Girls in Space

In addition to the cast’s regular spacegirls (Communications Officer Uhura and Yeoman Janice Rand), The Man Trap serves up a strange three-girls-for-the-price-of-one creature in the form of an alien shape-shifter. James Kirk, Bones McCoy and a soon-to-be-dead crewman beam down to the imaginatively named planet M113. Believing they are meeting Nancy, an old flame of Dr McCoy’s, the shape-shifting beauty appears first to Bones as the young lady he had known years before – in fact, she appears exactly as he had known her, and despite his medical qualifications, sleepy ol’ McCoy thinks nothing untoward of her youthful appearance. Clearly moisturisers have come a long way over the centuries. To Kirk, Nancy has aged but is still a handsome woman. To crewman future-corpse, she appears as a hot minx he once met on the planet Sexxxy. Lucky man.

Ever been in a restaurant where the food needs more salt, but there’s no shaker on your table? Now you know how it feels to be Nancy. For Nancy loves salt with the fervour of a pretzel-licking salt junkie, desperate for that next sodium chloride fix. Imagine her joy upon discovering she can suck salt directly out of a human body, with only one small drawback: the donor dies. Oh well, plenty more where that came from.

So you’re a shape-shifting salt addict. Wouldn’t you just kill Captain Kirk, assume his form, take control of the Enterprise and set sail for planet Salty Major? Our Nancy wouldn’t. Apparently she prefers her salt flavoured with the subtle textures of deceased crewmen. Mmm human-licious.

The Man Trap ends with a life or death confrontation and McCoy is faced with the tough choice between Kirk or former squeeze Nancy. Luckily for Kirk, at the last minute Nancy reverts back to her true form as a hideous swamp monster, allowing McCoy’s head to take over the decision making responsibilities once again. Swamp-thing dies. Credits roll.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the story and there were plenty of nice touches. The episode showcases the charming friendship between Kirk and McCoy, the dialogue is well written and the story is well-paced, building up to an exciting, albeit predictable conclusion. It is pretty good Trek.

There are a couple of nice scenes for Uhura in The Man Trap. In particular where she flirts with Spock and encourages him to flirt back. Of course our Vulcan friend is far too logical for this unnecessary chitchat. If Spock had been played by Mr T, it would have been the perfect opportunity for a, “Quit your jibber-jabber, crazy fool” line. Instead we enjoy Spock’s baffled reactions to a conversation he clearly regards as redundant.

The Man Trap is not a bad story, but it ultimately boils down to a simple monster-killing-off-the-crew story and therefore lacks that certain extra something that would make it stand out amongst the truly great episodes. For me, it needs just a little more originality, a little more substance and little more flavour.

Pass the salt.

Cast:
William Shatner as James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Spock
DeForest Kelley as Leonard H. McCoy
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
George Takei as Hikaru Sulu

Guest Cast:
Jeanne Bal as Nancy Crater
Alfred Ryder as Professor Robert Crater
Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand
Bruce Watson as Crewman Green
Michael Zaslow as Crewman Darnell
Francine Pyne as Blonde Nancy
Sharon Gimpel as M-113 Creature

Creative Staff:
Director:  Marc Daniels
Written By: George Clayton Johnson

Official Episode Guide