Episode 30: Operation - Annihilate!

Stardate: 3287.2

Quick Summary: There has been a pattern of mass insanity destroying civilizations, it's been following a straight line through the galaxy, and the planet Deneva is next. Complicating matters further, Kirk's brother, sister-in-law, and nephew have already been infected along with the million or so colonists on the planet. We soon discover that these blobby aliens, one of which infects Spock, are the cause of the insanity. Each is actually a giant single-celled organism, and a brain cell at that, collectively forming one enormous hive mind. Kirk realizes that they are sensitive to blinding light, so he rigs a way to blind the blobs all over the planet, and blinds Spock in the process, though only temporarily.

Review: The alien blobs look like cheap plastic vomit you would buy in a novelty store. Cool! This episode is another of the oft-repeated insanity storyline of season one; And it shows the writers are slowly getting better at it.

Who could ever possibly believe that Kirk might actually kill a million colonists to prevent the insanity from spreading further? Thankfully, that would not be the only drama of the episode. Spock going blind is more of a big deal, and when it seems McCoy blinded him unnecessarily, it adds a much needed additional layer to the story.

That Kirk's brother dies is a wasted storyline, as is the hive-mind concept. It's pretty absurd that no one ever thought about exposing the blobs to light as they destroyed entire planets. An overly simple, lazy solution. And for that matter, so was the resolution for Spock's blindness - extra inner eyelids caused by the Vulcan sun. You'd think he might have mentioned that earlier.

These are valid points to nitpit about, but overall we cruised along swell.

Review: 3 stars

Episode 29: The City on the Edge of Forever

Stardate: (Outside the normal space-time boundaries)

Quick Summary: When the Enterprise is jolted by a ripple in time, McCoy accidentally injects himself with an overdose of chordrozine. He beams down to the planet below, where Kirk and crew follow, and they discover that an arch is the single source of the time displacement. And it speaks! The "Guardian of Forever" shows a window into all Earth's history, McCoy leaps into it, and suddenly there's no more Enterprise and they all only exist outside of time. Kirk and Spock go back to the 1930s where they estimate McCoy to be before he created the alternate reality. They befriend Edith Keeler who runs the 21st Street Mission, and it's not long before Kirk falls for her. The problem: Edith proves to be the focal point in time. She has two possible futures, and depending whether she lives or dies, all of history will be changed. McCoy is the random element. Does he kill her, or prevent her from being killed? - we don't know which. In the end, Kirk must allow Edith to die, thus restoring the timeline, and everyone returning home.

Review: BEST. EPISODE. EVER. Really, the bottom line is that, in terms of Star Trek - The Original Series, this is the best of 'em.

For the sake of full disclosure, I must admit my bias heavily favoring this episode before watching it this time around. But there's a reason for my bias. It's friggin' awesome. And that's an objective statement.

Where to begin? I feel like I'm high on chordrozine myself! Let me just hit some major points and keep this from becoming a ten-page essay. I'll go with ten bullets instead...

• What really sets this apart from other someone-screwed-up-the-historical-timeline stories is that we actually don't know among Edith's two possible fates which causes the screwup versus which is the needed fix. That's perhaps the most riveting component to the story - it's not simply about fixing the timeline; it's about determining what that even means.
• What makes it all work is the authenticity of Edith's character. We care. And forget Dynasty. This will go down as the highlight of Joan Collins' career. In fact, it already has.
• I love the explanation for how Kirk and Spock arrive at the same location as McCoy, which would seem quite improbable... the theory that time is fluid and there exist "currents of time". Without debating the scientific merits of this theory in too much detail, it at least strikes me that such focal points in time would have to assume and assign some metric of importance to individual people or events, and that's very problematic, clearly. I'll let you theologians out there chime in on issues of pre-determination, but it hints at godspeak to me.
• Speaking of theology, what's the deal with the "Guardian of Forever"?! How can this character get away with not being explored further?! The faceless, shapeless being powering the time-arch reeks of Moses and the Burning Bush - which is also interesting because by episode's end, Kirk and the gang seemingly want no part of the Guardian, despite what he offers them. He's even perceived as something of a menace. Hmmmmm...
• It's interesting to note that, before McCoy leaps through the time portal, Kirk and Spock are actually discussing going back in time on purpose to prevent McCoy from overdosing on the chordrozine. So the moral of the story isn't "not to tinker" with history, the way we'd all assume.
• How is the gang magically returned to the 23rd century once Edith dies?!
• What is the "city" referred to in the title of the episode?
• Was there any point to the pedestrian who phasers himself?
• Did you ever notice in the credits that Edith is referred to as "Sister Edith Keeler"? She's a NUN, for pete's sake?!
• I'm irrationally enticed at the prospect that, if Kirk and Spock fail, each individual member of the crew will have to go back and try to restore proper time as well. Just am.

Forget the stupid tribbles. This episode is where it's at.

Review: 5 stars

Episode 28: The Alternative Factor

Stardate: 3087.6

Quick Summary: While exploring an unknown planet, the Enterprise is suddenly jolted. Turns out that the entire magnetic field of the solar system "winked", meaning it encountered "non-existence". A man named Lazarus unexpectedly appears on the planet and is crazed with paranoia about a terrible half-humanoid, half "emptiness" trying to destroy civilization. Ultimately, it's revealed that there is a parallel universe and two different Lazarus' at the heart of the mystery, thus Kirk traps them both within the corridor between the two universes where they will be left to fight for all eternity.

