Cast:
Ken Lynch (Chief Engineer Vanderberg)
Brad Weston (Ed Appel)
Biff Elliot (Schmitter)
George E. Allen (Engineer)
Jon Cavett (Guard)
Barry Russo (Lt. Cmdr. Giotto)
Writer: Gene L. Coon
It's been a while - I watched a run of tedious episodes too quickly and they just borerd me to the point where I had to have a rest.
Anyhow, this is another reputed classic. Actually, it's pretty good compared to the ones I have
just recently watched, although it is a rather typical preachy morality tale. Basically, a silicone based life form (ie a rock) is protecting it's nest, on a planet where some Federation miners are, erm, mining. Of course, it takes most of the episode to work out what is going on, and eventually everything is solved. The rock creature - a Horta - is badly realised, and in some of the books based on the series, one becomes a member of the Enterprise crew. Thank fuck they never did that in the TV show.There are a couple of good moments, my favourite being when McCoy cures the creature of a phaser wound using cement. The mind meld is less good, with Spock sensing so much "pain" that I almost thought Deanna Troi had turned up twenty years too early!
It has it's moments, but this episode is too predictable. When Spock first picked up a silicone nodule the whole audience must be crying out "it's a fucking egg you green pillock!" And the thought that the colonists will suddenly work with this thing when it has killed fifty of them is rather difficult to believe.
So, okay, but not great.
Crew Deaths: 1
Total Crew Deaths So Far: 26
Score: 5/10
1 comment:
This episode pretty much encasulates the whole philosophy of TOS. It was radical in the 1960's to allow a lifeform so different to be allowed to have the right to exist and to be afforded the dignity of being treated with respect.
This (and other) episodes had a profound effect on my thoughts and consequentially my life.
It is also Bill Shatner and Leonard Nimoy's favourite episode.
Di in Australia
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