This Side of Paradise

1x24 A Taste of Armageddon The Devil in the Dark Star Trek: The Original SeriesSeason 1

 STORY BY

Jerry Sohl & D. C. Fontana

 TELEPLAY BY

D. C. Fontana

 DIRECTED BY

Ralph Senensky

 AIRED ON

March 2, 1967

 RUNTIME

50 minutes

 STARRING

 VIEWS

333

 LAST UPDATE

2024-09-18 20:54:15

 PAGE VERSION

Version 6

 LIKES

1

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0

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 STORY

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 BEHIND THE SCENES

• Spock's Unusual Emotions: This episode is particularly famous for allowing Spock, who is usually stoic and logical, to experience and express emotions. Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, gave an incredible performance as his character experiences love and happiness for the first time. His romance with Leila Kalomi, played by Jill Ireland, is memorable because Spock, usually torn between his Vulcan and human sides, surrenders to blissful emotions due to the spores on the planet Omicron Ceti III.
• The Title's Origins: The episode's title is inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's novella This Side of Paradise, though how it connects to the plot is unclear. However, the title fits the theme of the episode, as the crew is seduced by an idyllic, yet unnatural, way of life.
• Frank Overton's Final Role: Actor Frank Overton, who played Elias Sandoval, tragically passed away shortly after this episode aired, making it his final performance.
• Production Changes: The script was originally written by Jerry Sohl under the title The Way of the Spores. However, it was heavily revised by D.C. Fontana, leading to a more character-driven narrative focusing on Spock.
• Kirk's Heroic Moment: A defining moment in the episode is when Kirk, who has remained unaffected by the spores, uses anger to free Spock from their influence. This emotional scene between Spock and Kirk emphasizes their deepening friendship, even as Spock sadly reflects that, for the first time in his life, he was truly happy.

 QUOTES

McCoy: On pure speculation, just an educated guess, I'd say that man is alive.

Leila: Mr. Spock and I have met before. It's been a long time.

Elias: You've known the Vulcanian?
Leila: On Earth, six years ago.
Elias: Did you love him?
Leila: If I did, it was important only to myself.
Elias: How did he feel?
Leila: Mr. Spock's feelings were never expressed to me. It is said he has none to give.

Kirk: It's like a jigsaw puzzle all one colour. No key to where the pieces fit in. Why?

Spock: I have never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to any question.

Spock: I love you. I can love you.

Spock: That one looks like a dragon. You see the tail and the dorsal spines?
Leila: I've never seen a dragon.
Spock: I have. On Berengaria Seven. But I've never stopped to look at clouds before. Or rainbows. You know, I can tell you exactly why one appears in the sky, but considering its beauty has always been out of the question.

McCoy: Hiya, Jimmy boy! Hey, I've taken care of everything. All y'all gotta do is relax. Doctor's orders.

Kirk: This is mutiny, mister.
Leslie: Yes, sir. It is.

Elias: We have no need or want, Captain.
Spock: It's a true Eden, Jim. There's belonging and love.
Kirk: No wants. No needs. We weren't meant for that. None of us. Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is.
Elias: We have what we need.
Kirk: Except a challenge.

Kirk: Captain's log, stardate 3417.7. Except for myself, all crew personnel have transported to the surface of the planet. Mutinied. Lieutenant Uhura has effectively sabotaged the communications station. I can only contact the surface of the planet. The ship can be maintained in orbit for several months, but even with automatic controls, I cannot pilot her alone. In effect, I am marooned here. I'm beginning to realize just how big this ship really is, how quiet. I don't know how to get my crew back, how to counteract the effect of the spores. I don't know what I can offer against paradise.

Kirk: All right, you mutinous, disloyal, computerized, half-breed, we'll see about you deserting my ship.
Spock: The term half-breed is somewhat applicable, but computerized is inaccurate. A machine can be computerized, not a man.
Kirk: What makes you think you're a man? You're an overgrown jackrabbit, an elf with a hyperactive thyroid.

Kirk: What can you expect from a simpering, devil-eared freak whose father was a computer and his mother an encyclopedia?
Spock: My mother was a teacher. My father an ambassador.
Kirk: Your father was a computer, like his son. An ambassador from a planet of traitors. A Vulcan never lived who had an ounce of integrity.
Spock: Captain, please don't
Kirk: You're a traitor from a race of traitors. Disloyal to the core, rotten like the rest of your subhuman race, and you've got the gall to make love to that girl.
Spock: That's enough.
Kirk: Does she know what she's getting, Spock? A carcass full of memory banks who should be squatting in a mushroom, instead of passing himself off as a man? You belong in a circus, Spock, not a starship. Right next to the dog-faced boy.

