This episode is a structural disaster. I’ve left detailed impressions at the Four and Five, in case you can spot a Three and Six yourself. I won’t be offended if you skim past, though. If you do, see my recap after the Nine.
ONE
Space, with Captain’s log, over. Ahead is a recorded distress signal from a ship listed as missing two centuries ago.
Okay, weirdness. The camera pulls back from a little view screen of outer space, the image we’ve been watching, to show Kirk and Spock playing 3-D chess. Spock, in a yellow shirt and with bushier eyebrows, looks non-canon. And his makeup makes his skin yellow. I can’t concentrate on the plot!
Kirk contemplates this odd distress message while Spock challenges him to make his chess move. They banter, waiting, until the bridge signals. This lounge, well-lit and well-populated, is a real set, nothing like the cardboard-walled rec room from the last episode.
TWO
Transporter room. It’s Scotty! Yay, finally! Like Spock, he also wears the gold jersey. The mystery item with the signal is beamed in. It looks like a probe, and Spock says it was ejected when its ship was damaged. Rut-roh, it starts to blink and beep, transmitting something. All decks go on alert.
Roll credits.
THREE
(There is no Three.)
FOUR
Elevator ride to the bridge, including an unknown helmsman. WHERE IS UHURA, and who’s that dude in her seat? And who is this young woman behind Kirk. If she’s the yeoman, WHERE’S JANICE?
Kirk’s announcement on intercom is the clearest information so far: We have a disaster recorder ejected from the S.S. Valiant 200 years ago. Heads of departments come onto the bridge. Sulu and Scotty, no Bones, and a woman who studies crew reactions. It’s the actress Sally Kellerman, so you know she’s going to be a crucial part of the plot.
Okay, I had to pause and look up this episode. It’s so unsettling because it was a second pilot (after the first one, “The Cage”, failed). Costume, makeup, sets, cast — this is a one-off. I’ll shut up about it now and focus on the story.
Spock listens to the transmission. Valiant encountered some unknown force. Requests were made for data on ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception) in humans. So, finally we have an indication where this episode may be going. Sadly, all of this is delivered by Spock with a headset at his ear. Much tell, no show. Valiant’s captain, apparently, gave the order to destroy his own ship. Many reaction shots after that detail is dropped. Kirk decides to take them further, to push on into the mystery.
The view screen shows a horizontal purple line in space. Force field of some kind. Contact in 12 seconds. The unknown helmsman holds the unknown yeoman’s hand.
Inside the force field lightning flashes. Battle stations. Scary music, exploding consoles.
Whoa. Sally goes photo-negative, her image flashing dark. Ooh, so does the helmsman. They both collapse while the bridge continues to zap and burn. Spock takes the helm and the Enterprise sails out of the force field. Kirk assesses the damage. As he leans over the helmsman (Gary), he sees that the man’s eyes are a flat silver.
Space and captain’s log. Main engine burned out, heading back on impulse power only. Warp capacity gone. This is the first time in the series we hear the rules of travel. All of these terms are routine to us now, but here’s where they began!
The bridge is under repair. Now Kirk wants to know what happened to Valiant. They lived through the barrier, as did Enterprise, yet they were later destroyed. Looking at records, Spock sees that Sally and Gary have some kind of high ESP rating. Sally’s walking around, normal, doing her job. Gary, who had the higher rating, is in sick bay, sitting up in bed, silver-eyed. Otherwise, he seems . . . well, not normal. He feels better than ever. He’s also friendly with Kirk and has been for years. When Kirk tells him to stay in bed under observation, Gary jokingly threatens him, and his voice echoes across the room. On the bridge, Spock monitors Gary with a hidden camera. He and Kirk know something’s wrong. Ew, totally creepy: Gary turns and looks at the monitor, right into Kirk’s eyes.
This episode isn’t fun. The camaraderie and humor are absent, and the directing and script are stodgy. Sad face.
Sally meets with Gary in sick bay to study him. He can make himself super-healthy, raising the monitor’s needles, or die for a few seconds, bottoming them out. When she leans over him, concerned, he caresses her hand. She tests his recall of what he’s been reading. He’s been speed reading, yet he has perfect recall. Also, he grabs her again.
Meanwhile, the actor’s eyes are moist, as if the silver contacts burn. I’m not sure, but I think his eyes are also changed by a practical that uses eye-light reflection. He’s constantly holding his head at a weird angle to catch the key beam.
A meeting in the briefing room. Gary had preternatural knowledge about an engineering problem that checked out. Doctor Sally comes in late. Immediately she takes issue with Spock’s lack of feeling and Kirk’s impartiality. Are these reactions something she would normally feel, or are we supposed to understand that she’s changed like Gary, only to a lesser degree? She definitely defends the “mutated superior man” when Scotty says all the bridge controls changed on their own and Gary was in his cot smiling throughout. Haha — her outburst gets the table-round stare. Of course, she’s the only woman in the room, so it’s also very awkward. At least bring in another woman to look at her as if she’s crazy!
SWITCH
After the briefing Spock stays behind. You have two choices, Captain: Strand Gary at an unmanned ore station nearby, or kill him now while you still can. These two have The Chemistry. It’s a good scene.
FIVE
Space with captain’s log as they orbit the ore planet. They hope to find materials to regenerate the ship’s engines, and they plan to maroon Gary. In sick bay, he telekinetically gets himself a drink of water. When Kirk, Spock, and Sally walk in, he can read their minds. He stops the men with shock zaps from his hands. While he’s distracted by Sally, as he opines on how godlike he might become, Kirk and Spock take him down. Sally anesthetizes him. They and the doctor beam down with him to the planet.
