The Man Trap...why not provide salt for the creature?

[Timo]

How does that make McCoy a klutz? Maybe nobody was coming in his direction.

But somebody was.

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x21/thereturnofarchons_281.jpg

This TrekCore shot is not the exact one where Kelley pretends he's firing the gun, although it ought to be because that's when Shatner tells his character to. But the blue wide beam never emanates from McCoy's gun, which is bad for our heroes.

How do you come to that conclusion? Is there on screen evidence? It's been awhile since I watched it.

They built working lights into the props: Kirk and Saavik have their phasers emanate a steady light from the topside controls, while McCoy's has a spinning light show that's supposed to indicate Kill and is consistent with how a spinning-light phaser kills Terrell.

Pure speculation. You have no idea what happened or how the phaser settings work or even if phasers have a safety. Besides, McCoy was heavily drugged with a shot of "Space Meth."

Excuses, excuses. But yeah, phasers do have a safety, or else Nona in "A Private Little War" would have figured out how to fire the thing, literally to save her life. It's not as if there would be buttons she would have failed to press.

Did he fire to kill? The creature wasn't vaporized. For example, in The Squire of Gothos, Trelane specifically calls out the phaser settings, and when he selects the kill setting, he vaporizes the Salt Vampire prop. (I still wonder why it was there in the first place).

That's always an interesting question. Stun no doubt can kill the weak - say, the gun that killed Anton Karidian was probably on Stun, as it was grabbed directly from a guard who'd have had no reason to apply Kill. Kill in turn doesn't kill or even stop every opponent automatically, not on the first shot. It's a case of figuring out the dosage if one wants to stun (if one wants to kill, overkill is always the safe way to go).

I very much doubt our heroes in "Man Trap" had their guns set on Stun. But I guess it's possible, and McCoy could even have altered the setting to a milder one when firing at "his beloved". But the creature may have been frail to the extreme.

EDIT: I have to rewatch the episode to see if it was the Salt Vampire prop that Trelane vaporized or if it was another statue.

Can't recall, but it's interesting nevertheless!

Trelane lives on a mobile planet and collects alien stuff. Collecting a Salt Vampire seems to fit the picture. But it's also possible the Salt Vampires are space-traveling aliens who at one time attacked both M-113 and Earth, and Trelane just copied a medieval Earth castle that happened to be pestered by a Salt Vampire at the time of the copying...

Then again, both the creature of "Man Trap" and Trelane's exhibit wear that tattered and torn net, which IMHO is the clothing of a castaway or last survivor, not the fashion choice for regular invasion into a primitive world. But I could be wrong there, too.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[FormerLurker]

Excuses, excuses. But yeah, phasers do have a safety, or else Nona in "A Private Little War" would have figured out how to fire the thing, literally to save her life. It's not as if there would be buttons she would have failed to press.

Are you sure? The trigger for the Phaser One is on the underside, and she kept poking around with the topside dials and whatnot.

 

[Greysun]

Dissecting an animal works better if you kill it first.

At no time have I suggested any mirror universe-type dissections or torture of this thing.

an exercise in futility whether done with McCoy's scalpel or Spock's fingers

Spock has gotten useful intel using mind melds from all kinds of unsavory beings: Nomad, V'ger, Horta, Kelinda the Kelvan, etc. A mind meld would be kinder than slicing and dicing M-113.

Destroying colonies (or in this case, military outposts) is no biggie

Can't agree with that at all. The Federation tends to take outpost/colony destruction very seriously. If it wasn't for the Metrons, the Federation would have likely been at war with the Gorn. We're also talking about deaths of UFP citizens and whether or not to give an attacking alien the benefit of a doubt. Cestus 3 is a relevant case to that topic.

It told a pleasant lie

The only way to know for sure if it were lying or not would be a start a true dialogue with M-113 and offer it what it asked for. Since the meeting ended with Kirk insisting on truth drugs and a continuing hunt, we'll never know if it was lying.

