The Devil in the Dark (Star Trek TOS - S1E26)

[Haling Frequencies Open]
Here’s a short, funny episode preview pulled from your episode’s tone and moments:

A mining colony calls for help after something starts turning workers into crispy space dust… and Kirk immediately declares war on what might just be a very angry lava lasagna.

Meanwhile, Spock is fascinated by some suspiciously bouncy “rocks,” McCoy refuses to become a space veterinarian, and the crew slowly realizes the “monster” might just be a stressed-out single mom protecting her eggs.

It’s phasers, philosophy, and one very awkward first contact—plus a reminder that maybe don’t mess with someone’s nursery.
[End Transmission]

Transcript

Intro

SPEAKER_02 0:16

And then you have to almost talking. I'm your Star Trek movie who checks out on Tang.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

I'm your Star Trek expert, and it's here to get the Tangents back on track.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode, and this week we watched Star Trek, the original series.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Season one, episode 25, The Devil in the Dark.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Welcome back, everyone. Thank you all for joining us for another episode. Twenty-five. Twenty-five. Officially 26. Because again, the numbering sequences, the cage is zero zero. So 26th episode of the podcast. It's still exciting. Jackie made a comment to me as she was watching the episode and I was walking by the living room. You have some memory of this episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

I have seen this as a child. A wee a wee girl. Okay. Okay, so you have some memory of it. Yes. But last week you gave a turbolift tease.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Well, I didn't know the title and this episode went together.

Initial Impressions

SPEAKER_01 1:20

In which you gave a guess to I'm sure it was delightful. This week's episode's plot. So computer. What was Jackie's turboliftase last week? So, Jackie, how accurate do you think your guess was this week now that you've seen the episode? It it obviously is for a different episode. I think you got it wrong. No. You mix them up. I definitely got my notes correct. So definitely not a episode about a stowaway, not an episode about the Enterprise closing out a mission or anything along those lines. So you you got the wrong, you picked up the wrong one. Sure. So where do you remember watching this episode? At home. Oh, when I was a child, it was my dad. Okay. So do you remember all of it? Was it No, just the end. Just the end. So it's just kind of the little the ending and some of the little details to it. Yes. Okay. The balls. The balls. Did you know in the beginning when they're in the administrator's office and we get the first glimpse of one of those balls and Spock's fascination with it? Was it obvious to you that it was an egg? No. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

No, I didn't know any of that. All I remember is thinking, wow, we had all those little balls at the grocery store. Yes. Yes. Because you know, the little bouncy ball. Except now they have princess faces on them. Right. My grocery store, it was just, can we have the glitter one?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

The glitter one. Yeah. Yep. So Spock and his fascination with the balls. Yes. What other than that are your initial impressions to this week's episode? What did you think of it?

SPEAKER_02 3:32

I mean, I honestly laughed through a bunch a bunch of it because I just couldn't see all these grown men gathering around these weird looking objects, and I don't know. They were so serious, and I was just like, wow, that's a ball. You know, just me just thinking them acting that's a ball in the styrofoam set.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

That's a they're in a styrofoam set. That's a guy under a blanket with a bunch of crap glued to it.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Yes. Or else like McCoy's like, I can't fix this. And he's like, I'm a star. I'm the I'm the star of the episode at the very end. Or or like uh when they went down the two tunnels, and Spock must have like great legs. He had he worked out really good on his legs because he's super crouched walking on his like bent legs, and Kirk is crawling through the tunnel and then kneeling. I don't know. I just think it's funny. The more that my body breaks, the more I notice how other people work.

unknown 4:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

So ultimately, with all the laughing aside, did you like the episode? I did. You did like the episode. Yes, I did. I like the episode too. It's got a lot of fun little things to the episode without without injecting too much into the episode. For a plot, it's very streamlined. Yes. We have the straightforwardness of a monster attacking everyone. It slowly builds and builds and gets more and more serious. We have the increase in aggression of hunting the monster. We have the big reveal at the end that they're not a monster, the resolution. They don't try to inject too much into it, I think. There's not a whole lot of outside plot points being introduced and dragged in. If anything, it's just a straightforward plot, which I enjoy. Love the set. I think it's a fun set.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Yes. I whenever they throw lots of things at once, that is very confusing for me. And this was very like A B B C Oh, there's a D. Oh, back on track kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Right. And of course, there's always gonna be that 11th hour reveal for a plot twist at the end to make the episode interesting, but I enjoy it when it's something that doesn't have to revolve around some kind of made up pseudo-sci-fi science where they go, oh, by the way, we have this wonderful technology that we're just gonna pull out of our rear ends and use it. We already are familiar with the Vulcan Mind Meld.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Yes. I learned more about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

It could do a lot of things. It can do a lot of things. So we already know about the Vulcan Mind Meld, which is kind of what brings us around the turn of the plot to get to the resolution. We didn't have to invent some other piece of technology. Scotty didn't have to wire together some kind of universal translator that hasn't existed before. So he made a dialysis machine. Made a dialysis machine. Well, he made a pump.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

So but I also noticed that the men and women who play these characters, they are also getting more pretty. And we're having lots of glamour shots in the camera action. Who is the pretty character in this episode? We had both Spock and Kirk have that duo side-by-side profile shot. Okay. And then we have Scotty when he's on the Enterprise, like he's all glammed up. And then we have McCoy with his hand up someone's butt. Ooh.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

I guess it Jackie has identified the butt on the carpet monster. Don't know that that's how that works, but okay. Um definitely the episode and the camera framing. The fact that it takes place in these cavern sets, I think adds a lot of interesting camera work that they're able to do that they don't normally get to do in other settings and rooms and on the bridge and so forth. So it it is a pretty episode. It's yes, I love the colors. It's a great, great use of the colors. We've talked about it before, how this the original series was used to kind of push and sell color televisions at the time. They're a new invention.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

And also, we have to remember that this planet is totally for mining, and the chief engineer notices that they're finding the more expensive minerals. So I think that's also it what we see in the colors. Sure. Showing all the different colors of earth, you know, put together and expensive.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Sure. Even though a lot of the sets I think are reused and just filmed from different angles and the bluish green rock cave walls throughout, they definitely do take the opportunity to redress a lot of the sets with I'm sure it's just glass, but it looks like minerals on the floor, mining equipment and so forth. So definitely adding to that overall look. And all the grocery store purple balls. And every every toy childhood bouncy ball. Well, burn that fun fact. How did you know that the eggs were bouncy balls? The minute I saw it. The minute you saw it, just instantly knew what it was.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Yes, I it's like a core memory. I never got one of those, but I always wanted one. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Well, enough with our initial impressions. I think ultimately we like the episode.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

So let's just jump into it. Why don't you walk us through this week's episode?

