Amph To Boldly Trek Where Many Geeks Have Gone Before- VOY: Drive, Repression & Imperfection

Kirk never shoots first- he prefers to punch.


121- Return of the Archons:
-Premise: The crew, investigating the dissapearance of anotehr ship from 100 years ago, encounter a world being brainwashed into a peaceful and tranquil society.
-T2Q Comments: I liked this one- though not as much as others. Still, I got a crack out of the "You will be absorbed!" line, if only because I had that line as a sound file on my computer lonnng ago (probably about 10 years at least) that I had downloaded off of AOL, but never knew where it was from.
Anyways, the only major prolem with the episode is the "festival" riots that played a prominent role in the early aprt of the episode was never explained, so it comes across as pretty random after al is said and done. Another "good episode, but not necessarily essential".

122- Space Seed:
-Premise: Episode to which Wrath of Khan is the sequel to. The Enterprise discovers a sleeper ship carrying several enahnced humans aboard- including one Khan Noonien Singh.
-T2Q Comments: Though the chick who falls for Khan is written too weak for my tastes, her addiction to him is played well. Any complaints aside- Khan is cool, and watching Ricardo play him is just fun : With it being the basis for Star Trek II, it, above any other episode in this series, so far as I can tell, is Essential.

123- A Taste of Armageddon:
-Premise: Sent to open diplomatic relations with a world, Kirk discovers a society that ahs been at war for 500 years- only the war is fought virtually by mathematicly compuation, and the casualties are sent into suicide booths, to maintain the war without destroying the culture and infrastructure.
-T2Q Comments: Kirk: 2, Computers: O . A pretty solid episode- fairly decently acted and it definitely has that old-school written sci-fi feel to the story concept. Only shortcoming was the diplomat acting like a fool fr the first hal of the episode, but at least he wisened up towards the end. Still, having him be a more believable and effective diplomat less susceptible to obvious deception could have made this a a really great episode. So, while good, it almost has a "missed opportunity" vibe to it, so far as that facet goes. Also, someone should tell the Q Continuum that someone has been trying to make hats funnier than theirs.
Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential.



Up next- 124: This Side of Paradise, 125: The Devil in the Dark & 126: Errand of Mercy.

 

Next batch:

124- This Side of Paradise:
-Premise: The crew, sent to evacuate colonists from a world being exposed to harmful radiation, finds the population to be of perfect health- and under the influence of spores that induce happy feelings, which begin to infect the entire crew.
-T2Q Comments: This is definitely a "been there, done that" for this series, as much of the concept (mainly the "outside influence making populations content, and how that stagnates a society" angle) is a retread of "return of the Archons", while the spreading spores harkens back to The Naked Time.
However, this episode isn't all that offensive or annoying like naked Time, nor does it have a huge element left unexplained like the Festival from Archons- it's just kinda dull for the most part.
Also, the flower that spores Kirk comes out of nowhere, which is kinda funny since it makes it seem like the flower is stalking him, hehe.
And the last Captain's log entry is spoken aloud to nothing but the transporter console. There's also the girl's line that she's "never seen a starship before", which is pretty funny considering she would have ahd to have been ona starship to have been brought to the planet in the first place (as the colonists were only there for a short period of time, not long enough for her to have been born there and grown to that age), not to mention she and Spock had met elsewhere at some point in the past.
I also have to comment that any attempt thus far to make Spock work with feelings has never really been executed very successfully- every time I see him smiling with a grin, i just keep being reminded of Nimoy's Hobbit song...
I'd classify it as "OK, but not essential".

125- Devil in the Dark:
-Premise: The crew is sent to assist a mining colony where the miners have been attacked by an unknown creature in the caves.
-T2Q Comments: This episode could be summarized with three words- "Turn! Zoom! Scream!". As each time the creaure attacks, they do that exact same thing.
Actually not a bad episode overall, except that the spheres-are-eggs element is made way too obvious the moment Spock first remarks about them near the episode's start. Also, for a creature so set on protecting it's eggs, it's rather odd that it would cause a cave-in in an area containing some of the eggs.
Still, "Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential".
And remember- "Turn! Zoom! Scream!"

