I haven't seen the episode for awhile, but I have a nit and a comment.
Nit - The asteroid is hollow, right? Well, then, when Kirk and co. are walking on the surface they should be bounding pretty far into the air with each step. Also, I don't think it could hold an atmosphere, so the landing party should be in environmental suits (are they? I can't remember).
Comment - I love the title of this episode! It sounds like a poem, or a song. Maybe I'll write either about it someday...J

Natira says that Yonoda has a sun and she can see the stars at night. If the "sky" of her world is really an artificial construct, how are the illusions of these maintained? Did the builders of the asteroid incorporate some kind of projection or holographic imagery to create them?
Furthermore, if the sun of Yonoda is not real, it couldn't give the light and heat of a real sun, which could explain why the Yonodans seem to spend most of their time below ground. Without a natural climate and weather conditions, they would have to produce their food in some sort of hydroponic lab. Of course, it's possible that they could rely on cannibalism like that other spaceborne civilization in Space:1999's "Mission of the Darians"!

I wonder if the Oracle ever says "Cue the Sun."

Those of you who have been to this particular page in recent weeks will note that I've done a little bit of housekeeping. There was a misunderstood comment that cascaded into more misunderstood comments and I just felt we needed to restore the spirit of "light-heartedness and good cheer!"

I would offer this bit of advice, however. Please remember that it's easy to misunderstand and to be misunderstood when it comes to the sterility of letters. Let's afford each other benefit of the doubt before presuming incivility!

Anti-nit: The gravity is artificial. OR only a small part of it is hollow.

I believe in Phil's book he mentioned something about them beaming to the "inner" surface of the asteroid. This would mean that the surface Kirk and Co. beamed to was surrounded by an additional enclosure. Presumably the mountains that the old man climbed were located on the surface that Kirk beamed to.
I wonder just how many layers this asteroid had?

My understanding was that he had climbed mountains within the artificial landscape inside the asteroid and was thus able to reach the artificial sky - the ceiling. Why the designers of the thing would make such tall mountains is beyond me.

Christine sees McCoy off by saying a lot could happen in a year. The transporter officer probably wondered what the heck she was talking about.

During the battle, McCoy suddenly put his arms up in an odd way. Was he surrendering? If so, it wasn't very sporting of the Yonadans to knock him out at that point.

Phil mentioned a guard holding a phaser on them while Natira asked the oracle about them. What guard? The only guard I saw who might have been holding a phaser was holding his arms down at his sides.

Great moment: Spock reaching to touch McCoy's shoulder. He would probably say that he was trying to help McCoy up, but it wasn't that. Oh, no.

Since the Oracle seems to know its subjects' thoughts, why didn't it prevent the old man from climbing the mountains in the first place? Of course, they wouldn't have had such a pretty title. Also, the Oracle began punishing the old man before he even said anything significant.

And I thought Kirk could charm women fast!

Kirk and Spock were discussing getting in to the Oracle. The way their voices echoed, everyone in the passageway should have heard them.

Just what idiot decided that his descendants should be implanted with pain devices, anyway?

Kirk was told to resume his regular mission. He cut off the viewscreen rather abruptly. Did Kirk hang up on Starfleet?

Natira seemed to think that her world was part of a solar system. Why, then, would she think that her world was TRAVELING to meet another? Most planets stay fairly fixed in place.

I notice that implanting the pain device left no mark, whereas extracting it did. Those Fabrini were pretty clever.

The Oracle turned up the heat on them. The idea was to cook them; yet they hardly raised any sweat.

I wonder what the natives of the new planet will think of the Yonadans showing up on their doorstep? Will the local authorities step aside and allow Natira to be Queen, as she seems to think? Will Starfleet notify them in advance?

I wonder if Dr. M'Benga got upset when Kirk apparently didn't even consider him for the Chief Medical Officer position.

Whatever happened to the new CMO Kirk sent for at the beginning of the show?

Not a nit, but it seems like Starfleet is now in it's Imperial mode (200 miles, temperatures over 100 degrees).

Right after the Oracle turns up the temperature, McCoy says that in order to reach the book, you must push the three left-most buttons simultaneously. Well, when Natira did it, she pushed the two on the bottom left, then motioned toward the one on the top left. Unfortunately, she never touched that button!

The CMO probably got sent to the same place Katherine Pulaski did. Some unknown limbo.

McCoy must be really out of it. After administering the vaccine, Chapel says something about the white corpsicle(sp?)count returning to normal. Then Spock mentions his hemoglobin count. The funny thing is, Spock explains what he said! McCoy was the CMO on the flagship of the Federation. He continues to be the CMO on the flagship of the Federation. Despite what he says about the new CMO at the beginning of the episode (the one that is in some unknown limbo), Kirk acts like McCoy is the CMO on the flagship of the Federation. One doesn't become the CMO of the flagship of the Federation without knowing about corpsicles and hemoglobin. Chapel knows her stuff. Kirk probably knows a little bit about the subject. The only people Spock could be explaining it to is...the audience!

BTW: Xenopolycythemia is Greek for "strange many cell blood." xenos = strange, poly = many, kutos = cell, haima = blood

On a possibly irrelevant note, this is my all time favorite episode title of all the Trek series.

Another irrelevant note....

This episode has the longest title in any "Star Trek" incarnation to date.

