featuring the episodes The Savage Curtain and All Our Yesterdays

“Kirk! Help me! Kirk!”

Yes, help me! I’m almost done revisiting the original Star Trek, and it takes the strength and resiliency of a dozen redshirts to make it through this volume. Well, okay, so maybe The Savage Curtain isn’t that bad, but in places it’s nearly Mystery Science Theater fodder (in fact, the MST crew was known to throw the “Help me! Kirk!” phrase out to point out examples of woefully wooden acting – or just guys who looked like Abraham Lincoln). (more…)

featuring the episodes The Enterprise Incident and …And The Children Shall Lead

With two of the better-plotted and best-remembered third season episodes, this 30th volume of digital Classic Trek is one of that season’s few must-have discs. The Enterprise Incident, an unexpectedly sneaky little tale of espionage, features some notoriously over-the-top scenes, but at the same time, that bizarrely heightened material is – as we later discover – there for a reason. Once the “oh, so that’s what’s going on” factor kicks in, it’s a decent little episode. (more…)

featuring the episodes Elaan Of Troyius and The Paradise Syndrome

If you want to see the real face of Star Trek’s third season, this volume’s two episodes distill it all rather nicely – it’s all about Kirk and the ladies. Elaan Of Troyius is a truly strange reworking of Shakespeare’s “Taming Of The Shrew”, with Kirk lulled into a state of ineffectiveness by the beauty of an alien female being given passage aboard the Enterprise. And, of course, what’s the worst that could happen? The Klingons show up while Kirk is smitten by his passenger. (more…)

featuring the episodes Assignment: Earth and Spectre Of The Gun

Perhaps fearing the end was near for Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry used the last episode of the series’ second season as a bizarre “backdoor pilot” for a brand new series idea he had, involving a secret agent from…the Future! The resulting adventure is more than just a little bit campy, more in line with the Adam West Batman series than Star Trek, and it’s a nice light-hearted romp, even though in the back of my head there’s a nagging feeling that Roddenberry wasted an hour of Star Trek trying to sell a series that didn’t fly. (more…)

featuring the episodes Return To Tomorrow and Patterns Of Force

Not two of my favorite episodes here. Return To Tomorrow attempts to put a romantic face on the mind-possession chestnut that was already well on its way to being overused (and this is even before it started showing up every three weeks in Berman-era Trek). It’s notable for featuring Diana Muldaur (later Dr. Pulaski in the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation) in her first (and worst) of two classic Trek appearances. But that’s about all. (more…)