User reviews

The science fiction series "Star Trek", called TOS (The Original Series) since its 1966-1969 three-season run on NBC-TV because there have been four other "Star Trek" series, has been made the biggest success of any re-run series in television history. Its re-run profits have been misused, in my view, by those who had nothing to do with the series' creation to set up the Fox Networl; in addition, novels of an authorized and of independent versions have been allowed to be published, many products have been created and sold, ranging from die-cut models to calendars, and a series of more than half-a dozen films have been made as features. But the nature of the series I argue has neither been understood not defined sufficiently in all the decades since its too-early demise and astonishing later career. The series was the product of an intelligent republican postmodernist; his central character for a 2200's starship-based series of adventure was an Iowa born activist named James Tiberius Kirk. Roddenberry's characters talked about individual development but generally confuted emergency ethics (altruism) with real-space-time ethics; and more than a dozen times, his central character was involved in actions a starship captain should not have assigned himself to carry out. The series' main creator, Gene Roddenberry, despite being a veteran both of military and police department experience, also frequently neglected or somewhat mishandled virtually all the details of physical importance to such a series--such as ship's equipment, duty assignments, defensive formations, weaponry, computers, transport, language and translation, color-coding, insigniae, Academy training, shipboard relief procedures etc.... Yet in spite of thee secondary omissions, the story-lines and plots were so strong in idea-level that above 50+ of 79 episodes in my estimation as a writer were above- average dramatic or comedic efforts, A look at the roster of writers and directors employed on "Star Trek" will demonstrate one reason why the show was so lively, emotionally-positive and dramatically compelling. Fine directors were used a number of times; in season two, Marc Daniels shared duties with Joseph Pevney; Vincent Mceveety, Gerd Oswald, Michael O'Herlihy, Gene Nelson, Ralph Senensky, Marvin Chomsky, Robert Sparr and others provided their talents. Writers also contributed story ideas or scripts in more than one case each , such as Jean Lisette Aroeste, Jerome Bixby, Margaret Armen, John D.F. Black, Robert Bloch and Theodore Sturgeon for example. And the series' head writers included Black, D.C. Fontana, Gene Coon, Stephen Carabatsos and Roddenberry. The famous cast was comprised Canadian William Shatner as Kirk, Lonard Nimoy as the half-alien pointed-eared 1st Officer, Spock, Georgia-born De Forest Kelley as the ship's doctor, McCoy, Candian James Doohan as Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer, George Takei as Lt. Sulu, singer-dancer Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, and Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel. In pursuit of verisimilitude and an allegorical relationship to the Cold War 1960s, Roddenberry oversaw the elaboration of the Klingon race of aliens, stand-in for Communists, the Vulcan allies, stand-in for the British, and the Romulans, a Vulcan offshoot who were stand-ins for the Germans and Chinese. There are so many important story ideas on "Star Trek" TOS, especially when the series is compared to mere adventure programs of the same period, it is difficult to discern a pattern or to nominate the most worthy, separating the plot from its produced episode. The strongest included "Return to Tomorrow", "City On the Edge of Forever", "Balance of Terror", "This Side of Paradise", "Bread and Circuses", "Mirror, Mirror", "A Piece of the Action", "The Cloud Minders", "All Our Yesterdays", "Mudd's Women", "A Taste of Armageddon" and "The Enemy Within". Recurring themes included god-machines, the power and mystery of sex, humans' ingenuity, the need for self-discipline, the dangers of superhuman powers, the need for a government of sane people, the limits of logic and the problems of emotional extremity, loyalty to a charismatic leader, etc. If Spock was Eliot Ness in alien makeup, a normative human, the rest as depicted came across as promising humans with minor flaws that only got in their way under extreme circumstances. This was a show about the Federation--the flawed U.S. bureaucracy, and Starfleet Command-- the US Air Force and Navy, with details of the civilization of the future kept intentionally vague under such notions as "speaking basic English', the Prime Directive of non-interference being in force and the crew never visiting Earth, etc;, Yhe really questionable elements of the show were the universal translator device, the molecular-disassembly and reassembly "transporter" device and the mysterious "energy shields". But in spite of technical lapses and postmodernist philosophy, the viewers responded to the series' many positive elements--the multiracial crew getting along and functioning bravely under adverse circumstances, the exciting plots, and the sense of a human future of all-but-unlimited potential-- qualities very often entirely missing from other series of the same era. Many of the series' episodes are worth viewing, by my lights as a writer, many times over. That is the series' legacy, I suggest--that it spoke for hope, tolerance and self-assertion, albeit imperfectly, at a time when angst and doubt were all-but-universal on the fictional screens of the United States.

