“The Man Trap”

Jammer, I love your reviews. I would love, though, if you could review TAS, for completion's sake. What do you think?

I wish they hadn't aired this one first, too. The episodes in order show a marked and progressive development in both character and the relationship between characters. These cast members shouldn't be this tight and complementary until the time when this should have been aired--the 6th episode.

You'd think they'd pick something better and more memorable as the first episode. However the ending was good (Kirk's unhappiness at having to kill the last of a species).

OK, well, starting TOS now! Some of these I've "only" seen once before.

Movie/television blogger Chris Stangl summed up this episode by saying it is “about how McCoy has to metaphorically shoot his ex-girlfriend because she turned into a succubus.” What we have, I think, are two separate, not fully compatible stories spliced together: “the last of the buffalo” and the, well, succubus ex. The two stories do blend together to a degree, because exes who might want to pull you back into their orbit certainly have their reasons for doing so. But, uh, that’s kind of thin.

The episode makes some effort to depict this saltsucking fiend as a problem across genders, where it appears as a Space Prostitute (presumably) from “Wrigley’s Pleasure Planet” to Crewman Darnell and an attractive black guy to Uhura. (The episode counterbalances this latter moment by having Uhura coming onto Spock earlier in the episode, which I had forgotten about and makes the Uhura/Spock thing in the reboot franchise a little more consistent with the series than I had remembered.) The central story with McCoy himself is that he has to “get over” his lost lover, somehow, and not have his life (and later identity) taken over by her as he pines away for her. I guess. It’s a little vague. He eventually shoots her, and thus gets over her and moves on with his life; because this the first (aired) episode, we can, if we like, imagine a version of McCoy who spent all the intervening years since he left Nancy behind somewhat sad and moody, staring at her picture and not moving on, and here he does. That the real Nancy is dead represents corresponds to the recognition that the person people pine for, when they pine over their ex, is actually gone; the real person has aged and changed over time, and is not really the same person anyway, especially if they’ve married someone else. The episode introduces to the audience very early the McCoy-Kirk-Spock spectrum from emotionalism to rationality, where Kirk tells McCoy to stop thinking with his glands and that he could learn a thing or two from Spock; making this a McCoy show was a good move.

That we are told that the buffalo are extinct by the 23rd century, incidentally, is an early clue that the Star Trek future is one in which things are going to get a lot worse before they get better, eventually cemented with the introduction of the Eugenics Wars and the horrors of World War III before the rebirth represented by the discovery of warp drive and first contact with alien life. I like that Kirk is saddened by ending a species, but is not really going to let his crew be killed by it. It is sad that there is no real effort to reach a peaceful solution. I mean, this creature obviously survived for years on the salt that Crater got there, without saltsucking Carter. Is salt in such short supply that the creature must be killed? I guess the creature itself is what forces this—but I feel like someone should have offered more than a handful of salt tablets. Most likely, the problem is that the creature actually craves not eating salt in rock form, but actually consuming salt from other living beings, for some reason, and so wouldn’t be satisfied for very long with actual salt. Or, it’s just a problem with scripting.

I like the scene late in the episode with Crater, in which he talks about his wanting to save the creature for noble reasons—it’s the last of its species and deserves a right to live!—and Kirk quickly identifies the less noble motives behind it: Carter is using the creature as his own personal wife, lover, friend, parent, child.... The themes here, of fantasy/reality and objectification, of complex symbiotic relationships in which it’s not clear who is exploiting whom, are ones the show will revisit again and again (and already started to in “The Cage”). There is also good setup for the personalities of the supporting cast, especially Uhura but Sulu and Rand as well.

I think 2-2.5 stars is probably fair.

The creature is smart enough to imitate not just the appearance of humans, but to imitate behavior, and that takes some mental capacity. But it isn't smart enough to realize it could have had all the salt it wanted just for the asking? Perhaps salt is so rare on its planet that it can't imagine it is common elsewhere.

Why didn't Crater simply tell Starfleet "My team was killed by an alien that lives on salt. Please send a shipload of salt." Problem solved. He probably thought they would come and kill it, but it's the alien's planet, and the creature is harmless if left alone. The alien obviously survived before he arrived, but it may have been just barely surviving.

I watched these episodes as a kid, and now -36 years of age - I'm revisiting them on DVD (restored version with new visual effects).

I'm really disappointed. After watching this "first" episode I'm completely disillusioned. It's really bad.

Look, I know that things were different in the late sixties. TV shows was a while different ballgame altogether, with low budgets and a primitive way of telling a story than we're used to today.

But .... man, it's just so incredibly boring. The dialog itself is horrible and the bad timing just makes it even worse.

I was expecting to experience a sense of fun, kitchy nostalgia. Instead I'm just bored to tears.

Based on what this episode has to offer, I'm sorry to say that TOS has aged badly (even with new, improved visuals, which I applaud).

I can't see how anyone today would be able to genuinely enjoy this show - exept, of course, through a very strong sense of nostalgia alone.

I really wanted to love this, but I'm afraid that I just find it plain bad (not even "fun-bad").

Nostalgia yes...the saltmonster reminds me of my ex wife. She craved money instead of salt, attached herself to other men, and sucked the life out of you. 3 stars.

This episode was more enjoyable than watching "Enterprise." I'm seeing the heart and intentions of the episode and not the bad special effects.

Actually TOS had a much larger budget then a lot of shows in the 60s. If you really want to see a show string budget, check out Doctor Who's 60s period.

When the salt monster was in the form of Green and went into where Sulu was working, I couldn't help thinking he was there to tempt Sulu. Since Green was quite attractive. I know I know, Sulu's not actually gay, but still... :P

Caine, maybe you should just keep watching TOS a bit. The episodes, by and large, DO get better, especially as the relationship between the 3 core characters develops. It's not a great idea to condemn the whole series just because you saw one episode you didn't like. (And "The Man Trap" isn't super-great to begin with. Even the real pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is more interesting to watch than this one).

"Captain's Log, Stardate 1513.4. In orbit around Planet M-113. One crewman--member of the landing party--dead by violence. Cause unknown." So how do you know he's dead by violence?? That archaeologist and his wife sure were bad at keeping a secret, too. They both mention they need more salt at the dig site and on the very same visit Darnell turns up dead with all the salt extracted from his body? 2 + 2 still equals 4 in the future.

They should have just waited for the tablets, but the woman/creature is bereft of self-control and does the worst job ever of impersonating a crewman. And how did it know Swahili? This one's going to hurt my head if I keep thinking about it. And it's so SLOW. They had an idea for a 25-minute episode and stretched it out into 50. An awkward introduction to a epic program, but it could have been worse.

I've decided to start watching TOS on Netflix and this was my first episode. I'm primarily a DS9 fan with a guilty love of Voyager. I wasn't expecting too much from this early episode as I'm sure that it gets a lot better like most series do and so I was very happy with 'The Man Trap'.

I was really impressed with the dialogue, especially the sizzling scene between Spock and Uhuru near the start. It's a lot better than most of the dialogue on Voyager or TNG.

@William B: Great analysis.

@Caine: Watch more old episodes first, as others have said.

@K'Elvis: Completely agree.

Episode contains some positive character interplay and one could generously read into the themes in the background of the episode. However, in my view, this is a bleak episode because of the one sided nature of the monster.

Main problem: the creature is too fanatically obsessed with salt. The fact that the creature kills so frequently and without hesitation mars what could have been an interesting, morally ambiguous episode. Further, this extreme salt dependency creates a number of serious logical problems with the entire episode. As has been pointed out, the creature's unthinking monstrous urges would seem to conflict with its purported intelligence, its supposed ability to coexist peacefully with Crater, and its apparent survival on the planet for years. Obviously the creature could have received salt from the Enterprise simply by asking. Also, if the creature needed salt so badly it needed to go on a killing rampage, it wouldn't have been able to live peacefully with Crater (for a year or two). Moreover, if the creature is so dependent on salt, and there is little salt (or none?) on the planet, it seems extremely improbable the creature could have survived before Crater arrived. In any case, as I alluded to before, by creating a creature that was so obsessed with salt at all costs, the writer loses the opportunity for a more complex and challenging conflict. As it is, the creature has insufficient moral ambiguity for us to care about it.

