Against My Original Standards, I Fall In Love With The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary Trading Cards!

The Good: Awesome sketches, Very cool bonus cards, Neat common cards, Quality of cards
The Bad: Collectibility, One less impressive bonus card set, A few obscure autograph signers
The Basics: The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary may be a bear to collect, but the end result is a pretty fabulous trading card set!


It seems like the last ten years have just flown by for me. Ten years ago, the Star Trek trading card market underwent a fundamental shift from which it could never turn back: the trading card hobby became the trading card industry. I adequately kvetched about that when I reviewed the set that destroyed collecting once and for all with the Star Trek 40th Anniversary Series 2 trading card set (reviewed here!). Since then, the bar has been raised several times for Star Trek trading card collectors and when there has been even a shift toward the way card sets used to be, the set released has not performed nearly as well in the marketplace. Go figure; I guess most collectors actually want the impossible find!

So, last year, when Rittenhouse Archives produced their Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set as a premium trading card release, I vowed not to simply complain about how uncollectible the cards were. I found my happy medium last month when I reviewed the Rogue One: Mission Briefing trading cards (reviewed here!) and I decided to review the product with dual ratings; the substance of the set and separately with "collectibility" factored in. It is with that new sense of standards that I sat down to review the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set.

And WOW! The substance of the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary set is amazing. For the money, the set is a bit small (a true master set only has 359 cards), but the content is absolutely incredible!

Basics/Set Composition

The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary set was a set of trading cards produced by Rittenhouse Archives to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Original Series, instead of doing season by season celebrations of the 50th Anniversary. Boxes of the TOS 50th Anniversary cards contained only twelve packs with five cards per pack. One does not get a lot per box and the only guarantees are one common set and two autographs per box. One of the decent aspects of the Rittenhouse guarantee for this product is that one is guaranteed one of each of the two different autograph types on a box. Unfortunately for those trying to collect the set, there is not a single chase set that can be completed with even a single case of these cards!

The common set traverses the entire 80-episodes of Star Trek. The chase cards are focused largely on "The Cage" and "Mirror, Mirror" with generic crew cards and production artwork cards thrown in. The set has a beautiful tribute set to the late Leonard Nimoy (still nothing for Grace Lee Whitney, who also died since the last Original Series set!), a diverse array of autograph cards and sketch cards that are actually very dud-free. The element that makes the set virtually impossible to complete, though, are the 3 cut signature cards that made the cases a sell-out at the manufacturer's level and left a few very determined collectors hunting them down!

The TOS 50th Anniversary set consists of 359 cards. The 359 card set consists of 80 common cards and two hundred seventy-nine chase cards, eleven of which cannot be found in the packs or boxes.

Common Cards

The 80 card common set of TOS 50th Anniversary cards are a fairly cool design (though I still have not figured out how the form fits into the theme of the set/show). The common cards are die-cut so they have indents in the centers of the sides, top, and bottom. The corners are not squared; they have beveled edges. As a result, each card is a 14-sided (?,!) trading card with a text block at the top and one at the bottom that makes it vaguely resemble the viewscreen on the Enterprise bridge. Each card has gold foil borders around each of the four pictures on the front and a gold foil center that features the Star Trek 50th Anniversary symbol.

The common card set for the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary is another set that makes an episode by episode journey through all of the episodes of the original Star Trek. The twist on the familiar subject - other than the physical form of the cards - is that the backs are written as if they were Spock's logs about the plot of the episode. Spock makes perfect sense as the "writer" of the mission logs as he is the only character to appear in each episode and it avoids narrative hassles like "which version of Captain Kirk made the log for 'The Enemy Within' or 'Turnabout Intruder?'"

The writing on the cards is fun and done at a consistently high level of quality. The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary are written to sufficiently capture Spock's sense of humor and observations on humanity, while adequately telling the story of each episode of Star Trek.

The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary cards feature bright, beautifully-crisp images on each card. The four pictures on the front of each card tend to be different from shots used in prior sets, which is a nice thing. The photogaphy on the front of the cards also finds the right balance of character images without neglecting the special effect shots. The result is a structurally-weird looking common set that actually serves as a fitting tribute to the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek!

Chase Cards

The TOS 50th Anniversary set has two hundred seventy-nine chase cards, of which two hundred sixty-eight are available in the right packs! Some of those cards, though, are statistically improbable for a collector to pull from the packs or boxes. Ironically, there are some sketch card artists whose works are more rare than the Jill Ireland cut signature card that was pack-inserted!

The first level of chase sets are two expansion sets that explore "The Cage" and "Mirror, Mirror." Cards in each of these sets are found only two per box, which means that they take three cases to assemble each set (assuming one does not pull duplicates!). These two chase sets are substantive and incredible. The "Mirror, Mirror" cards feature foilboard borders that are shiny and distinctive. The "The Cage" bonus cards have neat purple borders and a thin gold border around the image on the card, which makes it look like one is using one of the Talosian's viewscreens to look in on the episode! These chase sets are reminiscent of the James Bond retro "throwback" sets that Rittenhouse Archives has produced for some of the older James Bond films. The result is essentially a flashy additional "common" set for two of the best episodes of Star Trek and it's hard not to gush over just how pretty the "The Cage" cards actually are!

Interestingly, Rittenhouse Archives continues to state the odds of its chase cards in terms of packs. I find this interesting because, especially in the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading cards, the odds for most of the bonus cards are more reasonably stated in terms of boxes or even cases! The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary two chase sets where their components are found one in every four boxes and three that have only a single card from the set in a case!

The Bridge Crew Hero cards are landscape-oriented acetate trading cards featuring the seven core Star Trek characters, plus Nurse Chapel and Yeoman Rand. The Bridge Crew Hero cards look good, but I found myself split on them. The rarity of the cards is high, the content is hardly audacious and as an avid convention-goer, the Bridge Crew Hero cards are another set that is unfortunate in its timing. This is yet another set that fans cannot use to get autographed by the stars of Star Trek. For sure, the four cast members featured who are still alive and represented in this set could make thes cards look amazing by signing them in gold, but it's a set one could never possibly get completely signed and that's sad. While that is not an inherent problem with the Star Trek cards themselves, whenever Rittenhouse Archives makes a new-looking, cool card like this, it is hard not to look at them and consider the alternative use for them! That said, the acetate cards are clean and crisp and look very good.

Also one in every four boxes is one of the nine U.S.S. Enterprise Concept Art cards. Rittenhouse Archives managed to get the original production artwork that pitched various looks (and feels!) of the U.S.S. Enterprise before the first shooting model was ever made. These cards might be the low point of the set; they are gold-bordered and brown and do not look overly distinctive (the back of each card is, essentially, a visual checklist of the set). Sadly, the designer of the U.S.S. Enterprise is dead, which prevented Rittenhouse Archives from using behind-the-scenes interviews on why each of the concept sketches for the Enterprise was rejected. For an unfortunately unremarkable chase set, the rarity of these cards is vastly disproportionate to their value.

One per case is a "Mirror, Mirror" card. Reminiscent of the mirrorboard cards made popular in the Star Trek Season 2 trading card set (reviewed here!), each of the cards in this subset feature big pictures of the main cast, Marlena, and the Enterprise. On one side of each card is an image of the regular universe version of the character, the obverse has the Mirror Universe version. These high-quality cards are a great alternative to the Season 2 Mirror, Mirror set at a more affordable price point!

