PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Star Trek Season 1

 

I got the BluRay of Star Trek - The Original Series when it came down to below 70 bucks for all three seasons. I'm watching the version on the discs that have the original effects. The Bluray discs let you switch back and forth between the original effects and the re-mastered effects that were done about 10 years ago. They did a nice job on the new effects and in general the episodes look great. I borrowed the re-mastered versions from Netflix and watched them back in 2012. The DVDs don't have the original effects so it's been nice to see those. When I watched the DVDs it was the first time I'd seen them in 2-3 decades.

I'm enjoying the series all over again but can't imagine posting big long posts about them all over again so I'm linking to those posts below and adding Star Trek and Star Trek Season 1 in the Categories list. You can click on that link and see the same posts but in a backward order. I wish Typepad had a way to reverse the posts so that Disc 1 came first but not enough people much have asked for that. I'll do the same for the other seasons when I get to them.

Season One is on 10 discs in the DVD version but only 7 in the Bluray version. Here's the original posts on the original series.

Discs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Star Trek S1D10

   
The last disc of season one only has two episodes. The first, The City On The Edge Of Forever, was broadcast April 6 1967. It's a pretty darn good episode. The Enterprise detects some temporal disturbances on a planet. Dr McCoy accidentally injects himself with a drug that makes him super crazy. He gets all paranoid and transports down the planet. Kirk some others beam down to look for him. McCoy manages to run into that portal above right. That's the Guardian Of Forever. It tells them that it's been there a long time and it likes questions. McCoy has gone to the Earth of the 1930's and changed the future. Kirk and Spock take the portal back in time and fix McCoy's blunder.

   

The Captain steals some clothes to hide their uniforms. They get jobs in a Mission run by Joan Collins and Jim falls for her. Sadly she has to die in the car accident that McCoy saved her from. She has to die or their future won't be the same. The German's will win WWII and that would be the end of that. Kirk and Spock are looking for McCoy and they find him just in time for Kirk to stop him from saving Joan. Sadly poor old Jim has to take a punch in this one. It's a great episode which won the 1968 Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation. Harlan Ellison wrote and re-wrote the episode before it was ready for tv. His original treatment had drug dealing and physical Guardians of Forever. In the aired version the portal does all the talking. This is because it was too expensive to make a show as it was written. It was still one of the most expensive episodes to do. The average episode of Star Trek was about $185,000 and TCOTEOF was about $250,000. When Babylon 5 started airing in 1995 those episodes were about a half a million a pop and episodes of Deep Space Nine and Voyager were being produced for about a million bucks each. 

   

Captain Kirk loses his brother in Operation: Annihilate! and that's just after losing Joan Collins. It a Tough life in the space fleet. Something has killed off the populations of several planets. I guess it's a tough life on planets too. If you travelled from the first planet that everyone died on to the last you'd travel in a path that would lead you to the planet that Kirk's brother is stationed at. They get there too late to save the brother but his wife and son are ok. They figure out what the problem is and how to take care of it.

   

I remembered the plastic fake barf like critters that are causing all the problems. They infect people and that eventually kills them. Spock gets infected and he manages to fight off the sickness with Dr McCoy's help. The cure blinds him but his super Vulcan eyelids help out. The last show of the first season aired April 13 1967 and while it wasn't as good as the previous episode it was pretty entertaining.

There a 90 minute doumentary called Beyond The Final Frontier that mixes cast and creator interviews with footage about a big auction of Star Trek ships and costumes and props. The people interviewed are from all the series not just the original and so were all the auction items. The interviews were ok and the stuff in the auction went for a lot of cash. It was cool to see the props as they were uncrated. The auction was only impressive for the cash flow. The other short featurette is about a Star Trek Online Game. I didn't really pay attention to it.

