Star Trek: The Original Series

Reviews of The Original Series were were written retrospectively in the fall of 1998 during a prominent daily re-airing of the series. Because of the compressed timeline, these reviews are short (and, frankly, far from my best work). Note: All reviews contain spoilers.

Content Listing

Season 1 (1966-1967)

  • 9/8/1966. The Man Trap 2.5 stars. — When a landing party beams down to an archaeological dig for a routine evaluation, one member of the party turns up dead under mysterious circumstances.
  • 9/15/1966. Charlie X 3.5 stars. — The Enterprise provides transport for 17-year-old Charlie Evans, an adolescent who grew up alone on a deserted planet, and who holds powerful abilities that were key to his survival.
  • 9/22/1966. Where No Man Has Gone Before 3 stars. — Kirk's longtime friend and fellow officer Gary Mitchell develops astounding superhuman powers, eventually turning him against his own captain and shipmates.
  • 9/29/1966. The Naked Time 3 stars. — Members of the Enterprise crew contract a virus that has intoxicating side effects, leading some to exhibit bizarre and dangerous behavior.
  • 10/6/1966. The Enemy Within 3.5 stars. — A transporter malfunction creates a duplicate version of Captain Kirk ... a version who dons a nasty disposition.
  • 10/13/1966. Mudd's Women 1.5 stars. — The Enterprise rescues galactic scoundrel Harry Mudd and his hypnotically attractive passengers from a critically damaged cargo ship.
  • 10/20/1966. What Are Little Girls Made Of? 3 stars. — Brilliant scientist Dr. Roger Korby takes Kirk and Chapel hostage, revealing his hopes to replace humanity with emotionless androids.
  • 10/27/1966. Miri 2 stars. — The Enterprise encounters a planet that is an exact duplicate of Earth, but where all children die of a terrible disease as they approach adulthood.
  • 11/3/1966. Dagger of the Mind 3.5 stars. — Kirk takes on an investigation into the methods of Dr. Tristan Adams, a penal colony administrator who is using unique technology to control and terrorize his patients.
  • 11/10/1966. The Corbomite Maneuver 2.5 stars. — In uncharted space, the Enterprise encounters a mysterious alien probe. When Kirk is forced to destroy it, he incites a conflict with powerful aliens.
  • 11/17/1966. The Menagerie, Part I 3 stars. — For unknown reasons, Spock seizes control of the Enterprise and sets a course for the forbidden planet Talos IV, which he had previously visited on a mission with former Enterprise captain Christopher Pike.
  • 11/24/1966. The Menagerie, Part II 3 stars. — As Spock faces court martial and possible execution for forcing the Enterprise to Talos IV, the mystery surrounding Captain Pike and the Talosians is slowly revealed.
  • 12/8/1966. The Conscience of the King 2.5 stars. — Kirk comes face to face with a criminal from the past when he learns that a political leader responsible for putting thousands to their death may be part of an acting company for which he is providing transport.
  • 12/13/1966. Balance of Terror 2.5 stars. — The Romulans, virtually unheard of since Starfleet was at war with them a century ago, are detected by the Enterprise to be in violation of the neutral zone, possibly testing new military technology.
