Star date: 3196.1
Summary: The Enterprise is called out to the Janus-6 pergeum mines in response to a series of deadly attacks on the miners by a strange, shaggy, fast-moving creature who has been destroying mining equipment and has killed 50 miners using a highly-corrosive acid. The attacks began about 3 months before, when the miners opened up tunnels on a lower level.
When receiving the director's report about the attacks, Spock is intrigued by a "silicon nodule" on his desk, a bit smaller than a basketball. The director explains that they are a geological oddity, found in the lower levels of the mine.
As the Enterprise crew begins its search for the creature, it attacks again, killing yet another miner and stealing the main circulating pump for the whole station, which is required to keep the mines filled with breathable air. Scotty is able to jury-rig a short-term solution, but if the pump is not found soon, the entire mining colony will need to be evacuated. Spock theorizes that the creature took the pump intentionally to force the humans to leave the planet. Spock also makes a convincing case that the creature is a new kind of life form; silicon-based, rather than carbon-based.
Later in the tunnels, Spock and Kirk encounter the creature, and drive it away with phaser blasts, severing a piece of its body in the process. Based on an analysis of the tunnels the creature makes through solid rock, Spock concludes that it must be the last of its kind, and that therefore killing it would be a "crime against science". Kirk insists that the creature must be killed to allow the continued mining of pergeum, which is necessary to support life on other planets, and Spock reluctantly agrees. Enterprise security personnel are beamed down to assist in the search for the creature, with orders to kill.
Kirk is the next member of the crew to encounter the creature, but he does not kill it. He is able to keep it from attacking by threatening it with his phaser. Spock arrives, and through the use of a Vulcan mind meld, we learn that the creature is called a Horta, and is in great pain from its injury. Hoping that a show of friendship will encourage the creature to return the circulating pump, Kirk signals McCoy to beam down to treat the creature's wound. Through the mind meld with Spock, the creature tells Kirk where the pump is located. Kirk finds it in a room filled with more silicon nodules, many of them broken, and realizes that these silicon nodules are eggs. The Horta has been attacking the miners because they had unknowingly been destroying her eggs.
McCoy successfully saves the Horta, and via Spock's mind meld, the Horta and the miners agree to peacefully coexist on the planet and leave each other alone. The Horta and her remaining offspring also act as very effective drills for the miners, allowing them to extract far greater quantities and varieties of minerals than they had before, making them rich beyond their wildest dreams.
This was a pretty good episode. Certainly it carries a great message of understanding and peaceful resolution of differences, and it has a happy ending for the Horta and certainly for the miners. And this is the second consecutive episode where the writing holds together fairly well (though it's not perfect) --- dare we hope that the writers get on a roll? I've been disappointed before.
My main disappointment with this episode is that the outcome was fairly obvious. As soon as Spock argues that the creature is a silicon-based life form, it's obvious that the "silicon nodules" are either the Horta's eggs or its feces --- and the show wouldn't be as compelling if they were feces --- but it takes another half-hour or more even for brainiac Spock to piece it together (or at least, he doesn't tell anyone until near the end of the show). Maybe I was able to figure this out more or less immediately because I have the advantage of another 45 years of sci-fi shows and movies since this aired, but whatever the reason, I didn't feel nearly the suspense I think I was supposed to feel.
Other observations about this episode:
When Spock suggests that the Horta is a silicon-based creature, McCoy objects: "Silicon-based life is physiologically impossible, especially in an oxygen atmosphere." Yet at the end, Spock, Kirk and McCoy are walking around what is clearly the Horta nesting area, with eggs everywhere, and they're breathing the air just fine. So I guess McCoy was just dead wrong, and the oxygen atmosphere makes no difference to the Horta.
The Horta is mostly a shapeless lump, and it burrows through rock (and kills people) using highly corrosive acid. So how did it manage to take the circulating pump without destroying it? For that matter, if it wanted the humans off the planet, why did it merely steal the pump instead of destroying it?
And yes, late-1960's special effects were pretty atrocious. Not only is the Horta clearly foam rubber laid on top of some sort of wagon or something, but it actually moves very slowly --- despite the fact that it is supposedly so fast a man doesn't have time to aim a phaser at it.
At one point, Kirk wants Spock to return to the surface, to minimize the risk that they both get killed. Spock calculates that the odds against the Horta killing both of them are 2228.7 to 1 against. Of course, they then continue to search for the Horta together, which I think probably greatly increases the risk.
The Enterprise security team is its usual feckless self, allowing the miners to rush in to where McCoy is trying to save the Horta's life.
This is the first instance I recall McCoy telling Kirk what he's not. When Kirk orders him to save the Horta, McCoy objects: "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"
And finally, the episode concludes with a wonderful bit of dialog between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, when Spock reveals to them what the Horta thinks of humans:
Spock: She found humanoid appearance revolting, but she thought she could get used to it.The Moral of the Story: If you can understand your opponent's point of view, you may find a win-win solution.
McCoy: Oh she did, did she? But tell me, did she happen to make any comment about those ears? (Referring to Spock's pointy Vulcan ears)
Spock: Not specifically, but I did get the distinct impression she found them the most attractive human characteristic of all. I didn't have the heart to tell her that only I have . . .
Kirk: She really liked those ears?
Spock: Captain, the Horta is a remarkably intelligent and sensitive creature, with impeccable taste.
Kirk: Because she approves of you?
Spock: Really, Captain, my modesty . . .
Kirk: Does not bear close examination, Mr. Spock. I suspect you're becoming more and more human all the time.
Spock: Captain, I see no reason to stand here and be insulted.
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