You're right, it's all those things, but it's also more. There's a different atmosphere in those early episodes. Part of it is the lighting and the camera work. Things were a bit darker in the early days.
Is the first season *really* the best? If so, I'm disappointed...
- Thread starter DostoyevskyClone
- Start date
No.
There are only three first-rate episodes in season two - "Amok Time" and "The Doomsday Machine," and "Mirror, Mirror." "Journey To Babel" rates a "B" at best. Even at its best the writing in season two relies heavily on audience fondness for and familiarity with the characters and the actors who play them. By contrast, there are quite a few season one episodes that are worthwhile as stand-alone hours even if one has never seen or heard of "Star Trek."
Excellent observation.
There is more "depth" in those early ones. More extras, sounds and chatter in the background, which gave the ship a more realistic feel.
I was recently discussing this with another Trekkie/er, and we both agreed that NO WAY is the first season the best.
The show is not their yet, and many of the eps are just ssssllllloooowww.
Spock isn't fully online yet, with odd aberrations; Kirk is a little too laid back.
Some of the season is just too soap-opera in space.
However, there are awesome eps as well - toward the end.
My fave season is most of two, with parts of three thrown in - a custom season!
The show is not their yet, and many of the eps are just ssssllllloooowww.
Spock isn't fully online yet, with odd aberrations; Kirk is a little too laid back.
Some of the season is just too soap-opera in space.
However, there are awesome eps as well - toward the end.
My fave season is most of two, with parts of three thrown in - a custom season!
And crewmen (and women) aren't just walking the corridors, they are doing things like repairing conduits, replacing piping, and going up Jefferies' tubes. The ship seems full and you could honestly get a sense that there are 430 souls on board, not just the handful of extras that we see in later seasons, TNG and VOY.
Also, the turbolifts has double doors -- double doors! -- inner and outer, wow. That goes away quickly to save time, I suppose, and are never seen again in any Trek.
Out of all the second-season episodes, "The Doomsday Machine" is the closest to the feel and look of season one in terms of storytelling, characterization, and production (the lighting is even close to the early first-season episodes).
Kirk is hardly laid back in the first season; he's as serious as a rip in a space suit. He's more laid back and humorous towards the end of season one and for the rest of the series. In those early episodes, he was very much like Horatio Hornblower, someone who internalizes everything and beats himself up over every little decision.
Shatner insisted as time went on the "lighten-up" the character of Kirk, give him a sense of humor and wonder about everything. A good choice since Kirk needs to be a counterpoint to Spock's logic, but in the first-season he is not laid back and is the most for-the-uniform than the rest of the series. I'd even say that the more serious, military-minded Kirk comes back in TMP and TWOK.
As for the first season being soap opera, it's not. Space opera to an extent but that season is the most serious, considered adult drama of all Trek.
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You say that so matter-of-factly -- yet that's just your opinion.
I happen to agree with the other guy that Season 2 is the best season...but, that's my opinion.
Okay. I'll bite. What is "goupy", and what was the clear cut purpose? If it's clear cut, you should be able to tell us what it is.
Star Trek wasn't an anthology show. There's nothing wrong with a drama making dramatic use of the fondness its audience has for the characters. "Journey to Babel" is an A episode in part because it manages to use each of the central triumvirate in a way that reveals the essence of his character without once sinking into cutesy schtick (though it comes close: "finally got the last word") like Treks VI and V sadly do--even the scene when we discover that Spock had a "teddy bear" is handled well. If that's all it does, though, it would be a B, as you say. But it also gives us the best glimpse of the UFP as a "real" political entity we've had in the 40+ years of Trek as well as an exciting spy story, plus a top-notch family drama--"good " soap opera, like we get on NuBSG. I submit that "Journey to Babel," while not the best hour of TOS, may well be the most perfectly balanced.
As to the original question: I prefer the first season to the almost equally excellent second for the same reason I prefer TMP to the almost equally excellent TWoK and for the reason I hint at above: the first season was primarily a good SF series where the second season was primarily a good drama series.
