I was originally going to title this review as "Worthy of Season Three", with the implication that this episode of Season Two Trek is spartan in presentation, and has a lot of clichés aimed at Star Trek from onlookers who are not fans and fans alike.
The music is canned, the episode takes place entirely within the ship (no location shots, not interior studio shots of other locations outside the ship), and the script is borderline vapid. This script needed some doctoring before being committed to film.
The shortcomings; one of the myths created by asinine social psychologists in the 60s and 70s was that we only use ten or twenty percent of our minds. Completely false on every level. There was no bigger lie foisted on the public. The reason this is important to this episode is that the animal mind (in this case the human mind) is an integrated data storage and processing unit made up of a massive network of microprocessors. If you dump another data set into it at the mid-thirties or mid-forties age bracket, the person in question might not be able to function. But, it is science fiction, and no one new data storage and processing limits at that time. Still, there is a kind of psychological arrogance that pervades and reeks of this episode.
The other aspect is that the episode needed a bit more pizazz or energy to make it sing. We're seeing a love triangle of sorts, or rather a competition between two males for the attentions of a female. One man wishes to keep his people thriving, the other is willing to do anything to win the female. It sounds like an interesting story premise, and it is, but again we're limited to the interiors of the ship and a proxy use of the characters by another set of characters that we only see as orbs with blinking lights.
The acting carries the episode, but only far. In short the technological limits of both the production and the knowledge of the screenwriter, hold back what could have been a better episode. Nimoy does a superb job of portraying a very Machiavellian entity, and Shatner and the rest of the cast give excellent performances, but we're still stuck on the ship with characters that should have been both more cinematic and dynamic at the same time. The lack of SFX and the lack of locations couple with the already listed shortcomings to give us a very watered down version of a tale that should have been far more dynamic.
If I had shot it I might have had Spock going around taking over the ship and sabotaging efforts to stop him, replete with special effects and exterior shots of the Enterprise. But, that'll have to wait for another time and another place.
As it is it's a run in the mill episode. A sort of "Oh, this one's one..." installment of classic Star Trek.
An episode that should have had more impact, but didn't. Oh well.
The music is canned, the episode takes place entirely within the ship (no location shots, not interior studio shots of other locations outside the ship), and the script is borderline vapid. This script needed some doctoring before being committed to film.
The shortcomings; one of the myths created by asinine social psychologists in the 60s and 70s was that we only use ten or twenty percent of our minds. Completely false on every level. There was no bigger lie foisted on the public. The reason this is important to this episode is that the animal mind (in this case the human mind) is an integrated data storage and processing unit made up of a massive network of microprocessors. If you dump another data set into it at the mid-thirties or mid-forties age bracket, the person in question might not be able to function. But, it is science fiction, and no one new data storage and processing limits at that time. Still, there is a kind of psychological arrogance that pervades and reeks of this episode.
The other aspect is that the episode needed a bit more pizazz or energy to make it sing. We're seeing a love triangle of sorts, or rather a competition between two males for the attentions of a female. One man wishes to keep his people thriving, the other is willing to do anything to win the female. It sounds like an interesting story premise, and it is, but again we're limited to the interiors of the ship and a proxy use of the characters by another set of characters that we only see as orbs with blinking lights.
The acting carries the episode, but only far. In short the technological limits of both the production and the knowledge of the screenwriter, hold back what could have been a better episode. Nimoy does a superb job of portraying a very Machiavellian entity, and Shatner and the rest of the cast give excellent performances, but we're still stuck on the ship with characters that should have been both more cinematic and dynamic at the same time. The lack of SFX and the lack of locations couple with the already listed shortcomings to give us a very watered down version of a tale that should have been far more dynamic.
If I had shot it I might have had Spock going around taking over the ship and sabotaging efforts to stop him, replete with special effects and exterior shots of the Enterprise. But, that'll have to wait for another time and another place.
As it is it's a run in the mill episode. A sort of "Oh, this one's one..." installment of classic Star Trek.
An episode that should have had more impact, but didn't. Oh well.