TV: Star Trek: The Original Series - A Quick Look

Star Trek (1966-1969), 79 episodes

Occasionally on this site we will take a look at the complete run of a television program. Over the last month and a half, my film reviews (book reviews, too) have been somewhat less frequent. This is because I have been watching the complete Star Trek: The Original Series. (Next I will be watching Star Trek: The Animated Series, then Star Trek: The Next Generation, then Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It remains to be seen if I will have any interest remaining for Star Trek: Voyager. Certainly I have none for Enterprise.)

Star Trek has been analyzed and overanalyzed a million times, from the redshirts to the plot holes to Kirk constantly losing his shirt to the campiness to Bill Shatner’s acting. But here are just a couple of thoughts on the original Trek.

Recently the series has been remastered, with modern special effects added. This has for the most part been done in moderation, and there’s no out-of-control-George-Lucas feel to it. The new effects are mostly fine, although they're sometimes unnecessary (like in “Catspaw”). They always improve the space battles significantly, however.

Certainly Star Trek was campy at times, but then again, science really worked in broad strokes in the sixties. The silliest part of the show was the sheer number of English-speaking worlds that not only had perfect humans but perfect earth culture, too (a very feeble attempt to explain this was made in “The Paradise Syndrome”).

As classic as this series is (which has more to do with the characters than anything else), and as great as the series’ best episodes are, it’s a little surprising how many bad episodes there are (and most of the bad ones are bad because of how illogical or ridiculous they are, not because of the show’s limited budget). Many otherwise-good episodes feel padded, as though the writers couldn’t come up with fifty minutes’ worth of story (“The Devil in the Dark,” for example – that mind meld lasts forever).

Although Star Trek, like all its offspring, features an ensemble cast, the show is basically about Kirk and Spock (and to a lesser extent Dr. McCoy). Spock is a fantastic character, masterfully portrayed by Leonard Nimoy, and he almost single-handedly makes Star Trek a worthwhile show. And while these characters are quite good, certain patterns emerge over the course of the show’s run: Kirk is a slut, Spock does all the work, and McCoy disagrees with them no matter what they say because otherwise he wouldn’t have much to do.

Additionally: Shatner’s Season 1 stunt double looks nothing like him; the two shooting models of the Enterprise have different endings on the warp nacelles; Shatner is actually quite a fine actor when he puts his mind to it.

My favorite episodes:

1. “Errand of Mercy”

2. “A Taste of Armageddon”

3. “The Trouble with Tribbles”

4. “Elaan of Troyius”

5. “The City on the Edge of Forever”

My least favorite episodes:

77. “Spock’s Brain”

78. “The Omega Glory”

79. “The Alternative Factor”

I give the whole series a 7.