"Can half a man live?"

[Orac]

"I wanna live!"

The Enemy Within is one of my favourite episodes, and will always be in my top 10 list of best Trek episodes, I think this is the first episode where the writers finally get the trinity of Kirk, Spock and Bones right, in the couple of episodes before this, Bones bickers with Kirk which doesn't work as well, in this ep he starts bickering with Spock, the emotion vs logic thing works much better and this is the way the relationship stays.

Does anyone else like this episode?, despite the dodgy science and the continuity error that the Enterprise can't send a shuttle to the planet because the prop hasn't been built yet. Shatner is at his manic best playing "evil" Kirk IMO. "I'll kill ya!"

 

[Forbin]

Actually, if they haven't yet even mentioned shuttlecraft, IS it a continuity error?

 

[Jimmy_C]

Maybe the Enterprise just didn't have any shuttlecraft installed. Maybe they lost them all in the previous week's, unaired, incident...

 

[Charlie Kelly]

Maybe they couldn't send shuttle craft down becuase of the atmosphere or something. We've this explnation used in later Trek various times.

Charlie

 

[Trekwatcher]

Perhaps they (the prop/set builders) didn't have the shuttlecraft built yet, so they could not use it. I remember reading this somewhere.

 

[A beaker full of death]

People often think of this as an "evil twin" episode, but of course it wasn't that at all. They forget how high-concept the show often was. This fits right in there with the best of the Twilight Zone.

It's interesting how, in the early episodes (e.g. this; Naked Time), the writers were determined to (literally, here) dissect the characters so we could get to know them.

 

[Crewman47]

They could've mentioned the shuttle but not actually show it, I mean afaik there's been other occasions where they've done something (with Shuttles I think) and it's been done off-screen. But then the episode would be over pretty quickly.

 

[Steven Of Nine]

There are some good points raised in this, especially about the darker parts of a man being needed for the harsher choices.

I bought into that when younger, but since then, I'm less inclined to think a darker, evil purity is mixed in to make a man whole.

It is a good episode for the Shat doing his dual-Kirk thing. And Spock is good in this one. Rand's awesome, with that 'but he's my Captain' reluctance, then a fierce determination once she's made the report, tempered by softness later.

I do like it, yessir!

 

[A beaker full of death]

Steven Of Nine said:
There are some good points raised in this, especially about the darker parts of a man being needed for the harsher choices.

I bought into that when younger, but since then, I'm less inclined to think a darker, evil purity is mixed in to make a man whole.

I'm glad you said that - because we lose sight of the fact that the whole reason for this episode to exist is to spark this type of debate.

I've had an idea for a short story rattling around in my head for 20 years, called "The Rage". It's about a Utopian society where there is no adversity, and therefore, no need for strong or negative emotions. Until, of course, one day a berserker rage overtakes one man for no good reason - except, that is, that he's human.

I don't need to write that story anymore, because it's pretty much come to pass. When I moved from my birthplace - a slum in New York - to a wealthy community in southern California, I came to realize something: The younger generation of today's middle and upper economic classes has never known adversity. Has never rebelled. Never lashed out. They've never had to fight for anything, let alone for survival. Hell, at kids' soccer games today, EVERYONE gets a trophy (rather defeats the purpose, but there it is).
They've never encountered strong emotions, and indeed fear them. They've been brought up to believe that all competition, all fighting, every cross word is wrong-think. They've embraced a quasi-totalitarian right-wing stance in which anyone expressing strong emotions through "unacceptable" channels should be taken away and locked up. Hell, the recent "Civil War" story line in Marvel Comics, written as a CRITIQUE of the Patriot Act, garnered an unexpected majority viewpoint in FAVOR of the Act.
The fact is, adversity builds character. It allows one to define oneself. It's no coincidence that the most peaceful and sedate generations to ever come down the pike is also the most creatively sterile. Oh, they excel at math and computer skills. But they have no art, no poetry, no passion within them.
Without those "negative" attributes - covetousness, desire, anger - there is no passion. Without passion there is no art. Indeed, there is no point to life.

Getting back to the episode, yeah, inside, Kirk wanted to drink, and fuck, and eat, and destroy things. He wouldn't have been very interesting if he hadn't wanted to.

