That Which Survives
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| Star Trek: TOS episode | |
| "That Which Survives" | |
 An alien computer casts deadly images, That Which Survives. |
|
| Episode no. | 72 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 069 |
| Airdate | January 24, 1969 |
| Writer(s) | John Meredyth Lucas story by Michael Richards (pseudonym of D.C. Fontana) |
| Director | Herb Wallerstein |
| Guest star(s) | Arthur Batanides Booker Bradshaw Lee Meriwether Naomi Pollack Kenneth Washington Frank da Vinci William Blackburn Roger Holloway |
| Year | 2268 |
| Stardate | unknown |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "The Mark of Gideon" |
| Next | "The Lights of Zetar" |
"That Which Survives" is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast January 24, 1969 and repeated July 29, 1969. It is episode #72, production #69, written by John Meredyth Lucas, based on a story by Michael Richards (pseudonym of D.C. Fontana) and directed by Herb Wallerstein.
There is no stardate given for this episode, but it probably took place between 5423.4, and 5725.3 given the chronology of the previous and next episodes in the series.
Overview: The crew of the Enterprise visit an abandoned outpost guarded by a mysterious computer.
[edit] Plot
The Enterprise happens upon a planet that appears very young compared to its evolutionary stage of surface lifeforms. Captain Kirk, along with Dr. McCoy, Mr. Sulu and geologist D'Amato, prepare to beam down to the planet to investigate further. In the midst of dematerializing, Kirk catches a glimpse of a beautiful woman appearing in the transporter room. The woman appears to try and stop the landing team's departure, but is too late. The woman touches the baffled transporter technician, Ensign Wyatt, and instantly kills him.
As soon as Kirk and the others materialize on the planet, they are rocked violently by a tremor. At the same time, the Enterprise is jolted as well; the result of being thrown 990.7 light years away from the planet by some unknown force. Ensign Wyatt's body is later found and examined by Dr. M'Benga who discovers Wyatt's death has been caused by complete cellular disruption.
Back on the planet, the landing party realizes they are stranded as all communications with the ship have ended. They split up and begin to scout around. As D'Amato surveys a rocky area, he comes face-to-face with the woman who appeared in the transporter room. Strangely, she knows his name. She approaches him slowly and D'Amato stands struck by her beauty. As soon as she touches him, he falls dead as Wyatt did.
Back on the Enterprise, Mr. Spock assesses their situation and plots a course back to the mysterious planet, however as soon as the ship approaches warp speeds, Mr. Scott reports problems caused by the ship being slightly out of phase with normal space. Spock believes the force which threw them through the galaxy may have caused the imbalance. The problems worsen as the Enterprise's speed continues to increase uncontrollably. Scotty has no way of stopping it unless he undergoes the dangerous task of cutting the matter-antimatter fuel flow to the warp engines; a task which involves crawling into a tight conduit sparking with arcs of energy. Scotty begins the risky repairs as the Enterprise nears warp factor 14.
On the planet, the landing team finds and buries D'Amato. His death still a mystery, the team sets up a camp, each keeping a watch while the others sleep. Sulu is on guard as night falls, and he spots the mysterious woman. She also knows Sulu by name and reaches out to touch him. Kirk and McCoy come running when they hear Sulu scream in pain. They find him injured but alive.
The woman returns, but she acts confused when she sees the three men. Kirk asks who she is here for, and has a hunch that she can only focus her attention on one person at a time. At present, Kirk is her target, so Sulu and McCoy risk their lives by acting as human shields for their captain. The woman tries to touch Kirk, but is blocked by the other two men, on whom her deadly touch doesn't seem to work. Kirk's hunch is right, and, unable to carry out her mission, the woman vanishes. The men manage to make it through the night, and the next day they immediately set out to find where the woman is coming from.
They search the area and find a hidden structure behind some rocks. The portal enters into a room containing a cube-shaped device suspended from the ceiling along with a large view screen mounted to the wall. Kirk guesses that it is some kind of computer system. The cube-shaped device casts out three identical projections of the female assassin, each programmed to kill one of them, making it impossible to defend against indefinitely.
Having warped through space at such incredible speed, the Enterprise soon arrives back at the planet. Spock detects the position of the landing party and beams down to their location with a security officer. Kirk orders Spock to destroy the computer; the security officer immediately blasts the projection device with his phaser and the women disappear to the landing party's relief.
Kirk and Spock examine the computer system closer. Soon the viewscreen activates, displaying the mysterious woman who had tried to kill them. The image is a pre-recorded message and the woman reveals her name as Losira, the commander of the outpost. Losira explains that her people, the Kalandans, tried to terraform the planet, however their process created a deadly organism which wiped out the colony.
Losira was the last survivor, and the computer used her image to defend the colony until help could arrive. The help was never to come however, since the Kalandan supply ships became infected with the organism and spread it across their entire civilization, driving them to extinction.
[edit] Trivia
- Some fans have argued that Kirk consistently mispronounces D'Amato's name as "Di Amato". However, fans who happen to have that same last name claim that both "Di Amato" and "D'matto" are valid pronunciations.
- Actress Lee Meriwether is also famous for two other sci-fi genre roles: that of Catwoman in the 1966 Batman theatrical film, and that of Dr. Ann MacGregor in Irwin Allen's 1967 series The Time Tunnel.
- Actor Booker Bradshaw reprises his role as Dr. M'Benga, a character first seen standing in for Dr. McCoy in "A Private Little War".
- Sulu refers in dialogue to the real-life Tunguska explosion of 1908, and the silicon-based Horta seen in the episode "The Devil in the Dark".
[edit] External links
- That Which Survives at StarTrek.com
- That Which Survives article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
| Last produced: "Wink of an Eye" |
Star Trek: TOS episodes Season 3 |
Next produced: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" |
| Last transmitted: "The Mark of Gideon" |
Next transmitted: "The Lights of Zetar" |
