Production Order Group Viewing 2018

[T'Bonz]

Don't get personal, guys.

And Maurice, ix-nay on the mini-modding. We can handle it.

Eh. Men are more wired to notice the physical so there will always be opinions on beauty - and let's face it, women in Hollywood are hired as much for their looks as anything else. You rarely see ugly women on TV or in the movies.

As long as men remember there is a brain inside that body, it's all good.

To be honest, women will evaluate the "hotness" of a man too, but we're not as verbal about it.

If people get out-of-control, we'll speak up.

 

[Mytran]

I was going to mention the clothing in my original summary but I cut it for space.
The thing about the exposed midrifts in S3 is that it's a barrier that Theiss had been battling against for the last 2 seasons, getting more and more daring in what he thought he could get away with in terms of what was deemed "acceptable" for 1960s television.
Clearly by S3 this was not longer a concern, as there are belly buttons everywhere!

It's a historical milestone as much as anything else

 

[Phoenix219]

I've seen a pretty cool fanedit that combines "Requiem" and "Eden" into one episode - Sevrin is the carrier of the "Requiem" plague, and the "Eden" planet is booby trapped to protect Flint, who has been alive since the days of the Garden of Eden. Its pretty ingenious, conceptually.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I've seen a pretty cool fanedit that combines "Requiem" and "Eden" into one episode - Sevrin is the carrier of the "Requiem" plague, and the "Eden" planet is booby trapped to protect Flint, who has been alive since the days of the Garden of Eden. Its pretty ingenious, conceptually.

I'm sure someone worked hard on that, but I feel like, "Don't mess with my childhood, my teen years, my young adulthood... my favorite show." It was good to begin with.

 

[Poltargyst]

Requiem for Methuselah

Rigellian Fever! Once again we see that the Rigel system is the most influential system in the Federation. Where exactly does this fever come from? The big uglies on Rigel VII? The Hill people of Rigel IV? The pleasure resort on Rigel II? The miners on Rigel XII? The Vulcan-like people of Rigel V?

And how did it get on Enterprise? Someone in the crew brought it from shore leave on Rigel II. Uh huh.

Ha, part of M-4 is the Romulan cloaking device also known as Nomad. That's a popular design in the galaxy.

The TOS-R CGI rendering of Flint's palace is great.

I keep wanting to call Flint "Parmen." I think it's the white hair and the fact they're both ancient and from Earth's classical period.

Actually, I wonder if Flint ran into the Parmen gang on Earth. Flint says he knew Socrates.

Flint and Rayna have a flat screen tv.

Spock: "We must commence ryetalyn injections within two hours and eighteen minutes or the epidemic will prove fatal to us all. " Again with the EXACT countdown for a biological process. They can really know to the exact minute when the fever is irreversible to everyone? Uh huh. Is everyone also going to drop dead at the exact same minute?

Spock is quite the connoisseur of ancient Earth art. He can infallibly recognize works by sight.

Oh, there's a woman in the scene! Play the soft "womanly" music.

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are doing that thing again like with Dr. Jones where they're fawning all over Rayna. It's like they're treating her like some kind of possession, some finished work of Flint's.

Spock plays the piano! And so well that he can sit down and flawlessly play a Brams waltz he's never seen before. Because of course he can. Even more shocking: Kirk can waltz!

Flint: "I have twice your physical strength." Khan had five times. That didn't work so well for him. Are there any control rods around?

Is Kirk out of his mind expecting Rayna to up and leave with him? Having the audacity to tell her she loves him when she's known him for all of two hours? How can he be so in love with her so quick?

Flint is much better at building androids than Dr. Soong. Rayna is so much more realistic than Data. Flint messed up in one area. Rayna has a distressing lack of bare midriff.

Flint's an immortal! Of course! He fell in battle and had the Quickening, then went on to win the Prize because There Can Be Only One.

Oh, it's the old "shrink the Enterprise down to fit on a tabletop" trick last seen in Catspaw. That is one hell of a lot of power Flint is packing there.

Why did Flint need Kirk to stir Rayna's emotions? Why couldn't he? I guess Spock says it. Rayna saw Flint as a father not a lover.

What an idiot Kirk is fighting over Rayna with his crew's lives in jeopardy.

