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Reviews
The Giant Claw (1957)
S.O.S. Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen could have made this move at least as good as "It Came From Beneath the Sea" which came out two years later.
Star Trek: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (1969)
All together now, Ebony and Ivory,together in perfect DISharmony
Let's not get too carried away with the sublimity of the message in this episode. It's awfully cartoonish and contrived...makeup clownish etc.. Think about it. They used Frank Gorshin to get this message across. Gorshin, apart from being one of the best impressionists ever, has probably never spent a serious minute in his entire life. He was The Riddler in the old Batman TV Series - and practically played himself to do it! He's always a gas. Always up to some gag. This had to have been at least partially tongue in cheek, this episode. I can hardly look at Gorshin without smiling ... wondering where the gag is going to show up next. Everything about both the half colored characters was played over the top by both actors. Gorshin just made the other guy look more serious because he's so impossibly over the top all the time anyway! Of course everyone else in the episode played it very straight. Not sure why. There could be many possible explanations. But choosing Frank Gorshin for getting a serious social statement across to people just can't be 100% for real. That guy can't not be (way) the top - in anything. Watch it again. Watch Gorshin. He's crazy, man! It just comes through the screen.
Star Trek: The Paradise Syndrome (1968)
Dances With Injuns - starring James T. Kirk
Kirk, Spock and McCoy investigate another "class M" planet which is directly in the path of a rapidly approaching giant asteroid. The planet and inhabitants will be destroyed if Enterprise does not soon warp out of orbit to rendezvous with it at a distant enough point in space in order to divert it's path enough (with the ship's phasers) to avoid collision with the planet.
They have a short time to investigate before leaving however so decide to look around a bit. It's an idyllic location by a wooded lake in the mountains with a small tribe of 18th century American Indians encamped in teepees by the lake. Kirk is enchanted.
They immediately discover a large, out of place, concrete obelisk with hieroglyphic-looking characters all over it - obviously too advanced to have been built by the Indians. Kirk orders Spock and Bones to look elsewhere while he investigates the obelisk further.
While they're apart Kirk decides to call the Ship as he stands on the base of the structure. Just as the communicator makes it's funny little noise Kirk falls through a trap door inside the structure, pushes the wrong button and gets zapped with amnesia.
Spock, not knowing what has happened to Kirk, decides to warp away to deflect the asteroid, leaving the Capt AWOL since there is no time to spare - with McCoy bitching about the decision, naturally.
The Enterprize eventually fails in deflecting the asteroid and has to rush back to look for Kirk.
In the intervening weeks (apparently - or months?) The amnesiac Kirk joins the Indians, marries and impregnates the tribal princess and plans to live happily ever after. He has great status as a god since they see him emerge from the obelisk - an object of worship. Eventually he disappoints them however showing that he is not really a god and they decide to stone him and his faithful wife.
Just then Spock and McCoy beam back down again and scare them all away. Kirk survives the stoning but Miramani, his Indian wife, does not. Meanwhile Spock figures out that the obelisk is a big asteroid deflecting device, figures out how to get inside and operate the thing...and... presto! Capt found, asteroid deflected, Kirk back to being unattached and another world saved. Gotta love it.
All in all, corny and contrived but enjoyable to watch. The acting was good and the setting was for real for a change. Even the obelisk was convincing looking.
Star Trek: All Our Yesterdays (1969)
Another time travel storyline
In this episode the Enterprise visits a library on a world whose sun is about to explode - presumably to transport anyone who is there to safety. When they arrive they find only a single strange little man, Mr Atoz, who is the librarian who has apparently already transported everyone else (via their world's Octavatron time transporter device) except himself to other time periods to live out the remainder of their lives. He mistakes Kirk, McCoy and Spock for stragglers and they mistakenly get transported to other time periods also. Kirk goes to a medieval time and Spock and McCoy go to a prehistoric frozen time - together. But there is a problem. The three haven't been "prepared" for the transfer so they have to get back somehow - which they manage to do by finding the time-space "holes" they came through from the library. Kirk barely escapes being burned as a witch and Spock falls in love with the previously transported and now very lonely Mariette Hartley character and eats "animal flesh" as he begins to revert to his barbaric, ancestral behavior. Fortunately, McCoy talks sense back into Spock (nearly getting cold-cocked by Spock in the process) and they all get back to the library in time for Mr Atoz to go through the Octavatron and the three heroes to get back to the Enterprise and outta there in time. Spock has to leave the woman he loves in the prehistoric past and all alone since her "preparation" for the Octavatron has rendered her unable to return back to the library again. Final scene back on deck of the Enterprise has Spock unusually somber and McCoy somewhat awkwardly understanding of him while Kirk is clueless about Spock's mood. Spock insists that he will be OK since, he reminds McCoy, those few minutes ago were in reality eons ago and "she" is now long since dead. Nevertheless says McCoy, "It did happen Spock". Episode thus ends with much to ponder for all.
