#62 (3-5): Is There in Truth No Beauty?

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is assigned to transport Kollos, the Medeusan ambassador, back to his homeworld. Traveling with the ambassador is the beautiful Miranda (Diana Muldaur), a human who studied on Vulcan to learn to control her telepathic abilities. Miranda's assignment is to achieve a "true mind-link" with the Medeusan ambassador, whose formless physical appearance is such that the mere sight of him has been proved to drive any human mad. Accompanying them is Marvick (David Frankham), an engineer who contributed to the Enterprise's design.

At a dinner hosted by Kirk, Miranda senses murderous thoughts. She cannot identify the potential murderer - until Marvick confronts her in her quarters later, declaring his love for her and insisting that she must give up her assignment with Kollos. When Marvick then attempts to kill the ambassador, he gets a good, long look at Kollos and is driven insane.

Marvick rampages his way to engineering, where he uses his knowledge of the ship to take it through the galactic barrier to an uncharted position. By the time Kirk regains control, there is no way to determine where they are in order to pilot themselves back. The only option is for Spock to attempt a mind-link with Kollos. But will Miranda, jealous of her achievements, allow Spock to take her place, even temporarily? And even if the mind-link is achieved, will they be able to recover the individual Spock afterwards?


CHARACTERS

Capt. Hound Dog: Miranda has barely even made it aboard before Kirk starts lusting after her, leering about her being "the most beautiful woman ever to have graced a starship" (and with all due deference to Muldaur, there have certainly been more beautiful women on Kirk's ship), and wondering how "the male population" could have allowed her to take such an assignment. Apparently, being beautiful means a woman is not supposed to seek any kind of achievement.  Women who drive themselves to excel in any field can only be ugly ones, per Kirk's evident philosophy in the early dinner scene.

Fortunately, Kirk's characterization improves later in the episode. Once the Enterprise has been put into crisis, his horn dog instincts are buried beneath his instincts as a commander. We see his genuine concern for Spock, in particular, when Spock is exposed to Kollos without his protective visor, leading to a fairly strong scene in which Kirk confronts Miranda about her ambitions. Shatner isn't quite up to his Season One level, but he largely avoids ham here and gives a fairly strong performance.

Spock: His dedication to Enterprise is reaffirmed when we discover that Spock was the first choice for Miranda's assignment, and that he turned it down because his "life is here," on the ship. He attempts on several occasions to honor Miranda for her accomplishments, and is startled when she repeatedly interprets his statements as attempting to undermine her. As in The Enterprise Incident, we see that Spock is not above using his logic for subterfuge. Having identified Miranda's jealousy of any threat to her assignment with the ambassador, he urges Kirk to distract Miranda until he has a chance to perform the mind-link. Leonard Nimoy then gets to relish acting as Kollos/Spock, alternating between the "Spock delivery" we all know so well and the very different and much more emotive delivery of Kollos, making this a particularly good episode for Nimoy.

McCoy: While he is not above following Kirk's lead in flirting with/teasing Miranda both for her beauty and for the nature of her assignment, we do find out that McCoy has knowledge of Miranda's secret and respects her wish to keep it a secret. He only discloses it to Kirk when it becomes a matter of ship's safety. He also clearly respects her. He's as aware as Kirk of the violent jealousy she keeps buried. Unlike Kirk, he believes the best of her, and has faith that she will rise above it. Perhaps too much faith - Given that the way the climax of the episode plays out, it seems unlikely that she would have taken her final major action without Kirk's prompting (I'd have preferred more ambiguity on that point).

Hot Space Babe of the Week: Diana Muldaur is Miranda, a human woman born with telepathic abilities, who studied on Vulcan for four years to learn to filter out the thoughts and emotions surrounding her. A very intelligent, probably brilliant, woman, she is also fiercely jealous of her accomplishments. Her ability to read minds has led her to hate exposure to emotions, though it is clear enough that she is far from immune to those emotions herself.


THOUGHTS

This was another episode where I didn't really know what to expect. I had very little memory of the episode, so did not know if it was one to look forward to or be wary of. Thankfully, Is There in Truth No Beauty represents a big step up from the last two outings. Some dated attitudes toward the sexes seep through, as often happens in TOS, but the story is well-structured and inventively directed. Particularly noteworthy is the use of fish-eye lenses to represent the point-of-view of those affected by Kollos.

At first, I did have a big stumbling block in accepting the episode's premise. After all, we are told multiple times that even with the visor, the sight of the Medusans drives all humans insane. And yet when Spock turned down the assignment, the Federation turned to... a human??? It seemed like a huge hole in the episode, one that I honestly expected to go unfilled. Then, about 30 minutes in, it is revealed why Miranda is specifically immune to the effects of seeing the ambassador. The explanation makes sense in context, even explains one or two seemingly odd choices in Muldaur's performance. At the same time, it nicely foreshadows a major element of Star Trek: The Next Generation, wherein one prominent piece of technology appears to have been the next generation of something utilized here. It's clever, and it works.

