“The Naked Time” was
written by John D. F. Black, was directed by Marc Daniels, was produced by Gene
Roddenberry, held production code 7, was the 4th episode of Star Trek Season 1, and was broadcast on
29 September 1966.
Certain science fiction
tropes have run their course and died.
The plague from space is one that was quite popular in the era of the
Cold War, with the Space Age bringing the fears of diseases from the stars that
humanity would not be able to combat.
The trope is an old one, drawing on a universal fear of the unknown and
is a contributing factor in the early success of science fiction such as the
famous Quatermass serials, novella Who Goes There?, and 1970s Doctor Who serial
The Ambassadors of Death. “The Naked Time” is one of those episodes of Star Trek where the writers are
pioneering a trope and one that will remain in the public consciousness for a
very long time.
The crew of the Enterprise have come to the planet Psi
2000 which is an ice planet that is about to die and a research team has not
contacted the Federation for months. Standard
setup for an episode of Star Trek, and
it is in the setup where the failures of the episode rear their ugly head. In investigating the research base, Spock and
two random crewmember’s (they’re names aren’t important) beam down and one of
the crewmembers makes the mistake of taking off his protective gloves and
touching things. This is the kickstart
to the plot as we have an exploration of what could have caused the deaths of
everyone at the research station, found in positions such as working, showering
with clothes on, lying down, etc.
This only gets us about
fifteen minutes into the episode of course so the infection of our resident “red
shirt” causes him to become irritable, attack Helmsman Sulu played by George
Takei and some random Irish crewmember, and suddenly die. Of course, this is cause for alarm as Sulu
decides it’s a good idea to take a rapier and begin challenging people,
shirtless, to a duel and the Irishman takes control of the ship, because he can
do that apparently, and sing…very badly.
This is where the big twist on the disease comes in as it essentially
makes people have a form of high energy intoxication. It doesn’t kill them, but because the
Irishman has taken control of the ship and as previously stated, the planet
below is dying, here’s where our tension comes in. The tension holds through the episode and it
mixes extremely well with the absurdity of the performances. George Takei gets an award for most
flamboyant swordsman, while people are cackling like asylum inmates, flirting with
women, and offering people cake, a swordsman is the most out there aspect of this
because it’s obvious Takei is enjoying himself which helps the performance.
The standout however is
when Mr. Spock is infected and becomes the opposite of his emotionless
self. That means of course that he
becomes extremely emotional and gives a powerful speech about his problems with
his family before snapping back into genius mode to save the ship. Leonard Nimoy deserves an award and seeing
him bitch slapped not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times by William
Shatner. The ending manages to bring the
episode back to reality and ends on a note of uncertainty for the future: the
crew has discovered time travel and is not opposed to using this in the future,
with caution. The final shot shows how
great the direction of this episode was.
To summarize, “The Naked
Time” is one of those episodes that uses a trope to its advantage with a stellar
cast. Its base is not the strongest, but
the performances are stellar and go close enough to the top, without going too
far over. Shatner and Takei are the
exceptions of course as they just let it all blow over into a masterpiece of
campy goodness. The direction knows just
how to end the episode with a feeling of uncertainty for the future, almost
acting like a real ending to the show possibly, even though it is four episodes
in. 90/100
