This thread is for an episode-centric discussion of Star Trek, The Original Series. Really diving into the new remastered releases; delving into themes, scripts, relevance today as literate Science Fiction. and just getting into TOS all over again, knee-deep, in 2018 and beyond.
While still having fun, busting Shatner’s chops, and probably, inevitably, kvetching about Voyager for the 211th time (probably more than that, though…amirite?!!).
This topic as been bubbling in a lot of other non-TOS threads, and now with @Left_Empty watching the series episode by episode, in a considered way (while making tons of cool new Gifs), myself doing the same (the episode by episode by episode part, anyway) and @divedivedive about to embark upon his own Five Year mission again on blu-ray, the mind meld of a few of us thought it was time to do up a thread.
I promise you one thing…people will end up in the Brig in this thread (3 guesses who the first one will be…).
Every nine weeks or so, significant guest stars will be voted on in-thread. A winner will be determined and then as each season ends a Season Guest Star Champion will be revealed!
Ooh ooh, who will it be? I’m burning with anticipation.
Speaking of anticipation, yes I am anxious to pop open my new set of TOS blu ray discs and watch front to back. I’ve never actually watched the entire series sequentially! This will be so cool.
I didn’t know there were new remasters. When they redid the VFX a decade or so ago I respected the tastefulness with which they were done, but I still much prefer the original effects shots. I’m just a sucker for '60s era model-work and compositing… what can I say?
I don’t watch TOS much anymore because the whole series is pretty much burned into my brain at this point. That said, I’d rewatch The Doomsday Machine any day of the week. That is some of the most splendidly entertaining television ever.
Your re-views may be a good jumping-off point for episode by episode discussions.
And it is way too easy to Brig you now for posting an unrelated movie gif (evidently with Chris Pine in it) in this thread. What was he in? Smokin’ Aces, right?
I have man, trust me, I’ve tried to tell her that she might appreciate TNG and DS9 better if she saw TOS, that they revamped a lot of the VFX, etc etc. Still no dice. I’mma keep trying though.
That’s what I thought…until I started again this month. Archons…man…and so much more. The series saw the future. The thing becomes Philip K. Dick-level prescient the more time goes by. And the Bridge camera work in Corbomite and The Changeling! This re-view is really paying off for me.
There’s almost no continuity among episodes (‘The Deadly Years’ nods to ‘The Corbomite Maneuver,’ Riley makes a second appearance in ‘The Conscience of the King’, and a few other doodads – that’s about it). So you don’t really have to watch them in order of production or broadcast (which themselves differ). But, no reason not to, I suppose. I like how some of the costuming details and dialogue choices (like ‘Vulcanian’ instead of ‘Vulcan’) were still being worked out in the beginning. Also, Yeoman Rand rather abruptly disappears midway through S1. Plus it’s fun to see the two not-very-interesting doctors they tried on before settling on McCoy.
Season 1 set it all up, Season 2 was the peak, Season 3 was… kind of an interesting mess with a few standout episodes, IMO.
Just for giggles I’ll toss out my personal top 10, though it shifts around from time to time. The top 4 are pretty well set in stone.
10 Errand of Mercy
9 The Ultimate Computer
8 The Squire of Gothos
7 This Side of Paradise
6 Space Seed
5 The Corbomite Maneuver
4 The Trouble With Tribbles
3 Mirror, Mirror
2 The Doomsday Machine
1 Amok Time
Oh no, I’m aware. I’ve seen all the episodes, though some so long ago I have probably completely forgotten them. It’s just cool to be able to see them the way folks did originally. Give or take a special effects tweak.
It’s a bit sad that viewers got introduced to the show via the not-that-great Man Trap rather than the powerful Where No Man Has Gone Before or the exquisite Corbomite Maneuver.
Great monster suit, though. That’s probably why they went with it.
I like Balance, but it always seemed to me a bit too transparently a reskinned submarine story. Still, nice to see Mark Lenard playing the first of his 3 species, and bonus lore points for introducing Romulans.
I hear you. I actually think it spawned more Submarine stories than vice versa. :)
Having said that; another of the billion reasons it’s in my “Final Four” is the Phaser Room stuff. It does a great job, like a lot of the early episodes, of showing ius a big ship, filled with a lot of people doing myriad tasks. The ship “shrinks” a bit in S2 and even more so in S3.
My favorite example of pre-ship-shrinkage is the bits you see in S1 of the crew hanging out in the mess hall, listening to Uhura sing. ‘Charlie’s Our New Darling’ and so forth.
Also: the intercom chatter at the climax of Space Seed. A whole battle to retake the ship that we don’t see!
