Star Trek TOS S2 E3 and 4 Review

After a day of working on other stuff, specifically playing through more of a game I should hopefully be reviewing soon, I have returned today to give you more reviews from the world of Star Trek. Both of these episodes are quite interesting, and I'd say they definitely have made their marks on the franchise.

The first episode I will be reviewing is called The Changeling. The story focuses on the Enterprise encountering a mysterious...something in space that seemingly has wiped out all life on a planet they were going to and proceeds to attack the ship as well. Eventually, it ceases fire and is revealed to be a space probe called Nomad, which apparently has a directive to eradicate all carbon based life forms because they are flawed, by its reasoning. I really enjoyed getting to see how they ended up making this probe an effective villain, with it always seeming like it's just one wrong word away from vaporizing the entire ship, as shown when it wipes Uhura's memory just for singing, and kills Scotty for trying to stop it. (He does get better, though.) A very good episode with an underrated villain.

The other episode I will be reviewing is called Mirror, Mirror. The idea behind this one is that, after an attempt to negotiate with a peaceful alien race for some dilithium crystals to power the Enterprise, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura end up being transported to an alternate universe version of the Enterprise, where the main power is not the Federation, but the Terran Empire, a cruel and xenophobic organization obsessed with conquering every planet they come across. There are some pretty brutal weapons at play here, including the agony booth, which, as the name implies, is a container to put insurgents in that causes extreme pain, and the Tantalus Field, which can basically vaporize anyone in the blink of an eye. The whole idea of the episode is the displaced crew trying to return to their own universe, but it is still interesting to see how the mirror universe works all the same. I can also say that this is only the first time we get to experience the mirror universe, and it will be coming back for future series, so there is clearly more to tell. It's a fun episode to watch the main cast be hammy and evil, and I certainly say that it is a must watch for any Star Trek fan.

Next time, we journey to a planet populated by a primitive race of people who worship a mysterious entity named Vaal. How will the Enterprise react? Find out next time when I review The Apple.

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