Another problem I have with this episode is the thoughtlessness demonstrated by the Enterprise crew. Frequently, characters are given sufficient information to anticipate the actions of the monster, but fail to act. I was hoping that the "truth serum" was a clever ploy by Kirk to test McCoy, knowing that he and Spock knew there was no such thing. But, alas apparently there was a truth serum. I can't remember whether this serum was ever referred to by the Federation again. I know some villains had used a truth serum, but I don't remember the Federation using it. Anyway, very disappointing episode.

One last thing: why bother giving the creature a line in the script at the beginning where it asks for salt?

Even on the initial away team (not long after it asks for salt), the creature promptly kills for salt.

I guess its fatal flaw was impatience?

Edit: In the post above, I meant even "during the visit of the initial away team," not "on the initial away team."

I rather liked this episode due to the creepy story premise. But I have to agree with Eli that having the creature so salt obsessed was a bit of a plot hole. Another problem with the plot is when the three team members first beam down McCoy goes on at great length as to how he and Nancy broke up over 10 years ago. Then when the creature is introduced to the sacrificial red shirt he sees her as a young blonde woman of about 25 or so. Could this poor guy be so dumb as to not do the math? That would mean that McCoy must have broken up with her when she was in her mid teens. So unless the federation has lower the legal age of consent to 12 the redshirt should see the numbers don't add up. But no, when she exits the structure and gives him the "come hither" look he immediately follows her confident he is about to get a knob job from McCoy's ex. Despite obvious plot holes I thought the general concept and moodiness carried the episode. And I rather liked the humorous exchange between Spock and Uhura. Spock: "Vulcan has no moon Miss Uhura." Uhura: "I'm not surprised Mr.Spock." Classic.

"He's dead, Jim."

Classic line, first reel before the first commercial of the first episode. Other than that... :-D

Good:
Interplay between the characters is already strong.
Trying to raise ethical questions right away (though muddily)
Reassuring to see so many Trek cliches in place right away (so many dead away-team members!)

Bad:
Rand and Uhura act like morons when confronted by the creature
Letting us in on the secret of the episode in the first scene makes the pacing drag to a crawl
Spock wanting to kill the creature is out of character

Ugly:
The final action sequence. Just terrible.

Final rating: A slow episode with a laughably bad fight scene, mostly buoyed by the building blocks that will eventually lead to great episodes. Two out of four.

I'm not complaining about the fact that this is the first episode. It honestly felt a bit like an introductory episode, what with the introductory captain's log that mentioned Spock, and McCoy's names, Uhura's chat with Spock on the bridge, Sulu and Rand conversing in the botany lab, it's all meant to slowly get to know these people. I see no difference in those scenes than I see in Farpoint, Emissary, or Caretaker. So putting this episode first made sense to me. Maybe they knew they didn't have enough of a plot to fill a full episode, and thus added these scenes to fill it out and introduce us to everyone. Makes sense to me.

Meanwhile, the conference scene was probably the best part of the episode. With the creature in the guise of McCoy, it tries desperately to plead for its own life while his one supporter also tries to support it without giving away that McCoy was not actually McCoy. The episode did a good job of making us feel sympathy for the creature as well, even though we know the danger it presents. Even with Kirk telling Carter that his crusade may not be entirely unselfish, we still have sympathy for it. But unfortunately, if there is no way to stop it peacefully, the crew has to protect itself. The tension in that room was palpable, and was an enjoyable scene.

Unfortunately, while the show tried to give the creature sympathy, they didn't do a good job of making sure that it must die. Kirk said so, and so it must be. Clearly, there's enough salt to satisfy the creatures hunger, but unfortunately it tries to kill instead. Yes, the tablets Kirk held was far less than what he held in his body, but surely she could see that attacking Kirk in full view of McCoy would not go well for her. And after Spock started attacking it, it never pleads for its life. Why not? It was trying to plead for its life in the meeting, why not when it was trapped and cornered? Because, well, they needed to have McCoy shoot it to complete the story, but didn't have a good reason for why it had to stop it. Bad plotting on their part.

So, in general, not that great a start to the series, but I suppose it could have been worse.

As an aside, what's with the Captain's Log? It seemed rather... dramatic, don't you think? Not very professional sounding. I think Kirk took a creative writing correspondence course the week before this episode occurred...

@K'Elvis

"The creature is smart enough to imitate not just the appearance of humans, but to imitate behavior, and that takes some mental capacity. But it isn't smart enough to realize it could have had all the salt it wanted just for the asking?"

Any creature worth its salt would have done that.

But yeah, you're right -- except that without the creature's evident need to create mayhem in its quest for NaCl, there wouldn't be a story. It's kind of like the episode in which Sulu and some others were freezing on a planet and the crew couldn't use the transporter to bring them up because it was creating evil duplicates -- why didn't they just send down a shuttlecraft? In both instances one line of dialogue could have addressed these concerns:
-- "The creature not only wants salt, it wants to kick ass too."
-- "The shuttlecrafts won't be here until Tuesday."

Hmm, as I sit here on the precipice of rewatching TOS, having finished Enterprise, it occures to me that Jammer has not yet reviewed 'The Cage'. Lots to discuss. Or does 'The Menagerie' make a review redundant?

All right! Been a long-time lurker on this site and am impressed with your reviews on Trek, of which I am perhaps one of the biggest fans. You should expect many of my comments on some reviews if only to voice how much I enjoy it.
As for The Man Trap, this review is spot-on. I admit I overrate it a bit but 2.5 is about right.
All the best- Peter.

The plot hole that bothered me the most was the fact that the salt vampire was not a shapeshifter; it got into people's heads and made them see what they wanted to see. That's why it could appear to Kirk, McCoy, and the crewman as three different women at the same time (old Nancy, young Nancy and the "pleasure planet" woman).

Since it was not a shapeshifter, ship's sensors or a tricorder would have read it as an alien, not a human, so they should have noticed when they beamed it up. Also, if anyone was looking through the ship via viewscreen, the creature would have appeared as itself. I guess this early in the series they hadn't thought it through or established what the technology could and couldn't do.

I thought the salt vampire creature design was terrifying.

Happy 50th Star Trek!
I am going to watch this tonight exactly 50 years later, I'm very excited.

I really enjoyed this episode. You got to know the crew. The concept itself was interesting. The plot moved along at a good pace. The salt vampire was scary looking. In fact, it was probably one of the most memorable sci-fi monsters that I can recall. 3 stars.

This episode suffers from the contradiction of a supposedly intelligent creature that thinks it has to kill to get one of the most worthless substances in the universe. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding, but the show makes the alien more like a monster than a true Trek alien. The creature acts more like a serial killer motivated by strange compulsions than a rational being suffering from hunger. Having Crater in on the secret almost works but it just belabors the stupidity of it all. Picard would have had this all tidied up in five minutes. Still, the monster (and the facial makeup of the suction marks) is pretty freaky to look at, and I love Sulu's "potted plantimal" which AFAIK has never made another appearance.

Enjoyed this episode - although as many have said, it shouldn't have been the first one to air as all of the usual crew members seem to already be in steady state.
The premise of the episode is interesting - the salt vampire is highly intelligent, can read minds, but is also given to uncontrollable urges to kill to get salt. I guess it must have been sated when it was all alone with McCoy all that time.
I'm somewhat surprised it kills Crater, although this could be because it got uncontrollably hungry again after having to sit through the meeting disguised as McCoy and after attacking Spock.
In retrospect, Crater wanting to stay alone on the planet with the last of the salt vampires is a very risky prospect given how little salt he had left...
This episode kept me interested the whole way as the creature wandered around the ship. The ending is a good climax with Kirk in danger and McCoy struggling to get over his emotions for Nancy.
For me, a 3/4 rating.

This was probably written out of hatred for people who put extra salt on their meals without having tasted.

Quite stupid that no one recognized the incredible usage of salt as a hint for the existence of something strange.

And here we also have the dying of the no-names right from the start. In a ridiculous way.

Very disappointing to see this. I was such a fan as a kid. The monster looks stupid.

