COMPASSION FOR INTELLIGENT LIFE THAT MAY LOOK COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM YOU IS WHAT MAKES STAR TREK GREAT

Episode Title:  The Devil in the Dark

Air Date: 3/9/1967

Written by Gene L. Coon

Directed by Joseph Pevney

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”        Barry Russo as Lieutenant  Commander Giotto             Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Haley          Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Osborn                     Ron Veto as Unnamed Security Guard            Ken Lynch as Chief Engineer Vanderberg          Brad Weston as Appel             Biff Elliot as Schmitter         George Allen as Engineer #1             Jon Cavett as Guard           Dick Dial as Sam             Robert Hitchcock as unnamed Miner        Monty O'Grady as unnamed Miner     Bob Hoy and Janos Prohaska as Horta

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Janus VI

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  This episode opens with a unique beginning for instead of starting with the crew from the Enterprise we find ourselves with an entirely different cast of characters.  One miner is being asked to stand guard and he doesn’t like it.  Many of their coworkers have already died under very bizarre and brutal circumstances.  The miner who is being asked to remain is reminded by his superior that although his concerns are understood the very fact that they’re all under threat is why they need guards.  Help is nearby and the Enterprise is on its way.  Unfortunately for this guard help doesn’t arrive soon enough and he becomes another casualty just seconds after being left alone.

Humans under threat that they don't understand!

The Enterprise arrives and the trio of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy all meet with Chief Engineer Vanderberg.  Vandeberg explains to his guests the horror of what has been going on.  He lets the men know that he is lost over fifty miners by unknown means.  He thinks it’s some sort of creature based on what very few survivors have managed to report.  They’ve tried to stop the creature with their phasers but it appears immune.  This is a very valuable mining operation and many planets depend on its success.  It is also one of the richest planets in terms of the diverse minerals that they can mine from it.   If the crew from the Enterprise cannot help them they may end up having to abandon this very valuable operation.  In a classic case of Chekhov’s gun, Mr. Spock notices a strange metallic sphere.  Vandeberg explains that they’re not very valuable but they see them around all the time in many shafts.

Ever have something that was more valuable than you thought?

 Given the evidence that they are able to examine Mr. Spock proposes the possibility that what they are dealing with could potentially be a silicon-based life form.  The possibility has the Captain intrigued but McCoy finds that to be an absurd fantasy.   Dr. McCoy decides his time is best served seeing the remains of the victims and while he’s gone Kirk and Spock discuss options.  They decide to bring down security team armed with phaser 2s, as phaser 2 is far more powerful than phaser 1.  When it comes to dealing with the creature Spock suggest that since this is the only of its kind they’ve ever seen they might want to capture it for science.  Kirk rejects this idea deciding it is far too dangerous and therefore they should go after it with everything they can.  

As Kirk and Spock make their plans, the creature strikes again.  It kills one more guard and then does something very strange for creature that they thought was mindless.  It manages to detach and steal the engine’s main reactor.  Without it the engine will soon fail that will in turn kill life-support in the colony and mandate an evacuation.   Kirk asked Scotty if he can fix it.  Mr. Scott reports however the colony relied on such an archaic piece of machinery that in his entire Starfleet career he'd never worked with the like of it.  What they have on the Enterprise is not compatible.  However Mr. Scott is a miracle worker and he successfully jury-rigs a temporary replacement which will buy them about 48 hours.

Kirk with his finest security officers

Kirk and Spock prep the security team.  As he is giving them instructions it is clear that Mr. Spock still wishes to potentially capture the creature.  Kirk quickly overrides this and commanding the creature must be destroyed.  At one point Kirk tries to reassign Spock from the hunting party to Mr. Scott's team, however Spock is able to talk the captain out of that in a very humorous manner involving mathematical odds.  The two of them even become the first to encounter the creature and fight back after a poor red shirt falls.  The creature looks kind of like a pizza ridding on a moving carpet.  They successfully fight the creature off, using the phasers, blasting a piece off of it.  The creature is able to escape however given its ability to travel through rock like we would travel through air.  The important thing is they've now proven the creature is no longer unbeatable.  The bad news is Scotty’s temporary replacement reactor is about to give up the ghost.  Most of the colony is evacuated with small group staying behind led by Vanderburg to aid Kirk and the Starfleet security team in the hunt.

 Kirk and Spock head down one of the caverns that they find littered with the same silicon spheres that Mr. Spock was admiring earlier.  They come to a fork in the caves and they each go down one tunnel keeping contact with their communicators.   Then Kirk encounters the creature coming out of a wall.  As the creature comes at him he aims his phaser at it.   The creature than backs away, when Kirk lowers his phaser it approaches.  It appears intelligent it even shows Kirk its wound from earlier.  He contacts Spock who demands Kirk defend himself and slay it.  Kirk notes how they have come to switch positions. 

As Spock arrives he begins to come back to his original position.  They are unsure to what they should do so Spock attempts a mind meld.  Getting close to the creature Spock is able to sense its intense pain both physical and emotional.  When Spock breaks off the creature attempts to communicate by melting the words “No kill I.”  Not sure of what that means Spock has to touch the creature for a complete mind meld.

Spock learns that the creature is female and she is called a Horta.  Once every 50,000 years the entire species dies off except one.  That remaining Horta lays eggs for the entire next generation of the species and raises them when they hatch.  Now is one of those generational cycles and the silicon spheres that they are seeing everywhere are her eggs.  Every time they blast open a mine they are killing her children and thousands of them have died already.  Her attacks on the colony and the workers were purely defensive, as she was only defending her babies.  However now she is dying of her injuries and her entire species is now doomed as a result.

Horta Eggs, not for eating

Upon hearing from Spock the pain of the Horta, Kirk summons Dr. McCoy who when told he has to work on a silicon-based life form proclaims that “I’m a Doctor, not a bricklayer.” Kirk insists he try and McCoy gets to work, he gets an idea and communicates to the Enterprise about beaming down the supplies.

Broken eggs

When the miners arrive Kirk and Spock explain to them what happened and about why they had the conflict with the Horta.  The miners feel compassion for the Horta and sorrow for what happened. They also bemoan for themselves the loss of the colony with the productive and profitable operation.  Kirk then explains it doesn’t have to be the end of their colony; they can form a symbiotic relationship with the Horta.  As the Horta move through rock as easily as we move through air and in doing so leave tunnels.  Vanderburg had complained earlier about the difficulties of extraction the Horta could solve that problem.

Kirk meets the Horta

Spock then points out that the only problem is the remaining Horta is dying.  Then McCoy jumps in to correct him.  McCoy, who is momentarily stunned by his own awesomeness as a doctor, proclaims the Horta is saved.  McCoy had the Enterprise beam down concrete and he used it to patch the Horta together. 

Uncovering the truth with a mind meld!

Back up on the Enterprise Kirk gets a message from Venderburg that the newly hatched Horta are already opening new tunnels and their operation is now more profitable than ever.   As the Enterprise takes off we learn that the Horta was a fan of Mr. Spock’s ears.  

  

Additional thoughts:  William Shatner lost his father while filming this episode and he credits the cast for helping him through this dark time.  It is because of what everyone did for him that this became one of his favorite episodes despite the loss. 

The crew of the USS Enterprise has a stated mission to explore new worlds and new civilizations.  This mission by its very nature guarantees and they occasionally will counter lifeforms there are not necessarily human-like.  Now given the production of the series in terms of budgetary constraints, capabilities of graphics, and the majority of story ideas, most aliens they encounter will be humanoid in appearance.  One of the enduring themes of Star Trek is the continued message of tolerance.  We have a racially diverse crew that also has an alien, who explore the universe together encountering many different types of life.  Nearly all life that they encounter has one thing in common: they are carbon-based.  Scientists here in the real world have speculated about the possibilities of life based in silicon, and it’s a great idea for science fiction to explore.  It would be an easy idea to just make this creature a monster, a horrific thing the tears apart human beings that needs to be stopped.  However by showing this thing is a victim of human misunderstanding creates a great curve ball for the story.

When the truth of the Horta is revealed the reaction of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock is one of compassion, and what is even better is when this is revealed to the miners they respond with compassion as well.  Just as it would’ve been very easy to make the Horta a monster it would’ve also been just as easy to make the miners closed minded and bigoted.  The writers could have made them people who cannot see past their own pain and made the story a tragedy as they wipe for the Horta off the face of its own planet. However people of the United Federation of Planets, not just Starfleet, are people of a different era not prone to throw away something based solely on hatred.  That is part of what I love about the series and franchise.

On a story point that I was questioning however is how did the Horta get the engineering knowledge to know how to sabotage the engine?  Not only that but how did the Horta do it without arms managed to detach the reactor and carry it away? I mean I can understand it melting the reactor but how did it detach and carry it without inflicting any damage upon it?

I love the fact that the colony's engineering system was of such outdated technology that Mr. Scott himself had no experience working with it.  Scotty knows of it as he’s seen such devices in museums and clearly read upon them in the history of engineering at the Academy.  Working on one however is an entirely different story, he pulls it off little bit but he does have his limits.  This reminded me of an episode of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight talking about our nuclear warheads.  This can be scary stuff.

The best scene however was Dr. McCoy being so blown away by what an awesome doctor he himself is.  He is in awe of himself and the funny thing is McCoy is not wrong about this.  McCoy actually is so awesome that he could save a life form based on a different element than all known life. I wish one day I could discover something about myself that is so awesome I am at a loss for words when I discover it.  In fact I wish everyone on Earth, with exception to people I despise, could one day feel as Dr. McCoy feels in that moment.

"I just can't get over how awesome I am."

On one final note every human character said that the Horta was ugly in the episode and that the final joke was when Mr. Spock revealed that the Horta also thought that humans were ugly but like the humans she thought she could get used to us after a period of time.  Funny thing is I thought the Horta was kind of cute.  I would like one as a pet but that would be degrading to the Horta considering they're intelligent creatures.  Maybe we could be housemates.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

PLANTS THAT SPIT ON YOU AND MAKE YOU HAPPY

Episode Title:  This Side of Paradise

Air Date: 3/2/1967

Written by Jerry Sohl and Dorothy C. Fontana

Directed by Ralph Senensky

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Michael Barrier as  Lieutenant DeSalle            Dick Scotter as Lieutenant Painter                Eddie Paskey as unnamed Crewman                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                           Grant Woods as Lieutenant Kelowitz       Bobby Bass as unnamed Lieutenant         Walker Edmiston as Transporter Chief            John Lindesmith as unnamed Engineer                Jeannie Maloneas Yeoman / Omicron Colonist     Sean Morgan as unnamed Engineer              Fred Shue as unnamed Crewman           Ron Veto as Kelowitz's Opponent       Jill Ireland as Leila Kalomi     Frank Overton as Elias Sandoval      Dick Scotter as Painter

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Omicron Ceti III

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The Enterprise is on route to the Federation colony Omicron Ceti III.   They are hardly optimistic and are preparing for a gloomy task.  For the colony had been at risk to be exposed to Berthold rays, radiation so intense that no life-form could survive if exposed for a few weeks.  The colonists had gone three years ago there is no chance of survivors.  Since it would take a week for the radiation to take effect and cause permanent damage they can send a landing party down. The away team is formed of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Sulu and number of other officers.  The good news is none of them are wearing red so less chance of casualties.

