I have a real problem with this episode. The Enterprise encounters an intelligent creature, the last of its race. Knowing this, they still blow it away. Maybe that's something the Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe would do, but this is not the Federation I know.
Yes, the "salt vampire" was killing Kirk's crew. Nothing, but NOTHING gets him madder. But the Horta in "Devil in the Dark" was doing the same -- after killing several dozen miners -- yet Kirk ultimately protects and defends it. (Perhaps his actions with the Horta were the result of lingering guilt over his actions here? Who knows...)
Of course, this creature must take much of the blame for its own demise. It was intelligent and (unlike the Horta) had the ability to communicate easily with humans. When the Enterprise arrived it could have simply appeared in its natural form and explained its need for salt. Crater must have told it that the Enterprise could supply it in large quantities. When the Enterprise arrived, it no longer had to kill to survive.
Given the Federation's (and Kirk's) usual tolerance toward other life forms, especially those being contacted for the first time, it would undoubtedly have been given enough salt for a lifetime.
It probably would even have been forgiven for murdering Nancy Crater, just as the Horta was forgiven for murdering many more. Both creatures, natives of their worlds, had only been trying to survive after the humans arrived uninvited.
Yet instead of simply asking for salt, it immediately began to hunt the Enterprise crew for relatively trivial amounts. And it continued even after the humans discovered its nature and began to methodically hunt it down. Why?
Maybe it really was "evil", as another reviewer suggests. But I think that label should be reserved for entities that act out of pure malice rather than from a survival instinct. Would we humans like to be considered "evil" and worthy of genocide by some highly advanced life form that has learned to live directly on stellar energy because our survival still depends on killing other life forms, plants, at the very least?
In this case a simple death wish seems more likely. It was, after all, the last of its kind. Unless it could reproduce by parthenogenesis (or had a cache of eggs hidden somewhere) its species was doomed already. Maybe it figured it had nothing to live for.
Yet Kirk and crew are still culpable. Yes, they had the right to defend themselves. But consider how the episode ends. The creature had been stunned by a phaser and was no longer a threat. It could have been easily captured at that point; everyone knew it was a shape shifter, so that trick would no longer work. Yet McCoy -- of all people! -- deliberately shot again and killed it. Was that a "justifiable shooting"? I think not.
"Devil in the Dark" was the MUCH better episode.
Yes, the "salt vampire" was killing Kirk's crew. Nothing, but NOTHING gets him madder. But the Horta in "Devil in the Dark" was doing the same -- after killing several dozen miners -- yet Kirk ultimately protects and defends it. (Perhaps his actions with the Horta were the result of lingering guilt over his actions here? Who knows...)
Of course, this creature must take much of the blame for its own demise. It was intelligent and (unlike the Horta) had the ability to communicate easily with humans. When the Enterprise arrived it could have simply appeared in its natural form and explained its need for salt. Crater must have told it that the Enterprise could supply it in large quantities. When the Enterprise arrived, it no longer had to kill to survive.
Given the Federation's (and Kirk's) usual tolerance toward other life forms, especially those being contacted for the first time, it would undoubtedly have been given enough salt for a lifetime.
It probably would even have been forgiven for murdering Nancy Crater, just as the Horta was forgiven for murdering many more. Both creatures, natives of their worlds, had only been trying to survive after the humans arrived uninvited.
Yet instead of simply asking for salt, it immediately began to hunt the Enterprise crew for relatively trivial amounts. And it continued even after the humans discovered its nature and began to methodically hunt it down. Why?
Maybe it really was "evil", as another reviewer suggests. But I think that label should be reserved for entities that act out of pure malice rather than from a survival instinct. Would we humans like to be considered "evil" and worthy of genocide by some highly advanced life form that has learned to live directly on stellar energy because our survival still depends on killing other life forms, plants, at the very least?
In this case a simple death wish seems more likely. It was, after all, the last of its kind. Unless it could reproduce by parthenogenesis (or had a cache of eggs hidden somewhere) its species was doomed already. Maybe it figured it had nothing to live for.
Yet Kirk and crew are still culpable. Yes, they had the right to defend themselves. But consider how the episode ends. The creature had been stunned by a phaser and was no longer a threat. It could have been easily captured at that point; everyone knew it was a shape shifter, so that trick would no longer work. Yet McCoy -- of all people! -- deliberately shot again and killed it. Was that a "justifiable shooting"? I think not.
"Devil in the Dark" was the MUCH better episode.