Week 4

Another 7 down this week. Good episodes this week were Errand of Mercy, City on the Edge of Forever, Operation Annihilate and Amok Time. Errand of Mercy introduced us to Klingons as they declare war on the Federation. City on the Edge of Forever had a cool plot where Bones changes history and Kirk and Spock must fix it to restore the present (I think this episode won an award at the time). Operation Annihilate was a cool episode where Kirk races into space to save his brother's family from a mysterious disease that is driving everyone mad. And Amok Time offers our first glimpse of Vulcan and it's culture.

The Alternative Factor is worth mentioning because of the horrible special effects sequences in the inter-dimensional paths. While the story was ok and the guest actor was blah, the effects really stand out as horrible. They were the type of effects that make most Sci-Fi shows unbearable by the general populace. The type of effects that Star Trek generally avoids. They basically had two guys struggling with each other and they did a inversion on the palette and moved the camera in and out and side to side to simulate chaos and action. The camera even spun around completely as it zooms in and out. The result is a blue and red glowing mess that goes on for way longer than it should.

I had to switch from Netflix to CBS for season 2, which I am not happy about. CBS doesn't provide the remastered versions, the video is grainy from over-compression, the player won't actually go full screen, and there's commercials! I tried to find the DVDs locally, but the video stores and libraries only have random discs; I have no hope of consistently tracking down each one in order. It was almost enough to make me buy the DVDs ($170 for the set on eBay) but I'll make due with CBS for now.

26. Errand of Mercy ••••
    
27. The Alternative Factor •••
    
28. The City on the Edge of Forever ••••
    
29. Operation Annihilate ••••
    
30. Amok Time ••••
    
31. Who Mourns for Adonais? •••
    
32. The Changeling •••
    

Count 32 of 726

Ultimate Man-cave Accessory

I have to admit, if it were a bit cheaper, I would buy one. I would buy it and it would be the centerpiece of my living room. It would be the crown jewel of the game room. I would wire the buttons to real functions, like turning off the lights and maybe a power projector screen. It would be glorious.

Week 3

Another 7 down this week. Some good episodes this time. Court Martial was excellent, with Kirk on trial for murdering a crewman who was displeased with him. A Taste of Armageddon was a particularly good commentary episode about people being detached from the horrors of war. And finally, after all these years, I saw the episode where we meet Khan! Space Seed was a good episode, but it's a must-see due to it's being the prequel to the excellent movie, Wrath of Khan.

19. Tomorrow Is Yesterday •••
    
20. Court Martial •••••
    
21. The Return of the Archons •••
    
22. Space Seed ••••
    
23. A Taste of Armageddon •••••
    
24. This Side of Paradise •••
    
25. The Devil in the Dark •••
    

Tomorrow Is Yesterday had some BS time travel, but otherwise was a good episode.

Count 25 of 726

Star Trek: Online

Cryptic is a small game studio (est 2000) with tons of MMORPG experience with City of Heroes and City of Villians. I haven't been paying much attention to the Star Trek game they are now developing until this contest was just announced. Given a picture of a planet, they want a 500 word story about it. It struck my interest, and I might just write up an entry.

But it also got me looking at the trailer and some of the studio's concept art for other works in progress. I'm impressed by what I see. They are obviously a very talented and imaginitive set of people. I think now starts the nervous anticipation, where I now have high hopes for Star Trek Online, but also high doubts as to the quality of the final product. We'll just have to wait and see.

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.

Count: 18 of 726

KHHHHAAAAAAAAN!

R.I.P., Khan Noonien Singh

5 year mission...

I've decided to embark on a journey through Star Trek history. I will watch all 726 episodes of Star Trek ever produced. Probably the movies as well, though that's less of a deal for me since I have seen them all countless times. At the onset, I estimated an average of 5 episodes each week. That means it will take me 2.8 years to complete. Here I will log my random thoughts as I progress through my mission, where many, many geeks have gone before. So now, week 1:

For my first week, I watched 10 episodes of TOS via Netflix streaming. Three things really struck me about the series, as follows:

First let me say that these are the remastered versions. Not remastered in George Lucas' definition, but simply remastered from the original film and some new CG versions of the space shots. To their credit, it took me a couple episodes to even notice that it wasn't the old plastic model of the Enterprise, that's how little they changed it. I first noticed the atmosphere of the alien planets was animated as the Enterprise orbited them, as I am sure the originals were static paintings. In any case, it looks good, but not so different as to not fit in. I gotta say good job.

The second thing that struck me was how damn good the show is. It's been 15 years since I last watched TOS on late night TV over Summer break. And while I liked it then, I don't think I appreciated it fully. Even the first few episodes were excellent. The same social commentary and "what if" type scenarios that I loved about TNG were here in full force. This is shaping up to be an awesome first season. In particular, I liked "Charlie X", "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and "The Evil Within".

Third, I am continually surprised at the hot babes that appear out of nowhere. I'm surprised both that I find 60's babes hot, but also because I don't ever remember there being hot girls on TNG. What happened to that tradition with the new shows? You can find whole websites dedicated to the women of TOS, but very few for any other show (save specific characters). Sure, people had a hard-on for Deanna Troi in TNG (which to this day I just don't see it) but there was never a constant influx of 20-somethings in miniskirts. I'm truly sorry to see that tradition has died.

Looking forward to the next week of episodes!

Edit: Added ratings for the first 10 episodes:

1. The Man Trap •••
2. Charlie "X" ••••
3. Where No Man Has Gone Before •••••
4. The Naked Time ••••
5. The Enemy Within ••••
6. Mudd's Women •••
7. What Are Little Girls Made Of ••••
8. Miri ••
9. Dagger of the Mind ••••
10. The Corbomite Maneuver •••

Count: 10 of 726