The Enterprise follows a distress signal to a spacious, colorful planet, encountering "Kelvins", a type of species inhabiting humanoid bodies but adapting to them awkwardly. The Kelvins have this paralyzing device that renders those they target "frozen in place". The device even can turn those they target into cube-like blocks (they call it a "neutralizing process"), easy to crush (the only time a Yeoman woman suffers the curse of the redshirt beam down, the one chosen to die). Kirk must watch her die, holding the crushed powder remnants in his agonizing hands, while his other redshirt (an African American man) is spared. Those devices are how Kirk sees them (Spock and McCoy) getting any advantage whatsoever. The leader of the Kelvins, Rojan (Warren Stevens, a recognizable face in 60s television, as well as, The Forbidden Planet) tells Kirk to accept that his crew (and the human race) are defeated, conquered, but the captain won't just accept that without a fight. It will take using their intellect to manipulate the situation, clued in by Spock when he notices that one of the Kelvins is interested and stimulated by food consumption. Soon Kirk has Scotty introduce the Kelvin to liquor! Meanwhile, Kirk gradually seduces female Kelvin, Kelinda (giallo goddess Barbara Bouchet), which makes Rojan jealous and eventually confrontational. The whole point is forcing the awareness of the emerging human emotion to be recognized by the Kelvins as they journey to Andromeda to meet back with their own species. If the Kelvins are too human, their own kind will not accept them upon return. Another Kelvin, Hanar (Steward Moss), is getting injections by McCoy to "help his body function properly", but it ultimately is just so he is troubled enough to be a hindrance to Rojan. Despite a horrible death that Kirk couldn't stop (Rojan tells Kirk, you will now watch your "non essential personnel" die), and watching his crew onboard the Enterprise reduced to chalk cubes, the episode is actually light-hearted in tone as it goes along. Seeing Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and McCoy capitalize on the "human factor" of the aliens with devices that place them always in disadvantage, once again having to use their wits to outsmart seemingly superior adversaries. Bouchet is just wow, quite a woman. Stevens is robotic, to start, with more human traits, through responses that surprise even him (his inquisitive expressions after feelings emerge), arising as Kirk makes a move for his woman. The Enterprise full of cubes (seeing Uhura and Chekov reduced on the Bridge, especially painful) and how Kirk aches at the situation is some of Shatner's best work as the character. The way he conveys the loss of his Yeoman (Julie Cobb) proves just how excruciating it can be to the captain of the Enterprise. Spock's chess game with Rojan, and how Kirk and Kelinda were "meeting up" elsewhere is most amusing. Within the series, this episode isn't one of the standard bearers, but it has its moments. That opening scene, where Rojan addresses Kirk, paralyzed, and his away team, really shows how helpless it can be when encountering lifeforms with "tricks up their sleeve".
Review of By Any Other Name
