Another episode I had to watch on 1.5x speed and it still felt like a painful slog to get through.
I will admit that I am a new Star Trek fan, having decided to go back to The Original Series (TOS) after watching Strange New Worlds (SNW), so there's no nostalgia involved -- and this may undoubtedly factor into how I feel about episodes such as these.
As another user pointed out, it does not make sense that an alien race as advanced as Sargon and co. Had not had the foresight to build androids ahead of time, choosing instead to store themselves as energy within receptacles. Especially considering we've already seen highly sophisticated androids built by humans in prior episodes.
However, that is a hiccup in continuity I would be willing to look past.
My true qualms with this episode come down to yet another romantic subplot slowing things down. I suppose it's a product of its time, and having such a subplot was important for 1960s TV, but it does not make for a good, enjoyable viewing experience. It makes it feel predictable. Any time a female character locks eyes with Captain Kirk, you just know they're going to be kissing by the end of the episode.
Furthermore, the stakes that Spock and/or Kirk is going to die, or is already dead, do not work when watching these episodes after the fact. I can imagine it being exciting when watching these back when they aired for the first time in the 1960s because you don't know what's going to happen. But we already know that these characters are going to survive, so instead we're just left waiting, in boredom, for the characters to tell us the obvious: they're not dead.
I will admit that I am a new Star Trek fan, having decided to go back to The Original Series (TOS) after watching Strange New Worlds (SNW), so there's no nostalgia involved -- and this may undoubtedly factor into how I feel about episodes such as these.
As another user pointed out, it does not make sense that an alien race as advanced as Sargon and co. Had not had the foresight to build androids ahead of time, choosing instead to store themselves as energy within receptacles. Especially considering we've already seen highly sophisticated androids built by humans in prior episodes.
However, that is a hiccup in continuity I would be willing to look past.
My true qualms with this episode come down to yet another romantic subplot slowing things down. I suppose it's a product of its time, and having such a subplot was important for 1960s TV, but it does not make for a good, enjoyable viewing experience. It makes it feel predictable. Any time a female character locks eyes with Captain Kirk, you just know they're going to be kissing by the end of the episode.
Furthermore, the stakes that Spock and/or Kirk is going to die, or is already dead, do not work when watching these episodes after the fact. I can imagine it being exciting when watching these back when they aired for the first time in the 1960s because you don't know what's going to happen. But we already know that these characters are going to survive, so instead we're just left waiting, in boredom, for the characters to tell us the obvious: they're not dead.