top five tos

[carmen_lj]

So all the Trekness is reigniting my enthusiasm for TOS. Generally I forget that I do quite like it cause there is an awful lot about it that annoys me. Then I remember there's also a lot that I love. This happens a lot with Star Trek shows.

Anyway, here are my five favourite episodes:


The Enterprise Incident - My very favourite TOSed of them all. It's because of the Romulans (I do love Romulans). And particularly The Romulan Commander (II): here we've got a female guest star who's intelligent, strong-willed, has authority and exercises it effectively. She's clearly interested in Spock but that doesn't stop her ordering his execution. She puts her duty first and is perfectly calm and composed in the face of her own death (when she orders her ship to fire on the Enterprise while she's onboard).

Also there's some stuff about Spock and Kirk doing spying that's quite good too.

Balance Of Terror - The other Romulan episode, with another Romulan Commander what I think is awesome. Also he's Mark Lenard. It's basically a submarine thriller in space (...submarines are thrilling, dammit!) and goes for presenting Kirk with a complex and nuanced foe instead of drawing the more trad Trek line of Good and Evil. And it's all dramatic and exciting and stuff.

Journey To Babel - More Mark Lenard, hurrah! The episode that gave us Sarak and Amanda, two tryly fantastic characters, both marvellously performed. It's also get a plethora of alien species, not just more Vulcans, but Andorians and Tellarites, and gives a little insight into internal Federation politics.* Mostly though, it's about Spock and his family and their relationships and it's a fabulous character episode that everyone with the slightest interest in Spock should totally watch.

Mirror, Mirror - The original Trek AUverse episode. Spock has a beard and thus we know he is Evil and we are in an Evilverse. It's a proper ensemble episode which makes me Glee Mightily and my very favourite Uhura episode. She's awesome in this. I love how she gets a chance to show her courage and initiative but is still allowed to be vulnerable. And that she's comfortable and confident enough to express her fear to Kirk who's all "only you can do it, Uhura!" Damn right. That communications console is complicated. (Which reminds me about this rant I keep meaning to write about how come Uhura gets snark for being "the receptionist" but no-one has a go at Chekov for pressing the fire button or Sulu for pointing the ship in the right direction and pressing go? SOD OFF. We see her at the helm, we see her doing engineering stuff, we know she encrypts and decrypts stuff and there's no way I'm going to believe that consists of "just pressing a button" anymore than I'm going to believe Chekov sits there and presses a big red button marked Fire as opposed to Having Skills. Ahem.) But, yes, she does go to the bridge OF EVIL and tells EVIL Sulu to back off, she gets the info our dudes need re Kirk's orders, she distracts Sulu from his console and then pulls a knife on him, she gets into the fight against Spock in sickbay (HOW MUCH do I love that she gets right in there with Kirk, Scott and McCoy instead of flailing on the sidelines?) and actually ends the fight by picking up a vase and she's the one who disarms Marlena when she pulls a gun on them all.

And Takei seriously brings it as evil!Sulu.

Turnabout Intruder - This episode has major problems. As a rule, you're gonna encounter sexism if you watch a TOS episdoe, but in this one it manages to descend into outright misogyny. It's possible to fanwank (trad old skool Who definition) the line about "there being no place for women in your world of starship captains" as being about no place for relationships for captains, but the fact that we're told the reason that our antagonist, Janice Lester, is insane is because of her intense hatred of her own womanhood is, um, yeah. Nice one, dudes.

But, if you can ignore that, then what is left is a very fine character piece. It's a fantastic look at who James Kirk is, what his crew mean to him and vice versa and particularly at the relationship between Spock and himself. And Sandra Smith gives a fabulous performance as Kirk (in Lester's body), a performance, one might argue, that is considerably more nuanced than Shatner's Kirk.

And Shatner gets to totally ham it up as a crazy lady.

*The Onion mocks but it's true: the big meeting scenes make EVERYTHING BETTER. Politics are interesting dammit and, yeah, it's possible to get it horribly wrong (halo thar Star Wars!) but the Big Meeting Scene with all the Starfleet top brass in Undiscovered Country sets up the premise of the movie and quickly and efficiently gets all the exposition out of the way. Plus it makes it feel a bit Epic. And then you've got the Big Meeting scene at the end with the diplomatic conference and it really does feel PROPER AWESOME AND EPIC.

