Writer: Gene L. Coon
Director: Joseph Pevney
Producer: Gene L. Coon
This episode is such a classic representation of what Star Trek is all about, that I'm tempted to say that if you could only show someone one episode of the series to say what it's all about, this would be the one.
A mining outpost on a far off world has a problem -- their men are being killed by a monster that can tunnel through rock like a man moves through air, and can burn any man it comes into contact with to a cinder. They call in the Enterprise to find and exterminate it.
Many men have been killed, and the outpost is a significant installation, so Kirk is determined to find the creature. Throughout the hunt, it demonstrates a large amount of intelligence and strategy, and Spock theorizes it may not only be sentient, but the last of its kind. He argues against killing it, but Kirk overrules him, given the danger to the miners.
And then of course the confrontation -- the monster is a Horta. It's a silicon-based life-form, utterly unlike all previously encountered life. Spock mindmelds with it and discovers the miners had been destroying her eggs accidentally, and she was merely trying to defend herself. Injured in an earlier encounter, possibly dying, Kirk has McCoy beamed down to treat the Horta. "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!" Bones famously retorts. But he succeeds anyway, ("I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!"), and once the miners realize what they've been doing, they make an agreement with the Horta -- her and her millions of progeny can dig the tunnels much better and safer than the miners ever could.
So, we learn that the unknown things we fear are merely things we don't understand. That's what different and strange to us is not necessarily bad. That those we make into our enemies could be our friends. That there is advantage in diversity. It's everything Star Trek is about in one episode.
The Horta is a brilliant creation, even if it looks a little hokey by our standards, I still give full marks for the fact that it's creative and utterly alien looking. The scene where Spock mindmelds with it is an excellent use of that story device, and indeed the hour provides ample exposure for all three members of the Trinity.
If "Devil in the Dark" has a flaw, it's simply this -- Spock identifies the silicon nodules that are latered revealed to be eggs really early in the hour, and seems to basically immediately formulate the theory that turns out to be the case. He regards them again and again, and each time Kirk asks him what's up and Spock says he has a theory but won't say anything until he has more facts. It's the Horta later who confirms the obvious conclusion that the nodules are eggs. Any audience paying attention will probably put 2 and 2 together the minute you see the eggs in the opening minutes, which makes Spock's insistence on not revealing his information until the dramatically appropriate moment really frustrating.
Otherwise, a classic episode.
Rating: 3.5 out of 4
Next Voyage:
No comments:
Post a Comment