Title: The Devil In The Dark
Airdate: 3/9/1967
Plot Summary
The Enterprise is called to help a mining colony that is getting attacked by a creature they discovered underground. Miners have been killed, the colony is living in fear. But did they create the problem they now have to deal with?
Risk Is Our Business
Kirk is immediately a calming influence. He wants to help the colony but is not ready to simply accept everything they are telling him at face value. While he isn’t disbelieving of Vanderberg, he is very skeptical of what seems to be happening. Still, he realizes that this mining operation is very important to the Federation.
He comes to the conclusion that the creature is to be killed and even attempts to put Spock out to make sure he doesn’t get in his way. Yet when the opportunity presents itself, he doesn’t kill. Shades of Arena, where he chooses not to kill, even though there are compelling reasons for him to kill.
Logical
Spock gets to do a proper mind meld with a giant lasagna pile. He mostly shouts “Murderers!” But the meld proves to be the key to communicating with the Horta. Spock also at one point mentions that the sensors have not found life, at least as we know it. While Spock didn’t say this much during the series, the Dr. Demento song made it memorable.
Spock also is very against killing it, suspecting it’s the last of its race. However, when he finds out Kirk may be in danger, he switches his tune, ready to start guns blazing.
He’s Dead Jim
Bones finally says a proper “I’m a doctor, not a <blank>.” In this case, a bricklayer. Funny it took this long to do that. I mentioned back in The Corbomite Maneuver that he said something similar but this is when it finally came into being. Figured it would’ve been earlier than this.
He also can cure a rainy day.
Canon Maker
Not much new here, other than we establish that various minerals get mined on different planets. We also learn about pergium which is very very important for reasons and stuff.
The non-canon material does suggest that the Horta are a member of the Federation.
Canon Breaker
Chief Giotto has commander’s stripes but is constantly referred to as Lt. Commander. Tch tch tch.
While this episode doesn’t really break canon, Star Trek The Next Generation’s Home Soil would also have a similar story, right down to a silicon form of life. They are completely surprised that this would exist, apparently forgetting completely about this episode.
Man It Feels Bad To Be a Red Shirt
Yup, we lose a redshirt on this one as well as a few miners. Of course, thousands of Horta kids were also killed so I guess it all evens out.
Technobabble
The mining colony uses old outdated tech to keep it running. I really liked that, private companies wouldn’t necessarily have the cutting-edge tech of Starfleet. Working in IT, addressing tech debt is an ongoing problem, I’d say Trek predicted that pretty well. Scotty shows some skills to jury rig a replacement but it doesn’t last long.
Apparently, you can set a phaser for “silicon.” I bet that’s a rarely used setting.
I Know That Guy:
Ken Lynch plays Chief Engineer Vanderberg, the manager of the mining colony. He had a pretty prolific career as a guest star in many TV shows, including 10 years later in Battlestar Galactica.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
The Devil In The Dark is another prototypical season 1 episode of Star Trek. Something that looks awful turns out to be friendly. The Horta is simply protecting its children. Without a way to communicate, it’s no wonder it lashed out. The message is great. Sometimes misunderstandings happen and conflict can become more pronounced by surface-level differences.
I love the little hints of its intelligence. It knew exactly what to take to shut down the operation, though it’s unclear how it would know that, given that the Horta don’t seem technological. Eh, nitpick.
The mind meld is used to great effect as well. Kirk and Spock are immediately suspicious of what’s going on here and don’t jump to “kill the beast!” I also like that the miners are not the bad guys. Once they realize what’s going on, they immediately change their tune.
The coda is also great, with Lynch telling him that the little Hortas have hatched and are running around all over the place.
The mystery is intriguing but even when you know, the episode still has repeat value.
Interestingly, this is Shatner’s favorite episode. Even so, his father had passed away during filming and he insisted on finishing it up. He said he felt closer to the cast and crew after that as they helped him through a difficult time. More and more, I think George Takei is just a sour grapes jerk in their ongoing feud.
Overall, there are a ton of little touches as usual that make this episode work better than home soil. There are also several novels by Diane Duane that mentions a Horta had joined Starfleet and was a crewmember on board the Enterprise. I suspect geologist.
