WRITTEN BY
Jerome Bixby
DIRECTED BY
Murray Golden
AIRED ON
February 14, 1969
RUNTIME
50 minutes
STARRING
VIEWS
241
LAST UPDATE
2024-09-23 21:01:36
PAGE VERSION
Version 7
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0
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0
SUMMARY
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STORY
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BEHIND THE SCENES
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QUOTES
McCoy: Saurian brandy, one hundred years old. Jim?
Kirk: Please.
McCoy: Mr. Spock, I know you won't have one. Heaven forbid those mathematically perfect brain waves be corrupted by this all too human vice.
Spock: Thank you, Doctor. I will have a brandy.
McCoy: Do you think the two of us can handle a drunk Vulcan? Once alcohol hits that green blood––
Spock: If I appear distracted, it is because of what I have seen. I am close to experiencing an unaccustomed emotion.
McCoy: I'll drink to that. What emotion?
Spock: Envy. None of these da Vinci paintings has ever been catalogued or reproduced. They are unknown works, all apparently authentic to the last brush stroke and use of materials. As undiscovered da Vinci's, they would be priceless.
McCoy: Physically human but not human. These are earlier versions of Rayna, Jim. She's an android.
Kirk: I can't love her, but I do love her. And she loves me.
McCoy: Considering his opponent's longevity, truly an eternal triangle. You wouldn't understand that, would you, Spock? You see, I feel sorrier for you than I do for him because you'll never know the things that love can drive a man to. The ecstasies, the miseries, the broken rules, the desperate chances, the glorious failures, the glorious victories. All of these things you'll never know simply because the word love isn't written into your book. Goodnight, Spock.
Spock: Goodnight, Doctor.
McCoy: I do wish he could forget her.
(McCoy leaves. Spock goes over to Kirk and initiates a mind meld)
Spock: Forget.
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REVIEWS
Forget her
Written by
Pike on 2020-05-17
★
★
★
★
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!
REVEAL THE SPOILER!
The episode showed a very interesting story of a secluded man who
REVEAL THE SPOILER!. This reminded me of the movie
REVEAL THE SPOILER!, which basically tells the exact same story but in a more modern fashion.
Here, obviously the budget is cheap and the result as well. But still, the story is more than compelling and doesn't require any complex set up.
PIANO
As a complete sucker for piano, I just loved that little moment stuck in the air where Spock plays a Brahms walz, whilst Kirk dances with the female android. Calm and beautiful. There is no need for aliens when you've got music.
A BRILLIANT THEME
This is another instance of an episode which I didn't particularly enjoy upon the first watch. And now, as I watch it for a second time, I have a deeper appreciation for the story and the fact that the story was told the right way, with taking the time. Yes, the old man character's backstory was not very clever and I think the episode would have worked much better with an even simpler setting. But still, the theme is fascinating and I am absolutely, without any shadow of a doubt, convinced that one day we will have androids such as the female character from this episode. And we will be finally in front of mankind's biggest challenge yet: decide to give or not human rights to androids. Because androids will learn to suffer and to love (and to hate). Therefore, would torture be allowed against androids? Why would we accept the suffering of humans and not the suffering of almost similar replicas? Why would the human brain deserve better attention than a highly sophisticated processor? I'm not trying to share my view, as I actually don't want to deep dive into such a vast topic in this review, but as humans become more and more technological (starting with the computer, the smartphone and then wearables and brain chips), technology will become more human. That is the very nature of evolution, whether we want it or not; whether we accept it or not.
And I find it fascinating. And this is why I love
Star Trek.
Star Trek is not a show showing yet another weekly murder to solve. It's far beyond. It's high in our imagination, nurturing our brains and showing us a future that could be.
VERDICT
I give it 4 out of 5. Very good.
