TOS: Season 2, episodes 20-26

Return to Tomorrow (2x20)   February 9,1968

Oh, I really like the premise of this episode , Aliens, maybe human forefather want to use human bodies to build robots. Really fun episode because Spock doesn't act like a Vulcan,Leonard Nimoy gets to laugh and smile while the Alien is using his body. Diana Muldar would later appear on The Next Generation series.

Patterns of Force (2x21)     February 16,1968

Remember a couple of episode when I said, what could get worse a Planet of Nazi's maybe:

Yes, The Enterprise is investigating the disappearance of one Kirk's favorite starfleet instructors John Gill. It soon becomes clear Gill violated the Prime Directive and took charge of the planet using the Nazi model.Episode is silly and predictable. I spent most of the view wondering how the girls baret managed to stay on when she was wearing it on the side of her head.


By Any Other Name (2x22) February 23,1968

Members of the Kelvan Empire take control of the Enterprise to use it to return home, a trip that will take 1,000 years even as upgrades are made to the engines. The Kelvans turn to salt all unnecessary crew members which ends being everyone but Kirk,Scotty,Spock and McCoy. The quickly discover if they can use human emotions they can fight them. The episode turns into a lark and may be best known as the where Scotty get the guy drunk and a girl falls for Kirk and the lead Alien gets jealous (wait, that last part is every other episode).

The Omega Glory (2x23) March 1,1968

The season has turned into a One Man War, or One Ship War against Starfleet officials who run amuk violating the Prime Directive. In this case Morgan Woodward is Captain Tracey. I am really worried at the quality and character of the people starfleet is putting out there.

The Ultimate Computer (2x24) March 8,1968

The M5 Computer is put onboard the Enterprise for war games which turn real. The Computer runs amuk and well Computers can be bad, very bad.

Bread and Circuses (2x25) March 15,1968

The Planet where the dreams of the Roman Empire never died. Strangely enough for the third time in the last four episodes a starfleet captain seems in charge of the place. Not technically prime directive issue as the planet was an example of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development.


Assignment: Earth (2x26)  March 29,1968

The second season ends with The Enterprise going back in time and meeting Gary Seven and his black cat. I believe this was intended to be a pilot for a show that never happened. This episode is other wise known as The One with Teri Garr in it.


Overview of Season 2:

It began strongly, Amok Time,The Doomsday Machine, Metamorphosis,Mirror Mirror, really some of the best work of the series. The show was put on the  block and Roddenberry was scrambling to save the show and result were horrible, mid point or so in the season it turns really bad, more comedy, horrible plot line.

The show was saved by an outpouring of fans, so we move on to Season Three ........

TOS: Season 2, Episodes 13-19

Obsession (2x13) December 15,1967

Kirk has a Captain Ahab obsession with a cloud from his past.


Wolf in the Fold (2x14) December 22,1967

Scotty is accused of Jack the Ripper type Murders on a Recreation Planet. Veteran character actor John Fielder is on the case. The total lameness of the episode is saved only by the classic scene where Spock tells the computer to "Compute Pi to the last digit."

For me, this is not when the show jumped the shark, but someone has started the Engine.Jack the Ripper ??? what could get worse a planet of Nazis, a planet where the Roman Empire was still going or maybe .....

The Trouble with Tribbles (2x15) December 29,1967

The Gamesters of Triskelion (2x16) January 5,1968

Shatner has some great hand to hand fighting scenes in this episode

A Piece of the Action (2x17) January 12,1968

Ok, here The Horizon was reported missing 100 years earlier and I am not sure but maybe The Federation is just now getting around to looking for it. Anyway the landing party discovers the entire planet seems to be based on a book about Gangsters of the 1930's. Please be somewhat shocked crew members of The Horizon took Books with them, you would think everyone would have Kindles or read them on their Iphones.