The original Star Trek is cheesy and the effects are laughably bad. It's dated, but still deeply imaginative, fun, and full of heart. Watching it, you can see how it grew a following and blossomed into a franchise with ten TV shows and over a dozen movies.

Kirk, Spock, and Bones are the show's core, and their collective chemistry is a delight to watch. The secondary characters (Sulu, Uhura, Scotty, and Chekov) are given much less to work with, but they are likable and perform their roles well. Anyone else is window dressing, and likely to die in a given episode.

Many of the show's plots have become standard tropes in TV science fiction, so their impact may be lost on modern viewers, but they were incredibly innovative for the time. As was the technology. It's wild how much this show predicted. If you have the attention span and can overlook cheesiness, TOS is definitely worth a watch.

It does have some sexist tendencies, but overall has surprisingly stood up well to the test of time. It had a diverse cast which was unusual for that time as well as some moments like Number One in the pilot being a woman. Also the graphics have stood up pretty decently as well. Overall a classic worth watching.

A consistently well written, well acted and well photographed TV show. While it has undoubtedly aged, it has aged gracefully. The outdated views on things like science, culture and women's rights can sometimes distract, but mostly they just add a quaint charm for the modern viewer. The only aspect that has aged to the detriment of the show is the limited budget for sets and props. But if you give it some leeway and let your imagination fill in the gaps, that problem fades away. Entertaining to the nth degree

In the 23rd century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U. S. S. Enterprise, representing and defending the United Federation of Planets, explore the galaxy on a five-year mission in space. Outside to explore new worlds, search for new life and new civilizations. Star Trek is an American science fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the 1960s television series of the same name and became a global pop culture phenomenon. Since its creation, the franchise has expanded into several films, television series, video games, novels, and comics, and has become one of the most recognizable and highest-grossing media franchises of all time. Roddenberry intended the series to have a progressive political agenda that reflected the emerging counterculture of the youth movement, although he was not completely forthcoming with the networks about this. He wanted Star Trek to show what humanity could evolve into if it learned from the lessons of the past, more specifically ending violence.

The franchise began with Star Trek: The Original Series, which debuted in 1966 and aired for three seasons on NBC. Two pilots for Star Trek were made : The Cage (1966) with Jeffrey Hunter and ¨Where No Man Has Gone Before¨ (1966) with William Shatner. The series followed the travels of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise, a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century, on a mission "to explore strange new worlds, search for new life and new civilizations, going bravely where no man has gone before¨. In creating Star Trek, Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novel series, Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels, the film ¨Forbidden Planet¨ from 1956 and television westerns such as ¨Wagon Train¨.

The Enterprise is commanded by the good-looking and brave American Captain James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk (William Shatner). Kirk is mentored by his two best friends, Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy), the half-human/half-Vulcan science officer and second-in-command) and the American Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley). The trio is joined by a crew of approximately 430, including Asian-American helmsman Lieutenant Sulu (George Takei), Russian navigator Chekov (Walter Koenig), Swahili communications officer Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), the Scottish Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan), Nurse Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett) and Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney), among others.

