"That Which Survives". So glad that TOS season 3 was spared the Batman fad that took out Lost in Space, Man From UNCLE, et al... but more on "utility belts" later, hehehehe!
There's a couple of neat ideas in a story that also has a few too many conveniences, but the whole package is not unsatisfying.
The mystery element works pretty well, only the reveal of the computer controlling it all - with duplicates of one image - is stretching things (budget limitations mostly, I'd suspect.)
The opening by having the actors all stand on an elevated platform that's shaken is pretty good.
So is the depth of field filming to shroud the shiny glitter bits behind characters - and, as always, the director and set designers had a field day with the color wheel, like this one only not driven by JavaScipt as much:
https://paletton.com/
It's fun to think of Lt Uhura reaching out to each security lead in each section before she reports back to Spock.
Spock is unusually snark-driven in this episode. Maybe the writer was trying to show Spock countering anxiety over such a situation, but it doesn't quite work.
Lt Radha is suggested to be Hindi. But how to give more time to any of the crew that would blend in with the story's subplots? Or another episode... or a bunch of expanded universe works... so this story does, in with everything else, introduce new characters who do get more use later on. That never hurts.
Also, how can Losira be projected 997-point-whatever light years away? Yes, the Kalandan technology was able to push the ship that far away, but it doesn't directly follow that they can beam interactive signals that far out*. Shhh, don't think into this too much, this is still season 3 and it's not bein' renewed. There surely would be some limits, but in LTBYLB, they traverse half the galaxy then back again far quicker.
* the story describes a "molecular transporter", as much as Spock could describe it as. The door opening/closing as described by others suggests a dimensional rift/portal of some kind, which makes more sense as Losira pops up everywhere but is not recognized by any tricorder or instrument as a life form as such.
The effect of Losira disappearing is not just novel for late season 3 but is fantastic in its own right. Creeped me out as a kid and holds up well, how they horizontally squish the image and have the resultant line shrink out. And it's done at the perfect speed. Possibly to suggest she somehow is a computer generated image, if not CRT cathode tube turning off? Not sure, but it works.
Losira has her bellybutton covered, oh noes!!!!!!!!! In a season where Droxine and a buncha others already had shown theirs, oh noes!!!!! If this were "The New Laugh-In" (1978, ruh-huh!), they'd freeze-frame on the navel and have pool and/or deep sea divers climbing out of it, or something.
Along with Losira popping up everywhere, why she disappears is also telling - she either finishes her task or is "scared away". Either scared, or the projecting computer only has enough power for limited projections for any given time.
Scotty having to remind Spock that he doesn't need a cuckoo clock is on point, what with the vocal distraction keeping him from doing the useless thing of, you know, saving the ship and all.
Why does McCoy say they were led to the cave? They were following the only potential of food and water based on tricorder readings, if not where they believed Losira was coming from. She wasn't wriggling her index finger saying "Hiya honey, we've got some tater tots n' burgers over here for ya, sugar!" or anything. Could be character-driven paranoia seeping in, given McCoy's nature.
Why does Kirk ask if there are men on this planet and then asks if she's lonely? Kirk, as you'll discover, she's not out for romance, and why not leave it at "are there others on this planet?", for which she does answer.
Why the computer had to create duplicates of Losira - was it really cheaper to synchronize tripled up copies of her visage? Good direction definitely helped as our remaining heroes were no longer safe... Also consider, the Kalandan computer is impressive as it tinkles up multiple units as parallel force. It doesn't just re-send the same one in serial fashion. The Borg could learn more from the Kalandans, that's for sure...
But the best bit is Losira's speech:
LOSIRA [on screen]: My fellow Kalandans, welcome. A disease has destroyed us. Beware of it. After your long journey, I'm sorry to give you only a recorded welcome, but we who have guarded the outpost for you will be dead by the time you take possession of this planet. I am the last of our advanced force left alive. Too late the physicians discovered the cause of this sickness that kills us. In creating this planet, we have accidentally produced a deadly organism. I have awaited the regular supply ship from home for medical assistance, but I doubt now whether it will arrive in time. I will set the outpost controls on automatic. The computer will selectively defend against all life forms but our own. My fellow Kalandans, I, Losira, wish you well.
MCCOY: The previous ships probably spread the disease all through their people. The supply ship that she was waiting for never came. All these thousands of years, she's been waiting to greet people who were dead.
SPOCK: To do the job of defence, the computer projected a replica of the only image available. Losira's.
KIRK: The computer was too perfect. It projected so much of Losira's personality into the replica that it felt regret, guilt, at killing. That bought us the time we needed to destroy it. She must have been a remarkable woman.
MCCOY: And beautiful.
SPOCK: Beauty is transitory, Doctor. However, she was evidently highly intelligent.
Poetic. Ouch. A shame Losira didn't include the known research more deeply to expedite finding a cure from.
But then, recalling earlier in the episode now that I've had my fifth cup of coffee:
MCCOY: Sulu's picked up an organism that's almost a virus, like a plant parasite. It's the nearest biological form of life I can find.
Ouch, but poetic. The equipment readout being what it is created to find prevailing, whatever killed the Kalandans mimicked what set off the tricorder as a "plant parasite", but was clearly far more.
Shades of the Tarellians from TNG's "Haven", only TNG's referred-to species were hunted down and murdered. For the Kalandans, they just offed themselves by accident, oops, and thankfully the biological fritter didn't attack any other species (not zoonotic, but there was no sign of any life, we don't know if the Kalandans had brought over any animals or not). But it's interesting, how much of the plot is devoted to the exploration leading to this reveal, solely from the part of the crew. But there are no historians and likely no logs left by any Kalandan, so the Federation will never know. And that's as poignant as it is possible. A very grim ending, for which season 3 often has quite a few of - in one form or another.
Plus, Spock - with snark mode turned off - makes a good comment about beauty. All in all, it's a fair ending, just not as good as one might have wanted.
At the same time, wouldn't other Kalandan technicians or builders be used just like Losira? And why project only three copies, not six or twelve and make it easier? How limited was the computer system, or of their entire computer system that still worked, only enough electric and processing power existed for these three copies?
If nothing else, the planet - once the remaining systems are disabled - could be rendered usable as class C or whatever. Is this the first planet that the crew find that is synthetic? (Well, second, if you count "Shore Leave", but by now the planetary designation chart would have been more formalized.)
All in all, 6.75 as a score somehow fits. The show misses a few marks
but wins a few back, thanks in part to keeping the tension and mystery going as long as it had before telling the how/why, which is where it starts to waver. But I do wonder if that really is the point, leaving it as much a mystery for the audience as it had Kirk and crew. Does the story work enough on its own? I'd say "yes", but just about. Season 3 did better with ease.
