On May 8, Paramount Pictures’ new Star Trek film will be released. Between now and then I will watch and review every single episode of the original Star Trek TV series and the 7 films that involve members of the original cast.

Never let it be said that I didn’t have ambition.

This
will be the longest, most in-depth series in the history of this site;
it will run at least 84 parts, and if response is strong, it will
stretch out even farther as I do the entire run of Star Trek: The Animated Series,
which features almost the entire cast reprising their roles. It will
run every single weekday, with a couple of breaks built into the
schedule, and a couple more padded in just in case I get behind.

Why
do this? The brouhaha surrounding JJ Abrams’ prebootquel to the
original show reawakened my inner Trekkie, and the completion of the
remastering of the original series gave me a hankering to revisit
episodes that I probably haven’t seen since I was in high school. It’s
also a lot of fun, and an opportunity for those who are looking forward
to the new film – or dreading it – to begin a countdown to its release.
It’s also hopefully a way for those unfamiliar with the particular
charms of the original series to discover why so many people are taken
with the adventures of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and the rest
of the crew of the Starship Enterprise.

Those looking for 80 some odd entries of sheer slagging, sorry. This is going to be similar in tone to my 10 Days of 13: CHUD Goes to Crystal Lake series: affectionate but also funny. I love the original Star Trek,
but I’m not unaware of its many faults, quirks and its heavy dose of
campiness. These are all part of the reason I love it so much, in fact.

One
final note before I unveil the structure of the series: I’m watching
the remastered episodes for this, so don’t expect many wisecracks about
models hanging on wires. Other shoddy production design may be up for
critique, though.

Each entry will look something like this:

Episode: The Episode Title
Stardate: The opening Stardate, as given in the Captain’s Log entry at the start of each episode
Episode number: I’ll be specifying in which order they aired as well as which order they were produced. The two do not match up.
Written by: Crediting the writer of the episode, hopefully with some interesting biographical asides
Directed by: Same as above, with directors

And the review goes here.

Kirkin’ Out: Each episode features at least one moment of intense Kirkitude. I’ll be picking my favorites and talking about them here.

Spockmarks: Spock also gets a showcase scene in almost every episode. I’ll be highlighting his best moments.

Redshirt: You
know the cliche: anyone wearing a red shirt on a landing party is as
good as dead. We’ll be keeping track of red shirt deaths (as well as
non-red shirt crew demises) here.

Dilithium Bullshit: Psuedo-scientific jabber is a hallmark of Star Trek. Each time some kind of made up science is used (‘I reversed the polarity of the warp core!’) I’ll be noting it here.

Support
Staff of the Week: Sure,
Kirk and Spock get the best moments, but every episode has somebody
else stepping up and creating magic. Whether it be regular bridge
personnel like Sulu or Uhura, or randoms who show up for one episode,
I’ll be spotlighting the brightest, weirdest and funniest crewmembers
on the Enterprise here.

Continerdity: The
little moments that make a Trekkie’s eyes light up. Revelations of
character’s pasts. Information about important planets. References to
past episodes, or things that will be referenced in future episodes or
movies. I’ll be deeply indebted to the Memory Alpha Wiki for making
this section work.

Set Phasers to Quote: The best, worst or funniest line from the episode.

The adventure starts Monday at midnight.