“The Devil in the Dark”
Written by Gene L. Coon
Directed by Joseph Pevney
Season 1, Episode 25
Production episode: 1×26
Original air date: March 9, 1967
Star date: 3196.1
Mission summary
We don’t begin on the Enterprise but rather in the deep mines of Moria Janus VI, where an unknown “monster” has been taking out guards left and right. A deeply nervous guard, Schmitter, tells us that phaser fire is useless against it—but that the Enterprise is on its way.
“You’ll be all right,” his superior tells him, sealing the man’s fate.
Sure enough, as soon as the other men are out of sight, a huge plasticine creature-thing attacks. By the time the men run back it’s too late.
“Like the rest of them. Burnt to a crisp.”
Soon enough the Enterprise arrives and the holy trinity of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to speak with Chief Engineer Vanderberg, administrative head of the mining operation and the jerk who told the last guy he’d be juuuuuust fine. Vanderberg explains that about three months ago they opened up a new level, due to sensors picking up extraordinary readings of pergium, a crucial energy source, along with a slew of other valuable metals. But soon equipment began to disintegrate due to some corrosive agent. When repair crews investigated, they, too, were burnt to a crisp. With no known volcanic activity on the planet, Vanderberg assumes that it’s the act of the monster.
Chief processing engineer Appel enters, and tells Kirk that he’s seen the monster:
KIRK: Describe it.
APPEL: I can’t. I only got a glimpse of it, but it’s big and shaggy.
Real helpful, pal. At least now they know they’re looking for a Jim Henson creature. Appel goes on to say that he shot the creature but his phaser had absolutely no effect. Spock doesn’t seem interested in tales of badly-outfitted puppeteers, so he begins fondling one of Vanderberg’s desk ornaments: an enormous shiny sphere. So shiny. Vanderberg tells him that it’s some kind of silicon nodule, and that there are millions in the caves and tunnels below, but no matter: they have no commercial value. Since those couldn’t possibly play a larger role later, let’s pretend you didn’t see them.
Kirk wonders if there’s a way to draw out the monster, but before he can choose the appropriate virgin sacrifice an alarm goes off in Vanderberg’s office—the nuclear reactor! They rush to the scene and find the guard a mere stain upon the floor, and a huge hole burned through the door. It looks like whatever did this took the main circulator pump for the nuclear reactor. Without the pump, it will “go supercritical,” poisoning the whole area with radiation. Unfortunately the device is so antiquated that no replacement exists either in the colony or onboard the Enterprise.
KIRK: Mr. Spock, it seems we’ve been given a choice. Death by asphyxiation, or death by radiation poisoning.
Uh, that’s a no brainer. Asphyxiation, please! But anyway, they must find it, or the whole mining operation could be destroyed.
Kirk contacts Scotty about a replacement, but Scotty practically laughs at the idea. “I haven’t seen a PXK in twenty years!” He agrees to rig something up with odds and ends, but it won’t last more than 48 hours. The clock is ticking.
Spock believes that the creature is intelligent—the PXK is the one piece that the entire machine depended on. He goes on to speculate that though they have only ever encountered carbon-based life, this life here could be made of silicon. *dramatic music cue*
MCCOY: You’re creating fantasies, Mr. Spock!
Kirk isn’t so easy to dismiss it—he read about this on the internet once—and suggests that perhaps, if it is a silicon-based lifeform, it would be “of an entirely different order.” That may explain its existence deep within the rocky planet, as well as its resistance to phaser fire. Spock returns to batting his favorite yarn ball, the silicon sphere, and Kirk asks him what his fascination is with the object. Spock believes there may be some connection between the sphere, which Vanderberg had said was one of millions that they discovered right before the first monster attack, and the creature itself.
KIRK: Speculate.
SPOCK: I have already given Dr. McCoy sufficient cause for amusement. I prefer to cogitate the possibilities for a time.
Kirk assigns duties to a bunch of lucky red-shirts, and they all disperse to locate the creature and/or the reactor pump. Spock has reconfigured their phasers against silicon life should they find the creature, and Kirk instructs them to shoot on sight. No mercy for this muppet!
In no time at all another red shirt goes down, Kirk and Spock arriving too late. But the creature is still there—and just as they let their guard down it emerges from a tunnel! The creature is a flat, hairy, amoeba-like creature, shuffling across the ground much like a team of puppeteers would. You’d think it’d be large and round like the tunnels it creates, but, uh, don’t worry about that. The men come to their senses and fire their phasers, wounding the creature, which retreats rapidly through a tunnel.
Astonished at how quickly it can move and how thoroughly it can create these tunnels, Kirk and Spock decide to examine the chunk they cut off with their phasers. It throbs and pulses in their hands, and Spock confirms that it’s like asbestos—a creature made from minerals. Kirk tells the redshirts to be on alert: “There’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal.”
Spock takes readings of the area within 100 miles in all directions, and he can only find one creature. Baffled as to how this many tunnels could have been created, Kirk suggests that the tricorder is malfunctioning, or perhaps it has an extraordinarily long lifespan. Spock has a different theory:
Or it is the last of a race of creatures which made these tunnels. If so, if it is the only survivor of a dead race. To kill it would be a crime against science.
In a moment of unprecedented callousness, Kirk reminds him that “our mission is to protect the colony, to get the pergium moving again. This is not a zoological expedition….I’m sorry, Mr. Spock, but I’m afraid the creature must die.”
The tension between them builds when Kirk gives orders to the redshirts to disperse and find the creature, and Spock tells them to attempt to capture it. “Shoot to kill,” Kirk corrects him. Irritated by this insubordination, Kirk tries to reassign Spock to Scotty’s detail—but Spock out-logics him into allowing himself to come along anyway.
