Rating: 
Summary: Star Trek on its last legs
Review: The Savage Curtain-Another real tanker, this one is a sort of celebrity death match in which Lincoln and the good guys throw down with Genghis and the bad company. Everything about this episode feels dark and pessimistic, including the lighting. Even
the scenes with Lincoln are oddly cold and foreboding. Once on the planet, things become even more frightful. The rock aliens are some of the creepier and crueler of Star Trek creatures, particularly given their specious reasons for wanting to watch a battle between good and evil. The episode's dream-like feel makes the threats seem real, even though the plot is laughably simple. The episode is classic 3rd season in never even attempting to reach a firm conclusion about the philosophical question it poses as well.Tidbit: Another gaffe occurs here. Not only is the negative reversed in one shot of Kirk and Spock during the fight sequence, but there seems to be an unintentional speed change of some sort. Very bizarre. (2 stars) All Our Yesterdays-This Salem witch trial/ ice age time travel episode fares pretty well in comparison with its neighbors (although not its projenitor, City on the Edge of Forever). Which is to say, there is some drama and some semblance of a plot. In that inimitable 3rd season way, even the first minute of the teaser is somehow menacing. We sense that something is a little off, and that the Triumvirate is in for trouble, even before we meet the extra librarians. Part of it is the dramatic music played at the very start of all these late 3rd season shows. Part of it is that they were relying almost exclusively on early introduction of the "Kirk/ Enterprise in danger" crutch at this point in the show's run. In any event, Kirk, like a curious and courageous dog, bolts off into the great unknown, triggering a cascade of misfortune. By this point in the show, the stars were often no wiser than the guest characters; why did they ignore Mr. Atoz in the first place? As the Triumverate grows colder, less idealistic, dumber, and less faithful to their characters, we care less about their fates (see That Which Survives, Whom Gods Destroy, The Way to Eden, and Requiem for Methuselah for nearby examples). But back to the episode. While the library idea is interesting, much more could have been done with it. Both time travels end up being pretty banal. And the rationale for Spock's personality change is weak at best. On the other hand, its an interesting change from his normal behavior. The conclusion of this episode, with the enterprise outpacing the fireball, has the now characteristic rushed feel, as though the bags were packed for the next flight even before the director said, 'that's a wrap'. Gone are the short little wrap-ups on the bridge; oh well, they were often hokey anyway. Tid bit: The librarian's name is Mr. Atoz (A to Z) (3 stars)
Rating:
Summary: Weak Classic trek
Review: These DVD's normally pair episodes with some deep shared meaning - in this one, the idea is that peoples of past eras are largely ignorant and prone to find superstitious answers to solve life's msyteries (In "Trek" lore, the inhabitants of the future are the technologically and ethically advanced descendants of savage and greedy fools - us). In "All Our Yesterdays", the Enterprise comes across the planet Sarpeidon - home to an advanced civilization that appears to have disappeared. Their planet about to be destroyed by a supernova, the Sarpeidons left no hint of their escape. Instead, Kirk, McCoy and Spock find a huge library cataloguing thousands of generations of the planet's existence (the best of times, the worst of times). Perusing, though not entirely understanding the significance of the library and its strange librarian, Mr. Atoz, all three learn too late that the library is actually the navigation center of a huge time machine through which the Sarpeidons have escaped to the past. Unwittingly leaping into one such portal, Kirk finds himself trapped in a pre-industrial era in which he is branded a witch by typically ignorant natives of the time. Spock and McCoy have it worse - vanishing into the planet's ice age (an era kept on catalog for prisoners) where they meet the lovely Zarabeth (Mariette Hartley - later to return as a sexy Terranian in Roddenberry's short-lived "Earth2" series, and also immortalized in a generation of Polaroid commercials). In Spock's case, the metaphor for time travel is reversed - Zarabeth is a caring and loving person, but Spock's journey to a time before his ancestors cast out their emotions and their meat-eating