Also one per case is one of the nine Leonard Nimoy Tribute cards. Since Rittenhouse Archives started producing trading cards, they have made Tribute cards to the now-deceased stars of Star Trek: DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, and Majel Barret. The Leonard Nimoy Tribute cards are the first ones in the set that have been included in the packs (previously, they were casetoppers and there were only 3!). The standard trading card-sized Tribute cards are individually hand-numbered on the front out of 125 and feature bright, distinct images of Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek (no shots from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Star Trek films or his Spock Prime role from the new film universe). The tribute to Nimoy is a fitting one and this is one of the nicest all-Spock sets ever assembled!

Like most modern Star Trek sets, the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading cards feature autograph cards. Found one per box is a Silver Series autograph card and one "Black" autograph. The "Black" autographs are the same format as the Bridge Crew autographs from the Star Trek Portfolio Prints trading cards (reviewed here!). The "Black" autographs feature a much wider range of characters than the initial bridge crew run - performers like Sany Gimple, Michael Dante, and the grail Teri Garr! The Silver Series autographs are an incredibly popular, landscape-oriented autograph card with a single characrter image and the autograph - signed in silver ink - over a black starfield. The Silver Series Autographs feature the likes of William Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Walter Koenig before going into the significant (and a few unfortunately indistinct) guest stars. The set has a Joan Collins autograph card and autographs from the now-deceased Grace Lee Whitney and Yvonne Craig. Regardless of the occasionally mundane subjects on the cards, all of the Silver Series autographs look incredible! Rittenhouse Archives assembled an impressive list of signers for the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set!

The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading cards also featured sketch cards found only one per case. The sketch cards in the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary were beautiful and there is something to the overall value of the set when one of the most common sketches comes from the acclaimed artists Mick and Matt Glebe! The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary features sketch cards from 42 different artists, with only 8 of them being done by artists who produced less than 25 sketches for the set. I have yet to see a lousy sketch from this set, with truly amazing works from Sean Pence, Kirsten Allen, Helga Wojik, and Melike Acar! Rittenhouse Archives advertised the set as featuring the best-yet sketch cards and they absolutely delivered!

Finally, found about one in every eighteen CASES was one of three Star Trek cut signature autograph cards. Rittenhouse Archives managed to get their hands on authenticated autographs from the long-deceased Jeffrey Hunter, Susan Oliver and Jill Ireland. Ireland's material is the most plentiful, while Hunter's cut signature autograph cards are now the rarest Rittenhouse has produced for a Star Trek set. The cut signature cards for the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary might be virtually impossible to find, but they look amazing!

Non-Box/Pack Cards

There are eleven cards that cannot be found no matter how many packs one opens. These include the regular P1 promotional card, which is easily available in the secondary market, as well as the P2 promotional card which was exclusive to the Rittenhouse-produced binder. The two promotional cards are distinctive from the other cards by being heavily-embossed, gold foil cards that advertise the Star Trek 50th Anniversary!

One per case, there is an alternate version of the common card #40. The 40a Casetopper card is a "Mirror, Mirror" card that features different images and alternate text from the common card. The 40a is written as it if were from the perspective of the Mirror Universe Spock and they look cool. Having had casetoppers that were once autograph, autographed-costume, sketch or dual-autograph cards, it is hard to get truly psyched about an "alternate common" card as the Casetopper.

For every six cases purchased, Rittenhouse Archives gave dealers a Silver Series Leonard Nimoy autograph card. If the casetopper is lackluster, the six-case incentive is absolutely incredible! Featuring artwork of Nimoy as the Mirror Universe Spock, the 6-case incentive autograph from the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary matches the quality of the other silver series autographs and has much higher inherent value to it!

For every nine cases purchased, dealers were granted a Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy Dual Autograph card! The dual autograph for this set is similar to the Shatner/Nimoy Dual Autograph from the Star Trek Portfolio Prints trading card set. Where that incentive card featured Kirk and Spock in their Mirror Universe garb (and, in Spock's case, facial hair), the Dual Autograph for the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary features a traditional promotional photo of the Captain and First Officer. Oddly, its value has been depressed since the cards were released in the secondary market, but this card is poised to explode in value given the more universal appeal of the traditional appearance of Kirk and Spock.

Finally, there are the Archive Box exclusive cards. Rittenhouse Archives expanded the SkyBox "Mirror, Mirror" trading card set with an Archive Box exclusive M8 card of Marlena Moreau! Because Charendoff designed the original "Mirror, Mirror" card back in 1998, the new card exactly matches the style and quality of the prior release!

Rittenhouse Archives also included a set of printing plates in each Archive Box and it is hard not to give the company a huge amount of credit for the way they released them. Some trading card companies release the printing plates in the packs and collectors have to desperately attempt to cobble together one of four possible printing plate sets to achieve a true master set. Rittenhouse Archives takes a different approach and it is far more humane to collectors! The Archive Box includes one set of all four printing plates used to make a single common card (and the casetopper!), so collectors get a set of printing plates as opposed to trying to reconstruct a whole set of cards in printing plate form.

For the serious collectors, there is a Rittenhouse Rewards card as well, the E10 expansion card that makes the 9-card Enterprise Concept Art card set into a 10-card set. Available only through redeeming points from wrappers, the E10 features the familiar version of the U.S.S. Enterprise, which is a cool way to cap off the lackluster subset.

Overall

The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading cards are well-organized, look amazing and make a potentially stale subject feel remarkably fresh again. While the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set is a fairly small trading card set for the price one would pay attempting to assemble it, it is a true celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek. Those who are not obsessed with creating a master set will still find ample material to gleefully collect in the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set!

This set culls images from Star Trek, which is reviewed here!

These cards are available in my online store! Please check out my growing Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary Trading Card Inventory!

For other original Star Trek trading card sets reviewed by me, please check out:
Star Trek - Season 1 Episode Collection trading cards
Star Trek - Season 3 Episode Collection trading cards
Star Trek In Motion
35th Anniversary HoloFEX Holofoil cards
Legends Of Captain James T. Kirk
The Art And Images Of Star Trek
Legends Of Spock
"Quotable" Star Trek
Legends Of Dr. Leonard McCoy
Legends Of Scotty, Sulu And Uhura
Legends Of Chekov, Chapel And Rand
Star Trek 40th Anniversary Season 2
Star Trek (2009 movie) cards
Star Trek Heroes & Villains

8.5/10 (substance/content)
2/10 (factoring collectibility)

For other card reviews, please visit my Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Dump The Franchise: The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains Trading Cards Fizzle!

The Good: Generally cool common and basic chase sets, Collectibility
The Bad: Exceptionally fractured execution of concept, Some of the most obscure autograph signers, Rarities and numbering is problematic (especially for the cost).
The Basics: Rittenhouse Archives closes out their pre-J.J. Abrams movie card sets with the premium Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set that ends the concept on an unfortunately low note.