Kirk gets a call on his communicator from Scotty—the improvised reactor pump has failed, and Scotty agrees to beam most of the miners back to the Enterprise. Some of the key personnel agree to stay behind and try and find the creature. They split up, but Spock appears almost uneasy. “We’re being watched,” he says.
They come upon a split in the tunnel, creating two paths that diverge here but theoretically re-join down the line. Luckily they can travel both, so they decide to separate. Spock clearly got the one having perhaps the better claim because Kirk emerges in a room full of those silicon nodules. Suddenly the roof caves in, and then the wall turns bright red—the creature has burrowed its way into Kirk’s chamber.
The two stand off tensely. As Kirk approaches with the phaser the creature retreats, and as the creature approaches Kirk points the phaser at it. Silently, they try to gauge each others’ intentions.
Spock uselessly phones in to let Kirk know that the life form is very near him, but Kirk of course already know this.
SPOCK: Where, Captain?
KIRK: Ten feet away from me.
SPOCK: Kill it, Captain, quickly!
But Kirk begins to doubt his plan. The creature has made “no threatening moves” towards him.
SPOCK: You don’t dare the chance, Captain. Kill it.
KIRK: I thought you were the one who wanted it kept alive, captured if possible.
SPOCK: Jim, your life is in danger. You can’t take the risk.
KIRK: It seems to be waiting.
SPOCK: I remind you it’s a proven killer. I’m on my way. Spock out.
Kirk shuffles around uncomfortably before settling on his haunches. He awkwardly addresses the creature: “So what do we do now? Just…talk it over?” The creature spins around to show Kirk its rear (well now…), and the poor thing is oozing; it’s been seriously hurt.
Spock joins them, and Kirk instructs him not to shoot. Spock suggests a Vulcan mind meld to try and communicate with the creature, which is increasingly looking like a stained rug. From afar, Spock begins to get in touch with the creature’s mind… but staggers back screaming “Pain! Pain! Pain! That’s all I got, Captain. Waves and waves of searing pain. It’s in agony.”
The creature seemed to have understood something of Spock during the mind meld, and it shuffles to a rock face. Pulling back, it left an imprint seared on the stone: “NO KILL I.” Poor little rug. “What does that mean?” Kirk asks stupidly. The Vulcan explains that the creature is not at all acting like an animal—it doesn’t lash out at them in pain, but asks their mercy. And it calls itself a Horta.
Kirk wants to win the creature’s confidence, so he phones Dr. McCoy to come down with his medical kit. Bones is going to be so thrilled when he sees this! Kirk also wants to know where the reactor pump is, and why this creature has resorted to murder: he asks Spock to re-establish telepathic contact, and in order to do that Spock will have to touch it.
Spock does so, writhing in pain, and then begins shouting incomprehensible, pseudo-religious rants:
Murder. Of thousands. Devils! Eternity ends. The chamber of the ages. The altar of tomorrow! Murderers! Stop them. Kill! Strike back! Monsters!
Oooookay crazy rug. Suddenly McCoy walks in, to see Kirk voyeuristically observing this intimate connection. “What in the name of…” he wonders. I can’t blame him, that’s some pretty freaky stuff. It gets freakier when Kirk orders him to find a way to help the creature.
MCCOY: You can’t be serious, that thing is virtually made out of stone!
KIRK: Help it. Treat it.
MCCOY: I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer!
Kirk reminds Spock that they’ve got things to do, and again asks for information about the reactor pump. The Horta gives him directions, and instructs him to “walk carefully in the vault of tomorrow” and “cry for the children.” Kirk does as instructed and shuffles into this vault—full of smashed and broken spheres. Eggs.
Meanwhile, the miners are getting antsy in their orange jumpsuits. They want vengeance for their lost men. They trick the redshirts guarding them and in proper mob fashion make their way to the chamber with the horta. They try to attack but Kirk firmly lets them know that the “first man that fires is dead.”
VANDERBERG: That thing killed fifty of my men!
KIRK: You’ve killed thousands of her children.
Spock explains that the Horta have been on the planet for hundreds of thousands of years. Every fifty thousand years, the entire race dies—save one, who stays to care for the eggs.
KIRK: The Horta is intelligent, peaceful, mild. She had no objection to sharing this planet with you, ’til you broke into her nursery and started destroying her eggs. Then she fought back in the only way she knew how, as any mother would fight when her children are in danger.
Vanderberg looks like he just drowned a puppy, and in a way he kind of did. The mob cools off, and Kirk returns the reactor pump to them. Vanderberg is worried about having thousands of these creatures running around, but the captain, as always, has a solution:
KIRK: You’ve complained this planet is a mineralogical treasure house if you had the equipment to get at it. Gentlemen, the Horta moves through rock the way we move through air, and it leaves tunnels. The greatest natural miners in the universe. It seems to me we could make an agreement, reach a modus vivendi. They tunnel; you collect and process, and your process operation would be a thousand times more profitable.
Meanwhile, McCoy is covered in concrete. He had the ship beam down “thermoconcrete,” made from silicon, and trowelled it into the wound as a makeshift bandage. “Jim, I’m beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!” Spock gets back in touch with the Horta to offer the proposition.
Later, onboard the Enterprise, Kirk speaks to Vanderberg, who sounds thrilled at their new coexistence. He will soon be “embarassingly rich” from the new deposits uncovered with the help of the Horta. “You know, they’re really not so bad once you’re used to their appearance,” he says.
SPOCK: Curious. What Vanderberg said about the Horta is exactly what the mother Horta said to me. She found humanoid appearance revolting, but she thought she could get used to it.
