Tomorrow is Yesterday

    Oh my gosh! This episode...it's just awesomely...special. The Enterprise is trying to avoid the gravitational pull of a black star and is then flung back in time to the late 1960's. They are of course immediately investigated by the U.S. Air force who thinks the Enterprise is a UFO. The Air force sends Captain John Christopher to investigate the "UFO". The Enterprise hears the transmissions between Captain Christopher and the Air force base. So of course, they hear that Captain Christopher saw and told the base about the Enterprise. Kirk wants to put Captain Christopher's jet in the tractor beam, but Spock tells him that won't be logical. The Enterprise's tractor beam may be to strong and may break the jet. So what does Kirk do? Tells Sulu to turn the tractor beam on anyway. It's almost like "Eff you, Spock! #YOLO!" In Captain Kirk translation.
    And of course Captain Christopher's jet falls apart and they have to beam him aboard the Enterprise. Kirk is generally amused by this and gives Captain Christopher a mini tour of the ship.

Y'know, until Spock tells Kirk that bringing Captain Christopher aboard the ship could mean the end of their future as they knew it and then Kirk has this look on his face like "maybe beaming him aboard isn't as funny as I thought it was!" Spock says that to amend the problem Captain Christopher can not return to Earth.
    To add on to problems Scotty tells everyone that their little time jump has screwed up the warp engines and they're stuck in the 1960s. AND THEN...to make matters worse Captain Christopher says that he sent some pictures of the Enterprise to the Air force before he was beamed up. AND THEN... Spock does some scans in history and learns that Captain Christopher does have to go back down to Earth. His not yet born son will lead an expedition to Saturn. Problem is, the jet was totaled and the air force is snooping around the crash site so getting him down again really will look like aliens. AND THEN...when Sulu and Kirk go down to get the missing pictures they are caught by an Air Police Sergeant who makes them remove their belts, communicators, and phasers. When McCoy thinks they are taking too long Spock transports the communicator that emits an emergency signal up to the Enterprise. That communicator was in the hands of the Air Police Sergeant. AND THEN...when Sulu is figuring out the photos Kirk is caught by Air force Colonel Fellini. He almost gets Sulu, but Sulu beams up to the Enterprise with the pictures.

 

Spock, Captain Christopher, and Sulu then beam down to rescue Kirk which results in lots of punching. Back on the Enterprise Spock and Scotty figure out if they slingshot around the sun and escape its gravitational pull and all this other wonky stuff in just the correct amount of time they can get Captain Christopher and the Air Police Sergeant back to their times without them remembering anything that happened and the Enterprise back to its  correct time too.
     The maneuver's risky but they manage to pull it off anyway, getting everyone back to their correct time without a recollection of the Enterprise. And then they do the rest of the wonky maneuver and the Enterprise is back in their space and time. The Star Fleet wants to know whats up with the Enterprise and where they are, which Kirk responds, "We're home."