When it comes to Star Trek trading cards, there have been some interesting trends in the various trading card sets and on the long arc of its holding the license, Rittenhouse Archives has done a pretty amazing job of producing trading cards for the fans. That said, not every concept Rittenhouse Archives has tried has worked out ideally. Retrospect is one thing and given the trends that followed, I would probably rate Rittenhouse Archives's Complete Star Trek: The Movies (reviewed here!) trading card set higher if I were to review it today. Sets that followed the Complete Star Trek: The Movies have become prohibitive to collect and Rittenhouse Archives has straddled the fence of creating and following the annoying trends of making impossible-to-collect sets.

But, well before Rittenhouse Archives effectively wittled down the possible number of Star Trek trading card collectors from twenty-five to five, Rittenhouse Archives was busy making ambitious plans to please collectors. Star Trek fans had a lot to be thrilled with, but it was hard to believe the company had anywhere left to go with the Star Trek films when they began with the Complete Star Trek Movies set. Despite starting their explorations of the cinematic Star Trek films with an ambitious and comprehensive set, Rittenhouse Archives churned out three more Star Trek film sets before committing their attention to the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek films. The final of the Classic Star Trek movies sets was the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set and it was released originally in "premium packs." It also had the unfortunate distinction of being a set that feels like a dump of the accumulated autograph cards withheld from prior Star Trek Movies sets.

That is not to say that the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains is terrible, but the original release format - with packs that cost as much as boxes of trading cards used to! - the lack of a solid set concept and the emphasis on autographed trading cards that vary incredibly between impressive and utterly obscure performers make for a trading card set that is not particularly good.

Basics/Set Composition

The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains was the eighth set of cards that focused on the cinematic Star Trek produced by Rittenhouse Archives. Properly assembled, the set is a collection of 109 trading cards and there is an official Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains binder from Rittenhouse. All but six of the cards are available in the box of the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains cards, making it one of the sets that is a bit easier to collect, though the way the "premium packs" were produced and released make it somewhat irksome to do so. The cards were originally released in boxes that contained fifteen premium packs of nine cards each, two of which were autograph cards. Packs tended to run in the $50 range, the boxes cost as much as a case used to cost and the boxes were guaranteed to have an autograph card from either Leonard Nimoy or William Shatner in it.

Collation in the The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set was quite good. To complete a true master set of The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains cards, collectors had to purchase at least four boxes of the cards, as there was a four-box incentive autograph card. As well, there were promotional cards that were not available in boxes or cases and there was one card that was only available through Rittenhouse Archives' Rittenhouse Rewards program (though it was inexpensive in its wrapper cost). But, more than most of the other Rittenhouse Archives trading card sets, the amount of repetition to get the four-box incentive card seemed excessive.

Common Cards

The common card set consists of 54 trading cards, which are printed on standard cardstock and have a glossy UV resistant coating. The fifty-four card common set alternates the heroes and villains of the Star Trek movies, with green for the heroes, red for the adversaries. With fifty-four cards, Rittenhouse Archives caters to putting the cards in binders as the binders have standard nine-card pages.

The concept of the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains is a fairly mediocre one. While all of the cards are oriented in the landscape format and universally feature character shots, the choices for characters to focus on and images are somewhat problematic. While all of the main crew members are represented in the "heroes" half (even numbers), the heroes also include obscure supporting heroes like Commander Decker, Commander Rand, and Lily Sloane. There are both versions of Lt. Saavik (Kirstie Alley and Robin Curtis's versions) and there is a noticeable lack of Artim in the supporting hero characters. For the images, it is strange that Rittenhouse Archives utilized an image of Geordi La Forge with the character in his VISOR given that he had artificial eyes for three of the four Star Trek: The Next Generation films.

The villains section of the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains has to stretch even more to achieve its concept. Captain Terrell is characterized as a "villain" in the set (he was villainous only after being taken over by a mind-controlling parasite from Khan) and given that Kruge's obscure support staff of Torg and Maltz are included as "villains," it seems odd that Joachim is left out of the set. Similarly, that the Space Probe from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is included in the set as a villain makes it somewhat incomprehensible that V'Ger is not included.

All of the common cards in the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set have an individual collector's number stamped on the back. With only 550 common card sets, the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set is one of the few common sets that has high inherent value to it. Rittenhouse Archives does not waste time or space in the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set on text; the cards merely include the character's name, which makes sense for characters like Commander Riker, but less for Gallatin (though, one supposes, if there were a character description for the character, it would be hard to write more than had already been written about him for prior card set releases!).

Chase Cards

There are fifty-five chase cards in The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set, with forty-nine found in the boxes of cards and the remaining six available outside the boxes and packs. The bonus cards that can be found within the boxes were the Tribute cards, Die-Cut Gold Plaque cards, autograph cards and patch cards. Given how the common card set fits perfectly into usual nine-card pages, the fact that the bonus cards are not in nine-card increments and are not universally-oriented (most are portrait-oriented, but the patch cards are landscape-oriented) is problematic.

The most common bonus cards in this set were the Tribute cards, which were found one per pack. The twelve Tribute cards were limited to 475 each and, like the common cards, feature an individually-stamped number on the back. The Tribute cards feature a large picture on the front of each card of a major actor from the Star Trek films who has since died. Major actors like DeForest Kelley, Mark Lenard and Ricardo Montalban are accompanied by the likes of Persis Khambatta, Dame Judith Anderson and Robert Ellenstein. The backs are formatted like an autograph card with the actor and character name. The tribute cards are hearbreaking in that they make fans want the cards to get them signed by the people on them, they are such nice cards!

Also one per pack in the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains premium packs were one of fourteen die-cut gold plaque cards. The portrait-oriented, limited to 425 cards, look like gold ribbons bordering a bust shot of each of the main cast members from the Enterprise crews. This is a good-looking set of cards that combines the foil borders with decent images of each of the characters from the Star Trek films . . . except Worf. Inexplicably, the front image on the H12 card features seventh season promotional shot for Worf, as opposed to any image of him from the Star Trek films! Seeing as the back features a shot of Worf from the films, it seems odd that Rittenhouse Archives failed to get an appropriate image for the front of the card.

The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains continue the autograph style that Rittenhouse Archives began in their Complete Star Trek: The Movies. The missing prior autograph cards - A107 and A111 - were included in the premium packs. Each box of Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains was guaranteed to include an autograph from either William Shatner or Leonard Nimoy and they were two of the highlights of the set. The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains included yet another Brent Spiner autograph and the rarest autograph in the set was from Joseph Ruskin, which was significant only in that he died two years later. Ruskin was far better known for his role in the original Star Trek than in his supporting role in Star Trek: Insurrection. The high point of the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains autograph set is that it includes a Christian Slater autograph card, which is cool. But, Slater's autograph comes up with far less frequency than less well-known performers who had even less substantive roles in the Star Trek films than Slater did, like Gary Faga and Conroy Gideon.

The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains continues the patch card set begun in the “Quotable” Star Trek: The Movies cards, which were based upon the patches on the uniforms in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Individually numbered to 250, the two badge cards feature insignia patches made for Rittenhouse Archives for Commander Decker and Lieutenant Ilia. The patch cards were found one per box, as boxtoppers, and were unable to hold their value against the "Quotable" Star Trek Movies patch cards of much more major characters.

