Mark Watches ‘Star Trek’: S03E09 – The Tholian Web

In the ninth episode of the third season of Star Trek, an attempt to locate a missing ship strands Captain Kirk in a strange place, pitting Spock and Bones against one another as they try to get him back. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.

Now this is an episode I can get behind. I think it was incredibly risky for the show to take their star character and literally stick him in a parallel universe for the majority of this episode. “The Tholian Web” made me excited about the fact that I’m nearing my journey through The Next Generation because I hoping that that show had a lot more freedom to do what it wanted. This episode is unlike anything in the entire show’s run because Kirk plays such a small part in it. We get a chance to spend a lot of time with Spock, Bones, and Uhura, AND IT’S SO FANTASTIC. Let’s discuss!

The Tholian Web

Given that the last two episodes featured ambiguous plots elements so prominently, I was worried that I’d dislike the seemingly random nature of the Tholians within this story. But I think this is a great example of how the show can deal with a subplot that doesn’t leave the audience feeling so dissatisfied. The Tholians are largely here for reasons of suspense. The Enterprise drifts into Tholian space, but the Tholians are willing to give the Federation ship a chance to prove itself. When it doesn’t? The Tholians attack and begin the methodical process of trapping the Enterprise within one of its inescapable webs. Yes, it’s a method to help build tension. But I’m kinda into this idea that the Tholians did exactly what they said they would do, and that means that we get a scene where the Enterprise escapes from an impossible situation BY POPPING INTO A PARALLEL UNIVERSE AND THEN BACK INTO THEIR OWN. Yeah, I love nearly everything about parallel worlds, I CAN’T HELP IT.

The Defiance

Was anyone else surprised by how graphic (in Star Trek terms) the scenes on the Defiance were? I think the show did a great job demonstrating the horrible future that lay ahead for these people if they remained in this part of unstable space. When you combine that with the Tholian web, you’ve got two forces working together to build suspense, and I thought it was pretty damn effective. I know this isn’t the first time Star Trek has done the whole “abandoned space ship floating in the middle of nowhere” trope, as it’s a time-honored classic in the sci-fi genre. But there’s so much at work here, and the ship isn’t abandoned so much as FULL OF DEAD BODIES. It’s creepy as hell! There is one aspect of this that I don’t quite understand, though. Why did the Defiance stay in this part of space for so long? While Bones does come up with an antidote to the mental sickness, the general solution the crew is aware of is simply flying away from the rift. Did the Defiance crew never figure this out until they’d all murdered one another? Wow, did I just make this a hundred times creepier? PROBABLY.

Bones and Spock

But let’s be real with ourselves! “The Tholian Web” is as good as it is because Spock and Bones are put front and center for the majority of this episode. We’ve certainly seen them disagree over command, but it had never been taken this far before. While I never doubted that Kirk would be rescued by the episode’s end, I still found the whole sequence where the crew dealt with Kirk’s “death” to be quite incredible. It’s not like Bones’s plot in that last episode because we know the writers aren’t trying to get the audience to believe that Kirk is truly dead. Instead, we’re seeing what it would be like if Kirk had died, and guess what? It’s uncomfortable and awkward and devastating. SURPRISE.

While there’s never been any real serialization in Star Trek, it’s hard to imagine “The Tholian Web” working as well as it does without the long history of bickering, disagreement, and mutual respect that’s been built up between Leonard McCoy and Spock. It’s not like this is the first time we’ve seen them go toe-to-toe, but there’s a viciousness and intensity that’s totally rare for Star Trek, and I think it was the perfect way to manifest grief for these two characters. We had to believe that they truly thought Captain Kirk was dead and gone. The more they argued and contradicted one another, the more convinced I was that they hadn’t given themselves time to grieve.

AND THEN THERE IS KIRK’S “DEATH” MESSAGE AND NOTHING IS OKAY. The scene is still effective even though we don’t totally believe that Kirk is gone. It’s important because it’s the first time Bones and Spock consider that their constant disagreement is actually a positive thing. They have a healthy discourse with one another because they’re willing to call the other person out when they believe they’re wrong. Why can’t that be a resource? Why can’t it be a methodology that helps them both to make better decisions?

And so they work together, disagreeing the whole time, and realizing that this makes them better at their own jobs. No, this isn’t emotional at all. I’m fine! I swear, I’m fine. Totally fine.

Actually, I was entirely amused by Kirk’s disappointment when Bones and Spock lied about watching his final orders. HE WAS SO HURT THAT HIS WISDOM WENT TO WASTE. (But it didn’t. I swear I’m okay.) 

The video for “The Tholian Web” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

 

About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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