“Is There in Truth No Beauty?”
Written by Jean Lisette Aroeste
Directed by Ralph Senensky
Season 3, Episode 5
Production episode: 3×07
Original air date: October 18, 1968
Star date: 5630.7
Mission summary
Enterprise is on routine taxi duty, escorting a less-than-routine diplomat back to his homeworld: Ambassador Kollos is a Medusan, “a race of beings who are formless, so utterly hideous” that just looking at one will drive the beholder mad. But on the up side, they’re very intelligent and have wonderful personalities.
Certain precautions are taken to welcome their unsightly guest aboard; due to his advanced mental discipline, only Mr. Spock is allowed to greet the ambassador, and even so the Vulcan has to wear an unfashionable red visor to shield him from Kollos’ unbearable ugliness—though it’s meager protection from the mockery of anyone who sees him in it. Kollos’s visit is preceded by Larry Marvick, a Starfleet engineer who was one of Enterprise’s designers. He reminds them all that the visor is really important before Engineer Scott drags him off for an impromptu date.
As soon as the weak humans vacate the transporter room, Spock beams up a beautiful woman and her baggage. She salutes the first officer Vulcan-style and introduces herself as Dr. Jones… which means that box next to her must be the Ark of the Covenant! Actually, it’s just the Medusan’s idea of formal wear. Spock affixes an antigravity handle to the outside of the ambassador’s box while Kirk clears the corridors of personnel. Then the Vulcan and Dr. Jones tote Kollos to his quarters and make polite conversation.
SPOCK: Dr. Jones, may I congratulate you on your assignment with Ambassador Kollos.
JONES: Thank you, but the assignment’s not yet definite. It will depend upon my ability to achieve a true mind-link with the ambassador.
SPOCK: I’m sure you will find it a fascinating experience.
JONES: I wasn’t aware that anyone had ever achieved a mind-link with the Medusans.
SPOCK: No one ever has. I was referring to mind-links I had attempted with members of other species.
JONES: I’ve heard, Mr. Spock, that you turned down the assignment with the ambassador.
SPOCK: I was unable to accept. My life is here.
So that’s a little awkward.
Once the box is safely stowed, Enterprise departs for Medusa and Spock gets curious about what’s in the box. Jones tells him the ambassador would love to chat, so the Vulcan slips on his protective goggles. The lid slowly opens to reveal flashing lights and a greenish glow. After they share a meaningful moment, the box closes and Spock tells the doctor, “I almost envy you your assignment.” She reveals herself as a telepath when she probes Spock’s mind, worried that he’s after her job. After Spock reassures her and leaves her alone with her box, she flies into a jealous rage. “What is it he sees when he looks at you? I must know!”
She seems to have calmed down by dinner, a fancy event in her honor attended by Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Spock, Scott, and Larry. The human men embarrass themselves repeatedly by fawning over the only woman at the table. Kirk in particular wants to know everything about her, especially why it’s safe for her to work with Kollos when it’s dangerous for anyone else to even glimpse him. She explains that she’s a telepath and has mastered Vulcan techniques to filter out other people’s thoughts and control her own emotions. She may need some more work on the latter, because she still has it in for Spock.
JONES: I was just noticing your Vulcan IDIC, Mr. Spock. Is it a reminder that, as a Vulcan, you can mind-link with the Medusans far better than I could?
KIRK: Well, I doubt that Mr. Spock would don the most revered of all Vulcan symbols merely to annoy you, Doctor Jones.
SPOCK: As a matter of fact, I wear it this evening to honor you, Doctor.
MIRANDA: Indeed?
Kirk rescues his first officer by asking Jones how long it will be before he can replace Chekov; with their heightened thoughts and senses, Medusans would make terrific navigators if she can mind-link with Kollos successfully and Larry can design some equipment for them. Ever distrustful of new technology and ugliness, McCoy chimes in: “I don’t care how benevolent the Medusans are supposed to be. Isn’t it suicidal to deal with something ugly enough to drive men mad?” The group debates the merits and prejudices of beauty and the captain toasts Jones as “the loveliest human ever to grace a starship.” He might be trying a little too hard.
Jones abruptly rains on their parade when she announces, “There’s somebody nearby thinking of murder.” She can’t figure out who it is, even though you’d have to be blind not to notice Larry’s shifty reaction. But that pretty much kills the mood and ends the evening early. Shortly afterward, Larry seeks Jones out in her quarters and begs her not to go with the ambassador, in the creepiest way possible: “I understand that you’re a woman and that I’m a man, one of your own kind, and that Kollos will never be able to give you anything like this.” He kisses her, but she continues to rebuff his advances. Suddenly she gets the same psychic impression she had earlier and realizes that Larry is the one with murderous intent.
She offers to help him sort out his issues, but he storms out and heads for Kollos’ quarters. He aims a phaser at the ambassador, but the box opens and Larry is overwhelmed by the horrific sight within. He drops the weapon, flails around in agony for a while, then dashes into the corridor screaming his head off.
Jones rushes into Kollos’ room without a visor and finds Larry’s phaser on the floor. When Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and some red shirts arrive a moment later, she emerges holding a visor and tells them Larry saw the Medusan au naturel. Spock predicts that “insanity will surely be the result, Captain.” That doesn’t sound too bad until he clarifies: “Dangerous insanity.” That could be a problem, then.
Kirk issues a security bulletin, but it’s too late—Scotty has already given Larry the keys to Enterprise. Scotty tries to intervene as soon as he realizes Larry’s driving under the influence of Medusan, but the madman easily subdues the entire engineering crew singlehandedly. Larry pushes the engines past warp 9.5, ranting all the while: “We mustn’t sleep! They come in your dreams! That’s the worst! They suffocate in your dreams! We’re making it out of here!” This doesn’t instill confidence in the crew.
Kirk and Jones arrive in Engineering with a security team and finally manage to get the insane engineer and the ship under control. Scotty has no idea where they are now, but it looks like Enterprise has once again breached the stock footage at the galactic barrier. Larry confirms this: “Beyond the boundaries of the galaxy. We made it. We’re safe. We’re safe, Captain Kirk.” At least his heart was in the right place.
Larry starts to chill when he sees Dr. Jones, but when she reaches into his mind he freaks out again and tries to strangle her. He warns them that if they love her, she’ll kill them; to prove his point, he drops dead at their feet. Dr. McCoy is stumped at the cause of his spontaneous demise, but there’s no time to worry about that—Enterprise is in a swirly nether-space, a funky “space-time continuum” where no one has gone before and with no way back. Spock explains, sort of:
Unfortunately, we lack reference points on which to plot a return course. We experienced extreme sensory distortion, and we shall do so again if we attempt to use warp speed. And we cannot re-cross the barrier using sub light speed.
The only solution seems to be for the science officer to attempt a mind meld with Kollos, blending the Medusan’s unique sensory awareness with his own knowledge of the ship’s navigational controls. Since Dr. Jones will undoubtedly reject the notion, Kirk plans to distract her in the arboretum while Spock consults with Kollos. She doesn’t fall for the captain’s attempts to seduce her, and her Spidey sense warns her of Spock’s intentions. She offers herself for the mind-link instead, but Dr. McCoy explains that she can’t navigate the ship—because she’s blind!
MCCOY: Now wait a minute. I realize that you can do almost anything a sighted person can do, but you can’t pilot a starship.
