Enough with the godlike beings already! I guess they did at least take a break for a good portion of this season, but tonight's episode rushes right back to god country. This one at least gives the gods the encumbrance of not being able to create matter with their minds, but their psychic and technological powers seem to know almost no limits. There is a reference to Sargon's people having spread themselves across the stars and for once it is pointed out this wouldn't really explain humans who are clearly the product of evolution, but Spock mentions that it may explain certain parts of Vulcan prehistory, interesting! This one drags a bit in the middle, but is tells a decent story.
We begin with the Enterprise chasing a distress signal far beyond the edge of explored space. They find a planet that Spock describes as M-Class even though it had it's atmosphere wiped away half a million years ago. A voice rings out on the bridge welcoming them and encouraging them to beam hundreds of miles below the surface of the planet for a chat. Even though it is stated as a request it is clear they have little choice. Under the surface of the planet they find the voice is a sphere containing, "the pure mental energy," of Sargon, a being from before the planet was destroyed. He steals the captains body and explains that he just wants to use it to build some robots. Despite almost killing him Kirk agrees to help.
Along with Kirk's body they also need Spock and the beautiful, and new to the show, Dr. Lt. (which goes first???) Mulhall. McCoy and Scotty try to talk them out of it and even though it seems likely they are being psychically influence, or I guess because of it, they all agree. Sargon occupies Kirk's body, his wife occupies Mulhall, and the leader of the former rival faction Henoch occupies Spock. We quickly learn Henoch has no plans to give up the body and he sabotages a drug for Kirk that is supposed to help him deal with having a powerful energy being living inside him. Henoch manages to convince Sargon's wife to join him, but after Kirk dies from bad drug she realizes it was wrong. Sargon's voice suddenly addresses them, it was apparently all a ruse. He gets McCoy to make a powerful poison and they use it on Spock to kill Henoch. Henoch flee's Spocks body before he dies and is destroyed by Sargon. Spock wakes up and Sargon explains it was only a fake poison, but they needed to believe in it because Henock was reading their minds.
Dissection: The summary above skips a fair bit of the episode. Almost all the skipped time is spent debating the ethics of body stealing and the horror of living inside a machine. We all know stealing bodies, especially Spock's body, is clearly wrong, and why not just make super machines with your godlike tech? A good concept for an episode that feels like it had some filler added to pad out the run time.
5 out of 10
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