So, just to whet everyone's appetite: Here is a preview for this Thursday's show...
Last edited:
50th Anniversary Rewatch Thread
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
"The Enemy Within", Episode 5, October 6th
Tonight's Episode: Double the Kirk, double the action!
Witness the first time a piece of Starship equipment malfunctions in a weird way that initiates the plot of the episode which will see Captain Jimmy face his innermost terrifying adversary: Mad Jimbo!
Meanwhile, Sulu just chills out on a unicorn dog planet...
Tonight's Episode: Double the Kirk, double the action!
Witness the first time a piece of Starship equipment malfunctions in a weird way that initiates the plot of the episode which will see Captain Jimmy face his innermost terrifying adversary: Mad Jimbo!
Meanwhile, Sulu just chills out on a unicorn dog planet...
No,we can't even beam down a heavy coat. It would duplicate! Who wants that?
I should add that most points are taken, except for Bones figuring out the disease. He performed some tests and figured it out...no need for paragraphs of technobabble about the disease, that's not how TOS rolled. (And the expository monologue to the afflicted lab tech was forced enough.) And Sulu was doing a Three Musketeers thing (references to Richelieu and d'Artagnan).Gah, such a rookie mistake on my part.
But you mentioned the TNG sequel/remake first so it's actually kinda your fault I even remembered the other title to mistype it
Star Trek
"The Enemy Within"
Stardate 1672.1
This one has long been a favorite of mine. Yeah, the shuttle thing, so what? Doesn't ruin the concept, or the Shat's hamtastic acting.
In addition to setting Bad Kirk's phaser on 11, Shat does a good job differentiating the weak, indecisive Kirk from his usual self. (Though Good Kirk seems unusually assertive when he's criticizing his double and goading him to use his mind.)
Wilson must be some kind of neat freak, he's so concerned about Fisher messing up his uniform.
Usually the little character development stuff works better in production order, but by a happy accident, the Yeoman Rand part of the story actually works better following "The Naked Time," which established Kirk's repressed attraction to her.
I've read that scenes were reordered in this one...the revelation about the animal duplicating and the realization it seems to spark in Good Kirk make a lot more sense if they follow Rand's account of the attempted rape and the revelation that there's an "imposter" on board.
It's probably just a fluke in the delivery, but the way Scotty says, "They might be duplicated like...this animal," always suggested to me that maybe he guessed that Kirk had been duplicated...though he seemed privy to little information regarding what was going on with Kirk at that point.
The way he repeatedly steers Good Kirk's decisions, Spock seems a lot more savvy about command here than in "The Galileo Seven." And while I can appreciate that they don't take relieving Kirk of his command lightly, if ever there were an excuse to declare him unfit....Spock could have run things while Kirk wasn't in full possession of his persona.
In addition to giving us the origin of the Vulcan Neck Pinch, this episode also gives us the origin of Kirk's wraparound tunic...developed to easily differentiate the two Kirks, regardless of who's playing one of them in the scene.
Could they have beamed down tents at least? Anything's better than a blanket.
Bones arrives in the transporter room just in time to deliver his first "He's dead, Jim." Has this been the first in airdate order as well?
Is it just me, or does Farrell say, "No word from Mr. Solo, sir"?
I believe that this would be our first inappropriate laugh-line ending, and it's definitely the mother of them all....
"The Enemy Within"
Stardate 1672.1
This one has long been a favorite of mine. Yeah, the shuttle thing, so what? Doesn't ruin the concept, or the Shat's hamtastic acting.
In addition to setting Bad Kirk's phaser on 11, Shat does a good job differentiating the weak, indecisive Kirk from his usual self. (Though Good Kirk seems unusually assertive when he's criticizing his double and goading him to use his mind.)
Wilson must be some kind of neat freak, he's so concerned about Fisher messing up his uniform.
Usually the little character development stuff works better in production order, but by a happy accident, the Yeoman Rand part of the story actually works better following "The Naked Time," which established Kirk's repressed attraction to her.
I've read that scenes were reordered in this one...the revelation about the animal duplicating and the realization it seems to spark in Good Kirk make a lot more sense if they follow Rand's account of the attempted rape and the revelation that there's an "imposter" on board.
It's probably just a fluke in the delivery, but the way Scotty says, "They might be duplicated like...this animal," always suggested to me that maybe he guessed that Kirk had been duplicated...though he seemed privy to little information regarding what was going on with Kirk at that point.
