Epic Star Trek Re-Watch - TOS Movies Final Week - Final Frontier & Undiscovered Country! Pg 28! (TNG NEXT WEEK)

Court Martial

While there are no big action set pieces or aliens, I really enjoyed this episode. The book loving lawyer was fun and Spock had some wonderful facial reactions when he was surprised by some of the questions.

There was a lack of jeopardy as it's pretty obvious quite soon in what happened, but it was still good fun.

There are a handful of "court room" episodes throughout Star Trek and they're generally pretty decent.

They're a nice change of pace from sci-fi monster/anomaly/wibbly-woo of the week to something more character based.

The Return of the Archons

If The Purge was controlled by Hal 9000....

Another good episode, I was struck by how much "the festival" made me think of The Purge, looking it up it appears this episode was the inspiration for the movie.

I loved Spock thinking Kirk was being kind when he said Spock would make a good computer. :lol:

I really enjoy Court Martial. Episodes like this are probably some of the best examples of Trek really.

There's absolutely some plot holes mind, like a former lover of Kirk being part of the trial. Then again that issue isn't resolved in Starfleet since we get basically the same kind of thing in TNG a hundred years later :lol:

Also the orbit decay should be a bit of false jeopardy really. There were a bunch of other ships in orbit, so surely one of them could've just used a Tractor beam to keep the Enterprise in orbit.

Yeah I enjoyed Court Martial, even if it was relatively clear what was really going on quite early, it played well off the established traits of the characters so far and it's always nice to get something that's a bit of a change of pace.

For someone who, by his own admission, knows "all about computers" it took Spock far too long to discover that there was something wrong with it. The whole "the computer has been tampered with" resolution doesn't really hold up very well - if they had said that just the records of the ion storm event had been manipulated then that would possibly make sense, but the fact it seems to be the whole computer having been messed up to the point where it is making mistakes like playing chess incorrectly doesn't really scan - surely it would have been making lots of other random mistakes as well then? And why did none of this get detected by the "megalyte survey" that Spock did of the computer?

I quite liked the tension of the scene where they listen to the sounds of the ship and cancel out their heartbeats one by one, all it needed was a bit of a better explanation for why they weren't hearing the amplification of all the other millions of noises on the ship, the engines, machines etc. even the sounds of them all talking should have been getting played back to them for some truly awful feedback! :lol:

Kirk searching Engineering for Finney was hilarious as well, they don't really make any effort to disguise the fact that his "search" is just going around that back and front of that one bank of machines in the room - it's literally the only object in the room! And Finney still manages to get the drop on him! :lol:

Adding echo to Finney's voice despite the fact he's clearly only about 5ft from Kirk! :lol:

Special mention to Finney for his "sabotage" of the energy circuits - just sticking a few random cables into some junction boxes!

Space Seed

"We've absolutely no idea who this guy is and there are no records at all!"

5 minutes later

"He ruled 1/3 of Earth and was a very famous dictator"

:lol:

A Taste of Armageddon

Another decent episode. The execution was far from perfect but I liked the general idea behind a technological war like that.

I think this has been the best 4 episode run so far, I've enjoyed this week's shows.

One thing, I was always under the impression the Star Trek universe was one of peaceful exploration with just the odd bit of violence. After 24 episodes, it appears it's just about a sleazy captain rushing around the galaxy fighting, shooting and causing havoc everywhere. Has there been one episode yet that hasn't had a murder, fight, war or Kirk threatening one of those three? :lol:

Moggy wrote:A Taste of Armageddon

Another decent episode. The execution was far from perfect but I liked the general idea behind a technological war like that.

I think this has been the best 4 episode run so far, I've enjoyed this week's shows.

One thing, I was always under the impression the Star Trek universe was one of peaceful exploration with just the odd bit of violence. After 24 episodes, it appears it's just about a sleazy captain rushing around the galaxy fighting, shooting and causing havoc everywhere. Has there been one episode yet that hasn't had a murder, fight, war or Kirk threatening one of those three?

TOS is ostensibly about peaceful exploration but they'll bloody your nose if you start any gooseberry fool.

TNG is probably the show that leans into the "humanity has evolved beyond violence" aspect the most and is full of "Boldly going" while having a nice civil conversation, though it does have intergalactic shagger Riker as well.

EDIT: Oh and yeah the past few episodes have been consistently good.

I'm really looking forward to the last week of this season as it contains what is arguably one of the best episodes of all time.

It always amazes me how Khan's character has nailed a completely perfect combination of writing and actor, the Charisma just oozes from both the content and the delivery of every scene he's in. Any other actor just could not have pulled off the role to that same level.

It's easy to believe so easily able to twist McGivers around his finger in such a short time, knowing exactly how to take advantage of her and transition nearly directly into the territory of abusive/controlling relationship with her.

Lagamorph wrote:It always amazes me how Khan's character has nailed a completely perfect combination of writing and actor, the Charisma just oozes from both the content and the delivery of every scene he's in. Any other actor just could not have pulled off the role to that same level.

It's easy to believe so easily able to twist McGivers around his finger in such a short time, knowing exactly how to take advantage of her and transition nearly directly into the territory of abusive/controlling relationship with her.

