Episode Title: This Side of Paradise
Air Date: 3/2/1967
Written by Jerry Sohl
and Dorothy C. Fontana
Directed by Ralph
Senensky
Cast: William
Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H.
McCoy AKA “Bones” George
Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Michael Barrier as Lieutenant DeSalle Dick Scotter as Lieutenant Painter Eddie Paskey as unnamed Crewman Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent Grant Woods as Lieutenant Kelowitz Bobby Bass as unnamed Lieutenant Walker Edmiston as Transporter Chief John Lindesmith as unnamed Engineer Jeannie Maloneas Yeoman /
Omicron Colonist Sean Morgan as
unnamed Engineer Fred Shue
as unnamed Crewman Ron Veto as Kelowitz's
Opponent Jill Ireland as Leila
Kalomi Frank Overton as Elias
Sandoval Dick Scotter as Painter
Ships: USS
Enterprise NCC-1701
Planets: Omicron Ceti III
My Spoiler filled
summary and review: The Enterprise is on route to the Federation
colony Omicron Ceti III. They are
hardly optimistic and are preparing for a gloomy task. For the colony had been at risk to be exposed
to Berthold rays, radiation so intense that no life-form could survive if
exposed for a few weeks. The colonists
had gone three years ago there is no chance of survivors. Since it would take a week for the radiation
to take effect and cause permanent damage they can send a landing party down.
The away team is formed of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Sulu and
number of other officers. The good news
is none of them are wearing red so less chance of casualties.
When they beam down to the planet, to their shock, everything seems fine.
The colonists are all alive despite living in a place that should be
killing them. Spock and McCoy verbally
spare a little bit in front of the Captain with Dr. McCoy offering his
“diagnose” of life and Mr. Spock pointing out how this can’t be. Mr. Sulu proposes that perhaps they are
actual dead and are walking around as animated zombies. Sulu’s
proposal seems to be stretch but considering everything that the crew of the Enterprise has been through during their
voyages it is a valid a theory as anything else.
 |
| The crew encountering a man who should be dead! |
The leader of the colony, Elias
Sandoval, takes them on a small tour while explaining the colony’s three-camp
structure. Some things become
immediately apparent. The first of these
is a young woman named Leila appears and she and Mr. Spock have a history
together. The history they have is clearly a romantic
one from a time when Mr. Spock was on Earth.
Whatever it was and how long it lasted is not explained but it ended
when Mr. Spock resumed his career in Starfleet.
Upon examining the colonists Dr. McCoy makes an interesting
discovery. They are all perfectly
healthy, too perfect. Not only does none
of the colonists have a thing wrong with them but medical conditions that were
reported in their files seems have all been erased. The leader Sandoval re-grew an appendix that
was earlier removed. When Dr. McCoy
tried the tricorder on himself to make sure that it was working and it properly
recorded all of his medical conditions including his own missing tonsils. The third strange thing that occurs on this
planet is discovered by Mr. Sulu. All
the farm animals are gone and in addition to the missing farm animals there are
no insects either. Also the production is off, their mission was to be a agricultural colony, but they are not producing exports.
 |
| Spock exposed |
Lelia tries to do some catching up
with Mr. Spock. She is having difficulty
however piercing through his Vulcan exterior which protects him from displaying
emotions. Unlike when they were on Earth, Lelia has a new
tool. She decides to show Spock how it is they been
able to survive for so long by bringing him over to some plants and one of those
plants spits spores on him. This causes
Mr. Spock to become overly happy and lose all sense of responsibility.
 |
| Spock and Lelia |
Having received orders to evacuate
the planet, Captain Kirk begins organizing his away team to begin that process. He tried to call Spock on his communicator
and is shocked when Spock answers and starts acting insubordinate. He tells Kirk that the colony is not be
evacuated this both puzzles and irritates the Captain. Kirk then heads over was Sulu and DeSalle to
see what’s up with Spock. When they
arrive they find Spock playing with Lelia.
He is smiling, laughing, and climbing a tree. When Kirk and party approach Spock defies the
Captain to his face. Kirk declares a
Spock is now in custody and Sulu is in
charge of him. This action makes Spock lead the three men over to the plants that earlier infected him and the plants proceed
to spit spores on both Sulu and DeSalle.
Instantly the two men are now smitten with the same lost look that Spock has and
instantly take his side refusing to cooperate with the evacuation.
Now realizing what’s going on in understanding
the threat to his crew Kirk goes to gather the rest of the away team. However the Captain is too late for not only
has the entire away team been affected but they are potting some of the spore plants
and sending them up to the Enterprise. Kirk contacts ship and gets a reluctant
transporter chief to actually beam him up.
When he gets there he discovers that so many plants have been brought on
the ship that his entire crew is infected.