Spock: I am what I am, Leila, and if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else's.

Leila: Do you mind if I say I still love you? You never told me if you had another name, Mr. Spock.
Spock: (wiping away her tears) You couldn't pronounce it.

McCoy: Well, that's the second time man's been thrown out of paradise.
Kirk: No, no, Bones. This time we walked out on our own. Maybe we weren't meant for paradise. Maybe we were meant to fight our way through. Struggle, claw our way up, scratch for every inch of the way. Maybe we can't stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the sound of drums.
Spock: Poetry, Captain. Non-regulation.
Kirk: We haven't heard much from you about Omicron Ceti Three, Mr. Spock.
Spock: I have little to say about it, Captain, except that for the first time in my life I was happy.

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 REVIEWS

Spock's girlfriend

Written by Pike on 2019-04-24
★ ★ ★ ★

FUN!
I really enjoyed this episode. I'm not sure if it is that good or if it's simply guilty pleasure, but this episode, which could have been easily cheesy and ridiculous, is working quite well. This is what should be a fun episode, not something overly exaggerated with overly funny music. But a real story that provides for fun. But not the big aha laughs. The episode is still serious.

MUCH MORE
What could have been a very bad episode with Spock having a girlfriend is actually much more than this!

POOR JIM-BOY
The scene of Kirk being left alone on the ship is really well directed.

KIRK v SPOCK
And what about that outstanding moment when Captain Kirk finally meets again Spock? "All right, you mutinous, disloyal, computerized half-breed, we'll see about you deserting my ship."
That scene is just so overly exciting I couldn't believe my eyes. Beautifully directed and equally well played.

LAYLA & SPOCK
Also, the final scene between Mr. Spock and his girlfriend Layla is just perfect. The music, the acting, the words. Just perfect.
"Spock: I have a responsibility... to this ship... to that man on the bridge. I am what I am, Layla... And if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mince can be no worse than someone else's."
Absolute perfection.

SUMMARY
I give it 4 out of 5. Very good.

 TRANSCRIPT

[Bridge]
PAINTER: Approaching Omicron Ceti Three, sir.
KIRK: Standard orbit, Mister Painter.
PAINTER: Yes, sir.
UHURA: Captain.
KIRK: Yes, Lieutenant.
UHURA: I've been transmitting a contact signal every five minutes. All I get is dead air. Shall I continue?
KIRK: Maintain transmission pattern until we've established orbit.
UHURA: Aye, aye, sir.
KIRK: Mister Spock, there were one hundred and fifty men, women, and children in that colony. What are the chances of survivors?
SPOCK: Absolutely none, Captain. Berthold rays are such a recent discovery. We do not yet have full knowledge of their nature. It is known, however, that living animal tissue disintegrates under exposure. Sandoval's group could not have survived after three years.
KIRK: Are you saying that those people built a future in a place knowing they might not survive?
SPOCK: I am saying they knew there was a risk.
KIRK: And what about us? Can we afford to send people to the planet's surface?
SPOCK: The breakdown of tissue does not develop immediately. We can risk a limited exposure.
PAINTER: We've established orbit, sir, and I've pinpointed a settlement.
KIRK: Thank you, Mister Painter. Mister Spock, equip a landing party of five to accompany me to the planet's surface. Include Doctor McCoy and a biologist. I'll want them in ten minutes.

[Farm yard]

(The group beam down into a farm, complete with wooden fence and a tarmacadamed paths. There are clap-board buildings and even a stable block.)
KIRK: Another dream that failed. There's nothing sadder. It took these people a year to make the trip from Earth. They came all that way and died.
ELIAS: Hardly that, sir. Welcome to Omicron Ceti Three. I'm Elias Sandoval.

Captain's log, stardate 3417.3. We thought our mission to Omicron Ceti Three would be an unhappy one. We had expected to find no survivors of the agricultural colony there. Apparently, our information was incorrect.

[Farm yard]

ELIAS: We haven't seen anyone outside our group for four years since we left Earth. We've been expecting someone for some time. Our subspace radio didn't work properly, and I'm afraid we didn't have anyone who could master its intricacies.
KIRK: Actually, Mister Sandoval, we didn't come here because of your silent radio.
ELIAS: It makes little difference, Captain. You're here. We're happy to see you. Come, let me show you our settlement.
MCCOY: On pure speculation, just an educated guess, I'd say that man is alive.
SPOCK: Captain, this planet is being bombarded by Berthold rays, as our reports indicated. At this intensity, we'll be safe for a week if necessary. But
KIRK: But these people shouldn't be alive.
SULU: Is it possible that they're not?
MCCOY: You shook hands with him, Jim. His flesh was warm. He's alive. There's no doubt about that.
SPOCK: There's also no question of the fact that Berthold rays are incontrovertibly deadly. There's no miracle connected with it, Doctor, you know that. No cures, no serums, no antidotes. If a man is exposed long enough, he dies.
KIRK: Gentlemen, we're debating in a vacuum. Let's go get some answers.

