Moving on in Production Order
Spock's Brain **½
This is going slowly because I've seen a number of these episodes so often, I am in no hurry to get back to it. Some of my favorite episodes are in this batch. But I promised myself that if I felt like watching Star Trek, I would go to the next one in production order, so here we are.
Is There In Truth No Beauty? ***½
Love this one! While this was a troubled production, it's a great episode which delivers on the Freiberger credo of action, romance and far out sci-fi. Plus is gives us the IDIC. Even though it was a marketing gimmick by Roddenberry, it was founded on a nice idea that fans ran with. Some fantastic performances, particularly David Frankham as Larry Marvick and Nimoy as Spock/Kollos. Diana Muldaur is much more appropriately cast as Miranda than as Anne Mulhall (although she was fine and classy there). The fawning over her is a bit excessive, but it's all so well done and expertly paced. The music is wonderfully over dramatic, but the hijacking sequence is thrilling. Kirk's confrontation with Miranda in the sickbay is incredible: Shatner was on FIRE.
MIRANDA: No doubt you think I can wake him with a kiss.
KIRK: It's worth a try, isn't it? After all, he's not a machine.
MIRANDA: But he is a Vulcan.
KIRK: Only half. The other half is human. Far more human than you, apparently.
MIRANDA: Face reality, Captain. His mind has gone down almost too far even for me to reach!
KIRK: If you don't reach him soon, he'll die. But that's what you want, isn't it?
MIRANDA: That's a lie!
KIRK: Oh yes, you want him to die! What did you do to him on the Bridge? Did you make him forget to put the visor over his eyes?
MIRANDA: You're insane!
KIRK: Yes, you know your rival, don't you? You couldn't keep him from making a mind-link with Kollos, something you couldn't do yourself! With my words, I'll make you hear such ugliness as Spock saw when he looked at Kollos with his naked eyes! The ugliness is within you!
MIRANDA: That's a lie! Liar!
KIRK: Your desire to see Kollos is madness! You can never see him. Never. But Spock saw Kollos, and for that he must die.
MIRANDA: Sadistic, filthy liar!
KIRK: The smell of hatred, the stench of jealousy permeates you. Why don't you strangle him while he lies there?
MIRANDA: Don't say anymore, please!
KIRK: Kollos knows what's in your heart. You can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to Kollos.
It's not perfect, mind you. Fine, let's allow that they want to be totally sure that Kollos doesn't accidentally open his little box without warning, so they clear everyone away from him who isn't a Vulcan wearing a visor. Why clear every single corridor of the ship? Why not just the path from the transporter to the turbolift and then the turbolift to Kollos' quarters? And why does Kirk not bother with a visor in the end?
Anyway, watching the original effects (as usual), little did I realize as a young'un we got a quick, formerly unseen shot from The Cage as the Enterprise streaks from the galaxy. One that Filmation used in cartoon form for TAS.
I also appreciate the episode title can be read more than one way:
Is there no beauty in truth?
and
Is there truly no beauty?
Depending on your preference for punctuation.
The Empath ***
Spooky, theatrical episode with a heavy emphasis on horror and torture. Watching this one late at night as a kid creeped me out. Funny: this episode was filmed after they pilfered the 20th Century Fox prop room as we see not only the Jupiter 2 freezing tubes, but also a "video screen" from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Add to that is the "limbo" set so commonly used in Irwin Allen productions and the Vians who look like first season Lost in Space aliens. The scene, 26 minutes in, after Kirk is healed, is chilling. The Vians appear and the fisheye lens is used. It's nightmare fuel. The George Duning score is gorgeous and Kathryn Hays is equally beautiful and sensitive as Gem. And the focus on the bond between the three leads - which would be reinforced in the films - is lovely. It's not a pleasant episode, but the third season took a turn towards horror as much as it could for the time. There are a couple of weirdly over the top moments (Kirk in slow motion and Shatner's tantrum of "one specimen, you said one specimen!"), but overall this is a really good episode and probably a budget saver. I was impressed at Kirk's disappearance in the teaser. The imprint of Kirk's box in the floor dust shows no sign of his getting up and walking off camera after the edit. Expertly done.
The Tholian Web ****
What can I say? This is not only one of the best episodes of the season, it's top tier all around, one of my favorites in the series. Fascinating episode, with great effects for the day, excellent atmosphere and wonderful performances by the entire regular cast. With no guest stars to speak of, every regular and semi-regular is in this one. With Shatner out of the picture for the bulk of the episode, everyone gets a chance to shine. Nimoy plays Spock beautifully, starting as usual, then going cold and remote while he deals with Kirk's apparent loss and the consequences of his decisions, to finally embracing his role and becoming more familiar with the crew ("your absence was keenly felt, Mr. Chekov"). McCoy is, as usual, unbearable when Kirk is missing, but starts to come around - however it does feel kind of hollow for Bones to accept Spock as captain after they determine that Kirk is still alive. However, there's no guarantee that they can get him back, so it still works. Scotty gets some wonderful moments throughout and Walter Koenig can do hysterical screaming and insanity as well as anyone. Nichelle Nichols slays in this one, she's really just so wonderful after she see's Kirk's image and falls to pieces in the corridor. In sickbay she's equally good as she reluctantly accepts her fate. Takei doesn't get much as usual, but he's still solid and dependable.
As a kid, I always laughed just before Chekov freaked out. I heard his line "And die like him" as "and I like him!" My sister and I always thought he said that which took years for me to shake, but I still think about it. Every time. Also when Uhura gets the stabbing pain in her cabin, I thought the necklace hurt her. I wondered why she would wear something that gave her shooting pains whenever she put it on. Hey I was a stupid kid. I asked my mom why the Enterprise went to the same planet every week. You know, the Planet Surface.
But I digress.
Incredibly good episode with more legendary aliens and wonderful use of stock music (The Empath when Uhura pleads to McCoy that Kirk is alive and Spock's Brain when Kirk beams up).
My only real gripe is the end gag. Kirk wasn't dead, he wasn't even missing for long. Why did he assume Spock and McCoy would play the last orders? And better yet, why did they lie about it? And were they really orders? It sounded more like friendly advice. Anyways.
Over in another thread it was asked when Fred Freiberger jumped the shark. So far, he hasn't.
It's not the same show, but it still has a better than average success rate.
