My first introduction to Star Trek was the 2009 movie. I saw it in cinema. I really loved that movie. After that movie I was so interested and invested in the characters that I bought all the DVD's of TOS. And Star Trek became my favourite franchise.

Doctor Who was actually given a "no, but try again" in 1963 with its pilot episode; although the script maintained the same plot beats unlike The Cage.

Herb Solow: gotta give credit where it’s due. Without his effort, Trek would not exist

Off topic, love the panning shot of Alexandria for a background. I just got done with the discovery tours in Assassin's Creed Origins.

When you mentioned "Spectre of the Gun" that brought back a lot of memories I was surprised I still had from when I was first introduced to the weird, strange, awesome magic of the '60s and 70s shows that I would watch on reruns because my dad suggested I watch them. I'm 20, so I wasn't exactly watching these near to the time they came out but I was a nerdy enough kid to know a little something about the 60s and appreciate these shows like TOS, Hogan's Heroes, Dragnet and a few others. I still love those shows, but learning more about TOS was my hope when I first bumped into your channel two years ago. I love your content, even if you think you're "only" a third-level analyst. Third-level is still higher than mine!

I don’t blame you for being nervous! This is TOS! It’s where it all started! I’ll have to go back and watch the TNG and such, but I’m excited to listen to all of this!

I have been looking forward to this for years. And I shall be rewatching every episode alongside your release schedule, for as long as CBS allows Netflix to let me. Because screw CBS.

I vaguely remember the top ten lead up event to the 25th anniversary, my best friend was obsessed with TOS and owned the whole series, so I would watch episodes some episodes with him.

I came to TOS exactly the same way @Lorerunner I'd been a fan of TNG for a couple years and it was the 25th anniversary and leadup to it that introduced me to these characters. The 25th anniversary videogame on PC was also a critical part of that introduction 😂 I quickly fell in love with it. To this day there's a part of my mind that refuses to call it 'TOS'... this is Star Trek. In it's purest form, this is Star Trek, and whatever else the subsequent shows did (and they did some good things), I kind of see the original 79 episodes (and 6 movies) as the baseline for the franchise, because they're Star Trek stripped to it's basics. Later shows progressively added layers on, like a painting, adding layers and depth and reality. But those original 79 were the concept laid bare. Starship Enterprise, multi-ethnic crew, strange new worlds, horatio hornblower and his world transplanted to space, a heroic Captain Kirk, the esoteric alluring Mr Spock, Dr McCoy the humanist, moral dilemmas mixed with space action in a frontier setting a long way from home (and TOS always feels like the Enterprise is a long way from home even though realistically they pretty much are just patrolling the borders of Klingon and Romulan territory most of the time, the same settings as TNG mostly, but it aĺl just FEELS so much more isolated and the crew out there surviving by the seat of their pants). I love it to bits. It isn't flawless but goddamnit if I don't in some ways feel like this stripped down Star Trek is still probably my favourite precisely *because* it is telling great stories in interesting ways while not being particularly nuanced or complicated. Even the much maligned third season feels like they were a well oiled machine. Most Star Trek shows seem to flounder before they swim, but TOS hits it out of the park immediately and kinda never stops.

Good stuff. Although it's hard to imagine TOS was 60 years ago, not 40. All I would add would be the instrumental role Lucille Ball played in getting both pilots financed and produced. Looking forward to this next leg of the journey!

Roddenberry pitched Star Trek to the studio execs as a kind of "Wagon Train to the Stars" figuring that since Westerns were very popular at the time, they should be able to "get" that analogy. But he also wanted to sneak in some social commentary along the way. When the first pilot did poorly, Roddenberry said, "they (the executives) thought I had betrayed them. I had written this wonderful story about where the mind went and they had wanted bare knuckles and a fistfight." So when they gave Roddenberry a second chance and commissioned a second pilot ("Where No Man Has Gone Before") Roddenberry made sure it ended with bare knuckles and a fistfight. :)

I binged TOS last year and I forgot how much of the show was close up shots of men sweating. That may have been the sweatiest show ever on TV.

