My Notes
Wow Kirk really keeps giving McCoy a hard time about being into this woman. What's wrong with a little gray hair???? Also funny how sweaty Kirk is, those lights must've made that set unbearable. First mention of Saurian Brandy? This is a memorable one, bonus points for nostalgia
Nate’s Notes
Curious to know what genre they were aiming at with this episode. Started channeling Noir then tried to pivot to thriller .
My Notes
Fascinating combo of the original Cage pilot and what the show became shortly after. I LOVE the uniform color scheme much better here, and it's interesting to wonder how this wardrobe choice might have altered the rest of the franchise if this stuck. How toxic is this stuff these actors put on thier eyes?! Looks painful.
My Notes
Poor Janice Rand. She is constantly being abused and assaulted in almost every episode so far. It is interesting (and on brand for OG Roddenberry Trek) that Spock's immediate assessment, instead of harboring any suspicion of Kirk is to assume there's an imposter on board. HOWEVER, why do they let Kirk roam around solo even knowing that there may be a duplicate! SO much Shatnacting in this one. It's an interesting concept of literal split personalities though.
Nate’s Notes
Transporters were a few decades early for Oprah with "you get a clone, and you get clone..." The episode has interesting ideas but tropes made it challenging to watch.
My Notes
I forgot that every TOS episode comes down to women either being succubi or objects of affection
Nate’s Notes
It feels like this episode starts getting better with pacing. The power of self-esteem is this weeks theme. When did Uhura get promoted to Command Gold?
My Notes
The Romulan episode. I like this one for focusing on more perspectives among the crew and the Romulan ship. Also the sub/naval battle style clearly inspired TWOK
Nate’s Notes
Higher rating since it is an important episode creating lore. Fun cat and mouse game using sub versus destroyer mechanics.
My Notes
The Q episode. I suppose this is necessary for those interested in Q, since the Trelane/Q connection is sort of canonized in SNW. Otherwise it's just an ok episode? I like the omnipotent alien perspective but it's hard to rate this now when this concept has been done to death at this point afterward
Nate’s Notes
First episode where they start plaing with the idea of Q
My Notes
I like the idea of these organisms being single-cells of a larger whole, but in general this just feels like a body snatchers episode. And poor Sam.
My Notes
Started as an interesting and important premise for Spock's backstory, but holy cow it seemed like we were just trying to fill 20 minutes of screen time there at the the end
My Notes
There's a lot that bothers me here, on one hand the idea that maybe the Greek gods were real beings that influenced Earth is an idea worth fleshing out, but on the other hand this episode is not it
My Notes
We're in a lot of trouble captain. Interesting, I like the idea of trying to confound the computer but I don't know how well this holds up now.
My Notes
Fun CoLoRs!!! This one reminds me of The Royale from TNG, where an alien race takes pity on us humans and takes it too far. This one gets the benefit of being the first, and then they turn Cochrane into a legend
My Notes
The Sarek episode. OOoh there's a shuttlebay! There's some retroactive plot holes here with the idea that Spock had more opporunity to explore new worlds by joining the Federation rather than stay with the Vulcan Science Academy, when we later learn that it was exploring Vulcans the discovered Earth in the first place. Also how weird is this that it goes from a family introduction episode, to a vulcan deep dive, to murder mystery, to then a philosophical examination of whether or not to save your father's life? This one lacks focus. It's somewhat shocking how bad this episode is.
My Notes
I guess they're trying to make this one a Kirk revenge episode? But it doesn't work because Kirk acts like he knows what the enemy is but refuses to actually tell anyone anything about it. Instead he pouts and gets mad at everyone else.
My Notes
The mobster episode. I think what makes this most interesting to me now is that to them this is the equivalent (40-45 years ish) to us reminiscing about the 80s, which obviously doesn't seem so far away to me.
My Notes
Some good moral debate, this concept of alien ancestors gets used a lot throughout Trek. Also some heavy Shatner... "THAT'S WHY WE'RE ABOARD HER"
My Notes
TOS got so many tech predictions right, and they are so ubiquitious now it's hard to find them amazing. The "self-driving car" is no longer fiction, etc. How watchable this is today though depends on your mood I guess
Nate’s Notes
Fun episode. Some campy acting but interesting premise. Future series definitely borrowed the plot points.
My Notes
another planet where it's old earth but they speak english, cool. With an episode like this, near the end of a season where they were worried about cancellation, I'm surprised myself that they didn't get cancelled after this episode. McCoy is funny in this one though.
My Notes
I guess this was a soft pilot for a potential spin-off show if Star Trek got cancelled. It certainly feels like it since it doesn't feel like Trek at all. It's like a M:I ripoff or something-
Nate’s Notes
Time travel is fun and easy! What could go wrong!
My Notes
starts off with a really promising "cosmic horror" concept of not being able to look at something so "ugly" without going completely insane... but then devolves into constantly commenting on diana's looks and telling her she needs a "real man"
My Notes
This theme happens a few times in Trek, the "alien race tests the Federation before revealing themselves" and I generally like it. Though in this episode it's a little cheap feeling? Season 3 TOS was hard financially I think-
Nate’s Notes
Clearly a budget episode. Poor plot and they could not have a full set.
My Notes
the blackface gets harder and harder to watch each time i see it. wow uhura is freaking out. The idea is good of two suspicious species against each other because of a third party, but it gets a little silly
My Notes
Doohan doing another voice? Seems like he's all over every alien voiceover work. I can't really tell, is there more going on in this episode or is it kinda bland?
Nate’s Notes
Don't look behind the curtain. No seriously, please don't...ok fine, look
My Notes
Sweet Jeffries tube action before they were called Jeffries tubes. Feels like the first time we get a real ENGINEERING crisis Otherwise the A-plot is really bad
Nate’s Notes
Interesting concept of what happens when systems are unsupervised. Not enough to carry an episode though.