THE USS ENTERPRISE VS A GIANT ONE CELLED AMOEBA

 Episode Title:  The Immunity Syndrome

Air Date: 1/19/1968

Written by Robert Sabaroff

Directed by Joseph Pevney

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura                 John Winston as Lieutenant Kyle                        Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant  Leslie                 Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent       Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley           Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel      Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman   Bob Johnson as Starbase 6 Commander         

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Galileo NCC-1701/7

Planets:  none

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is heading toward Starbase 6 after long mission that has left the crew in a state of exhaustion.  In his captain’s log Kirk notes that the entire crew is looking to get down to the planet that Starbase 6 orbits.  After receiving a garbled message from the Starbase 6 Commander mentioning the USS Intrepid, Mr. Spock begins to uncharacteristically freak out and declare that the entire crew of the Intrepid has died.  Kirk orders Spock down to sickbay to get evaluated. 

Mr. Spock having a space attack!!

While Spock is gone they are able to reestablish contact and the Enterprise is ordered to investigate the Gamma 7A system.  Kirk actually tries to get out of it (which I found odd) pleading for his exhausted crew and asking another ship be sent.  The Starbase 6 Commander notes that they already sent another ship, the Intrepid, and they haven’t heard anything from her sense.  As the Enterprise heads to the Gamma 7A system Ensign Chekov reports that the sensors show no life readings in the system of a billion inhabitants.  It is starting to look as if Mr. Spock’s proclamation was not far off at all.

Meanwhile, Spock is examined by Dr. McCoy in sickbay, where he explains that the Intrepid’s entire crew were Vulcans and the combined shock and terror in the minds of 400 Vulcans dying at once reached out to him. McCoy is amazed because up until now he had been under the impression that Spock had to be in direct contact in order to make a mental connection.  The trade insults about how humans and Vulcans view death and McCoy sent him back to duty.

Spock returns to the bridge just and Lt. Uhura announces she has lost contact with Starbase 6. More importantly the Enterprise comes across something that they can only describe as “a rip in space.”   It is a dark blob of matter that seems to block out the stars.  Like a black hole it is so strong that not even light can escape from it.  Suddenly, half the crew is struck with sickness and/or faints.  Kirk asks Spock if he can explain what this thing is.  Spock says he can’t and he tells Kirk he also cannot speculate what it is either as he has no information on it.   Kirk keeps asking his senior officers for some answers but they all keep coming up with nothing causing Kirk to nearly have a breakdown of his own.  He and Spock try to at least eliminate what this thing is not and Kirk has Chekov launch a sensor probe into the void. The probe transmits a piercing, high-pitched noise before contact with it is lost.

You can always count on McCoy to visit you with the good drugs!

Since this a crew that boldly goes Kirk orders the ship into the zone, and as they enter, the piercing sound returns and all the stars disappear from the main view screen. This causes them to freak out a bit but I don't really understand their surprise.  They knew going into this thing that it blocked the light of stars it seems odd that they are now surprised after going inside that they can't see those very stars.  Dr. McCoy then reports that the crew is getting worse, and Scotty reports a loss of power.  Spock notes whatever this thing is it is draining all forms of energy from both the ship and the crew.  It now appears certain that this is what lead to the death of both the Gamma 7A system and the USS Intrepid.

A rip in space!

              The Enterprise is being pulled further into black space.  The ship and crew continue to lose energy.  McCoy keeps everyone awake with stimulants so they can have a functioning crew.  Kirk orders a full reverse but that appears to make the ship accelerate closer to the center of the mass.  Scotty and the Captain brainstorm that the laws of physics must work differently down here and Kirk orders the ship to accelerate and that seems to slow them down. 

The Enterprise in the dark!

Kirk holds a meeting with his senior officers and he decides they are going to make a break away.  They are going to divert all available power into a massive forward thrust, in the hope of breaking free of the zone.  Spock approves of the plan but notes the Intrepid would have tried the same thing.  Spock does believe that they have one clear advantage and that is the all Vulcan crew could accept they were dying because it was illogical. However the escapee attempt only ends in massive failure.

Yes, we are fighting a giant amoeba!

Despite the disappointment of not escaping they did make an interesting discovery.  The thing at the center of the mass is a gigantic amoeba.   Kirk launches a sensor probe into it, which reveals that the object is indeed made of protoplasm, and is alive. McCoy thinks they should a shuttle craft into it to both gather the data needed to destroy it and learn about this new life form.  McCoy, who is clearly excited about this prospect, volunteers himself for the job.   Spock insists that he is better qualified and this angers McCoy.  Kirk is forced to choose between to friends realizing whoever he picks is likely to die.