The story moves along nicely. The first 15 minutes introduces us to three combustible elements: Kollos, Miranda's jealousy over her assignment, and Marvick's obsessive love for Miranda. These three elements are all made prominent in the dinner scene. Then, a small incident - an argument between Miranda and Marvick - provides the fuel needed to set the plot in motion, with the solution to each crisis (Marvick's control of the ship, the ship being lost on the other side of the galaxy, and Spock's condition) leading directly to the next. It's good, solid structure, which keeps the pace alive throughout. This may not be Trek at its very best, but it's a solid and entertaining outing.


Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Spock's Brain
Next Episode: The Empath

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#51 (2-20): Return to Tomorrow

THE PLOT

A bizarre distress signal leads the Enterprise to a planet whose atmosphere was torn away half a million years ago, but which is still inhabited by a superior alien intelligence. That intelligence calls Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a young doctor (guest star Diana Muldaur) down to a chamber beneath the surface, where they discover three of the alien minds encased in great orbs: Sargon, the leader; Thalassa, his wife; and Henoch, the leader of the opposition on the planet.

The aliens have a very simple proposal. Let them "borrow" the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and the young doctor for a short time, while they build robot bodies for themselves. But the temptation of keeping real, living bodies begins to work on them.  Henoch is particularly unwilling to release his control over Spock's body, plotting to kill Kirk - and his old enemy, Sargon, with him!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Ham: Shatner indulges a bit too freely in his hammier tendencies when Sargon first takes over his body, literally hugging himself while making orgasmic facial expressions. He also, for the first time that I have noticed in fifty episodes of this series, finally starts. Delivering. Lines. LIKE THIS! This is the episode with Kirk's "risk is our business" monologue."It's a splendid speech, but Shatner starts to pause and overemphasize words while delivering it, perhaps a bit too aware of the meat he's been given to chew on.

Dr. McCoy: With Kirk and Spock taken over for the bulk of the episode, McCoy gets an unusual amount of focus here. We see his pragmatism early on. Alone of the main crew, he recognizes the level of risk involved in Sargon's proposal and urges caution even as Kirk seems determined to leap in head-first. Later in the episode, as the aliens seem intent on taking what they want, his role as moral center of the show makes itself clearer than ever. With the opportunity to save Kirk's life at the cost of a woman who is a virtual stranger, McCoy flatly refuses. "I don't peddle flesh," he says disgustedly. He also refuses to give in when given a very unpleasant first-hand demonstration of the aliens' abilities. It is an excellent episode for McCoy throughout, with a typically strong performance by DeForest Kelly.

Hot Space Babe of the Week: Diana Muldaur - later (briefly) a regular on Star Trek: The Next Generation - does double-duty as the eager young Dr. Mulhall and as Sargon's wife, Thalassa. It is the second role that gives her the strongest material.  We see her passion for her principled husband conflicting with her strong desire to remain in a body that can feel.  Her confrontation with McCoy is probably the strongest moment of the episode. Muldaur is well up to the task of playing the conflicted Thalessa, and deftly (and, in contrast to Shatner, moderately subtly) differentiates Thalessa from Mulhall in the way she carries herself physically.

Villain of the Week: Leonard Nimoy gets to cut loose and have fun once the villainous Henoch takes over Spock's body. Nimoy not only gets to grin and flirt with female co-stars, he also gets to be outright lustful, venal, and sinister. The scene in which he calmly explains why he must kill Kirk and Sargon, all with a broad grin on his face, defines the joy with which Nimoy plays this part. For all that Nimoy has mastered Spock, it must be acknowledged that the Vulcan can be a confining role. This episode sets him free, allowing him to play character shades that even "drugged-up Spock" did not allow. Predictably, Nimoy steals every scene he's in.


THOUGHTS

It is a good thing the acting is so strong in this episode, as there are moments when the dialogue - particularly between Sargon and Thalessa - threatens to induce eye-rolling. For all of that, the episode is typically well put-together. Of course we know that Kirk and Spock will regain their bodies by the end. Still, the episode does a good job of raising tension, because a mere ten minutes from the end, it is impossible to see exactly how these ends will be achieved.

For all of the joy of watching Leonard Nimoy play the baddie, I nevertheless preferred the first half. The exploration of the unknown was part of Trek's remit, as the opening voice-over tells us in every episode.  It is particularly intriguing when the crew find themselves in a completely unfamiliar environment, exploring a situation which they can't quite comprehend, and making discoveries that they aren't entirely sure of. The debate over whether or not to allow Sargon to proceed with his plan is an interesting scene.  Both McCoy, the voice of caution, and Kirk, the voice of action, raise valid points. And even if I did think Shatner delved a bit into the ham in his delivery of the "risk is our business speech," it must be said that this is a wonderful monologue.

I will say, of Sargon's plan... Give your enemy by far the strongest of the three bodies? Nope, I don't see anything that can possibly go wrong with that idea, nosirree...


Rating: 7/10

Previous Episode: By Any Other Name
Next Episode: Patterns of Force

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