KIRK: What?
SPOCK: Fascinating.
MCCOY: I’m sorry, Miranda, but you must be realistic. You are blind, and there are some things you simply cannot do.
SPOCK: Evidently a highly sophisticated sensor web. My compliments to you, and to your dressmaker.
KIRK: Yes, of course. It’s the only reasonable explanation. You can’t see and Kollos can’t hurt you.
SPOCK: An elegant solution. But I fail to understand why you apparently try to conceal your blindness, Dr. Jones.
KIRK: I think I understand. You said it. Pity is the worst of all.
JONES: Pity, which I hate. Do you think you can gather more information with your eyes than I can with my sensors? I could play tennis with you, Captain Kirk. I might even beat you. I am standing exactly one meter, four centimeters from the door. Can you judge distance that accurately? I can even tell you how fast your heart is beating.
KIRK: No, that won’t be necessary. Mr. Spock will make the mind-link. No other decision is possible.
She continues to refuse, but they convince her to ask the ambassador for his opinion. They hear a scream from inside the room, which doesn’t seem to trouble the men much, and when she comes out she admits defeat.
Kollos’ box is shielded from view behind a wall at Spock’s science station. The Vulcan successfully links with him, transformed by their combined consciousness and reveling in his new form and knowledge of Spock’s friends. He takes the helm and effortlessly guides them back through the barrier to their own galaxy at warp factor 1, returning them to their original location.
With his work done, Kollos seems to be getting comfortable in his new body. Kirk urges Kollos/Spock to sever the mind-link and he agrees. But he’s in such a hurry, he forgets to wear protection. Once they’re separated, Spock gazes on the Medusan with his naked eyes and is driven mad. He attacks the bridge crew until Kirk stuns him with a phaser.
Dr. Jones tries to help the Vulcan back to sanity in Sickbay, but Kirk worries that her jealousy is holding her back and calls her out on it.
KIRK: If you don’t reach him soon, he’ll die. But that’s what you want, isn’t it?
JONES: That’s a lie!
KIRK: Oh yes? You want him to die. What did you do to him on the bridge? Did you make him forget to put the visor over his eyes?
JONES: You’re insane!
KIRK: Yes, you know your rival, don’t you? You couldn’t keep him from making a mind-link with Kollos, something you couldn’t do yourself! With my words, I’ll make you hear such ugliness as Spock saw when he looked at Kollos with his naked eyes! The ugliness is within you!
JONES: That’s a lie! Liar!
KIRK: Your desire to see Kollos is madness! You can never see him. Never. But Spock saw Kollos, and for that he must die.
JONES: Sadistic, filthy liar!
KIRK: The smell of hatred, the stench of jealousy permeates you. Why don’t you strangle him while he lies there?
JONES: Don’t say any more, please!
KIRK: Kollos knows what’s in your heart. You can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to Kollos.
JONES: Please go away!
The captain certainly doesn’t mince words, but his lecture gets through to her. She helps Spock recover, and in no time they’re all back in the transporter room seeing off Jones and Kollos, newly linked. She thanks Kirk for insulting her, claiming that his words helped her to see. The captain gives her a red rose and Spock and Dr. Jones exchange Vulcan pleasantries. She finally understands the meaning of the IDIC he keeps flaunting in front of her.
JONES: The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity.
SPOCK: And the ways our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.
He puts on his ridiculous visor once more and transports the doctor and ambassador down to the Medusan’s planet and their new future together.
Analysis
Last week we were tortured by Gorgan and this week we meet a Medusan as Star Trek continues its indictment on beauty. The obvious theme is explicitly stated several times: “most of us are attracted by beauty and repelled by ugliness.” It’s interesting that despite their acknowledgment that this is one of the few remaining prejudices in Roddenberry’s perfect future, they can’t help succumbing to it anyway.
The beautiful Diana Muldaur is the perfect actress to expose this human weakness, returning to the series after portraying a different character in last season’s “Return to Tomorrow.” It’s clear that despite her attractiveness, she harbors ugly thoughts to which the men are blind. Though it’s fairly consistent with their established characters, the script exaggerates Kirk and McCoy’s attempts to charm or seduce the woman of the week, compounded by Larry’s obsession with her. I suspected the men were under some kind of spell or mind control, but alas, it was just an unfortunate lack of subtlety. Here we also see one of the dangers of love: loving too much. Jealousy guides Larry and Jones’s behavior through most of the episode.
There’s also a level of irony in this episode, when it turns out that Dr. Jones is blind, making her unable to appreciate beauty or recognize ugliness—in herself and in others. I initially forgot this major plot twist and the significance of her unusual wardrobe, but once I remembered it I appreciated Muldaur’s nuanced performance even more. She doesn’t quite make eye contact and carries herself differently from everyone else. The clues to her nature are also fairly well seeded and the reveal nearly surprised me for a second time.
This slight commentary on handicaps like blindness is understated but telling—even though she has heightened senses and fooled everyone, she is still limited by her blindness. Compare this to Star Trek: The Next Generation, where a blind person actually can navigate a starship, and later keeps it running as Chief Engineer. But it’s still commendable that Jones’s handicap is actually her strength, allowing her to relate to Kollos better than anyone. On top of that, she’s a telepath. (It isn’t discussed, but I wonder if her telepathic ability developed because she was blind, and whether she ever used it to help her “see” through other people’s minds.) Once again, I’m amazed that this personnel information isn’t a matter of record and the captain and crew don’t perform even rudimentary research on their guests.
“Is There in Truth No Beauty?” also serves as a welcome opportunity for Nimoy to demonstrate his exceptional talents as Kollos (complete with poetry and Shakespeare quotes, and a random soliloquy on language and loneliness) and a crazed version of Spock, and reveals more details about Vulcan culture and Spock’s personal life and ambitions. It’s too bad that most of it involves the IDIC pin and medallion that he wears, a revered Vulcan symbol that we hardly ever see. I don’t know if it would stick out like a sore thumb as much if I didn’t already know that it was a blatant attempt at merchandising. They never specifically explain that IDIC stands for “infinite diversity in infinite combinations,” a wonderful sentiment regardless of its reason for being.
In the end, this episode has an interesting story with good conflict and some surprising twists, hampered slightly by simplistic moralizing and contrived plot developments. To borrow from Chekov (Anton, not Pavel), if you see a Medusan on the transporter pad in the teaser, it will be used by the third act. In other words, if the Enterprise’s guest this week is a superb navigator, they’re probably going to need him to conveniently solve a problem for them by the end of the episode.
Eugene’s Rating: Warp 4 (on a scale of 1-6)
Torie Atkinson: “Jordan (I)”, the George Herbert poem that gave this episode its lovely title, was not chosen by accident. It’s an indictment of cheesy pastoral poetry, yes, but it’s also a kind of ode to the ordinary: “Is all good structure in a winding stair?” Or is there beauty in a boring, functional set of steps? What makes the winding stair more beautiful, more worthy of poetry, than its humdrum counterpart? What makes it better? And would a winding stair mean anything at all to us if those ordinary steps didn’t exist as a contrast?
