STORY BY
D. C. Fontana
TELEPLAY BY
John Meredyth Lucas
DIRECTED BY
Herb Wallerstein
AIRED ON
January 24, 1969
RUNTIME
50 minutes
STARRING
VIEWS
257
LAST UPDATE
2024-09-19 17:17:49
PAGE VERSION
Version 5
LIKES
0
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0
SUMMARY
No summary yet.
STORY
No story yet.
BEHIND THE SCENES
No trivia yet.
QUOTES
Rahda: It doesn't make any sense. But somehow I'd say that in a flash we've been knocked one thousand light years away from where we were.
Spock: Nine hundred and ninety point seven light years to be exact, Lieutenant.
Scott: But that's not possible. Nothing can do that.
Spock: Mr. Scott, since we are here, your statement is not only illogical but also unworthy of refutation.
Scott: What you're saying is that the planet didn't blow up, and the captain and the others, they're still alive!
Spock: Please, Mr. Scott, restrain your leaps of illogic. I have said nothing. I was merely speculating.
Scott: It's completely useless. The engines are running wild. There's no way to get at them. We should reach maximum overload in about fifteen minutes.
Spock: I would calculate fourteen point eight seven minutes, Mr. Scott.
Scott: Those few seconds will not make any difference, Mr. Spock, because you and I and the rest of the crew will no longer be here to bandy it back and forth.
Spock: Mr. Scott, I suggest you refrain from any further subjective descriptions. You now have ten minutes and nineteen seconds in which to perform your task.
Spock: Mr. Scott, you have accomplished your task.
Scott: You might at least say thank you.
Spock: For what purpose, Mr. Scott?
Spock: What is it in you humans––
Scott: Never mind.
Spock: ––that requires an overwhelming display of emotion in a situation such as this? Two men pursue the only reasonable course of action indicated, and yet you feel that something else is necessary.
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REVIEWS
Touch me, babe
Written by
Pike on 2020-05-17
★
★
★
★
SOLID
After so many bad episodes from season 3, I didn't expect much from this one. But the story is actually quite good and the execution is top notch.
HE'S DEAD, JIM
As soon as I saw Kirk, McCoy, Sulu and a new crew man we never saw before all alone on a planet, I was sure the new guy would die, even if he wasn't wearing a red shirt.
A few minutes later, he was already vertical and McCoy was trying to find a sentence that didn't include "He's dead, Jim."
TOUCH ME
The episode could be seen as a tribute to the eponymous song from The Doors:
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Now, touch me, babe
Can't you see that I am not afraid?
What was that promise that you made?
Why won't you tell me what she said?
What was that promise that you made?
Now I'm gonna love you
Till the heavens stop the rain
I'm gonna love you
Till the stars fall from the sky
For you and I
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Now, touch me, babe
Can't you see that I am not afraid?
What was that promise that you made?
Why won't you tell me what she said?
What was that promise that you made?
I'm gonna love you
Till the heavens stop the rain
I'm gonna love you
Till the stars fall from the sky
For you and I
I'm gonna love you
Till the heavens stop the rain
I'm gonna love you
Till the stars fall from the sky
For you and I
Stronger than dirt
SPOCKY SPOCK
Spock was quite interesting in this episode, but perhaps his "spockyness" was pushed a little too far.
SCOTTY SCOTT
I also really liked Scotty trying to fix the ship from inside.
VERDICT
I give it 4 out of 5.
TRANSCRIPT
[Bridge]
(The Enterprise is orbiting a blue and green world)
KIRK: A ghost planet?
SPOCK: I suggest no supernatural explanation, Captain. I merely point out that the facts do not fit any known categories of planets.
KIRK: Let's take the facts one by one. That should explain something.
SPOCK: Undoubtedly. The age of this planet would seem to be only a few thousand years. It would be impossible for vegetation to evolve in so short a period.
KIRK: Its size is approximately that of Earth's moon.
SPOCK: But its mass and atmosphere are similar to Earth.
KIRK: That would be difficult to explain.
SPOCK: It would be impossible, Captain. An atmosphere could not evolve in so short a period of time.
KIRK: And yet it has.
SPOCK: Evidently. But the inconsistencies are so compounded as to present a seemingly impossible phenomenon.
KIRK: But a fascinating one, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Precisely, Captain.
KIRK: It would bear closer investigation, it would seem, if we're to provide Starfleet with an accurate report. Lieutenant, send Doctor McCoy to the transporter room for survey party. We'll also need Senior Geologist D'Amato.
UHURA: Aye, aye, sir.
KIRK: Feed beam down co-ordinates to the transporter room. Mister Sulu, you'll accompany me. Mister Spock, you have the conn.
(Kirk and Sulu leave.)
SPOCK: Lieutenant Rahda, report to the bridge immediately.
[Transporter room]
KIRK: This expedition should be a geologist's dream, Mister D'Amato.
