The Named Time - Star Trek TV Episode   [ Synopsis | Editorial Reviews ]
Production # 7
Air Date: 9/29/1966
Stardate: 1704.2

 

 

Synopsis:

Spock and Joe Tormolen beam down to planet Psi 2000 to pick up a research party before the planet disintegrates. They find everyone has died, frozen when life support was turned off. Even stranger, the positions of the researcher's bodies show they were out of their minds when they perished and some died by suicide.

Unknowingly, Tormolen carried what is later termed the "Psi 2000" virus, back to the U.S.S. Enterprise and it spreads among the crew at an alarming rate, reaching into their souls and pulling out their deepest desires for public display. The virus is water borne and spread by perspiration in a touch. While trying to stop Tormolen from killing himself, Sulu and Kevin Riley are infected with the virus.

The crew begin displaying actions that are humorous exaggerations of their desires, like Sulu threatening the bridge with a fencing foil and Kirk becoming overly romantic toward the crew. Others are more heart-wrenching, like Christine Chapel admitting her love for Spock and the Vulcan weeping uncontrollably. The deadliest result, however, is when Riley declares himself captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise and locks himself in Engineering. Unfortunately, he also locks everyone else out. Once in command of the ship's engines, Riley shuts them down and the U.S.S. Enterprise is pulled toward Psi 2000 by its erratic gravity.

McCoy manages to avoid contracting the virus and finds an antidote which cures the crew.

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com

Volume 3 in this terrific DVD library of original Star Trek programs includes "The Man Trap," the first broadcast episode of the Gene Roddenberry series. Though it was not the first story produced for the show, the process was still new enough that contracted writers were obliged to fill in various blanks, develop some of the key characters, and smoothly introduce some of the Trek technology we've come to take for granted. Writer George Clayton Johnson conceived a story in which an old flame of Dr. McCoy's (DeForest Kelley), a woman named Dr. Nancy Carter (Jeanny Bealy), is in need of medical supplies on a planet where she and her husband (Alfred Ryder) are the only humans. "Nancy," however, turns out to be a shape-shifting creature that sucks the salt from the bodies of humanoids. Once it's loose aboard the Enterprise, the "salt vampire" can look like anyone in its pursuit of nourishment.

With McCoy having such a pivotal part in the narrative, Johnson worked with the series' story editor and episode director (Marc Daniels) on fleshing out his underdeveloped character. There were other issues to think about: this premiere show introduced the Enterprise's transporter technology as well as Star Trek's realistic take on scary extraterrestrials. Everyone involved survived the episode, and while it played only to a meager television audience, Trek was off and running for three-plus decades.

Also on this DVD is episode 4, "The Naked Time," in which an alien disease that strips inhibitions from individuals affects the Enterprise crew. Sulu (George Takei) frees the swashbuckler in his soul, Kirk (William Shatner) battles his demons, and a young lieutenant, Riley (Bruce Hyde), serenades the entire starship and steers her toward certain doom. Still early in the proceedings, this episode introduced a psychological aspect that would become a cornerstone for the storytelling on all four Trek series. --Tom Keogh

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