I don’t think the episode argues one way or another for beauty over the ordinary. Rather, I think it does an excellent job of showing how beauty and ugliness are inextricably connected. McCoy thinks he’s offering a compliment when he says, “How can one so beautiful condemn herself to look upon ugliness the rest of her life? Will we allow it, gentlemen?” But she sees the paradox of his assumption and calls him on it: “How can one so full of joy and the love of life as you, Doctor, condemn yourself to look upon disease and suffering for the rest of your life?” I really appreciate the way that the characters are allowed to be thoughtful here, yet it never feels artificial or pretentious. We must all, in our own way, choose to be happy. We can allow the things that are bad and terrible and frightening in the world to control us and determine the kinds of lives we lead, or we can accept that ugliness, pain, and suffering are as much a part of life as joy. That’s the dynamic and the trade-off of life. You must always have both, and they give each other meaning.
Dr. Miranda Jones is beautiful. She’s confident, intelligent, and a little mysterious, but who cares? She’s beautiful. That’s what people see when they look at her and that’s what she’ll never see when she looks into herself. Her world is full of data and discipline but it’s empty, lonely, and apart from everyone else. She can only feel what people truly are–can sense their thoughts, their motives and secrets. But she cannot see what they appear to be. She’s not charmed by a pleasing face or repulsed by an ugly alien. And irony of ironies, she’s blind to her own ugliness, her own dark thoughts and jealousy and hatred. Outward beauty comes with a price: something terrible and ugly within. Beauty and ugliness are different sides of the same coin and without each other they don’t mean anything, as they don’t to Dr. Jones.
And yet, this meditative and truly fascinating episode had enough blatant sexism to make me roll my eyes and say, “This again?” The way that Larry tries to persuade Dr. Jones to “try to be a woman” is just so cringey and struck me as more pandering and offensive than previous episodes with the same women-can’t-have-careers-and-still-be-women messages: “The Enterprise Incident” just a few weeks ago, “Metamorphosis,” “The Deadly Years,” etc. At least McCoy comes to her defense, if only briefly, when Kirk says that she strikes him as being vulnerable. McCoy quickly reminds him that “we’re all vulnerable in one way or another.” If only there had been a bit more pushback like that and a little bit less of her screaming randomly when she doesn’t get what she wants with regard to the mind meld. I mean, screaming? Is she a child? That still didn’t bother me as much as the dinner scene, in which every single man in the room flirts outrageously with her. I mean, have you ever seen a less receptive dinner date? And yet they press on. It’s vulgar.
Jealousy, at least, is equal opportunity, and I liked that Larry is the first to feel it. (Imagine if that subplot hadn’t been there and she had simply bolted into a jealous rage?) Larry is so desperate for her he’ll do anything, including ineptly attempt to kill the one being she seems closest to. (I nominate this for most boneheaded assassination attempt in Star Trek.) Her beauty clouds his judgment completely; he’s unable to think of anything else, obsessing over his planned murder throughout dinner. He doesn’t seem very interested in who she is as a person, beneath her appearance–in truth. The madness he succumbs to in the end isn’t all that different from the madness beauty inspired in him already: fear, desperation, loneliness. All he wants, in his insanity, is to be “safe.”
The power of the Medusan is simply the power of violent emotion. It’s humanness, distilled into its most evolved, most advanced form–violent, terrifying, and lonely. It’s jealousy. Dr. Jones says later in the arboretum that human companionship has always seemed to her to be a struggle: “Shall I tell you what human companionship means to me? A struggle, a defense against the emotions of others. At times, the emotions burst in on me. Hatred, desire, envy, pity. Pity is the worst of all. I agree with the Vulcans. Violent emotion is a kind of insanity.” Humans aren’t prepared to face the kinds of depths to their own souls that the Medusans represent. It’s their own ugliness, and that’s why they go insane.
Kirk notes that one of the “last prejudices” (last! how cute!) is that people are still attracted to beauty and repelled by ugliness. There’s an instinct, something human and innate and difficult to shake. Dr. Jones misses that experience entirely. In the teaser, after Spock communicates with the Medusan, she looks into the box and says, “What is it he sees when he looks at you? I must know!” Beauty, ugliness, plainness–they’re meaningless to her. There is only truth, only fact. As a result, she’s isolated. She cannot connect with people, and as she tells Larry, she cannot love people, either. This fosters jealousy and rage. She accuses Spock of envying her position, but it is she who envies his ability to truly see, and by extension, truly understand, the Medusan. Ultimately, it is her jealous rage that nearly kills Spock. She does not need the Medusan to go insane–her own violent emotions are just as capable of sending her off the brink.
The implicit (or explicit, I guess) lesson in all this is that humans have to accept the dark side of themselves in order to be complete. We’ve seen this before in “The Enemy Within.” It is not enough that one can be beautiful and harbor ugliness (as Dr. Jones does), but one must. You need both, in a way, to balance each other. She’s grateful in the end to have heard Kirk’s ugly words and says she can “see” now–see herself for who she is and grow from that. Her beauty is meaningless without ugliness. We meet the Medusan and the opposite is true: too hideous to behold, when he becomes Spock he speaks in verse and is thrilled beyond all emotion to feel such a new and different experience. I don’t know if he’s changed from the experience, but I like to imagine he has. (Props here to Nimoy for another great performance.)
The Medusans, despite their stupid name, are genuinely alien and their unique “ability” is entirely antithetical to human behavior–a great setup. The idea of accepting something so gruesome (allegedly) and attempting to coexist with it is preposterous to McCoy, but to Kirk and Spock there is always the possibility to learn and grow from one another. The Medusans are frightening in their power, but Kollos seems to be a swell enough guy and he sure has a lot to offer. This is the first time we hear of IDIC and even though it was a crass attempt to sell merchandise I love it all the same. What a beautiful motto. It should be the UN creed as far as I’m concerned. There is beauty (and ugliness) in diversity. There is everything and everyone, and in that way we all belong to each other.
Something that really surprised me: that the Vulcan abilities aren’t actually racial. I had thought Dr. Jones was a Vulcan hiding her ears very well, and it drove me crazy trying to understand why she could, after just a few years of study, master Vulcan discipline. The mind meld, the telepathy, and the ability to mind control (the way that Spock does in “The Omega Glory” and Dr. Jones seems to do here on the bridge to Spock) never really occurred to me as being achievable by men without centuries of devotion. I suspect she picks it up so easily because she’s blind, but that’s too cheap an explanation for my tastes.
Having never seen this episode before, Dr. Jones’ blindness stunned me. Diana Muldaur delivers a truly exceptional performance. Her seeming coldness, which we feel through her expressionlessness, takes on a new meaning when you discover the truth about her. And yet she’s still confident, still commanding, still sure she can do anything. I wish the episode had given her the benefit of the doubt and let her try to command the starship, though. I don’t see why Spock needed the visible spectrum to plot that course, and their decision to have Kirk and McCoy publicly humiliate her by telling her she’s not capable was, frankly, kind of disgusting, and seemed to me to go against the inclusiveness and empowerment that is the whole point of the Federation. Because you know what blind/disabled people need to hear more of? That they can’t do it. Shame on you, Star Trek.
While I’m sorry they missed those opportunities to do something truly progressive, I can’t deny that this is one of the best written episodes in the series. I also can’t deny that it’s the worst directed (so far). The gimmicky fish-eye lenses and comically edited fight scenes cheapen the feel of the episode. There are no tableaux; the staging is uninspired. Senesky’s worst sin is pacing: long, monotonous shots of corridors and meetings feel static and boring. Their entire five-year mission could have happened in the course of this episode. What happened, Ralph? “This Side of Paradise” has so many beautifully laid out shots, but this looks like it was pieced together on short notice after a night of heavy drinking.