[Farmhouse]

(Elias leads the way into a comfortable room with wooden furniture and gingham curtains.)
ELIAS: There are two other settlements, but we have forty five colonists here.
KIRK: What was the reason for the dispersal?
ELIAS: We felt three groups would have better potential. If disease were to strike one group, the others would be less likely to be affected. You see, Omicron is an ideal agricultural planet. We determined not to suffer the fate of expeditions that went before us.
LEILA: Elias.
ELIAS: Leila, come meet our guests. This is Leila Kalomi, our botanist. This is Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy, Mister Spock.
LEILA: Mister Spock and I have met before. It's been a long time.
KIRK: Mister Sandoval, we do have a mission here. Examinations, tests.
ELIAS: By all means, make them. I think you'll find our settlement an interesting one. Our philosophy is a simple one, that men should return to a less complicated life. We have few mechanical things here. No vehicles, no weapons. We have harmony here. Complete peace.
KIRK: We'll try not to interfere with your work.
ELIAS: Make yourselves at home, gentlemen.

[Outside, by the barn]

KELOWITZ: What exactly are we looking for anyway, sir?
SULU: Whatever doesn't look right, whatever that is. When it comes to farms, I wouldn't know what looked right or wrong if it were two feet from me.
(You mean like that weird alien plant right next to you?)
KELOWITZ: (opening up the barn door) Hey.
SULU: What is it?
KELOWITZ: No cows. This barn isn't even built for them, Just for storage.
SULU: Come to think of it, we haven't seen any animals. No horses, no pigs, not even a dog. Nothing.

[Farmhouse]

ELIAS: You've known the Vulcanian?
LEILA: On Earth, six years ago.
ELIAS: Did you love him?
LEILA: If I did, it was important only to myself.
ELIAS: How did he feel?
LEILA: Mister Spock's feelings were never expressed to me. It is said he has none to give.
ELIAS: Would you like him to stay with us now, to be as one of us?
LEILA: There is no choice, Elias. He will stay.

[Drawing room]

(In another part of the farmhouse, McCoy is conducting medical examinations.)
MCCOY: That'll be all. Thank you very much.
(The man leaves, Kirk enters.)
KIRK: Anything?
MCCOY: I've examined nine men so far, varying in ages from twenty three to fifty nine. They're all in perfect condition. Text book responses. Heart, lungs, excellent. Co-ordination, excellent. Reflexes, excellent. If there are many more of them, I could throw away my shingle.
(Communicator beeps)
KIRK: Kirk here.

[Pasture]

SPOCK: Spock here, Captain. There seems to be a total absence of life on the planet, with the exception of the colonists and various types of flora.
KIRK [OC]: Sulu had the same observation. Any explanations?
SPOCK: Not at the moment, sir. I am conducting various tests with the tricorder, but results are inconclusive.

[Drawing room]

KIRK: Very well. Continue investigations. Kirk out.
MCCOY: No animals. That's peculiar.
KIRK: Yes, especially in view of the fact that the records for this expedition indicate that they did have some for breeding and food purposes. Apparently, none of them survived.
MCCOY: I'd like to see the medical records on the expedition.
KIRK: Yes, I thought you might.
(Hands over a computer disc)
ELIAS: Captain, I've been looking for you. You haven't seen our fields and crops. I'd like to show you and the Doctor what we've accomplished here.
MCCOY: I'm afraid I'll have to bow out. I have to continue with these medical examinations. However, if I find everyone else's health to be as perfect as yours, I
KIRK: He promised to throw away his shingle.
ELIAS: You'll find no weaklings here. Captain.

