TOS 18: The Squire of Gothos

Original air date: 01/12/1967
Star date: 2124.5

Summary: In a hurry to deliver supplies to Beta 6, the Enterprise prepares to make a high-speed sprint across a stretch of open space Kirk characterizes as a "desert".  They are surprised to encounter a previously-uncharted planet.  When Kirk directs Sulu to go around the planet, Sulu mysteriously disappears, and Kirk soon thereafter.  An analysis of the planet determines that humans cannot survive on its surface, but lacking any alternatives, Spock orders a crew of Jaeger, DeSalle and McCoy down to the surface to see what they can find.

On the surface, the search party is surprised to find breathable air, and more than that, an ancient Earth-style castle.  Inside the castle, they find a human-appearing creature who calls himself Trelane and the planet Gothos.  Everything in the castle appears to be from Earth's 14th(?) century, and the crew concludes that Trelane perceives Earth as it was 900 years ago, because Gothos is 900 light-years from Earth.  They also find that Trelane is responsible for abducting Kirk and Sulu, and he returns them, unharmed, but also makes it clear he wants the crew to remain with him for a while because he's "bored".  Kirk objects and insists that he and the Enterprise are needed elsewhere and must be allowed to leave.  Trelane demonstrates that the can make the crew do whatever he likes by briefly subjecting Kirk to Gothos' natural atmosphere.  Kirk and the rest appear to be trapped, until Spock figures out a way to beam them up through Gothos' atmosphere.

Trelane transports himself to the Enterprise to express his displeasure with Spock, and instantaneously returns the entire bridge crew back to his castle on Gothos.  Trelane explains that he is part of a group who can convert matter to energy and back, and change the form of matter, which is how he is able to provide an Earth-like environment on the otherwise uninhabitable Gothos.  Kirk tricks Trelane into a duel, and disables a machine Trelane is using.  In doing so, the crew are able to transport back to the Enterprise once more, where the crew makes a desperate attempt to fly as far as possible from Gothos.  But Trelane can move the entire planet at amazing speed (or more likely, transport it, it's not clear which), always putting the Enterprise on a collision course with Gothos.

Frustrated, Kirk beams back down to the surface to offer his life to Trelane on the condition that he allows the Enteprise to go on its way.  Trelane agrees to let the Enterprise go if Kirk allows himself to be hunted.  Trelane chases Kirk around with a sword for a bit, until two disembodied voices --- one male, one female, presumably Trelane's "parents" --- intervene to make Trelane give up Kirk and the Enterprise.

I believe this is the very first "Q" episode in Star Trek history.  Of course Trelane doesn't describe himself as part of the "Q continuum", and the voices at the end of the show suggest that Trelane is a member of a species which reproduce sexually --- though perhaps they only present themselves to Kirk that way so he will understand --- but the godlike abilities Trelane has are very much like those of the character "Q" in The Next Generation series.

I haven't seen any of The Next Generation in years --- I'm looking forward to watching them again as part of this project --- but the "Q" episodes were always among my favorites.  If I recall correctly, "Q" was sufficiently important to that series that he appeared in the series opener and the finale.

But the thing I liked about the "Q" episodes in TNG was that he always appeared to be trying to help humanity along by forcing Picard and the rest to struggle to learn some greater lesson.  That's clearly not the case here, where Trelane is quite literally playing the Enterprise and its crew the way a child might play with a mouse he's caught.  This show would have been much more interesting if Kirk & Co. had to solve some sort of puzzle to gain their freedom.  As it was, it was mostly cat and mouse with at least one rather contrived mechanism for letting the Enterprise crew escape briefly (see below).

I understand that Kirk is annoyed with Trelane because he's been abducted against his will, and because he's in a hurry to get supplies to Beta 6, but it still seems to me that Kirk is unnecessarily rude to Trelane in their first meeting.  Trelane obviously has a lot of useful knowledge he might share with the Enterprise crew, and it seems all he wants in return is some company.  Why couldn't Kirk have politely explained that they were in a hurry and need to go right now, with a promise to return soon?  Okay, Trelane might still have acted like a petulant child, but clearly both sides stand to benefit by sitting down and chatting for a few hours --- which it seems is all that Trelane wants.

After all, look what Kirk & Co. stand to gain by picking Trelane's brain:

Trelane: We --- meaning I and others have, to state the matter briefly --- perfected a system by which matter can be transferred to energy and back to matter again.
Kirk: Like the transporter system aboard the Enterprise.
Trelane: Oh, a crude example of an infinitely more sophisticated process.  You see, we not only transport matter from place to place, but we can alter its shape --- at will.

Although there weren't any serious problems with the script, there was one clunky device the writers used to get all of the crew back up to the Enterprise a second time: the idea that Trelane's power was in some way the result of a machine hidden behind a mirror.  When Kirk uses his shot in the duel to cripple the machine rather than shoot Trelane, it allows the Enterprise's transporter to lock onto the crew and beam them back up.

This really doesn't stand up in at least two ways.  First of all, after Kirk disables the machine, Trelane is still able to move the entire planet of Gothos around space at will.  He also has no trouble moving himself and Kirk, either, and making swords appear out of nowhere.  And even though Spock speculates that the machine plays a role in providing an Earth-like atmosphere on Gothos, Kirk and Trelane are running around the woods later, where the atmosphere is seemingly as Earth-like as ever.

Second, if the machine is responsible for providing an Earth-like atmosphere on Gothos, then the whole crew on the planet should suffer the ill effects of Gothos' real atmosphere after Kirk shoots the machine.  But they don't.

Other observations about this episode:

Yet another female Yeoman.  That makes four consecutive episodes with different Yeowomen.

Does DeSalle really think he can sneak up on Trelane and shoot him when Trelane --- like the viewer and everyone else in the world --- can see DeSalle creeping up on Trelane in the mirror?  If he really wants to shoot Trelane, he needs some quick-draw action.

This is the third episode so far where someone has had godlike powers --- and the second which ended with the god's "parents" coming and taking him away ("Charlie X").

The first creature Trelane zaps with the phaser is the salt-addicted creature from "The Man Trap", the first Star Trek episode ever broadcast.

The Moral of the Story: Godlike powers are no excuse for bad behavior.

TOS 17: The Galileo Seven

Original air date: 01/05/1967
Star date: 2821.5

Summary: On its way to deliver urgently-needed medical supplies to Macchus 3, the Enterprise stops to investigate Murosaki 312, a "quasar-like formation".  Spock commands the Galileo shuttle with 6 other crew members aboard, including McCoy and Scotty.  An ion storm sucks the shuttle into the formation, causing them to crash land on a planet at its center.  The task of finding the shuttle is made nearly impossible by the ionization effect, which prevents communication, use of the transporter, and detection of the lost shuttle by the ship's sensors.  If the shuttle crew are not recovered in 2 days, a bureaucrat traveling with the Enterprise will use his authority to take command of the ship and order them on to Macchus 3, stranding the shuttle crew.

On the surface, Spock and crew try to repair and re-launch the shuttle, while fending off giant, primitive furry creatures who attack with spears and rocks.  The crew grow frustrated with Spock's refusal to employ or consider emotion in his command decisions, and are angered by his lack of an emotional response to the death of one, and then two of their party.  Complicating matters is that the only way they can get enough power to launch the shuttle is to drain their phasers, thus leaving them defenseless against the giants.

Shortly before Scotty has them ready to launch, Spock relents and agrees to help McCoy and a crewman named Boma bury one of the men who died.  While they are out burying the body, the giants attack again and pin Spock between two boulders.  Despite Spock's orders to leave him behind, McCoy and Boma rescue Spock and bring him aboard.  The shuttle launches, but after the Enterprise has begun its departure to Macchus 3.  In a desperate attempt to be found, Spock releases the rest of the shuttle's meager fuel supply and sets it on fire, hastening their fiery descent back to the surface, but leaving a bright green trail visible to the departing Enterprise.  The Enterprise quickly returns and beams the surviving shuttle crew aboard just as the shuttle bursts into flame.  Later, the folks on the bridge have a good laugh at Spock's expense, because the man who famously values logic so highly was forced into a desperate, hence "emotional" act when all seemed lost.

This show wasn't that bad; it just wasn't that good.  There's only one really obvious mistake in this episode, but somehow the desired tension of the ticking clock just wasn't there.  Maybe the wooden acting on the part of everyone other than Spock, McCoy, Scotty and the crewman named Boma was just too much to take.  Maybe Spock's insistence on a logic-driven life, which is usually played for a joke, is merely irritating in the context of a pressure situation.

Maybe the awful special effects surrounding the giants and their lazily-lobbed spears were just too bad for anyone to take this episode seriously.  Whatever the reason, it just didn't work.

I only have two specific criticisms of this episode.  First, after one crewman has already died on the tip of a giant's spear, Spock goes out with two others (Boma and Gaetano) to scare off the other giants with a show of force.  Spock is quite clear that he doesn't wish to kill the giants; merely scare them off so they no longer threaten his crew.  So on Spock's orders, Boma and Gaetano fire their phasers near the giants, but not at them, demonstrating that they have the superior technology.  This seems to work, but then Spock orders Boma to return to the shuttle with him, and orders Gaetano to remain behind.

Now, I've never been in the military, but I'm going to guess that it's standard practice in just about any military anywhere in the world that, if you're in unfamiliar territory with known threats in the area, you NEVER LEAVE A MAN ALONE.  So, this is both unbelieveable and stupid.  The fact that Gaetano is predictably killed in one of the most poorly directed and acted scenes in the series so far is just stupid icing on the stupid cake.

My second criticism is that Spock is not only unemotional (understandable), but also acts as though he's unaware that emotion motivates others.  For example, he fails to anticipate that a show of force might anger the giants, rather than scaring them off.  And he fails to understand that in his role as leader, the people under him expect him to follow cultural norms and, for example, bury the dead, even if such an action is not logical by his estimation.