Which, now that I mention it, sounds like a pretty good plan for the eventual “Way to Eden” viewing.
Torie’s Rating: Warp 5
Best Line: JONES: “No doubt you think I can wake him with a kiss.”
Syndication Edits: None!
Trivia: This episode resulted from an unsolicited script discovered by co-producer Robert H. Justman. The original outline for the script involved Miranda Jones in a collaboration with Medusans code-named “Ariel.” In that version, Larry Marvick is much more dangerous, killing two of the crew and destroying communications in addition to taking Enterprise into the void, which only the Medusan could navigate. Spock’s mind link with the Medusan took hours, and to revive Spock, Dr. Jones makes him relive his memories of fighting Kirk in “Amok Time.”
Diana Muldaur was a late substitute for the original actress cast as Miranda Jones, Jessica Walter. Since she had already appeared in “Return to Tomorrow,” also directed by Ralph Senensky, they altered her appearance with a black wig.
The arboretum was built in the set for the Enterprise‘s recreation room. Kirk’s line calling it “Earth” suggests it may have been intended as a proto-holodeck, which he had been planning for the third season.
Kollos’ box was designed by Matt Jefferies, the art director and production designer who truly designed Enterprise.
The IDIC was included over the protest of cast and crew, including Shatner and Nimoy, because Gene Roddenberry wanted to sell a replica of it through his mail order company, Star Trek Enterprises (now Lincoln Enterprises).
Other notes: The episode title derives from line 2 of George Herbert’s poem “Jordan (I)”: ” Who says that fictions only and false hair/ Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?”
This was Eddie Paskey’s (Lt. Leslie and other incidental roles) last appearance in Star Trek.
David Frankham (Larry Marvick) also appeared in an episode of The Outer Limits titled “Don’t Open Until Doomsday,” in which he played another victim of an alien in a box that was dangerous to look at.
The animations for the interior of Kollos’ box and the inserted shots of it to represent Jones’ telepathic flashes were added in post-production without Senensky’s approval.
This episode makes use of special effects footage from “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and “The Cage” to show the ship accelerating out of the galaxy.
Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 4 –”And the Children Shall Lead.”
Next episode: Season 3, Episode 6 –”Spectre of the Gun.” US residents can watch it for free at the CBS website.
This is one of the third season episode that I really like. While Torie can cringe — and I don’t slight her for doing so — at how Miranda is flirted with by the rest of the men, for the time this was a progressive storyline. Yes, Larry the deranged says she needs to be more of a woman no one else does. at the end of the story she is still the person for the job, only now she is better qualified than before.
The blind aspect was very cool and while not a surprise to me it still enhances the story nicely. I spent part of my time just watching the performance with that in mind.
Don’t be too hard on the fish-eye lenses, it was very vogue in the 60s for insane or under the influence characters. Almost as badly overused then as pointless music videos in 80’s movies or split-screen in the 70s.
This episode was actually better than I remembered, and I had pretty good memories of it. I also don’t fault Torie for her cringing, but there is actually a little more going on here than just the attitudes of the time. Part of it is a ham-handed attempt to emphasize the beauty of Dr. Jones, and another part of it is badly done symbolism, again playing on Dr. Jones’ beauty. Marvick’s clumsy wooing is probably supposed to be intentional, again probably for a couple of reasons. We feel less bad about his rejection and death and there is also the theme we have seen very often that scientists and engineers are very bad at interpersonal relationships, especially with the opposite sex. (Think about it. Spock, Scotty whenever there’s a woman around, Chapel’s boyfriend in “What are Little Girls Made Of?”)
I had the feeling that her telepathy was not the result of her Vulcan training, but rather something she was born with. What she got from the Vulcans was training in how to control it and make better use of it.
Kirk’s browbeating of Dr. Jones is really an excellent scene. I do wonder, though, if he would have done the same if it had been Larry Marvick on that table. Of course he’d do it for Spock or Bones or maybe any member of his crew. But for some random dude? Wouldn’t it be more, “I think less of you for it, but it is your decision”?
Have you noticed the pattern of bad episode-good (or at least moderate) episode-bad episode? They can’t keep it up much longer.
@1 bobsandiego @2 DemetriosX
Torie isn’t the only one who cringed through that dinner scene! It was the worst moment of the episode, despite some otherwise good dialogue. Even though I know what they were going for, the inept attempts to emphasize Miranda’s beauty to the exclusion of all else cost it a full warp factor in my final score. I also didn’t love Kirk’s lecture at the end, but maybe I just felt bad for her.
@ 1 bobsandiego
Yeah, but part of her qualification is that she has rejected femininity and men to be this sexless career woman.
We’ve seen a lot of people go crazy on this show (especially Commodores, for some reason…), and this is the first time they’ve tried to represent that with a fisheye lens. It’s just so cheesy and awful, and a huge disappointment from Senensky.
@ 2 DemetriosX
I think it’s funny you call it wooing when he basically harangues her for not accepting his numerous (!) marriage proposals… despite the fact that it seems they’ve never dated, for any definition of dating (supervised weenie roast?). I’m also intrigued that you think it’s an engineering thing… looking back, the only men I can remember being “happy” in relationships are the dude from “Metamorphosis” and the miners in “Mudd’s Women.” It doesn’t seem like anyone on the show gets to be smooth other than Kirk and McCoy, so is that really an engineering thing?
I read her telepathy as something she developed very early on as a result of her blindness, and that she went to Vulcan to control it.
I don’t like the browbeating. It’s actually uncomfortable to watch for me. He’s being so aggressive and cruel about it. The fact that she’s not wearing her sensor net and is utterly vulnerable, literally in the dark, makes it a really disturbing power play on his part. Ooh, big man, way to make the scared blind chick cry. It just rubbed me the wrong way and I think it would have been just as effective for him to confront her on more or less equal terms, in a less intimidating way.
@4 Torie
Good point about him yelling at her while she was completely blind. I figured she had taken off the sensor net so she could better focus on Spock’s mind. He does see notice that she isn’t wearing it though–do you think he made a conscious decision to exploit her vulnerability at that moment?
I think the episode could have used a good editor, honestly. Not video editing – script editing.
There are just too many painfully earnest lines in the show, too many attempts to sound highbrow that fall short…the language is poorly constructed for its aims, I think I mean.
I’m not expressing myself well here. I’m a linguist and translator by trade, and language is always the first thing I notice. Ah – that’s it. The writer didn’t understand the voices of the crewmembers. She NAILED Muldaur’s part, as did Muldaur herself. Spot-on. And Kollos’ voice, given by Nimoy, is perfect too.
But she doesn’t get Kirk or Spock or McCoy very close to what we’ve seen them become. McCoy’s almost a parody of himself, the country-doctor shtick turned up to 11; Kirk’s push-push-push for a relationship of some sort with Dr. Jones is just painful, as you’ve all noted about the dinner scene. It feels like a shallow understanding – Kirk is a “ladies’ man”, and McCoy the country doctor – without any understanding of the depths both have long-since brought forth, in City on the Edge of Forever, for instance – the Kirk-McCoy conflict, resolved by Spock’s quiet “He knows, Doctor. He knows.”
