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Podcast Enterprise: S2E19 Private Little War

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode opens, what you have is McCoy, Kirk, and Spock. They’re on this planet called Neural, and it’s pretty green, and it’s pretty lush. And These three are there to do some scientific experiments on the plants of this planet, because the plants apparently have medicinal value, and These three crew members want to collect samples and kind of develop them into whatever they can be developed into.

But as they are conducting their investigations, they find that the inhabitants of this planet for some reason suddenly have firearms. And as far as they know, this is a planet that is still in its primitive stages. So the civilization here hasn’t become a civilization and they are supposed to be in tribal societies.

And something has obviously happening. to them that they have suddenly got firearms, which is way too advanced for them at this point. And it is here that Kirk sees that one group of tribesmen with firearms is trying to attack another group of tribesmen. And he knows the leader of the other group of tribesmen and he wants to save him because Kirk apparently has been to this planet some 13 years back as as a younger officer and he has befriended this particular tribesman and he saves him from an ambush.

But while all of this is happening, Spock is attacked by an ape like creature called a mugato and apparently that thing’s bites and slashes are poisonous. While they managed to defeat this mugato, he saved his friend, but then that action actually brought them in sight of the other tribesmen, and now they get attacked.

Spock is shot, and they have to make an emergency teleportation back to the ship so that he can be healed. And while this is going on, Kirk is actually pretty confused because like I said before, this is not a planet that has had much development. They are also protected by the prime directive, which means outside interference cannot happen.

So someone or something has broken that and allowed them to develop firearms or they were given firearms as form of some sort of bribe. We don’t know at this point. They get back to the ship. Spock is in very bad condition, and we are also introduced to a new character, Dr. Nenga, who has to treat Spock.

And while and The thing is, now Kirk wants to go back to the planet and try and find out what is happening there and why they have firearms. So he, along with McCoy, teleport, transport themselves back to Neural. When they do that, this mugato comes back, the mate of the mugato, I think, or another mugato, I’m not very sure, comes back, attacks Kirk, and poisons him.

And now he’s in a very serious state. McCoy manages to contact Kirk’s friend and have him take him to the village on Neural. And the Apparently, this friend’s wife has some healing capacity, so she will be able to extract the poison from Kirk, is what we understand. And Kirk’s friend is now chieftain his wife is a very ambitious woman.

She comes back to where Kirk is being stationed. She heals Kirk and now she has designs on Kirk and then eventually you learn that she also wants her husband to be one of the most powerful individuals on that planet. This particular tribe does not have firearms her husband is something of a pacifist.

He does not want weapons and violence, but the other tribe does have weapons and violence, and she wants him to be like that so that the tribes are equal and he gets more power. Kirk, after he has recovered from the poison, somehow takes her point of view because it dawns on him that the other tribe has firearms because of the Klingons. It all gets pretty complicated as as the story progresses. Kirk manages to infiltrate the other tribe along with Spock and his friend Tyree. And they’ve, no, apologies, he manages to infiltrate the other tribe, They find that the other tribe is being given firearms by the Klingons, just as he has suspected, and then now Kirk is completely I wouldn’t call it influenced, but he is kind of swayed by his friend’s wife to kind of arm the peaceful tribe also with firearms and he begins to do so thereby breaking the prime directive.

And as this is happening, One event leads to another, and then It also comes to be that this particular woman, the wife of Kirk’s friend, is also something of a traitor. She wants power. She manages to steal Kirk’s phaser because that is the most powerful weapon she has ever seen.

First of all, she tries to seduce Kirk. When that doesn’t work very well, or it, something goes awry, she steals Kirk’s phaser. She goes to the other tribe, she’s ambushed by the other tribe, and then she’s killed by the other tribe. And this is, Her killing was actually the catalyst that brought about total change on that planet, because Kirk’s friend Tyree, now he decides that he will opt for violence as a form of vengeance and the episode ends there.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E18 Immunity Syndrome

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode begins, you have the USS Enterprise in a state of exhaustion.

Everybody on board is extremely tired after their last mission and they’re looking forward to some short leave on Starbase 6 and they’re on their way to the Starbase 6. Here, on the way though, Uhura picks up some distorted signals and with some sector coordinates. There’s also a lot of static with this communication, so she can’t make out what they are saying.

Eventually, though she does get through, and this communication is coming from Starbase 6, they want the Enterprise to change course and go to the Gamma 7A system where the Intrepid was last seen investigating. This is a Vulcan ship and something has happened to the Intrepid which the Enterprise must now investigate Kirk is a little reluctant to do it because everybody is so tired.