  • 12/29/1966. Shore Leave 3 stars. — Members of the crew beam down to a world where their thoughts are magically manifested into reality.
  • 1/5/1967. The Galileo Seven 3.5 stars. — During a shuttle mission, Spock's first command becomes a struggle of logical decisions when the team becomes stranded on a desolate planet.
  • 1/12/1967. The Squire of Gothos 2 stars. — The Enterprise crew is forced to be the guests at a party hosted by a powerful, playful, temperamental being.
  • 1/19/1967. Arena 1.5 stars. — Kirk and the captain of a Gorn ship, which had recently destroyed an Earth outpost, are forced to battle to the death to save their crew from certain destruction.
  • 1/26/1967. Tomorrow Is Yesterday 4 stars. — The Enterprise is hurled back in time to the 1960s, where they become the center of a U.S. Air Force pilot's UFO investigation.
  • 2/2/1967. Court Martial 2.5 stars. — Kirk faces trial for taking improper action that led to the death of a member of his crew.
  • 2/9/1967. The Return of the Archons 2.5 stars. — The crew investigates a strange world where the people are locked in a collective-minded zombie-like trance, at the will of a leader named Landru.
  • 2/16/1967. Space Seed 3.5 stars. — The Enterprise discovers an Earth ship that has been adrift since the late 1900s, and learns its warlike crew is still alive, having spent 200 years in suspended animation.
  • 2/23/1967. A Taste of Armageddon 3 stars. — A landing party beams down to a planet that is locked in a simulated war with one of its neighboring worlds ... a war where deaths are tallied but actual destruction is avoided in order to prevent society from crumbling into ruins.
  • 3/2/1967. This Side of Paradise 2.5 stars. — Having beamed down to a planet to investigate the fate of a Federation research team, members of the crew become enraptured in "paradise" when they come in contact with happiness-inducing plant spores.
  • 3/9/1967. The Devil in the Dark 3.5 stars. — A mining colony urgently requests Kirk and his crew to stop a deadly monster that has been running rampant through the mines and killing men.
  • 3/23/1967. Errand of Mercy 3 stars. — With imminent war between the Federation and the Klingons approaching, Kirk attempts to negotiate a protection agreement with a planet caught in the middle of the dispute.
  • 3/30/1967. The Alternative Factor 2 stars. — Investigating a strange spatial phenomenon, a landing party discovers Lazarus alone on a planet, and learns of a dual inner-torment apparently at war within himself.
  • 4/6/1967. The City on the Edge of Forever 4 stars. — The crew makes the awesome discovery of a time portal, but a demented McCoy—suffering from an inadvertent medication overdose—jumps into Earth's past and radically alters history for the worse. Kirk and Spock follow McCoy through the portal to undo the damage.
  • 4/13/1967. Operation—Annihilate! 3 stars. — Alien life seizes control of a Federation colony and its inhabitants, leaving the Enterprise as the possible last defense from a species of parasitic invaders.

