TOS
1.29: Operation - Annihilate!
or
Captain
Kirk vs the Splats
The
Mission: Isolate the cause of a wave of insanity spreading through the Galaxy.
Planets
visited: Deneva: a
class-M planet, the location of the Deneva Colony and Deneva Base. It is
considered one of the most beautiful worlds in the Galaxy. It acts as a
freighter line base for asteroidal mining in the region. The amazing location
work was done at the TRW aerospace centre, where the space probes Pioneer 1
and 10 were built.
Future
History: Deneva has
been colonised for over a century by this point, i.e at least as far back as
the 2160s. Enterprise will later establish that Earth cargo runs have
been visiting the planet since as early as 2153. A wave of insanity and death
has been travelling across this section of space for centuries, wiping out the
civilisations on Beta Portolan, Ingraham B, Levinius 5 and Theta Cygni 12.
Alien
life Forms: The
alien parasites that plague Deneva don’t get a name. Some materials call them
‘blastoneurons,’ but we like to think of them as the Splats. They’re not the
most successful of Trek’s many aliens. Even Yeoman Zahra says “They don’t look
real,” and you can’t argue with her when you see the fried-egg monsters. Maybe
they could have got away with them visually if they hadn’t added the squeaky,
parpy sound effects. And then they start flying about!
Conceptually,
they’re interesting. Each Splat is akin to a single gigantic brain cell, linked
to its brethren telepathically. Individually, they’re simple, but together they
form a single collective intelligence. They attach themselves to a host and use
a stinger to inject a web of neural material that spreads through the victim’s
body and takes ahold of their nervous system. It issues commands to the host;
this, and the excruciating pain they cause, drives the unfortunate host insane.
The Splats, apparently extragalactic, seem intent of travelling from planet to
planet, using their humanoid hosts to construct and fly spacecraft. Luckily,
despite their resilience, they have a single weakness: ultraviolet light.
Captain
James T: We
discover his brother Sam (aka George Samual Kirk) is living on Deneva with his
wife Aurelan and son Peter. Kirk is understandably distressed by the news that
Deneva is under threat, and torn up by the deaths of his brother and
sister-in-law. He can handle the pressure of being responsible for the fate of
a million lives, but is clearly under incredible strain in this episode.
Green-Blooded
Hobgoblin: Becomes
the latest victim of the aliens. At first, he is taken over and attempts to
take the ship, but his incredible willpower allows him to work through the
pain. Hard as fricking nails. He volunteers for the experimental procedure to
rid himself of the parasite, and considers blindness an “equitable trade-off”
for life and sanity. Luckily, Vulcans have an inner eyelid, evolved to cope
with the bright Vulcanian sun, which protects his eyes enough that they recover
and his sight is restored.
The Real
McCoy: Is torn-up
by his role in blinding Spock, but he did try to argue for more time for tests
when Kirk pushed him forward. His first repsonse to the crisis is to preserve life,
and he balks at Kirk’s plan to kill the million colonists to protect the rest
of the Galaxy. He considers Spock the best first officer in the Fleet, but
would never say so to his face.
Sexy
Trek: This week’s
sexy yeoman, Zahra, is played by the very beautiful model Maurishka. She gets
plenty of screentime, and quite right too.
Future
Fashion: Aurelan’s
stripy jumpsuit-type thing is kinda Seventies, which makes it pretty much the
only genuinely futuristic outfit on offer in the series.
The Alternative
Factor: James
Blish’s novelisation of the episode in Star Trek 2, working from an
earlier version of the script, has a completely different ending.
This
episode is another that has been reworked for IDW’s new comic series set in the
universe of the 2009 movie. Rather than dying (and being played by Shatner in a
‘tache), Sam Kirk lives and is revealed to have an antagonistic relationship
with his brother.
Space
Bilge: Why does it
take so long for Kirk, Spock and McCoy to realise that light is the Splats’
weakness? They wonder what property of the sun might have freed the pilot who
died in the opening moments, going through heat, radiation, gravity… um, what
else does a sun do? Then McCoy goes ahead with a full-spectrum exposure, never
stopping to consider if only part of the spectrum will do. Kirk is worse,
pushing him to test it on Spock before he’s even had ten minutes to get the
results in. Spock just walks in to the test without worrying about it, but he
is under incredible stress from his infection. Once they finally realise UV
will do, they use satellites to bombard the planet; all well and good, but
we’ve already learned that the colonists are mainly hiding indoors. UV will
kill the aliens outside, but it won’t even get through the windows. Assuming
they did manage to blast all the colonists with enough UV to kill the monsters,
does this mean they’ll all get sunburnt? It would be pretty miserable if they
all died of skin cancer a few years later.
Verdict:
Good fun, if
clichéd; a pretty straightforward end to the season. Kirk, Spock and Bones all
get their moment of focus, but the script relies on them being stupid far too
much. It rattles along nicely though, never being anything less than enjoyable,
and the three leads impress throughout.
Star Trek Alternate Title Intro from The Quintek Group on Vimeo.
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