Week 2

8 more episodes down this week. Mike thought I should rate the episodes, and I always liked the Netflix star rating because it actually makes sense. 1 star is "hated it", 2 is "didn't like it", 3 is "liked it", 4 is "really liked it", 5 is "loved it." Simple, yet clear and informative. So here they are (with bullet ratings until I find something better):

11. The Menagerie: Part 1 •••
    
12. The Menagerie: Part 2 •••
    
13. The Conscience of the King ••••
    
14. Balance of Terror •••••
    
15. Shore Leave •••
    
16. The Galileo Seven ••••
    
17. The Squire of Gothos •••
18. Arena •••

The Menagerie is the double episode where they took the pilot episode (The Cage) with Captain Pike and replayed it during Spock's court marshal. It wasn't a particularly good episode, though I think the story gave a glimpse at the great potential the series had. Apparently the producers agreed, because, obviously, they gave it a green light. But also it is interesting to see what they changed from the pilot. Everything from the uniforms to the terminology to Spock's character, I am glad they changed it. They called phasers "lasers", and the Enterprise was the "Space Vessel Enterprise of the Earth Federation" or some cheesy thing. Whoever gave it the revision, they made good choices, including the Captain.

One episode that I really loved was Balance of Terror. This was an awesome episode where they make contact with a raiding Romulan ship. They've never seen Romulans since the war 100 years ago, and even then had never met face to face. So they were surprised to find they look just like Vulcans, and prejudice on the bridge abounds. They find that the Romulans have advanced cloaking capabilities, but the cloak is such a power drain they cannot go into warp or fire while cloaked. This results in a submarine-like battle where Kirk is tracking the bird of prey as it retreats back to the Neutral Zone. This was by far the best episode yet, and it was very exciting to see the Enterprise go into battle for the first time, as all previous episodes were (relatively) peaceful. A must see!

Also a good one was The Galileo Seven. Spock is in charge of a small crew stranded in a quasar. Using his logic, he finds he is an effective problem solver but a terrible leader as the human crew often balks at his inhuman deductions. A good episode, purely for the conflict among the crew.

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