THE PLOT
The Enterprise is on its way to Starbase 6 for some R & R after an exhausting mission (said mission may or may not have involved a giant cloud), when they receive a communication from the base. They are to proceed to a sector with which Starfleet has lost contact, after the loss of contact with the first vessel sent in to investigate. Chekov conducts a long-range scan of the heavily-inhabited system, and informs the captain that the entire system is "dead."
Upon arrival, they discover an inexplicable black hole in space. Not a Stephen Hawking black hole, but an area of apparent nothingness. When Kirk orders the Enterprise into the void, the ship begins to suffer a power drain. Both the ship's systems and the crew start losing energy. McCoy can keep the people going for a while with stimulants, and Scotty can keep the ship going for a while by diverting energy from one resource to another. But the verdict is clear. As long as they are in this field, they are "dying... all dying!"
CHARACTERS
Capt. Horndog: As the episode opens, Kirk is looking forward to rest on "some lovely... planet," he observes, while eyeing a comely blonde yeoman with intent. He repeats his urge with another yeoman at the episode's end. One blonde, one brunette... Maybe Kirk's planning to have a sandwich later? Heck, it was the late 1960's...
Other than the hammy "Anti. Bod. Ies" moment near the end, this episode sees Shatner in fine form, with Kirk getting an excellent episode as ship's commander. We see him discussing the situation with his specialists, notably McCoy, Spock, and Scotty. He listens to the information they give him, listens to their recommendations, and then makes his decisions. Each decision is reasonable, even the ones that don't work out. The second half of the episode pens him into making a difficult choice between which of his two closest friends to send on what will almost certainly be a one-way mission to probe directly for the space amoeba's vulnerabilities.
That Vulcan Voodoo You Do: From a great distance, Spock is able to sense the deaths of the Vulcan crew of the Intrepid. When discussing this with McCoy later, he needles McCoy by countering the doctor's comment about "suffer the deaths of they neighbor" with a barbed remark about how such may have made human history less bloody.
Dr. McCoy: When the lifeform at the center of the zone is discovered, McCoy sees it as the medical discovery of a lifetime. The ambitious doctor in him is eager to be the one to directly examine the creature, exclaiming how much could be learned in even "one day." When Kirk determines that Spock is more qualified overall for the mission, McCoy takes it badly, only thawing enough to wish Spock luck after Spock is no longer in earshot to hear him. That moment is, by the way, probably one of the series' finest Spock/McCoy interactions.
The Enterprise is on its way to Starbase 6 for some R & R after an exhausting mission (said mission may or may not have involved a giant cloud), when they receive a communication from the base. They are to proceed to a sector with which Starfleet has lost contact, after the loss of contact with the first vessel sent in to investigate. Chekov conducts a long-range scan of the heavily-inhabited system, and informs the captain that the entire system is "dead."
Upon arrival, they discover an inexplicable black hole in space. Not a Stephen Hawking black hole, but an area of apparent nothingness. When Kirk orders the Enterprise into the void, the ship begins to suffer a power drain. Both the ship's systems and the crew start losing energy. McCoy can keep the people going for a while with stimulants, and Scotty can keep the ship going for a while by diverting energy from one resource to another. But the verdict is clear. As long as they are in this field, they are "dying... all dying!"
CHARACTERS
Capt. Horndog: As the episode opens, Kirk is looking forward to rest on "some lovely... planet," he observes, while eyeing a comely blonde yeoman with intent. He repeats his urge with another yeoman at the episode's end. One blonde, one brunette... Maybe Kirk's planning to have a sandwich later? Heck, it was the late 1960's...
Other than the hammy "Anti. Bod. Ies" moment near the end, this episode sees Shatner in fine form, with Kirk getting an excellent episode as ship's commander. We see him discussing the situation with his specialists, notably McCoy, Spock, and Scotty. He listens to the information they give him, listens to their recommendations, and then makes his decisions. Each decision is reasonable, even the ones that don't work out. The second half of the episode pens him into making a difficult choice between which of his two closest friends to send on what will almost certainly be a one-way mission to probe directly for the space amoeba's vulnerabilities.
That Vulcan Voodoo You Do: From a great distance, Spock is able to sense the deaths of the Vulcan crew of the Intrepid. When discussing this with McCoy later, he needles McCoy by countering the doctor's comment about "suffer the deaths of they neighbor" with a barbed remark about how such may have made human history less bloody.
Dr. McCoy: When the lifeform at the center of the zone is discovered, McCoy sees it as the medical discovery of a lifetime. The ambitious doctor in him is eager to be the one to directly examine the creature, exclaiming how much could be learned in even "one day." When Kirk determines that Spock is more qualified overall for the mission, McCoy takes it badly, only thawing enough to wish Spock luck after Spock is no longer in earshot to hear him. That moment is, by the way, probably one of the series' finest Spock/McCoy interactions.
THOUGHTS
As far as I can tell, The Immunity Syndrome is not one of the more frequently discussed TOS episodes. That's a shame, because it's a good one. A much better episode, in my opinion, than the "fan favorite" Obsession. There's always something intriguing about watching the characters having to deal with a truly alien situation, and that greatly enhances this show.
The entire episode sees Kirk and his crew dealing with the truly unknown. It is half the episode before the "space amoeba" is revealed, and most of the build up to that point sees the crew methodically dealing with a desperate situation. The ship's power and the crew's energy are being drained, so McCoy and Scotty come up with ways to (temporarily) counter that. An attempt is made to escape from the effect, using what information has been gathered up to this point. Each action follows on very sensibly from what came before, and each failure or stalemate makes the situation that little bit more desperate than it was before.
There are some fine character moments for the Big Three. Kirk is forced to choose between sending either Spock or McCoy on a suicide mission. The interactions between McCoy and Spock are uniformly excellent in this episode. Finally, there's the moment near the end, in which we cut from Spock making a log recording in the shuttle "in case this log survives (him)," and Kirk doing the same on the Enterprise.
The direction by Joseph Pevney deserves a mention. In my review of Obsession, I noted how the bland helming by that episode's director hampered moments that should have been more dramatic. Pevney does an excellent job maintaining a suspenseful atmosphere. The original effects were already well above the series' average, and I like the remastered effects even better (with some of the shots of Enterprise flying into the amoeba foreshadowing the V'ger shots of TMP).
Suspenseful, tightly paced, well-directed, and with good character bits for the leads. In short: A very good one.
Rating: 9/10
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