Aside from the barely disguised political commentary, this episode is almost unintentionally funny with it's blond coiffed hill people, and a creepy mahko root that's used by a Kahn-ut-tu woman to nurse Captain Kirk back to health following a near fatal battle with a Mugato. That Mugato was interesting, I kept thinking a cross between a gorilla and a prehistoric Stegosaurus, you know, one of those Stegorilla's.
This might have been the closest the series ever got to delivering actual soft porn, what with Nona's (Nancy Kovack) tantalizing healing dance over Kirk's prone body. Nona caps it with her analysis of the procedure - "It brought up evil beasts from my soul". Evil beasts indeed, giving particular new meaning to the term soul-mates.
One thing I like about the show's mythology is the way the scripts kept bringing in new facets of Vulcan character and physiology. In this one, it's revealed that the Vulcan form of self healing involves physical pain to regain consciousness in extreme cases. The story gives Nurse Chapel another chance to show that she pines for Spock's attention, but as usual, that goes nowhere. Slapping him around would have been the next best thing I suppose.
With the Vietnam War picking up tempo in the late Sixties, the show's political lens takes a look at the Balance of Power argument used by analysts to describe the way nations seek to level the playing field when they're not seeking outright advantage. In that respect, Kirk has no problem violating the Noninterference Directive to help out old friend Tyree (Michael Witney) and his hill people. I had to chuckle though, when the opposing side was called by name. With a little better costuming, they would have fit right into their description as the village people.
This might have been the closest the series ever got to delivering actual soft porn, what with Nona's (Nancy Kovack) tantalizing healing dance over Kirk's prone body. Nona caps it with her analysis of the procedure - "It brought up evil beasts from my soul". Evil beasts indeed, giving particular new meaning to the term soul-mates.
One thing I like about the show's mythology is the way the scripts kept bringing in new facets of Vulcan character and physiology. In this one, it's revealed that the Vulcan form of self healing involves physical pain to regain consciousness in extreme cases. The story gives Nurse Chapel another chance to show that she pines for Spock's attention, but as usual, that goes nowhere. Slapping him around would have been the next best thing I suppose.
With the Vietnam War picking up tempo in the late Sixties, the show's political lens takes a look at the Balance of Power argument used by analysts to describe the way nations seek to level the playing field when they're not seeking outright advantage. In that respect, Kirk has no problem violating the Noninterference Directive to help out old friend Tyree (Michael Witney) and his hill people. I had to chuckle though, when the opposing side was called by name. With a little better costuming, they would have fit right into their description as the village people.