THE CREW OF THE USS ENTERPRISE PLAY THE ROLE OF SATAN

Episode Title:  The Apple

Air Date: 10/13/1967

Written by Max Ehrlich and Gene L. Coon 

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”        John Winston as  Lieutenant Kyle            Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Dick Dial as Lieutenant Kaplan        Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov      Jay D. Jones as Ensign Mallory         Mal Friedman as Crewman Hendorff             Celeste Yarnall as Yeoman Third Class Martha Landon                 Jerry Daniels as Crewman Marple          Keith Andes as Akuta                Shari Nims as Sayana              Paul Baxley as Native         Ron Burke as Native       Bobby Clark as Native       Vince Deadrick Sr. as Native

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Gamma Trianguli VI

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise beams down to Gamma Triangulia VI a landing party so large they have to send them down as two groups.  The landing party consists of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chekov, a Yeoman, and four expandable red shirts.  Right away the all the members of the landing party seem to be taken in at the nice weather this planet has, even Spock. According to his tricorder readings the great weather seems to be a planet-wide thing.  An earlier ship had detected some strange data on their sensors so they are here to investigate that. 

Beaming down to paradise

The away team begins their mission exploring the surroundings while taking an effort not to disturb the locals.   One poor red shirt discovers a plant that shoots spores, but unlike the ones on Omicron Ceti III that make you happy these ones just kill.  Then another one of these plants aims at Captain Kirk, but thanks to the quick actions of Mr. Spock Kirk is saved.  Spock pushed Kirk out of the way and was hit by the spores himself.  Due to his Vulcan anatomy he is not killed only injured. 

The life and death of the red shirt!

Kirk has had enough he calls Mr. Scott on the Enterprise and orders him to beam the away team back.  Earlier Mr. Scott had reported some minor problems that they were experiencing, and now they have evolved into some big problems.  The transporter fails and the away team is stuck on the planet, and to make matters worse the ship’s orbit is starting to decay.  The source of the Enterprise’s problem is on the planet itself.  Dr. McCoy is able to treat Mr. Spock and get him back to a functioning level, which is one less problem but more problems keep building up.

Suddenly the beautiful weather they were experiencing ends and a storm opens up on them.  A bolt of lightning strikes down so powerfully that it disintegrates a security officer that it hits.  The crew runs for cover.  Earlier Spock and Kirk discovered that certain rocks on this planet were highly explosive.  As the security officer Ensign Mallory, who had been scouting the terrain, ran back to rejoin the rest of the landing party he stepped on one of these rocks and was instantly killed.  

   

After three crew members are killed in a short period of time in rather stupid ways Captain Kirk almost has a mental breakdown that Spock has to coach him out of.  They soon realize after the storm clears that they are being spied on.  Kirk has Spock and Chekov cause a distraction allowing him to grab the intruder.  Kirk punches him in the face, and even though Kirk’s fighting skills are famed throughout the universe, he doesn’t need them much here for after the man is hit he starts crying. Kirk becomes apologetic and they talk a little bit. 

Crew meet Akuta

The local identifies himself as Akuta.  Akuta has artificial antenna coming out of his neck.  When asked about it he explains that the antenna is how Vaal communicates with him.  Akuta leads them back to his village and introduces them to his neighbors.  The away team also gets to see Vaal.  Vaal looks to be a stone structure but Spock’s readings show it to be the source of power.  The people of the local village feed Vaal when they are summoned.  

When at the village McCoy makes a startling discovery: these people do not age, their bodies remains static.  McCoy has no idea how old they are.  They could be fifty years or 50,000.  The people of Vaal seem to have no concept of death.  There are also no children around when asked about them Akuta refers to the idea of children as “replacements” and says they have no need for such things.  The Yeoman then asks what about the relationships between men and women, to which Akuta says Vaal has forbidden such activities.

Vaal

When the away team is alone they debate the situation.  Kirk gets the Yeoman to wonder what would happen if a “replacement” was ever needed and Spock theorizes they would receive instructions from Vaal.  The concept of living beings getting romantic tips from a machine bewilders the team.  A debate brakes out among the team with McCoy taking the side declaring this state of existence is unnatural while Spock defends the Prime Directive.

The Ensign and the Yeoman getting frisky in the wrong place!

While they continue to sit around and debate this there is still the ‘B’ story of the episode that happens to be their most pressing problem.  The Enterprise is falling from the sky in an apparent death spiral.  Scotty is doing everything he can to save her but nothing is working.  Throughout the episode he calls in and reports the situation to Kirk.  It is this situation that will force Kirk’s action.

