If you remember from my previous entry, I have decided to dedicate my final three days of Ten Days of Trek to my three favorite, and arguably the three best, Star Trek episodes. I am talking strictly TOS, not any of the spinoffs. This has proven quite difficult, as I love so many episodes from TOS. So after hours of toil and internal debate, here is the third best episode of Star Trek.

3. Mirror, Mirror

S2E10, originally aired October 6th, 1967
Written by Jerome Bixby; Directed by Marc Daniels

“Captain’s log, stardate… unknown. We are trapped in a savage parallel universe from which we must escape within four hours, or I will face a death sentence at Mr. Spock’s hands.”

Uhura, Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty in the Mirror Universe

Evil Spock & Kirk in the Mirror Universe

Perfect story, and well executed. A landing party consisting of Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura is zapped into a parallel “Mirror” universe when being transported back to the ship during an ion storm. The USS Enterprise is now the ISS Enterprise, the entire ship is filled with henchmen and mercenaries, and Spock is evil because of his stylish beard. Spock’s logic prevails across both universes, however, as he’s the one that figures out that the returned landing party are fishes out of water.

The SF community can thank this episode for the establishment of bearded doubles being evil, and that baddies in general have beards. Two obvious examples are The Master from Doctor Who and Flexo, Bender’s identical brobot, in Futurama S2E11, “The Lesser of Two Evils.” Check out the commentary on that Futurama episode to hear the writers and producers support this claim.

Sulu & Uhura in the Mirror Universe

It’s really fun to see the actors play bastardized versions of themselves, especially Sulu and Chekov. As you may know, besides his role as Chekov in Star Trek, Walter Koenig is most well known for playing baddies. This may have been the logical starting point.

“Jim, I think I liked him with a beard better. Gave him character. Of course, almost any change would be a distinct improvement.”
“What worries me is the easy way his counterpart fitted into that other universe. I always thought Spock was a bit of a pirate at heart.”
“Indeed, gentlemen? May I point out that I had an opportunity to observe your counterparts here quite closely. They were brutal, savage, unprincipled, uncivilized, treacherous — in every way, splendid examples of homosapiens. The very flower of humanity. I found them quite refreshing.”
“I’m not sure, but I think we’ve been insulted.”
“I’m sure.”
- McCoy, Kirk and Spock

Stay tuned for #2.

Today is the last day that a feature film will be part of my Ten Days of Trek. I’ll get to why in a moment.

Star Trek Generations

I’ll forgo bullet points so that I can just rant for a minute. The movie started out like the rest of the Star Trek films up until this point, which was awesome, because I like the Star Trek films. But then it turned into a prolonged episode of TNG, which was really boring. And then Kirk ended his Trek tenure in the worst way EVER. I know everyone and their grandmother has complained about it, but that’s not stopping me. I mean, really. The only thing I’ll give them is that they stuck with what he said in Undiscovered Country. That he’d die alone. And he did, considering that McCoy and Spock weren’t there. Also, neither of them were in the film at all, and were only briefly mentioned.

A brief point about my reaction to this film. Did I cry for Kirk? No. Did I cry for the Enterprise? No. Did I cry when Data found Spot? Yes. Like a little baby. So there you have it.

I also decided that I was going to stop re-watching the Trek films at this point. It really was the final send-off for the original cast, even if it was a disappointing send-off. So for the next three days I will highlight my favorite episodes. Tomorrow will be #3, the next day #2, and I’ll end with #1, my favorite and arguably the best episode of the original Star Trek series. Because I know how much you all want to know.

As a heads-up, there is a strong possibility that my judgment will be swayed by episodes parodied by Futurama. Just saying.

The last film to feature the entire original cast. Sad.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Thoughts:
- Spock was so interestingly out of character in this movie. Interestingly because Nimoy helped write the story and produce to the film.
- Kim Cattrall? Hilarious!
- For such a mighty race, I find it quite entertaining that Klingons have bright pink blood.
- I got really confused by Colonel Worf. They only call him Worf, so naturally I thought of the Worf we all know and love from TNG and Voyager. This Worf is even played by Michael Dorn, although the ridges in his forehead are different. Apparently he is supposed to be Worf’s grandfather. I kept thinking during the film, “this was released in 2001, after TNG had been on tv for four years. Wouldn’t this be confusing?” I guess it’s okay to have this film overlap TNG, even though it’s supposed to have happened well before Picard took over the Enterprise-D. I’d look into that further if … I cared that much. Which I kind of don’t. Maybe that makes me a bad Trekkie?
- I’m glad they dropped the whole Uhura/Scotty thing. I was not a fan.

Now we get into where Trekkies say the odd movies are poo.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

I really only have two things I want to say about this film.
1- People seem to really hate the tongue-and-cheek jokes of this film. I, for one, find them refreshing. The film knows not to take itself of the franchise too seriously. At this point why wouldn’t you point out there age or some of the oddities of their lifestyle? They’re the cowboys of outspace, and cowboy films and cowboys are comfortable with poking fun at their lives. Why should Star Trek be any different?
2- Everyone always seems to think that Kirk is a womanizer or whatever. But take a look at this film. It was co-written by Shatner and directed by Shatner. There was no love interest for Kirk, even remotely. I realize that Shatner =/= Kirk, but for the man that played the part for so long, wouldn’t you think he’d include that angle if he thought it was important to Kirk’s character? I do think, though, that Kirk is mostly interested in his friendship/relationship with Spock and McCoy, and I think the focus on those feelings is more in line with Kirk’s character than any romantic fling.

I had to skip yesterday because of the holiday. Worth it, though, because I watched two football games, ate tons of fantastic food, spent time with great friends, and played many hours of Rock Band 2.

Back to business, though.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Thoughts:
- Nuclear wessel.
- Whale biologists are lame. See Futurama “Three Hundred Big Boys” for further proof.
- Kirk and Spock are absolutely hilarious when trying to be inconspicuous. See Star Trek “The City on the Edge of Forever” for further proof.
- Scotty is still pretty much my favorite, Sulu pretty much tied, but I also really love Spock’s dad for some reason.
- I have a cool idea for an article about the music of this movie, and Star Trek in general. No spoilers about it yet, though. That might be my project over break.