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

Gonna make a special single update today because of the episode in question:

206- The Doomsday Machine:
-Premise: The Enterprise discovers the wreck of another starship left in the wake of a massive planet killer weapon.
-T2Q Comments: Ok, wow. I never saw this one before (though I had heard of it). This surprised the heck out of me- with exception to Decker's acting (which ranges from pretty good to over-the-top-funny-faces-awfulness), there's really nothing that flawed about this episode. It's easily the only TOS episode I've watched so far that is practically on the same level of quality and watchability as the modern Trek shows and films.
It's something almost anyone could watch without requiring either a dose of nostalgia or "taking the time it was made" considerations and excuses into account (well, outside the FX, perhaps, but thats a minor detail)- something I really didn't think any TOS episode was capable of (sure, some came close, but were always hindered by some dose of 60's syndrome cheesiness, from either a minor overall tone or moment, or whole scenes that just make you want to scream in agony).

I really can't wait to see the remastered version of this episode when it airs in February. They sure as hell better not be oo slavishly loyal to the original FX shots, as there's potential for some incredible shots here. I don't want to just see scale corrections and missing ships added.

Bottomline- not just "Definitey Essential", but being easily the best episode of the series, it's absolutely essential.


Interesting note that Decker's son appears in Star Trek 1 (though this doesn't effect TDM's classification for how essential it is as, spoiler alert!, Star Trek: The Motionless Picture will not be getting an "essential" ranking by me ).

The books have done a few attempts at elaborating on the Doomsday machines as well- some seem to establish them as a weapon created by an ancient race (designated by the Borg as Species 4672), possibly The Preservers (mentioned in a season 3 episode), to use against the Borg (to destroy worlds assimilated by the Borg). There is speculation that the galactic barrier surrounding the galaxy was created (also possibly by The Preservers) to keep these Planet Killers out- though at least one or two slipped in, it seems. In a comic, Voyager had to deal with one of them, though their attempts to recreate Kirk's stunt failed, they eventually defeated it using a nanoprobe virus.

 

Well, maybe it if didn't put me to sleep, I'd have paid better attention

I will, however, re-endure it one more time for this thread, after I finish TOS.

It just seems like The Changeling would be a preferable alternative to the same story.


However, the lovely "inspection of the refitted ship", if cut off from the rest of the film into it's own little short, would be a fine addition to my list

EDIT- in fact... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_2bRVrMOZM

 

This weeks's remastered ep was Where No Man Has Gone Before. And while the episode is still iffy as a whole, they did a great job with the new FX (love the shot of the saucer section breaking through the clouds- wish it went on longer instead of breaking to the wider shot)- it's a shame that an episode like this gets these gorgeous, better flowing shots, while Balance of Terror was stucl with overly faithful and dull recreations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyqo7cOmXww

[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/wnmhgb/new_ent_intro_shot.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/wnmhgb/new_ent_delves_into_barrier.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/wnmhgb/new_ent_leaving_barrier.jpg]
[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/wnmhgb/new_ent_clears_barrier.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/wnmhgb/new_ent_limps_along.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/wnmhgb/new_delta_vega_night.jpg]

 

208- I, Mudd:
-Premise: An android takes over the Enterprise and forces Kirk and crew down to a planet of other androids seemingly led by Harry Mudd
-T2Q Comments: Surprisingly, this one wasn't quite as unbearable as Mudd's Women and was obviously TOS's attempt at a comedy episode. It kinda works at times, but is basicly a cartoon sitcom type approach (though Spock's "I love you, but I hate you" line is pretty funny). Also, Uhura's love with immortality comes outta nowhere- must have picked that up in her 2 hour college reeducation... Oh, and Kirk: 4, Computers: 0- yet another machine talked to death by Jimmy boy.
I'll be generous and say it's an "Ok Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential" and, really, that's about the highest it could ever get because otherwise it requires one to have seen Mudd's Women/raikse that episodes classification, and that just isn't going to happen


209- Metamorphosis:
-Premise: Kirk, Spock and McCoy escort a Federation diplomat who has fallen ill to a serious disease back to the Enterprise, but are forced down to a habitable asteroid by an alin force called The Companion, where they discover a young Zephrane Cochrane
-T2Q Comments: I was pretty surprised to see Cochrane pop up here- i was under the impression he was invented for First Contact, but apparently not. There's apparently a reference to his dissapearance in an Enterprise episode as well, so it kinda all ties together at least.
The episode itself isn't too bad up until the end where it kinda falls apart with the tacked on love story.
With the Cochrane connection, I'll go with "Potentially Essential, But Not Necessarily Good" (a category that's been somewhat bare up until now, only joined by Arena)

210- Journey to Babel:
-Premise: The Enterprise carries several diplomats to an important conference, including Spock's parents- but someone onboard wishes to disrupt the conference and is in contact with a fast and mysterious ship trailing the Enterprise.
-T2Q Comments: Surprisingly good episode- we meet Spock's father (though it's kinda odd to have known him playing the Romulan commander in Balance of Terror) and mother, as well Andorians and Tellorites (the other two founding Federation races besides Humans and Vulcans). Having only primarily known the Andorians through the recurring character on Enterprise, I was pleased to see this still matched the somewhat quirky speech style and look to the Andorians in this episode that that actor on Enterprise injected into his performance. Bones' "Shh! Shh!" at the end was kinda funny too.
With the various core races, especially given the episodes on Enterprise and Sarek's role in future Trek stories, gonna have to give this one a "Definitely Essential" ranking. Looking forward to the remastere dversion hitting soon (the preview of which is up online and shows some promising shots, including the shuttle landing sequence, the Enterprise's pahsers tracking in an attempt to hit the Orion ship, as well as the interesting redesign of the Orion ship itself- which is still a pinwheel of lights, but actually looks like a ship now).