While they’re in the process of changing course, Spock wasn’t goes into a state of shock because he has apparently suffered some sort of a psychic attack where he has received mental communication of some kind from the Vulcan ship Intrepid, and it seems that everybody on board the Interpret has been killed.

And he also says, eventually later, much later, Spock also says that they were surprised by this death that suddenly, suddenly hit them. And this is a huge mystery. As the Enterprise goes to the Gamma 7A system, they find that there’s something or there’s something completely wrong that the system is dead.

There are no people, there is no life. And they also approach some sort of a dark zone, a dead zone. They can’t see anything. The stars are blotted out and it seems like a gash in deep space. They can’t see anything beyond it. They are not able to probe into it and they’re not able to see it except for this large void right directly in their path.

Spock has trouble trying to figure out what it is exactly and this irritates Kirk quite a bit. But, and as they approach this black zone, it seems that everyone is getting more and more tired. The engines are somehow losing power. There’s a lot of issues with the forward thrust because engineering has issues and the ship’s systems have issues.

And then finally Kirk, after a briefing with McCoy and Spock decides to send some sort of a probe into this dark zone. And by this time, the Enterprise has also entered the dark zone. So they’re losing power. They’re losing light. They’re losing energy. Everybody’s beyond tired and they need to be given boosters.

After some investigation, it is found that this dead zone is actually some sort of a shielding for a single cell creature, an amoeba-type creature that kind of creates a zone around it. It radiates negative energy and it leaches off the energy of anything that approaches it.

And It’s sometimes it’s also capable of killing off entire solar systems. And the Intrepid had approached this creature and it got killed in the process. It’s not actively killing the, um, it’s not actively killing anything that approaches it. And you just die. That’s what it does. And The radius of this thing is about 11, 000 miles, apparently, which is huge.

Both McCoy and Spock volunteer to travel into this creature to try and figure out a way to destroy it. However, Spock wins over McCoy, which causes a bit of irritation for McCoy. And we can talk about it. And He takes a shuttlecraft, goes into the thing to study it, and then through his analysis and studies of this amoeba, they find that they can actually blow it up.

The episode ends like that because they have to, they figure out this way, how to blow it up. They use a certain way to blow it up and you can talk about it. And as there is also some issue with the gravitational pull of this thing, because it’s drawing the ship forward.

They cannot break free of that pull. They rig an explosion, break free of it, move backwards, grab the shuttlecraft with Spock in it and his heroics and whatever jokes he has with McCoy, they grab Spock in the shuttle craft, they go back and this thing was finally killed. And that’s how the episode ends.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E17 Piece of the Action

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode begins, the USS Enterprise is in orbit around Sigma Iotia II. They’ve arrived at this planet in response to a radio signal from the Horizon, a ship that visited Sigma Iotia II about a hundred years ago. The Horizon, lacking the non-interference directive that later became Starfleet policy, inadvertently contaminated the culture on Sigma Iotia II. The Enterprise’s mission is to check on the planet and its civilization, assessing the impact of this contamination.

Upon approaching the planet, the crew receives an invitation from a character named Bela Okmyx (or Oxmyx, as the pronunciation varies). He refers to himself as “Boss” and requests a meeting with Captain Kirk. Amused, Kirk decides to investigate and beams down to Sigma Iotia II with Spock and McCoy. Upon arrival, they find a world that looks strikingly like Chicago of the 1920s, complete with people dressed in suits, women in frocks, and a gangster-like atmosphere. Almost immediately, they are accosted by gangsters claiming to be henchmen of Okmyx.

The gangsters take them to a large building where they find Okmyx playing pool. He speaks to Kirk in a half-polite, somewhat friendly manner. Spock soon discovers the source of the cultural contamination left by the Horizon—a book about the Chicago mobs of the 1920s. The Iotians, being highly intelligent and imitative, adopted this book as a sort of holy guide, shaping their entire culture around it and turning themselves into gangsters.

Okmyx becomes a problem for Kirk when he demands that Kirk supply him with weapons—specifically, the phasers he calls “heaters.” He wants these weapons to wage war against rival gang leaders and unite all the gangs on Sigma Iotia II under his rule. Naturally, Kirk refuses, leading Okmyx to imprison him. However, Kirk manages to escape by inventing a nonsensical card game called Fizzbin. Despite escaping, Kirk is promptly captured by a rival mob boss, who has similar demands—wanting weapons and control of the Enterprise.

