When the Enterprise investigates a strange planet, a mysterious woman abruptly appears to sabotage the ship and put it in danger of exploding, while simultaneously threatening to wipe out a stranded landing party led by Captain Kirk. Kirk and his crew must find out who or what this woman is, and why and how she is putting them all in such peril, before the ship is destroyed and the landing party killed off.
This episode has a good, steady pace, solid plot, and a genuine sense of the Enterprise crew desperately trying to cope with a sudden, unknown threat before disaster overtakes them all. It manages to convey dramatically the idea that out in deep space our heroes will encounter unexpected and random threats any one of which might be more than they can handle. Also, I like that they take the time to give a little depth to the D'mato character (a likable guy who is enthusiastic about his work in geology) before killing him. And the regular characters treat his death with a little mourning and gravity. Too often on Star Trek the deaths of minor characters are glossed over by episode's end, like in installments where many men died horribly and then the script concludes with a lame joke. It ruins an episode's dramatic heft Here, we really care about D'mato's demise. Also, we get to see Scotty at his best, doing emergency repairs when danger looms, and taking risks because he does not want Spock to be the one to have to do it.
This episode could have gotten a top ranking from me but it gets dragged down by serious mistakes in characterization. For one thing, Spock's personality in this episode is completely different than it is in the rest of the series. The usually composed, polite, patient Spock suddenly and inexplicably is turned into an arrogant, rude jerk who deserves to be demoted for his treatment of his shipmates during a time of peril. Ordinarily, Spock would only criticize someone's illogical thought patterns during laid back moments of reflection and spare-time conversation. Here, he is emotionally shooting people down right and left when he should be concentrating on solving the problem. It is completely inconsistent with everything we know about this character.
To a lesser extent something similar is done with the Kirk character. Early on he is meaninglessly short and callous in his comments during the landing party. He returns to regular form quickly enough, but the damage is done. We now have two regular characters spewing dialogue inconsistent with what we know of their personalities and it serves to remind the viewer we're just watching actors reciting lines rather than actors being characters. It short circuits the drama. This one major error in the script manages to spoil the quality of the whole episode.
This just goes to show you that what is really important in fiction is the characters, and if you get them wrong, you get the story wrong. The writers of this episode apparently thought the only way to create interesting dynamics between characters was to have them say pointlessly abrasive things people would not really say in real life. It is the mark of an amateur, so it is astonishing Gene Roddenberry himself and the great D.C. Fontana were two of the three writers who did this. They may be the admirable giants to Star Trek, but on this episode, they dropped the ball. But the plot's execution, at least, helps keep the episode floating enough to earn a seven out of ten.
This episode has a good, steady pace, solid plot, and a genuine sense of the Enterprise crew desperately trying to cope with a sudden, unknown threat before disaster overtakes them all. It manages to convey dramatically the idea that out in deep space our heroes will encounter unexpected and random threats any one of which might be more than they can handle. Also, I like that they take the time to give a little depth to the D'mato character (a likable guy who is enthusiastic about his work in geology) before killing him. And the regular characters treat his death with a little mourning and gravity. Too often on Star Trek the deaths of minor characters are glossed over by episode's end, like in installments where many men died horribly and then the script concludes with a lame joke. It ruins an episode's dramatic heft Here, we really care about D'mato's demise. Also, we get to see Scotty at his best, doing emergency repairs when danger looms, and taking risks because he does not want Spock to be the one to have to do it.
This episode could have gotten a top ranking from me but it gets dragged down by serious mistakes in characterization. For one thing, Spock's personality in this episode is completely different than it is in the rest of the series. The usually composed, polite, patient Spock suddenly and inexplicably is turned into an arrogant, rude jerk who deserves to be demoted for his treatment of his shipmates during a time of peril. Ordinarily, Spock would only criticize someone's illogical thought patterns during laid back moments of reflection and spare-time conversation. Here, he is emotionally shooting people down right and left when he should be concentrating on solving the problem. It is completely inconsistent with everything we know about this character.
To a lesser extent something similar is done with the Kirk character. Early on he is meaninglessly short and callous in his comments during the landing party. He returns to regular form quickly enough, but the damage is done. We now have two regular characters spewing dialogue inconsistent with what we know of their personalities and it serves to remind the viewer we're just watching actors reciting lines rather than actors being characters. It short circuits the drama. This one major error in the script manages to spoil the quality of the whole episode.
This just goes to show you that what is really important in fiction is the characters, and if you get them wrong, you get the story wrong. The writers of this episode apparently thought the only way to create interesting dynamics between characters was to have them say pointlessly abrasive things people would not really say in real life. It is the mark of an amateur, so it is astonishing Gene Roddenberry himself and the great D.C. Fontana were two of the three writers who did this. They may be the admirable giants to Star Trek, but on this episode, they dropped the ball. But the plot's execution, at least, helps keep the episode floating enough to earn a seven out of ten.