Up next, 211: Friday's Child, 212: The Deadly Years and 213: Obsession.

 

And finally we have the remastered Doomsday Machine! They did a really good job with this one.

Updated FX Reel Video

[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/doomsday_ep/new_06.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/doomsday_ep/new_09.jpg]
[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/doomsday_ep/new_10.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/doomsday_ep/new_11.jpg]
[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/doomsday_ep/new_21.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/doomsday_ep/new_29.jpg]
[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/doomsday_ep/new_28.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/doomsday_ep/new_30.jpg]
[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/doomsday_ep/new_36.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/doomsday_ep/new_37.jpg]

 

It's motions were better though- I love the "tail cam" shot of it slowly turning after the Enterprise- it's organic feel really adds a bit of creepiness to Spock's "and it is, pursuing us." line.

 

Follow that video link, then, it has all the new FX bits.

 

This past weekend's remastered episode was Amok Time, which had only a few, though rather notable, new FX shots, which includes some new establishing shots of the Vuclan landscape more in tune with what we see in the subsequent films and series.

[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/amoktime/new_ent_close_pass_1.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/amoktime/new_young_tpring.jpg]
[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/amoktime/new_ent_orbit_vulcan.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/amoktime/new_enter_arena_1.jpg]
[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/amoktime/new_enter_arena_2.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/amoktime/new_spock_beamout.jpg]

video reel

Apparently they evn considered color-correcting the Vulcan sky to be less red like it is in it's other appearances, but it would have proved too costly.

 

Agreed.

And, for status report- I haven't had the chance to watch too many eps lately, though I've got a couple done towards the next batch, and have been catching a couple of the enahcned ones on TV, so I'll be able to go a little quicker when I come to them in the episode order.

 

Sorry I've been away from this for a bit- the first two of these next three I actually watched awhile back, so my comments will be brief on them since I'm probably forgetting some specifics.

211: Friday's Child:
-Premise: Kirk, Spock and McCoy must flee with a pregnant woman after an attempt to establish a mining treaty with the local population is interrupted by Klingon manpulation.
-T2Q Comments: Someone call Q- more people have stolen headwear from his silly hats collection. Overall, this ep was kinda dull- didn't care for the intrigue, though I give the episode credit for having a semi-strong female character for once (the slapping scene between her and McCoy in particular). The cuchie-coo humor at the end sucks though. Groan-inducing, that. Scotty's subplot with the Klingon ship doesn't add up to much in the long run as well, though it does serve it's purpose, it's almost filler in a way, though it had potential to be more.
Despite the presence of Klingons, not much here worth seeing. The Klingons make it borderline "Potentially Essential, But Not Necessarily Good", but could easily be downgraded to "Average" or "Ok".


212: The Deadly Years:
-Premise: The command staff is infected with a disease that causes rapid aging, Commodore Stocker must consider taking command from Kirk when faced with a link of the disease to the Romulans.
-T2Q Comments: First off, the aging makeup is obviosuly not very convincing (Shatner's hairline would never receed ! ). Beyond that, the actual aging and onsetting senility to the characters comes across as silly, but there are a few decent elements here. There's a fun throwback reference to the Corbomite Manuever here, the "I'm going to run out of samples" line by Chechov was good, and Commodore Stocker is a pretty decent character, probably the best Starfleet command character we've seen above Kirk- more low key is his demeanor, and lacking the over-the-top expressions that Decker's actor was prone to. It's a shame the script forced artifical stupidity upon Stocker just so Kirk would seem to be smarter, though he wasn't (for the most part) in this case. It's annoying, really. Looking forward to seeing this one remastered, as the battle with the Romulan ships could prove to be pretty neat.
Due to the Romulan connection, I'll rank this one as "Potentially Essential, But Not Necessarily Good"- and is certainly on more solid footing than Friday's Child.

213: Obsession:
-Premise: Kirk becomes obsessed with hunting down a gaseous creature he previously encountered more than a decade earlier when it killed many of his fellow crew on his first assignment after the academy.
-T2Q Comments: Though the Ahab obsession storyline will eventually be done far better later on in First Contact by Picard, this episode does a pretty good job with it, and though it almost falls into the typical cliche of "obsession turns character into irrational, snappy, angry and paranoid person", it manages to pull itself back from teetering on the edge of that abyss (during the "conspire" scene on the bridge). The characterizations here are quite solid, and no 60's-cringe moments. Also, what a shocker- a named Red Shirt actually survives the episode, and wasn't annoying either! And, I must say, that big rock that's supposed to be 20 times harder than diamonds sounds an awful lot like a hollow wooden box when Kirk knocks on it- you'd think the sound effects people could have easily done something about that.
Doesn't tie into anything much (other than yet another "Kirk's Academy years" backstory element the next movie will probably have to stumble around or through ), but a reccomended epiosde nonethless- "Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential".

Now I'm officially about halfway through TOS :


Up next, 214: Wolf in the Fold, 215: The Trouble With Tribbles and 216 - The Gamesters Of Triskelion.