60. Is There In Truth No Beauty? I’ve been tabulating Trek Tropes as I go, but I’m finding that it doesn’t really affect my enjoyment of any particular episode. I might like a really trope-heavy show because it’s got all that lovable Trek stuff, or might find it boring because it’s nothing new. But none of the trope-light shows have been disappointing. I think if they have a good enough core idea that they don’t need to resort to a fistfight or Kirk seducing someone, well, that’s probably a good thing. There aren’t many tropes in this one–in fact, a few were presented then turned around on us for a distinct outcome. The general setup is that the Enterprise is shuttling a representative of the Medusans, named after the mythical character because like Medusa, human eyes cannot view these creatures. The explanation is that they’re so ugly it drives humans insane, but that’s a little unbelievable, and anyway whenever a Medusan is hinted at there is a dazzling green light, so let’s say that there’s something about that light that mucks up your brain circuits (they are non-corporeal beings, mind you). As a Vulcan, Spock can see a Medusan, but only with the aid of a special visor. Most of the plot revolves around the human envoy for the Medusan, Dr. Miranda Jones, who has undergone special Vulcan emotion-zapping training, and further, is blind but makes use of a special sensor array in her clothing to see. She evidently spends so much time fending off unwarranted advances (no less than five dudes take a shot during the episode) that you can understand her desire to disassociate with our race. Particularly pushy is another envoy who wants her to give up her career to stay with him, but as she’s so particularly well-suited to her job she won’t, and out of jealousy he tries to murder the Medusan. This necessitates seeing the thing and going insane, Star Trek style, which essentially means wide-eyed running around the ship and eventually getting into engineering and causing big troubles, flying the ship clear out of the galaxy. (Seriously, Scotty. Put a security keypad on the door to engineering and like 20% of these episodes never happen.) They eventually subdue him and Spock works out a mind-meld thing to make use of the Medusan’s incredible navigational abilities to set things right. There are some good takeaways here: lessons about how being pretty isn’t everything, and how even Spock needs friends. Getting this back around to my original thought, most interesting to me was how the show upset several common tropes. In the Trek universe you can usually solve problems with a quick punch in the neck but this time that doesn’t work. Kirk usually comes up with a plan where he needs to seduce someone but this time she’s not buying it. I was just waiting for Dr. Jones to give up her important job to marry someone but she never did. Killer Spock line: “I see, Dr. McCoy, that you still subscribe to the outmoded notion, promulgated by you ancient Greeks, that what is good must also be beautiful.” Overall: actually quite a good episode, engaging with a lot of twists. 4 out of 5.
Trek tropes (I’m bailing out on trying to count these. Too many episodes and too many tropes. I seriously had a whole spreadsheet going but then I’d decide there was a new one and have to go back and edit both the spreadsheet and the old post.):
- Enemy allowed easy access to highly sensitive area of the ship
- Spock displays Vulcan superpower never really seen again
- Highly experimental plan with low probability of success somehow works anyway
61. Spectre of the Gun. When I started my TOS watching I was grateful they hadn’t developed holodeck technology yet and I would be spared those bizarre cross-genre whiffs. Well, it turns out that early Federation crews just found more exotic ways to find themselves enmeshed in Nazi culture, or trying to sneak around 1960s Earth, or, as in this case, milling around the old west. Kirk and crew encounter a bizarre probe in space, and it tells them not to pass, but Kirk obviously just smirks at that and off they go. Next thing they know, most of the principals are transported to an odd foggy planet where their captor tells them they shouldn’t have pushed his buttons. The fog clears and suddenly they’re on a Hollywood back lot complete with a cheap western set, and the general crappiness is justified with something about how they pulled the event from Kirk’s brain, where memories not related to alien babes or fistfights are hazy, therefore it’s incomplete and looks like a a cheap Hollywood back lot. They quickly figure out they are serving as the losing side of the historic gunfight at the OK Corral, and they encounter a few Earps and Doc Holiday, but find them to be spectacularly uninterested in any negotiating. So they’re stuck and have only a few hours to find their way out of a death by bullet-riddling. At this point I was wondering how I would make it through the remainder of the hour: I hate these holodeck-type setups. Does Star Trek really need to address the gunfight at the OK Corral? Hasn’t drama already covered this? Like, westerns TV shows? Movies? Does a space show really need to shoehorn itself in? Well, clearly not, but the show finds an interesting and suspenseful path anyway. They keep coming up with plans only to have them foiled by the constraints on the simulation: they can’t leave town because they run into a forcefield, they can’t hide in the bar because when the time for the fight comes they just get transported to the site, their attempt at brewing a tranquilizing potion doesn’t work for no rational reason. It’s the most rigged Choose Your Own Adventure in the universe. But, an interesting twist: this is where the show gets saved. Had the tranquilizer worked, for example, it would have rehashed a pretty standard Trek escape hatch. Instead, it helps them figure out the mechanics of the simulation, and they use their brains (and some borrowed Vulcan willpower) to win. Killer Spock line: “If I remember correctly, that would involve you in what was called ‘The Fast Draw.’ It initiated unfortunate events.” Overall: there’s some pretty cheesy setup and execution here but you know what? I liked where they went in the end. 4 out of 5.
