Star Trek: The Original Series - Season Two Episode Guide with Ratings

Last week, I reviewed the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series (see link here).  This week, I will now do the same with season 2, which was just as colorful and inventive as the first season!  The main characters for the second season are William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as the Vulcan science officer Mr. Spock, DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy, James Doohan as Scotty, Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura, George Takei as Mr. Sulu, newcomer Walter Koenig as Russian navigator Pavol Chekov, and Majel Barrett, showing up in quite a few episodes as Nurse Christine Chapel.

Amok Time

Grade: A

The second season starts out with one of the best.  Spock must return to his home planet of Vulcan as part of Pon-Farr, a Vulcan mating drive, or die trying.  Kirk and McCoy follow him down where Spock’s intended, T’Pring (Arlene Martel), has chosen another man named Stonn (Lawrence Montaigne), and as part of this Vulcan ritual, chooses Kirk as a challenger for Spock, a challenge that must end in death!  It is McCoy’s quick thinking that saves the day.  An important Vulcan dignitary, T’Pau, played by Celia Lovsky, part of Spock’s family, initiates the proceedings.  Nurse Chapel appears here and gets a few intense moments with Spock, both positive and negative, and Admiral Komack (Byron Morrow) is the pompous Starfleet dignitary that makes things more difficult.  Sulu and Uhura man their posts, but just who is this moppy-headed Russian navigator named Chekov?

Who Mourns for Adonais?

Grade: B

The Enterprise crew comes across the Greek god Apollo, played well by Michael Forest, who wants them to worship him as in days of old.  Kirk entertains the possibility that all the Greek gods were ancient astronauts mistaken as gods.  Apollo takes a fancy to Leslie Parrish as Lt. Carolyn Palamas, which makes Scotty jealous, putting himself in a very precarious position with the jealous and vengeful Apollo.  While Kirk has his hands full with Apollo on the surface of the planet, and with McCoy and Chekov in tow, Spock deals with the situation from the ship and pays Uhura a compliment for her exquisite communications work.  Sulu is forced to scan the entire planet for Apollo’s energy source.

The Changeling

Grade: B

This suspense-filled episode is about an old earth probe named Nomad (voiced by Vic Perrin) who collided with an alien probe, gained great amounts of power, and new programming to seek out imperfect biological units and sterilize them, meaning it now searches for and kills humans.  As such, it is very similar in plot to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but the material is handled much better!  The only thing that saves the Enterprise crew is that Nomad thinks Kirk is its creator, Jackson Roykirk.  While on the Enterprise, it causes much damage, including wiping Uhura’s memory clean and killing Scotty, but, much to McCoy’s chagrin, it is able to repair Scotty.  Meanwhile, McCoy and Nurse Chapel re-educate Uhura, and she’s back at her post in the next few episodes!  Spock eventually mind melds with Nomad, and Sulu basically just does his job at the helm.

Mirror, Mirror

Grade: A+

Another first rate episode, and a chance for all top seven characters to get into the action!  A transporter malfunction sends Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura into an alternate universe where the Federation and Starfleet are malevolent.  They must figure out a way to get back to their universe while on a Starship that is run like the Gestapo, and officers excel in rank by the assassination of their superior officers.  The evil, alternate universe versions of Chekov, Sulu, and Spock cause the four quite a bit of grief in their endeavors.  Along the way, Kirk gets to make out with the other Kirk’s “captain’s woman” Marlena( BarBara Luna), the alternate transporter operator Lt. Kyle is tortured by Spock, and Vic Perrin plays Tharn, the leader of the alien Halkens in both universes.

The Apple

Grade: C-

Not the best episode because the machine Vaal looks like an elaborate decoration at a mini-golf course and the natives look a bit ridiculous, this episode still boasts some interesting philosophical questions about a culture in arrested development, mostly between Spock and McCoy, and Vaal is, in the end, rather formidable.  Spock is injured three times, four red shirts are killed, and Kirk fires Scotty because he can’t save the ship.  Keith Andes is Akuta, the leader of the natives, Chekov gets in on with crewman Martha Landon (Celeste Yarnall), who also joins in the philosophical debate and is able to handle herself against the natives when they grow restless.  A decade before Starsky and Hutch, David Soul plays Makora, who kisses fellow native Sayana (Shari Nims) and angers Vaal.