He goes on to say that the Horta found his ears especially appealing, but he “didn’t have the heart to tell her that only I have them.”
KIRK: She really liked those ears?
SPOCK: Captain, the Horta is a remarkably intelligent and sensitive creature, with impeccable taste.…
KIRK: Mr. Spock, I suspect you’re becoming more and more human all the time.
SPOCK: Captain, I see no reason to stand here and be insulted.
Kirk and McCoy smile, and the captain orders the Enterprise ahead, warp factor two.
Analysis:
Everyone kept telling me that this is one of the “famous” episodes, but aside from the “No Kill I” (which I vaguely remember from…something) I don’t recall ever learning anything about it, not even through parody.
The tension and the drama of this one is really well done. It felt as tense to me as parts of “Balance of Terror.” The way that Kirk and Spock explore the tunnels, walking in and out of pools of light, with dramatic music playing in the background felt almost like a Twilight Zone episode. When Kirk does finally see the Horta he looks downright scared! Very tense, very tight, and at times even suspenseful. The little standoff that they had is a bit giggle-worthy at this point (the rug! it’s attacking!), but their actions felt natural.
We’ve certainly dealt with the inscrutable and dangerous unknown in “The Corbomite Maneuver,” though there the alien resembled a godlike being rather than an animal. But again, we have something that we do not understand, a creature entirely unlike one ever encountered before, that is incredibly dangerous and destructive without actually being evil. Like the salt vampire, it’s the last of its kind, and the deaths it has caused have been purely incidental to the creature’s need for survival.
While this sounds fairly enlightened, I’m a little annoyed that no one cared about the Horta until they found out it was a mom. Spock postulates fairly early on that it’s the last of its kind, and Kirk tosses that out the window as a reason to save it. In fact, I believe his exact words are “the creature must die.” Why isn’t that enough of a reason? The salt vampire, too, was the last of its kind, and they did wind up killing it. What if she had been a mother? The “they’re going to die out anyway” reasoning does not persuade me. It’s unique, and it’s desperate for life. Why not leave it alone? Doesn’t it have more right to live in those caves than the humans?
The answer is the pergium, which seems to be some kind of valuable fuel source. I always remind my Star Trek-hating friends that this is not a perfect universe. In TOS, we don’t have a post-scarcity society, and to exist, subsist, and persist, men necessarily harvest scarce resources throughout the galaxy. In many ways this added to my dissatisfaction with this episode. It felt to me like a direct analogy for a lot of environmental dilemmas, in which something valuable (say, oil) is only reachable by destroying certain habitats and the life within in them. No one but Spock seems to blink an eye at this—the pergium is necessary, at all costs, end of conversation. That need outweighs new life, even when discovering new life is the ship’s prime mission. The motives feel all wrong to me, and while I’m pleased that they came to an understanding by the end, I didn’t feel that it was for the right reasons. They don’t ultimately coexist because of mutual respect for each other’s species and way of life—they coexist because the men realize they can insanely profit off of the creature’s presence there.
Torie’s Rating: Warp Factor 4 (on a scale of 1-6)
Eugene Myers: I always liked this episode because of the sheer alienness of the Horta and the creativity of a creature composed of silicon instead of carbon. Aside from the goofy costume (and that is a costume, with a man crawling around under it), which still reminds me of Pizza the Hut from Spaceballs, I think it engages with some interesting questions of first contact with new races and not judging others solely on appearance. But there’s much more to the conflict than just a simple misunderstanding or instinctual dislike for the unfamiliar: the Horta only attacked the miners after they invaded her caverns and destroyed her eggs, and the miners understandably were upset when the Horta began frying them to protect her children. The moral here seems to be “don’t destroy things you don’t understand.” What is perhaps most interesting in this episode is that it takes Spock, the product of two species, human and Vulcan, to intermediate between the Horta and the miners through a painful (and painfully prolonged) mind meld.
There’s also the revelation that humanity must harvest minerals from other planets to meet the needs of thousands of planets in the Federation. Whatever pergium is, they don’t have enough of it, and it must be impossible or at least prohibitively difficult to create the element artificially to fuel their reactors. This parallels contemporary concerns about exhausting our own natural resources, but I had pretty much assumed that dilithium and matter-antimatter reactors would solve all of our energy problems in the future. Silly me.
For some reason, this time around a lot of flaws in the episode stood out, nearly eclipsing the good moments like McCoy’s bricklaying and Spock’s comments on the Horta liking his ears. Why did the Horta steal the pump instead of melting it, and more importantly, how did she carry it off? How could the Horta etch a message so meticulously in the rock? What kind of alien biology requires all but one member of a species to die out every 50,000 years? Then there’s Spock’s calculation of the odds of both him and Kirk being killed, which doesn’t seem to take into account the fact that they’re together in the tunnels for most of the episode. I was disappointed that Spock didn’t stick up more for the Horta, immediately choosing Kirk’s life over the Horta’s, though the creature was the last of its race. It was also sad when Kirk tried to come up with an excuse to remove Spock from the search, since he didn’t trust him to follow his orders to kill it.
Ultimately, I also wasn’t sure that the agreement between the Horta and the miners would hold. They’re supposed to leave each other alone, but Kirk implies that the mother Horta is going to tell her kids to look for “gold and platinum and rare earths” for the miners, which sounds suspiciously like the beginnings of slavery. I just don’t see what the Horta can get out of the deal, except for their ensured survival.
Eugene’s Rating: Warp Factor 4 (on a scale of 1-6)
Best Line: KIRK (on the makeshift reactor pump): Scotty, ride hard on it. Kind words. Tender, loving care. Kiss it. Baby it. Flatter it if you have to, but keep it going.
