THE PLOT
Less facetiously...
The Enterprise is ordered to Altair VI for the new President's coronation. But there is a conflict: Spock has begun behaving erratically, and has requested leave on Vulcan. Kirk puts in a request with Starfleet, but it is denied. Then McCoy drops a bombshell: Spock's body is undergoing massive internal stress, and if he is not brought to Vulcan, then he will die!
Spock finally informs the captain of the reason for this sudden change. He is undergoing the pon-farr, the Vulcan mating ritual which occurs once every seven years. Kirk agrees to divert the ship, against orders, to deliver Spock to his bride, T'Pring (Arlene Martel). But when they reach Vulcan, there is a further complication. T'Pring refuses the match, leading to a ritual challenge: a fight to the death. And the champion T'Pring chooses to fight Spock is none other than James T. Kirk!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Beefcake: Kirk being Kirk, he cannot possibly get through the battle without having his shirt cut open, revealing that Kirk appears to have a mascara fetish, as he has drawn a neat makeup line across his own chest. Guffaws aside, Kirk has an excellent episode, as the different parts of Kirk's personality are put into direct conflict.
No matter what the later Trek films would insist, TOS Kirk is actually quite a stickler for following orders. Having Spock's welfare put into conflict with his orders creates a significant dilemma for him. However, he is both a good captain and a good friend to his first officer. He insists on following orders right up to the point at which McCoy informs him that Spock will die... and then he breaks orders, putting Spock's welfare above a directive whose value is purely ceremonial.
Spock: Almost certainly the most significant Spock episode of the series. This is the episode in which we find out about the Vulcan mating process. We also learn that, while Spock has strongly identified himself as Vulcan, he had nevertheless hoped that his human blood would save him from having to go through this process. The level of both his self-discipline and his friendship for Kirk are displayed when he manages to break through the burning in his blood to plead with T'Pau to excuse Kirk from combat. Nimoy manages to convey the grief Spock feels at the outcome of this fight, all within the absolute self-control of Spock once he is returned to normal. It is a standout performance by Nimoy, very probably his best of the series.
McCoy: His friendship with Spock is explicitly stated when Spock invites him down to the surface along with Kirk, and his response is to be genuinely honored at the invitation. When he sees that the ceremony has taken a deadly turn, he intercedes. When his first attempt is blocked with a threat of deadly force, he finds another tactic, and uses his medical knowledge to save both Kirk and Spock. Finally, being McCoy, he cannot resist needling Spock about a brief emotional outburst. As with Shatner and Nimoy, DeForest Kelly rises to the quality of the material and delivers his best performance of the season thus far.
Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Arlene Martel is T'Pring, Spock's intended bride. T'Pring (and, to an extent, T'Pau) serve as prime rebuttals of some fans' insistence that the Enterprise Vulcans are too shady when the original series' Vulcans were always honorable. T'Pring is as devious as any of the Enterprise Vulcans, manipulating the ceremonial rules, Kirk, and Spock to achieve her desired result. As she explains at the end, no matter what outcome had resulted, she would have gotten what she wanted. Her cold calculations make her one of the frostiest characters the series has seen yet.
Alien Space Beauracrat of the Week: This role is effectively filled by T'Pau. She seems as irritated as an "emotionless" Vulcan can seem when she sees that Spock has brought "offworlders" to this ceremony. When describing the combat to Kirk, she deliberately does not explain that the battle would be to the death, even when Spock pleads with her that Kirk "doesn't know." It's a rather glaring omission, a bit too glaring to simply be an oversight. She didn't want "offworlders" present, and finds a way to exact a price for Spock's insistence on bringing Kirk and McCoy to a Vulcan ceremony. At least, that's how I read it.
THOUGHTS
Theodore Sturgeon's previous Trek script was Shore Leave, a vaguely surreal, pleasantly jaunty Season One romp that remains rather a favorite of mine. Even if I hadn't been aware of Amok Time's reputation as an iconic episode, the simple fact of another Sturgeon script would have been enough to have me looking forward to revisiting this one. Sturgeon has gone for the opposite extreme of Shore Leave, following up a romp with one of the most intense episodes of the series. All three of the main characters get some excellent material here, and Kirk and Spock are put through the wringer, both emotionally and physically.
Nimoy seems to particularly relish episodes that allow him to cut loose and show some actual emotion. Nimoy gets to rant, scream, and growl here - all the things that the very nature of the role regularly deny him. He really does convey the unleashing of seven years' worth of suppressed emotion, barking and gritting out virtually every line. Even when he is relatively calm, describing why he must return to Vulcan, there is a different pitch to his voice than is usual. He is mindful throughout the episode that this is a different Spock, and does not give us "normal Spock" even once until the ship actually reaches Vulcan. It's a fine performance, but also a careful one, very evidently thought through in advance of shooting.
The Remastered version of this episode does see a slight departure from the norm, in terms of new effects. When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to Vulcan, they now cross a CGI land bridge to reach the ceremony. I have mixed feelings about this. The CGI is impressive, and it does mirror the Vulcan seen in the movies. Nevertheless, the sequence jars when cut between two shots of the regulars in 1960's studio sets. It's a lovely shot, and I'm glad to have seen it... but it does take me out of the episode, if only for a second or two. I suspect whenever I rewatch, I will choose to rewatch the original version because of that.
Rating: 10/10. Possibly the best episode I've yet reviewed. Definitely one of the Top Three.
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That "remastered" scene of the CGI land bridge actually replaced a few seconds of live action in the originally filmed episode.
ReplyDeleteThat pushed the definition of "remastering" to the point "where no one had gone before."
I had been a defender of CBS' remastering effort--but this went too far even for me.
Normally, "remastering" means cleaning up the original artwork, not changing the original script. But replacing live action with CGI FX is actually changing what the original script called for.
I think this is the best episode of the entire series. Great job by Sturgeon and also by the actors, especially Mr. Nimoy.
ReplyDeleteOne correction -- T'Pau calls them "OUTworlders," not "OFFworlders."