Nor did the Talosians fool the sensors.

Talos 4 was an entire civilization of very advanced telepaths working together as opposed to the lone, starving, M-113 being. My take on M-113's telepathy was that it was only effective within a certain radius. I didn't get the impression it could influence the minds of the bridge crew from all the way down in sickbay or the conference room. After all, in the final scene it would have been handy for M-113 to hypnotize (freeze) all three men in the room to avoid being killed. It's only able to freeze Kirk, it's intended prey, which to me shows a limited mind-clouding ability.
Honestly, if I was a Starfleet captain I would run a sensor sweep of the beam down area while still up in orbit (on every mission), before people on the surface were even aware the ship was up there. It would be practical -
"Are the Craters at home, or at one of their dig sites? Is there a storm moving in? Please scan the area."
"We detect one male human and one sucker-faced reptile, Sir."
"Yikes, what happened to Mrs. Crater? Beam each one of them up to holding cells so we can sort this out."
It would've been a short episode, but much less deadly.

That sort of sentiment is sorta wasted on the already dead, though.

It's the sentiment a Starfleet officer is supposed to have by the time they graduate from the academy - ask questions first and shoot second. That's the sentiment that Crater continually brought up before M-113 was dead. The fact that he was ignored and overruled does not mean the notion is without merit to begin with. That sentiment is one of the cornerstones of TOS - The Organians chastised Kirk for his insistence on war, the Metrons did the same and so did Spock when it came to the Horta.
In the end it seemed that M-113 gave up and surrendered to madness, the evidence of that is when it murdered it's one advocate - Crater. What future did it have? Since it had gone insane, Elba 2 heavy security would be the only thing the UFP could have offered.

 

[Timo]

Are you sure? The trigger for the Phaser One is on the underside, and she kept poking around with the topside dials and whatnot.

She had seen the thing operated. She was familiar with the flintlocks and their triggers, too; the thing at the bottom would have been the very first thing for her to try.

But apparently a skilled operator not only uses his index finger on the trigger, but also his thumb on the top roll, as nicely seen in the close-ups of McCoy warming those rocks in this episode. Perhaps this combination is required for firing, which is why Nona died?

At no time have I suggested any mirror universe-type dissections or torture of this thing. [..] A mind meld would be kinder than slicing and dicing M-113.

I'm not seeing a difference there: the Salt Vampire is dead anyway, in a few years if not sooner. To pretend the heroes aren't harming it no matter what they do is just pious.

Can't agree with that at all. The Federation tends to take outpost/colony destruction very seriously. If it wasn't for the Metrons, the Federation would have likely been at war with the Gorn. We're also talking about deaths of UFP citizens and whether or not to give an attacking alien the benefit of a doubt. Cestus 3 is a relevant case to that topic.

The Metrons weren't Organians; they didn't tell the Feds not to have war, not even in the Organian "at least not on my back yard" sense.

I have yet to see even a single case where the Federation would take the destruction of any asset seriously enough to go to war. In "Balance of Terror", an old enemy gets four free destroyed bases for one destroyed attacker, with Starfleet only being concerned about not starting a war.

The only way to know for sure if it were lying or not would be a start a true dialogue with M-113 and offer it what it asked for. Since the meeting ended with Kirk insisting on truth drugs and a continuing hunt, we'll never know if it was lying.

It asked for salt on a tray. It already had salt on a tray. Heck, the last thing it did before trying to kill Kirk was have salt from a tray! Giving it what it wanted clearly changed nothing.

I didn't get the impression it could influence the minds of the bridge crew from all the way down in sickbay or the conference room. After all, in the final scene it would have been handy for M-113 to hypnotize (freeze) all three men in the room to avoid being killed. It's only able to freeze Kirk, it's intended prey, which to me shows a limited mind-clouding ability.

Other variables would include the severity of the illusion - "I'm not here even though you just saw me" is different from "Keep from paying attention to me just like before".

