30. Amok Time 3372.7
When Spock begins to exhibit strange, erratic behavior, Kirk asks McCoy to conduct a medical examination. McCoy concludes that Spock is experiencing a potentially lethal internal distress.
Spock explains to them that Vulcans are married as children with the understanding that they will fulfill this commitment when they become adults. Spock has reached this time, the "pon farr," and if he doesn't get to Vulcan immediately to mate with his bride, T'Pring, he will die. Kirk jeopardizes his career by disobeying a direct order to the contrary from Starfleet, and proceeds with all possible speed to Vulcan. As Spock's friends, Kirk and McCoy are invited to witness the marriage ritual -- the "koon-ut-kal-if-fee." T'Pau, a highly respected member of the high-counsel, will conduct the ceremony.
Trouble starts when T'Pring announces she would rather marry Stonn, a full Vulcan. T'Pring evokes her right to have Spock fight for her. However, she chooses Kirk as her champion. Fearing his friend is too weak to fight, Kirk agrees. It is only then he is informed that it is to be a fight to the death.
The fight ensues and Spock quickly demonstrates physical superiority. McCoy objects to T'Pau that Kirk isn't used to the Vulcan atmosphere and climate. He asks to inject the captain with a tri-ox compound to compensate. T'Pau agrees and Kirk is given the injection.
During the fight, Spock kills Kirk and McCoy accompanies the captain's body back to the U.S.S. Enterprise. Spock, his mating urges curbed by the knowledge that Kirk, his friend and captain, is dead by his own hand, relinquishes T'Pring to Stonn. He solemnly returns to the starship. There he finds Kirk alive and well, having been injected not with tri-ox, but with a knock-out drug which simulated the signs of death. Overjoyed, Spock smiles and utters a delighted "Jim!" before returning to his controlled, logical self.
31. Who Mourns for Adonais? 3468.1
As the U.S.S. Enterprise nears the planet Pollux IV, a huge, green hand made of energy materializes in space, catching the U.S.S. Enterprise and holding it captive. Kirk and a landing party are transported to the planet's surface were find a being who claims to be Apollo, the last of the Greek gods who dwelled on ancient Earth's Mount Olympus. All the other gods, Apollo tells Kirk, died of loneliness when they left their home of Mount Olympus. Apollo's plan for the U.S.S. Enterprise crew is that they settle on Pollux IV and worship their god, Apollo.
Sensors show that Apollo's god-like abilities come from an organic ability to use energy from sources outside himself. His apparent powers include storms, thunderbolts and an ability to grow into a giant, towering above the U.S.S. Enterprise landing party.
Attempts to foil Apollo's plans are hampered by Lt. Carolyn Palamas, who has fallen in love with the god and whom Apollo decides will be his bride. Scotty, who has beamed down with the party, had harbored hopes of romance with the young lieutenant and objects to Apollo's attentions. Apollo's response is to hurtle the engineer through the air by way of a thunderbolt.
Spock determines that the god's powers come from his temple. When Kirk tells Lt. Palamas to reject Apollo, which she reluctantly does, the captain uses the U.S.S. Enterprise's weapons to destroy Apollo's temple. Apollo, rejected by a mortal woman and bereft of his powers, spreads himself upon the winds to join his fellow Gods.
32. The Changeling 3451.9
The U.S.S. Enterprise is sent to investigate the destruction of the Malurian System and its four billion inhabitants. When it arrives at the coordinates, the starship itself is threatened by a space going, self-contained computer/probe calling itself Nomad. When Kirk identifies himself by name, Nomad mistakes him for "The Kirk," and thinks him to be his creator.
Nomad is beamed aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise and promptly erases Uhura's memory and kills Scotty, claiming that neither life form was perfect. At Kirk's demand Nomad repairs "the unit Scott," bringing him back to life.
Spock attempts a Vulcan mind meld with Nomad and learns that it was created on Earth in the twenty first century by scientist Jackson Roykirk. Nomad's program was to seek out new life and report back to Earth. Damaged in space by a meteor, Nomad drifted until it found Tan Ru, an alien probe designed to sterilize soil. Using their self-repair systems, the two probes combined themselves into one. Nomad's programming was damaged and by joining with Tan Ru's now believes its mission is to seek out life and destroy anything that it does not believe perfect.
Kirk convinces Nomad that it had mistaken him, Captain James T. Kirk, for Nomad's creator, Jackson Roykirk, thus making Nomad imperfect and a candidate for "sterilization." A confused Nomad begins to self-destruct, exploding just after Kirk beams the changeling into space. Kirk checks on Uhura's progress after the attack by Nomad. McCoy informs him that her brain is undamaged and she must simply "relearn" what the probe erased.
