Postby Joe Anthrax » Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:18 am
I had meant to write in about this episode, but certain things popped up with family, kids and Halloween that just made it not happen. Needless to say, this is one of my favorite episodes of TOS, and one I saw multiple times in my youth. When I was growing up, my home town didn't have a UHF station that would play the syndicated Star Trek episodes. Sure, there were UHF stations that broadcast it, but none that reached out where I lived. And this was even before the time of VHS copies of the show for sale. The way I saw this episode was through a RCA Videodisc version of the show. Now mind you, this wasn't a Laserdisc...it was essentially a encased record that played movies, TV shows, etc. In fact, these were the only way to rent videos in my home town, as VHS rental places hadn't popped up yet. The disc came with two episodes (one per side of the Videodisc), and my family owned "Space Seed", "Balance of Terror", "Mirror, Mirror", and "The Changeling". We also had the second and third Star Trek movies on Videodisc, and I probably wore through those as much as I did the episodes.
Yes there were numerous parallels to The Motion Picture, yet even though I loved "The Changeling", I wasn't as big a fan of the movie. Don't get me wrong, I'd watch The Motion Picture any day over the last two Next Gen films, but despite its similarities, I felt the film was way too drawn out. It was beautiful to look at, and the actors were in their prime, but the pacing was way too slow. This is another example of WTFery in Star Trek security failures when NOMAD, the ultimate killing machine that just wiped out 4 billion people, is just allowed to saunter up to the bridge, mind wipe the communications officer, and kill the chief engineer. Is seems like anyone at any time can just hop up to the most important part of the ship without a thing being done. And yes, Uhura getting her memory back simply through re-reading her profile was a stretch even for my 8 year old mind. And I can't be certain, but is this the first episode where Kirk defeats the mechanical enemy with a ? I can't remember...
I'm off to finish up the show, as I can't wait to hear what you have to say about toga-Riker. First season TNG is usually good for a chuckle.
Joe -- I hope Wesley gives Scott something to gripe about...oh wait, its a First season episode, of course he will -- Anthrax
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