See also my subsequent reviews of Season 2 linked here, Season 3 linked here, the Animated Series linked here, and the first six Star Trek movies linked here.
Over the past year, I've been watching all my Star Trek shows while I exercise on my treadmill, and have been writing a brief synopsis of them as I've been watching them. Here then is a character driven episode guide of the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series, with my thoughts about them and my personal letter grade ratings. I've included each and every appearance by the main cast, even if it's merely a walk-on. The main cast for the first season: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, James Doohan as Cheif Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Nichelle Nichols as communications officer Lt. Uhura, George Takai as helmsman Mr. Sulu, Majal Barrett as Nurse Chapel, and Grace Lee Whitney as the captain's Yeoman Janice Rand.So take a trip down memory lane, enjoy the primary colors, see how many of these you might recall, and let me know if you agree or disagree with my ratings!
(Original
Pilot): The Cage
Grade: B
The only regular
character from the rest of the series here is Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock,
although in this original pilot, the Vulcan species wasn’t developed at all,
and Mr. Spock has obvious emotions here.
The logical, emotionless one is Majel Barrett as the second in command,
named simply “Number One”. Later married
to series creator Gene Roddenberry, she would go on to play background
character Nurse Chapel in The Original
Series and a recurring guest character Lwaxana Troi on The Next Generation and Deep
Space Nine, as well as the voice of the Starfleet computer throughout all
the shows. Captain Christopher Pike is
played by Jeffrey Hunter, and other main guest characters include Vina (Susan
Oliver) and Meg Wyllie as The Keeper (the leader of the Talosians). Background characters who made a strong
appearance here included Dr. Boyce (John Hoyt), who has a heart to heart with
the Captain, Yeoman Colt (Laurel Goodwin), who is kidnapped by the Talosians
along with the Captain and Number One, and Peter Duryea as Lt. Tyler, a rather
overeager young space cadet. If this first pilot had sold the series,
these actors would most likely have been series regulars.
The
Man Trap
Grade: B
Of
the guest stars, the highlight here is the shape-shifting Salt Vampire which masquerades
as different people, but is mostly seen by others as Nancy Crater (Jeanne
Bal). The other major guest star is
Nancy’s husband, Professor Crater (Alfred Ryder), a crotchety old scientist who
knows Nancy is not who she appears to be, but hides her secret. The main characters of Kirk, Spock, and Nancy’s
old flame Dr. McCoy are all used well, and some of the other recurring
characters were each given some great character moments as well: Mr. Sulu and Yeoman
Rand for instance, who are menaced by
the creature disguised as Crewman Green (Bruce Watson), and Lt. Uhura has an
interesting conversation with Spock before her near-fatal encounter with the
alien of the week disguised as a black crewman (Vince Howard).
Charlie
X
Grade: B+
This
episode centers around Robert Walker Jr., giving a very strong performance as
the mysterious Charlie Evans, a teenage human boy with strange, and very
dangerous, alien powers. Kirk, Spock,
and McCoy have strong character moments, as well as Yeoman Rand as Charlie’s
unrequited object of love. When she
spurns him, he sends her into limbo, though no one knows if it is temporary or
permanent. Aside from that, the
character of Uhura has the most to do, and even sings a song about both Spock and
Charlie. Meanwhile, Janice tries to get
Charlie interested in a girl named Tina (Patricia McNulty), but Charlie later
turns her into a lizard!
Where
No Man Has Gone Before
Grade: A
Being
the second pilot, McCoy wasn’t in this episode, but Kirk is central, and Spock
has a pretty large role as the seemingly solitary voice of logic and
reason. Gary Lockwood gives a great
performance as the main guest star Gary Mitchell, who begins turning into a
rather vengeful God-character, and Sally Kellerman is equally good as Dr.
Elizabeth Dehner. Perhaps the strongest
secondary character is Paul Carr as helmsman Lee Kelso. Paul Fix as Dr. Mark Piper is basically a
glorified walk-on, and speaking of walk-ons, the ones of note here are Scotty
and Sulu, the only other ones besides Kirk and Spock who would become series regulars.