SPEAKER_02 9:45

So we also start differently, I think. Uh we first start, like in distress on the planet. Something has been harming the men on this, well, the men that are minors on this planet, and they're doing a shift change. And the poor guy who is it's his turn on duty, he's scared out of his mind. He doesn't want to be alone, but he has to be alone. And they're only three minutes away. Um, this gentleman's name is Smitter. Poor guy. But 50 people have already been killed by some unknown.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

They're very quick to refer to it as a monster, very quickly to set the scene and the tone for the viewer that this is an unknown entity, an unknown monster, not a phenomena, not some anomalous thing that's occurring within the mines. They are very quick to point out that this is a monster of some kind.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

And so Smitter is very scared because when it's killing people, it's burning them, like to crisp. And basically, Chief Vandenberg tells him, This is yours for four hours, buck up, and we're only three minutes away.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Right. They're also important to point out, they're not mining. This isn't a shift change of people actively mining in the mines. These are guards that are solely out there looking and guarding against this monster that has been attacking everyone.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

So he's like, Oh, a lot happens in three minutes, but he's looking forward because the enterprise is coming whenever they get there. So as they leave, the monster then attacks and Smitter is dead.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, and we get the attack, it's shot as a point of view from the monster's point of view, where we're doing a first-person shot against the victim of the attack. So we don't actually see the monster in any of these initial attacks. We just see the fearful reaction of the victim. And the monster makes the attack, runs away, they all run back. Schmitter's dead, he's a smoldering pile of ash.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

I like how they made the little body.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Well, the outline.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Yes. And then we get our opening credit. I with with all of that teaser, the cold opening, I just I really enjoy these types of openings to the episode. To a point where it's it's more enjoyable than when we start an episode and it's just Captain's Log, Everyone's on the bridge. We get the handheld explanation, usually from Kirk, explaining where they're going, what they're doing. I like these little cold opener teasers where we don't really know what's going on yet as the viewer. We're just being presented with this short little play before we get into the meat and bones after the opening credits.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Exactly. It's like, yay, something happened. I mean, sorry, you had to die, but sometimes it's boring. Hello from the bridge. We're off to see this planet.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

So now we're opening, and we are actually beaming directly from Enterprise onto well, the planet's name is Janice 6. Correct. My Janice is back.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Also, of note, this is going to be the first and maybe the only episode of the original series where the opening scene coming back from the opening sequence is not the Enterprise flying through space, because we don't get that. As Jackie said, we immediately are transitioning and seeing the beam-down effect of the away team coming down to the planet. We don't see the Enterprise at all until the first shot we get of the Enterprise is on the bridge when they call up to Scotty much later into the episode.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

So they Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have beamed on to meet with Chief Vandenberg, who tells them this whole saga, how it started three months ago, and everything that we just said. Once they got to level 23, that's where they found all of this first what they are mining for per GM. And that's what they're like their main focus is. But on this level, also they found other minerals too. It was like a surprise.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Lot of precious metals that are used for a variety of things used by Starfleet.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

And so they need help. That's why they called Enterprise, help us figure out this creature, and we need to get back to work. Because on top of that, it's harming all of our equipment.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Right. So the order of sequence that the administrator explains is that they get down to this lowest level that they've ever tried to mine before. And the first thing that happened was is their equipment started to malfunction. The parts of the equipment was being corroded. It sounded like overnight, not in front of their eyes, literally.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

Yeah, like they go to bed and then the creature like played with it.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Right. So interesting to note, jumping ahead and looking through the entire episode, the creature, the monster, does eventually start killing off the miners. But it doesn't sound like that was its first reaction. Its first reaction was just to sabotage the equipment that was threatening the hatchery, the eggs. Surprise. So not really a monster, just kind of elevating its response as needed. Monster. Mama monster. Mama monster. But specifically, its first reaction is not to kill people and not to harm them, but to just destroy the equipment that they're using. Interesting note that's never really explored. But then after this equipment is being corroded, they continue to just bring in new equipment, repair it as needed, and it's then that the monster starts killing people and escalating its response.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

And so the um awaiting, as we call it, I like that you call it that. That makes more sense. They ask, well, do we even know what this monster looks like? I mean, you could say anything's a monster, everyone's dead. And then this pompous man, I don't like him at like from the get-go. No. Um, he's also like the lead, he's a chief processing engineer, Ed Appel. It could be Apple, but Appel. And he's like, um, I shot it and I hit it, but it ran away. Yes. And he was like, ha ha ha.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Deadeye Appel in his flashy purple jumpsuit.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Yeah, they all wear really ugly outfits.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Right. But Appel's the only one wearing the purple, the the pimp and purple jumpsuit. Everyone else is wearing like orange or light red, tan, peach.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

And when they had clubs because they didn't have guns, he has a purple club.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

I think it's silver metal, but it's the only one, it's the only one in the group.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

So, and then they all leave, just leaving Kirk, McCoy, and Spock together in the room along with the chief Vandenberg to discuss exactly what's happening. And McCoy looks at the what remains of the dead people.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

And only one dead person, specifically Schmitter, the one that we saw die in the opening.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Oh, yes. He went to go look and see if he could tell any information. And so when they come back, everyone is looking at the maps, because we see the original map that was made last year, and then there's an updated map like over it of what the monster is doing. Because on top of killing people, she's digging holes. She's, you know, going through the planet herself, also. Right. And McCoy says they're the men are not dying of like flames, like being in a fire. It's more like they've been thrown into a vat of chemicals because there's only tiny bits of bone and teeth. They're being dissolved. So now we know that Mama Monster has like a corrosive agent. Like, we don't know how though, but well, that's one of her talents.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

