Wednesday, October 26, 2016

"Star Trek" Review: "The Man Trap" (September 8, 1966)

"The Man Trap"
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
Director: Marc Daniels
Producer: Gene Roddenberry 

So, the famous thing about "The Man Trap" is that it was the first episode of Star Trek ever aired, despite being the sixth produced. So I'd like to take a bit of a digression to discuss that bit of trivia for a bit.

Growing up, I never understood this. Why would you air this episode first? Why not "Where No Man Has Gone Before"? Sure, it's got a very different cast from the main series, but that's explained by most of them being dead by the end of that story anyways. And if you weren't going to air that particular episode first, then why air it third?? That's even more confusing! But I guess NBC considered that episode too "expository"? Good enough to get the series a green light, not good enough to introduce it, I guess. My second pick would have been "The Corbomite Maneuver", but it was held up by its many optical effects.

"The Man Trap", seemingly, was picked for a very shallow reason: it has a monster. Despite the starship Enterprise being on a mission to discover new life, their attitude towards it in this episode is to hunt it down and kill it. NBC, it seems, felt 60s audiences associated sci-fi with Bug Eyed Monsters, and picked this episode because it had a clear villain. Okay, fine. But what are it's other positives?


Well, one thing I will say for it is that "The Man Trap" does, like many early episodes, serve as a good showcase for the entire cast. Everyone gets a moment, a scene, something to do. Uhura gets a great scene with Spock near the start, which almost reads as meta-commentary about how little she'd had to do before now. Sulu gets to show off his botany hobbies. We got to see Rand interact with more characters without being an assault target (although she does get stalked by the creature), and of course the episode is a big showcase for McCoy, as well as Kirk and Spock of course. So it shows us all our major characters aboard ship, but this time without the awkwardness of space hookers or a rapist duplicate of the show's hero.

It's also the first episode of the series directed by Marc Daniels, who will go on to be one of the series most prolific and proficient directors. Daniels was an old-hand at Desilu, having served as one of the major directors on I Love Lucy. And the monster is great, with an eerie performance carried between all the actors who portray it (it's a shapeshifter, see) as well as a delightfully creepy "true form" designed by the unfortunately uncredited Wah Chang. 


It's a fun hour, even if Kirk and Spock do seem rather cold in their willingness to kill this creature and render it's species extinct, but it gets across Kirk's loyalty to his crew. And DeForest Kelley gets a lot of great scenes playing the conflict in his character, who initially thinks the creature is an old love of his.

In terms of the "grand themes" of Star Trek, a future without prejudice and all that, the episode isn't a great beginning. But in terms of the adventure of Star Trek, the characters of Star Trek, which are ultimately more important, it's a fine episode. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 4

Next Voyage:  

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