Spock's Brain

This is one of my favorite episodes simply because it's one of the goofiest. Spock's brain is stolen, and the crew go in search of the brain. What makes the episode so amusing is McCoy using a remote control to drive Spock's body -- sit, stand, go forward, turn.

No, this episode did not push the boundaries of science fiction. It did not feature amazing acting talents, riveting dialogue, nor astonishing plot twists. But it was damn funny, and not because it was trying to be.

And the "teaching" helmet is a gas too. Kudos to the props department.

Don't skip this one!

Trek at it's best is sublime, at it's worst embarrassing to watch, but why is this episode so panned? It is great fun. Admittedly one is left feeling one has watched some sort of pantomime special, or a Trek equivalent of Police Squad. However, there are far worse episodes in series three - The Way to Eden is at the bottom of the barrel in my opinion - and I'm personally grateful that the studio pulled the plug as the scriptwriters were rapidly running out of new ideas.

The plot is simple. A matriarchal underground society steals Spock's brain because their old one - which controls all their underground machinery - has broke. See? Perfectly understandable. Kirk, Scotty and McCoy beam down to rescue him/it, in the process discovering there's a bit more to this act of theft than first appears.

Would it be a spoiler to reveal that Spock is reunited with his brain ready for the next episode? DeForest Kelley is a delight to watch as the stressed brain surgeon, and his banter with Nemoy immediately after is equally entertaining.

Forget the smug derision this episode gets. It's Trek at it's goofy best, up there with The Trouble with Tribbles and various other "don't worry too much about the plot" episodes.

In an attempt to recover Spock's brain, Mr. Scott presents a brilliant feign, Kirk grabs hold of the gun, set to kill not to stun, all in all it will give you migraine.

Mr. Spock loses his mind and the flesh that contains it using a technique similar to that used by Doctor Frankenstein but without scarring.

It's certainly one of the loonier plots, especially when McCoy wires the brainless Spock body for remote control.

But the great thing is how the whole thing is treated completely seriously by all the actors. Even Shatner plays it straight for the most part and only really hams out on some of the more outlandish lines, like "What have you done with Spock's brain?!"

The weird thing is this could have been easily made into a flat out comedy.

If this were made today, certainly the characters would have had some meta lines acknowledging the absurdity.

It's not a masterpiece but I think it's still very good. Certainly never boring.

And playing a ridiculous concept straight and not self aware can really work sometimes. For example the film Point Break has an absolutely ridiculous plot but it's played so earnestly that it's endearing. And like original Trek, that film has a hammy cast with chemistry, Reeves, Swayze and Busey.

Taking this episode's side in all fairness there are legions of original series Star Trek stories way worse than this, for some reason there's been a kind of social media pile-in on poor Spock's Brain and it doesn't deserve all of it!

This is an episode from the wonders of the starry cosmos for little children. And viewed as such no harm in being so, and it has a lot - actually quite thoughtful on science and exploration, as indeed on whether a body can exist separately from a mind, and on declining, pampered civilisations clinging to former sophistication - going for it.

Perhaps the actors had just been told about some more cuts in the Star Trek Season Three budget, I will admit that....

But plot-wise and ideas-wise, wallops possibly a good third of all TOS Star Treks out of the ballpark.