Rating: 
Summary: Bread & Journey
Review: "Bread & Circuses"...An episode written by Gene Roddenberry & Gene Coon...an episode with the hidden Easter message. It works quite well."Jounrey to Babel" Meet Spock's father Sarek for the first time.Jane Wyatt stars as Amanda...Spock's mother. Kirk is almost killed in an assassination attempt and Sarek almost dies.We also get a "first look" at the Andorians. I feel kinda sorry for the Tellarite though. He suffered from bad makeup.
Rating: 
Summary: One solid show, and one top tier episode
Review: Bread and Circuses-The Roman episode was the first in a slew of parallel earth episodes, and was one of the better ones. The episode features a lot of action and a number of exterior shots. There is also much violence, and some of it is fairly chilling. While there is some editiorializing on 1) our society's bloodlust this is in my opinion negated by the Pro-Christian bias (I don't have anything against Christianity-I just prefer religion to be dealt with more subjectively on Trek). For better or worse, the show was becoming less introspective. An argument could be made that some of these episodes should have been reigned in a bit. But Star Trek was riding high at this point on a string of strong stories and fun episodes; few could have guessed that the quality would start to deteriorate in just a few episodes. Tidbit: This episode and Elaan of Troyius were the two that took the longest to get from production to the TV screen. In Elaan of Troyius I always assumed the delay was due to the spacecraft special effects. What was the explanation here? (3 stars) Journey to Babel-In another classic Trek, we meet Spock's parents, and the Enterprise turns into a veritable 'who's who' of alien dignitaries. Like so many second season shows, this episode is fast paced and dramatic. There are actually several plot lines going at once. Not only do the subtleties of Spock's relationship with his parents play well here, the show is augmented by the fact that so much else happens (murder, Kirk and Sarek's physical troubles, a spy aboard the ship, a Klingon vessel, etc.) A lot to juggle, but the writer and director managed it well, even bringing everything together at the end. True, it's absurd that Kirk and company would know so little about Spock's family, but the bombshell does make for a dramatic close to the teaser. (4.5 stars)
Rating:
Summary: One solid show, and one top tier episode
Review: Bread and Circuses-The Roman episode was the first in a slew of parallel earth episodes, and was one of the better ones. The episode features a lot of action and a number of exterior shots. There is also much violence, and some of it is fairly chilling. While there is some editiorializing on 1) our society's bloodlust this is in my opinion negated by the Pro-Christian bias (I don't have anything against Christianity-I just prefer religion to be dealt with more subjectively on Trek). For better or worse, the show was becoming less introspective. An argument could be made that some of these episodes should have been reigned in a bit. But Star Trek was riding high at this point on a string of strong stories and fun episodes; few could have guessed that the quality would start to deteriorate in just a few episodes. Tidbit: This episode and Elaan of Troyius were the two that took the longest to get from production to the TV screen. In Elaan of Troyius I always assumed the delay was due to the spacecraft special effects. What was the explanation here? (3 stars) Journey to Babel-In another classic Trek, we meet Spock's parents, and the Enterprise turns into a veritable 'who's who' of alien dignitaries. Like so many second season shows, this episode is fast paced and dramatic. There are actually several plot lines going at once. Not only do the subtleties of Spock's relationship with his parents play well here, the show is augmented by the fact that so much else happens (murder, Kirk and Sarek's physical troubles, a spy aboard the ship, a Klingon vessel, etc.) A lot to juggle, but the writer and director managed it well, even bringing everything together at the end. True, it's absurd that Kirk and company would know so little about Spock's family, but the bombshell does make for a dramatic close to the teaser. (4.5 stars)
Rating: 
Summary: Brought down by "Bread"