At the very least, we know the beast can make a transporter operator not notice that there's an extra passenger along for the ride. That means affecing him across several hundred kilometers at least.

"Are the Craters at home, or at one of their dig sites? Is there a storm moving in? Please scan the area."
"We detect one male human and one sucker-faced reptile, Sir."
"Yikes, what happened to Mrs. Crater? Beam each one of them up to holding cells so we can sort this out."
It would've been a short episode, but much less deadly.

Or then Kirk did exactly that, and saw the Craters, because the Vampire made him see what he wanted to see. Really, we don't get any sort of a range limit from the episode.

In the end it seemed that M-113 gave up and surrendered to madness, the evidence of that is when it murdered it's one advocate - Crater. What future did it have? Since it had gone insane, Elba 2 heavy security would be the only thing the UFP could have offered.

If the beast knew about Elba II or otherwise had a realistic view of its fate, it could easily have followed a survival plan that didn't involve quite that much telltale killing and instead involved a lot of stowing away and eating canned salt. But it had no sapience (left?) and just ate its way to its death.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[FormerLurker]

She had seen the thing operated. She was familiar with the flintlocks and their triggers, too; the thing at the bottom would have been the very first thing for her to try.

Would it? It's an innocuous little knob, not even protruding that much, and it has to be felt for. The dials and whatnot on top are flashy and obvious. Remember, even the regular cast had trouble using the trigger correctly, and they can all be seen doing it wrong on more than one occasion. Leonard Nimoy, in Operation Annihilate, is most egregious in how obviously he used it incorrectly, and most viewers didn't even notice, as we all thought the trigger was that bar behind the big plate on top. You know, the one that's actually the sight window?

 

[Timo]

Again, I'm thinking that Nona would intuitively look for the trigger right where it is in the flintlocks, and therefore find it.

But if there are multiple correct ways of using the gun, some of them pretty simple (as suggested by our actors fumbling it even when their characters do get a beam out of the thing), perhaps we have to further speculate on Nona ending up with a gun whose safety is engaged, this rare once?

I sort of doubt the plexiglass cylinder is a "sight window" literally, as it cannot readily be seen by the operator. But it could still be some sort of a projector that fires a sighting display straight into the eye of the operator no matter how he's holding the gun. It's just that even this is something one'd expect to be necessary also when the Type 1 is clipped onto the Type 2 frame that in itself lacks a comparable "display" - but the cylinder never rolls out in attached mode.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Greysun]

I'm not seeing a difference there: the Salt Vampire is dead anyway, in a few years if not sooner. To pretend the heroes aren't harming it no matter what they do is just pious.

We don't know it's lifespan. The crux of the discussion is a choice between trying to talk to it and gunning it down. Maybe leaving it on it's planet and setting up a warning buoy would have been the best solution, it was good enough for Khan. Also the same solution Picard used for the Douwd, another being they didn't know what to do with. Considering a less violent alternative is hardly pious.

At the very least, we know the beast can make a transporter operator not notice that there's an extra passenger along for the ride. That means affecing him across several hundred kilometers at least.

The transporter operator didn't unknowingly beam up an extra passenger - they thought it was Crewman Green. The transporter can pull up all lifeforms in a given area - we've seen this before - without necessarily giving away a disguise. Even Data's Mother was able to fool the transporter into thinking she was human when really she was an android.

The Metrons weren't Organians; they didn't tell the Feds not to have war, not even in the Organian "at least not on my back yard" sense.

Not so. The Metrons did exactly the same thing the Organians did - they crippled the fighting ships. They helped resolve the conflict.
Yes, the Federation does everything it can to avoid war, however in Balance of Terror the point was not to appear weak when tested by the clandestine Romulan ship. By defeating the attacking Romulan, Kirk showed them that Starfleet was ready for them. If more warbirds had been sent, the situation would have escalated into a full conflict.

Or then Kirk did exactly that, and saw the Craters, because the Vampire made him see what he wanted to see. Really, we don't get any sort of a range limit from the episode.

