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Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 9, Episodes 17 & 18: Shore Leave/ The Squire of Gothos

5 star:		(116)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was in high school when Star Trek originally ran. Even with the cheesy special effects and overacting, it was a show that we looked forward to every week. With the US in a foreign war, it was no wonder that a show would be so popular with a Prime Directive of non-interference. Here is a synopsis of the episodes in the second season.

1. Amok Time: Spock must return to Vulcan to complete a mating ceremony.
2. Who Mourns for Adonis?: The God Apollo invites the crew to his planet. One female crew member falls in love with him.
3. The Changeling: A probe has changed from its original purpose to seek out life to a new purpose of destroying all imperfect life forms.
4. Mirror, Mirror: A transporter malfunction send Kirk, Scott, McCoy, and Uhura into an alternate universe where the Galactic Empire is based on terror, treachery, and force.
5. The Apple: A planet is beautiful but the plants shoot deadly needles and rocks explode. The peaceful inhabitants feed a computer that oppresses the culture of the planet.
6. The Doomsday Machine: When the Enterprise responds to the distress call of the U.S.S. Constellation, a Doomsday machine that has already destroyed several planets targets the Enterprise.
7. Catspaw: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy visit a Halloweenish planet with witches, black cats, fog and dungeons. An alien uses magic to persuade Kirk to leave without Scott and Sulu.
8. I, Mudd: Harry Mudd has declared himself the king of a planet populated with androids. The androids won't let him leave, so he wants someone to take his place.
9. Metamorphosis: A man thought long dead has been kept alive by an entity called "the companion". The Enterprise is brought to the planet by the entity to keep the man company.
10. Journey to Babel: The Enterprise transports a group of ambassadors that include Spock's parents. Spock's father, Sarek, is accused of the murder of another ambassador.
11. Friday's Child: The Enterprise completes with the Klingons for a mining treaty with the tribes of Capella. The tribal leader is killed and the new leader favors the Klingons.
12. The Deadly Years: After delivering supplies to a colony, the crew begins to rapidly age.
13. Obsession: Two crew members die from what Kirk believes is the same cloud-like creature that killed half of the crew of the U.S.S. Farragut.
14. Wolf in The Fold: Scott has a head injury and Kirk and McCoy take him to a planet for recovery. Three people are killed, and Scott is the only suspect.
15. The Trouble With Tribbles: The small purring balls of fur are irresistible pets but a few on board the Enterprise turn into a horde. Worse yet, they invade a shipment of grain.
16. The Gamesters of Triskelion: A civilization known as "The Providers" enslave the crew of the Enterprise with pain-inflicting collars to be gladiators.
17. A Piece of the Action: The inhabitants of a planet have been contaminated with items from Earth and the Enterprise is sent to investigate. They discover a culture similar to 20th Century USA, complete with mobsters.
18. The Immunity Syndrome: The Enterprise investigates the loss of contact with the solar system 7A. They find the solar system gone and then are trapped themselves.
19. A Private Little War: Kirk is unhappy to find that the previously peaceful natives of a planet that he had visited several years ago are now at war. One side has flintlock firearms and the witch doctor asks the Enterprise crew for phasers.
20. Return to Tomorrow: On a long dead planet, three have survived inside "globes". They ask for help to build androids, but then decide that they would rather use human bodies.
21. Patterns of Force: The Enterprise checks on a historian on a planet, and find a society similar to Nazi Germany.
22. By Any Other Name: The Enterprise responds to a faked distress call and are overtaken by the Kelvans, whose goal is to conquer other galaxies. They are forced to take human form.
23. The Omega Glory: The Enterprise discovers that the crew of a missing starship have been killed by a virus. They find the captain alive and violating the Prime Directive. The captain believes that the villagers are immortal.
24. The Ultimate Computer: The Enterprise has been assigned to test a new generation of computers. After the computer destroys a freighter, it refuses to relinquish control of the ship.
25. Bread and Circuses: The Enterprise has found the debris of the missing S.S. Beagle near a distant planet. The culture on the planet is similar to ancient Rome. They find that the captain beamed the crew to the planet. Those that couldn't survive died in the arena games.
26. Assignment: Earth: The Enterprise is sent back in time to the year 1968 to the planet Earth to find out how the arms race was survived. The ship intercepts a transporter beam with a space traveler headed for Earth.

A generous season of 24 episodes. Some episodes are classics, such as "Plato's Stepchildren", featuring TV's first interracial kiss. In the Sixties with the US in a foreign war, Star Trek's directive of non-interference was appealing and made so much sense. I was in high school when Star Trek first aired and none of us could figure out why they were cancelling such a popular show.