I love the reveal about the blindness, and Muldaur nails it, as I said above. I’m with Torie, as usual, on the way they dealt with it: kudos for introducing a competent character with a different ability, but jeers for the “blind people just can’t do stuff” meme. Nothing Spock did was beyond Miranda.
And the name – also a bit of brute-forcery there, a little “Hi, I’ve read Shakespeare, have you basement-nerds?” – Prospero’s sheltered and beautiful daughter, from The Tempest. But with a last name of stunning commonness, her whole name gives a miniplot for the whole episode (look, over-the-top beauty plus dead-common commonness!).
This was also the most Lovecraftian episode of the whole series, I think: the unknowably horrible, so gruesome that one’s mind snaps just by looking at it (Spock’s player: ARGH! I GACKED MY SAN ROLL!).
You all keep raggin’ on The Way To Eden, but I know that The Turnabout Intruder is coming. And I admit unabashedly that the scene with Spock grooving through a jam session with space hippies is one of my all-time favourites. So there. :P
Torie @4: OK, I should have put wooing in quotes: “wooing”. It is what he thinks he’s doing. I think Chekov had a couple of old girlfriends pop up over the show; he definitely has one coming up. And there were a few other normal relationships, even if some of them didn’t turn out happily. See “Balance of Terror”.
As for the browbeating, I’m not saying I approve of the technique or that in itself it was a good thing. But the scene is very well-written and well done. It’s supposed to make you uncomfortable. It is supposed to be ugly. It’s really the payoff for the whole episode. Out of Kirk’s distinctly ugly behavior comes a beautiful result: Miranda is healed and is able to finally form the bond with Kollos that she so desired.
@ 5 Eugene
He notices she’s not wearing it. He sees her without it and looks back toward the door, then actually picks up the net and puts it back. But he definitely teases her as she demands to know who’s there several times before he actually answers. Dick.
@ 6 CatieCat
I have to disagree with you, actually. I think Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are all spot-on. They ALL hit on Dr. Jones, not just Kirk–McCoy has some of the cheesiest lines of the bunch. And I don’t see what is so country doctor about McCoy here. He doesn’t want an insanity-inducing crewmember, which seems reasonable to me. And the final confrontation where he reveals Miranda’s blindness was, I though, well done–when he snaps at her you can tell he regretted having to reveal it, and his repudiation has a soft and sad tone to it.
I like all the literary references! I think it’s absurd to talk about beauty without invoking either Shakespeare or Byron, and I liked especially that Kollos, despite being too ugly to behold, is a poet on the inside. Like Miranda says, “Is it too ugly to bear? Or too beautiful?”
@ 7 DemetriosX
It’s definitely ugly. Ouch.
@8: Ha! Well, no correspondence would be fun if there were no disagreements! :)
For me, the literary references are too heavily leaned on – TEH MORAL IS IMPORTANT YOU MUST LOOK AT IT becomes a clue-by-four between the eyes. And they don’t feel like the right voices for the characters, as they haven’t really done this to this extent before; usually, we leave the literary references to the Defining the Problem Scene in the first act, or the Aesop Scene at the end, rather than laying about with them willy-nilly.
And really – has any woman EVER responded to that kind of cheesy line, the ones they were one-upping one another with at that cringeworthy dinner? Oh. My. Maude., but that was annoying. I’m wanting to gouge my ears out with an IDIC (now available through roddenberry.com!).
Evidently, mileage/kilometrage may vary. :)
A couple of other points. bobsandiego @1 is right when he says that the fisheye lens was very popular for insane characters. If they were high, then a two color filter (with an s-line between the colors) was usually added and the focus zoomed in and out. Sometimes they’d also smear a little Vaseline on the lens to make things even more blurry. The moral of the story: Being high is much worse than being insane.
Also, the fact that the position was offered to Spock sounds to me like Sarek was pulling strings back in the Federation State Department, trying to pry his son away from Starfleet. Spock obviously wasn’t going to play along.
I didn’t mind the fisheye lens–at first. It was an interesting effect to show the effects of madness, but there’s no way to do a first-person POV fight with arms, hands, and legs coming from off-screen without it looking ridiculous, like a drunken video game. And what was up with that bizarre camera angle from the back of the bridge? It looked like it was near the turbolift, standing behind one of the security guards.
@6, @9 CaitieCait
I’m with you–the regular characters felt like parodies of themselves. And I also got a bit of a Lovecraftian vibe, more so than previous episodes that actually referenced the Old Ones.
@7, @10 DemetriosX
Good perspective on Kirk’s tactic at the end. He knew he was about to do something horrible, and that McCoy wouldn’t approve or let him do it, but he had to do whatever he could to save his friend. This gives me a bit to think about the beauty and ugliness of the truth…
And I really like your idea that Sarek is trying to get Spock away from Enterprise and exposure to humans, though I suspect Spock was easily qualified for the position and got the offer on his own merits. The Federation didn’t have many Vulcans to choose from, after all, and he would have been an ideal liaison with the Medusans. (Except for the whole combined consciousness thing, which is a lot to ask of someone.) Good thing they had a backup.
Eugene @11: Oh, there’s no question Spock was qualified. Sarek wouldn’t try to obtain a plum like that for him if he weren’t. Sarek is, after all, a man of honor. But Spock was qualified, and it just might be enough to tempt his son away from Starfleet.
In addition to the lensing, you had the weird organ piping. Esp noticeable in “the Void.” I’m not sure you could call it a “score,” but it does seem original to this episode… and not used in any other?
By Season 3 there are a lot of elements in reuse for budgetary/cancellation reasons–at some point no new camera angles or models or musical riffs–so anything original added becomes remarkable.
I find it ironic that the Medusans, alien as they are, are more comfortable with human emotion than Spock himself is “unaugmented.”
@13 Lemnoc
You’re right–there was some bizarre harpsichord thing going on there. And am I right that later on the series starts using more crazy camera angles and zooms a la Batman, or am I making that up? It’s just such a shame because so many of the earlier episodes had such striking direction and cinematography. It had to be more than a budgetary issue, unless they couldn’t afford better directors. Maybe everyone was demoralized or behind schedule, or perhaps the scripts just didn’t inspire better work.
Oh, I forgot to mention! The writer here, Jean Lisette Aroeste, sent this in as a spec script and it was picked up. She was a Harvard and UCLA librarian. She also wrote “All Our Yesterdays” and then never wrote anything again. Too bad.
@ 9 CatieCat
Heh, disagreeing is half the fun! And “clue-by-four” is my new favorite term ever.
I’ll agree to disagree here. I thought the attempts to incorporate literature were nice touchs, and added some thoughtfulness to the episode. I also just think it would have been ridiculous to do an entire episode about beauty and ignore an entire genre obsessed with it (poetry).
I’ve seen those lines work on people. It’s (heh) not pretty.
@ 10 DemetriosX
It’s not just the fisheye lens, though I hate that (I associate it with MonsterCam); it was the way the camera would go back and forth and show an arm, a leg, etc. as a fight scene. Using regular lenses. It did look like a video game fight, as Eugene said.
As for the Sarek theory, that seems to be a waste of diplomatic favors. It’s pretty clear Spock won’t go.
@ 13 Lemnoc
God, the music. It just gets worse and worse. I feel like they’re using the musical equivalent of clip art.
