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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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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After The Legends Line, Hallmark Makes A Mediocre Ensign Pavel Chekov Ornament!

The Good: Good balance, Detailing on the tricorder, Good general sculpt
The Bad: Unfortunately obvious seams, Animated look, Paint issues
The Basics: The 2016 Ensign Pavel Chekov ornament is average at best, made valuable only by its limited edition nature.


During my month and a half sabbatical from writing reviews, actor Anton Yelchin died. As a young man, Yelchin's body of work is comparatively small and he is, arguably, best known worldwide for playing Ensign Pavel Chekov in J.J. Abrams's two Star Trek films and the forthcoming Star Trek Beyond. Yelchin's version of Chekov from the rebooted Star Trek films is not the subject of the new, 2016 limited edition Star Trek ornament from Hallmark; their Ensign Pavel Chekov ornament features the classic Star Trek character, as portrayed by Walter Koenig. Ensign Chekov is, essentially, a continuation of Hallmark's vastly overproduced Legends Of Star Trek ornament line and it fits the general quality and scale of those ornaments, even if it is more expensive and produced in lesser quantities.

Starting out at $15.95, the Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov ornament looks like an animated version of Chekov, which is ironic because Ensign Chekov was absent from the animated Star Trek series from the 1970s.

For those unfamiliar with Ensign Pavel Chekov, he was the navigator aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise for most of Star Trek (reviewed here!). Played with one of the most ridiculous "Russian" accents by Walter Koenig, Ensign Pavel Chekov is a seminal Star Trek character, despite the fact that he came in as a new character in the second season.

Basics

The Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov recreates the Navigator of the Enterprise in solid plastic and ribbon. The ornament, released in 2016, is presented very generally, with a decent head sculpt that is, predictably, underdetailed on the coloring front. Ensign Pavel Chekov is fairly recognizable to genre fans holding up a tricorder with both hands. Molded to be recognizable, the ornament still has a more animated look for the character than one might hope for. This comes from the character’s very simplistic colorscheme that lacks realistic depth and shading. As well, Chekov's arms have deep, ridiculous-looking seams where they connect to the character's chest section. Measuring four inches tall by one and three-sixteenths inches wide by one and one-eighth inches deep, the Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov ornament has been selling, despite it being a limited edition ornament.

The Hallmark Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov ornament is made of a durable plastic and black ribbon and has the human junior officer standing in his yellow shirt, tight black pants and shiny black boots. The face is sculpted to be a good representation of Walter Koenig and, outside the eyes lacking Koenig's sparkle and zest for life, the representation is good. This ornament is molded without deep attention to detail, like fingernails.

Conversely, Hallmark went to create painstaking detailing for the tricorder, getting it in perfect proportion with the rest of the ornament. The tricorder is exceptionally detailed in both sculpt and coloring. The black ribbon mimics well the leather strap the props from the show had.

The Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov is colored correctly with his yellow Command shirt, outside his skin tones, which are very basic. Ensign Pavel Chekov has appropriately pale skin, but the ornament lacks the depth and shading of most collectibles. I was impressed that the boots were a glossy black, while Chekov’s pants were appropriately matte in their finish. While the tricorder in his hands is well-colored and detailed, including having blue highlights on the tricorder's screen, the skin is much less impressive or realistic in its detailing. The fingers have a lack of definition between them as well. Unfortunately, on three of the four Ensign Pavel Chekov ornaments I found, the paint job was flawed; with issues in the eyes and odd color spots on the shirt. The black spots on the yellow shirt are troublingly obvious given the brightness of the yellow color.