A brief episode guide:
1. Spock's Brain: Kirk goes after an alien who has stolen Spock's brain.
2. The Enterprise Incident: Kirk orders the Enterprise into the Neutral Zone and the ship is captured by the Romulans.
3. The Paradise Syndrome: After Kirk and the crew try to evacuate a planet endangered by an asteroid, Kirk's memory is erased by an obelisk.
4. And the Children Shall Lead: The adults of a scientific colony have died, and the children are rescued by the Enterprise. The children enact the plan of a "friendly angel", an alien named Gorgon.
5. Is There in Truth No Beauty?: A telepathic woman arrives with a Medusan ambassador. One sight of him drives humans insane.
6. Spectre of the Gun: Kirk and crew are forced to re-enact the shootout at the OK Corral.
7. Day of the Dove: An alien creature is on board the Enterprise and so are the Klingons, with only swords for weapons.
8. For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky: McCoy has a terminal disease. A high priestess on an asteroid-like vessel asks him to remain with her.
9. The Tholian Web: The Enterprise is searching for the missing starship, U.S.S. Defiant. They find the ship, but everyone is dead and the ship is trapped between universes.
10. Plato's Stepchildren: The crew of Enterprise save the life of seriously ill leader of a planet. The telekinetic inhabitants force Kirk, McCoy, Uhura, and Spock to stay on the planet. Features the first interracial kiss shown on TV.
11. Wink of an Eye: A landing party to Scalos disappear one at a time. Kirk falls victim and meets native Scalosians who can move faster than humanly detectable.
12. The Empath: Aliens perform experiments on two scientists who die. The aliens then kidnap Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a mute empath.
13. Elaan of Troyius: An ambassador's duty is to civilize a woman from Elas. According to legend, the tears of an Elassan woman affect men in strange ways.
14. Whom Gods Destroy: The Enterprise takes a new drug to a mental hospital in hopes of treating dangerously insane patients.
15. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield: Two survivors of a devastated planet remain committed to destroying one another.
16. The Mark of Gideon: Kirk is held by Gideonites who want to use him to solve their overpopulation problem.
17. That Which Survives: A woman appears out of nowhere, names her victim, and kills with a touch.
18. The Lights of Zetar: A cloud threatens the Enterprise but especially Lieutenant Mira Romaine.
19. Requiem for Methuselah: Kirk is dependent on an immortal human named Flint for a cure to a plague threatening the Enterprise.
20. The Way to Eden: A group of hippies hijack the Enterprise to search for Eden.
21. The Cloudminders: When Kirk is desperate for zenite to stop a plague on another planet, he is forced into negotiating peace between the miners and the sky-dwellers.
22. The Savage Curtain: Abraham Lincoln and Surak help the Enterprise in a fight against evil.
23. All Our Yesterdays: Kirk, Spock and McCoy enter a time portal and are trapped in the past of a planet that was about to be destroyed by a nova.
24. Turnabout Intruder: Dr. Lester, a woman from Kirk's past, exchanges bodies with him and takes control of the ship.

Where, exactly, does one start talking about THE original series that single-handedly launched the TV sci-fi genre like none that came before it and none has done since? What does one say about the one sci-fi show against which all subsequent sci-fi seems to be some kind of lesser imitation or spinoff? Should discussion begin with the original and imaginative concepts and themes - space warp, time travel, alternate realities and universes, powers of the mind and spirit, transporter beams - or should discussion start by talking about how masterfully familiar human interest themes are woven into a technological vision of the future? Or, maybe discussion should begin with how perfectly the show's central characters both complement and supplement each other at multiple levels of the human experience - the decisive commander-warrior, the rational half-human science officer, and the empathetic healer?

Ever since I began staying up late Friday nights to watch the original airings with my parents almost forty years ago, viewing rerun after rerun in syndication for the next fifteen years,sometimes twice a day, every day, and watching the spinoffs throughout the next fifteen years, the answers to those questions have always stayed just out of my reach. The problem has always been that my favorite Trek episode was usually the one I happened to be watching, or, if I hadn't been watching one, my top choices seemed to wander from episode to episode from day to day, even from morning to noon to night. I was vaguely aware that it had something to do with who I was, or what I was experiencing as a person at that particular moment.

Season three is often criticized as being the least original and interesting of the three original Star Trek seasons. Although there may be some truth to that sentiment, I believe it is a matter of degree. To say it is the least interesting of the three is not the same as saying that it is not worth watching. There are still many good episodes to stir the imagination.

