The Devil in the Dark

Now here’s the ultimate in multiculturalism. I’m entirely behind the idea that we need to make a greater effort to understand people from other cultures (and of course in the world of Star Trek this would extend to creatures from other worlds). I’m a big supporter of respect for members of the animal kingdom as well. I can even see the value of treating plants as important members of the ecosystem whose lives should be protected as much as we’re able. But never until this episode had it occurred to me that rocks might have feelings too.

Nor had such a thing occurred to the miners working the tunnels of Janus VI. So when they tunnel into a chamber full of spheres that look like metallic playground balls, they break a few, cart a few off but generally don’t pay them much attention. But then something starts killing the miners, always vanishing before anyone can get a good look at it.

The Enterprise is sent to help out, and not a moment too soon. The whatever-it-is has stolen a vital component from the mine’s air circulation equipment, and in a matter of hours the whole operation will be rendered uninhabitable. So the hunt is on.

The menace is hard to track because it can move through solid rock as easily as humans can move through air. But eventually Kirk and Spock manage to come face to face with it. Or face to stone, as the case may be. The creature turns out to be a big pile of sentient rock. Our heroes manage to clip it with a phaser.

And then the weepy part begins. The beast uses its moving-through-rock acid to carve the words “No Kill I” in the floor (thus providing a name for at least three Trek-themed punk bands in San Diego). Having thus demonstrated its sentience, the creature buys itself a dose of Vulcan mind meld. Apparently it’s called a Horta, and the reason it’s in such a bad mood is that it’s nursemaid to the next generation of its race. The playground balls turn out to be unhatched Horta eggs.

Armed with this fresh understanding, the captain and his first officer manage to calm the mob of angry miners. They end up striking a deal with the Horta, who can dig tunnels for them far faster than any of their drilling equipment. All’s well that ends well.

One of the high points of the episode comes when McCoy is ordered to save the Horta by “operating” on its phaser wound. This spawns the show’s strangest variation on one of the doctor’s catchphrases: “Damnit Jim, I’m a doctor not a bricklayer.”

Episode rating:

Stardate: 3196.1

Episode type: Dangerous alien

Written by: Gene L. Coon

Original air date: March 9, 1967

This Side of Paradise / Errand of Mercy

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