Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1
SPOILERS AHOY
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122: Space Seed 1967 February 16
(First watched 2008-03-03)
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123: A Taste of Armageddon 1967 February 23
(First watched 2008-03-04) Interesting concept. A culture makes war more survivable by having the fights be false, but the deaths real, so the society isn't harmed. This makes war drag on forever since it's so survivable.
However, and I suppose as the very first season of Star Trek it's got to have some leeway, but... it really wasn't the place of the ambassador or Enterprise crew to be forcing themselves on this society and changing their way of life just because they think it's awful. Prime Directive, sir! Also, I was sure it was going to be revealed later on that the General Order 24 thing was a big bluff... but it wasn't. So Starfleet actually has a numerical designation for an order to destroy the entirety of a planet's surface? And Kirk was going to use it if the society they'd been meddling with didn't let the handful of captives go? What the hell?
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124: This Side of Paradise 1967 March 2
(First watched 2008-03-05) Boy oh, did those flowers ejaculating spores onto people look ridiculous.
I found myself wondering why Kirk was at first immune to the spores, and even once affected was sound enough of mind to be able to fight it off. I suppose it's a difference between old and new Trek. In a recent Trek show, there'd have been some eventual explanation about how his blood type was resilient and yada yada yada, but in old Trek he can just get away with it because he's Mr. Awesome.
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125: The Devil in the Dark 1967 March 9
Though everyone (but Spock) started out a bit blood-thirsty, this becomes a really positive sort of Trek story. Two species so different they're not even based on the same element start a relationship of accidental murder and retaliatory murder, but manage to reach an understanding and peace once a means of communication (Spock again) becomes available.
I notice his Vulcan telepathic capabilities seem stronger than Vulcan stuff I'm more familiar with. A few episodes back he controlled a guard on the other side of a door, and in this one he established a lower-level mind meld with the Horta from a small distance away. To get the best connection he had to place his hands on it, though.
McCoy's line on patching up the Horta with thermal concrete was great. "By golly Jim, I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!"
There must be something really weird about Janus VI to cause the Hortas to evolve such a weird trait as a mass die-off and birth of a new generation with a single protector every 50,000 years.
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126: Errand of Mercyk 1967 March 23
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