@ 14 Eugene
These are GOOD directors! Senensky did “This Side of Paradise”! Our man Marc Daniels did “Spock’s Brain”! So what’s happening here?
@16 Torie
Maybe they got a pay cut?
@ 16 and 17 Torie and Eugene
My understanding of TV show production is that the show runner is god and that the directors have to follow the dictates of the show runner. So in this case Fred The Fink may have insisted on the shots and techniques used.
@ 11 Eugene
Even while I was watching it I said out loud. “The Organ, the instrument of Madness, and yes I speak in italics.
@ 4 Torie
I think that the writer wasn’t going so much for the Dr Jones gave up her gender for the job but that Dr. Jones had given up her humanity — including her femininity. Hence the identifying overly strongly with the Vulcans,
@ 18 bobsandiego
Interesting. I don’t see why a producer would care about things like that… but so it goes. In addition to the budget cuts, were they on a tighter schedule at all? Maybe they just didn’t have time…
Re: femininity vs. humanity, I think that’s part of what’s going on, but given Star Trek’s history of hating on career women, I don’t think that alone covers all the bases.
And am I right that later on the series starts using more crazy camera angles and zooms a la Batman, or am I making that up?
Nope, spot on. You’ll see that devolution better in Lost in Space. Batman was huge at the time, and it did not go unnoticed.
A black wig was supposed to make us not recognize Diana Muldaur? Really?
(And this at a time when many women routinely wore various wigs as fashion accessories, as interchangeable as scarves…)
Major agreement with those who have noted Muldaur’s perfect portrayal of what an augmented blind person’s body language and affect might look like.
Torie @19: Where the producer can have that kind of influence is more, say, where the director might say, “We need 15 seconds of filler. Can we have some SFX shots?” and the producer thinks that’s too expensive, so they go with cheap corridor shots.
DrDave@21, et al.: The whole we need to stick a wig on her, because we used her already last season, doesn’t really hold water. Can you say Mark Lenard? The Romulan commander and Sarek have the exact same haircut. Sarek just has better fashion sense.
DemetriosX is right about the telepathy Torie, they state explicitly in the episode that Miranda was born a telepath. She then was sent to Vulcan to learn to deal with the thoughts and emotions of others.
This a trope of SF I have always disliked. That telepaths is they can not shut out the thoughts of others may go mad. Gee I don’t go mad at con parties. Really the human brain has developed an amazing abilities ti filter signal from noise and I think it would adapt the same way to the additional bandwidth.
@ 19 Torie
TV is a producer’s medium. Directors come and go week from week, writers are hired and fired or work on spec, but the producer is there week in and week out. They define the look and feel of a show. They’ll decide if a take is good or bad. I think it is very likely the differing look to the show in season three is pretty much up to Fred the Fink.
As to the humanity vs the sexless woman thing on Dr. Jones, note that at the end of the episode she has NOT lost her career, but has actually grown better at it. She has found her humanity by confronting the ugliness inside herself (Ugliness with beauty, the mirror of Kollos who is Beauty inside ugliness) and is a now more complete person and a better match for the ambassador.
Late to the game, and really (truly) not much to add.
bobsandiego@23: Given that telepathy seems to be a very rare feature amongst humans, it’s reasonable to suppose that the human brain is not adequately set up to ‘filter’ the background noise of all those thoughts. Let me know how well your brain copes if and when you get tinnitus; some people wind up killing themselves because they can’t live with it.
Torie@19: I really don’t think it has to amount to anything more than demoralisation and knowledge that one is working on a doomed effort; just do the work, get by, and collect the paycheck. Why expend the effort and energy, when one can save one’s creative energies for other projects that are going somewhere?
Lemnoc@13, et al.: Well, don’t say I didn’t warn everyone. That having been said, I’m going to come out and admit that, despite everything else wrong with the episode, I actually like the songs from ‘The Way to Eden’! They are the musical high point of the Third Season. More fun awaits, such as the stomach-curdlingly saccharine accompaniment for ‘The Empath’.
There. Done. See? Told you.
@21 DrDave
A black wig was supposed to make us not recognize Diana Muldaur? Really?
Hey, it worked for Supergirl/Linda Danner, right? :) I think it actually does make her look different, and to be fair, I only remembered Diana Muldaur was in one episode of the series, so it must have fooled me.
@22 DemetriosX
The whole we need to stick a wig on her, because we used her already last season, doesn’t really hold water.
I thought that was a bit suspect too, but apparently after seeing the rushes, Bob Justman commented, “I wonder how she’ll look in a red wig,” presumably in the hopes they could work her into the next season. (Via Memory Alpha, which cites Ralph Senensky’s blog and Walter Koenig’s VHS intro for the episode.) Then again, memories can be faulty, and this makes a good story. At the very least, thanks to Koenig’s intro, I now know how to pronounce “Muldaur.”
@23 bobsandiego
So, I thought Jones was just waiting until they got to Kollos’s planet before she tried to link with him. There was some chance she wouldn’t be able to do it, but I didn’t have the impression that was why they were putting it off. But here I think you’re saying that she would have failed if she hadn’t confronted her ugliness, and in another review it was suggested that she learned how to link with Kollos after linking with Spock (which sounds like she cheated, or at least had a lot of help because he’d done it first.) I sort of assume that had the events of this episode not happened, she would have succeeded anyway and become a better person through Kollos’s influence. (On a side note, wouldn’t it make more sense for them to try the link before going all the way to his planet? Or was she supposed to spend more time getting to know him before they tried to link up?)
BTW, here’s a link to all Senensky’s posts about his work on Star Trek: http://ralph-senensky.blogspot.com/search/label/Star%20Trek, with some expanded versions at http://www.senensky.com/Ralphs_Trek/Ralphs_Trek.html
It looks like he did most of these in the last year, so maybe that’s how I missed them before. He has script pages and behind-the-scenes details, and talks about his directorial decisions on the show. Fascinating stuff.
Eugene @25: Your comment to bobsandiego about Jones going to the Medusan home world, made me realize that her blindness may have been her greatest qualification for the job. Think about living somewhere where looking out the window without putting on your goggles or falling and having your goggles knocked off could cause you to become terminally insane. Whose bright idea was it to send a physical ambassador to this planet?
@ 21 DrDave
I think the wig works, actually. I’m not sure I would’ve recognized her, though she seems to carry a gentility and confidence about her in both roles. (Sadly, this seemed to have worn off by the ’80s and just become prickly arrogance.)
@ 23 bobsandiego
I stand corrected on the telepathy.
Re: directors vs. producers, I still can’t imagine a producer caring much about camera angles and staging. I felt like the camera was always placed behind something or someone in this episode, like I was constantly trying to peek into this cool party I wasn’t invited to. Kirk in particular was a huge camera blocker. MOVE SO I CAN SEE.
@ 24 NomadUK
I think the inane nature of most thoughts would be enough to drive me crazy. Think of the thousands of things that go through your head on a given day–would you really want to “hear” those from everyone else? Finding a slightly homicidal admirer might actually be an interesting change of pace.
And “musical highlight of the 3rd season” is possibly the lowest bar you’ve just set yourself.