Two stars solely for historical relevance, even if it wasn't even really the first episode.

Let's see how long I can last a rewatch of TOS :p

A very slow start, with some of the long drawn out scenes (generally of the creature slowly staring/approaching) almost going to the level of The SlowMotion Picture. But, as others noted, a reasonable introduction to the crew.

The Cage was a much more interesting intro IMO, it's a shame they didn't go with that but they had to go through a few years of being 'reined in' between The Cage and The Man Trap - Uhura and Sulu were extremely progressive for the time of course, but the strong female second-in-command really gave The Cage a more feminist feel (mind, I think that'd go down just as badly in 2017 as it did in the 60s, I can already feel readers recoiling in horror at the 'f' word). But let's be honest the 'wouldn't you like her as your personal yeoman?' scene seems so cringey now! That's part of the experience of watching these old shows though, just shows how far we've come, and ultimately the change in feel between The Cage and Man Trap is what compromise looks like - something the modern world needs to re-learn.

The first redshirts didn't wear red shirts! I can't remember how often this is actually the case - 'red shirts' may be one of those false legends a bit like how Kirk never said "Beam me up Scotty"?

Skeptical,
If memory serves the salt creature did plead for its life after McCoy shot it for the first time. "Leonard No!"

The Farscape episode "Born to be Wild" had a similar creature only it needed bone not salt to survive. However they did a much better job addressing what many commenters here pointed out regarding the creature's intelligence vs. its obsession.

@Dusty The Swahili was part of the creature's bag of mental tricks.

Also of note: a quick stock shot of crew members in the corridor rushing to their stations and one female is actually wearing pants. There were only a few other examples of this uniform type in TOS.

^ That should read "Bone to Be Wild"

This isn't a bad episode of TOS, just not a great one. The final sequence drags on far too long. McCoy standing there letting Kirk almost get killed is bad enough, but then Spock too? Especially since McCoy says earlier that death would be almost instantaneous. Definitely watch your weirdass ex grope him, then turn into a sea monster in front of you. They are some serious saps for love in the future. At least Mc Coy was reprimanded for it (maddeningly, Kirk apologized, then McCoy's glands almost got him killed.)

Also, why did the Nancy monster kill the professor at the end? He was her only ally. She'd managed to co-exist with him for at least a year without eating him. And after she'd already eaten like 4 crewmen, shouldn't she have been kind of... full? Maybe to justify McCoy killing her later I guess (not a noble buffalo after all, just a gluttonous monster in a rubber suit.)

This is basically just a "monster of the week" show. However, for such a show it is well done.

There are some plot holes. Uhura says she doesn't recognize the crewmen that the salt creature pretends to be. However, the entire crew of the Enterprise is 435. Granted, we don't know how long they've been out of space dock and how much interaction there is among the various departments. Still, the Enterprise is essentially a small village in space. Wouldn't everybody on the ship get to know everybody else pretty quickly?

Vanessa raises an interesting point I had not considered. Why would the salt creature kill its only ally?

Finally, in "The Devil in the Dark", Spock comments that as the Horta is the last of its kind, killing it would be "a crime against science". (Although he eventually relents and agrees with Kirk.) Here, Spock makes no comment saving this creature because it is the last of its kind.

Happy 51st anniversary to Star Trek -- "The Man Trap" the 1st episode to air. May not have been the ideal start to the canon, but no matter -- the effect on sci-fi/pop culture started here and has been profound.

Last year's 50th anniversary saw the sci-fi channel on TV start re-airing TOS which got me hooked on Trek again after 20+ years of not watching it / seeing it (for whatever reasons). Since then it's been great re-discovering what I loved about TOS from my childhood and then some -- the acting, the themes, the musical scores, the characters etc.

Over the past year, I've been getting through the other 4 series and really enjoying them too (to varying degrees of course). So 9/8 will always be a memorable day for me!

Fair review from Jammer -- some strong stuff here, especially good scenes for Sulu and Uhura in addition to the strong McCoy story. Nice sharp Uhura-Spock scene and I liked the Uhura speaking Swahili scene as well. More backstory is hinted for her in these early episodes than we'll see in a long time, perhaps ever.

On McCoy: We really don't get many solid "McCoy episodes" after this one until "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" in Season 3; he obviously plays a big role in a few more Seasons 1-2 stories (like "City on the Edge of Forever" and "Friday's Child") but doesn't get as much screen time or backstory in them. Oddly enough, we probably learn more about the McCoy backstory here (i.e. his nickname "Plum" and romantic past) than in many future installments, and his moral dilemma is at the center of this story more strongly than most other shows. Intriguing to me that he gets the big moment at the end here rather than Kirk or Spock, as it's the first episode that aired, but perhaps "Man Trap" came at a fortuitous time before Shatner and Nimoy started eating up all the screen time?

As for killing Crater, I always assumed the Salt Vampire did it because Crater seemed to be wavering in the briefing room on revealing the creature's identity. Since Crater was the only person who could identify the creature in disguise due to its peculiar salt-craving tics, as telegraphed in the briefing scene where the creature is disguised as McCoy, it made sense for the creature to bump him off. And I'm just assuming the creature was keeping McCoy alive in order to hide with him or snack on him later if need be. Regarding the creature's motives and Crater's read on them, we also don't know how sincere the creature was being when it said (in McCoy disguise) that it was merely defending itself, and we perhaps underestimate how its desperation -- trapped on the Enterprise with no way to get off -- might have driven it to panic and act illogically. After all, it was a cornered animal, and the actors/actresses playing the creature in its disguises (including DeForest Kelly) do convey a simmering fear along with the hunger.

On the other hand, Spock's vibe doesn't feel quite right here, as Nimoy is still clearly feeling his way to the center of the character. His desire to kill the unique creature -- and to kill the uniquely evolved Gary Mitchell in "Where No Man Has Gone Before," for that matter -- does seem inconsistent with his desire to protect the Horta in "Devil in the Dark." On the other hand, Spock had the certainty of a mind meld about the Horta's motives in "Devil," whereas he knows only that Mitchell and the Salt Vampire are threatening to destroy the crew/ship without any apparent moral limit or noble mothering instinct. So it's not quite as out of character as it might seem for him to want to kill an aggressor without asking further questions, but it kind of hinges on his read of the aggressor's motives, and his character -- much more complex than the Kirk or McCoy archetypes -- is evolving here.

I like Yeoman Rand and Grace Lee Whitney, and I find it intriguing -- given that she finished her "Trek" career alongside George Takei on the Excelsior in Star Trek VI, Star Trek Voyager's "Flashback" episode, and a fan film -- that she shares a scene with Sulu in this first-aired episode. In a way, TOS begins and ends with her friendship with Sulu. But I don't care for the wolf whistle-type reaction she gets from two crewmen.

Overall, although this episode is pleasant and even strong in spots, there's also a low energy feeling and something of a "Sci Fi monster" retread vibe to it that doesn't feel very fresh or as representative of Trek as other TOS episodes -- it's almost like the show is a bit uncertain of its own identity at this point, as only Shatner and Kelly seem to be firing on all cylinders. So it's hard to give it more than 2 1/2 stars even though it may feel like 3 stars if it catches you in the right mood. Anyway, I've taken to watching "Where No Man Has Gone Before" first when I watch TOS, as it's the pilot even though it was aired out of order, and then watching this one second. The true pilot is much better for me, even though it's less polished and McCoy and Uhura don't appear in it, and there's nothing to prevent one from watching it before this.

PS -- On second thought, I might give "Man Trap" 3 stars, mostly because I still find myself thinking about its implications -- the relationship between Crater and the creature, the creature keeping Crater alive to supply salt (we might assume the creatures died out after exhausting the planet's salt supply from both natural and animal sources), the implications of wiping out the last of a species, etc. This is good stuff. In analyzing and responding to reader critiques in my comments above, I've argued myself into appreciating this one more than I previously did. And even though many comments on these Star Trek episodes use the phrase "it raises more questions than it answers" as a criticism, I tend to view it more as a badger of honor: I don't *want* Star Trek to wrap up every loose end in a neat bow with some exhaustive explanation, as many of the later spin-offs tended to do, but to leave things a little messy in a way that challenges me to think. I believe TOS does that especially well: There's a real pulpy sense of risk and adventure in these shows even if "Man Trap" unfolds a bit slowly. And when we look at "Man Trap" as a Trekkian take on the Sci-Fi monster movie, rather than comparing it to Trek overall, I think we can appreciate what it's trying to do: Ultimately the creature is killed, but only after a debate in which people try sincerely to find compassion for it. And although the creature finds a tragic end after the briefing it overhears causes it (I'm avoiding gender pronouns since the creature appears both male and female in the episode) to panic and eliminate Crater, Kirk exhibits regret over having to kill it. That feels pretty Star Trek to me.