Spock isn't a machine.  He is highly intelligent and highly educated, and so to write this show as though Spock doesn't understand these things is ridiculous.

Other observations about this episode:

Yet another female yeoman.

At one point, Spock insists that three of the (at the time) seven shuttle crew will have to remain behind so that the other four can escape safely.  As it turns out, he never has to make this decision, but it's kind of interesting to think about who Spock would leave behind.  The Yeoman is obviously expendable; McCoy and Scotty obviously are not.  I wonder who the other two "chosen ones" would have been?

No one seems to consider stunning the giants; the only choices discussed are killing them or not killing them (scaring them).

Although the special effects for the giants were laughably bad, the outer space special effects --- of the Murosaki 213 quasar-like effect, and of the flaming fuel coming out of the Galileo shuttle at the end --- were quite good.  I wonder how they were done.  I'm pretty sure computer-generated effects didn't exist in 1966; were they hand-painted?

When the shuttle has been re-launched, and it looks like they're doomed to burn up on re-entry, Spock is reminded that he had earlier said that there are always alternatives.  Spock replies: "I may have been mistaken," to which McCoy responds: "Well, at least I lived long enough to hear that."

In this episode we see the Enterprise has not one, but two shuttles (at least until the Galileo burns up at the end of the show).  On Star date 1672.1, during "The Enemy Within", it appears they had none.

Conventional wisdom holds that the characters who die in any Star Trek episode are the crew members who wear red shirts.  It's worth pointing out that in this episode, the two crewmen who die were wearing yellow.

The Moral of the Story: One does not live by logic alone.

TOS 16: Shore Leave

Original air date: 12/29/1966
Star date: 3025.3

Summary: The crew of the Enterprise badly needs some R&R, including Kirk.  Scouting parties are sent down to a planet to determine whether it may be suitable for shore leave.  Scans indicate no animal life of any kind, but the planet is so beautiful and Eden-like that McCoy tells Sulu the planet is like something out of "Alice in Wonderland".  Shortly after that, McCoy sees a white rabbit looking at his watch and worrying that he's late, and followed by a young blonde girl.

Kirk beams down with his Yeoman du jour --- this time an attractive woman named Barrows --- and a number of astonishing things turn up, including: an old-style police pistol which Sulu, a gun collector, has long wanted; Kirk's long-ago tormentor at the academy, an upperclassman named Finnegan; Don Juan, a tiger, a Samurai, a lot of birds, some WWII-era fighter planes, a medieval knight and a woman named Ruth, who is apparently a long-lost love of Kirk's.

From the Enterprise, Spock notices that a power source below the planet's surface is draining the ship's power while interfering with communications and the ability to transport to or from the surface.  Spock beams down to inform Kirk about this, right about the time phasers, communicators, and the transporter all become unusable.  It looks as though Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu and the rest may be stranded on the planet forever, a prospect which becomes all the more grim when the medieval knight gores McCoy with his lance and kills him.  After Kirk duels Finnegan mano-a-mano and finally beats him, the planet's caretaker appears to explain that the planet is a very sophisticated amusement park, which provides any tangible reality you desire.  He also explains that no changes which take place there are permanent, just as McCoy returns with two attractive and scantily-clad women on his arms.  Power is restored to the ship, everyone has a good laugh, and the crew of the Enterprise gets a highly enjoyable and much-needed shore leave.

Wow, was this show ever dumb.  Shows like this are the reason why non-Trekkies look down on Trekkies with disdain.

Dumb #1: For some reason, it takes Kirk and company about 30 minutes longer to figure out what's going on than it takes the viewer.  Right about 15 minutes in, Yeoman Barrows is attacked by a man dressed as Don Juan.  Only Barrows and Sulu actually see the man, but Kirk and McCoy arrive seconds later to hear Barrows explain:

Yes, yes.  It was --- it's so -- sort of storybook walking around here, and I was thinking 'all a girl needs is Don Juan'.  Just daydreaming the way you would about someone you'd like to meet.

At this point, anyone over the age of 12 should be able to figure out what's going on, but somehow all of the Enterprise crew miss it.

Dumb #2: Additionally, at this point in the show, McCoy has seen Alice and the rabbit, Sulu has found and fired a police gun, Kirk has been attacked by Finnegan and Barrows has been attacked by Don Juan.  It's absolutely freakin' clear that the planet is not devoid of animal life as the crew first thought, and there is ample evidence that it may not be safe to have shore leave there.  A responsible Captain would order the full landing party back aboard the ship --- they still have full use of transporter and communications at this point --- and either continue to monitor the planet from space or find another location for shore leave.  Apparently this never crosses Kirk's mind.  Great leadership there, sir.

Dumb #3: Why the hell does Kirk go running after Finnegan near the end of the show, right after Spock tries to explain to him why all of these unusual things are happening?  He can't be stupid enough to think that of all the stuff he's seen on the planet, Finnegan is the REAL, ACTUAL FINNEGAN --- who hasn't aged a day in 15 years --- and the HE'S the one responsible for what's going on.  Kirk simply cannot be that stupid.  But he runs after "Finnegan" anyway, and we have to sit through 6 full pointless minutes of Kirk fighting him for absolutely no reason.

Dumb #4: When the medieval knight charges McCoy, McCoy stubbornly stands in its path, insisting that it's only an illusion and therefore can't hurt him.  However, at this point in the show, McCoy has seen the White Rabbit and Alice with his own eyes, tracked their footsteps (which Kirk has confirmed he can see as well), heard Sulu fire a police pistol and seen both Sulu and Kirk handle it, and perhaps most important, he's heard Yeoman Barrows' account of be assaulted by Don Juan and seen her uniform torn.  He also knows that Yeoman Barrows is wearing a very real princess costume.

So why would he think the knight doesn't have a physical presence and therefore can't hurt him?

Dumb #5: Strictly speaking, this isn't a criticism of this episode; it's a criticism of "The Menagerie" episodes.  But it's worth pointing out that the residents of Talos IV have pretty much the same capabilities as the residents of this planet: they can give you any experience you want.  The only difference is that the Talosians do it all with illusions, while on this planet, lifelike copies of tigers, guns, people, etc. are cooked up on the fly.  But it's the same basic principle: here AND on Talos IV, you can literally live out any fantasy you want.  What's dumb about this is, we're supposed to believe that Spock, his former Captain Pike, and Starfleet all decided that Talos IV should be off-limits thanks to this ability, making travel to Talos IV a capital offense.  When the crew of the Enterprise encounter this planet, on the other hand, they decide in the end that it's an awesome vacation spot.

The latter conclusion is the correct one, of course, which is what makes "The Menagerie" dumb instead of this episode.

Dumb #6: At the end of the episode, after McCoy and the female crew member Angela are raised from the dead, McCoy marvels at the wonderful technology the inhabitants of this planet have.  Yes, marvelous indeed that they can bring people back to life --- you might think a ship's doctor would have an interest in trying to learn something from them, but instead he just stands there with his artificial bimbettes and laughs about the wonder of it all.

Finally, I wouldn't list this in the "dumb" category necessarily, but no explanation is given about why an energy source is draining the Enterprise's energy, and leaving phasers, communicators, and the transporter useless.  Once we have our happy ending, the ship's power is magically restored.  It's pretty clear the writers threw in that plot point just so the viewer wouldn't wonder "Gee, why don't they all just beam back aboard?"  Of course, as I pointed out above, the viewer had already been wondering that for about 10-15 minutes before this convenient excuse shows up.

Other observations:

Spock's trick to get Kirk to beam down to the planet's surface is entirely predictable, yet still amusing.  That Leonard Nimoy sure is an amusing dry wit.

I wonder who this "Ruth" woman from Kirk's past is?  We never get an explanation.

Why are all Yeomen on the Enterprise female?  First J.M. Colt (when Pike was Captain), then Janice Rand, now Barrows.  There was a male Yeoman early in "The Cage", but that show isn't canon.

The Moral of the Story: Play isn't only fun, it's necessary.

TOS 15: Balance of Terror

Original air date: 12/15/1966
Star date: 1709.2

Summary: Just as Kirk is about to perform a wedding ceremony on the ship, word arrives that Earth Outpost 4 along the neutral zone with the Romulan Empire is under attack.  Communication with Earth Outposts 2 and 3 has been lost as well.  These outposts, as well as a "neutral zone" between the outposts and the planets of the Romulan Empire, were established over a century ago at the conclusion of a previous war between Earth and the Romulan Empire.  Due to the relatively primitive technology in use during the war, neither side knows anything about the other, including what they look like.  And neither side is supposed to enter the neutral zone.

The Romulans are now clearly in violation of this agreement.  Furthermore, the Enterprise quickly learns that the Romulans have invented two new technologies in the past century: A cloaking device, which makes their ships invisible (though still detectable by non-visual means), and a plasma weapon of great power, which has been used to destroy outposts 2, 3, 4 and 8.

The episode unfolds as a battle of wits between Kirk and the Romulan captain, playing hide-and-seek along the neutral zone.  In the end, the Romulan ship is left crippled and unable to return home.  The Romulan captain refuses Kirk's offer to take the surviving Romulans captive aboard the Enterprise, opting instead to destroy his ship.  The Enterprise suffers only a single casualty: the man who was about to be married at the start of the episode.

We also learn that Romulans bear a striking resemblance to Vulcans, which engenders bigotry and suspicion toward Spock from at least one crew member of the Enterprise.