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

For all its faults I love Turnabout Intruder. I'm a bit impressed that despite being made in the sixties it (probably unintentionally) handles the gayness issue better than pretty much all of the rest of Trek; Lester's boyfriend doesn't seem particularly bothered that she's a man now, and Spock and Kirk get to hold hands for no reason other than that they want to (it's not gay if one of you's bodyswapped! Honestly!)

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Heh, I never noticed Spock and Kirk holding hands. That's quite awesome.

And I love that Kirk is pretty unperturbed at suddenly being in a woman's body. And that they completely fail to make any dumb jokes about her gender change.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

a complex and nuanced foe instead of drawing the more trad Trek line of Good and Evil

Trek didn't do it often, but when it did, it did so brilliantly. In primary colors, but brilliantly. There's more meaty philosophy in "I will not kill today" than in many an entire episode of the other Treks, IMO.

And everything was better with Mark Leonard. This is a fact.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I think part of my love of the Romulans is that while they were generally antagonist, they would always try and present them as having an agenda of their own that we could understand, if not neccesarily sympathise with.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That, and they were presented as having a strong sense of honor. The two combine to make them three-dimensional, while the original Klingons were pretty much there just to provide a foil for Our Hero, IMO.

I was really upset in the later Treks when they reversed those. Not so much that they'd upgraded the Klingons, but extremely pissed off that the Romulans had turned into cowards and backstabbers.

[purple-smurf.livejournal.com]

And of course Shore Leave is the only episode that can ever rival The Mind Robber in terms of cracktastic.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but did they save the Earth with fanfic? DID THEY?

[purple-smurf.livejournal.com]

No, but The Mind Robber didn't have any Alice in Wonderland, either, dammit. Although Zoe in her sparkly sparkly catsuit is much better than Rigelian cabaret girls and Yeoman Barrow's medieval dress. TMR definitely wins overall, but I still love the crack of Shore Leave.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

There is a Giant White Rabbit, I suppose. I do like Giant animals.

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

Also they bring McCoy back from the dead. In a factory. With chorus girls.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Very colourful chorus girls.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

The important thing about Shore Leave, in my mind, is that McCoy sleeps with THREE WOMEN in the course of about an hour. He gets all the play.

[time-lady.livejournal.com]

omg--LOVE your icon

[purple-smurf.livejournal.com]

'Tis one of calapine's icons, so you're in the right place for it ;)

[isweedan]

Thank you so much for episode recs. I WANT to watch TOS episodes but I don't know which ones really bear watching like I do with Old School Who.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

My taste is not neccessarily, um, great.

But I would tots be prepared to defend all of these eps as Actually Good as opposed to Lols, yah.

[isweedan]

Shush. I like your tastes.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I love Uhuru pulling a knife on Evil Sulu. Mirror, mirror is a deeply wonderful episode.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

It is quite brilliant and I love it lots. Part of my mehness at Turn Left was because I found it so poor compared to what Trek had done forty odd years ago.

[nerdcakes.livejournal.com]

YOU HAVE NO TASTE IN STAR TREK. The correct answer is THUS:

1. A Piece of the Action

2. Mirror Mirror

3. Bread and Circuses (OMG ROMANS CALAPINE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU)

4. The Second Harry Mudd One With The Pretend Violin Playing

5. Plato's Stepchildren

[calapine.livejournal.com]

FAKE ROMANS CAKESY FAKE ROMANS AND FILTHY LIES ABOUT WHAT CAUSED THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE.

5 - OH GOD CAKESY YOU ARE SO WEAK SO SO WEAK.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

My mother wouldn't let me watch Plato's Stepchildren while she was in the room.

[nerdcakes.livejournal.com]

It is MOSTLY all about telepathic rape, I can see why people might not love it.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

I like the forced dancing, but I can't bear Kirk patronising Alexander.

[nerdcakes.livejournal.com]

It is a while since I've seen it but my memories are mostly of EVERYONE being awful at Alexander. It does not surprise me that Kirk is particualrly bad, though.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

Star Trek. Good. My 10,000th comment can be about Star Trek. There is no prize.

