Star Trek episode review — 1.1 — The Man Trap

Original air date: September 8, 1966
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: George Clayton Johnson

Rating: 8/10

As the first episode to air on television, this does a pretty good job of introducing the characters, particularly Spock, whose Vulcan trates are largely shown, rather than told. Spock wasn’t really Spock in the pilot, anyways.

The plot here is a lot of fun, as well. Kirk, Bones, and some medical officer go down to a planet to administer medical exams, only for the Enterprise to come under attack from a shape-shifting alien that kills people by consuming salt.

The monster’s design is fun, albeit dated. Probably pretty scary back in ’66.

This episode is also pretty notable for some of its character interactions, like the stuff early on with Spock and Uhura.

But my favourite stuff has to the the art direction. Throughout the series, it’s not really great, but it’s imaginative, colourful, and really exemplary of ’60s science fiction. I like it a lot.

There’s kind of a Stonehenge-like structure on the planet that has a really neat effect when one of the pillars is shot.

It’s a solid episode, but I hesitate to say if it’s a classic or not. It’s been a while since I’ve seen this series, so I don’t know how it compares to the others. It’s good, though.