Operation -- Annihilate!
"Operation -- Annihilate!" | |
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Star Trek: The Original Series episode | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 29 |
Directed by | Herschel Daugherty |
Written by | Steven W. Carabatsos |
Featured music | Alexander Courage |
Cinematography by | Jerry Finnerman |
Production code | 029 |
Original air date | April 13, 1967 |
Guest appearances | |
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"Operation -- Annihilate!" is the twenty-ninth and final episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by Steven W. Carabatsos and directed by Herschel Daugherty, it was first broadcast April 13, 1967.
In the episode, the crew of the Enterprise must find a way to exterminate behavior-altering parasites that have taken over the bodies of residents of a Federation colony, including Captain Kirk's brother, Sam, and family. The episode is popular for revealing new facts about Vulcan physiology.
Plot
The USS Enterprise is tracking a path of mass insanity that has affected several planets, causing the collapse of their civilizations. They approach Deneva, a Federation colony where Captain Kirk's brother, Sam, has been stationed along with Sam's wife Aurelan and son, Peter. After entering the system, they try to stop a ship as it dives into the local sun, its pilot raving about being "free" before the ship is destroyed.
Transporting to Deneva's main city, Kirk, First Officer
Kirk returns to the planet and joins Spock in search for these entities. They find a number of
Kirk holds a senior staff meeting, asserting they must find a solution before the creatures reach the next inhabited planet, holding over a million people; a solution that does not kill the hosts. Kirk recalls the ship's pilot stating that he was free before diving into the sun, and suspect the sun's properties may harm the creatures. He realizes that they have not tried
Production
The script, which was written by Steven W. Carabatsos, was originally titled "Operation: Destroy". Aurelan was a Denevan woman in love with a man named Kartan, and it was Kartan who flew the ship into the Denevan sun in the cold open sequence. Aurelan's father was also a major character in the teleplay, and the two colonists were not infected by the "Denevan neural parasites". Instead, they helped Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock with the research into how light could destroy the parasites.[1] The script did not originally end with the Enterprise crew using light to destroy the parasites. Instead, the ship learns the location of the aliens' home world, and destroys the central controlling "brain" located there. Author James Blish used this draft of the script when adapting the episode for print, and this ending appears in the chapter "Operation -- Annihilate!" in the anthology Star Trek 2.[2]
This was the first episode of the series to be directed by Herschel Daugherty. Daugherty would later direct Season Three's "The Savage Curtain" as well.[3] It was also the first appearance in Star Trek for child actor Craig Hundley, who played Peter Kirk. He would also portray Tommy Starnes in the third-season episode "And the Children Shall Lead".[4]
Location shooting occurred in two places. The scene where the Enterprise landing party beams down to the surface was filmed at the TRW campus, Space Park (now Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems) in Redondo Beach, California.[5] The entrance of Sam Kirk's laboratory is the cafeteria in bldg. S at Space Park.[5][6] The exterior of Sam Kirk's laboratory, which features white pylons, is Schoenberg Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles.[5] Filming at TRW occurred on February 15, 1967.[6]
The neural parasites were created by prop designer Wah Chang from bags of fake vomit.[7]
The episode aired on April 13, 1967, and was the final episode to air in the series' first season.[8] One scene did not make it into the episode. This scene came at the end of the story, and featured Peter Kirk (dressed in a command division tunic) sitting in the captain's chair on the bridge while his uncle, James T. Kirk, agrees to let him return to Deneva to live with Sam Kirk's research partner and friend. Although filmed, it was edited out due to time constraints.[9] This left actor Hundley with no lines in the finished episode; the character of Peter Kirk spends the entire show unconscious. It also left the episode with no explanation of what becomes of Peter.
Reception
Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a 'B+' rating, describing it as "a little rocky in places" but otherwise praising the alien menace and Nimoy's acting.[10]
In 2016, TVLine ranked this as having one of the top twenty moments of Star Trek, noting the terrifying moment when the alien attacks Spock.[11]
In popular culture
Galaxie 500, an American alternative rock band, wrote a song about the episode for their 1990 album This Is Our Music. The song was titled "Spook," but the band secretly used the title "Spock" since the lyrics referred to Spock's blindness in this episode:[12]
When you went blind
Then I nearly lost my mind
It didn't last
'Cause you have another eyelid
Rock band Powerman 5000 sampled Aurelan's line, "They came... Things...! HORRIBLE things!" from this episode for the beginning of their song, "Public Menace, Freak, Human Fly," the first track on their Mega!! Kung Fu Radio album.
References
- ^ Asherman, p. 65.
- ^ Blish, p. 82.
- ^ Clark, p. 221.
- ^ Schuster and Rathbone, p. 211.
- ^ a b c Okuda, Mirek, and Okuda, p. 530.
- ^ a b Morison, Jeanette. "May I See Your Badge, Mister - Uh, Spock?" The Retirees Association. No date. Archived December 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Accessed 2014-01-02.
- ^ Clark, p. 167, 237.
- ^ Schuster and Rathbone, p. 349.
- ^ "Peter Kirk." Memory-Alpha.org. No date. Accessed 2014-01-02.
- ^ Handlen, Zack (April 24, 2009). "Star Trek: 'The City on the Edge of Forever' / 'Operation--Annihilate!'". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
- ^ Mason, Charlie (2016-07-19). "Star Trek's 20 Most Memorable Moments". TVLine. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
- ^ Wareham, p. 143.
Bibliography
- Asherman, Alan. The Star Trek Compendium. New York: Pocket Books, 1981.
- Blish, James. Star Trek 2. New York: Bantam Books, 1968.
- Clark, Mark. Star Trek FAQ: Everything Left to Know about the First Voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Milwaukee, Wisc.: Applause Theatre & Cinema, 2012.
- Okuda, Denise; Mirek, Debbie; and Okuda, Michael. The Star Trek Encyclopedia. New York: Pocket Books, 2011.
- Schuster, Hal and Rathbone, Wendy. Trek: The Unauthorized A-Z. New York: HarperPrism, 1994.
- Wareham, Dean. Black Postcards: A Memoir. New York: Penguin Books, 2009.
External links
- "Operation: Annihilate!" at Wayback Machine (archived from the original at StarTrek.com)
- "Operation -- Annihilate!" at IMDb
- "Operation: Annihilate!" at Memory Alpha
- "Operation: Annihilate!" Screenshots before and after remastering at TrekMovie.com