The Star Trek canon includes the original series, 80 episodes over three seasons, and other spin-off television series and a film franchise. There are also more and varied adaptations in various media. After the conclusion of the Original Series, the adventures of its characters continued in Star Trek: The Animated Series of 22 episodes and six feature films. A television revival that began in the 1980s saw three sequel series: ¨The Next Generation¨, which follows the crew of a new starship Enterprise a century after the original series; ¨Deep Space Nine¨ and ¨Voyager¨, set in the same era as Next Generation; and "Enterprise," set before the original series in the early days of human interstellar travel. The adventures of the Next Generation team continued in four additional feature films. In 2009, the film franchise was rebooted, creating an alternate continuity known as the Kelvin timeline; three films have been set in this continuity. Star Trek's most recent television revival, which began in 2017, includes the series Discovery, Picard, Short Treks, Lower Decks, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds, which air exclusively on digital platforms.

Most Star Trek stories describe the adventures of humans and aliens serving in Starfleet, the humanitarian and peacekeeping space armada of the United Federation of Planets. The protagonists have altruistic values and must apply these ideals to difficult dilemmas. Many of the conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek are allegories of contemporary cultural realities. The original series tackled themes from the 1960s, just as subsequent spin-offs tackled themes from their respective decades. Topics covered in the various series include war and peace, the value of personal loyalty, authoritarianism, imperialism, class struggle, economics, racism, religion, human rights, sexism, feminism and the role of technology.

Roddenberry stated: "A new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam, politics and intercontinental missiles. In fact, we made them on Star Trek: we sent messages and fortunately they all passed through the censors. If you were talking about purple people on a distant planet, they (the television network) never noticed. They were more concerned about the cleavage. In fact, they would send a censor to the set to measure a woman's cleavage and also make sure much of her breast was not exposed¨.

After watching 3 magnificent seasons of this brilliant sci-fi series here are my full thoughts on this show don't worry I'll keep everything spoiler free! There were some very cool episodes & they were fun to watch from beginning to end so much better than Kurtzman's Star Trek and Jar Jar Abrahams's bad reboot star trek trilogy! This original series was perfectly cast; Leonard Nimoy will always & forever be Mr Spock (sorry Zachary Quinto), as well as Dr McCoy played by DeForest Kelly (better than Karl Urban) and my favourite character Captain Kirk played by William Shatner I would prefer him over Picard because of Star Trek Puke Hard! Overall, I enjoy this series so much that I'm eager to watch The Animated Series which will be the only animation from star trek I'll watch cuz Lower Decks is just Star Trek Rick and Morty & Prodigy is just star trek for kids that's why I'm giving this show an 8/10! I highly recommend this to star trek fans who want to stick to the classics! Hope you enjoy it just as much as I did! ;-)

After witnessing the first episode of Star Trek that was made with Jeffery Hunter, written by a high school dropout, and directed by the dropout's brother, I thought for sure the series would be dropped in the first month or so. What a tremendous turnaround! Someone at the network figured they could get an entire talented cast for the price of the expensive Hunter, and then hire a real director and writer for the storylines. A brilliant decision. Of course, Shatner is no Hunter as an actor; he is a bit hammy, but that is how we like him. The real star of the show, of course, is Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy. Spock is what makes Star Trek so special. I liked what they did with the Next Generation with Picard and Data. But Piccard is obviously British, and Data, who is very good in his role, is just not as personable as Spock. After the Next Generation, the series just went downhill and has never come close to the quality of the first two series. So sit back and revisit Bones, Uhara, Scotty, Kirk and especially Spock; you will enjoy your time much more than with the average sequels.

As far as the "Star Trek" series go, I think the best is obviously "DS9". Of course, few people would agree. And "Star Trek" was one of the best things to happen to television in a long time. But it was very campy (in a usually so-so kind of way) and it had Captain Kirk, one of the biggest wackos ever to command anything or anybody, played by William Shatner, probably the biggest hack in existence.