@ 25 Eugene
The more we talk about it, the less I understand the importance of this particular link. In the next episode we see Spock mind meld with every Tom, Dick, and Harry (well, Tom, Ike, and Frank). Why do you need to be specially prepared for this particular link? What’s with all the warmup? Is it supposed to be some kind of symbiotic relationship in this instance? Or is it just supposed to represent a level of intimacy that Dr. Jones isn’t prepared for? They seem to use the mind meld for everything, including with alien creatures they can’t communicate with–so why all the nervousness about this one?
@ 27 DemetriosX
“My eyes! The goggles do nothing!”
Torie@28: And “musical highlight of the 3rd season” is possibly the lowest bar you’ve just set yourself.
A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?
“… to be fair, I only remembered Diana Muldaur was in one episode of the series, so it must have fooled me.”
I’m on your end of the spectrum. The GF is on the complete other end. When watching New Voyages’ “In Harms Way” she immediately identified Malacai Throne.
That still weirds me out.
@ 28 Torie
Producers vs Directors in television. It really comes do to the producer. Some are control freaks influencing on ever single aspect of an episode. Others are more stand-off letting directors have freedom within guidelines. As far as Fred goes I don’t know what kind he is, but if you have a director and a DP from earlier seasons that didn’t make these sort of choices, then I would guess it is producer generated interference. The DP for Star Trek TOS was Jerry Finnerman a truly talented DP. (As the first two season gave ample evidence.) He was also DP on Moonlight where he was a GOD. Directors come on that show and had to bend to what Jerry Wanted as the producers knew it was Jerry making their episode look like feature films.
Also I Ioved Diana in Next Gen, she brought some badly needed spark to the cast.
@24 NomadUK
That’s a good counter-example, but I still feel it is equally likely that a human could shunt aside the hubbub of stray thoughts the way I do at parties.
Tori I hear inane drivel all day long. My co-workers chatting about the most insipid things on their cells phones. My brain codes this as noise and filters out from my conscious awareness. (Unless I have a migraine then the filters breakdown and I hear and smell EVERYTHING…..hmm a telepath who also suffers migraines. Could be trouble at both ends.)
I think this was not a link, a light touching of the minds but an actually fusion of both minds into one body. While he walked around the bridge there was literally no one home in the box. hence the greater danger that you might never untangle the parts and get two persons again.
Fish eye lenses and harpsichords. The digitally remastered version seems to have picked up on this theme. When they go into the space-time continnum, it looks like a cross between tie-dye and a mood ring.
Since telepathy in humans seems to be very rare in humans in the Star Trek universe, I’m always thought something special had happen to create the telepathy in Miranda. Sure, she had it from birth, but maybe it was due to her parents having her illegally genetically engineered with that trait. Like Bashir’s parents. And maybe the engineering failed (like in the Jack Pack) and THAT is what caused her blindness. I’ve always like that little idea, making Miranda a special character that links up with genetic engineering discussions had in DS9 many decades later.
Ah, yes, one of my very favorite episodes from the original series, and, by the way, starring DR. PULASKI in one of her first Trek roles (as Dr. Miranda Jones.)
@33 Data Logan
Now that you mention it, I would be surprised if fan fiction or a tie-in novel hasn’t already suggested this connection. As we saw in DS9, genetic experiments caused many people to suffer unfortunate side effects. In TOS’s “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” there’s at least some precedent for ESP–they have a scale to rate it and everything, so it makes sense that someone would have done some research in this area.
Senensky wrote about this episode in his blog (and about most of the others he directed), and indeed, some of the cheesy stuff in this episode was really not his idea. Well, the fisheye lens was. I guess, everyone can make mistakes. But the comical fast editing, the inserts of the receptical put everywhere and the annoying animated effects of Kollos, and all the glowing green stuff, it was all done without his knowledge and approval. He cringed when he’d first seen this episode on TV and realized what they’ve done to it. Also, he, like everyone, realized how much worse the series became for the third season.
i cannot tell you how let down i felt when Torie wrote “having never seen this episode before”. i thought this was a star trek “rewatch”. i saw these episodes when they originally aired. i know what i thought of them then, and i compare that with the experience of watching them so many decades later. i think Torie should have deferred to someone else to write a critique or at least stated up front that this was not a rewatch for her. also…………you are all too critical of these episodes. this series was groundbreaking in its treatment of non-whites and women. i wish you would point out the lines or behaviors of the characters that you deem sexist. i bet i could counterargue every point you make. BTW…this episode is a 6. it is everything that is great about star trek: character development, technology, story, originality, philosophy, etc. you are much too critical…-george-
@37 longdistance
Thanks for dropping by and commenting, George. Since you’re joining us late, you would not have been aware that the point of this re-watch was to get reactions from someone who has seen all the episodes many, many times (me), and someone who was newer to the original series (Torie). We alternated our recaps, but we both weighed in and framed the episodes both in the context of television in the sixties and from the perspective of contemporary viewers. Being critical was the whole point, and as much as I love the show, which certainly was groundbreaking, my enthusiasm does not blind me to its flaws and missed opportunities. I stand by my analysis and rating, and you might note that Torie rated it higher than I did!
Another rare good episode from the third season! I admit to cringing along with you guys at the dinner scene (this kind of behavior might have made sense if the ship wasn’t already full of intelligent and lovely female officers in miniskirts), and there are other minor writing issues (and a few unpleasant director’s choices), but overall I enjoyed it quite a bit more than when I saw it as a kid.
P.S. I love the different perspectives you guys bring to the analysis.
This episode is certainly a highlight of 3rd season–I’m only halfway through, but it’s my favorite of the bunch so far.
There are uncomfortable expressions of sexism–Larry’s behavior in MIranda’s cabin is far worse anything that happens at the dinner scene–but these are expressions of the point of view of the characters, not of the writers and producers. We know this because the writers and producers give us Miranda, who is smarter and tougher than the men are, who calls them out in real time, and wins the arguments. The sentiments expressed by the men are uncomfortable, but they are also thematically essential to the episode. I suggest that anyone who takes a line like “Why don’t you try being a woman for a change” and ascribes that to writers and producers’ perspective, rather than a thing that the writers and producers are intentionally problemitizing, has missed the point of the episode.
We squirm during the dinner scene, yes–but is that because Star Trek momentarily lapsed, or screwed up, or because it hit the target it was aiming for–dead center? The latter, surely.
I don’t think it’s demeaning to blind persons for McCoy to observe that Miranda’s blindness will prevent her from piloting the starship, in an emergency situation, in which her complete lack of training already presents a nearly insuperable barrier. Having what amounts to perfect sonar would not be much assistance in reading a viewscreen or an instrument panel. Just because TNG decided 18 years later that Geordi has no problem doing these things doesn’t retroactively turn the scene into a slam against blind persons. On the contrary, the whole episode is a testament to everything Miranda is capable of and all she has achieved, despite the challenges of blindness and telepathy (which she turns into advantages in the role of Medusan Ambassador).
Like Torie, I also like the wig. The dark hair with the twist in front like a cobra’s hood is thematically appropriate, because it evokes Cleopatra–another story in which people’s dumb ideas about beauty cause no end of trouble. I’m sure this was intentional.
I have to appeal to the tape, however, to contradict Torie on one point. In the post script to the dinner scene, McCoy doesn’t come to Miranda’s defense after Kirk says she seems vulnerable–the line belongs to Kirk, not McCoy, and it isn’t presented in a belittling way. Chrissie’s Transcripts has the scene this way:
KIRK: Bones, what’s troubling you with the girl?
