The Paradise Syndrome

DVD, Star Trek S3 (The Paradise Syndrome)

Very strange to see an episode start with an idyllic view of a pine lake, even if the big three do beam in shortly after! In some ways this is a very impressive episode. You have brilliant sets, mostly from nature, but also the Obelisk is imposing and huge! The production values are up there with the modern series'. We also get another parallel Earth kind of thing, this time with Injuns. Although it's not exactly parallel... and we get an explanation for it, with the Preservers, who had seeded various worlds. McCoy thinks this would account for many of the humanoid aliens that are seen in Trek, and that's as good a theory as any!

The only problems with the episode are that some of the romantic scenes drag, and the visual of the Obelisk's beam pushing the asteroid away looks a bit rubbish, compared with the rest of the effects which feel like the series had turned a corner. The Enterprise in front of the asteroid looks good, as does the other effects such as beams and zaps. Maybe some of the stones used in the stoning didn't behave stonily enough. But the acting of stones has never been reliable.

I believe I've never seen the episode before, though I knew the broad strokes. I didn't know that Miramanee would die, but I guessed. It would have been an idea to let the child survive somehow, and fun to think Kirk had a child on a planet somewhere. It was really good to have Kirk live another life, and the subplot of the Enterprise having to leave was so well tied into the main story. All the characters were in it, although Uhura didn't have any lines. Scotty gets upset at his engines being abused, McCoy pulls medical rank, then Spock disobeys the moment he's out of the room. Even Sulu gets to have his navigation visor whirr into place! And it's so good to see Nurse Chapel beam down to a planet for a change. If only it had been Spock saying she was needed instead of McCoy, it would have made her day.

Salish was an adequate adversary, but I wished he'd tried more murder attempts to keep the pace up a little. As it was, the inevitable fight was really good with Kirk getting to do some tough moves. The solution to getting into the Obelisk was also very satisfying with the sound of the communicator the key. I'm a bit surprised with the quality of the episodes so far in Season Three, as I expected a lot worse. These are pretty much as good as what's gone before, but I don't know how long it can last.

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