance individuals, so maybe it wasn't Darnell's fault. In any event, he paid the price when the alien creature - henceforth called the Salt Vampire - sucked the approximately half pound of sodium chloride out of his body, killing him.

Dr. Crater comes back and he's incredibly rude, trying to chase the landing party off, until he hears McCoy's name. Realizing this is Nancy's old boyfriend, he lightens up but is immediately concerned McCoy has already seen Nancy - and so has Kirk. Oh oh. McCoy remarks again how Nancy is so young looking and doesn't have a gray hair on her head, but Kirk kindly scoffs since she sure as heck does and she's hardly the spring chicken McCoy is describing. Crater says the next time McCoy sees her Nancy will be or a more believable age instead of the way McCoy is probably seeing her through love's lens of times past. But then they hear Nancy screaming and run to find her.

Upon arriving, they find Darnell is dead and Nancy is distraught. IMO, her acting is pretty poor, but they eventually get her to calm down and explain what happened, and she says Darnell was holding a poisonous Borgia plant and took a bite before she could warn him. That doesn't explain the weird red marks on his face, so Kirk suspends the examinations and says they'll pick those up tomorrow. Like Crater before her, Nancy mentions their need for salt, which seems inappropriate at a time like that.

Well, McCoy can't figure out why Darnell is dead. Kirk is upset - he hates mysteries like this and he's lost a man, and he tells McCoy to stow his feelings for Nancy and find him some answers. McCoy was trying to tell him part of the problem, but Kirk didn't listen to McCoy explain how he honestly saw Nancy as a young woman with dark hair and later as a middle aged woman with gray hair. Maybe his eyes are playing tricks on him.

Later, McCoy discovers Darnell's body is devoid of salt, so they beam down to find answers since the Borgia plant shouldn't have killed like that, and Nancy kills two more crewmembers - Sturgeon and Green - but she turns into Green, mimicking his outward appearance, and claims to have been looking for whatever killed Sturgeon. Unable to find Nancy, they beam back to the ship to use Enterprise's sensors - which Kirk says can pinpoint a match on the surface. But all they see is professor Crater since the creature beamed up with them as Green.

Green goes about the ship and runs into Yeoman Janice Rand, who is bringing food to Sulu - though she's grazing off his dish for some reason, salting his celery and crunching on it. Green is practically mesmerized by the salt and it wants it, so he follows Rand into the arboretum. Sulu greets him by name, but he remains silent and creepy until one of Sulu's weird, animate plants goes nuts in Green's presence, driving him away.

Green sees Uhura, and sensing her emotional longing - that we saw earlier when she was flirting with Mr. Spock before he proved to be a cold fish - he turns into a black crewman who speaks Swahili, and tells her how such a beautiful creature as she should never be alone, or something like that. The COMMS are blaring for Lt. Uhura to report to the bridge, but she seems entranced and the creature is about to kill her, too, but Rand and Sulu come out into the hall and interrupt it, breaking the spell, and Uhura goes to the bridge, still wondering who that man was.

Kirk and Spock beam down to confront Crater, but Crater has a phaser weapon, warns them to go away, and then turns a stone column Kirk was standing near into something looking like Paper Mache, so they duck for cover. Weirdly, Kirk puts his phaser on stun, but orders Spock to put his on one quarter - whatever that is. Kirk gets into position and Spock distracts Crater and he sits up higher to see, and Kirk stuns him with a cool ricochet sound effect we never hear a phaser ever make again. Kirk rushes toward him, rocking the mammoth stones like they were Paper Mache.

A stunned Crater confesses Nancy has been dead for almost 2 years, and the creature that killed her pretends to be Nancy for him since he placates it with the two things it needs - salt and love. He says it is like the buffalo - there used to be millions before they were extinct, but now only one is left. They also found Green, dead, and they warn Enterprise to go to intruder alert status since a creature is on board and might look like crewman Green or possibly others.

The search finds another crewman, dead - like Darnell and the others - and they surmise that's why Green was acting all twitchy, and the man Uhura met must have been it since he's not in the crew roster, either.

The salt vampire finds McCoy's cabin and enters as Nancy, to McCoy's surprise. He figures Kirk found her and that's great, and guesses Kirk didn't tell him since he's so tired or thought he was sleeping. Nancy agrees with Kirk and says he should sleep, and even should take one of those red sleeping pills that McCoy - for some reason - has a huge bottle of in his cabin. On the COMMS, Kirk calls for a meeting with his officers, so since McCoy is sleeping, Nancy turns into McCoy and goes to the meeting.

At the meeting they discuss the creature and demand that Crater help them find it. He confesses he can recognize it in all its guises - since it has idiosyncratic behavior, but he doesn't tell them that. He refuses to help. They suggest truth serum - sure - and though "McCoy" is normally reluctant to use such things, he thinks it might be OK in this case since they can learn the truth. Wouldn't that be the case with truth serum all the time? However, he was pushing for them not to trick or trap the creature since it was just trying to live and survive. Spock thinks that's a laudable attitude, but he wonders if McCoy would normally push so hard to protect a creature that's killing so many, so he suspects McCoy. Spock goes with McCoy and Crater to oversee the process, but when they are alone, the creature clobbers Spock and kills Crater.

Note: Spock has no salt is his body, or tastes bad, or something, so the creature didn't kill him. But it killed professor Crater since he was a potential threat, knowing how to identify it, but mostly since the feelings of love for her from McCoy were stronger, so she figured is was time to trade up.

The salt vampire makes it way back to McCoy's cabin, hoping McCoy will love and protect it. She wakes up McCoy and says they are trying to kill her. McCoy is confused, but sure enough, Kirk enters and tells McCoy to stand aside. He offers Nancy salt with one hand, but has a phaser in the other. McCoy protects her - Jim must be crazy or something. But as Kirk taunts her with the salt, it lunges for it and swallows it as McCoy wrestles the phaser from Kirk. Then Nancy mesmerizes Kirk and he stands there paralyzed. She moves in for the kill but Spock shows up and tells McCoy to kill it. NO! I can't kill Nancy. That's not Nancy. Spock clobbers her repeatedly with Vulcan strength and Nancy just shrugs it off, and then backhands Spock across the room, proving it's not Nancy. Spock, bleeding green from a scalp wound, asks, Is that Nancy, Doctor? McCoy admits it can't be Nancy, but Nancy again goes in for the kill on Kirk. However, through new eyes via recent suggestions and events, McCoy finally sees the creature for what it is. It goes to kill Kirk and puts its hands over his face and starts to suck out the salt.

