46. A Piece of the Action. TOS doesn’t have a holodeck, but they make out all right.  Instead they just time travel or manage to find planets that are so Earthlike they may as well have time traveled.  I even know what I’m in for in some future TOS episodes, and I watched every single one of the holodeck TNG episodes, and “A Piece of the Action” is the leader in the clubhouse for the stupidest.  Somehow a long-ago visit to a planet where that crew wasn’t too careful about the prime directive and left behind (among other things) a book about 1920s Chicago crime bosses has led to said planet wholly adopting the 1920s Chicago society, complete with numerous crime bosses.  It gives Kirk a chance to act really hammy and try out a goofy gangster accent, and it gives Spock another chance to be fish out of Vulcan waters, but this episode is a total misfire.  The comedy isn’t funny enough to be worthwhile (compare “The Trouble With Tribbles” or Star Trek IV) and the plot is utterly ridiculous.  How could this ever happen?  And even if it did, could we portray it with somewhat more originality than a Bugs Bunny cartoon?  People get kidnapped at least four separate times.  Which is actually no biggie because simple ruses are adequate to escape.  There’s some negotiation at the end and somehow Kirk mucks with things even more than they are already mucked with.  One of the Tor.com reviewers for this episode gave it their highest rating, but I just don’t see it.  He made what seems like a good point, that this is a chance to have some fun while demonstrating the negative consequences of violating the prime directive.  But where is the lesson, then?  Kirk repeatedly violates the prime directive (including this very episode) now, in the past, and in the future.  If he takes any heed of what happens here, he stops doing it.  Nah, it’s just a flat whiff.  Killer Spock line: “Sir, you are employing a double negative.” Overall: ick. Our low bar is set. 1 out of 5.

Trek tropes (number of instances encountered in series so far in parentheses):

• Violation of Prime Directive (it still counts if someone else did it first) (2)
• Recent Earth history will always be relevant (2)
• Spock’s suspicious Vulcan nature can be disguised with a good hat (1)

47. The Immunity Syndrome. If I fall asleep during an episode, does it mean I was tired or the episode was bad?  I mean, it can’t be a good thing, right?  But then, I fall asleep during movies I like all the time.  Anyway, I fell asleep here, and I was tired, but I don’t think the pacing and lack of intrigue in this episode help.  The crew encounter what amounts to a giant space amoeba.  They investigate.  It’s something, all right.  I mean, yeah, a giant space amoeba!  Everyone almost dies.  But then they don’t. Here is another challenge of TV: you know that not everyone is going to die, so how do you make an episode feel like it matters?  I guess…things just need to be interesting enough that you don’t really care that you know things will be all right, really.  Well, whatever those things are, they aren’t here.  Sometimes just having some crazy thing isn’t enough, you know?  Also didn’t they make a big deal about how the whole crew was really exhausted at the beginning? What happened with that?  So that has no bearing on the actual episode?  Oh, OK.  That’s fine, it doesn’t matter really.  I’m sorry to be so jaded, 1968 Star Trek episode, but I just didn’t feel this one.  Killer Spock line: “Do not suffer so.  This is not the first time superior capability has proven more valuable than professional credential.” Overall: shrug. 2 out of 5.

Trek tropes (number of instances encountered in series so far in parentheses):

• Strange probe encountered in space (it counts that it’s actually a giant space amoeba) (3)
• “Doctor” McCoy admits he has no idea how Vulcan physiology works (1)
• Spock displays Vulcan superpower never really seen again (1)
• Highly experimental plan with low probability of success somehow works anyway (4)

48. A Private Little War. At some point I’m going to have to talk about TOS’s treatment of gender.  Frankly, it’s not the strength of the series.  They try, galaxy knows they do, but this was 1960s TV and just having unmarried women in real jobs was a pretty big deal still.  I think you have to at least acknowledge that TOS needed some work consistently portraying good female characters when it comes to episodes like “A Private Little War.”  Wins: Uhura is a useful part of a discussion on the bridge.  Chapel provides valuable medical assistance.  Losses: the lead female guest star is quite literally a sexy conniving witch.  I really have no defense for some female characters from the classic sci-fi era, both in TV and books.  It’s definitely a limitation of the genre at times and if anyone wants to be critical of it I’m not going to stop them.  But at the same time, I don’t think anyone set out to write bad female characters, it just kind of happens.  There are plenty of flat male characters too.  The thing is, character isn’t the point in a lot of these things and you have to be cool with that.  It would be swell if we could have great characterization while we’re getting all this other interesting sci-fi stuff, and top sci-fi delivers, but they can’t all be winners.  Like this episode.  It’s not great.  Good, yes.  There are a lot of neat ideas here, actually.  Mainly: what do you do if your enemies are violating the Prime Directive?  Do you do it too, just to balance the playing field?  It’s not right of course, but you could argue it’s better than the alternative of doing nothing and letting one side just wipe out the other.  I didn’t have it in specifically in mind while I watched but wikipedia reminds me that it’s basically the same story as the Vietnam War, and yes, of course it is, and in that regard they succeed.  There’s also a scary creature, the Mugatu, thrown in for some fighting and danger.  Killer Spock line: (After being slapped repeatedly by guest star Doctor–and this really was a medical thing): “That will be quite enough.  Thank you, Doctor.” (There are plenty of good lines in the show aside from Spock’s; I’m just choosing to select his.  But I have to say the whole Spock-slapping sequence was golden for both lines and action.  Nurse Chapel slaps his in this sort of girly nurse-ish way.  Scotty happens to walk in and shrieks, “What are you doing, woman?!” and there is no reason for Scotty to be around except to have a reason for Scotty to do his patented over-the-top shrieking and tear Chapel away from Spock’s moribund body.  Then the doctor comes in and really lets Spock have it.  It’s explained that this is necessary for Vulcans to regain consciousness. And I am totally cool with that.)  Overall: some great, some good, some bad, some just weird. 2 out of 5.

Trek tropes (number of instances encountered in series so far in parentheses):

• Violation of Prime Directive (it still counts if someone else did it first) (3)
• “Doctor” McCoy admits he has no idea how Vulcan physiology works (2)
• Spock displays Vulcan superpower never really seen again (2)
• Recent Earth history will always be relevant (3)
• Kirk hits it off with alien babe (2)