Star Trek 2x23 "The Omega Glory"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

This is one of the earliest drafted stories of the series, originally in consideration to have become the second pilot.  Consequently, having sat around for nearly two seasons, its impact is significantly diminished after multiple episodes and different scenarios, not to mention the introduction of the iconic Romulans and Klingons, explored its Cold War parallels before "The Omega Glory" finally became reality.

So there's that.  There are also parallels to later franchise stories, perhaps most significantly Star Trek: Insurrection with its Fountain of Youth, as well Voyager's "Resolutions" and even "Basics," about Starfleet officers becoming marooned on alien worlds, either for their health or simply among relatively primitive natives.

I could expound on any of these topics if you'd like, but the fact remains that this episode's real legacy is being part of a string of episodes that saw the second season lose all of its momentum.  Doubtless reason enough for the network to have considered cancelling the series.  Without its greatest inspirations, Star Trek might be considered very disposable indeed, no matter how memorable it intrinsically was, how inspired, how iconic.  And "Omega Glory" takes a very circuitous route to embodying everything that went wrong and nearly ended the journey before it had properly begun.

So there's that.

via Strangers and Aliens

The episode also features one of two instances where the series attempted to address the plight of Native Americans.  This was far more obvious, of course, in "The Paradise Syndrome" only a handful of episodes later, early in the third season.  Perhaps another argument that the series seemed to have already run its natural course by the time it was cancelled.

One last element worth mentioning: Although typically any other Starfleet crew besides Kirk's met a quick and sticky end, it was always worth noting that there did, in fact, exist other crews.  So the presence of such in this episode is notable.  As such.

Incidentally, if you find you have no memory of "The Omega Glory" other than perhaps its distinctive title, now you know why.  And "omega" in this instance refers to the alien planet-of-the-week, not so much a magic particle that would later fascinate the Borg...

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Star Trek 2x22 "By Any Other Name"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

Somewhat suspiciously, the way this episode ends is very similar to "Return to Tomorrow" as a whole just a few episodes earlier.  Creatively, the season ended much more weakly than it'd begun.  That's okay.  Fans still argue that it's the best season in franchise history.

Speaking of the franchise as a whole, that's really the only thing worth talking about "By Any Other Name."  Sometimes a setup is better than the seemingly contractual additional conflict that is tacked on to complicate it.  This happens.  It spoiled Enterprise's "The Catwalk," too.  The setup is actually a kind of prototype for Voyager.  And that's pretty interesting.

via Star Trek Prop Authority. Show mine if you show yours.

At its heart, "Other Name" is about an alien ship just trying to get home.  Granted, a new home.  (So, like the Sphere Builders from Enterprise.)  But home all the same.  Imagine if Janeway had gone about demanding whoever she came across give their home to her.  Colonization by way of conquest.  (Hey, North America knows a thing or two about that.  Come to think of it, it's a little surprising that this episode didn't think of that.)

But you can probably skip it.  I was going to give the episode no stars at all, but decided there were a few useful associations to be found.  Aside from those, though, not much worth watching here.

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notable guest-stars:

Majel Roddenberry

Star Trek 2x21 "Patterns of Force"

rating: **

Memory Alpha summary

It should be remembered that in 1968, when "Patterns of Force" was originally broadcast, WWII was a memory from a little over twenty years in the past.  A little over twenty years ago as of the writing of this review, 2014, the Cold War came to an end, and we still don't have ideal relations with Russia (to perhaps put it mildly).  So to have a Nazi episode at that time (and I still can't adequately reconcile a sitcom like Hogan's Heroes, which would have been in its third season at the time) would have been something like a bold gesture on the part of the series.

The episode is an allegory of the classic adage concerning those who fail to learn from history.  A Federation historian actually thinks it's a good idea to base the working conditions of a whole culture on the Third Reich.  Things go horribly wrong, and so we get literal Space Nazis.

via Trek Core

I've stated in other reviews that the series seemed hellbent on exploring all the typical story templates of its day, and maybe that's why there's a Nazi episode.  But then, maybe it was important to the mindset of the show's creators to do this, the way it was equally important, say, to constantly relay the message that War Is Bad.