Note: Oddly, Kirk screams, though none of her other victims seemed to scream.

As Kirk screams, McCoy can't let that go on so he shoots the salt Vampire. It slumps off Kirk, and turns back into Nancy. She implores McCoy to not hurt her. Please. But McCoy begs the Lord's forgiveness, and shoots Nancy again. The creature falls to the deck, dead, and again reverts to its natural appearance. Kirk tells Bones how sorry he is he had to do that.

Enterprise prepares to leave orbit, and Spock finds Kirk ruminating about the tragic loss of the buffalo. Extinction is a terrible thing.

Finally, Kirk orders they leave orbit at warp 1.

Note: I've often thought departing at warp 1was terribly slow, but it's probably just held long enough to leave the stellar plane where there's tons of stuff they might hit, and once outside the stellar system they'd kick it up to warp 6 or better.

The End.

We note the planet Vulcan has no moon, and Uhura thinks that might help explain why Vulcans are not particularly romantic.

Nancy nicknamed McCoy, Plum. It was not explained why. :think:

Someone is complaining Enterprise has vital cargo he needs and wonders why Kirk is spending days at some backward planet, but the vital cargo is just some chili peppers he has hand picked for the guy, so Kirk tells him he can wait an extra day or two.

Nitpicks: McCoy says he hasn't seen Nancy in 10 years, but later 12 years, and again later it's back to 10 years.
Kirk gets an urgent message to report to the bridge while wearing one shirt, but then is wearing another style shirt moments later. I think it was in this episode, but perhaps it was the next. Either way, honestly, this was a low budget production compared to today's productions, and they reused footage wherever they could to save money since they were pretty much broke all the time. Even if they noticed such a continuity error, I doubt they could afford to fix it. Shatner probably had to launder his own uniforms or had only a few, so if one got dirty, he'd have little choice but to wear another even if it didn't match.

Though Dr. Crater said Nancy was probably dead for two years, the premise is they need to be medically checked out once a year - so how did the last doctor miss this? Indeed, how did McCoy miss it? I guess he never did get around to scanning Nancy before somebody died and the examinations were put on hold, but that still doesn't explain how the last doctor missed that.

There's a lot of sexism in these TOS episodes - a product of the 60's one can't help but notice and maybe even cringe at. This shouldn't be taken as a message women are nothing but sex objects in the future, or second class people, though it could easily come off that way since the 60's culture probably actually felt that way far more than today, not that equality is a given today for everybody, even though it should be. IIRC, female audience members really hated strong female leads, like Number 1 - saying who the hell does she think she is - or similar sentiments, so it didn't play well back then. Nor should the fact yeoman Rand is serving food suggest that's all women are good for. Uhura doesn't serve food.

McCoy didn't want to put his autopsy report on the bridge speakers - but I'm not sure why. Maybe he couldn't be sure who was on the bridge and he didn't want that information getting around unless or until the captain felt it was OK to become common knowledge.

Spock didn't think Kirk should risk his life to take Crater alive, though in later epsidoes he seems fine with risking lives to save an alien. I guess there are billions of humans but only one creature. Still, even for that, it wasn't practical - this time - but it will be in other stories. Anyway, I'm not sure how using stun instead of kill puts Kirk at a greater risk.

Incredibly, though this wasn't the first episode made, it was the first one aired, and right out of the box they bump off 4 crewmen. Sure, that's only 1% of the crew, but wow, it seemed like a lot. But even at 4 deaths per episode, they'd still have over 100 left by series end.

K.I.A. = +4 = 4 crewmembers dead now.

Star Trek TOS will undoubtedly demonstrate a poor understanding of science, maybe even worse than I recall, possibly even worse than more modern episodes of Trek. We'll see.

The powers that be felt this more action-oriented story was better to air first than the others they already had in the can. I'm not so sure.

So, yeah, some pretty cheesy special effects that even remastering couldn't fix, but the remastered stuff is beautiful. I'm just sorry my copy, and many, many copies of this series, have pretty crappy sound. I have to really crank it up to hear it, and some words just come across as more muffled than the rest, or even down right missing, like a truncated sentence. I'm pretty sure Netflix copies weren't like that when they had them, so why Blue Ray remastered copies are like that, I couldn't say. If not for Close Captioning, it would be harder to tolerate. Maybe later episodes are not like that.

I have given this episode only a 5 in the past. It feels like an average story. The continuity errors are wrong, but I'd be more forgiving in the low budget category. I mean, you won't get much cheesier than old Doctor Who episodes, but the stories are always more important than the special effects, or should be, IMO.

Finally, though I might deduct points for blatant sexism in a more modern offering, here I won't since it's a product of an era that's more than 50 years in the past. If anything, it's probably a good thing they still show these so some can see the cultural changes since then, and even ponder how shows like Star Trek may have helped bring some of those changes to society. I mean, Lt. Uhura may be in a mini skirt, but she's a black woman with an important job - however boring or tedious it might seem to a supporting actor who isn't one of the main stars. She was inspirational.

I'll just start this at a 5, though, and give it +1 for some good elements and a decent beginning to a series. This week's monster may be all we needed for entertainment, and this was a clever one. I mean, it had some clever abilities, though it seems hard to believe it could be that intelligent and not just ask for salt. Cooperation was probably an alien concept for such a predator. One wonders if they built those ruins or they preyed upon those who built them to their extinction. The last of the salt vampires. What happens to the salt after it consumes it? How did Trelane get one? Yeah, I think if they had gone about things differently, and if Crater wasn't an asshole, they could have taken it alive and maybe found a way for it to thrive. But if it reproduces sexually, they it's already lost the game of survival, even if they didn't kill it.

5 +1 = 6

6 out of 10.

That meddlin kid · 26 Mar 2007

And away we go!

Nice No-Prize explanation of why Kirk would initially order Warp Factor 1. Or perhaps in certain circumstances the engines need to start off at a lower speed before shifting into a higher "gear," perhaps to reduce routine wear and tear? In sure in reality the writers hadn't yet worked out anything about how warp speeds compared with each other.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

Charlie X

01/02/02

Memory Alpha: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Charlie_X_(episode)
Transcript: http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/8.htm

Spoiler: show

We begin this episode when Enterprise rendezvous with the cargo/transport ship, Antares, and her captain and first officer beam over with Charlie Evans, a 17 year old young man who is the sole survivor of a ship that crashed on the planet Thasus 14 years ago. Remarkably, he managed to survive for 14 years with no assistance from the age of 3.

