Category Archives: Star Trek

The Enterprise comes to the aid of a colony planet – where Kirk’s brother lives with his family – that has been invaded by alien neural parasites that cause mass insanity. The last episode of the 1st season, both in … Continue reading →

The Enterprise comes to the aid of an underground mining colony where miners are being killed, and machinery destroyed, by an unseen monster that moves through solid rock. This is a justly famous episode that challenges our assumptions and overturns … Continue reading →

The Enterprise visits a planet run by a computer in the guise of religious belief to the all-seeing “Landru”, a computer Kirk defeats through a battle of logic. This is a fascinating episode because it encapsulates, as well as any … Continue reading →

The Enterprise visits an Earth colony whose inhabitants, infected by alien spores, live in idle contentment, one of whom met Spock and fell in love with him years before. The Enterprise approaches the planet Omicron Ceti III, where a group … Continue reading →

The Enterprise discovers a “sleeper ship” full of hibernating superhuman refugees from 1990s Earth, whose leader tries to take over the Enterprise. This is a classic episode – even disregarding its inspiration for the second Trek movie – with a … Continue reading →

The Enterprise accidentally travels back in time to Earth in the 1960s, where it’s seen as a UFO, and then struggles to erase records of its visit and to return to its own time. This is a fun episode that … Continue reading →

Kirk wrestles with a bizarre pair of near-duplicate antagonists whose meeting threatens to wipe out the entire universe. This is in the running for worst Trek episode ever, with an incoherent premise, overwrought acting, and sloppy writing and direction. The … Continue reading →

Kirk is pitted in a one-on-one contest with the reptilian alien captain of a starship that destroyed a Federation outpost. This is the famous episode, filmed on location (again at Vasquez Rocks), in which Kirk battles this green reptilian (though … Continue reading →

The Enterprise encounters a remote planet where a foppish ‘squire’ insists on entertaining (and studying) them and challenging them to the death when they refuse. I’m fascinated in retrospect by how episodes open, about what is going on before the … Continue reading →