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Star Trek
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock / Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
August 20, 2009 - 09:08a.m.
Stories have to move forward. If you were chart out the plot progression of a successful genre film, you'd probably find lots of curves and loops and the occasional cul-de-sac, but overall, the thing would progress from left to ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 25-26
"Bread and Circuses" / "Assignment: Earth"
August 13, 2009 - 09:08a.m.
If the first season of Trek was the Age of the Godlike Being, the second season has been all about the Prime Directive; what it means, what it demands, and what it costs when someone breaks it. It's a ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 23-24
"The Omega Glory" / "The Ultimate Computer"
August 6, 2009 - 09:08a.m.
On my way home yesterday, I stopped at Newbury Comics looking for a Seagal movie for the weekend (DON'T YOU JUDGE ME), and I ended up buying (in addition to Marked For Death) a copy of the Nicolas Cage ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 21-22
"Patterns Of Force" / "By Any Other Name"
July 23, 2009 - 09:07a.m.
It may be a stretch, but I'm starting to discern something of a theme emerging in the second season of Star Trek. We've got our Federation now, and we've got the Enterprise dealing with less-advanced civilizations; and ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 19-20
"A Private Little War" / "Return To Tomorrow"
July 16, 2009 - 09:07a.m.
A more political minded fella than myself could make some good hay out of the premise of the first part of this week's double feature. "A Private Little War" has Kirk revisiting a pastoral society and finding that things ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 17-18
"A Piece Of The Action" / "The Immunity Syndrome"
July 9, 2009 - 09:07a.m.
Man, I love gangster movies. I couldn't tell you why. I have this half-baked theory that crime dramas are the closest thing that movies set in modern times can get to the power and danger of royalty, but you ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 15-16
"The Trouble With Tribbles" / "The Gamesters Of Triskelion"
July 2, 2009 - 09:07a.m.
Did you know there was a commemorative plate made for the original Trek? Probably more than one, I guess, but the one I remember had Kirk in a pile of tribbles, in a painting inspired by one of the series ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 13-14
"Obsession" / "The Wolf In The Fold"
June 25, 2009 - 09:06a.m.
James T. Kirk is obsessed. How do we know he's obsessed? Well, he has a persistent and unflagging commitment to an idea that may not be entirely worthy of such a commitment. (It's an evil mist. Quick, to ... -
Star Trek: season 2, episode 11-12
"Friday's Child" / "The Deadly Years"
June 18, 2009 - 09:06a.m.
I've talked a lot about the virtues of James Kirk and his stellar first officer, but I've been overlooking the third member of science fiction's most delightful of holy trinities: Leonard "Bones" McCoy, a simple country doctor ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 9-10
"Metamorphosis" / "Journey To Babel"
June 11, 2009 - 09:06a.m.
While the Enterprise's basic "search and explore" mission provides a lot of open ground for the writers, it does get a bit old to start each new episode with Kirk and the others taking readings off a brand new ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 7-8
"Catspaw" / "I, Mudd"
May 28, 2009 - 09:05a.m.
Space... the final frontier. These are the voyages of the star ship Enterprise, whose ongoing mission is to visit a bunch of strange planets which are invariably done up like amusement park themelands. Here's the wild west world! Here ...
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Star Trek
Star Trek: The Motion Picture / Star Trek
May 21, 2009 - 09:05a.m.
I grew up watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture; I started long before I had any concept of what good or bad meant, and for the longest time, the ST:TMP wasn't so much a movie as it was ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 5-6
"The Apple" / "The Doomsday Machine"
May 15, 2009 - 09:05a.m.
I've got a friend--yeah, I'm as surprised as you--and she absolutely hates "The Apple." She brings it up every time we talk about Star Trek. Sitting down to re-watch the episode, I could hear her ripping it apart ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 3-4
"The Changeling" / "Mirror, Mirror"
May 8, 2009 - 09:05a.m.
It's been a weird week. One of those "if necessity led to invention, I would've mothered myself up a time machine" weeks. Six different books to read, TV shows up the wazoo (which makes them very difficult to ...
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Star Trek: season 2, episode 1-2
"Amok Time" / "Who Mourns For Adonais?"
May 1, 2009 - 09:05a.m.
And here we are at Season 2. Take a look around, get acquainted with the place--settle in for the long haul. Seems mostly the same, right? But there are some changes. DeForest Kelley now has a much deserved "Also Starring ...
