The Enemy Within
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 6 October 1966
- ON
- NBC
- STARDATE
- 1672.1
- DIRECTED BY
- Leo Penn
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 05
WRITTEN BYWritten by Richard Matheson
A transporter fault on a frozen planet splits Captain Kirk into two men, one gentle but indecisive, the other aggressive and cruel, while a landing party is left stranded in the cold.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
During a survey of Alpha 177, magnetic ore dust affects the transporter, and Kirk beams up as two separate men. One is thoughtful but increasingly unable to make decisions. The other is driven by raw appetite and aggression. The impostor demands brandy from McCoy, attacks Yeoman Rand in her quarters and slips away through the ship. Meanwhile the transporter is out of action, leaving Sulu and the landing party trapped on the surface as night temperatures plunge. The gentle Kirk, helped by Spock and McCoy, must accept that his darker half holds the will and drive a captain needs. Spock subdues the double with a nerve pinch, but a test on a similarly split animal ends in its death, and McCoy fears the same result. With time running out, Kirk insists on going ahead. His double struggles to the last, but the two are merged successfully and Sulu's freezing party is rescued.
- 01Leonard Nimoy devised the Vulcan nerve pinch here, feeling the scripted punch was beneath Spock. It was filmed for this episode before audiences first saw it in “The Naked Time”.
- 02Richard Matheson's only Star Trek script. The subplot of the freezing landing party was added in rewrites, and Matheson disliked it.
- 03McCoy says “He's dead, Jim” for the first time, about the animal killed by the transporter. The engine room and Kirk's green tunic also make their debuts.