Syndication Edits: Small section of the exchange between Vanderberg and Schmitter; Kirk ordering the first search teams to start on the 23rd level and then instructing Vanderberg to stay on the top level; parts of the first search; Spock informing Kirk that the search team is gathering in the main tunnel, and Kirk’s pep talk before Spock gives the men the last known location of the creature (when he tells them the creature is wounded and dangerous); pieces of the second search and his discovery of the Horta; Kirk calling McCoy to heal the Horta (in the syndicated version he just shows up!).
Trivia: Shatner’s father died during the production of this episode, but Shatner finished all filming for the day. He apparently found Nimoy’s mind meld scenes hilarious, and they made him laugh and cheered him up. You can see where his stand-in is because his arms are positioned differently.
The silicon sphere eggs were actually kids bouncy balls painted over.
Other Notes: Janos Prohaska created the Horta here. He wore it into Gene Coon’s office and Coon was so impressed that he banged out a story about it in just a few days. Prohaska used a similar creature for The Outer Limits episode “The Probe.”
Next episode: Season 1, Episode 25 – “Errand of Mercy.” US residents can watch it for free at the CBS website.
Check the Star Trek Re-Watch Index for a complete list of posts in this series.
The Trek-Punk band No Kill I took its name from this episode. Maybe that’s what Torie remembered?
Well, I was a lot younger when I first saw this episode, so I didn’t have the same level of philosophical understanding due to persons who were older and wiser. So, I always liked this episode. Why?
No one-off babe for Kirk.
Spock gets to emote (again). Notice that the script writers managed to squeeze in an emotional scene for Spock as often as they could? “Devils!”
Dr. McCoy gets the best lines (as usual).
A familiar actor playing the Chief Engineer.
This is one of the episodes that stands out to me because it is one of the first to really suggest the possibility of truly inhuman lifeforms out there.
It doesn’t hold up so well, especially with Spock changing his mind and urging Kirk to kill it, and then later the appearance of slavery, unless the Horta live a simple life that basically involves shaping holes in stone for fun and profit. But I’m glad they finally had the courage to present another sentient race that has so very little in common with us.
Guys, guys, guys… you continue to nitpick the ethics here as though the show had been written in 2009, instead of forty-three years ago. TOS is a product of its times, and in fact was one of the cultural influences that pushed us toward change for the better.
Go back far enough in time and you won’t be able to find a single writer or artist who’s enlightened enough to meet your standards. Ease up a little.
@@@@@ 1 Church
Nah, that’s not it, though I’m curious about them! Oh well.
@@@@@ 3 toryx
I like that, too. Kirk is entirely wrong–it’s not an animal, it’s like us, but we can’t perceive that at first glance. Makes you wonder if Douglas Adams is right about the mice and the dolphins after all!
@@@@@ 4 kagebaker
Of course we do–half the point is to see if these episodes hold up. And I don’t so much hold the antiquated ethical/philosophical problems against the show as find them interesting, particularly in the context of the forty years that’s passed since.
@@@@@ 4
But…their mission is to “seek out new life and new civilizations,” not destroy them. It seems they only hold up their lofty ideals when it’s convenient. It hasn’t been that long since Kirk was lamenting the extinct buffalo in “The Man Trap.” I think their ethical standards were generally very high for 1967, so it’s particularly disappointing when they fall short.
I think when the Horta kills one of the men, it actually leaves his boots behind, but I haven’t confirmed this onscreen. Pretty funny if so, though.
I also seem to recall that in an outtake for this episode, during Spock’s mind meld Shatner cracks, “Somebody get this Vulcan an aspirin!”
And I just had a sobering realization. Kirk says, “Mr. Spock, it seems we’ve been given a choice. Death by asphyxiation, or death by radiation poisoning.” In Star Trek II, Spock indeed chooses radiation poisoning… :(
Through the magic of out-of-order syndication, this was the first episode of TOS, the first episode of any Trek, that my (now) 13-yo daughter saw, a year or more ago.
Having grown up on a diet of more modern special effects, she carped a great deal about the cheesiness of the effects in the early part of the episode and complained about the phoniness of the Horta.
And then . . . as the story began to transform from a monster hunt into something more complex, she leaned into me on the couch, gripped my arm, and said, tensely, “Mom, they’re not going to kill it, are they?”
And I thought, “gotcha!”
The magic of Trek–creaky, antiquated, and cheesy as it was–worked again!
She is now a bonafide Trekkie. She took a Spock novel to camp. She owns a communicator and phaser from TOS (the re-releases from when the new movie came out).
The Horta may have been a man in a rubber suit but the story worked then and still works today.
@@@@@ 8 masinger
Yay! Yes, the good stories do hold up if you can get past the dated effects, which never really bothered me all that much–and I still don’t think the CGI updates were necessary. The only real laughable moment in this one is when the Horta shuffles back and forth as Kirk advances and backs away. Then again, the silly flying parasites in “Operation: Annihilate!” are kind of hard to take with a straight face. They had to be ridiculous, even in the Sixties, right?
“The only real laughable moment in this one is when the Horta shuffles back and forth as Kirk advances and backs away.”
The devil you say!
That’s my go-to moment for “realizing that your preconceptions may be wrong.”
C’mon, the weird jeffries-tube-carving silicon beast responds in an understandable way? Paradigm shift. Pretty sweet.
This is a solid mid-level episode. When it comes on, you don’t frantically start searching for the remote, but you don’t really say, “Cool!” either. More of a satisfied nod.
Janos Prohaska was THE creature guy in Hollywood in the 60s and early 70s, especially for television. He was in several TOS episodes and just about any time you see somebody in a gorilla or bear suit from that period, he’s in it.
