The Man Trap by: George Clayton Johnson and directed by Marc Daniels: Attack of the Face Suckers

“The Man Trap” was written by George Clayton Johnson, was directed by Marc Daniels, was produced by Gene Roddenberry, held production code 6, was the 1^st episode of Star Trek Season 1, and was originally broadcast on 8 September 1966.

Perhaps a little introduction is necessary before this review begins.  I have never seen an episode of Star Trek.  The closest I got to seeing and episode was the film Galaxy Quest, but the concept has intrigued me, at least more than the other franchise with the word star in the title does so I’ve decided I would watch the show and type up reviews for this blog with my 500-word minimum in effect.

“The Man Trap” is the first episode of Star Trek aired in September 1966.  Unlike many television shows, the episode opens without any real introduction to the characters and lets the audience glean what they can from their interactions.  This characterization without exposition is a double-edged sword for the show as we get many characters who only get minor characterization as the focus of this episode is on Dr. Leonard ‘Bones” McCoy, played by DeForest Kelley.  The plot focuses on routine medical examinations on planet M-113 provided by the Enterprise.  The planet is currently being used for research by Professor Robert Crater, played by Alfred Ryder, and his wife Nancy, played by Jeanne Bal.  Our first glimpse into the idea that something is wrong is when Bones sees Nancy Crater in the same light as the day they broke up, while Captain James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner, sees her as she would be today and a crewman sees her as a completely different woman.  This trope of a monster disguising itself as a familiar love interest, or potential love interest is nothing new, but the trope is used well to give insight into the characters in the first half.

The creature kills the crewman and the episode turns into a mystery to figure out how the crewman dies, until about 15 minutes in we get the creature on the ship, reveal that it is looking for salt to consume, stalks several crew members including Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols, killing many of them, and then impersonating Bones to try and survive.  This middle sequence of the episode is the most problematic of the story.  It’s 20 minutes of a 50-minute episode that doesn’t know how to focus, attempting to give us some characters (we are introduced to Spock, Uhura, Janice, and Sulu in a short period of time with each getting different levels of characterization).  The best characterization of Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, who feels like an alien as he doesn’t flirt back with Uhura and has a less than normal reaction when a crewman dies, and Uhura, who is portrayed as a confident, flirtatious woman.

The pacing is only one problem of the middle of the episode as we have the creature inconsistently transform into other crew members as well as lovers (real and fictional) for the crew.  The biggest flaw is that the creature seems to wish to sexually assault the crewmembers due to the direction of shots keeping the creature almost as an oppressive force looking down on its prey.  I believe the direction wished to convey an almost hypnotic aspect, supported by the way the creature seduces Bones, but the director could have portrayed that much better

The episode improves with a conclusion where both Spock and Kirk must pull Bones out of his hypnosis and force him to shoot the woman he obviously loves.  It is an excellent climax for the episode and the episode has a nice coda allowing Bones to express his emotions.  The creature does reveal its true form, and while it isn’t the worst design for a creature, it does have a clever enough design and the idea of being a man in a suit and is only really shown in one or two shots so it doesn’t take you out of the viewing experience as much as it could.

“The Man Trap” is a decent enough start for a science fiction show with positives being focused on the ideas it plays around with, and some of the characters it introduces, but has missteps in pacing and a lack of characterization in many of its characters creating problems in serving as an introduction to a show.  It’s good, just not great.  60/100.