Kirk finds himself in a precarious situation, needing to use all his wits to prevent these gangs from destroying each other and to instill some semblance of unity. There are several memorable scenes, including Kirk’s attempt to drive a car, which adds a humorous touch. Eventually, Kirk manages to bring the two gang bosses, along with others, into one place. He demonstrates the power of the Enterprise, which helps him get their attention. Adopting a gangster persona himself, Kirk talks about cuts and profits, appealing to their interests, even though it’s against Starfleet regulations. Despite the chaos, he succeeds in uniting the gangs.

Finally, the crew of the Enterprise, including Kirk, is released by the gang bosses, and they return to the ship. However, the episode ends with a twist—McCoy realizes he left something very important behind on Sigma Iotia II, which hints at potential future problems.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E16 Gamesters of Triskelion

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode opens, the Enterprise is in orbit around a planetoid called Gamma II, which appears to be uninhabited. Captain Kirk, Ensign Chekov, and Uhura are tasked with beaming down to the planet’s surface to investigate and carry out some studies. However, when they enter the transporter room and attempt to beam down, something unexpected happens—they simply vanish. This disappearance has nothing to do with the transporter or an engineering glitch, as Scotty tries to explain to Mr. Spock. They have been whisked away to another world by an unknown power.

Kirk, Chekov, and Uhura find themselves in a peculiar arena-like area, where they are suddenly confronted by three strange characters. The first is a large figure with fangs, the second is an orange-hued woman in a swimsuit-like outfit, and the third is another woman with green hair, also dressed in a silvery swimsuit. These characters approach in a threatening manner, and then a fourth figure appears, convincingly dressed like Dracula. He introduces himself as Galt, the master thrall, and informs them that they are now on the planet Triskelion. He tells them that they are thralls and must be trained for combat in the arena.

On Triskelion, Kirk and his crew learn about the “Providers,” mysterious beings who are the true owners of the thralls but are never seen. Kirk, Chekov, and Uhura are thrown into jail cells, each assigned to a trainer or drill sergeant. Kirk is paired with the green-haired woman, and a strange romance develops as he tries to stir feelings of rebellion and affection in her. Meanwhile, the crew members are fitted with slave collars, preventing them from escaping and forcing them into fights where they suffer injuries.

While all this is happening on Triskelion, Spock aboard the Enterprise deduces that Kirk and the others are not on Gamma II but have been taken elsewhere. Following what McCoy calls a hunch, but Spock insists is logical and scientific, Spock traces them to Triskelion, located at the other end of the galaxy. The journey strains the Enterprise’s engines, but they locate Kirk and the crew. However, they are not allowed to beam back to the Enterprise.

In the climax, Kirk manages to communicate with the Providers and is teleported underground to discover that they are three glowing, plasticky brains obsessed with wagering on the thralls’ battles. They consider themselves a superior race. Kirk cleverly tricks them into granting the thralls their freedom, and finally, they return to the Enterprise. The episode ends with Kirk and his crew back on the ship, free from the bizarre challenges of Triskelion.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E15 Trouble with Tribbles

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode begins, you find that the USS Enterprise is en route to a space station called K7. This space station is quite large and is very close to a planet called Sherman’s Planet, which is one of those strategic locations. It is a strategic planet claimed by both the Federation and the Klingons, and the only thing that is keeping these two races from going to war with each other is the Organian Peace Treaty. According to the treaty, neither race is allowed to fight each other; the Klingons cannot fight the humans, and the humans cannot fight the Klingons. They have to figure out a peaceful way to resolve any issue they may have, and that also applies to Sherman’s Planet.

As the Enterprise is en route to Deep Space Station K7, which is the last stop before Sherman’s Planet, they receive a code one alert from the space station. A code one alert indicates near-total destruction and an attack, so the Enterprise goes into red alert. Kirk orders them to travel at warp six speed, but when they get to the space station, they find absolutely nothing. There’s no Klingon attack, no sign of danger—just total silence. Everything is peaceful. Kirk gets communication from the space station manager, Lurry, who says that he has a problem and that Kirk better come down. There is no attack, which infuriates Kirk to no end. So, he goes down to the space station with Spock, and they meet a very charming individual called Nilz Barris, who is an undersecretary in charge of Sherman’s Planet for that quadrant.

Barris has issued a code one alert because he has a peculiar wheat, as Kirk likes to call it, called Quadrotriticale, which is the only thing that will grow on Sherman’s Planet. He has several tons of it stored on Deep Space Station K7 and wants Kirk to supply him with guards to protect the storage compartments. For that, he issued the code one alert. Immediately, Kirk and Barris are at loggerheads because neither can see eye to eye. Kirk believes that Barris is acting too powerful, while Barris feels that Kirk is being very unreasonable. In any case, Barris also has a very short-tempered aide called Arne Darvin, who has some secrets of his own, as we’ll discover later.

