Trekathalon TOS: 2-6 The Doomsday Machine

I have nothing snarky to say, this is a great shot.

For once I'm going to praise the updated effects.  They look great, while preserving the spirit of the original models.  A seminal episode, and still great.  James Lileks writes lovingly about this episode all the time, and does it well.  One of his best is here (start reading about halfway through for the Doomsday relevant bits, but it's all good).  I can't add anything to that, other then praise the updated effects again.

Trekathalon goes on hiatus after this ep, but will return!

Trekathalon TOS: 2-5 The Apple

Powered by Biomass!

Anvilicious episode, but fun none the less.  Modern series have not realized the potential for red backdrops, and giant Papier-mâché snake heads.  Like I said before, I love it when Trek gets weird.  If the allegory wasn't beaten home throughout the episode, it's summed up with a laugh in the final minutes on the Enterprise.  Subtlety!

Trekathalon TOS: 2-4 Mirror, Mirror

The exact moment goatees became eeevil.

Never beam up in an ion storm, got that?  Much more to this episode then I remembered.  Especially the intrigue on the Mirrorverse enterprise.  Disappointed though we never saw the alt-Bones, was he good natured and friendly, but with a heart of EVIL!? Fun episode.

Mystery Science Theater did a great parody in the episode, Last of the Wild Horses

Always keep fresh batteries in your agonizer!

Trekathalon TOS: 2-1 Amok Time

The Jiffy Pop Wedding Collection.

This episode shouldn't work.  It's campy, cornball, and to sincere, and yet, it does work.  I got the impression the old Vulcan Gal knew what was going on the entire time, from the challenge, to McCoy's 'treatment' for Kirk.  Very well put together episode.  When Trek was good enough to overcome the big pile of stinky-limburger that it could have been, it's a great episode.

We also get the first appearance of the iconic 'trek fight music (currently my Mom's ringtone), Chekov the lost Monkee appears, and, as is the tradition with TOS guest stars, Arlene Martel (T'Pring) is gorgeous.  She's still acting!

I feel like the biggest dork in the work for getting emotional at the "Parted but never parted" exchange.

Trekathlon TOS Season 1 Roundup

With Season 1 finished, it's time to reflect, in bullet form!

• It's weird watching Star Trek without it's later institutions and conventions established.
• Though I wish they kept some of the ones here for later iterations. I liked that each ship and base had their own insignia and different uniforms.
• I'm a sucker for mid-60's architecture and design.
• The Enterprise needs to put some locks on their doors, and Bones can't keep anyone in sickbay. 
• The show feels smaller then I remember it.  More claustrophobic, less scope.
• The core cast were all really good actors.  It's easy to forget that.
• The Horta is still awesome.
• Wrath of Khan is better then Space Seed.  I also don't think Space Seed is necessary to enjoy Khan.
• Though I like to think Wrath of Khan's plot grew from some fanboy being irritated the Enterprise never followed up on any of the cool things they encountered.
• I've gotten used to serialized dramas.  I didn't think I'd miss an overall plot or theme, but I did.
• The updated HD effects are poorly done.

With that out of the way, season 2 recaps commence next week!  Watch out for NOMAD!

Trekathalon TOS:1-29 Operation -- Annihilate!

He represents the Lollipop Guild.

An episode with an exclamation point in the title, so it must be good! Either that or Soundwave named it.  It's the attack of the Gallery of Regrettable Food!. Everything is solved by bright light that can apparently penetrates solid matter, but not cause blindness. Even Spock has no qualms about killing an entire species. I guess it's ok when they look like barf, and make you insane.

I love this episode, despite completely mis-remember it from my 'youff (I think I mashed it up with a Jetsons episode). I enjoyed the long walks through 60's architecture, which still looks futuristic today. Apparently it was filmed at UCLA, and the former TRW (Now Northrop Grumman) headquarters.

The HD version features gratuitous additions that look cruddy, and add little (the enterprise dropping off Satellites).  Way to go HD team!

Trekathalon TOS:1-28 City on the Edge of Forever

The Magic is in the Hole.

This episode is chock full of Joan Collins, a time Doughnut,* and something that made Harlan Ellison angry!  It also won a Hugo award.

Great acting, but unfortunately, the impact of the episode has been diminished, since time travel perils are now well-trodden ground for sci-fi geeks, bullets ahoy:

• 
  I feel sorry for the poor vaporized bum, guess he had no impact on history whatsoever?
• How does Spock's homebrew computer work?  How does it know the future?
• Did anyone ever check back on the Guardian of the Doughnut of Time?  Even if time travel itself was to dangerous, couldn't they record pictures, or have a nice conversation?

Hit up wikipedia for the behind-the-scenes kerfluffle over the script and Ellison.

*Opera's spell checker has no idea how to spell doughnut, I wonder what they're called in Norway?

