(no subject)

[coraa]

I ought to be going to bed. It is, in fact, bedtime, especially as I'm sick. But a Star Trek: TOS episode just came on, and I can't bring myself to go to bed yet.

I watched (most of) TOS with my mom, who is a stealth science fiction fan in that way where she has neither knowledge of nor interest in fandom, and reads only a certain subset of SFF. (Alternate history, gothic ghost stories, and things that remind her of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. She also likes the X-Files.) So I have fond memories of watching Star Trek (TOS and later TNG) with my mom.

So the boy and I are thinking of watching TOS (which he hasn't seen at all, except the movies), since I think it's all available streaming online. He's happy to watch both the good episodes and the hilariously bad ones, but he wants to skip any that are merely mediocre and forgettable. Any tips on which to skip, given that criteria? (And which ones to definitely not miss?)

Comments

[thistleingrey]

The good ones have mediocre moments, too :) but I'd rec "The Naked Time," "Miri," "The Menagerie" (both parts), "Space Seed" (both good AND mediocre), "City on the Edge of Forever," "Mirror, Mirror," "Journey to Babel," "The Trouble with Tribbles," "The Enterprise Incident," "The Spectre of the Gun," "For the World is Hollow" mostly if you are a McCoy fan (it is goofy but also, IIRC, the only time McCoy really gets to do something besides "Dammit, Jim"). "All Our Yesterdays" is mostly interesting as the bounce-off point for an okay novel, A. C. Crispin's Yesterday's Son.

Basically, many of Dorothy Fontana's episodes are pretty good, and then there are also some other good eps.

I think "Dagger of the Mind" is the first Spock mind-meld but I can't remember whether the ep itself is watchable. I haven't watched most of these since I saw them in syndication (and read James Blish's storyizations) during the 1980s. ;) A lot is forgettable, therefore, but "The Tholian Web" is particularly boring. Season three is the most uneven, IMO.

[donaithnen.livejournal.com]

It probably doesn't need to be said, but definitely don't miss the Gorn one :)

How many TOS episodes are there anyways? Every so often i catch a TOS that i don't remember seeing before, and every time it happens i wonder how long that trend can continue :)

[paperclippy.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you already know not to miss the tribble episode. (Bonus points for following it up with the DS9 tribble episode.)

I couldn't tell you which ones to skip though, because if they were just mediocre and forgettable, I probably forgot them.

[tcastleb.livejournal.com]

Hmm. "City on the Edge of Forever" is, after "Tribbles," the best well-known and liked one. "Piece of the Action" is good (Kirk and Spock as gangsters.) And the one where Sulu uses his sword--might be "The Naked Time," I can't remember.

A couple of the horrible ones are "Spock's Brain" and one with hippies, which makes me cringe.

Ohhhh, the two-part with Captain Pike is not to be missed. And there's a good one where Kirk loses his memory and is adopted by a Native American-ish culture.

I watched most of TOS last year because the library had them. I missed a disc or two somewhere, but, generally, all of the episodes are memorable in some way or another. Besides, it's totally fun to count the times Kirk gets shirtless or fights with somebody, or how many times they use a "ticking time bomb" to increase tension (i.e. planet needs this vaccine Right Now or everybody will die).

[sthaddeus.livejournal.com]

Great fun from the Onion AV Club: http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/tvshow/star-trek,62/ Good for wasting an evening or two.

At this point, all of the TOS episodes and movies have been reviewed. Should give you a datapoint on the worthwhile/horrible/boring spectrum.