What Are Little Girls Made Of?

    Again an episode that you can tell things were aired out of order. How can I tell? In the Naked Time, Nurse Christine Chapel kinda just appears out of now where and declares her undying love for Spock. Where did she come from? Well, apparently...this episode.
   In this episode, Christine(is for some unexplained reason) on the bridge of the Enterprise looking for her husband Roger who has been missing for five years. Uhura is trying to make a signal with Roger but it isn't working when finally Roger's voice pulls through and asks for Kirk to come down to the planet...alone. Kirk says he'll come down, but he's bringing Christine. "Christine!Oh!I forgot about Christine!" She's your wife! How'd you forget about your wife! I mean I know it's been five years but geez Louise man!
  Well, when Kirk and Christine finally meet up with Roger first they meet the beautiful and scantily clad Andrea which more than likely explains why Roger forgot about his wife. Roger explains that he's been working on making androids and then turns Captain Kirk into one.

  Roger uses the android Kirk to go aboard the Enterprise to find a planet that he can use to make the perfect android/human race. After one silly battle after another,the android Rock dies. We then learn that Roger himself is an android which was just in my opinion a really dumb turn of events. And then in yet another really dumb turn of events Andrea and Roger die. Christine decides to stay on the ship as the nurse, which proves all my earlier statements.

Mudd's Women

 This is another episode that proves it wasn't aired in the order it was shot in. Yeoman Rand is nowhere to be found and Uhura is not wearing her signature red, but a yellow dress instead.
   In this episode the Enterprise finds themselves with a shortage of Lithium crystals after doing something which I find rather stupid. They're chasing this ship and it's engines fall apart. Kirk REEEEEEEEALLY wants to speak to the captain of that ship so he puts his own ship in danger to do and destroys all but one of his Lithium crystals. Even though Scotty told him he was going to put the ship in danger by doing this Kirk does it anyway. He barely gets everyone from the other ship onto his before the other ship blows up. Kirk got his chance to talk to the captain of the ship, but lost his Lithium crystals. Rigel XII has lithium crystals but sadly is a good two days away so the ship is on battery power until then. Battery power? I didn't know a space ship could run on batteries. I kept picturing a toy spaceship that you would have to flip over and remove the back to add new batteries to.
  But the captain of the ship that blew up, Harcourt Mudd, didn't come alone. His cargo was three beautiful women: Eve, Ruth, and Magda.

   

  Something about them magnetically attracts the men of the ship. Turns out Mudd had been giving the ladies pills to make them look more beautiful. Mudd makes a scheme so that he can sell these three women and become wealthy and possibly control the Enterprise. He wants to trade the women for Lithium crystals to the miners on Rigel XII. I really don't like that. I mean I don't like the fact that the women in this episode are cargo and not people, but what really irks me is when Mudd decides to use them as currency. That's just really not okay to me. 

    On Rigel XII there's a bit where the miners are fighting over the women and Eve gets pissed and runs away...and I can't blame her. Kirk and a miner try to follow her but the dumb miner ends up getting lost to. Finally Kirk finds Eve and the miner and Eve proves that looks don't matter, it's your personality...and they fall in mutual like and all is well with the world again! YAAAAY!

   And now I leave you with a picture of Mudd because he's a space cowboy reject and I find him hysterical:

      

The Enemy Within

   This episode made me smile for so many different reasons. For one, look at this dog:

 

   It has a ridiculous tale, a horn, antennae, and I'm really not sure if it has actual dog feet. That's probably why it's angry. No, it's not the fact that this particular alien dog is a doppelganger. No, I think it's mad because of the ridiculous costume they had to cram this animal in. 

   This dog isn't the only doppelganger to appear during the episode. Apparently there is an issue with the teleporter and whoever or whatever passes through is split between a good and a bad personality. That puppy/alien thing above is the negative personality of the split. Captain Kirk also goes through...and his bad personality is AWESOME! The facial expressions that Shatner makes while playing evil Kirk are just A-MAZING!

