"Star Trek" Wolf in the Fold (1967)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Writers:

Robert Bloch (written by)
Gene Roddenberry (creator)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

22 December 1967 (Season 2, Episode 14)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Kirk and the Enterprise Computer become detectives after Scotty is accused of murdering women on a pleasure planet.

Plot Keywords:

Jack The Ripper | Federation | Space | Starship | Computer

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
John Fiedler	...	Hengist
Charles Macaulay	...	Jaris
Pilar Seurat	...	Sybo
James Doohan	...	Scott
George Takei	...	Sulu
Charles Dierkop	...	Morla
Joseph Bernard	...	Tark
Tanya Lemani	...	Kara (as Tania Lemani)
John Winston	...	Transporter Chief
Virginia Aldridge	...	Karen Tracy
Judith McConnell	...	Yeoman Tankris (as Judy McConnell)
Judi Sherven	...	Nurse

Runtime:

USA:60 min | Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Desilu Productions

Trivia:

Author Robert Bloch revisited the subject of Jack the Ripper several times in his short stories: The Treasure of Jack the Ripper; Yours Truly Jack the Ripper; and, A Most Unusual Murder.

Goofs:

Continuity: Scotty's hand shifts position between shots as he is on the witness stand. More, the close-up of Scotty's hand was that of another actor. This was done to conceal the fact that James Doohan's right middle finger was missing, the result of his participation in 1944's Invasion of Normandy.

Quotes:

Sybo: [eight people, including Kirk, McCoy, and Scott, are seated around a flame that is the only light in the room] Let us begin. Let the circle not be broken. Concentrate upon the flame which burns upon the Altar of Truth. Yes... there is something here. Something terrible. I feel its presence. Fear, anger, hatred... anger feeds the flame. Oh, oh, there is evil here...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Star Trek: The Next Generation: Relics (#6.4)" (1992)

What's in a Name, unless it's Redjac!

Redjac, Regak, Jack...Robert Bloch is back (after "Catspaw") and he has Jack the Ripper on his mind. This must be murder! We begin with a belly dancer. What's this? Is this not Trek? Sure enough, there's Kirk, McCoy and a lusty Scotty watching the show, to the tune of an old Orion slave girl dance. Next thing we know, Scotty has knifed the poor girl to death in a mist-filled alley. Then he does it again, to a poor yeoman. And again, to a local mystic. All women. And him with a recent knock on the head, caused by a female crewmember. Yes, it must be him. Murder mystery solved! Well, not quite. Just one thing to mention before we go on, regarding the 2nd murder: Scotty is the main (and only) suspect at this point; so they send him downstairs to be alone with another female in a secluded chamber; sure enough, she's dead a minute later. But, what do I know? I've never conducted a murder investigation. I guess that's how it's done in the 23rd century.

This is a fun, if trivial, episode, filled with some nice touches. The alien society here is one of the most peaceful we've ever seen but they still resort to ancient customs for dealing with murderers: death by slow torture. Cut to: Scotty 'gulp.' There's a central séance which manages to be spooky as the doomed clairvoyant describes the menace - evil, a hatred of all that lives, and so on. Then we learn about this entity which was known as Jack on Earth in the 19th century and which continued to kill every few decades as mankind spread to the stars. It's intriguing, copied by Stephen King for his magnum opus, 'It,' not to mention there was that Kolchak TV film "The Night Strangler" in '73 - though we never learn what this timeless creature did before its escapades as the Ripper. Then the crew all get space happy thanks to a special cocktail from McCoy and, as seems customary with many later Trek episodes, a grim tone is subverted to a playful one in the last act. The episode also generalizes the fear factor in females, making them the primary (and only) targets of this cosmic killer. At least the monstrous alien killer in "Obsession" was more diverse in its attacks - red-shirts! Stick to what you know, Trek!