126- Errand of Mercy:
-Premise: The Enterprise must help bring a strageticly located planet to the side of the Federation before the Klingons can.
-T2Q Comments: This was a pretty good episode, once one gets past the old smooth foreheaded Klingon look (thankfully explained in a two-parter on Enterprise, at least). Kor is an interesting villian (one who apparantly made a few appearances on DS9, played by the same actor- who, it took me awhile to realize, was the same actor who played Baltar on the original Battlestar Galactica), though the Organians likely being powerful beings was too obvious (though perhaps it's not so bad, if taken in the context of the Trek sgaa being viewed in chronological order, where an episode of Enterprise has already revealed the Organians as powerful beings). And Kirk was a bit too bull-headed (even he should have been smart enough to maintain a more convincing cover for more than 30 seconds). Also, Kirk's comment at the end that "we think of ourselves as the most powerful beings in the universe- it's unsettling to discover that we're wrong" is just a damn odd one to hear since they've met at least a half-dozen beings more powerful than humans in this season alone.
Still, given the Kor, Klingon and Organian connections to the greater mythos, not to mention being pretty watchable, this episode is definitely essential.

Up next, the last three Season 1 episodes: 127: The Alternative Factor, 128: The City on the Edge of Forever and 129: Operation Annhilate!.

By a nice coincidence, TCOTEOF was this past weekend's SE trek episode, s

 

I don't think there's much of a difference between the phrase "starship" and "spaceship", especially in a Trek context and in this instance where she would have been aboard a vessel of decent size to accomodate all the colonists, supplies and livestock.

I mean, sure, if one wants to get nitpicky, one might say that not all spacecraft, like short range shuttles and the like, are starships, but again, she would have taken a ship capable of long range flight to bring her there, so that possible distinction doesn't apply regardless.

 

Upon further reflection, I conceed the point so far as TOS terminology goes.

 

...The Klingons invade and take over the planet. Following their orders, the Enterprise retreats until reinforcements can arrive, leaving Spock and Kirk on the planet, disguised as an Organian and a Vulcan trader. Kirk tries as much as he can to show the Organians that they have to fight for their freedom, trying to do so by example, but his attempts seem futile as they refuse to take any action, feeling there is no threat. The Klingon commander, Kor, is about as disgusted and frustrated by the Organians as Kirk is.

 

Well, I didn't want to spoil it for you

Eventually Kirk and Spock are imprisoned, but the Organians free them. As punishment, Kor starts executing 200 Organians every hour or two that Kirk is not turned over. The Organians still do not wish to fight. Kirk and Spock manage to storm Kor's HQ, but they are stopped from firing as all the weapons suddenly become super-hot (the same happens to the control panels of every Starfleet and Klingon warship in the galaxy). The Organians are actually beings of pure energy that merely cerate the illusion of corporeal form. The Organians basicly convince/force both sides not to go to war, mentioning they will one day be allies.

 

As a small interlude while I finish watching the next 3 episodes, I noticed this week's SE episode was Arena, so since I've reviewed that already, just wanted to comment on it. The Gorn hasn't become CGI, but they added digital eyelids to blink every now and then- which is both amusing and surprisingly effective, at least for our first glimpse of it (I've only skimmed part of the episode so far).

 

They're adding small touches here and there, beyond the CGI starship shots and rerecorded music- things such as matte paintings, smoothing over the seams of an android's stomach plate (and updating the revealed circuitry), adding a missing phaser beam, replacing the chronometer on Sulu's console and improving the Horta's tunnel-making effect from Devil in the Dark.

Love this shot:

[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/imudd/enterprise_leaves_new.jpg]


This site has some good before-and-after shots from the episodes so far.

They even have a divx clip of the blinking Gorn.

 

There was a 3-parter in the 4th season of Enterprise that dealt with a group of human Augments (like Kahn) who were made by Dr. Soong (whose work would eventually lead to Data), they steal a Klingon Bird of Prey. However the Klingons get access to some of the Augment DNA and try to adapt it to themselves- but this resulted in the ridges disolving. One of the subjects had some kind of flu which mutated from the DNA and became airborne, spreading to many other Klingons. This change was passed on to their children, as well (though apparently was cured at some point between TOS and the first movie).

Two Organians, in I believe another 4th season episode, inhabit various crew member bodies to study them.


Really, the 4th season was the only one worth watching