When they beam down to the planet, to their shock, everything seems fine.  The colonists are all alive despite living in a place that should be killing them.  Spock and McCoy verbally spare a little bit in front of the Captain with Dr. McCoy offering his “diagnose” of life and Mr. Spock pointing out how this can’t be.  Mr. Sulu proposes that perhaps they are actual dead and are walking around as animated zombies.   Sulu’s proposal seems to be stretch but considering everything that the crew of the Enterprise has been through during their voyages it is a valid a theory as anything else. 

The crew encountering a man who should be dead!

The leader of the colony, Elias Sandoval, takes them on a small tour while explaining the colony’s three-camp structure.   Some things become immediately apparent.  The first of these is a young woman named Leila appears and she and Mr. Spock have a history together.   The history they have is clearly a romantic one from a time when Mr. Spock was on Earth.  Whatever it was and how long it lasted is not explained but it ended when Mr. Spock resumed his career in Starfleet.  Upon examining the colonists Dr. McCoy makes an interesting discovery.  They are all perfectly healthy, too perfect.  Not only does none of the colonists have a thing wrong with them but medical conditions that were reported in their files seems have all been erased.  The leader Sandoval re-grew an appendix that was earlier removed.  When Dr. McCoy tried the tricorder on himself to make sure that it was working and it properly recorded all of his medical conditions including his own missing tonsils.   The third strange thing that occurs on this planet is discovered by Mr. Sulu.  All the farm animals are gone and in addition to the missing farm animals there are no insects either.  Also the production is off, their mission was to be a agricultural colony, but they are not producing exports. 

Spock exposed

Lelia tries to do some catching up with Mr. Spock.  She is having difficulty however piercing through his Vulcan exterior which protects him from displaying emotions.   Unlike when they were on Earth, Lelia has a new tool.   She decides to show Spock how it is they been able to survive for so long by bringing him over to some plants and one of those plants spits spores on him.  This causes Mr. Spock to become overly happy and lose all sense of responsibility.

Spock and Lelia

Having received orders to evacuate the planet, Captain Kirk begins organizing his away team to begin that process.  He tried to call Spock on his communicator and is shocked when Spock answers and starts acting insubordinate.  He tells Kirk that the colony is not be evacuated this both puzzles and irritates the Captain.  Kirk then heads over was Sulu and DeSalle to see what’s up with Spock.  When they arrive they find Spock playing with Lelia.  He is smiling, laughing, and climbing a tree.   When Kirk and party approach Spock defies the Captain to his face.  Kirk declares a Spock is now in custody and  Sulu is in charge of him.  This action makes Spock lead the three men over to the plants that earlier infected him and the plants proceed to spit spores on both Sulu and DeSalle.   Instantly the two men are now smitten with the same lost look that Spock has and instantly take his side refusing to cooperate with the evacuation.

 Now realizing what’s going on in understanding the threat to his crew Kirk goes to gather the rest of the away team.  However the Captain is too late for not only has the entire away team been affected but they are potting some of the spore plants and sending them up to the Enterprise.  Kirk contacts ship and gets a reluctant transporter chief to actually beam him up.  When he gets there he discovers that so many plants have been brought on the ship that his entire crew is infected.  There is a long line in front of the transporter room as the crew wants to leave the ship to go down the service and be part of the colony.  For one of the consequences of the spores is they make everyone infected with the condition to want to be near one another and in the plants’ natural environment.  Kirk goes to the bridge but he can’t signal Starfleet for help because the infected Lt. Uhura has sabotaged the communication system.

We quit!

Captain Kirk feels defeated with all he has faced throughout his career looks like his entire command is now in jeopardy because of spore spitting plans. Then just as he feels all is lost one of the plants spits on him too.  Now Kirk is happy and wants to join the colony with his crew.  He calls down Spock to tell him the delightful news and Spock is happy to hear it.  Kirk needs to pack his bag so he goes to his quarters to proceed to do just that.  The Captain makes sure to pack his wraparound uniform as he remembers on this planet you want to be sexy.  As he enters the transporter room he suddenly forgets on how to beam himself somewhere.  Clearly the transporter chief knew how to self-transport as he is no longer there, but it has been so long since Kirk individually operated transporter that he forgot that procedure and now he can’t leave. Kirk gets angry about his situation and before he can rationalize about just calling Spock so he can talk him through the process of beaming himself down the anger overwhelms kills the spores inside him and Kirk is suddenly cured.

Kirk infected!

Captain Kirk realizing what he needs to do tricks Spock into coming aboard the Enterprise for some help.  When Spock arrives Kirk accuses him of being a deserter and insults his parents.  He calls his father a computer and his mother encyclopedia.  An enraged Spock attacks Captain Kirk, normally in the situation Kirk would apply his amazing fighting skills but Kirk is not looking to defeat Spock just cure him so the Captain is fighting with one hand tied behind his back figuratively speaking.  Spock almost kills Kirk but the rage cures him.  As the two of them calm down they come up with a plan to use a transmitter from the Enterprise to broadcast an irritating subsonic frequency to the crew's communicators provoke everyone to anger and cure all of them.  There is a humorous moment were Spock points out that their behavior of trying to strike each other should result in them both being court-martialed but Kirk rationalizes to Spock that if they’re both in the brig who will be there to build a transmitter and save the ship.

