Welcome back to Star Trekking, my regular blog berth for my Star Trek fandom.
After several weeks exploring Star Trek: The Next Generation, I decided it was time to go back 60 years to the source of all our treks, the original series itself, Star Trek.
There were some weird glitches in early first season Star Trek.
- The Enterprise is an Earth ship, not a Federation vessel.
- Those phasers look a lot like photon torpedoes.
- Spock was Vulcanian, not Vulcan.
Still trying to figure things out and work out the bugs, Star Trek season 1 nonetheless produced some memorable episodes.
"The Naked Time" sees the Enterprise gripped by a contagion that removes the crew's inhibitions. We get the first dramatic look at Spock's dichotomy of Vulcan logic and human emotion as the contagion erodes his self control.
There is a heartbreaking interaction between Spock and Nurse Christine Chapel.
CHAPEL: Mister Spock, (takes his hand) the men from Vulcan treat their women strangely. At least, people say that, but you're part human too. I know you don't, you couldn't, hurt me, would you? I'm in love with you, Mister Spock. You, the human Mister Spock, the Vulcan Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Nurse, you should...
CHAPEL: Christine, please. I see things, how honest you are. I know how you feel. You hide it, but you do have feeling. Oh, how we must hurt you, torture you.
SPOCK: I'm in control of my emotions.
CHAPEL: The others believe that. I don't. I love you. I don't know why, but I love you. I do love you just as you are. Oh, I love you.
SPOCK: I'm sorry. I am sorry...
CHAPEL: Christine.
SPOCK: Christine.
Some fans who have been critical of the Spock/Chapel relationship in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds should look to this scene to show why that pairing in SNW is not so far out of line. This is not just Chapel professing her love for Spock but it's Spock struggling to fight his own desire to respond to that feeling.
This is a prime example of how much Leonard Nimoy could bring to his role as Spock beyond what was written in the script. (And credit where it's due, Majel Barret was pretty damn good as well as Chapel.)
Spock also makes a funny in this episode.
Sulu responds to the contagion by stripping shirtless and pracing with around the ship with a fencing sword. (This is where George Takei figured out he was gay.) When he makes it to the bridge, Spock quickly dispatches of Sulu with a Vulcan nerve pinch, Then he tells security...
SPOCK: Take D'Artagnon here to Sickbay.
Star Trek: The Next Generation follows up on this story when a similar contagion hits the Enterprise 1701-D in their first season episode "The Naked Now". The Star Trek entry is superior to the TNG sequel.
"The Corbomite Maneuver" features the Enterprise going up against an alien adversary who have superior technology and an attitude to match. Baylok is implacable and unforgiving, totally uninterested in negotiation.
The Enterprise has trespassed into restricted space. The ship and it's crew are condemned to die. And that is that.
When I saw this episode as a young child, this dude freaked me out.
Gotta admit he kind of still does.
This episode epitomizes how Star Trek does not solve problems with power and brute force. What wins the day is intelligence and cleverness.
And even compassion.
A lot of people like to cast Captain James Kirk as a swaggering action hero who fought his way out of trouble. And yeah, Kirk did seem to get into a lot fights with his shirt getting ripped.
But more often than not, Kirk was thoughtful and inquisitive, more explorer than conqueror.
At the end of the episode with Baylok and his ship drifting, dead in space, Kirk does not blow them out of the heavens for jerking his crew around for the whole episode.
His first thought is to beam over and see if anyone needs help.
He beams over with two crew members and finds out Baylok is...this guy!
It's Clint Howard, Ron Howard's little brother. Clint would make other appearances in Trek shows like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Yikes! This post has gone on longer than I intended.OK, for today, I'll cover one more episode.
"Balance of Terror" pits Kirk and the Enterprise against the Romulans.
The episode begins with Kirk officiating a wedding.
KIRK: Since the days of the first wooden vessels, all shipmasters have had one happy privilege. That of uniting two people in the bonds of matrimony.
Now if that sounds familiar, Capt. Picard will utter those same words officiating the wedding of Miles and Keiko O'Brien in "Data's Day".
But the happy occassion is interrupted by a red alert!
After decades of silence, the Romulans have crossed the Neutral Zone and are destroying Earth* Outposts with a nigh unstoppable weapon.
*As we said at the start, the show was referring to stuff as Earth things and not Federation things.
What follows is a tense game of cat 'n' mouse as the Enterprise pursues the Romulan ship.
Kirk's options ain't good.
A direct confrontation with the ship and it's massively powerful weaopon would likely be a suicide mission.
To not confront the ship would allow the Romulans to return home and report they encountered no resistence, prompting a full scale invasion.
Ultimately Kirk does decide to engage but with restraint and stealth, looking for the smallest opportunity, the slightest weakness.
We get a peek inside the Romulan ship where we find it's commander as thoughtful and deliberative as Kirk.
We also find out that Romulans look Vulcan or Vulcanian or whatever. Even Spock did not know that. After their previous war, Earth and Romulans negotiated their peace treaty over subspace radio without ever seeing each other.
Mark Lenard (who will go on to play Sarek, Spock's dad in various Star Trek episodes and movies) is in fine form here as a commander who knows full well the cost of failure but also worried about the price of success. If he defeats this enemy, the Romulans will go to war.
The tensions mount as the episode continues, both Kirk and the Romulan commander trying to out think each other, playing a chess match across the cold void of space.
Long story made short, Kirk and his crew do manage to get the upper hand on the Romulans as their ship burns in space,
Again, even after all these Romulans have done, Kirk offers mercy as he speaks with the Romulan commander for the first time.
KIRK: Captain. Standing by to beam your survivors aboard our ship. Prepare to abandon your vessel.
COMMANDER [on viewscreen]: No. No, that is not our way. I regret that we meet in this way. You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend.
KIRK: What purpose will it serve to die?
COMMANDER [on viewscreen]: We are creatures of duty, Captain. I have lived my life by it. Just one more duty to perform.
(He goes to the control console, turns a switch, and the whole ship explodes)
This episode underscores what makes Star Trek strong and unique. Yeah, it's a fight between star ships but what drives this episode, what makes it a success, is the tension that the people feel and must cope with. Kirk and his Romulan counterpart are both prepared for war but they are both terribly congnisant of the costs and perils of war.
War is not something you slap some action movie branding on and cheer on the deaths of your enemies. That was the lesson Star Trek imparted in 1966.
Too bad in 2026, too many people in position of authority do not understand that fundemental lesson about war.
Whew! This was a lot.
So I guess this is how it's gonna go.
Over the next few weeks, I will provide some overviews of 3 or so episodes a week as we explore the first season of Star Trek.
Thanks again to Chrissie's Transcripts Site.
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