STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES

[aTOMiC]

Though it had already suffered its untimely cancellation when I discovered it, Star Trek: The Original Series had a tremendous impact on me thanks to its availability in syndication. Unlike most of the rest of my family I was drawn to sci/fi very much like a moth to a flame and Star Trek delivered action and space adventure in bucketfuls. I’m sure Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic philosophy about a near utopian society touched me on some level but to be honest I was enthralled by the Enterprise, the Federation, phasers, transporters, fistfights, girls in short tunics, aliens, cool villains and bold primary colors. It took a little time and maturity for me to fully appreciate things like the depth of character development, the award winning sci fi authors that contributed to the quality of the storytelling and the groundbreaking acting prowess of one William Shatner. Star Trek TOS was and still is, IMHO, an engaging and engrossing series due in large part because all of the people involved in its creation who loved what they were doing and enjoyed being pioneers of sorts. By today’s standards the special effect were fairly static and clumsy but in the context of the world in which the show was created they were actually very impressive. I can’t describe Star Trek without mentioning, what is now clear to me, one of the most defining aspects of the series. James T. Kirk / Spock / Dr. Leonard McCoy. These three characters and the actors who played them embodied and defined for me what keeps drawing me back to a show I’ve already watched countless times. Sure Scotty was cool and Uhura was beautiful. Sulu and Checkov are almost unmentionable separately but the three guys working at the front of the stage made TOS a series that is exciting, compelling and totally resists being duplicated no matter how many times it is tried.

Spock Lives!

[Roland of Gilead]

I'm a first re-run Trekker. When the show originally aired, I was living in the Bahamas, where television from the States was atrocious. When we returned to America, I got hooked in the early seventies. I still remember my first two episodes - Break and Circuses (great for the Spock-McCoy relationship) and A Piece of the Action (still the funniest hour of tv I've ever witnessed).

TOS remains, in my humble opinion, the finest episodic television series ever created, any genre.

[aTOMiC]

I'm a first re-run Trekker. When the show originally aired, I was living in the Bahamas, where television from the States was atrocious. When we returned to America, I got hooked in the early seventies. I still remember my first two episodes - Break and Circuses (great for the Spock-McCoy relationship) and A Piece of the Action (still the funniest hour of tv I've ever witnessed).

TOS remains, in my humble opinion, the finest episodic television series ever created, any genre.

Bread and Circuses is a great episode. Ever since I saw it the first time I've wanted to drive a Jupiter 8.
A Piece of the Action is a lot of fun to watch. What I can never quite understand is what exactly does the corrupted society in question actually produce that the Federation would get a "cut" of?

[matrixman]

Spock Lives!

Er...ahem...yes...great death scene in ST II notwithstanding. Dammit, Jim (I mean Tom), I should make a poll: should Spock have been resurrected, or should he have been left in peace?

Nah...few folks here respond to polls anyway.

I’m sure Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic philosophy about a near utopian society touched me on some level but to be honest I was enthralled by the Enterprise, the Federation, phasers, transporters, fistfights, girls in short tunics, aliens, cool villains and bold primary colors.

Yes, sir, that sums it up. I loved the design of the original Enterprise, though I admit I love the movie Enterprise even more (the pre-TNG model). The CGI version in TNG left me cold.

[Fist and Faith]

Heh. Bread and Circuses was great, all around. And McCoy's "I am defending myself!" is a classic!!

I can't imagine a more fun episode of any show than A Piece of the Action!!! Kirk's invention of Fizbin alone is worth it! Watching that guy trying to keep up with the rules! Then:

"No, what you're after is a Royal Fizbin. But the odds of getting a Royal Fizbin are astrono... Mr. Spock, what are the odds of getting a Royal Fizbin?"

"I have never calculated them, Captain."

"Well believe me, they're astronomical."

Then there's Kirk talking to Mel the Cook:

"I'm saying your development's been arrested."

"I ain't never been arrested in my whole life!!"

And the best line Spock ever uttered:

"I would advise yous to keep dialin', Oxmyx."

I've mentioned the Kirk/Spock/McCoy dynamic before. A couple of my favorite moments for this are
1) The very end of The Apple:

"You are aware of the biblical story of Genesis."