D'AMATO: The opportunity to explore so young a planet is an incredible bit of luck, Captain.
KIRK: Yes. If Mister Spock is correct, you'll have a report to startle the Fifth Interstellar Geophysical Conference.
MCCOY: Why? What is it, Jim?
KIRK: A planet that even Spock can't explain. Prepare to transport. Energise.
(But just as they start to disintegrate, a woman appears in the transporter room)
LOSIRA: Wait! You must not go!
(Before they have fully beamed out, the team see her touch the transporter operator, and him fall to the floor.)
[Planet surface]
(Blue and orange clumps of grass amongst the rocks.)
MCCOY: Jim, did you see what I saw?
KIRK: That woman attacked Ensign Wyatt.
D'AMATO: Captain. Captain!
(There's an earthquake which also shakes the Enterprise.)
[Bridge]
UHURA: Mister Spock! Are you all right?
SPOCK: Yes. I believe no permanent damage was done.
UHURA: What happened?
SPOCK: The occipital area of my head seems to have impacted with the chair.
UHURA: No, Mister Spock. I meant what happened to us?
SPOCK: That we have yet to ascertain.
RAHDA: (a woman in yellow uniform) Mister Spock. The planet's gone!
[Planet surface]
SULU: What kind of earthquakes do they have in this place?
KIRK: I don't know. Any more like that and they'll tear this planet apart.
D'AMATO: Captain, this tremor we felt, if that's what it was, it's certainly like no seismic disturbance I've ever felt before. I got a reading of almost immeasurable power, but it's not there any more.
KIRK: Could seismic stress have accounted for it?
D'AMATO: The reading I got had nothing to do with a seismic force.
KIRK: That's very strange. And that woman. Kirk to Enterprise. Kirk to Enterprise, come in. The shock may have damaged it.
SULU: It's gone! The Enterprise, it's gone!
(Sulu hands over his tricorder.)
D'AMATO: He's right, Captain. There's nothing there.
MCCOY: How could it be gone? What the devil does that mean, Jim?
KIRK: For one thing it means we're stranded.
SULU: The Enterprise must have blown up. That would explain the high radiation readings, wouldn't it, Captain? If the matter - antimatter engines
KIRK: Shall we stop guessing, Mister Sulu, and try and establish a pattern? I get no readings of high energy concentration. If the Enterprise had blown up, it would have left a high residual radiation.
MCCOY: Could it be the Enterprise hit the planet?
SULU: Once in Siberia there was a meteor so great that it flattened whole forests and was felt as far away as
KIRK: Mister Sulu, if I'd wanted a Russian history lesson, I'd have brought along Mister Chekov. This is a matter of survival, gentlemen. Without the Enterprise, we need food, and we need water, and we need them fast. I want a detailed analysis made of this planet, and I want it now.
SULU: Aye, sir.
D'AMATO: Yes, sir.
KIRK: Mister Sulu.
(Kirk hands back the tricorder.)
[Bridge]
SCOTT: Engineering, no damage. All power levels normal.
UHURA: Damage control report. Ship functioning normally. Many bumps and bruises. One casualty, Mister Spock. The transporter officer, he's dead.
SPOCK; Dead? Spock to Sickbay.
M'BENGA [OC]: Sickbay, Doctor M'Benga.
SPOCK: Report on the death of the transporter officer.
[McCoy's office]
M'BENGA: We're not sure. Doctor Sanchez is conducting an autopsy right now.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Give me a full report as soon as possible, please. Spock out. Mister Scott, have the transporter checked for possible malfunction.
SCOTT: Aye, sir.
RAHDA: No debris of any kind, sir. I've made two full scans. If the planet had broken up, there'd be some sign. But what bothers me is the stars, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: The stars.
RAHDA: Yes, sir. They're wrong.
SPOCK: Wrong?
RAHDA: Yes, Mister Spock. Look. Now here's a replay of the star pattern just before the explosion.
SPOCK: A positional change.
RAHDA: It doesn't make any sense. But somehow I'd say that in a flash we've been knocked one thousand light years away from where we were.
SPOCK: Nine hundred and ninety point seven light years to be exact, Lieutenant.
SCOTT: But that's not possible. Nothing can do that.
SPOCK: Mister Scott, since we are here, your statement is not only illogical but also unworthy of refutation. It is also illogical to assume that any explosion, even that of a small star going supernova, could have hurled us a distance of nine hundred and ninety point seven light years.
SCOTT: The point is, it shouldn't have hurled us anywhere. Why, it should have destroyed us immediately, vaporised us.
SPOCK: That is correct, Mister Scott, by all the laws that we know. There was no period of unconsciousness. Our ship's chronometers registered a matter of only a few seconds. Therefore, we were displaced through space in some manner which I am unable to fathom.
SCOTT: What you're saying is that the planet didn't blow up, and the captain and the others, they're still alive!
SPOCK: Please, Mister Scott, restrain your leaps of illogic. I have said nothing. I was merely speculating.
