STARDATE: 1704.2
The U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701) orbits distant Psi 2000, an ancient world on the verge of breaking up. The crew's mission: to recover the planet-bound science team and monitor the disintegration of the planet.
Unfortunately, the landing party (consisting of half-Vulcan science officer Spock and Joe Tormolen) discovers that the entirety of the science team is dead...and dead under very odd conditions. One woman has been strangled. An engineer is dead at his post (frozen to death because life support was de-activated...), and another man died in the shower fully-clothed. Tormolen unwittingly brings this unique form of "space madness" back to the starship after removing a protective glove (to scratch his nose...) and coming into contact with a contaminated console.
This "disease" spreads rapidly aboard the Enterprise as Captain Kirk and the others see "hidden personality traits forced" into the open among their comrades. This means that Mr. Sulu becomes a swashbuckler. This means that Nurse Christine Chapel confesses her undying love to Mr. Spock. The logical Mr. Spock is infected too, lamenting the fact that he could never tell his mother that he loved her. Even Kirk is not immune: admitting the personal cost he's paid to be captain of a starship, not the least of which is his isolation from the men and women he leads. "No beach to walk on," he muses wistfully.
Soon, events spiral out of control. Lt. Kevin Riley commandeers Engineering ("I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen...") and shuts down the engines. This means that as the planet breaks up, the Enterprise can't escape orbit. As Scotty proclaims, he "can't change the laws of Physics." Things look grim unless Kirk can snap Spock out of his In the end, Dr. McCoy finds a cure for the disease and the Enterprise barely escapes Psi 2000 as it cracks up, utilizing a dangerous new intermix formula which generates...a time warp. The Enterprise travels back in time 71 hours...
"The Naked Time" (By John D.F. Black and directed by Marc Daniels) is not just a terrific Star Trek story from early in the series' first season, but the prototype and creative wellspring for much of episodic science fiction television. In essence, "The Naked Time" finds a device (here an alien molecule/disease that acts on the human blood stream like alcohol intoxication) by which the writer can excavate the hidden sides of the lead characters. This is important, because there are things that characters will never realistically reveal to others, all things being equal. All things aren't equal, here, however, and the characters reveal new, deeper shades.
Star Trek went back to this "Naked Time" well at least a few times, with variable results. "This Side of Paradise" employs alien "happy" spores to give Spock a love story to good effect. Oppositely, "And the Children Shall Lead" uses Gorgon-powered evil tykes to reveal that Uhura is afraid of aging, and expose Kirk's fear of losing command. That episode is generally considered one of the worst of the series
Star Trek: The Next Generation went boldly where the original series had gone before in a story called "The Naked Now," which revived the threat (alien disease) to vex the crew of the Enterprise-D. Ironically, the disease there seemed to reveal less diverse behavior among the crew; basically that all the women on the ship (Crusher, Troi and Yar) were randy...
And heck, I've even co-opted "The Naked Time" template on The House Between for the fifth episode of the first season, "Mirrored." It's too good not to use. And I believe it was one-time TV Guide reviewer Cleveland Amory who once said that all Star Trek episodes feature the same plot: something "alien" makes the Enterprise crew members go crazy. (The comment was wrong, but there are certainly are several of these stories...). He was surely talking about "The Naked Time" and all the similar episodes that followed.
Another facet of "The Naked Time" that bears repeating: technically it's the first time travel episode on the classic series. Spock develops a formula that sends the Enterprise back in time three days. In the final scene, he says to Kirk that time travel is now longer a theory: but a reality. Kirk opens up the door to a whole bunch of plotlines by replying "we may risk it some day." Ironically - despite the overt set-up here, follow-up Star Trek time travel stories utilize a different method of time travel all together: a slingshot around the sun at high warp speed. This technique appeared in "Tomorrow is Yesterday," "Assignment: Earth" and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Focusing on the episode itself, I think "The Naked Time" expresses something unique and very individual about the series, and this may element prove the dividing line between adherents and detractors. Specifically, all the havoc in the episode commences when Tormolen takes off a glove to scratch his nose, and is contaminated by the infection. Some people will complain about this plot point. They'll ask -- how did a man ascend to a position of authority on board the U.S.S. Enterprise, after presumably rigorous training in Starfleet...and then turn around and do something so stupid, so thoughtless, so reckless? I sympathize with those literal-thinkers who have a problem with this. However (and this is where I fall on the subject), the glory of the original Star Trek (and one largely sacrificed to catsuits and soap opera plotting in later generations), is the continuing recognition of mankind's foibles. Humans do make mistakes from time to time, and many stories in the original Star Trek canon are possible only because humans do something wrong or reckless or silly. I happen to appreciate this facet of "The Naked Time" and Star Trek. I believe that even when we reach the stars, we'll still be the same flawed creatures we are today. That doesn't make us bad. As Kirk would say, it just makes us human.
