WARNING: This thread WILL contain unhidden spoilers for this entry. Because this re-watch is in a slightly-subjective chronological order and not in production order, please refrain from talking about the content of other episodes or movies in this thread. If you do, please put that content inside spoiler tags. Some people here may be watching Star Trek for the first time.
#18: Star Trek: The Original Series, season 2, episode 7 "Catspaw"
Written by Robert Bloch, directed by Joseph Pevney.
Stardates 3018.2 (September 2267)
"We could have entered your galaxy in peace." - Korob (Theo Marcuse)
Captain Kirk is waiting for the landing party on Pyris VII to report in with increased anxiety. Once they finally do report, only one beams back to the Enterprise - who promptly drops dead in the transporter room. As if that wasn't enough, the crewman's corpse relays a verbal warning to the Enterprise that death awaits them if they try to return to the planet. Kirk, McCoy, and Spock beam down to the surface to investigate and are met with all the Human imagery of Halloween, from a black cat & witches to a haunted mansion.
Originally released: 27 October 1967
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What did you think?
Chronologically, this is our introduction to Ensign Pavel Chekov. But because this one episode of the second season has such a low stardate, we don't see him again for several more episodes. This can make some sense if you believe his original posting was somewhere else on the ship and he was only brought to the bridge this one time before being assigned as the navigator at a later date.
A few things about this episode happen to support that theory. So many senior officers end up being off the ship that Kirk leaves a lower-ranked officer in charge of the bridge; Lieutenant DeSalle. DeSalle also regards Ensign Chekov as inexperienced at first. Perhaps DeSalle, who is an Engineer, has never worked with Chekov before, who is running Sciences during the bridge operation. And the whole time Chekov is using the Science station, someone else is manning Navigation. Because nothing is said or done in this episode that makes it seem like Chekov is part of the bridge crew yet, it works out.
spoilers for as-yet-unwatched entries
And this confirms he was already on the ship prior to the episode Space Seed, which removes a famous continuity error in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.This is the first plausible explanation I've read for his recognizing Chekov. Now to solve where he hid his gun.