This is my second favorite episode of those I've seen so far, behind "The Corbomite Maneuver".  That episode had better dialog, and although this episode didn't have nearly as many script problems as many of them do, it still had a couple.  But before we get into those ---

There are a number of smaller themes running through this episode, but the central theme, and by far the most interesting one, is the chess match between Kirk and the Romulan warbird commander.  Kirk quickly surmises that the warbird's cloaking device works both ways: you can't see them, but they can't see you, either.  He also quickly guesses that the warbird must decloak in order to fire.  After making these two educated guesses, he orders his crew to "mirror" the warbird's course and position --- so that if the warbird notices the Enterprise using the same non-visual sensors the Enterprise is using to track it, the warbird will think it's just a "shadow" of their own ship.  There's also an interesting (if somewhat puzzling) game played with a passing comet --- some nice visual effects on that, by the way.  And finally, all of this plays out in the context of the neutral zone, which the warbird has already clearly violated, but which the Enterprise is under strict orders to observe (but then, we all know Kirk makes his own rules sometimes, don't we?).

I won't bother to detail all of the cat-and-mouse here, but it's really enjoyable.

The main sub-plot is that of bigotry.  When the crew of the Enterprise learns that Romulans share the physical characteristics of Vulcans, a navigator named Stiles struggles to conceal antagonism toward Spock.  At first, I thought the show might really delve into this issue a la interment of Japanese Americans during WWII, but the issue is only lightly addressed until the end of the show, when Spock saves Stiles' life shortly after Stiles is quite rude to him.

More subtly (I doubt whether the writers did this on purpose), Stiles' bigotry is really stupid, considering Spock's record of service with Starfleet.  But perhaps that's the whole point the writers were trying to make: that bigotry is stupid.

Going back to the main story, there's a subplot there which has to do with attitudes toward war.  For the first time, we see McCoy aggressively championing a pacifist position, with Stiles and (ironically) Spock both urging war, and for the same reason.  Many of Stiles forebears fought in the first Romulan war, so he believes the Romulans to be a warlike race who view pacifism as weakness.  Spock believes the Romulans to be a warlike race because they seem to be an offshoot of his own Vulcan heritage --- and apparently the Vulcans have a very bloody past, despite being a peaceful race today.

Of course, to really understand the Romulan attitude toward war, we need to consider the perspective of a Romulan --- and we get one from the Romulan warbird commander.  His initial instinct --- to return to Romulan territory, and hope the Enterprise follows --- is the correct one.  But he cannot follow through on this instinct because his cultural heritage demands that failing to attack the enemy for any reason is a sign of weakness.  This cultural demand, reinforced by his second in command, causes him to keep attacking the Enterprise even after his ship is almost totally helpless and without enough fuel to get home.  In the end, this Romulan notion of "duty" in battle contributes more to the warbird's destruction than anything the Enterprise does.

The show doesn't end with the destruction of the Romulan ship, however.  It ends with Kirk consoling the fiancee of the Enterprise's lone casualty.  This marks a stark contrast to the beginning of the show, as Kirk was preparing to wed this woman and her now-deceased husband-to-be.  Although at first this ending struck me as unnecessarily sad, I realized it makes an important point.  You can be the "good guys" and fight the good fight, and stand up for your principles, and you can even win --- but that doesn't change the fact that war changes the people on all sides of it, often in quite terrible ways.

Other observations about this episode:

There is a gaffe early in the show, when the Enterprise is viewing real-time video of the Romulan warbird sent by Outpost 4.  We see the warbird fire on the outpost and destroy it, and then the Enterprise screen shows the warbird vanishing as it recloaks.  In reality this couldn't happen, because once Outpost 4 is destroyed, it would no longer be sending the warbird's image to the Enterprise.

In an effort to out-think Kirk, the Romulan commander steers his ship into the trail of a passing comet.  The debris from the comet blocks the Enterprise motion sensors from detecting the cloaked warbird --- but it also makes the Romulan ship visible.  A bit difficult to believe the Romulan would make this mistake.

There are only two really implausible aspects to this episode, and they're both fairly minor.  One is that, despite the fact that the Romulan warbird is invisible for nearly the entire show, the Enterprise phasers appear to hit it every time they shoot at it, even when they're so far away that a hit would be "the wildest stroke of luck".  The other is that the Enterprise survives a nuclear blast less than 100 meters away.  I'm guessing 22nd-century nuclear weapons would effectively vaporize anything within a 100 meter radius, or even a 1,000 meter radius.  100 KILOMETERS away, then yeah, maybe the Enterprise takes minimal damage.

We first see Kirk and Rand openly express intimacy toward one another --- on the bridge no less --- as they put their arms around one another seconds before the Enterprise is hit by the Romulan plasma blast.

Since this series is strictly episodic, I'm sure we'll never see "what happens next", but it's interesting to think about.  No doubt Earth sends reinforcements to the neutral zone, but what then?  Does Earth retaliate against the Romulans, re-starting the war?  I'm guessing not, but I'm curious.

The Moral of the Story: If your duty is to destroy your enemy or die trying, some of the time you end up dead.

The Other Moral of the Story: Win or lose, war is hell.

TOS 14: The Conscience of the King

Original air date: 12/08/1966
Star date: 2817.6

Summary: An old acquaintance of Kirk's, Thomas Leighton, suggests to Kirk that Anton Karidian, the Shakespearean actor, is in reality Kodos the Executioner, a man who had executed 4,000 people on the Earth colony Tarsus IV 20 years before, when serving as the colony's governor.  Kirk initially rejects the idea, taking the official position that Kodos is dead, despite the fact that his body was never positively identified.  Leighton and Kirk are two of only three living humans who have ever seen Kodos in person, with the third being Kevin Riley, another member of the Enterprise crew.

After reviewing the histories of both Kodos and Karidian, Kirk changes his mind and returns to Leighton's home, where Leighton is hosting a party for Karidian's acting company.  Neither Leighton nor Karidian is present, but Kirk meets Karidian's daughter Lenore, who is an actress in her father's company.  Kirk and Lenore seem to take an instant liking to one another, and leave the party for a walk, where they find Leighton's dead body.

Kirk then schemes to take the acting company aboard the Enterprise so that he can investigate further to determine whether Karidian really is Kodos.  Kirk and Lenore continue their relationship, and start to develop genuine feelings of attraction for one another.  Spock catches wind of Kirk's investigation and becomes convinced Karidian IS Kodos, especially after Riley is poisoned and an attempt is made on Kirk's life.

When Riley learns that Karidian may be Kodos, he goes behind the scenes as Karidian's company is staging Hamlet and waits for Karidian with a phaser.  Kirk disarms him and tells him to leave, and thus is backstage to hear Lenore tell Karidian that she's the one who has been killing all witness who can identify him as Kodos.  When Kirk is discovered, Lenore grabs a phaser and attempts to kill Kirk, but ends up killing her father instead.

This show has its heart in the right place.  It would appear it's trying to discuss the issue of Nazi war criminals (Kodos' crimes happened "20 years" before the current time, which would mean 1946 as of this episode's broadcast), which could be laudable or interesting, but it doesn't really delve into the morality of Kodos' crimes much (it does a bit).  And it's certainly not the worst Star Trek episode we've seen so far.  But it has its problems.

For starters, the fundamental premise of the show is that there are only 9 survivors of Kodos' atrocities who have ever seen him.  This makes practically no sense.  Kodos was the Governor of an Earth colony consisting of 8,000 people.  His crime is that he butchered 4,000 of them.  So --- what of the 4,000 survivors?  None of them have ever seen Kodos, except for Kirk, Leighton, Riley and 6 others who (it turns out) are already dead at the start of this episode?  That seems implausible to say the least.

But even granting that, why is it necessary for eyewitnesses to bring Kodos to justice?  There are photos of Kodos in circulation --- Kirk even looks one up on the Enterprise computer --- so everyone knows what he looks like.

And visual evidence isn't the most important thing, anyway.  We find out later in the episode that there is voice identification technology that, according to Kirk, is "virtually infallible".  Kirk even subjects Karidian/Kodos to this test.  So why are eyewitnesses so important?

And why does Kirk need to scheme to get Karidian and his acting company aboard the Enterprise?  When Leighton dies under mysterious circumstances, so soon after expressing his doubts about Karidian to Kirk, Kirk has every reason to suspect that Leighton might be correct.  But I'm pretty sure it would only take a credible person, like, oh, I don't know --- a STARFLEET CAPTAIN --- to suggest that Starfleet investigate Karidian, subject him to the voice test, and be done with it.

Of course that way, Kirk doesn't get to hold hands with Lenore Karidian as much.  And not to stray too far off on a tangent, but this is the second consecutive episode where we see a Captain of the Enterprise getting a tingly feeling for an 18- or 19-year old girl (true, Vina in "The Menagerie" is actually much older, but she LOOKS 18).  We don't actually know how old Pike or Kirk are, but significantly older than 19.  Ew.

But back to the subject of this show's weak premise.  Let's accept that an average person isn't going to make the connection between Karidian and Kodos, and only the 9 survivors of Kodos' atrocities can identify him.  Let's next ask the question: how does Lenore Karidian find the location of those 9 people so she can systematically hunt them down and kill them?  We don't know much about those 9 people except for Kirk (even Leighton and Riley are barely more than ciphers), but it's reasonable to assume that most if not all of them (except Kirk) have a lesser public profile than Kodos did as Governor of an Earth colony.  So where is Lenore getting her information?

Forget that.  Even assuming she had a way figuring it out, and she knows Riley is on the Enterprise, how does she find him?  Kirk reassigns him to Engineering right before Lenore sets foot on the ship, so any information she has about where he works is no longer valid.  And even if she knows he works in Engineering, how does she find Engineering in order to poison him?

For that matter, isn't there any security around Engineering?  Given that it's, you know, probably the most important part of a starship?  Or how about Kirk's cabin?  Apparently Lenore got a phaser from somewhere, set it to overcharge, and hid it in Kirk's cabin.  You mean just anyone can go in there?