PSS -- And kudos to the whole "my ex is a salt vampire" subtext to the episode. That's a fun head trip: McCoy's sweet ex-girlfriend has died and been replaced by a rampaging beast. It's a snarky little piece of irony that is very typical of classic Trek; we may sometimes miss these fun little plot winks when we take Trek too seriously.

Why did the network choose to air Mantrap as the first episode? Leonard Nimoy sort-of answered this in a show he once did - a retrospective on Trek to that point and a teaser for what was the next thing in Trek (can't remember if it was one of the movies or perhaps TNG).

Anyway... Mantrap was an episode with a recognizable monster - most closely conforming to the expectations of the network execs as to what sci-fi was all about - monsters and aliens terrorizing mankind. They weren't exactly enlightened.

The episode was fine, especially for a series this old. That was one ugly monster!

Could you also review the pilot episode that preceded this? 'The Cage'. The pre Shatner debut episode with Jeffrey Hunter in. I don't particularly rate it but I'd be interested as to your overall review thoughts.

Why was it shown first? The studio felt that sci-fi fans needed to see a monster as well as a strange new world.

And as for the camaraderie being too soon? 60s TV didn't care. There were few story arcs and episodes were meant to be stand alones. They were rarely even broadcast in production order until the end of the season when they were cranking them out barely ahead of airdate. (And even then, some stinker would be held back to be shown second-to-last -- Hello "The Alternative Factor" and "Bread and Circuses"! -- to avoid hurting the ratings.)

Signed off too soon, lol!

The thing I always enjoy about this episode is the crew's familiarity and camaraderie. Sulu, Uhura, and Rand felt more like part of an ensemble with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, rather than the secondary players they'd become later. Uhura flirting with Spock was another highlight of these early episodes (see "Charlie X' for more).

All of this would be lost when Shatner started to flex his muscles and diminish their roles in favor of Captain Kirk.

Answer to order of TOS: they were shown out of order because when an ep was suppose to be due to run, it wasn't ready. Things were diff back then and the crews were learning to make stuff up because it did not exist. You can see in the first 13 eps how it was by the uniforms worn. Where No Man Has Gone Before was #1.

That salt monster scared the heck out of me for years. I could not look at it for years on top of years. Now let us get real, this saltsucker was the only one left because IT sucked all its family dry of salt when none [salt] was left on the planet. Whew. It was just greedy. Walking around the ship as other people it sucked its closed fist at the thumb.

Get a load of Kirk shouting down McCoy's throat about his lost love. No one ever shouted or made fun of Kirk and his lost loves that appeared from nowhere and that robot from Methuselah that he fell in love with. Spock showed pity and took the memory while Kirk slept. Kirk was jealous of other men having romances.

The lies told about the buffalo are just that, lies. During the '60's scientists were killing themselves to bring the buffalo back into a reasonable existence because the white man had nearly wiped them out once they hit the western USA. Real mindless.

No, no, no. Crater did not think Starfleet would send anyone to kill saltsucker, he knew the thing could shapeshift; that is how it got to Nancy and killed her and he no doubt had sex with the damn creature as Nancy. Oh, his nancy .... no man would boo hoo over his woman after being with her that many years. Nor would McCoy bawl like baby because he left her behind. McCoy had been married several times with bad experiences. He was not going to marry any woman again.

And, why in God's name would 2 people be sent beyond space and time, so far away, to dig in dirt? No shuttles. Have to wait a century for food. That planet was arid, there wouldn't be anyway a tomato or an ear of corn could grow there. Think about that one.

for Navamske may 29, '16:::::::
"The shuttlecrafts won't be here until Tuesday."
Yeah, Baby [like Mike Myers with funny teeth] that first shuttle really did not get in from Arizona for the episode so guess what? Gene Roddenberry invented beaming on the spot. Everybody hollers, 'what!' Yeah, beaming, transporters, that's the ticket [Jon Lovitz] And my dears, that how transporters came to be.

Yes, Jim, you are right, it was mind control, not shapeshiting. I am sorry.

Cloudane" The Cage had problems. A woman was #1. Jeffrey {i can't spell} Hunter who played Jesus was the captain, and various directors and producers despised the doctor in real life and other trash. It never got shown until Roddenberry made The Menagerie [or the cage].

Mr. gorgeous Hunter was old by the time he got this role and was married for the umpteenth time to a very young girl. They said she would stand around directing every body on how to film Jeffie. Holding his head one way and then 'tother. Can't film this side of his face cause he don't like that side of his face to be filmed. I truly do not remember how much time passed after this but Jeffrey it was reported was changing a light bulb at home, standing on a chair when he fell off and was killed. In the past few years I read on the net that his wife was really hateful to him and could have gotten angry enogh to do him in. Blank happens when little girls think marrying old me will get them DIMUNT RINGS AND MINK COATS. In the '50's and '60's before PETA, these 2 things are what 95% of the girls in hi school wanted. They would steal and did steal to get MINK, a real MINK. I knew one who embezzled the bank she worked in to get her mink and her cotton mill mama was so proud. No, never caught even when the State bank auditors came in to find out why so many mops and brooms were being bought because there were no mops or brooms at the bank. Hell, she was the one who signed the tickets! Servicers brought their own equipment when they came in at night to clean.

I am glad to see Farscape mentioned. Yep, Ben Browder's wife played the bone eater. Scopius takes her aboard his ship and she gets to eat her fill of bones. We don't see that, though. But men are disappearing though. It was BONE TO BE WILD. I just loved their titles and I watch Farscape when I go to bed. I know it all.

Can't stand it any longer. Where no man has gone....no one liked the doctor in this ep either and when the green light was lighted, get someone else to play the doctor....You know, there is so much hatred among the people in hollywood it is a wonder any person ever got a job. DeForest was brought in.

Ich fange an, die Serie erneut zu sehen, da mir diese Folge nicht gefällt, zu altmodisch für meinen Geschmack, nicht für die Kostüme und Effekte dieser interrassischen Charaktere

@Viktor:

Ich bezweifle, dass sehr viele der Besucher dieser Website Deutsch verstehen. Wünschst du nicht Reaktionen dieser Gemeinschaft?

Zu dieser Serie, was war alt, ist wieder neu, nicht? Wenn man über die Anachronismen der Zeit hinaus schauen kann, dieses ein ganz besonders Fernsehprogramm ist. Viel Spaß!

I agree with Jammer, not the best way to start the show... but hey, it's an entertaining episode after all!

I wrote about it here:

https://vengonofuoridallefottutepareti.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/star-trek-tos-s01e01-the-man-trap-english/

I decided to rewatch TOS since I hadn't done it in 40 yrs or more, when it was on reruns, after school.

I watched The Cage and can only say, Jeffrey Hunter and Susan Oliver sure were pretty. It was an ok episode, but the show was probably better off with the final cast, with the exception of turning Majel B into Nurse Chapel.

This salty episode was pretty well, too. I'm still working on getting my head back into the 60s. Watching it, I'm overwhelmed with both how daring it was, and how dated it is.

Nichelle N was so beautiful! The cast is nice looking, but she's a standout. Yeoman Janice's hair overwhelms her and is truly nutty. I can't see anything but the hair. Shatner - eh. Nimoy and Kelly stand out on the acting front.

The story was fine. Some minor plot holes and contrivances. The monster itself was great and scary.

I do wonder if I'm really going to be able to get through 3 seasons. We'll see.

@Springy, I hope you stick with it, at least for a while.

"Watching it, I'm overwhelmed with both how daring it was, and how dated it is."

