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127 reviews in total

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104 out of 117 people found the following review useful:
Why didn't they install seatbelts?, 11 May 2004
Author: grendelkhan from Xanadu

Ah, yes; the "granddaddy" of all Treks! The place where we got our first glimpse of the future. Apparently, mini-skirts would be back in style and everyone would wear their pajamas at work. Also, a goatee signified evil.

When I was a kid, the series was the coolest; lots of action, some humor, weird aliens, etc. When I was older, it was still entertaining. Some episodes held up very well, with the outstanding writing making more of an impression. Some things were fairly silly, and some were downright goofy.

Although never blessed with the greatest budget, the show put as much money on the screen as it could. For the time and for television, the effects were pretty good, aside from the bridge shaking stuff. The exteriors tended to get a little repetitive; it seems that the galaxy looks a lot like southern California and a studio interior. The styrofoam geological forms were quite interesting.

To me. this is still the best series. Yes, Next Gen had better acting (at least from Patrick Stewart) and better effects, but this series was more fun. These guys didn't sit around in conference rooms while the Romulans were firing on their ship. There was no technobabble while the engineer reconfigured the microwave oven to create a transwarp carbourator inversion and emit a tachyon diode stream. Nope, Scotty just crossed a couple of wires and then BLAMMO! Kirk got more action than any of the other skippers, and Spock was more fun than Data. Of course, the women weren't very emancipated, but that still hasn't changed as much as the producers like to claim, in later series.

To sum it up, you just can't beat Trbbles, Klingons with smooth foreheads, green women, and planets with Nazis and gangsters. I'll take the Squire of Gothos over Q any day (yes, I've read the Peter David book). My only quibble is that no one ever thought to put seatbelts on the bridge. Wasn't there some 23rd Century Ralph Nader around? And with all of Kirk's "friends" throughout the galaxy, is anyone else surprised we have only come across one child of his? I have a feeling he kept going on missions to avoid process servers.

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68 out of 71 people found the following review useful:
Where None Have Gone Since '69, 22 July 2005

Author: Bogmeister from United States

The original Trek series established, within it's brief 3-year span, the panorama of an ever-expanding Federation of planets & civilizations, of which Earth was, in the 23rd century, a founding member (tho the audience never saw Earth during this run, except in time travel stories back to our 20th century). This series also presented mankind as, first & foremost, explorers, embodied by the trio of dynamic captain James T. Kirk (Shatner), his number two, science officer Spock (Nimoy) and irascible but kindly Dr.McCoy (Kelley) - but Spock was, of course, an alien (a Vulcan), an example of the alliances Earth held with many extraterrestrial races. They operated from a magnificent starship, Enterprise (one of several such ships in Starfleet), with a crew of about 400. Creator Roddenberry used the series as a platform to address many social & political concerns of the time. The general consensus of most familiar with the show is that the 1st & 2nd years were superior; the 3rd suffered in the writing & budget dept's.

The best episodes: "City on the Edge of Forever"-Kirk almost sacrifices Earth's history for the love of a woman. Almost, and he might've done so had he known her a little longer; "Mirror,Mirror"-4 members of the crew switch places with their counterparts in a parallel universe, where the Federation is a hostile Empire; "Space Seed"-the crew awaken Khan, an old-time conqueror boosted by eugenics, who returned in the 2nd Trek film("The Wrath of Khan"); "Arena"-Kirk battles a lizardian captain of an unfriendly race on a desolate asteroid; "The Naked Time"-the crew lose their inhibitions, back when this was original; "This Side of Paradise"-another one with everyone affected emotionally and forgetting their mission; "The Trouble With Tribbles"-hugely entertaining romp on a space station; "Shore Leave"-another romp on a weird planet; "Journey to Babel"-Enterprise hosts ambassadors, Spock's parents included, dealing with intrigue & politics; "Where No Man Has Gone Before"-the 2nd pilot which green-lit the series and the 1st with normal humans acquiring godlike powers; "The Enemy Within"-examines duality of human nature; "The Doomsday Machine"-space epic about a huge alien weapon destroying planets; "Amok Time"-detailed look into Vulcan customs; "Balance of Terror"-warships testing each other in space,introducing the aggressive Romulan race; "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"-answering all questions on androids; and "The Devil in the Dark"-which shows you cannot judge monsters by appearance.

