The Enemy Within (episode)

“The Enemy Within”
	Star Trek: The Original Series Episode
Details
Stardate	1672.1
Date	26 Dec 2266 (Terran)
Location	USS Enterprise
Planet	Alfa 177
System	Alpha Honorus
Quadrant	Beta
Chronology
Prev ; “Charlie X”	Next ; “The Naked Time”
	Real World Information
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Real-World

For the TNG episode with a similar title, please see The Enemy episode:.

A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two people – one good and one evil, and neither capable of functioning well separately.

During a survey of Alfa 177, geological technician Fisher slips down a rock, gashing himself badly and smearing his uniform with a strange magnetic type of yellow ore. He beams up to the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) for treatment. Detecting a curious overload in the transporter circuitry, Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott has Fisher decontaminated before reporting to sickbay, but the problems have already begun; the strange ore has altered the function of the transporter. Next, Captain Kirk beams up from the planet, before the fault is discovered. He apparently materializes normally and Scott escorts the disoriented captain out of the room. Kirk is, in fact, a shadow of himself. Due to this transporter accident, Kirk has been split into two beings. The first that materialized embodies all of Kirk's positive qualities. Moments later, after everyone has left, Kirk's evil twin materializes.

Act One[edit | edit source]

"Don't fight me, Janice!"

"I said give me the brandy!"

Some time passes before the mishap is discovered. He demands Saurian brandy from McCoy in sickbay and proceeds to roam the ship's corridors drunk. McCoy goes to Commander Spock about this who goes to the good Kirk about what the good doctor tells him. Kirk shrugs it off telling Commander Spock that McCoy was just pulling his leg. The evil duplicate Kirk, who was now instinctively consumed by lust for his beautiful Yeoman-Janice Rand-was alone with Rand in her quarters, drunk and amorous. The duplicate Kirk mentions to her the feelings they've been hiding, claiming she is "too beautiful to ignore," and "too much woman," and that they've both been "pretending too long." The duplicate evil Kirk suddenly grabs Rand and shouts,"Let's stop pretending!" He pulls her in close, put his arms around her, and mutters, "...Don't fight me, Janice." He then starts kissing her very aggressively, and as she is forcefully trying to fight back, the evil duplicate Kirk pushes her to the floor and attempts to rape her. But, she defends herself and leaves a large scratch on the evil duplicate Kirk's face. During the struggle, the evil duplicate Kirk attacks Crewman Fisher, who was walking by Rand's quarters. In sickbay, Rand crying and flustered, tells the good Kirk, plus Spock, and McCoy that the Captain tried to assault her in which both her and Fisher accuse him of this. Kirk firmly denies this whereupon Spock deduces that there is an impostor of him aboard the Enterprise.

Act Two[edit | edit source]

Evil Kirk is scratched by Rand

Scotty finds that the yellow ore Fisher beamed up with somehow caused an overload in the transporter. The transporter does indeed work but they dare not use it for risk of duplicating Sulu and the rest of the landing party. Kirk tells Spock that he must inform the crew of what has happened to him, since they deserve to know. Spock, with all due respect, tells Kirk that as he is the captain, he cannot afford to be anything less than perfect in the eyes of the crew. If he does appear so, the crew will lose faith in him – and in turn, he will lose command of the Enterprise. Kirk knows this and wonders why he just forgot it just now. Later, on the bridge, Kirk makes an announcement to his crew from his chair about the impostor aboard. While making the announcement, his evil half is rummaging through the captain's quarters. Good Kirk informs the crew that the impostor can be identified by scratches on his face, and warns the crew to set the phasers for stun and must not injure the imposter. Evil Kirk angrily destroys the captain's desktop monitor and rants at the top of his lungs "I'm Captain Kirk… I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!!!"

Evil Kirk goes to good Kirk's mirror and finds make-up on the table. He applies some of it to his scratches and they are now barely visible. He opens the door to good Kirk's quarters and finds Crewman Wilson walking down the corridor near the room. He asks Wilson for his phaser. Wilson hands it over and is promptly knocked out. Later, both the good Kirk and Spock in the briefing room try to figure out where Kirk would go on the Enterprise to elude a mass search. Good Kirk quickly deduces that the evil Kirk is hiding in the lower levels of the ship – the engineering deck. He and Spock head there. In main engineering, a cat and mouse game ensues between the two Kirks and they confront each other near the warp core. Just as the evil Kirk is about to kill the good Kirk, Spock knocks him out with the Vulcan nerve pinch, but not before the phaser discharges and disables the transporter ionizer with a phaser shot, making it harder to rescue Sulu and the landing party who are trapped on the rapidly freezing planet.

Act Three[edit | edit source]

Meanwhile, on the planet below, the remaining landing party is suffering through the increasingly bitter cold. Attempts to beam heaters and other support devices produce only non-functional duplicates. Kirk speaks to Sulu in the Enterprise's briefing room, trying to reassure his helmsman, all the while growing more and more unsure of his command abilities. Spock cuts in and tells Sulu to hold on for just a little while longer.

Evil Kirk is screaming while being restrained on a bio-bed in sickbay, in pain from his body functions having been weakened from the duplication process. Good Kirk takes his evil self's hand, tells him not to be afraid and to use his mind, rather than his savagery. McCoy takes Kirk aside for a brandy. Kirk realizes through McCoy that he needs his negative side of himself back but does not want it back. McCoy assures his captain that all Humans have a dark side to them and that his strength of command lies in his negative self.

"He's dead, Jim."

Finally, Scott and Spock believe they have isolated and repaired all the damage. Spock contacts Kirk and asks him to come down to the transporter room. An Alfa 177 canine test animal, previously split, is sent through to see if it will reintegrate. Spock and Scott subdue the fierce canine with a hypospray and place it beside its good self on the transporter pad. Spock and Fisher place the two canines on the transporter pad and Scotty energizes. "If this doesn't work, I don't know what will," Scotty says. The canines become one again, but it rematerializes dead from the shock from having suddenly had its two halves reintegrated forcefully.

Act Four[edit | edit source]

The evil Kirk recovers in sickbay while Sulu contacts the good Kirk from the planet, just before he succumbs to the extreme cold. The good Kirk decides to release his evil half and have both of them go through the transporter, but the evil Kirk attacks and overpowers the good Kirk in sickbay and dresses in good Kirk's wraparound tunic. Later, heading to the bridge, the evil Kirk, pretending to be the good Kirk, runs into Janice Rand outside a turbolift and explains to her that the transporter malfunctioned, and that the animal part of him was in her cabin with her during the attempted rape. Evil Kirk (again pretending to be the good Kirk) also points out that the evil Kirk scratched his face to make them more alike. Arriving on the bridge, evil Kirk orders navigator Lieutenant John Farrell to take the ship out of orbit and abandon Sulu along with the landing party, callously asserting that they cannot be saved. At this point, the good Kirk appears on the bridge with McCoy. At first, Farrell and the others are confused as to which one is the good Kirk, but soon the evil Kirk collapses under the strain. "I want to LIVE!", the evil Kirk screams and cries soon before falling into his good self's arms.

Later, both Kirks are taken to the transporter room to be reintegrated as one being. Spock handles the transporter console and promises Kirk that he will take command of the Enterprise if the procedure is unsuccessful. Spock energizes the transporter and the two Kirks disappear. After a few tense moments, Spock materializes Kirk back in the transporter chamber as one person. To Spock and McCoy's relief, the much more confident Captain Kirk steps off the pad and orders that the landing party be rescued immediately. Sulu and the others are beamed back aboard, frostbitten but alive.

On the bridge, Rand awkwardly tries to explain to Captain Kirk what his imposter told her about what had happened and when she tries to elaborate further, Kirk simply thanks her and walks away. When Rand hands a PADD to Spock to sign, the first officer says to her, "The, uh, imposter had some interesting qualities, wouldn't you say, yeoman?" She takes the PADD and stylus from him and walks away in a huff as Kirk orders that the Enterprise break orbit of Alfa 177 to continue its mission.

Log entries[edit | edit source]

Alfa 177

"Captain's log, stardate 1672.1. Specimen gathering mission on planet Alpha 177. Unknown to any of us during this time a duplicate of me, some strange alter ego, had been created by the transporter malfunction."

"Captain's log, stardate 1672.9. On the planet's surface, temperatures are beginning to drop; our landing party there in growing jeopardy. Due to the malfunction of the ship's transporter, an unexplained duplicate of myself definitely exists."

"Captain's log, stardate 1673.1. Something has happened to me. Somehow in being duplicated, I have lost my strength of will. Decisions are becoming more and more difficult."

"Captain's log, stardate 1673.5. Transporter still inoperable… my negative self is under restraint in sickbay… my own indecisiveness growing… my force of will steadily weakening. On the planet condition critical, surface temperature is 75 degrees below zero. Still dropping."

"Captain's log, stardate 1674.1, entered in by Second Officer Spock. Captain Kirk retains command of this vessel, but his force of will rapidly fading. Condition of landing party critical. Transporter unit still under repair."

Previous episode produced:
“Mudd's Women”

Real World