For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky by: Hendrik Vollaerts and directed by: Tony Leader

 

“For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” is written by: Hendrik Vollaerts and is directed by: Tony Leader.  It was filmed under production code 65, was the 8^th episode of Star Trek Season 3, the 63^rd episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on November 8, 1968.

 

Sometimes you get an episode of Star Trek where the title is exactly what the episode is going to be about.  “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” is an episode that is literally about a hollow asteroid spaceship with people living inside it as their own world run by an oracle (another Star Trek staple of a mad computer holding these people under its own authoritarian regime).  The asteroid spaceship is an early example of a space ark in science fiction, something that was actually quite a popular idea in this particular era of sci-fi, Doctor Who had done one two years prior and authors like Robert Heinlein were using the idea as well.  Now what is interesting about space ark stories are generally the insular societies they create and the ability to explore said society.  Sadly, it seems author Hendrik Vollaerts is not interested in doing this, the society really only has two members who get any time, a nameless old man with a single scene before he dies played by Jon Lormer and a priestess to the oracle, Natira played by Kate Woodville.  The actual plot of this episode is honestly the same structure and plot beats of “The Paradise Syndrome” with a senior member of the Enterprise trio falling in love with one of the natives in this society while the other two deal with the rogue asteroid situation.  Yes, the asteroid and society are in the same setting so there is much less of the characters being split up, but it’s the same story.  While “The Paradise Syndrome” had its own set of problems in portraying the society as Native Americans, “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” has the almost opposite problem of just not strongly characterizing the society nor the supercomputer running everything.  Natira as a character has the basic romance plot for Star Trek at this time and Kate Woodville’s performance is sadly quite wooden as well, though she does end the episode alive and ready to meet her lover in a year’s time when the asteroid finds its way to its new planet.

 

The B-plot of stopping the asteroid is given to Kirk and Spock, who are also charged with unraveling the mystery of this society while McCoy is the one given the romantic A-plot of the episode.  William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are as always fun to watch, but the B-plot is actually quite thin.  Because this is a story about the Enterprise crew, it’s in the pre-credits that the reveal of the asteroid as housing a society is given as inciting incident instead of being a realization from someone inside the society.  The old man character is meant to be the person the title refers to, having climbed the mountains (really an elevator) to the surface and seen the outer space, but he gets one scene before dying so the viewer already knows the twist of this society.  The reveal of oracle as computer could also have served as a potential twist, albeit a predictable one, but Vollaerts reveals that almost immediately when explaining who Natira is.  This leaves the romance A-plot as really the only thing pushing “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” forward.  Now DeForest Kelley actually gives an incredibly strong performance, elevating some of the weaker romantic material with this added idea that Bones has contracted an incurable disease that will kill him in a year.  This added subplot, especially in the early portions of the episode, is genuinely an amazing idea for the episode to explore and it’s clear that Kelley is grasping it with both hands.  There is this flash of anger at Nurse Chapel allowing Majel Barrett some nice moments and this secrecy towards Spock who finds out when Kirk has to explain why the computer’s power is affecting McCoy harder then the pair.  It’s kind of a shame that Star Trek isn’t interested in really maintaining continuity between episodes because it could also be the basis for a nice little multi-episode story arc of McCoy finding a cure.  Because this is a wholly episodic show, it means that the plot is solved in the climax with the alien society that built the asteroid ship actually had found a cure to this illness so everything is wrapped up almost too nicely.  It’s also a plotline that is almost dropped in the final act until this reveal, which is a shame because it provides fascinating motivation for McCoy’s character.

 

Overall, “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” suffers from largely being a rehash of a story that the series literally did just a few weeks ago.  The more unique ideas in the episode sadly don’t have enough time to really come to fruition while much of the enjoyment is coming from the sheer talent and charisma of the main trio.  It’s an episode whose most interesting attribute is its title, something that honestly would be more well suited outside of the format of Star Trek, taking out much of its potential because of adherence to the format and characters.  4/10.