After a good deal of soul searching Kirk decides Spock is the one to go.  After some more verbal boxing with Dr. McCoy, Spock pilots a shuttle through the creature's outer membrane and makes his way toward the nucleus.   When he reports back he has number of things to say.  First he wants everyone to know that Dr. McCoy could not have possibly survived what he had to do. (Because you know Vulcans are unemotional and never gloat or anything like that.) The second thing is much more important and my favorite part of the episode.  He reports that the giant amoeba is about to enter mitosis.  What is worse than a giant amoeba that eats enter solar systems?  Two giant amoebas that eat solar systems.  Kirk’s reaction to the idea of two is quite amusing.  Spock suggests a method to destroy it but that part of the message is lost.   It doesn’t matter because Kirk, being a master strategist, just figures it out after joking with McCoy about how they would be the invaders in a universe full of those things.  Then Kirk thinks of antibodies which in turn causes him to think of antimatter that wonderful substance that he used to kill an evil cloud last week.  Kirk has his plan. 

Spock taking the job McCoy wanted!

Kirk takes the Enterprise into the creature's body, and orders Scotty to prepare another antimatter bomb, just like the one they made last week, with a timer set for a seven-minute delay. The bomb is fired into the cell's nucleus and the Enterprise backs out, snagging Spock’s shuttle craft with a tractor beam.  

The Enterprise stands victorious again.

Additional thoughts: There is this meme that went around the internet back when Game of Thrones was very popular prior to their infamous end.  In the meme it showed fans of various franchises reactions to the idea of visiting their fantasy worlds.  Each fan reaction is expressed positively to the idea of going to these fictional places, except the Game of Thrones fans.  They know their world is messed up and they want no part of it.  I have to think that maybe we Star Trek fans should take the same attitude to our franchise.      

On second thought I don't want to visit the 23rd century!

Why is that you ask?  Isn’t Star Trek the peace-loving pacifistic future where diversity is loved and not scorned? It is but it is also a place, where in the space of a single year the Doomsday Machine showed up and wiped out an entire solar system, the Nomad probe exterminated life on a number of planets, and now a giant amoeba is also destroying an entire solar system.  The causalities run into the hundreds of billions.  This would be like if the space of the same year France, Brazil, and India were complete destroyed and their entire populations killed.  You think 2020 was bad? Be glad you don’t live in the late 2260s.  Later franchises that take place in the 24^th century or 32^nd century should view the 23^rd with horror.         

There is one particularly scary part about this threat.  Like the Doomsday Machine they don’t know where it came from, but what they speculate is it came from a larger celled universe.  They thought the Doomsday Machine originated in a nearby galaxy and they didn’t expect ever to see another one.   If this big cell just dropped in their universe from a larger celled universe this would mean that the bigger universe's cells can accidently come down on us at any time.  I would lose sleep over this if I was living in the universe of Star Trek.   

On a lighter note, I think this is one of the best Spock/McCoy spats I have seen in a while.  McCoy makes big plans to save the ship in which he might killed while doing it, only to have Spock snag it away with the Captain’s permission.  Spock always seems to come out ahead their spats.  

  

Lt. Leslie is back, it has only been a week since the loss of his dear twin brother.  You would think they would assign him some time off.  Well work can be therapeutic. Also it looks like Lt. Kyle has left transporter room and is now a fully trained helmsman!  Congrats to Lt. Kyle. 

FINAL  GRADE 5 of 5

CAPTAIN KIRK FIGHTS A KILLER SPACE CLOUD THAT SUCKS BLOOD!

 

Episode Title:  Obsession

Air Date: 12/15/1967

Written by Art Wallace

Directed by Ralph Senensky

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura                 Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli                        Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent       Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley           Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel      Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                Stephen Brooks as Ensign Garrovick                    Jerry Ayres as  Ensign Rizzo           Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman   Basil Poledouris as unnamed Security Guard          Eddie Paskey as Crewman Leslie                

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Argus X, Tycho IV

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with Kirk and Spock leading a survey expedition on the planet Argus X for the purpose of documenting its tritanium, a substance harder than diamonds, for a later mining expedition.  While conversing with his First Officer, the Captain notices an odd smell.  It is almost sweet like honey and at that moment, a horrified Captain Kirk knows exactly what it is he smells.  He quickly calls his security team over and orders them to adjust their tricorders to look for a substance called dikironium.  Spock states that this substance exists only in theory.  As the redshirts continue to search they think they find something and that is when they are attacked by the killer cloud. 

That is one big pile of...

Two men are dead and one is extremely injured.  The dead men were killed from being drained completely of blood.  McCoy says he has never seen such a thing to which Kirk then points him in the right direction.  Kirk mentions a case eleven years ago during a mission to a different planet, Tycho IV, that is a thousand light years away.  The starship on that mission was the USS Farragut and it had crew members suffer the exact same fatal injuries as these men.   Kirk has McCoy wake up Rizzo, the survivor, but he doesn’t get much out of him. 