Regarding D.K. Henderson's and Mf's comments (Nov. 25/98) about the mountains and so forth -- I wonder if the mountains are the "supports". I mean, the Yonadans live on some inner surface that they believe to be a regular planet. If they've explored it in all directions, it must be spherical or they'd run into some external wall. i.e., they live on a ball inside of an external "shell" that is the outer part of the asteroid. If so, maybe the tall mountains are the bits that connect the ball to the shell. Or do they have to be connected at all? Hmmm....

I'll bet that the writer of this episode didn't give it this much thought, though.

Maybe they modeled the asteroid after the Epcot Center in Disney World (?)

Kirk: Where to now, Bones?

McCoy: I'm going to Disneyland!

It is written "Only the High Priestess of the people may choose a mate."

Many times during this episode, we read "It is written"...I don't know about you, but many of these rules make me wonder if the ancesters of these people weren't sick practical jokers.

"Apply pressure to the center until it opens"...

Is that a fancy way of saying "Push the button"?

Only if "push the button" is a generic term. If you are a Texan like me, you would have to interpret "Apply pressure to the center until it opens" as MASH the button.

If ONLY the high priestess may choose a mate, it implies that ALL other flesh in the hollow-ship must have a mate chosen FOR them (or live life single, as the hollow-ship computer sees fit). This is logical in the sense that if the flesh in the hollow-ship were allowed to breed uncontrolled, the ship would quickly be found inadequate to hold the masses. It then follows that the "It is written" rules were implemented to keep a lid on population growth and to keep a STRICT lid on popular opinion. If the "masses" were allowed to have their own thoughts ...

This brings up a question. Are there animal life-forms on the hollow-ship? If so, THEIR population must also be strictly controlled.

The staircase our friends descend down to the chamber beneath the surface of Yonada was also used in "The Empath".

I also believe that the actress playing Natira (Kate Woodville) was married to Patrick MacNee at one point.

Holy cosmic coincidences, Batman! ...The Yonada looks very similar to the asteroid that almost smacked into Miramanee's planet in "The Paradise Syndrome"

Yeah, some might even say it looks identical!

Cute, Capt. Obvious. :P

Is Xenopolycythemia a real disease? If so, KUDOS to the script writers for taking the extra time to look up this disease in the medical encyclopedia...if not, KUDOS anyway for creating it out of oblivion.

I think polycythemia is real. They added "xeno" to it to create a fictional non-Terran version of it.

I'll never understand why the creators didn't decide to make this the sequel to "The Paradise Syndrome"..I mean, they use the same asteroid footage, plus that would explain the detection of advanced weaponry from the Yonada. The attack would be "explained" as "revenge" against the Enterprise for firing at the Yonada at the deflection point in "The Paradise Syndrome"
Makes sense to me.

I don't understand. What possible connection is there between this and "The Paradise Syndrome" other than the asteroid.

The creators could have made the asteroid that almost smacked Miramanee's planet the Yonada.
And when Kirk "meets" the Yonada, he'll realize it wasn't just an asteroid, but a place in which people live.

Let me clarify that last bit...

And when Kirk "meets" the Yonada in this story, he'll realize it wasn't just an asteroid in "The Paradise Syndrome", but a place in which people live.

Yeah...BUT, you'd think that, after two months, Spock would realize the asteroid is hollow.

Well, as Phil would say, "Maybe his brain wasn't connected right"

When Spock & Kirk touch the Oracle's instruments, they get electrocuted and turn a "negative" color. Did the Yonada get this technology from the Daleks from "Doctor Who"? (Just kidding, same SFX)

OK...McCoy gets the cure for Xenopolycythemia from the Fabrini & everything will be "hunky-dory fine" cuz' McCoy's life was saved....OK...but why didn't McCoy explore the Fabrini database even further and get the cures for OTHER diseases that don't have a cure yet and bring them out to the rest of the galaxy?

Who says he didn't?

Yeah, this time I have to agree with Rene.The creators weren't obliged to keep us updated with everything that went on throughout the Federation, especially non-political stuff.

According to the novelization of STAR TREK The Motion Picture, McCoy was doing further research on the Fabrini medical records to find other cures. Not canonical, I know.

Yes, generally the novels and novelizations are not considered canon. However, Gene Roddenberry wrote the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion
Picture. If he can't be considered authoritative, I don't know who could.

Actually ML, I've heard a rumor that Roddenberry did not write the movie adaptation. From what I've heard, it was ghost-written by Alan Dean Foster. Can anyone confirm this?

Boy, that Alan Dean Foster's becoming the great unsung hero of popular sci-fi. Similar rumours have him ghostwriting Star Wars, the novel, for George Lucas. And of course he did write (wonderfully) those Animated Series adaptations.

As for ST:TMP, I know that it's pretty well conceded that it was 'worked on' by a professional author, but which one I've no idea.

Well, it was Foster's story, after all. A bastardized version, but still Foster's story.

Boy that Roddenberry. The more I learn about the guy, the more I dislike him.

Rene, have you read the biography on him, Star Trek Creator? I sort of wished I still had it but it was a very good read. Read it and you might start liking him again.

Star Trek Creator was a puff piece that never mentioned ANY of the controversies Roddenberry got himself involved in. It was written by a friend of his and Majel, his wife. Who by the way is still looking through his trash can for more series ideas she can sell.

