Star Trek Epsiode 61, Season 3:
Spock's Brain
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Episode #: | << 61 >> |
|---|---|
| Air #: | << 56 >> |
| Season: | 3 |
| Air Date: | 1968-09-20 |
| Stardate: | 5431.4 |
| Writer: | Gene L. Coon |
| Story: | |
| Director: | Marc Daniels |
| Guests: | Marj Dusay (Kara), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), James Daris (Creature), Sheila Leighton (Luma) |
The Enterprise encounters an ion-propelled ship of unusual configuration, which then activates a transferral beam. The beam transports a mysterious woman onto the bridge of the Enterprise. Upon arrival, she stuns everyone with a gizmo on her bracelet. She examines the stunned crew on the bridge, and appears to take a special interest in Spock. So much so, in fact, that she surgically removes Spock's brain, as McCoy and Kirk discover when they come to a short time later. Luckily, due to Vulcan physiology, Spock's body can be maintained alive mechanically while Kirk goes in search of Spock's brain.
When the Enterprise follows the ion trail of the woman's ship, they are led to the Sigma Draconis system. Out of three habitable planets (3, 4, and 6), scanners detect none which is capable of having constructed an advanced ion-powered craft. Planet 3 rates letter B on the industrial scale (Earth equivalent 1485), planet 4 letter G (year 2030), and planet 6 shows no sign of industrial development and is in a glacial age. Uhura detects regular emission of high energy from planet 6, in contradiction to its supposed primitive status. Playing a hunch, Kirk beams down with a landing party to planet 6.
Sigma Draconis 6 is indeed in the middle of an ice age, but Kirk has no trouble locating inhabitants (who attack them, believing them to be "the others."). When Kirk captures one of the attackers (who calls himself a Morg) and questions him, the Morg warns Kirk about the "givers of pain and delight." Kirk asks Morg about females of his kind, but is only met with befuddlement. When Kirk asks Morg to help him find the "others," Morg runs away in terror.
The landing party soon locates a "dead and buried city," and also discovers a trap elevator. Kirk has Bones beam down together with Spock's mechanically controlled body, then intentionally triggers the elevator which takes them deep below ground. At the end of their downward journey, Kirk encounters the female (Imorg) Luma and stuns her with a phaser before she can activate her bracelet. Questioning leads nowhere, since Luma has the mind of a child.
Spock makes contact with the landing party through a communicator, but before anything can be done, Kirk and his party are apprehended by Kara, the Imorg leader. The landing party is then equipped with irremovable belts capable of producing intense pain. In response to Kirk's questions about the whereabouts of Spock's noggin, Kara responds with the deep philosophical statement "Brain and brain: what is Brain!?" Following this outburst, Bones assures Kirk that all the Imorg have low intelligence and could not possibly be capable of removing a brain.
The answer to this riddle is discovered when Kirk and crew overpower their guard and follow Spock's instruction to the central "controller," which is actually Spock's brain. Here, they also find Kara, who immediately immobilizes them using their pain belts. Kirk uses the remote control to command Spock to grab Kara's wrist and press the red release button on her bracelet.
Spock's brain informs Kirk via communicator that the Imorg are able to gain temporary understanding of the ancient knowledge from a machine called the "teacher." Kirk forces Kara to put on the teacher, but she uses her new-found sophistication to level a phaser at them. Scott pretends to faint, and Kirk grabs the phaser away from her. McCoy then uses the teacher and discovers how to perform a brain transplant ("Of course, a child could do it"). He surgically restores Spock's brain to his mechanically sustained body using a trilaser connector and a sonic separator, just before the knowledge's three-hour period is exhausted. Luckily, Spock himself is able to provide some assistance in the procedure after McCoy manages to re-connect his vocal chords. Kirk then informs Kara that the Imorg will have to move to the surface and live as the Morg do. She is not too thrilled by the prospect, but Kirk does at least offer some Federation assistance.
This episode contains (at least) two inconsistencies. First, after identifying the planet as number 6, Kirk refers to it as number 7. The second error occurs when Kirk mistakenly states the stardate as 4351.5 instead of 5431.5.