24 – This Side of Paradise

Grade: D

Summary

The Enterprise goes to Omicron Ceti III to help evacuate colonists who should be suffering from heavy doses of radiation. When the landing party arrives, however, they find the people there are in good health, and they have no interest in leaving. But after a plant shoots Spock with some kind of spores, he starts showing his emotions. As luck would have it, one of his former love interests is on this planet, happy to know Spock can finally express his affection toward her.

Commentary

This is definitely one of the worst episodes of the first season. About 3 minutes into the episode, I find it very hard to keep watching. The payoff is just terrible, with one exception – the woman’s obvious sadness that Spock won’t stay with her on the planet. But I guess that’s because people typically don’t want to “fall in love” while under some kind of hypnosis or suffering the effects of weird plants. I can’t see much of a reason to see this episode at all. The most memorable part of this episode is how crazy Spock acts. But it’s not enough to make it worth seeing.

Of Note

It’s odd that after McCoy gets shot by these plants, he starts talking like a Southern hillbilly. I know the character is supposed to be from Georgia, but why should controlling his emotions also control his normal accent?