Wow, what a story! A demon-possessed Scotty murders three women. But wait... it was only nominally Scotty--his will and body had been wholly taken over by the demon Redjac. This evil spirit was also behind the Jack the Ripper murders in 1890's London, unsolved murders which may have been carried out by a number of hosts who never remembered or realized their roles in the infamous crimes. "Wolf in the Fold" is a story that leaves one thinking and considering the ramifications beyond the story.
Reading the reviews reveals many Trekkers bristle when stories step away from the strictly scientific. Robert Bloch's story instead offered a satisfying blend of the spiritual and the scientific. Evil exists, noncorporeal spirits exist, unbound by time or space. Sybo's seance effectively revealed the killer, but the actual ouster of the demon was accomplished by Spock and the ship's computer, not a couple crucifix-carrying Catholic priests.
I wince when Kirk commands Hengist's corpse to be transported into deep space with the widest possible dispersion. An empty gesture. I mean, Hengist was only an innocent host body. The demonic spirit of Redjac proved it is not confined to possessing any one person, leaping from Scotty to Hengist to the Prefect and--in the show's eeriest moment--to the reanimated corpse of Hengist!
Yes, the episode closed on a jarringly lighthearted note. Scotty is cleared of consciously committing mass murder, but it was still his hand that plunged the knife into three women! One would think that would give rise to reflection and grieving. Nope, he's ready to party! And once was the day Kirk took a crewmember's death seriously and took it hard. Lt. Karen Tracy is murdered, and all Kirk can think about is a little place where the women are...! It was unseemly at best and heartless at worst. Since Lt. Tracy was a medical specialist, Bones would have known her well and yet he evinces no reaction. Some writers saw crewmembers as people, others as pawns and red-shirted cannon fodder.
At least Kara the nightclub dancer was humanized with a father and a fiance, each of whom sincerely grieved her passing. Compare Tark's heartbroken reaction to his daughter's death with Prefect Jaris' unflappably stoic reaction to his own wife's murder. Okay, one could argue the ethics of Tark playing music for his daughter's dancing since she was a little girl and being complicit in pimping her out to lusty space travelers. Oh, you thought Scotty was just taking the bonny lass for an innocent stroll in the fog? Yeah, and Miss Kitty only serves Shirley Temples and holds choir practice in all those upstairs rooms at the Long Branch.
Man, what has Spock got against Kyle? There must be some ugly history there or maybe Spock's just an Anglophobe. Here he gives Kyle an aggressive shove. Yeesh, wouldn't an "excuse me" have been the rational and certainly more civilized approach? Kyle says he'll take a shove over the Agonizer any day.
Something I noticed post-Covid was the blithe attitude towards forced vaccinations. Sulu didn't even see the jab coming! Hey, why didn't Dr. Feelgood haul out this arm candy in "Day of the Dove" when everyone had to put on a happy face to drive away another nasty noncorporeal intruder?
Kirk foolishly orders Bones to inject himself with the tranquilizer before he could give the shot to Prefect Jaris. Kirk then plays doctor and asks Jaris to roll up his sleeve. That must have been Shatner flashbacking a year to his pre-TREK five-show stint as Dr. Carl Noyes on DR. KILDARE because no sleeves ever needed rolling in the 23rd century.
I also detected a disturbing characteristic in Kirk's repeatedly stonewalling Sulu's reasonable requests to know what was going on. Yes, Kirk didn't want to spark panic, but didn't he trust his bridge crew enough to level with them? That top-down leadership style may have been standard operating procedure in the quasi-military Federation of Planets--or in the 1960s--but sure wouldn't fly in workplaces today where open doors and transparency are valued.
This show is a winner because it couples the compelling supernatural murder mystery with a stellar guest cast: John Fiedler, whose Mr. Peterson on THE BOB NEWHART SHOW and Gordy the Ghoul on KOLCHAK, THE NIGHTSTALKER were career highlights. Charles Macauley earlier played Landru in "Return of the Archons" but I always think of him as Dracula in the classic 1972 blaxploitation horror flick BLACULA (starring William Marshall from "The Ultimate Computer"). Pilar Seurat as Sybo had less than a week earlier appeared in "The Terrorist," an outstanding episode of THE HIGH CHAPARRAL. Charles Dierkop as the grieving fiance Morla went on to play with aplomb Pete Royster on POLICE WOMAN. And finally, Joseph Bernard as Tarka, who stirred up memories of his similarly heartstring-pulling performance in TWILIGHT ZONE's "The Shelter." The story was already excellent, but this cast elevated it a level and lent it extra oomph.
A strong episode from the show's strong second season, and an episode boasting eminent rewatchability.
PS: After the curtain came down on STAR TREK, James Doohan appeared in a similarly themed 1971 black comedy film about women being systematically murdered, and it's a film written and produced by that Great Bird of the Galaxy himself, Gene Roddenberry: PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW stars Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, Roddy McDowell, Keenan Wynn, and Telly Savalas in a dry run for his KOJAK role. Trekkers will enjoy seeing James Doohan teamed with two-time TREK guest star William Campbell ("Squire of Gothos" and "Trouble with Tribbles") as a pair of bumbling cops. Check it out!
