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TOS

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Amok Time

Episode:

30

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Written by:

Theodore Sturgeon

Story by:

Stardate:

3372.7

Synopsis:

Spock begins acting strangely emotional and violent, when it's discovered that he is undergoin the Pon Farr, the Vulcan mating drive which occurs every seven years for adult Vulcan males, and it requires Spock to return home to mate, or else die. Disobeying orders from Starfleet Command, Kirk diverts the Enterprise to Vulcan, but gets more than he bargained for when Spock's wife-to-be invokes her right to ritual challenge, and chooses Kirk to be Spock's opponent.

Rating:

B

Notes:

Kirk is the second regular to be killed.

Who Mourns for Adonais?

Episode:

31

Director:

Marc Daniels

Written by:

Gilbert Ralston

Story by:

Stardate:

3468.1

Synopsis:

The Enterprise is trapped in deep space, and Kirk and a landing party beam down to a nearby planet, finding that a powerful being claiming to be the Greek god Apollo is the one responsible for holding the Enterprise in its place - and Kirk discovers that Apollo's ability to immobilize a starship is just a small demonstration of the being's power. When Apollo demands that the crew worship him, Kirk decides that the mythical figure must be defeated - but must rely on playing with Apollo's emotions and weaknesses since the being can tamper with the Enterprise's technology.

Rating:

A-

Notes:

The Changeling

Episode:

32

Director:

Marc Daniels

Written by:

John Meredyth Lucas

Story by:

Stardate:

3541.9

Synopsis:

The Enterprise is attacked and boarded by a space probe called Nomad, an Earth probe which has been reprogrammed to destroy anything inferior or impure - including all humans. The only thing preventing Nomad from obliterating the Enterprise and everyone on board is the similarity between the name of Nomad's creator and Captain Kirk, and Kirk must try to play that role as best he can while figuring out how to get rid of Nomad.

Rating:

B+

Notes:

This story provides the inspiration for the film "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" with the notion of the threat from the V'ger space probe.

Mirror, Mirror

Episode:

33

Director:

Marc Daniels

Written by:

Jerome Bixby

Story by:

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

Returning from a mission to open trade with a planet, Kirk, Scotty, McCoy and Uhura are beamed up, but a freak transporter accident lands them in an alternate universe, where the Federation is evil, Kirk is in command of the ISS Enterprise, and the way to be promoted is by assasinating your superior officer.

Rating:

A

Notes:

The "Alternate Universe" storyline is continued in Deep Space Nine episodes "Crossover", "Through the Looking Glass" and "Shattered Mirror".

The Apple

Episode:

34

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Written by:

Max Ehrlich & Gene L. Coon

Story by:

Max Ehrlich

Stardate:

3715.3

Synopsis:

A landing party from the Enterprise beams down to an Eden-like planet where a powerful computer named Vaal controls its childlike inhabitants, however, when Vaal detects the Enterprise in orbit, it begins draining it of power, and Kirk realises that he will have to destroy Vaal to save the Enterprise - but doing so will change the inhabitants of the planet's life styles for ever.

Rating:

B-

Notes:

The Doomsday Machine

Episode:

35

Director:

Marc Daniels

Written by:

Norman Spinrad

Story by:

Stardate:

4202.9

Synopsis:

The U.S.S. Constellation is found adrift in deep space, almost destroyed with one person on board, Matt Decker, in a state of shock. Suddenly a machine shows up, ten times the size of the Enterprise, emitting enough energy to destroy planets. Commodore Decker takes a shuttlecraft and sacrifices his life to destroy the DoomStardateay Machine.

Rating:

B+

Notes:

Catspaw

Episode:

36

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Written by:

Robert Bloch & D.C. Fontana

Story by:

Stardate:

3018.2

Synopsis:

When a crewman from a landing party investigating the latest planet visited by the Enterprise returns under some form of exterior control and then dies, Kirk decides to beam down and see for himself what caused the death. What Kirk, Spock and McCoy find on the surface is a house of horrors right out of ancient Earth mythology, right down to three hideous witches delivering a prophecy of doom for the crew. Two aliens are found to be at the heart of the evil activities, and they have no intention of letting Kirk or the Enterprise leave their world.