In a theme repeated in future Trek spinoffs, Kirk feigns madness leading to his capture by the Romulans in order to execute his master plan to commit espionage aboard a Romulan ship in "The Enterprise Incident". "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is a powerful allegory of the irrational and destructive nature of racism. The feasibility of artificial intelligence was correctly surmised long before the leading researchers in the field reached the same conclusion in "Requiem for Methuselah" where Kirk and Co. encounter a super-genius who has created a seemingly perfect robot spouse who, in the end, is shown to be nothing more than a sophisticated machine incapable of human feelings. "All Our Yesterdays" revisits the time travel theme in a wonderfully written story about Kirk, Spock, and McCoy's encounter with an automated librarian who is the caretaker of the archives of a great civilization that abandoned its homeworld as their sun nears the end of its life in a catastrophic explosion.

As I watch all these episodes again for what must be the eighth or ninth time, I still see things for the first time I somehow managed to miss throughout all my previous viewings, and I still find myself pondering the large questions of life: who and what is man?, love and hate, war and peace, faith and reason, and all the other issues related to our purpose in this life. The voyage never ended for me.

With ratings that disappointed NBC, "Star Trek" quickly became targeted for cancellation by the end of the second season. The second season doesn't lack quality however it ranked in the ratings. Noted science fiction writers Theodore Sturgeon and Norman Spinrad along with fantasy and horror writer Robert Bloch turned in some of the finest episodes during season two. Sturgeon's "Amok Time" established a culture for Spock and established much of the mythology of the planet Vulcan. Spinrad's well written "The Doomsday Machine" proved a brilliant metaphor for the arms race when a machine that literally eats planets as part of its destructive pattern appears in our galaxy. While the optical effects were underwhelming at times (the USS Defiant which is destroyed is built from an AMC home model kit of the USS Enterprise and doesn't look at all convincing), the acting of guest William Windom was top notch and the taunt direction overcame these defects. Bloch's two contributions included the Halloween thriller "Catspaw" and the murder mystery "Wolf in the Fold". Both are top notch with strong performances from all the regular cast. Jerome Bixby ("Fantastic Voyage", the classic short story "It's a Good Life") contributed the alternate universe episode "Mirror, Mirror" where, due to a transporter accident Kirk, Bones, Scotty and Uhura are transported to an Enterprise whose mission is to conquer alien races, take what they want and kill those who get in the way. The late producer/writer Gene L. Coon contributes the terrific "Metamorphosis". Coon's humorous "A Piece of the Action" mined new territory for the series with its witty script and tongue-in-cheek tone. The talented writer Dorothy Fontana provides one of the finest episodes of the season with "Journey to Babel" about a meeting on the Enterprise between a variety of alien races and the discord one terrorist tries to create by murdering one of the delegates. Then of course there was neophyte writer David Gerrold's "The Trouble with Tribbles" (and his uncredited rewrite on the humorous "I Mudd"). Gerrold later became a Hugo and Nebula winning writer and his early career was nurtured by Roddenberry among many others.

There are many that felt that the second season didn't quite live up to the first but the characters had clear identities and the writing was just as strong with some of the finest episodes produced during season two. Certainly there were clunkers (Roddenberry's own "The Omega Glory" is among the worst the series ever produced) but the second season was every bit the equal of the first season. The optical effects also improved with fewer bad mattes (in some of the first season episodes the Enterprise appears transparent at times) and the acting became more self assured.

The picture quality is still stellar. Produced from the same master Paramount used for the Sci-Fi Channel debut and those produced for the individual sets released a couple of years ago, "TOS" looks exceptionally good with its rich day-glo 60's colors. The optical effects still look a bit dodgy but that's because they were produced using multiple exposures and, as a result, they're a bit less sharp with more grain (not a problem with the transfer per se)and also signficantly more analog debris.

The special features will be of particular interest to "Trek" fans and I've got a preview from my promo copy of the last disc of the set I received. "Life After Trek" focuses (as did the first) on a hobby of a cast member. This time Leonard Nimoy's hobby of still photography is examined. I don't know that I would call it a hobby based on the quality of the images we see. We also here Nimoy discuss his passion for photography and see some of his prints, his darkroom, etc.

"To Boldly Go" once again has Associate Producer Robert Justman, fan Bjo Trumble, Shatner and others dicuss their favorite episodes from season two. George Takei mentions his discomfort when Walter Koenig joined the show because he felt that Koenig might get some of his lines and screen time. Koenig points out that he never knew any of this and both comment on how they became good friends. The featurette focuses on the classic David Gerrold episode "The Troulbe with Tribbles" as well discussing how the producers wanted to experiment with the tone of the show more.

