Childhood's End

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S1 (Childhood's End)

The first episode I would consider a genuinely good one, perhaps because it's in the classic formula of an 'SG-1' story, or it might just be because I haven't watched it for a few weeks and it's nice to be back in that world. I felt that concentrating on a team of four worked well, and the episode didn't follow a set path that I was ticking off on my fingers as I watched: is this going to be a story where Teyla's natural native survival abilities put her more technologically dependent colleagues to shame, and they learn to survive without guns, compasses and their usual devices? No. Is it going to be a story about escaping from captives who don't trust these outsiders? Not exactly. Will we get a moral dilemma when they realise they've actually rained down The Wraith upon a peaceful, unsuspecting people? Again, not exactly. With a name like 'Childhood's End' you immediately suspect (certainly by the time the team is greeted by a mix of Robin Hood's band and the Lost Boys from 'Hook'), that they're going to be dealing with minors - but are they really children, or are they unusually long-lived (like the ones in 'Miri' on 'Star Trek'), or will there be some other kind of gimmick?

It turns out to be quite an interesting moral problem, but these people aren't bound by any Prime Directive as the members of Starfleet are, only their moral compass, which seems to be flickering as much as the actual compass Ford brought with him! At least, McKay has absolutely no qualms about taking a ZPM (I like that he says 'Zed,' like us English viewers - he must be Canadian), despite its integral role in preventing the Wraith from attacking the villages on this world. He happily snaps it up and whisks it off back to Atlantis, with Sheppard's blessing, and though Dr. Weir shows great concern at what he's done, there's no imperative to get it back at top speed. Actually, I felt Weir wasn't being entirely realistic, because for all she knows, their whole survival on Atlantis might rest on this ZPM, so she was a little too quick to discount it. Obviously it's despicable for humans to be running around to other planets and stealing the natives' integral defence tech, and I'm surprised this hasn't come up before: something as powerful as a ZPM is never likely to be lying around without any important use that others are depending on, so I suppose they must be banking on taking one from a dead civilisation, or enemies. But that whole moral conundrum isn't the most immediate problem. That is: getting it back before The Wraith find out it's missing and their tech will work.

The ticking clock is most effective, because we have the likeable, friendly, and open 'elder' (all of twenty-four, just a year younger than Lieutenant Ford), Keras, who's time has come, and that very night he must perform 'the sacrifice,' a ritual suicide (shades of 'Logan's Run'), because these people believe that only by keeping their age down will The Wraith think them an unworthy harvest of which to reap their diabolical gathering. And they think it's been effective, since the evil ones haven't shown up since this was put into practice. Naturally, there's a polar opposite elder, Aries, who will take on the mantle of leader once Keras is out of the picture, and he's aggressively suspicious of the 'full-growns' as they're called, so there's a war on both fronts - how to convince them their apparently barbaric culture is unnecessary, and also how to prevent The Wraith from returning to take their harvest once again. McKay has to do a lot of running - I liked that they show the two younger men getting back to the group long before him, as they rush to tell Aries that the shield device is real, and they've seen it work, but not before poor Keras gets an arrow to the chest in defence of Sheppard.

Okay, so it's not really doing anything particularly new that hasn't been seen in other sci-fi for decades, but, like 'SG-1' could sometimes do, it looks good, the characters are enjoyable to watch, and we get plenty to enjoy in the span of the story, from McKay having two young children befriend him, much to his annoyance, to Keras surviving, and the episode ending on a high as he's given a gift of chocolate, and shares it out to all the children as the team leave, the ZPM back in place, safely to guard the villages once more, so it's a pretty positive conclusion. There's the immediate threat of a Wraith drone scouring the planet before heading back to the Stargate to report, there's the threat from Aries, whose overzealous comrades are ready to fire arrows, in typically hotheaded youthful reaction, and as I said, the need to convince Keras to forgo suicide because it's not that that's making the difference. It's not as simple as challenging their belief system, they have to understand it, though it comes merely from a leap of speculation from McKay that the suicide system wasn't purely to give them a peaceful death and keep Wraith away, but in fact was the method of keeping the population minimal so they would stay within the shield's protection instead of necessitating expansion beyond its sphere.

There is a slight tang of bitterness for the future, because the ZPM will eventually fail, and with the drone visiting, activated by the transponder of a dead Wraith, left in reverence as a reminder of the old days, it could become a planet once again on their radar. But the moral minefield is successfully traversed, and they can go in peace. I'd love to see a follow-up where the Wraith have indeed returned, but it's unlikely since it would take many years for the power to degrade. Unless… perhaps some of the youngsters played with it and it got turned off again. 'SG-1' occasionally revisited planets or had their occupants return for one reason or another, and though I wouldn't want this young population to be threatened, it would make for an interesting continuation. As McKay said so unthinkingly, they could all come and live at Atlantis if it came to it - they've got an empty city, why not have it filled? Weir puts the kibosh on that idea, saying they can't go off to alien worlds and bring back all the inhabitants every time, and as it is, they're only just able to keep the station functioning with their minimal presence. That could be an interesting development, as, like 'DS9' or 'Babylon 5,' it would be fun to see a thriving community living in the city, using it the way it was meant to be. Maybe that will be the direction they eventually explore, though so far they've shown more willingness to get rid of people, with the Athosians moving to the mainland.

