50 "By Any Other Name"

(airdate: February 23, 1968)

Story: Jerome Bixby      Teleplay: D.C. Fontana and Jerome Bixby
Director: Marc Daniels

Stardate: 4657.5

Captain's Log: Responding to a distress call, the Enterprise's landing party is captured by a group of Kelvans, who intend to take the ship back to their home galaxy of Andromeda in order to inform their empire that our galaxy is ripe for conquest. Despite their best efforts, Kirk and the others are helpless against the Kelvans; however, the Kelvans have had to take human form in order to operate the Enterprise, and thus they're susceptible to human emotions. Kirk and the others therefore exploit this weakness: Scotty gets Tomar drunk, McCoy makes Hanar irritable, and Kirk induces feelings of romantic attachment in Kelinda and jealousy in Rojan. Kirk convinces the Kelvans that the longer they remain in human form, the more like them they will become, and that therefore they should seek to live peacefully in the Federation, rather than conquering it - a sentiment with which Rojan agrees.

Whoops!: Tomar's passing-out seems violently sudden. And the bottle that Scotty throws aside, the one we hear smash into pieces, is seen fully intact when Scotty passes out in the doorway.
     Should we be concerned about the Enterprise crew member whose cuboctahedron appears to be damaged in the corridor, with a bit of white powder lying on the floor next to it? And we're nitpicking, but how does the device know to reduce clothing but not things that people are holding? [Unless all the things we see strewn about were dropped in surprise right before they were reduced...]

Classic Lines: Tomar, after Scotty is trying to get him drunk on another bottle of liquor: "What is it?" Scotty, peering uncertainly at it: "Well, it's, um." (sniffs the bottle) "It's green."
     Kirk, when Spock and McCoy walk in on him brawling with Rojan: "I'm stimulating him."
     "Rojan: you are only a link in a chain, following an order given 300 years ago. This is an opportunity for you to establish a destiny of your own."

Cringe Lines: McCoy: "I think you better stay on them for a few days, and then we'll see how you're responding." Hanar: "I see no reason for you to refer to yourself in the plural."
     Kelinda, requesting that Kirk kiss her again: "I was wondering, would you please apologize to me again?"

Don't Wear a Red Shirt: Yeoman Thompson is killed when the geometric solid containing her life essence is crushed by Rojan. (Thompson thus bears the distinction of being the only female redshirt killed during the original series.)

Alien Love: In an effort to distract the Kelvans with emotions, Kirk attempts to seduce Kelinda, although she rather gloriously puts him on the back foot when she matter-of-factly points out his intentions to him. It's OK, though, she falls for him (or at least the act of kissing) anyway.

Library Computer: The Kelvans are a race of beings from the Andromeda galaxy. They are naturally immense beings, with a hundred tentacle-like limbs and the mental control to use each individual limb independently. The Kelvans have what Spock describes as "superior intellectual capacity", but in order to achieve this they've sacrificed everything they deemed a distraction, including emotions and sensory perception. They have the ability to take on other forms, and for the duration of this episode they appear as Caucasian humans; however, by taking on other forms they unknowingly become susceptible to sensations experienced by those forms, such as emotion. They lived by a strict, demanding code of honor. Mentally they were unlike any being Spock had previously encountered, with his mind-meld ending in his being thrown away by the alienness of the Kelvan mind.
     The Kelvans controlled an empire in Andromeda, but they discovered that high radiation levels would make the galaxy uninhabitable within ten millennia; thus, they sent multi-generational ships to several galaxies to assess their suitability. The Kelvans determined that our galaxy was suitable for conquest, but their ship was destroyed by the energy barrier ("Where No Man Has Gone Before"), and communications can't penetrate the barrier: hence their need of the Enterprise. The Kelvans appear to have lifespans similar to those of humans: the Kelvans seen here were born in the intergalactic void, and their leader, Rojan, speaks of his "descendant" [not, say, his "child" or even "grandchild"] completing their mission. Rojan also mentioned how he feels more comfortable in confined spaces, and that they are "creatures of outer space". As such, they've never been to Kelva, although they have memory tapes with information about the place, including fast-growing flower-like crystals, called sahsheer. Their technology is greatly in advance of [the Federation's; Spock says "man", but let's assume he means the Federation], but even with these advances the journey to Andromeda will take 300 years (as opposed to "thousands of years" with the Enterprise's current capabilities).
     The Kelvans' primary "weapon" was a black rectangular device with a central button, surrounded on three sides by lights and attached to a belt, which could induce paralysis in the victim. This was achieved by neutralizing "nerve impulses to the voluntary muscles" (although, notably, Kirk can still look around). This neural field radiated from a central projector, which was surrounded with a material similar to but more dense than diburnium and thus impossible to penetrate with phasers or other weapons; an effort to jam the projector with a counter-field was unsuccessful. This belt device could also reduce a person down to their "essence", in the form of a white, porous cuboctahedron; if the cuboctahedron is unharmed, the person can be restored with the same device, but if it's crushed, then the person is dead. Rojan reduces all the nonessential personnel on the Enterprise in order to save food and energy, leaving only Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scott.
     A robot ship is suggested as a way to carry the message of suitable colonization prospects to the Kelvan Empire.
     The unnamed planet the Kelvans were on was a grassy planet, with purple skies and several rocky outcroppings. There were also trees, delicate flowers, and tufts of tall red grass, and a cave near where the landing party beamed down. McCoy suggested it as a good location for a Kelvan colony, after Rojan had decided not to take the Enterprise back to Kelva.
     Vulcans have the ability to completely relax every part of their body via a self-induced trance - they find this a more effective form of relaxation than a vacation. During this trance, the heartbeat becomes incredibly slow, with an almost nonexistent pulse.
     McCoy administers 2 cc's of stokaline to Spock. [As Spock isn't actually sick, we don't for certain know what stokaline is, but it's probably a vitamin compound or some such.] McCoy tells Tomar that Spock contracted Rigelian Kassaba fever ten years ago, and that it flares up every now and then, but if he's treated in time there's no danger. [We have no way of knowing if this is a genuine disease or simply made-up. There is a Rigelian fever in the Star Trek universe, but Rigelian Kassaba fever is never mentioned again.]
     The Enterprise is propelled by matter/antimatter reactors. If the nacelles are flooded with positive energy while traversing the galactic barrier (which is composed of negative energy), the result would be an explosion that would destroy the ship.
     Scotty's quarters include a shield, the top of a suit of armor, a kilt, a set of bagpipes, and an odd set of objects on the wall. He also had a bottle of Saurian brandy, an unidentified bottle of green liquor he picked up on Ganymede, and an old bottle of Scotch whiskey that he'd been saving for a special occasion.
     Federation research expeditions have cataloged hundreds of uninhabited planets in the galaxy that are suitable for colonization.
     Injections of formazine increase a person's feelings of irritability.
     Spock's use of telepathy at a distance on Eminiar VII ("A Taste of Armageddon") is referred to.

Final Analysis: "Soon we, and you, will leave this galaxy forever. You humans must face the end of your existence as you have known it." A serious, tense first half gives way to a much more lighthearted second half: once Spock works out that the Kelvans are susceptible to feelings, the whole thing turns into a romp. Fortunately the transition isn't as jarring as it might have been, so on the whole it just about works and the episode remains entertaining throughout.

---

"Star Trek" and its related properties are ™ and © CBS. All rights reserved. No copyright infringement is intended by this fan site.

Guide Home