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The Enemy Within (episode)

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This article is written
from the Real World
point of view
This article is written
from the Real World
point of view
"The Enemy Within"
TOS, Episode 1x04
Production number: 6149-05
First aired: 6 October 1966
Remastered version aired: 26 January 2008
← 5th of 80 produced in TOS →
← 5th of 80 released in TOS →
← 55th of 80 released in TOS Remastered →
← 5th of 726 released in all →
Written By
Richard Matheson

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

Contents

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

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

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

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

[edit] Act One

In what is probably the most bizarre transporter accident on record, Kirk is split into two beings. The first to materialize embodies all of Kirk's positive qualities. Moments later, after everyone has left, Kirk's evil twin materializes.

Some time passes before the mishap is discovered, during which the evil Kirk roams the ship, stealing liquor, assaulting crewmen, and even attempting to rape Yeoman Rand. Finally, he is cornered in the engine room, and captured – but not before his errant phaser shot damages the transporter further.

[edit] Act Two

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

[edit] Act Three

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

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

[edit] Act Four

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

[edit] Log Entries

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

[edit] Memorable Quotes

Sulu on Alfa 177
Sulu on Alfa 177

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

- Sulu


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

- Spock


"Any chance you could find a long rope and lower us down a pot of hot coffee?"

- Sulu


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

- Spock to Rand


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

- Spock to McCoy


"Take me back! Please! I want to live!"
"You will. Both of us."
"I want to live!"

- Animal Kirk and Good Kirk


"You're too beautiful to ignore... too much woman. We've both been... pretending too long."

- Animal Kirk while seducing Yeoman Rand


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

- Animal Kirk


"The impostor told me what happened, who he really was, and I'd just like to say that... well, sir, what I'd like to say is that..."
"Thank you, Yeoman."

- Yeoman Rand and Kirk


"It's dead, Jim."

- McCoy about the merged test animal


"Get those men aboard fast."
"Right away, Captain."