One of her talents. I it's not necessarily primarily a defensive mechanism. It's how they chew through the rock, how they dissolve the rock, how they go tunneling is this corrosive agent. So if it's so corrosive that they can move through the rock so quickly, of course it's gonna rip through human flesh.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Right, but I I made that comment because Spock gets to touch her, spoiler, and he doesn't burn.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yes, dumb move by Spock.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Everyone's He's like, Don't touch that, and then he was the one that touches her.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Yeah, and they break off a piece of the monster.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Spock is the one that was able to pick it up, so maybe he's special.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

No, he's not special. They're just being stupid and they're picking things up they shouldn't be touching. So it's it's to show that it's not made of a corrosive material, it is something that they the monster chooses to excrete, spit out, whatever. Kind of like a snake has is venomous, but it's not coated in its own venom. The monster has to project the corrosive agent out of its body. So they have no way to know that when they start touching it, but it's its own thing.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

So while the man are in the office talking about what has happened and creating a plan, they hear another person die, and this time our monster has taken the power reactor, which is what basically is the life force of the colony.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Yeah. So they have the alarm go off after the attack, they run down to the nuclear reactor, which is what powers everything in the colony, and they find that the main circulating pump has been taken. I've seen and read online lots of people providing different explanations to they didn't know that the pump was taken, there was no way for them to know. So at the end, when they're asking where is the pump to get the pump back, that that's actually uh an error in the episode. But it is mentioned when they're in the reactor room, the chief administrator makes the comment the pump is missing, it's not corroded, it's not destroyed. Because I would imagine there'd be evidence of that. There's just the evidence that the creature used its corrosive acid agent to burn through the outer casing to steal the pump. This is a problem for the colony because nuclear reactors need cooling pumps to keep them cool and keep them in line. So without the pump, the reactor will go critical and spew radiation, explode, whatever, and they can't shut off the reactor. One, it's nuclear, but two, because they can't shut it off, it controls the life support for the colony. So again, the creature, the monster, has escalated and is intelligently finding ways to try to get the miners to leave the planet and to leave her alone.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

And then I also found it kind of silly that they didn't have a backup power pump. 100% this is supposed to be outdated because they're like, oh, we'll ask Scotty to just send one down. And they're like, Well, we don't even have one because it's outdated.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Right. Definitely a huge safety violation. You should have backup parts when you can no longer get those backup parts. You should have been upgrading the system so that it can be serviced. Their response of, well, it's never been a problem before, it's never gone out before. That's not how this works, but I mean, especially since it's radiation. Right. So probably one of the worst managed mining colonies that they have, very much like corporation putting profit over safety. Because let's face it, they also they don't have backup parts to run them the reactor machinery. Instead of everyone that they knew the enterprise was coming all the way back to the beginning. Right. And they're down there patrolling. They're three levels below the main office. Instead of just saying, hey everyone, let's just come back to the to the main housing unit and everyone bunker down and we'll wait for the enterprise to get here for backup. They're still down there patrolling, not I I I believe not as a safety measure. I think they're actively trying to resolve the situation, aka kill the monster themselves. Themselves as quickly as possible so they can get back on track to go mine these materials.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Especially since they found the higher precious metals. That makes a lot of sense, especially with Appel's attitude.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Right. So how many of those 50 people that were reported to have died before the start of the episode could have been saved if the administrator, after one or two mysterious deaths, had said, something's up, this is obviously a problem. Everyone just come back up, hunker down, see, you know, do something. Seal the the tunnel. The sealing the tunnel wouldn't work, the monster could just come after him. But I think with all that we know in context, but if they stopped, she probably would have stopped. 100%. If they left her alone, she would have left them alone until the Enterprise got there, and they could have gone about it in a more efficient manner. I think greed killed those people.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

That makes sense. So, like I said, they called Scotty and they said, Can you do anything to at least hold on, like make it work until we find out what this creature is? And at that time, they were just gonna kill it. Everyone was on board for killing it. And he said, Well, I will try. And so he and a fellow crew member beamed down to the planet and put together some weird thing. And so it gives them roughly 48 hours to fix everything and hopefully find the reactor intact.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Right. And it's not guaranteed 48 hours, it is an extremely jerry-reaked system. What we end up seeing is this weird contraption that's hanging out outside. It almost looks like a still. I don't really know if it's supposed to be a battery pack to run the pump. It's a pump by itself and it's pumping coolant through it, but it's big, it's obviously thrown together, emphasizing the fact that this is a band-aid and not a permanent fix.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

So meanwhile, we're back in the office, and Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are all discussing what this monster could be. And Spock keeps looking at the no, they call it a stone that's on the desk. Right. And why do they have this stone? They found this special looking piece of rock on the 23rd level, and it's all over the place. So it's special in some way, but we don't know why.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

It's yeah, Spock has this fascination with it. It's uh it's described as just being this silicone sphere. I don't know if it's supposed to be hollow, if they're making any judgment on that. We know it is hollow or mostly hollow because it's an egg, but I don't necessarily think that it's special in the sense that they go, ooh, this is so magical. It's just a commonly occurring phenomena in the rock. I think it's just unique in the sense that we don't always see this. Much in the same way that if you find diamonds while mining, the diamonds, you know why they're there, you know how they exist, but you know that they're unique. And I think that's the same situation. They themselves think that, oh, we can find these naturally occurring silicone comprised spheres in these conditions, in these mines. It's just kind of unique that we happen to come across a whole bunch of them all at once.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

They also start discussing if life can be in a silicone-based world, and McCoy is highly against that, and he's laughing at the possibility, and he's like, that wouldn't even work here because everything is oxygen and carbon. So that's why Spock keeps his opinion on what that ball is to himself.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Do you think in this moment that Spock thinks it's an egg? Yes. Okay, because it's very clear that Spock, because this is Spock's theory, that silicone life could exist theoretically, therefore it's possible that that's what they're encountering here. Kirk also jumps on board to that idea pretty quick, I think. McCoy is definitely more skeptical as the doctor. He says, nope, all life is carbon-based, silicone-based, as theoretical as you want to make it sound probable. It hasn't been proven, there's no examples of it. I'm not going to jump to that conclusion. To me, in the watch through, it's pretty obvious that this is an egg, and I think I agree with you. Spock has already come to the conclusion in this scene that it is an egg for some silicone-based life form.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

