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Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 20, Episodes 39 & 40: Mirror Mirror/ The Deadly Years

Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 20, Episodes 39 & 40: Mirror Mirror/ The Deadly Years

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: oddly matched but great anyway.
Review: These are oddly matched episodes, but still worth a look.

In “The Deadly Years”, a landing party led by Captain Kirk contracts a rare disease causing accelerated decrepitude. The symptoms, though aren’t fast enough to avoid being painful and terrifying. With all of the Enterprise’s chief officers inexplicably sent to the planet where the disease was contracted, the crew finds itself without an effective Captain, Dr. or Chief Engineer. As the ship veers into Romulan territory, a Starfleet Bureaucrat seizes power, forcing Dr. McCoy to try a dangerous and painful cure. This is a good episode – the script plays each of the infected crew with a different aspect of old age, senility, crustiness and feebleness. It’s a painful idea, and a brave one. (spoiler)

The real treat is “Mirror, Mirror”, in which a transporter accident sends a returning landing party into a “parallel universe”. (Actually, the differences are so pointed, that this new reality seems less parallel than divergent; why the crew never considers being in an alternate history is something else not quite clear since the phenomenon wasn’t unknown to them – but that’s just a trekker’s nitpicking). In this new universe, everybody is evil – officers receive promotions by killing their superiors (perhaps the alternate reality is our own), everybody carries daggers, women wear revealing clothes (yes, even worse than those miniskirts) and scariest of all: Spock has a beard!! While in our universe, the crew had been sent to negotiate trading rights for dilithium with the peace-loving Halkans. Unsure of Starfleet’s motive’s the Halkans refuse to give or sell their dilithium. In the evil mirror universe, where Starfleet (actually, “The Empire”) has more open motives, the Halkans (who are good and stubborn in both universes) face extinction for their refusal to turn over the precious dilithium. Now the crew has two missions – save the Halkans and save themselves.

“Mirror” is a great episode because it’s funny and scary at about the same time. The comfy grooves that the series dug for each of its characters have been uprooted, and nobody can be trusted. Campy yet consistently fun, the script deftly avoids some obvious pratfalls – like explaining why this other universe is sooooo bad, or even coming up with an improbable ending in which the evil empire is destroyed. If anything, this is the episode in which you’ll hear Dr. McCoy utter the words – “that’s the spot where I dropped acid three years ago”. Apparently, the bureaucratic mentality is not the sole universal constant.

As a personal note, I'm not sure why these episodes were paired - maybe because somebody thought that there was a common theme – in “Years” they get old, in “Mirror” they go bad. The moral ambiguity of the characters in “Mirror” seems to have more in common with the conflict between Kirk and Spock in “Enterprise Incident”, or the paths taken by rogue starfleet officers in “Patterns of Force”, “Omega Glory” and “Bread and Circuses”. Still, “Years” deserves the attention because it’s among the most unique episodes, hardly comparable to “Patterns”, “Glory” and “Circuses” which seem interchangeable.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love Star Trek
Review: This edition of the DVD have one of my all time favorite episodes in star trek: Mirror,Mirror. I love that episode and cannot stop watching it ever.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Mirror/Mirror" & "The Deadly Years"
Review: Two fabulous stories back to back.

Highlights of "Mirror/Mirror" Uhura's (Nichols') picture perfect abs! Uhura really looks yummy in this episode! Moreau (Barbara Luna)looks equally delicious! Cheesecake!

"The Deadly Years" Great hyperaging makeup! Look closely at Scotty...not too far fetched from how he looks now...35 years after the episode was filmed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Two Popular Treks on this DVD
Review: Volume 20 of Paramount's complete Star Trek collection contains two ever popular episodes from Season Two.

More than thirty years after its original airing, Mirror, Mirror, remains on most Trekkers' lists of Top Ten episodes. This story has also spawned a spinoff novel by George Takei, follow-ups on Deep Space Nine, and been touched upon in William Shatner's Star Trek novels. It's not hard to see why. From the redecorating of the ISS Enterprise, to the sexy uniforms, to being able to watch each Trek character engage in evil scenery chewing, this episode has something for every Star Trek fan. Indeed, this is one of the few episodes to make use of the entire ensemble cast. George Takei and Nichelle Nichols in particular shine here.

