Title: The Survivor
Airdate: 10/13/1973
Plot Summary
In The Survivor, Carter Winston, a wealthy philanthropist, is found after being missing for 5 years. He is reunited with his fiancée, who is a security officer on board. But is he who he seems? The Enterprise is mysteriously thrown into the Romulan Neutral Zone, where they need to escape and figure out the mystery of who Carter Winston really is.
Risk Is Our Business
When Kirk is confronted by the possibility that he’s blacking out and issuing orders that are against regulations, he does the right thing and gets an examination. He’s even willing to give up command if it’s determined he’s a danger to the ship. As it turns out, it’s just the shapeshifting alien masquerading as Kirk, but he doesn’t know that at the time.
Logical
Spock is the first to be suspicious of what’s going on when the Carter-alien is impersonating McCoy, as he was unusually accommodating.
He’s Dead Jim
Bones is really upset with Spock wanting to double-check Carter Winston’s identity. Given how shapeshifters like the salt vampire have messed with the crew in the past, you’d think he’d understand the request.
You also think he would notice a new examination table in his sickbay.
Helm Sluggish Captain
Sulu pilots and fires weapons during the various battles with the Klingons, I mean Romulans, well.
Hailing Frequencies Open, Sugar
Since Nichols is doing duty as Anne Nored, M’Ress makes her first appearance as the cat lady communications officer.
My Wee Bairns
Scotty has to deal with fixing a shield that was sabotaged. He is not a miracle worker in this situation.
Three Arms Are Better Than Two, Ya Fuzzy Face
Arex mans his station and provides excellent background decoration.
Getting Animated
Carter’s true form is truly alien-looking. It’s another example of the animation format being able to do things the live-action show couldn’t. Apparently, he can not only take the shapes of people and objects but even deflector shields. Sure.
Carter Winston is known as a wealthy philanthropist. Once again, the subject of money and economics is muddy and confused.
Romulans are still using Klingon ships.
I Know That Guy
Ted Knight plays Carter Winston. He’s most known for Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore show. And to Gen’Xers, he’ll always be Judge Smails in Caddyshack.
Nichelle Nichols doubles as Carter’s fiancée, Anne.
Technobabble
When a part is removed, it takes Scotty a couple of hours to repair it and get the deflectors back up. One wonders why “Carter” didn’t take the shape of the missing part rather than an actual deflector shield when he had a change of heart.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
So The Survivor is a shapeshifter episode. Elements of What Are Little Girls Made Of and The Man Trap are in play here. Anne Nored finds a long-lost fianceé, and we have a shapeshifter that seems to want to harm the ship. However, this takes a slightly different tack. The Vendorian was Carter for so long, it ended up kind of sort of becoming Carter and everything that comes with that. Including his love for Anne.
The Romulans making an appearance was nice and keeping continuity with TOS, still use Klingon ships. Though I think they missed an opportunity to design some cool Romulan ships.
The real problem in The Survivor is that the mystery is over before it begins. When Carter becomes Kirk, it’s clear what’s going on to the viewer, and you spend a great deal of the episode waiting for the crew to catch up.
Then there’s the shapeshifting itself. While I can buy turning into different people, and even some simple inanimate objects, a working examination table and later a deflector shield stretched credibility.
It ends on a positive note, with the Vendorian being remorseful and willing to stand trial, while Kirk will testify on his behalf that he ended up saving the ship. It wouldn’t be the last time Romulans used someone for their own nefarious purposes.
Anne wanting to still be with “Carter” even though he’s really a giant tentacle monster with shapeshifting capabilities makes me think she’s a bit more freaky than she’s letting on.
All in all, The Survivor is a middling episode that doesn’t really bring anything new to the shapeshifter story type, but doesn’t do anything to piss me off either.
