"The Devil in the Dark'' Line-by-Line

KIRK: Yes. We took a bite out of it.

(Spock picks up the chunk of the creature's hide cut off by the phasers)

 

finishing Kirk:

Not animal tissue? What is it?

Spock: The closest approximation I could come to would be fibrous asbestos.
A mineral Captian.

 

KIRK: Then your guess was right.

 

Spock: It would seem so. Silicon based.

 

KIRK: Summation.

 

SPOCK: We are dealing with a silicon creature of the deep rocks, capable of moving through solid rock as easily as we move through the air.

 

KIRK: That would account for the tunnels.

 

Spock: Correct. This creature's body secretes an extremely powerful corrosive.

 

KIRK: Powerful enough to dissolve the door of the reactor chamber.

 

Spock: And it explains the murdered men.

 

KIRK: It's definitely phaser resistant. We had our weapons set for silicon, and on full power, yet we only damaged it. It still lives.

 

GIOTTO You mean it's impossible to kill?

 

KIRK: No. No, it might require amassed phasers.

 

SPOCK: Or a single phaser with much longer contact.

 

KIRK: Commander, pass this on to your men We knew it was a killer. Now it's wounded, probably in pain somewhere back there. There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal.

(after the commercial break)

Commander Giotto, instruct your men to concentrate the search in this sector. Remind them the creature is wounded.

 

GIOTTO: Aye, aye, sir.

(Exit Giotto)

 

Kirk: What is it Mr. Spock?

 

SPOCK: I've run a complete spherical check on all life forms, radius one hundred miles. I've located our men, all of them, and I've located one creature moving rapidly through native rock, bearing two hundred and one. And that is all.

 

Kirk: One creature in a hundred miles?

 

SPOCK: Exactly. Captain, there are literally thousands of these tunnels in this general area alone, far too many to be cut by the one creature in an ordinary lifetime.