The Deadly Years is less effective now than it was originally. Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, it's a relief to know that the Star Trek regulars have aged more gracefully than portrayed here --even if some of them have been aided by cosmetic surgery and expensive hairpieces. Actually, hairpieces are one of the problems here. The visual restoration has been successful to the point that the seam in William Shatner's toupee is glaringly evident when the "old" Kirk's hair is combed straight back. (Look at the forehead, just under the hairline, and you can't miss it.) For the most part, though, the old-age makeup stands up to today's standards surprisingly well. The Corbomite reference near the episode's end is a testament to how seriously story continuity was taken.

Sound and picture have never been better.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: ONE MASTERPIECE AND ONE STANDARD TREK!!!
Review: Volume 20 of the Star Trek DVD collection contains two fairly decent episodes from the second season. One being excellent the other being mediorce but this is classic Star Trek mind you so this is still great.

The first episode here is the excellent MIRROR MIRROR. This is one of the best Star Trek episodes from the second season and not just because it's the only episode we find Leonard Nimoy sporting a goatee. The reason why is because we get to see a completely different Enterprise crew in another dimension. Instead of being kind, peaceful and friendly the crew is ruthless, cruel, and violent! After an ion storm Kirk, Scotty, McCoy and Uhura are thrown into a parallel dimension where the Enterprise crew is completely opposite. Meanwhile in the other dimension our Enterprise crew is dealing with a evil Kirk and crew. Acting as his ruthless alter ego Kirk tries to return to his own dimension but a suspicious evil-Spock realizes that Kirk is not his actual commander. This episode is very good and has had spin off after spin off in other Star Trek series. A truly memorable episode.

However I'm afraid we sometimes have to take the good with the mediocre (which is better than bad) and that my friends is what THE DEADLY YEARS is. It's a mediocre episode of Star Trek that has a decent story but lacks the energy of more memorable episodes. Somehow the Enterprise crew catches some bizarre virus that causes people to age very rapidly until they die of natural causes. This is a great concept for a story but unfortunetly it didn't necessarily work out successfully. Not that this is a bad episode it's decent but it could have been way better. ...P>Overall a decent collection. One wonderful episode and one standard Star Trek show. This one is worth a look without a doubt. Highly recommended for MIRROR MIRROR.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: ONE MASTERPIECE AND ONE STANDARD TREK!!!
Review: Volume 20 of the Star Trek DVD collection contains two fairly decent episodes from the second season. One being excellent the other being mediorce but this is classic Star Trek mind you so this is still great.

The first episode here is the excellent MIRROR MIRROR. This is one of the best Star Trek episodes from the second season and not just because it's the only episode we find Leonard Nimoy sporting a goatee. The reason why is because we get to see a completely different Enterprise crew in another dimension. Instead of being kind, peaceful and friendly the crew is ruthless, cruel, and violent! After an ion storm Kirk, Scotty, McCoy and Uhura are thrown into a parallel dimension where the Enterprise crew is completely opposite. Meanwhile in the other dimension our Enterprise crew is dealing with a evil Kirk and crew. Acting as his ruthless alter ego Kirk tries to return to his own dimension but a suspicious evil-Spock realizes that Kirk is not his actual commander. This episode is very good and has had spin off after spin off in other Star Trek series. A truly memorable episode.

However I'm afraid we sometimes have to take the good with the mediocre (which is better than bad) and that my friends is what THE DEADLY YEARS is. It's a mediocre episode of Star Trek that has a decent story but lacks the energy of more memorable episodes. Somehow the Enterprise crew catches some bizarre virus that causes people to age very rapidly until they die of natural causes. This is a great concept for a story but unfortunetly it didn't necessarily work out successfully. Not that this is a bad episode it's decent but it could have been way better. ...P>Overall a decent collection. One wonderful episode and one standard Star Trek show. This one is worth a look without a doubt. Highly recommended for MIRROR MIRROR.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Set
Review: With each episode paired with another, this pair seems to be one of the best. There are several good episodes paired with a weeker one. Mirror Mirror is one of my favorite epsiodes of all time. Where the deadly years offers a change of pace. If I was starting my Star Trek collection on DVD, I would make Vol 20 one of the first that I buy.


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