Star Trek Season 1 Disc 9

    

The 25th episode was Devil In The Dark and it was first broadcast March 9 1967. It's one I remember fairly fondly and I read on Wikipedia that William Shatner says it's his favorite episode. The Enterprise calls on the mining colony on Janus VI where there have been 50 miners killed by a strange creature. The colony is all tunnels and rooms. Kirk and Spock get to investigating and soon enough Kirk gets trapped with the creature after a cave in. Spock finds a way to them and mind melds with the critter. It's called a Horta and it's hurt. McCoy comes down with some cement and patches it's ass up. At least I think that was the ass end. It's hard to tell with some aliens. The Horta acid to cut through rock so they can tunnel pretty much anywhere with ease. It's still really a peaceful creature that was only defending itself when the miners broke some Horta eggs. They didn't know that's what they were. Kirk connects the Hortato the miners and soon enough the patter of little tentacles means abundant free labour. I liked the idea of dealing with a completely alien life form and creating a way to live together even back when the episode was new.

   

Errand Of Mercy was the 26th episode and it aired March 23, 1967. It was the only episode directed by John Newland. The Enterprise is sent to guard Organia from the Klingons. Peace talks aren't going well with the warlike tanned people. It'll get better as the real nature of the Organians is revealed and they force the two sides to a peace. The Captain and Mr Spock look nice in their Organian costumes. Another episode where the crew encounter a more powerful race, this time fairing better than some of their other encounters. Like the creators of the show I'm for the peaceable solutions, even if some more powerful beings kind of push it down your throat. Sometimes man does not learn on his own.

   

A week later episode 27 aired. The Alternative Factor was actually the 20th produced and the first episode to deal with a parallel universe. That fuzzy faced guy above is Robert Brown, he plays Lazarus and his crazy alternative universe self. He keeps jumping back and forth between realities. Spock figures out that the alternate universe might be an anti-matter universe and the crew have to keep Lazarus from meeting himself. Such a meeting, matter and anti-matter, could destroy their universe. Damn, huh. Don't worry the good Lazarus tells Kirk what he must do and both universes are saved. Lazarus and his doppelganger are trapped, doomed to fight each other for eternity. Sometimes the universe is a sad old place. Another fairly good episode and at the time stuff like this wasn't anywhere on TV. Star Trek was a show we would talk about at school the next day. Every kid I knew watched the show. I stuck in a shot of the gal sitting next to one of the machines that appears quite regularly in the show. I don't know what it does but there it is in all it's blinking lighted glory. Keep an eye out for it, you'll see it in a lot of different places.

All in all a nice trio of episodes one of which is especially good. There aren't any extras on the disk.

Star Trek S1D8

   

Space Seed is the episode that introduces Ricardo Montalban as Kahn. It was the 24th episode produced and the 22nd aired. That was February 16, 1967. I had watched The Wrath Of Kahn a while back and was curious to see this episode. Mostly the reason I decided to NetFlix the series. The Enterprise comes across the Botany Bay floating in space and they find some frozen folksicles in the freezer. They thaw Kahn out and soon as he wakes up the 20th century superman tries to take over the galaxy. Kahn was part of a group of genetically altered humans who thought they should step into commanding the Earth of the 1990's. Normal folks didn't put up with that and fought back. Kahn, and 84 others, escape in a ship and three hundred years later they wake up to a new galaxy they think is just waiting for them to take over. You'd think if you were that smart you'd figure out that people would fight back. Sure enough Captain Kirk has to take Kahn down and it's a pretty good struggle. Madlyn Rhue plays the ship's historian who falls for Kahn. She betrays the ship and when Kahn and the super bunch get exiled Kirk lets her go with them. How fun would it be being the stupidist person on a planet full of smug, sarcastic braniacs and rocks? It was a good episode that was written by Gene L Coon and Carey Wilber. It was enjoyable to see it again.

   

A Taste Of Armageddon is another Gene L Coon script, this one co-written with Robert Hamner, and it's an interesting story but a bit goofy. The Enterprise as on a diplomatic mission to a planet that had been contacted by the Federation 50 years ago. The ship disappeared after reporting in. Kirk, Spock and a few others beam down and meet with the head man. Soon after they arrive there's an an attack by people of the third planet in the system. Spock quickly figures out that the two rival planets use computers to fight. Yep, says the head man, we've been fighting for 500 years without destroying our society. Look how civilized we are, our patriotic casualties line up willingly for the disintegration booths and our planet remains intact. Kirk is appalled, especially after he's told that the Enterprise got hit and the crew must report to those murderin' booths we were just talking about. James T is not going to take being a prisoner lying down and he organizes the shore party into a revolt. They capture the head guy and destroy his war computers. Faced with a real war the two planets get to making nice. An entertaining story for the most part but you'd think that they would have figured that fake war is not a solution to their problems themselves wouldn't you. Some societies just suck I guess.