33. Mirror, Mirror
Caught in the beginnings of an ion storm, Kirk, McCoy and Uhura interrupt their negotiations with the Halkans for dilithium crystals, to return to the U.S.S. Enterprise. Scotty beams the landing party aboard as a burst from the storm hits the starship. The transporter malfunctions, sending Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura into an alternate universe. In this world, they soon discover the "Galactic Empire" is maintained by fear and assassination. Now, aboard the Imperial Starship Enterprise, the four must find a way to remain undetected until they can return to their own universe.
Meanwhile, the parallel versions of Kirk, Scott, McCoy and Uhura have been beamed on board the positive U.S.S. Enterprise. Their behavior is so different from their counterparts that Spock immediately realizes something is wrong. He had the four imprisoned until the transporter could be checked and repaired.
On the I.S.S. Enterprise, the parallel Chekov is foiled in an attempt to assassinate Kirk. When Kirk refuses to give an order to destroy the Halkans, who have refused to give up their dilithium crystals, the parallel Spock becomes suspicious.
The Imperial Fleet sends a secret message to the parallel Spock, telling him to kill Captain Kirk and assume command of the starship. Finding an unexpected ally in the parallel Spock, Kirk continues to stall while his three comrades gather the information needed to send them back to their own universe.
Parallel Spock has no desire to become captain, and therefore a mark for assassination. Along with Lt. Marlena, who wants the parallel Kirk back because she is "the Captain's woman," they help return the four U.S.S. Enterprise officers to their own world. Before he goes, Kirk talks to the bearded Spock, telling him the advantages of a Federation-like system over the anarchy of this universe. Spock seems almost convinced that he should in fact get rid of his Kirk, seize control of the I.S.S. Enterprise, and manipulate the Imperial Star Fleet into working toward a more civilized universe.
34. The Apple 3715.0
When a landing party beams down to the planet Gamma Trianguli VI, they find what appears to be an idyllic paradise. They quickly discover, however, that the planet is deadly, sporting plants that shoot thorns, rocks that explode, and incredibly accurate lightning bolts.
With a much reduced party, they encounter the planet's inhabitants. They are a peaceful, child-like people who call themselves the "Feeders of Vaal." They dress in flowers and bright paint, never reproducing because they don't age or die. Each day they "feed" Vaal offerings of food. Vaal seems to be a large, serpent's head carved of rock, but is actually the terminal for an advanced, underground computer. Seeing Kirk and his party as a threat, Vaal takes them prisoner and tries to pull the U.S.S. Enterprise from orbit.
Kirk realizes that by depriving Vaal of the native's daily offerings of food, the computer won't be able to convert the offerings into reaction mass. Thus weakened, Kirk uses the U.S.S. Enterprise's phasers to destroy Vaal. This leaves the natives on their own to discover birth, death, and the ways of human life.
35. The Doomsday Machine 4202.9
Sent to investigate the destruction of several planetary systems, the U.S.S. Enterprise discovers a crippled starship, the U.S.S. Constellation, floating in space. Commodore Matthew Decker is the only one left on the ship. Kirk and Scotty remain on board the Constellation to try and repair the starship, while McCoy beams Decker aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Decker informs the crew that a giant robot ship, a planet-eating machine made by a long-dead alien race, is roaming the galaxies, consuming all in its path for fuel, including whole planets. When Decker challenged it, the "berserker," as he calls it, attacked. Decker beamed his entire crew to the planet's surface below, only to have the robot consume that planet, killing the Constellation's entire crew.
When the "berserker" returns, Decker, consumed with guilt over the loss of his crew, pulls rank on Spock and takes control of the U.S.S. Enterprise. He seems determined to destroy the machine, even at the cost of another ship and crew. Kirk, still on board the Constellation, contacts Spock and supports his claim that Decker is exhibiting suicidal behavior and is therefore, unfit to command. Thwarted, Decker steals a shuttlecraft and flies it down the 'throat' of the giant robot ship, killing himself.
Realizing that Decker's idea, on a larger scale, might work, he sets the Constellation to self-destruct and send it after Decker's shuttlecraft. Due to a transporter glitch, Kirk barely makes it back to the U.S.S. Enterprise before the Constellation explodes, destroying the planet killer in it's path.
36. Catspaw 3018.2
On the planet Pyris VII, two beings known as Korob and Sylvia have been sent on a mission of conquest by their home world. Using a matter transmuter, they assume human form to welcome the U.S.S. Enterprise landing party.
When one member of the initial landing party returns to the ship dead, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to find Scotty and Sulu transformed into mindless zombies. Sylvia and Korob appear as witch and warlock and use scare tactics to keep the officers from investigating the planet and their motives. Kirk, Spock and McCoy are taken prisoner and shown examples of Korob and Sylvia's "powers," which includes heating a small model of the U.S.S. Enterprise over a flame and having the heat transfer to the orbiting ship.
