THE PLOT
The Enterprise responds to a distress call... and falls right into a trap set by the Kelvens, aliens from the Andromeda galaxy. The ship is quickly taken by the aliens' superior technology, with Kirk given an ultimatum to cooperate in taking his captors back to Andromeda (a 300-year voyage, even with the aliens' technology) to prepare the way for an invasion of the Milky Way galaxy!
Kirk's efforts to turn the tables on his captors by force fail, resulting in the death of a crew member. Scotty and Spock attempt to rig a self-destruct mechanism in Engineering. Kirk, however, refuses to use the device, which is detected by the Kelvens anyway. With the Enterprise crew reduced to balls of matter, the only crew members left are Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and McCoy - and it is up to them try one last, desperate gamble to retake control!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Kirk: This episode again sees Kirk outmatched, left to get by solely on his wits. We do see him lean perhaps a touch too heavily on his appeal to the opposite sex. If Kelinda didn't find him attractive, his entire plan would go up in a puff of deflated ego. Still, he does resist - and keeps resisting - with any means at his disposal. I was not pleased by the writers' decision to have Kirk reject Scotty's self-destruct mechanism, however. Given the potential stakes, Kirk should have been willing to use it. Since we later find out that the device had been detected anyway, Kirk using it and having it fail would have been both more in-character and more interesting than the script choice made here.
Spock: Repeats his psychic trick from A Taste of Armageddon, to substantially less successful effect. However, he is able to sort through the impressions he received to identify the clue that leads Kirk to his last gamble. He also displays a dry wit throughout, acting as a particularly calm Iago to Rojan (the head Kelvin)'s Othello in the last portion of the episode.
Scotty: Asked to "stimulate" the Kelvens, he falls back on his most tried-and-true mode of stimulation: alcohol! It's not necessarily great character work, but the scenes with Scotty and Random Kelvin #2 are hilarious, jointly drinking their way through Scotty's entire, quite prodigious, stock. "What is it?" the Kelvin asks at one point of the latest bottle Scotty has produced. "It's... erm..." Scotty scrutinizes the bottle. "It's green." And then pours.
The Enterprise responds to a distress call... and falls right into a trap set by the Kelvens, aliens from the Andromeda galaxy. The ship is quickly taken by the aliens' superior technology, with Kirk given an ultimatum to cooperate in taking his captors back to Andromeda (a 300-year voyage, even with the aliens' technology) to prepare the way for an invasion of the Milky Way galaxy!
Kirk's efforts to turn the tables on his captors by force fail, resulting in the death of a crew member. Scotty and Spock attempt to rig a self-destruct mechanism in Engineering. Kirk, however, refuses to use the device, which is detected by the Kelvens anyway. With the Enterprise crew reduced to balls of matter, the only crew members left are Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and McCoy - and it is up to them try one last, desperate gamble to retake control!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Kirk: This episode again sees Kirk outmatched, left to get by solely on his wits. We do see him lean perhaps a touch too heavily on his appeal to the opposite sex. If Kelinda didn't find him attractive, his entire plan would go up in a puff of deflated ego. Still, he does resist - and keeps resisting - with any means at his disposal. I was not pleased by the writers' decision to have Kirk reject Scotty's self-destruct mechanism, however. Given the potential stakes, Kirk should have been willing to use it. Since we later find out that the device had been detected anyway, Kirk using it and having it fail would have been both more in-character and more interesting than the script choice made here.
Spock: Repeats his psychic trick from A Taste of Armageddon, to substantially less successful effect. However, he is able to sort through the impressions he received to identify the clue that leads Kirk to his last gamble. He also displays a dry wit throughout, acting as a particularly calm Iago to Rojan (the head Kelvin)'s Othello in the last portion of the episode.
Scotty: Asked to "stimulate" the Kelvens, he falls back on his most tried-and-true mode of stimulation: alcohol! It's not necessarily great character work, but the scenes with Scotty and Random Kelvin #2 are hilarious, jointly drinking their way through Scotty's entire, quite prodigious, stock. "What is it?" the Kelvin asks at one point of the latest bottle Scotty has produced. "It's... erm..." Scotty scrutinizes the bottle. "It's green." And then pours.
Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Barbara Bouchet is Kelinda, the second-in-command of the Andromedans. She shows no acting ability whatsoever, mostly standing around stiffly or being kissed by William Shatner or Warren Stevens. Then again, who cares? A gorgeous woman, whose flat line deliveries are at least well-served by playing a clinical, unemotional alien. And did I mention? Gorgeous.
Villain of the Week: Warren Stevens gives a quite strong performance as Rojan. He is calm and reasonable through msot of the episode. He fully understands and sympathizes with Kirk's devotion to duty and determination to escape. And he cannot tolerate it, as discussed below:
ZAP THE REDSHIRT!