Rating:

C

Notes:

I, Mudd

Episode:

37

Director:

Marc Daniels

Written by:

Stephen Kandel

Story by:

Stardate:

4513.3

Synopsis:

The Enterprise is captured by Norman, an android in disguise, who takes the ship back to their planet, where their leader turns out to be none other than Harcourt Fenton Mudd. The androids wish to explore the galaxy, and have chosen the Enterprise to help them, and Kirk, although suspicious, must co-operate with Mudd to stop the androids - and their greates advantage is their use of illogic.

Rating:

B

Notes:

Metamorphosis

Episode:

38

Director:

Ralph Senensky

Written by:

Gene L. Coon

Story by:

Stardate:

3219.8

Synopsis:

Taking Federation Commissioner Hedford back to the Enterprise's sick bay so McCoy can treat her for a potentially dangerous but curable ailment, the shuttlecraft containing Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Hedford is diverted by a strange energy field to a barren planet, inhabited only by Zefram Cochrane, who invented the basis for current warp engine technology decades ago and should be dead by now. Cochrane reveals, however, that an energy creature called the Companion has halted his aging process. The Companion is also concerned about Cochrane's psychological well-being, and Kirk and the others have been brought to keep Cochrane company - possibly for the rest of their lives.

Rating:

A-

Notes:

Zefram Cochhrane is later seen in "Star Trek First Contact", although he is played by a different actor. The unit of measurement for warp fields, the Cochrane is named after him.

Journey to Babel

Episode:

39

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Written by:

D.C. Fontana

Story by:

Stardate:

3842.3

Synopsis:

Delegates from several worlds are welcomed aboard for a trip to Babel where a Federation summit will take place, among them Vulcan Ambassador Sarek, Spock's father, from whom he has been alienated since childhood. Spock's human mother, Amanda, can't stop trying to bridge the gap between her husband and son, while Spock and Sarek can't seem to do anything but continue their rivalry. When a hidden assassin begins to kill some of the delegates, Spock - out of logic, of course - points Sarek out as a potential suspect. But Sarek suffers a heart attack just as an alien ship begins to attack the Enterprise. Kirk is stabbed by the assassin, and Spock must choose between offering some of his blood to save Sarek's life and assuming command of the Enterprise in the emergency.

Rating:

A-

Notes:

Friday's Child

Episode:

40

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Written by:

D.C. Fontana

Story by:

Stardate:

3497.2

Synopsis:

The crew of the Enterprise and a Klingon ship clash while trying to establish trade negotiations with the prosperous planet Capella IV, and when Kirk saves a pregnant woman's life, it becomes too easy for the Klingon Captain, Krag, to point out to the inhabitants that Kirk has only come to interfere with their ways of life.

Rating:

B

Notes:

The Deadly Years

Episode:

41

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Written by:

David P. Harmon

Story by:

Stardate:

3478.2

Synopsis:

While conducting a planetary survey, Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty are exposed to radiaton which accelerates ageing, and Commodore Stocker, on board the Enterprise for a journey to his next command of a starbase assumes command of the Enterprise as the the command crew are about to die of old age.

Rating:

B-

Notes:

Obsession

Episode:

42

Director:

Ralph Senensky

Written by:

Art Wallace

Story by:

Stardate:

3619.2

Synopsis:

A cloudlike life form attacks an Enterprise landing party and kills two crewmen, and Kirk recognises it, because it attacked a ship he was stationed on before. Because of his guilt at the fact that he could have shot it with his phaser before, and prevented the deaths of many people on the starship, Kirk orders the Enterprise to follow it through space - determined to kill it, before it kills anyone else.

Rating:

B

Notes:

Wolf in the Fold

Episode:

43

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Written by:

Robert Bloch

Story by:

Stardate:

3614.9

Synopsis:

After suffering a head injury on the Enterprise, Scotty is talking into shore leave with Kirk and McCoy. On the planet they are visiting, however, a series of grisly murders of local women begins, and all the evidence seems to point to Scotty. Kirk must contend with the overwhelming evidence against Scotty as well as the overzealous local constable, who is ready to have Scotty punished as soon as possible.