Oh man, I have been waiting EAGERLY for this. Wondering how you're going to handle Harlan Ellisons episode what with it being a classic on the screen and a mess behind the scenes. Good luck for this one Lore! Edit - And you're spot on with your Gullivers travels analysis btw. Gulliver was a satire of a genre that's long dead and a satire of the era he was alive (hence the egg analogy). It's mad that it's seen as a kids book when it's a very heady satire and a proto-sf book

When he said that TOS "was not sacred", I got a flash in my mind to the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", where (among other hilarious points) Fry is told about how Star Trek became a worldwide religion in the 2200s before it was ultimately banned after the "Star Trek Wars" (as opposed to the "Star Wars Trek"!) and the tapes of the episodes and movies all burnt. A true labor of love.

The wait is finally over

I love your stories of spending time with your mom

I am so excited about this.

I was there for the TOS event you referenced! We watched a lot of it live on TV at my house (I believe we tried to VHS tape it but failed). My at-the-time math teacher was successful at VHS taping it. We had these "release time" events at my high school where we'd spend a couple of hours a week doing something new or unusual, and the one I signed up for every single time was called "Beam Me Up Scotty," where we'd watch the successfully taped TOS episodes at school. Good times! (Also awesome job on this video and I certainly don't mean to comment on just one thing. I do know who DC Fontana is and I was aware of most of the broad things you commented on but not they way they all fit together, so thank you for that.)

I love Star Trek but I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never watched the original series before, I’ve seen everything else but never got round to TOS, therefore I can’t wait to start watching these from the very beginning with Lore as my guide!

Love the overview, thanks for embarking on another series of Star Trek, TOS no less. Hard to fathom the attitudes back then, but that's what every generation scratches their head at to the one before, mindsets change. Now where are my TOS videos...

Some TOS episodes sometimes dont make any sense but they are still enjoyable "one-offs".

I'm not nearly as familiar with TOS as I should be. I suspect I'll need to watch each episode before I come to watch the rumination. Very much looking forward to this series.

Other sources say NBC had the character of Number One removed because Roddenberry had placed Majel Barrett (his mistress) in the role. I highly suggest the "These are the Voyages" volumes.

Im very glad i found you sir. I've been meaning to get fired up about trek again after a long hiatus and this looks like itll be worth binging.

...and so it begins!

Lore, so glad to make it to this! All the best!

So happy to catch this from the start

I remember the 25th anniversary yop 10, it was on my local fox affiliate. I recorded most episodes of it on vhs, and remember those episodes well. I was 11 at the time and each time you mention the vhs list I smile

This will be my first time watching TOS, alongside you. I'm nervous, and excited.

I've heard that even though the plot was concidered to ceribal, one of the executives was impressed by the ship. , The executive felt like he really was flying through space.

Great intro, Lorerunner. I'm very excited about rewatching TOS with your commentary!

Lost in Space had 2 pilots as well, one was a condensed version of the first few episodes.

Lucille Ball is a heroine for all

Really looking forward to this, Lore!

Full disclosure, when you said Dorothy Fontana, I thought "hm. That sounds familiar." Then you actually refer to DC Fontana and I audibly said "... oh."

I’ve been hotly anticipating this! So exited!

My first exposure to Star Trek was The Tholian Web. I was nine years old, and I didn't speak english at the time, but I was absolutely fascinated by the images of that glowing golden web being slowly spun by those weird looking ships, and by the ghostly shape of the man in a space suit appearing and disappearing all over the place. The year after that, a local tv station started broadcasting a french dubbed version of the series, starting with Where No Man Has Gone Before, and I never looked back.

I was worried I might not be as much into the TOS stuff as I have been while you were covering the Nineties shows, since those are much more my jam. No need for such concerns... this was one of your best episodes ever. I'm super pumped for the next 80 Mondays.

