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

He's referring to the 4th season of Enterprise, not TOS.

They didn't so much hand it off to the fans as hand over alot of the show's story direction to a writer who was a fan of Trek. That's why 4th season had things like Augments, Soong, smooth-foreheaded Kligons, Organians, Tholians, a smoothing over of Vulcan continuity, formation of the Federation, Mirror universe and the Defiant, etc, instead of the Xindi and Temporal Cold War.

 

It's probably in syndication somewhere by now.

 

Wanted to note that, now as I get more into the series, I feel I was too easy on earlier episodes which were obviously harder to watch than some of these later ones. As such, I'm adding a new category for "Average Episodes"- ones of a better overall quality than the "ok episodes" (which tend to have strong moments of weakness), but still weaker than what could be considered an honestly good episode.

So, for now, the 8 episodes I previously listed in the "Good Episodes" will be placed off to the side for future reclassifying to determine if they still belong in the good episodes list or if they deserve to be demoted to "average".

And, now- the last batch of Season 1!:

127- The Alternative Factor:
-Premise: The crew encounter a man named Lazarus, who claims to be from an Anti-Matter Universe.
-T2Q Comments: Must..look..away..from..the..facial hair...!
Poor makeup job aside, a pretty decent episode- despite the obviously misuse of the term antimatter (because, otherwise, Kirk's arrival there would have caused an explosion, same as Lazarus would), and the seemingly omnipotent Commodore ("The distortion was felt in every quadrant of the galaxy and beyond."; Really? And just how do you know that, Commodore? Or, should I call you Q? Aha! I knew it! It's the Trek equivilent of a Scooby Doo mystery, that's gotta be it! What? Back to the episode? Well, if you insist...).
The "conflict" transition of the spinning nebula image is pretty cheesy, but I rather like the way it was utilized, all things considered.
The overall tone lacks much in the way of 60's syndrome or camp, for the most part, as well, which make sit fairly watchable.
Classifying this one as a "Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential"

128- The City of the Edge of Forever:
-Premise: Discovering a sentient gateway called The Guardian of Forever, Kirk and Spock must cross through it's portal to 1930 to prevent a drug-crazed McCoy from inadvertedly altering the future.
-T2Q Comments: Though the love story, as usual, is the weakest link in this episode, it's still a fun little time travel episode, with an interesting moral quandry.
The woman's little speech towards the start was rather hokey though, in that it came out of nowhere and had little to do with anything else going on around her.
To nitpick the plot a bit, it's weird that, despite knowing she was supposed to die in an auto accident, Spock suggests she could have died falling down the stairs. Also gotta wonder why The Guardian reacts to a question when it didn't respond to almost the same question seconds earlier.
Also, it just seems odd that there was no resolution to the presence of the Gate itself- as far as we can tell, it's still there, and that seems to be pretty careless of Starfleet to just leave it there like that, as it is a very dangerous device- if someone as "good" as McCoy can erase the existence of Starfleet, what damage could be done by someone of a malicious nature? At least seal it up, deactivate or destroy it or something.
Classifying this one also as a "Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential" (though the time travel angle might bump it up to being essential, in retrospect).

129- Operation-Annihilate!:
-Premise: Parasitic creatures infest a Federation outpost and, eventually, Spock.
-T2Q Comments: Gotta love the mustacioed Kirk brother we never hear about again (though he was mentioned in an earlier episode, IIRC- though he had two other sons, which no one seems to care about here, hehe). I found the suggetsion that the parasites were single-celled creatures to be too silly- they were obviously too complex (not to mention too large) to be such creatures. And though their "flying pancake ons trings" look is a bit silly, it kinda works in a way. Like a jellyfish/bee. I hate bees.
There's also a case in this episode of the Mysteriously Vanishing Sulu towards the end, hehe.
This episode also seems to continue the series' habit of ending many episodes with a lame "lets poke some fun at Spock's emotio

 

So I caught the enhanced version of The Trouble With Tribbles on TV last night- I'll save my thoughts on the episode itself for later on when we come to it in the episode order, but it's worth noting that they've apparently started to use a new CGI model of the Enterprise- one supposedly of lower detail but one that actually looks better in regards to appearance, color, lighting, etc. The ship looks much, much better- not only that, but they finally fixed the fly-by shots so that the Enterprise doesn't look like it's flying at a tilt like it did in the original version (though the title sequence still has the "full-tilt" zooms that's plagued it alla long), which adds to the realism as it now seems to be actually moving logicly through space.