Redshirt Count: One. But what a one! In one of the most chilling scenes of the series, Rojan doesn't even blink an eye as he pulls aside two redshirts, transforms them to balls of matter, then crushes one in a demonstration of his power. He kills the young crew member not out of malice, but to demonstrate to Kirk that rebellion will have consequences. It's a simple effect: a cutaway to a fragile ball, which is then crushed to powder in Rojan's hand. It is also one of the most memorable death scenes in all Trek.
This particular death scene also plays with the redshirt conventions that had built up in the series by this point. Two redshirts accompany the Away Team: a fairly flat, almost anonymous black security man who wants to get out of the situation through violence, and a very appealing, frightened (but not annoyingly useless) young yeoman. Both are reduced to balls of matter, one is killed, the other restored. Expectations of viewers of previous episodes are upturned by the yeoman being the one killed, when most episodes would save "the girl" and kill "random security guy."
Villain of the Week: Warren Stevens gives a quite strong performance as Rojan. He is calm and reasonable through msot of the episode. He fully understands and sympathizes with Kirk's devotion to duty and determination to escape. And he cannot tolerate it, as discussed below:
ZAP THE REDSHIRT!
Redshirt Count: One. But what a one! In one of the most chilling scenes of the series, Rojan doesn't even blink an eye as he pulls aside two redshirts, transforms them to balls of matter, then crushes one in a demonstration of his power. He kills the young crew member not out of malice, but to demonstrate to Kirk that rebellion will have consequences. It's a simple effect: a cutaway to a fragile ball, which is then crushed to powder in Rojan's hand. It is also one of the most memorable death scenes in all Trek.
This particular death scene also plays with the redshirt conventions that had built up in the series by this point. Two redshirts accompany the Away Team: a fairly flat, almost anonymous black security man who wants to get out of the situation through violence, and a very appealing, frightened (but not annoyingly useless) young yeoman. Both are reduced to balls of matter, one is killed, the other restored. Expectations of viewers of previous episodes are upturned by the yeoman being the one killed, when most episodes would save "the girl" and kill "random security guy."
Her character, while hardly memorable, is both appealing and likable. She is frightened, yet still does her duty, even when separated from the team to await her fate (with a single, memorably plaintive, "Captain!"). These combine to make for a very simple scene that nevertheless I remember from my first viewing, back in my childhood, to the present. Strong direction from Marc Daniels, and good casting of the young actress (you just instinctively want to protect her) aid a scene that is, on its own, already well-scripted.
A redshirt masterpiece, and by far the most memorable moment in this episode.
THOUGHTS
The episode sees a peculiar movement from being very tense and suspenseful in its first half, to being largely comedic in its second half. It could almost be argued that this is two 25-minute episodes in one: a planet-bound thriller, followed by a ship-bound comedy. To the script's credit, the transition to humor is done gradually enough, and with sufficient consistency in tone, as to not feel jarring. Kirk's solution to the problem is ingenious, but also quite dangerous. If Rojan figures out what Kirk is doing at any point prior to it actually being effective, all he needs to do to put Kirk in his place is start crushing more reduced crew members.
One problem is that the "redshirt death" is so good, and so memorable, that I couldn't quite manage to forget it in the more comedic second half. As a result, I wanted to see Rojan punished - which ultimately doesn't happen. Perhaps it's a case of one very good scene overshadowing the rest of the episode, but it does end up seeming like Rojan and company escape justice. Still, given the level of their technology, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with any way for Kirk to have administered any kind of justice on them!
Rating: 8/10. Hugely entertaining.
A redshirt masterpiece, and by far the most memorable moment in this episode.
THOUGHTS
The episode sees a peculiar movement from being very tense and suspenseful in its first half, to being largely comedic in its second half. It could almost be argued that this is two 25-minute episodes in one: a planet-bound thriller, followed by a ship-bound comedy. To the script's credit, the transition to humor is done gradually enough, and with sufficient consistency in tone, as to not feel jarring. Kirk's solution to the problem is ingenious, but also quite dangerous. If Rojan figures out what Kirk is doing at any point prior to it actually being effective, all he needs to do to put Kirk in his place is start crushing more reduced crew members.
One problem is that the "redshirt death" is so good, and so memorable, that I couldn't quite manage to forget it in the more comedic second half. As a result, I wanted to see Rojan punished - which ultimately doesn't happen. Perhaps it's a case of one very good scene overshadowing the rest of the episode, but it does end up seeming like Rojan and company escape justice. Still, given the level of their technology, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with any way for Kirk to have administered any kind of justice on them!
Rating: 8/10. Hugely entertaining.
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