Star Trek: The Immunity Syndrome

Hey, it's time to talk about Star Trek. Today, it is The Immunity Syndrome.

The Immunity Syndrome is sort of middle of the road Trek, it's not one of my favorite episodes, but it has moments that are pretty good and others that are pretty bad. Read along and you'll see what I mean.

A decade before Obi-Wan Kenobi felt millions of voices suddenly cry out in terror that were then suddenly silenced, Mr. Spock felt the death of 400 Vulcans aboard the starship Intrepid.

For my money Leonard Nimoy's Spock was much more convincing. Nobody seems to remember this moment, yet the Obi-Wan moment is part of pop culture.

Even though everyone really needs some time off, the Enterprise is ordered to investigate the disappearance of the Intrepid and the fact that Gamma VIIA, a star system that had been home to billions of inhabitants,  now shows as "dead" on the scanners.

Spock is sent to Sickbay and while there, as he is prone to do, he has a verbal sparring match with McCoy, this time with a bit of social commentary thrown in:

Spock: "I've noticed that about your people, Doctor. You find it easier to understand the death of one than the death of a million. You speak about the objective hardness of the Vulcan heart, yet how little room there seems to be in yours."
McCoy: "Suffer the death of thy neighbor, eh, Spock? You wouldn't wish that on us, would you?" Spock: "It might have rendered your history a bit less bloody."

Bazinga!

Spock also tells us that "I know not a person, not even the computers on board the Intrepid, knew what was killing them or would have understood it had they known." Wait, what? They wouldn't have understood what it was that killed them if they knew what it was that killed them? I don't get it.

Later he explains "Vulcan has not been conquered within its collective memory. The memory goes back so far that no Vulcan can conceive of a conqueror" and that when the Vulcans died they felt astonishment. Say, what? Vulcans are a smart people and they have had a somewhat violent history of their own, so I'm just not buying at all the idea that Vulcans cannot conceive of a conqueror or that they can't understand that they might possibly face defeat.

Anyway, as ship heads to their destination they encounter what at first looks like a dust cloud. Yeah, it's not a dust cloud.

They launch a probe to investigate the zone of darkness. It doesn't tell them much, but it does have an immediate negative effect on the crew. McCoy reports that half the crew fainted. It's okay though, as he's quick in shooting them all up with stimulants.

They head in to the big zone of darkness and Kirk wants to know what happened to the stars. Really. He's surprised that the stars have gone after they headed into the dark cloud that blotted out all the stars behind it.

Scotty reports that the ship is losing power. And now more people are now suffering ill effects, thankfully ol' Shoot-em Up McCoy keeps everyone going.

Spock reports, "We still have no specifics, but we seem to have entered a zone of energy which is incompatible with our living and mechanical processes. As we draw closer to the source, it grows stronger and we grow weaker." McCoy recommends survival and getting out of there.

Sensing that the crew might need a shot of confidence from the Captain, Kirk gets on the intercom with one of the worst messages ever: "Our mission is to investigate. We're sick, and we're getting sicker. We have no guarantees, but we have a good ship and the best crew in Starfleet. So do your jobs. Carry on. Kirk out." We're sick and we're getting sicker and we have no guarantees. Seriously? Sigh. Kirk, your crew deserves better from you.

To make things worse McCoy then calls in from Sickbay to deliver news that's both poorly written and poorly delivered: "Jim, according to the life indicators, the energy levels ... According to the life monitors, we're dying. We're all dying." Yeah, maybe they'd better hightail it out of there.

Except, they can't. Scotty explains that power levels are falling, "everything is acting backwards" and that they are "being pulled forward." With no stars or reference points visible I'm not sure just how they can tell that which way are moving at all.

At least until they encounter what's at the heart of the zone of darkness. Which happens to be a giant (11,000 miles across!) single-celled organism!

McCoy suggests that they send a shuttlecraft to learn more about the Giant Space Cell and he wants to make the trip. The trouble is Spock thinks that he himself is better qualified. Kirk knows that this is almost certainly a one way trip and finally decides that it must be Spock.

So off Spock goes, with what looks like a moray eel face looking on. I've always really liked the original effects done for this - face and all. No, really.

Spock's mission is successful, but the news isn't good. Chekov reports, "According to Spock's telemetry information, there are over forty chromosomes in the nucleus that are ready to come together, ready to reproduce."  McCoy explains, "Well, all I know is, that soon there'll be two, four, eight, and more. The entire anti-life matter that that thing puts out could someday encompass the entire galaxy."Anti-life matter? That's not cool at all, nor does it make much sense. 

Always the optimist Kirk says that "When it grows into millions, we'll be the virus invading its body." Millions? That's thinking positively. I like McCoy's response though, "Here we are, antibodies of our own galaxy, attacking an invading germ. It would be ironic indeed if that were our sole destiny, wouldn't it?" That sounds like a spinoff TV series to me. Star Trek: Antibodies.

Anyway, communications with Spock come an go, the ship is nearly out of power and everybody is just barely hanging on, when they remembered that in just the last episode they used an antimatter bomb to kill the evil vampire cloud that was menacing them. So why not try it here too? 

So they do. There's some serious shaking, but it totally works. They killed the Giant Space Cell and in doing so the explosion threw both the Enterprise and the shuttlecraft to safety. Who could ask for anything more?

It looks like Kirk will get his vacation after all. I wonder what he has in mind?

All-in-all, I really disliked McCoy's talk about the "life indicators" and "anti-life matter," but the McCoy-Spock interplay early on and then before and during Spock's shuttle trip is pretty good. It feels like, with another round of editing on the script this episode could have been top notch. The effects, as I mentioned, were really first rate for 1968, so I give the whole thing a thumbs up.

Next up, is a fan favorite - A Piece of the Action.