THE ENTERPRISE FIGHTS ANOTHER KILLER CLOUD

 

Episode Title:  One of Our Planets Is Missing

Air Date: 9/22/1973

Written by Marc Daniels

Directed by Hal Sutherland

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”, Lieutenant Arex, and Governor Robert Wesley        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura         Majel Barrett as Planet eating space cloud                  

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Mantilles and Alondra

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is sent to one of the Federation’s farthest star systems to investigate a strange space cloud that has entered the galaxy.  Kirk has a history of fighting giant space clouds.  One thing is for certain he doesn’t like giant space clouds so that is why he was chosen for this special mission. It looks like their worst fears are confirmed when the space cloud starts to take a part the planet Alondra, thankfully it is uninhabited.  Only the planet Mantilles has a population in this system.

Looking at the planetary system

However, Mantilles is where the giant space cloud turns to go.  Seeing the way the cloud is currently destroying Alondra, doom is going to be forced upon the over 150 million inhabitants of Mantilles.  Kirk and McCoy quickly brainstorm about telling the planet.  They are afraid of starting a planet-wide panic, but at the same time if they fail to stop this thing the planet’s government can use the time they do have to save some of people.  Kirk decides to warn them, a decision made easier by the fact that the governor of the colony is retired Starfleet Commodore Bob Wesley.  A good friend of Kirk who he trusts.

Captured

The Enterprise enters the deadly cloud.  The shields give them some protection against the cloud’s natural defense system, a system that reminds Dr. McCoy of villi in the human small intestine.  The ship’s phasers are just absorbed by the cloud, but they are able to fight off the attack with some anti-matter charges. Being in the cloud also gives them some important new information.  The cloud isn’t just some freak of nature but a living space organism.  The reason the ship is being attacked is they are is they are in the creature’s digestive tract. They will be destroyed unless they can find their way out through the creature’s anus. (I am not kidding this is exactly what they are doing.)  While trying to find the anus so they can dislodge with the other space poop, they come across something more interesting.  They find some electrical signals that could indicate the creature’s brain.  Since they need to stop the creature from reaching Mantilles, they opt to go in that direction.

However, if they are going to go anywhere, they are going to need power and the consistent ponding on the ship’s shield and the need for antimatter bursts is draining the Enterprise fast. There is however a solution since the villi-like things are made of antimatter Scotty does a trick with the transporters to mine some of the villi-like thing and cut it up for use in their own anti-matter engines giving the ship the boost of power it needs to complete the mission. 

under attack

It is at this point that they are able to discover some good news and bad news.  It is possible for them to destroy the cloud creature before it consumes the colony.  The bad news is that since the space cloud is alive it may be sentient and they would be killing it, and the power to destroy the cloud would require the Enterprise to self-destruct, killing all of them.  Although the Starfleet officers and crew are taught that they may have to sacrifice their lives in a greater cause it is never fun to hear “now is the time.”

Getting too close for comfort

As they enter the brain Kirk remembers Spock’s telepathic powers and tries to see if he can communicate with the creature.  Spock reminds the Captain that he needs to touch something to make a mental connection.  Kirk then tells Spock about the power of plot armor and how he has used the power of plot armor in the past to make touchless telepathic contact and in some cases mind control in stories where it was required.  Scotty has already used the power of plot armor to beam something through the shields so Spock should be able to use it to contact the creature.  Realizing the Captain is correct, Spock asks Uhura if she would be able to use the universal translator to provide the plot armor with ammunition that allows the fans to come up with explanations to why this should be able to work.  Spock then communicates with the cloud and informs the cloud that ship and planet are filled with living beings that don’t want to be eaten.  With the that the big cloud agrees to regurgitate the Enterprise and leave the galaxy.   

We have power now!

Additional thoughts: This great episode although it does feel like a hybrid.  If the episodes “The Immunity Syndrome” and “The Devil in the Dark” had a child together it would be this episode.  Like the former a giant planet destroying threat is on the loose and the Enterprise is the only thing that can stop it so long as it’s not consumed by it first.  Like the later they learn that the “monster” isn’t a monster at all but just another living thing trying to survive and they come with a peaceful solution. 