The
Naked Time
Grade:
A
This
episode is famous among Trekkers as a showcase for the entire original cast,
since they catch a space disease that makes them lose their inhibitions. Spock cries, Nurse Chapel admits her love for
him, Kirk admits his love for his “beautiful yeoman” Janice Rand, who has
trouble getting to the bridge at one point and then is ordered to take over the
helm. Sulu pretends to be one of the Three
Musketeers, and guest star Bruce Hyde as navigator Kevin Riley locks himself in
engineering and sings an old Irish song over and over again (“I’ll take you
home again, Kathleen!”). Meanwhile, Dr.
McCoy is successful in curing the disease in the end, and Scotty performs a
cold start of the engines and ends up throwing the Enterprise into a small time
warp (the first one ever!) Secondary
characters include Stewart Moss as Joe Tormolen, who starts the whole mess, and
Uhura, who tries to stop Sulu’s fancy swordplay and is later reprimanded by
both Kirk (“Yes, I’ve found Mr. Spock!”) and Riley (“No ice cream for you
tonight!”)
The
Enemy Within
Grade:
C+
This
is the first episode to feature the problems that can arise from the use of a
transporter. Due to a transporter
malfunction, Captain Kirk is split into two men, one docile and good, the other
brutal and evil, and it examines the way a man needs both elements in order to
be a good leader, with Spock and McCoy relishing in the psychology of it
all. Still, it offers Shatner the chance
to overact shamelessly, which means this is the first merely average
episode. Scotty has his hands full
trying to fix the transporter, Sulu freezes on the planet below, and Rand is
attacked by the evil duplicate of Kirk. Sulu’s
alien dog is also split by the transporter, and dies being reintegrated.
Mudd’s
Women
Grade:
B+
Roger
C. Carmel makes a huge impression as fan favorite Harry Mudd, even with this
trio of beauties in the same episode. Of
these, Karen Steele as Eve makes the biggest impression as the one among them
that doesn’t like what she is. It is
through her character that the strongest statements about the nature of beauty
lie. Still, Susan Denberg as Magda has
more to do than Maggie Thrett as Ruth, who is merely another pretty face to
round out the trio. Of the regulars,
Kirk is in the spotlight, forced into a bad situation by comic space pirate
Mudd and with Eve being attracted to him.
And Gene Dynarski as space miner Childress manages a most impossible
task of being rather plain and gruff, yet not being overshadowed by such a
cast. Since the show is primarily about Mudd and his
women, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty only have a few things to do here, and Sulu and
Uhura are mere walk-ons.
What
Are Little Girls Made Of?
Grade:
B-
In
this episode, Captain Kirk and Nurse Chapel find her long lost fiancé Dr. Roger
Korby (Michael Strong), who is living isolated on a planet with several
androids. Kirk and Chapel are shocked
when it is revealed that Korby’s assistant Brown (Harry Basch) is an android,
and then later, his beautiful assistant Andrea (Sherry Jackson). Ted Cassidy (Lurch of The Addams Family) is Ruk, an android left behind by “The Old
Ones”, and he is the main threat in this episode. Spock is used when an android duplicate of
Kirk comes aboard the Enterprise spouting racist slurs, and Korby is eventually
revealed to be an android as well. Uhura
has a walk-on appearance in a few scenes.
Miri
Grade:
C+
Bonk!
Bonk! Bonk on the head! I liked seeing Kim Darby of True Grit fame and Michael J. Pollard of
Bonnie and Clyde fame here as the two
leaders of the children, Miri and Jahn, and they are both appealing in their
roles. This had some interesting ideas,
but Star Trek and children rarely mixed very well. This had some missed opportunities, such as
in the teaser when the Enterprise comes across an exact duplicate of Earth, and
then that idea was just dropped, and it also has some glaring holes in the
plot, such as 300 year old children that still act like children. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Rand are the main
characters here who catch the disease that killed all the adults on Miri’s
planet. Of the children, the ones used
most other than Miri or Jahn are Keith Taylor as Jahn’s best friend (the one
who gets that famous “Bonk Bonk” line), and Louise (Irene Sale) and the Boy
Creature (Ed McCready), who succumbed to the disease when they entered puberty.
