Operation -- Annihilate!

The Enterprise is going to investigate what appears to be a very slow-moving viral form of mass-hysteria which has, over centuries, brought several thriving civilizations on many different planets down. Spock reviews the epidemiology of the phenomenon at the beginning of the episode, revealing that the trajectory of the epidemic places a Federation colony directly in its path. Sam Kirk, his wife and their son, live in this colony.

Captain Kirk is directly affected by his family's involvement in all of this, and Shatner does a very nice job of portraying a captain whose professionalism and rational judgment are threatened, and whose usual rational support structure (Spock) is also imperiled and unavailable. In a scene which was, unfortunately underexploited by the mediocre script, Dr. McCoy rises to the occasion and, surprisingly, fills both his usual role and that of the great first officer.

Herschel Daugherty directs this memorable episode of TOS, and does an admirable job with a somewhat weak script. The Stephen Carabatsos script creates some problems for the acting (particularly Nimoy, Barrett and Kelley), and - like his previous effort "Court Martial" - makes the pace a bit inconsistent. Kelley and Shatner are truly remarkable despite these challenges.

The episode also uses setting very nicely, with a very minimal use of backdrops and carefully chosen locations for rare open air shots. Additionally, Spock's character is very nicely examined, the developing rivalry and friendship between McCoy and Spock is enhanced, and the powerful - though unresolved - relationship between Christine Chapel and Spock begins. Finally, this (and the great earlier City on the Edge of Forever)is one of the first episodes to exploit the (unfortunately largely overlooked and unrecognized) subtlety of William Shatner's acting ability by placing Kirk's personal life in the way of his professional practice. This became a major theme as the series continued into its 2nd and 3rd seasons.

We sadly learn of the death of Kirk's brother, wife, and son. They have been victimized by an influx of rubbery creatures that latch on to their victims and do in their central nervous systems. Kirk vows to find a solution to this problem. Spock is investigating the things but fails to check out his surroundings. As he walks under an archway, one of the creatures, previously stuck to a wall, flies through the air and settles on his back. He is immediately overcome with excruciating pain. The crew is able to stun one of the creatures and it is brought to Dr. McCoy for analysis. McCoy tries every kind of approach he can think of from poisons to heat to shooting and stabbing but nothing works. It is when they realize that one of the victims said as he approached the sun that he was free that they try one last thing: light. The remainder of the episode involves their efforts to test their light theory, being stopped short because to do this, you need a host that has been assaulted by this creature. It is the quest for such a host and more tests that make the conclusion quite interesting.

The Starship Enterprise arrives at the Planet Deneva where Captain James T. Kirk is looking forward to a little personal time with his brother Sam and Sam's wife and son. But it turns out the planet and its people are under attack by some strange collective parasite intelligence which attachs itself to people and forces them to their will under duress of great pain if they don't.

William Shatner's brother died from it and his sister-in-law and nephew are still in its grip. Also Leonard Nimoy is attacked by one of the parasites himself and functions under great pain.

It's a medical problem that DeForest Kelley diagnoses. But surgery is too complex and to have a whole planet undergo it is time consuming and not terribly efficient.

Nimoy proves a useful guinea pig for an experiment that Kelley conducts as to the cure which I won't reveal. But the risk might be genocide on a planetary scale and Kirk is truly reluctant to take that on as a responsibility.

Another episode involving the strain of command and the choices a commander might have to make. These parasites apparently have been making their way through space and it's a question of preventing this from spreading to places like Vulcan and Earth.

Shatner handles it well and Kelley is a good doctor.

This was always one of my favorite episodes as a kid: The Enterprise crew investigates an epidemic of "space madness" and traces the latest outbreak to a local human colony that just happens to be where Kirk's identical twin brother has been assigned as a research scientist. The fun really begins when it becomes apparent what the alien menace is, which are an invasion of flying interstellar space pancakes that make up a collective gestalt creature looking to spread it's way across the galaxy. It needs humanoids who can fly space ships to spread from colony to colony, and Kirk has to face the decision of his career when choosing between whether or not to just go back to the Sulaco and nuke them all from orbit. It's the only way to be sure ...

Just kidding. This was one of our favorite Star Trek adventures to act out when we were kids because you could use a bean bag as the pretend space pancake and smack each other on the back, beaming it with your wooden shop class phaser to save each other. The architecture in the city is also pretty rad, looks a lot like the State University at Albany campus I used to study at, which lo and behold was built at about the same time that the actual location (some sort of aerospace company's campus center) was made. It's a great episode for Spock and McCoy fans too, they have more to do than usual which may have been the result of Leonard Nimoy's surprise popularity with fans writing in -- much to the chagrin of William Shatner, who considered himself the focus of the show and resented any major actions that didn't center on Captain Kirk.

This one doesn't, and so it sort of sticks out. One of the best of the "overlooked episodes", and actually rather violent & filled with more physical suffering than usual for Star Trek.

If anyone doesn't see the similarities to RA Heinlein's Puppet Masters, well, I don't know what to say.