I was going to lay down some love & hype for William Shatner (given what you acknowledged about his acting) but I went and listened to his Bohemian Rhapsody cover and have been cured of this impulse

Really been waiting for this. Thanks Arch :)

Yay, it's finally here! TOS is my second favorite Star Trek series, even though I have to admit that when it's bad... it is REALLY bad. But there is some charm to the series that the others can't quite replicate (pun intended), and its characters but also the cheesy aesthetics contribute to it. I also like the usually slower pace of let's call it "old television". It's funny that I wasn't even born yet at the 25th anniversary of Star Trek haha. I also only found my love for the franchise as a teen, even though my mom was watching it when I was a kid, too. And since then I've grown to love TOS, and it is my mom who grew up with it who thinks it's too old and cheesy. I am looking forward to hear fascinating behind-the-scenes information about TOS and find new appreciation for some episodes!

Yes! I've been waiting for this for years! ToS is my favorite Star Trek, even though TNG and the likes is properly *better*, I liek ToS more. Can't wait to see what you think about the series in depth!

I wish I had shows I recorded on VHS from back in the day like your top ten TOS special ! I would find that really comforting to watch with all that nostalgia. I’m looking forward to your thoughts on TOS.

Lore, I can just remember my parents watching this on TV when it came out, barely remember, but of course I grew up on the reruns. Growing up in the Space Race, people talking about this as it was all new. Never missing a rocket launch even when schools stopped showing them as they became commonplace to send 3 men to the moon. In college, watching my friends get wasted on the drinking games on kirk isms.

It is so interesting that you are more nervous about doing TOS, I think TNG would cause more nerves. I always saw TNG as the golden child that Trekkies/Trekkers couldn't touch or say a negative word about. Whereas, I thought TOS found its redemption in the movies. I see as the movies making TOS great, not so much the series.

“I will be using the same approach as I always use” except for with FF6 hahaha

It has begun !

10:33 - They called him daft to pitch a science fiction show after three others had been rejected, but he pitched it all the same, just to show'em.

And now, Christopher Pike ( Anson Mount ) has gotten his own show thanks to both Jeffrey Hunter and Bruce Greenwood .

I just started a rewatch of the TOS a couple days ago so I'll be interested in what you have to say about it. Watched The Cage yesterday and it's so weird to see how different it was from the Trek we normally know; Rockets on the Enterprise? Laser guns? Time warping? and Spock with emotions? Looking forward to it next week.

I'm terrible at doing math in my head, yet here I am screaming "1991!" at my device while it took Lore a trip to Google to calculate when a show started in 1966 celebrated its 25th anniversary.

As much as I love TOS, some episodes are clearly better than others; there’s a reason why almost every top ten list of TOS episodes is nearly identical.

My partners just Introduced me to Roddenberry's work, had to find a starting point so here I am lol, starting TOS tonight

Trek Smeck, lets talk about the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

TOS, and Enterprise right? I know people aren't crazy about Enterprise, but it has a soft spot in my heart for it...

I am a die-hard Trek fan and have been for years (Voyager my favourite series). I have made SEVEN previous attempts to watch TOS the whole way through, but I have never managed to get through even the first season because everything about the show is JUST. SO. CHEESY, something I cannot stomach in TV. However, I have committed to finally getting through the whole show now with you, Lore, and following every rumination you do for it. I'm looking forward to this - let's get started.

I've never watched through TOS. My dad would watch the movies when I was home sick from elementary school and the only one I enjoyed was the voyage home. Star Trek The Movie was absolute torture at that age and dad would always insist on watching them in order so it's the one I saw most often. I'm gonna give it a chance and watch it before I watch your ruminations. We'll see how it goes.

This makes me so happy. Engage!

I look forward to this

I'm so incredibly excited for this one!

was on at 10pm, nbc, in 1966. parents would not let their 5yr old, me, stay up that late, tho I could, very quietly, watch from the top of the stairs. g5

So psyched for this Lore!!!

That is strange, because to me, Outer Limits always felt a lot more like straight science fiction than Twilight Zone.

I've only seen 3 or 4 complete episodes of TOS so looking forward to watching along. Can't see it being as good as DS9 which I'd also only seen a few episodes of but looking forward to finding out.

What went on in Hollywood and sometimes in the comic book industry is no different from what goes on now. I feel that this is where the pandering to social justice warriors thing stems from.