The Doomsday Machine

Grade: A

Despite the fact that the “Planet Killer”, the main adversary, a large machine that kills planets, looks like a gigantic cigarette, this is still a first-rate episode, thanks mostly to William Windom’s portrayal of obstinate Commodore Matt Decker, who loses his crew when the machine attacks his ship, the Constellation, and then commandeers the Enterprise while Kirk and Scotty are on Matt’s ship affecting repairs.  The stubborn Decker butts heads with McCoy, Spock, and Kirk, and then steals a shuttle and dies by flying it into the machine, giving Kirk an idea about how to destroy the thing, and requiring Scotty to work some of his engineering miracles on the transporter.  Sulu struggles with whose orders to follow and Lt. Palmer is Uhura’s replacement (after her incident with Nomad a few episodes back).

Catspaw

Grade: C+

The Star Trek episode to watch for Halloween, this one is better than you might remember and has Kirk, Spock, and McCoy investigate a couple of aliens who seemingly use black magic.  They encounter witches, castles, a black cat, magic wands and evil spells, while Scotty, Sulu, and eventually McCoy are turned into mindless zombies, and the aliens, Sylvia and Korab (Antoinette Bower and Theodore Marcuse), appear to be a witch and a wizard.  Spock deduces they probed their minds and wound up creating a reality from their subconscious minds rather than their conscious minds.  Meanwhile, while Sylvia works her sympathetic magic on the ship, Michael Barrier as DeSalle is left in charge, and along with Chekov and Uhura, discusses their constantly changing situation, at first burning up, and then stuck in a force field.  Jackson (Jay D. Jones) is a crewmember who dies in the first few minutes.

I, Mudd

Grade: C

This was Star Trek’s first foray into blatant, broad comedy, and the results are only average.  An android named Norman (Richard Tatro) hijacks the Enterprise and takes it to a planet full of androids currently serving fan favorite Harry Mudd.  The androids are not malevolent, as they only want to care for and serve humans, but still plan to eventually make humans totally dependent upon them, which Spock confirms could actually happen.  To stop them, Kirk and crew behave illogically in the hopes it will shut the androids down, and it works!  This allows the cast to engage in some very ludicrous situations that are often more strange than funny or amusing.  Roger C. Carmel as Harry Mudd is not as charming or menacing here, and most of the rest of the cast play along with the inane shenanigans, including Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Chekov, and, eventually, Mudd.  Sulu can be seen briefly at the beginning, and the Alice series of androids (portrayed by identical twins Alyce and Rhae Andrece) are the ones who are seen the most besides Norman.  Kay Elliot is great as Stella Mudd, a comical android duplicate of Mudd’s real, shrewish wife.  To Mudd’s horror, they make a series of her in the end!

 

Metamorphosis

Grade: C+

This one is a quiet, simple love story, and holds the distinction of introducing the character Zephram Cochran (here played by Glenn Corbett), the creator of warp drive, who will be used again, most notably in Star Trek: First Contact.  Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, along with a dying diplomat Nancy Hedford (Elinor Donahue of Father Knows Best fame), are pulled off course in their shuttlecraft by an alien entity so that it can bring human company to Cochran, who it had rejuvenated and kept alive for 150 years.  It turns out the alien is female (voiced by Elizabeth Rogers, uncredited), and loves the man, and in the end, it joins with the dying Ms. Hedford to experience human love and companionship with Zephram.  Back on the ship, Scotty, Sulu, and Uhura have only a few scenes as they attempt to locate the missing shuttle crew, and Uhura does a pretty good imitation of Scotty’s accent (“It’s a big galaxy, Mr. Scott”).

Journey to Babel

Grade: A+

This very exciting, emotional, action-packed episode seems to have just about everything.  A bunch of alien ambassadors are on board on their way to a very important conference.  The Vulcan ambassador Sarek (Mark Lenard) and his human wife Amanda (Jane Wyatt, also of Father Knows Best fame) turn out to be none other than Spock’s parents, and there is a rift between them and Spock.  After Kirk breaks up an argument between Sarek and the Tellerite ambassador Gav (John Wheeler in an obvious mask), the Tellerite is found murdered, the victim of a Vulcan technique, and Sarek is now the prime suspect.  Then it is revealed that Sarek has a serious heart condition and will die without an operation.  But the ship is being shadowed, and when Kirk is attacked and seriously injured by Thelev (William O’Connell), an Orion smuggler disguised as an Andorian, Spock refuses to relinquish command, even though McCoy needs him for the operation to save his father’s life.  Shras (Reggie Nalder) is the other Andorian on board, Uhura and Chekov are seen manning their stations, and Nurse Chapel aids doctor McCoy with his sick-bay full of command level patients.  In the end, he even gets the last word, finally!

