Horrible:Meh:
Adequate:Good:Fantastic
The crew is off in unchartered territory to find their sister ship, the Defiant. Sure enough they stumble upon it, but it seems to be glowing green. Undeterred by its odd appearance, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Chekov put on their ridiculous space suits and beam aboard. Okay, these suits are at least eight inches too tall, and covered in glitter. They're hilarious. They don't even have space helmets, just a thin mesh veil that couldn't keep a horsefly out, let alone an unknown pathogen. They look more like beekeepers than space travelers. Anyway, on board the Defiant they find everyone dead, apparently at each other's hands. They went nuts and all killed each other. Well, I guess the very last person maybe killed themselves? I'm not really sure of the mechanics. Soon things get wonky and everything is flashing in and out of existence, so the away team heads back. Kirk is the last to beam over, and he doesn't make it. There is a great shot of him alone on the Defiant, facing the reality that he may not make it out alive, and surrounded by the dead crew.
Next the Tholians show up and kindly ask them to leave their space. Spock talks them into giving them some time, but when the time is up and they still haven't recovered Kirk, they exchange fire. Both ships are disabled. Then another ship shows up, and they begin working together to surround the Enterprise with an energy field, trapping them forever. I like that the ships are unique looking, even though they come off a bit Pink Floyd-ish. I also found the Tholian that speaks to them extremely creepy and almost devil-like. It goes to show how TOS did a lot with very little, as the effect was probably very easy to create, but fifty years later still has the ability to give me the heebie-jeebies.
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| "Now kiss" |
The crew sets about trying to get out of their jam by focusing on two different fronts. The first is to find a cure for the madness that they know is about to overtake them all. The second is to figure out how to get the ship's systems back and escape the Tholian web. But the real plot is the growing tension between Spock and McCoy. Spock calls the crew together for a....funeral? I guess? The whole service lasts about 45 seconds, including the 20 second interruption to haul out some guy that just lost his marbles. Spock says that he's not going to try to put to words the respect and admiration that they all hold for Kirk, so they'll just have to come up with their own thoughts. I'm still not sure if it was a briefing or a funeral, but a funeral should definitely have more to say about a man than a 3 second moment of silence. Then McCoy insists that he and Spock listen to a pre-recorded message from Kirk that he left them in the event of his death. Basically, it tells the two of them to trust and lean on each other, even though Kirk already knows they'll be butting heads. It's not that profound of a message, but leaves a nice awkward moment between the two of them afterwards. But things heat up again, as McCoy still thinks that Spock made the wrong choice by staying and fighting. There are some great snarky exchanges between the two. Like when people start seeing a ghost of Kirk, Spock comments that sometimes people see what they want to see. McCoy responds, "You suppose they're seeing Jim because they've lost confidence in you?" ZING!
But they really are seeing Kirk. He's in Uhura's mirror, he's in engineering, he's on the bridge. Just as the Tholians are closing the web, they figure out the technobabble solution to escaping, and poof! They are free. Then Kirk is floating in space in front of them. I don't get this. Chekov says they were instantly zapped very far away, so why is Kirk still so close? And why is the Defiant gone again? Kirk says that he was in a universe all by himself. That must have sucked.
"The Tholian Web" is only an
Adequate episode of Trek. There's almost too much going on at once. The whole Defiant going in and out of phase and glowing is never explained. The madness of the crew is ongoing but never really threatening enough to be interesting. I liked the novel way that the Tholians were dealing with a new foe, and I liked the visuals. I liked McCoy and Spock quarreling, but even their scenes lacked the weight that a dead captain would have put on them. Then the whole Kirk appearing here and there gasping and waving his arms was just silly. This episode could have done better.
Published February 23, 2018
The crew is off in unchartered territory to find their sister ship, the Defiant. Sure enough they stumble upon it, but it seems to be glowing green. Undeterred by its odd appearance, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Chekov put on their ridiculous space suits and beam aboard. Okay, these suits are at least eight inches too tall, and covered in glitter. They're hilarious. They don't even have space helmets, just a thin mesh veil that couldn't keep a horsefly out, let alone an unknown pathogen. They look more like beekeepers than space travelers. Anyway, on board the Defiant they find everyone dead, apparently at each other's hands. They went nuts and all killed each other. Well, I guess the very last person maybe killed themselves? I'm not really sure of the mechanics. Soon things get wonky and everything is flashing in and out of existence, so the away team heads back. Kirk is the last to beam over, and he doesn't make it. There is a great shot of him alone on the Defiant, facing the reality that he may not make it out alive, and surrounded by the dead crew.
"The Tholian Web" is only an Adequate episode of Trek. There's almost too much going on at once. The whole Defiant going in and out of phase and glowing is never explained. The madness of the crew is ongoing but never really threatening enough to be interesting. I liked the novel way that the Tholians were dealing with a new foe, and I liked the visuals. I liked McCoy and Spock quarreling, but even their scenes lacked the weight that a dead captain would have put on them. Then the whole Kirk appearing here and there gasping and waving his arms was just silly. This episode could have done better.
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