Nice scene: Rayna realizing she's a person and will make her own decisions.

It's still nuts for Kirk to again ask her to go with him.

So Rayna dies of a broken heart? Unable to handle these newfound emotions.

I mean...Rayna's an android. Couldn't Flint just fix her? Erase her memories of the past couple hours and it will be like the Enterprise never came.

For that matter, make another Rayna, give her the same personality and memories of the first Rayna and let Kirk have one.

The loneliness of the crew is one of the overriding themes of TOS spelled out clearly here with Kirk's loneliness. As a kid I thought being a starship crew member would be so cool, and it would be, but there's a lot of hardship, stress, and loneliness in that job. Not all fun and games.

Would Flint regain immortality if he went back to Earth?

McCoy with another obnoxious judgement of Spock's supposed lack of feelings. But we've seen enough examples, and so has McCoy, that Spock does in fact have feelings, and it does hurt when McCoy tramples all over them. And if Spock doesn't have love in his life, what right do you have to judge, Leonard?

The mindmeld. It's been discussed many times here. It's a heck of an invasion of Kirk's mind. Unless by this time Spock and Kirk have grown so close Spock knows Kirk wouldn't mind. I've said before that Kirk is the Captain. He can't not remember what happened. I prefer to think Spock left the memories but removed the emotions so Kirk doesn't agonize when remembering.

I like Rayna. Immensely smart and talented. curious, compassionate, attractive. Her story of self-realization and empowerment is poignant. Flint's story is interesting. Kirk's behavior in instantly falling in love with Rayna to the point of jeopardizing his crew's lives is ridiculous. Over the course of this show, we see that Kirk's love of Enterprise and her crew enables him to defy several mind-altering substances, but here we see that Rayna is the one thing that gets him to forget his ship and crew. I prefer to think that Kirk was in the first stages of the Rigellian Fever which affected his judgement and emotions with a side order of emotional manipulation by some device of Flint's.

I didn't detect a social message in this episode. Don't date androids? If you build an android mate, don't let her meet Kirk?

It's interesting that if you're wealthy you can buy a planet. Flint can certainly defend it from all comers, Klingons and Romulans included.

Three episodes left! Does the series end with a Bang or a whimper?

Alien Watch! Flint's human so no new aliens this week.

Season 1
Talosians
That big ugly Rigellian guy Pike fought in illusion
Vina as an Orion girl in illusion
Glimpse of other aliens captured by Talosians
Ron Howard's brother
That dog from Enemy Within
Salt monster
That hand plant...Gertrude
Spock (duh)
Charlie's parents (Thasians)*
Romulans!
(Ruk)
Miri's planet kids (bonk bonk)
Giant ape creatures of Taurus II
Shore Leave Caretaker guy
Trelaine and his folks*
Gorn
Metrons*
The Lazerii
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Beta 3. (RotA)
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Emineminar VII (AToA)
The Triffids of Omicron Ceti III (TSoP)
The refreshingly non-human-looking Horta
Organians*
Klingons! (Remarkably human looking).
(The Guardian of Forever)
Flying pancakes

Season 2
Sylvia and Korob
The Companion
The remarkably human looking (though tall) Cappellans.
Native Pollux IV-ians (Apollo and his gang)
Full-blooded Vulcans
The remarkably human looking citizens of Argelius II (WitF)
Redjac
The People of Vaal (Gamma Triangulians)
Crew of the ISS Enterprise
The remarkably human-looking** (except for maybe a dot on their forehead) Halkans
Tribbles (not at all human looking)
The remarkably human-looking citizens of...892-VI. Is that what they call this planet? (The Roman one.)
Tall guys, short guys, Andorians, Tellurites, purple lady, Orion made up like an Andorian. (JtB)
The remarkably human-looking people of Neural. (APLW)
The awesome Mugato!
Shahna, Lars, Tamoon, Kloog, Thrallmaster Galt, and the Providers
The Cloud from the Tycho system.
The BIG FREAKIN' AMEBA!!!!!
The remarkably human-looking Iotians. (Gangsters)
Kelvans! Who really look like big, cool squids but choose to look remarkably human.
Sargon and the gang of not-quite-omnipotent aliens.
Remarkably human looking Zeons of Zeon and Ekosians of Ekos. (PoF)
The remarkably human looking Yangs and Coms of Omega IV.
Isis! Who looks remarkably like a cat until she wants to look remarkably human.