Arena

           The U.S.S. Enterprise has received two transmissions asking if Kirk could come down and bring down his technicians. When Kirk,Spock, McCoy, a a few yellow shirts, and a red shirt come down to the planet to check things out immediately they realize the planet has been destroyed. Spock checks for signs of life and finds someone crumpled over and dying, hiding out from someone...or something. Spock checks for more life forms and finds out that there are more forms of life, but these forms of life aren't human. They aren't even warm-blooded.
     Suddenly the Enterprise and the landing party are under attack making it so Sulu cannot beam everyone and the injured man back up. The first (and only) person to die is the only red shirt. Kirk constructs a bomb and aims it at mountains destroying whatever was attacking them. This stops all fire and allows Sulu to beam everyone up.
      Back on the ship in the sick bay the injured man recounts the events which led to his being injured and the destruction of his ship. Turns out the transmissions were sent two days prior to when Kirk actually received them. It was a trap! Oh no!
     Kirk finds and chases the alien ship, deciding  that they need to pay for the heinous act of killing all those men. The ship gets faster and faster going warp 5, 6, and then 7. Kirk does the same thing following them into a new part of space, eventually going into warp 8. Warp 6 and 7 is dangerous. Warp 8 is terrifying. Everyone's super afraid Kirk's going to blow up the ship trying to catch the aliens when suddenly the alien ship starts slowing down and then comes to a dead stop. The Enterprise gets scanned and then the same thing happens to them.
    They get a transmission from Metrones saying that they have trespassed into their space with ill intentions. To fix this the captain of the Enterprise and the captain of the Gorn ship must go to this other planet and fight to the death....without any communications from their own ships. The loser of the fight to the death will have their ship destroyed.
       Kirk and the Captain of the Gorn ship get on to this planet and immediately start to battle each other. The Captain of the Gorn ship is obviously much stronger and very clever. Kirk gets a chance to escape and starts talking into what he thinks is a recorder. Turns out it's a transmitter and the Captain of the Gorn ship hears everything that Kirk says.
       Kirk finds the Gorn ship captain making something and finds a rock atop a cliff. Kirk pushes the rock over the cliff and tries to crush the Gorn but it barely does any damage. As the Gorn is getting up Kirk runs away and falls into a trap created by the Gorn, injuring his leg. The Metrones are positive that Kirk is going to lose and tells the Enterprise to make their preparations for death. Noticing how close they are to Kirk the Metrone grants the ship permission to view Kirk fight the Gorn.
     Kirk discovers sulfur, potassium choloride, diamonds, bamboo, and coal and constructs a makeshift bomb. He finishes it just as the Gorn is coming up and aims it at the Gorn and sets fire. He takes the weapon from the wounded Gorn and starts to finish the Gorn off but decides against it and saves the Gorns life. The Metrone is impressed by this and comes down to talk to Kirk after sending the Gorn back to its ship. He says that maybe in a thousand years the Metrones and the humans could make an agreement, maybe they'd be more civilized. I dunno. It seems to me as time goes by we seem to become less civilized.
     Kirk is popped back on the ship where the surprised crew asks if he's okay. All Kirk can respond with is "I don't know." Suddenly Sulu notices the ship has moved 500 parsecs from where they originally where stopped. It starts to get to Sulu and Kirk says for Sulu to let it go and to turn around and go back to Cestus III, the planet the injured man gave them the transmission from.

The Squire of Gothos

 Yeoman Rand is again not in this episode, but this time the Yeoman is Teresa Ross. I don't know about anyone else, but it's starting to bug me that each episode has a different Yeoman. Especially after the love interest between Yeoman Rand and Captain Kirk had been established.
  In this episode the crew of the Enterprise are exploring the perimeter of the planet Gothos when Mr. Sulu mysteriously vanishes. Kirk takes a look and then vanishes with him. The Enterprise receives some strange messages from the planet and Spock packs up a few crewman and sends them down to the planet, which they believe has no vegetation, has frequent gas storms, and can sustain no life.

 

  Once on the planet the crewman figure out quickly that they do not need all their funky gear and can breathe the air that was supposedly noxious gasses. 

  They start wandering the planet and find this weird mansion like house rather quickly. Common sense says go inside and it's like a ginormous history museum. And funny enough, Sulu and Kirk are frozen in it. They discover this man playing an organ and he unfreezes Kirk and Sulu and then introduces himself as General Trelane, retired...or The Squire of Gothos. 

 Trelane wants to keep everyone there as guests, but after awhile it becomes apparent that he doesn't view the crew as he guests but more as his toys. I mean really it isn't hard to pick up on the fact that Trelane is a child. He dances and sings and acts like a spoiled brat, and Kirk and Trelane keep referring to everything as games.

 "Don't you like my game, Captain?"

 "I don't wanna play your games anymore, Trelane!" 