[Field]

ELIAS: This is the reason, Captain. This soil will grow anything we plant in it. It's a perfect world. We have a moderate climate, moderate rains all year round. It gives us all we need. It is perfect.
DESALLE: Pardon me, Captain. Biology report ready, sir.
ELIAS: I have work to attend to myself, Captain.
(He leaves them.)
KIRK: Go ahead, Lieutenant.
DESALLE: I heard Sandoval saying they could grow anything here. That's true, sir. They've got a variety of crops in. Grains, potatoes, beans.
KIRK: Make your point.
DESALLE: Well, sir, for an agricultural colony, they have actually very little acreage planted. There's enough to sustain the colony, but very little more.
KIRK: It's like a jigsaw puzzle all one colour. No key to where the pieces fit in. Why?
(Communicator beeps)
KIRK: Kirk here.
MCCOY: This is McCoy, Jim. I think you'd better get back here.
KIRK: Trouble?
MCCOY: No, but I'd like you to see this for yourself.
KIRK: On my way.

[Farmhouse]

MCCOY: Sandoval's medical record, four years ago when the expedition left Earth. He registered scar tissue on his lungs from lobar pneumonia suffered when he was a child. No major operations, but there was an appendectomy. Received all required inoculations, et cetera.
KIRK: What's so strange about that?
MCCOY: Nothing, but I examined that man no more than two hours ago. You know what his readings were? Perfect, perfect, and perfect. Just like everyone else I've examined here.
KIRK: Instrument malfunction?
MCCOY: No. I thought of that and tested it on myself. It accurately recorded my lack of tonsils and those two broken ribs I had once. It did not record the scar tissue on Sandoval's lungs, but it did record a healthy appendix where one was supposedly removed.

[Field]

(Spock is scanning amongst the rows of dry-looking somethings.)
SPOCK: Nothing. Not even insects. Yet your plants grow, and you've survived exposure to Berthold rays.
LEILA: That can be explained.
SPOCK: Please do.
LEILA: Later.
SPOCK: I have never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to any question.
LEILA: And I never understood you. Until now. There was always a place in here where no one could come. There was only the face you allow people to see. Only one side you'd allow them to know.
SPOCK: I would like to know how your people have managed to survive here.
LEILA: I missed you.
SPOCK: Logically, you should all be dead.
LEILA: If I tell you how we survived, will you try to understand how we feel about our life here? About each other?
SPOCK: Emotions are alien to me. I'm a scientist.
LEILA: Someone else might believe that. Your shipmates, your Captain, but not me. Come.

[Drawing Room]

KIRK: Mister Sandoval, within the hour I've received orders from Starfleet Command to evacuate all personnel from this colony. Naturally, you'll inform your people to begin preparations. We will have accommodations for you aboard the Enterprise.
ELIAS: No.
KIRK: It's not an arbitrary decision on my part. I have my orders.
ELIAS: Captain, it's entirely unnecessary. We're in no danger here.
MCCOY: We've explained the Berthold rays to you and their effect. Can't you understand?
ELIAS: Doctor, how can I make you understand? Your own instruments have shown that we're all in perfect health. We've had no deaths here.
KIRK: What about your animals?
ELIAS: We're vegetarians.
KIRK: That doesn't answer my question, sir. Why did all your animals die?
ELIAS: Captain, you stress very unimportant matters. We will not leave.

[Pasture]

(The grass is brown and dry, but the pink flowers are growing.)
LEILA: It's not much further.
SPOCK: You've not yet explained the nature of this thing.
LEILA: Its basic properties and elements are not important. What is important is it gives life, peace, love.
SPOCK: What you're describing was once known in the vernacular as a happiness pill. And you, as a scientist, should know that that's not possible.
LEILA: Come. I was one of the first to find them. The spores.
SPOCK: Spores?
(One of the pink flowers shoots things at him. Spock clutches his head and falls to the ground in pain.)
SPOCK: No.
LEILA: It shouldn't hurt.
SPOCK: No, I can't. Please, don't!
LEILA: Not like this. It didn't hurt us.
SPOCK: I am not like you.
(Suddenly the pain is gone.)
LEILA: Now. Now, you belong to all of us and we to you. There's no need to hide your inner face any longer. We understand.
SPOCK: I love you. I can love you.
(They kiss.)

Captain's log, supplemental. We have been ordered by Starfleet Command to evacuate the colony on Omicron Three. However, the colony leader, Elias Sandoval, has refused all co-operation and will not listen to any arguments.

[Farmyard]

KIRK: Sandoval.
ELIAS: Captain, your arguments are very valid, but they do not apply to us.
KIRK: You're being unreasonable.
ELIAS: Well, nevertheless. Excuse me.
KIRK: Excuse me. My orders are to remove all the colonists. That's exactly what I intend to do, with or without your help.
ELIAS; Without, I should think.
MCCOY: Would you like to use a butterfly net on him, Captain?
KIRK: No, I think we'll use a
SULU: Captain, we've checked out everything. It all seems normal, except for the absence of any animals.
KIRK: We have orders to evacuate all colonists to Starbase Twenty Seven.
I want landing parties to co-ordinate the colonists and prepare them for transport up to the ship. We'll need extra accommodations aboard. Where's Mister Spock and Mister DeSalle?
SULU: We haven't seen them since we began our check.
MCCOY: DeSalle said he was going to examine some native plants he found. Did Spock call in at all?
KIRK: No, he didn't. (gets out communicator) Spock? See to the landing parties, would you, Mister Sulu.
SULU: Yes, sir.
KIRK: Spock?