Dagger
of the Mind
Grade:
C-
Not
a lot of action in this episode, making it merely average, plus the fact that
is allows the opportunity for William Shatner to overact shamelessly again as
he becomes a victim of the mind control device known as the Neural
Neutralizer. There are also no secondary
characters really, just the primary characters of Kirk, Dr. Noel (Marianna
Hill), and Dr. Adams (James Gregory) on the penal colony planet and Spock,
McCoy, and Dr. Van Gelder (Morgan Woodward) on the ship, where Spock performs
the first Vulcan mind meld seen on the show, trying to gain from Van Gelder’s
tortured mind exactly what is going on in the penal colony below. Uhura can be spotted here, the inept transporter
operators actually make an impression in the first scene, and a few scenes here
and there spotlight a few of Dr. Adams’ colleagues and patients, such as Lethe
(Susanne Wasson), who has basically been turned into nothing but a mindless blank
slate by Dr. Adams.
The
Corbomite Maneuver
Grade:
B
Despite
the fact that the main alien Balok is actually a puppet (obviously) and then
turns out to be Clint Howard with a dubbed voice (even at this young age, he
looked like an alien without much help), this episode is still interesting due
to the way it shows the crew dealing with a nearly insurmountable crisis. Spock lets Kirk down because he can’t think
of any way to logically circumvent the issue (“Not chess, Mr. Spock; Poker”),
and Kirk and McCoy have a few heart to hearts, particularly about Crewman Bailey
(Anthony D. Call), a young navigator who flips his lid during the crisis. Meanwhile, Scotty mans the engines, Uhura
opens hailing frequencies, Rand makes coffee, and Sulu keeps a countdown of how
much time they all have left.
The
Menagerie, Part 1
Grade:
B+
Exciting
first half of the two parter using clips from the original pilot starring
Jeffrey Hunter as former Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike. Spock kidnaps his former captain, who is now
horribly injured (played by Sean Kenney), he commandeers the Enterprise, places
himself under arrest after taking the Enterprise to the planet Talos IV, which
has been restricted by Starfleet, and undergoes court martial proceedings that could
mean death for Spock and Pike, and a ruined career for Kirk. Malachi Throne gives a strong performance as
Comm. Mendez, and McCoy also has a lot to do here. Dr. Boyce, Vina, The Keeper, and Number One
make strong impressions here from the limited pilot footage, and although they
are merely walk-ons, there are a few nice character moments for Uhura and
Scotty. Hagan Beggs gets to command the
Enterprise for a time as the relief helmsman Lt. Hanson
The
Menagerie, Part 2
Grade:
B+
The
conclusion is not quite as satisfying as the first part of this tale, yet
Jeffery Hunter is always a welcome edition as Captain Christopher Pike. Other very strong appearances here include
Susan Oliver as Vina and Meg Wyllie as The Keeper, the leader of the
Talosians. Of course, the whole
two-parter centers on not just Pike, but Spock, on trial for his career and
life. Comm. Mendez is revealed to be an
illusion here, and not as strong as in the first half, though both Number One
and Yeoman Colt are very important characters in the footage from the original
pilot used (which was just about the entire show). Scotty and McCoy can merely be glimpsed in
the court room at one point, with no dialogue.
The
Conscience of the King
Grade:
B+
This
show is brilliant in paralleling the lives of Shakespearian actors with a
similar Shakespearian tragedy aboard the ship.
After Tom Leighton (William Sargent), a friend of Kirk’s, is murdered,
Kirk and Lt. Kevin Riley become the last remaining survivors who can positively
identify a butcher from their pasts, Kodos the Executioner, who ordered the
deaths of 4,000 people, and who they now suspect of being the actor Anton
Karidian (Arnold Moss). Spock and McCoy
express concerns over Kirk’s actions in trying to get to the bottom of the
mystery, and Lenore, Karidian’s daughter (Barbara Anderson), turns out to be
the killer, and quite insane. Uhura
sings a song, Martha Leighton (Natalie Norwick) cries for her dead husband, and
Rand’s appearance here is a literal walk-on, as she can be glimpsed only
briefly exiting the turbolift.
Balance
of Terror
Grade:
A
Every
Star Trek show has its major alien races, and in this original series, those
aliens are the Vulcans, the main human ally, and the Romulans and the Klingons,
the main adversaries. This episode
introduces the Romulans, who share a history and a bloodline with the
Vulcans. The episode is a cat and mouse
war game between Kirk and the Romulan Commander (Mark Lenard, who would later
play Spock’s father Sarek). The
navigator Stiles (Paul Comi) provides the voice of bigotry when the Romulans
are revealed to look like Vulcans. For
the other characters, McCoy adds to a delicious debate about war and gives a
wonderful speech about the vastness of the galaxy and our unique place in it,
and the characters of Tomlinson and Angela (Stephen Mines and Barbara Baldavin)
are about to be wed when tragedy strikes and kills the groom. The Centurion (John Warburton) and Decius (Lawrence
Montaigne) on the Romulan vessel are strong characters. Meanwhile, Scotty, Uhura, and Sulu are seen
throughout the episode doing their jobs on the bridge. Uhura even has to take over Navigation at one
point. This was the last appearance for
the character of Yeoman Janice Rand.