And I mean McCoy is ribbing him, so he doesn't want to have more ribbing from McCoy.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

I also think Spock's manner in which he operates, it's a theory that he has next to no evidence for or proof.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Oh, he wants to make sure there's evidence before logic.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Logically, it would make sense that Spock would want evidence before he tries to present that idea to the other officers there, Kirk and McCoy, so that they don't jump to their own conclusions. So I I think he's keeping that idea to himself until he gets more evidence.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

And if we're going on the silicone theory, we also have to put our phasers on a more extreme power, because that's why the phaser one didn't work, but phaser two should work. I didn't understand that, but I understood higher number would mean more power.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

It's also the only time that they ever distinguish really between the two. So if you remember from the beginning when they're running around, the opening, when they're running around and they've got the little they almost look like garage door remote controls. That's the that's the same size. It fits in the palm in your hand. Later in the episode, we see them running around with more traditional looking ray guns.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

So type one would be the handheld version, that's the garage door opener. Phase two would be the ray gun looking things. And they're coming to this conclusion because type one phaser would have been the phaser that Apel used to shoot the monster when he was reporting that he shot the monster in the beginning. So they have to, if it's a silicone-based life form, they have to use a higher power. Obviously, phase one phasers don't work, so they have to use the type two phasers, more power, could affect the monster. Also wild that while we're on the subject of the phasers, it probably would have been reported up to Kirk ahead of time, or it should have been, as the enterprise was in transit, they would have been getting as much information about the situation as possible. So it should have already been reported to Kirk that, hey, we have people, they have these type 1 phasers, they're using the type 1 phasers, we have an officer that used the type 1 phaser, and it didn't have any effect. Wouldn't you think they would have beamed down with the type 2 phasers to begin with?

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Well, that only gives you more evidence for your theory that they wanted to win. So now we have Commander Giotto and his security team. They have beamed down from the Enterprise.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yes, a lineup of red-shirted dead men.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Poor guys. But they are there to win. And they are also told to shoot on site. Like, don't worry, just shoot. So they are sent to the 23rd level, and Chief Vandenberg needs to go back up so he could be safe. Now Kirk and Spock are together. They're just wandering, looking themselves, and Spock has adjusted his tricorder to seek out silicone. And then he's like, Oh my gosh, I found a life form.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

We should head over there.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Which is weird that Spock is able to just quickly throw the tricorder into whatever mode he has to find a silicone-based life form when there's no evidence prior to this of what a silicone-based life form is. He's very talented. So we don't know what life sign he's locking on to to claim that it's a silicone-based life form. Because it would have completely different life signs than carbon-based life. And he's not just scanning for high concentrations of silicone because they're in the middle of a mine. So they would naturally be high concentrations of silicone all around.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

Meanwhile, while they're going that way, on the other side, one of our enterprise officers is killed without even having a chance to grab his phaser. The monster takes him.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Right. Another scene where we get the point of view of the monster coming upon him, the terrified look before he's overwhelmed by the monster. He doesn't get to fire his phaser, but he does get to scream, which kind summons Kirk and Spock to the scene to examine the aftermath.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

Well, Kirk and Spock are able to shoot the monster together with their phaser, which in turn wounds it again and cuts off a piece of her rock shell. Right. And Commander Giotto and his partner catch up to sadly their deceased comrade also. And as they look at this new tunnel that this creature magically made, like it got shot and in a new tunnel.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Not magically, it secreted its little corrosive and burned through it. Let's be clear, there's science behind this.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Yes. Well, this is where Kirk vo gets to deliver his line that there's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Right. Being overly dramatic.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

And I'm pretty sure that our creature looks like lasagna on a rug.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Right. Based on what we've seen now briefly of the creature and the piece that broke off from the creature when it was shot by Kirk and Spock, it definitely resembles just it has that lasagna's a good way to do it.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

Well a piece looks like a pizza pizza, but I must be hungry.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

It's got these oranges, reds, yellows, very much like molten molten lava. It's got what looks like volcanic rock in and amongst the lava. But of course, they've picked up this piece that fell off the monster. They're holding it in their hands. It's not hot to the touch. There's apparently no corrosive acid anywhere on it, because they're able to just kind of pick it up and flop it around like a piece of foam.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Yeah. And Spock even does readings, and he's able to tell that our creature is made of fibrous asbestos.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Right. Again, driving home the idea that this is not a carbon-based life form. It adds to his theory, evidence to his theory that this is a silicone-based life form.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

And again, I don't know how his tricoder does so many different readings, but we are also told that there's only one creature doing this.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Right. There's a conversation about the fact that all of these tunnels exist. There's like in the chief's office where the red and the blue one is. I have no idea about that. There's hundreds and hundreds of these tunnels that crisscross throughout these mineshafts. And so they start talking about how, well, we've only seen one creature. I don't know how he's come to that conclusion. So he starts talking about how this creature would be thousands of years old, that there would have been more of them. At the end, the point of the conversation is to point out that Spock has come to the conclusion that this is the only creature and possibly the last of its kind. Motivating Spock to start pushing this idea that they need to capture the creature, not to kill it, so they can study it. Which I agree with. It's kind of an important discovery, the first non-carbon-based life form they've encountered. Kirk wants none of it though. As much as Spock wants to push this idea that it's important for scientific discovery, Kirk is on the more path at the moment that it just needs to die.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Kirk has Commander Giotto bring his security team and he explains to them that we want to focus on where we just saw the creature, and Spock speaks up and says, Yes, we want to make sure that we are able to capture it so we can study it for science. And Kirk looks over at Spock and says, No, we are shooting to kill because Kirk doesn't want any more of his men to die.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Right. In the moment I think this is a character flaw for Kirk because so many other times we've seen Kirk focus on the scientific and exploration nature of their mission to be out in space. And in this moment, is he ordering the creature be killed so more people don't die? Or is he focusing on getting the mining production back up to quota? Again, I think greed plays a lot into people dying in this episode.

SPEAKER_02 36:29

As the men leave, Kurt calls Spock to have a special conversation. He did not mention anything about capturing the creature and keeping it alive. I mean, no one else will be dying today, basically. He then tells Spock that why don't you go join Scotty up with the reactor and keep it running? He could your scientific brain would be better up there. Spock pushes back that Scotty knows what he's doing and Spock doesn't know anything about nuclear reactors. While Kirk says he doesn't want Scotty to be alone up there. I mean, he has his crew member. He really doesn't want Spock to be down in all the tunnels with the possibility of getting killed himself. And then we have this cute little back and forth about Spock giving the odds of both you're alone down here. This is the odds of you being harmed, but we have other odds, less odds of both of us being harmed if we're together.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Right. The whole time Kirk is trying to dismiss Spock because Spock just tried to countermand his orders. Again, the argument of capturing the creature versus killing the creature. So Spock, by trying to give or give the idea to capture the creature, is directly countermanding Kirk's authority. So Kirk wants Spock to be removed from the scene. Again, it's this scene is just kind of weird how it goes from a very serious moment of reprimand between Kirk and Spock, where Kirk is calling Spock out for his act of disobedience and undermining his authority. And now we just have this comical moment between Kirk and Spock about Spock calculating the odds of both of them dying versus only one of them dying. We get the little whimsical musical background interlude as they're discussing it. And then in the end, Kirk decides, okay, even though you just tried to undermine my authority, I'll let you stay. It doesn't fit the episode. It doesn't fit the moment.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

And then it seems like Scotty heard them talking about him because he actually calls down and he lets Kirk know that the contraption he created has finally fallen apart. And what do we do? And Kirk orders to start evacuations of the colony to go up to Enterprise.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

Right, because this means the reactor is going to go critical at some point. They have no way to stop it. There's no way to shut it down.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Chief Vandenberg refuses to leave the colony, and he has like a raid party with him, and they are like, we are armed and ready with clubs and sticks. How that's going to beat the fire creature, I have no idea. But don't worry, Ed Apel is with him. Back in the tunnels, Spock can tell that they're being watched. I would presume that she's been watching everybody, the monster.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

Yeah. Not quite sure how Spock is aware of this, but must be the Vulcan part of him.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

Must be. Kirk and Spock realize that the tunnel that they are in has like a fork, and it will meet again further up. So they decide each will go through one part of the tunnel. So one to the left and one to the right. And I loved this part because we see Spock, he's pretty much walking through his tunnel, but he's super crouched. And this is when I commented that he was doing leg day.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

Yeah. Crab walking.

SPEAKER_02 40:13

And then Kirk is more like crawling. And then he kneels at the opening. Oh no. I just notice different ways people move nowadays. And so when Kirk gets around to his, he sees thousands of those little rocks that were on Vandenberg's desk. Right, the little silicone spheres. And as he's talking to Spock about what he found, we see the monster kind of like make a landslide. She pushes something over, and there's a cave in. And Spock's like, Are you there? Are you there? And then Kirk is able to say, All is well, so keep going your way. And then we see coming out of the wall our monster. And it just like kind of falls out and starts to come toward Kirk, but Kirk raises his phaser as if he's gonna shoot it, and it stops, and it backs away, lowers his phaser, and he raises his phaser when she comes close, closer, and she backs away. I kind of call it a dance. It was like they were able to communicate.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

Well, it allowed this moment allowed Kirk to come to the conclusion that the creature's reacting to the sight of the phaser. It's able to recognize the phaser as something that heard it before. So there's signs of intelligence in this life form.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

I mean, even she even turns around and shows where she was harmed. And it's giant white patch. And I think this time with all this interaction with the creature, I mean Kirk is like, well, I we probably shouldn't kill it. I mean, it hasn't attacked me. And just like you said, intelligence. Meanwhile, Spock has his tricorder and he calls Kirk and he's like, I think the creature is near. And ironically, yes. Kirk replies, It's actually in front of me. Spock has come through his tunnel and meets up with Kirk and he's ready to shoot the creature, because you know, we're gonna kill it.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Yep, suddenly Spock is determined to kill the creature, reversing his previous position of studying it. But now Kirk is changed his mind and doesn't want to kill the creature.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

I can understand how it'd be confusing if they keep changing their minds. And so we're just gonna stare at it. If only there was a way to talk to it. And then Spock says, Well, I can attempt to do the Vulcan mind meld. Okay, if you want to try, I will keep covered, Kirk suggests. And standing a bit away from it, Spock attempts to do the meld. And he just shouts over and over the word pain, indicating that the creature is in pain. And I mean it was wounded, we just saw that.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

Yeah, a lot of the last quarter of this episode is gonna be Spock shouting out feelings and thoughts that he's receiving from this creature as we get the fill-in backstory, while a lot of other stuff is going on around Spock.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

Coming out of the meld, and Kirk is kind of like holding him up, saying, You're okay, you're you're back with me, we're okay. The creature jumps onto like a ledge and now can spell.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

I think the adjective of jump greatly over exaggerates this mobility of the creature.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

Flops itself.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

That's better.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

And it says, no kill I. One word on top of the other.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Yeah, etches it into the rock with its corrosive acid. We have to assume that the creature has picked up English because the Vulcan Mind Meld is not a one-way transfer of thoughts and ideas. It is melding of two minds, so it's a two-way street. So it has to be incredibly intelligent to be able to receive that level of information from the mind meld to now know the English language.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Well, that would explain why it just says no kill I and it's not like a sentence or Kurt, like it you could take it many ways.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

Sure. Well, it's also I didn't say it bastard the English language, but it got enough so that it could communicate this little message.

