Plato’s Stepchildren

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5784.0: The Enterprise is summoned urgently to assist the seriously ill Parmen, head of the planet Platonius. After McCoy manages to give Parmen the necessary elixirs, Parmen and his fellow Platonians use immense telekinetic powers to force Kirk, McCoy and Spock to stay on the planet and behave as puppets to Parmen’s whim for their amusement. The only Platonian showing disgust at the others’ abuse of their power is Alexander, but he is also apparently the only Platonian incapable of telekinesis, and he cannot assist the landing party as they try to escape Parmen’s control.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Meyer Dolinsky
directed by David Alexander
music by Alexander Courage

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Michael Dunn (Alexander), Liam Sullivan (Parmen), Barbara Babcock (Philana), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), Ted Scott (Eraclitus), Derek Partridge (Dionyo)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Wink Of An Eye

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5710.5: When a landing party investigating Scalos begins to vanish one by one, Kirk, Spock and McCoy try to find out what is happening before more of the crew disappears, until Kirk himself is abducted. Kirk finds the cause to be a group of endangered Scalosians who move faster than human sight or hearing can detect. They need to repopulate their species, and find that speeding human males up to Scalosian speed will meet their needs. Kirk must find a way to get a message to Spock and McCoy, who are working on a cure for the mystery “ailment,” as well as stirring up fighting among the Scalosians, before they have control of the Enterprise.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Arthur Heinemann
story by Lee Cronin
directed by Jud Taylor
music by Alexander Courage

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Kathie Browne (Deela), Jason Evers (Rael), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), Erik Holland (Ekor), Geoffrey Binney (Compton)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Empath

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5121.0: Kirk, Spock and McCoy search for two missing scientists on a planet whose sun is about to explode, but they only find visual logs that show the scientists disappearing. Then the landing party disappears as well, finding themselves trapped by two aliens who snatched the scientists away and experimented on them until they died. The aliens now have Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a mute empath nicknamed “Gem” by the landing party in their custody, and the captors seem to be intent on repeating the same deadly experiments on their new specimens.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Joyce Muskat
directed by John Erman
music by George Duning

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Kathryn Hays (Gem), Alan Bergmann (Lal), Davis Roberts (Dr. Ozaba), Jason Wingreen (Dr. Linke), Willard Sage (Thann)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Elaan Of Troyius

Star Trek ClassicStardate 4372.5: The Enterprise is ordered to ferry Ambassador Petri of Troyius to up the dohlman of Troyius’s sworn enemy, the world of Elas. The dohlman turns out to be Elaan, one of the most striking examples of the women of Elas, whose tears, according to legend, leave any man susceptible to her charms. Petri’s duty on the slow voyage back to Troyius is to train the savage Elaan in the more civilized ways of the Troyians, a lesson she does not willingly take on. After stabbing Petri, throwing numerous tantrums, and ordering her guards to refuse Kirk permission to resolve any disputes, Elaan sheds a tear, which infects Kirk, clouding his judgement at precisely the wrong time when a Klingon warship enters the sector.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by John Meredyth Lucas
directed by John Meredyth Lucas
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Frances Nuyen (Elaan), Jay Robinson (Petri), Tony Young (Kryton), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), Lee Duncan (Evans), Victor Brandt (Wilson), Dick Durock (Guard #1), Charles Beck (Guard #2), K.L. Smith (Klingon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Whom Gods Destroy

