Season One, Episode One of Star Trek OG! I’ve seen every episode multiple times. How will it stack up?
ONE
The Enterprise in orbit. Over, Kirk dictates his log. Mr. Spock temporarily has command as Kirk and Dr. McCoy have beamed down to the planet. Notice the introductory tone and the attention to military detail. We shall ignore the pilot episode with Captain Pike and consider this the very first episode. The show definitely does.
Okay, they’re here for a routine medical examination of an archeologist husband and wife duo. However, Nancy is someone from McCoy’s past. Dunh-dunh! Also, we have a third man, someone wearing a blue shirt, on the away team. First episode, the red shirt curse hasn’t been codified yet. I fear for you, crewman!
Kirk makes a joke about bringing flowers to an old girlfriend. McCoy ribs him back.
Inside, the living quarters are empty. No one’s currently at home. Closeup of the blue shirt looking around!
A history lesson: it’s been ten years since McCoy saw Nancy.
TWO
Humming attracts their attention. In walks Nancy, smiling and saying, “Leonard!” Well, she hasn’t forgotten him as he feared. Hand clasping and unnerving music. It’s just a reunion; why is it so creepy? Closeup on Kirk as he’s introduced. What’s he thinking?
Aha! Reverse angle to Nancy. With McCoy she looks young. He even remarks she hasn’t aged a day. However, from Kirk’s perspective she has lines and gray hair. That’s why we got the contemplative closeup. Ooh, nice storytelling!
Whoa. Crewman Darnell is introduced to Nancy and we see his POV. She’s now some blonde hottie played by a completely different actress. Oh, and he recognizes her as someone from his past. I love that they get right to the mystery like this.
Crewman Blue Shirt shows an inappropriate level of enthusiasm towards the lady. Kirk dismisses him outside. Outside.
Nancy uses McCoy’s pet name (Plum??) and then excuses herself to go find her husband. Outside.
Now she’s again the blonde in go-go boots, speaking provocatively to Darnell. She gives him the come-hither and he follows. Fade to black.
Oh! The opening credits and theme song roll!
Title card and the Enterprise in orbit. Dissolve to the surface. Kirk dictates his log, recapping that each man sees a different version of Nancy. Interesting. He doesn’t know it in the timeline of the story. The log is a flash forward to when the mission is complete and he knows all.
The husband comes into the room and tells Kirk and McCoy to go home. He’s fairly aggressive, so jealousy seems at this point like his motive. McCoy pushes back: I’m required to examine you.
THREE
All Professor Crater wants from them is more salt. Kirk recites the rules to him about required medical visits, then says to McCoy, “He’s all yours, Plum.” Hahaha.
FOUR
Oh, it wasn’t jealousy because only now does Crater hear the name McCoy. You’ve seen Nancy, he asks. Both of you? Yes, McCoy says. She was like a girl of 25. Kirk kindly protests. You see her with the eyes of affection, Crater says to McCoy. The examination continues until a scream is heard.
Kirk, phaser out, is up and running. Aaaand . . . Nancy screams over the body of Blue Shirt. He has suction marks all over his face.
YESSS! “He’s dead, Jim.” First episode! Awesome.
Kirk forcefully asks Nancy what happened. She’s the gray-haired version of herself. Closeups throughout as she explains that Darnell ate some indigenous plant. Tense, definitely. Before the crew can beam up, Nancy reiterates that they need salt.
In sick bay on the Enterprise, McCoy covers the body on an examining table. The team uses the ship’s computer to investigate this Borgia plant, the supposed cause of Darnell’s death. His “skin mottling”, though, doesn’t match up with known symptoms. Kirk and McCoy face off. McCoy, the consummate professional, is upset that none of this makes sense from a medical perspective. Darnell, according to the exam, should be fine and alive. Their heated confrontation is wonderfully true. Upset people overreact. McCoy seems ready to admit that Nancy looked older to him, but Kirk snaps and leaves.
Orbit, with Captain’s log over. “We are certain the cause of death was not poison.” Bridge business. McCoy, calling up, has found something. Kirk’s on his way, Spock following.