Walter Koenig also discusses his reception among the cast and why the show introduced his character (they were going after the "Davy Jones" look with his haircut). His character was designed to try and expand the audience as well. D. C. Fontana and the cast and crew also focus on their favorite episodes of season two as well.

"Kirk, Bones and Spock: Star Trek's Great Trio" consists of interviews of Shatner, Nimoy and D. C. Fontana discussing the chemistry of the trio of actors playing the main roles. Fontana mentions that Deforest Kelley wasn't original a top billed actor in the series but became so as the chemistry of the three actors became apparent. George Takei focuses on the presence that Shatner brought to the role of Shatner (without dishing on their differences in the past). John D. F. Black (former story editor and writer on the show), Mary Black as well as fan Bjo Trimble (who spearheaded the save Star Trek campaign that kept the series on the air for a third seasons) also comment on how the three interplay of the three actors brought the show its unique flavor that reached out and appealed to the broader audience that NBC couldn't bring to the show. There's quite a bit of discussion also about the late Kelley's unique southern charm and how he integrated into the role of McCoy.

"D.C. Fontana's Writer's Notebook" has former Trek story editor and writer Fontana expanding on the job of the story editor and what she brought to the table as both writer and editor expanding, revising and rewriting scripts with the participation of the show's writers. "Divine Diva: Nichelle Nicholls" focuses on the talented lady who played Uhura on the show. She discusses her beginnings in musical theater and how she ended up working on "Star Trek" Nicholls discusses how Roddenberry first cast her in his series "The Lieutenant" and how Roddenberry had the vision and guts to cast an African American actress in a prominent role on a prime time series that didn't fall into a stereotype. Evidently Nicholls suggested the name of Uhura for the character Roddenberry created for her (she actually read for Spock originally as the character didn't exist in the original series bible). It's a nice profile of one of Trek's most talented performers.

"Designing the Final Frontier" features designer Matt Jeffries discussing how he came to "Star Trek". Originally Jeffries was going to work on one of three new series "Mission: Impossible", "Star Trek" or a new western. "Star Trek" came up for production first. His unique designs are also highlighted in both this featurette as well as a stills gallery. Associate Producer Robert Justman highlights the unique qualities that Jeffries brought to the show and how he tried to give it a fantastic element that had just a touch of reality to make it something the audience of the 20th Century could relate to as well. Jeffries focuses on his collaborative efforts with the optical effects house Howard Anderson Company, how he interacted with the other production members and the difficulty of juggling as many as seven episodes at a time when it came to pre-production.

The set comes once again in the blue clam shell case (I believe it's designed to mirror the colors of the different shirts worn by the various crew members. If that's the case, it's ironic that the last season is red given that the red shirted characters frequently died and that the third season was the final one). Personally, I like the packaging but I also believe that the DVD holders should be more sturdy than they are here.

Yes, the often-reviled third season of Star Trek is in fact my favorite season. Why, you may ask? In the third season Roddenberry basically left the show for all intents and purposes, with Fred Friedberger pinch-hitting as the new producer, and the already tight budget getting cut further by the powers that be.

I suppose that I feel that some of the best art comes from tribulations and limitations. I will readily admit that episodes like "Spock's Brain" and "The Way to Eden" are pretty terrible (although thry are a lot of fun with a drink or five in hand). But some of the more wild ideas worked in a way that never appeared in the relatively more stable first two seasons.

"The Enterprise Incident," "The Tholian Web," "All Our Yesterdays" and "Day of the Dove" are classic well-constructed episode that would have stood out at any time of the show's run. But I have a soft spot for some of the stranger stuff. "The Paradise Syndrome" take a strange Frontierland approach that stands out and explores an emotional dimension of Kirk that rarely appeared in the series. Budget constraints actually turned what would have been the already good "Spectre of the Gun" into a surreal masterpiece. Unable to afford full western sets, the producers simply made it a plot point and managed to provide the episode with an unsettling tone that it would not have had otherwise. Although "Wink of the Eye" and "The Mark of Gideon" both have initially interesting concepts that do not hold up to intellectual scruitiny, they remain so much fun that I really don't care. "The World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" has a really cool concept that can withstand a little bit of thinking; plus the oracle is super cool. And strange as it may seem, I really love the floating blob of the week that is a hallmark of the season and appears in episodes like "The Lights of Zetar" and "Spectre of the Gun."