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5718.3: The Enterprise is carrying a new drug to the mental hospital on Elba II, where it is hoped that the last dangerously insane patients in the Federation can finally be treated. But when Kirk and Spock beam down, they do not realize that the facilities have been taken over by the inmates, led by Garth, a former Starfleet captain who has also become a shape-shifter. Before anyone on the Enterprise realizes what is transpiring on Elba II, Garth has activated a shield to prevent the landing party from escaping.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Lee Erwin
story by Lee Erwin and Jerry Sohl
directed by Herb Wallerstein
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Steve Ihnat (Garth), Yvonne Craig (Marta), Richard Geary (Andorian), Gary Downey (Tellarite), Keye Luke (Cory)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5730.2: Two natives of the planet Cheron are brought aboard after one of them helps the Enterprise chase the other down after he had stolen a shuttlecraft from a Federation starbase. Bele and Lokai, however, have a dispute that goes far beyond a simple pursuit of a criminal. Their hatred – and, indeed, the entire shuttlecraft incident – is rooted in a deep racial prejudice which threatens to engulf not only them, but the Enterprise and Kirk’s crew.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Oliver Crawford
story by Lee Cronin
directed by Jud Taylor
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Frank Gorshin (Bele), Lou Antonia (Lokai), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Mark of Gideon

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5423.4: Kirk is planning to beam down to the overpopulated planet Gideon to meet with the leaders, but apparently arrives at the wrong place in a transporter malfunction (or so it seems to the Enterprise crew.) Kirk finds himself aboard the Enterprise, but cannot locate anyone else aboard except for Odona, who offers no answers to his bafflement at why no one is aboard the ship but him (or so he thinks). It turns out that the leaders of Gideon plan on using Odona – and now Kirk – as pawns in a horrific scheme to reduce the planet’s population…

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by George F. Slavin and Stanley Adams
directed by Jud Taylor
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Sharon Acker (Odona), David Hurst (Hodin), Gene Dynarski (Krodak), Richard Derr (Admiral Fitzgerald)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

That Which Survives

Star Trek ClassicStardate not given: Kirk leads a landing party to do a geological survey of an unexplored planet, but before they beam down, they see a woman appear out of nowhere in the transporter room and kill a crewman simply by touch, and then she disappears. Her appearance also affects the Enterprise, sending it well out of communications range, trapping Kirk and his team on the planet’s surface. The woman continues to appear, naming her victim on arrival and killing them by touch. Sulu is nearly killed by her, and the woman appears on the Enterprise as well, sabotaging the engines so the ship will never retrieve Kirk’s survey team, stranding them – as well as the crew of the Enterprise – with an unpredictable murderer.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by John Meredyth Lucas
story by Michael Richards
directed by Herb Wallerstein
music by Fred Steiner

Star TrekGuest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Lee Meriwether (Losira), Arthur Batanides (D’Amato), Naomi Pollack (Rahda), Booker Bradshaw (Dr. M’Benga), Brad Forrest (Ensign), Kenneth Washington (Watkins)

Notes: “Michael Richards” is a pseudonym used by writer D.C. Fontana.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Lights of Zetar

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5725.3: En route to Memory Alpha, the home of the Federation’s largest library/computer banks, the Enterprise is transferring Lt. Romaine to her next assignment, overseeing refits and new installations on Memory Alpha. A cloud of energy intercepts the ship and wreaks havoc with the Enterprise’s instruments and crew, affecting various crewmembers’ brains in different ways and causing Lt. Romaine to pass out. The cloud strikes Memory Alpha next, wiping out every living thing on the planetoid along with most of the library banks. Mira, who has been experiencing strange thoughts and visions since the cloud’s first sweep of the Enterprise, is suddenly able to predict the cloud is returning to the vicinity before the Enterprise’s sensors can. Kirk orders phasers fired to defend the ship, but every time the cloud is hit, it injures Lt. Romaine. McCoy determines that the energy beings in the cloud are now telepathically linked to her mind.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jeremy Tarcher and Shari Lewis
directed by Herb Kenwith
music by Alexander Courage

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Jan Shutan (Lt. Mira Romaine), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), John Winston (Lt. Kyle), Libby Erwin (Technician)

Notes: This episode was co-written by Shari Lewis, better known for her puppeteering work and the character of Lambchop.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Requiem For Methuselah

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5843.7: On an urgent mission to procure the antidote to a serious plague which threatens the entire crew of the Enterprise, Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to Holberg 917-G to contact Flint in hopes of finding either the remedy or the raw material from which to extract it. Flint’s lovely female android, Rayna, begins to create a rivalry between Kirk, for whom she begins to feel true love, and Flint, who created Rayna to provide him with companionship. Spock discovers that Flint may be an immortal being who has influenced Earth’s history in the past, and McCoy finds that Flint is slowly dying. But Kirk may not resolve his argument with Flint in time to help Spock and McCoy save the crew of the Enterprise.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jerome Bixby
directed by Murray Golden
music by Fred Steiner
Brahms paraphrase by Ivan Ditmars

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), James Daly (Flint), Louise Sorel (Rayna)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Way To Eden

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5832.3: Pursuing the USS Aurora, which has been stolen, Kirk beams the Aurora’s crew aboard the Enterprise when the sustained high-speed pursuit overloads the stolen vessel’s engines, destroying the ship. The thieves turn out to be a motley assortment of “hippies,” including noted scientist Dr. Sevrin. Another of the throwbacks is the son of a Federation ambassador, leading Starfleet Command to order Kirk to allow his new passengers to roam the Enterprise freely. Sevrin and his friends take advantage of their newfound freedom and decide to hijack the Enterprise so they may resume the interrupted mission for which they stole the Aurora – to find the mythical planet Eden, a gardenlike world on which they hope to find health, purity and happiness.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Arthur Heinemann
story by Michael Richards and Arthur Heinemann
directed by David Alexander
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Skip Homeier (Sevrin), Charles Napier (Adam), Mary-Linda Rapelye (Irina), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), Victor Brandt (Tongo Rad), Elizabeth Rogers (Lt. Palmer), Deborah Downey (Girl #1), Phyllis Douglas (Girl #2)

Notes: The planet Eden is also mentioned in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and although Sybok was obviously thinking about a different Eden when he and his followers took over the Enterprise for much the same purpose as Dr. Sevrin and company, Kirk – perhaps remembering this adventure – stated many times in that film that Eden, as a planet, is a myth.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Cloudminders

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5818.4: Beaming down to pick up a consignment of zenite from the planet Ardana, the home of Stratos, a city that floats above the surface of the planet, Kirk and Spock, who are there to pick up a consignment of zenite, are ambushed by mineworkers known as Troglytes. The attack is cut short by the arrival of Plasus, a high advisor from Stratos, who says that a disruptive group of protesting Troglytes probably stole the zenite shipment, which was missing. On Stratos, which Plasus says is safe, there is also evidence of Troglyte terrorism. Kirk and Spock discover that the Stratos dwellers live an easy life thanks to their planet’s unique mineral resources at the expense of the Troglytes, who get no reward for extracting those resources. When McCoy finds that the raw zenite being mined by the Troglytes is having an adverse affect on their health, Kirk takes it upon himself to upset the balance in favor of equality.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Margaret Armen
story by David Gerrold and Oliver Crawford
directed by Jud Taylor
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Jeff Corey (Plasus), Diana Ewing (Droxine), Charlene Polite (Vanna), Kirk Raymone (Cloud Guard #1), Jimmy Fields (Cloud Guard #2), Ed Long (Midro), Fred Williamson (Anka), Garth Pillsbury (Prisoner), Harv Selsby (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Savage Curtain