To me this is when the show jumped the shark but it is also a lot of fun, I don't think Quentin Tarantino could have come up with campy B Movie dialogue. The episode  features some great B Movie acting from Anthony Caruso and Vic Tayback. A Piece of the action works on a pure amusement level

The Immunity Syndrome (2x18) January 19,1968

Spock is hunched over his viewer on the bridge, he stands upright and says "The Intrepid has died". The Intrepid was a ship with a full Vulcan crew and Spock apparently could feel the death of his Vulcan brother and sisters. No death is Sci Fi would felt so personally by another until Obi-Wan felt millions cry out as the Death Star was test fired on Alderan. Not that I am saying anything,not question George Lucas creativity or the very idea that the force could be ripped off from a TV show. No, not at all am I saying that.

A Private Little War (2x19) February 2,1968

Vietnam allegory everywhere as Klingons seem to have armed the Neurals. Arms Race maybe ?

TOS: Season 2,Episode 7-12

Catspaw (2x7) October 27,1967

A slightly goofy Halloween themed episode. Eerie voices coming from Dead (Red Shirt) crewman,black cats,strange castles.

I,Mudd (2x8) November 3,1967

The return of Harry Mudd, the episode forever memorable because of the Portrait of his wife that when activated in a shrill voice "Harcourt Fenton Mudd ....."

Metamorphosis (2x9) November 10,1967

Another one of the better high concept episodes of the series. Commissioner Nancy Hedford is being taken to Epsilon Canaris III where she will be a part of treaty negotiations. Some enegry force makes the shuttle crash. The Crew meets Zeframe Cochrane who developed the first warp drive. Cochrane is only person on the planet and his needs are taken care of by the energy mass.

Commissioner Hedford takes deadly ill, eventually the mass takes over her body. Cochrane and Hedford decide to stay on the planet. This is a sweet and romantic episode,a love story is about the only plot the line the show stayed away from and it is handled very well.The episode is one of the high marks of the series. The writing is smart,the acting first rate, it is about as close to a perfect episode as you are likely to find.

Note: at this point I began to wonder why wasn't I blogging this, I realized I was going to watch all the series and movies in order. I began to write this blog wondering when I would catch up and be live blogging .Until then I wrote notes.

Journey to Babel (2x10) November 17,1967

In which Spock has Daddy Issues. Here we met Sarak,a character that Mark Lenard played for years on more than one series.

Friday's Child (2x11) December 1,1967

An Interesting episode as it very McCoy centric. One of the McCoy lines "I'm a Doctor,not as escalator" as the landing party and a pregnant Julie Newmar are chased by the bad guys.One of the scenes that I doubt get past censors today is when McCoy slaps Julie Newmar,all is well as she names the baby after him.

The Deadly Years (2x12) December 8,1967

The Crew age, great make up work. Otherwise Romulan Neutral Zone, Corbomite bluff and trivia alert Kirk mentions he is 34 at one point. I don't have enough time in the day to figure out the star date and see how old he is in the movies. But He is 34 at stardate whatever ...

TOS Season 2, Episode 1-6

Season 2: Viewed on Netflix January 1-25,2013

Amok Time (2x1) September 15,1967

Spock is in heat and is forces the Enterprise to take him to Vulcan where his girlfriend forces him to fight Captain Kirk to the death and somehowT'Pau an 1980's pop band known in the USA as a one hit wonder (Heart and Soul) is involved.

Who Mourns for Adonias? (2x2) September 22,1967

One of the examples of how good the Remastering of the series is, the hand that takes hold of the Enterprise is amazing, the crew is transported down to a planet and apparently meet Apollo. All sorts of wonderful questions here, were ancients Gods aliens ?

The Changeling (2x3) September 29,1967

A probe launched by Earth has been destroying planets and is looking for it's creator  the probe thinks Captain Kirk is it's creator  The plot would be used again in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Again a good episode, the season is off to a strong start.