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, the Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov could have a function like a sound chip or light effect, but does not. This is just an ornament, a comparatively low-cost option for those who might not want to shell out for the starship or mural series of Star Trek ornaments. This is Ensign Pavel Chekov, standing alone with a tricorder as opposed to behind his navigator's console on the bridge. 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 Ensign Pavel Chekov ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate Star Trek Christmas Tree, the Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov ornament is a necessary one, given that Chekov is an iconic character, probably the last iconic Enterprise crewmember that had not yet been immortalized by Hallmark. The ornament has a brass hook loop that comes out of the top, center, of Ensign Pavel Chekov's skull. To its credit, Hallmark's Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov is perfectly 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 first Chekov ornament. The Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov ornament was not a fast-selling ornament, at least it did not sell out at most Hallmark stores I checked out during Ornament Preview Weekend, but it seems coveted by the fans who purchased the prior six Legends Of Star Trek ornaments.

Given the precedent from the prior Legends Of Star Trek ornaments, along with the way this ornament has an original issue price $1 more than the other ones, it is hard to see how the Ensign Pavel Chekov ornament would appreciate much in the secondary market. Unlike the prior ones, which sold largely on clearance, the Chekov ornament might actually sell out at full price and, at least, not depreciate in value. It remains, given the paint issues on the ones I found, a tough sell for all but the die hard fans.

Overview

Fans of the Star Trek franchise, Walter Koenig and Ensign Pavel Chekov are likely to feel compelled to pick up the Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov ornament to complete their collections, but not be ornament most fans will be exceptionally excited about.

For other Star Trek ornaments of characters, please check out my reviews of:
2015 Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Uhura
2014 Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu
2014 Vina The Orion Slave Woman (Limited Edition)
2013 Legends Of Star Trek Commander 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
1999 Lieutenant Commander Worf
1997 Dr. McCoy
1996 Mr. Spock

5.5/10

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

© 2016 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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Garibaldi Searches For Lochley's Truths In Two Mediocre Episodes of Babylon 5.

The Good: Moments of character, Moments of performance
The Bad: Mediocre special effects, Fairly recycled plot, Some truly lame moments, Predictability
The Basics: With two mediocre episodes of Babylon 5, this video sinks, regardless of how essential the plots of the episodes are to the bigger story.


As I nab the final Babylon 5 VHS tape I had to review, it occurs to me how unfortunate it is that Babylon 5 ended on such a shaky note, that its final season was so uncertain. I wonder how much - honestly - had been intended as part of the five year planned arc by series creator, writer J. Michael Straczynski. With the fifth season episodes "Learning Curve" and "Strange Relations," with their peculiar mix of necessary plot and character moments and the recycled sense that the viewer has seen them before, it certainly is enough to make one at least question if Straczynski was desperately fleshing out the final season.

"Learning Curve" finds a new crime boss taking over Down Below on Babylon 5 and a series of murders, as messages to his competitors, confounding security. As Garibaldi continues to investigate and badger the station's new commander, Captain Lochley, a pair of Ranger teachers and their Ranger acolytes come to the station to provide Delenn with a status report. While there, one of the Rangers is beaten by the new criminal leader as a sign and left for dead. Supposedly terrorized, Delenn intervenes with station security and Lochley to help use the righting of this violence as a lesson for the Rangers.

"Strange Relations" returns the telepaths to the forefront when Bester and a Bloodhound Unit arrive on the station to hunt down the rogue telepaths given sanctuary on Babylon 5. When Garibaldi is finally told why Sheridan selected Lochley for the position of station commander, he is placated some, but forced to sit out intervening with the villainous Bester. As Sheridan and Lochley look for a way to prevent Bester from taking the rogue telepaths, Lyta becomes more involved with Byron and his movement. And Londo's planned departure for Centauri Prime is delayed by an assassination attempt, prompting him to take on a bodyguard.

Both "Learning Curve" and "Strange Relations" have some serious problems that make them difficult, if not impossible, to recommend, especially to a general audience. As a fan of Babylon 5, there is a troublingly familiar quality to "Learning Curve." In the first season of Babylon 5 (reviewed here!), there was an episode with a nervous character who was terrified of leaving the station and who slowly came into his own throughout the course of the episode. "Learning Curve" feels much like that episode and the problems of the nervous character notwithstanding, there is something unsettling about how familiar the two episodes feel to one another.

