Shatner's showcase, giving him a choice dual role (White Comanche, this is not) playing opposite sides of the same person due to a transporter malfunction. The weakening intellect, pure and noble, and the maleficent, lusty, and vile but strong dark side; Shatner was given some real meat to sink his teeth into. A planet with night temperatures quite freezing has Sulu and a science away team having to endure the cold while Scotty and his team work to fix the transporter. Evil Kirk makes his presence known on the Enterprise. Yeoman Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) meets Evil Kirk and is nearly raped (Spock's line to her at the end about him being interesting to her is so unlike that character and detestable). In the impressively expansive engineering lower decks, Good and Evil Kirk meet for the first time, with the first ever Vulcan neck pinch introduced...this results in Evil Kirk firing a phaser into a tube containing wiring directed to the transporter! Sucks to be Sulu and company! Shatner heels it up as quite a wretch while his deteriorating angelic opposite is very sympathetic. Exciting, suspenseful, imaginative and for the most part well done. I hated the exchange at the end between Spock and poor Rand who went through a terrifying experience. I didn't like this version of Spock, still a bit too expressive in his voice and face, until he reins that in. The scene where he energetically talks about how incredible it is scientifically to have two Kirks is a bit off-putting although he apologizes because he explains that this is who he is. This early entry, written mostly by Richard Matheson (with some additional touches by others, like the emphasis on the away team freezing to unconsciousness), is a clear sign of a good season to come. The alien dog guinea pig for the transporter might turn some off...it gets to the "dead, Jim" line, if that helps.
Review of The Enemy Within
