Category: Star Trek: The Original Series

Synopsis: Following a trail of mass insanity across the galaxy, the Enterprise arrives at Devena and discovers the cause for the madness is aliens that take over the bodies of individuals. A couple posts ago, when I wrote about the episode “Errand of Mercy” I spoke about one theme appearing in the first season of… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 29: “Operation — Annihilate!”

Synopsis: Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock must follow Dr. McCoy into the past in order to un-do an act he did in his drugged visit to 1930s Earth that caused a change in history. “The City on the Edge of Forever” is one of the most acclaimed of all the episodes from Star Trek: The… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 28: “The City on the Edge of Forever”

Synopsis: The Enterprise comes across a rip in space caused by a humanoid alien by the name of Lazarus and his opposite. This is one of the few episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series that I do not have a vivid recollection of from my childhood. Perhaps this is because there is something very… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 27: “The Alternative Factor”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is ordered to go to Organia to open diplomatic relations and keep it out of the hands of the Klingons. In this episode Captain James T. Kirk is so sure that he is right, that he cannot even conceive that another race that does not bend to his will, here the Organians… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 26: “Errand of Mercy”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is sent to a perigium production station on Janus VI to investigate some strange occurrences and discover a silicon-based lifeform. As was the case with “This Side of Paradise,” Leonard Nimoy refers to “The Devil in the Dark” as one of his favorite episodes from Star Trek: The Original Series (1995). And… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 25: “The Devil in the Dark”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is sent to Omicron Ceti III and is surprised to find the colony there has survived in spite of exposure to deadly Berthold rays. “This Side of Paradise,” famous as the episode in which Mr. Spock falls in love, was also well remembered by Leonard Nimoy as being one of the best… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 24: “This Side of Paradise”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is sent to Eminiar VII to open diplomatic relations only to become embroiled in a five-hundred-year-old computerized war. This episode seems to ask viewers to consider whether or not they would volunteer to give up their lives to maintain a virtual war to avoid a real one. And while no doubt when… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 23: “A Taste of Armageddon”

Synopsis: The Enterprise encounters an old Earth vessel, The S.S. Botany Bay, and Khan Noonien Singh. This episode shows us what happens when science works to perfect the physical human and his rational mind but neglects the workings of the human soul. “Space Seed” introduces one of the most enduring adversaries to Starfleet characters in… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 22: “Space Seed”

Synopsis: The Enterprise is sent to Beta III to try to ascertain what happened to the starship Archon, a Federation vessel which disappeared after passing by there one hundred years before. What is an archon? In the episode “The Return of the Archons,” to the crew of the Enterprise the Archons were the survivors from… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 21: “The Return of the Archons”

Synopsis: Captain Kirk is tried for negligently causing the death of a crew member. This episode can be seen as the conflict between Logos and Eros being physically manifested in the pitting of Captain James T. Kirk versus the Enterprise’s computer. Man against machine. Kirk maintains throughout “Court Martial” that in an emergency situation he… Continue reading Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1, Episode 20: “Court Martial”