The Enemy Within

The most jaw-dropping moment in this entire episode was Richard Matheson’s name in the end credits. Well, that and the poor dog in the ridiculous pink suit with a horn on the top of his head.

The premise is one of the series’ many contrived-yet-clever moments: a transporter malfunction splits the captain into two separate Kirks, one good but wishy-washy and one aggressive and evil. We need not concern ourselves with how the transporter might manage to achieve such a result (indeed, just thinking about how the transporter works at all is more than mildly disquieting). As usual, the plot possibilities far outweigh any concern we might have for logic or science.

Because the wimpy Kirk is the first to arrive, the officers take him for the “real thing.” This leaves the evil Kirk free to run rampant. He demands liquor from McCoy (who naturally has some). He tries to rape Yeoman Rand, getting tell-tale face scratches for his trouble. Eventually everyone else figures out what’s going on, and Scotty struggles to fix the transporter malfunction in time to reunite the bifurcated captain before the trauma of his split personality sends him into shock and eventual death.

To be sure, some of the “two Kirks” stuff is sorta fun. If nothing else, it gives Shatner an excuse to over-act even more dramatically than usual. But throughout the entire episode something kept nagging at me.

Realizing that the Kirk thing alone wasn’t going to supply 45 minutes worth of story, Matheson builds in another we’re-running-out-of-time subplot. Because the transporter doesn’t work, the rest of the away team down on the planet can’t beam back up. With night coming on, the temperature is dropping rapidly. If Scotty can’t fix the problem soon, the whole team (particularly series regular Sulu) will freeze to death.

Let’s count the number of ways the problem could have been fixed. Worst case scenario: go ahead and beam them back up. Even split-in-two dudes are better than frozen dead dudes. But it seems like we have several other, better options available. How about sending the Galileo Seven down to pick them up? How about directing a little shipboard phaser fire to create a hot spot near the team’s location?

Or here’s a novel idea: how about beaming down some cold weather survival gear? Are there no weatherproof tents in the future? Is the transporter problem likely to damage inanimate objects? If we beam down some coats, will they end up split in two? Will the crew receive a double shipment that’s half fluffy, warm parkas and half leather jackets with “Fonzie” written on the back? The obvious weakness in this thread is what left me astounded to learn that a writer as good as Matheson had anything to do with it. In his defense, however, the episode overall isn’t that bad.

Episode rating:

Stardate: 1672.1

Episode type: Enterprise crew

Written by: Richard Matheson

Original air date: October 6, 1966

The Naked Time / Mudd's Women

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