M'BENGA [OC]: Sickbay to Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Spock here.
[McCoy's office]
M'BENGA: You asked for an autopsy report. It's only preliminary, but the cause of death seems to have been cellular disruption.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Explain.
[McCoy's office]
M'BENGA: It's as though every cell in the body had been individually blasted from inside.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Would any known disease organism do that?
[McCoy's office]
M'BENGA: Doctor Sanchez has ruled that possibility out, sir.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Please keep me fully advised. Spock out. He was in the transporter room. Someone may have entered after Captain Kirk and his party left. Mister Scott, since the Enterprise is obviously functional, I suggest we return to our starting place at top warp speed.
SCOTT: Aye, sir. But even at that it'll take a while to get there.
SPOCK: In that case, Mister Scott, I suggest we start at once. Can you give me warp eight?
SCOTT: Aye, sir. And maybe a wee bit more. I'll sit on the warp engines myself and nurse them.
SPOCK: That position, Mister Scott, would not only be unavailing but also undignified. Lieutenant Rahda, plot a course.
RAHDA: Already plotted and laid in, sir.
SPOCK: Good. Then prepare to come to warp eight.
[Planet surface]
KIRK: Your report covers all vegetation?
SULU: Yes, Captain. All vegetation is inedible. Poison to us.
MCCOY: If the Enterprise has been destroyed, you know how long we can survive.
KIRK: Yes. I don't see any water, but there must be some to grow the vegetation. A source of water would stretch our survival. Did you see any evidence of rainfall?
D'AMATO: No, sir. And I haven't seen any evidence that there ever has been any rainfall.
KIRK: But there is earth-type vegetation.
MCCOY: Is it possible the vegetation could absorb the water directly from the air?
KIRK: Yes, that's possible. There's also the possibility of underground water.
D'AMATO: Yes, sir. Could be.
MCCOY: Sulu's picked up an organism that's almost a virus, like a a plant parasite. It's the nearest biological form of life I can find.
KIRK: This apparently is going to be our home for as long as we last. I suggest we find out as much as we can about it. Split up. D'Amato, see if you can find underground water.
D'AMATO: Yes, sir.
KIRK: Sulu, run an atmospheric analysis.
SULU: Aye, sir.
KIRK: Bones, see if you can find out anything about the vegetation and your parasite. How do they get their moisture? If you can discover how they survive, maybe we can.
(Sulu and D'Amato have headed off to do their analyses. Sulu contacts Kirk on his communicator)
SULU: Sulu to Captain.
KIRK: Kirk here.
SULU: Captain, I was making a standard magnetic sweep. From zero, I suddenly got a reading that was off the scale. Then, a reverse of polarity and now I get nothing. I've never seen anything like this reading. Like a door opened and then closed again.
KIRK: Kirk out.
(Elsewhere, D'Amato is wandering amongst the purple tipped vegetation and picking up handfuls of sand. He turns around and there is the woman.)
LOSIRA: Do not be afraid.
D'AMATO: I'm not. Geological disturbances don't frighten me. I've come here to study them. My specialty.
LOSIRA: I know. You are Lieutenant D'Amato, Senior Geologist.
D'AMATO: That's right. How did you know that?
LOSIRA: From the spaceship Enterprise.
D'AMATO: Yes, and we're stranded here. You been talking to my friends?
LOSIRA: Do not be afraid.
D'AMATO: I'm not afraid.
LOSIRA: I am for you, Lieutenant D'Amato.
D'AMATO: You're, you're the woman on the Enterprise.
LOSIRA: I am only for D'Amato.
D'AMATO: Lucky D'Amato. I want to have a conference about sharing your food and water.
LOSIRA: Do not call the others. Please.
(Somewhere else, McCoy gets out his communicator.)
MCCOY: McCoy to Kirk.
KIRK: Kirk here.
MCCOY: Jim, I just got a life form reading of tremendous intensity. Suddenly it was just there.
KIRK: What do you mean just there?
MCCOY: Just that. All levels were normal, then I get this biological surge of life form registering. No, now it's gone.
KIRK: As though a door opened and closed.
MCCOY: Yes.
KIRK: What direction?
MCCOY: Zero eight three.
KIRK: Hang on. D'Amato's section. Come in. Kirk to D'Amato. Come in. Come in. Bones, Sulu, D'Amato doesn't answer.
MCCOY: I'll be right there.
(Kirk arrives first. We see a pair of legs with boots lying face down behind a rock.)
KIRK: Bones!
(McCoy runs in and examines the body.)
MCCOY: Jim, every cell in his body's been disrupted.
(Sulu arrives. Kirk adjusts his phaser.)
MCCOY: Jim, what are you doing?
KIRK: Digging a grave.
SULU: Poor D'Amato. What a terrible way to die.
KIRK: There are no good ways, Sulu.
(Kirk phasers the ground, but it only cuts a shallow trench in the soil.)
