Just watching Spock's brain...Kirk says "Is he dead " Bones comes back with "He's worse than dead" what a line lol
Science fiction show with one of the best casts ever put together on TV. It's use of color and sounds make it trapped in it's own bubble and give it a timeless cartoon feeling even fifty years later. Smart stories (for the most part) with great plots and some great inventions. It had one of the most beautiful starships ever designed and the series is full of iconic moments and legendary dialogue. Words that got created here now exist in everyday life. Several episodes have some pretty risky sexist costumes on highly attractive girls that is everything but political correct. Even the worst episodes (most of them during the series' last season) are so hilariously terrible they become Grade Z-fun like a perfect Ed Wood movie. Low budget make the puppets look like something made in kindergarten and there are blank studio-sets of colored background that are terrible to look at and make the series look much cheaper than it deserves to be. The moralizing can sometimes ruin an otherwise highly entertaining episode. Still, it is impossible to take away the importance of this show and most of the episodes are treasures to look at.
I love these series, after getting absorbed into Star Trek after watching TNG, I thought it was time to start the Original Series. And that was a perfect decision. It's amazing, of course you have to place it in its time, effects and such are far outdated. But it still is an amazing serie to see.
Even though this was the one that started the whole franchise, it's by far the worst thanks to its never ending sexism. There's no real development for any of the supporting characters, there's just Kirk looking for a new hookup and women who are there just as his love interest dressed provocatively. The show might as well be called Kirk and the ladies. If this show had been my first venture into Star Trek world, I would have given up watching 2-3 episodes in. Thankfully, I decided to follow the suggestion found online and started with TNG, DS9, VOY, etc. and left this one for the end. I managed to finish it just because I was already very much invested and in love with the franchise. There is however one good thing about this show and it's Spok. He's the most interesting, the smartest and kindest character, not to mention the only one we learn something about besides Kirk.
Either way, the show doesn't have a rewatch value for me at all.
To the person who disliked the show - and for all the right reasons (sexism, racism etc).... You might actually enjoy the movies. They were directed and written by different people. Also made a lot later - so the problems you spoke of, aren't really in them. Especially the one directed By Leonard Nimoy (The Voyage Home) Star Trek IV.
Highly recommended.
To go where sexism has gone before! Boy... It's like Uhura is the only female character that actually matters. The rest are there simply to carry the captain's tricorder etc, or the tricorder of someone else. If not, they are written as an entirely ridiculous character that just does silly things - of course because she's female.
The first actress who ever played Yeoman, was even written off the show because someone in the production company sexually harassed her. She was supposed to be an integral character in the show - and tbh, she was great (imo she disappears right when her character feels like it's gotten it's footing - right when I started to really like her).
They claimed her presence was getting in the way of the producers' desire for Kirk not to be tied to one love interest.
Silly, right?
Well.... At least the other parts of the show are good, and the movies are much better. I can't say I dont appreciate what came after, either. TNG, DS9 and Voyager are amazing. :sign_horns: Strange New Worlds, Prodigy and Lower Decks, also, recently, have been some of my favorites. A great franchise really.
Plus Leonard Nimoy is the man. He's really fantastic. Live long and prosper, dude.
Too young to appreciate how this show was ground-breaking 55 years back. It's certainly interesting to watch the show out of curiosity. There's the nucleus of many topics later discussed in much beloved shows like TNG or DS9. I absolutey love Star Trek. However, judging by my contemporary standards, this show can only be described as a fast-produced, cheap-looking mess with mediocre, overacting actors (Nimoy is great though) and mediocre boring stories. We live in the golden age of television, theirs was bronze colored at best. Most of the time. There are some hidden gems. But too few to call this an enjoyable show. It's certainly not made for binge-watching every episode as we became used to in the age of streaming. Digitalized film looks way better than DS9's or Voyager's tape recordings though. Colors are vibrant; resolution is flawless. I can easily overlook the 60s FX. Some aspects are hard to overlook though: sexism, misogyny, occasional racism and jingoism, lack of character depth, the focus on major characters while all other crew members are neglected, the focus on Kirk's fists and bare-chest, slow pacing of most stories, repetitive story elements (how often can you be imprisoned or captured in one show?).
It's beyond me that they were able to secure a reboot of this franchise a few years later with the movies. I'd probably given up the show after the disappointing third season. Second season is the best season imho. Best episode: The city on the Edge of Forever. Worst episode: Assignment: Earth (not even the worst plot but I feel betrayed). My guiltiest pleasure: The Trouble with Tribbles.
Judged by modern standards the whole show is maybe a 2/10. Worse than the average ratings of all episodes combined since there's no coherent overarching story. The overall show is worse than its average episode. However, that is perhaps not fair. It dates half a century back. Let's be generous: 4/10.
If you read my comments on episodes of Star Trek you'll find I've put many points of critique in. Why still give it a 10 ? Because for what it stands for. The kind of future it predicted. And for what it started. Althought that point no one could foreseen, or would have believed, they are still here in whatever form of show.
And a lot of critique stems from the fact I'm writing this over 50 years after it aired. I'm putting on a form of measurement that probably isn't justified. I've watched this show many times before, always enjoyed it, and still do. Even if I don't like certain aspects I still like this show as a whole. And there are episodes that I like today that I didn't before.
And that's one reacurring trademark of Star Trek for me - it changes everytime I watch it.
It is simply wonderful!
TOS is one of my very first childhood memories. I grew up with Cpt. Kirk and his crew, the show, the characters, the legend has been with me all my life.