@@@@@ 8 & 9-
Word. Effects are meant to illustrate the story, not be the story.
Miscommunication is the initial problem here. Everyone sees the Horta as a monster that started attacking for no reason; if that had been correct I would have no problem the last of anything, probably.
Torie, thanks for putting quotes around “supercritical”. That is almost as bad as writers having people freaking out about a reactor going “critical”, although I can’t remember where yet…
I always wondered who the redshirt with the full Commander stripes (2 full rows of braid) was. The security chief? The midwatch conn officer?
EDIT: Kirk and the subtitles address the Top Redshirt as Commander Giotto. I still think it odd that he is a high-ranking Enterprise officer we never see again.
I can’t see this episode objectively because I loved the way Diane Duane used the Horta ensign in her Original Series novels, so I just have soft spot and overlook the inconsistencies.
@@@@@ 11 DemetriosX
Agreed. It’s not great, but it’s a solid episode. And for all their cheesiness, I really love the Prohaska creations. It’s too bad that they don’t communicate very well onscreen–I’m sure they would’ve been phenomenal in live theater and performance.
@@@@@ 12 sps49
Word. Effects are meant to illustrate the story, not be the story.
Did you see the new Star Trek movie? :D
And yeah, “go supercritical” made me chuckle. Oh fake science, I love you!
As for the red shirts, it’s worth noting that out of seven only one dies, which has to be a record for one of these away missions. And hey, they should at least be grateful their hierarchy isn’t articulated through pastel jumpsuits. Can you imagine if that were standard engineer attire?!
@9 ecmyers.
Yes, they were cheesy then too. Cheapskate front office.
@12 and @14… re criticality in nuclear reactors…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor_physics#Criticality
Note the use of the term supercritical.
Leslie Fish recorded a truly hilarious song about this episode, called “Mineral Rights”. The chorus goes:
“I may be the last on this planet,
The last of a great race’s dregs
And if only you’d stop taking them for granite,
You’d see those big stone bowling balls are eggs.”
One of the verses has a line “Perhaps I’ll kill a couple of your crewmen from Security. I’ll bet you’re not so used to losing crew.”
Another has a line about “what kind of crazy creatures send their captain to investigate yet think I’m less intelligent than they.”
It’s a marvelous song.
BTW, you can listen to “Mineral Rights” at http://www.prometheus-music.com/roundworm.html
@@@@@ 17 WandaWolfe
That totally made my day. I liked this bit: “I’m stuck between a hard place… and myself”
This is one of the first eps of TOS I remember from my larval state in the 80s, and I was amazed at how deeply it touched me, even as a 5 yr old. The whole “the monster isn’t really a monster” thing has, heck, probably been a foundation stone for my entire philosophy of moral relativism.
To the brief “slavery” comment from Eugene, I kinda thought that too, but then it did not really sound like slavery so much as a symbiotic co-existence. It could perhaps turn into slavery one day, but I’ll live in my yellow submarine and pretend it won’t. Odds and all that.
Also, this is the first time we get Spock’s odds, isn’t it? Thought that woulda been noteworthy.
On the reactor: I actually really enjoyed the portrayal of the nuclear reactor. 1) it was commonplace and not “scary” per se. 2) It wasn’t going to blow up and take the planet with them, it was going to go super critical and irradiate them, which honestly is the more likely occurrence if the cooling system was broken (go look up Chernobyl, although that was a matter of broken control rods).
I love this episode. When I think “Star Trek”, it is this kind of episode that springs to mind. They believe there is a dangerous threat that must be destroyed if they are to survive. But, after a bit of thought, they realise it’s been a terrible misunderstanding, apologise and make friends.
That’s Trek.
I was eleven years old in ’67 when I watched this as it was originally broadcast. It had a profound effect on me: I remember thinking about it for days and taking what it said to heart about appearance and tolerance and such, and being willing to take risks to find a peaceful path. Really, I think if you put your mind in the place of a child, you begin to appreciate how profound a little bit of creativity TOS was. It was a perfect little pedagogy in beginning to really think, and made a real beginning for me in that (I teach philosophy today in college, and TOS is part of what put me on that path–and this episode for some reason really struck a spark).
@@@@@ 14 Torie-
Why must you remind me of that movie? :(
Don’t underestimate even pastel-jumpsuited engineers. I think the ease with which they tricked Cdr. Giotto answers my question about why we only see him once- Jim Kirk took advantage of his concussion to transfer him off his ship.
I think these coveralls are reused by the Kelvans and Zephram Cochrane later, too.
I also think the Horta is an effective monster, even if it does look like my lasagne.
@@@@@16 rickg-
I’m not sure what you are trying to say. My point is that “critical” and “supercritical” are often used to convey the image of an out-of-control reactor, but they are both normal conditions for a nuclear reactor. Stop reminding me of the six factor formula and thermal power equations!
@@@@@ 20 R.Fife
I didn’t think Spock giving odds was noteworthy (other than for the humor) because I’d forgotten it was one of his schticks. It was only when he does it again in the following episode, “Errand of Mercy,” that I realized it comes up repeatedly. Thanks for pointing it out!
@@@@@ 17 WandaWolfe
That song, uh… rocks!
With regard to the comment on slavery, it’s possible there was an equitable trading agreement signed; there’s just no mention of it one way or another in this episode (or any other that I recall).
This also reminds me of my best friend’s membership in Star Fleet years ago. They had a creative and fun group that produced fanzines of their ship’s adventures. IIRC their ship’s engineer was a horta; so Star Trek fandom had no problems integrating them as equal members of the Federation.
Well, no.