SPEAKER_02 44:44

And this is when Spock does tell Kirk that this is an intelligent creature, and they call themselves a horta.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Yes. For simplicity and for the sake of the episode, I'll summarize the information. The horta is the alien species that this creature makes up. They, as part of their natural life cycle, every 50,000 years have a massive dying off event where all of them will die off, but they will select one of them to stay alive to be the quote unquote mother for the next generation. All of them lay eggs, they all die off. The mother, this last remaining horta, oversees these eggs, new horta are born, the mother raises them to the point of them being independent, and then I assume the mother dies off. They live for another 50,000 years and they repeat the process. It just so happens this is the part of the process where everyone else has died off, there's one left, and she is trying to oversee all of these eggs being born to bring in the next generation of horta. But that also means all those balls are in fact eggs. The mining operation has disrupted and put those eggs in danger, which is why this horta responded, why it did. It started disrupting their machinery and killing them off to try to save her species.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

That's pretty phenomenal. So Kirk calls to McCoy when he you need to calm down, just bring your medical bag. Don't ask questions, just come to where we are. I mean, he's a healer, right? So heal something, he'll figure it out. McCoy arrives and again he questions, I treat humans. How am I gonna treat this? And again, there's like just try. And so we then hear him calling up to the Enterprise and asking for something. We don't know yet what it is, but it is beamed down to him, and he starts working on the Horta. Meanwhile, Kirk Spock is done another mine melt, and he's learning more about the Horta, giving getting more information. Commander Giotto and his crew have been holding back Chief Dandenberg's riot, yeah, yeah, mob. Like they're trying to get through to kill the creature, and they are distracted. Chief Vandenberg beats them, and they are raced down to where Kirk and Spock and McCoy are.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

Right, with the Horda. Also point out there's not mentioned, one, it's dumb that they're all carrying these clubs and things because the phasers didn't work. Why would the clubs do anything? It makes no sense. Two, there's never mentioned any consequence for these miners to assault and beat up the security officers. Because the whole reason they get past the security officers is they do that stupid three stooges distraction of look over there, here they come, pointing down the tunnel. The security officers turn around to look and they get jumped and knocked out with the clubs. No consequences for that crime for these miners, apparently.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

I mean, all they do is if you harm our horda, you will die.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Once they arrive in the chamber and they're ready to start attacking, yes, Kirk holds them off with the phaser and threatens to kill anyone who tries to attack the Horda.

SPEAKER_02 48:28

And this is when Kirk tells them you, as you were drilling, you drilled into her nursery, basically, and she's been trying to keep her babies safe.

SPEAKER_01 48:39

Right. And Kirk proposes the solution since it's an intelligent creature. Hey guys, here's literally a life form where there's going to be many more of them soon when all these eggs start to hatch. Maybe you all can work out some kind of compromise where they get to exist and they get to continue their life cycle, and in turn, they will drill and mine these tunnels down to the more precious metals and ores that you guys are looking for anyway, and maybe it could be a symbiotic relationship. And of course, the miners are on board because as I've mentioned before, greed is what is driving this episode. And they go, oh yeah, it doesn't matter that 50 of our men are dead. It doesn't matter that our actions before were barbaric and we were ready to kill these creatures. Never mind that the creatures don't really have any reason to trust the miners, maybe humans in general, but certainly not the mob that was ready to kill her a moment ago. But sure, yeah, we'll come to that conclusion and we'll work out a relationship and work together with this creature and her babies so that we can continue to make money.

SPEAKER_02 49:52

And then Kirk tells them, you know, you wounded her and she's close to death, so let her pass on, you know, nicely. And then McCoy's like, nope, hang on. I fixed her. I can fix anything. I'm God. Pretty much. Well, he actually beamed down from the Enterprise like a housing cement.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

Yeah, basically the Enterprise had a type of, I'm gonna assume quick drying cement or some version of it to make emergency shelters, and he said he had a hundred pounds of it beamed down so that he could basically just spackle over the wound with this concrete and use it like a bandage. I think a hundred pounds was excessive. I th I read the original script said ten pounds. Maybe the actor misspoke and said a hundred pounds and it was just never corrected. 10 pounds seems more reasonable. Especially since she can flop around really fast. Yes, so fast.

SPEAKER_02 50:55

So Mama Horta is is healed, and now she has her babies, and hopefully human and horta can make a deal.

SPEAKER_01 51:06

Yeah, I'll also point out after McCoy says he's healed her and he's used the concrete as a bandage, his hands are completely covered with cement. We never actually get to see the bandage on the horta. If you look, he has stepped out in front of the horta and through, I assume has to be deliberate camera placement, his body blocks the site of the wound because I don't think they're actually going to put concrete on the costume.

SPEAKER_02 51:36

No, and we see his hands twice. Uh the first time I wrote, Izzy wearing gloves, but like twice he's just like covered in cement. So hopefully he takes off fast. Right. He's gonna be cement hands. So now we are back on the Enterprise, and it is only Kirk, McCoy, and Spock that are on the bridge, and they get a call from Vandenberg, who is calling to say the eggs have begun to hatch, and these little guys start burrowing right away. And then he goes on about how they've been able to get all the per GM that they need on top of crazy amounts of gold, platinum, and other rare minerals. And then he goes on to say, once you get over how they look, implying that they're ugly and it's not too hard to do their jobs, and he's like, Thanks for the update. Bye. You know, Kirk. And then Spock he actually jokes back with Kirk and McCoy how when he was melding with the Horta, she was also saying, you know, I gotta get over how the humans look, but we'll probably be able to do that deal. I just uh Spock didn't want to tell anybody of that because he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. And McCoy thought he would be even more funny and say how she must have been, you know, most concerned about Spock's ears. And then Spock turns it back going, Well, she liked mine the best.

SPEAKER_01 53:09

Yeah, found him the most attractive, or at least his ears were the most attractive quality in these humans, because she wouldn't know, the horde wouldn't know that Spock isn't a human. She they're they just look alike to her. So and I actually like this ending. Yes. Many episodes try to, at the end, have these little comical book end to the episode where there's a little bit of playful banter back and forth between a couple of the characters. A lot of times it just feels like it falls flat.

SPEAKER_02 53:37

Especially like the weird looks.

SPEAKER_01 53:39

Yeah, but I think this time with this little banter about Spock's ears, I really do feel like this really does fit and is enjoyable and entertaining.

