Episode Spotlight: Star Trek Season 1: Episode 5: The Enemy Within

“Captain’s log, stardate 1672.1. Specimen gathering mission on planet Alpha 177. Unknown to any of us during this time a duplicate of me, some strange alter ego, had been created by the transporter malfunction.” The first of Captain Kirk’s Captain’s Logs of The Enemy Within serves as a relatively apt description of the episode in

Star Trek: Final Thoughts

I confess, I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t know what Star Trek was. Both of my parents discovered the show decades before I was born, thanks to reruns during the ‘70s.  They grew up with it, and in turn, showed it to me.  I grew up knowing Kirk, Spock, McCoy,

Star Trek: Facets of Filmmaking

As it turns out, before Star Trek was fully realized in the form we know today, the show was originally not going to be about Kirk and the Enterprise at all.  In fact, it was going to be about a ship called the S.S. Yorktown, captained by a man named Robert April, on a mission

Star Trek: Facets of Film

In an unsurprising turn of events, as it happens, there is a rather large difference between the production design of a full-length feature film, and a television show. There are plenty of reasons for this.  Costumes are different, and cheaper.  Special effects are different, and cheaper.  Sets are different, and cheaper.  You get the point.

Star Trek: A Product of the Times

Miniskirts, beehives and bowlcuts, goodness gracious, is there any time that Star Trek could have been made but the 1960s? The short answer?  Not really. Star Trek was made at quite an interesting time.  The Civil Rights Movement, the space race, Vietnam, the Cold War, the hippie movement, and the new wave of feminism was

Star Trek: The Characters

Storytelling, especially where it regards movies and television, is always evolving.   Whether it’s in deeper themes, better effects, different genres, or evolving archetypes, there is always something that is changing, except, perhaps, where the importance of characters are concerned. Characters are an integral part of storytelling, particularly where it concerns television.  When it comes to

Star Trek: Genre and Themes

Considering the fact that Star Trek was pitched as “Wagon Train in space”, it seems almost redundant to discuss the genre of such a show.   Since the beginning, Gene Roddenberry’s show’s genre seemed pretty obvious: science fiction-western.  And really, it’s hard to argue with that.  Kirk’s style has been outright referred to as ‘cowboy diplomacy’

Star Trek: The Story

Every television show is built upon one simple thing: it’s foundational setup.  At its core, a setup is the baseline for each new episode.  It’s what the audience returns to on a weekly basis.  The core elements of the show enable each episode to build a new story upon it, and, in most cases, ,

Star Trek: Legacy and Impact

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” In 1964, Gene Roddenberry pitched a little science-fiction show to NBC as an adventure show, a western in