Star Trek

"Operation -- Annihilate!"

Scared me as a kid, not so much now, although Aurelan's screams are still unsettling. The big hole at the end is Peter Kirk's recovery, but from what I hear the deleted scene sounds like one of Roddenberry's absurd "children in the future understand death" notions.

"Amok Time"

A flat out classic. Sometimes when watching a TOS ep I can actually feel the 50 mins, they can really drag at times but this episode always goes by fast for me. It just might be my favorite TOS episode of all time.

I don't know about Quickness, but I know "The Apple" has the record for simply MOST gratuitous Redshirt deaths.

TNG's pilot could have held that title. I think it was only two minutes in when Q showed up and the first thing he did after introducing himself was turn a red shirt into a popsicle. However Worf later reports that he recovered from it.

Makeshift Python wrote:

However Worf later reports that he recovered from it.

Because TNG is the wussiest of the Trek shows, always talking about playing safe, being nice, and sharing with others, while TOS is gettin' mad STIs, DS9's commiting genocide, VOY's blowing things up just for fun and ENT's doing that weird gel-rubdown thing it's into.

Which is why I treasure moments like this happening on TNG.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "In my century we don’t succumb to revenge. We have a more evolved sensibility…"
Lily: "Bullshit!"

Currently churning through Season 2 like a tribble through a grain compartment.

Rankings:


"In the Mirror Universe, Sulu gets all the poon Sulu wants."
Mirror, Mirror


"I'm disheveled! Therefore, I am insane!"
The Doomsday Machine


"Rape"
Amok Time


"NuTrek is the only good Trek!"


"Don't you think you should rephrase that, laddie?"


"OHSHI.."
The Trouble with Tribbles


"HIYAAAAAAAAA!"
Journey to Babel


"CLOOOSEUUPPP!
Metamorphosis


"If only I aged this well in real life."
The Deadly Years


"You best hurry this shit up. I'm due at the Batman set in 2 hours."
Catspaw


"Gotta love them bitches and hoes."
Wolf in the Fold



"Don't you touch me..."


Friday's Child


"How do you beat a monster that eats Redshirts? Simple, feed it more Redshirts."
Obsession


"Ow."
The Apple


"I challenge you to a ham competition."


"I! ACCEPT!"
Who Mourns for Adonais?


"Bones, I have a feeling we'll be doing this plot again in about 11 years."
The Changeling


"Enjoy my robot whores!"
I, Mudd

I'd put OBSESSION higher in mine.

Sykes Goes to Quark's (DS9 Season 5 Reviews)

"In Purgatory's Shadow"
Aka "Improbable Cause, Part III". Where the REAL DS9 begins. Aka a flat-out GREAT episode. Amongst everything else the best scene in the whole show is the Garak/Tain scene.
"Elim, do you remember that day in the country?"
"How could I forget? It was the only day."

"By Inferno's Light"
Absolutely AWESOME. In 40 minutes the entire status quo of the series is flipped around. The Cardassians go from a civillian government under siege to a Dominion dictatorship ruled by Gul Dukat, formerly an anti-Klingon freedom fighter. The Klingons go from our enemies to our allies. Turns out Julian's been a Changeling for the past five episodes. And now we have a full Starfleet and Klingon task force on the station, with the real, one-eyed Martok. Gowron sums it up best,
"Think of it. Five years ago no one had ever heard of Bajor or Deep Space 9. Now all our hopes rest here. Where the tides of fortune take us, no man can know."

"Doctor Bashir, I Presume?"
And just after you've digested that for the past five episodes Bashir has been a Changeling, turns out for the past five years he was also Superman. I seem to be one of the few people who like this episode -- I like Robert Picardo, I like the LMH idea, I like the Rom/Leeta subplot, I think the characterization of Bashir's parents and their backstory fits with everything we've been told about Bashir over the years, I like bringing genetic engineering into the Trek fold and mentioning its illegality in light of Khan, and I like that it's made clear that mainly only Bashir's mind was enhanced. I like the conflict that parents with a mentally retarded child would face in a world where genetic enhancement was a possibility, even if just a black market one. I like the episode. But apparently most people, Siddig included, hated it, and felt this development came out of the blue and wasn't good for Bashir's character.

Yeah, I like that episode. Sure, the Bashir thing came outta nowhere, but it gave us those SUPERB "Jack Pack" episodes.

Picardo must have felt like shit when the shooting was over.

"Do I have to go back to the other set?"

Been reading the unpublished book written by Michael Piller concerning his run on Trek with emphasis on Insurrection. Basically he set up rules on Voyager that the writers were not happy about working with, threatening to quit unless Piller walked out and Berman politely asked him to walk. And it really shows in the writing. It's too bad. Piller obviously had good plans for the show but with UPN and a staff of uncooperative writers it was never going come close to what he had in mind. I still remember the second episode being such a stark contrast to the rest of the series merely because there was genuine conflict and a real sense of them being far from home.

