Star Trek Episode Review: The Naked Time (1966)
Synopsis: The Enterprise is tasked with observing a dying planet and discovers the research team that had previously been assigned there has been frozen to death under mysterious circumstances. The ship is soon infected by the same inhibition-lowering disease that killed the researchers and Kirk (William Shatner) must find a way to rescue the Enterprise from an infected hijacker before it crashes into the planet below.
Review: I had heard of this episode prior to watching it over the course of the past couple of days. However, until I finally selected it on Netflix, I wasn't really sure what to expect from it. As it turns out, it was actually a surprisingly good episode.
OK, I'm going to start out by admitting some of the scenes from this episode were a bit on the campy side, especially when Sulu (George Takei) puts on his shirtless swashbuckling routine and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) gets into an emotional crying fit over his mother. But, despite that, there were quite a few things I found I liked.
One of the big ones had to be the almost non-stop danger the Enterprise seemed to be in. Not only was there a disease that would make crew members act out their inner most desires (both good and bad), the ship was about to crash into a planet and, just when it started to look like Kirk and his crew were gaining the upper hand, they had only a few minutes to figure out to way to pull off what was essentially a theoretical miracle in order to survive.
I also liked how the writers used the disease as a way of giving the characters more depth. This includes Spock revealing he is half human and Kirk admitting he is attracted to some of his female crew members but is frustrated because it would be inappropriate for him to act on that. His ramblings may have been a bit over the top but did give some insight into why he does some of the things he does.
I also thought the ending, which involved time travel, was interesting, mostly because it does a great job of setting up future episode plots without doing anything I would consider over the top. If nothing else, it helps make some of the future episodes a little more believable (at least as believable as science fiction can be).
Final Opinion: There were a couple scenes that were a bit drawn out (mostly with Kirk and Spock). But, overall, I thought this episode was a fun one to watch and I enjoyed every minute of it.
My Grade: A
Review: I had heard of this episode prior to watching it over the course of the past couple of days. However, until I finally selected it on Netflix, I wasn't really sure what to expect from it. As it turns out, it was actually a surprisingly good episode.
OK, I'm going to start out by admitting some of the scenes from this episode were a bit on the campy side, especially when Sulu (George Takei) puts on his shirtless swashbuckling routine and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) gets into an emotional crying fit over his mother. But, despite that, there were quite a few things I found I liked.
One of the big ones had to be the almost non-stop danger the Enterprise seemed to be in. Not only was there a disease that would make crew members act out their inner most desires (both good and bad), the ship was about to crash into a planet and, just when it started to look like Kirk and his crew were gaining the upper hand, they had only a few minutes to figure out to way to pull off what was essentially a theoretical miracle in order to survive.
I also liked how the writers used the disease as a way of giving the characters more depth. This includes Spock revealing he is half human and Kirk admitting he is attracted to some of his female crew members but is frustrated because it would be inappropriate for him to act on that. His ramblings may have been a bit over the top but did give some insight into why he does some of the things he does.
I also thought the ending, which involved time travel, was interesting, mostly because it does a great job of setting up future episode plots without doing anything I would consider over the top. If nothing else, it helps make some of the future episodes a little more believable (at least as believable as science fiction can be).
Final Opinion: There were a couple scenes that were a bit drawn out (mostly with Kirk and Spock). But, overall, I thought this episode was a fun one to watch and I enjoyed every minute of it.
My Grade: A
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