#75 (3-20): The Way to Eden

Captain Kirk versus the Space Hippies!


THE PLOT

The Enterprise encounters the Aurora, a stolen Federation ship. They pursue the smaller ship and quickly catch it in their tractor beam.  But when the thieves refuse to cut power to their engines, the ship is destroyed, with Scotty just barely able to beam them aboard before the explosion.

The Enterprise's new visitors are no ordinary thieves, but rather a collection of dropouts from several planets. All of them have advanced scientific and technical knowledge, but have turned their backs on technology in pursuit of the mythical world of Eden, where they believe they will be able to live in harmony with nature. One member of the group is the son of an ambassador, which prevents Kirk from simply throwing the lot of them in the brig. But when Dr. McCoy discovers that their leader, Dr. Sevrin (Skip Homeier), is a carrier for a rare and virulent disease, Kirk orders him into isolation... leading the rest of the group to attempt to seize control of Enterprise!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: Though he has little patience for the space hippies, he does listen to Spock when he expresses sympathy for them. In probably the only good exchange of the episode, Scotty rails against the youths, wondering why a young mind has to be an undisciplined one.  Kirk replies reflectively, musing that he "got into some trouble when (he) was their age - didn't you?"

Spock: Has some sympathy with the space hippies, and a surprising familiarity with their internal culture - enough to be able to gain a modicum of cooperation from Dr. Sevrin. He observes to Kirk that the members of this group feel "like aliens on their own worlds," and that this is a feeling with which he is all too familiar. He forms a genuine bond with Adam (a very young Charles Napier), the hippie musician, which allows Nimoy to give a pleasantly relaxed performance.

Chekov: Though the episode takes care to give him a direct link with the main plot, thus giving him more screen time than most recent episodes, he still doesn't get much to do. It is refreshing to see his scientific skills being called upon by Spock again. That recalls early Season Two, before Chekov's scientific skills were forgotten in favor of endless Russian jokes. It seems odd, though, that hot-headed Mr. Chekov is presented as the face of conservative conformity.

Hot Space Babes of the Week: Mary-Linda Rapelye is Irina, Chekov's old flame from Starfleet Academy, who dropped out and joined the space hippies. There's not much to her character beyond that. She's there in order to give Chekov a bit more to do, rather than being a character in her own right. Still, she does manage to be appealing despite the horrible flowered belly-dancer dress she's decked out in.

Villain of the Week: Skip Homeier is Dr. Sevrin, leader of the Eden movement. As Spock is the first to observe, he is insane. Not only is he a carrier for a deadly disease that would wipe out whomever he finds on Eden - he doesn't care. All he cares about is finding this planet and becoming "one" with its people. Overall, Sevrin is one of the series' weaker villains, and it seems ridiculous that he would have gotten anywhere near taking over the ship. The fake ears were a mistake, as he comes across looking like the result of cross-breeding experiments involving Yul Brynner and Dumbo.


THOUGHTS

The Way to Eden is an easy episode to mock. Offstage, the changes made to her original proposal led Trek veteran D. C. Fontana to leave the series. Onstage, we are provided with bizarrely costumed and made-up space hippies; endless chants of "Herbert! Herbert! Herbert!" every time they are on-screen with Kirk; Adam's unconvincing lip synching to seemingly endless bland would-be "hippie songs"; and the exaggerated slang ("That is now! That is so now, man!").

I think this last is the most annoying. The writers' need to have virtually every one of Adam's lines involve some exaggerated slang ranges from irritating to comical. My personal favorite is when his way of calling Kirk scared is to say the captain has "jelly in the belly." That sounds less like an accusation of fear than like a commentary on Shatner's third season weight gain.

I don't actually hate The Way to Eden. It's poor, but it's also essentially Cheese Fest '69, so downright stupid that bits of it become entertaining in their own right. On the other hand, the third season already has Spock's Brain. And Spock's Brain at least was well-paced and, within the confines of an idiotic concept, was nevertheless well-structured. The Way to Eden shares neither of these virtues.

The takeover of the ship - the main external conflict - doesn't occur until past the halfway mark. It's also only possible because Chekov happily identifies auxiliary control for Irina, throwing in (unsolicited) the information of how to use the controls in the room to navigate even if you don't know anything about navigation. "Let me tell you how to take over the ship, I'm sure you won't use this information later." There are apparently no safeguards in place to prevent anyone from wandering in there and doing what Sevrin does, nor does even a single redshirt bother to guard such a sensitive area.

If you're looking for quality Star Trek, you won't find it here. If you're looking to just float along with some cheese and dairy products, then this has its enjoyable moments... but really, if you want a "fun bad" Star Trek episode, Spock's Brain is much more enjoyable than this one.

Rating: 3/10.

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#66 (3-7): Day of the Dove

THE PLOT

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from a human colony under attack. They arrive to discover no signs of life - not even bodies or wreckage. As Kirk wonders what could have wiped this world out so completely, he receives a message from Spock. There is a heavily damaged Klingon ship in the vicinity. When Kang (Michael Ansara), the Klingon captain, beams down and takes Kirk's landing party hostage, Kirk is sure that he's found his answer.

Kirk manages to turn the tables, and he beams back to the Enterprise with Kang as his prisoner. But the situation is far from resolved. Spock reports that Kang and his Klingons could not possibly have destroyed the colony. The Enterprise is unable to contact Starfleet. Then the engines suddenly go to maximum warp and the emergency bulkheads shut the bulk of the crew in the lower sections. Kirk is left with only a handful of redshirts, against an equal mass of Klingons.

Do the Klingons have some new weapon, some horrifying technology that can explain this? Or is something entirely more alien at work here?


CHARACTERS

Capt. Ham: Shatner gets to do some very amusing "angry" acting in this episode, right from the pre-credit sequence when he kneels down and picks up a handful of dirt while gritting, "An entire human colony. 100 men. Women. Children. Gone!" He also gets to deliver more of his patented sentence fragement delivery when he realizes, of the alien, that "it feeds. On the hate. Of others." The good actor who thoughtfully underplayed much of the first season is becoming an increasingly distant memory.

For all of that, Shatner is never less than watchable. Kirk's ability to turn defeat into victory shows itself when he tricks the Klingons early in the episode, not only saving the landing party but turning his captors into captives. Once he realizes the nature of the alien, he takes the first steps toward showing trust for the Klingons, making the eventual truce possible.