Season 2 (1967-1968)

  • 9/16/1967. Amok Time 3 stars. — Spock begins to undergo Pon Farr, the Vulcan mating cycle, forcing Kirk to set the Enterprise on a course for Vulcan.
  • 9/22/1967. Who Mourns for Adonais? 2 stars. — A powerful alien halts the Enterprise in its tracks and claims to be the ancient Greek god Apollo.
  • 9/29/1967. The Changeling 2.5 stars. — Kirk becomes the last line of defense against Nomad, a mysterious Earth probe that had been altered and given a directive to destroy anything that is imperfect.
  • 10/6/1967. Mirror, Mirror 4 stars. — Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura are beamed into a parallel universe, where murder and deceit are the common ways of its barbaric Starfleet.
  • 10/13/1967. The Apple 2 stars. — While scouting a peaceful-seeming world, the Enterprise landing party finds a primitive civilization that worships a computerized entity, named Vaal, as a god.
  • 10/20/1967. The Doomsday Machine 4 stars. — The Enterprise finds the crippled USS Constellation, which had been severely damaged in a battle with a powerful planet-killing doomsday weapon.
  • 10/27/1967. Catspaw 2.5 stars. — While looking for two missing officers, the landing party becomes the captives of aliens holding a great power of illusion.
  • 11/3/1967. I, Mudd 3 stars. — The Enterprise is commandeered by an android, which pilots the ship to a planet of androids who are in cahoots with the mischievous Harry Mudd.
  • 11/10/1967. Metamorphosis 3 stars. — Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a Federation negotiator become stranded when their shuttle is sucked into a celestial body by a mysterious force that has also somehow revitalized Zephram Cochrane, the man who invented warp drive two centuries before.
  • 11/17/1967. Journey to Babel 3 stars. — Spock's parents, Vulcan ambassador Sarek and his wife, board the Enterprise for a Federation conference. But trouble arises when one of the delegates is murdered—and Sarek becomes a suspect.
  • 12/1/1967. Friday's Child 2 stars. — While trying to negotiate trade with a planet's warlike tribal society, the Enterprise landing party is taken prisoner by one of the factions, which is dealing with the Klingons.
  • 12/8/1967. The Deadly Years 2 stars. — A disease that causes rapid aging infects several members of the Enterprise crew, and eventually leaves the captain senile and unable to command the ship.
  • 12/15/1967. Obsession 3.5 stars. — Kirk becomes convinced that a deadly gaseous cloud is an intelligent being—the same that killed 200 crew members aboard the USS Farragut, on which Kirk served 11 years earlier.
  • 12/22/1967. Wolf in the Fold 3 stars. — While taking some time for R&R at a port on a peaceful alien planet, Scotty becomes the suspect in a series of murdered women.
  • 12/29/1967. The Trouble With Tribbles 4 stars. — While investigating a disturbance at space station K-7, the Enterprise crew comes face to face with a group of Klingons and an even larger group of small, furry creatures known as tribbles.
  • 1/5/1968. The Gamesters of Triskelion 1 star. — Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov are kidnapped to the planet Triskelion and forced to engage in arena games to the amusement of three powerful aliens who bet on the outcomes of the fights.
  • 1/12/1968. A Piece of the Action 3.5 stars. — Hoping to undo social damage caused by a visiting starship a century before, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to a planet whose society is based on the Chicago gangsters of the 1920s.
  • 1/19/1968. The Immunity Syndrome 3 stars. — The ship encounters a huge, single-celled lifeform in space, and Kirk is forced to send either Spock or McCoy on a suicide shuttle mission to investigate methods to destroy it.
  • 2/2/1968. A Private Little War 2.5 stars. — When the Klingons arm the aggressing side of a primitive culture with firearms, Kirk takes it upon himself to arm the other side in an effort to level the playing field.
  • 2/9/1968. Return to Tomorrow 2.5 stars. — Kirk loans the use of his body and those of two of his crew members to aliens who exist as pure energy, so they can build robot bodies to inhabit.
  • 2/16/1968. Patterns of Force 3 stars. — Investigating the disappearance of a missing Starfleet officer, an Enterprise landing party beams down to a planet modeled on Nazi Germany.
  • 2/23/1968. By Any Other Name 3 stars. — Aliens who have taken human form hijack the Enterprise to use as transport back to their home galaxy.
  • 3/1/1968. The Omega Glory 1 star. — Searching for the missing crew of a Federation starship, a landing party beams down to find its captain, who has broken the Prime Directive in his obsessive search for a fountain of youth.
  • 3/8/1968. The Ultimate Computer 3.5 stars. — The Enterprise becomes the test subject for a new starship computer system, which if successful could render most of the crew obsolete.
  • 3/15/1968. Bread and Circuses 2.5 stars. — A landing party beams down to a parallel Earth that resembles a "20th century Rome," upon which Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are taken prisoner.
  • 3/29/1968. Assignment: Earth 2.5 stars. — Researching history in the 20th century, the Enterprise becomes entangled with a mysterious man who is attempting to alter a historic crisis.

Season 3 (1968-1969)