Later Chekov and Yeoman Landon start getting frisky when they think they are alone but two villagers, a man and a woman, see them.  They like what they saw and start to get frisky too!  They are then caught but Akuta who tells them this is forbidden.  As a result Vaal commands Akuta to have his people kill the outsiders.  Akuta holds a meeting with the villagers and explains how to kill.  

No one gets frisky here!

The mob of villagers sneak attacks the away team and kills the remaining red shirt.  However Captain Kirk, with his superior fighting skills that are famed throughout the galaxy, and his well-trained crew successfully fight off the mob without breaking a sweat.  Now with the village under the landing party's control when Vaal calls for food they prevent the villagers from giving it any.  This weakens its protective shields and Kirk orders Scotty to fire the Enterprise’s phasers.  Vaal is destroyed by the ship’s fire power.

In the end Kirk explains to the villagers that they are now free to get sick and die just like everyone else.  This is good because they can now have sex and with it babies.   Back on the ship Spock wonders if they did the right thing comparing their actions to the snake in the biblical Garden of Eden.  Kirk thinks it ridiculous that Spock would compare him to Satan and challenges his first officer name any officer that may even slightly resemble Satan.  Spock answers in the negative.

The Yeoman still in red and kicking butt!

Additional thoughts: Poor Mr. Spock!  He took quite a beating in this episode, from taken the spores meant for Kirk to getting blasted by Vaal.  He is one rugged Vulcan and the only thing that he let on that bothered him was an upset stomach caused McCoy’s treatment.

Poor Spock!

So now for the prime directive part of the story, “The Apple” desperately tries to get the audience to have a debate about the prime directive.  In fact I would say it is the first episode to actually try do so.  Kirk violated all to hell in “The Taste of Armageddon” but they didn’t talk about it much.  Likewise in “The Return of the Archons” the prime directive is mentioned once and quickly dismissed.  

This episode feels like a “The Return of the Archons-lite” it’s almost as if the writer went back and said “wow we really missed an opportunity to do some prime directive soul searching in that episode so I’m going to write it again and have the crew talk about that.”  Like “Archons” “The Apple” deals with a humanoid society under the rule of a supercomputer, a supercomputer that has been there so long the average people don’t know how it came to be, the supercomputer is holding the society in a primitive state on purpose, and the supercomputer is trying to destroy the Enterprise by pulling it down from the sky.   Both episodes were directed by Joseph Pevney.

The last stand of Vaal, but what was Vaal?

There are however important distinctions between the two episodes.  One difference is where the people and society of Beta II were interesting and had depth, while the people and society of Gamma Trianguli VI do not.  Landru of Beta II had its entire history explained: there really was a ruler named Landru who took over the planet and imposed a more “simper primitive state” on the inhabitants, and when he died his machine assumed his identity and continued to rule with his vision for society.  We have no more idea at the end of the episode then we do in the middle about Vaal and his origins.  Vaal, like Landru, may have been built by someone from the planet but we are never told for sure.  For all we know Vaal was set up by foreigners to keep the local natives in status to be preserved for their intergalactic zoo.   However if the later was the case then that would defeat the purpose of the episode’s main point which was the prime directive, which is already going to be made irrelevant with another point as I will explain in the next paragraph.

   Kirk’s reason for setting aside the prime directive in this episode is identical to the one from “The Return of the Archons,” which is “the prime directive only applies to developing societies where this society isn’t developing. “  The only difference is when in “Archons” Kirk’s reason is just universally accepted, in this episode it is the subject of a large debate mostly between Spock and McCoy.  A debate that is pointless because of the more pressing issue of Vaal trying and nearly realizing the destruction of the Enterprise.  Their right of self-preservation takes over.  They were always going to destroy Vaal and their debate over it comes off as the away team trying to justify their actions to themselves.  They don’t want to hurt the people of Gamma Trianguli VI but they must destroy Vaal so they want their actions not only to save themselves but they want to believe it helps these poor locals.  Only Spock, who is not as dependent on his emotions, refuses to play pretend. In conclusion, the episode that was supposed to cause us to debate the prime directive is a failure.  

When babies are an idea and not a reality !

   Are they Satan of this story?  I don’t know but I do know one thing.  In the end when Kirk is telling them about the children they will have who are little, look like you, and grow; I notice he didn’t exactly tell the women where these “replacements” will be coming from.

