Stardate: 2821.5
Quick Summary: While on a relief mission to help plague victims on Machus 3, Kirk decides to investigate an unusual quasar-like formation named Murasaki 312. Problem is, the shuttlecraft he launches with Spock, McCoy, and five others onboard gets launched as a projectile directly into the quasar's center. The seven shipmates are missing, there's no way to find them, gigantic cavemen are trying to kill them, and Kirk is under orders to abandon the search after only two days. They get rescued at the last moment when Spock takes a gamble and jettisons the shuttlecraft's remaining fuel, creating a visible flare in space for the Enterprise to see and beam the crew back aboard just as they're about to be incinerated.
Review: For those of you with a Spock fetish, this one's for you. Unlike most of these early episodes that focus on Kirk, this one's all about Spock. Unfortunately, it's a little awkward at times. I get that the writers were trying to emphasize the point that Vulcans are logical, rather than emotional, but here they take it to extremes, and there's so much animosity towards Spock by the rest of the crew that you have to wonder when he became so cuddly and lovable, as we all know him to be. It sure hasn't happened yet.
Commander Ferris is Kirk's antagonist back on the Enterprise, and you honestly want to punch him in the face. He really serves no purpose other than to give Kirk some relevance in this episode. Meanwhile, the enormous cavemen throwing equally enormous spears are comical as bad guys, but we never get to learn more about them. Call me weird, but I like to indulge my curiosity when it comes to ridiculous B-characters. Why couldn't Spock anticipate their behavior through logic? Is it that they weren't primitive beings at all? And is it just a coincidence that they so strongly resemble my brother?
Anyway, the most interesting conflict presented is between Spock's tyrannical logic versus the majority will of the crew. What happens when logic does, indeed, conflict with majority will? How are such problems resolved in real life, absent a shuttlecraft in low orbit?
If only this were addressed, even marginally, in the episode's conclusion. A disappointment.
By the way, what in the name of Murasake 312 is "Space Normal Speed"???
Review: 2 stars
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