   Kirk keeps trying to make Trelane let them go to no avail, but eventually Spock finds  away to beam up all human life forms (which turns out was the entire landing crew, Sulu, and Kirk) but Trelane stayed behind....Hmmmm....interesting. 

 Kirk tries to get away as quick as possible from Gothos, but Trelane appears on the bridge of the Enterprise. Trelane blames Spock for the disappearance of his new toys and makes the whole bridge of the Enterprise appear back in his mansion on Gothos. 

 Trelane immediately fancies Yeoman Ross and asks her to dance, uses his powers to make Uhura play his organ, changes Yeoman Ross's outfit, and they just dance for awhile.

 

 As those two dance, Kirk and Spock figure out that Trelane's powers are created by a giant machine. Kirk starts a battle with Trelane just so that in the end he could destroy Trelane's machine. Trelane of course gets pissed and sends everyone back to the ship but vows to kill Kirk. 

   Back on the Enterprise, they leave Gothos but then the planet starts stalking them and there seems to be no escape. Kirk beams back down to Gothos where Trelane puts Kirk on trial for treason and bunch of other silly charges. Kirk is found guilty and the sentence is death by hanging. 

 

    Kirk uses his skills of charisma and talks Trelane into "The Most Dangerous Game", to hunt Kirk for sport. But Trelane has to let the Enterprise go so it can escape. Trelane agrees and Kirk immediately tries to contact the Enterprise, but none of his messages go through. Kirk and Trelane run about the planet, Trelane trying to stab Kirk with a sword. This goes on for awhile until Trelane practically has Kirk. He's about to kill him when these two green blobs appear in the sky and start scolding him. And again it becomes apparent that Trelane is only a kid. He starts pleading with the green blobs (that turn out to be Trelane's parents) saying "I almost had him! I did! I did! You saw! You never let me have any fun!"  And the whole time Kirk's got this whole "WTF is going on here?" look smeared across his face. 

The green blobs make Trelane disappear, apologize for their son, and then say they'll keep the atmosphere breathable until Kirk is beamed back onto the Enterprise.

    Back on the Enterprise, Yeoman Ross is still wearing her gown from Trelane and asks to change. Kirk messes with her a bit and then says yes.Spock asks what to put Trelane as in the log since Trelane wasn't human. First Kirk says a god, but Spock argues that. Then Kirk says " a little boy, a very naughty little boy" and Spock looks confused.  Kirk explains that Trelane was just being up to little boy mischief and he asks if Spock ever did mischief and then starts naming pranks. Spock looks at him like "What? You did some of this stuff!" And Kirk's just like "I forgot who I'm talking to. Of course you didn't do any of these things!" I mean it's Spock! He was probably like the 'perfect angel' vulcan child!

The Galileo Seven

 This episode gives new meaning to EPIC! Kirk is transporting Ambassador Ferris on a mission that he's been commissioned for to deliver medical supplies to Markus III. AS they're traveling they discover a Quasar and by Kirk's duty he has to stop and check it out. He sends seven of his crewman aboard a shuttle called the Galileo to check it out. The seven consist of Spock, McCoy, Scotty, a Yeoman who isn't Rand, a Lt. Boma, Lt. Latimer, and a Lt. Kelowitz. But what I find interesting is the color combos. It's two yellow guys, two red, and three blue. SCIENCE FOR THE WIN!

