Star Trek: Nemesis

There's at least one thing Nemesis has over Insurrection - a sense of danger and excitement that at least makes it seem more like a science fiction movie than two hours of nothing. A lot of what it does is pretty dumb on further reflection, but it's got that being-a-movie thing down pretty well. It's a pretty slick movie too, benefiting from the relatively modern technology a fair bit. Like the recent Trek film, it features Romulans heavily, although they aren't exactly the bad guys this time, though in a way they're responsible for the villain. For some reason they're the least capable slave drivers of all time, having forced an entire species called the Remans to work their mines for them, but when a clone of Picard that they abandon plans for manages to start an uprising, they're able to create one of the most advanced starships I've ever seen in the Trek universe, built to stand up to the Enterprise with ease. Not sure how they managed that in captivity, but they forcibly take over and pursue Picard, needing his DNA to save bad-Picard from a degenerative condition.

And I mean, that's the movie I guess. There's some stuff with Data, and he becomes pretty important to the movie's resolution, mostly because Brent Spiner and his buddy wrote the movie. There's some solid action, including big standoffs in space and a number of phaser battles, although they seemed to take a fair bit from the Star Wars films, especially the Remans' inability to hid the broad side of a barn. Ron Perlman plays the bad guy's second in command, recognizable only by his gruff voice under all that alien makeup, and I enjoyed his role despite the pointlessness of it in the last third of the film. There's a fair amount of ripping off of the second Trek movie, and it doesn't really do anything as well as that movie did. I'd love to say the ending affected me, but it honestly didn't for some reason. Maybe it's because the tiniest bit of planning would have prevented the tragedy of some of the events, maybe it's because nothing the movie does to set up its grand moments is actually justified by the story in any way. I don't know. It's a stupid movie, made at least a little watchable by its flashier elements.

Star Trek: Insurrection

All of these movies based on The Next Generation's cast have their issues, but Insurrection's fatal flaw is the most egregious - it's totally boring. I'd say the only thing stopping it from being a mediocre two part episode of the show is the budget, but frankly, even that isn't apparent when you're watching it. There's almost no scope at all to the story, and in fact the plot is cribbed pretty directly from one of the episodes, with the difference being Picard completely flips his ethics because he wants to get some immortal alien strange. At least that was the only difference I saw. Starfleet has teamed up with some aliens on a mission to relocate some non-native people called Ba'ku who are living on a planet whose rings could be harvested for their healing and anti-aging effects, but which would leave the world uninhabitable. Picard believes this is against the prime directive of non-interference with cultures not advanced enough to have discovered warp drive yet, except that the Ba'ku already are capable of that technology and in fact used it to reach this planet, they've just chosen to live without it. So really he has no ground to stand on and starts a rebellion for no good reason. I mean yeah, the antagonist is a murderous jerk and should be stopped. But the movie just kind of glosses over the fact that he commits treason without cause.

Anyway, all this sounds like it could lead to something interesting at leach, but the actual "insurrection" of the movie doesn't have a lot going on. They basically run around some hills, hide in a cave, and shoot down some drones that chase after them with transporter dart things. Action! Adventure! Intrigue! Why was so much effort taken anyway to keep the mission a secret? Very unlike Starfleet. The movie's just poorly considered and not entertaining to watch. They try to have a bit of fun with the rejuvenating effects of the rings, fixing Geordi's eyes, putting Worf through puberty, having Deanna talk about how her boobs have gotten firmer, but none of it is as funny or interesting as the lighter character stuff on the show. Also Data learning how to play from some dumb kid was pretty excruciating. Some of the stuff with Riker fending off enemy ships with the Enterprise was okay, and I enjoyed a switcheroo pulled near the end, but that's about it for fun. Even the stunt work in this movie is garbage, not convincing at all. The best thing I can say about Insurrection is that it's better than the one Shatner directed, but that's the definition of faint praise.