Review: I've got mixed feelings about this mixed bag. I'm a trekker with a tilt towards the original series (Classic Trek or, to others, "TOS"), yet even I can't ignore that incarnation's weak spots which abound in "Bread and Circuses", but are ably compensated for in "Babel". In "Bread", the Enterprise searches for the crew of a missing starship. A clue turns up when finding that a nearby planet, supposedly stuck in the pre-industrial age, now shows appears to have advanced to something comparable to 20th Century Earth. The advances, however, are also paralleled by that world's embrace of Imperial Roman culture, especially its bloodlust. Unsurprisingly, the missing starship captain has much to do with elevating (and debasing) the planet's primitive state. Despite the gory depths to which cultural disruption has brought that world (every night is gladiator night, complete with canned cheers and catcalls, but very real gore) the rogue captain rationalizes his violation of the Prime Directive. This would have been a middling episode, but it's devolved itself, mostly because the idea seems to have been done to death in other TOS episodes: A planet patterned after one of Earth's less proud eras ("A Piece of the Action"); starship captains who violate the prime directive ("Omega Glory"; "Patterns of Force"; "A Private War") and little more to separate from that pack. The high-point of this disc, far and away, is "Journey to Babel", in which the Enterprise hosts a menagerie of alien ambassadors to a high-level conference where they will hash out the admission of the beleagured world of Corridan. Here we meet Andorians, Tellarians and other Vulcans. Despite playing supposeldy cold-blooded and emotionless beings, both Nimoy and famed multi-species Trekker Mark Lenard generate a lot of family warmth and also tension. (Lenard, who had a recurring role as the Vulcan Sarek, played the Romulan commander in "Balance of Terror" and put in an appearance as the Klingon comnander in the first Trek movie). This episode is character-driven Trek at its best, weighed down by a thin plot - the odious Tellarian ambassador is found murdered, a crime for which Sarek is implicated. The mystery is thin because the script gives us no details with which to solve it ourselves. By the end of the episode, McCoy is surrounded by Vulcans on both sides, and manages to keep his sanity. "I finally got the last word" he pronounces quite chipper.
Rating:
Summary: Brought down by "Bread"
Review: I've got mixed feelings about this mixed bag. I'm a trekker with a tilt towards the original series (Classic Trek or, to others, "TOS"), yet even I can't ignore that incarnation's weak spots which abound in "Bread and Circuses", but are ably compensated for in "Babel". In "Bread", the Enterprise searches for the crew of a missing starship. A clue turns up when finding that a nearby planet, supposedly stuck in the pre-industrial age, now shows appears to have advanced to something comparable to 20th Century Earth. The advances, however, are also paralleled by that world's embrace of Imperial Roman culture, especially its bloodlust. Unsurprisingly, the missing starship captain has much to do with elevating (and debasing) the planet's primitive state. Despite the gory depths to which cultural disruption has brought that world (every night is gladiator night, complete with canned cheers and catcalls, but very real gore) the rogue captain rationalizes his violation of the Prime Directive. This would have been a middling episode, but it's devolved itself, mostly because the idea seems to have been done to death in other TOS episodes: A planet patterned after one of Earth's less proud eras ("A Piece of the Action"); starship captains who violate the prime directive ("Omega Glory"; "Patterns of Force"; "A Private War") and little more to separate from that pack. The high-point of this disc, far and away, is "Journey to Babel", in which the Enterprise hosts a menagerie of alien ambassadors to a high-level conference where they will hash out the admission of the beleagured world of Corridan. Here we meet Andorians, Tellarians and other Vulcans. Despite playing supposeldy cold-blooded and emotionless beings, both Nimoy and famed multi-species Trekker Mark Lenard generate a lot of family warmth and also tension. (Lenard, who had a recurring role as the Vulcan Sarek, played the Romulan commander in "Balance of Terror" and put in an appearance as the Klingon comnander in the first Trek movie). This episode is character-driven Trek at its best, weighed down by a thin plot - the odious Tellarian ambassador is found murdered, a crime for which Sarek is implicated. The mystery is thin because the script gives us no details with which to solve it ourselves. By the end of the episode, McCoy is surrounded by Vulcans on both sides, and manages to keep his sanity. "I finally got the last word" he pronounces quite chipper.