Spock: When he succumbs to the alien's influence in a confrontation with Scotty, some of his buried frustration at dealing with irrational human crewmates surfaces. Really, with McCoy calling him a green blooded hobgoblin and the like on a regular basis, who can blame him for having a bit of buried resentment? With that one exception, Spock retains his control. He acts as the voice of reason, keeping Kirk focused on dealing with the alien rather than fighting the Klingons.

Chekov: Walter Koenig gets to go even more over-the-top than Shatner, as Chekhov is instantly influenced into imagining that he once had a brother murdered by the Klingons. He spends the entire episode in a delusional rage, lurking in corridors with a sword, looking for Klingons to ambush. In a particular disturbing moment, he is ready to rape Mara (Susan Howard), the wife of the Klingon captain. "You don't die... yet," he leers, followed by the sound of clothing tearing as he places a hand over the terrified woman's mouth.

Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: What is interesting about Mara (Susan Howard) is how instantly frightened she is of the Federation humans. We learn, through her, that the Klingon government has happily spread propaganda to its citizens to make them believe that the humans are savage devils. One senses that when Chekhov is about to rape Mara, this is the treatment she expects at human hands. When Kirk saves her from that, and then doesn't fulfill his bluff to kill her, that is the surprise - and the tipping point toward her actually trusting Kirk.

Villain(-ish) of the Week: Kang (Michael Ansara) is an excellent warrior. He shows tactical excellence in his takeover of engineering, and in his shutting down of the rest of the ship's power and life support thereafter. I enjoyed Ansara's nonverbal beats, such as when he was standing next to the communicator, listening to Kirk trying to contact him. He doesn't speak but just stands there, sword at the ready, listening intently. With Ansara's considerable screen presence as an asset, Kang becomes the most multi-layered Klingon commander since John Colicos' Kor.

THOUGHTS

Jerome Bixby, who wrote the superb Mirror, Mirror and the enjoyable By Any Other Name, returns for this engaging episode. Bixby promplty re-uses one of his Mirror, Mirror concepts, as Kang has Chekhov tortured using... an agonizer! In fairness, there were a lot of similarities between the Empire in the mirror verse and the Klingon Empire, and it's the sort of device the Klingons would invent, so it's more an amusing thing to spot than a legitimate nit-pick.

Though the Klingons would not truly emerge into a fully-fledged culture until The Next Generation, Bixby's script deserves credit for presenting them in a more three-dimensional manner than most TOS episodes. Bixby sticks with the Soviet parallels of the Season Two episodes. But he also expands the parallel in interesting ways. Just as the Soviet citizenry was fed propaganda about the West during the Communist rule, here we learn that the Klingons have been subject to propaganda demonizing the Federation. It's an interesting beat, a touch of shading that turns these Klingons into characters for the first time since Season One.

The script does provide too many opportunities for overacting. I've already mentioned Shatner and Walter Koenig. We also get DeForest Kelly, raging full-throttle until you expect him to have an anyeurism, and James Doohan's Scotty becoming momentarily psychotic. Even Nichelle Nichols gets in on the act, throwing a (not very convincing) hissy-fit on the bridge. Who'd have thought there'd be a Klingon episode in which the actors playing the Klingons were the restrained ones?

It all ends a bit too easily. The creature's powers are so extensive it can create a false brother for Chekhov, devolve McCoy and Scotty into raving psychopaths, take control of the Enterprise engines, transmute matter... and yet it can do nothing against the hamtastic power of Kirk making a speech at it. Surely all this creature, with the power to bend the human (and Klingon) mind, needs to do is to tinker with the memories of Kirk and his bridge crew so that they forget it exists? But no - Kirk makes a speech at it, he and Kang laugh at it a bit, and it runs off whimpering. We then get no tag at all, creating one of the series' more abrupt endings.

Still, it's a well-structured episode with a strong villain in Kang, an interesting monster in the "Hate Creature," and TOS' most multilayered depiction of the Klingons. A good episode, despite my issues with the ending.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

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#64 (3-9): The Tholian Web

THE PLOT

The Enterprise locates the Defiant, a missing starship, in a sector of space which is essentially folding in on itself. Kirk beams over with Spock, McCoy, and Chekhov to investigate. They discover a ship whose entire crew is dead, apparently having killed each other. They go about systematically gathering data, until the Defiant begins to dissolve around them.

The sector of space is affecting Enterprise as well. Warp power has begun to drain, with no discernible cause, and the transporter is malfunctioning (*drink*). Scotty is able to beam back Spock, McCoy, and Chekhov. But he isn't able to get a fix on Kirk. When the Defiant blinks out of existence, Kirk blinks out right along with it.

For Spock, the problem's actually a rather simple one. He calculates the next period at which the Defiant's universe will align, and prepares to beam Kirk back onto the Enterprise when that happens. This is complicated by the arrival of the Tholians, however, an aggressive race that has claimed this area of space as their own. When Spock fails to retrieve Kirk on the first attempt, the Tholians decide Enterprise is an invader. Spock fights off an attack, but the effort leaves the Enterprise drifting in space. As the madness which destroyed the Defiant begins to spread across the Enterprise crew, Spock finds himself having to deal with threats from both within and without - with no guarantee that he will be able to retrieve Kirk or save the Enterprise from destruction!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: This is a rare episode for TOS, in that it is very Kirk-lite. After the first act, Kirk goes almost entirely unseen until the very end. Given that, Shatner might have been forgiven if he had phoned his performance in. Thankfully, he doesn't.  Shatner shows us Kirk at the height of his command powers, effortlessly in charge during the first act in such a way that we feel his absence later. If one had never seen an episode of Star Trek prior to this one, Kirk's presence in the first twelve minutes would still be sufficient for a new viewer to share the feeling of loss afterwards.

Spock: With Kirk sidelined for the bulk of the episode, this becomes Spock's show. Leonard Nimoy is, as ever, well up to the task. He puts us firmly on Spock's side, empathizing with him, without ever compromising Spock's repression of his emotions. Because we know Spock so well by this point, we know that Spock feels the captain's loss.  We also know that McCoy's words at various points in the episode genuinely sting him, even if he doesn't show it. Spock clearly thinks of Kirk as the captain, even when he believes Kirk is dead. When Scott calls from engineering: "Captain!" late in the episode, Spock is slow to reply. When he does respond, he says, "Spock here," refusing to describe himself as "Captain." A nice touch, I thought.

