TOS S02E07, S02E08, S02E09

 

In this installment:

(viewed Sunday, Mar. 10)

Star Trek: The Original Series, S02E07 - "Catspaw"

Star Trek: The Original Series, S02E08 - "I, Mudd"
Star Trek: The Original Series, S02E09 - "Metamorphosis"

"Catspaw"

• If you need to put your assistant chief engineer in charge, something has gone terribly awry.
• Speaking of which, Lt. DeSalle is kind of a jerk.
• Falling through the floor is what happens when you explore the dungeon without your rogue up front to look for traps, gentlemen.  Take 1d6 falling damage.
• Tiny Enterprise, giant kitty.
• "Don't let her touch the wand, Captain".  Probably not the only time someone should have given Kirk this particular piece of advice.

"I, Mudd"

• Ugh.  I know some fans of TOS find Harcourt Fenton Mudd to be hilarious and awesome, but I don't.  While this episode itself does eventually work its way around to awfsome for other reasons (see below), Mudd gets tiresome after about three minutes of screen time.
• When they start trying to use confusion and illogical behavior to trip up the androids?  That is hilarious.  I wish I'd been taking the good cough syrup when I was watching this episode.  It's like the Star Trek equivalent of a Mr. Bungle song.
• "Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in a meadow.  Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers, which smell bad.  Are you sure your circuits are registering correctly?  Your ears are green."

"Metamorphosis"

• Galactic/Federation Commissioners:  Can't live with 'em, can't jettison them into space.
• Kirk's recognition of Cochrane as "Zefram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri" doesn't jive with what we see of Cochrane in First Contact and later in Enterprise (or at least as far as I know; maybe they reference Cochrane leaving for Alpha Centauri in ENT and I missed it).  I think it's assumed that at some point after First Contact and working on the Warp 5 engine, he leaves Earth as an old man for Alpha Centauri, and shortly after leaves Alpha Centauri to die in space.
• Kirk tells Cochrane that "we" (presumably the Federation, but he may mean humanity, specifically) are "on a thousand planets, and spreading out."
• Yeah, touch the glow-y energy field Spock.  That'll work out grrrrrrrreat.
• "Judas Goat", the new single from Afro-Celtic-funk-lounge-industrial-metal band The Fissles of Häng.
• First appearance of the universal translator?  Kirk gives a fairly detailed, if somewhat fantastical, description of how it functions.
• I'd wager that this episode features the longest continuous on-screen dialog between an actor and a giant, sparkling Jell-O mold.