SULU: That's the same red rock.
KIRK: My phaser didn't cut through it.
MCCOY: Whatever it is, it has a mighty high melting point.
KIRK: Eight thousand degrees centigrade. It looks like igneous rock, but infinitely denser.
(Adjusts his phaser and tries again.)
MCCOY: This whole planet must be made up of this substance, covered over by top soil.
KIRK: Mister Sulu, it might explain this place a little better if we knew what the substance is. I know it was D'Amato's field, but see what you can find out.
SULU: Yes, sir.
MCCOY: Well, I guess a tomb of rocks is the best we can provide for D'Amato.
KIRK: Yeah. It might be the most suitable memorial at that.
MCCOY: I wonder what killed him.
KIRK: I don't know, but something or someone did.
[Bridge]
RAHDA: We're holding warp eight point four, sir. If we can maintain it, our estimated time of arrival is eleven and one half solar hours.
SPOCK: Eleven point three three seven hours, Lieutenant. I wish you would be more precise.
[Engineering]
SCOTT: Scott to Bridge. Scott to Bridge.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Spock here.
[Bridge]
SCOTT: Mister Spock, the ship feels wrong.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Feels, Mister Scott?
[Engineering]
SCOTT: I know it doesn't make sense. Instrumentation reads correct, but the feel is wrong.
[Bridge]
SCOTT [OC]: It's something I can't quite put into words.
SPOCK: That is obvious, Mister Scott. I suggest you avoid emotionalism and simply keep your instruments correct.
[Engineering]
SPOCK [OC]: Spock out.
[Planet surface]
(The cairn is complete, and topped off with a name-stone.)
SULU: It looks so lonely there.
MCCOY: It would be worse if he had company.
SULU: Doctor, how can you joke about it?
MCCOY: I'm not joking. Until we know what killed him, none of us are safe.
KIRK: We've got to figure this out and devise a defence against it. Is it possible that the rocks have life?
SULU: You remember on Janus Six, the silicon creatures
MCCOY: But our instruments recorded that. They were life forms. They registered as life forms.
KIRK: Unless we're dealing with beings, intelligent beings who can shield themselves.
SULU: Beings intelligent enough to have destroyed the Enterprise?
KIRK: That's the problem, Sulu. We have only questions. No answers.
[Engineering]
(Scott is trying to track down the source of his feeling, and a man in a red boiler suit keeps looking over his shoulder.)
SCOTT: Watkins, check the bypass valve on the matter/antimatter reaction chamber. Make sure it's not overheating.
WATKINS: But, Mister Scott, the board shows correct.
SCOTT: I didn't ask you to check the board, lad.
WATKINS: Yes, sir.
(Watkins goes off into an adjoining room and checks a console and some panels in there. Then he is confronted by Losira.)
WATKINS: Who are you?
LOSIRA: My name is not important. Yours is Watkins, John B. Engineer Grade four.
WATKINS: You know all about me. I've never seen you before.
LOSIRA: Show me this unit. I wish to learn.
WATKINS: This is the matter-antimatter integrator control. That's the cut off switch.
LOSIRA: Not correct. That is the emergency overload bypass, which engages almost instantaneously. A wise precaution, considering it takes the antimatter longer to explode once the magnetic flow fails. I am for you, Mister Watkins.
WATKINS: Mister Scott, there's a strange woman who knows the entire plan of the Enterprise.
(But by the time Scott gets there, Watkins has screamed and Losira has turned sideways into a vertical line, then vanished.)
SCOTT: Oh, you poor lad. Scott to bridge. Scott to bridge.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Spock here.
SCOTT [OC]: My assistant, Watkins, is dead.
SPOCK: Do you know what he died of, Mister Scott?
SCOTT: I didn't see it happen, but his last words were a warning cry about some strange woman.
SPOCK: Security alert, all decks. Female intruder, extremely dangerous. Security alert. All decks.
[Planet surface]
(Dusk is falling, the sky is a dark purple.)
KIRK; Conclusions.
SULU: The basic substance of this planet is an alloy of diburnium-osmium. It couldn't have evolved naturally.
MCCOY: Captain, it doesn't make sense. In fact, nothing about this planet makes sense.
KIRK: Except for a momentary fluctuation on your instruments, this planet has no magnetic field. The apparent age of these rocks is only a few thousand years. No known process could evolve the plant life they have here in that short space of time.
MCCOY: Are you suggesting this might be an artificial planet?
SULU: But Captain, where are the people who made it? Why can't we see them?
KIRK: The planet might be hollow. They might be shielding themselves from our sensor probes. It's dark. Let's get some rest. Tomorrow we have to find some food and some water or it's going to be a very unpleasant stay.
MCCOY: While it lasts.
SULU: I'll take the first watch, sir.
KIRK: All right. Take D'Amato's tricorder. Set it for automatic distress. You never can tell.
SULU: Aye, sir.