[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/tribbles/new_leaving_k7.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/tribbles/new_k7_orbit_2.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/tribbles/new_closing_shot.jpg]
[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/tribbles/new_k7_orbit.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/tribbles/enterprise_aft_detail.jpg]

More screnshots, as well as a link to a youtube video collecting all the new FX shots, can be found here: http://trekmovie.com/2006/11/05/the-trouble-with-tribbles-screenshots-debut-new-cgi-enterprise-model/

 

The remastered episode this week was Space Seed. Must say, the new shots of the Enterprise and Botany Bay were fantastic. Really added a sense of scale to the Enterprise- which we haven't really had before, and you almost feel sorry for the Botany Bay as it's discarded. Huge improvement over the overly-faithful shot recreations that plagued the earlier remastered episodes.

[image=http://trekmovie.com/tosrem/spaceseed/entbot_new3.JPG] [image=http://trekmovie.com/tosrem/spaceseed/entbot_new4.JPG]

 

Alrighty, time to continue- however, I haven't yet watched 2nd and 3rd episodes from the order I've been referencing, but I have caught two other early Season 2 episodes from the remastered airings on TV, so for a brief break from my pattern, I'm going to review the three Season 2 episodes I've watched to keep this thread rolling, and will fill in the blanks as I proceed.


201- Amok Time:
-Premise: Spock starts behaving strange as a Vulcan mating ritual approaches.
-T2Q Comments: This episode actually surprised me quite a bit- no 60's cheesiness (except, perhaps ever so slightly with the Chapel scenes, and the definitively-60's quick editing and camera angles of one sequence during the marriage ritual) and actually a pretty decent script and surprisingly decent acting from the main 3 characters, which is probably what makes this episode work so well- it focuses (and properly portrays) the Kirk/Spock/McCoy friendship very well. It's almost a pitty the various Vulcan weirdness had to happen at all since it's just an excuse for a Kirk/Spock fight.
Still, since a lot of the Vulcan weirdness pops up in other Trek shows (most notably Star Trek 3 and the Vulcan 2-parter in Enterprise's 4th season, particularly the latter since T'Pau is also in that episode), and the overall quality of the execution for the material, I'll list this one as a Definite Essential.

204- Mirror Mirror:
-Premise: A freak transporter occurance sends Kirk and others are sent to an alternate universe where Earth has become an imperialistic power.
-T2Q Comments: Alternate universe, evil-goatee, scarred-face fun. Don't really have to go into much detail, as I'm a sucker for AU stories, and this one's pretty decent. Mirror Sulu is better than Real Sulu though
Given the number of Mirror related episodes in the franchise, this one's also a Definite Essential.

207- Catspaw:
-Premise: Kirk and co are trapped in a Halloween-esque castle by a powerful entity
-T2Q Comments: Just the fact that they did a Halloween episode is amusing enough to recommend this, hehe.
Main flaws are the attempts at humor surrounding the cat and associated music, the cat turning into a woman and back (the cat is the most ruthless and most terrifying of animals? uh, sure lady, whatever you say...), not to mention Chechov's hair- wow, nice wig. The seduction scene is also a big "doh!".
However, the real dissapointment of the whole episode is that the DeSalle/Chechov "breaking-free" subplot aboard the Enterprisee is quite interesting and involving, but goes nowhere, which is a real shame as it could have made for a great payoff. I hope the DeSalle character shows up again.
Though I'm probably being to lenient on it just because it's a Halloween episode, I'm gonna list this one as a "Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential".

Up next, : 202: Who Mourns for Adonais?, 203: The Changeling & 205: The Apple.