Their plan works to perfection they send a signal down allowing everyone’s emotions come to service fighting breaks out everywhere.  Everyone is cured colonists and crew member alike.  Once they all come to their senses the realize it is time to hightail it out of there. The humans and the one Vulcan voluntarily leave paradise behind.  Spock and Lelia have one last moment together before going their separate ways.

Additional thoughts:  Okay so I am going to be honest “spitting” was not actually the body function that came to my mind every time one of the spores went off.  I believe everyone who ever saw this episode all know the body function that we all thought while watching it.  However if you want to keep this somewhat family friendly we will stick to “spitting.”

Spitting

This episode was a lot of fun we got to see Mr. Spock go from his normal stoic self and allow him to let loose.   We saw him let loose once before in “The Naked Time,” in that episode the virus caused Spock’s guilt of not telling his mother  that he loved her to come to the surface and break his heart.  In this episode he was allowed to express love for woman that he knew from his past where always his rigid Vulcan nature prevent him from expressing such feelings.  It was also funny to see him climb a tree and tell Kirk to buzz off. 

Captain Kirk had a rough time this episode.  It was especially odd when once the nature of the spores was revealed to him he still acted absolutely shocked every single time he saw a crewman misbehaving.  I understand his initial reaction to Spock—although I also feel that given Spock’s history Kirk should have suspected something unusual was up when he started behaving as he did—when he directly sees what it does to Sulu and DeSalle it should then be clear to him what was happening.  Yet whenever Kirk found a member of his crew behaving in a similar manner he confronted them with, “What are you doing? Don’t you realize this is mutiny?” Then he would look shocked every time they back talked to him.

Now you've done it!

So why did Captain Kirk have such difficulty with the transporter?  I may have answered that my summary but I’m not really satisfied with that answer.   Shouldn’t he know how to operate it efficiently we saw him coach some of his crewman way back in “Dagger of the Mind” it is a minor plot hole but it is an annoying one.  

Kirk gets Spock to betray a woman he loves dearly.  When Lelia calls up to the ship, there is a moment when Kirk and Spock look at each other.  Kirk expression is one of sympathy, but I must add it does come off as the ultimate “bros before hoes” moment. 

Together again!

The spores have some advantages particularly in the medical field.  Completely curing your body and replacing lost organs, in “The Conscience of the King” one of Kirk’s friends was missing half of his face.   Maybe they should have saved some of these plants to treat injuries than once those injuries are cured make sure to anger them to free their mind.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5

CAPTAIN KIRK GETS HIS ARCH-NEMESIS: KHAN HAS ARRIVED

Episode Title:  Space Seed

Air Date: 2/16/1967

Written by Carey Wilber and Gene L. Coon

Directed by Marc Daniels

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”        Madlyn Rhue as Lieutenant  Marla McGivers             Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          John Winston as Lieutenant Kyle          Makee K. Blaisdell as Lieutenant Spinelli          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Haley          Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                     Ron Veto as Lieutenant Harrison            Jan Reddin as unnamed Crewwoman              Joan Johnson as unnamed Female Guard           Joan Webster as unnamed Nurse           Kathy Ahart as unnamed Crewwoman             Ricardo Montalban as Khan Noonien Singh           Mark Tobin as Joaquin             John Arndt as Ingenieur Fields

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, SS Botany Bay

Planets:  none

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The adventure begins with the Enterprise discovering a vessel out in deep space.  Spock refuses to believe it could be an Earth ship given how far they are out in space but is quickly proven wrong, to Kirk’s amusement, when sensor scans indicate it to be such.  Kirk’s first guess is that the ship is an old DY-500 class, until Spock states that it is older a DY-100, from the 1990s.

You don't find something like this everyday!

Captain Kirk creates an away team that consists of himself, Dr. McCoy, Scotty, and the ship’s historian named Maria McGivers.  The away team beams over to the unknown ship and when they get there they discover a bunch of impressive looking humans asleep and status chambers. There are over 80 of them on board but only 72 of the status chambers were still operational.  McGivers is like a kid in a candy store so amazed with everything around her that she is often lost in thought and needs additional prompting to responded to Captain Kirk’s basic questions.  One of the pods starts the awakening process for its participant.  McGivers concludes that he must be their leader as he would wake up first to determine if it was the time to wake the rest of them.  Unfortunately the pod starts to malfunction and the occupant starts to die.   Dr. McCoy begins treating him but to save his life they have to get him to the sick bay.

Impressive humans

Back on the Enterprise, Mr. Spock has identified the ship as the SS Botany Bay what is disturbing however is that there is no record of the ship anywhere in the historical database.  Kirk points out that the ship was named after a penal colony that perhaps he could be criminals a notion that Mr. Spock finds absurd.  He counters to the Captain why a society so war weary what a bunch of criminals for Shirley there are cheaper ways to dispose of them.  Spock’s position is logical and it’s also the second time is going to be wrong this episode.

In sick bay, Dr. McCoy’s incredibly impressed with his patient who seems to be making a rapid recovery.  By his examination Dr. McCoy can tell that this man is far beyond normal humans that he be stronger, faster, and far more durable.  He told the Captain that he bet this man could live both of them with one arm.  They’d earlier discussed Earth’s history and the Eugenics Wars that involved the creation of superior humans with selective breeding and how they nearly took over the planet.  Now it appears they have one of those superior augmented humans. 

Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

Later the patient regains consciousness he grabs an old scalpel on display.  He uses it to threaten Dr. McCoy.  McCoy not only doesn’t blink but earns the respect of the newly awaken man.  Captain Kirk comes down to speak with their new guest.  The man asks for some general information about how long he was out, modern technical manuals, and he wants his people to be revived.  Identifying himself as Khan but he refuses to explain why he and his people were out here.  When directly confronted Khan pretends to be tired.

