"Star Trek" The Enemy Within (1966)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Leo Penn

Writers:

Richard Matheson (written by)
Gene Roddenberry (creator)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

6 October 1966 (Season 1, Episode 5)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two halves: one meek and indecisive, the other violent and ill tempered. The remaining crew members stranded on the planet cannot be beamed up to the ship until a the problem is fixed.

Plot Keywords:

Attempted Rape | Dual Role | Date Rape | Federation | Space

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Grace Lee Whitney	...	Yeoman Rand
George Takei	...	Sulu
James Doohan	...	Scott
Ed Madden	...	Fisher (as Edward Madden)
Garland Thompson	...	Wilson
Jim Goodwin	...	Farrell

Runtime:

50 min | Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Canada:PG (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Desilu Productions

Trivia:

This episode has been cited as being the first one with the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. In fact, in the episode which aired the previous week, _"Star Trek" The Naked Time (1966)_, Spock applies the nerve pinch to the rampaging Mr Sulu, after which he comments, "Take D'Artagnan here down to sickbay."

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: The first few shots of this episode are reversed for an unknown reason.

Quotes:

Mr. Spock: You're the captain of this ship. You have no right to be vulnerable. In the eyes of the crew you can't afford the luxury of being anything less than perfect. If you do, they lose faith and you lose command.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: William Shatner/Lone Justice (#12.8)" (1986)

Clearly a stumble for the series

Of the early episodes, this is one that was poorer than average. This isn't to say that it was bad (no, that would be CHARLIE X), but it definitely was sub-par. Why? Well, it was the first episode where William Shatner was allowed to chew the scenes--with over-acting galore! Shatner plays dual roles--an evil id-like Captain and a wussy and indecisive Captain. It turns out that the real captain had himself divided into the two halves and the problem was to first identify that there were two Kirks (people just thought the real one had gone nuts) and then figure out how to re-integrate them. All the meanwhile, a crew is stuck on an icy and craptastic planet awaiting transportation back to the ship (note--they must have forgotten that they had the Galileo shuttle craft). A watchable but not especially memorable episode that features overacting--and then some.