In addtition to the most interesting punctuation in an episode title, this managed to be an exciting tale of space adventure. I know I have seen this one a few times before, but somehow I missed how much the Futurama episode The Day the Earth Stood Stupid was a reference to this ep. The giant brain cell props are pretty cheesy, but the menace of sticking a tentacle into your spinal cord and spreading it through the body was pretty ominous. When reading the episode description I was confused because I didn't remember an episode with Kirk's brother, but that is because he dies before we even meet him.
The episode begins with the Enterprise investigating a colony on Deneva that has gone silent. They don't respond to any frequencies and even the private transmitter Kirk orders Uhura to contact doesn't reply. Spock points out that a straight line can be drawn from this system through four other systems that were all destroyed by an outbreak of madness. Upon reaching Deneva the only sign of life is a single person vessel the flies from the planet into the sun. Just before burning up the colonist broadcasts a message that he is free. McCoy points out that Kirk's brother lives on the planet and Kirk gives him a good, "duh, that is why I am trying so hard to reach a seemingly random transmitter on the planet," look.
Kirk beams down with Spock and an away team to investigate. The find the planet strangely quiet other than a group of men with clubs who try to attack them. They go to Kirk's brother's office and find him dead, his son unconscious, and his wife raving mad. She is sedated and beamed aboard. Despite the drugs McCoy gives her she is still awake and tells Kirk that creatures came to the planet on a ship and took over. She is overwhelmed by pain and dies. Kirk beams back down just as the team goes to investigate a strange humming. They find it coming from strange blister like creatures. There phasers manage to stun one (despite being set to kill) but decide to move on for some reason and as soon as their backs are turned it attacks Spock. Kirk pulls it off easily, but Spock is overwhelmed by pain and beamed back to the ship.
McCoy finds a hole in his back that the creature used to insert something into his nervous system. Spock suddenly regains consciousness and runs to the bridge where he tries to seize control. This time when they take him to sickbay they restrain him. But his Vulcan mind overcomes the pain and he regains control. And uses his new control to break through his restraints and attempts to beam down, but is stopped by a well armed Scotty. Spock convinces Kirk that only he can beam down since the creatures can't do anything more to him. Kirk agrees and Spock manages to shoot a creature long enough to stun it. He takes it back to the ship in a metal tool box and McCoy begins trying to figure out how to kill it.
They somehow decide/figure out that it is part of a giant brain that spans dimensions or something and that normal weapons won't work. No dose of radiation or heat seems to effect it, but Kirk remembers the sun-diving Denevean from the opening and suggests they try bright light. It works! Exposure to extremely bright light kills the creature and they test it on Spock. It works again! Only Spock is left blind just as the nurse returns with the lab results on the dead creature showing they only needed to use a narrow bandwidth of harmless light. McCoy is devastated and Kirk proceeds to blast the planet with that specific frequency of light with a set of satellites they apparently carry for just this purpose. The planet is saved, and just as Kirk is writing his log entry Spock returns to the bridge with the news that he forgot Vulcans have a special second eye lid so it is cool. Ear joke and roll credits.
Interpretation: This is the last episode of the first season and while it wasn't quite as deep as last nights episode, it is very exciting and nothing stands out as totally BS which is nice.
8 out of 10
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