Episode Title: The Enemy Within
Air Date: 10/06/1966
Written by Richard
Matheson
Directed by Leo Penn
Cast: William
Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H.
McCoy AKA "Bones" James Doohan as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA
“Scotty” George Takei as Lieutenant
Hikaru Sulu Nichelle Nichols as
Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Jim Goodwin as Lieutenant Farrell Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman First Class Janice
Rand Eddie Paskey as Crewman
Connors Ed Madden as Geological
Technician Fisher Frank da
Vinci as Crewman Ron Veto as Crewman Sean Morgan as Crewman Gerald
Thompson Don Eitner as photo double for Captain James T. Kirk
Ships: USS
Enterprise NCC-1701
Planets: Alpha 177
My Spoiler
filled summary and review: The
episode begins with the crew of the Enterprise
exploring a strange new world. The
planet is Alpha 177, it doesn’t have much for intelligent life it’s most
interesting life form is a doglike creature that has the a horn. I call this creature "the unicorn dog," and I
bet I’m not the only one who does. The
planet has radical changes in temperature where a daytime its normal humanlike
environment the temperature at night drops to -160°.
 |
| Is this what you thought you would see when I told you we would seek out new life? |
As the away team is collecting samples of the minerals
and even one specimen of unicorn dog, Geological Technician Fisher is injured
in a fall. His injuries aren’t that severe just cuts to his hand but he is
covered in this yellow like substance that neither he nor anyone else knows
what it is. As he beams up to the ship
to get medical attention the strange substance on him seems to cause a slight
problem in the transporter. Nevertheless, he successfully transports
onboard. Captain Kirk follows Fisher
back up to the Enterprise through the
transporter. When Kirk emerges from the
transporter however he seems to be a little lightheaded, so much so that Scotty
feels he has to personally escort the Captain back to his quarters. After they leave another Captain Kirk emerges
from the transporter and this one has an angry look on his face.
 |
| Two Kirks come out of the transporter and both seem to be a bit off. |
The disturbed Captain Kirk goes to
the sick bay where Dr. McCoy is treating Fisher for his wounds. When Fisher tries let his Captain know that
his hand is better he is surprised when the previously concerned Captain
ignores his improved medical situation.
When McCoy tries to talk to him Bad Kirk demands McCoy give him a
brandy, which interestingly enough the doctor has plenty in store in sick bay
as opposed to his quarters where you normally would keep that sort of thing. McCoy gives Bad Kirk the brandy he demands
and Bad Kirk leaves the sick bay chugging the stuff.
 |
| Brandy doesn't belong in sick bay it belongs in my belly. |
Mr. Spock having been notified by
the Doctor of Captain Kirk’s weird behavior, goes to check on the Captain in
his quarters. When he questions Good Kirk
he is simply told that he hadn’t been the sick bay and he thinks Dr. McCoy may
be playing a trick on him. Since Good
Kirk was never in sick bay he is telling the truth.
Captain Kirk’s strange behavior
starts to make a lot of sense to Mr. Spock when Scotty summoned him to the
transporter room. It turns out the unicorn
dog creature that they beamed up was duplicated by the transporter. One unicorn dog is nice while the other
unicorn dog is nasty. Scotty said that
we cannot chance this happening to a man and so they have no way of bringing up
the landing party. Now this point I
really want to know why they don’t grab a shuttlecraft to go pick them up. The suggestion never comes up in the episode
I considered to be huge dent in what is a generally enjoyable episode. I don’t want to hear about how they hadn’t
invented shuttlecraft yet they clearly had a bay door in the back of the ship so
someone thought about shuttles. The
transporter was invented second because the budget wasn't big enough to allow landings. Later in the episode they
explain that the thermal heaters they try to beam down duplicated and they were
nonfunctional. I don’t know why they
couldn’t come up with some in story reason to say they can’t use or a shuttlecraft;
it would’ve been appreciated had they tried.
(Found this video from about ten years ago I am glad I am not the only one to find this odd.)
(Found this video from about ten years ago I am glad I am not the only one to find this odd.)
Bad Kirk decides that it’s time for
some sex so he uses his authority as Captain to allow himself into Yeoman
Rand’s quarters. When the Yeoman returns
she is approached by her drunken commanding officer. Now it is been hinted at that Yeoman Rand has
a crush on Captain Kirk but her fantasies probably did not include the Captain
surprising her in her quarters while he is drunk. At first Bad Kirk tries to seduce her but
when it’s clear she’s not going to be seduced he decides to resort rape. Rand resists that she successfully scratches
the Bad Kirk’s face. During the
attempted rape the door from her quarters opens just as Fisher walks by and he
sees the Captain attacking the Yeoman.
