“The Time Trap”
Written by Joyce Perry
Directed by Hal Sutherland
Season 1, Episode 12
Production episode: 22010
Original air date: November 24, 1973
Star date: 5267.2
Mission summary
Enterprise is investigating the “Delta Triangle,” a region of space where starships have been disappearing for centuries. It’s almost as if the suits back at Starfleet are trying to get rid of them.
Sensors are all wonky and at first all they see are some interesting fireworks, but soon a Klingon battlecruiser makes a surprise appearance. Before Enterprise can say “How do you do?” the other ship fires on it. Kirk returns fire and the Klingon ship shimmers and vanishes. Kirk is flummoxed by this unexpected turn of events. Spock explains that the phaser fire didn’t destroy the enemy, nor did they engage their cloaking device. If he had to guess, he’d say this mysterious disappearance might be attributed to…the Triangle! DUN DUN DUN.
With sensors down, Sulu raises the periscope and they make a 360-degree visual survey of the area, only to discover they are surrounded by Klingon vessels. “Moustrapped,” Kirk squeaks. Clearly the Klingons plan to disappear them the old-fashioned way and blame it on the Triangle. One of the enemy hails them, and Kirk cautiously prepares an escape plan: on his signal, they’ll head for where the first Klingon battlecruiser disappeared, at warp eight. He also asks Uhura to record their conversation for quality assurance, as a memento for Starfleet. It’s short and sweet:
KURI: I am Commander Kuri of the Klingon Imperial Fleet. We have witnessed the destruction of our sister ship, the Klothos, and hold you responsible. Surrender immediately or we will destroy you.
KIRK: We did not destroy the Klothos, and you are well aware of it, Commander.
KURI: Surely you don’t expect me to believe she just vanished?
KIRK: You may believe what you like, Commander. We were fired upon first and returned fire. The Klothos deflectors turned aside our phaser fire and then disappeared. I don’t know why. But we are in the Delta Triangle.
KURI: I do not accept this.
KIRK: Frankly, Commander, what you accept is of little importance to me. Enterprise out. Now, Mr. Sulu.
Sulu floors it, and Enterprise warps toward the last known coordinates of the Klothos, with the Klingons in hot pursuit and Scotty grousing about running away from battle.
Suddenly every system on the ship goes haywire as Enterprise vanishes! Uhura and Sulu get disoriented and dizzy, and the helmsman keels over. Spock observes that they’re experiencing “some form of vertigo,” which quickly passes when the ship reappears in a starless void. They have a little company, at least: “It’s like a vast Sargasso Sea,” Kirk says. “A graveyard of ships from every civilization imaginable.” Kirk and Spock reason that they’ve entered a kind of alternate universe, which only occasionally interacts with their own and lets a ship in. Spock also detects lifeforms on some of the ships out there.
The Klothos is also out there. As soon as the two ships fire on each other, their weapon controls are frozen, and Kirk is abruptly transported off the Bridge.
He reappears in a council chamber beside his old friend Kor, commander of the Klothos. They are surrounded by representatives from various races, including an Orion woman, a Romulan, a Tellarite, an Andorian, and a Gorn. This motley group welcomes them to Elysia, a makeshift society comprised of 123 races trapped in this pocket universe. Xerius and Devna explain that they all learned to work together, enforcing a strict code of non-violence–ruthlessly enforced by the psionic talents of some of the member races.
DEVNA: Under our law, you as ship captains are responsible for the behavior of your crews. Should a crew member, with or without your knowledge, engage in any form of violence whatsoever, you will suffer the ultimate penalty. Total immobilization of your ship for a century.
KOR: A century? We’d all be dead by the end of it.
XERIUS: No, Commander Kor. This small universe of ours is a curious trap. Time passes here, but very slowly. A century means nothing to us. Our Council appears young. Yet all are centuries old.
KIRK: Your life here must be almost perfect, if you haven’t wanted to leave.
