Everything I Need To Know I Learned From Star Trek

This stunning Uhura Pie was made by The Pieous.

Welcome to Super Blog Team Up! This time out, a gang of comic book and pop culture blogs and podcasts are teaming up to focus on the foundations of our fandom.

I love old science fiction TV shows and movies.

I’m a big fan of the big three – Star Trek, Star Wars & Doctor Who. Plus, I’ve watched a ton of shows like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Jetsons, both Buck Rodgers and Duck Dodgers, Planets of the Apes, V, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Battlestar Galactica.

I’ve also watched many shows and movies that are deeply influenced by science fiction – Back To The Future, Knight Rider, Thundarr the Barbarian, Jonny Quest, Thunderbirds, Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, Sliders, The X-Files, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, Flash and most of the Marvel movies.

Why classic science fiction? Star Trek: The Original Series is to blame. Though I was very young, I watched Star Trek during its original run. I watched it for two reasons – my big brother loved the show and I loved the characters. For a Super Blog Team Up back in 2017, I wrote – I Have Been and Always Shall Be Your Friend – about Kirk and Spock’s friendship.

What I didn’t realize at the time is that Star Trek was doing an amazing job introducing me to so many key science fiction concepts. The original series deals with time travel, alternate history, mirror universes, dream worlds, cloning, shape shifters and so much more. Because of this, I’ve been able to follow almost any science fiction I’ve watched, read or listened to. That’s why I named this post – Everything I Need To Know I Learned From Star Trek.

Without the original series as my foundation, I would have missed out on so much amazing science fiction. Star Trek: The Original Series is the foundation of my science fiction fandom.

Time to beam aboard the Enterprise, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations and to look at the science fiction concepts I learned along the way. Once piece of advice – before you beam up, ditch that red shirt.

I’ll try to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but I’ll have to give away some details for things to make sense. I’ll include spoiler warnings when I’m going to spoil a key moment in an episode.

New to Star Trek or the Original Series? At the end of this post, I’ll cover four episodes that I think are a wonderful introduction to the series.

Chocolate Montgomery Scott Sculpture — Montgomery Scott

This fabulous Montgomery Scott Chocolate Sculpture was made by Paul Joachim from The Chocolate Genius.

Here are some of the cool science fiction concepts introduced in the original series:

Alternative History

I don’t know if it is true, but I’ve heard that Star Trek had access to costumes and sets from other TV shows and movies. Because of this, they often visited planets that where similar to Earth, but in each case some event had changed history.

A Piece of the Action: You’d expect a visit to a planet modeled after gangster movies to be a violet. Instead, this gets my vote for the funniest episode of the series. I’ve seen William Shatner in person and he is a wonderful comedian. While I never had the pleasure of seeing Leonard Nimoy in person, I’ve seen videos of him and he was just as funny. If you’ve never seen Captain Kirk Stole My Bike, you are in for a treat! A Piece of the Action gives Kirk and Spock a chance to use their comedic abilities and the result is just so much fun.

Patterns of Force: The Enterprise visits a planet very similar to World War II. Where A Piece of the Action featured a planet whose history was altered accidently, in this episode the tampering with history was intentional.

Bread and Circuses: The Enterprise visits a planet in which Rome still rules to this day. So, Kirk and Spock end up in gladiator games.

Plato’s Stepchildren: The planet in this episode is styled after ancient Greece. This is one of the most famous episodes of the series because it featured one of American TV’s first interracial kisses.

This spectacular Spock Cupcake was made by Cake Central Member Yokko.

Androids

The first robot I encountered was probably Rosey from the Jetsons, but I’m not sure if I’d heard of androids before Star Trek.

What Are Little Girls Made Of?: This episode features a machine which can make android duplicates of people.

I, Mudd: One thing I love about The Original Series is that it didn’t take itself too seriously. This is a comedic episode featuring the return of Harry Mudd. Harry is a “thief, swindler, con-man, lair and rogue” and this time, he has two hundred thousand androids at his command. Roger C. Carmel looks like he is having a wonderful time playing Harry Mudd and you can’t help but have fun watching him.

These Sulu and Spock Cakes were made by the KupKake Tree.

Artificial Intelligence

Star Trek was made during the time when computers were a major part of science fiction, so I’m not going to mention every artificial intelligence the crew of the Enterprise encountered. It would be a very long list. Every episode of Star Trek featured an obstacle to overcome or an enemy to defeat, so almost every AI in Star Trek was shown as either being evil or malfunctioning.

The Changeling: This episode has a lot of similarities to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Nomad is an space probe from Earth that merged with a space probe from another world. The merger left Nomad with new programming that caused Nomad to be a killer.

The Ultimate Computer: The crew of the Enterprise is replaced with an AI. Needless to say things go horribly wrong.

This Captain Kirk Cake was made by A Wish and a Wisk Cakes.

Dream Worlds / Imaginary Worlds

The Menagerie: Major spoilers ahead! The Talosians have the ability to create illusions that are indistinguishable from reality. This two part episode intentionally leaves the viewer in the dark as to what is going on. So, it is a surprise that, unlike Mastermind in The Dark Phoenix Saga, the Talosians use their powers for good. This is one of the most famous episodes of Star Trek because for years it was the only place you could see footage from the first pilot episode, The Cage.

Spectre of the Gun: Spoiler Ahead. This episode has the crew of the Enterprise reliving the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Instead of being set on a planet based on the wild west, this is set in an imaginary world created by extremely powerful aliens.

For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky: I’m going to be really vague here because I don’t want to spoil this episode. This is a really unique twist on an imaginary world. The world in this episode is real, but for generations the people of this world have been taught a mistruth about their world. What the inhabitants believe about their world and the reality are completely different. While this world is real, the inhabitants perception of their world is imaginary.

