Geek-tastic's Beginner's Guide To Star Trek

 

With JJ Abrams' new Star Trek movie coming out which is going to reboot the franchise much like Batman Begins did to the Batman franchise, I am reading a lot lately about people wanting to check out the original series for the first time so they can go into the new film with a bit of understanding of who the characters are and how the new movie compares to the original show.

 

I know, it's hard for a lot of us Trek fans to imagine that there is anyone out there who has never seen an episode of the original Star Trek series before, but much like any other group of people on this planet, not all geeks are alike.  Some people just never got into Star Trek, whether because of a general dislike of Sci-fi, not having friends to introduce it to them, being more a fan of Star Wars or any one of a number of other reasons out there.....somehow a lot of people have never sat down to watch Kirk and Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew as they go galavanting about the cosmos in search of strange new life and new civilizations.

 

Usually, the general wisdom when sitting down to a new show you've never seen is to go out and get the Season One box set and watch the episodes in order.  Recently, I tried to do this with my girlfriend.  I was really excited to introduce her to Star Trek, so I got the first season and we sat down and started watching.....and I suddenly realized that a lot of the first episodes are really (and I mean REALLY bad).  I know, as a Trekkie it's almost sacreligious of me to say so, but let's admit it people, a lot of the original episodes weren't all that great.  Sure, we love them and they have a special place in our hearts, but that is because we were raised on them.  We have fond childhood memories of them.  It doesn't matter if some of them are god awful, dated, cheesy bits of TV.  We love them.

 

But to a new viewer, someone who isn't seeing the episodes through rose tinted glasses, the episodes can be slow, tedious and just plain painful to watch.  About six episodes into the first season I began to realize that my girlfriend was NOT liking the show at all, and sitting down to view more episodes was being seen as an uncomfortable chore.  This is not at all what I wanted to have happen.  It's hard to make someone like something if you're forcing it upon them.

 

It was also about this time that a good friend of mine (who is also a Geek-tastic contributor) told me that he was having a similar problem.  He'd never been a Trek fan and he had decided to sit down and watch the shows himself so he could see what it was that everyone else was talking about.  The problem was he was bored by the episodes, and had stopped watching because he just couldn't bring himself to watch more.

 

At this point, I relized something must be done.  Star Trek really is an amazing show.  It has survived as a franchise for over 40 years for good reason, and it deserves to be enjoyed by everyone.  The problem is finding the right episodes to introduce a new viewer to.  While there are a number of really good Trek episodes that I honestly think even the average non sci-fi fan would love, there are also a lot of bad episodes that will turn off a mainstream viewer. 

 

So I have taken it upon myself to create a Beginner's Guide To Star Trek. 

 

After much thinking, and a lot of episode watching on my own, I have come up with the following nine episodes that I think are the best episodes to show someone who has never seen the show before.  They offer a good glimpse at the best things that make Star Trek great, they allow the viewer to get to know the characters and most importantly they are entertaining and should manage to hopefully win over anyone to being a Star Trek Fan. 

 

After these nine episodes, I would suggest moving on to the movies.  Watch them in order.  After these episodes and then the movies, any new Trek fan should be able to enjoy the new movie with a solid understanding of what has come before.

 

1.  The City on the Edge of Forever - (Season 1, Episode 29)

 



 

Considered by many fans and critics to be Star Trek's best episode, City on the Edge of Forever is a powerful tale of the dangerous consequences of time travel and what can happen if you alter the timeline.  Even if you do it with the greatest intentions.

 

Investigating a time wave phenomenon, Kirk and his crew come across a device that allows them to travel back to any point in Earth's history.  Due to an accident, Dr. McCoy becomes overdosed with a drug that makes him go crazy and he jumps throug the portal.  Instantly (to Kirk and the landing party with him), time outside of where they are changes.  The Enterprise disappears and they are left stranded on this planet.  Something McCoy did in the past has changed history, so Kirk and Spock must go back in time and stop him from altering the past.

