"Mudd's Women"

Captain's Log 9300.6 1145 hrs.

As I realized when I began plotting "The Trektastic Voyage," I knew real life would intervene. Family time and rest pushed back my Trek viewing until late Friday night, and it isn't until now on Saturday morning that I'm able to update the first epidode's entry and post it. The entry for the second episode will follow on Sunday. My goal is to get the week's episodes watched and then commented on before Monday, so I'm still in the green.

The first episode in this week's installment of "The Trektastic Voyage" is "Mudd's Women," one of the series's first comedic entries which served to introduce that most beloved of space pirates, Harcourt Fenton Mudd.

The Enterprise saves the crew of a small vessel that happens into an asteroid field. Kirk quickly learns that her captain is one Leo Wallace, later revealed by the Enterprise's computer scanners to be intergalactic con man Harry Mudd, who has a list of priors as long as his arm. As Mudd informs Kirk, the three beautiful women who were with him on the ship were his cargo, not his crew. The women have an almost pheromonal effect on the male crewmembers of the Enterprise, including Kirk and even Spock. Mudd was taking the women to become the wives of farmers on a distant outpost. The Enterprise burned out a few of her lithium crystals in the process of extending her shields around Mudd's ship, and without them, the Enterprise will soon be completely powerless. Kirk orders the ship to an ore processing plant on Rigel XII, where the necessary crystals can be found. We quickly learn that Mudd's women derive their beauty from the illegal Venus drug. Once at the ore station, Mudd arranges a deal with the miners: the women for amnesty from Kirk and justice. In the end, the women learn that the drug wasn't the source of the powers. Instead, as Kirk explains, we are who we make ourselves to be. The marriages work out between the settlers and the Enterprise continues boldy going, replenished with new crystals.

"Mudd's Women" was written by series creator Gene Roddenberry, and while remaining a fan favorite to this day, has a few oddities. Certainly, there's a bit of sexism in the way the miners regard the women, as well as how the women regard the miners. There's also the odd use of pots and pans by settlers in the 23rd century. The likely excuse for this latter device is Roddenberry's pitch for Star Trek, that it was to be "Wagon Train" in Space. These points do not detract from an episode filled with comedy and fun. Roger C. Carmel does an amazing job as Harry Mudd, and would reprise the role a second and final time in "I, Mudd" in the third season of the show. Mudd is a wonderful foil for the straight-laced, devoted Kirk, who again is portrayed here as a man whose dedication to his ship prevents him from having a normal life. "Mudd's Women" offers a number of laugh out loud moments from Mudd and a love-struck McCoy and Scotty.

Screencaps from "Mudd's Women."

The episode's title card.



The irascible Harry Mudd.



Ah, Mudd's women.



The effect of the space sirens on the Enterprise crew.



Captain Kirk's reaction to the ladies of the spaceways.



Here we see that Nimoy and the writers were still figuring out Spock. He takes obvious delight at Kirk's reaction to the women, sporting an impish grin. These traits would be written completely out of the character not long after this episode.



Yikes! One of Mudd's "lovelies" without their beloved Venus drug.



Kirk and Spock assessing the steady decline of the Enterprise's situation in a classic image of the two characters together.



After realizing that she doesn't need the Venus drug to be beautiful, Eve and her soon-to-be miner husband discuss their future together.



Kirk tries to stay neutral as McCoy picks at Spock's bizarre Vulcan anatomy, as well as his lack of emotions. Bones indicates where Spock's heart is with his left fist.

"The Enemy Within"

Captain's Log: 9220.6. 2339 hrs.

"The Enemy Within."

There are those classic science fiction stories that are themselves rooted in other classic stories of similar genres. "The Enemy Within" is such an episode, based largely on Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When a transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two distinct beings, he quickly learns that one part of him contains his intelligence, kindness, and compassion. The other is left with his lust, passion, and darkness. Apart, the two cannot hope to survive, but together, they make the man known as Captain James T. Kirk.

