In the episode "Errand of Mercy," the Organians are able to make all weapons radiate extreme heat. However, can they do the same to "non-weapon" weapons? For example, if Capt. Kirk were to get into a fistfight with Kor, will he find his fists burned?
^You're right -- we saw Kirk, Kor, and the others try to attack each other and then pulling away in pain. Spock's line was, "Inexplicable, Captain. Extreme heat. Not only the weapons but the bodies as well."
Great episode. It will be a very long time before we see one of those wonderful long, slow "I tip my hat to you Captain" scenes in Star Trek again. And probably never that we'll see such subtle work as we saw from the actors portraying the Orgainians.
I've often speculated (though certainly not concluded) that it was more of a widespread manipulation of mind and sensory perception than true heat. While not unlike that of the Talosian's abilities, it would be far in advance given the Organian's true evolutionary nature as pure energy beings. Regardless, If I recall correctly, they still had to concentrate their efforts to accomplish the task.
That went too fast for me, so I didn't catch it. That makes sense. If the Organians really heated the weapons to 350° as claimed, then it would have likely caused smoking and skin burns. Neither of these things actually happened. Or at least we didn't see anyone get treated for said burns.
It does make more sense for it to be that way as opposed to physically heating all of those weapons consoles, phasers, disruptors, etc. throughout the Federation and Klingon forces combined. Still, though, it was a truly amazing thing for them to be able to manipulate that many individual minds, not to mention the vast distances away most of those minds were. Even if it took all of their combined efforts to get the job done, I don't know of any other advanced race in ST that powerful, with the possible exception of the Q Continuum.