Thursday, March 19, 2015

Trek Thursday: That Which Survives

#32: That Which Survives





In case you forgot: Kirk, Bones, Sulu, and a blue-shirted redshirt are investigating a planet that is by all accounts a scientific anomaly. The redshirt dies and the Enterprise is thrown over 900 light-years away. Spock and Scott work to repair the ship while the landing party faces off against a woman programmed to destroy.

Another solid "extinct alien technology" episode. This one has some solid questions: how can a planet so young seem so old? What happened to the Enterprise? Who is this woman who can kill people with just a touch of her hand? And, unlike some other episodes, the questions that get asked in the beginning are all satisfactorily answered by the time the credits roll.

Whenever the Enterprise encounters the technological remains of an alien race, there's always a good bit of melancholy and wonder: with so many races out there that we don't know and can never know, who knows what kinds of advancements and exchanges we're missing out on, even in a future full of faster-than-light travel and medical miracles? It's a galaxy full of tragedy and missed opportunities.


That said, it seems too easy an out that the computer-woman can only be programmed to kill one party member at a time (until the three of her show up at the end), or that she can kept away so easily by the other two members of the party. Guess you have to level the playing field somehow...

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