McGivers begins an unwise courtship with her source of fascination.  Khan meets McGivers in her quarters and sees her paintings of some of the great men of history.  One of those paintings is of him, making it clear that McGivers knows his identity.  Their mutual fascination becomes obvious and it bothers Captain Kirk to the point he brings it up to Dr. McCoy.  McCoy responds to his concerns by just kindly points out to the Captain that there are no rules about romance for him to make an issue of.  

A bit unprofessional

 McGivers arranges with Captain Kirk to host a ceremonial dinner in honor of Khan.  The senior officers of the ship all wear the dress uniforms, and McCoy makes a joke that they look like they are eating with a fleet admiral.  Khan arrives in a gold tunic looking rather regal.  During the dinner Spock begins to aggressively question Khan about his origins, reasons for leaving Earth, his true identity etc.  Khan is taking back but also amused.  He congratulates Captain Kirk as a stagiest for allowing his first officer to attack and attack while he stands by and looks on for weakness.  Kirk tries to downplay it and just says that people are curious about his life and time.  During the conversation Khan gets unnerved proclaiming that his people had offered the world “order.”  After that Khan dismisses himself form the dinner.

Dinner with a dictator

The senior officers of the Enterprise have figured out the identity of the guest: he is Khan Noonian Singh.  From 1992-1996 he was the ruler of over one quarter of the Earth.  Spock becomes horrified that many of his fellow officers including his Captain seem to have an admiration for the man and his rule.  When Spock challenges Kirk explains that humans all have a streak of barbarism in them.  Despite Kirk’s explanation Spock is still bothered by the behavior of his fellow officers who continue to be as obnoxious as a bunch of obsessive Star Trek fans on a cruise who just realized that William Shatner is on the same boat as them.     It’s at this point however Kirk orders Khan to be put under guard.

Kirk decides to confront his new adversary so he meets the former dictator in his quarters.  Khan wants to know why he is locked in and a guard placed outside.  Kirk lets him know that he knows his identity.  He and Khan go back and forth in a dialogue in which Khan lets the Captain know that although he is impressed with his talents that he is inferior.  Technology may have changed, the former dictator insisted, but people were the same.   Khan finishes by telling the Captain that his people were going to do well here.

Going to do well here

Khan takes quick action.  He escapes from his quarters and quickly dispatches the guard assigned to him.  Without anyone on the Enterprise aware he goes back to the Botany Bay and frees his fellow augments.  With his superhuman army he heads back to the Enterprise and quickly takes control of the ship.  Kirk and the bridge crew try to hold out but Khan cuts their air and they are all captured.

Back and better than ever!

Khan has control of the Enterprise but his grip isn’t that tight.  He realizes that he doesn’t have enough people to run the ship on a day to day basis.  So he needs some of the crew to turn to his side if he wants to go on a planet conquering adventure.  Khan has a number of the crew in the conference room where he offers them a place at his side.  When no one takes him up on his offer, Khan turns on the view screen to show the sick bay decompression chamber.  Inside the chamber is Captain Kirk who is being slowly tortured to death with pressure.  Once Kirk dies Khan will use Mr. Spock to lure the crew into cooperating.  McGivers, although still in love with Khan, cannot stand by and allow for Captain Kirk to be killed.  McGivers tricks one of Khan’s men in this allows her to free the Captain.  Once he’s free Kirk leaps into action.  The two of them liberate Spock who is being brought to the decompression chamber to replace Kirk as the intended victim. 

Captain's job can be stressful

 Kirk and Spock flood the ship with gas.  This takes care of most of Khan’s soldiers, but Khan himself escapes.  Scotty informs the Captain that Khan headed to the engine room cut the room off of the ventilation so the gas couldn't enter there.  Kirk then heads to the engine room for the final showdown with his new nemesis.

Khan offering a deal

Kirk arrives in the engine room and Khan immediately disarms him.  Khan shows off his strength by breaking the phaser with his bare hands.  That was his first mistake he should just use the phaser on Captain Kirk because now they were going to be engage in hand-to-hand combat.  Khan may be a superior human but Kirk is one the greatest fighters in the galaxy. Earlier Khan had said that he was impressed with Kirk’s talents even though he was inferior.  Kirk now has the opportunity to show Khan his amazing fighting skills, perhaps fighting skills so advanced that Khan never encountered anything like them when he lived in the 1990s.  Every time the two of them engage Khan hits the floor.  Thanks to superior strength he does occasionally get hit on Kirk which causes the Captain to be knocked back a few paces.  Khan thinks he is going to win but Kirk pulls a tool from the engineering section and beats Khan with it bringing the fight to close.

Amazingly despite all that has happened Kirk still has no ill will towards Khan.  His old fan boy admiration that he and his fellow officers were feeling earlier seems to have crept back to the surface.  Kirk announces that he is going to drop all charges against Khan and his soldiers.  In exchange he will also give them something else.  The fifth planet in the Ceti Alpha system that is habitable.  Kirk offers Khan and his soldiers the opportunity to colonize this new world.  McGivers is given the same opportunity and Khan forgives her for betraying him agreeing to take her with him.  Spock wonders aloud what will come of the seeds that they have planted.  

Humble in victory

Additional thoughts:  When this episode is typically discussed conversation immediately follows to what came after it in the films.  However following the rules of my own personal blog we are not going to do that and instead just focus on this episode by itself, because when this episode was made what would come later wasn’t even dreamed up yet.  We will of course refer to this episode when discussing that film in the future but that is because when the movie is made it is made with this episode in mind.