As the list above demonstrates, all the concepts we have come to know in later films and series (Next Generation,Deep Space 9,Voyager) were laid out just fine in the late '60s by some inventive writing (the first film to follow this, for example, merely reworked the episode "The Changeling" with a $50 million budget). The 2nd season also ended with a pilot for an unrealized spin-off "Assignment:Earth" which would have focused on human agent of aliens 'Gary-7' in the present day. It was back then, also, that omnipotent beings, such as "The Squire of Gothos" and the Organians ("Errand of Mercy"-which introduced Klingons) popped up to work miracles. The final 3rd season show ended things on a hysterical note as Kirk's body was taken over by an unbalanced woman - quite unPC these days but nonetheless intriguing & entertaining. The series was followed 4 years later by an animated version, which took place during the same mission. Finally, I'm still struck, or starstruck, by how, after all this time, it was this show that convinced me we really were on a huge ship traveling in space - more so than the later sophisticated shows (TNG) or the movies. Yes, the original is still the best, and it's easy to see why.

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69 out of 73 people found the following review useful:
Best science fiction series ever, notable for character interactions, 17 May 2006

Author: roghache from Canada

In our household we are all Trekkies, so the ongoing adventures of the Federation Star Ship Enterprise constantly enthrall us. My husband will stubbornly watch only TOS, while my teenage son feels nostalgic about TOS, but secretly prefers Voyager. As for myself, while I find some of the Next Generation plots compelling and enjoy the dangerous drama of Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant, there's nothing quite like the characters from TOS. The series has an innocence about it unmatched in the later ones. My compliments to the late Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek's creator.

Captain James T. Kirk is the audacious, impulsive, and womanizing Enterprise commander. In almost every episode he has some gorgeous new love interest, seldom exhibiting much restraint! Kirk frequently engages in physical hand to hand combat with his opponents, torn shirt & sweat being common. Yet he does manage to come up with some bold and brilliant moves such as his legendary ruse, the Corbomite Manouever. Perhaps his primary task is serving as referee between the constantly sparring First Officer Spock and ship's doctor, Bones McCoy.

The heart of the series is Mr. Spock, the half Vulcan First Officer and ship's Science Officer. Actually however, Spock would maintain that he is the HEAD of the series, since he prides himself on his unfailing logic and lack of emotion. The inner conflict between his logic driven paternal Vulcan half and his emotional maternal human half form an ongoing theme. Spock possesses two useful Vulcan abilities, the neck pinch and the mind meld. The most engaging character interaction is between the logic motivated Spock versus the highly emotional ship's physician, Dr. Leonard (Bones) McCoy, who is basically a country doctor in space, a humanitarian leery of all this newfangled gadgetry. McCoy is famous in the Trek world for his expression, 'I'm a doctor, not a ----' (many phrases have been used here).

Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott is a hot tempered Scotsman with a fondness for his native country's whiskey. Scotty constantly bemoans that he 'cannae change the laws of physics' all the while working assorted engineering miracles with the warp core and anti matter this or that. As for Communications Officer Uhura, she is most notable for her regular phrase, 'Hailing frequencies open, Sir.'

To be sure, some of the episodes have less than brilliant plots, notably Spock's Brain, though the character interactions always compensate for any inadequacies. However, some ideas were masterful, including The Enterprise Incident, The Menagerie, and City on the Edge of Forever. The series took on issues of overpopulation (The Mark of Gideon), social class disparity (The Cloud Minders, with its clever cloud city, Stratos), and racism (Let That Be Your Last Battlefield), which involves laughable hatred between two races, one black on the left side & white on the right, the other race vice versa. I personally enjoyed The Naked Time (Nurse Chappel admits her love for Spock), A Taste of Armageddon (computer war), This Side of Paradise (Spock frolics), and Is There in Truth No Beauty? (the Medusan ambassador's incredible ugliness causes madness in the hapless onlooker). However, my absolute favourite is unquestionably the absurd Amok Time, with Spock's ridiculous pon farr mating strife.

The Enterprise crew consists of a racially diverse group, with its black Communications Officer Uhura and Oriental helmsman Sulu. The ship's navigator, Chekov, is Russian...quite a revolutionary idea for that Cold War era. The cast are perfect in their roles, including William Shatner (Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), and all the others. Special tribute to the late Deforest Kelly (McCoy) and James Doohan (Scotty), who are sadly missed.

This is the series that gave us such technologies as the transporter, tricorder, and cloaking device...high tech weaponry including phasers and photon torpedoes...futuristic games like three dimensional chess...miracle drugs such as cordrazine...and gourmet delicacies like Saurian brandy & Romulan ale. Some of the gadgetry gave a sneak preview of such later real life technology as computer floppy discs.

In addition to the highly logical Vulcans, Star Trek gave us glimpses of such alien species as the honour driven Klingons and the sneaky Romulans (the Federation's two primary enemies), also the xenophobic Tholians, the reptilian Gorn, and many others. It treated us to the endearing rock like, silicon based Horta and the cute & fuzzy but all too prolific Tribbles (which caused no end of Trouble). And it acquainted us with such planets as Sarpeidon, Eminiar & Vendikar.

In the episode Metamorphosis, we were all introduced to the heroic Zephram Cochrane who invented the warp drive way back in 2063. In constant demand is the dilithium vital to the warp engine's functioning. Star Trek also acquainted us with the United Federation of Planets, Starfleet & Starfleet Academy, and the Federation's much vaunted strict rule called the Prime Directive, which is frequently mentioned but universally ignored!

Star Trek is simply an incredibly fun and entertaining science fiction series, though it was hardly appreciated back in the 1960's when it originally aired. Fortunately, it lives on today in re runs, giving Trekkies the ongoing excitement of regularly 'boldly going where no man has gone before'. Live long and prosper, everyone!

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51 out of 65 people found the following review useful:
THE ONE THAT STARTED IT ALL., 9 June 2002
Author: mack3175 from Metairie, Louisiana

This show changed the way we looked at science fiction forever. Before there was The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and the prequel Enterprise. There was Captain James T. Kirk and crew on the Starship Enterprise. Exploring new worlds and new life. Traveling through time and space. Leonard Nimoy is great has Mr. Spock, the half human/half alien science officer and second in command. Deforest Kelly is also great Has Dr. Leonard Bones Mccoy, our favorite whiney Doctor, who came out with favorite sayings like "He's dead Jim" and "I'm a Doctor not a brick layer". The special effects may have seemed hoaky at times. But the show was still great in it's day. Gene Roddenberry was a genuis when he created this show. The show was well acted by everyone . So Star Trek fans live long and prosper.

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21 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
The magic was in the interaction between the characters., 25 November 2003
Author: Curt Kurschus (whitikau) from Auckland, New Zealand

I have loved Star Trek since I first watched it as a child. However, the series which followed - Star Trek: TNG, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Enterprise - although generally still entertaining, seem to me to have left out the element which made the original series so special. Namely, the interaction between the characters, particularly Spock, Jim, and Bones.

So well written, and generally well acted.

With Bones (Dr Leonard H McCoy) being the opposite to Spock in terms of personality, so that the two of them always found something to argue about. Jim (Captain James T Kirk) in the middle, as a referee, displaying faults and strengths taken from both extremes. Extremes in the sense of McCoy being a very caring, compassionate, yet also highly emotional character. Representative of humanity, perhaps. Spock, the dry, cold, logical, emotionless Vulcan. Jim "a man of deep feelings", as Spock once said, yet also no stranger to thorough analysis of whatever situation the crew found themselves in. Bones seeking always to heal, to return everybody he met (whether friend or foe, human or otherwise) to as close to perfect health as possible. Frustrated by the fact that he (Bones) could not fully understand, for example, Spock's Vulcan anatomy. All three of them the closest friends. All three displaying unwavering loyalty toward each other - even though Spock would have found the suggestion of his displaying such a human quality to be insulting.

The dynamics involved, the interaction, led to brilliant moments of humour. A science fiction programme to be not only enjoyed for the imaginative stories and the themes, but also for the humour, for the humanity.

Which is not to suggest that the other characters were in any way second rate. Scotty's loyalty and his supreme confidence in his engineering abilities, Chekov's almost adolescent playfulness and humour, Sulu's loyalty, honour, and physical prowess, Uhura's dedication to duty and femininity in a masculine world, all added important and welcome elements to what I still consider to be the best science fiction television series ever.

The special effects were often laughable, the sets cheap and often reused, but the humanity, the character interaction, the stories, imagination, the brilliant writing... all added up to something very special indeed.

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25 out of 30 people found the following review useful:
Best sci-fi show ever, 19 March 2000
Author: Jon (ssgtjon@hotmail.com) from San Antonio, Texas

Despite the popularity of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, the original series is still by far my favorite. None of the others had the appeal of the characters like the overconfident Kirk, totally unemotional Spock, and the sarcastic McCoy. Yes, the special effects and production values are cheesy by today's standards, but I love bad effects! Every planet they beamed down to, it was so obvious which were natural earth settings (which always seemed to be around L.A. in the Vasquez Rocks area) and foam rubber plastic sets. My favorite episodes were: The Menagerie, which used footage from The Cage (check out those backgrounds, which are obviously matte paintings), The City on the Edge Forever (with Joan Collins as a depression era social worker), The Enemy Within, featuring a dual Captain Kirk, The Alternative Factor, (an incredibly bad, but interesting episode that had a man's spaceship that looked like it was made out of plastic and took just a few minutes to build), All Our Yesterdays, the only episode I know of that never showed the ship's bridge and was about the crew time traveling on a planet about to explode, and of course my very favorite, The Trouble With Tribbles.

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28 out of 37 people found the following review useful:
A Classic Cult-Series, 27 October 2005
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Here I am, thirty and something years later, watching again this classical cult TV series, now on DVD. In the 70's, I felt in love for "Star Trek" in network television, becoming a great fan of this series. Later, with VHS and cable TV, I taped all the episodes. Along the last years, I bought some episodes on DVD, released in USA. And now, I have just bought the three seasons on Brazilian DVD.

I have just finished watching the First Season, and I was amazingly excited watching again (how many times? I can not even guess…) the journeys of the USS Enterprise, commanded by her powerful Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner, a horrible actor that shines in this role) and his number one, the bright Lt. Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Together with the sentimental Lt. Cmdr. Leonard H. 'Bones' McCoy, M.D (DeForest Kelley), the command of the starship has strength, brain and feelings, as if they were a perfect man. They boldly go with the millions of worldwide viewers where no man has gone before.

The First Season on DVD has eight DVDs, with twenty nine episodes and the following Extra: "The Birth of a Timeless Legacy" ("O Nascimento de um Legado Histórico"); "Life Beyond Trek: William Shatner" ("A Vida Depois de Jornada: William Shatner"); "To Boldly Go – Season One" ("Audaciosamente Indo – Ano Um"); "Kiss 'n' Tell: Romance in the 23rd Century" ("Beijar e Falar: O Amor no Século 23"). My favorite episode of this season is "The Menagerie – Parts I and II", with the eternal Captain Christopher Pike. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Jornada nas Estrelas" ("Star Trek")

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22 out of 29 people found the following review useful:
A Truly Wonderful Series, 6 May 2003
Author: Brian Washington (Sargebri@att.net) from Los Angeles, California

This has to be one of the greatest series in history. I really enjoy watching a lot of the episodes especially those from the second and third seasons when Chekov was on and the supporting cast really became complete. I especially loved the episodes that dealt with what happens when someone upsets the natural course that a planet goes on (eg. "A Piece of the Action"). In the case of those episodes, usually someone wants to help a planet achieve its destiny at a faster rate or leaves a form of literature or technology behind leading to disastrous results as was the case with the Ekosians who followed the Nazi model or the world that used the model of 1920's Chicago to base their societies on. This pretty much is a moral for any world including our own and how we should leave not only people follow their own path but let nature take it's own path.

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35 out of 56 people found the following review useful:
"City on the Edge of Forever" represents terrific time-travel drama in the grand old Star Trek tradition. 10/10., 11 April 2003

Author: lizziebeth-1 from Sydney, Australia

Guess who the single-most recognized personality the world-over REALLY is? Not Usama BinLaden, but Capt. Kirk.

By consensus, City on the Edge of Forever is The Original Series(TOS)'s most-loved episode. It's high drama; a rather Shakespearian exploration of time travel, penned by serious s/f writer Harlan Ellison. It plays like a feature film. If anyone gets the courage (Hollywood is still terrified of the wrath of Star Trek fans), it SHOULD be remade as one.

In "City", Capt. Kirk and Mr Spock (it's `Mr', OK? -`Mr' Spock; get it right) are credibly compelled to travel back in time; they must put right the change in history that Leonard `Bones' McCoy, the ship's doctor, caused in his cordrazine-demented state. The good doctor obliterated their timeline so nothing of the UFP or Enterprise exists anymore!

Curious instrument-readings had lead them to an unknown planet. `Somethin--or someone--on this planet can effect changes in time, causing turbulent waves of space-displacement', observes Spock, as they rock the ship. While trying to plot the turbulence from orbit, passing through ripples in time, one of those ship-quakes causes the ship's experienced surgeon to accidentally inject himself(!) with a full hypospray of cordrazine. Characteristically for the overdose, he no longer recognizes his shipmates as friends but as `murderers and assassins'.

His psychosis is only temporary, but lasts long enough for McCoy to transport down to the very object of their search: the Guardian of Forever, an apparent rock archway on the planet. Unfortunately the thing is ripping through time (centuries in seconds), inconveniently fast for a human lifespan. In protective hot pursuit, the landing party follows McCoy to The Guardian.

Ever the scientist, upon discovering and marveling at the source of the time-displacements, Spock berates himself: `I....am a fool! My tricorder is capable of recording even at this speed! I've missed taping centuries of living history which no man before has ever...' and then the cornered McCoy leaps past him, back through time. This is the only time in the series that Spock actively berates himself. It opens the door for Kirk's chiding Spock's scientific prowess in building a video player(!) `with nothing but stone knives and bearskins' in that `zinc-plated, vacuum-tubed culture' they've followed the frenzied McCoy to: Depression-Era America.

As they desperately try to predict McCoy's arrival, Kirk and Spock meet Edith Keeler(Joan Collins) still at a very anonymous stage of her future political-activist career. What happens to history, and Enterprise, as they acclimate to Edith Keeler's homeless mission still packs a punch 37yrs later.

Look for Kirk's double-entendre (but you must watch the WHOLE SCENE with Edith Keeler, as it plays off the sexual tension): `We have a flop, Mr Spock'. `-We have a what, Capt'n?' `A place to sleep.' `-....One might've said so in the first place'.

The undeniable chemistry between Collins and Shatner, much to the chagrin of Bill's LEGIONS of detractors, I'm certain is responsible for the indubitable success of the drama. ST was always treated by cast and crew as serious science-fiction. To her credit, Collins joined their Trek seriously, but sadly only for this outing. Her career might've been far more acclaimed had she become a regular.

Small wonder that `City' is the single-most popular episode of the original series, and it comes very close to taking the cake from ALL the many incarnations since! ST was at its best combining intellectual curiosity+sense of wonder with challenges to the heart. The humour was always just icing.

The other two main contender episodes for that level of praise-from ST(TOS)-are Bill Shatner's personal fave, `The Devil in the Dark' (and were it not for the awful display of male arrogance-and-ignorance by all the miners, I would agree with Shatner); plus David Gerrold's classic gag entry from ST's 2nd season, `The Trouble with Tribbles'(1967).

`Tribbles' has an important ecological message that was very sophisticated for its time (ie that animals coexist in ecological balance, and Heaven help you if you mess with that), couched in impish, trilling, and fuzzy, tribble-like humour; but because it doesn't challenge our ethics and hearts all that much, `Tribbles' can't win `Best ST Episode' even though it's A LOT OF FUN.

`Devil', written by legendary ST honcho-producer Gene Coon, was about human/alien humility. Human judgements, eg of beauty, should never be applied to aliens. `Ugly' is no reason to judge foreigners-or actual aliens-as stupid/less worthy. Information is a far better arbiter. Replete with positivism and 1960s churlish greed, `Devil' was also a precursor to Alien(1979), albeit about a `nice' alien: the Horta was a (midget-scuttling-under-a-)very-unattractive(-carpet)/highly intelligent mother of a dying race. Mr Spock's ecological sensitivity shines well to this day, compared to the miners' brutality.

`Devil' was also lore-establishing for its depiction of Dr McCoy's distrust of transporters, and his appellations that he was `a DOCTOR, not a....'-in this case `not a bricklayer'; the best punchline to the joke he EVER produced.

The only thing that irked me about `Devil' (apart from the laughably cheap set design) was the script's obtuseness about the economical value, even then(!!), of silicon. (The plot is predicated upon a bandwagon theory, that life could be based on non-Carbon elements; but to pick SILICON was unfortunate, since it was already the chief source material for semiconducting transistors in 1965!) Double-D'Oh!!!

`City' has no such hindsight embarrassments. Instead, it reveals the rich and trusting relationship between Kirk and Spock as they take turns at solving puzzles and support each other's dignity. They still tease each other, esp. poor Spock about his alleged vulnerability to (human) sentimentality (which he takes as mild insults), and about his ears, which during the first season was still a novelty to audiences. How quickly things change.