Every week, the crew of the "Enterprise" (though mostly Kirk, Spock, and Bones) got into deadly new adventures and tried to get out using bona fide ingenuity. When the ingenuity works in both theory and practice, it's impressive. But on the occasions when it doesn't, it kind of brings down the whole episode. And this series had a lot of not-so-great episodes ("Patterns of Force", for example, really didn't impress this viewer), but it's great as the kind of low-caliber (but by no means low-quality) adventure that you enjoy to watch on Saturday evenings after dinner. (Heck, it's definitely better than "Cops.")

The great thing about this show was in its longevity, despite the fact that it was canceled after a too-brief three-season run. After all, it's still being talked about. A word to the wise, though: the remastered versions are destined to ruin these classics. It's exactly what happened to "Star Wars."

Please note that an 8 from me is a 9 from anyone else, I am basing this on the average score of the episodes, with a little balancing towards the better episodes because they matter more. Overall this is a really good show that I would personally give a 7.5, and is 21% over the baseline of a really good show (tier 6 in my system, between good and very good).

While I think that the next three shows in the franchise were overall better, there's an unmatched charm to the original series. Something about the obviously fake sets that are good enough that they seem real if you don't think about it gives the show an almost dream-like atmosphere that's one of my favorite things about old shows. Aside from that, this show knows how to make dialogue scenes that are as entertaining as any good action scene, while still having more hand-to-hand combat than probably any other ST show (on average, at least; DS9 might have it beat simply due to having four more seasons). Episodes like "This Side of Paradise", "The City on the Edge of Forever", and the extremely underrated "Return to Tomorrow" showcase the emotional depth of the show, which most episodes have to a degree. The characters are all well-developed and feel like real people, with great dynamics between them and the main source of the always-present humor. The show can be very wacky at times but I feel that just adds to the fun. The mix of emotional depth, moral dilemnas, atmosphere, great characters, humor, and good stories make this my favorite show of it's time, and I don't think a better show existed until TNG came along. The main reason I like TNG more is simply because I think it's a better collection of episodes.

I usually find anthologies more interesting if each episode has a different cast. Therefore I prefer The Twilight Zone overall, though a good ST is better than an average TZ. The characters and foibles of the regular cast are so well known there is probably nothing new to say. I tend to like ST where the crew come into conflict with a strong, interesting personality, they are not confined to the Enterprise, and time travel is involved. My dozen star episodes, in no particular order: A Piece of the Action & Patterns of Force. A few episodes have such similar themes they could almost be classed as twins. Kirk & Co get involved with planets modelled on recent Earth history, ironically with neither period having the slightest thing to commend it.

The Squire of Gothos & Whom Gods Destroy. Kirk locks horns with pompous, power crazed authoritarians. I'm surprised the latter isn't more highly rated. Who Mourns for Adonias falls into the same category, albeit with not such a good story.

Mirror, Mirror. The swopping of places with doppelgangers from a ruthless, piratical alternative universe gives an opportunity for acting outside their usual personas.

Shore Leave. One of the most past-paced, lots of outdoor action. Entertaining, over-the-top performance from Bruce Mars as Kirks' mischievous Academy tormentor. And not forgetting Emily Banks as Yeoman Barrows.

Tomorrow is Yesterday. Mostly Enterprise bound but good time travel story. Best scene is where Kirk reluctantly tells Capt. Christopher that due to his knowledge of the future he cannot be sent back to Earth. A better title would have been a phrase used by Christopher during this encounter - "prisoners in time".

Dagger of the Mind. Not one of the most exciting plots, it earns its place due to the only appearance of Marianna Hill, surely the best eye candy to appear in either the original series or, it almost goes without saying, the dull modern ST.

This Side of Paradise. They engage with the polite but stubborn Elias Sandeval (Frank Overton). Not in the same league as Garth of Izor and General Trelane, in fact he was quite reasonable according to the empirical evidence.