   I really enjoy this episode because we really get to see William Shatner's acting skills. The way he portrays doppelganger Kirk with all his wild facial expressions, showing Kirk's underlying demons, and his lust for Yeoman Rand, Wonderful. But also the way he does the normal Kirk. Brilliant. The longer good Kirk is separated from bad Kirk, the longer good Kirk loses the ability to make decisions. One of my all time favorite moments in this episode is when Spock, McCoy, and Good Kirk are in the Sick Bay. Spock is trying to convince Good Kirk to use the teleporter again with Bad Kirk, knowing full well it could kill him. McCoy wants to do some tests on the dead alien/dog to figure out if it was the teleporter that killed the dog or something else. Kirk has to decide who to choose, it's almost a classic "angel/demon on my shoulder" scenario. Kirk is quickly losing his ability to decide and frustrated goes "Help me decide." Spock asks if he's giving up his captain position and when Kirk says no then McCoy responds that they can't help him. And I just wanted to give Kirk a hug and go "AWWWWWWW!"

  Now it should be mentioned that while Spock, Kirk, and McCoy are dealing with two Kirks, a landing crew is on a planet with a increasingly dropping temperature and they cannot be brought up until they know if the teleporter is fixed. After this almost cool but extremely cheesy battle between the two Kirks  the evil Kirk is knocked out and they are able to try out the teleporter. It works and Sulu and the landing team are saved and everything is happily every after. 

     Except the now slight awkward tension between Yeoman Rand and Kirk and the fact Spock knows why there's awkward tension.....

"The impostor had some pretty interesting qualities, wouldn't you say Yeoman?"

   

The Naked Time

   In this episode it seem's the problems of the previous episode have once again been fixed. Uhura and Yeoman Rand, and McCoy are back, Spock is dressed in his normal blue, my wonderful red shirts are back, and the chess board destroyed by Charlie is no where in sight. CONTINUITY PEOPLE!!!

       The plot in this episode centers around a disease that is passed through human contact, later to found out by McCoy is spread through water. For example Spock tears. Yep. You read that right. And no I am not mistaken. Spock cries. Real tears. OF SORROW! He's generally sad. 

     Turns out the disease brings out your most pre-dominant emotions which means when it comes to Spock it just brings out emotions in general since he'd been suppressing them for so long. This episode is really cool because it does bring a deeper look into Spock's history a little bit. But one of my favorite parts is when Nurse Christine Chapel is struck by this disease. Her most pre-dominant emotion is lust for Spock which turns into full blown "I love you Spock!" Him having to repress his emotions makes him feel bad for rejecting her and with the disease infecting him it pulls this out and suddenly he's crying. Poor Spock. Poor suddenly emotional Spock.

   Sulu being infected is quite fun too seeing as how he starts running around the ship with a sword without a shirt on trying to fight random people. It takes quite a few men to subdue Sulu so that they can take him to the sick bay.

    Kirk is the last infected with the disease. Mainly because of his own sheer stupidity really. The disease is spread by water, so what does he do? He slaps Spock's face right after he'd been crying. You're slapping someone so what is your emotion? Anger. Kirk got anger amplified. Most people got restlessness, paranoia, giddiness, love, or in Spock's case sadness. But nooooo! Kirk, bless his soul, had to get anger. 

    As this disease is making it's way through everyone's system the Enterprise is plummeting it's way toward a planet thanks to Lieutenant Riley. His reaction to the disease made him take over the engine  room, kicking Scotty out the room. So of course, when things start going all wonky Scotty can't fix it. 

   Eventually Scotty breaks himself into his own engine room and mixes anti-matter with matter by using a special formula. This makes the ship move, and the sets it going back in time, and with some quick thinking on Kirk's part they get it going right round in time again. 

   While that's going down McCoy finds a cure for the disease and gets everyone cured and HUZZAH! The day is saved thanks to...Dr. McCoy! 

Where No Man Has Gone Before

       This episode deals with the fun problem of ESP. Yes, you read that right. Extra sensory perception. After gathering and having Spock review records from a destroyed ship, they realized the destroyed ship had a couple of its members gain ESP related powers after crossing through a certain galaxy...and then the captain had to destroy the ship. Odd...

    As Kirk leads his crew through the same galaxy two his crew get shocked and fall down...might I add HYSTERICALLY. One was the psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner and the other was Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell. After passing through the field Elizabeth stands up and walks around like every things hunky-dory. When they go to check on Mitchell his eyes are glazed over with a grey film.

   Of course worried by this Mitchell is sent to see the doctor who for the first time in two episodes is not McCoy. This is because the episodes were not aired in the same order they were shot in. There are a few other clues to help prove this: Uhura is no longer there, the 3-D chess set Charlie destroyed last episode is perfectly fine this episode, and all my beautiful red shirts are no longer here any more! But the thing that I find the weirdest is Spock's shirt. It isn't his normal blue, but actually yellow. Since I know shirt says rank and occupation it amazes me that Spock and Sulu had this change...in just one episode! 