Scotty informs the Captain that the ship is ready to leave orbit so they can rendezvous with the USS Yorktown in order to pick up a vaccine vital to Theta VII.   Despite the limited shelf-life of the vaccine Kirk isn’t leaving until he finds what is responsible for killing his men.  He orders sensor scans to be competed looking for more dikironium.

red shirts red shirted

We, the audience, learn through Dr. McCoy that a then Lt. Kirk served aboard the Farragut during his early years as a young officer.  (It must have been while serving on the Farragut that Kirk had gone to Neural and first met Tyree who we encountered just a few weeks ago.)  When the ship was attacked by this creature Kirk acted against it in a manner that the ship’s first officer wrote him a letter of commendation.  However Kirk himself did not feel that way.  In the mind of the Captain he had failed because he had hesitated to fire when first encountering the creature, a gaseous parasite.  Kirk feels that if he didn’t hesitate than he would have destroyed the creature instead it went to kill have the crew.  Among the causalities was Kirk’s mentor, Captain Garrovick.

Then as if fate were against our Captain or this is a work of fiction that needed a little more drama a new Ensign reports to the bridge.  The Ensign is named Garrovick and he is the son of Kirk’s former Captain.  Kirk, who apparently didn’t pay very close to attention to officer transfers this quarter, is shocked to meet the young man.  When they discover Rizzo has died Garrovick is visually disappointed because they were friends.  Captain Kirk offers the young Ensign an opportunity to have some revenge against the creature that killed Rizzo. 

Ensign Garrovick, what a coincidence 

Kirk goes down with Garrovick and others.  The cloud creature is formable it can alter its molecular structure at will.  The mission goes poorly and more red shirts are killed.  After it is over and they are debriefing Kirk is shocked Garrovick admits to hesitating before firing his phaser.  This enrages the Captain and he relieves the Ensign of all further duties and confines him to quarters. Kirk’s overly hard treatment of the young man combined with his refusal to go pick up the vaccine until he was finished with the cloud causes both Spock and McCoy to wonder about the Captain’s mental state.

Kirk in "the hunt"

Spock and McCoy basically pull an intervention on Captain Kirk. An intervention that goes remarkably well all things considered, Kirk doesn’t bite back or act with any anger at all.  At least he doesn’t once he realizes what Spock and McCoy are actually doing.  Once it begins Kirk calmly explains the level of threat that this vampire cloud seems to represent and how he has he has assessed that threat with the need to rendezvous with the USS Yorktown in order to pick up the vaccine.  I have more thoughts on this that I will save for the additional thoughts section.

Growing concern

While Captain Kirk is having his intervention with McCoy and Spock, Ensign Garrovick receives some tough love from Nurse Chapel.  She brings him some food because he wasn’t eating and when he tries to resist she tells him she has medical orders from McCoy that he eats or he will be forced feed.  This works and it turns out Chapel had no such orders and what she was using to pretend she had them was an information disk about an entirely different subject.

Things heat up when the vampire space cloud takes off out to space like a bat out of hell.  Kirk sends the Enterprise in swift pursuit.  It begins to look as if the Enterprise can’t keep up, but then the cloud stops and turns to fight.   Kirk is ready for battle he orders Chekov to fire phasers and photon torpedoes both proved useless against the creature.  In addition to fighting the creature Kirk also has to actively ignore Ensign Garrovick who, with timing on par with only Dr. McCoy, requests to be reinstated that moment. 

Space battle not going so well

The creature then heads directly toward the Enterprise and it manages to get past the shields and into the ship’s ventilation system.  It is at this time, after seeing Ensign Garrovick get on and off the bridge while being ignored the Captain throughout; Mr. Spock decides the Ensign needs a pep talk.  While trying to give the pep talk the creature attacks and Spock’s quick thinking saves the Ensign but he himself is now locked in there.  Garrovick calls for help and Captain Kirk heads down with a security team.  It turns out Spock is okay because his green blood has copper that the creature doesn’t like.  It’s not the first time being a Vulcan saved him from a vampire-like creature.  They managed to get the cloud vampire out by flooding with ventilation system with radioactive waste.  They can someone how do this without killing themselves but I can’t explain how.

Spock tires to pep talk Ensign

 As the vampire cloud flees the Enterprise, Kirk realizes where it is going.  It is retreating to a place where it last battled a Federation Starship: Tycho IV.  Kirk orders the Enterprise there and while he is at it he has a heart-to-heart talk with Garrovick.  The Ensign thought he was in trouble when Kirk brought up with the battle while they were on the bridge but what the Captain wanted to communicate was not the Ensign’s conduct but that the creature was invulnerable to conventional weaponry.  With that Kirk decides they can only fight it with antimatter.  Garrovick volunteers to go on a dangerous mission with Captain Kirk.  They transport down with a container that is filled with antimatter that if it were to get out could destroy a whole continent and strip the planet of its atmosphere.  It also has the side effect of interfering with the transporter.  They had a container full of blood to use as bait but the creature shows up and consumes it before they can set the trap.  Kirk decides that he will stand in as bait to which Garrovick tries to stop him because the thinks he is trying to sacrifice himself.   Garrovick is noble but flawed and since the Kirk is the greatest fighter in the galaxy his attempt to take over fails. As the creature comes for them Kirk then pulls an emergency transport and releases the antimatter.  It is close call but the Captain and the Ensign survive.  With the creature destroyed Kirk invites Gorrovick for some private time to talk about his dad.  

