The Final Decent Episode Of Star Trek Is A Confused Time-Travel Episode

The Good: Good general story, Acting, Character development
The Bad: Very shaky premise for character interactions
The Basics: A time travel episode that is almost too baffling to work ultimately creates the last good episode of the classic Star Trek with good performances and character work with "All Our Yesterdays."


One of the oddest mass-culture phenomenon of the last century had to be Star Trek. Inarguably a television classic, Star Trek never found a massive market during first run, so it was canceled, went into syndication and a wider audience began to witness the show and become attached to the adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise and its crew. It spawned three spin-offs, one rip-off, six movies, a multi-billion dollar collectibles industry, inspired the career paths of millions worldwide, is handed down to children as part of family events and is a legitimate, established subculture of U.S. culture that binds people of all different types. Star Trek is a huge phenomenon. Yet, most people who have watched episodes can't name a single episode, can barely describe what happened in one, and now many disassociate themselves from their former love. I mention this in my review of "All Our Yesterdays" because as the series wound down (this was the penultimate episode of the series), the idea that Star Trek is a phenomenon is worth mentioning and this is the final decent episode (the third season was arguably short on those!) and often those who see this particular episode could not describe it a week later, even if their life depended on it.

The U.S.S. Enterprise arrives at the planet Sarpedion, whose star is about to go supernova. Anticipating this stellar event as a great tragedy, because of the population of the planet, Captain Kirk, Spock and Dr. McCoy are astounded to find the planet almost completely devoid of lifeforms. They beam down to the planet to find Mr. Atoz, the librarian of a unique library, eager to get them evacuated. Atoz becomes agitated and uses a device to send Captain Kirk back to the planet's Medieval times and Spock and McCoy are teleported back to the planet's last ice age. As Spock and McCoy fight for survival in the harsh elements, Kirk attempts to determine what happened and return to his proper time before it is too late.

The concept of the episode is clever; the people of Sarpedion did not evacuate the planet in the traditional sense. Instead, they have their cells altered and they are shipped back in time and thus abandon their world to its destruction in the present while they create their own past. Outside all of the potential problems of what that would do to the planet's evolution and normal timeline, the idea is clever and it's worth watching to reward that clever idea.

Moreover, Kirk's struggle is a decent one. Desperate to return to the present, Kirk finds himself able to communicate with the library, but because of the time he is trapped in, he is captured and accused of witchcraft. Ouch! The episode addresses this in a way that is perfectly credible given the circumstances; one of the refugees from the future figures out who he is and aids him.

What is hard to buy is the stability of the time portal. The library's device makes sense when it is activated, but the method by which Kirk and Spock communicate through it is shaky at best. The library in the future seems to create a stable hole (which is invisible) in time that anyone who runs into would seemingly be transported back to the library through. Such things confound the viewer when put in context; Kirk finds the portal at a wall - how could the wall be built with the time portal there? After all, wouldn't the bricks just fall through it? Or better yet, while assembling the wall (because the time portal exists from the future back at least until the ice age) wouldn't a while bunch of Medieval construction workers find themselves in a library in the future? Eh, these are all details, but the point is, the method by which Kirk and company travel to the past makes sense, but the method by which they are expected to return is shoddy and distracting to the episode.

More distracting is what happens to Spock. Spock, here in the second to last episode, finally gets some! Yes, Spock and McCoy are rescued from the elements by a pretty hot cavewoman named Zarabeth (played by Mariette Hartley!). Spock makes love with her, while McCoy is passed out recuperating in the next room of the cave, and eats a meal of meat with her. Both of these things are very much against the character of Spock. The excuse the episode gives the viewer: it's because he's back in time and that's how Vulcan's acted back then. Presumably, by traveling into the past in this method, Spock simply tuned into the brainwaves of the Vulcans hundred of lightyears away and was overcome by them.

Yeah, it's that shaky.

What isn't shaky is the response from Dr. McCoy. McCoy's very human response to this problem involves anger, illogic and everything one associates with McCoy, save that in this instance, he's right. McCoy is brilliantly played by DeForest Kelly, who exhibits a temper that is characteristic for the character, not so for the man. Almost no one argues as passionately as Kelly and this is one of the performances that remind the viewer that part of what made the characters was the actors.

Similarly, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner give good performances throughout the episode. Shatner makes Kirk credible in the rate at which he adapts to his circumstances, Nimoy acts as feral as possible to sell us on the idea that Spock no longer is in his right mind. The acting and basic plot sell the episode.

"All Our Yesterdays" is a true original from Star Trek, so much so that none of the episodes of the spin-offs ever truly (or effectively) pulled off a recreation of it. It stands alone and that makes it worthwhile.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek - The Complete Third Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the third and final season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

6/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


| | |

Anger At Another All-Powerful (Sort Of) Manipulator On "Day Of The Dove!"

