Star Trek

I had forgotten that Uhura was ever in a gold uniform. Sorting the episodes by Stardate not only fixed the date order, but fixed the continuity so Uhura isn't randomly wearing gold despite being at the same station.

In the Kelvin movies, Uhura got her start on the Enterprise working down below, and was moved to the bridge in a moment of crisis. I guess here she also got her start on the Enterprise in a different department and after a year or so transferred to the bridge because of her linguistic skills and was formally transferred to operations at a later date.

I liked the of-the-time mild subversion of how all the males on the ship go gaga for the three women. Spock is too Vulcan to be affected, and Bones is affected but still thinking clinically about it and wondering why. In an episode that revolves around the "need" for marriage, the in-universe rationale and how different people react to it and regard it with varies degrees of acceptance or tolerance holds up pretty well. Childress goes from being a horny simpleton to realizing he didn't give Eve a chance to show him who she really is. And the drug's effect combined with what is probably severe loneliness can be blamed for his initial tunnel vision. The line about hanging the pots outside to let the wild sandblast them is the moment you first see him realize she was a deeper person than he gave her credit for. The whole women as cargo aspect is problematic, but the characters handle it and themselves in a surprisingly intelligent manner.

This is also the first episode (in this chronology) that we get an honest-to-god moral lesson from Star Trek. The Cage kind of had one (no one should be a slave, even willingly) albeit as a testament to human stubbornness, and Where No Man Has Gone Before didn't really have a moral lesson as much as logical reasoning that caught Gary Mitchell off guard long enough to be defeated. This time we have a show then tell formula that becomes the hallmark of the original series and its successors as well as the standard by which I judge all Star Trek. It's kind of funny how Mudd casually joins Kirk's voice to deliver the lesson - Something kind of like the end of a GI Joe episode where the characters break the forth wall and talk directly to the audience.

Not a very good story (one of the first scripts Gene penned), but a competent telling of it, and a good, solid message that is still relevant today.