  • 9/20/1968. Spock's Brain 0.5 stars. — A woman steals Spock's brain for use as a utilities regulator on her home world, leading the Enterprise crew on a mission to retrieve it.
  • 9/27/1968. The Enterprise Incident 4 stars. — Kirk, behaving erratically, steers the Enterprise into the Romulan neutral zone, where he finds himself surrounded by Romulan vessels.
  • 10/4/1968. The Paradise Syndrome 2.5 stars. — When Kirk awakens to find himself abandoned and suffering from amnesia on a simple, primitive world, he finds happiness and love with the native people, who accept him into their tribe.
  • 10/11/1998. And the Children Shall Lead 0.5 stars. — A landing party beams down to a research colony to find the scientists dead, and their surviving children exhibiting no signs of grief.
  • 10/18/1968. Is There In Truth No Beauty? 2 stars. — The Enterprise provides transport for an alien ambassador and his companion, a human telepath trained in Vulcan mind techniques.
  • 10/25/1968. Spectre of the Gun 2.5 stars. — An alien death sentence places Kirk and his officers in a surrealistic recreation of a showdown in the Old American West.
  • 11/1/1968. Day of the Dove 3 stars. — The Enterprise becomes a battle arena when Klingon prisoners aboard the Enterprise escape their confinement and an alien being incites each side into violent confrontations with the other.
  • 11/8/1968. For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky 2.5 stars. — Upon analyzing an asteroid on a planetary collision course, the Enterprise crew discovers the object is actually an advanced spaceship that, to its passengers, appears to be a world of its own.
  • 11/15/1968. The Tholian Web 3 stars. — An investigation of the USS Defiant, found dead in space, results in Kirk being suspended in a spatial void—leaving Spock to face a confrontation with the Tholians as McCoy attempts to cure an outbreak of insanity crippling the crew.
  • 11/22/1968. Plato's Stepchildren 3 stars. — When McCoy refuses to accept permanent duties among a community of people with telekinetic powers, their leader subjects members of the Enterprise crew to cruel humiliation.
  • 11/29/1968. Wink of an Eye 2.5 stars. — Kirk is abducted to the realm of the Scalosians, who live their lives in a vastly accelerated time continuum.
  • 12/6/1968. The Empath 3.5 stars. — Attempting to determine the whereabouts of a missing research colony, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy suddenly find themselves the pawns in a deadly alien experiment.
  • 12/20/1968. Elaan of Troyius 2 stars. — A diplomatic mission places Kirk in the role of etiquette teacher for a warrior whose world needs her to make peace with its long-embittered neighbor.
  • 1/3/1969. Whom Gods Destroy 2.5 stars. — While delivering medicine to a penal colony for the insane, Kirk and Spock are taken prisoner by a megalomaniac bent on unleashing his wrath upon the universe.
  • 1/10/1969. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield 1.5 stars. — The Enterprise becomes the latest battleground for the millennia-spanning strife between two bitter enemies from a world paralyzed by racial hatred.
  • 1/17/1969. The Mark of Gideon 2 stars. — Upon beaming down to the planet Gideon, Kirk finds himself on a duplicate of the Enterprise with a woman who yearns of a place where she can escape the extreme overpopulation of her home world.
  • 1/24/1969. That Which Survives 1 star. — A landing party must solve the mystery of a woman who is the cause of several crew members' deaths and the sabotage of the ship's engines.
  • 1/31/1969. The Lights of Zetar 2 stars. — Scotty falls for a woman who becomes the latest target of a non-corporeal alien presence in need of a human form.
  • 2/14/1969. Requiem for Methuselah 3 stars. — While searching for a needed medicine to combat a plague, the Enterprise landing party encounters a social recluse who had long ago abandoned Earth and now lives alone with his enigmatic pupil.
  • 2/21/1969. The Way to Eden zero stars — A group of non-conformists takes control of the Enterprise and sets it on a course for the mythical planet of Eden.
  • 2/28/1969. The Cloud Minders 3 stars. — While attempting to obtain a crucial mineral to cure a planetary plague, Kirk is drawn into the struggle of a world divided by class exploitation.
  • 3/7/1969. The Savage Curtain 1.5 stars. — An entity claiming to be Abraham Lincoln invites Kirk and Spock to the planet surface, where an advanced lifeform vies to study the methodologies of both good and evil.
  • 3/14/1969. All Our Yesterdays 3.5 stars. — The landing party investigates the final hours of a planet whose star is going supernova, and whose people have escaped the coming death of their world by traveling into their society's past.
  • 6/3/1969. Turnabout Intruder 3 stars. — One of Kirk's former lovers, consumed with jealousy and bitterness for being denied a Starfleet captaincy, renders Kirk unconscious and trades bodies with him, assuming his identity and abusing the powers of his command.

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