Mentoring younger characters and teaching them a lesson is not new in drama or science fiction. Indeed, Star Trek: Voyager has an episode involving teaching the next generation also entitled "Learning Curve.” The fundamental problem with the Babylon 5 episode by the same name is this: the latter half of the episode simply does not work. The Ranger who intervenes and stops an informant from getting killed is beaten to a pulp by the crime boss and his associates. As he lays near death in the medical bay, his mentors announce that he is terrified. The Minbari can't speak, can't really move and his wounds are being held together with small stitches and a lot of hope. I'm not sure he's even conscious enough to be terrified!

The point here is that writer J. Michael Straczynski asks the viewer to take on faith a condition just because two characters on screen say it is so. One says he's terrorized and therefore terrified and Straczynski expects us to all sit up and say "okay, I guess he is!" The truth is, the Ranger acolyte does not look like he is even able to hear his mentors at that point. So when the latter half of the episode degenerates into one young Minbari's quest to overcome his own feelings of terror, it's much more told than shown. And the message has to continue to be repeated to the viewer so that the actions of the Rangers rise to something above a streetfight. I'm not entirely certain it succeeds in getting there, even after multiple viewings.

And this whole plotline is so weak that by the end of the fourth act, it is over. The rest of the episode picks up the thread of Alliance Covert Security Chief Michael Garibaldi trying to figure out why Sheridan chose Lochley to succeed him as captain of Babylon 5. Delenn beats him to the truth and that leads to some tension between Delenn and Sheridan.

Garibaldi receives the truth he has sought, finally, in "Strange Relations." This second episode on the video is somewhat better than "Learning Curve" and is part of the essential Babylon 5 because of the plot elements that occur. Bester's return is of great interest to fans who were enthralled by the fourth season of Babylon 5 (reviewed here!) because he manipulated Garibaldi and almost cost Sheridan his life. So, it's natural for Garibaldi to want to settle the score and it is strangely satisfying to see him make a spectacle of himself in the attempt. No, this is not Garibaldi's best episode.

It's also not the high-water mark for Lochley or Bester. Indeed, outside the character elements of Lochley's revelations to Garibaldi about her past with Sheridan and the very minor G'Kar/Londo subplot, this episode is strangely devoid of interesting character development. One might point to Lyta, who is slowly pulled farther and farther away from the Psi Corps in this episode. This is not much of a development, as she was reluctant to work for the Psi Corps and always hated Bester anyway. Given the choice between the kindly and pacifistic Byron and the sadistic hunter Bester, the choice seems fairly easy and obvious to those who have an affinity to Lyta. Or anyone human.

The result is a Bester episode that is strangely unsatisfying. Lochley is content to work with the Psi Cop and the tension this causes between Sheridan and Lochley is surprisingly minimal. The only truly inspired element of the episode is that it is Lochley who solves the problem, thus bolstering the idea in the mind of the fans that she belongs as captain of the station. "Strange Relations" is not bad, it's just pretty blandly average.

Part of the problem - in both episodes - is the acting. Tracy Scoggins, who arrived in the season premiere "No Compromises" (reviewed here!) still seems a little uncomfortable with the role. She is unable to play passionate and angry without being loud and melodramatic. There is a soap opera quality to her scenes with Garibaldi that ring false and are even painful to watch for their somewhat hammy presentation of how a fiery woman speaks.

Similarly, in "Learning Curve," most of the Minbari are played by actors who do not seem quite at home within their characters. Ironically, when watching two of the Minbari joking with one another, Garibaldi has the epiphany that Minbari never walk away from a fight, whereas most viewers will have the epiphany that Minbari actually have a sense of humor. Actually, the banter in both episodes is decent with the rifts between the Warrior and Religious castes being healed in the Ranger movement and G'Kar and Londo coming to terms with one another even more than before. It is gratifying to watch the show attempt to portray some characters having normal balance with humor amid episodes where people are being hunted down and beaten.

