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Obsession (TOS episode)
Encyclopedia
"Obsession" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series
and was broadcast December 15, 1967. It is episode #42, production #47, written by Art Wallace
, and directed by Ralph Senensky
.
Overview: Captain James T. Kirk
becomes obsessed
with destroying a murderous entity he once encountered in his youth.
3619.2, the starship
USS Enterprise
has sent down a landing team to a planet to search for tritanium deposits, an element "21.4 times" as hard as diamond
. While surveying, Captain Kirk notices a sweet honey
smell, and has his men go on alert. He tells them to scan for dikironium and immediately fire at anything that looks like a gaseous cloud. The landing party fans out to explore.
One group picks up a signal but loses it, at which point they are immediately attacked. Kirk and Mr. Spock
rush over to the scene, finding three crewmen down; two dead, the other, Ensign Rizzo, near death. All of the men have had their red blood cell
s drained of hemoglobin
. Kirk fears that the killer is the same space-travelling vampiric entity he had encountered 11 years before while serving aboard the USS Farragut
. As a young lieutenant aboard that vessel, Kirk had hesitated in firing the ship's phasers at the creature, which promptly attacked. The encounter killed half the Farraguts crew, with Kirk and the ship's first officer among the few survivors; Kirk felt great guilt over what happened, even though on the subsequent official record, the XO had praised the young Kirk for his actions in battle, describing Kirk as "a fine young officer who performed with uncommon bravery".
The landing team quickly returns to the Enterprise. Once aboard, Kirk becomes obsessed with finding this entity, feeling guilty that it caused so much damage and then eluded him. He ignores his priority orders, to rendezvous with the USS Yorktown and transfer urgent medical supplies destined for Theta VII, until Dr. Leonard McCoy
can confirm the cause of the men's deaths. McCoy, however, is at a loss, and complains that he doesn't even know where to begin. Kirk tells him to reference the Farragut's medical logs and start there. On the bridge, Kirk has Spock look for a gaseous entity that is able to conceal itself and pass through solid matter. Spock is intrigued about such a creature, fascinated that it can move through space and time at will. He suggests that it must be able to control its molecular structure, but Kirk cuts him off, stating he doesn't want a scientific analysis and just wants the creature found.
Kirk calls one of the security officers, Ensign Garrovick. to the bridge. The ensign's father, Captain Garrovick, was the commanding officer of the Farragut, and also lost his life to the entity. Kirk believes Garrovick's son will be just as driven in finding the creature as he is and assigns him to the next landing party that will hunt the entity down. As soon as they prepare to leave, Dr. McCoy reports that Rizzo has died of his injuries.
Kirk returns to the planet and orders his landing party to fire at the entity as soon as it is spotted. He informs his men that the creature attacks quickly, so any hesitation will be deadly. The team spreads out and Ensign Garrovick soon encounters the creature. He aims his phaser, but hesitates to fire, becoming frozen with fear as his partner is killed. The creature moves off just as Kirk arrives. Back on the Enterprise, Garrovick admits that he hesitated before firing his phaser and is confined to quarters.
McCoy has seen enough and confronts his Captain on his reckless obsession over the creature. He summons Spock to consider Kirk's fitness for command. Kirk justifies his actions by maintaining that the creature is an intelligent predator and a serious threat to inhabited worlds. He warns that if it manages to travel to a populated system, there is no telling how many it will kill. McCoy finally lets off as Mr. Chekov
reports that he is tracking the cloud creature moving away from the planet.
The landing party quickly returns to the ship and Kirk orders a pursuit of the cloud at Warp 8
. The ship gives chase, but Mr. Scott
doubts the Enterprise can sustain the high speeds for long. Kirk orders a reduction of speed and curiously, the entity slows down as well. It slows as if preparing for a confrontation and allowing them to catch up. Kirk orders battle stations and as the entity cloud comes into range, he fires weapons. The phaser streams and torpedoes pass right through the being without incident. Not only do the weapons have no effect, but neither do the deflector shields - the creature passes right through the ship's hull and into the ventilation system. Kirk orders a shutdown of life support, limiting the crew to two hours of air. He orders Scotty to close all vents and flood the system with gas.
After a conference, Spock points out to Kirk that since the creature is immune to conventional weapons fire, he needn't blame himself for hesitating to fire in the earlier incident. Firing promptly on the creature would have made no difference, and the resulting deaths by the creature were impossible for Kirk to prevent.
Meanwhile, the creature exits the vents and kills two crewmen. It then enters the room of Ensign Garrovick, as if it remembered him from last time, and tries to attack him, but Spock had already entered shortly before the creature's entrance. The creature gets a sample of Spock's Vulcan
blood, which repels it due to the alien composition of Vulcan blood. The creature quickly lets Spock go and flees the ship. Dr. McCoy comments that Spock's green blood "must have left a bad taste".
The creature makes its way to the fourth planet in the Tycho system, and the Enterprise heads there in pursuit. Kirk wonders if the planet is the creature's natural home, since that is where the Farragut originally encountered it. Kirk plans a trap for the creature while Spock comments that the creature may be feeding in order to reproduce. If the entity is not stopped they could be facing more of them.