Season 3
The decidedly non-human looking Melkotians.
The remarkably human-looking Elasians and not so human looking Troyians.
Lawyer in a muumuu. Remarkably human-looking but maybe that was on purpose.
The remarkably human-looking Morgs and Eymorgs of Sigma Draconis.
Kollos the Medusan
Gem the Empath (remarkably human looking)
Vians (the OTHER bumpy-headed aliens)
Tholians!
The remarkably human-looking Fabrini of Yo Mama.
The malicious swirly ball of hate (DotD)
The remarkably human-looking Platonians who are douchebags except for Alexander
The fast, but still remarkably human looking Scalosians.
The remarkably human-looking image of Losira.
The Cheron boys, Bele and Lokai
Lackey's of Garth's some of whom are more human-looking than others.
Way too many remarkably human-looking Gideons.
Discorporated Zetarians and some recently departed Federation scholars and researchers of various races.
The remarkably human-looking Ardanians and their amazing midriffs.
Sevrin is Tiburonian, Rad is Catullan. If the others are aliens, they are remarkably human-looking.

*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request

 

[Poltargyst]

Certainly over the course of this rewatch I haven't hesitated to say when I think a woman is hot. Whether it's Helen Noel , Nona , Vana , or Rayna . I've wondered whether I'm being inappropriate or sexist or juvenile.

Well, juvenile for sure. I never assumed my posts would ever be these profound fonts of wisdom. This is my own little Mystery Science Theater 3000. I'm just saying whatever idiot thought comes into my head in the moment.

I've been watching The Magicians, and after each episode I like to read a Magicians message board to see what others think, and I will say the female posters there don't hesitate to say how hot Penny is. And I have no problem with that whatsoever.

Some roles are meant to be sex symbols. The people that take these roles are paid actors. They took the roles voluntarily, they were paid for it. Part of the role is to be sexy, to incite sexy feelings that's the point! Sex is part of the human experience.

And sex has been part of Star Trek from the very beginning. Star Trek has never failed to provide eye candy. That's why female crew members run around in miniskirts, why Shatner is sometimes shirtless, why Kirk's is the only uniform that gets ripped open to reveal his manly chest and shoulders.

This rewatch is about the experience of watching TOS. The sex appeal is part of that experience. To not comment on it is to ignore an important part of the experience. Of course I react to hot actresses. I'M SUPPOSED TO. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE THERE.

So in the end I decided, yes, I'm going to comment on the awesomeness of Helen, the hotness of Nona, the midriff of Droxine. If anyone wants chime in on the hotness of Kirk's biceps or what guys are hot, I have no problem with that. (Actually, I DID comment on Kirk's biceps in The Empath). And if certain crankypants posters don't like that, they are certainly free to not read my posts or write up prim and proper reviews of their own. I will continue to comment on the bare midriffs to my liking.

And let me tell you, Yarnek has one HOT bare midriff.

 

[Commishsleer]

Okay, but I don't think women would be flocking to this board no matter what we said.



We're smart people. We can come up with some excuse. But I would complain too if I thought it was crossing the line, or becoming constant. The spirit of sex on TOS was alluring but never prurient.

I think it would be better for everyone if there were more women here.
A Star Trek forum I used to be on many years ago had just about equal men and women so it is possible.

I've never really taken to the episode but it's arguable that Flint drugged Kirk to heighten his emotions. That’s probably the only explanation that makes sense. His attitude here after such a short space of time is incredibly out of character and clumsy.

I can get on board with immortal aliens more than some random immortal human, especially one who has access to technology that exceeds the Federation without any clear explanation beyond plot convenience.

Rayna is frustrating. She's meant to be a genius but is whittled down to a vulnerable love interest who finds any sense of agency to be overwhelming. It seems like a waste of a great concept.

Yes Rayna is wasted here. I wish they hadn't said she was a genius because she never acts like one.

 

[Henoch]

Rigellian Fever! Once again we see that the Rigel system is the most influential system in the Federation. Where exactly does this fever come from? The big uglies on Rigel VII? The Hill people of Rigel IV? The pleasure resort on Rigel II? The miners on Rigel XII? The Vulcan-like people of Rigel V?