Engineering gathers what they need at the station. Kirk asks them to rig a kill switch, something that will blow all the tanks. Gary wakes up in a room secured with a force field doorway. Sally wants to talk to him. First, though, he and Kirk reminisce about their times together. Kirk makes his case, why Gary can’t be trusted. As Gary argues, he steps forward into the force field, taking the blast. Spock draws his phaser, ready.
Whoa. Gary, after a massive shock at the door, falls backward and his eyes change back to normal. He seems confused and vulnerable. Nope, he’s already back. They had maybe 10 seconds to deal with him as a regular man. Aw, that’s sad. It’s like he’s trapped by a mania.
Orbit. The bridge is under repair. The engines work, I assume, because Scotty is happy. On the planet, they’re wrapping up. Reveal Spock entering the room with a phaser rifle. Yes! Haha! I think it’s actually a repurposed handheld vacuum, but who cares? Spock’s packin’. Dr. Sally thinks Gary’s getting better, Kirk says. Why is she wrong and you’re right? Because I don’t feel, says Spock. Again, these two are electric together.
The landing party is transporting up, mission accomplished. The kill switch is ready, if necessary. They’re open in front of Gary as to their plans. His hair is graying at the temples. Dr. Sally wants to stay behind, although I’m not sure what she means. Forever?
Transition to the last engineer on the planet as he talks on comms. One of the cables telekinetically lifts, heads for his throat, and chokes him. Dissolve to Gary as Sally vehemently declares, “He’s not evil!”
Oh, honey.
Gary zaps Kirk. Spock tries to hip fire his rifle, but he’s zapped, too. Gary waves away the force field and steps out free, caressing Sally’s hair. (Ew.) Either she’s aligned with him or he’s mind-controlling her. Oh. Her eyes are silver. There you go.
Later, the doctor finds Kirk and Spock unconscious where they fell. Kirk, awake first, says, “It’s my fault.” Well, yeah, buddy. Always listen to your science officer. You’ll learn that in later episodes. For now, he’s going alone after Gary and Sally.
Ooh, Kirk picks up the rifle! You and Spock go back to the ship, give me 12 hours, then warp out if you haven’t heard from me. And then he basically says, Nuke the site from orbit just to be sure.
Outside on the planet, Mr. and Mrs. Silver Eyes wander about. It’s all very Adam and Eve after they ate the fruit. Except, now he’s godlike. He creates a little garden out of nothing but dirt.
Haha, here comes Kirk, rifle out, as he sneaks between the styrofoam rocks that are this set. They sense him. As they eat fruit from a created tree, Gary says in his echoing magic voice, “Can you hear me, James?” Kirk actually seems surprised, like he thought he was stealthy. Gary sends Sally to Kirk, to see how pitiful the humans are now that she’s “changing”.
SIX
(There is no Six.)
SEVEN
Kirk tries to persuade her to help him. It seems hopeless until he asks her to be a psychiatrist for one minute longer.
EIGHT
Oh, yes! Kirk rolls and comes up with the rifle trained on Gary, shooting him. It does nothing, but that was an excellent try! Gary manifests an open grave and even a headstone for Kirk. “Morals are for men, not gods,” Gary says as Sally tells him to stop. While being tortured, Kirk keeps talking to Sally. How much longer until there’s only one?
Sally zaps Gary. He zaps back. They kind of collapse, still pointing their hands at each other. I’m sorry, but no one can fake suffer like Shatner. He just gave the master class, and these two are doing the fainting couch version. Gary’s eyes change back and Kirk slugs him. They wrestle about while Sally writhes. Kirk hesitates, and Gary changes back.
Whoa, the headstone says James R. Kirk. Wut?! No! Tiberius is genius. We’ll have to keep an eye out for its first appearance. As they fight and dance, they both fall into the open grave. Kirk pops out, grabs the rifle, and shoots the rock formation above Gary, knocking it down. Ooh, nice. Is he truly buried? Yes, he is.
Kirk goes to Sally, still stuck on the ground. She collapses, dead. Kirk, his shirt ripped open (heh), calls the Enterprise.
NINE
On the bridge, Kirk dictates his final log. Sally and Gary died in service, with honors. End.
The Enneagram on this episode is an absolute mess. The beats kind of bleed over into each other rather than hitting distinct moments. How do I grab hold of this thing?
The One is too long, but I’ll forgive it. Because this is a pilot episode it needs to introduce a lot of characters and concepts.
The Two is okay. This transmission is Trouble, and the climax is a direct result of its presence.
Where is the Three? Gary riding in the elevator with Kirk is laughable as a beat. They’re friendly with each other. It might be Four information, actually. The department heads arriving on the bridge to discuss the problem is a Four scene. However, the introduction of Sally could be a Three. It’s so late, though. The Four is rolling along around her.
The Switch is very clear. Gary must now be managed or killed. Boom.
Again with the Five, though, we get some mush. Gary is his own team, and the crew is an opposing team. That’s good. Sally, though, goes back and forth. Yes, we want some ambiguity, some tension, but she’s just unresolved. What is she playing? I want to save lives? I want to catch a boyfriend? Her lack of a clear motivation makes her less likable or sympathetic, and we have no hook to make sense of the Five’s build.
The Six is an utter mystery. Nothing. Basically, we have a series of Sevens, decision after decision, with no demarcation. Kirk makes choices left and right, but you can’t do that in the middle of a Five and tell a coherent story. His last decision, to persuade Dr. Sally to remember her humanity, actively impacts the Eight, so it’s the proper Seven.
Eight and Nine are solid, but those are the two easiest beats to nail. Every writer knows their bang moment and how to walk away afterwards. (Except Peter Jackson, lol, but we forgive him. LotR is a beast to resolve.)