Mirror,Mirror (2x4) October 6,1967

One of the most parodied episodes of the series mainly because there is yet another transporter malfunction this time sending Kirk and his landing party to an alternative universe where the Federation is an Emperical war like race. Mr Spock sports a goatee. My favorite is the South Park parody where Cartman sports the goatee and is nice and helpful aka Evil Cartman

The Apple (2x5) October 13,1967

A Paradise type planet where natives are sacrified to a computer Vaal. Enterprise destoryed computer and natives must now fend for themselves. Title of the episodes comes from Spock wondering if they havn't driving the people out of their Garden of Eden, Prime Directive ? Anyone,Anyone ???


The Doomsday Machine (2x6) October 20,1967

This is a good one, a planet killing machine is out there and only the Enterprise and the crippled USS Constellation can stop it. Yes I still think the machine looks like a lit joint

TOS: Season 1, Episode 26-29

Errand of Mercy (1x26) March 23,1967

Hello Klingons. Interesting thoughts on pacifism in the Organians. Interesting casting with John Colicos playing Kor, later he would play Baltar in the Original Battlestar Galactica.

The Alternative Factor (1x27) March 30,1967

Highly forgettable

The City on the Edge of Forever (1x28) April 6,1967

Wiki tells me this episode won a Hugo Award in 1968. I know it to be one of the best episodes of the series, if you wanted to say the best, I don't think I could argue . Later in the movies Spock utters the classic line "The needs of the many outway the needs of the few or the one", that concept is central to this episode where Kirk and Spock end up in the 1930's Earth looking for accidently overdosed and slightly crazed McCoy. Kirk and Spock met a Sister of Mercy in the form of Edith Keeler (Joan Collins). The episode is tragic,thoughtful and very moving.Arguably the high point in the series. Yes Kirk is once and forever married to the Enterprise, but Edith Keeler may be the one true love of his life.

Worth noting the episode was written by award winning writer Harlan Ellison. The Importance of the episode is also seen in the late 1970's when the 12 fotonovels were produced, this was the first one put out.

Operation: Annihilate! (1x29) April 13,1967

The first season ends with a standard plot. Landing Party beams down, something or someone has killed a scientist, in this case Kirk's Brother and nephew. Spock attacked, in coma, tries to take over the ship. Interesting note Vulcans have an inner eye lid.

Thoughts on first season:
 So many of the classic episodes of the series came from the first season. Most of them seem to have been written by Dorthy Catherine (D.C.) Fontana. She would continue to be one of the best writers.

The only thing this show was close to in 1966/67 is The Twilight Zone and maybe,maybe Doctor Who in Britain. Star Trek:The Original Series is the Gold Standard for Television Science Fiction. The Characters are set in this season and they endure even today in the this years reboot showing the crew in the Academy Days. It is a testament to the great writing that the show is still popular,still excites the imagination of so many. The show gains new fans all the time.

This is my first time watching the re mastered episodes and the look,sound and CGI is amazing. It could have easily been filmed today.

The Moral lessons are still timely.The Genius of Roddenberry's vision still in tact. Compaired to todays 12-22 episode season going through 30 episodes is a grind  but it is still well worth it.


On to Season 2 shall we ?

TOS: Season 1, episode 21-25

The Return of the Archons (1x21)   February 9, 1967

Many a late night Geek fueled dorm room conversation has centered around the Prime Directive, that the Federation can not in anyway interfere with the development of a planet. This episode is the first mentioning of the Prime Directive.

This is the wild west episode where the planet, or town is run by a being called Landru


Space Seed (1x22) February 16,1967

Khan Noonien Singh ! Nothing more needs be said

A Taste of Armageddon (1x23) February 23,1967

I really like the plot of this one: Enterprise is trying to open relations with Eminar VIII which has been in a long time war with Vendikar. A landing party is caught up in an attack, sensors show no sign of an attack.For a war torn planet everything is immaculate,the landing party is puzzled that it shows no signs of war.  The two planets have evolved war to a point where the simulate attacks and people are informed they are dead and report willingly to die. Members of the landing party are caught in an attack and decalred dead. This is one of the better episodes , how they deal with is thoughtful and interesting.