Friday’s Child 

Grade: C+

The Klingons show up again in this episode, but basically take a back seat to the other aliens of the week, who are the warrior-like Capellans, the tall ones in the funny looking costumes.  All sorts of political intrigue take place when one of them, Maab (Michael Dante), who was negotiating with the Klingon Kras, played by Tige Andrews, assassinates the current ruler Akaar (Ben Gage), forcing the landing party to make a break for it, and dragging along a reluctant Eleen, well acted by Julie Newmar, the pregnant wife of the murdered former ruler.  This allows McCoy to shine as the physician who proves to be even more stubborn than his patient, and Maab starts to understand the difficulties of leading, beginning to distrust the Klingon and believe in the humans.  Meanwhile, the Klingons fake a distress call to send the Enterprise away, but Scotty soon discovers they’re being sent on a wild goose chase, and he and the crew – Chekov, Sulu, and Uhura – soon return for the landing party.  Grant is a redshirt who beams down with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and of course ingloriously dies in the first few minutes.

The Deadly Years

Grade: B+

This episode has the Romulans again, but they take a back seat to the main plot.  Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Lt. Galway (Beverly Washburn) are part of a landing party who contract radiation poisoning that cause them to age rapidly, and they have to determine why Chekov is the only one who isn’t aging in order to quickly find a cure before they die.  While they age, a competency hearing is instigated by Charles Drake as paper-pusher Stocker and Kirk is relieved of command by Spock.  They come up with a cure (not in time for poor Lt. Galway) just as Stocker gets the ship surrounded by Romulans, and Kirk, now cured, saves the day.  Sarah Marshall plays scientist Janet Wallace, an old flame of Kirk’s.  She has a thing for older men and starts to become interested in him again.  Sulu, Uhura, Carolyn Nelson as Yeoman Atkins, and McCoy have to report on Kirk’s failing condition during the hearing.  Nurse Chapel helps find a cure. Robert and Elaine Johnson (Felix Locher and Laura Wood) are the aged victims who greet the landing party and die shortly thereafter.

Obsession

Grade: C+

A gaseous cloud creature causes problems for the crew when Kirk, who had a run in with the creature before, becomes obsessed with it and starts having a short fuse with the entire crew, and with McCoy and Spock trying to determine the captain’s state of mind.  Ensign Garrovick’s father and half the crew of Kirk’s previous posting on the U.S.S Farragut were killed by the thing, and now that Garrovick (Stephen Brooks) has started doubting himself, Nurse Chapel gives him a much needed pep talk.  At one point, Spock is attacked by the creature, but is lucky the thing doesn’t like his green blood.  Rizzo (Jerry Ayres) is a casualty at the beginning of the show, and sharp-eyed trekkers may notice that Eddie Paskey as background character Mr. Leslie dies at the beginning, yet shows up later in this and other episodes!

Wolf in the Fold

Grade:  B

This is the first, and only, episode of the original series to focus on Scotty, and even here, he’s reduced to little more than a plot contrivance.  Three women are murdered on the peaceful planet of Argelius, and Mr. Scott seems to be the only possible killer each time, but he can’t remember.  The investigation moves to the Enterprise where they determine that it wasn’t Mr. Scott, but an ancient entity named Redjac that, at one time, went by the name of Jack the Ripper, feeds on fear, and now resides in the form of Prefect Hengist, played by John Fiedler (who was famous as the voice of Piglet in the Winnie the Pooh cartoons).  When the thing invades the Enterprise computers to terrorize the crew, Dr. McCoy pumps tranquilizers into everyone!  Unable to terrorize this happy crew, the thing goes back to its original form, Hengist, and is tranquilized and beamed off the ship by Kirk and Spock.

The Trouble with Tribbles 

Grade:  A+

A classic, comic episode where everyone gets involved!  The Klingons and the Federation are fighting over a planet, and it all comes to a head on Space Station K7 over some grain and curious little creatures called tribbles.  Stanley Adams plays Cyrano Jones, the one supplying the tribbles, which are purring little puffballs, and when he gives one to Lt. Uhura, the ship is soon overrun by tribbles since they multiply so rapidly and, according to McCoy, seem to be born pregnant!  A little comic trouble with the Klingons (particularly Michael Pataki as Korax) leads to an enjoyable bar fight where Scotty throws the first punch, Kirk has comedic dealings with Klingon captain Koloth, played by William Campbell, and Federation representative Nilz Baris (William Shallert), there’s some witty repartee between all the regulars – Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, and Chekov – and in the end, the tribbles actually help Kirk uncover a plot by the Klingons to poison the grain as they reveal that Arne Darvin (Charlie Brill), Baris’ assistant, is a Klingon agent!