Kirk changes his mind when he meets the horta (I don’t know why people insist on spelling it with an uppercase ‘H’; one doesn’t write ‘Aardvark’ or ‘Horse’) for the first time, well before he learns about her being a mother. The dramatic pivot point is the switch from Spock being the creature’s defender and Kirk her nemesis to Kirk defending the creature against Spock’s urging to kill her. Spock’s change is clearly due to his (highly illogical) feelings for Kirk, and Kirk’s change simply drives home the ‘can’t we all just get along’ message.
Certainly the miners didn’t care, but then, they’re greedy, capitalist scum, so what would you expect?
As far as the horta being able to etch such precise lettering, I’d certainly be surprised if she didn’t have fine control over her acid-emitting pores. I mean, you could write that with your tongue, couldn’t you?
And about the only effect I ever thought was cheesy about the episode was the way all the tunnels had flat floors, even though the horta should clearly be able to make circular tunnels. I thought the horta costume was brilliant, almost perfectly realised, and still do. (Okay, the glowing red wall wasn’t wonderful, either, but having the rock dissolve away into a pool of slag would have been pretty expensive. For an example of how it should be done, see Forbidden Planet.)
And (there are so many ‘and’s, but, then, there are so many irritating posts) the encounter between Kirk and the horta, with her shuffling back and forth, is absolutely classic. The timing of the reactions is flawless. (Note the brief pause on the horta’s part as she considers whether to keep advancing or to retreat. For another, similar alien as perfectly and inexpensively realised, see the beachball in Dark Star.)
TOS with a guy in a rubber suit beats just about all of New Trek hands down.
@@@@@ 27 NomadUK
Their standoff makes Kirk decide not to immediately kill it, but it’s not until he finds out that it was a mother protecting her children that he actively decides to save and protect it. I don’t think that mental change happened until he walked into the chamber full of broken eggs. Between his first encounter and that entrance he was mulling it over, trying to understand her violence–but I don’t believe he actively decides to save her until he realizes that she’s a mother. That’s what bothered me. Like with the salt vampire, they all agree it’s sad and unfortunate that the last creature of its kind simply must be killed so that men can have their resources, but in neither case is that fact enough to warrant saving and protecting the creature.
I don’t see that at all. Remember?
‘You’re a doctor. There’s a patient. That’s an order.’
That happens before he finds the eggs. Moreover, it happens before he knows anything about the history of the horta race; Spock hasn’t learned that from the mind meld yet.
In fact, because Kirk doesn’t know that this horta is the last of her race, your argument that he’s willing to kill the last creature of its kind in order to obtain resources simply falls apart: he doesn’t know he’s doing that, and he doesn’t change his mind simply because he discovers she’s a mother.
You’re looking just a bit too hard for sexism.
@NomadUK #29
You’re looking just a bit too hard for sexism.
I’m not sure sexism is the issue here. I think it was more that as the last of its kind, the creature is doomed, but when there’s a whole new generation it could raise–when the creature is the last link between the past and a future–that makes it more valuable. It’s even more tragic to kill the creature if there’s a reasonable chance that it might flourish again.
As for the actual timing of the emotional change, I think Kirk’s perspective changes once he’s face to face with the thing and it doesn’t kill him immediately (opening the possibility of a non-violent solution that Kirk wouldn’t trust anyone else to judge correctly). So really it’s more about Kirk’s inability to delegate. Why do you think he leads all those away missions himself, anyway? :)
He also sees it and has a chance to start being curious… and for Kirk that’s often enough.
@28 and @29
I just put in my DVD and replayed those scenes (stop judging me! You’re just as crazy as I am!)
Kirk’s attitude certainly changes before he finds out the Horta is a mother. He orders McCoy to heal the Horta before he finds the eggs.
My interpretation of why Kirk’s attitude changed is that he realised the Horta was a rational creature, not a crazy monster. If the Horta was rational, it must have a had reason for its attacks. So he tried to persuade the Horta to trust him, so they could solve the problem without violence.
As for that salt monster – although the creature was sentient, it was not rational. Damn ship was full of salt, why did she have to keep sucking it out of people? Crazy loon.
@@@@@ 29 NomadUK
Who on earth is talking sexism?
I’m referring to the conversation between Kirk and Spock, long before they even meet the creature, when Spock says: “Or it is the last of a race of creatures which made these tunnels. If so, if it is the only survivor of a dead race. To kill it would be a crime against science.” Kirk responds: “Our mission is to protect the colony, to get the pergium moving again. This is not a zoological expedition….I’m sorry, Mr. Spock, but I’m afraid the creature must die.”
He fully admits and accepts the possibility that it’s the last of its kind, and rejects that as sufficient ground to save it.
@@@@@ 32
He fully admits and accepts the possibility that it’s the last of its kind, and rejects that as sufficient ground to save it.
Well, yeah. It’s killing people.
Perhaps I misread your original statement, ‘I’m a little annoyed that no one cared about the Horta until they found out it was a mom.’ I see your annoyance is not with the mother angle per se. But Kirk’s a hardass and he’s there to do a job; Spock’s objection is a hypothesis, not an established fact.
As noted, it’s the transformation of Kirk’s attitude that’s the point of the episode. Without it, the story isn’t interesting.
I agree that effects are not as important as story but really I do believe the episode would have been even better with better effects. Henson muppets don’t do it for me. Dark Crystal I could never watch..
That said I loved this episode for someone no one else has touched on. Usually Trek is very much soft science fiction. We don’t spend a lot of time talking about how the techonolgoy works or why. Here though the creature is made out of silicon, the element RIGHT BELOW CARBON on the periodic table. And as any one who has had high school chemistry can tell you elements in the same column on the periodic table have simmilar properties so life based on silicon isn’t that far fetched.