Non-Box/Pack Cards

As with most "modern" trading card releases - certainly the ones from Rittenhouse Archives - not all of the cards needed to make a true master set are available in the boxes of these trading cards. In this set, there are only six cards that cannot be found in the boxes. There is the usual promo card which foreshadowed the series release which is common enough to find (P1). There is also a promo card exclusive to the The Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains trading card binder (P3). The P2 card is a promotional card available only through Non-Sports Update Magazine and it might take a little work to track down (though the magazine offers back issues pretty readily).

There was one other promotional card, which was given away exclusively at the 2011 Philly Non-Sport Show. It remains tough to track down now and, outside its rarity, is nothing particularly special. All four of the promotional cards are landscape oriented and feature two headshots - one hero, one villain.

The remaining cards are the multibox incentive card and the Rittenhouse Rewards cards. For every four boxes of Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains cards a dealer bought, Rittenhouse Archives provided an A122 Nichelle Nichols as Uhura autograph card. Like most of Rittenhouse’s incentive cards, this autograph card is found sealed in a hard plastic toploader with a gold Rittenhouse Archives seal keeping it inside. This is one of the nicest autograph cards of the set and it is easy to see why Rittenhouse Archives held it back for an incentive card!

The final card in the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains set is the Rittenhouse Rewards card. Rittenhouse Rewards cards are exclusive cards that fans can get by sending wrappers from any sets in to Rittenhouse to redeem for cards not otherwise available. For this set, Rittenhouse produced a tenth Star Trek: The Motion Picture hero card of Admiral James T. Kirk. The Rittenhouse Rewards card is essentially an additional common card, which builds the common set up to an odd 55 cards. The Rittenhouse Rewards card is not individually numbered, like the common cards and it is utterly unremarkable and strangely uninteresting for a hard-to-find incentive card.

Overall

Ultimately, the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains fills in the gaps and expands the existing Star Trek movie sets . . . but it was hardly necessary. Sadly, the mundane and ill-executed nature of the Star Trek Classic Movies Heroes & Villains makes it feel like the set is a dump of material that was planned for earlier releases that just was not returned in time.

This set culls images from all ten of the classic Star Trek Movies, reviewed here!

For other Star Trek movie trading cards, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
The “Quotable” Star Trek: The Movies
Star Trek Movies In Motion
Star Trek: Nemesis

3.5/10

For other card reviews, please visit my Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Adam Nimoy Meanders Through Memories Of His Father And His Father's Iconic Character: For The Love Of Spock!

The Good: Some decent interviews and clips
The Bad: A lot of common knowledge, Incoherent progression
The Basics: For The Love Of Spock feels far more exploitative than informative or a true tribute to Leonard Nimoy and Spock.


When Leonard Nimoy died, it was a shock and left a deep sadness within the Trekker community. For me, Nimoy's death stung, but I had had the good fortune to meet the actor multiple times at various Star Trek conventions and even inteact with him. Indeed, when I first met Leonard Nimoy, I carried out a postumous wish of a friend who died before she could meet him and I wrote a short story about it. Leonard Nimoy's death is one of the few celebrity deaths that resonated with me personally, but the sting of his death was muted rather quickly when Adam Nimoy announced his plans for For The Love Of Spock. At the time, the project did not have a name, but director Adam Nimoy announced he was making a documentary about his father . . . and he went to Kickstarter to raise funds for the project. As a fan of Leonard Nimoy's works, as one who watched legions of fans repeatedly shell out piles of cash to get Nimoy's autograph at conventions (and knowing those companies paid Mr. Nimoy for his time and service), I was offended. Leonard Nimoy did not die a pauper and regardless of how much Adam Nimoy inherited (or not) from his father, it was in pretty poor taste to solicit fans for money to complete the project.

Apparently, I was in the minority view for such things and Trekkers once again shelled out and allowed Adam Nimoy to complete what could have been a vanity project on his father's life. For The Love Of Spock is a meandering documentary that vaguely follows the narrative of Leonard Nimoy's life, blended with stories about the popularity of the character Spock and self-referential bits about the documentary itself. Given that there are two autobiographies from Leonard Nimoy, there is shockingly little information that is unique to For The Love Of Spock . . . so what is truly new in the film seems mostly like therapy for Adam and Julie Nimoy to talk about their father.

Opening with a self-referential clip that explains how For The Love Of Spock came to be, intended as a tribute to Spock for the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, Adam Nimoy had begun work on the project before Leonard Nimoy died. After a brief biography of how Leonard Nimoy - who had never held an acting job for more then two weeks and was working as, essentially, a jack of all trades in order to make ends meet for his family while pursuing his passion of acting - was hand-selected by Gene Roddenberry to play Spock, the documentary transitions into an exploration of the character. Featuring interviews by William Shatner, George Takei, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Jason Alexander and Chris Pine and others, For The Love Of Spock discusses the dynamics of the character with how Nimoy portrayed the logical character against the more emotive Kirk and McCoy.

Adam Nimoy infuses himself into the documentary as it progresses. Adam Nimoy discusses the effect of popularity of Star Trek on the Nimoy family - mostly admitting repeatedly that his father was a workaholic who was barely around. Adam Nimoy's infusion of self into the narrative leads to some weird dead ends within the narrative, like his inclusion of a letter from the early 1970s where Leonard Nimoy wrote to Adam about his relationship with his own father after the two had a fight. Adam Nimoy then declares he was a deadhead at the time, puts up a video of Nimoy singing his song "Bilbo Baggins" . . . and the way he uses it seems like a way to subtly mock him. The weird infusion of Adam Nimoy talking about himself allows Adam Nimoy to promote himself - showing his first Star Trek convention, describing his father's support of him in being an entertainment lawyer, etc.

But the lack of a coherent narrative, any sense of linear development, quickly wears thin. For The Love Of Spock leaps from Star Trek into Nimoy's theatrical career after Mission: Impossible. But before discussing Star Trek: The Motion Picture (referencing the Animated Series, but not the aborted Phase II project!), Adam Nimoy leaps ahead to discuss directing his father in an episode of The Outer Limits . . . which came well after Leonard Nimoy had established himself as a director. In addition to having shockingly little new information, For The Love Of Spock starts to feel disengenious about the life of Leonard Nimoy.

Neglected in For The Love Of Spock is the period of Leonard Nimoy's life where he purposely attempted to distance himself from his experiences in Star Trek. Nimoy wrote his first autobiography, I Am Not Spock long before writing I Am Spock - which Adam Nimoy is shown reading and listening to in For The Love Of Spock. And then Adam Nimoy tosses in, late in the film, weird mentions of his personal conflict with his father and Leonard Nimoy's alcoholism.

The result is a documentary that very sloppily shifts from discussing the character of Spock and detailing the life of Leonard Nimoy. Adam Nimoy's late shift to discussing his estrangement seems incredibly self-serving as having so much material for people discussing Spock and Leonard Nimoy, there is an abrupt shift to only Adam Nimoy discussing his relationship with his father. In other words, despite its other narrative problems, there is a wealth of information and sources for so much of the information about all other aspects of Leonard Nimoy's life and the cultural impact of Spock . . . but then only Adam Nimoy's word for what went on in his relationship with Leonard Nimoy. And it is somewhat weird to see Adam Nimoy opening up to Zachary Quinto where Quinto asks some of the most pointed questions of the documentary. Similarly odd is that during that section of For The Love Of Spock, there is no material wherein Leonard Nimoy's second wife is given a voice in the documentary. The film climaxes not with any sort of tribute to Leonard Nimoy at any number of the Star Trek conventions that were done following his death . . . but rather with a Burning Man tribute from 2015 to Nimoy?!