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5

I AM NOMAD!!!

 Episode Title:  The Changeling

Air Date: 9/29/1967

Written by John Meredyth Lucas

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”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                 Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli         Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman                   Makee K. Blaisdell as Crewman Singh                 Barbara Gates as Unnamed  Crewwoman     Meade Martin as Unnamed Crewman                Arnold Lessing as unnamed Security Guard      Joe Paz as Security Guard     Marc Daniels as Prof. Jackson Roykirk        Vic Perrin as Nomad

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  none

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with the Enterprise heading toward the Malurian star system, but when they try to raise them on the communication system there is no answer.  Long-range sensors pick up that the planets' populations have been wiped out.  This of course the massive tragedy but also serious concerns the crew, for just two weeks ago they had defeated the planet killer.  Almost immediately the Enterprise is attacked and they’re bombarded by incredible power.  When Kirk tries to retaliate they find the photon torpedo fired is simply absorbed by the attacking force. 

The Enterprise is down to its last hit so in a desperate plea Kirk sends a message through the communication system hoping that the universal translator will be able to get it through accurately.  It works!  Their opponent responds to Kirk’s hail and identifies itself as “Nomad.”  The Nomad is very small so Kirk volunteers to have it be beamed aboard which Nomad accepts.

Nomad aboard!

When Nomad arrives on the transporter pad it demands to know the crew’s point of origin.  The Captain tells the device that they are from the United Federation of Planets to which Nomad responds with “non-sequitur.”  This confirms to Spock that Nomad is artificial intelligence and tends to identify problems like a computer normally would.   They take Nomad to look at some star charts and when looking at the charts it makes references to Earth.  Nomad declares Earth is also its point of origin and identifies Captain Kirk as its creator.  The crew uses Nomad’s belief that Kirk is its creator to manipulate it to reveal more information about itself.  Nomad explains that it is perfect and its primary mission is to seek out imperfections and sterilize them.  Nomad confesses to destroying all life on the planets that the Enterprise was trying to reach.

 In the conference room Spock had presented some research based on a statement Kirk made about a Nomad probe launched in the early 21^st century.   That probe’s creator was named Jackson Roykirk and the probe’s mission was to try to discover alien life.  Something happened and changed it however given it much more power, a new mission, and faulty memory.  Because of the similar name it thinks the Captain is its creator. 

Nomad finds Uhura's singing imperfect

While Crewman Singh is watching Nomad, who is placed in the auxiliary control room, he calls up to Uhura for some assistance.  While aiding the Crewman, Uhura begins to sing.  Nomad finds Uhura’s singing to be annoying so it leaves auxiliary control and heads to the bridge.  When it arrives on the bridge it confronts the Lieutenant about her singing.  When Uhura can’t explain why it is she sings to Nomad’s satisfaction it determines she is an imperfect human and begins to sterilize her.  Scotty tries to interfere and is killed by the device.  It appears his red shirt finally caught up with him.

When Kirk arrives on the bridge he is visibly angry with Nomad.  This actually comes clear to Nomad when it asks the Captain if the Scott Unit is another one of his creations.  When Kirk confirms that he is then Nomad offers to fix him.  This offer is a surprise considering that Mr. Scott is dead.  However after studying some medical books provided by McCoy, it is able to revive Mr. Scott.  When asked to do the same for Lt. Uhura, it claims it can’t because Uhura was not physically harmed only memories erased and they can’t be put back.  (I am going to have more to say about that in the “Additional thoughts” section.)

Scotty's red shirt catches up with him!

Captain Kirk decides it is best to put Nomad in high-security brig with two armed guards.   In order to learn the truth of the Nomad’s nature, Mr. Spock decides to perform a mind meld.  Despite the fact that this is a device not a biological organism, Mr. Spock believes that his it has evolved into a functional artificial intelligence and that will allow him to do the meld.  The mind meld to the probe is successful but difficult and Spock is almost absorbed by Nomad.  However what Spock has learned was worth the risk.  It appears the original Nomad had a collision with an alien probe called Tan-Ru.  Tan-Ru’s job was to sterilize soil samples.  When the two probes collided they tried to make repairs and ended up combining into one unit.  The combined probe assumed the identity of Nomad and its new purpose was to seek out life and sterilize the imperfections.