I always see Guliver's Travels as science fiction. Had it been written 100 years later it would have been other planets he visited.

Im really really glad you do this. There are so many episodes, i still rewatch occasionly even today. suggestion: shouldnt we do a poll on our rewatch list now and after we are done with the analysis mode? So we can compare how our opinion has changed? I cant wait for your insights on my current most favorite tos episodes. Btw my very first Episode was the doomsday machine and i was 5.

YES! TOS is a really good show it’s biggest problem is it’s lack of continuity. Other then that it started dropping off in quality in the latter season. Well either way I’m excited and look forward to seeing your opinions!

Masterfully Explained And Enjoyable! Thank You So Very Much... Live Long And Prosper! 🖖🖖🖖

It's happening!

Wasn't "Spock" mostly a carry-over of the main alien character from Clarke's "Childhood's End?"

Love TOS but for the sake of enjoyment it helps to do some mental gymnastics when the characters refer to those brightly colored floppy disc looking things as tapes. I like to think it's an acronym. The remastering made the series more watchable, although I think the next time they'll have to CGI over some of those clown costumes in some episodes.

the beginning of the cage was GREAT in my opinion except for the women on the bridge thing, but i wasnt born til 86 so i dont have the reference point of what things were like back then

Would you ever consider doing a Rumination series on the original Outer Limits? Or for that matter the new one? Or any of the three (at least?) iterations of Twilight Zone? (I would imagine the latter would get a lot of Lamentations....)

I haven't read the messages to know if someone else mentioned this, but no doubt they have. Buddy, you should know this as well as I do that Star Trek premiered in 66. There's no way at the 25th anniversary could have been in 92 like you hypothesized after trying to look it up. It was 1991 of course.

If only you could see my happy dance! (Imagine MC Hammer, but more energy)

A fresh oral history and prolegomena to Star Trek is always welcome but the texture pop-in is distracting.

Rod Serling.

with the exception of one episode in each season star trek tos is a masterpiece for me at least for the first 2 seasons. after season 3 it goes a bit downwind. but it has a lot of great episodes.

Hey Lore, I really related to your experience with Balance of Terror. I have a fond memory of being at my grandparents' house during the weekend of my aunts' wedding in the living room, so my brothers and I brought the TV down into the basement and watched the episode that night. To be honest though, I'm really soured on this show. It's good, but TOS has sorta been ruined by meeting other trek fans throughout my life who only seem to respect the 60's stuff and dislike or refuse to watch TNG and onward. It's like Pokemon where many fans only like the first generation or Star Wars with all the hatred the prequels got. Anyway, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the series.

Oh my god it’s happening

Finally TOS!

TOS was very avant guard for it's day. I mean a Black woman in a high position of authority. Yes she was a communications officer but having a comission meant that she was above 90% of the crew at least. And she could theoretically have taken command at times of the Enterprise. Also having a Japanese Helmsman and later on a Russian, during the cold war after Sputnik. Just wow. Also they did not bring attention to any of it. Unlike today where they're so woke they put people's sexual orientation, Their skin colour, their sex to your face and have frankly disgusting segregation of 'characters'. TOS is far from perfect and the budget was frankly pitiful, shoestring is being generous. Producer Robert Justman said it best 'We had just about enough money to do a really good radio show' Oddly enough though. The cheap cardboard sets. The costumes, The spit and bubble gum special effects, the corny sound effects. I enjoyed them all, Because it was like playing make believe, oddly enough I like it more when I have to use my imagination to fill in the blanks rather than today in which there is just way too much stuff happening at once that it's sensory overload... and not even good sensory overload. TOS I find has it where it counts, The characters. Kirk was a willful and even somewhat aggressive commanding officer but still felt the burden of Command, Spock struggling with his own two sides and wanting so badly to be a Vulcan and yet we see the friendship forming. McCoy was my favourite character in TOS. The reason being was despite him being a rather cranky and emotional man, He sold being a doctor in the purest sense where his respect to life was total, he was tough and brave when needed but not at the cost of his compassion and really felt the weight of his guilt when he screwed up. He's someone who would still do his best to help you and save your life even if he hated your fucking guts. The only one I felt who came close to that was Dr. Pulaski in TNG. The characters are what made the show, Just a pity that the rest, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura and Checkov didn't get more screen time and abit more focus on them. The Ensemble is what made the show and only DS9 came close to replicating. I'm really looking forward to your Ruminations on TOS... I hope I can help contribute to them if you wish.