Additional thoughts: Earlier this season we got to see an obsessed starship captain transform into a modern Captain Ahab in Matt Decker who was chasing the Doomsday Machine.  There are times in this episode where Kirk reminds the audience of that with his smilingly singular focus of the vampire cloud damn all else.  However Kirk isn’t Decker, for Kirk never loses control the way Decker did.  Kirk is still conscious of his surroundings.   Kirk can see for example that a direct attack using conventional weapons isn’t working and he needs to come up with another plan.  Decker kept chasing after the Doomsday Machine firing phasers that clearly weren’t doing any damage.  More importantly when Kirk is confronted by both Spock and McCoy about his actions he can manage to rationally explain all of his actions without having to fall back on his rank and authority like Decker did.

Spock trying to fight cloud

Speaking of the intervention of McCoy and Spock I think that may have been my favorite part the episode.  Earlier in the series we saw those two try a Weekend at Bernie’s when Kirk had been split by the transporter.   They propped up the “good” half as so the crew wouldn’t lose confidence in him despite the fact he was clearly deficient.  In this episode they confront the Captain with legitimate concerns giving some of his orders.  There is no concern that the very existence of such an inquiry will ruin anyone.  A negative result could but not the practice of the procedure.  Kirk himself doesn’t even get angry about it but instead uses it as an opportunity not only to explain himself to his senior officers but as reflection on how his commands are being received.  Kirk did make some errors, not being more direct on how he knew about the vampire cloud and its threat was one.  Also not sharing his threat assessment early on with his command crew was another.  Seeing Kirk sit down and go over his thought process with his two officers was one of the best character moments in the series.

Kirk's intervention

On a lighter note, last I checked the USS Yorktown is another constitution-class starship.  So why are they not capable of delivering that vaccine themselves?  Why are they handing it off to the Enterprise like runners in a decathlon?  I think if that ship took a little more responsibly the Enterprise crew would not have that issue to deal with and could focus on space cloud vampire. 

Walking around with just a bit of antimatter 

Given how close Kirk was to Captain Gorrovick I have a hard time accepting that he didn’t know (1) that he had a son, (2) that said son was now old enough to be an officer in Starfleet, and (3) that he was now on his ship.  Doesn’t Kirk pay attention to who is assigned to where on his starship.  He seems to know just about everyone else.

Last but not least, Leslie dies. But we will later see Leslie despite his death later so how is this possible?  I think I have the answer.  The Leslie who has killed here was not Lt. Leslie who often see in the background but rather Crewman Leslie, who is the younger but very similar looking brother to the Lieutenant.  This makes sense when he dies under the leadership of an ensign.  If he was Lt. Leslie than he would have been in charge of that mission and survive it as he often does.

 FINAL  GRADE 5 of 5

KIRK AND CREW ARE KIDNAPPED AND FORCED TO HANG OUT WITH A LADY GAGA LOOKALIKE

 

Episode Title:  The Gamesters of Triskelion

Air Date: 1/5/1968

Written by Margaret Armen

Directed by Gene Nelson

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Booker Bradshaw as Dr. Joseph M'Benga       Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli                        Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent       Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley           Victoria George as Ensign Jana Haines       Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman       Angelique Pettyjohn as Shahna                Joseph Ruskin  as Galt          Steve Sandor as Lars       Dick Crockett as Andorian Thrall      Jane Ross as Tamoon         Mickey Morton as Kloog           Bart La Rue as Provider #1                     Walker Edmiston as Provider #2               Bob Johnson as  Provider #3       

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Gamma II, Triskelion

My Spoiler filled summary and review: On a routine mission to the uninhabited planet Gamma II Kirk is taking Uhura and Chekov to accompany him.  As they are preparing to beam down the trio mysteriously vanish.  Now they came to the transporter room to do a scheduled vanish, but this was instantaneous and not transporter-like.  Scotty calls the bridge in a panic, while Mr. Spock provides calm and steady leadership in a search for the missing crewmembers.

Where are we? Transporters don't work like this!

It turns out that this blinking transportation takes quite a bit out of you.  As the three manage to get up with some aches and pains, they then find themselves under attack by four alien warriors, two male and two female.  One of the female attackers looks like Lady Gaga.  Kirk orders his team to pull out their phasers, but they quickly discover that the phasers don’t work.  So Kirk tells them to prepare for hand to hand combat. 

