When an away team beams down to the planet Gamma Trianguli VI they believe it to be close to paradise; the soil is fertile and the temperature is pleasant and uniform. It soon becomes clear that it is a dangerous paradise as a crewman is killed by darts fired from a poisonous plant. Soon more dangers emerge; rocks that explode like landmines and lightning that strikes with deadly accuracy. Their mission is to contact the natives and they do that when they catch one observing them. He is a strange individual with antennas behind his ears; he explains that these are because he is the 'eyes and ears of Vaal'. It turns out Vaal is a computer they treat like a god; it regulates the planet to such a degree that the natives don't appear to age or have any need to reproduce. The away team are initially welcomed but when Vaal judges them to be a danger he orders them killed! To make matters worse the Enterprise is caught by what appears to be a powerful tractor beam and if Scotty doesn't think of something it will burn up in the atmosphere.
From the very start we can guess this planet will be far from a paradise as well as Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Chekov the away team includes no less than five red shirts; four blokes who are destined to die and an attractive blonde for Chekov to behave inappropriately with! As other reviewers have said the natives look disturbingly like tall Oompah-loompahs making it hard to take them seriously and we never actually see Vaal; both details that detract from the story. The conversation about how any natives who die in accidents would be replaced if they didn't breed was more cringe-worthy than amusing but not as cringe-worthy as Chekov's behaviour with the blonde red shirt. On the plus side it was nice to see Kirk worrying about the possible consequence of his decision not to leave the planet after the first death and his threat to fire Scotty if he didn't save the ship was rather amusing. Overall a somewhat weaker than average episode saved by the unintentional laughs provided by all the dying red shirts!
From the very start we can guess this planet will be far from a paradise as well as Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Chekov the away team includes no less than five red shirts; four blokes who are destined to die and an attractive blonde for Chekov to behave inappropriately with! As other reviewers have said the natives look disturbingly like tall Oompah-loompahs making it hard to take them seriously and we never actually see Vaal; both details that detract from the story. The conversation about how any natives who die in accidents would be replaced if they didn't breed was more cringe-worthy than amusing but not as cringe-worthy as Chekov's behaviour with the blonde red shirt. On the plus side it was nice to see Kirk worrying about the possible consequence of his decision not to leave the planet after the first death and his threat to fire Scotty if he didn't save the ship was rather amusing. Overall a somewhat weaker than average episode saved by the unintentional laughs provided by all the dying red shirts!