While re-watching the entire series in episode order, and now that the first season has come to an end, I have to comment on something that's bugged me from the start. You would think that with thirty second century technology, the Federation would have been able to figure out how to construct an ergonomically comfortable work station for Uhura. Even Spock chooses to stand when he has to make one of his calculations, probably figuring it's not worth the effort to pull over a chair. Every time I see Uhura splayed across the communications console, it drives me crazy that they couldn't have built a work station that might have been practical. Of course if they had done that, you wouldn't have been able to track how Uhura's skirt shrank with each successive episode, to the point here of being virtually even with her waist. Check it out - in the earliest stories, her skirt was somewhat above the knees, but gradually went higher and higher throughout the first season.
Now for the story. Up till now, the cheesiest Star Trek monster would have been that Horta from 'The Devil in the Dark'. Well he still might be the cheesiest, but these goofy flying amoeba-like looking discs looked a lot more scary back in the Sixties before I had a chance to catch the show in color. Someone else on this board had it right about their resembling those plastic barf toys you could fool your friends with back in the day. In fact, the first time I saw someone pull that on me as a kid, I thought THAT was pretty real compared to these things.
The concept behind the story was pretty good though, a mass wave of insanity spreading across the galaxy and wiping out civilizations. Captain Kirk's only known family falls victim here without too much fanfare, and it would have probably meant more if his brother Sam's character had been developed over the course of the season. He was mentioned once before, but that was your only inkling that he might show up one day. When he does, he's already a goner. Oh well.
You know, sometimes the resolution to these unsolvable problems is something so simple it should have been thought of before. Just as in "War of the Worlds" where the invaders are brought down by common bacteria, the alien brain and the flying barf-rays are done in by, who would have guessed - bright light. The resolution provides for some momentary angst over the loss of Spock's eyesight, but you just knew this was all going to work out alright. Good thing about that Vulcan inner eye lid.
Now for the story. Up till now, the cheesiest Star Trek monster would have been that Horta from 'The Devil in the Dark'. Well he still might be the cheesiest, but these goofy flying amoeba-like looking discs looked a lot more scary back in the Sixties before I had a chance to catch the show in color. Someone else on this board had it right about their resembling those plastic barf toys you could fool your friends with back in the day. In fact, the first time I saw someone pull that on me as a kid, I thought THAT was pretty real compared to these things.
The concept behind the story was pretty good though, a mass wave of insanity spreading across the galaxy and wiping out civilizations. Captain Kirk's only known family falls victim here without too much fanfare, and it would have probably meant more if his brother Sam's character had been developed over the course of the season. He was mentioned once before, but that was your only inkling that he might show up one day. When he does, he's already a goner. Oh well.
You know, sometimes the resolution to these unsolvable problems is something so simple it should have been thought of before. Just as in "War of the Worlds" where the invaders are brought down by common bacteria, the alien brain and the flying barf-rays are done in by, who would have guessed - bright light. The resolution provides for some momentary angst over the loss of Spock's eyesight, but you just knew this was all going to work out alright. Good thing about that Vulcan inner eye lid.