Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 30: Catspaw [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

On the planet Pyris VII, two beings known as Korob and Sylvia have been sent on a mission of conquest by their home world. Using a matter transmuter, they assume human form to welcome the U.S.S. Enterprise landing party. When one member of the initial landing party returns to the ship dead, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to find Scotty and Sulu transformed into mindless zombies. Sylvia and Korob appear as witch and warlock and use scare tactics to keep the officers from investigating the planet and their motives. Kirk, Spock and McCoy are taken prisoner and shown examples of Korob and Sylvia's "powers," which includes heating a small model of the U.S.S. Enterprise over a flame and having the heat transfer to the orbiting ship. Sylvia takes an interest in Kirk and decides to abandon her original mission in order to learn about human feelings and experiences. When she finds out the captain is merely using her to gain an advantage, she becomes furious and retaliates. Korob ultimately helps the crew to escape, but Sylvia turns into a giant black cat and crushes him. Kirk then uses Korob's wand transmuter to destroy Sylvia's source of power -- her amulet -- before smashing the wand. Their powers gone, the aliens revert to their true form -- fragile blue creatures who quickly die in the planet's atmosphere. With their demise, Scotty and Sulu return to normal and the landing party beams back to the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Now I know a TV series that was never popular with the network in the first place ain't gonna get much money, but c'mon. The best they could do was two puppets at the end that looked like they were stolen out of a garbage can in TJ? The black threads are so thick a child can point them out and laugh.

"Catspaw" is another one of the great episodes of Star Trek that used illusions as its main effect. This is the episode where you'll see the catwoman hang a U.S.S. Enterprise chain above a fire and it will heat the whole ship and its crew up till they're sweating. She uses everybody as a slave and when she gets mad, she will turn into a huge black cat. Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and Spock must find a way to get Scottie and Mr. Sulu out of their spell while they try to survive in the dark dungeon.

"Catspaw" is a great episode and anybody who likes Star Trek should get it. It has some of the best special effects of the series and it also has good acting.

This was a bad way to start Season 2. I have never liked it. It is so boring! I had to use all my attention to watch it. I used up so much energy that I had to turn it off and take a short nap before I resumed with the episode. The alien's idea of making first contact through scary gimmicks is really dumb. "We have killed one of your people, made two zombies, and threatened you and your ship. Oh by the way, we are from another galaxy. It is nice to meet you by the way." Very stupid!

While there are some aspects of this episode that are interesting and even possible, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The Enterprise sends a landing party down to the surface of a planet and only one of the men, Jackson, beams back up. He stands rigid, utters a warning about anyone going back to the surface and then dies. Scotty and Sulu remain in the planet's surface. Undeterred by the warning, Kirk Spock and McCoy beam down to the surface and encounter a spooky castle and witches that spout some very bad prose.
They enter the castle and encounter Korob and Sylvia, a warlock and witch respectively. They are alien beings that are trying to understand the human thought processes. However, the idea that killing a crewman would be an ineffective way to do this is apparently something that would not occur to them. Korob and Sylvia tapped into the human mind and only managed to reach the collective unconscious sector of fear. To Korob and Sylvia, all of the Halloween style structure is what they think humans consider normal.
Sylvia, being the typical female of the original series, falls for Captain Kirk as she is being overwhelmed by the human emotions generated by her adoptive body. She is also becoming jealous and vindictive, threatening the Enterprise and openly wondering what it would be like to destroy the Enterprise crew members. For reasons that make no sense, Sylvia is also capable of shape-shifting into a giant black cat.
Korob fights back against Sylvia and when he aids Kirk and company, he is pushed aside by Sylvia. Kirk manages to destroy the "transmuter" device that gives them their power and they revert back to their original form, which looks something like cheap sack dolls. The idea that a device that channels as much power as the transmuter does could be destroyed by banging it on a table is ridiculous.
This is a mediocre episode, although the idea that aliens would try to tap human minds when they encounter them is a reasonable one. It does have one of the most amusing scenes in the entire series. When Kirk and Spock are chained to a stone wall, Kirk turns to McCoy and says "Bones" when there is a skeleton chained next to him. He quickly changes to "Doc." Very funny, but it is one of the very few high points in this mindless episode.

spooky.these aliens control the minds of enterprise crewmen.the spooky begining with the enterprise crewmeber screaming youll all die! and then dying himself.scotty,sulu and mcoy are well....spooky when under the aliens control.the good alien is very dull.the ending is good too.