I’ve come to realize that Star Trek had
a lot of contrivances that the subsequent series didn’t have. For instance, The Enterprise encountered a
lot of one-of-a-kind creatures. There
were also a lot of emergencies that could have easily been handled by some
other means. Add to this reused plot
devices and you have an episode of Star Trek.
In Obsession, The Enterprise is due to
pick up some perishable medical supplies from the USS Yorktown. For some reason, they’re doing a planetary
survey first. On that planet is a
gaseous life form that can drain a person of hemoglobin. Kirk recognizes this as the same creature
that killed half the crew of the USS Farragut, Kirk’s first assignment out of
Starfleet Academy. Kirk is determined to
kill the thing before it manages to spawn thousands more like itself.
Ok, so how do they know that there’s one
of this thing? If it goes back to its
home planet to reproduce, it’s conceivable that there are thousands or even
millions of these cloud creatures draining the hemoglobin out of unsuspecting
people. For that matter, how does it
survive like that? There are plenty of
life forms that don’t have iron-based blood.
The Enterprise’s first officer is one such life form.
So, Kirk puts off meeting with The
Yorktown. Why can’t the Yorktown deliver
the supplies if it’s so important? Why
schedule two ships to meet up in the first place? It’s to give Kirk a deadline. That’s why.
The entire episode seems built around
Kirk getting revenge. You’d think at
least one other Starfleet officer would have the same concerns. Half of the crew of The Farragut
survived. Isn’t there someone Kirk could
talk to who would understand? I’d think
Kirk would call one of the surviving crewmates or the relatives of the fallen
crewmates to let them know what happened.
Even a passing comment in a later episode would have been nice.
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