By Any Other Name

"By Any Other Name"
Star Trek: The Original Series episode
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 22
Directed by Marc Daniels[1][2]
Teleplay by D.C. Fontana[1]
Jerome Bixby[2][3]
Story by Jerome Bixby[1][2]
Featured music Fred Steiner[4]
Cinematography by Keith Smith
Production code 050
Original air date February 23, 1968 (1968-02-23)
Guest actors

"By Any Other Name" is a second season episode of the original science fiction television series, Star Trek, first broadcast February 23, 1968, and repeated May 31, 1968. It is episode #51, production #50, with screenplay by D.C. Fontana and Jerome Bixby based on Bixby's story, and directed by Marc Daniels. The title is taken from a line spoken by Juliet in Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet: "that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet",[5] a line quoted by Captain Kirk during the episode.

In this episode, beings from another galaxy commandeer the Enterprise in an attempt to return home.[2]

Plot

The Federation starship USS Enterprise responds to a distress call from an uncharted planet. A landing party beams down to locate the source, and finds a humanoid man and woman, who order Kirk to surrender the Enterprise.

Rojan and Kelinda of the Kelvan Empire paralyze Kirk, McCoy, Spock, and the landing party with a paralysis field. Rojan tells Kirk that he is now in control and any attempts at resistance will be severely punished. The Kelvans originate from the Andromeda Galaxy, and have come to find planets suitable for conquest in the Milky Way Galaxy. Because their own ship was destroyed, they need the Enterprise to make the 300-year return journey.

Three other Kelvans transport aboard the Enterprise, and quickly gain control of the ship. Hanar beams down to report to Rojan, who then orders the landing party to a holding cell. Attempting to escape, First Officer Spock uses his Vulcan telepathic ability to lure Kelinda over to him, where they knock her out, and seize her control belt. Their escape is short-lived and as punishment, Rojan orders Hanar to activate his belt, reducing two of the landing team members (the security guards) to small cuboctahedral blocks of a chalk-like substance. Rojan picks up the blocks and crushes one to dust, killing Yeoman Thompson. He then transforms the other block back into human form.

To create an excuse for beaming back to the ship, Spock places himself into a deep trance and Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy requests the Kelvans allow him to take Spock to Sickbay for treatment. The Kelvans agree and transport the entire landing party and themselves to the ship.

Spock makes his way to engineering with Chief Engineer Scott, and they find that they cannot get to the Kelvans' paralysis field. Instead, Spock has Mr. Scott open the control valves to the matter/antimatter system, and they inform Kirk he can destroy the Enterprise, if needed. Kirk opts not to explode the Enterprise in hopes of finding another answer.

After the ship reaches the edge of the galaxy, the Kelvans reduce all non-essential personnel into chalk blocks to keep them out of the way. Kirk, Scott, Spock, and McCoy are the only crew left behind to battle the Kelvans. Tomar orders the doctor to assist him in sampling human cuisine which he ends up enjoying enthusiastically. Spock surmises from his mental contact with Kelinda that the Kelvans are inexperienced in human emotions and stimuli, and this could be used to overload and confuse their newfound senses, possibly leading to them inadvertently revealing their weaknesses.

Scott introduces Tomar to the pleasures of alcoholic intoxication, McCoy prescribes a course of "vitamin" injections for Hanar, and Kirk turns his amorous attentions toward Kelinda.

Back on the bridge, Hanar becomes increasingly irritated by McCoy's injections and belligerently refuses Rojan's orders. Rojan orders Hanar to confine himself to his quarters. By this time, heavy drinking has caused Tomar to pass out, but Scotty also finds he is too drunk to leave his own quarters.

Rojan finds Kirk and Kelinda together again and angrily confronts them, leading to a physical altercation between himself and Kirk. Kirk pins Rojan to the floor, telling him that his people are already becoming human. Soon, they will become so alien to the other Kelvans that in 300 years (when the Kelvans are due to return to the Andromeda Galaxy) their descendants will be alienated from their own kind.

Rojan realizes Kirk is correct, and that it will be impossible to return home. He relinquishes control of the ship to Kirk and restores the crew. Kirk turns the Enterprise around and heads back through the Galactic Barrier. Rojan accepts Kirk's offer of being a liaison for the Federation if the Kelvans should ever return. The world they were marooned on is selected as a new home world so that Rojan and his people can live in peace. Spock suggests that an unmanned robot ship could be sent to Andromeda with a Federation proposal.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Mark Phillips, Frank Garcia (1996), Science Fiction Television Series, McFarland, p. 413, ISBN 9780786400416
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sam Sloane, Michael Okuda (March 7, 2008), “By Any Other Name” Premieres This Weekend — Star Trek Remastered, Slice of SciFi
  3. ↑ Gene Roddenberry (1977), The Star Trek Reader III, p. 179
  4. ↑ Jeff Bond (1999), The Music of Star Trek, p. 26, Steiner's final score of the season was written for "By Any Other Name"
  5. ↑ Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.43–44.

External links

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