3.17 — “That Which Survives”

3.17 — “That Which Survives”

Plot: Kirk and a landing party (including Mr. Sulu!) are stranded on a barren planet with mysterious properties as the Enterprise is flung more than 990 light years away in space. As the Enterprise tries to return and effect rescue, a mysterious saboteur tries to destroy it. Meanwhile on the planet, the same saboteur (a young woman in a fetching space harem outfit) tries to pick apart the landing party before it can penetrate the mysteries of the planet.

Thoughts: This episode had better pacing, action, and humor than “The Mark of Gideon,” so it’s tempting to give it a pass. I have a few complaints, though. Warning: this is going to get a little rambly.

To start with, the premise of our heroes stumbling on the deadly automatic defenses left behind on a long-dead world is a sturdy one. It resonates with the Cold War mania to build more bombs (try Googling “How many times could the world be destroyed with nuclear weapons?”), and supplies solid plot support for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979) and many other science fiction stories. How many can you think of? In the world of Star Trek, there’s Ruk from Season One’s “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and TNG episode 1.4, “The Last Outpost.”

There are some aspects of the story, however, that I don’t understand. Why and how do the planet’s computer defenses try to sabotage the Enterprise after it has been flung 990 light years away? That’s ridiculously long range. Even assuming there is no more expedient means to destroy the ship (why not teleport it inside a sun or a black hole?), surely just moving the ship that far away is enough of a deterrent, or at least it would be the second time.

Why can the murderous Losira only kill one person at a time, who has to be selected in advance?

The landing party looks strange without any redshirts. That wasn’t enough to save geologist D’Amato! It’s nice to see them actually acknowledge the death of one of the crew.

I’m glad to see the crew back on a planet for a change–but this planet is the size of the Moon. Kirk & co. just happen to be standing steps away from the central computer control room for the whole planet, which which they manage bring down in seconds by shooting it with a phaser? Oy vey.

Let’s see–a deadly female alien appears in the guise of a lovely girl roaming around a dead planet, feeling compassion for her victims as she destroyes them. Blimey, it’s a throwback to episode 1.1, “The Man Trap.”  

Poor Sulu, people keep interrupting him.

I like the glittery rocks. Not so much Spock being such a pill for the whole episode, ragging on everyone for making guesses. He’s the king of probability! I’m glad the screenwriter tried to inject some humor and interpersonal conflict, but he still didn’t get Spock right. Even more criminally, McCoy isn’t given anything interesting to do.

”It’s as though every cell in the body had been individually blasted from inside.” I know this description of the crewman’s death is supposed to sound all sci fi and mysterious, but. All that nuclear fission sounds quite dangerous. At the very least, this sounds like it would create quite a mess, and I doubt the malady would be so easy to diagnose.

That was quite the earthquake in the beginning. I like the new Jefferies Tube they designed for Scott. But this episode really isn’t Star Trek at it’s best, is it? It’s sad to finally make it to the last ten episodes and have them not be Star Trek at its best (next week’s is pretty good, however). Maybe I should make time to rewatch some of my early favorites in between.

2 of 5 Vulcans who refuse to gamble.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Which_Survives