And as far as the telepath plot goes, the idea is not a bad one, though the idea that Byron is something of a cult leader is troubling, even if it might be accurate. The problem there becomes that Byron does not seem to be attracting more people to his flock; the station has not become inundated with telepaths the way it becomes overrun with Narn when G'Kar reaches legendary status later in the season. The point here is that the idea of Bester arriving to hunt down the telepaths and even Lochley's willingness to let him do it, is not a bad idea, but it does ring flat and seem awkward, especially to a fan of the series.

And honestly, I'm not sure this pair of episodes is accessible to those who are not fans of the series. "Learning Curve" is just boring for those not invested in the Rangers. And "Strange Relations" hinges on extensive backstory, especially of the entire telepath subplot that began back in the first season. As a result, it's a shaky two pack.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Babylon 5 - The Complete Fifth Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the final season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

“Learning Curve” – 3/10
“Strange Relations” – 5/10
VHS – 3.5/10

For other television and movie reviews please click here to visit an organized listing of all the film works I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Legends Of Star Trek Hits Rock Bottom With "Legends Of Chekov/Chapel/Rand!"

The Good: Limited quality, Cardstock, No publicity shots!
The Bad: Cost/Value, Lack of image diversity, Does not capture full history, Far from legendary characters!
The Basics: With only nine cards, the "Legends Of Chekov, Rand and Chapel" disappoints casual fans and collectors of all three characters and actors!


Rittenhouse Archives, the current manufacturer of the Star Trek trading cards deserves quite a bit of credit for being innovative and releasing quality trading cards. They have done an impressive job of holding onto the license and largely satisfying customers, collectors and sustaining what it can of the niche market of Star Trek trading card collectors. Unfortunately, even Rittenhouse Archives occasionally produces a Star Trek lemon and there's no amount of squeezing to make it lemonade!

The "Legends of Chekov, Rand and Chapel" is one of those utter failures that makes one surprised the product came from Rittenhouse! When the Legends Of Star Trek cards were originally released, the concept was so new and different and exciting that collectors had a lot to look forward to. This Legends Of Star Trek set is the lowest the series has yet managed as the characters depicted are hardly the definition of legendary.


Basics/Set Composition

Legends Of Star Trek set is a series of cards produced by Rittenhouse Archives and released on average twice a year over the last five years. The "Legends Of Chekov, Rand and Chapel" set is the fifth in the ever-expanding series that is released in nine card, limited edition increments. There are no bonus cards in this set, they come as complete sets of nine cards sealed in a cellophane package. There are three things that make these sets truly special: cardstock, an individual limited edition number, and the images on the cards. The cardstock is a 20pt. (thicker than usual) cardstock with the standard UV resistant coating that all quality trading cards come with these days. To illustrate the truly limited nature of the Legends Of Star Trek cards, every set is strictly limited to 1701 sets and the L9 card (visible at the back of the cellophane pack) is foil stamped with an individual number for the specific "Legends Of" set. So, for example, my personal set is number 0440/1701! This is where it helps to have a dealer that you are loyal to; dealers were able to order all of the same limited edition collector's numbers each time, so every time I get an order in, they are the same limited edition numbers and I - and my customers - are assembling sets with matching numbers, which will presumably hold the value of the overall series better in the long run.

Finally, the Legends Of Star Trek series is characterized by wonderful, uncommon images that are not the typical shots that have been on 8x10s, t-shirts and collector's plates before. Instead, these cards capitalize on big rare images, vivid color contrast and cards that are uncluttered by pesky text! These cards are for the fans who know the accomplishments of their heroes! No need to write about them, the images speak for themselves!

Common Cards

The "Legends Of Chekov, Rand and Chapel" set is a nine-card Legends Of Star Trek set that features six images each of Chekov, Yeoman Rand and Nurse Chapel from throughout the three seasons of Star Trek! These are all screen captures and present heroic shots of the three characters from the five year mission of the Enterprise. It's fairly unimaginative and pedestrian uniforms and tight headshots. Actually, the "Legends Of Chekov, Rand and Chapel" is one of the most bland sets yet released and the only real joy in it is in trying to figure out just which episodes the images come from.

Sadly, that is not enough.