Rating:

C+

Notes:

The Trouble with Tribbles

Episode:

44

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Written by:

David Gerrold

Story by:

Stardate:

4523.3

Synopsis:

Quite possibly the best episode of the Classic series. The Enterprise is summoned to space station K-7 for security duty when the station's security forces are considered inadequate to guard a shipment of valuable grain by the standards of Federation agriculture administrator Baris. A shipload of Klingons stops off at the station as well, which has all parties concerned even more about the grain consignment. Kirk orders stepped-up security, but that only results in some of the crew - including Scotty and Chekov - instigating a massive bar brawl with the Klingons. All the while, the seemingly harmless huckster Cyrano Jones is trying to peddle furry tribbles off to anyone with a few credits, and Uhura buys one and takes it back to the Enterprise, not knowing that tribbles do only two things: eat and breed.

Rating:

A+

Notes:

The Deep Space Nine crew were present for the duration of this episode - the story is told in the 30th anniversary episode "Trials and Tribble-ations".
The Best line comes when Kirk asks Scotty where all the tribbles have disappeared to: "I transported the whole kit and caboodle into the Klingon's engine room, where they'll be no tribble at all."

The Gamesters of Triskelion

Episode:

45

Director:

Gene Nelson

Written by:

Margaret Armen

Story by:

Stardate:

3211.7

Synopsis:

Kirk, Uhura and Chekov are mysteriously beamed off the Enterprise to the Warlike planet of Triskelion, where they are immediately handed over to various "trainers" to prepare them for their upcoming duties as gladiators to amuse the powerful rulers of the planet. Spock orders the Enterprise to warp to Triskelion to save the landing party but doesn't realize that the powers-that-be on the planet may want to lure the Enterprise crew there to provide them with even more entertainment.

Rating:

B-

Notes:

A Piece of the Action

Episode:

46

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Written by:

Robert Sabaroff

Story by:

Stardate:

4598.0

Synopsis:

The Enterprise encounters a planet recently visited by another starship and discovers that a book on the Chicago mobs of the 1920s accidentally left behind by a crew member of the previous ship has become the basis of the planet's society structure over 200 years of the planet's time (the starship having had warp drive). The intelligent but imitative inhabitants show a keen interest in replacing telephones with communicators and replacing tommy guns with phasers when Kirk, Spock and McCoy - along with their standard Starfleet landing party equipment - are captured. Defying the Prime Directive, Kirk somehow manages to save the landing party and set the Iotians on the path to reform.

Rating:

A

Notes:

The Immunity Syndrome

Episode:

47

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Written by:

Robert Sabaroff

Story by:

Stardate:

4307.1

Synopsis:

The Enterprise responds to an emergency in the Gamma 7A system, and when they arrive, they become surrounded by a giant creature that begins to cause physical and mental damage to the crew. Kirk, Spock and McCoy surmise that this paradoxically huge single-celled organism may be a "disease," as its course will soon take it through inhabited star systems. The Enterprise may turn out to be the only "antibody" capable of saving millions from the onslaught of the enormous parasite.

Rating:

B

Notes:

A Private Little War

Episode:

48

Director:

Marc Daniels

Written by:

Gene Roddenberry

Story by:

Jud Crucis

Stardate:

4211.4

Synopsis:

The Enterprise visits the planet Neural where two factions are involved in fighting, and the stronger is about to win, courtesy of Klingon weapons being given to them, in the hopes of destroying the weaker faction and allying the stronger faction with the Klingon Empire.

Rating:

B-

Notes:

Return to Tomorrow

Episode:

49

Director:

Ralph Senensky

Written by:

John Kingsbridge

Story by:

Stardate:

4768.3

Synopsis:

The Enterprise visits a planet long thought uninhabited, and finds globes that contain the consciousness of the last survivors of the planet, Sargon, Thalassa and Henoch. The three remaining beings wish to "possess" the bodies of willing Enterprise crew members, leaving the crew members' minds in the globes briefly as Sargon and his companions use the human bodies to construct android bodies for their minds. Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Mulhall agree to this procedure, but Henoch, occupying Spock's body, has other plans than building an android frame for himself. In the meantime, Sargon and Thalassa, in the bodies of Kirk and Mulhall, fall in love all over again. One way or another, though, the humans' bodies must be vacated since their metabolism is incapable of withstanding the levels of activity taken on by Sargon and the others.

