In "By Any Other Name", the Enterprise heads to a planet's surface after receiving a distress call. It turns out to be a trap as a technologically superior race known as the Kelvans take over control of the Enterprsie with a weapon that can freeze people in a force field or turn them into a small rock. After discarding the unnecessary crew and leaving Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty, the Kelvans steer the ship for their home world, a 300 year long journey intended to relay a message that the Kelvan have found hospitable planets to conquer in the Federation's galaxy. Kirk must figure out a way to wrestle back control of his ship and regain his crew from the Kelvan in control Rojan.
This episode is... bizarre. It starts off very gruesome and dark; a member of the landing party is killed to send a message. The rest of the crew is placed in rock form and left for dead. The Enterprise is recommissioned as a taxi service taking the Kelvans back to their empire. Despite all this dire situation, the second half becomes very light-hearted and comical. Spock figures out that since the Kelvans were forced to take human form, they can be corrupted with human desires. Scotty turns one of the Kelvans into an alcoholic and drinks him under the table. Kirk puts the moves on another, seducing her, much to the chagrin of Rojan who has developed feelings for her in this short time. Spock sows seeds of distrust between Kirk and Rojan, aggravating things further.
Everything is all tidied up nicely in the final few minutes. Kirk convinces Rojan to turn around and colonize the planet where the two men first met. Kelinda does a 180 and decides she loves Rojan instead of Kirk. Scotty passes out drunk. Everyone lives happily ever after or something. Alrighty then...
The idea of a species forcing themselves to take humanoid form and then being corrupted by humanoid desires is a fun idea and has been done in Star Trek before (see Catspaw for one example), but the tonal shifts of this episode makes the payoff less fun. This episode either needs to stay dark like the first act or be comedic like the last two; combining the two is problematic.
There's no repercussions for Rojan. He killed a member of Star Fleet for no good reason, yet nothing comes of this that we know of. The Enterprise is modded to go warp 11 by the Kelvans, yet this is never addressed in future episodes. The script is what is mostly wrong with this episode; it causes the tonal shift and leaves a lot of unanswered questions for the audience to have to piece together.
This episode is... bizarre. It starts off very gruesome and dark; a member of the landing party is killed to send a message. The rest of the crew is placed in rock form and left for dead. The Enterprise is recommissioned as a taxi service taking the Kelvans back to their empire. Despite all this dire situation, the second half becomes very light-hearted and comical. Spock figures out that since the Kelvans were forced to take human form, they can be corrupted with human desires. Scotty turns one of the Kelvans into an alcoholic and drinks him under the table. Kirk puts the moves on another, seducing her, much to the chagrin of Rojan who has developed feelings for her in this short time. Spock sows seeds of distrust between Kirk and Rojan, aggravating things further.
Everything is all tidied up nicely in the final few minutes. Kirk convinces Rojan to turn around and colonize the planet where the two men first met. Kelinda does a 180 and decides she loves Rojan instead of Kirk. Scotty passes out drunk. Everyone lives happily ever after or something. Alrighty then...
The idea of a species forcing themselves to take humanoid form and then being corrupted by humanoid desires is a fun idea and has been done in Star Trek before (see Catspaw for one example), but the tonal shifts of this episode makes the payoff less fun. This episode either needs to stay dark like the first act or be comedic like the last two; combining the two is problematic.
There's no repercussions for Rojan. He killed a member of Star Fleet for no good reason, yet nothing comes of this that we know of. The Enterprise is modded to go warp 11 by the Kelvans, yet this is never addressed in future episodes. The script is what is mostly wrong with this episode; it causes the tonal shift and leaves a lot of unanswered questions for the audience to have to piece together.