So with that noted what do we say about this episode.  Khan himself is a fascinating villain and one of the greatest individual challenges for Captain Kirk personally.  In the title I referred of him as Kirk’s arch nemesis and he gets that title frankly because he is Kirk’s most famous personal adversary.  Now the most famous Star Trek villain aliens are the Klingons, and interesting enough when I first got into Star Trek as a kid, and before I saw the film, I used to think that Khan was a Klingon.  I thought this because I had heard Khan was Kirk's greatest enemy and I knew they often fought the Klingons.   There are certainly others who Kirk will encounter to match wits with and one he already had: the Romulan Commander from “The Balance of Terror.” I certainly also found the Romulan villain very charismatic and interesting but there’s something about Khan that leaves you with an impression.  Part of that of course is the amazing per trail by Ricardo Montalban and the other half is his biography.  Khan is like actually having an Alexander, a Napoleon, or a Genghis Khan for a villain.  Someone who at one point was a mover in the events that shaped the history of the Earth.

Augmented humans

The only negative thing about the episode overall is that it’s too short.  It makes me wish Star Trek was braver and more willing to do two-parters that were actually real two-parters and not a partially made original episode stuffed with a pilot.  This episode builds and builds but the resolution is rather quick.  Kirk overcomes the feats Khan in the span of about 10 minutes where took Khan the entire episode to get to that point.  If it were a two-part episode the first part could end with Khan taking over the ship in the second part would be Captain Kirk attempting to regain it. That would have been adventure more worthy of the two characters.

Best rival

This episode holds a special place in my heart for another reason it is one of the very first episodes I saw as a young kid.  At the time I didn’t understand much of what was going on in fact I didn’t even get that the villain was Khan until I watched it again as a teenager long after I saw the follow-up film.  I remember being instantly attracted to the bright colorful uniforms that the crew was wearing.  The only thing I didn’t like was the color arrangement.  Red was my favorite color I thought the command option should be wearing that.  At the time I did not realize what a fatal color it was.

Its good Kirk is such a great captain because as a mathematician he would starve.  Khan is in suspended animation for about 270 years and Kirk rounds this to 200.  Not 250, not 300, he rounds to 200.  Someone get this man a calculator.  I also like when they discuss the historian Kirk says going on the away team will give her something to do.  There must be all sorts of jobs that are on the Enterprise because Starfleet thinks they are important but on a day to day routine, have nothing to really do.  Also McGivers promotion must have been recent as she hasn't even gotten her stripe yet.

Now let’s talk about the time period.  In the beginning Spock and McCoy were discussing the Eugenics Wars that were the horror of the 1990s.  Now I grew up in the 90s and I remember it well.  These were hard times after the fall the Soviet Union 1991, see like every day there was a new power mad superman propping up as a dictator one of the country or another.  Genetically engineered superior humans were taking over the planet.  It was at a great cost that they were finally stopped.  It was good fortune for me that the whole thing was a resolved by the time I entered high school 1996.  I think getting rid of Khan was one of the great unsung accomplishments of the Clinton Administration.  I remember when my father went to vote 1996 saying how proud he was to vote for the reelection of the man who got rid of Khan.  He said to me, “Jeremy, if Bill Clinton can rid this world of Khan Noonian Singh then that is definitely a man who deserves to be reelected.” Two years later he was impeached for affair with an intern.  It is amazing the priorities of some of the Congress.  In the long run getting ready Khan may have been a mistake however if he taken over the world then, the orange buffoon in the White House right now would not be in charge.  Maybe we should try to recall him? Hindsight is always 20/20.

FINAL GRADE  5 of 5

THE KIRK DOCTRINE: SOME THINGS ARE SO BAD THAT THE PRIME DIRECTIVE CAN #*#* OFF

Episode Title:  A Taste of Armageddon

Air Date: 2/23/1967

Written by Robert Hamner and Gene L. Coon

Directed by Joseph Pevney

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”        David L. Ross as Lieutenant  Galloway            Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Sean Kenney as  Lieutenant DePaul            Eddie Paskey as Eminiar Guard                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Haley and   Eminiar Technician             Miko Mayama  as Yeoman First Class Tamula   Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman               Frank Da Vinci as Eminiar Guard                 Gene Lyons as Ambassador Robert Fox             Sean Morgan as Lieutenant O'Neil         Ron Veto as Eminiar Guard               David Opatoshu as Anan 7                 Barbara Babcock as  Mea 3            Robert Sampson as Sar 6            John Burnside as Eminiar Guard                 Dick Cherney as Council Member              Monty O'Grady as Council Member              Al Roberts as Council Member           Majel Barrett as Enterprise Computer            

                   

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Eminiar VII, Vendikar 

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The USS Enterprise is on a diplomatic mission to the planets of Eminiar VII and Vendikar.  These worlds have not been visited by Starfleet in over fifty years, at last report the two worlds were at war.  Lt. Uhura finally receives a signal from Eminiar, but unfortunately it is one telling their ship to go away.  Eminiar are using a code that they learned from the Valiant, the pervious Federation starship that arrived over a century ago.  The applied code #710 states: that under no circumstances are any Starfleet vessel to approach.   However, today on the Enterprise the crew is joined by Ambassador Robert Fox, who has the power to counterman Starfleet’s highest general orders whenever he thinks it’s necessary.    Fox, against objections from ship’s leadership, orders Captain Kirk to head to Eminiar anyway.  Apparently this planet exists on a vital location for the Federation.    