Sylvia takes an interest in Kirk and decides to abandon her original mission in order to learn about human feelings and experiences. When she finds out the captain is merely using her to gain an advantage, she becomes furious and retaliates.
Korob ultimately helps the crew to escape, but Sylvia turns into a giant black cat and crushes him. Kirk then uses Korob's wand transmuter to destroy Sylvia's source of power -- her amulet -- before smashing the wand. Their powers gone, the aliens revert to their true form -- fragile blue creatures who quickly die in the planet's atmosphere. With their demise, Scotty and Sulu return to normal and the landing party beams back to the U.S.S. Enterprise.
37. I, Mudd 4513.3
Norman, an android pretending to be a member of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew, takes control of the starship and her crew, taking them to an unnamed planet where Kirk discovers an old nemesis... Harry Mudd.
Fleeing from his most recent criminal exploit, Harry crash-landed on the planet, which is inhabited by androids designed by a long-extinct race. At first their desire to fulfill his every need seemed like paradise, but Harry soon realized that precluded him ever leaving the planet. So, sending Norman to capture the U.S.S. Enterprise, Mudd hoped to trade the starship's crew for his own freedom.
The androids, however, want to use the U.S.S. Enterprise as a vehicle to populate the universe, serving mankind and protecting them from themselves. Unwilling to spend their lives on the strange planet, waited on by machines, Kirk and company set about finding a way out. It is not without temptation, however.
Spock is shown what is supposedly the control center for all the androids... a veritable electronics dream come true. McCoy is given an extensive lab, set up to do all the research he's ever wanted to do, while Scotty is shown the technical machine shop of his dreams. The androids offer Uhura eternal youth and beauty while Chekov contemplates a planet filled with beautiful young women.
In the end, however, the crew bands together in an attempt to thoroughly confuse and, ultimately, short-circuit them. Through a series of illogical and very funny antics, the U.S.S. Enterprise crew and Mudd cause Norman, the central control for all the androids, to have an electronic "nervous breakdown."
Instead of granting Harry Mudd his freedom, Kirk leaves him on the planet with the remaining androids... including many fashioned in the image of his shrewish wife, Stella, until he mends his ways.
38. Metamorphosis 3219.4
Assistant Federation Commissioner Nancy Hedford has become ill while trying to stop a war on Epsilon Canaris III. The shuttlecraft Galileo is assigned to take her to the U.S.S. Enterprise, where she will receive treatment for the otherwise fatal Sakuro's disease.
En route, the shuttlecraft is pulled off course by a mysterious, cloud-like entity. Deposited safely on the planet Gamma Canaris N, Kirk and his party meet Zefram Cochrane, the scientist that discovered warp drive over 100 years before. But Cochrane appears young and vital, despite his age. The cloud-like creature, whom Cochrane calls, "The Companion," has kept him young and handsome over the years. The Companion captured the Galileo in order to give Cochrane human companionship.
The Companion prevents Spock from repairing the disabled shuttlecraft and Kirk is worried that Nancy Hedford will die before they can get her to the U.S.S. Enterprise for treatment.
By using a translating device, Kirk discovers that the cloud entity has a female personality and is in love with Cochrane, who doesn't care for that idea at all. He's fallen in love with Nancy Hedford and agrees to help destroy the cloud creature so that they can save Nancy's life. When that attempt fails, the cloud creature enters Nancy's body, saving her life, healing her. In this way, the Companion can know human love with Cochrane and Nancy Hedford's life can be saved. With the Companion no longer holding him on the planet, Cochrane is free to leave, but decides to remain with what is now Nancy/Companion. As the landing party departs, Cochrane and his new mate contemplate children and a normal life span.
39. Journey to Babel 3842.3
The U.S.S. Enterprise is appointed to transport ambassadors from many worlds to the Babel Conferences. Among those aboard are Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan and his human wife, Amanda... Spock's parents.
Keeping peace aboard his ship is complicated for Kirk by an unidentified vessel following the U.S.S. Enterprise and high tensions running among delegates on board. At a cocktail party, Ambassador Gav, a Tellarite, quarrels openly with Sarek about the admission of Coridan into the Federation. When Gav is later murdered, circumstantial evidence points to Sarek. The strain of such an accusation causes Sarek's already existing heart condition to worsen and he has the Vulcan equivalent of a heart attack. McCoy battles with less familiar Vulcan physiology to try and correct the damage. Spock is needed as a blood donor for the operation.
When Kirk is attacked by Thelev, an Andorian, Spock assumes command of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and refuses to participate in McCoy's operation on his father. The Vulcan insists that they identify and stop the vessel that is following them. Kirk fakes recovery and returns to the bridge, freeing Spock to go to the sickbay and assist in his father's surgery. On the bridge, Kirk must deal with the unknown ship, now in contact with someone on board the U.S.S. Enterprise. A search uncovers the fact that Thelev is not Andorian, but a surgically altered Orion, put on board to disrupt the Babel Conference.