Nomad grows board with waiting so it kills its guards and heads to the engineering.  In engineering, it takes control of the ship and augments the vessel to go to faster than safe or even possible speeds.  Kirk arrives and orders it to back off.  When Nomad defends its actions by saying only the biological organisms would die and that the ship would be fine. Kirk lets it know that its creator is a human being.  This information shocks Nomad and it begins to reassess things.

machine mind meld

Nomad escapes confinement again kills a couple more guards.   It starts to research all it can on Captain Kirk.  Kirk has now had enough.  Nomad may be the most powerful artificial intelligence ever accidentally created but it was going have to match wits with Captain Kirk the Bane of all Artificial Intelligence.  In the space of a few minutes Kirk is able to show Nomad its imperfections and convinces it commit suicide.  While Nomad is doing its suicide countdown Kirk and Spock rush the dangerous entity to the transporter room and send into space just like they did Jack the Ripper.

In the end Spock warns that they may have lost an opportunity to learn from the probe.  Kirk mocks that idea by claiming that he was the one who truly lost for the thing thought it was his offspring so he could have had a son.  Given Nomad’s skills with medicine, seeing how well it fixed Scotty, he could’ve had a son grow up to become a doctor.

Additional thoughts: Okay let’s talk about what happened to Lt. Uhura.  I am calling bull****.   If what Nomad did to her is taken at face value that he essentially killed her and we now have a completely new person.   To be fair the episode mentioned she lost her “knowledge” not all her memories and the characters simply talk of retraining her but how do you separate memory from knowledge? 

So here’s what I think happened to Lt. Uhura.  I don’t take Nomad’s statements at face value.  It can’t even keep its own origin story straight and thought Captain Kirk was its creator.  I think what happened to the Lieutenant was she lost access to her memory.  However the memory was recoverable with simple triggers.  Once exposed to a trigger a memory reemerged.  This is why she went from knowing nothing to completing college level material at the end of the episode, and according to Dr. McCoy, will be back on the job by the end of the week.  Some evidence of this can be seen when Uhura was being tutored by Nurse Chapel.  All of a sudden Uhura went back and forth from English and Swahili.  Now as far as I know Nurse Chapel does not know Swahili.  This is evidence of Uhura’s natural knowledge returning to her.  Still it was a bad week to come back from vacation. 

Last I checked Chapel doesn't know Swahili

Nomad was some piece of work.  In the end it was some old space junk that mutated into a monster.  It committed genocide on several planets and almost destroyed the Enterprise.  I think we humans need to be more careful with what junk we throughout into space.  We don’t need it coming back to us and sending our starships flying through space with unheard of speeds.  I thought the Enterprise held up quite well against it.  At one point Mr. Spock said energy Nomad was omitting was equal to 90 photon torpedoes and the only caused the shields the buckle.

Please don't kill me again

When I was in college in the early 2000s, my history professor compared the historical figure Pompey the Great to Nomad for his actions in the Middle East prior to forming the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Crassus.

That look Kirk gets when it is time to destroy artificial intelligence 

These have been a rough couple weeks for the United Federation of Planets.  Two weeks ago The Doomsday Machine shows up and wipes out entire solar systems.  Now a nasty bit of space junk comes back and destroys entire planetary populations.  The 23^rd century is a very dangerous place.

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5

KIRK RUNS INTO JACK THE RIPPER WHO IS STILL KILLING AND NOW FRAMING SCOTTY

 

Episode Title:  Wolf in the Fold

Air Date: 12/22/1967

Written by Robert Bloch

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”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Virginia Aldridge as Lieutenant Karen Tracy          John Winston as  Lieutenant Kyle            Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Judi Sherven as unnamed Nurse            Judith McConnell as Yeoman Second Class Tankris        John Fiedler as Hengist                       Charles Macaulay as Jaris         Pilar Seurat as Sybo              Charles Dierkop as Morla               Joseph Bernard as Tark                Tanya Lemani as Kara        Marlys Burdette as  Serving Girl               Suzanne Lodge as Argelian Waitress   Majel Barrett as Enterprise Computer

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Argelius II

I like Dr. McCoy's treatments

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The background to the episode is Mr. Scott was injured in an explosion caused by a female crew member.  He recovers but Dr. McCoy is concerned that this accident will cause could cause Scotty to develop a total resentment of women.  This doesn’t make any sense but 23^rd century brains must be wired a little bit differently.  Mr. Scott doesn’t seem to harbor any resentment towards women but in the 23^rd century we didn’t get rid of misogyny by standing around, if we think someone’s infected we perform an intervention.  In order to prevent Scotty’s potential emerging misogyny Kirk and McCoy intervene by beaming down with him to the planet Argelius.  While on the planet they take the Chief Engineer to a local strip club to remind him that women can be “good.” 

