Moving on to...
The Immunity Syndrome ***
A Piece of the Action **
Okay, chugging along in the back end of the second season as Gene Coon had been replaced by John Meredyth Lucas as showrunner a few episodes earlier. Lucas' approach is different in that he embraced the more military aspects and higher concept sci-fi. The humor was also downplayed a bit but not nearly as much as it will be the following season.
By Any Other Name **½
This could have been an incredible episode. It's merely "pretty good." The first half is wonderfully tense as Rojan and his crew take over the Enterprise and Kirk watches his pretty young female crewmember get pulverzied. Once on the ship, the crew is all-too easily subduded and it's just a matter of outsmarting our bad guys with emotional manipulation. Almost literally at the halfway point the episode lightens up. Obviously the Scotty / Tomar scenes are a highlight (Robert Fortier is excellent), but this is just a bit of a letdown after such a strong opening. Not bad by any means but I felt it could have been much better. It's great to see the barrier again. Continuity is always appreciated.
Return to Tomorrow ***
I love the concept of this one and Nimoy is a standout as he really relished being Henoch. The music by George Duning is sublime and there's an early third season quality about the episode (I mean that in the best possible way). I feel though that Ralph Senensky could have coached his actors a bit more. Shatner puts his all into the discomfort of the transitions and the pain Henoch inflicts in the finale, but Diana Muldaur doesn't give a fraction of the same effort. She barely moves her head in the transition scenes and is lackluster in the bridge pain scene - well next to Shatner anyway (you gotta keep up or be left in the dust, kiddo). Either it hurts a lot or it doesn't. There are so many nice moments in this episode and the ending is very touching.
Patterns of Force **
"Nazis. I hate these guys." Once again, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. This episode has a great message but it collapses under the slightest scrutiny. Why would the government, and then the people, just go on ahead and follow the teachings of some guy who came out of nowhere? Even if John Gil had a hell of a great cover story to explain who he was, and say he presented the concept of Nazi polices without the cruelty, why would he go and use the symbols and uniforms? Why not just the concepts? Simple; Paramount had a huge wardrobe department and Star Trek now had access thanks to the Desilu buy-out. At least the city looked better than the usual Mayberry.
Saving this episode are the characters. They're all well drawn and cast. Some of the humor is misplaced (or simply aged badly) but McCoy beaming down struggling with his boot and the follow up of him playing "drunk" for a brief few seconds are welcome.
I commend Joe D'Agosta for resisting the urge to cast Hollywood's resident Nazi actors, John Van Dreelen, Gunnar Hellstrom and Alf Kjellin.