Uhura outnumbered but doing good

One of the male warriors attacks Kirk and that is his bad luck for he chosen to engage in battle with greatest warrior in the known galaxy.  Kirk using his speed and grace handles his opponent with ease while Ensign Chekov struggles with his.  Uhura gets attacked two-on-one but holds her own.  The fight ends after the Gaga lookalike sees her fellow struggling against Kirk and goes to help him.  Then a man who identifies himself as Master Thrall Galt, shows up and ends the battle.

Galt somehow knows the name of Captain Kirk and the other two Enterprise crewmembers. He claims he is going to help them.  It turns out "by helping them" means he is going to chain them to a wall.  He explains that they are now all thralls to the Providers.  Their status is thralls-in-training. The trio are then taken off the wall and given simple “collars of obedience.” They’re about to be brought to their individual cells when they make their first escape attempt.  The collars however prevent this as their activation gives them all sudden pain.

Galt helping

Each of the Enterprise crew gets to have a drill thrall.  Kirk lucks out and gets Shahna, the Lady Gaga look alike.  She is not only beautiful but is very informative.  From her Kirk learns that they are all considered to be chattel slaves under the Providers.  The thralls are taught to think of themselves this way as she calls her mother “the one that bore me” and talks of that woman's death as it were just another piece of factual information.  She thinks of mating as something that she will be assigned with the mate selected when it is time to increase the heard.  Shahna is also starting to develop feelings for Captain Kirk as she is this episode's love interest. 

Lessons in pain

The other two crew members are not so lucky Lt. Uhura is nearly assaulted but she manages to fight her drill thrall off.  There is even a dramatic cut to commercial scene where she is screaming and Captain Kirk is yelling "What is happening to Lt. Uhura!?!" We get back from this word-with-our-sponsors and turns out everything is fine and Uhura's drill thrall leaves in frustration.  Ensign Chekov’s drill thrall is clearly sexually attracted to him but she is not conventionally attractive as Shahna.  In fact she seems to creep poor Mr. Chekov right out.

 Throughout this episode there is a continuing subplot on the Enterprise with the remaining crew running around desperately looking for their lost crewmembers.   Scotty and Dr. McCoy are in an utter panic, especially Scotty since he was running the transporter when the three disappeared.  Both of them however are continuously on the bridge and figuratively stepping on Mr. Spock’s toes questioning every decision he makes.  Mr. Spock, as it is in his character, takes a calm and rational approach to solving the problem.  Actually is one the best examples of Spock showing leadership in the series with Bones and Scotty both looking like they could have a stroke at any moment Mr. Spock is the anchor keeping everyone all on task.   Chekov’s fill-in Ensign Haines picks up an ion trail that is their first hint since this nightmare began. With McCoy and Scotty about to have a seizure, Spock takes the ship on that trail. 

Not a happy Ensign

  Back on Triskelion—which is the planet that our heroes were taken to—Kirk, Chekov, and Uhura are going over their training to the thralls. While this is happening they bring out one of their fellow thralls who had been disobedient and therefore had to be punished.  It was commanded that this thrall shall be the target in their practice sessions.  Uhura refuses to participate in her two crewmates join her.  As all three are now going to face consequences, Captain Kirk volunteers take full responsibility and be punished solely. 

Kirk taking on some else's punishment

Kirk is then told he will take the place of the original disobedient thrall and become the target.  His punishment begins with one of the training thralls continuously whipping the Captain.   This thrall punishing Kirk is  in for a bit of trouble, as Captain Kirk is still the greatest fighter in the known universe.  Kirk begins fighting back against his tormentor defeating him even though he’s at a disadvantage.  At this point we get our first glimpse at the Providers when we hear their disembodied voices making bids on Captain Kirk.  One of the providers wins and buys all three Enterprise crewmembers and they get new red collars.  The rest of the Providers start taking bets on how soon Captain Kirk will have to be destroyed.  They warn that since they are now fully trained any disobedience will result in their immediate destruction.

Kirk and his Lady Gaga I mean Shahna 

The threat of immediate destruction turns out to be something of a bluff however because the Providers start to find Kirk very entertaining and he is given a much longer leash in which to operate. While training with Shahna they come across some old ruins and Kirk starts to question her about the history of the Providers.  She resists his questions but is clear that she is very attracted to him and she starts to fall for the Captain.  Then the Providers start to punisher to which Kirk screams out that they need to punish him instead.  They relent and let her go.  The Providers send Galt to warn Kirk that such disturbances will not be tolerated forever.  Despite this warning Kirk still tries another escape attempt where he tries to short out the collars.

The Enterprise finally arrives in orbit around Triskelion but is unable to accomplish anything because the Providers managed to shut the ship down with their power.  As the Providers are communicating with the Enterprise Kirk discovers that he can communicate with them as well.  Kirk then explains to Spock everything that has been going on since they’ve been brought to the planet.   Kirk then challenges the Providers directly; he calls them cowards who dare not reveal themselves.  To prove him wrong the Providers place Kirk directly in front of them.  