I know. She's really trying to cash in on her husband's name. (And before you tell me otherwise..."Gene Roddenberry's Earth Final Conflict" and "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda"...)

Well, I guess that perhaps I didn't know as much about Gene as I thought. Not that I remembered all that much from the book anyway.

This episode marks the SECOND time in which Kirk said something about the transporter being completed. He says,"Transported without incident"
The 1st time he said it was "Return of the Archons"

The "missile" looks kinda like the Fesarius scout ship...except the lights are dimmer.

GREAT SFX....
The glowing red dot on the skin!
The missile explosion!
The red hot lettering on the walls in the Oracle room! KUDOS!

The "dirge" from "Spock's Brain" returns in this episode...this time, the creators wised up and only played it 2 times instead of 5 times like in "Spock's Brain"

Why is Spock scanning McCoy with a regular tricorder instead of a med scanner?

The book, STAR TREK Creator, by David Alexander, was a bit of a whitewash job to me. As I recall, the controversies surrounding Roddenberry were mentioned, but in each case The Great Bird was exonerated. Joel Engel wrote a bio of Gene Roddenberry that explodes many of the myths about the creator of STAR TREK without getting as trashy as an Albert Goldman or Kitty Kelley bio. I suggest reading both books for a balanced view of the man. I think he was like anyone else; there were good things about him, and there were bad.

Alan Dean Foster's own website does identify Foster as the author of the adaptation of Star Wars, but not of ST-TMP. So Gene Roddenberry may very well be the author of the first movie after all.

GREAT "MOVIE MOMENT":

Kirk violates direct orders from Starfleet to try and persuade McCoy to return to the ship.

This type of loyalty will be visited again in "STIII"

Maybe this episode SHOULD have been called "The Search For McCoy" (?)

There seems to be a lot of "anti-religion" messages hidden in this episode.
The plot goes as follows:

The Yonada is really a spaceship but the Oracle has told them it's a planet. This is all a secret thing. Anyone wishing to search for the truth will die. The "holy book" is tucked away, no one is allowed to read it except a "few choice people"

In some religions, reading the "sacred text" is only allowed for the "upper echelons" because of fear of misinterpretation, certain truths are not fully explained (or revealed) because if they did come out, the people would lynch the clergy.
The plot is pretty subtile, but the "message" is there...as a somewhat religious person, I found this episode kinda offensive.

Well, why should the truth be hidden?

THAT...Rene, is a very good question.

1. After being attacked by primitive sub-lightspeed missiles, the Enterprise travels to their point of origin and discovers a spaceship disguised to look like an asteroid (or perhaps it was built by hollowing out an asteroid). Spock scans it a few times and finds it is under power and “correcting for all gravitational stresses.” Kirk then asks Chekov for the asteroid’s heading. Chekov replies: “241 mark 17.” Upon hearing Chekov’s response, Spock declares that the asteroid is on a collision course with the heavily populated planet, Darrin V, and that the collision will occur an estimated 396 days from now.

From this exchange, we can only infer that the creators of this episode have no idea that planets orbit about their stars. For Spock to know that there will be a collision in 396 days, he must know very precisely where the planet will be 396 days from now. Given sufficient knowledge of Darrin V’s orbit, a computer could easily calculate this, and the requisite knowledge would surely be in the Enterprise’s computers – but the computation is far too complex to be done in a person’s head. I know Spock is supposed to be amazingly smart, but this much intelligence boggles the mind: To make the calculation, he would have to have memorized all the orbital elements of Darrin V to great precision, and would have to be able to solve transcendental equations in his head, also to great precision.

Well, he is a Vulcan after all, and that is usually considered explanation enough for any event, however unlikely. But in addition to the inherent difficulty of the calculation, there is the fact that Chekov hasn’t provided Spock with sufficient information. Knowing precisely where Darrin V will be in 390 days is only half the problem: Spock also must know where the asteroid-ship will be in 390 days. To do this he must have a precise heading and speed, but Chekov only gives Spock an imprecise heading.

Even assuming that Spock somehow knows the asteroid-ship’s speed without Chekov’s having given it, what does a heading of “241 mark 17” tell Spock? That depends on what “241 mark 17” means. All Star Trek headings are given in the form of “x mark y,” but what does this construction mean? Most words and phrases Trek turn out to have a nautical origin, and so I at first thought the meaning of “x mark y” might be found in a sailing book – but I have not found the phrase there, nor even heard it in the course of my own sailing (neither precludes its having a nautical origin, however).

Assuming then that “x mark y” was a phrase invented just for Star Trek, what could it mean? In 3-dimensional space it takes two angles to specify a direction, just as it takes both a latitude and a longitude to specify a location on the earth, or a right ascension and declination to specify a location in the sky. Therefore, I would guess that “x” is the first angle, and “y” the second, with both measured in degrees. That being the case, then Chekov has only given the asteroid’s heading to the nearest degree. This is not nearly good enough for Spock to draw any kind of conclusion: If the asteroid were traveling only 10 km/sec, it would have traveled 342 million kilometers in 396 days (in fact, it must surely be traveling faster, as per nit #3). An uncertainty of one degree would then equate to an uncertainty in its position after 396 days of nearly 1 million kilometers. An earthlike planet would be on the order of 12,000 km diameter, so there is no way to know with a heading expressed to the nearest degree whether or not the planet and the asteroid will collide.

