Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews H

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).

“Friday’s Child” See this for a plot summary.

It portrays what could probably be called a “warrior society.” There’s a lot rules, taboos, a lot of glorifying death (and death is usually a punishment for this or that) etc. Crucially there is a belief that the strong survive, and others should not survive- a fairly right-wing belief (the episode is far from a StarFleet endorsement of Capellan society).

I usually don’t bother noting inconsistencies like this, but the Capellans seem to be nowhere NEAR as advanced (technologically, socially or politically) as they should be if Star Fleet is doing business with them.

I give it one star out of five.

“The Deadly Years” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it one star out of five.

“Obsession” See this for a plot summary

A non-political episode. I give it one star out of five.

“Wolf in the Fold” See this for a plot summary.

There is one very sexist part where Spock says that women are more easily and more deeply terrified than men. Obviously not an an example of ST’s progressive politics.

I give it two stars out of five.