TRANSCRIPT
Captain's log, stardate 5843.7. The Enterprise is in the grip of a raging epidemic. Three crewmen have died and twenty three others have been struck down by Rigelian fever. In order to combat the illness, Doctor McCoy needs large quantities of ryetalyn, which is the only known antidote for the fever. Our sensors have picked up sufficient quantities of pure ryetalyn on a small planet in the Omega system. We are beaming down to secure this urgently needed material.
[Planet surface]
(Compared to the lurid red, purple and vivid blue of the planet from space, the ground is pretty normal)
KIRK: Report.
MCCOY: Jim, there's a large deposit bearing two seven three, four kilometres away. I've got four hours to process that stuff, otherwise the epidemic will be irreversible. Everybody on board the Enterprise will
SPOCK: Strange. Readings indicate a life form in the vicinity, apparently human. Yet ship's sensors indicated this planet was uninhabited.
KIRK: Let's get that ryetalyn.
(A strange device comes travelling through the air towards them. A bit like Nomad, but much smaller and with more round bits. It fires an energy beam at the landing party's feet. They try to fire their phasers.)
KIRK: Inoperative.
(The device fires again, and closes in.)
FLINT: Do not kill.
(The device backs away and a silver-haired man in sort of doublet and hose approaches)
KIRK: I'm Captain James Kirk
FLINT: I know who you are. I have monitored your ship since it entered this system.
KIRK: Then if you know who we are, you know why we're here, Mister?
FLINT: Flint. You will leave my planet.
SPOCK: Did you say your planet, sir?
FLINT: My retreat from the unpleasantness of life on Earth, and the company of people.
KIRK: Mister Flint, I have a sick crew up there. We can't possibly reach another planet in time. You can't refuse us the ryetalyn.
FLINT: You're trespassing, Captain.
KIRK: We're in need! We'll pay for it, work for it, trade for it.
FLINT: You have nothing I want.
KIRK: But you have the ryetalyn that we need! If necessary, we'll take it.
FLINT: If you do not leave voluntarily, I have the power to force you to leave or kill you where you stand.
KIRK: Kirk to Enterprise. Mister Scott, lock phasers onto our co-ordinates.
SCOTT [OC]: Aye, Captain, all phasers locked on.
KIRK: Mister Flint, if anything happens to us, four deaths and then my crew comes down and takes that ryetalyn.
FLINT: An interesting test of power. Your enormous forces against mine. Who would win?
SPOCK: Mister Flint, unless you are certain, I would suggest you refrain from a most useless experiment.
KIRK: We need only a few hours.
MCCOY: Have you ever seen a victim of Rigelian fever? They die in one day. The effects are like bubonic plague.
FLINT: Constantinople, summer 1334. It marched through the streets, the sewers. It left the city by ox cart, by sea, to kill half of Europe. The rats, rustling and squealing in the night as they, too, died. The rats.
SPOCK: Are you a student of history, sir?
FLINT: I am. The Enterprise, a plague ship. You have two hours, at the end of which time you will leave.
KIRK: With all due gratitude.
FLINT: M4 will gather the ryetalyn which you need. (the device leaves) Permit me to offer you more comfortable surroundings.
[Living room]
(A comfortable room, with 18th century furniture, woven rugs, paintings on the wall)
FLINT: Come in, gentlemen.
Our ship's sensors did not reveal your presence here, Mister Flint.
FLINT: My planet is surrounded by screens which create the impression of lifelessness. A protection against the curious, the uninvited.
SPOCK: Then you live here alone.
FLINT: Except for M4, which serves as butler, housekeeper, gardener and guardian.
KIRK: A most impressive home, Mister Flint.
MCCOY: Yes, a Shakespeare first folio. A Gutenberg Bible.
[Sitting room]
(A young woman sits in a high-backed carved chair, watching a monitor image of Kirk)
MCCOY [OC]: The Creation lithographs by Taranullus of Centauri Seven. That's one of the rarest book collections in the galaxy, spanning centuries.
FLINT [on monitor]: Be comfortable, gentlemen. Help yourselves to brandy.
