Cast:
Roger Perry (Capt. John Christopher)
Hal Lynch (Air Police Sergeant)
Richard Merrifield (Technician Webb)
Ed Peck (Col. Fellini)
Mark Dempsey (Air Force Captain)
Jim Spencer (Air Policeman)
Sherri Townsend (Crew Woman)
Writer: D.C. Fontana
What's going on? Confusingly, the episode starts in the modern day (well, modern for when it was made). The USAF scrambles at the sight of a real UFO, then su
ddenly you see the Enterprise in the skies of modern day Earth! It's a quick teaser, but a really cool one!
ddenly you see the Enterprise in the skies of modern day Earth! It's a quick teaser, but a really cool one!When they are directly persued by a fighter pilot, rather than shoot him down, they lock a tractor beam on his plane, but it is not built to take that stress and breaks up so they beam the pilot up, but they cannot give him too much information on who and what they are. The history books also point to the fact that an ancestor of his does something vital in the future, so they have to put him back somehow!
The pilot, John Christopher, is played really well by Roger Perry - his sense of wonder and awe is excellent, but he also kind of takes everything in his stride.
We have the first incident of a silly computer - the ships computer has been given a personality by an all female refit team, and it wants to get into Kirks pants. Ugh.
This is an early example of a comedy episode that is very funny but also managed to not be very silly. The peril the crew are in is real enough, but there are some nice moments, such as when they are forced to beam up a military policeman, and when Kirk is kidnapped on Earth and told they will lock him away for 200 years. He gives a wry grin and says that that would be about right!
The way the end the episode is a bit twee, but I let them off: this is Trek done right and is one of the best.
Crew Deaths: 0
Total Crew Deaths So Far: 25
Score: 8/10
1 comment:
I agree with your views on this episode, the worst thing about it though is that it spawned several, progressively worse, episodes where they either go back to present day Earth or find a planet that's modeled itself on a period of Earth history (the notable exception being City on the Edge of Forever)
Post a Comment