The unknown ship attacks the U.S.S. Enterprise and is defeated. Rather than be captured, it destroys itself and Thelev commits suicide. With Spock available for the blood transfusion, Sarek's operation is a success and he recovers. Father and son make peace, realizing they have a common bond that transcends their differences. Kirk returns to sickbay for treatment of the knife wound caused by Thelev and McCoy gets the last word.
40. Friday's Child 3497.2
Sent to the planet Capella IV to negotiate a mining treaty, Kirk and a party beam to the surface. They find the Capellan's warlike and tradition-bound people. Kirk also finds that a Klingon agent, Kras, has gotten there before them and established an agreement with some of the planet's rebels who kill their leader, Akaar, and take over. Akaar's widow, Eleen, is willing to forfeit her life, as custom demands, because she carries the child that will be the next leader, or Teer.
Kirk convinces her to escape and they hide in the hills beyond the city. While the landing party evades pursuit, a Klingon warbird prevents the U.S.S. Enterprise from helping its people.
When Eleen goes into labor, McCoy delivers the child. Eleen, however, hits the doctor over the head with a rock, knocking him out, and returns to the Capellans. She tells them that the landing party and the child are dead. The Klingon decides this is the time to take control and begins to attack the Capellans.
Arriving on the scene, Kirk and Spock try to use primitive bows and arrows on the Klingons which wound, but do not stop. Maab, the new Teer, draws the Klingon fire while his lieutenant kills him. Eleen names her son Leonard James Akaar, after Kirk and McCoy, and as her son's regent until he comes of age, signs the mining treaty with the Federation.
41. The Deadly Years 3478.2
On the way to Starbase 10, the U.S.S. Enterprise stops to deliver supplies to the colonists of Gamma Hydra IV. A landing party, consisting of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Lt. Galway and Chekov beam to the planet's surface. They find that accelerated aging has taken place, killing most of the colonists. Chekov is terrified when he discovers the first body. The only survivors, an elderly couple who claim to be in their twenties, die shortly after meeting the U.S.S. Enterprise crew. When the landing party returns to the U.S.S. Enterprise, the aging acceleration begins to affect the entire crew... except Chekov, who remains unaffected. While Kirk wants to remain in orbit around Gamma Hydra IV until a cure can be affected, one of his passengers, Commodore Stocker, wants to proceed to Starbase 10 where he feels the best medical aid can be found.
Each person on the U.S.S. Enterprise begins to show the effects of old age and soon Kirk is unable to command, as are Scotty and Spock. Command falls to Commodore Stocker, who, while an efficient desk officer, has no deep space training. Thinking he will save time, Stocker plots a course through the Romulan/Federation neutral zone on his way to Starbase 10. The Romulans are waiting and begin an attack.
Stocker, panicked and inexperienced, has no idea what to do. As the U.S.S. Enterprise is surrounded, McCoy comes up with an antidote to the aging sickness... adrenaline. Chekov, he explains, wasn't affected because his fear at finding the bodies on Gamma Hydra IV had already kicked his natural adrenaline into high gear.
McCoy restores Kirk to normal in time to save the U.S.S. Enterprise by reusing the bluff he'd tried in "The Corbomite Maneuver" and telling the Romulans that the U.S.S. Enterprise would destroy anything within a 200.000 kilometer radius. McCoy distributes the antidote and restores everyone to the normal state.
42. Obsession 3619.2
Eleven years ago, the U.S.S. Farragut encountered a deadly cloud creature with vampire-like tendencies. James T. Kirk was on board the Farragut at that time as they entered the region of Tycho IV. The creature killed the ship's captain, Captain Garrovick, and half the crew by draining their red blood cells. To this day, Kirk feels guilt at having hesitated before firing at the creature... even though his phaser blast had no effect.
On his way to deliver necessary medical supplies, Kirk encounters what he believes is the same blood-sucking entity. He pursues it, against orders, determine to destroy it before it kills again.
A landing party beams down to the surface of Argus X, where the creature has taken refuge. In the party is the son of Kirk's former captain... Ensign Garrovick. Garrovick spies the creature and, like Kirk eleven years before, hesitates before firing. The creature escapes and Kirk blames Garrovick for the resulting death of a crewman.
The creature leaves the planet with the U.S.S. Enterprise in pursuit. When Kirk fires on it, the creature turns and enters the starship. Fortunately, its first victim is Spock and, after tasting the copper-based blood, flees toward its home world, Tycho IV. Fearing the creature will reproduce and, at the very least, kill others, Kirk and Garrovick prepare a trap with a matter/antimatter bomb and human blood. The lure the creature to take the bait and beam aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise as the creature is killed in the resulting explosion.