[Living room]
MCCOY: Do we trust him?
SPOCK: It would seem logical to do so for the moment.
MCCOY: Well, I'll need two hours to process that ryetalyn into antitoxin.
KIRK: If that ryetalyn isn't here in one hour, we'll go prospecting, right over Mister Flint if necessary.
SPOCK: This is the most splendid private collection of art I've ever seen, and the most unique. The majority are the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance period, some of the works of Reginald Pollack, 20th century, and even a sten from Marcus Two.
[Sitting room]
RAYNA: At last I have seen other humans.
FLINT: Other men.
RAYNA: One is not human.
FLINT: The Vulcan.
RAYNA: Oh, so that is a Vulcan. I would like to discuss sub-dimensional physics with him. You've taught me all you know in the area and you say Vulcans know more.
FLINT: Even he is not your intellectual equal, nor mine.
RAYNA: Let me meet them.
FLINT: They are selfish, brutal, a part of the human community which I rejected and from which I've shielded you.
RAYNA: Soon they will be gone. Let me meet them.
FLINT: Rayna. (nearly kisses her) Have you been lonely?
RAYNA: What is loneliness?
FLINT: It is thirst. It is a flower dying in the desert.
RAYNA: Flint, don't take this opportunity away from me. It's so exciting.
FLINT: Exciting? You have never made a demand of me before.
RAYNA: I'm sorry.
FLINT: Do not be sorry. It might be interesting.
[Living room]
MCCOY: Saurian brandy, one hundred years old. Jim?
KIRK: Please.
MCCOY: Mister Spock, I know you won't have one. Heaven forbid those mathematically perfect brain waves be corrupted by this all too human vice.
SPOCK: Thank you, Doctor. I will have a brandy.
MCCOY: Do you think the two of us can handle a drunk Vulcan? Once alcohol hits that green blood
SPOCK: If I appear distracted, it is because of what I have seen. I am close to experiencing an unaccustomed emotion.
MCCOY: I'll drink to that. What emotion?
SPOCK: Envy. None of these da Vinci paintings has ever been catalogued or reproduced. They are unknown works, all apparently authentic to the last brush stroke and use of materials. As undiscovered da Vinci's, they would be priceless.
KIRK: Would be? You mean you think they're fakes?
SPOCK: Most strange. A man of Flint's obvious wealth and impeccable taste scarcely needs to hang fakes. Yet my tricorder analysis indicates that the canvas and pigments used are of contemporary origin.
KIRK: Well, this could be what it seems to be, or it could be a cover, a setup, or even an illusion.
MCCOY: Well, that could explain the paintings. Similar to the real thing.
KIRK: Spock, at your earliest opportunity, take a full tricorder reading of our host. See if he's human. Kirk to Enterprise. Mister Scott?
SCOTT [OC]: Aye, Captain.
KIRK: Mister Scott, run a full computer check on Mister Flint and on this planet, Holberg Nine One Seven G. Stand by with your results. I'll contact.
SCOTT [OC]: Aye, sir.
KIRK: Kirk out. Let's enjoy this brandy. It tastes real.
(M4 glides in with a bag of purple crystals and puts it on the table. It leaves)
KIRK: Easy. Bones?
MCCOY: Ryetalyn, ready to be processed into antitoxin.
KIRK: Beam up to the ship and start processing.
FLINT: That will not be necessary, Captain. M4 can prepare the ryetalyn for inoculation more quickly in my laboratory than you could aboard your ship.
MCCOY: I would like to supervise that, of course.
FLINT: And when you are satisfied as to procedures, I hope you will do me the honour of being my guests at dinner.
KIRK: Thank you, Mister Flint. I don't think we have the time.
FLINT: I regret my earlier inhospitality. Let me make amends.
(Rayna enters, and that thud you hear is Kirk's jaw hitting the floor)
FLINT: Gentlemen, may I present Rayna.
KIRK: I thought you lived alone.