SPEAKER_02 53:50

And it says more about what you were saying, how interaction with the meld partner, you know, I learned a lot.

Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_01 53:59

And roll credits. So, Jackie, what did you think about season one, episode 25, The Devil in the Dark? What are your final thoughts?

SPEAKER_02 54:10

I really liked it overall, but then you mentioning greed, that kind of put a like a taint, kind of tainted it all, but I mean, that does show the reality of humans and mining.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

Yeah. And again, I like the episode. It's it's very entertaining, or I find it very entertaining. There's a couple weird moments to it that stand out. The I mentioned the quick shift in tone when Kirk is reprimanding Spock for undermining his authority in front of the security officers. There's hot take, the whole back and forth mind meld. I think it's an important and vital part of the plot. Everyone commends Leonard Nimoy's performance in that mind meld, and I think he does a great job. They're not yeah, really great. But I also think it drags on far too long. I think it is if you jump all the way back to when we first learn of the Vulcan mind meld in the episode Dagger of the Mind, when Spock is performing that mind meld on the Doctor to get the information. Again, it's an extremely long, drawn-out process. Later in Star Trek, when we see Vulcan Mind Melds, it's much shorter. I don't know if that's because the audience is now accustomed to the idea and it doesn't need to be oversold to us, but I if it had just been shortened a little bit, I don't know. It it almost felt like they were trying to fill in time for the episode. And maybe that's why it stood out. But ultimately, again, final thought, it's a great episode. We'll round out our thoughts for the episode with our favorite quote from the episode. Jackie, what is your favorite quote?

SPEAKER_02 56:00

I actually liked I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer. You're a healer, that's a patient, that's an order. That was McCoy and Kirk talking back and forth when McCoy was ordered to help the Horda. I mean, help her, it's a patient. It shows compassion and not judging this thing when you could and just let it die. I mean, if you have the opportunity to help something, be kind and assisted.

Tribble Tidbits

SPEAKER_01 56:30

And my favorite quote from the episode is when Scotty is for showing the improvised reactor pump to Kirk and talking about trying to make it last as long as possible. And Kirk tells Scotty, Scotty, ride herd on it. Kind words, tender loving care, kiss it, baby it, flatter it if you have to, but keep it going. And Scotty, of course, replies with, I'll do what I can, sir. It's I I like the quote because it's one of the first times that I can remember in the series. Scotty will eventually very much start to refer to the Enterprise as a person, as a woman. And there's, you know, famous Scotty lines of, you know, she's giving it all she can, Captain, and so forth. And I think this is one of those first times that really establishes I think Kirk is communicating this way to Scotty because Kirk understands that Scotty kind of puts a personality into these machines, and it just is one of the great, I think, moments that establishes that character trait for Scotty. So that's gonna be my favorite quote. And of course, we also have our fun facts or triple tidbits for the episode. Uh, and why do we call them triple tidbits, Jackie? Because tribbles are fabulous. Because they can be both a blessing and a curse. First airing March 9th, 1967. It's quoted in one of William Shatner's biographies that this is his favorite episode. This is an episode while filming, his father died. Kirk says that one of the one of the moments is he got the news, and then later Leonard Nimoy was able to make him laugh as he was delivering his lines during the mind meld. That's quoted from the book, but there's also evidence that Kirk was not present during those scenes. He had left to attend to family matters with his father's death. So a lot of the scenes with the mind meld, they had already filmed his lines, and when they're doing shots and we see Kirk's back, it's actually Kirk's stunt double. So he's not present. So I don't really know when Kirk would have heard these lines delivered that he references in his book. Maybe it was a table read, but then the table read would have taken place before his father's death. So again, I'm just quoting his uh Maybe it was a phone call. His book. Well, he got Shatner, William Shatner, who plays Kirk, got the phone call from his mother while on set during filming, and it was specifically as they were filming that scene where the first security officer is killed. That's why I mentioned the moment where Kirk kneels down to kind of reflect over the crewman's death. It was very shortly after he had received the news that his father has died. So that moment of reflection was real because he was taking the channeling that opportunity and that grief of his father dying. So, and of course, also important to note the entire production, when they got the news that his father has died, was absolutely ready to shut down filming and allow him to immediately depart to go take care of matters. Shatner himself insisted that the uh filming continue for the rest of the day. So he departed at the end of the day and finished out the scenes. The Horta costume was created by an actor named Janos Prahaska. He showed it to uh Gene Kuhn, who was a writer, and Gene asked Janos what it was, and Janos responded, It can be anything you want. So Gene took four days and wrote the script to this episode, specifically just so this costume could be used. That is amazing. Janos, the creator of the costume, is actually the actor underneath who was wearing it and doing the acting in the episode. Even better. Jackie choosing her quote of McCoy's line, I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer, is actually iconic because this is going to become a signature line that McCoy will use throughout the rest of Star Trek where he says, I'm a doctor, not a whatever, in reference to a situation that he's being put in. Um, so this is the first use of that line.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:00

So this episode is like a big, big like introduction to a lot of things in the series.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:07

Right. Well, and diving deeper, this episode is a springboard. This is one of the one of the times where we get an alien creature that has deep lore in Star Trek. This is not the first time that we see the Horta in Star Trek. The Horta go on to be in future Star Trek episodes, at least one episode I can think of, but they're also in comics, books, novels. So it's it is a it is a good episode, a foundation for a lot of good Star Trek lore.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:39

I think it's inspiration for Aladdin's flying carpet. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:43

Disney stole this. We mentioned, of course, the horde of eggs are just toy bouncing balls. Jackie picked up on it right away when she watched the episode. I actually saw them in the episode and I couldn't remember what they were. I had to look it up to find out what they were, but they are toy bouncing balls. Did you think ostrich egg? I didn't think they were ostrich eggs. I of course knew they were a prop. I was just curious as to what they would have been. So it would they in your local grocery store. Yeah. It was announced by NBC during the closing credits of this episode, so to the audience, that Star Trek had been renewed for a second season. So this is the moment where Star Trek fans learned that we were getting a second season to the show. And then finally, this is going to be the only Star Trek episode, at least in the original series, where there are no speaking female lines. That's weird.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:34

I didn't notice that because I was busy like enjoying the episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:38

Yeah, so we do see a couple female crew members on the Enterprise when we get the shots with Scotty on the bridge, but none of them have speaking parts. And there's of course no female minors, there's no female members of the security team that beam down, the away team is male cast members, so yeah, it's a good point. I guess there's no, I guess we should amend it to say there's no she has her own harem. There's no verbal female lines because the horda does have the non-speaking part where she engraves the message into the rock face.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:13

That's awesome. Does she learn better English, like the Horda over time?