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5906.4: Over the planet Excalbia, the Enterprise is intercepted by who appears to be Abraham Lincoln, floating through space. Beaming aboard, Lincoln is welcomed by Kirk, who is somewhat awed by the presence of one of his most revered figures of history. “Lincoln” extends an invitation to Kirk and Spock to visit the planet, whose normally lava-covered surface sprouts a zone of Earthlike safety just for the landing party. Kirk, Spock and Lincoln are joined on the surface by an image of Surak, who initiated the doctrine of emotional restraint on Vulcan. A rock-creature appears and introduces Kirk and Spock to four more illusionary figures from history, this time the fiercest conquerors, tyrants and villains of the past, from Earth’s Genghis Khan to Kahless the Unforgettable, who, as Surak did for Vulcan, set the standard of behavior for the Klingons. The creature pits the best and most noble – Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Surak – against the most vile historical figures. The rewards for Kirk and Spock, should they survive, are their lives, and the lives of everyone aboard the Enterprise.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Gene Roddenberry and Arthur Heinemann
story by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Herschel Daugherty
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Lee Bergere (Abraham Lincoln), Barry Atwater (Surak), Phillip Pine (Colonel Green), Arell Blanton (Chief Security Guard), Carol Daniels DeMent (Zora), Robert Herron (Kahless), Nathan Jung (Ghengis Khan)

Notes: Colonel Green was seen again in one of the final installments of Star Trek: Enterprise, depicted as a xenophobic warmonger whose rants inspired John Paxton’s attempt to oust all alien influences and visitors from Earth a century before Kirk’s tour of duty on the Enterprise.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

All Our Yesterdays

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5943.7: Arriving at the moon Sarpiedon, whose mother planet is due to explode in three hours, Kirk, Spock and McCoy find just what the ship’s sensors indicated on the surface – no life forms, though an advanced civilization obviously once existed. But they then find several copies of Sarpiedon’s librarian, Mr. Atoz. Some of the clones are helpful, others belligerent, but they all tell the landing party that all the people of Sarpiedon have already escaped to safety, and Atoz, thinking that Kirk and the others are natives who arrived late, advises them to do the same. The library turns out to be a file of “time periods” into which a device Atoz calls the atavachron can propel them, as it has already provided an escape for the rest of the moon’s inhabitants. Hearing a woman screaming, but not realizing that she is one the other side of tha atavachron’s time portal, Kirk leaps into a time period similar to the 1800s, and Spock and McCoy stumble into an ice age trying to retrieve him. All three must try to survive long enough in their respective environments for the time portal back to Sarpiedon to return – if that moon still exists in the 23rd century for them to return to.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jean Lisette Aroeste
directed by Marvin Chomsky
music by George Duning

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Mariette Hartley (Zarabeth), Ian Wolfe (Mr. Atoz), Kermit Murdock (The Prosecutor), Ed Bakey (First Fop), Anna Karen (Woman), Al Cavens (Second Fop), Stan Barrett (Jailer), Johnny Haymer (Constable)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Turnabout Intruder

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5298.5: Visiting Dr. Coleman and the ailing Dr. Lester, a colleague of Kirk’s from Starfleet Academy who has always envied him due to her inability to achieve a captaincy in a male-captains-only Starfleet, Kirk is rendered unconscious by Lester. It turns out to have been a trap, and Lester puts herself and Kirk into an unknown device that transfers their minds into one another’s bodies. Lester, in the form of Kirk, doesn’t have time to kill Kirk (now in the female body). Lester and Coleman make every attempt to leave Kirk on the planet, but must bring “her” aboard to save face. Kirk, still suffering a severe shock from the mind transfer, is unable to warn McCoy about Lester’s plan to command the Enterprise (especially when Lester keeps ordering Kirk sedated). Lester, however, is unable to conceal her lack of knowledge of command procedures and, more specifically, Kirk’s character, and when Spock learns the truth and attempts to help Kirk, Lester has him placed under arrest and tries to speed Spock’s court-martial toward a conclusion which would have Kirk and Spock executed.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Arthur H. Singer
story by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Herb Wallerstein
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Sandra Smith (Janice Lester), Harry Landers (Dr. Coleman), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), Barbara Baldavin (Communications Officer), David L. Ross (Lt. Galoway), John Boyer (Guard)

Notes: Only 47 days after the final episode of Star Trek aired, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

LogBook entry by Earl Green