What's new

Welcome to the DiscussionHub 👋, Guest

Become part of our community! Register or log in to connect with other members, share your thoughts, and explore the forum. It's free and easy to join.

  • We have now changed the post count rule to post your website in the Website Directory and the Member Showcase to 10, this was previously 50 but we felt it was too high. You can read more about this change here >>> https://discussionhub.net/threads/update-of-rules-for-the-member-showcase.4356/

TV Database Star Trek (1966)

Stan
  • 0
  • 1
  • 1
4.00/5 1 Votes

Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy,Drama

Director: Gene Roddenberry

First aired:

Last air date:

Show status: Ended

Overview: Space. The Final Frontier. The U.S.S. Enterprise embarks on a five year mission to explore the galaxy. The Enterprise is under the command of Captain James T. Kirk with First Officer Mr. Spock, from the planet Vulcan. With a determined crew, the Enterprise encounters Klingons, Romulans, time paradoxes, tribbles and genetic supermen led by Khan Noonian Singh. Their mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Where to watch

Trailer Cast

    • William Shatner

      James T. Kirk
    • Leonard Nimoy

      Spock
    • DeForest Kelley

      Dr. McCoy
    • James Doohan

      Scott
    • Walter Koenig

      Pavel Chekov
    • George Takei

      Sulu
    • Nichelle Nichols

      Uhura
Show information in first post provided by The Movie Database
Star Trek
Spectre of the Gun
Season: 3
Episode: 6
Air date: 1968-10-25

Guest stars: Charles Maxwell,Gregg Palmer,Bill Zuckert,Abraham Sofaer,Ron Soble,Rex Holman,Bonnie Beecher,Sam Gilman,Charles Seel,Eddie Paskey
Having been found trespassers into Melkotian space, Captain Kirk and his companions are sent to die in a re-enactment of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

McCoy: "Spock will have no truck with grief, Scotty; it's human."
Kirk: "Bones, Scotty!"
Spock: "Captain, it's quite alright; they forget I am half human."

It's a pretty decent opening to season 3. With Star Trek and most '60s TV shows, you'd come to expect a certain level of budget restraint in its production value, but episodes like this make good use of it to still make the visuals interesting, whether it's with Melkot the disembodied Melkotian or even the obvious stage-set of Tombstone, Arizona that was explained away as a half-cocked recreation of the actual town. Ironically, for all its limited budget, Trek's creativity in its creature design is far more engaging than something like CW's Supernatural, a modern day show that seems obsessed with boring bipedal humanoid "monsters."

More importantly, the real appeal of Trek has always been its character writing, and this episode gave us a decent look at our heroes dealing with fatalism as they deal with the inevitable countdown towards their death. It's all pretty believable, especially if you're unaware of Chekov's existence in the movies prior to this episode's viewing (much like myself before I was made aware of the fact).

What stretches the suspension of disbelief, however, is Spock's logic that it's all in their head. Scotty, McCoy and even Spock believed that the tranquilizer would definitely work, not that it wouldn't, so Spock's logic of "belief dictates existence" in this world doesn't make sense.

The logical fallacy aside, the rest of the episode's pretty entertaining. I haven't seen Val Kilmer's Tombstone, but that was the first thing that popped into my head seeing this episode. And while Ron Soble is no Kurt Russell, I really like how intense his Wyatt Earp is in this episode, just a dead-eyed stone-faced grim reaper coming for Kirk's crew with his gang.
Star Trek
Elaan of Troyius
Season: 3
Episode: 13
Air date: 1968-12-20

Guest stars: France Nuyen,Dick Durock,Lee Duncan,Victor Brandt,Jay Robinson,Tony Young,Frank da Vinci
The USS Enterprise ferries a spoiled princess whose betrothal to a royal Troyian is hoped will bring peace to a star system at war.

Yikes.

This was one of those problematic Star Trek episodes, and not being subtle about it too. It's literally based on Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew", a play which obviously didn't age well, not to mention Elaan being a stereotypical "dragon lady Asian who's tamed into submission" (literally played by France Nuyen, a Chinese). At least the magic tears kinda switched the role of S&M, kinda, but man, this episode was a landmine of problematic.
Star Trek
The Paradise Syndrome
Season: 3
Episode: 3
Air date: 1968-10-04

Guest stars: Rudy Solari,Richard Hale,Sabrina Scharf
An alien device on a primitive planet erases Captain Kirk's memory, and he begins a new life with the planet's indigenous people.

"I am Kirok! I have come! I AM KIROK!!!"

I find myself enjoying writing about bad writing on shows than good writing, and not just those mid-tier writing that's kinda stale either, but horrendously bad writing that everyone shits on. It's kinda challenging to write about a show where all the good things about it, someone else has said it better than you. The same can be said for a bad show, but the difference is that there's just so much more fun mocking it even if everyone else has made the same mockery.

As a Singaporean Chinese myself, the white savior trope has not nearly irritated me as it has for members of other minority groups, it seems, probably because I don't really see people purely as skin color the way our modern society loves to. This episode is hilariously on-brand though when it comes to a whole landmine of problematic tropes, merely three episodes into season 3 (going by production and VHS order):

  • White savior? Kirk, as always, this time literally being a god to the Native Americans.
  • Blackface? Sabrina Scharf as Miramanee and Rudy Solari as Salish, possibly more.
  • Noble Savage? Definitely. Kirk compares discovering the Native tribes as discovering "Atlantis or Shangri-La."

The trinity of problematic tropes in a racist episode, ladies and gents. Not a great way to begin your production of the season, and the problem is further confounded by Shatner's hammy acting, grinning like an idiot when Kirk proclaimed his discovery of peace and happiness, or his shouting at the clouds that he's Kirok in front of the alien obelisk to somehow stop the imminent asteroid impact, a performance merely topped by his "I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!" performance from way back in season 1, "The Enemy Within".

But let's step back a little bit and talk about that third of the problematic trope, the Noble Savage. What was Gene Roddenberry and his crew thinking, exactly? Why over-compensate a native people to the degree of making them look like mystical and sacred but utterly moronic primitives? The most likely answer? White guilt. DUN DUN DUN! Oh no, we did an inhumane act against their people centuries ago; let's amend that by making their people look good on a nerdy cult sci-fi TV, because that's how you make amends!

The whole notion might seem absurd on the surface, but in 2025, it's actually a pretty normalized behavior, just with a different coat of paint and a different label, the label basement-dwelling conservative trolls like to call... "woke." DUN DUN DUN! That's right, folks, performative and insincere portrayal of a minority group, obviously an accusation conjured up by delusional bigots who hate women and black people (because it's always about black people, rarely the white-adjacent Chinese). Probably. "They will never know what you sacrificed for them" probably didn't mean that Wanda Maximoff was an innocent savage who did the best she could have out of noble intentions and frustrating circumstances, even if it sure seems problematic on the surface.

And let's talk about that blackface for a minute too. What was the intent behind that, exactly? Was it because the industry during the '60s meant that Roddenberry had trouble normalizing the hiring of non-white actors/actresses and had to do the best with what he had on hand with actors that could actor (as opposed to just hiring Native Americans and hope they can do the best with the English-written script on camera), or was it the more likely reason that Roddenberry... hates colored people? DUN DUN DUN! Where's the diverse casting on this?! Sure, you have the token Uhura, but where's the Native Americans?! I call bigotry!

But seriously, folks, it's pretty easy to just jump on the bandwagon and call "RACIST!" on a "dated" show like this; it's another thing entirely to peel back the layers and examine why these "problematic" tropes came about and what they actually say about people in general when it comes to performative activism and tokenized minority groups that aren't portrayed as realistic and flawed people.

The majority of the episode's plot itself, even if you put the racist tropes aside, is pretty generic and cheesy, with Kirk going on a "Dancing with Wolves" soap opera where he had his memory wiped and falls in love with one of the natives, even having a rival in love to boot. It's on the level of "so bad it's good" so I could hardly complain because this was an entertainment goldmine full of hilariously hammy moments, partially due to Shatner's usual over-the-top performance. The fact that Kirk literally stumbled his way into amnesia is such pure comedy you'd expect a laugh track to chime in. If every episode of season 3 is going to be this bad, at least make it as funny as this one.

On the Spock side of things, it's a little more melancholic, but in a more black comedy kind of way in that Spock is working his way into exhaustion to stop the imminent asteroid while Kirk's frolicking with Miramanee around the trees like it's a Bollywood film. Bones is also being his usually insufferable and sanctimonious shrew, so he's no fun either. Where's Kirk to tame this shrew when you need him like in "Elaan of Troyius"?

Overall, a pretty fun episode, albeit for all the wrong reasons, but just don't take this too seriously; it's Star Trek, not The Wire.
Star Trek
The Enterprise Incident
Season: 3
Episode: 2
Air date: 1968-09-27

Guest stars: Jack Donner,Roger Holloway,Richard Compton,Joanne Linville,Eddie Paskey,Robert Strong,Gordon Coffey,Mike Howden,Robert Gentile,Richard Compton
The crew of the Enterprise are on a secret mission to steal a Romulan cloaking device.

"We were off the NBC schedule -- dropped -- cancelled. The letters, marches, and all the rest of it were immeasurable help in getting us put back on the schedule... The renewal was due to many factors -- over a million letters and petitions, the student protests, Gene Roddenberry’s literate, reasonable and persuasive assault in personal trips to New York to speak to the decision -makers there. We had definitely been off the schedule - - and then the mail began to pour in. It cost NBC a great deal in hiring extra staff to answer it... because much of it was from people of some standing in industry, professions and so on. These could not be answered by a routine form letter. So, we cost NBC some money -- and all of you kept us on the air." - D.C. Fontana, Spockanalia 2, April 19, 1968

Back in the late '60s, when the second season of Star Trek: TOS was about to be cancelled, around 115,893 letters were sent for the "Save Star Trek" campaign and successfully led to the renewal of the series for its third season. The first episode to air... was "Spock's Brain". It was a disaster, supposedly.

I'm watching this series by production/VHS order, so I didn't have the privilege of seeing the dumpster fire of "Spock's Brain" yet, but I sympathize with Trek fans at the time who must have been immensely disappointed by the wreckage they created.

That said, the second broadcast episode, this episode, "The Enterprise Incident", would have probably reversed that despair... at least temporarily until the following episode, "The Paradise
Syndrome", though that dated episode might have been considered progressive at the time.

"Enterprise Incident" is great fun though, especially if you go in blind. Knowing the fiasco of "Spock's Brain", I was expecting Kirk's dumb decision-making here to be a symptom of the dumb writing that might have plagued this season. Thankfully, it's not, and that became particularly evident once Kirk has died, a move that was Fontana overplaying her hand since most people should know by now that it's essentially impossible for that to happen, at least on this series.

The rest of the episode is still solid after the other shoe dropped. Despite Roddenberry's intention for the series to paint an optimistic picture of humanity with progressive ideals, there were more than a few episodes where Trek feels more like "James Bond in Space" long before Mass Effect came out. Captain Kirk's usually the dashing adventurer out seducing women (alien or otherwise) with his roguish charm, but this episode reserved that spot for Spock as he goes full "From Romulus with Love" with the Romulan commander, a female commander long before Janeway arrived. Being a nerd in the '60s, you don't have a lot of role model figures in entertainment that aren't the traditionally masculine types, but we did have two of the more prominent intellect figures, namely Peter Parker and Spock, so nerds everywhere back then must have been ecstatic with this episode.

Despite the compelling twists at the first half of the episode, the rest of it is about as predictable as you'd expect, but that's not necessarily a bad thing in this case, as Spock's espionage adventure feels unique enough to make the story work, even the "good guy falling for the enemy" cliche that's, again, usually reserved for a more masculine Bond-like character.
Star Trek
And the Children Shall Lead
Season: 3
Episode: 4
Air date: 1968-10-11

Guest stars: Melvin Belli,Pamelyn Ferdin,Brian Tochi,Craig Huxley,Frank da Vinci
On a distant planet, Kirk, Spock and McCoy find a scientific team dead, and their children who, unknown to the crew, have great powers at their disposal.

The Bad Seed. Village of the Damned. Children of the Corn. And of course, The Omen. Enfant terrible, a trope so old it goes back to the 1800s and particularly fairy tales of Changelings or just demonic spawns. The idea that children are secretly evil might seem like a myth, but in actuality, the real myth might be that they're all innocent angels. It's in fact that innocence and naivety that can lead them astray in terms of moral integrity, dismissing dangerous or harmful acts as not a big deal due to their ignorance (or straight up negligence) of the consequences. South Park had it right - kids can be little dicks.

This episode, however, may have taken that concept a little too far, as the kids in here couldn't care less that their boring parents are lying dead at their feet. Granted, it might be the influence of Gorgan the green ghost (not that Green Ghost), but even then, they seemed unrealistically detached from the parents they were playing with in the past, presumably not that long before their demise.

It really doesn't help that this episode is unintentionally hilarious in terms of its cheesy visuals from start to finish. For starters, the children would perform this swiveling motion like they're shaking dice (or playing a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors) whenever they use their psychic (read: Gigalomaniac) powers to control the minds of the Enterprise crew. What's worse is that the hallucinations the crew saw can be kinda goofy, like Sulu seeing what's basically a looped Windows 98 screensaver of revolving knives, or Uhura seeing her wrinkled old ass in a small mirror that came out of nowhere.

Kirk's got the best deal in terms of these visions though, sent into a spiral of ShatNervana as he wildly pivots around in his induced anxiety like he's having a stroke, doing the hammiest impression of a man panicking like it's a highschool rendition of Shakespeare, before gripping Spock and sending the Internet into a homoerotic breakdown.

We also get a funny scene where the kids were shown the footage of them playing with their parents before a hard cut to them being dead, and then the scene of their tombstones. BOOM. DEAD PARENTS, KIDS! After that traumatizing experience and having defeated Gorgan, Spock and Kirk tell them it's gonna be alright now as the crew is all smiles, moving onto their next adventure like they had forgotten about the recently orphaned children. Peak comedy. This feels like what Zapp Brannigan would do rather than Kirk.

Honestly, I would have saved myself the trouble and set my phaser on stun.
Star Trek
Spock's Brain
Season: 3
Episode: 1
Air date: 1968-09-20

Guest stars: Marj Dusay,Roger Holloway,Sheila Leighton,Frank da Vinci,Majel Barrett,Eddie Paskey,Frieda Rentie,Jeannie Malone,Pete Kellett,Frank da Vinci,Bill Blackburn,James Daris
An alien female beams aboard the ship and, after incapacitating the rest of the crew, surgically removes Spock's brain. Kirk and the crew have just hours to locate and replace it before Spock's body dies.

And here it is, the notorious episode that began the season 3 broadcast, the hard-earned renewal all the fans asked for... Man, this one hurts.

But to be fair, for all its notoriety, I've actually seen worse in the same season so far. For one thing, I didn't laugh as much because most of the writing is pretty standard without slipping into absurdity too often. Yes, even the whole concept of Spock losing his brain. I could buy it because he's Vulcan, and I'm not nearly familiar enough with Vulcan physiology to know whether it's absurd or not. The truly silly stuff only comes through when Bones had to perform surgery to restore Spock's brain using alien knowledge, and then later, Spock's instructions... The latter part of the surgery was like someone playing "Operation". It's as ridiculous as it sounds.

The whole idea of females as the dominant species of the planet who uses ancient knowledge to enslave men for the good of the planet works about as well as you'd expect, mostly because it's an undercooked concept that didn't really go anywhere.

The farcical nature of this episode and its underdeveloped plotline makes more sense when you watch the VHS intro for this episode, where Walter Koenig (aka Chekov) explained that writer Lee Cronin originally penned it as a comedy, not a serious drama. Yes, this episode got "Alien: Resurrected", basically.

Daily Poll: Which universe do you prefer?

  • Marvel

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • DC

    Votes: 2 66.7%
  • Theme customization system

    You can customize some areas of the forum theme from this menu

    Choose the color that reflects your taste

    Wide/Narrow view

    You can control a structure that you can use to use your theme wide or narrow.

    Grid view forum list

    You can control the layout of the forum list in a grid or ordinary listing style structure.

    Picture grid mode

    In the grid forum list, you can control the structure where you can open/close images.

    Close sidebar

    You can get rid of the crowded view in the forum by closing the sidebar.

    Fixed sidebar

    You can make it more useful and easier to access by pinning the sidebar.

    Corner radius close

    You can use the radius at the corners of the blocks according to your taste by closing/opening it.

    Back