This entire nit could have been avoided if Spock had found the asteroid’s speed and heading himself at the science station, then used the computer to calculate what might lay in the asteroid’s path. But this would have deprived poor Chekov of a couple of lines, and as he gets so few in most episodes, I think it is better that science should suffer.

But wait… maybe Spock could have found the asteroid’s speed and heading on his own, and when he announces that Darrin V is in its path, Chekov could have been given a line to say in response, something like “Holy colliding planets, Batman!” No wait, that’s another show. Maybe Chekov could have said “Dick York and Dick Sargent I know… good Russian lads the both… but who were Darrins Three through Five?”

2. Unless Spock had observed the asteroid’s course for an extended period of time, it would be nearly impossible to determine that it was “correcting for all gravitational stresses.” This could only be determined by comparing the asteroid’s actual course to the one it should have flown while subject to the local gravitational field. Maybe Spock determined its course from the dirty trail its atomic power leaves, and so determined that the asteroid was compensating for gravitational stress. But if he did this, then he would have known the asteroid’s heading before Chekov ever told him. Come to think of it, though, he must have known its heading before Chekov ever told him, because well before Chekov gives a heading, Spock declares that the asteroid is not orbiting, but is pursuing its own course through the current star system. In order for Spock to know this, he must know its actual trajectory, which means he knows its heading. Maybe he was just humoring Chekov when he let Chekov tell him the heading: Maybe Spock feels sorry for Chekov because the poor ensign never gets any lines. No wait, Spock is a Vulcan: He can’t feel sorry for Chekov.

3. The asteroid-spaceship is encountered in a star system, and in 396 days it will hit the planet Darrin V, which is presumably in another star system. The nearest star to our sun is about 4 light years away. If the Darrin star system and the current system are separated by a comparable distance, the asteroid-spaceship would have to be moving at a speed nearly 4 times the speed of light if it was to make this E.T.A.! This is not so unusual an occurrence in the Trek universe (though unusual to the point of impossibility in the real universe), but no indication is given in the script that the asteroid-spaceship is moving so fast – such a speed ought to raise eyebrows on the bridge, since it would require warp-drive or something comparable to achieve it; and the missiles which the asteroid-spaceship fires early on would likely not have been approaching at sublight speed.

Of course, there are parts of the galaxy where stars are clumped more closely together than 4 light years apart, so maybe the episode occurred in such a locale. But star systems in this area could not be clumped too closely or each star’s gravity would disrupt the planetary systems of their neighbors, making Darrin V’s orbit unstable and the planet uninhabitable.

It is hard to escape the conclusion that the asteroid-spaceship must be traveling at an unnaturally high speed. But if it is really moving so fast, why has it taken 10,000 years to reach a habitable destination?

4. Aside from the problems relating to the collision of Darrin V and the asteroid-spaceship, the only thing wrong with this episode is the entire premise. The premise is actually composed of two parts: (1) The people of Yonada have forgotten (or been made to forget) that their world is a spaceship; and (2) McCoy is so dead-sexy that when Natira sees him she falls instantly in love.

As for premise (1), it is inconceivable that the Yonadans could have spontaneously forgotten their origins so long as they remained literate. They have been in space for 10,000 years, it is true, but here on earth we remember things from 10,000 years ago, through the “magic” of writing. There is every indication that at least some of the Yonadans are literate, so how could they have forgotten their origins? Even if they had, they would surely have rediscovered the truth: Yonada has a diameter of 200 miles, which gives it a surface area of 502,655 sq. miles – about twice the size of Texas. That’s big, but in 10,000 years there would be plenty of time to explore and map the place (it has taken us less time to explore and map the entire earth). You would think that certain vital mechanisms (e.g., exhaust ports for thrusters, supports to keep the outer shell – the “sky” – suspended above the inner shell, spotlights to illuminate the “sky” and create the illusion of daylight) would be found rising up from the surface.

Since it is inconceivable that the Yonadans could have forgotten the truth, it must have been deliberately kept from them by the oracle – which is to say, by their Fabrini ancestors. This is never explicitly stated in the course of the episode, but it is everywhere implied. For example, the “instrument of obedience” kills an old man who has apparently climbed a mountain and touched the sky, and it punishes Natira when she begins to grasp the truth. The instrument of obedience could certainly cause the Yonadans to forget their origins in a single generation, simply by preventing parents from telling their children the truth. The only question is, why? What could possibly be gained by hiding this particular truth, except the decay of the Fabrini heritage which this asteroid-ship seeks to preserve? I can think of no reason why the truth should be hidden, and the episode never advances a reason of its own.

As for the second premise, McCoy is a great character, with a certain charm and charisma, but he does not exactly have the face that scantily clad alien priestesses usually fall for (thank the Oracle that Natira didn’t have to wear one of those smocks the men wear, or this episode would be bleaker still!). Even if McCoy’s face really were a sight to behold, there is ample empirical evidence to suggest that Natira would be so taken with Kirk’s raw pulsating masculinity that she would never even notice Bones standing beside him. No woman showed Bones the least interest in the several dozen episodes predating this one: Why now?

