Easily one of the best episodes from the original Star Trek series, "Amok Time" was written by the novelist Theodore Sturgeon, who came up with a story about a Vulcan mating cycle that occurs every seven years and drives the normally stolid, logical, pointy-eared humanoids wild. When Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is suddenly caught in the grip of pon farr, a crazy-making urge to mate, he sets a course for his home planet despite orders to the contrary from Captain Kirk (William Shatner). Kirk comes around, however, and accompanies Spock and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) to Vulcan, where Spock is to wed T'Pring (Arlene Martel) in an arranged marriage. But T'Pring formally rejects Spock, forcing a duel in which the captain must participate or let Spock die. There's high drama galore in this one, beginning with Spock's feverish savagery and extending to the fascinating complexity of Vulcan rituals, set against the eerie emptiness of the planet's landscape. For good measure, there's also the startling sight of Kirk and Spock fighting it out to the death. Supporting performances are terrific, including that of Celia Lovsky (the real-life wife of Peter Lorre) as the matriarch T'Pau. This is also the episode that gave birth to the split-fingered Vulcan salute (inspired by Nimoy's memories of the kohanin blessing at Jewish temples) and the phrase "live long and prosper." One of Trek's more highly charged episodes, you can feel a certain spontaneous energy here--indeed, some of the more inspired actors even made up their own lines. --Tom Keogh
Also on this DVD
"Who Mourns for Adonais?"
A nifty idea: the Greek god Apollo turns out to be quite real, a powerful
extraterrestrial (Michael Forest) waiting some 5,000 years for the human race
to develop enough to meet him out in the cosmos. Catching sight of the Enterprise,
he immobilizes the ship and demands that the members of a landing
party--Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Chief
Engineer Scott (James Doohan), Chekov (Walter Koenig), and antiquities
specialist Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas (Leslie Parrish)--bow before him and
prepare to spend the rest of their lives being cherished through his insistent
love. A doubting Kirk recruits his people to secretly find the mechanical
source of Apollo's power to throw lightning bolts, become a giant, and punish
his naughty Enterprise children by tossing them around like rag dolls.
The stern god gives Kirk a sword, so to speak, by falling for Lt. Palamas,
setting the stage for some stormy drama late in the game. Written by
television veteran and Greek myth aficionado Gilbert Ralston (with a polish by
producer Gene L. Coon that enhanced the story's relationships), and directed
by Marc Daniels, "Who Mourns for Adonais?" is one of those classic Trek
episodes that lingers in the memory for the creative incongruity of its story
line (starships and Olympians) and principal set (an Athenian temple with a
few trees, shrubs, and confused Starfleet personnel). Wonderful stuff. A
subplot involving Scotty's big-time crush on Palamas provides a rare glimpse
into the emotional life of one of the supporting players--even if his gallant
efforts to save her from Apollo's wooing result in a concussion or two. --Tom
Keogh