I suggested running a scan before contacting the Craters, even the mighty Douwd wasn't aware the Enterprise had returned until Picard showed up at his doorstep. I put old Salty many levels below the Douwd on the mental power scale.

But it had no sapience (left?) and just ate its way to its death.

I agree that the creature had likely gone mad during it's period of isolation on that world, limiting the prospects of a non-violent solution. As I've said, I think Kirk might have approached it a little differently (and I think Picard definitely would have), but in the end I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

 

[Greysun]

As a footnote, perhaps M-113 could've have been employed by Starfleet as a janitor. They could have had him clean up the USS Exeter after it's visit to Omega 4. That would've been it's dream job!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Spock has gotten useful intel using mind melds from all kinds of unsavory beings: Nomad, V'ger, Horta, Kelinda the Kelvan, etc. A mind meld would be kinder than slicing and dicing M-113.

The difference between the Salt Vampire and every creature and/or creation you've mentioned is that the vampire's sole purpose was to prey on potential victims. That's all--a walking parasite who used every manipulative tool at its disposal to murder one innocent human after another. There was no "well, it did not mean to"--yes, it did mean to hunt and feed on humans, and had no intention of stopping.

It's the sentiment a Starfleet officer is supposed to have by the time they graduate from the academy - ask questions first and shoot second. That's the sentiment that Crater continually brought up before M-113 was dead. The fact that he was ignored and overruled does not mean the notion is without merit to begin with. That sentiment is one of the cornerstones of TOS - The Organians chastised Kirk for his insistence on war, the Metrons did the same and so did Spock when it came to the Horta.

That's a blanket statement. In "Operation--Annihilate!" there was no negotiating with or understanding the neural parasites (a species with a shared intelligence). Their survival and drive was all built on infesting unwilling hosts, inflicting (ultimately) deadly pain on said hosts to control them for their own ends. They had to be destroyed, as any contact with a species they can use meant insanity and/or death. The same applies to the cloud from "Obsession" (Rizzo sensed an intelligence about the cloud when attacked), the Ceti eels, the Mugato, or any other clear threat to life. There is no "all life is precious" policy because it is a patently unrealistic approach to human survival.

In the end it seemed that M-113 gave up and surrendered to madness, the evidence of that is when it murdered it's one advocate - Crater. What future did it have? Since it had gone insane, Elba 2 heavy security would be the only thing the UFP could have offered.

Madness? Where's the evidence for that assessment? Its called a "Salt Vampire" for a reason--its on a neverending hunt for the salt of living beings and will do anything to get it, using tactics very much in the manipulative Dracula tradition. The episode presents no evidence that the Salt Vampire was insane. It was on hunt and desperate to keep its food supply going at the expense of anyone--their lives be damned.

 

[Timo]

Well, "insane" or "stupid", take your pick. Years shared with Dr Crater had not been sufficient for the beast to formulate a working survival strategy in the Starfleet environment, after all.

But even if you go with "stupid beast", you have to wonder how it survived in its natural environment. If it really is the last of its kind, what kind did it eat before becoming the last? What combination of luring-with-pleasant-illusions and stupidly barging on with more and more killings in a crowd would be a viable feeding strategy?

I fear we might have to go with "stupid beast that's also insane" in the end. Which wouldn't be surprising if feeding on the living is normal for it and it has subsisted on a diet of canned salt for several years even when there's a potential victim sleeping right next to it.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[johnnybear]

It needed Crater for company and definitely his supply of salt tablets. But with the crew of The Enterprise coming down to it's planet it had the choice of four hundred and thirty humans and it was all fresh salt too! How could it resist? Then Crater became superfluous and dangerous to it's survival so it drained him and used McCoy as it's focus!
JB

 

[Greysun]

The difference between the Salt Vampire and every creature and/or creation you've mentioned is that the vampire's sole purpose was to prey on potential victims.