Yes, this season is a little on the campy side, but the whole original series is to a certain degree. It's one of the reasons I still love watching this show and for me the Third Season does not disappoint.

the DVD boxes have, in my estimation, been pretty good so far. the only thing that has been bugging me (besides the lack of a deforest kelley close-up in the <rather slapped-together> bonus features) is the screwing around that has been done with the sound effects. the "rocket" noises dubbed in to the enterprise fly-bys were NOT on the original episodes past the mid-first season (i think 'arena' or 'the alternative factor' was the last episode to feature them in the 'real' version), and the bridge sound effects have clearly been redubbed from the star trek sound effects CD...you can just sort of tell b/c there are "what i can only call "first-season" sound effects in much later episodes....i mean, this is VERY minor stuff, and nothing that anyone who hadn't these episodes hundreds of times wouldn't notice, but still...i HAVE seen these episodes hundreds of times, and i DID notice ;)

otherwise, this is a fantastic set. as far as the quality of the episodes themselves, you just can't get any better than this. "classic" is an overused term these days, but if stuff like "mirror mirror," "amok time," "journey to babel," "a piece of the action," and "the trouble with tribbles" doesn't qualify as classic, nothing does.

one great thing about the second season is the breadth of style displayed not only by the cast, but by the writers. there's straight-up action/adventure this season ("the doomsday machine"), more subtle, gentle character pieces ("metamorphosis"), topical drama ("a private little war"), some really fun b-grade SF material ("the deadly years," "the gamesters of triskelion") and flat-out comedy ("the trouble with tribbles," "a piece of the action," "i mudd"). i really think that it was the second season of the original series that best displayed the broad range of possibilities inherent in roddenberry's original series premise. every time i read some clueless critic complaining about star trek being "stiff" or "humorless" or how it takes itself too seriously, i think of this season and the incredibly broad spectrum of adventure and fun.

and the chemistry between the cast - particularly shatner, nimoy, and kelley - is something that no subsequent trek series has ever come close to matching.

as far as trek goes, the is the real thing.

When I was a kid, wearing my mail-order "Captain Kirk" command shirt of gold vellour, the words "Third Season Trek" were synonymous with "bad." To compare something with the Third Season meant invoking images of failure, disaster, and sudden, irrevocable decline. Some of the individual episodes of this season also became buzzwords for something that, for lack of a better description, just plain sucked. "Space hippies!"; "What have you done with Spock's brain!?"; "You half-black!"

Reading Shatner's "Star Trek Memories" explained a lot to me about the hows and the whys of Trek's tumble from the tops it had achieved in Season Two: the departure of ace writer D.C. Fontana, the increasing indifference of creator Gene Roddenberry, the drastic budget cuts, the nasty feuding between Leonard Nimoy and producer X over the show's writing and direction. But it didn't exactly make me nostalgic to see gagworthy episodes like "The Way to Eden" or "Requiem for Methuselea" again.

When Trek Classic came out on DVD, my initial feeling was that I would buy the first two seasons and, perhaps at some point in the future, collect the third at a yard sale for pennies on the dollar. So you can imagine my surprise when I re-examined the Third Season and discovered it to have more than a few diamonds in its rough - including a couple of gems which are arguably among the best Trek episodes ever shot. For my money, the list of the good stuff includes:

The Enterprise Incident - After 2 ½ years of do-gooding, it was nice to see the Feds play seriously dirty and bogart the Romulan's secret cloaking technology. Kirk violates a treaty, Spock seduces a Romulan commander into a firing squad, and the whole team gets together to pull a burglary that would make Thomas Crown proud.

This Side of Paradise - Admittedly, Shatner is a Christmas ham in some of these scenes, and his Indian outfit looks decidedly silly on him. Still, this episode has serious sparkage between Spock and McCoy and the underlying theme of Kirk's loneliness, which had been examined previously in the First Season, was surprisingly touching. Here we see Kirk's "Paradise" - the life he gave up to become a starship captain. This is also the longest story in Classic Trek history: it lasts more than two months.

Spectre of the Gun - I always loved this episode, which pits our heroes in a stylishly nightmarish Old West scenario and lets them wear six-gun rig. The set design for this episode was truly creepy, as were the stone-faced, soft-spoken actors who played the Brothers Earp to our Starfleet Cowboys. Plus, Chekov gets plugged, which is always fun to watch.