FLINT: I meant there are no others besides my family. Doctor McCoy. Mister Spock.
RAYNA: Mister Spock, I do hope we can find a moment to discuss field density and its relationship to gravity phenomena.
SPOCK: Indeed. I would appreciate such a talk. It is an interest of mine.
FLINT: Captain Kirk.
RAYNA: Captain Kirk.
KIRK: Rayna.
FLINT: Her parents were killed in an accident while in my employ. Before dying, they placed their infant, Rayna Kapec, in my custody. I have raised and educated her.
MCCOY: With most impressive results, sir. What else interests you besides gravity phenomena, Rayna?
RAYNA: Everything. Less than that is betrayal of the intellect.
MCCOY: The totality of the universe? All knowledge?
FLINT: Rayna possesses the equivalent of seventeen university degrees in the sciences and arts. She is aware that the intellect is not all. But its cultivation must come first or the individual makes errors, wastes time in unprofitable pursuits.
MCCOY: At her age, I rather enjoyed errors with no noticeable damage, but I must admit you're the farthest thing from a bookworm I've ever seen.
RAYNA: Flint is my teacher. You are the only other men I've ever seen.
MCCOY: The misfortune of men everywhere, and our privilege.
FLINT: If you would accompany my robot to the laboratory, Doctor, you can rest assured that the ryetalyn is being processed.
MCCOY: Thank you, sir.
(McCoy and M4 leave)
FLINT: Your pleasure, gentlemen. Chess, billiards, conversation?
KIRK: Why not all three?
(M4 leads McCoy into a lab, then disappears through a door. McCoy examines the large coloured jars on a table whilst M4 works behind an opaque window)
(Rayna sends the cue ball around all four cushions to hit both reds. Billiards)
KIRK: Did you teach her that?
FLINT: We play often.
RAYNA: May I show you, Captain?
KIRK: You said something about savagery, Mister Flint. When was the last time you visited Earth?
FLINT: You would tell me that it is no longer cruel. But it is, Captain. Look at your starship, bristling with weapons. Its mission to colonise, exploit, destroy, if necessary, to advance Federation causes.
(Rayna guides Kirk's shot, but he misses anyway)
KIRK: Thank you. Our missions are peaceful, our weapons defensive. If we were barbarians, we would not have asked for ryetalyn. Indeed, your greeting, not ours, lacked a certain benevolence.
FLINT: The result of pressures which are not your concern.
KIRK: Yes, well, those pressures are everywhere in everyone, urging him to what you call savagery. The private hells, the inner needs and mysteries, the beast of instinct. As human beings, that is the way it is. To be human is to be complex. You can't avoid a little ugliness from within and from without.
(While Rayna is very close to Kirk, Spock is at a gold carved grand piano)
FLINT: Why don't you play the waltz, Mister Spock? To be human is also to seek pleasure, to laugh, to dance. Rayna is a most accomplished dancer.
KIRK: May I have the pleasure?
(So the couple do an old-fashioned waltz as Spock plays)
(In the lab, M4 brings three vials to McCoy for analysis)
(Kirk and Rayna are now literally cheek to cheek. Flint is watching her carefully)
(McCoy enters)
KIRK: Is something wrong?
MCCOY: Yes, there's something wrong. The ryetalyn is no good. It contains irillium, nearly one part per thousand.
SPOCK: Irillium will render the antitoxin inert and useless.
FLINT: Most unfortunate that it was not detected. I shall go with M4 to gather more ryetalyn and screen it myself. You're welcome to join me, Doctor.
MCCOY: Thank you.
(Flint leaves)
KIRK: Time factor, Bones? Epidemic?
MCCOY: Nearly two and a half hours. I guess we've got time to get in under the wire. I've never seen anything like the speed of that robot. It'd take us twice as long to process that stuff.
KIRK: But would we have made the error?
MCCOY: Jim, what if all the ryetalyn on this planet contains irillium?
