Catspaw

The previous reviews pan this episode, and for good reason; it's somewhat campy, cliché and mildly unfocused. But, there is an underlined re-visitation of Hephaestus' and his wife theme operating here.

We're treated to some tongue in cheek spookiness in the opening. Was it done intentionally? I'm not sure. There may have been a sincere attempt to create an atmosphere of horror, but it doesn't come off very well. Which may call into question the sincerity of the effort, but then one realizes that the lack of horror and fright is intentional because of the episode's primary focus.

The astute classic Trek aficionado will recall the real chills delivered in the "Wolf in the Fold" episode, nor the scary tension of "Dagger of the Mind". The production team at Desilu was more than capable of presenting frights in the context of a Star Trek episode, so why wasn't it done here? One must keep in mind that the thrust of this episode is the unavailability of a physical reality to the antagonists. This is part of the puzzle. It is essentially both plot and theme.

And here in lies another layer, and, perhaps, one that pokes fun at the material woman who marries a man for the riches he can garnish via whatever ability he has, and not for love. We're shown the material-girl in all her essence. Captain James T. Kirk takes a page out of the Sean Connery's James Bond, and gives as good as he takes from a woman who seeks more of what she already has, but who has sacrificed true emotional satiation for material gain. Kirk shows Sylvia her own folly, and the true value of her own worth and what he thinks of her.

Sylvia invokes her wrath, but Kirk counters with Star Fleet training and his own patented Promethian approach to counter her attacks. Even at the moment of truth Sylvia cannot help but see an opening for gain. Even when Kirk tries to give her another chance, she is relentless in her pursuit of gain. A high tech grifter with supernatural appetites and abilities.

It is fitting that both Sylvia and Korob are exposed for the weak transparencies that they really are. Perhaps a comment on true fear, and what really frightens us; not any manifestation of danger, but what we imagine might be the danger. It is in this vein that the scare factor is kept to a minimum to drive home a larger theme.

The episode is not one of the more sterling in terms of production values, but it is worth a look. The closing SFX shot is somewhat fitting.

Give it a shot.

If you understand the premise of this episode, that the black cat, witches, zombies skeletons, magic, etc. were derived from the aliens' mistaken interpretation of human nightmares, rather than human reality, then, this episode does make sense.

In trying to understand humans the aliens tapped into human nightmares which evidently do not occur in the alien species. So, they present the Star Trek cast with these black magic nightmares, assuming they are part of the human paradigm.

Still, it is done in a little campy, silly style which was common in the sixties. Nevertheless, I first watched this as a child and still love it. One of my big pet peeves about TV series is the lack of story diversity and I never felt that about Star Trek, this episode is a perfect example. Even as a child I understood that special effects in TV series was laughable (movies not much better), but I still dream of traveling the stars. The wonder of Star Trek and traveling is always meeting someone new and learning new things, it goes a long way to reducing bigotry and increasing compassion.

Season 2, episode 7. The Enterprise is at Pyrus VII. Sulu, Scotty & Crewman Jackson has beamed down to investigate. The Enterprise has lost contact with them for awhile but Jackson communicates he is ready to beam aboard and when he does, he is dead. A strange voice is heard coming from Jackson so Kirk, Spock and Bones beam down to find out what is going on and what has happened to Sulu & Scotty. When the 3 beam down, they see thick fog, 3 witches, an eerie castle and a black cat upon entering the castle. They meet Korob & Sylvia, end up in a dungeon and find that Scotty and Sulu are in a trance of sorts and obeying the will of the two sorcerers. The sorcerers use their magic against the Enterprise, Bones ends up in a trance-like state while Kirk & Spock try to figure out a way to beat the sorcerers and save their ship & crew. Sylvia becomes very cruel and disputes with Korob. Korob decides to help Kirk and his crew because he feels that Sylvia is going way to far.

One of those "fun" episodes. It first aired just before Halloween in 1967... it really does make a great Halloween show. I still love this episode even though it is not as popular nor rated as high as some of the others.

9/10

Catspaw contains one of the great lines in the series. At the beginning of the episode, the aliens try to scare the landing party with a vision of the 3 witches from Macbeth.

When the witches are done reciting their lines, Kirk says to Spock, "Spock . . . comment."

"Very bad poetry, Captain," Spock replies to Kirk's obvious annoyance.

I think what a lot of these nay-sayer reviewers overlook is that a lot of 10 years and up comprised the viewers of "Star Trek". I was 12. When re-watching the complete series now, I remembered before she did it that Sylvia would hold the small copy of the Enterprise over the candle's flame. Everything we see stays dormant in our subconscious mind. As a child, Halloween was my favorite holiday and I know I was thrilled with this episode. But aside from nostalgia, there really were some really interesting concepts introduced in this episode, about telekinesis. I think it's too easy to dismiss some episodes as stupid- when you aren't aware of the the hidden values of such episodes.