The Enemy Within: new observations

[BillJ]

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.

Yet, it gives the character a sense of evolution. That he was still learning to be who he was going to be. Of course, later shows seem to ignore early Spock.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

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?

If a work colleague had experienced attempted rape and someone says to them "Hey, how about you and that guy, huh? Wink wink!", that would be textbook sexual harassment. Now, was that Spock's intent? Probably not. After all, according to Christine Chapel:

CHAPEL: Mister Spock, (takes his hand) the men from Vulcan treat their women strangely. At least, people say that, but you're part human too. I know you don't, you couldn't, hurt me, would you?

So, maybe for him it was par for the course.

 

[Armus]

^I don't think sexual harassment as we understand it today was even in the public consciousness until about 20 or 30 years after they made this episode. It was a different time although attempted rape should never be wink winked at.

You could go back to many TV shows from the dawn of TV to the 1990s and be amazed at just how much stuff wouldn't fly today.

 

[Silvercrest]

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.

"Harassment? Ah yes, one of your earth emotions."

 

[BillJ]

"Harassment? Ah yes, one of your earth emotions."

He probably didn't understand it as harassment.

 

[Henoch]

I retcon Spock's evolution as his conscious decision to "act" and "emulate" human behavior in an attempt (a poor one to boot) to be efficient in commanding and co-mingling with humans. Probably something that learned during his Starfleet Academy days and worked to some extent with Pike and that crew. Later, he decided to just act as his logical self when he discovered that his new friends and coworkers under Kirk accepted him as he was. What a relief is was to drop the human pretenses; it was exhausting...

 

[Winterwind]

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?

That's an interesting interpretation I hadn't considered before. I'd always chalked that line up to a really bad sexist joke. I like your idea better even if it wasn't TPTB's intent.

 

[Timo]

This sounds pretty likely in-universe, really. Spock likes to point out that which ought to be obvious but isn't, and loves to use nonstandard language for it. This time, we don't get McCoy's trademark retort, which would then be followed by Spock's "I believe I just said that, Doctor". But imagining that part isn't difficult.

Here, we don't exactly learn that Kirk would secretly desire to form a relationship with Rand, this only manifesting as a rape attempt due to the bifurcation incident. After all, we don't learn that Kirk would secretly desire to be more relaxed, this only manifesting as him getting drunk because he's evil, either. But Spock would do well to try and explain Kirk's actions in the best possible light - after all, this is basically the same thing that Rand herself is trying to stutter there, even if she doesn't quite believe in it herself. It's just that Spock's choice of words is little better than Rand's stutter.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[WarpFactorZ]

This sounds pretty likely in-universe, really. Spock likes to point out that which ought to be obvious but isn't, and loves to use nonstandard language for it.

I can hear Data now...

"Yeoman Rand -- I am intrigued that Captain Kirk's secret overpowering desire for you should be confined to his animalistic side. I would have expected that true and tender love between a male and female stems from the gentle kindness of humanity. Perhaps the Captain's intentions toward you aren't what I thought. I will continue to study this."

 

[albion432]

Here, we don't exactly learn that Kirk would secretly desire to form a relationship with Rand, this only manifesting as a rape attempt due to the bifurcation incident. After all, we don't learn that Kirk would secretly desire to be more relaxed, this only manifesting as him getting drunk because he's evil, either.

Correct, we don't learn of Kirk's secret desire for Rand here, we learn about it in The Naked Time. It seems the attempted rape and Kirk's drunkenness are manifestations of his "shadow," or his repressed "secret desires." With his "higher self" removed, Kirk's "animal passions" are no longer held in check. Good-Kirk even says, "He's like an animal, a thoughtless, brutal animal, and yet it's me." To go full-Freudian, evil-Kirk is normal-Kirk's ID.

 

[Harvey]

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?

I have Matheson's revised story outline (delivered April 20, 1966). It contains the following on page 6:

Regaining control, Kirk questions the Transporter technicians. Do they know what caused this? They think they do: the injured many whose shoes and jumpsuit have been smeared with soft, magnetic ore. "How long will it take to repair?" Kirk asks. At least an hour, they tell him. "Stay with it then," Kirk orders. "There are sixteen people down there. If we don't get them up before dark, they'll freeze to death."
​

The stranded crew members aren't seen again until a scene at the end of the outline where they are beamed back aboard. In this version — which, to be fair, is only an outline and not a full script — they're more or less an afterthought.

