My Thoughts - Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967)

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Synopsis: Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew arrive at a mining colony that has been under attack by an unknown creature that has also stolen a vital piece of equipment that will cause the colony's nuclear reactor to explode if not restored. Kirk orders his crew to kill the creature on sight because of its proven aggression, but Spock (Leonard Nimoy) believes there is more to the story.


My Thoughts:

As far as Star Trek episodes go, this one is kind of predictable. OK, we have a creature that begins attacking miners without apparent provocation soon after they find unidentified objects that look a heck of a lot like eggs. Hmm... I wonder why the creature is so angry?

Episodes like this make me wonder why Kirk is considered the hero. The kill on sight order with zero information about the creature and why it was attacking seemed like something the villain general would do in a science fiction movie, not the main protagonist. It's also worth noting he didn't even consider changing that order when Spock suggested it might be the last of its species and could just as easily be captured.

The Vulcan mind meld is starting to feel a bit like a cop-out. Again, it wasn't as though it was hard to figure out why the creature was attacking colonists. I had the answer within a few minutes. Using Spock to get the information by reading the creature's mind rather than just piecing together the obvious clues seemed a little too easy, though to be fair, the episode didn't let Spock learn anything of value from it this time around, just pass on enough of the English language for it to communicate for itself.

As far as special effects go, that was a surprisingly impressive alien. I always give credit when it is due and the team that created what Kirk and Spock later learn is a Horta did a great job given the limits of both the 1960s time period and a television budget.

There really should have been a spin-off series featuring Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Is there a species he doesn't know how to heal? A House - like series with him diagnosing various alien illnesses would have answered that question and been a fun watch.

Final Opinion: The special effects are decent as was the sense of urgency. It's just too bad the episode was a bit too predictable to take full advantage of that.

My Grade: C

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Here are my thoughts from other Star Trek episodes:

My Thoughts - Star Trek: Dagger of the Mind (1966)

My Thoughts - Star Trek: Arena (1967)

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