--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 AMOK TIME --------------------------------------------------------------------------- WRITER: Theodore Sturgeon GUESTS: Arlene Martel (T'Pring?) Celia Lovsky (T'Pau) Lawrence Montaigne (T'Pring's lover Stonn?) Byron Morrow AIRED: September 15, 1967 HACK-MAN rating: .780 Usenet rating: .826 QUOTES: ======= - "Are you a doctor or aren't you?" --Kirk - "He's as tight-lipped about it as an Aldeberan Shellmouth." --McCoy - "You've been called the best first officer in the fleet." --Kirk - "Vulcan biology - meaning the biology of Vulcans?" --Kirk - "Humans have no conception." --Spock - "Doctor, if you don't cease your meddling, I will most certainly break your neck!" --Spock AMOK TIME PLOT: ===== The Enterprise is headed for Altair 6 for some dumb ceremony (that Star Fleet Command says they must attend or it will cause a disturbance that will create ripples felt all the way to the Klingon Empire). Spock steals the Enterprise and goes to Vulcan to take a wife (T'Pring, the woman to whom he was betrothed), due to Pon Far, the instinctive Vulcan mating cycle which strikes adult male Vulcans every seven years. T'Pring doesn't want to marry Spock, so she calls for Kunut Kalifee, a fight to the death. Spock and Kirk end up fighting for T'Pring. T'Pau (a high-ranking (female) Vulcan official) oversees the ceremony. McCoy complains that the fight wouldn't be fair to Kirk because of the thin Vulcan atmosphere. T'Pau allows him to give Kirk a triox compound to compensate, but he gives Kirk a neural paralyzer instead. This makes it appear as if Spock has actually killed Kirk (since he appears dead). They beam Kirk's body back up to the ship and McCoy revives him. FACTS: ====== - T'Pau is the only person ever to refuse a seat on the Federation Council. - Vulcan has 2000 years of history. - They defy Star Fleet Command and Kirk. - Nurse Chapel has the hots for Spock. - The giant eel-bird of Regulus 5 return to their nest every eleven years. - Kirk and Bones make a mockery of Kunut Kalifee (a ceremony where two people try to kill each other instead of killing the annoying bastards shaking the big tambourines). - This is the episode where Ensign Chekov makes his debut (1st episode, 2nd season). (Catspaw was the one he was first filmed in, although this aired after Amok Time). - This was the first episode with the Vulcan "live long and prosper" salute. OPINIONS: ========= This is a pretty good episode (and it set up for quite a bit of history for Mr. Spock).