"The Naked Time"
Season One, Episode Four
Stardate 1704.2
"Space still contains infinite unknowns."
--Commander Spock
*While I am pretty much a walking Star Trek Encyclopedia on my own, I do not have absolute knowledge of Star Trek. So note that I use the real Star Trek Encyclopedia, written by Michael and Denise Okuda, and Memory Alpha for supplemental information regarding behind-the-scenes info and trivia.
Synopsis
Planet Psi 2000's orbit is decaying, leading to the planet disintegrating. The Enterprise has been dispatched to pick up the science crew that was stationed there before the planet is gone. However, all is not well. Spock and Joe Tormolen beam down to investigate, finding the science crew and all the equipment frozen. That's not the most bizarre thing: the engineer is frozen as if he didn't care what was happening around him. A lieutenant has been strangled, and a crewman was taking a shower fully-clothed. Tormolen winds up accidentally infected by a mysterious substance, and then Spock and he are beamed back up to the ship. Although they were decontaminated and looked over by Dr. McCoy, nothing out of the ordinary was discovered. Kirk wants to investigate the decomposition of the planet closer, so he takes the ship in to a tighter orbit, with the order that Scotty must get the ship underway at a moment's notice. However, Tormolen soon starts acting strangely. In the mess hall, he acts rudely toward Lts. Sulu and Riley, and then threatens them with a knife. Tormolen turns the knife on himself, and Sulu and Riley try to prevent him from stabbing himself. In the scuffle, Tormolen ends up with a knife wound to his abdomen, and Sulu and Riley have been infected by the virus that Tormolen brought back to the ship. Tormolen is taken to Sickbay where McCoy operates on him. Despite the fact that his injuries were not severe, Tormolen dies. McCoy surmises that Tormolen died because he simply didn't want to live. Sulu and Riley soon start acting strangely, with Sulu believing himself to be a Musketeer and chasing crew members with a fencing foil, and Riley taking over engineering, locking Scotty out. Sulu is eventually overpowered and taken to Sickbay where McCoy finally discovers what is causing the strange behavior. The water on Psi 2000 had mutated and was now acting like alcohol, lowering the inhibitions of all infected. With that knowledge, McCoy synthesizes an antidote. Scotty manages to break back into engineering and Riley is overpowered, but he had turned the engines completely off. With just eight minutes left until the planet disintegrates with the ship, they don't have the 30 minutes necessary to restart the engines. Only one thing is left: they must use an experimental mix ratio that accounts for time and antimatter in order to jumpstart the engines. The jumpstart is successful, but due to the temporal nature of the mix, the ship is propelled three days into the past. With three days to live over, the Enterprise moves on to its next assignment.
Themes:
The main theme in this episode is about emotion vs. logic (which is a popular theme among The Original Series, since Spock embodies logic, McCoy embodies emotion, and Kirk is the balance between the two). Even Spock, who is coldly logical, becomes infected by the virus. His emotions start pushing themselves to the surface and he cries at the prospect of knowing that he could never love Nurse Chapel in the way she needs him to after she confesses that she is in love with him (though also under the influence of the virus at the time). Logic is a necessary balance to emotion because under the emotional influence of the virus, no one wanted to get any work done and no one was interested in saving the ship.
Grade: A-
This is a really good episode, and it never really feels like it slows down at all. It's probably one of TOS' best episodes, although it inspired one of TNG's worst episodes. I gave this an A- because really, Tormolen must have skipped the day at Starfleet Academy in which his instructor told him not to take his gloves off in a potentially contaminated area. Lo and behold, when Tormolen took off his glove to scratch his nose (and who would make EVA suits without a neck seal, anyway?), he ended up becoming infected with the virus that nearly destroyed the ship (and he also ended up dying). And even afterward, when Spock said not to expose himself to anything, Tormolen didn't tell Spock what just happened to him. Even after they beam up, he tries to step off the transporter pad before the contamination. Spock has to hold him back.
But there are a number of good elements. The scene where Spock breaks down emotionally was great, and very well acted by Nimoy. Riley's crooning over the loudspeaker to make an already tense situation even worse was a nice touch.