Kirk and Ensign Garrovick beam down to the planet with a case that holds an antimatter
bomb. The two lure the creature with blood from the ship's medical supply, but it quickly gobbles up the 'bait' before they can lead it to the bomb.
Kirk decides to use himself as bait and remain behind to detonate the bomb. He orders Garrovick back to the ship, but the young officer refuses to abandon his Captain and a fight ensues before Kirk can explain that he does not mean to sacrifice himself. The two ready the bomb as the creature draws near. With the creature ready to envelop them, Kirk and Garrovick beam away and the antimatter bomb explodes, annihilating the entity and much of Tycho IV with it.
Once safe aboard the ship, Kirk takes Garrovick aside to thank him and tell him a few stories about his father, Captain Garrovick.
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
and was broadcast December 15, 1967. It is episode #42, production #47, written by Art Wallace
Art Wallace
Art Wallace was an American television writer best known for his work on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. He began work in television in the 1940s, on the anthology series Studio One and Kraft Television Theater. Over the years, Wallace wrote for Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, Combat!, Star Trek, and...
, and directed by Ralph Senensky
Ralph Senensky
Ralph Senensky is an American television director and writer. He studied at the Pasadena Playhouse and worked as a stage director before directing for television....
.
Overview: Captain James T. Kirk
James T. Kirk
James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk is a character in the Star Trek media franchise. Kirk was first played by William Shatner as the principal lead character in the original Star Trek series. Shatner voiced Kirk in the animated Star Trek series and appeared in the first seven Star Trek movies...
becomes obsessed
Fixation (psychology)
Fixation: 'concept originated by Sigmund Freud to denote the persistence of anachronistic sexual traits'. Subsequently '"Fixation" acquired a broader connotation...
with destroying a murderous entity he once encountered in his youth.
Plot
On stardateStardate
A stardate is a date in the fictional system of time measurement developed for Star Trek, commonly heard at the beginning of a voiceover log entry such as "Captain's log, stardate 41153.7...
3619.2, the starship
Starship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
USS Enterprise
Starship Enterprise
The Enterprise or USS Enterprise is the name of several fictional starships, some of which are the focal point for various television series and films in the Star Trek franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. It is considered a name of legacy in the fleet...
has sent down a landing team to a planet to search for tritanium deposits, an element "21.4 times" as hard as diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
. While surveying, Captain Kirk notices a sweet honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
smell, and has his men go on alert. He tells them to scan for dikironium and immediately fire at anything that looks like a gaseous cloud. The landing party fans out to explore.
One group picks up a signal but loses it, at which point they are immediately attacked. Kirk and Mr. Spock
Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...
rush over to the scene, finding three crewmen down; two dead, the other, Ensign Rizzo, near death. All of the men have had their red blood cell
Red blood cell
Red blood cells are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate organism's principal means of delivering oxygen to the body tissues via the blood flow through the circulatory system...
s drained of hemoglobin
Hemoglobin
Hemoglobin is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of all vertebrates, with the exception of the fish family Channichthyidae, as well as the tissues of some invertebrates...
. Kirk fears that the killer is the same space-travelling vampiric entity he had encountered 11 years before while serving aboard the USS Farragut
USS Farragut
Five ships of the United States Navy, all destroyers, have been named USS Farragut in honor of David Farragut, an admiral of the United States Navy during the American Civil War.*The Farragut , a torpedo boat, commissioned on 5 June 1889...
. As a young lieutenant aboard that vessel, Kirk had hesitated in firing the ship's phasers at the creature, which promptly attacked. The encounter killed half the Farraguts crew, with Kirk and the ship's first officer among the few survivors; Kirk felt great guilt over what happened, even though on the subsequent official record, the XO had praised the young Kirk for his actions in battle, describing Kirk as "a fine young officer who performed with uncommon bravery".
The landing team quickly returns to the Enterprise. Once aboard, Kirk becomes obsessed with finding this entity, feeling guilty that it caused so much damage and then eluded him. He ignores his priority orders, to rendezvous with the USS Yorktown and transfer urgent medical supplies destined for Theta VII, until Dr. Leonard McCoy
Leonard McCoy
Leonard "Bones" McCoy is a character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by DeForest Kelley in the original Star Trek series, McCoy also appears in the animated Star Trek series, seven Star Trek movies, the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in numerous books,...
can confirm the cause of the men's deaths. McCoy, however, is at a loss, and complains that he doesn't even know where to begin. Kirk tells him to reference the Farragut's medical logs and start there. On the bridge, Kirk has Spock look for a gaseous entity that is able to conceal itself and pass through solid matter. Spock is intrigued about such a creature, fascinated that it can move through space and time at will. He suggests that it must be able to control its molecular structure, but Kirk cuts him off, stating he doesn't want a scientific analysis and just wants the creature found.
