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 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.

You're not sure whether you should be sad or laughing during the course of this episode - but usually you'll laugh; it's hard not to these days. Of course, if you've ever had a parent or other close relative going through something like dementia, for example, it may give you pause. But then again, this is escapist fare - you're not supposed to take it too seriously. The Enterprise crew encounter the latest unknown space disease, a form of aging. The cause turns out to be radiation left over from a passing comet. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and a female junior officer all start to age very rapidly, on the order of 30 years per day. But people age differently and the female is the first to bite the dust, this episode's expendable crew member (as opposed to the usual red-shirt). Chekov was not affected at the site of the exposure for some reason and is the key to finding a solution. There's a commodore aboard, as it happens, and he quickly makes a nuisance of himself, forcing a competency hearing against Kirk (should they really have time for this with such a deadline fast approaching?).

The episode manages to touch upon the fears and drawbacks of getting older, mostly from Kirk's perspective. It shows that the best one can expect as one becomes elderly is probably pity - from those who used to respect you. The affected party ages mentally even swifter than they do physically, so there are numerous scenes of Kirk being forgetful; these begin quite early, in subtle hints that all is not right with the landing party. When Kirk starts dozing in his command chair, his loyal crew looking on bewildered and embarrassed, the time for subtlety is past and the audience may stifle an uncomfortable laugh, unless they enjoy a kind of payback for all of Kirk's virile past gallivanting. The physical make-up, however, leaves something to be desired; Kirk & Spock aren't too bad, but Scotty acquires an odd mummified look, while someone placed a mop-like strange hairpiece on McCoy's head. Again, the viewer probably shouldn't laugh too much looking at these heroes deteriorate, but it's taken out of our hands due to the presentation. The central competency hearing, conducted by Spock, repeats much of what had occurred up until this point and winds up being tedious.

But Shatner is great in every scene he's in: his outrage, at the hearing and, later, at Spock; his annoyance with commodore Stocker; his wandering mind, no longer fine tuned; his denial, obviously from plain fear. Kelley also turns in a great interpretation of a doddering old country doctor. Nimoy merely plays a Vulcan who seems tired all the time. Towards the climax, I found it difficult to understand how even a 'deskbound paper-pusher' like commodore Stocker would commit as grievous a blunder as he does here in regards to the Romulan Neutral Zone, but some crisis was needed to test the rejuvenated Kirk in full rescue mode. These scenes also consisted of stock footage of a Romulan ship firing its weapon from the "Balance of Terror" episode and lasted so long that the Enterprise should have been obliterated well before Kirk rushed up to the bridge to pull his fast one with corbomite again (see "The Corbomite Maneuver" from way back).

Reading all reviews here I'd realize some facetious pitch wretchedly including named a dreary ill-ness describe by some reviewers over Enterprise's crew who were expose on the planet Gama Hydra IV a sort of premature aging, then Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott and the young Arlene, just Cherkov wasn't affected by such aging process, the plot is resourceful enough to be enjoyable, seeing all those mid-ages power trio growing older faster is fabulous, bolstered by a cogent make up, Dr. McCoy with his inherent bad temper tries out find a clue of this unusual process, the key of the matter could be the Cherkov's immunity, due the fastest ageing Captain Kirk demands order quite often on twice, then Mr. Spoke as half-breed Vulcan due his body constitution somehow postpone the ageing process, but the stern Commodore Stocker (Charles Drake) on board awares of the matter suggest a removal Kirk of the command, Spock as second in command refuses but was overdue by hearing board, then Stocker gets the Enterprise's command, meanwhile McCoy is running out and anything at sight, really gratifying odd episode, without forget the Dr. McCoy's method to care of the unpredictable Vulcan Mr. Spock in order to administer the immunizing is priceless and funny outcome!!

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5