KIRK: Go with Flint. Keep an eye on procedures.
MCCOY: Like a hawk.
(McCoy leaves)
SPOCK: Captain. Something else which is rather extraordinary. This waltz I just played is by Johannes Brahms.
KIRK: Later, Spock.
SPOCK: Captain, it is written in manuscript. In original manuscript, in Brahms' own hand, which I recognise. It is totally unknown, definitely the work of Brahms, and yet unknown.
KIRK: I think I will go to the laboratory. There may be a way of reversing the irillium's effect and saving the existing antitoxin. Stay here. Let me know when Flint and McCoy return.
Captain's log, stardate 5843.75. Have I committed a grave error in accepting Flint's word that he would deliver the antidote to us? The precious time I have let pass may result in disaster for the Enterprise and her crew.
[Laboratory]
(Kirk is having a look around when Rayna enters and goes to a closed door)
KIRK: You left us. The room became lonely.
RAYNA: It is a thirst, a flower dying in the desert.
KIRK: What? What's in there?
RAYNA: I do not know. Flint told me never to enter. He denies me nothing else.
KIRK: Then why are you here?
RAYNA: I do not know. I come here when I am troubled, when I would search myself.
KIRK: Are you troubled now?
RAYNA: Yes.
KIRK: By what? Are you happy here with Flint?
RAYNA: He is the greatest, kindest, wisest man in the galaxy.
KIRK: Then why are you afraid? (he embraces her) Don't be afraid.
(Kirk kisses Rayna. M4 enters and Rayna is scared. Kirk pushes her away)
RAYNA: Stop command. Stop.
(M4 ignores her and pursues Kirk around the room. Spock vapourises it with his phaser as it starts to fire at Kirk)
KIRK: Thank you, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Fortunately, the robot did not detect my presence and deactivate my phaser.
[Living room]
FLINT: M4 was programmed to defend this household and its members. No doubt I should have altered its instructions to allow for unauthorised but predictable actions on your part. It thought you were attacking Rayna. A misinterpretation.
KIRK: If it were around right now, it would correct
(M4 enters)
FLINT: Too useful a device to be without, really. I created another. It will now go to the laboratory and join Doctor McCoy.
(M4 leaves)
SPOCK: Fascinating.
FLINT: Be thankful that you did not attack me, Captain. I might have accepted battle, and I have twice your physical strength.
KIRK: In your own words, it would be an interesting test of power.
FLINT: How childish he is, Rayna. Would you call him brave or a fool?
RAYNA: I'm glad he did not die.
FLINT: Of course! Death, when unnecessary, is a tragic thing. Doctor McCoy's in the laboratory with the new ryetalyn. He's satisfied as to its quality. May I suggest that you wait here patiently, safely. You have seen that my defence systems operate automatically and not always in accordance with my wishes. Come, Rayna. Rayna! Come.
(Rayna reluctantly tears herself away from Kirk, and they both leave)
KIRK: I don't like the way he orders her around.
SPOCK: Since we are dependent on Mister Flint for the ryetalyn, Captain, may I respectfully suggest that you pay less attention to the young lady if you should encounter her again. Our host's interests do not appear to be confined to art and science.
KIRK: He loves her?
SPOCK: Strongly indicated.
KIRK: Jealousy. Yes, that would explain the attack, but he seemed to want us together. The billiard game. He suggested we dance.
SPOCK: It does appear to defy the male logic as I understand it.
KIRK: Kirk to Enterprise. Mister Scott.
SCOTT [OC]: Aye, Captain.
KIRK: Report on the Rigelian fever.
[Bridge]
SCOTT: Nearly everybody aboard has got it, Captain. We're working a skeleton crew and waiting for the ryetalyn.
KIRK [OC]: Just a little while longer, Scotty. Report on the computer search.
UHURA: There is no report on Mister Flint. He doesn't seem to have any past.
[Living room]
UHURA [OC]: The planet was purchased thirty years ago by a Mister Brack, a wealthy financier and recluse.
KIRK: Run a computer check on Rayna Kapec. Status, legal ward after the death of her parents.
UHURA [OC]: Aye, sir.
KIRK: Kirk out, Mister Scott.
SPOCK: We have still a greater mystery, Captain. I was able to run a tricorder scan on Mister Flint. He is human, but there are certain biophysical peculiarities. Some body function readings are disproportionate. For one thing, extreme age is indicated on the order of six thousand years.
KIRK: Can you confirm that, Mister Spock?
SPOCK: I shall programme the readings through Doctor McCoy's medical computer when we return to the ship.
KIRK: Time factor.
SPOCK: We must commence ryetalyn injections within two hours and eighteen minutes or the epidemic will prove fatal to us all.
KIRK: What's keeping the processing this time?
[Sitting room]
SPOCK [on monitor]: The delay may be deliberate.
KIRK [on monitor]: As though he's keeping us here for some reason.
SPOCK [on monitor]: Most interesting. Our host appears to wish us to linger, yet he is apprehensive. It is logical to assume that we are being monitored and that he is aware of our every move.
(Flint turns off the screen)
RAYNA: You sent the robot to kill him.
FLINT: It came to protect you.
RAYNA: My mind could not have summoned it. I was not frightened.
FLINT: It was defective, then. I would have destroyed it myself. Have I lied to you?
RAYNA: Never.
FLINT: Believe what I say. I would not want Captain Kirk dead. What did you feel?
RAYNA: You will let them have the ryetalyn?
FLINT: Yes. Go to them, if you wish. Say your farewells.
[Living room]
KIRK: Kirk here.
SCOTT [OC]: Mister Scott, sir. There's no record of a Rayna Kapec in Federation legal banks.
KIRK: No award of custody?
[Bridge]
SCOTT: No background at all in any computer banks. Like Flint.
[Living room]
KIRK: Kirk out. Like Flint. People without a past. What hold does he have over her?
SPOCK: Captain, I would suggest that our immediate concern is the ryetalyn.
KIRK: Let's find McCoy.
RAYNA: Captain?
KIRK: I'll meet you in the lab.
(Spock leaves)
RAYNA: I've come to say goodbye.
KIRK: I don't want to say goodbye.
[Sitting room]
(Flint watches on the monitor as Kirk kisses Rayna, and she starts to respond)
FLINT: A last tender encounter, Captain Kirk, to end your usefulness.
[Laboratory]
MCCOY: I tell you, Spock, I was waiting for the robot to finish the processing, and the next thing I knew it was gone and so was the ryetalyn.
SPOCK: Interesting. Obviously, Mister Flint is not yet ready for us to depart.
MCCOY: Well, I think we'd better tell Jim.
SPOCK: The captain wanted us to wait here.
[Living room]
KIRK: Come with me. I offer you happiness.
RAYNA: I've known security here.
KIRK: Childhood must end. You love me, not Flint.
(Rayna dashes out of the room)
[Laboratory]
(Kirk enters)
MCCOY: Flint lied. The ryetalyn isn't here.
SPOCK: Picking up tricorder readings, Captain. Apparently the ryetalyn is behind this door.
KIRK: Why is Flint playing tricks on us? Apparently we're supposed to go in and get it, if we can. Well, let's not disappoint the chess master. Phasers on full.
(The door opens by itself)
SPOCK: Captain, I shall get the ryetalyn.
KIRK: Why you?
SPOCK: There may be dangers within.
KIRK: Let's find out.
SPOCK: Let me go alone, Captain.
MCCOY: Why? Get to the point, Spock, if there is one.
KIRK: We'll all go.
(they go down a short corridor into another laboratory)
[Lab two]
(The vials of ryetalyn are on a table.)
MCCOY: The ryetalyn.
