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).
“Amok Time” See this for a plot summary.
There’s one political part of this. At one point a Vulcan leader says something to the woman at the center of the marriage ceremony about her becoming the property of her husband. Since nothing is said about this (i.e. Kirk doesn’t say that that’s messed up) I wonder if the writers just screwed up- I mean, I’m pretty sure this isn’t mentioned in any other episode of ST (with the possible exception of later episodes of TOS). In any case, considering Vulcan is part of the Federation, this is NOT an example of the progressive politics of ST.
(UPDATE 6/18/11 This sort of thing HAS comes up in another episode of TOS and it appears that Vulcan is a very sexist place)
I give this episode two stars out of five.
“Who Mourns for Adonis?” See this for a plot summary.
There are some political aspects to this episode.
First we hear that when female members of StarFleet get married, they leave the service. I am reading a novel about the US military, and there’s something kind of similar, involving marriage and/or pregnancy. That’s too bad, especially in the context of StarFleet (obviously it’s something that changed, at the very least with Riker and Troi (of The Next Generation) (and many other characters)).
Kirk says that humanity believes, not in Gods, but in A God. It’s kind of nice to see this assertion of an Old Earth religion (I think it’s a safe assumption that he means an Old Earth religion), considering that such beliefs usually are completely absent from ST. On the other hand, he is ruling out some Old Earth religions, at least the Hindu religion, and that’s not good.
There’s also something else, something I have trouble nailing down. But it SEEMS as if there’s something sexist in this episode that is similar to something in another episode. In “Space Seed” which I discuss here, and this episode, a woman becomes seduced by the bad guy- in Space Seed she stays with him after he tries to take over the Enterprise; in this episode, it takes Kirk several minutes to talk her into helping her crew mates overcome their captor. I am not the best judge of this sort of thing but it does seem sexist- the woman is betraying them. From what I can remember, I don’t think there is a similar number of times when a man does that (if, for example, there are three times more men than women on the Enterprise, there should by now be about six men who have betrayed their crew mates for an enemy and I don't think it has happened at all).
On a non-political note, I like the idea that the Greek gods were really powerful, god-like aliens who came to earth 5,000 years ago and DID interact with humanity for some time.
I give this episode two stars out of five.
“The Changeling” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.
“Mirror, Mirror” See this for a plot summary.
This is very similar to another “mirror” episode, one that was on Enterprise. That episode, “In A Mirror, Darkly” is discussed and linked to from here. In the TOS episode, there is a reference to genocide, something which seems to happen very often to planets that cross the Empire.
At the end, the “good” Spock says that the “evil” StarFleet officers were representative of humanity.
I give it three stars out of five.
“The Apple” See this for a plot summary.
At one point, after the StarFleet crew on the planet have defeated an attack by the locals, Spock says: “The good doctor was concerned that the valans achieve true human stature. I submit there is no cause for worry- they’ve taken the first step- they have learned to kill.” I think Spock’s negative view of humanity is too negative, but occasionally or often thinking about negative aspects of the human race is a good thing (before you get the wrong idea, I am VERY interested in that sort of thing when it's specifically about, for example, the male gender, or capitalism, etc.).
I give it two stars out of five.
“The Doomsday Machine” See this for a plot summary.
A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.
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