ISRIERI'S PROFILE

ep 28 – "The Alternative Factor" (★★★)

Now this is how you do a mystery! I was utterly absorbed speculating what the hell was going on with Lazarus. Doppelganger? Was he being possessed? An alternate dimension? Does he come from a mirror universe? Phasing in and out of time? Was he just completely nuts? Is there a crack in spacetime or something? Turns out its all of it at once! Not a spectacular episode but some good performances and some proper trippy special effects.

To save the universe, they lock up Lazarus within the corridor he opened between the two dimensions. This entire episode we've watched the man suffer as he's painfully tugged back and forth between the two realities, the strain on his mind so great it drove one half of him mad. Now he's stuck there with that alter ego unable to escape and (I presume) unable to be killed. "Is it really such a high price to pay to save two universes?" Readers, there is an answer to that question. You know what it is.

One of the big themes that keeps cropping up is how the needs the many outweigh the needs of the few. However with each episode they don't make it a braindead reaffirmation of that ideal but each one examines it in their own way; more than one with a critical eye.

ep 29 – "The City on the Edge of Forever" (★★★★★)

This episode has no right to be as good as it is. Any other writer this would have been a heavy handed affair. Now I love how over-the-top and unsubtle star trek enjoys being, but it goes to show you how you can take a good concept (as many of these episodes are) and elevate it to something special by setting aside some of the hokeyness to replace it with gravitas.

Its a simple what-if. We've all heard it, possibly all sick of it. If you could go back in time, would you kill Hitler? Murder one man to save millions? "Of course I would! Oh if I only had the chance, just give me the chance I'll see it done!" They always say that as though its a moral failing if you would even dare think otherwise. But when would you go back? How would the world change, without the rippling affects of that war? Its easy when you're faced with killing a monster: what about a kind, innocent woman? Someone who has tried to do nothing but her absolute best, only to be killed in her prime and utterly arbitrarily. A tragic and undeserving fate, but one that must occur lest the future be plunged into darkness. As the episode makes clear, meddling with the past is inadvisable: Remember it, so that you may make the right choices in the future. That's where your decisions will matter. I can't help but be reminded once again of Kodos the Executioner.

Everyone has the potential to bring as much suffering as joy to the world, but the implication that there are good people alive now that enrich it far more being dead disturbs me. I suppose that's the price of free will. Kirk's been able to pull magic out of his hat for almost every no-win scenario. Not this time.

ep 30 – "Operation: Annihilate!" (★★★)

Serious question

about animal.mid

which I've never heard till now

...but at 0:20 its literally wood man


EDIT: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Marrend did you do that on purpose?

ep 24 – "A Taste of Armageddon" (★★★★★)

OH MY STARS AND GARTERS Scotty is in the captain's chair?! I'm nerding out over here! I totally didn't see that coming and what do I keep telling you all Scotty is the HERO of this show! Picks up something fishy where the others do not and sees through it straight away! He fixes problems in no time flat, squeezes every ounce of efficiency from equipment and crew, AND is sharp & shrewd himself to boot! The man can't be stopped! Errm 'ahem' anyway...

This was wild. I'm honestly a little taken aback by how good this is. I'm struck by how many good episodes there are in just the first season. SET ASIDE the fact that this premise is incredibly asinine and lets do some math real quick: Say that on each planet there are 400 million people. Lets say that on average, each year about 5 million people die due to "casualties" from the war. The war has been waged for 500 years, so that's approximately 2.5 billion people dead total. Nevermind the horror that all of those would have been suicides....

This episode takes a good hard look at war, but strips away all the excuses. What are they even fighting the war over? No one ever says. As ugly as war is, we don't descend to it without reasons; petulant and greedy ones, but reasons nonetheless. The conflict between these two planets has long lost it's reason. The deaths have no reason. However that's just the surface level: There's a lot to unpack with this episode if you really want to get into it. What fascinated me most was, assuming a universe with no afterlife and no continuation of the soul, the survival of your species is the single most paramount directive. Without more of you to continue on, all the deaths of the past and their struggles in life, everything our ancestors clawed for, were for nothing. What about your struggles? Your triumphs? Are you still telling yourself its all for your own sake? The difference between the annihilation of your entire history, everything that makes you who you are, an millions of lives spent for a vain prolongation, is that really so high a cost if you believe it is all or nothing? I'm not certain this is meant to be a critical finger pointed at how war is bad. Its highlighting the decisions that have to be made by those who are responsible for these lives and how having to choose between two impossible stances feels like a terrible trap. Maybe it seems like I'm gushing undeservedly over a kitschy episode but the presentation and scenario aren't as important as what sort of reflections it leaves you with.

Kirk & Co, with style and panache do indeed find a way to broker a peace but I thought that the solution was going to be different. Kirk destroys the computers that the two races use to perpetuate the virtual attacks, but I thought he was going to use one to completely bomb out and destroy the enemy planet. Its all virtual: When faced with the need for the entire planet to massacre it's own population, they would have no choice but to stare long and hard into the mirror and recognize the stupidity of what they've been doing. If Kirk had done that then opened a channel for peace talks, wouldn't they have leapt at the chance to end the struggle?

I'm surprised that this plotline hasn't been rehashed by some parody or tribute. Not even in future trek as far as I know. Some of the preceding episodes like Return of the Archons have their echos, but this was completely new to me. I also gotta point out that for the netflix episodes, they've used some CGI to update the wide shots of the ship exteriors or to update the odd model here and there. All of its been inoffensive until now: they went full monty for the planet's surface. Its obtrusive and looks terrible.

