Star Trek Epsiode 5, Season 1:
The Enemy Within
Home
| Purchase: | 
 |
Episode #: | << 5 >> |
|---|---|
| Air #: | << 5 >> |
| Season: | 1 |
| Air Date: | 1966-10-06 |
| Stardate: | 1672.1 |
| Writer: | Richard Matheson |
| Story: | |
| Director: | Leo Penn |
| Guests: | Jim Goodwin, Edward Madden, Garland Thompson |
While gathering specimens on planet Alpha 177 (whose night temperature reaches -120 degrees), geological technician Fisher falls off a cliff and injures his hand. He also becomes covered in a magnetic yellow ore. He is beamed aboard the Enterprise, where the transporter behaves strangely. However, it appears to work correctly when Kirk beams aboard shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, the ore has actually caused the transporter to malfunction, and Kirk is split into two alter-egos, the evil one (hostility, lust, violence) of which arrives unnoticed a few minutes after the good Kirk (compassion, love, tenderness) after the crew has left the transporter room.
The evil Kirk makes his way to sickbay, where he demands brandy from McCoy. Meanwhile, the transporter mishap results in the production on an "evil" horned poodle out of a shy, quiet animal specimen beamed up from the planet surface. Scotty realizes the consequences, and is forced to strand the remaining 4-man landing party (including Sulu) on the planet. In the meantime, the evil Kirk enters Yeoman Janice Rand's quarters and lies in wait for her. She scratches him when he attacks her, and manages to warn Fisher to call Spock. Unfortunately, the evil Kirk incapacitates Fisher before he can get the word out. Simultaneously, the good Kirk shows starts showing signs of losing both his decisiveness and his ability to command.
Showing great ingenuity, the evil Kirk applies powder to his face to hide Rand's scratch, tricks transporter technician Wilson into giving him his phaser, then knocks Wilson out. The evil Kirk then hides in the lower decks, but Kirk and Spock anticipate this move and hunt him down. Spock identifies the evil Kirk and gives him a nerve pinch, but it is not at all obvious what to do with him when he comes to. The eminent Scotty finds that the transporter ionizer is destroyed and will take a week to repair. However, this seems too long to wait, as the evil Kirk is exhibiting decreased constitution and appears to be in danger of dying.
Spock and Scotty rig the transporter to run off the impulse engines, and successfully recombine the dog-creature. Unfortunately, the strain of recombination proves fatal to the pooch. When the good Kirk tries bring the evil Kirk to the transporter, he is overpowered. The evil Kirk goes to the bridge and orders the Enterprise to leave orbit, but the good Kirk follows him there. Kirk is eventually returned to normal when the transporter is modified and used to fuse the two parts of himself back together. The landing party is also beamed back up suffering from frostbite, but nothing worse.