Kirk calls one of the security officers, Ensign Garrovick. to the bridge. The ensign's father, Captain Garrovick, was the commanding officer of the Farragut, and also lost his life to the entity. Kirk believes Garrovick's son will be just as driven in finding the creature as he is and assigns him to the next landing party that will hunt the entity down. As soon as they prepare to leave, Dr. McCoy reports that Rizzo has died of his injuries.
Kirk returns to the planet and orders his landing party to fire at the entity as soon as it is spotted. He informs his men that the creature attacks quickly, so any hesitation will be deadly. The team spreads out and Ensign Garrovick soon encounters the creature. He aims his phaser, but hesitates to fire, becoming frozen with fear as his partner is killed. The creature moves off just as Kirk arrives. Back on the Enterprise, Garrovick admits that he hesitated before firing his phaser and is confined to quarters.
McCoy has seen enough and confronts his Captain on his reckless obsession over the creature. He summons Spock to consider Kirk's fitness for command. Kirk justifies his actions by maintaining that the creature is an intelligent predator and a serious threat to inhabited worlds. He warns that if it manages to travel to a populated system, there is no telling how many it will kill. McCoy finally lets off as Mr. Chekov
Pavel Chekov
Pavel Andreievich Chekov is a Russian Starfleet officer in the Star Trek fictional universe. Walter Koenig portrayed Chekov in the original Star Trek series and first seven Star Trek films; Anton Yelchin portrayed the character in the 2009 film Star Trek.-Origin:Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry...
reports that he is tracking the cloud creature moving away from the planet.
The landing party quickly returns to the ship and Kirk orders a pursuit of the cloud at Warp 8
Warp drive (Star Trek)
Warp drive is a faster-than-light propulsion system in the setting of many science fiction works, most notably Star Trek. A spacecraft equipped with a warp drive may travel at velocities greater than that of light by many orders of magnitude, while circumventing the relativistic problem of time...
. The ship gives chase, but Mr. Scott
Montgomery Scott
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott is a Scottish engineer in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by James Doohan in the original Star Trek series, Scotty also appears in the animated Star Trek series, seven Star Trek movies, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics", and in numerous...
doubts the Enterprise can sustain the high speeds for long. Kirk orders a reduction of speed and curiously, the entity slows down as well. It slows as if preparing for a confrontation and allowing them to catch up. Kirk orders battle stations and as the entity cloud comes into range, he fires weapons. The phaser streams and torpedoes pass right through the being without incident. Not only do the weapons have no effect, but neither do the deflector shields - the creature passes right through the ship's hull and into the ventilation system. Kirk orders a shutdown of life support, limiting the crew to two hours of air. He orders Scotty to close all vents and flood the system with gas.
After a conference, Spock points out to Kirk that since the creature is immune to conventional weapons fire, he needn't blame himself for hesitating to fire in the earlier incident. Firing promptly on the creature would have made no difference, and the resulting deaths by the creature were impossible for Kirk to prevent.
Meanwhile, the creature exits the vents and kills two crewmen. It then enters the room of Ensign Garrovick, as if it remembered him from last time, and tries to attack him, but Spock had already entered shortly before the creature's entrance. The creature gets a sample of Spock's Vulcan
Vulcan (Star Trek)
Vulcans, or sometimes Vulcanians, are an extraterrestrial humanoid species in the Star Trek universe who evolved on the planet Vulcan, and are noted for their attempt to live by reason and logic with no interference from emotion. They were the first extraterrestrial species in the Star Trek...
blood, which repels it due to the alien composition of Vulcan blood. The creature quickly lets Spock go and flees the ship. Dr. McCoy comments that Spock's green blood "must have left a bad taste".
The creature makes its way to the fourth planet in the Tycho system, and the Enterprise heads there in pursuit. Kirk wonders if the planet is the creature's natural home, since that is where the Farragut originally encountered it. Kirk plans a trap for the creature while Spock comments that the creature may be feeding in order to reproduce. If the entity is not stopped they could be facing more of them.
Kirk and Ensign Garrovick beam down to the planet with a case that holds an antimatter
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
bomb. The two lure the creature with blood from the ship's medical supply, but it quickly gobbles up the 'bait' before they can lead it to the bomb.
Kirk decides to use himself as bait and remain behind to detonate the bomb. He orders Garrovick back to the ship, but the young officer refuses to abandon his Captain and a fight ensues before Kirk can explain that he does not mean to sacrifice himself. The two ready the bomb as the creature draws near. With the creature ready to envelop them, Kirk and Garrovick beam away and the antimatter bomb explodes, annihilating the entity and much of Tycho IV with it.
Once safe aboard the ship, Kirk takes Garrovick aside to thank him and tell him a few stories about his father, Captain Garrovick.
40th Anniversary remastering
This episode was remastered in 2006 and aired April 12, 2008 as part of the remastered Original Series. It was preceded a week earlier by the remastered "The Enterprise Incident" and followed a week later by the remastered "Mudd's Women". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the USS Enterprise that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:- The planet Tycho IV has been given a new appearance.
- The scenes of the cloud entity in space have been reworked in CGI.
- An enormous blast crater created by the antimatter explosion is now visible on Tycho IV's surface as the Enterprise leaves orbit