TOS reviews
Aug. 7th, 2009 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitThese reviews are somewhat brief, because I'm getting burned out on S3. There are a few excellent episodes, but also a lot more dull ones than before.
Spoilers beneath the cut for "Whom the Gods Destroy," "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," "The Mark of Gideon," and "That Which Survives."
"Whom Gods Destroy"
I really like this episode, and I was surprised to find out afterwards from Memory Alpha that Leonard Nimoy hated the script so much he wrote a memo to the producers complaining that Spock was out of character. I felt a little like I had betrayed my Spock love by not noticing. But the thing is, Spock is the most inconsistently written character on the show--Nimoy may have had a strong, coherent idea of his personality, but nobody else did. I guess Spock is a little demonstrative and obviously sarcastic in this episode. Still, I'm glad to see him get lines with some wit and not just variations of "But Captain, that would not be logical."
This is one of those episodes that benefitted from strong guest stars. Steve Ihnat brings Garth to life--temperamental, flamboyant, charismatic, barking-mad life. He reads as very, very gay, too. I'm trying not to stereotype from his flamboyant manner; it's also his indifference to Marta except as a sign of his power, his obsession with winning Kirk over (even to the point of naming him heir apparent), and his dislike of Kirk and Spock's mutual loyalty.
There's a lot of it in this episode for him to dislike, including a declaration oflove brotherhood. Spock doesn't do so well on the "which is the real Kirk" test, though. I suppose he didn't want to ask "What do you like me to call you when we're alone together?" in front of Garth. (Perhaps the answer is "Mollywobbles," and if so I'd keep it quiet, too.)
Things I enjoyed: Kirk not being sexually interested in Marta (which, okay, is probably because she's bugfuck insane, but Kirk and Spock do keep glancing at each other and rolling their eyes when she tries to be seductive); Marta's Pierre Menard-style rewriting of Shakespeare and her "Why can't I just blow off one of his ears?" line about Spock; the coronation scene, which uses the show's lack of budget to great effect with a tinfoil crown; Kirk getting huffy because Spock thought Garth would win their fight. And on a meta level, I loved that the role of Donald Cory was played by an Asian actor, Keye Luke; Trek continues to be very good at putting (male) characters of color in positions of responsibility and not remarking on it, but rather treating it as normal.
Things that creeped me out: the little "tour of Bedlam" scene at the beginning (mentally ill people != exhibits); the fact that Garth's cure, at the end, entails making him childlike and docile, which is exactly what he feared would happen to him and what Cory denied.
Things that made me go "WTF?": the Enterprise suddenly requiring a password to beam up. It's sort of like how sometimes the Enterprise has shuttles, and sometimes it has transporter beams, but when people are required by the plot to be trapped somewhere it never has both.
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
OMG SO DULL KILL ME NOW.
Points for good intentions. And I'm trying to bear in mind that this was the sixties, that the Supreme Court had only just struck down laws against interracial marriage, and that the episode's heavy-handedness was probably necessary. But none of this makes it any more fun to watch now.
I was bothered by how chummy Kirk and his officers are with Bele, who not only tries, repeatedly, to hijack the ship but is also a nasty and blatant racist. The claim of moral equivalency between Bele's cause (keeping the inferior race down) and Loaki's (struggling for equality) irked me, too, especially because of the obvious allegory. I'm sorry, Star Trek writers, but however scary you found the Black Panthers, their actions were not comparable to 300 years of slavery followed by 100 years of segregation enforced by lynching.
The twist at the end about the society being wiped out might have been more interesting if it hadn't been included in cbs.com's episode summary. *grumbles*
"The Mark of Gideon"
This episode makes no sense whatsoever. The Gideons love life so much that they can't use birth control, but they're perfectly okay with putting social pressure on people to commit suicide? And I'm not sure how they're breeding anyway, since there's literally not even room to sit down. (Sex while standing is possible, yes; childbirth, not so much.)
The whole fake-Enterprise plot is ridiculously overcomplicated and just an excuse for shoehorning in an unconvincing love story. Not that I believe Kirk was ever in love with Odona; he doesn't seem at all distressed to say goodbye at the end.
Spock is cranky in this episode. OOC levels of cranky. All the lines about the horrors of bureaucracy make me wonder if the writer just had his taxes audited or something and turned Spock into his mouthpiece.
But here's what I most noticed in this episode: Kirk's package. Damn, they're cutting his trousers tight in S3.
"That Which Survives"
This seems to have been written expressly to give the secondary characters some screentime, which is nice. (It makes me wonder if Kirk's crankiness towards Sulu and Spock's towards Scott and Uhura reflect how the actors felt about not being front-and-center for once. Uhura pwns Spock, though, as she pwns anybody who gives her shit. And Scott has a lovely moment at the end when Spock is lecturing him over the intercom about illogic and he just rolls over and laughs.)
I will forever think of this as the episode where Kirk and McCoy sleep together (and Sulu nips round the corner to give them their privacy). Also, the one where Sulu responds to a woman wanting to touch him by saying "Stay back or I'll shoot!" Slash goggles: making boring episodes more interesting since 1966.
*****
Spoilers beneath the cut for "Whom the Gods Destroy," "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," "The Mark of Gideon," and "That Which Survives."
"Whom Gods Destroy"
I really like this episode, and I was surprised to find out afterwards from Memory Alpha that Leonard Nimoy hated the script so much he wrote a memo to the producers complaining that Spock was out of character. I felt a little like I had betrayed my Spock love by not noticing. But the thing is, Spock is the most inconsistently written character on the show--Nimoy may have had a strong, coherent idea of his personality, but nobody else did. I guess Spock is a little demonstrative and obviously sarcastic in this episode. Still, I'm glad to see him get lines with some wit and not just variations of "But Captain, that would not be logical."
This is one of those episodes that benefitted from strong guest stars. Steve Ihnat brings Garth to life--temperamental, flamboyant, charismatic, barking-mad life. He reads as very, very gay, too. I'm trying not to stereotype from his flamboyant manner; it's also his indifference to Marta except as a sign of his power, his obsession with winning Kirk over (even to the point of naming him heir apparent), and his dislike of Kirk and Spock's mutual loyalty.
There's a lot of it in this episode for him to dislike, including a declaration of
Things I enjoyed: Kirk not being sexually interested in Marta (which, okay, is probably because she's bugfuck insane, but Kirk and Spock do keep glancing at each other and rolling their eyes when she tries to be seductive); Marta's Pierre Menard-style rewriting of Shakespeare and her "Why can't I just blow off one of his ears?" line about Spock; the coronation scene, which uses the show's lack of budget to great effect with a tinfoil crown; Kirk getting huffy because Spock thought Garth would win their fight. And on a meta level, I loved that the role of Donald Cory was played by an Asian actor, Keye Luke; Trek continues to be very good at putting (male) characters of color in positions of responsibility and not remarking on it, but rather treating it as normal.
Things that creeped me out: the little "tour of Bedlam" scene at the beginning (mentally ill people != exhibits); the fact that Garth's cure, at the end, entails making him childlike and docile, which is exactly what he feared would happen to him and what Cory denied.
Things that made me go "WTF?": the Enterprise suddenly requiring a password to beam up. It's sort of like how sometimes the Enterprise has shuttles, and sometimes it has transporter beams, but when people are required by the plot to be trapped somewhere it never has both.
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
OMG SO DULL KILL ME NOW.
Points for good intentions. And I'm trying to bear in mind that this was the sixties, that the Supreme Court had only just struck down laws against interracial marriage, and that the episode's heavy-handedness was probably necessary. But none of this makes it any more fun to watch now.
I was bothered by how chummy Kirk and his officers are with Bele, who not only tries, repeatedly, to hijack the ship but is also a nasty and blatant racist. The claim of moral equivalency between Bele's cause (keeping the inferior race down) and Loaki's (struggling for equality) irked me, too, especially because of the obvious allegory. I'm sorry, Star Trek writers, but however scary you found the Black Panthers, their actions were not comparable to 300 years of slavery followed by 100 years of segregation enforced by lynching.
The twist at the end about the society being wiped out might have been more interesting if it hadn't been included in cbs.com's episode summary. *grumbles*
"The Mark of Gideon"
This episode makes no sense whatsoever. The Gideons love life so much that they can't use birth control, but they're perfectly okay with putting social pressure on people to commit suicide? And I'm not sure how they're breeding anyway, since there's literally not even room to sit down. (Sex while standing is possible, yes; childbirth, not so much.)
The whole fake-Enterprise plot is ridiculously overcomplicated and just an excuse for shoehorning in an unconvincing love story. Not that I believe Kirk was ever in love with Odona; he doesn't seem at all distressed to say goodbye at the end.
Spock is cranky in this episode. OOC levels of cranky. All the lines about the horrors of bureaucracy make me wonder if the writer just had his taxes audited or something and turned Spock into his mouthpiece.
But here's what I most noticed in this episode: Kirk's package. Damn, they're cutting his trousers tight in S3.
"That Which Survives"
This seems to have been written expressly to give the secondary characters some screentime, which is nice. (It makes me wonder if Kirk's crankiness towards Sulu and Spock's towards Scott and Uhura reflect how the actors felt about not being front-and-center for once. Uhura pwns Spock, though, as she pwns anybody who gives her shit. And Scott has a lovely moment at the end when Spock is lecturing him over the intercom about illogic and he just rolls over and laughs.)
I will forever think of this as the episode where Kirk and McCoy sleep together (and Sulu nips round the corner to give them their privacy). Also, the one where Sulu responds to a woman wanting to touch him by saying "Stay back or I'll shoot!" Slash goggles: making boring episodes more interesting since 1966.
*****