43. Wolf in the Fold 3614.9
Kirk and McCoy decide to take Scotty, who is recovering from a head wound accidentally caused by a female crew member, to a nightclub on the planet Argelian. Scotty becomes infatuated with a lovely dancer at the club and they leave together. In the meantime, Kirk and McCoy decide to sample some of the planet's other pleasures and leave.
A scream sends them to a foggy alley to find the dancer dead with Scotty holding a bloody knife. McCoy suggests that perhaps Scotty's subconscious distrust of women, since his accident, has manifested itself in murder.
Hengist, the local authority, wants to arrest Scotty, but Kirk intervenes and seeks the help of a priestess of an old psionic cult. Unfortunately, she's killed and once more the blame seems to fall at Scotty's feet. Before she dies, the priestess says that something with an insatiable hunger and hatred of women is present in the room. Scotty still claims to have amnesia during the time when the women were killed.
In the end, the entity turns out to be an ancient life form, Redjac, previously known on Earth as Jack the Ripper. It now appears in true form; a non-corporeal vampire who thrives on others' fear. It preys on women because they are more easily frightened. It has been living in the body of Hengist and, when discovered, kills Hengist and flees to the U.S.S. Enterprise.
McCoy administers tranquilizers to everyone on board so that the creature cannot evoke fear. Enraged, it is forced to return to Hengist's body. Kirk, knowing this would happen, beams it into space at maximum dispersal, where it will die for lack of nourishment.
44. The Trouble with Tribbles 4523.3
When the U.S.S. Enterprise receives a top priority order to protect a shipment of quadrotriticale grain on Space Station K-7, Kirk is irritated to be guarding a shipment of "wheat." But the shipment is meant for famine-struck Sherman's Planet, and Klingon's are taking shore leave on the Space Station. Adding to Kirk's irritation is Federation Undersecretary for Agriculture, Nilz Barris and his pesty assistant, Arne Darvin who inform Kirk that Starfleet Command is afraid the Klingon's may try to steal the grain.
Another problem arises when space trader, Cyrano Jones, gives Uhura a purring ball of fluff known as a Tribble. Charmed by the creature, Uhura takes it back to the U.S.S. Enterprise. However, as McCoy soon learns, Tribbles are born pregnant and the more they eat... and they eat constantly... the more they multiply. Soon the starship is overrun by the furry creatures.
Kirk soon finds that the bins that were once full of the precious quadrotriticale are now full of dead Tribbles. The grain has been poisoned by a Klingon agent disguised as the Undersecretary's assistant. He's exposed when Kirk discovers that Tribbles don't like Klingon's (and vice versa) and squeak whenever they're in near proximity. The Klingons leave the space station and Scotty rids the U.S.S. Enterprise of the Tribbles by beaming them aboard the departing Klingon ship where, as he tells Kirk, "...they'll be no tribble at all."
45. The Gamesters of Triskelion 3211.7
During a routine transport to a planet, Captain Kirk, Lieutenant Uhura and Ensign Chekov are intercepted and abducted by a powerful and distant transporter beam. Arriving, literally, flat on their backs on a planet called Triskelion in the M-24 Alpha star system, the are immediately attacked by beings from several different species, each of them wearing a collar around their necks.
Kirk and his crew mates have been brought to this planet to fight as gladiators in combat games in order to entertain and provide exciting gambling for the disembodied entities called "The Providers." Each assigned a "drill thrall" of their own, Kirk and his companions are collared as well, which asphyxiate those who are disobedient to The Providers.
On board the U.S.S. Enterprise, Spock, aware that the crew members are missing, attempts to locate them, and eventually finds the origin of the beam. Upon its arrival, the crew of the starship is also taken captive by The Providers.
With the ship and his entire crew at stake, Kirk makes a final wager to The Providers which they cannot resist: himself against three drill thralls on the condition that if he wins, all the drill thralls go free and are taught how to live for themselves again. If Kirk fails, he promises himself and the entire crew as the most entertaining fighters ever seen.
Kirk beats the three drill thralls and wins the wager, and The Providers set all the thralls free and permit the U.S.S. Enterprise and her crew to leave also.
46. A Piece of the Action 4598.0
The planet Iotia's last visit by the Federation was by the U.S.S. Horizon... a hundred years before. Realizing the lapse in monitoring the planet, the Federation sends the U.S.S. Enterprise to observe the progress of Iotia's population.
Beaming down to the planet's surface, Kirk, Spock and McCoy are surprised to see a much different society -- an Earth-like 1920s gangster culture -- than was reported by the U.S.S. Horizon crew. Bodily seized, the landing crew are taken before one of the major planetary leaders, mobster Bela Oxmyx. Wishing to unite the population under his rule, Bela offers Kirk "a piece of the action" in exchange for the technologically advanced weapons of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Meanwhile, the other lead gangster, Jojo Krako, has his own idea about being the head mobster and captures the Enterprise officers. Struggling to gain the upper hand in this comical power struggle, Kirk creates a diversion... a little card game known as Fizzbin. Without knowing the nuances of the culture, Kirk and Spock try to accomplish their mission when Kirk attempts to drive a car and Spock strives to speak in gangster slang.