Star Trek: First Contact

So this is the best of the four films by reputation, and I do have to say I'd agree. It's still not one of the best movies in the whole franchise, and really just a pretty competent action movie. It features Picard's greatest foes, the Borg, attempting to rewrite the history of humanity. After facing defeat in a large space battle, they propel themselves back in time to the week when Zefram Cochrane makes first contact with Vulcans and thus inserts humanity into the galactic picture. Their goal is to prevent this from happening and at the same time assimilate the planet before the people know how to defend themselves. Luckily for the Enterprise, they are able to follow them into the past and attempt to stop them. Apparently, the Borg lack the same grip on the logic of time travel that Picard did in the last movie, which is that it would be easier to prevent something from happening if you went back farther than a few minutes beforehand. Skynet figured it out, why couldn't they? Time travel has a tendency to mess up good storytelling, especially when the characters simply don't think it through.

Besides these and some other issues, it's a pretty entertaining movie. There's a good variety of solid action scenes. James Cromwell shows up as Cochrane, and the depiction of one of the most important humans in history as a grizzled drunk just trying to make some money is kinda funny. It is weird how they picked someone who looks nothing like the guy from the original series, but it can be forgiven I guess. And it's fun to see Picard act with vengeance and fury, even if it means he's wildly different from the person he was for seven years on television. One of the reasons I started this whole thing was to see him shoot up a nightclub with a machine gun, and it was pretty glorious. I'm not sure I liked the addition of a queen into the whole Borg ecosystem, but she's probably the most successfully menacing villain in any of these movies, so I'll give it a pass too. Not much to say about the rest of the cast - Data has a somewhat interesting subplot if one that I'm a bit tired of hearing about, and by this point Deanna seems like a completely different person, as if Marina Sirtis is the only one who didn't bother to remember what her character was like. Not a great movie, but not bad either.

Star Trek: Generations

We're finally drawing to the end of my planned exploration of the Star Trek franchise. Before it's over though, I have to get through the last four films, which range in fan opinion from pretty good to downright awful. I've seen all of them, and while I didn't hate any, I didn't think any were particularly great either. We start things off in thoroughly mediocre fashion with Generations, the only film to feature both James Kirk (and the only original cast members willing to slum it with him) and Jean-Luc Picard. Unfortunately, they don't do a whole lot with the opportunity, with Kirk relegated to an ignominious death scene at the beginning and a shoehorned role in the plot's climactic (by default) moment. Most of the film is just an average TNG episode stretched out to feature length without a whole lot justifying it. It wasn't too bad really, as I spent most of the time mildly bored instead of really bothered by anything. "Not terrible" isn't really the best endorsement, though.

There were a few things I enjoyed. Data's experiment with an emotions chip was pretty funny for a while, until the plot really got going and it had shockingly little importance to any of the significant events. That was just sort of weird. Malcolm McDowell is a fun actor, and he does a solid job as the movie's villain at the same time that Picard and his crew fail miserably to counter him in a well reasoned way. To be honest, I'm struggling with finding good things about the movie... as I said, it's not egregiously poor, but there's so little about it that was memorable or interesting that it's hard to be even neutral on it after the fact. At least Picard acted like Picard the whole time, which becomes a huge issue in the sequels. They destroy the Enterprise to add some drama in an overly long crash scene and also to give an excuse for a rebuilt ship in future films that accommodates the wider aspect ratio, at the same time Picard is entering a strange alternate reality where the two captains finally meet. As I said though, it's not the most exciting result ever, as the big action finale is a few old dudes beating each other up. They pretty much dropped the ball, which honestly describes all these movies pretty well. Well, no matter. It's hard to be too disappointed by it when the last Trek film was so awesome.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 7