There's a fun reference to Colonel Carter by McKay, who clearly misses his time spent helping SG-1, though really he misses time spent with Samantha Carter! But he's really coming into his own as a series regular, and though Sheppard's decisions were a little questionable (would O'Neill have sanctioned pulling out the pin of the defence system so quickly? - they need a Dr. Jackson to counteract such behaviour), he's able to keep everyone calm so a shooting match doesn't take out half the bow and arrow posse. The question of whether they should be interfering in this alternative culture isn't so much a question as a definite necessity, since people were meekly accepting early death when they didn't need to, and in that respect they did the right thing persuading them of the error of their ways - they did it by action, not words: if they'd just said 'you're wrong,' they wouldn't have been listened to, but when they saw the result of the shield being turned on, it was all the persuasion needed, even if the team were initially acting from self-interest rather than any attempt to assist this race. The beautiful, grassy forest and environs make it good for the mental health, as such natural sights always are, and they even begin to discuss the fact that all the planets they visit are so alike, but McKay's cut off before he can make the observation about the sky being that colour because that's the best environmental result. It gets them off the hook for not doing enough 'alien' worlds, but it's true that if there was life like us, it would probably be on worlds created in the same image as ours, so I buy their explanation rather than budgetary reasons!

***

The Menagerie, Part II

DVD, Star Trek S1 (The Menagerie, Part II)

This one is still as good as ever, and I enjoyed it just as much as when it was called 'The Cage'! It's essentially the back half of the first pilot with only the occasional interjection by members of the hearing to remind us that they're watching along with us. It gets a bit weird when we get to the parts where the Talosians are watching Pike and Vina, Kirk and company are watching them watching, and we're watching them, watching them! You almost expect some kind of feedback loop where the reels suddenly explode off their spindles and the whole universe grinds to a halt. We also have rudimentary opening and closing scenes set aboard the Enterprise, but for the most part we're treated to a retelling of that great pilot, although it is clever how they zoom in or out of the picture to go in and out of the hearing room, almost as punctuation to the story. No doubt it was to facilitate advert breaks, and you could tell when they were about to come out of the recording or as they were going back in, because the double exposure of the projected image was much more grainy and dark than the perfectly clear original transfer. The recap at the beginning had a selection of scenes, but there was an odd moment when Spock's charges are read to him, with Spock, Kirk and Mendez seemingly on a black background and the Commodore speaking quite robotically, so I think that must have been newly filmed, not a clip from Part I.

I later put it down to Mendez being an illusion throughout this episode (ironic that he should be a Talosian projection, since actor Malachi Throne did the voices for them in 'The Cage,' and proves to be their voice again, in a, shall we say, 'manner of speaking'!), and, apparently, much of the previous, though he speaks pretty normally the rest of the time - maybe former commander of Starbase 11, Commodore Stone, was also an illusion of the Talosians, which would explain why he disappeared so quickly after 'Court Martial'… I had forgotten this little rug pull, but had unfortunately been reading the background details to Part I on Memory Alpha, spoiling it for me, but it remains a clever twist in the tale, although the whole idea of having him there to keep Kirk watching the events sent by the Talosians, keeping the Captain's mind on the events so he didn't dismiss Spock without a hearing, was a bit of a stretch. Why not make Kirk think he's still on Starbase 11 with Spock there, too, or that Spock hasn't done anything wrong. Or, as Kirk said, Spock should have simply come clean with his Captain and friend, and explained everything. But I suppose it was more effective to show rather than tell. Of course that doesn't explain why Starfleet was so accommodating about the incident, suspending the death penalty in this case for extenuating circumstances. I get that it's there to stop the curious from bothering the Talosians and trying to learn their powers of illusion, which would destroy their world as it did the Talosians (in their view), but it still seems excessive when the Federation doesn't have any other death penalties.

The episode is astoundingly well written ('The Cage,' that is - not that 'The Menagerie' isn't, but there's not a lot of new material), and still looks great, feels fresh and daring, while holding a lot of history. It's amazing the executives found this to be the weaker and preferred the inferior 'Where No Man Has Gone Before,' which was a lot less exciting, with fewer great characters. Those in the first pilot continue to carry a lot of weight and interest, especially Dr. Boyce in his few scenes, but also Number One, with her silvery blue fingernails and slightly distant look. It's also pretty wild that a change in hairstyle and colour could create two such different characters as Number One and Nurse Chapel, and it's only a shame that she's not in the episode, as that would have been another in-joke that might have broken the bank, but it would have been fascinating to see the nurse comment about Number One! If we don't see Chapel, neither do we see any other main cast, unless you count Mr. Leslie, loyally working away at his station on the Bridge, but I don't recall even Uhura in the background, let alone Sulu or Scotty, and even McCoy is absent from the hearing. It's a quiet audience of Kirk, Spock, Mendez and the crippled Pike, and I think he only ever answered "Yes," during the whole episode! Ironically the end credits are duplicated from Part I, so everyone's credited, even if they don't show up. It made me wonder if Scotty could have been an Engineer during Pike's time, or it he'd have been too young. It also makes me wonder if we'll see any of the old Enterprise crew under Pike, in 'Discovery' - if they could pull off Dr. Boyce I'd love to see him again as I think he was one of the best that never was, the actor holding a lot of depth in his delivery and attitude.

If the ending of 'The Menagerie' is a little suspect and gives the episode short shrift (apart from the last moments which I'll go into shortly), it was at least continuing the tradition from 'The Cage,' which also gave us left field conclusions: the main one being that as Pike threatens to detonate an overloading laser gun, the Talosians get around to assimilating the human database and lo and behold, they realise that humans have a 'unique' hatred of captivity. Well, there you are then, of course we won't keep you, you'd better be on your way! If it had been the Talosian facing death, it would have made more sense, as they would come up with any reason to comply, but Pike had already said Vina and the Keeper were free to go, as a sign of what humans are really like, so it didn't have that excuse. The other misstep was Vina's true form being higgledy-piggledy because the Talosians had never seen a human before and 'didn't know how to fit her back together'! They look practically the same as humans: face, eyes, shoulders, arms, etc. So why wouldn't they be able to extrapolate a form similar to their own? Of course it adds a bittersweet parting for Vina, and adds immensely to her character, while once again showing off the wonders of the aliens' powers, and I wouldn't have wanted to lose it, in spite of its illogic.

