Star Trek: 0004: The Naked Time

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0004

The Original Series (1966)
Season 1: Episode 4: “The Naked Time"

Stardate: 1704.2 (2264/09/13 - 17:41:32)

Written by: John D.F. Black
Directed by: Marc Daniels

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PLOT INTRODUCTION

An alien virus strips the Enterprise crew of their inhibitions, causing chaos as each crewmember is overcome by hidden emotions. Meanwhile, the Enterprise is being pulled inexorably into a nearby planet's gravity well.

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REVIEW

“No beach to walk on”

Spock and another officer by the name of Joe are sent down to the planet to gather readings and look around. This is when Joe stupidly removes his protective glove and contracts the virus that more than likely killed the people on the planet. Following medical checks and a decontamination that seemingly failed to detect any problems, Joe begins to question why he and the crew of the Enterprise are out in space in the first place. His actions and words appear as crazy talk to the rest of the crew, and later on he even turns a knife on himself. No doubt Joe was under the influence of the virus and depression had worked its way upwards because of it, but one has to wonder how much truth was in his crazed words. It is a topic that is brushed under the carpet almost as quickly as it is revealed, but I was pleased to see it was brought up even briefly as it does have room for discussion and certainly would no doubt be a prominent topic of debate in the future also. As a result of these scenes however, the plot continues as the virus is spread further throughout the crew.

The episode then takes a turn into Trek’s comedic side and reveals both Sulu and O’Reily (who have contracted the virus) acting more than strangely. O’Reily begins speaking in a more prominent Irish accent, takes over the engine room and begins creating turmoil over the Enterprise, whilst singing old traditional songs over the intercom. Sulu on the other hand begins taking the ship hostage on another level -with his sword- eventually reaching the bridge in brilliantly directed scene where he is eventually taken down by Kirk. Spock comes to a conclusion that the virus is responsible for the crew’s sudden lack of inhibition, causing hidden personality traits to come to the surface of the characters and take them over.

To makes matters ever worse, in comes in the always trivial time limit plot restraint, to create tension which was already firmly established and moving well. Seemingly however, the writer decided he needed to go over the top and make the ship start falling into the planets surface through its gravitational pull in order to really grasp our attention. As a plot device, yes, it works. As an original plot device that doesn’t come off as utterly contrived, it doesn’t do so well.

One of my favourite moments in the episode takes place during a short few seconds but the level of topics it touches on underneath its obvious façade is of much greater importance than its duration: Kirk, in his frustrating position of command over such an unorganised ship and crew, snaps at Uhura before she instinctively snaps right back. Both share a moment of silence before Kirk eventually apologises to Uhura, realising what is getting the better of him; it’s a nice moment that shows great characterisation and the relationship established here between them works brilliantly for such a small moment in the time that occupies the entire episode or even series.

As a counter balance to Kirk’s un-relentless attempts at trying to restore order, Spock on the other hand ends up fighting with himself and his emotions. Eventually he breaks down completely and gives in to the virus in a brilliantly performed set of scenes. All this is brought on by the nurse expressing her ‘love’ for Spock, and in turn Spock retreats to a room where he breaks down and cries, going over past memories of family and most probably all the moments he had to subdue his emotions. Nimoy does a great job of conveying the ongoing battle between Spock’s brain and heart, going back and forth between each before finally showing himself as he is, in all his frailty.

Both Kirk and Spock eventually clash together, trading words and fists as Kirk tries to get his first officer back. He ultimately gives in to the virus himself and expresses his love for the Enterprise and the women he has to refuse every day because of his position. This in itself is an important scene and it too is well performed, showing a great deal of characterisation and offers us a boundless insight into the ever guarded captain of the Enterprise.

In the final minutes of the episode, McCoy finds a vaccine, Scotty manages to get enough power to propel the ship backwards in time away from the planet and we see Kirk’s final moment of weakness as he reaches out to touch Yeoman Rand, before pulling away uttering “No beach to walk on”. The ending plot wise wasn’t too great. In fact, it was rather anti-climatic and didn’t serve a great pay-off. As far as characters go however, the ending is justified, and serves as a good climax even though certain characters situations are sadly left unresolved.

In addition to this, I personally thought the whole travelling backwards in time thing was completely unnecessary and prematurely conceived. In its defence, it was interesting and a twist I wasn’t expecting, but not for the last 4 minutes of an episode that has almost nothing to do with time travel.

As a whole, The Naked Time is an interesting hour, full of comedy, great acting and a more than competent plot that still holds up today, even though the ‘virus on the enterprise, argh!’ thing has been done to death in subsequent series’. Most of all, you’ll be treated to some fantastic character insights and development that have lasted throughout the Trek saga.



Written by Jamie Robert Ward, 30/01/2007.