123- A Taste of Armageddon:-Premise: Sent to open diplomatic relations with a world, Kirk discovers a society that ahs been at war for 500 years- only the war is fought virtually by mathematical compuyation, and the casualties are sent into suicide booths, to maintain the war without destroying the culture and infrastructure.
-Quest Comments: Kirk: 2, Computers: 0. A pretty solid episode- fairly decently acted and it definitely has that old-school written sci-fi feel to the story concept. Only shortcoming was the diplomat acting like a fool for the first half of the episode, but at least he wizened up towards the end.
Still, having him be a more believable and effective diplomat less susceptible to obvious deception could have made this a a really great episode. So, while good, it almost has a "missed opportunity" vibe to it, so far as that facet goes. "Average".
Also, someone should tell the Q Continuum that someone has been trying to make hats funnier than theirs.
124- This Side of Paradise:-Premise: The crew, sent to evacuate colonists from a world being exposed to harmful radiation, finds the population to be of perfect health- and under the influence of spores that induce happy feelings, which begin to infect the entire crew.
-Quest Comments: This is definitely a "been there, done that" for this series, as much of the concept (mainly the "outside influence making populations content, and how that stagnates a society" angle) is a retread of "Return of the Archons", while the spreading spores harkens back to The Naked Time.
However, this episode isn't all that offensive or annoying like Naked Time, nor does it have a huge element left unexplained like the Festival from Archons- it's just kinda dull for the most part.
Also, the flower that spores Kirk comes out of nowhere, which is kinda funny since it makes it seem like the flower is stalking him, hehe.
And the last Captain's log entry is spoken aloud to nothing but the transporter console. There's also the girl's line that she's "never seen a starship before", which is pretty funny considering she would have had to have been on a starship to have been brought to the planet in the first place (as the colonists were only there for a short period of time, not long enough for her to have been born there and grown to that age), not to mention she and Spock had met elsewhere at some point in the past.
I also have to comment that any attempt thus far to make Spock work with feelings has never really been executed very successfully- every time I see him smiling with a grin, i just keep being reminded of Nimoy's Hobbit song...
I'd classify it as "OK, But Not Essential".
(images via Memory-Alpha: The Star Trek Wiki)
Hello! Hmm. This reads like it was written by a younger person's perspective. But nevermind that. Her line about having never been on a "starship" before, means that she has only been on "spaceships" before. At the time this episode was written, the writers were probably still under the impression that the ENTERPRISE was a "Starship-Class" vessel, rather than a "Constitution-Class" vessel. Although there are still people out there alive today who don't know the difference between a "boat" and a "ship", I don't think it was a case of her not knowing the difference between a "spaceship" and a "starship". It may also be, that civilian vessels are "spaceships", while warships are called "starships" instead, to avoid being confused for Klingons, Romulans, and other more "warmongering" societies when compared to the suppposedly "peaceful space exploring UFP/Starfleet, where weapons are for defence only". So either way, her usage of the word "starship" works in the context she meant.
ReplyDeleteIt is still odd to me to read comments written by people born after the original series was created and didn't grow up with it and think of it has, "looking back" et al. Oh well. Interesting blog that you have here. :-)