The Antares captain and first officer can't sing Charlie's praises loudly enough, and they'd love to keep him around, but Enterprise is heading toward Colony 5 where Charlie apparently has some living relatives. Weirdly, they seem nervous and can't get away fast enough, even declining Kirk's offer of supplies, entertainment tapes, and even Saurian brandy. Charlie keeps interrupting others' conversations and Kirk politely tells Charlie that's rude.

Kirk asks yeoman Rand to take Charlie to his quarters and Charlie is fascinated by the fact Rand is a girl since he's never seen one before. The 20 people on Antares were apparently all men. Yeah, Kirk confirms, Rand is a girl all right. Heh Heh.

McCoy gives Charlie a check up as the kid explains he ate wild food on Thasus once the ship's stores ran out and taught himself to talk by interacting with the computer. Spock and McCoy think that's strange since Thasus apparently doesn't have much in the way of flora that can be eaten. Charlie seems preoccupied with whether McCoy or others like him - he says the crew on Antares didn't like him, which is the exact opposite of what they said.

Charlie wanders around the ship, observing various interactions, particularly two guys who parted with plans to meet up later in the rec room, and one slaps the other's ass like a couple of athletes encouraging one another. Charlie thinks that's the thing to do, so when he gives Rand some perfume - that the ship's stores do not even carry - and she agrees to meet him in the rec room later, he slaps her ass. Well, Rand is upset and though she can't or won't say why, she tells Charlie to have McCoy or Kirk explain it to him.

Later, Kirk does a spectacularly stellar job in not really making it clear at all, though he tells Charlie there is no right way to hit a woman. Of course, Kirk doesn't really want to be bothered by such things and even though McCoy suggests Kirk would be a better father figure, he orders McCoy to do it.

Long story short, Charlie makes numerous social mistakes and Faux pas, but unlike normal adolescents who just have to suffer through it, Charlie has supernatural powers. As he gets more and more frustrated, he begins to use those powers on others. He wants Uhura to stop singing about him, for example, so he causes her to choke up so he can have some uninterrupted time with Rand. He performs incredible "magic" card tricks for Janice, which everyone thinks are amazing sleight of hand, but he's using his powers. Rand sees that Charlie has a crush on her, though, and she feels it's inappropriate and she sure doesn't reciprocate, so she tells Kirk to have a talk with him so she won't have to break his heart and reject him.

Things get particularly serious when the captain of the Antares signals Enterprise with a warning. They were as far as way as they could be and still communicate, perhaps thinking they were finally safe, but before he could say what the warning was, the Antares blows up. Charlie just says the ship was poorly constructed, as if he knew the ship blew up before Spock's scanners ascertained as much.

The ship's chef calls the bridge and tells Kirk the meatloaf Kirk ordered him to better simulate Turkey for the Thanksgiving Holiday has actually turned into real turkeys.

Note: The voice of the chef was supplied by Gene Roddenberry himself, so it's the only time he's acted on Star Trek, so don't miss it.

Kirk and Spock are later playing 3D chess, and Spock claims Kirk's mind if not on the game. The next move, Kirk checkmates Spock, and Spock claims Kirk's illogical approach to the game has its advantages.

Note: Yeah, this is pretty stupid - anyone worth their salt at chess should be able to see more than one move ahead, and should scarcely be criticizing others' approach to playing it when they win. Though the episodes are out of order, Kirk will do this to Spock again quite soon.

Charlie sees the game and he'd like to play, too, so Kirk leaves it to Spock, the local chess master - which again is weird since he just beat him. Spock explains the rules, but Charlie says he watched them play the game on the Antares so he knows the rules already and they can just play. In too few moves, probably - two moves, actually - Spock beats Charlie. He told him his second move was a mistake, but Charlie insisted it wasn't, so Spock demonstrated it was by checkmating him. Charlie refuses to acknowledge his defeat, so Spock simply leaves the room. Charlie is so upset, he melts the white chess pieces, which were his own and not Spock's, and so he seems angry with himself and not his opponent.

Rand tries to introduce Charlie to Tina, a younger crewwoman close to Charlie's own age, but he snubs her as unimportant since he wants Janice, and Rand tells him that was very rude. He doesn't care since Tina isn't special like Janice is. Rand tells him he better learn how to live with other people since he's not all alone anymore. Charlie assures her if he had the whole universe he would give it to Janice (like she'd have somewhere to put it) and he feels hungry all over when he looks at her, which creeps her out, so again she tells Kirk.

Kirk tries to relate to Charlie and explain certain facts, like there are millions of things he can have, but millions of things he can't, and love is a two-way street - like Charlie knows what one-way or two-way streets are. Kirk takes Charlie to the gymnasium and we see plenty of athletics going on we normally don't see, and he tries to teach Charlie some basic tumbling and fighting techniques, but Charlie is reluctant since it looks painful and really hard. Kirk has Sam help demonstrate a couple of basic throws by Sam throwing Kirk to the matt and then Kirk throwing Sam. OK, Charlie tries, but Kirk - for some reason - doesn't let Charlie throw him but instead puts Charlie down, which embarrasses him. Sam laughs a little too hard and Charlie tells him to stop, but Sam doesn't, so he glares at Sam and Sam vanishes. Well, it's pretty clear now to even the thickest of people that Charlie is not normal. Kirk calls for two security guards to escort Charlie to his quarters, but Charlie refuses to go. When the guards try to force him, he pushes them back with mental force so one pulls his phaser on Charlie (as security guards do, but it's probably on stun) and Charlie points at it and screams NO and it vanishes. In fact, Kirk is later told all the hand phasers on board have vanished. Kirk says if Charlie won't go with the guards, he'll pick him up and carry him there himself, so Charlie gives in and goes with the guards after Kirk promises they won't hurt him.

During a meeting, Spock suddenly has substantial information on the Thasians, though mostly rooted in rumors and legends, I guess, or unconfirmed reports, and says they have such powers. McCoy says Charlie is definitely human, though. Charlie comes into the room, apparently having been summoned, and Kirk demands to know if he destroyed the Antares. Charlie reluctantly admits to it, but says it would have blown up on its own soon, anyway, and besides, they were mean to him. Kirk asks if Charlie notices anything odd about the melted chess pieces, but he says he doesn't. Finally Kirk asks if Charlie is going to make all them go away, too. Charlie says he's not sure yet, and he leaves. Spock thinks they are in grave danger. Spock is usually right.

Kirk orders the Enterprise away from Colony 5, just in case, but Charlie shorts out Uhura's counsel and gives her a nasty shock, and he takes over the helm of Enterprise and locks in the course to Colony 5 while he forces Spock to utter poetry. Kirk demands Charlie leave his crew alone, and he backs down again and leaves - though the course is locked in - and Spock says it won't be long before Charlie won't back down anymore.