Captain Kirk with great reluctance obeys his orders, but since he is still in charge of the ship itself the Captain insists that he lead an away team down the planet to confirm that it is safe.  The away team of Kirk, Spock, a Yeoman, and two security officers transport down and they are met by a delegation led by a very attractive woman named Mea 3. I want to point out now that she doesn’t fall in love or make out with Captain Kirk.  There is a brief question to why the Enterprise ignored their request to be left alone but this quickly brushed aside and the Eminiar delegation is warm and welcoming.   Captain Kirk and his crew are even taken to meet the High Council of Eminiar.  Here Captain Kirk meets with the planet’s leader, Anan 7.

Anan 7 explains that he is disappointed the Enterprise has shown up because his planet is at war.  This statement takes Kirk and Spock by surprise as the planet from orbit shows absolutely no evidence of any sort of war.  They openly tell Anan this but he still insists they are.  An alarm goes off and their planet is now under attack.   Now the Enterprise away team gets really confused as Anan and the Council go over a map on their computer screen showing an attack.   The council members began moaning over the destruction and vowing to retaliate.  Despite the city they are in as one of the attacked places they can hear no explosions and tricorder readings show none on the entire planet.  The entire war is simply a simulation.

Planet's war leaves Away Team very confused!

We then get the explanation and it is a horrifying one.  Considering the horrors and destruction of traditional war the planets of Eminiar VII and Vendikar came up with  a deal during their conflict.  They would only fight simulated battles on a computer; therefore neither planet would lose and part of its vital infrastructure.  The catch was anyone who was reported as a casualty in the simulated battle must report to a disintegration chamber to be killed within twenty-four hours.  This is how they fight their war and the reported causalities are about seven million annually.  The war has now been fought like this for 500 years.  Their entire culture is now based around it. 

Spock points out to the Captain that there is certain logic to it. Anan is grateful for the approval to which Mr. Spock responds with one of Star Trek’s great lines pointing out that by saying he understood he is not giving approval. 

It is at this point that things go from bad to worse.  Anan explains that since the Enterprise was in orbit around Eminiar during the attack making it a legitimate target and Eminiar computers have recorded the starship as having been destroyed.  Although they are not required to destroy the ship as that is the point of the simulation, they required to have the crew come down so they can all be put to death.  The away team is not required to die as they aren’t part of the causalities but they are disarmed, detained, and communicators confiscated.  They need to be hostages to insure compliance.  

Anan and the Council try to trick the Enterprise crew by using a computer generated copy of the voice of Captain Kirk to lure the crew to their deaths.  Mr. Scott, who as second officer is in command of the Enterprise, isn’t fooled for a second and raises the ship’s shields.  Eminiar attacks but the Enterprise’s shields hold and the ship can keep its distance.  Ambassador Fox is infuriated he wanted to go the planet as soon as “Kirk” called up, but Scotty held firm.  Scotty vs. the Federation Ambassador continues as the small subplot to the episode. 

It had already been revealed that Vulcans have tactile telepathic capabilities, but Spock is now going to take it to another level.  He reaches out with his telepathy through a wall and pulls what seems like a Jedi mind trick twelve years before Obi-Wan Kenobi.   The away team escapes now free the have the unfortunate experience of seeing one of the disintegration chambers in action.  Mea, the woman who greeted them when they first arrived, is heading toward the disintegration chamber.  When the away team last saw her was right after they were imprisoned where she had also informed them that she was one of casualties.   In that conversation she told Kirk that her life was a dear to her as his was to him, but she had to do her duty or else disaster would befall her planet.  Now here she was to fulfill that duty.  The away team kidnaps her and they blow up the disintegration chamber with a disruptor they stole from the guards. 

Ambassador Fox secretly communicates with Anan who convinces him that firing upon the Enterprise was just a technical error and they didn’t mean anything by it and they just really wanted the crew to come down.  Fox, ever the optimist actually believes these packs of lies and as Eminiar powers down its weapons allowing the Enterprise to lower its shields, he transports down with his assistant to be promptly arrested and informed that he and his man are to be killed. 

Spock with some of the greatest red shirts of all time. Lose the shirts and dress in enemy uniform is a good way to stay alive.

 Kirk and his away team take the prisoner with them back to their cell because they think no one will bother to look for them there.  Kirk the has the Yeoman guard the Mea, and Spock will go with the two security officers now, dressed as Eminiar guards having stolen their uniforms, to attack more disintegration chambers.   While this is going on Kirk is going to go and get their communicators and phasers back.   

I really did want to see Mea test her luck with the Yeoman

Kirk confronts Anan to force him to give back the communicators and phasers.  Anan starts off remarkable cooperative but it turns out to be a ruse as Kirk is jumped by two Eminiar security officers.  Kirk using his skill at fighting, which is unparalleled throughout the galaxy, nearly holds them off but since they have a weapon he is effectively recaptured.

Matching wits with Anan 7

While Kirk was getting recaptured Spock and the two security officers destroy another disintegration chamber and free the Ambassador.  Fox agrees to follow Spock’s lead as they go off to find and rescue the Captain.

Anan tries one last time to get Kirk to order his own crew down to which Kirk does the opposite and instead shouts “General Order 24.”  Kirk then tells Anan that the order he just gave to Scotty means the engineer will now lead the Enterprise in attack on Eminiar destroying its weapons and leveling its cites.  Kirk boosts that when they do war they do the real thing.  This causes the panic among the Eminar and this allows Captain Kirk to drop all pretense of weakness and attacks the guards with his full fighting skill unrestrained.  Having never battled for real and only in simulation they were unprepared for the savagery of Kirk’s physical attack and were utterly defeated.  Spock arrives to see that all is well.