McCoy: This episode sees McCoy increasingly exhausted. From almost the moment he and Spock return to the Enterprise, McCoy is working flat-out to find an antidote to the effects of "InterSpace." He becomes more and more easily frustrated and becomes increasingly hostile toward Spock. What makes their conflict work better here than in The Galileo Seven is that McCoy realizes at multiple points that he's gone too far and apologizes. That said, McCoy's confrontational streak is seriously overwritten in the bit just before he and Spock play Kirk's final message. But that scene is really the only major offender, with most of the rest of McCoy's irascibility clearly the result of extreme stress.

Chekov: When he is picked by Kirk to accompany the leads to the Defiant, his scientific background (built up in his early episodes, then largely forgotten) is actually uses for a change, as he is dispatched to investigate life support and engineering on the ship. Walter Koenig gets to do some rather good nonverbal acting, when he looks upon the bodies of the Defiant crew with evident horror. Unfortunately, Koenig's performance is much worse when Chekov goes mad. His growling and shrieking when he attacks Spock is horribly unconvincing, even unintentionally comical. In contrast, the silent attack on McCoy by his orderly is much more effective and dramatic.


THOUGHTS

The third season sees another shipbound episode, in which the standing sets get to double for two ships. With the bulk of it set on the bridge, in sickbay, or in engineering, it's pretty much a classic "bottle show." But within those constraints, writers Judy Burns and Chet Richards manage to deliver a very fine hour of television.

The Tholian Web is an episode with no real dead space. The teaser sets up two dilemmas: the power drain caused by this section of space, and the appearance of the Defiant. The first act holds viewer attention, as Kirk and his team investigate the Defiant. As Chekhov begins to be affected, there is already enough meat for an above-average episode. Then, at the first commercial fade-out, the writers do something that for most Treks would be unthinkable: they take away the captain!

This leaves Spock with multiple problems. The effects of this area of space on the crew are beginning to mirror what happened on the Defiant. The only sure way to prevent the spread of the madness is to leave, and Spock can't leave without condemning Kirk. Then the Tholians take away that choice, damaging the ship so that Spock can't leave. Bit by bit, the stakes are raised, the mark of a well-crafted teleplay.

The Remastered edition enhances the episode with far better effects for the Defiant's shimmering in and out of existence, and with more views of the web ensnaring the Enterprise. I appreciate that the remastered team stayed fairly true to the original effects, and it's effective to see the web truly encircling the Enterprise in this version. But the change in color, from a red tint to a gold one, makes the web seem less threatening somehow. It's a minor matter, and it's not the first time that I've felt replacement effects were not necessarily stronger than the originals. But I did feel it worth a note.

The episode is the best of the season thus far, just edging out The Enterprise Incident through the strength of the pace and the way in which multiple threats and complications are layered one on top of another. It's not quite up there with the likes of The Doomsday Machine, Balance of Terror, or The City on the Edge of Forever. But if it's not a "Top 5" episode of the entire series, it's at the least a contender for a spot in the Top 10.

In fact, I'm now a fair bit into Season Three, and I'm still not seeing this as "the turd season." There have been at least three very strong episodes and only two genuinely bad ones, which hardly seems like a disastrous average. Unless the overall quality truly plummets in the season's latter half, I'm finding the series' final year to be quite far from the disaster it's so often made out to be.


Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: The Empath
Next Episode: For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

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#56 (3-6): Spectre of the Gun

THE PLOT

The Enterprise has been ordered to make contact with a telepathic race known as the Melkotians. When they encounter a Melkotian buoy carrying a warning to turn back, Kirk sticks to his orders, ignoring the warning... and finds himself and his Away Team facing unforgiving Malkotian justice!

Using their advanced telepathic powers, the Melkotians transplant Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekhov to a somewhat surreal recreation of the Old West: specifically, Tombstone, on the day of the famed gunfight at the O. K. Corral. The town is under the control of the ruthless Earps, and Kirk and his crew have been cast in the role of the Clantons. Come five o'clock, they will face a gunfight that history has shown they cannot possibly win!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: Once again, dogged in sticking to his orders, even when he realizes that there are extreme risks involved. We also see once again how deeply the prospect of losing a member of his crew troubles him. Shatner's first Season Three performance is of the same standard as most of his performances: rock steady for the most part, though he does get a bit... enthusiastic when shouting "I can't just kill them!" at the town sheriff.

That Vulcan Voodoo You Do: Spock uses his Vulcan mind-meld to implant suggestions into the minds of the landing party. This actually isn't much of a stretch beyond previous "mind-meld powers," given that Spock has been clearly shown implanting suggestions in people's brains before. This episode also shows Spock and McCoy yet again as a strong team, this time in creating an effective tranquilizer using 19th century tools... and that tranquilizer's failure gives Spock the clue he needs to decipher the puzzle. All in all, this is an episode where Kirk, for all his dramatics, does relatively little; it's Spock who saves the day.

Chekov: An unusually strong episode for Chekov. He gets the episode's romance (usually the reserve of Kirk), and gets to demonstrate a fair amount of bravado. He also gets a few good one-liners in the bargain, notably when he scoffs at the Earps' outdated weaponry, saying that if they shoot at him, he will "simply step out of the way."

Hot Western Babe of the Week: Bonnie Beecher is Sylvia, the young woman in love with "Billy" (Chekov). She is a fairly typical "damsel" character, with few notable characteristics. She is in love with Billy/Chekov, and is pursued by the possessive Morgan Earp. That's really about the sum of her character, though Beecher is quite appealing.

Villain of the Week: The Earps are portrayed here as something other than the heroes, or even anti-heroes, that they usually are shown to be. Here, we get a quartet of dead-eyed, impassive, implacable killers. They are not really individually characterized, save for Morgan Earp's possessiveness of Sylvia. Instead, they are forces of nature: The Four Horsemen of the Western Apocalypse. The scene in which they gather, in ones and twos, to execute Kirk & co. at the O. K. Corral, is one of many splendidly-directed moments.


THOUGHTS

The first produced episode of Season Three... and there's really no visible sign here of a season that would end up being widely seen as a huge comedown from the show's first two years. The script is tightly-constructed, the situation in which Kirk and his crew find themselves generates a reasonable degree of tension, and the regulars all play well within roles they have long since come to fit like hands in gloves.