 Galileo gets caught in an ion storm and lands on a planet in the middle of the Quasar. Everyone's find but their out of fool and have too much weight to get the shuttle off the ground again. Spock figures they'd have to lose three members to be able to fly again.
   On the Enterprise, Kirk is working hard to find the missing Galileo but according to the Ambassador he has a deadline on how long he can  search for the crew. After that the Ambassador can take over the ship and take them to Markus III to deliver the supplies without hesitation or question.
  The crew of the Galileo don't exactly agree with Spock's means of logic and tend to get on him. Boma especially tends to refer to as a robot. A creature is discovered on the planet and kills the two yellow shirts. Boma wants to have a burial for them and both times Spock finds them very illogical. Finally Spock gives in and they are about to bury the second dead crewman when they are yet again attacked by the creature. Luckily by this point Scotty had figured out how to use the phasers for power and had generated enough to get the ship running.
  Eventually Kirk runs out of time and must start heading to Markus III, but refuses to give up without a complete fight.
   And neither does Spock. Using up their last bit of fuel he rockets them around the planet in desperation hoping the jet fuel would be seen by someone.
    Kirk sees it and just as the Galileo is about to crash through the atmosphere Kirk has them beamed up into the Enterprise. Now Kirk can go about his mission to Markus III.
  The episode ends with Kirk picking on Spock because desperation is an emotion. Though Spock refuses to believe he used an emotion but acted purely out of logic. The logical thing to do was act emotionally.
 "You're not gonna admit for the first time in your life you committed a purely human emotional act?"
 "No sir."
"Mr.Spock, you're a stubborn man."
"Yes sir."

And then EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE on the bridge laughs at this. Cause apparently there is nothing funnier than a stubborn Vulcan.

Shore Leave

 The crew of the Enterprise desperately needs a break, especially Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy opts for a Shore Leave. McCoy and Sulu go check out this planet that is very similar to earth without any forms  of life either than vegetation. McCoy compares it to Alice and Wonderland...
  ......and then see's the white rabbit being chased by Alice into a bush. Ooookay?

 Sulu doesn't see them because of his fascination with the beautiful plant life so when he comes back McCoy's just staring at a bush like an idiot with a "What the HELL just happened ?" look smeared all over his face.
   McCoy calls Kirk on his communicator and asks if he's coming down, still claiming the island is therapeutic, even though he just saw a girl chase a giant bunny. Then McCoy tries explaining to Kirk what he saw, saying he may now be unfit for duty. Of course Kirk's first logical reaction was to make fun of McCoy and then he agreed to check out the place.
  Right before Kirk beams down we see Angela, who last episode was going to get married to Tomlinson, but this episode is flirting with Lt. Esteban Rodriguez.
   With a series of odd events it becomes apparent that the island makes your thoughts come to life. Though it really isn't so obvious to the crew of the Enterprise....
                                                                                       ....until Spock comes down.
Yeoman Rand isn't here in this episode, but instead there is Yeoman Tonia Barrows, who seems to have a thing for McCoy...and McCoy for her.

  I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, up until a point in the middle where a knight comes and stabs McCoy. If the doctor on the ship is hurt, who is there to fix him up? Apparently no one because he dies...
  All of the illusions were quick lived and short except for Kirk's illusion of an old bully, Finnegan, because whenever Kirk tried to ask questions of Finnegan he would immediately try to attack Kirk almost as an answer.
  Eventually the caretaker of the island comes and explains that this was a place for play, used for his people. The whole planet is basically one giant toy house. Then he explains everything's been an illusion and McCoy really isn't dead. And of course everyone goes "You sure?"
   And in walks McCoy with these two scantily clad women hanging on him, much to the annoyance of Yeoman Barrows.

 

 The caretaker says that the Enterprise can stay on the island for the Shore Leave as long as they now understand how the place works. So Kirk tells the ship its okay to let people come down now, "it'll be the best shore leave ever!" YIPPEE! 

 What I find hilarious is, one of McCoy's women leaves McCoy and hangs on Spock of all people and when Kirk gets the okay for everyone to vacation there Spock basically says, "Well, I've had enough vacation. I'm going back on the ship." And he moves the girl off his arm like she wasn't even in the least bit distracting with her very little bits of clothing on, bids her no offense, and then gets ready to leave. 

  Back on the ship everyone's talking about how wonderful the vacation was and then another great Spock moment, he goes, " I still find the whole thing completely illogical." And everyone around him just turns and laughs. AND THIS HAS BEEN ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT BROUGHT TO YOU BY SPOCK!

Balance of Terror

 This episode started with a wedding. Or well, it tried to start with a wedding. It kinda got interrupted. But before I continue, everyone knows what happens when you start a show like Star Trek with a wedding right? One of the couples dies in the end. Right! Glad we've got that established. Keep that in mind for later.

  This episode is basically one giant game of "Cat-and-Mouse" between the Enterprise and the Romulans. Which I find funny, because immediately they know it's Romulans but people from Earth have never seen Romulans. How does that work? Well, mostly it's from the insinuation of one particularly racist crewman Styles, who ends up directing alot of his hatred at Spock, who will make his "this is completely illogical" face and then walk away.
You know the children's rhyme to ward off bullying:
"I'm rubber,
you're glue.
Everything you say bounces off me
and sticks to you."
They need to make a new saying for Spock.
"I'm Spock,
you're glue.
Everything you say is completely illogical, 
so of course bounces off me 
and sticks to you." 

Yes, I know this picture isn't from this episode but I thought it looked like Spock was going "Hey, You're witty!" 

 

  Kirk and Spock explain about the war between Earth and the Romulans and why there is a "neutral zone" in space. The Romulans blow up a ship that was close to the neutral zone, a ship that didn't see the Romulans at all. Why? Because according to Spock invisibility is theoretically possible, it just takes a helluva lot of energy. Kirk and the Enterprise catch a quick peek at what Romulans look like only to realize they look like angry Vulcans, which means half the bridge then turns to stare at Spock...and Styles says a couple racist things to Spock. 

  The Enterprise shoots phasers at the Romulans blindly and miraculously hit them. The Romulans either dodge, weave, bicker among themselves, or shoot stuff back(which doesn't happen as much as the bickering). At one point the Enterprise loses use of their phasers at a very annoying time and after the Romulans blast the ship Spock manages to have them fixed(which was just so extremely useful). 

  The Enterprise manages to kill a Centurion, figure out how the ship works, and severely weaken the ship. The Romulans try to give it one last go setting off a toxic gas in the engine room of the Enterprise. Spock saves the two men in the room and fires the phasers. This makes the Romulans attacks for naught and their ship was destroyed. The commander wanted to die his way and then blew up the ship. 

 After a body count Styles the  racist git lives and apologizes to Spock and the other man who was in the engine room was...you guessed it! Tomlinson! The groom! And yes! You guessed right again! He died! Rest in peace the boy who almost got married! But as Kirk says,"It never makes any sense but you have to know there was a reason." I mean the reason in this case being you never start a show like this with a wedding or someone dies...

R.I.P Tomlinson

  

The Conscience of the King

   This episode combined Shakespeare, Star Trek, and our favorite Irish Lt. Kevin Riley. An old friend of Kirk's thinks that a traveling actor named Anton Karidian is a famous executioner who brought on mass genocide named Kodos. Of course Kirk can't just immediately go "yeah! of course! you're absotively right!" No, Kirk has to be more " You sure? There were only nine people to see him, I am one of them, but it was like twenty years ago and I forgot what he looks like."
  Kirk's friend, Dr. Leighton then goes "Well, I invited the whole traveling group to my house for a dinner party. So please come to do some double checking." And immediately I face-palm. I mean what if Kirk says No? And what if Karidian really is Kodos? You've just invited a mass murderer into your house without protection. IDIOT! 
  Lucky enough for him, Kirk shows up...and starts flirting with Kiridian's daughter Lenore.One thing I have noticed is Kirk seems to have a thing for blonde women.

