**T**_heme_- 7.5/10 **R**_ewatchibility_- 3.5/10 **A**_cting_- 5.5/10 **K**_inematography_- 7/10 **T**_ime_- 4/10 **Total** - 27.5/5 = ==5.5== Its five-year mission, to explore strange new worlds. Some consider season 2 to be the best and I suppose there is an argument to have to that point. As a whole the production was definitely better, characters were fleshed out more, and some of the O.S.'s best episodes reside here. The problem is when episodes weren't great, they were usually quite bad, not many middle-of-the-road episodes. While not having many "filler" episodes in a season is good, having strong fluctuations of good to bad is not a great sign of things to come. "Top" 3 Episodes 1. Journey to Babel 2. The Trouble With Tribbles 3. Mirror, Mirror

In Star Trek’s second season the Enterprise’s five year mission continues exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new civilizations. Featuring such classic episodes as “Amok Time,” “Mirror, Mirror,” “A Piece of the Action,” and “The Trouble with Tribbles,” the writers do a great job at building on and expanding the series. However, there are a couple of bad episodes, such as the ill-conceived Halloween special “Catspaw” and the failed backdoor pilot “Assignment: Earth,” that don’t really fit the tone of the show. The cast welcomes a new member as Walter Koenig comes aboard as Ensign Pavel Chekov, and several interesting guest stars appear, including William Windom, Julie Newmar, John Fiedler, and Teri Garr. Exciting and full of adventure, Star Trek delivers a terrific second season; such that it inspired an unprecedented letter writing campaign to keep the show going.

Better than season one. It all feels better written and better produced than season one. Though some of the episodes are among the worst of the franchise even if you're able to see past the show's age. Overall, better stories make you overlook the technical shortcomings in many episodes though. Still not great TV. Most of the time it's still very boring or silly. It looks cheap. Actors overact. Often it's outright sexist. The strange focus on Kirk's healthy pair of fists seems odd. From the perspective of contemporary viewers that is. Too young to really be able to tell or even to appreciate whether that was perhaps groundbreaking in the 60s. Mostly as a historical record, there are some episodes, that I like though: that's the two Spock episodes (*Amok Time* and *Journey to Babel*) that do a great job to portray a whole race (w/o revealing all the mysteries). I also like *Mirror, Mirror* which is a good story and the origin of countless other parallel universe episodes in other shows of the franchise. My guilty pleasure is *The Trouble with Tribbles*. It may be silly but it's great fun and very memorable. No wonder it was featured again in DS9's anniversary episode. Seen as a historical document, it still amazes me how many ideas in TNG and other shows from the franchise built upon ideas already mentioned in the original series. Runner-up is perhaps *The Ultimate Computer*. Despite it's rather weak execution, it has established one of the most profound topics in Trek lore, that will be discussed in various iterations in later shows. I hoped that season two tells us more about the crew members. I always assumed that Sulu, Uhura, Chekov and others were beloved and popular 'cause you get to know them on a personal level and thus be able to connect to them, but these minor characters are just empty shells for the most part. Sure, sometimes Checkov cracks a strangely funny joke and Uhura is capable and beautiful (I become a sexist myself watching this show), but ultimately we know very little about them and they have very little to contribute to the adventures. It's mostly focussed on Kirk, Spock, McCoy and perhaps Scotty. But even these leading characters don't show much progression nor do we know a lot about their personal life. Most of the time, we only watch their "work personas" do generic officers' stuff. The only exception is maybe Spock who has a few episodes that are dedicated to explain his character, personal life and background story.