Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

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Flack
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Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

Post by Flack »



Because I didn't watch Star Trek as a child, a few months ago I decided to binge every episode of the show. Star Trek (today referred to as Star Trek: The Original Series or simply ST:TOS) originally aired on NBC from September 1966 through June 1969, and consisted of 79 episodes.

When I say I didn't watch the show, I don't mean to imply I had never seen it. It was nearly impossible to grow up in the 70s/80s without at least some exposure to the show. Although I grew up a Star Wars kid, I definitely remember the McDonald's Star Trek-themed Happy Meals released in the late 1970s to promote the release of the first film. I remember one of the kids in my neighborhood owned the Mego Star Trek action figures, which we played with. So certainly Star Trek was around, it just wasn't my thing.

Through general exposure I was familiar with the show's major characters going in, along with some of its most popular tropes that have permeated pop culture. I knew enough to know that beaming down to a planet while wearing a red shirt was bad, that there had once been an Evil Spock with a beard, and that no female human, alien, or android is able to resist Captain Kirk's charm. Other than that, the only episodes I could recall were "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "The City on the Edge of Forever." Everything else was new to me.

After watching 79 episodes in about as many days, here's what I learned.

First and foremost, this show was wacky. With so many writers and so many hands in the pot, the end result was a pretty uneven series. Episodes like "The City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Doomsday Machine" were solid, classic science-fiction. Great episodes such as those are sprinkled amongst a bunch of really weird ones, like the one where the Enterprise gets taken over by the alien spirit of Jack the Ripper, and the one where the crew picks up a group of hitchhiking space hippies who play terrible folk music and manage to take over the Enterprise. Speaking of which...

The crew of the Enterprise has to be the most gullible group of suckers ever corralled onto a single starship. Time after time, episode after episode, the entire crew gets tricks by aliens. It's a good thing the crew members never played space chess with anyone outside the ship as they would have been slaughtered. In one episode, Spock beams down to a planet based on 1930s Chicago, gets kidnapped, escapes, returns, and gets immediately kidnapped a second time! In another episode, the crew gets outsmarted by a group of space hippies led by a guy who is declared legally insane. A few weeks later, Kirk beams down to an insane asylum being managed by a doctor, where he is quickly tricked by the insane inmates. The only enemy Kirk faced that didn't outsmart him immediately was the Gorn, a big lizard intending to smash Kirk's head open with a rock, and even that seemed like an even match. A few weeks later, Kirk -- captain of the ship -- is convinced he is being contacted by Abraham Lincoln.

Star Trek also features a lot of repetition. On at least four episodes members of the Enterprise beam down to planets only to be forced to fight other people. There are a lot of episodes where it is revealed that what we thought were people were really androids. There were two or three episodes in which computers or androids were defeated by Kirk putting them into "logic loops" that short circuited their brains. Another recycled idea on the show was that certain people from earth's history were actually aliens. The Greek god Apollo was an alien, Jack the Ripper was an alien, and in a shocking turn of events, we learn that Brahms, Leonardo Da Vinci, and several other high profile historical figures were all the SAME alien!

There were a lot of things I didn't know about the show before diving it. I did not know just how many women Kirk fell in love with and/or attempted to seduce (a lot). I also wasn't aware of the animosity between Dr. McCoy and Spock, which seemed to grow stronger as the series went on (leading to my dad's favorite Star Trek quote, "Spock, are you out of your Vulcan mind?"). I also didn't realize just how many episodes took place on Earth-like planets. Throughout the series the crew visited (an alien version of) prohibition-era Chicago, (an alien version of) Nazi, German, (an alien version of) the Civil War, (an alien version of) the Great Depression, (an alien version of) Native Americans, (an alien version of) the old west, and a few other time periods. Oh, and in one episode, Kirk went back in time and got accused of being a witch.

Any time you binge watch a show, lots of repeated plot devices jump out at you. While I was well aware of the trope prior to my deep dive, I tried to warn every member of the Enterprise wearing a red shirt not to beam down. Likewise, I found the transporter to be pretty reliable, except when it wasn't. More than once, the crew beamed down only to discover their weapons or other gear didn't beam down with them. (Trivia fact: the transporter was invented as a plot device so that didn't have to film the crew flying back and forth in the shuttle on every single episode.) Along the same lines, it didn't seem to be particularly difficult to jam or disable the crew's phasers (it happened a lot). For that matter, it didn't seem to be that difficult to take over control of the Enterprise (it happened a lot). It also didn't seem to be difficult to trick the crew into going into areas where the transporter couldn't reach them (it happened a lot).