If a starving human was found in a desolate, isolated setting and that human had become mentally unstable during his time alone, that human might display behavior very similar to M-113. Cannibalism, for example, is one of the behaviors that can emerge when people are stranded on a desert island for long periods. If a last, surviving cannibalistic human were discovered by aliens, they might come to the same conclusion - this is a murderous creature that only cares about feeding itself. It attacked us, it's evil, kill it. They all must be like this! That supposition might not be entirely accurate since the theoretical human is, to a degree, a victim of his circumstances.

That's a blanket statement. In "Operation--Annihilate!" there was no negotiating with or understanding the neural parasites (a species with a shared intelligence).

The blanket statement is the general policy often referred to by Captains - they do all they can to respect all life. In the context of that episode I don't recall any intelligent aspects of the twitching pancake creatures. I don't think anyone would advocate negotiating with flying disks of goo. As I recall the James Blish version of the story went into more detail, though.
The reason I mentioned the Crystalline Entity was because the two antagonists are similar, feeding themselves regardless of the cost. The Entity simply kills on a far larger scale than M-113. Picard was willing to give it a chance to survive if they could establish a dialogue, even though he would have been justified in firing on it immediately. There are other occasions where Picard, Janeway or Archer gave hostile aliens a chance when they could have killed them outright. They also showed regret when forced to kill, even in justified circumstances. This, to me, is Roddenberry's "better" future human concept - ask questions first, shoot later whenever possible. The repeated mantra of peaceful exploration is something a starship commander is supposed to follow as a representative of the UFP. Sometimes, as you mentioned for Operation Annihilate, this is not possible. The life forms there were a literal plague of parasites. There are certainly other examples, like The Immunity Syndrome, where common sense dictates killing the monster in question without hesitation.
But M-113 was a lone, roughly humanoid creature and in my opinion they could have subdued it without killing it, that's my main point of addressing the OP's original question. I think it was possible within the framework of the series, but that wasn't the author's intention when writing the Man Trap story. They wanted a monster hunt story, and that's just what viewers got.
A lot depends on what was in M-113's mind, which we can never know for sure. Spock never had a chance to find out and it killed Crater (to prevent being identified) before he could elaborate more.
Crater did state that it also needed love to survive, which brings up an interesting question. Was it only extracting salt, or was it feeding on the emotion of love from it's victims as well? There are other beings in Trek that live on emotional energy, so it's not unheard of. Who knows how long it languished alone before Crater found it, suffering a lack of salt and love? Who knows what these things were like before they died off, judging the entire race on one depraved survivor seems a bit unfair. As @johnybear pointed out, M-113 killed Crater and sought McCoy as a replacement companion. Why? It could have easily killed McCoy in a safe, private setting but it chose to ask for his help instead. McCoy had very strong feelings for Nancy Crater (as did Mr. Crater) and that obviously appealed to M-113 very much. It suggests there might have been more to M-113 than just eating salt.

 

[Kemaiku]

Having evolved a highly complex external ability to specficially trap and feed on sapient humanoid prey means the creature has done this on the planet for millenia at least.

The ruins are an indication of a larger race of more human like beings that fell prey to the Saltpires constantly feeding on them until and being beaten back until they evolved their metamorphic feeding practise. Which also meant adapting to having an almost equal mental complexity, an abiity to understand their actions and continue to feed regardless.

Until they caused the extiction of their own food source. Having bags of salt is not something you need an advanced society to have, if handing over salt voluntarily worked, we'd have a very different situation.

Someone, somewhere, would have tried leaving salt out for them, or tried feeding the creature or establishing some relationship like with a hungry stray animal. There's always that one person who will trust unconditionally and try.

So yeah, they want blood salts, and they want the physical satisfation of feeding directly. There could be all kinds of nutrients and other chemicals they remove fresh from the victim, and salt is one of the most important.

 

[johnnybear]

We don't know whether The creatures degenerated into savages (similar to The Morlocks in The Time Machine of whom they do resemble) and gained the ability to draw salt from other beings or if they were originally more like us before the fall of their civilization! If they did have this ability, maybe they only used it on their cattle and other herd animals back then too!