The way he repeatedly steers Good Kirk's decisions, Spock seems a lot more savvy about command here than in "The Galileo Seven." And while I can appreciate that they don't take relieving Kirk of his command lightly, if ever there were an excuse to declare him unfit....Spock could have run things while Kirk wasn't in full possession of his persona.
In addition to giving us the origin of the Vulcan Neck Pinch, this episode also gives us the origin of Kirk's wraparound tunic...developed to easily differentiate the two Kirks, regardless of who's playing one of them in the scene.
Could they have beamed down tents at least? Anything's better than a blanket.
Bones arrives in the transporter room just in time to deliver his first "He's dead, Jim." Has this been the first in airdate order as well?
Is it just me, or does Farrell say, "No word from Mr. Solo, sir"?
I believe that this would be our first inappropriate laugh-line ending, and it's definitely the mother of them all....
The out of place scene really stands out once someone points it out to you. Maybe the editor wanted to have the dramatic impostor line lead into the ad break? Problem is that the viewer already knows evil Kirk isn't an impostor so there's no tension added for us - as much as Nimoy's delivery and the dramatic music try to convince us.
I agree that this is preferable to pointless technobabble. What's missing for me is the epiphany moment.
Something like McCoy seeing Riley pour himself a drink and then disappointingly exclaim "Bah, it's just water!" and then cut to Bones thinking "Water, eh?"...
That way makes more sense dramatically because it goes from "It's like nothing we've seen before" to failed attempts to epiphany to success, instead of just unknown -> known.
It's been a while since I last rewatched TOS I managed to forget that was at the end of this episode...
It's kinda weird how this episode lined up to make Spock sound like a Trump apologist.
Anyway, as Spock was telling Kirk how he understood about being divided I realized that would have also been a potentially interesting episode, with Spock being divided into his human and vulcan half, but that would probably work better later in the series run. If anything it would certainly be more plausible for the transporter to malfunction along the DNA lines, rather than arbitrary personality trait lines
Anyway, as Spock was telling Kirk how he understood about being divided I realized that would have also been a potentially interesting episode, with Spock being divided into his human and vulcan half, but that would probably work better later in the series run. If anything it would certainly be more plausible for the transporter to malfunction along the DNA lines, rather than arbitrary personality trait lines
I've thought so too. Maybe John Byrne could satisfy that storyline in his "New Visions" comics, using images of Nimoy's face from other shows he was in at that time.
That was a short story in New Voyages 1 or 2. (I think 2?)
The Enemy Within is a good episode. I always felt bad for the little animal that dies in the transporter. Good Kirk vs. Evil Kirk. Early episode where they do not have all the answers. No shuttle craft for Sulu and the other men freezing on the planet. As others have said. Couldn't they have just transported some warm clothes for the landing party. So they wouldn't freeze to death?
"Hey, Captain, do we still have those jackets from the first pilot?"
Star Trek
"Mudd's Women"
Stardate 1329.8
Ah, our first guest-blob ship...leaving everything to the imagination.
In production order, this is only the second regular episode, falling between "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "The Enemy Within"...as demonstrated by Uhura still being in gold. Other early-installment weirdness...lithium crystal circuits blowing out, threatening to leave the ship down to battery power...no mention of impulse power. And there's Spock being identified as "part Vulcanian"...suggesting that he's distinguishable from a full Vulcanian....
We don't see Kirk at Spock's station very often, do we?
For those who put too much faith in stardates, there's evidence here, in a single episode, of Gene's explanation that they change with position as well as the passage of time--When the Enterprise is heading to Rigel XII, the stardate is 1329.2...a lower number than at the beginning of the episode! (Acutally, I suspect that Kirk transposed the numbers on either side of the decimal in the opening.)
The briefing room scene with the computer volunteering TMI was always a cringeworthy moment for me.
The Western-style plot does make sense in a frontier setting. As Eve explains, it's not just husbands needing wives, but wives needing husbands as well. They paint a picture of people scattered in remote, low-population outposts, who have to look elsewhere for potential spouses.
"Are you wearing some unusual kind of perfume or something radioactive, my dear?" Quite the pickup line, there, Bones.
Interesting that in this case they actually suspect alien trickery...they're not usually so quick to suspect it when there actually is alien trickery involved.
Spock is still emotional enough to smirk a lot at how the women are affecting everyone else...and to himself appreciate the beauty...of a lithium crystal.
I can rationalize the concept behind the Venus Drug, but the execution is pretty cheesy. Basically, it gives you an instant makeover and dials your pheromones to 11. I suspect that the women weren't supposed to have been unattractive when normal, but rather that it was the effect of withdrawal.