The enemy: try not to laugh

It turns out the Providers are nothing more than disembodied brains we strong telepathic and telekinetic abilities.  Probably disappointed that they weren’t an artificial life form that he could talk into killing itself, Kirk at first just exchanges threats with them.  In this he almost loses when the Providers explain how they could destroy the Enterprise and make it so that no one in the Federation would ever find out, Kirk almost nearly has a meltdown.  He then proposes something else since the Providers like to gamble Kirk chooses to exploit that.  He raises the stakes to be the complete enslavement of the Enterprise’s crew or complete freedom for all the thralls.  The game Kirk proposes is that Kirk leads his entire crew against an army of equal number made of thralls.  They accept his stakes but not his game instead the Providers decide that Kirk will individually fight three thralls all at once.  Without any real choice Kirk agrees.

Final Battle

Setting those parameters and accepting the stakes was a major mistake on the part of the Providers.  As Kirk is the greatest warrior in the known galaxy he easily defeats the thralls with his amazing and graceful fighting skills.  He even gets the thralls’ leader, who was Shahna now the woman scorned when Kirk knocked her out in his last escape attempt, to publicly surrender.  All is well the crew gets to go home, the thralls are free with committed Provider support, and Shahna pledges to always look at the stars for Jim Kirk.

Additional thoughts: This was fine episode.  It satisfies all the criteria for entertainment.  It is fun, at times exciting, and has great character moments.  When was over however it didn’t leave me with any great thoughts.  This is the section of the review where I typically like to reflect but the episode didn’t really leave me with anything to reflect upon.  I suppose I could try to talk about slavery or gambling both important issues being brought up in the episode but neither was addressed in a way that made me want to discuss those things.

The Captain was kidnapped by powerful telepathic aliens who wanted to make him their source of entertainment.  It is kind of like “The Cage-lite.”  The only other thing I can think to say about this that in the final battle I noticed that Kirk did step out of bounds a number of times.  Fortunately for him this wasn’t called so it didn’t affect the outcome.  That is the way it was in the days of Star Trek.  When a referee missed a call back then, calling for a booth review on instant replay was not a thing in the 1960s.

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5

THE COLD WAR BETWEEN THE FEDERATION AND THE KLINGONS RUINS LIFE ON A POOR LITTLE PLANET

 Episode Title:  A Private Little War

Air Date: 2/2/1968

Written by Don Ingalls and Gene Roddenberry 

Directed by Marc Daniels

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Booker Bradshaw as Dr. Joseph M'Benga       Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli                        Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent       Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley           Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel      Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Nancy Kovack as Nona                Michael Witney as Tyree          Arthur Bernard as Apella       Janos Prohaska as the mugato     Gary Pillar as Yutan         Paul Baxley as Patrol Leader          Roy N. Sickner  as unnamed Villager                     Jeannie Malone as unnamed Native Woman       Ned Romero as Krell         

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser

Planets:  Neural

My Spoiler filled summary and review: A landing party consisting of the Enterprise’s most senior and experienced officers of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are exploring the beautiful and peaceful planet of Neural.  It is a place Kirk once visited before as a young lieutenant. He found their Stone Age inhabitants to be intelligent, resourceful, and peaceful with their neighbors.  However today on this return trip after they get done admiring the environment’s natural beauty they notice something awful.  Kirk and Spock see a couple of Villagers carrying flintlock guns and appear to be about to ambush a group of Hill People.  Among the Hill People is Kirk’s old friend Tyree.  Realizing his old friend is about to be killed Kirk wants to use his phaser but Spock instantly reminds him that that would be of the violation of the Prime Directive.   Instead Kirk chooses to throw a rock, and it accomplishes what he intends the Villagers stop paying attention to the Hill People and turn their fire on Kirk and Spock.  The two run back to Dr. McCoy but they are not completely successful as Mr. Spock is shot in the back.  The bullet seems to have gone right through him as there is blood on both sides of his shirt.  They call for an emergency beam out and get back up to the Enterprise.

Once back on the ship McCoy rushes Spock to sick bay and tells Kirk that he can’t give him a definite answer on whether or not Spock will survive.   Kirk doesn’t have much time to worry about it because as they are caring for Spock the red alert siren goes on.  The Klingons have entered the system!  Kirk gets the bridge and the bridge crew notices that the Klingons seem to be unaware of them.  Their ship is on the other side of the planet’s orbit, and they seem to be communicating with their ground crews.  Kirk drops the Enterprise back onto yellow alert. Kirk now knows how it is the Villagers were able to develop flintlocks so quickly: the Klingons were supplying them.  The bridge crew consisting of Scotty, Chekov, and Uhura are skeptical to the Captain’s claims.  Just because it took Earth a long time ago from early Stone Age to flintlock weapons doesn't mean it has to take this species the same length.  More evidence would be needed to confirm that the Klingons are behind the Villagers’ sudden technological advance. 