   As the episode goes on Mitchell's powers grow at an alarming rate. He gains the ability to read extraordinarily fast and understand it all, and telepathically move objects nonchalantly across the room. Everyone seems alarmed by this, everyone except Dr. Dehner who seems oddly fascinated by this. 

Eventually Mitchell gains the ability to shoot mind powered beams of energy at people claiming he feels like a god. That of course makes everyone nervous so Spock devises a plan to kill Mitchell. Because nothing says bad like beams of energy coming from your brain and a wack-a-doodle controlling them saying he feels like a god! 

    The episode  basically ends with Dehner realizing she has powers, Mitchell's powers getting to "I can create food out of thin air" abilities, and a huge battle between Kirk and Mitchell. The funny part about this battle is at the beginning it looks like Mitchell is getting the worse of it but when they pull apart for a split second Kirk is the one with the really crappy painted blood effect on his face. There's this really cool moment of Dehner and Mitchell shooting each other with their mind lasers and somehow Dehner wins giving Kirk a chance to beat up Mitchell without his powers. Mitchell eventually gains his powers back, Kirk leads him into the grave Mitchell made for Kirk, and shoots down the giant boulder closing Mitchell inside Kirk's grave(irony!),Dehner then dies a sad little death and Kirk mourns the death of a Doctor and an old (crazy) friend he kinda murdered. Poor Kirk. 

Charlie X

   This episode has its seriously hilarious moments. Charlie Evans is the only survivor on a spaceship for fourteen years. Nobody knows why he's alive seeing as how after a year all the food should have been depleted. And he was three when everyone died so it's pretty spectacular he taught himself to talk too.
  Turns out Charlie has a pretty spectacular gift. If he gives you "the freaky eye" then you're in for a real treat. In the case of Yeoman Rand it usually meant he would shower her with gifts, card tricks, or make her disappear. For Uhura, he made her singing voice vanish. Crewman Sam disappeared and so did the weapons of a few other crewman. He melted Spock's 3-D chess pieces and blew up a whole ship...with 20 people on it. After a certain point in time Charlie takes over the Enterprise and just starts shooting his "freaky eyes" at anyone being mean to him... even if they weren't being mean directly at him, it just appeared that way. One lady lost her face because she was laughing around Charlie while he  thought everyone was picking on him.

   Some of my favorite parts in this episode are the little things. For example,Charlie's looks is just priceless. Another funny thing is when  Charlie uses his "special powers" and Spock flies across the room. Kirk is in obvious pain but stands up. Spock is sitting awkwardly but looks in no pain. Kirk asks him to get up and as calmly as frickin' possible Spock goes "I can't. My legs are broken." His legs are broken and he's saying stuff calmly? I mean I know it's Spock and he's intellect before emotions but his LEGS ARE BROKEN! SHOW SOME EMOTION,DUDE!  
      The episode was amazing. I really felt for Charlie even though he was a freaky-eyed abandoned kid. But the end of the episode was just a real WTF moment. There's this giant battle between Charlie and Kirk and then suddenly this green blob ship starts to approach. Uhura says they're from faces, Rand reappears and then Charlie goes ballistic and starts screaming at the sky. "NOOOOOOO! No. Please. Don't let them take me. I can't live with them anymore." And then this giant green face pops into the room and explains he gave everyone back, he's sorry for everything, he gave Charlie the powers, he's afraid Charlie will use his powers for evil, and he's taking Charlie with him. Kirk tries to argue, Charlie begs to stay, but half way through Charlie's begging he disappears. WTF!!! And then Rand cries! Even though she was so pissed at him not even five minutes ago for being kinda creepy. Again...WTF!!!
      But now I'll leave you with my favorite line of the episode: "Sir, I put meatloaf in the ovens. There's turkey's in there now...real turkeys!"  I would've loved that to be real for a moment and to have seen meatloaf turn into turkeys! How awesome would that have been?

