TOS - 1.04

 "The Naked Time" - is the fourth episode of Star Trek: The Original Series to air, broadcasting on September 29, 1966

This is what I believe to be the very first Star Trek episode that starts to approach greatness.  The pacing is quicker than previous episodes and the story holds together extremely well, from the first scene through almost the very end.

This is also the very first episode in this series of reviews that I specifically remember watching as a kid.  Star Trek in the mid/late 1970's was on in syndication at all hours - I'm sure I watched this show after school and also on weekends.

I remember very specific and vivid images - the striking frozen people in the opening scene.  Sulu with a sword, of course!  Riley's singing and also his line about "ice cream for the whole crew" stick out in my mind as well.  But more than anything I remember how shocking it was to see Spock struggle not to cry.  Now that made an impact!

Yes, it is true - my deep love for this show, and the visceral reaction I get from watching it even as a nearly 50 year old man, has roots deep in my childhood.  I know for a fact that I had the Mego action figures, which were released not when the show originally aired, as a relatively low rated prime time network drama, but as a daytime syndicated science fiction serial (that wasn't serialized) for kids and teenagers.

I had all the main character figures, but my friends Sean and Terry had the bridge play-set!  I remember going to their house in Key West and having space battles and melodrama on this fantastic plastic coated cardboard masterpiece...

It's hard to tell from the picture, but on the left there was a working transporter!  You put the figure in, and used the blue knob on top to spin the chamber.  The figure would spin and the yellow lines created an optical illusion that the figure was "beaming" away.  Push the red button and the spinning stopped and Spock was GONE!

Anyways - I hope this conveys that Star Trek (along with Star Wars, which I saw on it's first theatrical run) was kind of a big deal to me as a kid.

But unlike other franchises that I also enjoyed, Land of the Lost, Banana Splits, The Brady Bunch, among others.  Star Trek is really the only one left that I can watch today as a grown-up and enjoy not only as a nostalgia tonic, but I can appreciate it as well for it's quality and still enjoy it on it's own merits.

"The Naked Time" is the first of a dozen or so Star Trek TOS episodes that really holds up as something special.  It is well paced, well structured and also has a sizable amount of intentional humor that works wonderfully.

It also has a great use of a ticking clock to build tension and excitement - with Riley locking himself in the engine room and shutting the engines down cold, we really start to worry if the Enterprise can get themselves out of this absurd and yet also scary mess of drunk people running around all over the ship.

If this episode has a flaw, for me it's really the tacked on scene at the end involving time travel.  Wikipedia explains that originally this was to be a two part episode, with the final scene setting up the second half which eventually became the episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday".   The scene was re-written so that Naked Time could be a stand-alone.  Whether or not that directive was from the network or not, who knows.  But I do know there's only one 2 parter in TOS, and that was "The Menagerie" which was an ingenious re-working of the original unaired pilot.

So yes, this episode is one of my favorites.  I'm compiling a top ten as I watch this show, and this one is the first so far that I think will easily qualify.