Title: The Lorelei Signal
Airdate: 9/29/1973
Plot Summary
In The Lorelei Signal, the Enterprise responds to a distress signal, which immediately starts putting a spell on the male crew members. It’s up to Uhura and the female crew members to rescue the men from a colony of women who plan to drain the men of their energy to continue living.
Risk Is Our Business
Kirk is pretty much under the sway of the signal, but to his credit, any objection or concern Uhura shows, he takes seriously.
Logical
Since the women didn’t take away Bone’s medical kit, Spock is able to use it to jimmy the lock and let the away team escape. Spock is affected, but thanks to his slower aging and general greater strength, he’s able to get to the communicators and get help from the female crew men. Spock also ends up reaching out to Christine mentally, not Uhura. Kinda makes the desire to make Spock and Uhura an item even less believable in the Kelvin universe.
He’s Dead, Jim
Bones remarks, “It’s the first time I ever admired a body function” which has all kinds of weird double meanings. McCoy is able to use some medication to keep them alive.
Helm Sluggish Captain
Even Sulu is affected, which means either the signal cancels gay or Sulu was never gay, so FUCK YOU ABRHAMS!
Hailing Frequencies Open, Sugar
This is all Uhura’s episode. She takes control of the ship and assumes command. She does not eff around. Once Spock calls for help, she takes down a fairly large security team of women, plus Nurse Chapel, whom she made Chief Medical Officer during the crisis. When the women try to make a move against her team, she wastes no time smoking those fools. Ok, phasers were on stun, but I love her no-nonsense approach.
My Wee Bairns
We get about 30 straight seconds of the Enterprise drifting across the screen to Scotty singing some Scottish romance song before Uhura pitches him out of the center chair and assumes command.
Three Arms Are Better Than Two, ya Fuzzy Face
Arex seems to be affected, but does nothing more than be a little slack-jawed at the beginning.
Getting Animated
The deflectors couldn’t stop the signal. This is something that will happen in other situations as well.
Technobabble
There seems to be a need for a headband to get the men’s strength in The Lorelei Signal. What’s not clear is why they just don’t take it off? Maybe they were either too weak or the signal made it so they didn’t want to. Still, they had enough willpower to try to escape, so that doesn’t make sense. Then it appeared it also happens without the headbands, so what was the point of the things?
They do the transporter magic to reset their bodies from before they got all old. One wonders why it doesn’t reset them to a few hours earlier in their memories. The Next Generation and other shows would use the same bullshit, so really it can’t be too hard on them. This was the first time, supposedly, they did this. I don’t know if The Enemy Within counts or not?
What It Means To Be Human – Review
So if you asked me 20 or so years ago about The Lorelei Signal, I probably would’ve said it was perfectly fine. A nice update of the old Siren song myth. It is reasonably told, and the ending is pure Star Trek. They help the Taurean ladies relocate to another planet instead of punishing them.
But with politics these days invading every nook and cranny of our lives, I have to rate this much higher. This is how you show cooperation between the sexes.
It’s simple. The men are being affected by a strange alien signal, and the women do what is necessary to rescue them. There are no snarky remarks of how women need to save the day or stupid setups of the men saying how “wimmen can’t du nutten” only to get their comeuppance later.
This is what happens when you write an episode without a chip on your shoulder. Uhura acts competently and decisively. She does what has to be done and is willing to accept the consequences if she turns out to be wrong.
I so appreciated the execution of this episode by leaving the nonsense at the door that I’m going to give it 5 stars if for no other reason than to stick it in the eye of all current writers of Star Trek.
Nichelle Nichols was tickled pink to do this episode, apparently during a table read exclaimed, “What? Are you kidding? I get to command the Enterprise?” much to the delight of everyone involved. It’s one of only three times that a woman commanded the Enterprise, though counting Janice Lester in Kirk’s body is stretching it a bit. The other was Number 1 in The Cage.
It’s funny how circumstances can change your opinion of something from 50 years ago, something you just didn’t pay too much mind to back in the day. Another example of how we’ve regressed, not progressed.
