What Ships Are For

Without giving away any spoilers, this one may not be the at top of the Star Trek Continues pack, but it is a solid episode in the spirit of the original series and well worth watching. It was great to see John DeLancie and Anne Lockhart as guest stars--even if they could have been given stronger characters.

On the positive side, this was very much in the spirit of old star trek. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were very much in their element and the performances of the top three rang true. The plot was also very classic Trek, with the inhabitants of the asteroid facing imminent starvation and death and some of the inhabitants plagued by a disease. The Enterprise crew is there to help, but there is a plot twist. The production values are better than late '60s standard, the sets are impeccable, and the acting in this one was actually better than many previous episodes. (Don't forget that these guys are producing this show on a shoe-string budget and it's truly a home grown, effort.)

On the down side, the maiden in distress and Kirk's love interest who is one of the inhabitants stricken by the fatal disease, is a little too simple minded/innocent to believe. The idea that radiation from the sun prevents the asteroid inhabitants from seeing in color-- something the landing party observes early on in the episode--is really too contrived. And the resolution is 100% TOS but not necessarily TOS at it's best....

True to classic Trek, the writers have given us a parable for a modern problem: illegal immigration and the controversy surrounding DACA. Unlike some of the critiques on IMDb of this episode, 'What Ships Are For' brings up the issues at the heart of the matter without pointing fingers to current political figures.

The fact that just bringing up the issue has pushed some buttons is more a function of the strong feelings about it, and is EXACTLY why it SHOULD be brought up in this kind of context. (Think 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield' from TOS that dealt with race relations.) That said, if the writing had been a little more clever, the authors might have brought in the issue more subtly. Even if they smacked you in the face with it by the end of the adventure, the best written TOS episodes did a better job of sneaking hot-button issues into the plot before doing so. Then again, not all episodes (even TOS), will have City-On-The-Edge-of-Forever writing quality.

The authors simply ask the question as to what might happen if seemingly upstanding citizens could be immediately unmasked as illegal aliens (pun intended, but not in a humorous way) and how we might handle this. There is clearly a moral imperative they are foisting on the audience but no blame was laid at the feet of the Trump administration or the Republican party. As our present political system is not going to be able to benefit from Captain Kirk's unique solution to the problem, we will have to leave this up to our present political process.

Kirk's long speech in this one is no better/worse than the moralizing in similar, drawn out speeches in Star Trek TOS. If you don't believe me, look back at just a few of some vintage, Kirk speeches: his diatribe at the end of 'A Taste of Armegeddon' (the 'we're not going to kill today), or his 'risk is our business' speech from 'Return to Tomorrow,' or--probably the mother of all Kirk speeches--the one at the end of Omega Glory ('ee plebneesta...' oh, my)...

And as to Vic Mignogna's handling of his prolonged speech in this episode, it was utterly over the top, but was the most pitch perfect, Shatner-channeling that he has done in the series. Go ahead and quibble with the performance, but it was absolutely a homage to the classic--and yes, at times, cringe-worthy--Kirk speech.

In my estimation, Star Trek Continues' best episode has been 'Fairest of Them All,' their take on the aftermath of the TOS episode 'Mirror Mirror.' That episode was brilliant. This one, not so much. Remember, though, as Trek fans, we often conveniently forget TOS episodes like 'Spock's Brain' and 'The Way to Eden.' ("You've got a hard lip, Herbert." Ugh.)

But in terms of staying true to Trek, I would take this STC episode over (at least) the first episode of the brand new, official Star Trek Discovery. And there are no streaming fees with this one. This was a trip down memory lane for me again and I can't thank Vic Mignogna and his team enough.

Kirk and crew go to a very black and white world.

I have seen all eleven episodes of Continues. This is the best episode. There is no playing around with classic episodes such as Mirror Mirror or City On The Edge Of Forever - this is new and fresh!

The acting is of a greater standard than previous episodes due to the quality guest stars but more importantly - this is just a great science fiction drama!

Forget Netflix Star Trek, forget Star Trek Lower Decks, forget those CGI filled movies of recent times - What Ships Are For is what Star Trek is really all about.

To reveal plot points would be a crime, to miss it would be an even bigger crime - outstanding!

Posting this again, two years later. For fans of the original series, it is a must watch. For later fans, it's a must watch. For those who understand our current struggle of tribalism, it is a must watch and for all others, it's a must watch. In my opinion, this not only is worthy of canon, had it been produced in the TOS era, it would be as highly reguarded as one of the finest episodes, in the league of "The City on the Edge of Forever" the screen version which was co-written by D.C. Fontana, Gene L. Coon and Gene Roddenberry himself all uncredited and to hell with Harlan Ellison who got credited for his hot mess before the rewrite and it was what was shown that won the Hugo award in 1968. It's also as good as the "Devil in the Dark". "What Ships Are For" Features John De Lancie and Anne Lockhart. Genre is in keeping with the 60s weakness of Kirk falling for the spectacular ladies but it's the one forgivable element and it's played to the right effect. The writing is wonderful and it speaks to our times. In short, "What Ships are For" provides that essential morality play that good Star Trek was always meant to facilitate by holding a mirror up to ourselves and reminding us of our mission to seek out that greater unknown in who we ought to be and in so doing, lending us hope that one day, with perseverance, we will realize that future promised frontier as our own.

While Star Trek Continues has been by far the best thing to come out of the Trek universe in decades, the show has fallen into decline. While sfx and production quality has remained impressively high, the writing has taken a hard dive. This episode marks the show shifting from good, compelling SF to didactic , SJW fanfic. The acting is bad, the dialog is painful, and the "social justice" message could not be more blatantly if a problem glasses blue hair was screaming it directly at us through the screen. These issues have been tackled before by Star Trek in ways that still manage to tell a brilliant story (and never fell back on preachy Captain Planet-style dialog).

It's sad to see this show go.

When the usual three beam down on a world they notice something weird...it's all monochromatic! It seems that some sort of radiation in this world causes the eyes to not be able to see color! Additionally, something about this radiation also is killing the people off slowly. Can the Enterprise get to the root of the problem and solve it? And, what unusual discovery do they make about 20% of the people of this world?

The folks making this series had a few casting coups. Some well-known actors such as Erin Gray ("Buck Rogers") were guest stars...and in this one, John de Lancie ('Q' from "Star Trek: the Next Generation" and other Trek shows) and June Lockhart's daughter, Anne ("Battlestar Galactica") guest star.

Like many episodes of the original series, this one deals with contemporary issues...and I'll say no more about it, as I don't want to ruin the suspense. Regardless, it's a very fascinating episode...among the very best of the new shows. Very well written and it does make you think.