Alternate Universe Log:

-TOS: The Alternative Factor (Anti-Matter Universe)
-TOS: Mirror, Mirror (Mirror Universe)

 

Also, figured I'd toss in the links to the remastered footage for both Mirror Mirror & Catspaw:

[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/mirror/mirror_sequence_3.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/mirror/agonizer_1_new.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/mirror/leaving_planet_new.jpg]

Mirror Mirror Remastered Video

[image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/catspaw/new_castle_1.jpg] [image=http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/catspaw/new_castle_2.jpg]

Catspaw Remastered Video


And, also, the videos for the remastered footage for The Menagerie part 1 (love what they did to that zoom-onto-the-bridge shot) and The Menagerie part 2.

 

202- Who Mourns For Adonias?:
-Premise: The crew are taken by a being claiming to be the greek god Apollo, who demands they worship him
-T2Q Comments: I like the Chekov humor ("I am Apollo!" "and I am Czar of all the Russians."). Though somewhat interesting in premise, the overall episode just feels like a rehash (albeit more tolerable than the material it is rehashing); from the powerful being having a power source destroyed to the female ancint history specialist falling in love with her subject (and as soon as we see she's on the away team, it's instantly and painfully telegraphed that that was exactly what was gonna happen- and, btw, why would she ask why she was with the away team AFTER she beamed down with them? Probably shoulda asked before they scrambled your molecules, eh?). The giant hand thing reaching out and grabbing the Enterprise, though a little cheesy, is a tad creepy of a visual though.
Bottomline? If you want aliens posing as mythological gods, stick to Stargate as this episode is ok, but definitely not essential.

203- The Changeling:
-Premise: A strange probe that wipes out an entire civilization is brought aboard the ship and mistakens Kirk for it's creator
-T2Q Comments: Kirk: 3, Computers: 0 (though, to be fair, this is definitely the best of the "Kirk talks a computer to death" episodes so far). This episode also had to be the basis for Star Trek: The Motion picture, what with the "earth probe being combined with an alien probe to become something new" angle.
Also, after Nomad has killed several Red Shirts who have fired upon him with no effect, you would think the other Red Shirts would, oh, I don;t now, stop shooting at the killer invincible probe or something so it wouldn't be provoked into disintegrating them.
And, the Uhura memory wipe thing is just...no. Rededucated to college level within a few hours? Somehow defaultly spoke swahili? Bluey?
A refernece to something past the Warp 10 barrier is irksome, though it's early for the franchise so i guess it's forgiveable (hell, I still remember a TNG trading card or some kind of spinoff book mentioning Romulan ships going at Warp 12...).
There's a particularly perplexing logic error within the script itself early on when Spock says the attacks by the Nomad on the Enterprise's shields is equal to 90 photon torpedoes, and the Enterprise is able to take several such attacks before losing shields (I guess they just don't make them like they used, eh?), then fires 1 torpedo at the Nomad with no effect on it, to which Kirk wonders in amazement how anything coukd absorb that much power... uh, apparently your ship did a bang up job on the magnitude of 360 times more.

There's a small Enterprise connection apparently in that the Malurian civilization destroyed in this episode was mentioned or appeared in an Enterprise episode.

Still, it's a fairly well done episode depsite those problems and the dumb Uhura plot. I classify it as a "Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential".

205- The Apple:
-Premise: An away team is stuck on a paradise world with deadly plants, exploding rocks and anangry machine god named Vaal, which treatens the Enterprise in orbit.
-T2Q Comments: Holy crap, talk about a "been there, done that" episode. We've got the plants that spurt attacking spores at people (which have a tendancy to appear and dissapear in the shot as needed ), a morality theme about a civilization stagnating (for, what? the 3rd time?) and a powerful being trapping an away team whose powersource must be destroyed (done at least 3 or 4 times now) by the Enterprise's phasers (which was just done TWO EPISODES AGO). Another episode that makes you wonder about the lack of shuttlecraft use (especially here in the 2nd season after it's been established that they're there and can land on planets).
Interesting to note a reference to the possibility of a suacer separation in this episode, even if it doesn't happen.
At one point the crew wonder how the locals, who have