Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Writer: John D. F. Black
Original Air Date: September 29, 1966
Watch It On: Netflix
What It’s About: Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Lieutenant Junior Grade Joe Tormolen (Stewart Moss) visit a frozen laboratory on the planet Psi 2000. It seems that the people who were in this research laboratory all collectively lost their minds and died at the same time, but there’s no clear reason why. Tormolen takes off his glove for a moment and a weird alien blood thing crawls up on his hand. Once back on the ship, it becomes clear that Tormolen is infected with some kind of alien contagion that makes people lose their inhibitions. Tormolen dies after attempting suicide and soon the whole ship falls like dominos. Sulu (George Takei) takes off his shirt and starts fencing in the hallways, an Irish crewman acts drunk, Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) gets sassy and Spock breaks down and cries.
Why It’s So Good: Okay, “The Naked Time” is fun. It’s just a really fun episode of Star Trek. Instead of polite discourse or abstract foes, it’s an episode about the Enterprise crew breaking down. Watching otherwise staid characters like Spock or Sulu have emotional breakdowns is kind of thrilling to watch. I’m not quite sure why this is. Maybe it speaks to something animalistic in my own nature, but I get a bigger thrill from seeing a shirtless guy running around with a sword as though he’s a dashing French hero than I do from seeing grown men talk placidly about science.
The other more intellectual thrill, though, comes from peeling back the layers of the Enterprise crew and discovering who they are when they aren’t following orders. We discover that Sulu is probably just in Starfleet for the adventure, Uhura is strong, sassy and capable, Spock has a lot of mommy issues, and Kirk (William Shatner) is torn inside by his own sexual desires (but we didn’t really need an alien contagion to figure that last one out).
However, it’s not just an exploration of what happens to humans when we lose our inhibitions. Joe Tormolen’s psychological reaction to the contagion could be seen as a science fiction riff on PSTD. He starts to become haunted by the gruesome displays of death he’s seen and he questions why man dares to travel in space at all. He is so overcome by his fear and regret that he attempts to take his own life. Tormolen’s behavior isn’t all that outrageous — it’s completely human.
The episode itself breaks down plot-wise towards the end. Scotty does something with the engine and the Enterprise is suddenly hurtled back in time three days, so they manage to avoid Psi 2000 and the contagion all together. Still, the whole thing is absolutely riveting, completely entertaining and extremely thought-provoking. It shows how fragile we all are and how much society depends on us holding it all together internally.
The Best Moment: Sure, it’s fun to watch George Takei galavant shirtless around the Enterprise with a fencing epee, but the most amazing moment in the whole episode happens when Spock breaks down. We finally get to see that Spock not only has emotions, but that they run deep. He’s completely devastated because he feels as a Vulcan that he should be able to control his emotions, but he also is forced to empathize with his own human mother’s alienation in Vulcan society.
Photos: CBS & Paramount