[Pasture]

(Spock's communicator is beeping to itself while he is lying in Leila's lap, looking at the clouds. He has changed out of his uniform into an overall.)
SPOCK: That one looks like a dragon. You see the tail and the dorsal spines?
LEILA: I've never seen a dragon.
SPOCK: I have. On Berengaria Seven. But I've never stopped to look at clouds before. Or rainbows. You know, I can tell you exactly why one appears in the sky, but considering its beauty has always been out of the question.
LEILA: Not here.
(She picks up the communicator and it opens.)
KIRK [OC]: Spock!
SPOCK: Yes, what did you want?

[Farmyard]

KIRK: Spock, is that you?

[Pasture]

SPOCK: Yes, Captain. What did you want?
KIRK [OC]: Where are you?
SPOCK: I don't believe I want to tell you.

[Farmyard]

KIRK: Spock, I don't know what you think you're doing, but this is an order. Report back to me at the settlement in ten minutes. We're evacuating all colonists to Starbase Twenty Seven.

[Pasture]

SPOCK: No, I don't think so.

[Farmyard]

KIRK: You don't think so, what?

[Pasture]

SPOCK: I don't think so, sir.

[Farmyard]

KIRK: Spock, report to me immediately.

[Pasture]

(But the communicator drops to the ground during another kiss)
KIRK [OC]: Spock? Acknowledge.

[Farmyard]

KIRK: Spock. The frequency is open, but he doesn't answer.
MCCOY: That didn't sound at all like Spock, Jim.
KIRK: No. I thought you said you might like him if he mellowed a little.
MCCOY: I didn't say that.
KIRK: You said that.
MCCOY: Not exactly. He might be in trouble.
KIRK: Yes, take over the landing party detail and start getting those colonists aboard.
MCCOY: How will you find Spock?
KIRK: The frequency is open. It'll act as a homing device. Contact DeSalle. Have him meet you here. Make sure the landing party work in teams of two. I don't want anybody left alone down here.

[Pasture]

(They find the communicator, and hear laughter. Spock is hanging upside down from a branch of a nearby tree.)
KIRK: Spock. (clears throat) Mister Spock.

[Beam-down point]

(Items are being collected to be taken up to the ship. DeSalle has brought some of the pink plants.)
MCCOY: What are you doing with those things, DeSalle?
DESALLE: I want you to take a close look at these, Doc. They're very interesting.

[Pasture]

KIRK: Mister Spock. Are you out of your mind? You were told to report to me at once.
SPOCK: I didn't want to, Jim.
KIRK: You? Yes, I can see that. Miss Kalomi, you'll have to come back to the settlement and prepare to transport up to the ship.
SPOCK: There'll be no evacuation, Jim, but perhaps we should go back and get you straightened out.
KIRK: Mister Sulu, Mister Spock is under arrest, and he's in your custody until we get back to the Enterprise.
SPOCK: Very well. Come with me.
(He takes Leila's hand and leads the group to a clump of the plants, where they all get sprayed with spores.)
KIRK: What's?
SPOCK: Mister Sulu understands, don't you, Mister Sulu?
SULU: Yes, I see now. Of course we can't remove the colony. It'd be wrong.
KIRK: I don't know what these plants are or how they work, but you're all going back to the settlement with me, and those colonists are going aboard the ship.
(Kirk leaves them.)
SPOCK: I can see the Captain is going to be difficult.

[Another pasture]

(No equipment or colonists now, just plants going up to the ship.) MCCOY: (with an extreme southern drawl) Ready to beam up. Hiya, Jimmy boy! Hey, I've taken care of everything. All y'all gotta do is relax. Doctor's orders.
KIRK: How many of those did you beam up?
MCCOY: Oh, must be nigh onto a hundred by now.
CHIEF [OC]: Hey, Doc, I'm ready to energise. Everything okay with those plants?
KIRK: This is the Captain. Beam me up.
CHIEF [OC]: Well, sure, if you want.
KIRK: I most certainly do. Energise.

