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CBS.com is streaming the entire thing!
Important note: I have not watched this recently. This is based on memory. I plan to re-watch soon, though, and see how it holds up.
The series is dated and often slow, but has a great deal of charm. Plus, it spawned the entire genre of slash. If you watch it, you’ll see why. There’s a great buddy dynamic between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The supporting cast is very likable, though there are few of the sort of supporting character-centric episodes you get in more recent shows.
William Shatner looks good with his shirt off, and I enjoy his unique placement of pauses and emphases, though possibly not in the way that was intended. Leonard Nimoy’s performance can be appreciated in a non-ironic way.
There is very little continuity, so watching episodes out of order and skipping episodes is fine. If you value your sanity, you will skip the supremely anvillicious message episodes. There are probably about ten of them, unfortunately. My nominees for the most awful are the one with the Nazi aliens, the one where Kirk gets bitten by a poisonous gorilla-lizard and recreates the arms race, and the one where everyone is half white and half blackface. “Are you blind, Kirk? Can’t you see that I’m white on the left side, and he’s white on the right side?!”
Can’t Miss:
The Naked Time. They all lose their inhibitions and Sulu strides sweaty and shirtless through the halls, brandishing a fencing foil.
Amok Time. Canon fuck or die. Canon. Spock must return to Vulcan to mate. He loses control of his emotions, throws a bowl of soup at Nurse Chapel, and he and Kirk sweatily writhe around on each other. Witness the birth of slash!
Mirror, Mirror. There’s an alternate evil Enterprise where Spock has a goatee and is even sexier than usual.
The Trouble With Tribbles. A comedy episode in which furballs breed like rabbits. Very cute.
The City on the Edge of Forever. Oh, the poignance of time travel! Harlan Ellison wrote, then engaged in a massive lawsuit over this, if I recall correctly.
The one with Spock’s parents. ETA: Journey to Babel.
Worthwhile:
All the episodes with Romulans are pretty good.
Arena; The Gamesters of Triskelion. Aliens make them gladiate with giant can-openers; Kirk takes off his shirt. Actually, there may be a third one with that plot.
Devil in the Dark. They’re all menaced by a giant underground rug. I like the story.
Charlie X. Slow but I always enjoy stories with psychic evil kids.
The Enemy Within. A transporter accident splits Kirk into good but weak, and strong but domineering Kirks. Probably not supposed to be hilarious.
Shore Leave. Theodore Sturgeon transcribes an acid trip in the form of a teleplay.
This Side of Paradise. Spock gets high.
Anything whose plot synopsis does not involve aliens whose society is a) bigoted, b) controlled by a computer, c) resembles any Earth culture including but not limited to Nazis, generic Native Americans, Greek Gods, and the Old West OR has an anti-war or other social message discernable from the one-line summary OR has a blatantly sexist premise is probably worth watching once.
Avoid:
Anything whose plot synopsis involves aliens whose society is a) bigoted, b) controlled by a computer, c) resembles any Earth cultures including but not limited to Nazis, generic Native Americans, Greek Gods, and the Old West.
Anything in which you can discern an anti-war or other social message or blatant sexism from its one-line summary.
Catspaw. The show ran out of money, so aliens capture Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, transport them to a room draped in black cloth, and taunt them in voice-over for an hour. Every bit as boring as it sounds.
Elaan of Troyius. Even more sexist than usual.
Spock’s Brain. Aliens steal Spock’s brain. Also the writers’.
The Way to Eden. There are space hippies in this.
Important note: I have not watched this recently. This is based on memory. I plan to re-watch soon, though, and see how it holds up.
The series is dated and often slow, but has a great deal of charm. Plus, it spawned the entire genre of slash. If you watch it, you’ll see why. There’s a great buddy dynamic between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The supporting cast is very likable, though there are few of the sort of supporting character-centric episodes you get in more recent shows.
William Shatner looks good with his shirt off, and I enjoy his unique placement of pauses and emphases, though possibly not in the way that was intended. Leonard Nimoy’s performance can be appreciated in a non-ironic way.