Episode Ranking

SPEAKER_01 1:03:18

Yes, they do. That's cool. There are members of the Horda that will eventually join Starfleet. Oh, that's that's awesome. It's a it's a big deal. But those are your triple tidbits. This is where we share our episode ranking, where we pretend the episode is a member of our crew and we assign a Starfleet rank to the episode. A higher rank, of course, means we found the episode not any not only more entertaining, but we consider it a more important crew member for our ship. A lower rank, of course, means the opposite. We didn't find the episode very entertaining, and they're a more disposable member of our crew. Our ranking system starts with the enlisted, starting with ensign at the lowest, lieutenant junior grade and lieutenant, and then we have our officers. We can have seven lieutenant commanders, five commanders, one captain, and one admiral. If none of that makes sense, don't worry. We post a visual representation of our rankings over at our Patreon, patreon.com slash treks and tangents. And we post an updated ranking every Wednesday, the day after the episode goes live. Jackie, for your starship, the USS Galactic Glitter B, what rank do you give this episode?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:33

I think I'm gonna go out there and put it as a captain. I mean, I enjoyed it a lot, and then with your added facts, I mean you just kind of like bumped it up knowing more about it. So I think I'm just gonna put it as a captain.

Turbolift Tease

SPEAKER_01 1:04:49

Alright. And for my starship, the USS Cosmic Shark, we're gonna shuffle it up a little bit. We're going to ignore the haters. I'm gonna take Space Seed and I'm gonna move it down from Captain to Lieutenant Commander. Again, Space Seed, fantastic episode. It establishes the backstory of Khan, iconic Star Trek villain, but at the end of the day, I don't really see him to be that much of a peak character. Khan doesn't really come into his own until we get Star Trek 2, The Wrath of Khan, the movie. So, bumping it down, still an important episode, and I'm gonna put the Devil in the Dark as a captain. Again, there's problems with the episode. I think toward the end the pacing of the episode gets to be too much with the whole mind meld with Spock. We could have had Leonard Nimoy's performance shortened quite a bit and still gotten the same impact, and it just felt like they were filling for time. But you have the iconic opening where it's not just on the bridge of the Enterprise, it opens up with drama, with a crew, with a miner's death, a character's death. The entire plot of the episode, besides what I just mentioned, is Paced very well, lots of fun camera work, great set pieces. And at the end of the day, it makes sense, I think. A lot of the plot just makes sense and doesn't leave you scratching your head and trying to fill in plot holes. So we're gonna give it the rank of captain. Again, don't forget to visit our Patreon, patreon.com slash Treks and Tangents, to check out the full episode ranking. We will publish this update Wednesday, the day after this episode goes live. Compared to IMDB, this is going to be one of the top-rated episodes for the season. As of this recording, it's ranked 8.3 out of 10. We loved it more. We'll be back next week to trek through another episode, but before we go, we'll give our turbo liftees or elevator pitch to the next episode's plot. I'm gonna give Jackie the title of next week's episode, and Jackie, without any other information, is going to try to guess that plot. Jackie, next week's episode is going to be Errand of Mercy.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

Sometimes I think that they're gonna focus more on just what's happening on the Enterprise at times. And we're going to be introduced to a new member of the crew, and they have done something naughty, but Kirk is making them do another errand on the Enterprise because we have to learn more about it. Like I'm sure there's other stages. And so, in order to get the good graces, this new character has to do something very important.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:40

And tune in next week to see how accurate Jackie's guess is. If you want more show information, you can find and directly support our podcast on Patreon, patreon.com slash treks and tangents. As mentioned, we post the episode ranking graphic every Wednesday. We also are posting a bonus episode free for all Patreon members, where we just take one random topic or question from the episode and do a deep dive into it with our thoughts, some theorycrafting, our own headcanon for Star Trek, diving into topics deeper, going into a wider range, a larger tangent that'll be posted at the same time as the episode. We're also going through our back catalog and catching up on our star notes. So, really, you get two bonus episodes until we're all fully caught up. We have other content on there for our crew members, those who directly support our Patreon. We have a monthly episode where we do a deep dive into the animated series. We have all of our test episodes, and we've got some other ideas we're cooking on. Hopefully, we'll get to some of that soon. You should definitely check out the test episodes where you had lots of fun. But to round it out, if you go check out the star note for this week's episode, the question that we do a deeper dive into is going to be could the Federation have communicated with the Horta without telepathy? So jump over to that Patreon. So jump over to our Patreon to check out that episode at the end. If you want to follow us on social media, we're on x at treks underscore tangents. We're also on Instagram and Blue Sky as Trex and Tangents. But Jackie, where can people find you and what are you up to?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:27

I am really focusing on my Instagram at the moment. And you can find me on Jaboom, J I B O O M. I'm almost to a thousand followers, which is my first little tiny goal. I have my music. I have my fashion makeup. I also have disability advocacy. And of course, don't forget the dogs and their training journeys.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:55

And you can watch me stream a variety of video games over at twitch.tv slash piratepoundtown. I'm also thinking I'm going to start co-streaming on YouTube. I haven't quite figured that out yet, but but if I'm not streaming on Twitch or on YouTube, I do post a variety of video game and other random content on YouTube under my main channel, PiratePoundtown. Coin collecting and other hobby content can be found at Pirate Treasure Hunting. I post socially on Blue Sky at PiratePoundtown, and I'm still found on Instagram under Pineapple Cannibal. Links to all social media mentioned can be found in the episode description. Thank you everyone for tuning in to this week's episode. We hope you had fun like we did, and we will see you all next week.