Over the years i've reviewed a great a deal of the Star Trek movies some of which did feature the cast of The Original Series. However i've never actually sat down and watched an entire episode before now and well that box has very firmly been ticked as i've just watched what is my first ever episode of Star Trek: The Original Series and well i'm going to talk about it and so then join me as I review the episode that sees the Enterprise encounter a deadly shapeshifting alien with the episode in question being called simply just "The Man Trap" enjoy.
The plot of this episode the Enterprise orbits a planet where they are to perform a routine inspection on the planets only inhabitants only to find that one of them isn't quite who they seem to be. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. To be frank to this episode it's plot isn't as bad as it really could have been as it was only the sixth episode to be shot and therefor the team where still finding there feet plot wise but it's also not one of the more better plots either as this episodes plot does come across as being quite dull and boring alot of the time with it's idea of a creature that can chance shape into one being something that isn't that fully baked. While there are a few bad things in this plot like the fact that they set up that this plant can detect who is a real person and who isn't but then they don't do anything with it or have it play a major role in the plot of the episode it's literally just in that one scene but in all fairness when this episodes plot does want to be good it is a really good plot with there being alot of thought and effort put into it with the episode being really well written by writer George Clayton Johnson who wrote episodes of The Twilight Zone amongst other things here turning his talents to science fiction with the result being a plot that was good for a first episode but could have been alot of more better with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is William Shatner as Captain Kirk , Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock and Jeanne Bal as Nancy Crater. Also starring in this episode is Alfred Ryder as Robert Crater , DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy , Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand , George Takei as Sulu , Nichelle Nichols as Uhura , Bruce Watson as Green , Michael Zaslow as Darnell , Vince Howard as Crewman , Francine Pyne as Nancy III , Budd Albright as Barnhart , Larry Anthony as Berkley , John Arndt as Sturgeon , William Blackburn as Hadley , Frank Da Vinci as Brent and Vinci , James Doohan as Montgomery Scott , Sandra Gimpel as M-113 Creature , Eddie Paskey as Leslie , Jeanne Malone as Yeoman and Ron Veto as Harrison.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. While it is understandable as to why this episodes acting isn't that great as the episodes main actors are still getting us to there character and are still finding them it still does make you wonder if the makers of this episode had enough time and budget to do a second take as this episodes acting does feel like the acting that you would find in the just take of any scene but in all fairness the acting in this show from is something that has been mocked in the past and for good reason as it is over the top especially from alot of it's main actors. With the best actor in this episode being DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy as he does have to juggle alot of different emotions in this episode from being anxious about seeing a woman that he once dated again to the joy of seeing her again to the love that he still feels for her and the anger of when he is forced to kill her before she kills his friend Captain Kirk all of these things are done subtly all through the actors facial expressions and yet they are all things that help to make his performance in the episode be as good as it could have been as by all right this episodes acting should have been really flat and yet he managed to turn a good and subtle performance with him making a character that is usually seen as being grumpy and miserable quite human with this being something that really does shine through in his performance. With the acting that's in this very episode really being helped by the fact that the script is for this episode is just so good that all this episodes actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Effects in classic television shows and movies can at times be really cheesy and while that is also true for this episodes effects as well there are some shot that do make you wonder how they pulled them off in the first place. As while it is easy to work out how they did the transporter effects as that's just animated lines added to the live action footage the episode does have alot of shots of the Enterprise and while yes alot of them are clearly just a model against a black background the episode will then have in camera moves or will have the model come into frame from far away both of which are things that would be hard to do with just a model therefor there does need to some level of animation added to the scene to make the effect work in the first place. Whilst it would have been super easy to do these kinds of effects today as you could very easily just do them in a computer in the sixties they would have had to have found unique and creative ways to make these effects work in the first place and whilst yes they might look cheesy by today's standards you have to to think back to how they would have looked back in those days and in those days having a model flying against a black background with a painted on planet in the background would have been seen as being really good and to be fair to this episode those old school classic effects do help to add a bit of charm to this episode as they help to make the episode feel alot less like a time capsule and alot more like a science fiction show as today every one and there grandmother knows what the transporter effect looking like as it's that well known, the effect itself is perhaps the most simplest of the effects in the episode as it is just handdrawn on lines over the live action footage and yet both that and the model effects in this episode do stand out due to how simple that they are.
Whilst the episode doesn't really have a good mystery to it as they out right show you who the monster is alot of the time. The episode does do a good job of building up tension with it being done by doing the most simplest of this things just by having the monster in it's human be around people who might find out that one of them isn't who they say they are and that is a good idea as it does mean that at any minuet the monster could either kill another crew member or be found out with the best example of this being the meeting that Kirk has with several of the crew including the monster now being disguised as Leonard with the tension being built just by having the camera cut to between the two characters and showing there reactions to what the other is saying. It truly is masterful storytelling as so much is getting across in such a short amount of time and yet it all works with the only thing that could have made be even more better being if we never saw the monster transform into Leonard in the first place as while that is a great to get across the fact that a main character is in danger the episode does have a similar scene later on in the episode where we find out that the monster tried and failed to kill Spock therefor there was no need to show Leonard being attacked and if we never saw that then it would make the meeting scene all the more suspenseful as now we the audience would have no idea that the monster was even there in the first place. This is something that could also be applied to the rest of the episode as it would have been more effective to hid the monster transforming into different people until the last possible minuet just as a way to built up tension as they we could have had crew members arguing with each other all trying to out who is the real person and who isn't with this adding some sort of replay value to the episode.