Medical. “This man has no salt in his body.” But there was no mark on his body except this skin mottling. “Another error on my part,” McCoy apologizes. “I’m not counting them, Bones,” Kirk replies, gently smiling. Oh! The interplay! First episode and these actors have a lifetime of relationship they’re playing with each other. I’m in awe. Kirk recalls that both Craters asked for one thing: salt. He and McCoy (and two others) will beam down with some questions.
Crater dissembles. Kirk sends a crewman to the other dig site to find Nancy. (He’s in a gold shirt. I don’t have high hopes for him, though.) Meanwhile, Kirk and Crater go toe-to-toe. Kirk finally says both Craters will need to stay on the Enterprise until this mystery is solved. We all know, audience and characters, that something fishy is going on, but what?
The other guy, another blue shirt crewman, is the latest victim. Crater finds him outside with the suction cup marks on his face. He yells, “Nancy, no! I’ve got salt!” We see her leaning over a downed gold shirt, but she rises at his appeal. Kirk and McCoy, looking for Crater, discover the blue shirt. We see gold shirt with the suction marks. Nancy stands over him.
Whoa. She transforms into Crewman Greene (the dead gold shirt). Then Greene goes to report. Kirk and McCoy, believing him, call out for Nancy. They’re worried. As they argue, Greene smirks.
SWITCH
Three to beam up. Nancy (as Greene) is on her way to the ship.
FIVE
We see them transport in, and Kirk comms the bridge and asks Spock to search the planet surface for two people. Greene wanders a bit, until he sees Yeoman Janice, my beloved girl-crush with the basket-woven hairdo. Haha, she has a tray of food with a salt shaker. Greene becomes transfixed. He follows her into the elevator.
On the bridge, Spock notices something odd in the readings. Only one person is at the planet dig site.
Back at the elevator, Greene follows Janice as she gets off. She goes into botany, bringing the tray for Sulu. What’s he doing down here, lol? Oh, no, hahaha! She talks to a flowering plant that’s a puppet. Oh, no! It’s a pink, frilly glove!
Greene enters and stares at Sulu’s tray. Oh, no, haha! The plant starts screeching and the glove puppet hand opens and closes. Greene dashes out.
Now it’s Uhura coming off the elevator and catching Greene’s attention. Whoa, Nancy transforms into a different guy, a Black man. He gives Uhura that hungry look, and she says, “Crewman, do I know you?” Ooh — he says, “You were just thinking of someone like me.” So Nancy has some mind-reading ability. And then they start speaking Swahili to each other. Uhura! RUN! Comms call her to the bridge as Mystery Date backs her up and lifts his hands toward her face. At that moment Janice comes out from Botany and breaks the mood. Uhura follows her into the elevator.
Cut to McCoy on his bed in his quarters. He can’t sleep. Kirk on comms suggests Bones take a pill.
Back to Nancy Dude wandering the halls. He crosses paths with someone in a hazmat suit.
Cut to the bridge. Spock is certain only one person is on the planet. He and Kirk are on their way down.
Back to Nancy, who sees a door marked as McCoy’s room. She changes to the gray-haired Nancy just as McCoy comes out. Nancy! Come in! (No, DON’T!) “You have such strong memories of me,” she says, moving closer. But you’re tired. Rest.
Cut to hazmat suit guy dead in the hallway with sucker marks on his face. Janice and Sulu find him and comm for help.
The ship in orbit. (These establishing shots are after the commercial breaks when the episodes were originally broadcast.) Captain’s log: a strange life form killed my crewmen.
McCoy has taken sleeping pills. As he lies on the bed, relaxing, Nancy strokes his face. The comms announce a medical alert but McCoy is too out of it to respond. Nancy rubs his forehead and tastes her fingertips. Comms calls him to the bridge, but he’s asleep. Aargh! Nancy transforms into McCoy! (Well, at least he and his salty goodness are still alive.)
Orbit, and Kirk with Spock are down on the planet. Able-bodied and armed crewmen are not killed this easily, he muses. Hypnosis? Paralysis? As Kirk confronts Crater, who tells them to go away, his comm beeps. Casualty, Captain. And Spock finds the real Greene, dead on the planet. Kirk calls General Quarters on the Enterprise. Intruder alert. Crater shoots at them.
McCoy shifts about on his bed. Cut to Nancy-McCoy coming onto the bridge. Sulu, Uhura, and Janice discuss the creepy Nancy versions they’ve met now that they know about an intruder. Nancy-McCoy asks Sulu to fill him in on “the creature”.