I do have a slight issue with the solution however.  This planet eating cloud must have entered our galaxy because it was looking for food.  If it was able to sustain itself where it was then it would have stayed there.  I am assuming that like us it needs to consume to survive.  Spock communicates with the creature to let it know that what it planned to eat was alive and has feelings but he offered no solution to the space cloud except “go home.”  He didn’t say only eat planets that do not have sentient life on them or anything that the creature might have found useful.  I would have like to see them work something out with the creature like they were able to do with the Horta.  After all, after the cloud starts to starve isn’t it likely that if might come back when it realizes it can’t be a vegetarian?  I think there could have been a more “Star Trek” way to end it. 

Again, who would really want to live in United Federation of Planets in the 23^rd century?  There are so many threats!  You have the Klingons and Romulans always looking to start a war with you.  You have the loose-celled alien consuming the population of various planets, planet killer devices, old human space junk coming back more dangerous than before, giant single-celled organisms dropping down on you and of course killer space clouds both this one and the last one.  It’s such a dangerous galaxy to live in.  It would be like the US lost entire states a couple of times in a decade. 

Once again Spock’s ever present super powers were once again on display.  He is one with powers and abilities far beyond your average Vulcans.  I wonder if Kirk and crew get disappointed when they encounter other Vulcans.  For none have the amazing range of abilities that our Mr. Spock possess. 

Better than most Vulcans

It was nice to see old Bob Wesley.  Why the sudden change of careers?  Did he suffer a mid-life crisis?  Was he passed over for promotion to rear admiral and thought now was time for a change?  Did nearly losing his ship and squadron to a giant supercomputer shake up his confidence so he opted for a nice quite life in civil administration?  If the last one was true, wasn’t he in for a surprise?  It is too bad both he and Commodore Stone were my favorite flag officers from classic Star Trek! 

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5

LT. UHURA TAKES COMMAND

 

Episode Title:  The Lorelei Signal

Air Date: 9/29/1973

Written by Margaret Armen

Directed by Hal Sutherland

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” and Lieutenant Carver        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, Lieutenant Davison, and Dara         Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel and Theela                  

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Taurean II

My Spoiler filled summary and review: There is a special region of space that could only described as an intergalactic Bermuda Triangle.  According to data that the Federation had been sharing with their rivals the Klingon and Romulan Empires, for the last 150 years, a starship has disappeared from this area exactly once every twenty-seven years four months, a few weeks, and an odd number of days on the dot.  (So, I guess that means five, which doesn’t sound like all that much come to think of it.)  Well, the date is coming up again so Starfleet has assigned the Enterprise to fly down see what happens.  

Nice looking but not so nice!

When they moment comes, they receive a signal that seems more like music.  All the men start to hallucinate, the women do not.  Uhura calls Nurse Chapel and they compare notes seeing that the men have entered their own little world. The ship is lured to the planet Taurean II and Captain Kirk leads and a landing party that consists of Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Sulu.  On the planet’s surface they meet these beautiful women.  Kirk asks where the men are and accepts the rather tame explanation that the men are just elsewhere.  The landing party are each given these strange devices to put on their heads and then they are individual brought into a room.

Uhura and Chapel work to get to the bottom of this!

Uhura realizes that the men of the Enterprise are now beyond help, she relieves Scotty of command and takes control of the ship herself.  She orders all female security teams to guard the transporter room so no deluded male goes off and tries to beam down to the surface, and she makes Nurse Chapel the acting Chief Medical Officer.

At this point the landing party realizes that there is something terribly wrong.  They realize the strange women of this planet are doing something to them so they decided to make an escape.  They are determined but they are not quick as the process that is being done to them has caused each member of the landing party to prematurely age.  Despite their aged condition, to be fair three of them have experience prematurely aging, they managed to make it outside the building.  However, they will not be able to out run the young women so they decide to hide in giant urn.  (I am not kidding that is exactly what happens.)  They can’t stay in there forever, so Spock with his Vulcan biology allowing him to retain more of his pervious strength sneaks back in the building and retrieves their communicators.  With that he is beamed up to the ship, where he lets Lt. Uhura know that they need to destroy the signal that is being sent out not only to release the men of the Enterprise but any future ship as well.

Helpless in there hands!

