Star date: 3287.2
Summary: The Enterprise is tracking a case of mass insanity across the galaxy, with the Deneva system --- which happens to be the home of Captain Kirk's brother Sam and his family --- the next one at risk. As they arrive, they find a Denevan space ship flying directly into the sun. They are unable to save the lone occupant of the ship, but right before he dies, they hear him yell in exultation: "It's finally gone! I'm free!"
They beam down to Deneva to discover Kirk's brother already dead, and that the mass insanity has overtaken that planet. Kirk's sister-in-law Aurelan and his nephew Peter are still alive, but in great pain. They return to the Enterprise with Kirk and McCoy, who examines them. Aurelan can barely speak due to her pain, but tells Kirk and McCoy that "terrible things" have taken over the planet, and are using the Denevan colonists as their "arms and legs" to travel to other planets. Kirk returns to the surface to search for these "terrible things" --- and they find them: strange creatures, like jellyfish without tentacles, which can fly, which do not register as life forms on the tricorder, and which seem to be unaffected by phaser blasts. One of them attacks Spock, and inserts something into his back. By the time McCoy examines Spock on the Enterprise, he finds the creature implanted an organism into Spock which has intertwined with his nervous system, and cannot be removed by conventional methods.
In this manner, the creatures have been able to overtake several human colonies, and control their actions by inflicting great pain on them unless they do as instructed. In this way, they cause Spock to attempt to overtake the Enterprise. Spock is subdued, and when he regains consciousness, he claims to have reasserted control over the parasite inside him, using mind over matter to handle the pain. Spock returns to the surface and retrieves one of the creatures for further study. The creature proves resistant to extreme heat and radiation. Kirk is faced with a lose-lose proposition: either allow the creature to continue to spread and wipe out other human colonies, or end the creature's spread by killing all one million Denevan colonists, as well as Spock and his own nephew.
At Kirk's repeated insistence that Spock and McCoy find a third option, they recall the Denevan who flew his spaceship into the sun, and how that appeared to free him from the creature. They conclude that the creature can be killed by extremely bright light, and prove it by destroying the specimen Spock retrieved in this manner. They then apply the procedure to Spock, who refuses to wear any eye protection because: "There'll be none on the planet's surface." The bright light kills the parasite in Spock, but also leaves him blind. Too late, they discover that only one part of the light spectrum is required to kill the parasite, a part that is not visible to humans (or Vulcans), and thus Spock was blinded needlessly. Using a system of 120+ satellites, the Enterprise bathes Deneva in the appropriate light to kill the creatures, thus saving the planet.
In the end, we learn that Spock's blindness was only temporary, thanks to the protective effects of an additional set of eyelids which Vulcans evolved due to living under their own bright sun.
I don't have a lot to say about this episode. There were a couple of klunky parts to the script, but on the whole it was pretty good. I was certainly mystified as to how they would resolve their problem --- I thought perhaps the sun's gravitational pull was the key factor, I didn't consider light. And there's good dramatic tension after Spock's failed attempt to take over the Enterprise. He claims sedatives and restraints are no longer necessary, that he is in control of his pain and can return to duty; but you don't know whether it's really Spock talking, or whether the parasite is making him say it as a bluff to once again position himself so that he might take over the ship.
The secondary plot, how this affects Kirk's family and is thus personal for him, is only touched on in the beginning of the episode, and Kirk gives no indication that he is deeply affected by his family's suffering or his brother's and sister-in-law's death.
The two "klunky" bits of the show are these. At the time Aurelan dies, Kirk knows the following facts:
- Some form of mass insanity has been traveling steadily across the galaxy.
- Even when unconscious, affected individuals show enormous nerve stimulation.
- "Terrible things" are causing Aurelan pain even as she lies in sickbay, and are using the Denevans as their arms and legs.
What's more, after the landing party finds the creatures and sees them fly, they turn their backs on them when they leave, making it easy for one of the creatures to land on Spock's back and infect him.
The second problem with the show --- which is rather difficult to ignore --- is Spock's decision (supported by Kirk and McCoy) to be subjected to intense light without eye protection. The discussion goes as follows:
McCoy: All right. I'll rig up a protective pair of goggles.The logic appears to be that since the Denevans have no eye protection and may well therefore go blind, then Spock must as well. Eye protection might prevent the light from killing the parasite (though that seems highly doubtful), but there's no reason they can't at least test it out first. Denevans would no doubt use eye protection if they had the choice; since Spock does have a choice, choosing blindness makes no sense. So much for Vulcan logic.
Spock: There'll be none on the planet's surface, doctor.
Kirk: I agree completely.
McCoy: Unfortunately, you're both right. It's the only thing we can do.
Other observations about this episode:
In "Devil in the Dark", Spock and Kirk both felt regret at the perceived necessity of destroying the Horta, the "last of its kind". There were no such expressions of regret at wiping out the parasites in this episode.
The Denevan capital is too elaborate to be just a TV stage; I wonder that these buildings were in real life.
The Moral of the Story: Novel problems require innovative solutions.
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