So much of For The Love Of Spock is similarly sloppy or contradictory. I am a big enough person to admit when I am wrong, but with For The Love Of Spock, my impression before the fact was definitely right. This barely-documentary is more exploitative than it is revealing or engaging. For those who want to know about Leonard Nimoy's life, picking up either (or both) of his autobiographies is a far better use of one's time than For The Love Of Spock.

For other documentaries based on Star Trek, please check out my reviews of:
Trek Nation
Trekkies
The Captains

3.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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End Of The Line: The Legends Of Star Trek Ornament Collection Ends Well With Uhura!

The Good: Fair price, Good balance, Detailing on the tricorder
The Bad: Overproduced, Animated look, Monotone skin coloring.
The Basics: The 2015 Lieutenant Nyota Uhura ornament is about average, making it affordable and unremarkable, but one of the better Legends Of Star Trek Hallmark ornaments.


As we are only days away from Ornament Preview Weekend at Hallmark, it is an exciting time for ornament fans! This year, one of the most interesting genre ornaments might well be the Legends Of Star Trek ornament. The ornament is not inherently interesting, it is a pretty average ornament, but what is intriguing about it is that it is being billed as the final Legends Of Star Trek ornament. That means that Hallmark will not be doing an ornament tribute to Ensign Chekov, which is somewhat surprising given how he is usually considered one of the essential, "legendary," characters from the original Star Trek. Lieutenant Uhura finishes off the ornament line with the somewhat animated-looking Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura ornament.

Starting out at $14.95, the Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura ornament looks just like Uhura in both the sculpt and costuming, if not the specific coloring and shading for the character's hair and skin.

For those unfamiliar with Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, she was the communications officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise for most of Star Trek (reviewed here!). Played by Nichelle Nichols in a groundbreaking role, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura is so seminal to Star Trek that casual viewers might not know that she did not have a first name until the 2009 reboot Star Trek! The "Legends Of Star Trek" series gives Hallmark a chance to cast Uhura away from her console for the first time, though she was the subject of the limited edition 2007 ornament and the even more limited re-colored San Diego Comic Con Uhura ornament.

Basics

The Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura recreates the Helm Officer of the Enterprise in solid plastic. The ornament, released in 2015, is presented surprisingly accurately. Lieutenant Nyota Uhura is fairly recognizable to genre fans holding up a tricorder. Molded to be recognizable, the ornament still has a more animated look for the character than one might hope for. The animated look comes from the character’s very generalized colorscheme that lacks realistic depth and shading. Uhura’s skin is not at all realistic to the fleshtones of Nichelle Nichols!

The Hallmark Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura ornament is made of a durable plastic and has the human officer standing in her red mini-dress and shiny black boots. She is 4" tall by 1" wide and 1 1/4" deep. The face is sculpted fairly accurately to look like Nichelle Nichols in her iconic role. This ornament is molded without deep attention to detail, like fingernails.

Conversely, Hallmark went to create painstaking detailing for the tricorder, getting it and the communicator in perfect proportion with the rest of the ornament. The tricorder is exceptionally detailed in both sculpt and coloring. Oddly, the same cannot be said about the character's hair.

The Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura is colored correctly with her red Communication and Engineering shirt. The ornament version of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura is cast in monotonal brown plastic which is not realistic for the actress's skin tones. I was impressed that the boots were a glossy black, while the rest of the ornament outside her eyes were appropriately matte in their finish. While the tricorder in her hands and the rank braids on her forearms are well-colored and detailed, the skin is much less impressive or realistic in its detailing.

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, the Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura could have a function like a sound chip or light effect, but does not. This is just an ornament, a low-cost (comparatively) option for those who might not want to shell out for the starship or mural series of Star Trek ornaments. This is Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, standing alone with a tricorder as opposed to being stuck at her communication's console. Having the ornament without any features might disappoint some collectors.

Balance

As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate Star Trek Christmas Tree, the Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura ornament is a necessary one, given that Uhura is an iconic character. The ornament has a brass hook loop that comes out of the top, center, slightly back, of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura's skull. To its credit, Hallmark's Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura is very well-balanced from that point.

Collectibility

Hallmark Keepsake began delving into the collectibles market in 1991 with Star Trek when it introduced the exceptionally limited edition U.S.S. Enterprise ornament (reviewed here!). Since then, they have made ornament replicas of almost all of the major starships from the franchise and when they started on the personnel in 1995, though this is the second Uhura ornament sculpt. The Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura ornament is unlikely to be a sell-out.

Given the precedent from the prior Legends Of Star Trek ornaments, this is unlikely to be a worthwhile investment piece, despite the quality of the ornament; hold out for it to be on the clearance racks at the season’s end.

Overview

Fans of the Star Trek franchise, Nichelle Nichols and Lieutenant Uhura are likely to be fairly impressed by the Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Nyota Uhura ornament. Even with issues in the skin coloring, the ornament is one of the better Star Trek ornaments produced in recent years.

For other Star Trek ornaments of characters, please check out my reviews of:
2014 Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu
2014 Vina The Orion Slave Woman
2013 Legends Of Star Trek Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott
2012 Legends Of Star Trek Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy
2011 Legends Of Star Trek Spock
2010 Legends Of Star Trek Captain James T. Kirk
2009 Limited Edition Ilia Probe
2005 Khan
2004 Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker III
2003 Subcommander T’Pol
1997 Dr. McCoy
1996 Mr. Spock

7.5/10

For other Christmas ornament reviews, please visit my Ornament Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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One Cool Moment Does Not A Worthwhile Documentary Make: Trek Nation Disappoints.

The Good: Moments of exceptionally rare footage
The Bad: Mislabeled actor/role notations, Poor interviews, No real purpose.
The Basics: Trek Nation is a surprisingly lame documentary that has Eugene Roddenberry Jr. listlessly learning very little about his father about Star Trek.


Lately, I’ve seen quite a few documentaries and many of them have been about Star Trek. I’ve actually enjoyed some of them quite a bit, most notably The Captains (reviewed here!). So, when my wife wanted to sit down to watch Trek Nation, I was actually excited about it. Unfortunately, the execution of this particular documentary was particularly lackluster.

Trek Nation has a loose point; it is Eugene Roddenberry Jr.’s attempt to learn about his father, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek and the whole Star Trek phenomenon. Eugene Roddenberry Jr. was a teenager when Star Trek: The Next Generation was on the air and he was off doing his own thing. So, decades after Gene Roddenberry’s death, Roddenberry Jr. has gotten around to learning about the phenomenon his father created. Trek Nation is the result of that search.

And it is surprisingly bad.

