Category: Star Trek: The Original Series

Synopsis: Responding to a distress call from a science colony, the crew of the Enterprise discovers dead adults and children in service to a mysterious angel. In spite of the title “And the Children Shall Lead” this episode illustrates how what C. G. Jung called the individuation process operates inside a human psyche. In this… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3, Episode 4: “And the Children Shall Lead”

Synopsis: Captain Kirk suffers a loss of memory while marooned on a planet in the path of an oncoming asteroid. “The Paradise Syndrome” begins when Captain James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. Leonard (Bones) McCoy beam down to an idyllic Earth-like planet. The Enterprise has been tasked with altering the course of an asteroid… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3, Episode 3: “The Paradise Syndrome”

Synopsis: Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock take on a secret mission to steal the Romulan cloaking device. In “The Enterprise Incident,” viewers are treated to perhaps the most sensual scene ever seen for Mr. Spock, when he has dinner with the Romulan commander in her quarters. It is sensitively written by Dorothy (D. C.) Fontana,… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3, Episode 2: “The Enterprise Incident”

Synopsis: A female alien comes onboard the Enterprise and takes Mr. Spock’s brain. While this episode is widely held as one of the least well regarded in Star Trek: The Original Series, it does demonstrate, albeit in very simplistic terms, what happens when psychic life is separated, one side being degraded while another one is… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3, Episode 1: “Spock’s Brain”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is sent back in time on a mission of historical research to Earth in the year 1968, and discover Gary Seven. This, the last episode of the second season, could have been the season finale if not for a letter writing campaign from fans to save Star Trek. If itseems to be… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2, Episode 26: “Assignment: Earth”

Synopsis: The Enterprise investigates the disappearance of the S. S. Beagle to find a planet that parallels Earth’s development, except the Roman Empire never fell. In past blogs on episodes such as: “Return to Tomorrow” and “Patterns of Force” I have spoken about inflation, and how it is a necessary part of the process that… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2, Episode 25: “Bread and Circuses”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is chosen to host the M-5 multitronic computer in wargames. In “The Ultimate Computer” there are many concepts of depth psychology at issue, but I will focus on the idea that the individuation process is in fact a process toward balance in the various aspects of our conscious and unconscious personality –… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2, Episode 24: “The Ultimate Computer”

Synopsis: The Enterprise finds the U.S.S. Exeter in orbit over the planet Omega IV, where an ongoing battle between the Yangs and the Kohms echoes the Cold War. Star Trek lore has it that this was one of the original story ideas written by Gene Roddenberry and pitched at the inception of Star Trek: The… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2, Episode 23: “The Omega Glory”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is lured to a planet by a distress call and is confronted by aliens who want to take over the ship and conquer our galaxy. “By Any Other Name” is an illustration of what might happen to our society if we forgo the senses, including beauty, and emotions, including love, or Eros,… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2, Episode 22: “By Any Other Name”

Synopsis: Starfleet Command orders the Enterprise to go to Ekos to investigate the loss of communication with historian John Gill. “Patterns of Force” is the episode in which a historian is sent to a developing planet as a cultural observer and ends up patterning its development on Nazi Germany. In my last post on “Return… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2, Episode 21: “Patterns of Force”