First, the titles defining the characters are simplified from the prior releases in a way that damages the continuity of the series. Instead of being labeled as the Legends of Ensign Pavel Chekov, the first three cards are noted simply as "Chekov." Similarly, there are "Yeoman Rand" and "Nurse Chapel" as opposed to Yeoman Janice Rand and Nurse Christine Chapel. This represents a significant shift from the way other characters were defined on the cards in the prior releases.

The images are hardly imaginative, but then the characters are not some of the most interesting or active ones in the series. All of the shots are head shots of Chekov, Rand or Chapel. The Chekov cards are fairly easy to identify: one is from "The Apple," another is from "Day Of The Dove." The others, which have Chekov on the bridge, at his helm or science consoles could be from one of several episodes and the fact that they are so stylistically similar makes for a disappointing release for fans of Chekov. Sadly, the "Legends of Rand" section looks like it might have been made entirely of images from "Charlie X!" Chapel is possibly treated the best, with images from "The Naked Time," "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" and at least one of the later series episodes.

At least there are no publicity shots. Instead, these are eighteen hard-to-find shots of Chekov, Rand and Chapel separately doing their thing. The problem here, too, is that none of these seem to be the same type of hard-to-find shot from other Legends Of Star Trek sets. It seems like each of these images has been captured on other cards in prior or subsequent releases, hardly keeping in the tradition of the Legends sets.

Furthermore, the problem is the image diversity is far from intriguing and it could have been better for the fans. The true crime here is that there are no shots of Chekov from his appearance in Star Trek: Generations, nor any of the other films! Rand is not shown as a Commander from Star Trek: Voyager (or Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country). If one wishes to argue any of these characters are truly legendary, their entire StarFleet career ought to be encapsulated. It would have been nice to have some shots of them from in their later life when their heroism continued to endure. But even more than that, it would have offered some different color contrasts and potential poses. This is a very red, blue and gold set!

Moreover, it is a very straightforward and bland set. It is all the characters in their uniforms. Okay, there is a shot of Rand from "Charlie X" in her nightgown, but that's actually a pretty often reprinted shot. Perhaps Chekov never appeared out of uniform in his two years on Star Trek, but he did appear wearing the Collar of Obedience in "The Gamesters Of Triskelion" and he was out of uniform when he was crazed in "The Tholian Web." Why Chekov strapped down to a medical bed is not considered legendary is questionable, though one suspects the big hair that had plagued Chekov in "Catspaw" was easily ruled to be more terrifying than legendary. Come to think of it, though, there was less to do with Chapel and/or Rand, so Rittenhouse seems like they did their best with this set.

Then again, this just reinforces the idea that these were hardly legendary characters.

Overall

The images of Walter Koenig as Chekov, Grace Lee Whitney as Rand and Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel are great for their fans, but with only three cards, it's hard for those who are fans of only one of those actors/characters to justify shelling out the full price for this set. Overall, it's unlikely to sell a casual fan on picking up this set, and if anything likely to discourage one from starting a Legends Of Star Trek collection.

This is an all-around disappointing set and it's not surprising that many dealers still have this one in stock.

One suspects in the future, the Legends Of Star Trek sets will be sold in the secondary market almost exclusively as entire series collections, but fans who simply have a favorite character among these three will likely find this set readily available in the future!

It's disappointing and it feels less than the other Legends Of Star Trek sets that were released.

This set culls images from:
Star Trek
most recognizably "The Apple"
"Day Of The Dove"
"Charlie X"
"The Naked Time"
and "What Are Little Girls Made Of"

For other Legends Of Star Trek cards, please be sure to read my reviews of:
Legends Of Captain Kirk
Legends Of Spock
Legends Of Dr. Leonard McCoy
Legends Of Sulu, Scotty And Uhura

2/10

For other card reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Passing Of The Torch With The Passing Of The Captain Is Star Trek: Generations!