This Side of Paradise (1x24) March 2,1967

I remember calling this, the one where they were to the happy planet. This is similar to Shore Leave (1x15), a planet and a plant where strange things happen. McCoy gets a very pronounced southern accent,Spock falls in love,stops caring about his job and swings from a tree. An amusing lark of an episode. The series always played well with the occasional comedic episode

The Devil in the Dark (1x25) March 9, 1967
"I'm a Doctor,not a bricklayer", I could be wrong and just noticed this first time but I think this is the first of the "I'm a Doctor, not a  ...." Great line and much parodied line in the series.

TOS: Season 1, Episode 16-20

The Galileo Seven (1x16) January 5,1967

The first time in the series we have seen the shuttle craft. Really not a lot to say about this episode. Shuttle craft crashes on planet,crew saved by the end of the episode.

The Squire of Gothos (1x17) January 12,1967

This is one of my favorite episodes, Sulu and Spock disappear from the bridge when the Enterprise. We meet General Trelane who lives in what appears to be a medieval castle.A search party from the Enterprise appears and one thing leads to another and Trelane and Kirk have a duel with colonial era shooting pistols

In a Twilight Zone type twist we find out Trelane is a child to disembodied voices. Trelane's parents punish him and return everything to normal.





                                                                                               
                                                                                             
                                                                                     
                                                                                       
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Kirk hand to hand combat with a lizard. What more do you need to know.

Tomorrow is Yesterday (1x19) January 26,1967

Black star sends the Enterprise to 1969, Earth radar picks the ship up as a UFO Scrambles the Air Force and a pilot is beamed aboard the Enterprise. Crew struggled with whether they can return him to his timeline or not. Very good episode


Court Martial (1x20) February 2,1967

Kirk faces the court martial for the first of many,many times in the series and really isn't it about time.

TOS: Season 1, Episode 11-15

The Menagerie (Parts I and II) (1x11,1x12) November 17 and 24,1966

Spock mysterious runs amok, stealing his former Captain (Pike) who is now a shell of his former self and locks the Enterprise on a course to a forbidden planet. In the court martial everyone relives the events in unaired pilot The Cage. In the end the issue is should Captain Pike live as a shell or return to Talos and live forever in harmony with Susan Oliver in prefect health,living every fantasy he desires. In sort of an Anti Matrix he chooses the fun path. This is a great high concept episode.

Interesting to note, today it seems all Sci Fi shows have the continuing plot lines in addition to stand alone episodes. Here is the only 2 part episode of this first series. Ground breaking some ways.

The Conscience of the King (1x13) December 8,1966

Is an actor a former Mass Murdering Dictator ? Has Lt. Riley replaced Yeoman Rand as the minor character Du Jour of the series ?

Balance of Terror (1x14) December 15,1966

Mark Lenard the actor who in the episodes would come to be known as Spock's father plays a Romulan Commander. This is the first time Romulans or anyone are presented as an enemy of the Federation. Most of the episode involves a game of case in and around the Romulan neutral zone. The series at its best and most exciting is on display here.

Shore Leave (1x15) December 29,1966

Alice in Wonderland and Japanese Zeros occupy this episode when the crew beam down to an amusement planet and take shore leave. An amusing lark of an episode done better later in the series.

TOS: Season 1,Episode 6-10

Mudd's Women (1x6) October 13,1966

Speaking of abuse, Mudd is a white slave trader taking women to a remote mining colony. This is a just a fun episode. Roger Carmel nails the Mudd character, so much so he returns in season 2.


What are little girls made of ? (1x7) October 20,1966

Mind Transferred to Android body. Pedestrian episode

Miri (1x8) October 27,1966

Interesting 60's casting of Kim Darby and Michael J. Pollard. Otherwise Plague on Duplicate Earth (I hate it when that happens,vaguely Lord of the Flies.

Dagger of the Mind (1x9) November 3,1966

Kirk Tortured,Vulcan Mind Meld Introduced










The Corbomite Maneuver (1x10) November 10,1966

First of all this episode is a Clint Howard alert. The Enterprise matches wits with Balok and Kirk manages to bluff his way to victory and we find Balok is a childlike figure. I love the chess bluff, this may not be one of the best episodes but it ranks as one of my favorites.

