March 9, 1967
6149-26
Kirk investigates a series of grisly murders on a mining planet that are the work of a seemingly hostile alien creature.
Read Full Recap » (warning: possible spoilers!)Kirk, Spock and McCoy investigate a series of incidents on a mining in which workers have been killed by a seemingly hostile subterranean creature. Although it looks somewhat cheap and dated in places, mostly a good episode... hide show
(Note that, as with all of my 'Star Trek' reviews, I am reviewing the original versions; I have not yet seen the remastered versions).
I have been watching 'Star Trek' since I was very young, thanks to my father who was a casual viewer. When I started to really get into it during my teens, this episode stuck in my mind as being one of my favourites for whatever reasons.
Something that works against this episode somewhat is its cheap and dated look. In most cases, I will defend original 'Trek' episodes, as I believe they mostly worked wonders considering the technical limitations of the time, not to mention the usually tight budget. But I have to admit, this one looks a bit ropey in places.
A key example of this is the backdrop to the mining colony; while elsewhere in the series we are treated to some stunning matte backdrops, this one sadly just looks like a cheap painting, and looks very unconvincing.
The caves too aren't the best (looking distinctly like paper mache in places), and the creature itself looks like something from a weaker moment of vintage-era 'Doctor Who'. Some episodes have dated better than others, and I have to say, time hasn't been very kind to this one.
But for all that, the episode is redeemed by being a really good story. Look past the dodgy effects and sets, and this is a great piece of 'Trek' writing and direction.
Unusual with this episode, is that it features extremely little of the Starship Enterprise. The entire teaser does not feature any crew members – a rarity in itself – and we only get a brief Enterprise scene at the start of the second act, and in the final, obligatory "all laugh at Spock" scene.
William Shatner has commented that this is his favourite 'Trek' episode, and in many respects I can see why. It is an interesting story, with an interesting twist in the tale, which makes you question just who the real villain of the piece is. Where other shows would dish up standard 'monster of the week' stories, 'Star Trek' would offer up more thoughtful – yet none the less entertaining – tales such as this.
Talking of Shatner, I did notice in a number of shots from behind that it was a double in his place. This would be explained by the fact that his father passed away during filming of this episode, so a double was used in rear shots to allow him some time away.
As I say, as a teen I really liked this story, and I still enjoy it. There are a couple of moments where things slow up a little (heck, that's the case in many episodes), but if you're prepared to forgive the dodgy effects and sets, this is a really good episode.
attack of the horta. hide show
a monster has killed 50 mean on palnet janus vi. so the leader calls to kirk to help them investigate and they discover the creature that is killing the men and kirk woounds it. the monster also destroyed the life support machine. kirk later finds the monster and has spock talk to it using the mind meld where they learn that they killed her babys so thats why see was attacknig so then the the convince the horta to help with the mining efforts since it was so good at tunneling and the people of janus vi discover more elements then they ever knew where there anf they will become rich. dr.mccoy healed the horta with concrete. a great episode.
The devil made me do It! hide show
Kirk, Mr. Spoock and Dr. McCoy are on Janus VI to investigate a monster attacking workers. They don't know the cause, but spook knows why the monster's doing it by examing a series of egg like balls that the workers may have found. Kirk is battling the creature the wrong way. Mr. spook knows how to communicate with the creature is thje key for the reason why the creature was attacking the workers. it lies within the egg-like balls as the key. it's a rare that the crew will take on stuff like the creature, but this is a good epiosde, if not a great episode.
Miners on Janus VI get scared by some guy crawling under a poorly constructed turtle costume hide show
What a beautiful message, really. I love the occasional theme in Star Trek that peace and beauty among other things are not always easy to see by mere appearance. I read it was one of Shatner's favorites with the additional side item that he lost his father during the shooting of this episode and the crew was quite supportive to him. I have used the "Horta lesson" many times in my life on misjudgment of character and behavior of people and situations. The creepiness and terror of this episode is overcome by warmth. What a nice idea.
Beware of The Blob … hide show
This a well-thought of episode that has Kirk and Spock tracking down a mysterious killer in the tunnels of a deep space mining colony. The murderer turns out to be an intelligent creature protecting its eggs from the careless miners.
There’s some stand-out scenes where Spock establishes a mind-meld with the silicon-based, rock-like creature – a “horta” – to discover its intentions and McCoy has a cute comedy bit when he “cures” the wounded creature by plastering up its lesions with quick-drying cement.
But to see the real value of this story, you have to consider what was going on in other “sci-fi” shows of the period. In series like “Lost in Space” the monsters attacked the Earthlings because, well, that’s what monsters do. They don’t need motivation because we all know that ugly aliens like to attack attractive humans. What Roddenberry and Coon did with this STAR TREK episode is ask, “WHY does the creature attack the humans” and then they came up with a pretty good answer.
And that’s why the STAR TREK franchise has lasted forty tears and all the other shows were left behind in the 1960s …
Gislef
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