The Enterprise checks in on a distant colony, expecting to find none alive due to the previously unknown radiation bombarding the planet. Instead, our heroes find the colonists alive and well -- quite well, with no ailments and almost blissful happiness. This seems to be the work of unusual spores in the environment, whose mysterious effects begin sweeping through the Enterprise crew and driving them to mutiny. Can Kirk resist the call to shirk his duties, and break the hold these spores have over his crew?
In this back half of Star Trek season 1, I've really been struck by how often the show goes on location. Later Star Treks chose to do more on a studio stage -- or perhaps didn't have the proportional budget to go outside as much. In any case, here the show is out on the road again, using Malibu State Park as the idyllic location of this colony -- and making a real meal of the visuals by having Spock dangle euphorically from a picturesque tree branch.
That Spock moment -- and more generally, the idea of an emotionally free "Vulcanian" must surely have been the point this episode worked backward from to reach. Because absent that, this feels uncomfortably close to another very recent episode, "The Return of the Archons." Both episodes feature Enterprise crew members deserting their duties in search of bliss as they interact with a planet of "pod people"-like locals.
If Star Trek is going to repackage the same story again so quickly, at least they make it more character-focused this time around. Besides the spotlight on Spock's romantic relationship (and a nimble performance from Leonard Nimoy), McCoy gets a sprinkling of funny moments ("Just an educated guess – I'd say that man is alive") and an almsot Foghorn Leghorn persona once mind-controlled, and Sulu gets to be a bit of detective (who seems to realize just how bizarre the possibilities might be).
But the episode is most illuminating of Captain Kirk, whose sense of duty is apparently so all-consuming that it somehow allows him to break the hold of the mind-altering spores. Assuming you can just roll with that, it really shows the true core of the character -- not the pursuit of a new woman every episode (that's actually not much of a thing in season one), but of always putting one "lady" first: the Enterprise.
There's a loosely demarcated moral in the end, the notion that people need an ambition to strive for, or they'll just stagnate and do nothing. There's also a lot of meat for the fans -- from detailed closeups of Enterprise bridge panels, to tidbits about Spock's history, to a showdown between Kirk and Spock. But overall, I find myself wishing there had been a lot more space between this and "Archons." That episode may have had more creative flaws than this one, but the proximity still does it no favors.
Other observations:
- In the future as imagined in the 1960s, we still have appendectomies and tonsillectomies.
- When Kirk is alone on the Enterprise, there's a brief shot of an empty bridge before he exits the turbolift. This shot was used as a background plate for Scott's holodeck visit to the Enterprise in his Next Generation episode.
- There are plenty of stunt performers in Star Trek that look nothing like the actors they replace. But the "Captain Kirk" in this episode looks like a kid.
I'm sure Spock fans would find it heresy that I give "This Side of Paradise" only a B-. I might even think better of it had I just watched it as a one-off, instead of in sequence so near "The Return of the Archons." But I think the repetitive elements of the story, combined with Kirk's convenient "immunity" to the spores, drags down the story from its full potential.