Speaking of security, the security team of the Enterprise is really not worth a damn.  In addition to just allowing anyone to go anywhere they like on the ship, they're not very good at carrying out orders.  When Kirk confronts Lenore and Karidian/Kodos backstage, he orders security to take them into custody.  The one security guy who shows up immediately lets Lenore steal his phaser and aim it at Kirk (aren't those guys supposed to block the bullet --- uh, phaser beam --- with their bodies?).  And after Lenore kills Karidian/Kodos by accident while attempting to kill Kirk, the security team is nowhere to be seen.  Kirk eventually ends up taking Lenore into custody himself after letting her monologue over her dead father for a couple of minutes.

Great job protecting your Captain, there, guys.

Okay, enough complaining.  Now here are some simple questions/observations:

Lenore and Kirk discover Leighton's dead body when they're out for a walk.  Considering that Lenore is the one who killed Leighton, why doesn't she make any effort to steer herself and Kirk away from there, to prevent the body from being discovered?

When Kirk does notice the body, he leaves Lenore and goes to check on him.  Since Lenore certainly knows at this point that Kirk is one of the two remaining witnesses, why doesn't she kill him now?  It's certainly not because she's waiting to get on the Enterprise and take out Riley too; at this point, she's expecting to be transported to Benecia colony by the Astral Queen the next day.

Shortly before Lenore arrives at the party at the Leighton's house --- where Kirk and Lenore first meet --- Leighton's wife Martha tells Kirk that her husband ". . . went into town, he called, he's on his way back."  This means that Lenore almost certainly killed Leighton and then went straight to a party at his house.  Cold.

Why is Karidian's acting troupe allowed to leave the planet immediately after Leighton is found dead under mysterious circumstances?

When Kirk finds the overcharging phaser in his cabin, he rushes into the hallway and drops it in a "Pressure Vent Disposal".  I don't know what that is, but a logical guess would be a direct blow out into open space.  If that's what it is, such a thing probably doesn't really function like a mail drop, which is what it looks like.  If that's not what it is, then where did the phaser go?  How is it that the ship (apparently) sustained no damage?

At this point in time (star date 2817.6) the Enterprise has at least one shuttle that travels with it.  I'm guessing that after "The Enemy Within" (star date 1672.1), someone realized that a shuttle would be really, REALLY useful.

Those phasers sure are unpredictable.  Used against androids, sometimes they blow holes in them, sometimes they vaporize them completely ("What Are Little Girls Made Of?").  Used against humans, they kill without leaving any visible marks on the body (when Lenore shoots Karidian).

There's an amusing exchange between McCoy and Spock, which includes this little nugget:

Spock: My father's race were spared the dubious benefits of alcohol.
McCoy: Oh.  Now I know why they were conquered.

This is the first time I've heard about the Vulcans being a "conquered" race.

Still other observations:

It hasn't happened often --- only twice so far --- and it's not bad, but did anyone ever think Uhura's singing added anything to the show?

And finally --- Shatner is confirming my opinion of his acting ability.  He's not bad as a comedic actor, and he does well in certain dramatic pieces, like "The Corbomite Maneuver".  But in this episode, he's wooden all over the place.  It's bad enough that he doesn't really seem to be affected by Leighton's death at the beginning of the show --- he's still flirting with Lenore Karidian (say it with me --- EW!).  But the two climactic scenes with Kirk and Karidian are just awful.  We're talking about mass executions here, and neither actor (William Shatner or Arnold Moss, as Karidian) show much emotion.  Moss is better than Shatner, of course, not that it's a high bar.  But Shatner's performance in this episode is really pretty bad.

The Moral of the Story: Justice shall prevail.

TOS 13: The Menagerie - Part II

Original air date: 11/24/1966
Star Date: 3013.2 (given 15 minutes into the episode)

Summary: Spock's court-martial continues for kidnapping Christopher Pike, former Captain of the Enterprise, staging a mutiny to take control of the Enterprise, and tampering with the ship's computer and charting a course to Talos IV, a planet with which Starfleet has forbidden all contact.  In his defense, Spock presents a series of video transmissions coming from Talos IV, portraying the events when the Enterprise had been there 13 years earlier under Pike's command, with Spock serving as Science Officer.  The judges of the court martial are Captain Pike, who is severely injured and unable to move or speak, Captain Kirk, and Commodore Jose Mendez of Starbase 11.

We learn that the Talosians are a race of humanoids who had destroyed the surface of their planet in a war many years before, and were forced to live underground.  After many centuries, they developed amazing mental abilities, such as the ability to read the minds of others and present extremely detailed and realistic illusions.  We also learn that the Talosians had been systematically imprisoning members of various species from around the galaxy for years, so that they can be entertained by reading their thoughts and feelings.  Pike was captured to be a mate for a human female named Vina, the sole survivor of a spaceship crash which had occurred 18 years before Pike's visit.

In the earlier visit to Talos IV, Pike was eventually able to escape to the surface with Vina, at which point the Talosians made it clear that they had hoped Pike and Vina would serve as an "Adam and Eve" for the planet, populate it with humans, and restore the surface of the planet to the point where it can once again sustain life.  However, when the Talosians learn of the violent history of the human race, they lose interest in Pike and Vina as Adam and Eve.  They allow Pike and the rest of the Enterprise crew to leave the planet, and resign themselves to the extinction of their race.

Returning to Spock's court martial in the present day, Kirk is moved to reconsider Spock's guilt when he realizes Spock's purpose in taking Pike to the forbidden planet was to allow him to spend his remaining years living out one fantasy after another rather than confined to a wheelchair.  When Kirk turns to ask Mendez his opinion, Mendez disappears.  We learn that Mendez had never actually come aboard the Enterprise, and was actually just an illusion placed there by the Talosians.  After Kirk receives a message from the real Mendez back at Starbase 11 informing him that the rules regarding Talos IV would be suspended, we see a young, healthy Captain Pike holding hands with Vina on the surface of Talos IV.

Okay, so here's my process for critiquing these shows.  One day, I watch the show.  I don't write anything down, I just watch it.  The next day, I first write down all of my thoughts about the show I'd seen the previous day.  Then I watch the show a second time, pausing periodically to make notes here and there.  This means that, as a result of "The Cage" being incorporated into "The Menagerie", I've now seen the whole Talos IV thing four times, and I can't get over the absurdity of the premise.

So.  There's this race of Talosians, who have been living underground (by Vina's account) for "thousands of centuries".  As a result, they've developed spectacular mental powers of illusion and telepathy.  Fine.  All well and good.  And apparently they're concerned about dying out because --- well, that part is unclear.  Here's a conversation Vina has with Pike in his cell:

Vina: But they found it's a trap, like a narcotic.  Because when dreams become more important than reality, you give up travel, building, creating.  You even forget how to repair the machines left behind by your ancestors.  You just sit, living and re-living other lives, left behind in the thought record.

Pike: Or sit probing the minds of zoo specimens, like me.

Vina: You're better than a theater to them.  They create an illusion for you, they watch you react, feel your emotions.  They have a whole collection of specimens, descendants of life brought back long ago from all over this part of the galaxy.

This is absurd on its face.  If their mental powers are like a narcotic, then they would eventually die out because they sit around all day immersed in their own hallucinations.  Only, that's not what they do.  They've made the effort to collect specimens "from all over this part of the galaxy", and they're trying to find another race to repopulate the planet and make the surface habitable again.  So, the whole narrative contradicts the notion that they're on the brink of being destroyed by their own mental powers.

Moreover, if they have these wonderful abilities to create illusions, then holding creatures against their wills and torturing them is probably the least effective method possible of repopulating the planet.  If the Talosians really get off on voyeuristically experiencing the thoughts and emotions of other species, and if they can create the illusion of any kind of paradise that pleases someone, then why don't they set themselves up as the Las Vegas of the galaxy?  Bring in 1000 visitors for free, let them experience the wonder of Talos IV, then tell everybody to go home and tell their friends!  They would be rolling in dough, they could afford to bring in terraformers to actually transform the planet's surface if they wanted to, and as a bonus, there would be thousands and thousands of species from all over the galaxy coming voluntarily to stay on Talos IV --- the Talosians would have more thoughts and emotions to eavesdrop on than they would know what to do with!

So the whole premise of the Talosians' motives is beyond weak.

However, taking that at face value, there's also the question of why the Talosians want Pike back.  It becomes clear near the end of part 1 that the Talosians are actually beaming video signals to the Enterprise in real-time, doing everything they can to help Spock get Pike back to Talos IV.  But why?  They've already decided they don't want to breed humans, so what do they have to gain?  They just want one more human to eavesdrop on?  Or do they want to do something nice for Pike, after they imprisoned and tortured him 13 years before?

And in case the Talosians changed their minds about using humans as a breeder race, well, it's unlikely Pike and Vina will be able to oblige them.  We learn that Vina was an adult when her spaceship crashed on Talos IV, which was 18 years before Pike's first visit to the planet, which was 13 years before the present day.  Assuming Vina was 20 when her ship crashed (the youngest member of the Enterprise crew, that we know of, was Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", who was 21), that would make her 51 in the present day.  So her child-bearing years are just about over.

And then there's Pike, who can't even raise a finger.  Not too likely he'll be breeding with Vina.