If the ending from 'The Cage' has the flaws of a necessarily quick wrap-up, 'The Menagerie' adds some greatness, with an artistic flourish to reuse some of the old footage from the episode (in the same way as 'All Good Things…' had a young Riker at the end of 'TNG'), by having the Keeper speak to Kirk via the monitor - because they use 'thought transmissions,' the Keeper's lips didn't need to be synched to some new lines, so it's an expert addendum, with the final brilliance being the genius reuse of the original ending where Vina gets an illusion of Pike to stay with her, but this time it's the real Pike, enjoying the illusory body the Talosians give him, two paralysed or damaged peopled together finding a new lease of life, and it doesn't even undo what happened with Vina taking the fake Pike back to the caves in 'The Cage' because that was years ago and no doubt she'd prefer the real man, even if he was in a false body. So it's a sweet moment of resolution to a story that had originally taken place thirteen years in Trek's history (or a couple, in real world production terms), adding another layer of joy to the proceedings and capping it off very satisfyingly. The two-parter also set the precedent (not the least for having two-parters!), of revisiting situations, characters or places previously seen in Trek, something we can be grateful for!

In reality, we don't see much of the titular menagerie, even less than in the original episode (which might be for the best, as they weren't the greatest creature designs), but it leaves much to the imagination, and I especially love how both titles come from the same line of dialogue by Pike: "We're in a menagerie; a cage," he tells Vina. It could almost have been the Nexus for its ability to take you to any life or situation, imagined or real, not least the parallels drawn by both Kirk, Picard and Pike all having an affinity for horses! And the effects continue to impress, especially the powered up mounted laser that blasts away at the rocky entrance to the Talosians underground lair, flashing and groaning in a most effective light and sound show. Re-watching the scenes from the pilot also help you notice little things you hadn't thought about before, such as Pike's crew having proper utility belts with loops or tags in which to slot the Communicators and lasers, instead of the brown belts and velcro we'd seen this season - I really do love the aesthetic from this period, from the muted uniform colours to the design of the weapons and even the coloured lights on black, shiny panels aboard ship. I really wish 'Discovery' was going to be true to that aesthetic since they're in this time period and Trek has always been a period piece, so why would you ignore the established look, even if a little tweaking was required to round off the rough edges. We'll see, maybe they'll be closer than we've seen of initial designs…

I felt Vina was another really good performance, running the gamut from fear, to torture as we pity her horrible screams in the punishment, to jealousy and desperation for Pike to play the game. The most pitiable moment is when we see that she accepts the Talosians' ownership of her as they've broken her down, but being the hero, Pike doesn't kowtow even with these professions of gloom, and remains fired up in his dedication to escape, though naturally he does fall for her at the same time. I wonder why the Keeper actually spoke to him, for once, instead of keeping up the distance and using thought transmission, as before? Was it an attempt to get him onside with more civilised behaviour, since he reacted so badly to their objectifying him as a captive creature and talking about, rather than to, him? I also thought it was exceedingly well written when he and the Keeper talk at cross purposes, both saying what they want to say, but ignoring what the other says, the Keeper trying to distract him from his deductions by telling the story of how Vina came to be there, while Pike, in interrogatory attitude, pries into the fact the Keeper was shocked by his violent reaction. Naturally, the important thing is that Spock is off the hook by the end, trust with Kirk regained. Because if he'd go that far for his former commander, just think how far he'd go for his current Captain, something he'd prove with his 'needs of the many' saving of the Enterprise with the loss of his own life in 'Star Trek II.' It wasn't specifically for Kirk, but it shows the deep loyalty and self-sacrificial nature, first demonstrated here, where he put both career and life at risk so Pike could have his back. The height of heroism.

***

The Menagerie, Part I

DVD, Star Trek S1 (The Menagerie, Part I)

A perfect example of where constraining the art with budgetary concerns led to the mother of all invention, pushing our characters into a dramatically different situation and adding copious levels of history to an already unfolding saga - they could never have guessed how long it would continue to be added to, but if thirteen years prior to the episode sounds like a long time, just ponder a moment on the fact of fifty years into the future, and the saga is about to continue, having barely been away in any of the fallow periods since. And it all started with this. Well, it all started with the story this episode envelops and uses as its excuse the challenge to finally utilise the unseen original pilot. It was a masterclass in resource management, to give it a dull monicker, but nevertheless demonstrated Roddenberry's genius at… I don't want to say penny-pinching, but certainly taking advantage of every last asset he could (later to be seen in his side business selling off Trek-related merchandise!). No doubt he wanted the first ever episode of Trek to be seen by the public instead lying unused in some vault, never to be admired for its innovations and invention, and most of all, its high quality storytelling. It wouldn't be until the 1980s that it would be shown in its entirety on TV as 'The Cage,' but thanks to this, the first and only two-part episode of Trek (we have it to thank for setting a precedent for the likes of 'Best of Both Worlds,' 'Scorpion,' 'Dark Frontier' and many other 'event' episodes that became a new weapon of power in Trek's storytelling arsenal), we're given much of the episode to enjoy.

