Dir: Marc Daniels
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
Airdate: 8 Sept. 1966
Grade: B-
Plot: Kirk, Bones, and Darnell beam down to do a yearly check-up on a lone scientist, Dr. Crater and his wife who are studying a long extinct civilization. They meet Mrs. Crater first who appears differently to each member of the away team. Dr. Crater seems eager for solitude and a new supply of salt to protect against the dry heat environment. It is revealed that Mrs. Crater is in fact dead, and the person that the crew had been interacting with is the last member of a species that lives off of salt and has empathic and shapeshifting abilities. The creature uses these abilities to infiltrate the ship disguised as one of the slain crewmembers. As the crew searches for the creature, it takes the shape of Dr. McCoy in order to subvert any attempt to capture it. Ultimately, Bones is forced to destroy the creature despite its resemblance to someone he holds dearly in order to save Kirk. Besides the Doctor and the creature, the mission cost the lives of four crewmembers: Darnell, Green, Sturgeon, and Barnhart.
Thoughts: This was a very strong first step and immediately poses one of those questions that define the best of what Star Trek does. The salt devouring creature is not a thing of evil, and the characters within are forced to recognize that as they struggle to protect their own lives. The viewer is not given an easy answer as they are encouraged to weigh the rights of survival against the potential extinction of an entire species. Kirk is clearly established as a firm and competent leader yet also charming and familiar(at least with the senior members of his crew). Spock’s Vulcan emotional detachment and McCoy’s distrust of technology are also both solidly established.
The most glaring weakness of the story is really the behavior of the creature. It is clearly sentient and able to logically reason, and the story gives us no indication that taking the salt from a person is preferable to salt in tablet form. If this is the case, it would have been easy for the creature to simply ask, or for Dr. Crater to explain, that the creature needed salt to survive at which time there is no indication that it wouldn’t have been provided with whatever it needed.
This excepted, it is a good story of which I am very fond. The sadness at the end as Kirk reflects on the loss of the Buffalo hangs very profoundly in the air as the Enterprise pulls away. Definitely recommend.
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