(And over by the far wall is a covered figure with the label - Rayna 16. Kirk takes a look at it. It is a bald version of Rayna. They look further and see others. Rayna 14, Rayna 15.
Captain's log, stardate 5843.8. We have accomplished our mission and have the ryetalyn ready to combat the epidemic aboard the Enterprise. But we have also discovered our benefactor's secret. He has created the perfect woman. Her only flaw, she's not human.
[Lab two]
MCCOY: Physically human but not human. These are earlier versions of Rayna, Jim. She's an android.
FLINT: Created here by my hand. Here, the centuries of loneliness were to end.
SPOCK: Your collection of Leonardo da Vinci masterpieces, Mister Flint, they appear to have been recently painted on contemporary canvas with contemporary materials. And on your piano, a waltz by Johannes Brahms, an unknown work in manuscript, written in modern ink. Yet absolutely authentic, as are your paintings.
FLINT: I am Brahms.
SPOCK: And da Vinci?
FLINT: Yes.
SPOCK: How many other names shall we call you?
FLINT: Solomon, Alexander, Lazarus, Methuselah, Merlin, Abramson. A hundred other names you do not know.
SPOCK: You were born?
FLINT: In that region of earth later called Mesopotamia, in the year 3834 BC, as the millennia are reckoned. I was Akharin, a soldier, a bully and a fool. I fell in battle, pierced to the heart and did not die.
MCCOY: Instant tissue regeneration coupled with some perfect form of biological renewal. You learned that you were immortal and
FLINT: And to conceal it. To live some portion of a life, to pretend to age and then move on before my nature was suspected.
SPOCK: Your wealth and your intellect are the product of centuries of acquisition. You knew the greatest minds in history.
FLINT: Galileo, Socrates, Moses. I have married a hundred times, Captain. Selected, loved, cherished. Caressed a smoothness, inhaled a brief fragrance. Then age, death, the taste of dust. Do you understand?
SPOCK: You wanted a perfect, ultimate woman, as brilliant, as immortal as yourself. Your mate for all time.
FLINT: Designed by my heart. I could not love her more.
KIRK: Spock, you knew?
SPOCK: I had hoped I was wrong.
FLINT: You cannot love an android, Captain. I love her. She is my handiwork, my property. She is what I desire.
KIRK:: You brought me here to learn this? Does she know?
FLINT: She will never know.
KIRK: Let's go.
FLINT: You will stay.
KIRK: Why?
SPOCK: We have discovered what he is, Captain.
FLINT: If you leave, the curious would follow, the foolish, the meddlers, the officials, the seekers. My privacy was my own. Its invasion be on your head.
SPOCK: We can remain silent.
FLINT: The disaster of intervention, Spock. I've known it. I will not risk it.
KIRK: Kirk to Enterprise.
(We see Flint press a button, and the Enterprise disappear from its orbit)
KIRK: Clear out of the area. Inform Starfleet Command. Enterprise? Scotty?
FLINT: They cannot answer, Captain.
(A model Enterprise appears on a table. Kirk peers in through the viewscreen to see everyone stationary)
KIRK: My crew.
FLINT: The test of power. You had no chance. It is time for you to join your crew.
KIRK: You'd wipe out four hundred lives? Why?
FLINT: I have seen a hundred billion fall. I know death better than any man. I have tossed enemies into his grasp. And I know mercy. Your crew is not dead, but suspended.
KIRK: Worse than dead! Restore them. Restore my ship!
FLINT: In time. A thousand, two thousand years. You will know the future, Captain Kirk.
MCCOY: You have been such men. You've known and created such beauty. You've watched your race evolve from cruelty and barbarism throughout your enormous life, and yet now you would do this to us?
FLINT: The flowers of my past. I hold the nettles of the present. I am Flint now, with my needs.
KIRK: What needs?
FLINT: Tonight I have seen something wondrous, something I've waited for, laboured for. Nothing must endanger it. At last, Rayna's emotions have stirred to life. Now they will turn to me in this solitude which I preserve.