XERIUS: All of us have wanted to leave at some time, Captain Kirk. But we have made the best possible world here, because we have found there is no escape from it.
Naturally Kirk expects to buck this 1000-year-old tradition of failed escape attempts. But they’ll have to make it quick, because Scotty has some more bad news: the dilithium crystals are inexplicably deteriorating, giving them only four more days of power. Kirk’s brilliant escape plan consists of leaving it all to Spock: “You will start work immediately, around the clock, nonstop, until you arrive at a formula that gets us out of here.”
Kor issues a similar directive to his first officer, Kaz. Their solution is to try to escape at maximum speed through some weird vortex thing. It’s just simple enough to work–except it doesn’t. The Klingon ship manages to disappear briefly before it’s hurled back into Elysia. But this gives Spock an idea: he derives a formula that requires Enterprise and Klothos to combine to form Voltron and escape together.
The Klingons are surprisingly amenable to linking their ships and resources. Spock throws his arms over Kor and Kaz companionably, freaking everyone out. As the awkward encounter stretches on, the Vulcan apologizes for being “overcome by the moment.” After Kirk and Spock head back to Enterprise to prepare for the mutual transfer of equipment and personnel, Kor reveals to his suspicious first officer that he intends to double cross Kirk and disintegrate Enterprise as soon as they’re both clear of the time trap, which greatly relieves Kaz.
On Enterprise, a red shirt admits he was late to his post guarding the dilithium vault, where he discovered a couple of Klingons nosing around. They claim they were lost, and Spock once again invades personal space; he clasps one of them on a shoulder and offers to guide him to his proper station.
MCCOY: Jim, I’m worried about Spock. He’s just not acting normal.
KIRK: He’s under a lot of pressure, Bones.
MCCOY: I know that. But I’ve never known Spock to act like a pal under any circumstances, least of all toward Klingons.
KIRK: That’s true.
MCCOY: And if he’s coming apart, Jim, we’re in serious trouble. Getting out of here hinges on his computations.
KIRK: I’ll talk to him, Bones. It’s all I can do.
Of course there’s a logical explanation: when Kirk calls Spock on his unusual behavior, the Vulcan tells him he’s been touching Klingons for business, not pleasure: so he can read their minds. And he has the distinct impression that they mean to sabotage Enterprise. With this stunning revelation, Kirk decides it might be a good idea to keep a close eye on the Klingons while they’re aboard.
Which is tricky while he’s preoccupied watching Devna dance for the Enterprise and Klothos crews. She wishes she could see Orion again, and Kirk offers her passage out of Elysia. Devna refuses, having fully accepted that there’s no exit from the time trap. Devna and Xerius have been watching Kirk and Kor’s escape plan unfold, with the help of a telepath named Magen, and have agreed to let them make their useless attempt unhindered, unless they break one of Elysia’s laws.
They get their chance to interfere when McCoy unwisely asks Kaz’s girlfriend to dance and Kaz attempts to shoot him. Xerius prevents the disrupter from doing any harm and takes Kirk, Kor, Kaz, and McCoy to the Council Chamber for disciplinary action. In the hubbub, the Klingon woman hides a tiny capsule inside a computer panel.
The council decides to freeze the Klothos crew for a “star century,” but Kirk protests–they need Klothos to escape from Elysia.
XERIUS: Getting back to your own time continuum is that important to you?
KIRK: Yes.
XERIUS: You will fail.
KIRK: We must try, Xerius. Elysia is, in many respects, a perfect society. But with all its virtues, it is not home. And home, with all its faults, is where we prefer to be.
XERIUS: You would take these renegades with you?
KIRK: We need them.
XERIUS: Very well. I release Captain Kor into your custody. Good luck to you, Captain Kirk. You will be needing it.
The big day arrives! The Klothoprise begins to accelerate toward the time barrier. But the spying Magen alerts Xerius that the Klingons have hidden a bomb on Enterprise. The Romulan calls Kirk to warn him that when they hit warp eight–BAM!