Charlie is so upset, as he wanders the corridors he lashes out and turns Tina into an iguana - (that sounds just like a couple of magical extra dimensional beings from TOS Catspaw).

Charlie enters Rand's quarters without knocking, and she's in a sheer nightgown, and she tells him he should never enter a woman's quarters without knocking. Charlie tells her not to ever lock her door to him again since he loves her, but she scoffs and says he doesn't know the meaning of the word and pushes a COMM button so the exchange is piped to the bridge. Charlie asks that Janice teach him about love then, but she refuses. Spock and Kirk burst in (without knocking) and Charlie mentally hurls them against the wall, even breaking Spock's legs. Janice reacts and slaps him, but Charlie glares at her and she disappears just like Sam did. He's now very upset since there was no reason for her to do that when he was just offering her his love.

Charlie stops Kirk's writhing in pain and lets him get up. He says he'd make him go away too if he didn't need him to run the ship, so Kirk orders him to let up Spock since Kirk needs Spock to run Enterprise. Charlie heals his legs and Spock gets up, and Charlie leaves scoffing at them, saying being an adult isn't so hard since he's not an adult and he can already do anything, and they can't.

They next try to trap Charlie behind a force field, but after it shocks him, Charlie is so angry he makes the force field, the hardware, and even the walls vanish, as Kirk and Spock are held motionless in place. He tells them they'll be sorry they did that, and then he lets them go as he leaves.

Charlie is angry now, and he passes some people in a corridor and they are laughing - not at him, but just in general - and he tells them to knock it off, and then he removes all their faces so they can't laugh. I guess at some other point he also turned one young crewwoman into an old woman, to her great distress.

A message is being sent to Enterprise from a nearby ship, but Charlie's interference keeps them from reading it. Kirk speculates Charlie hasn't made anyone else disappear since he took total control of the Enterprise, so maybe he can't. He has Spock and McCoy turn on all systems to give Charlie even more things to fight and Charlie can't handle it all and the message gets through. It's a Thasian ship, and a ghostly head appears and talks to them.

The Thasian says they gave Charlie powers so he could survive, and they were distressed to learn he had left without them realizing it, so they have come to take him back. Charlie is distressed since he doesn't want to go. He's not like them. They can't love or feel or even touch, like him. Kirk actually appeals to the Thasians, who, for some reason, can't remove Charlie's powers, and they assure Kirk Charlie couldn't live amongst normal humans anymore. He'd either kill them or the humans would be forced to kill Charlie just to protect themselves. Either way, it's best they take Charlie back.

The Thasians restore all the things and people Charlie made vanish, though they are sorry they couldn't save the crew of the Antares since they were already dead.

Note: Though Charlie made many people vanish - more than shown, apparently - they all come back, but for some reason only Janice comes back onto the bridge - and in her sheer nightgown. Sure - that makes sense. :paranoid:

Charlie begs to stay with Enterprise. He points out how they said they liked him when he came on board. Charlie pleas with them to stay, but the Thasians make him fade away until he's gone, and Charlie begs them one last time, I want to stay, stay, stay . . .

Uhura says the Thasians signal they have Charlie and were leaving now.

Rand is upset, but Kirk comforts her and says it's all over now. For them, anyway.

The End.

I've never thought this episode was as good as TOS Where No Man Has Gone Before, though it's remarkably similar, and it's sad when they are shown so close together without a palate cleanser in between. Some actually seem to prefer Charlie X. YMMV. The X apparently stands for unknown powers. Deep. :roll:

However, +1 for acting for Robert Walker Jr. (Charlie) since he did a remarkably good job portraying such angst and torment. He's a sympathetic character, though less and less as he begins to murder people (the Antares' crew) and make others disappear, or worse.

I guess he died in 2019 at 79 years old, but he had 3 wives and 7 kids after a long career, so good for him, I guess. R.I.P.

Apart from the good acting there, though, I felt this was an average episode, and not too science fictiony so much as teen drama and a bottle episode. Sure, he has powers, and it's in space, and he's sending people he doesn't like to the cornfield, or some other limbo-like place.

I guess one of the major differences between Charlie Evans and Gary Mitchell is Charlie was a stranger - here today, gone tomorrow - while Mitchell was a life long friend and colleague, even though he was also only in one episode, but he had history - even a lengthy history with Kirk and Spock and others. Also, the Gary Mitchell episode has less of a Deus Ex Machina vibe to it with God-like beings showing up to solve the problem in the last scene. That's never too satisfying, IMO. This is also too close to the TOS Squire of Gothos later in that same way as Trelane is another childlike, god-like entity with Deus Ex Machina as the Gods solve the problem at the end there, too.

+0.5 for other acting.

So we start this at a 5. Teenage angst. Meh. But it's done well.

5 +1 +0.5 = 6.5

6.5 out of 10.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

Where No Man Has Gone Before

01/03/03

Memory Alpha: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Where_No_Man_Has_Gone_Before_(episode)
Transcript: http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/2.htm

Spoiler: show

Thousands of observations can be made about the subtle differences in the background and foreground of this episode, but the simplest is the truth. Too many things were still not made or were still undecided, and/or not even considered yet, so this second pilot after the first failed pilot had yet to find its footings. While some items seem antiquated and wrong, I actually liked the overall feel of the set better than what they ended up with. I certainly preferred the relaxed hairstyle, the large open neck collars, and the black slacks for the women crewmembers over the beehive hairdos and miniskirts so short they often didn't even cover up their high cut shorts. Thousands of hours have been devoted to devising possible in-universe explanations for these changes, and while that's sort of fun to ponder upon, it has little to do with the story, so I won't be doing that. Not a lot of it, anyway. :paranoid:

We begin with Kirk pondering the fact they have detected a distress signal from a ship lost over two centuries ago while Enterprise approaches the location and he and Spock are playing a game of 3D chess to pass the time.

Note: Again, chess is depicted rather stupidly since Spock said he would win the next move, yet Kirk either thwarted that, or even beat Spock on the next move, and chess masters just don't make silly mistakes like that. :roll:

Note: The Valiant must have been one of the first warp capable Earth ships around - probably limited to warp 2 - or it couldn't have been this far out into space. Sol is around 25,000 light years from the rim, and 25,000 light years from the center, but the disc is only about 2,000 light years thick, which means they may only be 1,000 light years or less from Sol. But since Enterprise is preparing to "leave the galaxy" this would still be impossible if they were leaving the galactic rim, so they must instead be leaving the main galactic disc, which is much closer given that space is 3 dimensional. Also, the magnetic storm the Valiant was caught up in may have propelled them faster than they could normally travel, but this would strongly suggest the galactic barrier or that storm were NOT natural phenomena.