Nazis became a recurring staple in the franchise.  Voyager's "The Killing Game" revisited them in a holodeck setting.  Enterprise's "Storm Front" saw the conclusion of its Temporal Cold War arc in this context.  Taken as a whole, that's a whole legacy, and I would submit an important one.

On its own, is "Patterns" a truly notable episode?  Or is it merely something that from a distance looks like a story told in poor taste?  It's certainly striking, easily identifiable from some of the more anonymous adventures.

I think it's worth considering.  And that's as much an argument for watching an episode as you can find.

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Star Trek 2x20 "Return to Tomorrow"

rating: **

Memory Alpha summary

Callbacks I can think of: Next Generation's "Power Play," Deep Space Nine's "The Passenger," Voyager's "Vis a Vis" and "Demon" (with its sequel "Course: Oblivion"), and Enterprise's "Observer Effect."

The idea of body-hopping, borrowing someone else's body.  That's what "Return to Tomorrow" is all about.  It's pretty interesting in this original incarnation.  There's even a prototype for Kirk's "Risk is part of the game" quote from Generations.

via Trek Caps. Not a young Dr. Pulaski.  But the same actress.

A fun episode.  I'm bumping the rating up by one star from what I originally gave it, just because it's a good representation of the series and a clear predecessor for something that franchise did in abundance (clearly not all classics, but they were all interesting).  At its core Star Trek, and certainly its original incarnation, is about visiting different sci-fi concepts every week.  Sometimes the execution is better than other times.

And sure, it must be noted that the title is hardly a memorable, descriptive, or even evocative one, poetic in a very roundabout way.  So that'll be one reason you probably don't remember it.  But all told, you probably should.

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notable quest-stars:
Diana Muldaur
Majel Roddenberry

Star Trek 2x19 "A Private Little War"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

So this is a War Is Bad episode.  Perhaps you might have heard this philosophy.  It's also a Cold War episode.  It's also a Klingon episode.

But at its core, "A Private Little War" might best be considered a Kirk episode.  In a later era, maybe that might have been executed more clearly, left an actual impact on our captain.  As such, it's another conflict-of-the-week story and so I won't stress it's importance too much, but that's still the best way to view it from a later perspective.

via Trek Caps

Every so often, the series had a look at what our characters were up to in their pasts.  Not directly.  Revisiting something they'd done or been involved in previously.  The stories never really got more involved than that.  These stories were always treated as a mere starting point.  Just something that happened that happens to be associated with something that's happening now.  That sort of thing.  Which is fine.  In this case, this actually works slightly better than usual, it should be noted.

Kirk previously visited this particular world earlier in his career, and so developed a friendship with one of the locals.  It's unfortunate, but emblematic of what Starfleet is supposed to be about, that this encounter was with someone who can be described as comparatively primitive (which also helped with the costume budget), a world that is not part of the Federation but capable of dealing openly with it.  (I think a real case could be made for a series that approaches this from in a much more direct way, sort of like Deep Space Nine but as a ship-based adventure, digging in deeply with every mission).

Anyway, Kirk comes back to discover that things have not improved in his absence.  It's a "revisit" story that's arguably better than Wrath of Khan.  At least Kirk knows where he's going and who he's going to meet!

Oh, and there's an alien who looks like an alien!  The Mugato!

via The Viewscreen

Less famous than the Gorn but arguably more essential to his episode, he's also got a giant horn on his head, and more spikes on his back.  So there's that.  If a movie were ever made of the episode, or the whole story redone in some other format, this is a part of it that could become a lot more interesting.  (Oh no!  I'm coming up with ideas!)

Among minor episodes, you could easily sample this one and get a good sense of what generally makes the series interesting.

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Star Trek 2x18 "The Immunity Syndrome"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

The most memorable element of this episode, which otherwise serves as a template for any number of other later episodes where the given crew must pull their ship through a given cosmic crisis (so vague you otherwise know it's fairly basic, generic Star Trek storytelling), is a Starfleet ship with an entirely Vulcan crew.

via Space Doubt

Not that you see them.  As Armchair Squid pointed out, there's a remarkable similarity to how Spock experiences the destruction of this ship and Obi-Wan Kenobi senses the destruction of Alderaan in Star Wars.