Review: Whew, that was a mouthful. If you ever want to make an in-the-know reference at a social gathering, just ask, "What happens when two identical particles of matter and anti-matter meet?". Then, as you pour your drink over their head, exclaim "ANNIHILATION!!!". It's very popular at parties.

The first half of this episode is too confusing, the dissolving special effect when the galaxy "winks" is too lame, and Lazarus is too poorly acted. Then in the second half we're introduced to the concept of parallel universes and corridors that act as safety valves protecting eternity and other high-minded ideas like that. The writers are finally coming into their own and earning their sci-fi chops.

It's another cool twist at the end when "the terrible thing out to destroy civilization" is actually the sane and rational Lazarus, in contrast to the insane madman Lazarus of our universe. It does indeed depend on one's perspective. But I have to ask, wouldn't large enough quantities of sanity and rationality, in fact, destroy many aspects of our anthropomorphic view of the universe after all? Put it in the context of American politics and you'll see what I mean.

Also, Kirk's final thought lingers: How would it be, to have a raging madman at your throat for all eternity, trapped in a corridor between universes, until time itself came to an end? It's impossible for us to even fathom. But I might have a better shot at it if the picture didn't go blurry every time they depicted it.

Some 5-star ideas, but 1-star storyline and acting. Let's average them out.

Review: 3 stars

Episode 27: Errand of Mercy

Stardate: 3198.4

Quick Summary: The Federation is at war with the Klingon Empire! The race is on to get to the strategically-located planet of Organia and set up a base of operations. Kirk and Spock arrive there initially but fail to persuade the Organians to their cause, then the Klingons arrive, led by Commander Kor, and despite taking control of the planet, are incredulous at how the Organians put up no resistance. When Kirk and Spock escape captivity they track down Kor and a battle is about to ensue, then suddenly everyone is rendered incapacitated on both sides - on the planet as well as in space - and the Organians reveal themselves to be, not simple villagers at all, but highly evolved non-humanoid beings of pure energy. And pacifist energy at that.

Review: Yay, Klingons! We've been waiting for this. They look different than in later series - lacking the Worf-style ruffled forehead but having a dark Jersey-shore tanned complexion and eyebrows that veer off in two directions. Like my brother. It's an oxymoron, but they're such good bad guys! Commander Kor, fu-manchu and all, is another in a growing line of terrifically evil antagonists, like Khan and Anon 7 only a few episodes before him. So much of the the story is propelled by his sheer force of personality alone.

You knew right away that the theme was going to be the futility of violence. Ho-hum. Yet the twist at the end where the Organians are shown to be non-humanoid accomplishes it in a novel and unexpected way. Spock describes them as "pure energy, pure thought, a different form of life completely," playing on the main idea from the last episode, and says the Organians are to humans as humans are to amoeba. Sheesh. It's much more satisfying to stew on this type of possibility than it would have been if the Organians had simply remained peaceful primitive villagers being victimized.

Hence, the Organians were a nice surprise. The Klingons kicked butt. Yet something was lacking that I can't quite put my finger on. With the exception of Commander Kor's performance, the magic just wasn't there. Redemption lies in the fact that, at the episode's conclusion, we're left to realize that nothing was actually resolved and that the Federation is undoubtedly still at war with the Klingons. They shall return :-)

Review: 3 stars

Episode 26: The Devil in the Dark

Stardate: 3196.1

Quick Summary: The Enterprise arrives at a Perdium mining colony on Janus 6 where a strange unknown creature has been killing the miners. The Federation relies on the Perdium, so it's vital to kill the creature and restore mining operations immediately, however Kirk and Spock discover that the blobby creature, calling itself a "horta", is a different type of all-silicon life form and possibly the only survivor of a dead race. They track it down and Spock commences with what has to be the longest mind-meld ever in order to strike a deal whereby the horta will tunnel, the miners will collect the resulting minerals, and both will agree to leave each other safely alone.

Review: Without question, the coolest idea of this episode is that an altogether different type of life form might exist out there that's not based on carbon compounds at all, but something else entirely, like silicon, enabling the horta to "move through rocks as easily as we humans move through air". When you fathom the infinite evolutionary possibilities that might exist in the universe, this almost seems the more realistic type of encounter we'd find in deep space exploration.

Plus, it kind of looks like a giant turd.

The familiar questions are raised - if it's the last surviving member of a dead species, wouldn't it be a crime against science to kill it? Of course it would; which is why it's so surprising to see Kirk so gung-ho about killing, not capturing, it. But not to fret, he does show his more enlightened side later on.

Who knew that Spock could perform a mind-meld with a silicon-based creature? Unfortunately, we're able to ponder the ramifications of this for quite a while as the mind-meld goes on for what seems like half the episode. It was also rather predictable that the silicon modules (a.k.a. - purple balls) were the horta's eggs and that it was killing the miners simply to protect her spawn.

But what really gets my goat is that the plot really had such potential to go in a more profound direction when, as the miners sought violent revenge against the horta, they could have successfully killed it and shown that we, not it, are the true "devils in the dark". But, um, they didn't.

Review: 3 stars