There is very little continuity, so watching episodes out of order and skipping episodes is fine. If you value your sanity, you will skip the supremely anvillicious message episodes. There are probably about ten of them, unfortunately. My nominees for the most awful are the one with the Nazi aliens, the one where Kirk gets bitten by a poisonous gorilla-lizard and recreates the arms race, and the one where everyone is half white and half blackface. “Are you blind, Kirk? Can’t you see that I’m white on the left side, and he’s white on the right side?!”
Can’t Miss:
The Naked Time. They all lose their inhibitions and Sulu strides sweaty and shirtless through the halls, brandishing a fencing foil.
Amok Time. Canon fuck or die. Canon. Spock must return to Vulcan to mate. He loses control of his emotions, throws a bowl of soup at Nurse Chapel, and he and Kirk sweatily writhe around on each other. Witness the birth of slash!
Mirror, Mirror. There’s an alternate evil Enterprise where Spock has a goatee and is even sexier than usual.
The Trouble With Tribbles. A comedy episode in which furballs breed like rabbits. Very cute.
The City on the Edge of Forever. Oh, the poignance of time travel! Harlan Ellison wrote, then engaged in a massive lawsuit over this, if I recall correctly.
The one with Spock’s parents. ETA: Journey to Babel.
Worthwhile:
All the episodes with Romulans are pretty good.
Arena; The Gamesters of Triskelion. Aliens make them gladiate with giant can-openers; Kirk takes off his shirt. Actually, there may be a third one with that plot.
Devil in the Dark. They’re all menaced by a giant underground rug. I like the story.
Charlie X. Slow but I always enjoy stories with psychic evil kids.
The Enemy Within. A transporter accident splits Kirk into good but weak, and strong but domineering Kirks. Probably not supposed to be hilarious.
Shore Leave. Theodore Sturgeon transcribes an acid trip in the form of a teleplay.
This Side of Paradise. Spock gets high.
Anything whose plot synopsis does not involve aliens whose society is a) bigoted, b) controlled by a computer, c) resembles any Earth culture including but not limited to Nazis, generic Native Americans, Greek Gods, and the Old West OR has an anti-war or other social message discernable from the one-line summary OR has a blatantly sexist premise is probably worth watching once.
Avoid:
Anything whose plot synopsis involves aliens whose society is a) bigoted, b) controlled by a computer, c) resembles any Earth cultures including but not limited to Nazis, generic Native Americans, Greek Gods, and the Old West.
Anything in which you can discern an anti-war or other social message or blatant sexism from its one-line summary.
Catspaw. The show ran out of money, so aliens capture Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, transport them to a room draped in black cloth, and taunt them in voice-over for an hour. Every bit as boring as it sounds.
Elaan of Troyius. Even more sexist than usual.
Spock’s Brain. Aliens steal Spock’s brain. Also the writers’.
The Way to Eden. There are space hippies in this.
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I get the impression that the makers of the present movie did not watch it attentively at all.
P.
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But seriously, "Spock's Brain" is fabulous television. It's not good television, but it's fabulous. The pull-down hair dryer that imparts knowledge? The woman shouting "brain brain brain, what is this brain you speak of"? The fact that they managed to get an episode's worth of takes where people say "they stole Spock's brain" with a straight face? It's epic. And horrible.
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Ha, he does!
and I enjoy his unique placement of pauses and emphases, though possibly not in the way that was intended.
Heh. Me too.
Leonard Nimoy’s performance can be appreciated in a non-ironic way.
Except for his strange pronunciation of words like "deflec-tor."
They all lose their inhibitions and Sulu strides sweaty and shirtless through the halls, brandishing a fencing foil.
Loved it!
The one with Spock’s parents.
Looks like that's "Journey to Babel."
A transporter accident splits Kirk into good but weak, and strong but domineering Kirks. Probably not supposed to be hilarious.
"IIIIIIIIIII AM CAPTAIN KIIIIIRK!!!!!111" It was pretty fun.
