'The Naked Time' is a truly rollicking early 'Star Trek' episode that successfully combines hearty laughs with genuine tension. Spock and a crewman named Tormolen (Stewart Moss, "The Bat People") check out a lonely scientific outpost on a frozen planet that is rapidly deteriorating. Due to a little carelessness on Tormolens' part, some sort of infection is brought back to the Enterprise. It affects peoples' inhibitions, amplifying their emotions to the nth degree. This leads to utter chaos from which not even Kirk and Spock are immune.
In fact, it's very intriguing to see Spock visibly shaken and actually struggling to hold back tears! Sulu, believing at heart that he's a Musketeer, runs amok in corridors, topless and brandishing a sword. And a crewman named Riley (Bruce Hyde, 'Dr. Kildare') seizes control, not actually intending any malice but simply giving in to all of his base impulses. He also regales us numerous times with renditions of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen".
Some effective early moments (including an image that reminds this viewer of his all-time favorite film, John Carpenters' "The Thing") provide a starting point for a story (written by John D. F. Black ("Trouble Man")) that does take a number of steps into outright humor. But this is tempered by a genuinely harrowing scenario in which the Enterprise itself starts to lose control and hurtles back towards the unstable planet. Since the story hinges on people showing too much emotion and behaving irrationally, this results in a lot of shouting, Kirk included. He and Spock even get into a brief slapping match.
Never once losing its grip, 'The Naked Time" keeps ratcheting up the tension until a resolution that is not necessarily a "happy" one, but is definitely unusual and interesting and provocative. It's certainly true, however, that security on the starship obviously needed a serious overhaul after this episode.
Eight out of 10.
In fact, it's very intriguing to see Spock visibly shaken and actually struggling to hold back tears! Sulu, believing at heart that he's a Musketeer, runs amok in corridors, topless and brandishing a sword. And a crewman named Riley (Bruce Hyde, 'Dr. Kildare') seizes control, not actually intending any malice but simply giving in to all of his base impulses. He also regales us numerous times with renditions of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen".
Some effective early moments (including an image that reminds this viewer of his all-time favorite film, John Carpenters' "The Thing") provide a starting point for a story (written by John D. F. Black ("Trouble Man")) that does take a number of steps into outright humor. But this is tempered by a genuinely harrowing scenario in which the Enterprise itself starts to lose control and hurtles back towards the unstable planet. Since the story hinges on people showing too much emotion and behaving irrationally, this results in a lot of shouting, Kirk included. He and Spock even get into a brief slapping match.
Never once losing its grip, 'The Naked Time" keeps ratcheting up the tension until a resolution that is not necessarily a "happy" one, but is definitely unusual and interesting and provocative. It's certainly true, however, that security on the starship obviously needed a serious overhaul after this episode.
Eight out of 10.