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A Thumbnail Guide to the Original Seventy-Nine Episodes
What follows is not a full-service episode guide. (There are plenty of those available elsewhere.) However, since episodes are referred to by name throughout this book, this quick listing should jog memories and help connect titles with plotlines.
The Pilots
• “The Cage” (Original airdate: October 4, 1968) On a mission to planet Talos IV, Captain Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) is taken prisoner and forced to cohabitate with a captive human female; the Talosians hope to breed a race of slaves. Although most of its footage was incorporated into “The Menagerie (Parts I and II),” Star Trek’s first pilot didn’t air until twenty-four years after its production.
• “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (Never broadcast in its original form) Helmsman Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood) and scientist Elizabeth Dehner (Sally Kellerman) obtain godlike telekinetic powers after the Enterprise attempts to cross a mysterious energy barrier that surrounds the galaxy. This version ran about five minutes longer than the one broadcast September 22, 1966, and featured a different title sequence with longer narration. Although never aired, it was included as a bonus feature on the Star Trek: The Original Series Season Three Blu-ray collection.
Season One
1. “The Man Trap” (Original airdate: September 8, 1966) An away team unwittingly brings aboard a shape-shifting monster that kills humans by draining their bodies of salt. Star Trek made its broadcast debut with this monsterrific slice of space opera.
2. “Charlie X” (Original airdate: September 15, 1966) A lonely teenage boy (Robert Walker Jr.), the only survivor of a starship crash many years earlier, begins to evidence frightening psychic abilities after being picked up by the Enterprise.
3. “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (Original airdate: September 22, 1966) In addition to a shorter running time and the standard opening credits, the broadcast version of “Where No Man Has Gone Before” featured a reedited musical score.
4. “The Naked Time” (Original airdate: September 29, 1966) Several crew members contract a mysterious illness that causes victims to become emotionally unhinged, posing a danger to the ship.
5. “The Enemy Within” (Original airdate: October 6, 1966) A transporter accident splits Captain Kirk into identical twins—one kind but indecisive, the other ruthless and impulsive. Introduces the FSNP (Famous Spock Nerve Pinch).
6. “Mudd’s Women” (Original airdate: October 13, 1966) The Enterprise rescues interstellar con man Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) and his “cargo”—a trio of gorgeous mail-order brides whose beauty has secretly been enhanced by a forbidden drug.
7. “What are Little Girls Made Of?” (Original airdate: October 20, 1966) Renegade scientist Roger Corby (Michael Strong) discovers a machine capable of creating android duplicates of any subject and uses the device to create a robot double of Captain Kirk.
8. “Miri” (Original airdate: October 27, 1966) The Enterprise discovers an Earthlike planet where all the adults have been wiped out by a mysterious plague, leaving only a band of antisocial children.
9. “Dagger of the Mind” (Original airdate: November 3, 1966) Captain Kirk is captured by the deranged administrator of an interstellar insane asylum, who has invented a device that destroys the human mind and will. Introduced the Vulcan Mind Meld.
10. “The Corbomite Maneuver” (Original airdate: November 10, 1966) Captain Kirk matches wits with the commander of a giant alien vessel who seems bent on the destruction of the Enterprise. This was the first regular episode of Star Trek produced, but NBC chose to withhold it until now.
11. “The Menagerie, Part I” (Original airdate: November 17, 1966) Mr. Spock seizes control of the Enterprise in order to return his former captain to the forbidden planet of Talos IV, where Pike had been held captive many years earlier.
12. “The Menagerie, Part II” (Original airdate: November 24, 1966) Concludes Star Trek’s only two-part adventure. “The Menagerie (Parts I and II)” remains one of the series’ most beloved stories.
13. “The Conscience of the King” (Original airdate: December 8, 1966) Kirk suspects that renowned actor Anton Karidian (Arnold Moss) may be an interstellar war criminal in disguise.
14. “Balance of Terror” (Original airdate: December 15, 1966) A Romulan war bird, armed with an invisibility cloak, launches an unprovoked attack on the Federation. The Enterprise must repulse the invaders to prevent an interstellar war. This is the first of three episodes featuring the Romulans.
15. “Shore Leave” (Original airdate: December 29, 1966) Fantastic, unexplainable events (including the appearance of Alice in Wonderland and her White Rabbit) befall an away team while scouting an idyllic, Earthlike planet.
