In the twenty-fourth episode of the first season of Star Trek, SPOCK. SPOCK!!! Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
I’m glad that the writers of this episode had such a great sense of humor about this story, because that’s really what made this such a fun experience for me. “This Side of Paradise” doesn’t stray that far from a familiar pattern of this show, in that we’re given facts about a place and then presented immediately with something from it that’s impossible. That actually would later become a pretty familiar narrative device in the genre at large, so I’m not trying to say that this is stale here. Still, the way in which the impossibility at work is explained was so refreshing because it directly upended something that’s been a constant over these twenty-four episodes:
Spock does not experience emotions.
While exploring Omicron Ceti III, which is expected to be barren due to radiation, the crew comes upon a shocking sight: the very humans who were supposed to have died years before are not only alive, but living in a peaceful little utopia of vegetarianism and happiness. I do wonder how much of this show is a subtle commentary of the time it was made in. This is the second episode in a row about complacency and apathy, and this one is decidedly anti-commune, isn’t it? I mean, granted, the folks on Omicron Ceti III aren’t hippies, but they live in peace with one another while cultivating the land and only taking what they need.
Even when the means by which they’ve survived this long are revealed, I was still waiting for some horrible twist, like all the plants were made of people or the spores made people think they were alive but they weren’t. That never really happened, did it? Hell, the spores of that mysterious plant also prevented human bodies from ever breaking down. (I don’t know if they stopped the process of aging, though. I assume they did not because Spock never mentioned that Leila had not aged.)
The reason this is all dismantled is because Captain Kirk believes that if a society stops progressing, it is… awful? Unworthy? It’s a very American view of society, and it’s even more applicable if you think of this story in the context of the political and social climate of 1967. It’s weird because while I understand that Captain Kirk had his orders and had to obey them, the community on Omicron Ceti III was this horrific thing! It was actually kind of nice?
Regardless, I didn’t find that too distracting to the episode as a whole. That’s because MR. SPOCK FEELING EMOTIONS. Oh my god, it’s just one of the most beautiful things to watch. He’s the first to fall victim to the spores, and both the writers and Leonard Nimoy use this chance to give us gold. He tells Leila he loves her! They find animal shapes in the clouds!!! (There are now canonical dragons in the Star Trek universe, please give me an episode with them, thank you.) He climbs trees! AND HE TELLS CAPTAIN KIRK NO MULTIPLE TIMES, ALL WHILE WEARING THAT ADORABLE SMIRK ON HIS FACE AND I AM SO DONE WITH THIS EPISODE.
No, that’s not true, because “This Side of Paradise” takes this idea and sprints off into the distance with it. When Bones is infected, he becomes a Georgia country boy, slipping right into an accent that is like BUTTER. I don’t even care that it makes no sense that he somehow found the ingredients to make a mint julep. I DON’T CARE BECAUSE IT IS A BEAUTIFUL SCENE AND YOU CAN’T TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME.
I did finally figure out why Kirk was immune to the spores the first time: he was furious with Spock’s disobedience at the time. I imagine that cancelled out the effects of it! And it’s what later saves Kirk from beaming himself down to the planet, making it impossible for anyone else to ever beam back to the Enterprise. (How does a single person use the transporter? I actually don’t understand that. Without anyone working with the controls, isn’t that impossible?) For such a silly and amusing episode, Kirk’s monologue alone in the Enterprise is surprisingly devastating. It’s his loneliness there that makes him realize just how massive his ship is and what sort of legacy he’s leaving behind. The resulting anger helps him push through a second attack of spores, and he then realizes he knows how to counteract them.
Which gives us one of the most DEEPLY UPSETTING SCENES IN STAR TREK HISTORY. Watching Kirk scream racist abuse at his best friend and First Officer is unreal. Even though we know why Kirk’s doing it, it’s unsettling to watch because everything he says is too on-the-nose. We’ve seen Kirk defend Spock when bigots say shit about him, and now, he’s spewing the very things he’d decry to his best friend’s face.
Casual reminder that Spock is so strong he bent a pipe in half with a single punch.
Regardless of some of the weird parts, I found “This Side of Paradise” to be endlessly charming, and any episode that actively deconstructs Spock’s characterization is going to instantly be my favorite. THIS IS CANON.
The video for “This Side of Paradise” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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