The set-up is, unfortunately, almost the entire movie. Eugene Roddenberry Jr. reiterates many times that he had no prior knowledge of what the Star Trek phenomenon was all about and that he was off doing his own thing around the time Gene Roddenberry died. So, the movie has Eugene Roddenberry Junior wandering around asking writers, producers, obscure Star Trek guest stars (remarkably few major castmembers from the Star Trek franchise participate in Trek Nation) about their Star Trek memories before concluding that maybe Star Trek is all right.

Trek Nation has a wealth of footage that is more confusing and pointless than it is enlightening. So, for example, the film includes reaction shots where Roddenberry Jr. clearly upsets Majel Barrett-Roddenberry with is questions . . . but the movie includes only the reaction shots, not the questions he was asking and the answers she gave. Interestingly, there are outtakes of Gene Roddenberry getting frazzled during his famous 1991 interview for the 25th Anniversary documentary.

Eugene Roddenberry Jr., director Scott Colthrope, and writer Jessica Brunetto repeat a great deal of information that those who are likely to watch this documentary – namely, Trekkers – already know. In fact, outside Trekkers and those who already “get” Star Trek, it is hard to guess who Trek Nation was actually made for. The fans are likely to be bored with it because there is so little that is actually new – in fact, outside Roddenberry Jr. visiting J.J. Abrams to present him with a video that seems to endorse the concept of the 2009 Star Trek, there is little fans will not have already seen or know -, those who are not part of the culture are not likely to be intrigued given that no one makes a fully compelling argument as to why Star Trek was so incredible and remains relevant today (though Nichelle Nichols comes close with her story about her and Martin Luther King Jr.) and those who like great documentaries are likely to be irked by the lack of real resolution to this piece.

While Eugene Roddenberry Jr. gets interviews with D.C. Fontana, Michael Dorn, and Jonathan Frakes, most of the major Star Trek players are notably absent from the documentary, leaving guest stars like Victor Brandt and Patrick Kilpatrick to make statements on the franchise. Ultimately, Trek Nation is not a particularly thorough exploration of the life of Gene Roddenberry, the genesis of Star Trek or the phenomenon of Trek fandom.

For other documentaries, please check out my reviews of:
Great White Odyssey
After Porn Ends
Nantucket Film Festival’s Comedy Roundtable

2/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing.

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Trekkies Documents The Fringe Aspect Of An Interesting Subculture In The U.S.

The Good: Decent interviews
The Bad: Focuses on the fringe of the subculture
The Basics: Trekkies could have been a groundbreaking documentary, save that the director and host/documentarian focuses on the fringe of the subculture.


I am a fan of the Star Trek franchise. In fact, I eagerly identify as a Trekker. I had started my small business geared around Star Trek collectibles when the documentary Trekkers was being filmed and it was around that time that I started to truly identify with the culture.

Ironically, last night was the first time I sat down and watched the documentary Trekkies. It is worth noting that there is a difference between Trekker and Trekkies. Trekkers are the folks who know the show is a television show; we enjoy the franchise, we collect the collectibles, but we know it is not real and we have a life outside our favorite hobbies. “Trekkies” are the stereotypical unhygienic, obsessed fanatics who give Trekkers a bad name. “Trekkie” is, in fan culture, the derogatory – the “N word” – for the fans, relative to Trekker. So, I did not have high hopes for Trekkies.

Trekkies documents well; it is a true documentary, with no judgment made (explicitly) on the subjects. However, the subjects of the documentary exhibit a bias. Trekkies includes interviews with a Star Trek talk radio show, a transvestite male fan, a fourteen year-old fan who yells at a friend who calls during his interview (and once got in trouble at his Catholic school for wearing his costume), a dentist’s office designed to mimic a Federation ship, and others (like people who go out in daily life wearing their Star Trek uniforms).

These interviews are mixed in with Denise Crosby’s interviews with cast members and convention promoters/dealers. The cast members that Crosby interviews are remarkably gracious and they tell stories that are not available in other movies, shows or DVD bonus features.

Trekkies is interesting when Crosby and director Roger Nygard focus on the interviews from the celebrities and people behind the scenes of the conventions. The documentary exhibits a strong bias against fandom by focusing early on people like the juror in the Clinton trials who appeared for jury selection wearing her StarFleet uniform. By the time the film gets to interviewing a person who dresses their cat up in a StarFleet uniform, the movie has lost most of its cohesion.

Outside the bias, Trekkies suffers most from lacking a specific and careful focus. The movie meanders from interviews of celebrities to fans to writers of Kirk/Spock fanfiction without any real focus or finesse. The documentary is not horrible, but it is not going to attract legions of new fans or make Trekkers admit they would be associated with the Trekkies shown in this film.

For other documentary reviews, please visit my reviews of:
The Furious Gods: Making “Prometheus”
The Cream Will Rise
The Big One

4/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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I Suppose You Can't Go Home Again To Teenage Cartoons

The Good: Decent voicework, Moments of ideas
The Bad: Surprisingly simplistic, Fairly standard plots, short season
The Basics: With plots that are unsurprising and unsophisticated, Gargoyles seems more like children's fare than even worthwhile for a young adult.


I recall when Gargoyles first began; I was a teenager and I was psyched because it featured the vocal talents of several actors from Star Trek: The Next Generation. At the time, that was enough for me. Now, with Gargoyles - The Complete First Season out on DVD, I've had the opportunity to review the series and see it more objectively.

In ancient times, Gargoyles were fierce warriors who are stone by day and alive at night. In order to protect themselves, the gargoyles have allied themselves with the Scottish King. Thus, they protect the Scots at night and during the day, the Scots make sure nothing happens to them as they hibernate. They are led by Goliath, who is kind and good and has a name. When the Vikings attack, the Scots turn to Goliath and his posse for help.

While the gargoyles experience racism, despite their aid against the vikings, they continue to help the Scots, until one of their own betrays them to the vikings and a spell is put on them, keeping them frozen in stone in the castle they live in. A thousand years later, a billionaire buys the castle to (of course) put it on top of a skyscraper in New York City. Xanatos sees the gargoyles as a way to keep his enemies - corporate and personal - at bay and he works to insure their loyalty. It does not take long before Goliath realizes Xanatos is bad and he finds a new ally to see him through this strange new world he finds himself in.

Gargoyles is fairly violent for an American animated program. The truth is, watching it again it felt more like a cartoon than an animated experience. The show was not terribly violent, despite the number of guns shot and explosions going off. It would easily fit into the appropriate age range of anyone who could stand Power Rangers.

What suffered for me the most as an adult watching this series were the characters. I remember as a younger person Goliath seemed very cool, here he seems just an archetype. Goliath is the heroic leader-type and he does not truly vary from the mold one expects of that type character.

Similarly, Demona and Xanatos are pretty generic villains. Xanatos is simply a collection of all the worst stereotypes of the megalomaniacal billionaire (ironic in a series produced by Disney). He has no traits that make him any more distinctive or unique than others of the same type. Similarly, Demona is just the villainous vixen, the betraying woman who is out to further her own plays while using her femininity to get what she wants.

And on that note, it's germane to note that Gargoyles has the ability to be troubling. Because it seemed so much younger than I remember it being, it's worthwhile to look at the message it sends. Demona is an evil woman, the woman scorned who is jealous, petty and vindictive. There's a great set of stereotypes to pass along to the next generation! And even the stronger female character, Detective Elisa Maza, who forms an alliance with Goliath, is simply the other end of the spectrum. Maza is full of integrity, but pretty much dependent on Goliath for protection throughout this season. Goliath's aid makes her successful. Without him, she has almost nothing.