[Bridge]

KIRK: Lieutenant, put me through to Admiral Komack at Starfleet.
UHURA: Oh, I'm sorry, Captain. I can't do that.
KIRK: What do you mean, you can't do that. Follow standard procedure. That's an order.
UHURA: Oh, I know it is, Captain, but you see, all communications are out.
KIRK: Out?
UHURA: I short-circuited them, except ship to surface. We'll need that for a while. It's really for the best, Captain.
(She leaves the Bridge. Kirk finds a plant and throws it angrily across the helm console before storming out himself.)

[Corridor]

(There's a long queue of crewmembers lounging against the wall outside the transporter room.)
KIRK: Get back to your stations. Get back to your stations.
LESLIE: I'm sorry, sir. We're all transporting down to join the colony.
KIRK: I said get back to your station.
LESLIE: No, sir.
KIRK: This is mutiny, mister.
LESLIE: Yes, sir. It is.

Captain's log, stardate 3417.5. The pod plants have spread spores throughout the ship, carried by the ventilation system. Under their influence, my crew is deserting to join the Omicron colony, and I can't stop them. I don't know why I have not been infected, nor can I get Doctor McCoy to explain the physical-psychological aspects of the infection.

[Pasture]

MCCOY: I'm not interested in any physical-psychological aspects, Jim boy. We all perfectly healthy down here.

[Bridge]

KIRK: I've heard that word a lot lately. Perfect. Everything's perfect.
MCCOY [OC]: Yeah. That's right. That's just what it is.
KIRK: I'll bet you've even grown your tonsils back.

[Pasture]

MCCOY: Sho'nuf. Hey, Jim boy, y'all ever have a real cold Georgia-style mint julep, huh?

[Bridge]

KIRK: Look, Bones, I need your help. Can you run tests, blood samples, anything at all to give us a lead on what these things are, how to counteract them?

[Pasture]

MCCOY: Who wants to counteract paradise, Jim boy?

[Bridge]

MCCOY [OC]: McCoy out.
KIRK: Bones. Bones.

[Farmhouse]

(Spock is pouring tea.)
SPOCK: Almost the entire ship's complement has beamed down.
ELIAS: I'm very pleased. The entire landing operation is proceeding quite well.
(Kirk enters)
KIRK: Where's McCoy?
SPOCK: He went off to create something called a mint julep. That's a drink, Jim.
ELIAS: Captain, why don't you join us?
KIRK: In your own private paradise.
ELIAS: The spores have made it that.
KIRK: Where did they originate?
SPOCK: It's impossible to say. They drifted through space until they finally landed here. You see, they actually thrive on Berthold rays. The plants act as a repository for thousands of microscopic spores until they find a human body to inhabit.
ELIAS: In return, they give you complete health and peace of mind.
KIRK: That's paradise?
ELIAS: We have no need or want, Captain.
SPOCK: It's a true Eden, Jim. There's belonging and love.
KIRK: No wants. No needs. We weren't meant for that. None of us. Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is.
ELIAS: We have what we need.
KIRK: Except a challenge.
SPOCK: You don't understand, Jim, but you'll come around sooner or later. Join us. Please.
KIRK: I'm going back to the ship.

[Bridge]

(All the panels are lit, the lights are on, but nobody is home except one.)
KIRK: Engineering? Scotty? Biochemistry lab? Security? Is there anyone on board? This is the Captain.
(He sits in his chair.)
KIRK: Captain's log, stardate 3417.7. Except for myself, all crew personnel have transported to the surface of the planet. Mutinied. Lieutenant Uhura has effectively sabotaged the communications station. I can only contact the surface of the planet. The ship can be maintained in orbit for several months, but even with automatic controls, I cannot pilot her alone. In effect, I am marooned here. I'm beginning to realize just how big this ship really is, how quiet. I don't know how to get my crew back, how to counteract the effect of the spores. I don't know what I can offer against paradise.
(The plant that he had thrown earlier, now sprays him with spores.)
KIRK: Enterprise to Mister Spock.

[Pasture]

SPOCK: Yes, Jim. What is it now?

[Bridge]

KIRK: I've joined you. I understand now.

[Field]

SPOCK: Wonderful, Jim. When will you beam down?

[Bridge]

KIRK: There are some things in my quarters I want to pack.

[Field]

SPOCK: Good. Leila and I will meet you at the beam down point.
KIRK [OC]: Kirk out.

[Kirk's quarters]

(He packs a suitcase with a smile on his face, then goes to the safe and gets out his medals. He loses the smile.)

