It has been a long wait from the previous episode to this one, but it was worth it.
In this episode, Captain Kirk and the Enterprise do battle with the USS Eagle and other ships, hijacked modified and expanded by Alersa using her mind-control of its crew.
Like we've come to expect of the New Voyages/Phase II series, this episode has a rich feel of the original Star Trek, through the use of physical sets, on-location shoots, multiple cameras, and TOS costumes (although the Season 1 brown holster seems out-of-place in an episode with Chekov ... but it does look good on Peter Kirk, so I forgive them...)
The effects and space scenes are more like the remastered version, using computer graphics rather than models. Unfortunately, in this episode, they did look more like Next Generation effects. And some things looked a little too precise, like when we first see the Eagle on the viewscreen, it is EXACTLY facing us head-on and upright, which seems very unlikely to happen. Still, the effects don't distract much from enjoying the show.
The villain Alersa in this one is both campy and great, with a personality as good as Khan or any Bond villain. It's a noticeable step up from previous episodes. I hope we see her return in a future episode.
While the story is good, the main weakness again is in the acting. Although I completely buy this McCoy, I'm still not sure I buy Captain Kirk or Spock, the way I did with the recent movie reboot.
There is a small subplot about the Captain helping Peter dealing with the loss of his husband Alex from the previous episode, which was a nice touch. Still, I think they should have explained more why the Captain had this time available to him, while the ship was potentially at risk of attack.
Despite its shortcomings, this episode is as good as some of the lesser Star Trek original series episodes, and I recommend it. When you consider the work that must have gone into this, it's an amazing accomplishment. Hopefully the next episode will come a little sooner...
In this episode, Captain Kirk and the Enterprise do battle with the USS Eagle and other ships, hijacked modified and expanded by Alersa using her mind-control of its crew.
Like we've come to expect of the New Voyages/Phase II series, this episode has a rich feel of the original Star Trek, through the use of physical sets, on-location shoots, multiple cameras, and TOS costumes (although the Season 1 brown holster seems out-of-place in an episode with Chekov ... but it does look good on Peter Kirk, so I forgive them...)
The effects and space scenes are more like the remastered version, using computer graphics rather than models. Unfortunately, in this episode, they did look more like Next Generation effects. And some things looked a little too precise, like when we first see the Eagle on the viewscreen, it is EXACTLY facing us head-on and upright, which seems very unlikely to happen. Still, the effects don't distract much from enjoying the show.
The villain Alersa in this one is both campy and great, with a personality as good as Khan or any Bond villain. It's a noticeable step up from previous episodes. I hope we see her return in a future episode.
While the story is good, the main weakness again is in the acting. Although I completely buy this McCoy, I'm still not sure I buy Captain Kirk or Spock, the way I did with the recent movie reboot.
There is a small subplot about the Captain helping Peter dealing with the loss of his husband Alex from the previous episode, which was a nice touch. Still, I think they should have explained more why the Captain had this time available to him, while the ship was potentially at risk of attack.
Despite its shortcomings, this episode is as good as some of the lesser Star Trek original series episodes, and I recommend it. When you consider the work that must have gone into this, it's an amazing accomplishment. Hopefully the next episode will come a little sooner...