It is a particularly memorable episode visually. Instead of going the "parallel Earth" route of Season Two and recreating a fairly faithful western street, script and production instead opt to create a bizarre landscape, a mixture of stage-like minimalism, German Expressionism, and Salvador Dali, all rolled into one. Buildings are represented by single flats against a barren landscape, under a red sky. Interiors are suffused with red, with half-finished walls (always red in the background) and half-constructed sets. It's a reasonably daring choice. If the art direction failed, it would look painfully cheap. It doesn't fail, however, and this stands as one of the most visually striking Trek episodes I can think of.

Less successful are the updated effects representing the warning buoy. There is something particularly artificial about the replacement buoy. Technically it looks better than the original... but it also looks "fake." Unlike most of the remastered effects, this one doesn't fit, and it jars every time it appears. Which, fortunately, isn't often. Still, this is one episode where I would probably suggest skipping the remastered version and staying with the original.


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Assignment - Earth!
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#46 (2-16): The Gamesters of Triskelion

THE PLOT

Kirk, Chekov, and Uhura prepare to beam down to an automated communications station to do a routine check of the station's systems. Just before beam-out, they suddenly vanish. Not transporter vanished, but sudden and obvious jump-cut to them no longer being there vanished! As Spock attempts to find some trace of the three missing officers, Kirk and his companions find themselves on a planet known as Triskelion. The three have been taken to this planet to be trained as gladiators, to fight for the entertainment of the mysterious "Providers" for the rest of their lives!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Beefcake: Kirk's exhibitionist streak has been kept under tight control for much of the second season - likely a response to Shatner visibly packing on a few pounds over the course of the season. Per Memory Alpha, the production team stepped in by midseason and got Shatner to put himself on a diet. The diet took, and a slimmed-down Kirk gets to spend a fair amount of the episode running around with his shirt off again, all while tricked out in what looks suspiciously like bondage gear, complete with a "Collar of Obedience."

Kirk encourages rebellion against the Providers by his usual method: Identify the most attractive available female, and then teach her "What... is... kiss." We get treated to a lot of Kirk's hilariously gymnastic fighting style. Apparently, the somersault has a major place in mixed martial arts of the future. Kidding aside, both Kirk and Shatner get a genuinely pretty good scene near the end, in which he wheels and deals with The Providers in order to gamble for his crew's freedom.

Mr. Spock: Methodically searches for the only possible course to follow in attempting to get Kirk and the others back. He selects a course of action with a slim chance of success, on the grounds that it is the only one available... which does not stop him from having to endure endless scenes of Scott and McCoy questioning his decision and insisting that they should go back and search through the space dust around their initial position.

Uhura: If there's any doubt as to how much television has changed over the past 40-odd years, take a look at the scene in which Uhura is subjected to a rape attempt. She has been "selected" for breeding, which a "drill thrall" attempts to force upon her. The scene is genuinely disturbing, as Kirk stands by helplessly while Uhura struggles with her attacker. Even more disturbing is the way it's treated afterward. It isn't. This scene exists for a fade to commercial, with no consequences (emotional or otherwise) after. At the very least, Nichelle Nichols gets to display her considerable acting abilities in this scene, but having an attempted rape thrown in simply as a "dramatic sting" does leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Chekov: Gets to comedically deal with the advances of his large female drill thrall, whom he fears might be "selected" for him. Other than some strained comedy opposite her, he really doesn't get much to do, as per usual.

Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Angelique Pettyjohn is Shahna, Kirk's drill thrall. Being Kirk's, she is of course a statuesque model. She gets to deliver lines such as, "What... is... kiss," show herself to be a fast learner by kissing Kirk, writhe around in her bondage gear when her Collar of Obedience gets activated, and fight unconvincingly a few times. She requests to go with Kirk at the end, but Kirk dodges that bullet... er, thinks of her emotional development and insists she stay to learn about life. Then he gets out of that region of space at roughly Warp Factor 12, and tells Scotty he doesn't give a damn if the engines sprout wings and dance a jig, as long as he gets as far away as possible.

Villains of the Week: The writers. Oh, all right. Joseph Ruskin is moderately effective as Galt, the master thrall. His physical presence alone is effective, and his voice (presumably electronically treated) helps to make him a more unsettling figure than an episode this ridiculous deserves. The Providers themselves are less impressive, though I suppose there is something to be said for an episode whose resolution involves William Shatner emoting to a few lumps of Play-doh.


THOUGHTS

Likely the most outright stupid episode of the entire series. If The Gamesters of Triskelion has any value at all, it is comedic. It's impossible not to giggle while watching, with the low-rent bondage gear outfits, the bizarrely-choreographed fight scenes, and the rampant overacting by Shatner (and DeForest Kelly and James Doohan in the Enterprise scenes). Everything about this episode screams "crap," and the actors seem to be aware of this - which at least means that they're in on the joke.

This kind of episode can have good "cheese" value. Unfortunately, The Gamesters of Triskelion squanders this chance by being... well, boring. Once the episode's premise is set up, there is virtually nothing for the script to do except kill time until Kirk defies, then faces, the Providers. This makes the middle 25 minutes almost interminable.  Kirk and his comrades repeat their situation back to themselves multiple times, while Kirk tries to encourage Shahna's independence by repeating variations of the same scene with her multiple times. If you're going to make a simple-minded action episode, at least embrace that and put lots of simple-minded action in it!

The Enterprise scenes are even worse. Much worse, in fact. Every time we cut back to the Enterprise bridge, we are treated to Spock, McCoy, and Scotty having the same argument, sometimes with pretty much the same dialogue. Leonard Nimoy at least attempts to bring his game to bear, but DeForest Kelly and James Doohan seem clearly bored by the script and have no compunction about overacting heavily, probably to keep themselves amused.

I'm struggling to find much good to say about this episode. Other than inspiring some amusing send-ups in animated media, this is a poor episode that isn't even pacey enough to be "so bad it's good." I can think of a couple of Next Generation episodes that are worse than this, and there may be an Enterprise episode or two that give it a run for its money. But this is pretty bad stuff.


Rating: 1/10.

Previous Episode: A Private Little War
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#42 (2-15): The Trouble with Tribbles

Kirk is buried in tribbles.  And troubles, for that matter.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise receives an emergency signal sending them to Space Station K-7, a station in close proximity to a planet claimed by both the Federation and the Klingon Empire. With the Organians having made a military dispute impossible, the planet will go to whichever of the two sides can better develop it. Baris (William Schallert), a high-ranking Federation official, is storing a grain that he believes will clinch it for the Federation - and he's called Kirk to the station to act as guard for the grain.

Kirk is outraged at what he sees as a trivial use of the emergency signal, but he does see one silver lining: the station provides an ideal site for some much-needed R & R. Matters are complicated when a Klingon ship arrives at the station, ostensibly also to use its facilities for rest. Now Kirk must protect the grain while keeping his crew from getting involved in any "incidents" with the Klingons.

And then there's the small matter of the tribbles...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: Takes an instant dislike to Baris, antagonizing the (admittedly annoying) official to a genuinely unproductive extent. Baris and Kirk seem to bring out the worst in each other throughout the episode, which might make for interesting character interplay if Baris were a more interesting character. William Shatner seems to enjoy the lighter touch called for in this episode, giving some wonderfully bemused vocal and facial reactions to some of the turns in the script. I also enjoyed seeing Kirk's ego bruised when he finds out the reason for the barroom brawl was not the insults directed at him, but rather those directed at the Enterprise.

Spock: Kirk's irritation at Baris nearly causes the captain to ignore the genuine security concern that does exist.  Spock has to step in to remind the captain that the grain actually is important. Nimoy is terrific in the deadpan comedy moments of the script, his stone-faced delivery of several lines a perfect counterpoint to the flustered Baris or the eternally weary Kirk.

Chekov: David Gerrold's script makes good use of Chekov's status as a young ensign. The teaser delivers an expositional infodump in a way that works, by having Chekov's knowledge of the situation tested by Kirk and Spock. Chekov's enthusiasm and love of Starfleet is made into a potential negative when he is provoked by the Klingons on the space station - which gives a wonderful moment to Scotty. On the minus side, Gerrold seriously overdoes the already-overdone running joke of Chekov crediting everything to Russians. By 15 minutes in, we'd had variations on this joke at least three times, which is at least two too many.

Dr. McCoy: Gets the line fluff of the episode when he refers to the Tribbles as "bisexual." I don't think that word means what you think it means, Bones.

Annoying Space Beauracrat of the Week: It's hard to see how Baris (William Schallert) achieved his position, given that he doesn't appear to play well with others. He could likely have made a direct request to Kirk for help in protecting the grain, or even a request to Starfleet to send a ship to protect it. Instead, he throws around his authority at every turn, alienating people whom he would be better-served making his allies.  Schallert, a very good actor, manages to ground this cartoon in some reality.  He finds moments in which Baris attempts to take a more human tact with Kirk. In his first scene, there's a wonderful bit when Baris drops his officiousness and actually starts to reason with Kirk - only to have Kirk steamroll over him, giving Baris motivation to return to his previous bearing.

Villain of the Week: William Campbell is Koloth, captain of the Klingon ship that visits Station K-7. Campbell's Koloth lacks the strong presence of John Colicos' complex Kor, and seems like a relative lightweight - hardly a worthy adversary for Kirk.  Still, he is an improvement over the Klingon in Friday's Child. He at least seems to have a sharp mind, and an ability to use the specifics of the peace treaty in his favor.  In this respect, I suppose Koloth ends up being the series' first-ever Klingon beauracrat.


THOUGHTS

The second comedy Trek in a row, in terms of production order. A potential cause for concern, if the series had continued on this track. An occasional comedy episode is a nice relief, but they are best left as the exception and not the rule. It is good that they pulled back on such episodes after this point.

Given that it did remain the exception, I am delighted to enjoy The Trouble with Tribbles for what it is - the best comedy episode Star Trek ever made. It's one of the best "pure comedy" episodes of any science fiction series I've seen,thanks to writer David Gerrold's keen grasp not only of humor, but of structure. Gerrold hasn't just written a series of amusing bits and strung them together. He's created a solidly conceived, expertly structured story.

Take the Tribbles themselves. Title aside, they seem to be a minor subplot in the first half of the episode. They are introduced, we see that they start to breed... but the situation with the Klingons and Baris takes up far more of Kirk's (and our) attention than the Tribbles do. Then, after an amusing gag in which the long-suffering K-7 bartender shows trader Cyrano Jones exactly why he's not interested in any more Tribbles thank you, they start to be more and more central to the story. By the end, the spread of the Tribbles is both a complication to the plot, creating a third act crisis, and ultimately the plot's solution. It's wonderful structure, as the Tribbles move from a background element to the foreground, their story merging effortlessly with the other threads.

The use of music is key to the episode's effectiveness. Look at the barroom brawl sequence. There's a nice touch by David Gerrold, as a fairly standard barroom brawl is enhanced by Cyrano using the chaos to help himself to free drinks. But the score tips the scene over into greatness.  The incidentals start in such a way as to support the action of the brawl. Then they move into a jauntier beat as Cyrano starts helping himself. As Cyrano weaves about the combatants with two drinks in hand, dodging them while keeping his balance, the jaunty beat takes over completely. The gag is capped by a wonderful visual double punchline, fading even as the screen itself fades to black for commercial. Wonderful directing, good writing... and given just the right tone by a perfectly-judged incidental score.

My own tastes my leave me preferring the more dramatic episodes, such as Amok Time, Balance of Terror, and The City on the Edge of Forever.  But in terms of story, structure, and execution, this is every bit as good an episode as those were.  The best Trek of its type by far, and entirely deserving of full marks.


Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: I, Mudd
Next Episode: Bread and Circuses

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#41 (2-8): I, Mudd

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is hijacked by Crewman Norman (Richard Tatro), a new member of the crew who turns out to be an android! Norman takes the ship to a planet ruled over by none other than Kirk's old enemy, Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel). The world is filled with androids, all but Norman modeled into beautiful young women. A paradise for Mudd... except he's gotten bored with it. The androids will only let him leave if he provides them with a replacement. With a score to settle with Kirk, the choice was obvious. So Mudd will leave in command of Kirk's ship, its crew replaced by androids, while Kirk and his crew will get to stay on the Android Paradise (I can think of several future redshirts, at the very least, who would find this to be a pretty good deal).