What's so great about it is that it made the previous existence of the Enterprise and Spock canon when the series was still live, since 'The Cage' languished in obscurity at this time, and finally gives Roddenberry's desire for the ship to be one with a history, in stark contrast to so much in TV that is about the 'new,' the 'latest,' the experimental vessel, the unknown quantity. It's a different outlook, and again shows that Gene thought very differently to the majority, making him able to devise such a popular and long-lived universe that could still be filled in for decades of TV and film. But it could all have gone so badly wrong because with this episode you're literally comparing Captains and crews of a ship that had become beloved, and if the characters didn't live up to the ones viewers had come to know on the series, they might well be derisory of this 'old footage.' Actually, I wonder if audiences even knew that this hadn't been shot specifically for the episode - they must have marvelled at how different the familiar Enterprise looked: doors no longer red, a far more muted colour palette, long-necked viewers all over the place and darker-hued uniforms with insignia so much smaller than the ones on the series, while the Communicators were so much larger and the Phasers had a completely different design. And Spock, somehow he even looks younger!

The genius of the episode is in Spock's accounting for every variable, as a good Vulcan would (a Sherlock Holmes attribute), and even when things go wrong, with Kirk and Commodore Mendez pursuing in a shuttlecraft (another excuse to use that excellent set, though I wonder what name it had?), then running out of fuel, stranded in deep space, forcing Spock to rescue them (why did it have such low fuel and oxygen reserves? I suspect it wasn't fully powered up, but had been commandeered at short notice to enable swift pursuit). Spock, as in a little way are the viewers, is asked to choose between his Captains, both current and former, but finds a way to be loyal to both: he's given the choice to turn over control of the ship and save Kirk's career, which Mendez uses as a pawn against the Vulcan's conscience, saying that a Captain is responsible for whatever goes on under his command, and so Kirk will be for what Spock is doing - or save Pike's life, doomed to live out his days paralysed in a robotic chair having led an active, fulfilling life as Captain and Fleet Captain. It's great that we are made to feel that choice, too. Do we root for the apparently betrayed Kirk, who stood up for the integrity of his First Officer only to find Spock lied and stole his ship, or do we even care about the, nonetheless terrible, position of Pike, someone we don't even know and have no connection to beyond sympathy for his tragic accident in the midst of heroic self-sacrifice (Spock may have learned something from him there)?

We don't have reason to care about Pike at first, but as the story unfolds and we see how young and full of vitality he was thirteen years before, and how much Spock respects him, and then we see the personal doubts that pop him into three dimensions in one simple scene, we understand what a character he is. It's amazing Roddenberry was able to create two such brilliant Captains (three if you include Picard, though many added his colours after Gene's involvement diminished on 'TNG'), and even more that in one scene between a Doctor and his Captain, we learn so much about him. Despite having watched 'The Cage' only a few months ago, and expecting to zone out when we got to those clips of the story, I was just as enthralled as ever. It could be said that 'The Menagerie' is one of two clips episodes in Trek (the other being the dire 'Shades of Grey' from 'TNG,' another money-saving episode that didn't have the benefit of an extra pilot to fill in the gaps!), and may be almost the only example of that type of episode to be as enjoyable as an ordinary 'new' episode. Out of many series' that have used the technique ('Stargate SG-1' and 'Starsky & Hutch' to name two), only the 'Starsky & Hutch' episode 'Partners' stands out as being enjoyable.

The great thing is that you're not really being asked to divide your loyalties as a viewer, you're being gifted with the living history of this ship. Pike is a shadow of his former self, you don't compare the contemporary Pike with Kirk, but you care about him anyway because Spock evidently does. It's impressive that the characters and visuals of the pilot don't clash in a negative way with the series, probably because they were so expensively done, and so well written that we instantly get these people: the Captain at a crossroads of his life, the Doctor who knows just how to give advice (and may even be my favourite of the three we saw on 'TOS,' as controversial as it sounds - his style and wisdom in just that one scene in the Captain's Quarters alone is strong enough to make him an unforgettable character), Number One, visibly depressed at having to stay on the ship, but doing her duty anyway, and the fresh-faced young crewmembers, full of energy and brightness. That they still seem genuine and interesting, even when placed within an episode that has James T. Kirk, Dr. McCoy and an older Spock, shows them as having just as much potential as the newer characters that had become so familiar this deep into the season. It's also rather good fun to realise, probably for the only time in Trek history, that you're watching a Trek episode alongside Trek characters, a novelty that would be very hard to repeat! I love that the filming is noted as being impossible for a ship to record in such detail, to which Spock at first refuses to explain, but eventually it's revealed that the Talosians are sending this transmission.

We don't know much, if anything, about the Talosians in this episode, I don't think they even speak, but you can just tell from their huge craniums and self-satisfied gaze that they would have the power to record such intimate and narratively stimulating scenes beyond the capability of human technology (and things do sound very human-centric - Kirk even says something about there being no problem from aliens at one point, which sounds very odd!). And yet… in just the previous episode we're shown very detailed recordings of the Bridge, including a closeup of Kirk's inputs on his Command Chair! Did they forget about that? Kirk also says tapes can be altered to say anything or nothing, but in 'The Conscience of The King' the identity of Kodos is close to hinging on a voiceprint match. My theory is that, in fact, 'Court Martial' was what inspired this episode - they must have seen they could write and pull off a stagey court episode with recorded clips as evidence and decided to do the exact same thing, only this time it would be for Spock instead of Kirk, and the clips would be from the first pilot instead of new footage. It helped that 'Court Martial' was one of the best episodes produced to that point in the season, and unsurprising that they didn't actually show them back to back as this one does seem slightly derivative of the previous. Or it should do, but because much of the episode is focused on Spock's devious actions to kidnap Pike and take over the Enterprise, whisking it off on a top secret mission (the 'TNG' episodes where Data goes berserk or is undercover, such as 'Brothers' or 'Clues' are powerfully reminiscent: when a straight arrow 'goes bad' and uses all his considerable skill and resource to undermine the chain of command and his friends, it's highly compelling!), the hearing sessions don't take up as much running time as might be expected.