 

They go through the portal too and arrive on Earth during the great depression.  They arrive a week or two before McCoy will be showing up, so they take on some work at a local shelter and wait for him to arrive.  While waiting, Kirk falls in love with the woman who runs the shelter.  A short while later though, Spock discovers that she will die in a car accident in a few days, and it is this event that McCoy changed which alters everything.  Now Kirk must make an incredibly difficult choice?  Will he save the woman he loves, or will he allow her to be killed in order to preserve the time stream?

 

2.  The Trouble With Tribbles - (Season 2, Episode 15)

 



 

Tribbles, those cute and cuddly little balls of fuzz that do nothing but purr and reproduce.  They're a classic symbol of Star Trek, and happen to star in one of the funniest Star Trek episodes ever. 

 

Receiving a distress call from space station K-7, the Enterprise responds to find that an overly cautious federation agent is paranoid about a shipment of grain being stolen or destroyed.  Annoyed at what he sees as a waste of his time, Kirk only barely agrees to assign a few security personnel to guard the grain while his crew enjoys a bit of shore leave.  But then the Klingons show up, and a travelling salesman introduces Uhura to a tribble who buys one right away.  Things with the Klingons get heated, and that one tribble suddenly turns into dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of tribbles that threaten both the safety of the grain as well as the Enterprise itself.

 

A lighthearted story, The Trouble With Tribbles is both engaging and funny to watch.  Viewers get to see Kirk annoyed at bureaucratic nonsense, there's lots of cute little furballs everywhere, and there's even a kickass bar fight between some of the Enterprise crew and the Klingons.  After the fight is my favorite scene though, when Scotty has to explain to Kirk why he threw the first punch only after the Klingons insulted his ship, but not after they insulted his Captain.  The whole thing makes for a very fun viewing that should entertain even those who don't like Sci-fi at all.

 

3. Mirror Mirror - (Season2, Episode 4)

 



 

Transporter accidents are a staple of Star Trek storytelling, and this episode is one of the earliest examples of that great trend.  After a transporter malfunction, Kirk finds himself in a parallell universe where the Federation is an aggressive war-like empire, and everyone on the Enterprise seems to be plotting his death so they can replace him as the Captain.  In order to not be discovered, Kirk must pretend to be a violent barbarian like everyone else while he tries to figure out a way back home.

 

There's a lot to love in this episode.  We get to see an alternative view of how things could have been for Earth's future, we get to see the Enterprise crew in cool new outfits (including Uhura showing some midriff), and we even get to see Mr. Spock with a goatee.  Oh, and of course there's this cool assassination attempt on Kirk's life by Mr. Checkov:

 



 

4. and 5.  The Menagerie: Parts 1 and 2 - (Season 1, Episodes 12 & 13)

 



 

The Menagerie is an unusual two-part story.  Basically, it's the original pilot that was shot for Star Trek, but it's been re-edited to be a regular episode in the series.  Most of the episode is flash backs to before James T. Kirk commanded the Enterprise, when a captain by the name of Christopher Pike was running the show.  In the current time, Spock has taken control of the Enterprise and is attempting to take a now badly burned and barely alive Captain Pike to the forbidden planet of Talos IV.  Spock won't tell anyone why he's doing this, and he refuses to grant Kirk control of the ship again. 

 

Over the course of the episodes we learn about what happened to Captain Pike on Talos IV years earlier, and why Spock is taking him there.  The episode is worth watching for those new to Star Trek because it gives the new viewer a look into some of the history of the Enterprise.  We learn that Kirk isn't the ship's first commander, and that Spock had worked for several years under the command of Captain Pike.  Seeing as how the character of Christopher Pike looks to be a major influence on Kirk in the new film, it's a good idea for new viewers to get up to speed on who he was in the original series.

 

6.  Space Seed - (Season 1, Episode 23)

 



 

Khan Noonien Singh, a super-intelligent and super-strong man as the result of genetic engineering from 200 years in the past is found along with a number of his followers by the Enterprise asleep in cryostasis aboard the ship the SS Botany Bay.  Khan is awoken by Kirk's order, and after catching up with where he is now and how much time has passed, Khan wakes up his followers and attempts (successfully for a while) to take control of the Enterprise.  After gaining back control of his ship, Kirk and Khan make a deal that leaves Khan and his followers stranded on a jungle world called Seti Alpha 5.

