"Shore Leave"
Captain’s Log: 1150.6
The Trektastic Voyage is back on schedule with this week’s entries.
First up this week is “Shore Leave,” a fun little episode that serves as quite a diversion after the heaviness of last week’s episodes. As the episode open, Captain Kirk mentions in his log that his crew has been through a great strain in the last five months. We can only assume he’s talking about the events we’ve seen prior to this, and boy, is he right. From finding a parallel Earth which almost killed Kirk and other crewmembers to being tortured in an intergalactic asylum to almost being destroyed by a powerful race of aliens who turned out to be little folk to a deadly chase with a Romulan starship, the Enterprise has indeed seen a lot of action.
McCoy, Sulu, and the very lovely Yeoman Barrows (beauty must’ve been a condition for becoming a yeoman in Starfleet) are down on the surface of a planet that is as “beautiful as Earth once was,” suggesting that the writers were still not sure A) how Earth looked at the time of Star Trek or B) if Earth even still existed. Nevertheless, McCoy and Sulu give the planet their stamp of approval, though McCoy has a run in with a giant white rabbit and a blonde girl he realizes is Alice. Kirk beams down after hearing McCoy’s story and soon realizes something’s rotten in Denmark. Kirk thinks of a bully from his Academy days, Finnegan, and sure enough, ol’ Finnegan appears to taunt “Jimmy Boy.” Finnegan attacks Kirk, and Kirk eventually meets an old flame from his Academy days, Ruth. Meanwhile, other Enterprise crewmembers are meeting physical manifestations of their thoughts and desires. After beating the tar out of Finnegan and McCoy's death at the lance of a knight, Kirk and Spock realize that something on the planet is reading and manufacturing the thoughts of the crew. The planet's Caretaker appears and tells Kirk that the planet exists as the ultimate fantasy world. Kirk orders the rest of the crew to beam down for shore leave, advising them to monitor their thoughts carefully, and the episode ends with a rested Kirk giving the order to depart days later.
"Shore Leave" has some nice character moments for all of the major players. We learn that Kirk was a severe "bookworm" who was tormented by Finnegan. It's hard to imagine that someone with Kirk's charm and heroic bearing could have ever been bullied, but the revelation adds a nice dimension of humanity to the character. We see McCoy's interest in Yeoman Barrows, which is more than understandable, and it shows us that love in the 23rd century seems not to know boundaries of age, as Barrows is likely fifteen years McCoy's junior. We also get nice moments for Spock, who is faced here with what he admits is a foreign idea to him: engaging in activity as a means of rest.
"Shore Leave" offers a nice mystery and a light-hearted, fun adventure for the crew, the kind of episode that likely inspired "The Trouble with Tribbles" and the film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." The Original Series worked so well because it could balance drama, tension, action, romance, and even flat-out comedy in a way few other shows were able to. That mixture was lacking in most of the episodes of the spin-off series that began with "The Next Generation." Hopefully, the fun of "Shore Leave" will be remembered by J.J. Abrams when he begins working on Star Trek XI.
Screencaps below!
The episode's title card.
The beautiful Yeoman Barrows, about to be even more beautiful in the dress of a princess.
Kirk relishes giving Finnegan his just desserts after all these years.
Leonard McCoy: Star Pimp. The good Doctor reappears, alive and in great spirits.
The Trektastic Voyage is back on schedule with this week’s entries.
First up this week is “Shore Leave,” a fun little episode that serves as quite a diversion after the heaviness of last week’s episodes. As the episode open, Captain Kirk mentions in his log that his crew has been through a great strain in the last five months. We can only assume he’s talking about the events we’ve seen prior to this, and boy, is he right. From finding a parallel Earth which almost killed Kirk and other crewmembers to being tortured in an intergalactic asylum to almost being destroyed by a powerful race of aliens who turned out to be little folk to a deadly chase with a Romulan starship, the Enterprise has indeed seen a lot of action.
McCoy, Sulu, and the very lovely Yeoman Barrows (beauty must’ve been a condition for becoming a yeoman in Starfleet) are down on the surface of a planet that is as “beautiful as Earth once was,” suggesting that the writers were still not sure A) how Earth looked at the time of Star Trek or B) if Earth even still existed. Nevertheless, McCoy and Sulu give the planet their stamp of approval, though McCoy has a run in with a giant white rabbit and a blonde girl he realizes is Alice. Kirk beams down after hearing McCoy’s story and soon realizes something’s rotten in Denmark. Kirk thinks of a bully from his Academy days, Finnegan, and sure enough, ol’ Finnegan appears to taunt “Jimmy Boy.” Finnegan attacks Kirk, and Kirk eventually meets an old flame from his Academy days, Ruth. Meanwhile, other Enterprise crewmembers are meeting physical manifestations of their thoughts and desires. After beating the tar out of Finnegan and McCoy's death at the lance of a knight, Kirk and Spock realize that something on the planet is reading and manufacturing the thoughts of the crew. The planet's Caretaker appears and tells Kirk that the planet exists as the ultimate fantasy world. Kirk orders the rest of the crew to beam down for shore leave, advising them to monitor their thoughts carefully, and the episode ends with a rested Kirk giving the order to depart days later.
"Shore Leave" has some nice character moments for all of the major players. We learn that Kirk was a severe "bookworm" who was tormented by Finnegan. It's hard to imagine that someone with Kirk's charm and heroic bearing could have ever been bullied, but the revelation adds a nice dimension of humanity to the character. We see McCoy's interest in Yeoman Barrows, which is more than understandable, and it shows us that love in the 23rd century seems not to know boundaries of age, as Barrows is likely fifteen years McCoy's junior. We also get nice moments for Spock, who is faced here with what he admits is a foreign idea to him: engaging in activity as a means of rest.
"Shore Leave" offers a nice mystery and a light-hearted, fun adventure for the crew, the kind of episode that likely inspired "The Trouble with Tribbles" and the film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." The Original Series worked so well because it could balance drama, tension, action, romance, and even flat-out comedy in a way few other shows were able to. That mixture was lacking in most of the episodes of the spin-off series that began with "The Next Generation." Hopefully, the fun of "Shore Leave" will be remembered by J.J. Abrams when he begins working on Star Trek XI.
Screencaps below!
The episode's title card.
The beautiful Yeoman Barrows, about to be even more beautiful in the dress of a princess.
Kirk relishes giving Finnegan his just desserts after all these years.
Leonard McCoy: Star Pimp. The good Doctor reappears, alive and in great spirits.
posted by Christopher at 5:59 PM
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