110- The Corbomite Manuever:-Premise: After encountering and destroying an odd cube-shaped probe that blocks their way, a larger shift captures the Enterprise and threatens it's destruction.
-Quest Comments: This was surprisingly good- the first episode of these first 10 to actually feel somewhat on par with modern Trek shows, though the ending's execution leads a bit to be desired in it's somewhat anticlimactic nature and somewhat silly child-w/voiceover approach (wasn't this a Futurama episode?).
I also really like that this is the first episode where the characters seem to be clicking properly- there's some good humor here, and it feels like the crew. Might make for a good introductory episode if I shift the episode order around later, to help fill in the ejection of the various pilots.
Though no major connections I'm aware of for this episode (a later episode does make a joking reference to this, though), I think it's quality allows it to be placed into the Definitely Essential category.
111 & 112: The Menagerie, parts 1 & 2:-Premise: After Spock hijacks the Enterprise and sends it on course for the forbidden planet of Talos IV, he is forced to stand trial for his actions, where he uses video testomony of the events from The Cage in his defense.
-Quest Comments: Basicly The Cage split into two parts to accommodate a clipshow-like framestory with Kirk and co. Once I got past the funny now-obvious Futurama/Pike-blinking-wheelchair reference connection, it was still hard for me to really get into this episode, especially having seen The Cage beforehand since I was able to deduce Spock's purpose in his actions long beforehand, which made the unnecessity of using the "video testimony" all the more blatant- as Kirk said at the end, Spock could have just told them.
Now, if one hadn't seen The Cage, there might have been some more mystery to Spock's actions to draw the viewer in, but the same conclusion is eventually reached, which is disappointing.
Additionally, the "Kirk show feel" doesn't quite mesh well with the "Pike show feel", which just hampers the episodes further.
If it wasn't for those two points rendering the episodes somewhat pointless, I'd have normally considered The Menagerie to be preferable viewing in favor over The Cage, since it has a Pike/Kirk transition of sorts thats still grounded in the Kirk show. As it is, The Menagerie didn't levae me with a good enough impression to really consider it essential, and so, IMO, it joins the same classification as The Cage itself does, though for different reasons mentioned above. "Ok, But not Necessarily Essential".
Why they even bothered to do a special theatrical screening of the Remastered version awhile back (outside of it being the only 2-parter) instead of showing 2 or 3 popular/good episodes that would have made for better theatrical viewing (say, Doomsday Machine, Space Seed & Amok Time), I'll never understand.
(images via Memory-Alpha: The Star Trek Wiki)
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