Star Trek: The Changeling (1967)
Inspired first ST movie
This episode obviously inspired the plot of the first Star Trek Movie where the mysterious and immensely powerful and dangerously destructive evil force is referred to as "V-ger" by the kidnapped and subsequently returned (and reprogrammed) female crewperson of the new and improved Enterprise.
In the movie eventually Kirk and Spock figure out that "V-Ger" is really the old Voyager spacecraft sent out as a probe in the twentieth century (they clean some charcoal off the 2nd through 4th letters of the machine's still existent painted on name) and long lost track of. Well, clearly it must have been damaged in flight at some point and then met up with some other probe of some other kind from some other planet with some other prime directive. The two machines "helped" each other repair themselves and combined forces to become much stronger but corrupting their prime directives as the two combined forces.
But gee, how could they figure all that out about V-Ger? Well, maybe it's because they went through most of all that before with the TV episode involving Nomad: the 1 meter long, square columnar, self-levitating and mobilizing metal box around which this episode revolved. Nomad had basically the same background story and was just as terse and ruthless in carrying out it's corrupted prime directive (and with just as much unlimited power - albeit on a much more limited production budget) to "Sterilize! Sterilize!" as V-Ger.
I mean...Spock had already solved the Nomad mystery via a Vulcan mind meld with Nomad (via "Creator Kirk" 's permission) so figuring out V-Ger's problem must have been a piece of cake! My favorite Nomad quote is simply "Non Sequiter!" when presented with some feeble attempt at logic by an obviously inferior human. As soon as I first heard it I immediately added it to my vocabulary...and have used it quite frequently ever since.
Star Trek: Operation -- Annihilate! (1967)
Set location: TRW in Redondo Beach,CA
User commentator a_l_i_e_n from Canada does great job of summarizing plot of this episode.
Of interest to me is his comment "The futuristic architecture of the Denovan capital for example is a fine example of the show's use of outdoor locations. The art direction here is vivid, well constructed and definitely a cut above the usually unconvincing indoor sets they so often had to make due with."
In fact the location of this episode's set was the old TRW Defense and Space Systems Group campus in Redondo Beach, CA at Avaiation Blvd and Marine Ave (also adjacent, and just N. of old Redondo HS campus) where I used to work in the late 70s. It was called Space Park or Research Park (address was 1 Space Park, RB, CA) back then. The flight of concrete stairs they come down at beginning of episode was the path to the cafeteria/lecture presentation area. Rest of set (where creatures were stuck to walls and ceiling) was in a typical indoor waiting area in most any of the many architecturally stylish buildings on that campus.
Star Trek: Elaan of Troyius (1968)
Better title: Magic Tears of Love Potion #9
One of the substandard episodes in my opinion. Green skinned and antennaed alien Ambassador Petri - an embarrassing waste of fine acting talent Jay Robinson who gave an unforgettable performance as Roman Emporer Caligula in the movie "The Robe" - is escorting spoiled brat alien princess Elaan from her home planet to his planet for a marriage arranged for political purposes (to maintain peace between the two alien species). The Enterprise is the vehicle of transport by order of the Federation. She doesn't want to cooperate and Capt Kirk is caught in the middle between the Ambassador and the princess. She has a special power in the form of magic tears that she can use on men to get her way. The magic tears make any man fall hopelessly in love with her if the tears touch the guy - and there is no cure. Then she can manipulate the crap out of the poor sap to get whatever she can get. Naturally she picks Kirk to victimize - to control the ship. Presto! There's an episode. You got an episode. Kirk eventually overcomes the effect of the incurable tears via his greater love for the Starship Enterprise. Presto! You got an ending for an episode. On to the next episode.