The Enemy Within (episode)edit this page

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"The Enemy Within"
TOS, Episode 1x04
Production number: 6149-05
First aired: 6 October 1966
Remastered version aired: 26 January 2008
5th of 80 produced in TOS
5th of 80 released in TOS
55th of 80 released in TOS Remastered
5th of 727 released in all
Written By
Richard Matheson

Directed By
Leo Penn
1672.1 (2266)
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A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two people – one good and one evil, and neither capable of functioning well separately.

Contents

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

Evil Kirk: "I'm Captain Kirk... I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!!"

During a survey of Alfa 177, geological technician Fisher slips down a rock, gashing himself badly and smearing his uniform with a strange magnetic type of ore. He beams up to the USS Enterprise for treatment. Detecting a curious overload in the transporter circuitry, Montgomery Scott has Fisher decontaminated before reporting to sickbay, but the problems have already begun; the strange ore has altered the function of the transporter.

Next, Captain Kirk beams up from the planet, before the fault is discovered. He apparently materializes normally – but is in fact, a shadow of himself.

[edit] Act One

Due to this transporter accident Kirk is split into two beings. The first to materialize embodies all of Kirk's positive qualities. Moments later, after everyone has left, Kirk's evil twin materializes.

Some time passes before the mishap is discovered, during which the evil Kirk roams the ship. He demands liquor from McCoy, assaults crewmen, and even tries to sexually assault Yeoman Rand. Finally, he is cornered in the engine room, and captured – but not before his errant phaser shot damages the transporter further.


[edit] Act Two

Kirk's good half considers abandoning his evil half. It is a hateful thing, and he does not like to acknowledge that it is part of him. But as he weakens, and begins to lose the ability to make decisions, he realizes that he needs it, that neither part of him can live without the other.

[edit] Act Three

Meanwhile, on the planet below, the remaining landing party is suffering through increasing cold. Attempts to beam heaters and other support devices produce only non-functional duplicates.

Finally, Scotty and Spock believe they have isolated and repaired all the damage. A test animal, previously split, is sent through to see if it will reintegrate. It does, but rematerializes dead.

[edit] Act Four

Crippled with indecision, Kirk must decide what to do. He is able, barely, to make the trip, and his two halves are re-integrated. Confident once again, he gives the order to beam up the landing party, saving them moments from freezing.

[edit] Log Entries

Alfa 177.
  • Captain's log, stardate 1672.1. Specimen gathering mission on planet Alpha 177. Unknown to any of us during this time a duplicate of me, some strange alter ego, had been created by the transporter malfunction.
  • Captain's log, stardate 1672.9. On the planet's surface, temperatures are beginning to drop; our landing party there in growing jeopardy. Due to the malfunction of the ship's transporter, an unexplained duplicate of myself definitely exists.
  • Captain's log, stardate 1673.1. Something has happened to me. Somehow in being duplicated, I have lost my strength of will. Decisions are becoming more and more difficult.
  • Captain's log, stardate 1673.5. Transporter still inoperable... my negative self is under restraint in sickbay... my own indecisiveness growing... my force of will steadily weakening. On the planet condition critical, surface temperature is 75 degrees below zero. Still dropping.
  • Captain's log, stardate 1673.1, entered in by Second Officer Spock. Captain Kirk retains command of this vessel, but his force of will rapidly fading. Condition of landing party critical. Transporter unit still under repair.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"You're too beautiful to ignore. Too much woman."

- Kirk's evil duplicate, to Rand


"You can't afford the luxury of being anything less than perfect. If you do, they lose faith, and you lose command."

- Spock, to Kirk's good duplicate


"I'm Captain Kirk. I'm Captain Kirk!!!"

- Kirk's evil duplicate


"And what is it that makes one man an exceptional leader? We see indications that it's his negative side which makes him strong, that his evil side, if you will, properly controlled and disciplined, is vital to his strength."

- Spock, to McCoy


Sulu on Alfa 177

"Do you think you might be able to find a long rope somewhere and lower us down a pot of hot coffee?"
"I'll see what we can do."
"Rice wine will do if you're short on coffee."

- Sulu and Kirk's good duplicate


"Any possibility of getting us back aboard before the skiing season opens down here?"

- Sulu


"He's like an animal. A thoughtless, brutal animal. And yet it's me. Me!"