   
This Side Of Paradise is the 24th episode. It aired on March 2 1967. Jerry Sohl wrote the original story and after D C Fontana rewrote the story and wrote the screenplay Jerry took his name off the episode and the credit goes to Nathan Butler. The Enterprise comes to a planet that has a small group of colonists living there. The planets radiation should have affected them but they are fine. In fact they are better than they were when they arrived on the planet. What's up with that? Dr McCoy gets to work on the enigma while Mr Spock gets infected by some flora. It turns on his emotions and he falls for the pretty Jill Ireland. Spock infects the crew and pretty soon the only one on the ship is the Kirk unit. When he gets infected he gets mad and it breaks the infection. He calls Spock back to the ship and gets him mad. They fight and Spock is back on track. They save the crew from paradise. Life goes on and the Enterprise is off to some other planet next week. Another one that isn't too bad, sad though. Poor Mr Spock says it was the only time he was happy.

The disc has two short featurettes. One on romance in the 23rd century and one one Star Trek Conventions. Both kind of fluffy but mostly entertaining.

Star Trek S1D7

   

Tomorrow Is Yesterday has the Enterprise go back in time to the 1960's. The 19th episode aired Jan 26 1967. The Enterprise gets spotted by a pilot that they bring on board via the transporter. What to do with him now he's seen the future? First Kirk wants to take him back to the future but Spock does some research and the pilot needs to stay in his own time. Soon enough Kirk is down on Earth stealing the film from the planes cameras. He gets caught by security. Don't worry he's rescued. They figure that they can get home by slingshotting around the sun and when they get to the right time they can teleport the pilot back to his plane before he sees the Enterprise. It's dangerous but we all know the season is still in production, so they're going to be fine. There's a little of that shaken, not stirred, camera action as everyone leans left and right while the ship fights hard against the sun's gravity. This episode was written by DC Fontana and it was a pretty good one. I think it would be cool to be kidnapped by your decedents and brought to the future. Unless it's that whole Terminator future, or the one with the monkeys. I wouldn't like that so much.

   

Court Martial has Kirk on trial for the death of a crewman. They are at Starbase 11 for repairs and the Commodore investigates the accident. He charges Kirk because the computer said it was a yellow alert not red like Kirk insists. The computer has some damming evidence, a movie showing Kirk giving a command while the light is yellow. Spock also says it was red alert. Was the captain negligent? Of course not but it's touch and go there until the truth comes out. Spock figures that the computer has been tampered with when he can beat the machine at chess. Since he programmed the machine their games should have come to a draw. They figure it out and Kirk is back in command. In one scene Kirk has to go in the Jefferies Tube. I learned that it was made from one of those large cardboard tubes they use to mold concrete footings and such. What you can do with a lick of paint and some wires and lights.

    

The Return Of The Archons has Kirk, Spock, McCoy and some crew members down on the planet Beta III where the USS Archon had stopped 100 years ago. Nothing had been heard of the ship since. Kirk and crew find humanoid people who live like it's late 1800's America and have odd customs. Turns out they are all connected to some force they call The Body. Crew members get connected and abondon the Enterprise for planetfall. Kirk and Spock get tossed into jail. It's up to them to figure out that it's a rogue computer controlling the people. Kirk convinces it that it's failed it mission to help the people and the computer blows itself up. That would suck, huh, having your whole belief system tossed in the garbage. Poor computer. Hopefully the advisors Kirk leaves on the planet will help the citizens get all futuristic. We'll never know as the Enterprise blows town off on a new adventure.

So a group of fine episodes with some interesting ideas and the like. I find I'm liking the series more than I thought I would. For extras there's a 20 minute intereview with Billy Blackburn. He was often at the helm controls before Walter Koenig came onboard. He also played several aliens and landing party members. He shot a lot of color silent film on the stages and locations while they were making the series. Some of the bits and pieces are pretty entertaining to watch. Nice of them to put it in there. None of the episodes is having a commentary which is too bad. I'm not compaining much but they might have been entertaining.