- Kirk and Spock, after Kirk is sucessfully reintegrated

[edit] Background Information

  • This was the first episode to show the Vulcan nerve pinch, as well as the first time McCoy says "He's dead, Jim." Legend has it that Leonard Nimoy objected to the script's directive that Spock "kayoes" the evil Kirk on the head, so he improvised the neck pinch on the spot and demonstrated it on William Shatner for director Leo Penn.
  • Richard Matheson's script is very important to the series, concisely and clearly allowing Spock to explain his mixed heritage and the challenges it causes for him. He also wrote the script for a television movie called "The Stranger Within," starring Barbara Eden as a woman impregnated by an alien.
  • For years, the first several minutes of this show, up to Fisher's fall, were printed backwards. This has been corrected on the DVD releases, and in the prints currently aired. It is also likely that Shatner and Takei do not wear their insignia on their uniforms because of this.
Scott and Fisher with scanner
Scott and Fisher with scanner
  • The first draft of this episode's script was completed on 6 June 1966, with the final draft being turned in two days later.
  • This is the first episode to feature the captain's wraparound tunic.
  • Shatner's command insignia is missing from his uniform through the first five minutes of the episode. Since Shatner interacted with a double when confronting himself, the double's costume was not finished on the front because we only saw him from behind. It's likely that Shatner was given the double's costume by mistake.
  • Also, Lt. Farrell's insignia is missing from his uniform near the end of this episode, when evil Kirk tells him to abandon Sulu, but reappears in five seconds on his chest. Alan Asherman speculated this was due to forgetfulness after cleaning of the early velour costumes, in which insignia had to be removed and then re-attached afterward.
  • The showering phaser effect used when Sulu heats the rock is never used again. Just before he sprays the rocks, Sulu also appears to be fitting his hand phaser into its pistol mount—again, a maneuver that is never repeated.
  • Several jump cuts were put together to allow the Kirk double to pop into a scene.
  • Another jump cut allowing two Kirks to appear in the same scene in engineering was spoiled by interspersing a shot of the double on top of one of the engine components, which rendered the edit unnecessary. A similar situation happened in sickbay.
  • There are two split screens used: after Kirk's double is neck-pinched and, in sickbay, when he takes the hand of his counterpart.
  • When Scott reports from engineering about the destroyed transporter ionizer, new dialog is dubbed in over the original. Even from behind, it is clear that Doohan is speaking different words. This piece of equipment was later recycled as the Janus VI reactor in "The Devil in the Dark".
  • Although Nichelle Nichols does not appear in this episode, her voice is heard on the intercom in several scenes.
  • In this episode we get to follow Kirk behind the large engine room machinery components in the first trip to the engineering deck (which dialog identifies as being in the lowest parts of the ship). To allow this to happen, the new set had to be temporarily expanded to hide the sound stage beyond it. After the double is rendered unconscious by the first neck pinch in the series, the quickly-assembled wall behind the three characters can be observed to have a very rough edge where it meets the floor. Pieces of sets that were designed to be added and subtracted easily were called "wild." Although Kirk pursues Ben Finney into these components in "Court Martial", this is the only time we get to see the space behind them.
  • What looks to be a bottle of liquid detergent is present on the counter top in Kirk's quarters during the evil Kirk's tantrum.
  • It is unusual that this engineering room was an ideal place for a fugitive to hide if he wanted to escape search parties, and also in that it seemed like it was normally unmanned with absolutely nobody in it. The idea that the "engineering deck", as it was called, as a place where people normally are not at is re-iterated in the later episode "The Conscience of the King" where Lt. Riley is sent "down" all by himself, which he perceives as some kind of punishment or chastisement for something he did wrong. This is quite a contrast with the busy engine room of the later seasons and of the later series of Trek.
Spock and Kirk in Engineering
Spock and Kirk in Engineering
  • The view of the tubed structures behind the grille was a forced perspective set. The tubed machinery appears to be many dozens of meters long, but this is an illusion created by making each vertical piece much smaller than the one in front of it. Diminishing numbers were later printed on the tubes immediately behind the grid to add to the illusion. In episodes where the engines were under stress, lighting effects were used inside the tubed-machinery room. Matt Jefferies' imaginative design made engineering perhaps the most impressive set used for the Enterprise. The set was extensively remodeled between the first and second seasons.
  • This is the only episode when you can see the ceiling of the engineering room, although when the set is redecorated as the phaser control room in "Balance of Terror", you can glimpse it. Also, in "The Conscience of the King", when the set is re-dressed as the ship's theater, you can see the ceiling.
  • During the final confrontation between Kirk and his double on the bridge, the double's cheek scars appear on the wrong side of his face due to reversal of the film.
  • When positive-Kirk and negative-Kirk meet for the very first time down in the engineering room, negative-Kirk is seen holding a Phaser-II pistol, and there is a close-up of this. This is the pistol that he confiscated earlier. For the full-body shots of the actors, negative-Kirk is seen holding only a Phaser-I, and it is this weapon that he discharges to the side somewhere when Spock nerve pinches him. It is also clearly a Phaser-I when negative-Kirk is lying on the floor unconscious.
  • In this same scene, the two Kirks pass behind a translucent, triangular-shaped structure. This may be an element from the briefing room in "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
  • When Spock makes the captain's log entry in lieu of the captain, he erroneously calls himself "second officer Spock".
  • One of the biggest mysteries about this episode is why Kirk simply didn't send a shuttlecraft down to the planet's surface to pick up the stranded men. The simple answer is it's before the hangar deck and shuttlecraft were invented. If this episode was written after Galileo Seven then it would have been easy to add a couple of lines explaining why a shuttlecraft rescue was impossible. Still, it seems strange that a single transporter malfunction could place an away team in such a risky situation. There should be a backup transporter with independent circuits.
  • William Shatner, playing himself on a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, made a reference to this episode. In the sketch, Shatner had just finished delivering a rant imploring an audience of Star Trek fans at a convention to "get a life", then explained the rant was a "recreation of the evil Captain Kirk from episode 37, the title... The Enemy Within." In fact, the 37th TOS episode produced was "The Changeling" and the 37th aired was "I, Mudd".
  • We get a rare glimpse of the main viewscreen with no picture on it whatsoever. It is just a plain white blank screen with a black frame with no blue glowing strip around it, and you can see it behind negative-Kirk when he is on the bridge.
  • In the sequence of aired episodes, this is the first episode where we see or hear the new middle initial for James Kirk. (However, in episodes produced, that honor went to TOS: "Mudd's Women"). It can be seen very briefly on DVD when the negative-Kirk enters the captain's quarters. Along with the sign reading "Captain James T. Kirk", there is another sign beneath which begins "3F xxx". This sign could possibly be a carryover from its first appearance in (TOS: "The Man Trap") identifying the room number of McCoy's quarters.
  • A similar transporter accident happens to Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation- although the resulting duplicates, one continuing as Will Riker while the other became known as Thomas Riker, were perfect duplicates, capable of surviving independently of each other and both being equally valid versions of the original Riker-, and a kind of reverse of this accident integrates Tuvok and Neelix into the entity known as Tuvix for a short time on Star Trek: Voyager.

[edit] Production Timeline

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and References

[edit] Starring

[edit] Featuring

And

[edit] Uncredited

[edit] References

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

[edit] External link


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