As was mentioned this was the first episode of the show to be broadcast but it's not the shows actual pilot episode as there were two other pilots made before this episode was even written. With "The Cage" and a pilot version of the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" being made before this episode and while both episodes would actually air in the first season of this show with "The Cage" being tuned into the two part episode "The Menagerie" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before" airing as the third episode it doesn't change the fact that either episode was made before this one altho to be fair this was the first episode to air officially thus making it an unofficial pilot episode but in saying this tho it actually doesn't do any of the things that the other pilot episodes tend to do. As we never see the Enterprise launch on it's five year mission and we never see the main characters meeting for the first time as all of that is done off screen with the episode being more focused on telling its own story and the episode is all the more better of because of it as given just much that this episode has to do in the first place to tell the origin stories of not only the main characters but also why they are in this five year mission in the first place would be overkill for any episode and therefor getting rid of all of that and just focusing in this plot does serve to make the episode alot more watchable not only to returning viewers who are seeing this episode for the one hundredth time but also for people who are seeing this episode for the first time as there are is no heavy lore dumb in this episode its just the main plot and that's it with this being something that does make the episode more welcoming to new time fans of the show when it would have been super easy for the makers of this show to have a big lore dumb right at the start of the episode it does show that they knew that doing that might put people of watching episode two of the show and therefor chose not to do in the first place.
The creature in this episode which actually doesn't have a name does have a really creepy look to it with it's body basically being like sasquatch with it having an oval shaped mouth and fangs for teeth. Which is a really creepy look as it does make the alien look like it comes from another world with the make up effects on the creature looking like they belong in a feature film as they do look really impressive with them holding up even all of these decades later with the only thing that does let the monster down being the fact that we don't get to see that much of it in it's monster form as alot of the time it is just copying other characters which is understandable but if the creature looks this good then why not show it off as much as you can. Even it's goal to steal the sugar from every human body being something that does work as it is a unique idea and it does make the creature stand out all of the more because of it so much so that one could argue that the villain in the series three premiere of Doctor Who straight up copies this episodes villain only replace sugar with blood, there is mainly one thing about the villain that never gets explained and that's why it decided to take the form of Nancy in the first place as it could have taken the place of any other person once it gained Roberts trust but it kept on coming back for his sugar cubes as his dead wife who he knew was dead as she saw the monster kill her in the first place this is something that really should have been explained as it does make the villain seem more sympathetic in it's own way and yet by not doing that t makes a creature who we are told is the last of it's kind seem like a true monster with the Enterprise crew coming across as being heartless for ending an entire species when they could have given it and Robert more sugar and left them both on the planet happy with each other and yet they didn't for some odd reason.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly fifty minuets and twenty eight seconds. Which to be fair to this episode is pretty much the bogstandard running time for this show to have in the first place and the episode it self really does need that amount of running time as it does have to et up all of the characters as well as the plot of the episode and the world that the show takes part in and it t that in anything under forty minuets would mean that something would fall threw the cracks and the episode itself might end up being all the more worse because of it and yet due to the fact that this episode is as long as it is does mean that the episode can be as good as it was ever going to be with the episode even having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet despite this the episode still doesn't use its running time all that wisely as the episode doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot as the episode doesn't really give us anything that add things to the plot of the episode with this being something that does make this episode plot feel really underbaked and it's ideas whilst they are good just ideas and not something that's fully formed as the episode doesn't take the time to fully develop it's plot with the makers of this episode being more focused on showing us the creature transforming into different crew members then they are in giving us a well developed plot. With the episode understandably not really giving any of its characters any kind of character development this is something that does make sense for this episode as it was the first episode to be broadcast but this is also that is true for all of the episodes guest characters as well as none of them are given any form of character development when they really should have done with the makers of this episode being more focused on showing us Leonard sleeping ten it is in giving its characters some actual character development but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us inn this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. While the episodes action doesn't really hold up today as there's nothing fancy to it as it's just a group of people trying to fight over a gun it's how they pull it off that makes the episodes action work as yes it is quite cheaply done but due to the fact that the makers of this episode did give us scenes that make you care for all of the characters involved you do end up caring for all of the characters the monster included in the action in this episode. With the episodes best action scene being when The Monster tries to attack Kirk as both he and Spock bed for Leonard to use the phaser to kill it but he wont' due to the fact that he sees the love of his life with Spock even getting thrown around the room like a ragdoll and even slapping the monster in it's human form to try and get it to turn into it's monster form with it only being when Kirk is near death that Leonard then fires the phaser twice with the second shot being the killing blow, this was a masterfully done as while there wasn't alot to it interms of action it did do a good job of telling a story of Leonard coming to grips with the fact that his beloved Nancy is no longer with us and the thing that has been parading as her is a monster that has been killing people with the rest of the episodes action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall as far as first episodes go this isn't the best one as An Unearthly Child has this episode beat by a long shot but at the same time this was still a really good episode that whilst it does have it's fair share of problems as all first episodes do does do a really good job of showing us just how good that Star trek could be in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now the i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad that things that are in this very episode in this very review and a such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in his very review from Amazon . Co . UK and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.