 Everything seems to be going well for Kirk, he even leaves the party to spend some extra time with Lenore and is about to kiss Lenore, when he finds the dead body of Leighton. What a mood killer!
 Kirk begins to think that maybe Kiridian really is Kodos and hatches a plan so that the traveling actors are stranded on the planet they are currently on. The next day Lenore comes aboard the ship asking for a little help because they're stranded and Kirk puts on his best "Oh no! This is new to me!" face and the whole time Spock is in the background like WTF!! And then as Lenore is walking away Yeoman Rand walks onto the bridge and looks at Lenore with this whole "Who's she?!?!" kinda face.

 

 A little later Kirk demotes Lt. Riley back to the engine room. Feeling bad about this Riley asks Uhura to sing him a song. As he's listening to the song someone comes and sprays something in his milk. He has a tray of food and milk when the song is over he reaches for the food, stops and starts awkwardly drinking the milk. And then starts flailing from poison.
  Spock figures out that Riley's parents were killed by Kodos twenty years ago. Riley is one of the nine people to know what Kodos looks like. Spock also thinks that if Kodos is still alive his next target will be Kirk...
          and shortly after Kirk is attacked. Go figure. Kirk investigates Kiridian, asking him if he is the same Kodos the executioner from twenty years ago. They actually have a really cool conversation. Kirk asks him if he's Kodos and Kiridian says "Do you believe that I am?" To which Kirk responds that he does.  And then here is where it gets cool. Kiridian goes "Then I am Kodos. If it pleases you to believe so. I am an actor. I play many parts." Kirk responds,"You're an actor now. What  were you twenty years ago?" And my favorite line of the episode: "Younger, Captain. Much younger."
  Riley over hears McCoy mention that he thinks that Kiridian is Kodos, that man that killed Riley's parents and Riley hatches a plan to kill Kiridian.
  The traveling actors put on a play since they can't really travel(It's Hamlet, my favorite Shakespearean tragedy!) and Riley stands on the sidelines with a phaser pointed at Kiridian. Kirk stops him. Right after Kiridian comes off stage Kirk hears his conversation with Lenore about how Lenore killed 7 of the 9 who saw Kodos, who actually is Kiridian and how after the play she was going to kill Riley and Kirk, all for him. Kiridian freaks out saying he already has too much blood on his hands and how she was supposed to be untainted. Well, that worked out brilliantly.
   Lenore picks up a phaser and tries to shirt, again all this murdering is all for her father because that's just what every proud father wants, and Kiridian jumps in front of Kirk and dies. Lenore has a major freak out and starts quoting Shakespeare over her dead father's body.
 And now I leave you with a bit of Shakespeare, too:
    "If we shadows have offended,
 think but this, and all is mended-
that you have but slumbered here 
while these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
no more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend.
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
we will make amends ere long.
Else the Puck a liar call. 
So good night unto you all.
Give me your hands if we be friends,
and Robin shall restore amends."

The Menagerie: Part 2

  So basically this episode is the pilot with a couple sprinklings of Spock explaining things to people in modern times mixed in. At the ending Spock explains that the reasons he's been trying to go to Talos IV is because the Talosians have the ability to to give Pike the illusion of being made well again. So it basically it turns out Spock isn't a bad guy he's just being an extremely loyal second in command(thirteen years later) at the risk of being a good second in command currently.
   But my favorite part of the episode is at the very end when Spock is released and all is well. Spock is leaving to take Pike to the transporter and Kirk stops him and says, "Mr. Spock. When you're finished please come back and see me.I wanna talk to you about this regrettable tendency you've been showing lately toward flagrant emotionalism-"
  and Spock cuts him off and goes "I see no reason to insult me,sir. I believe I've been completely logical about the whole affair." And then Spock just take Pike and rolls him away.
   It ends with a Talosian showing Kirk what is hinting at is supposed to be old Pike but is actually pilot episode Pike( because it's a clip from the pilot) with Vena living happily ever after.
  "Captain Kirk....
           Captain Pike has an illusion and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant."
 And may that go the same for you dear reader, "May you find your way as pleasant."

