The Enemy Within

Season 1, Episode 5, Aired
EDIT

Episode Summary

A transporter malfunction causes Captain Kirk to split into his "good" and "evil" selves, and a landing party will freeze to death if the crew is unable to find a way to merge the two Kirks back together.
8.3
out of 10
EPISODE RATING: Great
214 votes
  • Your Rating: 10
    "Perfect"
  • Your Rating: 9.5
    "Superb"
  • Your Rating: 9
    "Superb"
  • Your Rating: 8.5
    "Great"
  • Your Rating: 8
    "Great"
  • Your Rating: 7.5
    "Good"
  • Your Rating: 7
    "Good"
  • Your Rating: 6.5
    "Fair"
  • Your Rating: 6
    "Fair"
  • Your Rating: 5.5
    "Mediocre"
  • Your Rating: 5
    "Mediocre"
  • Your Rating: 4.5
    "Poor"
  • Your Rating: 4
    "Poor"
  • Your Rating: 3.5
    "Bad"
  • Your Rating: 3
    "Bad"
  • Your Rating: 2.5
    "Terrible"
  • Your Rating: 2
    "Terrible"
  • Your Rating: 1.5
    "Abysmal"
  • Your Rating: 1
    "Abysmal"
Rate It

Watch Online

Netflix
Subscription
iTunes
Buy
VUDU
Buy/Rent

Cast & Crew

See All EDIT

Fan Episode Reviews (12)

See All

  • Captain Kirk gets duplicated in the transporter into a "good" Kirk, and a "bad" Kirk. There is a group of 4 men on the planet including Sulu who will freeze to death, but they cant be beamed up with the transporter causing doubles.moreless

    8.0
    "Great"
    By Deo13, Sep 10, 2011 Report Abuse
    Great episode, with the evil Kirk always having the shadow on his face to make him look dark and bad. The doglike creature shown at the beginning of the episode is pretty funny looking, kind of like a unicorn dog or something. With a party down on the planet which will get incredibly cold as the day wears on, but the transporter making duplicates of good/evil in a person or animal they cant bring that party aboard. So Kirk tries to keep everything together but finds his will and power of command slowly weakening. This episode keeps you thinking and shows the difference between good and evil. All in all if you are a big Shatner fan, give the episode a go... he appears as two people .. how much more Shatner do you need? Anybody who liked the series ... watch this episode ... its a good one.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    3 0

  • To thine own selves be true....

    8.0
    "Great"
    By uk6strings, Oct 22, 2010 Report Abuse
    In "The Enemy Within," the Enterprise crew has to look out for an evil James Kirk when a malfunction in the transporter created two Kirks: an all-evil Kirk and an all-good Kirk.

    "The Enemy Within" is a thrilling and well acted Star Trek episode about the human condition. The episode pushes the envelope for late 1960s television as the evil Kirk gets a little too physical with Yeoman Rand - that scene is still shocking to this day. The evil Kirk is a formidable opponent - but is he as bad as one might think? Does the nice Kirk need his evil to be back to his normal self? This is an interesting theme and is dealt with extremely well by the Star Trek writers and filmmakers. Also, the fact that the transporter is not working - since it happens to be creating two different halves of people - makes it unable for the Enterprise to beam an expedition team off of a rapidly cooling planet. This aspect of the story gives urgency to the tale of two Kirks aspect.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    1 0

  • Captain Kirk is split into two people, one good and one evil.

    6.5
    "Fair"
    By Celedorian, Oct 22, 2010 Report Abuse
    For decades, whenever William Shatner was asked which Star Trek episode was his favorite, he'd reply, "'The Enemy Within'. It's got me twice. What could be better?"

    The truth is the episode is rather lacking. Star Trek would do the "evil twin" concept much better after this first effort. The problem is that Shatner plays the two halves so over the top, neither one is very likeable. Furthermore, most people could guess the ending after watching the first five minutes, but it takes forever to get there. On the plus side, there's some good philosophical arguments made about good versus evil, and their importance to us and command. And watching Shatner overact isn't all bad; sometimes it's funny.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    1 0

  • A transporter malfunction results in Captain Kirk being 'split in two' one half brutal, the other unable to make decisions. With an away team stuck on a freezing planet unable to transport up, finding a solution is paramount. An enjoyable story...moreless

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By Jay-Spacedust, Oct 19, 2008 Report Abuse
    This is a very good first season episode, and it is interesting to see Captain Kirk "split in two", with one half good, one half bad. Although limited by the effects of the time, there is some good lighting and the odd clever jump edit that brings the "bad" Kirk to life.

    I have always loved 'evil twin' scenarios, and the second season's classic "Mirror, Mirror" has always been one of my favourite 'Star Trek' episodes. Likewise, this episode taps into a similar vein, and it is great to see the good Kirk, unable to make decisions after being split in half, try to get his bad half under control.

    There is a noticeable mistake running through the earlier parts of the episode, where both Kirk and the bad Kirk have their insignia missing from their uniform tops. Apparently it had been removed when the top was dry-cleaned, and nobody noticed that it hadn't been reattached pretty slack on somebody's behalf, and surely someone must have noticed! Further bloopers appear later in the story when the bad Kirk is on the bridge the viewscreen behind him can be seen to be blank; and the scratches on his face jump sides on close-ups (due to the film being reversed).