5. Speaking of an asteroid twice the size of Texas, it really is amazing how Kirk, Spock and McCoy happen to beam down right at an entrance to the underground complex where the computer that controls the whole thing (the Oracle) happens to be located. While it may be possible to map out 500,000 square miles of terrain in great detail over 10,000 years, the Enterprise spends all of about 60 seconds studying the place before choosing a landing site – and in that survey, they don’t even detect any life signs or structures! Of course, this happens each and every episode of Star Trek – beam down to a vast planet on a whim and find just what you’re looking for.

6. I am frankly shocked that when Natira starts putting the moves on McCoy, he fails to answer with “I’m a doctor dammit, not a Casanova!”

7. Near the end Kirk and Spock seize the holy book, and learn the secrets of the Oracle. This angers the Oracle, which responds by raising the temperature in the room in an effort to bake the heretics to death. Why doesn’t the Oracle just electrocute them, as it did twice before, with great effect? This would prevent Kirk and Spock from laying hands on the holy book, which seems to be what the Oracle is trying to prevent. Did Kirk and Spock devise some kind of defense against this when I wasn’t looking?

8. At the episode’s end, Spock discovers the memory banks of the Fabrini, which contain a great deal of medical knowledge. This is certainly lucky, because it allows McCoy to be cured of his incurable disease (this is almost as lucky as Natira falling in love with McCoy at first sight, and as lucky again as having once more found just the right spot to beam down to).

But wait! Would this really work? Does Fabrini medicine tell us anything about curing the diseases of humans? Would the Fabrini even suffer from the diseases of humans? Human beings and chimpanzees are believed to share a common (and relatively recent) ancestor, yet many of our diseases are different, and a cure for a chimp does not equal a cure for a man. Even if the Fabrini are our distant cousins, what is the chance that their diseases and their cures are applicable to human beings? (Well, by Hodgkins’ Law of Parallel Planet Development…)

YEAH!....I agree!.....I think. (?)

This episode really gives De Kelley a chance to act. Natira asks him if he has a mate...McCoy pauses for a few minutes then answers, "No."
This is good because McCoy is divorced and was deciding whether or not to get romantically involved with a woman again and was finally "erasing" from his mind the bad experience from his other marriage so he could do so.

I think,sac your argument against Natira falling for McCoy is itself based on an unreliable premise: namely that women all fall for the same type of man. Clearly they don't. Women's tastes in men are much more varied than men's tastes in women, and much less visually orientated. Maybe Natira is a "hands" girl - we know McCoy has the hands of a surgeon. Or maybe she falls for a lopsided smile, hairy arms or southern drawl accent. The chemistry between two people is frankly still a mystery, despite scientific research. I think it entirely reasonable that an intelligent leader like Natira should develop an affection for the doctor.

(And no, of the whole cast Kirk's 'raw pulsating masculinity' would be my last choice with the exception of Uhura!)

Actually I think many women would find McCoy more appealing than Kirk. My real complaint was the "love at first sight" angle, which was really just a device to save the writers from having to work very hard. I think it would have been a better episode if McCoy and Natira had some kind of interaction that let her see what a kind-hearted, gentle man he really is, before she fell in love with him. I thought Deforest Kelly did a really good job of putting some life into the blah lines he was given, though.

As for the "raw pulsating masculinity," that was just poking fun at the way every woman every week throws herself at Kirk. There's really nothing I can say about that that hasn't already been said by every critic (and most fans) of the first series, however.

The Fabrini computer banks look identical to some computer gizmos seen in "Spock's Brain"

After they've recovered from the Oracle's punishment, when Kirk tells McCoy "you seem to be the special favorite," his mouth doesn't match the words.

About Spock explaining the hemoglobin count to McCoy: he was probably just doing that to needle McCoy about his "energetic level."

Since the Oracle seems to know its subjects' thoughts, why didn't it prevent the old man from climbing the mountains in the first place? Of course, they wouldn't have had such a pretty title. Also, the Oracle began punishing the old man before he even said anything significant.

I had the impression that the Oracle didn't really know everyone's thoughts on Yonada; they just assumed that it did because it was so wise and all. I can't recall anything in the episode to indicate otherwise. However, I agree that the Oracle should have noticed him approaching the mountain top and killed him right then.

I don't see why Kirk and Spock blamed McCoy's illness for his failure to wake up as quickly as they did from the Oracle's shock. He only woke a couple of minutes after they did. Why should they revive at exactly the same time? ('cause it's TV)

McCoy is a great character, with a certain charm and charisma, but he does not exactly have the face that scantily clad alien priestesses usually fall for

One reason Natira may have fallen for McCoy (besides the unexplainable chemistry between two people) is that he was sick and she wanted to take care of him. That can sometimes lead to an attraction.

The VHS box for this episode says that Yonada is on a collision course with an asteroid, but it was actually a planet. It also says "One of the best McCoy stories ever." But there is no mention of his illness or Natira in their summary.

Notice the red hot lettering in the oracle room...In the trailer, just the letters are red..In the show, the letters are red and the scene is bathed in red.

Just a note: This episode marks the first (and only) time McCoy kissed a woman.

