Star Trek TOS Rewatch: S1E1 "The Man Trap"

Tolerance? fft. Kill that salt vampire!

This is the first in a series of reviews/recaps of the original Star Trek for paid subscribers! The goal is to go through the entire 79 episodes of the series, in the order they were aired (so, we won’t be covering “The Cage”—unless there’s overwhelming demand I suppose.”) I’ll be rating each too, because why not?

See the Star Trek TOS Rewatch Index page for links to all the episodes covered so far.

So without further ado, let’s get started, with S1E1: “The Man Trap”!

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“MAN TRAP” RATING: 8.0/10

Star Trek is generally thought of as an optimistic, utopian series, inspired by creator Gene Rodenberry’s vision of a peaceful human race which has transcended human prejudice and violence. In fact, though, the original series was shot through with a brooding anxiety and a decidedly uneasy view of what awaits us out there where no man has gone before.

No episode illustrates that better than the series’ first.  “The Man Trap” is a weird, misogynist, xenophobic fever dream, drenched in horror tropes and Cold War paranoia. Written by George Clayton Johnson, who based it on part on a Twilight Zone episode he’d scripted, “The Man Trap” retains a sinister charge even some 55 years after it first aired on September 6, 1966.