Spock's Brain

The Spock-centered episode that led off season two was one of the high points of the series. But if this is an attempt to mimic that success for the start of season three, it doesn’t even come close.

The Enterprise is cruising through space when suddenly a young woman appears on the bridge out of nowhere. She zaps everyone unconscious, and when the crew wakes up they discover that Spock can’t be awakened. His brain is gone. McCoy quickly installs a headpiece that will keep his vitals functioning for no more than 24 hours. Conveniently enough, it also turns his brainless body into a remote control robot, allowing him to trundle listlessly after the rest as they go in search of his missing organ.

As there’s only one planet in the immediate vicinity, it doesn’t take long to track down the culprits. The brain thieves turn out to be the Eymorgs, a subterranean civilization of attractive young women entirely dependent on The Controller, a massive network of machinery run by one central mind. Unfortunately the old brain wore out, so Spock’s was stolen as a replacement.

Of course the Eymorgs didn’t have the knowledge to perform the complicated brain transplant on their own. Instead, every time they need to do something more complicated than microwaving a burrito they hook themselves up to The Great Educator, a brain-boosting gizmo distinctly reminiscent of a similar plot device from Forbidden Planet. Just as it gave the Eymorg agent the knowledge to remove Spock’s brain, it also gives McCoy the ability to take it out of the Controller box and re-install it in its proper place. Sadly the boost is fleeting, and McCoy nearly forgets what he’s doing right in the middle of doing it.

Of course this leaves the planet Controller-free. As a half-baked sop to the Prime Directive, the conclusion is that this restores “natural order” to the society, reuniting the Eymorg women with their semi-savage, surface-dwelling male counterparts, the Morg.

This episode gets the third season off to a bad start, particularly as far as Spock is concerned. As Allan Asherman observes, perhaps McCoy didn’t manage to wire his brain back in quite correctly. By the end of the season Spock has “joined a band of space hippies in a ‘jam session,’ sang ballads, laughed and recited poetry, reacted emotionally toward an illusion, voluntarily discussed Vulcan sexual matters with a woman he had just met for the first time, came close to strangling Dr. McCoy, tasted meat, and conspired to mutiny.” Perhaps it’s a good thing the series died when it did. What further indignities might the fourth season have held in store for our favorite Vulcan? Competitive foosball? Accordion lessons? Concept albums featuring songs about Hobbits? Thank goodness we never found out.

Episode rating:

Stardate: 5431.4

Episode type: Enterprise crew

Written by: Lee Cronin (Gene L. Coon)

Original air date: September 20, 1968

Season Two - Assignment: Earth / The Enterprise Incident

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