Tubes wrote:

I wondered, after watching Friday's Child and correctly predicting a Redshirt death before the titles, what was the fastest time between the start of the episode and the first Redshirt kicking the bucket. Surely there must be an episode somewhere that starts with a redshirt dying, right?

THE APPLE, too. Four altogether, and Kirk even gets to do a soliloquy over one of them.

Who Mourns for Adonais?

I kinda like this one, just because of how absurd it its. And Leslie Parrish looked fine in that outfit.

Who Mourns for Adonais? is classic Roddenberry -- Gods are just aliens. Gene must've loved Erik Von Danniken.

For the record, I hate Erik Von Danniken. Every time someone says pyramids were built by aliens I want to punch them.

The whole Gods are aliens thing, specifically the Greek Gods, was something that if I recall Peter David took and ran with for New Frontier. Making Mark McHenry the son of Apollo and that lieutenant woman.

Another useless tidbit but David was fond of Gene Rodenberry. And it's books so non-canon etc.

"The Changeling" (aka: Star Trek: The Episode)

TMP without the fat. It's kinda fun, except for the Uhura hooked on phonics shit which brings it down a point. I can't imagine nuUhura go through that.

"Mirror, Mirror"

Fun fun fun. Love it all. One thing that is great about this in comparison to other episodes is that it actually utilizes the co-stars far more than any other episode because we get to see them have more fun. Uhura was never given moments like in this episode until maybe SEARCH FOR SPOCK. Mirror Sulu made a great antagonist. Even Chekov made a great sniveling little weasel.

Too bad we never got to see much of Mirrors Bones, Uhura and Scotty. Maybe the show could have revisited the Mirror Universe if it had continued. You never know.

"The Apple"

I like the episode's first 15 minutes on a kitsch level displaying the most redshirt deaths within such a short time on absurd levels like being struck by lightning. Beyond that I don't care much for it.

"The Doomsday Machine"

A fun action packed adventure. Simple.

"Catspaw"

Stupid, but kitsch Halloween fun. "CAAAAAAAAAAAAAPTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINNNNNNNNN KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"I, Mudd"

Fun and nonsensical at times but it gets tiring at 50 minutes. I don't understand what the writers found so appealing about the Harry Mudd character. He's about as lightweight as an antagonist gets. Just some fat guy playing hammy.



No, not you Shat.

Just heard of this: http://www.lalalandrecords.com/StarTrekV.html

I want it.

trevanien picked it up. Sad to see it's sold out.

Would be lucky to find it available for torrent.

Metamorphosis

Pretty good. Maybe a bit long and the commissioner freaks out up to level 11. But I like Cochrane. Resolution could have been handled better. "Sure, we'll just live in Planet Hell. See ya!"

One of the ideas I like that was thrown around in the old Trek thread was one with Cochrane showing up at incognito Quark's. STARSHIP DOWN already showed great chemistry between Cromwell and Shimerman.

Journey to Babel

Classic Trek. Further establishing Spock's backround. More backround on how the Federation functions. Great character interactions. Love that bit with Kirk showing up on the bridge looking slightly drugged while telling Spock to scram.

Friday's Child

McCoy is a lady's man in this episode. Klingons in their second appearance are blatant cowards, a stark contrast to the proud ones we see from TSFS and especially TNG onward.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Just heard of this: http://www.lalalandrecords.com/StarTrekV.html

I want it.

got it. Mod on Omega Sector sent it to me, Bong and maybe one or two others.

As surprised as anyone considering our polar views on Galactica.

It's not a bad soundtrack, certainly an improvement on the original version which I have on CD.

Any time you feel like posting links. The expanded WOK is something I would love to get my mits on.

"The Deadly Years"

I like the concept but I think it really drags with the whole competency hearing. Another case of the show really feeling like its length.

"Obsession"

Very good. The odor being "sweet honey" is an odd choice, besides that it works like gangbusters. A nice Kirk episode I think.



Also, just finished collecting all of Ron Jones' work on TNG, including THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS soundtrack which was separate from the Ron Jones Project Film Score Monthly worked on. And I bought TOS soundtrack Vol. 2 with music from Gerald Fried and Sol Kaplan from AMOK TIME and THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE.

Kirk gets the oddest feeling that he might just survive this situation.

Indeed. When you want to live don't wear a red shirt.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Any time you feel like posting links. The expanded WOK is something I would love to get my mits on.

I'll see what I can do in time. Apart from a lousy net connection I guess I'll be fiddling with YouTube. See if they last as long as the stuff I've got up now.

Besides, TWOK expanded? Well...that and TSFS.