“One of Our Planets Is Missing”

A very Trekkian episode on connecting with a totally alien life form, not killing it but instead communicating with it and averting disaster. There are a lot of farfetched operations that arbitrarily work, but nothing too unusual for TOS Trek. Very much like "The Immunity Syndrome" except that they believe the entity may be intelligent and worth an attempt at communication. There is also a strong sci-fi component of being inside a living entity as a foreign object and trying to stay alive.

Kirk shows that even though he was set on trying to kill the object and sacrifice his own ship, he can try every option, although the episode gives the impression that he cut it pretty close with losing the opportunity to self-destruct at the right moment.

We have to assume the cloud can recognize when planets have life forms on them and to not consume them. This is decent procedural problem-solving sci-fi with all key characters contributing something including the alien who replaces Chekov, Lt. Arex.

2.5*

Yes, a decent science fiction episode. It was interesting in a weird way to see the Enterprise stuck inside what looked so much like an intestine. I did start to zone out in the waves of technobabble with the matter/antimatter /engineering issues, but that's just Trek being Trek. The crew working together to problem-solve reminded me of PIC season 3, episode 4 , No Win Scenario--where everyone works together to save the Titan from drifting down the gravity well. Of course, in TAS they are trying to save the planet as well as themselves, and I kept mentally looking for scenes that weren't there: Probably due to time constraints of the 24 minutes, they could not fit in the heart-rending planetary evacuation stuff that would have added dimension and texture. Spock communicating with the cloud reminded me of him mind-melding with the Horta in the TOS episode Devil in the Dark.

I share JammerMs appreciation of this episode’s humanity and sophistication. It exemplifies the strength of TAS in treating its family audience with intelligence. There’s none of the stupidity that sometimes holds back Lower Decks. And while Prodigy exists on a similar plane of sophistication to TAS, TAS accomplishes the rare feat of telling a kiddie-accessible story through adult characters rather than through the kids of Prodigy, which takes a while to give us a more adult frame.

That said, I think 3 stars is fair for this one. It’s good but not super memorable except for the hands-out mind meld scene and thoughtful resolution. The latter recalls the best of season one TOS, before Star Trek began a decades long slide into more conventional “us vs. aliens” storytelling. (Perfected, ironically, during the TNG era of giving hostile aliens ever more-grotesque makeup prosthetics.)

Whatever. Just like the first episode, It has an interesting villain, but again you need more than that. This one is a better story in a plot and slightly more interesting.

Nothing original, but I like this episode more than "Yesteryear". Classic, almost hard, SF with interesting, non-humanoid alien (and, regrettably, with telepathy... i mean... mind meld too). Somehow resambles TMP, Hoyle's "The Black Hole" and Silverberg's "The Man in the Maze" ending, simultaneously.

Erratum: Hoyle's "The Black Cloud"

@Q How is this episode not original? The lifeform alone is very original, isn't it??

@Leif

Do you know mentioned Hoyle's novel? ;) But, ok, for Star Trek standards (and I write that as almost fanatical Treker) it is original, far from humanoid-of-the-week trope.

Yay! Voyager copied this, TWICE. "The Cloud", and that monster-hunter epizode, forgot the name.

Unsurprizingly, the original is better then both, even with half the run-time.

3.5/4 stars.

Classic Trek here. I am very impressed at how mature the first three episodes of this series are. The debate on whether it's worth risking planet wide panic by informing them of the cloud's approach. The debate about trying to communicate with the Cloud. The decision to kill it even if it is intelligent if communication fails.

Note how the impending doom of Manilles is handled here. The situation is both grim and tense, but there are no scenes of tears or histrionics. No group hug at the end. These characters are highly trained, experienced, mature adults. Now imagine if this episode had been produced in the modern era.

Another aspect I like is that the science talk doesn't sound like technobabble. It actually sounds like the characters are using science instead of just spouting a bunch of mumbo jumbo capped off by an easy to understand analogy.

And, hey, a little bit of continuity too, what with the return of Bob Wesley (Ultimate Computer) and Kirk quoting himself (Taste of Armageddon).

In addition to “The Immunity Syndrome,” my favorite Original Series episode, this also owes a lot to “Obsession,” which also featured a sentient gas cloud (which even changed direction on its own like the one here).

Jammer is right in that “One of Our Planets Is Missing” treats its child audience with respect, because I never felt like I was watching a kids’ show at all. The science terms are numerous, but unlike the first episode, here they are pretty easy to follow and understand. Damn those “villi,” right?

I also liked the simplicity here. Intelligent being or not, Kirk is not going to let this cloud harm anyone on Man-titties (it sure sounds like this is how Shatner initially pronounces it, before some poor intern in the studio was given the unenviable task of telling him to cut it out--but I kid). If necessary, he’ll even destroy the Enterprise. In fact, even after they start communicating with the thing, there’s never any question that they’re still going to destroy it if it doesn’t agree to stop what it’s doing. I’d even argue that the gas cloud *only* moves away because it realizes through Spock’s thoughts that it has a proverbial gun to its head, not because it's suddenly embraced a moral code.

The “voice” of the cloud is hokey, but the computer’s attempted translation of its words actually isn’t. You really do believe that either this cloud is struggling to make its thoughts comprehensible to a verbal speaker, or that the translation program is struggling when faced with a clearly alien language system. There’s a certain deliberate care that the writers took in expressing the cloud’s thoughts here, and I really liked it.

Yes, for sure it has an aspect of goofiness, such as this exchange that made me crack up:

Spock -- “I am inside you.”
Cloud -- “Inside? Explain. Within me?”

Heyyyy-ohhh!

There’s also a silly visual where the “force field box” (where do I get one of those?!) is apparently nothing more than a low-rent plastic storage cube like the type you’d find in a science lab. I was expecting something more somehow.

This series is still going through growing pains and trying to find its rhythm. What it really needs is an excuse for William Shatner to *act.* He’s still phoning it in as Kirk’s voice. Kirk isn’t nearly as interesting in this show as he was in The Original Series.

Overall, though, “One of Our Planets Is Missing” is a neat little tale about the dangers of space, but also the rewards and satisfaction that facing those dangers can bring. It’s a message I loved just as much in “The Immunity Syndrome.” This crew has a hardline stance when it comes to threats, but as shown with Spock’s comment at the end, also an adventurous spirit.


Speak Freely:

Spock -- “The brain could be completely destroyed if we convert the entire ship to energy, aimed at the brain’s cortex, and expend the energy in one mortal strike.”
McCoy -- “That sounds like you’re telling us to blow up the ship!”
Spock -- “I believe that is what I just said, Doctor.”


My Grade: B+