Still I had th same effect as the other poster when I saw this one. Being raised on STNG I originally luaghed at the effects and then the story got me. This was one of the first TOS episodes I saw and got me interested enough to watch the others.
I love this episode for a reason which no one has touched on (on these comments that is ;D)
because of the SLASHINESS.
The part when Kirk finds the Horta and calls spock on his communicator telling him it’s 10 feet away from him. Did you SEE Spocks reaction to that?? He tells him “SHOOT IT CAPTAIN!!! Jim… your life is in danger you can’t take the risk.” Spock says this right AFTER he deliberately told him to keep the creature safe for further research.
…now why would Spock do that? Only one reason. He wants to protect his Captain. His T’hy’la. HIS LOVER for all those out there who are blinded by the beautiful relationship these two share.
people! people! people! this episode is a 6. it has all the ingredients that make star trek (TOS) great, and much more.
this episode is one of the best in its depiction of the relationships between kirk, spock, and mccoy. and the line that he’s “a doctor, not a bricklayer” is probably mccoy’s best ever. the evolving and changing attitudes of kirk and spock toward the destruction of the horta WAS THE INTENTION of the writers. if every character knows precisely the right actions to take when problems are first encountered, then there would be little use in creating stories. one of the great gifts of star trek is that a diverse array of characters need one another to solve technological as well as human problems. and that’s how life is both personally and culturally. we need one another to figure out the best solutions and it takes time and effort to come to that understanding. the writers are also showing the conflict that often exists between one’s personal and professional points of view.
this episode also highlights the conflict between the needs of different sciences: in this case, the need to produce energy and the need to learn from biology. the point is that there are no instant answers to these problems, no formula that works in all situations, and that it takes the cooperation of all thinking persons to come up with the best answers.
personally, i saw all the star trek episodes when they first aired, probably saw most of them twice when they were summer reruns. one of the great attractions of the series to me was the respect the show had for science and reasoning. i am probably wrong, but other science fiction on tv seemed to be mainly camp and actually an insult to anyone who respected science. i marvel at some of the nitpicks of star trek science when everyone assumes that warp drive, phasers, and transporters are nothing out of the ordinary. yes, sometimes star trek yields to convenience, but the overall tenor of the show was that science and reasoning were the right tools to use for problem-solving. this was a strong message for me personally in a time when many people’s emotions fashioned their attitudes toward the important issues of the day.
i could write reams on this episode: fear of the unknown, prejudice toward something that is different, compassion…but i’ll only say that i have watched almost nothing of the shows sometimes mentioned on this blog, but the little i have seen pales in comparison to what was both attempted and achieved on star trek. i have always considered it a unique perspective on the human condition and a noble effort.
and finally, to all the nitpickers…i hope that you noticed that almost all of your criticisms were refuted in the comments by someone else. here’s my own refutation. to the comment that all energy needs should be satisfied by matter/antimatter reactors, maybe those only work in space, with zero gravity or the absence of an atmosphere.
kudos to those who remastered the episodes. kudos to those who created this and other star trek blogs and sources of information. -george-
Shouldn’t those broken eggs have had evidence of something inside of them? When Kirk found the broken eggs, shouldn’ this first response have been ‘oh, these must have hatched … there must be babies around somewhere.’
I know I’m commenting way after the fact, but as far as why Kirk and company were willing to kill the creature before they found out she was a mother, they didn’t know why the creature was murdering and sabatoging the colonists if they hadn’t attacked it first. The fact that the horta was a mother and that the miners had been destroying her eggs explained that.
Wow….I can’t believe this episode got two 4’s. I’m actually doing a re-watch right now, and there are many episodes that I either never watched as a kid, or that I have forgotten to the point that I may as well have never watched them. Going into the re-watch I probably would have listed this as my favorite episode. This far into my re-watch, it is far and away my favorite episode (so far). As several others have mentioned, the impressions this episode made on me as a kid have stuck with me into adulthood moreso than any other TOS episode. If you read the “Reception” section of the Memory Alpha article on this episode, you will see that it had quite an impression on a wide range of people (Gene Roddenberry, William Shatner, Arthur C. Clarke, Leonard Nimoy). Clarke noted in 1995 that it was the only episode of TOS that he could recall. I think these impressions speak volumes about the quality of this episode.
A few points (I apologize that many of these have been touched on already):
–The puppet is ridiculous looking, yes, but that doesn’t matter. The story is so good that it wouldn’t have been any better even if it had been an awesome-looking CG horta. Also, Shatner and Nimoy should be credited here as well, as they do a phenomenable job selling it.
–It’s very refreshing to FINALLY get an alien that isn’t just a shapeless blob with god-like powers, or a species basically indistinguishable from humans (a la A Taste of Armageddon). Sure we’ve had an odd Gorn here, and a Salt Vampire there, but to finally get a truly bizarre, non-humanoid alien is great fun.
–I definitely wouldn’t say no one cared about the Horta until they learned it was a mom. I would say no one knew that the Horta wasn’t a mindless killing machine until they learned it was a mom. And why should one care about a mindless killing machine, exactly? Sure, their mission is to seek out new life, but you can’t do any seeking if you’re dead. At some point you have to put self-defense before seeking.
–As for the slavery issue, I literally laughed out loud when I read that. Tell me, if one horta can wreak havoc on such a huge scale once angered, what do you think hundreds or thousands of them would do if they decided they were getting manipulated or exploited? Sure, the miners have learned that phaser 2 can hurt them, but do you really think any amount of miners with phasers could stop an army of enraged horta tunneling towards them from all directions? Honestly, I’d be more worried about the humans being enslaved than the horta.
