Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews E

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I have been more or less ignoring this- the need for me to become familiar with The Original Series. In general I don’t like much of what I’ve seen. In any case, I am now watching it and will be doing reviews of those episodes. I will be giving pretty low scores, probably no higher than three stars out of five- I just don’t like TOS.

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“The Devil in the Dark” See this for a plot summary.

I’m tempted to say this is a non-political episode, and I have probably left it at that with 1-2 other ST episodes with a similar story. But the stuff about trying to communicate with the creature instead of just killing it- that’s kind of political.

I give it two stars out of five.

“Errand of Mercy” See this for a plot summary.

This had a surprisingly large number of things I need to at least mention.

First, Kirk is almost bullying the Organians as he tries to get them to let StarFleet establish a presence on the planet. I mean, what he says about the differences between the Klingons and the Federation is pretty accurate, but he still sounds like a bully. He also comes off as fairly imperialistic, talking about how the Federation will help the Organians with developing their society with education and engineers, etc. I mean, in general the Federation helping people seems okay, for example helping Bajor get back on it’s feet after the Cardassian Occupation. But in this case it sounds different, and sort of offensive.

There is also some stuff about Klingon imperialism and how poorly subjects of the Klingon Empire are treated.

At one point Kirk says that an attack on the Klingons by himself and Spock will encourage the Organians to resist the Klingons one way or the other. While participating in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process, the ANC in South Africa partly defended the armed part of it’s campaign by saying that it inspired civilians to resist Apartheid in other, non-armed ways. I think you could probably say more or less the same thing about the IRA’s campaign.

In a scene towards the end, at one point Kirk is attacking the Organians for preventing the conflict between StarFleet and the Klingons. Then the Organians point out that he is saying something pro-war and he back-peddles. This has happened with Kirk before, but in general ST pushes a message about how in general war is either horrible when justified, or completely unacceptable.

I give this episode two stars out of five.

“The Alternative Factor” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it two stars out off five.

“The City on the Edge of Forever” see this for a plot summary.

One part of this is very political. It’s the issue of pacifism, especially in the context of the late 1930s with the rise of Nazi Germany. In general I respect pacifists, although there might be some exceptions here and there depending on the details. I believe that the Allied cause in WWII was more or less a good one. My thoughts on that are in most of a post I did here. So, I basically believe that when American pacifists argued against joining the Allied cause, they were wrong.

It’s a time travel episode, which helps with the star rating I’m giving it- that is, three stars.

“Operation: Annihilate!” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.