The Good: Decent acting, Moments of character, Sense of resolution, DVD Bonus features
The Bad: Plot is very standard, Character issues, Technical issues of the plot device
The Basics: When Star Trek passes the cinematic torch to the Next Generation crew, the result is a poorly conceived plot-heavy movie that fails to illustrate understanding of the characters involved.


There are few series' that have the difficulty that the Star Trek franchise did. Unable to sell his pilot episode, but having so much money tied up in its production, Gene Roddenberry was given a second chance, and a third to create Star Trek. After three years, it was canceled and years later it found its audience in syndication and with Star Trek: The Animated Series. After a few successful films, Star Trek: The Next Generation was launched and after seven years of being the top-rated syndicated television show, that series called it quits. Before it was off the air, Paramount confirmed that there would be a new Star Trek movie and that it would feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: Generations was always going to be a film that passed the torch from Star Trek to Star Trek: The Next Generation and the intent was to finally seal off the Star Trek storyline somewhat conclusively. The thing is, it feels like that. It feels like a movie that has the very real goal of establishing the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D as being as larger than life and heroic as the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (and -A). I recall being very excited when I first went to see Star Trek: Generations and offending a very close friend of mine who was working tech on a school play the same night Star Trek: Generations premiered. Sure, I went to see her play, but it was after I saw the film and I was ambivalent to both the movie and her play (though I liked the quilt she made for it!). In retrospect, I know I ought to have paid much more attention to her play and her hard work in it, but at the time, I guess I just didn't know how to prioritize people that way.

What I did know how to do was evaluate things, like films and that objective mindset is what left me ambiguous to the experience of Star Trek: Generations.

When the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B is being launched under the command of Captain John Harriman, Captains Kirk and Scott and Commander Chekov come aboard as part of a press tour of the launching of the historic ship. When two refugee ships are caught in a mysterious energy ribbon, Kirk encourages Harriman to rescue them, as it is the only ship in the area. This has disastrous results as the Enterprise is severely damaged, one of the refugee ships is destroyed and Captain Kirk is killed.

Approximately seventy years later, the U.S.S. Enterprise-D is out exploring the galaxy when Picard learns his brother has been killed in a fire and a Federation scientific outpost has been attacked. Investigating the outpost, Picard's crew rescues Dr. Tolian Soran, an El-Aurian who was rescued by the Enterprise-B. While Lt. Commander Data deals with suddenly having emotions as a result of Dr. Soong's emotion chip, Soran launches a probe at a nearby star, destroying it, a brash act that results in him abducting Geordi and teaming up with the Klingon sisters, Lursa and B'Etor. Overcome by guilt, Data tries to help Picard determine how to recover Geordi and what Soran's goals are, which all seem tied to the energy ribbon which is nearby again!

Star Trek: Generations is riddled with both problems and allusions to Star Trek: The Next Generation, the latter of which will be lost on non-fans. For example, Data's emotion chip is not just a plot-convenient device contrived for the film, it was first introduced in the fourth season episode "Brothers.” Similarly, knowing that the Enterprise has a history with the Duras sisters from such episodes as "Firstborn,” enhances the viewer's understanding of the position they are in and the grudge they have for the members of the Enterprise crew.

The problem is, if one understands those allusions, Star Trek: Generations is significantly less of a film than one would want it to be. Take, for example, the presence of the Duras Sisters in the film. Their purpose is to use Soran's technical knowledge to develop a trilithium bomb. This makes no sense for two reasons. Trilithium is introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Starship Mine" where it is characterized as a common by-product of warp engines and highly unstable, if one does not use an inhibitor on any case carrying trilithium resin. So, trilithium is neither unknown, uncommon, nor undeveloped as a potential weapon. The Duras sisters don't need their relationship with Soran to know how to build a trilithium bomb. But more than that, it makes no sense because one of the last times the Duras sisters were seen, in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Past Prologue" their whole deal was SELLING a bomb of about the same magnitude as a trilithium weapon. Knowing the series ruins Star Trek: Generations.

