A Non-Trekkie's Perspective - Star Trek series 1

When I was a kid I never watched Star Trek. For many that's somewhat hard to believe, it's one of those shows everyone seems to have grown up watching and loving. I was never into it though, my classic show of choice as a kid was Batman. First thing of Star Trek I saw was the 2009 J.J. Abrams reboot, and it wasn't until recently that I actually tried to watch Star Trek the show and see if it was worth it. My plan here is to watch each series and give my opinions on them as a whole, highlighting episodes that I thought worked well and ones that didn't. Once I work through the series I shall move onto the films. Then when it gets to the point with the films that Next Generation series starts I'll start watching that too as I want to do this as close to the original timeline as possible.

Series 1 episode 1: The Man Trap

I felt that the series got off to a fairly mediocre start with The Man Trap. It didn't really take the time to introduce the characters and concepts and wasn't all that interesting an opening episode. However it soon started to pick up and before I knew it, I was kind of hooked. The characters are all great fun, the acting often cheesy and campy and many of the stories have interesting ideas that raise some interesting moral questions, some handled better than others.

The First of these more interesting stories for me was Episode 3 Where No Man Has Gone Before In this episode an ordinary crewman, who is an old friend of Captain Kirk's gains mysterious godlike powers and the story looks into how these develop and how power can corrupt a man's mind. It also forces Kirk to make hard decision and kill his friend. There was also some good stuff with the medical scanners making for a creepy underscoring to some tense scenes.

Series 1 episode 3: Where No Man Has Gone Before

Star Trek, like most good Sci-Fi can range from the clever, to the scary, to the downright goofy. Such as the episode Shore Leave. This episode features, amongst other things, The White Rabbit, from Alice in Wonderland, Don Juan and Sulu battling a Samurai as the crew's thoughts are brought to life. It's good for them to not take everything so seriously all the time and it gives the series a sense of fun that extends beyond it just being 60s camp.

However they were not all good episodes, for example Mudd's Women was less than stellar. A con man brings three bewitching women aboard the enterprise and they take drugs to make themselves more beautiful and want husbands, but the beauty can come from confidence and I stopped caring about 5 minutes in.

Another of these lesser episodes is unfortunately the series finale Operation: Annihilate! where there would have been potential for some strong emotional development for Kirk, as it featured his brother, sister-in-law and nephew, but the only one with any lines is the sister-in-law. This could have had a vulnerable and hurt Kirk trying to save them above the cost to others and eventually having to let go. But instead they're just sort of forgotten about to make way for not all that interesting plot they have.

What would have made a far better finale would have been the penultimate episode The City On The Edge Of Forever this sees Kirk and Spock travelling to the 1930s to stop a deranged Bones from altering history. However Kirk falls in love with a local woman and soon realises that saving the future will come at a great personal price. It has good drama, some good comedy and genuine character moments.

series 1 episode 28: The City On The Edge of Forever

Overall I would say this is a very entertaining series. Has some very fun and clever stories and highly energetic and likable characters. While I'm not yet in the awe of it that many people are there's still a whole lot of the show left and I look forward to boldly going where I've never gone before.