Indeed, the episode is much more about Spock and his tactics to accomplish his goal. Even Pike, the only one who knows all, is vehemently against Spock's actions, though you speculate it's because of his own self-sacrificial nature not wishing the Vulcan to ruin his career and especially his life in taking the trip to Talos IV, the only crime which carries the death penalty! The fallacy of Vulcans being incapable of lying must have been birthed here, with McCoy's heated defence of his usual sparring partner to Kirk. But if logic is the driving force then it must be clear that if it is logical to deceive, then a logical person would lie in that circumstance. I just watched an old 'Babylon 5' episode ('There All The Honour Lies'), which dealt with the same idea: the Minbari don't lie unless it's to save the honour of their clan (a contradiction in terms, to say the least!), and it is this exception to the general rule, or the assumption made by McCoy, that Spock uses to do what he feels he must. And he uses all his faculties to carry out the takeover, whether pushing around the technician in Starbase 11's Computer Operations Centre (probably a reuse of Engineering - he should have just nerve-pinched him right away!), using recorded tapes to create the voices that will give him the authority to take the Enterprise, and calmly, brazenly, taking command, beaming Pike aboard and leaving Kirk behind! Then, to cap it all, when he does allow Kirk and Mendez to catch up, he arrests himself and orders Security to confine him to quarters! But still the ship moves inexorably towards the forbidden destination.

It's nice that they went back to Starbase 11, which we'd seen in the preceding episode, although Commodore Stone has been replaced by Mendez. Perhaps this was because of Stone's inability to see Kirk's innocence and maybe someone higher up in the service felt someone had to take a fall for the whole incident, but it does seem remarkably fast turnaround for a Commodore to be replaced like that. Of course we don't know exactly how much time passed between the episodes, but it can be assumed they returned to the Starbase from being in the general area. I love it whenever they use the limited effects capabilities of the time to produce something beautiful, such as the image of the buildings stretching into the distance, while Starfleet crew wander in front of them, a seamless melding of set and matte painting that shows the ingenuity of the production at the time. Before all the pomp of the hearing aboard the Enterprise, where everyone (except Scotty!), wears dress uniform, we see a badge worn by Starbase personnel, a round gold star or many-petalled flower, but Mendez' and Miss Piper's badges looked slightly different, I thought.

Being a product of the sixties there are of course going to be some inconsistencies with the modern world and the main one would have to be McCoy's admittance of bafflement with the brain, saying that they've learned to tap into any organ of the body except the brain. He would be somewhat proved wrong even in the series' run, when he was able to remove Spock's own brain (in 'Spock's Brain,' funnily enough!), although I suppose you could still state the case that that was a purely physical operation and the Doctor was referring more to the intricacies of the organ. But people locked inside their own minds have been able to communicate for real, and although his comments are pretty accurate that the brain is the last organ to be fully understood, great strides appear to have been made, and are continuing to be discovered in medicine and surgery, so that you'd think by the 23rd Century, should humanity still continue as it is now, the brain would be fully mapped and understood. The huge chair Pike is confined to with his limited vocabulary of two lights for 'no' and one for 'yes,' is also rather anachronistic and limited, even if it does have some coolness about the aesthetics of a matte black finish and steel rimmed buttons. If the distaste of Mendez is common when he says Pike is kept alive mechanically, you wonder why they forced him to keep living if he was naturally going to die, which is one of those typically Trek issues ripe for exploration: at what point should technology be switched off and someone's natural existence be allowed to end, and on the other side, how far can reliance on machines and computers allow us to survive?

Those aren't issues discussed in the episode, and it may have been simply that Christopher Pike was such a legend of his day that they wished to reward him by doing everything possible to keep him alive in his almost vegetative state. For a character that appeared so little in the entirety of Trek onscreen, it's telling how well remembered he is. There's a fascination about who the Captain of the Enterprise was before Kirk (and to some extent who was before him, though Robert April, the first Captain, hasn't actually ever been officially made canon, his only appearance or reference being in non-canon 'The Animated Series'), which has led to Pike going down as this almost mythical figure, only enhanced by his self-doubt in 'The Cage,' and the last appearance he made, in 'The Menagerie, Part II.' But he had enough of a reputation that the Kelvin Timeline films chose to incorporate the man into 'Star Trek XI' and 'Star Trek Into Darkness,' and while that was a different universe, with a much older, more confident Pike, it was a delightful return for such a great character, and arguably Bruce Greenwood was the best actor in those films, and a tragedy that they killed him off, his presence greatly missed in 'Beyond.' Setting the next Trek series in the Pike era suggests that we'll almost certainly see more of him in 'Discovery,' and if we do I only hope whoever they find to play the role will be able to live up to the fine performances of the tragically short-lived Jeffrey Hunter, and Bruce Greenwood, and not just a stunt to use the name for brand recognition… I should also say that Sean Kenney as the paralysed Pike also made his mark in the role, somehow evoking the emotion of the man even though his face had to be in constant, mask-like stillness.

