The Devil in the Dark by: Gene L. Coon and directed by: Joseph Pevney

 

“The Devil in the Dark” is written by Gene L. Coon and is directed by Joseph Pevney.  It was filmed under production code 26, was the 25^th episode of Star Trek Season 1, and was broadcast on March 9, 1967.

 

Genre is fluid.  It is something that can contain multitudes for a single piece of media and is generally just meant for a marketing term.  However, Star Trek up to this point has been squarely in science fiction, generally following ideas of speculative fiction morality plays, so imagine the surprise when “The Devil in the Dark” comes right along and plays out like a horror play.  Gene L. Coon’s first original script for the program, Coon had been serving as script editor and adapted teleplays and one short story, this is an episode that opens with a tense pre-credits sequence where a miner is killed by a point of view shot of a creature.  Now, the point of view shot is just a normal television camera, but the pacing of the sequence is incredibly tight and choreographed to build tension.  This is also odd for an episode of Star Trek since we aren’t opening with familiar characters beaming down to the planet, instead with these miners who immediately come across as sympathetic.  Coon’s script here quickly lays out that there have already been 50 casualties due to this creature, causing a near complete destruction of the bodies bar some charred bone fragments as if corroded by a particularly strong acid.  The actual bodies are never shown, though throughout the episode as redshirts and miners are shown killed leaving scorch marks.  The scorch mark effect easily could have come across as comedic but the way Joseph Pevney shoots it makes it incredibly effective.

 

It doesn’t take long for Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to arrive, immediately after the opening credits in fact, but continuing the odd setting is that the Enterprise sets don’t really appear in the episode except for some minor sequences with Scotty and the final scene.  This has a knock on effect of making the first half of the episode also feel like a stageplay, confining the action to an office set in this planet’s caves for a decent chunk of time.  This does make the cutaway to the creature making its way into the colony’s reactor room feel awkward, despite once again being shot so the audience doesn’t see what the creature really looks like.  This sequence is also there so there is a ticking clock of the reactor going critical, being extended by Scotty rigging up a quick replacement which allows James Doohan a few very fun scenes to himself, despite not really being necessary.  The creature itself provides enough tension since it is already a danger to our characters.

 

Approximately two thirds into the episode, Kirk and Spock split up with Kirk coming across the creature and this is where “The Devil in the Dark” shifts away from the horror elements as the viewer gets to almost immediately sympathetic to the creature.  The twist of the episode is fairly obvious, the creature is silicon based, the silicon nodules scattered throughout the episode are examples of its eggs and the colonists have accidentally been destroying them.  This is setup early on in the episode with Spock taking particular interest in the nodule, but that doesn’t diminish much of what the episode is doing.  Kirk and Spock have to find a way to communicate with the creature, called a Horta, and come to a mutually beneficial resolution to the episode.  Coon’s script may be predictable when you realize where it’s going, but it means Kirk has to be reserved in dealing with the Horta, Spock eventually opening his mind to the creature to begin the communication.  By this point the episode also switches the tension to the colonists being the ones who are dangerous, the Horta being injured and McCoy brought in to attempt to heal it despite his objections that he’s a doctor, not a bricklayer.  The tension from the colonists is always there, it’s played subtly because of the deaths, but it only becomes really apparent when it is about to boil over and violence can break out.  It really makes the predictable storyline work better.

 

Overall, “The Devil in the Dark” is always going to stand out as something different in terms of the genre that it tackles.  The horror really works despite the Horta itself having aged poorly, the costume itself is a brilliant attempt at a non-human life form and it genuinely is trying.  There’s also a moment that adds this moment of the miners wanting more profit as a motivator which just doesn’t feel right for Star Trek somehow.  Outside of these tiny two points and the odd sequences that jar the tone slightly, this is a near perfect episode from start to finish.  9/10.