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