With this publication, I’ve set myself the ambitious goal of reviewing every Star Trek episode known to man. This is something I’ve been trying to do in one form or another for a while. But attempts to do so in audio or video form have been hampered by the legalities of including the actual show footage I am talking about and, to be honest, also by the effort involved. At the end of the day, I am a writer, and so I have now settled on trying to accomplish this goal in writing.
If you want to know more about who I am and where I am coming from, I have attempted an explanation on the about page. And as to what you can expect from this publication… I will try to review each episode as in-depth as I can. Looking not only its in-universe ramifications, but also how it was produced and how its peculiarities were shaped by the vagaries of film production. Which new concepts and characters were introduced to the cannon? Why did the producers use the sets and ship models they did? What continuity errors or weak points in the script present problems in later episodes or even for Star Trek writers today? I will try to answer as many of these questions as possible, where appropriate, for every single episode of all of the different shows. As well as including any amusing or tragic anecdotes that might be connected to the episode’s production.
I know that this is a very big task and I have only limited time in every given week to dedicate to it. But I want to tackle it and I want to do it properly. Because of this, I am not promising regular releases. I will publish new reviews whenever I can. This publication is a labour of love and thus provided to you free of charge. You can subscribe to receive new issues directly in your inbox or the Substack app. If this project turns out to be sufficiently popular, I will enable paid subscriptions to allow people to help me dedicate more time to writing reviews. When subscribing, you may choose to pledge your support. This would convert to a subscription — if and when I enable that feature. Of course, this is completely optional.
This is Mission Critical Ops. Welcome aboard!