Perhaps that's not a fair assessment, but it's an accurate one. The characters in Gargoyles are not as vibrant or interesting as one might hope. They certainly are not unique. The cast of characters is rounded out by the brute, the young explorer who gets into mischief and the old, wise man who builds things. In some ways, even their names are not important (they get their names by the end of this Awakenings series).

And it's not like the plot in this first season is terribly compelling; the Gargoyles are cursed, they wake up, they make allies and enemies. It's pretty much a big set-up.

I will say, though, it's fun to hear the voices of actors one respects and with Marina Sirtis voicing Demona and Jonathan Frakes voicing Xanatos, it was enough when I was younger to get me into this. Unfortunately, it's not nearly enough to keep me as an adult.

For other works with Ed Asner, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Up
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Elf

3/10

For other television reviews, be sure to visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2006 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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The Worst Ten Episodes Of The Original Star Trek!

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The Basics: Just because a show is considered classic does not mean all of the episodes are gems; here are the episodes of classic Star Trek that may safely be avoided.


A few days ago, I weighed in with my Top Ten episodes of the classic Star Trek series (available here!) and I found myself contemplating what the bottom of the original Star Trek barrel would be.

The thing is, Star Trek is a generally wonderful television series and it offers an optimistic view of the future that is very promising and enlightened. It is hard to complain with that. But at the same time, the series had episodes that were troublingly dated and that go beyond campy to just plain hokey. Because Star Trek is so available in syndication and in various media, it can be most useful to know not just which episodes to watch, but which episodes one may safely avoid. These are the worst ten episodes that Star Trek produced and if given the opportunity to watch them, you might want to strongly consider watching something . . . anything . . . else.

Without further ado:

10. "The Omega Glory" - reviewed here! - At the end of a long series of Prime Directive violation episodes came this installment which put the most obscure metaphor into play. Not-so-cunningly veiled were the Yangs and the Kohms (Yankees and Communists) and while the idea of a disease that crystallizes its victims is intriguing, the rest of the episode is a complete wash. Moreover, the sudden understanding by Kirk of the Pledge Of Allegiance backwards has to be one of the most ridiculous escapes a writer ever used,

9. "The Squire Of Gothos" - reviewed here! - Whenever anyone talks about the heroism and greatness of Captain James T. Kirk, I just say, yeah, but he was defeated by a man in an ascot and ruffles! This is that episode. It's one thing to get your butt kicked by superhumans and aliens who can make your crew into little geometric blocks, but to be menaced by a bad parody of Oscar Wilde and be defeated by that being . . . that's just wrong,

8. 'The Apple" - reviewed here! - Say what you will about the special effects on the original Star Trek, but I think having a paper mache lizard is actually a pretty cool villain. No, the real problem with this episode - in addition to the sudden addition of capitalism in Kirk firing and rehiring Scotty - is a group of nitwits who don't have any clue what sex is. This is just a ridiculous make-out episode of Star Trek and it reinforces the idea that the security officers aboard the Enterprise all had the worst training in the galaxy as they get taken out by poisonous flowers, exploding rocks and idiots with big clubs,

7. "The Changeling" - reviewed here! - Gene Roddenberry ought to have figured that if this episode was so bad on the small screen it wouldn't be much better on the big screen, but he used this as the template for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In addition to the preposterous idea of wiping Uhura's memory and leaving her learning to read at the end of the episode and killing Scotty, "The Changeling" is plagued by the idea that a real smart computer would mix up something like a name and that would be enough to confound it long enough to destroy it,

6. "The Way To Eden" - reviewed here! - Getting into the classically bad episodes (my list omits, for example, the delightfully campy "Spock's Brain") this is best known as the space hippie episode. What makes the idea of hippies in space so bad? Well, they are able to take over the Enterprise and convert some of the crew to their cause and Spock is pretty sympathetic to them. So, other than abandoning the basic principles of StarFleet officers being disciplined or principled, nothing! An easy one to pass on,

5. "Who Mourns For Adonais?" - reviewed here! - The Greek god Apollo shows up. Seriously. Do I need to say more? Okay, what makes this so bad is the idea that every woman aboard the Enterprise will find any godlike man (or actual god) worth running off with and this episode reuses pretty much the same ploys Kirk used against Khan in the vastly superior "Space Seed." And all of the humor in this one falls flat,

4."I, Mudd" - reviewed here! - In Star Trek, computers are portrayed as either all-powerful and oppressive or completely idiotic. "I, Mudd" combines that idea with idiotic androids who are poised to take over the galaxy. And in the original Star Trek, there is (sadly) only one villain who recurs and that is Harcourt Fenton Mudd and this is the episode he returns in. Even so, there is no good reason to watch it as the androids and Mudd take over the Enterprise,

3. "Elaan Of Troyius" - reviewed here! - From this episode, the viewer learns: women are spoiled crybabies and Captain Kirk, who will sleep with anything that moves, can have sex, but still be devoted in as emotionally powerful a way to his starship. Wow, it's bad! This is one of the episodes where the acting is so poor, it is surprising anyone from the show had any form of a career afterward,

2. "Catspaw" - reviewed here! - The Halloween episode of Star Trek is a dismal starting place for the second season. In addition to campy special effects - wonderful costumes! - this episode is plagued by two villains who wield incredible technological power but once again seem to be utter morons. It is unfortunate that the story is so bad and the character portrayals are so ridiculous because . . . no, this was pretty much a bad idea gone bad in the execution. It is not scary (as the teaser sets it up to be), it is not clever and it is ultimately only laughable,

and . . .

1. "And The Children Shall Lead" - reviewed here! - Sometimes an episode is campy, sometimes it is just hokey, sometimes it is bad start to finish. Star Trek never, arguably, got worse than this. It is a shaky premise: a colony of adults have been killed while the children who survive are protected and plagued upon by the villainous spectral Gorgon. This episode is plagued by child actors, unspeakably bad special effects (Sulu menaced by the knives on the viewscreen is so ridiculous it is painful to watch) and not one of the main cast gives a performance worth watching. With a terrible story, poor performances and ridiculous uses of decent characters, this is the worst they could - and did - do!

For other Star Trek reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page where the reviews are organized from best episode to worst across the entire franchise!

©2012, 2009  W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: A More Balanced View!

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The Basics: Just because a television show is called a classic does not mean some episodes are not better than the others and for Star Trek, these are the best ten!


I have eagerly reviewed all of the episodes of Star Trek franchise video products. I have reviewed every episode available of Star Trek, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and am almost through Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In addition, I've reviewed all of the Star Trek films and I even wrote an attempt at the next Star Trek film (check out the proposal here!). Yes, I may be a Beta in many other ways, but I am a proud Alpha Geek.

So, it seemed about time I present a list of the Top Ten episodes of the original Star Trek. Like many of my "best of" lists, I tend to diverge from my colleagues some and as a result, this is very truly, my list of the best ten episodes of Star Trek.

