Watching all Trek chronologically

[apenpaap]

Bound:

They're definatly doing a lot of eye candy during these couple of episodes: last one had the rendez-vous between Enterprise and Columbia, this one has three hot green slavegirls, and next one has Empress Sato. Unfortunatly, unlike "Divergence" and "In a Mirror, Darkly", "Bound" isn't much more then just eye candy. Most of the plot is annoying and stupid and, if not for the whole pheromone explanation, would be even more damaging to my opinion of Archer, which is generally pretty good, then "A Night in Sickbay".
I like the romance between Trip and T'pol, though. Another good thing about the episode is that the makeup of the Orions looks pretty natural (as far as green skin can look natural, that is). When you compare ithe makeup of the Orion in Trek XI with the various green- and blueskins in Enterprise, you'll notice that it looks much more natural in Enterprise.
Score: 4

 

[CaptainKen]

What a fascinating project! Thanks for sharing your chronology of episodes. I'm intrigued. I've read through this thread to this point, and found myself checking details on Memory Alpha. Really fascinating. Never thought of doing something like this. You get me thinking.

 

[apenpaap]

Demons:

It's now 2155, so happy new year, I guess. "Demons" is a pretty good episode. I like how it shows xenophobia and ignorance are still present in the future. It makes it feel more realistic if you think of how many xenophobic groups there are in 2009: neo-nazi's, Ku Klux Klan, creationists and Jihadis are just a few examples. Wouldn't it be likely that a bit of that attitude was still present in the future?
We also get to see preparations for the signing of the Coalition. It's a shame we never saw the Federation getting signed, but this will eventually lead to it, of course.
Most of the episode's effects were done pretty well, but when Paxton fired his laser at the Moon, it looked really silly. Perhaps they had just ran out of money for good FX or something, considering rebuilding the TNG sets to waste them on "These are the Voyages..." probably cost a lot of money.
It's pretty surprising that Section 31 hasn't called on Reed yet, in either the following episodes or the Relaunch, especially considering he'll ask their survices again in "The Good that men do".
Travis's reporter girlfriend annoyed me during the entire episode, so the revelation that she was spying for Terra Prime was a rather welcome revelation. It's kind of funny that they have apparently decided "Travis and Hoshi haven't done much during the rest of the show, so we'll have them do stuff for the last couple of episodes.".
Score: 8

 

[apenpaap]

Terra Prime:

Alas, I have already reached Enterprise's finale. It was very good, up there with "All Good Things..." and "What You Leave Behind". It's a shame we won't see this crew again (Though we'll see their Mirror Universe counterparts in "In a Mirror, Darkly" and we'll see the goofy, twisted perception people have in the 24th century of the events of "The Good That Men Do" in that silly TNG episode they accidentally filmed after "Terra Prime").
The scene were they landed on Mars looked very good with the comet and stuff (and the Sagan memorial). Did we ever see Mars again in later set Trek to see how far they got with the terraforming project?
Hoshi did very good in command of the ship, even though she had Earth's Prime Minister shouting in her ear all the time. I'm appalled she still hasn't been promoted in the Relaunch. I hope she makes Lieutenant in "The Romulan War".
The episode has a great story, with many character moments and action, but the best stuff is at the end. The meeting to discuss the future of the Coalition was a great scene, and Archer's speech was very good. Unfortunatly then came a bit about Travis and his girlfriend, who turned out not to be with Terra Prime (But is still annoying). Then a very touching scene were Trip and T'pol mourn for Elizabeth. I think it's only fitting that they get to be the last characters we see on the show.
Score: 8,5

(Preliminary) Season 4 review:
I remember Season 4 as being better then Season 3, but I was rather underwhelmed in comparison. Still a pretty good season, though way too short. At only 21 episodes, it could be 5 episodes longer, and the shortness is of course even worse as I won't watch "In a Mirror, Darkly" until much later on.
I like the unique format of the two and three parters. I thought the best was the Terra Prime arc and the worst the Storm Front-Home arc. If we don't count that one, since it was essentially a really crappy ending to the Xindi Arc, the Vulcan Arc would be next.
I like the continuing storyarc about the founding of the Coalition and the Romulans making trouble, both of which would likely have resulted in a great Season 5 if Leslie Moonves had become a plumber instead of a TV-boss.
N.B.: In the statistics below, Storm's Front counts as two episodes.
Season Score: 7
(Season 1: 6,5
Season 2: 5,5
Season 3: 8)
Average Score (Excluding "In a Mirror, Darkly and "These are the Voyages..."): 6,23
(Season 3 (Since "Proving Ground"): 7,46
Best Episode: Terra Prime
Worst Episode: Daedalus
Number of bad episodes (0-4): 4
Number of average episodes (4-6,5): 2
Number of good episodes (7-10):13

