Tom Salinsky

TOS S01E15 Shore Leave () opens with a Kirk and Spock-less landing party having been despatched, as well as a replacement for Janice Rand making her lithe presence known on the bridge. We’re on location again as everybody needs a rest (as well they might if the preceding 14 episodes are at all typical of life on board the Enterprise). Helmsman Sulu turns out to be a botanist. And McCoy’s right – this planet is like something out of Alice in Wonderland – exactly like!

I continue to be astonished at the nimbleness and flexibility of this series. A week after the intense Das Boot-like tactical claustrophobia of Balance of Terror we get white rabbit costumes and Lewis Carroll allusions. Again, rather than further exploring the characters of Scotty or Uhura, we spend time with two new young officers (who get menaced by a tiger) plus Yeoman Sexypants. Sulu is present and swaps his fencing foil for an antique revolver before beginning some enthusiastic target practice. So, this is basically The Naked Time Part II, plus bits of The Cage, but on location and with a wider streak of surrealism, and it’s striking how much more confident the show is now, with some lovely flourishes in the direction.

Once more, the gender politics lets the side down. Kirk gets to spar with an old Academy rival, but Yeoman Once-Only gets menaced by Don Juan and spends half the episode with a torn uniform before changing into a princess frock as McCoy leers over her before getting run through by a jousting knight. It’s hard to be too invested in this seemingly fatal injury when we’re on Planet Illusion, and Kirk’s fisticuffs with Finnegan don’t tell us anything new about him. He’s also rather unconcerned about the body count which is a bit of a giveaway that nothing here is real, or at least permanent, and the arrival of a benevolent being with godlike powers to sort out the mess is, even at this early stage, hardly much of a surprise.

TOS S01E16 The Galileo Seven () opens with a rather snazzy overhead shot of the bridge. The transporter having been invented to save on the budget, the Enterprise does now turn out to be equipped with shuttlecraft and one such is launched containing Spock, Scotty, McCoy and a bunch of expendables to investigate a quasar. The shuttle’s immediate distress combined with a baleful passenger on the bridge makes for a very beguiling teaser.

The sight of the shuttle on the planet’s surface is a striking one, and there’s some nice interplay between Spock and McCoy regarding the former’s desire (or not) for a command of his own. Spock’s logical mind may be the only thing which will save (most of) the shuttle team but his dispassionate nature can’t help but alienate the rest of the crew. The Roddenberry who killed dramatic situations in TNG on the basis that there must never be conflict between Star Fleet officers should take some lessons in television scriptwriting from the Roddenberry who oversaw this script.

A neat blend of high jeopardy race-against-time problem-solving and excellent character work, foregrounding Spock over Kirk for the first time (and demonstrating the potential limitations of his logical thinking) contributes to a fine episode which kept me guessing about almost everything. A recent episode of Discovery stranded Tilly on a dangerous planet, struggling to keep a team of trainees alive, which trainees didn’t yet trust her leadership style. It worked just as well there as it did 55 years ago. Sure, the spear-chucking aliens look a bit pony, but I’ve seen Warriors of the Deep and then went to school the next day, I can’t be embarrassed by a poorly-realised monster (or a polystyrene rock for that matter). The happy chortling after an encounter that left three crew dead is a bit harder to accept.

TOS S01E17 The Squire of Gothos () opens with both Kirk and Sulu disappearing into thin air. Nobody seems to think it’s anything to do with the transporter (maybe because it’s a cheaper effect?) and everyone on the bridge is in a panic. Spock has to take over recording the log. We also have our complete set of all six regular cast members given lines within the first few minutes, which is a far rarer occurrence than I would have expected. Mr Spock orders Scotty to start transporting the landing party with “Activate” instead of “Energise”. For the first time the landing party wears dinky oxygen masks until they’ve verified a breathable atmosphere. They’re also equipped with a (useless) laser beacon.

The sight of a gothic castle on an alien world just two weeks after Shore Leave doesn’t quite have as much impact as might have been hoped, but it all looks splendid. Shatner and Takei’s struggle to remain frozen in place reminds me amusingly of Police Squad. But, blah blah blah. This is all about William Campbell as General Trelane (retired) who is frustrating, charming, unpredictable, whimsical and idiotic in equal measure. It’s a lovely performance. What he isn’t is much of a threat which makes this a diversion rather than a classic for the ages. He’s also an old letch, which is no surprise. Given his effective reincarnation as Q, putting humanity on trial in Farpoint, his appearance as a judge in the final act is particularly noteworthy. At the end, he is carted off by his parents, just like Charlie Evans was. Ho hum.

TOS S01E18 Arena (). This almost feels like cheating, but I know this one very well. It was in one of the James Blish books which I read and re-read as a child and the climax is one of those moments that built Star Trek and set it apart from the thick-eared action yarns on offer elsewhere. So this will largely be an exercise in distinguishing memory from reality. In the teaser, I note that Kirk is meeting up with Commodore (Tonker?) Travers, and that the camera pans away from the transporter pads to save an optical shot. In this age of ten minutes elapsing before the opening credits, I adore these punchy opening moments which establish the drama with fabulous economy.

I think this is our first actual red shirt death. Plenty of expendable crew members have beamed down to the planet and barely got out a line of dialogue before meeting their maker, but I don’t believe any of them have worn red shirts. This time, the only member of the landing party in red is vaporized in the first five minutes of Act One. Indeed, while I praise the economy of the teaser, the Gorn and the mano-a-mano battle takes much longer than I remember to show up. The location work looks great though – our first visit to Vasquez Rocks I believe – and there are some suitably thrilling practical explosions going off near Shatner and Nimoy in the opening skirmish. Weirdly, Kirk appears to give helmsman Sulu command of the Enterprise in his absence, but he doesn’t get to sit in the Captain’s chair.

It’s also the first script from Gene L Coon, who will be a vital member of the creative team going forward and it’s the first time the Federation is mentioned (and “Star Fleet Command”). The wider universe of the show starts coming into focus at last – although Kirk does insist that “Out here, we’re the only policeman around,” as he pursues the aliens to enact vengeance for the destruction of the Earth outpost.

This is really three stories in one – adventures in the ruins of the Earthy colony, pursuit of the alien ship, and then the gladiatorial contest – and the progress is largely a smooth one, although it’s the final act which defines the episode. And it’s a marvel: a highly entertaining, well-constructed and thoughtful battle of wits, followed by a tremendously humane final act of defiance from Kirk. It’s also nifty that Spock, watching Star Trek from the bridge, figures out the solution before his Captain, so that we’re willing him to succeed (and Nimoy can articulate Kirk’s thought processes). It loses half a star only because it takes a little longer than is ideal to decide what the story is really about. The Metrons promise a further encounter, but I don’t think it ever happened.

TOS S01E19 Tomorrow Is Yesterday () A highly unusual opening – instead of the Enterprise processing smoothly through space, we see 20th century military craft on the runway. 1967 viewers could be forgiven for thinking that NBC had cued up the wrong tape. But it quickly turns out that the craft buzzing the US Air Force base is our own USS Enterprise – and we also quickly see why creating the transporter was so key to making the weekly production budget work.

The ship’s time travel journey through the black hole is thus presented in voice-over and flashback which is a very efficient (if undramatic) way of getting us into the real story. Following a series of fairly poor command decisions, the crew ends up transporting a fighter pilot on board the ship (who materialises in a standing posture). Shatner introduces himself as “James T Kirk” for the first time and we discover that there are 12 ships such as the Enterprise under the authority of the “United Earth Space Probe Agency” – which I don’t think is ever referred to again. At the end of the episode, Kirk reports in to the more familiar-sounding Star Fleet Control.

This episode was intended to follow on from The Naked Time and as such is the introduction of time travel for both the viewers and the crew. It takes rather too long for Spock to point out the problems inherent in giving Captain Christopher a tour of the bridge. It’s also a pity that he gets put into standard 23rd century uniform so quickly, which means he blends in with the rest of the crew, rather than standing out, as he should. And there’s that dreadful 1960s sexism over everything. Kirk reassures Christopher that the women on board are crew members, but the soundtrack can’t help but pull out a slinky sax line – and the less said about the ship’s annoyingly female computer the better. Genuine People Personalities are best left on the Heart of Gold.

I complained that in another episode or two, scenes took place oddly on the bridge, presumably because there were no other standing sets available. Here, Kirk’s quarters are seen several times. We also fill in some more Earth history. This episode was broadcast in January 1967 (the day before the Apollo 1 disaster) when the moon landing was over two years away, but the crew still confidently states that this happened in the late sixties. And Christopher’s son heads up a mission to Saturn which presumably took place in the eighties or nineties.

This lays the groundwork not for classic stories like City on the Edge of Forever but rather Star Trek IV with the crew having jolly japes on Earth at the time the episode happened to be made. It’s a lovely change of pace for this supremely flexible format and it works very well, a few unfortunate lapses and a slightly too neat ending notwithstanding.

TOS S01E20 Court Martial () The show which can be a thrilling adventure story one week, a goofy comedy the next, and a bizarre fantasy the week after that turns its hand to a courtroom drama. But whereas the show seems effortlessly able to transcend the usual clichés of science fiction, here the tropes of melodrama drag it down into mediocrity. The dead man’s daughter wanting “One last look at the man who killed my father,” is a notable low point. The format of the genre fights a little with the format of the show – court room dramas are designed to centre the lawyer not the defendant. The bureaucracy of the still not clearly named Federation makes its presence felt – Kirk has to fill in paperwork following the off-screen death of a red shirt. God help him if he has to do that after every fatal away mission.

There are some stunning guest stars coming up. Here we get Elisha Cook Jr, probably gunned down by more Hollywood gangsters than any man who ever lived, defending the Captain and doing a very nice job even if he doesn’t trust computers. In a neat twist, an old flame of Kirk’s has the job of prosecuting him. The outcome of the hearing is never in doubt and there are precious few wrinkles in the progress of the case (unless you count Spock describing himself as “Vulcanian”), which makes this diverting rather than essential. No “regular cast” members appear outside Kirk, Spock and McCoy (who contributes very little).

TOS S01E21 The Return of the Archons (). Again, we start in media res and we get another visit to the back lot and it’s fun to see our regular crew in eccentric clothes. Curiously, when Sulu says “two to beam up” the transporter is unable to lock on to his fellow crewmember. Since we’ve seen people transporter who aren’t holding communicators, was this just a cock-up?

The set-up here is fascinating. A genuinely alien society, albeit one heavily influenced by early 20th century Earth. In a way it’s another version of The Cage – imprisoned in paradise is still imprisoned. The explosion of violence and lust at the “Festival” is genuinely shocking and disturbing especially in the context of a very thinly-veiled attack on organised religion (as well as being a trial run for the Borg (absorption is a lot like assimilation). This is also the first mention of the Prime Directive (although I note that Landru’s cult has a prime directive also).

And the stakes are sky high. Sulu being brainwashed is fairly arresting but McCoy being headscrambled is devastating and Kelley plays it brilliantly. Only the ending lets it down in any way at all. Following a classic “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” sequence, Kirk argues a computer to death – one of the least satisfactory ways of resolve a Star Trek plot. I suppose I should be grateful Landru’s parents didn’t come and take it away. And overall, the conclusion is somewhat hasty, although it’s nice to hear that they left a sociologist behind to sort out the mess.