But Mudd hasn't counted on the androids having plans of their own. Soon, Kirk and Mudd will find themselves reluctant allies, working together to stop the androids from taking over the galaxy and smothering all life with happiness!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: On a planet of beautiful, subservient women who want only to please him in any way that does not involve actually leaving the planet, you would think Kirk would be happy to enjoy himself for a while. Perhaps he doesn't enjoy it as much when he doesn't actually have to do any seducing? In any case, Kirk's absolute devotion to his ship shows itself again. All of the other crew members are at least tempted by the pleasures of the planet. Kirk simply wants his ship back, and snaps the others out of their enchantment with the available diversions to focus on an escape.

Spock: Opens the episode suffering from a bout of idiot plotting. Spock enjoys sparring with McCoy as much as McCoy does with him. But when McCoy mentions that Crewman Norman has failed to show up for required medical exams, that should absolutely not be something that Spock dismisses. There's a time to bait McCoy.  That time is not when McCoy is raising legitimate issues, and if Spock were being written as he is in almost any other episode, he would know that.

Chekov: He seems to rather enjoy himself on Android World. Surrounded by beautiful android models, who are entirely eager to please, he has a rather entertaining interrogation scene with them. Walter Koenig throws himself into the entire episode with enthusiasm, particularly at the episode's climax, and makes Chekov feel more central to this episode than he truly is through one funny scene and sheer acting enthusiasm.

Uhura: Gets a very good scene, in which she appears to betray Kirk's escape attempt in return for the promise of an android body that would allow her to remain young and beautiful forever. Nichelle Nichols sets up the scene well, in showing Uhura's interest in such an idea, and she sells the "betrayal" well enough that a viewer who had rarely seen the series before might actually be fooled for a second into thinking that the betrayal was genuine. As it stands, there is no chance of a regular viewer being fooled (for this one scene, perhaps an "anonymous yeoman" would have been better?), but it does give Nichols one of her stronger moments in the series.

Hot Android Space Babe(s) of the Week: Twins Alyce and Rhae Andrece portray the Alice series of robots, gorgeous androids who have been happily providing Mudd with "anything" he wants (shudders at the visual) - an offer that intrigues Chekov, at the very least. The Andrece twins are convincingly flat and unemotional for the robotic scenes, and are definitely beautiful enough to convince in their "robotic sex kitten" roles. There are a couple of other fetching android "series," though they don't get nearly as much to do as the Alices.

Villain of the Week: Roger C. Carmel returns as Harcourt Fenton Mudd, intergalactic space rogue and all-around bad guy. In his first appearance, he was a thoroughly nasty piece of work - abusive to the women he had duped into being his accomplices, and entirely willing to kill (or at least have deaths be a side effect of his profiteering) in the pursuit of his goals. Here, he's reinvented as a lovable rogue. The characterization works within the confines of this episode, and Carmel is obviously having a grand time with the vain, extravagant, and lascivious Mudd. It's an altogether more entertaining version of Mudd... though probably best watched as it was aired, quite some distance away from a viewing of Mudd's first, altogether nastier persona. Carmel and Shatner retain excellent screen rapport, and their scenes together are among the highlights of a highly entertaining fifty minutes.


THOUGHTS

Glorious nonsense, of a kind that probably could only have come from the 1960's. Season Two has been mostly lighter in tone than Season One.  Neither season has exactly shied away from humor.  The Naked Time and Shore Leave were both Season One episodes with substantial amounts of comedy.  But I, Mudd is the first Star Trek episode that is intended almost entirely as comedy. Since it hasn't happened before at this point, and since most of the humor works, it's a refreshing change of pace.

Critically, the humor is sustained by a story that works. Later Trek series would often forget that it's at least as important for the plot of a comedy episode to hold together as it is for a serious episode. Mudd's plan makes sense to us. It's over-the-top, but it has internal logic.  We know what he hopes to accomplish, and how. He even appears to have won, with Kirk only granted a reprieve thanks to the androids' double-cross - which also makes sense, both in motivation and in their plan.

Even Kirk's final plan, to defeat the androids through sheer absurdity, makes sense within the confines of the story.  We understand why the Enterprise crew behave as they do, and we understand why it works. Other than Spock's brief bout with Idiot Plotting in the teaser, this is a well-plotted episode, and writer Stephen Kandel deserves credit.


Rating: 8/10.  Not exactly deep stuff, but a lot of fun to watch.

Previous Episode: The Deadly Years
Next Episode: The Trouble with Tribbles

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#40 (2-12): The Deadly Years

THE PLOT

A visit to a colony of scientists takes an unexpected turn. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Chekov, and a pretty young lieutenant beam down to find no signs of life. Chekov is terrified when he discovers dead bodies in one building. McCoy determines that the colonists all died of old age... which should be utterly impossible, since none of them were over thirty.  I would say that a colony of scientists - not traditionally a young man's field, at least not in the highest ranks of science - all being under 30 is, if not impossible, then at least unlikely, but whatever. Two survivors are found - a couple who should also be in their twenties, but appear to be quite elderly.

The survivors are beamed up with the landing party, only to die in sickbay soon after. Kirk decides to stay in orbit until his crew can solve the mystery, against the wishes of Commodore Stocker (Charles Drake), who is en route to Starbase 10. Before much progress can be made, McCoy discovers signs of rapid aging among all members of the landing party. All except Chekov, who appears to be mysteriously immune. If the crew cannot reverse the effects, then Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty will all soon die of old age!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: The opening and particularly the closing show us the typically assured, confident, commanding captain. But as the aging affects Kirk, we also get to see a less flattering side to his character. The same edge that makes Kirk an effective commander makes him short-tempered and paranoid as the rapid aging sets in. In the late 1960's, the word "Alzheimer's" did not exist, its symptoms being simply folded into the term "senility." But the aging Kirk shows many of the effects of Alzheimer's disease. He's initially forgetful, then irritable when questioned. He becomes confused and angry, lashing out mindlessly at his friends and undermining his own authority when called upon to give testimony at a competency hearing. It cuts off before Kirk loses his own identity or is reduced to crying out incoherently, and of course it's all reversed by the end. But it's still somewhat chilling to see Kirk reduced to a shadow of himself, and Shatner is very good throughout.

Mr. Spock: Spock ages more slowly than the humans, and so the effects are initially less noticeable. Still, even before the gray powder comes out for his hair, we see Leonard Nimoy altering the pace of his walk and even the pitch of his voice, to let us know that Spock is feeling the effects. Nimoy gets some excellent scenes opposite Shatner in which Spock endures Kirk's irrational ire, first at the captain's perception that Spock has betrayed him to steal his command, then at Kirk's more well-founded fears that Spock isn't taking command and is instead allowing Commodore Stocker to run the ship.