It wasn't kept a secret that this would be a two-parter, as the 'Part I' was visible in the opening title, but the ending, with Kirk standing in the empty hearing room aboard the Enterprise, as the closing titles begin, was hauntingly effective as he wonders what will become of Spock, himself and all of them. The words 'To be concluded next week' come up and the first cliffhanger was born. If Spock, Kirk and McCoy are forced to share air time with the previous cast of the series, we also see Uhura and Scotty in evidence, both doing their usual duties, with Uhura on the Bridge and Scotty operating the Transporter. No sign of Sulu, who's replaced by Hansen, when it would have been completely normal for Sulu to have answered Spock and been at the Helm station, so I wonder why they didn't include him. Once again it shows they didn't consider anyone part of the main cast except for the main three names. I would have thought Scotty would have the expertise to counteract Spock's computer control, but the Vulcan always had an impression of deep knowledge of ship's systems (as in 'The Wrath of Khan' where he saves the ship). Oddly, this would have been a good reason to write Scott out of the episode as had been done in some of the recent ones, or even show him trapped on the Starbase with Kirk, Spock acknowledging his skill by making sure he wasn't aboard to interfere, just as he tricks McCoy into boarding so Pike will have the best care possible on the journey.

They don't shy away from showing Spock's more emotional outlook in the records of the Talos mission, when his raised voice in scenes on the Bridge or his grin at the singing plants on the planet could have been edited out to be more in keeping with the Spock we know. Except, from reviewing the first half season of episodes I discovered that he's actually not as unemotional as I'd remembered, with many an outburst or overreaction, contrasted even more by the moments when he's completely cool under pressure, and at odds with his crew mates' animosity towards him for lack of empathy. We don't even see Spock reacting in disgust at his own behaviour, but then that would be counterintuitive and I expect he logically accepted his past as a learning experience he'd moved on from. There does seem some discrepancy in time, however, as he says the events we witness took place thirteen years ago, and he served with Pike for eleven years. So how long has he been under Kirk and was there another commanding officer between Pike and Kirk? Or did he transfer, or take a leave of absence? He and Kirk do appear to be fairly comfortable with each other when we first see them, so it could be the five year mission had already been running a good couple of years when we first see it, which would mean that far from missing the last couple of years, we actually missed the first two!

Mr. Leslie can only be seen in the corridor during Spock's announcement, though it could be one of the other Leslie's as he's wearing gold instead of the usual red, and I think it might even have been stock footage from an earlier episode. I liked hearing of 'Operations' on the Starbase as it's the first we hear of Ops, something that would be so integral to 'DS9' and 'Voyager.' The portable disc reader with its incorporated viewer is becoming quite common now that I've recognised it a few times - here, there's one sat on the computer bank at Starbase 11's operations centre where Spock is fiddling with the voice commands. His zip is visible again: when he's on the Enterprise Bridge leaning over his console, though I would have thought they would have become hidden by this stage! And you could be forgiven for thinking the guy at the back of the Landing Party beaming down to Talos IV in the flashbacks was a MACO, for the huge backpack he had to carry, except we learnt from 'Beyond' that the organisation had disbanded long ago. It's surprising that this is as good an episode as it is, even when you know 'The Cage,' and in a way it might be improved by its place within another episode because it legitimises it even more and confirms the visual look of Starfleet a good few years before what we're witnessing. The 'envelope' idea was sterling, and they didn't lay back and fob us off with a substandard excuse for playing old clips, even if they were new to the audience, but put the very friendship of Kirk and Spock into question, the most honest, upright, dedicated officer apparently going rogue: history, mystery and mastery, all in one package. A great combination!

****

Star Trek 2017 TV Series - Delta Shield Insignia

Star Trek 2017 TV Series - Delta Shield Insignia

Canon alert! Canon alert! The good ship Discovery may need this extra state of readiness over and above the Red and Yellow varieties if the signs are true that they've already 'dissed' the history and sent Trekker hearts into fits of despair with but one teaser trailer: it's true, they've shown uniforms with insignia that's almost the Delta Shield, when, as any good Trekker knows, each ship of this era had its own design, and it was only post-'TOS' that the Enterprise's chevron was chosen to represent the entire Starfleet, and the reason we see it on all the other Trek series' (bar prequel 'Enterprise'). But that's the trouble with prequels, you're adding detail to an era we already know about and it would be hard to accept that the Delta Shield was actually common as muck across the board before it became the Enterprise insignia, before becoming rare again. But let us examine the facts or lack of facts so far before we lose our heads: technically, the new Delta Shield isn't exactly the same as the Enterprise's because it has a slice out of the right side. A narrow piece of logic, I know, as narrow as the slice out of the badge, but if we're being completely thorough about it, it's true. It would be a poor choice if it were simply a branding decision, but it could also show that they do care about the details that they'd give us such a close approximation, yet one that is actually different and allows for the canon.

I don't believe it was actually stated anywhere on screen (which is where all canon comes from), that every ship had a different insignia, but that intent was obvious from what was seen on screen, with various ships or posts appearing in 'TOS' with their own unique identification badges, something that was continued in the 'Enterprise' two-parter which recreated the missing USS Defiant ('In A Mirror, Darkly'), and added new insignia, as none had been seen for it previously. But this is set in the Pike era, so we don't know for sure what the policy was. We're also in the dark about the situation of the series, and its narrative backdrop, so we can't really comment on it as being wrong or divisive until we know why the series logo includes a split Delta Shield, something that has caused much speculation. Would I have preferred the insignia to be unique to the USS Discovery (or more unique, to be precise)? Yes, of course. Would I be appalled if the series' intent is to use the branding, whether that's badges, uniforms or characters, as the draw, at the expense of the history of 'Star Trek'? Absolutely. But we don't know this to be the case, as yet, and I'm willing to suspend judgement and wait for an in-universe explanation, as can always be given by the writers to solidify canon. I'd best not mention that the uniform is blue, yet the badge shows an Engineering symbol. Oh no, oops...

