Star Trek TOS S2 Episodes 8 and 9

Guess who's back? It's me! I was kind of working through many things and trying to figure out how I wanted to do this, but I decided to start doing daily reviews of Star Trek in the leadup to another major block of reviews I have planned at an unspecified date within the next few months. Anyways, for now, it's back to the Original Series of Star Trek we go to pick up where I left off a long time ago.

The first episode I watched is I, Mudd, and yes, it does indeed feature Harry Mudd from the season 1 episode Mudd's Women. This one is arguably my favorite Mudd episode, at least until Rainn Wilson portrayed him in Discovery, but I'll get to that much later. This episode focuses on Harry Mudd being marooned on a planet of androids who serve his every whim and he has convinced them to help him take over the Enterprise because he is bored with having everything come to him so easily. But, the androids just want the Enterprise for themselves so they can...help people and basically take over the galaxy with kindness. Weird plot, but okay. This leads to the arguably best part of the episode, where Mudd and the crew of the Enterprise team up and basically act insane for the sole purpose of causing the androids' logic centers to malfunction. The pure randomness and lack of any coherence to their actions is hilarious to watch, especially all the hammy deliveries and silly and bizarre situations. That is where everything works so well, is in the bizarre and nonsensical humor. It may be simple, but the scene where they break the androids with illogic is one of the funniest scenes in the entire Original Series.

The other episode I watched was Metamorphosis. The concept behind this one is Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are transporting a Federation official by shuttle to the Enterprise so she can get the treatment for a disease she contracted while trying to stop an interplanetary conflict. However, on the way to the ship, they end up being forced onto a planet by an energy being known only as 'The Companion'. Exploring this place has them run into the long lost and presumed dead creator of warp drive himself, Zefram Cochrane, who has a symbiotic relationship with the Companion. In trying to understand why this Companion brought them here, they find out that Cochrane said he was lonely and the Companion brought them over to keep him company. Eventually, it is revealed that the Companion is actually in love with Cochrane, and that is why it has helped him stay alive for 150 years. I liked seeing a very non-humanoid entity having feelings for a humanoid one, as it made for a unique relationship that isn't seen in the series too often. It was kind of undermined when it possessed the dying Federation official, giving it a more human appearance, but it was an interesting concept all the same. Maybe one of the new Treks will try this idea again in the future? Regardless, it was a solid episode, although the ending was meh for me because of not exploring the relationship as it was before.

Next time, our next episode will be about a journey to a Federation conference featuring the ambassador to Vulcan as a character, who has surprising ties to Spock. Find out what will happen in Journey to Babel.

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