The Menagerie: Part 1

       Oh my gosh,this episode! This episode! I don't know what to say about this episode! It mixed the perfect balance of dramatic awesomeness and the crappiness of the pilot. I mean..geez...where do I begin? Probably the beginning right?

Sean Kenney as Captain Pike 13 years later

         Ok, so Spock tells Kirk he received a message to come see his old captain, the wonderful Captain Pike. Yes, the same Captain Pike from the pilot. No, not the same actor. This Captain Pike is played by Sean Kenney.

Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike

  It's been thirteen years since Spock has last seen Pike and Pike is confined to a wheel chair where he can only answer 'yes' or 'no' questions. The only person Pike will let see him is Spock which is almost kinda sweet if Spock wasn't saying things that were super fishy.
  So while McCoy and Kirk are trying to get stuff figured out with the Commodore about Spock's supposed received message, Spock is carrying out a plan to hijack the Enterprise.(I KNOW RIGHT! THIS IS SPOCK WE'RE TALKING ABOUT!) And it's Spock so of course he succeeds in this plan of his taking Pike and McCoy with him, but leaving Captain Kirk behind.
   Spock does everything so well it isn't until he has to beam Kirk onto the Enterprise that anyone realizes anything is wrong. Immediately Spock is arrested and court martial-ed for mutiny( I KNOW RIGHT! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT!)
  And the court-martial part of the episode is where I start to zone out. From here on it's pretty much just Spock re-showing the pilot to Captain Kirk and the Commodore. If you read my review of the pilot, you're good. And if you haven't you should go do that now.
  It is a two part episode so Spock doesn't get to finish showing the pilot. He's stopped after Pike is kidnapped by the Talosians. Then it's back to the present, a vote about continuing the story. 2/3 vote yes. Spock somehow gets Kirk in trouble but still he urges Kirk to hear the end of the story. And the episode ends with the credits fading over a pacing Kirk. Aaaaand stay tuned for part 2....

The Corbomite Maneuver

 This episode was almost as boring as the pilot. ALMOST. Not quite. Just almost. Thank goodness for the ending of the episode. It really helped make it better. Now this is also one of those episodes that was aired out of order. This is obviously the first episode Yeoman Rand appears and another episode where Uhura is wearing yellow instead of her normal red.
  Really there isn't much to say about this episode. The ship gets stopped by a floating rubik's cube in space. They blow it up. A huge space pustule gets mad at them.

I mean seriously, don't these look like infected sores under a microscope?
Then an alien named Balok tells them if they do anything threatening he'll blow up the ship. Kirk tries to talk to him. That's threatening. It turns into a giant game of Poker. Kirk realizes that. He bluffs that Earth people have something called Corbomite that they use as a defensive weapon. The alien falls for it.
  The whole time this is going on, I mean like the whole episode, everyone is putting insane amounts of pressure on poor Lt. Bailey. Just nothing goes right for that kid the whole episode...
   ....until the end. And remember I mentioned the episode doesn't get good until the end. Kirk, McCoy, and Bailey beam aboard the aliens space ship because the alien lets out a extremely quiet distress call. They're about to beam aboard and Scotty tells them to watch out, the other side has low ceilings. They get over there and McCoy AUTOMATICALLY bangs his head. IDIOT! The alien they thought was Balok was really a dummy, they keep walking and see a baby. A talking baby.

   The baby runs the ship by himself and was lonely and wanted company. Kirk, Balok, and Bailey talk and decide to have Bailey stay on the ship with Balok. Balok gets a companion, Bailey stops getting hassled, and Kirk gets a new crewman. All is well! Yaay!
 

Dagger of the Mind

  This is yet another episode that proves that they were shot in a completely different order than they were aired in since Yeoman Rand and Nurse Christine are nowhere to be found throughout this episode. Instead, Kirk's love interest is the feisty and somewhat irritating psychologist Dr. Helen Noel.