Well here we are, at the end of the road. I still have the movies to watch (people have told me not to, but that was half the point of doing this), but I have finished watching The Next Generation. The final season wasn't the greatest, but it had a few good episodes, including the finale, which was pretty fantastic. It ties back in to the very first episode and has Picard saving humanity across three different timelines. A suitable conclusion to a show that made some missteps but ultimately provided a heck of a lot of solid science fiction. There was some weird stuff going on in this go around, I have to say. Deanna and Worf? Really? Among all possible pairings, that one seems especially unlikely. And Wesley deciding Starfleet isn't for him after all, when he spent the entire series aspiring to do great there? Well if you insist. And really... there weren't too many good episodes beyond the finale. I liked the one where Worf keeps shifting between parallel universes. And the one with Data's nightmares was an interesting exploration of that topic. But yeah, the first time the show definitely stepped down in quality since it reached its plateau years earlier. I'd say something about the characters if there weren't four films to send them off with. I guess the question is whether seeing these 178 episodes was worth it, and I can't say I regret much of it.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 6

The Next Generation's penultimate season seemed a bit Riker-heavy to me in places. Almost like he was the main character instead of Picard. Which is absurd, because Stewart acts Frakes' face off. There were quite a few two-part stories in this run, of course the conclusion of last year's cliffhanger and the creation of another to be resolved in season seven, plus two more, yet another focusing on Worf and his family (can someone else on this show get a long-term arc? Too late I guess), and one that makes one of the best arguments against torture I've seen. And other stuff happens too I guess. Scotty is the third actor from the original series to make an appearance, after being stuck ageless in a transporter beam for years. I wonder how that's going to play into his appearance in the next movie, which I know wasn't originally written with him in mind. Luckily there's no Wesley at all, and making up for his absence last time Q actually shows up twice. I uh... what else do you want from me? I'm watching it all right? Why do I have to say anything? I don't owe anybody. Jeez, man! Star Trek. Stuff's going on with Data, man. That robot ain't right. The cowboy episode with him was good. Not as good as the one from the original, though.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 5

Well, here we are again. It's a couple weeks later and I've seen 26 more episodes of this show. If I'm being honest, I'm watching it more to be able to say I did it than because I want to see it all. I'm still enjoying it, but it is a bit chore-like. I'm pretty sure I said this all last time. The funny thing is the original series was easier, because despite being less interesting, it was also less than half as long. I passed the original's episode count in The Next Generation almost two seasons ago, but I still have over 50 left to see. We're getting there, though. The final resolution of Worf's issues with the Klingons was nice. There's a good two-parter featuring Leonard Nimoy as Spock, although it sort of felt like one episode stretched to double length rather than a genuine two part thing. I'd have to say Geordi wasn't quite as lame this go around, and I didn't even despise seeing Wesley again, although seeing him mess up big time was funny. The episode where they get stuck in a loop is a good one, subverting the frustration of seeing the same things happen over again one too many times by throwing a kink into the works that makes a lot of sense. This season's finale cliffhanger was a clear influence on the Roswell episode of Futurama, a sure sign that it's a good one. And hey, no Q episode! I can't say I don't enjoy elements of his episodes, but a break from his antics was definitely welcome. How come I didn't realize until now that Majel Barrett, who was married to Gene Roddenberry and played Nurse Chapel in the original series, plays not only the voice of the ship computer in The Next Generation, but also Troi's annoying, wacky mother? Weird. Anyway. Star Trek is Star Trek.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 4

Another couple weeks, another season of Star Trek. It sort of feels like work at this point, although I am enjoying it more than the original series still. The problem is more with my expectations from a series than the show itself. I'm used to the modern style of serialized storylines, whether they're integral to the show or just affecting character development in the background. Even Castle, which off the top of my head might be the most episodic thing I watch, makes it feel like some things are changing and moving forward. The Next Generation has the smallest hints of continuing stories, with the closest thing the show has to a genuine arc so far being Worf's false dishonor with the Klingons, which gets revisited a couple times including the season finale, which is once again the first part of a two part story that suggests a big change for the crew but will undoubtedly result in the status quo being restored in the season five premiere.