In my estimation, only ST-Voyager produced similar integration of science, wonder, philosophy, humour AND devastating drama. With `Eye of a Needle', `Distant Origin', `Drone', `Ashes to Ashes', and possibly `Timeless', ST-Voyager came close to replicating the emotional impact of ST-TOS' `discovery science' fiction.(10/10)

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13 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
A Landmark for Mainstream Science Fiction, 4 June 2007

Author: mstomaso from Vulcan

Commonly known as "The Original Series", those of us engaged in an unhealthy obsession with Star Trek refer to it as TOS. TOS, began under the creative influence of Gene Roddenberry, with a brilliant,complex and intellectual pilot known as The Cage. The Cage proved to be too much for network TV. The first pilot was about as complex as a few episodes of Twin Peaks and almost as edgy. Plus it included a woman in a command position (Majel Barret or Majel Leigh Hudec, who later married Gene Roddenberry and eventually became Nurse/Dr. Christine Chapel, the voice of most of Star Trek's computers and Deanna Troi's mom in the Next Generation). The only major character who was consistent between The Cage and TOS was Spock (Leonard Nimoy's half-Vulcan science officer).

Roddenberry and his collaborators did not lose hope, and took the advice of the networks seriously - shooting a second pilot with William Shatner replacing Jeffrey Hunter as the captain. The second pilot was later recycled as the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before". The first, was reused and retold in the great two part episode "The Menagerie".

To put it simply, TOS revolved around three main characters and a strong supporting cast. The three principal cast members were Captain James T Kirk (William Shatner, who previously made a major mark in Roger Corman's excellent "The Intruder") - an intelligent, courageous, humanitarian and righteous leader with an occasional tendency to bend the rules in order to get positive results; Mr. Spock (Nimoy)- Kirk's first officer and scientist, a brilliant half-human, half-Vulcan male who can calculate complex math in his head and see the logical path in any situation; and Dr. McCoy (veteran character actor Deforest Kelley)- a crusty, likable southern gentleman and expert surgeon.

Women and non-whites were better represented in positions of respect in this show than most of what appeared on TV before it, and the show presented through demonstration (as opposed to rhetoric) an earth which was united, interested in diversity, and rationally governed by an interplanetary Federation founded by humans and their Vulcan allies.

One of my favorite and most memorable Star Trek memories is when I learned the story of how the great Whoopie Goldburg was inspired by seeing a black woman (Lt Uhura, Nichelle Nichols) in a position of power on the bridge of the Enterprise, and even more inspired by the fact that a black woman was acting in a respectable major supporting role on a network TV show! Whoopie was apparently so indebted to TOS that she all but volunteered to play the important recurring role of Guinan in The Next Generation. It is also great to learn of the many members of NASA who cite TOS as one of their major career influences.

The world of TOS is, of course, not the world we live in, but rather a world in which humankind has a bright future and the possibility of living to our highest potential as explorers, scientists, and enlightened beings. Yet, despite the hope represented in this future, TOS' characters face many of the same problems we face today - prejudice (Devil in the Dark, Errand of Mercy, Enemy Within, others), militarism (Errand of Mercy, Balance of Power, etc); the conflict between self and society (City on the Edge of Forever, etc); technological advance and social change (Ultimate Computer, The Changeling, etc); Cultural conflict (almost every episode, but especially Amok Time, The Tholian Web, Journey to Babel, The Corbomite Maneouver) and religion (many episodes, especially Who Mourns for Adonais, Amok Time and The Squire of Gothos).

In creating this expansive and ever-expanding universe, the creators of TOS provided ample territory for allegoric examination of contemporary problems,without privileging any particular political or philosophical tradition over another.

TOS featured generally good writing (though not as consistently good as that of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), wildly experimental plots, consistent characterization, and a moderate and very well-used budget. The special effects are dated, and are really just adequate to convey the meaning, but unlike a lot of contemporary sci-fi, the stories, characters, acting and directing overshadow the special effects completely - rendering them somewhat irrelevant.

The show's great themes, and the entertaining way in which is explores them has changed the mainstream approach to science fiction in more than just the television medium. TOS took itself seriously, and attempted to create serious drama seasoned with occasional humor, and more than its fair share of humanism and romance. Like the show, the characters were well imagined, well-developed, and intelligent. The starship Enterprise - also wonderfully detailed - did not carry any ballast in its crew. The crew showed many different kinds of people working together - united only by the desire to explore and learn, by rationality and discipline, and by a sense of purpose far higher than simple self-interest.

What an inspiring vision of human life.

As German pop musician Nena once said "We are all a Captain Kirk" -

...well.... maybe some day.

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