Series: Star Trek (The Original Series)
Episode: 3.19 Requiem for Methuselah (02-14-1969)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 3/9/58
Notable Guest Stars:
James Daly – Flint. Character actor who appeared on shows such as Ironside, Mission Impossible and The Fugitive.
Louise Sorel – Rayna Kapec. She currently can be found on the TV series Beacon Hill, and was also known for being Vivian Alamain on Days of Our Lives.
Review:
The Enterprise is going through an epidemic of Rigellian Fever. The only known treatment of the disease is ryetalin, a mineral they found on a planet they thought was uninhabited but turned out to be the planet inhavited by Flint.
Kirk almost begs for the medicine, but Flint is unmoved. That is until McCoy brings up the bubonic plague, which is the closest earth disease similar to Rigellian fever. Given that McCoy says it kills within 24 hours, it must be a faster acting. Pneumonic plague does kill that quickly though.
Flint’s female companion gets to watch Kirk and the others through her flat screen TV. Which is kind of amazing since it would probably be a good forty some years before those got on the market. But then Enterprise has graphic interface computers, which came out in the late seventies, so its not unusual for them to have products predating their actual existence.
Rayna turns out to be an Android which causes many problems. First, everyone is a bit confused (except Flint), and also Kirk has fallen in love with Rayna, at first thinking that Flint has been pushing them together. The two men start fighting each other while Spock and McCoy look on and Rayna finally steps in and reminds them its her choice.
While I feel the overall episode fell a little falt, I do like that they gave Rayna the choice, though she ended up dying from not wanting to hurt either one of them. Rayna wasn’t developed enough for me to really believe the love affair between her and Kirk to be significant, although apparently Spock found it enough to do a mental block on Kirk.
Interesting Notes:
- Directed by Murry Golden
- Written by Jerome Bixby
- The last name of Rayna is a anagram of Karel Capek’s last name. He introduced the word robot to the masses.
- The last episode was the last time crew people died *on screen* This episode has three crew people die off screen which I’m including in my redshirt number because I decided it counts as any deaths seen or mentioned on screen of people serving on the Enterprise.
Pros:
- I’m noticing as the season goes on, Kirk’s hair becomes less gelled back, and more like what it is in the movies. It’s a better looks for him, in my opinion. McCoy’s haircut is also improving.
- Rayna’s dress is actually pretty nice. Has a nice sandstone pattern to it and looks like it wasn’t just made out of remnants of whatever the costume department had on hand.
Cons:
- Nothing really stands out.
Sokorra Lewis 