Could it also be the 'Verse of Firefly?

Flint and Rayna have a flat screen tv.

Flint probably haven't got off planet recently, so, he's still using antique viewer screens. (So does the Enterprise...)

Spock: "We must commence ryetalyn injections within two hours and eighteen minutes or the epidemic will prove fatal to us all. " Again with the EXACT countdown for a biological process. They can really know to the exact minute when the fever is irreversible to everyone? Uh huh. Is everyone also going to drop dead at the exact same minute?

So, we assume that Kirk, Spock and McCoy are all infected when they beam down to Flint's planet. No discussion about infecting both Flint and Rayna? Where's the quarantine, McCoy? You're a f**king plague ship!

Spock is quite the connoisseur of ancient Earth art. He can infallibly recognize works by sight.

Spock did spend time on Earth. First, he attended Starfleet Academy. Also, he was back on Earth to meet Leila Kalomi six years ago from Season One. Leila seems to be the arts and museum type of girl.

Even more shocking: Kirk can waltz!

All navy officers are required to waltz.

I didn't detect a social message in this episode. Don't date androids? If you build an android mate, don't let her meet Kirk?

Is Rayna an inadvertent victim of Kirk's natural aura to destroy androids?

 

[Ssosmcin]

In THE EMPATH McCoy is tortured worse than Kirk, yet they leave DeForest's uniform totally on. That is so wrong, and yet another reason to detest THE EMPATH. The inconsistency is offensive. The real clear reason for it is meaningless and it sabotages the story beyond any hope of repair.

C'mon, they hadda cover the fact they used the same stunt guy for both characters somehow.

 

[Poltargyst]

C'mon, they hadda cover the fact they used the same stunt guy for both characters somehow.

From all the other times Shatner is shirtless in TOS I'm sure he's shirtless in The Empath because he's the male sex symbol with the best male body on the show, and they wanted to show it off. What I'm not sure of is why that's offensive.

 

[Ssosmcin]

From all the other times Shatner is shirtless in TOS I'm sure he's shirtless in The Empath because he's the male sex symbol with the best male body on the show, and they wanted to show it off. What I'm not sure of is why that's offensive.

In the third season, Kirk was barely shirtless. Presumably because of Shatner’s weight. The cutting in Paradise Syndrome is judicious and they kinda painted abs on him in Turnabout Intruder.

In The Empath, we only see Shatner shirtless in extreme close up. The rest of the time it’s his stunt guy.

Kelley’s double seems to have the exact same build, so it’s probably the same dude.

 

[Maurice]

Been super busy and missed the replies here.

I personally happen to feel there’s far too much casual misogyny and leering sexualization of actresses and female characters presented in a lot of fandom and here. Others can disagree but I’ve heard quite a few women (and some men) comment on this.

And, speaking only for myself, I bristle at things like “men are more visual” because it reminds me of “men are designed to mate with as many partners as possible to ensure their DNA is passed on, ergo men are inherently non-monogamous”, which I don't accept, but even if it were true, my TOS-y response is to baldly quote Kirk (of all people), "All right. It's instinctive. But the instinct can be fought."

That's my 2¢.

—30—​

 

[Mytran]

THE SAVAGE CURTAIN

We begin with a bit of good old fashioned exploration and charting! Through in a bit of McCoy bluster, some space legends and you've got Classic Trek all the way

And then Abraham Lincoln shows up

OK, so he's an Excalbian reformed into Lincoln using data drawn from Kirk's mind – but something he doesn’t exactly try to deny, which I guess is typical of honest Abe. Also the “president” is treated with both respect and caution – exactly how a ship of exploration should act when faced with a powerful unknown force.

There's a reaffirmation of the state of human society in Star Trek, and by Uhura too! Her line about "words" is well made.
Kirk gets a lecture on the perception of his "captain image" by McCoy – reminiscent of Enemy Within
Then there's more "bold exploration" as Kirk & Spock beam down onto the planet.

But first and AT LONG LAST we get a big discussion on how dangerous it is for Spock and Kirk to beam down alone into a potentially lethal situation. The result is still the same (Kirk and Spock beam down alone) but I appreciate the scene's inclusion.
It makes me wonder though - did a scene like this happen every time there was a landing party consisting of only Kirk, Spock & McCoy?