Lt. Uhura then leads her own landing party made entirely of women down to the surface planet armed to teeth with phasers.  They quickly put the phasers to use blasting everything in sight.  Her team saves Kirk’s landing party before their giant urn filled with water to drown them.  Uhura learns from their leader, Theela, that her people had crashed here on a ship and that it was the planet’s environment that caused the women to drain their male crew members.  This would rejuvenate them but it would only last for twenty-seven years. Thus, making them need a new ship of victims.  Uhura then proceeds to destroy the place.

dying Spock helps

Back up on the Enterprise, McCoy’s treatment doesn’t work so they try the only option they have left.  They use the transporters memory of their last transport to “reset” their bodies to their pervious condition before they left the planet.  Also, Uhura has a meeting with Theela.  In the meeting, Uhura tells them that the Enterprise can relocate them and they can just become normal.  Theela accepts with enthusiasm.

Uhura takes command from Scotty!

Additional thoughts: This was very fun episode and such a great opportunity for Uhura to shine.  When I was taking a look at how all the characters were used in the original series, I concluded with Uhura that there were two episodes where she was the second most important member of crew, but none where she was the primary protagonist.  Here we get to see the character live up to the potential that we always knew she had.  She takes charge in a no-nonsense manner and leads the Enterprise to victory.

They mean business!

So, in the episode Uhura makes Nurse Chapel the acting Chief Medical Officer.  Okay, shouldn’t the CMO be a medical doctor.  I thought that was the rules. Are there not any female doctors on the Enterprise?  Is that why it has to go the Head Nurse?  What happened to Dr. Helen Noel?  I love that character and it would been nice to see her again.  Yes, I think the show missed an opportunity here.

Help!

Such a quick trick to cure themselves using the transporter.  Why don’t they do that all the time.  Heck anytime someone has a potentially fatal injury, just stick them in the transporter and wipe the wounds away with the stored memory of their uninjured selves.  I think it would have been better if they explained that because of the nature of the Taureanian attack that they transporter was the key to their survival. Instead now you just created a whole ton of plot holes in the franchise’s future.  

saving the Captain!

 So, the planet is filled with beautiful women who turn out to be kind of mean.  Does this remind you of anything?  It reminded me a little of "Spock’s Brain," with an underground society made entirely of women except for the brute male slaves that they kidnap from the surface.  Also, what happened to the women who were on those other ships they lured in?  Or were they just lucky and every ship that passed by just happened to have an entirely male crew.  Could the women of the Enterprise be the only women that these ladies have encountered?  Diamond cuts diamond I suppose. 

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5

THE ENTERPRISE ENCOUNTERS ANOTHER SHAPE CHANGER

 Episode Title:  The Survivor

Air Date: 10/13/1973

Written by James Schmerer

Directed by Hal Sutherland

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” and the Romulan Commander II         George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and Lieutenant Anne Nored          Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel, Lieutenant M'Ress, and Enterprise Computer                   Ted Knight as Carter Winston  

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, an unnamed one-person space craft, two unnamed Romulan D-7R cruisers 

Planets: none

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with an amazing discovery.  The crew of the Enterprise has found Federation citizen Carter Winston who has been lost for five years.  Winston is an entrepreneur who made several fortunes and spent them all on great humanitarian causes.  When he boards the Enterprise, he explains that he crashed landed on an alien world and they nursed him back to health.  In a strange coincidence, it turns out that Winston’s fiancée is a lieutenant serving as an Enterprise security officer. (Gee, that sounds familiar.  More on that later.)  Spock reminds them of the security protocol which offends McCoy but Winston is okay with.

Carter Winston returns 

After his checkup, McCoy determines that Winston is healthy although there is slight variance that he is unsure of.  McCoy then arranges for his fiancée, Anne Nored, to come see him.  Winston explains to Nored that he is now different because of his experiences and is longer able to marry her.  After learning that the fiancée she thought was dead was alive, she is then dumped and leaves in tears.

putting moves on Captain Kirk 

Winston then goes to see Captain Kirk and while the Captain was trying to engage in casual conversation with his guest that very guest transformed into his natural state: a bizarre creature with tentacles.  The creature then knocks out Captain Kirk and assumes his form.  As “Captain Kirk” the creature goes to the bridge and orders the Enterprise go to the planet Rator III in the Romulan Neutral Zone. It is not the first time the crew was made to go into the Romulan Neutral Zone, heck it’s not even the third, in fact it is not even the first time such order came from Captain Kirk.  However, it is considered out of the ordinary.