The only other women had was : Yeoman Barrows, and the cabaret girls

CHEAPSKATE AWARD: The episode opens with Spock in the command chair & Kirk coming to the Bridge and talking to Spock about the missile. Kirk later goes to Sickbay to hear McCoy's report on his (McCoy's) illness. The scene fades out to the opening credits. When the episode resumes, TPTB show the SAME FOOTAGE of Kirk coming to the Bridge & talking to Spock about the missile. The episode then resumes as normal. (I can tell because both shots were exactly alike) Now..if I'm right, this take the use of stock footage to an all new low!

The credits create a nit when they list the Admiral as 'Admiral Westervilet'. Although never referred to by name, the Admiral is Byron Morrow, who'd previously played Admiral Komack in 'Amok Time'. I suppose that Komack and Westervilet could be half-brothers.
Or maybe marriage rules are different in the 23rd century, so Komack took his wife's name, instead of the other way around.

Also, Spock refers to Yonada's engines as 'very archaic atomic power'. I guess the Fabrini engineers were super-smart when it comes to medicine and engineering feats like hollowing out asteroids to create an ark-ship, but pretty lame when it comes to propulsion.
So, in response to sac, the ship is not at warp speed.
The asteroid is 200 miles wide, so it would need many, many engines to push such an object for thousands of years on a predetermined course. Each engine might even be a mile across, and should be visible from the Enterprise.
So the Yonadans will disembark to their new world in 390 days. How? Not even Natira knows how. Are there shuttles waiting to be used? Are their transporters somewhere on Yonada? Somehow, Yonada will have to 'open up' to allow people out, and there's no way an object as massive as a 200-mile asteroid will be able to soft land. The gravitational force would crush the landing area, and half the asteroid would sink into the planet's crust.
The Enterprise comes under fire from Yonada's missiles; how many times in 10,000 years has some hapless space traveller gotten too close and been attacked? The creators had to know the voyage would take thousands of years, courtesy of 'very archaic atomic power', so is Yonada an arsenal possessing several thousand nuclear missiles for defense?
Had the series gone on to a fourth season, I wonder if we would have seen a sequel? After all, did McCoy and Natira divorce, or is he still married to her even as far as Star Trek VI?

John, I noticed your nit of 6/12/03 only this morning, when Sci-Fi ran this episode. I've seen this ep countless times before, and always missed it.
Kirk also seems to change position slightly in that same shot when he is sitting in his chair, between the close-up and the medium shot.

Anyone know who did the voice of the Oracle?

It sounds like Bart LaRue.

I believe it was James Doohan.

Hard to tell between the two - the Concordance doesn't say.

mmmmmm....beer.......

Many ruminations....

In ST:TMP, Kirk pulled strings to get McCoy back from being in civilian practice, which was probably in Georgia. If the good doctor is still married to the wise priestess, does that mean she gave up her job and became an ambassador to the Federation? Or maybe she was so impressed by his willingness to give up his calling before he was cured, so she was happy to become his stay-at-home wife (she wouldn't have had to work, after all).

Realistically, the perverted programming of the Oracle (punishment devices, offcourse crashing into a planet) probably literally rocked her world as much as falling for the alien McCoy. Maybe she had a crisis of conscience, or faith, or some such, and lost her faith as a result. Once she got the people set up on the new world, I guess she retired and, since this would have been close to the end of the 5-year mission, she went to Earth to join McCoy. The Federation would have set up immediate relations to help these lost folks (like the truant officers to Miri's planet). After TPTB in Starfleet decided to make Kirk a PR hero-Admiral, McCoy is ticked enough to leave Starfleet. Going back to civilian practice and sharing a life with Natira would be very attractive (heck, I would too, under the circumstances).

Because this civilization is stagnant, I guess the Feds decided to iggy the Prime here. Similarly, because a member world is in danger, they must do anything to protect it.

The actor who plays the man who "touched the sky" also played the lead scientist in the illusionary camp in "The Cage".

The actor was Jon Lormer. He also played Tamar in "Return of the Archons." He was a working actor until his death in 1986.

Since some mentioned the TMP novel: The novelization of TMP does not read at all like Alan Dean Foster's style. It has far too many short chapters, is a somewhat clunky novel, with all the hallmarks of a first-time novelist (way way too much italics, for one thing!). The accepted theory is that Roddenberry indeed wrote it, probably with an assist from writer Jon Povill, or Susan Sackett and her writing partner Fred Bronson.

Sir Rhosis

This episode is unique. It's the only time Kirk told Spock to FIX a computer instead of figuring out someway to destroy it.

It's also the first episode whose title is challenging to fit on one line of a tape label.

And, as far as I am aware, the only one - doubtless thanks to the late season VOY, DS9 and ENT writers' love affair with one word episode titles.

Ah, but you're forgetting Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places(DS9). Also close is Let He Who Is Without Sin...(DS9). Hence my use of the word "first."

At least we know what happened to Dr. Haskins from "The Cage"...he moved to Yonada.


(Just kiddding...same actor)

With a stint on Landru's planet in between.

The trivia crawl from Trek 2.0 noted that the same music cue was played for Jon Lormer's character here, as when he introduced Vina in "The Cage."

In the enhanced episode preview, there's a little typo in the dramatic wording: "It's mission" rather than "Its mission".

Luigi Novi: Ah, but you're forgetting Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places(DS9). Also close is Let He Who Is Without Sin...(DS9). Hence my use of the word "first."