Star Trek S1D6

     

In the first episode of 1967 The Galileo Seven has the Enterprise heading to Makus III with medical supplies. They stop for Mr Spock to look over a strange space phenomenon. The Galileo 7 shuttle craft goes off course and makes an emergency landing on Taurus II. They've got some problems. The shuttle needs some Scotty time and there are giant furry guys with 10 foot spears. One of the crew gets skewered pretty quick. There's some action and another guy gets slaughtered.

     

Scotty eventually fixes the shuttle, it's only got a bit of power, enough to get them into space, not enough to keep them in orbit very long. With the radio gone it's one of those times when they really need the Enterprise to spot them or it's aaaaaagh, Galileo flambe. Mr Spock dumps the fuel, lights it up, and the Enterprise sees it. Yahoo for the shuttle crew. The 16th episode broadcast was the 18th one made. The usual remastering looks great, they really highlight the fuel dump flare very well. The story is pretty good; there's a nice bit of tension created when the coldly logical Mr Spock seems more interested in the spear than the dead crewman. Sometimes the crew members seem so clueless, like they just didn't know anything about the way of the Vulcan. That never changes I guess, people not knowing much.

     

January 12, 1967 saw the first broadcast of The Squire Of Gothos. I remembered the episode from when I had first seen it but my memory lacks details like dialog and such. The Enterprise is traveling somewhere and they cross paths with a rogue planet. They haven't got time to check it out and Kirk tells Sulu to go around it. Sulu disappears and soon after so does the Captain. Spock figures they are on the rogue planet and they head there to check things out. Kirk and Sulu are all stiff and green when the landing party arrives. They get thawed out and we all meet the Squire.

     

He's a powerful being in human form. He's got a nice crib, kind of old school, and some magical like powers. He's Trelane and he makes the crews life miserable. He dresses Yoman Ross in a nice dress but nearly hangs the Captain. Kirk goads him into a hunt to stall for time. He's saved when Trelane's parents come and take his toys away from him.  William Campbell plays Terlane and he's highly entertaining. The show looks good and there are some nice sets, I like that door.

     

The 18th episode is Arena. It's one I remember seeing the first time around. It's the episode with the Gorn. Who can forget that guy. I had just seen him in a recent episode of The Big Bang Theory. It was one of those Star Trek episodes that I only got to see the last half of when it premiered. The rest of the tv watching people in our house wanted to see some other show in the first half hour of the Star Trek time slot and I got to watch the last half of most of the episodes that season. I would get filled in at school with what happened the next day and eventually I'd see the whole episode in the repeat. I remember times in school hanging out with all the other tv watchers orally recreating entire shows for someone who might have missed them. We'd do the same thing with comedy routines of comedians who told their jokes on the numerous variety shows. It's no joke when the Enterprise stops at an outpost only to find it's a wreck when they beam down. A lone survivor tells the crew that they were attacked by unknown aliens. Damn, aliens. The landing party gets attacked and a couple of crew members get snuffed out. They get back to the ship. The aliens run and the Enterprise gives chase.

  

It's one of several episodes filmed at Vasques Rocks. That's one of my favorite movie locations. You can see it in countless movies since first appearing in the 1936 film Werewolf Of London. The screenplay was written by Gene L. Coon and the studio thought it was enough like Fredric Brown's story Arena that they paid him for the story. It's not that similar. The Enterprise follows the aliens into an unexplored bit of space. Some powerful aliens, the Metrons, take Kirk and the Captain of the Gorn ship and make them fight to the death. Kirk wins but doesn't kill the Gorn. The Metrons send everyone back home and tell Kirk to have the humans look them up in a couple of thousand years. Burn. Nice to know super intelligent beings are funny. It was a pretty good episode, reminding me to keep my ass down on the ground.