Dr. McCoy: Despite the stress of the aging on his own body, he works tirelessly to try to find the answer. The way in which McCoy and Spock complement each other is shown yet again as Spock comes up with a theory about radiation from a passing comet, which McCoy is able to confirm. Oddly, despite being significantly older than Kirk, McCoy is less affected by the aging.

Chekov: Gets a reasonable role in this episode. As the only member of the landing party not affected, he spends a lot of time being used as a "lab rat" in sickbay, and gets some amusing lines about the blood and fluid samples being taken from him. He obviously is not thrilled with Stocker's command of the ship, particularly when Stocker freezes during a Romulan attack.

Hot Space Babe of the Week: Sarah Marshall is Janet Wallace, an old flame of Kirk's. Yes, another one. From the background we receive, it seems that Janet was more instrumental in calling off their affair than Kirk was. The man she ended up marrying was much older, something Kirk references when Janet becomes noticeably friendlier to him after he begins aging. She works closely with McCoy, and is instrumental in finding a cure for the aging in time for Kirk to swoop in and save the ship from Stocker's incompetence at the finale. I'm not usually one to comment on such things, but her costume is genuinely atrocious. Her performance is also weak, and I'm glad that this is the only time she appears.

Annoying Space Bureaucrat of the Week: Charles Drake is Commodore Stocker, the latest irritating bureaucrat to be a passenger on the Enterprise. Stocker is obsessive about reaching his new post at Starbase 10, almost comically so. It's as if he's afraid if he doesn't get there in record time Starfleet will reconsider and give the job to someone else. Given what we see of him, I can't say that I'd blame them. Though his relieving Kirk of command actually is reasonable under the circumstances, the writers make sure that he looks like an ass while doing so anyway. Then he violates treaty, provoking the Romulans, in order to try to save a little time - and panics when the Romulans attack (as of course they would). Drake does a solid acting job, but I wish Stocker was a little less cartoonish. Stocker is incompetent because the script requires it - a failing in the script, in my opinion.


ZAP THE REDSHIRT!

Redshirt count: One. Lt. Galway (Beverly Washburn) ages to death just as the other landing party members are starting to really be affected by the aging. It's a disturbing death, given her incoherent shrieking just before she collapses.


THOUGHTS

Though a step down from episodes such as Mirror, Mirror, Amok Time, and The Doomsday Machine, this is another solid episode in a rather good run. It's interesting, and disturbing, to see our regulars brought low by something as simple as old age. Having Kirk be the most affected raises the dramatic stakes considerably.  Spock is too devoted to duty to bend the rules, thus leaving the way clear for Stocker to put the ship in jeopardy. It is also dramatically effective to see the always confident Kirk so reduced as he is here, and the senility gives Shatner something new to play in a role where he's already sometimes falling back a bit too often on the same few acting tricks.

The rapid-aging disease is an enjoyable MacGuffin, as long as you don't think about it too hard. I do wish the script laid out some rules for the disease. Why is the oldest member of the landing party (McCoy) the least affected of the humans, while the youngest (Galway) is the first to die? Well, obviously it's because we need McCoy to be compus-mentus in order for him to hit upon the solution, while Galway dies because she's an expendable guest character. But it doesn't actually make any sense. One could speculate that the faster metabolism of the younger crew members makes them actually react more to the aging... but then Scotty (the second oldest of the landing party) stumbles in, looking half-dead already, which kills off that theory. The disease, like the warp engines, moves at the speed of plot.

In addition, I didn't really believe that the crew would stand by while Stocker ordered them into the Neutral Zone. Wouldn't such a suicidal (not to mention illegal) act be grounds to remove him from command? Would Stocker himself have risen to the position he holds by being that level of stupid? Even a career paper-pusher would know better than to pilot a ship into the equivalent of a minefield that he knows about. Stocker does this amazingly stupid thing, and the crew lets him do it, simply because the ship needs to be in jeopardy for the climax to work. I can put my brain on hold and accept it... but why should I have to put my brain on hold? Most TOS scripts have managed to be entertaining without that kind of idiot plotting, which makes me a shade less forgiving of it here.

Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Mirror, Mirror
Next Episode: I, Mudd

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#38 (2-5): The Apple

THE PLOT

Kirk, Spock, and Chekov beam down to scout a lush, jungle-like world.  They helpfully bring along Yeoman Eye Candy and a couple of disposable red-shirted accessories. After one of the redshirts manages to get killed almost instantly, McCoy beams down with two more, just to make sure that this episode collects a proper body count. That body count mounts steadily as they investigate this world of disintegrator lightning, exploding rocks, and poison plants.  Finally, they make contact with some primitive villagers.

These villagers live only to serve their god, Vaal, a large papier-mache serpent-head cave. Vaal derives energy from the villagers' labors, and is using its energy to drain Enterprise of all power. Now Kirk finds himself faced with having to break the Prime Directive in order to save his ship, by destroying both Vaal and the villagers' way of life.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Ham: Kirk, who seemed oblivious to the redshirt deaths in The Changeling, is all but paralyzed with guilt over the deaths in this episode. This allows Shatner to do some "emotionally anguished acting." On the one hand, it's nice to see a return to a Kirk who actually cares when his crewmen die. But the self-doubting bits in this episode go too far with it, as Kirk piles on so much guilt that one questions whether this variation of the character is actually up to command. Fortunately, he shrugs all of those concerns aside once they encounter the villagers. With most of the redshirts dead by this point, there is nothing to get in the way of the typical Kirk/Spock/McCoy banter, particularly regarding sex and children.

Spock: Doesn't think twice before putting himself in harm's way to protect Kirk and McCoy from a poison pod plant. Fortunately, his Vulcan physiology combined with McCoy's medicine allows him to recover quickly. He argues logically for the Prime Directive applying to Vaal's people, noting that their system clearly works for them. But once Kirk makes his decision that the Prime Directive doesn't apply, Spock lends his full support to defeating Vaal.

Scotty: As in Friday's Child, he is relegated to manning the ship while the main trio get all the action. Unlike that episode, he still gets some good character material. He does everything he can to fight against the pull of gravity, and gets some decent banter with Kirk.  The "You're fired" and "You're re-hired" exchanges were one of two bits from this episode that I actually remembered.