(Preliminary) Enterprise review:
Rewatching Enterprise was awesome. It started out good, trailed off at the end of Season 1 and the first half of Season 2, and then climbed during the last half of Season 2, got good with some bad episodes randomly placed during early Season 3, and then became awesome.
I like how many storyarcs and continuity the show had, especially in Season 3. Though there were not so many secondary characters, those that were around were all very good, especially Shran.
There are of course also bad things in the show, especially the Temporal Cold War. Time travel is something that should be use sparsely to keep it interesting. The writers of TOS, TNG and DS9 undrstood this. Eventually, Enterprise's TPTB also came to understand it, but unfortunatly only after two seasons of Temporal Cold War. The worst part of it was that they had absolutly no plans or logical explanations for it, resulting in the mess that is "Storm Front".
Another annoyance of mine is that the stories focused too much on Archer, T'pol and Trip, with Reed and Phlox coming a distant second. Then a whole lot of nothing, and then Hoshi. Why Anthony Montgomery was even in the credits as a main cast member is a riddle.
I liked how Enteprise showed the difficult relations between humans and Vulcans, which eventually bettered. I also like the frequent appearance of the Andorians. The Tellarites seemed to be missing, though.
Now, on to the characters:
Captain Archer has become a lot more of a realist. He stated out as a very naive guy, but the Xindi mission has really woken him up to the realities of the galaxy. He also became good friends with a Vulcan, and made a "cease fire" with Ambassador Soval. He also learned to make speeches (Compare the horrible gazelle-speech with his speech in "Terra Prime"). He has actually become a diplomat, while he used to be one of the least diplomatic people arund. I really like him, and after Picard, he's my favourite captain.
T'pol has probably changed the most of all characters. She started out as this annoying icy Vulcan who constantly reminded Archer that humanity wasn't ready to leave their Solar System. Since then, she has become much more emotional and friendly, and even gave up her commision at the High Command when the treacherous Vulcans (Again, present company excluded) refused to help Earth when it was in danger of being blown up. She actually got involved with Trip (Of all humans imaginable).
Trip, who started out as a pretty annoying impulsive guy at the beginning of the show, became much more subtle, put aside his antagonism against Vulcans, and even had a baby with one. And now he's about to become a spy.
Reed is still pretty much the same weird Brit, but he's accepted the MACOs on his ship, and made friends with Tucker.
Phlox really became part of the crew, instead of a fascinated biologist studying the monkeys around him. He's still the weirdest guy in the universe, though.
Though Hoshi only had 3 episodes dedicated to her over the entire show's run, she's become much bolder. As Archer said: "I remember when you jumped whenever we went to warp." In "Terra Prime", she even stood up against Earth's prime minister.
Travis... Um... Yeah... Well, I guess he sort of got together with that annoying girlfriend of his again.
Shran went from hating the Vulcans and their pinkskin allies to becoming friends with a pinkskin, and cooperated with the Vulcans.

Series Score: 7,5
Average Score (Since "Proving Ground"): 6,68
Best Episode: Proving Ground
Worst Episode: Extinction
Number of bad episodes (0-4): 15
Number of average episodes (4-6,5): 31
Number of good episodes (7-10): 49
Best Season: Season 3
Worst season: Season 2

So, we're gonna skip 99 years, The Romulan War, The start of the Federation, Archer becoming president, Robau's badassery, and the launch of a Constitution-class starship named after Archer's ship, launched just one day before his death.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

Cool. I lurk in this thread without commenting often, but I wanted to jump in and say that I'm enjoying your posts. I'm about halfway through the second season of TOS in my chronological re-watch, but since school is starting up next week, I suspect you'll overtake me soon.