Star Trek S1D5

   

The Conscience Of The King is #13, both in production and broadcast which was December 8, 1966. Kirk is asked by his old friend Dr Leighton to come to Planet Q. Kirk joins him at a production of Hamlet. Leighton, who is scared on one side of his face, tells Kirk that the actor on stage is Kodos, the executioner of Tarsus IV, who killed 4000 people including members of their families. Yep, it's where The Simpson's alien character Kodos got his name. The Kodos in Star Trek was burned in an explosion but there was never a positive ID of the body. Sadly the creators of the Star Trek universe never figured out some of the technological break throughs that we had in the later part of the twentieth century, like DNA testing. At times the show seems down right primitive, the crew of the Enterprise still uses tapes to store data. I'm not holding that against the series the stories are still pretty good some of the time. Kirk listens to Leighton but isn't sure that the actor is Kodos but he likes Kodo's daughter. She's all blond and legs. That's her in the fur dress. Leighton turns up dead and Kirk works out a chance to get father and daughter on board his ship so he can dig into the mystery. It comes to a sad ending with a nice helping of crazy heaped on top.

   

Balance Of Terror was the 14th episode broadcast. It appeared December 15, 1966 and it was the 9th show produced. It's the first appearance of the Romulans. Mark Leonard plays the Romulan ship Captain. He'd come back to the series as Spock's father. The Romulans and Humans had a war a century before and they haven't spoken since. They don't even know what the other one looks like which makes a tense time on the bridge when they get a look of Mark's ears. What's up Mr. Spock? He speculates they split off from the Vulcans centuries ago, from a time when the Vulcans were a more agressive race. There's a neutral zone between the Federation and the Romulan sections of the galaxy. The Federation has watching posts and someone is blowing them up. Kirk comes to investigate and runs into Mark in his invisible Bird Of Prey ship. They battle it out like it's a submarine movie, running silent, blindly shooting in the dark. It was a pretty good episode that shows off Kirk's skills. Of course he wins the battle but we haven't seen the last of the Romulans.

  

Shore Leave was the 15th episode shown and the 17th made. The weary travellers on the Enterprise have sent Doctor McCoy and Lt Sulu to check out a nice looking planet with no life at all. It's all pretty and green. It might be the place for the crew to take a much needed break. Soon the Doctor sees a giant suit wearing white rabbit who's followed by Alice In Wonderland. Then it's party time. People get chased by a knight, a samurai, and a WWII airplane straffs them. Dr McCoy gets killed but he turns out ok later. He turns up at the end of the episode with a couple of gals in furry costumes. Kirk shots the knight and it turns out to be a robot. Turns out the planet is an amusement park for smart aliens. They let the crew come and play. Another good episode, and no wonder, this one was written by Theodore Sturgeon.

There's a nice 18 minute long featurette that has some cast and crew talking about working on the show. It was fun to watch.

Star Trek S1D4

        

   

The Corbomite Maneuver is the 3rd episode that was produced but it was the 10th episode shown. It would have been the first appearance of Dr McCoy, LT Uhura and Yoman Rand but for scheduling. The Enterprise is way out in deep space mapping the galaxy when it encounters a glowing cube that blocks their way. They blow it up once it's obvious that it won't leave them alone. Further ahead they run into a huge ship that tells the Enterprise they are invaders who will be destroyed. Ted Cassidy does the voice of the alien with the bulbus head. One of the crew goes crazy under the stress of dealing with the alien's countdown clock to doom. Kirk bluffs the alien into letting them live and the alien takes the Enterprise in tow. Kirk fights back and after nearly blowing up his ship he damages the alien ship. Clint Howard, with someone else's voice, plays the alien that causes all their trouble. Clint welcomes them aboard and the two races make a nice first contact over drinks. It was a fun episode.

  

The Menagerie Part 1 & 2 is a combination of new story wrapped around and between footage from the unaired pilot called The Cage. The pilot had Jeffrey Hunter playing Captain Pike. Spock served on the Enterprise but he wasn't the science officer. That part was played by Majel Barrett. Pike, Spock and some crewmen land on Talos IV in the pilot and Pike gets captured by subterranian aliens who want him to breed with Susan Oliver. The Talosians have big heads and powers to create illusians that seem real. They use some to get Pike interested in Susan but oddly Pike resists and tries to escape. I guess he really is married to his ship. Pike proves too much of a problem to the Talosians and they let him go. Susan has to stay. She was badly damaged in the crash that stranded her there nearly 18 years before. She was put back together by a race that was advanced but hadn't seen a human before. Without the illusion they cast Susan is pretty scarred and twisted. Kind of a sad ending. The pilot didn't do well with the network, who were probably thinking why wouldn't this guy want to be bangin' Susan Oliver, but out loud they complained about the show being too cerebral. In an unusual move NBC asked for a second pilot. Hunter moved on and Shattner moved in. Now we got a Captain who's more physical than cerebral, but not stupid by any measure, who'd soon be bangin' those alien babes. Nimoy became the science officer and Majel Barrett became Nurse Chapel.

