Obsession: Season 2 Episode 13 (What did you think?)

[Tallifer]

This was a compelling story for me, since it seemed like a retelling of Captain Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick.

The story kept changing: at times Kirk seemed obviously wrongheaded and overtaken by his quest to destroy the thing; at other times he is vindicated; in the end he succeeds which is unsurprising given the typical class trek plot, but surprising considering the source story, Moby Dick.

I was disappointed that we never found out very much about the creature: if it was intelligent as Kirk maintained it was, then presumably it had more motives than hunger and spawning.

 

[CoveTom]

I, too, like the episode. But while certain elements of it bear a resemblance to Moby Dick, we have to remember that it's most definitely not the same story. In this case, Kirk was right from the beginning. He might have been a bit over the top, and he should have been more open and forthright with his senior officers early on, but his essential feeling that this creature needed to be dealt with because of its ability to travel from planet to planet was correct.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I like this one too. It gives us some nice Kirk backstory, and some excitement. Shatner sounds like he has a cold though.

Watch the fistfight at the end, I think Shatner was wearing two communicators. One in the usual spot, the other tucked in his pants (in the back). When he fights Garrovick, the communicator falls off and is in the sand. He gets up, you can see the outline in his waistband. Then he pulls it out to call the Enterprise, and it takes him a second or two to get the communicator out. There were no cuts in the sequence. Funny how they were prepared and gave Shatner a backup prop.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

I love this episode. "Dikoronium" is such a great word!

 

[Ssosmcin]

However, the first few minutes make me laugh. Kirk and Spock are talking about the ore and Spock says:

"We won't be able to break it, Captain. I'll phaser off a specimen."

Then he fires...and breaks it.

Spock is apparently insane.

 

[Wingsley]

One of TOS' best outings.

Kirk literally confronts a demon from his past. And monsters like this come in forms... Do you know the biggest monster of them all? Guilt.

I thought it was a great character study of James T. Kirk, with great moments for Spock, McCoy and even Garrovick. That was a very 60's moment when Kirk sounded battlestations and Garrovick bounded out of his quarters. The imagery, music and everything else was perfect.

 

[Timo]

I was disappointed that we never found out very much about the creature: if it was intelligent as Kirk maintained it was, then presumably it had more motives than hunger and spawning.

It seems that Kirk takes Spock's announcement about spawning remarkably calmly. If he always thought the creature was a spawning-capable lifeform, it wouldn't make sense to keep its existence secret from Starfleet, or for Starfleet to keep its existence secret from its field personnel. Yet from the ignorant reactions of our heroes, it sounds like that's exactly what happened...

That is, a creature capable of spawning would in all likelihood already have spawned; there should exist an entire species of multiple dikironium cloud creatures in the galaxy, not just one individual. The odds of Starfleet meeting more of them should thus be very high, and demanding of full disclosure after the Farragut incident.

The Doomsday Machine and the Space Amoeba take Starfleet by surprise because apparently these monsters have not been encountered before. Yet there seems to exist a wealth of data on the Dikironium Cloud - but only Kirk is privy to it, and doesn't seem willing to divulge his information to his own crew. That's downright insane, and not really justifiable by "guilt" or "obsession".

Really, by killing the creature here without studying it further, Kirk did not help the galaxy in the slightest. He endangered it, by making it all the harder to understand and defend against the rest of its ilk. The episode makes it sound as if Kirk's obsession only postponed the rendezvous with the Yorktown, threatened to stall the career of one redshirt, and cost the lives of a few more, but all of this was excused because of the good cause. Yet the cause was fundamentally evil: Kirk worked to damage the UFP and to endanger trillions of lives that otherwise would not have been in jeopardy.

Kirk's bacon was probably barely saved by Spock who could at least deliver a report on how to scan for the creature.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

I never got the impression that Kirk thought about the Vampire Cloud Creature's reproduction until Spock brought it up. Kirk thought it was an intelligence, though obviously not a conventional corporeal lifeform.

 

[Timo]

That's quite possible: taking alarming news calmly is a Kirk trademark.