"Yes, how Adam and Eve tasted the apple and were driven out of paradise."

"Precisely, Captain, and in a manner of speaking, we have given the people of Vaal the apple, the knowledge of good and evil, and they, too, have been driven out of paradise."

"Doctor, do I understand him correctly? Are you casting me in the role of Satan?"

"Not at all, Captain."

"Is there anyone on this ship ..." Kirk and McCoy begin circling Spock... "who even remotely ..." looking at his ears... "looks like Satan?"

"I am not aware of anyone who fits that description, Captain."

"I didn't think you would."

2) The end of Friday's Child:

"Yes, Eleen, a remarkable young lady. Representing the high teer, Leonard James Akaar."

"The child was named Leonard James Akaar?"

"Has a ring to it, don't you think, James?"

"I think it's a name destined to go down in history, Leonard. What do you think, Spock?"

"I think you are both going to be insufferably pleased with yourselves for at least a month. Sir!"

And the great, both for its strength and its unlikelihood, friendship between Kirk and Spock. Two great moments are
1) In Amok Time, when Kirk walks into sickbay, Spock sees him, SMILES, and yells, "JIM!!"

2) At the end of Requiem for Methuselah. Kirk is shattered because he found out Rayna was an android. He's passed out at the table in his room, and Spock and McCoy are talking about it. After telling Spock about love, McCoy leaves, saying that he wishes Kirk could forget. Spock takes a moment, then puts his hand on Kirk's head in the Vulcan mind-meld fashion, and says, "Forget." This is a startling breach of Vulcan principles!! Going into someone's mind without their knowledge or permission! But the depth of his feeling for Kirk, and his desire to ease his friend's pain, override even that!

[Old Darth]

A couple of more:

1) Galileo 7 - Spock's admission of being stubborn at the end of the episode

2) The Changeling - Spock's blunt surprise to Kirk's show of logic in defeating Nomad.
Kirk, ' Didn't think I had it in me, did you Spock?'
Spock, 'No sir.'

[aTOMiC]

Er...ahem...yes...great death scene in ST II notwithstanding. Dammit, Jim (I mean Tom), I should make a poll: should Spock have been resurrected, or should he have been left in peace?

Nah...few folks here respond to polls anyway.

No. Thats a great idea. Make it so! or Engage or whatever.

Great moments, OD. I loved Spock's deadpan response to Kirk's question.

[Roland of Gilead]

Great quotes, Fist and Faith.

Another couple I really liked in A Piece of the Action:

KIRK telling Scotty to use the transporter: "We're gonna make some old style phone calls from this locale. I want you to flag the guy at the other end of the blower, and give him a ride to this flop. Can do, sweetheart?"

Later, Kirk's speech to the bosses: "Oh, no, Bella, the Federation can't get mixed up with a penny-ante operation like dis. No, Bella, I was thinkin', maybe YOU could be the boss. Cracko, you'd be his lieutenant. The rest of yous guys, I don't want no trouble out of the rest of yous guys . . . or you'll have to answer to da Federation."

And one of my favorite short little lines, always used to bug the heck out of my long-suffering non-Trekker wife:

She will say something I disagree with, or can prove is incorrect, and I say, "Wrong again, Oxmyx." Guaranteed to driver her up a wall everytime.

[Fist and Faith]

Yep, great stuff, Roland!!

And one of my favorite short little lines, always used to bug the heck out of my long-suffering non-Trekker wife:

She will say something I disagree with, or can prove is incorrect, and I say, "Wrong again, Oxmyx." Guaranteed to driver her up a wall everytime.

[Seafoam Understone]

K: Right?
Sp: Check.

K: WHERE?!
Sc: I gave them to the Klingons
K: You gave them to the Klingons??
Sc: Aye sir, just before they went into warp I transported the whole kit-and-kaboodle right into their main engine room...where they'd be no tribble at all.

Sp: There is death by phaser, death by hanging, death by transporter, death by electrocution, death by injection, death by ....
Mudd: M-mr S-spock, the key word here is d-d-death.