I laughed when she was looking at him in the stasis chamber and said "he looks to be from northern India. Lots of Sikhs there, the most fabulous warriors". While she was dribbling with lust. :lol:

Week 7!

Spock chills the strawberry float out, there are monstrous goings on in a Dilithium Mine, another Trek staple make their first (Slightly different) appearance and an annoying man fights himself.

Some good episodes this week I think, although "The Alternative Factor" can get in the sea!

Moggy wrote:
Lagamorph wrote:It always amazes me how Khan's character has nailed a completely perfect combination of writing and actor, the Charisma just oozes from both the content and the delivery of every scene he's in. Any other actor just could not have pulled off the role to that same level.

It's easy to believe so easily able to twist McGivers around his finger in such a short time, knowing exactly how to take advantage of her and transition nearly directly into the territory of abusive/controlling relationship with her.

I laughed when she was looking at him in the stasis chamber and said "he looks to be from northern India. Lots of Sikhs there, the most fabulous warriors". While she was dribbling with lust.

Space Seed is great fun. Especially how utterly under his spell she falls within seconds of seeing him.

Ricardo Montalban does a great job bringing Khan to life and is utterly watchable.

"A Taste of Armageddon" is great as well. It's a good example of them coming up with an interesting concept and wrapping a decent story around it.

This Side of Paradise

A good episode, I liked that there was nothing bad, just dictator Kirk insisting humans aren't allowed to be healthy and happy.

The Devil in the Dark

"I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!""by golly, I'm
beginning to think I could cure a rainy day!" :lol:

Bones again proving he's easily the best character.

I like the humans are the monsters angle in this episode. It's nice to see its more complex than just "isn't humanity great!"

That's two decent episodes I've watched tonight.

It's not going to be an issue for a little while but here's my proposed order for the various seasons and movies.

Proposed Viewing Order

There were a few different options for how to approach the order after the TOS Movies as far as I could see it.

1 - We could do it entirely segregated, so for example we do all of TNG, the TNG movies, then all of DS9, then all of Voyager. This is the easiest way, but it means some things wouldn't line up quite right (I'm thinking uniforms changing, references to the Dominion war, Defiant showing up before we even start DS9 etc).

2 - Go entirely by air date, which means having weeks where everything should line-up properly but we are jumping between shows. For example 2 episodes of TNG then moving to 2 DS9 within the same week. It's annoying to keep track of and while it's the closest to the original experience I don't think it's as fun.

3 - Then there's the middle ground, which is what I have gone for, where the shows are intermingled but by season. So for example TNG Season 6, then Season 1 of DS9, before going back to TNG Season 7. We pepper the TNG movies in where they are closest to their release date (First Contact and Insurrection both reference and kind of impact the ongoing shows which is why they are appearing mid-season for DS9). This means things will line-up far more closely for continuity purposes, but will also give some of the end of season cliffhangers a bit more weight for new watchers as they might have to wait a while to see the conclusions.

Newer shows are being done in release order for now as well. I've pencilled in Prodigy and the other upcoming seasons (Including Strange New Worlds) based on what we know about their release dates and I'll update it as time goes on and we get more new seasons/shows (Hopefully a movie too).

I'm looking to see what you guys all think. Does this work for you?

[/tldr]Viewing orders are srs business.

Errand of Mercy

Kirk really is a patronising dickhead, it was great that he ended up being so wrong about the people on that planet.

Wtf is up with those Klingons? :lol:

They looked like a minstrel show that didn't have enough paint to complete the blacking up. Their future design is much better than whatever they were supposed to look like.

Moggy wrote:Errand of Mercy

Kirk really is a patronising dickhead, it was great that he ended up being so wrong about the people on that planet.

Wtf is up with those Klingons? They looked like a minstrel show that didn't have enough paint to complete the blacking up. Their future design is much better than whatever they were supposed to look like.

Yeah the original design is a bit weird. Like they just slapped some grease on their faces so they look olive coloured. The later design introduced for the first movie is the one we all know and love, though they do try and explain the difference a couple of times.

Watched "This Side of Paradise" earlier.

I've always like this one because, as you pointed out Moggy, there's no villain really. It's just Kirk vs a lot of blissed out people, trying to get them back.
I do always feel a little bad for Spock though. He was happy but had to give it up to get them all back. :cry:

Yeah I've enjoyed the last few episodes, Ricardo Montalban as Khan is obviously a highlight but I think my shout out for best performer as we get toward the end of this first season is the random bloke they've got in as Kirk's stunt double who looks nothing like him! I don't know if Shatner was hurt by this point or something but the double seems to come in for the tiniest of action now! :lol:

I've seen the Netflix write up for my next episode, it sounds bonkers, Lazarus? :lol:

As for the later running order, I am new to all of this so can't really have much input. I'd probably prefer to finish one series (TOS, TAS, TNG etc) rather than mixing things up in chronological order or whatever.

twitter.com/williamshatner/status/1445023239105703946

Shatner's going to space.

Epic Star Trek Re-Watch - TOS Movies Final Week - Final Frontier & Undiscovered Country! Pg 28! (TNG NEXT WEEK)

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