This Side of Paradise
The Enterprise arrives at Omicron Ceti III hoping to find a colony of 150 humans but knowing that the radioactive Bertold Rays bombarding the planet have likely killed everyone. A landing party that includes Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Sulu beams down and is surprised to find the colonists still alive.
Dr McCoy examines the colonists including Elias Sandoval, its leader. Everyone he examines is in perfect health, better than their medical records indicated that they were before leaving Earth.
Spock is puzzled by the lack of animals or insect life. He spends time with the colony’s botanist, Leila Kolomi, whom he knew briefly six years earlier, on Earth. She wants him to stay on Omicron Ceti III but he is more interested in solving the mystery of the colony.
Leila helps Spock solve the mystery by showing him some flowers that spray him with spores. He becomes very mellow after that and loses all interest in figuring out why the colonists are still alive.
Kirk informs Sandoval that he has orders to evacuate all the colonists to Starbase 27. Sandoval refuses to comply with Kirk’s instructions. The rest of the landing party, with the exception of Kirk, and soon after that the entire crew of the Enterprise, become infected with the spores. Everyone aboard the Enterprise lines up to beam down to Omicron Ceti III. Kirk orders them to get back to their stations but they are all too mellow and determined to leave the Enterprise to comply with his orders.
Captain Kirk is left alone aboard the Enterprise. He’s at a loss as to what he can do until he figures out that the reason why he hasn’t succumbed to the spores effect is because he is angry about what’s going on. He pretends like he has seen the light and asks Spock to beam up and help him get some equipment from the Enterprise.
Kirk provokes a fight with Spock, after he beams up, by insulting him, repeatedly. Spock snaps out of it just as he is about to smash Kirk with a chair. They work together after that and find a cure for the spores which they transmit subsonically down to the planet. A few fights break out but in the end the entire crew of the Enterprise and all of the colonists are cured of the spores mind numbing effects.
Thoughts
Spock is once again described as being a Vulcanian, this time by Elias Sandoval.
I love how Spock changes outfits and starts wearing a green jumpsuit (like the colonists) after he has been converted by the spores. He changes back to his blue shirt uniform very soon after he shakes off the effects of the spores.
This was a fun episode. I recall seeing it before but for the most part all I recalled was the spores and Spock getting emotional. The final scene with Spock and Leila got to me a little bit. I'm glad that they gave the actors the chance to play that moment rather than just deal with it off screen.
Thoughts
Frank Overton played the part of Elias Sandoval. He was in a couple episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959), the first of which was 1.05 Walking Distance. He was also in Fail Safe (1964). Jill Ireland played the part of Leila Kalomi. She also appeared in one episode of Night Gallery.
Ralph Serensky directed this episode. It is the first of seven episodes of this show that he directed. He also directed one episode of The Twilight Zone (1959) and one of Night Gallery.
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