Stardate 1672.1 through 1673.5
Approximate year 2266 AD
An Enterprise landing party consisting of Kirk, Sulu and various scientific crewmembers are on the surface of Planet A 177 for a specimen gathering mission. One crewmember fell, was injured, and got an unusual ore all over himself. The fallen crewmember was sent back to the enterprise to see a doctor but the dust that was all over him ended up malfunctioning the transporter unbeknownst to Kirk and Scotty. When Kirk is transported up he is split into two halves, one half is assertive and quick to anger, while the other half is indecisive and mellow. Scottie realizes that the transporter is not functioning properly leaving the rest of the landing party on the planet below.
A significant part of the narrative in this episode has to do with the landing party stranded below, because as evening approaches the temperatures on Planet A 177 can drop to 170 degrees below zero. I was surprised to learn that there is no shuttle to transport people around and the transporter is the only way for anyone to get on or off the ship. So if anything happens to the transporter the crew is stuck onboard (or in this case offboard). One would think that the flagship of the federation would have slightly more redundancy to prevent these sorts of problems.
While it is certainly not my favorite episode of TOS, there are many very interesting aspects to it. Kirk is split into two different individuals with starkly different personalities, however the whole crew seemed to gravitate to the indecisive Kirk as the legitimate captain and consistently referred to the more aggressive Kirk as an imposter. The reality of the situation is that neither side of the captain are the legitimate captain, rather they are both completely necessary parts of the whole. Spock pointed out later in the episode the importance of both of these personality traits in making a good captain, the "evil side" of Kirk, when tamed with his "good side" along with his intelligence, makes Kirk the captain that he is. "Evil Kirk" is just as important as "good Kirk."
This concept of what makes us human in Star Trek might be explored for the first time in this episode, but it won't be the last. Kirk spoke of the evil side of man as an integral part of being human in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." In Trek V, Spock's brother takes away painful memories from his victims causing them to be a slave to his will. Kirk explains in the movie that he needs his pain and guilt because that makes him the man that he is. I do think it is an interesting concept philosophically that the darkest aspects of us work together with our intellect and good nature to create a species capable of greatness.
Upon entering the Enterprise, one of eye-shadowed-and-vaseline-covered Kirk's first act was to harass Yeoman Janice Rand in her quarters. This appeared to me to be an attempted rape which is obviouly disgusting. This scene was actually kind of difficult to watch as it was pretty brutal, I'm surprise it was allowed on television in the 1960's. One thing that particularly disturbed me was at the end of the episode when Spock was talking to Janice he coyly suggested that the imposter had some interesting qualities that Janice seemed attracted to. I found that pretty gross considering she was almost raped by the bad Kirk. You would think that instead of suggesting that she enjoyed the company of bad Kirk, Spock would have the presence of mind to send Janice to the doctor for some counseling.
An Enterprise landing party consisting of Kirk, Sulu and various scientific crewmembers are on the surface of Planet A 177 for a specimen gathering mission. One crewmember fell, was injured, and got an unusual ore all over himself. The fallen crewmember was sent back to the enterprise to see a doctor but the dust that was all over him ended up malfunctioning the transporter unbeknownst to Kirk and Scotty. When Kirk is transported up he is split into two halves, one half is assertive and quick to anger, while the other half is indecisive and mellow. Scottie realizes that the transporter is not functioning properly leaving the rest of the landing party on the planet below.
A significant part of the narrative in this episode has to do with the landing party stranded below, because as evening approaches the temperatures on Planet A 177 can drop to 170 degrees below zero. I was surprised to learn that there is no shuttle to transport people around and the transporter is the only way for anyone to get on or off the ship. So if anything happens to the transporter the crew is stuck onboard (or in this case offboard). One would think that the flagship of the federation would have slightly more redundancy to prevent these sorts of problems.
While it is certainly not my favorite episode of TOS, there are many very interesting aspects to it. Kirk is split into two different individuals with starkly different personalities, however the whole crew seemed to gravitate to the indecisive Kirk as the legitimate captain and consistently referred to the more aggressive Kirk as an imposter. The reality of the situation is that neither side of the captain are the legitimate captain, rather they are both completely necessary parts of the whole. Spock pointed out later in the episode the importance of both of these personality traits in making a good captain, the "evil side" of Kirk, when tamed with his "good side" along with his intelligence, makes Kirk the captain that he is. "Evil Kirk" is just as important as "good Kirk."
This concept of what makes us human in Star Trek might be explored for the first time in this episode, but it won't be the last. Kirk spoke of the evil side of man as an integral part of being human in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." In Trek V, Spock's brother takes away painful memories from his victims causing them to be a slave to his will. Kirk explains in the movie that he needs his pain and guilt because that makes him the man that he is. I do think it is an interesting concept philosophically that the darkest aspects of us work together with our intellect and good nature to create a species capable of greatness.
Upon entering the Enterprise, one of eye-shadowed-and-vaseline-covered Kirk's first act was to harass Yeoman Janice Rand in her quarters. This appeared to me to be an attempted rape which is obviouly disgusting. This scene was actually kind of difficult to watch as it was pretty brutal, I'm surprise it was allowed on television in the 1960's. One thing that particularly disturbed me was at the end of the episode when Spock was talking to Janice he coyly suggested that the imposter had some interesting qualities that Janice seemed attracted to. I found that pretty gross considering she was almost raped by the bad Kirk. You would think that instead of suggesting that she enjoyed the company of bad Kirk, Spock would have the presence of mind to send Janice to the doctor for some counseling.