The shows are listed in their original broadcast order. This is considerably different from the filming order. All review/commentary is my own opinion. Your mileage may differ.

Updated 9/16/06

ORIGINAL PILOT The Cage

(Not seen separately until the show went into syndication)

Jeffery Hunter was an excellent actor but as Christopher Pike, he seems wooden and uncomfortable with his role.

Majel Barrett, later Majel Roddenberry would have been a good 1st officer but TPTB of 1965, were very uncomfortable with a female in that position. They also hated Spock's ears and you can see the airbrushing in the earliest publicity materials.

Spock is third, the science officer and the Enterprise's doctor is Dr. Phillip Boyce is played by John Hoyt.

The Man Trap

Filmed # 6

Aired 9/8/1966
SD-1513.1

Kirk and McCoy beam down for medical checks on a remote planet. The wife of the researcher appears differently to each person who sees her. McCoy sees his old girlfriend as she looked when he first knew her. Kirk seea a nice looking mature woman and the redshirts see a seductive woman - just before they die.

Uhura sees a handsome black man and our team finally figures that the original wife and the researcher is supplying the alien with salt to keep up the illusian.

Chosen as the first broadcast because the alien danger was a more familiar one to use, it manages to create sympathy for her even though you know she will have to die.

Charlie X

8  OAD 9/15/1966

SD -

Charlie was found be the crew of a small ship and they seem awefully anxious to get him aboart the Enterprise and get out of town. He seems normal, except that odd things happen around him. Chess pieces melt and playing cards suddenly have fashion pics of Yeoman Rand on them.

Charlie is trying to deal with his hormones, temper and way too much power. He's an adolescent boy, feeling human emotions for the first time and having no experience to help him deal with them. His pain is real, and you want to be able to help him, even as Kirk, Spock and McCoy want to help, but his need to control others becomes a meglomania and his teachers come to take him back to the planet where he was raised.

This is a personal favorite and not just for the gym sequences with a trim, toned Kirk in red tights. The idea of a child, raised by formless aliens and developing dangerous powers is visited again in "The Squire of Gothos".

Where No Man Has Gone Before -

2nd Pilot
OAD 9/22/1966

SD-1312.4

The ship has been sent on a voyage to the "Edge of the Galexy" to examine the "Barrier". Moving through it triggers major ESP in Kirk's Exec, who loses his humanity to his hunger for power.

William Shatner brought a quality of human concern to Kirk that seemed to me to be missing in Pike. His eyes move over the people on the bridge, checking each person, gaging their readyness and their abilities. Kirk knows his ship and his crew. He's accustomed to command and while he doesn't take it lightly, he maintains his sense of humor.

The Naked Time

7 OAD 9/29/1966

SD-1704.2

Investigating the silence of a research outpost, members of the Enterprise crew bring aboard an unknown virus which brings hidden needs and desires to the surface. The race is to discover what it is and stop it before the ship crashes into Psi 2000.

The"No beach to walk on..." speech, and Spock's upset over not being able to admit loving his human mother are wonderful. Keep an eye open for Sulu's "I'll protect you fair maiden." line... And Uhurah's response... (Keep in mind this was 1966.)

The Enemy Within

5  OAD 10/6/1966

SD 1672.1

Ah, "malfunction junction", AKA the Transporter screws up due to an odd ore and splits Kirk into good and evil individuals. There are some beautiful scenes as Kirk faces the fact that as Spock and McCoy tell him, the "evil" Kirk has most of the ability to be the decisive, quick acting Captain. There are a couple of editing goofs that Gene Roddenberry always claimed no one noticed. (That was in the 70's.)

Mudd's Women

4 OAD 10/13/1966  

SD1329.1

Harry Mudd, Roger C. Carmel, is a favorite villian.  He's "wieving settlers" something that has a long history and seems harmless.  But the three beauties are really three nice girls who are taking a drug, the Venus drug.

Bill Thiess' costumes on the girls caused "Broadcast Standards" to go ballistic on more than one occasion. This was only the first.

What Are Little Girls Made Of?

10 OAD 10/20/1966

SD 2712.4
Nurse Chapel joined the crew of the Enterprise with the hope that they would be sent to investivate the dissapearence of her fience, Roger Corby. They arrive at the planet and Corby is there and asks Kirk to beam down alone. There are experiments that need discussion. Yep, they certainly do. He's devised a method for creating androids. He shows Kirk his assistant, Andrea and Chapel developes green eyes. The mechanical giesha is just the beginning. Next he has his other assistant, Roc, overpower Kirk and creates a duplicate to send up to the Enterprise.

Miri

12  OAD 10/27/1966

SD 2713.5

Dagger of the Mind

11  OAD 11/3/1966

SD 2715.1

The Corbomite Maneuver

3  OAD 11/10/1966

SD 1512.2

The Conscience of the King

13 OAD 12/8/1966

SD 2817.6

Balance of Terror

9  OAD 12/15/1966

SD 1709.2

This is another favorite. Actor Mark Lenard, who plays the Romulan Commander came back later in the series and the films to play Spock's Father.

The Return of the Archons

# 22 OAD-2/9/1967 SD-3156.2

The leader of a war-torn world created a means of keeping his world stable by creating a "Festival" that allows complete license for a people who live a completely constrained life the rest of the time.

Space Seed

# 24 OAD 2/16/1967

SD 3141.9

Khan returned in the second film, much to my delight.