Star Trek: The Original Series/Recap/S3/E01 Spock's Brain: Difference between revisions

 

 

It all begins when the ''Enterprise'' encounters an alien spacecraft. Scotty is amazed that they are so advanced as to use ion propulsion, a technology which existed ''at the time the episode was written'' (however, as it's clearly an FTL drive, it's the same as today's [[In Name Only]]). The spacecraft's only occupant beams onto the bridge of the ''Enterprise'' and it turns out to be yet another alien woman who wears [[Stripperiffic]] clothes. The men ([[Les Yay|and Uhura, for some reason]]) stare as the soundtrack swells with romantic music, [[Blatant Lies|as they've clearly never seen a woman like this before]]. As we will learn later on, she is named Kara. But Kara does not come in peace. Using a wrist band, she knocks out everyone on the ship with that "boing" sound effect which [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] always use. After seeming momentarily interested in Kirk's butt, she walks up to the unconscious Spock and gleefully strokes his cranium.

After a commercial break, our heroes awaken to find Spock is no longer on the bridge. McCoy calls Kirk down to Sickbay, where we learn Spock's brain has somehow been surgically removed and he is now on life support. [[DeForest Kelley]] struggles valiantly to [[Took the Bad Film Seriously|make the silly things he's saying sound believable]], but it doesn't help that McCoy contradicts himself twice in the scene. First he says that Spock's [[Bizarre Alien Biology]] helped him survive without a brain, but then he says Spock is more dependant on his "tremendous brain" for life support. [[Sarcasm Mode|As opposed to humans, who can, of course, survive perfectly fine without brains.]] He also claims to have absolutely no idea how long he can keep the brainless Spock alive, but later he declares out of the blue that they have twenty-four hours. Curiously, this appears to be twenty-four hours from the moment McCoy said it rather than from when Kara actually removed the brain. In a [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] moment, Kirk says they'll have to bring Spock along "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK4PGCQQ4Oc in search of]" his brain.

 

 

The cave turns into a elevator via a [[Screen Shake]] effect and transports our heroes down to an [[Elaborate Underground Base]], which consists of those geometric hallway sets they always use to represent interiors on advanced planets. Waiting for them is another half-naked woman with a wrist band, but Kirk stuns her before she can "boing" them. The soundtrack swells with more romantic music as they interrogate her and she provides inane answers to Kirk's questions. Kirk at first thinks she's [[Obfuscating Stupidity]], but tricorders are apparently [[Lie Detector|Lie Detectors]] now and Bones says the woman has the mind of a child. [[Insult to Rocks|This is a bit of an understatement.]] If you asked most children what this place is, they would come up with something better than "[[Captain Obvious|this place is here]]". Meanwhile, Scotty has managed to pick up Spock's disembodied brain on his communicator and somehow it can talk in Spock's voice without having his vocal cords. Spock's brain tells Kirk that "[[Ho Yay|there is a definite pleasurable experience connected to the hearing of your voice]]." Les Yay and Ho Yay in the same episode! Who doesn't love ''Star Trek''? Kirk tells Spock's brain that they'll get to it and the disembodied organ quips "A practical idea, Captain. It seems unlikely that I shall be able to get to you."

At this point, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Spock's body are taken prisoner by Kara. They are brought to some kind of conference room with her all-female counsel and their male bodyguards. By now, it has become apparent that the cavemen living on the surface are the "Morg", the women living underground are the "Eymorg", and that the Eymorg enslave the Morg using their wrist bands. How either society can procreate is not explained. Kirk demands Kara returns Spock's brain, but she not only has no memory of taking it, she doesn't even seem know what the word "brain" means. "Brain and brain! What is brain?!" she asks in exasperation, giving us the the episode's most famous line. Kirk asks to speak to their leader. Kara says she is leader, but Scotty and McCoy dismiss this as impossible since they need engineers and doctors. After all, [[Values Dissonance|they clearly need men for that]]. Not to mention engineering and medical skills have absolutely nothing to do with leadership credentials. That's, you know, why Kirk is captain of the ''Enterprise'' instead of them. Anyway, they finally get far enough through Kara's beautiful thick skull for her to mention that there is a "Controller". Then Kirk has an epiphany. "Spock's... brain... ''controls''," he says in classic [[William Shatner]] fashion. Kara leaves with her counsel, leaving their Morg slaves to guard the prisoners. In stupidity which is for once justified by the plot, the Eymorg have left Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty in the same room as their communicators and tricorders. They take them back after a [[Fight Scene]] with the Morg slaves and contact Spock's brain again. Spock's brain beams them a signal which they follow to the [[Wetware CPU]] room. Kara happens to be in there for no particular reason and she uses her wrist band to hit them all with an [[Agony Beam]]. While writhing in pain, Kirk grabs the remote control, using Spock's unaffected body to overpower Kara and free them. How he manages to make Spock's body do such complicated actions with ten unlabeled buttons is another of the episode's mysteries.