Saturday 12 July 2008

Star Trek: TOS 2.21 - By Any Other Name

Review 49 - Episode 50

The One with the magic belts

So, this is the one with the hexagon cubes. I don't know why, and I certainly didn't remember the rest of this episode, but that one scene, when Kirk walks down the ships corridor and finds all the cubes seems to resonate in trek fans everywhere.

The rest of the episode is okay, mainly due to Fontana's input I think. The Enterprise is captured by aliens masquerading as humans who want the Enterprise to return to the milky way. They seem quite weak beyond there belts which can paralyse you and turn you into hexagonal cubes.

I was wary at first of this story as beings with god like powers are one of my pet hates (which I didn't know until I started this marathon, so there you go), but it actually follows logically and satisfactory.

The Enterprise is forced through the barrier at the edge of our galaxy which is a nice reference to the first episode of Kirk and crew. I suspect it was just a reason to reuse old footage, but I appreciated it all the same. I also liked Rojan crushing the cube and the fact it was the yeoman who got killed! Nice to see Trek playing on expectations even in this 2nd season.

The entire crew are wiped out bar the top 4 and the 2nd half of the episode is them playing on the Kelvins human weaknesses. McCoy inject's one with medicine that makes him irritable, Spock plays mind games with Rojan, Scotty has a great scene getting drunk with one and Kirk, of course, seduces Kalinda (Barbara Bouchet), who falls for his charm, but of course.

It's a fun episode, but average all the same

3/5

Overall Star Trek Franchise Rating so far: 149/245

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