Kirk threatens a table

When the actual Captain Kirk wakes up, he goes from the bridge he is shocked it discover their destination.  He demands to know the reason and Spock plays back to him footage of the Captain giving the order. Considering how many times Kirk has had an imposter try to take his place, he never questions his sanity and realizes Winston must be behind it.  With that he orders the ship out of the Neutral Zone as fast as possible. 

The Romulan Commander and he means business

Kirk and Spock go to see McCoy but McCoy was acting odd.  As they go to leave, they quickly realize that it wasn’t McCoy at all.  When they get back into sickbay to discover McCoy unconscious when he wakes up, he talks about his encounter with Winston.  The three look around the sickbay and find one extra laboratory table.  Kirk goes up to the table that he thinks is false and announces out loud that he is going to poor some acid on it.  The creature assumes its natural form and Spock identifies him as a Vendorian a species from a planet forbidden to the Federation.  The Vendorian quickly escapes but is stopped by Lt. Nored.  She hesitates and with that he hits the phaser out of her hands and runs off. 

The Enterprise’s luck gets worse when the Romulans show up looking to capture the pride of Starfleet. Kirk tries to explain this wasn’t their fault, but why the hell would the Romulans ever believe that?  It doesn’t matter because the Romulans sent the Vendorian to sabotage the Enterprise. And sabotage he does, Scotty catches him messing with the ship’s shields.  The Vendorian flees but it is too late.  This puts the Enterprise in horrible position, with the Romulan Commander demanding the surrender.  It is looking like Kirk is having to choose between surrendering his ship and living or dying to preserve Starfleet’s secrets.  However, the Vendorian tries to escape via shuttlecraft he encounters Nored once more. Assuming the form of Winston he explains that he knew the real one quite well that he was able to absorb his memory as well as his form before he died. It turns out that he has too much Carter Winston in him and he confess that he still loves her.  He realizes his mistake and vows to set all to right.  

Nored gets the drop on "Winston"

Then on the bridge the crew notices they have their deflector shield back.  According to their instruments they should still be down but Vendorians can become deflector shields.  With his new “shields” Kirk outfights the Romulan ships and sends them packing. “Carter” returns and volunteers to be held accountable for his actions.  Kirk promises to put in a good word, and Nored leaves with him as the two are in love and want to be together.

Happy together

Additional thoughts: This was exciting episode and was quite well done.  Vendorians are really impressive shape changers. If they can change into a deflector shield, maybe Kirk’s acid test wasn’t that much of a threat.  I thought the response McCoy gave when the Vendorian changed of  "I see it but I don't believe it" didn't make any sense as he has seen such shape changers before. 

I wonder what Christine Chapel’s thoughts about this whole thing are.  She was here but we didn’t hear much from her.  I however found much parallel between Nored’s lost fiancée and her own Roger Korby from “What Are Little Girls Made of.”  Like Winston, Korby was lost and presumed dead.  When he shows up alive everyone is shocked.  However, we learn he isn’t really alive, instead “Korby” is an android copy of the real Korby complete with his memories.  Chapel and Kirk reject Korby as the real one because he is only a copy.  Here the Vendorian has absorbed Winston’s memory and can take his shape and yet Lt. Nored decides she will love him anyway.  I wonder if Chapel saw that would she have to start re-thinking a decision she made four years ago?

Korby, how fake was he?

So, Nored is off living with Vendorian Winston, this is not so unusual in fact we have seen it before.  Remember “The Man Trap”?  Nored’s decision is to live with the tentacled creature that can transform into her late fiancée or anyone else that she may wish him into.  That was the same decision that Robert Crater made when his wife died. He chose to love the Salt Vampire who could become her or anyone else whenever he desired. Hmm… Maybe if they had approved that case with a little more compassion, they might have saved that species from extinction. 

Maybe if she had tried to become a deflector shield 

It is something to think about.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5