16. “The Galileo Seven” (Original airdate: January 5, 1967) A shuttlecraft commanded by Mr. Spock crashes on a foreboding alien planet populated by ferocious giant anthropoids.
17. “The Squire of Gothos” (Original airdate: January 12, 1967) A playful yet terrifyingly powerful alien (William Campbell) takes Captain Kirk and several crew members captive. Was Trelaine a Q?
18. “Arena” (Original airdate: January 19, 1966) Captain Kirk is forced into one-to-one combat with a reptilian alien who captains a rival spacecraft; the loser’s ship will be destroyed.
19. “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” (Original airdate: January 26, 1967) Accidentally catapulted back in time to the 1960s, the Enterprise is forced to capture an Air Force pilot whose disappearance may alter history. Star Trek’s first time-travel story. This episode was originally intended to be the second half of a two-parter, following “The Naked Time,” but the stories were decoupled.
20. “Court Martial” (Original airdate: February 2, 1967) Captain Kirk is charged with negligence in the accidental death of a crewman.
21. “The Return of the Archons” (Original airdate: February 9, 1967) The Enterprise discovers a planet whose entire population has fallen under the mental control of a shadowy religious leader known as Landru.
22. “Space Seed” (Original airdate: February 16, 1967) An away led by Captain Kirk unwittingly awakens a ship full of genetically enhanced supermen led by the megalomaniacal Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban).
23. “A Taste of Armageddon” (Original airdate: February 23, 1967) Ordered to establish relations with a reclusive planet that has been at war for 500 years, Kirk and Spock beam down and discover a world apparently untouched by conflict.
24. “This Side of Paradise” (Original airdate: March 2, 1967) On a routine mission to an agricultural outpost, the crew of the Enterprise becomes infected by alien spores that instill total happiness but dampen initiative and curiosity. Spock, freed of logical inhibitions, falls in love with a young exobiologist (Jill Ireland).
25. “The Devil in the Dark” (Original airdate: March 9, 1967) The Enterprise rushes to the aid of a mining colony menaced by a tunneling creature that has killed more than fifty miners.
26. “Errand of Mercy” (Original airdate: March 16, 1967) Kirk and Spock struggle to make common cause with the reclusive, pacifistic Organians, whose planet falls under the boot-heel of Klingon invaders. This is the first episode to feature the Klingons.
27. “The Alternative Factor” (Original airdate: March 23, 1967) The Enterprise encounters an alien named Lazarus (Robert Brown) who’s engaged in an endless battle with his counterpart from an alternate dimension.
28. “The City on the Edge of Forever” (Original airdate: April 6, 1967) Come on, you don’t really need a plot summary for this one, do you? OK, here goes: Kirk and Spock travel back in time, where Kirk falls in love with a young social activist (Joan Collins) who he must allow to die in order to prevent the Nazis from winning World War II. Widely considered the best Star Trek episode ever made.
29. “Operation—Annihilate!” (Original airdate: April 13, 1967) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy must devise some means of destroying a race of jellyfish-like aliens who have killed most of the residents of planet Deneva, including Kirk’s brother.
This TV Guide Close-Up previewed the classic episode “Shore Leave.”
Season Two
1. “Amok Time” (Original airdate: September 15, 1967) Kirk violates Starfleet orders to return Spock to his home planet, where the Vulcan must mate or die. Introduced the split-fingered Vulcan salute and the valedictory phrase, “Live long and prosper.” An excellent beginning for Star Trek’s second season.
2. “Who Mourns for Adonais?” (Original airdate: September 22, 1967) The Enterprise finds itself in the grip of an incredibly powerful being who claims to be the Greek god Apollo.
3. “The Changeling” (Original airdate: September 29, 1967) Captain Kirk must find a way to neutralize NOMAD, a malfunctioning space probe capable of destroying entire planets and bent on “sterilizing” (that is, killing) all “imperfect biological units,” including the crew of the Enterprise.
4. “Mirror, Mirror” (Original airdate: October 6, 1967) A freak transporter accident sends Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura to a twisted parallel dimension that is home to evil duplicates of themselves and the rest of the crew.