–I think one of the greatest things about this episode is that we have Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all at their finest. Spock’s mind-meld is awesome, and Nimoy totally sells it. McCoy’s healing the horta and “bricklayer” line = awesome. As for Kirk, as someone previously mentioned, maybe the whole point was that Kirk was shown to be wrong about wanting to kill the horta. I guess it pisses some poeple off that he ever felt that way, but it would be a pretty boring episode if he was trying to save it from the start. Part of the point of drama is to see character arcs and development. And I don’t think it’s too outside of his character to want to kill something that, as far as he knows at the time, is an indiscriminate killing machine.
Re-reading this, I realize I sound sort of angry. Sorry about that…I just really love this episode :). I feel it is “classic Trek” in every sense, and is unquestionably in the top 10 for TOS, so I was just a bit shocked because I was fully expecting to see 6’s when I got to this re-watch article.
I think this is one of the best Star Trek episodes — I put it at #3 (after “Amok Time” and “Journey to Babel.”) I think it’s the most quintessentially Trekkian of all, because of the lessons it teaches:
1. Don’t judge others by appearances.
2. There are two sides to every story.
3. Other people have reasons for the things they do that are just as valid as your own. TALK to them, and maybe you can find out what those reasons are.
Much of our international relations would go better if we kept those principles in mind.
I love McCoy’s being able to heal the horta. I love Spock’s being the lone voice arguing for preserving it until Kirk is threatened, and then his strong feelings for his captain trump his devotion to science and his reverence for life. I love the mind meld and the way it conveys how differently the horta thinks and how hard it is for Spock to translate her thoughts into terms we can understand. And god, what a performance! Who but Nimoy could play against a giant pizza and make it both moving and convincing?
I love it that when this episode ends, it turns out that there are no villains here, or if there are, those villains are prejudice, rush to judgment, and miscommunication.
I think it would be a better world if every person in it saw “The Devil in the Dark.”
There’s Kirk/Horta slashfic out there… you’ve been warned!
First let me say I’ve been enjoying reading the comments on this series thus far. This episode I swear I remember thinking of the alien as a pizza monster and I still do : )
I wanted to talk abou the 50,000 years thing. I’m quoting from Eugene: “What kind of alien biology requires all but one member of a species to die out every 50,000 years?”
Well I’d like to make some assertions. Firstly this is an alien creature, that is silicon based which should automatically exclude it from contemporary expectations of life as we literally know it. But even if that isn’t enough what we can say about life and the environment in which it thrives needs some kind of natural balance.
So Spock commented that there was no volcanic activity on the planet. Now that is a stretch. The entire planet Mr. Spock? But okay let’s go with that. It could be that the planet has very slow magma activity that happens to be suitable for these Horta. As they say the Horta survives by eating rocks so it could be a natural churning period between what seemingly millions of Horta consume and the planet replenishes very slowly. So there’s a Horta population explosion followed by a removal of alot of rock and then either by lifespans naturally ending or what would be lack of rock food the Horta die out leaving only one to care for the next generation perhaps long enough where in that time somewhere the planet experiences a geological upheaval. Or may be this upheaval is what contributes to killing off many Horta. Who knows.
I think my biggest gripe in this episode is that they could actually communicate with the Horta at all. But that I think falls more on my lack of calling the resolution from when I watched it years ago. When Spock mind-melded with the creature I had always assumed he was getting a general feeling for what the Horta was experiencing but not really communicating with it.
Finally they said in the episode that the planet had no signs of life for their mining duties but as they’ve seen there is at least one form of life. It just so happens its a lifeform not detectable by standard equipment. So there could be other lifeforms roaming around that they have no clue about.
“What kind of alien biology requires all but one member of a species to die out every 50,000 years?”
Of all the things to nitpick. Might as well ask what kind of biology would require a creature to murder its partner in order to reproduce. Or you could probably list 100 other weird things about animals on this planet, that don’t seem to make sense at first blush. If you can accept the premise that there exists such a species as a horta, is it really such a big leap to accept that maybe they have weird things about their biology that we don’t understand?
35. dcole78WEDNESDAY JULY 08, 2009 09:00PM EDTI wrote:
>> Here though the creature is made out of silicon, the element RIGHT BELOW CARBON on the periodic table. And as any one who has had high school chemistry can tell you elements in the same column on the periodic table have simmilar properties so life based on silicon isn’t that far fetched. <<
It’s my understanding that silicone-based life will explode or catch fire in an oxygen atmosphere – confirmation?
The mission summaries always make me laugh, and look at the episodes in a new light. Thank you for that.
The somewhat painful search for things that are offensive within each episode, and the bobblehead agreement by other commenters–Yawn. You people bore me trying to be “relevant” and outdo one another with your whining.
epilogue:
VANDERBERG: Kirk! Help me! The hortas broke the deal. They’re killing everyone. I think I’m the last one left! O God! AAAIIIIIII….
KIRK: Serves the SOBs right for giving my security officer a concussion. Ahead warp factor 2, Mr. Sulu.
The Horta aren’t so much working for the Human miners as they letting them have the side product of their normal behavior. Since the Federation are Good Guys we can assume that the profits will be shared with the Horta in some form.
48, alternatively, the Horta all died from a plague induced by McCoy’s inept sterilization procedures. It was very sad.
Well if you want to go dark, ;)
Personally I like to think that after their truly horrible introduction Horta and Humans become the best of friends and come to thoroughly enjoy living and working together. Next time the Horta die off they won’t have a lone female looking after the eggs but a whole community of Humans eagerly awaiting their hatching.
@50/Roxana: That’s a lovely thought! Of course, it won’t happen for another fifty thousand years, so human civilisation (or human/Horta civilisation) will look very different by then.