Note: The so-called galactic barrier they find there doesn't register on sensors and indeed must not even be seen in the visible, UV, or IR spectrums at considerable distances and can only first be seen when one is up close to it. Perhaps it is psychic in nature. That would explain why Humanity was generally unaware of it and hadn't seen it before - at least not by anyone who survived to tell the tale, anyway. And though it burned out the warp capabilities of the Enterprise, the barrier probably flung them out in a warp bubble that endured until it dissipated, thus explaining how they were within a few days' travel to Delta Vega, which otherwise probably would have been years, decades, centuries, or even millennia away at sublight speeds. Kirk mentioned Valiant's old impulse engines weren't strong enough, and perhaps within such a storm, warp engines would not work and so they had to rely on impulse power, rather than suggesting the Valiant didn't even have warp engines, which would have been impossible.

Note: We discover Spock has a human ancestor, and though this is later said to be his mother and it seems weird to call one's mother an ancestor, it is technically correct, and Spock is just being cagey about it. Kirk and Spock are rather friendly, but not as friendly as Kirk and Gary Mitchell, a man Kirk has known and worked with for 15 years. We also see Kirk and Scotty are rather friendly, too. Since Spock at least has command gold on and command rank insignia, it seems more likely Spock is Kirk's first officer rather than Mitchell, though this is never stated in the episode. I think Spock's a full commander and Mitchell is a Lt. Commander, anyway. This is only questioned occasionally since they made a mistake at one point when Spock called himself second officer instead of second in command. Other department insignias are wrong or reversed yet, and uniform colors have not yet been settled, too.

They beam the Valiant's distress beacon on board and identify it, and download its "tapes" - which is just a general term and probably not actual magnetic tape since even today I might say I have taped something on the DVR - and determine the Valiant was likely destroyed. But before that, her captain became frantic about ESP in humans and apparently eventually felt compelled to order the destruction of his own ship. Kirk goes to red alert since whatever destroyed the Valiant could endanger Enterprise, and they head out of the galaxy since they need to know what's out there so other Earth ships will know what to expect. But the barrier prevents them from getting too far, damaging the ship, killing 9 crewmembers by burning out a portion of their brains, and shocking Gary and Dr. Dehner - a psychologist temporarily onboard studying human reactions in space. She just seemed dazed, while Gary's eyes develop an eerie silvery glow.

Gary begins to develop extraordinary powers, like telekinesis, reading minds, reading and memorizing half the ship's library in less than a day, and more. It's explained his powers are growing exponentially, and within a few days he will be so powerful he will have as much in common with the rest of the crew as they have with a ship full of white mice. Not sure why white is preferred - except maybe they are more commonly used in science experiments or kept as pets.

Dr. Elizabeth Dehner finds this interesting and wants to study it, but Spock, apparently without emotion, only sees the extreme probability that Gary will kill them. He recommends to Kirk he actually kill Gary, while he still can, but Kirk can't just kill his best friend like that. Spock warns him the captain of the Valiant had the same choice, and he waited too long and lost his whole ship and crew. But if you won't kill him, then maroon him at Delta Vega since they have to go there anyway to repair the ship.

At Delta Vega, Kelso scrounges up the components necessary to fix Enterprise's engines - though most of what he does isn't shown, of course, and they don't even talk about the dilithium crystals they also have to replace but they can get from the dilithium cracking station - and they take Gary down to the planet, but have to drug him first because he's reluctant to go since he may wish to choose another world he can better use. While drugged, he screams he will squash them like insects. Once they beam him down there, they rig up a brig of sorts and keep him behind a force field.

Gary jokes how Kirk is a fool since command and compassion are a fool's mixture. Kirk has Kelso rig up a means to blow up the facilities and kill Gary, in case it comes to that. He was foolish to mention this in front of Gary, but he felt Gary could already read that in his mind, anyway. In any case, Gary telekinetically strangled Kelso to death - who was his friend - so he couldn't blow Gary up, and he zapped Kirk and Spock with a mentally produced electrical shock. Spock had a phaser rifle that was only shown here and nowhere else in TOS, but it didn't help. Gary didn't zap Liz, though, and we discover Elizabeth's eyes have also just changed - it just took a little while longer. Together, they leave the facility.

Dr. Piper revives Kirk and Kirk has him not wake up Spock yet, but tells Mark if he doesn't hear from him in 12 hours, to warp away and return to subject the planet with a lethal concentration of neutron radiation.

It's not stated, but maybe Kirk went to rescue Elizabeth since he didn't know she had changed yet, or maybe to try to talk his friend down one more time, or maybe to kill him, if he could, since it was his fault Gary was on the lose.

Gary performs miracles to make it possible to live in such a desolate place, like making water and plants and Kefarian Apples for his Garden of Eden. He does think of himself as a God, after all. He senses Kirk is coming and telepathically tells him to go away while he still can, but Kirk presses on. So Gary sends Elizabeth to him so she can see for herself how unimportant Kirk and all of Humanity is to them now.

Kirk sees the change in Liz, and she tries to convince him what Gary is doing is right for them, and Humanity isn't worth their consideration so they would probably be left alone. Gary earlier said if a true race of ESPers came into being, Humanity would be doomed, and Kirk reminds Liz as a psychologist she knows what Human frailty is like, and it's still at the core of their very being. She knows he's right. Kirk says above all else a God needs compassion.

Gary appears and he tells Liz he's disappointed in her since she agrees with Kirk and she hasn't seen how unimportant they are. Kirk tries to kill Gary with a phaser rifles, but he laughs off the blast to his chest and telekinetically snatches the phaser rifle out of Kirk's hands and throws it aside.

Gary taunts Kirk, demanding he pray to him for a merciful death. Kirk points out Gary wants him to pray to him and not both of them, and figures they will be jealous of each other and try to kill each other until only one of them remains.

Gary acts mercifully and prepares a decent grave for Kirk, complete with a headstone.

Note: The headstone is for James R. Kirk since they hadn't decided his middle name was Tiberius yet, and though they settle on an initial T. in TOS, they don't canonize the name until TAS. Either it shows Gary is still fallible, despite his powers, or it might have been an in-joke between them, like Kirk once told Gary "Racquetball" is my middle name when he kicked his as at it, or something like that.