Pretty alien stripper

At the club there is a very pretty belly dancing stripper named Kara, who Scotty takes to.  Apparently already aware of his Chief Engineer’s type, Kirk had taken the initiative to invite her to sit with them after her act.  Upon hearing this Mr. Scott thanks his Captain for being one who “always looks out for his men.”  Scotty asks the stripper for some private time that she grants as strippers tend to do.  Kirk then turns to McCoy to remind him that there are some better clubs including his favorite and McCoy already knows where he means to go before Kirk finishes his sentence.  This means that the Captain who “always takes care of his men” does so at the cheaper strip clubs.

Scotty looking for some private time

All of a sudden they here a scream and run out to find the pretty stripper they saw earlier has been stabbed dead and Scotty is standing there holding the knife.  When confronted Scotty doesn’t remember what happened.  Two officials show up first an investigator named Hengist and the second is the Prefect of Argelius whose name is Jaris.  When he is questioned Scotty doesn’t remember anything that happened.  Hengist who is from Rigel explains that his office doesn’t have a lot of resources to deal with this because this type of thing rarely happens on Argelius.  Jaris mentions that they did have an ancient way of investigating that had to do with ESP and telepathy, and that his wife has these abilities. 

Kirk calls Spock to explain the situation and Spock wants to bring Mr. Scott to the ship but Kirk reminds the First Officer they are bound by the planets laws.  While Sybo, Jaris’s gifted wife is preparing, Kirk asks the Prefect if it would permissible for them to bring down a psycho-tricorder.  A psycho-tricorder is a device that was clearly invented last week and has the ability to scan Scotty’s mind and tell them everywhere he has been and everything that has happened to him.  This great little device would have been very useful in Kirk’s own court-martial, bad for Spock’s, and helpful with old Matt Decker last week. 

Scotty just can't remember!

  With permission from Javis obtained, the Enterprise beams down Lt. Tracy with the device to examine Scotty.  Tracy takes the Chief Engineer to another room and that is when Javis notices the murder weapon was missing.  A scream from the other room cause Kirk and Javis to head in there where they discover Lt. Tracy dead and Mr. Scott over her body claiming he can’t remember what has happened.

And another one bites the dust

Hengist returns with two “persons of interest” who were there the night of the first killing.  One was the musician who it turns out is the father of the first murder victim.  The second man is the ex-fiancé of the victim whose relationship ends because of jealousy; an emotion looked down upon on Argelius.  He strongly insists he wasn’t the murder and he wins over Hengist when Kirk tells all of them of the second murder.  To Hengist, Scott must be guilty he was found with both women at the time of the murders and had the weapon in hand for one.  Scotty is also warned by Javis that there hasn’t been a murder in so long that they haven’t changed the penalty.  That penalty is death by slow torture.  

Not the type of investigation I would want to save me from slow torture

Sybo is now ready to conduct the Séance and this investigation attempt proceeds over the objections of Hengist who feels the case was already solved.  Attending Sybo’s ritual are all parties involved including the two suspects, Scotty and the ex-fiancé.  While performing the ritual Sybo doesn’t name any of the suspects and instead she blames and ancient evil and called out some of its names "Kesla," "Beratis," "Redjac."  Then the room goes dark and Sybo screams!  The lights come back on and she is in the arms of Mr. Scott and the same dagger in her back. 

Third one today

Javis, who is clearly the most understanding person in the world, despite the fact that the love of his life has been killed with her killer seemly caught red-handed in his third murder of the day, nevertheless agrees to let Kirk continue the investigation.  Despite that Kirk is obviously biased in the matter and wants to relocate the investigation up to his ship, Javis continues to follow even with Hengist’s objections.  

The most understanding man in the universe

On the Enterprise they gather in a conference room to use the new psycho-tricorder on both Mr. Scott and the ex-fiancé.  Unlike the earlier promise about the psycho-tricorder's abilities the device is a simple lie-detector.  Both Mr. Scott and the ex-fiancé are cleared.  I hate to say it but it is at this point that the episode starts to get weird.  By feeding names that Sybo called out into the computer they come to the conclusion that the killer isn’t a man at all rather an energy creature that can assume human form and feeds on fear to make itself powerful.  It targets women because they generate more fear.  Their killer is none other than Jack the Ripper. 

