Series: Star Trek (The Original Series)
Episode: 3.05 Is There in Truth No Beauty? (10-18-68)
Rating: 5/5
Redshirt Status: 0/2/46
Notable Guest Stars:
Diana Mulder – Dr. Miranda Jones. I love seeing Diana Mulder.
David Frankham – Larry Marvick. English actor and war veteran.
WARNING: FLASHING LIGHTS IN THIS EPISODE
Review:
Today we meet the Medusans, who are probably no doubt inspired by Medusa. They are apparently shapeless creatures who cause insanity in other creatures who look upon them, in particular humans. Spock is able to handle it via a visor designed for Vulcans. I find it interesting that if this was the case, why not send a ship full of Vulcans, or some other species of the Federation less susceptible to their appearance? Enterprise is pretty human centric. (To be fair, there are far more alien crewmembers in the animated series, where costume design is not held back by budgeting).
This episode is actually quite interesting. The Medusans want to communicate with the Federation but being so drastically different makes things difficult. They live with telepathic thought and as such will need to bound with a telepath – in this case Dr. Miranda Jones, a blind woman. She doesn’t see them, so they can not hurt her in the way that they could other humans. She was born a telepath and was trained on Vulcan to hone her skills. This makes her a good pair.
However, she brought her crazy ex with her. Apparently, he proposed, she was not that into him. He doesn’t really take no well. He ends up going after the Ambassador Kollos, shares eye contact and goes crazy. Which even without knowing the Ambassador’s appearance could make you go crazy; the guy went after his ex-girlfriend’s work partner.
Maverick (the ex) takes over engineer after probably giving Scotty a concussion beating his head against the floor like that. He sends the ship into some Warp 9.5 time warp and Spock and Kolos have to join together in a mental fusion to get them back to normal space.
Its often implied that Miranda has jealousy issues herself, but its never stated wither it is professional, or romantic when it comes to Kollos joining with Spock momentarily.
It seems however at the end of this episode, the problems with Dr. Jones are resolved amongst the crew. Spock deeply respects her achievements, and McCoy seems to have changed his opinion of her.
Interesting Notes:
- Directed by Ralph Senesky
- Written by Jean Lisette Aroeste
- And we finally have a third female script writer.
- These episodes were filmed out of order, and this episode was the last filmed to include Eddie Paskey as Lt. Leslie, a reoccurring minor character that appeared in several episodes over the last three seasons. Probably the most reoccurring. Air date wise, he has a few episodes left.
- First Appearance of IDIC.
Pros:
- I want Dr. Jones’ dress.
- Some interesting camera angles for this episode. They experiment with quite a few angles, and point of view. For example, this is the first episode to my knowledge that has the camera looking out onto the bridge from the turbolift. You see a part of the bridge that you normally don’t see – the spot next to Spock’s science center.
- They haven’t explored telepathy since early season 1, so its interesting to go back to that.
- Its nice to see a woman in a position of authority.
Cons:
- Flashy lights and high intensity color. Neat effect, and I suppose it lets us have some of the feeling that people who look on him do, but I don’t think this is a sensory safe episode for those who can’t deal with flashes.
- Kirk once again employs Operation “Distract with romance”. At least Miranda doesn’t fully buy it.
- Inconsistency on what happens at higher warp. Although I like space-time-continuum as a problem rather then opps the Captain and I had lizard babies.
Sokorra Lewis 