"The Naked Time"
Directed by: Marc Daniels
Written by: John D.F. Black
Starring:
William Shatner as James Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Spock
DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy
Also starring:
George Takei as Sulu
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
James Doohan as Montgomery Scott
Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand
Majel Barrett as Christine Chapel
Stewart Moss as Joe Tormolen
Bruce Hyde as Lieutenant Kevin Thomas Riley
Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent
Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Ryan
Trivia:
-This episode was originally going to be the first of a two-part episode, in which the Enterprise is thrown back in time to 20th century Earth.. The second part eventually became an independent story, "Tomorrow is Yesterday."
-The first regular episode of The Next Generation, "The Naked Now", is a sequel of sorts to this episode.
-This episode was Nurse Chapel's first appearance.
-Tormolen and Riley were being considered as series regulars during this episode. Instead, Tormolen died in this episode and Riley would make just one more appearance, in the episode "Conscience of the King."
-This was the first episode to establish that the Enterprise is propelled by a combination of matter with anti-matter that results in a controlled explosion.
-This was the first episode where the tricorder was used.
-This was the first episode in which we see how decontamination works. The transporter has a device which decontaminates the crew while they stay standing on the transporter pad. In Star Trek: Enterprise, we learn that decontamination in the 22nd century is done by sitting in an isolated room and rubbing gel on your body. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, we learn that the transporter has a decontamination protocol built in to the transportation process, itself, that removes harmful microbes from a person's body before rematerializing them.
-This is the only episode in which the three primary female characters (Uhura, Rand, and Chapel) appear together. The next time they all appear together is in the first feature film.
-This is the first episode in which we see Sulu as navigator, working at the conn. We also learn he has botany and fencing among his interests.
-We also learn that the Enterprise has a bowling alley in this episode.
-We get Scotty's first utterance of his recurring phrase "I canna change the law of physics."
We also get our first glimpse of the following planet:
1) Psi 2000 -- a desolate planet that is disintegrating. Spock does inform us that Psi 2000 was remarkably similar to Earth before its sun went dark. A Federation science station was stationed here, but all crew members on the station died after contracting a mysterious virus. The water on Psi 2000 mutated and created that virus. The Psi 2000 virus works like the AIDS virus. The AIDS virus doesn't kill a person outright, it lowers the effectiveness of the host's immune system, causing the host to be more susceptible to other illnesses. In this case, the Psi 2000 virus acts like alcohol, causing the host to lose inhibitions and engage in hazardous behavior. The virus is spread through perspiration and contact.
"The Enemy Within"
Season One, Episode Five
Stardate 1672.1
"He's like an animal. A thoughtless, brutal animal. And yet it's me."
--Captain Kirk
Synopsis
On a survey mission to planet Alfa 177, Geological Technician Fisher takes a spill down a hill. He scratches up his hand and gets a yellow magnetic ore on his clothes. Kirk orders him to teleport up and see Dr. McCoy. A few minutes later, Kirk also beams up. However, unbeknownst to him, Scotty, or Transporter Technician Wilson, a duplicate of Kirk materializes on the transporter pad. Kirk has been split into two opposite halves: a positive, good half, and a negative, bad half. The negative Kirk roughs up McCoy and orders him to give him some Saurian brandy, before breaking into Yeoman Rand's quarters and sexually assaulting her. Scotty calls Kirk's good half and Spock to the transporter room. He had beamed an animal up from the surface that was split into two halves: a docile half and a ferocious half. Scotty takes the transporter off-line until it can be repaired, leaving four crewmen, including Lieutenant Sulu, stranded on the planet's surface in increasingly frigid temperatures. Rand reports Negative Kirk's attack to McCoy, who calls Positive Kirk and Spock down to Sickbay to listen to her testimony, and that of a witness, Geological Technician Fisher. Rand had scratched Negative Kirk in the scuffle, but Positive Kirk shows her that he has no scratches. However, her testimony confirms Spock's fear: Kirk, also, has been duplicated. Spock and Kirk search for the duplicate Kirk and ultimately subdue him, taking him to Sickbay. The situation is even worse, in that the duplication process weakened both Kirks: it physically weakened the Negative Kirk, who is now dying, and due to Positive Kirk missing his more negative aspects, he finds himself increasingly unable to make command decisions. The two must be reunited. If one dies, the other will, too. Later Scott discovers what is wrong with the transporter and attempts to fix it, sending both animals through the transporter in an attempt to reverse the process. The animal's halves are reunited but unfortunately the animal doesn't survive the recombining. McCoy insists on doing an autopsy on the animal before Kirk makes an attempt, but Spock argues that the animal was terrified and didn't understand what was happening to it. Kirk's higher intelligence will help him survive the recombining. With time running out for the crewmen on the planet, Kirk and his duplicate undergo the recombining, which is successful. Scott beams the other crewmen aboard before they freeze to death.