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Star Trek: season 1, episode 28-29
"The City On The Edge Of Forever" / "Operation--Annihilate!"
April 24, 2009 - 08:04a.m.
McCoy: Do you know what you just did?
Spock: He knows, Doctor. He knows.
Here we are at the end of the first season, and before we finish the final two episodes, I thought it would be nice to take ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 26-27
"Errand Of Mercy" / "The Alternative Factor"
April 17, 2009 - 09:04a.m.
The first season of Star Trek is nearly thirty episodes long. We're in the home stretch now, and while it's probably going too far to say the seams are starting to show (especially considering that the best episode ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 24-25
"This Side Of Paradise" / "The Devil In The Dark"
April 10, 2009 - 09:04a.m.
We've seen Spock dead; we've seen him sick and struggling against his emotions; we've seen him make mistakes; but this may be a first. This week--we see Spock smile. Not smirk, not half-grin, not appear bemused. The ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 22
"Space Seed" / The Wrath Of Khan
April 3, 2009 - 11:04a.m.
In the real world, there is such a thing as an unwinnable scenario. Our lives are not always designed with plot loop-holes, third act twists, or cavalry charges built in; if you're reading this, you're lucky enough to ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 21, 23
"The Return Of The Archons" / "A Taste Of Armageddon"
March 27, 2009 - 09:03a.m.
It's a curious fact that science fiction movies and TV shows often spend as much time decrying technology as they spend creating it. Computers will become coldly logical sociopaths who need to be taught the value of lurve and ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 19-20
"Tomorrow Is Yesterday" / "Court Martial"
March 20, 2009 - 09:03a.m.
I spent most of this week on jury duty, so a thousand pardons if my brain is somewhat fried at this point; having to sit and have things slowly explained to you for six hours a day (give or take ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 17-18
"The Squire Of Gothos" / "Arena"
March 13, 2009 - 04:03a.m.
There's the universe, and the universe is basically everything. Inside the universe are things called galaxies--and there are a ton of these, probably around a 100 billion. And inside each galaxy are suns and around those suns are planets ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 15-16
"Shore Leave" / "The Galileo Seven"
March 5, 2009 - 09:03p.m.
I used to love the holodeck. The episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation that focused on it were always my favorites; just the idea of some magical machine that let you play around in whatever fictional environment suited your ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 13-14
"Conscience Of The King" / "Balance Of Terror"
February 27, 2009 - 04:02a.m.
Looks like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under it.
--Macbeth, Act I, Scene v
One of the best parts about revisiting the original Trek, at least for me, is rediscovering the episodes that I'd forgotten. Memory-wise, it ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 11-12
"The Menagerie"
February 20, 2009 - 02:02a.m.
For all its throbbing-vein aliens and green-skinned slave girls, the two-part “Menagerie” finds its most iconic image in the fate of the poor Christopher Pike. Check out the picture—the guy saved some kids from deadly “delta-rays,” and for his ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 9-10
"Dagger Of The Mind" / "The Corbomite Maneuver"
February 13, 2009 - 04:02a.m.
Workplace romance is hardly ever a good idea. Dealing with the same people day in and day out is tricky enough; throw actual emotion into the mix, and you’re inviting disaster. So you have a couple of drinks at ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 7-8
"What Are Little Girls Made Of?"/"Miri"
February 6, 2009 - 03:02a.m.
When writing two episodes up at a time, it's tempting to try and find some kind of connective tissue to link them together; something a bit more complex than simply, “Gosh, that Enterprise sure has some wacky adventures, don ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 5-6
"The Enemy Within"/"Mudd's Women"
January 22, 2009 - 03:01p.m.
First, some housecleaning: I wasn't all that happy with the way the last entry turned out, so I'm going to gear down from three to two episodes a week. At the very least, things won't feel quite ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 2-4
"The Man Trap"/"Charlie X"/"The Naked Time"
January 16, 2009 - 05:01a.m.
"Is something wrong, Captain?""I was just thinking about the buffalo, Mr. Spock."Out of context it sounds like a bad joke. Oh that crazy Kirk and his buffalo-thinking ways! But in context, the final two lines of "The Man ... -
Star Trek: season 1, episode 1
"Where No Man Has Gone Before"
January 9, 2009 - 10:01a.m.
Growing up, I didn't have a lot in common with my dad. He fixed copiers and was good with his hands; I played video games and had a hard time remembering my left from my right. Plus, he was ...
