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Star Trek Thoughts - Part 1 and 2
Dec. 11th, 2025 09:35 amAs reported on Facebook but not here, I have embarked on a watch (can't really call it a re-watch) of Star Trek: The Original Series. Herewith, Part 1 from Facebook, and Part 2 which is new.
Part 1
the first episode of Star Trek (known now to fans as "Star Trek: The Original Series) aired on September 8, 1966. I wasn't born until later that month. The show's last episode aired in June 1969, before my 3rd birthday. For these perhaps obvious reasons, I've only seen the original in re-runs, which means out of order and recut for more commercials.
Because of the above I have recently started watching all of the episodes in order on Paramount Plus. They are offering the "Remastered" version, which was released in 2006. Some of the changes are very obvious - the planets look like actual planets, not blobs - and the Enterprise herself looks cleaner. The remastering also makes "oops" such as the occasional out-of-focus closeup jump out at you.
As to show order, the remastered edition has the original pilot as Episode 1, and the rest of the shows (so far) in broadcast order. The "second pilot" (Where No Man Has Gone Before) really jumps out as not in the continuity. (1960's TV was a different time.)
Also a different time was the hairdos (beehive central!) and sexual attitudes. As I learned in Mudd's Women (last episode I've gotten too) in the 23rd century, nobody is homosexual! I was also struck in that episode where the established female characters seemed to disappear.
At any rate, just some thoughts for a cold Tuesday while I take a break from work.
Part 2
So I've completed up to and including Episode 13. Some general thoughts.
1) Damn, the writers took ANY excuse to have Kirk running around shirtless! Relatedly, Kirk's not been near the horndog we remember him as. (At least not yet.)
2) "The Menagerie" (the two-parter where Spock hijacks the Enterprise) kind of blew my mind. In what universe (other than Star Trek, obviously) does mutiny and assault get laughed off? Roddenberry and at least some of the cast and crew (plus plenty of audience members) had served in real militaries. I think this was a case of the writers painting themselves into a corner and having to Rube-Goldberg themselves out.
3) "The Conscious of the King" also didn't age very well. In Shakespeare, several plays hinge on a girl pretending to be a man. It worked back then, in part because the actor WAS a man (or at least a teenager.) "Conscious" only works if we have a few people who have actually seen Kodos the Executioner. Now, maybe in the 1960s, where some states still issued drivers licenses without pictures, that was believable. Today - nope, they'd have the guy's fingerprints and DNA on file.
4) Regarding the tendency to re-cut episodes in reruns for more commercials, I was struck by how there was a lot of screen time spent having actors stare dramatically at each other. Not sure if that was foresight or just "we need to let the camera run to fill out the time."
Part 1
the first episode of Star Trek (known now to fans as "Star Trek: The Original Series) aired on September 8, 1966. I wasn't born until later that month. The show's last episode aired in June 1969, before my 3rd birthday. For these perhaps obvious reasons, I've only seen the original in re-runs, which means out of order and recut for more commercials.
Because of the above I have recently started watching all of the episodes in order on Paramount Plus. They are offering the "Remastered" version, which was released in 2006. Some of the changes are very obvious - the planets look like actual planets, not blobs - and the Enterprise herself looks cleaner. The remastering also makes "oops" such as the occasional out-of-focus closeup jump out at you.
As to show order, the remastered edition has the original pilot as Episode 1, and the rest of the shows (so far) in broadcast order. The "second pilot" (Where No Man Has Gone Before) really jumps out as not in the continuity. (1960's TV was a different time.)
Also a different time was the hairdos (beehive central!) and sexual attitudes. As I learned in Mudd's Women (last episode I've gotten too) in the 23rd century, nobody is homosexual! I was also struck in that episode where the established female characters seemed to disappear.
At any rate, just some thoughts for a cold Tuesday while I take a break from work.
Part 2
So I've completed up to and including Episode 13. Some general thoughts.
1) Damn, the writers took ANY excuse to have Kirk running around shirtless! Relatedly, Kirk's not been near the horndog we remember him as. (At least not yet.)
2) "The Menagerie" (the two-parter where Spock hijacks the Enterprise) kind of blew my mind. In what universe (other than Star Trek, obviously) does mutiny and assault get laughed off? Roddenberry and at least some of the cast and crew (plus plenty of audience members) had served in real militaries. I think this was a case of the writers painting themselves into a corner and having to Rube-Goldberg themselves out.
3) "The Conscious of the King" also didn't age very well. In Shakespeare, several plays hinge on a girl pretending to be a man. It worked back then, in part because the actor WAS a man (or at least a teenager.) "Conscious" only works if we have a few people who have actually seen Kodos the Executioner. Now, maybe in the 1960s, where some states still issued drivers licenses without pictures, that was believable. Today - nope, they'd have the guy's fingerprints and DNA on file.
4) Regarding the tendency to re-cut episodes in reruns for more commercials, I was struck by how there was a lot of screen time spent having actors stare dramatically at each other. Not sure if that was foresight or just "we need to let the camera run to fill out the time."