John D.F. Black read the revised outline and fired off a multi-page memo about it on April 22, 1966. His memo included the following comment about the stranded crew members (emphasis on the original):

(As regards the stranded crew members...this element of the yarn has been given very short shrift...could be used as tense accents through the story...should be used!!!)​

I don't have Matheson's draft of the script, but it stands to reason he would have followed Black's direction on this point and expanded the subplot about the stranded crew. According to Marc Cushman, the April 25, 1966 first draft script has the stranded crew men in it (instead of Sulu, it's a character called North), but I don't have the material to verify that. And, since Cushman also says the following about Matheson's outline, you have to take his "research" with a grain of salt:

Absent in this first version is the subplot -- that ticking clock -- where the “landing party” is stranded on the planet, sure to perish if Kirk can’t pull himself together in time. Sensing something vital was missing but not sure what, Roddenberry shared with his staff... [memo quote follows]​

 

[johnnybear]

Story wise maybe that's why Kirk had Yeoman Rand transferred off the ship perhaps?
JB

 

[BillJ]

I have Matheson's revised story outline (delivered April 20, 1966). It contains the following on page 6:

Regaining control, Kirk questions the Transporter technicians. Do they know what caused this? They think they do: the injured many whose shoes and jumpsuit have been smeared with soft, magnetic ore. "How long will it take to repair?" Kirk asks. At least an hour, they tell him. "Stay with it then," Kirk orders. "There are sixteen people down there. If we don't get them up before dark, they'll freeze to death."
​

The stranded crew members aren't seen again until a scene at the end of the outline where they are beamed back aboard. In this version — which, to be fair, is only an outline and not a full script — they're more or less an afterthought.

John D.F. Black read the revised outline and fired off a multi-page memo about it on April 22, 1966. His memo included the following comment about the stranded crew members (emphasis on the original):

(As regards the stranded crew members...this element of the yarn has been given very short shrift...could be used as tense accents through the story...should be used!!!)​

I don't have Matheson's draft of the script, but it stands to reason he would have followed Black's direction on this point and expanded the subplot about the stranded crew. According to Marc Cushman, the April 25, 1966 first draft script has the stranded crew men in it (instead of Sulu, it's a character called North), but I don't have the material to verify that. And, since Cushman also says the following about Matheson's outline, you have to take his "research" with a grain of salt:

Absent in this first version is the subplot -- that ticking clock -- where the “landing party” is stranded on the planet, sure to perish if Kirk can’t pull himself together in time. Sensing something vital was missing but not sure what, Roddenberry shared with his staff... [memo quote follows]​

Thanks, @Harvey!

 

[mb22]

I retcon Spock's evolution as his conscience decision to "act" and "emulate" human behavior in an attempt (a poor one to boot) to be efficient in commanding and co-mingling with humans. Probably something that learned during his Starfleet Academy days and worked to some extent with Pike and that crew. Later, he decided to just act as his logical self when he discovered that his new friends and coworkers under Kirk accepted him as he was. What a relief is was to drop the human pretenses; it was exhausting...

Leslie Thompsn said something similar regarding Spock's smiling and shouting in "The Cage" in a "Star Trek Mysteries -- Solved" article in the first Best of Trek book.

https://archive.org/details/TheBestOfTrekIrwin/page/n229/mode/2up

 

[Armus]

I just rewatched this episode last night. Very colorful and atmospheric lighting, interesting camera angles, it feels like they were putting a lot of effort into these early shows. Shatner is fantastic.

 

[johnnybear]

Early Spock hasn't yet learned how to begin purging himself of his human emotions! Hence his smiling and quips which had almost disappeared by the end of the series in 1969!
JB

 

[Ssosmcin]

Story wise maybe that's why Kirk had Yeoman Rand transferred off the ship perhaps?
JB

I rather felt it was her choice. "I want to do something more with my life and I need to get away from this man who doesn't feel the same way I do. I'll go to Transporter Tech School." Boom, off she goes and Kirk, who probably never wanted a yeoman, approved her transfer and was happy to have her back when the Enterprise was refit.

But...

After losing Sonak and the other person, she went off to do other stuff, eventually winding up as comm officer on the Excelsior.

 

[Delta Vega]

One of my favourite episodes
But Spock's comments to Rand at the end can't be glossed over
Fuck knows how the writers sat in a room and read through the final draft and thought that was "Ok"

 

[Timo]

Times change. Back and forth, that is. The 2020s isn't the first time in the history of the western world when it would not be okay, and it's pretty unlikely the 1960s were the last time it would have been.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Forbin]

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.

IIRC, one of Gene's rules-of-thumb was that there be a second crisis (ship in danger; crew in danger...) that depends on the primary plot line being resolved in order for that to also be resolved.