As usual, there's some good and bad. Wesley is finally gone, after being made a full ensign by Picard he at last went off to Starfleet Academy, only to reappear occasionally for the rest of the show. I have to say I've been disappointed by Geordi quite a bit. I was hoping for more from the host of Reading Rainbow, but for the most part he's every awkward, dorky TV character thrown into outer space, an expert at maintaining the Enterprise but hopeless at personal interaction, especially with the ladies.

It's okay though, because exactly 100 episodes in, I can say with confidence that Picard is a better captain than Kirk, and while I'll still take the original show's top three over Riker and Data, I'll also still say I prefer the main cast of The Next Generation as a whole. I could have declared the Picard preference earlier I guess, but I'm definitely sure of it now. Stewart's a way better actor than Shatner, and he's simply a more competent commander, more concerned with running the ship properly than exploring strange new vaginas. And I kind of like him more as just a dude, too. His scenes of levity are a more likable self deprecating sort than Kirk making fun of Spock because hahahahaha he's a Vulcan. I have 78 episodes to go, and I'm still trucking.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 3

This was supposed to be the season where the show really got good... and it did, I guess. It at least seemed more consistent in having watchable episodes instead of embarrassing ones. And there are some pretty good stories in here, I'm just having trouble remembering what they are. Oh yeah, the one with Data creating an AI "daughter" was good. Seems like he's in a lot of the best episodes. The alternate reality/time travel one that brought back Yar for a little while was interesting. Worf continued to grow into a more intriguing character than just being the token alien on the crew, although some of his best moments are just using his badassness for comedy instead of actual badass things. And you have to give them credit for ending the season the way they did, in the middle of the first two-part story since the pilot, with the crew in disarray. Sure, I know it's going to be resolved by the end of the season four premiere, but it's still a brave way to do things for a show that lives on the one-plot-per-week system. I've still got more than half the series to go, but I do have to say I've been enjoying it more than the original.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 2

A few things happened this season. Riker grew a beard. Doctor Crusher disappeared while another woman took her place temporarily. Her son continued to be an annoying punk. Worf got his groove on. Data constantly pondered the mysteries of being a human. Some things made Deanna pretty upset. Geordi continued to wait for his moment to shine. Picard kept on running the ship the way he wanted to. There were finally some pretty darn good episodes, like the trial deciding whether Data could be considered a life form or not. Some good stuff on the holodeck. They had the gall to end the season with a clip show, which is nigh inexcusable. I've found that I tend to enjoy the little moments between characters that reveal some small details more than the main plots of episodes, which are usually fine but not too exciting. For example, there's a scene where Riker cooks a meal for a few other officers, and thanks to the odd ingredients Worf is the only one who ends up liking it. So far at least, the show is at its best when it's just considering life a few hundred years in the future. They introduced the Borg this season, which are an interesting new foe but yet to be fully explored. Since the next season is the general consensus of when the show actually got good, I'm fairly excited to continue watching.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 1

So I've heard from multiple Trek fans that this show doesn't really get good until the third season. Of course, me being me, I couldn't just skip 48 episodes, so I started at the beginning as usual. And it was... fine. Seemed like normal Star Trek to me. I'm pretty sure I like the cast more than the original series. I mean, I'm still undecided on Kirk versus Picard, and Wesley is pretty annoying. But while it's hard to beat the original's trio of Kirk, Spock, and Bones, the overall main crew of The Next Generation is broader and more interesting. And when a regular departs, they don't just mysteriously stop showing up on the bridge, they get a proper send off.

I'm not saying bad The Next Generation is as good as the best of the original series, because in this first season there really aren't any standout episodes like Kirk and company had. There's just a baseline level of quality - watchable but easy to lose your attention. If I didn't have other stuff to do while it was on, I might get tired of it. But if I just have some episodic science fiction that doesn't require a huge investment on while I'm working on something, The Next Generation works out pretty nicely. I'll keep watching it for now, even if it will be another while before it starts setting my world on fire.

