Episode Reviews
Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 1
Coming Soon
The Enterprise visits archaeologist couple Bob and Nancy Crater for a routine medical exam, only to discover that Nancy is a shape-shifting salt-craving alien creature. “Nancy” kills its victims by extracting all of the salt from their bodies, leaving behind red circles on the face and neck. This is the first example of a common trope in TOS where low-ranking crew members, usually "red shirts", are killed on away missions. The creature kills assumes the form of humans aboard the Enterprise, including Dr. McCoy, and kills unsuspecting crew members in search of salt which is necessary for it to survive. The creature continues to appear to McCoy as Nancy, making it impossible for McCoy to kill it even after it attacks Captain Kirk. In the end, the creature is killed by Spock.
I liked this episode. It had an interesting, self-contained story with a clean resolution. We learn a bit about McCoy's sentimental personality and see the crew work under pressure. 4 of 5 deltas.
Honestly, this episode made me uncomfortable. Maybe that was the whole point? Perhaps it is an artifact of the culture from the 1960s, where sexism was very casual. I thought it was an interesting episode in that the antagonist, Charlie, had supernatural powers. In some ways, he reminded me of Q from TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Overall, I didn't care for this one and don't have much else to say about it. 2.5 of 5 deltas.