The 25th episode was Devil In The Dark and it was first broadcast March 9 1967. It's one I remember fairly fondly and I read on Wikipedia that William Shatner says it's his favorite episode. The Enterprise calls on the mining colony on Janus VI where there have been 50 miners killed by a strange creature. The colony is all tunnels and rooms. Kirk and Spock get to investigating and soon enough Kirk gets trapped with the creature after a cave in. Spock finds a way to them and mind melds with the critter. It's called a Horta and it's hurt. McCoy comes down with some cement and patches it's ass up. At least I think that was the ass end. It's hard to tell with some aliens. The Horta acid to cut through rock so they can tunnel pretty much anywhere with ease. It's still really a peaceful creature that was only defending itself when the miners broke some Horta eggs. They didn't know that's what they were. Kirk connects the Hortato the miners and soon enough the patter of little tentacles means abundant free labour. I liked the idea of dealing with a completely alien life form and creating a way to live together even back when the episode was new.
Errand Of Mercy was the 26th episode and it aired March 23, 1967. It was the only episode directed by John Newland. The Enterprise is sent to guard Organia from the Klingons. Peace talks aren't going well with the warlike tanned people. It'll get better as the real nature of the Organians is revealed and they force the two sides to a peace. The Captain and Mr Spock look nice in their Organian costumes. Another episode where the crew encounter a more powerful race, this time fairing better than some of their other encounters. Like the creators of the show I'm for the peaceable solutions, even if some more powerful beings kind of push it down your throat. Sometimes man does not learn on his own.
A week later episode 27 aired. The Alternative Factor was actually the 20th produced and the first episode to deal with a parallel universe. That fuzzy faced guy above is Robert Brown, he plays Lazarus and his crazy alternative universe self. He keeps jumping back and forth between realities. Spock figures out that the alternate universe might be an anti-matter universe and the crew have to keep Lazarus from meeting himself. Such a meeting, matter and anti-matter, could destroy their universe. Damn, huh. Don't worry the good Lazarus tells Kirk what he must do and both universes are saved. Lazarus and his doppelganger are trapped, doomed to fight each other for eternity. Sometimes the universe is a sad old place. Another fairly good episode and at the time stuff like this wasn't anywhere on TV. Star Trek was a show we would talk about at school the next day. Every kid I knew watched the show. I stuck in a shot of the gal sitting next to one of the machines that appears quite regularly in the show. I don't know what it does but there it is in all it's blinking lighted glory. Keep an eye out for it, you'll see it in a lot of different places.
All in all a nice trio of episodes one of which is especially good. There aren't any extras on the disk.
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