My favorite Star Trek episodes, in no particular order
- Devil in the Dark
- The Galileo Seven
- The Tholian Web
- Balance of Terror
- Errand of Mercy
- Where No Man Has Gone Before
- The Trouble with Tribbles
- Patterns of Force
- Friday's Child
- Journey to Babel
Other episodes I liked for one reason or another - "Mirror, Mirror," "The Ultimate Computer," "Amok Time," "The Naked Time" (nice "Tess of the D'Ubervilles" reference in there, that no ones seems to have noticed but me), "The Paradise Syndrome" (I just fast forward through the Miramanee scenes), "The Cage," "Dagger of the Mind," "I, Mudd," "This Side of Paradise," "The City On the Edge of Forever" and "By Any Other Name."
TOS episodes that sucked - "Court Martial" (a few tiny changes would have improved this episode a lot), "Arena" (grunt, grunt, pow! TNG "Darmok" was way better), "Turnabout Intruder" (Kirk takes a stroll in a universe of anti-matter), "Spock's Brain" (a laff a minute - and it wasn't intended to be funny), "The Cloud Minders" (blah), "The Doomsday Machine" (Supposed to be great, but the papier-maché 'doomsday machine' really ruined it for me. We're talking criminally bad fx.) "The Enterprise Incident" (stretched the premises and the characters way too thin), "Plato's Stepchildren" (again, not all of it is bad, but it's awful enough that you wince all the way through - kind of like some episodes of Voyager), "The Omega Glory" (one of the worst Star Trek episodes of all time) and "The Deadly Years" (with a title like that-!).
* * * * * * * *
Kirk and the Prime Directive
Kirk gets accused of playing fast and loose with the PD. But really, how many times did he break it? Let's take a look at the record, shall we?
- "The Apple" - Kirk gets a little off the hook on this one because Vaal was trying to crash the Enterprise, but I'd say Kirk pretty much stepped all over and jumped up and down on the PD here. Before he even shoots Vaal, he is telling the people to disobey it, and going on about how his brand of mortality is so much better than their's. His excuse that their society is not developing but stagnating is a Clintonesque legal fib. There is nice irony in this episode, however - in the "Paradise" allegory Kirk is playing the role of the serpent. The viewer is left wondering about Kirk's actions.
- "A Piece of the Action" - Did Kirk break the PD? I would say no. It was broken previously, and, like the Enterprise officers in TNG "The Royale," Kirk basically had to play along. The PD violation had caused a lot of disruption in that society, so Kirk and the Federation felt a moral imperative to help mitigate the damage. Of course, there is the little matter of that communicator Kirk left on the surface . . . Although compared to the tech Janeway left lying around in "Concerning Flight," one dinky communicator is peanuts.
- "Patterns of Force" - Again, the PD had already been broken (this time wilfully and egregiously). Kirk was sent in as damage control.
- "A Private Little War" - yeah, I'd say he broke the PD there all right. In fact, the whole episode is a kind of dig at the Viet Nam War and an argument for the PD. We're supposed to see how Kirk's good intentions in breaking the prime directive caused a tragedy. Unlike VOY, where we're supposed to cheer or something when Janeway breaks it.
- "A Taste of Armageddon" - the Enterprise wanders into the wrong territory and is informed that the crew is scheduled to be disintegrated. Wouldn't *YOU* shut the computer down?
- "Friday's Child" - I don't even remember if the PD got mentioned, but it seemed like normal procedure was kind of suspended when the planets were close to Klingon space. Of course the alternative (ceding less developed planets to the tender care of the Klingons) was probably the greater evil. Actually, contact with a less developed civilization was not considered a PD violation back then. In fact, it isn't well into TNG that we see the "warp or else" mentality. Which begs the question - what would the Feds do if some race had high sublight capable ships and was sending them radio messages? Would they answer or give them the cold shoulder? Final score on this one - not really Kirk's responsibility, but a warning to the Federation for realpolitik hypocrisy.
- "Bread and Circuses" - Again, Starfleet sends Kirk to check up on some MIAs. The treachery of Captain Merik traps the landing party on the surface and they do their best to extricate themselves. The Romans seemed well aware of who Kirk was (in some sense). Damage was probably minimal and it wasn't Kirk's fault.
- "The Paradise Syndrome" - Kirk administers CPR while amnesiac, Spock and Bones beam down during a stoning (They're supposed to be North American Indians - go figure.) and frighten the natives, Spock fixes the deflector left by an ancient alien race. Aside from the beam-down, Kirk's actions were inadvertant and I see nothing wrong with the repair of the deflector.
- "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" - Someone refresh my memory. Spock does go read their old records, there were some plot devices (TM) at work . . . I'll have to see it again.
- "Return of the Archons" - yup, good ol' Kirk pulls some PD hanky-panky in this episode, where he literally talks a computer to death! One of his most blatant PD infractions.
- "The Omega Glory" - probably one of the worst ST episodes of all time, penned by none other than Eugene Wesley Roddenberry. Another captain breaks the PD before him, so Kirk decides to, what? - even the score? - by meeting the other side, a bunch of blond cavemen, whom he teaches about truth, justice and the American Way. This really takes the cake. Janeway actually looks good next to this one.
Well, those are all the violations (4) and possible violations (4) I could think of. Frankly, I think if you tally Janeway, you'd probably do worse, although VOY has had twice as many episodes, so that may not be fair. Obviously, both captains are willing to break the PD if they believe they have good reason, something Picard would (almost) never do. Actually, I can't think of a single instance where Spock informs Kirk that the Prime Directive applies and Kirk doesn't break it! (On the other hand, can you think of a case where Tuvok protests that the PD applies and Janeway doesn't break it? Sure, she follows it sometimes, but any time Tuvok pipes up about General Order Number One she takes that as her cue to strafe it with phaser fire and kick it down the disposal chute.)
