For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

Season 3, episode 8. The Enterprise finds an asteroid, Yonada, that is on a collision course to Darren V, a highly populated planet and it will be there within 396 days. That asteroid has fired a missile towards the Enterprise - attacking it. Also, everyone on board the Enterprise has gotten a check-up and are in good health, all but Dr. McCoy who learns he has about 1 year to live - he has incurable disease called xenopolycythemia (polycythemia). Kirk, McCoy and Spock beam down to the asteroid Yonada and they find it is populated with humanoids that worship an oracle -- it is a space ship disguised as an asteroid. The High Priestess, Natira, orders the capture of the trio then releases them later on. Natira develops an interest in McCoy and prays to the oracle for marriage to McCoy. Finally Spock and Kirk are released to go back to the ship and McCoy agrees to stay with Natira if that means saving the planet of Darren V. Spock ends up discovering the Fabrini archive that has a cure for McCoy's condition.

Of course we all know that "all's well that ends well" - McCoy will be cured and back on the Enterprise with the others while everything will be smoothed over with the Natira and her people and Darren V will be saved.

An average episode... what we expect from from Star Trek TOS. I will say it's a relief to see McCoy as a "love interest" from a lovely lady.

7.5/10

Yes ! Remember this was produced in 1968. The Soviets sent troops into Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring, China was consumed by the Cultural Revolution, the world was a very dangerous place. Throughout the centuries tyrants of every stripe and persuasion have tried to control the information their subjects receive and blame so many of their problems and failures on outsiders with malicious intent. A self contained world where people have few if any memories of the "Good Old Days" and no way to contradict what they are told by their rulers, and face severe punishments if they rebel. Truth is what the rulers-or ruler-will decide on. It does recycle the controlling computer idea from "Return of the Archons"-I wonder if those who built the Oracle saw Landru's plans ? The Prime Directive ? As Kirk told Spock in "Return of the Archons " "That refers to a living breathing society ! Do you think this is ?

McCoy is dying. He has but a year to live. Of course, he will not allow Kirk to divulge this to the crew. After a thwarted missile attack, the Enterprise locates the source. It is an asteroid/planet where people live inside, unaware of the grandness of space. They are part of a civilization that built a huge ship when their sun went nova and have been traveling the galaxy for thousands of years. The usual trio beams down to the planet and is taken hostage by a group of soldiers wearing really weird hats and colorful robes. They are also met by a beautiful priestess. It turns out that there is a creator in their past who has been looking out for them, but they must don a kind of implant that forces their obedience to an oracle. Since McCoy and his illness are center stage here, he becomes the focus of this episode. The priestess is so taken with him that she proposes marriage and he accepts. The other, more critical plot element is that this asteroid is on a collision course with a very populous planet; the resulting impact would be devastating. As with the American Indian episode, they must find a way to get things to change course. The twosome must work their way to adjust a force that could destroy them. This is a pretty typical ST episode, neither good nor bad.

McCoy contracts Xenopolycythemia, an incurable disease that leaves him with only a year left to live. Shortly after, the Enterprise encounters what appears to be an asteroid on a collison course with a heavily populated planet; however, readings indicate it to be hollow and propelled by atomic power -- a spacecraft. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam inside the ship and discover a race of people who have been living there for 10,000 years, blissfully unaware of its true nature.

Can Kirk and Spock discover a way to correct the course of the asteroid/spaceship? Will the inhabitants' many secrets include a cure for McCoy's disease? Will McCoy decide to remain in Yonada (as the people call their world) when beautiful high priestess Natira declares that she wants to be his mate? The answer is, of course, yes to all three!

There are however, a couple of burning question that aren't answered: why does the 'oracle', the leader of the Fabrinis, keep the truth from its people? What harm would there be in them knowing that they are on a spaceship destined for a new home planet? And what exactly does Natira see in Bones? I mean, he's a nice bloke and all, but he's not exactly an Alpha male like Kirk.

6.5/10. Not a remarkable episode, but still enjoyable, particularly as this one further explores the friendship between its principle characters and allows DeForest Kelley to take centre stage for a change. However, I'm rounding my rating down to 6 for the Fabrinis' horrible oufits, surely a fashion crime that should be punished by the oracle.

A quite sizable population or entourage, have managed to conceal and to camouflage, their ship in a void, of a large asteroid, a space travelling meteoric comet mirage.

A rock is a hard place to change the culture and mind-sets when they've been cast away for so long.