Anyway, after watching part 1 of this episode, I had asked five questions.  I've re-printed them below, along with the answers we get in part 2:

• How do Spock/Kirk/Pike persuade Mendez to view more forbidden video from Talos IV?  Turns out, they don't.  Mendez starts part 2 by reminding Spock that communication with Talos IV is forbidden, and there are no exceptions.  Spock simply says "You have no choice, sir.  I'm sorry," and goes on his merry way.  Of course I suppose it helps that Mendez is just an illusion.
• Why did Spock and Pike recommend banning future travel to/communication with Talos IV?  We don't get an answer to this, so we must assume it's the reason given by The Keeper (the head Talosian) at the end of the show; humans who linger too long on Talos IV would learn the Talosians' mind tricks, and be doomed as a race just like the Talosians.  Of course, that's absurd, as explained above, but even if it were a valid concern, it apparently took the Talosians "thousands of centuries" to develop their minds in this fashion.  So even if humans did get wise to it, it might take, oh, let's say hundreds of centuries for humans to use it effectively --- hardly an imminent threat, and hardly sufficient reason to make travel to Talos IV a capital offense.
• Early in part 1, Spock tells Pike he has "no choice" but to stage this mutiny.  Why?  This question also is not answered.  It's clear Spock wants to return Pike to Talos IV so he can live out his life in pleasant illusions with Vina, but it's far from clear why Spock has to go about it in such an extreme way.  Considering the ban on travel to and communication with Talos IV only exists as a result of Pike and Spock's recommendation, it seems like a bureaucratic approach would be the most effective (and logical!) way to go about it.  Not good television, no, but believeable television, anyway.
• Why does Kirk forgive Spock for his actions?  At this point, I really don't see how he could.  This part, at least, is plausible.  It turns out Spock didn't really put Kirk's career in jeopardy, so I can see Kirk looking past Spock committing a few crimes on behalf of his former Captain.
• How does Spock get off the hook?  You got me.  He gets off the hook for the court martial on the Enterprise because Mendez was never really there, therefore the whole proceedings were invalid.  And it's possible, though extremely unlikely, that if Kirk chooses to let the matter of mutiny drop, then Starbase 11 would be willing to look the other way as well.  But the whole communication with/travel to Talos IV thing?  Not so much.  Granted, there's never a good explanation as to why travel to Talos IV is a capital offense, but that's the way things are, and capital offenses are almost never shrugged off with a wink and a nod.  And even if we accept that Starfleet is willing to ignore the capital offense and the mutiny, Spock should still be prosecuted for assaulting the two men in the computer room on Starbase 11.

One final observation.  When Spock first meets Pike on Starbase 11 in part 1, he tells Pike that they are 6 days away from Talos IV at maximum warp.  We also learn that the Talosians created the illusion of Commodore Mendez accompanying Kirk on the shuttle from Starbase 11 --- which means the Talosians' powers have pretty damn near unlimited range.

The Moral of the Story: The ends justify the means, even when the means are incredibly contrived.

TOS 12: The Menagerie - Part I

Original air date: 11/17/1966
Star date: 3012.4 (not given until halfway through the show)

Summary: The Enterprise arrives at Starbase 11 after Spock informs Kirk that a request came from Fleet Captain Christopher Pike to fly there.  However Commodore Jose Mendez, who is in charge of Starbase 11, not only insists that no such request was made, such a request is impossible, since Christopher Pike --- Captain of the Enterprise before Kirk --- is now an invalid, and can only answer "yes" or "no" to questions via a flashing light.  We quickly discover that Spock is in the process of staging a mutiny, to take control of the Enterprise and fly with Pike to Talos IV while leaving Kirk behind.

Shortly after Spock's mutiny is discovered, Kirk and Mendez chase after him in a shuttle craft which isn't meant for deep-space travel.  When Kirk and Mendez get stranded in deep space with only 2 hours of oxygen available to them, Spock has no choice but to tow their shuttle in with a tractor beam, confess his mutiny, and turn himself in to McCoy --- now the senior officer on the Enterprise.  But before he turns himself in, Spock programs the ship's computer to continue its course to Talos IV, instructions which Kirk are unable to override once he comes aboard.

Spock is then put on trial for mutiny, and risks being convicted of a capital offense, because visiting Talos IV is the only offense in Starfleet which is punishable by death.  The episode ends with Kirk being relieved of command and the ship on its way to Talos IV, with the conclusion to follow in the next episode.

There were 30 episodes in the series' first season, and The Menagerie episodes were part of the reason why.  Because NBC wanted more episodes, the two-part "The Menagerie" basically re-packaged the footage from the original pilot, "The Cage". Interestingly enough, although this episode is predictably clunky given its origins, it still holds together better than most of the the shows in the series to date.

Having only seen half of the show, it's premature to judge it.  However, perhaps the most obvious difficulty with this episode is the fact that the footage from "The Cage" is not presented as a flashback at Spock's court martial.  Instead, it is presented as video at the court martial, with Spock refusing to explain where it comes from.  At first, this seems remarkably awkward; why did the writers decide to present it as video?  In the end we learn that the video is coming from Talos IV, a fact which results in Kirk being relieved of command, since any communication with the planet is forbidden.  Even though Kirk had no knowledge of the video's origin, the buck stops at the top.

However --- how did Spock obtain this video?  It's unlikely the Talosians just happen to be broadcasting it to the Enterprise just as Spock needs it at his trial.  But if it's a recording of an earlier transmission, then Spock have been communicating with the Talosians for some time.  "Hey, guys, this is Spock, remember me?  Could you please send along any video you might have from the time you kidnapped Captain Pike 13 years ago?  I've just kidnapped him myself, and it would really help me out.  Thanks."

And if the Talosians are sending out the video, we would expect them to send a video more sympathetic to their perspective, and as we know, "The Cage" certainly doesn't cast the Talosians in a positive light.

Another interesting thing I noticed has to do with the Starfleet order prohibiting travel to/contact with Talos IV.  At Starbase 11, Mendez shows Kirk a document about Talos IV, which reads, in part:

The only Earthship that ever visited planet Talos IV was the U.S.S. Enterprise commanded by Captain Christopher Pike with Half-Vulcan Science Officer Spock.

The document goes on to indicate that the recommendation to place Talos IV off limits in the first place came from Pike and Spock --- which makes it all the more puzzling that Spock has now decided to violate that regulation.

Parenthetically, the document twice refers to "Half-Vulcan Science Officer Spock".  Is it really necessary to emphasize Spock's race that way?  And it appears that Spock has no first name.  Also, the document makes no mention of Pike's female second in command, referred to in "The Cage" only as "Number One", which seems odd.

Other observations:

Spock is able to take control of the computer room at Starbase 11 far too easily.  And he has an amazing supply of recordings of Kirk's voice conveniently saying anything Spock happens to need.

The standard Starfleet symbol isn't standard after all --- at least not at this point in the series.  Mendez and others at Starbase 11 have a sun symbol on their shirts.  And at the court martial, their special uniforms have a funky mosaic of colored triangles on their left breasts.

There was a time when not everyone in Starfleet wore this emblem.

In this show, Uhura is not fourth in command.  When Spock surrenders to McCoy, Kirk is still on the shuttle and Sulu is not on the bridge.  Even though Uhura is on the bridge, Spock transfers command to someone named Hanson.

It seems out of character with Starfleet's high ideals to have a death penalty on the books for any reason, especially for simply visiting a planet.  It seems the writers just threw in this detail to increase the dramatic tension of Spock's trial.

Pike indicates during the Enterprise's visit to Talos IV 13 years before, there were 203 people aboard.  In "Charlie X", Kirk says there are 482 aboard.

Finally, I'll be interested to learn the answers to the following questions:

• How do Spock/Kirk/Pike persuade Mendez to view more forbidden video from Talos IV?
• Why did Spock and Pike recommend banning future travel to/communication with Talos IV?
• Early in this episode, Spock tells Pike he has "no choice" but to stage this mutiny.  Why?
• Why does Kirk forgive Spock for his actions?  At this point, I really don't see how he could.
• How does Spock get off the hook?

The Moral of the Story: Stay tuned for Part II.

TOS 11: The Corbomite Maneuver

Original air date: 11/10/1966
Star Date: 1512.2

Summary: The Enterprise is mapping uncharted space --- truly, where no human has gone before --- when they suddenly encounter a large, colorful spinning cube blocking their way.  It does not appear to be a starship with a crew, but rather some kind of beacon or sentinel.  When the Enterprise attempts to retreat back the way they came, the cube follows them, getting closer and closer, until finally Kirk is forced to destroy it with the ship's phasers in order to prevent the cube's radiation from harming his crew.

Afterward, Kirk directs the ship to continue on its original course, reminding his crew that their mission is to "seek out and contact alien life".  In short order, they succeed, as the ship which originally sent out the cube confronts the Enterprise, insisting that destruction of the cube proves that their intentions are not peaceful.  This ship is a huge sphere, at least a mile in diameter.  The alien confronting them is named Balok, and Balok clearly has a technological edge.  He is able to hold the Enterprise, disable its weapons, and examine all data on its computers.  He then informs everyone aboard that he will destroy the Enterprise in 10 minutes, leaving Kirk to try a number of gambits to obtain a reprieve.  During this time, Spock manages to get a blurred image of Balok, a stern-looking humanoid figure.

Kirk successfully bluffs Balok by telling him that the Enterprise contains "corbomite", a substance which will deliver an equal force back to Balok's ship if Balok attempts to destroy the Enterprise.  At this, Balok relents, and sends out a much smaller vessel to tow the Enterprise to a planet where the crew of the Enterprise will be imprisoned for life.  As the larger ship departs, Kirk plots to overpower the smaller ship's engines by pulling against the tractor beam holding them.  His plan succeeds, and as the Enterprise breaks free, the smaller ship is disabled, with Balok aboard.  Balok sends a distress signal to the mother ship, but Kirk is certain the mother ship can't hear it.  Despite Balok's earlier belligerence, Kirk beams over with McCoy and another crewman to aid Balok.  They find that what they thought was Balok was in fact just a puppet, and the real Balok is a smaller, jovial man who invites the Enterprise crew to join him for drinks.  He explains that everything that had come before was only a test, so he could learn the true intentions of those on the Enterprise.

This was definitely the best episode so far.  It had everything: suspense, humor, intrigue, and a surprise ending.  And best of all, there were really no holes in the plot, a first for a Star Trek episode.