Trekathalon TOS: 1-27 The Alternative Factor

Is it bigger on the inside?

The universe winks out of existence for a few seconds (didn't seem to have any adverse effects though?), and an alien named Lazarus and his Spaceman Spiff Saucer/TARDIS are responsible.  Or his alternate universe counterpart.  I think.  They both end up trapped in a dimensional corridor eternally fighting each other, or else the Universe will cease to exist.

Nerd time!  How come Kirk and alt-lazarus are able to exist in their respective anti-universes?  Shouldn't the matter-antimatter reaction have caused very big kabooms?  Oh well, it's not like physicists understand antimatter all that much.

I enjoyed the 'music of the spheres' eerie-background-noise in the alt-universe.

I also liked this episode better then all of Fringe.  Makes as much sense too.

Trekathalon TOS: 1-26 Errand of Mercy

They're upset I stole this image from Wikipedia

Wow, TOS Klingons seem so much more nuanced!  I really only remember them from The Trouble with Tribbles, so this was a bit of a revelation.  All the performances are solid, with John Colicos (Baltar!) standing out as the Klingon Commander.

The plot is another Godlike Alien deus ex machina (the Organians this time), with the real highlight being the interplay between Shatner and Colicos.  Organians were retconned into Enterprise (poorly), but otherwise they were only referenced in passing after this.

So by TNG, Klingons had gone shouty and brutish, while all the sneaky subtleties had gone to the Romulans and Ferengi?  Going to be interesting to compare.  For me anyway.

Trekathalon TOS: 1-25 The Devil in the Dark

Creeping Terror

I keep mentioning how I grew up afraid of everything. Well, the Horta was in my top 5 Things-to-Be-Terrified-Of (#1: Yip Yip Martians).  I knew that evil lump was not to be trusted, and would  burn it's way through my wall as soon as I wasn't looking...

Brrr.

What was I saying?  Oh!  Devil in the Dark.  Great episode.  I'm shocked how well it holds up, even knowing how everything turns out, there's still suspense and intrigue in spades.  Much credit has to go to Shatner and Nimoy especially.  Nimoy completely sells his mind-meld with the Horta.  That scene could have been so awful.

The Horta has grown a subcult in trek fandom; Hortas have appeared as Federation crew members in several novels, and there's also the Trek Punk band: No Kill I 

While the Horta does look cheap, it could have been so. Much. Worse.

Classic TWOP recap is here.

Trekathalon TOS: 1-24 This Side of Paradise

Mr. And Mrs. Green Jeans.

I know this episode as a Mystery Science Theater punchline.  The Best Brain's used "I'm in love Jim!" as a riff, almost as much as "I am Kirok!" There was even a sketch.  But how does This Side of Paradise hold up as drama?  Not bad.  Everyone sells their role's, and the sound design is fantastic.  The sound of constant rushing wind makes Omicron Ceti VIII feel completely desolate and lonely.

One nagging flaw:  It seems like a plant that can cure all disease, and make a human resistant to radiation would be pretty useful.  Especially if the perfect health it grants sticks around after a spell of anger banishes the side effects.

Now that I think about it, was the happy-plant an analogy for marijuana?

Trekathalon TOS: 1-23 A Taste of Armaggedon

I accidentally a hat.

I've never seen this episode before, and it both bored me, and brought out my pedantic geek side.  HARD.  Did the  Eminiar or the Vendikar take into account the Enterprise defensive capabilities?  What happens when people don't show up for disentigration?  Who monitors compliance of the excecutions?  Is it a lottery, or is everyone on the planet tracked?  How can a civilization suvive the loss of 3 Million people at a time?  Much less a city?  Is there an arms race to develop better defenses or weapons?  Are they tested in some Consumer Reports test kitchen for lethality?

See, my incredulity at the particulars outweighed my interest in the heavy-handed "A war that is to clean  will go on forever" message.  But then the war wasn't clean 3 Million people just reported to disintegration.... GRAAAGRH!

See, pedantic and geeky.  I apologize.

Trekathalon TOS: 1-22 Space Seed

So pointy! I hope she doesn't run with those.

I can't watch this episode without the perspective of Wrath of Khan (AKA: Dirty Dancing for boys, see the third comment),  which I've seen dozens of times, while I've only seen Space Seed twice, maybe?  Wrath of Khan makes it look like Kirk never followed up on any of his missions:

Genocidal Superman and historical figure worthy of study?  Just put him in the corner somewhere.
Benevolent Godlike Aliens?  Junk drawer.
Plant that cures all disease?  Box in the garage.

Oh and there's no way that was 100% Montalbán chest in Wrath of Khan.

Alternate captions: "You'll shoot your eye out kid!" and "Front Torpedo bays loaded."
I'll be here all week, remember to tip your waitress.

Trekathalon TOS: 1-20 Court Marshall

I would wear that, really.