- Kirk's good duplicate, on his evil counterpart


"We all have our darker side. We need it! It's half of what we are. It's not really ugly. It's human."

- McCoy, to Kirk's good duplicate


"The intelligence, the logic. It appears your half has most of that. And perhaps that's where man's essential courage comes from."

- McCoy, to Kirk's good duplicate


"He's dead, Jim."

- McCoy, on the test animal


"Being split in two halves is no theory with me, doctor. I have a human half, you see, as well as an alien half, submerged, constantly at war with each other. Personal experience, doctor. I survive it because my intelligence wins over both, makes them live together."

- Spock, on merging the two Kirks


"Can half a man live?"

- Kirk's good duplicate, to his evil counterpart on the bridge


"I want to live!"

- Kirk's evil duplicate


"I've seen a part of myself no man should ever see."

- Kirk to McCoy, after the successful reintegration


"The ... impostor had some ... interesting qualities, wouldn't you say, Yeoman?"

- Spock, to Rand

[edit] Background information

[edit] Production timeline

[edit] Story and production

  • Grace Lee Whitney recounts that while shooting the scene when a distraught, tearful Janice Rand accuses Captain Kirk of trying to rape her, William Shatner slapped her across the face to get her to register the proper emotion. [1] After the scene was shot, he later apologized.

[edit] Props and sets

Scott and Fisher with scanner
Spock and Kirk in Engineering
  • In this episode we get to follow Kirk behind the large engine room machinery components in the first trip to the engineering deck (which dialog identifies as being in the lowest parts of the ship). To allow this to happen, the new set had to be temporarily expanded to hide the sound stage beyond it. After the double is rendered unconscious by the first neck pinch in the series, the quickly-assembled wall behind the three characters can be observed to have a very rough edge where it meets the floor. Pieces of sets that were designed to be added and subtracted easily were called "wild." Although Kirk pursues Ben Finney into these components in "Court Martial", this is the only time we get to see the space behind them. The view of the tubed structures behind the grille was a forced perspective set. The tubed machinery appears to be many dozens of meters long, but this is an illusion created by making each vertical piece much smaller than the one in front of it. Diminishing numbers were later printed on the tubes immediately behind the grid to add to the illusion. In episodes where the engines were under stress, lighting effects were used inside the tubed-machinery room. The set was extensively remodeled between the first and second seasons.

[edit] Special effects

[edit] Costumes

  • At the start of the episode when Kirk is beamed up from Alfa 177, both he and his evil counterpart are missing the Enterprise insignia on their uniforms.
  • This episode introduced the first season version of the captain's wraparound tunic. It reappears in "Charlie X" and "Court Martial", and in Kirk's briefcase in "This Side of Paradise".

[edit] Cast

[edit] Continuity

[edit] Other information

  • William Shatner, playing himself on a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, made a reference to this episode. In the sketch, Shatner had just finished delivering a rant imploring an audience of Star Trek fans at a convention to "get a life", then explained the rant was a "recreation of the evil Captain Kirk from episode 37, the name... The Enemy Within." In fact, the 37th TOS episode produced was "The Changeling" and the 37th aired was "I, Mudd".
  • If you look very closely when Scotty reaches into the cage containing the "negative side" of the alien canine (just before their plan to reintegrate the two halves), you can briefly see the absence of the middle finger on James Doohan's right hand, the result of an injury during World War II.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and References

[edit] Starring

[edit] Featuring

And:

[edit] Uncredited co-stars

[edit] Stunt double

[edit] References

abort control circuit; Alfa 177; Alfa 177 canine; autopsy; coadjutor engagement; coffee; exposure; frostbite; hand phaser; impulse engine; leader circuit; magnetism; ore; post-mortem; protoplaser; rice wine; Saurian brandy; ship's manifest; shock; skiing; survival training; synchronic meter; thermal heater; tranquilizer; transporter; transporter circuit; transporter unit ionizer; velocity balance; Vulcan nerve pinch

[edit] External link


Previous episode produced:
"Mudd's Women"
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 1
Next episode produced:
"The Man Trap"
Previous episode aired:
"The Naked Time"
Next episode aired:
"Mudd's Women"
Previous remastered episode aired:
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
TOS Remastered Next remastered episode aired:
"The Changeling"
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