Episode guides for Star Trek abound on the Internet. So, for me to write up yet another episode synopsis would be a waste of my time, and yours as well. That's not what I want to do, so that's not what I'm going to do. I am going to assume that you know the episode in question, and I'm going to share what I thought about it. This will entail a rating (up to 5 Phasors) and we'll count the number of "He's Dead/He's Dead, Jim's" and the number of Red Shirted crew who die in the line of duty. My guess is that enough Red Shirts die to staff another ship the same size.Oh, one other thing...I'm going to go through these in the order the DVD set has them, which appears to be in production number order and not broadcast order. Why did they do that? I don't know (bet Brian does....Brian?) but that's the easiest way for me, so the path of least resistance is the path for me! Click the episode title name to go elsewhere for a plot synopsis.Where No Man Has Gone BeforeThis is the second pilot, so while it's a bit closer to the Star Trek people came to know and love, it is still just enough different to be weird. Those collars on the predominantly gold uniform shirts (velour looks awful on TV) and the exaggerated slant to Spock's eyebrows, coupled with the hokey looking view screen makes for an odd viewing experience. That aside, it is a pretty good story. After the accident that causes Mitchell to mutate and increase in arrogance/danger, Kirk is faced with two not so very fun choices:Abandon MitchellKill MitchellNot a position I want to be in, and Kirk does the predictable thing. He opts to abandon Mitchell on a nearby planet, but things go wrong. As a result, the moral of the show becomes abundantly clear because Kirk spells it out, "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" which in this case is abundantly clear.Mitchell is overwhelmed with his own sense of self, but he had to have some of that feeling to begin with as Dr. Dehner doesn't go nearly that far down the hubris trail. In fact, Mitchell goes so far as to ridicule Kirk for being compassionate, saying that and command don't mix. Kirk's counter is that "Above all, a god needs compassion" which Mitchell clearly doesn't. Dehner, who is likewise mutating along, does have compassion remaining. It's what saves everyone in the end.Like many episodes, this is a character study. The character that gets the closest study is Kirk, hardly surprising. He shows that you can command with compassion. That what seems like the hardest choice could have been the easiest (Killing Mitchell outright) choice. Kirk shows that he has good instincts, and is a good person to be in the position that he is in.Now for the goofy stuff: Mitchell talks about aiming a blond lab tech at him, and Kirk says that he almost married her. Makes me wonder if that was Janet Lester who we meet much later...Nobody was wearing Red Shirts, so they weren't targets this episode. McCoy wasn't around so he couldn't tell Jim anyone was dead....4 PhasorsThe Corbomite ManeuverQuite a few Star Trek episodes are similar to submarine warfare. This is one of them. The show starts with Kirk being illogical and himself, beating Spock at chess. Then the kaka hits the rotary oscillator and in space, no one can smell your doo-doo. The Enterprise goes from stare down with a glowing cube to facing off against a glowing Christmas ornament piloted by a creepy looking alien guy who has broadcast issues. And if you thought Balok was creepy looking with the long face and screamy mouth, Clint Howard with red bushy eyebrows was REALLY creepy. *shudder*What this episode did and did well, was SHOW the goal of the Five Year Mission quite well. Rather than tell, the test run by Balok was an effective storytelling device to show the viewer much more effectively than loads of exposition and long speeches.No dead Red Shirts, and Bones doesn't speak his signature line.4 Phasors