What else happens in "The Naked Time"?
* Nurse Chapel alludes to some kinky rumors about Vulcans. And she clearly gets off on it. "The men from Vulcan treat their women...strangely," she muses with a look that suggests she wouldn't mind playing the willing victim if Spock were the victimizer. This is another reason I love the original Star Trek series, it can be downright perverse and kinky. ("Turnabout Intruder," anyone?)
* We learn that there's a bowling alley on the Enterprise from Kevin Riley. That's a little strange. So TV doesn't survive past 2020 in Star Trek, according to "The Big Goodbye." but bowling thrives into the 23rd century. Best evidence yet the series occurs in an alternate universe...
* Scotty goes into the Jeffries Tubes here. Whoo-hoo. Love those Jeffries Tubes. And what a great shot/angle is always utilized in these sequences! Claustrophobic, from a high angle. Neat. It proves the Enterprise isn't a Ramada Inn in space. There are still some tight corners to navigate. Let's face it, in the final frontier, "space" (if you'll pardon the pun), would still be at a premium. Even in the future.
* Nimoy is terrific in this episode. No surprise there. He has good writing on his side, of course, but he is absolutely extraordinary too. I love how Mr. Spock attempts to hold himself together by quoting multiplication tables in an empty briefing room. There's something very right about that: the logic of Math/Order trying to hold down the chaos of emotional distress. It doesn't work, but it's a noble attempt.
* Finally, another element of Star Trek that disappeared after this generation: the captain's undying love for his ship. "Never lose you," Kirk says here, under the influence. He's referring to the Enterprise, and talking about her like she's his lover. In the original series, the Enterprise was a main character, and a love for this particular ship (by Kirk and others) is an element that informed many of the best stories. Contrast this obsession with Picard's response at the destruction of the Enterprise D (paraphrased) in Generations: "I'm sure this won't be the last ship to carry the name Enterprise." He didn't shed one bloody tear, or look back. (Personally, I would have been pissed at hell at Riker for wrecking the ship...) A man (or woman) who doesn't love his ship has no business commanding a starship in Star Trek, so far as I'm concerned.
The U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701) orbits distant Psi 2000, an ancient world on the verge of breaking up. The crew's mission: to recover the planet-bound science team and monitor the disintegration of the planet.
Unfortunately, the landing party (consisting of half-Vulcan science officer Spock and Joe Tormolen) discovers that the entirety of the science team is dead...and dead under very odd conditions. One woman has been strangled. An engineer is dead at his post (frozen to death because life support was de-activated...), and another man died in the shower fully-clothed. Tormolen unwittingly brings this unique form of "space madness" back to the starship after removing a protective glove (to scratch his nose...) and coming into contact with a contaminated console.
This "disease" spreads rapidly aboard the Enterprise as Captain Kirk and the others see "hidden personality traits forced" into the open among their comrades. This means that Mr. Sulu becomes a swashbuckler. This means that Nurse Christine Chapel confesses her undying love to Mr. Spock. The logical Mr. Spock is infected too, lamenting the fact that he could never tell his mother that he loved her. Even Kirk is not immune: admitting the personal cost he's paid to be captain of a starship, not the least of which is his isolation from the men and women he leads. "No beach to walk on," he muses wistfully.
Soon, events spiral out of control. Lt. Kevin Riley commandeers Engineering ("I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen...") and shuts down the engines. This means that as the planet breaks up, the Enterprise can't escape orbit. As Scotty proclaims, he "can't change the laws of Physics." Things look grim unless Kirk can snap Spock out of his In the end, Dr. McCoy finds a cure for the disease and the Enterprise barely escapes Psi 2000 as it cracks up, utilizing a dangerous new intermix formula which generates...a time warp. The Enterprise travels back in time 71 hours...
"The Naked Time" (By John D.F. Black and directed by Marc Daniels) is not just a terrific Star Trek story from early in the series' first season, but the prototype and creative wellspring for much of episodic science fiction television. In essence, "The Naked Time" finds a device (here an alien molecule/disease that acts on the human blood stream like alcohol intoxication) by which the writer can excavate the hidden sides of the lead characters. This is important, because there are things that characters will never realistically reveal to others, all things being equal. All things aren't equal, here, however, and the characters reveal new, deeper shades.