The smoky Excalbian rock creature costume is excellent – I love its snappy claws!
However, the whole contest is basically a retread of the battle in Arena but with slightly more participants. However, since 75% of them are replicants, so is this really an accurate contest of “good vs evil”? In fact, the situation comes off more like an Excalbian reality TV show!
Also just like in Arena the Enterprise crew are able to view happenings from the Bridge, but this time it seems to be from their own sensors - which raises questions, since they have some really nicely edited footage (shot, reverse shot etc).
Sulu even leaps up from his chair at a cutaway shot of Genghis Khan as he picks up a rock – this is a reality TV for the Enterprise crew too!

Speaking of the participants, they give a pretty poor performance. Surak’s idea to risk his life as an envoy is foolishness to the point of insanity. He represents a quarter of their forces when Colonel Green has already demonstrated his treacherous ways. At the end, the baddies just run off.
Speaking of which, Green is so sneaky and devious, he's just delicious to watch However, he also gets the most character development of the villains by a wide margin (Kahless' party tricks are not character). This is the problem when the cast on each side is expanded from one (as in Arena) to four

The most "Star Trek" part of the latter episode boils down to a slight discussion on the pros and cons of peace vs war but it’s pretty light. The Lincoln replicant gives a passionate speech but overall it's much less effective than Arena or even Spectre Of The Gun, which had a similar message.

At the end of the episode Kirk is understandably angry at the rock monster, but he’s calmed down and chipper by the time he arrives on the Bridge...again, similar to Arena! In that earlier episode though, Kirk learned a lesson about himself. Here, he just thinks he now understands what Earth must have gone through to achieve final peace, because he saw Lincoln fall down dead.
Erm….no.
Calm that ego, James

There's an attempt to salvage a message by Kirk muttering something about spreading the Excalbians' work throughout the galaxy...but we've seen what that work entails and it's anything but galactic peace.

So, despite an original setup in the first act this episode then devolves into a mishmash of Trek elements, all done better elsewhere. Are all original ideas really gone?

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• The crew really lay on the "future talk" attitude when Lincoln comes on board! Kirk smirks when Abe asks if humans still measure time in minutes (yeah, like every week). Even Spock refers to miles, feet inches as “old style measurements” despite using them himself on a very regular basis
• Scotty however seems off on his old style timekeeping, stating that Lincoln died "three centuries ago" but then again he's an engineer not a historian
• In a rare instance of TOS technobabble; Kirk explains how the Transporter works (or at least in a way he thinks would make sense to a 19th century man)
• Sulu in command again! Sadly he yields to Scotty who comes to THE BRIDGE instead of ENGINEERING, in the middle of an engineering crisis!
  
• Kirk burns his hand on the rock creature by touching it – but the injury seems temporary and there’s no visible damage on the skin. A similar oddity occurred when he touched the freezer unit in Wink Of An Eye, so maybe Kirk just heals really fast?
  
• “Live Long and prosper, image of Surak” – classic Spock snark
• Kirk setting up a “base” reminds me of boys playing in the woods

NEW SETS
The last Engine Room footage in the series consists entirely of a flat shot devoid of people and a voiceover.
Not the best farewell

 

[Ssosmcin]

Another fun review. Spot on regarding most points. Just one...

There's an attempt to salvage a message by Kirk muttering something about spreading the Excalbians' work throughout the galaxy...but we've seen what that work entails and it's anything but galactic peace.

Kirk didn't mean the Excalbians, he meant Lincoln and Surak: that there was so much of their work left to do. The work of peace and equality. Kirk really wouldn't be saying "we really need to have more contests to see if good or evil is strongest."

 

[Mytran]

Another fun review. Spot on regarding most points. Just one...

Kirk didn't mean the Excalbians, he meant Lincoln and Surak: that there was so much of their work left to do. The work of peace and equality. Kirk really wouldn't be saying "we really need to have more contests to see if good or evil is strongest."

Ah, fair point
Still a weak tag IMO

 

[Marsden]

Evil will always triumph because good is dumb.

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This is actually one of my favorites of the series, top ten! I want to try to post more on this one soon.