TNG and later feel much more like modern storytelling -- often great/very good, sometimes not as good. TOS feels at times like it's beamed in from another universe, and it comes across as shockingly brave/foolish, things that the newer shows wouldn't be able to try. I think a lot of that is how much the show's sensibility comes not just from 60's television (which was a big factor -- Roddenberry had a long tv career before this, of course) but also that era's sci-fi, pulp sci-fi. The show has a higher density of professional sci-fi writers than the other Treks, with a lot of overlap with The Twilight Zone as well as print publications. Most TNG-and-after Trek episodes really are written by television writers (many of whom are extremely good), with some definite sci-fi interest/background but obeying the laws of sensible television storytelling more rigorously.

I don't honestly think I could review TOS...

Hello Everyone!

@Springy

I'd seen a post of yours at the beginning of a comment thread, and realized you were doing a TOS view after DS9. I haven't looked lately, but I hope you are continuing.

I'd started to watch Trek around '77, after Star Wars got me hooked, and it was on every day at 4pm. :). I even audio recorded them, and in later years could tell folks where they had removed lines for more commercials. I figure I started to watch them around the same time as you did.

I am looking forward to your reviews...

Regards... RT

3 stars I enjoyed this one

It wasn't until a commenter above suggested that this monster-being (and let's call it a "being" and not a "creature"; it was sentient life) behaved like an obsessed psychopath that I ever had a truly unsympathetic thought about it. Although it's possible that its mental state was far from "normal", but had actually been warped by living in a near-starving state and having seen everyone they ever knew die from lack of salt-food.

I didn't see why, in the end, they'd need to kill it. Phasers can be set to stun, they could do an intra-ship beam to a cell with a forcefield, or give it a shot of something to knock it out for a bit. They could have ambushed it and while 2 guard held it down, then Spock do the mind-meld to communicate with it (let is know they have limitless salt out in the galaxy and it doesn't need to kill for it—if it's really not killing out of bloodlust but, rather, the need for salt as sustenance.

Wow can you imagine this happening on the Enterprise-D or Voyager? Picard and Janeway would divert so many resources trying to rescue both people here. I'm sure that Sisko would hesitate but eventually shoot it, but Bones doesn't even hesitate to killed her once she transforms and tries to take his salt.

*His being Kirk*

The registered fx can be so frustrating. It’s nice to see beautifully rendered planets, but the super-clean image of the ship just look awful. It looks exactly like what it is- a model.

Now of course I know it’s actually, ironically, a cgi ship. But it’s cgi of a model with insufficient detail for the resolution it’s being shown at.

It’s a trade off, because the love actor footage looks brilliant in the remastered set. I would probably be happiest if I could watch the old ship fix with the remastered actors.

So "The Man Trap" = "Woman." And Uhura is completely creeped out by the salt-sucker posing as a crewman, who has her cornered up against a bulkhead, but then is swooning over him in two seconds once he starts speaking Swahili. I love the 60's!

I thought Captain Kirk came off well here--competent and decisive. While Bones McCoy is nostalgically fawning over his lost love Nancy, Kirk snaps at him to shut up and remember that there's a dead crew member lying on the sick-bed next to him and that they need to find out how he died. Then later, when he and McCoy are on the planet, he correctly points out that their ship has far greater scanning technology at its disposal than two guys with phasers and that they ought to get the hell out of there. And I loved it when he accused Professor Crater of being too soft when Crater objected to hunting down and killing the damn salt-sucker. If it were my ship and there was a shape-shifting salt-sucker from the Planet MS-13 aboard, you're damn right I'd track it down and slaughter it.

Overall I thought "The Man Trap" was passable. I was digging the slow tension and Twilight Zone vibe once the salt-sucker was on the ship posing as various crew-members, and especially when it took on the appearance of McCoy himself. My 11-year-old son was mostly bored out of his mind throughout the episode (he probably hoped it would be more like the Star Trek movies), but my older son and daughter were riveted.

I did think that if the creature was so "intelligent" and worthy of survival, why was it so stupid as to not simply ask for salt politely? I guess it's probably because it was just a purely evil, salt-craving, psychopathic lunatic (that description fits my mother-in-law actually, and my wife would agree with me), so there's probably no more explanation needed as far as its thought processes or motives were concerned.

Best line -- Janice: "Why don't you go chase an asteroid?"

My Grade: B

The Man Trap
TOS S1 E1

2 1/2 stars (out of 4)

"Why don't you tell me I'm an attractive young lady, or ask me if I've ever been in love? Tell me how your planet Vulcan looks on a lazy evening when the moon is full.”

- Uhura trying to avoid responsibility for making a mistake in the sub-space log by flirting with Spock. It doesn’t work.

I have been watching Star Trek on and off my whole life. My mom watched reruns of TOS when I was in the womb. But now I am older than Kirk and Spock were (or at least the actors playing them were) when The Man Trap first aired, though not yet as old as Bones. It seems the perfect time in life to go back and give TOS another look-see.

I agree with @Skeptical, this is actually a pretty good place for TOS to have started. The episode introduces us to most of the major characters we’ll know and love for decades and decades and decades to come: Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, Sulu & Janice Rand. Only Scotty and Chekov are missing. Well, Majel is missing too.

There are two key scenes in the episode that really set up the Bones-Kirk-Spock dynamic for the ages.

The first key scene is Spock with Uhura on the bridge. Spock does not react to Uhura's flirting, which is of course his choice. But then word comes down that a crew member has died on the away mission. And Spock doesn’t even flinch. It sends Uhura into a fit. She turns her back and walks away. If TOS had aired today, Uhura would have yelled something like “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Fortunately TV in the 60’s had different standards, and the turn away allows Uhura to speak volumes without talking. Sometimes less can be more.

The second key scene is Bones with Kirk, in sickbay, with the dead crewman. As @Proud Capitalist Pig says, Bones is wallowing in lost love when Kirk snaps at him:

KIRK: How your lost love affects your vision, Doctor, doesn't interest me. I've lost a man. I want to know what killed him.

Bones feels too much. Spock feels too little. And Kirk is there to maintain a balance. That is the touchstone for TOS.

There is also some really subtle humor. @redshirt28 has the hilarious comment above about his ex-wife. Even more subtle is when the salt monster was in the briefing room disguised as Bones (what @Skeptical calls the conference scene). The hilarious thing about the conference scene: that was not the Real McCoy!!!!

@Vanessa asks why the salt monster killed the professor? Two reasons, one obvious - because he could ID her - and one more subtle - because she had moved on to McCoy. The ex-wife metaphor again.

TOS did a much better job than newer iterations of the show are doing at showing people the way they actually are, not some amped up TV version. I didn’t notice what @Sean points out, but I think it makes sense. Sulu and Janice Rand sitting together talking about the flowers. Later on they are strolling together in the corridor when they find a dead body. They seem like wonderful, yet completely platonic, friends. I suppose you could look at an Asian man and White woman as the least likely of all interracial pairings to explain the complete lack of sexual tension. But you know what has even less sexual potential? NTTAWWT.

By the way, I tried to follow @Viktor and @ Elliot’s conversation via the google Universal Translator. Google translates “interrassischen" as interracial, but somehow I think @Viktor means he enjoyed the multi-racial aspect of the show? Still, with the Rand/Sulu and Uhura/Spock scenes, @Viktor might have meant interracial. I kind of really want to know.

Finally the buffalo. It is fascinating to note that from day 1, Star Trek has been interested in talking about extinction. Its a theme that will take us all the way through a fun time-travel movie exactly 20 years later, and even to this day, with another time-travel story about a girl and her animal-lover boyfriend, this time, a whole millennium later.

Gandhi used salt to beat the British Empire. Is it any wonder that that simple chemical, NaCl, launched this epic Trek.

In this episode the Enterprise is just a delivery ship in this episode. It's next job, which gets delayed, is delivering chili peppers.