But within the context of Star Trek: Generations, the technical aspects undermine the story. The energy ribbon, we are told throughout the film, is a gateway to the Nexus, a place of pure bliss. Soran is destroying stars to get back to the Nexus. This is perhaps the biggest overreaction to the problem that the writers could have conceived. Dr. Soran makes no sense because his methods make no sense. He is a man searching for bliss. How does he accomplish that? Wiping out stars and star systems. Hmm . . . okay. Once the mechanics of the energy ribbon were explained, Soran makes no sense; in order to get to bliss, all he has to do is beam in front of the ribbon in an environmental suit or fly a shuttlecraft into it. Sure, it's not as villainous, but it fits the rules of the phenomenon the writers provided!

In other words, the plot contrivances overcome any sense of reasonable plot. You know, the more I write about Star Trek: Generations, the less I like it! And I haven't even gotten to the character aspects yet! Star Trek: Generations tries to disguise its weak plot with the appearance of character work, specifically by radically altering Data's character. Data as an android overcome with emotions is an attempt to deliver comic relief to the film and it often seems rather obvious and simple, like Data swearing when the ship takes a serious tilt toward a nearby planet. I understand the idea of Data being like a child, overcome with emotions and thus unable to regulate them. His character works, while somewhat contrived, make sense at least.

The problem is, the three biggest characters in the movie do not make sense. Dr. Soran is a generic villain, megalomaniacal and twisted and the "why" just does not fit. In the novelization of the film, we see Soran's perspective, his paradise that he was removed from and he makes a little more sense (not enough to justify all the carnage he perpetrates). Similarly, Captain Picard is wounded beyond ability to function reasonably as the result of the death of his estranged brother and nephew. Not to be heartless or anything, but Picard was never that close to his family and as a Captain, he's got the ability to compartmentalize. It seriously dumbs down his character to have him so unable to function following the news that Robert and Rene have died in an accident.

But it's Captain James T. Kirk whose character makes no sense in Star Trek: Generations and I understand why. In order to have Kirk make sense, the budget for the film would have been blown on the cast. It was too cost prohibitive to show James Kirk's ideal paradise. I'm of the mindset that if you can't do something right, don't bother doing it at all. Hold out for making a quality product.

In other words, you can't take a legendary pop culture character who has entertained audiences for over eighty hours and expect that you can do just anything with him. Kirk is committed and he's always been happiest when he has a purpose and is exploring the unknown. He's broken every rule and fought harder than any ten men to retain control of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Yet, when we see him in the Nexus, he's chopping wood. Man, that's lame. That's so lame, it . . . it's so lame I can't even make an analogy it lamed me so bad!

So, once Kirk's idea of bliss is undermined, Star Trek: Generations is undermined completely, as it had been since pretty much the moment Soran started being "Ridiculous Movie Villain!"

The acing is fine throughout Star Trek: Generations, despite the gutting of some of the characters. No one stands out as incredible - including Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Soran - but no one is awful either. Indeed, Brent Spiner is finally able to exploit his sense of comic timing as Data and he plays the over-the-top childlike ridiculousness of having emotions quite well.

This plot-heavy film is ideal for those looking for pretty mindless entertainment. There are many explosions and it's probably fine if you just don't think about it. If you're not invested in the characters or the franchise, the inconsistencies are much less annoying. Fans of Star Trek might like it because it has a pretty classic sense of adventure.

But for fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the film is bound to disappoint. Gone is the promise of the last moments of "All Good Things" where the series promised to take viewers into the exploration of the human potential. Then what? The next time we see the crew, it's another obvious "Kill The Villain" film. Star Trek can do better, Star Trek: The Next Generation should have.

On DVD, fans get a commentary track, behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted scenes (several of which are not finished for cinematic release). None of them truly fix the problems of the film. The bonus disc is packed with featurettes that put the film in context . . . poorly.

At least the torch was effectively passed. Wow, I wish I had actually paid attention to that play now; it must have been better than this movie!

For the other Star Trek films, please click here for the review of the movie franchise!

For other science fiction epics, please check out my reviews of:
Star Wars – Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
Battlefield Earth
Inception

5/10

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

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