Captain Kirk is divided by the transporter in the opening of "The Enemy Within," one of the most highly regarded episodes of the original Star Trek and an example of the kind of allegorical science fiction tales that Star Trek would strive to tell in all of its incarnations in the next forty years. Yet again, the Shatner naysayers are proved wrong, as he delivers a powerful performance as a man literally divided.

After Kirk beams up, he leaves the transporter room with Scotty. Then another person beams up, his face hidden in shadow. The figure turns, and we see the eyes of a truly demented person on a face twisted by darkness. It's also Captain Kirk, or more specifically, his evil, base side, now given sinister life.

The evil Kirk leaves the transporter room and heads to sickbay, where he nearly throttles McCoy over a bottle of brandy. We're then treated to a scene of a brandy-swilling Kirk stalking the corridors of the Enterprise. His first stop are the quarters of his yeoman, the lovely Janice Rand. He tries to force himself on the unsuspecting Rand, who narrowly escapes violence and scratches the doppelganger on the cheek. The evil Kirk escapes, leaving Rand to explain her story to McCoy, Spock, and the benevolent Kirk. The good Kirk insists that he didn't harm Rand, but she finds this to be impossible.

Eventually, McCoy and Spock help Kirk realize that he's been split into two beings by the transporter. Though McCoy will later eloquently assert that it's Kirk's logic and intellect that makes him who he is, we see for the first time in "The Enemy Within" that it is Spock and McCoy who complement and complete Kirk. Without the balance they offer, he wouldn't be the man he is, a theme that would resonate throughout the rest of the series until the last film featuring the original cast.

Shatner performs a truly difficult task here, playing two different sides of the same character. This might seem easy to most people, but it's a delicate balance that could be upset if the performance overplays the evil side or underplays the good side. Shatner excels in showing us all the sides of James T. Kirk, and when the good captain is finally restored and whole again courtesy of the transporter, we now have a character with greater depth and breadth.

"The Enemy Within" showcases the talents of Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy respectively, and lays the foundation for the truly special and touching friendship and camaraderie these three men share over twenty-five years together.

And the episode makes us ask of ourselves the same questions Kirk must ask of himself: "How do we live with our shadow selves? How do we reconcile the darkness that lies within all of us? Can we live without the part of us we'd rather wish away, or do we truly need that side to flourish?" These are important questions that Trek creator Roddenberry answers here by saying that though humans are capable of great evil and horror, they are essentially good beings whose nobility arises from having the courage to struggle for balance between the two warring sides of themselves. Roddenberry would address similar questions throughout the original Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, in ways no other television series had before or has dared to since.

"The Enemy Within" title card.



The first Kirk materializes on the transporter pad, clearly weakened by his trip back to the Enterprise.



The second Kirk arrives, played with deranged glee by William Shatner.



Evil Kirk roughs up his friend McCoy for some brandy, a very un-Kirklike thing to do.



Evil Kirk begins his Epicurean reign of terror by downing hard liquor.



Evil Kirk tries to take what he wants from Yeoman Rand.



Rand fights back, marking Evil Kirk with her nails.



Evil Kirk puts on makeup to cover Rand's scratches, makeup Kirk just happened to have in his quarters. Very strange.



The enemy without faces the enemy within: Good Kirk subdues Evil Kirk with Spock's help.



Good Kirk comforts the dying Evil Kirk, proving that the two sides of the same man must be reunited to both suffer destruction.



After Evil Kirk tricked Good Kirk and escaped sickbay, the two confront each other on the bridge. Good Kirk defeats Evil Kirk's passion with his compassion.



Good Kirk and Evil Kirk are sent through the transporter...



...and Captain James Tiberius Kirk is whole again.



Kirk considers the remarkable opportunity he's just experienced, one few other ever have, to face the worst parts of themselves and come out victorious as a better person.

"The Naked Time"

Captain's Log: 8220.6. 2208 hrs.

The Trektastic Voyage continues tonight with two definitive episodes of Star Trek: "The Naked Time" and "The Enemy Within."

Both episodes are definitive in that they establish certain elements of the mythos of Star Trek. We see the seeds of what will become the classic relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy in both episodes, especially in "The Enemy Within," and both shows are considered classics among Trek fans.

Let's start with "The Naked Time."

The Enterprise arrives to planet Psi 2000, where it is to pick up a scientific research team and study the planet as it disintegrates, a rare phenomena for a crew of an Earth starship. Spock beams down with Joe Tormolen, a science specialist who you know will bite it before the show ends, despite not having a red shirt. They're investigating the research station, which failed to answer hails. Spock and Joe find the scientists dead, and not just dead, but killed in very bizarre and horrible ways. One woman was strangled by a colleague, while a man froze to death while showering in his clothing. Spock orders Joe to investigate the rest of the facility, and Joe removes his protective suit to scratch his nose. A virus of some kind latches on to his hand and he becomes infected with the same disease that destroyed the scientists on Psi 2000, a fact we learn later.

The virus is a form of space madness, and it quickly spreads from Joe to the rest of the crew. Joe goes berserk in the mess hall and eventually stabs himself with a knife. He dies in sickbay moments later, with McCoy dumfounded as to how a man could die from such insignificant wounds. The dramatic device of the disease affords the cast with some of the best acting opportunities they would have in the three seasons of the show. George Takei looses it and charges shirtless down the corridors with a fencing foil, imagining himself to be a Musketeer. Spock subdues Sulu on the bridge with the famous Vulcan nerve pinch, and Nimoy utters one of Spock's best lines in the entire series in my opinion after dropping Sulu to the floor: "Take D'Artangnan here to sickbay." Nimoy delivers the line with such uncharacteristic sarcasm, making it all the more effective. Some fans attribute this to Nimoy still deciding who Spock was; I prefer to see it as Nimoy allowing Spock's humanity to surface from time to time, given greater nuance to the character.

We see Kevin Thomas Riley, arguably one of the few temporary officers on the ship who deserved to be a regular, steal the show with his Irish nationalistic bravado. Riley's only words of mourning after Joe dies are "You know Joe's problem? He wasn't born Irish." He's in the thrall of the disease, of course, but it's still a hilarious line. Riley proceeds to take over Engineering and thus control of the Enterprise. The ship is spiraling towards certain doom in the gravity well generated by Psi's destruction, and Kirk must race against time and a maddened crew to stop it.

Many people mock Shatner's acting today, but the man is truly gifted and is classically trained. He defines Kirk in a soliloquy about his love for the Enterprise, and how that love prevents him from allowing himself to love a woman. Shatner brings a wonderful strong pathos to the scene, and we can't help but admire Captain Kirk and his duty to his ship and crew. Leonard Nimoy also delivers one of his best performances as the disease takes away his Vulcan mental discipline, and he begins to feel the strong emotions all Vulcans struggle to suppress. Nimoy doesn't destroy the Spock we've come to know by this point, but instead helps the audience to realize the great struggle he goes through as a half-human, half-Vulcan.

Of course, Kirk finds a way to save the ship and Bones develops a vaccine. The crew also learns how to travel through time on their own power, a plot device that would be later used to great effect in a few other episodes and in the much loved Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, or as most non-Trek fans call it, "the one with the whales."

As usual, a veritable bevy of screencaps for your viewing delight, courtesy of Trek Core...

The title card from "The Naked Time."



Joe's exposed hand, a fatal error for him and an almost fatal error for the Enterprise.



A playful exchange between Spock and McCoy, this time over Spock's alien physiology. This would of course become a hallmark of Star Trek.



Joe Tarmolen: "He's dead, Jim." Though not a red shirt, Joe was a target from scene one.



Sulu charging through the Enterprise corridors as the swashbuckler he is at heart.



"Captain" Kevin Thomas Riley informing the crew of ice cream for all, women's proper hair lengths, and offering Irish vocal stylings piped through the ship. A show-stealing performance from someone who could have easily remained on the show.



James Doohan as Scotty in a Jefferies tube, named after the designer of the original starship Enterprise, Matthew Jefferies. This image of Scotty in a Jefferies tube would become a classic one in the series.



Another series-defining scene, this time from Leonard Nimoy's amazing performance as a Spock losing his emotional control.



And yet another such scene, this time featuring the acting talents of William Shatner, showing us a conflicted Kirk's passion for his one true love, the Gray Lady herself, the Starship Enterprise.



The crew looking forward to their next voyage as they contemplate the three days they have regained by traveling backwards through time while escaping Psi 2000's destruction.

Those Who Are About To Boldly Go, I Salute You!

Well, The Daily Advertiser mentioned The Trektastic Voyage today, and I figure there might be a few of you out there joining the voyage due to the article. I thought I'd use this entry to introduce you to The Trektastic Voyage and what it's all about.

First of all, I'd like to thank both Trevis Badeaux and Judy Bastien for their interest in my passion for Trek and The Trektastic Voyage. It's always a wonderful opportunity to get your work plugged in a quality publication read by thousands, so thanks to both of you for giving me some space, no pun intended.

I enjoyed the article, though I felt it was a little brief. But then again, I'm the guy who has a weekly (sometimes tri-weekly) blog on Star Trek. So I know that the article is as long as it could be, and I was glad that Star Trek got some much-deserved attention.

If you read the article, you know how I got into Trek in the first place and why I'm still here almost thirty years later. I've been watching Star Trek since I was a small child who wasn't yet able to talk. It's been a part of my life since then and always will be.

Which brings me to The Trektastic Voyage. If you're wondering why I'm doing this, it's simple. Two weeks ago, on September 8th, 2006, Star Trek turned 40. I wanted to do something to commemorate the anniversary, but instead of doing something that would begin with the anniversary year and then be over the night of the anniversary, I decided to launch a year-long marathon beginning with the anniversary night. Thus I decided that I'd watch one or two episodes a week until September 8th, 2007. I decided on Friday nights because that's when the anniversary fell this year and because Friday nights have long been "Sci-Fi Fridays" for me, nights when I watch the excellent "Battlestar Galactica" and used to watch "Firefly" and "Star Trek Enterprise" before both were cancelled.

So I watched "The Man Trap," the episode of Star Trek that launched the phenomenon on 9/8/66, and then decided I'd watch two episodes every Friday night afterward, until I get down to only one episode a Friday, then finally, one film a Friday. The way this all plotted out, I will watch the final film featuring the original cast, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, on Saturday, September 8th, 2007, exactly one year after I began my marathon of Trek love.

It then occurred to me to mix my other passion, writing, with my passion for Trek. Thus The Trektastic Voyage was born, inspired by the classic sci-fi film of the fifties, "The Fantastic Voyage," which I recently learned was also released in 1966. So we have two fortieth anniversaries going on here.

So every Friday night (unless real life dictates otherwise) I will watch episodes of the original Star Trek and write about my feelings here. I will also share whatever triva I feel might be fun, as well as screencaps from the original episodes.

So there you have it, cadets, your introduction to The Trektastic Voyage. I hope you'll stay aboard through this odyssey, and maybe even come to appreciate a series that has impacted not only science fiction, but also the world of science and technology.

To paraphrase Captain Kirk, I'll see you "out there."

Chris

By the way, Jeff LaJaunie: THIS is how you do the Vulcan salute! Now, can I have some free comics? Just kidding!

Welcome aboard the Starship Enterprise

To those of you joining The Trektastic Voyage after reading about it in this morning's edition of The Sunday Advertiser, welcome. Please feel free to stay "aboard" awhile and catch up on previous entries.

More to come on the Advertiser feature when I get my hands on the paper...

Chris

What's Old Is Kind Of Still Old Again...

Captain's Log: 9170.6. 0043 hrs.

Well, we were in bed early tonight, around nine. I woke up at eleven fifteen to use the restroom and realized the remastered "Balance of Terror" was on.

I was excited to see just what the enhancements would look like. I didn't have any high expectations for these, as I knew from articles I've read that this would be nothing like George Lucas's approach to his films.

The CBS Paramount team did a fantastic job with the new Enterprise. I checked a few of the Trek boards after finishing BOT to see what the consensus was, and most people there were underwhelmed by the remastered effects.

The truth is, though, as one poster put it, there's only so much that can be done. The episodes have to be cut to fit a certain time, meaning that they're already pressed for time. So where exactly would new, longer, and more dynamic space shots fit into the episodes? And as for updating the graphics on the screens on the Enterprise bridge, the time, effort, and money that would have involved for every episode would have been beyond the scope of this project.

I was impressed by the new, re-recorded theme at the beginning, and most of all, the new model of the Enterprise. The new model does a fantastic job of highlighting why the original Enterprise is the most beautiful spaceship in all of sci-fi history.

Second to the Enterprise was the vibrant look of the colors and the clarity of the picture, which resulted from the remastering of the original prints in HD. I watched BOT last weekend, and I don't recall the colors jumping out quite like that. So if I do buy these remastered episodes on DVD, it will mainly be for the Enterprise and the remastered print.

The airing of these episodes will not affect The Trekastic Voyage airing schedule, but I will watch them from time to time and comment here.

Check in tomorrow for a brief bit on the Sunday Advertiser's article on Trek's 40th anniversary and The Trektastic Voyage!

Log out.

"Take that, George Lucas!"

Captain’s Log: Supplemental. 1108 hrs.

This is a special weekend for The Trektastic Voyage and for all fans of Classic Trek. CBS Paramount will begin airing episodes of Classic Trek with new special effects, re-mastered sound, new musical compositions, and Hi-Definition.

Tonight’s episode is one of the most beloved of The Original Series, “Balance of Terror.” If you’re interested in catching these “new old” episodes, they’ll be on late night Saturday and Sunday night. Set your TiVo or DVR or VCR to record them. Occasionally as we continue The Trektastic Voyage, I’ll post screencaps (“screen captures” for the uninitiated) from the Special Edition episodes, though they may not be widely available for some time. Screencaps are usually hard to get unless your TV’s attached to a computer somehow (TiVO/DVRs for example) or unless you get the caps from DVDs. Since the SE DVDs won’t be out for another year or so, I might only be showing you caps from the original episode.

I’m curious to see just how these re-mastered episodes are going to look. They’re being refurbished under the careful eyes of Mike and Denise Okuda, longtime Trek contributors who love The Original Series and who are extremely talented visual effects artists. So we know these guys aren't going to pull a George Lucas and change scenes to make characters more kid-friendly and add horrible musical numbers just because they can. I mean, I love Star Wars, but Lucas did as much bad stuff in the SEs of the original trilogy than good.

More to come on the “new” version of “Balance of Terror” tonight/tomorrow morning...

Log out.

The new digital model of the iconic Starship Enterprise, which will replace the old model originally used in the series. The first of the new Star Trek Special Editions debuts tonight on local affiliates. Check your listings to find out time and station.

"Where No Man Has Gone Before"

"Where No Man Has Gone Before"

This is one of my favorite Trek episodes and served as the second pilot for the show. The first pilot, "The Cage," had a different captain of the Enterprise and was short on action and heavy on philosophical explorations of humanity and drama. The chimps who ran NBC back then decided the show wouldn't work, but asked for a new pilot. Jeffery Hunter, who starred as Captain Christopher Pike, moved on to play Jesus, leaving the role of captain of the Enterprise to William Shatner. With Captain James T. Kirk in place, the new pilot was produced and Star Trek was given a greenlight by NBC.

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is classic Trek at its finest. Though Dr. McCoy isn't aboard yet, the episode opens with Kirk and Spock playing chess, which established their friendship. In place of McCoy was Lt. Cdr. Gary Mitchell, an old Academy friend of Kirk's who is, along with Spock, a close and trusted advisor of the captain. We see that had Mitchell's character survived the episode, the Kirk-Spock-McCoy dynamic would never have existed and would have instead been very different.

The Enterprise is patrolling farther out than any other ship has gone before, fulfilling one of the core tenets of the show, "boldly going where no man has gone before." Kirk, Spock, Sulu, and Scotty are there, but McCoy, Uhura, and Checkov wouldn't arrive until later. A lot of things would change from this episode to subsequent episodes, including how the phasers, communicators, and uniforms of the crew looked, as well as certain aspects of the Enterprise herself, both on the interior and exterior of the vessel.

The Enterprise discovers a flight recorder from an Earth ship that left Earth two centuries before. That ship, the S.S. Valiant, did not have the capability to get this far out into space, which leads the crew to wonder how it managed to make it to "the center of the galaxy." The recorder reveals that the 21st century ship was swept out into the deep reaches of space by a magnetic storm. The recorder also reveals that the crew was beginning to act strangely, and that the captain ordered the destruction of his own ship.

As the Enterprise approaches the last known coordinates of the Valiant, they experience an electrical storm themselves, which knocks Mitchell unconscious and also affects a visiting psychologist, Dr. Denher. Mitchell awakens later in sickbay with creepy, silvery eyes, an effect that is still haunting forty years later. Mitchell is now able to read minds, use telekinesis to move objects with his will, and amass huge amounts of information at superhuman speeds. Kirk realizes the danger of what his old friend is becoming, and Spock advises Kirk to either let Mitchell continue on and see if he'll learn to mange his abilities, or kill him. Kirk is understandably divided, but eventually realizes Spock is right. Kirk has the Enterprise, which was badly damaged by the storm, put in for repairs at an automated ore processing plant on a desolate world. There, Kirk plans to maroon Gary, or if necessary, kill him before he can destroy the Enterprise and her crew.

Once planetside, Kirk keeps Mitchell imprisoned while trying to figure out what to do. Mitchell uses his powers to advance Denher’s own ESP powers, and she gains the same silvery eyes. They leave the plant and head out into the wastes of the planet, where Mitchell displays his godlike powers by bringing vegetation to life from nothing but rock and sand. Mitchell are poised to become a divine caricature, Adam and Eve as gods themselves. Kirk shows up armed with a phaser rifle, knowing the odds are stacked against him. He doesn’t want to kill his old and good friend, but because he’s Captain Kirk, he’ll do what he has to do. The two former friends fight, man vs. budding god, David vs. Goliath. Mitchell is about to kill Kirk when Denher’s humanity reasserts itself. She uses her powers to blast Mitchell, weakening him enough for Kirk to blast the rock face above Mitchell. The rocks fall upon Mitchell and bury him in the grave he’d made for Kirk. Back aboard the Enterprise, Kirk has Spock list both Mitchell and Denher as missing in action, intent on honoring the memory of who they were and not who and what they’d become in the end. The episode closes with Kirk mournfully considering his old friend and whether or not he truly is dead.

The title card for “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”



The first appearance of Captain James T. Kirk (according to production order, not air order.)



Kirk and Spock playing chess, a symbol of their friendship.



Kirk, Spock, and Mitchell, the trio of friends that might have made Star Trek very different.



Kirk’s department heads, with Sulu and Scotty present. Dr. Piper would be replaced with the loveable Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in “The Man Trap,” and Sulu would move from Life Sciences to Helmsman. Sally “Hotlips O‘Houlihan” Kellerman of M*A*S*H fame plays Dr. Denher.



Spock reveals how the S.S. Valiant met her end.



The Enterprise approaches the Galactic Barrier.



Chaos aboard the Enterprise as the ship breaches the barrier.



Mitchell and Denher encounter a strange energy.



Kirk picks Mitchell up from the floor and makes a shocking discovery: he’s been transformed.



Spock gives Kirk his unpleasant advice: Gary Mitchell must die.



The mining facility on Planet Delta Vega, one of the series’s many beautiful matte paintings.



One of Trek’s creepiest and most classic images: Mitchell and Denher admiring their new godhood.



Mitchell shows Denher that he can make an Eden of barren Delta Vega, if she’ll play Eve to his Adam.



Kirk brings the mountainside down on his old friend, killing him.



Kirk makes certain both Mitchell and Denher are listed as killed in the line of duty.



All screencaps courtesy of Trek Core.