Reading the reviews reveals many Trekkers bristle when stories step away from the strictly scientific. Robert Bloch's story instead offered a satisfying blend of the spiritual and the scientific. Evil exists, noncorporeal spirits exist, unbound by time or space. Sybo's seance effectively revealed the killer, but the actual ouster of the demon was accomplished by Spock and the ship's computer, not a couple crucifix-carrying Catholic priests.
I wince when Kirk commands Hengist's corpse to be transported into deep space with the widest possible dispersion. An empty gesture. I mean, Hengist was only an innocent host body. The demonic spirit of Redjac proved it is not confined to possessing any one person, leaping from Scotty to Hengist to the Prefect and--in the show's eeriest moment--to the reanimated corpse of Hengist!
Yes, the episode closed on a jarringly lighthearted note. Scotty is cleared of consciously committing mass murder, but it was still his hand that plunged the knife into three women! One would think that would give rise to reflection and grieving. Nope, he's ready to party! And once was the day Kirk took a crewmember's death seriously and took it hard. Lt. Karen Tracy is murdered, and all Kirk can think about is a little place where the women are...! It was unseemly at best and heartless at worst. Since Lt. Tracy was a medical specialist, Bones would have known her well and yet he evinces no reaction. Some writers saw crewmembers as people, others as pawns and red-shirted cannon fodder.
At least Kara the nightclub dancer was humanized with a father and a fiance, each of whom sincerely grieved her passing. Compare Tark's heartbroken reaction to his daughter's death with Prefect Jaris' unflappably stoic reaction to his own wife's murder. Okay, one could argue the ethics of Tark playing music for his daughter's dancing since she was a little girl and being complicit in pimping her out to lusty space travelers. Oh, you thought Scotty was just taking the bonny lass for an innocent stroll in the fog? Yeah, and Miss Kitty only serves Shirley Temples and holds choir practice in all those upstairs rooms at the Long Branch.
Man, what has Spock got against Kyle? There must be some ugly history there or maybe Spock's just an Anglophobe. Here he gives Kyle an aggressive shove. Yeesh, wouldn't an "excuse me" have been the rational and certainly more civilized approach? Kyle says he'll take a shove over the Agonizer any day.
Something I noticed post-Covid was the blithe attitude towards forced vaccinations. Sulu didn't even see the jab coming! Hey, why didn't Dr. Feelgood haul out this arm candy in "Day of the Dove" when everyone had to put on a happy face to drive away another nasty noncorporeal intruder?
Kirk foolishly orders Bones to inject himself with the tranquilizer before he could give the shot to Prefect Jaris. Kirk then plays doctor and asks Jaris to roll up his sleeve. That must have been Shatner flashbacking a year to his pre-TREK five-show stint as Dr. Carl Noyes on DR. KILDARE because no sleeves ever needed rolling in the 23rd century.
I also detected a disturbing characteristic in Kirk's repeatedly stonewalling Sulu's reasonable requests to know what was going on. Yes, Kirk didn't want to spark panic, but didn't he trust his bridge crew enough to level with them? That top-down leadership style may have been standard operating procedure in the quasi-military Federation of Planets--or in the 1960s--but sure wouldn't fly in workplaces today where open doors and transparency are valued.
This show is a winner because it couples the compelling supernatural murder mystery with a stellar guest cast: John Fiedler, whose Mr. Peterson on THE BOB NEWHART SHOW and Gordy the Ghoul on KOLCHAK, THE NIGHTSTALKER were career highlights. Charles Macauley earlier played Landru in "Return of the Archons" but I always think of him as Dracula in the classic 1972 blaxploitation horror flick BLACULA (starring William Marshall from "The Ultimate Computer"). Pilar Seurat as Sybo had less than a week earlier appeared in "The Terrorist," an outstanding episode of THE HIGH CHAPARRAL. Charles Dierkop as the grieving fiance Morla went on to play with aplomb Pete Royster on POLICE WOMAN. And finally, Joseph Bernard as Tarka, who stirred up memories of his similarly heartstring-pulling performance in TWILIGHT ZONE's "The Shelter." The story was already excellent, but this cast elevated it a level and lent it extra oomph.
A strong episode from the show's strong second season, and an episode boasting eminent rewatchability.
PS: After the curtain came down on STAR TREK, James Doohan appeared in a similarly themed 1971 black comedy film about women being systematically murdered, and it's a film written and produced by that Great Bird of the Galaxy himself, Gene Roddenberry: PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW stars Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, Roddy McDowell, Keenan Wynn, and Telly Savalas in a dry run for his KOJAK role. Trekkers will enjoy seeing James Doohan teamed with two-time TREK guest star William Campbell ("Squire of Gothos" and "Trouble with Tribbles") as a pair of bumbling cops. Check it out!