Requiem for Methuselah

Kirk, Bones and Spock visit a planet to obtain a cure for Rigellian Fever.

I found this to be a mixed bag of an episode that starts off painfully slow but gets more interesting as it goes on.

Many writers have observed it's connections to the movie 'Forbidden Planet' and indirectly Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', but it also contains plot elements used in other Star Trek episodes such the super-powerful character, the female companion, and the connection to real-life Earth history.

I enjoyed the latter half of the episode when the away team discover the truth about Rayna. There are a number of compelling moments, such as her becoming self-aware and having deal with emotions regarding both Flint and Kirk. Plus Flint witnessing and reacting to his master plan backfiring is good. My favourite scene and something I did not expect was the final scenes involving Spock and Kirk.

That being said the notion of Kirk falling for Rayna in such a big way is as implausible as most romance plots written in Star Trek. In fact you might be forgiven for wondering if Spock used this same technique after the events of 'City on the Edge of Forever', 'The Paradise Syndrome', and 'Elaan of Troyus'.

As a character I can take or leave Flint. I think the psychology around creepy father-daughter-future-lover relationship with Rayna is good, as is the idea about the use of Kirk to his advantage. However, the idea of him within Earth's historical context as Brahms, Da Vinci etc is a bit silly. James Daly is pretty forgettable in the role.

Generally the cast is fairly good with the three stars all solid and Louise Sorel decent as Rayna.

The captain's taken a bit of a shine, to a lady he'd like to envelop entwine, clever and pretty, but sadly not that free, as she's owned by a bit of a swine.

The search for ryetalyn on Holberg 917G leads to an encounter with an impossible man and his adopted, or is it nominated or appointed bit on the side.

In desperate need of a crucial antidote ingredient to fight a plague overtaking the Enterprise, Kirk, Spock & Bones beam down to a planet where the ingredient can be found in abundance. They find one lone man, Flint (James Daly, "Planet of the Apes"), and one young woman, Rayna (Louise Sorel, 'Days of Our Lives"), living there, accompanied by a helper robot called M-4. Initially quite hostile, Flint soon welcomes their presence, and it's clear he has some ulterior motive for making them stay - especially Kirk, who goes hilariously gaga over the lovely young lady.

Well-written by Jerome Bixby (it's to be expected, as he also penned three other episodes, including the very fun 'Mirror, Mirror'), and intelligently executed, this has some brilliant plot twists which I dare not reveal here. But the plot does revolve around love, one of the most powerful of human emotions that can give us real highs or real lows. (Near the end, Bones bemoans the fact that Spock will never be able to experience this kind of feeling.). Certainly it causes Kirk to behave irrationally here, and to forget about his actual mission.

Superb performances by guest stars Daly & Sorel, an obvious appreciation for art & literature, and a compassionate final gesture from Spock help to make this an episode that will linger in the memory.

Eight out of 10.

Kirk being his usual childish attention seeking arrogant self. Captain of a starship indeed.

The Enterprise is in the grip of a deadly epidemic: Rigellian fever. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to Holberg 917-G to gather the mineral ryetalyn (amusingly pronounced Ritalin), necessary to create an antidote. On the planet's surface, they encounter Flint, who says he owns the planet: his personal retreat from the human race.

Flint introduces his young ward Rayna to the party, and while McCoy and Flint's sentry robot M4 process the ryetalyn, Kirk gets up close and personal to the beauty. It was at this point that I guessed that Rayna was an android, created by Flint as a companion (ie. Sex robot), and I wasn't far wrong. Flint is allowing Kirk and Rayna to get smoochy in order to bring her emotions alive, so that she can return her creator's affections.

What I didn't guess is that Flint is immortal, having lived for 6000 years, during which time he had gone by many names, including Lazarus, Alexander the Great, Leonardo Da Vinci and Johannes Brahms: this combination of the predictable and the unexpected proves very entertaining, with mystery, sex, a miniature Enterprise, and a fistfight, and a sad ending that sees Rayna's conflicting feelings for Kirk and Flint causing her to shut down.

It's not perfect, Kirk's horndog behaviour seeming extremely inappropriate given the seriousness of the epidemic currently ravaging his crew, but it's still a far more enjoyable effort than the last few episodes, proving there's still some life in the series yet (or was that it?).