Star Trek: The Immunity Syndrome

Spock: "Tell Doctor McCoy he should have wished me luck."

Ah, yes. The giant amoeba episode.

It was sort of like "The Doomsday Machine," but in slow motion; it even ended with them going right down the monster's "throat." But there was no exciting space battle, and like the crew, the story lacked energy. It actually felt like the crew were simply fighting exhaustion and depression, with the big blob of nothing representing an empty future, or possibly death.

The character interaction was a bit more satisfying than the monster plot. There was a human versus Vulcan dynamic that began when Spock sensed the death of the Intrepid. The shock seemed to make Spock act species-ist and almost deliberately obtuse, like, you bloodthirsty inferior humans, you. And yet, the implication was that the Intrepid didn't make it because they couldn't get past the illogic of the creature's backward existence, and that the humans defeated the Amoeba of Death because they were able to think outside the box.

Later, Kirk, Spock and McCoy practically came to blows arguing over who would have the honor of going on a suicide mission. And yes, it was very like Spock to volunteer in order to learn something new and unique. And it was very like McCoy to sacrifice himself for the ship and for his friends. But I don't think I'd throw myself at a suicide mission quite so enthusiastically.

Why did Kirk order the ship into the nothingness after what happened to the Intrepid? Okay, I suppose they saved the galaxy from drowning in depression as well as protoplasm, so I guess that justifies his decision, but maybe he should have called for help and thought about other options. While I'm complaining, perhaps I should mention that the no-seat-belt situation during the final explosion was probably their worst; everyone was throwing themselves in conflicting directions, which might be contrary to the laws of physics.

And there was no debris after the explosion. With eleven thousand miles of protoplasm, shouldn't there have been goo everywhere?

Ben says...

Let me just say, that after growing up eating food off of taco carts on the street corners of Juarez, it was particularly satisfying to see an amoeba swallowing humans and getting explosively sick. Take that, illness inducing micro-organisms. But I digress.

What I am really getting watching these episodes all in a row and in quick succession was that there really was a lot of painful repetition in plots and elements. This is the third giant space monster of season 2 (Obsession Cloud o'doom, Doomsday Machine's Suggestively Phallic Cylinder o'doom, and our current Amoeba o'doom), the parallel planetary development thing gets a pretty good going over as well, evil twins are sadly thick on the ground, and let's not leave out computers run amok. At the same time they sprinkle episodes between these tropes that are some of the most fun and best written science fiction to ever grace the small screen.

I think trying to produce a consistently high quality show in this period was just a huge challenge. I just don't think that either quality science fiction or quality television were really valued in the period. Now, this kind of repetition on, for example, Lost would be immediately identified and picked apart by fans. Heroes failed on exactly this repetitious redundant repeating. Now we have penetrated the amoeba of Hollywood which has threatened to drain pop culture's energy to plant a fannish anti-matter bomb of quality... or maybe there is just more money in television and SF now, hard to say.

Back to Billie for bits and pieces:

-- The star date was mentioned several times: 4307.1 to 4309.4. Enterprise was en route to Starbase 6 for shore leave. Solar system Gamma 7A was destroyed.

-- Spock was able to feel the deaths of 400 Vulcans even though he was, of course, not in physical contact with them.

-- It's probably happened before, but I noticed this time that both miles and kilometers were mentioned. The Star Trek Powers That Be should have picked a future system of measure and stuck with it.

-- Spock mentioned that Vulcans hadn't been conquered in collective memory.

-- We saw a lot of medical staff for a change. Although all they basically did was shoot people up with stimulants.

-- The shuttlecraft Spock took on the suicide mission was the Galileo.

-- It's been awhile since I saw the original, but the remastered amoeba looked cooler than the original to me. Or maybe it's just that my television is a lot bigger now.

-- Was that Eddie Paskey in a red shirt who passed out on the bridge?

Quotes:

Kirk: "A boundary layer? Between what and what?"
Spock: "Between where we were and where we are."
Kirk: "Are you trying to be funny, Mister Spock?"
Spock: "It would never occur to me, Captain."

Kirk: "Both are right. Both are capable. And which of my friends do I condemn to death?"

Spock: "Do not risk the ship further on my behalf."
McCoy: "Shut up, Spock. We're rescuing you."
Spock: "Why, thank you, Captain McCoy."

Two out of four zones of darkness,

Billie

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Photo credit: Memory Alpha