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Star Trek - the Original Series

"Star Trek" The Original Series on DVD

Paramount Does Trekkies Proud

Volume 1: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "The Corbomite Maneuver"

Volume 2: "Mudd's Women" and "The Enemy Within"

Volume 3: "The Man Trap" and "The Naked Time"

Volume 4: "Charlie X" and "Balance of Terror"

Volume 5: "What Are Little Girls Made Of" and "Dagger of the Mind"

Volume 6: "Miri" and "The Conscience of the King"

Volume 7: "The Galileo Seven" and "Court Martial"

Volume 8: "The Menagerie"

Volume 9: "Shore Leave" and "The Squire of Gothos"

Volume 10: "Arena" and "The Alternative Factor"

Volume 11: "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and "The Return of the Archons"

Volume 12: "A Taste of Armageddon" and "Space Seed"

Volume 13: "This Side of Paradise" and "The Devil in the Dark" "

Volume 14: "Errand of Mercy" and "The City on the Edge of Forever"

Volume 15: "Operation-Annihilate!" and "Catspaw"

Volume 16: "Metamorphosis" and "Friday's Child"

Volume 17: "Who Mourns for Adonis" and "Amok Time"

Volume 18: "The Doomsday Machine" and "Wolf in the Fold"

Volume 19: "The Changeling" and "The Apple"

Volume 20: "Mirror, Mirror" and "The Deadly Years"

Volume 21: "I, Mudd" and "The Trouble With Tribbles"

Volume 22: "Bread and Circuses" and "Journey to Babel"

Volume 23: "A Private Little War" and "The Gamesters of Triskelion"

Volume 24: "Obsession" and "The Immunity Syndrome"

Volume 25: "A Piece of the Action" and "By Any Other Name"

Volume 26: "Return to Tomorrow" and "Patterns of Force"

Volume 27: "The Ultimate Computer" and "The Omega Glory"

Volume 28: "Assignment: Earth" and "Spectre of the Gun"

Volume 29: "Elaan of Troyius" and "The Paradise Syndrome"

Volume 30: "The Enterprise Incident" and "And the Children Shall Lead"

Volume 31: "Spock's Brain" and "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"

Volume 32: "The Empath" and "The Tholian Web"

Volume 33: "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" and "Day of the Dove"

Volume 34: "Plato's Stepchildren" and "Wink of an Eye"

Volume 35: "That Which Survives" " and "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"

Volume 36: "Whom Gods Destroy" and "The Mark of Gideon"

Volume 37: "The Lights of Zetar" and "The Cloud Minders"

Volume 38: "The Way to Eden" and "Requiem for Methusala"

Volume 39: "The Savage Curtain" and "All Our Yesterdays"

Volume 40: "Turnabout Intruder" and "The Cage"

Bravo Paramount! It would have been easy for them to take the old episodes from the original "Star Trek" TV series and release them on DVD. All they had to do was convert the existing video versions to the digital disc. And they would have sold like hotcakes.

But they didn't, and Trekkies everywhere have a right to be grateful: Star Trek has never looked or sounded so good.

The old episodes have been digitally enhanced and remastered and now they're so good that not only do they look as if they were shot last week, but the resolution is so high that you can even make out little beads of sweat on the actors' brows - and that Leonard Nimoy may have had Chicken Pox when he was a kid.

All the episodes we've seen so far look glorious. The only problem is that you can now tell just how low budget a production the original series was. The railing running around the bridge looks like painted 2x10 (which it probably was) and you can see similar "warts" all over the place.

This doesn't detract from the enjoyment, however. On the contrary, it makes you appreciate just how much Gene Roddenberry and his cast and crew achieved with, as Spock once said, "Stone knives and bearskin."

The audio has also received deluxe treatment and is now in Dolby Digital Surround - even though the source material was mono at best. The sound is not only very good, with no hiss whatsoever, but it has been remixed into a very good example of Dolby Digital surround, all things considered.

You really notice this during sequences with music or atmosphere - and when the Enterprise "whooshes" past you during the opening credits (and at other times) the "whooshing noise" now goes right through your home theater as the ship passes you by - from front center to rear left or right, depending on the ship's trajectory.

The packaging includes sparse liner notes, but what's there includes chapter stops, cast/crew info, and a list of the entire series and how they're being broken down into DVD releases. The packaging itself is rather ugly and very "un-Star Trek-like" in its look, but this just goes to show the beauty of this series is more than skin deep.

Bravo, Paramount - well done!

The following episodes have been screened by TechnoFILE and our above comments apply to them all unless otherwise noted:

Volume 1: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "The Corbomite Maneuver"

Where No Man Has Gone Before (first season) was actually the second pilot episode NBC ordered for Star Trek, and is the show that sold the network on the series. It's pretty good, too. Kirk is now in command of the Enterprise and he takes his crew through a barrier at the edge of the galaxy. Unfortunately, the move causes Kirk's friend and shipmante Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood, of "2001" fame) to begin mutating into a kind of superman, a Godlike entity so powerful he can swat the Enterprise and its human crew as if they were flies. Can Kirk defeat Mitchell and his rapidly evolving powers before it's too late?
The Corbormite Maneuver (first season) is Star Trek at its best. When the Enterprise destroys a space buoy that's emitting deadly radiation, the ship is captured by the Fesarius, a gigantic ship so large the Enterprise looks like an ant next to it. Kirk begins a battle of wills with Balok, the alien ship's captain, a conflict that leads to a desperate bluff on the human's part as he tries to convince the alien that the Enterprise and the Federation are far more powerful than they first appear. This is apparently the first episode to feature Dr. McCoy.

Volume 2: "Mudd's Women" and "The Enemy Within"

Mudd's Women (first season) introduces us to Harcourt Fenton Mudd, that interstellar scalawag we'll see later in "I, Mudd." In this episode he's transporting some strange, beautiful women to be the mail order brides of some isolated miners. The women cause a "miner" disturbance aboard the Enterprise, with their strange power over men - and the Enterprise's problems are compounded by a need for new dilithium crystals, which the miners can supply - but at a price. An entertaining episode.
The Enemy Within (first season) sees a transporter malfunction (See, McCoy told them so!) split Kirk into his two "selves," one strong and evil and the other good but weak. His only chance for survival is to reunite the two halves, but the bad Kirk isn't about to let itself get slapped back inside the greater whole. Meanwhile, the bad transporters lead to a landing party in danger of freezing to death.

Volume 3: "The Man Trap" and "The Naked Time"

The Man Trap is a terrific 1st Season episode that sees McCoy's old flame reincarnated as a salt vampire. The last of her species, the creature gets loose aboard the Enterprise and starts killing crew members for the salt in their bodies. There are nice scenes showing areas of the ship not normally seen, and cast members are given more to do than in many later episodes.

The Naked Time (first season) sees a strange illness beamed aboard the ship with a returning crewman. Spread via perspiration, the sickness causes the crew to lose their inhibitions and start acting out their deepest fantasies. Sulu becomes a swashbuckling swordsman, Chapel bubbles over with her love for Spock, while Spock breaks down in tears at the injustice of having to hold his emotions in check all the time. Meanwhile, the ship is about to burn up in a planet's atmosphere while things are falling apart aboard her.

Volume 4: "Charlie X" and "Balance of Terror"

"Charlie X" (first season) is the story of a teenager raised by aliens who comes aboard the Enterprise and is faced with learning how to be human. Unfortunately, he's at the stage of life in which his hormones are running amok and this, coupled with the fact that he now possesses some strange and potentially-deady powers, leads to lots of angst and plenty of action. Charlie sets his sights on Yeoman Rand, who has no interest in him, and Kirk has to play father surrogate to get the youth under control.

Balance of Terror (first season) introduces the Romulan Empire as portrayed by Mark (Sarek) Lenard. He's a Romulan Captain sent to do some smash and grab raids on Federation outposts along the Neutral Zone. A dandy episode, it revolves around both Captains' strategies, their duties to their respective civilizations, and their growing respect for each others' abilities.

Volume 5: "What Are Little Girls Made of?" and "Dagger of the Mind"

What Are Little Girls Made of? (first season). Not sugar and spice, but circuits and wires and stuff. The Enterprise is sent to find out what happened to Dr. Roger Korby, who also happens to be an old flame of Nurse Chapel. Well, they find out: he's living underground on a frozen planet and creating an android race he hope will populate the Federation. Nice idea, except that Corby isn't all that he seems to be...

Dagger of the Mind (first season) is a nifty yarn about a Federation insane asylum where the inmates are being treated to a little more than the compassionate treatment the Federation wants. The facility's assitant, Dr. Simon Van Gelder, manages to spill the beans and set off alarm bells, but when Kirk beams down to investigate he finds himself in the hot seat.

Volume 6: "Miri" and "The Conscience of the King"

"Miri" (first season) isn't one of Star Trek's strongest episodes, but this DVD release certainly shows the work Paramount put into the series' restoration. The title character is a pubescent girl living on a twin planet to Earth - except that only the children have survived a horrible plague unleashed by scientists trying to find a method of prolonging life. Once the kids reach puberty the disease catches up with them, turning them into horribly insane monsters and eventually killing them. Naturally, Kirk and the landing party contract the disease, and the episode becomes a race against time as McCoy and Spock try to find a miracle cure.
The Paramount techs have done an especially nice job of using the Dolby Digital mix in this one. The taunting of the grownups by the offscreen kids makes good use of the main left and right speakers - and assorted offscreen noises are also placed very well across the soundstage.

"The Conscience of the King" (first season) has Kirk and Lt. Kevin Riley as the sole surviving eyewitnesses who can put the finger on "Kodos the Executioner," whom history has judged a butcher for his actions of twenty years previously. Kodos, whose body was never positively identified, may have reappeared as Anton Karidian, head of a troupe of Shakespearean actors travelling the Federation. The episode revolves around Kirk's search for the truth of the Kodos/Karidian connection and his usual pursuit of the beautiful woman - who in this case is Karidian's daughter and who has her own closet skeletons. This episode features a nice scene in which Kirk takes Lenore to the Enterprise's observation deck from where you can view the stars on one side, and the shuttle bay from the other. Unfortunately, the show's low budget prevented us from seeing down into the shuttle bay, but it's still neat to be given a look at a part of the starship not normally featured.

Volume 7: "The Galileo Seven" and "Court Martial"

"The Galileo Seven" (first season) recounts Spock's first command - a shuttlecraft with a crew of seven that crash lands on a barren planet that turns out to be inhabited by big and mean creatures. He faces a mini-mutiny of his crewmembers, who don't like his coldly logical way of dealing with their desperate situation and think he needs a lesson in compassion. Meanwhile, Kirk and the Enterprise are searching for the Galileo seven, running up against a deadline at which they must leave to deliver some vital medicine to a rendezvous point a few days off. In the end, Spock saves them with a most human display of emotion, which the rest of the regulars won't let him forget.

"Court Martial" (first season) sees Kirk accused of losing it in a crisis situation, resulting in the death of a crewman. The most damning witness against him is a computer record that clearly shows him "jettisoning the pod" prematurely. The prosecution, led by yet another of Kirk's old flames, pounces on this to prove its case and Kirk, his lawyer, and Spock, must find a way to prove the record was faked if they're to save Kirk's career and reputation. Court Martial has a couple of bad dropouts, which are undoubtedly on the source material, but overall it looks and sounds fabulous. Considering how great the series looks as a whole, we can easily forgive these dropouts and they by no means spoiled our enjoyment of the episode.

Volume 8: "The Menagerie"

"The Menagerie" (first season) is one of Star Trek's finest moments. Originally planned as a way to gain a week in the production schedule by using footage from the series' first pilot episode ("The Cage," later released on video as well), it tells the tale of Spock's court martial for committing the one crime for which the Federation has retained the death penalty. Naturally, Spock has a good reason for doing this: he's trying to offer his former Captain, Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) a chance at a satisfying life now that he's been horribly maimed and disfigured in an accident.
The two part episode uses the earlier footage as a kind of "TV Show in a TV Show" as the court martial witnesses the earlier events both as part of Spock's defense and to show his reasoning and justification for taking things into his own hands. "The Menagerie" won science fiction's Hugo Award and is among the series' most honored episodes - and thanks to Paramount's digital treatment it has never looked or sounded better.

Volume 9: "Shore Leave" and "The Squire of Gothos"

"Shore Leave" (first season) was written by literary sci-fi giant Theodore Sturgeon, and is a gentle tale about fantasies becoming reality - and how important it is to think before wishing. The Enterprise crew, worn out from arduous service, comes across an Earth-like planet that looks tailor made for a little "R&R," so they start beaming down for some time off. Then all hell starts breaking loose as strange events and apparitions begin appearing and wreaking havoc on the crew's peaceful respite. The episode provides some interesting insight into Kirk's background as he meets his nemesis from the Academy - a guy named Finnegan who made the young Jim Kirk's life a living hell during this salad days. He also, not surprisingly, gets the girl - though this time it's via a blast from his past.
"Shore Leave" has some nice but subtle surround effects remixed from the original mono: a kind of wind chime noise that emanates gently from the rear channels.

"The Squire of Gothos" (first season), is an all-powerful being who lives alone on an inhospitable planet that just happens to have a pocket of Earth-type environment on it. Trelane, the self-styled squire (William Campbell, who'd later be the head Klingon in "The Trouble with Tribbles"), drags Kirk and associates to the planet and uses his powers to play cruel mind games on them. Yet there's something strange about this creature who's so omnipotent, but who can't get the basic details of Earth society right. Is he a God, a demon, or just a spoiled brat? Trelane foreshadows Jean Luc Picard's favorite nemesis "Q" from the Star Trek the Next Generation series.
The theme of absolute power corrupting absolutely is a Star Trek staple and, though it's handled better in episodes like "Where No Man Has Gone Before," "Gothos" puts a different spin on it because the entity wielding the power isn't really corrupt, just immature. It's a fairly lightweight episode, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Volume 10: "Arena" and "The Alternative Factor"

"Arena"(First Season) is a "Star Trek-ized" adaptation of the much superior Frederick Brown short story in which a human space pilot is pitted one-on-one against a spherical alien for the survival of their entire races. In the "Trek" version, Kirk and the Enterprise come under attack while investigating the destruction of a Starfleet base. They take off in pursuit of the invaders, only to invade the space of the Metrons - yet another omnipotent race. The Metrons will have no truck (or star ship) with warring factions messing up their corner of the universe, so they put Kirk and the invading Gorn leader onto a relatively barren planetoid to fight it out.
While not as good as the original story, it's still a pretty good "Trek" episode and the Dolby Digital remix has some wonderful surround effects as the Gorns lob missile after missile at Kirk and his Away Team. The missiles sound like they're launched from the rear left of the home theater, fly overhead, and explode on the planet surface on the TV screen. A remarkable re-mix from an old Mono soundtrack!

"The Alternative Factor" (First Season) also has some great audio effects that come courtesy of the remastering/remixing. Otherwise, however, it's arguably the first season's weakest episode. The Enterprise finds itself at the confluence of two parallel, and opposite, universes that are in danger of wiping each other out - much in the same way that matter and antimatter are supposed to destroy each other when they come into contact. At the center of the threat is a mysterious humanoid named Lazarus, who claims to be fighting an evil monster from the other side. But is he really fighting a monster - or is he the monster who threatens both universes?
The special effects of the "crossover" from one universe to the other were always cheesy, and the remarkably clean picture now makes them look even cheesier, unfortunately. This section, however, is also where the nifty audio effects come, so at least Paramount gave us something about which to cheer while wincing at the visual effects. And to be fair, all of these remastered episodes, while displaying the series' warts plainly, also make us applaud the remarkable imagination and dedication that allowed them to do so much with such few resources.

Volume 11: "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and "The Return of the Archons"

Tomorrow is Yesterday(First Season) is Star Trek's first trip back in time. The Enterprise is shot backwards, to 1960's USA, and spied as a UFO by the US military. They scramble a jet to intercept the UFO, but it breaks up during the pursuit, forcing the Enterprise to beam the pilot aboard to save his life. Then they're faced wit the dilemma of how to get him back without causing paradoxes in time that could destroy their future present.

The Return of the Archons (First Season) sees the Enterprise crew being threated by group mind control. They beam down to Beta III to find out what happened to the USS Archon, which visited there a hundred years before. Well, they find out! The planet is now populated by blissfully serene and unaware disciples of Landru, an all powerful "diety" that absorbs all people into "the Body." Guess who are next in line for absorption?

Volume 12: "A Taste of Armageddon" and "Space Seed"

A Taste of Armageddon(First Season) brings the horrors of war to a solar system that has made war clean and almost painless.
When the Enterprise approaches Eminiar VII, all seems calm until the residents inform the ship that it has been labeled a casualty and orders the crew down to the planet for diposition. Naturally, Kirk isn't going to stand still for this, so once again he violates the Prime Directive, taking their war from a computer controlled simulation to a real, live shooting war that leaves the natives with only one choice: fight for real and die horribly, or make peace.

Space Seed (First Season) was the episode that introduced Khan, the villian of Star Trek II - The Wrath of Kahn.
The Enterprise comes across the derelict SS Botany Bay, which still carries a cargo of sleeping humans. These people turn out to be supermen genetically engineered in the late 20th century, led by Khan Noonian Singh - a despot whose movement to bring order to humanity caused a great war in his original life. Now he sets his sights on the Enterprise as his tool of conquest of the Federation.

Volume 13: "This Side of Paradise" and "The Devil in the Dark"

"This Side of Paradise"(First Season) is a tale of paradise lost. This time, however, humanity (and Vulcans, of course) isn't thrown out of paradise; as Kirk notes at the episode's end, leaving paradise was voluntary.
The Enterprise arrives at Omicron Ceti III to search for survivors of a colony that had the misfortune to be created on a planet bombarded by deadly rays. To the crew's surprise, however, not only is everyone alive and well, but they're physically perfect. Kirk smells a rat, but unfortunately his crew comes under the influence of the strange force keeping the colonists alive, and he's left to fight the battle on his own.
The episode features some nice scenes of Nimoy's Spock, free of his Vulcan mask and able to let his emotions flow, and there are some humorous scenes as well. In all, it's a pretty good entry into the series, but not one of the real powerhouses.
The picture doesn't seem as clean as on some of the other original series episodes, but it's still far better than you'd expect from VHS or laserdisc. Audio quality is as we've come to expect from this DVD series.

"The Devil in the Dark" (First Season) is a charming - and politically correct before there was political correctness - story about how misunderstanding can cause conflict between people (or in this case, species).
The Enterprise is called to a mining colony that's been the scene of several grisly murders. During the course of their investigation, Kirk and Spock discover a previously-unknown Silicon-based life form that has been killing the miners. The episode includes McCoy's great line "I'm a doctor, not a brick layer." Full of the usual Star Trek plot holes (like "what happens when the Horta have tunneled everywhere?") that only spoil the episode if you stop to think about them.
It's a good episode, written by series producer Gene Coon. Picture and sound quality are up to snuff, though the high resolution reveals the scary Horta as looking basically like a foam rubber carpet. This was NBC's fault in 1967, however, for giving the series such a low budget. On the whole, the producers did one heck of a job with what they had.

Volume 14: "Errand of Mercy" and "The City on the Edge of Forever"

"Errand of Mercy"(First Season) is a our introduction to "those Klingon bastards," and it's a good one.
The Federation, on the brink of war with the Klingon Empire, sends the Enterprise to the strategically important planet of Organia in order to befriend the natives and prevent a Klingon takeover. It doesn't work, of course, and Kirk and Spock find themselves stranded on this planet of apparently sheeplike aliens as the Klingon Commander Kor (the late John Colicos) takes over as military governor.
Kirk and Spock try to teach the natives to fight back, but to no avail. In the end, both sides discover the Organians aren't what they appear, and there's a delicious scene in which Kor and Kirk are both arguing in favor of waging war - much to Kirk's chagrin.
Picture and sound, as with the rest of this DVD series, are terrific.

"The City on the Edge of Forever" (First Season) is the Hugo-winning tale of James Kirk and Edith Keeler (Joan Collins) and Kirk's heartbreaking choice for her future.
Credited to famed Sci-Fi egotist Harlan Ellison, who we understand was mighty upset that his words were rewritten, the story revolves around Kirk and Spock's trip back to depression-era New York via a time portal. They have to undo whatever damage McCoy did to the past while in a medicine overdose-induced state - damage that has caused the Star Trek present to cease to be. Kirk and Spock discover that Edith Keeler is at the confluence of time, and their actions regarding her ultimate fate may determine their own ultimate fates and those of their entire "reality."
It's a funny and sad story, and despite Ellison's angst it really is an example of Star Trek at its best. Naturally, the digital magic given the DVD by Paramount adds to your enjoyment of this classic episode.

Volume 15: "Operation-Annihilate!" and "Catspaw"

"Operation-Annihilate!"(First Season) is "Star Trek's" version of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters. It has the Enterprise arriving at the Deneva colony (where Kirk's brother and his family live), only to find it has been taken over by a parasitical alien life form that bends other races to its wishes.
Spock gets infected, but since he's half Vulcan he manages to control the beast within and goes back to work trying to solve the mystery of how to kill the aliens without harming the hosts.
Much to the viewer's surprise, we're sure, they figure it out and all's well that ends well. There's a bit of an "aw, gee" involving Spock's miraculous recovery at the end of the episode, but it's still typically and conveniently "Star Trek."
Audio and video quality, as with most of the rest of this DVD series, are absolutely wonderful.

"Catspaw" (Second Season) was written by Hugo Award-winning writer Robert (Psycho) Bloch, and is a fitting Halloween episode of the series.
The Enterprise is captured by apparently omnipotent aliens who turn some of the crew into zombies to do their bidding. There's magic, black cats, familiars, and voodoo on tap.
This episode shows the downside of Paramount's terrific digital remastering and restoration, because at the end, when the true form of the aliens is revealed, you can clearly see the the black strings holding up what are plainly marionettes.
Oh, well. That's what we get for wanting perfection...
Other than that, the audio/video quality are up to the series terrific new standard.

Volume 16: "Metamorphosis" and "Friday's Child"

"Metamorphosis"(Second Season) is a warmhearted tale of love and the lengths to which some life forms will go to experience it.
While ferrying a Federation commissioner (Elinor Donahue) to the Enterprise via Shuttlecraft, they're apparently attacked by a mysterious cloud that takes them to a strange planet inhabited, it turns out, by Zefrem Cochrane. He's the guy who invented the warp drive in "Star Trek: First Contact," the best of the "Next Generation" movies to date - except in that movie he's on Earth and in "Metamorphosis" they say he was from Alpha Centauri.
Go Figure.
Don't let that spoil your enjoyment of the story, though. It turns out that cloud is actually a living creature, which Cochrane calls "The Companion" who's been protecting and providing for him for a couple of hundred years. Ah, love, it makes the universe go 'round...
Picture and sound, as usual, are first rate.

"Friday's Child" (Second Season)
Another Kingon episode, this one has Kirk and a landing party caught up in extraterrestrial relations. They're trying to negotiate a treaty, but when Kirk saves the life of the planet's leader's wife, he unknowingly has broken a taboo and given an opening to the Klingons for them to pursue the negotiations. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy go on the lam, while the Enterprise leaves orbit and heads out on a wild goose chase staged by the Klingons.
Not one of the series' best episodes, it does let us see McCoy with his most crusty - yet perhaps most effective - bedside manner. "Ootchee Wootchee Kootchee Koo?"

Volume 17: "Who Mourns for Adonis" and "Amok Time"

"Who Mourns for Adonis"(Second Season) finds the Enterprise accosted in space by an apparition that resembles a giant hand - almost like "a hand of God."
Funny enough, it is a hand of God - the God Apollo, no less. He's the last of the line of ancient superbeings and now, lonely, he wants humans to once again worship him and tend his flocks.
Humanity has no use for Gods any more, though, now that the great God of Science has made the old style Gods obsolete. This doesn't sit well with Apollo who, in typical ancient God tradition, is full of bluster, lightning, and to do when people don't bow down before him any more.
In order to escape, Kirk and his captive crew must destroy Apollo, regrettably.
Picture and sound quality aren't as good as on some of these discs, but on the whole it's still a first rate presentation.

"Amok Time" (Second Season)
Another episode written by science fiction giant Theodore Sturgeon, "Amok Time" deals with the downside of Vulcan logic. It turns out, after Spock takes a decidedly looney turn while on duty aboard the Enterprise, that his race pays a price for its absolute control of its emotions. Periodically, Vulcan males find their veneer of logic stripped from them, and they become emotional basked cases, forced to return home to Vulcan to "spawn."
Spock, it turns out, has a financee waiting for him on Vulcan, and he must go be wed. Unfortunately, she has other things in mind and has hatched a scheme by which Kirk must fight Spock to the death so the First Officer can win the hand of the woman who doesn't want him.
Audio and video quality are very good on this episode. Vulcan does, indeed, look hot!

Volume 18: "The Doomsday Machine" and "Wolf in the Fold"

"The Doomsday Machine"(Second Season) introduces us to Commodore Matt Decker (William Windom), whose son gets heaved from the center seat in "Star Trek - The Motion Picture."
Decker was commanding the USS Constellation when it had a runin with the title object, a galaxy-roaming droid that digests planets for fuel. The Constellation and her crew came up with the short end of the stick in that encounter, and is now derelict in space.
Obsessed with destroying the planet killer, Decker takes control of the Enterprise while Kirk's on the Constellation and sends it into battle with the huge robot. Will Kirk and crew manage to prevail and destroy the planet killer before Decker destroys their ship?
A pretty good episode, penned by Scifi author Norman Spinrad, the DVD isn't up to the standards of most other ones in this series. Picture quality's pretty good, but softer than other episodes.

"Wolf in the Fold" (Second Season) asks "What if Jack the Ripper were really a non-human entity that headed out into space with the human race to wreak its horror across the Federation.
Written by Robert Bloch, we see Scotty accused of the horribly violent stabbing deaths of an increasing number of Argelian women. Scotty doesn't remember if he did it or not, so can't clear himself. The episode is mostly courtroom drama, with some funny moments involving the Enterprise crew getting stoned on some sedative in order to prevent the entity from invading their bodies. John Fiedler, a high pitched voiced character actor, makes an interesting bad guy. His mousy exterior and milquetoast delivery make it surprising when we find out his true identity - unless you've seen the episode a few times (as most fans undoubtedly have).
As with "Doomsday Machine," the picture quality isn't up to the high standards of other ST-TOS DVD's, nor is the audio - but it's still pretty good.

Volume 19: "The Changeling" and "The Apple"

The Changeling (Second Season) is basically the same story as inflicted upon us in "Star Trek-the Motion Picture," without the big budget. In deep space, the Enterprise encounters Nomad, a space probe launched from Earth a couple of hundred years earlier. The only problem is that Nomad has changed since its launch; an accident destroyed most of its original programming, and an encounter - and melding - with an alien probe has changed its mission so that, instead of looking for new life forms, it's looking for perfect life forms and exterminating those it deems as less than perfect.
Well, you can just guess what it thinks about poor, imperfect humans. Fortunately, Nomad also thinks Kirk is its mother, in the form of Nomad's inventor Jackson Roykirk. This gives Kirk and the crew the time they need to figure things out and out-logic Nomad's computer brain. In many ways, the story is superior to "ST-TMP," but the production values are obviously greatly inferior.
Still, the audio and video are as top notch as we've come to expect with this series, so it's a good view regardless of the warts inflicted by the series' low budget.

The Apple (second season) features yet another blatant violation of the Prime Directive, but it's supposedly made necessary in order to save the Enterprise. Kirk and a landing party are on an apparent paradise, though one that can turn deadly if you don't watch where your step. They come across a race, the "Children of Vaal," who are in arrested development, living merely to provide nourishment for their God Vaal.
This Vaal is actually a machine that's part planetary defense mechanism and part, well, plot device. As a planetary defense mechanim, it's bringing the Enterprise downward so that, if Scotty can't figure out some solution worthy of a miracle worker, it'll burn up in the planet's atmosphere. To save the ship Kirk has Scott phaser Vaal out of existence, which throws the planet's society onto its own resources, and a very uncertain (but free) future.
The video quality is generally excellent, though there are some dropouts that look as if they hearken back to the original film source. Paramount has also added some nice surround sound effects, either the pastoral-like sounds of the planet at rest, or the thunder and lightening Vaal uses to show his displeasure.

Volume 20: "Mirror, Mirror" and "The Deadly Years"

Mirror, Mirror (Second Season) is a neat yarn that sees Kirk, McCoy, and Uhura transported into a topsy turvy parallel universe where the Federation looks more like the Klingon Empire than the benevolent and politcally correct organization we all know and love. In this time and space frame, promotion comes from assassination, and Kirk has risen to the top of his profession by being the most ruthless dude around. Naturally, the real Enterprise crew don't think too much of this and want to get home ASAP.
The "not Spock" is particularly interesting, in that he has all of the real Spock's logic, yet seems to fit seamlessly into the savage scenario in which he finds himself. Still, he's Spock to a "T," and uses his Vulcan logic to figure out what's going on and then to help Kirk et al get back home so he can get his "real" Captain back.
Video and audio quality are up to the standards of Paramount's remastering. The overall quality of the second season doesn't seem quite as good as the first, but it's still first rate on the whole.

The Deadly Years (second season) sees Kirk and a landing party infected by an unknown disease that causes them to age extremely rapidly, shortening their life spans to a mere matter of days. As McCoy and the medical team try to find a cure, the Enterprise comes under attack from the Romulans after a green, but high ranking, officer takes the ship into the Neutral Zone.
This is a pretty good episode that shows that having a title or some letters behind your name doesn't necessarily mean you know anything, something college grads should keep in mind.
The high quality of the video remastering actually works against this episode a bit, because the old age makeup comes off looking a tad hokey, especially on Shatner. Still, it also showcases the hard work and imagination of the makeup team, who had to pull off the aging with a small budget and very limited time.

Volume 21: "I, Mudd" and "The Trouble With Tribbles"

I, Mudd(Second Season) is kind of a sequel to "Mudd's Women." The Enterprise is abducted by a high tech android and diverted to an uncharted planet that, as it turns out, just happens to be populated by androids and ruled by Harcourt Fenton Mudd. He's bored with his paradise and wants to maroon the Enterprise's crew there so he can take their ship and go planet hopping with wild abandon.
One of the series funnier episodes, it gives most of the regulars something to do, which is nice for a change.
Video and audio quality are excellent.

The Trouble With Tribbles (second season) is one of Star Trek's most loved episodes. It was also writer David Gerrold's first professional sale.
This comedy episode sees Kirk et al, Federation bureaucrats, and the Klingons all at each other's figurative throats over Sherman's Planet, and a shipment of grain bound for the strategic world.
If you think Star Trek is just space adventure, or cerebral mind food, you haven't seen "The Trouble with Tribbles."
Audio and video are, as usual, easily up to snuff.

Volume 22: "Bread and Circuses" and "Journey to Babel"

Bread and Circuses(Second Season) pits Kirk against a modern day Roman empire. The Enterprise discovers the wreckage of the starship Beagle and, upon beaming down to the nearby planet to investigate, the landing party soon finds itself in the arena fighting for its life. Good interplay between the characters (including a bit of McCoy/Spock dialogue Paramount says it usually cut from the syndicated episodes) and a nice take on how humans make life or death decisions based on the choices facing them.
A bit of Christian reference in the episode is interesting considering how secular television has become since the 1960's.
Video and audio quality are top notch. Not a lot of suround here, as usual, but that's okay.

Journey to Babel (second season) is kind of a coming of age episode for Spock.
The Enterprise is tasked with ferrying a bunch of Federation diplomats to an important summit on Babel. Among the delegates on this highly charged trip is Sarek, Vulcan Ambassador and Spock's estranged father.
Between sickness and attempts on his life - and a suicide mission intruder on the outside, Spock is forced to choose between family duty and his commitment to Star Fleet in this entertaining look inside the Vulcan mind.
Video and audio quality, as usual, show the low budget (especially, in this episode, with the makeup), but that somehow adds to the charm of the series and the respect for the creators who did a lot with a little.

Volume 23: "A Private Little War" and "The Gamesters of Triskelion"

A Private Little War(Second Season) sees Kirk and company messing around with the Prime Directive again, this time to restore the balance of power on a developing planet.
It seems the Klingons have been arming one faction on the planet and not the other, in order to gain favor and advance the Klingon Empire when their allies take over the planet.
Kirk, who visited the planet some 13 years before, gets attacked by a Mugato (a strange, pointy headed creature) and must submit to the ministrations of his friend's wife, a witch, a save him. That puts him under her spell - and she wants the Federation to start giving her side weapons as well. How will Kirk balance the Prime Directive with what's right - and what he's forced to do?
Video and audio quality are up to their usual standards here though, as with most of the episodes, there isn't a lot of suround effects. Any surround effects are bonuses, though!

The Gamesters of Triskelion (second season) are a trio of disembodied things who live to gamble.
Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov are intercepted while transporting down to a planet and find themselves on Triskelion, where they are to be trained as thralls - gladiator slaves who fight for the amusement of the "providers."
Understandably upset over their new fate, the Enterprise trio do all they can to resist, while the crew of their starship searches far and wide across the galaxy for clues as to what happened to Kirk and company.
Eventually, the Enterprise tracks them down, only to find the crew pawns in a high stakes gamble between Kirk and the "providers." A neat episode in all.
Video and audio quality are up to the usual top notch standards.

Volume 24: "Obsession" and "The Immunity Syndrome"

Obsession(Second Season). When is a starship commander using intuition, as opposed to allowing his own feelings to color his command judgment? That's the theme of this episode.
A landing party comes into deadly contact with a strange, sickly sweet-smelling cloud that drains humans of all their red corpuscles, setting off alarm bells in Kirks mind.
The incident reminds him of a case from his own past when, as a young Lieutenant, he came into contact with a similar cloud - but that was on the other side of the galaxy, which means that if this is the same deadly creature it's capable of space travel and could therefore wreak all kinds of havoc on civiliztion. Kirk must battle his own demons, as well as the clock and the doubts of his closest friends, as he tries to figure out if he's right or if he's risking everything on a wild goose chase.
Video and audio quality are excellent as usual.

The Immunity Syndrome (second season) is billed as featuring some of the series' best special effects.
When a Vulcan ship and several star systems are destroyed, the Enterprise investigates only to find a huge area of black void in space - at the center of which is a gigantic, single cell being that's causing all the destruction.
As if that isn't bad enough, the 11,000 mile wide 'amoeba' appears to have stored enough energy to reproduce, meaning that instead of there only being one of these virus invading the galaxy, there'll be a whole "race" of them.
What to do? Spock gears himself up for the ultimate sacrifice in order to avenge the dead Vulcan crew and save the Enterprise and civilization as we know it. Will he die? Hint: he's a regular!
Video and audio quality are very good, and the effects of the giant germ are very good, as advertised.

Volume 25: "A Piece of the Action" and "By Any Other Name"

A Piece of the Action(Second Season). With "The Trouble with Tribbles," this is one of Star Trek's funniest episodes.
The planet Iotia, visited 100 years previously by the U.S.S. Horizon, is due for a re-visit from the Enterprise and, much to their chagrin, they discover a society that has made leaps and bounds since the first contact - but leaps and bounds in a very strange direction.
It seems that due to some kind of contamination from the earlier starship, the Iotians (an imitative people) have set up an entire society inspired by the Chicago gangsters of Old Earth's 1920's. The Enterprise crew finds themselves at the business end of their machine guns as big crime boss Bela Oxmyx decides to use the Enterprise's high tech weapons to perform hits on his competing bosses, taking over the entire planet.
Lots of laughs, with excellent video and audio quality.

By Any Other Name (second season) features "Forbidden Planet's" Warren Stevens as the leader of a band of invaders from the Andromeda galaxy.
Their planet is dying and they've entered the Milky Way galaxy looking for planets to conquer - but the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy destroyed their ship and they crash landed on the planet where the Enterprise finds them.
Their superior technology allows them to take over the Federation ship and, as they reduce the crew down to the size of little sponges, they prepare the ship for the long trip back to Andromeda to tell their people of their good luck.
Another good episode from an inconsistent second season.
Features the usual wonderfully restored and remastered video and audio.

Volume 26: "Return to Tomorrow" and "Patterns of Force"

Return to Tomorrow(Second Season). Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Ann Mulhall (Diana Muldaur, a familiar Star Trek guest star) lend their bodies to three super alien consciousnesses so they can build themselves new android bodies.
Sargon, his wife Thalassa, and their former enemy Henoch have been waiting for half a million years for someone to come along who can help them and, wouldn't you know, the first people to happen by are the crew of the Enterprise.
The request to borrow the bodies is benign enough, though the two human bodies require constant monitoring and attention lest they burn up from the increased metabolism of the aliens.
All goes well until Henoch, the alien inhabiting Spock decides he likes being half Vulcan and decides to keep the body - and convinces Thalassa to join him.
How can Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Mulhall get their bodies back? And since Mulhall is a guest star, will she live through the episode?
A heartwarming story, featuring the series new trademarked audio and video quality.

Patterns of Force (second season) is set on the planet Ekos, where scholar John Gill has been observing the dominant race there.
Unfortunately, when the Enterprise arrives to check things out, it's attacked by a nuclear missile - something the Ekosians shouldn't be able to develop yet.
It gets worse: it turns out the planet is dominated by next generation Nazis, as Gill's experiment in efficient government has gone awry and spawned instead a horrible, totalitarian society that's waging a war of hatred on its neighbors and anyone who stands in their way.
Rather predictable, and they kind of beat you over the head with things, but enjoyable nonetheless. And watch for a forerunner to today's plasma televisions thanks to the Nazis' big screen TV's.
Video and audio quality are excellent.

Volume 27: "The Ultimate Computer" and "The Omega Glory"

The Ultimate Computer(Second Season). Can a computer replace a starship crew, running the ship more efficiently (and cheaper) than humans can?
That's the premise behind this episode, which sees the M5 computer plugged into the Enterprise and booted up to take the ship through some war games maneuvers. Naturally, things go horribly wrong and the M5 not only goes completely out of control, but learns how to defend itself as well. Can you say "HAL 9000?"
The episode's pretty good, as Kirk is forced to confront his own obsolescence in the name of "progress," and we're shown that regardless of how good technology gets, it's the humans who need to remain in charge. Kirk also shows that he's no slouch when it comes to "out-logicaling" a computer.
As with most of the last few episodes of the Second season, and most of the third, it's laid on a tad thick, but on the whole it's a pretty enjoyable episode, with excellent picture and sound quality.

The Omega Glory (second season) really beats you over the head with its 1960's, cold war liberalism.
Gene Roddenberry is credited with writing this episode, in which Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find themselves locked in mortal combat with a misguided and renegade starship captain (Morgan Woodward) who thinks he has discovered a fountain of youth on the planet.
What we have instead is a heavy handed parable of Yankees versus Communists, in which the commies won 'way back in prehistory and the rag tag remnants of that planet's America are forced to live nomadic lives in the countryside.
Not one of Star Trek's finer moments, the action and adventure take a back seat to preachy speechmaking on the benefits of US-style democracy where, while the message is fine, the venue (Star Trek) is all wrong.
Fortunately, the picture and sound quality are up to this series' first rate standards.

Volume 28: "Assignment: Earth" and "Spectre of the Gun"

Assignment: Earth(Second Season). This was actually the pilot episode for an unsold Gene Roddenberry Star Trek spinoff.
Gary Seven is a human who was raised on an advanced alien planet. He shows up in the Enterprise's transporter room while being sent to 1960's Earth to, well, we don't know exactly what he's there to do. He claims to be working to save humanity, but he could just as easily be working to destroy it - and therein lies Kirk's conundrum: does he let Seven go and finish his job, thereby possibly ending the future of humanity of which the Enterprise crew and all they know no longer exist, or does he prevent Seven from doing his duty - possibly ending the very same future?
The episode is most remarkable for the appearance of a very young Teri Garr (Terri in the credits) in a humorous guest role as Seven's secretary.
Audio and video quality are very good, and there's some decent surround sound in this one.

Spectre of the Gun (third season) mixes legends of the old west with the high tech Enterprise as Kirk, McCoy, Spock, and Chekov are forced to reenact the battle of the OK corral. It seems the Enterprise, while trying to make peaceful contact with the Melkotians, has rubbed this alien race the wrong way, and they decide to put Kirk to death by pulling the OK corral episode from his brain.
Kirk and the landing party play the Clanton gang, who are scheduled to be gunned down in cold blood by the nasty Earp crew who control the town of Tombstone. What can they do to ensure that history doesn't repeat itself on the far off planet of Melkot?
A heavy handed episode that indicates just how much out of steam the original Star Trek series was getting. What's next? An episode in which they have to act out "Lost in Space?"
The usual excellent audio and video are on tap here, fortunately.

Volume 29: "Elaan of Troyius" and "The Paradise Syndrome"

Elaan of Troyius(Third Season). Heavy handed, but at least Kirk gets laid again.
Star Fleet orders the Enterprise to transport envoys from warring planets - the lovely but obnoxious Dohlman of Elas and the ambassador from the opposing planet of Troyius. The Dohlman is to marry the head of Troyius, bringing an end to the war between the planets, but she doesn't want any part of it and does her best to scuttle the mission even before she gets to Troyius.
Kirk is forced to act as Henry Higgins to her Eliza Doolittle and prepare her for civilized society and her duty to marry a man she doesn't love, despite the fact that they fall in love with each other.
Meanwhile, the Klingons are determined to scuttle the mission themselves, for their own particular reasons.
Excellent audio and video quality, with some neat surround effects.

The Paradise Syndrome (third season) sees Kirk lose his memory while on an idyllic planet surveying the place in preparation for the Enterprise deflecting an asteroid away from the planet before it slams to the earth.
Kirk emerges from a large obelisk that has religious significance to the band of North American aboriginal-compatibles who inhabit the planet. They mistake him for a god, much to the chagrin of the tribe's medicine man.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise is forced to spend weeks travelling at sublight speeds, just ahead of the asteroid, before it can return to the planet to find out what the heck happened to Kirk, who in the meantime has fallen in love with, married, and impregnated the beautiful Miramanee.
Heartwarming, but predictable - and what an unhappy coincidence that the series of tones that opens the obelisk just happens to be "Kirk to Enterprise."
Great picture and sound; the third season may be (well, is) the weakest as far as episodes goes, but the DVD's so far are great!

Volume 30: "The Enterprise Incident" and "And the Children Shall Lead"

The Enterprise Incident(Third Season). Kirk appears to have succumbed to the pressures of command and orders the Enterprise through the Neutral Zone and into Romulan space, where it's captured by a small fleet of Romulan/Klingon vessels.
The Romulan commander, who wants the Enterprise as a trophy to take back with her, starts courting Spock, trying to get him to defect to the Romulan Empire with promises of a command of his own - and her in the bargain.
It turns out the Enterprise is there for a very good reason, however, and Kirk and Spock are working in cahoots in order to, well, you'll just have to watch this episode to see for yourself. One of the best of the third season episodes.
Audio and video quality are excellent, and there are some great shots of the spaceships in action that look particularly good on a big screen.

And the Children Shall Lead (third season) All the adults of the Triacus colony appear to have committed suicide, leaving their children behind. The kids, however, are happy little tykes who display no sorrow for the loss of their families. This sets off alarm bells for Kirk, McCoy and the gang, who eventually discover that an alien life form is using the kids for its own nefarious ends.
Not surprisingly, the alien uses the kids to commandeer the Enterprise and all Hell breaks loose as the ship's crew begins suffering from the same anxiety attacks that took the lives of the adults on Triacus.
Attorney Melvin Belli, for some reason, was cast as the evil alien creature. He's fine, fortunately.
The audio and video are up to the DVD series' standards, which is nice. If only the writing were....

Volume 31: "Spock's Brain" and "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"

Spock's Brain (third season) sees the Enterprise invaded by a strange female who, once the lights have come back on, appears to have made off with Spock's Brain, leaving his body intact on the Enterprise. Kirk and his landing party, including McCoy and a remote controlled Spock's body, discover a planet from which the woman originated.
Following her there, they come upon an underground civilization run by females, but controlled by a super computer whose CPU now happens to be: Spock's Brain! They have to recapture Spock's brain and put it back into his body before time runs out.
Not one of the most inspiring of the Star Trek episodes, and definitely an indication of why the series was probably right to have been cancelled after the third season. Picture and sound, however, are as excellent as we've come to expect from this remastered series.

Is There in Truth No Beauty? (third season). Kirk and the Enterprise are assigned to transport the Medusan ambassador (subtle, eh?) and two humans: telepathic Dr. Miranda Jones (the ubiquitous Diana Muldaur) and the scientist who loves her, Lawrence Marvick. Dr. Jones is going to become the Medusan ambassador, despite the fact that humans who lay eyes on the horribly ugly Medusans go immediately and horribly insane. She can get around it, supposedly because she was schooled on Vulcan, and everyone knows Vulcans can do just about anything required of a Star Trek Episode.
It's really a story about prejudice, about ego and the things that drive people and other than the obvious and heavy handed Medusa parallels it isn't that bad an episode.
Audio and video quality are first rate, but that isn't surprising.

Volume 32: "The Empath" and "The Tholian Web"

The Empath (third season). Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are kidnapped by an alien race, the Vians, and put through all manner of tortures designed, they think, to entertain their captors. They're human guinea pigs, watched over by the aliens and a mute humanoid McCoy names Gem. She's an empath, who can take the injuries of another being onto herself, healing the victim at the expense of her own well being.
It turns out that it's really Gem who's on trial, not the Enterprise guys, as the Vians determine to pass judgement on her race as it faces destruction from an outside natural source.
Pretty weak, though Kathryn Hays as Gem makes you want her to be empathic to you, even if you don't have any injuries.
The video quality is bright and sharp, though once again the high resolution shows just how cheesy the effects of the original series were. Audio quality is also first rate, which is only to be expected.

The Tholian Web (third season). One of the more interesting Third Season episodes, this one sees the Enterprise in a strange, deteriorating section of space. They come across the derelict star ship Defiant, which is adrift and about to slide through a hole in their reality.
On the Defiant, Kirk and the landing party discover that everyone there went nuts and killed each other - and then the same thing starts on the Enterprise.
Kirk is marooned on the Defiant when the transporter doesn't let the whole landing party beam back, and is subsequently lost in the interphase between the universes. Lost to the Enterprise, this forces Spock to take command over the objections of McCoy, and there's some good conflict between the two co stars.
The video quality is very good, and the Tholians, their ships, and their web look really neat. The audio quality up to the standards set by Paramount for this series as well.

Volume 33: "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" and "Day of the Dove"

For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (third season). Long title, short on logic? Maybe, but this is really not a bad episode, in which McCoy diagnoses himself with a terminal disease and gives himself a year to live.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise comes upon a generation starship, planet Yonada, which is on a collision course with another astronomical body. Yonada's population live inside, oblivious to the fact that their world (which is hollow, not surprisingly), is really a spaceship launched by their ancestors to take them to a new home.
McCoy falls in love with their high priestess and decides to live out the rest of his life there, much to Kirk's chargrin (and, undoubtedly, Spock's delight). Fortunately, the Yonadans ancestors had superior medical knowledge, and McCoy is cured just in time for the closing credits and the next episode.
The video quality is very good on this episode, with that unfortuntely doubled edged sword that the great picture highlights Star Trek's general cheesiness when it comes to the production values they could mount on their limited budget. Audio quality is up to the rest of the series' standard, which is excellent.

Day of the Dove (third season). A morality tale in which the Enterprise is taken over by a strange being that gets its energy from hate, conflict and death (Its name, coincidentally, was Osama bin Laden). An equal number of Enterprise crew and evil Klingons are armed with swords (the better to hack with than the relatively clean-killing phaser) and forced to go it to eternity to feed the alien creature.
Death doesn't even save them; if you're dead, you come back to life to fight again, kind of like "Night of the Living Dead" without feeding on the living.
Fortunately, the good guys figure out that good spirits can weaken the alien and they enlist the reluctant help of the Klingons to have a rip roarin' good time driving the creature from the Enterprise.
Excellent video and audio quality.

Volume 34: "Plato's Stepchildren" and "Wink of an Eye"

Plato's Stepchildren (third season). Absolute power corrputs. The Enterprise is lured to the planet Platonius, where the leader Parmen is sick and in need of McCoy's expertise.
These guys have developed telekinetic powers that can not only move object, but force other beings to do their will, even against their will. They want McCoy to stay with them, in case of more sickness, and humiliate Kirk and Spock with their powers in an attempt to force McCoy to stay of his own accord.
The episode actually stands up rather well. We didn't think much of it when it first aired, but enjoyed it more thirty some years later. This is also the famed "first interracial kiss" on US Network TV - as Kirk and Uhura are forced to kiss. Not sexy, nor romantic, but interracial - if you care about such things.
Excellent audio and video quality, with bright colors and sharp images.

Wink of an Eye (third season). Kind of a neat concept, though a tad silly.
The Enterprise is taken over by the few remaining people from the planet Scalos, beings who look and act human, but who are accelerated so that the humans appear as status to them, and they are invisible to humans except for a mosquito-like hum.
The Scalosian queen kidnaps Kirk by accelerating him to their level, intending to keep him - and eventually the rest of the crew - around as breeding stock. This rubs Kirk the wrong way (he doesn't mind breeding, of course, but he doesn't take to being forced into it).
Fortunately, Spock and McCoy figure out the plot and with Kirk's help they foil the aliens, who aren't really evil but are just desperate to survive.
The video quality is pristine, as is the audio.

Volume 35: "That Which Survives" and "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"

That Which Survives (third season). Lee Meriwhether guest stars as Losira, a long dead woman who kills with her touch. Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, and an expendable non-regular beam down to Losira's planet, then get stuck there when a power surge throws the Enterprise a thousand light years away. The landing party is forced to hang on by their fingernails on the unstable planet, avoiding various nasty deaths including that from Losira, while the Enterprise crew must cope with a sabotaged ship that could blow up around them. One of the better third season offerings

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (third season). With the subtlety of a sledgehammer, the Star Trek producers spin a yarn about racial tolerance. Lokai, a half black fugitive, is beamed aboard the Enterprise followed soon after by his pursuer Bele (Frank "the Riddler" Gorshin), who's half white. Well, they're virtually identical, one black on the left side and white on the other and the other the same in reverse. Yet this difference is enough to make them hate each other's guts and thereby give the writers and producers a chance for some heavy handed moralizing.
Not one of Trek's finest moments, despite the noble sentiments.

Volume 36: "Whom Gods Destroy" and "The Mark of Gideon"

Whom Gods Destroy (third season). Here's a case where the inmates really do run the asylum. The Enterprise is delivering a wonder drug to a facility for the criminally insane, but the fly in this ointment is Garth (That's Lord Garth to you!), a shapeshifting inmate who has led a revolt and taken over the place. Garth wants to steal the Enterprise and use it to take over the galaxy, something we've never heard of before have we?
Anyway, he puts the bag on Kirk and looks almost set to win - but of course he doesn't. Not bad, but not one of the series' stronger episodes.

The Mark of Gideon (third season). The Enterprise arrives at planet Gideon, hoping to get it to join the United Federation of Planets. But when Kirk beams down to the planet, he discovers himself apparently back on a deserted Enterprise, his only companion the usually decorative woman guest star. She's Odona, and despite her name sounding like a deodorant she's there on a mission we only find out much later. So Kirk must figure out where he is and why, while on the Enterprise Spock has to figure out the same things - and the Gideons aren't cooperating. A story of the perils of overpopulation; not as hamhanded as the racial themes of "Battlefield," but still pretty obvious.

Volume 37: "The Lights of Zetar" and "The Cloud Minders"

The Lights of Zetar (third season). This could be subtitled "Scotty in Love," and isn't it interesting to see the crusty chief engineer taking an interest in something besides his technical manuals?
Lt. Mira Romaine, named after lettuce, is on her way to her first deep space assignment, at the library planet Memory Alpha. An energy "Storm" destoys all life there (fortunately, before she arrives), then possesses her and threatens the Enterprise.
One of the more interesting third season outings, especially for its Scotty subplot. The audio is as good as usual, but the picture wasn't quite up to the standards Paramount set for this series.

The Cloud Minders (third season). Yet another morality tale whereby the elite live in a city floating in the clouds, while the workers toil in the mines below.
Kind of a liberal vision of the world if they ran things, though they'd never admit it.
The Enterprise goes to the planet Ardana, where cloud city is one of the galaxy's wonders, to get a shipment of zenite to cure a plauge on a federation planet. But the workers are upset with their lot in life and hold the shipment ransom until they're give a more fair lease on life.
Kirk and his cronies must once again violate the Prime Directive and throw a monkeywrench into the alien society's society in order to fulfill their mission of mercy.
Good video and audio quality.

Volume 38: "The Way to Eden" and "Requiem for Methusala"

The Way to Eden (third season). This episode is excellent evidence that Star Trek had shot its wad and was just as well cancelled when it was.
A band of interstellar hippies is arrested and brought aboard the Enterprie to be returned for trial. Among them is an old flame of Chekov who has shucked her respectable life in Starfleet to become a follower of Doctor Sevrin (not the jazz band leader!) and his quest to find the idyllic planet Eden, where everything will be wonderful.
The hippies manage to take over the Enterprise, surprise surprise, and take it into Romulan space where Eden should be located. Ah, but the apple of the garden of Eden isn't everything they had imagined...
Excellent audio and video, silly script.

Requiem for Methusala (third season). Looking for an antidote to a deadly fever that has struck the Enterprise, Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a planet where such an antidote, Ryetalin (maybe the fever gave the kids ADD) can be found. They find something else, too: a human named Flint whose collection of Earth memorabilia includes authentic works by such geniuses as Da Vinci and Brahms. He also has a young girl, Rayna, who naturally starts falling for Kirk - much to Flint's chagrin.
The inevitable battle of wills ensues, as Rayna's and Flint's secrets are discovered and the Ryetalin is delivered, saving the crew. Unfortunately, a really dumb ending sees Spock erase Kirk's memory of the events, preventing the blowhard captain from having a chance to learn from his experiences.
Excellent audio and video on this effort.

Volume 39: "The Savage Curtain" and "All Our Yesterdays"

The Savage Curtain (third season) provides a real blast from the past for Kirk and Spock. They're invited down to a supposedly uninhabitable planet by none other than Kirk's hero Abraham Lincoln and when they get there are joined by Spock's hero, who was "the father of modern Vulcan." This team is pitted by a rock-like creature against another team consisting of "the dark side" of civililzation in a battle to the death: if Kirk's team loses, the rock creature Yarnek will destroy the Enterprise.

All Our Yesterdays (third season) opens with the Enterprise on a mercy mission to save the residents of planet Sarpeidon before its sun explodes. But there's no one there except the planet's librarian, a Mr. Atoz, who it turns out has used a kind of time machine to send the planet's people to safety in the past. Kirk ends up being sent back accidentally, prompting McCoy and Spock to go after him, except that they arrive in a past where Spock is no longer the logical modern Vulcan, but a throwback to his race's violent past - and he now has his own agenda to push.

Volume 39: "Turnabout Intruder" and "The Cage"

Turnabout Intruder (third season) was the last of the original series' episodes and, with it, the show died not with a bang but with a whimper. Dr. Janice Lester, an angry and bitter woman PO'd about being a woman (a before its time look at modern feminism) manages to switch bodies with Kirk, thereby taking over the Enterprise and fulflling her delusions of grandeur. Unfortunately for her, she's a whacko and when the rest of the crew get to know her they realize there's something screwy afoot and refuse to follow her orders. This leads to their being accused of mutiny and sentenced to death. The series went to the gas chamber with them.
Just kidding...

The Cage. This was Star Trek's original pilot and except for the parts of it that showed up in "The Menagerie" was never seen for some thirty years. Paramount's including it as the windup episode for this DVD series is a welcome bonus, and they've done a good job of it.
The Cage is the tale of Captain Christopher Pike and his tribulations at the hands of the Talosians, a decrepit race that controls their and others' environments by the power of illusion.
A great episode, which probably explains why the network suits didn't understand it.
Paramount gives us two versions here, a reconstructed one that uses original black and white footage combined with the color stuff from The Menagerie, and a "restored" version that's all color, using more recently-discovered footage that was thought to have been destroyed.
We prefer the all color version, which looks and sounds terrific.

The overall quality of the third season, when compared with the first season especially, shows that the show was definitely running out of creative energy. So as hard as it may be for Trek true believers to swallow, it was probably for the best that the series was killed after its 79th episode and third season. Fortunately, the good things about the show lived on, and we now have a series of movies and a series of series that continue the Star Trek franchise.

In many ways the original series was the best; it comes from a more innocent time before political correctness took over. The best of this series was rarely challenged by anything that came after, with a few exceptions from Star Trek, the Next Generation, which is the next series Paramount will release on DVD.

We hope they do as great a job on it as they did on this series.

 

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Updated May 5, 2010