Best Movies of 2009

Every year it seems like I intend to get out and see more movies, and every year I fail once again. I only visited the theater nine times, and only managed to at least catch one new movie at home before writing this. Quite shameful. It didn't exactly strike me as the best year, with only one film I'd call outstanding in addition to a handful of solid genre stuff. I should have at least seen the new Coen movie, though.

Best of 2009

7. The Men Who Stare at Goats


I'm not sure what's holding me back from really embracing this movie, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. Any time a comedy takes a few steps away from the traditional beats of the genre, it's usually worth at least a try, and this film makes for a nice mix of relevance and sci-fi absurdity. Plus it's hard to go wrong with that cast.

6. The Hangover

There really isn't that much that separates this movie from the pack of mainstream comedy, but the likability of the whole cast and especially Zach Galifianakis' breakout role just make it work. It was a bit of a risk letting him do his own thing in what is otherwise fairly standard stuff, but thankfully it seems to have been a good idea. Definitely hits the ceiling for this sort of movie.

5. Avatar


Flawed yes, but ultimately I find Avatar much easier to like than hate. It's already the second highest grossing movie worldwide ever, after of course Cameron's last movie, but I actually enjoyed this one for the most part, and it didn't do the disservice of putting me off one of the best actors currently in his 30s for about a decade.

4. Zombieland


Just a straight-up fun movie and one of the best surprises of the year. I don't know how much the writers being handed Deadpool affects the possibility of sequels going forward, but I'm not sure they're necessary. Just showing a snippet of life in the zombie apocalypse was all they had to do, and it worked out pretty well in pretty much any way you could hope. Good times.

3. District 9


I didn't love it like it seemed most of the online community did, but it was still a well done, passionate film that had something to say. It's striking how similar it is to Avatar in some ways, but District 9 isn't weighed down by a budget in the hundreds of millions and a need to make that all back, allowing it to take chances and present a more interesting, darker vision. And I won't get tired of watching people explode into splashes of red goo for a long time.

2. Star Trek


I've seen 79 episodes and seven films in this series, and I enjoyed this the most pretty easily. We'll see how much longer its success can carry my interest in exploring the decades-old franchise, but in case I'll always enjoy it for being a relatively intelligent space travel movie with a very likable cast and wonderfully paced adventure. You know, I didn't even realize Eric Bana was the villain while I was watching it? That was odd. I need to see it again now that I know Bones is awesome.

1. Inglourious Basterds


Basterds wasn't really what anyone who didn't read the script expected. And for some people that was a very bad thing. They wanted a couple hours of Brad Pitt and some Jews kicking Nazi ass, and instead they got a lot of long scenes mostly depicting extended conversations between some Europeans. And they were disappointed. For those people, I am very sorry that they didn't get it. I could have enjoyed what the trailers seemed to promise, but what I actually got was so much smarter, and better, and well, more Quentin Tarantino. He had the audacity to end the movie by having Brad Pitt look at the audience and essentially call the film his masterpiece, and you know what, I think it was. Fantastic movie.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

A couple movies ago they showed how to make Star Trek funny and make it work, and this time they showed that it can totally succeed by taking itself seriously. There are of course a few moments of levity sprinkled throughout, but Undiscovered Country is generally a very somber, tense movie that succeeded beyond my expectations for the franchise. The conflict is yet again with the Klingons, though it's different this time - a lasting peace is in the cards, but a plot involving mistaken identity and sabotage puts that in jeopardy. The Klingons were always a sci-fi parallel to the USSR, and with the Cold War ending, the writer decided to absolve their differences with Starfleet in basically the same way. There's some really interesting scenes of diplomacy and non-violent conflict, like a dinner with some emissaries that doesn't go too well, and a surprisingly suspenseful trial. Kim Cattrall is another surprising actress to play a young Vulcan officer, but she does a decent job and helps provide the only time the mind meld has ever been scary. It's not a perfect film, but it's definitely a good one, and a nice send-off for the original crew. The end credits begin with the cast literally signing off in farewell, which makes it all the more pathetic that three of them came back yet again in the next movie. But I won't be seeing that for a while.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

