Original air date: October 6,1966
SYNOPSIS
A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two halves: one meek and indecisive, the other violent and ill tempered. The remaining crew members stranded on the planet cannot be beamed up to the ship until a problem is fixed.
CANON CONTEXT
One of the first episodes to have a distinct B story which the principal writer, Richard Matheson, was against as he wanted to focus on the main story of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Also, this was one of the few episodes to have a full score written for it.
RECAP
Okay, of all the episodes I’ve seen thus far, this one had me the most confused. No real explanation as to why the transporter malfunctioned. Just to know that when it was used on a dog in a creepy halloween costume and Captain Kirk is divided them in two. Not like twins. But instead two halves. One half is good and timid and loving. While the other half is constantly referred to as the “evil” side. This bothered me because while they say it’s the bad side, they also acknowledge how without it Captain Kirk could never be an effective captain. One side has his intellect and courage while the other his strength. And yet, it was the other side that was simply frightening.
If not for the way he walked and looked, there was the obvious bad scene that was about to take place involving yeoman Janice Rand. This poor girl is put through the wringer in this show, I swear. Anyhow, this “evil” captain hides out in her quarters and you can imagine what happens.
It’s enough to make anyone’s blood boil, or at least the person watching (ie me) feel a bit uncomfortable and uneasy with the whole thing. Luckily, she manages to escape and we come to the scene that I’m sure all women who deal with harassment in the workplace have to deal with when they try to stand up for themselves:
Surrounded by three men standing over her as if she must be mistaken. How dare she accuse the captain of such wrong-doing? If not for a fellow officer being present to corroborate her story I have a feeling she wouldn’t have been believed. How true that is nearly 60 years later…
Anyhow, there are four more crew members down on the planet where it reaches temperatures of negative 120 degrees. Pretty deadly. They can’t be transported back on board until the malfunction is fixed. Mixed in with the stress of a Captain Kirk imposter that needs to be captured they manage to put random moments of Sulu calling the ship to find out when they can be brought back on board. Each scene filled with baseless humor that doesn’t really connect but I guess the episode is so tense the writers wanted to inject some lightheartedness where they could.
In the end the decision had to be made to use the transporter to bring the two halves of Captain Kirk back together to be one. I won’t go into the test they did prior to, except to say it didn’t work. Nonetheless, the decision is made and the evil captain, after making a plea of, “I want to live,” over and over again, falls into the arms of the good Kirk.
CGI being what it wasn’t back in the 60’s, William Shatner had to hold up his stunt double while the rejoining was done. It worked, of course.
DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT?
Lt. Cmdr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, M.D.: He's dead, Jim.