RAYNA: No.
FLINT: Rayna.
RAYNA: You must not do this to them.
FLINT: I must.
SPOCK: What will you feel for him after we are gone?
MCCOY: All emotions are in play, Mister Flint. You harm us, she hates you.
KIRK: Give me back my ship. Your secret is safe with us.
(The model Enterprise disappears, and appears back in orbit)
KIRK: That's why you delayed the processing of the ryetalyn. You realised what was happening. You kept us together, Rayna and me, because you knew I could bring her emotions alive. And now you're just going to take over.
FLINT: I shall take what is mine when she comes to me. We are mated, Captain, alike, immortal. You must forget your feelings in this matter, which is quite impossible for you.
KIRK: Impossible? Impossible. From the beginning, you used me. I can't love her, but I do love her. And she loves me.
FLINT: No!
(They tussle)
SPOCK: Captain, your primitive impulses will not alter the circumstances.
KIRK: Stay out of this. We're fighting over a woman.
SPOCK: No, you're not, for she is not.
(Flint thumps Kirk, then repeatedly throws him across the room)
RAYNA: I cannot be the cause of this. I will not be the cause of this. Please stop. Stop! I choose where I want to go.
(The men stop fighting in astonishment)
RAYNA: what I want to do. I choose. I choose.
FLINT: Rayna!
RAYNA: No. Do not order me. No one can order me!
KIRK: She's human. Down to the last blood cell, she's human. Down to the last thought, hope, aspiration, emotion, she's human. The human spirit is free. You have no power of ownership. She's free to do as she wishes.
SPOCK: Gentlemen, I urge you to stop. There is a danger.
FLINT: No man beats me.
KIRK: I don't want to beat you. This is no test of power. Rayna belongs to herself and she claims the human right of choice to be as she wills, to do as she wills, to think as she wills.
FLINT: That's what I've worked for.
KIRK: Rayna, come with me.
FLINT: Stay.
RAYNA: I was not human. Now I love. I love.
(She collapses. McCoy checks for a pulse)
FLINT: You can't die.
KIRK: What happened?
SPOCK: She loved you, Captain. And you, too, Mister Flint, as a mentor, even as a father. There was not enough time for her to adjust to the awful power and contradictions of her new-found emotions. She could not bear to hurt either of you. The joys of love made her human, and the agonies of love destroyed her.
[Kirk's quarters]
KIRK: Spock.
SPOCK: The epidemic is reduced and no longer a threat. The Enterprise is on course five one three mark seven, as you ordered.
KIRK: A very old and lonely man. And a young and lonely man. We put on a pretty poor show, didn't we? If only I could forget.
(He rests his head on his arms, on the desk. McCoy enters)
MCCOY: Jim. Oh, thank heaven, sleeping at last.
SPOCK: Your report, Doctor.
MCCOY: Oh, those tricorder readings on Mister Flint are finally correlated: He's dying. You see, Flint, in leaving Earth with all of its complex fields within which he was formed, sacrificed immortality. He'll live the remainder of a normal life span, then die.
SPOCK: On that day, I shall mourn. Does he know?
MCCOY: Yes, I told him myself. He intends to devote the remainder of his years and great abilities to the improvement of the human condition. And who knows what he might come up with.
SPOCK: Indeed.
MCCOY: Well, I guess that's all. I can tell Jim later or you can. Considering his opponent's longevity, truly an eternal triangle. You wouldn't understand that, would you, Spock? You see, I feel sorrier for you than I do for him because you'll never know the things that love can drive a man to. The ecstasies, the miseries, the broken rules, the desperate chances, the glorious failures, the glorious victories. All of these things you'll never know simply because the word love isn't written into your book. Goodnight, Spock.
SPOCK: Goodnight, Doctor.
MCCOY: I do wish he could forget her.
(McCoy leaves. Spock goes over to Kirk and initiates a mind meld)
SPOCK: Forget.
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