Oh, yes! Back on the planet Kirk runs and dodges behind pillars. Classic. He and Spock, triangulating, get a stun shot on Crater. Where is your wife, professor?
It’s the last of its kind, like the old American buffalo that once ran the plain, he says. Nancy understood. She’s been dead for over a year. Kirk immediately alerts the crew: the creature could be anyone. Three to beam up.
Orbit and log update. In case you stepped away for a beverage during the last 15 minutes.
Red alert lights on the Enterprise. Security details run the buddy system. McCoy sleeps on, tossing. The briefing room. Around the table are Kirk, Uhura, Janice, Spock, Crater, and . . . McCoy. Juicy.
Spock reports that salt has been set out as bait on all decks, but no one’s approached yet. (Listening shot of Nancy-McCoy.) Kirk asks for a medical report, and McCoy hesitates. Then he defends the creature. It’s only trying to survive. He and Crater give supporting arguments on this. Kirk asks Crater, “Can you recognize this thing when you see it?” (Ha, they sit right next to each other!) He doesn’t answer that. He says, “It needs love as much as it needs salt.” Finally, when asked again, Crater admits that he can spot Nancy no matter whose form she takes. And he won’t help them find her. Therefore, McCoy is to administer truth serum. Spock will accompany them.
Oh, my. The next shot is Kirk running to the dispensary. Spock is injured. “It wasn’t McCoy.” Janice notices something in the corner. Oh. It’s Crater. Dead, with suction marks. Damn. You poor fool. Kirk is relieved that Spock isn’t dead, too. His blood salt is different. He’s not tasty enough, apparently.
Nancy-McCoy returns to the real McCoy in bed. (I’ve been avoiding calling him that, but it was inevitable.) She turns back into Nancy and wakes him, begging frantically for help. Enter Kirk with a phaser. “She’s not Nancy, Bones.” “Are you insane?” Of course he’s slept through all of the reveal.
SIX
He won’t move aside, so Kirk holds out a handful of salt tablets. “Come ‘n’ get ‘em, Nancy.”
SEVEN
McCoy fights Kirk for the phaser while Nancy grabs the pills and gobbles.
EIGHT
Oh, hahaha, no! Nancy immediately turns and strikes a pose, hands out toward Kirk. Oh, dear, it’s too campy, even for this show. Kirk is paralyzed as she places her fingertips against his face. McCoy with the phaser watches in horror. In comes Spock, forehead bandaged, and says, “Shoot it!” McCoy says no! Spock breaks her hold on Kirk. “It’s killing the Captain!” “I won’t shoot Nancy.”
Oh. My. God. Dying. Spock clasps his hands together and starts swinging, knocking her head around like a punching bag. Yes!! Oh, dear, hahaha! Full commitment to the moment, taken all the way to its conclusion. Good job. Luckily I didn’t have a sip in my mouth when he did that. Wow.
McCoy, frozen, says “Stop it.” Nancy backhands Spock across the room. He’s down and McCoy still looks confused. When Nancy returns to the paralyzed Kirk McCoy finally says, “No.”
Whoooooa. Nancy, looking at McCoy transforms into her true self, a monstrous creature with a suction hole as a mouth. Eek. Nice. Ew. Reaction shot of McCoy, stunned, and Spock, immobilized. Nancy-Creature turns to Kirk, placing her fingers, now lined with suction cups, against his face. Ew. Kirk screams (and no one can scream like William Shatner). McCoy finally shoots her.
As she falls aside Kirk collapses. Injured, she transforms back into Nancy, looking at McCoy. She rises (wut!) and comes toward him, begging. He shoots her again. Dead on the ground, she transforms into her creature self. Kirk, recovering, says, “I’m sorry, Bones.”
NINE
Orbit. The bridge with everyone there. With one last comment about the buffalo, they leave the planet behind.
So, pretty good structure! (I’m not surprised.) Wasn’t the Three/Six interesting? It had the common mirror usage of In/Out. Although it’s usually a character who’s introduced and then removed, this time it was salt. And the Eight was one for the ages. Roddenberry definitely subverted our assumptions about chivalry. Bold move for the first episode of a new show. I’m looking forward to the next one.