The Gamesters of Triskelion 

Grade: C

This nutty episode was made fun of on CSI, but there’s still an endearing, low quality fondness surrounding it, filled as it is with ridiculous costumes, ideas, and dialogue, yet even among all of this, there is still a good message about freedom and slavery.  Kirk, Chekov, and Uhura are abducted by aliens and forced to become slave “Thralls” for the amusement of some disembodies aliens called Providers.  While they fight for their freedom, Kirk begins to open up the minds of not only the thralls, particularly his Drill Thrall Shahna, played by Angelique Pettyjohn, but also the Providers.  Meanwhile, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty have to determine how they disappeared, where they were taken, and who took them.  Joseph Ruskin is quite menacing as Galt, the leader of the Thralls.

A Piece of the Action

Grade: A

The original series didn’t always handle comedy all that well.  This show and “The Trouble with Tribbles” are the two obvious exceptions.  Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to a planet where a previous crew may have contaminated an alien culture.  They find a society based on a book about the Chicago mobs of the twenties.  The planet is on the verge of total anarchy, and Kirk finds himself caught between two of the biggest mob bosses, Bela and Krako (Anthony Caruso and Vic Tayback), fighting it out for control of the planet.  Kirk has a bit of fun playing along and eventually he and Spock both humorously dress and act the part of gangsters in order to fix the problem.  Back on the Enterprise, Scotty eventually gets into the spirit of the times… sort of.  Chekov and Uhura man their stations.

The Immunity Syndrome

Grade: C+

Trekkers usually rate this episode quite high due to the interplay between some of the characters, yet I found it to be somewhat strained, the main story rather boring, and with only standard special effects.  The Enterprise comes across a giant amoeba in space sucking the life out of everything.  Spock feels the death of a ship full of Vulcans.  The episode centers around Spock and McCoy vying for the position of taking a shuttlecraft into the thing on a certain death mission.  Kirk struggles with which one to send, and when Spock is selected, the crew risks life and limb to save him, where there are some good Spock/McCoy moments.  The only other notable crew here is Uhura, Chekov, Mr. Kyle at navigation, and Nurse Chapel assisting Dr. McCoy with the crew who feel the effects of the amoeba sucking the life out of them.  Both Uhura and Chekov almost faint at one point.

A Private Little War 

Grade: B

Allusions to Vietnam are rampant in this tale about two warring factions on an alien planet caught in a war.  When the Klingons begin supplying one side with primitive flintlocks, Kirk feels he must supply the other side with the exact same weapons to achieve a balance of power.  Attacked by a monkey creature called a Mugato, Kirk is poisoned, and has McCoy contact his old friend Tyree (Michael Witney), whose wife Nona (Nancy Kovack), a medicine woman, cures him.  However, it also leaves Kirk drugged and open to her suggestion, and she wants weapons for Tyree and her people.  Meanwhile, after being shot, Spock struggles through a coma state on the Enterprise, and is aided by Booker Bradshaw as Vulcan specialist Dr. M’Benga and Nurse Chapel, who ends up slapping him back into consciousness, at his own request, though Scotty attempts to break it up!

Return to Tomorrow

Grade: C+

This rather juvenile episode still has a lot going for it!  Three powerful alien minds want to borrow the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Ann Mulhall to build alien robots, but one of them turns out to be evil.  Shatner gets to overact shamelessly and he gives a great speech about the nature of risk, Nimoy gets to play the villain, Doohan plays Scotty and the voice of Sargon (the entity in Kirk’s body) Diana Muldar, Dr. Pulaski from the 2^nd season of The Next Generation, made her first appearance on Star Trek as Dr. Mulhall here, McCoy gets some great one liners, Kirk and Spock both “die” (!), Nurse Chapel gets her fondest wish in sharing consciousness with Spock, and Uhura gives Jaime Lee Curtis a run for her money as a scream queen when she gets to give a chilling shriek!  Sulu is only in this episode very briefly.

Patterns of Force

Grade: A

The original series didn’t have a holodeck, so when they created stories in which the crew seemingly stepped into the past, they had to be more inventive.  In this case, they explore the dangers of the Nazi movement when cultural observer and historian John Gill (David Brian) used the example of Nazi efficiency, complete with swastikas and Nazi uniforms, to unite the people of the planet Ekos, yet an evil man named Melakon (Skip Homeier) drugged Gill and began the extermination of the neighboring planet Zeon and its citizens, using John Gill as a figurehead.  Kirk, Spock, and eventually McCoy get involved as they try to figure out what happened and to find a solution.  Kirk and Spock are captured, escape, partner with sympathetic figures from both sides, such as Isak, Daras, Eneg, and Abrom (Richard Evans, Valora Noland, Patrick Horgan, William Wintersole), to uncover Melakon’s treachery and put an end to the bloodshed and war.  Along the way, there’s even a little time for some lighthearted comedy and commentary.  Scotty, Uhura, and Chekov are in this episode, but don’t have much to do.

