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TOS

Nyota Uhura played by Nichelle Nichols

I'm deepening my already copious appreciation of Star Trek by watching The Original Series. The first season came out before I was born and I'm 53. What strikes me in the first 5 episodes, is the fear, the struggle for power, how Freudian it all is. I think of Bion's idea that people try to take over the group when you lead a therapy group, and Captain Kirk gets a lot of threats to his authority by outsiders. The kid who can make people disappear with his mind, the ESP episode. It's really kind of jazzy with Uhura singing. Lots of adolescent sexuality. Power necessarily corrupts. I bet it was pretty revolutionary at the time. I was reading that Roddenberry was a womanizer.

In the 6th episode "The Enemy Within" (On Netflix), there is a sense that the dark side, the shadow, is needed, it contains vital energy. They can't kill evil Kirk, because they need to be merged. The good Kirk can't make decisions and is soft, forgetful.  

Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Janice Rand


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