Chekov: The other bit that I actually recalled involved Chekov kissing Yeoman Eye Candy, after spending the bulk of the episode making goo-goo eyes at her. When two of the villagers spot them kissing, they decide to experiment themselves - which leads the other villagers to decide to kill the strangers. Chekov also gets a decent comedy moment, when he and Spock "create a diversion."

Hot Space Babe of the Week: Celeste Yamall is Yeoman Eye Candy... er, Martha Langdon. She's blonde and very pretty, and is thus understandably confused by the discovery of a village full of people who know nothing about sex. She and Chekov stage a helpful demonstration... but it turns out the village elders don't approve of that sort of thing, and violence ensues.


ZAP THE REDSHIRT!

A redshirt-palooza! Redshirt count: Four. Hendorff doesn't even make it out of the teaser, getting shot by a plastic pod plant within about 2 minutes of beaming down. Kaplan apparently offended Zeus, because he gets struck by a particularly strong bolt of lightning. Mallory gets blown up. Marple gets his skull caved in by villagers.


THOUGHTS

And it was all going so well...

After a run of good to excellent episodes, I suppose it was time for Trek to yield up a loser. With The Apple, it certainly does. This is an extremely poor script, one which pads out its running time by picking off redshirts for half the episode before presenting a hackneyed "Garden of Eden" plot that seems barely connected to anything that went before. The scenes with the villagers are dreadful, and Kirk and McCoy's reasoning for why their society doesn't qualify for the Prime Directive seems to come out of the same school as Picard's "exceptions must be made" solution at the end of TNG's Justice - namely, that the Prime Directive doesn't apply when the situation is particularly incovenient.

There is some fun to be had laughing at the episode. The redshirt deaths that pile on in the first half (with one additional redshirt death in Half the Second) are frequently hilarious. I can't decide whether the plastic plant or the fake lightning was the funniest. Kirk all but weeping over each death is also the stuff of Grade A comedy, particularly with Shatner letting his hammier tendencies run amok. The villagers experimenting with kissing is also amusing, the two actors delivering wonderfully robotic and passionless performances that add that extra layer of cheesy perfection.

Plus, the villain is a papier-mache snake head!

The Apple easily wrests the crown for World Champion Bad TOS Episode away from The Alternative Factor.  That episode may have been tedious, but it was at least presented with conviction and had a strong ending.  Still, I can't quite give The Apple a "1."  It's quite bad television, but it isn't boring, and it has a certain kitschy popcorn value.


Rating: 2/10.

Previous Episode: The Changeling
Next Episode: Mirror, Mirror

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#30 (2-7): Catspaw

For Season Two's first produced episode, writer Robert Bloch presents viewers with a jokey "Trick-or-Treat" for Halloween.


THE PLOT

The Enterprise is orbiting a planet, and the landing party - headed by Sulu and Scotty - is overdue. When Crewman Jackson finally checks in, and is beamed up, what materializes is his dead body... and a message, warning Captain Kirk to leave orbit immediately.

Of course, Kirk does nothing of the kind. He leads a second party, consisting of himself, Spock, and McCoy, to the planet. Here, they encounter three witches, a black cat of variable size, and a forbidding castle presided over by a witch and a warlock, starved for sensation. Their powers are vast - vast enough to reduce Scott and Sulu into mindless zombies, and to strike against the Enterprise with sudden, horrifying force!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Kirk: With members of his command crew in jeopardy, Kirk insists on beaming down to the planet personally. He refuses to be warned off or scared off. When Sylvia tries to tempt him away from his duty, Kirk plays along just long enough to gain answers to the mysteries surrounding him. But he is too much devoted to duty to seriously think about giving in, and ends up using Sylvia's powers against her.

Spock: This is not the best characterization of Spock. I enjoy Spock's touches of humor, when they are sufficiently buried beneath his exterior impassivity. The break between seasons may have shaken Nimoy out of character slightly, or Robert Bloch's script may just not have captured the character quite right. Either way, Spock seems a little too jovial here. It's not a bad performance; it just doesn't quite seem to be... Well, Spock.

Chekov: This episode introduces a new regular to the series, in the form of Walter Koenig's Pavel Chekov. He gets very little to do in his premiere episode. Still, a few character bits do exist, notably his irritation with acting commander DeSalle (Michael Barrier) looking a bit too closely over his shoulder. "I'm not that green, sir," he snaps, when DeSalle takes a bit too much care to walk Chekov through something routine.

Villain of the Week: Antoinette Bower is Sylvia, an alien who has taken human form to prepare the way for an invasion. Her species' technology has given her enormous power, which she uses in an increasingly irresponsible manner, almost like a teenager giddy at the first flush of real power. Her companion, Korub (a nicely restrained Theo Marcuse), acts almost as a disapproving elder relative, trying to restrain her wildness and failing.


ZAP THE REDSHIRT!

Redshirt count: one. When the original landing party consisted of Scotty, Sulu, and "Crewman Jackson," was there any doubt what the fate of Crewman Jackson would be?


THOUGHTS

In my Season One reviews, there were occasions in which I recalled how episodes that did not appeal to me as a child suddenly have far more merit viewed from an adult's perspective.

Catspaw is unfortunately a case of the opposite. I loved this episode as a child. The spooky trappings, straight out of a Vincent Price movie, made it wonderful fun for my 10-year-old self. A quarter of a century later, I'm afraid the episode left me cold. The castle, the dungeon... It all just seems a bit too clean, a bit too well-lit, and a bit too obviously a collection of redressed studio stages to convey much atmosphere.  Meanwhile, the actual plot is too anemic and lacking in any sense of danger to make up for the bland atmosphere. It isn't a bad episode, per se.  It just isn't a good one, representing a comedown even from Operation: Annihilate! Let alone the really good episodes of Season One.

I think the break between seasons has taken a slight toll on the regulars. Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley don't fall back into their roles as easily as I might have liked. Shatner tends to oversell a lot of his line deliveries, while Nimoy just isn't quite "Spock" here. DeForest Kelley is quite fine in his scenes, but he hasn't yet recaptured the easy chemistry he had with his co-stars. On the whole, the network made a very wise decision waiting until later in the season to broadcast it. Yes, it was aired later to tie in with Halloween... but even without the holiday, this episode would not have provided the second season with a "best foot forward."

I loved it as a kid. But sometimes, what is loved as a kid is best left to childhood.


Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Operation - Annihilate!
Next Episode: Metamorphosis

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