If you're going to count Let He Who is Without Sin... you have to include The City on the Edge of Forever.

IRONIC NOTE:

When the old man enters, the orchestra plays a selection of music from "The Cage"...it's ironic because the guy who played the old man, played Dr. Haskins in "The Cage"

The remastered episode reaired this weekend. There's a new version of the nuclear missiles attacking the Enterprise, and Yonada no longer resembles the asteroid in "The Paradise Syndrome".

The various Oracle effects (zaps, heat rays, etc.) are unchanged.

When Kirk pulls Natira from McCoy while Spock removes the instrument of obedience, she drops a small piece of her outfit on the floor. (It looks like a slipper, but she's wearing high-heeled shoes.) It's gone in later shots.

A good chunk of the music for this episode was lifted from George Duning's score for "The Empath." Which, ironically, aired a few weeks after this one did.

What is so "ironic" about that exactly?

Since this episode aired before "The Empath", then George Duning's score was lifted from this episode and used for that one, not vise versa.

Er, no Mr. Crusher. The music was written for The Empath and timed to match what was going on in the episode. This episode, which was made later but aired first, lifted bits of the music. It's not a bad thing, but it is ironic that we heard the edited score before we heard it as it was meant to be.

The Oracle tells Kirk, Spock, and McCoy that he'll show them what it's like to be his enemy before they're his friends...nice! They were already beat up on the surface, so I think they already know what it's like to be considered enemies!

Natira steps away from the landing party to help the servants prepare drinks for Kirk and the others. Isn't this a lowly, servant thing to do? Isn't that like a president, king, or queen helping waitresses? It's below their status for us, apparently not so much on Yonada.

To enter the Oracle room Natira waves her hands in front of a decorative panel on the right then the left. Only problem when Kirk and Spock enter later on is that there is no panel on the left for Spock to wave in front of.

Yonadan culture must be so fun...

(Someone trips) "Oh, here, let me help you up!" "THEN FIRST, EXPERIENCE WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE PULLED DOWN, BEFORE YOU HELP ME UP!" *Yank, thud*

"Welcome to driver's ed. Now, KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE INVOLVED IN A HEAD-ON COLLISION BEFORE YOU LEARN WHAT IT IS TO DRIVE!!!" *CRUNCH!*

"Hi, we're your new neighbors- we baked you a cake. I thought it would be nice to get to know each other face to face-" "THEN KNOW WHAT IT IS TO GET A CAKE IN THE FACE, BEFORE YOU LEARN WHAT IT MEANS TO BE OUR NEIGHBOR!!!" *SPLAT*


I'd hate to see what happens when you win the lotto!

Three stars like Orion's Belt can be seen behind the ship (a little right of center & maybe a third of the way from the bottom). However when the ship is turning "Orion's Belt" can be seen to the left.

When the show comes back from the break, "Orion's Belt" is again behind the ship.

McCoy tells Natira he has a year to live.
Do Yonadan years equal Earth years?

Natira mentions days, weeks, months...
Days... okay, periods of light & dark.
Weeks & months? Uh... weren't these created on Earth after periods of the moon? (Anti-nit: The Universal Translator translated the Yonadan terms to something equivalent.)

I really have trouble understanding why these people don't know why they are on a ship & why the computer is acting like a religious figure.
Presumably their ancestors would have known they were on a ship & there wouldn't seem to be any reason to program the computer to act like a high priest.
Usually in these types of stories the knowledge they are on a ship was lost after some type of disaster & the high priest role would be taken on by corrupt individuals who dealt with the computer who felt an ignorant public is better than a knowledgeable one, but the computer in the role of high priest makes no sense. (Other than as an apparent commentary on religious belief.)

Natira must have known the Old Man previously, and his nasty habit of talking too much about forbidden subjects. She simply takes Kirk's word for it that he 'screamed in pain and collapsed', rather than believe that three strangers ganged up on the Old Man and hurt him in order to escape or seek revenge for being knocked out by the Oracle.
Perhaps the red spot on the Old Man's temple told her that he opened his big mouth again.

I'm not surprised Natira chose McCoy as her mate-- did you notice all those men in Yonada? If they weren't unattractive, they were long-haired hippies!
Or motor-mouthed Old Men

I may have come across the origin of the Fabrini, and it started in 1940!
I was watching an old Humphrey Bogart movie this weekend called 'They Drive By Night', which had a main character, played by George Raft, with the name 'Joe Fabrini'.
Coincidence? Maybe. But it wouldn't be the first time the Trek writers and producers have been inspired by previous works.

Maybe the fellow that wrote this was a Bogie fan.

Another thing about the Old Man; I noticed the background music accompanying his scenes was the exact same as Jon Lormer had when he wasVina, way back in 'The menagerie'. Another coincidence? Or a tip of the hat to the same actor? Things that make you say, "Hmmmm..."

Star Trek - New Voyages is producing a sequel to this episode, titled "Torment of Destiny". Release date TBD. More here. (The recreation of the Oracle Room and Natira's clothes and hair is spot on, BTW.)

The asteroid's rendezvous point will be reached in 390 days. Daran V will be reached in 396 days. Does this mean that the planet the Fabrinis are heading for is the already inhabited Daran V?

Or does it mean that the asteroid is flying in between two star systems, both less than one light-year from the ship?