While all of this is happening, Kirk also declares shore leave because they’ve come so far, and the crew comes down to the space station. Here, at the bar of the space station, we are introduced to a very flamboyant merchant called Cyrano Jones, who is selling a lot of things. He’s trying to sell gems and some Anterian glow water. The barkeeper is not buying his stuff, but Uhura, who has come down for her shore leave, finds him selling a small, furry, purring, musical little creature called a Tribble. She is immediately taken in by that creature. She wants it, buys it, and takes it back to the Enterprise.

And that’s where the troubles begin because the Tribbles start multiplying. Soon there are eight, then several more. Dr. McCoy cannot figure out how these things are multiplying. The ship is soon overrun with Tribbles—they’re everywhere. They’re on the bridge, in the engine room, in the air vents, and even in the food synthesizers. While Kirk is getting a headache from this, the Klingons decide to orbit Space Station K7. The captain of the Klingon battle cruiser and his aide come down to Deep Space Station K7, adding to Kirk’s woes as he now has to deal with them and prevent an all-out war. Kirk tells them they can only bring 12 Klingons at a time for shore leave.

Pandemonium ensues as the Klingons provoke the humans on shore leave, leading to Scotty starting a fight with them. This results in a great deal of bruising, and shore leave is canceled for both sides. While Kirk is grappling with all these issues, he also manages to corner Cyrano Jones and ask why he didn’t warn them about how quickly the Tribbles reproduce. Nobody knows exactly how they reproduce, but they do. It then strikes Kirk that since the Tribbles are getting into the air vents and food synthesizers on the Enterprise, they’ve probably gotten into the storage compartments on Deep Space Station K7. This hunch proves correct, as on examining the storage compartments of the space station, Kirk finds that the Tribbles have eaten all of the Quadrotriticale, much to Barris’s anger.

Barris had tried to warn Kirk to look after the grain, but it was too late. All the grain is gone, and now the human race is at a disadvantage, leading to potential political ramifications. Kirk launches an investigation and eventually discovers that many of the Tribbles who ate the Quadrotriticale have died. It turns out that the Klingons had something to do with it—the Tribbles don’t like the Klingons, which becomes important later. McCoy informs Kirk that the grain has been infected with a virus that turns inert once ingested, eventually leading to starvation. This is what happened to all the Tribbles.

With some ingenious deductions, Kirk finds out that Barris’s volatile and short-tempered aide, Arne Darvin, is actually a Klingon surgically altered to look like a human. He is the one who poisoned the grain in an attempt to give the Klingons an advantage, potentially creating a war-like situation and allowing them to invade Sherman’s Planet. Once this is uncovered, Kirk has Darvin arrested and evicts the Klingon commander from Deep Space Station K7. Everything seems peaceful, but when Kirk returns to the Enterprise, he finds that there are no Tribbles left aboard. He wonders where they have gone, only for Scotty to humorously inform him that they have transferred all the Tribbles to the engine room of the Klingon spaceship. The Tribbles can’t stand the Klingons, and the Klingons can’t stand the Tribbles, leading to a very humorous ending where all’s well that ends well.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E14 Wolf in the Fold

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode opens, you find Scott along with Kirk and Dr. McCoy on a planet called Argelius II. They’re here for some sort of medical show leave for Scott. Apparently he’s been involved in an accident and he has a concussion. And this accident was apparently caused by something, a female crew member aboard the Enterprise, something that she did cause this accident.And because of this concussion, Scott has been acting rather strange, apparently, and he has this absolute resentment towards women. Kirk and Dr. McCoy believe that bringing him down to Argelius II on medical shore leave will help him get over this resentment. For women, and because Argelia is to be something of a hedonistic society.It’s a very open planet, it’s a pleasure planet, and there are women there who can potentially entice Scott to help him get over his resentment. When the episode opens you find the three of them watching a belly dance, carried out by an Argelian woman.Because Scott is so enthralled by this Argelian woman. Kirk invites her to join them at the spot in this cafe. And she comes there. She talks to Scott.

They decide to go for a walk in the misty outside. Then they hear a scream. Something happens.And when Kirk and McCoy rush outside to see what’s going on, they find that the Argelian woman is dead. She’s stabbed multiple times, and there they find Scott leaning against the wall, half conscious with a knife in his hand. So it looks like he has apparently carried out this murder.In the next act you find that they’re introduced to a certain Mr. Hengist, a chief city administrator, something like a detective and a police officer combined. For some strange reason, the Argelians do not have law enforcement officers of their own.