(Sulu sets up the tricorder on a rock ledge, and leaves it beeping away to itself.)
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Spock to Sickbay. Have you completed the autopsy on Watkins, Doctor?
M'BENGA [OC]: Yes, we have, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Was the cause of his death the same as that which killed the transporter officer?
[McCoy's office]
M'BENGA: Well, the pattern of cellular disruption was the same, but as to the cause, well your guess is as good as mine.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: My guess, Doctor, would be valueless. I suggest we refrain from guessing and find some facts.
[McCoy's office]
SPOCK [OC]: Spock out.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: The power of this intruder to disrupt every cell in a body, combined with the almost inconceivable power required to hurl the Enterprise such a distance, speak of a very high culture and a very great danger.
SCOTT: You mean that one of the people who threw us a thousand light years away from that planet is on board and killing our people?
SPOCK: A reasonable assumption, Mister Scott.
SCOTT: Then you're right, Mister Spock. Watkins must've been murdered. I sent him in to check the matter-antimatter reactor. There are no exposed circuits there. It couldn't have been anything he touched.
SPOCK: If there are more of those beings on that planet, the captain and the others are in very great danger.
[Planet surface]
(While Kirk and McCoy sleep, Losira turns off the tricorder. Sulu confronts her.)
LOSIRA: I am unarmed.
SULU: Who are you?
LOSIRA: That is not important. You are Lieutenant Sulu. You were born on the planet Earth. You're helmsman for the Enterprise.
SULU: How do you know this? Where did you get this information? Are you from this planet?
LOSIRA: I am from here.
SULU: Then the planet is hollow. Who killed Lieutenant D'Amato? All right. The captain will want to talk to you. That way. Move!
LOSIRA: You do not understand. I have come for you.
SULU: What do you want?
LOSIRA: I want to touch you.
SULU: You were on the Enterprise. Keep back! Stop or I'll shoot! I don't want to have to kill a woman.
(Sulu fires his phaser at her feet, then at her. It has no effect.)
SULU: Captain Kirk! Captain Kirk!
(As he backs away, Sulu falls over a stone. Losira manages to brush his shoulder before he gets away, screaming in pain, and Kirk steps in front of her.)
KIRK: Hold it! Who are you?
LOSIRA: I am for him. I am for Lieutenant Sulu.
SULU: Don't let her touch you, Captain! That's how D'Amato died. Phasers won't stop her.
LOSIRA: I am for Lieutenant Sulu. Please, I must touch him.
(She puts her hand on Kirk's shoulder, but it doesn't hurt him. He pushes her away.)
KIRK: How can you destroy others and not me?
LOSIRA: I don't want to destroy. I don't want to.
KIRK: Who are you? Why are you trying to kill us?
LOSIRA: Only Sulu. I mean you no harm.
KIRK: Are there men on this planet?
LOSIRA: Please, I must touch him. I am for Lieutenant Sulu.
KIRK: No!
(Losira goes two-dimensional, then vanishes.)
KIRK: Bones, did you see that? Maybe Spock was wrong. Perhaps this is a ghost planet.
MCCOY: Well, all I know is she almost made a ghost out of Sulu. His shoulder, where she touched it, every cell's been disrupted. Exploded from within. If she'd really gotten a good grip on him, Jim.
SULU: How can such people be, Captain? Such evil and she's so, so beautiful.
KIRK: Yes, I know.
[Bridge]
UHURA: Security sweeps of all decks are negative, Mister Spock. No evidence of intruder.
SPOCK: Very well. Cancel Red Alert but maintain increased security.
UHURA: Aye, sir. All decks, cancel Red Alert. Maintain increased security.
SPOCK: Please update our subspace report to Starfleet to include security search, results negative.
UHURA: How did she get off the ship, sir?
SPOCK: Presumably the same way she got on.
UHURA: Yes, sir. Mister Spock what are the chances of the captain and the others being alive?
SPOCK: Lieutenant, we are not engaged in gambling. We are proceeding in the only logical way to return to the place they were last seen, and factually ascertain whether or not they still live.
UHURA: Yes, Mister Spock.
RAHDA: Mister Spock, speed is increased to warp eight point eight.
SCOTT: Bridge to Engineering.
SCOTT [OC]: Scotty here. I see it.
[Engineering]
SCOTT: It's a power surge. I'm working on it. Reduce speed until I locate the trouble.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Very well. Reduce speed to warp seven.
RAHDA: Aye, sir. Warp seven. Mister Spock, our speed has increased to warp eight point nine and still climbing.
SPOCK: Bridge to Engineering. Negative effect on power reduction. Speed is still increasing.
[Engineering]
SCOTT: Aye, Mister Spock, and I found out why. The emergency bypass control of the matter-antimatter integrator is fused.
[Bridge]
SCOTT [OC]: It's completely useless. The engines are running wild. There's no way to get at them. We should reach maximum overload in about fifteen minutes.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: I would calculate fourteen point eight seven minutes, Mister Scott.