Elaan of Troyius - This is one of the few 3S episodes which I think is brilliantly written almost from start to finish. Watching Kirk ham-handenly try to stamp out diplomatic fires while trying to root out a saboteur and outfight a Klingon battlecruiser is a joy. This episode has some jewels of dialogue, including Kirk's extremely impolitic remark: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. Those are the only women in the universe that can make that claim"; and a truly classic moment where a fed-up Kirk threatens to spank knife-wielding hottie Elaan.

Day of the Dove - Who doesn't love this 51 minute slugfest? From the opening scene, in which the sensual and villainous Klingon commander, Kang, tortures Chekov (the scream!), to the all-out swordplay between our heroes and the Klingons warriors, this is a fight-lover's dream. Great chemistry between Kang and Kirk, and a lot of heartwarming Klingon axioms, such as: "Four thousand throats can be cut in one night, by a running man." (runner up: "We need no urging to hate humans! But for now, only a fool fights in a burning house!") Thankfylly, Kang was to make a reappearance in the Trekverse 25-odd years later, on DS9.

All Our Yesterdays - A highly underrated piece of work which features some terrifically subtle acting by Leonard Nimoy. In this episode - one of the rare "Trek tragedies" - Spock, having travelled backwards in time, finds his prehistoric Vulcan emotions getting the better of him. He falls in love, and seriously manhandles McCoy, which was probably sweet payback for three years of swallowing insults about that green icewater in his veins.

The Tholian Web - Probably the best episode of the Third Season, and a standout in the whole series, this was another excellent action episode which also took time to explore the complex relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. I always viewed this tirumverate as a single being, with Kirk the heart, McCoy the conscience and Spock the logical brain. Removing Kirk from the equation threw up great sparks between the great Nimoy and the equally great Kelly. It also has the long awaited moment of familiarity between the two, when Spock says to McCoy: "Forget it, Bones."

There are some other decent (if flawed) outings here, but it seems sometimes like the newer generation of writers didn't quite understand the show's history or backstory....for example, the surprise of our heroes in The Enterprise Incident that the Romulans have a cloaking device, despite their previous encounter with one two years before in Balance of Terror: and the budget cuts, which limited most of the episodes to set shooting only, making for a claustrophic, low--budget atmosphere. I might be mistaken, but I can't remember a single episode besides This Side of Paradise being shot outside. Finally, there is the issue of Shatner's subtly growing pot belly and shaggy sideburns, decidedly un-captainlike features we used to mock as ungrateful kids who didn't know which side our television toast was buttered on.

Classic Trek's Third and last Season remains its least impressive. There are too many clunkers like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield and not nearly enough winners to balance the scale. But in the last analysis, it's still Trek....and that's enough for me. 3.5 stars.

Apart from one or weak stories where characterisation seemed to take a bad turn, this is another excellent season of the original (and best) Star Trek. The sense of fun from the 60s is here and there's a warmth and energy about the proceedings that only TV from the 60s possesses. The tone of these stories is a bit lighter than seasons 1 and 2 but there are some stand out episodes: The Tholian Web, Spectre of the Gun, The Enterprise Incident, All Our Yesterdays, Day of the Dove and For I Have Touched The Sky... and many more. The Treks which followed all had their strengths and produced some outstanding TV - well, let's remember that the original series did this too. (If it hadn't then there'd be no Star Trek of any description.)

Some of the stories seem a bit naive by today's more cynical and "knowing" standards, but the charisma of Kirk-Spock-McCoy helps to drive the whole thing forward. What a pity this was the last of the original seasons - if you enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 then you'll still find much to enjoy here.

When Paramount Home Video first started to release the original series of "Star Trek" in 1999, I was aghast at the fact that only one DVD with two episodes per DVD were being released one DVD at a time at a very high cost. The cost to own all 40 volumes (DVD's) was staggering. Of course, this doesn't even address the amount of shelf space required for all 40 DVD's.

Now, with this repackaged version, all 26 episodes of the second season are being released together on 8 disks. This is the packaged version of the original "Star Trek" that I fully intend to purchase because even at full list price, the cost of owning the second complete season is less than half the cost of owning its earlier cousins on an equivalent 13 DVD's. Also, the packaging itself has been designed similarly to the packaging used for other "Star Trek" series released in complete seasons, meaning that it will only require a small amount of shelf space. It is also possible that extra documentary and commentary material not released originally will be included in this complete second season box set.