 

[Poltargyst]

The Savage Curtain

That's it, I'm done watching this series in production order. I'm going to watch in broadcast order the rest of the way. Why? I'm a rebel, that's why. Also, the last three episodes were broadcast in production order! There's no difference anymore! It's like some kind of cosmic convergence has taken place and our lives will never be the same!

Lincoln in space. That is one of the weirdest and greatest visuals in all of Star Trek up there with Apollo's hand. I used to think that was the Lincoln-being himself floating in space, but now I realize that was some kind of transmission and the Lincoln-being was on the planet below.

Kirk wanted to give "Lincoln" full presidential honors to humor the alien, but also because he loves Lincoln so much.

Lincoln commenting on the music that's being played when he comes aboard made me wonder if they couldn't get permission to use Hail to the Chief for this episode.

Lee Bergere plays a good Lincoln with plenty of charm. It's easy to like him.

Uhura: "You see, in our century we've learned not to fear words. " Except for Scotty who will throw the first punch if you insult the Enterprise.

They debate Kirk going down to the planet surface. Scotty: "Don't do it, Captain." I was expecting another "Risk is our business" speech, and Kirk does give a truncated version.

These Excalbians rock! Ugh. This series needs to end. My puns are getting worse.

Haha, Truly this is the season of the bare midriff. Zora is sporting one too. And like I said, Yarnek has one HOT bare midriff, as Kirk finds out the hard way.

It's Kahless! And he has a smooth forehead. I wonder how the later bumpy-headed Klingons felt about honoring a flat-header so.

It's the old "the crew get to watch Kirk fight to the death" trick again.

Okay, I know nothing about him. Does Genghis Khan really deserve to be called evil? And if so, is he really one of the two most evil humans ever so that he deserves to be on Team Evil here?

And we get another writer-imposed arbitrary deadline to unnecessarily build the drama. Oh no! They better defeat evil in four hours or the ship will be destroyed! It's so unnecessary. They're not going anywhere anyway until one side wins.

It was interesting to me that Scotty blows off Kirk calling in while in the middle of the emergency. Scotty's proper priority was saving the ship. He can talk to Kirk later.

Surak and Lincoln aren't fighters and seem strange choices to give Team Good if they are supposed to be fighting.

Team Good has two Vulcans plus Kirk Fu. Team Evil would have no chance if Team Good had wanted to kill them all from the start.

Throwing spears and missing just gives Team Evil more spears.

Kahless is quite the impersonator.

Yarnek is a poor scientist and not very observant. For one thing, he takes images from Kirk's and Spock's minds. So the other characters aren't the real versions, they just act the way Kirk and Spock expect them to. I would think that would invalidate the test right there.

Then too, the sides aren't equal. Shouldn't you make the two sides equally powerful? Team Evil does have a Klingon, but I'm not sure that the smooth-headed Klingons are as tough as the bumpy-headed ones will be. Team Good has two Vulcans, but Lincoln is an older man and not really able to fight like the others. It's a weird unbalanced set of teams.

Yarnek bitches that he didn't learn anything from the test (except for one thing), but it was right before his eyes (all 25 of them).

1. Team Evil consistently used deception. Team Good was honest to a fault to their own detriment.
2. Team Evil was happy to engage in the fight in order to gain power. Team Good wanted nothing to do with fighting. Kirk and Spock had to be threatened with the destruction of the ship in order to participate, Surak gave his life trying to negotiate peace, something no one from Team Evil would have done.
3. Team Good were willing to sacrifice for each other. Lincoln gave his life trying to save Surak. When Kirk was fighting Green, no one from his team stuck around to help.

Plenty of differences between Good and Evil to be seen for Yarnek. What did he expect, he put Team Good in a situation where they had to fight Evil on its own terms. Or was that a message of this episode? Evil has to be fought on its own terms?

Social message of the week:

Yarnek: "It would seem that evil retreats when forcibly confronted." The one thing Yarnek learned from his test which sounds suspiciously like a message for us to confront evil.

Kirk: "There's still so much of their work to be done in the galaxy." This sounds suspiciously like "hint, hint, get to work building peace."

The episode is okay. Lincoln is charming and likeable as can be. It's great to meet Surak and Kahless, the great founders of their peoples' philosophies that still hold sway so many years after their deaths. The ending is kind of anti-climactic. "I didn't learn anything. Go away." Whatever, Rocky. Meh.