Trek tropes (number of instances encountered in series so far in parentheses):
- Strange probe encountered in space
- Spock displays Vulcan superpower never really seen again
- Recent Earth history will always be relevant
62. Day of the Dove. You know what happens a lot in the future, in space? Swordfights. However, it must be a part of Academy training because there isn’t a crew member on the Enterprise who isn’t ready for it. And if swordfights on a spaceship are your thing, this is the hour of ’60s TV for you. If not, there’s a bunch of Klingon politics and other forms of scrapping to like here, in the classic Trek vein. The Enterprise answers a colony’s distress call only to find that the colony isn’t there anymore. At the same time, some Klingons show up claiming the Enterprise fired on them and their crew is decimated. Also there’s a weird light entity flitting about behind the rocks. In short, no one knows what the heck is going on. Kirk employs a little ruse to get the Klingons back aboard the ship and under control (it’s a little crazy that the Klingon commander falls for it, but anyhow…), but the little energy ball follows them, and that’s when things get really weird. I try to avoid all but the most minimal plot recaps here so to summarize: there’s a whole bunch of fighting and running around until Kirk and Spock discover that the energy ball is behind it and earn peace with the Klingons. There are a million plot holes and conveniences to set up all the action and then break it back down again at the end, and it’s ostensibly done by the energy ball although really it’s the show writers doing it. You can’t take away that it’s an important episode regarding race relations and the clash of the two cultures, and it’s mostly quite fun and action-packed, but you also can’t ignore that the whole thing is more contrived than a Fox News segment. If you want explanations or more talky stuff, take it up with Picard. Killer Spock line: “May I say that I have not thoroughly enjoyed serving with humans. I find their ill-logic and foolish emotions a constant irritant.” (Note that he says this while under mind control.) Overall: 3 out of 5 if you care about tight writing; 4 out of 5 if you want to watch Scotty chase Klingons with a claymore.
Trek tropes (number of instances encountered in series so far in parentheses):
- Shatner showcase
- Even in interstellar space, the best way to resolve problems is with your fists (uh, or swords)
- Enemy allowed easy access to highly sensitive area of the ship
63. For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky. Two big ideas here. First there’s the secret computer master where a primitive race worship something they think is a mighty god, but actually it just turns out to be some kind of beepy supercomputer. Also there’s the generation ship idea, where said race worshiping said supercomputer is blissfully unaware they are actually passengers on a ship traveling for thousands of years to a new destination. Both of these ideas have been done repeatedly in sci-fi, and I’m not sure FTWIHAIHTTS adds much to them other than to squeeze them onto the same people at the same time. In this case, they are passengers on a giant asteroid-like ship hurtling towards another populated planet. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy get aboard and figure they can correct the trajectory of the ship without overly upsetting yet another primitive civilization. Well, you can guess how that turns out: the high priestess falls totally in love with McCoy and Kirk and Spock more or less destroy their religion. McCoy’s situation is interesting, though. He’s been diagnosed with a fatal disease and has a year to live, so staying behind with the high priestess sounds like a better way to go than spending his last days trundling around the Enterprise bickering with Spock. But after Spock repairs the computer’s broken bits, he takes the opportunity to raid its information repository, and wouldn’t you know it, he finds a cure for McCoy. So without impending death, McCoy suddenly decides he’s got better things to do then retire. The priestess is a little ruffled but accepts all of this, especially since it means that neither her boyfriend nor her entire race are facing imminent death. All in all I enjoyed the episode, it was nicely paced and intriguing throughout. There aren’t many new ideas to credit here, but all was well done. Killer Spock line: none. Overall: when your biggest flaw is an overlong title, that’s a good thing. 4 out of 5.
Trek tropes (number of instances encountered in series so far in parentheses):
- Violation of Prime Directive (forgivable in this case, it probably really was the right thing to do)
- In the future, computers are magic, but still make teletype sounds
