Stardate: 3715.3
Synopsis: When the crew beams down to Gamma Triangulese 6, it seems like a Garden of Eden paradise, but it soon becomes apparent that it is anything but. There are lethal flowers, exploding rocks, killer lightning, and a group of natives all conspiring to kill the Enterprise landing party, as well as the Enterprise herself. The natives worship the godlike figure, Vol - basically, a paper mache Snake's Head - who is actually the mechanical source of energy threatening to destroy the Enterprise in space. Kirk is inspired with the imaginative solution of firing phasers on Vol, which "kills" him, thereby releasing the ship in space, the crew on the surface, and the natives from bondage.
Review: Ho-hum. Nothing original to see here, folks. Chekhov whips out some awfully creepy pick-up lines, and the natives, led by their leader Akuta, have distractingly weird face makeup and lobster-red skin tans, and other than that the only thing that stands out in this episode is its similarity to previous storylines about godlike tyrants imposing a form of paradise and the Enterprise destroying the artificial power source as the eventual solution (See Episode 32: "Who Mourns for Adonis?").
The natives becoming familiarized with the ideas of love and murder are comically bad - "What is "killing"? - "It is a thing to do". And the final scenes that question whether the idea of serving God is compatible with the idea of freedom, and whether, by destroying Vol, Kirk has become the metaphorical Satan in the Garden of Eden story, really just amount to too little, too late.
Review: 2 stars
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