I just circled back to season 1 after completing season 3. It is remarkable to see how much more detail was put into season 1, the food, the crewmen, the plant nursery, the trinkets on the planet, etc. I really loved this episode. A powerful alien that could change shapes at will and able to make different people see it as different things. This episode alone was better than most of season 3 combined. The alien was something of a nympho in that it could never quite get enough salt to be satisfied and constantly needed more, which was it’s downfall. Crater’s want to preserve the creature as Nancy was compelling too. I give it a solid A. Spock’s pleading with McCoy to kill it was well done too!!!

I'm watching this for the first time. The opening episode was okay, but hardly great. The new CGI planet / ship is good and the HD makeover is fantastic.

I don't understand how Kirk and McCoy could see two versions of the same woman, when there's only one alien in the room! Surely they would both see the same thing? No?

@SCLee

I have always taken the "every man sees the same woman differently" (remember, the crewman who ends up dead sees a COMPLETELY different woman) as an indication that at least part of the illusion is some psychological/telepathic manipulation.

@Trish Fair enough, that's a good explanation. I liked the episode but so far (only seen two) I prefer Charlie X.

It kind of blows my mind that Shatner is heading into space in less than 4 minutes!

I don't think I'd seen this one for at least ten years until tonight. You know what? For a creature feature off-brand episode it's actually pretty damn good. The acting is already solid from everyone involved, and Nichelle Nichols and Nimoy absolutely kill their scene together. The scripting and humor is so tight that a lot gets conveyed very quickly with no exposition. Granted, a few things in this episode get soft retconned later on, such as Uhura sort of flirting with Spock (revived only in the reboot films), Sulu the plant specialist, and McCoy being a pining romantic. These are minor details, however, because a lot gets accomplished during the in-between scenes to develop McCoy, Kirk, Spock, Sulu, and Uhura. It's a really effective hour of TV even though the actual threat of the week is somewhat transparent (we know the answer way before the crew does, a slightly irritating feature). We even see Kirk switch on a dime from friend to McCoy's commander, a dynamic never to be seen again in Trek where the Captain can assert authority on a moment's notice when necessary, without it having to be a constant affect. Patrick Stewart does not tonal shifts too on TNG, but not fiercly like Kirk does in sickbay.

Here are some amusing highlights I had completely forgotten about:

Opening scene:

KIRK: Shall we pick some flowers, Doctor? When a man visits an old girlfriend she usually expects something like that.

This doesn't sound like amazing dialogue, until you notice Kirk has haphazardly picked up some straw, basically, making the text play as whimsical ribbing just by virtue of the prop and how he says it. He's on fire from the first line!

And here's a gem of a mini-scene when Spock and Kirk are under phasor fire:

CRATER: We don't want you here! We're happy alone! I'll kill to stay alone. You hear that, Kirk? Or you'll have to kill me. II don't care either way.
SPOCK: Obviously, taking him alive is going to be difficult.
KIRK: Set your phaser on one quarter. I'll leave mine on stun.
SPOCK: Why risk your life for his?
KIRK: He's not trying to kill us, he's trying to frighten us, and he's doing a pretty good job.

Spock's first line here is killer-sardonic. It's a sort of straight-laced line that ends up making me laugh out loud from how deadpan he delivers it. Wowie. Even Kirk's last bit, "and he's doing a pretty good job" showcases Shatner's charm to the hilt, where he plays vulnerable, humorous, and under the gun all at once. It makes the scene light even though it's an action scene, showing that we needn't be worried about them just yet. A very interesting technique IMO not to be repeated until TV shows learned how to do a flip tone during action only in the last 10-20 years maybe (such as in Buffy, Firefly, Dexter, etc).

And here's a neat sequence later on when they're chasing the creature:

SULU: Keep in mind if you find him, he's not Crewman Green. The Captain reports Crewman Green is dead.
RAND: And he, or rather it, followed me. I thought there was something twitchy about him.
SULU: He, whatever, was probably your crewman, too, Lieutenant.
UHURA: He must have been it. You know, I would have remembered a crewman like him.
MCCOY: The creature leading you a merry chase, Mister Sulu?
SULU: The creature?
MCCOY: Or whatever it is that's killing the crewmen. Perhaps I can help. Fill me in.

It's a curious bit of writing, because the audience has known for so long that it's a creature that Sulu's reply halts us in our tracks and reminds us that they don't even know that yet. They are so far behind they're just looking for "an imposter". It's not exactly cutting edge plotting, but I'm interested by the parallel movement of what the crew knows versus what we know, and in this moment even the creature forgets how much they know! That's kind of cool in a meta way, slipping up by telling Sulu something we know (so we won't react when the creature says it) but that Sulu doesn't know, so we only react *when Sulu does*. Neat trick, that.

Anyhow, it's a pretty damn good first episode considering as a kid I hated seeing the corpses and the salt monster.

@Peter G.

Nice review. Just happened to be thinking about The Man Trap yesterday. It begins the whole Trek-archaeology linkage. Seems that there's always a lone investigator at work a gajillion miles from nowhere trying to figure out some dead alien civilization. This one was a mixture of Stonehenge and Tiwanaku with a soupcon of Achaemenid Persia thrown in.

Then there's Jeanne Bal, with those magically positioned eyes of hers. She really cornered the market on 'unsettling' in the '60s. Brilliant casting.

I give it 3 stars. Always fun for me to watch when it's on TV.

Jammer says it was something of a mystery as to why this episode aired first, rather than "Where No Man Has Gone Before". I don't think anyone mentioned what I will, but if someone did and I missed it, as Bones said in Man Trap, "Lord, forgive me".

Various sites and webpages say the reason why Man Trap aired first rather than Where No Man is because those in charge thought Man Trap had the best action-focused storyline, had a mystery angle, best featured a strange new world, and highlighted the transporter the best. In essence, they thought it was the most Star Trekian episode they had to date in order to hook viewers, choosing from those two plus Corbomite Maneuver, Charlie X and Mudd's Women, also The Naked Time.

That's from https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Man_Trap_(episode) which mentions the book "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story". I also got some info from some other webpages on the topic.

And now that I'm done writing, I'm going to go eat some salt and vinegar potato chips.

Ok. I am very very old, so I saw TOS the very first time it ran. On an old RCA cathode-ray tube black and white TV that was a bit larger than s cubic foot and weighed ovef 4000 pounds. I exaggerate only slightly. I have seen all the episodes at least a few times since but not for a lot of years. Thought I would look the seies over one more time and see which shows I still loved, which ones I still hated, and most interestingly which ones changed in my estimation over the 50+ years, and why.
This is one that has not changed much. 2.5 stars is about 0.873 too many. I am not judging by the special-effects budgets - some shows were amazing for a TV production at the time. No, I am looking at writing, characterization, and acting. And not a ton of that in this episode. Didn’t like it much (especially in comparison to what was to come) in 1965; no fonder in 2022. Pity.

Yes sheeple I'm doing a rum Havan Club fueled Zizek deep dive.

Here his thoughts on race on TOS. Amazeballs! Seriously, I'm laughing all the time.
It's like watching a canon ball flying through a chinashop. :)

https://zizekpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/an-interview-with-slavoj-zizek-star-trek-and-the-interpretativism-of-race/

@Booming
Followed the Zizek link. He's certainly sure of himself and was rather funny at points. Thanks for suggesting it.
Mr. Boma from The Galileo Seven is one of my favorite figures from TOS. He's the gifted, rational being dragged down by the incompetence of those who happen to outrank him. Not sure Zizek has Boma's significance pegged right, but it was funny hearing again and again from Zizek that Boma was "the geologist."

Boma's "I'm sick and tired of this machine" is one of the all time great lines from TOS. I think about it often.

@Sigh2000
Yeah, he is interesting. It's a little hit and miss with him but that's probably true for all great thinkers. I found the perverts guide to ideology insightful. For example the point that modern riots are not real rebellions against the system but an affirmation of it because the people aren't burning down representations of the state or system. No, they try to get consumer goods in the only way poor people can get them. Illegally. Which means that even the people who are treated like they have no value, have completely internalized the ideological foundations of consumer society. But there is many more stuff that's amusing and illuminating like the shark in Jaws being a representation of Jews.