P.S: Here's where we finally get the United Federation of Planets referred to by name!

ep 25 – "This Side of Paradise" (★★★★)

The music swells, the camera zooms in on the woman's face. The inexplicably recurring coat of vaseline on the lens surrounds and accentuates her visage. Ohh boy another Kirk escapade here we come. Cut and zoom to Sppp—whhhhAAAAT?!?!?!?!

Yet another episode that utterly floored me. All signs pointed to this being a run-of-the-mill mediocre mystery but it was so much fun, the actors were having a great time, and it tops off at the end with a great character moment between Kirk & Spock. I haven't been so thoroughly mugged like this by television in years! Basically an agricultural colony ran afoul of some of the natural flora that are...hmmm. Lets say a a metaphor. Spock gets zapped by some of the spores and the fun only escalates from there.

"Get back to your stations... Ensign! Get back to your station!"
"I'm sorry sir, we're beaming down to the colony."
"This is mutiny, mister."
"...Yes sir, it is."

Kirk's face in that moment... That's the face of utter realization. It might be the hardest I've giggled thus far... Right up until the plants snuck up on him then the giggles were uncontrollable.

One funny thing about TOS that keeps cropping up: Every now and again there will be a musical sting in a...funny location. It throws me into a laughing fit everytime and the one here about 11 minutes in might take the cake.

Battle8 from Ace: Dial the pitch down to 80% and you got a sweet jam.

Same with Theme5, but you want 85% for that one.

Battle1 also leagues better around 90 or 85.

What I'm saying is that most of these songs are in the wrong tempo.

ep 16 – "Shore Leave" (★★)

Oh this is gonna be a fun one. Its extremely clear what's happening at the outset here, but the big mystery is what's causing it? Personally I think I'd enjoy a planet where your hallucinations come to life. Provided of course that the planet didn't try to trap you on it. Its a holodeck episode before holodecks. A knight even skewers McCoy. "He's dead" says yeoman barrows. Nonsense, says I! You're not a doctor! Turns out that yes, the yeoman was not a doctor and McCoy in peril is nowhere near as riveting as Spock. The actual truth of what's going on behind the scenes is a little silly and every scene is filled with walking stereotypes, but it was the 60s what am I supposed to do about it.

In this episode, Spock tells a joke. This convinces Kirk to take the shore leave and its brilliant. Good thing he did too: Even though this is just a silly what-if there is still a body count. It would be easier to list the episodes were someone doesn't die. McCoy comes back, why didn't the ensign?

How can you not love Finnegan? How can you not love Kirk asking him "What's going on here, Finnegan what's happening to my crew?" LIKE HE'S GONNA KNOW. Turns out that he does know. Epic twist. You also gotta love that there's shots of the sidewalk and what looks to be a storage hut from the park they're filming in.

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ep 17 – "The Galileo Seven" (★★★★)

Yo there's a plague. There's a plague on this planet that they need to deliver this medicine to. And we're studying quasars with our thumbs up our butts? I'm with the commissioner – why take the chance? Kirk messed up here and I think that's the point.

I don't consider this an episode about the callousness of cold emotionless logic or about needing to make difficult ethical decisions. This is a story about shortcomings, the difficulties of command & leadership, and how what we consider our strengths can also be our biggest weaknesses. Spock's stubbornness & intelligence fails to avail him of the situation and in fact exacerbates the problem. The other men aboard, with their insistence upon burial and desire for vengeance, risk the life of Spock and the crew for what amounts to a human ritual. Kirk's willingness to take chances, his shrewd and in-the-moment decision making backfired on him and he put the lives of multiple crew members at risk. He tries his damnedest to buy time and rectify his mistake, but its an impossible task and he's forced to leave them behind. It takes Spock finally learning the lessons that the mission taught him to make a reckless decision in an act of desperation to save them all. I'd love if someone with a larger vocabulary could put this more concisely for me: This is an excellent lesson for us all to learn. No matter how self-sufficient or encompassing your ability, we're all capable of mistakes. We all have our shortcomings. We need one another to make up for those shortcomings.

We need men like Mr. Scott! Scotty is once again the true hero of this show.

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ep 18 – "The Squire of Gothos" (★★★★★)

WHAT. ITS Q! Q IS HERE! Okay okay, he's not Q I hear you all saying. But you remember Q episodes don't you? This is one of those.

"We must get back to our ship!" says Kirk.
"Yes I must experience your grief at separation." says Trelaine
"I am responsible for 400 men & women aboard this vessel-"
"WOMEN?!?"
Kirk's like ohh shit.

The strange entity calling himself Squire Trelaine is essentially Q, but rather than feeling bemusement and moderate contempt of humanity here he's utterly facinated by us. Specifcally by our martial & warlike history; killing & death. Its all terribly quaint, how these lesser beings struggle & romanticize. He's been observing Earth through some kind of telescope, but his planet is far enough away that the light currently reaching him is from the early 19th century. With human visitors finding their way into his lap how could he not resist entertaining them and enjoying the pleasure of their company? If only they'd stop being such spoilsports about it. I feel like there's a lesson here about the appropriation of culture, the difference between that and how experiencing a way of life different from one's own is meant to enrich yourself. It requires genuine admiration & respect which Trelaine lacks. The fact that its western european culture he's playing with, which consdidering the eurocentrism of the last several centuries on this half of the globe, is particularly poignant on several layers. He understands the form...but not the substance.

Fantastic from beginning to end. Great quips, great performances, and pretty much everyone catastrophically uncomfortable. What's not to love? "You will hang by the neck until you are dead! DEAD! DEAD!!!!"

P.S: I'm convinced. Someone DEFINITELY had a child phobia.