- Existence itself comes under threat from a man's power-struggle with his alternate self, with the Enterprise's strained dilithium crystals presenting his key to a final solution.
- While investigating and scanning an uncharted planet, the Enterprise and its quadrant of space are subjected to a violent force that seems to cause a 'blinking out' of everything near them. When the scanners resume, where once there was no life on the planet, now there is one life sign. Kirk, Spock and a security force beam down to investigate and find a man named Lazarus who collapses and is brought aboard the Enterprise for treatment. To complicate things further, the initial phenomenon almost totally drained their dilithium crystals. Starfleet and Kirk suspect this phenomenon could be a prelude to invasion. While interrogating Lazarus he tells Kirk that he's locked in a struggle with another being who is 'anti life' and is behind the phenomenon. The disruptions continue to occur and the ship's situation grows worse.—tomtrekp
- While mapping the uninhabited planet below, the Enterprise - indeed the entire galaxy - is affected by a powerful force after which a single human, Lazarus, is found on the planet. He claims to be after an evil creature who destroyed his entire civilization, but Spock can identify no other creature on the planet. Lazarus is in fact a time traveler who has been battling an alternate version of himself from an alternate universe. When Lazarus' opponent steals the ship's dilithium crystals, solving the mystery becomes a matter of life and death for Kirk and the crew.—garykmcd
- Enterprise is in a distant sector at the edge of the galaxy and there is a tremendous surge that throws all of the crew and yeomen to the floor. The Enterprise was studying a barren planet, which suddenly now shows a sign of a single life form. The life form appeared with the energy surge. The Federation thinks that this blinking means that there will be an invasion. furthermore they withdraw all ships within a 100 parsecs of the Enterprise as the blinking originated from the area Enterprise is patrolling, but impacted every quadrant of the galaxy and much more beyond.
Kirk beams down and finds there is a small ship, and up on the mountain is a tall man named Lazarus (Robert Brown), taller than any of them. He tells them to run away, he runs down the mountain and falls off. His head is bleeding badly. They beam back up. The assistant engineer, Lt Masters (Janet MacLachlan), an African woman with very short black hair, very serious but beautiful, is concerned about the engines. The surge drained the Dilithium crystals and this could mean trouble for the engines.
Lazarus meanwhile is hurt and has a bandage. He tells Kirk to kill the beast below. This beast, as Lazarus calls him, will destroy the universe (as it has killed every man, woman and child in his own civilization). Lazarus says he escaped his home planet in his ship and has been chased by the beast to the current planet. Now each time the landing party beams down and beams back up (with Lazarus), Lazarus seems different. Sometimes he is wearing the bandage, sometimes not, sometimes calm, sometimes insane. Every time Lazarus seems to change, the change is accompanies by the celestial event and the energy surge.. The calm version has the bandage and the insane version doesn't.
Spock detects a radiation on the planet's surface, but no source. He thinks its a rip in our physical universe. Lazarus wants control of the ship's Dilithium crystals to destroy the beast. The insane version steals the crystals and the calm version of Lazarus asks Kirk to find his enemy to find the crystals. Kirk confronts the calm version and says that there is no planet at the location where he says he comes from. Calm Lazarus admits that he is a time traveler. Spock theorizes that the ship's instruments are designed to measure all energy and matter in this universe. The fact that the source and energy of the radiation cant be detected means it is not from the current Universe, but a parallel one. And the beast is nothing but the negative self of Lazarus from the parallel anti-universe. If these two matter and anti-matter meet, then there will be total destruction of everything.
Lazarus steals the Dilithium crystals and beams to the surface. Lt Masters has got the engines under control. Kirk beams down and goes into the ship after the calm Lazarus. He is transported to an alternate universe because the little ship is a door to the other universe. In the other universe, Kirk meets the calm Lazarus who says that he is from the parallel universe. Some yrs ago his people figured out how to travel from one universe to the other, which involves crossing a threshold. But the Lazarus from Kirk's Universe couldn't handle this truth, and referred to his mirror Image as the beast. The insane Lazarus wants to use the Dilithium crystals to travel to the parallel universe to kill his mirror image, not realizing that he will destroy the universe in the process. The sane Lazarus asks Kirk to push the insane Lazarus into the threshold, where the sane one will be waiting. He will hold the insane Lazarus while Kirk destroys the ship in his own Universe. This will destroy the ship in both universes and both Lazarus's will be stuck in the Threshold for eternity. This is the only way to solve the issue.
Kirk agrees. He goes through the portal and tricks and pushes the other Lazarus onto the little ship, then the first Lazarus enters from his side and blows up the ship. The two are trapped forever in limbo, fighting each other.
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