This is simply the best episode of Season three of Star Trek--and one of the top 10 shows of Classic Trek in my view. Kirk behaves strangely and appears psychologically unstable to his crew and to Dr. McCoy when he orders the Enterprise to enter into Romulan space. The Enterprise is then quickly captured by the Romulans. To make matters worse, Kirk attacks Spock in a fit of rage while in a Romulan brig before Dr. McCoy. Spock unthinkingly but spontaneously appears to kill the Captain with the Vulcan Death Grip. It looks like all is lost due to Kirk's bout of insanity...until we see how the story finishes. Meanwhile, the Romulan commander tempts Spock with several rewards and incentives to betray the Enterprise crew and allow the ship to fall under her control. Can things get even worse? Soon, however, we notice that all is not all it seems. Nurse Chapel is the one first Enterprise member of the crew to notice that something is wrong when she tells Dr. McCoy: '...there's no such thing as a Vulcan Death Grip.'
At the show's conclusion, it is the unfortunate Romulan commander who winds up looking like the dunce instead. Like Hamlet, Kirk is saying to us: 'There is method to my madness. Just watch me, I'm not really crazy.' Once she becomes a prisoner on the Enterprise, the Romulan commander retains her smarts and tells Spock (who had tried to seduce her) that their sensuous contact will be their secret alone to keep. I thought this was a classy touch from her. Joanne Linville is marvellous as the emotionally sensitive Romulan commander--one of the best performances that anyone can ever dream off from a visiting cast member.
This was one of Dorothy Fontana's greatest Star Trek scripts after "Journey to Babel." It is strange to think today that Gene Roddenberry was so afraid NBC would reject her scripts because she was a woman that he asked her to sign her plays as 'DC Fontana' instead. Talent certainly does not discriminate between gender here.
At the show's conclusion, it is the unfortunate Romulan commander who winds up looking like the dunce instead. Like Hamlet, Kirk is saying to us: 'There is method to my madness. Just watch me, I'm not really crazy.' Once she becomes a prisoner on the Enterprise, the Romulan commander retains her smarts and tells Spock (who had tried to seduce her) that their sensuous contact will be their secret alone to keep. I thought this was a classy touch from her. Joanne Linville is marvellous as the emotionally sensitive Romulan commander--one of the best performances that anyone can ever dream off from a visiting cast member.
This was one of Dorothy Fontana's greatest Star Trek scripts after "Journey to Babel." It is strange to think today that Gene Roddenberry was so afraid NBC would reject her scripts because she was a woman that he asked her to sign her plays as 'DC Fontana' instead. Talent certainly does not discriminate between gender here.