    What I find really interesting is this top notch security prison penal planet has a prison escape onto the Enterprise inside of a box. A box! Do they not check the stuff they beam into other ships? Or was this just like a really bad day for them? Dr. Simon van Gelder comes aboard and just starts karate chopping people and stealing their clothes. (Okay, so he steal's one guy's clothes but it's still weird...) Eventually Spock does his super awesome Vulcan grip on him(because that is automatically better than any tranquilizer) and Spock and McCoy try to ask him some questions but they seem to physically pain him.

  McCoy mentions this to Kirk and with a little prodding finally convinces him to investigate the penal planet. The director of the planet, Dr. Tristan Adams, agrees and Kirk and Helen (who refuses to go by Dr. Noel) go down. The people of the planet seem awfully unemotional and Kirk picks up on it quickly but because Adams has a well-known reputation Helen refuses to see it. 

   Spock and McCoy continue to probe Gelder. By having Spock use a Vulcan mind trick so that Spock can read Gelder's mind they find out that Adam is using a piece of machinery to erase peoples memories and replace them with his own. Funnily enough, right as this is happening Kirk sits in the machine...

  Helen and Kirk figure out the machine works and Helen tries to change a memory Kirk has of her, only to be caught by Adam who then makes Kirk fall full blown head over heels for her. Adam does a little more messing with Kirk until Kirk passes out. 

The ending's kind of weird. But basically Helen climbs through an air duct and then messes with wires to shut off the machine. While she does this Kirk is being tortured again. Helen finally turns it off, allowing Spock to come onto the planet, she shoves a guy onto the electrical box which kind of saves the day, Kirk beats up Adam and his group and escapes, finds Helen and Spock, turns around, and finds Adam weirdly dead. And the whole time I just kinda wanted to go...WTF!!! What is this!!!

   Then everyone is back on the ship, awkward staring at Kirk, a look of mutual understanding between Spock and Kirk, and then they're sailing away. YIPPEEEEEE! Weirdest ending so far...

Miri

   Okay, this episode was just crazy awesome! The crew of the Enterprise discover a planet that is very similar to the Earth in the late 1960's...which is just bucket loads of awesome because we all know Star Trek was filmed in 1966.
   Yeoman Rand magically appears this episode after not being here last episode, again a hint this is an out of order episode, and OOOOH! The tension between Yeoman Rand and Captain Kirk can be cut with a knife! Yeoman Rand is actually jealous of Kirk harmlessly flirting with this teenager Miri to get some answers. Granted Miri's actually over 300 years old...but they don't know that immediately! I mean does she look 300 to you?

    Miri tells Kirk there's a virus killing off all the adults on the planet. It's basically a planet of 300 year old kids. But once the 300 year kids reach 300 year old teens they start to die too.
  After a certain point everyone on the landing crew except Spock gets the disease. Spock says it's in his system though so he cannot go back on the Enterprise. Spock and McCoy work to make a cure against the disease.
  Miri sadly doesn't see Kirk's flirting as harmless and falls hard for him. She see's the super awkwardness between Kirk and Yeoman Rand and takes this opportunity to call upon the other kids and split up the two. Well, the other kids already stole the communicators the landing crew was using. But now that Miri's all jealous she has Rand kidnapped by a large group of kids.
 Of Kirk comes running to her rescue and gets walloped by a group of kids. He convinces both the kids and Miri that if they don't listen to him they are all eventually  gonna die, y'know, after getting a good whopping by a group of 300 year old 10 year olds.
 Spock and McCoy finally finished the anti-virus but without the communicators they cant figure out if its safe or not. It's down to the wire so what does McCoy do? He injects himself with it and practically dies. IDIOT! I mean yes, it works. But what about the off chance it didn't? Spock even says it could have been "a vile of death."
 Sometimes this show....there just aren't words to describe how extremely special it is...
And now a picture of Yeoman Rand and a bunch of kids because I think it's really cool: