Plot – How delightful is the teaser; Star Trek as written by a five-year-old forcing Kirk and company to freeze on the spot and listen as the Kelven spells out the end of human existence. It’s outrageously camp and delightful. The Kelvans then materialise on the Enterprise and start freezing all the crew. It’s like a big game of statues.
It’s fun to encounter a species who are so far advanced than humanity that to cut them down and steal their technology is mere child’s play. It’s unusual to find a species that exists conceptually and inhabits the bodies of people. Spock pulls out his latest Vulcan party trick and the Kelvans see right through him and punish him for it. When they do escape, they are recaptured immediately (in an admittedly awkwardly staged sequence). The Kelvans are distinctly unimpressed with our regular cast, which is refreshing. Ultimately, they are just as jealous and intoxicated and seducible as we are, which is their downfall. That too I rather like. Behaving like human beings is what allows the crew to manipulate and defeat them. Their downfall is exposure to humanity.
Character – Mr Spock is very like the Doctor in Doctor Who in that you cannot say what is or isn’t fair game when it comes to introducing new abilities for them because they are alien and so anything goes. Hilariously he puts himself into a trance in order to convince the Kelvans that he is sick when he could just have clutched his stomach and starting moaning. But you have to give him points for effort.
Good on Mister Scott for doing what he does best and getting the Kelvan pissed. He’s brilliantly funny when drunk, James Doohan clearly understands the practice of alcoholism.
‘I don’t usually go around beating up beautiful women’ says Kirk. But it strikes me that he has slapped a few about. For once Kirk laying on the charm is all a ruse, and thus the overdone music and soft-focus lens is all part of the act. ‘I want you to apologise to me again…’ is one of the best crap romance lines in all of Trek and all the better for being completely tongue in cheek.
Performance - In true bizarre sci fi fashion they have the ability to turn our people into tiny dodecahedrons and bask in the moment where Kirk laments what his crewmembers have become. Shatner deserves some kind of award for selling this sort of concept with such a straight face.
There’s are gorgeous, knowing performances from all the regulars in this episode and that is pretty infectious to watch as they go through the motions of outsmarting the Kelvans. Deforest Kelly is particularly enjoyable pretending that he is treating Spock with deathly seriousness whilst practically looking out at the audience and winking.
Production – A round of applause for whoever is responsible for the upscaling and the new special effects on the HD releases because the opening visuals are arresting and imaginative, and not at all what I expect from a TOS episode. The later effects when the Enterprise is pushed through huge regions of space were extraordinary and really helped to sell that the engines were being manipulated by new technology. Add in the stirring musical score and the spot-on reactions of the Bridge crew and you have a memorable sequence with everybody pulling the scene in the same direction to make an impact.
What is that coloured playdough that everybody is eating? Marzipan? I’m intrigued, and slightly repulsed.
Best moment – When the Captain beams down with two redshirts – one black and one woman – you know things aren’t going to go well for them. A shame, as the coloured guy is very hot indeed. When it revealed that Lt Shea is still alive and the Yeoman has been killed. I could have sworn the black dude would have bought it and was pleasantly surprised when he was the one that made it.
Turning the crew into little dodecahedrons merely highlights how little Uhura and Chekov get to do in general because their absence isn’t really felt. We’ve lost their beautiful looks but the inanimate objects are more than acceptable stand ins in plot terms.
I wish they hadn’t done that – I’m not sure why McCoy is there initially because he doesn’t have a line of dialogue in the first 10 minutes. I think it is just because Kirk and Spock are there and that’s just what happens on this show.
Kirk’s stunt double in the fight at the end. The director is shockingly unsympathetic.
A reason to watch this episode again – This episode plays out with such a sense of knowingness that I couldn’t help but be swept up by it. It reminds me of the DS9 episode One Little Ship where the crew of DS9 had their ship taken over and were going through the motions whilst plotting to bring down the Jem H’adar. This a bit of fluff ultimately, albeit with some intriguing aliens and some nice twists. If this was the standard of the third season the show might never have been cancelled. For those people who come to TOS for some good old-fashioned entertainment, this is perfect escapism. How Kirk turns around the Kelvans with a few lines of dialogue shows that nothing was really at stake here. ‘Oh well, let’s be friends then.’
**** out of *****
Clue for tomorrow's episode:
No comments:
Post a Comment