Rating:
Summary: The Critical Trek Episode: Journey to Babel
Review: Over the course of 79 original Star Trek episodes, can anyone imagine the gravity of this series and its progeny without the importance lent by the episode "Journey to Babel?" No other original series episode visually demonstrates the scope and inclusiveness of The United Federation of Planets as does this episode. Over the course of the series, the grand United Federation of Planets is represented mostly as a boatful of multicultural humans plus one Vulcan. Sure, the costumes and productions values are not up to modern-day snuff--the Tellerite masks were no doubt deplorable in their OWN time--but folks, THIS is THE original Cantina scene. In an admittedly shoddily re-set USS Enterprise conference room, we have, perhaps, THE original "casual" meeting of indiscriminate races and alien life-forms. Not only is does this scene represent the true substance of seven years worth of DS9 Promenade beauty-shots, this is one of the only episodes in the entire series that attempts to demonstrate that humans were working with other races to solve to varied woes of newly encountered species. Ironic that in one of the only other instance in which we saw an Andorian, he is crazed murderer looking to escape a Federation penal colony. (Andorians are, after all, one of the five founding races of the the Federation, along with Terrans, Vulcans, Tellerites, and the Alpha Centauri). This episode is worthy of recommendation even were it not for the very compelling 'human' drama of a successful hero facing the life-threatening choice of saving the life of his own unsupportive father. Spock's prioritization of the good of the Enterpise (and by that logic, the good of the Federation) before the life of his own flesh-and-green-blood father takes on further resonance when the themes of their reconciliation are revisited at the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. This is yet another example of the drama woven almost haphazzardly woven inot the tapestry of Star Trek. In the end, many, many story lines in the franchise would wind up "making sense," seemingly by accident. It's this "logic" to it all that keeps us interested: the consistency of the on-screen story and it's adherence to the codified "rules" of the the Star Trek universe: many of which, we FANS formulated. Yet it all seems to have been impacted by the personalities "behind the screen," the Roddenberrys, Bermans, and myriad writers, who have at least kept up the appearance of maintaining a dialogue with fans. After all, it was really the fans who decreed that the Andorians and Tellerites were among the original five founding races of the Federation. And we fans who keep the franchies alive through weak patches, like the one officially known as "Star Trek Voyager."
Rating:
Summary: Gladiators & Generation Gaps
Review: REVIEWED ITEM: Star Trek® Original Series DVD Volume 22: Bread and Circuses © / Journey to Babel © BREAD AND CIRCUSES © PRELIMINARY BRIEFS: Expendable Enterprise Crewmember ('Red Shirt') Confirmed Casualty List: None REVIEW/COMMENTARY: Before I go into the review proper, it has come to my attention that the guys at Paramount™ put these original series DVDs out to the market without respect to neither the episodes' canonical-chronological order nor their date-of-broadcast order. This particular volume is a case in point: The first show, Bread and Circuses ©, was originally broadcast on March 14, 1968 (Stardate 4040.7), while the following show, Journey to Babel, was shown on November 17, 1967 (Stardate 3842.3). At first, I was kinda taken aback by this haphazard arrangement of eppies; after all, they could've at least TRIED to release classic 'Trek in some logical fashion, right? But after envisioning the throes of agony that the more anal-retentive/OCD-suffering UberTrekkies would suffer due to this strange quasi-random release of episodes, I actually found myself rejoicing at Paramount™'s brazenness. Anything that gives the uberfans major hissy fits is just fine and dandy in my book! A rather intriguing 'what-if' type story where the elimination and/or delayed reaction of a an apparently vital historical element (in this case, "son worship" or Christianity) could have a major impact on the course of human history (in this case, the Roman Empire still exists in the 20th century). Throw in a few less-than-skillful-looking gladiatorial death matches and a turncoat starship captain (similar to the rogue C.O. in The Omega Glory ©), and you've got... um... hey, remember that scene in Airplane!™ where Peter Graves asks that kid, "Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?" I'm reminded of that scene every time I catch this particular episode! And my name isn't Joey, either! Strange, no? JOURNEY TO BABEL © PRELIMINARY BRIEFS: Moral, Ethical, and/or Philosophical Subject(s) Driven Into The Ground: The importance of family; learning to overcome differences; family duties versus career duties Historical Milestone: First appearance of Spock's parents Expendable Enterprise Crewmember ('Red Shirt') Confirmed Casualty List: None REVIEW/COMMENTARY: Out of all the crewmen that serve aboard the Enterprise™, who'da ever thought Spock™ would have to deal with family strife? Well, it's true, kiddies- apparently pops isn't quite an approving parent where his son's career choice is concerned. But with the help of a whodunit murder mystery, a bit of espionage intrigue, and Sarek's life-threatening condition that only Spock can help treat, father and son manage to patch things up a little in the end. Which delights mater no end of course. Throw in a ridiculously silly fight sequence between Jimmers and an ersatz Andorian, and you've got a nice dollop of cheesiness to make the whole Spock-family-soap-opera that much tastier! 'Late
Rating:
Summary: Gladiators & Generation Gaps
Review: REVIEWED ITEM: Star Trek® Original Series DVD Volume 22: Bread and Circuses © / Journey to Babel © BREAD AND CIRCUSES © PRELIMINARY BRIEFS: Expendable Enterprise Crewmember (`Red Shirt') Confirmed Casualty List: None REVIEW/COMMENTARY: Before I go into the review proper, it has come to my attention that the guys at Paramount™ put these original series DVDs out to the market without respect to neither the episodes' canonical-chronological order nor their date-of-broadcast order. This particular volume is a case in point: The first show, Bread and Circuses ©, was originally broadcast on March 14, 1968 (Stardate 4040.7), while the following show, Journey to Babel, was shown on November 17, 1967 (Stardate 3842.3). At first, I was kinda taken aback by this haphazard arrangement of eppies; after all, they could've at least TRIED to release classic `Trek in some logical fashion, right? But after envisioning the throes of agony that the more anal-retentive/OCD-suffering UberTrekkies would suffer due to this strange quasi-random release of episodes, I actually found myself rejoicing at Paramount™'s brazenness. Anything that gives the uberfans major hissy fits is just fine and dandy in my book! A rather intriguing `what-if' type story where the elimination and/or delayed reaction of a an apparently vital historical element (in this case, "son worship" or Christianity) could have a major impact on the course of human history (in this case, the Roman Empire still exists in the 20th century). Throw in a few less-than-skillful-looking gladiatorial death matches and a turncoat starship captain (similar to the rogue C.O. in The Omega Glory ©), and you've got... um... hey, remember that scene in Airplane!™ where Peter Graves asks that kid, "Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?" I'm reminded of that scene every time I catch this particular episode! And my name isn't Joey, either! Strange, no? JOURNEY TO BABEL © PRELIMINARY BRIEFS: Moral, Ethical, and/or Philosophical Subject(s) Driven Into The Ground: The importance of family; learning to overcome differences; family duties versus career duties Historical Milestone: First appearance of Spock's parents Expendable Enterprise Crewmember (`Red Shirt') Confirmed Casualty List: None REVIEW/COMMENTARY: Out of all the crewmen that serve aboard the Enterprise™, who'da ever thought Spock™ would have to deal with family strife? Well, it's true, kiddies- apparently pops isn't quite an approving parent where his son's career choice is concerned. But with the help of a whodunit murder mystery, a bit of espionage intrigue, and Sarek's life-threatening condition that only Spock can help treat, father and son manage to patch things up a little in the end. Which delights mater no end of course. Throw in a ridiculously silly fight sequence between Jimmers and an ersatz Andorian, and you've got a nice dollop of cheesiness to make the whole Spock-family-soap-opera that much tastier! `Late
Rating:
Summary: A fine restoration
Review: The color and sound on this disc are wonderful. I bet they look and sound better than when they originally aired back in the 60s. The color is crisp and all scratches have been taken out. A few still are evident especially on footage of Enterprise flybys. But overall, Paramount has done an excellent job restoring one of the best television series ever.
Rating:
Summary: A fine restoration
Review: The color and sound on this disc are wonderful. I bet they look and sound better than when they originally aired back in the 60s. The color is crisp and all scratches have been taken out. A few still are evident especially on footage of Enterprise flybys. But overall, Paramount has done an excellent job restoring one of the best television series ever.
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