But there's only two episodes left! Surely this series will end with a bang. I bet these next two episodes will be AWESOME.

Alien Watch! They come right out of the woodwork--err--stonework.

Season 1
Talosians
That big ugly Rigellian guy Pike fought in illusion
Vina as an Orion girl in illusion
Glimpse of other aliens captured by Talosians
Ron Howard's brother
That dog from Enemy Within
Salt monster
That hand plant...Gertrude
Spock (duh)
Charlie's parents (Thasians)*
Romulans!
(Ruk)
Miri's planet kids (bonk bonk)
Giant ape creatures of Taurus II
Shore Leave Caretaker guy
Trelaine and his folks*
Gorn
Metrons*
The Lazerii
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Beta 3. (RotA)
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Emineminar VII (AToA)
The Triffids of Omicron Ceti III (TSoP)
The refreshingly non-human-looking Horta
Organians*
Klingons! (Remarkably human looking).
(The Guardian of Forever)
Flying pancakes

Season 2
Sylvia and Korob
The Companion
The remarkably human looking (though tall) Cappellans.
Native Pollux IV-ians (Apollo and his gang)
Full-blooded Vulcans
The remarkably human looking citizens of Argelius II (WitF)
Redjac
The People of Vaal (Gamma Triangulians)
Crew of the ISS Enterprise
The remarkably human-looking** (except for maybe a dot on their forehead) Halkans
Tribbles (not at all human looking)
The remarkably human-looking citizens of...892-VI. Is that what they call this planet? (The Roman one.)
Tall guys, short guys, Andorians, Tellurites, purple lady, Orion made up like an Andorian. (JtB)
The remarkably human-looking people of Neural. (APLW)
The awesome Mugato!
Shahna, Lars, Tamoon, Kloog, Thrallmaster Galt, and the Providers
The Cloud from the Tycho system.
The BIG FREAKIN' AMEBA!!!!!
The remarkably human-looking Iotians. (Gangsters)
Kelvans! Who really look like big, cool squids but choose to look remarkably human.
Sargon and the gang of not-quite-omnipotent aliens.
Remarkably human looking Zeons of Zeon and Ekosians of Ekos. (PoF)
The remarkably human looking Yangs and Coms of Omega IV.
Isis! Who looks remarkably like a cat until she wants to look remarkably human.

Season 3
The decidedly non-human looking Melkotians.
The remarkably human-looking Elasians and not so human looking Troyians.
Lawyer in a muumuu. Remarkably human-looking but maybe that was on purpose.
The remarkably human-looking Morgs and Eymorgs of Sigma Draconis.
Kollos the Medusan
Gem the Empath (remarkably human looking)
Vians (the OTHER bumpy-headed aliens)
Tholians!
The remarkably human-looking Fabrini of Yo Mama.
The malicious swirly ball of hate (DotD)
The remarkably human-looking Platonians who are douchebags except for Alexander
The fast, but still remarkably human looking Scalosians.
The remarkably human-looking image of Losira.
The Cheron boys, Bele and Lokai
Lackey's of Garth's some of whom are more human-looking than others.
Way too many remarkably human-looking Gideons.
Discorporated Zetarians and some recently departed Federation scholars and researchers of various races.
The remarkably human-looking Ardanians and their amazing midriffs.
Sevrin is Tiburonian, Rad is Catullan. If the others are aliens, they are remarkably human-looking.
Yarnek is Excalbian, Zora is a Tiburonian.

*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request

 

[Poltargyst]

THE SAVAGE CURTAIN

We begin with a bit of good old fashioned exploration and charting! Through in a bit of McCoy bluster, some space legends and you've got Classic Trek all the way

And then Abraham Lincoln shows up

OK, so he's an Excalbian reformed into Lincoln using data drawn from Kirk's mind – but something he doesn’t exactly try to deny, which I guess is typical of honest Abe. Also the “president” is treated with both respect and caution – exactly how a ship of exploration should act when faced with a powerful unknown force.

There's a reaffirmation of the state of human society in Star Trek, and by Uhura too! Her line about "words" is well made.
Kirk gets a lecture on the perception of his "captain image" by McCoy – reminiscent of Enemy Within
Then there's more "bold exploration" as Kirk & Spock beam down onto the planet.

