Star Trek – That Which Survives

★★★★ January 24, 1969 Season 3 Episode 17

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, John Meredyth, and D.C. Fontana

This is the first episode I saw Kirk avoiding a beautiful woman (Losira)…but he had a good reason. 

The Enterprise is investigating a mysterious planet… it is only the size of the Moon and is a mere five thousand years old, but it appears to sustain life, have an atmosphere, and be the mass of the Earth. Just as Kirk, McCoy, Sul,u and an expendable geologist beam down to the surface, Losira appears in the transporter room, saying they must not go to the planet, then kills the transporter operator with a single touch. Soon after the away team arrives, the planet suffers a major earthquake; when it is over, there is no sign of the Enterprise.

As they search for anything that might be edible, Losira appears and approaches the geologist. She says she has come for him before touching and killing him. It isn’t that long before she is coming for the others, although it becomes apparent that she can only harm the specific person she has come for.

Back on the Enterprise, the crew discovers that the entire ship has been moved to a point almost a thousand light-years away, and the same woman kills an engineer as he examines the engines after Scotty states that something doesn’t feel right. Further investigations reveal sabotage that could destroy the ship as it hurtles back to the planet.

Losira touched Sulu on the planet and almost killed him until Kirk intervened. She can seemingly be anywhere at any time. She only kills the one she comes for…so when she came for Sulu, she didn’t hurt Kirk because he wasn’t a target. They thought they could fight it by splitting up and guarding the one she came for…then…she split into 3 Losiras. How is Losira doing this? Can she be beaten? Will the Enterprise blow up? 

It’s a suspenseful episode with another subplot going on with an emergency on the Enterprise, and worth a watch. My problem is with my favorite character in the Star Trek universe. Spock is different in this one. He was more of a smart-aleck and sometimes downright rude to the crew. It’s as if the writers knew Spock somewhat but exaggerated him into a snarky Vulcan. 

From IMDB:

Lt. Radha is both the first explicitly Hindu character (shown by the bright red dot on her forehead, known as a Bindi), and the first Enterprise helmswoman, to appear in Star Trek.

The center section of D’Amato’s tricorder differs substantially from the standard Starfleet model. Instead of tape discs and a moiré pattern, it features an intermittently glowing white panel and what appears to be a tubular sensor. In deference to D’Amato’s specialty, some prop-conscious fans have dubbed this a “geological tricorder.”

A new access tube was created for this episode to show where the matter-antimatter reaction chamber was.

Second and final appearance of Dr. M’Benga.

James Doohan lost a finger while fighting in WWII, and consistently hid his right hand during the series. While changing polarity on the magnetic probe, his hand can be clearly seen, which shows the absence of the finger.

This is the last episode of TOS in which Enterprise crew members (Wyatt, D’Amato, and Watkins) die onscreen or close to it. However, in Requiem for Methuselah (1969), Kirk will report in his opening log that three crew members have died of Rigellian fever.

Sulu discusses the silicon-based creatures on Janus VI, i.e., the Horta of The Devil in the Dark (1967).

In this episode, it is revealed there are (at least) three Doctors assigned to the USS Enterprise: Chief Medical Office Dr. Leonard McCoy, Dr M’Benga (also featured in ‘A Private Little War’), and Doctor Sanchez (the only appearance).

Normally characters are perfectly still when being energized. When Losira appears in the transporter room while the landing party beams out, Kirk is able to look up and see her kill the transporter chief. McCoy’s facial expression is also slightly different.

This is the only time a tricorder is shown on the “automatic distress” setting. In place of the usual data disc storage slot, it has a flashing light panel. Since the storage slot is visible in a previous scene, it must be on a type of swivel, allowing it to be rotated to reveal the panel when the unit is placed on this setting.

Spock’s calculation device was reused from the remote control prop created for Spock’s Brain (1968).