Finally, Bela Oxmyx is given a display of the Federation's power when he is beamed aboard the Enterprise and held hostage in the transporter room. Arranging a meeting between the two antagonists, Kirk is successful in uniting the two gangs in a loose system of government with the Federation as Godfather... for a piece of the action, of course. Furthermore, upon discovering a book -- "Chicago Mobs of the Twenties" -- the U.S.S. Horizon crew left behind 100 years before, Kirk and Spock finally understand how the highly imitative Iotians reinvented their entire society.
Back aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, Kirk notices McCoy unusually drawn and worried. When questioned, McCoy is forced to admit that he thinks he left his communicator on Iotia, leaving him to wonder what type of planetary society the next Federation visit will find....
47. The Immunity Syndrome 4307.1
Bound for shore leave after a particularly difficult mission, the U.S.S. Enterprise receives an emergency rescue call. Contact has been lost with system Gamma 7A and Starbase 6 wants Kirk to check it out. The captain explains that they're on their way to shore leave but the Starbase is insistent... find out why there's no contact with Gamma 7A.
Spock, at his station, nearly collapses in pain, causing Kirk to send him to sickbay for a check. The Vulcan tells them that the starship Intrepid has been destroyed... along with the 400 Vulcans on board. Their combined screams of anguish are what caused his pain.
Reaching the proper coordinates, they discover that the Gamma 7A system no longer exists. There is a huge, black blot in the space before them which defies even Mr. Spock's scientific diagnosis. They penetrate the blackness, only to find a gigantic, multi-colored amoeba. The amoeba is moving mindlessly through space, absorbing all planets and ships in its path. If it isn't stopped, it will continue to seek out new planets and solar systems for food. The U.S.S. Enterprise attempts to kill the amoeba, but cannot. Neither can it leave the black zone of negative particles that surrounds the organism.
Spock and McCoy both volunteer to take a shuttlecraft into the amoeba and Kirk decides that Spock is more qualified for the job. He sends his friend out with the certainty that he'll never see him again.
Spock discovers that the amoeba is about to reproduce, sending more of its kind out, into the galaxies. McCoy tells Kirk that the starship is like an invading bacteria to the amoeba, against which it immediately creates an immunity syndrome to protect itself. They decide to detonate an anti-matter bomb at its nucleus. As the bomb explodes, the U.S.S. Enterprise pulls itself and the shuttlecraft away, just in time. Spock, alive and unharmed, returns to the bridge and his duties.
48. A Private Little War 4211.4
The U.S.S. Enterprise is sent to the planet Neural to gather vegetation samples, were years ago, Kirk had headed a planetary survey and became friends with one of the planet's leader, Tyree. Looking forward to renewing that acquaintance, Kirk is shocked when Spock is shot by natives using flintlock rifles -- a technology they should not have possessed for many more years.
Kirk manages to get Spock back on board the U.S.S. Enterprise, then seeks out Tyree on the surface. During his search, Kirk is attacked by a mugatu, a dangerous indigenous animal. Kirk is taken into Tyree's care and cured of his wounds by Tyree's, Kanutu witch doctor wife, Nona.
Kirk learns from Tyree that the villagers have been supplied with the flintlocks by the Klingons. Nona schemes to make her husband a great leader and to force him to fight back against the villagers -- something Tyree has refused to do. Kirk won't launch an offensive for the hill people, but offers to equal the odds and offers Tyree his own flintlocks. Tyree refuses. Nona plays on the bond she created with Kirk during his healing and steals his phaser. Wishing to demonstrate the superior power of this new weapon, Nona appears before the villagers. However, before she can use the phaser, the villagers kill her.
Deep in grief, Tyree finally finds, vengeance, reason enough to fight back and accepts Kirk's offer of the flintlocks. Knowing the Federation will have to match the Klingons offer for offer to keep the balance of power, Kirk and McCoy leave the planet to its unhappy fate.
49. Return to Tomorrow 4768.3
A landing party beams down to the long-dead planet, Arret. They find a deep cave containing three living, disembodied, highly intelligent beings. They are Sargon, his wife Thalassa and Henoch, Sargon's former enemy. The trio have been reduced to glowing lights inside large, opaque globes that rest on stands. The rest of their race is long-dead and Sargon feels that the differences between he and Henoch no longer matter. He wants to control the landing party's bodies in order to build androids to house he and his two companion's essences. After some debate, Sargon convinces Kirk to 'loan' him his body, while Henoch uses Spock's and Thalassa borrows Dr. Ann Mulhall. The three Enterprise crewmember's intellects will rest in the globes in the starship's sickbay.