The Good: Some decent enough acting, Fine use of Klingons
The Bad: Very campy special effects, No real character development, plot seems obvious
The Basics: When a ship full of Klingons and the Enterprise find themselves fighting, it's up to Spock to figure out why the violence is happening before the audience stops caring.


Star Trek did not have a whole lot of episodes that featured the Klingons, despite what many people think. Moreover, in most of the instances where the Klingons appear, there are very few of them and they are seen as manipulators, like the Romulans became in Star Trek: The Next Generation and beyond. One of the most notable exceptions to this generality is "Day Of The Dove," which features almost an entire crew of Klingons and the first Klingon woman seen in the franchise. Unfortunately for the quality of the Klingons, this episode also is a simple recasting of another - at best - mediocre episode of Star Trek, from the prior season, "Wolf In The Fold."

The U.S.S. Enterprise is responding to a distress call coming from an alien planet where it exchanges fire with a Klingon vessel. Beaming down to the planet, Kirk and his landing party encounter Kang, an angry Klingon who insists Kirk destroyed his ship after luring him there. Captured by Kang and his crew, Kirk and the landing party make a switcharoo when they are beamed back to the Enterprise, soon leaving the Klingons trapped in their brig with nowhere else to go when the hulk of the Klingon ship is destroyed.

The ship then begins to warp ever faster on a course out of the galaxy and tensions begin to rise. The Klingons break out of their jail and Kirk begins to lose control of his crew, most notably Chekov as the phasers and other weapons are turned into less lethal swords and knives. Paranoia and racially-motivated warfare break out on the Enterprise as Kirk's crew and the Klingons are both manipulated by an energy being that is feeding on their hatred, leaving Kirk in a desperate situation.

"Day Of The Dove" might have been a fine episode had it not been for "Wolf In The Fold," the prior season which involved another energy being that made the crew afraid and then fed off their fear. Considering this episode reminds me of the Family Guy joke with Stephen King pitching his next novel about an evil lampshade because there is a lampshade in the office he is making the pitch in. "Day Of The Dove," in the context of the series, seems terribly lazy. It's a strangely lackluster retelling of a story already presented, to the extent that Kirk and company drive out the alien organism in a fairly similar way.

In other words, fans of science fiction are not likely to enjoy this overdone plot and fans of Star Trek in particular are likely to feel more than a little cheated by the lack of creativity in the execution of this idea. And fans of general drama might just wonder why it takes Captain Kirk so very long to figure out what the problem is and to thwart the glowing colored ball of evil.

"Day Of The Dove" does take some chances, though. Amid some of the most hackneyed and poorly choreographed swordfight sequences to ever grace a television screen, there comes the ability for the actors to go into some truly dark directions with their characters. Actually, this only happens with one character from the main supporting cast and that is Chekov.

Chekov, under the alien influence, goes quite angry over the death of his brother, who was killed by Klingons. In a particularly bold move for Star Trek, Chekov corners Mara, Kang's wife, in a corridor, puts a knife to her throat and implies he is about to rape her. Chekov leers like a pirate of yore and seems quite comfortable with the menace he represents, allowing the viewer to become convinced that he is not in his right mind to the extent that he might actually be able to go through with the heinous violation he is threatening.

The problem, of course, is that this becomes something of a punchline when Sulu reveals that Chekov does not have a brother and that all Chekov's menace does not actually add to his character. After all, he - and all the others - get the "alien influence" write-off and there's a strange, "no harm, no foul" ending that makes the viewer wonder what the point of the episode was. After all, if it's not truly Chekov menacing Mara, it's not revealing anything from deep within his psyche, it's not about the underlying hatred between the Federation and the Klingons, it's all the mechanizations of the alien of the week.

What does work out well for the episode is the acting. While Chekov and none of the Federation personnel actually learn anything and/or develop as characters, the performances given are some of the better ones in the third season. Walter Koenig, who plays Chekov, gives a decent performance as the mind-altered Chekov. Koenig has the ability to hunch over and lower his voice, cock his head so he's looking up at people right in front of him to portray himself as a predator. One might suspect that before he was cast on Babylon 5, for "Mind War" anyone who wondered if he could convincingly play a villain, must have been shown his performance in "Day Of The Dove!" Koenig here gets to play over-the-top angry villain and he makes it work and makes it actually seem like not too much of a stretch for the character.

William Shatner represents the main cast well and Leonard Nimoy gives one of his more quiet performances as Spock. James Doohan gives a performance that makes it difficult to tell whether the character he plays, Scotty, suddenly becomes less muted or if the actor's enthusiasm trumped the character when he first picked up one of the swords. There's a ridiculous delight on Doohan's face that I want to attribute to good acting.

But it is Michael Ansara - and to a lesser extent, Susan Howard - who rules the episode as Kang. Howard plays his wife, Mara, and she is more than adequate in the supporting role. Howard even holds her own against Koenig's worthy performance. But Ansara, Michael Ansara is powerful as Kang, adding more than just a deep voice and physical stature to the role. Ansara, more than any other actor in the piece, portrays a realistic level of sustained anger toward the others. Ansara presents a character who is twisted by rage and angered beyond words or belief at those he assumes are his enemy and Ansara's Kang is completely convincing. He adds a depth to the part that insinuates that his character has heard as much propaganda about the Federation as the Federation (and the audience) has heard about the Klingons. Ansara makes this otherwise stale episode watchable.

In the end, it's just not quite enough to recommend this very average episode. The statement the episode is trying to make has already been made in earlier episodes and the science fiction mystery is not nearly as interesting at the writer or producers might have wanted it to be. The result is an action-packed dud. Sure, there are fights, but it ultimately means nothing. And we tend to want more than that from Star Trek.

For the only other episodes in the Star Trek franchise featuring Kang, please check out Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Blood Oath" and Star Trek: Voyager's "Flashback!"

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek - The Complete Third Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the third and final season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

5/10

For other Star Trek episode, DVD set and movie review, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


| | |

Astonishingly Bad Trek Results When The Children Lead: "And The Children Shall Lead."

The Good: Not a bad concept, Psychology of the episode
The Bad: Terrible acting, Abysmal special effects, Dumb character aspects, Generally weak plot
The Basics: In one of the episodes that even the new digital effects won't be able to make any better, "And The Children Shall" lead is one of Star Trek's big strikeouts.


I'm a pragmatist in my love for Star Trek. As much as I adore the series, there are much better television shows out there. In fact, the first two spin-offs easily surpassed the quality of the original Star Trek. Part of the reason for that was that there was a greater priority on character. Star Trek was plagued as an episodic series (what happens in one episode does not generally affect another, characters do not so much develop as experience new things) that was remarkably inconsistent episode to episode. In the third season of Star Trek, some of the best episodes are sandwiched in between some of the franchise's absolute worst outings.

The U.S.S. Enterprise arrives at a colony world to find all of the adults on the planet dead. Captain Kirk, concerned that a madness might have overtaken them, evacuates the children who survived the adults' insanity to the Enterprise. Soon, the Enterprise is warping toward another planet, under the control of the children and a mysterious creature who is influencing them. The children use the creature, Gorgan, to exhibit telekinetic and hallucinatory powers that compel the Enterprise crew to do what they wish. The Enterprise is under their control until, of course, the intrepid Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy can remind them that their parents' were not beastly and the group of children is allowed to actually process their trauma.

"And The Children Shall Lead," this unbearably bad episode of Star Trek has a general concept that is not entirely bad. Gorgan is using the children to do his bidding because he is able to prey upon their innocence. But the real clever aspect of Gorgan is in what actually makes him tick, how he does what he does; he protects the children from thinking about their dead parents and basically leverages the emotional pain against the joy they receive by getting whatever they want. Given the choice, of course most children are going to choose ice cream over mourning (and yes, that is literally how simplistic this episode is at times).

It's the execution of the almost-interesting ideas that is so offensive to most fans of Star Trek. "And The Children Shall Lead" essentially cripples a group of the most intelligent, professional and skilled adults in the galaxy with one of the wussiest aliens of all time. And children. Heck, with Dr. McCoy's temper, the average viewer will wonder why he doesn't just beat one of the children. The episode is just gruelingly insulting to the fans of Star Trek in that the villains are not villainous enough and it's pretty much impossible to suspend our disbelief long enough to sit through this one.

Equally insulting is the stupidity at the level of the characters by the writers of this episode. The children prey upon the fears of the crew to incapacitate them. Sulu, if this episode is to be a guide, is terrified of flying the starship through cutlasses. I kid you not, the children make rows of swords appear on the viewscreen to compel Sulu from moving the ship off their course. In addition to being one of the worst special effects in the history of, well, time, this is just a ridiculous character expression. It makes as much sense having Sulu believe there are giant fear-worthy cutlasses outside the ship as creating a fear of thumbtacks for Captain Kirk (which the episode, fortunately, does not do).

Lt. Uhura's fear is only slightly less disturbing. It turns out she fears getting old and ugly. I suppose it would have taken a clever writer to suggest that a communications officer like her ought to be more afraid of something like aphasia. Sadly, the writing here is not so clever or sophisticated.

The resolution, which involves the children actually processing their emotions is all that saves this one from a zero out of ten. The idea that instead of shooting Gorgan, the children he controls have the be free to feel pain and emotional discomfort borders on clever.

Sadly, even the actors in this episode seem bored with the premise and none of them give their best here. William Shatner looks, most of the episode, like he's waiting for it to be over and like he is being forced to be as flamboyant as possible just to keep the episode interesting for him as a performer. None of the children give anything remotely close to a noteworthy performance.

Instead, this is a dud all the way around and even a fan of the series cannot truly justify this one. It's not worth your time to find or watch, even when it's on television.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek - The Complete Third Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the third and final season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

1/10

For other Star Trek reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



| | |