Amph Beam me up, Scotty! Star Trek: The Original Series.

While I do enjoy the movies and all the TNG+ series, I just can't stand watching TOS, for the most part. It has it;s moemnts, but I just hate the look of it- the softfocus female closeups, the suddenly dark-but-with-light-across-their-eyes male closeups, it just really, really bugs me.

That said, some episodes are watachable despite that, but only a few fom the handful of eps I've seen.

Anyways, I am however embarking on watching the whole series, attempting to determine what episodes are essential to the ST shows in general (mainly what episodes are relevant to the plots of the movies and other series, ie: Space Seed for Wrath of Kahn, Tholian Web for that one Enterprise episode, Mirror Mirror for the various mirror Universe eps, Trouble with tribbles for that DS9 ep, etc) and perhaps what couple of episodes are actually worth watching even if they aren't connected to the more improtant shows.

That in mind- any other particular episodes spring to mind (besides the above mentioned) that people would suggest I keep my eye open for?

 

It's not so much the special effects- I can handle bad effects taken into historical context (though I'm amazed someone hasn't done either an official or even fanmade revision of the FX shots from TOS, given that even off-the-shelf software could produce sequences that mesh well the rest of the franchise), it's just the general look of the show itself, and a little bit of the acting (not always so much the main characters, usually the supporting ones though)- but that's mainly a product of the time it was produced (but, unfortunately, unlike special effects, older acting styles is not something I can generally adjust to easily).

 

Offhand, my understanding is that the Trek novels are definitely not canon- Paramount ignores them when producing the shows and films.

 

My personal favorites:

Amok Time. Best pickup line eva: "If I don't have sex, I'll DIE!" Plus, the classic "Spock music" and "combat music."

Mudd's Women and I, Mudd. Star Trek comedy at it's finest. Speaking of, what episode was it where Scotty and that alien got completely hammered?

Alien: *points at bottle of liquor* What is it?
Scotty: Its...its...its green!


Balance of Terror. Star Trek as U-boat battle!

Mirror, Mirror. Uhura = teh hawtness

Space Seed. Khaaaaaaaan!!!!!

BTW, what novel was it that postulated that Trelayne was a youngster from the Q continuum?

 

Ok, I'm starting to rev up into my TOS viewing after watching two episodes stop and go over the past few months, so i figured I'd share my thoughts on them, and how I'm classifying them.

Again, I'm mainly trying to find the episodes that are, first and foremost, relevant to the other shows, secondly, episodes that are still actually watchable and hold up today without having to force yourself to accept the "that was the style at the time" junk polluting it, and, lastly, any episodes relevant to other TOS episodes.

I didn't have access to The Cage pilot yet, so that will come later.

101- The Man Trap: Honestly, I couldn't finish this one, and don't remember much at all about it at this point. Definitely not a good introductory episode, and thankfully not related to any other episodes, so we'll let this one be the first clunker in the waste basket.

102- Charlie X: Plagued by "60's syndrome" acting and touches, pretty painful to watch. Into the waste basket!

103- Where No Man Has Gone Before: An improvement over the first 2 episodes, there's some interesting things here with the crew member becoming more and more powerful. It is however hampered by it's attempted romance subplot, which has that "guy glances suggestively while girl looks back in a pout-gaze to look screwable" element that is encountered far too often in the series and just makes things laughable.
Overall, it's not terrible, but it's not good either. Generally forgettable.

104- The Naked Time: Another step up in quality, but still not "actually good". Now, granted, this may have come first, but we've seen the "crew is infected by something that spreads by touch" angle in many other shows since and have acomplished it more effectively. The one guy is a pretty annoying actor, but I think his character was meant to be annoying (and a lovely Irish stereotype at that ). Still, a "nice try". Plus, "Sulu...with a sword?!"
However, since this apparently is loosely tied, either directly or thematicly, with a TNG episode, as well as the crew discovering a forumla for time travel (which will apparently come into play in a few episodes as it was originally intended to be a setup for a second part that was turned into a stand alone), this episode gets upgraded to "Potentially Essential".

105- The Enemy Within: Still rising, this episode was actually somewhat interesting overall- it's only flaws being some of the acting and dialogue ("I'M CAPTAIN KIRK! I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!" is about as funny to quote as "TRASH BAGS!" from the A-Team, only, unlike the A-Team, it was never intended to actually be funny).
This one goes into the "Ok Episodes, But Not Necessarily Essential" category. You feel bad for Sulu- they could have just sent him a damn shuttle, afterall .Also worth noting that this was meant to be the 4th episode, so that may give me some leeway in adjusting the episode order down the road, especially considering the content of 107...

106- Mudd's Women: Aggghhh! Whether it's these three chicks, Posion Ivy or Hathor, the stupid "woman turns guys around her into mindless zombies" plot element never works and is just painful to watch, let alone a 60's production of it. Couldn't make it halfway through this one. The fact that this Mudd guy comes back for another episode fills me with dread. To the trash bin with this garbage.

107- What Are Little Girls Made Of?: Ah, finally, an actual good episode! What a relief. That robot dude was pretty huge (well, or Shatner is just tiny). Barely any "60's syndrome" touches present, if at all. If I'm remembering correctly, also our first away team Red Shirt kills (though it's possible I may have missed some from the episodes i didn't finish). Funny that they went to a duplicate Kirk story element so soon after Enemy Within (though I gues sthe original airing order may have switched things up a bit); and considering there's the potential for TEW and WALGMO to be back to back in my eventual "final list", I might have to excercise the freedom t

 

>>I still dont even know how they got home...<<

A future Janeway, who made it to Earth after much loss, travels back in time to prevent said loss, providing anti-Borg weaponry and armor (that slinks into place much like the Batmobile's) so that they can assault a junction in the Borg's network of transit corridors and use it to get home sooner, collapsing the route to the Federation behind them. However, after their arrival, we actually don't get to even see their actual return.

Whenever they decide to continue into Trek's future, if they don't incoporate that new armor into their ships, I'll be rather dissapointed, as that was probably the coolest thing Voyager ever did. The Titan should be outfitted with that stuff.