Back at the start of the year I said i was going to attempt to watch every single episode of every single Star Trek series out there by the end of the year, little did i know how stupid that idea was and is impossible. Since then, I have reset my goal to watch all of the original Star Trek series by the end of the year. Even though I finished the first season quite a while ago, I never fully reviewed it, so here I go.Star Trek is a science-fiction series released in 1966 based around the adventures of the Starship Enterprise, a ship with one mission, to seek out new civilisations and explore the galaxy, to go where no man has gone before. Along the way, the Enterprise and it's crew will face multiple challenges and obstacles both physically and morally. When I first watched this show, i was expecting nothing more than cheesy sci-fi and the first episode gave me exactly that, but continuing to watch the show made me realise how clever the show actually was. The show would often have clever and original premises acting as social commentary, still relevant to this day. A good example of this is the episode 'Errand of Mercy' where the Enterprise and crew try to save a planet of pacifists from the warlike species the Klingons, however, the natives show that though Kirk has good intentions, war will just lead to more war, a message that is still relevant, if not even more relevant by today's standards. Multiple episodes of the first season alone have very clever writing and set-ups like this that are memorable and creative. However, while the quality of the writing is superior to what I thought, the production design is sadly what I feared. Even giving it some leniency due to the time period, almost all of the sets look like sets, the sound effects are repetitive, the choreography for the action scenes is laughable. The visual effects are actually pretty good for the time, but for the most part, the show definitely looks the way you would imagine it would. For the most part it's fine due to the fact that the show is able to suck you into the world due to the great atmosphere, but even still, it is the most dated aspect of the show.
Captain James T Kirk, played by William Shatner I have heard a lot about over the years, for the most part people making fun of his performance and speech pattern. Though being honest i never noticed anything wrong with his performance, yes the action is bad, but for the most part i very much enjoyed him as the captain of the USS Enterprise. He was suave with the women, respectable as a captain, had a sense of mercy to him yet also room for other opinions. He was the captain the Enterprise deserved and needed. But the highlight episode for me when it comes to Kirk's character is in the episode 'The City on the Edge of Forever' Kirk and Spock travel back in time to the 1930's where Kirk falls in love with a local woman, however, he soon learns that she must die in order for major historical events to commence. Kirk in a moment of instinct is about to save her life but at the last second stops himself, letting the woman he loves die for the greater good. A man able to make the ultimate sacrifices like that for the greater good is what makes him such a good character, he can be the hero, but not without personal sacrifice, not everyone can make those choices but Kirk can, and he was a very enjoyable character.
Spock was also an interesting character, he's a half Vulcan, half human science officer, meaning he understands human emotion, but for the most part functions on pure logic, an excellent combination, he's not baffled by human emotion or why people behave certain ways, he knows exactly how certain emotions can cloud people's judgements, but other times the emotional response is superior to the logical response. Spock's best episode for me so far is 'The Galileo Seven' where Spock is in charge of an expedition crew on a deadly planet when things go wrong and Spock has to make the tough decisions, while everyone else refuses to face the most likely possibilities either do to hope or paranoia, Spock keeps his head on straight and always is blunt about their options. What I love about Spock is his honesty, you don't have to like him, you might not want to take orders from him, but you can always trust him cause he'll always tell you the truth.
Bones was the sarcastic and cynical doctor of the crew, while he may not have gotten as much development as I would have liked, he was still a constantly welcomed crew member, completing the trio of Kirk, Spock & Bones are worked well off of both of them. Acting as the best friend to Kirk and a rival to Spock, yet able to act as the adviser for the two in different ways, to make sure Kirk always thought straight while also teaching Spock to be more empathetic towards other people. As for all of the other characters, they were fine, they all played the roles that I expected them to play and rarely made any kind of variation on them so I don't see the purpose in talking in detail about them.
As for a favourite episode, that would go to 'Tomorrow is Yesterday' another time travel episode where they end up in 1969 and try to find a way back. The reason why this one is my favourite is simply because it's the last thing i expected...a full on comedic episode. The entire episode has the crew stuck at an airfield, trying to escape but everything constantly going wrong. Other episodes had comedic moments or witty banter, but this was the first one that went for straight up comedy, it was a nice surprise and was the most memorable episode for me.
Overall this was a very strong first season, the show was a nice surprise and was better than I thought it would be, the production values may lack along with a small handful of bad or forgettable episodes, but for the most part the writing and characters are solid. 7/10.
-Danny
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