Star Trek: Season 02  (1967)

Theatrical Release Information:
Star Trek: Season 02

The Starship Enterprise's five-year mission to "seek out new life forms and new civilizations" and "boldly go where no man has gone before" shifts into warp speed as Star Trek enters its second season. The biggest news this year is a fresh addition to the ensemble cast: Now taking his place alongside such TV immortals as William Shatner (Capt. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), James Doohan) (Engineer Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Officer Uhura) and Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel) is Walter Koenig as young Russian-born ensign Pavel Chekov (a character added to attract more teenage viewers--and NOT to pacify the Soviet Union, as has often been claimed) The season begins with one of the series' best efforts, Theodore Sturgeon's "Amok Time", in which the half-Vulcan Mr. Spock must mate or die. Spock is also the focus in D.C. Fontana's "Journey to Babel", featuring Jane Wyatt and Mark Lenard as Spock's parents Amanda and Sarek. Other Season Two highlights include the return of intergalactic con artist Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel) in "I, Mudd"; Margaret Armen's superb "The Gamesters of Triskelon", in which the crew is forced to engaged in barbaric combat, and the thematically similar "Bread and Circuses", depicting an ancient Roman society decked out with 20th-century technology; "The Changeling", with Vic Perrin (best known as the "Control Voice" on The Outer Limits) supplying the voice of the lethally "perfect" computer Nomad; "The Deadly Years", in which the crew is subjected to an accelerated aging process; and Robert Bloch's "whodunnit in space", "Wolf in the Fold". And we can't forget David Gerrold's classic "The Trouble with Tribbles", all about those incredibly prolific little furballs; the supremely silly but enjoyable "A Piece of the Action", aka "Star Trek meets The Untouchables"; and the much-maligned "Mirror, Mirror", wherein the crew comes face to face with their barbaric doppelgangers. The season finale, "Assignment: Earth", was intended as the pilot for a spinoff series, starring Robert Lansing as altruistic time traveller Gary Seven. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide