Star Trek TOS S1 E10 and 11 Review
I was excited for both of these episodes since I really enjoy both of them a lot, and on a rewatch they didn't disappoint, so this will be a pretty positive pair of reviews.
The first episode I watched was called The Corbomite Maneuver. After the Enterprise destroys an odd cube emitting dangerous radiation, they are visited by an alien named Balok who informs Captain Kirk that, due to him destroying his warning beacon, the Enterprise will be destroyed. There is a lot of interesting character work at play here, specifically with Kirk's responses to Balok's threats. His best response is arguably the titular Corbomite Maneuver, where Kirk attempts to convince Balok that destroying the ship will cause an element called Corbomite (made up by Kirk as a bluff) to reflect Balok's attacks back at him. By the end of all the craziness, it turns out that Balok is actually a nice person and was just testing the Enterprise to see if the crew really were as kind and selfless as they said they were. Overall, a very fun episode, and one of the best examples of what Star Trek has always tried to be as a show.
The other episode I watched was called The Menagerie, Part I. This episode is interesting as it, and its second part, which I will get to next week, used footage from the original unaired pilot episode of Star Trek called The Cage to tell its story. The story is that Spock has mutinied on the Enterprise by going to a Starbase unannounced and is planning on bringing the former captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike, to the forbidden planet Talos IV. When Kirk catches wind of this, and after a short chase, Spock is thrown into a court martial where he begins to explain his motivations through video evidence on Captain Pike's visit to the planet 13 years prior. At this point, all we know is he goes to the planet, and he is captured by aliens after being lured there by the illusion of a crashed ship. This feels like a lot of setup, which is needed, but I feel there is a lot more that happens in the second part, which is where the story actually starts to get more interesting. So, it's a good introduction to the story, but nothing more than that.
Obviously, next time, I will be reviewing The Menagerie, Part II, and seeing what happens to Captain Pike and Spock, so keep an eye out for that.
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