Turnabout Intruder

(by Collin R. Skocik) Three years ago, Star Trek began not with a bombastic, epic premiere, but with a quiet, intellectual space mystery. Now, seventy-nine episodes later, the voyages of the starship Enterprise come to a premature end, with no hype, merely a final episode aired inauspiciously in the middle of a series of reruns. …

All Our Yesterdays

(by Collin R. Skocik) The star Beta Niobe is about to supernova. The Enterprise travels to Beta Niobe’s only planet, Sarpeidon, once the home of a thriving civilization and now mysteriously, devoid of intelligent life. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find only one person on the planet, alone in a library—Mr. Atoz (what a perfect name …

The Savage Curtain

(by Collin R. Skocik) While investigating reports of life on a molten, uninhabitable planet, the Enterprise comes across Abraham Lincoln floating through space. Okay, I don’t want to jump the gun and say this is the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to this crew, but it’s probably up there. To their credit, they don’t take …

The Cloud Minders

(by Collin R. Skocik, adapted for this article) On the planet Ardana is the beautiful cloud city, Stratos. Here, people live a life of intellectual pursuit and endless hedonism. But their perfect world is fed by the labors of the Troglytes, people who live below in the mines, digging for the zenite that sustains Stratos. …

The Way to Eden

(by Collin R. Skocik) Star Trek’s grooviest episode. The Enterprise chases down a group of space hippies bookin’ in a stolen space cruiser. One of them is the son of the Katullan Ambassador, and so Kirk is forced to be more tolerant of their antics than he would like to be, until finally they take …

Requiem For Methuselah

(by Collin R. Skocik) In order to combat a raging epidemic of Rigellian Fever that has struck the Enterprise, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to Halberg 917-G to collect the only known antidote, ryetalin (not to be confused with ritalin). There, they meet a mysterious stranger named Flint and his adopted daughter, Rayna. Spock …

The Lights of Zetar

(by Collin R. Skocik) Once before, Scotty fell in love. He was head-over-heels for Lt. Carolyn Palamas—but oblivious to the fact that she was completely uninterested in him. Even when she ran off with Apollo, Scotty remained utterly devoted to her, risking his life for her numerous times and incurring Apollo’s wrath. Now he’s in …

That Which Survives

(by Collin R. Skocik) When the Enterprise is hurled halfway across the galaxy, Kirk, McCoy, and Sulu are stranded on a mysterious planet where they are stalked by a strange woman who can kill with a touch. A story of survival in deep space, this episode tells two parallel stories. We follow Kirk, McCoy, and …

The Mark of Gideon

(by Collin R. Skocik, adapted for this article) Beaming down to the planet Gideon, Kirk finds himself not in the Gideon Council Chamber, but back aboard the Enterprise—and the entire crew has disappeared. Of course he’s not on board the Enterprise at all, but an identical duplicate, while aboard the real Enterprise, Spock fights with …

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

(by Collin R. Skocik) I can just hear the Star Trek creative team. “We’re going off the air anyway—let’s go for the jugular!” The sheer courage and audacity of this episode still resonates fifty years later. First-generation Star Trek fans have told me they watched this episode in open-mouthed astonishment when it first aired. They …