    

   

In The Menagerie 13 years have past since that eventful time on Talos IV. Kirk, Spock and McCoy stop in to see Pike only to learn that he's all screwed up. He can't do much after the spaceship accident except ride around in his electric chair and blink yes or no at you. Spock steals the Enterprise and delivers Pike to Talos IV. Spock faces court martial and execution for his actions. Spock is put on trial and the Talosians supply the footage from the pilot. They work the pilot footage into the story very well and the The Cage becomes part of the series. I found it very entertaining and somehow uplifting.

This two part episode was produced so the special effects people could catch up with the production of the original series. Shows were being delivered later and later to the network. That doesn't make the episode any less interesting. Another good set of shows. The disc also has a short featurette about William Shattner and his horses. I'm not much interested in horses and I only watched part of it.

Star Trek S1D3

        

 

What Are Little Girls Made Of was written by Robert Block. Yup, the Psycho guy. Here he's got Kirk and Nurse Chapel transporting  down to Exo III. The man they are going to see is Doctor Korby, who was Nurse Chapel's fiance. He's been missing for 5 years so you know she's all excited. Michael Strong plays Dr Korby (upper right top row pic) and he's kind of creepy, especially in that green and blue outfit. After he doesn't meet Kirk at the beam down point the captain has a couple of security guards join him. A man arrives, it's not Korby, but he is to take them to the doctor. Kirk stations one guard at the beam down point and the party sets off through the underground tunnels of the icy planet. After they move along the guards are killed by a large clocked figure. Korby says he's been working on a great find of ancient technology but secretly he's got some crazy dream to replace human's with androids. Korby has a android making machine and an ancient android to explain it.  He makes a replica of Kirk that gets on board the Enterprise. The android Kirk calls Spock a halfbread. What a dick, huh? Ted Cassidy plays the ancient android. It was a pretty good episode that has a grim ending with only Chapel and Kirk leaving the tunnels alive.

      

 

Miri is the 8th episode and it was broadcast October 27, 1966. I only remember the vaguest images and bits of story from the first time I saw these episodes. I remembered images of the kids from this one. Especially Michael J Pollard, in the green jacket. You might remember him from Bonnie and Clyde or any number of other movies and tv shows. He was 27 at the time and he's supposed to be 12 or 13. TV sure stretched your imagination in the 1960's. Oddly enough in the show Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Yoman Rand and some other red shirts, beam down to a planet with a rundown town that looks exactly like Earth of the 1960's. Or at least the rundown movie studio backlot version of Earth in the 1960's. Appearently the town background has been enhanced by some extra CGI in this remastered episode . No matter, it looks good and rundown. It appears that the place is abandoned until an old man attacks them. Spock stuns him and he dies right there in that picture above. I did my own screen caps right off the dvd using VLC Player, one of the best general all around media players. It's free out there on the internet. Back on the planet the crew finds Miri, played by Kim Darby, who is one of a group of feral children. It does well to remind me that a pack of children left unsupervised long enough turn into a savage gang of monsters. Really, often it only takes a few minutes before someone has an eye out. The crew, except for Vulcan Mr Spock, gets some blue and red spots on their skin. Turns out the people on the planet had a disease that occured when they tried to tried to prolong life. It worked and you only aged a month a year, problem was when you hit puberty you got the disease. It aged you real quick and you didn't live long. They can't go back to the ship and the hospital they find is hardly the place to do any work. They get some help from the ship until the kids steal their communicators. It's touch and go as the clock is ticking down and they need to check the cure on the computer and can't. Yoman Rand gets captured, and while Kirk is trying to talk the kids into helping them, McCoy tries out the untested serum on homself. He'll be ok, he's nearly a regular at this point. The kids are saved and the Enterprise sets off of it's next port of call. A pretty good episode that had a pretty goofy setting. I suspect it was what they could do cheaply that drove the story's location. Setting it in a familiar setting helped make the tragic story that much more jarring.

