{"id":4979,"date":"2014-06-26T02:39:06","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T02:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/Star-Trek-New-Voyages-4x02-To-Serve-All-My-Days"},"modified":"2014-06-26T02:39:06","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T02:39:06","slug":"star-trek-new-voyages-4x02-to-serve-all-my-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/26\/star-trek-new-voyages-4x02-to-serve-all-my-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Trek New Voyages: 4×02 — \u201cTo Serve All My Days\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Star Trek New Voyages: 4×02 — \u201cTo Serve All My Days\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> In this episode, the Enterprise<\/em> whethers a ship full of ambassadors, critical damage to its shields and warp engines, and an unprovoked attack from a Klingon warship. Meanwhile, a blast of radiation activates a latent disease in Lt. Chekov, causing him to advance rapidly into old age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> Quality leaps forward in\u00a0this second official episode. Much of the credit belongs to guest screenwriter D.C. Fontana and guest performer Walter Koenig as the aging Mr. Chekov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It must also be said, however,\u00a0that the special effects look fantastic. Incredibly, they appear to have been done twice. The episode as originally released has strong CG effects including space battles and scenes of\u00a0the shuttlecraft manuevering through a debris field. The \u201cspecial edition\u201d of the episode, called \u201cA Night in 1969, Special Edition,\u201d has completely redone<\/em> special effects, including what looks like shots constructed using physical starship models, and new design for the Babel conference center. The special edition also\u00a0features replaced score elements (including the horrible Russian chorus that starts singing at Chekov\u2019s death), and a tag scene explaining why Chekov remains alive in the film series and later installments fo Star Trek. (The notes with the special edition state that Chekov\u2019s death scene was filmed at Walter Koenig\u2019s request to bring closure to the character.) Why this exists must be a tribute to the insanity of fandom. Here’s a link: http:\/\/digitalnewage.com\/dnapartners\/stp2\/default.asp?epi=TSAMD1969<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Walter Koenig classes up the episode and proves he\u2019s a strong actor and performer. His scenes do drag long, however–they needed either to have more active direction,\u00a0judicious editorial trimming, or both. I\u2019m willing to indulge some scenes of sitting around a table reminiscing about old TOS episodes, however, even if\u00a0they would never make the cut on prime time TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Even the performances of the regular cast members seem elevated, which probably flows from having good writing and episode structure. It\u2019s always easier to act in a clearly defined situation where you know exactly what your motivation is, and what you\u2019re supposed to be doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s nice to see Kargh, the Klingon, again. We learned\u00a0from the last episode that in\u00a0the alternate timestream where planetkillers invaded the galaxy\u00a0and destroyed Vulcan, Kargh was\u00a0Kirk’s first officer. Here we see that while the Federation and Klingons have not had a reason to come together yet (that will\u00a0occur in Star Trek VI<\/em>), Kargh is still an honorable character. And the unresolved mystery about a traitor in the Federation may yet pay off in future installments. Good one! I rate this as \u201cThis could almost be canon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not to be outdone, George Takei will guest star in the next Star Trek New Voyages episode.<\/p>\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hornvnjML88&list=PL5h4ur_aSq8N5yx46vUjnNbsaQ74kcBLV&index=5<\/a>