The interview itself made me laugh because Zizek didn't even pretend that it means more to him than it actually does. Interviews are super fake and uninteresting, they are essentially a two fold advertisement. For the publication to say "look we have this person" and for the famous person because they can answer a few easy questions and get free airtime/exposure. I would say 95% of interviews, maybe even more, are complete trash. Zizek tries to challenge the interviewer to make it interesting but the interviewer fails pretty much completely. :)

I’ve always found this episode to be entertaining but not great. Kind of weird to think this is the episode they chose to premiere with.

Later in the series, we would have a forcible Vulcan mind meld as a better way to interrogate an uncooperative Crater than "truth serum," but I assume that idea didn't even exist when this script was written, and of course, the whole point was to have the faux McCoy have to pretend to be willing to administer it.

But either one seems a little out of line with the usual idealized portrayal of Federation values.

The salt sucking alien idea was good, but 1st episode and already the romantic bullshit! And Nancy didn't look that much better than the dumb ape costume. Could have done much better.

Though hindsight allows us to make better choices now, when I put myself in place of a 1966 NBC exec, I, too, probably would have chosen The Man Trap to lead off. As @Shrantastic quoted, "those in charge thought Man Trap had the best action-focused storyline, had a mystery angle, best featured a strange new world, and highlighted the transporter the best" -- plus it had a monster like The Outer Limits and Lost In Space so often did at that time.

Furthermore, with McCoy in its spotlight, The Man Trap gave Kelley, the person with arguably the most acting chops of the cast, a chance to start things well. And he does, bringing McCoy to life in much the same form we would see for decades to come. By contrast, the Spock character was as yet ill-defined, still being fleshed out in the early episodes. Does he bark commands? "Deflectors full intensiTAY." Does he get on others when they shout? "Quite unnecessary to raise your voice, Mister Bailey." Are emotions unfamiliar to him? "Ah, yes. One of your Earth emotions." Or, does he sometimes express them? "My mother. I could never tell her I loved her."

So, due to late sfx for Corbomite, and a process of elimination, we're left with a salt vampire, one so scary looking even Trelane would later be fascinated. The Man Trap plods along at what was a fairly common slow pace for the period, punctuated by a few especially intense moments. The musical score and cues that would later become TOS standard are thin, making some scenes feel a bit empty. A first-time viewer of TOS would miss the great things to follow if they judged the series based solely on this early episode.

That animated plant was clearly a gloved hand. Maybe it was Thing at a drag party.

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls058233287/


Above is the link to the actual PRODUCTION order of TOS which is how, to my mind, should have been reviewed. Don't get me wrong I love the reviews whether I disagree or not - but it's the PRODUCTION order which is how it should be watched. And if I may add without too much controversy...the remastered versions are the TOPS!

I think it killed the professor because it felt that the humans could break him and turn him into a snitch via a truth serum etc. But the episode is strange in that its apparent telepathy could pick up the nuances of human behavior and not simply resort to requesting salt peaceably. One should perhaps assume that this particular creature was among its kind .... a nutjob.

This episode will always have a special place in my heart. It was one of the first episodes I can remember seeing when I was a kid watching the show in syndication, and as such it holds a bit of nostalgic power over me. Rewatching it as an adult now, I’m pretty confident that that nostalgia isn’t coloring my assessment of it. What I’m seeing is a fairly average episode by TOS standards, with some major plot/story issues salvaged remarkably by some great character interplay. The good outweighs the bad overall, but only by a thin margin. I’d say on a four star rating system, 2.5 is about right.
It really is a shame that the plot elements surrounding the salt creature were so sloppy, all these decades later those scripting holes sadly drag down what is otherwise a very strong character introduction to the show. Within the first few minutes we get a brief interaction between Kirk and McCoy that manages to deliver a massive amount of characterization, both as individuals and in terms of their relationship to each other. And most importantly both guys come across as likable and relatable right out of the gate. Pretty fantastic work in my opinion. I’d add that the remainder of the crew get similarly strong moments throughout the episode as well, Spock and uhura, sulu and rand, as an introductory episode it’s quite effective at telling us who these people are, even if some of the characters were still a work in progress(Spock for example).

But the loose plotting around the creature does some damage unfortunately. Taken on its own terms, The Man Trap makes little sense if you start to really examine it. The creature could have just, you know, asked for some salt. End of adventure. The episode needed to do a much better job of explaining why the threat this creature posed was so implacable that it couldn’t be reasoned with and had to be killed. But as it stands we’re left asking a series of basic questions about its motivations and mental capabilities that simply never get a satisfactory answer. My interpretation of the salt monster was always that it was more driven by instinct than actual reason. It was more like a snake charmer than a shape shifter, somehow mesmerizing its prey into seeing familiar or even enticing things. In that sense, when the creature speaks Swahili to uhura for example, it’s actually uhura essentially speaking Swahili to herself, as a predator the salt creature somehow manipulates people into seeing what they want or what makes them most comfortable, but the creature isn’t *creating* these perceptions so much as facilitating them on a base level.

HOWEVER…

This is me doing the legwork and rationalization that the script really should have done for itself. The creature clearly has some semblance of strategic intelligence displayed in the episode, so it’s very difficult to understand why it would choose the more difficult path of going on a killing spree rather than requesting or even manipulating help. Perhaps as a cautionary tale for current writers, The Man Trap has some added historical value: whatever you put out there is going to be dissected for decades to come, better make sure it makes sense.
In any event, as a first episode of TOS The Man Trap works fairly well, particularly if you consider the historical context behind it. I give TOS a lot more leeway in terms of its rough edges than I do later series, whether that’s fair or not is, of course, debatable. But I always liken TOS to Ancient Greek philosophy: if you measure the ideas of antiquity by modern scientific standards, they’re obviously really raw, even childish. But taken in historical context, they’re incredible, I mean the atomists tacitly proposed the multiverse concept for crying out loud. TOS gets a similar treatment from me, which makes plot holes much less aggravating, even if still frustrating.

@Idh2023:

Great analysis... and by the way, thank you for starting this series of reviews which really encouraged me to rewatch and review some of these TOS episodes.

I think the storyline itself holds together quite well here. What I find quite unusual is the approach that during most of the episode’s time, the viewer knows more than the characters: right from the start we see the creature morph into different persons, we know what is going on long before the crew do, and it’s surprising that this doesn’t hurt the mystery or make the story boring.

However, I totally agree with your criticism concerning the concept of the creature. It is somewhat half-baked. On the one hand, I can see the writers’ intention of doing something more intelligent than just showing an ugly monster on the rampage, and I think they did a reasonably good job – we’re shown the creature’s point of view as well as its background, and although I agree that much of this would have needed more explaining, I think the episode deserves some credit for at least attempting it instead of just doing an ordinary “Eek, a monster – kill it!” story. I’d even point out that it’s extremely and unusually clever that we don’t get to see the monster’s true form before the very end.

On the other hand, however, the episode does indeed fall back into the models and mechanisms of ordinary TV monster stories when it ultimately fails to explain the creature’s motivations and needs. My take is that while it was still down on the planet, it killed because it needed the salt, and once it was on the ship, it killed because it got more and more pushed into a corner – as you said, like an animal driven by its instincts. It is incontrovertibly dangerous; its abilities to change its shape and to paralyze its victims make it almost impossible to defend oneself, even with a weapon. But after killing Crater, it can’t survive alone on the planet either, and this creature being the last, its kind will inevitably become extinct.

With that in mind, I find it especially bitter and tragic that it is McCoy – the humanitarian, the doctor – who finally kills the creature in order to save Kirk’s life. Note that when he says “Lord forgive me!”, he knows that, despite her appearance, it’s not Nancy he’s firing at. It’s an uncharacteristically dark ending which I really appreciate.

@lannion

I’ve been doing a little walk down trek memory lane myself, every so often I rewatch TOS, and I’m always surprised just how much more there is under the surface than I initially realized.

But, yeah, The Man Trap. It’s a tough one. It carries a disproportional amount of weight in the series being the debut episode, so it probably gets more attention and analysis than was originally intended for what is essentially a twilight zone/outer limits style retro sci-fi monster jam. It would have been nice if they’d known how big Star Trek would be and had taken a bit more care with these early episodes, but alas, I’ll just have to bite my knuckles and yearn for more salt.