Star Trek went back to this "Naked Time" well at least a few times, with variable results. "This Side of Paradise" employs alien "happy" spores to give Spock a love story to good effect. Oppositely, "And the Children Shall Lead" uses Gorgon-powered evil tykes to reveal that Uhura is afraid of aging, and expose Kirk's fear of losing command. That episode is generally considered one of the worst of the series
Star Trek: The Next Generation went boldly where the original series had gone before in a story called "The Naked Now," which revived the threat (alien disease) to vex the crew of the Enterprise-D. Ironically, the disease there seemed to reveal less diverse behavior among the crew; basically that all the women on the ship (Crusher, Troi and Yar) were randy...
And heck, I've even co-opted "The Naked Time" template on The House Between for the fifth episode of the first season, "Mirrored." It's too good not to use. And I believe it was one-time TV Guide reviewer Cleveland Amory who once said that all Star Trek episodes feature the same plot: something "alien" makes the Enterprise crew members go crazy. (The comment was wrong, but there are certainly are several of these stories...). He was surely talking about "The Naked Time" and all the similar episodes that followed.
Another facet of "The Naked Time" that bears repeating: technically it's the first time travel episode on the classic series. Spock develops a formula that sends the Enterprise back in time three days. In the final scene, he says to Kirk that time travel is now longer a theory: but a reality. Kirk opens up the door to a whole bunch of plotlines by replying "we may risk it some day." Ironically - despite the overt set-up here, follow-up Star Trek time travel stories utilize a different method of time travel all together: a slingshot around the sun at high warp speed. This technique appeared in "Tomorrow is Yesterday," "Assignment: Earth" and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Focusing on the episode itself, I think "The Naked Time" expresses something unique and very individual about the series, and this may element prove the dividing line between adherents and detractors. Specifically, all the havoc in the episode commences when Tormolen takes off a glove to scratch his nose, and is contaminated by the infection. Some people will complain about this plot point. They'll ask -- how did a man ascend to a position of authority on board the U.S.S. Enterprise, after presumably rigorous training in Starfleet...and then turn around and do something so stupid, so thoughtless, so reckless? I sympathize with those literal-thinkers who have a problem with this. However (and this is where I fall on the subject), the glory of the original Star Trek (and one largely sacrificed to catsuits and soap opera plotting in later generations), is the continuing recognition of mankind's foibles. Humans do make mistakes from time to time, and many stories in the original Star Trek canon are possible only because humans do something wrong or reckless or silly. I happen to appreciate this facet of "The Naked Time" and Star Trek. I believe that even when we reach the stars, we'll still be the same flawed creatures we are today. That doesn't make us bad. As Kirk would say, it just makes us human.
What else happens in "The Naked Time"?
* Nurse Chapel alludes to some kinky rumors about Vulcans. And she clearly gets off on it. "The men from Vulcan treat their women...strangely," she muses with a look that suggests she wouldn't mind playing the willing victim if Spock were the victimizer. This is another reason I love the original Star Trek series, it can be downright perverse and kinky. ("Turnabout Intruder," anyone?)
* We learn that there's a bowling alley on the Enterprise from Kevin Riley. That's a little strange. So TV doesn't survive past 2020 in Star Trek, according to "The Big Goodbye." but bowling thrives into the 23rd century. Best evidence yet the series occurs in an alternate universe...
* Scotty goes into the Jeffries Tubes here. Whoo-hoo. Love those Jeffries Tubes. And what a great shot/angle is always utilized in these sequences! Claustrophobic, from a high angle. Neat. It proves the Enterprise isn't a Ramada Inn in space. There are still some tight corners to navigate. Let's face it, in the final frontier, "space" (if you'll pardon the pun), would still be at a premium. Even in the future.
* Nimoy is terrific in this episode. No surprise there. He has good writing on his side, of course, but he is absolutely extraordinary too. I love how Mr. Spock attempts to hold himself together by quoting multiplication tables in an empty briefing room. There's something very right about that: the logic of Math/Order trying to hold down the chaos of emotional distress. It doesn't work, but it's a noble attempt.
* Finally, another element of Star Trek that disappeared after this generation: the captain's undying love for his ship. "Never lose you," Kirk says here, under the influence. He's referring to the Enterprise, and talking about her like she's his lover. In the original series, the Enterprise was a main character, and a love for this particular ship (by Kirk and others) is an element that informed many of the best stories. Contrast this obsession with Picard's response at the destruction of the Enterprise D (paraphrased) in Generations: "I'm sure this won't be the last ship to carry the name Enterprise." He didn't shed one bloody tear, or look back. (Personally, I would have been pissed at hell at Riker for wrecking the ship...) A man (or woman) who doesn't love his ship has no business commanding a starship in Star Trek, so far as I'm concerned.