Sure, the series hasn't aged particularly well technically and from today's perspective, some would call it trash. But it's not - it's cult. And it is part of my life, part of me.
I just watched the whole show. It was truly amazing. There were some boring moments, but I guess that is normal when you watch a season in a day. I was impressed with quality - which is amazing for that time.
This show has almost a religious significance to me and of course countless others.
Growing up in the 70's, my first TV crush was on Veena (the Cage/Menagerie). The first girl I kissed was a blue-eyed blonde, and later I married a blue-eyed blonde, well, three of them, to be perfectly honest. I think it's Veena's fault. I never did score with a green Orion slave girl, though, despite what they say about them.
While there are many stinker episodes of Star Trek, there are also many masterpieces. "City on the Edge of Forever" is my favorite, for its emotional impact. Who could not fall in love with a young Joan Collins? Another noteworthy episode is "The Doomsday Machine," which is interesting because of its unique musical score, with different instruments/styles for each character. You can find a YouTube video about it, by user shemvonschroeck. I think the most important episode is "Mirror, Mirror", for its (probable) social commentary on American imperialism, the Vietnam War, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's spying on members of Congress, and the CIA's use of torture and assassinations in the 60's. We are living in the "Mirror, Mirror" universe. The Utopian Star Trek universe is not our own.
If you like Star Trek, then of course there are the official sequels/spin-offs, but also you should check out Star Trek Continues. And if you like "Mirror, Mirror", then you should check out its Star Trek Continues counterpart, "Fairest of Them All".
RIP Leonard Nimoy (Spock) Live Long and Prosper.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP"
— Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) February 23, 2015
https://twitter.com/TheRealNimoy/status/569762773204217857
The Original Series. So much a product of its time; a combination of the optimism of the mid-to-late 1960s and the overly rose-tinted vision of the future of its creator, Gene Roddenberry. Again, this is a series I watched in the UK in the early 1970s, as that optimism gradually faded into cynicism. The USA stopped travelling to the Moon and space no longer had the shine of Apollo 11's reflection.
Yes, it's dated and there are far too many polystyrene boulders. More than a few of the episodes are very poor, but they appeared that way when first watched and were the subject of much earnest discussion with fellow viewers. The 3rd season, in particular, suffers from massive reductions in budget, production values and the indifferent quality of the scripts.
To modern eyes, there could be said to be too much misogyny. Kirk almost always gets the attractive female; the mini-skirt as female Starfleet uniform.
If you are a fan of later Trek & so started with, for example, TNG or DS9, then I think you have to watch some of TOS.
I would particularly recommend the following episodes:
The Corbomite Manoeuvre (S01E10);
The Menagerie (S01E11 & E12) (contains footage from the original pilot, The Cage)
Balance of Terror (S01E14)
The Galileo Seven (S01E16)
Tomorrow is Yesterday (S01E19)
The Devil in the Dark (S01E25)
The Changeling (S02E03)
Mirror, Mirror (S02E04)
The Doomsday Machine (S02E06)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S02E15)
The Immunity Syndrome (S02E18)
The Ultimate Computer (S02E24)
Assignment: Earth (S02E26)
The Tholian Web (S03E09)
These will give both a flavour and clues about where plot lines in other series in the franchise came from.
I have rated it 8, with just a hint of nostalgia. :-)
Season Scores:
1 -6.7 / 2 -5.5 / 3 -5.1
Average Total: 5.77
To boldly go where no man has gone before. Gene Roddenberry created what I recognize as the Father of Space sci-fi in Star Trek, (Lost in Space being the grandpa). I went 30 years without ever watching a single episode of any of the series, many years of which I actively avoided them. But I decided any nerd worth their spot in the club should at least watch Trek to gain personal insight and a valid viewpoint to build off of. That being said, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this series, it certainly had its ebbs and flows but I was finding myself enjoying the journey 99% of the time. I wasn't put off by the 60's production feel, but I was strained a bit by the lack of time conservation. Nearly 80, hour-long episodes are a lot to watch and when some of those episodes were put together with as much care and attention as food at a drive-thru, you can understand why. If I sat down and chopped 15-20 episodes out this would be a 9 or 10, but in its totality, a 7 is where it sits. A modest beginning to a franchise still operating with, much like our universe, no end in sight. Did this show make me a Trekkie? No. Did it make me Trek-curious? Absolutely.
watching this from-start-to-finish in 2021 with no nostalgia factor is a chore. like many old, highly influential things, it seems boring now, at least compared to everything it inspired
definitely worth watching if you're into classic kitschy sci-fi stuff. there are a lot of really funny moments, intentional and not
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2017-01-07T20:32:45Z
I'm very torn over the original Star Trek series. I'm too young for it; I grew up in the 1980s with the original cast films - which I loved and still do - but my real adoration for Trek began with The Next Generation and then especially Deep Space Nine. The original Star Trek is a very different show from any of that, and I have to look at it with a different mindset to try and appreciate it. I don't have any nostalgia colouring my view.
To put it bluntly, it's horribly dated and oftentimes difficult to watch or enjoy. It's campy and looks very cheap. BUT, it's saving grace is how good the actors, writing and characters are. They brought the show to life, and at points made it a complete joy. For the time it was made it did incredible things with progressive storytelling and strong special effects.
I'm never going to love the original series, or even really get it. It's not my Star Trek, but it has its place in history and that can't be denied. I feel it got it chance to shine when it moved into the film format (conversely, TNG and the rest of the franchise worked far better on TV than as films).