A secondary plot was the coming of age of one crewman named (I kid you not) Dave Bailey.  At one point, McCoy compares Bailey to a younger Jim Kirk: impulsive, questioning authority, prone to be overwhelmed by events --- and possibly promoted to the position of navigator before he is ready.  Bailey's lack of experience shows, and as the clock is clicking down on Balok's promise to destroy the Enterprise, Bailey lashes out at everyone on the bridge, and is ultimately relieved of his duties.  He returns to the bridge with only 30 seconds left, asks permission to resume his duties, and Kirk acquiesces --- probably because Kirk doesn't want Bailey to have to die ashamed.  In the end, Kirk gives Bailey an opportunity to redeem himself by beaming over to Balok's ship and staying with Balok as an ambassador of sorts.

This episode is also where we first see Starfleet principles spelled out, by Kirk, on two occasions.  We also see a bit of dry humor from Kirk and Spock on the first of these occasions, after the cube has been destroyed and Kirk has to decide whether to continue on course or go back. 

Kirk: Care to speculate on what we'll find if we go on ahead?
Spock: Speculate?  Well, logically, we'll discover the intelligence which sent out the cube.
Kirk: Intelligence different from ours, or superior?
Spock: Probably both.  And if you're asking the logical decision to make . . .
Kirk: No, no, no.  The mission of the Enterprise is to seek out and contact alien life.
Spock: (After a pause, a bit nettled) Has it occurred to you that there's a certain --- inefficiency --- in constantly questioning me on things you've already made up your mind about?
Kirk: It gives me emotional security.

The second occurs just before Kirk, McCoy and Bailey beam over to Balok's disabled ship to offer aid, when there is still reason to believe Balok is a threat.  When McCoy tries to change Kirk's mind, Kirk responds: "What's the mission of this vessel, doctor?  To seek out and contact alien life, and an opportunity to demonstrate what our high-sounding words mean."

In fact, this is really the first episode where the dialog is worth listening to.  There is some great banter between Kirk and McCoy, and between Kirk and Spock; it is genuinely funny as well as being dramatic.  I won't try to list it all, but I will give two other examples:

When the cube is first encountered, Kirk is undergoing a quarterly physical exam with McCoy.  Kirk can't see the red flashing light indicating an emergency situation, and McCoy doesn't inform Kirk, even though he can see it.  When Kirk finds out about McCoy's omission, he chastises him and then runs out of the room, leaving McCoy all alone as he says: "What am I, a doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?  If I jumped every time a light came on around here, I'd end up talking to myself."

Also, upon seeing the Balok puppet (but not knowing it's a puppet), Spock says it reminds him of his father, which makes Scotty express sympathy for Spock's mother.

Other observations about this episode:

I wonder what Balok would have done if Kirk hadn't come up with "the Corbomite maneuver"?  Surely he would have given some other excuse not to destroy the Enterprise, but what?

Sulu keeps a countdown clock of the 10 minutes Balok has given them before destroying the ship.  It is the same clock we see in "The Naked Time"; however, in this episode, the clock is counting down because it's a timer.  In "The Naked Time", the clock is counting down because they're going backward in time.

I love the final line of Kirk's bluff: "Death has little meaning to us.  If it has none to you, then attack us now.  We grow annoyed at your foolishness."

The Moral of the Story: You stand by your principles even when it's inconvenient to do so.  That's what makes them your principles.

TOS 10: Dagger of the Mind

Original air date: 11/03/1966
Star date: 2715.1

Summary: During a routine exchange of cargo into and out of the penal colony Tantalus, someone manages to escape.  Tantalus soon learns that someone is missing, and notifies Kirk on the Enterprise.  Meanwhile, the escapee, with a crazed look in his eyes, attacks a crewman in the transporter room as well as a security officer before finally coming onto the bridge, pointing a phaser at Kirk, and demanding asylum.

After the escapee is subdued, we learn that he is not an inmate of Tantalus, but is in fact Dr. Simon Van Gelder, assistant to the institution's director, Dr. Adams.  Adams explains that Van Gelder had tried an experimental treatment on himself and things had gone wrong, leaving Van Gelder unstable and violent.  For his part Van Gelder, struggling as if the words he speaks cause him pain, manages to communicate that Adams is practicing mind control on the inmates, taking away their free will and programming them to feel intense pain if they tell anyone what's going on.

In an effort to learn the truth, Kirk beams down to Tantalus with Dr. Helen Noel, a psychiatrist on the Enterprise.  They find Adams to be a genial and compassionate man, consistent with his reputation for making prisons and psychiatric treatment more humane.  However, Kirk begins to have his doubts as he notices that others in the prison seem lifeless.  As Spock uses the Vulcan mind-meld on the Enterprise to learn the truth from Van Gelder, Kirk and Noel experiment with the "neural neutralizer" which Adams has been using on patients, and realize that Van Gelder was telling the truth.  Adams then starts to brainwash Kirk, and it is up to Noel to shut off the prison's security system so that Spock and others can beam down to rescue Kirk.  In the end, Adams is accidentally a victim of his own machine, which ends up killing him.

Of the 10 episodes I've watched so far, this one is the best, and it's not even close.  Let's hope that it just took the series a few weeks to find its way, and more of the remaining shows will be at this level (though we do have the two-part "The Menagerie" episodes coming up soon, which as far as I can tell are a slightly modified rehash of the original pilot, "The Cage").  There are a number of things which make this episode stand apart from those which came before.

For starters, this is the first show which doesn't rely on a space setting, where someone has super powers or a bizarre disease.  This is really a show about humane treatment of the mentally ill, a show which could have been set in the contemporary U.S. --- though of course, the show would have been much more controversial in such a setting.

And let's not minimize the importance of this fact.  A major reason many Trekkies give for loving the show is that Roddenberry used it (in much the same manner as Jonathon Swift 200 years before) to present an important message wrapped in the innocuous disguise of space fluff.  This show would seem to be the first example of this practice.

Another thing which puts this episode head and shoulders above the others is that the plot doesn't have any holes large enough to pilot a starship through.  The script isn't perfect, as we'll see, but it holds together much better than most to this date.

Other things I liked about this episode include:

This is the first time we see another crew member challenge Kirk's authority as Captain.  When Van Gelder is first restrained, Kirk simply wants to return him to Tantalus, taking at face value the notion that Van Gelder is a dangerous lunatic.  As for Van Gelder's request for asylum, Kirk is all too willing to trust Dr. Adams and the reputation he's built over 20 years as an innovator in humane treatment and rehabilitation of prisoners.  Kirk only investigates Van Gelder's claims of abuse because McCoy forces him to do so, informing Kirk that he will enter his doubts in his medical log, thus requiring Kirk to respond to them.  Quite a change from the way Spock allowed Kirk to remain in command for the duration of "The Enemy Within".

James Gregory was a great choice to play Dr. Adams.  Not only does he play the role well --- the seemingly genial, compassionate Doctor who in reality insists on controlling everyone and everything around him --- but seeing him here reminded me of another time he played a role in a story about mind control: The Manchurian Candidate.  Viewers in the 1960's would not have necessarily made this connection, because Gregory appeared in a lot of movies/TV between the release of The Manchurian Candidate in 1962 and this episode in 1966, but it sure stood out for me.

The way we're introduced to Tantalus is great, too.  It starts with Kirk and Noel taking a harrowing elevator ride --- not sure what that is all about --- but when we first meet Adams, he's smiling and offering them drinks.  And the atmosphere of Tantalus is very much like a spa rather than a prison; the staff all wear light blue robes which have an emblem of an open hand, the sun (or I guess I should say *a* sun, shouldn't be Terra-centric here), and a dove.

And once that sunny impression has had a chance to sink in, we meet the first resident of Tantalus, and notice her dull eyes.  Then, like Kirk (but not Noel, strangely --- not a particularly perceptive psychiatrist), we notice that all of the residents other than Adams have the same vacant, dull expression.

Another bit of great writing was the way the story is presented in parallel in two separate locations.  Kirk and Noel are learning the truth first-hand by experimenting with the neural neutralizer on Tantalus, while at the same time, Spock and McCoy are learning the truth via Spock's mind-meld with Van Gelder.

The mind-meld is a great device as well, in that it allows us to see the normally emotionless Spock empathize with the feelings of loneliness and horror Van Gelder experienced.  By doing it this way, the revelation that Van Gelder is telling the truth has greater impact than it would otherwise.

Things I didn't like about this episode include:

Dr. Helen Noel is an extremely attractive woman, and we learn that she and Kirk had some kind of dalliance (though apparently it didn't go far enough for Dr. Noel's tastes) at an earlier Christmas party.  This Kirk/Noel romance thread runs throughout the episode, but it serves no point at all.

In fact, when Adams has Kirk in the chair under the neural neutralizer, he implants the idea in Kirk's mind that Kirk is madly in love with Noel and has been for years --- reinforcing and intensifying an idea Noel had already started to place there.  But there's no point to it.  For a while I thought that Adams was going to deal with Kirk by making him be madly in love with Noel, then making him kill her, thus getting rid of Noel and leaving Kirk a broken criminal.  This would make for great drama, even though it doesn't really make any sense --- Adams wants to get out of this with no one asking any more questions than necessary.  But since it turns out that's not Adams' plan, what was the point?

When Van Gelder first comes aboard the Enterprise, he attacks two crew members and storms onto the bridge with a phaser.  If what he really wants is asylum, why does he need to attack anyone?  That doesn't really make sense.

My only other objection to this episode --- and it's small --- is that it seems far too easy for Noel to move around Tantalus via the HVAC shafts.  And for that matter, once she's in the control room, it seems far too easy for her to shut off the power.  I know Tantalus is supposed to be more like a spa than a prison, but I mean come on.  It IS still a prison.

Other observations about this episode:

This is the first time in the series we see the use of the Vulcan mind meld, when Spock mind-melds with Van Gelder to understand the truth.