However, once Kirk learned the creature might spawn, and thus apparently was an entire species rather than a freak individual, the mission ought to have changed from one of destruction to one of careful study and Fleet-wide awareness campaign. Had the spawning ability been known for decades, Kirk and Starfleet would share the blame; now it falls on Kirk's shoulders alone...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ssosmcin]

Well, to be fair, every contact with the creature is fatal. They would have to capture and contain the cloud in order to learn about it. I'm sure Starfleet frowns on imprisoning intelligent beings for study. It was a predator; all it seems to do is hunt and kill to feed, then have babies, and it was about to reproduce. And those babies would go out and do the same thing, threatening who knows how many lives. I'm sure the red shirt body count, Kirk's logs and the back up history of the Farragut gave him plenty of ass coverage. And who's to say this was the only gas creature out there? Kirk could have just killed one pregnant gas bag.

Besides, stopping to chat with a giant human-killing monster is a 24th century ideal, something Picard had done. Kirk didn't think to talk to the Horta, Spock did. Until then, he wanted it dead. Kirk didn't think to talk to the Salt Vampire. Kirk didn't initially think to talk to the companion. Kirk wasn't interested in talking to the Gorn. Or the things on Deneva. That's not what he does. If they established or seemed capable of dialog, then Kirk would rather avoid conflict and talk it out. However, Kirk's bottom line is the safety of the Federation, his ship and his crew. Since he wasn't reprimanded for any of those other incidents, I would say Upper Management is on his side here.

 

[Expo67]

Definately one of the best episodes of the series. It also introduced members of the Garrovick family, who would also play a part in future Star trek adventures. Starship Exeter being one of them.

Jim Kirk almost went down that same path of self-destruction that Matthew Decker, and later Ron Tracey, took. I think he was wrong in relieving Ensign Garrovick. Who the hell wouldn't freeze at the sight of a life form like the cloud creature? It was an understandable and normal reaction.

 

[Timo]

Freezing when facing the enemy is not okay in the average military (even though it happens a lot). The enemy there may always look the same, for example wearing the same foreign uniform, or then he or she may look surprising or even frightening. For Starfleet, the enemy will look surprising or frightening more often than not. Starfleet gunslingers thus should be trained not to freeze even if Bozo the Clown or a gas cloud smelling of roses is the adversary of the day...

Garrovick freezing may have been natural (although why would a simple cloud incite fear or other uncertainty in him?), but Kirk could still have expected more of him than mere natural behavior.

However, Kirk's bottom line is the safety of the Federation, his ship and his crew. Since he wasn't reprimanded for any of those other incidents, I would say Upper Management is on his side here.

Save for the Deneva pancakes, all of the other menaces were known to be one-offs or limited populations. And Kirk did extensively study the pancakes in order to find a weakness that could be exploited not just to save Deneva or Spock, but the Federation. He also stopped to study the Space Amoeba, although there was very little explicit analysis conducted on the Doomsday Machine due to all the internecine fighting between the Starfleet parties. A second encounter with those creatures would probably end favorably for the Federation.

Whether the same holds true for the Dikironium Cloud is the point of contest here. Kirk tried out a couple of destruction techniques and found out one that worked, which should earn him points (even if human bait plus overkill explosive isn't the easiest thing to arrange in the usual case). But the cloud was demonstrated to be highly mobile and difficult to detect, and some sort of understanding of its motivations and predictive modeling of its behavior would thus have been essential - more essential than the act of getting rid of this one individual.

Will the next skipper be better equipped to deal with such a cloud than Kirk was? He or she will know how to scan, thanks to Spock's efforts, and how to bait and kill, thanks to Kirk's. It will also be known that the creature doesn't attack indiscriminately, that it works sneakily and evasively, and thus the next skipper may be able to safely conduct the behavioral study that Starfleet needs. So Kirk probably shouldn't be crucified outright. But if he ever wants his organization to work along the grandiose lines he suggests in "Immunity Syndrome", acting as "galactic antibodies", he better recommend somebody like Picard for his successor.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[plynch]

Garrovick freezing may have been natural (although why would a simple cloud incite fear or other uncertainty in him?), but Kirk could still have expected more of him than mere natural behavior.

Timo Saloniemi

1. We and other animals often do freeze when prevented with a new/odd thing, not just frightening. The reasoning usually goes that new/odd MIGHT be dangerous, and it is good to gather data and avoid be detected by movement.

2. I like that you sign your real name at the bottom of posts. The anonymity of posters/commenters all throughout the blogosphere leads to a lot of nastiness.