So they have hired this alien from another planet called Rigel IV to come and handle all their law related matters.And Hengist is one of those characters from Rigel IV and he has to investigate this murder. He has decided Scott is guilty although he doesn’t say it out loud. Scotty is not being cooperative because he does not remember half of what happened. He seems to have blanked out. After that, they come into contact with the prefect of the Argelian world, which is Prefect Jaris and his wife called Sybo. What Jaris suggests is that they invoke some sort of a telepathic right involving his wife, and this is something that the Argelians have been doing for many centuries or maybe millennia. She has the ability to telepathically communicate with people and they decide to hold some sort of ritual, so that they can figure out who has been killing these women and this particular woman who was a dancer.It looks like Scott did it and Kirk has to agree to it because there’s no other way. Scott doesn’t remember anything.

All the evidence is pointing to him being the prime suspect. Hengist is completely annoying and he’s not helping matters. And what happens is that while they are holding this psychic telepathic ritual, the lights go off, everything goes dark, there’s a scream again, and then Sybo is murdered.And again, you find Scott holding her body . And it looks like he has killed her. And now the evidence is so strong against him that Kirk decides to take everyone back to the Enterprise and hold some sort of an inquest using the Enterprise’s computers. That is the only way they can prove whether Scott actually did this or didn’t do it.If you had left this to Hengist, Scott would have been subject to Argelian laws, which even Jaris says is pretty brutal. Back on the ship, they hold a trial and then they find that it wasn’t Scott who did it.

There is a strange entity called Redjac. And I missed a point here while they were holding the psychic telepathic ritual with Sybo, she did say something about Beratus, Kesla and Redjac. That is some sort of an evil entity that has been haunting this area. When they get back to the Enterprise they run a linguistic test to find out who Beratus, Kesla and Redjac are. They find that Redjac is another name for Jack the Ripper and Kirk pieces two and two together and finds out that the entity that has been killing all of these women is not Scotty. It feeds off fear and women in particular because according to Spock’s logic, women are more prone to extreme emotions.

Hengist, who has been aboard the Enterprise as part of the inquest, starts behaving in a very peculiar way. And then they find out that he has been possessed by this Redjac. Hengist has been dead for some time. This disembodied creature climbs into the ship’s controls.It wants to terrorize the entire crew so that it can feed off their fear. And to prevent that, Kirk has the entire crew sedated, which creates some humorous moments because they act as though they’re completely drunk.

And Redjac still aboard the Enterprise and haunting the computers. As he decides to come. There’s a certain trick that Spock suggests forces him out of the computer systems.He comes out possesses Jaris for a while, jumps out of Jaris’s body, possesses Hengist again, tries to stab and murder and create utmost terror on the Enterprise. But then Kirk and McCoy’s quick thinking with Kirk and McCoy’s quick thinking, they managed to sedate the already dead and reanimated Hengist so that he goes into some sort of catatonic state.And then they teleport him out into deep space and leave him floating there so that this entity called Redjac, he’s just drifting across deep space apparently, it’s also older than time. So they don’t know for sure if it would die out, but they’re hoping that it will.And that’s how this episode ends.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E13 The Obsession

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

When Obsession opens you find Kirk, Spock, an ensign called Rizzo, Leslie, and a security guard. They are down on planet Argus X carrying out a survey for Tritanium, a substance harder than diamond. They are surveying the planet for this material.

They actually find this material and while they’re doing this, Kirk notices that there is some sort of a smell in the air. It’s a sickly sweet. It smells a bit like honey. And Kirk freezes because he recognizes the smell. He knows the smell and he has smelt it somewhere in the past, somewhere on the other side of the galaxy. So he sends the red shirts to examine this scent and find out where it is coming from and he also tells him that if he if they find a sort of gaseous cloud to fire at it because that is the source of the smell. The red shirts including Rizzo find this cloud they find but before they could fire at this gaseous cloud, it attacks them.

It kills them and it drains all the red corpuscles of their body.So they’re basically white colored. Rizzo is alive, just barely. He’s taken back to the ship. McCoy Gives him a lot of blood transfusions to keep him alive. Kirk wants Rizzo awakened so that he can question him. Kirk has some sort of an obsession because of this creature, and this is because of something that happened in his past.And when Rizzo is awakened, he describes the creature and then promptly dies. Kirk also has a problem because he has to rendezvous with the USS Yorktown, taking some vaccines and deliver them to a faraway planet, and those vaccines are perishable.

If they don’t get them to this planet on time, it’s going to be a real disaster.But Kirk is too preoccupied with this cloud to do any of that. He’s delaying. He wants to remain in orbit around the planet Augusta X so that he can find out more about this creature, but scans show nothing as time goes on. Kirk gets more obsessed with it. Finally, this creature leaves the planet’s orbit, goes into space. Kirk wants to follow it. He goes on warp eight until the engines are about to explode.

He slows down and the creature also slows down, turns back and Kirk orders for this creature to be fired at using the photon torpedoes, but they go right through the creature and it begins to advance on the ship. Now, the problem here is that there is a certain character, Ensign Garowick, that Kirk has been constantly and continuously berating throughout this episode. Ensign Garowick is made to feel guilty for a certain event. He’s so upset that in his room he throws a plate onto a certain ventilation system control and the control jams, the creature finds a opening through that ventilation control.It enters the ship and Kirk has a problem because the creature can kill 200 people at a time. He knows this because the last time he encountered this creature was 11 years ago when he was aboard the USS Farragut as a young officer.

It was the same creature at the other end of the galaxy that attacked the USS Farragut, attacked everybody else aboard the ship except Kirk, who survived, and killed them.That was about 200 people it killed at one go. This is why Kirk has an obsession with this creature. This thing is inside the USS Enterprise and Kirk orders that the radioactive waste be flushed into the ventilation system. They have only about two hours left of breathable air and finally, they managed to get this thing out and it’s moving towards a certain place, Tycho IV, which is where it originates and that is also where the USS Farragut was attacked.

Kirk orders the ship to go there and find this creature and use an antimatter blast to attack it because this creature is apparently made of some unknown material called Dikeronium so they go there and unleash an antimatter blast. Kirk pulls off a feat of heroism. They destroy the creature and come back to the Enterprise, and finally, Kirk has some measure of peace of mind.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E12 The Deadly Years

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

When this episode opens, you have the USS Enterprise in orbit around Gamma Hydra IV, and you have Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, a Lieutenant Galway, who’s a new character for this episode and Hansen Chekov, they are beamed down to this planet and they’re there for a routine resupply mission.And on this planet, there is a, there is an experimental colony, which is headed by a certain Robert Johnson, who is supposedly 29 years old.

Now, when they beamed down on this planet, Kirk and the landing party find Absolutely nobody. The area is deserted. There are some buildings, but there’s nobody, so they decide to split up and examine what’s going on.Chekov enters one building, finds an extremely old dead man, and he loses his marbles a little bit. He calls out to his captain. He comes running out in absolute fright. And because he is so frightened, the rest of the landing party go into that building and they find this old man. And McCoy, after he does an examination of the dead body, reveals that this person died of natural causes of extreme old age.Now this is very puzzling for the landing party and for Kirk because none of the colonists on Gamma Hydra IV were above 30. So who is this old person? Now While they are deliberating this, an old man and an old woman come into the building and he reveals himself to be Robert Johnson and he says he’s 29 even though he’s extremely old and his wife, Elaine, he says she’s 27 and they’re not in good shape.So They’re taken back to the Enterprise.

Now, on board the Enterprise, Elaine dies of old age and Robert Johnson also dies of old age, because they are just so old and there is something that is causing accelerated aging in both of these characters. And apparently all the other colonists also died of this sort of accelerated old age.Kirk convenes a meeting in the briefing room to try and figure out what is going on. You are introduced to a new character called Janet Wallace, Dr. Janet Wallace, who is supposedly an old flame of Kirk’s. They try to, They try to figure out what exactly is going down on that planet. They hit a dead end, but as time goes on, they find that they themselves are subject to the aging.And each of the characters is affected by this aging process in a different way. So McCoy, he’s growing old very fast and he’s becoming very cranky. Spock is growing old and he’s feeling very cold and he’s not able to take the low temperatures on board the Enterprise. Kirk is becoming a little senile, and that is a big problem, because there is also a Commodore aboard the Enterprise, a Commodore Stocker.He wants to go to Starbase 10.

Now, because of this aging process, this aging problem, basically, and how it’s affecting the crew, Kirk cannot go to Starbase 10, despite Commodore Stocker’s protests. Everybody’s growing older and older. The most affected seems to be Lieutenant Galway, who’s aging much faster than everybody else, despite being 10 years younger than Kirk. They’re constantly trying to find out why this aging disease has afflicted them all. Nothing seems to be happening. Kirk gets more and more senile. He gets, He gives orders, he forgets he he has given those orders and he gives those orders again. And then just as they get and then They are also very close to the Romulan neutral zone, which means it’s very dangerous.