     

Dagger Of The Mind is the 9th episode broadcast and the 11th episode made. It's directed by Vincent McEveerty who directed Miri and 4 other episodes of Star Trek. He directed a lot of other tv episodes, plus several tv and theatrical movies, in a career that started in 1962 and ended in 2000. During a stop at a penal colony on Tantalus V a prisoner escapes and gets aboard the Enterprise. He tries to hold up the bridge but Spock nerve pinches him. After a bit of examination Spock uses his mind meld for the first time on the show. He discovers that the warden of the prison is crazy and experimenting on the prisoners. Kick soon puts a stop to that. It's a tough old plot device that still works in deep space. Veteran actor James Gregory plays the warden. He was Matt Helm's boss in all the Dean Martin spy spoofs. That's a set worth picking up. Another fairly good and gritty episode with a great preformance by Morgan Woodward as the tormented prisoner.

Star Trek S1D2

   

The second disc has three of the remastered shows. The first show on the disc was the 4th show produced and the 4th show broadcast. The Naked Time was written by John D. F. Black. He worked in tv, writing episodes for shows as diverse as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Mannix, and he co-wrote the screenplay to Shaft. He appears in several interviews in the dvd's extras. Back in The Naked Time it's sad, no one gets naked. Mr Sulu goes topless as you can see in one of the icon images from the series. On a cold dying planet Mr Spock and crewman Joe Tomolen transport to a frost covered research station to pick up the scientists working there. They find everyone dead, just lying there, all covered with frost. Joe takes off his glove to rub his nose and stupidly gets some blood on hand. Back on board the ship the sickness passes from Joe to Sulu and several other crewmen. They can't figure out what's happening for a while and the next thing you know there's Sulu running through the ship with his fencing foil. Things go from bad to worse and even Spock gets to crying about his never telling his mother he loved her. Eventually a cure is discovered but they have some mechanical problems to get though before they can pull away from the rapidly collapsing planet and it's deadly gravity.

   

The second show was The Enemy Within and that was written by Richard Matheson and directed by Leo Penn. Both are veterans of the tv industry but only one is Sean and Chris's dad. While transporting back to the ship Captain Kirk is split into two, one version with his better features and the other the evil version of him. Guess which one that is above?  Mr Scott shuts down the transporter when the hairy horned space critter that Spock is holding comes through the transporter with an evil bitey duplicate. There's some mistaken identity stuff going on as the evil captain learns his way around the ship. Quickly Mr Spock figures it out. Poor Mr Sulu is trapped on the planet below and the temperature is dropping. They can't leave until the problem with the transporter is worked out. The evil captain nearly rapes Yoman Rand but she scratches his face. They catch him but how to get the two of them back together. They test out a theory on the space animal and it works but the creature dies. Spock says the dog thing was confused and scared and that fear killed it but the captain knows what's going on and he should be able to survive. Sure enough, he does and the show continues next week.

   

Roger C Carmel plays the Mudd in Mudd's Women. He was a pretty common guest on many shows of that era. He usually played big noisy types, often criminals, and here he's at his best. Look at that mustache. Who would trust that guy? He's stolen a ship and it's about to blow when the Enterprise pulls Mudd and his ladies to safety. The gals are taking an illegal drug that makes them look more glamorous than they really are. Nearly all the men are falling for them, even Captain Kirk nearly comes in collision with Karen Steele. That's Karen, Maggie Therett and Susan Denberg in the middle picture. Susan was the Playboy Centerfold in Aug 1966 and she only appeared in a couple of movies and a couple of tv episodes before she left the business and went home to Austria. Maggie was in show biz from 1962 at age 15 until 1970. Back in the episode there is some business that hooks the ladies up with some potentially rich but lonely Lithium miners. The ship needs that lithium and the miners nead the gals. It's nearly the end of the Enterprise before they get the power crystals. They would change the name to Dilithium crystals in future episodes.

I liked all three of the episodes on this disc. There was more humor in the Mudd episode and I don't mind that a bit. The other episodes had some dangerous situations and weird things happen. Two Captains was pretty entertaining though I did feel that the dog's costume could have used some work. At least they didn't color it pink. Again the remastered shows look pretty darn good. There's a short 24 minute featurettte that has interviews with various people on the show. It was fun to watch.