After D’Amato dies, Kirk uses his phaser to dig a grave for him. This is only the second time on Star Trek where a crewman is buried by the landing party on a planet, the first occurring in The Galileo Seven (1967). Usually, dead crewmen are returned to the ship. A similar burial will be shown in Star Trek: Generations (1994). One could also say that a “crewman is buried by the landing party on a planet” when Kirk is able to kill and entomb a mutating Gary Mitchell on Delta Vega in Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966), although no formal ceremony is shown.

The bypass valve room that Watkins enters consists of re-used pieces of the Yonada control room from For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (1968). The control panel was re-used from the Vians’ torture chamber in The Empath (1968).

Pavel Chekov does not appear in this episode, although Kirk mentions him.

This episode was used as the background for the Star Trek: Gateways novel ‘One Small Step’, by Susan Wright, which elaborates extensively on the story. The mysteries of this episode were used to help tie in the original series with the rest of the Gateways books.

This is the last episode of TOS to have an unknown stardate.

The Russian seismic event that Sulu mentions is the Tunguska event which occurred in 1908, in Siberia. Captain Kirk responds, “If I wanted a Russian history lesson, I would have brought along Chekov”.

Lee Meriwether is one of four actors to appear in Star Trek who previously played a Batman villain. Meriwether portrayed Catwoman in Batman: The Movie (1966). Malachi Throne played False Face during the first season of Batman before playing Commodore Mendes in The Menagerie: Part I (1966). Julie Newmar played Catwoman in the TV series, and was seen in Friday’s Child (1967). The final Batman “Special Guest Villain” to go from Batman to Star Trek was Frank Gorshin (known for his portrayal of The Riddler), who appeared as Commissioner Bele in Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (1969). In addition, two actors went from a role on Star Trek to a major guest role on Batman (Joan Collins (Edith Keeler / The Siren) and Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd / Colonel Gumm)), and dozens of bit players appeared on both shows and/or Mission: Impossible (1966).

Another occasion where network decency standards had a big effect on the costumes worn by women. The beautiful Losira costume had a strategic flap, that covered her navel. The networks usually didn’t allow the showing of a woman’s navel in 1969.

One of the few times a crewman who is not a red shirt, is killed ( D’Amato is in the Sciences Dept. and wears a blue tunic ).

Although already seen in “The Conscience of The King”, we get another example of how powerful the explosion of an overloaded hand phaser is. In “Conscience”, the phaser was jettisoned into space but was powerful enough to rock the ship. In This episode, the explosion is a lot more powerful. It lights up the entire area and people have to drop for cover.

Each time Losira becomes a one-dimensional figure and vanishes, there is the brief sound of a woman singing.

This takes place in 2268.

Dr. M’Benga reports to Spock that it looks like the crewman died because every cell in his body exploded from within, but he also states his findings are only preliminary. Then Dr. McCoy immediately determines the same diagnosis when on the planet, with his tiny whirring analyzer. One would assume that the Enterprise’s huge medical computer could have come to the same conclusion and faster than Dr. McCoy’s hand held device.

In the preview trailer, the visual effect of flashing blue lights has not been added in yet when Scotty’s corridor is shown.

William Shatner and Lee Meriwether would later co-star together in To Catch a Dead Man (1973).

Leonard Nimoy and Lee Merriweather would appear together in a number of episodes of the 4th season of Mission: Impossible (1966).

This was the last episode produced by series pioneer Robert H. Justman. As he said, nearly 30 years later, the show was “now strictly budget-driven. My never-ending battle to cut costs without compromising quality had failed. The ‘Star Trek’ I knew, and was proud to be a part of, was no more.”

Summary

Kirk and company find that all vegetation on the planet is poisonous to them and there is no source of water. Sulu finds brief readings of magnetic fields from the planet, but they disappear after a few moment. The 4 guys split up to do their tasks. D’Amato is confronted by the same woman (as on-board the Enterprise) and she touches D’Amato, who ends up dead. Kirk also discovers that the whole planet is made of a very dense rock.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Lee Meriwether … Losira
James Doohan … Scott
Arthur Batanides … D’Amato
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Naomi Newman … Rahda (as Naomi Pollack)
Booker Bradshaw … Dr. M’Benga
Brad Forrest … Ensign
Kenneth Washington … Watkins
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)