Star Trek: The Original Series

[Canon Editor]

I finally got to watch THE CONSCIENCE OF THE KING today, and what can I say?
Thank you @"addiesin" for having pointed it out.  This episode is by far the greatest episode I have seen from the series until now.  The length time never felt stretched, and I wished they held it up a bit longer to give some thought to Riley's feelings after the climax.  The script was astoundingly good.  Top notch episode, submerged in culture and philosophy.  Definitely an essential for me! 

Balance of Terror is next!

 

[Canon Editor]

Looking back, I decided to list The Menagerie as one, two-part episode and add The Naked Time to the list.  I will be wathcing it out of order, either before or after Balance of Terror.

 

[Handman]

Whatever gets you to watch more Star Trek is fine by me.

 

[Canon Editor]

Currently preparing an exam, so sort of stalled my Trek viewing.  In the meanwhile, I decided to throw myself into Discovery.  I reviewed @"bionicbob" 's and @"TM2YC" 's weekly reviews on the Discovery thread but waited until I saw at least some of the Original Series to decide if I would be undertaking it... and I am more excited now than ever, with the announcement of Captain Pike on board for season 2!  Alex Kurtzman really seems to understand the heart of the show, from what I've read.  

On the other hand, I read a bit more about the season three episode The Paradise Syndrome and thought about replacing it with The Empath, as your last posts got me very much interested in that too.

EDIT: THE NAKED TIME

Finally got around to watching another episode.  The first half was one of the most fun and entertaining I have seen.  It was spectacular to see almost the whole crew go wild, and having the stakes go big outside the ship with the count-down for their lives, was intelligent screenwriting.  
While the episode wasn't as thought-provoking as others I have seen, such as The Corbomite Maneuver or The Conscience of the King (which is still the best one I've seen), Joe's rant at the beginning of the episode was really good.  I truly didn't expect his death - that raised the stakes in terms of where the series can go.  It is a statement to the viewer: "here, (almost) anyone can die".  It is that "almost" that I imagine was completely blown away by Spock's death in The Wrath of Khan. 
Nonetheless, I have to say I was completely taken out of the episode by Uhura not being affected at all by her contact with Sulu - unless her shouting at Kirk wasn't her going wild.  I may have missed something, but I didn't completely understand how Spock was pulled out of it either. 
Aside from these, in my opinion, major sortcomings, I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. 

Next up, is Balance of Terror.

 

[Canon Editor]

I watched BALANCE OF TERROR today and found it pretty boring unfortunately.  I liked the ending, and as in all the episodes I watched thus far, I liked the ending.  Nonetheless, I later watched CHARLIE X  (not in my list) and I loved it.  Probably the best directed episode I saw up to now, and sits right under with my favourite The Conscience of the King.

I'm slowly letting go of the list, and am planning to watch Arena next.

 

[Handman]

Balance of Terror is a submarine movie.  A story about the nature of war, and the codes of the men who fight them.  I find it incredibly tense but if you're not familiar with the genre it might not be what you're expecting.  Kind of like The Enemy Below, which is a fantastic film if you've never seen it.

 

[Canon Editor]

Yes, I knew it was inspired by that movie.  It looks good.  
I’m not a lover of the genre.  I prefer physical interaction, but this is not to say I wasn’t pleased with the episode!  I liked other ones much more.

 

[Canon Editor]

To be fair, @"Handman" , when I watched Balance of Terror, I wasn't feeling very well, so I'll get back to watching it again!
I watched ARENA yesterday, though, and while I enjoyed it far more than what I expected, I didn't think it was one of the absolute bests.  I am vastly preferring the more complex ones, which are outstanding!  Still enjoyed it though.  I think I'll watch Court Martial next.

 

[Canon Editor]

I went with SPACE SEED instead of Court Martial, out of curiosity more than anything.  I loved it, and I absolutely adored the dialogue and the themes (my main sources of enjoyment of the show).  Furthermore, I have to say that having seen The Wrath of Khan a few years back, the amount of setup this episode has is astounding, and even more so considering they never planned it to be paid off (right?  I started having doubts myself for how refined they were!   )

For fun, I’ll start giving ratings to these episodes.  
This one gets an A from me  !