JB

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

If a starving human was found in a desolate, isolated setting and that human had become mentally unstable during his time alone, that human might display behavior very similar to M-113. Cannibalism

Again, there's no on screen evidence that the Salt Vampire was "mentally unstable" to any degree, so....

...for example, is one of the behaviors that can emerge when people are stranded on a desert island for long periods. If a last, surviving cannibalistic human were discovered by aliens, they might come to the same conclusion - this is a murderous creature that only cares about feeding itself. It attacked us, it's evil, kill it. They all must be like this! That supposition might not be entirely accurate since the theoretical human is, to a degree, a victim of his circumstances.

It was not a victim of any such circumstance. The Salt Vampire was able to snag a caretaker/boyfriend who supplied its need, thus it was not in a desperate or stressful situation for all of its time with Crater.

The blanket statement is the general policy often referred to by Captains - they do all they can to respect all life. In the context of that episode I don't recall any intelligent aspects of the twitching pancake creatures.

Aurelan Kirk said the creatures used their victims as their arms and legs--forcing them to build ships. Obviously, any creature ordering its victim to perform a specific, technically complex task like spaceship construction (and we assume, using them to pilot to other destinations) is highly intelligent...but that known intelligence did not matter. They were destroying the civilizations (with through insanity and death) of Levinius V, Theta Cygni XII, Ingraham B and ultimately Deneva for their own, self-aware, parasitic interests, and as a result, had to be destroyed. No option, and frankly, no rational mind would even play that game with so deadly a creature.

There are other occasions where Picard, Janeway or Archer gave hostile aliens a chance when they could have killed them outright. They also showed regret when forced to kill, even in justified circumstances. This, to me, is Roddenberry's "better" future human concept - ask questions first, shoot later whenever possible

One can argue the soft, olive branch-waving approach to writing captains in the Rick Berman era was less realistic, as there's no universal approach of "asking questions first" when your common sense tells you the creature you're facing only had your end in mind. Again, no rational mind plays such a game with creatures of this kind, and the Salt Vampire--completely aware of its predatory, deceitful nature--falls into this category. Again, this is not the mother Horta. The Salt Vampire walks on the same side of the unethical street.

But M-113 was a lone, roughly humanoid creature and in my opinion they could have subdued it without killing it, that's my main point of addressing the OP's original question. I think it was possible within the framework of the series, but that wasn't the author's intention when writing the Man Trap story. They wanted a monster hunt story, and that's just what viewers got.
A lot depends on what was in M-113's mind, which we can never know for sure. Spock never had a chance to find out and it killed Crater (to prevent being identified) before he could elaborate more.

Think about that--the Salt Vampire murdered its own benefactor--as you point out--to prevent being identified. There's no common ground or understanding for a treacherous mind. It had already proved it did not care about luring/killing innocents, but it finally murdered its keeper (and whatever else Crater was to it). The case against the Salt Vampire being a take-no-prisoners / no sympathy creature is rather weighty.

Crater did state that it also needed love to survive, which brings up an interesting question. Was it only extracting salt, or was it feeding on the emotion of love from it's victims as well? There are other beings in Trek that live on emotional energy, so it's not unheard of. Who knows how long it languished alone before Crater found it, suffering a lack of salt and love?

It used shape-shifting as a means to an end--younger Nancy to potential victim McCoy, space hooker to victim Darnell, and unnamed Swahili-speaking crewman to potential victim Uhura. What is undeniable, is that the Salt Vampire--being one of the Trek franchise's ultimate manipulators--used its "gift" of manipulating the emotions of a potential meal against them through shape-shifting/some form of mind reading (to build a "profile" of the intended victim by using its desires against them). There's no point in trying to reason with something that sees you as food, some sort of tool, energy source, etc.

As @johnybear pointed out, M-113 killed Crater and sought McCoy as a replacement companion. Why? It could have easily killed McCoy in a safe, private setting but it chose to ask for his help instead.