Scotty cleared! It's Jack the Ripper instead!

Hengist continues to object to what he regards as simple “ghosts and goblins” not real investigative work.  However it is quickly pointed out that he his home planet of Rigel was the site of the last attack where he had claimed nothing like this had ever happened there.  It is then reveled that Hengist is Jack the Ripper.  Old Jack tries to escape but he is cornered and Kirk decks him.  To everyone’s surprise McCoy determines that he is dead.  Kirk maybe one of the greatest fighters in the galaxy but even he shouldn’t kill a person with a light punch.  Apparently the creature occupied a corpse thus restoring it to temporary life. 

Mr. Sulu as high as a kite!

However soon they hear the killer’s voice coming from the computer.  He is threatening to destroy them all, but he makes no move to do so yet.  Kirk reasons since he feeds on fear he would torment the crew first in order to generate it.  Now it should be pointed out at this phase the actor John Fiedler also played the character Piglet in The Adventures of Winnie the Poo and unlike a lot of voice actors he didn’t create a special voice for the character he just used his own voice.  So you need to imagine the voice of Piglet saying “I’m going to kill you all!”  I don’t understand how anyone would fine that intimidating it’s kind of like seeing a little dog park up a storm trying to scare you.  Nevertheless, Kirk doesn’t take this threat lying down.  He wants to insure that Jack the Ripper won’t be able to terrify, so he decides to drug his entire crew to the point they are so high that they can’t tell they’re in danger.  Then in order to get him out of their computer Spock enters the equation to the value of Pi and programs the computer to solve it.  This forces Jack the Ripper out.

Taking out the garbage

Jack tries to control Javis but he is quickly Vulcan nerve-pinched forcing Jack out.  Going back to his Hengist body he tries to take a hostage but fails.  With no fear to feed on he is weak and an injection traps him in the Hengist body.  Kirk and Spock take him to the transporter room and beam him into space.  Jack the Ripper is defeated, Scotty is innocent and the whole crew is stoned.  

Additional thoughts: It should be pointed out that this is not Robert Bloch’s only “Jack the Ripper is still alive and not even human” story.  He apparently had a number of them.  I am not going to talk about any of them here; I just thought it should be noted. 

                This is one of those episodes that even though it is not supposed to be funny it is in fact hilarious.  From Piglet Jack the Ripper and the stoned crew of the Enterprise there are no stop laughs in this episode.   It is just impossible to take any of it seriously.

One of things that annoys me not just here but in a lot of fiction is how skeptics are treated.  Here we have multiple murders with the same person seemingly caught red-handed each time.  The audience knows Scotty didn’t do it.  How the crew solves the case is the issue.  Do they use great detective work to clear him?  No, they use instead a séance, psycho-tricorders, and wild speculation with the computer.  Hengist is the only character pleading common sense rejecting the “ghost and goblins” approach.  It turns out this is a case of ‘smelt it dealt it’ and the skeptic wasn’t giving legitimate objections but rather trying to cover his own crimes.

The only voice of reason turns out to be Jack the Ripper!

I’m assuming the psycho-tricorder technology doesn’t last since I don’t recall ever seeing it again.  It didn’t seem like it was that great to begin with, it was supposed to record memories but it turned out to be just a fancy lie-detector.  If it did everything they said it could it have plot killed a lot of future episodes.   Of course we could always turn to the Vulcan mind-meld.  Hey why didn’t they use the Vulcan mind?

"I'm going to kill you all!"

It is nice to have an episode focus on Mr. Scott, but if we are going to that wouldn’t it be better to present him with a great engineering question to solve as opposed to falsely accusing him of murder?  He is a great character who’s always holding the ship together so Kirk and Spock can get the win.  He deserves more than an episode where he has a knife in his hand and a blank expression on his face saying “I don’t know.”

 FINAL GRADE 3 of 5

THIS EPISODE IS WHY REMASTERS WERE MADE!