 

This episode is required viewing before watching the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  It is Khan's first appearance in the Star Trek universe and the plot of this episode directly sets up the events that take place in the movie.  Is it possible to watch the movie without having seen this episode and still understand what's going on?  Yes, but you'd be missing out on the important history between Kirk and Khan and why exactly Khan is so hell bent on killing Kirk.

 

7.  Amok Time - (Season 2, Episode 1)

 



 

Vulcan's strive to the best of their ability to weed out all emotion from their lives.  They aspire to live a life of pure logic.  But they are still animals that have evolved from simpler creatures, just like all other intelligent beings.  That means they still have biological urges that no amount of meditation or logical study can satiate.  For Vulcans, that biological urge is the need to mate.  It is known as the Pon Farr, and it happens to adult Vulcans once every seven years.  During the Pon Farr, the Vulcan will go into a blood fever where they will become increasingly emotional and violent.  If they do not mate with someone within a few days of going into this state...the Vulcan will die.

 

Such is the Dilemma in Amok Time.  Spock has entered the Pon Farr and Kirk must take him back to Vulcan so that he can mate with his wife-to-be.  But, as always, there's a catch.  The wife-to-be demands that Spock fight for her honor before he can have her, and she chooses Kirk as her champion.  Now the two friends must duel to the death for the Vulcan bride. 

 

This is a great episode, if for nothing other than the awesome battle between Kirk and Spock.  It's a battle that was parodied to a wonderful degree by Jim Carey in the movie Cable Guy, and it is a great episode to show new watchers of Star Trek as it also has some of the most memorable battle music of all time.

 

8.  Arena - (Season 1, Episode 19)

 



 

The Enterprise arrives at an outpost on the edge of Federation space to find that the place has been wiped out in a vicious assualt that has left only one survivor.  Immediately upon beaming down to the planet though, the away team is attacked as well and Kirk and his crew find themselves in serious danger of getting blown up.  Eventually, they repel the attack and give chase to the fleeing attackers as they try to get away in their ship.  However, along the way both ships are caught in some sort of powerful force that holds their ships in place.

 

An unknown, and very powerful alien race has been watching the violent chase taking place and has decided to intervene.  Both Kirk and the captain of the attackers ship are instantly teleported to an unknown planet where they must face each other in one-on-one combat to the death.  The winner and their ship will be allowed to leave peacefully.  The loser's ship will be destroyed.

 

This episode is great because it features Kirk facing off against a Gorn, which is basically a guy in a really bad looking lizard suit.  The fight scenes are pretty damned awesome though, as Kirk must resort to throwing rocks at the much stronger opponent.  But this isn't a battle that strength alone can win.  Kirk must use his brains to win this one. 

 

Also of note, the same location where the fight scenes between Kirk and the Gorn take place were used again in the film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.  In the film, they even do a dissolve shot of Kirk running up a hill to Bill and Ted being dragged up the exact same hill to be killed by their evil robot counterparts.  It's a great little bit of Trek trivia.

 

9.  The Doomsday Machine - (Season 2, Episode 6)

 



 

What good is any sci-fi property if at some point it doesn't have an over the top, gonna end all life as we know it, doomsday device?  Every good sci-fi property has one.  Star Wars has the Death Star, the Planet of the Apes sequels had the Divine Bomb, and Battlestar Galactica has a race of genocidal robots.  So, not to be outdone, Star Trek of course has their very own device designed to end all life.

 

The episode's name says it all.  The Doomsday Machine.  What else do you need to know?  It's the Enterprise crew vs a gigantic planet devouring machine that is set to fly through the densest populated section of our galaxy.  We don't need to know where it came from.  We don't need to know how it got here.  All we need to know is how the hell is James T. Kirk gonna stop it.  And that's what the episode is about.

 

Oh, and there's also this other cool bit with another Starfleet ship that's very similiar to the Enterprise which has already been destroyed, but that ship's Captain had survived and he's sort of gone mad with vengence.  It's good times indeed.