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🎃 - Welcome back to The Final Frontier Podcast — and oh buddy, we’ve got a doozy.
This week we’re reviewing Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 2, Episode 7: “Catspaw” (Stardate 3018.2, year 2267, originally aired October 27, 1967… aka Halloween week). And yes: this is basically Star Trek’s accidental Halloween special… with fog machines, witches, a haunted castle, and enough “Scooby-Doo nonsense” to make you check your TV settings.
Even wilder? The episode was written by Robert Bloch — yes, that Robert Bloch… the writer behind Psycho — and a known Lovecraft disciple, which explains why this one feels like spooky space theater with a side of cosmic weirdness.
In this episode, we cover:
Why “Catspaw” feels like a Halloween episode on purpose
The idiom “cat’s paw” (and the fable behind it)
The first episode shot featuring Chekov… and that legendary wig
The Paramount+ description that tells you absolutely nothing
The chain of command drama and the NBC-era reality that Uhura wasn’t allowed to be in command
A medieval castle appearing out of nowhere (because… of course it does)
A black cat with a diamond pendant (very normal sci-fi stuff)
Kirk’s… enthusiasm… when Sylvia shows up
The “telekinesis” scene (and Kirk’s pronunciation)
A legit cool fun fact: the Enterprise miniature from this episode ended up donated to the Smithsonian
Why the ending feels like it… doesn’t end… it just stops
The reveal of the “true forms,” the remaster fixes, and the weirdly casual vibe when everything dies at the end
And yes — we ask the important questions like:Is “Klingon face” a thing in the future?What kind of monsters do haunted houses have in 2267?And how many times has Kirk woken up in handcuffs on this show?
Next week:
We’re following this haunted-house fever dream with “I, Mudd” — and if you know what that means, you already know it’s about to be chaos.
If you enjoyed this episode, like, subscribe, and drop a comment:
Is “Catspaw” charmingly spooky… or just a rare TOS miss?
Watch long, and prosper 🖖
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