The Deadly Years

A comet's tail full of radiation, speeds the aging process up with consternation, dithering and old, as the wrinkles crease and fold, leaves the captain on repeat with irritation.

All the landing crew except Chekov suddenly begin to age 30 years in a day after the planet passes through a comets path.

Season 2, episode 12. The Enterprise is taking Commodore Stocker to Starbase 10 and makes a quick pit stop at Gamma Hydra IV to bring them supplies. Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Chekhov & Galway beam down to the facility where they find no one around. Chekhov goes into one of the buildings and panics & screams out - the rest come running inside to find a dead man. Bones scans him and finds he's died of natural causes, old age. Two seemingly elderly people come in, they are questioned by Kirk about their ages: 29 & 27. The two are beamed aboard ship but they die from old age. Not long after that the group that beam down all started aging rapidly -- all but Chekhov. McCoy estimated they are aging at the rate of about 30 years per day. Galway dies of old age sooner than the others due to her metabolism but the others are aging extremely quickly. To make matters worse, Romulans are in the area. It's a race against time and only their combined wisdom can save them.

Interesting concept were radiation from a comet tail caused the quick aging process. Even more interesting is the reason why Chekhov didn't age and holds the key to the answers.

8/10

I'm totally impressed by the makeup job for the landing party characters (with the exception of the aged Lt. Galway, who looks pretty fake). Kirk, McCoy and Scotty REALLY DO look old, especially McCoy. I'm not sure today's makeup artists could do a better job of making someone appear 30-40 years older. And the acting jobs by Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley and Doohan are top notch. They ACT like they're old...especially McCoy, who is even crustier than ever in old age and has his southern drawl magnified. One note, however: Kirk appears to be balding pretty bad when he's "between the ages of 60-72," but he actually has MORE hair at the end when he's gotta be in his 80s.

"The Deadly Years" is an all-around solid episode. The script is well-conceived, the makeup is excellent, and the actors give arguably their best performance of the series. There are a lot of other TV shows that have an episode where the main characters are really old (Cheers, The Brady Bunch), but they never seem very convincing. In "The Deadly Years," I really felt like Kirk and company were 30 years older. There are several episodes I like better, but this episode definitely makes my Top 20 list. I'm giving "The Deadly Years" a B+ grade and admitting I'm getting a little gray – but radiation will do that to you.

I'm at that stage in life where I'm starting to show signs of wear and tear, so watching Kirk and his crewmates rapidly age after being exposed to radiation from a comet is quite uncomfortable viewing (even if the old-age make-up is a bit rubbish). Kirk develops dementia and arthritis, McCoy goes grey and wrinkly, Spock's usually acute mind is a little slower, Scotty look terrible, and Lt. Galway has seen far better days. It's a reminder that getting old can be really sucky (although Shatner in his 90s still has all his faculties and is doing things that most of us only dream of).

After several instances where Kirk's ability to command is called into question, a competency hearing is convened, which results in the captain being relieved of duty by Commodore Stocker (Charles Drake). However, the commodore's inexperience at the helm leads to a stand-off with the Romulans after the Enterprise violates a neutral zone.

After the intriguing set up, The Deadly Years stagnates: half of the episode is spent watching the characters deteriorate, which soon gets old (badum tish!), while the competency hearing simply retreads what we have already seen. Kirk's return to youthfulness and good health after an injection of adrenaline is nothing short of miraculous, the rejuvenated captain bounding onto the bridge to avert disaster by using the Corbomite maneuver, a lazy resolution from the writers.

Naysayers dislike this episode, but I've always loved it and still do. The makeup is brilliant (not perfect, but it was designed for a 480-line TV). The competency hearing shines with its awkward silences. Kirk's swagger gets worse the more he ages. It's fun to see him be proven wrong again and again, which is 180 degrees from what the other episodes depict. "Ask me anything. We're in orbit around Gamma Hydra II."

McCoy turns into a crusty Southern doctor (giving Spock one of his greatest comeback lines). Sure the battle drama is contrived, but It's a nice "back to normal" moment.

I'm currently re-watching the series (on Blu Ray - gorgeous!) and it's so nice to see an episode where they are not fighting super beings with god-like powers. There are waaay too many episodes like that.