Category Archives: Star Trek

Pure Energy: TOS #27: “Errand of Mercy”

The Enterprise attempts to claim the peaceful yet strategic planet Organia from the rival Klingon Empire, only to find a curious indifference by the natives to any kind of threat.   This is the episode that introduced the Klingons, a … Continue reading

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The Instinct Can Be Fought: TOS #24: “A Taste of Armageddon”

The Enterprise attempts to initiate diplomatic relations with a planet conducting a computer war with its neighbor planet, a war in which theoretical causalities voluntarily go to die in disintegration chambers. This is one of Trek’s best ethical conundrums, a … Continue reading

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Forcing Us to Build Ships for Them: TOS #29: “Operation—Annihilate!”

The Enterprise comes to the aid of a colony planet – where Kirk’s brother lives with his family – that has been invaded by alien neural parasites that cause mass insanity. The last episode of the 1st season, both in … Continue reading

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The Chamber of the Ages: TOS #26: “The Devil in the Dark”

The Enterprise comes to the aid of an underground mining colony where miners are being killed, and machinery destroyed, by an unseen monster that moves through solid rock. This is a justly famous episode that challenges our assumptions and overturns … Continue reading

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The Good of the Body: TOS #22: “The Return of the Archons”

The Enterprise visits a planet run by a computer in the guise of religious belief to the all-seeing “Landru”, a computer Kirk defeats through a battle of logic. This is a fascinating episode because it encapsulates, as well as any … Continue reading

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Complete Health and Peace of Mind? TOS #25: This Side of Paradise

The Enterprise visits an Earth colony whose inhabitants, infected by alien spores, live in idle contentment, one of whom met Spock and fell in love with him years before. The Enterprise approaches the planet Omicron Ceti III, where a group … Continue reading

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The Best of the Tyrants: TOS #23: “Space Seed”

The Enterprise discovers a “sleeper ship” full of hibernating superhuman refugees from 1990s Earth, whose leader tries to take over the Enterprise. This is a classic episode – even disregarding its inspiration for the second Trek movie – with a … Continue reading

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You Mean Yet!: TOS #21: “Tomorrow Is Yesterday”

The Enterprise accidentally travels back in time to Earth in the 1960s, where it’s seen as a UFO, and then struggles to erase records of its visit and to return to its own time. This is a fun episode that … Continue reading

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Absolute Annihilation: TOS #20: “The Alternative Factor”

Kirk wrestles with a bizarre pair of near-duplicate antagonists whose meeting threatens to wipe out the entire universe. This is in the running for worst Trek episode ever, with an incoherent premise, overwrought acting, and sloppy writing and direction. The … Continue reading

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A Most Promising Species: TOS #19: “Arena”

Kirk is pitted in a one-on-one contest with the reptilian alien captain of a starship that destroyed a Federation outpost. This is the famous episode, filmed on location (again at Vasquez Rocks), in which Kirk battles this green reptilian (though … Continue reading

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