 

[apenpaap]

The Cage:

I found Star Trek's pilot an interesting episode. The story with the Talosians who try to make their race survive by enslaving other species was interesting. It would've been cool if Talos had been revisited in TNG or DS9 to see how they're faring in the 24th century. Something I really liked is that it's got 15 extra minutes compared to all other Trek I've been watching lately. It's a shame commercials are butted in during TV-shows, making Trek shorter nowadays. Though 15 extra minutes of "Sub Rosa" would've driven me insane.
I LOLed frequently during the episode due to the goofy fucking sound effects. Especially the Talosian elevator was hilarious, though many other were really weird too.
A problem with the episode is that I didn't like any of the main characters. And that's not just because I've just seen one episode with them (except Spock), as I remember immediatly liking many characters in other Treks (Including regular TOS) when watching my first episode of them.
This episode does many weird things: Spock shouts ("THE WOMEN") and smiles , Warp Drive is called Time Warp and has apparently been invented in the last 18 years, Many crewmembers have a symbol of Earth on their jackets instead of the UFP, Enterprise is on the other side of the galaxy, and sexism is apparently very comman in the 2250s.
Score: 6

 

[apenpaap]

Where No Man Has Gone Before:

We skip another eleven years, to 2265, where we find... A rather boring episode. I found most of it rather predictable, and the danger didn't feel very real, except for when Kirk went out "hunting" for Mitchell, but that was pretty much ruined when Mitchell and the blonde started shooting lightning beams at each other.
Though I didn't really like this Mitchell-guy, I wonder why he was left out of Trek XI.
Three missing faces were Chekov, McCoy and Uhura. I hope they'll get introduced soon, as I like all three of them.
The bussiness about Enterprise leaving the Galaxy sounds weird at first, considering traversing it would take Voyager 70 years, and that is 110 years later. However, vertically the Galaxy is only 1000 lightyears thick, so it would take half a year to go from Earth to the edge if they go "up" or "down". Since their mission was probably in that direction anyway (it's rather unlikely that they would divert from their course for 6 months, there's not really a problem there.
I also caught a few references to Earth-bases and a gravestone which said "James R. Kirk".
Score: 5

P.S.: I wonder whether my computer's soundboxes will survive watching all of TOS. Those high-pitched sound effects of the bridge are wreaking havoc on them.

 

[apenpaap]

The Corbomite Maneuver:

In 2266, Enterprise gets into a confrontation with a weird and impressive starship captained by a midget-jerk. This guy puts Enterprise through quite some "tests", only to tell Kirk he was only kidding, and that he'd like a crewmember to stay with him. Apparently this dude believes he can screw with people he meats just because he has a bigger and more powerful ship. Even the name of the state he is from is pretentious: First Federation. Makes me wonder how they ended up with that name. They were probably just "The Federation" once, but when they heard about these people from a couple of hundred light years away who also called themselves "The Federation", They decided to change their name so they could tell the Federation they were first with the idea.
Anyway, apart from the ending I liked the episode, thought it was pretty exciting. We also saw McCoy (Who actually spoke his I'm a doctor line) and Uhura (In yellow). I remember women on TOS having really goofy haircuts every now and then, but I still LOLed at Ms. Yoman's hair. Is it even physically possible to achieve such a haircut?
The first part of the episode had some goofy music: every time the cubish probe-thing appeared on the screen the same bit ofmusic played, making it sound as if the probe played it, and when Kirk left his quarters, the camera centered on his ass for a few seconds and dramatic music played, whcih really sounded like Kirk's ass was the bad guy of the episode .
Score: 7

 

[apenpaap]

Mudd's Women:

This is Trek's first attempt at a comedy episode, and it wasn't a very good attempt. It's "Bound" all over again, only this crew doesn't have the excuse of pheromones making them crazy. I get that they want us to know these women are supposed to be even prettier then the actresses, but did it really have to be so overdone? Everyone except Kirk, Spock and Sulu turned into drooling maniacs just because some pretty women were aboard the ship.
Apart from that, the first fifteen minutes or so are actually rather enjoyable thanks to Harry Mudd, who is pretty funny. After that, the joke gets old though and turns into a really boring episode.
Score: 3

 

[apenpaap]

The Enemy Within:

This episode was pretty decent. It had good special effects for the time (though in the few shots where both Kirks actually appear on screen at the same time the stunt double is pretty obvious) and an interesting concept.
I have some problems with it, though: the transporter duplicating a person violates a fundamental law of physics that says the total energy (and mass) will always remain equal. Then again, there is also a fgundamental law of physics that says you can't go faster then light, so I didn't worry about it too much. I did wonder why it created a good and evil version. Wouldn't an actual duplication like in "Second Chances" be much more likely? And why is it that the good Kirk and the evil Kirk are good and evil according to Earth custom? What makes Earth morality so much better then Klingon or Romulan or Jem'Hadar morality? I also wondered why they didn't send a shuttle down for the crewmen, or at the very least beam down some thick fur coats.
Shatner's acting as evil Kirk was so hammy and over the top that it made the scene were Benny Russell informed us it was reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal seem dry and weak.
I noticed a screwup of myself: a few episodes back, when we first saw the girl with the weird hair, I thought her name was ms. Yoman. Turns out Yeoman is a rank, and her name is Janice Rand.
Score: 6,5

