Star date: 3018.2
Summary: The episode begins with Kirk, Spock and Uhura anxiously attempting to contact Sulu and Scotty, who have beamed down to an unnamed planet with a third crew member, Jackson, and have not reported in for some time. Finally Jackson reports in, but his communication is strange; he will not answer any of Kirk's questions. He beams up, and as soon as he materializes aboard the Enterprise, he falls over dead. While Kirk and McCoy examine the body, a disembodied voice warns Kirk that his crew is cursed, and he must leave.
Of course, Kirk does no such thing, and he leaves assistant chief engineer DeSalle in command while he, Spock and McCoy beam down to try to locate Sulu and Scotty. On the surface, they find fog where none was expected, and Spock's tricorder picks up life readings that the Enterprise sensors cannot detect. Before long, they lose communication with the Enterprise. Then they see the ghostly apparition of three witches, who warn them to go remember the curse and leave the planet. A bit later on, they discover something like a haunted castle. When they go in the front door, they are greeted by a hissing black cat, which then runs off.
Investigating the castle further, a hole suddenly opens in the floor, and the three of them fall through and are knocked unconscious. They awake in chains in a dungeon, and are shortly greeted by Sulu and Scotty. However, it is clear that Sulu and Scotty are not themselves; they are either drugged or under mind control somehow, as they are now acting as prison guards. They release Kirk, Spock and McCoy and take them to a large dining hall where the landing party meets the first of their captors, a man named Korob. Korob appears to be a wizard, holding something like a scepter and talking to the black cat seen earlier. Korob attempts to be friendly to the crew, offering them a sumptuous banquet, then offering them a bribe of a wide variety of jewels if they will abandon Sulu and Scotty and leave. Of course, Kirk refuses the offer.
It is at this point that the cat metamorphoses into a woman named Sylvia, Korob's accomplice. Sylvia explains that she and Korob have control over the Enterprise crew because they can read and control their minds. Kirk tests this claim by disarming Scotty and training his phaser on Sylvia, but Sylvia calmly responds by producing a miniature of the Enterprise on a chain, and dangles it, voodoo-like, over a candle flame. She then permits Kirk to communicate with the Enterprise, and he discovers that indeed, the ship is overheating. He then surrenders to Sylvia and Korob and acknowledges that they hold all the cards.
Kirk and Spock are returned to the dungeon, while McCoy remains behind with Sylvia. We next see McCoy returning to the dungeon under the same mind control as Sulu and Scotty, come to take Kirk up for his interview with Sylvia. In the meantime, we see an argument between Sylvia and Korob, as Korob disagrees with Sylvia's mistreatment of the Enterprise crew. We learn that Korob and Sylvia are creatures from another galaxy, and on their planet they do not have sensations like ours. Sylvia enjoys the sensations of luxury and power, and she wants more. She dismisses Korob as Kirk is brought to her.
Apparently, Sylvia also wants to experience the sensation of love and togetherness, and she wants it with Kirk. She offers him all of her knowledge and secrets if he will agree to be her partner. Kirk pretends to go along with Sylvia, in order to learn her secrets, and he learns that a key to her power and Korob's lies in something called a "transmuter". Sylvia quickly realizes that Kirk is using her and grows angry, sending him back to the dungeon.
By now, Korob has realized that Sylvia is dangerous, and comes to the dungeon to free Kirk and Spock. He urges them to leave without Sulu, McCoy and Scotty, and of course they refuse. As Korob is leading them out of the castle, Sylvia attacks him in cat form and knocks him unconscious. Kirk grabs Korob's scepter, and he and Spock climb back up through the hole they fell through earlier in the show. Sulu, McCoy and Scotty are waiting for them and attack them, but Kirk and Spock are able to subdue them. Kirk then makes the leap that Korob's scepter is the "transmuter" Sylvia referred to, and threatens her with it. Kirk's guess turns out to be correct, and Sylvia transports herself and Kirk back into the dining hall and tries to cajole the transmuter away from him. When this fails, she produces a phaser, and threatens to shoot him if he does not return the transmuter. Kirk feigns resignation, but as he pretends to hand the transmuter to Sylvia, he smashes it against the table instead.
Immediately, the castle disappears, and Spock, Sulu, McCoy and Scotty all re-appear, all restored to their original state. We see Sylvia and Korob as they really are, two small, defenseless, furry blue creatures, as they slowly die on the planet's surface without the transmuter's protection.
In what was clearly intended as a Halloween show --- airing on October 27, featuring witches, a dungeon and a black cat, and with numerous Halloween references in the show --- the Enterprise crew encounters yet another entity possessing god-like powers. This marks at least the sixth such episode in the series, and unfortunately, it's not likely to be the last. And I'm not even counting "Where No Man Has Gone Before" here, in which members of the Enterprise crew start to gain god-like powers before they are destroyed.
This episode at least differs from all of the similar ones in two ways. First, the god-like powers are possessed by two creatures instead of one, and dissent between the two of them is a key component to the show's resolution. Second, the god-like powers are dependent on a fairly delicate physical device, rather than innate abilities. So, at least that much was different.
Otherwise --- the god-like creatures can kill with their minds, create illusions, hold the Enterprise under their control, change shape, read minds --- *yawn*. Wake me when it's over; I've seen it all before.
Other observations about this episode . . . .
There is one fairly amusing bit early on, when Kirk, Spock and McCoy are first investigating the planet and they encounter the apparition of the three witches. The witches give the following warning, followed by a discussion between Kirk and Spock:
Witches: Go back! Go back! Go back! Remember the curse!Once it's clear that Korob and Sylvia hold all the cards, I don't understand why Kirk won't talk to them about Earth's 'science'. It's not like they're asking for strategic information about Starfleet's defenses; they just want general knowledge. Why not give it to them?
Wind shall rise!
And fog descend!
So leave here, all, or meet your end!
Kirk: Spock, comment?
Spock: Very bad poetry, Captain.
Kirk (nettled): A more useful comment, Mr. Spock?
Spock: What we've just seen is not real.
Kirk: That's useful.
If Sylvia can summon Kirk's communicator without the transmuter, and teleport herself and Kirk while he's holding it, then why can't she simply teleport the transmuter from his hand to hers?
Kirk is lucky that the transmuter is so easily destroyed, with just a relatively light tap against a wooden table.
Jackson, the crew member who dies at the beginning of the show, is wearing a yellow shirt. And the stuntman playing him does quite an impressive dead fall forward to the floor of and then off of the transporter platform.
Uhura is not even fifth in command. With Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Scotty all down on the surface, they pull assistant chief engineer DeSalle out to be in command on the bridge.
The Moral of the Story: None.
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