Rand asked Fisher to get Spock so Fisher runs the intercom and calls the
First Officer. Unfortunately for Fisher
the Bad Kirk received all of the incredible fighting skills that Captain Kirk
possesses any easily kicks the crap out of Fisher sending him to the sick
bay.
 |
| Yes it turns out Bad Kirk is evil. |
When Spock confronts Good Kirk he of
course denies it. The two men both head
down sick bay where Rand and Fisher are being treated. In sick bay Grace Lee Whitney puts on a great
performance as someone who’s just been a victim of an attempted sexual
assault. She’s able to project all the
natural emotions of the shock of someone that she knows having tried to assault
her and the irrational feelings of guilt and hesitation to report for fear of
ruining his career. Not knowing why he
did it she tries to look to her own actions no matter how unfair that is to
herself for an explanation. Good Kirk
doesn’t have the injuries that Rand inflicted on Bad Kirk, but both Rand and
Fisher still insist it was him. Spock
having seen what happened to the unicorn dog figures out exactly what has
occurred. Spock explains that it is an
impostor who is currently on the ship.
Spock encourages the Captain to keep
most of this a secret because if the crew learned the complete truth the
captain might appear less-than-perfect and could undermine Kirk’s ability to
command the ship in the future.
Personally I think Spock is underestimating the crew of the Enterprise, but Good Kirk agrees with
him. Unfortunately, appearing imperfect may be the least of Good Kirk's problems because it is also apparent that his inability to command is
growing. While all this is going on Lt.
Sulu is bravely leading the away team in survival techniques to fight off the
cold. But all the survival techniques in
the galaxy won’t save them indefinitely.
 |
| Mr. Sulu and the away team freezing to death. |
Good Kirk performs the ship wide
announcement that there is impostor on board who looks just like him but I
scratches on his face and he orders a ship wide manhunt for the false Captain
with phasers ordered to stun. Bad Kirk
hearing the announcement goes into a frenzy of anger at the other version of
himself taking command of his ship. Bad
Kirk finds a makeup in his own quarters, which makes me wonder what exactly
Captain Kirk actually has makeup for, and uses his appearance to fool a crewman
into giving him his phaser.
 |
| Bad Kirk hears Good Kirk giving orders from his chair |
Good Kirk, under the guidance as Mr.
Spock, comes to the conclusion that Bad Kirk is hiding in the engineering decks
of the ship. Good Kirk and Mr. Spock go down there to try to confront him. They do so and Good and Bad come
face-to-face. Good Kirk tries to talk Bad Kirk into surrendering, by pointing
out that they need other. Bad Kirk
rejects the offer from his counterpart and actually tries to shoot him with the
phaser. Mr. Spock however uses what will
be known as the Vulcan nerve pinch to subdue Bad Kirk. This prevents Bad Kirk from shooting Good
Kirk but he still fires his phaser and damages part the ship’s engine. The part that he’s damaged is connected to
the transporter so not only is the transporter broken in terms of the normal
function is now completely deprived of power.
The fate of Mr. Sulu and his away team are getting grimmer by the
moment.
 |
| When your internal struggle becomes external |
In sick bay they restrain Bad
Kirk. Mr. Spock makes an interesting
observation, despite calling Bad Kirk “the impostor” in reality both sides are
parts of what is the actual Captain Kirk.
Each contains an element of Kirk’s nature. The Good Kirk is
compassionate, intelligent, and brave.
Without his other half however he is weak and indecisive. The more he remains separate from his other self
he loses ability to focus and take command.
The Bad Kirk is strong, bold, and a fighter. Unfortunately without his other half he is
prone to violence whenever he gets scared or just annoyed. The longer he remained separated from his
other self he becomes more and more like an animal. Also neither Kirk can survive without the
other which is demonstrated as Bad Kirk starts to die in sick bay his vitals get better with the arrival of Good
Kirk.
 |
| I bet there are many days Spock wants to nerve pinch his Captain. Today was a dream come true! |
Scotty, being the miracle worker that he always is, finds a way to get the transporter working and thinks he can reverse the problem that caused separation. They do a test on the unicorn dogs and although they succeed in recombining the animal into one creature the animal dies as a result. Spock concludes that because the animal lacked intelligence it didn’t understand what was happening thus causing become terrified and died. He reasons Captain Kirk can be recombined and he will most likely survive because his intelligence can comprehend what is happening to him. Dr. McCoy disagrees he says that it unknown what caught killed the unicorn dog and if they try this with the Captain he was likely end up just as dead. As each moment passes the away team is inching closer and closer to their own deaths.
 |
| The final and sad fate of the unicorn dog |
Good Kirk makes the decision to take
the risk and Bad Kirk agrees but it is merely a ruse to trick Good Kirk so that
he can escape. It is unfortunate for
Good Kirk that his other self is the part that inherited his mad fighting
skills as he is easily beaten. Bad Kirk scratches his
counterpart so they look more like and heads to the bridge take command. He orders the ship out of orbit condemning
the away team to its fate; however a recovered Good Kirk and McCoy arrive. Bad Kirk insists the ship is his and that his
counterpart can’t take it from him. Bad
Kirk begins to falter because he has been separated from the rest of him for so
long; this allows Good Kirk and McCoy to take Bad Kirk down and drag him to the transporter
room. Bad Kirk rejects this the whole
time claiming he wants to live to which his counterpart says that they both
will in each other.