But first and AT LONG LAST we get a big discussion on how dangerous it is for Spock and Kirk to beam down alone into a potentially lethal situation. The result is still the same (Kirk and Spock beam down alone) but I appreciate the scene's inclusion.
It makes me wonder though - did a scene like this happen every time there was a landing party consisting of only Kirk, Spock & McCoy?

The smoky Excalbian rock creature costume is excellent – I love its snappy claws!
However, the whole contest is basically a retread of the battle in Arena but with slightly more participants. However, since 75% of them are replicants, so is this really an accurate contest of “good vs evil”? In fact, the situation comes off more like an Excalbian reality TV show!
Also just like in Arena the Enterprise crew are able to view happenings from the Bridge, but this time it seems to be from their own sensors - which raises questions, since they have some really nicely edited footage (shot, reverse shot etc).
Sulu even leaps up from his chair at a cutaway shot of Genghis Khan as he picks up a rock – this is a reality TV for the Enterprise crew too!

Speaking of the participants, they give a pretty poor performance. Surak’s idea to risk his life as an envoy is foolishness to the point of insanity. He represents a quarter of their forces when Colonel Green has already demonstrated his treacherous ways. At the end, the baddies just run off.
Speaking of which, Green is so sneaky and devious, he's just delicious to watch However, he also gets the most character development of the villains by a wide margin (Kahless' party tricks are not character). This is the problem when the cast on each side is expanded from one (as in Arena) to four

The most "Star Trek" part of the latter episode boils down to a slight discussion on the pros and cons of peace vs war but it’s pretty light. The Lincoln replicant gives a passionate speech but overall it's much less effective than Arena or even Spectre Of The Gun, which had a similar message.

At the end of the episode Kirk is understandably angry at the rock monster, but he’s calmed down and chipper by the time he arrives on the Bridge...again, similar to Arena! In that earlier episode though, Kirk learned a lesson about himself. Here, he just thinks he now understands what Earth must have gone through to achieve final peace, because he saw Lincoln fall down dead.
Erm….no.
Calm that ego, James

There's an attempt to salvage a message by Kirk muttering something about spreading the Excalbians' work throughout the galaxy...but we've seen what that work entails and it's anything but galactic peace.

So, despite an original setup in the first act this episode then devolves into a mishmash of Trek elements, all done better elsewhere. Are all original ideas really gone?

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• The crew really lay on the "future talk" attitude when Lincoln comes on board! Kirk smirks when Abe asks if humans still measure time in minutes (yeah, like every week). Even Spock refers to miles, feet inches as “old style measurements” despite using them himself on a very regular basis
• Scotty however seems off on his old style timekeeping, stating that Lincoln died "three centuries ago" but then again he's an engineer not a historian
• In a rare instance of TOS technobabble; Kirk explains how the Transporter works (or at least in a way he thinks would make sense to a 19th century man)
• Sulu in command again! Sadly he yields to Scotty who comes to THE BRIDGE instead of ENGINEERING, in the middle of an engineering crisis!
  
• Kirk burns his hand on the rock creature by touching it – but the injury seems temporary and there’s no visible damage on the skin. A similar oddity occurred when he touched the freezer unit in Wink Of An Eye, so maybe Kirk just heals really fast?
  
• “Live Long and prosper, image of Surak” – classic Spock snark
• Kirk setting up a “base” reminds me of boys playing in the woods

NEW SETS
The last Engine Room footage in the series consists entirely of a flat shot devoid of people and a voiceover.
Not the best farewell

I also like the way Yarnek's claws worked. His gestures are so odd but expressive.

 

[Phaser Two]

TSC revisits a ton of old (and . . . rocky?) ground but it has utterly deathless dialogue. A masterclass in teleplay.

 

[Henoch]

That's it, I'm done watching this series in production order. I'm going to watch in broadcast order the rest of the way. Why? I'm a rebel, that's why. Also, the last three episodes were broadcast in production order! There's no difference anymore! It's like some kind of cosmic convergence has taken place and our lives will never be the same!

Come to the dark side of ... Stardate Order! The series ends on a better episode.
Last two episodes:
5928.5 Turnabout Intruder
5943.7 All Our Yesterdays