‘That Which Survives’ (TOS) (TV)

  

‘THAT WHICH SURVIVES’ (TOS)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

This is a ‘Star Trek’ episode about a planet that doesn’t make any sense. I’m not sure I fully grasp the plot of the story, but it was so intriguing to watch and had some tension-filled moments throughout.

In this episode, the Enterprise comes across a ghost planet according to Spock. Curious, Captain Kirk has an away team of Dr. McCoy, Sulu and geologist Lt. D’Amato join him and investigate this planet.

But mid-way during transport down to the planet, a strikingly beautiful woman appears before them and warns them not to go. She then kills the transporter chief in the process before Kirk’s team fade.

Kirk, Bones, Sulu and D’Amato eventually end up on the planet’s surface before there’s an earthquake tremor and everything ‘wobbles’ violently. The Enterprise also ‘wobbles’ violently in this.

Talk about ‘wobbly’ sets in ‘Doctor Who’! They even had wobbly sets in ‘The Original Series’ of ‘Star Trek’. I found it amusing when seeing Kirk, Bones, Sulu and D’Amato on a wobbly set on that planet.

The Enterprise meanwhile gets shot forth into space, thrown 990.7 light years away from the planet where Kirk, Bones, Sulu and D’Amato are. Spock commands the ship to head back where they were.

This episode features special guest star Lee Meriwether as Losira, the woman who appeared in the transporter room before Kirk and his team went down to the planet. Losira’s a very unusual person.

Lee Meriwether is well-known for playing Catwoman in the 1966 ‘Batman’ movie with Adam West. This makes two ‘Batman’ stars to appear in ‘Star Trek’ – the first in ‘Let That Be Your Last Battlefield’.

Losira keeps appearing on the planet and on the Enterprise whenever someone is alone with her. She touches that someone and instantly kills them. I found this unusual why she was killing people.

Arthur Batanides guest stars as Lt. D’Amato, the geologist who joins Kirk, Bones and Sulu on the away mission. D’Amato is a decent chap who sadly gets killed when Losira appears and touches him.

It was great to see Sulu go on an away mission for a change with Captain Kirk in this episode. Sulu gets to do more than his usual stuff. I was so anxious when Sulu was about to be touched by Losira.

Meanwhile on the Enterprise, Spock takes charge as they head back for Captain Kirk and the others. Spock does tend to get impatient with everybody in this episode, especially with Scotty’s emotions.

This episode also features Booker Bradshaw as Dr. M’Benga, who first appeared in ‘A Private Little War’ in Season 2. There’s also Naomi Pollack as Lt. Rahda and Kenneth Washington as Engineer Watkins.

Watkins unfortunately gets killed by Losira when she appears on board the Enterprise and touches him. How Losira can be aboard the Enterprise and on the planet at the same time, I just don’t know.

There’s a tense sequence where Scotty repairs some damage caused by Losira once she sabotaged the ship’s engines. It causes the Enterprise ship to go faster beyond its permitted warp parameters.

Scotty has to repair the damaged section to the Enterprise in a dangerous area. It gets tense when the clock counts down to zero and Scotty is given instructions by Spock to…’reverse the polarity’! 😀

‘That Which Survives’ is an unusual ‘Star Trek’ episode from ‘The Original Series’. I forgot what the episode was about before writing this review. It was tense when three Losiras appeared at the end.

The DVD special features for this episode are as follows. On Disc 5 of both the original and re-mastered DVDs of ‘Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 3’, there is a preview trailer for this episode.

‘That Which Survives’ (TOS) rating – 6/10

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The previous story For ‘The Original Series’ was ‘The Mark of Gideon’ (TOS) (TV)	The next story For ‘The Original Series’ is ‘The Lights of Zetar’ (TOS) (TV)
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