Sp: It was far simpler for you, as civilized men to behave as barbarians than for them, as barbarians to behave as civilized men.
Indeed they were crude, violent, rude, undisciplined, uncivilized, illogical and in every way the very flower of humanity. I found it quite, refreshing.
K: I'm not sure but I think we've just been insulted.
McC: I'm sure.

C: Of course sir, it's Quadrotriqulkalli a Russian invention. (ever noticed how EVERYTHING was a Russian invention to Chekov?)

Sc: He said the Enterprise was a Garbage Scow!
K: So that's when you hit him.
Sc: Aye sir! It was a question of honor...sir.
K: Thank you Mr. Scott.... you're...confined to quarters.
Sc: Aye sir.... (brightens) Thank you sir! That'll give me time to catch up on me technical journals!

(didn't cha just love the little Irish (or was it Scot) ditty they played occasionally at the end of these little one liners?)

[Roland of Gilead]

Oh, yes, Trouble with Tribbles runs a close second in my personal rankings of top humorous episodes. Your quotes were good ones.

[caamora]

Fist & Faith said:

And the great, both for its strength and its unlikelihood, friendship between Kirk and Spock. Two great moments are
1) In Amok Time, when Kirk walks into sickbay, Spock sees him, SMILES, and yells, "JIM!!"

That has to be one of my all-time favorite scenes in Star Trek!!! That is illustrated again in Star Trek: The Motion Picture after Spock has mind-melded with Vger and is in sick bay. He holds Kirk's hand and says, "Jim, this simple feeling is beyond Vger's comprehension."

[Fist and Faith]

Yeah, caam. And we can add this moment, from The Empath:

Kirk: You must save the life of our friend.

Lal: No. We will not. Her instinct must be developed to the fullest. The test must be complete.

Spock: It is complete. Gem has earned the right of survival for her planet. She offered her life.

Lal: To offer is not proof enough.

Kirk: If death is all you understand... here are four lives for you. We will not leave our friend. You've lost the capacity to feel the emotions you brought Gem here to experience. You don't understand what it is to live. Love and compassion are dead in you. You're nothing but intellect.

After so many moments such as these, ending with power of the one you just mentioned, you'd think Spock would embrace emotion. I mean, come on already!! How many ways does he need it demonstrated before he sees the logic of it???

[High Lord Tolkien]

I love the original series.
I was a rerun kid.
It was on all the time.
There was even a cartoon that coincided with my childhood.

I even made the Enterprise out of Legos.
That's right, a circular shaped ship made out of blue and yellow square Legos.
It was all I had and it looked like crap but I played with it all the time.

Then my Mom bought me a model of the ship.
I destroyed it somehow, probably lit it on fire using strategically placed model glue to simlulate a Klingon attack.
(you see you put a little bit of glue where you want a topedo hit and then light the glue on fire. It melts the plastic and gives it a black color. Then you put it out so you don't burn the whole thing. I used to drive my Mom nuts!)

I remember the action figures too.
They had clothes and hand held phasers.
I see them now at trendy music stores and such.
I think I had Kirk and Spock.
Kirk often fought a toy T-Rex that I pretended to be that Gorn that Kirk fought.

Is anyone else amazed or find it amusing that cell phones flip open just like ST communicators?

I think of it 1/2 the time I use my phone and chuckle a little.
Now all we need are phasers.
And not the gun like ones I want the little palm thingys.

Ahhh.... the memories.

[dlbpharmd]

Is anyone else amazed or find it amusing that cell phones flip open just like ST communicators?

Yes, life imitates Star Trek.

[Cord Hurn]

This Christmas, one of my sisters sent me a box with VHS tapes of some original series Star Trek episodes and some ST:TNG episodes. I haven't posted much in this forum, and I think I'll try to make a little amends for that by posting my reviews of these VHS episodes as I watch them one by one.

I have seen all TOS episodes, as well as all DS9 and Voyager episodes, but it might be interesting to see them again, and post my impressions of them. And I haven't seen all the TNG episodes, because I never cared much for the acting of that cast. So, some of those episodes will be new to me.

Anyway, I'm planning on posting some episode reviews of Star Trek shows in this forum, shortly after I watch them. Tonight, I just re-watched the original series episode "Shore Leave" (#17).