The original series of "Star Trek", that ran for three complete seasons between 1966 and 1969, started a franchise that has included six television series and ten big screen motion pictures. The main original characters of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Lt. Commander/Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. Leonard H. 'Bones' McCoy (DeForest Kelley, 1920-1999), Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott (James Doohan), Lt. Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Ensign Pavel Chekov (Walter Keonig from 1967-1969), Yeoman Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney from 1966-1967) and Nurse Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett) have become an inseparable part of Americana. Though series creator Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991) was not able to keep the original series alive for five seasons as originally envisioned (it was cancelled after its third season), he, along with the countless series fans, was able to resurrect it in the form of six motion pictures beginning in 1979 and the first series spin-off, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1987, which ran for seven years and had spin-offs of its own. There was also a 22-episode animated version based upon the original series that ran from 1972 to 1974.

The most memorable episodes of the second season include "Amok Time" (Spock's Vulcan mating ritual), "The Changeling" (the inspiration for the 1979 film "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"), "Mirror, Mirror", "The Apple", "The Doomsday Machine" (with guest star William Windom as Commodore Matthew Decker, the father of the character Capt. Willard Decker (Stephen Collins) in the 1979 film "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"), "I, Mudd" (with returning guest character Harcourt Fenton 'Harry' Mudd, as played by Roger C. Carmel, 1932-1986), "Journey to Babel" (which introduces Spock's parents: Ambassador Sarek as played by Mark Leonard (1924-1996) and his human wife Amanda as played by Jane Wyatt), "Friday's Child", "The Deadly Years", "Obsession", "Wolf in the Fold", the fan-favorite "The Trouble with Tribbles", "A Piece of the Action", "The Immunity Syndrome", "A Private Little War", "Return to Tomrrow" (with guest character Dr. Ann Mulhall as played by Diana Muldaur, who also played the unpopular character Dr. Katherine Pulaski in the second season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"), "By Any Other Name", "The Ultimate Computer" and "Assignment: Earth". The were no truly awful episodes during the second season, but there were a few that had rather weak plots, including the ancient-Greek-inspired "Who Mourns for Adonais?" the gothic "Catspaw", the Nazi-inspired "Patters of Force" and the twentieth-century version of the Roman Empire in the episode "Break and Circuses". The episode "The Omega Glory" was rather good until the final scenes that are somewhat corny.

Overall, I rate the 8-DVD set of "Star Trek: Original Series Season 2" with an anticipatory 5 out of 5 stars. Clearly, this is how Paramount should have released the original series to begin with. Thank you Gene Roddenberry for taking all of us "where no man has gone before".

There's a plague loose on the USS Enterprise. Something is killing the guys in the red shirts. You know the nondescript extras that always seemed to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. They always died. To borrow from Poe, perhaps this was the task of the red death-wiping out these bit players that usually didn't have dialogue and never reappeared (unless by accident) in another episode. So its fitting that the last season of the original "Star Trek" should sport the red color on the case.

It's an earmark of doom to wear red (unless you're a member of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" where red meant you couldn't be killed off)and, sadly, the series was cancelled during its third season. If not for the third season it's unlikely "Trek" would have resurfaced--it brought the episode count to 79 just the right amount for syndication and rebirth. During the last season of "Star Trek" the show limped to its doom after fans saved the series. Faced with an ever shrinking budget, network indifference and the loss of its key creative crew of Roddenberry (he resigned as Executive Producer at one point), producer Gene L. Coon (one of the show's key writer/producers) and others, the third season was as uneven as the first season of most shows. The first season of "The Original Series" never suffered the uneven script quality of many shows so, in some respects, it was to borrow a title from rock band The Hollies, King Midas in reverse. Even if the series suffered a loss of quality during season three, it'll be essential for fans of the show. The better episodes still shine pretty brightly despite lower budgets and the lack of input from Roddenberry and producer Gene Coon's departure.