Assignment Earth. Another time travel tale, which some dislike due to Kirk and Spock playing subordinate roles. In fact for once Spock virtually admits to someone being smarter than himself.

Turnaround Intruder. Currently the most poorly rated of my picks, probably due to perceived sexism. More weight should be given to the clever script and excellent acting.

City on the Edge of Forever. I could hardly leave this one out, what more is there to say?

Gene Roddenberry was a mastermind creating this timeless space opera. But it was the actors that really carried it off, and made the series and themselves famous, and deservedly so. Leonard Nimoy, De forest Kelley, and William Shatner, who must take a lot of credit for making us tune in regularly. Things could have been so different if the wooden Jeff Hunter had been allowed to stay aboard the Enterprise. This original opera did not complete its five year mission, but there are many variations to enjoy, from Next Generation onwards.

There really wasn't anything like ST on TV when it debuted. In fact, even Roddenberry, when trying to get it made, took to calling it a space western in order to provide understandable context to otherwise bewildered network execs. Looking back, it must have been incredibly difficult to get it made. Sci-fi, ubiquitous now, thanks largely to the Star Trek/Wars phenomena, was a pretty foreign concept for 1960's TV.

Still a fantastic and most entertaining piece - the original Star Trek is filled with great and unique ideas, entertaining stories, and likeable characters. The special effect department is of course very outdated but like the original Flash Gordon show (Buster Crabbe!) they give you that nostalgic feel of good ol' times. Like the first Star Wars trilogy, Star Trek is an iconic work of the sci-fi genre. Still top.

I actually haven't seen much of the original series compared to other Star Treks, but I have a general feeling of it from what I have seen.

The Original Series, make no mistake about it, is a definite product of the 60s. Many of the sets look cheap and fake, the inside of the Enterprise seems nothing like a ship, and some of the plot lines are...just very much of their era. However, the characters are extremely iconic and make up the best crew out of any Star Trek series, and the episodes, despite their low budget and 60s-ness, are often extremely creative and have many intriguing philosophical concepts thrown about. Much of the later series seem to have forgotten about this, apparently.

And, Star Trek should not be compared to Star Wars. Just because both are set in space and have the word 'Star' in the title doesn't mean they are some kind of rivals or something. They have almost nothing in common. And that's a good thing.

The Pros: 1 - Star Trek was ahead of its time, mainly in social commentary. 2 - The show itself is entertaining to this day. 3 - Kirk and Spock were very good and well written characters. The dialog between those two (and sometimes Dr McCoy) is usually very well done. 4 - The stories had a Twillight Zone-esc quality that I enjoy. 5 - The series version (as opposed to the movie version) of Kirk is still my favorite captain. Long live Shatner! (Sisko, a close second)

The Cons: 1 - The chivalry is very dated. ie: men cradling the women to protect them from fear etc... 2 - The blocking of the scenes, especially in early episodes was very corny, (see "Where No Man has Gone Before", and many others) 3 - Most of the other characters exist to either oppose Spock's logic, or to ask stupid questions for exposition's sake. 4 - The sound effects have a goofy nostalgic quality but are really quite stupid. 5 - Finally (and especially) the god awful score. This is a textbook example of how not to score a show (or film). The music never is subtle, and always plays up the "oh look, we're in space" feeling, rather than the emotions and drive of the characters.

The sets, of course are awful. Apparently every wall in the future is blue, and all planets have a huge amount of glitter. But this is mainly due to an extremely poor budget, as is the special and creature effects, so it's forgiven.

I was mostly interested in watching TNG,DS9 and VOY but I wanted to watch the essential/best episodes of TOS.Yes,is dated but it was still enjoyable.My favorite episode is The Doomsday Machine

I really liked it, this was the first science fiction classic. I really enjoyede. This series was also a great evolution in the special effects. Highly recommend.

Fascinating! This is one of the most enjoyable shows ever, there is no doubt about that. I have always been a huge fan of sci-fi. I just finished up watching this show and I will share my opinions on it.