Mr. Spock rescues the Ambassador 

Kirk and Spock then destroy the battle simulators.  Anan then claims that he has condemned them to death.  Kirk declares that he has done the opposite.  The problem Kirk tells his former captors is that they made war easy.  War is supposed to be horrible that is why we try to avoid it.  By turning it into a simple inconvenience to society they have allowed the death toll to clime at an inconceivable rate resulting in millions or perhaps billions of death more than necessary.  Kirk concedes we all have a drive to kill but also power to put that drive aside.  Ambassador Fox finally redeems himself by offering his skills as a negotiator.  Kirk says that those on Vendikar are mostly likely just as terrified as they are.  Since they have a way to directly communicate with their high council they should use it to put an end to this destructive nightmare.   

In the end Fox stays behind to help the two planets sort this out. As the Enterprise leaves Kirk confides to Spock that he felt the duel terror that each planet felt in potentially losing their way of life and having real warfare come down would convince them both to come to the negotiation table.

Additional thoughts:  In the previous episode, “The Return of the Archons,” Kirk and Spock discuss the Prime Directive briefly and Kirk quickly dismisses it.  He does so under a technicality that a society with all actions being governed by a computer was not “developing” so the Prime Directive did not apply.   In later episodes Captain Kirk will use another technicality of prior interference that needs correcting.

Neither of those is the case here and I would go so far to say that this is the only time Kirk directly violates Prime Directive.  You can try to make excuses and blame Fox for creating the situation or invoke the right of self-defense when Anan and the rest of Eminar tried to kill the crew of the Enterprise.   Those excuses however can only be used to justify Kirk doing just enough to rescue the Ambassador and get back to the Enterprise and have an escape.  Kirk goes much farther than that he is altering the course of two neighboring worlds with a shared history.  He demands they change at gunpoint or he will destroy their civilization himself.  Captain Kirk has decided that there is something about this developing society that he does not like and has decided to change it, so much for the Prime Directive.

 It should be noted that when this episode was written World War II had only been over for a couple of decades.  So it was living memory of cities of Europe and Asia that were left in ruin with hardly stone on top of stone.  Not only had the human cost been enormous but the structural costs were debilitating and interfering with long-term recovery.   So the idea of being able to fight war without knocking buildings over just killing people started to become more popular.  The military even developed a type of weapon to do just that called the Neutron Bomb, although it was never used.  Kirk points out in this episode that such an idea is conceivably worse than traditional war.  Since traditional war saps resources it demands to be ended, war that preserves resources is like added fuel to fire it allows the burning to continue with a long term greater human cost.

Dresden

Tokyo 

Another critique of 20th century society that this episode explores is the state of modem American warfare that was still relatively young when this episode aired and has unfortunately continued on for the last fifty years.  From the US Civil War to the end of World War II the United States method of waging war was conducted under the theory of Total War.  When the entire society was committed to the conflict that was complete with a draft, resource rationing, and war bond sales.  All in an effort to ensure victory for the United States with the complete and unconditional surrender of the enemy.  Then in the aftermath of World War II the Iron Curtin fell and the Cold War was on.  A war without direct battles but two powers locked in conflict with nuclear missiles always aimed at one other with the promise of mutual assured destruction.  Proxy wars would be fought in Korea and Vietnam, and with President Johnson not wanting to interfere with his social programs promised that the United States could produce “butter and guns” and wage a military conflict without civilian sacrifice.  

In the decades since this episode aired it has only gotten worse.  There is no draft and the country can engage in multiple military conflicts without effecting the civilian population in any which way.  Modern war in the second half of the 20^th century would become the exclusive burden on military families.  As we began the 21^st century those families would be tossed around in our federal budget like any other causal expense.  In 2006 many soldiers were forced to buy their own equipment and their families had to send them armor because it wasn’t in our war budget to provide it for them.  Also during the second Iraq war in the late 2000s military caskets would be returned home under cover of darkness and out of sight so not to disturb the civilian population.  I want to point out I am writing this as a lifelong civilian. 

Back to the episode however, it is a tad disappointing that the limits of an hour long program prevented us from getting a full look at Eminiar society that would have been fascinating to examine.  They have reduced war deaths in their society to a simple sacrifice that must continue in order to preserve their culture.   This reminds me of how we as a society tend to view car accidents.  We see cars correctly as necessary part of our transportation infrastructure that allows a twenty to twenty-first century economy.  The price however is accidents are fairly frequent and deaths are even common.  I was in a car accident myself when I was sideswiped last December.  It was the second one in my life where both cars were moving.  Everyone I know has lost at least one relative.  I have lost an uncle in 2003 and a cousin in 2016. 

Yet we try to prevent car accidents and we work to make cars safer.  This war went on for 500 years and they just keep plugging.  I imagine Eminiar literature probably focuses a lot on this continuing sacrifice.   Providing heroes that the condemned can identify with, characters who want to live but realize they must report or the world as they know and love will soon be destroyed.  “What type of person would put their own life and self-interest against the survival of the planet?”  Their cinema must have horror movies that star sympathetic people who don’t want to die who end up bringing down the hellfire.  “The Man Who Didn’t Report” is a film that terrifies audiences everywhere.     

Captain Kirk is never disciplined for his actions in this episode despite the clear Prime Directive violation.  In one of the novels, and I forget which one, they were talking about this case it was explained that officials for the United Federation of Planets were so horrified at the millions who walked willing to their death in disintegration chambers for five straight centuries they simply turned the other way.

FINAL GRADE  5 of 5