In very early treatments of ST Spock was mentioned as being half human and half-Martian, so this was in it from the beginning.
The Naked Time is the first case of ST technobabble, which was kept well under control in TOS, though increasingly less so in the other ones. I can kind of excuse it since the point of the episode was to look at the characters, and they needed to invent something to get them out that wouldn’t take up a lot of time. TNG used exactly the same plot in the second or third episode, much less effectively.
Some other episodes that are well worth seeing, if you liked your first five:
Devil in the Dark - A monster story with a twist. Some great scenes of Kirk, Spock and McCoy working together.
The Doomsday Machine - A great “bottle show” (set entirely aboard ship) about fighting an unstoppable weapon. See the remastered edition, if possible - the bad SFX of the original have all been gloriously fixed.
Errand of Mercy - Introduces the Klingons, and has some great scenes of Kirk and Spock undercover.
This Side of Paradise - A good Spock love story; also, Kirk grapples with the loss of command and later must provoke Spock (similar to that scene in the new movie) in order to bring him to his senses.
Court-Martial - Kirk stands trial for official misconduct resulting in a death, and faces the loss of everything he’s accomplished.
The Conscience of the King - Kirk confronts a dark episode from his past and weighs the qualities of justice and mercy.
The Ultimate Computer - Again, Kirk shows strength in adversity, struggling to reestablish control over his ship.
Shore Leave - A mostly nonsensical but fun off-ship romp. Worth it just for the early scene in which Spock tricks a frazzled, workaholic Kirk off the ship.
Thanks for this thread. Took my 12 year old to the current Star Trek movie. She enjoyed it, but didn’t understand the joy of all the old farts in the audience. Shouldn’t take her long to catch up with the in-jokes and the homage-bits.
I’ll see your What Are Little Girls Made Of? and raise you one Requiem for Methuselah. Rayna got to Kirk in a way that few real women ever did. And Spock committed a great act of compassion on him.
Sorry, to me that was a very creepy moment. I still find it disturbing. You don’t use your Vulcan superpowers to rearrange your friend’s mind without informed consent. (Yeah, I know he said he wanted to forget, but if he had said he wanted to die, would Spock have killed him without making sure that was what he really wanted?)
BTW, I don’t know if you read sf, bienville, but if you do you might be interested in know that Shore Leave and Amok time were written by Theodore Sturgeon. Norman Spinrad wrote The Doomsday Machine, and Robert Bloch wrote What are Little Girls Made Of, Catspaw, and Wolf in the Fold, an extension of his famous story Yours Truly Jack the Ripper.