I want to start by mentioning what I liked about Star Trek. It really makes you think about the universe. There are many episodes which feel so real and it is not just about acting. It is the magical combination of the cast and the writing. What I liked about the writing, it is not completely based on imagination. Writers had their knowledge of science. They successfully mixed scientefic facts and theories with their imagination. More than half of the episodes never felt unreal! I just couldn't stop thinking this might be real. I know humanity still knows very little about the universe. Our universe is so vast therefore it is impossible to know every possibilities. In the light of what we know today ,not just back in 1960s, Star Trek might have filmed some of the future realities.

This is definitely the milestone for sci-fi because you can see its effects on the shows and movies we watch nowadays. I can't finish this review by not mentioning Mr. Spock who is one of the most original characaters ever. He really makes it more enjoyable to watch.

One other thing I liked about the series is that it gives positive messages about racial differences, national barriers, war, prejudice etc. Star Trek makes you realize these things bring only unnecessary hate. Humankind and world would be so much better if we let go of these things.

I believe the series has two flaws. One of them is there are about fifteen episodes which are not worth watching. What I didn't like about these episodes is that they were based on not sci-fi but fantasy. I mean total fantasy of the writers. The second flaw is the show being sexist. There are episodes and scenes which indicate women cannot be more valuable than their body. They dress in a provocative way when there is absolutely no need for it and I am not just talking about the way they dress in the starship, I also mean women aliens or the women from other races and other planets. I just cannot believe the show which has given a lot of possitive messages about racial differences, national barriers, peace and humanity; failed to see the importance of gender equality.

A fine TV series. And yes, I include William Shatner in the good acting category, in spite of his occasional overacting in season 3 in particular.

I'm different from other Trek fans (Trekkers as they call themselves..Trek-heads as I call them) in that I liked the show not because of Roddenberry's hokey humanistic one-world ideology but in SPITE of it. Despite his propensity for preaching, Roddenberry could be a truly great story teller, as evidenced not only in Star Trek, but in the various other shows he wrote for. I liked the original series better than Next Generation for two reasons: I liked the characters better in the original, and I actually liked the fact that the network put the brakes on some of Roddenberry's pious pontificating (Unfortunately, in TNG Roddenberry was able to do everything he wanted). But in the end, it's those enduring and endearing characters that kept me and so many other Trek fans coming back again and again, even after we knew all the dialogue from all of those timeless stories Roddenberry (with a lot of help from his friends) told.

As a star trek TNG fanatic i have to say this for the original series even though many will disagree with my review:

The original series, even though the scenarios-stories are quite thought off, suffer from very very bad acting and bad directing and let me explain why.

Captain kirk never gives me the impression that he is in reality a captain. Captains dont joke like they are ensigns, nor do they need to repeat themselves when ordering, nor do make 100 different things wrong that would take too long to write here. In general captain picard of the TNG series is 100 times more believable captain and respected figure as shown in the series.

The rest of the actors also fails to play their roles correctly in a believable manner making the whole series too dull and soulless to keep any interest high.

Now having said that i realise the series was done in the 60s and that was the normal way films were acted back then, also i never watched the original series up until now so i dont have any feelings lets say for the original series but if someone who is new to the star trek universe wants to start seeing what star trek is all about then the TNG one is the one i advice to start.

Its believable, has great stories, great directing, bonds the viewers with the.actors and even though both the original series and TNG have low quality special effects for the reasons above the TNG one is the one that will make a star trek fan out of it.

This series isn't quite as good as its sequel "Star Trek: The Next Generation". But in its philosophical depth it was revolutionary at the time, and Gene Roddenberry's work has remained unique until now. Unfortunately, the series has a flaw that I call the "Spock problem" after this series. The character of Spock may be meant to be superhumanly intelligent, the people who created and shaped this role are not. Many writers and directors are not even average intelligent.