The Enemy Within, TOS 1
Here’s another slam dunk of an episode. A transporter malfunction (that isn’t the last you’ve seen of those) splits Kirk in two. His good half must chase down his evil half. And while the evil half is drinking Saurian Brandy is chasing Yeoman Janice Rand around her quarters, the good Kirk realizes that — he’s not an effective manager!!! All kidding aside, this is one of the more solid “what if” scenarios, and a great example of how a good episode of Trek can take a very basic situation and play it out in what feels like a timeless piece of ancient literature. And, while Shatner-as-Evil-Kirk has to floss pieces of furniture out of his teeth, Shatner-as-wuss is actually quite effective.
Disagree heavily here. This one only gets three stars from me, if that.
The storytelling is not worked out very well (why not shuttle out the stranded crewmen? Do we really need the transporter here? No explanation is given why this is the case). Penn’s direction tries to be moody, but instead ends up merely melancholy and vague. As a result, Shatner’s (over)acting goes nuclear and remains unfocused.
Not a favorite of mine, though I do enjoy the general feeling of despair created when the direction and acting actually works.
Comment by Troy J. Martin — January 13, 2012 @ 12:39 pm
I think this is a great episode. We all have parts of our make up that we would rather not look in the face. Also, it generated a short story (I forget who by) where it happens to Spock but his human and vulcan sides separate out in the transporter. Jim has been through it all and helps him to agree to the reintegration. There’s a great line where vulcan spock says that it’s not just human spock who is Jim’s friend. Aw!
Comment by JMBIRD — March 9, 2012 @ 2:07 pm