Rating:

B

Notes:

Patterns of Force

Episode:

50

Director:

Vincent McEveety

Written by:

John Meredyth Lucas

Story by:

Stardate:

2534.0

Synopsis:

On arrival at Ekos, the Enterprise is the target of a nuclear missile attack, a technology which didn't exist the last time a Federation ship visited the planet. Kirk and Spock beam down to investigate, discovering that the government on Ekos has been transformed into a Nazi police state which came about when Federation teacher John Gill tried to simply increase the efficiency of the government on Ekos. Gill is now under the control of the people he has tried to educate, and anyone who tries to reveal the truth about Gill or rescue him - including Kirk and Spock - are hunted men.

Rating:

B+

Notes:

By Any Other Name

Episode:

51

Director:

Marc Daniels

Written by:

D.C. Fontana & Jerome Bixby

Story by:

Stardate:

4657.5

Synopsis:

The Enterprise responds to a distress call, finding only a trap set by a small group of aliens from the Andromeda galaxy who are assessing the potential of the Federation's home galaxy for colonization. The aliens successfully take over the ship, reducing all aboard except for Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty to dehydrated cubes so the ship's supply of food and oxygen can be used by the hijackers and Kirk's command crew for the staggering 300-year return to Andromeda. The aliens, having assumed human form, also gain attributes such as emotions, which may be just the weakness Kirk and the others need to attack to regain control of the Enterprise.

Rating:

A-

Notes:

The Omega Glory

Episode:

52

Director:

Vincent McEveety

Written by:

Gene Roddenberry

Story by:

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

The missing Starship Exeter is found, but all its crew is dead. In the hopes of finding out what happened, Kirk transports to the surface of Omega IV, the planet the Exeter is in orbit around, and he finds that Captain Tracey, who survived, may have broken the Prime Directive by supplying weapons to the inhabitants of the world.

Rating:

B

Notes:

The Ultimate Computer

Episode:

53

Director:

John Meredyth Lucas

Written by:

D.C. Fontana

Story by:

Laurence N. Wolfe

Stardate:

4729.4

Synopsis:

Kirk is ordered to relinquish command of the Enterprise to "M5", a computer developed by genius Dr. Richard Daystrom. This computer can make the same decisions any Starship Captain would, but much faster. The Enterprise, with Kirk and a few others aboard, is engaged in Starfleet wargames, but the M-5 begins to treat the other ships as a serious threat and retaliates with full salvos of phasers and photon torpedoes, destroying one ship. Believing Kirk may have lost his mind, Starfleet gives the remaining ships permission to destroy the Enterprise. However, as the computer posesses Daystrom's sense of morality, Kirk proves to it that what it has done is wrong, and it shuts itself down.

Rating:

C

Notes:

Bread and Circuses

Episode:

54

Director:

Ralph Senensky

Written by:

Gene Roddenberry & Gene L. Coon

Story by:

John Kneubuhl

Stardate:

4040.7

Synopsis:

Trying to track down the crew of the downed Federation starship Beagle, Kirk, Spock and McCoy arrive on a planet populated by a society that mixes savage ancient practices with 20th century technology. Enemies of the Roman Empire-like state are rounded up and forced to participate in televised coliseum battles. Kirk and Spock briefly encounter a peaceful group of people, but all are captured and prepared for their duels - including one event which will pit Spock against McCoy. Kirk must hope that he and his landing party can survive long enough for help to arrive from the Enterprise.

Rating:

A-

Notes:

Assignment - Earth

Episode:

55

Director:

Marc Daniels

Written by:

Art Wallace

Story by:

Gene Roddenberry & Art Wallace

Stardate:

Not Given

Synopsis:

After warping back in time to the late 20th century for a glimpse of Earth's past, the Enterprise intercepts a mysterious man who simply calls himself Gary Seven. Although Gary and his ever-present black cat Isis appear like inhabitants of the 20th century, Gary knows what kind of ship he is on and recognizes Spock as a Vulcan, and ascertains that the Enterprise is from the 23rd century. Gary Seven evades security officers and resumes his journey to Earth. Kirk and Spock assume 20th century disguises and pursue him, finding that Gary is a time traveler from the future who is here to influence Earth's history - but whether or not his influence will be benign is another question altogether.

Rating:

A

Notes:

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