[aTOMiC]

This Christmas, one of my sisters sent me a box with VHS tapes of some original series Star Trek episodes and some ST:TNG episodes. I haven't posted much in this forum, and I think I'll try to make a little amends for that by posting my reviews of these VHS episodes as I watch them one by one.

I have seen all TOS episodes, as well as all DS9 and Voyager episodes, but it might be interesting to see them again, and post my impressions of them. And I haven't seen all the TNG episodes, because I never cared much for the acting of that cast. So, some of those episodes will be new to me.

Anyway, I'm planning on posting some episode reviews of Star Trek shows in this forum, shortly after I watch them. Tonight, I just re-watched the original series episode "Shore Leave" (#17).

Very cool. Looking forward to it.

[Cord Hurn]

Star Trek - The Original Series episode "Shore Leave" (#17)


I remember as a kid being intrigued by the episode teaser where Dr. McCoy sees a large white rabbit consulting its watch and bemoaning being late, to be soon followed by a blonde girl acting like Alice in Wonderland, wanting to know where the rabbit went. The stunned look on actor DeForest Kelly's face sold the scene to me as amusing. Kelly, of course, is always a great actor and the best cast asset the original series ever had, in my opinion.

After the opening credits is a scene that I find strange for this series, where Kirk is finishing his log about the whole crew being tired, and then complains about his back hurting. Yeoman Barrows (Emily Banks, looking very charming throughout this episode) reaches down to work the kink out of Kirk's lower back as he sits in the command chair, and Kirk is congratulating Mr. Spock for working the kink out, before he realizes it's Barrows, and he feels embarrassment and tells Barrows enough. I'm floored to think that Kirk would ever think Spock would do something like this for him.

Anyway, the next scene is enjoyable, as Kirk is refusing to go down to this unfamiliar planet for shore leave, and Spock tricks him into going by reading him an officer's health report, not telling Kirk that it's a report on the captain, and getting Kirk to pronounce judgement upon himself as needing shore leave. It's funny, and somehow Spock's wisp of a smile doesn't seem out of character for just that scene.

Great acting by Shatner, Nimoy, and Banks in the scene where their characters think McCoy has been killed by a knight's lance, the horrified nausea in their faces says it all!

Kirk's wanting to fight with his old Academy foe Finnegan is understandable, given Finnegan's jeering arrogance, but the fight goes on a bit long for me, and drags this episode down.

Kirk's other memory, Ruth, mainly stands there talking softly and looking like she can reflect all the lights of the galaxy with her eyes, but her presence clearly explains Kirk's decision in the episode's end to stay on the planet for a day or two.

The Guardian has a face that somehow projects wisdom and amusement in equal measure, making the actor playing him effective as the manager of an amusement park planet that sense the Federation isn't ready to know all about this race, yet.

One other thing I want to note about this episode is that it shows the Enterprise orbiting the planet with its starboard side facing the planetary surface, instead of its port side. That's most unusual for the original series, I feel certain!

[High Lord Tolkien]

I started watching the animated series on Netflix.
I expected it to be just silly but it was really good! (first 4 episodes anyway, I haven't seen the rest yet).
I think most of the cast came back for voices too.

[Cord Hurn]

This Christmas, one of my sisters sent me a box with VHS tapes of some original series Star Trek episodes and some ST:TNG episodes. I haven't posted much in this forum, and I think I'll try to make a little amends for that by posting my reviews of these VHS episodes as I watch them one by one.

I have seen all TOS episodes, as well as all DS9 and Voyager episodes, but it might be interesting to see them again, and post my impressions of them. And I haven't seen all the TNG episodes, because I never cared much for the acting of that cast. So, some of those episodes will be new to me.

Anyway, I'm planning on posting some episode reviews of Star Trek shows in this forum, shortly after I watch them. Tonight, I just re-watched the original series episode "Shore Leave" (#17).

Very cool. Looking forward to it.

Thank you, aTOMiC! I didn't choose the ST episodes that were sent to me, so several of my favorites ("The City On The Edge Of Forever", "I, Mudd", "The Enterprise Incident") were not included, but I think it will be fun to review the episodes that I DID receive! Hopefully...