The Man Trap

     The second episode of Star Trek is the first to feature Captain James T. Kirk, aka Jim by Dr. McCoy, played by William Shatner.
      But the episode itself? What can I say about the episode itself? The episode itself was wonderful. Just from the effects of the opening sequence it is obvious this episode is better than its predecessor. It seemed the creators tried their hardest to fix the mistakes of the pilot. Each actor had their own eye color, there were some wonderfully constructed sets, the show went by a lot smoother and quicker, and the thing that brought me the most joy: THERE WAS RED SHIRTS! But funnily enough, a blue shirt was the first to die! Actually, funnily enough out of all that died...none were red shirts.
      The character Nancy was extremely well written. When each man looked at her he saw his own desires. BRILLIANT! When Darnell saw this beautiful blonde women and started trying to explain what he saw I almost started dying with laughter. McCoy and Kirk saw the same women just two different age groups, but Darnell saw a completely different women. As Darnell's describing the women he see's McCoy and Kirk think he's offending Nancy and look like their gonna beat him up in trying to get him to shut up. They finally convince poor Darnell to leave the room and shortly after...he dies.
    The episode has a narrative in the form of a captain's log by(of course) Captain Kirk. I find this really cool in the fact it leads another perspective into the episode. Kirk voices over details that basically help what's going on in the episode.
      There are a few small goofs that come with this episode, most not worth naming. But one in particular is worth pointing out. Mainly because it is the most obvious. When Sulu is checking to see if the crew member Barnhart is dead he pokes at his face. If you look close enough you can see that Barnhart's eyes twitch as Sulu touches him.
      The storyline is really amusing. There is really nothing quite as fun as a shape shifting monster out to kill you for your salt. Your salt, of all things. That really is creative. I mean...SALT. Who came up with that idea?
     It takes a bit of stalking, several more murders, an impersonation of Dr. McCoy, a screaming plant, me  hiding my eyes in my hands and peeking through my fingers, and an almost murder for them to figure everything out. Then a little more of the hiding in my hands, the almost murder of Kirk, and Spock getting beat up by Nancy for McCoy to realize Nancy was the bad guy the whole time and to kill her.
      It was stupendous. I was right there with Kirk when he uttered the words "I'm sorry, Bones." The dude had to shoot his ex-girlfriend that wasn't really his ex-girlfriend but was actually a monster that killed people to eat their salt. That must've been pretty hard.
     But now I leave you with the same parting words that Kirk ended the episode with "Warp One, Mr. Sulu." I don't know why. It just feels fitting.

Pilot: The Cage

       The Pilot stars the actor Jeffrey Hunter who plays Captain Pike. Pike is only present during the Pilot episode of Star Trek and then is later replaced with Captain Kirk, played by the well known William Shatner. The pilot episode was rejected and the Pike character scrapped when Hunter decided during the making of the second pilot he did not want to continue with the series. Though Pike does make later appearances portrayed by different actors in later episodes.
     This episode does have its slow moments but in my opinion is worth its while. The relationships between characters are well written. I was going to write wonderful but I can't exactly say that. Pike has a couple minutes at the beginning of the episode where he makes some incredibly sexist comments to one of his female staff. Alot of the characters go unnamed throughout the episode. The villains, the Talosians, aren't even named until the last half hour of an hour and a half episode. Only three characters are really given a name :Captain Pike, Vena, and Mr. Spock.
     Again I must say this episode is very intellectual and slightly drawn out. It is not something to watch if you are new to the Star Trek fandom. Please build up to this! It was a thrown out pilot! You really won't be missing anything by waiting to watch it until later. Because of its slowness most long lasting hard core fans are probably the more likely to really enjoy this episode.
    The costumes are not the normal Star Trek costumes. For example, there was not a single red shirt. I mean...every die hard Star Trek fan knows that the red shirt are the first to die or have misfortune. In this pilot episode the shirts were only blue and yellow. There are a few small issues with this episode. For example, for some strange reason every one seems to have the same strange blue-grey eye color. The lasers used are lights followed by a puff of smoke. The animals in cages are more like "men-in-gorilla-suits" in cages. And the funniest thing to me is the U.S.S. Enterprise has all this wonderfully high tech equipment. So explain to me why Spock is using a slide projector to show a crude picture of the Talosians to the crew?
    Honestly, the best part of the show has to be around Captain Pike. His storyline around Vena was well written and the only real gripping part of the episode in my opinion. Vena's acting can be drawn out, over done, and at one point over sexually aggressive toward Pike. Pike's transitions between illusions are spectacular. Alot of the effects in this episode are pretty cheesy but on a scale of 10 to cheesy this ranks higher up the scale for a show made in the late 1960's.
    At points I did find myself very bored, but the episode was not lost on me. After finished I found myself talking about the parts that did grip me. A true sign of a good T.V. show.