After centuries of living without physical sensations, the three begin to enjoy life within a living, feeling body. Deciding to keep Spock's body permanently, Henoch poisons Kirk's body, hoping to kill Sargon and prevent him from interfering with his plans. He then tries to convince Thalassa to keep the body housing her mind and stay with him. Thalassa, however, loves Sargon and refuses. Sargon escapes Kirk's body and hides in the hull of the Enterprise. McCoy puts Kirk's body on life support until the captain's essence can be returned to it. By hiding Spock's intelligence in Christine Chapel's body and luring Henoch out of the Vulcan's body, Sargon and Kirk are able to destroy Henoch. Deciding not to wait for the androids, that would have housed thier essence, to be finished, Sargon and Thalassa leave the U.S.S. Enterprise to live a disembodied existence on the planet.
50. Patterns of Force 2534.0
On a routine check of the planet Ekos, the U.S.S. Enterprise is attacked with a thermonuclear missile. According to Federation surveys, the culture on Ekos should not be able to support that kind of technology.
John Gill, a historian and one of Kirk's professors at Starfleet Academy, is stationed on Ekos as a cultural observer. Kirk decides that he and Spock will beam down to the planet's surface, find Gill, and see what is going on. When they reach the planet's surface, the two officers witness the capture of a young man by what appear to be Nazis. In the next moments they, too, are apprehended by the Nazis and have a first-hand look at this amazing development in Ekos' culture.
They officers are questioned and imprisoned, along with the young man they had seen earlier. Isak, their fellow prisoner tells them that his planet, Zeon, came to help promote peace and advance the civilization of Ekos, only to be attacked by the Nazis. The Ekosians seem almost identical to the German Nazis of 20th Century Earth; uniforms, scare tactics and execution of the Zeons... their version of the Earth Nazi's Jew. And the Fuhrer is none other than Kirk's old teacher... John Gill.
Still, Kirk can't believe that the man he knew could have changed his ideas to this extent and insists that he must see the man. He and Spock engineer a jailbreak and, along with the young Zeon, make their way to the Zeon underground. With the Zeon's help, the two U.S.S. Enterprise officers infiltrate the building where Gill is about to give a speech, announcing Ekos' attack on the planet Zeon.
Kirk discovers that Gill has been given a drug that makes him no more than a puppet to his second in command, Melakon. Using a communicator that Spock has managed to build out of surviving parts of their two devices, Kirk contacts the ship and has McCoy beams to the planet. There they make their way to Gill, where the doctor injects him with a stimulant. Still the drug retains its hold on the Fuhrer and time is running out to stop the attack on the peaceful Zeon. While the others stall, Kirk remains with Gill and finally revives him enough to rescind his previous speech and order his people to a more peaceful civilization.
Melakon, in a desperate attempt to salvage his reign, shoots Gill, and is in turn shot by Isak. When Kirk demands from the dying Gill why he introduced such a vicious culture to the people of Ekos, Gill replied that the people had fragmented and he thought that he could pattern them after the most efficient state in history, without a power-hungry leader to make it into a repeat of Germany. Melakon, however, seized power from Gill and began his rampage to control, not only Ekos, but Zeon, too. As he dies, Gill confirms that the Prime Directive is, in fact, the only way.
Leaving Isak and his followers to clean up the government and promote a more peaceful way of life on Ekos, Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam back to the U.S.S. Enterprise.
51. By Any Other Name 4657.5
When the U.S.S. Enterprise answers a distress call from a small planet, the landing party is captured by a group of agents from the Kelvan empire, located in the distant Andromeda galaxy. The Kelvans' purpose is to find planets suitable for colonization. However, their own ship was destroyed and now they need the Enterprise to make the three hundred year journey home. To utilize the starship, the Kelvans -- huge, tentacled creatures -- take on human form. After several attempts at escape, Kirk accepts his fate and agrees to let the aliens take over his ship. The Kelvans use their technology to transform all but essential Enterprise personnel into small "cubes" which, unless broken or damaged, can be restored to human beings.
Recognizing that the Kelvans, in their new human bodies, are discovering human sensation and emotion, the remaining crew attempts to foster dissent among the aliens: Scotty succeeds in gettting one of them drunk, McCoy injects an irritant into another, and Kirk makes romantic overtures to the Kelvan leader's woman. With the Kelvans thus distracted, Kirk and the crew are able to regain control of the ship.
Kirk points out to Rojan, the Kelvan leader, that the Kelvans are already becoming less like they were before by encountering the humans. In three hundred years, their descendants will be so human-like that they won't be able to live among their people on Kelva. Rojan sees the logic in his argument and sends a robot probe to Kelva, reporting what has happened. Pledging to restore the Enterprise crew, Rojan accepts Kirk's offer that the Enterprise find the Kelvans a Class M planet to colonize.