Nearly all the episodes you mention are on my List. Which includes "Spock's Brain" and "The Way to Eden" for the lulz.
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Although I concur that Spock's Brain might be worthwhile with both friends and a big pitcher of margaritas.
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Also, which is the one where the planet they land on has a mystical religious document that turns out to be the Constitution? I hated that one. XD
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Links of interest
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=searchByTag&tag=re-watch
And to celebrate the release of the new movie, there's even a pretty fun comic called Star Drek there http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=comic&id=28769&page=1
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Re: Links of interest
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=21428
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Anything whose plot synopsis involves aliens whose society is a) bigoted, b) controlled by a computer, c) resembles any Earth cultures
Not even A Piece of the Action? But...but...snappy fedoras! Pin-striped suits! And Fizzbin! It's like a canon AU crackfic!
Mirror, Mirror. There’s an alternate evil Enterprise where Spock has a goatee and is even sexier than usual.
Not to mention evil!scarred!Sulu actually gets to be a sexual being, and pretending-to-be-evil!Uhura is even more smokin' hot than usual, too. Mmmm, knifeplay.
The Naked Time. They all lose their inhibitions and Sulu strides sweaty and shirtless through the halls, brandishing a fencing foil.
The deliciousness of shirtless-and-oiled Sulu lunging gleefully about with a sword simply cannot be overstated.
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Hee, Kirk is actually pretty good in his "used snake-oil salesman" roles, when he's plainly making it up as he goes along - he enjoys it so much ("My friend is obviously Chinese! He got his head caught in a mechanical rice picker!"). It's not really a surprise that Shatner had later careers both as a TV pitchman and playing a slick lawyer.
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*snork* You'd write a pretty funny book of plot synopses, you do realize?
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The Enemy Within, Richard Matheson
Arena, Fred Pohl
The City on the Edge of Forever, Harlan Ellison and D. C. Fontana
Shore Leave and Amok Time, Ted Sturgeon
Mirror, Mirror, Day of the Dove, Requiem for Methuselah and By Any Other Name, Jerome Bixby (the last, with D. C. Fontana)
The Doomsday Machine, Norman Spinrad
The Trouble with Tribbles, Dave Gerrold (wasn't this his first sale, or nearly?)
What Are Little Girls Made Of, Wolf in the Fold, and Catspaw, Robert Bloch
This isn't necessarily going to hit all the really good scripts, but it has the interesting effect of giving a sample of the state of hard SF (excluding the New Wave) at the time. And excluding the New Wave was unfortunate---imagine Star Trek written by Michael Moorcock, set in the Dancers at the End of Time milieu!
If you're a Q fan, you might need to watch The Squire of Gothos.
Voyage to Babel (I haven't rewatched it) is one of the best episodes of all, certainly; for one thing, the alien count is astonishingly high (remember this was a TV show not a movie and they had a tiny budget). I don't think any movie or TV show before had attempted anything like it.
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Now I'm going to picture his brain riding around inside a jar in the trunk of a car, like Einstein's.
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"Brain? Brain! Brain! What is brain?!"
That episode nearly traumatized me for life at age 11 - the idea of someone running off with some living person's brain really freaked me out.
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That is one EXCELLENT episode.
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And that last clause is the unfortunate one. Because, dude, stealing someone's brain is an awesome premise ... if you don't fuck the execution up.
---L.
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Are Little Girls Made Of?" and the cheesiness and the unintentional hilarity make it a highly entertaining ep.
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And of course Harlan sued, this is Harlan "I am an ass" Ellison we're talking about.
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Ellison complained that in the rewrites, McCoy accidentally injects himself, something a trained surgeon wouldn't do.
The lawsuit is only recent, and that's just to get money for all the uses of the Guardian of Forever. Apparently there's some contractual stipulation about it being Ellison's property. But to my knowledge, he never sued over the rewrites. Complained bitterly, published a book with the script and those complaints, but didn't sue.
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It's one I remember making a big impression on me as a kid; I think it began to give me some idea what sex was. Sort of.
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Mmmm. Vulcan handporn.
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