On top of that asteroid may not be flying too close to the speed of light because otherwise Kirk and Co will age much more rapidly than their relatives on earth.

And as the asteroid is running on atomic power and as its end-point will be reached pretty soon, shouldn't the engines have 'turned around' to start slowing down?

In other words shouldn't the nuclear particles and debris pollute the space in front of the asteroid?

Wasn't McCoy supposed to be studying Fabrini medicine when he was "drafted" back into Starfleet in ST: TMP?

Depends on your point of view of 'canon'. I believe Gene Roddenberry may have mentioned that in his novelization of 'Star Trek - The Motion Picture', or perhaps one of the other Trek novels mentioned it.
Pretty sure it was never said in any movie.

No, the movie itself doesn't mention it. However, there is nothing in said movie that says McCoy didn't do that either.

It's up to the fans to decide.

I really don't think the Fabrini are such nice people.
1. The Enterprise comes within range of the asteroid, and it's fired upon by Fabrini missiles.
2. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are immediately attacked on the surface by sword-wielding Fabrinians.
3. The three of them are then electrocuted by the Oracle, just so they know what if feels like to be their enemy.
4. Everybody is forced to wear an Instrument of Obedience which can create great pain or kill you.
Granted, some of this might have come about because of the Oracle, but the Oracle probably didn't build those missiles to begin with.

Kate Woodville (Natira) was just 30 when this episode was filmed, and she was born in Ewell, England, which explains her accent.

Instead of arguing with the Oracle near the end in the Oracle Room which is heating up, why didn't
Kirk just tell the Oracle to stop flying towards an inhabited planet (Daran V), which was going to result in a catastrophic collision?

At first I wondered how Natira could know the definition of a 'ship', when I didn't think there was any such vessel used because of non-existent lakes or rivers, but then I remembered that the Fabrini always intended to disembark, so without teleportation, they would need ships to leave Yonada.
Of course, those ships would be 10,000 years old, if the Creators already built them.

Spock says that the population of Daran V was 3.7 billion. According to Google, Earth's population in 1968 was 3.54 billion, making Daran V's population equal to us about 1969 or 1970.

Instead of arguing with the Oracle near the end in the Oracle Room which is heating up, why didn't
Kirk just tell the Oracle to stop flying towards an inhabited planet (Daran V), which was going to result in a catastrophic collision?

Yes, but would the Oracle have listened? The thing was clearly malfunctioning, and had been for centuries. Best for Kirk and Co. to just find the control room and fix it themselves, which they did.

What about those missiles that attack the Enterprise at the start of the show.

They're never brought up again. Which is ironic, because they are the things that brought Yonada to the attention of the Enterprise.

McCoy beams to Yonada with Kirk, and Spock and says, "You'd swear you're on a planet." How can he know this? Kirk left him in sickbay after his news, Kirk was on the bridge when he was told the asteroid is a ship, and left to beam over to it with Spock, only to find McCoy in the transporter room. McCoy wasn't on the bridge, so how did he know that Yonada wasn't just another planet? As well, how did he know Kirk and Spock were beaming somewhere, when he didn't even know where the ship was flying to begin with?

Perhaps Bones made a call to the Bridge. When we weren't looking, of course.

I always thought Natira's makeup was a little unusual-- thinking her lower eyelashes were extentions, but I zoomed-in on my DVD and discovered it's actually eye makeup! The black lines are eyeliner drawn away from her eyes, with a subtle white line to highlight them.

Yonada is said to be 200 miles in diameter, which equals 321.8 kilometers, which makes it bigger than Saturn's moons, Enceladus, which is 252 kiloneters and Mimas, which is 198.

Had McCoy stayed on Yonada, can anybody imagine him wearing one of those multi-colored hippie robes for the rest of his life? He would have been a multi-colored, badly-dressed Doctor 14 years before Colin Baker!

Either Phil in his book or someone here may have already noted this, but the opening scene is repeated for about 15 seconds, after the opening credits. Kirk's arrival is repeated after the credits, but without sound, as he recites his log, and makes it look like he's seeing Yonada for the first time, when in fact it's an earlier scene when he's watching the approaching missiles.

The premise of this episode would be repeated, nearly a decade later, in the Doctor Who story, Underworld (descendants of space travellers, who've forgotten their origins, worshipping a malfunctioning computer, which they call the Oracle).

Our heroes (Kirk Spock, and McCoy/The Fourth Doctor and Leela) arrive and sort things out.

I'm thinking that Natira has a bit of a sadistic streak.
Kirk and Spock are mercilessly electrocuted for about a minute, and all she does is berate them for basically entering a room that they shouldn't have, and does nothing to stop the relentless torture.
Now, what would McCoy think of his 'wife' if he'd been there to witness that?

Natira had worshipped that Oracle for so long, she was conditioned to think like that.

And she had one of those instruments of obedience inside her head as well.

Sure, but I'd be curious about McCoy's reaction if he witnessed her just standing there, angry. He freaked out when the Companion was choking Kirk and Spock, and he was furious when Parman was controlling his friends, so I think he'd be somewhat turned off about her after seeing the electrocution, and realize she's not really the person he thinks she is.

Alas, we'll never know.

I wonder if McCoy was there when Natira and her people arrived at their new planet.