On a distant world, a group of miners explore caves underneath an alien city in search of a “monster”. One nervous member of the party is left to stand guard. Alone. “You’ll be alright,” he’s told.
Of course, within seconds he’s meat.
The Enterprise respond to the distress signal, and Kirk, Spock and Bones beam down to the planet. They meet head miner Vanderberg and Ed, a man with plastic hair and pink coveralls. Ed claims that he shot the creature but it didn’t even slow it down. He seems less than impressed by Kirk and suggests that without their fancy starship they’re just a big bunch of nancies. Yes, well, they’re not the ones dressed head to toe in pink, Ed.
Vanderberg’s desk has a pink football sitting on it. Spock examines it and is told that there are lots of them lying around the cave. The miners seem less than happy about Spock’s interest in their balls.
Bones examines the remains of the miner killed by the creature and discovers the body was corroded rather than burnt, as he had initially been told. Either way, his disco dancing days are over.
Meanwhile, further in the caves, another man is killed by the creature, who then shuffles into the reactor room. An alert sounds and everyone runs to investigate. They discover that a hole has been burnt into the door and the reactor pump has been removed. This is a big problem because without this vital piece of equipment they’ll either suffocate or die of radiation poisoning. Bummer.
Spock suggests that the creature could be a silicon based lifeform, much like Pamela Anderson. Kirk had heard that Silicon life was theoretically possible, though McCoy himself does not buy into it. And he’s a doctor. So there.
Scotty beams down to the planet to try to repair the reactor, but he can only delay the problem. For everyone to survive, they need that pump back. For something so critical, you’d think they’d have a spare lying around.
Kirk addresses a line of red shirted men and sends them all out in search of the creature. An army of red-shirts? A murderous creature? This could get messy. Kirk and Spock search too, and detect a silicon based life form nearby but, unfortnately not before it kills off a crewman. Kirk takes a moment to mourn, reflect and then, without blinking, move on with his life. It’s like the seven seconds of grief.
The creature appears behind Kirk and Spock, looking like something you’d scrape off the bottom of your shoe. They fire at it, cutting part of its back off. That rarely feels good! It shuffles off, excreting that powerful corrosive substance you kids love so much. Kirk reminds everyone that there’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal. Thanks for that Kirk. We all thought it was going to lick our faces and fetch our slippers.
Spock’s tricorder picks up the creature and he realises that there is only one of it. He believes that this must be the last silicon creature in existence. To kill it would be genocide. Kirk doesn’t seem to mind. They’ve threatened genocide before (A Taste of Armageddon). It’s all the rage these days.
When Kirk and Spock separate, a cave-in traps Kirk with the creature. He tries talking to it, but he might as well be talking to a kangaroo for all the good it does him. Spock rushes in and, after a brief chat with Kirk to catch up on the latest Star Trek news, suggests that he could attempt to communicate with it by joining with it’s mind. It works! He screws up his face and tells Kirk that the creature is in enormous pain. Well what do you expect? You and Kirk shot a chunk of its back off.
Once Spock breaks off communications with it, it burns the phrase “No kill I” into the rock. In English. Surely it either picked up English or id didn’t. If it can manage the phrase “No kill I”, it must be able to handle “Please do not kill me” or even “Sod off, freaks”.
Kirk tells Spock to re-establish communications, but in order to do so, Spock will have to touch it. Yeesh. Remember to wash your hands afterwards.
Spock speaks on behalf of the creature, It’s rambling on about murderers, and striking back. What a downer.
McCoy shows up, not sure what he’s walked in on, “What in the name of…?”
Kirk tells McCoy to help the creature. “Help that?” says McCoy. “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer”. (Students, take a drink now!).
Kirk makes a discovery. The silicon balls Spock was so interested in were actually eggs. Delicious, nutritious eggs. Except make of silicon.
With that, the miners charge down the tunnels toward the creature, intent on killing it. They’ve already bashed in the heads of the Enterprise security men who were holding them back.
That’s just plain unsporting.
However, once Kirk explains that the Silicon based life (now known as the Horta) was merely protecting its young. It returns the pump and everything is sweetness and pancakes again. He even arranges for the Horta to work for the miners as a tunneller.
Bones then cures the creature with concrete, and hey presto – creature and miners live in harmony. Don’t you just love a happy ending where a tortured alien rock creature can either work down a mine or be killed?
Cast & Creative Staff
Cast:
William Shatner as James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Spock
DeForest Kelley as Leonard H. McCoy
James Doohan as Montgomery Scott
Guest Cast:
Janos Prohaska as Horta
Ken Lynch as Chief Engineer Vanderberg
Barry Russo as Lt. Comm. Giotto
Brad Weston as Ed Appel
Creative Staff:
Director: Joseph Pevney
Written By: Gene L. Coon