Somewhat amusing that Kirk first met 'Dr. Noel' at a Christmas party.

When Kirk and Noel experiment with the neural neutralizer, they do so without Dr. Adams' permission (of course).  They know Van Gelder's accusations, so they know what Dr. Adams is capable of if Van Gelder is telling the truth.  Seems a bit careless of them to just waltz into the control room.

And it would have been a great dramatic ending if Kirk were to destroy the neural neutralizer with his phaser.  Instead, we never really see that enduring Adams' torture has had any effect on Kirk at all.

The neural neutralizer is first presented as a more humane alternative to drug treatment.  I wonder what real-world treatments have been championed in that manner, only to find later that they were more brutal?

This is the first time we see a woman actually fight back against oppression, when Dr. Noel kicks one of Tantalus' guards into the power controls.  Yay, Dr. Helen!  Yes, we saw Dr. Dehner fight Mitchell in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", but that doesn't really count because she was partly a god at that point.

AND FINALLY --- speaking of Dr. Dehner, we've now seen two Enterprise psychiatrists who are 100% completely slammin' babes: Sally Kellerman as Dr. Dehner in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and now Marianna Hill as Dr. Noel.

The Moral of the Story:  Just because someone is ranting like a lunatic doesn't mean what they're saying is nonsense.  Sometimes they're ranting like a lunatic because what they're saying is the truth.

Trekkies Go Mainstream

As you have no doubt noticed, I've taken a brief hiatus from dissecting Star Trek episodes.  This is going to happen every two weeks, when my kids come to visit.  Things will get much more interesting in May, when my fiancee and her two kids move in.

In any event, regular posting will resume tomorrow.  Until then, take a look at this interesting video from 1979 on the phenomenon known as 'Trekkies':

A couple of interesting things that caught my attention.  Apparently Uhura was fourth in command on the original Enterprise, behind Kirk, Spock, and Sulu --- though that certainly hasn't been made clear in any of the episodes I've seen so far.  Second, Downs makes references to hard-core fans watching "all 79" episodes of the original series.

Of course, at the time this report aired, the original pilot "The Cage" still hadn't been broadcast, and was presumed lost.

TOS 9: Miri

Original air date: 10/27/1966
Star date: 2713.5

Summary: The Enterprise responds to a distress signal coming from an unknown planet, and the crew is shocked to find that it appears to be an exact duplicate of Earth.  A landing party beams down, consisting of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Yeoman Rand, and two anonymous security officers.  Judging by the architecture of the buildings they find, Spock estimates the era to correspond approximately to the Earth's 1960's.

In a search for other inhabitants, the crew finds Miri, a young girl on the cusp of puberty.  Miri is initially afraid of the crew --- 'grups' she calls them, short for grownups.  The crew gradually figure out that all adults on the planet were wiped out by a plague of sorts, one that only affects grownups, and claims children as they enter puberty.  The disease was an accidental side-effect of research which drastically slows the aging process.  The children on the planet are all over 300 years old, but are still physiologically children because their bodies only age by 1 month every century.

Since all members of the landing party are now infected, Spock and Bones must race against time to find a cure, and their efforts are hindered by the children, who mistrust all 'grups' since grownups become violent and frightening as they succumb to the disease.  A cure is developed just as Miri is starting to show signs of infection.

Of the nine shows I've seen so far, I think this was one of the better ones.  The dynamic between Kirk and Miri --- a young girl blossoming into womanhood, and developing a schoolgirl crush on the dashing Captain --- is fun to watch.  And the whole "Lord of the Flies" angle is truly chilling when the children kidnap Rand and use her as bait to lure Kirk into a trap.

Unfortunately, there is one rather glaring problem with the writing that gets in the way of the story, and that is the two security guards who beam down with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Rand.  The guards are present for about the first 20 minutes, then they conveniently disappear and aren't seen again until the climactic scene, when we don't know whether McCoy has killed or cured himself with the vaccine he and Spock developed.

Miri is happy to hang out with the Enterprise crew, but the rest of the children hide from them.  So, why not send the security guys to go find them?  Spock believes that they can't be found, that they know the terrain too well, "like mice", but I'm pretty sure two trained Starfleet security officers could track them down.  Similarly, when the children sneak in to the lab and steal everyone's communicator, why aren't the security officers dispatched to try to get them back?  And wouldn't the security guards have their communicators with them?  So Spock and McCoy should still be able to use those communicators to talk to the Enterprise.

When Rand is kidnapped, why don't the security officers go look for her?

Why does Kirk go alone to find the kidnapped Yeoman Rand, instead of taking the security guys with him?  The answer is obvious; if the security guys are there, we can't play "Lord of the Flies".

But the aspect of the vanishing security officers was hard to overlook.

There's another elephant in the room, which is that the kids looked like they'd been living without adults for maybe a month.  If they'd really been without adults for more than 300 years, then they would probably be much dirtier and either naked or wearing rags instead of raggedy clothes.  Plus, they either would have some hidden cache of food or become hunter/gatherers in order to feed themselves.

Now, I understand that the writers want to tell a story which is a variation on the "Lord of the Flies" theme, and I understand that they only have 50 minutes to do it in.  So details like these are necessarily swept under the rug.  I'm fine with that, provided they stay under the rug.  But late in the show, Kirk mentions something about the childrens' food supplies running out.

NO!  NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!  Either ignore the whole question of how they've remained alive this long, or address it properly, but DON'T DO THIS!  Now the writers have made the viewer think about the question of where the children have gotten their food, water and clothing for 300 years, and now the viewer is thinking "Gee whiz.  Did they, like, have a 300-year supply of SPAM that just ran out, or what?"

A more glaring problem, actually, and one that could have been easily taken care of, is that the landing crew is on the planet for 7 days (except for the security guys who, as I mentioned above, must have been off on a smoke break somewhere), and they look like they've been there 7 hours.  Yeoman Rand's basket-weave hairdo looks exactly the same, even though I very much doubt she's washing it every night and reassembling it every morning, and the men are all clean-shaven for all 7 days, even though they have much more pressing matters to attend to than shaving.

Other observations about this episode:

The crew seems remarkably unconcerned when they learn a plague wiped out all the adults on the planet, even though Kirk had just subdued an infected individual by punching him in the face 3 times.  Fist to face, blood, saliva, you'd think he might decide to wash his hands about then.

For that matter, the crew seems remarkably unconcerned when they learn they're all infected with a plague that wiped out all the adults on the planet.  Why didn't they beam down wearing protective gear, like Spock and Tormolen did at the beginning of The Enemy Within?  Not that it did Tormolen much good.

Sure is convenient for the plot that all of the landing party --- by which I mean everyone but the AWOL security men --- left their communicators unattended in the lab where the children could steal them.  Even Rand left her communicator behind when she went out for a walk with Miri.

Thinking that she and Kirk are going to die, Rand admits feelings of attraction for Kirk for the first time (that we know of), telling him that she always wanted him to look at her legs --- which now have purple blisters on them, due to the infection.  Kirk has never admitted feelings of attraction for Rand (that we know of), though of course his evil duplicate Jirk confessed an attraction for her in The Enemy Within, right before he attacked her.

I understand they have other things on their minds, but they show remarkably little curiosity about how a 1960's Earth showed up "hundreds of light years" from our Earth.  Spock notes that it is the "third planet" from their sun; but no one looks to see whether our whole solar system is duplicated.  Even at the end of the show, when the crisis is over, they just set course for their next destination, with no further investigation to this stunning development.

Those Starfleet uniforms sure tear easily.

The Moral of the Story: From Kirk, when Rand asks him why Miri is hanging out with the landing party: "I think children have an instinctive need for adults.  They want to be told right and wrong."

TOS 8: What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Original air date: 10/20/1966
Star Date: 2712.4

Summary: The Enterprise arrives at the planet Exo-III in the hopes of finding the renowned doctor Roger Korby, a man who "revolutionized immunization techniques" and the long-lost fiance of Nurse Christine Chapel.  The planet's surface temperature is 100 degrees below zero (presumably Fahrenheit), and Kirk and Spock and certain that Dr. Korby, who hasn't been heard from in 5 years, must be dead.  But to their surprise, Korby responds to their call, and asks that Kirk beam down to the planet alone to discuss a sensitive matter.  When Korby learns that his fiancee is on board, he agrees to have her come down as well.

It turns out Korby has been living in underground caves first created by Exo-III's original inhabitants centuries ago.  We also quickly find out that Korby has discovered how to use the previous inhabitants' machinery to create androids.  In addition to Korby, there's his android assistant Brown, his other android assistant Andrea --- an attractive female who walks around nearly topless, and Ruk, an android created by Exo-III's original inhabitants, and who has been maintaining their machinery for centuries.

Ruk kills two Enterprise security officers who beam down after Kirk and Chapel, in the name of protecting Korby.  Korby explains that he wanted Kirk to come without other crew members, so Kirk will consider Korby's project with an open mind.  Korby goes on to describe how androids can revolutionize the universe and to demonstrate, he makes an android copy of Kirk (henceforth known as 'Kirkdroid').  While Kirkdroid returns to the Enterprise to collect information about where Korby might set up production of his androids, Kirk attempts to escape but is captured by Ruk.  Kirk then uses clever psychological tricks to get Korby to destroy Ruk, Andrea to destroy Kirkdroid, and Korby to destroy both Andrea and himself.  In the process, we learn that Korby is himself an android, created by the real Dr. Kirby when he had frozen nearly to death.  When Spock arrives with the cavalry as the result of another clever trick Kirk played when Kirkdroid was created, there's nothing for him to do but ask where Dr. Korby is.

8 shows in, and this is already the second time we have two Kirks.

It seems that the writers want the message of this episode to be that no matter how much machines/computers/androids advance, they will never replace humans, because they will always lack humanity.  But their presentation of this message is rather confused.