By Any Other Name

Grade: C+

This is another silly episode pointing the show towards the predominately juvenile third season.  A small group of aliens from a far away galaxy have taken on human form to seize the Enterprise.  They reduce most of the crew to little white cubes, and poor Yeoman Thompson (Julie Cobb) is crushed to death in this form as punishment for Kirk’s resistance.  Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty, the only four not reduced to cubes, are helpless to stop them, until Spock notices that the Kelvans, usually immense creatures with hundreds of limbs and no emotions, now humanoids, are starting to have human reactions.  The four go to work on the Kelvans, with Scotty getting one of them (Robert Fortier as Tomar) drunk and Kirk, of course, attempting to seduce the lead female of the group, Kelinda (Barbara Bouchet) to prompt the leader of the group, Warren Stevens as Rojan, to jealousy.  Kirk eventually befriends Rojan by convincing him that by the time they reach their home planet, they won’t be Kelvans anymore, and will be considered alien enemies.

The Omega Glory

Grade: C-

This is the downside of show creator Roddenberry’s rather liberal philosophies.  Towards the end of season 2, the stories alternated between silly but amusing shows and explorations of modern historical themes, such as Nazis and Vietnam.  This heavy-handed episode about a search for the fountain of youth, an insane Starship captain, and the battle of political enemies sort of melds the two types.  The thematic allusions are put on thick with a clumsy, unwieldy brush!  Kirk, Spock and McCoy track renegade captain Tracey (Morgan Woodward) to a planet with warring sides: the savage Yangs and the supposedly peaceful Kohms.  It doesn’t take a scholar to soon realize the Yangs are Yankees (complete with an American Flag and a “We the People” Declaration of Independence!), and the Kohms are “Communists”.  Kirk, Spock, and McCoy do what they can, with lots of fisticuffs and moral dilemmas, and discovering the Yangs and Kohms are not what they appear to be, but in the end, it’s the blunt and obvious writing and message that tends to put a damper on it.

The Ultimate Computer

Grade: A

Even these days, machines and computers seem to be evolving too quickly!  Kirk and crew are put out of a job when the impressive, thinking computer M-5 (voiced by Doohan) is hooked into the Enterprise.  Designed by the brilliant but unbalanced scientist Dr. Richard Daystrom (William Marshall), the M-5 is put through tests and war games to determine its capabilities, and the crew can only sit back, watch, and comment on the proceedings.  Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have a lot of insightful things to say!  But when the M-5 malfunctions and winds up attacking the other starships with full power, killing hundreds of officers, Kirk and his crew have their hands full trying to disconnect and reason with the computer and the unhinged Dr. Daystrom.

Bread and Circuses

Grade: A

A very thought provoking episode with allusions all over the place, dealing with the Prime Directive, cultural contamination, the Romans, network television, and even Christianity!  Kirk, Spock, and McCoy track down Captain Merik (William Smithers) on an alien world with strong parallels to earth in which the Roman civilization had survived for 2,000 years into their age of television, where gladiatorial games are televised and slavery has become an institution.  They find Merik has sacrificed his small crew to this culture, led by Logan Ramsey as Claudius, with many of them dying in the staged arena.  Kirk, Spock, and McCoy hook up with a group of peaceful sun-worshippers (Ian Wolfe as Septimus, Rhodes Reason as Flavius), and while Kirk has time to bag another babe, a slave named Drusila (Lois Jewell), Spock and McCoy have a heart to heart, Scotty saves the day with a power outage, and Uhura corrects them all in the end when she explains these rebels are not worshippers of the sun, but the Son of God.  This was a very well written episode with lots of interesting commentary!

Assignment: Earth

Grade: B

While several episodes of Star Trek may look like time travel episodes, the actual time travel episodes were few and far between.  This is one of the few, and it was also the proposed pilot of a new series that never came to be.  As it is, it’s a rather enjoyable and amusing episode.  A human raised by aliens, code name Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), arrives on earth to do the same thing the Enterprise came into the past to do:  Prevent the launch of a nuclear platform by NASA and the American government in 1968 that would lead to World War III.  Gary is able to elude his captors from the future and mistakes the cutely erratic secretary Roberta Lincoln (a bubbly and funny Teri Garr) as another human operative from his somewhat more sophisticated alien world.  Along the way, he causes problems for Kirk and Spock, and has a few amusing conversations with his snobbish Beta 5 computer and cat Isis, who is not what she appears to be.