The unlikely episode that launched Star Trek: “The Man Trap” (1966)…

*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!***** When fans today think of the ‘first’ Star Trek episode, they tend to (not incorrectly) think of the pilot episodes “The Cage” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” but neither of those pilots were broadcast first. In fact, “The Cage” wasn’t broadcast in full until 1986 (the same year I bought it…

Star Trek TOS: “Space Seed” (1967) yields a greater crop than what is sown…

*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!***** This column might get me in some trouble.   While I certainly appreciate the legacy of the Star Trek’s Original Series episode “Space Seed,” which gave the Trek multiverse its power-mad villain Khan Noonien Singh, it is a clumsily-executed episode whose current reputation relies greatly on its legacy (namely 1982’s exceptional sequel, “Star…

Star Trek TOS: “All Our Yesterdays” offers a star-crossed romance for Spock…

*****SUPERNOVA-SIZED SPOILERS!***** The third and final season of the original “Star Trek” (1966-9) (TOS) is often unfairly maligned in fandom for its drop in quality from the previous two. Yes, it’s true that creator/producer Gene Roddenberry took his hands off the wheel, along with a revolving door of producer/writers, including Gene Coon and John Meredyth…

Star Trek: The Original Series; examining “Metamorphosis,” 55 years later…

*****55-YEAR OLD STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!***** The Star Trek Original Series (TOS) episode “Metamorphosis” was first broadcast via the NBC network on November 10th, 1967. This was a heady time for the sophomore series, with creator Gene Roddenberry producing, along with some terrific writing talent attached to the show, including script editor Dorothy Fontana (1939-2019), and prolific…

Scanning all Star Treks (1966-present)…

*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!***** With the annual Star Trek Las Vegas convention (aka “the 56 Year Mission”) right around the corner, I thought this might be a good time to take an overview of the entire televised Star Trek franchise. I’d previously examined all of the Star Trek feature films, so I thought I might explore…

William Shatner, 90, takes a brief, real-life Star Trek…

These are the voyages of New Shepard… This past week, something amazing happened; something that I have complex feelings about, and that I feel obligated to mention here. William Shatner, Star Trek’s “Captain Kirk” himself, at 90 years old, took a suborbital hop roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the Earth and back in an…