Kirk gets accused of negligence, and faces off with a bugnuts-crazy crew member.  Everything is wrapped up in voice-overred clips, the episode must have been running long.

I want the suit that Kirk's lawyer (Elisha Cook) wears.  Actually the costuming is great overall in this episode, I like the early standard of different Starfleet Posts having different insignias.

Elisha Cook is very much a 'hey it's that guy' for anyone who watched to much TV during the last couple decades.  Wait, which decade is it?  Oh, ok, last couple decades before the turn of the millennium.

Trekathalon TOS: 1-19 Tomorrow is Yesterday

Corn Detasseling.

Time travel shenanigans on then present-day earth!  Not the strongest of the many, many, time-travel Trek episodes.  Seems someone got a note that said 'lighten things up,' from the network execs:  this episode goes from serious to goofy so many times I got whiplash.  Majel Barrett doing a silly/sultry computer voice was fine, but I was less enthused with the accidentally kidnapped guard (Hal Lynch) mugging for the camera.

However I did get a kick out of the F-104 stock footage.  Fortunately, there was no refueling.

Trekathlon TOS: 1-10 The Corbomite Manuever

"This way to the probulator!"

Yay, a classic episode I that surpasses my recollections!  Very enjoyable, even Anthony D. Call, as the insubordinate Lt. Crazypants, who redeems himself by volunteering to keep Clint Howard company.

Was there any paperwork with that?  Did they leave him some food?  Clothes?  Cursory review of Clint Howard's cultural practices?  No?  Ok then; the Federation played fast and loose those days (It's never been called the federation yet, wonder when that became a series staple).

An aside about the updated effects: I still dislike the updated effects.  The new cube-probe-thingy looks like the old cube-probe-thingy, so why do it?  Clint Howard's Disco-Death-Ship is now a well defined metallic sphere, covered in yellow domes and ductwork, removing the ominous mystery of the original effect.

There's Ted Cassidy again as the voice of Balok's puppet.

Trekathalon TOS: 1-7 What Little Girls are Made Of?

It's like a Postcard from my Subconscious.

Robot Parts?  Are little girls made of robot parts?  I think that's the theme of this episode, it's unclear though.  What is clear is my recollection of this episode from childhood: Naked Shatner on a spinning plate, with a haemonculous, beautiful women in revealing space overalls, giants in puffy costumes, bottomless pits, robots.  That's TOS in a nutshell.

Ted Cassidy is great as Ruk: big, menacing, yet stealthy, and he does a fantastic job with his dialog.  As well as being the original Addam's Family Lurch and Thing, he did a bazillion voices for Hana Barbara (Godzilla!), and the Martian in Angry Red Planet.  We'll see him again.

Trekathalon TOS: 1-5 The Enemy Within

ACTING!

This plot.  Jimminy, this plot.  A transporter accident [splits Kirk into a good but ineffectual twin and evil but charismatic twin], the crew has to [convince weak kirk and strong kirk to hug it out on a transporter pad] before [Sulu and an away team freeze to death]. A valuable lesson about [human nature] is learned.    Replace the variables, and you've got three dozen other Trek episodes over the next fifty years.  I shouldn't fault this one for being the first, but I can't help it.

Though we do get the cocker-spaniel-with-crap-stuck-to-it spacedog, and some very effectively creepy lighting and direction.

Trekathalon TOS: 1-4 The Naked Time

It's confirmed.  Death by flocking gun.

Star Fleet really needs to work on their hostile environment training.  While investigating a mysteriously perished science team, a redshirt takes his gloves off to pick his nose, and is immediately infected by evil red water.  Evil red water makes everyone act drunk, and is passed through physical contact.  Everyone but Bones (who is bright enough to wear gloves), and Scotty (who only touches control panels) are infected, and the Enterprise is going to crash!

Bones and Scotty save the day, and hurl the Enterprise away from a disintegrating planet so fast they go back in time.  That makes complete sense...  Wait, what?

Episode highlight: shirtless, fencing Sulu is subdued on the bridge, and Spock quips: "Take D'Artanina away!"  The writers needed to give Spock a sense of humor more often.

Trekathalon TOS: 1-3 Where No Man Has Gone Before

Attacked by Difference Clouds!

 It's yellow shirt day on the Enterprise, and special guest victims Gary Lockwood (two years to 2001) and the gorgeous Sally Kellerman (four years to MASH) get bad contacts and demigod powers after a trip outside the galaxy. Lockwood gnaws scenery something fierce, but the episode is entertaining. Shatner also gets to wield the nifty Phaser Rifle prop.

So did everyone with enhanced brains turn evil? It looks more like Lockwood is possessed at the end, after the fight with Shatner. Oh well, heavy handed point noted, absolute power corrupts...

Again, the enhanced Matte paintings on the planet are nice, but the space scenes look simultaneously cheap and over done.

I don't think ESPers are ever brought up again.  Probably for the best.