The Man Trap, S1E1, TOS

CBS Blurb: A shape-shifting, salt-craving creature terrorizes the crew of Enterprise.

The episode begins with an initially simple premise. Each year, all scientific personnel working for and in the Federation must be certified as physically fit by a Federation Doctor in order to continue performing their duties. The Enterprise is ordered to planet M-113 to allow Dr. McCoy to certify Dr. and Mrs. Crater.

From the opening scene, however, this initial premise begins to complicate immensely. For starters, we discover that Nancy Crater is a woman from McCoy's past, and he's more than a little nervous about seeing her again, for the first time in ten years, and when we meet Nancy ourselves, we get our first surprise of the episode. Each of the three crewmen who see her (McCoy, Kirk, and "RandomBlueShirtGuy" (yes, he has a name, but it's much more entertaining to refer to the cannon fodder by the color of their uniforms, so "RandomBlueShirtGuy" he shall remain). Anyway, each of the three crewmen see a "different" Nancy Crater. Someone conjured from their own fantasies/expectations of what she might look like. For McCoy, she looks just as she did when they last saw each other. For Kirk, she looks as he expects her to: a handsome woman about McCoy's age, and for BlueShirtGuy, she looks like a hot blonde he had a good time with on some pleasure planet.

This is our first glimpse of the creature.

We quickly learn that whatever she is, she's deadly, as she lures BlueShirtGuy away from the others and when we next see him, he's lying dead on a rocky outcropping.

Nancy is found with the body and is questioned, but her answers only raise further questions and arouse suspicion. Suddenly uncertain and down a man, Kirk and McCoy transport back to the ship.

Although the cause of BlueShirtGuy's death is not readily apparent, McCoy eventually finds it and the mystery deepens. His body has been entirely drained of salt.

Increasingly suspicious and recalling two "offhand" requests for salt tablets by the Craters, Kirk, McCoy and some additional fodder (BlueShirt#2 and GoldShirtGuy) beam down to the planet to question the couple further.

Only Mr. Crater can be found, however, so "the fodder" is sent to go look for Nancy. Both are killed quickly of course, but here, we're treated to surprise #2. Only the second BlueShirt's body is found, and Nancy assumes the form of GoldShirtGuy, appearing before Kirk and McCoy as they are standing over BlueShirt#2's body. Again, they beam to the ship (to use Enterprise's scanners and other equipment to search more effectively for the still missing Nancy Crater, and in doing so, they unwittingly give the creature access to the ship.

The deception is uncovered a short time later, when Kirk and Spock return once more to the planet and find GoldShirtGuy's body, but by then, the creature has killed again (RandomGuyinaSpaceSuit-uniform color unknown).

The creature leads the crew on a merry chase, slipping into a number of guises before finally being cornered in McCoy's quarters.

Key crew members Spock and McCoy fight over whether to kill the creature (who by this time, has once again assumed the form of Nancy Crater), and in the end, she is killed in order to save Kirk, who is being "drained" by the creature, thus putting everything to rights.

The episode ends with the "Gathering of the Tribe" and a few words by the bold Captain as they warp off to their next adventure.

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The real theme of this episode is introduced about two and a half minutes in, and in an almost off hand way. If you're not paying close attention, you might miss it, or discount it as some random bit of "filler dialogue," but I believe it to be the key to the whole episode.

McCoy mentions that he and Nancy "walked out of each others lives" about ten years ago." He tells us what she did (married Dr. Crater) but neglects to mention what he did. To me, it seems there can be only one answer, and it's staring us in the face in the form of his blue uniform. He pledged himself fully to StarFleet.

This then, gives us a classic storytelling device. Love vs. Loyalty, and in McCoy's past, with this woman, the choice has come up once before. Back then, he chose loyalty (to StarFleet) over love (and the chance at a life with her), and now they meet again. It has a kind of of "things come full circle" symmetry to it, but it gets better.

As the episode progresses, we watch the creature (in the form of a middle aged Nancy Crater) play on McCoy's feelings for her in an attempt to gain a measure of protection from the crew for the murders she has committed, and clearly, McCoy is conflicted. Even though toward the end when he knows the creature isn't his lost love, the fact that it looks just like her is enough to send him reeling. Even when she attacks Kirk at the climax, he hesitates when it comes to pulling the trigger. He even stops Spock from dealing the death blow, and still does not act when the creature begins to fight back and knocks Spock across the room.

Only when Kirk screams and begins to die does he finally come face to face with the same awful choice he had to make ten years earlier. Love or loyalty? (for the purposes of the story, it doesn't matter that we all know it's not "really" Nancy Crater...we've had the big "reveal." The creature reverted briefly to its true form (which, incidentally, neatly answers the question of what was causing the curious blistering marks on the faces of the victims), but for the climactic scene in which the final choice is made, the creature reverts back into the likeness of Nancy Crater, so that if McCoy chooses loyalty, then he must kill his love.

In the end, he makes his choice, begs forgiveness, and pulls the trigger, and the look in his eyes during that final scene completely drives the point home. Simply awesome television!

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If this is the kind of television you enjoy, you can get plenty more where that came from by giving yourself the gift of satellite TV. Why satellite over cable? Two reasons, primarily. First, because historically, satellite is the more reliable of the two services, with fewer "no service" days (5% for the cable industry vs. less than 1% for satellite), and second, you get more of the channels you want for the same, or less money. I'm a diehard bargain shopper, so I'm forever looking for deals like that. And besides, since when has the cable guy EVER showed up on time? For me, it's satellite every time, all the time!

Probably due to network television time constraints, one thing that the story didn't go into was the ruins on M-113 and the civilization that once thrived here. No one ever says definitively if the "Salt Vamps" (my name for the shape shifting creature in this episode) were the race of beings who built up the fallen civilization on M-113. They may have been, sure, but it is also entirely possible that they were parasites or predators, and their presence brought about the downfall of that civilization. A thing we'll never know for sure.

But, in the Salt Vamp, we're left with a most impressive creature. Take a look at the observable traits of this beast!

* Empathy/Some level of Mind Reading
* Illusion (able to make people see her in whatever form they want to see her in
* Shapeshifting (can physically alter her form)
* Paralysis at close range
* Salt sucking attack to kill prey

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One of the comments I hear frequently is that in the new Star Trek movie, people are surprised by the "connection" between Spock and the Communications Officer, Uhura. There are a couple of different scenes where there's some definite chemistry/intimacy, or at least the possibility of it.

This is by no means new to the Trek universe. In fact, this very episode holds the genesis of their potential relationship, and it is here that we see Uhura flirting with Spock (Kirk is on the planet's surface, Spock is in the command chair, and Uhura approaches him...tells him to ask her how her day way, tell her that she's a beautiful woman, etc).

In my opinion then, the Spock/Uhura connection in the new movie is just one more nod to the original series, and perfectly in keeping with the original direction of the show!

StarDate
6.22.09 - Change Log Added
6.27.09 - Spock - Uhura info added.
7.03.09 - Link to S1E2, "Charlie X" added