Star Trek:TOS (1967-68): Pilot and Season 1,Episode 1-5

Season 1 watched by me on Netflix November/December 2012.

The Cage (Pilot): believed to have been filmed in late 1965.

The Cast is different and it unfair to judge the 1 episode of Jeffery Hunter as Captain Pike to the 79 episode and 7 Movies of William Shatner's iconic Captain Kirk.

Large chunks of the Episode were seen later in season 1 in "The Menagerie". The plot simply is the Captain Pike is taken prisoner by the Talosians who keep him in a human zoo with the lovely Susan Oliver.The Talosians can read minds but the have a block toward negative emotions.

The Sci fi questions posed by The Menagerie are better, once you realize Pike is a shell of himself and would do better living restored to his whole with Susan Oliver rather than remain the shell.Kind of a Matrix type plot, do we want to live in the real world or a fantasy world.

You can see why the Pilot failed, this is a very serious plot, it is not the "wagon train" in space than Roddenberry envisioned the series. The Casting of Majel Barrett, Roddenberry's wife as second in command is noteworthy in the mid 60's, 20 years before Geraldine Ferraro was second on a Presidential ticket of a major party in the US.

I remember seeing the episode in the fall of 1983 as part of a traveling Star Trek bloopers festival that traveled College Campuses.

The Man Trip (1x1) September 8,1966
When you consider this is the first episode of the series shown on television it is disappointing what a pedestrian episode this is. Salt Draining plant,Kirk attacked Alien.

Charlie X (1x2) September 15,1966
The main feature of this episode is finding out Robert Walker who plays the 17 year kid who is the last survivor of a crash is in fact not a young Patrick Duffy,

As one of the questions I have as I watch the show is could it be done today,Charlie in this episode has been alone for 14 years and Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Rand is the first woman he has ever seen and well by todays standards is sexually harassed and attempted raped.Watching the episode now I was mesmerized by the weave of her hair.

Where No Man has Gone Before (1x3) September 22,1966

The second pilot and from I understand the first episode with Kirk,Spock,McCoy filmed. If the first two episodes have been Meh , this one delivers the goods big time.Gary Lockwood and Sally Kellerman play crew members whose ESP capabilities turn them into creatures with Godlike abilities. Kirk has a trademark hand to hand combat with Lockwood after Kirk plans on marooning him on a planet. Like most Pilots to TV shows, this is one of the best of the series.

The Naked Time (1x4) September 29,1966

A landing party beams down to Psi 2000 to find a team of scientist dead, a crewman is contaminated by a liquid with is taken aboard the Enterprise. Strange things begin to happen to the crewman , Nurse Chapel puts the moves on Spock, Sulu wonders the hallways getting into sword fights and worst of all Lt. Kevin Riley tries to take over the ship and sing drunken songs over the intercom to the whole ship.

Riley eventually turns off the engines of the ship and Scotty comes up with a plan of mixing Matter and Anti Matter (Kids DO NOT try this at home)which works and sends the Enterprise 3 days into the past. Spock speculate they can now Time Travel, Kirk replies "We may risk that someday." which of the series has several time travel episodes and it was the subject of one of the movies.

The Enemy Within (1x5) October 6,1966

Sooooo, one of the great myths of the series is n Scotty is some sort of an Engineering genius. This is the first of many episodes where there is a malfunction with the Transporter. Scotty of course all "I Donna know what could have happened,Cap't. It work all right when I tested it."(Yeah,right) I am guessing the Federation has gone through some massive budget cuts.

In this episode a transporter accident somehow creates an Evil Kirk who goes after and sexually harasses Yeoman Rand in what I think is her last episode. You really have to feel for Yeoman Rand who goes through so much. I am sure there are thousands of Women's Crisis Center across the universe named in her honor.

To Boldly watch every episode of every Star Trek Series

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