While the second season as a whole did a great deal of work establishing firm continuity for the series (and later franchise), this Vulcan crew remains an anomaly that was never really explained.  Are we to believe that Starfleet has ships populated by different member species of the Federation?  So much had always been made of Spock's singular status as a Vulcan in Starfleet, but this episode suggests that it's more that he serves among humans rather than among his own kind.  Who knows?  Best not to think about?

Other than that, "The Immunity Syndrome" is an episode that presents a giant crisis our crew just happens to be able to solve.  Not exactly subtle storytelling, nor highlight of the season or series.  But it's also very typical of the series, and indeed franchise.  But maybe don't think of it in that way.  If you can.  Basically the template for technobabble episodes to come.

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Star Trek 2x17 "A Piece of the Action"

rating: ****

Memory Alpha summary

This is about as close as the season came to matching "The Trouble with Tribbles" for sheer enjoyment factor.  Like "Trouble," "A Piece of the Action" has endured as a classic, and rightfully so.

Perhaps too often, the series dipped into the well of story types that would have been familiar to audiences at the time.  Hence, the gangster episode.  It makes no sense otherwise, a civilization somehow corrupted by exposure to a book (that...probably wouldn't really happen, unless we're talking about a completely different kind of book), but once you accept the gimmick for what it is, it becomes one of the more distinctive versions of the kind of story the series tried to tell on multiple occasions: a contaminated culture that Kirk has to try and clean up.

It's also a Prime Directive episode, not in the sense that it's Kirk bending the rules (this time), but the result of our own people having screwed up in the past (reasonable speculation has it as being the crew of the Horizon as featured in Enterprise, as featured in the episode "Horizon").

Like "Trouble," it features Kirk being able to let loose a little.  He determines that the best way to approach the problem is to assimilate into the culture so as to not further expose the natives to things they shouldn't know about (such as Starfleet).  This is fun to watch, classic Kirk all around.  Again, completely ludicrous, but in a good way.  One gets the sense that if Kirk had it his way, this is what he'd be doing all the time.  James Bond, in a sense, by way of Jacques Clousseau.

via Kethinov

Ironically, the end of the episode features another contamination, McCoy leaving his communicator behind (which becomes the inspiration for another Enterprise episode, "The Communicator;" it's not your imagination, that series titled its episodes pretty literally).

Next Generation brought gangsters back to the franchise thanks to Picard's obsession with Dixon Hill.  But that was done on the holodeck.

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Star trek 2x16 "The Gamesters of Triskelion"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

This is a pretty generic episode for the series, one made less significant as the franchise expanded (the Voyager entry "Tsunkatse," for instance, is better, as are numerous other examples; although it could be done far worse, such as "Code of Honor" from Next Generation).  Kirk and a few others are taken prisoner on an alien world and forced to become combatants in an arena.  (Which is completely different from, say, "Arena.")

via Trek Core

The main draw is the latest disagreement between Spock and McCoy as to how to proceed.  It'd been done before, and would be done again, at its best, in "The Tholian Web" next season, but the fact of its recurrence is the best way to recommend watching the episode.  Otherwise take it or leave it.  In some ways, an episode you really ought to just skip if you really want to.

There's an Andorian in there, if you want to watch for that.

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Star Trek 2x15 "The Trouble with Tribbles"

rating: ****

Memory Alpha summary

I think everyone knows about this one.  It's one of the rare episodes from the series to receive sequels ("More Tribbles, More Troubles" from The Animated Series, "Trials and Tribble-ations" from Deep Space Nine).  It's a classic.  I don't really need to justify that statement.

The question is, is the legacy of "The Trouble with Tribbles" a positive one for new fans to consider?  So often, when that question is raised, it's with episodes existing fans thought rubbed them the wrong way.

via Crackerjac Jane

The thing is, it's a great episode for fans.  It's easy to love, very lighthearted, not in the sense that it doesn't take itself seriously, but that it's hard to be inundated with all those Tribbles and take a different tone.  It's instantly iconic.  It's basically the peak of the whole second season, everything the creators wanted to accomplish encapsulated in a single episode.  The minor characters have significant moments (it's Uhura who's responsible for spreading Cyrano Jones' "harmless" creatures; and this is the episode where Scotty and Chekov defend Kirk and or the Enterprise's honor: "But you heard what he called the keptin!"  "Laddie, don't you think you should...rephrase that?").  The Klingons are involved.  The story is presented as a dynamic representation of what the Federation is and how Starfleet is involved.

