A ridiculous intro. First we get a dumb, generic, boring B-movie Turkish dance, while Scotty is grinning stupidly (his standard "in love with a lass" face) - and then she gets killed and he's found standing close to the body with the murder weapon in his hand! It doesn't get any cheesier than this - pretty much parody territory - so already there we know that this episode can only get better.
Kirk: "What is the law in these cases...?" Planet's Prefect: "The law on our planet is...love."
Or perhaps not. Might actually get even worse...
McCoy doesn't wait too long to say something stupid, of course: "Another possibility... Amnesia. When a man does something terribly, he blocks it out." McCoy is actually suggesting Scotty is the murderer... Such trust in a comrade, ey? With "friends" like McCoy who needs three-headed lizard enemies.
Just a minute later, Scotty is found next to ANOTHER stabbed woman! So yeah, this episode just keeps getting dumber and dumber, keeps piling on the unintentional jokes. One of the worst 15 minutes in the entire series. All garbage.
Actually, the fact that the 2nd murder occurred could only ABSOLVE Scotty of the first murder, because let's just assume this world doesn't allow the prime murder suspect to carry knives around. Hence Scotty couldn't have killed the blue-shirt. But yeah, let's get a clairvoyant to solve the murders in a cheesy seance: that's always very convincing in a sci-fi series!
But then,... drum roll... a THIRD murder. Of the prefect's wife - DURING the seance, and with Scotty standing behind her with his bloodies hand. Proto Monty Python? Who knows. None of Python's whodunit skits were anywhere close to as silly as this nonsense.
I do like the planet's punishment for murder though, and I quote: "death by slow torture". (On a planet where "the law is love.")
Nice. It must horrify pacifist fans, which is a reason more to implement this on Earth too. Speaking of these awesome people, Trekkies rated this episode higher than a bunch of far better ones. The typical Trekkie notices nothing funny about not one, not two, but THREE silly murders in a row, hence a Trekkie is liable to find this story plausible and intelligent.
Meanwhile, the prosecution lawyer keeps making himself seem extremely guilty, and of course he turns out to be guilty. To make things extra-dumb, he is Jack the Ripper. They made the whole thing dumber than it needed to be with the casting of this Jack the Prosecutor: a tiny, hamster-voiced actor who'd be far more at home in a goofy 60s comedy. Besides, I've always despised movies and stories in which the killer is a cop, judge or prosecutor because it's such a lame, dumb twist - even if they are possessed by some Methuselah ghost as in this case.
We have additional absurdity when the "ghost" escapes the prosecutor's body and actually takes over the computer hence the entire ship. Possessing such enormous powers, why would this thing not kill millions - daily - as opposed to just being satisfied with "breadcrumbs", relatively speaking... Objectively speaking, such a powerful entity killing only a few dozen women per century is a total failure of a killer.
Instead of becoming menacing after the ship's takeover, the episode goes into high camp and then comedy even (courtesy of McCoy's horse tranquilizers), with a giggling crew and the ghost jumping from one body into another, with very cheesy results. Admittedly, things get so stoopid, the last few minutes are actually quite funny.
I have no issue with ST being cheesy, it was often at its best when embracing its cheese. However, the problem here is that we are supposed to take this whodunit seriously, and of course that's not possible.
Kirk: "What is the law in these cases...?" Planet's Prefect: "The law on our planet is...love."
Or perhaps not. Might actually get even worse...
McCoy doesn't wait too long to say something stupid, of course: "Another possibility... Amnesia. When a man does something terribly, he blocks it out." McCoy is actually suggesting Scotty is the murderer... Such trust in a comrade, ey? With "friends" like McCoy who needs three-headed lizard enemies.
Just a minute later, Scotty is found next to ANOTHER stabbed woman! So yeah, this episode just keeps getting dumber and dumber, keeps piling on the unintentional jokes. One of the worst 15 minutes in the entire series. All garbage.
Actually, the fact that the 2nd murder occurred could only ABSOLVE Scotty of the first murder, because let's just assume this world doesn't allow the prime murder suspect to carry knives around. Hence Scotty couldn't have killed the blue-shirt. But yeah, let's get a clairvoyant to solve the murders in a cheesy seance: that's always very convincing in a sci-fi series!
But then,... drum roll... a THIRD murder. Of the prefect's wife - DURING the seance, and with Scotty standing behind her with his bloodies hand. Proto Monty Python? Who knows. None of Python's whodunit skits were anywhere close to as silly as this nonsense.
I do like the planet's punishment for murder though, and I quote: "death by slow torture". (On a planet where "the law is love.")
Nice. It must horrify pacifist fans, which is a reason more to implement this on Earth too. Speaking of these awesome people, Trekkies rated this episode higher than a bunch of far better ones. The typical Trekkie notices nothing funny about not one, not two, but THREE silly murders in a row, hence a Trekkie is liable to find this story plausible and intelligent.
Meanwhile, the prosecution lawyer keeps making himself seem extremely guilty, and of course he turns out to be guilty. To make things extra-dumb, he is Jack the Ripper. They made the whole thing dumber than it needed to be with the casting of this Jack the Prosecutor: a tiny, hamster-voiced actor who'd be far more at home in a goofy 60s comedy. Besides, I've always despised movies and stories in which the killer is a cop, judge or prosecutor because it's such a lame, dumb twist - even if they are possessed by some Methuselah ghost as in this case.
We have additional absurdity when the "ghost" escapes the prosecutor's body and actually takes over the computer hence the entire ship. Possessing such enormous powers, why would this thing not kill millions - daily - as opposed to just being satisfied with "breadcrumbs", relatively speaking... Objectively speaking, such a powerful entity killing only a few dozen women per century is a total failure of a killer.
Instead of becoming menacing after the ship's takeover, the episode goes into high camp and then comedy even (courtesy of McCoy's horse tranquilizers), with a giggling crew and the ghost jumping from one body into another, with very cheesy results. Admittedly, things get so stoopid, the last few minutes are actually quite funny.
I have no issue with ST being cheesy, it was often at its best when embracing its cheese. However, the problem here is that we are supposed to take this whodunit seriously, and of course that's not possible.