[Transporter room]

(Kirk puts his suitcase on the transporter pad and goes over to the controls.)
KIRK: No. No! I can't leave! (he's very relieved) Emotions. Violent emotions. Needs. Anger. Captain's log, supplemental. I think I've discovered the answer, but to carry out my plan entails considerable risk. Mister Spock is much stronger than the ordinary human being. Aroused, his great physical strength could kill. But it's a risk I'll have to take.

[Field]

KIRK [OC]: Enterprise to Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Spock here.
KIRK [OC]: It's Jim.
SPOCK: What's keeping you, Jim? We've been waiting.

[Transporter room]

KIRK: I've been packing some things, and I realise there's some equipment here that we should have down at the settlement.

[Field]

KIRK [OC]: You know we can't come back on board once the last of us has left.
SPOCK: Do you want me to beam up a party?

[Transporter room]

KIRK: No, I think you and I can handle it. Why don't you beam up now?

[Field]

SPOCK: Just a moment. It won't take long. Do you mind?
LEILA: I'll wait.
SPOCK: Ready to beam up, Jim.

[Transporter room]

KIRK: (with a large metal bar in his hand) Energising.
(Spock materialises.)
KIRK: All right, you mutinous, disloyal, computerised, half-breed, we'll see about you deserting my ship.
SPOCK: The term half-breed is somewhat applicable, but computerised is inaccurate. A machine can be computerised, not a man.
KIRK: What makes you think you're a man? You're an overgrown jackrabbit, an elf with a hyperactive thyroid.
SPOCK: Jim, I don't understand.
KIRK: Of course you don't understand. You don't have the brains to understand. All you have is printed circuits.
SPOCK: Captain, if you'll excuse me.
KIRK: What can you expect from a simpering, devil-eared freak whose father was a computer and his mother an encyclopedia?
SPOCK: My mother was a teacher. My father an ambassador.
KIRK: Your father was a computer, like his son. An ambassador from a planet of traitors. A Vulcan never lived who had an ounce of integrity.
SPOCK: Captain, please don't
KIRK: You're a traitor from a race of traitors. Disloyal to the core, rotten like the rest of your subhuman race, and you've got the gall to make love to that girl.
SPOCK: That's enough.
KIRK: Does she know what she's getting, Spock? A carcass full of memory banks who should be squatting in a mushroom, instead of passing himself off as a man? You belong in a circus, Spock, not a starship. Right next to the dog-faced boy.
(Spock bends the metal bar with one blow, and throws Kirk around the transporter room with ease. Fortunately, Kirk is able to dodge the blows that damage the walls and equipment until finally...)
KIRK: Had enough? I didn't realise what it took to get under that thick hide of yours. Anyhow, I don't know what you're so mad about. It isn't every first officer who gets to belt his Captain several times.
SPOCK: You did that to me deliberately.
KIRK: Believe me, Mister Spock, it was painful in more ways than one.
SPOCK: The spores. They're gone. I don't belong anymore.
KIRK: You said they were benevolent and peaceful. Violent emotions overwhelm them, destroy them. I had to make you angry enough to shake off their influence. That's the answer, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: That may be correct, Captain, but trying to initiate a brawl with over five hundred crewmen and colonists is hardly logical.
KIRK: I had something else in mind. Can you put together a subsonic transmitter. Something we can hook into the communications station and broadcast over the communicator?
SPOCK: It can be done.
KIRK: Good. Let's get to work.
SPOCK: Captain. Striking a fellow officer is a court martial offence.
KIRK: Well, if we're both in the Brig, who's going to build the subsonic transmitter?
SPOCK: That is quite logical, Captain.

[Field]

MCCOY: Well now, it's a little early to be counting stars, Miss Leila.
LEILA: I'm waiting for Mister Spock and the Captain to transport down. They had some equipment to be moved. But it's been so long. I wish he'd come back.
MCCOY: Well, now, I think I can fix that for you. Enterprise?

[Bridge]

(Spock is back in uniform and under the console when it beeps.)
SPOCK: Enterprise. Spock here.

[Field]

LEILA: This is Leila. I borrowed the doctor's communicator. I was worried something might have happened to you.

[Bridge]

LEILA [OC]: You are all right, aren't you?
SPOCK: Yes. Yes. I'm quite well.

[Field]

LEILA: Can I come aboard? I've never seen a starship before

[Bridge]

LEILA [OC]: and I want to talk to you.
SPOCK: Are you still at the beam down point, and is the doctor there?

[Field]

LEILA: Yes to both questions.

[Bridge]

SPOCK: Give your communicator back to Doctor McCoy. You won't need it to beam up. It'll take a few moments. Just wait there. Out.
KIRK: Mister Spock, Miss Kalomi is strictly your concern, but should you talk to her while she's still under the influence of the spores?
SPOCK: I'll be back shortly, Captain.

