“On another planet, Kirk’s brother is killed by amoeba-like aliens, which also infect Spock. But Bones’ cure has surprising side effects.”
Surprise! Kirk has a brother who was never mentioned before or since! No one gets to complain about Michael Burnham being Spock’s sister anymore.
Also, I vaguely remember the creatures in this episode looking like space boogers or plastic vomit.
***
The mood on the bridge is tense, and everyone is bustling around doing their various jobs, apart from one yeoman who is literally staring into the camera and posing (video attached). Uhura is trying to contact Deneva, with no luck. Kirk gives her the frequency of a private transmitter to try.
Turns out there’s a line of planets being affected by mass insanity that destroys their civilizations, and Deneva is the next planet along that line.
Suddenly, a Denevan ship appears on their sensors, heading straight into the Denevan sun. They attempt to intercept but fail. Before the ship burns up, the pilot says “It’s finally gone! I’m free!”
We get some exposition, including Bones pointing out that Kirk’s brother lives on the planet. This is news to the crew, and brings us to the intro.
***
Uhura is able to contact the private transmitter. Kirk’s sister-in-law is begging for help, but the signal abruptly cuts off. Uhura says she can’t raise them again, and he gets snippy and says he doesn’t want excuses. She calmly but firmly delivers a verbal smackdown, basically that no one was answering.
Kirk assembles a landing party, including Yeoman Posing Redshirt, and they beam down in front of a Californian office complex, or possibly a college campus. Everything appears abandoned. Suddenly, a small group of people appears, yelling “Get back! We don’t want to hurt you!” before attacking. The landing party stuns them, and McCoy’s tricorder indicated that even while unconscious their nervous systems are being stimulated.
They hear screaming from inside one of the buildings. A woman is trying to cover a vent with a tray, screaming “They’re here! They’re here!” It’s Kirk’s sister-in-law, Aurelan. McCoy sedates her and goes to check on the bodies on the floor. One is Kirk’s brother, Sam - he’s dead. The other is Kirk’s nephew, Peter, unconscious but still alive.
McCoy wants Kirk aboard the Enterprise when Aurelan wakes up, so Kirk leaves Spock in charge of the landing party and returns to the ship.
In sick bay, McCoy is waiting for lab results and has Aurelan and Peter sedated. Aurelan is able to tell Kirk that “horrible things” are forcing them to build ships to move to the next planet, and using pain to control them. After revealing this, she promptly dies. There’s no attempt at resuscitation, because I guess that wasn’t a thing in the 60s? Crusher would have been all over the resuscitation attempt.
Back on the planet, Spock reports no sign of people. There’s a strange buzzing that they were preparing to investigate. Kirk tells the landing party to look for strange creatures, and set phasers to kill.
They continue exploring the community college, and discover a group of the strange creatures. They look like giant flappy flying boogers. They stun one and determine that the phaser should have killed it. As they leave, it flies up and attached itself to Spock’s back. Kirk manages to pry it off, but the damage is done.
***
Back in sick bay, McCoy is examining Spock. Anesthesia doesn’t seem to be working well. McCoy prepares to close, but Nurse Chapel objects because there’s still parts of the creature in Spock.
McCoy reports back to Kirk that surgery isn’t going to fix the problem - it’s too complex. No one knows how to remove the creatures.
Spock wakes up, leaves sick bay, and attempts to take over the ship. McCoy sedates him and he is returned to sick bay, but put in restraints.
McCoy’s equipment shows that Spock is in lot of pain, but Spock declares that he is Vulcan and can control the pain and go back to duty. Kirk refuses.
Kirk tells McCoy to help Spock and Peter, no matter what. McCoy points out, for some reason, that the million colonists on Deneva need his help too, as though finding a cure for Spock and Peter won’t help the colonists as well. That was extremely weird writing. He and Kirk both leave while Spock starts chanting “I am a Vulcan. There is no pain.”
Spock then breaks out of his restraints and goes to the transporter room. He orders Scotty to beam him down, but Scotty refuses. He keeps Spock at bay until Kirk arrives.
Spock explains that they need one of the creatures to study, and since he’s already been infected, he may as well be the one to bring back a specimen. Kirk agrees and allows him to return to the planet.
On the surface, Spock is almost immediately attacked by a colonist, but takes no time at all to nerve pinch him and go on his way. He returns to the room where the creature attacked him and captures one.
***
Back in the lab on the Enterprise, Spock is experimenting on the creature. He determines that it is a single cell but part of a larger organism. Kirk orders all science officers on the ship, including McCoy, to study the creature.
McCoy determines that radiation and heat won’t kill it. Kirk says that unless they can kill it without harming the human hosts, he’ll have to destroy the colony to prevent the creatures from spreading.
A weird scene ensues where they have a meeting reiterating that the creatures can’t be allowed to spread. The weirdest part, to me, is that is Yeoman Posing Redshirt, two unnamed female officers, Spock, McCoy, and Kirk. Kirk and McCoy only address the “gentlemen,” and only Kirk, Spock, and Bones have any lines. WTF were the female officers there for?
Later, Spock and McCoy report back to Kirk that they’ve had no success. Spock wants to beam back to the surface with Peter, but Kirk refuses. Then Kirk realizes they’ve tested heat and radiation on the creatures, but not light.
They test bright light on the creature, which appears to have worked. Spock volunteers to test the light on himself, but McCoy objects because of the risk. What risk? They put on goggles to protect their eyes during the experiment, and McCoy agrees to give Spock goggles when he tests the light on himself, so...
Then Spock points out there won’t be goggles on the surface, so he goes into the test chamber without them. I guess covering your eyes with your hands wasn’t a thing in the 60s either.
Also, the protective goggles Kirk and bones use don’t have straps to keep them on their heads because reasons.
So the light works and Spock is free of the creature, but also blind. If only he’d had some appendages at the end of his arms could have been used to cover his eyes...
Then Nurse Chapel brings in the results from the dead creature. Turns out the creatures only need a certain spectrum of light to be killed, and Spock has been pointlessly blinded. OK.
***
Back on the bridge, they’ve arranged the satellite around the planet to emit the creature-killing spectrum of light, saving the colonists. Kirk tells Bones that it worked, and to tell Spock. Then he reiterated that Spock’s blinding wasn’t Bones’ fault, but he doesn’t reply.
Later, on the bridge, Kirk is giving a message to Yeoman Posing Redshirt, and suddenly Spock enters. Turns out Vulcans have an inner eyelid to protect their eyes from the Vulcan sun, and the blindness was only temporary. Cue jokey banter and credits.
***
This episode was uneven. On one hand, it was a pretty great Spock performance. On the other, Kirk was extra hammy and McCoy was pointlessly argumentative. There was unnecessary drama that only lasted a short time before being resolved. The concept of the creatures was interesting but ultimately unsatisfying.
Also, Edith Keeler died in the last episode, and Sam Kirk died in this one, but Kirk is back to his normal jokey-banter self by the end of this episode. OK.
No comments:
Post a Comment