Plot: What’s it about?
Episode #17-“Shore Leave”>>>Airdate 12/29/66
Ahhh…Star Trek, the original series. In this episode, Kirk, Spock and the whole gang are in need of a long awaited vacation (except Spock, who only needs some sleep). The crew has been weary and beams down to a planet and all seems fine…right? That is until we see a large white rabbit (not to be confused with The Matrix) right out of Alice in Wonderland! It’s about 5 seconds after that that we see Alice herself! Ok, this is weird. At first these strange thing happen and it’s not that much cause for concern. The other members of the crew are more concerned with McCoy because he claims he saw these, yet no one else has. They think he really needs a vacation.
It isn’t long before we see Kirk battling with his old academy roomate (who hasn’t aged) and see one of the already scantily clad crewmate extras, even moreso. The things they see appear more and more frequently and, of course get more and more dangerous. But it’s seeing all of those cheesy special effects that has made Star Trek: The Original Series so fun to watch in the first place.
Episode #18-“The Squire of Gothos”>>>Airdate 1/12/67
This episode, like the last one has the crew on a strange planet. But this planet has seemed to literally appear from nowhere. They have no choice but to land and are amazed at what they find. A man, dressed in the time of the 19th Century (Earth history, of course) and his surroundings all reflect that period as well. Kirk and the gang aren’t too thrilled and want to leave to get on with their mission. The man, Gothos, doesn’t really like that plan and decides he wants to pick their brains some more. He, like so many others, finds the human race a “primitive” race, but also that intriguing.
Push comes to shove, literally, and we see Gothos and Kird battling with swords which leads to a duel. Yes, a duel–guns and all. What will our heroes do? What will become of Gothos? Well, they went on to make 7 movies, so you figure it out…
Video: How does it look?
Star Trek has never looked better, being that these episodes are more than 30 years old, they look great. Shown in their original full screen ratio, the colors are bright and vivid. The very colorful uniforms of the crew really stand out and all those blinking lights and buttons make it like you’re watching it for the first time (and for me, it was). While lacking in comparison to some of the full frame transfers, it’s understandable. If you’re a die hard Trekkie, this is the only way to go.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. It’s basically a mono soundtrack, but has some directional effects that I didn’t expect. The “zapping” of the phasers and especially the beaming up and down sounds are neat and have a high pitched effect. Still, for a TV show that’s 30 years old, the sound isn’t that bad.
Supplements: What are the extras?
There are trailers for each of the episodes.