 

[Deleted 2]

^ May I suggest you take this kind of argument--which does not seem to have that much of a bearing on the episode discussed here, or even Star Trek--, to a forum where I, as a member of that generation, can properly express my response to it?

I wouldn't want to pollute this forum with strong emotions.

 

[A beaker full of death]

No. As I said, the whole POINT of the episode is to spark this type of debate.
Back then art had a point.
Do you actually think the episode was about a fictional starship captain? TOS was not a soap opera that existed for its own sake.

 

[Noname Given]

orac said:
"I wanna live!"

The Enemy Within is one of my favourite episodes, and will always be in my top 10 list of best Trek episodes, I think this is the first episode where the writers finally get the trinity of Kirk, Spock and Bones right, in the couple of episodes before this, Bones bickers with Kirk which doesn't work as well, in this ep he starts bickering with Spock, the emotion vs logic thing works much better and this is the way the relationship stays.

Does anyone else like this episode?, despite the dodgy science and the continuity error that the Enterprise can't send a shuttle to the planet because the prop hasn't been built yet. Shatner is at his manic best playing "evil" Kirk IMO. "I'll kill ya!"

A couple of comments:

1) I do like this episode, and the dramatic plot complications aside (the fact that the 1701 model HAS a shuttle bay but no shuttles - or that while the transpoter can't baem down working heaters; how about Parkas or a few insulated tents - or that after one junction is his by a phaser, scotty calmly states his engeneering crew can't repair the transporter system in less than a week); it's in facty a good episode; and while I didn't care for it whjen I was a young child, it grew on me as I got older (as most of the irst season did).

BUT - I have to disagree that it was the first episode where they nailed the Kirk/Spock/McCoy dynamic as for me they did that well right out of the gate with the first regular episode filmed (although show later in the first season run due to all the photograhic effects work needed), which was The Corbomite Manuever.

 

[Deleted 2]

^ The kind of debate where you get to ride your tired old hobby horse, and complain that just about everything new is inferior, and pretend to be a representative of some past, bolder generation, even though your real age places you firmly in the middle of Generation X?(*)

I'm not disputing your reasoning in this matter; I don't disagree that confrontation and experience can have a profound positive influence on someone's creative ability. I'm just questioning your observational skills.

(*) Look! I'm channeling my brutal, confrontational side!

 

[A beaker full of death]

Feel free to challenge my observations. I would appreciate it if you'd avoid getting personal, and avoid making generalizations about my position. I'll speak for my position. For the record, I'm a few years older than generation X. Additionally, my dad (old-fashioned to start with -- that is, he still dreams of the days of Franz Joseph, even though he had to flee Austria when the Nazis came in) had me when he was 50, so in a way all the influences I've had in my life skipped a generation.

 

[Orac]

Noname Given said:
I have to disagree that it was the first episode where they nailed the Kirk/Spock/McCoy dynamic as for me they did that well right out of the gate with the first regular episode filmed (although show later in the first season run due to all the photograhic effects work needed), which was The Corbomite Manuever.

I agree that the characters are there in The Corbomite Manuever, there's no fighting between Spock and Bones though, it's in The Enemy Within that Spock starts rubbing Bones the wrong way - "That's the Captain's guts you're analysing Spock!"

 

[Ziz]

Forbin said:
Actually, if they haven't yet even mentioned shuttlecraft, IS it a continuity error?

Jimmy_C said:
Maybe the Enterprise just didn't have any shuttlecraft installed. Maybe they lost them all in the previous week's, unaired, incident...

No, it's just that it was a new ship at the time and the shuttles weren't going to be delivered until Tuesday.

 

[Hofner]

I've always liked this episode a lot. Yes, the "bad" Kirk was not evil, just the more primitive and selfish aspects to a human being's character. We're all like that whether we like to admit it or not. It's how you use it that is good or bad. As Spock says, Kirk uses it to be the kind of person he is.

Robert

 

[JM1776]

A beaker full of death said: I've had an idea for a short story rattling around in my head for 20 years...

I'd think that fact might well disqualify you from commenting on a creative dearth in the younger generation.



Back on topic.

I agree the writers were still solidifying character personality traits. Could you imagine a later version of Spock commenting to Rand about the imposter's interesting qualities?

 

[A beaker full of death]

Cute.
Don't worry, my creative juices have not been sitting stagnant.

 

[JM1776]

Imagine my relief.