Original air date: December 8, 1967
SYNOPSIS
A landing party from the Enterprise is exposed to strange form of radiation which rapidly ages them.
CANON CONTEXT
DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy) said of the make-up used in this episode, “I only worked half days on that show because I was in makeup the other half. I’d sit in the chair for a while, then I’d take a break, go to the john, come back and they’d work some more. It was a tremendous makeup effort. There were three makeup men working on me all the time, on my hands and on my face. Leonard [Nimoy] was lucky on that show. He was blessed by the fact that Vulcans don’t age as fast as humans.”
RECAP
This was a great one for acting I must say. The crew landing party encounter a couple of people on the planet who should be in their late twenties but what they discover is very odd. Even for Star Trek standards.
Jumping back a few minutes, Chekov encounters one of the people who should be alive and well on the planet. Except, he’s very much dead from old age. This spooks him and in that moment of absolute terror he becomes immune to what happens next to the rest of the landing party.
What happens next is left up to the acting gods because between Bones, Spock, Scotty, and Kirk I don’t know who aged better. Actually, I take that back. My money is on Scotty. Grey looks good on him.
And never to be forgotten, here comes this week’s femme fatale for Kirk. Except, this one is slightly different. This is clearly a love interest that spans many years which we have only seen once before in a previous episode. But with this one at least she looks age appropriate for him. Slightly wrinkled but no less “his type” that’s for sure. And it just so happens that her last relationship was with a man 26 older than her. So naturally, seeing Kirk in all his grey glory gets her all kinds of hot for him.
Meanwhile, everyone is aging rapidly and Chekov has become their guinea pig while Bones tries to find out why he isn’t aging but the rest of them are. I also should mention this episode also had the spare crewman that would die later on in the episode from old age. This only makes the need to find a cure that much more prevalent. Chekov is pissed but he must subject himself to the studies till they find the cure.
Is it time for a cat nap? I think so. If you’ll excuse me…
Hmm? What was that? Oh yeah, the rest of the episode. Besides needing to reverse this crazy aging thing, Kirk has to put up with a commodore on their ship removing him from command the more he seems to age. Spock is aging as well so he feels ill-equipped to take over from Kirk. The courtroom scene is worth giving a watch as Kirk fumbles his way through it, trying to prove that age is nothing but a number. He fails epically, but the point is made that he will stop at nothing to retain control over his ship. So much so that when the cure is possibly uncovered he’s willing to risk his rapidly debilitating life to test it on himself first.
And right on time to cause the Enterprise is in a losing battle with the Romulans. And Kirk employs an old trick to make them leave! This is quite possibly the first evidence I can think of where a previous episode is clearly mentioned when he announces over a channel he knows the Romulans can hear that the Enterprise is going to employ their Corbomite machine that they have. If you recall, Corbomite is completely made up but he uses it back on Season I Episode 10 The Corbomite Maneuver in order to escape an enemy then. And it helps him again.
We end with Bones informing Spock that he has an antidote for him to his aging process can reverse. It took longer to make because, as we are always reminded, Spock is part Vulcan, so his internals aren’t the same as everyone else’s. And for funsies, Bones made the antidote extra potent so Spock suffers even worse than they did when they took it. Yay!
DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT?
McCoy: Anytime you’re ready, Mr. Spock.
Spock: I am quite ready now, Doctor.
McCoy: Because of your Vulcan physique, I’ve prepared an extremely potent shot for you. However, I thought you’d might like to know that I’ve removed all the breakables from sickbay.
Spock: That is very considerate of you, Doctor.