52. The Omega Glory
The U.S.S. Enterprise finds a crewless starship, the U.S.S. Exeter, in orbit around the planet Omega IV. The boarding party from the U.S.S. Enterprise contracts a virus that may have killed the Exeter's crew, but the biosphere on Omega IV is found to contain an immunity. The party is beamed to the surface.
There they discover Captain Tracey, the commander of the U.S.S. Exeter. He has been violating the Federation's Prime Directive by interfering in the politics of the natives, using his phaser to protect the Oriental villagers, the Kohms, against the barbarian raiders, the Yangs. Tracey demands that Kirk supply him with more phasers, which Kirk refuses to do.
The Yangs capture the Kohms village and the U.S.S. Enterprise crew learns that these people are possibly descendants of Earth's Communist Chinese who left Earth in the last years of the 20th Century. The Yangs mouth a distorted version of the United States Constitution, which are their 'holy words' and which Kirk recites, gaining their confidence. Prolonged exposure to the planet's atmosphere cures the landing party and, with Captain Tracey under arrest, they return to the U.S.S. Enterprise.
53. The Ultimate Computer 4729.4
The U.S.S. Enterprise is chosen to be the test ship for the new M-5 Multitronic computer system, a computer meant to be able to run a starship without human intervention. Also aboard for the test is Doctor Richard Daystrom, the inventor of the M-5 and an obsessive and unstable individual.
Initially the M-5 performs well, but when it decides to destroy a robot freighter, Kirk orders the test canceled. M-5, however, protects itself and makes it impossible for it to be disconnected. The computer becomes increasingly erratic, a result of Dr. Daystrom's decision to impress his engram onto the computer as part of its programming. Starting a scheduled war games drill, M-5 uses the full arsenal of the U.S.S. Enterprise to attack four other Federation starships.
In a last-ditch appeal to M-5, Kirk makes the computer realize that it has committed the sin of murder. Since Dr. Daystrom would be ethically abhorred at such an act, M-5 is equally penitent and tries to commit suicide by leaving the U.S.S. Enterprise defenseless against a counter-attack by the remaining other starships. At the last moment, Spock and Scott are able to finish disconnecting M-5. Kirk keeps the shields down, gambling successfully that the attacking ships would not fire on an undefended vessel. Restoring communications next, the fleet is called off.
54. Bread and Circuses 4040.7
The U.S.S. Enterprise finds the wreckage of the S.S. Beagle, with no survivors, orbiting near the Planet 892-IV. When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam to the planet's surface, they find a dishelveled group of "sun worshipers" trying to escape being caught by the local authorities. They are captured, along with the landing party, and taken to the city which looks very much like Earth's ancient Rome.
They find that Captain Merik of the Beagle has betrayed his crew, beaming them down to fight in the Roman-like gladiatorial games. Merik is First Citizen of the Empire and supposed close friend to the Proconsul, Claudius Marcus. Kirk realizes, however, that Merik is being used as a lure to get more starship crews to 892-IV for the entertainment of its inhabitants.
When Kirk refuses to beam his crew down to die in the arena, Spock and McCoy are condemned to fight gladiators in the ring. The bout is being televised for the planet's enjoyment, but Scotty cuts off the planet's energy supply, spoiling their pleasure. When Kirk uses the confusion to free Spock and McCoy, Merik sees how a true starship captain acts in the face of danger and uses his communicator to have the Kirk, Spock and McCoy beamed aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. For his treachery, Merik is killed by the Proconsul.
Uhura, who has been monitoring the radio waves of the planet, realizes that the "sun worshipers" aren't talking about the sun in the sky, but of the "Son of God."
55. Assignment: Earth
Sent back in time to find out how Earth managed to survive without destroying itself, the U.S.S. Enterprise inadvertently beams aboard a space traveler, Gary Seven, along with his black cat, Isis. Seven claims to be a twentieth century Terran raised and trained by unknown and unnamed aliens to prevent Earth from destroying itself. Before Kirk can determine whether or not the man is telling the truth, Seven escapes to the planet below. Kirk and Spock follow him to Earth. Meanwhile, Seven has tried to contact two fellow agents, who are discovered to have recently died in an auto accident. Instead, he contacts Roberta Lincoln, who becomes his reluctant cohort.
An orbital bomb is about to be launched by the United States and it is Seven's mission to make sure the rocket explodes somewhere over Asia, thereby frightening the governments into not launching future bombs into space.
When the rocket goes out of control, Seven barely succeeds in stopping it, despite Kirk and Spock's well-meaning interference. Before Kirk and Spock leave Earth, Kirk consults the Enterprise's computer records and informs Seven and Roberta that they have a very interesting future in the offing.
