Take My Worf, Please

The episode originally aired on September 8th, 1966. For the original pilot I figure it too could be confusing. Perhaps in the sixties everyone didn’t need everything explained. I guess it’s something that we expect in a show now. Lead us by the hand and make sure we know what’s going on or we won’t come back.

The story was, again, interesting. A chameleon-like killer fools everyone and before you know it crew members are turning up dead. The conflict comes from McCoy’s past with and love of a woman, Nancy, who also turns out to be the chameleon.

I believe I will be a diehard Kirk fan, though at heart I’ll always be a Science Officer. Shatner performs the role very nicely. A few small appearances from Sulu are also welcoming!

The effects in this episode were much better. Seeing the Enterprise in space is also a nice feature, though I do believe it is an inclusion into the remastering of the series for the most part. The costumes of the creatures are very clever for the time the show was produced. Also the hand-puppet flower was amusing.

The episode was enjoyable and I’m glad all of the major characters were there from the very first episode.

As I understand it this is the pilot of The Original Series but it did not air until October 4th, 1988. It was a very strong episode for a pilot though I did feel it kind of just dropped any unsuspecting viewer into the middle of established jargon and characters. Fortunately for me I knew what to expect having a fair amount of Star Trek knowledge to begin with.

The story was interesting and kept me compelled the entire episode and with the amount of science fiction I have either read or watched, I did not really know what might happen next. The Talosians were frightful villains if only for their illusion inducing telepathic abilities.

The characters were, and always will be, memorable. Even with the lack of Kirk as Captain I enjoyed the drama of Pike’s conundrum. The dialog and acting, as I am sure most of it will be, was a bit campy but that is just fine by me. It gives it that retro feel even more.

I did like the variety of set pieces in the episode and in sci-fi tend to love episodes where character’s minds are affected. It was quite unusual to see so many different places in just a one hour episode. And a pilot nonetheless.

Overall I enjoyed my first episode of Star Trek and look forward to giving this sort of rough commentary after each episode. I’ll do it to not only to opine but hopefully show improvement in a rusty writing ability.

I haven’t forgotten the blog or my dedication to watch all of Trek. I just have a couple things to get through first.

My first encounter with Star Trek was actually when JJ Abrams’s reboot of the movie series came out. Up until that point I had vehemently protested anything Star Trek. I loved the scene in Fanboys when they trashed the small gathering of Trek fans. But after seeing the Abrams remake (and I’ll admit that it was largely due to my love for Alias and Lost and not Star Trek at first) I kind of fell in love with the lore and characters.

I went home from the theater pleasantly surprised and got on eBay to find a deal on TOS. I found a set of all three seasons and placed my order. After about a week a box came and I could hardly contain my excitement. However, upon opening it, I was bombarded by a large paper box, similar to how TNG is packaged but twice as thick. On the front it had the TNG logo with 1-7 underneath and on the side had TOS logo and 1-3. The back had a logo and description for Voyager.

I inserted a disc and loaded an episode off of what could only have been a cheap, fabricated menu and saw a Korean television logo in the bottom corner along with what appeared to be scroll lines off of a VHS tape trying to tune itself. It was really bad. Thankfully both eBay and Paypal helped me get my money back pretty much hassle free but I gave up on my desire to delve into the Star Trek universe.

Now I am once again fortunate to have the ability to watch nearly the entire series on Netflix. So I hope you are as excited as I am at beginning to experience many moments a lot of you will get to relive now that the series are available. It is also my hope that you will enjoy my insight and commentary as I begin this long journey where many men (and women) have gone so many times before.

mimikova:

A little something to incite nerd rage!

I’ve never been much of a Trekker and I guess that is going to be the eventual reason/outcome of this blog; is it possible for a man who’s had a chip on his shoulder his whole life about the subject matter in question to sit down and enjoy each and every episode from beginning to end?

It’s no lie that I have harbored a deep and terrible hatred for Star Trek for some time now. I grew up watching Star Wars, adoring it. I have a largely followed twitter account devoted to recounting events, people, places, starships, and any other thing you can think of in short little 140 character facts. I love, love, love Star Wars. Always have. Always will. But now, beginning today actually, I can sit down and watch these episode by episode and form an opinion of my own rather than being told by popular culture that as a Star Wars fan, I can’t like both.

After what I expect will be one more detailed blog post (mainly about my background-or lack thereof-with Star Trek) I will watch an episode at a time and, thanks to the Internet, will be able to tell you what I felt about each particular episode starting with the very first of the Original Series and culminating with the conclusion of the final episode of Enterprise. What I want to know from you the reader is, what is your favorite episode(s)? Series? Character? What do you like so much about Star Trek that you think will convert me to an eventual Trekker?