You cross the line and the Romulans will attack and Kirk is trying to keep it together.He’s not able to and finally Spock finds that there is some sort of radiation on Gamma Hydra for that is causing this aging process, but by now Commodore Stocker has had enough. He’s watching the Captain go senile from this aging disease. He’s watching the rest of the crew members get old. The landing party.I mean Only Chekov has not been affected and they don’t know why.

Commodore Stocker decides that he wants to take over the Enterprise because Kirk is so inefficient right now. And as he does so, he convenes a disciplinary hearing to remove Kirk from his position.Spock is also not in a condition to take over the Enterprise, so Commodore Stocker, who has absolutely no field experience, decides to commandeer the Enterprise. And that turns out to be an absolute disaster because he has no idea how to deal with the Romulans.

He directs the ship to go right into the neutral zone.They’re attacked by Romulans. And while this is happening, Kirk is panicking down in the sick bay because he’s old. He can’t do anything. He’s got arthritis due to old age. He’s senile. And at the same time, his mind is clear enough to realize that his ship is being attacked and there’s a green horn at the helm.And this is when they find out why Chekov wasn’t, wasn’t affected by the aging disease.

It’s because of adrenaline. Spock, despite his age, somehow manages to produce a serum. This serum is injected into Kirk so that he can recover and become young again. And it works with, Although the injection of that serum looks very painful, Kirk, however, manages to recover. He goes back to the bridge and relieves Commodore Stocker of his disastrous command and gets the Romulans to stop attacking with a very clever ruse involving a bluff and a carbomite device and a bomb blast, which doesn’t really exist.

And this episode ends with Commodore Stocker finally acknowledging that he’s well aware now of what a starship can do with the right man at the helm.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E11 Friday's Child

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

When this episode opens, you find the USS Enterprise approaching the planet Capella IV. They are going to this planet so that they can negotiate with the alien Capellans for their mineral Topaline which is basically something that is used for their life support for the life support systems this planet capella four has an abundance of it and The mineral has to be mined, but to get to that you have to negotiate with the Capellans first.

And now these are, these people are a very war like kind of violent race of huge humanoids and it’s very difficult to deal with them and to negotiate with them, but Captain Kirk wants to do it anyway. He approaches this planet, he beams down and he also has a lot of issues with the Klingons because they want the Topaline as well.

So when he beams down to this planet, he finds a Klingon already there. Now, The catch here is that, McCoy has already been to this planet and he knows some of the ways of the Capellans, which Kirk does not know. But before they could do anything once they beam down there, one of the red shirts is killed, and this is how the episode starts.

You have conflict almost immediately where one of the members of the Enterprise is killed. Now, after that, the Capellans, being who they are and being this martial and very difficult to deal with group of people, decide to confine Kirk and the landing crew, including Spock and McCoy to this tent. It’s a little hard for them to gauge what the Capulans want at this point.

They are waiting there when this woman brings in some food and Kirk almost accepts it, but he is not, but then McCoy persuades him not to because that will lead to further complications. They meet with the High Teer or the leader of the ten tribes of Capella, who listens, he’s an elderly person who listens to them, but they can’t really negotiate with him because of the Klingon, who seems to get along much better with the rival of the chief of the Capellan tribes.

And Kirk and, long story short, Kirk and the landing crew find themselves in all sorts of skirmishes. The current Teer of the Capellans is threatened to be overthrown by this younger and brash, more brash individual who calls himself Maab. He gets along quite well with the Klingon, apparently, which is bad for everyone concerned.

The Klingon named Kras is the Klingon representative on Capella 4. He gets along quite well with the rival. of the current rival to the current Teer of the Capellans, who is called Mab.

And he creates all sorts of trouble for the earth people because he understands apparently the ways of the Capellans much better than the earth people do. And the Capellans do not want silly things like medicine and education. They want war all the time, and so especially with the rival to the current Teer assuming charge after a bloody coup

Kras has a better chance at getting the mining rights and get securing the mining rights for the Klingons. Kirk, after much confusion and after a lot after the current Teer is murdered by the rival and the Capellans find themselves with a new leader, Kirk and the landing crew find themselves in a lot of trouble.

First off, the consort of the previous Teer. They find themselves with her and on the run towards a certain group of hills and they have to go there, find the cave. She’s pregnant. She’s about to give birth. She does not get along with McCoy who wants to help her. And at the same time back in orbit with Scotty in command, the Enterprise is lured away from orbit by a distress call from an S. S. Dierdre, but as Scotty discovers later, the S. S. Dierdre is not in that quadrant, and this was a fake distress call from the Klingons, apparently, and they try to waylay the Enterprise and create trouble up there in space, and Kirk and the landing crew down here, along with Spock and McCoy, they have to deal with this woman called Eleen, who is a Capellan.

