Star Trek Thoughts, Part 3
Dec. 30th, 2025 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribHerewith an update on my (semi-) rewatch of Star Trek: The Original Series. I've completed everything up to and including episode 18 ("Arena"). Thoughts:
The various iterations of Star Trek are notorious for their lack of continuity. Apparently this started in the very first season. For example, in "Balance of Terror" (where we meet the Romulans) it's very logical in Spock's mind that the Enterprise must destroy the Romulan ship. In "Arena" (single combat with the Gorn) it's the exact same situation yet Spock is arguing to not destroy the aliens.
Speaking of the Gorn, the latest iteration of the franchise, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, makes a complete hash of "Arena." It's impossible, except in the Star Trek Universe (tm) for the Federation to not know about the Gorn, and in "Arena" they clearly don't.
I bounced hard off of "Galileo 7" (Spock & company crash a shuttle). First, it was a case where the remastered edition's special effects of the shuttle launch just stuck out like a sore thumb. Second, the whole setup didn't work for me. Wikipedia tells me that this story was inspired by a 1939 B-movie Five Came Back. The movie, a drama, is notable for launching the career of noted comedian (and backer of Star Trek) Lucille Ball.
In general, there's a wild tonal swing between episodes, which makes sense as most episodes were written by different people. Also of note to modern viewers is the character amnesia between episodes. Still, I'm entertained so far.
The various iterations of Star Trek are notorious for their lack of continuity. Apparently this started in the very first season. For example, in "Balance of Terror" (where we meet the Romulans) it's very logical in Spock's mind that the Enterprise must destroy the Romulan ship. In "Arena" (single combat with the Gorn) it's the exact same situation yet Spock is arguing to not destroy the aliens.
Speaking of the Gorn, the latest iteration of the franchise, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, makes a complete hash of "Arena." It's impossible, except in the Star Trek Universe (tm) for the Federation to not know about the Gorn, and in "Arena" they clearly don't.
I bounced hard off of "Galileo 7" (Spock & company crash a shuttle). First, it was a case where the remastered edition's special effects of the shuttle launch just stuck out like a sore thumb. Second, the whole setup didn't work for me. Wikipedia tells me that this story was inspired by a 1939 B-movie Five Came Back. The movie, a drama, is notable for launching the career of noted comedian (and backer of Star Trek) Lucille Ball.
In general, there's a wild tonal swing between episodes, which makes sense as most episodes were written by different people. Also of note to modern viewers is the character amnesia between episodes. Still, I'm entertained so far.