    Anyway, the story is a good one, and the added twist of Mr. Sulu and co. being stuck down on the freezing planet, unable to beam up, adds some extra urgency to proceedings. It did strike me, though, why a shuttle wasn't launched to pick them up even if it would take time getting there, it surely would at least have been a back-up plan. Or maybe I missed something there.

    As good as the story is, if I was forced to be critical, I would say that it loses its way in the latter stages. After the bad Kirk has been captured, and the good Kirk tries to bond with him, the story seems to go slightly limp, and lose some of its urgency. Likewise, the bad Kirk doesn't actually seem all that bad later on he just shouts and rants a lot. But these are more just nitpicks than anything. All-in-all, a good story.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    0 0

  • A good exploration of the limits of both a person and a technology in a sc-fi setting.

    8.8
    "Great"
    By Mac-Ale, Sep 13, 2008 Report Abuse
    A transporter malfunction splits Kirk into two separate men, each retaining only parts of his personality and abilities.

    While this is possibly not one of the most exciting episodes of the series and it takes place mostly on the ship set, it does a good job mining the horror of the situation. I like the idea that the Enterprise is so dependent on its transporters, so much so that a crew might be stranded if something goes wrong. While the writers soon "invented" the shuttlecraft, the drama here is pretty sharp and effective. Sulu's line about lowering a pot of coffee from orbit is one of my favorites of the series, it's funny and "plucky" at the same time.

    And if a spaceship is going to have a matter scrambler/assembler, this story is a memorable example of how it might "go wrong". Not realistic, but memorable. Shatner always rises and falls based on his overblown reading of lines (even to this day on "Boston Legal"), and here it's perfect as he's asked to play outrageous and exaggerated versions of his character. He's not only at his best as belicose but as whining, petulant, and vain. The scenes of him staggering about the decks with a bottle of Sorian Brandy are just about perfect for the story. This installment also is not shy about dealing with sexual assualt, fairly rare for the time it was made. Spock's line to Rand at the conclusion is a nice "spicy" element to the program that is often lost in later episodes.

    As a balanced story, one of the best of the series.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    0 0
 

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

See All

  • Trivia

    ADD TRIVIA
    • Why don't they just beam up the landing party and have a security team standing by to subdue the "evil" versions when they come through? It would buy time to find a solution, and even if no solution is found, wouldn't dying as split good and evil parts be preferable to freezing to death? Edit
    • When "evil" Kirk blasts the panel in Engineering, why do Spock and "good" Kirk not report it to a repair crew, but instead, have Scotty stumble on to it later? Edit
    • When "good" Kirk and Spock step into the transporter to go to sick bay, there is slight jump in the frame before "evil" Kirk's blood-stained hand thrusts onto the screen - revealing the cut that allows William Shatner to be in two places at once. Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • The original script called for Spock to "karate" chop the evil Kirk at one point. Leonard Nimoy felt the action was too violent for a pacifist character, and so developed the famous "Vulcan Nerve Pinch" instead. Edit
    • This was originally scheduled to be the fourth episode. Edit
    • This episode marked the first appearance of Kirk's alternate green uniform. It was introduced primarily to tell the "good" Kirk from the "evil" Kirk. However, the producers liked the idea of setting the captain apart with a different colored uniform so they used it frequently throughout the series. Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • Janice Rand: (startled) Oh! Captain. You startled me. Is there something that you... can I help you, Captain? Animal Kirk: "Jim" will do here, Janice. Edit
    • Kirk: (his two halves reunited) Thank you, Mr. Spock - from both of us. Edit
    • Sulu: (freezing on the planet's surface) Any chance you can lower us down a pot of hot coffee? Kirk: I'll see what I can do. Sulu: Rice wine will do if you're short on coffee. Edit

  • Allusions

Show Forums

See All
Last Activity
Replies

Watch Star Trek Full Episodes

See All

Related Shows

Season 1 Episodes

See All
Ep 29
Operation -- Annihilate!
Ep 28
The City on the Edge of Fo...
Ep 27
The Alternative Factor
Ep 26
Errand of Mercy
Ep 25
The Devil in the Dark
Ep 24
This Side of Paradise
Ep 23
A Taste of Armageddon
Ep 22
Space Seed
Ep 21
The Return of the Archons
Ep 20
Court Martial
Ep 19
Tomorrow is Yesterday
Ep 18
Arena
Ep 17
The Squire of Gothos
Ep 16
The Galileo Seven
Ep 15
Shore Leave
Ep 14
Balance of Terror
Ep 13
The Conscience of the King
Ep 12
The Menagerie - Part II
Ep 11
The Menagerie - Part I
Ep 10
The Corbomite Maneuver
Ep 9
Dagger of the Mind
Ep 8
Miri
Ep 7
What Are Little Girls Made...
Ep 6
Mudd's Women
Ep 5
The Enemy Within
Ep 4
The Naked Time
Ep 3
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Ep 2
Charlie X
Ep 1
The Man Trap
 
The Cage

Contributors

Become a contributor
More
Less

TV Listings

Full Listings
BROWSE | Shows | Videos | News | Listings | Forums | People | Photos | TV.com Blog

CBS Entertainment | About TV.com | About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Ad Choice | Terms of Use