Shot through the what ever that is on a Vulcan

Despite the fact his instincts tell him that the Klingons are knee-deep in this, Kirk realizes his crew was correct.  He needs to find more evidence if he wants to be able to help directly.   A young doctor working in McCoy’s sick bay, whose name is Joseph M'Benga, had his internship on Vulcan and is an expert Vulcan physiology.  He must’ve just transferred to the Enterprise just yesterday because we sure could’ve used his help last week.   With Dr. M'Benga in charge of Spock’s care, Dr. McCoy’s free go back down to the surface with Captain Kirk. 

His worst fear since that airplane trip

               Kirk and McCoy beam back down to the planet’s surface and our attacked by a mugato, one of Neural’s native creatures.  The creature is large with deadly poison claws.  McCoy is able to disintegrate it with his phaser but not before the creature was able to get its claws on Captain Kirk.   McCoy tries to call up to the Enterprise only to discover that the ship had to leave orbit in order to prevent detection from the Klingons.  Kirk tells McCoy that he needs to get him to Tyree’s people for they can help him.  Kirk knows that the Hill People have an established relationship with a group of individuals called the kahn-ut-tu.  The kahn-ut-tu are witch doctors who know how to treat this type of poison.

It turns out Tyree doesn’t just know a kahn-ut-tu he happens to be married to one.  Tyree and his wife Nona are discussing what to do about the now violent Villagers.  Nona wants to find a way to get their guns while Tyree is hoping for more diplomatic solution.  They start talking about the nature of their relationship and Nona insists that Tyree sought her out because women like her can make men powerful.   Tyree says he’s pursued Nona because she put a spell on him, now at first I thought he was joking but this does turn out to be the case.  We see Nona drug Tyree into a trance and starts making suggestions to him on what he should be doing and how he can’t resist her.  This is when the other Hill people arrive to tell them of the arrival of the strangers who claim to know Tyree.

When the couple shows up Nona is able to catch McCoy using his phaser to heat rocks to help a sick Captain Kirk.  She is able to cure Kirk what appears to be a giant turd.  She cuts her hand with a knife and places her bleeding hand on the turd and places that over Kirk’s wound.  This surprisingly works but apparently is going to give her an “in” on Kirk’s mind.

Tyree and Nona

Backup on the Enterprise Spock is going under his own unusual treatment.  Chapel starts to talk to Spock only to hear from our new doctor that Spock can hear everything she is saying even though he is unresponsive.

Kirk and Tyree talk about what’s going on.  Tyree tells them about how the Villagers have developed these fire sticks and are using them to harm the Hill People.  Kirk also learns that Nona who has saved his life also knows his origins.  As his wife Tyree is bound to share everything with her even his secret that his friend Jim Kirk comes from the stars.  Nona confronts Captain Kirk about her knowledge of the phasers.  Kirk responds by explaining to her the Prime Directive, and Kirk actually gives a very simplistic understandable explanation to why it exists.  Nona then tells Kirk that despite its honorable intentions the Prime Directive really sucks.  Nona leaves in anger and Tyree tells Captain Kirk not to be bothered that he knows that Kirk and his friend will help in ways that his wife does not understand.  

Nona cures Captain Kirk

Tyree and Kirk make plans with Dr. McCoy to sneak into the village to see the source of the fire sticks.  Kirk has mixed feelings he wants to help his friend and his people but he also knows if they discover the truth and that the Klingons are in fact behind this as he suspected originally then he fears what he will have to do.

The trio heads down to the village and Kirk, with his supreme fighting skills unparalleled anywhere in the galaxy, is able to knock out one of the guards and get his team in building where the fire sticks are being made.   They find the forge used to create the fire sticks and their tricorder readings confirm that the technology is of Klingon origin.  They hear noise so they all hide and two people enter the room.   One is a leader of the Villagers whose name is Apella and the other is a Klingon whose name is Krell.  We, the audience, are privy to the entire conversation between the Klingon ambassador the village leader.   Apella confesses that he was afraid that his people would soon grow tired of killing, however now they have been killing and taking what they want they find the rewards are great.  Being a conqueror is intoxicating.  He has found some unexpected problems that he does have to deal with.  He tells Krell that the last raiding party only managed to capture one woman and he did not know how to divide one woman amongst a bunch of men.   Krell tells Apella that he should reward the woman to his soldier who killed the most enemies this will show his men of the most warlike among them will be rewarded.  Krell then goes over his long-term plans for the planet and how his people will allow Apella to take control of this world is one of their Imperial governors.

Krell and Apella making plans for ruling a planet and dividing women!

 Then McCoy’s tricorder goes off and they’re discovered but fortunately with Captain Kirk, the greatest fighter in the known universe is on their side and he easily defeats the two would-be planet conquers.  The other Villagers try to stop them from escaping and they easily could’ve been killed fortunately the Villagers aim like Stormtroopers and the plot armor protects the trio from being harmed. 

 Back on the Enterprise Mr. Spock recovers from his ordeal in a very amusing way.  In his unconscious state he asks Nurse Chapel to beat him. This confuses her but Dr. M’Benga said to do anything Mr. Spock requests so she does.  Scotty sees this and thinks she has gone mad and tries to stop her.  M’Benga enters and tries to stop him. Spock however has fully recovered.

Kirk’s training the Hill People in the uses of the flintlock. Tyree is still troubled by what they must do and not yet fully committed.  Nona, on the other hand is becoming impatient.  She decides solve her trouble by seducing Captain Kirk.  Since our Captain is not the type of man sleep with another man’s wife particularly the wife of his friend he refuses her.  Nona decides to deal with this by pulling a Cosby and drugging Captain Kirk to make him more receptive to her advances.  This begins to work and Kirk embraces Nona.  Poor Tyree comes to see Kirk and sees this instead.  Naturally upset as he feels that he is the only man who Nona should be drug rapping, he throws down his firearm and leaves angrily.  As he storms off a mugatoe arrives and attacks.  Kirk is able to disintegrate it with his phaser but is knocked unconscious.  Nona has decided she is had enough of her husband, his friends, and their collective weakness.  She grabs Kirks phaser decides to defect to the Villagers for Apella is a much more daring man than her husband.

Kirk training the Hill People

               Nona finds one of the Villagers hunting parties and approaches them.  She demands they take her to Apella so she can offer him the weapon.  Unfortunately for Nona these Villagers don’t have upgrade weaponry in mind but rather rape.  They talk to themselves and they bring up the fact that if they were they to bring her to Apella he would just reward her to whoever amongst them had killed the most Hill People.  Since none of them had been the top killer that week they would lose their only opportunity to rape Nona.  So they decide to gang rape her right now instead, this way they can each have a turn.  While they’re attempting their assault a number of Hill People showed up.  McCoy had berated Tyree for leaving his weapon on the ground.  They came back found Captain Kirk and now they found Nona.  The gang rapists feel that this was all a trap and decide to cut their losses and just kill Nona.  The two sides battle, McCoy is slightly wounded but will recover, and Tyree kills his wife’s murderer with a rock. The rest of the Villagers retreat in the now widowed Tyree swears vengeance and asks Kirk the weapons that he promised.  Kirk will provide.  The Captain is disappointed that he is the one who must ruin paradise.

Tyree, ready to kill

Additional thoughts: The poor mugatoes these are the true victims of the story.  The strange aliens beam down to their world and into their territory and while they’re defending their territory one of them is disintegrated by phaser.  Later his mate upon seeing the ones who destroyed him tried to avenge his death, and she too was likewise disintegrated.  A sad end to such noble creatures.

So the first thing we have the talk about is the obvious Vietnam War criticism.   The people of Neural are clearly a Third World nation where the Federation and the Klingon Empire represent the two superpowers of the United States of America and the Soviet Union.  The local people’s lives, world , and politics gets interfered with and played around through no fault of their own.  They are but unwilling pawns in the game between the great powers.  Now this presents some issues.  I, for one, fully believe the US was the “good guy” compared to the communist superpower, but we were hardly innocent.  The Federation, on the other hand, just wants to leave this poor planet alone and would if it weren’t for those nasty Klingons.  The Federation motives are completely pure where real life was much more complex.

This also makes me think about the other powers the galaxy particularly the Organians.  What do they think of this? After all this is partially their fault.  If they had just allowed the Federation and the Klingons to duke it out themselves then they wouldn’t be stuck playing these cold wargames with these poor little planets serving as proxies.   Now granted the Klingons might have come here eventually but they would have had to deal the Federation directly first.

Always good to see more people in the medical department

On a lighter note I want to point out how much I love it when we see members of the Enterprise crew who aren’t the senior staff or bridge crew. I mean Dr. McCoy supposed to be the chief medical officer so who are the people he is supposed to be the chief of besides Nurse Chapel? In the first season episode “Dagger of the Mind” we got Dr. Helen Noel now we get Dr. Joseph M'Benga, an expert on Vulcan physiology.  Considering all the pon farring and Vulcan heart attacks that have been happening on the ship the season, we can easily see why Dr. McCoy went out to recruit him.

To Nona sexual assault is a means to an end.  To the Villagers it is the end.

You know this is probably the most rape or attempted rape we have seen in a Star Trek episode.  First we have Nona doing her best Bill Cosby impersonation, by drugging all of her potential suitors when they turn away her affections.  We have Apella discussing with Krell about how to divide captured women amongst the men.  Then Nona, now is a potential victim to a group of villagers at the end. A bit of irony there with the rapist becoming a potential rape victim.  The thing is I don’t actually have an objection to the presence of sexual assaults in the episode seeing as the episode is supposed to represent the horror of war and that has been part of war historically.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5