The differences, though, come down to the standards. For years, many people have looked at the "Top Ten" Best episodes of Star Trek as a sacrosanct list; whenever leading publications like StarLog did the lists, there was seldom any movement even decade to decade. This, I find, is folly. My Top Ten Star Trek episodes have two things in common: first, they look at what makes Star Trek truly great, which is Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future for one important thing and two they replay better than most episodes.

As a result, there are two omissions that most people are likely to gripe about that did not make my cut: "The City On The Edge Of Forever" and "The Trouble With Tribbles." The first is a much-beloved time-travel episode and one that usually tops lists like this one (take THAT convention!), but viewed objectively, it is exceptionally plot heavy, the dialogue is dragged down with so much exposition and the "love" story is so forced that it almost is tacked on as an afterthought. Similarly, "The Trouble With Tribbles" may be beloved and the conspiracy aspect of it is genuinely clever, but the humor holds up poorly as the one "furballs are cute" joke gets beaten into the ground pretty quickly.

So, with that in mind . . . I present, the Top Ten Star Trek episodes:

10. "The Cage" - reviewed here! - Each and every one of my listing reviews like this has a cheat and here I get it out of the way at number 10. In this case, in my individual reviews of episodes, there were about seven episodes that scored at or higher than "The Cage" in my objective standards (including "The City On The Edge Of Forever"). I bumped it up onto this list because it is essential Star Trek: it is cerebral, thought-provoking and illustrates a community filled with diversity. Yes, it has "pilot" errors and the acting is not up to the standards of other episodes, but this is the pilot that started it all and Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike makes for a couple of great hours of television that deserve to be seen and understood to fully fathom what Star Trek is intended to be,

9. "Requiem For Methuselah" - reviewed here! - Arguably the most controversial episode on this list (it has never, to my knowledge, ever made anyone else's Top Ten list for Star Trek episodes) this episode tells the story of Kirk, Spock and McCoy stranded on an alien planet. Far from Earth, they are there to get a medicine for the ship before crewmembers start dying and there they discover a treasure trove of artistic works. There, Kirk falls in love with a young woman named Rayna . . . with disastrous results. The idea of Flint is far more original than that of the Nazis winning World War II and the love story between Kirk and Rayna is actually developed better than the one Kirk had with Edith Keeler. And in this episode, Spock's passion for science and the arts has a real sense of importance and consequence,

8. "The Enterprise Incident" - reviewed here! - A political thriller, this episode has some of William Shatner's best and most appropriate over-the-top acting. Kirk, crazed, sends the ship into the Romulan Neutral Zone, where Spock assumes command, begins consorting with the Romulan Commander and inadvertently kills Captain Kirk! This could be a ridiculously plot-heavy episode, but it becomes both a great acting exercise and the characters move it beautifully,

7. "Obsession" - reviewed here! - Sometimes, there is an episode that it so universal, it hardly needs to be set in a fictional universe. "Obsession" would be a great episode of television even if it weren't on Star Trek, the themes are so universal and so well-executed. When the Enterprise encounters a vampiric cloud, Kirk's sense of guilt over an incident he was involved with as a junior officer resurfaces. Feeling the death of one of his previous crews on his hands, he becomes obsessed with killing the cloud entity before it can hurt anyone else. Tense and compelling, "Obsession" explores that basic human emotion perfectly and in a way that still makes the viewer able to watch and respect Captain Kirk afterwards,

6. "The Devil In The Dark" - reviewed here! - Arguably the best performance William Shatner ever gave as Captain James T. Kirk, I defy anyone to find the moments performed before versus after the actor found out his father had died. The consistency and professionalism of Shatner are absolutely incredible. And this episode is an emotionally tough one to wrestle with, regardless of the personal issues. Deep beneath the surface of a planet, Kirk and Spock attempt to track down an entity that has been killing miners so that the Federation's supply of pergium can continue. As Spock argues for the sanctity of life, Kirk finds he must prepare to kill whatever they find and as both officers put their life on the lines, they truly encounter a new life unlike any they had imagined,

5. "The Doomsday Machine" - reviewed here! - Star Trek's best episodes, it seems, were often thrillers and in the second season, they hit a real stride. Despite the original special effects, what makes "The Doomsday Machine" so great is the acting. Commodore Matt Decker, sole survivor of an encounter with a device that destroys entire planets, snaps, stranding Kirk and Scotty on his abandoned ship. Aboard the Enterprise, he pulls rank, assumes command and while McCoy fights him verbally for command of the ship, Decker attempts to destroy the massive killing machine. The thing is, Decker actually did virtually everything right; trying to safeguard his crew and save lives. The problem is, he did it poorly and his decisions cost a ton of people their lives. "The Doomsday Machine" is a riveting drama that creates an intriguing character that illustrates the consequences of one of our heroes making a wrong step. Moreover, it is about loyalty and it is entertaining and strong, a great combination,

4. "Balance Of Terror" - reviewed here! - In a deeply suspenseful episode, Star Trek dared to take us away from the Enterprise for a serious amount of time. Aboard a Romulan ship, a military commander attempts to return to his side of the border after a series of daring raids on the Federation. Kirk and company pursue and aboard the ship, there is tension when Spock manages to get a relay from the Romulan ship that illustrates that Romulans and Vulcans share a common physiology. As a result, racial tensions leap up and Kirk finds himself fighting a battle inside and outside. Relevant today (still), "Balance Of Terror" manages to be a tense submarine-style thriller as Kirk and the Enterprise play cat and mouse with the equally well-trained Romulan ship,

3. "Mirror, Mirror" - reviewed here! - A classic science fiction episode, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura find themselves in a brutal mirror universe where history turned out very different. In this dark reality, they must survive assassination attempts, new love interests and the truth from being exposed. As Kirk and his crewmates work to return to our universe, he tries to argue the value of freedom over oppression with the alternate Spock. The premise is clever, the episode replays remarkably well and it was so successful it was eventually followed up on in multiple books, comics and on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine! And yes, there is the cheap thrill factor of seeing the twists in the regular crew members, but . . . it's fun to see the good go so bad,

2. "Amok Time" - reviewed here! - Spock in heat, it's a great premise for an episode and this is Leonard Nimoy's acting tour de force! Arguably, too much of Spock's character is defined by what people say he usually acts like (something like every third episode has Spock acting uncharacteristic) but in this one, there is a great sensibility to it. Watching the logic get stripped from the venerable Spock is a real treat and the friendship between Spock, McCoy and Kirk is perhaps best exemplified by this episode,

and . . .

. . . .drumroll please . . .


1. "A Piece Of The Action" - reviewed here! - Yes, it is a comedic episode that works best for Star Trek! Star Trek touts a Prime Directive, a "do no harm" for space explorers and "A Piece Of The Action" illustrates perfectly why such a level of ethical development is essential before humanity becomes a spacefaring people. Kirk and crew encounter a planet that has modeled their entire civilization after the book Chicago Mobs Of The 1920s when a prior vessel simply left that book behind. Funny, filled with an actual compelling social issue, great acting, great costumes and character moments that fit all of the principle and secondary characters perfectly, this has a great, enduring concept that does what all of the best television ought to do: it tells us something about ourselves, more than just something about other people. A true television gem!

For other Star Trek reviews, please visit my Star Trek review page for an organized listing of all the Star Trek franchise reviews I have written!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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