Episode Title:  The Doomsday Machine

Air Date: 10/20/1967

Written by Norman Spinrad

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”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Elizabeth Rogers as Lieutenant Palmer          John Winston as  Lieutenant Kyle            Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Richard Compton as Lieutenant Washburn         Roger Holloway as Lt. Roger Lemli                        John Copage as Ensign Elliott            Tim Burns as Crewman Russ               Jerry Catron as Crewman Montgomery               Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman              William Windom as Commodore Matthew Decker   

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Constellation NCC-1017, Einstein NCC-1701/6, Doomsday Planet Killer Device

Planets:  Not Anymore

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with the Enterprise traveling through solar systems whose planets have been destroyed yet their stars are intact.  Considering a supernova is the only known power that could destroy planets that quickly this makes finding out what did a priority.  In addition to that another Federation starship the USS Constellation had reported to have been in this sector but it hasn’t been heard from since.    Lt. Uhura is apparently on vacation so Lt. Palmer is filling in but she hasn’t been able to raise the other ship.

They manage to find the Constellation but when they do they see their sister ship is badly damaged.   The Constellation is just drifting in space.  According to readings taken from Mr. Spock the only thing that seems to be working on the ship is life support and just barely.  There are hull breaches in numerous places including the bridge. 

It doesn't get much worse than this!

Kirk leaves Spock in charge of the Enterprise and beams over to the Constellation with Dr. McCoy, Scotty, and an engineering team.  The engineering team must have been made up of crew members that just recently got their jobs because none of them are wearing a red engineering shirt.  Either that or realizing they going on an away mission traded shirts with their colleagues to increase their survival changes.  If that was true then it was a good plan because they all survive.

The one thing they all notice as they tour the wrecked halls of the Constellation is that no one from the crew is on board.  Not only are they not finding survivors, they aren’t finding bodies.   Kirk gets Scotty and his engineers to see if they can get the ship running again.  Kirk heads to the auxiliary control room—which is what they are calling the emergency bridge.  When he gets there he finds the ship’s captain, Commodore Matthew Decker, sitting at the helm in a state of shock.  He babbles incoherently as Kirk questions him.  When asked where his crew was Decker says he sent them to the third planet, which means they were all lost when it was destroyed.

Captain Kirk finds a broken man on a broken ship!

   As they play back Decker’s captain’s log, the distraught Commodore starts to regain his focus.  He describes a thing in space that was huge, with a gigantic mouth, and a weapon where it fires a beam of pure anti-protons.    Kirk has Spock analyze the data from the Constellation’s computers on the bridge of the Enterprise.  Mr. Spock determines that what the object that destroyed the planets and crippled the Constellation was not a ship but a device that is fully automated and destroys planets so it can use the remains for fuel.  He speculates that it the device is from outside our galaxy and Spock determines that its current course puts it on the path some of the most populated planets in space.  Its hull is made of solid neutronium so no individual Federation starship could damage it.

Horror story to tell!

After speaking with Spock, Kirk turns to McCoy and asks if he has ever heard of a doomsday device, to which Bones just throws up one of his classic “doctor” lines.  Kirk tells him that these things were weapons whose purpose was to be threatened not used, because if you were to use it that would be then end of everything.  That is what Kirk thinks they are fighting and those that created this device are now long dead having been destroyed by their own weapon that they used to destroy their enemies.

Kirk convinces Decker to go back to the Enterprise with Dr. McCoy by promising him that they will tow the Constellation with them.   Shortly after they get the Commodore on board the planet killer arrives.  Kirk orders the shields temporarily lowered so they can all get back but a blast from the device knocks the two starships apart!  Communications are out both ways.   The away team is stuck on a dead starship while the Enterprise doesn’t have her Captain at a time of need.

Captain Kirk and Mr. Scott immediately try to start repairing the damaged ship.  While on board the Enterprise the Commodore quickly grows tired with what he views as Spock’s passiveness towards this doomsday device.  In reality Spock is proceeding exactly as he should in these circumstances but Decker, in his state of delusion, can’t see that.  He pulls rank using his authority as a commodore to seize command of the Enterprise from Mr. Spock.   McCoy can’t believe what is happening and demands Spock do something.  Spock reminds the Doctor of his authority to declare a commanding officer unfit. This excites McCoy until Spock points out that he has to document the reason this fills McCoy so much fear that he forgets that he found Decker in state of shock and brought him to the Enterprise to be looked after.   Now seeing as there is nothing either of them can do the Commodore takes over and McCoy has to leave the bridge. 

Decker wants a new shot with a new ship!

