--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48 THE DEVIL IN THE DARK --------------------------------------------------------------------------- WRITER: Gene L. Coon GUESTS: Ken Lynch (Vandenburg?) Janos Prohaska Barry Russo Brad Weston Biff Elliott AIRED: March 9, 1967 HACK-MAN rating: .312 Usenet rating: .496 QUOTES: ======= - "Phaser One is far less powerful than Phaser Two" --Spock - "Silicon based life is physiologically impossible" --McCoy - "I'm a doctor, not a brick layer" --McCoy - "Shoot to kill" --Kirk. - "I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day." --McCoy ? THE DEVIL IN THE DARK PLOT: ===== A mining operation on a planet with the richest abundance of minerals anywhere is plagued by a series of mysterious and grisly deaths. Add to that the mysterious disappearance of their life-support pump (there's no oxygen down there). The Enterprise is called upon to investigate and/or evacuate the remaining miners. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find a bunch of silicon globes (the miners have been keeping them as souvenirs and/or destroying them) and a series of tunnels that have been carved recently. Upon further investigation, they find that the deaths were caused by a silicon-based horta that moves through rock as easily as humans move through air. It is the last of its species and the globes that were found were her eggs. It was killing the miners with her acid in self-defense to keep her species alive (and stole the life-support system to try to make the miners go away). It is described as a "hairy beast", but is later found to be a highly intelligent breathing rock. Kirk and Spock discuss the possibility of silicon-based beings (or beings not carbon-based) apparently forgetting that Nancy the salt-sucker was silicon-based. McCoy later comes down and says that silicon-based life is impossible. Kirk wants to kill it, despite the fact that it is the last of its species, and refuses to weigh his options. Their phasers don't do too much to slow it down. Kirk orders the remaining miners up to the ship (most have already beamed up), but they (lead by this week's dork, Vandenburg) want to fight it with clubs (maybe clubs are more powerful than phasers, eh?) Kirk (in an attempt to win back the "dork of the week" prize) says "good" (non-sarcastically). Spock mind melds with it in an attempt to communicate, and senses how much pain she's in. She finds humans rather ugly, but likes Spock's ears. It then writes "no kill i" by burning away rock with its acid. Kirk is unsure if she means that she doesn't want to kill or that she doesn't want to be killed. They beam McCoy down to help repair the damaged horta. Eventually, they strike up a bargain. The miners don't destroy any more eggs and don't harm the horta. The horta will make their tunnels in the direction the miners want. FACTS: ====== - Kirk is this week's dork: not trying to preserve life, etc. - This is the last episode to be watched by me. It took until 6/7/88 for me to see it. - Every 50,000 years the race of horta all die save the one mother horta. - Spock mind melds with the horta. OPINIONS: ========= Bogometer was in the "high" range through most of the show. The opening looked like a bad 1920 movie. This is why I probably never saw the episode until 1988; I didn't realize I was watching "Star Trek".