Star Trek TOS S1 E17, 18, 19, and 20 Review

Well, today should be quite fun as far as the reviews go. I managed to watch four, yes, you heard right, four episodes today, so this will be twice the length of my previous review pages.

The first episode I'll be reviewing is called The Squire of Gothos. In the episode, the Enterprise encounters a strange planet which proceeds to send a rather odd set of messages that seem to have come right out of a Shakespeare play. When the crew beam down to investigate, they find that the one sending the messages is a seemingly omnipotent being named Trelane, who looks like a revolution era soldier for some reason, and that the planet, Gothos, is his personal playground. The main conflict is that Trelane seems to view humanity as quite primitive and warlike, as they were back in the times he is emulating, which he admires for some reason, and attempts to keep the crew on his planet so he can study them. I like this episode because it subverts the usual story of advanced aliens having an interest in the sufficiently less advanced humans, and instead paints this advanced alien as a spoiled child, and Trelane's final scene basically cements this fact well. Also, Trelane as a character I think sets the stage for another more recurring character in the Star Trek mythos, but he won't be appearing for some time. Overall, it's a fun episode and a good example of showing that humanity is always striving to be better.

The second episode I will be reviewing is called Arena. This episode starts with quite a shock, after being called to Cestus III to spend some shore leave there, Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise beam down to find the main city in ruins and then a group of unknown aliens, the same ones who destroyed the city, begin to bomb them. After the away team manages to get back to the ship, they chase after the fleeing aliens. An advanced alien race called the Metrons take notice and end up taking matters into their own hands, feeling this conflict will be resolved with open conflict between Kirk and the commander of the alien ship, of which the aliens are revealed to be a lizard-like species called the Gorn. The fight scene between Kirk and the Gorn captain is definitely silly and dated now, but the conclusion, where Kirk refuses to kill the Gorn after gaining the upper hand on him, is amazing, once again showing that no matter the circumstances, humanity has gotten to the point where they are peaceful and understanding, even in a difficult situation such as this. It's a solid episode, and the Gorn are super underrated.

The third episode I will be reviewing is called Tomorrow Is Yesterday. This episode is notable for being the first time travel focused episode, in which the Enterprise ends up traveling back to the late 1960s. The episode isn't anything special, but I still enjoy it a lot, with seeing people from the 60s reacting to the future tech and vice versa. It's more just a fun romp if anything, and I still highly recommend it.

The last episode I will be reviewing today is called Court Martial. This one is really interesting. It's a courtroom episode, which Star Trek does REALLY well for some reason, where Captain Kirk is wrongfully accused of and framed for killing his records officer, Ben Finney. Getting to see the main crew defending Kirk against these charges was definitely heartwarming and shows how much Spock and McCoy care about Captain Kirk. Also, the actor who played as Kirk's attorney, Samuel T. Cogley, was fantastic, and he really put his all into the part. The mystery of what really happened was quite fun to figure out, and the conclusion was well worth the wait.

As you can see, there weren't any bad episodes this time, which was nice considering the amount of episodes I reviewed today. As for next time, we'll be getting to one of my favorite episodes, this one dealing with a planet that seems to have a very bizarre cult-like mentality. Be prepared for next time when I review The Return of the Archons.

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