Star Trek:TOS Reviews

I've finally gotten around to actually watching the things that everyone's been screaming about for decades. It should be noted that I've never actually seen more than one episode of Star Trek before this (I can't remember which one, except that it was in DS9 and I enjoyed it), so I'm learning the information that I haven't gleaned from cultural osmosis entirely as I go along. Don't kill me if something's incorrect or the canon's somehow changed since then. This is a raw, one-by-one, chronologically ordered review of as many Star Trek episodes as I can manage before I lose steam.

Ep 1:?

Watched ages ago and didn’t much care to pay attention to it. A shapeshifting alien woman that eats men, if I remember right. Something to do with salt. I’ll get back to it when I manage. Feels a bit silly to skip the first episode, but it's been months since I watched it.

Ep 2: Charlie X:

Compelling! A young boy on the cusp of adulthood boards the Enterprise and quickly becomes interested in the first woman he sees. This could be a standard enough romance plot, but it’s brushed away as a “matter of years” in a move that was refreshingly sensible in comparison to what I’m used to seeing in older works. It’s obvious to the viewer and everyone aboard that Charlie operates at the mental age of a young child. He considers everything in the world in simple, black and white terms. People like him or don’t like him. They’re mean or they’re good. He wants something, so he should be allowed to have it. Not granting him what he wants prompts tantrums. His behavior is embarrassing, at first, then it quickly evolves to become horrifying. People disappear, get hurt, are deformed or aged with nothing more than a Kubrick stare and some creepy music. The writers do a fine job of making him frightening, but oddly sympathetic. He feels less like a malicious monster and more like a child given a pistol. I couldn’t help but feel for him. It’s difficult to be a teenager, especially an isolated, socially stunted one.

The people who raised him cannot touch, cannot love, or so he claims. (They chose to save his life, so there may be some compassion there? Or perhaps they simply wanted to see what would happen.) Charlie craves love more than anything. He describes it as feeling “hungry all over”, and in a common mistake confuses the normal human need for physical and emotional intimacy with a romantic interest. His idea of a friend is a word that means “will not hurt or upset me”, and nothing more. Much like the child he resembles, reciprocation is beyond him.

But Kirk still tries to help him. He’s been a father figure for a few scant hours. This kid’s stolen away his crewmates, harassed one, and repeatedly attacked people. Despite all of this, he bargains for the kid’s fate. Charlie doesn’t want to go home, and Kirk clearly doesn’t want to take him to Earth Colony 5. Yet he’s willing to try and save Charlie from himself, teach him to be a real person. Perhaps he could be redeemed, like most people, taught to be human again. But the thing that saved Charlie is ultimately what damns him. Thasian power keeps him entitled and short-tempered. Why learn patience when you can have anything you want instantly? Unfortunately, no one with the power to delete what they despise will ever truly reach adulthood. When you can simply delete what upsets you? In the end Kirk has to do what’s right for others. Charlie goes back to the Thasians.

Overall, this episode was gripping, despite its slow pace. Charlie’s tantrums kept me on edge the entire time. I wanted nothing more than to sit him down and explain that other people also have feelings and needs. There’s something unique in the motions of the actors. A lot more attention is paid to facial expressions than I’m used to. Spotlights are cast over eyes, minute changes in expression are carefully recorded. The camera spends so much time in the character’s faces that I was able to notice that the main three were definitely wearing eyeshadow. The only distracting thing in the episode was Janice’s weird, conical basket hair. I’m hoping for her actress’s sake that it was a wig.

Ep 3: Where No Man Has Gone Before:

I'll admit, I tried to multitask while watching this one. But Dwarf Fortress was quickly abandoned in favor of a fabulously interesting episode. It's fun to see old sci-fi play with the concept of ESP, as silly as it seems to people now. When I was a kid my house had a few different old books by people who earnestly believed in greys, ESP, starseeds, and the like. Hearing Dr.Dehner talk about people reading the backs of playing cards was almost nostalgic. This one has a good variety of silly old effects. The tinfoil-y silver eyes, the lovely painting for the automated factories of Delta Vega, and some pleasantly goofy lasers and lightning blasts. The psychic battle as a triumph of compassion over power was fun. However, turning Gary purple made him look like William Afton. The plot was pretty easy to read, but seeing a guy die in a grave he dug for another man is always satisfying, especially when they let you pray for it to happen for five minutes of ripped-shirt fistfighting. The Kirk and Spock dynamic seems to be developing nicely as well. Kirk irritates Spock with the unpredictability of irrational moves (just like in real novice v. master chess games!), and Spock irritates Kirk right back by being right in uncomfortable and inconvenient ways. Spock coming in with a comically oversized phaser rifle was perfectly timed. It's also perfect symbolism: Kirk needs Spock's help to make the hard decisions he doesn't want to make. Even if he doesn't want to admit to Spock that he was right, or even let Spock be awake to see it. The easiest and most pleasant watch so far.