Spock and Scotty discover the bomb just in time, in the warp control panel right where Xerius said it would be. Spock grabs it and runs to a disposal chute, which he uses to eject it into space. As Klothoprise reappears in normal space, Enterprise dismounts and they separate. The bomb explodes outside the ship, leaving her intact, to Kor’s frustration.
UHURA: Captain Kirk, I’m picking up a radio transmission Captain Kor intended for his home base. He took full credit for our escape from Elysia.
MCCOY: Why, that scoundrel.
KIRK: It doesn’t matter, Bones.
UHURA: It doesn’t?
KIRK: That’s what matters.
Kirk points at the stars on the viewscreen. They’re home.
Analysis
It’s interesting how the time trap encourages unlikely alliances. The aliens who have been living inside the pocket universe for centuries have put aside their differences and created a peaceful society almost worthy of the name Elysia. Meanwhile, the Starfleet and Klingon crews must work together in order to escape, even though Kor ultimately betrays the unusually naive Captain Kirk. If this pocket universe isn’t a natural phenomenon, I bet it was set up by some space douches to study teamwork or ingenuity or something.
Unfortunately, aside from some muddled moralizing on the rewards of cooperation, the rest of the episode is thinly plotted and, frankly, boring. “The Bermuda Triangle in space” is good as a high concept pitch, but it’s less compelling when the comparison is so transparent.
It’s rather depressing that Xerius and the others have completely accepted their fates and abandoned all hope of leaving Elysia. They are so sure that there’s no escape, I wonder how they all react when Enterprise and Klothos make it out. Do they feel regret for not trying harder? Do they renew their attempts to break out? And even if they could get out, would it really feel like home after so many years have passed? Perhaps its even more depressing that the real reason they can’t go home is because their old lives simply don’t exist anymore.
I suppose it might be unlikely that two ships have ever entered the Triangle at the same time, especially ships with such advanced warp technology, which would make it nearly impossible to replicate Spock’s solution. (Never mind the fact that I don’t understand how linking the ships improved their chances of success anyway.) Still, it might have been nice for Kirk to leave the formula with them, just in case another opportunity presents itself one day. And did he offer anyone else passage out, or just the Orion dancer?
I just don’t think Elysian society can go on unchanged once they know it’s possible to escape. I suspect that Xerius and Devna will lie to the others and tell them Enterprise and Klothos were destroyed in their escape attempt, since there’s something sinister about the way they enforce good behavior in there with psionic punishment. Though I wonder how much of a deterrent it is to be frozen for a century when a) you’re basically immortal and b) there isn’t much to do.
I also found their casual telepathic spying distasteful, paralleled by Spock’s casual mind melding for the same purpose. What price peace? What price freedom?
Eugene’s Rating: Warp 3 (on a scale of 1-6)
Torie Atkinson: Here’s this grand mystery–a pocket of space-time–and yet we never have any idea how or why it exists. Their escape is made by some kind of advanced calculation… of what, exactly? I was scratching my head from beginning to end trying to puzzle out why anything was happening. This was a middling episode at best, and a tedious mess at worst.
I wish that the Klingon-Starfleet alliance had been more than lip service. It’s easy to create a childish villain, and much more difficult to come up with an actual story of enemies overcoming their differences for a common goal. The secret bomb plot undermines the already thin moralizing. What a missed opportunity! In a longer episode, perhaps, we could have seen internal dissent about the joint venture aboard the Klothos and maybe a single disatisfied rogue agent planting the bomb. But to have that be Kor’s secret plot, I just don’t buy it. Wouldn’t one look at the Elysians make Kor think he’d do anything to avoid spending eternity with these people and their interminable telepathic goons?? (If I had to sit in on meetings with that cat telepath I would’ve spaced myself.)