The previous Trek movie showed how to make the series funny and do it right. This one shows how to do it terribly, terribly wrong. The film is downright silly. It's not clever or intelligent, it's downright slapsticky. It gets more serious as it goes on, though it never really gets good. You know a plot is on weak footing when it has to go back and give the most developed character a secret half brother to get to the point. I guess William Shatner was trying when he came up with the story and directed this, but very little about it works, and this is when I started feeling kind of depressed about how old everyone looks. I mean, this movie was released twenty years after the TV series ended. And yet here they all are, dancing erotically, scooting around on rocket boots, and being written out of a scene by banging their head on the ship. There are a couple moments that almost work, but by and large it can only be considered poor. The ending is among the films' most bizarre and meaningless, as the conflict just sort of dies without much resolution. I can't even remember what happened to certain key players. Just not good.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Leonard Nimoy's second turn as director might actually be my favorite of the original Star Trek movies that I've seen. The second one had some good stuff in it, but The Voyage Home is just consistently entertaining throughout. It starts as a relatively serious, normal Trek story. Kirk and the crew are returning to Earth to face trial for their insubordination in traveling to retrieve Spock, and there's a mysterious alien probe headed on the same course. It's all pretty normal, but once the words "humpback whale" are uttered, it basically turns into a comedy. They do their absurd slingshot-around-the-sun thing to go back in time, and embark on an unusual mission to save the Earth's future, and some animals as well. These guys have gone back in time before, but it's never been this consistently funny. Things like Spock's experimentation with profanity, Bones' distaste for modern medical practices, and Chekov asking people if they know where to find nuclear wessels are great, and it's funny how cavalier they are about changing the past and causing potential paradoxes. This year's Trek film was pretty humorous as well, and that's probably the best tone for the series, at least from what I've seen. It's a series about the fun and wonder of having adventures through space and time, not gritty galactic conflict. The film's not without flaws, but it's enjoyable throughout.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

The third Trek film opens with a recap of the second, including the funeral, which happens to be the best scene in this movie too. This film forms a trilogy of sorts with the previous and the next, and Search is actually fairly eventful for the middle of a story. There's not a whole lot of Nimoy on screen, though he was actually behind the camera as the director for this one, and does a decent job. There's some bizarre casting decisions and it's a bit anticlimactic, but definitely affected the least by the odd-numbered curse on the original cast Trek films. Klingons (led by an out-of-place Christopher Lloyd) are after the technology developed and activated in the last movie, and stumble upon Kirk's son, a reincarnated Spock (have I not mentioned he "died"? He "died"), and the recast Kirstie Alley character. Kirk and the rest of the crew enact a plan to commandeer the Enterprise and come to the rescue, and though parts of that story are entertaining, it never gets exciting like you'd hope from the films' first Klingon/Starfleet conflict. After that gets resolved, there's still the case of Spock and turning him truly back into the man he should be. There's some emotional moments and bits of humor sprinkled around, and it ends with things left to accomplish. Like most of the earlier Trek canon, I can say it's... not bad.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

