Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 63 - FOR THE WORLD IS HALLOW AND I HAVE TOUCHED THIS GUY

Yet another "asteroid heading to destroy a planet" episode. This one has a twist. The asteroid is actually a large generational ship. The inhabitants do not know that they are on a ship at all, to them it seems like a planet. Oh and by the way McCoy is dying from a rare disease. The usual trio beam down and discover that the people are controlled by a device named the "oracle" (why an Earth word???). They are implanted with a chip in the temple. McCoy falls in love with a woman and they get married. There is a scene in which the two of them talk about love and crap .... it seriously lasts 15 minutes. But I'll tell you this, unlike Shatner, DeForest knows how to kiss a gal like a normal human.

McCoy agrees to have a chip installed in his head because he wants to stay with his wife, and he's going to die anyway. He reads a sacred book of knowledge and reports back to the Enterprise, the oracle is mad and electrocutes him. Spock then does surgery to remove McCoy's chip. Oh yeah and that sacred book just happened to have the cure for McCoy's fatal disease.

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 64 down 16 to go

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 62 - DAY OF THE DOVE



Excellent episode. Finally the Klingons are starting to look like those brutes that we all love. Except for the female, she just looks like a white lady in racist black face … which I find arousing. Commander Kang is awesome and is a classic Star Trek character.

There is this weird energy cloud that gets off on causing violence. The thing forces the Klingons and the humans to fight, hand to hand with swords. In reality the Enterprise crew would be slaughtered because the Klingons actually train in this kind of combat … I doubt they are sword fighting at Starfleet Academy. But, nobody dies. Kirk figures out what’s really going on and he convinces the female Klingon that the energy cloud is the cause. In the end the humans and Klingon’s band together to laugh at the energy cloud until it leaves the ship.

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 63 down 17 to go

Friday, February 24, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 61 - SPECTRE OF THE GUN

The episode starts off innocent enough. The Enterprise is intercepted by the Melkotians and they sentence the crew to death. They are then transported to a strange planet. Then suddenly …. Boom … cowboy planet. Kirk, McCoy, Spock, Scotty and Chekov must interact with the likes of Doc Holliday and The Earps in this half built replica of Tombstone. It’s not that bad of an episode, it’s just that the plot is stupid and pointless. Why would the death penalty be to fight Wyatt Earp … I mean seriously, why??? They survive because Kirk forces the crew to spare the Earps lives, the Melkotians are impressed. Why do I feel that I’ve seen this plot at least 10 times. Of all of the things that these aliens could have done, they recreate the Old West on Earth. I wonder if this had to do with them already having the pieces for the set???

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 62 down 18 to go

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 60 - IS THERE NO TRUTH AND BEAUTY?

“The Enterprise travels with an alien ambassador who must travel inside a special black case because his appearance causes insanity”

The weirdest episode ever. There’s an alien in a box, it’s so ugly that it will drive you mad. No, I’m not talking about Sonia Sotomayor, I’m talking about … well, I don’t really know because they don’t show it. Anyway, the box has a guardian, she can look at the thing without losing her shit … because she is blind. There’s another dude on the ship and he loves the blind broad. I think he’s jealous of the box … not hers but the one that the alien is in. He tries to kill the thing, but ends up going mad and taking over the ship. 

Spock melds with the box … not hers but the one that the alien is in. He saves the ship but goes crazy and Kirk shoots him. Then the blind lady melds with him … oh yeah she’s also psychic … and Spock is saved. Everybody wears these funky goggles and the camera perspective is just odd … ever see the SNL sketch The Continental with Christopher Walken? Like that. Oh and by the way, there IS no truth in beauty.

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 61 down 19 to go

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 59 - AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD

"The crew of the Enterprise rescues a group of children stranded on a planet, along with their evil "imaginary" friend."

For the most part this episode sucks, but the concept is decent enough. It's sort of a ghost story, but in space or something. Um, yeah. It rehashes the same "killer kids" plot from Miri. In this one the children are under the control of an "evil spirit" named Gorgon. He tells them to do bad things. The children summon him by saying the following "Hail, hail, fire and snow, call the angel, we will go, far away, for to see, friendly angel come to me." Those are the best 80's metal lyrics ever. ...anyway, terrible episode. Interesting note on these kids, the Asian kid is Takashi from Revenge of the Nerds, the girl was the voice of Lucy in the Peanuts cartoons and the dude on the left went on to create the musical scores for some of the Star Trek movies.


ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 60 down 20 to go

Friday, February 17, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 58 - THE PARADISE SYNDROME

"A mysterious alien device on a planet with a predominantly American Indian culture erases Captain Kirk's memory, and he begins a life with them as a member of their tribe"

This episode is so ludicrous and racist ... i friggin love it. ARE YOU READY TO KIROK!  So there's an asteroid that's going to destroy this planet. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to examine. They see that it looks like North American pine forest and they see actual Native Americans (by this I mean white actors playing Native Americans in a very discriminatory way). There is an idea out there that aliens did abduct Native Americans, most notably the Anasazi.

The crew find a huge obelisk, suddenly Kirk falls into it and is zapped. He then gets amnesia and thinks he is an Indian. Just like Lou Diamond Phillips. The Natives see "Kirok" as their savior and choose him to stop the asteroid.  Kirk also takes this smoking hot woman as his wife. The scene that always makes me laugh is when Kirok is trying to open the obelisk but can't, at this point the Indians realize that he is a sham and begin to stone both him and his "wife". It's crazy! In fact the woman ends up dying of internal injuries!! This is how the episode ends, she dies in Kirks arms as the credit role.
ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 59 down 21 to go

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 57 - THE ENTERPRISE INCIDENT

"The crew of the Enterprise attempts to steal a Romulan cloaking device."

A decent episode for Season 3. The Romulans are usually interesting to watch and the stealing of the cloaking device is pretty cool. It starts off with Kirk ordering the Enterprise into Romulan space, they are soon surrounded and taken captive.Spock tells the Romulan Commander that it was all Kirks idea. She (the Commander, who is rather sexy I must say) has a thing for Spock. There is a very long and stupid sensual scene between this woman and Spock. It's just way too long and pointless. One thing leads to another and they steal the cloaking device and also the Commander. The Romulans give chase but Scotty imploys the newly discovered cloaking device on the Enterprise.They then procede to bring the device and the commander to a starbase. Weird that they captured her because she actually hasn't done anything wrong. It seems odd that Starfleet would order Kirk to go on a suicide mission with an entire Starship full of crew members.

Well, now that Mugato is back to work, after being unemployed forever, he has less time to watch Star Trek. This is very sad. But I will try to watch at least three per week and update Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.
ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 58 down 22 to go

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 56 - SPOCK'S BRAIN

The first episode of season three and I think we can all agree that this episode is shit. A an all female alien group steals Spock's brain and use it to run their home base. The woman on this planet live underground and are highly advanced and the men live on the surface and are stuck in the ice age. I think. This has nothing to even do with the plot really.

The plot holes in this episode are too numerous to count and it's  just flat out embarrassing to watch. How did this woman remove Spock's brain in a matter of minutes, also Spock lives. Bones then turns Spock into a robot. Kirk goes down to the planet to retrieve Spock's brain, they meet these sort of hot alien girls. They have Spock's brain running the underground lair and somehow it can talk. Kirk gets the brain and then in a rediculous scene, Bones reattaches the brain ... with Spock's help vocally. That's it, I'm done talking about it.

The network seriously cut the budget for Star Trek in season and the show really suffered. This is the type of episodes that had been produced, they just didn't have the money to be as creative as they wanted to. A funny thing is that Spock's Brain is written by Lee Cronin ... who is actually Gene L Coon using a fake name.

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 57 down 23 to go

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 55 - ASSIGNMENT: EARTH

"During a historical research mission in 1968, the Enterprise unexpectedly encounters another interstellar traveler from the future named Gary Seven who appears to be attempting to alter history."

This is the most obvious attempt at a spinoff since ... well every other attempt at a spinoff. Oh yeah, and this episode is awesome. It just completely works for me. Sure it's 50% Gary Seven and his dumb secretary ... and sarcastic computer and his "pussy" cat, but damn if it ain't fun. I would have watched this show, Terri Garr is great as the secretary and Robert Lansing is very Flint-esque (James Colburn rules). He's labeled as a "futuristic James Bond". The episode keeps you guessing at whether or not Gary 7 is bad or good. Just when you think you have him figured, you realize that you are wrong. Oh ... and also Star Trek characters are in it.