[Transporter room]

(Once she's materialised she rushes to put her arms around him, but he doesn't respond.)
LEILA: You're no longer with us, are you? I felt something was wrong.
SPOCK: It was necessary.
LEILA: Come back to the planet with me. You can belong again. Come back with me, please.
SPOCK: I can't.
LEILA: I love you. I said that six years ago, and I can't seem to stop repeating myself. On Earth, you couldn't give anything of yourself. You couldn't even put your arms around me. We couldn't have anything together there. We couldn't have anything together anyplace else. We're happy here. (crying) I can't lose you now, Mister Spock. I can't.
SPOCK: I have a responsibility to this ship, to that man on the Bridge. I am what I am, Leila, and if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else's.
LEILA: I have lost you, haven't I? And not only you, I've lost all of it. The spores. I've lost them, too.
KIRK: The Captain discovered that strong emotions and needs destroy the spore influence.
LEILA: And this is for my good? Do you mind if I say I still love you? You never told me if you had another name, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: (wiping away her tears) You couldn't pronounce it.

[Bridge]

SPOCK: They'll not hear this, of course. It'll be more a sensation of feeling it.
KIRK: As though somebody had put itching powder on their skin.
SPOCK: Precisely. It should begin to work on their nerves in a few minutes.

[Field] SULU: Sorry, DeSalle.
DESALLE: What do you think you're doing?
SULU: I said I was sorry.
DESALLE: More like you're clumsy.
SULU: If you hadn't gotten in my way
(They fight with their spades.)
(Elsewhere around the settlement, fights are breaking out.)
KELOWITZ: Come on. Break it up. Break it up.

[Pasture]

(McCoy is resting under a tree, with a tall glass of mint julep in his hand.)
ELIAS: Well, Doctor, I've been thinking about what sort of work I could assign you to.
MCCOY: What do you mean, what sort of work? I'm a doctor.
ELIAS: Not any more, of course. We don't need you. Not as a doctor.
MCCOY: Oh, no? Would you like to see how fast I can put you in a hospital?
ELIAS: I am the leader of this colony. I'll assign you whatever work I think suitable.
MCCOY: Just a minute. You'd better make me a mechanic. Then I can treat little tin gods like you. (He punches Elias) Sorry, Sandoval. I don't know what made me do that.
ELIAS: We've done nothing here. No accomplishments, no progress. Three years wasted. We wanted to make this planet a garden.
MCCOY: You can't stay here. You can't survive without the spores. After you've cleared at the Starbase, you could be relocated. It depends upon what you want.
ELIAS: I think I'd, I think we'd like to get some work done. The work we started out to do.
MCCOY: Enterprise.

[Bridge]

SPOCK: Enterprise. Spock here.

[Pasture]

MCCOY: This is McCoy. Sandoval would like to talk to the Captain.

[Bridge]

SPOCK: Just a moment. They're all beginning to call in, Captain. Rather contritely, I should say. Sandoval wishes to speak to you.
KIRK: Put him on the speaker. Kirk here.

[Pasture]

ELIAS: Oh, Captain, as I understood it, you were to transport us to Starbase Twenty Seven. We'll give you every co-operation.

[Bridge]

KIRK: Start making preparations, Mister Sandoval. We'll begin transporting your people aboard as soon as more of our crew checks in.

[Bridge]

(Later, when everyone is back on duty.)
MCCOY: Well, Jim, I've just examined the last of the colonists, and they're all in absolutely perfect, perfect health. A fringe benefit left over by the spores.
KIRK: Good.
MCCOY: Well, that's the second time man's been thrown out of paradise.
KIRK: No, no, Bones. This time we walked out on our own. Maybe we weren't meant for paradise. Maybe we were meant to fight our way through. Struggle, claw our way up, scratch for every inch of the way. Maybe we can't stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the sound of drums.
SPOCK: Poetry, Captain. Non-regulation.
KIRK: We haven't heard much from you about Omicron Ceti Three, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: I have little to say about it, Captain, except that for the first time in my life I was happy.

 HISTORY

2024-09-18 20:54:15 - Pike: Added the writers.
2024-09-17 21:10:42 - Pike: Added the director.
2024-09-12 16:49:47 - Pike: New quote added.
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2024-09-12 16:43:41 - Pike: Review modified.
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2024-09-12 16:40:26 - Pike: Added some trivia.
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2024-09-12 16:26:14 - Pike: Updated the transcript.
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2024-09-12 12:57:56 - Pike: Review modified.
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