The Commodore immediately goes on attack mode.  He reasons his earlier mistake was firing from too far a distance.  He flies the ship in closer and fires phasers.  As Spock predicted the planet killer is undamaged and it fires back.  The Enterprise takes on heavy damage but the Commodore still refuses to withdraw until Mr. Spock tells him that his current course is suicide and if he persists he could be relieved on that basis.  The Commodore complies and orders withdrawal but it is too late for the planet killer has them in a tractor beam and it’s pulling them in. 

Kirk finally fixes the Constellation’s viewer in the auxiliary control room and is able to witness the battle between his ship and the planet killer.  Seeing that the Enterprise is doomed unless something happens, Kirk asks Scott if he can get the impulse engines online.  Mr. Scott, who’s worth his weight in gold, tells him not only can they move but he can fire phasers.  Kirk leaps into action with the repaired Constellation attacking the planet killer causing it to release the Enterprise.   

Commodore Decker or Captain Ahab

Decker, excited that two ships are now attacking, is happy to contact his old ship with the now restored communication system.  However the moment Kirk can be heard he accuses Decker of being a lunatic and orders Spock to relieve Decker on his authority.  Spock complies and the Commodore is escorted off the bridge.  I don’t see how Kirk can do that seeing as he is only a captain and Decker is a commodore, but I guess since he took responsibility this gave Spock the freedom to act.

Decker shows like Captain Kirk he too has great fighting skills and beats up his security guard. He goes and steals the shuttle craft Einstein.  He decides to fly it into the planet killer.  Both Spock and Kirk try to talk him out of it over the communication system.  Decker claims he was prepared for death the moment he lost his crew.  He crashes into the giant mouth of planet killer destroying the shuttle craft and killing himself.  However Lt. Sulu notices that for a moment that the planet killer seemed to have been effected.  

 

I can captain two ships at once.

After going over the results they think they can do more serious damage if they fly the wrecked Constellation in there with a more controlled explosion.  Kirk sends everyone back except him and Mr. Scott.  Scotty rigs up the self-destruct device and Kirk begins to fly it in.  The Enterprise’s transporter was damaged in the battle so they can only get one of them at a time.  They take Mr. Scott first and then try to take the Captain.  They almost don’t get him but through the actions of Mr. Scott they manage to beam him over. The Constellation flies into the planet killer and blows up.  They win and the planet killer is destroyed.

Back on the Enterprise Kirk and Spock discuss doomsday devices and how they never want to see another one.   

Additional thoughts: Every now and again when I re-read these reviews I will notice a glaring typo that somehow escaped the editing process.  I am always very embarrassed and I imagine anyone involved with a show’s production suddenly noticing that the shuttle craft looks to be the same size as the starship as it heads into the planet killer might feel similar.  However it is not simple errors rather enhanced technological gain in graphics to why the series was remastered.  I can appreciate older cinema and I could always watch the original series fine before, but I have fallen in love with the new remasters.  And in this case they took an episode that was already great and made it even more amazing. 

(old effects video)

So Commodore Matthew Decker is an interesting character.   He is kind of like a broken Kirk.  We see in him as the shadow of the man he used to be only a few short days ago.  That Kirk-like captain has now been replaced by a Captain Ahab figure who is sole reason for living is his pursuit of that great white whale.  After losing his own ship in crew he ignores the perils for Captain Kirk’s.  In the end he loses his own life, it is too bad for him that he didn’t hear Kirk’s plea of “we are stronger with you than without you.” However his sacrifice did give them to tools to end the doomsday machine.

Also why is Decker a commodore?  Up until this point every commodore we’ve seen is in charge of a starbase.  Has Decker just recently been promoted and now he was waiting his new assignment so he could transfer from being a starship’s captain to a starbase commander?  I suppose if he had been another captain he might not have been able to take control of Kirk’s ship so easily.

Lt. Uhura sure picked a good time to take a vacation.  Okay maybe not if the Enterprise was destroyed she would probably be consumed with survivors’ guilt.  Although it did help the plot somewhat after her quick work in “Who Morns for Adonais” I think she probably would have had the ship to ship communication up sooner thus preventing the loony Decker from going gun ho with the Enterprise.   

Lastly I think Kirk and Mr. Scott should have traded places and have the Chief Engineer's survival at stake before getting beamed away at the last minute.  Even among those who watched this episode as it came out did anyone really think Kirk is going to die?  The opening credits right after “Star Trek” says “Starring William Shatner.”  We know he is not going anywhere, now Scotty on the other hand is only in the closing credits and sometimes his character isn’t even in an episode.  Fans might have sweat a little more.

 FINAL GRADE 5 of 5