Speaking of which, the fact that the new arrivals don’t stir things up even a little is uncharacteristic and kind of a let-down. If I had been in their shoes, I’m sure that Kirk’s determination would have rekindled my own desire for escape, so why none of them? Why not pool their obviously powerful psychokinetic resources and try to get out together? They have nothing to lose by the attempt and everything to gain. Their situation is inexpressibly sad. I can’t imagine that all of those races were so at peace, even after millenia. Wouldn’t some choose to perish rather than never see home again? Doesn’t everyone need hope?
But really, nothing tested my suspension of disbelief like Spock not bothering to mention the secret evil plot he picked up on to anyone until confronted about his weird buddy-buddy man-hugs. Spock shouldn’t been out with that information immediately, none of this pseudo-mystery crap. I couldn’t believe that he just dropped that casually as an explanation for his sudden friendliness. That should’ve been the first thing out of your mouth as soon as you got back to the Enterprise!
I just hope Kirk left a copy of the formula with the Elysians.
Torie’s Rating: Warp 3
Best Line: DEVNA: You have seen the dance of Orion women before? KIRK: Many times.
Trivia: Kirk intros the episode with a captain’s log recording the stardate as 52.2–an obvious mistake which is later corrected.
James Doohan provides Kor’s voice (replacing John Colicos in the role), while Nichelle Nichols recorded voices for four different roles in this episode, including that of the most annoying telepath ever.
A prototype Kzinti appears in the Council Chamber, before the race debuts in “The Slaver Weapon.”
The Klothos is another bit of canon that originated in the animated series, as Kor’s old command was referenced on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Other notes: This episode bears some uncanny resemblances to the plot of Len Wein’s “The Museum at the End of Time,” a Star Trek comic published in 1972.
Previous episode: Season 1, Episode 11 – “The Terratin Incident.”
Next episode: Season 1, Episode 13 – “The Ambergris Element.” US residents can watch it for free at the CBS website.
I can sum it up very easily. Following the trend. The Bermuda Triangle was a very hot topic when this episode was made. Part of that whole mystic alien influence idea stirred by Chariots Of The Gods.
This episode actually had quite a bit of potential. I’ll forgive them the “Sargasso in space”. I don’t think there’s a single incarnation of Trek that hasn’t done a spatial rift/pocket universe story. For me, the biggest problem is the redundancy of Spock playing buddies and Big Brother. One or the other would have been enough, preferably Spock finding a somewhat subtler way of finding out the Klingons’ intentions. Then the last minute race to find the bomb would make more sense.
I can think of two explanations for the Klothoprise. The old school explanation would be something about an extra power boost. The post-TNG explanation would have something to do with the merging warp fields and maybe the differences in Federation and Klingon warp technologies producing an effect that allows escape. I wouldn’t fret too much that they didn’t leave an explanation of the escape method. Xerius undoubtedly pulled all the details from Spock’s mind.
I am a little nerked at the Delta Triangle. They couldn’t come up with a better name? Deltas are, by nature, triangles, no? But then redundancy was par for the course in this episode.
Bermuda Nebula triangle?
I remember a Star Trek novel that started similar to this, but filled with bad puns and a silly ending about how Enowil (the antagonist) needed an audience. Haven’t reread it.
And ew, who put color on the Klingon’s overshirts?
It seems a shame that they didn’t better utilize that assortment of aliens. (Not one line for the Gorn!) There was also a bit of a disconnect when Kirk talks about them living in an “ideal society” but all we really see is a bunch of ships stuck in red space. I was also a bit stunned by Kirk’s willingness to hurtle into the area of space *that’s destroying starships*!
Oh well. At least Nichelle Nichols’ voices were hilarious!
I enojyed this one, but perhaps that was a function of after taste from the last couple of episodes.
Being someone who lived through the 1970s this was quite a flashback episode, ‘The Triangle’, psychic powers, all we needed was bell-bottoms and lesiure suits to make the trip complete.
Overall I was annoyed by the quickness of the pace. Had this been a sixty min story we could have had more subtle sub-plotting, but with just over 20 miniutes I could fully accept how they handled the issues.
My biggest gripe was the bomb itself. Wow it can destory a constitution class startship and it’s smaller than my migraine pills. That one hell of job Kilingons, but I suppose they are good at bombs.
