War is for Children: Star Trek TOS, S1Ep18, "The Squire of Gothos"
An entertaining meditation on the childish nature of war with more subtlety than is characteristic of the show.
The Past is an Alien Shore: Star Trek S1E15, "Shore Leave"
Not a good start: Kirk has a kink in his back, so the female yeoman, Barrows, immediately starts massaging it. Barrows's job is first to nag Kirk about getting some shore leave, and then to be an object of Bones's desire. Along the way, she gets assaulted by Don Juan—twice.
#TOS Too: Star Trek S1E13, “The Conscience of the King”
At a time when we are facing up to the idea that many of the artists responsible for entertaining us on a daily basis may have dark secrets, this is a curious episode to be reviewing.
One Beep for a Dying Colonialism: Star Trek TOS, S1Ep11 and 12, "The Menagerie"
The ideal of an harmonious human race necessitates external threats, but the fantasy of the show is pernicious by making the threatening aliens so frequently absent. This works as a variation of Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism in that discourse about the other (aliens) is controlled by European (Federation) writers, so that the subjects of inquiry are given no voice in creating a knowledge base about them. The result is a total demonization of the other that justifies continued cultural and political domination via colonization.