Anticipation Rating: ***

Court Martial

DVD, Star Trek S1 (Court Martial)

Captain Kirk's integrity is called into question in this, the genesis of all Trek trial episodes to come. And there were plenty to come (from 'Dax' and 'The Drumhead,' to 'Rules of Engagement,' 'The Measure of A Man' and 'Judgement,' to name but few), perhaps down to the success of the drama here, but also the cost savings associated with a more traditional form of drama that didn't require expensive alien costumes, ships or planets to be crafted for them to work. Saying that, an impression of cheapness was never one left by this story, instead it broadens the world far beyond the confines of the microclimate of the Enterprise and our repertory of characters like no other episode had done before, with the possible exception of 'The Cage' for giving us a backward swipe into a different time, though it's a toss up whether you give the credit to it or the 'envelope' episodes that first brought it to the viewers within 'The Menagerie' two-parter. I would hazard a guess that the structure of those was inspired by this, with its court setting, the reputation of a main character on the line, and especially the playback of events as evidence, even if it does prove beyond all doubt that the camera, even that of a top of the range starship, can be made to lie and fool even top brass experienced officers in spite of going up against a flawless record as that of James T. Kirk's.

That's the crux of the story: the balance between a man and his potential for mistakes, and the pure, infallible nature of automation in the form of the ship's computer. Which is more reliable? Should the fact that a man is organic weigh against him? Is a computer superior? Just as in 'The Conscience of The King' we're reminded that, although these people, our heroes, live in a world of the greatest advances in technology, they retain the essential essence of humanity that sets them apart from the machine. They accept the machine, appreciate its ease of use, its opening of the mind to greater possibilities, but they don't allow it to define them. Some more than others! Take Kirk's lawyer, Samuel T. Cogley (just what does his middle initial stand for? Could it be Tiberius - is he really from a Mirror Universe? Or maybe Thomas, and he has a duplicate Transporter double bitterly waiting somewhere in the galaxy?), a man that appears to be an eccentric for his lack of respect for the computer. He allows for computers, he has one, but he trusts his own instincts and the physical media– no, that sounds too dry for what can only be described as a wholesome joy he has in these ancient bound forms of information expression: he positively comes alive when talking of books and makes the love of them something to inspire in itself. In an age where he can cross reference the sterile data of a computer; pasteurised, homogenised, synthesised; he prefers the immediacy and tactile history found at his fingertips.

Let's be honest, Kirk isn't anti-books - whenever his quarters have been seen he always has a stack of them (and we'd heard in 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' that he was known as a stack of books on legs at the Academy, not a stack of computer pads on legs), and he admits he likes books, but he also doesn't have the same connection to them as Cogley. He likes books, but I don't think he sees it as the best way to help his case that Cogley relies on them and his memory rather than the computer. But it's just another emphasis of the theme of soul versus hardware, a battle Kirk is determined to win. When is he ever in a battle he's not determined to win? But it shows great spirit and personal honesty that rather than take Commodore Stone's easy way out, he won't shrink into the background and have some excuse made for what happened, to protect the service, since Stone doesn't mince words when he says no starship Captain has ever been put on trial before (let's hope 'Discovery' keeps track of these kind of details, though there are always workarounds to bypass such generalisations - look at Archer, who was put on trial by the Klingons). For the first time we're really getting a sense of the scope of the organisation Kirk and his crew work for, with a desire by the Commodore to keep things on the quiet, while Kirk refuses to back down, knowing he's in the right.

We see the beautiful image of Starbase 11 (strangely for a 'star' base, it's located on a planet - a beautiful blue planet with drifting clouds, but definitely not out in the stars as the name would suggest!), which is fantastically worked into the background of Stone's attractive office with its shiny black desk in a stylised, silhouetted cutout design that is mesmerising to look at. Then there's the repair chart on the wall showing the registry numbers of nine other starships besides the Enterprise. This in itself provides fascinating material for speculation as to the names and classes of each, and I have no idea if all were ever named in the course of the series, but I'll warrant at least some of them were. Is this list all the ships in the fleet, or all the ships facing a repair schedule at this particular starbase? We don't know, but it opens the door to facts and figures of much greater size and scale than we imagined before. Then there's the number of extras, so many uniforms crowding the bar where Kirk meets some of his fellow Academy graduates and receives nothing but a frosty reception in return. You'd think they'd have been glad to see an old classmate, you'd expect them to assume the best of someone, not condemn him on hearsay and rumour. But there Roddenberry's vision was unfalteringly true to human behaviour, all too quick to cast judgement on its fellows and loose the bonds of camaraderie and friendship in an instant. It may be they had an underlying jealousy of Kirk's rise and this was the first time they had a chance to act on it, in the same way as Ben Finney's personal grudge affected his whole outlook, turning him paranoid that they all conspired against him, one mistake costing a career in his mind.

The colours, oh how they pop, from the Commodore's red uniform and dazzling gold star, to the various dress uniforms worn by members of the court, it all looks so appealing. It's a shame amid all this that that I didn't notice that we first come across the term Starfleet in this episode as I've been looking out for it, but only twigged when reading about it afterwards - a sign of the coming together of the series' continuity and direction being solidified. In all respects this episode blows open the scope and inner workings of the fleet in a truly exciting way, even without the added drama of the best Captain serving in it being treated as if he deliberately killed an officer under him with whom he had a history. That's another part of the appeal, learning a smidgen more about Kirk's backstory, the time he got Finney reprimanded for making a mistake when he was but Ensign Kirk on the Republic. Imagine if we'd been treated to a flashback or 'log recording' of that incident, and seen a younger Kirk and Finney and what happened on that earlier ship! It's enough that it provides the imagination with great stimulation, awakening the mind once again to the real lives of these people, that this, even before we got to see the films, where the story and the world lived on, their history in the time before these precious moments we share with them, was real to them.