diet has caused him to become a passionate savage. (McCoy, however, does not revert to the primitive state of pre-20th century country doctors). Falling in love with Zarabeth - also a future Sarpeidon sent to the past as a prisoner - he is willing to do anything to remain in the past with her (a special safeguard ensures her death should she try to return to the present). The episode was later sequelized in the novel "Yesterday's Son" in which Spock returns to Sarpeidon for the son born of his union with Zarabeth, and confronts another sign of his wild days - Sub Commander Tal from "The Enterprise Incident". "The Savage Curtain" was a more overt jab at those foolish primitives of our past - pitting the crew not only against simulacra of the evil past (barbarian warlord Genghis Khan, the warmongering Kahless who set the Klingon race into their bellicose ways, and Colonel Green, guilty of more recent crimes against humanity) but also against the naivete of our more noble ancestors - Abe Lincoln and the vulcan Surak. Trapped on the world of Excalbia, the crew are subjects for that world's inhabitants to test the strength of good over evil. Unsurprisingly, Lincoln and Surak aren't big on fighting at all, and are good's biggest liabilities. The message of this episode is vague - is goodness stronger than evil because it does not measure itself according to strength? Or perhaps the moral is that the lines between good and evil aren't so clear -but that was handled better in the episode "Errand of Mercy" in which both Humans and Klingons are kept from warring against each other by godlike Organians who play no favorites. (Unsurprisingly, the Organians and Excalbians would meet years later in DC Comics's "Star Trek" monthly, in an issue titled "Errand of War".) Either way, these episodes are Classic Trek at its weakest.
Rating: 
Summary: STAR TREK THE ORIGINAL SERIES' LAST GASPING BREATH!
Review: We must be reaching the end, because Volume 39 of The Star Trek DVD series contians two of the last great episodes producedin the series three season run. At first look THE SAVAGE CURTAIN may be considered a ridiculously silly episode. This is the infamous episode where 'Abraham Lincoln' makes an appearance. True that this episodes plot is way too far out to ever actually occur but still you have to give the writers credit for their creativity even if this is too cheesy. Basically the story goes that the Enterprise crew are abducted by a friendly alien entity who takes the form of Lincoln. Lincoln insists he is who he actually is and requests that Kirk and Spock accompany him to the molten planet where (unbeknowst to our heroes) the rock like aliens, the Excalbians have organized a battle between good and evil. Pitting (good) Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and the greatest Vulcan philosopher Surak against (evil) Genghis Khan, Kahless the Unforgettable (founder of the Klingon Empire), Col.Green (someone who supposedly is a Tyrant in our future) and Zora (some fairly forgettable experimental witch tyrant here). The story has essentially an anti-war message. Some people consider this to be one of the worst episodes. I actually greatly disagee with that thought on this show. Of course it's nowhere near the best but it's effective and creative, especially considering that (by this time) the Star Trek series was on life support. Not the best but good for third season standards. Hey, at least they didn't credit Abraham Lincoln played by himself! ALL OF OUR YESTERDAYS was the last great Star Trek episode to ever make it into production. Being only an episode away from the end of the series' three year run, in retrospect they should have ended with this one. The story essentially deals with time travel. The Enterprise journeys to Sarpeidon and Kirk, Spock and McCoy meet a peculiar old librarian (played by Ian Wolfe). It's a really effective time travle episode since this story has three settings: Present day Sarpeidon, Kirk in Sarpeidon's Victorian age, Spock and McCoy in Sarpeidon's ice age. The last setting really steals this episode. Partly because we see Spock's barbaric nature take him over. There is no doubt why Nimoy is on the front of the DVD case. He even gets an effective love interest in this story (played by Mariette Hartley). An interesting plot, great acting and a somewhat tragic ending make tihs episode one of the more memrable episodes from the tail end of the Star Trek series. Overall this is another must. One of the better pair of episodes from the end Star Trek's wildly uneven third season. Highly recommended.
| 
