Episode Summary
The episode opens with all seeming normal aboard the Enterprise, just another journey through space. Then, suddenly, "everything on the verge of [Enterprise] instruments blinked", Spock tells us. That's right. For two split seconds we witness a cosmic "winking out", or, as Spock puts it, moments of non-existence. Somehow, the Enterprise experiences non-existence, re-existence, non-existence, and then re-existence again. Conceptually impossible, yet right there on television.
Immediately following the cosmic wink-outs, Spock discovers a human-seeming life form where no life forms had shown before. In discussing the situation, Spock suspects that the human is connected to the occurrences of non-existence. In that sense, then, the human would be a danger of absolute proportions. That is, it would seem the human would have the power to literally destroy everything. So, naturally, Kirk seeks the human out.
Beaming down to the planet, the away team discovers a crashed ship, and a delirious, hairy-hairy man. What an incredible billy goat beard. After beaming back aboard with the bearded enigma, we discover from Star Fleet command that the wink-out phenomenon covered the entire galaxy, with the planet the human was found on at its center. Star Fleet withdraws all personnel, except the Enterprise, from the area, as it anticipates the possibility of attack from some paranormal source. Kirk turns to the human, Lazarus, discovered on the planet to get information. He informs us that the force we are facing is the devil himself.
Billy Goat's Gruff, Lazarus, our Cosmic Wink-Out, Existence Destroying, Human EnigmaEpisode Tidbits
If you are searching for Star Trek drinking game episodes, this is certainly a topper. All you have to do is drink to the naming of the devil, drink at the persecution of the grand crusader, drink every time his billy goat beard appears, drink every time you have no idea what the hell is going on (it's a confusing one), drink every time Lazarus yells the word "kill"--you'll be experiencing flashing moments of non-existence yourself in no time.
With this episode we explore unexplainable phenomenon. Spock finally speculates a rip in the universe's space-time that shows itself as a source of radiation undetectable by standard scanners. With that we are operating in full-blown science fiction. Star Trek has finally begun. Here, approaching the end of the first season, we have two Star Fleet enemies--the Romulans that showed themselves in Episode 14, and the Klingons that appeared in Episode 26--a neutral zone, as discovered in Episode 14, and science fiction speculation of otherwise unforeseen, otherworldly possibilities.
The level of science fiction speculation occurring in this episode is exciting, and remain unrevealed until the last quarter of the episode. With that in mind, I refuse to give away the plot secrets. But the episode is well worth watching for considerations of madness, alternate and intersecting realities, and space-time. There's also a grand exploration of primitive special effects. Beautiful!
Let me give one exciting detail away--it is in "The Alternative Factor" that Star Trek admits to the existence of anti-matter. That's right, we're introduced to the polarized elements of matter and anti-matter. Oh, sweet lovely day--"if matter and anti-matter meet, the annihilation of everything, everywhere."
Episode Quotations
"You have a talent for understatement, lieutenant." --Kirk in response to an officer informing him the ship's dilithium crystals were drained; note: he said this to Spock in the previous episode. Apparently the writers liked that line, having used it for the first time in Episode 26.
"I fail to understand your indignation, Lazarus. I have simply made the logical deduction that you are a liar." --Spock to our human mystery man
"Jim, madness has no purpose, or reason, but it may have a goal." --Spock describing Lazarus
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