Our new episode opens on a remarkably purple and orange planet, with Spock, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Chekov and some never before seen woman serving as an away team visiting a planet meant to be inhabited by Star Fleet personnel living as colony members. When they arrive, surprisingly, no one is around to greet them. The crew is suprised, and Kirk sends them off in search of members of the colony. Chekov enters a building and instead finds a kind of visitation shrine for a very aged, dead body. Shocked, and screaming, he calls in the rest of the team. Soon after, two almost-infirm, and very old-looking colony members enter. Soon after revealing they can barely hear, the colony members also reveal they are only 28 and 29. The colony members are all either dead or dying of old age.
How could the colony members have aged so quickly? Why are all of the ship crew with the ability to actually lead the ship continually serving as away team members in the midst of crucial missions, thereby leaving the most prominant galaxy class starship in Star Fleet, the Enterprise, ineffectively manned? Who is at the con? Will Kirk find some way to rip his shirt off when the episode theme seems to have no such need? These are the questions facing the star ship Enterprise on her crucial mission to seek out new life.
Kirk slowly aging, and struggling with facing mortality.Episode Summary
Shortly after returning to the ship, we discover Kirk is facing a past love in this episode. Their jobs kept them apart. While she does some sort of lab-type research, he is a star ship captain. Their lives were incompatible, and so they called off their romance. In the midst of reconciling, Kirk is called away to the bridge. Oh! What a re-enactment of their earlier romance.
Returning to the bridge, we discover that Kirk is repeating himself, and the unnamed woman from the away team is having trouble hearing. Strange! My god! The crew is already suffering the symptoms of older age. In the middle of our facing this horror, Kirk manages to take his shirt off for us, but in doing so he seems to throw out his back, thereby revealing further symptoms of aging. The entire away team, in fact, except for Chekov, seems to be suffering aging--achy joints, graying hair, reduced hearing, imbalanced metabolism. The drinking of prune juice doesn't seem to be an issue. But poor Scotty has had a heavy dose of graying powder adding to his hair and eyebrows.
Analysing the away team, McCoy realizes that the entire team seems to be aging 30 years for each day. Spock too is aging fast, but being Vulcan the symptoms are not showing his symptoms as quickly as the humans. The symptoms include not merely physical problems, but also reduction of mental faculties.
In the midst of his aging, the woman previously declared a love interest for Kirk stays around, clearly worried about her man. The previously unseen woman member of the away team, however, has devolved into an emotional wreck, and aged most quickly of all the people that had traveled to the planet surface.
The love interest for Kirk reveals that not only will she assist in solving the research needed for saving Kirk, she also still needs to express her love for Kirk, and to allow that they will solve their problem. Kirk, however, does not know how to accept his age in the midst of her amour. "What are you offering me? Love, or a going away present?" She is shocked, but Kirk walks away.
Have you noticed yet? There is not much plot driving this episode. Instead, the episode is all about watching our crucial crew members, most especially, face the reality associated with mortality, and reduced facilties. But further, the episode seems to be about Kirk illustrating his own inability to accept genuine, reciprocal romantic relationship.
Spock, the genius intellectual problem solver of the series, enters, finally, with the cause of the aging --a comet that had passed through the area released previously-undetectable radiation over the planet, to which the away team was exposed.
As time goes on, a commodor that has been in the background of the entire episode, approaches Spock to ask for assistance in relieving Kirk of command. He asks Spock to take control of the Enterprise, which Spock denies. The commodor then demands that the First Officer, Spock, must, according to regulations, convene a competency hearing regarding Kirk's ability to continue leading the Enterprise. Spock accepts that regulations demand he must comply, though he is not pleased about the situation.
Before the hearing, the unnamed woman that had been on the away team dies. McCoy realizes that her faster metabolism caused her to age, and thus die, more quickly than the other members. McCoy says, then, that they are all going to die in less than a few days, perhaps even in only hours. The hearing begins. In the midst of the hearing, Kirk throws fits, his love interest looks on, Sulu is strained for having to speak ill of his captain, Uhura too is pained for revealing that her captain had difficulties, and the woman crewmembers dress-like uniforms appear shorter than they did in the first season. In some cases, the lower curve of their behind is actually visible. Least plausibly, all of the medical personnel that could be researching a solution to the rapid aging are not researching possible solutions, but instead are present in the hearing. We also still don't know why Chekov is not aging.
In relieving Captain Kirk of duty, and with all senior officers rapidly aging, the commodore assumes command of the Enterprise, even though he has never before led a star ship. His first ruling is for Sulu to set a course across the Romulun neutral zone, thereby immediately threatening the safety of the entire ship. Commodore Stalker has never had a field command, and thereby does not really understand what amounts to reasonable leadership. Spock notifies Kirk of the situation, and Kirk shouts that Spock has betrayed him. Kirk's love interest, however, remains with Kirk, attempting to comfort him in her Pucci-esque patterned gown.
Finally, McCoy, Kirk, and Spock begin to realize that Chekov had experienced one crucial difference from the rest of them --he'd been intensely scared from seeing the dead body. Adrenaline would have coursed through his body. McCoy realizes the adrenaline must have saved Chekov from the effects of the radiation sickness. Spock, and an associate doctor get to work at developing an appropriate adrenalin compound.
In the meantime, the ship has entered the neutral zone, and is immediately attacked by Romulun's. Asking for instruction from the commodore, he quickly shows he has no idea what to do. Kirk must be tied down to keep him from rushing to the bridge. Spock walks in with rough concotion, telling them that it could "cure or kill." Kirk demands to take the first test shot, knowing that he will die soon anyway from age. Taking the shot is the only chance to save the ship. If he survives, he will be able to rush to the bridge and get them out of the horrible situation. The commodore is giving up, as the Romulun's threaten the very survival of the Enterprise. Suddenly, Kirk rushes in, his former youthful appearance restored, and quickly saves the ship. The commodore is stunned, impressed, and embarassed. The Enterprise escapes, and departs from the neutral zone.
McCoy rushes in, notifies them that Scotty too has recovered, and tells Spock the shot is ready for him. Kirk's loves interest walks in, and Kirk quickly hands over command to Sulu.
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