TOS - 1.01

 In these final months of quarantine (hopefully) I've started to binge Star Trek - TOS. TOS would be The Original Series.

I'm skipping "The Cage" for now, as it was the original pilot, and it never aired. It surfaced in the early 1990's as part of the original TOS release on DVD. I'm going through in broadcast order, I'll watch "The Cage" when I'm done with TOS.

Episode 1, season 1. "The Man Trap".

The story starts off compellingly enough, but soon starts to fall apart as a choppy structure falls pray to what would be a continuing problem with TOS - the good captain and his crew are VERY slow on the uptake and figuring out what is going on.

Also, another continuing issue I have with the series - the crew members truly are disposable. Very little thought or concern for dead crewman and women as the bodies pile up. In this episode alone I counted at least 4 dead Enterprise personnel. Kirk is concerned but only to a point that serves the narrative. We never feel the impact that a real human death should warrant.

I also feel the show suffers greatly from our modern attention spans. This, and all TOS Star Trek episodes, is upwards of 49 minutes long! Considering a modern network hour can be as short as 39:30 (source: yours truly who has delivered hour long network programming) - that's a BIG difference! Of course many shows on streaming services are an hour without commercials - BUT, they typically only have 10 episodes (or 8) per season. Each season of ST TOS had to deliver 29 episodes!

The length of time really shows in this episode, as there are several scenes that feel very padded and could have easily been trimmed or cut altogether. Other, stronger episodes coming up in the series don't feel nearly as glacial.

It's interesting that this is the very first episode that aired on television - as it was filmed not only after the 2nd Pilot, but after four other episodes as well. I've read a few times in different sources that the network went with "Man Trap" because it was more action heavy than the other episodes that were finished.

The wikipedia articlele linked here mentions that this episode got a 25 rating (which would leave a top rated network show in the dust in 2020) with almost half of all televisions that were turned on being tuned into Star Trek. Although the ratings would go on to slip, especially in the second season, there were still tens of millions of people watching Star Trek every week.

I'm not shocked that it became such a cultural phenomenon, when you look at the sheer number of eyeballs that saw every episode. Even though Star Trek has long been talked about in terms of "low ratings" we have to remember that back in the day the ratings were indeed low, but only in comparison to other network shows. Today, these same numbers would be almost Super Bowl sized.

The monster at the end is pretty cool - as dated as it is by lack of articulation or wet surfaces - the design is both delightfully shocking and vulgar.

Star Trek has arrived - and for all of the episodes problems that I outlined, there are also a ton of positives.

All three lead characters, Kirk, Spock & McCoy arrive already very flushed out and dimensional. The ship itself has a fairly believable layout and operating procedures. The production design, while not without it's budgetary shortfalls, is still very effective in establishing a pleasing and compelling aesthetic.

And as much as I have harped on how slow the story was - it nonetheless remained compelling throughout. I may have had the desire to check my phone a few times, but I never felt anywhere near compelled to simply turn off the show. I did have to stick around and see how it played out. Both the wife and kid did drift in and out of the room, but they both by the end were seated and watching.

Not a bad endorsement of a show that is now over 50 years old!

Stay tuned - I'm hoping to write one of these "reviews" (really it's more of a minor critique along with praise and informational parts) once a week or so. The master plan is to binge all three seasons of this still very remarkable show.