The consensus is that Wrath of Khan is not only better than the first Trek film, but probably the best out of the lot of them, at least before this year's remake thing. I can't speak for the second part yet, but they were right about the first. It's noticeably shorter than the first one yet seems to pack a lot more in, including some actual action sequences and a few of the franchise's most iconic moments. The space funeral at the end with Kirk's speech is particularly memorable, and no one can forget him shouting his foe's name at the top of his lungs. I've come to expect the unexpected with these things, and one surprise was seeing a young Kirstie Alley as an up-and-coming Vulcan officer. Ultimately though she didn't seem to do much, and gets replaced by a different actress in the next movie. There's also a subplot with an ex of Kirk's and the son they apparently had together, although I didn't pay attention to a lot of that. The focus is on Khan's elaborate revenge plot involving taking over ships and even people's minds, and using a special device to annihilate everything as a last resort. There's some sacrifice and sad goodbyes, although it's all temporary as the cast would stick together for another four films after this one. I wouldn't call it a great science fiction movie, but it was certainly fairly entertaining and a good step up from the first one.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek's first film incarnation is a bit interesting. Conceptually that is, not so much to watch. Being released ten years after the series ended, the whole main cast returns, though they've all aged visibly in the meantime. So their characters aged as well, showing Kirk as an admiral now, retaking command of an updated Enterprise on a dangerous mission. It's well over half an hour before the crew is back together, and I think about fifty minutes in when he finally reunites with Spock. Needless to say, the movie's pace is slow. There's really not that much going on as far as a conflict - an alien threat exists, but it doesn't put the main cast in a whole lot of apparent danger. I'll admit I didn't pay as much attention as I could have, but I didn't see a whole lot of the movie really striving for me to do so. It's interesting to see what was big in special effects at the end of the 70s, but that's really about it. The subplot involving the displaced captain and some bald woman proved to be fairly important, but still, it was struggling at the edge of doing something compelling. It's hard to really dislike anything about the series, but this movie bored me for most of its duration.

Star Trek - Season 3

And so the beginning of one of science fiction's longest tenured franchises comes to an end. Not with a bang, but a whimper. The final episode is a pretty standard one, no goodbyes or anything, just a lame body switch storyline to throw on the pile of overused ideas the writers liked to recycle every few episodes. There really weren't many standout episodes from this season, and no significant new characters either. Uhura got semi-replaced by some white lady near the end, but that was about it. I realize I'm asking too much from something that did so much for the genre and was made in the 60s, I just find it hard to get excited about such poor production values and lack of ambition with character or plot. I know I'm not the only one who thinks the show had fallen pretty far by this point though, so I don't feel too bad about ragging on it. I'm just glad that I became interested in the medium after The Sopranos left its mark, because without some sort of reward for sticking to it and making an effort to watch every week, there's no reason not to just cherry pick a few good episodes and stick with those. I can see myself leaving the TV on if I flip to some old Trek episode, but I can also easily see myself leaving five minutes later to do the laundry or something. There's something to be gained from checking this show out, but I was already aware of most of its contributions anyway through cultural osmosis. Oh well.

Star Trek - Season 2

New features for Star Trek's second season:

- The first use of the classic arena music is here I believe, when Spock and Kirk are forced to fight to the death. It then pops up again every couple episodes.
- Kirk has a new green v-neck command shirt with a sideways Starfleet emblem at his hip instead of on his chest. I don't really like it, but he only wears it half the time.
- Kirk gets busy with alien ladies a lot more often. Most of them just look like humans, but it happens all the time.
- McCoy gets his name in the main credits. He deserves it, he might actually be my favorite character.
- Chekov shows up. He's a really lame character. In a show where the Enterprise can travel back in time by going really fast, the episode where a gorgeous female member of the landing party is totally into him was the hardest to believe.
- It might just be me, but I feel like the idiosyncrasies of Kirk's speech patterns are much stronger now. This is where people got the justification to mock him until the end of time.
- They've done it before, but this was the season where they really went wild with extremely powerful computers and robots that are always defeated by using logic against them to either fry their circuits or cause them to shut themselves down. It's clever the first time guys, but it becomes a cliché when it happens every time.
- I'm pretty sure the return of Mudd is the first instance of a recurring character who's not an Enterprise crewman, and still the only one so far.
- Another new plot nugget they decided to use repeatedly is that of a planet that has molded its entire culture after a specific period and place in Earth history. You want Kirk and Spock to fight Nazis? You got it!
- Glowing, multi-colored brains in a glass dome.
- It took a while, but we finally have a scene with a bunch of exotic-looking aliens all meeting in a room on the Enterprise. This should have happened in the pilot.
- And lest I forget, we have the first recorded instance of a parallel universe in which the evil version of a character has a goatee. Good stuff.

The thing about Star Trek is I can't decide if I like it more when it's good or bad.