There is a long line in front of the transporter room as the crew wants
to leave the ship to go down the service and be part of the colony. For one of the consequences of the spores is
they make everyone infected with the condition to want to be near one another
and in the plants’ natural environment.
Kirk goes to the bridge but he can’t signal Starfleet for help because the
infected Lt. Uhura has sabotaged the communication system.
 |
| We quit! |
Captain Kirk feels defeated with
all he has faced throughout his career looks like his entire command is now in
jeopardy because of spore spitting plans. Then just as he feels all is lost one
of the plants spits on him too. Now Kirk
is happy and wants to join the colony with his crew. He calls down Spock to tell him the
delightful news and Spock is happy to hear it.
Kirk needs to pack his bag so he goes to his quarters to proceed to do
just that. The Captain makes sure to
pack his wraparound uniform as he remembers on this planet you want to be
sexy. As he enters the transporter room
he suddenly forgets on how to beam himself somewhere. Clearly the transporter chief knew how to
self-transport as he is no longer there, but it has been so long since Kirk
individually operated transporter that he forgot that procedure and now he
can’t leave. Kirk gets angry about his situation and before he can rationalize
about just calling Spock so he can talk him through the process of beaming
himself down the anger overwhelms kills the spores inside him and Kirk is suddenly cured.
 |
| Kirk infected! |
Captain Kirk realizing what he
needs to do tricks Spock into coming aboard the Enterprise for some help.
When Spock arrives Kirk accuses him of being a deserter and insults his
parents. He calls his father a computer
and his mother encyclopedia. An enraged Spock
attacks Captain Kirk, normally in the situation Kirk would apply his amazing
fighting skills but Kirk is not looking to defeat Spock just cure him so the
Captain is fighting with one hand tied behind his back figuratively speaking. Spock almost kills Kirk but the rage cures
him. As the two of them calm down they
come up with a plan to use a transmitter from the Enterprise to broadcast an irritating subsonic frequency to the
crew's communicators provoke everyone to anger and cure all of them. There is a humorous moment were Spock points
out that their behavior of trying to strike each other should result in them
both being court-martialed but Kirk rationalizes to Spock that if they’re both
in the brig who will be there to build a transmitter and save the ship.
Their plan works to perfection they
send a signal down allowing everyone’s emotions come to service fighting breaks
out everywhere. Everyone is cured
colonists and crew member alike. Once
they all come to their senses the realize it is time to hightail it out of
there. The humans and the one Vulcan voluntarily leave paradise behind. Spock and Lelia have one last moment together
before going their separate ways.
Additional thoughts: Okay so I am going to be honest “spitting”
was not actually the body function that came to my mind every time one of the
spores went off. I believe everyone who
ever saw this episode all know the body function that we all thought while
watching it. However if you want to keep
this somewhat family friendly we will stick to “spitting.”
 |
| Spitting |
This episode was a lot of fun we
got to see Mr. Spock go from his normal stoic self and allow him to let
loose. We saw him let loose once before
in “The Naked Time,” in that episode the virus caused Spock’s guilt of not telling
his mother that he loved her to come to
the surface and break his heart. In this
episode he was allowed to express love for woman that he knew from his past
where always his rigid Vulcan nature prevent him from expressing such
feelings. It was also funny to see him
climb a tree and tell Kirk to buzz off.
Captain Kirk had a rough time this
episode. It was especially odd when once the
nature of the spores was revealed to him he still acted absolutely shocked
every single time he saw a crewman misbehaving.
I understand his initial reaction to Spock—although I also feel that given
Spock’s history Kirk should have suspected something unusual was up when he
started behaving as he did—when he directly sees what it does to Sulu and DeSalle
it should then be clear to him what was happening. Yet whenever Kirk found a member of his crew
behaving in a similar manner he confronted them with, “What are you doing?
Don’t you realize this is mutiny?” Then he would look shocked every time they
back talked to him.
 |
| Now you've done it! |
So why did Captain Kirk have such
difficulty with the transporter? I may
have answered that my summary but I’m not really satisfied with that
answer. Shouldn’t he know how to
operate it efficiently we saw him coach some of his crewman way back in “Dagger of the Mind” it is a minor plot hole but it is an annoying one.
Kirk gets Spock to betray a woman
he loves dearly. When Lelia calls up to
the ship, there is a moment when Kirk and Spock look at each other. Kirk expression is one of sympathy, but I
must add it does come off as the ultimate “bros before hoes” moment.
 |
| Together again! |
The spores have some advantages
particularly in the medical field.
Completely curing your body and replacing lost organs, in “The Conscience of the King” one of Kirk’s friends was missing half of his face. Maybe they should have saved some of these
plants to treat injuries than once those injuries are cured make sure to anger
them to free their mind.
FINAL GRADE 4 of 5
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