The episode is a tribute to the ability and integrity of Kirk, naturally, but it's a team effort. Contrary to old friend Areel Shaw's view that he'd 'stepped into scandal,' he'd actually been manoeuvred calculatingly by unseen hands. Not only is it a good court drama and a reveal of the greater service Kirk and crew exist to support, with the frisson of Shaw being the one to prosecute, at the same time recommending the brilliant Cogley to his defence (did she do this for the greatest challenge, wanting to test her mettle against him, or was it that she wanted Kirk to have the best chance of her being beaten?), but it also has a great detective twist: the murdered man is still alive! Did he plan ever since that moment on the Republic to get even with Jim? Did he plot to follow Kirk's career and feed on the bitterness of the Captain's success opposite his own hindrances? Did he scheme to join the Enterprise with the only reason to take apart what he felt Kirk had taken from him? We'll never know, but it seems likely he should have been transferred to Dr. Van Gelder's Tantalus Penal Colony! I love the throwaway reference Cogley gets at the end that he's to be the one defending Finney! It's a nice little exit for him, and although it was a shame not to have him there to be part of the concluding deliberations, his battle had been won back in the court when his impassioned speech about the Bible, Magna Carta, the Fundamental Declaration of the Martian Colonies, among other great works, persuades Stone and the other Board Members that Kirk should be allowed to face his accuser: the Enterprise computer itself.

Spock does his best to logically explain the impossibility of a person's nature changing so radically as to make a seasoned, experienced man so used to dealing with the pressures of command, panic or act out of malice: it simply is not in the Captain's nature. McCoy plays his part, too, using the 'white noise device' (otherwise known as a slightly modified 1960s microphone, one of the few props that doesn't pass the muster as a futuristic space device), by successfully cancelling out the heartbeats of all those authorised to be aboard the Enterprise, exposing one hidden heartbeat, and allowing Kirk the chance to face his opponent, rip his shirt in soon to be time-honoured tradition, and save the ship from the cobbled together mashup Finney had laid on to take them all out. This part of the story may not be entirely in keeping with the otherwise protocol-heavy believability, but this is Kirk, and it's his ship. Somehow I could have imagined Stone getting involved in any physical situation alongside Kirk, but then the Captain wouldn't have looked so heroic, and Stone was still wearing his dress uniform and probably wouldn't have wanted to risk damaging it - that's my theory, anyway. But it gives us another nice view of Engineering as if to make up for the absence of Scotty. No Sulu either, but Uhura gets to jump into the Navigation position again as she's done a couple of times before, so she's clearly got skills beyond Communication.

They may not have gone down to a planet's external location, but they packed in a lot of sets both on and off the Enterprise: the Commodore's office and the large, bustling bar, not to mention the courtroom, are joined by regular ship's settings the Bridge, Engineering, a Jeffries Tube and the Briefing Room. It's somewhat surreal to see this group of four, dress uniformed board members sitting on chairs in the same smart row in various different locations. It's also a rare chance to see exactly what Kirk sees on his chair's arm: the buttons for both Yellow and Red Alert, as well as other functions in closeup as we'd never seen it before. Other small details I noticed that stood out: the chevron, or sideways arrowhead on the wall of the court is the same as that of the arrow on the side of the Enterprise, so must be some kind of fleet related logo. There are several references to Vulcanians or the 'Vulcanian expedition' which Kirk went on, clearly in reference to Spock's race. As in 'The Conscience of The King,' the opening theme music of the series plays in the background - it must be a very popular contemporary tune! The coloured 'floppy disks' that are input into the court's computer to recite the record of those called as witnesses in the hearing aren't the typical colour you'd associate with each character: Kirk's is blue, while McCoy's is red, for example. And Kirk makes a direct reference to 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' when he suggests Spock might be able to beat his next Captain at chess - Kirk beating his First Officer at the game was how we were introduced to them.

Jamie Finney (named after Kirk, but confusingly listed as 'Jame Finney' in the closing credits), and her strange change of heart in how she reacts to Kirk's apparent manslaughter of her Father I assumed to be a plot point: that she actually had new information, her Father having revealed himself to be still alive, but no, it doesn't seem that he even did her that courtesy, and it was just her calmed down shame at the previous outburst that caused such a shift in attitude. Finney's death plot is foiled by Kirk using Jamie as insurance against him, revealing he's had her brought aboard. I would have liked it if Finney had gone a long way to redeeming himself by squashing down all his personal enmity with his former friend and the two of them together saving the ship. This would also have stood Ben in good stead for his own trial and given us even more of a twist to enjoy. But perhaps he was too overwrought to be able to do something like that, even when the stakes were his daughter's life. The Commodore (or 'Portmaster Stone' in the end credits), does get some redemption from his position as the guy in charge of proceedings who fails to believe in Kirk assuming the infallibility of the computer: like his namesake, he's a rock, but it's when he coolly orders they'll all stay to 'hear this witness [Finney], out,' despite the decaying orbit and Spock's advice they should transport away. Lastly, the final shot with Kirk, Spock and McCoy on the Bridge would have been more effective played in silence, but they seemed to feel they had to say something, even if it was a little forced. The important thing is that they're back in their rightful places, the slate wiped clean, the Captain's good name cleared, and a sticky situation averted. Like all the best 'TOS' episodes!

***