Yet...it's kind of silly, isn't it?  How is a casual fan supposed to take it seriously?  One imagines that a viewer coming across it in 1967 might have determined that this series was just a bunch of nonsense anyway.  The thing is, Star Trek as we know it now literally would not exist without it.  Chris Pine's Kirk is exactly the Kirk we find in "Trouble."  William Shatner tended to take a sober approach to the character, except in this episode, where he wears a perpetual bemused expression.

"Trouble" is what the new movies are, to some extent.  It's not what most of the series, or indeed franchise, actually is.  I think I like the lighthearted tone, though, but balanced, the way J.J. Abrams approached it.  "Trouble" is what you get when everything matches the dynamic Kirk and Spock and McCoy have been striking all along.  It's the tone matching the main characters for a change.  And it's arguably the best episode of the series because of it.

And yes, that's one of the iconic Klingons present and accounted for, Koloth, one of the three who later reappear in DS9.  What more can you ask for?

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notable guest-stars:
William Campbell
Charlie Brill
Stanley Adams

Star Trek 2x14 "Wolf in the Fold"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

"Wolf in the Fold" is perhaps the only Scotty episode of the whole series.  Of course, it's probably better understood to be a Jack the Ripper episode.

Until I think Patricia Cornwell's book Portrait of a Killer, Jack the Ripper endured as an endless subject of intrigue for a serial killer who thrived in late 19th century London, never to be identified.  His legacy has no doubt informed our continuing interest in serial killer, but he's finally faded, at least a little, from the popular imagination.

Back in the '60s, not so much.  In Star Trek's relentless march at covering every popular story type of that type, of course he popped up.  It's a shame that Scotty's only spotlight had to be this, because there's really nothing much intrinsic to Scotty himself about the episode.  In the end, there are a long string of episodes about main characters throughout the franchise wrongfully accused of murder.  This is not such a memorable start to that string.

via Kethinov

The images Google suggested more heavily involved women with far less clothing on them.  You will have to settle for this one.  It happens to feature Scotty, too.

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Star Trek 2x13 "Obsession"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

Funny enough, but this is the Kirk version of an episode from earlier in the season, "The Doomsday Device."  It's not a particularly famous one, perhaps for that very reason, but it's character-centric rather than character-featured, which is what most of the series was like.

The franchise revisits such a concept later, a member of the crew encountering again something that went wrong earlier in their career ("Clues" from Next Generation).  It's always fun to check in with aspects of a character's life that occurred before the series in which they're featured (arguably Sisko and Kira from Deep Space Nine and Tom Paris from Voyager are completely defined by this idea).  "Obsession" deals with the matter in the same basic manner of any other episode from the series.  It just happens to have a different layer than usual.  Happened before, to other characters (Chapel, McCoy), would happen again.

via Kethinov. Check your shirt color!

Nicely, the character who would normally have been villainous turns out to be someone Kirk gets to bond with, the son of the guy who experienced the original event with our captain.  So that's refreshing.  

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Star Trek 2x12 "The Deadly Years"

rating: ****

Memory Alpha summary

"The Deadly Years," or the Geriatric Years, or the one where we see a prognostication of seeing all these actors in old age for real.

via TOS Trek Core. Uncanny?

Later in the franchise, old age make-up recurs in every series ("Too Short a Season," "Unnatural Selection" from Next Generation; "Distant Voices" from Deep Space Nine; "Before and After," "Timeless" from Voyager; "Twilight" and "E2" from Enterprise; only "Before and After" and "The Counter-Clock Incident" from The Animated Series feature de-aging; DeForest Kelley gets another treatment in Next Generation's "Encounter at Farpoint").  I think the whole idea is not exactly fantastic, but clearly people in Hollywood love the idea.

This is actually a Romulan episode.  You'll be forgiven for not thinking of it in that way.  Brink of war material. Kirk uses his corbomite gambit again.  Other hallmarks including the first instance of Sulu nearly getting a taste of command (the infamous never-happened moment in The Wrath of Khan being the more famous one, which is what Star Trek Into Darkness draws on, which finally happens in The Undiscovered Country), and Kirk and Spock disagreeing for a moment.  (It passes.)

All said, it's a memorable moment in the series, clearly another gimmick episode but a good one.

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