The Unauthorized History of Trek. James Hise van
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itself. (In retrospect, this seems to have been one of his specialties.)
“Mirror, Mirror” casts Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura into an alternative universe where the Federation has developed along bloodthirsty, Klingonesque lines. Meanwhile, their counterparts from the alternate universe arrive on the regular Enterprise, where Spock has the sense to toss them all in the brig. In the alternate universe, Kirk and crew meet, among others, a brutal and scarred Sulu, an ambitious Chekov, a “Captain’s Woman,” and a bearded Spock. Kirk uses logic to win Spock’s assistance in his efforts to return home.
“The Apple” is the gift Kirk brings to the peaceful inhabitants of a dangerous world where their existence is protected by an ancient computer which also has retarded their social development. Kirk decides to violate Starfleet General Order Number One, known as the Prime Directive, which forbids Starfleet interference in a planet’s domestic affairs. Kirk blows up the computer, saving the Enterprise but destroying the society of the planet, Gamma Trianguli VI.
“The Doomsday Machine” was shot from a script by Norman Spinrad and featured William Windom as Commodore Matthew Decker, the sole survivor of the crew of the U.S.S. Constellation (an AMT model kit, apparently “damaged” with a Zippo lighter). His crew was on a planet destroyed by the device of the title, which seems to be a planet-zapping weapon apparently built by a long-dead civilization. Decker, a latter-day Captain Ahab in space, is obsessed with destroying it, and hijacks the Enterprise to this end.
When Kirk regains control, Decker steals a shuttlecraft and dies trying to destroy the weapon. Kirk himself then flies the Constellation into the device’s maw and sets it to self-destruct, transporting out in barely the nick of time and finishing off the device for good.
“Catspaw” was aired, appropriately enough, just before Halloween 1967 (on October 27, to be exact). Written by Robert Bloch, it involves the efforts of two shape-changing aliens to frighten the Enterprise crew with all the accoutrements of human superstition: magic, skeletons, witches, and the like. At one point, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are chained in a dungeon; Kirk turns to address the doctor as “Bones,” only to find a skeleton dangling in his friend’s place. This macabre humor is further developed by Spock’s inability (fortunate in these circumstances) to perceive any of the illusions thrown his way as frightening in any way, shape, or form. A final touch of pathos is introduced at the end when the aliens assume their true shapes and are found to be feeble, helpless creatures.
“I, Mudd” brings back Roger C. Carmel as Harry Mudd, currently serving as emperor of a planet of advanced androids. Of course, the androids realize what a buffoon he is, but they are using him to further their own plans of universal domination, which they intend to begin by stealing the Enterprise. Kirk and crew, including Spock, bewilder the androids by acting in absurd ways, and Mudd, who has created for himself a beautiful android harem, is punished by being afflicted with innumerable android replicas of the nagging, shrewish wife he’d abandoned long before.
“Metamorphosis” introduces Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of the warp drive, who was believed to have died a century before at the age of eighty-seven. It seems that he met a nebulous space creature who has kept him alive ever since; it has diverted the Galileo shuttlecraft to his location in order to provide him with human companionship. Cochrane begins to fall in love with the terminally ill Nancy Hedford, a Federation functionary who was being taken to the Enterprise. Kirk uses a translator to communicate with the alien companion and discovers that it is in love with Cochrane. Cochrane is initially repulsed by this, but accepts it when the immortal being merges with the dying woman, who stays with the scientist as the Enterprise resumes its course.
“Journey to Babel” finally introduces Spock’s parents. the Vulcan Sarek (Mark Lenard) and his human wife Amanda (Jane Wyatt). The occasion is a diplomatic mission. A ship is following the Enterprise; the Tellarite ambassador is murdered and Sarek is the prime suspect. Sarek needs a blood transfusion for a heart operation, but Spock must act as captain after an Andorian stabs Kirk. Kirk fakes his recovery so Spock can give blood. A battle with the ship results in its destruction. Kirk’s attacker kills himself after revealing that he killed the Tellarite ambassador, and Spock and his father achieve a rapprochement after nearly twenty years of estrangement.
In December 1967, another letter campaign came to the rescue of the again-beleaguered series. This one, orchestrated by fan Bjo Trimble and her husband, John, was even more successful than the first. Inspired by NBC’s decision to cancel the show, it generated an unprecedented number of letters, and would prove instrumental in clearing the way for the show’s third season.
New Year’s Day, 1968, saw the Star Trek season’s continuation with a perhaps unintentional Christmas touch: an episode wherein a child is born in a cave.
“Friday’s Child” opens with a briefing on how to get along in Capellan society. Kirk and crew are headed for Capella IV to head off a potential alliance between that world and the Klingons, but the good captain doesn’t seem to have learned much about the required protocol. The planet’s leader is deposed and his wife seems fated to die, but Kirk interferes and the Klingons turn the Capellans against him and his team. McCoy helps the woman deliver her baby, who is ultimately named the new ruler when the Klingons kill the latest ruler; the child is named “Leonard James” after McCoy and Kirk—but Spock, not much for children, it seems, gets short shrift.
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