“While beaming up from planet Alpha 177, a transporter accident splits Captain Kirk into two beings: one "good", who is weak and indecisive; and one "evil", who is overly aggressive and domineering. Scotty must quickly repair the transporter system to reunite the two Kirks and rescue the landing party trapped on the surface of the icy planet below.”
Five episodes in and already this series has more meaning than all of Enterprise combined. This episode takes a look at man’s good and evil side, and how we need both our positive and negative aspects in order to function. In the beginning we have the crew on this planet and Sulu is holding a weird dog creature. He comments to Kirk that the weather is going to get “nippy”, whether this is meant to be a weird racist joke I have no idea. Some dude gets transported up and has all of this weird powder on his suite. Scotty tells him to go contaminate himself … then he walks around the ship in order to find this contamination room?? The dog and Kirk get beamed up and both get split into good and evil versions.
Evil Kirk has the greatest facial expressions ever. He goes to see McCoy and says the greatest line, “I said gimme the brandy!” Then for possibly the 4th time in five episodes, Yeoman Rand almost gets raped! This ship is more dangerous than the Penn State locker room (yes, I will never let this joke go). Anyway, she is only saved because Lt. Leslie shows up … who was also Lt. Ryan in Naked Time. It’s interesting to note that this actor (usually as Lt. Leslie) shows up in something like 57 episodes.
Leonard Nimoy looks so old for some reason, he’s very wrinkly. Anyway, Kirk again has his shirt off and he has the same body as every “jacked” guy from the 60’s. It’s like they ONLY worked out the arms. Fuck the rest of the body, just give me half way decent arms. Oh so when Evil Kirk attacks Rand he tries to kiss her, and it’s the oddest kiss ever. It’s like Shatner has no idea what he’s doing … which is also viewed in the pathetic Shatner sex scene attempt in Big Bad Momma. Which leads me to believe that William Shatner was a virgin well into the 1980’s.
Good Kirk’s mind starts to slip and Spock realizes that the good and evil Kirk’s need each to survive. Evil Kirk attacks Good Kirk and nearly takes over the ship but they meet up on the bridge. There is a classic “which is the real one?” moment. Finally they sort of become friends and they go onto the transporter to merge together with the help of Scotty. Meanwhile Sulu and crew have been freezing to death stuck on the planet surface. The merge of Good and Evil Kirk is successful and Sulu is saved. In the end there is an odd scene in which Spock hits on Rand, but this may actually make sense because it shows Spock’s human side. Kirk has a good line, “I’ve seen a part of myself that no man should ever see”. I can only assume he means his ass. This episode is awesome.
ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 6 down 74 to go
1 comment:
Against my better judgment, I cracked up at that Penn State joke.
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