Out of all the Trek, "Catspaw" is the worst. It is the worst Trek. That's a lot of Trek to choose from, and a lot of it is frankly pretty bad, and this episode is definitely the worst. Spiderwebs and black cats. Skeletons and dungeons. But the scariest thing by far is Chekov's hair! The actual words "trick or treat" (used incorrectly) and "Halloween" are used, so we can assume that this very special haunted house episode of TOS is meant to be a Halloween-themed one.
Only one party, Crewman Jackson, returns from an away mission. He immediately face-plants off the stairs. This stunt is probably the best effect of the entire show. Then a voice comes from his lifeless body telling Kirk personally that his ship is cursed. Spock, McCoy, and Kirk then beam down to look for the missing parties of Sulu and Scott. There they find a haunted house, and are imprisoned. Their captor is Kabor, and his cat woman companion Sylvia. They seem to have magic at their disposal, and torture on their minds. Sylvia messes with not just the gang on the ground, but the safety of those in the ship as well.
All we need to straighten this out is two minutes of Kirk alone with Sylvia. He woos her with his manliness, and as soon as they start making out she just blurts out "We're but feathers in the wind without the transmuter!" That's helpful information, but sure is strange pillow talk. She figures out that she's being played, but this doesn't change the fact that she really does dig him now. I guess the whole point of all this is that their species sets traps like this to learn about others and experience new things. Korob realizes that this isn't the best way and admits it would have been better just to ride a ship into Federation territory and say hello. This realization comes right about the same time when Sylvia chases them in giant cat form. Worst. Effects. Ever. It's clearly a small cat.
Anyway, she smashes Korob, Kirk gets the transmuter (which is just a dumb magic wand), breaks it, and everything returns to normal. Well, except for Crewman Jackson. He's still very much dead. Oh and Korob and Sylvia? Without their magical facade, they look like...well...dandelions? And they shrivel up and die.Again, "Catspaw" is the worst episode of trek. It's beyond Horrible. The Halloween theme is dumb. The effects are unforgivable. Even the fight scene is worse than usual, with Sulu hilariously going unconscious for no reason. The plot makes little sense, and the only moral I can think of is that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. But I don't think that was the point behind this episode, I think that they just wanted to do Ghosts In Space. It's dumb. Don't watch it.
FIX THE EPISODE BABY!
ReplyDeleteThere is no way to fix this episode. It should not have been made.