Shore
Leave
Grade:
A
A
fun Holodeck episode decades before the Holodeck was actually introduced into
the live action shows on The Next
Generation! The thoughts of the crew
become real, both pleasant and painful, on an otherwise idyllic planet. While Kirk and McCoy get all the fun this
time, and even Sulu, Spock eventually horns in, leaving Uhura and the bridge
(and Scotty doesn’t appear at all!).
Yeoman Barrows (Emily Banks) has a rather substantial role here, and we
find that Angela, who lost her fiancé Tomlinson in the last episode, has
already moved on to another guy named Estaban Rodriquez (Perry Lopez). As for the characters they meet on the planet
below, the standouts are Kirk’s old flame Ruth (Shirley Bonne) and Finnegan
(Bruce Mars), an Irish wiseacre who used to bully Kirk. The Caretaker of the planet (Oliver McGowan) reveals
all in the end.
The
Galileo Seven
Grade:
B-
This
episode loses a point for the Sasquatch-like creatures, which are large actors
wearing cheap rugs. The episode centers
on Spock during his first command, in which logic doesn’t help, and McCoy and
Boma (Don Marshall) are constant, bickering thorns in his side. Scotty has his hands full trying to repair
the downed shuttlecraft, while poor Latimer (Rees Vaughn) is killed, and later
Gaetano (Peter Marko), and Yeoman Mears (Phyllis Douglas) basically sits around
looking pretty. Back on the Enterprise,
Kirk has his own thorn in the person of Comm. Ferris (John Crawford), and Sulu
and Uhura do their jobs, while Kelowitz (Grant Woods) is part of a landing
party reporting back to the captain about the dangers of the giant walking
carpets.
The
Squire of Gothos
Grade:
B
William
Campbell relishes in his role as a clueless, godlike creature named Trelane,
and Kirk and Spock are the main ones who get to play along. After Kirk and Sulu are mysteriously abducted
from the bridge, Spock sends down McCoy, Jaeger (Richard Carlyle), and DeSalle (Michael
Barrier) to investigate. They find the mysterious Trelane, Kirk and Sulu are
freed, and from then on, it’s a virtual cat and mouse game between Kirk and
Trelane. At one point, Trelane abducts
the entire bridge crew, gives Uhura the ability to play the piano, dances with
the Yeoman (Venita Wolf), and puts Kirk on trial and duels with him until it is
revealed that Trelane is actually an all powerful alien child, who is
reprimanded by his parents for playing with humans!
Arena
Grade:
C
This
episode loses a few points because of the Gorn.
I know some hard core Star Trek fans get giddy over the sight of that
Gorn costume, but most others use it to point out how ridiculous the old show
was, and how peculiar Star Trek geeks are for liking it. Aside from that, Kirk was wrong, and didn’t
listen when Spock tried to explain everything.
Kirk thinks the Gorn are part of an invasion force, when it is actually
determined in the end it was the Federation who were the invaders. McCoy and Sulu get a few extra lines. Carolyne Barry makes a brief but memorable
appearance at the end as a Metron.
Tomorrow
is Yesterday
Grade:
B
This
is the first time travel episode, and allows for the show to be viewed through
the eyes of someone from the same time as when the show was made. For this reason, this is probably a great
episode for a new fan. The Enterprise is
thrown back in time to the 1960’s and is spotted by pilot John Christopher
(Roger Perry), who is taken aboard as an unwelcome guest when the tractor beam
tears his ship apart. When Kirk tries to
retrieve the footage the pilot shot by beaming down with Sulu, they only wind
up taking on another unwelcome passenger in the form of an Air Police Sergeant
(Hal Lynch). While Spock must engage in
time computations to return the abducted people and return the Enterprise to
its own time, McCoy gripes, Kirk is temporarily captured and interrogated by
Col. Fellini (Ed Peck), Scotty works his engines to the max, the computer
develops an annoyingly female personality, and everything eventually works out
perfectly in the end, with no altering of the time line. This was the first appearance of John Winston
as Transporter Chief Lt. Kyle.
Court
Martial
Grade:
B
Kirk
is put on trial for the death of one of his crew, Finney (Richard Webb), during
an ion storm. Joan Marshall plays Kirk’s
former lover and prosecuting attorney Areel Shaw and Elisha Cook Jr. is Samuel
T. Cogley, Kirk’s defense attorney. Alice
Rawlings as Jame Finney is the dead man’s daughter, who blames Kirk, along with
most of Starfleet, before it is finally revealed that Finney always held a
grudge against Kirk and planned the whole thing, meaning he never died. Spock is the one who determined the computer
logs were altered. Portmaster Stone (Percy
Rodrigues) is the judge in this case, and McCoy does what he can to speak on
behalf of his captain. Uhura is seen in
a few scenes at the end, and even helps save the Enterprise by taking over
navigation again.
The
Return of the Archons
Grade:
B+
George
Takai, as Sulu, becomes the first Enterprise crewman to be “absorbed” by the
alien influence known as Landru, looking starry eyed and talking about peace
and tranquility. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and
a few others beam down to investigate and find what became of another crewman
named O’Neil (Sean Morgan) and encounter a soulless society bent on an
extremely vacant harmony and serenity (Nancy Pelosi’s dream come true), under
the power of a telepathic computer named Landru, revealed as a religious figure
(Charles Macaulay). Reger and Marplon,
played by Harry Townes and Torin Thatcher, are members of the society resistant
to Landru’s influence. Hacom (Morgan
Farley) is a character in the beginning reporting the interlopers to the
Lawgivers of Landru. Scotty is back on
the ship trying to save it from intense heat rays coming from the Landru
computer and causing its orbit to decay.
As usual, Uhura mans communications.
Space
Seed
Grade:
A
Ricardo
Montalban gives a rousing performance as the magnetic and very dangerous Khan
Noonian Singh, perhaps the very reason they chose this episode and character to
continue for the exciting motion picture Star
Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Every
member of the main crew is threatened by Khan at one point or another: Kirk and
Spock with a hyperbolic chamber, McCoy with a knife, Uhura with a slap, and
Scotty is knocked out when they take over engineering. Even Lt. Kyle, the transporter operator, is
knocked unconscious by Khan. Madlyn Rhue
as Lt. Marla McGivers falls in love with Khan when he “conquers” her
heart. She betrays Kirk, but then has
second thoughts and helps him in the end. Joaquin (Mark Tobin) is the most used
of Khan’s men.
A
Taste of Armageddon
Grade:
B+
Again,
this thoughtful episode loses a few points due to the funny looking costumes
and cheap cardboard computers. The
Enterprise is declared a casualty after entering Eminiar space. Eminiar, led by Anan 7 (David Opatoshu) , has
been fighting a war with a neighboring planet for 500 years exclusively with
computer simulations. Citizens that are
declared casualties must then report to disintegration chambers to be
killed. While Kirk and Spock try to
protect everyone, including the Eminiar citizens from themselves, such as Mea 3
(Barbara Babcock), Scotty and McCoy have their own fight against the pompous
Ambassador Fox (Gene Lyons), who puts the “dip” in “diplomat”. Yeoman Tamura (Miko Mayama) actually gets a
bit more to do than Uhura, who opens hailing frequencies.
This
Side of Paradise
Grade:
B+
This
episode offers Mr. Spock the opportunity to experience human emotions, and fall
in love with guest star Jill Ireland as Leila Kalomi, a woman from his past who
loved him, yet he could never return those feelings… until now. The crew of the Enterprise mutinies after
coming under the influence of alien spores.
At various points, the affects are seen on Dr. McCoy, Sulu, Uhura, who
effectively sabotages communications, DeSalle, and Eddie Paskey as Lt. Leslie,
the “Where’s Waldo” of the original series who was a background character in 59
episodes and finally gets actual dialogue here when he declares mutiny against
the captain. Eventually, even Kirk comes
under their influence, but is able to resist due to his strong feelings for his
ship, leading him to find a way to cure everyone else, including uncooperative
colony leader Elias Sandoval (Frank Overton), who suddenly becomes more
obliging.