I agree re 'Journey to Babel' and 'Mirror, Mirror'. I quite like the one where Apollo kidnaps them all to keep as toys, except that Scotty's in love in that one and Scotty in love is just intolerable. 'The Gallileo Seven', in which is transpires that the shuttle is run on steam power. I can't remember any more episodes. WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME? 'The Apple' has Hutch in it, and exploding rocks, and is otherwise awful, but hysterical, and 'All Our Yesterday' has furry blankets and a cave and some angry strangulation, and 'The Cage' is nice. Some of those.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I am V Honoured.

The Lights of Zetar has Scotty in love too and that is not great either woe. He can be in love with Uhura though. Well done ST: V.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's allowed, but his being in love with people who aren't Uhura is unbearable. Is he in love with someone in that episode where everyone thinks he's Jack the Ripper as well? I can't remember. I mean 'Wolf in the Fold'.

[pimpmytardis.livejournal.com]

Yesss, "Balance of Terror." Watched it the same day as "The Hunt for Red October" once, then wished Sean Connery would hurry up and play a Romulan.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on 'Turnabout Intruder' - a much inderrated episode for all the wrong reasons (and Shatner acts his litte cotton socks off).

I like the humourous ones (Tribbles, Piece of the Action, Shore Leave) and tend to forget about the political angsty ones until I'm actually watching them.

But we returned from the second viewing of the new movie today to find the first series TOS remastered boxed set on the doorstep, so I may be some time...

[oltha_heri.livejournal.com]

We see her at the helm, we see her doing engineering stuff, we know she encrypts and decrypts stuff and there's no way I'm going to believe that consists of "just pressing a button" anymore than I'm going to believe Chekov sits there and presses a big red button marked Fire as opposed to Having Skills. Ahem.
That was actually my favorite part about the movie, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura are all shown as having jobs to do that require skill (once you know, you let disengage the external inertial dampener, oh poor Sulu), even if it is only mentioned that Uhura is the best at everything rather than we actually get to see it.

And evil!Sulu was awesome, I have serious respect for Takei. And Babel rocks, I just rewatched it, and I'd kind of forgotten how awesome Sarek and Amanda were (even if her taste in clothing is kind of questionable).

[opheliastorn.livejournal.com]

That was actually my favorite part about the movie, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura are all shown as having jobs to do that require skill (once you know, you let disengage the external inertial dampener, oh poor Sulu), even if it is only mentioned that Uhura is the best at everything rather than we actually get to see it.

Yesyes! I loved that everyone seemed to Save the Day themselves, even if poor Sulu's contribution was ballsing up long enough for Kirk to go O No Romulans. And Uhura got insta-promoted for being better than that useless other dude, yay.

[liminalliz.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THE ENTERPRISE INCIDENT THE BEST. SPOCK SEDUCING EVOL ROMULAN CHICK SEDUCING SPOCK. KIRK PRETENDING TO BE BATSHIT CRAZY. Oh man that was good television.

Underneath the awesome that is Mirror, Mirror's cliche-creating AU storyline is a REALLY GOOD EPISODE WITH PHENOMENAL CHARACTER GROWTH; I was super impressed with that one.

I NEED TO SEE THE REST OF THEM THO. Needs moar Sarek in my Trek watching!

[fizzixrat.livejournal.com]

While I don't think "Turnabout Intruder" is as awful as some might make it out to be, it's certainly not in my top 10. Drop that out and put "The Cage" in there and we might have a proper list. :)

Why "The Cage"?

'Cause Chris Pike rocks, damn it. Plus, my earliest childhood memory comes from the "Cage" bits of "The Menagerie". Hiding behind the sofa? Never did that for Doctor Who, but at age 2, the Talosians could certainly made me.

[time-lady.livejournal.com]

Trouble With Tribbles. Nuf said. ^.^ I want to go back in time and be the person who got to pelt Shattner with tribbles after he opened the grain stores.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

I have always been a very casual Trek viewer at best and I haven't seen any TOS in ages, so thanks for coming up with that primer. If I should feel a sudden desire to indulge in some classic sci-fi in the near future, I know at least where to start.

What's up with the general dislike of big meeting scenes, though? I wish more shows would do politics in space, preferably with some consistent world-building...