Gary telekinetically levers a huge rock so it's precariously balanced and ready to fall, kill Kirk, and cover his grave. Liz pleas with him to stop, but Gary is torturing Kirk, racking him with pain, trying to force him to pray to him. Kirk continues to work on Liz, pointing out how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Does Liz really like what she sees? See doesn't, so she attacks Gary with her own divine spark. Gary retaliates and they exchange blasts until Liz is mortally wounded, and Gary's powers are sapped and he returns to normal. Liz tells Kirk he doesn't have much time.

Instead of grabbing the phaser rifle and shooting Gary, Kirk lays into him with fists and judo and karate chops, etc. until Gary is down and he grabs a nearby bowling ball sized rock and is about the stave in Gary's skull, but he pauses again, asking Gary to forgive him before he delivers the lethal blow. But Gary's powers begin to return and he stops Kirk and tosses him off. Kirk tries to punch him again, but Gary easily shrugs that off, until a last ditch attack knocks them both into the grave. They both begin to crawl out, but Kirk was faster and luckily crawled to the phaser rifle and fired at the mammoth rock above, causing it to fall on Gary, crushing him to death in his still weakened state.

Injured and bleeding, Kirk makes his way over the Liz and she struggles through her pain and apologizes to him for waiting too long to see the bad path Gary was on, saying Kirk could never know what it was like to almost be a god, and then she dies.

Note: Unless Kirk made sure, by disintegrating Liz's body or digging up Gary and making sure he was dead, I suppose it's possible Liz was pretending to be dead like Gary had before. I know I would have taken the time to use the phaser rifle to burn their corpses to atoms, so maybe Kirk did this, too, but they just didn't show it. It would have seemed heartless, however necessary.

Kirk orders Enterprise to beam him up, and after a spell in Sickbay, he officially records the loss of Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, who gave her life in the performance of her duty, and Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell, same notation. He tells Spock he wanted Gary's service record to end that way since he didn't ask for what happened to him. Spock confesses, despite all the suggestions his race (which you do not yet know is Vulcan) doesn't have feelings, that he felt for Gary, too. Kirk tells him, I believe there's some hope for you after all, Mister Spock.

The End.

It was incredibly moronic to even think to reuse the name Delta Vega in the 2009 Trek movie. I mean, that was a first class, solidly dimwitted move there. :facepalm:

I don't think more crewmembers die in a single episode than this one. We stand at 9 dead from the barrier, Kelso murdered, and Gary and Liz, so that's an even dozen in one episode. The running total by episode 3 is then 16 KIA. Starships are not safe places to work.

K.I.A. = +12 = 16

Note: Everything is relative, though, for in the Honor Herrington series - another protagonist patterned after Horatio Hornblower - crewmembers are dying by the hundreds or even the thousands on some bigger ships. But they are at war, while Enterprise is just a ship of exploration.

They mention a love sonnet written in 1996 on the Conopius planet. They'll later imply an alien muse inspired it in DS9. We must assume, no matter what they thought or intended, it couldn't have been a human who wrote it or was inspired to write it since Humanity wasn't in space yet, but that's OK.

Kirk is worried about other "Earth" ships, though he should be worried about other "Federation" ships, but it's not clear there is a Federation yet.

Lots to look at, lots to think about. Unlike Charlie X, Gary was a long time friend and he hurts or kills his friends as we saw him go from friend to a corrupted individual and could feel the loss more and I think relate to it more, too, as something that could happen to you. But also, Kirk has to deal with not a stranger, but a friend, and he even has to kill him for the good of the others.

7 to start - this is a great story, though I barely did it justice here.

+1 for how effective Gary went from young friend to a convincing menace, mostly just by graying up his hair at his temples and altering his voice. But the acting was good. Pity he was such a sexist dick, though he did apologize too Liz for that. But it wasn't an uncommon opinion regarding female professionals in the 60's.

+1 for the action - which, I'm told, is primarily what sold the second pilot. They loved the fight between Kirk and Gary - they needed that, and stuff like that, or felt science fiction was too cerebral for the general audience. Really, they meant for them, since they are a bunch of idiots - heh heh. But if not for that fight, we probably wouldn't have ever had Star Trek at all.

With a few explanations, I think we can overlook any complaints on scientific grounds, and I won't really denigrate the episodes for 60's sexism, and nor will I do so for the fact they haven't hammered down a lot of details in the first few episodes of a series they barely got off the ground and for which they never had an adequate budget. Just think, despite all that, it still inspired generations to follow and numerous Trek spin offs. It was quality stuff, and for the 60's, doubly so. I always love watching this episode, but when Charlie X airs in the line up, I just feel, meh, not that one again. :roll:

I mean, unlike Charlie X, we learn a lot more about the Trek universe and the Enterprise, and the quality interpersonal relationships between the main characters. It just has more to see and learn about and think about.

7 +1 +1 = 9.0

9 out of 10.

That meddlin kid · 26 Mar 2007

I remember being confused by this episode when I saw it as a kid, because it was so different from a normal Trek episode. Years later, after I had started reading about the series, I learned that it was a pilot.

Haven't seen it in so many years that I can't say how convincing the scene of Kelso being strangled looked. As a kid I found it pretty shocking and scary.

I just looked up an image of that "phaser rifle." I wouldn't exactly say that it has aged well, but it looks better than I remembered. I had vague memories of it looking goofy enough to be like something you'd have seen in a 1930s "Flash Gordon" serial.

Trek writers never did seem to have much of a handle on chess. Seems like I recall in TNG Troi beating Data at chess, with the explanation that chess is "a game of intuition." :roll:

Phil Farrand, in his "Nitpicker's Guide" book on the series, suggested that perhaps Data had a "below novice" difficulty level setting.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

Exactly. Like all the good computer programs that play chess, there has to be a difficulty setting or the thing would just sit there forever thinking about each next move. A time limit would stop that, or just a setting to adjust the difficulty level.

But yeah, Troi beating Data at chess is otherwise pretty unbelievable. Maybe he's only allowed 10 picoseconds to think of his next move.

So few fictional depictions of chess are well done, and I suspect if I were an actual chess master myself, I might scoff at a few even I felt were fine. The same is true of most of their poker sessions. :roll:

So what's is the deal with chess? Many writers see it as a game for intellectuals and people who play it are smarter than most who don't. So if they want their characters to seem intelligent, they play chess - even if the writers or the actors don't know anything about it. Too bad.

That meddlin kid · 26 Mar 2007

Jilerb wrote:

So what's is the deal with chess? Many writers see it as a game for intellectuals and people who play it are smarter than most who don't. So if they want their characters to seem intelligent, they play chess - even if the writers or the actors don't know anything about it. Too bad.