And there's a bit of even earlier Spock/McCoy banter at the end.
"Mudd's Women"
Stardate 1329.8
Ah, our first guest-blob ship...leaving everything to the imagination.
In production order, this is only the second regular episode, falling between "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "The Enemy Within"...as demonstrated by Uhura still being in gold. Other early-installment weirdness...lithium crystal circuits blowing out, threatening to leave the ship down to battery power...no mention of impulse power. And there's Spock being identified as "part Vulcanian"...suggesting that he's distinguishable from a full Vulcanian....
We don't see Kirk at Spock's station very often, do we?
For those who put too much faith in stardates, there's evidence here, in a single episode, of Gene's explanation that they change with position as well as the passage of time--When the Enterprise is heading to Rigel XII, the stardate is 1329.2...a lower number than at the beginning of the episode! (Acutally, I suspect that Kirk transposed the numbers on either side of the decimal in the opening.)
The briefing room scene with the computer volunteering TMI was always a cringeworthy moment for me.
The Western-style plot does make sense in a frontier setting. As Eve explains, it's not just husbands needing wives, but wives needing husbands as well. They paint a picture of people scattered in remote, low-population outposts, who have to look elsewhere for potential spouses.
"Are you wearing some unusual kind of perfume or something radioactive, my dear?" Quite the pickup line, there, Bones.
Interesting that in this case they actually suspect alien trickery...they're not usually so quick to suspect it when there actually is alien trickery involved.
Spock is still emotional enough to smirk a lot at how the women are affecting everyone else...and to himself appreciate the beauty...of a lithium crystal.
I can rationalize the concept behind the Venus Drug, but the execution is pretty cheesy. Basically, it gives you an instant makeover and dials your pheromones to 11. I suspect that the women weren't supposed to have been unattractive when normal, but rather that it was the effect of withdrawal.
And there's a bit of even earlier Spock/McCoy banter at the end.
While I usually think of s1 as practically perfect, 2 or 3 early ones like this are less interesting because they don't have a strong other-worldly element to them... just a horniness drug and a court martial... The bizarre thing about this ep is how the men all go va va va voom in a very old fashioned way about the women, like sailors who haven't been on shore leave for months... when the corridors are teeming with beautiful women in micro minis.... It always seems as if the writer thought it was all men on the ship, and no one noticed the incongruity. I know the drug is supposed to make the three women seem extraordinary, but this is ridiculous...
Last edited:
"A most annoying, emotional episode." Spock concludes at the end of it.
Though it's not really either. From the amount of smirking Spock did in this episode it seemed like he was perpetually amused, rather than annoyed.
As for emotional, there weren't that many emotions contained. Unless you count the women being either hysterical for drugs, or frustrated by a lack of husbands. And the men didn't so much display emotions, it was more a matter of displaying erections.
Bones being bewildered by the machine that goes ping was kinda weird. Presumably that machine does something or measures something, it is in sickbay, so maybe the chief medical officer should read it out instead of wondering "why is it doing that?"
There's very little plot elsewhere in the episode, it's mostly just shots of men going gaga during the duration of the trip, and lights occasionally dimming. The less said about women interested only in cooking and cleaning after rich men the better. First proper clunker of the series.
A subspace radio version of Tinder might have been a better solution to the problem than space pimp ferry service.
I think stage directions just said "act like Gene Roddenberry"
Though it's not really either. From the amount of smirking Spock did in this episode it seemed like he was perpetually amused, rather than annoyed.
As for emotional, there weren't that many emotions contained. Unless you count the women being either hysterical for drugs, or frustrated by a lack of husbands. And the men didn't so much display emotions, it was more a matter of displaying erections.
Bones being bewildered by the machine that goes ping was kinda weird. Presumably that machine does something or measures something, it is in sickbay, so maybe the chief medical officer should read it out instead of wondering "why is it doing that?"
There's very little plot elsewhere in the episode, it's mostly just shots of men going gaga during the duration of the trip, and lights occasionally dimming. The less said about women interested only in cooking and cleaning after rich men the better. First proper clunker of the series.
A subspace radio version of Tinder might have been a better solution to the problem than space pimp ferry service.
I think stage directions just said "act like Gene Roddenberry"
I think there was supposed to be a spark of genuine attraction between Kirk and Eve.
Presumably it was doing something that it wasn't supposed to do. He did guess that there might be something radioactive causing it.
Similar threads