A search party consisting of the Klingon, Kras, and the Capellan, Maab, as well as all of the other Capellans have been released to search for Kirk, destroy them, and just get rid of their presence from Capella.

Kirk and Spock manage to somehow outwit this hunting party that has come after them. Krass reveals his true colors and turns himself against the rest of the Capellans. They manage to convince the Capellans to accept this alien’s Is that the widow of the previous year, alien’s son as a new leader of the Capellans. It’s all quite complicated. And basically the Capellan, mob who has been nothing but a pain for the Earthman up to this point, decides to sacrifice, sacrifice himself so that the Klingon can be brought down. Ultimately, there’s a new baby leader for the Capellans.

A mining treaty is secured, and, Kirk and the crew are back in the Enterprise, and the Klingons efforts to kind of thwart their for the efforts of the toward the diplomatic efforts of the Enterprise and the federation is completely thwarted and they’re able to get the mining treaty and the mineral that they needed for the life support systems.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

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Podcast Enterprise: S2E10 Journey to Babel

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode opens, you have the USS Enterprise orbiting the planet Vulcan. This is where Spock also grew up. they’re waiting for a Vulcan ambassador Sarek to board the Enterprise. There are already 114 delegates on board and this is to take them to a third planet.Where they want the United Federation of Planets to gather and decide whether they want to admit a planet called Coridan into the Federation.

Coridan is a planet with a lot of dilithium crystals, vital for space travel, and they have a lot of it giving them Federation membership will allow them to have protection, Keeping these di lithiums crystal safe.However, it also throws a wrench into the plans of smugglers.

Sarek the Vulcan boards the Enterprise. He has a human wife called Amanda, and it is revealed that he is actually Spock’s estranged father. His mother, Amanda is a sweet woman . However, she is having a bit of trouble dealing with Vulcan logic and emotionless behavior. Spock apparently joined Starfleet, which his father did not want him to do. His father wanted him to continue the tradition of remaining on Vulcan and focusing on Vulcan science instead Spock chose otherwise, and that is partly what has caused this estrangement.

And as the delegates are now all on the ship, they find that there is some sort of attack coming in from outside from a ship moving at warp 10, which means it is much too fast for the Enterprise to pursue or fire at it moves too quickly and none of the phases hit this particular ship. So as that is happening, You also have all the delegates come to the common room of the Enterprise and they’re having food and you find a lot of alien races there. One particular alien race, the Tellarites, two of them, the Tellarite ambassador approach the Vulcan Sarek and try to get into an altercation with him.Regarding the planet Coridan, it doesn’t work out that well. And you are also introduced to a rather martial and savage alien race called the Andorans. They are blue with antennas on their heads. They are also not particularly friendly. Now, as all of this is happening, you find that something is going wrong within the Enterprise, because it seems that there are signals coming from within the Enterprise that are communicating with that fast moving ship outside.And then, you have the tension between the delegates. And while all this is happening, Kirk finds that he’s stabbed by the Andoran.

There are two of them, the ambassador and his associate. The associate attacks Kirk and he’s injured. And then it also turns out that the Vulcan Sarek has something wrong with him.Basically there is something wrong with his cardiovascular system and he gets equivalents of heart attacks continuously. Now the only way to save him is for Spock to give blood to him. Captain Kirk has also been injured. There is some intrigue about the ship. They are being attacked by this outsider ship and Spock has to assume command.

He refuses to give a blood transfusion, which his father so desperately means because duty comes first. And he holds on to that belief, he holds on to that belief so strongly that he becomes unreasonable, holding Vulcan logic over everything else, and his mother is infuriated with him.And what happens is, now, if the Vulcan ambassador dies, it will be a problem. Also on a personal level for Spock, in spite of him pretending that it has no effect on him. Kirk decides to get up, go to the brig, and pretend that he’s okay so Spock relinquishes command and gives his father the blood transfusion he needs.The enemy ship pursuing them starts to attack, they have to play dead and try to disable the ship.

They find out that one of the Andorans, the one that had attacked Kirk, is actually not an Andoran.He’s some sort of an interloper or some sort of an impersonator. And the ship has been communicating with him the whole time. One of his antennas is fake. Maybe both of his antennas are fake.And there is a receiver in one of those antennas. They bring him to the brig for Kirk to deal with him. They find that he is part of a smuggling ring. Now the issue is how to stop that alien ship and bring some sort of peace so that Corridan can be admitted into the Federation peacefully.Kirk decides to have the Enterprise play dead so that the smuggler ship slows down, which it does, and then they fire at it and disable it.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading