Stephen Brooks (Ensign Garrovick)
Jerry Ayres (Ensign Rizzo)
Writer: Art Wallace
The obsession in the title is one of Kirks - three members of the Enterprise crew (redtops, naturally) are killed by a cloud on a planet, and Kirk is convinced it was a creature that he encountered 11 years ago when serving aboard the USS Faragut and won't let it lie. And despite the fact that the medical evidence supports his claim that it is the same creature, nobody believes him. I find this very difficult to understand - the way the men died was very usual - all of the "red corpuscles" (I assume they mean Red Blood C
ells) were missing from the corpses, which is exactly what happened 11 years ago.
ells) were missing from the corpses, which is exactly what happened 11 years ago.Kirk starts behaving erratically - snapping with people, questioning their loyalty. You can sort of understand why he would be upset by it - half of the crew, including the Captain died, and it was also his first deep space mission. But coupled with the fact they are supposed to rendez-vous with a medical ship with vital drugs for a planet that had a disease that is killing lots of people... I don't believe Kirks reaction, which underpins the point of the whole episode.
About halfway through, McCoy and Spock bring his behaviour to Kirks attention, and after this it suddenly works. He clearly doesn't want to slow down when they are pursuing the creature in space, but he does. That moment is far more believable than any of those that precede it, and it seems that Spock and McCoys little "pep talk" did the trick.
The second half of the episode is pretty good, it finished the story nicely and Kirk is able to give both himself and Ensign Garrovick (son of the Captain of the Faragut, now in Security aboard the Enterprise) the closure they need, as well as destroying the creature.
Crew Deaths: 4
Total Crew Deaths So Far: 39
Score: 6/10
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