5. “The Apple” (Original airdate: October 13, 1967) The Enterprise discovers a planet where the natives live in childlike innocence, serving the will of a supercomputer they worship as a god.
6. “The Doomsday Machine” (Original airdate: October 20, 1967) The revenge-crazed captain of a disabled starship leads the Enterprise into battle against a giant, planet-eating robot.
7. “Catspaw” (Original airdate: October 27, 1967) A landing party led by Kirk and Spock encounter two mysterious aliens who seem to work black magic.
8. “I, Mudd” (Original airdate: November 3, 1967) Harry Mudd (Carmel) returns, this time as the self-appointed monarch of a planet populated entirely by curvaceous female androids.
9. “Metamorphosis” (Original airdate: November 10, 1967) Kirk and Spock are shocked to discover long-missing warp drive pioneer Zefram Cochrane (Glenn Corbett) living on a remote planet with an alien companion.
10. “Journey to Babel” (Original airdate: November 17, 1967) Saboteurs and assassins strike as the Enterprise ferries a delegation of interstellar diplomats, including Spock’s parents, to a vital economic summit.
11. “Friday’s Child” (Original airdate: December 1, 1967) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy arrive to negotiate a mining treaty with the primitive, warlike natives of Capella IV, but the meddling Klingons (who also covet the planet’s resources) instigate a tribal war among Capellan factions.
12. “The Deadly Years” (Original airdate: December 8, 1967) Several crew members (including Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty) begin to age rapidly after exposure to alien radiation.
13. “Obsession” (Original airdate: December 15, 1967) Captain Kirk begins behaving recklessly when the Enterprise encounters a deadly alien entity that attacked his previous ship.
14. “Wolf in the Fold” (Original airdate: December 22, 1967) While on shore leave recovering from a brain injury, Scotty is accused of butchering three women.
15. “The Trouble with Tribbles” (Original airdate: December 29, 1967) While assigned to safeguard a vital grain shipment from the Klingons, the Enterprise becomes overrun with cute but prodigiously reproductive trilling furballs.
16. “The Gamesters of Triskelion” (Original airdate: January 5, 1968) Kirk, Chekov, and Uhura are kidnapped by aliens and forced to compete in games for the amusement of the planet’s elusive, all-powerful Providers.
17. “A Piece of the Action” (Original airdate: January 12, 1968) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy become embroiled in a turf war on a planet whose civilization emulates Chicago gangs of the 1920s.
18. “The Immunity Syndrome” (Original airdate: January 19, 1968) A giant space amoeba menaces the Enterprise.
19. “A Private Little War” (Original airdate: January 26, 1968) Kirk tries to counter the nefarious influence of the Klingons on a developing civilization.
20. “Return to Tomorrow” (Original airdate: February 9, 1968) Kirk and Spock must decide whether or not to allow superadvanced aliens to take “temporary” possession of their bodies.
21. “Patterns of Force” (Original airdate: February 16, 1968) The Enterprise discovers a planet with a civilization modeled after Nazi Germany.
22. “By Any Other Name” (Original airdate: February 23, 1968) Aliens from another galaxy seize control of the Enterprise and reduce the crew to small, geometric blocks.
23. “The Omega Glory” (Original airdate: March 1, 1968) While attempting to bring a rogue starship captain to justice on planet Omega IV, Kirk becomes entangled in an ancient tribal conflict. Although once considered as a possible pilot, this is a dreadful episode.
24. “The Ultimate Computer” (Original airdate: March 8, 1968) Things go horribly wrong when an experimental computer assumes command of the Enterprise.
25. “Bread and Circuses” (Original airdate: March 15, 1968) Kirk, Spock and McCoy are forced to fight in televised gladiatorial contests on a planet much like ancient Rome.
26. “Assignment: Earth” (Original airdate: March 29, 1968) After traveling back in time to 1968, Captain Kirk and his companions cross paths with Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), an enigmatic alien time traveler who may be trying to change history. Gene Roddenberry hoped to launch a spin-off series chronicling the adventures of Gary Seven but found no takers.
Season Three
1. “Spock’s Brain” (Original airdate: September 20, 1968) When dim-witted bimbos from outer space steal Spock’s brain, Kirk and McCoy attempt to recover it, bringing along the Vulcan’s body (which now operates on remote control). An ignominious beginning to Season Three.
