Xav Watches Star Trek S1E4: The Naked Time

What an adventure! The United Space Ship Enterprise orbits around a dying planet, that was once not so different from Planet Earth. The sun has died, however, and now the planet is an icy mass. Spock and a Red Shirt goes down to figure out what's going on, and they find a crew of human scientists completely frozen to death. What is especially alarming is one of the scientists was frozen to death while taking a shower, fully clothed! Very strange...

The Red Shirt stupidly takes off his glove when he has been warned to avoid any possible contamination. Of course a mysterious red substance that looks like blood from one of the dead crew members travels to the guy. All of a sudden his hand feels itchy, but he doesn't think much of it. They get back on board, and long story short, it turns out the Red Shirt was truly contaminated, and he goes bonkers. Sulu goes bonkers too when he comes into contact with him. And then eventually the USS Enterprise becomes a mad house.

Once again, Star Trek feels like an episode of the Twilight Zone. From the mysterious and creepy ice planet to the mysterious disease with no known cure, it is up to Dr. McCoy, Captain Kirk, and Spock to figure out what to do.

What I especially love about this episode is that the disease lets out the person's deepest subconscious emotions and desires. Sulu subconsciously feels he is a 17th century Musketeer. Riley (one of the pilots) imagines himself an Irish prince. It truly gives insight into the characters' psyche, especially that of a Spock. This is the first time Spock shows any emotion. What happens is the disease triggers the subconscious part of Spock's psyche, and we learn that Spock indeed experiences emotion, inherited by his human mother. From what we know Vulcans do not experience emotions and are purely logical. However, being raised on Planet Vulcan, Spock had learned to adapt to society by hiding his emotional side and submerging it. It is kind of sad. It is not that Spock cannot feel emotion, it is that he hides it constantly. This knowledge really increases our sympathy for Spock's character.

All in all, "The Naked Time" is a classic episode, and an important one at that. At the end of the episode, the crew discovers a way to travel backwards through time. A handy device, but one that I imagine can't be used often due to paradoxical issues. However, they do use it in Star Trek IV, when they travel back in time to the 1980s and save the Humpback Whales, probably my most favorite Star Trek movie to date. I am curious to keep watching the show and see what other times they do time travel. It is really quite interesting.

Xav Watches Star Trek S1E3 "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is a must watch for any sci-fi fan. It is by far my most favorite episode so far, and I find that it will be hard for any episode to surpass it. I don't want to spoil it, so I will only give a short summary.

Basically, the United Space Ship Enterprise has discovered a piece of a destroyed ship. Captain Kirk and his crew then try to determine what caused the destruction; after all, knowledge of what caused that destruction can be used to prevent any future destruction from happening. Also, the USS Enterprise's goal seems to be to explore and seek out knowledge for the betterment and protection of mankind.

Unfortunately, things go awry, and a crew member is electrocuted in a strange storm of the likes no one has ever seen. I especially love how the show chooses to portray the storm. It is truly eerie, and I get goosebumps imagining experiencing that in person. That is what I love about Star Trek--it truly is a Twilight Zone in space. Strange, bizarre things happen to the USS Enterprise constantly, things that have never happened to anyone else. These phenomena are what drives the show for me. I am at the edge of my seat waiting to find out how Captain Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew will solve the conundrum.

What I especially love about "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is how I had an epiphany about God. Seeing how the Godlike crew member acts and behaves allows me to imagine what being a Superior being might be like. It is not so far fetched; even if you look at the Bible, you would see God treating humans like play things that can be created or destroyed in the blink of an eye. It is all dependent on how God might feel at the time.

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" also gives us an enlightening metaphor: the comparison of God to humans is the same as the comparison of humans to animals. God can do whatever He or She chooses to do with humans, just as humans can do whatever humans choose to do with animals. If the human wants to kill, skin, eat, torture, force breed, or cage the animal, the human can choose to do so. It kind of is scary to think about how much power we hold, and then imagine that power held by a God, only then can we begin to understand God's power.

There is one line in the episode that really strikes at me. When Captain Kirk confronts the Godlike crew member, Kirk emphasizes the necessity of Compassion in a God. This God is without Compassion, seeing the crew as animals or play things. That's where the epiphany dawned on me. God must have Compassion. To not have it, humanity is doomed, and in the same way humans must have Compassion towards animals. To not, then the animal kingdom is doomed. It makes me sad to think about, especially since many people show little to no compassion towards animals. People like to eat meat, and they want to eat all the meat they can every day of their life. But imagine if there was a God that liked to eat people, and He or She chose to eat people every day of His or Her life. You know how terrifying that would be?

Anyway, I know that was a wild tangent, but it is something that occurred to me while watching this episode. Overall, I found "Where No Man Has Gone Before" phenomenal, and the show is hard pressed to live up to it. I have a feeling, however, this show is going to deliver, and I can't wait to watch the rest!

10 out of 10.