Even as a kid who watched Star Trek, I never got the comparison with the buffalo. They were not rare in the 60s. Our own zoo had a herd of them. Yet the episode brings them up as though there are none in existence.

Bison are far more numerous today because of breeding programs, but they were all but wiped out of existence in the 19th century, and certainly remain far below the tens of millions that once existed.

Unlike the creature, bison were never reduced to one surviving animal. They were decimated by an outside force, Europeans. The creatures on the planet faced no such decimation. They were doomed to natural extermination because their planet could no longer sustain them.

While I think the question of the right to survive is an interesting one, it's not a point that could be made in the creature's favor. Helping it to survive is merely prolonging the inevitable. The creature was technically extinct even before Crater encountered it.

@winnie

That’s a fair point, but I think the idea is more about the tragedy of it all. There’s an inherent pathos involved in the last of these salt creatures, desperate for survival, yet having to be hunted down and destroyed. It doesn’t track as an apples to apples comparison to the buffalo, but it still speaks to the built-in sadness of seeing a species driven to extinction. And while bison weren’t extinct in the 60s, I think the episode was making a sci-fi future predictive leap that they were going to be extinct by the 23rd century. Maybe as a sort of cautionary message.

Whenever the topic of the bison comes up in the media, it's generally the horrible image of them being slaughtered to the point of extinction. Even at that, the slaughter doesn't seem to be the point of contention. It was the waste left behind which appalls people.

Bison by nature, are bad tempered. I saw one ram a car in Yellowstone a couple of years ago. The car was right ahead of us on the road. The people in it did nothing to antagonize the animals. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

By virtue of their very nature, bison would tend to cause disease. There's a herd of them in an animal reserve here in our state. It's not unheard of for them to defecate in their own watering hole, much less in the space leading to it.

In the same reserve, they are given ample space to roam. Even at that, anyone can tell where they've been because the ground is trampled and squashed to bits.

Now this is a herd of around 40 animals. In terms of millions, what kind of devastation would have been done to the environment? I think it would have been too immense to even imagine. I'm not in favor of massive slaughter. It does surprise me, however, that nature didn't step in to cull this massive onslaught of buffalo. Maybe that was going on. No one did autopsies on the animals to find out how so many could be killed so easily.

I never liked this episode, but in view of the excellent discussion surrounding it, I am gaining a certain respect for it. I do think it's sloppy because it has a lot of loose ends that make no sense. However this was the 60s and it was a 45 minute episode where our heroes are supposed to win, and they did.

Maybe the tragedy here is that extinction can be prevented if handled the right way. The bison had help that came in time and made it. Help came too late for the creatures on the planet and nothing would stop the extinction.

@ Winnie,

"It does surprise me, however, that nature didn't step in to cull this massive onslaught of buffalo."

Humans are part of nature...

@ Peter G.

"Humans are part of nature..."

If you want to look at it that way, that's fine. There are arguments out there for both sides.

I don't know of anyone calling the decimation of the buffalo a "natural event". I certainly don't view it as such.

@winnie
I think you can make a case that humans are an invasive species pretty much everywhere, and normally when an invasive species first meets a new ecosystem the initial effects are pretty devastating. This is maybe the best way to view the near total destruction of the buffalo in the 18th-19th century, as one of many cataclysmic biological shifts caused by the sudden joining of the “old” and “new” worlds. Sadly, native Americans also could be seen as caught up in that destructive process.

@ldh2023
Yes, you can make a case for humans being an invasive species. You can also make an argument that they are not an invasive species. Yes, they can wreak havoc with ecosystems, have exterminated and can exterminate plants and animals.

There is no doubt in my mind that some ecosystems were destroyed by the buffalo themselves. A herd covering three whole states cannot be a good thing. Does it make them an invasive species? I don't think so.

While it could be assumed that buffalo were extinct in the 23rd century, it can also be said that Crater was the only one who said it, and his argument defending the creature was a faulty.

JAMMER Why have you NEVER reviewed The Cage?? I just realized your site is incomplete without it..has anyone else noticed? Why is that Jammer??

QUESTION WHY did the creature kill Crater?? Wasn't that out of character since it had kept it alive all that time and Crater refused to help reveal its identity on the qhennthey were on the Enterprise and Crater helped knock out Spock apparently and the creature could have just eaten any other Enterprise crew member instead? So why kill its one ally? Am I wrong or was that inconsistent? Any thoughts? Tje creature was desperate and thought Crater could be compromised with truth serum maybe?

Wow, just read through 15 years of comments, this is my second on these TOS threads. I don't understand how Trelane knew about Nancy? Can someone please fill me in. This episode has shape shifted my perception of what to think of it over the years. The beginning scenes (on the planet) are crisply directed for the audience to first be surprised by, and soon figure out, why the men see a different woman, based on their own prurient instincts. But not quite. Kirk sees a Nancy with graying hair, while McCoy sees a younger Nancy like he once knew. SO, the monster can appear individually the same to everyone at the same time, such as in the conference room. OR, the monster can appear to potential salt sucking succubus victims as whom the victim is attracted to. BUT..... why then did Yeoman Rand see Greene when the monster followed her with the salt shaker? Shouldn't the monster have pretended to be the Captain? Or did Yeoman Rand have the hots for Greene all along? Is this the only episode where celery was consumed, or was that just a plot device for monster food to picque the audience's attention?

It's just a television show. OK? That's all. There is no transporter and there is no auxiliary, there's no goddamn ship! You got it?

But more recently, I note the subtle humor of the title as it relates to real life where men see the same woman differently as either desirable or succubus, or perhaps in their experience first desirable then later a succubus. Yeah, I've experienced the latter, many times. But of course, the episode was written by men. LOL. Art imitating life.

I'm starting out with TOS after finishing TNG and it's very interesting to see the different sensibilities and cultural shifts from one series to the other. Plotwise this one seems to me a product of the 60's monster craze (like others already pointed out above), not all that intriguing in itself, but I've learned with TNG to give a lot of episodes "of room" for writers and actors to find their footing.

As always I'll be reading the reviews and commentaries here after each episode. It's hard to find anything new to comment in 2023 but I'll try.

I’m surprised that no one has mentioned Stanley Weinbaum’s “A Martian Odyssey”, from way back in 1934, which also contained a creature that could read minds and appear as something different to each person. One of the first great science fiction short stories. Highly recommended.

I just got through watching the Man Trap for the first time in many years. One thing I noticed is that the Enterprise appears to have more than one doctor, and also has medics as well. Uhura pages them during the episode.

I didn't think the episode was awful, just very dated. It would have been more interesting if it had taken a different approach than comparing the buffalo to this creature as the last of its kind. It didn't mean anything to me as a young kid watching Star Trek, and makes even less sense now since buffalo were not extinct but on their way to a comeback then and are in great numbers today. It would have made more sense to me if the episode used global warming as the reason for the creature's demise. Kirk talks about the planet being hot.

Nancy Crater; I know this was an early episode, but I didn't see her as anyone McCoy would be remotely interested in. I was also a little confused about how old she was to begin with. McCoy hadn't been with her for 10 years and from what I gather, she was supposed to be 25 when they parted company? Ten years later she's bulky looking and gray haired? She'd only be 35 or so when the episode aired. Why not give McCoy a little credit and get a prettier and certainly more intelligent actress to play the part?

For as primitive as this alien appeared, it certainly had quite a few sophisticated tactics. It would have been nice to know why this alien would need to shapeshift, or how it's able to mesmerize, read minds and become different illusions to people at the same time.

As silly as it was for Yeoman Rand to bring Sulu lunch on a tray, I really did enjoy the interaction between them. Also loved the part of the scene where the plant reacted so violently to the creature aka Crewman Green.

There are some scenes with extremely slow pacing. but this was the 60s. I can agree with 2.5 stars for this episode. It's too bad the story was tightened up. This could have been a great episode.

I've seen the word, "obsession", used to describe the salt vampire's need for salt. After watching the episode again, I don't think it's obsession. The vampire is an addict. Crater is the dealer who maintains control.

One other thing I wanted to say about this episode is the vampire reminds me of the astronaut depiction by the Nazca people in South America. They also were a civilization who disappeared.