For a show with so many uneven episodes and so many flaws, you might wonder what the appeal was, or is -- and that is, the show was great. I really enjoyed my romp through Star Trek: The Original Series. In historical context, it was a show about hope and wonder -- a show that began during the space race and was inexplicably cancelled the same month man landed on the moon. At times it felt like the writers had run out of original (or logical) plot ideas, which is crazy as multiple reboots and spinoffs continue to be made even today. As long as there are planets to be explored, enemies to be defeated, and female aliens to be "conquered" (ahem), there will be a place for the starship Enterprise and her crew to boldly go where no man has gone before.
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Re: Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

The show really is centered around the main three characters, so aside from them, didja have any lasting impressions of Scotty, Chekov, Sulu, Uhura, Chapel, Rand, Kyle or M'Benga???
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Flack
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Re: Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

Post by Flack »

Kirk's the captain, Bones is the doctor, and Spock is the science officer, so I guess they decided they needed someone who knew how to use a wrench. Going in I thought Scotty was just the "we're giving her all she's got!" guy but he works the transporter and shows up on the bridge to fix things. He kind of struck me as the blue-collar guy. Like everybody else is walking around smacking and screwing aliens and this guy's walking around with a tool box.

I read that Sulu and Chekov had a beef in real life after Sulu temporarily left the show to make a movie and Chekov ended up more or less filling the same seat. I even read that when Sulu returned, the two of them shared a dressing room. Frankly I was pretty surprised at how little Sulu had to do on the show. There was that one episode where he went a little sideways and was trying to fence people but generally speaking I thought he could have been replaced by a computer voice. Chekov was obviously there for the younger crowd (I read he was hired in part because he looked like Davey Jones from the Monkees). Once I got over the thick fake accent I thought he was all right.

I don't think anybody would think twice about a black woman being part of an ensemble cast which I believe was a pretty huge deal at the time. Again, I thought she did more on the show than she ended up doing. She didn't beam down much and except for that one episode where aliens made her and Kirk kiss, I thought she didn't do a whole lot. Then again, being on the bridge and being treated as an equal WAS doing a whole lot back then.

I wish Chapel had been given more to do. She is the unsung hero of the medical deck. I'm sure she's cleaned up a lot of blood and space poop.

I was confused by Kyle at first. I just thought Kirk had a sexy maid to serve him food and make his bed and then she disappeared. I assumed Kirk got a little rough with her and had her shipped off somewhere. It seems like if you're the captain of a ship where you and everybody you work with nearly dies every week the least you could ask for is a hottie to bring you coffee when you ask for it.

I thought M'Benga was played by James Earl Jones until I looked it up.
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Re: Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Oh, Kyle is Lt. Kyle, who was the transporter chief. Rand was Janice Rand - she had some addiction or another in real life and they started to write her out.
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AArdvark
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Re: Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

Post by AArdvark »

Didja see how Roddenberry had to recast Majel Barrett from second in command (The Cage) to nurse Chapel because the suits in charge said get rid of her or Spock. He kept Spock on the bridge, stuck her in sickbay and ended up marrying her. Win win

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Re: Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

Post by Casual Observer »

Flack wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 2:38 pmIn one episode, Spock beams down to a planet based on 1930s Chicago, gets kidnapped, escapes, returns, and gets immediately kidnapped a second time!
Sorry. Anyone who describes "A Piece of the Action" in this way can not be regarded as a credible Star Trek reviewer. IDK how many other interesting things he may have written.

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Re: Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

How is it not credible to describe the show's plot?
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Jizaboz
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Re: Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

Post by Jizaboz »

I still remember the first time I saw Star Trek I was 10 years old and at a hotel with my family half-way between King, NC and Cincinnati Ohio on a road trip to visit my aunt. It was the Tribbles episode! Me and my GF re-watched them all when we first got Netflix years back. Also, some of the animated series. I had a vinyl with the voices from that cartoon I remember listening to many times.
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Re: Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

Post by Casual Observer »

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 9:23 pm How is it not credible to describe the show's plot?
What? That's the plot of "A piece of the action"? Where's fizzbin? Where's cement overshoes? Where's Kirk fucking up driving? Where's stunning an entire city block with Phasers? I get Flack can write but he knows shit about Star Trek (which is something to be proud of).

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Re: Star Trek TOS (1966-1969)

Post by AArdvark »

We used to call it Star Track when we were kids.

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