[Engineering]
SCOTT: Those few seconds will not make any difference, Mister Spock, because you and I and the rest of the crew will no longer be here to bandy it back and forth.
[Bridge]
SCOTT [OC]: This thing is going to blow up
[Engineering]
SCOTT: And there's nothing in the universe can stop it.
[Planet surface]
MCCOY: There's a layer of necrotic tissue a few cells thick. A normal wound would heal quickly.
SULU: She just touched me. How could it happen so fast?
KIRK: That's a good question. She touched the transporter chief. He collapsed immediately. She apparently got to D'Amato. We saw what happened to him. The question is, why are you alive?
SULU: Captain, I'm happy the way it turned out.
MCCOY: Jim, what kind of power must she have?
KIRK: The power to totally disrupt biological cell structure. Sulu's alive because I intervened. But that raises an even worse question.
MCCOY: Yes. Why didn't she kill you?
KIRK: She's not through yet.
[Engineering]
(Scott is working on the emergency bypass)
SCOTT: It's useless. And there's no question it's deliberate.
SPOCK: Sabotage.
SCOTT: Aye, and a thorough job. The system's foolproof. Whoever murdered Watkins sabotaged this.
SPOCK: You said it was fused. How?
SCOTT: That's what worries me.
SPOCK: Worries, Mister Scott?
SCOTT: Well, it's fused, all right, but it would take all the power of our main phaser banks to do it.
SPOCK: Interesting.
SCOTT: I find nothing interesting in the fact that we're about to blow up.
SPOCK: No, but the method is fascinating.
SCOTT: Whatever did this is still aboard this ship. I fail to understand why you cancelled the security alert.
SPOCK: A force that could hurl us nine hundred and ninety point seven light years away and at that distance still be able to sabotage our main source of energy will not be waiting around to be taken into custody.
SCOTT: Aye.
SPOCK: As I recall the pattern of our fuel flow, there is an access tube leading to the matter-antimatter reaction chamber.
SCOTT: There's a service crawlway, but it's not meant to be used while the integrator operates.
SPOCK: Still, it is there, and it might be possible to shut off the fuel at that point.
SCOTT: What with? Bare hands?
SPOCK: A magnetic probe.
SCOTT: Any matter that comes in contact with antimatter triggers the explosion. And I'm not even sure a man can live in the crawlway in the energy stream of the magnetic field that bottles up the antimatter.
SPOCK: I shall try.
SCOTT: You'll be killed, man!
SPOCK: Unless a solution is found quickly, that fate awaits all of us.
SCOTT: Aye. You're right. What have we got to lose? But I'll do it, Mister Spock. I know every millimetre of that system. I'll do whatever has to be done.
SPOCK: Very well, Mister Scott. You spoke of the feel of the ship being wrong.
SCOTT: Aye. It was an emotional statement. I don't expect you to understand it.
SPOCK: I note it, Mister Scott, without necessarily understanding it. I propose to run an analysis through the ship's computers, comparing the present condition of the Enterprise with her ideal condition.
SCOTT: Mister Spock, we don't have time for that.
SPOCK: We have twelve minutes and twenty seven seconds. I suggest you do whatever you can in the service crawlway, while I make the computer study.
[Planet surface]
KIRK: Lieutenant Sulu, do you feel strong enough to move about?
SULU: I feel fine, Captain.
KIRK: Is he, Bones?
MCCOY: He's in fair shape.
KIRK: All right. Whatever destructive power this woman has seems to be aimed at one specific person at one specific time. If I'm correct, when she re-appears, the other two might protect the one she's after by interposing their bodies. No weapons seem to affect her.
SULU: But Captain, how does she know about us? Does she read our minds? (there's a whining sound) Phaser on overload!
KIRK: Controls are fused. Drop!
(He throws his phaser away, and it goes off with a big bang.)
KIRK: Apparently she can destroy our weapons as well as destroy us. Come on, let's go.
[Bottom of crawlway]
SCOTT: All right, lads. Get the crawlway door open. Hand me the tools. Communicator. All right. Head first. I hope Mister Spock knows what he's doing.
(Scott is slid on his back into a half-sized Jefferies tube with blue energy streaks crossing it.
SCOTT: Scott to Bridge.
SPOCK [OC]: Go ahead, Mister Scott.
SCOTT: I've sealed off the aft end of the service crawlway, and I've positioned explosive separator charges to blast me clear of the ship if I rupture the magnetic bottle. I'm so close to the flow now it feels like ants crawling all over my body.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Mister Scott, I suggest you refrain from any further subjective descriptions. You now have ten minutes and nineteen seconds in which to perform your task.
[Crawlway]
RAHDA [OC]: Mister Spock, we're at warp eleven point two and accelerating.
SCOTT: I heard that. The ship's not structured to take that speed for any length of time.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: You now have ten minutes and ten seconds.
[Crawlway]
SCOTT: All right, Mister Spock. I'm starting to open the access panel now.
[Bridge]
(Spock begins his computer study.)
SCOTT [OC]: Access to the flow itself.
[Crawlway]
SCOTT: If the magnetic flow jumps, you must jettison me. The safety control
[Bridge]
SCOTT [OC]: Will not hold more than two seconds if I rupture the field.
SPOCK: I'm aware of these facts. Please get on with the job. Computer.
COMPUTER: Working.
SPOCK: Analysis on my comparison co-ordinates.
COMPUTER: Unable to comply. Comparison co-ordinates too complex for immediate readout. Will advise upon completion.
[Crawlway]
SCOTT: I've removed the access plate, and I've got static electric charges dancing on the instruments. Looks like an aurora borealis in there.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Lieutenant Uhura, you are monitoring the magnetic force?
UHURA: Oh yes, sir.
SPOCK: Please do not take your eyes off of it. Lieutenant Rahda, arm the pod jettison system.
RAHDA: Aye, sir. I'll jettison the pod at the first sign of trouble.
SPOCK: Not until my order.
RAHDA: Yes, sir. Warp eleven point nine.
SPOCK: Mister Scott, what is your situation?
[Crawlway]
SCOTT: It's hard to see. There's so much disturbance that any attempt to get at the flow would rupture the magnetic field.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: You have eight minutes, forty one seconds.
[Crawlway]
SCOTT: I know what time it is. I don't need a blooming' cuckoo clock.
[Planet surface]
SULU: Captain, I'm getting that strange magnetic sweep again, from zero to off the scale.
KIRK: Yes. Like a door opening.
(And suddenly Losira is there again.)
KIRK: Who have you come for this time?
LOSIRA: For you, James T. Kirk. Commander of the Enterprise.
MCCOY: Keep behind us, Jim.
KIRK: Why do you want to kill us?
LOSIRA: For defence. You are Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the Enterprise.
KIRK: Then why do you want to kill me?
LOSIRA: You are an invader.
KIRK: We're here on a peaceful mission. It's you who have killed our people. We mean no harm to you. We want to leave, peacefully.
MCCOY: Captain, I'm getting no life form register.
KIRK: An android?
MCCOY: That would give a mechanical reading. I'm getting nothing.
KIRK: Who are you?
LOSIRA: I am Losira, Commander.
KIRK: Commander of what?
LOSIRA: Of this station.
KIRK: Station? Station? Where? How do you feel about killing me?
LOSIRA: Feel? Killing is wrong.
KIRK: Stay between us.
LOSIRA: You must not penetrate this station. Please, I must touch you.
KIRK: You want to kill me?
LOSIRA: No.
KIRK: Then why do it if you don't want to?
LOSIRA: I am sent.
KIRK: By whom?
LOSIRA: We defend this place.
KIRK: Are there others on this planet?
LOSIRA: They are no more.
KIRK: How long have you been alone? Are you lonely?
(She does her disappearing act.)
SULU: She must be somewhere.
MCCOY: She's not registering.
KIRK: And there's this power surge, right off the scale. Like a door closing. It must be near here.
(They walk on.)
MCCOY: Is the power level still holding, Jim?
KIRK: Right off the scale. It's remained at a peak ever since she disappeared. The entrance is here.
(A section of rock slides back and a door opens.)
MCCOY: You think we're being invited in?
KIRK: It certainly looks like it. And the invitation doesn't exactly relax me.
SULU: I'd rather be on the Enterprise, sir.
KIRK: I agree.
MCCOY: We've been led here. Why?
KIRK: I don't know. But whatever civilisation exists on this planet is in there. And without the Enterprise, gentlemen, the only source of food and water is in there. Let's go.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Computer read-out.
COMPUTER: Comparison analysis complete.
SPOCK: Continue.
COMPUTER: Transporter factor M7 reassembled outphase point zero zero zero nine.
RAHDA: Fifty seven seconds to go.
SPOCK: Understood.
SCOTT [OC]: Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Spock here.
[Crawlway]
SCOTT: I'm going to try to cut through the magnetic flow. But if the probe doesn't precisely match the magnetic flow, there'll be an explosion. Starting right now.
UHURA: Magnetic force indicator jumping, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Mister Scott, ease off.
UHURA: Magnetic force has dropped to normal, sir.
RAHDA: Warp thirteen point two, sir.
SPOCK: Computer, for outphase condition, will reverse field achieve closure?
COMPUTER: Affirmative, if M7 factor maintained.
SPOCK: Mister Scott
[Crawlway]
SPOCK [OC]: Reverse polarity on your magnetic probe.
SCOTT: Reverse polarity?
SPOCK [OC]: That is correct, Mister Scott.
SCOTT: That'll take some doing. What purpose could it
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Please commence. I'll explain.
[Crawlway]
SPOCK [OC]: You were correct in your feel. The Enterprise was put through a molecular transporter and reassembled slightly out of phase. Reverse polarity should seal the incision.
SCOTT: I have no time for theory. I just hope you're right.
RAHDA [OC]: Twenty seconds, Mister Spock.
SCOTT: I'm doing the best I can! Wait! It's stuck! It's stuck! Push the button!
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Please continue, Mister Scott.
[Crawlway]
SCOTT: Don't be a fool! Push the button! It's your last chance! Don't be sentimental, push it. I'm going to die anyway.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Please continue.
[Crawlway]
SCOTT: It's loose! But there's no time. Push the button!
RAHDA [OC]: Nine seconds.
(Scott gets his polarity reversed and puts the probe into the antimatter stream)
[Bridge]
RAHDA: Eight seconds, seven seconds
[Crawlway]
RAHDA [OC]: Six seconds, five seconds, four seconds, three seconds, two seconds.
[Bridge]
RAHDA: One. Mister Spock, now. Warp fourteen point one. Warp fourteen.
UHURA: Magnetic forces steady.
(We hear the engines slowing down.)
RAHDA: Warp thirteen point nine and dropping.
SPOCK: Mister Scott, you have accomplished your task.
[Crawlway]
SCOTT: You might at least say thank you.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: For what purpose, Mister Scott?
[Crawlway]
SPOCK [OC]: What is it in you humans
SCOTT: Never mind.
SPOCK [OC]: That requires an overwhelming display of emotion in a situation such as this? Two men pursue the only reasonable course of action indicated, and yet you
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Feel that something else is necessary.
[Room]
(Kirk, McCoy and Sulu enter a purple room with a cube hanging from the ceiling. It is glowing purple. Losira is there. Did I mention she is wearing purple?)
KIRK: Who have you come for? Form a circle. You see? You'd better tell us. Tell us. Who have you come for? Who have you come for? You're a very determined woman. For me?
LOSIRA: I am for James T. Kirk.
KIRK: Gentlemen, I need your help.
LOSIRA: Please. I must touch you. I beg it. It is my existence.
KIRK: We've seen the results of your touch.
LOSIRA: But you are my match, James Kirk. I must touch you. Then I will live as one, even to the structure of your cells, the arrangement of chromosomes.
KIRK: That is how you kill. You'll never reach me.
(A second Losira appears)
MCCOY: Watch out!
LOSIRA 2: I am for McCoy.
KIRK: That computer must be programming these replicas.
MCCOY: The women match our chromosome patterns after they touch us.
(A third Losira enters)
SULU: It's a very painful affair. I can tell you.
LOSIRA 3: I am for Sulu.
KIRK: Shift positions.
SULU: Captain, we can no longer protect each other.
(Spock and a security guard beam in.)
KIRK: Spock, the computer! Destroy it!
(The guard phasers the cube, and the three Losiras disappear.)
KIRK: Mister Spock, I certainly am glad to see you. I thought you and the Enterprise had been destroyed.
SPOCK: I had the same misgivings about you. We returned and picked up your life form readings only a moment ago.
KIRK: Returned from where?
SPOCK: From where this brain had the power to send the Enterprise. Nine hundred and ninety point seven light years across the galaxy. What a remarkable culture this is.
KIRK: Was, Mister Spock. Its defences were run by computer.
SPOCK: I surmised that, Captain. Its moves were immensely logical. But what people created this? Are there any representatives here?
KIRK: There were replicas of one of them. But that power to recreate them has been destroyed.
SPOCK: That is a loss, Captain.
KIRK: Well, you wouldn't have thought so, Mister Spock, if you'd been among us.
(An image appears on a wall)
LOSIRA [on screen]: My fellow Kalandans, welcome. A disease has destroyed us. Beware of it. After your long journey, I'm sorry to give you only a recorded welcome, but we who have guarded the outpost for you will be dead by the time you take possession of this planet. I am the last of our advanced force left alive. Too late the physicians discovered the cause of this sickness that kills us. In creating this planet, we have accidentally produced a deadly organism. I have awaited the regular supply ship from home for medical assistance, but I doubt now whether it will arrive in time. I will set the outpost controls on automatic. The computer will selectively defend against all life forms but our own. My fellow Kalandans, I, Losira, wish you well.
MCCOY: The previous ships probably spread the disease all through their people. The supply ship that she was waiting for never came. All these thousands of years, she's been waiting to greet people who were dead.
SPOCK: To do the job of defence, the computer projected a replica of the only image available. Losira's.
KIRK: The computer was too perfect. It projected so much of Losira's personality into the replica that it felt regret, guilt, at killing. That bought us the time we needed to destroy it. She must have been a remarkable woman.
MCCOY: And beautiful.
SPOCK: Beauty is transitory, Doctor. However, she was evidently highly intelligent.
KIRK: Kirk to Enterprise. Five to beam up. I don't agree with you, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Indeed, Captain?
KIRK: Beauty survives.
2024-09-23 17:10:24 -
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