Stardate: 3196.1
Quick Summary: The Enterprise arrives at a Perdium mining colony on Janus 6 where a strange unknown creature has been killing the miners. The Federation relies on the Perdium, so it's vital to kill the creature and restore mining operations immediately, however Kirk and Spock discover that the blobby creature, calling itself a "horta", is a different type of all-silicon life form and possibly the only survivor of a dead race. They track it down and Spock commences with what has to be the longest mind-meld ever in order to strike a deal whereby the horta will tunnel, the miners will collect the resulting minerals, and both will agree to leave each other safely alone.
Review: Without question, the coolest idea of this episode is that an altogether different type of life form might exist out there that's not based on carbon compounds at all, but something else entirely, like silicon, enabling the horta to "move through rocks as easily as we humans move through air". When you fathom the infinite evolutionary possibilities that might exist in the universe, this almost seems the more realistic type of encounter we'd find in deep space exploration.
Plus, it kind of looks like a giant turd.
The familiar questions are raised - if it's the last surviving member of a dead species, wouldn't it be a crime against science to kill it? Of course it would; which is why it's so surprising to see Kirk so gung-ho about killing, not capturing, it. But not to fret, he does show his more enlightened side later on.
Who knew that Spock could perform a mind-meld with a silicon-based creature? Unfortunately, we're able to ponder the ramifications of this for quite a while as the mind-meld goes on for what seems like half the episode. It was also rather predictable that the silicon modules (a.k.a. - purple balls) were the horta's eggs and that it was killing the miners simply to protect her spawn.
But what really gets my goat is that the plot really had such potential to go in a more profound direction when, as the miners sought violent revenge against the horta, they could have successfully killed it and shown that we, not it, are the true "devils in the dark". But, um, they didn't.
Review: 3 stars
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