Tuesday, April 21, 2015

TOS: The Lights of Zetar

             This is the second episode about Scotty falling in love, and it ends much better than the last time. I know I hadn't seen it before because I always wondered what specifically Memory Alpha was a reference to. I guess it was their library of Alexandria because it was also destroyed. This is one of those episodes where they almost never leave the Enterprise, but it at least makes sense for what is going on (ahem Mark of Gideon...). It also kinda feels like it has been done before Return to Tomorrow, but I guess this is different since it is a whole collective of minds looking for a body.
             The episode begins with the Enterprise transporting Lt. Mira Romaine to her assignment on Memory Alpha, the Federation library planet. Scotty is quite taken with her and is barely able to perform his duties in her presence. As they get closer to Memory Alpha they encounter what appears to be a storm travelling at warp 2.6 in their direction. Spock correctly figures that it must not be natural since it is traveling faster than light. The storm encounter the Enterprise and after some flashing lights Mira collapses making a very unsettling sound. McCoy is summoned by she appears to be ok. The storm rushes on to Memory Alpha where it kills everyone and destroys the database.
             The Enterprise gets there to late and when they beam down they find nothing but bodies. Other than one woman who emits the same noise Mira made and then dies. Suddenly Mira warns them the storm is approaching but they don't believe her until Sulu confirms it. Back on the ship she tells Scotty she foresaw all the attacks, but Scotty tells her it is just space madness and she shouldn't report it. The storm returns and they blast it with phasers which causes Mira to collapse. They break off the attack and question Mira. It turns out her brain waves are now a perfect match for the alien cloud thing. 
             The storm closes on them again and this time they are unable to evade. It enters Mira and somehow they decide she needs to be put into a pressure chamber. Scotty is able to get her in there through the power of love. When the pressure is high enough the aliens are killed and she returns to normal. They all agree there is nothing to report about her having been occupied by a hundred alien minds and send her back to work fixing up Memory Alpha.

             Review: Not a terrible episode, but there are a few plot holes that don't help much. Why the storm thing destroyed Memory Alpha is totally unclear. Not only did it not find a mind it could use, it already found that mind in Mira. Why not just stay with the Enterprise? This episodes does manage to keep things moving rating it a firm:

5 out of 10

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