The Enemy Within: new observations

Just finished watching The Enemy Within, and although I must have seen it hundreds of times, I did gain some new insights/perspectives this time around, contextualized with contemporary Trek. For example:

1. The fight between Good and Evil Kirk in engineering showcases much more of the space then we usually see. They're on the opposite site of the horizontal intermix tube, and it gives the room a much grander scale. Not quite what we see in Discovery, but more than the small room we usually get. Also, this fight scene reminded me of the fight with Karl on the roof in Die Hard.

2. The decor in Rand's room is, in retrospect, reminiscent of what we see in Picard: present-day objects (combs, dressers, mirrors, painting easel, etc...) grounding the look of the future. Kinda like Dahj's apartment. Humans are still human, even in the 23rd century.

3. It seems like Spock totally sexually harasses Rand in the final scene:

SPOCK: The, er, impostor had some interesting qualities, wouldn't you say, Yeoman?

He should be reprimanded! Interesting that that slipped by the censors (or I suppose in the 60s, it was commonplace).

Anyone else have retroactive observations about this or other episodes?

 

Just the usual observation that this was the one-and-only Trek episode written by Richard Matheson, author of THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, I AM LEGEND, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, STIR OF ECHOS, HELL HOUSE, DUEL, etc. Not to mention several classic episodes of the original TWILIGHT ZONE.

As I understand it, he only did one TREK because he preferred writing for anthology-type shows like TZ and NIGHT GALLERY and such.

 

This episode contained a lot of firsts for ST. The engineering section was constructed for this episode, and so it's the first episode of the series to feature engineering. While our attention is focused on Kirk's split, the split between Spock and McCoy is first shown in this episode too. While the split in Kirk is only temporary, the one between Spock and McCoy becomes a permanent fixture.

This episode couldn't have been produced as scripted had it been filmed later in the series. They effectively ignored the shuttle craft because they hadn't yet introduced them into the series. Had this been produced after The Galileo Seven, fans would have been yelling at the screen, "Send down a shuttle craft you idiots!"

 

One example: Nimoy invented the neck pinch for this episode, and Shatner helped him sell it.

 

Not that I'm excusing the scene but Spock's Vulcan character had not really been laid down at that point! His smiling scenes and sharp talking were still in evidence here and in the earlier Mudd's Women! Even though he talks about his vulcan half in this episode and being sort of unfeeling because that's the way I am bit!
JB

 

They'd have just thrown out a line that says the winds at high altitudes would make the shuttles impossible to control and..... scene.

 

One of my favorite episodes of the first season because it's more of a personal story for Kirk, who has to see his own ugliness in his double while facing the loss of willpower in himself.

 

I believe this episode has McCoy's first version of "He's dead, Jim." Referring to poor Unicorn Dog!

And, as I recall, the whole subplot about the landing party being stranded on the planet was NOT in Matheson's original script. I believe that was added by Roddenberry or somebody.

 

One of the worst facets of that episode. On my rewatch I glossed over the end because, even by 60s standards, it was incredibly pat wrap up of a rather terrible situation.

 

^They were still fine tuning Spock's character. Nimoy was pretty funny when he added some slyness to Mr. Spock although his comments to Rand were very insensitive.

 

The simplest and easiest explanation. As someone who became a fan in the 70's, I always figured that was the reason, just wasn't stated.

 

Right on both points, and Matheson hated the emphasis placed on the stranded landing party (being rewritten might have been another reason Matheson never returned to Star Trek). I guess Roddenberry wanted to up the urgency level, although Kirk's weakening condition was enough incentive to find a solution.

 

Nimoy is great. That moment not so much.

 

Definitely a line that should've never made it into the final episode. Since it is there, I figure it is something that expresses Spock's alienness.

 

Has anyone seen the original draft written by Matheson? What was cut to make room for the stranded landing party? Or was the script too short and it was added to make it long enough for an episode?

@Harvey or @Maurice have any details on this?

 

Sexual harassment surely wasn't Spock's motivation for saying what he did to Rand. So expounding from there, what point was he trying to make? Was he trying to point out that Kirk secretly harbors desire for Rand (something that Rand clearly reciprocates), but just did so in a very clumsy and awkward way?

 

Another option: couldn't they have beamed down some sort of shelter equipment to the landing party? They were concerned with beaming living people, not inanimate objects. And on the upside: they'd have ended up with two of everything! (albeit the duplicates of the heaters would be freezers, I guess).

 

They were just trying to make the character ironical and sly but it just comes off all wrong. Spock had a little of that in Mudd's Women too.

 

While, yes it seems blankets would've been okay to go through the transporter, didn't they try to beam some equipment down, that ended up duplicated and not working?

 

This, and a number of episodes at this point, suffer from “Early Series Weirdness.” Proto-Spock is always a lot of fun and I love how interesting he is at the start. Because of the rushed production schedule, a lot of early episodes have weird gaffes and editorial choices. Sound effects weren’t totally locked in and the pilot footage of the Enterprise was the go-to for the first few aired episodes (Charlie X only had pilot footage until TOS-R). Spock was such a new and alien concept, they were discovering him week after week until they finally got him nailed down. But those first dozen episodes or so, Spock was truly alien and unpredictable. I think he was more interesting with the wry smiles, very curt manner and weird comments.

Every series has that, but Star Trek really had a “diamond in the rough” feeling in those early episodes.