MCCOY: Well, she’s not just another girl, Captain. Don’t make that mistake.
KIRK: I didn’t think that for a moment. What else?
MCCOY: I don’t know what it is, exactly. She seems very vulnerable.
KIRK: We’re all vulnerable in one way or another.
MCCOY: Of course. But there’s something so very disturbing about her.
KIRK: Meaning she’s quite a woman. I agree.
McCoy. … But there’s something so very disturbing about her.
Kirk. Meaning she’s quite a woman. ….
Ah, another one of Gene’s “disturbingly female” comments. Yes, we all know it’s such a waste for a beautiful woman to use her unique skills and talents and establish communication with a highly intelligent, sophisticated and very nice alien race because by human standards they just look so awful.
Kevin, I take your point, at the time the writers and producers may have been emphasizing this attitude as being a lapse or failing on the men’s part (although Kirk is the hero and viewers would tend to go with his perspective), and Miranda does conclusively prove them wrong. After all, she does end up going off with Kollos as planned. It’s a complex thing, though. Roddenberry was a deeply conflicted man. Along with his ideals of equality, he was afraid of women. He doesn’t get away with turning Miranda into a melting ice queen here, as she is just too powerful of a character.
This is a complex moment. I believe that when Kirk is talking to McCoy in these lines, he is referring to MIranda’s complexities–the qualities of her character and emotional makeup that go beyond just her appearance. However, there’s also no doubt that he’s talking about her as if she’s a particularly fine chocolate to be sampled from a box–not likely a way he would refer to a male visitor to the ship, no matter how vulnerable and disturbing. It is representative of how we talk about people who we are attracted to and admire, however. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine a female Captain–Janeaway?–talking about a male visitor to the ship in such a way to a trusted friend. In that sense, the dialogue is sexualized, but not sexist. Does that make sense?
@41; Although a lot of the sexism of the first two seasons might be pinned on Gene Roddenberry, I’m afraid we’d have to give him a pass on this one. By the time this episode was produced, Gene had very little involvement with the day to day production and was no longer riding herd on the scripts. His only real contribution to this episode would be the addition of the oh-so-controversial IDIC pendant ( and dialogue referring to it ) that he wanted to sell through Lincoln Enterprises.
I haven’t read every comment, so this may have been said already: It is explicitly stated in the episode that Miranda was BORN a telepath. She went to Vulcan to learn how to turn it off!
Miranda and Spock have this exchange early on:
MIRANDA: I see in your mind that you are tempted to take my place.
SPOCK: Not correct, Doctor, although I am aware of your mind attempting to contact mine. Were you born a telepath?
MIRANDA: Yes. That is why I had to study on Vulcan.
SPOCK: I understand. May I show you to your quarters?
And at the infamous dinner party, Kirk, Spock, and Miranda have this exchange:
MIRANDA: Joy can be many things, Doctor. On Vulcan, I learned to do things impossible to learn anywhere else.
KIRK: To read minds?
MIRANDA: How not to read them, Captain.
KIRK: I don’t understand.
SPOCK: Doctor Jones was born a telepath, Captain.
KIRK: Oh.
MIRANDA: Vulcan was necessary to my sanity.
SPOCK: What most humans generally find impossible to understand is the need to shut out the bedlam of other people’s thoughts and emotions.
Yeah, I have to stand with CaitieCat on this one, after watching the episode again: nothing that Spock’s shown doing looks like it’s beyond Miranda. I really wonder why they didn’t film the scene differently to make it look like Spock was doing something very tricky–consulting multiple consoles, maybe. In what we see I don’t think he hits more than two buttons.
I still like this episode, though. Almost alone among the professional women shown on original Star Trek, Miranda Jones holds her own even though she’s treated like crap. I note that the episode leaves ambiguous whether Kirk’s wild accusations of jealousy and wanting Spock dead had any truth to them. In any case Dr. Jones comes across as a far more intriguing and sympathetic character than, say, Lt. McGivers (ugh) or Lt. Palamas.
The fish-eye lens effect actually seems effective to me in one scene: when Spock emerges from behind Kollos’s box and Kirk is holding out his hands to him. Otherwise it’s overused but really it doesn’t annoy me that much.
Well I had several points of rebuttal all typed up, then I read further and saw that Kevin in comment # 40 addressed most of them :D. But I already wrote it all out, so I’ll post anyway:
So I’m currently watching through all of Star Trek in release order. I saw a handful of TOS episodes as a kid, but most of them I’m seeing for the first time, including this one. What a pleasant surprise! I quite enjoyed this episode.
Wow, I can’t believe you think the dinner scene was the worst moment of the episode, Eugene. I thought it was by far the best scene, mostly due to great writing. In fact I enjoyed it so much that as soon as it ended I wanted to go back and watch it again right away. I managed to hold off and finish the episode, but as soon as the credits rolled I went back and rewatched it. Regarding Torie’s comment that “every single man in the room flirts outrageously with her”, I would hardly call 2 out of 5 men (or 40%) “every single man”. Spock doesn’t flirt with her. Scotty doesn’t flirt with her. And during the actual dinner scene Larry doesn’t flirt with her. I thought the dialogue in that scene was excellent, and as Kevin pointed out, I think the fact that some of it might make you uncomfortable is actually the point. It’s a feature, not a flaw.
Incidentally, that scene also has what is possibly my favorite moment of the episode. When Spock explains to Kirk “Doctor Jones was born a telepath, Captain”, Kirk has this somewhat surprised expression and just simply says “Oh.” It’s a small moment, but the look on Kirk’s face just cracked me up, because I was imagining the thought process that was going on behind that facial expression was something like this: “Oh s***, she’s a telepath…..and I’ve been sitting here having dirty thoughts about her all dinner long.”
Also, rewatching that scene gave new significance to McCoy’s line right as Miranda is about to leave: “Are you sure you’re well enough to find your way alone?” First time watching that scene I thought he was just trying to be a casanova, but on the second viewing I realized that he’s referring to the fact (that only he knows at the time) that she is blind.
And again, Kevin touched on this, but before you condemn Star Trek for not letting a blind woman pilot the ship, try to remember that she had NO TRAINING WHATSOEVER in piloting a starship. Miranda says “Then teach me to operate the ship. I can memorize instantly.” That’s cute, but quite unrealistic. I hardly think you can instruct someone on the finer points of operating a starship, something that presumably takes years of training, in just a few minutes. One of the previous commenters said “nothing Spock did was beyond Miranda”, but this is simply not true. As far as we know, Miranda, despite her earnestness and intelligence, is not trained to fly a starship. Spock is. And to touch on another commenter’s point, I don’t think it’s valid to equate the level of training needed with the number of buttons that we actually witness being pushed, because then we’d have to assume that anyone can perform any given function on the ship with about 10 minutes’ worth of training, since most consoles have like 5 buttons that aren’t labeled and that you just push randomly to do whatever it is you want to do.
All in all, I thought it was a great episode. And I’ll admit that it was also kind of fun to see an episode where Kirk gets totally shut down by a woman :D.
Maybe this has been covered already but at the end Spock is operating the transporter beaming Miranda and the Medusa to the other ship, we see Spock wearing the red shield during the beaming process yet we see that Kirk has been watching with his naked eye and is apparently unharmed. Is this an error, and I don’t see how the closed Medusa box could be harmful while being transported.