In the transporter room the two
Kirks board the transporter pad and it is activated. In a testament to the skills of Scotty,
Captain Kirk is successfully restored.
The first thing the restored Kirk does is he orders that the away team
to be brought back up to the ship. With
the away team rescued in the nick of time, Dr. McCoy confirms that they’ll be
all right in the long term, Kirk heads back to the bridge. On the bridge Kirk
thanks Spock for “the both of us,” but he does also confides that he is
disturbed to see a part of himself that he wished not to have seen. Yeoman Rand attempts to clear the air with
the Captain was clearly having trouble doing so, Kirk puts her at ease. That is how the episode should have ended but
unfortunately we are also given a glimpse into how out of touch Mr. Spock can
be with human emotions where he says the most tone deaf thing to Yeoman Rand
about how Bad Kirk had interesting traits.
Additional
thoughts: So Captain Kirk has makeup in his drawer. Is makeup fashionable for men
in the 23rd century? Or is
Captain Kirk more of a style trendsetter? Maybe he just has it in case a woman
gives him a hickey?
Joking aside this episode is the
first to introduce what would become a common plot device in many great Star
Trek episodes: bizarre transporter accidents.
Originally conceived in order to save money on the budget, the
transporter, a device that takes objects both living and inanimate apart
molecule by molecule turning them into energy and moving them from one place to
another has endless possibilities for
great stories. When
you think about it the concept is absolutely terrifying.
Yet they’re used in every episode and we’re later told that transporters
of the safest form of transportation and accidents are almost always unheard
of. But when they do have accidents watch out the strangest and most bizarre
things can happen. A person can be split
into two different people and one of those people can desire to consume the
other. Funny thing is in this case we’re
talking about the Good Kirk wanting to consume the Bad Kirk.
There is of course also the
inevitable question on rather it is morally ethical to force Bad Kirk to go
over the recombining procedure against his will. The episode never really explores this but I
would say yes. Bad Kirk isn’t a person
he is half a person and in his separated state he is incapable of making
rational decisions about himself or anyone else. Now in the episode the Good
Kirk does, a bit reluctantly, choose to be recombined with his other half, and
the episode does point out that Good Kirk is the one that retained Kirk’s
intellect. However I would argue that
had both been unwilling it would have fine for Spock to force both of
them. As they are not two people but one
person whose mental state in such a shape that they can’t be trusted to make a
rational judgement on the matter, so Spock and McCoy would be well within their
rights to force such a procedure on dissembled Captain for his own good. Good Kirk had been shown to not be completely
capable at making decisions without the help of either Spock or McCoy.
One of the things I’m thinking about after this episode is when Captain
Kirk reflects on this adventure he had how exactly does he remember it? Does he only remember from the perspective of
the Good Kirk? Do both sets of memories run simultaneously? Can he recall the memories of both halves
with equal precision? It is a shame this
is never addressed.
This episode also features another common plot
point in Star Trek one that I don’t particularly care
for. That is Starfleet’s demand for
some form of perfection from its officers particularly its captains.
It’s unrealistic and goes against the concept of an idealized
future. In this episode Spock and McCoy
prop up Good Kirk like the corpse in The
Weekend at Bernie’s. They realize
that Good Kirk is no longer capable of functioning as a starship captain but
continue to help him do it because to do otherwise would undermine the crew’s
confidence in him and also potentially ruin his career having been formally
relieved. When you think about it this attitude
is a disservice to all involved and rather insulting to the crew of the Enterprise. I find it absurd that a fully trained crew of
men and women who have chosen to explore the unknown depths of space can’t be
reminded that their Captain is a human being with frailties like every other
human being because if they are they may all lose faith.
 |
| Good and Bad the final struggle |
In a rational world Captain Kirk
would’ve immediately been relieved of command the moment Rand and Fisher made
their assault allegations against him, at least temporarily as the ship’s
senior officers investigated the allegations.
Once it was determined that Kirk had been split into two people Spock
would’ve remained in command up into a time Kirk was restored. Once he has been restored Kirk should be
allowed to his resume command without any dent to his career or reputation. After all it wasn’t his fault of the
transporter split him into two people, so his reputation shouldn’t suffer from
it. But no Starfleet is run by irrational
boob heads and if Spock and McCoy don’t prop Kirk up he’ll stay out. How does Starfleet even function?
Also for those who think William
Shatner’s a bad actor really should watch this episode. Not only does the
character of Captain Kirk tend to suffer from popular misconceptions and
stereotypes about him, but unsurprisingly the actor associated tends to suffer
them as well. If William Shatner was
such a horrible actor how the hell did he start a TV show on a major network in
almost every decade of his career? In this
episode Shatner has to play three different versions of the same guy and he
pulls it off exceptionally well.
FINAL GRADE 4 of
5
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