By the time the Salt Vampire begged Bones for help, it was already being pursued by the 1701 crew, so what did it do? Pull its manipulative game on the one person it knew had feelings for the real woman it killed. Knowing McCoy (at that point) still believed Nancy was the genuine article, the vampire knew it would have an advocate or defender. And wha would happen if the 1701 crew were suddenly struck by the stupid gene and bought McCoy's defense? More deaths. Nevermind that the Salt Vampire would eventually expose itself (again) with its predatory desires.

 

[Greysun]

I agree with johnnybear's assessment, we see the ruins of a civilization that once flourished, now only inhabited by this one Morlock-like degenerate dressed in rags. That was the impression I got watching this episode as a young person.

One can argue the soft, olive branch-waving approach to writing captains in the Rick Berman era was less realistic, as there's no universal approach of "asking questions first" when your common sense tells you the creature you're facing only had your end in mind.

I disagree. The basic point of Q's test in the TNG pilot was to see if Picard would shoot or think. Galaxy's Child is also a good episode that highlights this issue, especially Captain Picard's quote:
""We're out here to explore, to make contact with other lifeforms, to establish peaceful relations but not to interfere... and absolutely not to destroy. And yet, look at what we have just done." The Metrons "contest" bore fruit because Kirk refused to kill the Gorn Captain, demonstrating the quality of mercy to someone that had carried out numerous killings of Federation citizens.

Aurelan Kirk said the creatures used their victims as their arms and legs--forcing them to build ships.

Forgot about that part, haven't seen that one in a while. Since there was apparently no hope of communicating with the scattered cells, I always looked at that one as another monster of the week episode. It would seem that actual communication was impossible there, otherwise Spock would have tried to establish a dialogue. All Spock's parasite did was inflict torture. I liked the Blish version better, where the Enterprise went and destroyed the central brain world of the pancakes. At least with the Nanites, Data and Picard were able to establish communications and a truce, because they used their heads instead of a gamma radiation weapon. The episode Home Soil also had them come to peaceful terms with an initially hostile hive mind. Difficult, but not impossible, it just means using their marbles instead of their phasers.

Again, there's no on screen evidence that the Salt Vampire was "mentally unstable" to any degree, so....

Again, we can't know what was in its mind, there's a blurry line between a starving, desperate creature and a serial killer in this case.

And wha would happen if the 1701 crew were suddenly struck by the stupid gene and bought McCoy's defense? More deaths.

It would be hard for Salty to continue killing from a holding cell or if it was marooned on another planet without intelligent life. If presenting a mortal threat to the 1701 crew is punishable by death, why did Kirk give Khan a colony world? Picard had a similar approach in Power Play. Those entities had already destroyed one Starfleet vessel, they were admitted criminals and he still let them go back into exile rather than destroying them. A warning buoy sufficed in that case.

In the end, there's ONE major reason that Salty should've been arrested and put in jail instead of shot - it owes me a hefty sum in defense attorney fees!

 

[shakham]

Salty lol.

For the Picard is us...
The creature was intelligent, and could communicate quite well, so why didn't it just ASK for help. McCoy was connected to it and was easy leverage. I mean, Khan asked for mercy after all he did, and he got it.

Honestly, now I have to watch it again to see all the nuances.

 

[johnnybear]

Has anyone here seen the Turkish footage of the episode? The lady playing Nancy is much more attractive than Jeanne Bal but that's it's only plus!
JB

 

[Noname Given]

Salty lol.

For the Picard is us...
The creature was intelligent, and could communicate quite well, so why didn't it just ASK for help. McCoy was connected to it and was easy leverage. I mean, Khan asked for mercy after all he did, and he got it.

Honestly, now I have to watch it again to see all the nuances.

