Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 24, Episodes 47 & 48: Obsession/ The Immunity Syndrome

Rating:
Summary: Perfect examples of Original Series at its best
Review: This disc has two great episodes of the original series:

In "Obsession" Kirk pursues a mysterious, if clearly deadly life-form - a cloudlike being that sucks the life out of men. As Ahab encountered "Moby Dick", Kirk has had a fatefeul run-in with the cloud-beast, years earlier. Men died and Kirk was too slow to pull out his phaser and despatch the beast. Unsure whether the mysterious beast would have even succumbed to phaser fire, Kirk is left only with his doubts, guilts and an obsession - something he had practically forgotten....until the good captain re-econcounters the evil cloud.

"Obsession" excels because the guilt and fear are convincingly etched on Kirk's face, but also for another reason hard to forget: the beast has its own scent, something like honey, and its effect on Kirk surpasses the cheesy effects of the show.

"Immunity Syndrome" is also an excellent epsiode - the Enterprise seeks the story behind the mysterious dissappearqance of a Vulcan starship, and discovers a huge space-born amoeba. The life form surrounds itself with a dark zone that nothing can escape from. Rather than make the nature of the creature and the ship's predicament (once the Enterprise enters the zone, it's trapped) immeidately obvious, the story builds gradually. Once inside, the beast sucks the ship and its crew of their energy - rapidly diminishing the crew's ability to deal with the problem. I remember this episode especially for the desperation clearly etched on the crew - when Kirk decides that somebody has to fly a shuttlecraft into the mysterious creature, You just knew that it was a one-way trip. The episode culminates in excellent exchange with Spock - calling out from his dying shuttle - for the Enterprise to leave him behind and save itself. "Dammit, Spock" McCoy shouts over the speaker "We're trying to save you!" Spock responds, registering perhaps the most surprise he's ever displayed - "why thank you....Captain McCoy." A True TOS moment and one more reason to get this video.

Rating:
Summary: TWO STAR TREK EPISODES WITH A SCI-FI TWIST!...
Review: Volume 24 of the Star Trek DVD series contains two episodes that deal with the second season's ...plot. Unlike some of the less successful attempts at this kind of story in the second season the two episodes here have their moments and are quite good.

OBSESSION deals with Kirk's past and one of his greatest fears that has somewhat haunted him over the last 11 years. A mysterious vampire cloud, that feeds off the red bloods cell of humans, attacks the Enterprise crew. With it's distinct sickly sweet smell Kirk realizes it is the same monster that attack and killed his crew mates years ago when he was a Lieutendant. Upon realizing that this monster is alive Kirk drives himself into obession (hence the title) in an attempt to destroy this creature. He even disregards his orders to deliver greatly needed drugs to another planet. Kirk also punishes Ensign Garrovick (played by Stephen Brooks) (which Kirk sees a younger version of himslef in him) after the Ensign attempts and fails to kill the monster when disobeying Kirk. This episode really developes Kirk character and how (at times) he can be so self critical. OBSESSION is a slightly above average episode of Star Trek but barely. Without the nice dramatic moments between Kirk and Garrovick, plus Spock and McCoy's confronting of Kirk's actions, this episode wouldn't be so special.

THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME has stood up suprisingly well over the last thirty years. The story was very well written and scientifically accurate. The concept of The Enterprise discovering a single celled organism of massive size in the body of space is a really creative idea. To think that space is a body, that single cell is a virus and humans are mere antibodies in the whole thing is such a diverse concept. As the Enterprise encounters this massive cell that drains energy out of everything (including humans), the crew gains information of the cell and realizes it begins to reproduce like a virus, and pretty soon it will plague the depths of space unless it is destroyed. THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME is another one of those Star Trek episodes that would've been average had it not had a few special moments. This episode is actually very good the acting is well done and the story was well written and concieved.

In conclusion Star Trek Volume 24 has two good episodes with a few special moments. This DVD is worth getting but you may want to check out other more classic Star Trek episodes before this. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: TWO STAR TREK EPISODES WITH A SCI-FI TWIST!...
Review: Volume 24 of the Star Trek DVD series contains two episodes that deal with the second season's ...plot. Unlike some of the less successful attempts at this kind of story in the second season the two episodes here have their moments and are quite good.

OBSESSION deals with Kirk's past and one of his greatest fears that has somewhat haunted him over the last 11 years. A mysterious vampire cloud, that feeds off the red bloods cell of humans, attacks the Enterprise crew. With it's distinct sickly sweet smell Kirk realizes it is the same monster that attack and killed his crew mates years ago when he was a Lieutendant. Upon realizing that this monster is alive Kirk drives himself into obession (hence the title) in an attempt to destroy this creature. He even disregards his orders to deliver greatly needed drugs to another planet. Kirk also punishes Ensign Garrovick (played by Stephen Brooks) (which Kirk sees a younger version of himslef in him) after the Ensign attempts and fails to kill the monster when disobeying Kirk. This episode really developes Kirk character and how (at times) he can be so self critical. OBSESSION is a slightly above average episode of Star Trek but barely. Without the nice dramatic moments between Kirk and Garrovick, plus Spock and McCoy's confronting of Kirk's actions, this episode wouldn't be so special.

THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME has stood up suprisingly well over the last thirty years. The story was very well written and scientifically accurate. The concept of The Enterprise discovering a single celled organism of massive size in the body of space is a really creative idea. To think that space is a body, that single cell is a virus and humans are mere antibodies in the whole thing is such a diverse concept. As the Enterprise encounters this massive cell that drains energy out of everything (including humans), the crew gains information of the cell and realizes it begins to reproduce like a virus, and pretty soon it will plague the depths of space unless it is destroyed. THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME is another one of those Star Trek episodes that would've been average had it not had a few special moments. This episode is actually very good the acting is well done and the story was well written and concieved.

In conclusion Star Trek Volume 24 has two good episodes with a few special moments. This DVD is worth getting but you may want to check out other more classic Star Trek episodes before this. Recommended.