This episode is better than most of the rest of season three, but that's not saying much. There's really not much to the story. A mysterious woman keeps killing crew members and ends up being the projection of a computer (the swirling cubic disco ball of doom!) left on auto-pilot by an extinct civilization. The subplot of the Enterprise being thrown 1000 light years and suffering sabotage seemed added for no reason but to fill out the plot. The scenes where Scotty had to climb in by the plasma flow and make repairs or the ship would explode were entertaining thanks to fine acting by Doohan and nice visuals, but they make no sense from a scientific perspective and seem added for the sole purpose of creating drama.
My wife walked in during the repair scenes and our conversation went something like this. My wife: "Why is Scotty down by those sparks?" Me: "He has to fix a sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo-thingy." My wife: "Why doesn't he turn the sparks off first?" Me: "The enemy did some sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo-thingy to the ship so they can't." My wife: "Why did the enemy do that?" Me: "To create drama. There's no real reason given." My Wife: "How does he fix it?" Me: "He waves a sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo-thingy in a dangerous place." My Wife: "Why is it dangerous?" Me: "To create drama. There's no real reason given. My wife: "Why don't they wait until the power runs out so the sparks go away so they can make repairs safely?" Me: "Because the ship is going to explode in 12 minutes." My wife: "Why is the ship going to explode?!" Me: "To create drama. There's no real reason given."
In summary, these scenes exemplify much of season three: contrived nonsense. Other odd tidbits:
My wife walked in during the repair scenes and our conversation went something like this. My wife: "Why is Scotty down by those sparks?" Me: "He has to fix a sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo-thingy." My wife: "Why doesn't he turn the sparks off first?" Me: "The enemy did some sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo-thingy to the ship so they can't." My wife: "Why did the enemy do that?" Me: "To create drama. There's no real reason given." My Wife: "How does he fix it?" Me: "He waves a sci-fi-mumbo-jumbo-thingy in a dangerous place." My Wife: "Why is it dangerous?" Me: "To create drama. There's no real reason given. My wife: "Why don't they wait until the power runs out so the sparks go away so they can make repairs safely?" Me: "Because the ship is going to explode in 12 minutes." My wife: "Why is the ship going to explode?!" Me: "To create drama. There's no real reason given."
In summary, these scenes exemplify much of season three: contrived nonsense. Other odd tidbits:
- The woman is just an optical projection of a computer, but for some reason must physically touch people in order to kill them. - The woman's touch is only deadly to one predesignated person at a time and we never find out why. - The woman knows everyone's names and we're never told how. - The disco ball of doom has the power to explode every cell in a person's body from 1000 light years away, yet one phaser shot to and its destroyed (talk about anti-climatic). - The victims have every cell in their body exploded, and yet they look exactly the same on the outside. - Spock is unusually annoying in his demand for precision for no real reason.