It effectively did at the Conference Room scene where is was masquarading as Dr. McCoy:

[Briefing room]

UHURA: Negative, Captain. I've checked every face on this vessel. It was not a crewman I saw.
KIRK: Yeoman Rand, how long was this Green with you?
RAND: As long as he, it thought it could get to the salt on my tray, sir.
KIRK: Mister Spock?
SPOCK: Supplies of salt have been set out as bait at all decks and engineering levels, Captain. However, no one or nothing has approached them as yet.
KIRK: Dr. McCoy?
MCCOY: Yes?
KIRK: Medical department report, Doctor.
MCCOY: Oh. Well, we could offer it salt without tricks. There's no reason for it to attack us.
SPOCK: Your attitude is laudable, Doctor, but your reasoning is reckless.
CRATER: (eyeing McCoy carefully) The creature is not dangerous when fed.
MCCOY: No, it's simply trying to survive by using its natural ability to take other forms.
CRATER: The way the chameleon uses its protective colouring, an ability retained no doubt from its primitive state, the way we have retained our incisor teeth. They were once fangs. Certain of our muscles were designed for chase. It uses its ability the way we would use our muscles and teeth if necessary, to stay alive.
MCCOY: And like us, it's an intelligent animal. There's no need to hunt it down.
SPOCK: A very interesting hypothesis, Doctor. Briefing room.
SULU [on monitor] All the halls sealed off. All weapons accounted for and locked away. Security four in effect on every level. Still no lead on intruder.
KIRK: Thank you, Lieutenant. Continue the search. Crater, we don't know who or what we're looking for. We need your help, and now.
CRATER: I demanded, I even begged that you get off my planet.
KIRK: Can you recognise this thing When you see it? Professor, I'll forego charges up to this point but this creature's aboard my ship and I'll have it, or I'll have your skin, or both. Now where is it?
CRATER: I loved Nancy very much. Few women like my Nancy. She lives in my dreams. She walks and sings in them.
KIRK: And it becomes Nancy for you.
CRATER: Not because of tricks. It doesn't trick me. It needs love as much as it needs salt. When it killed Nancy, I almost destroyed it but, it isn't just a beast. It is intelligent and the last of its kind.
KIRK: You bleed too much, Crater. You're too pure and noble. Are you saving the last of its kind or has this become Crater's private heaven, here on this planet? This thing becomes wife, lover, best friend, wise man, fool, idol, slave. It isn't a bad life to have everyone in the universe at your beck and call, and you win all the arguments.
CRATER: You don't understand.
KIRK: Have you learned to see this thing in whatever form it becomes?
CRATER: Yes.
KIRK: Are you going to help us find it?
CRATER: Sorry, I can't.
SPOCK: Recommend we use truth serum, Captain.
KIRK: Doctor?
MCCOY: Well, I resist using it, but in this case the professor will give us the truth.
KIRK: Take him.
SPOCK: I'll accompany you, Doctor.
MCCOY: Oh, yes. Of course.

[Corridor]

CREWMAN [OC]: Captain Kirk to dispensary. Captain Kirk to dispensary.

[Sickbay]

SPOCK: (on biobed) It wasn't McCoy. It was the creature. It hit me. Crater grabbed my phaser. I wondered about McCoy. Doubt had crossed my mind.
RAND: Captain. Professor Crater.
KIRK: Dead. But it had you, too.
SPOCK: Fortunately, my ancestors spawned in another ocean than yours did. My blood cells are quite different.

 

[UnknownSample]

We can have all sorts of ideas and preconceptions about what would make sense for this or that being to do under such and such circumstances. Such neat, tied-in-a-bow, common sense explanations don't account for everything, though. Look at what an extreme, weird, alien situation the creatures comes out of. I imagine they all fed on each other till this one was left alone for along time. How would the creature NOT be crazy at this point? And what's to say the species' natural mindset would not strike us as insanity? We all think we're rational. Many insane people know what sanity looks like and sounds like, and can play the part, usually fooling themselves along with others. The creature makes a perfect case for itself (quoted above). But think of the weird and disturbing history of the planet and this creature. There's sickness underlying this story, and Kirk gets that.