Season 1
Episode 26: The Devil in the Dark
Filmed: January 1967
Filmed: January 1967
First Air Date: March 9, 1967
Karen: We're back to a monster episode, this time featuring a creature called a Horta -or as I referred to it as a child, 'the pizza monster.' Of course, this is Star Trek, so a monster is never just a monster, which we -and the Enterprise crew -figure out over the course of this episode. "Devil in the Dark" speaks to one of Trek's main themes -overcoming our prejudices -and it does this quite well. It isn't perfect -there's obvious budget issues, some story-telling gaps, and well, at times I thought it was a bit boring. But it's quite a feat to take an amorphous shambling mess and make us feel sympathy and pity for it.
Karen: This episode, written by producer Gene Coon, came about for the most prosaic of reasons: costume maker and stunt man Janos Prohaska created the suit and the production team loved it, especially when they saw it in action. Coon quickly wrote a script, and after a few revisions, they were ready to go. As Marc Cushman points out in These are the Voyages Volume 1, the story is somewhat reminiscent of the early season episode, "The Man Trap," where we also have a creature that is the last of its kind, killing humans on a planet. But in this Coon-penned episode, Kirk is not so quick to condemn the creature; instead he tries to understand its motivations and shows compassion for it (much as he did the Gorn in "Arena," another Coon effort). Star Trek was evolving before the audience's eyes.
Karen: That's not to say this episode isn't clunky -how did the blobby Horta dismantle the reactor? I never could figure that out. And they don't have any spare parts for a critical piece of equipment? But it's necessary for the drama, so you have to buy it. If you're willing to buy a silicon-based blob boring through solid rock, the rest should be easy, I guess.
Karen: Depending on your tastes, Spock's mind melding with the Horta is either a fascinating scene or a silly one. Personally I go back and forth over it. I always wondered how he could touch it -shouldn't it still have the residue of the acids it secreted to burn through the rock still on its hide? McCoy is in perfect form, complaining that he is not a "bricklayer" as he has to shovel cement into the creature's wounds.
Karen: Many fans already know the story about how William Shatner's father died while they were filming this episode. In Shatner's book, Star Trek Memories, the actor described how the show's cast and crew helped him through the tough day of waiting to fly out from Los Angeles to Miami, where his father's funeral would be. Initially they were going to stop filming but Shatner asked them to continue -that he couldn't take the waiting, he needed to be occupied. The show went on.
"An hour later, after we'd broken for lunch and after the tears and the anguish, we started shooting what we'd been rehearsing all morning. And all through the scene, I kept having trouble with a particular line. My emotion was getting in the way, making me forget. And even though I really can't remember the day's details anymore, the one thing I recall perfectly and that I'll never forget is the closeness that my friend Leonard (Nimoy) had toward me. Not just emotionally but physically as well. I mean I've seen films of elephants that support the sick and dying with their bodies, and Leonard somehow always seemed physically close to me. Our cinematographer, Jerry Finnerman, whose father had also recently passed away, stayed close, too. And together, they kind of herded around me, assuring me that there were people close by in case I wanted to talk or just needed a friend. Between Leonard and Jerry, we were able to make it through that awful afternoon, and I was able to fly out that evening to my father, warmed by their love and affection."
Karen: Shatner says "Devil in the Dark" is his favorite Star Trek episode.
Karen: We're back to a monster episode, this time featuring a creature called a Horta -or as I referred to it as a child, 'the pizza monster.' Of course, this is Star Trek, so a monster is never just a monster, which we -and the Enterprise crew -figure out over the course of this episode. "Devil in the Dark" speaks to one of Trek's main themes -overcoming our prejudices -and it does this quite well. It isn't perfect -there's obvious budget issues, some story-telling gaps, and well, at times I thought it was a bit boring. But it's quite a feat to take an amorphous shambling mess and make us feel sympathy and pity for it.
Karen: This episode, written by producer Gene Coon, came about for the most prosaic of reasons: costume maker and stunt man Janos Prohaska created the suit and the production team loved it, especially when they saw it in action. Coon quickly wrote a script, and after a few revisions, they were ready to go. As Marc Cushman points out in These are the Voyages Volume 1, the story is somewhat reminiscent of the early season episode, "The Man Trap," where we also have a creature that is the last of its kind, killing humans on a planet. But in this Coon-penned episode, Kirk is not so quick to condemn the creature; instead he tries to understand its motivations and shows compassion for it (much as he did the Gorn in "Arena," another Coon effort). Star Trek was evolving before the audience's eyes.
Karen: That's not to say this episode isn't clunky -how did the blobby Horta dismantle the reactor? I never could figure that out. And they don't have any spare parts for a critical piece of equipment? But it's necessary for the drama, so you have to buy it. If you're willing to buy a silicon-based blob boring through solid rock, the rest should be easy, I guess.
Karen: Depending on your tastes, Spock's mind melding with the Horta is either a fascinating scene or a silly one. Personally I go back and forth over it. I always wondered how he could touch it -shouldn't it still have the residue of the acids it secreted to burn through the rock still on its hide? McCoy is in perfect form, complaining that he is not a "bricklayer" as he has to shovel cement into the creature's wounds.
Karen: Many fans already know the story about how William Shatner's father died while they were filming this episode. In Shatner's book, Star Trek Memories, the actor described how the show's cast and crew helped him through the tough day of waiting to fly out from Los Angeles to Miami, where his father's funeral would be. Initially they were going to stop filming but Shatner asked them to continue -that he couldn't take the waiting, he needed to be occupied. The show went on.
"An hour later, after we'd broken for lunch and after the tears and the anguish, we started shooting what we'd been rehearsing all morning. And all through the scene, I kept having trouble with a particular line. My emotion was getting in the way, making me forget. And even though I really can't remember the day's details anymore, the one thing I recall perfectly and that I'll never forget is the closeness that my friend Leonard (Nimoy) had toward me. Not just emotionally but physically as well. I mean I've seen films of elephants that support the sick and dying with their bodies, and Leonard somehow always seemed physically close to me. Our cinematographer, Jerry Finnerman, whose father had also recently passed away, stayed close, too. And together, they kind of herded around me, assuring me that there were people close by in case I wanted to talk or just needed a friend. Between Leonard and Jerry, we were able to make it through that awful afternoon, and I was able to fly out that evening to my father, warmed by their love and affection."
Karen: Shatner says "Devil in the Dark" is his favorite Star Trek episode.
