IT IS SO UGLY YOU CAN’T EVEN LOOK AT IT

 

Episode Title:  Is There in Truth No Beauty?

Air Date: 10/18/1968

Written by Jean Lisette Aroeste

Directed by Ralph Senensky

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli   Frank da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent     Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley              Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman          Bob Bralver as unnamed Yeoman               Vince Deadrick Sr. as unnamed engineer        Louie Elias as unnamed engineer         Dick Geary as unnamed security guard        Diana Muldaur as Dr. Miranda Jones         David Frankham as Larry Marvick                  

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed Medusan vessel

Planets:  unnamed planet

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is picking up Ambassador Kollos of Medusa from an unnamed world.  Their task is to transport him back to his people.  This seems simple enough except for one problem.   Medusans are not humanoid they have a form that is so ugly that if a human sees one of them that human will go insane.  Kollos travels in a silver box and has a companion in a human doctor named Miranda Jones.  Before those two come up to the Enterprise another individual a man named Larry Marvick is sent up first.  Scotty is excited because Marvick is one of the engineers who designed the Enterprise herself. 

Dr. Miranda Jones

When Marvick arrives, he reminds Kirk of the special conditions that Kollos needs.  He notes that Spock will be immune to the Medusan effect so long as he wears a pair of protective goggles.  The humans leave Spock by himself and when gets to the bridge Captain Kirk orders the corridors cleared from the transporter room to the Kollos’s quarters.  Spock operates the transporter and the Ambassador arrives in his box with Dr. Miranda Jones.  Jones is wearing the same goggles that Mr. Spock is.  She is a human but one born with telepathic abilities.  Her job is to form a mind link with Kollos allowing him to enhance his diplomatic opportunities. (I think that last part is mostly implied not outright stated.)  As Spock and Dr. Jones transport the Ambassador to his room their conversation allows the viewer to know that Spock was once considered for this assignment and turned it down because he likes his life on the Enterprise.  A fact that makes Dr. Jones burn with jealously.  Spock has an encounter with Kollos with his goggles on. 

Dr. Jones and Mr. Marvick are treated as guests of honor at dinner where the ship’s senior officers wear their dress uniforms.  Kirk points out how interesting it is that Dr. Jones’s twin works for him as part of the ship’s crew.  Actually, Kirk doesn’t point this out but it would be cool if he did.  The audience learns of Jones’s powers.  That she is a human born with full telepathic powers, since humans aren’t typically telepathic, she was sent Vulcan to learn how to control her abilities.  In honor of her upbringing Spock wore the scared Vulcan IDIC symbol.  IDIC stands for Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.  However, Jones takes offense and asks if Mr. Spock did this to show his superiority to her.  Spock insists that this was not the case.  Most of the rest of the dinner talks about the beauty/ugly dynamic.  Why is beauty good and ugliness bad? Also why does a beautiful person like Dr. Jones want to spend her entire life surrounded by things so ugly they can drive you crazy?  Things at the dinner got really weird when Jones suddenly declared that someone was plotting murder.  The dinner ends tensely to say the least.

It turns out that our engineer Marvick and Jones use to date.  She dumped him for a career with Kollos.  He confronts her and attempts to win her back but fails.  So, he decides to murder the Ambassador.   His attempt fails when he sees Kollos and driven insane by the ugliness.  (Personally, I already think he was few cards short of deck going into it, but that is me.)  Now insane he heads down to the engineering room and Scotty welcomes him to engage a bet they had earlier about the Enterprise’s controls. By this point Kirk and the command crew have discovered what happened and issues and alert to the entire ship.  Unfortunately, Scotty and his engineers do not have the fighting skills that Captain Kirk has and they quickly defeated by Marvick.  He takes control the ship and send the Enterprise flying outside the galaxy. 

Mr. Spock and Dr. Jones taking Kollos to his quarters

It’s a good thing they didn’t have any Espers on board the ship that could have caused a problem.  However, they have another problem: they are so far outside the galaxy that they have no reference points and cannot find their way back to the Milky Way.  Spock proposes that Kollos might be able to help because of the navigation capabilities of the Medusans.  Spock explains that the two of them could form a mind meld and Kollos could pilot the ship using Spock’s own body.  The only problem is Spock is concerned that Dr. Jones won’t allow it due to her jealousy. 

Spock and Jones discuss telepathy

Kirk answer to this is turn up his sexy and distract Dr. Jones while Spock makes his appeal directly to the Ambassador.  This almost works but the Jones’s telepathic powers allows her to figure it out.  She then confronts Spock and McCoy and argues that she should be the one to make the telepathic connection and pilot the ship.  This leads McCoy to out her as being blind and incapable of flying the ship.  Dr. Jones’s dress is laced with sensors that allow her to navigate the world quite well.  However, she still would have to be able to see the controls to navigate the starship.  With that it is decided that Spock will make the connection.  

Kirk trying to flatter Dr. Jones

The mind meld is successful and Kollos requires some adjustment being in Spock’s body.  Nevertheless, the Spock/Kollos hybrid manages to pilot the Enterprise back to the Milky Way.  There is a momentary set back when they go to undo the link, they forget to put Mr. Spock’s protective goggles back on.  Spock sees the ugliness unshielded and loses his sanity.  Fortunately, Dr. Jones can use her powers to cure him.  Kirk thinks she might not want to because of her jealously. So, he goes into the room and yells at her for a minute and this convinces her to do a good job.

Kollos as Spock!

Spock is cured and he has a good final meeting with Dr. Jones as she and the Ambassador leave for their new ship.    

Additional thoughts: I have a number of questions after this episode.  The first is why is it every time we meet somebody who helped design the Enterprise, they turn out to be a compete creep?  I had a hard time excepting the general premise of the episode that something could be so ugly it would drive people insane.  How ugly does it have to be? Since Miranda Jones clearly has extra sensory perception why didn’t she develop god-like abilities when they went across the galactic barrier?   I also had a hard time accepting that they couldn’t find their way back to their galaxy.  They had been out here before; do they not remember? Why does Spock try to wave his hand in front of Jones’s face when we learn she is blind?  She just explained how her sensors work, she even moves her head as his hand comes forward.  Maybe Spock was focusing on her eyes?  Why is the Medusan ship an old Starfleet vessel?  I thought these guys were advanced.  Why are they using our hand-me downs? 

This one was a snoozer. It wasn’t unwatchable this cast rarely produces something that is but it needs the cast the story can’t stand on its own.

FINAL GRADE 2 of 5