TOS - Obsession

This Episode is aptly named. It is about the nature of obsession. Obsession is a perilous state of mind, but it can also pay off. More specifically, this episode is about Kirk’s obsession. Kirk makes a legitimate point, that if the creature he is pursuing came to an inhabited planet then the entire population could be wiped out. But this is not why he is so doggedly pursuing it. His motives are personal; his obsession is motivated by grief and remorse. Because of this obsession, a good number of his crew die, and Kirk almost loses his command, but in the end Kirk proves victorious. Other than the comment this episode makes about the nature of obsession, it is not one of the better episodes of Star Trek’s Second season. There is a great deal of overacting and cheesy special effects in this episode even more than usual for The Original Series. Obsession seems to takes the cake for the number of “Red shirts” killed off in one episode. Making it seem even cheesier! While Obsession does have a good story line that makes an interesting point about the nature of that emotion, the special effects and acting in this episode are so bad that they significantly detract form one’s enjoyment of the episode. Because of this, Obsession was definitely not one of the better episodes of the original series