Geoffrey's Eleven Episodes

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I was thinking about the "Abridged Star Trek" thread where Geoffrey proposed an "11 episode canon" and I thought it would be worth a follow-up, but I didn't want to clutter the other thread. What I did is go to Wikipedia and steal their plot synopsis parts and copy-paste into Word.

If anyone wants to pursue this canon in some way, I'm going to drop those plot synopsis parts into separate posts in case anyone wants to comment. Perhaps it will make a resource for anyone who wants to remind themselves about some of the details. Perhaps it has no value and just takes up space on the boards.

The thread is about the 11 episodes, but I'm actually going to post 13 because I also did the two pilots.

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THE CAGE

The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, receives a radio distress call from the fourth planet in the Talos star group. A landing party is assembled and beamed down to investigate. Tracking the distress signal to its source, the landing party discovers a camp of survivors from a scientific expedition that has been missing for eighteen years. Amongst the survivors is a beautiful young woman named Vina.

Captivated by her beauty, Pike is caught off guard and is captured by the Talosians, a race of humanoids with bulbous heads who live beneath the planet's surface. It is revealed that the distress call, and the crash survivors, except for Vina, are just illusions created by the Talosians to lure the Enterprise to the planet. While imprisoned, Pike uncovers the Talosians' plans to repopulate their ravaged planet using him and Vina as breeding stock for a race of slaves.

The Talosians use their power of illusion to try to interest Pike in Vina, and present her in various guises and settings, first as a Rigellian princess, a loving compassionate farm girl, then a seductive, green-skinned Orion. Pike resists all forms. After an earlier landing party failed to gain entry from the surface, six members of the Enterprise crew prepare to beam into the Talosians underground complex, but only Pike's first officer and yeoman—both women—materialize in Pike's cell to offer further temptation. By then, however, Pike has discovered that primitive human emotions can block the Talosians' ability to read his mind, and he manages to escape to the surface of the planet along with the two members of his landing party.

The Talosians confront Pike and his companions before they can transport back to the Enterprise. The captain tries to negotiate, but the first officer sets her weapon on a buildup to overload. Pike and Vina move closer to her, agreeing with her preference for death rather than captivity. After all, as Vina explains, if the Talosians have even one human being, they might try again. This demonstration of fatal resolve confirms what the Talosians have been gleaning from the records they've accessed from the Enterprise's computers: the human race despises captivity far too much to be useful.

Despite their last hope having been proven unsuitable, the Talosians are not vengeful. They let the humans go. The first officer and yeoman beam up immediately, but Pike remains behind with Vina, urging her to leave with him. Vina explains that she cannot leave. An expedition had indeed crash-landed on Talos IV; Vina was the sole survivor, but was badly injured. The Talosians were able to save her, but as they had no understanding of human physiology or aesthetics at the time, she was left horribly disfigured. With the aid of the Talosians' illusions, she is able to appear beautiful and in good health, as much to herself as to any others.

Realizing that the continued Talosian illusion of health and beauty is necessary for Vina, Pike is ready to return to the Enterprise without her. In an act of goodwill, the aliens show him that Vina sees an image of Pike next to her, and they walk up to the entrance that takes them into the Talosian habitat. Pike then beams up after the Keeper's closing words: "She has an illusion and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant."

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WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE

The USS Enterprise is on an exploratory mission to leave the galaxy. En route, a damaged ship's recorder of the SS Valiant, an Earth spaceship lost 200 years earlier, is found. Its record is incomplete, but it reveals that the Valiant had been swept from its path by a "magnetic space storm," and that the crew had frantically searched for information about extrasensory perception (ESP) in the ship's library computer. The recording ends with the captain of the Valiant apparently giving a self-destruct order.

Captain Kirk decides that they need to know what happened to the Valiant, and the Enterprise crosses the edge of the galaxy. There, it encounters a strange barrier which damages the ship's systems and warp drive, forcing a retreat. At the same time, nine crew members are killed and both helmsman Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood) and the ship's psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner (Sally Kellerman) are knocked unconscious by the barrier's effect. When he awakens, Mitchell's eyes glow silver, and he begins to display remarkable psychic powers.

Mitchell becomes increasingly arrogant and hostile toward the rest of the crew, declaring that he has become godlike, enforcing his desires with fearsome displays of telepathic and telekinetic power. Science Officer Spock comes to believe that the Valiant crew members may have experienced the same phenomenon, and destroyed the ship to keep the power from spreading. He advises Kirk that Mitchell may have to be killed before his powers develop further, but Kirk angrily disagrees.

Alarmed that Mitchell may take over the Enterprise, Kirk decides to maroon him at an unmanned lithium-cracking facility on the remote planet of Delta Vega. Once there, the landing party tries to confine Mitchell, but his powers have become too great. He kills navigator Lt. Kelso and escapes by knocking out Kirk and Spock, taking with him Dr. Dehner, who has now developed similar powers.

Kirk follows and appeals to Dr. Dehner's humanity for help. Before Mitchell can kill Kirk, the doctor attacks and weakens him. Mitchell fatally injures Dehner, but before he can recover from the effort, Kirk uses a phaser rifle to create a rock slide, killing Mitchell.

Back on the Enterprise, Kirk makes a log entry that both Dehner and Mitchell gave their lives "in performance of duty". He explains to Spock that he wants his friend's service record to end positively: "He didn't ask for what happened to him."

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THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER

The USS Enterprise, commanded by Captain James T. Kirk, finishes a third day of star mapping when novice navigator Lt. Dave Bailey spots a large spinning multi-colored cube floating in space. He advocates attacking it with phasers. Kirk instead orders the ship to back away from the object. The cube pursues them, emitting harmful radiation, and Kirk reluctantly destroys it.

As Kirk is having lunch in his quarters, a gigantic glowing sphere approaches the Enterprise, filling the bridge viewscreen even at low magnification. Commander Balok identifies his ship as the Fesarius, the flagship of the "First Federation", explaining that the destroyed cube was a border marker. Balok ignores Kirk's greetings and announces that he will destroy the Enterprise for trespassing into First Federation territory and destroying the marker buoy. He gives the crew ten minutes to pray to their deities. First Officer Spock obtains a visual of Balok, a blue-skinned humanoid with constantly shifting facial features. Bailey succumbs to hysteria, and Kirk orders him off the bridge. Dr. McCoy rebukes Kirk, arguing that Bailey's outburst was a result of Kirk putting too much pressure on him, and pointing out that he warned Kirk of Bailey's condition ahead of time. The argument inspires Kirk to try bluffing Balok. He tells Balok that the Enterprise contains "corbomite", a substance that automatically destroys any attacker, and claims he has little regard for the fact that the Enterprise would also be destroyed in the exchange. While Kirk awaits a response, Bailey asks permission to resume his duties, which Kirk grants. Balok demands proof of corbomite's existence, but when Kirk refuses, he does not destroy the Enterprise. Instead, a small tug ship detaches from the Fesarius and tows the Enterprise deep into First Federation space, where Balok states he will intern the crew and destroy the Enterprise. Intuiting that the tug ship's tractor beam cannot be as powerful as that of the Fesarius, Kirk orders the Enterprise to engage the engines at right angles to their course. Just as its engines are about to explode from overload, the Enterprise breaks free. This apparently disables the alien vessel, as the crew picks up a distress call which its mother ship does not answer.

Though recognizing this may be a trap, Kirk, McCoy, and Bailey form a boarding party to render assistance. They beam over and discover that the "Balok" on their monitor was a dummy. The real Balok, looking like a hyperintelligent human child, enthusiastically welcomes them aboard. He explains that he was merely testing the Enterprise and its crew to discover their true intentions. As Kirk and company relax, Balok expresses a desire to learn more about humans and their culture, and suggests they allow a member of their crew to remain on his ship as an emissary of the Federation. Bailey happily volunteers, and Balok gives them a tour of his ship.

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MUDD’s WOMEN

The USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk, is in pursuit of an unregistered cargo spaceship. The ship overloads its engines in an escape attempt through an asteroid field. Kirk orders Enterprise's shields extended around the other spacecraft to protect it until its occupants can be transported aboard Enterprise. This action destroys all but one of the lithium crystal circuits in the Enterprise's warp engines.[note 1]

The Enterprise beams the cargo ship's three passengers and captain aboard, just as an asteroid impact destroys their spaceship. In the transporter room, the captain gives his name as Leo Walsh. The three women who accompany him are stunningly beautiful, and they distract the male crew members of the Enterprise, excluding Mr. Spock, whose Vulcan heritage makes him immune to female charms. The women are intended as wives for settlers on the planet Ophiuchus III and are introduced as Ruth Bonaventure, Eve McHuron, and Magda Kovacs. All three signed on with Walsh to escape a situation in which her marriage prospects were slim or non-existent.

Kirk convenes a hearing, during which the computer contradicts Walsh's testimony, reporting that his ship master's license has been revoked and forcing him to reveal his true name, Harcourt Fenton Mudd, a criminal with an extensive record. The hearing ends as the final lithium crystal fails.

Without lithium crystals, the Enterprise must limp on reserve power to the storm-plagued planet Rigel XII to obtain new crystals from the miners there. Ben Childress, the chief miner, having been in contact with Mudd, demands his release along with the women in exchange for the crystals. The Enterprise's remaining power is insufficient to maintain the ship's orbit for more than a few days, threatening a fiery reentry into the planet's atmosphere, so Kirk is forced to allow Mudd and the women to beam down to the planet. However, once there Childress reneges on the deal.

At an impromptu party with the three miners, Eve becomes angry when they begin fighting over the other two women, and runs away into a magnetic dust storm, with Childress and Kirk in pursuit. Kirk beams back to the Enterprise to try to locate them from orbit. Childress finds Eve, brings her to his quarters, and falls asleep. On waking, he is confronted with a much plainer Eve.

Kirk and Mudd beam back down to the planet to deal with Childress. The captain reveals that Mudd has been giving the women the Venus Drug, which creates a transient, illusory beauty, and that the other two miners have already been married to Ruth and Magda. As Childress confronts Mudd over the deception, Eve snatches a dose of what appears to be the Venus Drug, but is in fact a placebo. This restores her self-confidence to the point that Childress finds her as attractive as before. Pleased, he gives Kirk the replacement crystals. Kirk offers to take Eve away with him but she opts to stay with Childress. Eve tells Kirk, "You've got someone up there called the Enterprise." The ship continues on its way, with Mudd in custody.

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THE ENEMY WITHIN

The USS Enterprise is on a geological exploration of the planet Alpha 177. Geological Technician Fisher is injured after a fall and transported aboard Enterprise, though Chief Engineer Scott has some trouble with the transporter. The transporter equipment appears to be fine but he notices some magnetic dust from ore samples covering Fisher's uniform that may have interfered with the transport.

Captain Kirk transports back to the ship. The transporter appears to work correctly, but Kirk experiences some disorientation, and Scott escorts Kirk out of the transporter room. While unsupervised, the transporter activates a second time, materializing a second version of Kirk which behaves more maliciously than his counterpart. This "evil" Kirk begins to wander the ship, and those he encounters are confused by his behavior.

Scott assists in beaming a dog-like animal specimen from the planet, but two identical creatures materialize – one completely docile and the other vicious. Scott surmises that the ore dust has caused the transporter to split the personalities of those they beamed up, creating good and evil counterparts. Scott reports this to Mr. Spock and then orders the transporter taken out of service to investigate, stranding the landing party on the planet as the bitterly cold night sets in. Elsewhere on the ship, the "good" Kirk begins to feel uncertain, and struggles to make decisions. The "evil" Kirk, in a drunken state, sexually assaults Yeoman Janice Rand in her quarters. She scratches his face with her fingernails. When Fisher witnesses this and calls security, the "evil" Kirk attacks and knocks him out. Rand reports the incident to the bridge. The "good" Kirk orders the crew to capture the "evil" Kirk, but at Spock's advice he keeps the fact that their quarry is his evil half a secret so as not to weaken the crew's faith in him; the crew are instead told of an imposter recognizable by the scratches on his cheek.

The "evil" Kirk hears this announcement and uses makeup to mask his injury. He secures a phaser from a security officer, before going into hiding in engineering. Putting himself in his shoes, the "good" Kirk anticipates this move. While the two Kirks scuffle, Spock disables the "evil" Kirk with a Vulcan nerve pinch. Spock recognizes both Kirks are suffering fatigue, and they must find a way to reverse the transporter accident to save both Kirk and the landing party. Spock and Scott use power from the ship's impulse drive to reverse the transporter on the dog-like specimen. When it materializes, the creature is whole but dead. Spock suggests that it died because its animal brain could not handle the stress of its two halves being reintegrated, so Kirk will be able to survive the same procedure, while Dr. Leonard McCoy insists they can't take the risk that the death was caused by ongoing transporter malfunction.

With the landing party nearly dead from cold, the "good" Kirk opts to gamble on the procedure rather than wait for an autopsy on the creature. When he releases the "evil" Kirk, his other self overpowers him, and gives him facial scratches like his own. Pretending to be the "good" Kirk, he tells Rand the truth about the "imposter", and makes a date with her before heading to the bridge. He orders the crew to leave orbit, telling the navigator that the landing party cannot be saved. The "good" Kirk and McCoy race to the bridge, where the two Kirks face off. The "good" Kirk at last persuades the "evil" Kirk that they need each other to survive, and will both live on as parts of each other. He orders Scott to attempt the reversal process, and Kirk rejoined as one being. With his sense of command and good will restored (and the transporter repaired), Kirk orders the landing party beamed up. They are safe despite the cold. Rand tells Kirk about her last encounter with "evil" Kirk, but he cuts her off before she can discuss the issue of his romantic overtures.