The plot itself makes no sense. Why would the Enterprise have to go back in time to observe 1968? Why would Gary 7 have to alter anything? Well they do wrap this up by saying that everything that just happened was supposed to happen ... something like that.


Classic Roddenberry. At the end of the episode the cat that Gary has been cuddling the entire episode suddenly turns into a hot chick. Not only that but the woman is played by 1968 September Playmate of the Month Victoria Vetri. Some fun Vetri facts: "A nude photo of her was scanned and inserted into Apollo 12 Extra-vehicular activity astronaut cuff checklists" and in 2010 she murdered her husband.

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 56 down 24 to go

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 54 - BREAD AND CIRCUSES


It’s the planet in which Rome never fell (Kirk actually does say this). Now I notice that they really are milking this idea of parallel planets and/or planets that have been altered by a renegade captain. This episode has both elements. Spock theorizes that this culture is the cause of Parallel Planet Development; it is similar to Earth but stuck in the Roman days (but with 20th century technology). You can always point to the spread of this culture by the alien gods from Who Mourns for Adonis. 

The renegade captain is Merrik from the SS Beagle, I’d prefer Merrick from the SS Elephant (figure out that stupid joke). He’s aiding the leader in imprisoning people and setting up the Gladiator games. His crew had suffered a similar fate. Kirk, Spock and McCoy soon are fighting in the games as well(which is not in a coliseum but in a TV studio). Sort of like American Gladiators but not as gay. On the plus sise, Kirk gets his own personal slave and boy is she hot. 

Flavor Flavious (the leader) orders Kirk to send the entire Enterprise crew down to be imprisoned. Kirk orders a condition green instead. Scotty (great as the interim Captain as usual), finds a way to disturb the planets power system and beams the trio up just as they are almost killed by machine gun fire. Cpt. Merrik also gives his life to help Kirk escape. All this and still no bread OR circuses!

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 55 down 25 to go

Monday, February 06, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 53 - THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER


The Enterprise is chosen to be the test ship for a new “Ultimate Computer”. The computer will run the ship unattended, so Kirk must sit on his ass and do nothing. There will then be a war games scenario between the Enterprise, Excalibur and Lexington. Dr. Daystrom, the creator of the M5 computer, will be there as well. The best part is that Daystrom is played by William Marshall aka Blacula and also the King of Cartoons.
The M5 gets out of control and soon threatens to actually destroy the Excalibur and Lexington … and now vice versa. Daystrom loses his mind and ends committed to an institution or something. In an often used move versus computers, Kirk tricks the machine into being illogical and thus shutting itself down.

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 54 down 26 to go

Sunday, February 05, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 52 - OMEGA GLORY

"Captain Kirk must battle a deadly virus and a treacherous fellow starship captain to stop a meaningless intertribal war"

The planet where communism never fell. The odd thing about this one is that as far as they know this civilaztion evolved along the same lines as Earth. From having Kohms (communists), Yangs (yankees), Asian people, white people, English language, an American Flag, the Pledge of Allegiance and Decloration of Independence. Sound to close to be possible, Spock thinks the same thing.

Captain Naps offers up this possible explanation "the Yangs were actually from America. Before they invented Warp drive they had "generational ships" which is an old sci-fi term for Huge spaceships that would be used to colonize other planets but because it took so long to get there (no warp) they had to spend generations on said ship. Well america finds a planet thats like earth so they send a generational ship
BUT SO does the USSR (red china maybe?), they crash on the planet after generations had pass
and in the mean time we have invented Warp so we didnt even need to use generation ships anyway, so everyone forgot about it (or just assumed they all died in the crash).So on the planet they keep the legend of the USA and its war with the Commies but after generations they forgot who they really were."


The deadly virus sub plot is weak and I lost interest in that after about 5 minutes. Also Kirk and Spock repeatedly getting locked upm and escaping over and over again is just dumb. But, the episode is decent overall. It was originally an idea for the Pilot. Anyway, the main plot of stranded starfleet Captain Tracey interfering with the cultural war because he believes that if he stays on the planet than he will never die ... is interesting enough. Cpt Tracey is played by Morgan Woodward who also played the Dr. Van ??? in Dagger of the Mind.

This episode is worth watching if not only for the great ending in which Kirk reads the Constitution to the inhabitants. It's such a great scene.

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 53 down 27 to go