ISRIERI'S PROFILE

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ep 12 – "The Menagerie Pt.1" (★★★★)

I honestly wasn't sure if Captain Pike was going to come back. But I didn't think it would be so soon......and I didn't think it would be like this. I'm on the edge of my seat before the titles roll.

Pike suffered severe injury & radiation burns saving civilians from a starship wreckage and has been confined to a wheelchair, his body in a vegetative state. Spock has risked mutinity to direct the enterprise to the starbase where he's been kept to pick him up and take him back to Talos IV. But why?! Having seen the pilot I think I know: He wants to deliver Pike back to the Talosians so that using their mental powers Pike will be able to communicate again, or to try and release him from the confines of his mutilated body. With TOS you can't ever be quite certain.

Spock is the best damn character on this show and seeing him in any peril is knuckle-biting stuff, let alone peril that's entirely self-afflicted as he is acting against Pike's own wishes to be left as he is. Talos IV after the events from the pilot episode seems to have been declared a forbidden zone by starfleet, and returning or contacting the system for any reason will result in the death penalty. Why is Spock doing this? What does Pike know or not know? Has the situation on Talos IV changed? Will Kirk's command be permenantly revoked? TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR THE EXCITING CONCLUSION.

The big knock I have to give is that during Spock's trial they run a clipshow of the pilot episode to give some context to those who didn't see it. I wonder if my feelings toward this episode would have been elevated further had I not watched it; Spock's motives and Pike's past being a complete mystery.

Lt. Uhura hasn't been given a ton of lines in the show so far, but her screen presence is incredible. She makes the most of her time to inject some humanity into big moments. I love how she gave Angela a little hug when she found her lost husband in ep8, and here her shock upon Spock admitting his betrayal reflects what we're all probably feeling.

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ep 13 – "The Menagerie Pt.2" (★)

Well I was right. First off this entire episode is just the remainder of The Cage. I was also right that Spock was going out of his way for an old friend to help him in a time of need, seeing a solution that can allieviate his condition where medical science could not. I was rather hoping there would be some new development as we checked back with the Talosians, or that we could see Pike happy & hearty and able to say a few words to Spock. That would have made it all worth it. Unfortunately the show lets you down there and lets the clips do all the talking. I skipped through the whole thing.

I think if you're watching blind as I am, not seeing The Cage first may elevate your intrigue in the first part, but the second will let you down anyway.

ep 6 – "The Enemy Within" (★★★★★)

This. Now this is the good stuff. Fuck physics its time for metaphysics babyyyy!

Superb camerawork with this one. Great shots like Shatner walking forward toward his double, then the two switching places for the next shot with the double in the shadows and Shatner backing away. My favorite is when Kirk & Spock go up in the lift and as the doors close, the imposter's hand juts forth in front of the camera, as though to clutch the door. Its so dumb but its great! The more bombastic the better.

Last episode I said everyone got some development, but that was everyone who's names I recognized. Yeoman Rand has been around since episode 2, and it seems like she's intended to be part of the main cast, but her only development is the myriad ways she can be made uncomfortable. Unfortunate, but its clear why she fell off the wagon. Shatner just owns the screen in this, and this is probably the first solid example of the relationship between Bones, Spock, and Kirk. With Kirk's two halves burning up and withering away respectively, its up to them to help put the man back together. Sulu also gets some great lines. This is a must-watch episode, but I'm beating around the bush here:

WHAT IS WITH THE DAMN DOG. You glued a horn to its head! And we're supposed to take that seriously?!? I love how unabashedly silly this show is unafraid of being.

"I've seen a part of myself no man should ever see." says Kirk. I disagree, its a part of themselves that every person should see and know. If it wasn't worth seeing, I don't think it would have been worth showing, and exploring. This concept appears time and again in media, and its typically riveting for good reason.

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ep 7 – "Mudd's Women" (★)

Gotta say initially I thought this was gonna be pretty cut & dry: A sleazy smuggler in some kind of slave-trade who's trying to keep his real business under wraps in the guise of a mail-order bride business. But then after the hearing he's going on about making the three ladies rich, duchesses even! That sounds like the words of a man in their employ. Something more is happening under the hood here...

And then there wasn't. Or if there was it really wasn't explained. What even is this episode? I think this one's safely skipabble; nothing remotely interesting going on. If there's a central premise I have no clue what it is. There was potential for it and I think you could have spun something interesting out of this, but the writers clearly didn't know what they were going for here. There's gonna be more duds I'm sure, and I'm certain this isn't the least of them.

The show acts like the women without the venus drug (makeup) are somehow hideous but they're not?? I'm guessing they're just supposed to be older women? Vira in the pilot, when they revealed her true face it was more pitiable and tragic considering how badly she had been mutilated in the transporter crash. Here its just.... this episode explains nothing.

JUST GIVE KIRK THE DAMN CRYSTALS.

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ep 8 – "What Are Little Girls Made Of" (★★★)

Kirk makes me laugh, man. Look at his face just before it fades to opening titles: the timing of the cut and his agape mouth are too good. He also tries to fake out the villains with the old "distract them by talking then suddenly leaping to action" trick as well fight it out with the power of styrofoam rocks. To say nothing of the EPIC DODGE ROLL OF DESTINY.

Corby's quest to create android vessels into which humans can transplant their consciousness doesn't really seem like an ignoble goal here. Kirk immediately finds it distasteful, signalling that the audience should too but I don't quite understand why. Well....I mean apart from the needless deaths of his two security officers but that feels more like its the serving the plot's need for a villain than examining the ethics of the situation. It does raise some interesting questions regarding whether Corby truly is human or not. Being more familiar with Data & his quest for personhood in TNG, I would say the answer seems obvious. However Corby's own assumptions and prejudices are what gets in the way of his vision – he's unable to look at Angela as anything more than a machine yet tries so hard to convince Kirk & Angela that he is not. Where is the line? By whom is it drawn? Would a human-android transplant really be a perfect replica? Its similar to that famous thought experiment with the transporters.

The makeup for Rock was kinda creepy and therefore I loved it. Also what a voice that actor has! I damn near spit out my drink when Kirk tried to leave his cell and Rock just slides into frame and stares Kirk down an inch from his face! This is a good episode for Kirk shenanigans.

I'm roughly 6000 dollars away from finally paying off my student debts, and am basically pushing myself to the limits of sleep and patience with my jobs in order to meet that amount within the next 4 or 5 months. Thus, I have arbitrarily decided I'm gonna watch some Star Trek. Beginning with the original series and potentially continuing up to The Next Generation, I will log my experience for posterity.

The Next Generation was one my favorite shows growing up, but its been over 20 years and I've not seen all the episodes as I would just catch reruns whenever they broadcast. The other series I only have knowledge of from cultural osmosis, and is more or less a mystery.

Make no mistake: I am a star trek noob, and for the most part these are going to be my inital impressions. I am watching the series for enjoyment and not serious critical study. I hope we understand that going forward. If you haven't seen the series either and you feel like you have the time, come watch them along with me! Some of these episodes are pretty fascinating. There may be potential spoilers but I'll try to keep things vague.

★ = Irritating
★★ = Mediocre
★★★ = Interesting
★★★★ = Engaging
★★★★★ = Riveting

With that, lets begin our voyage.

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Pilot – "The Cage" (★★★)

The best word I think I can use to describe this one is "Surreal." The camerawork, the strange star backdrop sequence when they jump to warp (I think? I had no clue what was happening), and especially Mr. Spock giving a little smile while they were petting that plant. Its certainly a pilot, trying to establish all the potential the show has to offer. We swing from a sci-fi glass menagire, to an old castle, to a horse farm out of some 50s western. Its pretty wild, and I think folks in the 60s must have thought so too.

Those Talosians missed an opportunity. I couldn't help but think when they grabbed the two women from the transporter room "you've got one male human who absolutely refuses any attempts to bend him over your knee and resists your tampering with everything he's got, and a woman who seems more or less on board with the whole repopulation thing. Why not grab two or three of the men from the same away team?" Its that old 60s syndrome. I expected sexism in some form would be present in TOS but not right in the pilot. Poor Vira. If you had left with the crew maybe they could have helped you!

There's lots of pretty great details here. I was initially confused that Vira was clearly so young and not as scuffed up as the older scientists; chalked it up to the aforementioned syndrome. But turns out it makes a lot of sense in hindsight. This is clearly at the sales pitch stage, and a lot of what would come to be known and loved in the fandom hadn't quite materialized yet. Pike? Who the heck is Pike?! I wonder if he'll return. This doesn't feel like star trek so much as a dimestore paperback plot, but one adapted for the screen by diehard passionate fans.

I personally found the central conceit pretty interesting. "Live life, scuffs and all, or turn your back on it and wither" is something I can really relate to and thought about often. A strange pathway to explore it, but I hope its something the series revisits later.

I got a kick out of the one random guy walking around in shorts and a striped polo. Strap in Isrieri: its gonna be a long journey.

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ep 2 "The Man Trap" (★★★)

Oh man. So this is the original series, huh? Things are gonna get jank I can tell.

Yet I'm kinda surprised that through the jank its still kind of...good? Compared to the pilot the dialogue and acting is leagues above, and I feel its only gonna get better. Pretty wacky to kick things off with some weird salt vampire monster, especially considering the modestly cerebral plot from before, but its kinda charming. What made the episode was the charisma of the actors & actresses, as well as the strange blocking: Kirk crawling around in the sand sneaking up on Crater was.... they must've held the camera on it for a fair minute or so. Got a chuckle out of me. I seriously can't wait until we get to that legendarily juicy ham. I live for that stuff.

If you had to ask me, what's the one thing that is unmistakably and quintessentially star trek, something that is the series signature, its the red alert sound effect. I didn't know it was this old and it threw me that it went unchanged from here to TNG apparently? Also I didn't mention last episode but these special effects are pretty damn good for the time. The props, I'd argue, might even be ahead of their time in some respects – the transceivers they used in this episode were basically flip phones.

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Ep 3 – "Charlie X" (★★★)

Rated TV-14 for "Sex, Fear." That's a good sign right there.

And it delivered! Geez louise what a madcap episode this was; what an audience hook! A goofy stare, a musical sting, overlapping voices. That's one way to get you invested as the enterprise faces its mightiest foe yet, an adolescent boy! For something so goofy its a major downer.

Also can I just say, I know starfleet is a psudo-military organization and child-rearing is not in their wheelhouse but I mean c'mon now you can't offer better advice than perfunctory non-answers? Letting him roam around the starship as if he was just another member of the crew? And not as though he hasn't been cut off from all human society for 17 years? If this is even a slimmer of the sort of parenting commonplace at the time its no fucking wonder there's so much stupidity in the world. Just explain things! Mindfully! Literally! Just council the poor bastard and stop off-loading the responsibility! God-powers be damned! This is the reason why starfleet starting mandating psychiatric professionals aboard space vessels: to prevent just this sort of horseplay.

Already we're into the grey zone with the ethical dilemmas. Charlie is someone who's never had to deal with responsibility, and clearly the Thalians are even worse guardians than the enterprise. Having to send him back into their arms is clearly not the right thing for the boy, but what choice did they honestly have? He blew up an entire ship! How is he possibly going to learn about responsibility and empathy when his powers make his will paramount? Through no fault of his own the Thalians (out of pity) made him into a walking beast, his humanity a liability rather than an asset and now with no choice but to be made to quash it. The first episode was the escape from a cage, and this one is about remaining in one. Its tragic.

Y'know Spock might be a Vulcan in control of his emotions but that doesn't mean he can't feel them. Why ya gotta embarrass him in front of the entire mess hall Uhura? That's also why Charlie silenced her when she started singing for him. It might seem baffling to some since it clearly wasn't mean-spirited, but its pretty obvious to me there's little to love about being singled out and put on display for your awkwardness, like some sort of animal to gawk at.

Props to Charlie's actor. I love how he invaded their personal space and stooped over everyone sitting. Made the discomfort palpable.

I contend that The Road Scholars are the hardest fight in that game.

Trying to fight them with just Terry & Nern is madness. :O

I really dig the combat and enemy designs, and of course the FOEs are a wellspring of entertainment. But jeez louise it could really benefit from being at least a little bit more streamlined. I only got past the 1st strata and I must have trekked in and out of the dungeon like 12 times. The pacing is at a crawl all the way through and even though I like the combat, its no fun having to wade through the easier enemies on the lower floors while getting all their useless loot stuck to you.

Whoever thought that gold from only trash loot + limited inventory + you can only sell items One At A Time was a good idea was probably a FOE himself. I'm assuming they fixed all this in future games.