Among the many highlights of the third season is the marvelous and distinctive looking "The Tholian Web". This imaginative episode had the most alien looking creatures yet with an unusual design to their ship and an imaginative premise. When the Enterprise inadvertently violates Tholian space on a search and rescue mission, a number of ships create a "net" around the Enterprise trapping them. They have a limited opportunity to escape. Unfortunately, the crew is working against time; Captain Kirk is trapped aboard the USS Defiant which has shifted into another dimension. Spock must wait for the Captain to reappear and figure out a way to bring him back to our three dimensional space or he'll die. D. C. Fontana's "The Enterprise Incident" based on a real incident that occurred during the Vietnam War, was heavily rewritten to make the script for "positive" but still manages to pack a punch. Kirk goes insane and orders the Enterprise on a suicide mission into Romulan space. Spock must kill Kirk and, out gunned, must surrender the Enterprise to the Romulans. Despite its low budget, in the imaginative "Spectre of the Gun" written by former "Trek" producer/writer Gene L. Coon (under the pseudonym Lee Cronin) an alien race forces the landing party of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Chekov to relive an incident from Earth's past as punishment for invading their space; they are forced to relive the O.K. Corral gunfight as the Clantons--the "losing" side. "Whom Gods Destroy" has a marvelous performance by the late Steve Ihnat (who also appeared in two marvelous episodes of "The Outer Limits") as a psychotic former Starship captain confined to an asylum. He uses his ability as a metamorph to impersonate the head of the institution and gain control of it. He then summons the Enterprise. He plans on having his "crew" of asylum inmates take the Enterprise escape. Barry Atwater ("The Night Stalker") gives a marvelous performance as Surak founder of modern Vulcan civilization in "The Savage Curtain" in which Kirk and Spock are teamed with Surak and Abraham Lincoln against villains from Earth's history in a competitive by an alien named Yarnek who seeks to understand humanity's concepts of good and evil. As a bonus there's two versions of the pilot episode of "The Cage" included here. Both were previously released on the individual "Star Trek" sets a couple of years ago. One features an introduction by Gene Roddenberry with black and white footage from his workprint. The other is a completely restored color version of the pilot.

The worst of the lot had to be the "hippie" episode "The Way to Eden" which is mired in all the clichés of the 60's but, surprisingly, has a camp charm. The final episode "Turnabout Intruder" has a campy performance by Kirk in a script that just doesn't fly about a woman who uses an ancient artifact to take over Kirk's body as revenge for being spurned and jealousy at not having the career Kirk had because she was "just a woman". "Spock's Brain" also wasn't exactly a highlight although the banter between McCoy and Spock as McCoy tries to reconnect Spock's brain to his body is very funny (which, incidently was the idea of producer Robert Justman). "Trek" clearly needed the unifying vision of a Roddenberry, Coon or Fontana to guide it and producer Fred Freiberger just didn't have that ability.

The third season looks exceptionally crisp and clear during scenes set on the ship. As with the previous sets, the optical effects are more problematic as the use of multiple exposures and mattes increased the amount of analog imperfections in the original film. Still, even most of the best optical shots have been cleaned up significantly. The vibrant primary colors of the series look rich in this nicely done transfer. Again, this boxed set is drawn from the same digitally cleaned up masters used for the individual releases so not much difference between those and this set. The 5.1 remixed/remastered Dolby Digital Surround Sound gives the series much more depth and presence than the original soundtrack. The sound effects have been re-recorded for the 5.1 mix giving it added separation. The mix works well considering the source material.

As with the previous sets, the extras are what distinguish this edition from the individually released titles. "To Boldly Go" focuses on the major changes during season three, a brief discussion of the fan's drive to get NBC to renew the show. This is important as this had never been done before. Ironically, NBC's marketing department wasn't happy when NBC cancelled the show. While the overall ratings weren't great, the target audience that watched the show were adult males between the ages of early teens to early 40's a key demographic. "Life Beyond Trek" focuses on actor Walter Koenig. Koenig shares his memories of being cast, some of his favorite episodes and his collection of Chekov figurines. Since this is the last of the boxed sets for the original series, all the support actors finally get their due. The only thing missing is a tribute to Deforest Kelley to make this set complete. There's also the "teasers" that used to play at the end of every episode for the forthcoming week.

We get to see production art, the Easter Egg "Red Shirt Logs" and "Memoir from Mr. Sulu" where we hear George Takei speak on his experience during the Japanese American internment camps, the impact of "Trek" from his perspective and on his character. . "Chief Engineer's Log" focuses on the character of Scotty and the man of a thousand accents (many of which you no doubt heard during the series run, the animated series and even the "Trek" films without realizing it) who played him James Doohan. This is probably his last interview as he's been slowed recently by ill health and Alzheimer's. This set includes two versions of "The Cage" in addition to the 24 broadcast episodes. One is nearly intact (completely in color) while the other features color footage and black & white footage for sequences that are missing (these sequences were trimmed out for use during the rear projection sequences for the two part "The Menagerie").

There are two episodes with text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda that provide numerous bits of trivia about the episodes shot. The one failing of this set is the lack of a commentary track by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Walter Koenig or Nichelle Nichols. Having a combined group commentary would have been useful.

Kudos to Paramount this is an excellent boxed set. While the third and final season was the most uneven, it still had many stellar moments and a handful of exceptional performances from guest stars. With a great selection of extras and text commentary tracks, the only things missing are audio commentary and vintage behind-the-scenes footage that would make this set complete.