Themes:
There are two main themes in this episode, though the first is explored much more deeply than the second. The first theme is the internal struggle between good and evil. We all have good and we all have evil within us that are warring. The negative aspects of Kirk's personality are what enable him to make command decisions, but his positive aspects such as compassion and reason, temper his negative side so that he can channel those negative aspects into positive actions.
The second theme is a problem in philosophy of mind: namely, which Kirk that materializes is the real Kirk? Did Kirk actually die during the transport and two duplicates arise? Or is the first Kirk the real Kirk, albeit missing essential aspects of his personality, and the second a mere duplicate, a different being altogether than the first? (This is, of course, ignoring the more fundamental issue of whether or not anyone actually survives a transport, or if the person dies and the person who materializes elsewhere is a duplicate.) The episode seems to take the stance that the first Kirk is the "real" one, and the second is a duplicate. The second one even realizes that the recombining will result in his death, which makes him unwilling to go through the process.
Grade: A-
Another good story, though this one does drag a bit due to its length. I gave this one an A- because like the last one, there's a pretty glaring plothole, despite how good the episode is. Why is there only one way to retrieve the landing party? Is there only one transporter room on the whole ship? That doesn't seem likely. At the very least, no explanation is given as to why another transporter room couldn't be used. Also, we know that the ship has shuttlecraft, as seen later in the show. By this point in the series that wouldn't have been an issue, but as we know the ship does have shuttles, why couldn't the landing party be rescued? It just seems inexplicable why there couldn't be an alternate method of rescuing a stranded landing party in an emergency situation in case the transporter breaks down. Although, according to the Memory Alpha page (see the second bullet point under the "story and production" heading), Matheson's original script didn't have the B-story because he thinks B-stories slow down the main story. The subplot was added in staff re-writes.
"The Enemy Within"
Directed by: Leo Penn
Written by: Richard Matheson
Starring:
William Shatner as James Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Spock
DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy
Also starring:
George Takei as Sulu
James Doohan as Montgomery Scott
Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand
Edward Madden as Geological Technician Fisher
Garland Thompson as Transporter Technician Wilson
Jim Goodwin as Lieutenant John Farrell
Eddie Paskey as Connors
Trivia:
-Uhura did not appear in this episode, but she can be heard over the loudspeaker.
-This episode marks the first use of Spock's Vulcan nerve pinch (sometimes referred to as the Vulcan neck pinch, such as in the movie Spaceballs). The original script called for Spock to knock Negative Kirk out over the head. Leonard Nimoy objected to this and improvized the Vulcan nerve pinch, which the director liked.
-This episode also marks the first use of McCoy's phrase "He's dead, Jim." This phrase would be uttered again in different iterations throughout the show.
-We also see the first instance of Saurian brandy on the show. Saurian brandy was stored in distinctive amber bottles with curved necks. It was enjoyed in four other episodes of TOS, one episode of TNG, and two episodes of DS9.
We also get our first glimpse at the following planet:
Alfa 177 -- A Class-M planet that gets very cold at night, with temperatures dropping down to 120 degrees below zero. The landing party that was stranded there survived by using blankets, huddling together for warmth, and using their phasers to heat rocks. There is a yellow, metallic ore that exists there. There was also an animal that was with them, a canine creature with a horn. It wasn't mentioned whether or not the animal was indigenous to the planet, but I can't see any other reason the animal would have joined the landing party.
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