As far as no one wanting t leave I could see that. Hundreds of years doing the same thing it would be very difficult for a new idea like escaping actually penetrating that static culture.
I dunno, seeing all these people saying “Oh, chance at escape, ho-hum, never mind, it’ll never work, I’ll just mope” simply drives home the unrealism of Kirk and co. — he’s so dynamic, so awesome, one would start to get the impression that the other starship captains must be real bench-warmers. Is everybody else so successful? Why don’t we ever hear about them?
Oh well. Too bad.
This episode was so incredibly forgettable, I actually literally forgot having watched it. The day after I watched it. I won’t bother getting into the complaints, because I think that says it all — my mind literally rejected the idea that any of this occurred.
bobsandiego @5: I think you could make a bomb that size work with a bit of technobabble. Say it’s placement is actually more important than the bomb itself. The bomb itself doesn’t destroy the ship, it fries the antimatter containment circuitry, which results in the ship’s destruction.
Of course, it would be nice if they explained all that. But the show just wasn’t that sophisticated. Heck, neither was TOS. It took TNG to really bring in the technobabble and make an art of it.
@3 sps49
A Star Trek novel with bad puns? Sign me up!
@4 Mercurio
You’re counting Magen’s ridiculous voice as a bonus? She made Deanna Troi seem much less annoying.
I was hoping you’d have some comments on “Mudd’s Passion,” since you’ve written so many great stories about the biochemistry of love…
@5 bobsandiego
I know the Bermuda Triangle has been done to death. There was even a DuckTales episode in the 80s that recycled this plot, which was never one of my favorites.
@7 DemetriosX
The “art of technobabble.” I like that. I assumed the placement near the warp core had something to do with it. I was more bothered by Kor’s claims that he was going to “disintegrate” Enterprise.
@3 Eugene
It’s called Trek to Madworld, and must be from 1979- 80 (it’s been a while since I read a Trek novel; too much dross). Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
@ 9 Eugene IN the 70’s the whole Bermuda Triage thing seem inescapable. There were countless made for TV movies dealing with the place, if you were a genre shows you dealt with at least once, and there was even a whole series about people trapped on an island where different eras coexsited starring Roddy MacDowell I think. Also you couldn’t get away from psi powers at all in the 70’s. Just thinking about the era makes me shudder.
Make it worse: remember the fcuking clothes we had to wear (since there was very little alternative, save perhaps streaking)? Colours Man Was Not Meant To Wear Together, all beside one another higgledy-ftaghiggledy on the same scratchy polyester turtleneck. Earth shoes. Shaggy, one-length hair. Oh, gods, feathered hair.
There was So. Much. Stupid. going on. Mood ring, anyone?
Gah. My skin itches just thinking of it.
Yes, I’m not talking about the episode. I think we’ve burnt enough pixels on its behalf already.
I actually always enjoyed this one as a kid. As a fans of the ship designs it was AWESOME to see the Enterprise and Klothos link up ( don’t think that wasn’t tried with a couple of AMT Models either ). I do agree that from a much older perspective, some of the going’s on seem forced ( ie: Spock’s subterfuge ), but as a kid-oriented series entry it was really pretty cool.
I too was startled by just how close this story was to the older Gold Key comic story when I got my hands on one a few years afterwards. I wouldn’t want to accuse Joyce Perry of plaigiarism, but I’m almost surprised that Len Wein didn’t sue. Although the comic story had some much sillier elements to it, it was superior in a couple of ways. For one thing, it starts with Enterprise pursuing the Klingon ship, when both vessels blunder into the time vortex, and at the end as the crews cooperate to escape, there is no sabotage plot. As the story concludes, the Kilingon captain and Kirk have a discussion about how pointless it would be to continue their conflict so soon after returning to normal space. They agree to call a truce…until another day. That ending is almost worthy of an original series entry, and would have elevated this episode a bit above it’s saturday morning level.