For reference, I’d rate: 
- Where No Man Has Gone Before B 
- The Enemy Within A- 
- The Corbomite Maneuver B+++
- The Menagerie B+ 
- The Conscience of the King A+ 
- Arena B- 
- The Naked Time B+ 
- Devil in the Dark B+ 
- Balance of Terror B (Need to rewatch)

I also got to see DitD recently.  I enjoyed it, but found it one of the less complex of the ones I’ve decided to see.

 

[Duragizer]

I came close to buying a TOS box set today, but when I saw that it was going to cost over $80 with taxes, I decided against it. I mean, if it was a BD box set with the unaltered episodes included, I'd have certainly forked over the cash. But on DVD, with only the remastered episodes, when I only really want the first two seasons? I don't believe it would've been worth it.

 

[Handman]

I got the TOS Blu-rays for about that much.

 

[Duragizer]

Maybe Canadian prices just suck more.

 

[Zamros]

My Solarpunk collective (imagine cyber/steampunk but more utopian) is currently putting together a database of solarpunk media and I was wondering if Star Trek would qualify. 

The reason I was thinking this is that from what I've seen Star Trek is clearly a Post-Scarcity society. All humanity's basic needs have been met by machines, allowing them to focus on science and exploration. But I know not all Star Trek shows take place at the same point in time, I'm not sure when replicators and holodecks were introduced, for example.

Could someone help me out? Which Trek series and/or movies best fit the solarpunk definition?

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SolarPunk

 

[bionicbob]

ENTERPRISE (2151-61)  World poverty gone.  United Earth Government.  No Holodecks.  Starships have chefs.

STAR TREK TOS (2265-69)  United Federation of Planets.  No currency.  Still incidents of racism and greed.  No holodecks.  Food synthesizers.  No robot servants but basic non-sentient androids exist.

STAT TREK THE NEXT GENERATION (2364-70)  Holodecks.  Replicators. Humanity has supposedly evolved, the drive to better one's self and the whole.  Data, first sentient Android.

 

[Canon Editor]

Saw both THIS SIDE OF PARADISE, A TASTE OF ARMAGEDDON and THE SQUIRE OF GOTHOS recently. 
Loved the first two, did not like the latter.  
Paradise is now my favourite episode, just besides Conscience of the King.  
I’m getting really interested in The Galileo Seven, which will be the third to last episode from season one I will delve into.  Excited for Errand of Mercy too. 

This Side of Paradise: A+ 
A Taste of Armageddon: A- 
The Squire of Gothos: B

 

[Jrzag42]

I'm finally ready to give Star Trek a shot. I want to eventually watch it all, but to start, should I go from the beginning, or skip to some more praised episodes first?

I know some people insist to start with TNG, but I just feel weird about skipping ahead.

 

[TM2YC]

I'm finally ready to give Star Trek a shot. I want to eventually watch it all, but to start, should I go from the beginning, or skip to some more praised episodes first?

IIRC, there isn't a overarching narrative, so viewing out of order won't matter to much. Why not start with a few classics and then go from the start. From S1 three of my favourites would be:

A Taste of Armageddon - A great hard sci-fi dystopian concept.
Balance of Terror - Submarine style space combat. If you liked that aspect of Wrath of Khan, you'll like this one.
The City on the Edge of Forever - The quintessential shore leave & time travel episode.

There is also the two pilot episodes but those are weird because the costumes and crew are different. I wouldn't bother with those to begin with, plus the first is a spoiler for 'The Menagerie'.

 

[Duragizer]

I know some people insist to start with TNG

Those people are pure evil.

 

[Jrzag42]

Thank you very much, TM2YC. I will definitely look into those mentioned episodes, and look into some of the other episodes mentioned in this thread. Seems I will be going the route of not going in order, which I suppose I don't have too much of a problem with. As for the pilots, I was planning on skipping them at the very least, I just forgot to mention it in my post.

Duragizer, they may be misguided or ignorant, but not all of them are pure evil.

 

[Duragizer]

Duragizer, they may be misguided or ignorant, but not all of them are pure evil.

They why were they in my backyard trying to conjure the crystalline entity?