"his brain is gone!" (dramatic chord)

so in my never-ending quest to find good TV shows to watch in the few hours of downtime i've had since i left my previous employer, i search directv for some tivo-able entertainment. and i've stumbled across star trek 2.0 -- kind of like pop-up video, but far busier and more filled with interesting factoids about the episode.

it's interesting, because i distinctly remember times during my childhood when we'd watch "star trek" over dinner on a little 12-inch black and white TV in the kitchen. my dad was a huge fan -- he might still be, for all i know. (if the history channel aired "star trek" he'd know every word to every episode.) and i was eager for "the next generation" when it first came out, but i quickly bored of it -- i was learning that, post-pre-adolescence, i wasn't much of a sci-fi fan.

but it's fun to revisit these original shows, because a few things stick out:

everyone speaks english -- with an american accent, no less -- in space

william shatner is canadian ... "to seek out new life, new civil-I-zations ..."

all the women are hot, in a late-1960s way

the dialog is just horrible.

i mean, take this episode. a beautiful alien beams aboard and smiles at everyone. then, suddenly, she knocks everyone unconscious (suspiciously using the same weird sound that other aliens use when they do evil things themselves). when everyone wakes up, dr. mccoy discovers that spock has been put on a table in sick bay, where he's wearing a gold hairnet.

mccoy tells kirk that the alien took spock's brain!

his brain! i mean, come on ... take his spirit. take his eyebrows. but his brain? that reminds me of the famous troy mcclure movie "the president's neck is missing" it's so comically bad. just bad bad bad.

and yet, still i watch.