 

[DevilEyes]

The Enemy Within:

This episode was pretty decent. It had good special effects for the time (though in the few shots where both Kirks actually appear on screen at the same time the stunt double is pretty obvious) and an interesting concept.
I have some problems with it, though: the transporter duplicating a person violates a fundamental law of physics that says the total energy (and mass) will always remain equal. Then again, there is also a fgundamental law of physics that says you can't go faster then light, so I didn't worry about it too much. I did wonder why it created a good and evil version. Wouldn't an actual duplication like in "Second Chances" be much more likely? And why is it that the good Kirk and the evil Kirk are good and evil according to Earth custom? What makes Earth morality so much better then Klingon or Romulan or Jem'Hadar morality? I also wondered why they didn't send a shuttle down for the crewmen, or at the very least beam down some thick fur coats.
Shatner's acting as evil Kirk was so hammy and over the top that it made the scene were Benny Russell informed us it was reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal seem dry and weak.
I noticed a screwup of myself: a few episodes back, when we first saw the girl with the weird hair, I thought her name was ms. Yoman. Turns out Yeoman is a rank, and her name is Janice Rand.
Score: 6,5

Well you could call it something else, instead of 'good' and 'evil'. The episode itself defies the simple black-and-white view, by suggesting that the so-called 'good Kirk' is, to put it in simple terms, a wimp. He can't make any decision without the help of his 'evil side'. So, Kirk actually needs this 'evil' side as much as the 'good' side. The right question really, why do people even call it 'good' and 'evil' Kirk? Habit? In the episode itself, both Kirks are the cause of trouble - one by wreaching havok on the ship through his aggressive tendencies, the other by not being able to make up his mind about anything. And in the end, the solution is not to destroy one of the sides, but by merging them both again into a complete personality. The so-called 'evil' side is really Kirk's instinctive, animalistic side, while the so-called 'good side' is his reason and morality. Without his reason and ethics to govern his behavior, Kirk's instincts and desires would make him violent and dangerious, but without his instincts and passion, Kirk would make an indicisive, weak man and a bad captain.

I really liked this episode because of the interesting psychological/metaphorical drama (and I think this was the first time we see Spock talking about his dual identity), even though the "science" in it makes no sense whatsoever. I was far more upset by the blatant sexism. The last scene with Rand and Spock made me cringe. The 1960s writers really didn't get it, did they?

BTW, it seems to me that this episode inspired Voyager's scientifically even more preposterous "Faces" - but at least "The Enemy Within" makes a lot more sense psychologically, and doesn't make stupid racial (or should that be species-related?) generalizations.

 

[apenpaap]

I forgot to put a few things in my review, as I didn't have much time, hence the review may come over a bit negative:
Something I liked that DevilEyes just worded very good:

In the episode itself, both Kirks are the cause of trouble - one by wreaching havok on the ship through his aggressive tendencies, the other by not being able to make up his mind about anything. And in the end, the solution is not to destroy one of the sides, but by merging them both again into a complete personality. The so-called 'evil' side is really Kirk's instinctive, animalistic side, while the so-called 'good side' is his reason and morality. Without his reason and ethics to govern his behavior, Kirk's instincts and desires would make him violent and dangerious, but without his instincts and passion, Kirk would make an indicisive, weak man and a bad captain.

Some things we saw first in "The Enemy Within" (Thought of each of these when I saw them, but forgot to put them in the review):
Spock and McCoy argue
"He's dead, Jim!" (I never would have thought the first time he spoke his catchphrase he was referring to a cute little doggounicorn-thing)
When Rand and the crewman told Spock what evil Kirk did in sickbay and Spock said "There's only one explanation: an imposter.", I also thought it strange. I can think of another one: Kirk got drunk on the Saurian brandy, decided he loved Rand and wanted to tell her, but let himself get out of control. Unlikely, yes, but still a posibitliy.

 

[apenpaap]

The Man Trap:

I didn't really like this episode. It was pretty boring and not very suspenceful. Still, McCoy had some charactermoments, and the salt vampire was a really good monsterdesign. We also saw Uhura flirting with (or rather, at) Spock, which I found interesting, as I didn't now the Spock/Uhura thing from Trek XI had any basis in TOS.
Score: 3

 

[apenpaap]

The Naked Time:

I just decided I don't really like TOS, and that "The Naked Time" would be the last episode of my (re-)watch, when I would skip swtraight to the movies. However, the episode was good, and very funny, making me reconsider. For now, I will continue watching them one by one, though I may still decide to skip TOS. Anyway, on to the episode. It was lots of fun, especially the irish guy who took over Engineering. Sulu going nuts was also lots of fun. The first redshirt to be infected was a bit of an idiot though for removing his gloves in a place were everyone mysteriously died. He was also an idiot for threathening Sulu with a knife that looks as if it's hardly able to cut butter (And killing himself with that is quite a feat). Seeing Majel's first appearance as nurse Chapel, and Spock's regret over rejecting his human side was great too.
Score: 7,5

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Even the name of the state he is from is pretentious: First Federation. Makes me wonder how they ended up with that name. They were probably just "The Federation" once, but when they heard about these people from a couple of hundred light years away who also called themselves "The Federation", They decided to change their name so they could tell the Federation they were first with the idea.

Ah, but no! It was United Earth in this episode, they only retconned the Federation into existence later in the season!

 

[Wally]

No! You can't skip any episodes! You must see the project through to it's conclusion I find this tremendiously interesting. Making me want to start it up as my own. I might take the 'Production order' route though.

 

[DevilEyes]

And it would be a pity, since season 1 has so many really good episodes! You're still in for Balance of Terror, This Side of Paradise, The City on the Edge of Forever, The Devil in the Dark... Plus you've already gotten past the worst one (Mudd's Women)...

The movies were never as interesting as the best episodes of the show, IMO.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Re Mudd's Women: Is it just me or is the message of this episode "Women aren't just for looking at, they're for cooking and cleaning and stuff too!"?

 

[apenpaap]

Even the name of the state he is from is pretentious: First Federation. Makes me wonder how they ended up with that name. They were probably just "The Federation" once, but when they heard about these people from a couple of hundred light years away who also called themselves "The Federation", They decided to change their name so they could tell the Federation they were first with the idea.

Ah, but no! It was United Earth in this episode, they only retconned the Federation into existence later in the season!

Well, being an Enterprise fan, I've got no problem with retcons.

Anyway, even if there was no Federation, "First Federation" is still a damn weird and pretentious name. Kind of reminiscent of youtube commenters who post "FIRST!!!1!!!!".

o! You can't skip any episodes! You must see the project through to it's conclusion I find this tremendiously interesting. Making me want to start it up as my own. I might take the 'Production order' route though.

I'm mainly doing this for my owns enjoyment, so if I truly don't like it, I'll start skipping.

And it would be a pity, since season 1 has so many really good episodes! You're still in for Balance of Terror, This Side of Paradise, The City on the Edge of Forever, The Devil in the Dark... Plus you've already gotten past the worst one (Mudd's Women)...

The movies were never as interesting as the best episodes of the show, IMO.

Balance of Terror and City on the Egd of Forever were good indeed. I heven't seen the other ones yet.

EDIT:

Re Mudd's Women: Is it just me or is the message of this episode "Women aren't just for looking at, they're for cooking and cleaning and stuff too!"?

Yeah, that seems to be the message.

 

[apenpaap]

Charlie X:

"A teenager with freaky mental powers who's been marooned alone on a planet for 14 years comes on the Enterprise" doesn't sound like the recipe for a good episode. It is, however. Against all odds, Charlie Evans wasn't annoying (Though I certainly didnt like him), and pretty well acted. I even liked him having a crush on Rand, while I absolutly hated a similar plot in "Nightingale". The first half had some good comedy and soime sweet stuff with Charlie, while the second half managed to be pretty scary. My favourite bit was when Uhura sang for Spock. It was very funny, and she sings pretty good too.
At the end when Mr. Floatface returns all disappeared crewmen, I couldn't help but wonder what happened to the 3 redshirts whose face Charlie removed. Personally, I think they suffocated, and since Floatface couldn't return the Antares, I doubt he could return them. Pretty nasty death.
Since TOS is notorious for the number of redshirts dying and the number of women Kirk gets to know better, I think I'm gonna keep track of both for fun.
Redshirt Score: 20
Kirk Score: 0
Score: 8