You mentioned you didn't know why the money people gave Star trek a 2nd chance for a pilot. If I had to guess, I would surmise that it ties is to what you said earlier on about the necessity of taking risks to avoid the safe from becoming stale, creating terra nova for the medium of TV to expand. There must have been the realization with the right people that this show was just the right risk to take.

what book do you use for your research?

i remember watching it as reruns on my room tv and making sure to tune in each week on the reruns to watch each eps. Looking forward to watching this with you and personally no i dont consider star trek sacred just because some eps were so stupid in the premise like the virus that only kills when you get to puberty or like the one of spocks brain or the roman empire still suriving(still fun to watch but at least those are kinda dumb ideas)

TOS isn't sacred to me either. It's a good show (even having some absolutely great/outstanding episodes), but when it's bad... boy, oh boy, is it freaking BAD! Maybe I feel that way because I simply didn't grow up with it. I wasn't introduced to Trek until TNG Season 7 was on the air, so I definitely grew up with TNG, mid-DS9, and early-VOY. For me, TOS is at it's best when it's just a pulpy, action-adventure show set in space with enjoyable characters interacting with each other and a little world-building thrown into the mix. Usually, when they try to deliberately push a "message" the episodes tend to fall flat on their faces ("Mudd's Women", "The Apple", "A Private Little War", "Assignment: Earth", "Plato's Stepchildren", "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", "The Mark of Gideon" all come immediately to mind). When they keep "the message" in the background or at least don't shove it right in your face ("The Devil in the Dark", "Bread and Circuses", "The Cloud Minders") it can work, to a degree. So, I'm looking forward to continuing to be the contrarian curmudgeon. I suspect it won't be as pronounced as it was on TNG (no love of "Masks" and disdain for "The Inner Light" this time). I do, however, think that a lot of fan-beloved TOS episodes are over-rated.

YAY

Whooo TOS I just started re watching I'm going in production order though

HYPE!

Excited!

Can this series be a substitute for watching all these Star Treks, episode by episode?

Here is a link to the audiobook by Solow and Justman: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j51hhLqIqrC1YKs.html Essential listening! ⭐️ Also I highly heartily recommend the long form interviews by most of the creators of TOS given to the Archive of the Academy of American Television. Actors: Shatner, Nimoy, Takei, Nichols, Koenig... And Muldaur and Montalbán! Creators: Solow, Justman, Finnerman (cameras), DC Fontana (especially!)... Blackman, Courage... Many others.

Thank you!!!

Hey Lorerunner, what are your views on broadcast order vs production order? Because while I don't think it matters so much for later Treks I genuinely do think production order is the best way to watch TOS and see it gradually unfold and develop the characters and settings, it kinda bums me that the DVDs and Netflix etc now use broadcast order instead, when I was growing up production order was the way these were shown and released in the VHS era and for matters of production and things like Spock's character development etc it's the only way to go IMHO. "Where No Man...." and "The Corbomite Maneuver" belong first, not third or sixth or where-ever it is NBC's schedule put them. ("Corbomite" is basically like another pilot for the show, expressly introducing the relationships between characters and treating Janice Rand like she's new to the ship etc even though in broadcast order we'd already seen everyone multiple times by then and didn't need the introduction stuff, the Netflix/DVD order just completely kills any sense of character progression dead).

an original fan (by the mid-70s I had most episodes memorized via repeats), even in the original run, as a pre-teen, I knew some episodes were just plain bad; so go ahead and call 'em as you see 'em -- we can always disagree!

I find the incredulity at slimes to be kinda odd. Like wasn’t this during the peak of bug eyed monsters in b movies?

Is that the Pharos lighthouse? Nick :-)

Don't be nervous. If an episode is poop, it's 💩

What is your background a picture of? It's very interesting.