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.