The
Devil in the Dark
Grade:
A
This
episode is often cited as a prime example of what Star Trek is all about. A silicon based life form that secretes acid
is killing human miners on the planet Janus IV, and Spock and Kirk beam down to
help stop it. By the end of the episode,
Spock reveals that the creature is the mother of her race simply trying to
protect her eggs, which were being destroyed by the miners. McCoy manages to cure the wounded creature,
and Scotty likewise completes the engineering job he is assigned. Vanderberg (Ken Lynch) and the other miners,
who wanted the creature dead, reach an agreement with it in the end. Meanwhile, poor Schmitter (Biff Elliot) is an
unlucky miner killed in the first few minutes of the show. Giotto (Barry Russo) leads an entire team of “red
shirts” to help search for the creature, but surprisingly, only one of them
dies here!
Errand
of Mercy
Grade:
B+
This
is the first episode featuring the Klingons, a quite formidable foe for the
peaceful Federation. Kirk and Spock beam
down to protect the peaceful Organians from the bloodthirsty Klingons, but the
Organians seem to abhor violence so much, they appear to be willing sheep for
the Klingons. As the violence escalates,
the Organians turn out to be quite capable of not only protecting themselves,
but putting a stop to the violence occurring between Kirk and Kor (John
Colicos), the leader of the Klingons, on the planet surface, the fleets massing
against each other in space, and everywhere else! Ayelborne, Claymare, and Trefayne (John
Abbott, Peter Brocco, and David Hillary Hughes) represent the smiling,
seemingly simple Organians, who are actually nothing of the sort! Sulu does what he can to protect Kirk’s
ship. McCoy and Scotty do not appear in
this episode.
The
Alternative Factor
Grade:
F
This
is, by far, the worst episode of the first season, and in fact, the series,
with bad effects, writing, acting, and directing. Kirk and crew come across a phenomenon that
causes existence to “blink” momentarily, and it takes them the entire episode
to figure out that Lazarus is two people from two different universes. A heady idea, very poorly executed, and
Robert Brown as Lazarus makes for one of the worst guest stars ever. Almost the entire cast is relegated to
secondary character status, including Spock and McCoy! Uhura and Lt. Leslie each get slight
dialogue, and little else. Even McCoy’s
few one-liners couldn’t inject any life into this thing!
The
City on the Edge of Forever
Grade:
A+
The best follows
the worst! This is generally considered
to be the best episode of not only the first season, but the entire original
series, and with good reason. An
accident involving Sulu and a time displacement wave winds up causing McCoy to
inject himself with a dangerous drug. He
beams down to the planet – the source of the time displacement wave - and jumps
through a mysterious time portal called the Guardian of Forever, somehow
affecting the timeline to such an extent that the Enterprise no longer
exists. Kirk and Spock must follow him
back in time to the early 30’s, just after the Great Depression, and correct
the damage to the timeline. Once there,
Kirk falls in love with social worker Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), yet Spock
figures out that she is the key to the time displacement since she has two
possible futures, and Kirk discovers that for the timeline to be corrected,
Edith Keeler must die!
Operation:
Annihilate!
Grade: C+
The concept of
the Borg is handled a bit differently here, as Kirk’s brother is killed by
parasites that act like brain cells to a larger organism, infecting people to
act on behalf of their hive-mind.
William Shatner is seen in one shot with a wig and a mustache as Kirk’s
dead brother Sam, and Spock is infected by the parasites, along with Kirk’s
sister-in-law Aurelan (Joan Swift, in a shrill performance), who also dies, and
his nephew Peter (Craig Hundley), who doesn’t.
McCoy is particularly inept here, unable to determine how to stop the
creatures, and then ends up temporarily blinding Spock. Scotty gets to act through a pretty intense
scene with Spock, and ditto for the returning Nurse Chapel, arguing with Dr.
McCoy. Sulu and Uhura mostly just do
their jobs, and Lt. Leslie doesn’t have lines, but does get to experience a
Vulcan neck pinch.
The Star Trek cartoon episode "The Practical Joker" had a holodeck, 1969 (I think) :)
ReplyDeleteRE: Shore leave comment.
Shore Leave came out before The Practical Joker, of course. I made it a point to state that the Holodeck wasn't introduced into the "live action" shows until The Next Generation, and in fact, I review all the animated shows elsewhere in this blog, including The Practical Joker.
ReplyDelete