Star Trek: The Original Series/Recap/S1/E01 The Man Trap: Difference between revisions

Kirk, McCoy and a [[Red Shirt|random crewman]] beam down to medically examine two scientists, living alone on an archaeology planet. One of these scientists (the [[Girl of the Week|lady]], Nancy) was apparently previously romantically involved with McCoy. She shows an ability to [[Shapeshifting|disguise]] her appearance, seeming different to each person. She and the random crewman leave and he is killed off screen. Nancy says he ate some of the local vegetation and thus poisoned himself, but any [[Genre Savvy|reasonable viewer]] would doubt that.

 

The [[Fan Nickname]] for this episode is "[[The One With...]] The Salt Vampire".

 

* [[Bizarre Alien Biology]]: Spock, obviously. Though why the alien would be uninterested in his blood simply because it was copper based is uncertain. Does he have no salt in his blood?

** Spock says that he has different blood salts, due to Vulcans evolving from creatures that lived in different oceans.

* [[Fan Nickname]]: The (unnamed) alien is almost universally known as "the salt vampire".

* [[Girl of the Week]]: And for once, the girl is McCoy’s. And she’s been killed by an alien. Typical.

* [[Green Aesop]]: The episode sounds like it was written to talk about extinction of species. Since this alien happened to be a blood (okay, salt) thirsty alien who was well on their way to mass murder, it was a somewhat [[Broken Aesop]].

** The broken nature of the Aesop is actually [[Lampshaded]]:

'''Kirk''': There's one, Professor. Your creature is killing my people! }}

* [[Last of His Kind]]: The alien.

* [[Uncanny Valley]]: “Nancy” while she was stalking Rand’s salt. Creepy.