In this case they obviously wanted to have an establishing character moment that showed Kirk's ability to succeed by thinking outside the box--not just smart, but smart in a clever, pragmatic way. And apparently didn't think about the fact that, as you pointed out, really good chess players aren't going to get caught out like that.

Or maybe they DID realize it, and figured that the average viewer wouldn't notice. Which might actually be correct. If you're just using chess as shorthand for establishing that somebody's smart, then as far as the average person is concerned you probably don't have to worry about getting the details right.

TOS was made for the sort of very wide mass audience that the old-style Big Three TV networks usually, of necessity, aimed to attract. There wasn't the sort of established, affluent, coveted-advertising-niche geek audience out there then that exists today. TV writers would seldom have thought it necessary to get the details right to appeal to such an audience. One would think that writers of a series of this sort today would figure that there were probably a fair few viewers in the target geek audience who knew a thing or two about chess, and write accordingly. And they'd DEFINITELY need to think long and hard about getting all the details of their world-building just so before going into production. Of course, creators of such a series today would in all probability be geeks themselves in a way most of TOS' creators don't seem to have been, so it would come naturally to them.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

I hate it when writers know something is wrong but rely on the audience being stupid or uncaring. That's lame and lazy. Bad enough a writer is the one who is ignorant, but that can be fixed by taking the time to ask somebody who knows, or looking something up. But for those who don't care - it's hard to fix that.

Ocean Doot · 25 Oct 2007

These unrealistic depictions of 3D Chess must END.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

Amy is the Queen at Queen's Level 3.

Ocean Doot · 25 Oct 2007

I couldn't read it till I zoomed in, and I really wanted to be able to read it.

Then I zoomed in and could read it, but I didn't want to anymore.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

Professor Plum · 10 Oct 2006

Where No Man Has Gone Before isn't quite my favorite episode of TOS (though it's in my top 5, methinks), but it is almost certainly the one I've seen the most, it being the first one I ever bought on VHS, $14.95 at the now-gone ShopKo in Watertown, SD, back in the day.

The first time I ever saw it was when I was a wee boy, on my grandma's black and white kitchen TV late on a Saturday night after the local news, and I have to admit that without color it didn't look THAT different from the rest of the series. It absolutely terrified me---my memory may be playing tricks on me, but it tells me that Gary's silver eyes (and later Dr. Dehner's) looked even scarier in black and white.

Love this one, even without Dr. McCoy.

That meddlin kid · 26 Mar 2007

Hadn't seen Amy in a long, long time. Hi, Amy!

I have no idea how 3D chess would even be played. I never learned more than the basics of 2D chess.

It IS lazy when writers know better and just suppose that the audience won't know or care. In fairness, I don't know that that's what happened there. Perhaps they really didn't think about how the scene didn't exactly make sense. Oversights like that seem to be common when writing scripts in a hurry. I know from experience that keeping everything straight and getting the details right can be challenging when writing your own story at your own pace. It must be a lot more so when writing scripts for a collaborative medium. As I've said before in my "Six Million Dollar Man" reviews, it's remarkable, all things considered, that they managed to make some episodes come out as well as they did.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

I will admit to even get far enough into a chess game to make it interesting would take far too much screen time, so they have to be quick.

And hey, I don't know the rules of 3D chess, so maybe it's possible to lose in two moves. I don't even think there are official rules for 3D chess.

Anyway, I know there is the fool's mate which is a two move checkmate in regular chess, but one would have to be a fool to fall into that.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

The Naked Time

01/04/04

Memory Alpha: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Naked_Time_(episode)
Transcript: http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/7.htm

Spoiler: show

I find the science in this episode highly questionable. Though the planet is contracting on itself, they claim its mass is decreasing but its gravity is increasing. Huh? It really shouldn't be increasing or decreasing, and the gravity shouldn't be changing at all. I'm also not sure what relationship there could be between time and antimatter that wouldn't similarly exist between time and regular matter. Obviously, to make this story work there must be something unknown going on, like matter disappearing into a subspace fold, yet possibly increasing its gravitational forces, but they don't mention it. Why the planet is even doing what it's doing is a mystery, but the fact it's doing something weird makes it worthy of study. But if it's weird and out of the ordinary, one shouldn't expect Earth to go through a similar process billions of years from now like Spock thinks it might.

On the planet below a science team apparently went mad or nuts and either killed each other or just couldn't be bothered to do whatever it took to stay alive. One of them shut off life support and most of them simply froze to death. Spock and crewman Tormolen beam down in some funky looking environmental suits to assess the situation.

Note: These are obviously not sealed environmental suits since the head covering is not sealed to the suit and one can just take off the gloves and even just reach up inside the head covering past the neck. I suspect they were meant to do nothing more than provide heat in a freezing cold environment.

Spock cautions Tormolen not to expose himself to anything nasty, but he already inadvertently did, and he probably didn't realize it or thought nothing of it so didn't mention it.

Note: Like solder, the contaminated water flowed toward heat, so toward Tormolen's exposed hand.

Now, despite the decontamination procedure in the transporter room, whatever was on Joe Tormolen didn't get zapped and he begins to spread it around the ship. For him, he worries too much about the 6 dead scientists and how he feels Humanity doesn't belong out in space to die like that anymore than they should fly since they weren't born with wings. He seems upset and Sulu and Riley try to calm him down when he picks up a butter knife from the table and first threatens them, and then turns it on himself in a suicidal manner. They try to wrestle it away, but Joe stabs himself and they rush him to Sickbay. Of course, both Sulu and Riley get infected and we see them trying to wipe something off their hands, whatever it is.

Whatever it is, it has the effect of making people act drunk or lowering their inhibitions. They become increasingly unconcerned with their work and fixate on some aspect of their own personality.

Sulu abandons his post and goes to work out with his rapier, fancying himself a swashbuckler, and Riley, after learning Joe had died, goes to Engineering and tricks Scotty and his aid into going to the bridge to see the captain, whom he claims ordered them up there. Riley closes off Engineering and reroutes all controls through there, and furthermore, he shuts off the engines and they cool down. He spends his time singing Irish songs over the ship's intercoms, to the annoyance of everybody, since he fancies himself a descendent of Irish Kings.

