Rating  - Sensitive Trek
Okay, so I missed the fact that both of these episodes include frequent Batman guest stars, but that was only because I was so overwhelmed with the emotional subtext of each episode.
By now, any Trekker can tell you that "Let that be your last Battlefield" was a thinly veiled cautionary story about racial violence. Not playing obvious favorites between the two antagonists - the fugitive Lokei, and his pursuer, Bele (Frank Gorshin) - the script quickly boils down their anamosity to pure hate. The script tosses in some references - Lokei's people were once held a tier below Bele's, but received less than sincere aid as redress; also we'd sympathize with Lokei who was running - but soon blurs them to assure us that nothing really compensates for their shared hatred. In the end, Lokei and Bele return to their burned world - with the camera uncharacteristically bleeding in imagery of burned out cities.
In "That Which Survives", the landing party (this is classic Trek, man - there are no "away teams") beams down to a strangely undynamic world. Unfortunately, the planet is actually a spaceship with its own built-in security system - one capable of flinging the Enterprise across the sector and marooning the landing party. The system also takes the form of Losira (Lee Meriwether), a the last of the race of aliens who built the planet. Both the landing party and the crew back on the Enterprise piece together the clues to the nature of the artificial planet and the ghost image that can inflict a very real death on anybody it finds (by "disrupting" every cell of her victims with but a touch; I've seen this episode a million times and I still don't know what "cellular disruption" means, but I'm sure it's got to be pretty bad). Yeah, this is another one of those episodes about an ancient or otherwise high-powered computer that achieves sentience ("ultimate computer", "Changeling", "Return of the Archons", "For the World is Hollow") and the end is again a bit of comedown (Spock to the rescue with a phaser) but the script creates one of the series's more intriguing example of artificial intelligence - you keep thinking that she'll cry before she has to kill somebody. The real Losira, the crew decides, must have been some woman. Luckily in recreating her, the computer copied her too well. (The same concept appears in the first Trek movie). Watch this trek, but make sure ypu've got something light and funny to back it up with Harry Mud or "A Piece of the Action".
Rating  - Trekking with Catwoman and the Riddler
Actors from the then recently cancelled Batman TV series turn up in Volume 35 of Paramount's complete reissue of Classic Trek.
Lee Meriwether (one of three actresses to portray Catwoman) appears, and disappears, in a severely underwritten guest role in That Which Survives. Poor pacing, weak dialogue, and out of character behavior by the crew all but ruin an interesting premise. Spock, in particular, acts rather snippishly throughout the episode, being downright rude to Scott, McCoy, and Chekov. Leonard Nimoy was so distressed by some of his dialogue he sent third season producer Fred Frieberger a lengthy memo in protest. It was of no use, as Frieberger had little grasp of what made the first two seasons' best stories so noteworthy.
Let that Be Your Last Battlefield is a very obvious allegory on America's black/white conflict. Too obvious, really. As with Patterns of Force, the parallels are so upfront that the story loses its effectiveness. Star Trek's social conscience worked best when The Message was integrated into an entertaining story (as in The Undiscovered Country) rather than being shoved down the viewers' throats. The ridiculous overacting by guest stars Lou Antonio and Frank (The Riddler) Gorshin makes William Shatner's performances look like paragons of subtlety.
As with most of the rest of this series, picture and sound are fine.
Rating  - My Collection of The original Series
"That Which Survives" is the reason I am adding Vol.35 to my collection. There are a lot of episodes I could not stand and will not purchase. I will purchase one or two more as they become available. Video quality of these episodes is incredible. They must have produced the original series in 35mm film.
Rating - Not too bad, but could have been better.
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" probably has one of the cheesiest "special effects" from "Star Trek"....Bele's "invisible" ship. They could've saved themselves alot of embarrassment by saying, "It's cloaked". Other that, that, the message is desperately needed for today.
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