2. “The Enterprise Incident” (Original airdate: September 27, 1968) Kirk and Spock launch an elaborate ruse to steal the cloaking device from a Romulan warship. Last of three episodes featuring the Romulans.
3. “The Paradise Syndrome” (Original airdate: October 4, 1968) Suffering from amnesia and left behind on a planet with a culture similar to that of eighteenth-century American Indians, Captain Kirk weds a young native woman.
4. “And the Children Shall Lead” (Original airdate: October 11, 1968) The Enterprise rescues a band of young orphans, unaware that—under the influence of an insidious alien presence—the children have murdered their parents.
5. “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” (Original airdate: October 18, 1968) The Enterprise is assigned to transport an alien ambassador whose appearance is so ghastly that a single look drives humans mad.
6. “Spectre of the Gun” (Original airdate: October 25, 1968) A landing party is whisked away to an eerie recreation of the Wild West, where they must stand in for the villainous (and doomed) Clanton Gang during the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
7. “Day of the Dove” (Original airdate: November 1, 1968) A noncorporeal life force that feeds on hate instigates a bloody battle between Klingons and humans on board the Enterprise.
8. “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” (Original airdate: November 8, 1968) An away team, including a terminally ill Dr. McCoy, travels to a giant spacecraft disguised as an asteroid; the residents of the spacecraft do not realize they are aboard a starship.
9. “The Tholian Web” (Original airdate: November 15, 1968) While investigating a disabled Federation starship, Captain Kirk is lost in an interdimensional rift; meanwhile, an alien vessel appears and traps the Enterprise in an energy web.
10. “Plato’s Stepchildren” (Original airdate: November 22, 1968) A landing party including Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, and Chapel are taken captive by humans who have gained godlike psychic powers. Featured TV’s first interracial kiss, between the mind-controlled Kirk and Uhura.
11. “Wink of an Eye” (Original airdate: November 29, 1968) Invisible aliens seize control of the Enterprise.
12. “The Empath” (Original airdate: December 6, 1968) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are teleported to an alien world where they are tortured by a pair of inscrutable aliens but then healed by a mute woman with empathic healing abilities.
13. “Elaan of Troyius” (Original airdate: December 20, 1968) In this science fictional retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Captain Kirk must teach a spoiled alien princess some manners.
14. “Whom Gods Destroy” (Original airdate: January 3, 1969) Kirk and Spock are held captive by the inmates of an interstellar insane asylum.
15. “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” (Original airdate: January 10, 1969) A pair of aliens bent on destroying one another hijack the Enterprise to return to their war-torn home world.
16. “The Mark of Gideon” (Original airdate: January 17, 1969) The residents of planet Gideon kidnap Captain Kirk as part a dark scheme to solve the planet’s overpopulation problem.
17. “That Which Survives” (Original airdate: January 24, 1969) An away team is trapped on a mysterious planetoid and haunted by the ghostly figure of a young woman.
18. “The Lights of Zetar” (Original airdate: January 31, 1969) Deadly, noncorporeal aliens capable of destroying the Enterprise form a mental link with Scotty’s girlfriend.
19. “Requiem for Methuselah” (Original airdate: February 14, 1969) Kirk and Spock meet a mysterious recluse who seems to be thousands of years old.
20. “The Way to Eden” (Original airdate: February 21, 1969) A band of space hippies commandeer the Enterprise. Rivals “Spock’s Brain” as the series’ worst episode.
21. “The Cloud Minders” (Original airdate: February 28, 1969) The Enterprise must secure a desperately needed mineral shipment from a planet embroiled in a class struggle.
22. “The Savage Curtain” (Original airdate: March 7, 1969) Kirk and Spock fight alongside Abraham Lincoln and the Vulcan hero Sarek against a quartet of ruthless villains from across the galaxy, including legendary Klingon leader Kahless. Final classic Trek installment to feature a Klingon.
23. “All Our Yesterdays” (Original airdate: March 14, 1969) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are accidentally sent into the distant past of an alien planet.
24. “Turnabout Intruder” (Original airdate: June 3, 1969) A jealous ex-girlfriend switches bodies with Captain Kirk. The series did not end on a high note.
“The Trouble with Tribbles,” the subject of this 1977 “Fotonovel,” remains one of Star Trek’s most beloved installments.