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THE MAN TRAP

The USS Enterprise arrives at planet M-113 to provide supplies and medical exams for the only known inhabitants of the planet, Professor Robert Crater (Alfred Ryder) and his wife Nancy (Jeanne Bal), who operate an archaeological research station there. Captain Kirk, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Leonard McCoy, and Crewman Darnell (Michael Zaslow) transport to the surface as Kirk teases McCoy about his affection for Nancy ten years earlier. They arrive in the research station, and each of the three men sees Nancy differently: McCoy as she was when he first met her, Kirk as she should look accounting for her age, and Darnell as an attractive blonde woman who he met on a pleasure planet. When Nancy goes out to fetch her husband, she beckons Darnell to follow her.

Professor Crater is reluctant to be examined, telling Kirk that they only require salt tablets. Before McCoy can complete the examination, they hear a scream from outside. They find Darnell dead, with red ring-like mottling on his face, a plant root in his mouth, and Nancy standing over him saying she was unable to stop Darnell from tasting the plant. On board Enterprise, Spock analyzes the plant. He confirms that it is poisonous, but the mottling is not a symptom. McCoy conducts a medical exam, and together with Spock determines that all the salt was drained from Darnell's body. In response, Kirk transports back down to the planet with McCoy and two crewmen, Green (Bruce Watson) and Sturgeon (John Arndt). Kirk tells Professor Carter that he and his wife should stay aboard the Enterprise until they find out what killed Darnell. Crater then runs off trying to find Nancy. Nancy kills both Sturgeon and Green; their faces show the same mottling as Darnell. Nancy assumes the form of Green, and meets Kirk and McCoy. They beam back up to the ship with Sturgeon's body.

"Green" roams the corridors, stalking several crew members, killing one. It shape-shifts into the form of McCoy after confirming that the real McCoy has taken a sedative to sleep. Meanwhile, Spock confirms that scans show only one person, Crater, on the planet; Kirk and Spock beam down to capture him. They find Green's body before Crater tries to frighten them away with phaser fire. After they stun him with a phaser beam, the dazed Crater reveals that the real Nancy was killed by the creature – the last member of a long-dead civilization of shape-shifters who feed on salt – a year earlier. The creature continued to take on the appearance of Nancy out of affection for Crater, and he has been feeding it. Kirk informs Enterprise of the creature's intrusion, as the landing party and Crater transport back to the ship.

Crater refuses to help them identify the creature, so Kirk orders the fake "McCoy" to administer truth serum. Kirk arrives in sickbay to find Crater dead and Spock injured; Spock's Vulcan blood made him incompatible with the creature's needs. Back in its "Nancy" form, the creature goes to McCoy's quarters. Kirk arrives with a phaser to provoke the creature into attacking. McCoy gets in the way, giving the creature the opportunity to attack Kirk. The creature reverts to its natural appearance and starts to feed on Kirk. McCoy opens fire with his phaser. The creature changes back into the shape of "Nancy" to plead for its life as McCoy continues firing and kills it. As Enterprise leaves orbit, Kirk comments, with a degree of compassion, that this creature – the last of its kind – was probably not inherently evil, but simply desperate.

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THE NAKED TIME

The USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk arrives at the dying planet Psi 2000. Their mission is to observe and document the planet's breakup, and to retrieve a research team stationed on the planet. Mr. Spock and Lt (junior grade) Joe Tormolen beam down and find the researchers' life support system shut down and the team frozen to death—one fully clothed in a shower, one seated at a control console as if nothing was wrong, and one who was strangled. Tormolen removes his environmental suit glove to scratch his nose and comes in contact with a strange red liquid. The landing party is beamed back to the ship and examined by Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy. McCoy finds no medical issues with them and allows them to return to duty.

While having lunch, Tormolen begins to act irrationally, expressing hostility towards other crew members, and threatening Lieutenants Sulu and Riley with a knife before turning it on himself. His wound is not life-threatening, but in sick bay he dies after a successful surgery, to McCoy's bewilderment.

Both Sulu and Riley also begin to behave irrationally. Sulu acts like a 17th-century swashbuckler in the style of The Three Musketeers, while Riley revels in his Irish ancestry, locks himself in the engineering section, and proclaims himself captain of the Enterprise. Those whose skin they have touched follow suit, and the infection quickly spreads through the crew. As they abandon their posts, the ship's orbit destabilizes and it falls into the planet's erratic gravity well. As the Enterprise enters the upper atmosphere, the hull begins to heat.

Chief Engineer Scott regains control of engineering from Riley, but Riley has shut down the engines. It will be impossible to restart them by normal procedures before the Enterprise crashes into the planet.

Spock becomes infected when Nurse Chapel takes his hands and confesses her love for him. Spock struggles to contain his emotions, and infects Captain James T. Kirk when he tries to help. McCoy studies blood samples from his patients and water from Psi 2000 and finds that the water from the planet possesses a previously undetected complex chain of molecules that affects humanoids like alcohol, depressing the centers of judgment and self-control, and is transmitted by touch. He develops a serum to reverse the effects, administering the initial doses to the command crew to allow them to bring the ship back under control.

Kirk orders Scott to make a full-power restart of the warp engines, a dangerous process that mixes matter and antimatter in a cold state to create a controlled implosion and drive the ship away from the planet. This is suggested by a theory postulating a relationship between time and antimatter, but it has never before been attempted. The restart is successful, propelling the Enterprise at impossible speed away from the planet into a space-time warp that sends the ship back 71 hours in time. Spock comments that they now know a way to travel back through time. Kirk's response is "We may risk it someday, Mr. Spock."

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CHARLIE X

The USS Enterprise meets the merchant vessel Antares to take charge of Charlie Evans, the sole survivor of a transport ship that crashed on the planet Thasus. For fourteen years, Charlie grew up there alone, stranded in the wreckage, learning how to talk from the ship's computer systems, which remained intact. Charlie is to be transported to his nearest relatives on the colony Alpha V. Crew members aboard Antares speak praises about Charlie, but seem pleased to see him removed from their ship. He tells Dr. McCoy the crew of Antares did not like him very much, and that all he wants is for people to like him.

Despite his eagerness to please, Charlie becomes obnoxious since his lack of upbringing has left him with no knowledge of social norms or control of his emotions. He latches on to Captain Kirk as a father figure and develops an infatuation with Yeoman Janice Rand. He demonstrates extraordinary powers of telepathy and matter transmutation, though the crew initially fail to recognize the cause. Charlie meets Rand in the recreation room, where Mr. Spock plays a Vulcan lyrette and Lt. Uhura sings. Charlie is annoyed with being a subject in Uhura's performance, as well as with Rand paying more attention to the song than to him, so he causes Uhura to temporarily lose her voice.

When the Antares is nearly out of sensor range, it transmits a message to the Enterprise. The message is cut off before it can convey a warning. Scanners show the Antares has been reduced to debris.

Kirk tries to teach Charlie martial arts. Sam, Kirk's training partner, laughs at one of Charlie's falls, and Charlie makes him vanish. Shocked, Kirk calls for security guards to escort Charlie to his quarters. Charlie makes all phasers on the ship disappear, but ultimately yields to Kirk's order that he return to his quarters. Records show that Charlie's abilities are the same as those of Thasians, but the medical examination McCoy conducted when Charlie came on board confirmed that he is human. Charlie admits he used his powers to remove a vital component of the Antares. Frustrated at the adversarial turn in his relationship with the crew, Charlie breaks out of his quarters and begins to use his powers on the crew. When Rand resists his romantic advances, he makes her disappear.

Realizing Charlie's powers are too great to be controlled, Kirk opts to divert from Alpha V so as to at least keep Charlie away from a civilized world, where he would wreck havok. Charlie discovers Kirk's plans, and takes control of the Enterprise. Speculating that controlling the Enterprise may sap Charlie's power, Kirk orders all of the ship's systems to be activated and attacks Charlie. However, his hypothesis proves incorrect.

A Thasian ship approaches and restores the Enterprise and its disappeared crew members to normal. The Thasian commander says that his race gave Charlie his powers so he could survive on their world, but these powers make him too dangerous to live among humans. Charlie begs Kirk to not let the aliens have him, since the Thasians lack any physical form or capacity for love. However, the Thasians reject Kirk's argument that Charlie belongs with his own kind, and transport Charlie away. Yeoman Rand cries for him.

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BALANCE OF TERROR

The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Kirk, is investigating a loss of communication with a line of Earth outposts near the Romulan Neutral Zone, formed under the terms of the peace treaty that ended the Earth–Romulan War a century earlier. Because there were no visual communications at that time, the two races have never seen each other. While Kirk officiates at the wedding of Lieutenant Tomlinson and Ensign Martine, Outpost 4 comes under attack. The Enterprise comes to Outpost 4's aid and contacts the base commander, Hansen, who reveals he is the only survivor of an attack by an unknown enemy with weapons of immense power. A single shot destroyed the base's shields and killed the phaser crew. As they speak, the enemy ship reappears. The ship fires before disappearing again. That shot destroys the outpost.

The ship's sensors locate the attacker, which remains invisible. Kirk surmises that the attacker is equipped with a cloaking device. A coded message from the intruder provides a view through one of its internal cameras, revealing humanoids with an appearance like Vulcans. Lieutenant Stiles, the navigator, son of a service family that lost several members in the Earth–Romulan War, begins to question the loyalty of the Enterprise's half-Vulcan first officer, Mr. Spock.

During a discussion of the Romulan ship's capabilities, Stiles suggests the Enterprise attack the vessel before it can reach the Neutral Zone. Spock agrees; he reasons that if the Romulans are in fact an offshoot of the Vulcan species and have retained the martial philosophy of the Vulcans' ancient past, they would surely take advantage of any perceived weakness.

A cat-and-mouse game ensues. The Enterprise is faster and more maneuverable, while the Romulan ship has a cloaking device and immensely destructive plasma torpedoes. However, the range of these torpedoes is limited, and firing one requires so much power that the ship must decloak first. When the Romulans head into the tail of a comet, Kirk tries to head it off: when the Romulan ship emerges on the other side, it will be visible and can be targeted. However, when a subordinate manning the scanner reports that the Enterprise is gone, the commander guesses Kirk's plan, and takes evasive maneuvers. The Enterprise, waiting on the other side of the comet, sees nothing and Kirk realizes what happened. He orders phasers to be fired blindly before the Romulans can counterattack.

The Romulans, almost beaten, plant a nuclear weapon amidst jettisoned debris. When Spock detects a "metal-cased object", Kirk orders a point-blank phaser shot that detonates the device. The Enterprise is shaken by the blast and much of the phaser crew are killed, requiring Stiles to act as backup. Kirk orders operations to work at minimal power to exaggerate the apparent damage and lure the Romulans in for a kill shot. Although the Romulan commander suspects Kirk's trap, Decius, a politically well-connected member of the command crew pressures him to attack the Enterprise. When the Romulan ship decloaks to launch a torpedo, Kirk tries to spring his trap, but a coolant leak in the phaser room incapacitates Stiles and Tomlinson. Spock rescues Stiles and fires the phasers in time to mortally wound the Romulan ship. Kirk hails the Romulans and at last communicates directly with his opponent, offering to beam aboard survivors. The Romulan commander says that it is not the Romulan way to be taken prisoner and triggers his ship's Self-destruct system.

The battle's casualties include Lt. Tomlinson. Kirk goes to the chapel to provide some comfort to a grieving Ensign Martine.

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WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?

The USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk, travels to the icy planet Exo-III to search for the exobiologist Dr. Roger Korby (played by Michael Strong). Korby is the fiancé of Dr. McCoy's temporary assistant, Nurse Christine Chapel, who signed on to the Enterprise to search for Korby.

At Korby's request, Kirk and Chapel beam down alone to a cavern entrance, but Korby is not there to meet them. Kirk and Chapel eventually find him living in a system of caves, left by an extinct race. Korby shows Kirk and Chapel machinery which creates androids. With the help of Ruk (played by Ted Cassidy), a still functioning android from the time of the original inhabitants, Korby has created more androids, one being a lovely woman he calls "Andrea". Chapel recognizes Korby's aide Dr. Brown, but is surprised the man does not remember her. In reality, Brown is also an android created as a prototype for Korby's plan to replace key personnel in the Federation with android duplicates under his control.

Korby proceeds to create an exact android duplicate of Kirk as Chapel looks on. As Kirk's personality is imprinted on the android, the real Kirk imagines himself insulting Spock as a "half-breed". Korby has the duplicate Kirk beamed aboard the Enterprise with orders to begin the spread of android duplicates throughout the galaxy. When Spock questions the Kirk-android's orders, it repeats the insult Kirk had used. Spock, realizing that this is not Kirk, forms a security team and follows the Kirk-android back down to Exo-III.

Meanwhile, the real Kirk, guarded by Ruk, convinces the android that Korby is a threat to his continued existence and must be destroyed. Ruk begins to recall the clash between the "Old Ones" and the androids that led to his civilization's demise centuries ago, and concludes that conflict is again inevitable. Korby enters and Ruk confronts him, but Korby destroys Ruk with a phaser. Shortly afterwards, in a struggle with Kirk, the skin of Korby's hand is torn, revealing that he is also an android.

It is now revealed that Korby, dying of frostbite, had transferred his mind to an android body. He begs Chapel to believe that he is still the same man, but Chapel is repelled by what he has done to himself. Andrea, realizing she loves Korby, kisses him, and in despair, Korby fires Andrea's phaser between the embracing pair, destroying them both.

Spock arrives with the security force, but finds that the crisis has passed. When Spock inquires about Dr. Korby's whereabouts, Kirk replies, "Dr. Korby was never here." In the end, Chapel decides to stay on with the Enterprise and finish out her tour of duty.

[Finarvyn]

DAGGER OF THE MIND

The USS Enterprise, commanded by Captain Kirk, makes a supply run to planet Tantalus V, a colony where the criminally insane are confined for treatment. The facility's director is Dr. Tristan Adams, a psychiatrist famous for advocating more humane treatment of such patients. After the Enterprise delivers supplies and receives cargo from Tantalus, a man emerges from the container taken aboard and assaults a technician. Reaching the bridge, the intruder demands asylum, but Spock subdues him with a Vulcan nerve pinch. In sickbay, the intruder identifies himself as Simon van Gelder, and a computer check reveals that he is not a patient, but Dr. Adams' assistant.

When they inform Tantalus of van Gelder's capture, Dr. Adams claims that van Gelder's testing of an experimental treatment device on himself is responsible for his disturbed condition. McCoy, suspicious, urges Kirk to investigate. Kirk transports down to the colony with one of the ship's psychiatrists, Dr. Helen Noel.

Adams introduces them to a strangely emotionless therapist, Lethe, and gives Kirk and Noel a tour of the colony. Although he is affable and accommodating, his staff, like Lethe, all seem lacking in affect. Adams shows Kirk and Noel the treatment device he referred to: a "neural neutralizer". He claims that the machine, harmless at low intensity, is used only to calm agitated inmates. Noel is satisfied with his explanation, but Kirk remains suspicious.

On the Enterprise van Gelder becomes increasingly frantic, warning that the landing party is in danger, but when he tries to explain the danger and refers to the neural neutralizer, he is convulsed with pain. Spock mind-melds with van Gelder to enable him to tell his story. Spock learns that the neural neutralizer can empty a mind of thoughts, leaving only an unbearable feeling of loneliness, and that Adams has been using it on inmates and staff to gain total control of their minds. The first officer assembles a security team, but the colony's force field blocks transport and communication.

Unaware of events on the ship, Kirk decides to test the neutralizer on himself, with Noel at the controls. She finds that she can easily implant thoughts into Kirk's mind, even altering his memory of a recent Christmas-party encounter between the two of them. Adams appears, overpowers Noel, seizes the controls, increases the neutralizer's intensity, and proceeds to convince Kirk that he has been madly in love with Noel for years. Kirk and Noel are then confined to quarters.

On Kirk's orders, Noel enters the facility's physical plant through a ventilation duct, and interrupts Kirk's next neutralizer session by shutting off power to the entire complex. Freed from the neutralizer, Kirk attacks Adams, leaving him alone and unconscious in the treatment room. A guard discovers Noel's sabotage, but she kicks him into the circuitry, electrocuting him. With the force field now off, Spock beams down to the planet, disables the force field, and restores power to the colony. This reactivates the neural neutralizer, which empties Adams' mind completely, killing him.

Back on the Enterprise, Kirk is informed that van Gelder has destroyed the neural neutralizer. McCoy is surprised that loneliness could be lethal, but Kirk, after his experience, is not.

[Finarvyn]

MIRI

The USS Enterprise answers a distress call from a planet resembling Earth. A landing party of Captain Kirk, First Officer Spock, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, Yeoman Janice Rand and two security personnel find an abandoned, 1960 Earth. They are attacked by a disfigured man. After Kirk hits the man three times, the man has a seizure and dies. Noises draw the landing party to an abandoned building. They discover a preadolescent, Miri, who ran away from them because "grups" ("grownups") killed and maimed children before dying. She and her friends are "onlies", the only ones left. The distress call is traced to an automated signal.

The landing party, except for Spock, notice purple lesions on their bodies; Miri tells them that these are the first signs of the disease and they will soon become like the other adults. The party find a medical research laboratory and look through documents for clues to the disease, and discover that it is a side effect of a life-extension experiment, affecting those who have reached puberty; death follows a brief period of violent madness. The "children" are over 300 years old, aging one month every century, but show the mental and emotional maturity of their biological age rather than their actual age. When the disease begins, its victims have seven days to live. Although Spock is apparently immune, he considers himself a carrier who could infect the Enterprise if he returns.

Kirk uses his charm on Miri to persuade her to show him to the other children. However, mistrustful of the "grups", they disperse when Kirk and Miri approach their hideout. Jahn, an older boy and the leader of the children, steals the landing party's communicators, rendering McCoy's search for a cure impossible without the Enterprise's computers. When Yeoman Rand panics at their impending fate and Kirk comforts her, a jealous Miri runs away and schemes with her friends to kidnap Rand.

McCoy discovers a possible vaccine for the disease, but without the ability to check the dosage with the ship's computers, the vaccine may kill the patient. Kirk tells Miri that the onlies will contract the disease if they do not help him find a cure. Upon realizing that she herself is infected, Miri brings Kirk to where Rand is being held. At Jahn's urging, the children swarm and gang up on Kirk. An injured and bleeding Kirk then angrily begs the children to think of the youngest onlies, who will be helpless when the older ones are dead. He points out that their food supplies are running out; the children will starve within six months. Convinced, Jahn gives the communicators back to Kirk. He rounds up the children and returns to the laboratory, but in desperation McCoy has already injected himself with a dose of the vaccine. The doctor's sores fade, confirming the cure's effectiveness.

Back on the Enterprise after vaccinating everyone and leaving the children in care of a medical team, Kirk sends for teachers and advisers to help the children improve their lives.

[Finarvyn]

THE CONSCIENCE OF THE KING

The USS Enterprise is called to Planet Q by Dr. Thomas Leighton, a friend of Captain Kirk's, ostensibly to investigate a possible new synthetic food source. Leighton's true motivation, however, is his suspicion that Anton Karidian, the leader of a Shakespearean acting troupe currently on the planet, is in fact Kodos "the Executioner," former governor of the Earth colony of Tarsus IV. Kodos seized power when the food supply of the colony was nearly destroyed and the people faced starvation. He ordered that half the population be put to death to solve the food crisis, to which both Leighton and Kirk were eyewitnesses. A supply ship arrived earlier than scheduled, but too late to prevent the massacre. Kodos was pursued. A burned body was found and the case closed. Kirk insists Kodos cannot still be alive, and declines Leighton's request that he meet Karidian and his troupe at a party at Leighton's home. However, upon returning to the ship he researches Kodos and Karidian and finds considerable circumstantial evidence supporting Leighton's suspicion: there is no record of Karidian's existence prior to Kodos's disappearance, and photos confirm a close physical resemblance. Kirk goes to the party. Karidian does not appear, but Kirk meets his daughter Lenore, also a member of the troupe, and they hit it off. During a walk outside the two discover Leighton dead.

Kirk arranges for the Enterprise to ferry the acting troupe to its next destination. He transfers Lt. Kevin Riley to Engineering, after discovering that he too was a witness to the Tarsus IV massacre. These actions arouse the curiosity of First Officer Spock, who, after an investigation of his own, learns the history of the massacre, Kirk and Riley's connection to it, and that seven of nine witnesses to the massacre have died, in each case when Karidian's acting troupe was somewhere nearby. He discusses the matter with Dr. McCoy.

Riley is poisoned, and a phaser is set on overload and left in Kirk's quarters. Kirk confronts Karidian with his suspicions. Karidian does not admit to being Kodos, but argues in defense of Kodos' actions and when prompted to read the ordering of the massacre, does so with barely a glance at the transcript. A computer analysis of his voice results in a near-perfect match with Kodos, but Kirk still hesitates to accuse Karidian.

Lt. Riley, recovering in sickbay, overhears Dr. McCoy's log entry and learns that Karidian is suspected of being Kodos. Riley heads for the ship's theater where the Karidian troupe is performing Hamlet, and sneaks backstage, phaser in hand, to exact revenge for the death of his family. Kirk discovers him before he can act and persuades him to surrender the weapon. Karidian, overhearing, is disturbed. Lenore tries to assuage him by revealing that she has been killing off all the witnesses to his crimes. This devastates Karidian, who is tormented by guilt over his actions as governor. Kirk, overhearing this conversation, moves to arrest them both. Lenore snatches a phaser from a security guard and aims at Kirk. Karidian jumps into the line of fire, is hit, and dies. Lenore breaks down and begs her father to wake up and continue his performance. Later, on the bridge, McCoy reports that she'll get the best of care. Having gone completely insane, she thinks her father is still alive and giving performances to cheering crowds.