Star Trek – For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

★★★★ November 8, 1968 Season 3 Episode 8

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog. 

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, Hendrik Vollaerts, and Arthur H. Singer

I like this one a lot. It’s one of the episodes I go to when I want to watch a Star Trek episode. 

Doctor McCoy finds out he has a fatal disease and only has around one year to live. The Enterprise in attacked by a missile, launched from an asteroid on an independent collision course with highly populated planet, Darren 5, in 396 days, which has simple atomic power and an internal atmosphere, but no inhabitants.

Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam onto the ‘asteroid’ and soon discover that it is a generational ship and its crew, which is very much alive, have no idea that they are on a ship. In fact, the fact is deliberately hidden from the people aboard and actions that may lead to the truth coming out are punished by the ‘Oracle’.

The most senior person there is Natira, the High Priestess of the society, and she is clearly attracted to McCoy and he feels the same way. This makes it easy for him to keep her occupied while Kirk and Spock investigate the Oracle. Unfortunately, they are caught and forced to return to the Enterprise. McCoy however decides to spend his final year with Natira. Shortly afterward he learns that there may be a way to save the people of Yonada but it would mean reading their sacred book; something nobody may do until they reach their destination.

McCoy is in love with Natira and is ready to run off with her since he only has a year to live. It was nice seeing McCoy getting the female this time. The biggest criticism of this episode is too many coincidences in this one to make it believable but still a very enjoyable episode. 

From IMDB:

Polycythemia is a real disease in which the body produces too many red blood cells and is not, by itself fatal. Xenopolycythemia would be an alien (xeno- = foreign, alien) variation of the disease. It is revealed Dr. McCoy is suffering from xenopolycythmia.

The voice of the Oracle was played by James Doohan.

Jon Lormer, who plays the Old Man, was also in The Return of the Archons (1967), and the original pilot, The Cage (1966).

The metal helical staircase is recycled from The Empath (1968).

The ancient Yonada text is based on Korean (Han-Gul-ma) alphabet.

The entrance set used for the entrance portal to the “underground” section of the Yonada world-ship was used again in The Cloud Minders (1969).

The ‘Book of the People’ is the same as ‘Chicago Mobs of the Twenties’ in A Piece of the Action (1968).

Byron Morrow, who portrayed Admiral Westervliet, also portrayed Admiral Komack in Amok Time (1967).

This has the longest title of any episode in the “Star Trek” franchise.

The field reader tube, normally used to take a medical patient’s vital signs, is used in this episode by McCoy to extract the instrument of obedience from Natira. This marks the only apparent close-up use of this prop in the series.

The music that accompanies the appearance of the old man played by Jon Lormer is the same music by Alexander Courage that played during some of his lines as Dr. Theodore Haskins in The Cage (1966).

When McCoy is being punished by the Oracle while talking to the Enterprise, Kirk says, “Bones what is it? Bones what is it?” This is a recorded line of dialogue reused from The Tholian Web (1968).

The bridge scene that runs under Kirk’s voiceover at the start of Act One (where Kirk enters the bridge from the turboshaft) is the same footage from the very beginning of the episode.

Summary

Dr. McCoy is diagnosed with a fatal disease and has only one year to live. When the Enterprise is fired upon, they trace the weapons to what appears to be a giant asteroid, some 200 miles wide, that is in fact a ship on a collision course with a heavily populated planet, Darren V. What they find when they beam over is that the local population that don’t realize they are on a ship. For McCoy the trip is liberating in many ways. He finds purpose with them but also love with their High Priestess, Natira. Kirk agrees to let him stay behind but when McCoy discovers a possible solution to the impending collision with Darren V, he returns to the alien vessel with Spock intent on re-directing the errant craft.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Katherine Woodville … Natira (as Kate Woodville)
James Doohan … Scott
George Takei … Sulu
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Majel Barrett … Nurse Chapel
Byron Morrow … Admiral Westervliet
Jon Lormer … Old Man
Frank da Vinci … Transporter Operator (uncredited)
Tony Dante … Fabrini Oracle Guard (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Fabrini Servant (uncredited)