2.22 — “By Any Other Name”
Plot: The Enterprise is hijacked by a squad of superior beings intent on using the ship to return on a 300-year voyage to their home, in the Andromeda galaxy.
Thoughts: That is the shortest plot summary ever! Which says a lot–there just isn’t much happening in this episode. What plot there is seems strangely familiar. Wasn’t there an episode recently in which superior beings inhabit human bodies, only to be stupefied by all the new feelings and sensations? Oh yeah, that was two episodes ago in “Return to Tomorrow.”
“By Any Other Name” doesn’t break a lot of new ground. There is no B-plot. What we do have is fairly pleasant, however, with a few caveats.
I couldn’t help thinking about the hijackers, “If you’re so advanced, why do the men still wear turtlenecks?” The women are evidently too wise to wear structural undergarments.
As far as memorable devices go, transforming all the crewmembers into weird dodecahedrons is pretty good. Crushing Yeoman Thompson into powder in Rojan’s hands is unforgettable. Not so for Kirk, however, who seems to forget it almost immediately, getting much too chummy with Rojan by the episode’s end. An act that dramatic should have greater consequences. According to IMDB, Yeoman Thompson is the only female redshirt to die in the whole series.
I think this is the first time the ship has been taken over by the attack of an enemy crew since “Space Seed”–if you don’t count “I, Mudd,” in which the ship was hijacked by a single android. There have been enough episodes by now, however, that I may be forgetting some.
I get a little thrill from the allusions to Shakespeare (including the one in the episode title), considering how important Shakespearean quotations become later in the film series.
For an ascetic, Kelinda sure has beautiful eye makeup. Kirk again uses seduction of a naive female as his secret weapon, à la “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” “Miri,” “Catspaw,” “Mirror, MIrror,” “The Gamesters of Triskelion,” and maybe a few others I’ve forgotten. “Would you please apologize to me again?” is a good line, however.
The Tri-D Checkers game in the background of the rec room set was cool. If you look closely, they are also using hexagonal playing cards, as they do in Battlestar Galactica! I didn’t know that idea originated in Star Trek.
I do like it that Kirk and the crew are able to convince the occupying crew to change their plans, rather than tricking them or defeating them militarily. Does the ship get to keep its new supercharged warp 11 engines?
2.5 out of 5 writers who seem a little burned out as we approach the end of Season Two.
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