STATS

Original Airdate:  9/22/66
Starting Stardate:  1312.4

STORY

Out at the edge of the galaxy, the Enterprise encounters a galactic barrier that gives Kirk’s old friend Mitchell silver eyes and god-like powers.

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

• Love the old style uniforms…look like felt shirts
• Spock’s eyebrows are a bit too sloped
• Rank braids are different
• Scotty isn’t wearing a red uniform!
• ooooo…it’s beeping!  RED ALERT!!!
• theme is different too
• oooo….love the tin foil in the hallways
• wait a minute….Spock isn’t wearing a blue uniform!
• Sally Kellerman will always be Hot Lips from the movie M*A*S*H.
• HA!  intership communication is done with a megaphone, I guess
• Sulu is wearing a blue uniform!  What is going on here!!!  lol
• Spock’s suction cup listening device is kinda wonky
• oooooo….the Mac OS 10.5 background picture is on the view screen!
• Spock is really yelling…for no good reason.
• Wow…Mitchell gets to console Yeoman Smith…who is supposed to be an Starfleet Officer herself.  bah…60’s sexism.
• What the hell is “lateral power”?
• “Space Warp” ability gone…lol
• Why are people yelling at each other about ESP and what it can do?  Soooo inappropriately dramatic…
• Mitchell has tin foil eyes!
• Getting to read some of that “long haired” stuff…
• Looks like Mitchell is playing Pong in sickbay
• After his strong presence in the first episode, it comes off strange that McCoy is not in this episode.
• Mitchell IS playing Pong…with the medical scanner
• Boy…I’m glad they got rid of these uniforms…they were poorly sewn.
• “leeeeevers shifting by themselves”…lol
• My good GOD…thankfully they got rid of Dr. Dehner.  “A mutated, superior man could also be a wonderful thing”
• Though how they get there is different, the powers that Mitchell had were very similar to the powers that Charlie had in the previous episode, Charlie X.
• Hmm…nice…re-enforcing that “Asians are good with numbers” stereotype
• I sometimes feel like the outcomes of my meetings at work are “kill Gary Mitchell” too.
• Wow…there is a water spout next to the book shelf in sickbay.
• Hmm…Delta Vega has really changed.  Not so snowy.  (Spock recommends stranding Mitchell on Delta Vega.  In the new Star Trek movie, Spock himself was marooned on Delta Vega.)
• There is no Gary Mitchell…there is only Zuul
• Phaser rifle looks like a portable 70’s vacuum cleaner
• Pills?  No hypo’s?
• Wow…Mitchell’s Eden is filled with plastic flowers
• and a fake rock water fountain
• Phaser rifles may look like vacuum cleaners…but shoot sparklers
• James R. Kirk? Not something viewers would have thought twice about in 1966 but something these days that viewers get a good snicker out of
• Hmm…the sparkler rifle dropped a big rock on Mitchell…and it actually worked?

SPOCK’S “POWER OF THE WEEK”

• Logic Master
• Weapons Master

SHAT-ATTACK

22:49:  “It is my duty…whether pleasant or unpleasant…to listen to the reports, observations and even speculations on any subject that might affect the safety of this vessel!”
25:32:  “If YOU mean strand Mitchell there….I won’t do it!”
25:59:  “Will you try for one moment to feel…to at least ACT like you have a heart!”
28:30:  Classic Shatner pain emotion!
29:07:  Classic Shatner “elbow of DOOM” maneuver!
33:55:  “Dr. Dehner doesn’t feel that he’s that dangerous.  What makes you right and trained psychiatrist wrong?”
41:52:  “And what will Mitchell learn in getting there?!?  Will he KNOW what to do with his POWER?  Will HE acquire the WISDOM?”
42:25 – 42:50:  Shatner goes on a HUGE rant here…too much to type.  Classic Shatner over acting peppered through the entire thing.
42:51:  Classic Shatner “roll on the ground for no damn good reason” maneuver!
44:34:  Classic Shatner pain emotion!
45:50:  Fight scene between Mitchell and Kirk has all the good stuff…including Kirk’s shirt being ripped!

RED SHIRT ALERT

9 unspecified crewmen died in the initial space disco storm
Lt. Lee Kelso
Dr. Elizabeth Dehner
Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell

MCCOY-ISM’S

No McCoy!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Zark: While it seems odd that this episode is similar in ways to the previous episode, Charlie X, this episode is much better.  Gary Lockwood’s performance as Gary Mitchell really stands out. “Command and compassion are a fools mixture.”

Justin: Man, this episode sucked.  I believe it was supposed to be the pilot episode but was bumped to 3rd.  The writing was horrible…and the special effects, even for that time…were awful.  It did, however, have a healthy dose of social commentary…both good and bad.  Sexism was rampant, men were men only if their shirt is ripped…and women are overly emotional creature incapably of standing on the bridge without being consoled at the mere sign of a space storm.  All-in-all…classic Trek.

Presented by Zark from zarkseven.com and Justin from justinriggle.com