Sulu chases crewmen around the ship, threatening them to stand and fight, his rapier against their bare hands, but they run away and he calls them cowards. So he goes to the bridge and confronts Kirk and Spock, and takes Uhura to rescue the fair maiden, but Uhura says he's neither of those things, and Kirk distracts Sulu and Spock Vulcan nerve pinches him into unconsciousness - the first time we see that. Spock tells them to Take D'Artagnon here to Sickbay. :giggle:

Meanwhile, the Enterprise loses control and begins spiraling down to the planet's surface as the planet collapses. If they don't regain control soon, the Enterprise will enter the atmosphere and burn up.

Scott tries to cut through the walls with a phaser to expose the circuits so he can open the door. I would think one could easily blast the door open, but I guess not.

McCoy and Chapel, having failed to save Joe, try to find a cure to what's ailing Sulu and the others.

Spock goes to Sickbay to find out what's up, but McCoy has left for the lab since everyone down there has gone nuts, and Christine Chapel confesses her love for Spock and holds his hand and infects him just like Riley infected her earlier. Spock's sorry he can't return her feelings and he leaves, but he becomes deeply ashamed he can't express his feelings, like he could never tell him human mother he loved her, and though he tries to regain control and his composure, he's on the verge of tears.

Scotty finally breaks into Engineering and they grab Riley, but Scotty finds Riley shut off the engines, and though they only have 6 minutes left, it normally takes 30 minutes to fully start the engines and he cannot change the laws of physics. Kirk suggests a cold implosion of the engines, but Scotty says that's just theoretical and it's never been tried. Besides, it would take a row of computers working months on the problem to devise the correct formula.

Note: Of course, they have impulse engines and warp engines, and they are talking solely about warp engines, which frankly one wouldn't be using to break orbit, anyway. Maybe the impulse engines are also off and take even longer to heat up, so they'll have to risk using warp drive.

Kirk searches for Spock and finds him, but Spock's a mess. Kirk keeps asking him to concentrate, but Spock bemoans about his feelings and his failings. Kirk gets so mad he hits Spock a few times until Spock smacks him back right in the face. This seems to help Spock concentrate a bit, but it also infects Kirk.

Spock recalls there was already a formula worked out, but it's never been tried. It's some relationship between time and anti-matter. Kirk gets overly emotional about how Enterprise is like a woman and he's married to the selfish bitch and she always comes first, and he can't have a normal relationship with somebody like Yeoman Janice Rand since that's not allowed. Spock gets through to Kirk when Kirk realizes he'll do anything to save Enterprise, so Spock goes to engineering to try the formula.

Kirk walks to the bridge and notices how some crazy crewman has painted Repent Sinner on the turbolift door. As he gets to the bridge, McCoy rips his shirt and gives him a shot since he has discovered the cure. It worked earlier on Sulu, and he's already back at his post. Sulu screamed when it worked on him, but not Kirk - he's too much man to scream like that from a little old shot.

Note: Why McCoy ripped Kirk's shirt is a mystery since the hypo can normally inject through such fabric. Maybe he needed to check the color of Kirk's skin to judge something. I mean, surely he didn't do it so Shatner would look cool. :roll:

Kirk sits down and Spock and Scotty say they are ready, though they could use a bit more time but they don't have it, so it's now or never. Kirk looks at Rand, and seems saddened there is no beach for her and him to walk on.

Kirk orders the helm to plot a course away from the planet and they attempt the implosion. Engine power goes off the scale and they end up travelling faster than is possible for normal space. A warp bubble, you understand, is not normal space, but now they are doing it without a warp bubble. Sulu reports his chronometer is going backwards.

Note: If ever there was proof the ship's chronometers measure time by fixing on external data - like pulsars - this is it, since a normal clock would be going forward just as they are.

Kirk realizes they are in a time warp, so he orders Sulu to reverse power - slowly - slowly - until they are going sublight speed again in normal space. Spock calculates they have gone back in time 3 days - so I guess they avoid themselves and any temporal paradox by leaving the area.

They speculate they may travel in time using this method and Kirk thinks they might one day do that, if it's worth the risk.

The End.

I'm told originally this would have been a two-parter, and they would have gone back in time much farther, to TOS Tomorrow Is Yesterday. But they didn't like the idea of a two-parter so the split up those stories.

Just stating something from fantasy was involved - like subspace - could have cleaned up the science. We can hardly claim real subspace doesn't actually work like that, after all.

I wish they had mentioned why they couldn't use the impulse engines, but just because they didn't doesn't mean they didn't have a good reason why they couldn't use them. Frankly, it's a mistake, but I can't take off for it since one can only put so much in an hour of television. Maybe the gravity was so strong the impulse engines wouldn't do the job, though I suspect that can't be the case, but earlier Scotty was talking about how his warp engines could take them out of orbit, no problem.

Great stuff - Kirk and his feelings for his ship, and Spock and how he has feelings, but keeps them in check, and Chapel's unrequited feelings for Spock, and more. +1 stuff.

We can start this at a 7, but -1 since they really should have mentioned they have more than one type of engine, and the science is dubious.

KIA: +1 more = 17 dead now.

7 +1 -1 = 7.

7 out of 10.

That meddlin kid · 26 Mar 2007

As a kid I recall the sets of the iced-up ground station looking quite eerie. So did the drops of...whatever moving into the man's hand. Riley made himself so obnoxious that I didn't like him from that time on, which I guess was unfair since he wasn't exactly himself.

"Take D'Artagnon here to sickbay" is one of the all-time great Trek lines, and Leonard Nimoy delivers it so well.

And of course George Takei's Sulu attained screen immortality early on with that swashbuckler freakout. George Takei seems to have learned to look back with fondness on that whole business. But I'd guess that Sulu never lived it down, at least not until he attained a high enough rank to make it unwise to bring it up in his presence.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

Sulu has always been inscrutable.

Hanzo the Razor · 24 Jun 2007

I've been watching this off and on with my father-in-law over the past year. We're almost entirely through season two at this point.

Ocean Doot · 25 Oct 2007

Professor Plum wrote:

Where No Man Has Gone Before isn't quite my favorite episode of TOS (though it's in my top 5, methinks), but it is almost certainly the one I've seen the most, it being the first one I ever bought on VHS, $14.95 at the now-gone ShopKo in Watertown, SD, back in the day.

The first time I ever saw it was when I was a wee boy, on my grandma's black and white kitchen TV late on a Saturday night after the local news, and I have to admit that without color it didn't look THAT different from the rest of the series. It absolutely terrified me---my memory may be playing tricks on me, but it tells me that Gary's silver eyes (and later Dr. Dehner's) looked even scarier in black and white.

I remember watching it in syndication in 1985 just after I finished reading the final issue of the "Sin-Eater" four-parter.

Star Trek: TOS - Space, The Final Frontier.

Who is WANline