We've made it through the end of season 1 and well into season 2 of the original Star Trek. It is getting increasingly difficult to get excited about it, though.
Initially, I was writing about each week's episodes and getting into the details, but it's just too tedious. Especially when I find myself wanting to write the same things every time:
- the dialog is often cheesy
- the acting is often bad
- the characters often do things that make no sense (including, but not limited to, flushing radioactive waste into the ship's ventilation system)
- military officers regularly act in ways completely inappropriate to military service
- we rarely meet any aliens, and those we do meet often look exactly like humans
- the majority of the "new life" we've encountered, we've destroyed
- the majority of women with speaking roles have slept with or are about to sleep with Kirk
- Kirk is basically portrayed as the Übermensch, and regularly:
- beats Spock at chess
- uses logic to convince computers to destroy themselves
- holds his own in fights against beings of super-human strength
The Dumb Spock Game
I have discovered a fun new game. While you watch, imagine that Spock is not, in fact, brilliantly intelligent and computer-like. Imagine instead that Spock, half-human and half-Vulcan, is actually of sub-par intelligence, even for humans. He's very serious, though, and very proud of his Vulcan heritage, so everyone humors him.
When he gives incredible statistics out of nowhere, Kirk knows Spock is just making things up. It's like when (just for fun) I ask my toddler what time it is, and he just says some random number he's heard. We know that's not the actual time, and we know he's not basing it on anything at all, but it's cute and we don't discourage him.
This is how Kirk beats Spock at chess, and why he teases Spock about being too "logical". This is why Spock's father is so disappointed in him. Mentally, Spock is a toddler, and an embarrassment to all Vulcans.
Final Thoughts
I'll simply leave you with this: the most needlessly slow and awkward way Kirk could choose to sit.