Korby presents all of the androids --- with the exception of himself --- as machines which will follow orders.  However, Kirk asks Ruk about what happened to the old inhabitants of Exo-III, and Ruk suddenly remembers that the androids destroyed them because the androids came to see them as a threat.  This means that the old-school androids became self-aware.  And indeed, Ruk seems happy to have finally found an "equation" which allows him to ignore his programming and attack Korby.  That sounds pretty human.  Also, it often seems Ruk chafes against Korby's orders not to harm Kirk.  But a machine which just follows orders wouldn't even consider whether they agreed with the orders they were given.

Similarly, Andrea is a good little android for most of the show, just following orders.  But then Kirk embraces her in a passionate kiss, which upsets her because, she says: "I'm not for you."  However, she must have liked the kiss, because when she later encounters Kirkdroid, she mistakes him for Kirk, and has the following exchange:

Andrea: I will kiss you.
Kirkdroid: No.
Andrea: You --- you will not?
Kirkdroid: It is illogical.

So Andrea shoots him.  That sounds pretty human.

In fact, the only time an android demonstrably fails to act human is when Korby is revealed as an android.  He then claims to be the full Roger Korby --- intellect, memories and soul --- and says

I'm not a computer.  Test me.  Ask me to solve any ---  Equate --- Transmit ---

So --- not very human.  But as his fiancee, Nurse Chapel knows the real Korby better than anyone, and she never shows any indication that the Korby in the show might not be the "real" Roger Korby.  Indeed, at one point she is talking with Kirkdroid --- she thinks it's really Kirk --- and he asks whether Korby might be going mad, to which Nurse Chapel replies: "No, you're forgetting how well I know him.  He's as sane as you or I."  If the android Korby could fool even his fiancee, then he must be pretty human, right?

Other observations about the show:

Kirk is able to turn Ruk against Korby by convincing Ruk that, as a human, Korby is a threat to all androids.  This is absurd on its face, since Korby is planning to manufacture androids by the millions.  However, it suggests that Ruk doesn't know that Korby is himself an android.  How is this possible?  By Korby's account, the real Korby had lost his legs and was nearly dead when he transferred into his android body; how did he do that without Ruk's help?  Perhaps he erased that part of Ruk's memory --- Ruk acknowledges that Korby programmed him --- but how did Korby manage to get Ruk under his control under any circumstances?

Andrea is pretty wimpy, for an android.  Kirk overpowers her early in the show with little effort.

More than once, we're told that Ruk has "forgotten" events from long ago, but later Kirk is able to help him recall how the original inhabitants of Exo-III were destroyed.  Of course this is ridiculous; computer memories don't get "foggy".

At one point, Kirk attempts to overpower Ruk by hitting him with a stalactite.  It's not clear why he thinks this will work.

When Kirk shoots Brown, we see his android innards.  When all of the other androids are destroyed by phaser blasts, they're completely vaporized.  I'm guessing this decision was driven by the show's budget and/or shooting schedule.

The writers kindly gave us an easy way to distinguish between Kirk and Kirkdroid.  Kirk is wearing a blue and green jumpsuit (just like Korby, Brown and Andrea), while Kirkdroid is wearing the standard Captain's uniform.  Somehow Andrea forgets this when she encounters Kirkdroid, mistakes him for Kirk, and vaporizes him.

When Kirk's thoughts are being transferred to Kirkdroid, Kirk cleverly creates a racial slur about Spock (calls him a "half-breed"), so that idea is fresh in Kirkdroid's mind.  The ploy works like a charm, as Kirkdroid calls Spock a half-breed during their brief encounter on the Enterprise, thus signaling Spock that something is wrong.  But since Kirkdroid knows all of Kirk's memories, he would know that the "half-breed" slur is trick.

And finally . . .

There's no way Kirk would voluntarily allow himself to be duplicated, which means Korby must have forced him to comply.  This is certainly not the best way to get Kirk to see the wisdom of Korby's vision.  It also means that there was no reason for Kirk to wait until after Kirkdroid was created and off to the Enterprise before using his clever tricks to get all the androids to destroy one another.

The Moral of the Story: I have no idea.

TOS 7: Mudd's Women

Original air date: 10/13/1966
Star Date: 1329.8

Summary: The Enterprise stumbles upon the starship of felon Harry Mudd, known counterfeiter, smuggler and all-around slimeball.  Mudd tries to evade the Enterprise by entering an asteroid field, a maneuver which ends with Mudd's ship destroyed, along with all but one of the Enterprise's lithium crystals, leaving the Enterprise with minimal power.  Kirk sets course for nearby mining planet Rigel 12 to obtain replacement lithium crystals, and in the meantime Harry Mudd is put under scrutiny.

Mudd was beamed to the Enterprise just before his ship was destroyed, along with his 'cargo': three beautiful mail-order brides who are all unnaturally alluring to the men of the Enterprise.  Mudd is arrested on various charges, but sees an opportunity on Rigel 12.  He contacts the miners via subspace communication before the Enterprise arrives, and makes his own deal with them.  When Kirk sits down to bargain with the miners, they inform him that the lithium crystals are not for sale; but they will trade the crystals to Kirk in exchange for the women and Mudd's freedom.

Kirk initially objects, but with just hours left before the Enterprise loses all power and starts an inexorable spiral toward the planet's surface, he agrees to the miners terms and the women are beamed down to the planet's surface.  However, one of the women, Eve, runs out into a sandstorm and is lost for several hours.  After the miner Childress finds her and brings her back to his cabin, he notices that she is no longer beautiful.  Kirk and Mudd arrive to explain that Eve's unnatural beauty, as well as that of the other two women, is the result of them taking an illegal drug supplied by Mudd.  Eve then demonstrates by consuming what she thinks is the drug, becoming beautiful again.  Kirk explains that she took a placebo, but she is beautiful again because she believes she is.  With this new, more enlightened understanding of human beauty, Childress gives Kirk the lithium crystals, and Kirk takes Mudd back to the authorities.

This episode isn't nearly as bad as The Enemy Within, but it does leave you scratching your head.  Roger C. Carmel is very good as Harry Mudd --- he's slimy, opportunistic and despicable.  And the way we are first introduced to him is good, too: he suddenly materializes in the transporter room, looking very much like an 18th century pirate.

For roughly the first half of the show, we are left wondering why the women have such a strong effect on the crew of the Enterprise.  At one point, one of the women, Ruth, accidentally walks in front of a medical scanner in sickbay, and it behaves strangely, leading the viewer to believe that she might perhaps be an android or some other synthetic life form.  Of course later on, we learn that all three women are rather ordinary-looking in reality, and their exceptional beauty and effect on men is a result of taking the "Venus drug", which is an illegal substance supplied to them by Mudd.

Mudd's scheme is to sell these women off on unsuspecting husbands.  This is awfully close to human trafficking, and the one saving grace is that the women are participating voluntarily; they want husbands badly enough to go along with Mudd's plan.  The question of what will happen to them after they're married off and stop taking the Venus drug is never really addressed.

The fact that the women want to marry the Rigel 12 miners *almost* makes Kirk's decision to agree to the miner's demands palatable.  Heck, lithium is expensive; if Kirk can get it from the miners by letting the women do what they want to do anyway, where's the harm?  The only harm --- and it's no small matter, really --- is that the miners are allowed to think that trading lithium for human beings is acceptable.

For about 40 minutes, though, the show makes sense.  Mudd seems to have wriggled his way out of trouble and have Kirk over a barrel.  Eve returns to Childress' cabin with less than an hour until the Enterprise has used up all of its power, and Kirk still doesn't have the lithium crystals.  Mudd has won, it seems.

And then all of a sudden, Kirk tells Spock: "Have Mudd meet me in the transporter room," and babbles something about "the name of the game".  At this point, there is no reason to think Kirk knows about the Venus drug, and also no reason to think that Mudd will gladly accompany Kirk to the surface to help obtain the crystals, even if he did.  And yet, that's exactly what happens.  Mudd and Kirk sit down with Eve and Childress, and Mudd explains about the Venus drug.  He hands Eve a placebo which Kirk had previously given him, and Eve takes it, thinking it's the real drug.  When Eve regains her beauty, Mudd and Kirk together explain how it could be possible without the Venus drug, saying:

Kirk: "There's only one kind of woman,"
Mudd: "Or man, for that matter."
Kirk: "You either believe in yourself --- or you don't."

Touching, yes.  Bushwah, yes.  And totally inconsistent with the dynamic between Mudd and Kirk up until that point in the show.  I was really hoping that, in the last two minutes, we would hear some great explanation from Kirk about how he figured Mudd must be using the Venus drug on the women, how he forced Mudd to help him, etc., etc., but no.  Nothing.  Mudd's change of heart comes completely out of thin air, and thus is completely unbelievable.

Other observations on the show:

Mudd's ship is destroyed as the Enterprise is in the process of beaming the women over.  The women don't arrive in the transporter room until 15 seconds or so after the ship is demolished.  How does that work?

The hearing where the board of Kirk, Scotty, and other men are interrogating Mudd is quite amusing.  They play the standard "lie detector" game, where the computer calls out each of Mudd's lies, but the really funny part is when Spock asks the computer if it can tell anything about the women by doing some kind of scan on them.  The computer reports nothing unusual about the women, but reports: "Unusual reading on male board members.  Detecting high respiration patterns, perspiration rate up, heart beat rapid, blood pressure higher than normal."  Kirk orders Spock to strike these observations from the record.

The miners all reject Eve initially despite her beauty, because the dust in the air makes her cough.  The rejection sends her into despair, and she runs out into a sandstorm for more than 3 hours.  When Childress finally finds her and brings her back to his cabin, she doesn't cough once.

If Uhura's skirt were any shorter, this episode would be X-rated.

The Moral of the Story: Self-confidence is sexy.