(by Collin R. Skocik)
Season finale time! Attention TV networks: do you notice anything different about this episode from season finales today? Give up? Okay, I’ll clue you in. NO CLIFFHANGER! That’s right, here’s a season finale that has an ending! And Star Trek went on to become the biggest science fiction franchise of all time, and perhaps the most famous TV series in history. I guess that proves that if you have a good show, you don’t have to resort to stupid gimmicks to keep people watching.
The Enterprise tracks a pattern of mass insanity across the galaxy, the latest planet to be struck being the Earth colony Deneva—where Kirk’s brother Sam and his family live. Unfortunately, they find Sam dead, and his wife dies soon after. Only his son, Peter, survives. Evidently his other two children must have been killed too, because McCoy mentions that Peter is “the only survivor of your brother’s family.” The madness—and death—is caused by alien parasites which attack and implant stingers which grow into tendrils that entwine around the nervous system, inflicting pain and forcing a person to do their will. One of the parasites attacks Spock. Although Spock claims his Vulcan mind can control the pain, Leonard Nimoy gives many subtle clues of the intense pain Spock is fighting at every moment.
The parasites are actually giant brain cells, components of one giant organism. One of the most genuinely alien life forms in Star Trek, the parasites are a reminder that the life forms we encounter as we move out into space will be very different from anything we’ve encountered on Earth. It’s hard to say how the individual cells can communicate information to one another, but in the Star Trek universe telepathy is possible, so it’s not much of a leap. Truly alien life forms may have many unimaginable ways of communicating.
This episode is the closest the original Star Trek ever came to being disgusting. Oh, who am I kidding? It didn’t “come close” to being disgusting, it is disgusting. The creatures look like translucent fried eggs filled with mucus. They make me want to vomit. With the strict censorship of the time, I’m surprised these stomach-churning gross-outs got on television.
In “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”, we’re told that Sam had wanted to be transferred to Earth Colony Two Research Station. Here we find him on Deneva. I wonder, is Earth Colony Two another name for Deneva, or did Sam not get his wish? When his wife, Aurelan, wakes up in sickbay, she calls, “Sam?” But in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”, we were told that his name is George Samuel Kirk, and only his brother James Kirk calls him Sam.
Kirk is going through a really rough time. Only last week he had to stand by and allow the woman he loved to be killed. Now he’s lost his brother, and Spock’s life is in danger. On top of that, in order to stop the spread of the parasites, he might have to wipe out a million colonists on Deneva. He refers to this as “the most difficult decision of my life.” John Kenneth Muir pointed out that this decision must be made all the more difficult considering Kirk’s personal history with Kodos the Executioner on Tarsus IV, who made that awful decision, slaughtering 50% of the population of that planet. It’s obvious that Kirk nurses a healthy hate for Kodos because of that decision—and now he may have to do the same thing. But unlike Kodos, Kirk seeks—and finds—a third alternative.
The discovery that the parasites are sensitive to light makes Kirk’s day even worse—when Spock is blinded by McCoy’s experiment. In the most hateful tone imaginable, Kirk snarls, “Bones!” One can imagine how that cuts like a sword through McCoy’s heart. Despite his gruff exterior, McCoy is really the most sensitive character on the show. It’s a heartbreaking moment, despite Kirk’s later assurance that “it wasn’t your fault.” At the same time, considering what a bad spell Kirk is going through, you can’t blame him for his moment of weakness, lashing out at someone who doesn’t deserve it. We’ve all done it; what’s amazing is that Kirk has held on to his wits as well as he has.
The fact that Spock recovers from his blindness because he has a nictitating membrane inherent in Vulcans because of the brightness of the Vulcan sun is plausible, but it feels like a deus ex machina. Perhaps the nictitating membrane should have been mentioned earlier. There might have been a discussion about whether it would provide adequate protection. Or better yet, maybe the episode would have been stronger if McCoy had used his medical skill to restore Spock’s eyesight. But they only had an hour to tell their story…prolonging it probably would have resulted in a season cliffhanger…
We learn in this episode that Scotty once worked in the Denevan freighting line to the asteroid belt as an engineering adviser. William Shatner doubles as Sam Kirk’s body.
(Collin R. Skocik is a fan of the Star Trek franchise and has written synopses of all 79 episodes of Star Trek’s original series and the first six Star Trek films.)
Principled Thoughts 