This wonderful Galileo II Cake was made by Hey! Cake This!.

Genetic Engineering

Space Speed: This episode gives us one of Star Trek’s great villains, Khan Noonien Singh, the leader of a group of genetically engineered people. Ricardo Montalbán would return as Khan in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

This marvelous Gorn Cake was made by Flour Child.

Mind Swapping

Turnabout Intruder: The final episode of the Original Series. This episode has two people swapping minds.

Edible Star Trek Tri Dimensional Chess Set — 3-D Chess Set

This amazing 3-D Edible Chess Set was made by Mitchie Curran aka Chef Mitchie of Mitchies Munchies in Las Vegas, NV.

Parallel Universes

Mirror, Mirror: Long before Spider-Verse, there was this beloved episode that introduced the mirror universe. Everyone says William T. Riker looks better with a beard, so the question is does Spock look better with or without a beard?

This marvelous Uhura Cake was made by Tissi Benvegna from La Torta che Vuoi Tu.

Post Apocalyptic Societies

Miri: This episode is about a society run by a gang of children because there is a disease that causes madness and death in anyone when they reach adulthood.

This amazing Captain Kirk Cake was made by Cake Central member Spense.

Shapeshifters

The Enterprise frequently encountered shapeshifters, so I’m only going to list a few here.

Whom Gods Destroy: Long before I discovered the Skrulls, I encountered Garth who could change his shape at will. Yvonne Craig (Batgirl from Batman ’66) is in this episode as well.

The Man Trap: Major spoilers ahead. This was the very first episode of Star Trek aired. The alien in this episode has abilities that are unclear. Sometimes, you’re given the impression that the alien is a shapeshifter. Other times, their ability is to change how other people see them. There are scenes where more than one person is with the alien and each person sees them differently. I think the later is a really interesting twist on shapeshifting.

Star Trek Enterprise Cake — The Enterprise

This fabulous Enterprise Cake was made by Heather Sherman from Art2Eat Cakes.

Telekinesis

Both the 2nd and 3rd episodes aired deal with individuals with enhanced mental abilities.

Charlie X: This was the second episode aired. Charlie X has mental powers that would make Charles Xavier jealous. Among Charlie X’s many abilities were the power to wipe minds and to make items and people disappear.

Where No Man Has Gone Before: This was the second pilot of the series, but the third episode to air. It centers around two crew members who gain telekinetic abilities.

The Squire of Gothos: I didn’t include Trelane on this list because his power are closer to magic than telepathy or telekinesis.

This marvelous Salt Vampire Cake was made by Jean Schapowal from Cakes With Character.

Time Travel

The City On The Edge Of Forever: One of the classic episodes. This is a great introduction to time travel because it deals with traveling in time, accidently altering history and focal points in history. Back in 2015, I wrote an article for Super Blog Team Up – Star Trek: A Tale Of Two Cities On The Edge Of Forever – which compares the televised version of this classic episode to the comic book mini-series based on Harlan Ellison’s original script.

Tomorrow Is Yesterday: This is a light hearted time travel story. It asks the question – What if your contribution to history isn’t significant enough to cause major alterations in history, but you have a descendant who is an important figure in history? If that’s the case, aren’t you also a key figure in history.

The Savage Curtain: Major Spoiler Ahead! This episode gives you the impression that the Excalbians may have extracted President Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Kahn from the past and brought them to the future. While that isn’t what really happened, it is a really neat twist on time travel. This episode is the first appearance of the Klingon Kahless, who will become an important character in other Star Trek series.

Wink of an Eye: Spoilers ahead! This episode doesn’t feature time travel. But, it doesn’t feature a really cool twist on time. The Scalosians are an alien race that lives at a significantly different speed than humans. Because of this, the speed which time passes is completely different for the Scalosians than it is for the crew of the Enterprise.

Since Star Trek: The Original Series premiered in 1966, AI has become common place. While not as advanced as what was shown on TV, androids, cloning and genetic engineering are also becoming a reality. Tons of TV shows, movies, books and comics feature parallel universes, post apocalyptic societies, shape shifters and time travel. I encountered all of these for the first time watching Star Trek. That’s why I called this post – Everything I Need To Know I Learned From Star Trek.

This amazing Klingon Bird on Prey Cake was made by Celebration Generation Cakes for the opening night of “A Klingon Christmas Carol.”

Beginners Guide

I’ve seen every episode of The Original Series multiple times. There are four episodes that I think are great introductions to the show. I’ve listed them alphabetically. I’m going to keep the descriptions vague to not spoil them.

Balance of Terror: Star Trek’s version of the movie – The Enemy Below. This is a battle to the death between two spaceships. It is one of the most suspenseful episodes of the series. Mark Lenard steals the show with his performance. He is so good that he is brought back later as Sarek – Spock’s father.

The City On The Edge Of Forever: Generally considered the best episode of the series. It made me a life long fan of time travel. A young Joan Collins stars in this episode and she is absolutely wonderful. This is arguably William Shatner’s best performance in the series.

The Devil In The Dark: It is better to go into this episode knowing nothing about it. There is no way I can describe this episode without spoiling key parts of it.

A Piece Of The Action: The funniest episode of the series. Science fiction meets an old school gangster movie. Anyone up for a game of Fizzbin?

This awesome Phaser, Tricorder and Communicator Cake was made by Margi Chambers from CakeArt by Margi Chambers.

I hope you enjoyed your stay on the Enterprise.

Looking for more Super Blog Team Up fun? Check out:

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